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

Chapter 592 I'm Back

The setting sun was like blood, and the landscape was like a painting.

Li Yi gazed at Jiezhou City bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun and couldn't help but sigh.

"Jiezhou, I'm back!"

Pei Ji once led an army of 80,000 to attack Jiexiu, but suffered a crushing defeat.

To control Sparrow Valley, Jiezhou is a crucial battleground.

Jiezhou and Fenzhou both belonged to Xihe Commandery during the Sui Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, they were divided into two prefectures with the Fen River as the boundary.

Under the setting sun, Tang flags fluttered atop the city walls of Jiezhou.

This city had fallen and changed hands repeatedly in recent years, but it was still in the hands of the Tang Dynasty during this large-scale invasion by the Turks.

The main force of the Turks is still in Taiyuan, and their vanguard has already penetrated deep into Jinzhou, but they do not yet have the ability to capture a prefecture like Jiezhou.

The prince's constant running left the Hedong region leaderless. Although they had a considerable number of troops, they were unable to exert any real influence. Faced with the Turkic army, the various forces could only retreat to their respective cities.

Li Yi's victorious army appeared at the gates of Jiezhou.
Seeing the red flag fluttering,

Thousands of Tang soldiers drove a vast horde of Turkic prisoners, along with herds of horses and camels, followed by many dispersing civilians.
The defenders on the city wall went from panic and unease to ecstasy.

"Lord Li, it's Lord Li leading his army."

Since the Crown Prince traveled south through Jiexiu, the officials, soldiers, and civilians of Jiexiu lived in constant fear. Faced with hordes of Turkic troops sweeping past, they dared not even leave the city to attack.
They could only watch as the Turkic army arrogantly and brutally swept across the land, looting everywhere.

Various rumors circulated, some saying Yanmen had fallen, others saying Taiyuan had been lost. People in Jiezhou were filled with fear and unease, wanting to flee but daring not to, yet staying in the city meant fearing an attack from the Turkic army.

This is how I suffer so much.

Unexpectedly, it wasn't the Turkic army that arrived first, but rather Li Sikong.

The people of Jiexiu are no strangers to Li Yi. After all, it has only been three years since Liu Wuzhou invaded, and it was Li Yi who saved them back then. Now Li Yi has come again.

The city gates were wide open.

Officials from Jiezhou led the people out of the city to welcome them.

They brought food and drink to welcome the king's army.

Cheng Yaojin showed the officials and people of Jiexiu the heads of Yilidagan and Songxie Nasijin, as well as their banners and armor.
Then they were informed of the court's appointment.

"From this day forward, I, Cheng Yaojin, am the Prefect of Jiezhou, holding the imperial insignia and commanding all military affairs of Jiezhou."

The original governor of Jiezhou was a civil official in his fifties. When he heard that Cheng Yaojin was coming to replace him, he was actually relieved.

This heavy burden has finally been lifted.

He came before Li Yi and gladly accepted the imperial edict.

In the battles of Yefutan and Shahe, eight thousand enemy soldiers were annihilated. The soldiers proudly proclaimed their victory to the people of Jiezhou.

The soldiers in Jiexiu were filled with envy and even greater respect.

During this time, they only dared to stay inside the city, watching the Turks arrogantly come and go from the city walls, and dared not leave the city at all. But Li Sikong rushed over from Chang'an.

With only a few thousand men, he annihilated two Turkic armies in a day and two nights, and completely wiped them out—eight thousand men!

"The Tang Dynasty is victorious!"

"Master Sikong is mighty!"

"The Prince of Huaiyang is mighty! General Yuchi is mighty! Governor Cheng is mighty!"

The cheers soared into the sky.

The entire city was overjoyed, as if it were the Lunar New Year.

The old man was so excited that tears streamed down his face, the woman covered her face and wept, and the children jumped and skipped along with him.

Finally, they escaped disaster.

The joy of surviving a disaster, especially the dramatic shift from endless despair to sudden hope, inevitably caused everyone to lose their composure.

The gloom over Jiezhou City was swept away.

Li Yi led his soldiers into the city and was treated like heroes.

"Duke Su, you are now the governor of Jiezhou. This is your territory, so you must treat your victorious soldiers well," Li Yi said to Cheng Yaojin with a smile.

