A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1177 Entering the City on a Snowy Night
Under the city of Suiye,

Under Wu Huaiyu's banner, Xingxiwang Khan, Kunling Protector-General and Heshun Prince Ashina Mishe looked at the north gate of Suiye City. He vaguely recognized Que Shijin and Ni Shushijin standing on the top of the city wall.

Seeing the two Sijins of the Asiqie tribe in Suiye City being surrounded by the Tang army on all sides, but closing the city gates and refusing to come out, I felt very emotional.

O Asiqiya tribe,
Among the five crossbow-wielding Shibi tribes in the West Wing, they, Asijie, accounted for two of them. In terms of strength, their two Asijie tribes far surpassed the other three.

The turmoil in the Western Regions over the past decade or so has a lot to do with their Asikyi tribe.

"Prime Minister Wu, I am willing to go and persuade them to surrender!" Mishe took the initiative to request. After experiencing the Buzhen Rebellion, Mishe was grateful to the Tang Dynasty, Wu Huaiyu, and An Lushan.

If An Lushan had not accepted him into Gongyue City, he would surely have become a withered bone in the wilderness.

He was especially moved when he learned that Bu Zhen promised An Lushan that he would give him ten thousand taels of gold if he handed him over, but An Lushan still refused.

If he were An Lushan, he might find it difficult to refuse.

Wu Huaiyu nodded,
He knew that Mishe's persuasion to surrender would be useless, but there was no harm in trying. Although Mishe was the Khan of Beiting and was in charge of the Wuduolu tribe in the east wing, the Wunushibi in the west wing were not under his control, but they were all Western Turks after all.

Mishe rode his horse slowly towards the north gate of Suiye.

On the top of Suiye City,

The Ashkelites also watched this scene.
When Mishe came near, someone recognized him.
"It's Beiting Khan,"

"It's Moheduoyehu,"

"It's Xilibi Duolu Khan."

······
Someone on the top of the city shouted out several titles of Mi She,

Mishe was the fifth-generation grandson of Midianshi Khan. His family inherited the title of Moheduo Yehu. In the early years of the civil strife in the Western Turkic region, Moheduo killed the Great Khan Tongyehu and established himself as Khan. The Emperor Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty sent the Minister of the Honglu Temple to confer him the title of Xilibiduolu Khan. At that time, many tribes supported Nishu as Khan.

But later, Nisu and Mishe did not claim to be Khan, but instead supported Tongyehu's son as Siyehu Khan.

Que Shijin and Ni Shushijin turned their heads and looked at each other, then looked towards Mishe who was approaching the city.

"I am the fifth-generation grandson of the Great Khan Midianshi. I was once the Moheduoyehu of the Ten Surnames Tribe of the Western Turkic people. Now, I am the Khan of Beiting Xingxiwang and the Protector General of Kunling Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty."

Mishe stood alone in front of the city.
On the white snow, he shouted loudly to the two great generals on the city wall.

"Que Shijin, Ni Shushijin, not long ago we were drinking and eating meat under the city of Gaochang. When you came back, I entertained you in the Beiting tent on the bank of the Yili River."

"Two great men, could you please come out and have a chat?"

Que Jijin looked at the mi-she,

"Mishe Khan, just say whatever you want to say."

Mishe questioned, "I have never offended the two great lords, so why did you join forces with Buzhen to attack my Khan's court and rebel against the Tang Dynasty?"

Que Jijin gritted his teeth and took a deep breath of cold air.

"I have already sent an envoy to Gongyue City to meet with Prime Minister Wu and present him with generous gifts to make amends. Our Asijie tribe has never rebelled. This is all a misunderstanding. We have also been deceived by Bu Zhen."

No matter what Mishe says,
Que Jijin refused to admit that they were rebelling against the Tang Dynasty, and only said that he was deceived by Bu Zhen. Although Wu Huaiyu had already laid siege to the city and Que Jijin had been chased like a stray dog, it was precisely because of the embarrassment along the way that this Snow Leopard tried his best to endure.

Although he escaped into Suiye City,

But at this time, there were only a few thousand people in Suiye City who could fight.

The Asiqie tribe had more than 100,000 people, scattered over thousands of miles in the Suiye River basin. In the cold winter and heavy snow, it was impossible to gather the troops in a short time.

They could only bow their heads temporarily. Unless it was absolutely necessary, they did not want to fight a life-and-death battle with the Tang army.

"Since it is a misunderstanding, why don't you two open the city gates, invite the Prime Minister into the city, and explain the situation in person to resolve the misunderstanding?"

Que Jijin is certainly not stupid.
Opening the city gate at this time would be like inviting a wolf into the house.

