Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 4: Conquering Jiuquan
"The pipa and flute play in harmony, and the Qiang and Hu children sing together."

"Roast the plowing oxen and cook the wild camels, and bring the fine wine from Jiaohe back to Po Luo."

"After getting drunk at midnight, I slept in the army, but I had no choice but to dream of returning to Qinshan..."

It was a bright day, and although it was still a little chilly in the northwest in April, Zhang Yichao felt extremely hot at this moment.

In front of him, behind Jin He, was the Jiuquan City that he had just mentioned in the poem.

This poem, "Written After Being Drunk at the Banquet of the Prefect of Jiuquan", was written by the frontier poet Cen Shen in the second year of the Zhide reign of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty, more than ninety years ago.

"Xu..."

Zhang Huaishen rode his horse forward and stood side by side with his uncle, his eyes fixed on the Jiuquan City on the other side of the Jin River.

A strong wind blew at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, making people's clothes rustle.

Zhang Yichao pondered for a long time, and said with emotion: "Jiuquan has been lost to the bandits for more than 80 years. Today, my heavenly soldiers have come, and we must recapture Jiuquan and recover the entire Gansu and Su regions!"

"My nephew is willing to lead our troops to the front!" Zhang Huaishen bowed when he heard this, but Zhang Yichao did not agree immediately.

He stared at Jiuquan City on the other side of the Jin River, took a deep breath, and then slowly raised his hand.

"Cross the river!"

With his order, more than 2,000 Shazhou troops began to cross the Jin River.

In this regard, the Tibetan soldiers in Jiuquan City were powerless and could only defend the city.

At this time, Longyou was in chaos. The Tibetan generals Shang Bibi and Lun Kongre, who were stationed in Hexi and Longyou, were fighting each other fiercely. The Tibetans on the plateau were also caught up in internal strife and were unable to interfere in Longyou.

Fortunately, the battlefield between Shang Bibi and Lun Kongre was in the Longyou area and would not affect Hexi for the time being.

As for the Tibetan forces in the Hexi region, they also withdrew a lot of troops due to the internal strife on the plateau, resulting in the emptiness of the Hexi region.

At this time, there were hundreds of thousands of Han and Hu people in Hexi, most of whom were Uighurs who were defeated by the Khitans and fled south.

The nomadic Huihe people in Gansu and Liang states claimed to have an army of 100,000, and no one wanted to get into a conflict with them.

In front of Zhang Yichao, besides the Jiuquan City, there is also the entire Suzhou and Ganzhou further east.

Once the Shazhou army entered the Ganzhou territory, it would inevitably have to deal with the Uighurs.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong also protected the frail Zhang Chang and helped them cross the icy Jin River.

Zhang Yichao was well prepared. After splicing more than ten rafts together, each raft could carry a team of soldiers to the east bank of the Jin River.

Although Liu Jilong's gang consisted of only two people, they were under the command of Zhang Huaishen after all, so they were lucky enough to be the first group to cross the river.

All the soldiers crossing the river were wearing armor, except Liu Jilian and Zhang Chang, who were not wearing armor, making them look out of place.

But no one paid attention to them now. After landing, everyone began to form a formation spontaneously, and was alert to Jiuquan City, two miles to the north.

Although the Shazhou Army was established less than two years ago, Zhang Yichao's methods of training soldiers are quite good.

The four regiments that can wear armor are all elite soldiers selected from ten miles away.

Seeing them forming a battle formation, Zhang Chang's eyes were filled with envy, while Liu Jilong squinted his eyes and observed Jiuquan City in the north.

Jiuquan, a place that is particularly famous to Liu Jilong in both his past and present lives, has now become the target of him and his comrades.

Looking down from the sky, Jiuquan City consists of two parts: the city and the barrier. The city is about 240 steps long from east to west and about 200 steps wide from north to south, with an area of about 165 acres.

As the seat of Suzhou, the Jiuquan city wall is 13 feet wide at the bottom, more than 9 feet wide at the top, and 25 feet high. The wall is made of rammed earth slabs and is very solid.

There are gates and barbicans on the south, west and north sides of the city. The city walls are straight, except for the east wall which bends inward four times in a row.

