A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 308 Establishing Emperor Yang
Pei Ji believed that one force could overcome ten strategies.

He disdained Li Yi's previous flashy actions and did not believe that Li Yi, who now held a large army, needed to be cautious.

"Within this hundred-mile stretch, our Great Tang has gathered over 100,000 elite troops. Cautious? Hahaha, Li Yi is too cautious for his young age."

When Pei Ji received Li Yi's letter, he had already arrived in Ling Shi City.

After reading the letter, Pei Ji was extremely dissatisfied. Li Yi dared to bargain with his military orders. He wanted 20,000 men, but Li Yi only gave him some surrendered soldiers and local militia. Even when Pei Ji ordered troops from two cities, three passes, and four forts to be transferred, Li Yi refused, only agreeing to send troops from Huoyi, Jiahu Fort, Lingshi, and Xiaoyi City.

If Pei Jizhen hadn't known that Li Yi had just been granted the title of Duke of Rongguo, bestowed with the title of Hundred-Household Commander, appointed Right General of the Martial Guard, Governor of Lüzhou, and Prefect, he would have wanted to have his personal guards bring Li Yi to the front lines with military orders and seize his seal of office.

"This Li Yi thinks he's gotten lucky and gained some credit, so he's become arrogant and conceited," a military advisor said.

“Good luck for young people is also a kind of strength.” Pei Ji shook his head. “Forget it, let him be. If he wants to keep more than 10,000 troops in one city, three passes, and three forts, then let him keep them. He’s not a big deal, and he’s not a big deal either.”

"Without Butcher Zhang, are we still going to eat pigs with their hair on?"

Pei Ji summoned his deputy chief steward, Jiang Baoyi, and said, “Take three thousand cavalrymen to Jiexiu City and persuade them to surrender. If Xun Xiang and Zhang Wansui are wise enough to surrender, I am willing to recommend them to His Majesty. At least one of them will be given a third-rank official position and a duke or marquis title.”

"If you do not understand the times, when my army arrives and breaches the city, do not blame me for being merciless with my weapons."

"Don't worry, Prime Minister Pei. These Xun Xiang and Zhang Wansui are just minor officers. They didn't even dare to fight Li Yi, so how could they dare to oppose Prime Minister Pei? They would definitely be terrified and flee in panic."

I will first tidy up Jiexiu City for Prime Minister Pei and await his arrival.

Jiang Baoyi immediately mustered three thousand cavalry and headed straight from Lingshi to Jiexiu City, seventy miles away. This Deputy Commander Jiang was tall and robust with a magnificent beard, and claimed to be a descendant of Jiang Wei of the Shu Han state during the Three Kingdoms period.

Whether he was a descendant of Jiang Wei is unclear to others, but the Jiang family was indeed a family of generals for generations. His father was once the governor of Qin Prefecture and the Duke of Chaoyi County in the Northern Zhou Dynasty. When Jiang Baoyi was young, he studied at the Imperial Academy, but unfortunately he was not cut out for studying and made no progress in his studies. He was a complete academic failure.

Later, through hereditary privilege, he entered the Three Guards as a bodyguard. By the end of the Daye era, he had accumulated merits and risen to the rank of Langjiang in the Yingyang Prefecture. He followed Li Yuan to Taiyuan to suppress bandits, and when the army rose again, he was appointed Zuo Tongjun, a meritorious official who joined the cause.
He is now the Right General of the Martial Guard and the Duke of Yong'an.

Jiang Baoyi was very familiar with Hedong.

Leading three thousand light cavalry, he traveled the seventy li (approximately 35 kilometers) in just one day, knowing the route well.

I rode my horse to the foot of Jiexiu city.

Clad in gleaming armor and half-clad in a red robe, Jiang Baoyi rode a magnificent Hexi horse, wielding a long, black lacquered lance.

He had a long, straight beard and an imposing presence.

Behind him were three thousand riders, their armor gleaming and reflecting the sunlight, giving off an overwhelming sense of oppression.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the horse-breeding lands of Longyou and Hexi had just been acquired, and the army was in dire need of horses. Three thousand cavalrymen were already a great achievement.

"I am Jiang Baoyi, the Right General of the Martial Guard of the Great Tang Dynasty, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Jinzhou Road Army, the Duke of Yong'an, and the Pillar of State."
"Are Prime Minister Xun and Lord Zhang on the city wall? Come out and answer me!"

