The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 855 River Source Crisis
About 120 li south of Chishui County in Heyuan Prefecture, there was a Sui Dynasty garrison town called Qimahai Garrison, which was named after Qimahai, a freshwater lake located next to it.

This area is a pastoral region, with several small Tangut tribes grazing their livestock here. Not far away are the snow-capped Jishi Mountains.

Qima Naval Garrison was also the only way to the Jishishan Grand Canyon. The garrison consisted of two hundred Sui soldiers. It was actually a small military town covering several hundred acres, built with huge stones, and was very sturdy.

The military city is located on a high slope south of the lake. Standing on the city wall, one can have a wide view. Several miles away, Qimahai Lake is like a jewel set on the grassland, while to the south are snow-capped mountains, which are particularly magnificent.

The garrison commander of the military city was Chen Dequan, a native of Guanzhong. The garrison commander was a seventh-rank official, equivalent to a Langjiang (a military officer). This was their second year guarding the border. According to custom, they would guard the border for three years, after which another army would take over.

In the afternoon, Chen Dequan received a report from the patrol that a suspicious person had been spotted.

The military garrison was mainly for defense against the Tibetans. The surrounding Dangxiang and Qiang people were all subjects of the Sui Dynasty, and they lived in harmony. However, the Tibetans might come to harass them.

In addition, Chishui County was a border trade town, which allowed Tibetan merchants to do business in Chishui County, but not in other places.

Therefore, another important duty of the military garrison was to investigate private activities. All Tibetan merchants returning to the plateau had to come to the military garrison for inspection and stamping before they could go to the Jishishan Grand Canyon.

"Who is this suspicious person? Is it a Tibetan merchant trying to evade inspection?"

The patrol commander bowed and said, "I don't know if they are merchants. My men and I found them in the southern canyon. There were a dozen or so horsemen. After seeing us, they turned back into the canyon."

Chen Dequan frowned and said, "We should build a military city on the other side of the canyon to block it off completely. No matter how sneaky we are, it won't work."

Chen Dequan opened a booklet directly. This was the Tibetan Merchants Registration Book. All Tibetan merchants who came to Chishui County to do business had to register in the garrison town first and receive a copper token that permitted them to trade. When they returned, they had to return the copper token for verification.

The register will record how many people, how many livestock, what the leader's name is, and so on. All of this will be checked one by one upon returning. This verification system is very rigorous.

The register lists eleven Tibetan merchant caravans. The first group of merchants had been gone for twenty-eight days. According to regulations, they could not stay longer than thirty days. They could only trade in Chishui County, and thirty days was more than enough time.

If you are staying in the city due to illness, you will need a certificate from the Chishui County government.

They usually return in about half a month at most, but this caravan has been gone for twenty-eight days. This is the first time we've encountered such a situation.

Chen Dequan summoned the two captains and the brigade commander and said to them, "Aquma's caravan has been gone for twenty-eight days and has not yet returned. There is something amiss. Unidentified people have appeared in the Jishishan Grand Canyon. From now on, the alert level will be raised to level three!"

Level 3 alert is the initial level of alert, indicating that an anomaly has occurred and that patrols need to be strengthened, external surveillance increased at night, and inspections should not be limited to sampling but should include a comprehensive unloading inspection.

Level 2 alert goes a step further, halting trade, setting up checkpoints at Jishi Mountain, and bringing all Tibetan merchants under control.

Level 1 alert is wartime alert. We need to request reinforcements, all tribes must evacuate, all Tibetans must be regarded as enemies, and soldiers must be stationed at the beacon towers on Jishi Mountain.

At night, a patrol team monitors the nearby grassland. Instead of training back and forth, they hide in the shadows. This is the third level of alert. Normally, there is no external surveillance at night, but now there are sentry posts, with two people in each group, divided into ten sentry posts.

At this moment, the two sentries suddenly spotted a small black dot several miles to the north, clearly visible in the moonlight. They raised their telescopes to take a closer look and discovered it was a caravan.

