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

Chapter 536 Borrowing a Knife
night,

Bottle-shaped gate,
All 20,000 Tang soldiers were able to eat stewed horse meat. Each soldier could eat a large piece of stewed horse meat, sprinkled with salt. For the soldiers who were on the front lines, it was a rare delicacy.

"The Turks are nothing special."

A Tang soldier grabbed a large piece of horse meat, tore off a chunk, and said as he chewed.

"Of course! What three thousand Turkic light cavalry, what one of the fifteen tribes of Tiele, what a great tribe in the northern desert? Heh, I thought they were really that great."

Is this the result?

"We made such a big show of things today, but those guys couldn't even last an hour."

"They only cut off a thousand heads, and those people all knelt down and surrendered. What cowards!"

"I heard that the one leading the troops this time is Sijie Jielifa's son, their young clan chief."

"What young clan leader? Even if the clan leader came, even if his father came, it wouldn't make a difference. Our King Wu'an has never been defeated since he took command of the army!"

Chop the horse meat into large chunks, bones and all, and stew it together. Once cooked, sprinkle with salt, mix well, and eat while it's hot.
Conditions in the military camp were rudimentary, but no one cared.

It feels so good to eat meat in big bites.

The stewed meat was filled one willow basket after another. The team leaders called on their cooks to carry the meat back and arrange it in the middle.
Everyone gathered around the basket of meat and started eating.

Eat whatever you want, eat as much as you want.

Anyway, meat is hard to preserve in this weather, and since it's the Dragon Boat Festival, let's eat to our hearts' content.

Along with the captured Yan soldiers, they were also given offal, including hearts, livers, intestines, bones, heads, and hooves. After being stewed, these, along with the soup, were considered a rare treat to have some meat.

As for the prisoners of the Sijie tribe
They could only eat stewed horse meat soup with wild vegetables.

The whole army was overjoyed to have won such a great victory during the Dragon Boat Festival and to have so much horse meat to eat.

Many soldiers ate meat while laughing and shouting, "Following King Wu'an means you'll get to eat meat!"

His words garnered widespread agreement and support.

Fighting alongside Prince Wu'an, Li Yi, not only meant getting to eat meat, but most importantly, it meant consistently achieving merit while suffering minimal casualties.

Take the troops that went out after the New Year this year, for example. First, they recovered the prefectures of Hengding and Yishen and defeated the rebel army in succession. However, the Tang army suffered few casualties. The main force of Gao Kaidao and the Turks retreated without a fight.

When we cross the Taihang Mountains again to attack Weizhou,
It went very smoothly.

While eating horse meat, everyone concluded that following Li Sikong in battle meant being able to move quickly, as most of the time it was about marching, flanking maneuvers, and long-distance raids.

There are few of those head-on battles with heavy casualties.

Each time, it always feels like we're outnumbered and using strength to attack weaknesses.

Inside the fortress,
Li Yi also hosted a victory banquet for the generals.
He looked at the battle results statistics table that Ma Zhou and Liu Xian had rushed out. The battle had yielded good results; more than four thousand warhorses had been captured, all of them Turkic horses.

These horses have large heads and short, strong bodies, but short, thick limbs and sturdy hooves. They are known for their excellent endurance, can tolerate rough feed, and can adapt to various terrains such as grasslands and deserts, making them high-quality warhorses.

Li Yi made a fortune just from these four thousand or so intact warhorses.

Those horses that were wounded and converted into draft horses, or those that were too badly injured or died in battle and were eaten, were considered extra profits.

The equipment captured from these three thousand Sijie cavalry
This left Li Yi somewhat disappointed.

These men were considered the elite of the Sijie tribe's recent raid southwards, yet their armor was tattered and worn.
Some were outdated lamellar armor, and many were leather armor.

It was far inferior to the standard armor of the Tang Dynasty's imperial guards.

Their weapons were not standardized; there were all sorts of swords, spears, and short weapons such as whips, hammers, axes, and maces. Even the arrows they used were varied, including bone arrows and stone arrows.

The Sijie light cavalry that were killed and captured claimed to be the elite of their tribe, but Li Yi also noticed that there were teenagers as well as old men in their fifties and sixties.

This was very different from the young and elite troops he had imagined.

The young chieftain of the Wusui clan who led the troops was not much older than Li Yi, in his early twenties, and quite unruly.

