A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 120 Ambush from all sides
When the news reached Taiji Palace,
Li Yuan was playing the pipa with Da Cui and Xiao Cui. Li Yuan had recently learned a new way of playing, which was to use his fingers instead of plucking to stroke the pipa.

He turned the axis and plucked the strings three or two times, then continued playing with his brows lowered. The big strings were as loud as heavy rain, and the small strings were as soft as whispers.

Big Cui also learned to play the pipa with his fingers, and Little Cui sang along.

After the song was over, Li Yuan laughed with satisfaction.
Little Cui praised: "Your Majesty's pipa skills have reached the level of Cao Dashi in his time."

Since the Northern Wei Dynasty, the best pipa players were none other than the Cao family. Because of their excellent pipa playing skills, three members of the Cao family were made kings and one was made a Zhaoyi.

In those days, a Sogdian named Cao Brahman moved to Kucha and learned the art of playing the pipa. He practiced diligently and reached perfection. Cao Brahman became the most famous pipa master in Kucha and later passed it on to his descendants.
His son Cao Sengnu took his children to the Central Plains and defected to Northern Qi. He was appreciated by the King of Qi, who loved Hu music. Sengnu was given the title of King of Rinnan, his daughter was given the title of Zhaoyi, and Cao Miaoda and his brothers were both given the title of Prince of a County.
It can be said that it is a peak that no one in the pipa world can reach.

Even today, many pipa masters in the Central Plains are descendants of Cao.

Li Yuan learned the finger-playing technique from the descendants of the Cao family. The corners of his mouth curled up. The joy of learning a new technique made the emperor feel proud.

At this time,

The eunuch sent in an urgent report.

General Pang Yidi led his 3,000 Qiang cavalry in a mutiny, killing the Deputy Minister of War and others, and was looting all the way to the Nanshan Mountains, apparently intending to go to Hanzhong or return to Longyou.

Li Yuan was furious.
No longer in the mood to sing, dance or play music,
The emperor urgently summoned Pei Ji and other ministers to discuss the matter.
"Pang Yidi and his 3,000 Qiang cavalry were originally from the Chipai Qiang tribe in Longyou. They were previously affiliated with Xue Ju. During the Battle of Jingzhou, they surrendered with Xue Rengao in Zhecheng City," Pei Ji explained to the emperor. These 3,000 Qiang cavalry, like many elite troops from Longyou, were recruited by the King of Qin and placed under his command.

Li Shimin appointed him as the commander of the army in Pengyi, and requested that he be granted the title of Pillar of the State and a title of nobility.

But soon, the emperor, under the advice of some ministers such as Pei Ji, killed some generals such as Xue Rengao and Zong Luohou, and transferred the elite troops from Longyou to various guards.
Pang Yidi was only granted the rank of General of Cavalry, a fourth-rank official, and his three thousand cavalry were divided into three cavalry headquarters and stationed separately.

The three thousand men in Pangyi were all under the command of the Left Wuhou Guard.

"Where's Pang Yu?"

Li Yuan did not think that the problem was caused by the fact that he transferred the surrendered soldiers from Longyou from his second son.

He directly asked General Pang Yu of the Left Wuhou,

The side land was assigned to his left Wuhou Guard, and he had responsibility for it.

Pang Yu and Huangfu Wuyi fled from Luoyang to Guanzhong to surrender to Li Yuan this summer. He was born in the Nan'an Pang family and was an old friend of Li Yuan as they were former officials in the same dynasty. He was the Right General of the Imperial Guard during the Sui Dynasty. As soon as he defected to Guanzhong, Li Yuan appointed him as a general and he participated in the second Battle of Qianshuiyuan.

The reason why Pang Yu was able to be appointed as the general as soon as he arrived was not only because he was an old friend of Li Yuan, but also because he did not surrender to the Tang Dynasty alone. After Wang Shichong's mutiny in Luoyang, he saw that the situation was not good and brought more than 10,000 people to surrender.

On the other hand, Pang Yu was tall and strong, came from a family of generals, was well versed in military law, had guarded the palace for a long time, and was familiar with the court rules and regulations. Naturally, he was more appreciated by Li Yuan than those military generals who came from peasants, bandits, etc.

But I didn't expect such a big mistake to happen this time.

"Let Pang Yu deal with his own mistakes. Order Pang Yu to lead his troops and immediately wipe out these capricious Chi Pai Qiang."