Deputy Chief Steward Jiang's voice was loud and clear, carrying far and wide.

The battlements of Jiexiu gleamed coldly in the autumn sunlight.

The city wall, over three zhang high, plus the parapet, stood out like a sheer cliff on the plain.
A white Turkic wolf-head banner fluttered atop the city wall.

Not long ago, this was a Tang Dynasty city that Zhao Xun had defended, but it was breached by the evil monk Daocheng in collusion with the Wu Zhou army. If it weren't for the evil monk Daocheng, with the city's height and sturdiness, it could probably have held out for several more months.

On the city wall,

Several armored generals peeked out.

"I am General Xun Xiang of the Great Han Dynasty. I have heard that Emperor Li Yuan of the Tang Dynasty has sent Pei Ji with troops to Chang'an."
Where is old man Pei Ji?
If you are willing to surrender to my Great Han, my Emperor will surely reward you with high-ranking official positions and generous titles!

Jiang Baoyi pointed behind him, "Prime Minister Pei is leading 200,000 troops of our Great Tang Dynasty right behind us. General, only those who understand the times are heroes. If you do not surrender the city immediately, you will not lose your position as a duke or marquis!"

The two generals took turns trying to persuade each other to surrender.

Jiang Baoyi frowned. He hadn't expected the Jiexiu city garrison commander to be so stubborn; it was quite unexpected.

They were actually afraid of Li Yi's 20,000 troops in Haozhou, but not of Pei Xiang's 80,000 troops?
"Xunxiang, do you really intend to put up a stubborn resistance, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, overestimating your own strength?"

"Hey Jiang, stop wasting your breath! Yeye's right here. If you've got the guts, come and attack. If not, shut up!"

Faced with a direct refusal,
Jiang Baoyi could only retreat in frustration. With his three thousand cavalry, there was simply no way to attack the high city walls.

Even if they were to attack, once the drawbridge was raised, the moat, two zhang wide and two zhang deep, would make their light cavalry unable to reach the city.

As dusk approached,

Jiang Baoyi had no choice but to order a retreat of ten miles to set up camp and wait for Prime Minister Pei's army to arrive.

The city wall of Jiexiu.

Xun Xiang and Zhang Wansui watched the cavalry retreat like a receding tide, their faces showing no sign of relief.

"We should quickly ask His Majesty in Taiyuan for help. That old man Li Yuan is really rich. He started his rebellion much later than our Emperor, but his troops keep coming one after another."

"Should we launch a surprise attack on this cavalry force tonight? They only number around three thousand," Zhang Wansui suggested with a smile.

Xun Xiang thought for a moment and shook his head: "Let's forget it. Pei Ji's army has already arrived, and there's also the cunning Li Yi here. We should just hold Jiexiu and not come out. No matter how treacherous the old man and the young man are, we will sit firmly in the city and remain unmoved."

He pointed to the city below.

"This city isn't particularly large, but it's not small either. We have over ten thousand men, so holding it for three to five months shouldn't be a problem. But can that old man Pei Ji sustain himself with all these troops?"

"Ten thousand infantrymen need two hundred shi of millet a day. One hundred thousand men would need two thousand shi of millet alone. If there were ten thousand cavalrymen, each with two horses, those twenty thousand warhorses would consume the same amount of millet as one hundred thousand soldiers, not even counting the three hundred thousand jin of hay they need every day."

Zhang Wansui also laughed. They were in Daibei, a place that produced both horses and cavalry, and were very familiar with these things.

"This is the front line. The grain supplies need to be transferred from the rear. The losses on the way are huge, and the losses increase the further the grain is transported."

"Let alone his 200,000 men, even if we only count his infantry, cavalry, and auxiliary troops, which number only 50,000, the daily food and fodder for the men and horses would require several thousand shi of grain. The laborers transporting the grain would also need to carry hundreds of carts, each carrying ten shi. The laborers and livestock used for transporting the grain would consume a lot of resources. If this drags on for a month or two, Pei Ji himself will collapse first."

Both men participated in the campaign against Goguryeo in Liaodong. Back then, Emperor Yang Guang was superstitious and believed that a large army could crush the kingdom in one fell swoop. He would mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops at a time, which resulted in the need to conscript countless able-bodied men and livestock to transport grain, which was stored in the towns of Luhe and Huaiyuan. Many carts and oxen that arrived never returned.

