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

Chapter 559 A Fire in the Night
"It's dry and dry, be careful with the candles!"

In the dead of night,

In Mayubao Village, Li Yi was writing a letter home, a smile on his face.

June had arrived in the blink of an eye, and the concubines and mistresses who remained in Mingzhou had all given birth one after another.

Zheng Rou Niang gave birth to his fifth son, Hu Ji Reba gave birth to his fourth daughter, and the Silla maid Jin Yu Shu finally got her wish and gave birth to a son, who became the sixth son in the family.

Yun Dingxing's granddaughter gave birth to Li Yi's fifth daughter, while Pei Renji's daughter gave birth to Li Yi's seventh son.

At present, Mingzhou, also known as Dugu, has not yet reached her due date.

Li Yi now has seven sons and four daughters, all biological, and he has also adopted two daughters, Li Shu and Li Yu.

Unfortunately, the war is at a critical juncture, and he has no time to return to Yongnian City in Mingzhou to be with his concubines and children.

All I can do is write them more letters.

Fortunately, Hebei is relatively stable now. After the summer harvest, the famine has been alleviated. Li Yi has been promoting land reclamation and pacifying the people in Hebei, and the results have been quite significant.

Even now, the more than 30,000 troops in Weizhou still rely on grain support from Hebei.

The joy of suddenly having three sons and two daughters was indescribable. Zheng Rou Niang and the others were all educated, and they wrote a letter to Li Yi, telling him about the children.

The five children were born close together, all in late May or early June. Both the boys and girls were born healthy and weighed at least six pounds each. Hu Ji Reba's daughter weighed over eight pounds.

Write the letter,
Li Yi picked up the tea and slowly savored it.

The night watchman's clapper sounded crisp and clear in the quiet night.
"The weather is dry, be careful with fire!" the watchman impatiently reminded him again and again.

He put down his teacup, stood up, and stretched.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from outside.

Song Yi's voice rang out from outside, "My lord, Governor Wang, Military Officer Liu, and General Li have arrived."

"What's the matter?"

Li Yi sensed that something urgent might have happened. Could it be that Ashide Jielifa was leading his troops to attack?
The door opens,

Wang Xingmin, Liu Shiche, Li Cunzhong, and others stood outside the door. Li Yi quickly scanned their faces and noticed that they all had serious expressions.

"Lord Sikong, there are beacon fires."

There are still many beacon towers on the mountain west of Mayubao.

At midnight, beacon fires shot straight into the sky.

Four pillars of beacon fire.

Smoke signals were set off during the day and fires at night. Beacon towers, built on high mountains and steep ridges, were spaced thirty miles apart and were the fastest way to transmit information.

Thirty li (approximately 25 kilometers) would take a long time even for a fast horse.
But beacon fires can transmit information in an instant; one fire after another, and it can reach hundreds of miles away in the blink of an eye.

However, the amount of information transmitted by beacon towers was limited.

at this time,

The generals of Mayubao, seeing the four pillars of fire emanating from the beacon tower thirty miles to the west, were momentarily unsure whether it was an enemy attack or something else.

Everyone assumed it was an enemy attack. The four pillars of fire indicated that it must be an enemy force of more than ten thousand men.

"Could it be that the tortoise shell and woman's dress I gave Ashide worked?" Li Yi was not flustered at all. If the provocation succeeded, that would be a good thing.

Nervous yet expectant.

Fortunately, there was a contingency plan in place.

It looks like I won't be able to sleep tonight.

Li Yi asked Song Yi to put armor on him.
"First, arrange for half of the men to be armored and guard the city, send out two hundred cavalrymen to scout outside the city, and the rest of the soldiers to continue resting."

South of Yanmen City

The auxiliary army camp was ablaze with flames and in complete chaos.

Jieli's main camp was located in the west of the city.

It was ten miles away from the servant camp commanded by Gao Kaidao.
The two battalions are not connected.

