Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 267: Guzang Victory
"Zhang Huaishen!!"

In the chaos, Cheng Le, who hurriedly led the elite cavalry to break out of the encirclement of the elite cavalry from Longyou, looked to the north.

The Sanchen flag and the "Zhang", Hexi and other flags were fluttering.

Even though Cheng Le was old and his eyesight was blurry, he knew that he was surrounded by the He and Long armies today.

"Light cavalry will cover the retreat of the cavalry and infantry, and withdraw to Jialin!"

He had used all the means he had to deal with Liu Jilong, but even so, he was still defeated by Liu Jilong.

Now Zhang Huaishen has come. The disastrous defeat of Zhangye in the past is still vivid in people’s minds. Naturally, he doesn’t want all his efforts over the years to go to waste.

With the strength of nearly 10,000 Ganzhou Uighur soldiers, if they could march to the Western Regions, they could at least seize most of the Western Regions. There was no need to lose their lives here in vain.

"kill!!"

On the way to the charge, Zhang Huaishen's blood was boiling.

At this moment, he was no longer constrained by the Tang court, nor did he have to feign flattery with the powerful people in Hexi.

Here, there are not so many worries and sorrows, only fighting.

The two thousand five hundred elite cavalrymen from Hexi charged head-on into the group of more than one hundred thousand light cavalrymen, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and killed all the light cavalrymen that blocked their way.

The Uighur armored troops began to retreat to rescue the elite cavalry. Liu Jilian did not want his own elite cavalry to suffer casualties, so he took the initiative to let those Uighur elite cavalry go and led the Longyou elite cavalry to fight northward.

They went from the south and the north, and instantly killed more than 100,000 Uighur light cavalry into two groups and successfully joined forces.

"Liu Jilong!"

"Envoy Zhang!"

After several years, when the two met again, they didn't expect this scene to happen.

As the horses crossed, a simple high-five filled the gap of so many years.

"I sent light cavalry southward, but before I received your reply, I learned that Le Dongjin was coming."

"I never thought that you could suppress and defeat these hundreds of thousands of Uighurs!"

Zhang Huaishen had a huge smile on his face and his tone couldn't help but get louder, showing how happy he was.

Liu Jilong was a little calmer than him, but he also laughed heartily: "Thanks to Envoy Zhang for rescuing us, we must make sure these barbarians die here today!"

"it is good!"

Zhang Huaishen turned his horse around and said, "Our two armies have never been trained, so we won't fight together. Let's fight on our own and see who kills more barbarians!"

"Okay!" Liu Jilong responded in a deep voice, and then he saw Zhang Huaishen shaking the reins of his horse and heading south to fight.

"Jie Shuai..."

During the encounter, Liu Jilong met Jiu Juyan, and Jiu Juyan also met Liu Jilong.

Jiu Juyan looked happy, but his expression was very complicated.

He did not regret staying and following Zhang Huaishen, and was happy for Liu Jilong's achievements today.

Even so, he still felt sorry for Liu Jilong.

"Go ahead and fight!"

Liu Jilong smiled heartily, then turned around and looked at Li Shangyin, Cao Mao and others.

The two men had not yet come out of the intense fight, otherwise Cao Mao would not have failed to greet Jiu Juyan.

"How is it, are you sober?!"

Liu Jilong's voice woke them up. After waking up, they looked around and swallowed: "Naturally"

"Okay, then keep fighting until all the barbarians in front of you are killed!"

Liu Jilong shook the reins of his horse, raised his gun and rushed forward to fight.

The elite cavalry from Longyou continued to charge and fight following his banner. No matter whether those standing in front of them were young and strong, old and weak, or healthy women, they were all blocked by the enemy.

Cheng Le should have thought about this when he went south to compete for the Han land.

"kill!!"

Two elite cavalry units were fighting among more than 100,000 light cavalry, while Cheng Le led more than 2,000 elite cavalry to break through the encirclement and come out of the battle formation.

"Xia Li, you lead two hundred elite cavalry back to Jialin first and tell Jialin and Fanhe's men to withdraw to the north of Juyan Sea!"

Cheng Le looked at Xia Li beside him. Xia Li was in a very miserable state at the moment, with blood flowing from his left arm. He didn't know who had slashed him with a knife.

Even though the pain was unbearable, he still gritted his teeth and nodded: "Aduo, I'll wait for you at Juyan Lake!"

"Go!" Xia Li swung the whip and hit Xia Li's horse on the buttocks. The horse immediately galloped out of the formation, and two hundred elite cavalry followed Xia Li to retreat westward.

At the same time, Xia Li also saw Liu Jilian leading elite cavalry to try to raid the Uighur armored soldiers on their retreat.

