Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 80: The Tribulations of the Eastward Advance
"They always think about living here, and never think about the internal and external situation!"

In the hall of Dunhuang County Yamen, Zhang Yitan sat in the first seat on the left, his tone stern and helpless.

Zhang Huairong sat opposite him, and Zhang Yichao sat in the main seat.

Faced with his elder brother's helplessness, Zhang Yichao took a sip of the teacup in silence, then slowly said:

“It also shows that they have united and got what they wanted.”

His words made Zhang Yitan and others feel a chill in their hearts. Zhang Huairong said worriedly:

"Is this another reason why you want to march into Yizhou, uncle? But to march into Yizhou in winter, this..."

"If you can get it, don't worry."

Zhang Yichao calmed Zhang Huairong's shaken heart with just a few words.

"Then Liu Jilong has worked with you for many months. What do you think of him?"

He looked at Zhang Huairong, and Zhang Huairong told him everything Liu Jilong had done in the past few months.

Hearing that Liu Jilong had managed Shandan in an orderly manner and that even fighting outside had not hindered Shandan's development, Zhang Yichao couldn't help but look relieved.

"Before Shang Yanxin invaded, he said he wanted to train elite cavalry, fight to support the enemy, and weaken Liang Province."

"Now that he has the help of Shang Bibi, I estimate that he will take action against Fanhe in the west of Liangzhou after the spring."

Zhang Huairong told Liu Jilong about his idea, and Zhang Yitan nodded happily: "This is a good idea."

"Yeah!" Zhang Yichao also nodded in agreement, then looked at Zhang Huairong and continued:

"Although he has a close relationship with you and Huai Shen, he is alone after all."

"In the past few months that you have worked with him, have you ever noticed that he has other ideas?"

Zhang Yichao still couldn't forget the look in Liu Jilong's eyes. The thoughts in his eyes were beyond Zhang Yichao's comprehension, so he could only ask Zhang Huairong for help.

Advancing eastward from Hexi is a major event, and there is no room for error in this matter.

"I don't really have any ideas. He's an easy person to get along with..."

Zhang Huairong thought about it carefully, and finally shook his head to explain.

Zhang Yitan also looked at Zhang Yichao when he heard this: "It's not without reason that Huai Shen promoted him. If there were more Liu Jilongs in the army, we would be more relaxed."

"How easy is that..." Zhang Yichao couldn't help but smile bitterly.

In Hexi, being able to speak Mandarin already surpassed 99% of the people, not to mention that Liu Jilian could also write and fight.

After putting aside this unrealistic idea, Zhang Yichao looked at Zhang Yitan again:

"After we recover Yizhou, we will need you to lead the elite cavalry to Fengzhou in person."

"Yes!" Zhang Yitan's eyes were firm: "We have sent out more than a dozen groups of people, but none of them came back. This time I will lead the troops myself. I don't believe we can't reach Chang'an!"

"but……"

As he was talking, Zhang Yitan looked at Zhang Yichao with some pity:

"We are still survivors after all. Moreover, when the Wu family surrendered to Tubo in the past, our Zhang family did not stop them."

"Although we have not aided the tyrant in recent years, I am afraid that the imperial court will find it difficult to trust us after learning about it."

Facing Zhang Yitan's concerns, Zhang Yichao said firmly: "With sincerity, even metal and stone can be broken. I believe that the court will believe in us one day."

"My dear brother, the only thing I am worried about when you go to Chang'an this time is one thing."

Zhang Yichao took a deep breath, and then said worriedly: "My recovery of lost territory in Hexi may be beneficial to the court, but the court may not trust me at first."

"Therefore, I am worried that the court will..."

He paused, not knowing what to say, but Zhang Yitan answered, "Are you worried that the court will keep someone as a hostage?"

As soon as he finished speaking, without waiting for Zhang Yichao to speak, he said in a clear voice: "Don't you think I can't think of it?"

"Since I have chosen to go to Chang'an, I have made preparations to never come back."

"The court needs hostages. Huai Ding and his men are not important enough, and Hexi cannot do without you and Huai Shen. So I am the only one left in Chang'an as a hostage."

"Haha..." As he spoke, Zhang Yitan started laughing:
"Going to Chang'an doesn't require fighting, and there aren't so many things to bother you. You're obviously going there to enjoy yourself, so you don't have to worry about me."

He spoke highly of the advantages of going to Chang'an as a hostage, but how could Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huairong not know the consequences of being a hostage?

If Zhang Yitan went to Chang'an as a hostage, then unless the emperor allowed it, he would probably not be able to leave the city for the rest of his life.

