Sweep Yuan

Chapter 79 Aid to Qingyang: Fu and Li's First Meeting

The number of people detained at Chulan Station was about four hundred. Sun Xun, who was in charge of receiving them, only brought one battalion. Of course, he couldn't just act rashly and attack Lingbi County.

After much deliberation, Sun Xun ordered the main force to escort Li Wu and his party to Hong County, while he himself only led a team to Lingbi. He stated frankly that if he could not retrieve the families of the stationed households, he would ask Steward Xue to leave him in Lingbi City as well.

For Xue Xian, this matter was actually not difficult to handle.

The order to detain people was given by Zhao Junyong on the grounds that the Chulan garrison had attacked friendly troops who were on their way to Suining without cause, and Xue Xian was ordered to stop and investigate them.

As for how to conduct the investigation, that was left to Xue Xian to decide flexibly.

The story of Han Si being attacked is ridiculous. Zhao and Han's relationship is also just so-so, so Zhao has no right to stand up for Han Si.

Moreover, the majority of the "Red Heart Battalion's" recruits were not from the station households. The soldiers they recruited from various places also had families, and most of them were still in the Red Turban Army's controlled area. There was no need for them to completely break ties with Shishan over a few hundred station households.

This move is purely to control Shishan, but it's important to maintain a proper balance and not actually push him to the brink.

Otherwise, Xue Xian wouldn't have only sent a few people to patrol the main roads outside the city.

Unexpectedly, Li Wu was stubborn and not only forced his way through the checkpoint but also kidnapped his own men, which immediately angered Xue Xian. He immediately dispatched more than a thousand men from both infantry and cavalry to capture them all.

As a result, they caught up with the people, but only intercepted some of the elderly and weak. The pursuers were driven back by the local militia that suddenly appeared.

Based on the testimony provided by Wen Sijiu, there is no longer any need to investigate the attack on friendly forces.

How to deal with the intercepted passengers proved to be a difficult problem for Xue Xian.

Let's just send it back like this; it's too embarrassing.

However, if they held on to it, the main force of Peng and Zhao's allied forces had already advanced westward, leaving their rear vulnerable, and Xue Xian could not afford the consequences of forcing the "Red Heart Battalion" to rebel.

Sun Xun's visit to demand the release of Xue Xian actually helped him out of his predicament.

Chief Steward Xue hosted a banquet for Sun Xun and Wen Sijiu, inquired about the situation at the front, and promised to release all the detained personnel, but they would have to wait two days until he had reorganized his troops and personally escorted them to Hong County to fight against the powerful enemy together with the "Red Heart Battalion".

……

Hongxian County, cavalry camp.

Since Commander Li Wu returned to take charge of the entire cavalry, Deputy Commander Huang Quan has been causing trouble. He sidelines during training during the day but drinks with his confidants at night, and this morning he simply claimed to be sick and refused to get out of bed.

Li Wu has made considerable progress; not only did he not confront Huang Quan, but he also visited him personally.

"Brother Huang is not feeling well, so stay in the camp and rest. It's windy outside the city today, so you don't need to participate."

Huang Quan didn't even open his eyes, just grunted through his nose, and continued to sleep soundly with his head covered.

After Li Wu left, Huang Quan pricked up his ears and listened to the roll call outside. He didn't know what tasks were being assigned, but after a while, the team finally reassembled and left the camp.

With no one making a fuss, Huang Quan, still hungover and feeling sleepy, fell asleep again.

When he woke up again, it was already late, but there was no sound from the camp.

Having slept all day, Huang Quan was already starving. He got out of bed wrapped in a quilt, put out some water at the base of the wall outside, and went straight to the kitchen to find something to eat.

To everyone's surprise, the smoked meat and military cooking utensils hanging on the wall were all gone, half of the firewood was missing, and even the rice and flour in the jar were nearly half empty.

Huang Quan immediately had a bad feeling and quickly ran to the feed shed.

Sure enough, there was much less hay and black beans.

By this time, how could he not understand that Li Wu had taken advantage of his feigned illness to abandon him as deputy commander and lead the cavalry out of the city to carry out a mission?