"Liu Jilong..."

He gritted his teeth, put down his whip, and drew his scimitar: "Follow me, protect the cavalry and infantry to break through!"

The sound of horse hooves resounded again, and they continued on the road to battle.

"The light cavalry retreats to the Juyan Sea!"

“Beep…beep…beep…”

After the long and rhythmic wooden whistle sounded, the light cavalry began to retreat to the northwest.

As they retreated like a tide, Zhang Huaishen led his troops to chase them, and during the process he glanced in the direction of Liu Jilong.

Seeing that his army was at the peak of its strength, he did not stay to fight him, but instead kept chasing after the escaping 100,000 Uighur cavalry.

As the light cavalry retreated like a tide, the only troops left on the "shallows" of the battlefield were less than 5,000 Uighur cavalry and infantry, more than 3,000 Longyou armored soldiers, and more than 2,000 elite cavalry from both sides.

More than 3,000 armored soldiers from Longyou pursued bravely, and thirty steps ahead were the retreating Uighur cavalry and infantry.

Whenever someone caught a horse escaping from the battlefield, they would immediately jump on the horse and escape from the team.

The herd of horses left in the distance was in disarray, making it difficult for them to break through.

"Buzz rumbling..."

The sound of horse hooves rang out, and Liu Jilian led his elite cavalry to charge from north to south.

"Formation!"

The commander of the cavalry and infantry gave the order, and more than 4,000 cavalry and infantry immediately formed a battle formation.

At the same time, more than 3,000 Longyou armored soldiers who were chasing them from the rear collided and fought with them from the rear, and the Uighur cavalry and infantry formation immediately became unstable.

"Beep--"

"Defense the west side!"

In the formation, someone among the Longyou Army infantry blew a whistle to remind them, and all the armored soldiers on the west side immediately concentrated their energy and stabilized their position.

“Hiss!!”

"Bam—"

"Um..."

The sounds of collision and wailing continued to be heard, and Cheng Le's attempt to raid the flank of the Longyou infantry failed.

He did not expect that the reaction of the Longyou Army's infantry would be so quick, and the military formation formed in a few breaths would be so solid.

His teeth were completely bitten on the stone and shattered to the ground.

In comparison, the elite cavalry led by Liu Jilian, with the help of the infantry, easily broke through the Uighur cavalry infantry formation.

In an instant, they cut through more than 4,000 Uighur cavalry and infantry, dividing them into two.

"Kill the big banner!"

Liu Jilian raised his arm and called out, without worrying about the Uighur cavalry who had lost their horses. Instead, after breaking through the military formation, he rushed towards the Uighur cavalry without hesitation.

As they breathed, Cheng Le's scalp went numb. Before they could retreat, the elite cavalry led by Liu Jilong broke into their formation.

Liu Jilong rushed left and right, and arrived under the big flag in a few breaths.

Without a moment's hesitation, Liu Jilian leaped on his horse and thrust out his spear, trying to knock down Cheng Le and capture him alive.

Cheng Le was old and was knocked off his horse before he could react, and Liu Jilong also swung his spear to smash the big banner.

"Cheng Le is dead, those who surrender will not be killed!!"

Liu Jilong raised his arms and shouted, while waving his spear to knock down several Uighur armored soldiers who tried to besiege him.

Cheng Le hurriedly got up, but the elite cavalry from Longyou who followed Liu Jilian rushed into the formation and surrounded the broken part of the big flag.

He said he couldn't get out and could only look up at Liu Jilong.

Liu Jilong looked down at him from his horseback: "Chengle, long time no see!"

"Liu Jilong..." Cheng Le took a deep breath, then drew out a scimitar and tried to commit suicide.

Liu Jilong waved his gun to knock the scimitar out of his hand, then laughed and said, "Cao Mao, tie him up!"

"Understood!" Cao Mao was extremely excited. He dismounted and kicked Cheng Le, who was trying to fight back, overturned him, tied him up with a rope, and threw him onto the horse's back.

At the same time, the elite cavalry in Longyou were still fighting and at the same time trying to persuade the surrounding Uighurs to surrender.

There were quite a few who surrendered, but more elite cavalry fled on horseback. "Cao Mao, Yishan, this place is left to you!"

Liu Jilong gave an order and then led his elite cavalry to chase in the direction where the light cavalry had fled earlier.

The setting sun was blood-red, and at dusk the west of Guzang City was filled with tens of thousands of corpses.

In front of the city wall, Dugazhi's face was pale. He witnessed with his own eyes the scene of Chengle being killed and captured.

