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

Chapter 533 20,000 Captured
A bright red sun bursts forth.

The morning glow paints the river and sky red.

Beneath the small, bottle-shaped Guantun Fortress, rivers of blood had already flowed.

For the Yan army, last night's siege was like a nightmare.

The sound of horses' hooves thundered.

The ground is shaking.

With bloodshot eyes as if in a nightmare, Gao Kaidao turned his head and saw a cavalry charge suddenly coming from the direction where the sun was rising, under that blood-red sun.

Gao Kaidao was in a daze, momentarily losing his focus.

The long, stirring sound of the bull horn echoed through the air.
The Tang cavalry, having rested and recuperated, poured out of the city like a raging torrent. Their warhorses puffed out white steam, their iron hooves pounding the dirt road and kicking up clouds of dust.

The cavalry's lances gleamed coldly in the morning sun.

The pass and the fort are only about two miles apart.

The cavalrymen left the pass and arrived in an instant.

The Yan army below Tunbao was exhausted after a night of fighting, and their morale had plummeted to rock bottom.

When the earthquake trembled, many people simply turned their heads and looked around blankly.

Only the Yan army east of Tunbao saw the Tang cavalry rushing in like a red tide.

They swooped down.

Unstoppable.

The leading cavalry general was none other than Su Dingfang, the vanguard cavalry general of Li Yi, a man of unparalleled skill in Hebei.

Three thousand light cavalry directly tore apart the Yan army besieging the city to the east of Tunbao.

Su Dingfang took the lead, his elite cavalry like red-hot iron rods piercing solidified grease, causing chaos and falls wherever they went.

The distance is too close.

The Yan army didn't even have time to form a defensive formation.

Unorganized, scattered soldiers are no match for a concentrated cavalry force; they are nothing more than chickens and dogs, slaughtered indiscriminately like cutting melons and vegetables.

They even treated their light cavalry like heavy cavalry, charging directly into the enemy ranks.

The cavalry's lances pierced the chests of Yan infantrymen, the horses' hooves knocked archers away, and the horses' hooves broke bones.

Like a whirlwind sweeping away the clouds,
The cavalry gave the Yan army no chance to regroup and counterattack.

Under the rising sun in the east,

Another infantry force emerged from the city gates, led by Li Xuantong, Wang Xingmin, and Yun Shiduan, each commanding a thousand armored infantrymen.

The bugle call resounded.
On the city wall, Li Yi ordered his soldiers to light the red beacon fire signal.

That was an order for a full-scale counterattack.

Tunbao city wall,

Although Liu Heita hadn't slept all night and his eyes were bloodshot, he was exceptionally excited.

A great battle that night
It reminded him of the great battle in Hebei last year, when he led his troops to fiercely attack Mingshui City, which was defended by Li Yi. At that time, he attacked while Li Yi defended. He led tens of thousands of troops to launch a strong attack, along with many artillery pieces, but was completely defeated by Li Yi.

Li Yi possessed a large number of artillery pieces, but deliberately concealed them from use. When Xia Jun had pushed all his artillery pieces, crossbows, and siege engines to the front lines, Li Yi struck first, destroying these siege weapons with his own artillery pieces and crossbows.

last night,

He was on the defending side; Gao Kaidao had 20,000 men attacking his 3,000.
Under the counterattack of numerous sharp weapons such as bows and crossbows, rock grease, molten metal, boiling water, ballistae, and artillery, Gao Kaidao's hasty siege yielded little progress except for leaving behind countless corpses.

The only progress was that the Yan army had almost filled in the deep trench with their corpses, which had piled up into a slope under the city wall.

"Bang the drum!"

"City cavalry, assemble! Follow me and we'll break out!"

If it weren't for the prior instructions from Prince Wu'an, Liu Heita would have tried to break out of the city more than once last night.

Liu Heita was not the kind of person who would be attacked at will.
He was the one who took the initiative to attack.

They were besieged all night.
I can finally vent my frustrations.

"kill!"

The city gates and barbicans of the North and South Tunbao were opened one after another, and the drawbridges were lowered.

A thousand light cavalrymen split into two groups and charged out of the city from the north and south.

Liu Heizi stood on the city wall and took over command.
They discovered that the Yan army was collapsing like an avalanche under the fierce counterattack of the Tang army, with the collapse of the area wherever the cavalry charged.

