Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 78 On Heat Fear

"Wow..."

In mid-September, after repelling the Uighurs in Ganzhou, Liu Jilian led his troops back to Shandan.

A cavalry team slowly walked out of the Qilian Mountains and came to a wide river valley surrounded by the Qilian Mountains.

Shancheng, an important city located at the gateway of the plateau, is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The city is stuck in the middle of the mountains, and its four gates correspond to four valleys leading to the east, south, west and north.

More than a hundred years ago, Tubo had to take this place if it wanted to attack Longyou, and the Tang army also had to take this place if it wanted to enter Qinghai.

However, this city is flanked by the Huangshui River and surrounded by mountains. It is difficult to attack its four walls at the same time unless it is attacked from both the plateau, Hexi and Longyou.

At this moment, tens of thousands of Hewei troops could only retreat to the east and north like the Tang army before, and the defenders in the city also focused their defense on these two walls.

In the Hehuang Valley outside the city, tens of thousands of tents filled the valley, and the sounds of fighting echoed in the valley.

In front of the Shanzhou city wall, tens of thousands of Hehuang soldiers in iron armor formed a heavy shadow outside Shancheng, while tens of thousands of light soldiers wearing leather coats and leather armor were driven by them to attack the city.

The moat had long been filled with corpses, the soil under the city had long turned scarlet, and even the Huangshui River was filled with many naked corpses floating on it.

For more than half a month, the flames and smoke of war dyed the world red, and the soldiers inside and outside the city had reached their limit.

But even so, the eyes of the soldiers on the city wall of Shanzhou were still full of determination and resoluteness.

Their weapons were still stained with the blood of dead enemies. Every time they swung their weapons, they gathered endless power and continuously repelled the Hehuang soldiers who tried to climb the city.

In order to survive, some old, weak, women and children also went to the top of the city wall and did their best to repair the walls or carry food and grass. Everyone was contributing their own efforts to the safety of the city.

Beneath the city walls, corpses were scattered all over the ground, blood soaked the land, the sounds of armor clashing and the mournful neighing of war horses formed a cruel symphony of war.

From noon to dusk, the soldiers of Shancheng fought off countless enemies. Only when the Hehuang soldiers retreated like a tide did they finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“Bang!!”

Inside a huge tent outside the city, a burly figure overturned his desk and roared at everyone kneeling in front of him.

"You promised that you would be able to capture Shancheng in three days after Zan Xinya (Shang Bibi) ran away. Now a full half month has passed, but Shancheng is still controlled by that bastard Tuoba Huaiguang. What do you think we should do?"

"And..." The figure looked ferociously at Shang Yanxin who was kneeling on the ground.

"You promised me that you would bring me back the head of Zan Xinya, but what have you brought back for me now?!"

His eyes were fierce and cruel. Under his gaze, Shang Yanxin could only explain reluctantly.

"The Han slaves from Hexi are blocking Qilian City with tens of thousands of people. Zan Xinya is hiding in the city and won't come out. Although I killed thousands of them, I don't have enough food to carry. I can only withdraw first and make plans later."

"I don't want to hear this, I just want Zan Xin Ya's head!!!"

The tyrannical man standing on the main seat cursed angrily and taught Shang Yanxin a lesson as if he were teaching a pig or a dog, which made Shang Yanxin feel very aggrieved.

After all, he was He Wei Qiliben, a general with 5,000 soldiers under his command. No matter where he was, he would be regarded as a guest of honor. But now he had to endure such humiliation.

If this man wasn't so powerful, he would really want to turn against him now.

"Da Lun, the Han people are not good at fighting, but they are good at defending the city. It's not Qiliben's fault if they can't take it."

"Yes, Dalun..."

Several members following Shang Yanxin couldn't help but speak.

In this land, the only one they could call a great leader was Lun Kongre, who was known for his brutality.

Faced with their explanation, Lun Kongreqi had to quickly walk down from his seat.

"Bitch!"

"Eh!!!"

In front of everyone, Lun Kongre drew his knife and chopped down a gangster, causing the gangster to scream in pain while covering his wound.

Blood was spilled on the ground, Shang Yanxin and others broke out in cold sweats, but no one dared to help the man up.

"I'm scolding Shang Yanxin, this stupid dog. What qualifications do you guys who are worse than dogs have to speak?!"

Lun Kongre raised his leg and stepped hard on the wound, causing him to howl in pain.

Lun Kongre continued to step harder, with an excited expression on his face, as if the wailing sound gave him great satisfaction.

His brutality made the people kneeling on his left and right twitch in their hearts, and Jie'er, who was lying on the ground, fainted under Lun Kongre's continuous and vigorous stomping.

