A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1166: On the Edge of the Sword
After the White Dew Festival, Gaochang, which was like a furnace, also turned from sultry to cool.

In the early morning, the cool breeze brings a refreshing feeling. A red sun rises from the east. The dewdrops on the grass are so beautiful that they rub the blue sky, white clouds, and the grass and trees on the earth into their bodies.
A drop of white dew reflects the entire autumn scenery.

In this cool morning,

The two armies are gathering, with flags fluttering, armor on display, and neat ranks.

The Tang army in Anxi, the city is surrounded by Hu people,
At the sound of trumpets, they put on armor, took dry food, mounted their horses, gathered towards Gaochang City, and lined up outside the city.

The Gaochang City behind him was majestic, and the red Flaming Mountain in the distance was like the guardian beast of Gaochang City.

Truth is only within the range of cannons, and majesty is only above the edge of swords.

Authority cannot be challenged.

God cannot shed blood.
God is high above, and he rules the world with his supreme authority. In the eyes of the world, God is omnipotent and invincible, so people dare not disobey God's ideas, let alone betray him.

Once God sheds blood, his authority will be lost.
If a God loses his authority, he is no longer a God. When people find out that God can bleed, they will become disloyal.

In the Western Regions,
The Tang Dynasty is God.
The authority of the Tang Dynasty cannot be challenged.

Otherwise, if a precedent is set, then the various tribes and countries will do as they please and no one will obey orders.

Liu Demin rode over in a purple robe. This deputy governor of Tingzhou had only a sword hanging from his waist and was not wearing any armor.
"Prime Minister Wu, five thousand Anxi soldiers have assembled. Please review them."

Wu Huaiyu looked at the five thousand soldiers lined up neatly.
There were only 5,000 people, but it seemed like a huge crowd.
Five thousand soldiers are just a number on paper and may not seem like a lot, but when they are actually lined up for review, they feel like an overwhelming force.

“This time we will dispatch 5,000 infantry and cavalry, including 3,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry. The infantry will form a regiment of 300 people, and the cavalry will form a regiment of 200 people, so there will be 10 regiments in each group.

The entire army was divided into five battalions: front, back, left, center, and right, each with two infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments.

Each cavalryman had three horses: a pack horse, a war horse, and a riding horse. Each infantryman was also equipped with a mount.

In addition, each group will be equipped with ten pack horses and one donkey for medical purposes. "

"In addition, we will recruit 3,000 young men from the Sogdian Hu tribes near Tingzhou City, the Chuyue Zhuxie tribe, the Shatuo tribe, and the Chumi tribe, the Geshu tribe, the Chumukun tribe, the Huluwu tribe, etc. Each of them will have three horses and will provide their own food and clothing."

The Liangzhou rebellion suppression army, led by Liu Demin and Yuwen Chengdu, had 5,000 Tang troops from Anxi and 3,000 foreign servants from the city.

A major feature of this army is that it has a large number of horses and extremely high mobility.

Each cavalryman had three horses, and each infantryman had one horse. There were 18,000 horses alone.

In addition, there are many mules responsible for logistics and medical transportation, with each group having ten pack horses.
A group is equipped with a ten-pack horse, not ten horses. In the army, ten-pack horse means a good horse that can carry eight loads.

A good horse can carry eight loads, or 400 liters of grain, while an ordinary horse can carry six loads, or 300 liters of grain. A ten-load horse can carry 500 liters of grain.

The military stipulated that if there were not enough horses, only six loads could be used instead of eight. If this was still not enough, donkeys were allowed to carry half of the load.

Under this system, the Tang army was equipped with six horses when going to war, one for each group. If conditions were insufficient, donkeys could also be used.

The Anxi Tang army has no shortage of war horses or pack horses, so they basically use ten or eight pack horses. The only thing each group is equipped with is a donkey for medical purposes.

The Tang army of 5,000 men alone was equipped with an additional 500 horses capable of carrying ten or eight loads, and 500 donkeys for medical purposes.

There were three thousand barbarians and more than ten thousand horses around the city.

The army consisted of 8,000 men, with 30,000 horses and donkeys.