Li Yuan, furious, issued an order to kill all 3,000 rebellious Qiang people without leaving a single one alive.

As a punishment, Pang Yu was demoted from General Zuo Wuhou to General Youwei.

Pang Yu, dressed in a purple robe, was waiting outside the palace gate.
But he never received the emperor's summons, but only received an order to demote him to the rank of General of the Right Guard and order him to lead his troops to quell the rebellion immediately.

"General Pang, His Majesty is furious. Please quell the rebellion as soon as possible."

Pang Yu also knew that the rebellion of 3,000 Qiang cavalry under the emperor's feet would definitely anger the emperor, so he did not dare to hesitate at all. He immediately went to the Ministry of War to get the fish token and then summoned troops.

The emperor gave him five thousand soldiers and horses, two thousand light cavalry and three thousand infantry.

But it is difficult to gather them all in a short time.

After gathering some troops, he could not wait to lead a thousand light cavalry to pursue.

Pang Yu was extremely anxious.
If we waited for the 5,000 troops to gather, it would take another half day, and those rebellious Qiang would burn, kill, and loot for another half day.

The most troublesome thing is that if these rebellious Qiang people really run into the Nanshan Mountains, it will be difficult to chase them. These Qiang people are all cavalrymen from Longyou and are good at mountain riding. If they really run to Hanzhong or even escape back to Longyou,

Then even Pang Yu, the Right Guard General, would not be able to be saved.

"We must stop them before they enter Nanshan!"

Hanzhong is now nominally under the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty, but in reality the imperial court has not stationed troops there. Local powerful people are autonomous, and the barbarians have taken the opportunity to cause chaos and swallow up states and counties.

"Your Majesty has ordered that any rebellious Qiang people encountered should be killed without mercy, leaving no one alive."

Pang Yu gnashed his teeth, in fact, he felt very wronged. These 3,000 people were originally recruited by the King of Qin, who promised them high positions and generous titles. He was even supposed to fight back to Longyou with Chai Shao, Dou Gui and others. But the emperor ordered them to be transferred to Chang'an.
He only gave him a fourth-rank official rank and no title, and also dispersed the 3,000 men. There were also rumors that they would be transferred to Hedong to serve under the Fourth Prince, His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi, to fight against Liu Wuzhou.

After much trouble, these Chi Pai Qiang were finally confused.

Now I blame him.
What does it have to do with him? Even though he is the General Zuo Wuhou, he cannot directly command the 3,000 cavalrymen beside him.

Thousands of riders roll across the plain,
Riding at full speed, without stopping,

The general camp is in front.
From afar, you can see a fire burning.

That large village of more than 200 households had been burned, killed, and looted by the rebels.

"Keep chasing,"

Pang Yu did not even bother to check on the ruined village.

Thousands of riders rushed past the ruined village,
Suddenly, the cavalry in front fell down with screams.
War horses kept stumbling,
"There's a horse pit,"

"Cauldron!"

A cavalryman in front of us shouted,
Pang Yu's heart was shocked. Horse traps and caltrops? Those were designed to deal with cavalry, usually used in ambushes or as a defensive line set up outside the camp when setting up camp.

How could this thing be here?
Enemy ambush?

"Stop moving forward, be careful of enemy attacks!" Pang Yu shouted.
Before he finished speaking, many enemy cavalry suddenly rushed out from the village that was still burning and smoking, and shot countless arrows at him.

After looting the general's camp, they didn't leave, but ambushed here.

Pang Yu only thought that these rebellious Qiang would flee into the Nanshan Mountains like dogs that had lost their homes, but he never expected that there would be such audacious people.
Less than thirty miles away from Chang'an, they burned, killed and looted, and still dared to ambush here.

The Qiang cavalry surrounded the enemy on both sides and broke through the middle.

Pang Yu's thousand cavalrymen were marching in a long snake shape and were caught off guard.

Because they were at the foot of the emperor, Pang Yu did not even send out scouts.
Who would have thought?
But it's too late to regret.
Facing the elite cavalry of Longyou that was three times their number, Pang Yu and his men had no advantage at all and were caught off guard. Many of them fell off their horses and fell to the ground.

Pang Yu swung his lance and knocked a Qiang cavalryman off his horse. Seeing that the situation was precarious, he had no choice but to roar and shout to retreat.