"waste……"

Lun Kongre retracted his foot, turned around and walked back to the high position, leaving several bloody footprints on the ground.

Seeing this, the soldiers at the gate of the tent dragged Jie'er away for treatment as usual, while Lun Kongre glanced at Shang Yanxin and others.

A beggar saluted with a stiff head: "Da Lun, the army's food is only enough for two months, and there is no food in Shancheng. We..."

He hesitated, and finally made up his mind: "Withdraw?"

"Withdraw?" Lun Kongre's voice came slowly, and Qiliben immediately lowered his head when he heard it.

"Humph……"

Lun Kongre snorted coldly, but finally nodded unwillingly: "Order the three armies to withdraw tomorrow."

"Yes!" Qiliben breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "Then should we release the servants we captured from Kuozhou and Shanzhou?"

"Release?" Lun Kongre looked at Qiliben unkindly:
"If we let these people go, they will turn around and join the bastard Zan Xinya. Kill them all!"

"Kill them?" Shang Yanxin and more than ten other generals were speechless. You know, the servants they captured were as many as 70,000 or 80,000 men and women.

Although they were not good people, the fact that they killed 70,000 to 80,000 men and women who had no money at all inevitably shocked everyone.

"No, you can't kill!"

Lun Fear of Heat seemed to think of something funny and grinned:
"Isn't this Zan Xin Ya very good at managing slaves? Then kill the men among these slaves, cut off the noses of the old and weak, and chop off their feet."

"I want to see if Zan Xin Ya will take care of these slaves who can't farm the land or herd sheep, hahahahahaha..."

He laughed wantonly, and his laughter sent a chill down everyone's spine...

The next morning, the wind was howling...

Outside the city, Lun Kongre's troops began to withdraw as they had said in the tent yesterday, and their withdrawal was also seen by the Shancheng defenders.

"Finally retreated..."

"Withdraw! Withdraw!!"

"We won! Hahaha..."

On the top of Shancheng city wall, militiamen and soldiers vied with each other to celebrate, and soon the news spread into the city.

When the women and children in the city heard the news, they cried for joy and rushed to tell everyone the good news.

The former Jiedushi Yanei, a general in his early thirties, leaned back in his chair upon hearing the news.

"I've retired... I've finally retired..."

He murmured to himself, and his mind couldn't help but think of the figure that left him, with mixed emotions.

Tuoba Huaiguang, once a small-time man, now defeated Lun Kongre, who was a powerful lord in Helong, and became the nominal master of Shanzhou.

However, if the figure in his mind returned, he, the so-called master, would have to step down hastily.

Thinking of this, Tuoba Huaiguang looked at the table in front of him.

On the table, the box containing the seals was empty, which seemed to represent his unjustifiable position.

"Let's go out of the city and see if Lun Kongre has really withdrawn his troops!"

Tuoba Huaiguang forced himself to stand up, gave an order, and then led less than 200 elite cavalry in the city to explore the river valley in the east.

At the same time, Lun Kongre's army also received military orders from him.

Tens of thousands of Hewei troops suddenly turned against each other on their way back and began a bloody massacre of servants and tribes along the way.

On the 500-li journey from Shancheng to Hezhou, all the tribes along the way were burned down.

Flames shot up into the sky, thick smoke billowed, and the once peaceful and harmonious tribe wailed in the merciless flames.

A young soldier trembled in the firelight. Even though he was covered in blood, he was still shocked by the scene left behind by the former army.

Thousands of men were beheaded, young women were abducted, and only the wailing old and weak were left.

"Don't kill me...don't kill me..."

"Kill me! Kill me!"

An old woman whose nose and feet were cut off huddled in a corner begging for mercy, while an old man next to her who also had his nose cut off wailed at the top of his lungs.

"Kill me! Please kill me!"

His hands and feet were chopped off, his face and nose were cut off, revealing his white bones, which was very horrifying.

"Get away! Get away!"

The soldiers' eyes were no longer numb, but filled with fear from the horrific scene. "Apa (Abba)...Ama..."

The young soldier went crazy. He thought of his parents and brothers and sisters. He jumped on his horse and chased forward, shouting.

He was not the only one who did this. A large number of soldiers thought of their families living along the road.

They chased the front army like crazy, and along the way they saw all kinds of bloody massacres committed by the front army.

They couldn't understand why their hometown would suffer such a fate even though they had surrendered to the enemy and even became part of the army.

The tribes along the way encountered the brutal slaughter of the enemy. Many soldiers could not stand such cruelty and chose to flee the army and flee to their hometowns.

