Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 71 Massacre
The Fengxiang Army quickly retreated to the rear and deployed near Baoyi City.

Then their position was filled by the second squadron's assault general, whose commander was none other than Zhao Huaian's elder brother Xianyu Yue.

Zhao Huaian never expected that the second person would be Yang Qingfu's direct general. Looking at his elder brother wearing armor and helmet rushing to the front line in the distance, Zhao Huaian was both confused and worried.

The situation in the south and north of the city is still unclear, but the main attack direction in the east of the city has greatly reduced the morale of the Fengxiang army after the incident.

The fighting spirit of the soldiers, which had just been aroused by Yang Qingfu, was almost completely wiped out in an instant.

In this case, his elder brother, as the second in command, is actually no different from the first in command. How can Zhao Huaian not be worried?

But at this time, Zhao Huaian could only watch anxiously as Xian Yuyue and the others rushed to the front line with the sound of the horn.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian cursed in his heart:
"Li Changyan, you really deserve to die."

……

Zhao Huaian didn't know that the Fengxiang army general Li Changyan was being led into the big tent in the rear.

As soon as he entered the stage, Li Changyan lowered his posture very low and apologized as soon as he came in:
"General Yang, I am guilty of not being able to control my men. Sigh, General Yang, give me another chance, and I will lead my brothers to charge again. Now that we have the reward from the General, we brothers will capture Qiongzhou City for you."

Sure enough, after hearing Li Changyan's pleas for mercy, Yang Qingfu, who was still wearing armor while sitting on a stool, nodded.

Just when Li Changyan was secretly rejoicing, Yang Qingfu suddenly said:
"I've given you a chance. If I give you another, you'll have no choice but to go down there and fight for the Tang Dynasty again."

After saying this, Yang Qingfu angrily scolded:

"Li Changyan, you fled in the face of battle and deserve to be executed. What else can you say?"

Li Changyan was stunned. Suddenly he looked at the surrounding generals who were watching him eagerly and shouted:

"That's not the case, Marshal. It was the people below who mutinied and rebelled. I have nothing to do with it. I, Li Changyan, have shed blood for the Tang Dynasty and served it with loyalty. Marshal, you cannot kill me. You cannot kill me."

But Yang Qingfu above didn't respond at all, just sneered.

Seeing several armored soldiers approaching, Li Changyan, feeling desperate, became furious and roared before crashing through the curtain.

The two bamboo poles were carried away directly, but just as Li Changyan was about to lift the curtain hanging on his body and prepare to escape, he suddenly felt a severe pain in his calf bone and fell to the ground immediately.

Teacher Yang, who came up from behind, was holding a flail, and he had just used it to break Li Changyan's calf.

Teacher Yang was about to go up and kill Li Changyan when he suddenly heard his father shouting from behind:

"Bring him to the front of the battle line and execute him."

Teacher Yang had a different idea. He thought that such a thing could not be made known to everyone.
But he turned his head to look at his father behind him and did not say this sentence. He sighed, grabbed Li Changyan's neck, and dragged him out of the military tent.

Behind him, Yang Qingfu cursed:

"The dynasty was ruined by these people. Their death is not a pity. Humph!"

Teacher Yang left the tent. Li Changyan howled like a ghost along the way. He shouted:

"The bastards are rebelling. They want to kill all of us foreign soldiers. Brothers, take up your swords and fight them."

It’s a pity that no one paid any attention to Li Changyan.

Because the soldiers surrounding the big tent were all from western Sichuan, they looked at Li Changyan indifferently as he was dragged away like a dead dog.

Yang Shifan, who was in front, acted as if he didn't hear anything and dragged the half-dead Li Changyan towards the camp where Xiangjun was resting.

……

When Li Changyan was called to the military tent, hundreds of Fengxiang troops were stationed near Baoyi City.

Not only that. As soon as they came down from the battlefield, the logistics department began to bring wine and meat here to reward these "meritorious soldiers."

So a strange scene happened before our eyes. The defeated soldiers who had fled from the battlefield without fighting were not only not punished, but were also eating meat and drinking wine calmly under the gaze of friendly troops.

Some young officials in Baoyi City were shocked by the shamelessness of these old soldiers and ruffians, and they started to curse them.

This directly ignited the powder keg. These Fengxiang soldiers were already unhappy with Baoyi, and now that they had just successfully mutinied and not only were they not punished but they were also enjoying wine and meat, their arrogance reached the extreme, so they began to clamor and wanted to fight these Baoyi soldiers.

But at this moment, the Fengxiang soldiers suddenly found that the swords and knives around them were gone. When they went to look for them, they saw the group of civilians who had been carrying wine and meat hurriedly fleeing with their weapons.

The Fengxiang soldiers were panicked and realized something was wrong immediately. But just as they were about to run, two teams of armored soldiers suddenly came up from the front and back. They were the Chengdu generals.

Zhao Huaian was also shocked. He leaned over the donkey cart to see what was happening.

Then they saw the armored soldiers on both sides rushing into the Fengxiang army and killing people indiscriminately, while the Fengxiang soldiers who had no weapons just cursed and wailed while fighting with these people.

Just when Zhao Huaian was unsure which side was causing the riot, he saw Yang Shuai's son, Yang Shifan, dragging a half-dead man over.

Zhao Huaian took a closer look and saw that this was Li Changyan who had just been called over.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian suddenly came to his senses.

Looking at the slaughtered Fengxiang soldiers, Zhao Huaian smacked his lips, a little coldly: "Our General Yang is too cruel, isn't he? He wants to kill more than 500 Fengxiang soldiers without saying a word? Wow, these warriors."