Even after death, it would probably be difficult to transport the bones back to their hometown for burial, and they can only be buried in a foreign land.

For the Han people who have a strong sense of local sentiment, not everyone can accept such an outcome, not to mention that Zhang Yitan has to argue for Hexi in the government.

No matter how easily he said it, Zhang Yichao still felt heavy in his heart.

"Well, you will be leaving for Yizhou in a few days, so I won't bother you anymore. Your sister-in-law is waiting for me to go back for dinner, so I won't stay any longer."

Zhang Yitan stood up in a leisurely manner, bowed and left after explaining.

Seeing this, Zhang Huairong hurriedly followed, bowed to Zhang Yichao when he reached the door, and then left.

Looking at their backs, Zhang Yichao felt extremely tired, but when he thought of young people like Zhang Huaishen and Liu Jilian who were fighting to return to the east, he felt that his tiredness was nothing.

"I'm only fifty years old, and I haven't even seen Chang'an City in my lifetime, so how dare I say I'm tired..."

He stood up and walked towards the inner courtyard, laughing heartily, and his back gradually became more free and easy.

Half a month later, he led his army to the west as the chief minister had said that day. Even though it was snowing in Dunhuang, it could not stop his determination to retake Yizhou.

It was already mid-November when Liu Jilian learned that he had sent troops to Yizhou.

"It took a month to get the news back. This speed is indeed a bit slow. I guess the Jiedushi has already recovered Yizhou."

Outside Shandan City, Liu Jilong stood up with a soft laugh and patted the dirt off his hands.

To be precise, what he had in his hands was not soil, but farm manure mixed with composted feces and wood ash.

"Guo Yi, does this thing really have the same effect as cow and horse manure?"

Cui Shu asked with a frown, in front of him was a fertilizer storage area covering several acres.

The fertilizer piles were nearly seven feet high. Not far away, people were bringing in raw manure and spreading it on the ground, which smelled terrible.

"Of course it can be used. You will know next year."

Liu Jilong responded with a smile, and at the same time, he said, "You have to choose a good place for composting. It has to be in a low-lying area to prevent the raw manure from seeping into the soil and polluting the low-lying farmland."

"In addition, the raw manure needs to be burned together with tree roots and stumps after it dries. The burning process can kill some pests, so we must not be lazy and not deal with it."

"If the manure is not properly handled, it will easily harm crops when it is spread during spring ploughing."

"vomit--"

As soon as Liu Jilong finished speaking, the wind direction suddenly changed, and a foul odor blew over from a dung cart not far away. Cui Shu, a wealthy and powerful man, had never smelled such a smell before, so he bent over and vomited all his breakfast.

Liu Jilong didn't vomit. After all, he had done too many disgusting things as a shepherd slave in the first sixteen years.

He just looked at the pool of vomit with some regret, and said: "It's a pity to spit it out like this, just mix it into the farm fertilizer."

"Ah?" Cui Shu was speechless when he heard this before he had time to rinse or wipe his mouth.

It’s a pity that the person standing in front of him was Liu Jilong, so he didn’t dare to say anything.

A few days ago, news came from the clan, asking him to follow Liu Jilong and work in Shandan. It was obvious that they saw the potential in Liu Jilong.

This is not surprising. Even Cui Shu had guessed early on that Liu Jilian would not stop at the small position of Guoyi Duwei.

Just based on Liu Jilong's training of the Shandan Army in recent days, he could guess where Liu Jilong's next target would be.

"By the way, when did Li Yizhong arrive in Shandan?"

Liu Jilong turned and walked towards the dirt road. Cui Shu quickly followed him and responded, "We have arrived in Zhangye. I heard that they need to rest for half a month. It is estimated that they will arrive at the end of the month."

"The courtyard in the city has been cleared for him, and the military camp has been expanded to accommodate 800 people for permanent training."

Hearing this, Liu Jilong was very happy and was not worried that Li Yizhong could snatch control of Shandan from him.

"Well, when he arrives, the soldiers from Qilian City and Longshou Mountain can be transferred back."

"There are still four and a half months until the beginning of spring, so we need to train our troops well."

"You must keep a close eye on the food in the warehouse. Make sure nothing goes wrong. Especially be careful of moisture."

Liu Jilong kept on explaining, and Cui Shu took the trouble to write down what he said and reported on the affairs of the military camp.

"Guo Yi, the literacy team in the military camp is too small. Why don't we ask Zhangye to transfer some Zhibai here?"

A month ago, Liu Jilong organized more than 20 Zhibai people in the city into a literacy team and asked them to start literacy education for the 500 soldiers stationed in the city.

The Zhibai people all came from powerful families, so they naturally knew how to learn Mandarin and were very familiar with its phonetics.