After the victory celebration banquet,

Li Yi had him brought up for questioning.

"The Sijie tribe was originally a Tiele tribe from the northern desert, nomadic in the north, far away from our Great Tang. Why would they act as accomplices to the tyrant, joining forces with Jieli to invade our Great Tang territory and plunder our Han people?"

Wu Sui's hands were tied behind his back.

Standing there, he was still very unconvinced.

He didn't understand why Li Yi could still have such strong fighting power after defeating Gao Kaidao's 30,000 men.

Didn't Gao Kaidao say that the Tang army that attacked Weizhou was the Dingzhou army, which only numbered 20,000?

But today, the Tang army that ambushed and besieged him numbered nearly 20,000, and none of them showed any signs of injury.

He even suspected that Gao Kaidao might have already surrendered to the Tang Dynasty again, which was why he had lied to them like that in Fanzhi City.

A Turkic translator faithfully translated Li Yi's words to Wu Sui.

Wu Sui stared at Li Yi, refusing to answer.

"Untie this young clan chief of the Wusui clan."

Li Yi already knew that the Sijie tribe was one of the most powerful of the fifteen Tiele tribes in the northern desert. Like the Uyghurs, Pugu, Bayegu, Tongluo, and Xueyantuo, their leader was appointed as Jielifa by the Turkic Khan.

Jielifa's status was above that of Sijin, and Sijin was above that of the chieftain.

Wu Sui's father is the current leader, Awen, whose title is Jielifa.

These major tribes all had large populations. For example, the Xueyantuo migrated from the Western Regions to the northern desert, and their tribe numbered 70,000 tents.

The Bayegu tribe had 60,000 households and a population of 100,000. The Uyghur tribe had 100,000 people.

Both Tongluo and Sijie had a population of 20,000.

On the grasslands, a tent is equivalent to a family, with at least five or six people, and some may even have slaves. Twenty thousand tents mean at least one hundred thousand people.

They can have 10,000 troops, or even up to 20,000.

If Sijie's tribe has 20,000 tents, then he can also have at least 10,000 soldiers.

Twenty thousand households—in the Tang Dynasty's interior, just in the twenty-two counties surrounding the capital in Guanzhong, any one county would have twenty thousand households.

But in the border regions, especially at this time, a county only has a few thousand households. Even now, the entire Weizhou, which has three counties under its jurisdiction, doesn't even have ten thousand households in total.

The Thought Department is indeed quite strong.

They have a total population of soldiers and can muster 20,000 troops, which are light cavalry. In contrast, Weizhou, even if it pulls all its able-bodied men into the army, can only muster three to five thousand local militia at most.

This is precisely why the nomadic tribes, when invading the southern border regions of the Central Plains, were always able to plunder and plunder with unparalleled success.

Without the regular army of the imperial court,
The border areas are sparsely populated, and those who farm can't compete with those who herd livestock.

“Wusui, you are now a prisoner of my Great Tang. Don’t get your identity wrong. If you are so ignorant of the times, then I don’t mind cutting off the heads of the remaining two thousand Sijie prisoners. Right here in front of Pingxing Pass, I will use your heads to mix with mud and build a Jingguan.”

After the translator finished translating this passage

Wu Sui's expression finally changed.

“You southern barbarians are all liars! You and Gao Kaidao conspired to deceive our Sijie tribe. Don’t be too smug…” the young chieftain of Wusui said angrily.

After being defeated and captured, he racked his brains but couldn't understand why he had lost so badly, losing all three thousand men.

After much thought, he came up with a possibility.

After Gao Kaidao was captured by the Tang army in Weizhou and Beiyanzhou, he became a stray dog. At Pingxing Pass, facing Li Yi, he knew he was no match for him, so that damned guy led his troops to surrender to the Tang army.

But they came to Fanzhi City claiming that the entire army had been wiped out.

This led them to believe that Li Yi and Gao Kaidao had both suffered heavy losses, and that he had come to take advantage of the situation, only to fall into an ambush.

That must be it, and that's the only way it can be.

Unable to communicate with Wu Sui, Li Yi had him taken away.

"What does Sikong intend to do with those two thousand prisoners?"

"Kill them. Keeping them alive is a waste of food, and releasing them is like letting the beasts go back to the mountains."

