Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 225 I don’t understand

Upon witnessing the behavior of the Zhongwu Army, Yang Fuguang suddenly realized the truth.

This is what caused the problems for them before.

The real issue might not be about what happened to Qin Zongquan, but rather that he and Zhao Huai'an divided up Qin Zongquan's thousand Zhongwu soldiers.

The Caizhou soldiers under Qin Zongquan's command were not his private army. Although his confidants and cronies were all ranked as officers, the personal guards under him were still the core military force of Caizhou.

Now that he and Zhao Huai'an have clashed, they have directly cut off one-sixth of the Zhongwu Army's high-end combat power.

At that moment, Yang Fuguang understood the air around him and realized what these people were up to.

They dare not rebel, but if you ask them to work themselves to the bone, then sorry, the brothers can refuse.

Having figured all this out, Yang Fuguang gave himself an out, took two steps forward, and called out to his adopted sons outside:
"Go check the military rations, have the baggage handlers prepare a day's worth of dry rations, and then come with me out of the camp to rescue the Xuanwu Army."

After saying that, Yang Fuguang turned around and walked back, plopping down on the soft couch.

Outside, Yang Shouli, Yang Shouxin, and their adopted sons exchanged glances, fully understanding their adoptive father's meaning.
They need to prepare dry rations even for a five-mile journey; how can this be considered a rescue mission for the Xuanwu army?

Alas, some of the adopted sons were from the Xuanwu Army, but they could only sigh and say they were powerless to help.

I believe the Xuanwu Army can hold out!

Just as they were about to put on an act, someone outside suddenly started running towards them, shouting as they ran:
"Please, Military Supervisor, send troops! Please, Military Supervisor, send troops!..."

Behind him, a dozen or so Caizhou soldiers chased after him in a fit of rage, while other soldiers from the Xuanwu Army pretended to follow behind, making no attempt to stop him.

Yang Shouli turned around and recognized the person shouting as the Xuanwu soldier who had just come to ask for reinforcements. He frowned and reprimanded his men:
"Are you all just standing there watching? Do you really think your godfather doesn't kill people? Seize him!"

Then everyone came up together and pinned the Xuanwu soldier to the ground.

But that man was incredibly strong; even with seven or eight people pinning him down, he was still struggling and even crying out:

"Supervisor, please save our Xuanwu Army! We are your soldiers! Waaah!"

Then, several Caizhou soldiers stuffed his mouth shut.

Yang Shouli walked over and, seeing that this man was genuine, felt a certain appreciation for him. He then squatted down and whispered to the Xuanwu soldier:
"Stop joking around. It's not that our military supervisors can't send troops; it's that the Zhongwu Army over there has abandoned their posts. What's the use of you shouting? If you make those Zhongwu Army lose face, you won't even be able to save your life!"

Even though the Xuanwu soldier was being held down and had cloth stuffed in his mouth, his eyes remained defiant. But after hearing Yang Shouli's words, the light in his eyes vanished instantly.

Then she collapsed to the ground, letting the person on top of her do as they pleased.

Now, Yang Shouli felt a little reluctant. His eyes suddenly lit up, and he said:

"I have a way to get you reinforcements. I'll remove the gag from your mouth, but you mustn't shout anymore!"

The Xuanwu soldier immediately perked up and nodded repeatedly.

Then Yang Shouli removed the cloth from his mouth, and the Xuanwu soldier said directly:

“General, my name is Li Si’an. If we can obtain reinforcements by following your method, my Xuanwu Army will definitely repay you.”

Yang Shouli curled his lip, thinking that if he was hoping for a reward from those scoundrels in the Xuanwu Army, he might as well not say anything at all.

But outwardly, he repeatedly said yes, and finally, under Li Si'an's expectant gaze, he offered his advice:
“These Zhongwu soldiers are determined to seize the gate once the Cao army is mobilized. They won’t care about the lives of your Xuanwu soldiers. However, there is one person who not only has soldiers but also the ability to save you.”

Li Si'an looked up, swallowing hard.

"Who?"

"Zhao Huai'an, the governor of Guang Prefecture, is the same Zhao Shijun who led the Baoyi Army in the southwest."

Li Si'an's eyes lit up, but then she hesitated and said:

"I've heard that this magistrate has a bad temper. Will he really send troops to rescue us?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Shouli felt his temper worsen, and the whip marks on his body started to itch again.

Even though the wound has long since healed, I still feel like it's still there in my heart.

He patted Li Si'an on the shoulder and said seriously:

"Of course, haven't you heard of the title 'The Righteous and Filial Hei Dalang in the Army'? If he didn't save you, he wouldn't be Zhao Da."

Li Si'an was persuaded. After the two sides released him, he knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Yang Shouli, finally shouting:
"I can't thank you enough. I'll go find Magistrate Zhao right now and ask for reinforcements!"