The siege is tomorrow, so Jieli went to bed early tonight.

We'll conserve our energy and prepare to teach Liu Shirang a lesson tomorrow.

In his sleep, Jieli was woken up by being pushed.

"Great Khan,"

Jieli sat up abruptly, his eyes bloodshot, his face contorted with rage, as if he wanted to kill someone.

"Your Majesty, there is a fire and riot at the servant camp in the south of the city. Flames are shooting into the sky over there, and it looks like the entire camp is on fire."

Upon hearing this, Jieli was startled.
"Li Yi raided the camp? No, Li Yi still has 50,000 men led by Ashide Jielifa blocking his way. Even if he has the ability to defeat Ashide Jielifa, he is only 20 miles away. It is impossible for him to be completely unaware of this place."

Could it be that Li Gaoqian and Li Shenfu of Xinzhou have led the troops from Xinzhou and Bingzhou to attack us together?
But there is also a large Turkic army under the walls of Xinzhou, and the Shiling Pass between Bingzhou and Xinzhou is still in Turkic hands.”

Jieli was completely baffled.
"Oh no, siege equipment."

Jieli didn't care about the lives of the tens of thousands of servant soldiers, the captured artisans and Han Chinese, nor would he care about the life or death of Gao Kaidao.

But he was concerned about the siege equipment that had taken so much time to build.

It took several months to build.
Tomorrow's siege will depend on these siege weapons.

Jieli kept shouting for Fuli to put armor on him.
While issuing repeated orders, he instructed Fuli to carry his golden arrow and relay the commands to all camps and units, urging them to quickly charge towards the servant camp south of the city.

It wasn't to rescue Gao Kaidao and his auxiliary troops, but to rescue the siege equipment.

Regardless of which Tang army comes,
Jieli believed that not many would come, and that they would not pose a threat to the 100,000 Turkic troops under Yanmen City. He was certain that their choice to attack the auxiliary troops was also to burn the siege equipment.

"Gao Kaidao, you dog slave, if the siege equipment is lost, I, the Khan, will twist his head off and inlay it with gold to make a wine vessel!"

When the Turkic army from the western camp arrived.
The servant camp in the south of the city was already a sea of ​​fire. The camp of tens of thousands of people had scattered like birds and beasts, and almost all of them had fled.

No Tang army was seen attacking.
I didn't see any resistance from the auxiliary troops either.

Only raging fires remained, along with those massive wooden siege engines: cannons, ballistae, ladders, trench wagons, trench bridges, battering rams...

They were all burning in the darkness.

Its entire body was engulfed in flames, as if it were a fire beast that had sprung out of hell.

Where are the enemies?
What about the auxiliary troops?

Where is that damn Gao Kaidao?

Senseless,

My head is buzzing.

When Jieli arrived,

The fire is almost out.
The siege equipment that cost countless hours, manpower, and resources to build has all been burned.

Jieli's face turned ashen.

He was so angry that he trembled all over.

Tomorrow we're going to attack Yanmen City, but tonight all the siege equipment was burned to ashes, and tens of thousands of cannon fodder servants and prisoners prepared to lead the charge have all fled.

"Great Khan,"

"We suspect that Gao Kaidao has rebelled. He burned the siege equipment, opened the camp gates, and ran away, also letting all his servants and prisoners escape."

Jieli clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, and shouted almost word by word with unwavering resolve: "Chase them! Pursue them from all directions! Intercept them at all costs! Do not let them escape!"

Once these traitors are discovered, they will all be killed.

I only want their heads! I'll turn all their heads into drinking vessels!

Jieli's blood rushed to his head; he was absolutely furious.

This is destined to be a sleepless night.

Liu Shirang in Yanmen City

I was also woken up in the middle of the night.

He and his soldiers stood on the south gate tower of Yanmen.
Looking down from their vantage point, they saw the enemy camp ablaze more than ten miles away.

