Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 335: The Enemy
"Screw rustle..."

On the twenty-sixth day of the first lunar month, the early morning chill had not yet dissipated when Pang Xun woke up from his sleep and went to the yamen as usual.

There were tents on both sides of the road, and the armored soldiers of the Silver Sword Army were getting ready to go.

The armor of the soldiers who were seriously injured or killed yesterday has now been replaced by those in good health.

Pang Xun looked at this group of people with satisfaction, but he was very clear in his heart.

Although this group of people are capable of wearing armor and wielding weapons, they lack training and are unable to exert their true combat power.

"After we capture Pengcheng, we must train them well." Pang Xun thought to himself, but he did not stop.

However, before he reached the yamen, Xu Ji, Zhao Keli and others hurried over and stopped him with serious expressions.

"General Ji, something bad has happened!" Xu Ji said in a hurried tone, his eyes full of anxiety.

Pang Xun's heart sank, and he frowned and asked, "What happened?"

Xu Ji, Zhao Keli, and Zhang Guan looked at each other, and then Xu Ji spoke up: "Chai Cun and his 400 armored soldiers suddenly disappeared last night, and took away hundreds of draft horses!"

Pang Xun's face suddenly changed when he heard this, and he clenched his fists unconsciously, his knuckles turning white.

He never expected that Chai Cun, who was commanding the army for him yesterday, would abandon him and run away overnight.

"Where are the bandits under their command?" Pang Xun suppressed his anger and asked in a cold voice.

"They all left behind. Chai Cun only took away more than 400 armored soldiers and more than 500 draft horses!" Zhao Keli added.

Pang Xun took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down.

"Follow me!" He motioned for everyone to follow him into the tent.

Inside the tent, the sand table was filled with military flags of various colors, representing the distribution of forces between the enemy and our side.

Pang Xun did not signal everyone to take a seat, but walked quickly to the sand table and began to pull out and insert military flags.

He pulled out the Tang army's flags and re-planted them in the territories of Xuzhou and Suzhou or on the border line, and also concentrated all of Wang Xianzhi's military flags in Fuli County.

After doing all this, he turned around and said to everyone, "I'm afraid Wang Xianzhi feels that he can't deal with so many government troops. He either wants to divert the trouble to others or break out."

"General Jie is right." Xu Ji nodded in agreement and then suggested, "The most urgent task right now is to find out where Wang Xianzhi is going."

"If he is still in Fuli County, we still have time to attack Pengcheng."

"If he has disappeared, then he has most likely broken through."

"You bastard!" Pang Xun couldn't help but curse when he heard this: "Wang Xianzhi is such a spineless guy! How dare he escape from the battlefield and ruin my plan!"

Xu Ji, Zhao Keli and Zhang Guan also started to curse, and the tent was filled with anger and unwillingness.

Fortunately, after the verbal abuse, several people quickly regained their sanity. Pang Xun calmed his heavy breathing and said in a deep voice after a moment: "Now is not the time to act on impulse."

"Pass the order down, send out the Tang soldiers to search the surroundings for the traces of Chai Cun and others, and strengthen the vigilance to prevent the Tianping Army and Ziqing Army in the north from taking the opportunity to launch a surprise attack."

"I obey your order!" Xu Ji and others received the order and quickly left the tent, then arranged for people to carry out the order.

Pang Xun stood alone in front of the sand table, his hands on the sand table, his face changing from gloomy to bright.

He knew clearly that if Wang Xianzhi made the choice, he would probably have no choice but to find a way to break out.

Thinking of this, he wanted to pick up a knife and fight with Wang Xianzhi.

Just when Pang Xun was thinking about fighting with Wang Xianzhi, Wang Xianzhi led his men fifteen miles north of Fuli County to pick up the monk Chai Cun who was heading south overnight.

"General! Are we going to fight the government troops or prepare to break out?"

Chai Cun dismounted from his horse, bowed and walked towards Wang Xianzhi, raising his doubts.

Seeing this, Wang Xianzhi looked at Shang Rang, and immediately realized that Shang Rang had not explained to Chai Cun, but he did not rush to explain. Instead, he looked past Chai Cun and looked at the four hundred armored soldiers behind him.

They were all brave men selected by Chai Cun from nearly ten thousand bandits, and they were all wearing standard military armor.

Although his could not guarantee their complete loyalty, Wang Xianzhi was confident that he could win them over in the future.

"Erlang, explain the situation to this fellow. Bi'ada, take your men back to the barracks and inform the military commander Shang to move out."

"Yes!" Shang Rang and Bi Shiduo nodded one after another. Bi Shiduo led his men to move their horses south in response. Shang Rang looked at Chai Cun and explained slowly:

"From the beginning, the commander had no intention of cooperating with Pang Xun to cause chaos in the Xuzhou and Sizhou areas. He cooperated with Pang Xun only to use him to seize the money, food, armor and weapons of the Xuzhou and Suzhou states."