After saying that, he turned to run away, but was stopped by Yang Shouli, who had a strange expression on his face.
"You're not going to run from the east side of the city to the west side on one leg, are you? By the time you get there, you'll be collecting the corpses of the Xuanwu Army."

He had originally intended to give Li Si'an a horse, but unexpectedly, this man said this:

"It's faster to swim directly across from this side of the moat."

These words stunned Yang Shouli and Yang Shouxin, these men from Northwest China.

That's right, the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. But goodness, a moat more than ten meters wide, you think you can just swim across it? There are also soldiers on the city walls. Once you're discovered, you'll be dead after a few arrows.

What a fearless person!
Everyone fell silent and watched as Li Si'an ran out of the camp.

Watching the man leave, Yang Shouxin quietly spoke to Yang Shouli:

Why are you helping this person?

Yang Shouli glanced sideways and smiled:

"Anyway, we're just sitting around doing nothing. Let's find something for our second uncle to do. He's the most loyal guy, isn't he? The Xuanwu army risked their lives to ask him for reinforcements, how could he refuse? But, this time, the credit for breaching the city has nothing to do with him!"

Hearing this, Yang Shouxin nodded and said meaningfully:

"Yes, this time it's a matter of military merit or reputation, it all depends on whether our second uncle is truly loyal."

The two then looked at each other and smiled, chuckling.

Finally, recalling Li Si'an from earlier, Yang Shouli couldn't help but sigh:
"But I must say, this Li Si'an is quite a hero. It seems that not all 100,000 Xuanwu soldiers are good-for-nothings!"

Unexpectedly, Yang Shouxin, who was standing next to him, said something that was quite philosophical:

"He's even worse than a good-for-nothing; he lost his life this way."

Yang Shouli paused for a moment, then slowly nodded.

……

North of Caozhou City, the sounds of battle shook the heavens.

With the old brothers of the Puzhou bandits leading the charge, the bandits marched out of the city with unstoppable momentum, and have now broken through two camps of the Xuanwu army, yet their offensive shows no signs of slowing down.

Following the crowd, Zhang Guihou pushed the black monkey forward, his eyes constantly scanning the Xuanwu Army archers on the ramparts.

As they continued deeper into the territory, the Xuanwu army clearly came to their senses. Perhaps they were trying to recapture the supplies of the two battalions ahead, and in any case, the fighting spirit of these Xuanwu soldiers grew stronger.

Right now, Zhang Guihou clearly noticed that the Xuanwu Army archers on both sides of the camp were significantly more numerous than those in the first two camps.

Just as he was looking, his face suddenly tightened, and he ducked down a head. An arrow pierced his helmet and landed five steps behind him. Luckily, he had a headscarf covering his hair, otherwise his hair would have come loose.

Zhang Guihou's concern wasn't that his head could be severed but his hairstyle couldn't be messed up, but rather that the battlefield environment meant his vision would be impaired, and he might lose his life because of it.

The black monkey in front was about to turn around when Zhang Guihou pulled it behind a supply wagon and hid it.

After a moment, Zhang Guihou immediately cursed:

"Idiot? You want to die? Who told you to turn your back on the other side? Didn't you know there was a sharpshooter over there!"

The black monkey was stunned by the scolding, and after a moment it stammered:

"Wasn't I trying to pick up your helmet?"

Zhang Guihou opened his mouth, but in the end he still cursed:
"Stop with the nonsense. If I hadn't given you a hand, you'd be dead already. I won't say it a second time, which means stick close to me, understand?"

Black Monkey nodded, then looked outside with lingering fear. He saw that many of the brave warriors who had been charging and shouting earlier were now lying in pools of blood, each with an arrow in their forehead.

He couldn't help but ask Zhang Guihou:

"Zhang Tou, that sharpshooter is really that good! What do we do?"

Zhang Guihou ignored the black monkey and instead crouched down, peeking out to survey the situation within the camp.

Seeing their elite soldiers being shot down one after another, and without these warriors leading the charge, the momentum of the others clearly weakened.

At the very rear of the camp, a Xuanwu army clad in iron armor was slowly approaching from the rear passageway. These men carried large shields and spears, seemingly preparing to clear out all the rebel troops from the camp.

At this point, Zhang Guihou was already planning to flee. Of the first wave of rebel troops who had stormed in, half of the capable ones had just been wiped out, and the rest were huddled in corners like himself. Expecting them to continue their charge was no longer realistic.

Just then, the thunderous sound of hooves came from behind, and a cavalry force clad in iron armor and riding large horses charged into the camp.

Seeing the approaching cavalry, the black monkey beside him instinctively cheered, only to be immediately covered by Zhang Guihou, who scolded him:
"What are you yelling about? What's it to you? Get some rest, there's still a lot to kill later! Remember, we're fighting for ourselves, not for others! Understand?"

