Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 166: Drive straight in
"Qiliben! Qiliben!!"

A hoarse voice came from outside the yamen, causing Shang Yanxin and the other two to jump up from their seats.

The dusty Lin Ruzhen rushed into the yamen with dozens of armored soldiers and immediately locked onto Shang Yanxin and the other two.

"General Lin Ruzhen, what's going on?!"

Shang Yanxin felt weak all over and asked hurriedly.

"Qiliben, Liu Jilong led his army to break through the gap in the city wall and is heading here."

"I have ordered the elite cavalry to leave the East City. The infantry can no longer be taken away!"

General Lin Ruzhen urged the three men. Hearing this, the three men ignored the pain and rushed out of the door under the protection of General Lin Ruzhen.

While they were on horseback, they watched helplessly as hundreds of infantrymen fled and were killed more than a hundred steps away, and the elite cavalry of the Longxi Army also discovered them.

"The government office is over here, those foreign bandits are trying to escape!!"

In the chaos, Zhang Chang commanded his army to charge towards the government office. Shang Yanxin and others felt their scalps tingling when they saw this, and they quickly whipped their whips and fled.

Upon hearing this, Liu Jilong rode his horse and tried to break through the formation, but the group of defeated soldiers in front of him blocked the road, making it difficult to break through. He could not help but get angry and said, "Those who surrender will not be killed!!"

"Woo-"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

The soldiers of the Longxi Army had not yet turned blood-thirsty to killing, and when they heard the long horn sound, they hurriedly tried to persuade these abandoned foreign soldiers.

For a moment, the shouting and killing slowly stopped, and Liu Jilong raised his hammer and pointed at the group of fleeing soldiers: "I don't have time to accept your surrender, stand on both sides, throw down your armor and surrender!"

Hundreds of soldiers rushed to both sides of the road upon seeing this and barely made way for them.

Liu Jilong grabbed the reins and looked back at Shang Duoluo: "Shang Duoluo, you lead the infantry to accept the surrender, and the elite cavalry follow me!"

"The last general takes command!"

As they responded, Liu Jilian shook the reins and led more than 500 elite cavalrymen to chase towards the east gate, while Shang Duoluo led the armored soldiers to accept the surrender of these hundreds of foreign soldiers.

"Thousands of armored soldiers can't even hold out for two quarters of an hour. Pig dogs! Pig dogs!"

Lu Ruyue cursed loudly, but did not think about his behavior of whipping and running away.

Under the protection of General Lin Ruzhen, dozens of them rushed out of the east gate and joined more than 1,600 elite cavalry outside the city gate.

"Damn it, there are still so many people here, why are you running?!"

Shang Yan was filled with anger and became tough for a rare time.

Fortunately, General Lin Ruzhen was paying attention to him and quickly lowered his voice: "Qiliben, if we kill all the people, how can we survive in Weizhou?"

Upon hearing this, Shang Yanxin realized that most of the elite cavalry were his old subordinates.

"withdraw!"

After realizing that his power was preserved, Shang Yanxin became more active.

He rode his horse and led his men away first, while Zhe Bu Luo and Lu Ruo Yue were still summoning their own protectorates.

Seeing Shang Yanxin leading most of the people to break through without stopping, they finally reacted.

"Shang Yanxin, you pig-dog, you deserve to die!!"

Zhe Buhui cursed loudly, because at this moment he only had less than a hundred elite cavalrymen left around him.

Even if we count the elite cavalry and armored soldiers who stayed behind in Didao, his force was no more than five or six hundred men.

With only this small number of troops, even if they went to Weizhou to surrender to the Tang court, they would not be able to get any good position.

Although Lu Ruyue was also angry, fortunately he still had more than 400 elite cavalry under his command.

Without even bothering to insult Shang Yanxin, he quickly led his troops to flee to Didao.

"You two pig-dog guys!!"

Zhe Buhui was shouting and cursing at the two of them, but at this moment he heard the sound of horse hooves from behind him.

He turned around and saw that the elite cavalry of the Longxi Army had rushed out of the city gate and were rushing towards him.

Seeing this, Zhe Buhui's three souls were scared away and he quickly shook the reins: "Retreat!"

He led more than a hundred elite cavalry to chase Shang Yanxin and others, while Liu Jilian led the elite cavalry of Longxi to pursue them.

Heading from Guanghe to Lintao, Shang Yanxin and his men concentrated on fleeing and had no intention of stopping Liu Jilong at all.

Even though their number was three times that of Liu Jilong, they still kept running.