They conscripted another 600,000 deer cart drivers, two people pushing three bushels of rice. The road was treacherous, and before they even reached their destination, the grain they were carrying was all eaten. Fearing punishment, everyone fled, and countless people went into hiding, some even joining the rebel army.

Xun Xiang and Zhang Wansui both personally experienced these things.

Actually, it wasn't that many years apart; only seven or eight years had passed since the first campaign against Liao.

"If that old man Pei Ji really gathers 100,000 troops and comes to the city of Jiexiu, this will actually be our opportunity," Xun Xiang sneered.

Their previous retreat from Haozhou was partly due to faulty intelligence, which led them to believe that the Tang army had arrived. However, the main reason was that they lacked sufficient siege equipment for Haozhou City, and their food and supplies were intermittently delayed.

If Taiyuan City cannot be captured, the food supply will remain a problem.

Now, the same trouble will fall on Pei Ji.

War isn't about who has more soldiers and who wins.
Otherwise, Gao Huan wouldn't have suffered two defeats at Yu Bi Fort back then. The first time, Gao Huan's army approached the fort, with camps stretching for forty miles. They attacked for nine days, but then encountered heavy snow, and the soldiers suffered from hunger and cold, resulting in heavy casualties. They had no choice but to retreat.

Five years later, Gao Huan mobilized the entire army from Guandong to launch a westward expedition, leading an army of 200,000. His camps stretched for dozens of miles, and he built earthen mounds and dug tunnels, employing every possible method, even going so far as to capture the son of the defending general Wei Xiaokuan and threaten him with a knife to persuade him to surrender, but to no avail.

After two months of fierce attacks, the soldiers suffered casualties and death, with four or five out of ten killed or wounded by disease, yet they still could not breach the fortress defended by Wei Xiaokuan.
In the end, Gao Huan coughed up blood and withdrew his troops, only to die in Jinyang upon returning there.

Yu Bi was merely a small fortress on a plateau.

Wei Xiaokuan's garrison numbered only 10,000.

For fierce generals like Xun Xiang, they were not afraid of the enemy having a large number of soldiers. As long as they had enough food, the enemy could fight as big as they wanted and for as long as they wanted. They were completely ready to fight.

···
Suburbs of Taiyuan.

When Dingyang Khan and Emperor Liu Wuzhou of the Han Dynasty received the letter seeking help from the Prime Minister, they were not flustered.

He summoned his two brothers-in-law, Prince Song, Song Jingang, the Grand Administrator of the Southwest Circuit, Yuan Junzhang, the Grand Secretary, and his trusted Right Minister Yang Funian, among others.

Liu Wuzhou was a burly man from the northern frontier.

After he became emperor, he claimed that one night, his mother was enjoying the cool air in the courtyard when a ball of fire shaped like a rooster suddenly fell from the sky and struck her belly. Zhao was terrified and quickly shook her clothes, but found nothing. Soon after, she became pregnant and later gave birth to Liu Wuzhou.

His story earned him the popular nickname "King of the Rooster's Crest" among the people.

As a young boy, Liu Wuzhou loved practicing swordsmanship, horseback riding, and archery, making friends everywhere. His elder brother scolded him for neglecting his studies, so in a fit of anger, he left his hometown and wandered aimlessly until he reached Luoyang. There, he happened upon the imperial court recruiting soldiers for the Liaodong campaign, and he enlisted.

Because of his tall and strong physique and his skill in riding and archery, he was selected as a personal guard by Yang Yichen, who was recruiting soldiers. He followed Yang Yichen on three expeditions to Liaodong and was awarded the title of Jianjiewei.

At the end of the Daye era, Liu Wuzhou returned to his hometown and became the Commandant of the Mayi Eagle Banner under Prefect Wang Rengong.

Wang Rengong was a veteran general who had fought against Liaodong. He liked Liu Wuzhou quite a bit and trusted him a lot. However, Liu Wuzhou later had an affair with one of Wang Rengong's concubines.
After his plot was exposed, he simply beheaded Wang Rengong and rebelled, proclaiming himself governor and surrendering to the Turks. The Turks bestowed upon him the title of Dingyang Khan and granted him a wolf-head banner.

Liu Wuzhou marched south, broke through Loufan, occupied Fenyang Palace, went north to take Dingxiang, occupied Daibei, ascended the throne in Mayi, established the state of Han, and proclaimed himself emperor.

He became emperor a year earlier than Li Yuan.