"The Yan bandits have been defeated!"

The Tang soldiers on the city wall cheered.

Liu Heizi saw that the Yan army was turning around and retreating.

He roared excitedly, "Follow me and charge out!"

There is no longer any need to defend the city.

Six thousand infantry and cavalry charged out from the pass; the Yan army had already been defeated.
What are we waiting for now?

Liu Heizi charged down the ramp from the city wall, followed by a group of guards who were yelling.

This is the time to hunt.
This is also the time for harvest.

It was a time for beheading enemy soldiers, capturing prisoners, seizing enemy flags and drums, and seizing enemy warhorses and weapons.
What are you waiting for?

Offense and defense change shape.

Gao Kaidao led more than 20,000 men to attack Tunbao for a whole night. Lacking artillery and weapons, they suffered heavy casualties last night, but probably only about a thousand died.

In fact, they still have a significant numerical advantage.
But at this point, having a large number of people is no longer useful.

The morale of the Yan army had long since plummeted, and they were utterly exhausted.

The Tang army then launched another 6,000 elite infantry and cavalry from the pass, with banners fluttering like a forest above the pass, which had already terrified the Yan army.

Two or three thousand more people broke out from the fortified village.

The Yan army suffered a crushing defeat.

They fled like the receding tide, only to be intercepted and killed by thousands of Tang cavalry.

The rising sun was stained red with blood.

Gao Kaidao is on the run.

Like a stray dog,
Several thousand Tang cavalrymen were in hot pursuit.
In order to escape this hellish battlefield, Gao Kaidao donned his gilded, gleaming fish-scale armor, his brocade cloak, and his phoenix-winged helmet.

They were all thrown away, one by one.

He couldn't even take care of his own troops.

Under the protection of several hundred adopted sons, they fled frantically towards Yanmen Pass in Daizhou, hundreds of miles away, where the Khaganate of the Eastern Turks, Jieli, resided, commanding an army of over ten thousand Turks. The Tang cavalry pursued them for thirty miles.
Stop the pursuit.

Su Dingfang, Liu Heita, and several other cavalry generals blocked and intercepted them at the foot of Gushan Mountain.

On one side is the Hutuo River, on the other side are mountains, and in the middle lies a solitary mountain, isolated in the valley. Thousands of cavalrymen blocked its path.
The Yan army had not yet had time to escape.

They were all trapped in the huge pocket surrounded by mountains.

Surrender without killing.

With Tang infantry pursuing them from behind, Tang cavalry intercepting them from the front, and light cavalry searching and driving them away, the Yan rebel army was in despair.

I can't run anymore.

My stomach was so hungry I was vomiting acid.

Faced with the desperate situation, many of the rebels threw down their weapons and surrendered after the Tang army offered them mercy.

On the bottle-shaped gate tower,
Good news kept coming back.
Another soldier brought news of victory, but Song Yi stopped him.

"Sikong didn't sleep all night, he's asleep now, don't disturb him."

He summoned a soldier and led the knights to find Ma Zhou and Liu Xian.

Li Yi only went to sleep after the Yan army had been defeated at dawn.

The overall situation has been decided.

I stayed up all night and I'm really tired.

After that, it was just a waste of time: a thirty-mile chase, interception and search, recruitment and capture, and cleaning up the battlefield.

Just hand it over to the generals.
There's no need for him, the commander-in-chief, to personally oversee things anymore.

On the gate tower in early summer, a gentle mountain breeze was blowing, and Li Yi was sleeping soundly.

I slept until the afternoon.
hungry.

"How is the situation?" Li Yi asked.

Ma Zhou and his men had already summarized the results of the battle and reported them to Li Yi with smiles.

"The results were very fruitful, with a total of more than 1,500 heads taken, of which about 1,000 were killed by the rebels when they attacked the city last night."

In addition, 20,000 people were captured. They were blocked by Generals Liu and Su, and the vast majority of them surrendered.
Only some escaped.

"We captured a number of horses, armor, weapons, and a batch of grain."

Li Yi nodded, "Not bad, did you catch Gao Kaidao?"

"No, we found his gilded armor, phoenix-winged helmet, and brocade cloak. This rebel must have fled in disarray."

"It's a bit of a pity, but after this battle, all his troops were wiped out. He probably only managed to escape with a thousand or eight hundred men. He's practically a dead dog now."