It's really a huge army.

Liu Demin was full of confidence. It was three thousand miles from Gaochang to Helan Prefecture in Liangzhou.

Their group will arrive in ten days at most.

Ten days is enough.
The Qibi tribe held Qibi Heli hostage and had begun to flee to the northern desert, but they had 8,000 tents of soldiers and horses, along with their families, cattle, sheep, camels, tents and belongings.

This migration won't be quick.

The Tang army could cover 300 miles in one day and one night, but they could hardly cover 100 miles in one day, so Liu Demin could catch up with them quickly.

In fact, Yuwen Chengdu, the commander of the Jingsai Army in Luntai Town, proposed a more daring plan to suppress the rebellion. He did not need so many soldiers at all. He could just draw 3,000 cavalrymen from Tingzhou, with each man equipped with two pack horses and two war horses. He did not even need to bring the vassal troops from the Fanhu City.

Three thousand cavalrymen made a long-distance attack on the Qibi tribe in Helan Prefecture, just like they came to Ganyu Valley in the Western Regions.
Now with so many troops, we can't go faster. At least those infantrymen can't travel 300 miles a day. They can only travel over 100 miles a day. It's better not to bring them.

However, Wu Huaiyu finally decided to draw 3,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry from the Western Regions, plus 3,000 Hu people from the city. In addition, there were several thousand troops recruited by Guo Xiaoke in Shazhou.
When they reach Liangzhou, together with the garrison there,
The Tang army would not only be able to quickly mobilize troops to intercept and block the Qibi tribe's escape to the north without missing the opportunity, but would also have the advantage in troop strength.

The Qibi tribe has 8,000 tents. If they really want to fight, they can gather 20,000 people to fight.
Therefore, the Tang army cannot underestimate the enemy and must be cautious. They must have at least 10,000 men, and they must also consider the possibility that the Xueyantuo may send troops to support them.

Therefore, the faster the Tang army reaches Helan Prefecture, the greater their advantage in local combat will be, and the more difficult it will be for the Xueyantuo to provide reinforcements.

This battle also requires speed.

"For the Qibi tribe, the most important thing is to intercept them and prevent them from joining the Xueyantuo supporters."

Liu Demin said he understood.

The wind was clear and the dew was cool, the air was clear and the clouds were sparse. Liu Demin and Yuwen Chengdu led the troops eastward.

Later, Wu Huaiyu also led 5,000 Tang troops with infantry and cavalry and 3,000 Fanhu soldiers to the west.

Although Ashina Buzhen was the deputy governor of Kunling Protectorate and the Little Khan of Beiting, he launched a surprise attack on Khan Mishe on the grounds that Mishe was planning to rebel and betray the Tang Dynasty, severely damaging Mishe and killing many of his brothers and nephews.

They even occupied the Khanate of Dianheshan.

but,

Regardless of whether Mishe is really plotting rebellion,
Bu Zhen had no power, so he bypassed the imperial court and the Anxi Protectorate and directly attacked Beiting.

Even if Mishe was secretly plotting a rebellion, Buzhen's action would not be acceptable.

He challenged the supreme authority of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions. If this behavior is not corrected or punished, the authority of the Tang Dynasty will be seriously damaged.

This can even be seen as a test of the Tang Dynasty by the ambitious Bu Zhen.

If the Tang Dynasty tolerates this time,
Then he will definitely get worse.

The Tang Dynasty entered the Western Regions with great force, captured Duolu Khan, captured Helu, destroyed Gaochang, beheaded Zhuye Shijin and Yuzhi Shijin, and made the Western Turkic tribes and countries in the Western Regions submit and come under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.

But after all, the foundation is not stable.
Ambitious people like Bu Zhen have been waiting and planning.
Now he attacked Mishe, and although he immediately apologized to the Grand Protectorate, saying that he had discovered that Mishe was rebelling, he took decisive action to punish the rebels and quell the rebellion for the court.

He also took the opportunity to propose that he wanted to succeed Mishe as the Xingxiwang Khan of Beiting and take over the post of Protector of Kunling.

