Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 84 Returning with a Full Load
"Sorry..."

"Don't sleep! Get up and work!"

"Clap--"

On the Liangzhou grassland, the dawn mist had not yet dissipated, and the herdsmen of a tribe on the grassland began to wave whips, waking up the slaves imprisoned in the wooden prison one by one.

While being whipped, the numb herdsmen picked up their tools and walked out of the wooden prison, releasing the tribe's herds out of the fences and back into the grassland.

The petty nobles in the tribe were still sleeping soundly, while the herdsmen were proudly giving orders on horseback.

The shepherd slaves with dull eyes began to work, and all this was seen by a team in the distance.

"The pig-dog bandits..."

Zhang Chang squeezed out these words from between his teeth and turned back to look at the hundred elite cavalrymen behind him.

Their armor reflected a cold light under the morning sun, and the spears and swords in their hands trembled slightly with their tense breathing.

Facing the Tibetan tribe before them, their eyes burned with memories of decades of humiliation suffered by the Han people in Hexi, as well as their own dignity which had been trampled upon by the Tibetans for more than twenty years.

"According to Guoyi's military order, all men and the old and weak, except for the herdsmen, must be killed, and the women must be abducted!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Chang pulled out the spear that was inserted beside him and stabbed it at the Tibetan tribe in front of him.

"kill!"

With an order, a hundred elite cavalrymen, led by Zhang Chang, charged towards the Tubo tribe hundreds of steps ahead.

The metallic sound of the clashing armor cut through the wilderness, and the elite Shandan cavalry on horseback rushed down the mountain like tigers and rushed into the defenseless Tubo tribe.

"It's the Tang army in the west!"

"Help!!"

"Datang! Datang, help!!"

"Military sir, help me!!"

What the horses' hooves trampled upon was not only the tranquility of the grassland, but also the fantasy of the Tibetan nobles in the tribe to be superior to others.

The herders in the tribe were panicked. Some hurriedly picked up weapons to try to resist, while others fled deep into the camp with their families.

However, the rage of the Shandan elite cavalry was unstoppable. Their weapons were waving so hard that the wind whistled, and every swing was an expression of their venting for past humiliation.

The Tibetans' resistance seemed pale and powerless under the iron hooves of the elite cavalry. Their wailing sounds mixed with the roars of the Shandan warriors, forming a cruel picture of war.

The shepherd slaves, who had originally had dull eyes, suddenly exploded. Holding everything that could be called a weapon, they followed the Shandan elite cavalry and rushed into the camp.

At this moment, they were no longer enslaved Han slaves, but transformed into brave and warlike Han people. With ruthless killing and destruction, they vented their years of anger and unwillingness on this Tubo tribe.

Faced with the charge of the Shandan elite cavalry, the Tibetans were in chaos and were surrounded by herdsmen slaves. He waved his hands in fear, trying to disperse the herdsmen slaves who had gathered in front of him.

"Let me go, I can set you free..."

Before he could finish his words, the herdsmen raised their "weapons" on him.

The unarmed herdsmen killed the enemies with their fists and teeth, as if only in this way could they vent the humiliation in their hearts.

Under the leadership of Zhang Chang, the military and civilians cooperated to destroy the tribe, taking away the herds and captured women, and leaving behind a field of corpses.

Things like this were not limited to one place, but were repeated constantly on the Liangzhou grassland.

"kill!!"

"call out"

"Uh-"

When the Sanchen flag once again showed off its might on the Liangzhou grassland, the Shandan elite cavalry wearing armor began to sweep in all directions, and the many tribes and herdsmen on the grassland north of Fanhe City had no time to react.

The invasions by the Uighurs and the Umu usually occurred in the autumn when the weather was warm and the horses were fat. Although they would invade in the spring, the scale was not large.

Because of this, the various tribes and herdsmen in Fanhe City and Jialin City were not prepared at all.

When they saw the elite cavalry holding high the Three Stars Flag, their destruction was already sealed.

The foreign soldiers and herders who once bullied the unarmored Hexi pastoralists finally tasted the bitter fruit of their own actions. The leather armor they were so proud of was vulnerable in the face of long and blunt weapons.

Faced with the long spears of the Shandan elite cavalry, they tried to surrender in exchange for their lives.

However, in response to their pleas for mercy, the Shandan elite cavalry responded with the cold light of their spears and the arrows of their bows.