The sentry immediately lit the gunpowder arrows and shot them into the sky. Two bright red gunpowder arrows flew into the sky and exploded in mid-air.

Immediately, a sentry notified Chen Dequan, and soon after, Chen Dequan led a hundred cavalrymen at full speed.

Two hundred sentries reported, "We just spotted a caravan. After firing gunpowder arrows, they fled west!"

"Chase!"

Chen Dequan led a hundred cavalrymen in pursuit westward.

Soon, they spotted the caravan. Chen Dequan waved his hand, and the cavalry quickly surrounded it. The leading merchant was none other than Aquma, who had been traveling for twenty-eight days. Aquma was deathly pale and unable to utter a single word.

He had five helpers, driving more than thirty horses, each horse carrying two heavy bundles on its back.

"Take it back first!"

Chen Dequan's face was gloomy. With a wave of his hand, the soldiers escorted the Tibetan merchants back to the fortress.

Halfway there, the soldier pointed south and shouted, "General, there are people over there!"

Two men on horseback were seen in the distance. When they realized that the Sui army had spotted them, they immediately turned around and fled.

Chen Dequan felt uneasy and immediately ordered, "Go back and inform the garrison to fire the gunpowder arrows, and notify all the sentries outside to withdraw!"

The group quickened their pace, and soon nine gunpowder arrows were fired from the city walls, recalling the sentries outside.

Upon returning to the military city, Chen Dequan ordered an inspection of the goods, and the result astonished them: they were all iron arrowheads, totaling 36,000.

The Sui army immediately interrogated the Tibetan merchants. The leader, Aquma, quickly confessed that the arrowheads were collected from more than a dozen tribes in Heyuan County. The government usually buys back these weapons and arrowheads that have been left in the wild. The government is generally stricter with weapons, but it does not pay much attention to arrowheads. The Tibetan merchants took advantage of this loophole and bought the arrowheads at three times the government's buyback price. They used sheepskins to exchange for them, which the herders accepted.

They certainly didn't dare to go through the military city for verification, so they tried to bypass the military city, but they were still discovered by the military city.

However, under the Sui army's harsh interrogation, Aquma hesitantly admitted that those suspicious-looking people were Tibetan soldiers who came to meet them.

During the interrogation, a soldier walked in and whispered a few words to Chen Dequan. Chen Dequan immediately went out of the room and asked the two sentries who had just returned, "How many people have you found?"

"Reporting to the general, there are at least one or two thousand men!"

The two sentries were retreating from the Jishishan Grand Canyon. When they returned, they happened to see one or two thousand Tibetan soldiers emerging from the canyon.

Chen Dequan immediately tensed up and ordered, "Light the beacon fires and order everyone to go up to the city and bring up the arrows and grenades!"

The beacon fire at the highest point of the military city was lit, alerting Chishui County, 120 miles away. All two hundred soldiers went up to the city and vigilantly watched the south.

The Jishishan Grand Canyon is only thirty miles away from the military city, making it easy for the enemy to attack.

Just as dawn broke, a bugle call suddenly sounded in the distance, followed by the appearance of a Tibetan army of about two thousand men.

The Sui army's strict blockade of contraband and various handicraft techniques finally pushed the Tibetans to their breaking point, and they regarded this blockade as a declaration of war.

The Tibetan king, Lunzan Suo, ordered a show of military might, which was actually a small-scale invasion. They planned to capture the area around the Yellow River's nine bends, which was the Heyuan Prefecture of the Sui Dynasty.

The dark army drew closer, clad in leather armor and wielding short swords. They had no bows and arrows, but each soldier carried a slingshot, which the Tibetans called an urdo. It had a range of sixty or seventy paces and was quite formidable.

But the Sui army was very familiar with the area; almost every Tangut herdsman in the surrounding area had a slingshot to drive away wolves.

Chen Dequan shouted to all his men, "Don't worry, everyone, listen to my orders!"

======
[This book will conclude next week as scheduled. My new book, "Tiger Owl," will be released next Monday, the 21st. I sincerely ask all my longtime readers to support me. I believe the new book will not disappoint.]

(End of this chapter)