Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 155: The Balance Guards the Border
The next day, Li Yizhong led dozens of elite cavalrymen to leave Wuquan, and the soldiers and civilians of Wuquan City took advantage of the winter to enjoy a long-awaited rest.

However, while they were resting, Baiting Sea, hundreds of miles away from Wuquan City, became lively.

"Crackling..."

In the silence, the crackling campfire dispelled the cold and illuminated the surroundings.

In the tent of the Umutu tribe in Baitinghai, Dugazhi sat opposite another person, while Dulunxiga acted as a guard, patrolling around the tent to prevent the news from leaking out.

"We are the descendants of Hexi soldiers. Now that the court needs us, we will naturally not refuse."

"But you can see that we are short of food and clothing, and our armor and weapons are incomplete. Even if we want to kill the enemy, we are powerless to do anything."

Dugazhi expressed his loyalty to the person in front of him and explained the situation of the Du tribe to him.

The person sitting opposite him was just a minor official of the seventh rank sent by Chang'an, but he held the key to whether Du's army could make a comeback.

That is why Durgazhi was so servile.

"You don't have to worry about armor, clothing, and food. After my trip, Lingzhou and Fengzhou will open up trade to you. But you should also be aware that what the court wants you to do is just to hinder you. You shouldn't have such thoughts..."

The official narrowed his eyes and said, "We should think it over carefully."

"Yes!" Dugazhi nodded quickly, and the official said, "In addition, I need you to send someone to escort me to Juyan Lake."

"Juyanhai?" Dugazhi paused and asked tentatively, "Does the court want to win over Juyanhai?"

"Don't ask questions you shouldn't ask!" The official frowned and interrupted him. Dugazhi felt angry when he heard this, but he didn't dare to show it. He could only nod:
"Then I wonder what our future relationship with Hexi and the imperial court will be like..."

He asked tentatively, but the official said impatiently: "I will report to the Supreme when I return to Chang'an."

"As long as you obey my orders, you will become subjects under the rule of the Supreme Lord, and Hexi will not embarrass you anymore."

"Yes..." Du Gazhi breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that he would not be retaliated by Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huaishen.

"Okay, that's how it is. Please arrange a place for me to rest."

The official stood up, and Dugazhi quickly followed suit. While escorting him out of the tent, he instructed Dulunxiga, who was standing at the door of the tent:

"Arrange accommodation for the angel. If the angel wants to go to Juyan Lake, you will personally lead the troops to escort the angel!"

"Juyanhai?" Dulunxijia was stunned for a moment, just like Dugazhi before, but he quickly reacted: "Yes!"

"Angel, please..." Du Lun Xijia made a gesture, and the official who was fluent in Tibetan raised his chin and strode out of the tent.

Seeing this, Dugazhi returned to the tent to rest, and soon he saw Dulunxiga returning to the tent.

"how?"

Dugazhi used a wooden stick to stir the bonfire in the brazier, and Dulunxiga nodded and said, "It's all arranged."

"But, Grandpa, the opening of the trade still requires us to exchange livestock for goods. This court is too stingy."

"Hmph..." Dugazhi looked at the flickering bonfire and said coldly, "The Tang court has always been stingy, but judging from their actions, I'm afraid they still want to win over the Uighurs in Ganzhou and Xizhou."

"Such a big event?" Du Lunxijia was surprised:

"Zhang Yichao is their man after all. Do they need to involve the entire Hexi and Western Regions in their efforts to restrain Zhang Yichao?"

"Their people?" Dugazhi couldn't help laughing:
"I've told you long ago that the Tang court is good at dealing with its own people. The faster Zhang Yichao and his men return to the east, the greater their momentum, and the more likely they will be targeted by the Tang court."

"In my opinion, winning us over is just Tang Ting's plan. The real killer should already be on his way to Hexi."

Hearing this, Du Lunxijia couldn't help but ask, "Can't we accept Zhang Yichao and the others?"

"Hehe..." Dugazhi sneered, with a hint of self-mockery in his smile.

"If they could accept Zhang Yichao and his group, we wouldn't have to wander around Baiting Sea."

His words made Duryodhana not know how to respond, and after he finished speaking, he continued to fan the fire in the brazier.

In his eyes, the Guiyi Army was like this bonfire. Although the fire was burning more and more vigorously, if it was isolated and helpless, it would be extinguished into ashes sooner or later.

As he thought about this, time passed quickly.

Li Yizhong went to Guzang and told Zhang Huaishen about Liu Jilian's attitude and reaction, but he concealed the fact that Zhang Chang and others insulted the court.