The black monkey nodded repeatedly, then reached up and grabbed a handful of rice from a burlap sack with a hole in it. He then happily handed it to Zhang Guihou.

"Zhang Tou, you eat first!"

Seeing the filthy, black hands clutching a handful of raw rice, Zhang Guihou sighed, then grabbed a handful and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing with his cheeks puffed out.

The more you chew, the fiercer your gaze becomes!

……

Once again, Huo Cun charged forward as a cavalry general, leading the charge without fear.

This time, Huang Qin used his trump card: two hundred elite cavalrymen equipped with Tang army scale armor and lamellar armor.

Among the three, one was an old comrade from Caozhou, who was the legacy Huang Cun left for Huang Qin before he set off.

Now, Huang Qin once again placed his complete trust in Huo Cun, allowing him to lead this elite cavalry in another charge.

Huo Cun's face was contorted with rage. He was a typical Hebei man; people treated him as a national hero, and he repaid them with the same respect.

At this moment, leading this armored cavalry, Huo Cun and his men were like a whirlwind rising from the ground, relentlessly braving the arrows from the opposite side.

People kept falling. Huo Cun looked at the Xuanwu Army infantrymen in front of him, who were also wearing heavy armor, and couldn't help but think back to the past few days.

At that moment, Huo Cun's heart was pounding, his breathing became more and more rapid, and he could only gasp for breath with his mouth open.

Stepping over the severed limbs in the camp, arrows piercing his armor from both sides, when he was still a hundred paces from the enemy lines, he drew his throwing axe from his satchel and roared:

"Throw!"

But the next moment, a dramatic scene unfolded.

As over two hundred armored cavalry charged, the Xuanwu army infantry, who were arrayed in formation, collapsed completely. They ran backward, some even discarding their armor as they ran.

Huo Cun was stunned, then burst into laughter, tears welling in his eyes. Finally, gazing at the routed soldiers with their backs exposed, he roared:
"Kill! Kill them all!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he spurred his horse and arrived. His throwing axe struck the helmet of a Xuanwu Army infantryman. Then he took out his lance from the hook and leaped into the front ranks.

The iron axe pierced deep into the helmet, and the armored soldier, propelled by momentum, continued for a few more steps before collapsing to the ground. Then, hundreds of horses trampled his corpse, the iron armor mixed with flesh and bone, rotting into a mess.

At this moment, inside the camp, the Cao soldiers, who had just been in a panic, roared and picked up their shields, swords, and spears from the ground again. They shouted as they climbed up the ramparts on both sides and then charged towards the Xuanwu Army archers above.

The archers could not withstand the attack and could only collapse from both sides, fleeing to the rear.

Meanwhile, more bandit troops stormed in from outside the camp, as yet another bandit force was ordered to provide support.

……

Chaos, complete chaos.

When Zhang Ao arrived near the north of the city with five hundred Red Heart Mule Infantry, he was speechless at the sight before him.

Is this still the Xuanwu Army camp? He knew that the Xuanwu Army had suffered the first wave of attacks from the Grass Army, but he thought that the Xuanwu Army also had more than 10,000 troops, and its strength was even stronger than that of the Baoyi Army. What problems could there be?
But now it seems like a huge problem.

From the stone bridge to the open field of the Xuanwu Army camp in the north of the city, countless soldiers were running. Some of them charged in through the gaps in the camp, while others ran directly along the outside of the fortifications, shooting at the Xuanwu Army soldiers on the ramparts as they climbed up the ramparts like ants.

Looking at those fearless bandits, Zhang Ao gasped.

Is this the same army he just slaughtered like chickens? How can they be so fierce!
As soon as he arrived, he saw more and more Xuanwu soldiers abandoning their camps, being lowered down from the ramparts, and then fleeing into the open fields on both sides.

Some people were foolish enough to be wearing armor while fleeing for their lives. They were then speared down by the grass soldiers who rushed up with wooden pitchforks, and then swarmed around them and dismembered.

Looking at those soldiers, holding up the heads of Xuanwu soldiers while tearing at the iron armor off the corpses, how could these be disaster victims? He would believe it if they were old soldiers who had killed without hesitation!
Could these people be the core members of the Grass Army? But there are so many of them in front of me, could they all be them?
There was another thing he couldn't understand: how could the Xuanwu Army have suffered such a crushing defeat?

Wasn't this supposed to be a trap set by them to ambush the rebel army? It looks like the Xuanwu army was set up!
Zhang Ao was aware of the strength of the Xuanwu Army.

When the angel went to welcome Military Supervisor Yang, all of them were in the procession, so they also saw the Xuanwu Army that came at the same time.

In terms of combat troops alone, the Xuanwu Army had twelve divisions, totaling 12,000 men, and carried 6,000 supply troops and another 12,000 attendants, bringing the total number of soldiers to 30,000.

