A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1296: Regret for Not Listening to the Commandant
"The 10,000 reinforcements from Goguryeo's Wugut City are on their way to Baiyan City. According to estimates, they have probably reached Baiyan City by now. General Qibi is in danger. Your Majesty, please immediately send a general to lead elite cavalry to rush to reinforce."

In Liaodong City, Wu Huaiyu, as the military commander, immediately made suggestions to the emperor after receiving the latest military report.

"Sun Daiyin won't relapse, right?"

"Your Majesty, if he changes his mind, General Qibi will be in danger."

Li Jing, the military chief, also expressed his support for Wu Huaiyu to be prepared for any eventuality.

The Eastern Turk Khan and Huaihua County Prince Li Simo stood up at this time and said, "I am willing to lead my Turkic cavalry to support them."

"Okay, then Simo will go first." Li Shimin still felt that since Baiyan City had surrendered, it would be impossible for them to go back on their word immediately. However, since Goguryeo had 10,000 soldiers rushing to Baiyan City, he should still send people to support them. In case they attacked Baiyan City, Sun Daiyin, Qibi Heli and others would not have enough troops.

Li Simo led 3,000 Turkic cavalry and immediately rushed to Baiyan City.

Wu Huaiyu frowned, "Your Majesty, three thousand Turkic light cavalry are probably too few. Let An Lushan and Shi Shouxin lead another five thousand men from their own division to go with us."

But the emperor felt that three thousand were enough.

"Sima's mission is to support Qibi Heli and help Baiyancheng Sun Daiyin defend the city. There is no need to fight the Goguryeo people."

"Li Ji and I will rush to Baiyan City immediately."

Li Shimin really didn't take the mere 10,000 Goguryeo reinforcements seriously. He captured Liaodong City in three days and almost wiped out the 40,000 defenders. At the same time, Li Ji also defeated 40,000 Goguryeo troops in Xincheng and Guoneicheng in Gaimu City.

The Goguryeo people were defeated in successive battles, and the emperor felt that they were vulnerable.

What's more, Qibi Heli and Gao Huanquan have 1,100 soldiers, Sun Daiyin's Baiyan City defenders have several thousand, and Li Simo will bring another 3,000 cavalry. This force is enough to defeat or even annihilate the 10,000 reinforcements from Wugut City.

Li Ji's army was also heading south and would arrive at any time. He would also set off immediately, at most a day or two later than Li Simo's cavalry.

Seeing that he could not persuade the emperor, Wu Huaiyu did not try to persuade him any further.

In fact, the biggest difference between him and the emperor now is that Wu Huaiyu believes that Sun Daiyin will change his mind and will not surrender again, and that he will be in the same group with the 10,000 Wugutcheng troops who come to support.

However, the emperor believed that Sun Daiyin had already surrendered, so how could he suddenly change his mind?

On that day, Li Simo set off with three thousand Turkic cavalry.

The emperor's base camp could not set out until the next day, and most of his troops had to be left behind to garrison Liaodong City.

Prime Minister Zhang Liang and Zhangsun Wuji were responsible for guarding Liaodong City, while Wu Huaiyu and Li Jing continued to accompany the emperor.

at night,

Brother Yan Lide, who was in charge of logistics, sent people to catch a lot of big fish in the Liaohe River and slaughtered some sheep, so the dinner was quite rich.

During this expedition to Liao, no battles were fought on the Liao River. The troops crossed the river easily. There were no river crossing battles, and there was no situation where the Liao River was dyed red with blood or corpses floated in the river.

In that case, no one would go fishing for food, at least for two to three months, because if you cut open the fish, there might be some undigested food inside, which would make people feel sick.

"You seem very sure that Sun Daiyin will relapse?"

Li Jing asked Huaiyu. Li Jing, who was over seventy years old, didn't want to come to Liaodong at first, but the words "learn from Sima Yi" scared Li Jing so much that he came quickly. Fortunately, he didn't need to lead troops to fight, but just follow the imperial camp as a staff advisor, which was quite easy.

"Well, seeing how fast the reinforcements from Wugut City are rushing to Baiyan City without stopping, it's very likely that Baiyan City has relapsed."

"Moreover, Sun Daiyin was the mayor of Baiyan City who was demoted to the city. He has not been in Baiyan City for long..."

