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

Chapter 421 The Tang Crown Prince Induces Surrender and Kills Prisoners

The sandstorms in Fuzhou, north of the Wei River, are very strong in spring.

Amidst the swirling sandstorm, the banner of Crown Prince Li Jiancheng was barely visible.

The completed gilded armor also lost its bright color and turned grayish.

His face was covered with a veil, revealing only his eyes, which were gazing into the distance, where the continuous camps of the Jihu could be seen in the sand and dust.

The Hu camps stretch along the mountainside.

Li Jiancheng's hand rested on the gilded and silver-inlaid horizontal sword at his waist.

"Your Highness, Chief Steward Duan has arrived," Deputy General Sang Xianhe, covered in dirt, reported as he approached.

"How many people came?" Jiancheng asked.

"Two thousand cavalry from Yanzhou, and another one thousand cavalry from Guozi and Yulin."

Three thousand cavalrymen may not seem like a large number, but for the Jihu and for the current battlefield, they are undoubtedly a vital force.

The number of Ji Hu opposite Li Jiancheng was no less than 50,000.

These Buluoji people, commonly known as Danzhou Baizhi, have a "Hu-like appearance but a Han-like speech." They still resemble the Bai Di people, but their speech has become that of the Weibei dialect. After hundreds of years of intermarriage, although many Buluoji still maintain large-scale intermarriage in small settlements, they primarily rely on endogamy.

Many villages and towns of the Qi and Qiang ethnic groups still remain north of the Wei River.
But they are different from the nomadic tribes beyond the Great Wall.

Four years ago, the Ji Hu raised an army of 50,000 to invade Yizhou. Dou Gui led the army to suppress the rebellion and defeated the Ji Hu at Huangqin Mountain, beheading more than a thousand and capturing more than 20,000 men and women.

Only a few years later, these barbarians started causing trouble again.

This time, they were instigated by Turkic Chuluo Khan, Liang Shidu and others. But after they rallied their followers to raise an army, Chuluo Khan died suddenly in Mayi, and the newly enthroned Jieli Khan withdrew his troops.

The various tribes of the Jihu elected Liu Xiancheng as their leader, but Liu Xiancheng continued to lead his troops in plundering.

Li Jiancheng seems to be courting death by taking command of the expedition, intending to use the Ji Hu to accumulate military merits. Dou Gui easily defeated 50,000 Ji Hu soldiers, so Li Jiancheng didn't take the Ji Hu seriously.

After all, Li Yi had previously manipulated Liu Jizhen, Liu Liuer, Liu Shishan, and others in Hedong.

Li Jiancheng did not take the 50,000 Ji Hu people seriously. The so-called 50,000-strong army of the Ji Hu people was actually just a gathering of men, women, and children from various villages and hamlets. There might not even be 10,000 able-bodied soldiers among the 50,000 people, and even fewer who were armored.

Yet this ragtag army of the Jihu tribe, when Li Jiancheng marched to Luochuan in Fuzhou, was ambushed by Liu Xiancheng on the banks of the Luo River. The Jihu climbed high ground, firing arrows and setting fires, attacking from all sides. Although Li Jiancheng's army was commanded by generals such as Sang Xianhe, Yu Yun, and Wang Xingmin, they fought and retreated.

But it also made Li Jiancheng feel that he had lost face.

After retreating to the plateau by the Hulu River in Sanchuan, Li Jiancheng directly beheaded more than a dozen officers and executed several hundred soldiers who had retreated first.

Hundreds of heads hung above the camp fence.

After suffering a defeat in the first battle, Jiancheng dared not underestimate the enemy again and urgently summoned Duan Decao, the general manager of Yanzhou, and Guo Zihe for reinforcements.

These days he has been camping on the plateau, not launching any further attacks, remaining unmoved by the challenges from the Ji Hu, and even allowing the Ji Hu to plunder villages everywhere.

It's not that he's afraid,

This was merely a deliberate show of weakness to lull the enemy into a false sense of security, all in preparation for Duan Decao and his men to arrive.

Jiancheng gazed at the distant Jihu camp and smiled lightly: "Order the three armies to go into battle tomorrow. They are only allowed to advance and not retreat. Anyone who dares to retreat will be executed on the spot!"

"Tell the soldiers that Duan Decao and Yun Dingxing have arrived with 5,000 elite cavalry, followed by 10,000 infantry. In this battle, we will attack from both the north and south, and we must annihilate all 50,000 Ji Hu, writing our victory report with their blood!"

