Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 263: Troops Arrive at Guzang
"Gugu...Gugu..."

At night, the calls of unknown birds echoed in Guzang City.

The Guzang City, which was mostly empty in the past, is now not only filled with people in every courtyard, but also with tents set up in a circle along the city wall outside the city.

When Zhang Huaishen was governing Liang, there would be a curfew in Guzang City after dark, but now the city was full of bonfires and the streets were filled with a large number of mobs.

They sang and danced, slaughtered sheep and cattle, and had a great time...

However, in this situation, more than ten light cavalrymen rushed in from the east gate of Guzang City and headed straight for the government office.

A quarter of an hour later, the light cavalry arrived at the yamen and quickly reported the military intelligence they had learned.

Du Lunxiga lived in the chief clerk's office of the former Liangzhou government. After hearing the news, he immediately went to the inner courtyard.

When he arrived at the inner courtyard, a dozen Tibetan women were singing and dancing around the bonfire in front of the inner hall.

Although Dugazhi was older, he was hugging two Tibetan women on each side, with a big smile on his face.

"Yeah yeah!"

Dulun Xiga walked quickly towards Dugazhi, bowed three steps away and said:

"More than 30 miles away in the direction of Changsong, some people heard thunder while grazing their livestock. They also saw cavalrymen with Sanchen and Longyou flags from a distance."

"There has been no news from Changsong today. I'm worried that Liu Jilong called!"

"Hmm?" Dugazhi put away his smile upon hearing that. He patted the two Tibetan women and leaned forward to ask, "Did you send out the light cavalry?"

"Before I came in just now, I had already sent out three teams." Du Lun Xijia explained, and said:
"Let me tell you, the main purpose is to gather the people who are grazing in the surrounding areas and bring the herds and people into the city. If anything goes wrong, we can also take advantage of the situation to break out."

"Breakout?" Dugazhi showed displeasure and patted the armrest.
"This Guzang City is different from other cities. We can hold out for at least six or seven months with the help of cattle, sheep and the city."

"When winter comes in Liangzhou, Liu Jilong will have no choice but to retreat to Longyou. What can we fear from him?"

"Gather all the troops to return to Liangzhou, mobilize everyone in the city, and go harvest the grass outside the city overnight!"

"This..." Du Lunxiga felt that his Ye Ye seemed too confident.

It is only the beginning of March and the grass has not yet grown. With so many herds of cattle and sheep, even if they can squeeze into the city, how many of them can eat fresh grass?

Without pasture, hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep would starve to death in just ten days or half a month.

Thinking of this, Du Lun Xiga looked at Du Gazhi, only to see that Du Gazhi ignored him and continued to hug the two Tibetan women.

Obviously, Ye Ye had been blinded by the solid Guzang City.

What he meant by gathering hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep into the city was probably the idea of slaughtering them and making them into jerky.

Only in this way can the demand for charcoal in the city be reduced. After all, hot water is not needed to eat dried meat.

Given the climate in Liangzhou, it is not difficult to air-dry beef and mutton.

Thinking of this, Du Lun Xiga frowned and walked out of the inner courtyard. According to the arrangement of his own Ye Ye, he sent out more than ten light cavalry to summon the various tribes.

After a sleepless night, the next morning, several tribes closer to Guzang had arrived outside the city of Guzang, but they were grazing outside the farmland.

As their families poured into the city, Guzang, which was already crowded with people, became even more crowded.

Before Duryodhana reached the main hall, he heard the quarrel.

"If we slaughter the herd, even if it can last until winter, what will we eat next year?"

"That's right! If I have to slaughter the herd, I would rather return to Baiting Sea!"

"Now that we can farm, why do we still need to herd?"

"That sounds good, but what if Liu Jilong comes again next year? If we can't farm then, what will we eat?"

Hearing the quarrel, Du Lun Xiga secretly breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he walked into the main hall and saw his own Ye Ye with a gloomy face and the governors of various tribes.

The governors of several tribes in the hall disagreed with the slaughter of the herds, and only two or three tribes agreed to the slaughter.

Duryodhana looked at them and soon understood why they agreed.

These tribes have small populations and small herds, so slaughtering the herds will not cause much loss to them.

Compared to them, the reactions of the others were more intense.

Dugazhi had a gloomy face. Seeing that no one could convince anyone, he immediately spoke;

"If you don't want to defend Liangzhou, then go back to Baitinghai to graze!"

After he said this, Du Lun Xiga's heart skipped a beat and he immediately knew that something bad was going to happen.

"Hmph! Just leave!"

"Let's go too!"

In a short moment, four or five people stood up and walked out immediately.

For them, after taking Guzang and Changsong, they did not gain as many benefits as Dugazhi said.

