Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 68: Alone and Powerless
"Drive! Drive!"

"drive……"

On the night of the Battle of Qilian City, on the grassland hundreds of miles away from Qilian City, dozens of herdsmen galloped on their horses, heading north along the river.

As they continued to move north, small herds of cattle gradually began to appear ahead, as well as other herders that could be seen from time to time.

Another half hour passed, until the sun sank into the horizon and the sky darkened, and a large group of tents finally appeared in front of us.

The light from the campfire served as a beacon, guiding dozens of herdsmen as they rushed north.

They rushed into the camp and headed towards the gantry, with no one stopping them on the way.

After riding for several hundred steps, they came to a large tent covering an area of nearly half an acre, and were stopped by soldiers in armor in front of the tent.

"Blind your dog eyes, look at who I am!"

The young leader among the herdsmen took off his hat, dismounted from his horse and walked into the tent.

When the soldiers saw his appearance, they did not dare to stop him and let him go.

The young man walked quickly into the tent, opened the curtain and saw the Uighur Khan sitting high.

"Aduo (father), there's news from Zhangye!"

The young man knelt down on one knee with an excited expression on his face.

At this time, there was not only the Uighur Khan in the tent, but also the governors of other large and small tribes.

"Tell me, Shrewd..."

The Uighur Khan became interested, and the knelt Xia Li could not hide his excitement and said: "I don't know the details, but I only know that Zhang Huaishen led nearly 70% of the soldiers in the city to Qilian City the day before yesterday!"

"Aduo, it is probably the Tibetans who are attacking. Zhang Huaishen will probably be pinned down in Qilian City. There are only a thousand soldiers in Zhangye City at most!"

"Great!" Upon hearing Xia Li's words, the governors in the tent showed joy on their faces.

The Uighur Khan did not speak;

"Great Khan, we just promised to trade with those Tang people. If we attack Ganzhou now, I am afraid we will be retaliated by Zhang Yichao."

At the table, Ponteler, the governor of a department, could not help but speak, and said to everyone at the same time:

"Besides, if the heat wave really comes, and the Tang people can't stop it, can we stop it?"

Indeed, when Ponteler put forward his theory of heat phobia, everyone looked at each other in silence.

Although the Lun Kongre was not as powerful as it was eight years ago, it was still easy to deal with the Ganzhou Uighurs.

Taking Ganzhou does not necessarily mean that we can hold it, so why should we take Ganzhou?

"uncertain!"

Shrewd, who was kneeling on the ground, stood up and confronted Pontell.

"What we want is to take Zhangye, and then hand Shandan over to the Tang people, and let them stop Lun Kongre for us, right?"

"The Tang people are very good at defending the city. As long as they can hold out for a month, by then it will be winter. No matter how hot it is, it is impossible for them to use troops in winter."

"We can make armor and equip our troops during the winter. Then, even if the heat wave really comes, we won't be afraid of him!"

"Yes!" Xia Li's words resonated with many people.

"That's right. Zhangye has iron mines. If we capture the craftsmen in Zhangye and the iron mines outside the city, we will be able to mobilize 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers by the beginning of next spring. There's no need to be afraid of Shang Kongre!"

"Great Khan, only by taking Zhangye can we restore the glory of our Great Uighurs!"

"Sweaty..."

Ever since the fall of the Uighur Khanate, the Uighurs have never stopped wanting to revive the Uighur state.

Now that the defenses of a city like Zhangye, which is well-fortified and well-manned, are so weak, how could they not covet it?
They have spies in the Hexi Corridor, and Zhang Yichao's army returned to Shazhou. Even if they regroup, they will have to wait until spring to set out.

By that time they will have made a lot of armor, so there is no need to be afraid of Zhang Yichao and Lun Kongre.

"Great Khan, please think twice..."

Seeing so many people blinded by interests, Ponteler had no choice but to sit back in his seat.

Seeing this, Xia Li laughed and said, "If you take Zhangye, Aduo, you will be the real Khan of the Uighurs!"

His words immediately moved the Uighur Khan.

Even he couldn't help but stand up, and after taking a glance at the situation in the tent, he said:

"Contact your troops immediately and move towards Zhangye."

"Once the Tang people are defeated, we will immediately capture Zhangye City!"

