Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 6: Bad Situation
"Eh!!!"

"Cut it, cut it!"

"Hold him down. The scales have melted into his flesh. We have to take them out piece by piece!"

"Ahhh-"

At night, the screams of wounded soldiers could be heard one after another, making people shudder.

Outside the military camp, dark red bloodstains could be seen from time to time on the streets of Jiuquan, while on both sides of the streets were people holding food, poultry, and water bottles.

Even though it was already night and there were no torches to illuminate the way, they still stood on both sides of the street outside the military camp with bright smiles, forcibly handing all kinds of things in their hands into the arms of the soldiers leaving the camp.

Even though the soldiers tried to refuse in every possible way, the people were more resolute. They simply stuffed the things into the soldiers' arms and ran away.

Such scenes are being played out on the streets of Jiuquan, big and small.

On the top of Jiuquan City, the Tibetan flag that was originally hanging high on the city wall had been burned, and replaced by the fluttering Shazhou military flag.

"This place is more than 260 shi, 3 dou and 2 jin."

"Make sure you make no mistakes."

At the granary in Jiuquan City, the exhausted Zhang Huaishen did not rest, but took his soldiers to take over the granary in Jiuquan City.

Since Liu Jilong said that he could read a few words, he was also called over.

At this moment, Zhang Huaishen was sitting in the yard of the granary, while Liu Jilong followed several clerks to count how much grain there was in the granary.

He was responsible for weighing and reporting the number in the city, which was then counted by the clerk sitting next to him.

Taking this opportunity, he learned a lot of characters, and at the same time he admired Zhang Yichao very much.

It would not be difficult to capture Jiuquan City with the strength of the Shazhou Army alone, but there would definitely be casualties.

For this reason, Zhang Yichao arranged for spies to sneak into Jiuquan long before the army set out from Guazhou.

When the Shazhou army attacked Jiuquan City, thousands of Hu and Han people in the city, who had been oppressed by Tubo for nearly a hundred years, rose up under the leadership of spies and responded to the Shazhou army.

The most important places such as the government treasury and granary were captured first, and hundreds of foreign soldiers were destroyed in internal and external troubles.

Zhang Yichao used his own methods to show Liu Jilian what it meant to "attack the city is inferior, attack the heart is superior."

"Gone."

Liu Jilian spoke to the clerk beside him. The clerk took a look at the empty earthen house, then counted the bags of grain, wrote down a total, and stood up with the document and walked towards Zhang Huaishen.

Liu Jilong watched him leave, then sat down on the ground and began to rest.

His injuries were serious. Although he had an extraordinary physique, he had only rested for two days. It was necessary for him to rest in time.

"After we take Jiuquan, we should rest for two days. I can take this opportunity to recuperate in Jiuquan."

Liu Jilong thought to himself that he didn't expect that he could achieve success overnight when he captured the cities of Fulu, Zhangye and Shandan (Shandan).

He had some understanding of the internal situation in Shazhou. Although Zhang Yichao had extremely high prestige, he could not act arbitrarily.

Even if he had made contributions, Zhang Yichao still had to consider the opinions of other powerful people instead of directly appointing himself to a military position.

"Liu Jilong"

Suddenly, Zhang Huaishen called him. Liu Jilong stood up slowly due to his injury, and then walked to Zhang Huaishen's desk and bowed, "Captain."

"You take these grain books to the county magistrate's office." Zhang Huaishen signaled Liu Jilian to deliver the grain books, and he obviously could not leave.

"Yes, sir!" Liu Jilong agreed, then picked up six grain books and walked out.

After taking a torch at the door, he walked towards the county magistrate's office with the grain book in one hand and the torch in the other.

The roads in Jiuquan City are all compacted dirt roads, which are very comfortable to walk on.

Walking on this dirt road, he could hear laughter coming from some houses along the street. From time to time, someone would open the window and peek at people walking outside.

This kind of laughter was not just one or two times, but everywhere.

Listening to the laughter, even his mood became cheerful and relaxed.

"Stop!"

Jiuquan City was not big, and in just a cup of tea, Liu Jilong arrived at the heavily guarded Jiuquan Yamen. The soldiers at the gate stopped him, and after a careful inspection, they let him in.