The chefs brought by the emperor were quite skilled and made many delicious dishes with the caught fish, including braised fish, pan-fried fish, grilled fish, stewed fish, steamed fish, and even sashimi.

Wu Huaiyu likes to eat pan-fried small fish and shrimps, and those coated with flour and fried are especially delicious. He does not eat raw fish. After all, he studied medicine, but he is well aware of the terrible parasites in freshwater fish.

In fact, it is extremely rare to have such good food on the battlefield. Qin Qiong on the side said that when he followed Zhang Xutuo to fight in Henan, there were wars every day and food and grass were scarce, let alone meat, vegetables and condiments.

It's hard to even have time to light a fire and cook millet porridge.
Only when we set up camp do we have time to cook a pot of corn porridge and pick some wild vegetables. The seasoning, apart from salt, is at most a piece of vinegar cloth to add some flavor. If we can eat sauce or salted fish, it means that the logistical supplies are sufficient.

And now they can have a feast that can be called a full fish banquet in Liaodong City. This is no different from fighting deep in enemy territory two thousand miles away. The food is even better than when they were marching in the country.

"I haven't used vinegar cloth for a long time. I even miss it a little bit." Qin Qiong said while eating a crispy fried river fish.

Cheng Yaojin, who was standing nearby, stared at the food and said, "Who would want to eat that unless they had to? It smells so bad."

"Hahaha," these words made all the generals laugh.

They are all veteran soldiers. Which general did not start out as a soldier? Who didn't eat wheat rice, millet porridge, vinegar cloth and other things back then?

Wars are fought with national strength and logistical supplies.
Generally speaking, there are really no such requirements.

Everybody was chatting happily, saying that the marching rations nowadays are much better than before, with steamed bread, sesame cakes, meat paste, bean paste, fried rice and noodles, and even dried vegetables, salted fish, bacon, meat floss, dried milk, etc., which are much richer.

Anyway, vinegar cloth has basically been removed from the Tang army's supply chain. It's something that even dogs won't eat.

Xue Rengui, who was on duty as a guard outside, came in from outside, walked directly to the emperor and reported in a low voice.

Wu Huaiqian saw the smile on the emperor's face gradually freeze, and finally he slammed his palm on the table in anger, almost throwing the bowl of rice in his hand on the table. "How unreasonable!"

Prime Minister Chu Suiliang hurriedly asked the emperor, "I don't know what happened to make Your Majesty angry."

Li Shimin looked at Wu Huaiyu and sighed, "What the Grand Commandant said was right. When the Lord of Baiyan City saw that Wugut City had 10,000 soldiers coming to help, he refused to surrender again."

"The barbarians are fickle, Your Majesty, don't worry. Wherever the Tang army goes, the barbarians will obey."

Li Shimin waved his hand,
"I underestimated the enemy and was careless. I should have listened to the advice of the general and sent more soldiers. He Li would not have been seriously injured."

At the gate of Baiyan City, Qibi Heli led 800 Hu cavalrymen to launch an attack on the 10,000 reinforcements from Wugut City. This Hu general was extremely brave. Previously, his tribe had planned to rebel and surrender to the Xueyantuo. Heli rushed back to the tribe to stop them, but was detained by the tribal nobles, who wanted to force him to surrender to the Xueyantuo as well.

He Li was furious and cut off one of his ears and swore to heaven that he would never rebel against the Tang Dynasty.

Later, the Tang army defeated the Qibi tribe halfway, and Qibi Heli was rescued. He persuaded the tribe to submit to the Tang again.

He accompanied the emperor on this expedition, and he had with him eight hundred elite Qibi men.

Facing 10,000 Goguryeo soldiers and the unfaithful Baiyan City Lord,
He Li did not retreat, but chose to take the initiative to attack the Goguryeo army.

"He Li led 800 cavalrymen and fought his way in and out of the enemy's army. However, Gao Huanquan led 500 men and did not follow him. Instead, he retreated and fled, leaving He Li trapped in the enemy's formation.
Unfortunately, He Li was stabbed in the waist by a spear and was seriously injured. He was also surrounded by the enemy.

When everyone heard this, they were all surprised.
Could it be that the loyal dog Yier Qibi Heli died under the city of Baiyan?
"Is General Qibi all right?"