Many generals advocated killing them, as these men had the blood of the Tang people on their hands.

"Sikong, it would be such a waste to kill them. There are two thousand Hu cavalry. Although they are not all young and strong, there are also old and young men, but there are still two thousand men."

Why not take them to the military market in Lingqiu City and sell them? The merchant caravans accompanying the army would all be willing to take them.

One could be exchanged for a few thousand coins, which could amount to ten thousand strings of cash. This could be used to reward meritorious service, provide relief to the wounded and injured, and purchase provisions and supplies. Wouldn't that be good?

After some investigation...
Li Yi then learned that Wu Sui's three thousand cavalry were actually a thousand elite soldiers, accompanied by two thousand retainers. That is, one warrior with two attendants, one to guard the camp and herd horses, and the other to gather hay and capture people.

This practice of one person leading two others is also a tradition of nomadic tribes on the grasslands when they go to war, as nomadic tribes on the grasslands primarily wage war by plundering.

Young and strong soldiers are the main force in fighting. Bringing along an older and a younger soldier makes them helpful assistants on the expedition. The younger ones are usually children of soldiers, who are brought along to the army and taught experience gradually. When they grow up, they will naturally become experienced soldiers themselves.

Of Wu Sui's three thousand cavalry, one thousand should be considered elite cavalry, with two thousand auxiliary soldiers or household guards.

In response to the order from Khan Jieli, the leader of the Sijie tribe, Awen Jielifa, led 10,000 cavalry south, which should actually consist of 3,000 to 4,000 elite troops, along with 6,000 to 7,000 herdsmen who were busy gathering grass and grain.

The Wu Sui lost three thousand men here. Even if only a thousand of them were elite, it could be said that the Si Jie tribe suffered a devastating blow.

"Send a letter to Jielifa Sijie Awen of the Sijie tribe in Fanzhi City, telling Awen that his son was defeated at Pingxing Pass and all three thousand of his men were killed."

Now his son, Wu Sui, and two thousand men are my prisoners.

"Does Sikong intend to negotiate peace with the Sijie tribe?"

Li Yi looked at the map on the table and said, "Notify Awen and see his reaction. Of course, while we're at it, use the Sijie Department to settle things with Gao Kaidao."

"To settle the score at Gao Kaidao?"

"Didn't Wu Sui deceive them by claiming that Gao Kaidao had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, but instead tricked them into believing that the Sijie tribe was attacking, thus falling into an ambush?" Li Yi said with a smile.

Liu Shiche's eyes lit up. "Haha, is Sikong trying to sow discord?"

"Whether there are dates or not, let's play a couple of rounds."

The Turks were quite fond of using divisive tactics against the Tang Dynasty. They had previously sent Li Yi a wolf-head banner to sow discord between him and the emperor, but it failed. Later, they tried to sow discord between Li Zhongwen and Li Yi, which succeeded in getting him executed by the emperor.

Gao Kaidao, a traitor who betrayed his country and led the invasion of foreign tribes, is a collaborator with the Han people. Even if he is now a stray dog ​​with only a few hundred men left, Li Yi does not want to let him go.

"Have Wusui send a letter to Awenjieli in Fanzhi County, telling him that Wusui and two thousand Sijie cavalry are in our hands."

Liu Shiche understood that the key lay with Wu Sui, the messenger.

Wu Sui will definitely have his subordinates relay his suspicion that Gao Kaidao has surrendered to the Tang Dynasty to A Wen. After Si Jie suffered such a great loss this time, how could A Wen not report Gao Kaidao to Jie Li?
Is Jieli the one who opened the way to the high place or the one who led the Jieli tribe to the Awen?

Regardless of whether Awen has any real evidence, Gao Kaidao is already a stray dog. Does Jieli need evidence? He has no value to be used anymore. Wouldn't it be better to just crush him and be done with it?

Li Yi from beginning to end,
He wasn't worried that attacking Wusui would attract Awen's attention. He sent a message to Awen and even secretly hoped that Awen would actually lead his troops to attack.

Holding the position at Pingxing Pass and waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out is much safer than launching a proactive attack on Fanzhi City.

Fanzhi County is eighty li away from Yanmen City in Daizhou. Now, Jieli's army of more than 100,000 is right under Yanmen City, and Li Yi does not want to take any risks.

(End of this chapter)