Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 587 Important Officials
Seeing that more and more Tang troops were surrounding them, Dazha Lugong decided to go south to plunder and then leave.

At dawn one day, the Tubo army quietly withdrew without waiting for the Tang army on the other side of the river to react. They marched quickly to Dayukou that day, shook off the Tang army's scouts, turned south, and headed straight for Fengtian County.

According to the route originally planned by Li Qiwu and Gao Hui, they should march along the Mogu River, cross the loess plateau and enter the vast and flat Guanzhong Plain.

This plan emphasizes the word "fast".

However, halfway through the march, Gao Hui made a suggestion to Dazha Lugong.

"If we continue along this road, we will have to pass through the dangerous terrain of the Mogu Road. If the Tang army sets an ambush in the valley, the general's troops may suffer losses."

Before Dazha Lugong could speak, Li Qiwu asked in confusion: "General, you are moving so fast, why did the Tang army set up an ambush in advance?"

Gao Hui asked: "General, you also marched secretly from Pingliang to Bingzhou, why were you stopped?"

Dazha Lugong then thought of what his brother said, Xue Bai seemed to have known the route of the Tibetan army for a long time, so he raised his hand to tell Li Qiwu not to interrupt, and asked Gao Hui: "If there are ambushes on the Mogu Road, what do you think?"

"General, you can go to Qianling Mausoleum." Gao Hui said.

"Qianling Mausoleum?" Dazalugong asked, "What is that?"

"It is the mausoleum of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty and Empress Wu. General, you only need to go to Qianling Mausoleum and pretend to dig up the gold and silver vessels buried with them. No matter which Tang army is around, they will rescue them. Then you can ambush them."

After hearing this suggestion, Li Qiwu felt it was ridiculous.

He didn't think that Dazha Lugong had the time and energy to excavate Qianling Mausoleum. Even if he did, it would be a very unprofitable thing in the long run.

"Do you want to make Tubo and Tang Dynasty enemies for generations?!"

"So I said it was a feint." Gao Hui said, "The purpose is to test whether there are ambushes and avoid going directly into the dangerous pass."

Li Qiwu frowned, thinking that this logic was totally unreasonable, and said: "This idea is too stupid. Instead of worrying about whether there are ambushes, it is better to cross the Mogu Road as soon as possible."

Gao Hui said: "I'm afraid it's because you are a member of the Tang royal family, and you deliberately prevented the general from going to Qianling Mausoleum?"

"What are you talking about?" Li Qiwu was puzzled. "What does this have to do with me being a royal family member?!"

He no longer had the patience to continue this extremely stupid conversation, thinking that Gao Hui was treating the barbarian Dazha Lugong like a fool in order to win credit.

However, Dazalugong heard a hidden meaning in this conversation that even Li Qiwu was not aware of.

If someone in the Tubo army had been secretly passing information to Xue Bai, Gao Hui might be suspicious of Li Qiwu. Because of his suspicion, he was worried that there would be ambushes on the Mogu Road that Li Qiwu pointed out, so he wanted him to test Qianling first.

Considering this, Dazhalugon decided to go to Qianling Mausoleum first, both out of caution and to test Li Qiwu.

"what?"

After hearing the result, Li Qiwu became dissatisfied as he saw that he could not persuade Dazalugong.

He was a member of the royal family of Li Tang, and he was only following the order of the retired emperor to borrow troops. How did he become a traitor who led foreign invaders to plunder Emperor Gaozong's tomb?
After all, we shouldn't associate with barbarians.

Thinking of this, he decided to find another way out.

The next day, the Tubo army changed its route again. Instead of taking the faster and more convenient Mogu Road, it took a detour to Qianling Mausoleum.

Qianling Mausoleum is closer to Fengtian, and there is always a small force guarding the mausoleum. When the Tubo army arrived, it alarmed the troops guarding the mausoleum, and Fengtian County immediately went on alert.

Dazha Lugong was very suspicious that there were ambushes of the Tang army near the Mogu Road, so he pretended to dig in Qianling Mausoleum, but actually hid his troops among the pine and cypress forests, preparing to ambush the Tang army in turn. This wait lasted for two days.

It was these two days that became the key to the battle.

At dawn on the third day, a troop of soldiers finally arrived at Qianling Mausoleum.