Liu Shiche came over.
"Gao Kaidao will surely flee to Fanzhi County, which is 120 li away from here. Should we pursue him and capture him?"

"There's no need," Li Yi waved his hand.

He said to Song Yi, "Get some food and brew some tea."

Li Yi instructed that the Tang army should not cross the line from Gushan, and that some scout cavalry could be sent to the vicinity of Fanzhi County to scout out enemy movements.

Clean up the battlefield.

Register the results of the battle.

Record meritorious deeds.

After a great battle, both sides had many wounded horses. The horses were slaughtered, stewed, and distributed to the soldiers as an extra meal.

Wait till night.

The generals returned one after another to the bottle-shaped fortress inside the pass to report.

Li Yi prepared drinks and barbecue for everyone.

They ate and talked in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere.

"This battle was fought exceptionally well. The Yan bandits were annihilated in one fell swoop, and the great mission was accomplished!"

The generals reported and summarized, all saying that it was the Minister of Works who had made the best plans.

"Our thorough preparations were one aspect, but another was that Gao Kaidao acted rashly and impulsively this time. Gao Kaidao is usually quite skilled at both defending and attacking cities, and his troops have a history of being adept at building siege weapons and conducting sieges."

But this time, he lost his home.
Eager to recapture Weizhou and Beiyanzhou, they launched a brute-force attack on a small fortified town without fully understanding the situation, lacking even siege equipment or artillery.

Gao Kaidao treated the garrison troops of Tunbao as if they were landlords' estates, robbing them with the same old plundering tactics, still reminiscent of bandits.
But they encountered the elite of the elite.
It's not surprising at all that someone has lost a mouthful of teeth.

At any time, underestimating the enemy and being careless will always come at a price.

For example, Li Da'en in Shuozhou,
He made the grave mistake of underestimating the enemy, which led to the complete annihilation of his army in Xincheng. Although Dugu Sheng also bears a great deal of responsibility for failing to arrive on time, as a decision-maker, he also had to adjust the plan according to the battlefield situation.

To venture deep into enemy territory, to be exposed right under their noses, and to keep delaying our chances of winning a battle—what else is that but suicide?

What should be done with these prisoners?

Qin Wutong asked many questions that the generals were concerned about. Everyone was very angry with these Yan soldiers. They were fickle and plundered Hebei. Many people did not want to let them go.

“There is still a lot of land in Weizhou that has not been cultivated. Organize these 20,000 prisoners into a military farm, with 200 people forming a unit, and cultivate 5,000 mu of land.”

The 20,000 prisoners were organized into 100 villages, and 500,000 mu of farmland were cultivated.

Under the current conditions, with the military settlements employing extensive farming methods, the yield per mu (unit of land area) might only be seven or eight dou (unit of dry measure).

But if you take away the seeds, six dou per mu is still pretty good, after all, fifty mu can yield 300,000 shi.

This is the border region of Weizhou, and it's also a war zone during wartime.

The harvested grain can be spared the huge costs of transportation.

Two hundred people set up a village and cultivated five thousand mu, which is equivalent to each person cultivating only twenty-five mu.

In total, the soldiers' own rations amounted to seven and a half shi per year, and they could still have about seven and a half shi left to hand over.

Those 20,000 soldiers could still pay a surplus of 150,000 shi of grain per year.

It's still quite considerable.

"Tell these prisoners that they will be able to settle down in Weizhou and cultivate the land. After the autumn harvest, they can return to their hometowns. Alternatively, they can stay in Weizhou and settle down. Each of them will be given 100 mu of land. If there are any surplus men in their families, each of them will also be given 100 mu."

The fact that they were allowed to cultivate the land here for a season was tantamount to reforming them through labor for their rebellious mistakes.

Liu Shiche thought the punishment was too lenient. "Sikong, the usual practice for military settlements is that each settlement has 50 mu of land to cultivate, with 100 people per settlement and 5,000 mu of land cultivated."

“Weizhou’s conditions are not good right now. Fifty mu per person is a bit too much. Let’s start with twenty-five mu. When conditions are better, we can cultivate more,” Li Yi said, waving his hand.

There's no need to set such high expectations right away; take it slow.

Of course, there are fewer farmhouses, but during the off-season, other activities can be organized, such as building forts and roads, logging, mining, and transportation.

(End of this chapter)