"rest assured,"

After two consecutive days of running and fighting, the soldiers were exhausted.

Li Yi was also worried about being attacked on his way back to Fenzhou, so he simply came to Jiezhou to rest.

Slaughtering horses and stewing meat,
After a major battle, there was no shortage of dead or wounded horses. When Li Yi and his men arrived, they skinned the dead horses, butchered them, and brought back the meat. They also brought back the wounded horses.

Some horses with incurable hoof injuries were slaughtered and their meat taken back.

This time, they not only captured more than 6,000 warhorses, but also many cattle, sheep, horses, camels and pigs that the Turks had looted.

After a major battle,
Too many horses have been injured or died. Many of these injuries are to the legs, which are the most vulnerable to injury but also the most difficult to treat.

They often could only slaughter them, skin them, and eat their meat.

For the next few days, they were able to eat their fill of horse meat.

"Fortunately, we captured so many warhorses," Yuchi Gong exclaimed. The Tang army had deployed a total of two thousand cavalry, and had lost more than six hundred warhorses.
If it weren't for the fact that such a large amount of spoils could be immediately replenished after the victory, the impact on the cavalry's combat strength would be enormous.

A warhorse is very valuable; it requires not only the finest horses but also excellent training. However, on the battlefield, a single battle can result in its death or injury.
Even in daily training, injuries are considerable, and many horses can be lost during marches.

Cavalrymen are indeed money-devouring beasts.

Fortunately, we won.
They lost about 600 horses, but captured more than 6,000 warhorses, not counting those that could be ridden or used as pack animals.

At dusk,
Smoke curled from chimneys above Jiexiu city.
Li Yi gave the order.
Today, not only did the victorious soldiers eat stewed horse meat, but they also distributed the offal water to the people.

Although it's offal, after cleaning and stewing, it becomes a pot of meat.

The wounded soldiers received better treatment. They were immediately moved into clean wards, and Li Yi even provided them with sheep. Their meals consisted of mutton and soup noodles.

After a round of inspection,
Li Yi returned to the prefectural government office.
Cheng Yaojin carried the two boxes into the hall.

"Sikong, the craftsmen have already prepared the heads of Yilida Gan and Song Xie Na Sijin. The craftsman is an old leatherworker, and his pickling skills are excellent. They are lifelike, and he guarantees that they will not spoil after they are sent to Chang'an."

He opened the box, revealing two severed heads.
Two days ago, these two were still ravaging both banks of the Fen River, but now, they are both dead.

The old leatherworker's craftsmanship is indeed excellent.
After processing, it looks like a wax figure.

The fear and resentment of dying remained on their faces.

"Send a fast horse from Xizhou to Puban to present to the King of Qin, who will then report to Chang'an."

In the hall,
All the generals were very excited.
The initial victory immediately opened up new possibilities.

In these two prefectures of Fen and Jie, the two largest Turkic forces within their borders were annihilated, and for a time there were no more Turkic soldiers.

The next step is to rebuild the Fenjin defense and seal off Queshu Valley again.

"Old Cheng, you will lead three thousand men to garrison Jiexiu City and control Queshu Valley. Jiexiu must not be lost."

Cheng Yaojin shoved the two boxes containing the severed heads aside, plopped down, and said, "Sikong, should we press our advantage and expand our gains?"

The battle was very successful, but Cheng Yaojin was still not satisfied.

"Although the brothers were somewhat exhausted, there were not many casualties or reductions. After a night's rest, they were full of energy again."
There are still soldiers in the castles of Jiexiu and Lishi.
If we gather these soldiers together, we can immediately have more than 10,000 men. I feel that we can take advantage of the Turkic bastards before they can react and do a few more things.

"If we could wipe out a few more enemy forces, that would be truly satisfying."

“Good idea,” Li Yi nodded with a smile. “We can send people to scout out the enemy’s situation in the three prefectures of Fen, Jie, and Lü first. If there is an opportunity, we should not let it pass.”

Defeat them one by one, and accumulate small victories into a major victory.

The annihilation of five thousand, three thousand, or even hundreds or hundreds adds up to a considerable number.