The two sides were chasing each other, one in front and one behind, stopping and walking, and the sun was setting in the mountains.

Liu Jilian had already chased for nearly fifty miles. After Shang Yanxin and his elite cavalry crossed the Tao River, they immediately destroyed the pontoon bridge, thus blocking Liu Jilian on the west bank.

"his!"

Looking at the damaged floating bridge, Liu Jilong reined his horse in to the west of Tao River and started cursing.

Compared to the implicit way of cursing in this era, everyone looked at him sideways as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Send the light cavalry back to Daxia County and ask Shang Duoluo to take off the armor of those foreign soldiers, leave 250 new soldiers to guard the city, and recruit all the men in the city as civilian laborers."

"Before noon tomorrow, I want to see him appear here with his troops!"

Liu Jilong dismounted angrily and kicked the rocks on the shore away.

Stones flew into the Tao River, causing waves...

Half an hour later, the sun completely sank into the mountains, but Shang Yanxin and others did not dare to rest. They held torches and hurried back to Didao.

At this time, there were only more than 4,000 slaves, more than 1,000 foreign people and 300 armored soldiers from Linzhou left in Didao City.

Even with these 1,600 people, they could not defend the city.

"What the hell is this?!"

Zhe Buhui, who walked into the Didao government office in a panic, vented his emotions without hiding anything. He came to the main seat and cursed at Shang Yanxin and Lu Ruyue:

"If all 1,600 elite cavalry were added, Liu Jilong might not be able to take the breach in the city wall so easily. Your short-sightedness caused us to flee in embarrassment!!"

Faced with his verbal abuse, Shang Yanxin and Lu Ruyue also looked unhappy.

"Okay, quarreling won't solve anything!"

"Although the floating bridge is destroyed, with the manpower of Liu Jilong and his men, it can be repaired by tomorrow evening at the latest."

"After resting tonight, it would be the right thing to do to take the more than 1,000 people in the city and evacuate to Weiyuan!"

Lu Ruyue tried to take charge of the situation, but Shang Yanxin was very dissatisfied. He said sarcastically, "It will take more than two months before the mountain is closed due to heavy snow."

"Even if we withdraw to Weiyuan, with the strength Liu Jilong showed when attacking Daxia, do you think Weiyuan can stop them?!"

"Of course I know!" Lu Ruyue explained:
"It has been seven days now. I believe that Governor Xue of Qinzhou has received our letter."

"We are heading back to Weiyuan now, maybe we can just run into Governor Xue's reply letter."

"In ten days at most, Governor Xue will definitely lead his troops to Longxi in the east. By then, Liu Jilong will definitely not dare to continue to attack Weizhou!"

Lu Ruyue placed her hope on Xue Kui, and Shang Yanxin and Zhe Buhui gradually calmed down after hearing this.

After all, after surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, the three of them still need to fight side by side to ensure that the three will not be separated.

It was indeed a shame that nearly a thousand people were killed or captured by Liu Jilong, but a loss is a loss, and the most important thing is to preserve the future.

The three of them thought about this, and soon they dispersed to rest.

Before dawn the next day, the three of them evacuated all the Tibetan soldiers and civilians in Didao City, leaving behind only more than 4,000 slaves...

To take the Linwei official road southeast from Didao, you need to pass Dalaigu, Wujie Valley and Gaochengling.

Of the more than ninety miles, the first fifty miles of the valley road was relatively easy to walk on, so they traveled fifty miles in one day.

However, after arriving at Gaochengling, the official road ahead gradually became narrower, forcing them to stop and rest.

"Damn it, you're leaving like this, I can't bear it!"

Zhe Buhui punched the tree in front of him and said angrily, "How about we set up camp at Gaocheng Ridge and ambush him?"

He expressed his thoughts, but Shang Yanxin and Lu Ruyue ignored him.

At this time they only wanted to withdraw to Weizhou and wait for Xue Kui to come and receive them.

As for ambushing Liu Jilong, they had no intention of doing that at all.

"Damn it, if we don't ambush him, we might as well surrender to him!"

Ultimately, Zhe Buhui was reluctant to leave Linzhou. After all, he had been running Linzhou for many years, and he could not accept giving it up suddenly.

For the sake of Linzhou, he would accept it even if it meant surrendering to Liu Jilian.

"Humph!" Shang Yanxin snorted coldly: "I will not surrender to Liu Jilong!"

He had suffered many defeats at the hands of Liu Jilian. If he surrendered to Liu Jilian, he would lose the last bit of his backbone.