A fierce wind blew all night.

The sound of war drums ripped through the dawn.

After a hearty meal, the Tang army charged down the plateau, where the Qi Hu met them in battle.
The two sides engaged in a bloody battle on the banks of the Hulu River.
As the sun leaped out of the clouds, radiating its myriad rays of light, Duan Decao, the Left General of the Martial Guard, Governor-General of Yanzhou, and Commander-in-Chief of the Fuzhou Road Army, personally led two thousand light cavalry from Yanzhou, suddenly charging out amidst the sandstorm and swiftly tearing apart the right flank of the Ji Hu.
The light cavalry of Yanzhou was the source of Duan Decao's confidence in fighting Liang Shidu for years and defeating him repeatedly.

Having fought many battles, the Han, Qiang, and Hu peoples were all skilled in horsemanship and archery.

Duan Decao was the descendant of a famous general. His father was Duan Shao, the Prince of Pingyuan, an important minister of the Northern Qi Dynasty. After his death, he was posthumously awarded the title of General of the Yellow Axe, Imperial Envoy, Governor-General of Shuozhou, and Military Governor of twelve provinces including Zhao, Ji, Cang, Qi, Yan, Liang, Luo, and Jin. He was also the Chancellor, Grand Commandant, Grand Secretary, and Governor of Shuozhou. He was the pillar of the Northern Qi Dynasty.

Duan Decao was Duan Shao's youngest son, but he also inherited some of his father's military leadership skills.

Although they numbered only two thousand cavalry, they managed to tear apart the right flank of the Jihu in one fell swoop.

Standing beneath the high banner, Li Jiancheng watched the unstoppable advance of the Yanzhou cavalry and a long-lost smile appeared on his face.

"Set off fireworks, and Guo Zihe can also launch an attack."

Guo Zihe, the Right General of the Martial Guard and the Duke of Cheng, who was in charge of Yunzhou, led a thousand cavalrymen and immediately charged out from the left flank of the Ji Hu tribe upon seeing the smoke and fire.

Although he only had a thousand cavalry, he was still unstoppable.

"Guo Zihe is quite capable," Li Jiancheng commented. Guo Zihe was originally a Sui Dynasty guard, but was exiled to Yulin for a crime. At the end of the Daye era, when there was a famine in the prefecture, he led eighteen men to capture the prefectural magistrate, behead him, open the granaries to relieve the people, and proclaimed himself the Yongle King. He established a reign title, sent his younger brother to the Turks as a hostage, and was enfeoffed as Wulishe by Shibi Khan.

However, in the first year of the Wude era, Guo Zihe submitted a memorial to the Tang Dynasty and was successively appointed as the governor of Lingzhou and Yunzhou, but his actual territory was still Yulin Shengzhou.

Because he submitted to the Tang Dynasty, he secretly investigated the Turks and reported their intelligence to Chang'an, which angered the Turks. He was forced to lead his people and people south to Yanzhou and abandon Yulin.

Guo Zihe lost his own territory. Although he still had some followers, he relied entirely on the imperial court for money and provisions. He had no other choice but to be a loyal subject of the Tang Dynasty.

In this battle, the Crown Prince personally led the troops, so Guo Zihe naturally had to give it his all.

"Liu Xiancheng is nothing special."

Seeing that the left and right flanks of the Ji Hu were being torn apart by Duan Decao and Guo Zihe's three thousand cavalry,

Sang Xianhe also led his cavalry to circle around to Liu Xiancheng's rear and attack their camp. The elderly, weak, and women accompanying the army were no match for the Left Martial General.

Sang Xianhe followed Qu Tutong to intercept the Tang army, but they defeated many of Tang generals.

Ji Hu was defeated.

Liu Xiancheng fled in defeat.
At sunset,
On the banks of the Hulu River, there were piles of more than a thousand severed heads of the Jihu warriors, and more than four thousand prisoners.

Liu Xiancheng ran away.
Most of his 50,000 followers also fled.

Li Jiancheng was not satisfied with the results; only one in ten had been captured or killed, which was not the outcome he wanted.

Three days later,
In Luochuan City,

Crown Prince Li Jiancheng ordered his men to bring four thousand prisoners to the drill ground.

Baskets of steaming hot flatbreads were carried up.

"Untie them, and each person will be rewarded with four sesame cakes."

Looking at the group of Hu people with Hu-style flatbread, I thought they were about to be executed. Some of these Hu people with Hu-style faces couldn't help but kneel down and beg for surrender, speaking fluent Chinese.