But before Zhao Huaian could feel the grief of the rabbit's death, Teacher Yang suddenly shouted at him:
"Zhao Da, the Fengxiang soldiers are fleeing in the face of battle and disobeying military orders. You must lead your troops to suppress them immediately."

Zhao Huaian immediately came to his senses and realized that Xiao Yang wanted him to do the dirty work.

He wanted to refuse, but Zhao Huaian looked at the Fengxiang soldiers who were almost killed, and he had a plan, and shouted back:

"I will obey my orders."

After saying this, he whispered to Lao Liu beside him:
"Six, take Gao Renhou and his team and slowly push forward. There's no rush."

Lao Liu was a very smart guy. He thought of a solution in a blink of an eye. He jumped off the donkey cart with a shout and ran towards Gao Renhou.

Most of Gao Renhou's troops were infantrymen, but they were not here. Instead, they had to be transferred from the other end.

So, when Lao Liu took Gao Renhou and the others back to the front line after a circle, there was no one alive.

Even though our Sixth Brother had seen blood, sweat broke out on his forehead when he saw the mountains of corpses and the sea of ​​blood in front of him. As a native of Guanzhong, these Fengxiang soldiers were actually half of his fellow villagers.

Like his fellow villagers, Zhao Liu looked down on the people of Shu, thinking they were cowardly and spineless. But when he saw his fellow villagers being slaughtered like animals, Zhao Liu was a little scared.

These people are really cruel.

The bloody slaughterhouse was now filled with stench when blown by the wind. Zhao Liu didn't want to stay any longer, so he took Gao Renhou and the others back to the camp.

Just as he came over to report to Zhao Da, he saw Zhao Da talking to Teacher Yang, so he stood where he was.

……

On the donkey cart, Teacher Yang stood up but was not as tall as Zhao Huaian, so he simply stood in the front.

He watched Zhao Huaian's soldiers circle around before reaching the front, and snorted in his heart. He squinted at the respectful Zhao Huaian and said:
"Zhao Da, my father admires you, so he promoted you to your current position. Let me give you a word of advice: you can be cunning in your work, but you can't be a human being. You must never forget your roots in both your work and your life."

Zhao Huaian listened to this ancestor of several generations putting on airs and secretly despised him:
"You bastard Xiao Yang, your Yang family has caused a big mess and you still don't know what's going on. I really can't say anything!"

Are these Fengxiang soldiers so easy to kill?
This group of people can be said to be the local tigers of Fengxiang Prefecture. Although there are only more than 500 of them, they are all related to each other in the prefecture. If Yang Qingfu kills them like this, he will completely break off relations with Fengxiang.

And what would those foreign vassal soldiers think of killing the Fengxiang soldiers like this? What would the Xichuan soldiers think of it? Would they feel sad for the rabbit's death and think that you, Yang Qingfu, don't treat your subordinates as human beings?

Once they have such an image, how can they be commanded in the future?
It’s just strange. Yang Shuai is a smart man, so why would he do such a stupid thing?

Over there, Li Changyan, whose legs were broken and thrown beside the donkey cart, stared at the slaughtered Fengxiang soldiers in amazement. He was trembling all over. After a long while, he laughed hoarsely and shouted:

"Alright, alright, you Yang family are courting death by killing these Fengxiang soldiers. How can Prime Minister Gao spare you? You and your son, wait. I'll go down first and see how our Fengxiang men treat you and your son."

After saying this, Li Changyan laughed out loud towards the sky, easing the fear before death. He knew that he could not escape death.

Yang Shifan, who should have been sulking with Zhao Da, turned purple in the face after hearing this. He also thought so. He didn't understand why his father wanted to kill those Fengxiang soldiers.

What's wrong with being a little domineering? What's wrong with mutiny on the battlefield? If they were all killed, wouldn't half of the Tang Dynasty's warriors be dead?

Now, let's kill these Fengxiang soldiers. What should we do next? From now on, the Yang family will be completely cut off from the northwestern vassal states.

Oh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get.

Teacher Yang jumped down directly, drew the iron bone pistol from his waist, and smashed Li Changyan's head with a hammer.

Finally clean.

But behind him, Zhao Huaian suddenly figured things out.

When Li Changyan mentioned Gao Pian before his death, Zhao Huaian suddenly understood why Yang Qingfu wanted to kill these Fengxiang soldiers. This was just self-desecration.

Zhao Huaian knew that since Gao Pian entered Shu in a high-profile manner, the generals in Shu had been feeling uneasy, especially since Huang Jingfu, the governor of Lizhou, was unjustly killed. These people were secretly rallying around Yang Qingfu, hoping that this number one general in Xichuan could stand up and compete with Gao Pian.

But now it seems that Yang Qingfu is a coward.

This guy didn't dare to hold up the flag at all. He wanted to lose the morale of the army by this means and tell Gao Pian that he had surrendered.

Is it just that in the power struggle, you tie your hands, wag your tail and beg for mercy, hoping that others will be magnanimous and give you a way out? How naive of Old Yang.

Alas, I originally thought that Yang Qingfu was also a hero in Sichuan. His speech made Zhao Dadu feel very emotional. But I didn't expect that he didn't even dare to have a contact with Gao Pian and surrendered directly. He is really a useless person.

It was precisely because of this that Zhao Huaian felt even more complicated about Gao Pian, whom he had never met before.

What kind of person is this?

Just by his name, he can make the Nanzhao army retreat, and just by his power, he can make the generals in Sichuan bow down to him. I really want to meet him.

Just as Zhao Huaian was feeling excited and wishing that a real man should be like this, the sound of killing suddenly shook the sky from Qiongzhou City in front of him, which immediately attracted Zhao Da's attention.

(End of this chapter)