Knowing that Liu Jilong was not impulsive, and that Suo Xun's reply also guaranteed his attitude, Zhang Huaishen breathed a sigh of relief and thought of putting the matter off until the spring.

Time passes by, but there are very few snowflakes since the beginning of winter.

In the twelfth month of previous years, the mountains in Helong were already covered with snow. Although the winter of this year was cold, the snow on the mountains could not even cover the mountaintops.

This is not good news, because it means that after the summer of next year, the snow water that the mountains in the Helong area can provide will be very limited.

Places like Hexi will not be affected by this, but the Longxi Mountains, which are relatively lower than the Qilian Mountains, will be.

On the way back to Guangwu after reporting, Li Yizhong clearly felt the impact of the reduction in snowfall.

Although Wushaoling and Hongchiling are cold, there is little snow in the mountains. After crossing Hongchiling, the snowfall in Guangwu is even less.

In Longxi, where snow started to fall in November, there was no large area of snow until the second half of December.

People of this era did not know why this happened, but based on their experience, such scenes were often followed by severe droughts.

For a time, all forces in Longxi became conservative.

Sending troops requires recruiting laborers, and both laborers and livestock require sufficient food.

As the drought continues and food is in short supply, everyone is thinking about how to survive the drought, and no one is thinking about how to attack.

Throughout the winter, Liu Jilian led his troops to stay in Wuquan, focusing on military training, literacy, and teaching in the school.

In addition to teaching the generals, he also gave direct instruction to the more than 170 people in the city.

"Crackling..."

Amid the crackling of the bonfire, the sixth year of Dazhong became history, and the seventh year of Dazhong became the present.

After March, spring ploughing began one after another in Helong area, and in Wuquan, the military and civilians joined forces to reclaim nearly 100,000 acres of arable land outside the city and planted various grains, beans and hemp according to the original plan.

Of course, compared with the Helong area where spring comes later, spring plowing has already ended in other places in the Central Plains, and the farmland outside the city is full of crops.

While Helong was preparing for spring plowing, the areas east of Mount Xiao were already preparing for the summer solstice.

The warm weather did not delay the journey, and the team that was supposed to arrive was on the way.

"Damn it, how come Chang'an is even colder than Yunzhou!"

"What's wrong with the court? They only give us money and food, but not clothes?!"

"Where's the food?!"

"Damn it, you want to starve me, old man?!"

"You've got mud in your head. Who told you to build a fortress like this?!"

Shouts and curses could be heard outside the city of Huazhou, east of Chang'an. Thousands of soldiers in battle jackets were either sitting or standing, shouting and cursing.

Not far from where they were standing, an official with several straightforward men were directing thousands of people in tattered clothes to build a camp for them.

Although these officials and Zhibai were furious when they heard those insults, they dared not vent their anger and could only endure it silently.

Soon, as the camp was set up, a flag was planted at the camp gate by soldiers wearing battle jackets.

The three words "Tianping Army" on the flag were particularly eye-catching, and at this time carts of food were also pushed out in Huazhou City.

The delicious food finally shut up these unruly Tianping soldiers, and the governor and county magistrate of Huazhou gathered together.

"Did the court ever mention when they would leave?"

“I heard it will happen this month.”

"That's good……"

The two men breathed a sigh of relief, but the Tianping army in the distance was still cursing because they did not provide mutton for the meal but poultry.

Unfortunately, Huazhou’s shouting and cursing could not be heard, and the emperor in the Purple Palace of Daming Palace did not care about their thoughts.

"Your Majesty, three thousand Tianping troops have arrived in Huazhou and will be leaving for Liangzhou soon."

In the Purple Palace, Li Chen's face turned red from what he had eaten, but he felt in good spirits.

In the hall, Cui Xuan was reporting to him about the arrival of the Tianping Army in Huazhou, while Linghu Tao and Pei Xiu stood aside in silence.

"Okay, since we can set off, let Zhang Jinwu take them to Liangzhou."

Li Chen nodded to show his attitude, but Cui Xuan looked embarrassed: "Your Majesty, the Tianping Army please set aside 30,000 strings of money and grain..."

"30,000 strings of cash?" Pei Xiu could no longer stand. He stepped forward and said, "When the Tianping Army set out from Yunzhou, they already received 60,000 strings of cash for the departure and resettlement. Why are they asking for more money now?"

"..." Li Chen frowned upon hearing this, but he did not lose his temper in the end. Instead, he pretended to be magnanimous:

"After all, three thousand soldiers have gone to Liangzhou far away from their hometown and relatives. It is normal for them to want more money and food to settle down."

