After Zuo Feng left, Gao Fei went to Chencang City for an inspection, comforted the injured soldiers, and also inquired about the soldiers' welfare. He sincerely cared about his subordinates and sympathized with the soldiers, and won a lot of praise in the military camp.
Yesterday's fierce battle caused the rebels to lose up to 10,000 soldiers. This undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the rebels. Coupled with the cold weather and the shortage of logistical food and grass, everyone in the rebel camp began to think about retreating.
The rebels have been stationed in the mountain road five miles away from Chencang City. It was the place where the people of Chencang originally lived. Since the people retreated to Chang'an, it has been abandoned. When the rebels came, they occupied the place where the people originally lived.
, and expanded it, cutting down large tracts of surrounding mountain forest, setting up simple tents, and stretching out from the mountain road.
In the rebel camp, Han Sui was sitting in a tent warming himself by the fire. The weather was so cold that almost thousands of war horses had frozen to death in the past few days. War horses were the lifeblood of nomadic peoples like the Qiang and Hu. The loss of war horses meant a lot to these nomads.
It caused a huge sensation for the rebels who were mainly Qiang and Hu. In addition, more than 11,000 people were killed in the battle under Chencang City in just five days. Such a thing was invincible for Liangzhou.
The blow was even greater for the rebels.
Han Sui frowned and kept a straight face, keeping his eyes fixed on the fire not far in front of him. He seemed to see the soldiers who were burned to death by the fire yesterday in the fire.
"Hey! I didn't expect that a small Chencang could actually block the path of my army. God decides what to do, so I'll take a day off today and attack again tomorrow. I don't believe I can't conquer Chencang City!" Han
Then he took a sip of the warm wine alone and threw the cup in his hand to the ground angrily. It immediately shattered into pieces and made a crisp sound.
At this moment, Beigong Boyu walked in from outside the tent. His arm was still wrapped with a bloody bandage, and he was still aching from the knife slashed by Marquis Li Wen. As soon as he entered the tent, he saw Han Sui breaking it.
He took the wine glass and said in a rough voice: "General Han, we have been here for almost six days. Six days ago, you said that as long as we listen to you along the way, we will send a hundred thousand troops to Chencang City.
They will surrender. But now, not only did Chencang not surrender, but it resisted more and more fiercely, causing more than 10,000 people to die in just a few days. You... are you sure you can capture Chencang?
"
Although Han Sui was the elected leader, he knew in his heart that in the eyes of Beigong Boyu, he was just a pronoun, and in the eyes of the Qiang leaders, he had no subordinates or followers of his own, and even this
In the past few days, many people in the army have criticized him, and they have been talking about Bian Zhang's benefits. The Battle of Liangzhou was commanded by Bian Zhang, and his lightning speed lasted more than half a month.
Then he conquered the entire Liangzhou except Dunhuang, and many Qiang leaders also secretly flocked to Bianzhang. Hearing Beigong Boyu's distrustful words, he didn't say much, just made a gesture
, said: "Sit!"
Beigong Boyu was very unhappy. He thought that he had chosen Han Sui and Bian Zhang because they were more famous than him and had superior strategies and bravery. But now it seemed that he regretted his original decision.
He sat down on a stone pier. Seeing that Han Sui couldn't fart for a long time, he muttered: "General Han, you should tell me, can Chencang be captured? General Bian and I have already
We've discussed it, if you don't have that confidence, we don't have to waste time here. The weather is too cold and the war horses can't get good fodder, and it will get colder and colder in the future. One of them will be dead before Chencang is captured.
There are more than 10,000 people, and those Qiang tycoons already have the intention of withdrawing their troops. Everyone said that if they had known this would be the result, it would be better not to come."
Han Sui glanced at Beigong Boyu and asked softly: "How is General Bian's injury?"
"It's just a skin injury. I can't die. I just need to rest for a few days." After Bei Gong Boyu finished speaking, he couldn't help but muttered, "If I had known you were so incompetent, I wouldn't have let you command this battle in the first place. He also said
Why do we have to live in Chang'an City this winter? I think it's all bullshit!"