There are seven inner and outer corner piers and eight battlements in the whole city of Jiuquan, and a small city barrier is connected to the northeast.

The small city barrier is about fifty steps long from east to west and about sixty steps wide from north to south, covering an area of about nine acres. It is still built with rammed earth, with a bottom width of two feet and eight feet, a top width of nine feet and three feet, and a height of thirty feet and three feet.

The entire city wall is well-preserved, so it is not easy to attack... "We have two nest chariots, six cloud chariots, and twelve battering rams. The nest chariots are for the governor, and the rest are divided among the four regiments."

"Yes, we will attack from four directions. I don't believe the bandits in this city can withstand our four regiments!"

In the afternoon, as the camp began to be set up, discussions about Jiuquan City began inside the camp tent.

Although there are many sons of powerful families in the Shazhou Army, under the targeting of the Tibetans, only a few of them can systematically learn the art of war.

Even though many of them have held military posts such as colonel and brigade commander, their ability to lead troops in battle still relies on their passion and courage.

So most of the time, Zhang Yichao would not choose to listen to everyone's advice.

But today was different. Facing everyone's suggestions, Zhang Yichao rarely made any arrangements. Instead, he nodded and said, "If that's the case, let's settle it."

Zhang Yichao raised his head and looked at everyone, then he slowly said: "Suo Zhongyi, Huai Shen, Wang Jingyi..."

"The general is here!"

As Zhang Yichao spoke, Zhang Huaishen and two generals in their forties stood up one after another.

"Tomorrow at noon, each of you will lead your troops, take the cloud chariots and battering rams, and attack the three cities of Jiuquan in the north, south and west. I will lead the army to recapture the east city and the city barriers."

"Order the three armies to recapture Jiuquan tomorrow!"

"Yes!" All the generals stood up and bowed. Zhang Yichao's gaze also passed through the curtain and looked towards the Jiuquan City.

The next morning, as the sun slowly rose, the horns of the Shazhou army began to sound.

The more than 2,000 Shazhou troops were divided into four parts. The largest part attacked the city wall in front of the army, while the remaining three groups each pushed cloud chariots and battering rams to attack the three cities in the west, south and north.

As a wounded soldier, Liu Jilian was left in the main camp and watched with his own eyes as Zhang Yichao stood on the nest car and commanded the troops to attack Dongcheng.

In his previous life, Liu Jilong had never studied military tactics, nor had he served as a soldier. Everything he learned was learned in this life.

Unfortunately, before the advent of movable type printing, the spread of books was very slow. Liu Jilian's family was ordinary Han people, so naturally there were no military books for him to study.

Because of this, everything he learned about leading troops and fighting wars began when he joined the Shazhou Army in Guazhou.

Now he has understood the various processes of marching, camping, and going into battle of Zhang Yichao's army.

However, these are only the basics for a general. What is really difficult to learn is the knowledge about field combat.

"Governor Zhang is so powerful!"

Standing next to Liu Jilong, Zhang Chang couldn't help but praise him excitedly.

He glanced at Liu Jilong next to him, and when he found that Liu Jilong looked normal, he quickly shut his mouth.

It has to be said that in Hexi, the Shazhou Army trained by Zhang Yichao can definitely be described as "obeying orders and disciplining the troops", but this is only true in Hexi.

If compared with the guards of the Central Plains vassal states or the elite of the Shen Ce Army, they would undoubtedly be defeated.

The army depends on training, and training will inevitably bring consumption to the soldiers.

If the energy consumed cannot be replenished, it will only wear the person down.

The current Shazhou Army basically relies on the previously seized treasuries of the Gua and Sha states to maintain combat operations.

Even so, when Liu Jilian was in Guazhou, they only trained once every five days. After more than half a year of training, the Shazhou army began to run out of food and grass and sought to move eastward.

If you count carefully, they have only trained more than thirty times in the past six months.

"Uuuuuu——"

At the same time as Liu Jilong was making the noise, the two hundred armored soldiers in front had already pushed the cloud chariot and battering ram to the east city of Jiuquan.

　During the new book period, there will be two updates every day at noon. The word count will be adjusted after the book is put on the shelves. Thank you for your reading.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)