At this moment, even the most loyal soldiers to Lun Kongre trembled at his brutality.

"vomit……"

In a market town by the Huangshui River, Shang Yanxin couldn't help but retching in a corner, vomiting out the food he had eaten.

Not far from him, a large number of herdsmen and civilians were driven to the open space by armored soldiers.

Lun Kongre sat in front of the open space with a chair, watching everything on the field with great interest.

The noses of the old men were cut off, the strong men were chopped in two, the women were dragged away roughly, and the cries were deafening...

Such a massacre frightened even the most hard-hearted soldiers, and countless others hesitated to take action despite military orders.

Faced with those who were afraid to use a knife, Lun Kongre would do it himself, stabbing men and women to death with a spear and shooting the elderly and children with a bow and arrow.

Even when facing babies who couldn't speak yet, Lun Kongre could still smile and pierce their bodies with his spear and wave them in the air like flags.

The parents who lost their children wailed like crazy at Lun Kongre's feet, and were executed after Lun Kongre had enough fun.

As night fell, the flames lit up the sky red.

The brutal atrocities started in Shancheng and spread all the way to Hezhou.

The soldiers continued to move forward with heavy steps, each of them carrying a heavy burden of sin in his heart.

Their military orders were so brutal that they began to question who they were fighting for and what they were killing for.

The fear-inducing military order hung over the soldiers' hearts like a curse, and the soldiers' minds were forever changed in this war without victory.

"On the fear of heat..."

At the end of September, Liu Jilian was sitting in the yamen listening to everything Shang Duoluo said to him, and he was shaking with anger.

Not only him, but also Chen Jingchong, Ma Cheng, Zhang Chang, Li Ji, Geng Ming and others in the main hall were trembling with anger.

"This guy, doesn't he regard the people of Helong as his own people?!"

"A beast like him will be punished by God one day!"

"Pig-like and dog-like things..."

The main hall was filled with heated curses and insults. Shang Duoluo, who was sitting in the main seat on the right, was also frightened and said:

"To be honest, if Tuoba Duhu hadn't written a letter to confirm these things, I wouldn't believe that Lun Kongre would do such a thing to these people."

"Obviously, he has taken over all places except Shancheng, and the people in these places should be his people, but he..."

Shang Duoluo didn't know how to comment, and Liu Jilong took a long time to come out of the scene he described.

He took a few deep breaths, forced himself to calm down, and then asked calmly:
"What is Tuoba Huaiguang's attitude towards Shang Jiedushi?"

Half a month ago, as Liu Jilian returned to Shandan, Shang Bibi also sent Tangqi to Shancheng to see what the situation was like in Shancheng.

The information that Shang Duoluo mentioned was the information that the Tangqi brought back before the mountain was closed due to heavy snow.

When Shang Bibi decided to escape, she left Shanzhou to her subordinate Tuoba Huaiguang.

Although Shang Bibi said that he was asking for help, everyone knew that he was fleeing.

Liu Jilian had some impression of Tuoba Huaiguang, but he only remembered that it was he who repelled Lun Kongre and killed him many years later.

As for what this person did during this period, Liu Jilong had no idea.

After all, in his previous life he was only interested in the history of the Guiyi Army as told by Dunhuang, and he only knew a few famous events and figures in the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

So he wanted to understand from Shang Duoluo Tuoba Huaiguang's attitude towards Shang Bibi and Hexi in order to make subsequent arrangements.

Faced with his inquiry, Shang Duoluo did not hide anything and explained it straightforwardly.

"Tuoba Duhu asked the Jiedushi to go back and take charge of the situation, but the Jiedushi was worried that the current number of troops was not enough to deal with emergencies."

"Therefore, he sent out a final batch of Tangqi before the snow closed the mountain, bringing a message to Shanzhou that they would return to Shanzhou after the summer next year."

"Into summer..." After hearing Shang Duoluo's words, Liu Jilong roughly guessed what Shang Bibi was thinking.

The two men had originally promised to plunder Liangzhou after the spring. By the time summer came, they had probably completed their first plunder.

If the results of this robbery are sufficient, Shang Bibi will be able to return to Shanzhou with more troops than now. By then, even if Tuoba Huaiguang has other ideas, he will not have enough strength to refuse Shang Bibi.

"What's the situation in Shancheng?"

Liu Jilong wanted to ask more details, and Shang Duoluo told him everything.

Before Kongre invaded, there were more than 27,000 people in Shanzhou, and there were more than a dozen small tribes of various sizes outside the city.