"I'm going to Liangzhou to guard the border for three years. The conditions are not good. It's not a problem to compensate with more money and food."

Since Li Chen had spoken, Pei Xiu could not get angry and could only bite the bullet and agree to allocate another 30,000 strings of cash for the expedition.

"Let Zhang Jinwu take the money to Huazhou, lead the army north of the Wei River to Yuanzhou, and then go through Huizhou to Liangzhou."

"Yes..." The three prime ministers bowed in response, and Li Chen also tried to test:
"After the imperial edict was sent to Hexi, did Zhang Hexi (Hexi Jiedushi) send back any memorials or documents?"

"Not yet." Linghu Tao said after hesitation, and Li Chen felt relieved after hearing that.

It seems that Zhang Yichao is not as powerful as Wang Zongshi boasted, otherwise he would not be so silent about the imperial edict.

Li Chen originally thought that if the Hexi army started to riot after the imperial edict was delivered to Dunhuang, he would have to pay some money and food to appease them.

Now it seems that I was overthinking it. Hexi’s strength is not enough to cause chaos.

Thinking of this, Li Chen no longer paid much attention to Zhang Yichao, and just ordered: "The three provinces should pay more attention to the affairs of Hexi. I am tired, you can leave."

"I'll take my leave..."

The three of them bowed and left the Purple Palace one after another.

After leaving the Zichen Palace, even though the three of them did not get along so well, they still came together to deal with Hexi.

"Hexi has not expressed its opinion on the imperial edict. It seems that it does not dare to turn against the court."

"For now, we can wait for Zhang Zhifang to lead the Tianping Army to enter Guzang. If Zhang Huaishen doesn't dare to turn against him, we can let the Tianping Army supervise the governors and provincial governors of each state to exercise their power in each state."

"In this case, the military and government around Ganliang Huilan to the east of Ganzhou are working hard. Even if Zhang Yichao wants to cause chaos, it won't be that easy."

Cui Xuan spoke first, and as soon as he opened his mouth he decided on the measures to be taken against Hexi.

However, Linghu Tao had experienced the reduction of power among officials during the Yuanhe period, so he was still on guard against the Tianping Army.

He spoke slowly and calmly, "The Tianping Army was once subordinate to the Pinglu Army. Although the Pinglu Army was divided into three during the Yuanhe period of Emperor Xianzong, the troops of the three towns were always domineering."

"Originally, the imperial court wanted Yunzhou to assist the Tianping Army and recruit 3,000 new soldiers to go to Liangzhou. Unfortunately, they were unable to gather enough soldiers, so they could only add 500 veteran soldiers."

"I'm afraid that the Tianping Army's two demands for money to march were prompted by those five hundred veterans."

After Linghu Tao finished speaking, Pei Xiu also frowned and said, "If it were 2,500 new recruits, Zhang Zhifang would be able to control them well."

"But now there are 500 more veterans in the army. These veterans are domineering and may not be so easy to control."

"Besides, the court promised them that they would be allowed to return home after three years of guarding the border. If this is not done, they will probably make trouble."

Linghu Tao and Pei Xiu were both worried that the Tianping Army would cause chaos in three years, but Cui Xuan was optimistic:

"No problem. At worst, we can just transfer troops from somewhere else."

"That being said..." Pei Xiu was very clear about the current situation, so he frowned and said:
"If we want to restrain Zhang Huaishen, we need to mobilize at least 3,000 soldiers, but there are not many vassal states that can gather this many soldiers, so it may be difficult to dispatch them when the time comes."

The current situation in the Tang Dynasty is not as chaotic as after the Huang Chao Rebellion, so the military strength of many Jiedushi is limited.

Apart from the Jiedushi of Heshuo, Lianghuai and the border areas, the troops of many other Jiedushi were no more than a few thousand men.

"There is always a way. At worst, we can transfer troops from Jiannan."

Choi Hyun didn't want to continue this topic. After all, it didn't matter whether he was still in office three years later.

In his opinion, his descendants would take care of it when the time comes, so there was no need for him to be far-sighted.

Seeing that he didn't want to talk, Linghu Tao and Pei Xiu looked at each other, and the three of them bowed and left.

At the same time, Zhang Zhifang, who was expelled by the guards of Lulong Town in Youzhou, was appointed as the Jiedushi for the second time.

However, he did not learn the lesson from being expelled by the Lulong Town Guards, but still maintained a condescending attitude.