Seeing him like this, Zhe Buhui could only look at Lu Ruyue, but Lu Ruyue said:
"Liu Jilong does not have the trust of the Tang court at all. What can he give us if we surrender to him?"

"On the contrary, if we surrender to the Tang court, the emperor of the Tang court will be very generous. He will give us tens of thousands of pieces of silk, which will allow us to have no worries about food and clothing in our next life."

"Besides, there are many fellow tribesmen in Qinzhou, Yuanzhou, Weizhou, and Weizhou, but the Tang court doesn't dare to use them at all." "Now that we have gone there, the Tang court can also take us as the main force and recruit these fellow tribesmen to join the army!"

Lu Ruyue had a good idea. He wanted to follow the example of Shatuo and Dangxiang and, after surrendering to the Tang Dynasty, maximize his benefits by relying on the Tibetan people in the Tang Dynasty.

Hearing him say this, Zhe Buhui said nothing more. He just waited until the army set up camp and then returned to the tent to rest.

While they were resting, Liu Jilian also led a large army and entered Didao City in a mighty manner.

Didao is located in the Taoshui River Valley and has a history of thousands of years.

The river valley is ten miles wide from east to west and more than a hundred miles long from north to south. Even though Longxi suffered from drought, the Tao River still nourished both sides of the valley.

"It has been ninety-one years since Didao fell in the first year of Baoying."

The sound of horse hooves echoed in the corridors of Didao City, along with the Mandarin spoken with a Hexi accent.

Soon, as the team walked out of the city gate corridor, what lay before Liu Jilong and his men were the "people" kneeling on the ground.

On the long street, ragged and skinny people knelt on both sides of the street, prostrating themselves on the ground.

Just like when they welcomed the envoys from the city of Loksop in the past, they acted like slaves.

Looking at them, Liu Jilong stopped his horse and shouted in Tibetan: "Linzhou has been liberated. From now on, there will be no more slaves!"

"Everyone, stand up! No kneeling!"

His voice was "small" because it could not reach the ears of every slave.

His voice was "loud" because it was deafening to the slaves who could hear it...

The numb eyes began to light up, and the kneeling people began to raise their heads cautiously and look at the tall figure riding a white horse.

"Everyone stand up, don't kneel!!"

Shang Duoluo, Zhang Chang and others shouted one after another, and the soldiers of the Longxi Guiyi Army who entered the city also echoed them.

Gradually, their voices spread all around, and some even dismounted from their horses and went forward to help the kneeling slaves up one by one.

"From today on, you are citizens, not slaves anymore. Stand up... and don't kneel!"

Feeling their hands being supported, these people looked up and made eye contact with the soldiers of the Longxi Guiyi Army.

The soldiers' smiles were bright, like the rising sun, warming people's hearts.

"Linzhou is liberated! Didao is liberated!!"

Liu Jilong shook the reins of his horse and rushed towards the yamen while spreading this sentence.

Shang Duoluo, Zhang Chang and hundreds of others rode up on horseback and followed him, shouting "liberation" along with him.

When the people learned that they were being liberated, they followed them vigorously, waving their hands to explain to other people who were also slaves.

More and more people came behind them, and their cheers drowned out their shouts for liberation, but that was enough, because everyone in the city knew that Linzhou and Didao were liberated.

After Liu Jilong and his men arrived at the yamen, they dismounted and walked in, while the soldiers surrounded the yamen.

They surrounded the government office, but the people who followed them surrounded them.

The eyes of the people were filled with gratitude and tears, and their gazes moved over the soldiers, as if they wanted to see their golden hearts through their armor.

"Thank you for liberating us! Thank you! Thank you..."

"Kowtow, we have to kowtow!"

"Don't kowtow, we don't kowtow!"

The liberated people began to kowtow spontaneously, crying as they did so.

Many young soldiers rushed forward to help, and Chen Ying was one of them.

He helped up a sixty-year-old man who was so thin that he looked unrecognizable. Before he could speak, the old man began to tell his story in a trembling voice, choking with sobs:

"My son is a slave, my father is a slave, and Ye Ye is also a slave..."

"Before you came, they were all exhausted, and only me and my two grandchildren were left at home."

"I thought about escaping with them, but those who escaped were caught and hung on the city gate to die in the sun."

"I don't dare...I'm afraid..."

"Now that you are here, we don't have to run away. They can survive and grow up healthy!"

With tears in his eyes, he held Chen Ying's hands tightly with his rough and skinny hands.

Next to him were two skinny kids, who were five feet tall but looked to weigh only 50 or 60 kilograms at most, and were so skinny that they looked creepy...