You must first withdraw from the battle and then reorganize the team.

Fight and retreat,

The rebellious Qiang were extremely ferocious and kept chasing and beating them.
After chasing for seven or eight miles, Pang Yu finally escaped from the Qiang cavalry.

The rebel Qiang left with a triumphant roar.
Pang Yu's face was as gloomy as water, he wanted to cry but had no tears.
After a thorough check, only about 200 of the 1,000 cavalrymen remained. Pang Yu, who was experienced, estimated that most of the cavalrymen had fled.
But a conservative estimate is that they may have lost three hundred cavalrymen in this battle just now.

After suffering such a great loss, Pang Yu was terrified and no longer had the impulse to pursue the enemy. Instead, he retreated another five miles, sending people to urge the large force behind him while gathering the defeated soldiers.

He did not dare to pursue with light cavalry anymore, so he had to send out dozens of light cavalry to scout.

As the sun sets,

Pang Yu had no choice but to send someone back to the capital to report the defeat. He requested more troops and asked to wait until the troops arrived before pursuing the enemy tomorrow to avoid being ambushed at night.

When Li Yuan heard the news of defeat,

I was so angry that I almost dropped the cup.

This is Chang'an,
The three thousand Qiang cavalry were so unscrupulous that Pang Yu could suffer such a great defeat outside the capital.

I wish I could just dismiss Pang Yu from his post.

Fortunately, Pei Ji tried his best to protect him.

"Allow Pang Yu to have another 5,000 infantry and cavalry, and give him three days to bring Pang Yidi's head to us."

······
At sunset, Liu Heizi came back from Chang'an with the news.

When he came back, he deliberately took a detour to Huangliang Village. He did not encounter the Qiang cavalry on the way, but he saw many civilians who had fled from the general's camp. They all said that the general's camp had been looted, and some said that the government army had been defeated there and many people had died.

"The government troops were ambushed and defeated by Qiang bandits in the general's camp?"

When Li Yi heard the news, his scalp tingled.

"I just heard it from some people who escaped, and I can't confirm whether it's true or not."

"Okay, you must not spread this news to anyone else, so as not to shake the morale of the army." Li Yi whispered.

The atmosphere in Fengjia Nanyuan is very tense now.

Everyone was panicked.

As night approached, everyone became more and more uneasy. If the Qiang bandits attacked at night, it would be even more difficult to defend.

"Alang,"

Ji came over and said, "Xiuzhi is missing. I asked the people at the gate and they said she went out to look for her son."

Xiuzhi didn't see the two brothers Menshuan and Menzhu, so she went out to look for them anxiously, but she hasn't seen them come back yet.

"Heizi, come with me to look outside. The thieves may come at any time." Li Yi said.

Liu Heizi held Li Yi down and said, "Ah Lang, you stay here and take command. I'll go out on horseback to look for them."

"Then be careful. If you spot the Qiang bandits, retreat immediately."

"Know,"

"Be careful."

Heizi drank a few sips of water and rode out again.

Li Yi looked up at the sky.
The setting sun is like blood, and the sky is filled with red clouds.

"It's getting dark, let's announce the meal, let's have a good meal and cheer up for the defense."

"Also, a bounty will be issued: for every rebel Qiang killed, one ox will be rewarded; for every rebel Qiang wounded, three dou of millet will be rewarded. If there are casualties, five dou of millet will be rewarded for minor injuries; for those seriously injured and disabled, one ox will be rewarded. If anyone unfortunately dies in battle, one ox and two dan of rice will be burned and buried.

If there are orphans and widows left behind, the village will also provide them with six dou of millet per month for their support."

Guo Erlang whispered beside him, "Isn't that too much?"

"The general's camp has been massacred, more than 200 families have been killed or injured," Li Yi replied to Guo Erlang in a cold voice, "If the manor is destroyed, we will not be spared. Money is only a thing outside of our body, so don't be stingy at this time.
A big reward will bring out the brave. If you want everyone to fight to the death, you must also ensure that everyone has no worries."

Dong Xiucai came over,
"Wu Yi is right, this is a desperate move,"

"One more thing: if you defeat the Qiang bandits, all the men will be rewarded with two dou of millet, and the women will be rewarded with one dou of millet." Dong Xiucai said generously.

"Yes, we share the same hatred and defend our homeland together!"

(End of this chapter)