Many chiefs, both large and small, begged for their lives.

"Eat the pancake first."

Each of the chieftains also received four flatbreads, but these were filled with mutton.

They were also given wine as a reward.

"Eat up, we'll talk after you finish."

The Jihu people ate their flatbreads while shedding tears.

After the flatbread is finished,
Li Jiancheng said, "Although you have rebelled, I am willing to give you another chance to repent and start anew."

Today I will pardon you all.

The chiefs and heads of each tribe and village were granted official positions, and thereafter they were to simply live peacefully and remain loyal to the court.

The Ji Hu people, who thought they were going to be beheaded, were unexpectedly pardoned and even more unexpectedly granted official positions.

A white-haired Ji Hu knelt before Li Jiancheng and thanked him, saying, "Eternal Heaven, the Crown Prince of the Great Tang is so benevolent!" "You should all return to your hometowns and tell your fellow villagers and tribes that as long as you submit to the court, I will forgive all your past transgressions."

"As long as you surrender, I will distribute land equally among you and grant you official positions."

"I will establish more prefectures and counties, and set up townships and villages. Your chieftains will still serve as governors and county magistrates, and your people will still serve as township heads, village heads, and village chiefs. From now on, you will govern yourselves..."

That day, Li Jiancheng indeed released all four thousand prisoners and gave each of them some dry rations to eat on the road.

Next,
The Ji Hu people surrendered one after another, and Li Jiancheng accepted them all and granted them official positions.

Liu Xiancheng eventually sent his men to surrender, and presented them with ten fine horses.

Li Jiancheng immediately said he would recommend Liu Xiancheng as the governor of Beihua Prefecture, the Left General of the Martial Guard, and the Marquis of Luochuan.

Within three days,
Li Jiancheng sent messengers to convey orders to the various tribes of Jihu.
They summoned able-bodied men from all tribes to build cities and towns in the newly established prefectures and counties. All able-bodied men aged 21 and above who had previously submitted to the Jihu were required to serve for 20 days.

“Once this new city of the prefecture and county is built, it will be used by your Jihu governor and county magistrate. It will also facilitate your tribe’s future trade of goods, making things more convenient for you, and it will also help you guard against Liang Shidu, the Turks and others who come south to plunder.”

"The imperial court will provide the funds; you only need to contribute your labor."

"Each person only needs to serve for twenty days in the construction of the city. During the construction period, the imperial court will provide rations."

The order was issued.

Liu Xiancheng and others also secretly contacted each other, thinking that building a city was a good thing, since they were the governors and magistrates, and the new city would belong to them in the future.

“Summon people from all tribes and villages. Anyone who is twenty years of age or older must go to build a city for twenty days.”

The able-bodied men from the 50,000 troops who went out last time were the first batch, while the able-bodied men from the Hu and Qiang villages who did not participate were the second batch.

In short, they all have to work for their new city.

Liu Xiancheng, filled with the beautiful fantasy of taking over the new city, actively recruited soldiers.

Soon, he personally led the six thousand men he had recruited to the construction site of Beihua Prefecture, which was located on the banks of the Luo River, north of Luozhou City in Fuzhou. Beihua Prefecture was separated from Fuzhou City and consisted of two counties.

Liu Xiancheng, however, was already quite satisfied.

Six thousand soldiers arrived one after another.
Li Jiancheng was very pleased to hear that Liu Xiancheng had also come.

"There are still too many of these 'Qi Hu' (a derogatory term for people from Ji Hu).

Should we take action immediately?

"No rush, let's wait a bit longer. If we're going to take action, we have to resolve this once and for all."

Several days later, another six thousand or so Ji Hu arrived.

The last time 50,000 Ji Hu rebelled, only about 10,000 of them were able-bodied men, and more than 1,000 were killed in battle. Now 12,000 have arrived, and almost all of them have come.

"We will host a banquet tonight and invite all the leaders of the Jihu tribes, big and small, to attend."

"Send some more wine and persimmon liquor to Ji Hu."

Jiancheng gave the order with a cold smile.

Last time, we only killed a little over a thousand and captured more than four thousand, most of whom were old and weak.

Now, with a little trick, he has ensnared 12,000 young men of the Jihu tribe. Once this group is wiped out, especially the chieftains, the Jihu will no longer be able to cause any trouble.

"Your Highness, is it not wrong to deceive and kill surrendered soldiers in this way?"

"On the battlefield, as long as we can win, that's all that matters." Li Jiancheng ignored Duan Decao.

