Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 64: Under the Qilian Mountains
"Sharpen your swords and spears so you can enjoy killing the enemies later!"

"Don't string the longbow yet. Wait for the military order before stringing it!"

On the sixth day of September, when the sun was high in the sky, the air inside and outside Qilian City was filled with the smell of rust.

Although it was approaching noon, dark clouds covered the area hundreds of miles around Qilian City, like a thick curtain, dyeing the sky gray.

The shadow of war, like the dark clouds in the sky, is about to sweep in and destroy all peace.

Under the majestic shadow of Qilian Mountains, Qilian City seems small, but Liu Jilian standing in front of the city wall has an upright posture, gazing at the Qilian Mountains in the distance.

Although his expression was calm, his eyes revealed a hint of determination and worry.

"Don't checkmate!"

Li Ji's voice sounded behind him. Liu Jilong looked sideways and saw Li Ji walking towards him quickly with a cloth bag.

"Don't worry, I steamed it privately. Have a couple of bites."

With a smile on his face, he raised his hand and handed over the small cloth bag.

The cloth bag was very clean. Liu Jilong took it and opened it, only to see a lot of meat patties inside.

"Where did you get the flour?"

Liu Jilong was a little surprised, but Li Ji touched his dry and painful nose and said, "This is all that is left from when I was with the army building the city."

"I sent a few to Laojiu, and the remaining eight are all here."

"I think we're going to have a fight today, so I thought I'd give you something to eat."

Li Ji said this embarrassedly, and Liu Jilong was somewhat moved when he heard it.

He didn't say much, but reached out and took out two meat patties, and motioned for Li Ji to eat too.

"Let's eat together. I'm not used to eating alone."

"Hey!"

Li Ji was not polite and took out two meat patties from the cloth bag and stuffed them into his mouth.

The meat patty is the size of a palm. There is not much meat in it, but it is soft.

Liu Jilong took a bite, then walked to the parapet while eating the meat pie, glancing at the hundreds of tents outside the city.

Li Ji followed and admired the scenery of Qilian Mountains and tents side by side with him.

In the camp, the Tibetan soldiers from Shanzhou were busy. They sat outside the tent, sharpening their swords and guns with stones picked up from somewhere.

The clanging sounds of sharpening weapons brought a solemn and murderous atmosphere to the land, while the biting northwest wind made the flags in the camp flutter, bringing loneliness and desolation.

"General, do you think it was Inspector Zhang who arrived first, or Lun Kongre's troops?"

Li Ji suddenly asked while eating a meat pie. Liu Jilong looked at him and said, "Are you scared?"

"It would be a lie to say I'm not afraid..." Li Ji had a slightly bitter look on his face as he looked up at the Qilian Mountains shrouded in clouds.

Although he could not see anything, he seemed to see the peaks of Qilian Mountains.

"I had a dream last night. I dreamed of you leading us in training at Jiuquan."

Li Ji's words made those faces appear in Liu Jilong's mind.

Perhaps it was because we had been together for too short a time and experienced too much, the face on the paper had become a little blurry.

"I dreamed of Zhao Qian, Jiao Da, Mao Zhong, Wang Lie and others. I dreamed that we ate meat together, ran together, and rode horses together..."

"Don't tell me, you said I dreamed about this before the war, right..."

"Don't think too much!" Liu Jilong interrupted him.

Hearing this, Li Ji also smiled awkwardly: "I also think I am overthinking."

As soon as he finished speaking, a dead silence fell between the two of them, leaving only the sound of the flags rustling beside them.

Soon, the two men finished eating the meat patties in the cloth bag, and Liu Jilong took Li Ji down the city.

Qilian City was not very big, and the ruins in the city took up a lot of space, resulting in the tents of more than 1,600 soldiers and civilians in the city almost filling up the open space.

Passing through the long and narrow passage, the soldiers in front of the tents along the way saw Liu Jilong and saluted and greeted him.

"General Liu..."

"General Liu!"

"Don't..."

One word after another, and the not-so-familiar faces retreated before Liu Jilong's eyes like a revolving lantern.

In response, Liu Jilong didn't know what to say and just nodded from time to time.

He took Li Ji back to his tent, sat down quietly, and sharpened his weapons with a whetstone.

Compared with the 10-20-kg long spears held by the Shandan soldiers, the 18-catties 10-20-kg iron spear in Liu Jilian's hand was particularly eye-catching.

Not only that, the three-foot double hammers he often used were also a circle larger than the armor-piercing hammers used by soldiers in the army.

Li Ji has been sharpening his weapons every day since arriving in Qilian City, so he doesn't need to sharpen them before the battle.