Chai Cun frowned slightly when he heard this, and Shang Rang continued, "Now that our goal has been achieved, the number of armored soldiers under our command, not counting Pang Xun's Silver Blade Army, is still more than 3,000."

"The towns in the Central Plains are very strong. It is definitely not a good idea to fight against them."

"The commander is going to abandon Suzhou and choose a direction to break out, plunder other states and counties, fight to support the war, and expand the army."

Upon hearing this, Chai Cun felt that it was a bit unethical, but he still looked at Wang Xianzhi and asked, "General, where should we break out?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Xianzhi answered without hesitation: "The troops of Zhongwu, Xuanwu, and Yicheng have already assembled. Even if we break out to Caozhou and Puzhou in the north, we will be caught up by them soon."

"As we marched north from Yongzhou, we saw that most of the soldiers and horses in the southern towns were weak, and only the guards of the generals of each town could fight us."

"After much thought, I finally decided to turn around and head south."

"Later, we will march eastward to Chuzhou, and after conquering Chuzhou, we will head southward to attack the wealthy land of Yangzhou."

After hearing this, Chai Cun immediately suggested, "General, why don't we go to Shouzhou?"

"Sizhou and Chuzhou are densely populated by rivers and streams. Our army has few vehicles and horses, and the march is too slow, which is not conducive to breaking through."

“Hahaha…” Wang Xianzhi laughed and patted Chai Cun on the shoulder: “The reason why I chose Chuzhou is to use the water network there to restrict the government troops’ elite cavalry.”

"We saw many elite cavalrymen from Xuanwu and other towns when we were in Lingxi. Could it be that you have forgotten their bravery?"

"Although we now have more than 3,000 armored soldiers, how can we resist the elite cavalry of the government army with only these young men who have just put on armor and have not been trained?"

"Even if the number of elite cavalry is small, they are enough to defeat the tens of thousands of bandits in our army. Only by taking them to places with dense water networks can we restrict them."

Chai Cun suddenly understood and nodded, saying, "General Jie, that's a good idea. I understand!"

"I understand. You guys lie down and rest for a while. The army will be here soon, and you won't have time to rest then."

Wang Xianzhi comforted the few people, and Chai Cun and Shang Rang bowed in response. Then he arranged for the four hundred armored soldiers to dismount and lie down beside the official road to rest.

Half an hour later, as Shang Junchang gathered his troops, Wang Xianzhi also summoned the hundreds of silver knife soldiers in the army.

The general in charge of the Silver Knife Army was Liu Xing, a general under Pang Xun. He was short and strong, but had great strength in his hands.

Perhaps because the Silver Knife Army had been destroyed once by Wang Shi's trick, he seemed particularly vigilant.

He and the four hundred or so Silver Sabre Soldiers behind him came before Wang Xianzhi, and Wang Xianzhi simply said:

"The government troops are about to encircle and suppress us, and I don't want to cause any trouble with your commander."

"Take your men north and tell your commander that Xu Si is a deadly place. I will not sit here and wait for death."

"Considering the friendship between us, you should take your men to Pengcheng to look for your commander."

Wang Xianzhi was talking to Liu Xing, and Liu Xing knew that it was useless to get angry, so he bowed in return without being humble or arrogant, and then led the more than 400 surviving Silver Knife Army members of his unit to the north.

Watching them leave, Shang Junchang couldn't help but ask, "General Jie, why don't you keep them here?"

"Damn it, I dare not leave these rebels behind!"

Wang Xianzhi spat. After all, the Silver Knife Army's behavior of expelling the Jiedushi at will was really bad.

If his subordinates followed suit, his huge head might be chopped off at any time.

After responding, Wang Xianzhi continued to command his troops to bypass Chuzhou and head south, while Liu Xing hurried towards Pengcheng.

The distance from Fuli County to Pengcheng was only about ninety miles. Liu Xing and his men lacked carriages and horses to travel, and the countryside had been robbed before, so they could only walk north.

It was not until dusk that Liu Xing led his men to meet the Tang soldiers of the Silver Knife Army.

At dusk, the afterglow of the setting sun shone on the Silver Blade Army Camp outside Pengcheng, reflecting a solemn and murderous atmosphere.

Liu Xing, who was exhausted from the journey, stood in the tent, his face full of fatigue, while Pang Xun was waiting for his report with a gloomy face.

On the left and right sides were generals of the Silver Knife Army such as Xu Ji, Zhao Keli, and Zhang Guan, their eyes filled with anger and curiosity.

"Tell me, how did Wang Gou let you come back..."

"Yes……"

At Pang Xun's suggestion, Liu Xing sent Chai Cun south, Wang Xianzhi and others broke out to the east, and allowed him to lead the team north.