"Yes!" All the commanders were so excited that they left their tents one after another, seeking to capture the important town of Zhangye as soon as possible.

After they all left, the Uighur Khan looked at Xia Li and said, "Xia Li, you have done a great service by asking to go to Zhangye to contact the clansmen in the city. Just ask for whatever you want."

"Ado..." A look of joy appeared on Xia Li's face, and he quickly saluted and said:

"I don't want anything from Zhangye City. I just hope you can promise me, Aduo, that if we don't want to attack Shandan due to fear of heat, then please send troops to help me take Shandan!"

"Shandan?" The Uighur Khan touched his sparse beard.

"So you want to occupy a city of your own, but Shandan is not big, I can give it to you."

"Thank you, Aduo!" Xia Li saluted happily, and the scene of Liu Jilong pointing a hammer at him that day emerged in his mind.

"Dog Hannu, when the time comes, I will make you kneel down and be my slave!"

Xia Li thought viciously, then left the tent and met Pontell who had been waiting outside the tent for a long time.

"I knew it……"

Ponteler came forward with a scornful smile on his face.

"You really are still upset about General Tang's threat to you."

"Humph!" Xi Li snorted coldly: "I just want us to live a better life."

"We have obtained the craftsmen and iron mines of Ganzhou. With our numbers, we are enough to swallow up the entire Hexi."

"I've had enough of this grassland. I want to live in a city too!"

"Haha..." Pontell chuckled, and the laughter was very harsh to Xiali's ears.

He squinted his eyes and looked at Ponteler: "Ponteler, you think you are great just because you know that guy Pu Gujun."

"Pugu Jun went to Xizhou. If anything happens to you now, he can't help you..."

Shrewd's hand touched the scimitar at his waist, as if to intimidate Pontell.

In response, Ponteler just laughed and said, "After Pugujun and I separated, I still had tens of thousands of people, but if you leave the Khan, I'm afraid you won't even be able to survive."

After saying this, Ponteler turned and walked towards his own tent, while giving a reminder.

"We can't take Zhangye. Zhang Yichao is a real man, as is Zhang Huaishen of Zhangye, and the Tang general that day."

His figure gradually disappeared, Xianli's face looked grim, he snorted coldly and took his hand away from the hilt of the knife.

He returned to his own tent, where he met his generals.

Facing them, Xia Li made no secret of his ambition, with a hint of excitement in his tone.

"We will break camp tomorrow and go to Zhangye!"

Amid his excitement, the next morning, tens of thousands of Uighurs on the grasslands north of Ganzhou began their mighty march south.

At the same time, on the first day after the Battle of Qilian City, the cold wind at the mouth of Qilian Gorge was still biting.

Standing in front of the city wall, Liu Jilian looked at the Hehuang cavalry camp in the distance.

After Suo Xun led his men out of the city last night, Shang Yanxin sent out more than a thousand cavalrymen to pursue them half an hour later.

The more than a thousand cavalrymen had not returned yet, and Liu Jilian did not know what Suo Xun's current situation was.

There should be about 3,000 Hehuang cavalry left in the camp at present. They ate the horses that were killed in the battle yesterday as meat and stripped the armor and clothes of the soldiers who were killed in the battle.

Thousands of corpses lay naked on the ground, and birds swooped down from the sky from time to time, pecking at the flesh and blood among the corpses.

Seeing this situation, the soldiers inside and outside Qilian City were filled with grief and anger.

But without military orders, none of them dared to retrieve the body.

After all, yesterday's bloody battle made too many of them fear the Hehuang cavalry.

After fighting for just over an hour, nearly half of their men were killed.

If Liu Jilian had not emerged as a rising star, they would have had no choice but to surrender or be killed.

This feeling of being inferior to others was unpleasant, even for Liu Jilong himself. He looked back and forth among the corpses, feeling regretful and reluctant.

I feel sorry for the armor that was stolen and I am reluctant to part with my brothers who died in the battle.

The Shandan army lost the bodies of fifty-one brothers and fifty-one war horses and armor.

With Shandan's production efficiency, it would take at least three and a half months to produce these fifty-one sets of armor.

"If there are three thousand soldiers, what's the point of talking about Yan Xin..."

Liu Jilong lamented that he had too few soldiers and armor, but his words were heard by others.