Therefore, after he and Liu Jilong came into the tent, he took the initiative to sharpen the knife for Liu Jilong.

While sharpening the knife, he couldn't help but say with envy: "If you take this iron spear to the battlefield, I wonder how many bandits you can kill."

"You want to use it?" Liu Jilong raised his lips slightly, and Li Ji shook his head quickly:
"This iron spear is good for practicing martial arts, but it is absolutely useless for use in battle."

"The four-jin stick in my tent is enough for me to use, how dare I use this eighteen-jin iron spear..."

Li Ji was ashamed, and his words corresponded to the real battlefield.

Although the long and short weapons in the army have slight differences in weight and length due to their different shapes, they are generally similar.

Short sharp weapons such as horizontal swords and long swords are mostly three feet long and weigh no more than two pounds.

Such as line guns, long spears, and big clubs, their lengths range from nine feet to twelve feet, and their weights range from three to four pounds.

Long, short and riding bows mostly range from five dou to one shi (ten dou). Anyone who can hold a bow of more than one shi as a weapon is considered to have extraordinary arm strength.

After the Battle of Zhangye, Liu Jilian also felt that the weapons were not suitable for his needs, so he ordered them to be specially made when he was in Shandan.

An 18-jin iron spear, an 8-jin armor-piercing hammer, a 2-shi Sangtuo bow...

These weapons are the weapons he personally uses.

On weekdays in Shandan, as long as he was not going to the government office to discuss matters, he would practice with these weapons in the early morning.

When you are in good condition, you can practice with the spear for half an hour. If you are not in good condition, you can practice for quarter of an hour.

But training is training, and fighting in battle is another matter.

At first, he was holding two four-jin armor-piercing hammers, but he would be exhausted after fighting for a cup of tea. Now, after recuperating for a few months, his body is in much better condition than before. I wonder how long he can last.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong's ears suddenly moved.

"coming……"

"Coming? What's coming?"

Seeing his general say "here they come", Li Ji could not help but look outside the tent, but he did not see anyone walking into the tent.

After a few breaths, Li Ji finally heard the dense sound of horse hooves, so he stopped sharpening his knife and asked: "Is Tangqi back?"

"Beep--"

"Beep--"

The shrill sound of a wooden whistle echoed through the city, and for a moment everyone stopped what they were doing.

In just a few breaths, all the soldiers in the city took action.

They quickly returned to their tent and began to put on their armor and weapons with the help of the laborers.

"Don't checkmate!"

In just a cup of tea, the fully armed Jiu Juyan walked quickly and arrived in front of Liu Jilong's tent.

The curtain of the tent was open, so he could see that Li Ji had already put armor on Liu Jilong.

At this moment, Liu Jilong was wearing a larger size of silver armor, and an embroidered shirt outside the armor to protect himself from the wind.

He walked out holding a spear and stood in front of Jiu Juyan. He was more than a head taller than him.

Looking at the tall and burly Liu Jilong, Jiu Juyan finally reacted and bowed quickly: "Our army's cavalry encountered the foreign bandits in the valley and turned back. The foreign bandits are only more than ten miles away from here."

"Mister Zhang has ordered that you and Suo Guoyi lead the first, second, and fifth regiments of soldiers out of the city to prepare for the enemy..."

At this point, Jiu Juyan glanced at Li Ji and said, "Three regiments of soldiers will stay in the city."

Li Ji's eyes widened: "Why should the three regiments stay in the city?!"

Before he could say anything, Liu Jilong interrupted him, his expression as usual:
"Someone has to stay. It would be good for the brothers from the Third Regiment to stay."

He looked down at Jiu Juyan, then glanced at Li Ji: "Guard Qilian City well, and wait for me to come back to celebrate the victory."

As soon as he finished speaking, he walked to the tent with his spear in hand, led out a sturdy military horse, mounted it skillfully, and urged the horse away without looking back.

He walked out of the city, and along the way he could see soldiers wearing armor, each of them with a solemn look on their face.

When he walked out of the city gate, more than a hundred Shandan armored soldiers had gathered outside the city.

He reined in his horse and stopped in front of the formation, glancing at the Shanzhou cavalry not far away.

They assembled under the command of Shang Duo Luo, and their reaction speed was much faster than that of the Shandan Army. After all, they were veterans who had experienced many years of fighting, but their equipment was not up to par.

As for the Shandan Army, the main reason was that they had just recaptured Shandan and there were too many things to do, resulting in too little training time.

If they were given another three months, the discipline of the 800 Shandan troops would be no worse than any elite force of the same era.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong tightened his robe with his hands and watched the Shandan troops leave the city one after another.

