A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1117: Please give me a long rope
"Send Yu Gushe to rest, and assign soldiers to guard him. Do not disturb him."

Wu Huaiyu saw that Ashina Fu had eaten up a lot of food like whirlwind, so he asked all the questions he needed to ask and had no intention of keeping him any longer. Although this man had a good attitude, Wu Huaiyu did not trust him.

They said they were sent to rest, but in fact they were placed in a tent behind the golden tent.

Behind the golden tent, there was a row of tents that could accommodate more than a dozen people. These were originally the tents of Yu Gu's wives and concubines. They were temporarily emptied and were now occupied by Wu Huaiyu's personal guards and some wounded soldiers.

Now Yu Gushe was arranged there, saying that it was convenient for Wu Huaiyu to give him medicine, but in fact it was for the convenience of control. Yu Gushe also understood, but did not object. His only request was that he wanted his wives and concubines to stay with him.

Wu Huaiyu only agreed to let his wife go with him, while the rest of the concubines remained in the resettlement camp outside.

"Minister Wu, we are surrounded on three sides. What should we do next?"

Old Cheng was eating barbecue with big mouthfuls while talking about being surrounded on three sides, but his tone sounded nonchalant.

Wu Huaiyi, the commander-in-chief of the central army, also ate voraciously. The generals were all bigger eaters than each other. They had only eaten some dried milk balls and dried meat these days, which was really hard for them.

Now they eat as much as they want, especially wild vegetables and fresh mushrooms, which they are all very fond of.

Wu Huaiyu likes fish soup.

The fish caught from the Ili River is fried lightly and cooked with mushrooms and tender wild vegetables. It is so delicious that it will make your eyebrows drop.

Wu Huaiyu's father-in-law Fan Xing liked to eat grilled fish. He held a large grilled fish skewered on a large willow branch in one hand and a lamb leg in the other, eating it with great pleasure. Hearing the voice, he said, "What do you mean by being surrounded? We are sweeping the ground and capturing the thief and the leader.

Now that the Khan's court has been broken and the Khan has been captured, we will just have to defeat the Gongyue and Tuqish tribes one by one."

The vanguard general Su Dingfang was eating noodle soup, drinking it swiftly. He thought he couldn't just sit there and wait.
"I suggest that we divide our forces into several groups and attack proactively. Regardless of whether it is the Gongyue tribe or the Tuqishi tribe, although both of them have strong tribes, they are still relatively scattered and have not yet gathered. This is our chance.

Regardless of whether they will surrender or not, we cannot wait.

Strike first, capture the tribal leader, and send troops to bring him here.

This is a cruel move.
The chiefs of each tribe have been brought here, so do they still have any choice? Can their tribes still resist?

The Chief Secretary Dou Fu Ma was also very generous in his eating manner. He picked up a dog's leg and ate it voraciously. Dou Fu Ma did not slack off on the journey. It took him ten days of running from Yiwulu to Yili and he managed to catch up. It must be said that although they were royal relatives, the basic qualities of the Guanlong military nobles were quite good.

Prince Consort Dou was relatively conservative, fearing that Su Dingfang's strategy of defeating them one by one would cause the already small number of Tang cavalry to be further dispersed, and they might be defeated one by one by the surrounding Turks.

"Since we have captured Yu Gushe alive, this operation has been a great success. Why don't we send people to pacify the Tuqishi, Gongyue, Chishi and other tribes while we return to Yiwulu first?"

Prince Consort Dou's proposal seems safe, but it is indeed very cowardly.

This immediately caused dissatisfaction among Cheng Yaojin, Fan Xing, Niu Jinda, Liu Lancheng, Qiu Xinggong and other general managers.
Even Wu Huaiyu, Li Xiuxing, Yuwen Chengdu, An Lushan and others did oppose it.

"We have come thousands of miles and just won a battle. Why are we retreating now?"

Qiu Xinggong didn't even give the prince consort face, "What are you afraid of?"

Another son-in-law, Gao Xinglu, quickly came out to smooth things over, "Dou Changshi also wants to be more cautious."

"There is no such thing as safety in war. If you want safety, just stay in Chang'an."

After these words were spoken, Dou Dan's face looked unhappy, but this man was well-educated and did not argue with these soldiers. Instead, he took the initiative to laugh and said a few nice words.