Although it is not known whether the Tang Dynasty at that time was still using the Heluo dialect, as long as one could speak the Heluo dialect well, basic communication would not be a problem.

"I have written a letter to the governor, but he said that Zhangye's advice is not enough and asked me to wait for a while." Liu Jilong was helpless. The imperial examination system had not been completely perfected at that time, and the children of powerful families in Hexi were too few compared to the population that needed to be managed. Even Zhang Huaishen could not find so many advice for Liu Jilong.

Zhang Huaishen asked him to wait for a while, but in fact there was no such thing. If he wanted to go straight to the point, he could only find it himself.

However, given Liu Jilong's background, he couldn't find anyone who could read and write, so he could only train himself.

He spent money to win over the straightforward people of Shandan. Besides, they were not valued by their own families and had a better future following him, Liu Jilong. Therefore, they were not opposed to the job of teaching and educating.

But compared to the 500 soldiers in the barracks, they would rather educate ignorant children.

However, Liu Jilong did not have much time to educate their children. He needed someone who could be used in one or two years.

Although children learn quickly, they have too little experience and are mentally immature, so they are easily exploited.

In the short term, Liu Jilong did not plan to educate too many children. He wanted to wait until the families of the soldiers and martyrs migrated to Shandan, and then gather these children together and teach them personally.

Only in this way will he not worry about these children being influenced by others in their education.

Besides, Shandan had few resources, and educating a child from illiterate to literate would consume too many resources, which Liu Jilong could not afford.

Military literacy only needs to let soldiers know the meaning of military orders, but children will become the foundation of Liu Jilian's local governance in the future, and the resources required for the two are incomparable.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong and Cui Shu returned to Shandan City.

After the autumn harvest, Liu Jilong arranged jobs for more than 2,000 people in the city.

Men cleared gullies and canals outside the city, checked the condition of water trucks, built high embankments during the dry season, and collected cow and sheep manure, weeds, and tree roots to burn and compost.

The women in the city are processing the hemp stalks harvested this year to make winter clothes.

The process of making linen is very complicated. After harvesting the hemp stalks, it needs to be dried, soaked, peeled, and the hemp skins need to be dried. Then the hemp skins need to be torn into threads and then rubbed by hand, soaked in water, and boiled before it can be woven.

Although cotton was introduced to the East a hundred years ago, it was only partially grown in places such as the Western Regions and Hainan because there were more cotton seeds than cotton fluff at that time.

Because the Western Regions were relatively turbulent, no one was breeding the introduced cotton, and there was no suitable cotton spinning technology.

Because of this, people’s winter clothes nowadays are mainly made of linen filled with reed fluff to keep out the cold.

Only a small number of wealthy families can afford to wear cotton-padded clothes made of silk, satin, cashmere and down.

Of course, there is no shortage of lambs in Hexi, so people’s winter clothes can be filled with cashmere, but it takes more time to process the cashmere.

"How is the sewing of winter clothes going in the city?"

Walking on the empty street, Liu Jilong asked Cui Shu beside him, and Cui Shu also explained.

"Shandan has not been delayed for too long by the war. We have already sewn more than 8,000 sets of winter clothes. It is estimated that we will be able to sew three sets of winter clothes for all the people in the city by the end of the month."

"But there's a government order in Zhangye that we have to ship 4,000 winter clothes over this month."

"In addition, Governor Zhang also ordered us to deliver more than 1,500 winter clothes to Shang Bibi and others outside the city. This totals to more than 5,500 pieces."

"Among these 5,500 pieces, 300 are fine linen garments, which consumes more linen."

Hearing this, Liu Jilong asked, "How much hemp land is there outside the city? How much is produced every year? How much is in stock now? How many clothes can be woven?"

In response to the question, Cui Shu bowed calmly on horseback and explained:

"There are more than 3,200 acres of hemp fields outside the city. Each acre of hemp field can harvest two batches of hemp every year, and each batch produces more than 20 kilograms of hemp."

"This autumn, the government treasury only received the second batch of 67,000 kilograms of hemp. If it is used to make coarse hemp clothes, it can make about 20,000 pieces."

"But according to the government order, about 1,400 pieces of fine linen clothing will be made for officials above the ninth rank in Zhangye and Shandan, so the maximum number of coarse linen clothing that can be made is 15,000 pieces."

"For fine linen, use goose down and the best cashmere; for coarse linen, use medium or lower quality cashmere."

Cui Shu explained the situation clearly, and Liu Jilong nodded and said:
"The city doesn't need that many winter clothes, so if no one is given two winter clothes, then the rest can be given a piece of linen per person to each household during the Spring Festival so that they can make their own summer clothes."