Huang Quan was furious and ashamed. He quickly dressed and went to find Shi Shan to complain. Shi Shan was outside the East Gate, inspecting the progress of the moat and sheep and horse wall with Fang Zhongwen, Chen Cheng and others.

"Fifth Brother reported to me that he was going to take the cavalry out of the city for training exercises. What? Didn't he tell you?"

Li Wu did mention in the morning that he would be conducting training exercises outside the city, but Huang Quan hadn't paid attention at the time. Now, however, he was in the wrong.

"I was feeling dizzy at the time, no, I didn't hear you clearly."

"Are you feeling better from your cold? Or, I can have Big Eyes take you to find Fifth Brother."

Huang Quan thought to himself, how could he possibly find Li Wu now that he was out of the city?

Besides, even if we find it, so what?

"I'm not fully recovered yet."

"Okay. In that case, you're still sick, and it's not good for you to cook by yourself. Go back and get ready, and come to the medical camp tonight."

After Shi Shan finished speaking, he turned to Chen Cheng and instructed him:

"The angle of this section of the trench is not steep enough. We need to dig down four inches on the outside and six inches on the inside. Forget it, we'll find a ladder tomorrow and have the laborers dig and test it. The ladder should be able to be placed both inside and outside the trench, but it should be just right so that it's not too stable."

Huang Quan's attempt to complain backfired, and he was even taken to the guard camp by Shi Shan. He immediately lost his temper, gave a nod, and went back to the camp with a bitter face to pack his personal belongings.

Li Wu did indeed deliberately abandon Huang Quan, because that guy didn't know his place and didn't cooperate with him in taking over the cavalry.

However, the training exercise outside the city was not Li Wu's own idea, but a task assigned by Shi Shan.

After leaving the city, the cavalry headed straight for Qingyang Station.

Shi Shan had no doubt that Fu Youde could capture Qingyang, but his forces were ultimately too weak. If the enemy counterattacked too early and he had not yet integrated the forces in the station, it would be difficult for him to play a significant role.

Qingyang Station is red.

After the war, Fu Youde reorganized the soldiers, bringing together more than 700 men.

Qingyang Station is small and cramped; with so many soldiers, it's barely enough.

However, Zhanchi was not a fortress after all. In order to resist the large army, some defensive facilities still needed to be built and modified.

The more important problem was the lack of armor and weapons, especially bows, crossbows and arrows. With insufficient ranged attack power, they could only passively wait for the enemy to climb up the walls and trade one for one.

Before the expedition, Shishan had anticipated this situation and assigned some craftsmen to Fu Youde, but the time was too short and they could not forge many weapons and arrows.

The problem is that the government troops from Sizhou have already set off, and they won't give Fu Youde enough time.

When Li Wu led his cavalry to Qingyang Station, Fu Youde was discussing countermeasures with his deputy.

In his letter, Shi Shan clearly stated that the cavalry would be temporarily under the command of Fu Youde. However, Fu and Li had never met before. Fu Youde only knew that Li Wu was a local resident of Qianhu Township, but he did not know his character and abilities. So he used the intelligence he had just obtained to test him.

"Scouts report that the vanguard of the government army, numbering about 1,500 men, has already left Sizhou and will arrive at Qingyang Station by late afternoon the day after tomorrow at the earliest. Commander Li, do you have any brilliant ideas?"

When facing Shishan, Li Wu still habitually says "I'll listen to Third Brother," but after experiencing so much and undergoing the test of being able to stand on his own, he has long been transformed.

Li Wu stroked his short beard with his left hand and traced his fingers back and forth on the map with his right hand, finally stopping at a certain location southeast of Qingyang Station and drawing a circle.

"If the government troops arrive at Qingyang Station at Shenshi (3-5 PM) the day after tomorrow, they should be camping in this area tomorrow night. Are there any suitable terrain nearby where we can hide a few hundred men?"

Fu Youde's brows instantly relaxed, and he sincerely praised:
"Qianhu truly has a discerning eye for talent!"

(End of this chapter)