"General Liu Bie is truly heroic!"

A strange voice sounded behind him. Liu Jilong turned around and saw Shang Bibi standing behind him with a smile on her face, clapping for him.

"Please do not be offended by these arrogant words, Governor."

Liu Jilong bowed modestly, but Shang Bibi did not end the topic when she saw this. Instead, she took the initiative to talk about the situation in Liangzhou.

"Now that I have been defeated, I am afraid that many Tibetan tribes between Helong and Hehuang will flee from the Helong states because of Lun Kongre's brutality."

"If my guess is correct, they will flee to Liangzhou and gather there."

"In two or three years, it will be difficult for General Liu Bie to regain Liangzhou..."

Shang Bibi said this with a smile, and Liu Jilong frowned slightly.

He naturally knew the situation in Helong after Shang Bibi was defeated, and the reality was just as he said. A large number of Tibetans gathered in Liangzhou, which brought considerable difficulties to the Guiyi Army's return to the east.

Zhang Huaishen led the Guiyi Army in a bloody battle for several years before they recovered the five cities of Liangzhou. However, due to the stupidity of the Tang court, Liangzhou was lost again soon after.

It took several years for Zhang Huaishen to gather strength to recapture it, but it was lost again due to the internal strife of the Guiyi Army.

Although the loss of Liangzhou was mainly due to the Tang court's distrust of the Guiyi Army, the situation within Liangzhou cannot be ignored.

Since Shang Bibi is willing to talk to me, I can ask him about the situation in Helong.

"May I ask the Jiedushi, how many Tibetans have been settled in the Helong and Hehuang regions?"

Liu Jilong asked Shang Bibi, and Shang Bibi did not hide it: "In its heyday, the Helong and Hehuang areas could support 100,000 households. Now they are suffering from the disaster of Lunkongre. Although the casualties are not small, they can still support 50,000 to 60,000 households."

"Fifty to sixty thousand households..." Liu Jilong's face darkened.

Shang Bibi saw his worry and couldn't help but smile: "But from what I know about Lun Kongre, he won't care about these people."

"Right now, the Hehuang and Helong regions are short of food due to severe drought."

"If the prime minister or other people were in charge of Helong, they would definitely find ways to provide relief to the victims of the disaster in Tibet, but Lun Kongre would not..."

Shang Bibi looked at the pile of corpses outside the city, her tone revealing a hint of helplessness.

"In his eyes, there is no such thing as kinship. The disaster victims are nothing more than parasites that threaten his rule."

"How do you think he will deal with the victims after Shanzhou is captured?"

He looked at Liu Jilong, but Liu Jilong said nothing and just looked at the pile of corpses outside the city.

The four words "Kill the people of Wugu" emerged in Liu Jilian's mind. Although this was what Nurhaci did in Liaodong hundreds of years later, there were precedents before him, but the scale could not be compared with his.

There is no doubt about Lun Kongre's military ability. Although he cannot compare with famous generals like Lun Qinling, he can still pose a threat to the western border of the Tang Dynasty.

Unfortunately, there is a flaw in the theory of heat phobia...

"He is too cruel. He will only bring slaughter to the Helong region. His subordinates will leave him because of his cruelty."

Shang Bibi sighed, and Liu Jilong looked at him: "I'm afraid the governor is not here just to answer my questions, right?"

"Hehe..." Shang Bibi was not embarrassed when she was exposed. Instead, she looked at Liu Jilong.

"I saw everything you did yesterday. Although Suo Xun is a Sogdian, he looks down on us, including the other people in this city."

"Tibet and you both have grudges, I can understand that."

"But I don't see any hatred towards us in your eyes, which makes me feel strange."

He looked Liu Jilong up and down, and Liu Jilong did not deny it.

Although he had suffered oppression from the Tibetans when he was in Guazhou, he had received education in his previous life after all, and the place where he lived in his previous life was also a multi-ethnic area, so he was also clear about the problem.

Today, the Hu people are strong and the Han people are weak in Hexi, so it is not feasible to hate all the Hu people. Only by using one faction to fight against another can we go further.

He thought a lot last night, one of which was how to recapture Liangzhou in advance.

If the more than 1,000 cavalrymen from Shanzhou joined, the time to recapture Liangzhou would undoubtedly be greatly advanced.