He may have felt that the Tang Dynasty would not intervene because of their internal strife, and that it would be the same whether Mishe or Buzhen was the Khan of Beiting, as long as they showed submission and loyalty to the Tang Dynasty.

Authority lies only on the edge of the sword.

The truth is within the range of the bow and arrow.

Wu Huaiyu's reaction to Bu Zhen was absolutely to never allow it. Not only would he not sit idly by and watch the internal fight between him and Mixe, he immediately assembled an elite force and attacked swiftly with lightning speed.

From receiving news that Bu Zhen had attacked Beiting, to Wu Huaiyu gathering his troops and setting off on his expedition,
In fact, it only took three days.

This time the troops were dispatched with great speed.
Not only did the Anxi soldiers act quickly, but the Hu people in Xizhou and Tingzhou also responded very actively.
Most of these young men are from the Chuyue, Chumi, Chumukun and other tribes. They now live a nomadic life in the two states of Yiting and are affiliated with various military towns. These tribes were originally led by Moheduo Yehu Mishe, who had a good relationship with Mishe.

Another reason is that after experiencing the last war, these people witnessed the power of the Tang Dynasty, so they chose to follow the strong. Some also wanted to follow the Tang army to obtain rewards and spoils.

The last time the Tang army marched west, all kinds of captured spoils piled up like mountains. The Eastern Turks, Tuyuhun, Qibi, Dangmian and other tribes that cooperated with them all received a lot of rewards in the end.

Even the Turkic and Gongyue tribes that followed later received a lot of rewards after the war.

Everyone, especially the young people, want to join in this kind of battle where they can win battles, share the spoils, get rewards, and there is little risk.

In the eyes of these young tribal children,
There was not much distinction between the Hu and the Chinese. In their eyes, the Tang Dynasty was just another larger tribe. The Tang emperor was also the Khan respected by all the tribes. His strength was stronger than that of any Khan in the Western Regions over the years.

In the past few decades in the Western Regions, various khans have been competing for supremacy, but the tribes and countries have remained unchanged. Although most of the khans came from the Blue Turks and the Ashina tribe,
But the lineages are also different. There are descendants of the Midianshi and also those from the Eastern Turkic side.

In short, the various tribes did not take those things so seriously. In the Western Regions, strength is ultimately respected, and whoever has the stronger fist is the boss.

Whether it is the Ten Arrows headquarters or other tribes such as Chuyue Chumi Gelulu, they all rely on the strong.

This idea made the Khans of the Western Regions remain unchanged no matter how they fought among themselves.

Before Helu, Bu Zhen once led the Chuyue, Chumi, Geshu, Chumukun and other tribes in the east, but so what? Helu still ruled them, and even when Helu rebelled before, they also followed him in his uprising.
But this did not prevent them from joining the Tang Dynasty in the end.

A few months later,

Wu Huaiyu once again embarked on the journey to the Yili River Valley.

The last time we went to attack Duolu Khan,

This time, he went to rescue the lost Khan Mishe and deal with the young Khan Ashina Buzhen.

Just over a hundred days later,

But the mood is completely different.

Including the 5,000 Tang army soldiers who went on this expedition, the last time everyone rushed 7,000 miles, and they were still quite nervous along the way. Many people even felt that the mission was difficult, but they obeyed military orders and were not afraid at all, but they still felt heavy in their hearts.

But this time it was much easier.
No one takes Bu Zhen seriously.

Everyone thought that this journey was just an autumn outing in late autumn, a journey to gain merit, and it would surely be successful immediately and with a win-win situation.

The wild geese are migrating south, the autumn chrysanthemums are blooming,
The mighty Tang army marched westward, and wherever they passed, the herdsmen who were grazing cattle and sheep stopped to watch. They were shocked by the mighty and majestic army of the Heavenly Khan.

There was a young shepherdess standing on the hillside, singing a ballad. The song contained praises for the mighty Tang army and admiration for the majestic Tang soldiers.

The Tang army marched along.
There was no obstruction.
The herdsmen will also give cheese and milk tea to the tribes they pass by.

(End of this chapter)