The attitudes of the generals in the Western Expedition were surprisingly consistent.
This victory could not satisfy them. They had finally invited Wu Huaiyu to come out of retirement and snatched the opportunity of the Western Expedition from Hou Junji. Now they were retreating before they had even had enough fun. What was the point of retreating?

I don’t know when I will be able to lead troops next time.

Now that we are here, we must give him a vigorous fight and give him a good fight.

A group of military commanders ate voraciously, not knowing how many cows and sheep they had eaten. After a long time, they finally felt their stomachs were full.

Qiu Xinggong was even more lustful and made an unreasonable request.

"Brothers, you have traveled 7,000 miles and you have all worked hard. Why don't you relax tonight?"

Wu Huaiyu is making brick tea.
The meal I just had was a bit greasy, and I was afraid that my body couldn’t take it. This brick tea is imported from the Central Plains, and it is the Wujia Sanyuan Fucha brick, a genuine Wujia product, a top-grade golden flower brick.

The tea was boiling in the copper kettle.

The cow dung was burning in the stove, and there was no peculiar smell at all, but instead a grassy fragrance.

He did not add any more milk, salt, etc. to the pot.
Just boil a pot of brick tea.

Wu Huaiyu had never liked this cheap father-in-law Qiu Xinggong. When they first worked together in Lingzhou, they had a fierce conflict.
In the end, Qiu Xinggong suffered a great loss. It was his father, Mr. Qiu, the Duke of Tan, who came forward to negotiate peace. He sent his granddaughter to Huaiyu as a concubine and apologized. Only then did the two families finally put aside their hostility and become relatives.

But Huaiyu really didn't like Qiu Xinggong's character. This guy was rude and cruel, and was capable of doing something as cruel as eating people's hearts and livers. How many people in the world could be like him?

He even competed with his brother for the burial of his biological mother, completely disregarding etiquette.

"How does Chief Manager Qiu plan to relax?" Wu Huaiyu asked bluntly. He knew what Qiu Xinggong wanted to do. Qiu Xinggong must also know what he meant. Everyone understood.
But Wu Huaiyu still asked,
That's a warning.
He hoped that Qiu Xinggong would know when to advance and retreat and not bring it up again.

But Qiu Xinggong wiped his greasy lips and chuckled, "Now that I'm full, of course I need to find some women to play with."

Wu Huaiyu interrupted him rudely.

"Before we went to war, I had strict military discipline, prohibiting burning, killing, looting, and raping. Have you forgotten, Chief Qiu?"

"I am here to reiterate that we are here to punish the disloyal and to carry out the punishment from Heaven, not to rob. We are the army of kings, not bandits."

"I hope everyone can control themselves and their troops and not violate our military discipline."

"If anyone dares to lose control of his belt, I will chop off his thing and feed it to the dogs!" Qiu Xinggong didn't expect Wu Huaiyu to not give him any face, and made things very ugly. He shouted, "We have traveled thousands of miles and it's so hard. What's wrong with cleaning up these Turkic rebels? If you like their women, you can still respect them if you play with them for a while."

"I think we should capture all the young men and sell them as slaves, and give the women to the brothers to play with, and take them back as slaves when we go back.
When the time comes, we can divide the money from selling the slaves among ourselves, so that all the soldiers can get a share, and it will not be in vain for all the hard work."

"The cattle, horses, alpacas and other livestock were also taken away."

"It's been a hard trip, it can't be in vain,"

"Why give these thieves an advantage?"

Qiu Xinggong's proposal was indeed the voice of many soldiers. Although most people would not say it out loud, or dared not say it out loud, they did think so in their hearts.

These days, war is the most profitable thing, especially when you win a great victory like this, or it is a war against a foreign race.

Wu Huaiyu's words,

The atmosphere in the Golden Tent became somewhat quiet.
Qiu Xinggong felt very embarrassed by his son-in-law's rebuke, but he also knew how powerful Wu Huaiyu was, so he didn't dare to confront him openly. He could only smile awkwardly and stand up.
"I'm too full. I'm going to go out for a walk to digest the food."

Wu Huaiyu ignored him.

According to the etiquette of the Tang Dynasty, only the wife's family is considered a relative in-law, and the wife's father is the father-in-law. The concubine's family is not considered a relative in-law, and the concubine's parents are not the father-in-law and mother-in-law.

Wu Huaiyu didn't need to be too polite to this cheap father-in-law.