"General, after Chai Cun led his troops south this morning to join forces with Wang Xianzhi, Wang Xianzhi ordered the three armies to break camp and break out to the east." "We didn't want to follow him, so Wang Xianzhi asked me to lead the brothers north, and also..."

When Liu Xing said this, there was a hint of hesitation in his tone.

The candlelight in the tent was dim and flickering, shining on Pang Xun's face which was distorted with anger, making him look like Asura climbing out of hell in the Buddhist scriptures.

"Say!"

His tone left no room for doubt. Liu Xing was terrified and quickly told Wang Xianzhi his last words.

"damn it!"

Pang Xun didn't even finish listening to Liu Xing's words. He only heard half of them before he slammed the table, stood up and shouted:

"How dare Wang Xianzhi betray us!"

"Chai Cun is even more shameless. Not only did he take away our soldiers, but he even stole a batch of draft horses!"

Xu Ji, Zhao Keli and others stood aside, with equally grim expressions on their faces.

Xu Ji stepped forward and whispered, "General, now is not the time to be angry."

"After Wang Xianzhi breaks out to the east, the troops from all the towns will definitely turn their forces against us. Our situation is already very dangerous. If we don't respond in time, I'm afraid..."

Facing Xu Ji's words, Pang Xun took a deep breath and tried hard to suppress the anger in his heart.

He turned and walked to the sand table, his eyes swept over the terrain of the Xusu area, and said in a cold voice:

"Wang Xianzhi broke out to the east, and he must be heading for Chuzhou and Yangzhou."

"If we continue to attack Pengcheng, we will only be isolated and helpless, and be surrounded by multiple forces."

"Pass the order down, the three armies will move north overnight. We can't waste any more time here. We must get out of the encirclement of the government troops as soon as possible."

As soon as Pang Xun finished speaking, he saw Xu Ji frowning: "There are the Tianping Army and the Ziqing Army in the north, I'm afraid it's not a good place to go..."

Zhao Keli and Zhang Guan looked at each other and nodded in agreement.

But in the face of their worries, Pang Xun snorted coldly: "What kind of moral character are the townsmen? Don't you know?"

"The Tianping Army and the Ziqing Army only have more than 10,000 soldiers on the military rolls. How many of them are occupied by the children of aristocratic families and receive salaries?"

"If you just run away, you will end up like a stray dog. Besides, there are poisonous snakes and miasma everywhere in the south. What good will it do to go there?"

"Take advantage of this opportunity to ambush the Tianping Army or the Ziqing Army to the north, seize a large number of armors, enter the territory of the Tianping Army and the Ziqing Army to plunder and establish a separatist regime, and then ask the court for amnesty. This is the right way!"

After Pang Xun finished speaking, Xu Ji and the other two looked at each other.

But before the three of them could agree, Pang Xun sneered and said, "Wang Gou was unjust first, so don't blame me for being unjust later!"

He looked at the three people and continued, "Tell the soldiers to light torches and head east when they leave the camp later."

"If Zhao Qian leads his troops out of the city to pursue us, we can take the opportunity to set up an ambush and counterattack."

"If Zhao Qian had not left the city, he would have certainly informed the other towns of our army's movements."

"Isn't Wang Gou going to Chuzhou in the east? Then I will let the government troops know that we are all going to the east."

"When the government troops relax, our army will march eastward for more than ten miles and then turn north to find a place to ambush the Tianping and Ziqing armies. We will surely succeed!"

When Xu Ji and the other two heard Pang Xun's plan, they were immediately delighted and bowed quickly: "We will obey your orders!"

Seeing that the three men agreed, Pang Xun immediately issued a military order, preparing to lead the more than 10,000 soldiers and horses under his command to march north overnight to catch the government troops by surprise.

As the Silver Knife Army broke camp and headed north overnight, the flickering flames from the torches in the marching troops soon attracted the attention of the Pengcheng defenders.

"Are they going to break out?"

On the horse path, Zhao Qian leaned against the parapet and watched the movements of the Silver Knife Army outside the city. Behind him were two Changshan Du Liexiao holding torches.

"General, should we go out of the city and surprise attack them?"

"Yes, they will all..."

The two lieutenants were angry, but Zhao Qian raised his hand to stop them:

"Our duty is to defend Pengcheng and wait for the envoys and their troops to arrive and provide food and fodder."

"If we rashly leave the city for a surprise attack and end up falling into the trap set by Pang Xun and other bandits, wouldn't that delay the important matter?"

Zhao Qian followed Wang Shi for so many years and learned nothing else, but the spirit of steady and cautious approach was ingrained in his bones.

Seeing him like this, the two lieutenants stopped trying to persuade him, and Zhao Qian looked at them and said, "Release all the carrier pigeons in the city and tell all the towns that the enemy army seems to be fleeing eastward."

