Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 34: Troops Arrive at Shandan
"Wow..."

At noon, when an eagle flew across the sky, a city suddenly appeared on the vast plains and hills.

In the eyes of the goshawk, this strange "mountain" is surrounded by three endless mountain ranges from the north, south and east. From east to west, it is definitely a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

However, from west to east, Shandan is easy to attack but difficult to defend.

It is for this reason that the Tibetan troops stationed here would think of surrendering to Shazhou.

"Jingle Bell……"

The copper bells under the eaves of the city wall rang. In the howling northwest wind, the Tibetan flag was like a small boat in a storm, and no one knew when it would be blown away by the wind.

Shandan City, as an important military town facing Liangzhou from Ganzhou, was home to more than 5,000 soldiers and civilians including Tibetans, Umu, Huihe and Han people, most of whom were Tibetan soldiers and their families.

Relying on the Dan River, Shandan City has developed well, but the buildings in the city still have a gray feeling.

After crossing the not-so-long main road, Shandan Jieer Mansion came into view.

After passing more than a dozen foreign soldiers guarding the yamen and walking inside, an open space covered with gravel appeared, and further ahead was the main hall of the yamen.

At this time, the Shandan defender "Mei Luyan" was sitting in the main seat, and below him were ten centurions.

Mei Luyan is from the Mei Lu family. Although he is only in his early thirties and has never led troops in a war, he still took the position of Shandan Xiaojie.

This is the way the world is. Unless one has extraordinary abilities, family background is the most important factor in determining one's future.

Originally, relying on his surname Meilu, he could have been the local emperor of Shandan for a long time. However, as his own clansman, Shang Bibi, who had tens of thousands of soldiers, was in a stalemate with Lun Kongre, while Lun Kongre was constantly recruiting soldiers and his power was growing, he also began to waver.

If Shang Bibi was defeated, he would probably be chopped off his hands and feet by that madman Lun Kongre, or impaled on a spear and killed.

In addition, when he learned that Zhangye City had been broken and Liangzhou had no troops to support him, he had no choice but to surrender to Zhang Yichao.

However, he did not want to surrender to Zhang Yichao so easily. At least he had to get what he deserved.

Thinking of this, he looked up and glanced at everyone in the yamen.

"The scouts have reported back that Zhang Yichao's troops are less than ten miles away from here. Although they are only the vanguard, they still have 200 heavily armored soldiers."

"Should we let them in to talk, or should we talk outside?"

Before Lu Yan said this, everyone in the hall started talking at once.

However, after talking for a long time, they still couldn't come to any conclusion, so they could only let Lu Yan make the decision himself.

After thinking about it, Lu Yan decided to let this group of people into the city and then impose restrictions on them.

The leader of this group of people is at most a household of 200 and has no say in the matter.

I feel uneasy if I leave them outside the city.

It would be better to let them into the city and then restrict them. If Zhang Yichao leads a large army here in a few days, he can use them as bargaining chips.

Thinking of this, Lu Yan nodded secretly, and said to his left and right: "If they come, let them leave their armor and carriages in the city wall, and only bring short weapons into the city."

"Yes!" Everyone responded with their arms folded, and military orders were issued.

In less than an hour, all the soldiers in Shandan City were ready.

Mei Luyan sent 500 men to watch over the Han, Uighur and Sogdian people in the city, the remaining 300 men were stationed on the horse road in the city wall, and 200 men guarded the city gates and the city gates.

Under his arrangement, a hole was opened in the plan targeting the Thirteenth Regiment.

As time passed, the Thirteenth Regiment gradually appeared at the end of the official road.

Under the leadership of Liu Jilong, the 13th Regiment took only two and a half days to march a hundred miles and arrived at Shandan City, an important town in Ganzhou.

The Tibetan scouts were the first to come into contact with the Tang cavalry of the Thirteenth Regiment. After a brief verbal exchange between the two sides, the Tang cavalry of the Thirteenth Regiment were the first to report back the news.

Tangqi rode back to the main camp, reined in his horse and bowed in front of Liu Jilong: "Captain, Shandan's little brother Lu Yan asked us to lead our troops into the city."

“……”Hearing this, Liu Jilong frowned slightly.

At this moment, the Thirteenth Regiment was fully armed. Except for the fifty civilians who had no armor to wear, the remaining two hundred people were armed to the teeth.

But even so, if they rashly entered the city, they might be ambushed. Moreover, Liu Jilian already knew in Zhangye that there was a barbican in Shandan City.

He sat on the horse and looked around outside Shandan City.

The Dan River flows slowly down from the Qilian Mountains, bypasses the western side of Shandan, and gradually moves away to the low-lying north.