That day, there was a thick fog in the mountains. Dazha Lugong looked towards the end of the mountain path with a telescope and saw flags fluttering in the fog. It was Wang Nandai who had arrived.

He missed the opportunity to break out and fell into the encirclement of the Tang army again.

The Tubo army had a natural fear of Wang Nandai, who had once challenged a Tubo prince with a spear. If it came to defeating Wang Nandai head-on, Dazalugong would rather fight against Xue Bai.

But now, he seems to have no choice.

Gao Hui kept emphasizing that the Mogu Road was dangerous and easy to be ambushed, but he did not mention another thing. If an ambush was discovered on the Mogu Road, the only thing to do was to retreat. On the contrary, the area around Qianling Mausoleum was densely covered with pine and cypress trees and the terrain was tortuous, which was not conducive to the deployment of a large army, especially not suitable for cavalry charges.

Therefore, if the Tang army wanted to encircle and annihilate the Tubo army, the terrain of Qianling would be more suitable, and the time would also be favorable for the Tang army to calmly set up an encirclement.

This was something Dazalugong had not expected. The moment he saw Wang Nan's flag, he had a premonition that he might lose the battle.

As expected, when the two sides engaged in battle, Wang Nande personally led the battle and defeated the Tubo army.

What's worse is that before long, more and more Tang troops arrived from the rear, starting with Guo Xi's cavalry.

Dazha Lugong had to admit that he had failed strategically, and now all he wanted was to successfully bring the main force back to Tubo.

The trouble is, he has gone too far on his own.

~~
Li Qiwu didn't care about victory or defeat on the battlefield. He was a person who listened to classical music. Now all he heard every day was the roar of fighting, which made him feel depressed.

He paced in the tent every day, thinking about how to get the court's forgiveness.

On this day, there was a particularly loud commotion in the Tibetan army. The screams of the wounded increased, and there seemed to be a riot. Some Tibetan tribes left on their own, and some even ran to join the Tang army.

Li Qiwu lifted the curtain to see what was going on outside, but saw a pair of bright eyes staring at him. That was the slave he bought some time ago. He was gifted in music and was originally intended to be presented to the emperor.

"What a pity! You would have been the next 'God of Chicken', but unfortunately, the emperor has passed away." Li Qiwu sighed, waved his hand, and said, "Go and make a living on your own."

Ye Budong prostrated himself on the ground and said, "I want to learn music from Alang."

"Why learn music? In such a chaotic world, these skills are useless."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier came over and said that the general was calling Li Qiwu over.

This time, he was not taken to the big tent, but was taken to Dazalugong's stable.

"Go in."

"What are you doing?" Li Qiwu was furious and said, "I am a member of the Tang Dynasty royal family!"

"Go in."

There was a pile of horse shit under his feet and the fence behind him was closed. Li Qiwu turned around and saw Dazalugong coming towards him in armor with a ferocious look on his face.

Then Gao Hui was pushed in as well.

"General..."

"Cunning Tangren, one of you two must be lying to me!"

Li Qiwu was startled when he saw this and said hurriedly, "General, it was Gao Hui who led you here. The Tang army has already set up an ambush."

"General, listen to me. The Tang army could not have set an ambush at Qianling Mausoleum. This would have disturbed Emperor Gaozong." Gao Hui said, "They must have ambushed at Mogu Road. It was because you were cautious that you did not fall into the ambush."

Li Qiwu said: "General, your army is alone and deep in the enemy's territory. Your chance of victory lies in speed. Gao Hui has misled you."

"enough!"

Dazalugong roared, "I won't listen to a word of your chatter. I will only leave one person to lead the way for me. When the army sets out in half an hour, I will only trust the one who survives."

"what?"

Li Qiwu was greatly surprised.

This seemed completely unreasonable to him.

When faced with a problem, how can one not distinguish between cause and effect and right and wrong, and just use such a simple and crude way to solve it? What if he killed someone by mistake? Or did Dazha Lugong not trust him at all?

Expecting a barbarian to find out the truth is indeed...

"Boom."

Li Qiwu was still thinking when he was hit hard on the head and fell to the ground.

He turned around and saw Gao Hui rushing towards him with a murderous look on his face.

Before he could react, Gao Hui's strong and powerful arms had already grabbed his neck and dragged him back with all his might, trying to strangle him to death.

"open!"

"I'm sorry, the Tibetans said that only one of us can survive, so you should blame him instead."