Han Sui didn't say anything when he heard Beigong Boyu's complaint, but there was a faint murderous intention in his heart. There is no room for two tigers in one mountain. He thought that only Bian Zhang would block him from controlling all the military power, but now it seems that Beigong Boyu will also affect it.
When it comes to his future status, since he has chosen to rebel, he cannot just be a puppet. If he wants to do it, he must be the real leader of the rebels. But he knows very well now that he is not the one to kill Bian Zhang and Beigong Boyu at this time.
At that time, the morale in the military camp was low, and everyone was thinking of quitting, and the group of Ziqiang people was also won over by Beigong Boyu. He needed time to deal with these relationships, and he needed to divide them one by one, and then let these Qianghu follow them wholeheartedly.
he.
"Can you please say something? Can you still capture Chencang?" Beigong Boyu asked when he saw that Han Sui remained silent.
Han Sui pondered for a moment, raised his eyelids and looked at Beigong Boyu, and said slowly: "Although Chencang is small, it is very tightly defended. Coupled with the special terrain, our army of 100,000 cannot launch an attack normally. This restricts
Now that winter is approaching and the weather is getting colder day by day, there is no way to continue like this. Let's retreat. When spring next year we attack from the direction of Anding. The terrain there is relatively spacious, and we can approach Meiyang all the way south.
"
After Beigong Boyu heard this, he stood up and said: "At the beginning, I said that I would not leave Chencang, but Anding. If you insist on leaving Chencang, Gao Fei is not easy to mess with. I will eat it."
You still don’t believe it after losing once. I will go and pass on the order and the army will retreat to Jicheng."
Han Sui didn't say anything. When he saw Beigong Boyu walking out of the tent, he suddenly stood up, with great murderous intent in his eyes, and said bitterly: "Sooner or later, I will make you pay for your disrespect for me today."
Pay the price!"
########################Gao Fei was still telling the story of Journey to the West to the soldiers standing guard on the city tower. These days he discovered that these soldiers
He was very fascinated by fairy tales. When he was bored, he would go up to the tower and tell stories to these soldiers. Every time they heard about Sun Wukong appearing in an emergency and rescuing Tang Monk, they seemed very excited.
Just after midnight, everyone suddenly heard a loud noise coming from the rebel camp in the distance. They quickly cheered up and quickly returned to their posts, looking far ahead at the mountain road. The drummer also walked to the drum.
In front of him, he raised two drumsticks. Once he saw rebels coming out, he would immediately beat the war drum.
Gao Fei, like everyone else, maintained a high degree of concentration at all times, but after waiting for a while, he didn't see anyone coming or going on the mountain road, and a lot of thick black smoke rose from the rebel camp.
After waiting for a while, Gao Fei felt something was wrong. After thinking for a while, he said to Lu Heng who was guarding the tower: "Prepare ten war horses. You bring eight people to me. Let's go out of the city to have a look."
"Leave the city? There is a rebel camp outside the Marquis. What if..." Lu Heng said in surprise.
Gao Fei said: "If I'm not wrong, the rebels should have retreated. Look at the black smoke over there. It's clearly caused by the fire burning things. It must be that the rebels retreated and burned things along the way.
It’s due to the village where I live.”
Lu Heng clasped his fists and said: "No! I will go and prepare now. Lord Marquis, please wait at the gate of the city!"
Gao Fei got off the city tower and waited for a short time by the city gate. He saw Lu Heng leading eight cavalrymen and a war horse in front of Gao Fei. He got on his horse and ordered the soldiers guarding the city gate to open it.
After entering the city gate, he took Lu Heng and other nine people out of the city.
Gao Fei, Lu Heng and others moved forward cautiously. After walking slowly for a few miles and turning a corner on the mountain road, they saw the burning rebel camp. Black smoke was billowing and the fire blocked the road.
"Unexpectedly, Han Sui was quite careful. He blocked the road with fire first for fear of pursuing troops. Lu Heng, the rebels have really retreated. Let's go back!" Gao Fei smiled slightly after reading this.
stand up.