If it weren't for the fact that he brought the money for the expedition and that they only needed to guard the border in Liangzhou for three years, the generals of the Tianping Army would probably have turned against him long ago.

On March 17th, Zhang Zhifang was ordered to lead the Tianping Army to Liangzhou.

Zhang Yitan in the capital learned the news and immediately sent someone to Liangzhou to deliver the message.

When the letter reached Liangzhou, it was already the tenth day of April.

"Damn it, it's not enough to sow discord, now they want to send troops to Guzang?!"

Inside the Guzang government office, Zhang Huaijian was so angry that he glared at Jiu Juyan, Zhang Huaiman and Zhang Huaishen and said, "Jiedushi, what do you think we should do?"

"We must not let them settle in Guzang!" Zhang Huai said firmly.

"But how do we accommodate them?" Jiu Juyan asked the question, and the three of them looked at Zhang Huaishen.

After the imperial edict, Zhang Huaishen's Qi-cultivation skills improved dramatically.

Faced with the fact that Zhang Zhifang led 3,000 Tianping troops to station in Guzang, Zhang Huaishen remained calm and did not tremble with anger like he did last time.

But his eyes were cold and he didn't look like someone who would be bullied:

"If he wants to be the governor of Liangzhou, it depends on whether he is straightforward enough."

"As for the three thousand Tianping soldiers, let them build their own fortress and camp outside the city. I wonder if they can endure this hardship!"

The Chishui Army was the name of an old army, stationed in the city of Liangzhou. In the past, it had 33,000 soldiers and 13,000 horses.

After the fall of Liangzhou, the soldiers of the Chishui Army either retreated westward with the army or fled to Lingzhou. Some were captured by Tubo and integrated into the Umu.

The Dugazhi and others in Baitinghai are the descendants of the former Chishui Army.

Thanks to Liu Jilian's development of Shandan, the Hexi Army has now reached a strength of more than 25,000 armored soldiers after more than half a year of rest.

Among them, Ganzhou had 3,000 troops stationed, Huizhou had 2,000, Guangwu had 2,000, Liangzhou had 7,000, and the four states of Guasha, Yisu in the west had 6,500 troops.

In terms of military strength alone, Zhang Huaishen is twice as strong as Zhang Yichao. This is also the reason why the Guasha warlords have been reluctant to enter Liangzhou and divide the profits.

They wanted to see the court's attitude towards Zhang Huaishen, and this attitude was the imperial edict brought back by Wang Jingzhi.

"Having said that, if the imperial edict is sent back to Dunhuang, I am worried..."

Jiu Juyan expressed his concerns, and a trace of worry flashed in Zhang Huaishen's eyes.

Zhang Huaijian and Zhang Huaiman looked at each other and said:

"Suo Xun from Huizhou, Li Wei from Ganzhou, and Li Yizhong from Guangwu."

"These three people command 7,000 soldiers. If they are provoked, then Liangzhou..."

The two did not dare to continue talking, but Zhang Huaishen knew what they were thinking.

"I'm not worried about just them. What I'm worried about now is the north."

"The north?" The three were stunned, because the Uighurs and Umu in the north of Ganliang had suffered heavy losses, and the two tribes together could not gather more than 10,000 soldiers.

With this amount of military force, it is simply a pipe dream to want to fight against them.

Because of this, the three never worried about the North.

In response, Zhang Huaishen frowned and said worriedly: "Since the court is trying to instigate us, it must be prepared for the failure of the instigation."

"If the provocation fails, we must arrange for other forces that can restrain us."

"Starting from Fengzhou and Lingzhou, heading west, you can pass Baiting Lake and Juyan Lake."

"If the imperial court supports Umo and the Uighurs, do you think they will still be so unbearable?"

"This..." The three of them were silent. After a moment, Jiu Juyan said bitterly, "This shouldn't be the case."

"The imperial court and the Uighurs have been enemies for many years. A few years ago, they were even sweeping the Uighurs from the grasslands. As for Umm..."

"Even if we can win him over, the number of Emu's followers is such that they don't dare to confront us directly. Are you worrying too much?"

"I hope so too." Zhang Huaishen rubbed his brows. He didn't dare to speak out the situation that he was most worried about.

If Ganlianglan was provoked to split on all sides, and the Uighurs and Umu invaded from the south, the situation they had built up for many years would be destroyed in an instant.

However, Zhang Huaishen still held on to an illusion that he could handle the internal problems of the four states of Gan, Liang, Lan and Hui.

As long as there are no internal problems, he is not afraid even if Umo and the Uighurs are supported...

(End of this chapter)