Li Qiwu's face turned red and he couldn't breathe.

He finally felt terrified. What terrified him more than death was the brutality and unreasonableness.

He abandoned the comfortable life in Chang'an City and lived with wolves, tigers and leopards. There was no order among them. They wanted to kill him, no matter if there was a reason or not. No matter what he did, it was wrong.

His neck was being tightened, Li Qiwu grabbed a pile of warm horse manure on the ground and pressed it hard between Gao Hui's eyes.
Gao Hui's eyes were blurred by horse manure, and he subconsciously let go of his hand.

Li Qiwu hurriedly crawled away, but Gao Hui had already wiped the horse manure off his face. He grabbed his ankle, dragged him back, and kicked him hard on the back, trying to beat him to death.

"what!"

Li Qiwu was old, his muscles and bones were weak, and every blow hurt. He had never suffered such a great punishment before, and he felt that hell was just like this.

He screamed in pain as his teeth hit a hard object and broke off, bleeding profusely.

When I touched it, I found it was a stone.

Li Qiwu grabbed the stone and smashed it on Gao Hui's calf. Then, while Gao Hui was staggering, he pounced on him and smashed the stone on Gao Hui's head.

Gao Hui struggled frantically, trying to dig out Li Qiwu's eyeballs with his hands covered in horse manure. After groping for a while, he finally pressed his thumb into the eye socket, and blood immediately flowed out of Li Qiwu's eye socket.

"puff."

"puff."

Li Qiwu's mouth was full of feces and his eyes were full of blood. He used all his strength to hit Gao Hui three more times and finally killed him. Before this, he always felt that Gao Hui was a general and he could not defeat him. However, if a general did not go to the battlefield for too long, he would be just like that.

"Pooh!"

He stood up shakily, looked at the corpse on the ground, and thought of the elegant self during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years, the self who drank tea with Lu Yu and debated scriptures with Huaisu, and tears fell like rain.

"Oh Datang! My Datang, how did you become like this?!"

"Emperor Gaozong, Empress Zetian, please open your eyes and look at the present Tang Dynasty!"

Li Qiwu cried and spat out the horse manure in his mouth. He thought sadly, even if he killed Gao Hui, what would happen? Would he continue to lead the Tibetans? He was really harmed by the emperor.

But when he turned around, he was surprised to find that there was no one guarding outside the stable.

He was so engrossed in the fierce battle with Gao Hui just now that he didn't even notice that the Tubo army had suddenly been defeated.

When I opened the fence and walked out, I saw that the whole camp was in chaos. The Tibetan soldiers with horses were running wildly to the northwest, and the herdsmen without horses were hugging their cattle and sheep and crying. In the distance, the sound of bugles and shouts could be heard.

It's infuriating! The world is so unreasonable. He didn't need to fight to the death with Gao Hui to get out safely, but he had his eye scratched and his mouth full of shit for no reason.

He didn't know where to escape. He didn't want to be caught by the Tang army, nor did he want to be captured and tortured by Dazha Lugong. So he ran to the north where there were fewer people, intending to hide his identity.

Suddenly, the sound of fighting was heard from the tent in front, and Li Qiwu hid quickly.

When he peeked over, he saw Tibetan soldiers killing people. The people being killed were Gao Hui's personal soldiers. Gao Hui's tent was in front of him. After a few screams, the Tibetan soldiers killed the people and left.

Li Qiwu was about to leave when he suddenly had an idea. Gao Hui's persuasion of Dazha Lugong to Qianling Mausoleum was not really a trap, was it? "Such a stupid plan, and disturbing Emperor Gaozong, it doesn't make sense."

Having said this, he still walked towards Gao Hui's tent and looked around.

Suddenly, someone groaned, "Mr. Li."

Li Qiwu turned around and saw a young soldier lying on the ground seriously injured. He hurried over and asked, "Has Gao Hui contacted the imperial court?"

"I am a subordinate of General Bai... I stole the letter from Dazalugong's tent... and presented it to the court..."

"Good! Good!" Li Qiwu was overjoyed and said, "I came to save you, can you share some of your credit with me? I am also loyal to the court, so just say that I helped you and that I also contributed to this great victory."

He hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his noble hand and pressed the soldier's wound.

But the hot blood still trickled out from between his fingers.

Li Qiwu was so frightened that he burst into tears and said, "Don't die, I will save you and you save me."