He did try to lead his troops to break out from the other three city gates, but Liu Jilian left a thousand elite cavalry to Dou Bin, and Dou Bin led a thousand elite cavalry to pursue and intercept the enemy.

Umu and the Uighurs became greedy because of Liangzhou, and also suffered heavy losses because of Liangzhou.

Dugazhi staggered towards the side facing the city. Looking at the Umu people crowding the Guzang City, he already had an idea in his mind.

I'm afraid these more than 80,000 people will never be able to return to Baitinghai...

"put!"

"Boom bang bang-"

The dull sound of stones being thrown continued. Even though it was getting dark, Zhang Chang still led the troops from the three towns to bombard the East City.

Most of the catapults on the East City Horse Road were destroyed, and only more than 20 of them could continue to fight back.

The catapults of the Longyou Army were also destroyed, leaving only eighteen, but the difference was that the Longyou Army could send people to the north to the foot of the Qilian Mountains to cut down trees and make more catapults.

But the mobs in the city wanted to make catapults, but they didn't have enough wood.

Because of this, as time went on, the war was turning in favor of the Longyou Army.

"kill……"

Shouts of killing rang out in the dark night. Countless Uighurs who tried to escape were being hunted down by elite cavalry from Hexi, Longyou and other places.

After the Uighurs' horses were exhausted, they could only graze them in the same place for several hours, letting the horses nibble on the grass and slowly recover their horsepower.

In comparison, the elite cavalry from Longyou and Hexi only needed to let their horses rest for half an hour, wipe their sweat, and feed them one or two pounds of beans.

Liu Jilong, Zhang Huaishen and others didn't know how far they had chased.

They only knew that as the moon hung high in the sky and the night was dark, they gradually stopped, spread a layer of felt on the ground and fell asleep on it.

At daybreak, everyone mounted their horses and chased towards the Juyan Lake until they could no longer see large numbers of fleeing Umu people. Only then did the two of them decide to call back their troops.

However, Liu Jilian was going back to Guzang City, while Zhang Huaishen, who was more than 30 miles away from him, was going to the west, ready to wait for an opportunity.

"Tell Envoy Zhang that I will send someone to Sanquanyanzi to deliver food to him later. Please ask him to send elite cavalry to receive the food and grass."

After learning of Zhang Huaishen's idea, Liu Jilian gave instructions to the Tangqi sent by the Hexi Army.

"I obey your command!" The Tangqi of the Hexi Army responded without hesitation, and was then sent onto the horse by Liu Jilong with courtesy.

More than a dozen Tang riders galloped toward the northwest, and Liu Jilian also looked at the Longyou Army behind him.

More than two thousand people looked exhausted, and their bodies were stained with the blood of unknown individuals.

The blood dried up and turned into blood stains, looking very miserable.

Li Shangyin blinked several times between breaths and was obviously very sleepy.

At the age of 46, Liu Jilong was worried that if he continued to endure, he would die suddenly on horseback.

Cao Mao was staring with his eyes, but they were bloodshot.

"Cao Mao, you hold the reins for Yishan. Yishan, tie yourself to the horse and let Cao Mao take you back."

Liu Jilong started to give orders, but Li Shangyin shook his head and said, "If that's the case, we might as well return to Guzang and have a good rest in the military camp."

"What's more..." Li Shangyin said with a very satisfied smile:

"I gained a lot from the battle of Guzang, and I have countless poems in my mind. If I fall asleep, I'm afraid I won't be interested when I wake up."

"I will take this opportunity to return, write down the poem, and then take a rest..."

Seeing that he insisted, Liu Jilong chuckled and said, "It seems that you are going to write a few more frontier poems."

Since Li Shangyin came to Longyou, he wrote more than 60 poems, most of which were in five-character and seven-character styles.

Different from the love, history and object themes of his previous years, his poems in Longyou are basically about the hard work of soldiers on the frontier, the difficulties of the people, and his feelings about governing the people's livelihood.

Liu Jilong didn’t know whether these poems could be preserved a thousand years later, but at least due to Li Shangyin’s existence, Longyou appeared more and more frequently in late Tang poetry.

"In that case, let's go!"

He shook the reins of his horse and led more than 2,000 elite cavalrymen southward, capturing many Uighurs.

In one night, they fought their way over seventy miles and captured nearly 20,000 Uighurs on their way south.

When they returned to the outskirts of Guzang City, it was already the afternoon of the ninth day.

Dou Bin led more than 500 elite cavalrymen to greet Liu Jilong. The first thing Liu Jilong said after seeing him was to gesture:
"You lead your elite cavalry and take these captured Uighurs to the south to recruit the Uighur and Umu tribes who are grazing, and capture their cattle and sheep."