Que Shijin made all kinds of excuses and refused to open the city gate.

"It would be fine if the two great men left the city and came to the Minister of Martial Arts to explain in person."

But Que Jijin would certainly not leave the city. Wouldn't that be giving away his life?

Mishe Khan wasted a lot of time and effort, and the north wind made his nose runny under the city. No matter how hard he tried to persuade them, the two Jijins were just perfunctory.

Mishe had no choice but to return. He came to the central army's banner and apologized to Wu Huaiyu, "Mishe was incompetent and failed to persuade them to surrender."

Wu Huaiyu didn't care. "The Khan is still injured. Let's go to the curtain to avoid the wind and warm ourselves by the fire."

"Come here, send Bu Zhen's head to Suiye City and let the two Ji Jin take a good look at it. I'll give him half a day to think about it.

If they don’t open the city and surrender when the sun rises tomorrow, their fate will be the same as Bu Zhen’s.”

Although Wu Huaiyu and the others thought that the best option for Que Shijin and Ni Shushijin was to surrender, before the final step, everyone would be hoping for the best.
Especially since Asijie was said to have more than 100,000 cavalrymen, and now that his home was stolen by Wu Huaiyu, he would be extremely unwilling to accept it.

There is no need to waste words on such people, just beat them.

The reason why Wu Huaiyu gave another half day was,
However, the army had come all the way here and was very tired. After surrounding Suiye, they also needed to boil some water and cook some hot soup and hot rice.
Of course, this is also to paralyze the enemy and make them really believe that the Tang army still fantasizes that they will surrender.

In fact, Wu Huaiyu planned to launch a surprise attack in the middle of the night.

Although Suiye City is not big, it is not easy to attack it by force without sufficient preparation and siege equipment.

But we can't delay any longer. If we delay for too long, reinforcements from Asiji will arrive, and that would be troublesome.

Some Turkic tribesmen were dispatched to sweep the winter hideouts of the Asiqi people in all directions. They were intended not only to eliminate the potential threats around them, but also to obtain food locally and seize cattle, sheep, livestock, tents and other supplies from the tribe’s winter pastures for the army.

Just eating jerky and dried milk won't last long.

They didn't carry much supplies during their pursuit, and they even had few tents, all of which were small tents that could not last long in the ice and snow.

The Tang army outside the city was busy.
Some set up camp and pitched tents, while others split up to sweep the surrounding pastures.
Some people went to collect firewood, and some went to chip ice to get water.
On the top of Suiye City, Que Shijin and Ni Shushijin stood on the city wall in the wind and snow, observing the Tang army.

The two were worried. "These Tang people are very arrogant. They don't take Suiye City and us seriously at all. They actually camped so close to the city and didn't even take precautions,"

"How about we fight and gather all the soldiers in the city. We can go out of the city and catch them off guard. Maybe we can defeat them?"

Duman's proposal was not approved by the two great masters.
They stood there like ice sculptures.

Both of them are experienced Turkic warriors who have fought in many battles. If the one leading the army outside the city now is Mishe, or Duolu Khan, Helu Yehu and others who are already in Chang'an,
Or maybe the Turkic leader Heluo Shichuo who just appeared at the gate of the city.
If any of them led the troops,
Then neither of them would hide in the city like this. They would definitely go out of the city to fight.

But it was Wu Huaiyu who came,
This man is not only famous in the Central Plains Tang Dynasty,
Moreover, in the past six months since coming to the Western Regions, he has won many amazing victories.
In front of such a person, neither of them dared to underestimate the enemy.

"If it really doesn't work, just go out of the city and attack in the middle of the night. I'm willing to lead the team." Duman said anxiously. He was beaten badly by the Tang people twice. Once he was forced to surrender, and once he fled like a stray dog. The young special agent was like a hungry wolf at this moment, with a fierce light in his eyes.

The two great generals just stared outside the city.

North of Suiye City,

The central army camp was marked by six large banners.
In a large felt tent,
Dry cow dung was burning in the stove.
On one stove sat a copper teapot with milk tea boiling in it, and on the other stove sat a large pot with horse meat stewed in it.

Marching in the snow for days,
Many of the Tang army's horses were no longer able to function.

There is no way to treat or nurse these horses, but they will not be wasted on the battlefield.

So they slaughtered them directly and peeled off their skins for military use.
The horse meat was cut and stewed directly.
In fact, many horses had been abandoned along the way. Some horses died directly, and some were not dead yet, but they could not be taken with them. In the cold weather, they could only be slaughtered and skinned.
The soldiers cut off some of the horse's flesh and took it away.
But there was no chance to light a fire on the way.
Now we can finally set up camp outside of Suiye City and make a fire.
Everyone started setting up pots, chopping ice to get water, looking everywhere for fuel to make fires, and then stewing pots of horse meat.