"Uuuuuu——"

In about two quarters of an hour, the Shandan Army and the Shanzhou Army had assembled.

In the howling northwest wind, six hundred Shandan troops and three thousand Shanzhou cavalry lined up in the wilderness, facing the distant Qilian Mountains.

On the top of Qilian City, two hundred soldiers from the Third Regiment and eight hundred civilians in the city all climbed up to the top of the city wall, and everyone was looking nervously at the team outside the city.

In front of the gate tower, Zhang Huairong was wearing armor, a long shirt, and a fu hat. He did not look heroic, but he did look resolute.

Standing next to him were not only the captain Zhang Huaijian of the Third Regiment, but also the brigade commanders Jiu Juyan and Li Ji, as well as Shang Bibi, who had been brought into the city as a hostage last night.

Standing behind Shang Bibi were two strong young men in their early twenties, they were his eldest son and second son.

These two men do not have any talent for leading a force, otherwise the troops outside the city would not have been handed over to Shang Duoluo to lead.

Zhang Huairong and Shang Bibi were both waiting for Shang Yanxin's troops to appear.

During this period, Jiu Juyan and Li Ji, who were standing behind them, looked at the team outside the city.

Under the banner of the Shandan Army, the tall Suo Xun and Liu Jilian were particularly eye-catching.

The 600 Shandan troops in distinctive armor were not inferior in military appearance to the 3,000 cavalry of the Shanzhou army, and even seemed to have surpassed them.

"Beep--"

Suddenly, a wooden whistle sounded in the distance.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw more than a dozen Tang riders holding up the Sanchen flag running out from the distant horizon, constantly blowing wooden whistles to sound the alarm.

"coming……"

Everyone's heart tightened, and the soldiers on the battlefield clenched their weapons tightly. Many soldiers who had never fought in a war had sweaty palms due to nervousness.

More than a dozen Tang cavalrymen, a mixed group of Han and Fan people, rushed into the formation and returned breathlessly to prepare for battle.

No one asked when the enemy would arrive because they were already in sight.

The brown Tibetan armor looked dull and depressing, and a large group of cavalry rushed out from the horizon like a wave.

As they rushed out of the horizon and approached Qilian City, their formation was revealed to the allied forces.

When thousands of heavily armored foreign soldiers appeared, the faces of the soldiers inside and outside Qilian City changed suddenly.

"Didn't you say they were light cavalry?"

In front of the city wall, Zhang Huairong glared at Shang Bibi with his hands on the hilt of the knife.

Faced with Zhang Huairong's dangerous move, Shang Bibi said calmly: "This is a mistake made by our army. I will bear the blame after the battle."

"You..." Zhang Huairong was furious. If it weren't for the imminent war, he probably wouldn't have been able to help but execute Shang Bibi.

Shang Bibi gave wrong information, but he had to let go of the conflict.

"Buzz rumbling..."

The dull and dense sound of horse hooves echoed in the gorge, slowly approaching the coalition forces.

In the army formation, everyone could see clearly the deployment of Shang Yanxin's 5,000 cavalrymen. They all rode two horses and were all wearing armor.

This was one of the elite troops that Lun Kongre had brought together with the Tibetan forces from the ten states of Helong. They were far from being an enemy that the newly born Shandan Army and the embarrassed Shanzhou Army could contend with.

Even at the peak of Tubo's power, the number of elite soldiers wearing heavy armor was no more than 100,000.

Now, there are a total of 5,000 such elite troops, and they are standing before them as enemies.

For a time, the morale of the soldiers inside and outside the city was uneasy, and no one thought they could win the battle.

"You pig-dog barbarians! I knew I couldn't trust you!"

On horseback, Suo Xun glared at Shang Duo Luo, but Shang Duo Luo bowed and said, "The battle is ahead. Only by putting aside your prejudices can you win."

"You are worthy of talking about victory?!" Suo Xun pulled out the spear that was stuck beside him, wishing he could stab Shang Duoluo to death with one shot.

Seeing this scene, the generals behind Shang Duoluo confronted Suo Xun with guns, and the three captains behind Suo Xun also joined the confrontation with angry eyes.

Before the war even started, there were signs of division within the coalition.

"Don't mess around..."

Shang Duoluo knew that he was in the wrong, so he raised his hand to stop the general behind him. At the same time, he looked at Suo Xun and saluted, saying, "After I defeat Shang Yanxin, I will apologize to you..."

"Hmph!" Although Suo Xun was angry, he also knew that internal strife would not benefit the Shandan army, so he put away his spear and his face became gloomy.