Now that the crops have not been planted yet, we have to fight a battle with Liu Jilian in Longyou.

They would rather return to Baitinghai to graze than fight Liu Jilian here.

What's more, there are no tribes in Baitinghai now, so when they return, they don't have to control the herds and pastures as they did before.

"Yeah yeah!"

Seeing his own Ye Ye's foolish behavior, Du Lun Xiga immediately stood up and tried to persuade him.

Unexpectedly, Dugazhi glared at him when he saw him like this and said, "If you don't agree, then get out too!"

"I..." Du Lunxijia didn't expect that his own Ye Ye would treat him like this, and the other leaders who were about to leave saw this and immediately said:

"Dugazhi, I think you are crazy!"

"Humph! Among your dozens of grandchildren, only Dulun Xijia has some talent. You actually want to drive him away?"

Seeing this group of people mocking him, Dugazhi said angrily: "If I can bring out one of him, I can bring out more of him!"

"Now that I have Guzang, with this city, I can take over Suo Xun's former position and ask the Tang court to open the market!"

"You short-sighted fellows, go back to Baitinghai to graze your herds!"

Everyone looked at Dugazhi in silence, as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

Before taking control of Liangzhou, although Dugazhi had a bad temper and was somewhat self-righteous, he was usually relatively calm and made plans.

After taking control of Liangzhou, his temper became worse and worse, and he became more and more self-righteous.

Everyone looked at him and thought that Dugazhi was getting old and was beginning to become confused.

Thinking of this, everyone left disappointed, but Du Lun Xijia stood there, his face flushed, not knowing whether to leave or not.

Seeing that the governors of five or six tribes had left at once, Dugazhi felt a little regretful after calming down, but for the sake of face, he did not admit his mistake.

Du Lun Xiga stood there for two hours, watching the tribal governors coming in batches.

Of the twenty-eight Umu tribes, large and small, thirteen of them left, leaving fifteen.

Seeing this, Dugazhi ordered all tribes to collect grass and move their herds into the city.

After leaving the main hall, Du Lun Xiga felt more and more uncomfortable.

Ever since I became an adult and took charge of three thousand tents, my own Ye Ye has never scolded me in public like this.

If it weren’t for the fact that he could have achieved what he had today thanks to Ye Ye, he would really have wanted to lead his troops and leave.

Thinking of this, he wanted to go to the military camp to see his troops.

But at this time, someone was chasing after him.

A general stopped him and then bowed, saying, "Commander Dulun Xiga, the Khan asked you to offer the seals of two thousand tents as a punishment."

"Punishment?!" Du Lunxijia was stunned, then gritted his teeth and said:
"What punishment? What did I do wrong?"

"This..." The general looked a little embarrassed. Seeing this, Du Lun Xiga walked past him, walked out of the yamen, and rode his horse towards the military camp.

When the general saw Du Lun Xiga leaving, he immediately returned to the main hall to report to Du Gazhi.

Dugazhi originally wanted to test Dulun Xiga because he had recently gradually fallen in love with his seventeenth son, Dulun Xiga's uncle Dulun Qilu.

Duryodhana was the eldest son of his deceased eldest son, and therefore his eldest grandson.

Originally, he wanted to train Dulun Xiga, but as his seventeenth son Dulun Qilu grew up, he couldn't help but favor this youngest son.

Now, with a simple test, Du Lun Xiga was forced to reveal his true colors, which made Du Gazhi gradually feel resentful.

"Let's go, if he wants to leave, let him go!"

Dugazhi snorted coldly: "You go to the military camp now and leave those two thousand tents behind. Except for his father's one thousand tents, you can't take anything else with you!"

"Yes!" The general immediately responded and took his men to the military camp to stop them.

As expected, when they arrived at the military camp, Du Lun Xijia was calling on his three thousand tents of troops to return to Baiting Sea with him.

When the general arrived, he immediately interrupted Duryodhana's call.

"The Khan has issued an order to deprive Dulun Xijia of his White Oxen Tent and Blue Oxen Tent, leaving only the White Horse Tent!"

The general's words made Du Lunxijia look unhappy. The general of the white horse tent was an old official of Du Lunxijia's father. Seeing this, he saluted immediately:
"Commander Dulun Xiga, even if everyone abandons you, the White Horse Camp will not abandon you!"

"Okay!" Du Lun Xijia's face was gloomy, and then he looked at the generals of the Blue Ox and White Ox tents. Seeing this, the two generals lowered their heads in silence, avoiding Du Lun Xijia's gaze.

"Sulu Huai, let's go!"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing this, General Sulu Huai of the White Horse Tent turned around and immediately commanded the 500 elite cavalry and 500 light cavalry of the White Horse Tent to lead their families and herds and follow Du Lun Xiga to retreat.