There are many families like theirs, who are all grateful to the soldiers of the Longxi Army.

Whenever they mentioned the past, tears welled up in their eyes, but once they mentioned the arrival of the Longxi Army, hope shone in their eyes.

"This is the best thing we can offer, take it!"

"Take it! Don't leave!"

"Don't abandon us, we are willing to help you farm..."

Many people rushed back home at some point, holding stale grain that had been stored for a long time, or wild fruits and dried vegetables that were mostly moldy.

Although it was moldy, it was the best they could come up with.

They handed these "precious" gifts to the soldiers of the Longxi Army with sincerity and gratitude in their eyes, as if this was all she could repay.

"We have military regulations and cannot take things from civilians!"

"The governor said that he would not take a single grain of rice or a single thread from the people!"

"Don't plug it...you're making us make a mistake!"

The Longxi Army had strict military discipline. When faced with gifts handed over by the people, the soldiers politely declined and covered their bodies tightly with any space where they could put things.

When their gifts were politely rejected, the people of Didao City were very anxious, with confusion and fear in their eyes, as if they had encountered the biggest problem in their lives.

The more the Longxi army followed the rules, the more they worried that the soldiers would leave.

Seeing that they could not hand over any gifts, they knelt down and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

Although the children in Didao are young, they know the difference between the people in front of them and those who used to be in Didao City.

Seeing their elders kneeling down, they also knelt down and kowtowed vigorously with their small bodies. Their eagerness to help their saviors deeply moved the soldiers of the Longxi Army.

"Don't worry, we won't leave!"

"Yes, we still have to retake Weizhou, but there will be people stationed in Linzhou. We will not leave, and those foreign bandits will not come back!"

"Don't worry, folks!"

"We're not leaving..."

The soldiers quickly helped the kneeling civilians up, explained that they would not leave, and patiently comforted them.

At the same time, the Tangqi who were sent to search for Shang Yanxin and others also returned to the yamen. After squeezing through the enthusiastic people, they hurriedly trotted into the yamen.

"Governor, Shang Yanxin and the others have fled to Weizhou!"

A captain of the Tangqi cavalry walked into the yamen with the information he had just obtained. Shortly after he arrived, the captain who went to check the official warehouse and the government treasury also walked in.

"Governor, the government warehouses are so empty that horses can run through them. The documents in the warehouse have also been emptied out. There is nothing left!"

Faced with the news delivered by the two captains one after another, Liu Jilong and others frowned.

"We captured more than 800 sets of armor, several thousand dan of grain, and more than 4,400 foreign soldiers and civilians from Daxia."

"According to the time, Changle has probably been taken over by Hu Siguang, so Linzhou is in our hands."

Shang Duoluo took a breath, analyzed the situation and looked at Liu Jilong: "Governor, are you still going to chase?"

"Chase!" Liu Jilong said firmly: "We must recapture Weizhou before the imperial court reacts."

"The army will rest for one night, leaving 500 armored Wuquan civilians to guard Didao, and the rest will march towards Weizhou!"

After Liu Jilong finished speaking, Zhang Chang hesitated and said, "But we also suffered more than 300 casualties, and now we have less than 1,500 soldiers and horses that can fight."

"Can we recapture Weizhou with this amount of troops?"

Speaking of the latter part, Zhang Chang felt a little guilty, and even Shang Duoluo nodded in agreement:
"Shang Yanxin and his men still have nearly 3,000 troops. Moreover, they are marching from Didao to Weiyuan in Weizhou. The terrain of Gaochengling is only slightly better than that of Donggu."

"Even if we take Gaochengling, the problem will still be Weiyuan behind us."

"Weizhou is, after all, a strategic point on the Long Mountains and a barrier to Guanzhong. If the imperial court knew that we were trying to retake the three states, they would certainly send troops to stop us."

"It is much easier to attack Weizhou from Qinzhou than from Linzhou, not to mention that Shang Yanxin is trying to surrender to the Tang court."

"If we can't take Weizhou in a short period of time, then..."

Shang Duoluo didn't continue speaking, but Liu Jilong suddenly stood up and glanced at everyone.

He pointed outside the government office and said sadly, "Listen to the voices of the people. If we don't save them, who else can save them? Should we rely on the court?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Jilong drew the sword from his waist, stood in front of him, and said in an unquestionable tone:

"Pass on my military order. Send troops to Weizhou at 11:00 am tomorrow. Also order Hu Siguang and Li Ji to garrison Linzhou and build catapults to send to the front line!"

(End of this chapter)