Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 352: Desire to Reduce the Powers of the vassal states
"kill!!"

"ignition!"

"Buzz-"

In early May, when flames shot up into the sky and black smoke billowed from the river valley, the horrifying screams from the battlefield were heard along with them.

Tongwang City on the north bank of the Dadu River was now being heavily surrounded by the endless Dali army.

Countless Dali soldiers pushed cloud chariots, nest chariots, and battering rams one after another, attempting to completely capture Tongwang City.

Rolling logs, battering rams, stones, crossbow carts, catapults and other tools for attacking and defending the city were all moved to the horse road on the top of the city.

Many Dali soldiers were doused with thick asphalt and set on fire before they could react.

The soldiers of Dali, whose hut was on fire, fled like mad, but were either killed on the spot by their own supervisory teams or burned to death by the fire.

The air was filled with a sickening smell of tallow and roasted meat.

Compared with the troops in the western part of Xichuan who had enjoyed peace for a long time, the troops in the southern part of Xichuan who had been fighting with Dali for the sixth year had more combat experience. With only a few thousand people, they blocked 100,000 people in the small Tongwang City for nearly a month.

Because of this, You Shilong, who was watching the battlefield from behind, couldn't help but said anxiously: "On the 24th, we still haven't taken Tongwang City in the entire 24th."

"Cui Xuan has already built a large number of sheep-horn walls and trenches at Qionglai Pass, Tongshan Pass, and Shimen Pass in the north. Even if we take down the two cities of Hanyuan and Tongwang, we will still need to face three tough battles before we can take down Feiyue and Rongjing counties in Lizhou."

"Fan Cui, tell me, could it be that my men of Dali are worse than those bandits of Duokang?!"

Duokang Tubo had trade links with Dali. Although the transmission of information was not as fast as the official roads of the Tang Dynasty, it was just a little slower.

Because of this, You Shilong already knew that Duokang Tubo had captured Weizhou and Yizhou and surrounded Songzhou and Maozhou.

Seeing that Shang Moyan had taken over two states in a row and was about to seize the gateway to the western border of Xichuan, while he himself was still stopped in Lizhou, You Shilong found it difficult to suppress his temper.

"Pass on my military order. Take down Tongwang and Hanyuan. The army will rest for three days. All the wealth in the city will be given as rewards!"

"I obey your order..."

Under You Shilong's promise, Hanyuan and Tongwang counties were under tremendous pressure. The barbarians and Dali's armored soldiers attacked like crazy, and the two cities were on the verge of collapse.

Cui Xuan reported the situation on the front line to Chang'an truthfully, but when Chang'an received reports from Xichuan, Dongchuan, Qianzhong, Lingxi, Annan and other places, it was already the tenth day of May.

"Weizhou, Maozhou, and Yizhou were lost, Wenzhou and Fuzhou were also on the verge of collapse, and even Longzhou was surrounded."

"I want to ask you, where are the troops from Fengxiang and Shannan West Road?!"

In the Purple Palace, Li Yi's face was dark enough to be dripping with ink, and the faces of the ministers in the temple were also very ugly.

Among them, Xu Shang, who was also in charge of the military department, bowed with a dark face and said, "News came from Xichuan that Fengxiang only sent 4,000 soldiers and horses, 30% of which were civilians."

"The Shannan West Road sent only 3,000 soldiers and horses, but their armor is incomplete, so only 2,000 can be used."

"Longzhou Jiangyou County has been surrounded by the Tibetan Grand Councilor Shang Moyan. Fengxiang Army's Left Military Commander Li Changyan learned the news and immediately withdrew to Jiangyou Pass to guard against the Tibetan bandits from invading Mianzhou."

"Wang Fuyan, the general of Shannan West Road, led his army to Mianzhu Pass in Hanzhou. He is now stationed in Mianzhu to protect the northern border of Chengdu Prefecture."

"Guard?" Li Yi laughed angrily: "The court sent them to Xichuan to guard Jiangyou County and Gutaoguan Pass."

"Now one of them is retreating to Jiangyou Pass, and the other is stopping at Mianzhu Pass. What are they planning to do?"