"Is that Gao Kaidao's main camp?"

"Yes, it was that scoundrel Yuan Junzhang. He suddenly withdrew, probably because the Youzhou and Yingzhou armies, as Lord Changsun mentioned, were attacking Yunshuo. He rushed back to reinforce them. After Yuan Junzhang left, Gao Kaidao took command of the camp, including the auxiliary soldiers, craftsmen, and captured civilians who had worked on siege weapons in the original camp."

"This fire is burning fiercely, very suddenly, and extremely intensely. This doesn't seem like an accidental fire at all; it must be arson, with fires being set off throughout the camp, possibly even with flammable materials like grease and sulfur..."

On the city wall, a group of officers and soldiers sat watching the fire from the mountain, their faces all showing joy.

There's no reason not to be happy.

From the city walls, they could see the siege equipment being built daily in the camp. Everyone knew that once the Turks acquired those siege weapons, Yanmen City would be very difficult to defend.

It was almost finished being built when suddenly a fire burned it all down.
This is truly a blessing from heaven for them.

A glimmer of hope appears after a period of despair; a chance for survival emerges from the brink of death.

Liu Shirang had been observing the enemy camp in the firelight and finally came to the conclusion that "there is internal strife in the camp, it's not that our reinforcements have arrived."

Regardless of internal strife or whatever, the fire was lit well and cleverly, allowing them to continue their perseverance.

No one suggested going out of the city to attack the Turks.

Everyone knew very well that this fire was not something they could exploit for profit.

Standing atop the city wall, watching the enemy camp ablaze...
It's more interesting than any other kind of excitement.

If it weren't for the large number of enemy troops outside the city, they would have loved to open their wine and drink freely.

They just stood there watching the fire grow bigger and bigger.

They watched as countless people fled the camp in panic, yet no one stopped them.

In the darkness,
Some people rushed out of the main camp and headed towards Yanmen City, but Liu Shirang ordered that all the gates be closed tonight and no one be allowed to enter the city.

If anyone knocks on the city gate, warn them to leave immediately.

If the warning is ineffective, you may fire the arrow directly.

You can never go too far wrong.

Under these circumstances, even if Liu Shiche knew that the people coming might be former subordinates of Li Da'en who had been captured, or officials and civilians plundered by the Turks in Daibei, he would still be able to do so.
But he dared not risk letting anyone in.

"Hahaha!"

As the fire raged on and all the siege equipment were reduced to ashes, Liu Shirang finally couldn't help but burst into laughter.

So many siege weapons were all destroyed in a single fire.
The Turks were no longer capable of capturing Yanmen City in a short period of time.

He could hold out for more than 100 days before, and he can hold out for more than 100 days now!
"Jieli will have to withdraw his troops within three days."

"These next few days, all the soldiers must be on high alert, and we must guard against Jieli's retaliatory attack when he is enraged. As long as we can withstand his final blow, he will surely have to withdraw his troops."

A general asked, "Judging from tonight's situation, could it be that Gao Kaidao has defected again?"

"It's possible, but unlikely." Liu Shirang stroked the battlements, inhaling the smell of ashes in the air, feeling utterly intoxicated.

The smell of fireworks drifted on the wind.

It kept drifting towards the east of Yanmen.

A cavalry force of several hundred men, traveling under the stars and moon, their bodies still carrying the smell of smoke, galloped wildly, bypassing Ashide Jielifa's camp, and heading towards Mayubao, sixty li east of Yanmen.

They were discovered by Tang cavalry a few miles outside Mayubao.

"Don't fire the arrows,"

"I am Zhang Jinshu. I came down from Yanmen City. We killed the traitor Gao Kaidao, burned Jieli's siege equipment, and released tens of thousands of servants and prisoners captured by the Turks."
We have traveled sixty li to seek refuge with Prince Li Sikong of Wu'an.
This is the head of that traitor Gao. Please take me to see Minister Li!

(End of this chapter)