Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 372: No Sound, No Talk
"In my opinion, Long is difficult to surrender. We can only conquer it by sending hundreds of thousands of regular troops and winning a battle. However, the court is short of money and food, and the people of Hehuai are displaced..."

"All right!"

At the beginning of February, when Tian Yun was reciting Gao Pian's essay, Li Yi became impatient and stopped him after hearing the last part.

Tian Yun quickly shut up, while Li Yi reached out and pinched his eyebrows.

Although Gao Pian's strategy and Wang Shi's strategy differ in details, they are generally very similar. They both require sending hundreds of thousands of regular troops and preparing for a protracted war in order to recover Longyou.

However, given the current situation in the Tang Dynasty, it seems that they do not have enough time to fight Longyou calmly.

During this period, if an uprising breaks out again in Hehuai, or if the southern barbarians invade again, the pressure on the court will increase.

The two men's strategies were basically the same, and even their final words of dissuading Li Yi were particularly similar.

But Li Yi had his own plans. He felt that if he could recapture Longyou, he could use the power of victory to gradually solve the problems of the Imperial Guards and the Northern Division.

He was not going to kill all the people in the Northern Division, but at least he wanted to find out the exact number of the imperial guards.

Only by saving this money and grain could the Tang Dynasty reduce the burden on the people and settle the refugees.

Li Yi had made preparations, but his so-called preparations seemed insufficient to experienced officials such as Xu Shang, Lu Yan, and Qi Yuanjian, so they did not support him.

However, he insisted on sending troops to Longyou, and even used the phrase "the last words of the late emperor" to suppress his ministers, who had no choice but to agree to it.

When war came, many noble families signaled their merchants to begin hoarding food, while more far-sighted officials began selling land and antiques.

In such a situation, Li Yi couldn't help feeling a little nervous and panicked, but he also knew that he couldn't panic.

"Order the Southern Court to draft an imperial edict to transfer 20,000 troops from the six garrisons of Xuanwu, Yicheng, etc. to station in Guanzhong, transfer Wang Shi to Chang'an to report on his duties, appoint Wang Duo, the Minister of Rites, as the Jiedushi of Shannan West Road, and promote Yu Cong, the Minister of Revenue, to the position of Tongpingzhangshi."

With just a few words from Li Yi, the troops from the Six Garrisons were withdrawn, and the Minister of Rites Wang Duo was demoted by Li Yi to the governor of Shannan West Road, while Yu Cong was promoted to prime minister.

Tian Yun agreed respectfully, and then conveyed the emperor's order to the Beisi Nan Ya.

When the imperial edict was issued, many officials knew that things in Guanzhong were likely to change.

At the same time, Dou Yun of the Chang'an Jinzouyuan also received reminders from the servants of Zhang, Feng, and Yang.

Dou Yun was not nervous about this, because it was unlikely that the imperial court would purge officials of the Fanzhen Jinzouyuan before the war ended.

However, Dou Yun also knew that if war broke out, the prices of grain and vegetables would inevitably rise sharply, and the Longyou Jinzouyuan would not have an easy time in Chang'an.

Because of this, he ordered people to buy food, and then pulled out the flowers and plants in the garden in the backyard of Jinzouyuan and opened up vegetable plots.

After doing all this, Dou Yun thought of Huang Chao in Caozhou. After much deliberation, he wrote a letter and sent someone to deliver it to Yuanju County.

Time passed, and less than half a month had passed. The imperial edicts from the court were delivered to various towns in the Central Plains one after another, and the Shatuo tribe in Daibei was not left out.

"Your Majesty, I have recognized the bravery of the Shatuo tribes and their numerous military exploits. The six states have been blessed with the king's rule. I have ordered General Zhuye Chixin to serve as the Taiyuan camp commander and military envoy to the three Shatuo tribes. He is to lead his troops to Yanzhou today... Please obey the decree and implement it. Be careful!"

"I accept the decree!"

In early February, when the snow in Daibei had just melted, an angel from the court came with an imperial edict and read it to a sturdy man in his forties.

When the man received the order and stood up, many generals behind him also stood up.

Zhuye Chixin is his name, and his ancestors and father are Zhuye Jinzhong and Zhuye Zhiyi who led the army to break out of the rule of Tubo and return to Tang.

After Tubo conquered the Western Regions and Hexi in the past, it immediately moved the Shatuo base closer to the Uighurs in an attempt to relocate them elsewhere.

Zhuye Jinzhong, the leader of the Shatuo, was unwilling to move westward, and immediately led his people to join the Tang Dynasty.

During this period, Zhuye Jinzhong died in battle and his son Zhuye Zhiyi succeeded him. The Tang Dynasty at that time settled the Shatuo people in the Yinshan area.