As Du Lun Xiga's confidants, the Baima Camp basically lived in the city.

Although all the tribes were withdrawing from Liangzhou, not many nobles evacuated from Guzang City, so Bai Ma's thousand tents of soldiers and more than four thousand of their families withdrew from Guzang City in an orderly manner, following Du Lun Xiga's figure and retreating to Baiting Sea in the north.

Seeing that Dulun Xiga had retreated, some tribes immediately followed suit and followed closely behind Dulun Xiga.

Their original intention was to avoid being annexed by other large tribes, but after the news reached the Guzang government office, the eighteen-year-old Du Lunqilu immediately found Dugazhi.

"Aye, I heard that Dulun Xiga led other tribes to the north of Baitinghai to establish himself as the new Umota Khan. Is this true?"

"Bang!!"

Hearing Dulunqilu's words, Dugazhi angrily overturned the table:
"I was wondering why he left so decisively, it turns out he had been prepared for this!"

Seeing this, Du Lunqilu hurried over to comfort Du Gazhi: "Don't worry, Aye, even if they all leave, I will not leave you!"

Du Lunqilu and Du Gazhi look very similar, so Du Gazhi is partial to him.

With his sweet mouth and good talk, Du Gazhi finally calmed down and looked at Du Lunqilu and said:

"It is still uncertain whether Liu Jilong will attack Guzang. Even if he comes, we don't have to worry."

"Guzang City is tall and solid, and we have built more than 70 catapults. Even if he brings tens of thousands of troops from Longyou to attack, he won't be able to take Guzang City!"

"Yes!" Du Lunqilu didn't care what his father said. He only knew that if he drove Du Lun Xiga away, he would become the master of Guzang.

Under such circumstances, he happily watched Duryodhana heading north.

At one time, there were only 80,000 Umu people left in Guzang, and only 40,000 went north.

Upon seeing this, Dugazhi immediately arranged for people to try to destroy the stone bridge across the Macheng River to the east of Guzang City.

However, the stone bridge is solid and not so easy to demolish.

Seeing this, Dugazhi ordered everyone to set up sheep horn walls and fortifications on the west bank of the stone bridge of Macheng River to defend against the enemy.

All the catapults were moved to the east of the city, and all the elite cavalry were dispersed to prevent the elite cavalry from Longyou from finding another place to cross the river.

With the help of more than 80,000 people from Emu and more than 20,000 foreign people in the city, a rammed earth fortress, 30 steps long from north to south, 20 steps deep from east to west, six feet high and ten feet thick, was built in one afternoon.

The camp was not big, but a camp used to guard the bridge did not need to be that big.

The stone bridge over Macheng River is no more than two zhang wide and fifteen zhang long. Using this camp to guard the bridge is enough to cause casualties in Longyou.

"Sorry..."

"Beep--"

The sound of war horses whistled from afar, followed closely by the sound of wooden whistles.

As the wooden whistle sounded, Dugazhi, who was sitting in front of the east gate tower of Guzang, stood up.

Du Lunqilu, who was standing next to him, also looked out, trying to see any trace of the Longyou Army.

"Have all the elite cavalry been released?"

Dugazhi asked about Dulunqilu, and he nodded in agreement.

"it is good!"

Du Gazhi nodded and said, "As long as there is no place to cross the river and stand in Longyou, we can only attack the bridge."

"With the Macheng River as a defense, we can harvest the pasture on the west bank calmly."

"Those fools who left thought I was really unprepared. How foolish!"

Dugazhi told us his plan, which was nothing more than blocking Liu Jilian to the east of Macheng River and then harvesting the grass on the west bank to feed the herds in the city.

As long as they hold on to the Macheng River, they can rely on their herds to survive until winter and can also leisurely cultivate the land on the west bank.

As for how to defend the Macheng River, it depends on the power of the seventy-two catapults.

Thinking of this, Dugazhi looked at the seventy-two catapults built on the wide horse road.

There were fifty Umu people guarding each catapult, and tens of thousands of Umu people also transported river stones from the section of Macheng River near Guzang City into the city when they were building the camp just now.

If the Longyou army wanted to find suitable slingshots, they could only search in the direction of Qilian Mountains, which indirectly delayed the frequency and timing of their siege.

Thinking of his own arrangements, Dugazhi sat back and waited quietly for the arrival of the Longyou army.

About a quarter of an hour later, with the continuous sound of shrill whistles, the thousands of light cavalry stationed on the east bank by Dugazhi began to withdraw one after another.

They calmly jumped over the stone bridge, passed the camp, and then rushed into the city.