"The letter...was wrapped in wax balls...in my...stomach..."

"What?" Li Qiwu was confused and asked, "What is the letter? Can it save me?"

The soldier murmured, "The country is in crisis... Once the Tang Dynasty has passed this most difficult time... life will be better..."

Li Qiwu felt that he could no longer hold the wound, so he turned his head to look for a bandage or medicine.

But gradually, he felt the soldier's heartbeat was getting weaker and weaker.

"Don't die, you have to go back with me."

"Go home... My home is in... Jingling County..."

"I am the governor of Jingling! Tell me, where is your home and what is your name?!"

The soldier didn't answer. He opened his eyes wide with endless longing in them, and his heart had stopped beating.

He made the greatest contribution to the great victory of the Tang army, but until his death, he never even reported his name to Li Qiwu.

"Damn it, what's your name? If you don't tell me your name, how can I prove that I am a loyal subject?"

Li Qiwu stood up cursing and wanted to leave dejectedly, but suddenly he thought of something, stopped, and looked back at the corpse on the ground in a daze.

After a while, he picked up a knife, held it with both hands, and trembled as he looked at the corpse.

"You risked your life to get this letter back, so you don't want it to be useless, right? I'm following your last wish."

After saying this, Li Qiwu knelt on the ground, cut open the corpse's abdomen with a knife, raised his hand, and reached into the hot body.

With his hands covered in blood and mucus, he finally touched a round wax ball.

Picking up the wax ball, he turned around and was about to leave, but after taking a few steps, he hesitated. After hesitating for a long time, he turned around, found a big knife, and started digging the soil under the cypress tree next to him.

While digging with great effort, he muttered, "It is a great favor for you to be buried with me in Qianling Mausoleum."

He was not good at this kind of rough work, and he dug from day to night without digging out much soil. Finally, he threw down his knife in frustration and stood there stupidly, his back hunched, his head drooping weakly, blood flowing from his eyes, and his body emitting the stench of feces.

"That's right, who am I, who are you, and why should I dig a grave for you?"

Muttering to himself, Li Qiwu slapped himself for being useless and turned to walk towards the Tang army.

He clenched the wax ball in his hand, held it high, and shouted: "Loyal minister, I am a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty!"

The Tang army soldiers rushed over and pressed him to the ground. He did not resist, but just kept repeating the same words.

"Loyal minister, loyal minister..."

~~
into the night.

The king sat in the big tent, wiping his iron spear and listening to military intelligence.

"Dazarugong fled westward, and Guo Xi has led the cavalry to pursue him."

"Has His Majesty arrived yet?"

"The imperial carriage is more than ten miles to the north."

Wang Nandan stood up and said, "I will go to meet him myself."

"There is one more small matter. The army has captured Li Qiwu."

"Li Qiwu?" Wang Nan asked, "The governor of Shan County promoted Li Qiwu, An Lushan's strategist Gao Shang?"

"Yes. Because of this incident, he has not been given important positions in recent years and went to collude with Tubo. This time he was captured alive, but he said that he was a loyal minister of the Tang Dynasty and had stolen important intelligence to offer."

"Where's the information?"

A bloody wax ball was handed to Wang Nande. He crushed the wax ball and unfolded it. Inside was a letter written entirely in Tibetan.

Wang Nan had been in Longyou for a long time and could understand the Tibetan characters, but after reading it, he frowned and showed a puzzled expression.

"'Trisong Detsen exceeded his authority', what does this mean?"

He was in a hurry to see Xue Bai and did not dwell on this matter. He solemnly put away the letter and rushed to the northern camp to see Xue Bai overnight.

They had conspired together for a great cause back then, and now Xue Bai has ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. However, Wang Nan's excitement about this matter is different from that of others.

When he arrived at the camp, the first thing he saw was Bai Xiaode listening to a report at the gate.

"Gao Hui is already dead, so I guess they were not spared either."

"Search again. If they are alive, we must find them. If they are dead, we must find their bodies. At least we can't let them bury their bodies in the wilderness."

As Bai Xiaode was speaking, he turned around and saw Wang Nandai, so he went up to him and talked to him for a few words. He then mentioned that the spy he had sent into the Tubo army had not returned yet.

Wang Nandai suddenly realized something, took out a letter from his pocket and handed it over.