That night,

A banquet was held in the Tang army camp.
The Jihu people in the construction site also received wine and meat as a reward from the prince.

The Hu people drank persimmon tea and ate mutton soup, marveling at how benevolent and generous the Crown Prince was.

In Tang camp,
When the banquet was in full swing, Li Jiancheng stood up and said, "I'm going to change my clothes. You all continue drinking."

The prince left his seat, but the Hu people continued to eat, drink, and chat happily.

The Tang generals also gradually left their seats. Liu Xiancheng had drunk quite a bit of wine, offering toasts to the Crown Prince and the Tang generals. However, he had a high tolerance for alcohol.
Looking at the many empty seats, a feeling of unease suddenly flashed through my mind.

This feeling is very strong.
Finally, he got up too, "I'm going to run some water, hehe."

Right after he left,
A large contingent of Tang soldiers surrounded the main tent, fully armored, carrying shields, bows and crossbows, and spears. Liu Xiancheng, who was releasing water in the distance, was so frightened that the water stopped flowing.

He was shocked to find that the Tang soldiers had stormed into the tent, followed by countless screams.

Liu Xiancheng trembled all over; he finally understood what had happened.

That damned Li Jiancheng is despicable, shameless, and untrustworthy.

He fled in panic.

He left the Tang camp and ran wildly towards the Ji Hu camp, but stopped again when he got close to the main camp.

The screams in the camp grew louder, flames soared into the sky, and countless Tang soldiers charged and killed in the camp. Twelve thousand strong and able-bodied Qi Hu men, who had drunk persimmon liquor, were drunk and had no armor or weapons, so they could only be slaughtered at their mercy.

Liu Xiancheng was furious at the sight of the blood, fire, and swords fighting. In the end, he could only grit his teeth, turn around, and flee into the darkness.

Dawn.

Feng Li, the Left Guard of the Crown Prince, came to report.

"Your Highness, last night we surrounded and killed more than 6,000 Ji Hu and captured more than 5,000. Except for Liu Xiancheng, all the Ji Hu chieftains were killed."

Where is Liu Xiancheng?

"We didn't find his body. Maybe he wasn't recognized, or maybe he ran away in the chaos."

"Send men to search. We must find him alive or dead," Li Jiancheng said with dissatisfaction. Liu Xiancheng was the leader of the Ji Hu rebellion, and without him, this victory would not have been perfect.

What should be done with the more than five thousand prisoners?

"Distribute the spoils to the soldiers who went on this expedition as slaves," Li Jiancheng said, spreading out a piece of paper to report the victory to the emperor. Without even looking up, he added, "Order all generals to immediately lead their troops to attack and suppress the enemy, and make sure to eliminate them completely."

The captured Qi Hu were all distributed as rewards to the soldiers.

Feng Li was somewhat surprised.

"What, do you think there's a problem?"

"Don't dare."

“Before I received the imperial edict to send troops, the sage said that the Jihu tribe lived in the border area. These people were still accustomed to the old customs and had not been completely assimilated. They hid in the valleys, were fickle, and often raided the people and harassed the border.”

"Your Majesty has commanded me to lead troops across valleys and over mountains, to annihilate their strongholds."

"In just four years, the Ji Hu people in Weibei rebelled twice, each time with more than 50,000 people. Don't you think they were extremely wicked?"
Isn't that fickle?

"I have come here to strike them hard. This time, I will not return until I have captured 50,000 people and enslaved them, and killed 10,000. I will ensure that for generations to come, the people of the Weibei region will never dare to harbor the slightest thought of rebellion when they mention the Tang Dynasty!"

Last time, Dou Gui captured over 20,000.

However, most of them were later pardoned and released. Only a few years later, they rebelled again. This time, many of the 50,000 people are probably the majority of the 50,000 people who rebelled last time.

Feng Li came from a military family in the Guanzhong Plain. He didn't see anything wrong with the campaign against the Qi Hu, nor did he even think it was a big deal to capture the Qi Hu and enslave them.
He just felt that the Crown Prince had used deception to trick the Ji Hu into granting them official positions and luring them to build a city, and then besieging and killing them, which was not a good thing.

He established authority, but lost credibility.

Jiancheng continued writing his victory report with his head down. He praised himself for his clever defeat of the Jihu, killing all the Jihu chieftains and annihilating all the Jihu's young men. Although Liu Xiancheng was nowhere to be found, Jiancheng couldn't wait to report the victory to the emperor and directly said that Liu Xiancheng had also been killed.

(End of this chapter)