Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 14 Sharpening the Knife
"You guys are not slow in coming."

At the foot of Fulu City, Zhang Huaishen glanced at the third group in front of him and nodded with satisfaction.

Liu Jilong stepped forward, bowed, and handed over a sign: "Armor and arrows have been delivered to Fulu. Please accept them, Captain."

"Go and have a rest. Come back to me tomorrow afternoon. I have something to tell you."

Zhang Huaishen took the sign and said to the soldiers beside him, "Take them to the military camp in the city to rest. Also, give them two dou of rice, one dou of beans, and a sheep."

"Yes!" The soldiers bowed, and Liu Jilong also bowed to Zhang Huaishen: "Thank you, Captain, for the reward."

"Thank you, Captain!" The brothers of the third group echoed Liu Jilong.

"Go and rest."

Zhang Huaishen gave his final instructions, then mounted his horse, turned his horse around and returned to the city.

Watching his back disappear into the distance, Liu Jilian took off his armor and led the brothers from the third group, dressed lightly, led their horses, and followed the soldier assigned by Zhang Huaishen into the city.

Fulu City is smaller than Jiuquan City, which means that there are very few troops stationed in the city, and most of them are led by Zhang's descendants.

As for the rest of the troops, Liu Jilong asked the soldier next to him.

According to him, during the attack on Fulu, they encountered reinforcements sent by the Tubo in Ganzhou, which was why the battle took so long.

Fortunately, Fulu was finally captured, and the Shazhou Army recruited two regiments of soldiers to garrison here.

The rest is information that the soldiers cannot access.

As the soldier finished speaking, Liu Jilian and his men also arrived at the military camp in Fulu City.

All the mud houses here were knocked down, and everyone was resting in tents. Looking around, dozens of tents filled the training ground.

Their slow horses were taken away when they entered the military camp. After all, they were Tangqi. Zhang Huaishen had left the slow horses to them because they did not need to fight, but still needed horse riding training.

Now that we have arrived in Fulu, the army will soon march east to recover Ganzhou, and the slow horses will naturally have to be returned.

If there is a mission that requires going into battle, the army will naturally allocate horses to them.

Led by the soldiers, they walked into the parade ground carrying armor and weapons, passing by many open tent doors.

There were many joking soldiers on the narrow road, and their eyes were all looking towards the third group.

It’s not that the third group is so elite, but that Liu Jilian is too eye-catching.

"Captain Liu, this is your tent. Everything is ready inside. I'll bring the things the captain asked me to bring in a little while."

The soldier stopped in front of an empty tent to explain, and at the same time bowed to a large tent not far away and said, "That's Captain Zhang's tent over there."

"Thank you very much." Liu Jilong bowed to express his gratitude. The soldier quickly returned the greeting, then gave a few instructions and left.

After he left, Liu Jilong led everyone into the tent.

There are eleven blankets padded with hay in the tent, which covers an area of more than 20 square meters. It is not comfortable for people to lie down and rest, but at least it is more comfortable than in the wild.

"This is my first time walking out of Jiuquan. This Fulu is much smaller than Jiuquan."

After entering the tent, everyone relaxed a lot. They chatted and laughed as they chose their seats. After putting away their armor and weapons, some lay down and some sat down.

Looking at them, Liu Jilong said, "All the people stationed here are from our Thirteenth Regiment. Keep a low profile and don't cause any trouble."

Along the way, Liu Jilong saw many familiar faces, so he knew that this was the base of the 13th Regiment.

As usual, Zhang Yichao handed the city over to Zhang Huaishen to garrison, while he led his army to rest outside the east gate.

"Captain, when are we going to set out?" Zhang Chang couldn't help but ask, and Liu Jilong said without hesitation: "It should be soon."

There was a reason why he said that, as he hadn't seen many men on his way into the city.

If you don’t see any adult men, it’s not a big deal, after all, Shazhou’s recruitment is to recruit adult men.

But as he walked along, he didn't see many underage men, only children under ten years old could be vaguely seen.

Such a scene shows that Zhang Yichao has formed a team of civilian laborers to help the army escort supplies and food.

It would take five days to attack Fulu from Jiuquan, even if the army was slow, and the rations carried by each soldier were enough to sustain them for ten days.

For this reason, Zhang Yichao did not recruit too many underage men from Jiuquan when he attacked Fulu.

But now we have to march from Fulu to Zhangye, a distance of more than 300 miles, which will take at least ten days, so it is not possible to travel light.

Based on Liu Jilian's impression of the population in Fulu City, it is likely that all men over the age of 13 in the city would be conscripted as laborers and follow the army to attack Zhangye.

"Captain, then we should be the Tangqi of the army!"

"That's for sure!"

Zhang Chang and Zhao Qian were somewhat excited. They were both young and wanted to achieve great things.

However, in the face of their excitement, Liu Jilong still poured a bucket of cold water on them.

"Even if it is Tangqi, it can't be the front army Tangqi. It is most likely the rear army Tangqi."

"Although you are all good at horse riding, Hexi has no shortage of people who know horse riding. The third group has a short training time, so even if we are assigned to be the Tangqi, it is impossible for us to be the most dangerous and important front-line Tangqi."

After Liu Jilong finished speaking, he told Ma Cheng who was sitting there, "Take care of the sheep that brother brought just now and eat the leftovers from yesterday first, otherwise there won't be enough to eat tomorrow."

"Okay." Ma Cheng nodded, then looked to his side: "Come on, follow me to get yesterday's meat and bones."

He stood up and greeted them, and Geng Ming and Li Ji followed him.

After watching them leave, Liu Jilong said, "Take a good rest these few days and put the training on hold."

"Okay!" Zhao Qian and the others grinned. Only Zhang Chang knew that the team had run out of money and would not be able to buy meat if they continued training.

Although the group will be given a sheep, judging from the look on the team leader's face, he probably plans to save the sheep for the last few days.

"You guys stay here, I'm going to go out for a walk."

Liu Jilong stood up and gave instructions, then walked out.

As he appeared outside the tent, many eyes immediately turned to him.

Liu Jilong turned a blind eye and walked out of the military camp.

When you come to the street, you can see rammed earth huts everywhere. Occasionally, you can see a courtyard with a large area and a lintel. Most likely, it is the courtyard of some local family in Fulu.

Walking on the rammed earth road, the street seemed a bit deserted, but everyone had a smile on their face.

Hexi was oppressed under the rule of Tubo. Now the Shazhou army came to liberate them and allowed everyone to speak Chinese and wear Chinese clothes and hats. The national culture that had been suppressed for nearly a hundred years was instantly released.

Look at the children playing on the streets and the people of Fulu City standing in the corner of the street with smiles on their faces.

Although they were ragged and skinny, their eyes were unusually bright, just like the people of Guazhou who had been liberated.

Liu Jilong took a long breath, looked up at the sky that was already tinged with twilight, and felt a little more relaxed.

(End of this chapter)