"Xun Xiang said that Pei Ji has arrived with quite a few men, reportedly as many as 60,000. Li Yi of Haozhou also has 20,000 to 30,000 men under his command, bringing the total to nearly 100,000."

What do you think?

Liu Wuzhou asked calmly.

The Grand Secretary Yuan Junzhang rose and said to the emperor's brother-in-law, "Li Yuan, with the military strength of a single prefecture, directly attacked Chang'an and was invincible. Now he has successively defeated Xue Ju of Longyou and Li Gui of Hexi, taking all their territories, and has also gained the allegiance of Bashu. This is the will of Heaven, not human effort."

Your Majesty, the roads south of Jinyang are narrow and treacherous, especially now that Queshu Valley is occupied by the Tang army. Although our army has captured seven cities from the Tang since our southward advance, Wenshui has also been recaptured.
The brothers Liu Jizhen and Hu from Lishi also surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.

The Turks have only talked a good game, and so far they have only sent 10,000 cavalry, but each time they have only gone through the motions without putting in any real effort. When they break through a city, they always want to take half of the spoils first.

Taiyuan City is now as solid as a rock.
Even Haozhou couldn't be conquered.
Pei Ji led a large army to arrive, and we, having penetrated deep into enemy territory, were now in danger of being surrounded and annihilated.

Your Majesty, I believe it would be better to form an alliance with the Turks in the north and establish friendly relations with the Tang Dynasty in the south, using Shiling Pass as the border. Your Majesty could then establish a kingdom and declare yourself emperor in Daibei, maintaining a peaceful coexistence with the Tang Dynasty. This would be the wisest course of action.”

Liu Wuzhou looked at his brother-in-law and shook his head.

The Yuan family was a well-known powerful family in Mayi. Yuan Junzhang was skilled in riding and archery, but he was ultimately a bit timid. People always advised him to stay in Daibei and rule the country, and not to go south.

"There cannot be two suns in the sky, nor two rulers among the people."

There can't be many emperors in this land; it's always a case of the big fish eating the small fish. If we don't seize the opportunity, are we going to wait until Li Yuan conquers Luoyang and takes over the Central Plains before attacking us?"

Another brother-in-law, Song Jingang, is a staunch advocate of war.

"I believe Xun Xin's words make a lot of sense. Pei Ji's siege of Jiexiu with a large army is actually an opportunity for us. Rather than attacking city by city, we should lure them in, defend the city first to wear them down, and then find an opportunity to cut off their supply lines."

When their army runs out of food, we can seize the opportunity to defeat them in a single field battle.

Liu Wuzhou stroked his beard, "When Haozhou was besieged earlier, that seventeen-year-old Li Yi dealt with Xun Xiang and his men in the same way."

“Yes, we call it giving them a taste of their own medicine.” Song Jingang was the leader of the bandits in Yizhou and was once an ally of Wei Dao’er. When Wei Dao’er was killed by Dou Jiande, Song Jingang led his troops to avenge him, but was defeated. He refused Dou Jiande’s offer of high-ranking positions and generous rewards to surrender and fled to Daibei with four thousand men to join Liu Wuzhou.

Liu Wuzhou also admired his loyalty and bravery, so he gave him half of his family fortune, married his sister to him, and made him the King of Song.

Right Minister Yang Funian laughed from the side, "When Li Shimin defeated Xue Ju and his son in Jingzhou, he actually used the same tactic: first, he fortified his defenses, wore down the enemy, and then attacked when the enemy's supplies were exhausted."

"I heard that when Li Shimin was fighting Xue Ju, Li Yi served as a ninth-rank military advisor in the army. Li Shimin suffered from malaria, and it was this Li Yi, who had once been a Taoist priest, who offered him a miraculous cure for malaria, which cured Li Shimin in two days. After the great defeat at Qianshuiyuan, he promptly led his troops to launch an attack and turned the tide of the battle."
It's estimated that Li Yi only learned two tricks from Li Shimin in Jingzhou and used them in Haozhou.

Liu Wuzhou laughed heartily: "This Li Yi is definitely a talent. If you encounter him in the future, do not harm him. Capture him alive and send him to me. I will make good use of him."

After some discussion, Liu Wuzhou agreed that Song Jingang would lead 10,000 Han soldiers and 5,000 Turkic soldiers south to reinforce the area.

"Don't rush, wait for the right opportunity to strike. Once we defeat Pei Ji, the entire Hedong region will be ours."

(End of this chapter)