Despite their fierce and powerful appearance, the biggest weakness of nomadic tribes on the grasslands was their insufficient population. The Turkic Khans always boasted of commanding a million archers.
In reality, the total population of the Turkic Khaganate was only two to three million, plus the vassal states.

Take, for example, the Sijie tribe, which was beaten by Li Yi and forced to pay ransom and run away. It was known as one of the nine major tribes of Tiele, but it only had 20,000 members and a population of about 100,000.

Moreover, this population level is actually very difficult to surpass, as it represents the upper limit of productivity.

Jieli Khan called for a million archers, but when he mobilized all his men, young and old, to plunder southwards, he only managed to raise a maximum of four hundred thousand.

Many of them were also harvesting hay.

The number of truly able-bodied and elite cavalrymen would not exceed two hundred thousand.

The Turks could not afford such a draining tactic.

In the last battle with the Sijie tribe, in order to redeem two thousand cavalry, Sijie Awen, the dignified Jielifa, could be said to have compromised and allowed Li Yi to make exorbitant demands. In the end, he even disregarded Jieli and ran away after redeeming the people.

Even though he ransomed two thousand prisoners, he still lost nearly three thousand men on his last southward campaign.

Even if the elite warriors only lose a thousand or so men, it is still a major blow to a northern desert tribe with a population of only 100,000.

Li Yi's battle
They directly plundered 8,000 of Jieli's troops, even though most of them were vassal tribes of various non-Han ethnicities, such as the Sogdians, the Buroqi, the Kumoxi, and the Tiele.

But those were eight thousand men who could ride into battle.

Li Jiancheng didn't need to be so afraid of the Turks, and he didn't need to run away at all.
Both Li Da'en and Liu Shirang successfully defended Yanmen City against the siege of Jieli's army.

The Turks were not good at attacking cities. As long as Li Jiancheng did not recklessly go out of the city to fight in the open field, he could definitely win.

If you, Jieli, concentrate your army, I will retreat to a fortified city.

If you dare to divide your forces to plunder, then my Great Tang can rely on various cities to send troops to attack.

Even if they lack the ability to engage in a direct confrontation, they are still evenly matched on the home turf of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Yi quickly adjusted his strategy.

Cheng Yaojin led 3,000 men to defend Jiezhou, while Fenzhou remained under the defense of Xiao Yi and Ren Zhi.

Li Yi then led his troops to garrison Lingshi City, which is closer to the northern entrance of Queshu Valley.

Li Yi will also strengthen the defenses of important passes, fortresses, and strongholds such as Zhangnan Fort, Yong'an Fort, Jiahu Fort, Yindi Pass, and Lengquan Pass.

This battle,

We have to play according to Li Yi's rhythm.

Taiyuan

Li Yi will not go to provide reinforcements.

He is now focusing on the Xihe Commandery, aiming to pacify the three prefectures of Fen, Jie, and Lü, cut off the Que Shu Valley, and first intercept the Turkic tribes that have already moved south.
Block their escape route.
That army will naturally be dealt with by formidable figures like Li Shimin, Luo Shixin, Qin Shubao, and Qu Tutong.

You do your thing, I'll do mine.

Jieli, you've taken such a big step, besieging Taiyuan with your main force and sending troops to plunder various places. You've spread your troops so widely, Li Yi and Li Shimin will have to cut off his tentacles one by one.

For dinner, Li Yi also ate stewed horse meat.
It wasn't particularly delicious, but it was still quite filling.

As night deepened and the noise subsided, the hustle and bustle faded away.

Li Yi climbed to the top of the city wall to patrol and keep watch at night. The night breeze was slightly cool, causing his robes to flutter.

His face didn't show much joy after the victory; his gaze was fixed on Taiyuan to the north, a place of unknown darkness.

Khagan Jieli is personally leading an army of 100,000 to besiege Taiyuan, eyeing it covetously. He dares not guarantee whether Li Shenfu of Taiyuan can defend the city.

Normally, Li Shenfu has troops under his command, and Taiyuan City is well-fortified, so he should have no problem defending the city.

But three years ago, Li Yuanji abandoned the city and fled.

If Taiyuan falls, Li Shimin and Li Yi's plans will be in serious trouble.

(End of this chapter)