At that time, they set up twelve camps. Although time was tight and they only erected a wooden gun fence, they quickly built a proper wooden fence camp later.

These twelve camps were arranged in a chessboard pattern, with three camps in each row and four camps in each row connected one after the other. The camps were two and a half miles long from east to west and three and a half miles long from north to south. They were first-class camps, if not impregnable.

Let alone the bandit army, which lacks siege equipment, even if the militia were to attack, it wouldn't be able to take it down in a short time.

So what he saw before him completely shocked Zhang Ao.

He just couldn't understand it. Even if the 10,000 Xuanwu soldiers were a bunch of pigs, they wouldn't have collapsed so quickly! And even if they really were pigs, those camps couldn't be made of paper, could they?

There's a problem; this band of cowards definitely has a problem.

As one Xuanwu Army camp after another descended into chaos, more and more bandits rushed into the camps and then disappeared from Zhang Ao's sight.

He hesitated for a moment, then looked to the northeast, where the passage formed by the stone bridge and suspension bridge was clearly in sight.

There was another band of rebels lined up outside the stone bridge, but they did not charge forward like the other rebels.

At that moment, as Zhang Ao looked at them, the soldiers on the opposite bridge also looked at them. He could see several knights running back into the city from the stone bridge.

According to the magistrate's orders, he should now lead the Red Hearts Army to the Stone Bridge without hesitation and seize both the Stone Bridge and the drawbridge.

However, given the current battlefield situation, Zhang Ao dared not do so.

No matter how elite an army is, or how valiant its warriors are, it is doomed to perish when it is attacked from both sides.

No matter how powerful a person is, they don't have eyes on the back of their head. And that's not the scariest thing; the scariest thing is imagination.

Imagination amplifies a person's fears, and people can truly be driven to the brink of collapse by their own fears.

And that's the situation now. Of course, he's not afraid of the bandit army on the bridge. Even though this bandit army is equipped with a lot of captured Tang armor, Zhang Ao is still confident that he can defeat them and complete the magistrate's mission.

The problem is, he doesn't know how long the Xuanwu Army can hold out, nor does he know how many rebel soldiers have already broken out of the city, or how many are already in the Xuanwu Army's camp.

He could imagine what the consequences would be if he rashly charged toward the stone bridge with his loyal heart.

As the only escape route for the Grass Army outside, once they realize there is a risk of the Stone Bridge Pass being cut off, they will immediately abandon their attack on the Xuanwu Army and turn back to attack Chixindu from both sides.

At that time, with the army unable to retreat and attacked from both sides, even the most loyal and elite troops would face certain death.

As a samurai, dying on the battlefield is an honor, but it's not a waste of one's life like this.

At that time, not only will the magistrate not let him off the hook, but he himself will not let himself off the hook either.

These five hundred loyal followers were all from Shouzhou, and they were all fellow villagers who came with him. Each of them had a large family behind them.

If his brothers all die here, how will he face their families?

With this in mind, Zhang Ao decided to change the magistrate's planned operation. The battlefield is ever-changing, and with the Xuanwu army no longer able to cooperate, the plan to seize the gate alone was no longer realistic.

Actually, there is one situation where a fight is still possible: he could lead Chixindu to seize the bridge, defeat the bandit army on the bridge in a short time, and then defend the city against the bandit army outside the city.

When the bandit army surrounds them, as long as the Xuanwu army behind them can be mobilized and attack the bandit army from the rear, then the bandit army will be attacked from both sides.

But the thought only flashed through Zhang Ao's mind for a moment before disappearing.

What a joke! He can believe that those Xuanwu soldiers will come to save him?
He was certain that if he charged forward with Chixin, he would be taking the blows for the Xuanwu Army. If the Xuanwu Army escaped, they would be the ones to die.

Therefore, Zhang Ao made a decision to remain inactive while ordering the army to select the fastest white horses to ride back immediately and report the battle situation in the north of the city to the magistrate.

When the situation on the battlefield became unpredictable, Zhang Ao opted for a more conservative approach: to wait.

Then he glanced at the drawbridge to the northeast. Clearly, the Cao army was also reluctant to part with the troops outside the city and had not yet lowered the drawbridge.

Oh dear, how could the Xuanwu Army be so incompetent! Otherwise, today would be the day when Chi Xindu would make a name for himself!
Just as Zhang Ao was cursing inwardly, he blinked and suddenly saw a dark shadow emerge from the water and then disappear.

What the heck? Was that just one person?

Then, he saw the man about five or six steps away pop his head out of the water again. The man glanced at him and then dived back down.

And so, Zhang Ao watched as the person occasionally peeked out and swam toward his back.

Then, Zhang Ao looked up at the sky blankly; there were too many things he didn't understand today.

(End of this chapter)