After Lun Kongre invaded, many tribes outside the city surrendered to him, and the people of Shanzhou also moved to Shancheng under the operation of Shang Bibi.

It was precisely because the population in the city was too large that there was a shortage of food and grass. Shang Bibi felt that she could not defend Shancheng and fled to Ganzhou.

It has to be said that Tuoba Huaiguang was a good general. With less than a thousand light soldiers and more than 25,000 civilians, he managed to defend Shancheng against Lun Kongre's command.

According to Tuoba Huaiguang, there are now 6,000 men and more than 15,000 elderly, weak, women and children in Shancheng.

By this calculation, nearly 3,000 people died in order to defend Shancheng, and nearly 10,000 people were killed or injured in the heat.

The autumn harvest was harvested by Lun Kongre's army, and the farmland in the east of the city was contaminated by raw manure. Only tens of thousands of acres of farmland in the west of the city could be cultivated.

Since Lun Kongre's brutality scared away many soldiers, Tuoba Huaiguang took the opportunity to win over hundreds of escaped soldiers and prepared to exchange some supplies in Shancheng with the Tuhun tribe west of Xihai (Qinghai) for livestock and food.

However, even so, Tuoba Huaiguang could not guarantee that everyone would have food to eat until the spring, not to mention that there would be more than half a year from sowing to harvesting after the spring, so the situation in Shancheng was not good.

Perhaps it was for this reason that Tuoba Huaiguang wanted to ask Shang Bibi to return to Shancheng to take charge. After all, Shancheng is still a mess.

If Tuoba Huaiguang had cleaned up all the mess, he probably wouldn't have asked Shang Bibi to go back.

As for whether Shang Bibi wanted to go back, Liu Jilong had no doubt at all, otherwise Shang Bibi would not have sent Shang Duoluo to tell him this.

"Shang Jiedushi sent you here, but I don't think you are here to tell me about the situation in Shanzhou, right?"

Liu Jilong went straight to the point. Shang Duoluo felt a little embarrassed, but he still explained his purpose.

"The Jiedushi said that Shanzhou still has more than 24,000 soldiers and civilians. With the money and food in Shanzhou, they can only last until the beginning of spring at most."

"After the Qilian Mountains thawed, the people had no food to eat. They either fled or starved to death, so..."

"Are you asking me to borrow food?" Liu Jilong narrowed his eyes and told Shang Duoluo the content of his mission.

Shang Duoluo nodded and said: "The governor hopes to borrow 20,000 dan of grain, and can return 30,000 dan after the autumn harvest."

I have to say that Shang Bibi had a good idea. Twenty thousand shi of grain plus the livestock obtained from looting Liangzhou with Liu Jilian were enough to last until the autumn harvest in Shanzhou.

Even if there was not much grain left after the autumn harvest, since she had borrowed and repaid the first time, Shang Bibi could naturally ask Liu Jilong to borrow grain for the second time.

In this regard, Liu Jilong is weighing whether it is worth it.

He was not afraid that Shang Bibi would return to Shanzhou and turn against him after borrowing the grain, because Shanzhou was not strong enough to plunder Liangzhou alone, and the eastern gateway of Shanzhou was controlled by Lun Kongre, so Shang Bibi could only go from Ganzhou and Luoshui to obtain food.

There was no need to think about Luoshe. The infighting among the Tibetan high-ranking officials was still going on. In addition, the Tibetan slaves on the border of Xichuan had repeatedly revolted. They were simply unable to support Shang Bibi.

Therefore, the only direction from which Shang Bibi could obtain food was Ganzhou.

"I need to ask Ganzhou for permission to borrow grain."

"But if the Shang Jiedushi is willing to send the Han people from Shanzhou to Shandan, I can borrow some food from him privately first."

Liu Jilong's eyes were burning, and Shang Duoluo nodded when he heard it: "Although there are few Han people in Shanzhou, there are still five or six thousand people."

"I will persuade the governor when I return, and I believe he will agree to send back the Han people in Shanzhou."

Shang Duoluo stood up, and Liu Jilong followed suit: "In that case, I will wait for your good news."

"I'll take my leave..." Shang Duoluo bowed and left with a smile, while Li Ji walked out of the team to see him out of the city.

Looking at his back, Liu Jilong sighed softly.

In the past, there were more than 20,000 Han people in Shanzhou, but now there are only 5,000 or 6,000.

However, if he had the help of these five or six thousand Han people, the progress of recovering Liangzhou would be greatly advanced.

If he only helped Shang Bibi return to Shanzhou, the history of Hehuang that he was familiar with would also change. He didn't know whether it was good or bad...

(End of this chapter)