Relying on the Dan River, there are no less than ten thousand acres of arable land outside Shandan City, and this is the amount of arable land that Liu Jilong can see with his naked eyes.

I have to say, this is a good place...

"Tell them that they can enter the city, but they have to let us check the city wall and the city gates, and we have to send fifty people to take over the inner city gate first."

"Yes!" After observing the situation outside Shandan City, Liu Jilong began to give orders.

The Tang rider bowed in response, turned his horse's head and galloped towards the Tibetan scout.

Seeing this, Liu Jilong immediately ordered: "All soldiers sit on the ground and wait for my order before taking action!"

In order to avoid a major war, Liu Jilong deliberately let his soldiers rest and recover their strength.

At this moment, they were only two miles away from Shandan City, and it would only take a quarter of an hour to walk there.

Liu Jilong rode his horse forward and took two hundred steps, but he still felt that he could not see clearly.

Seeing that their Tang cavalry and the Tubo scouts met again, in less than a moment, the Tubo scouts turned their horses around and returned to Shandan.

At the same time, Liu Jilian took the opportunity to move forward another 200 steps and was only one mile away from Shandan City.

Chen Jingchong and Geng Ming were both worried about him, so they rode their horses forward to follow him to observe the Shandan.

It has to be said that as a military stronghold, although Shandan was not large in scale, its city walls were rammed with clay from the northwest and were more than two zhang high. They were about four hundred steps from east to west, and probably the same from north to south.

Liu Jilong calculated in his mind that if the city walls of Shandan were 400 steps long on all four sides, then this place would be at most 400 to 500 acres and could accommodate 4,000 to 5,000 people.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong retracted his gaze and glanced outside the city and at the Qilian Mountains in the distance.

"Jing Chong, take two people to the southern forest to see if there are any signs of new felling. Tell me when you're done."

"Yes!"

Chen Jingchong agreed, turned his horse around and went to investigate.

He seemed to know what Liu Jilong meant, but Geng Ming was not clear and asked, "Captain, why are you looking at the trees?"

Liu Jilong's eyes were deep, and in his eyes there was only Shandan City and the farmland stretching for miles outside the city.

"This city can support about 4,000 to 5,000 people, and they need firewood for cooking every day."

“To see the signs of tree felling is mainly to judge how much firewood they have stored and how long it will last.”

Fire is the most important treasure for human beings. If there is no firewood, we can only dismantle the house to get wood to make fire and cook.

If even the house has been demolished, it will be like eating half-cooked rice soaked in cold water. If you eat it for a long time, you will get sick.

Liu Jilong knew all this in order to prepare for the siege of Shandan.

Geng Ming's eyes lit up after hearing this and he scratched his head: "There are so many things to learn about being a soldier."

"There is a lot to learn, so learn more."

Liu Jilong looked across Shandan and became more and more satisfied with this place.

This place has abundant water resources. If it is developed well, it can still reclaim tens of thousands of acres of arable land and feed tens of thousands of people without any problem.

"This place is quite nice. It would be nice if I could use it..."

For a moment, Liu Jilong couldn't help but envy Zhang Huairong, his future boss.

While he was thinking this, the Tubo Tangqi also told Meiluyan his request.

"Fifty soldiers?"

In Jie'er's mansion, even though Lu Yan had learned that Liu Jilong was leading his troops here, he did not take it seriously. Instead, he sat in the mansion and commanded the troops in the entire city remotely.

Below him, a captain bowed and said, "Jie'er, we can't let them in."

"What kind of trouble can only 50 people cause?" Lu Yan did not take it seriously, but just waved his hand at Tangqi:
"Tell Qin Linglin to let those fifty soldiers in to check. If the Tang general makes any unusual moves, arrest him immediately!"

"Yes!" Tang Qi rode out of Jie'er Mansion with a salute, and soon passed the news back to Ximen.

At the same time, Captain Ximen also sent Tangqi to contact the Thirteenth Regiment.

The Tangqi of the 13th Regiment came forward to greet them. After a brief communication between the two sides, the Tangqi of the 13th Regiment rushed towards Liu Jilong.

In just a moment, the Tang rider came up to him and bowed.

"Captain, the bandits agreed."

"Okay." Liu Jilong nodded, turned to Geng Ming and instructed: "Tell Jiu Juyan that the Tangqi are wandering outside the city. Send the first team to station at the inner city gate. Wait for the first team to send news, and then we will enter the city."

"Yes!" Geng Ming agreed, turned his horse around, and ran towards Jiu Juyan and the others.

Watching him leave, Liu Jilong turned his head and set his sights on Shandan City.

"I hope you can understand the general situation..."

(End of this chapter)