After that, Zhuxie Zhiyi led his army to obey the call of the Tang Dynasty, participated in the border defense and the war to conquer Huaixi Town, and was awarded the title of Governor of Yinshan Prefecture.

After Zhuya Zhiyi's death, Zhuya Chixin became the new leader and participated in the Tang Dynasty's expedition against the Uighurs and Zhaoyi Town. He was promoted to the governor of Weizhou and the defender of Yunzhou for his military exploits.

Having said that, Zhuxie Chixin did not gain much benefit from these official positions. He and his son have been loyal to the Tang Dynasty for more than sixty years, and now they can barely mobilize three thousand elite cavalry.

Even so, the strength of the three thousand Shatuo elite cavalry is enough to make all parties fearful.

"Angel, if we want to go to Yanzhou, will the states and counties provide us with money and food for the journey?"

Zhuxie Chixin was a burly man with ordinary looks. Although there were many generals in the yamen, he was the only one wearing silk clothes, which showed that Shatuo's situation was not good.

The population of Weizhou and Yunzhou combined is no more than 20,000 people. Even if the Shatuo tribe is included, there are no more than 40,000 people.

Because of this, Zhuxie Chixin did not have much money and food available, and they would definitely not be able to reach Yanzhou on their own.

"Money and food will naturally be allocated by the prefectures and counties, but if the military envoys enter Yanzhou, they must accept the control of Shuofang and must restrain their troops."

The angel had heard of the Shatuo people's military discipline. Generally speaking, there was no military discipline, and when they fought abroad, stealing was the norm.

Because of this, he did not forget to remind Zhuxie Chixin, but Zhuxie Chixin did not pay attention and just nodded to deal with it.

The angel then told Zhu Xie Chi Xin a lot more, but all of it went in one ear and out the other.

After finally dealing with it, he sent someone to take the angel to rest, then turned around and walked back to the main seat and sat down, looking at everyone and said:
"The court has summoned us to fight. This is a profitable business, but you all heard what that man said just now. Be careful on the road and wait until the fighting starts before taking action."

"Yes!!"

The fact that Shatuo could grow stronger gradually was inseparable from the scheming and tactics of Zhuxie Zhiyi and Zhuxie Chixin.

More than twenty years ago, Zhuye Chixin, who was in his twenties, took advantage of the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs to make a profit, and developed the three Shatuo tribes, which originally had only a thousand elite cavalry, into the current three thousand elite cavalry.

Now the court has once again summoned them to fight in the south. As long as they operate properly, perhaps they can gain more.

Thinking of this, many Shatuo generals smiled.

However, among the many tall generals, a short young man stood out.

He looked no more than eleven or twelve years old, no more than five feet tall, with bronze skin, thick eyebrows and a high nose, but one of his eyes was bright and the other dull.

"Dad, can I go south with the army?"

The young man asked Zhu Xie Chi Xin, who smiled and said, "You are already eleven years old, you can make your own decision!"

"Then I'll go!" the young man said solemnly, "I heard that the elite cavalry in Longyou is as good as that in Youzhou, I want to go and see it."

"Humph, it's just bragging!" Zhu Xie Chixin snorted coldly, and then said:

"When you go south, you'll realize that those people always like to brag about themselves, but they are as weak as sheep on the battlefield!"

Zhuxie Chixin's words won the approval of many people. One of the generals took the opportunity to ask, "How many people should we bring south? Only three thousand elite cavalry?"

"No!" Zhu Xie Chi Xin shook his head and said, "Bring one thousand elite cavalry, and another two thousand followers, but bring more horses, each person should bring a military horse and a riding horse."

"After we go south, we can just ask them for armor, or seize it from the battlefield."

Zhuxie Chixin would not be bribed just because the court gave him an official position. What he wanted was to strengthen Shatuo and achieve himself.

"Everyone go down and prepare, we will head south in five days!"

At Zhuxie Chixin's call, everyone left the yamen one after another, and Zhuxie Chixin also walked into the court with the eleven-year-old boy.

The same thing happened not only here, but also in other towns such as Hehuai and Hedong.

The Tang Dynasty began to dispatch elite troops to gather in Guanzhong, and Huang Chao, who was in Caozhou, also received three letters one after another.

The three letters were sent by Dou Yun, Chen Ying and Yang Xin in turn by express horses. The contents of the letters were similar, all of which advised him to move his family to Longyou. Otherwise, it would be best to declare to the outside world that he had severed ties with Longyou, so as to save his family.

In response, Huang Chao remained silent. He just took out the letters and threw them into the incense burner, watching them burn to ashes.