There is no seasoning in the army.
That is, carry salt and dry sauces with you, and some people will also bring some vinegar cloth,
This thing is cloth boiled in vinegar, and salt is also added. After going through several processing steps, it becomes a seasoning that can be carried around and stored easily.
When the soldiers were cooking, they would tear off a piece of vinegar cloth and throw it in to cook, and the rice would become flavorful.

The taste is there, but it’s not that great.

As the commander of an army, Wu Huaiyu had much better conditions than the soldiers. He not only lived in a large felt tent, but also had carpets inside.
There are several stoves.
One makes milk tea, one makes rice, and one stews horse meat.

There was even fish stewing on one stove, not the stinky salted fish they brought from the market, but fresh fish caught on the ice nets in the Suiye River.

Several stoves made the big tent very warm.

Wu Huaiyu was discussing battle plans with the generals of the Anxi Tang army. He did not invite the leaders of the Turkic and other Hu tribes, not even Mishe Khan.

The battle plan to attack Suiye City was very confidential because it involved gunpowder explosions.

"It's freezing cold, so the traditional method of digging a tunnel under the city wall to build a blasting room won't work. The ground is too frozen and hard to dig."

"We suggest sneaking to the city gate at night..."

Suiye City is not big, and its gates are not as strong as those of the big cities in the Central Plains.

Attacking the hole and blasting it won't work.

They thought of making some large wooden boxes, filling them with gunpowder, and then transporting them to the city gates to blow them up directly.

"Will it work? The city gates must be heavily guarded. Even the gates of Suiye City are made of carefully selected wood, which is very hard and reinforced with iron nails."

"We can prepare more gunpowder and some earth bags, pile the gunpowder boxes in front of the city gate, and then use the earth bags to block the city gate hole, so that we can make a relatively simple blasting room.
This can greatly increase the explosive power of the gunpowder box, and even the gates of Suiye City cannot withstand this power at all."

As to whether the Ashkelon people would focus on defending the city gates and how to transport the gunpowder boxes and sandbags to the city gates, this is another question.

An Lushan's generals patted their chests and said that this was not a problem at all.

The milk tea on the stove was boiling, bubbling with steam. Butter was added to the brick tea, filling the air with fragrance.

"Okay, tonight at midnight, we will act according to this plan. Blow up the east, west and south gates of Suiye at the same time, leaving the north gate unblasted. An Lushan, you lead your troops to ambush outside the north gate."

The horse meat on the other stove was already cooked till fragrant.

"Salt, pepper, and eat!"

We hadn't had a hot meal for many days. Even though it was stewed horse meat with corn rice, it was just plain stewed meat without many seasonings, but everyone was very satisfied with the meal. They ate the meat and drank the soup with big mouthfuls, and had several big bowls of corn rice. It was really a delicious meal.

After a hearty meal, the entire army took the time to rest.

At midnight,

The soldiers who had rested well were as energetic as night owls.
Wu Huaiyu was also sitting in the camp fully armored, waiting quietly.

Rumble,
A huge bang broke the silence of the night.

There were several loud noises in succession.

Then the sound of fighting resounded through the night sky,
Wu Huaiyu just sat there and waited quietly.
"Report,"

"The east gate of Suiye has been breached, and the Turkic cavalry has charged into the city,"

"Report,"

"The west gate of Suiye has been breached, and the Shesheti cavalry have entered the city."

"Report,"

"The South Gate was blown up, and Hu Luwu's troops have entered the city,"

"Report, the north gate is open, the Asiqie tribe in Suiye City is fleeing from the north gate."

Messages were quickly delivered to Wu Huaiyu.
It went more smoothly than expected. We didn't even have to deploy Plan B, Plan C, or Plan D. The blasting of the city gate went surprisingly smoothly, and there wasn't too much resistance from the city.

Wu Huaiyu deliberately surrounded three sides of the city and left one gate open, leaving the north gate intact. As expected, the Asiqie people fled from the north gate and ran into An Lushan's ambush.

Having lost the protection of Suiye City, the defeated soldiers of Asijie who escaped from the city had no fighting spirit. Under the interception and ambush of the Tang army, they were completely defeated and could only flee.

"We must capture Que Shijin and Ni Shushijin. We must find them alive or dead!" Wu Huaiyu ordered.

It's not yet dawn,

Suiye City has been captured!
(End of this chapter)