~~
In the prisoner camp, Lang Jiezan fell asleep beside the fence. He felt another Tang army horse coming to lick his face, and he dodged impatiently.

Then, footsteps were heard outside. It was Tang army soldiers escorting several prisoners.

"I've already said that I'm a loyal subject. I've been risking my life to gather intelligence for the Tang Dynasty!"

"Let me go, take me to see His Majesty..."

Lang Jiezan looked and found that among them was Li Qiwu, the Li Tang minister who had exchanged tea with him for slaves, who was shouting non-stop.

Actually, it was because of this deal that he was captured, but it was also because of this deal that he was not killed.

Over there, Li Qiwu was shouting, and when he looked back, he suddenly said, "He can prove it! Yebudong, tell them that I want to bring you to the Tang Dynasty to play music for the emperor, tell them!"

Lang Jiezan looked in the direction Li Qiwu's chin was pointing and found that the slave who had been replaced, Ye Budong, was also there.

Afterwards, as Li Qiwu shouted, Yebudong was brought in front of him.

"Tell me, is this your master?!"

Yebudong looked up timidly and nodded.

The Tang army soldier asked: "What position does he hold in Tubo?!"

"I, I don't know, really, I don't know."

"You damned slave!"

Lang Jiezan cursed loudly and at the same time quickly signaled Yebutong to watch his lip movements, reminding Yebutong that he was now an important official of Tubo.

"Let you tell me!" The Tang soldier whipped Yebudong and asked, "Is he the prime minister of Tubo?!"

"Almost. Minister."

"Bring him here!"

Lang Jiezan was then taken out of the prisoner camp and into a tent, where he saw many people sitting inside, all of whom were the main generals of the Tang army, but he did not recognize any of them.

He didn't dare to say anything more and just stood there silently.

"Show him the letter." Someone ordered.

So, a letter was handed to Lang Jiezan. After reading it, he was shocked.

"It seems that you understand it." A Tang army general said in Tibetan: "Tell me, what does this letter mean?"

Cold sweat broke out on Lang Jiezan's forehead again.

He sweats all day long and his face is very salty, so the horse always likes to come and lick his face.

"I don't know the details, but if..."

Before he could finish his words, Lang Jiezan was hit hard with a whip and kicked in the knee, forcing him to kneel on the ground.

"Say!"

A knife was placed on his thigh.

"This letter should be written by the regent minister Ma Xiang to Da Zha Lu Gong. Judging from the tone, it was written by Ma Xiang."

Lang Jiezan was already in a state of poverty, and in fact he did not know the core of Tubo. But in order to survive, he could only use his brain quickly and make a guess based on the content of the letter and the complaints he had heard from his father before.

Fortunately, he is somewhat cunning and has a wide range of knowledge in the Lang family, so he can say something.

Someone asked: "What does 'Sangdui and Jieba became the wolf cub's paws' mean here?"

Langjiezan said: "Sangdu and Jieba are the Vajra in Buddhism, and they should refer to the two close ministers around the Zamp, Chisang Yafula and Luode Gunanggong. They also knew my father and often said in private that they were dissatisfied with Maxiang and Dazha Lugong, one inside and one outside, one civil and one military, who controlled state affairs."

"What does 'the flame pattern appeared on the wolf's forehead' mean here?"

"It's a Tibetan legend. A wolf with white flames on its forehead will not recognize its relatives and will bite its parents to death. I think it means that the king wanted to rule the country himself and took some action. Ma Xiang said he exceeded his authority."

"Ma Xiang said 'Zhang Shung agreed', what does that mean?"

"How should I put it? Zhangzhung can be said to be a large tribe of Tubo. Its leader is called the Zhangzhung King. It is the birthplace of Bon religion." Langjiezan thought as he said, "If Zhangzhung agrees, they should be preparing to abolish the Zamp together... right?"

The Tang army generals looked at each other, and someone asked, "Is this Ma Xiang's handwriting?"

Langjie was in a dilemma.

He was not really a senior official of Tubo, so how could he have seen the handwriting of the regent? But if he was caught now, he would be dead for sure.

After pretending to examine it carefully for a while, he nodded and said, "Yes."

"you sure?"

The knife pressed against Lang Jiezan's thigh was pressed down again.

His scalp tingled, so he had to bite the bullet and said, "Yes, I won't admit my mistake."

(End of this chapter)