From yesterday noon to today dusk, countless corpses were lying on the Liangzhou grassland, countless slaves were freed, and countless women were captured.

After the killing, the Shandan elite cavalry would throw down the prepared Uighur flags to create the illusion that the Uighurs were invading.

As the sky gradually darkened, Liu Jilong, who was sitting in a tent, also saw Zhang Chang and several others who were leading their troops back.

"Guo Yi, it was such a pleasure to kill these past two days!"

"Finally I got my revenge!"

"That's right..."

Zhang Chang and his friends were talking at once, while Liu Jilong waited for them to finish before he spoke slowly:
"Recovering Liangzhou and Helong is what we have to do. This is just the beginning."

After saying this, Liu Jilong said solemnly: "We have gained a lot in the past two days. I guess Fanhe and Jialin in the south also know what is happening here. We can't stay any longer."

"Tell the soldiers to march west after dinner and return home with our achievements!"

Faced with the rich results of the war, Liu Jilong did not covet the tribes and herdsmen in the south, but decisively ordered his troops to retreat.

Ma Cheng and the others were speechless upon hearing this. The inexperienced Hu Siguang bowed reluctantly and said:
"Guo Yi, there are only 5,000 to 6,000 people in the two southern cities, and the elite cavalry they can send out is at most 1,000 to 2,000. We don't need to be afraid of them."

"No! Guo Yi is right." Zhang Chang reacted and said, "We are here to plunder, not to capture Fanhe. Why don't we leave now that we have obtained the goods?"

"Captain Zhang is right..." Shang Duoluo also nodded in agreement:

"We have destroyed more than a dozen herdsmen and six small tribes in the past two days. The herds we have obtained are so numerous that it is difficult to manage them. We might as well stop while we are ahead."

Hearing the two men say this, Ma Cheng, Li Ji and Hu Siguang stopped refutation and bowed in response.

Soon, eight hundred elite Shandan cavalry began to return to Shandan under Liu Jilong's military order.

During the march, even though the sun was about to set, the team walked five or six miles towards Shandan in just half an hour before setting up camp.

The fighting and forced marches made the soldiers very tired. Without their orders, the liberated slaves took the initiative to build fences and camps.

After setting up the tent, Liu Jilong and his group went inside to rest and wait for Liu Jilong's next military order.

Liu Jilong took them on a tour of the camp, and then ordered the elite cavalry stationed in the camp during the day to take over their guard duty, and they were arranged to rest.

The next morning, Liu Jilian ordered the troops to march westward, and he took Hu Siguang and several elite cavalrymen to the south a few hundred steps away to observe the troops.

During this eastern expedition, Shandan did not suffer any casualties because they were well-equipped and were dealing with herdsmen and light soldiers without heavy armor. The only two injured soldiers were from falling off their horses.

Compared to the casualties, their gains seemed somewhat spectacular.

Thousands of horses and cattle were driven westward by nearly two thousand slaves, and behind them were even larger herds of sheep.

The herds of tens of thousands of sheep are very spectacular, and the shepherds responsible for herding ride on horses without saddles.

They have superb riding skills and can be said to be natural cavalrymen.

Behind them, supervised by more than a hundred elite cavalrymen, was a team of three to four hundred captured women.

Looking at them, Liu Jilong reminded Hu Siguang beside him:
"After all, their families were killed by us. After bringing them back to Shandan, you and Shang Duoluo will escort them to the Shanzhou military camp. I think Shang Jiedu will be very happy."

In troubled times, women are also a commodity.

"Guo Yi, do you want to leave behind a few good-looking ones?"

"No need!"

Huke Siguang asked cautiously, but Liu Jilong shook his head decisively.

He has never tasted "meat" in his life, but he will not let these women climb into his bed. What's more, he was used to seeing "Internet beauties" in his previous life, so his requirements are still quite high.

Among hundreds of people, there was hardly a single woman who caught his eye.

Because of this, he also taught Hu Siguang: "What's so good about these women? When we take Liangzhou in the future, I will choose a daughter of a Tibetan noble for you!"

"With my status... this... that..."

Speaking of the daughter of a noble, Hu Siguang was a little timid, and his eyes seemed to be filled with desire, yet inferiority.