What's more, this is the military, not the place to talk about relatives. Even if it is his real father-in-law, General Fan Xing, Wu Huaiyu will not show too much mercy.

When Lao Cheng saw the tea boiling,

He came up with the kettle and poured tea for everyone.

"Old Qiu was just joking, don't take it seriously."

Wu Huaiyu didn't respond, but took the tea and sipped it carefully.

"Captain Wu, the central army you lead is responsible for patrolling and guarding, especially supervising military discipline. If anyone dares to violate military orders, you must immediately enforce military regulations."

Wu Huaiyi stood up and responded to the order, then turned around and walked out of the tent to carry out his mission.

Old Cheng sat down next to Wu Huaiyu, also sipping his tea, "I agree with Su Xianfeng's proposal. We should divide our troops into several groups, take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, defeat them one by one, and 'invite' the leaders of Tuqishi and Chuyue."

"Old Cheng, I am willing to lead the troops to attack Gongyue City. This city is right behind us and is blocking our way back. We have to deal with them first."

"I'll give you three thousand cavalrymen, and another three thousand surrendered soldiers from Yugushe's army to assist you. Is that enough?" Wu Huaiyu asked.

"Six thousand cavalrymen are enough," said Old Cheng, patting his chest.

"Deputy Chief Manager Cheng, please don't underestimate the enemy. The Gongyue tribe has a Gongyue City."

"I know that city. Although it is on the Silk Road and has a thriving business and trade, it is at most a manor or a small fort in the Central Plains. The rammed earth walls are relatively low, and there are no inner or outer cities, urn cities, enemy towers, or trenches.

This kind of small town is easy to attack."

Wu Huaiyu nodded and ordered Prince Consort Gao to allocate a batch of gunpowder for the Shenji firearms to Old Cheng.
Although the Tang army did not have traditional siege equipment, they had powerful firearms, which were very useful against a small city like this on the grassland.

As long as Old Cheng doesn't underestimate the enemy and become arrogant, it will be no problem for him to take the city with 6,000 men.

Su Dingfang also immediately stood up and asked for a fight.

"I request to go to Jieshan, downstream of the Yili River, and invite Heluo Shichuo to come."

Fan Xingze was not willing to be left behind and asked to go to the upper reaches of the Yili River to invite the leaders of the Duluyehu Ashinabuzhen and Suogemohe who were there.

"Just give me three thousand cavalry, no surrender required."

Everyone rushed to volunteer to fight.

"Give me the Chishi tribe in the Shuanghe area," Niu Jinda said anxiously, "I only want two thousand soldiers."

The Chishi tribe was a member of the Qarluk tribe, one of the five Tuluks of the Western Turkic khanates. It was a subordinate tribe of the Qarluk khanates and was relatively independent. Many of its traditional customs were different from theirs. The composition of the Chishi tribe was quite complex, with the majority being Turkified Sogdians.

The Shuanghe River Basin where they were nomadic at that time was just north of the Gongyue tribe. Shuanghe was the Bortala River in later generations. The Aibi Lake to its east was called Huangcaopo at that time. The Alashankou in the northwest of the lake was an extremely important transportation hub.

The northern edge of Alashan is the nomadic area of ​​the Karluk people. They extend from Yibohai in the south to Jinshan in the north. They roam around the Yide River, which is the Irtysh River, and are very powerful.

Looking at these generals who were full of fighting spirit,
Wu Huaiyu did not think that they were arrogant and underestimated the enemy. After all, this was how Wu Huaiyu had led them to win. It didn't matter whether the tactics were high or low, as long as they could win.

No matter whether the cat is black or white, a cat that can catch mice is a good cat.

Wu Huaiyu had never considered what Prince Consort Dou had said about stopping while the going was good and escaping after capturing Yu Gushe.

Holding the teacup, he approved all the generals' requests, and then called out Dou Dan's name.

"I would like to ask Prince Consort Dou to take the trouble to cross the Yili River and head to Qianquan Mountain in Suiye River to meet with Shaboluoyehu Khan in the southern court of the Western Turkic region and ask him to send troops to join forces at Gongyue City."

Wu Huaiyu planned to let Lao Cheng lead 6,000 troops to attack Gongyue City. He and Yu Gushe arrived later. Compared with the flat Yili River Valley Khan Court,

Although Gongyue City is small, it is a city after all. It is backed by a mountain and controls the Cheling Pass to the north, so it can attack or defend.

(End of this chapter)