"Fortunately, at the critical moment, Wu Sigong arrived with his troops. Seeing that He Li was in danger, he rushed into the enemy camp alone and risked his life to rescue He Li. Although He Li was seriously injured, he refused to retreat. Seeing that reinforcements had arrived, he simply bandaged his wounds and led his troops into the enemy camp again."

Everyone was listening to the emperor's words. Many people were wondering who this Wu Sigong who suddenly appeared was, and many people looked at Wu Huaiyu.

Wu Sigong is indeed related to Wu Huaiyu.
He was the adopted son of Wu Huaiyu when he was guarding Youzhou. He was originally the son of Fu Yu, the leader of the Buyeo tribe who surrendered to the country. His age was about the same as Li Keyong, the son of Tudiji, the leader of the Mohe tribe, and they were also adopted as sons at the beginning.

Fu Yu was the leader of the Buyeo tribe who followed Tudiji to submit to the Central Plains. The court conferred him the title of Buyeo Marquis. He had a bunch of sons, and he asked his youngest son to worship Wu Huaiyu, the governor of Youzhou, as his godfather.

Wu Huaiyu liked this boy very much, as his father Fu Yu was the leader of the tribe. So he accepted him and gave him the name Sigong.

Wu Sigong is now a commander of the corps.

The reason why he appeared at the foot of Baiyan City was that he was in Wu Huaiyi's army at that time. Following Wu Huaiyi's order, he led 500 light cavalry to the south first, and happened to meet Qibi Heli who was trapped in the siege.

Wu Sigong was not as famous as Li Keyong and others, but he was skilled in archery and horse riding, and was also a brave general. He led the charge into the enemy camp, and the 500 light cavalry under his command followed without hesitation.

After rescuing the Qibi He Li, He Li insisted on continuing to fight, so Wu Sigong also led his troops to charge again.

This seems like a crazy move.

But in the end, I won.

Although Goguryeo had tens of thousands of people, they were in a bit of a mess after being killed by He Li. They finally inflicted heavy damage on him and surrounded him, but suddenly another fierce Tang cavalry arrived.

After the two Tang cavalry units reorganized their ranks and fought back again, the commander of Wugut City was puzzled. He suspected that the main force of the Tang army had arrived.

Otherwise, how could these Tang people dare to be so reckless.

While they were in doubt,
Gao Huanquan, who had escaped earlier, also discovered that reinforcements had arrived, so he turned around, created a lot of smoke and dust, and bluffed, making it seem as if a large number of reinforcements were coming.
On one side, there were more than a thousand Tang cavalrymen charging desperately, and on the other side, a large army could be vaguely seen approaching from behind.

The reinforcements from Wugut City were a little panicked.

The commander ordered a retreat, hoping to get out of the battle and regroup, and even planned to enter Baiyan City first.

But Qibi Heli and Wu Sigong continued to attack fiercely.

In the end, the retreat of the reinforcements from Wugut City turned into a defeat.

More than a thousand Tang cavalrymen chased and hacked at tens of thousands of people for more than ten miles.
In this battle, He Li and Wu Sigong had 1,300 cavalrymen, more than 300 of whom were killed, more than 200 of whom were seriously injured, but they killed more than 2,000 enemy soldiers.
If it hadn't been dark, they would probably have been able to chase them for another twenty miles.

It can be said that the battle between Qibi Heli and Wu Sigong was won without any strategy. It was purely a fight of bravery and ruthlessness. When two brave men meet on a narrow road, the braver one wins, and the fight is over.

Even though his waist was stabbed by a spear, he was still able to fight to the end. One has to admire this ruthless man who cut off his own ear to swear an oath.

Of course, Wu Sigong was also very powerful. He was a dignified Zhechou Duwei and a fourth-rank military officer. Yet, he charged into the army alone, which was quite comparable to He Li.

"I almost lost another general,"

Li Shimin slammed the table and said angrily, "Bai Yancheng is so fickle and even hurt my generals. I will never let them off easily."

"After the city is captured, immediately massacre the entire city and distribute all the property and women as rewards to the soldiers."

"Duke Qibi Heli of Liang State has made great contributions in defeating the enemy and has been promoted to General of the Zhen Army and General of the Left Guard."

"Zhechou Duwei Wu Sigong was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the Left Guard."

(End of this chapter)