"You are my brother, so you deserve... the ride!" After leaving these words, Liu Jilong rode his horse towards the team.

Huke Siguang realized it belatedly and rode his horse to catch up, and soon returned to the team.

"You don't know, our flags are scarier to those foreign soldiers than ghosts."

"Hahaha……"

"They definitely don't think it was us who did this."

"The pig-dog bandits actually raised so many herds of livestock. I wonder how many of my Han people they killed!"

"Next time we come, I will make sure to let them know how powerful we Han people are!"

Within the team, Zhang Chang and his colleagues were still sharing their experiences of the past few days.

They laughed heartily and showed no signs of vigilance.

"Don't let your guard down. Don't forget that there are more enemies on this grassland than just the Liangzhou Tubo!"

Seeing them behaving like this, Liu Jilong scolded them harshly, causing them to stop smiling.

In the team, the Shanzhou army led by Shang Duoluo did not show any dissatisfaction. After all, they had nothing to do with the Tubo in Liangzhou.

The only thing they were dissatisfied with was Liu Jilian's method of exterminating all the Tibetan men in Liangzhou.

"When the time comes, you will take these women back to the barracks. It will be up to Shang Jiedushi to decide how to distribute them."

"Thank you Liu Guoyi for the reward!!"

With just a few simple words, Liu Jilian calmed the restless hearts of the elite cavalrymen of Shanzhou.

Seeing this, Shang Duoluo had nothing else to say except to sigh at Liu Jilong's methods.

Liu Jilong did not forget him. Although he knew that Shang Duoluo respected him very much, he could not use his past kindness to wrong Shang Duoluo.

Therefore, after explaining the matter of these three or four hundred women, he took the initiative to comfort Shang Duo Luo:

"I originally wanted to capture all the barbarians, but then I thought that if there were too many men, some would easily slip through the net and escape. Besides, they were not really willing to submit to you, so I asked Zhang Chang and his men to kill all the men."

"But you don't have to worry. I took a look at the two thousand slaves behind us and found that 40% of them are foreigners who were demoted into slavery."

"These foreign people are grateful to us. I am willing to hand them over to you to take back to the camp and give an explanation to Governor Shang."

"That's not right, Guo Yi..." Shang Duoluo responded modestly, and the resentment in his heart was also relieved a lot.

Seeing Liu Jilong and Shang Duoluo talking about this, Ma Cheng, who had been holding back for a long time, couldn't help but speak up: "Guo Yi, why don't we capture some foreigners and take them back to mine and cut wood?"

"Hmm?" Liu Jilong turned to look at Ma Cheng and said calmly, "Not enough food."

"I had forgotten about this." Ma Cheng suddenly realized that this was a common problem among generals, who only cared about fighting and not governing.

In fact, Liu Jilian also wanted to bring a few thousand foreign people back to mine, but the food in Shandan was limited. In addition, he promised to lend food to Shang Bibi, and then he had to accept five or six thousand Han people from Shancheng.

Before and after this, even if there was still some surplus food in Shandan's granary, as they continued to invade Liangzhou eastward, the rescued herdsmen would consume this last bit of food.

Liu Jilian had even begun to set his sights on Zhangye, preparing to ask for grain from Zhangye after the population of Shandan increased.

As for whether or not he would get it, he wasn't worried at all...

While he was thinking this, their actions were also noticed by the Tibetans in Liangzhou.

Since Liu Jilian ordered the Uighur flags to be discarded, the Tibetans in Liangzhou immediately thought that it was the Uighurs who came south and plundered Jialin and Fanhe.

Although the five cities in Liangzhou were independent of each other, a basic alliance still existed.

As Jialin and Fanhe sent people to Guzang to narrate the incident, Shang Moling, who nominally ruled the entire Liangzhou, also immediately summoned all the major generals in Guzang City.

As the seat of Liangzhou, Guzang has a history of more than a thousand years, starting from the Xiongnu "Gai Zang".

At its peak, the city of Guzang alone had a population of over 200,000. Today, due to the drop in temperature, cholera in Tibet and other factors, although the population has dropped to 50,000 or 60,000, the city is still as large as it once was, accommodating over 200,000 people.

However, it is also because of this that with 50,000 to 60,000 people in the city, the city seems sparsely populated, with only a few hundred people visible on one street.