"Yes!"

The two men agreed upon hearing this, and then released all the remaining pigeons in the city to inform the troops of Pang Xun's withdrawal to the east.

However, these carrier pigeons flew to the capitals of various towns, and then the light cavalry caught up with the soldiers in the towns to inform them, which took a lot of time.

During this period, Zhao Qian planned to wait until dawn and then send people out of the city to investigate the situation.

As time passed, Zhao Qian returned to the city wall to take a nap. It seemed like only a moment had passed, but it was already dawn.

After waking up, Zhao Qian, with bloodshot eyes, began to command the soldiers to leave the city.

About two hours later, more than a hundred soldiers had explored the area within ten miles around Pengcheng.

The remaining military camps of the Silver Blade Army were empty, and their footsteps were also heading east.

After learning that the surroundings were safe, Zhao Qian discussed with Meng Qiu and decided to send light cavalry south to inform Linghu Tao in the south of the matter in advance to prevent Huainan Town from delaying important tasks after receiving the carrier pigeon.

While they sent light cavalry south, the towns of Xuanwu and Huainan advanced rapidly.

Qi County and Linhuan County, which were originally lost to Wang Xianzhi, were recaptured by Wang Congjian of the Zhongwu Army and Li Fu of the Xuanwu Army respectively.

Wang Xianzhi did not leave too many bandits to defend the two counties, so Wang Congjian and Li Fu also noticed something was wrong.

The two of them quickly sent out fast horses to report the situation to Linghu Tao.

At that time, Linghu Tao and Li Xiang had just met in Hong County. After learning about what Wang Congjian and Li Fubao reported, he felt something was wrong.

"Is there any news from Pengcheng?!"

On the march, Linghu Wei reined in his horse and questioned the generals beside him. Several generals shook their heads, while Yang Fugong frowned and asked, "Are you worried that the rebels will break through?"

"That's right!" Although Linghu Tao was not good at military strategy, he was not mediocre either.

Wang Xianzhi did not leave heavy troops in several cities, but now Qi County was easily recovered and the canal was reopened.

If they wanted to use the staged grain transport to hold the imperial court hostage, they would never give up Qi County easily.

Now that Fuli County is right in front of us, the space for the rebel army to move is gradually shrinking, and the officers and soldiers in each town should not be without news.

Thinking of this, Linghu Tao felt his eyelids twitching constantly, but due to the lack of accurate intelligence, Linghu Tao could only continue to command the army to encircle Fuli County.

The army marched for nearly three hours, and it was not until dusk when they set up camp that fast horses rushed back to the camp from the north and south.

"Prime Minister, Meng Qiu, the commander of the Xuzhou militia, sent out Tang soldiers to contact our Tang cavalry, saying that Pang Xun abandoned Pengcheng and fled east, and might have gone to Xiapi or Haizhou."

"Prime Minister, the pigeon from Pengcheng has arrived in Yangzhou, and Yangzhou has sent an urgent message saying that Pang Xun has abandoned Pengcheng and fled to Xiapi."

Two Tangqi teams, one in the south and one in the north, delivered the intelligence they had just obtained to the military camp. The content of the intelligence disrupted Linghu Tao's plan.

Thinking of this, he stood up without hesitation and rearranged the military flags on the sand table with his hands.

When the arrangements were completed, he turned his back to Yang Fugong and Li Xiang and said:
"Send an order, and have Li Xun, the governor of the Yicheng Army, lead his troops to recapture Fengxian, Peixian, Dangshan County, and Xiaoxian County, and investigate whether there are any rebel movements."

"Order Tianping Army Jiedushi Yang Gonghan to lead his troops south to help Pengcheng, and Ziqing Army Jiedushi Li Yan to dispatch troops south to garrison Haizhou. Do not let the rebels seize the boats and escape to the sea."

"Order Xuanwu Army Li Fu and Zhongwu Army Wang Congjian to recapture Fuli, and order Huainan Right Military Commander Wang Nian to station troops there to guard against the enemy troops who may break out from the south."

In a few words, Linghu Tao roughly made all the arrangements, and then looked at Li Xiang:

"You are to lead eight hundred elite cavalrymen to Sizhou now. Be careful of ambushes set by the chaotic soldiers."

"I obey your command!" Li Xiang agreed without hesitation, then took the military order and mobilized troops to Sizhou.

Seeing that Linghu Tao had done everything, Yang Fugong frowned and said, "Wang Xianzhi and Pang Xun are indeed cunning men. Haizhou, Chuzhou, and Sizhou are not conducive to the movement of our elite cavalry. They want to use the water network to restrict our elite cavalry."

"Hmm..." Linghu Tao nodded in response, frowning and saying:

"This place is so small, I want to see where they can run to!"

(End of this chapter)