At the same time as they returned, tens of thousands of Umu people outside the city began to pour into the city one after another.

Since Dugazhi controlled the armored troops in his own headquarters, except for the five hundred elite cavalry taken away by Dulun Xiga, the rest of the armored troops were basically in his hands.

Fifteen hundred elite cavalry patrolled north and south along the Macheng River, three thousand armored soldiers were stationed at the base of the east city wall, and thousands of light soldiers operated catapults on the east city horse road.

As tens of thousands of people walked into the city in an orderly manner through the four city gates, a thousand armored soldiers behind the east gate were the first to leave the city and enter the bridge guard camp.

All these things were completed within half an hour.

At the same time, a layer of fiery red clouds gradually appeared in the southeast direction, close to the ground.

A strong wind was blowing in Liangzhou, and the three-star flags and red banners of the Longyou Army were fluttering.

The army came like a long dragon from afar, and arrived at the east bank of Macheng River two quarters of an hour later.

The distance from the east city wall of Guzang to the east bank of Macheng River is a full mile, so the Longyou army was the first to station troops on the east bank of Macheng River, and then began to form a six-flower formation.

The civilians who were protected by the Longyou Army began to set up camp on the east bank, while Longyou's elite cavalry came from the north and south.

Obviously, the Longyou Army had already discovered Dugazhi's deployment on the west bank of the Macheng River, and Liu Jilian also decided to follow Dugazhi's arrangement and make Shiqiao the main attack target.

Three thousand elite cavalry were deployed on the surrounding areas as Tang cavalry, and one thousand elite cavalry were guarding the cavalry and infantry of the main camp.

The six-flower formation, composed of 6,800 cavalry and infantry, shone brightly in the sunlight on the east bank of the Macheng River.

All the horse-drawn carriages were moved away by the laborers, and a military camp was being built at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Envoy Zhang has done a good job in building Guzang, but it has been hard on us."

On horseback, Liu Jilong looked along the stone bridge towards the temporary fortress, then jumped over the fortress and looked towards Guzang City.

After the management and construction by Zhang Huaishen and Suo Xun, the Guzang City with a circumference of eight miles was entirely covered with bricks, and was two zhang and three chi high and more than three zhang thick.

It would take time to blow up such a strong city even with black powder.

"General, this camp is next to the stone bridge. If we use black powder to blow it up, I'm afraid it will affect the stone bridge..."

Zhang Chang saw the fortress built next to the stone bridge and carefully spoke up to warn them.

Liu Jilong nodded when he heard this. He thought of it the first time he saw the camp.

Not only that, with his eyesight, the rows of protruding shadows on the top of Guzang City in the distance were probably built-up catapults.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilian also realized the difficulty of attacking Guzang, but he was not in a hurry.

"First, build the barracks, and then build thirty catapults here."

Liu Jilong turned his horse around and left, giving some instructions before leaving.

Zhang Chang bowed in response, and then stayed where he was to command the three armies to prepare for the enemy.

Dou Bin, Li Shangyin and Cao Mao followed Liu Jilong's footsteps. At the same time, in front of the east city tower of Guzang, Du Gazhi was also looking down at the situation of the entire army in Longyou.

"Looking at this, there are no less than 2,000 elite cavalry, no less than 6,000 armored soldiers, and at least 20,000 civilians."

Dugazhi took a deep breath. He didn't expect that Liu Jilian could actually mobilize an army of nearly 10,000 people in Longyou, where the people were exhausted, to conquer Liangzhou.

He knew a lot about Longyou, especially the stories about burning and looting various states and using guns to pick up babies as a joke, which were spread far and wide.

Although Lun Kongre had been killed by Liu Jilian and his head was presented to Chang'an, it was not easy for Longyou to recover as before.

He thought that when Liu Jilian led his army north, he could only mobilize six or seven thousand people at most.

Now it seems that there are at least ten thousand people. After all, after he takes Changsong, he will still need soldiers to garrison Changsong to prevent the Hu people in Changsong from causing chaos.

"Aye, Liu Jilong can actually mobilize so many soldiers!"

Like Dugazhi, Du Lunqilu couldn't help but gasp when he saw the Longyou army.

Especially after seeing that the Longyou armored soldiers had been standing in the Six Flower Formation under the scorching sun for two quarters of an hour without moving at all, he couldn't help but feel a little shaken.

Dugazhi had the same idea as him, that is, the Longyou Army was by no means comparable to the Liangzhou Army under Suo Xun's command.

Thinking of this, his gaze continued to the seventy-two catapults on the road.

Whether Liangzhou can be defended this time depends on whether these 72 catapults can perform.

If that fails, he can only lead his troops to break out...

(End of this chapter)