Since the civil strife in Tubo, Shang Moling occupied Liangzhou and ruled the people behind closed doors. Therefore, Liangzhou did not join the chaos in Helong, and the people did not experience too much war.

On weekdays, dealing with the Umu and Uighurs in the north was Shang Moling’s main task.

Now, hearing that this group of barbarians in the north had moved south in large numbers and plundered tens of thousands of herds of livestock, Shang Moling was naturally annoyed.

In the Guzang government office, Shang Moling, who was in his fifties, sat in the main seat, glancing coldly at the generals sitting there.

These heroes were all powerful men from Guzang City. If Shang Moling wanted to rule Liangzhou, he naturally had to rely on them. Otherwise, he would not be able to gain a foothold on his own.

"This group of barbarians killed thousands of people and looted thousands of slaves and tens of thousands of herds of livestock."

"Mo Li and General Mang Luo want to seek revenge. Do you think it is necessary?"

The Moli and Mangluo generals mentioned by Shang Moling were the descendants of Fanhe and Jialin respectively.

Although they were nominally Shang Moling's subordinates, in reality the two sides had only a loose rule.

In the past, when Shang Moling sent troops to expel the Umu people, these people might not necessarily respond. But now that he had suffered a disaster, they began to remember him instead.

"These two people have been so distant to us in the past. Now that they are asking for help, we don't have to pay any attention to them!"

"Yes, what can we gain by helping them send troops?"

"Besides, it's been two or three days. Whether it's the Uighurs or the Hu people of Umo, they must have run far away by now. Sending troops to pursue them may not necessarily catch up with them."

"That's right..."

In the main hall, no one supported sending troops. After all, people would die in war, and the dead would have to be compensated, and pensions cost money.

Anyway, these barbarians are not robbers, so why should they spend their own money to help others do things?

"Zhe Buluo, what do you think?"

Shang Mo Ling glanced at a short and stocky general, who shook his head when his name was called out:

"We have other things to do right now. Helping Mo Li and General Mang Luo would be a complete waste of manpower."

"The southerners are unpopular because of the heat wave. In addition, there was no harvest due to the drought in Helong last year. I estimate that their food will soon run out."

"I heard that Lun Kongre is going to Chang'an to ask the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty for 500,000 troops to recover Longxi, Hexi and other places. If the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty really agrees to lend troops, then we will be in danger."

Zhe Buluo told the news he knew, and the generals all showed contempt when they heard it: "Five hundred thousand?"

"If the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had an army of 500,000, he would have sent troops to Longxi long ago."

"That's not the case." Zhe Bu Luo shook his head.
"Last year, Qin and Yuan surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. If there is another way to fight against the Tang Dynasty, then the Tang Dynasty may really recover Longxi."

"But for details, we still have to wait for news from the south to arrive."

"Before that, we should prepare to defend the city and stockpile food to avoid a surprise attack from Lunkongre."

After Zhe Bu Luo finished speaking, the generals did not refute. After all, their idea was not to send troops and to live comfortably in Guzang as rich men.

As for the matter between Fanhe and Jialin, let them solve it themselves.

Seeing that none of the generals wanted to send troops, Shang Moling also stood up, put his hands behind his back and said, "Since no one wants to send troops, then we will not care about their affairs."

"But this time the Hu Za actually dared to go deep into the Fanhe territory. We still have to be careful and guard against it."

"When you go back, tell your subordinates to be careful when grazing and not to go too deep into the Macheng River."

"Of course, I will increase the patrol range of the scouts, and I will light the beacon tower in time if anything happens, but it is always better to be careful."

"Yes!" The generals saluted, turned around and left the yamen.

Watching them leave, Shang Moling returned to the inner hall of the yamen and continued to live his extravagant life.

The next day, the scouts of Guzang informed General Manglu of Jialin and Moli of Fanhe of Shang Moling's attitude.

The two were naturally very angry about this, but there was nothing they could do.

If Shang Moling did not send out troops, they would not be able to penetrate into the grassland and recapture the herds with the troops they had.

Helplessly, the two could only increase the number of scouts in the north and remind the herdsmen and various tribes to be careful of the Uighurs.

As for the slaves and herds that were taken away, they could only consider themselves unlucky.

Ju Yanze was thus framed without knowing it, but even if he knew, he would not dare to use troops against Ganzhou at this time...

(End of this chapter)