Huang Zhou stood by the door and watched him burn the letter. He couldn't help but ask, "My dear, don't you have a way out?"

"A way out?" Huang Chao looked at him sideways and asked, "Do I have any way out?"

Huang Zhou didn't know what to say, because he knew in his heart that Huang actually had a way out, but his husband was unwilling to retreat any further.

"Let's go and take a look at the farm."

Huang Chao walked out, and Huang Zhou followed closely. At this time, a woman in her thirties came out with a child of eight or nine years old, frowning and asking, "My dear, are you going to the village?"

"Yeah," Huang Chao responded, and then walked out with Huang Zhou without stopping.

But after Huang Chao and Huang Zhou climbed onto their horses, Huang Chao couldn't help but sigh.

Huang Zhou didn't know why Huang Chao sighed, he just followed him out.

Huang's yard was not very big in Yuanju County, and because of this, Huang Chao could clearly feel that there were people watching his yard in many corners. Apparently, someone in the county had heard the news and had other ideas about his family.

Huang Chao remained silent, shook the reins of his horse and walked out of the county.

When they walked out of the corridor of the city gate, compared with the cleanliness and tidiness inside the city, the outside of the city was as miserable as hell.

The skinny refugees gathered outside the city, queuing up numbly waiting for free porridge.

They had no clothes on and could only wrap their bodies with grass to retain the last bit of their dignity as human beings.

"Mr. Huang is here!"

"It's Mr. Huang!"

"Yellow Bodhisattva..."

Huang Chao's appearance was not unfamiliar to the refugees outside the city, so in the past cold winter, these refugees relied on Huang's porridge stall to survive.

When they saw Huang Chao, they knelt down and kowtowed to express their gratitude, but there was no emotion in Huang Chao's eyes, he just glanced around.

A cold winter is over and the temperature is gradually warming up, but the old and weak could not survive it. Those who survived were either teenagers or young and strong people.

There were as many as three or four thousand of them, and the sight of three or four thousand people kneeling before him made his heart beat fast.

"Brother, are you going to the village?"

A man was walking quickly towards the porridge stall in the distance. Huang Chao looked and saw that it was his younger brother Huang Kui.

At present, Huang Kui is in charge of the porridge stall, Huang Ye is in charge of the farm, and the two nephews, Lin Yan and Huang Cun, are running errands everywhere.

"How is the porridge distribution in the porridge shed? I see there are fewer hungry people. Are there still old and weak people? How long will the food last?"

Huang Chao dismounted and walked with Huang Kui about ten steps away to question him.

Huang Kui looked embarrassed when he heard this, and then continued, "A few days ago, a severe cold wind blew, and many old and weak people died. The women who were still alive outside the city were basically taken away by the Koumahang, leaving only these 4,000 people."

"These days, I have recommended servants to the noble families in the city, but they all don't want to accept them."

"There are less than 7,000 dan of grain in the granary now, which can only last until the autumn harvest at most. But there are less than 3,000 guan in the mansion, and the manor needs money every day. I don't know how much grain I can buy by then..."

Huang Kui's mouth felt dry, but Huang Chao nodded and said, "Summer harvest? Enough."

He reached out and patted Huang Kui on the shoulder, comforting him: "Continue to distribute porridge, I will find a way before the summer harvest."

"This..." Huang Kui couldn't help but ask, "Brother, why do we have to sell our farmland to help these hungry people?"

"If you want to do something big, we might as well recruit some servants instead of spending the remaining money on the hungry people."

Facing Huang Kui's question, Huang Chao nodded slightly and continued, "I once had the same idea as you, but then I met General Chen and Envoy Yang from the Protectorate, and they told me a lot about the Duke of Longxi."

"The Duke of Longxi County was born a slave, and his family background is even more humble than you and me, but in the end he recovered the Longyou Protectorate. From a slave, he became a person that the court had to pay attention to. There is a reason for his actions."

"If we were to train servants, there would be no more than 200 or 300 of us, but we have been providing relief to the hungry over the years. How many people in Yuanju County have received our kindness?"

Huang Chao asked Huang Kui, who replied, "There are tens of thousands of people in Yuanju County, and at least 10,000 of them have received your kindness, brother."

"When we were providing disaster relief a few days ago, many of the hungry people you helped came to donate food. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to feed the thousands of hungry people outside the city for three to five days."

"That's right." Huang Chao didn't say much, but patted Huang Kui on the shoulder, turned around and walked back to the horse, climbed on the horse, and continued walking towards the farm.

The two of them walked at a fast pace and arrived outside the manor in just a quarter of an hour.

Zhuangzi at this time is more like Wu Bao than Zhuangzi.