The news of him killing several foreign cavalrymen with his own hands had spread, and all the brothers in the Shazhou Army knew that there was a six-foot-tall fierce man serving under Captain Zhang in the army.

A height of six feet in this era is like two meters in later generations. It is more difficult to impersonate someone than to kill several foreign bandits with your own hands.

"Thank you."

After expressing his gratitude, Liu Jilong hung the torch on the wall of the mansion and walked inside.

Walking into the courtyard, there were dozens of armored soldiers patrolling left and right, and in front of him was an open space of about 100 square meters.

In front of the open space is the main hall of the county governor's office, which is also the place for meetings.

There, gathered more than a dozen captains in light green robes.

Liu Jilian was not afraid either. He walked straight to the main hall and bowed outside the door to present the grain book.

"Governor, Captain Zhang asked his men to bring the grain list over for your inspection."

"Send it in."

Zhang Yichao motioned him to come in, and Liu Jilong walked into the main hall without hesitation, came in front of Zhang Yichao and presented the grain book.

Zhang Yichao took the grain register and began to read it. Liu Jilong was about to leave when he saw this, but before he could do anything, Zhang Yichao took the initiative and said:

"Since Huai Shen asked you to come, you should just listen in and pass on the discussion to Huai Shen."

"Yes!" Liu Jilong nodded in response, then walked to a corner to listen, feeling more grateful to Zhang Huaishen in his heart.

Obviously, Zhang Huaishen intended to let him come to show his face in order to deepen Zhang Yichao's impression of him.

"More than 12,400 dan. With our military rations, we can make up almost 14,000 dan."

Zhang Yichao put down the grain book and explained the contents while saying, "With these grains, it won't be a problem to capture Fulu."

"The question now is how much food Fulu has and whether it is enough for our army to retake Ganzhou."

Zhang Yichao fell silent after he finished speaking, and glanced at the generals in front of him. The generals looked at each other in bewilderment, and only one of them stood up and bowed, saying, "We'll see whether it's enough after we fight!"

Liu Jilong looked and realized that it was the young captain he had seen during the day.

"Suo Xun is right. We have learned about Fulu's situation through the documents of the county governor's office. It will be easy to capture him with only 500 soldiers!"

When Suo Xun spoke, the forty-year-old general sitting next to him also stood up and joined in.

Seeing this, the others started to join in, and Zhang Yichao nodded, but his eyes subconsciously looked towards Liu Jilong.

Liu Jilong felt Zhang Yichao's gaze and quickly lowered his eyes to avoid his gaze.

Although Zhang Yichao was usually very nice to the soldiers, Liu Jilian did not dare to look him in the eye. After all, he was just a small platoon leader.

Seeing Liu Jilong lowering his eyes, Zhang Yichao also turned around, put his hands on the table and said, "There are more than 6,700 people in Jiuquan City, of which there are more than 2,200 men over the age of 23."

"After eliminating all men over 45, there are more than 900 soldiers available for recruitment, enough to recruit four and a half regiments."

"I plan to recruit four regiments here. What do you think?"

As soon as Zhang Yichao finished speaking, someone stood up and bowed, saying, "In the past, the court considered 18 years old to be a middle-aged man. If we recruit middle-aged men, we can recruit eight regiments of soldiers in the city. Why not limit it to middle-aged men?"

"That's right. We don't know when the bandits will come back. Our army has only 2,000 soldiers and more than 60 people were injured in the attack on Jiuquan. We should limit our casualties to middle-aged men."

"Yes..."

Several captains in their thirties and forties in the hall rushed to speak, which made Zhang Yichao frown.

Facing the doubt, he said in a deep voice: "If all the middle-aged men and above are transferred away, then who will cultivate the more than 70,000 acres of arable land outside Jiuquan City?"

Zhang Yichao was still not satisfied after saying this, so he directly revealed Shazhou's past.

"Although our army controls the three states of Gua, Sha, and Su, the population is no more than 40,000, the soldiers are less than 3,000, and the farmland is less than 300,000 acres."

"If we continue to impose harsh restrictions on farmers in order to recruit soldiers, I really don't know what we will eat next year, and how we will recover the entire Hexi region!"

(End of this chapter)