Seeing him put away his gun, the three Suo captains also put away their weapons.

During this process, Liu Jilian did not participate. Instead, after observing Shang Yanxin's troop formation, he was thinking about how to delay until Zhang Huaishen arrived.

He no longer believed that Qi Liancheng's strength alone could defeat Shang Yanxin. Only when Zhang Huaishen arrived at the battlefield would they be qualified to confront Shang Yanxin.

In the Zhangye direction, more than 2,000 sets of heavy armor from Tubo soldiers in Zhangye, Shandan and other places had been seized before, and all of them were kept by Zhang Yichao.

In more than two months, Zhang Huaishen should have trained an army capable of fighting.

Even if Zhang Huaishen only brought a thousand men, the number of armored soldiers on their side could reach more than two thousand.

Unless Shang Yanxin fought at the risk of suffering heavy casualties, he would not be able to defeat the coalition forces, capture Qilian City, and kill Shang Bibi.

"call……"

After his thoughts came to an end, Liu Jilong took a deep breath, which turned into white waves and dissipated in the air, being observed by him.

"It's getting colder..."

Liu Jilong looked at the nearby Qilian Mountains. Even though its peaks were covered by thick clouds, Liu Jilong could guess what was happening above the clouds.

The temperature in the mountains is unpredictable, not to mention that the altitude they are at is much higher than Shandan.

Liu Jilong didn't know the exact altitude of Qilian City, but in his opinion, the altitude here was at least hundreds or even thousands of meters higher than Shandan.

The Qilian Mountains, which were covered by dark clouds, have probably been covered with snow long ago.

If the snowflakes could spread down to the gorge, then the time and place would be on our side.

All the dead wood and branches that could be found in the gorge had been picked up. As long as Shang Yanxin could not defeat their side today, they would have to face the cold in the mountains and the situation of having no fire to cook.

He believed that Shang Yanxin could also think of this, so the battle would only take place today...

"Qiliben, it's too cold in this gorge. If we delay any longer, it might snow."

"Do you need to remind me?"

In the formation of 5,000 armored cavalry, Shang Yanxin mocked the Protector General beside him, then glanced around the gorge and sneered:

"They were very calculating. They didn't leave any dead branches or trees for us to make fire and cook."

"But it doesn't matter. There's plenty of firewood in the city..."

Shang Yanxin did not hesitate and quickly drew the long sword from his waist, pointing the blade directly at the Shanshan coalition forces half a mile away.

"Woooooooo..."

The horn in Shang Yanxin's formation echoed melodiously at the mouth of the gorge, making people's hair stand on end.

"Shoot arrows at 60 steps, and at 20 steps, everyone will use bows and crossbows, and hold swords and clubs and fight with the vanguard team!!"

Knowing from the sound of the horn that Shang Yanxin was about to launch an attack, Suo Xun turned his horse around and gave orders in a deep voice, his voice trembling slightly.

After receiving the military order, the 600 Shandan soldiers in the battle array responded according to the daily drills of each regiment.

Four hundred infantrymen drew their bows and drew their arrows, while two hundred cavalrymen and special troops came to the flank of the main army, holding horn bows and waiting for military orders.

Suo Xun led three captains to retreat to the center of the formation, and Liu Jilian also rode to the flank of the formation.

He had no way to retreat because he was leading the vanguard on the front line of the battle and the cavalry composed of the cavalry and special forces on the flanks.

He glanced sideways and saw that many soldiers beside him had trembling arms, swallowing saliva continuously, and cold sweat broke out on their foreheads.

They were already nervous and guilty before the enemy attacked.

Looking past them, Liu Jilong's gaze rested on Shang Duoluo's 3,000 Shanzhou cavalry.

They were so uneasy that their horses could feel it and kept kicking the ground beneath their feet.

"Enter!!"

At Shang Yanxin's signal, five thousand armored cavalry slowly moved forward, then began to walk quickly, and then ran.

The rumbling sound of horse hooves echoed, and the might of the five thousand armored cavalry running shook the heaven and earth, as if they were going to flatten the Shanshan coalition forces.

Shang Yanxin had no intention of testing the Shan-Shan coalition forces, or rather, he simply did not take the Shan-Shan coalition forces seriously.

In his eyes, the Han slaves in Hexi were just sheep on two legs, and Shang Bibi's three thousand light cavalry were nothing more than dogs that had lost their homes.

He came with a winning momentum, and everything was destroyed under his horse's hooves.

Faced with such a powerful force, Suo Xun could only vent his anger by pointing his gun into the air:
"Be prepared for the enemy!!"

(End of this chapter)