The six-foot-high wall is nearly three feet thick. Although it is made of rammed earth, it is strong enough and cannot be broken by ordinary bandits.

The manor seemed to have been expanded and now covered an area of more than ten acres, with more than a dozen servants guarding the door.

The servants held short swords such as horizontal swords. Since the imperial court prohibited the people from using bows and arrows after the Anshi Rebellion, bows and arrows became weapons that were not allowed to appear in public.

However, when Huang Chao and his companions dismounted and walked into the manor, they found that many servants in the manor were carrying bows and arrows, and even some forbidden weapons, such as crossbows.

The two walked in, and as they got closer to the center of the village, the sound of iron hammering became louder.

"Brother!"

Huang Ye walked out of the yard where the sound of iron forging was heard with a serious face. Huang Chao asked, "What's going on?"

"Brother, are all these things made for Longyou?" Huang Ye couldn't help but ask. Huang Chao nodded slightly in response.

Seeing this, Huang Ye breathed a sigh of relief, but there was still worry between his brows.

"The things are all made. It's not difficult. If fifty craftsmen work together, they can make a set in just four or five days."

The only thing that can be called a "set" is armor, and hoarding armor is a capital crime punishable by death of the entire clan. Huang Zhou, who was standing nearby, couldn't help feeling uneasy.

"Keep on crafting it, and it would be best if our servants also wear it for training."

Huang Chao gave some instructions and then asked Huang Zhou to stay where he was while he followed Huang Ye into the yard.

Time passed little by little, and half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.

During this half hour, Huang Zhou was extremely panicked, thinking about how to persuade her husband.

But when Huang Chao walked out of the yard, he could not say the words he had prepared.

"Let's go."

Huang Chao gave him instructions, and Huang Zhou followed him out.

Not long after, the two returned to Huang's house, but Huang Chao asked Huang Zhou to call the mother and son whom he met when he went out earlier.

The woman was Huang Chao's wife, Liu, and the child was Huang Chao's eldest son.

In the past few years, he has been thriving in Yuanju County, but he has also been enduring it.

Now that his father had died of illness and Wang Shizhi was still not going to let him go, he naturally had to fight back.

"Huang Zhou, take out 200 strings of cash tomorrow and take Xijun and Dalang to Longyou, but don't go under my banner."

Looking at his wife and son, Huang Chao looked at Huang Zhou calmly. Huang Zhou was surprised and said, "My dear, you..."

"When you get there, tell her that she is your wife." Huang Chao's words made Huang Zhou kneel down, while Liu Shi held the child's hand and couldn't help asking, "My dear, are you giving me away?"

"You know clearly what I am going to do." Huang Chao looked at her.

Upon hearing this, Liu sobbed softly, "This is difficult to accomplish. Why don't we all go to Longyou?"

"Since General Chen has invited you to join him, why don't you go?"

Liu didn't understand, but Huang Chao felt very angry.

"My dear, why don't you take your family to Longyou?" Huang Zhou couldn't help but persuade them, but Huang Chao stood up and looked down at the three of them, with a cold light flashing in his eyes.

"It's easy to get into the scene, but if I get into the scene, what's the point of all these years of persistence?"

Huang Chao questioned the two, his past memories flashing through his mind.

"Since I came of age, I have taken the imperial examinations more than ten times but have never passed. Is it really because I don't understand the literary and artistic conception of my writing?!"

"Then, are all the officials in the court so talented and knowledgeable that there is not a single one who succeeded by virtue of family background?"

Huang Chao's mind flashed back to the time when Wang Shizhi mocked him in front of his father, saying that he had no knowledge of literature and art, that he relied on his family's wealth to live off the land, and that he had no real talent or knowledge...

What a joke! What real talents and knowledge does Wang Shizhi have?
If he really had real talent and knowledge, there wouldn't be so many refugees in Yuanju County, and he wouldn't have kept exploiting these small commoners in order to pay the amount of taxes assigned to him by the court!
If such a person could pass the imperial examination and become an official, then why couldn't Huang Chao?

Thinking of this, Huang Chao's chest heaved and he felt angry.

He looked back at Liu and couldn't help but say, "I have failed the imperial examination more than ten times, wasting more than ten years, just waiting for an opportunity!"

"Didn't they say that I have no real talent or knowledge, and that I am just a mediocre person who lives off my family's wealth and has no knowledge of literature or science?!"

"Then I will show them how a mediocre person like me can bring down these self-righteous and talented people!"

He walked forward, stretched out his hand and pulled up Huang Zhou who was kneeling on the ground:
"I want to fight for my own honor, not to prove how great I am, but to tell these people who the real mediocrity is!!"

(End of this chapter)