Dou Bin bowed on horseback and said, "General, if I lead the elite cavalry to go somewhere else, there will be no elite cavalry patrolling near Guzang City..."

He looked at the exhausted Longyou soldiers behind Liu Jilian, and obviously did not think that these comrades still had the energy to patrol.

Liu Jilong chuckled and said, "Don't worry. These captured Uighurs have so many horses. At most, we can select some men from the civilians and have them guard for five miles."

"Then... I will obey your command!" Dou Bin nodded in response, and then summoned another 500 elite cavalrymen who were still besieging Guzang City in the south to march south to recruit the surrender of small nomadic tribes such as the Uighurs and the Emu.

At the same time, Liu Jilian also sent people to command the soldiers who had a good rest last night to guard the city gates to prevent Dugazhi from escaping from Guzang.

After doing all this, he and Li Shangyin returned to the camp, and fell into a deep sleep after falling down.

Even in his dreams, he still fought bravely on horseback. He was awakened by danger several times, but he continued to sleep after making sure there was no danger around.

When he woke up, it was already after midnight (23:).

"Marshal Jie, are you awake?"

Hearing the noise inside the tent, four soldiers outside walked in. When they saw Liu Jillang woke up, one soldier hurried out, and the other three stepped forward to take off Liu Jillang's blood-stained armor.

If Liu Jillong had not fallen into a deep sleep, they would have taken off his armor and clothes long ago.

After the armor was taken off, several people brought a bathtub, poured boiling water and cold water into the tub, then put down clean clothes and took the bloodstained clothes and armor out.

The armor must be cleaned, but Liu Jillong has more than one set of armor. Another set of battle jacket and armor has been placed in the tent.

Liu Jilong had just woken up and was still a little dazed.

After he washed and dressed, he found that he had many small wounds on his arms and chest, mostly caused by arrows, but they were not fatal.

Even so, he still summoned a military doctor, who disinfected him with alcohol before changing his clothes and armor.

"Come on!"

Zhang Chang's voice was heard outside the tent. After Liu Jilong had tidied himself up, he said with his hair still a little wet, "Come in!"

Zhang Chang heard this and walked into the tent. When he saw Liu Jilong, he grinned and said, "General Jie, you look pretty good like this."

Liu Jilong was speechless. If Li Shangyin and Cao Mao had not been following Zhang Chang, he would have at least said hello to this bastard.

"Has Yishan rested well?"

Liu Jilong looked at Li Shangyin and asked him about it. Li Shangyin smiled and said, "After all, he is old. He woke up after only three hours of rest."

Cao Mao also spoke up after hearing this: "I just woke up less than half an hour ago."

The two men sat down while talking, and several soldiers came to the tent and bowed, saying, "Would you like to eat now, Marshal?"

"Have you eaten yet?" Liu Jilong asked everyone. Seeing that the other two people except Zhang Chang shook their heads, he immediately said:

"Serve three meals, and give this bastard four ounces of wine, no more, no less."

He pointed at Zhang Chang and said, Zhang Chang smiled happily when he heard it.

While waiting for the meal, Liu Jilong looked at Zhang Chang and asked, "Have you sent the food I asked you to send to Envoy Zhang?"

"I sent five hundred dan of corn, one hundred dan of beans, and twenty dan of coal."

Zhang Chang reported, and said at the same time: "According to the time, it has almost been delivered."

"Yes," Liu Jilong agreed, and then asked, "Have you counted the captured prisoners?"

Seeing this, Zhang Chang simply reported in one breath:
"We counted the number of people. There are 17,467 people. Dou Bin took away 500 of them. Most of them are young and strong."

"In addition, in yesterday's battle, our army lost 754 elite cavalrymen, 1,249 infantrymen, 3,263 horses, and 2,156 military horses."

"The number of wounded soldiers was 1,847, of whom 257 were disabled."

"Although we captured 33,422 horses, the quality of these horses is too poor. They are basically low-grade horses and can only be used as draft horses."

"There are less than 2,000 horses that can be used as riding horses, and less than 400 military horses."

"If Dou Bin can't find the Uighur herds when he goes south, we will suffer heavy losses in this battle..."

The series of numbers reported by Zhang Chang represent lives.

"How many people are still able to fight..."

Liu Jilong asked in a deep voice. Zhang Chang seemed to be well prepared and said thoughtfully: "There are only 2,946 elite cavalrymen who can fight."

"There are only 4,826 infantrymen who can fight, and another 1,000 men from Changsong."

"If we include the previous recapture of Changsong, the army lost more than 2,087 men, with another 285 disabled and more than 1,51 wounded."

(End of this chapter)