In addition, if he can "cure" these more than one thousand Tibetan cavalry, he will be able to use these more than one thousand Tibetans in the future to attract more Tibetans.

As for whether to allow them to become bigger after being forced in and how to assimilate them, Liu Jilong has plenty of ways.

Yesterday's argument with Suo Xun on the battlefield, and his powerlessness in the face of 5,000 Hehuang armored soldiers, all these experiences made Liu Jilong realize that he must improve himself and expand his power.

Only by having enough say can he sit firmly and climb higher.

Liu Jilong was immersed in his own thoughts, and Shang Bibi saw that he didn't speak, and finally couldn't help but said:

"If I can return to Luoshui City, I will definitely send someone to repay you for your kindness yesterday."

"If we can't return to Luoshui City, staying in this place west of the river will inevitably cause annoyance to others."

"But if you stay under General Liu Bie's rule, I think it will be more comfortable than going west."

"Hehe..." Liu Jilong shook his head and chuckled, and couldn't help but look at Shang Bibi: "Doesn't the Jiedushi know my identity?"

"Of course I know!" Shang Bibi nodded.
"I know that the Han people in Hexi hate us, but although General Liu Bie is also from a commoner family, he does not hate us."

"Compared to those powerful families who want to devour us, I think you, General Liu, are more reliable."

Liu Jilong sneered, he didn't think he was attractive at all.

"The governor may have overestimated me. Although I am now a general in Shandan, I have no troops under my command. To mobilize troops, I need Sima Yu's talisman."

"I'm afraid not?" Shang Bibi looked at Liu Jilong with a smile and glanced around the city.

"Based on yesterday's performance, not to mention Suo Guoyi, even Zhang Sima may not be able to win the hearts and minds of the Shandan soldiers. But General Liu Bie is different."

Seeing that Shang Bibi also brought up what happened yesterday, Liu Jilong remained silent.

Although he was in the limelight yesterday, if Zhang Huairong felt that he was stealing the show, his life would be difficult in the future.

Although he understood Zhang Huairong, he could not guarantee that there would not be a rift between him and Zhang Huairong in the face of power.

"Is Liu Biejiang worried about a rift between the host and the guest?"

Shang Bibi was a thoughtful person and naturally knew what Liu Jilong was worried about.

Although Liu Jilong lived two lives, his scheming was not something that one could accumulate simply by living longer. Rather, it depended on one's acquired environment.

Although Liu Jilong would also play some tricks on his colleagues at work in his previous life, it was nothing compared to the experience of Shang Bibi and others who played with life and death.

Not to mention that in this life he had simply been a shepherd slave for sixteen years, and all he had to guard against was the Tibetan nobles trying to harm him.

When it comes to scheming, Shang Bibi can now confuse him.

Because of this, Liu Jilong still did not say anything careless, for fear that Shang Bibi would catch him.

However, Shang Bibi did not hide anything, but spoke frankly:

"After this battle, I'm afraid you will also be promoted. Sima Zhang and Suo Guoyi also have the merit of obtaining the map of the five states. I'm afraid this small Shandan can't accommodate them."

"When they are transferred, won't you, Liu Bie, have the final say in Shandan?"

Shang Bibi's eyes were burning, but Liu Jilong shook his head in self-mockery: "With my status, it would be fine if I were a deputy general, but what about being the master of Shandan?"

"Shang Jiedushi, you may have underestimated the scheming and tactics of the powerful men in Hexi..."

"Why should General Liu belittle himself?" Shang Bibi was still optimistic about Liu Jilong, especially when Liu Jilong admitted that his status was not good enough, he became even more optimistic.

Facing his optimism, Liu Jilong was somewhat helpless: "I don't know why you, Shang Jiedushi, came to me. I'm afraid the result will disappoint you."

"No!" Shang Bibi said firmly, her tone leaving no room for doubt.

"Why?" Liu Jilong was also curious why Shang Bibi was so sure.

It is extremely difficult for a commoner like him to become the lord of a city.

There are four states and eight cities in Hexi, and he doesn't think that the powerful people will give up a city for his jurisdiction.

But in response to his question, Shang Bibi stared at him intently, and then slowly uttered a word.

"You are alone and powerless..."

(End of this chapter)