"You can write an article for me and send it to Zhangye. I believe the governor will agree to it."

After Liu Jilian finished speaking, Cui Shu naturally bowed in response.

The two of them unknowingly arrived at the gate of the yamen while chatting, and they skillfully dismounted and walked into the city.

When they arrived at the main hall, Cui Shu seemed to remember something and suddenly bowed to Liu Jilong and said:
"By the way, Guo Yi, I heard that Zhang Changshi plans to lead elite cavalry to Fengzhou after the Jiedushi recovers Yizhou, and is preparing to send maps of ten states to Chang'an."

"Zhang Changshi?" Liu Jilong was stunned, and then he realized that Cui Shu was talking about Zhang Huaishen's father Zhang Yitan.

He felt very uncomfortable when faced with this news.

According to history, Zhang Yitan would never come back after this, and Zhang Huaishen, whom he placed his hopes on, would also end up with his head and body separated and his entire family wiped out decades later.

Whenever he thought of this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but think of Zhang Huaishen's high-spirited figure.

The two were close friends, so Liu Jilong would certainly not let Zhang Huaishen suffer such a tragic end in history, but Zhang Yitan...

Liu Jilong sighed in his heart. Although he had gained weight in Hexi at this time, compared with the powerful people in Shazhou, his influence was still weak.

He could not and could not stop Zhang Yitan's doing this, because if Zhang Yitan was not in Chang'an as a hostage, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang would not believe them.

It is reasonable and logical that Zhang Yitan should be the one to be held hostage in Chang'an.

"Guo Yi...Guo Yi?"

Seeing that Liu Jilong had been silent for a long time, Cui Shu couldn't help but remind him in a low voice.

Liu Jilong was awakened by his call, with a bitter look on his face: "It seems that we have to negotiate peace with the Uighurs again."

"Well, after all, the situation is like this, we can only win them over." Cui Shu also nodded.

"Okay, let's talk about the water conservancy outside the city..."

Liu Jilong took a deep breath and changed the subject.

At the same time, a battle of blood and fire was breaking out on a grassland nearly a thousand miles away from Shandan.

"kill!"

"Hu thief mother!"

"Hu Za..."

The noisy curses and the clanging sounds of weapons clashing woke up a man in the dim space. He was thin, with cloudy eyes, and his upper body was naked and covered with wounds.

Beside him, there were seven or eight other seriously injured men, but unfortunately they were so badly injured that they couldn't speak at all.

"Were you attacked..."

The man with disheveled hair barely held himself up, looking at the curtain in front of him with cloudy eyes.

It was clearly within reach, but they were locked in a wooden cage and could not reach it.

Gradually, the sound of fighting became louder and louder, and closer and closer.

"Gao Ya..."

The man lying on the ground spoke weakly, forcing a smile.

As the man with disheveled hair looked at him, he stared at the top of the tent and said in a daze: "If I get kidnapped again, just kill me and let me die..."

"I can't live like this anymore."

"No!" The man called Gao Yaya knelt down and grabbed the man's hand: "Quanzhen, we can't die, even if we have to live in disgrace."

"Shazhou is still waiting for us, Chang'an is still waiting for us, and the governor is still waiting for us!"

He mentioned many places in succession. When the people lying around like corpses heard these places, they took a deep breath and barely twitched their bodies to prove that they were not dead yet.

"I can't go anymore, I feel like I'm dying..." Quan Zhen was short of breath, his serious injuries had made him mentally confused.

The sounds of fighting outside the tent became louder and louder, and Quanzhen's hands gradually became weaker and finally fell from Gao Yaya's hands.

"Quan Zhen!!" Gao Yaya burst into tears and hugged his brother tightly.

"Gao Yaya!!"

Almost at the same time, the curtain of the wooden prison was lifted, and a man in bright armor rushed into the tent, shouting.

Without waiting for everyone's reaction, he smashed the wooden lock of the wooden prison with a hammer and knelt on one knee to bow.

"Li Yun, the leader of the Fengzhou Tiande Army, was late in coming to rescue us, and Gao Yaya and you have suffered!"

The man's voice sounded guilty, but he woke everyone up.

"Toyosu..."

"Tian De Army..."

The eyes of several people gradually brightened. No matter how serious their injuries were, they struggled to stand up, even though they were shaky.

Gao Yaya looked at Li Yun in front of him, and the tears in his eyes were not sure whether they were due to sadness for Quanzhen's sacrifice or joy because he was saved.

“Quanzhen, Tang…Tang is here to save us!!”

(End of this chapter)