Lu Heng and the other eight people seemed very excited. The battles these days had not been in vain, and the rebels had finally retreated. Lu Heng glanced at Gao Fei, and saw that Gao Fei's face did not seem to be filled with much surprise, but
Feeling a little more worried, he asked, "Isn't the Marquis happy that the rebels have retreated?"
Gao Fei did not answer, but said to the other eight cavalry: "You go back first, tell everyone in the city the news of the rebels' retreat, and ask Fu Xie and Gai Xun to prepare a celebration banquet. There will be a grand celebration tonight."
Ichiban.”
The other eight cavalrymen all said "Promise" and ran back with joy on their faces.
When Gao Fei saw the eight cavalrymen walking away, he said to Lu Heng: "Last night the imperial court came with an imperial edict. My merits and demerits for killing Zuo Chang were equal to each other. I was also asked to temporarily take over the position of governor of Liangzhou and command these soldiers and horses to defend the defense.
Chencang..."
"Master Hou, this is a good thing. Master Hou should be happy!" Lu Heng interrupted Gao Fei's words happily.
Gao Fei smiled and continued: "In addition, the imperial court sent the cavalry general Huangfu Song to lead one hundred thousand elite soldiers to fight against the thieves, and asked me to deliver these soldiers and horses to Huangfu Song after Huangfu Song arrived with his troops. In this way
, I have no more soldiers and horses, and the title of governor of Liangzhou is also a false one. I guess that when Liangzhou is pacified, the position of governor will be assigned to someone else."
After hearing this, Lu Heng's happy face immediately turned into sadness, and said: "Master Hou is dedicated to serving the court, but I didn't expect that the court would treat Master Hou like this. It's really chilling. Master Hou, Bian Xi brought him back from Liangzhou before
The output is not much, and the four thousand kilograms of gold have not been put to use yet, so why not use them to buy an official?"
Gao Fei sneered and said: "If you don't buy it, even if you buy it, it won't last long. The gold will still be useful if you keep it. I want it, don't you understand?"
Lu Hengdao: "What the Marquis means is...recruiting private soldiers?"
Gao Fei turned his head and glanced at Lu Heng. He felt that this guy was becoming more and more interested in him, just like a roundworm in his stomach. He smiled and said: "Yes, he is a private soldier. As long as he has something in his hand
If you have your own soldiers, you will not be afraid no matter where you go."
Lu Heng asked hurriedly: "Master Hou, how many people do you need to recruit?"
"Two thousand people!"
Lu Heng thought for a while and said: "Master Hou, I have an idea, but I don't know if it is feasible or not?"
"What do you think!"
"Now in Chencang City, in addition to the more than 700 cavalry brought back by the Marquis from Liangzhou, there are still more than 10,000 regular Han troops. Why don't the Marquis select some people from the more than 10,000 people to make up for the two thousand
people, and quietly converted these two thousand people into Chencang common people. Although there were fewer soldiers, the Marquis could say that these more than a thousand people died in battle. According to the laws of the Han Dynasty, ordinary soldiers who died in battle
, they can all get a settling-in allowance that is twice the soldier's salary, and then the Marquis will spend some money to support these people. In this way, those selected soldiers can receive additional military pay. Although they become the Marquis's
A private soldier only gets the same salary every month. He doesn't care whether it is an official army or the Marquis's private soldiers, he will definitely serve the Marquis."
"Haha, you are indeed my confidant. Even your thoughts are similar to mine. But this matter needs to be kept confidential. Don't forget that there are people like Fu Xie and Gai Xun in Chencang City who are very calculating.
, we must hide the truth, are you sure of it?"
"Don't worry, Lord Marquis, my subordinates have their own solutions. All it takes is a small plague..."
"plague?"
Lu Heng smiled and told Gao Fei the method he thought of. After listening to it, Gao Fei felt that the method was feasible, so he nodded with satisfaction and said to Lu Heng: "Go ahead and do it, but you must not do it in the future."
No more random shouting of long live, remember!"
Lu Heng made a "promise" and said: "I know, Lord Marquis, I will note it down."