"Your Majesty, calm down!" Lu Yan took the initiative to step forward to smooth things over, and then said:

"Your Majesty, now that all the roads have sent back news, the southern barbarians have not sent troops to invade the roads. It is better to transfer troops from Qianzhong and Dongchuan to support Xichuan. At least we must defend the remaining three passes and four cities of the three passes and five cities along the border."

The three passes and five cities mentioned by Lu Yankou refer to Gutao Pass, Jiangyou Pass, Songling Pass, as well as the five cities of Yinping, Long'an, Mianzhu, Pengzuo and Shiquan.

Now that Shiquan has been lost, we can only defend the remaining three passes and four cities.

However, there are only 20,000 troops that can be mobilized in Xichuan, of which 7,000 are from Fengxiang and Shannan West Road.

In addition, the 5,000 soldiers and horses from Wen and Fu states have now been besieged by the foreign bandits.

Le Yi said that Xichuan only had 8,000 soldiers left...

It was for this reason that Lu Yan asked for permission to mobilize troops from Dongchuan and Qianzhong Road.

Ever since Qianzhong Road was invaded by the southern barbarians, Song Ya has reorganized the Qianzhong troops. Now there are 8,000 soldiers, all of whom are good at fighting.

However, Lu Yan was more optimistic about Gao Pian of Dongchuan, because Gao Pian had more than 35,000 elite cavalry and infantry.

"Pass on my order, mobilize 10,000 soldiers from Dongchuan and 3,000 soldiers from Qianzhong, and send them to support the three passes and five cities!"

"Your Majesty is wise..."

Li Yi took advantage of his expression to pass down his decree, and all the officials sang in unison.

However, after this, another voice emerged among the officials.

"Your Majesty, I impeach Liu Jilong, the Grand Protector of Longyou and the Founding Duke of Longxi County, for allowing the barbarians to invade!"

A familiar voice sounded, and Li Yi looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Zheng Ting, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, walking out of the team and bowing solemnly to him.

"This matter will be discussed later!"

Li Yi was feeling annoyed and didn't want to discuss this matter in a crowded place like the Zichen Hall.

"Your Majesty, minister..."

"Sanchao——"

"Tens of millions of years old..."

Zheng Ting wanted to say something, but he saw Li Yi stand up and walk down the golden platform, and the Minister of the Honglu Temple and other ministers sang the salute one after another.

At the same time, Tian Yun walked down the golden platform and whispered to Lu Yan and the other two.

The three of them bowed and nodded, and soon followed Tian Yun to the Xianning Palace.

When they arrived at Xianning Palace, they saw that in addition to the three of them, the emperor and Tian Yun, there were also Qi Yuanjian, Wang Maoxuan, Qi Yuanshi, Yang Xuanji and others from the Northern Division.

Seeing the emperor summoning officials from the Northern Department, Xu Shang and Gao Qu looked at each other, while Lu Yan was secretly guessing.

"I will see your Majesty..."

"Give me a seat"

Sitting high on the golden platform, Li Yi was in a very bad mood, and all this was because of the war in Xichuan.

After expressing their gratitude, Xu Shang and the other two sat on the crescent-shaped stools, with Wang Maoxuan and others occupying the left and right sides.

"Prime Minister Xu had said before that if the foreign bandits failed to attack Gutao Pass, they would most likely be instigated by Liu Jilong to attack other states."

"Now the movements of the foreign bandits are as Prime Minister Xu predicted. I would like to ask Prime Minister Xu whether the foreign bandits' invasion was instigated by Liu Jilong?"

Li Yi's words made Xu Shang speechless: "Your Majesty, this is just my personal opinion. Besides, I am not familiar with Liu Jilong, so my estimate may be wrong."

"Your Majesty!" Gao Qu, who was sitting next to Xu Shang, suddenly bowed and said:

"I think that given the current situation, we should wait until the troops from Dongchuan and Qianzhong are transferred to Xichuan, and then see whether Liu Jilong will invade the lost territory of the imperial court before we can draw a conclusion."

Compared with half a month ago, Gao Qu's remarks at this time were slightly restrained.

It’s not his fault that he changed too quickly, it’s just that the troops in the western part of Xichuan were lost too quickly.

Three states were lost within one month of the war starting, and now three more states were going to be lost. The speed at which the troops in the western border of Xichuan were being defeated really made Gao Qu uneasy.

"Your Majesty, I second the proposal..."

Xu Shang also became conservative, and the performance of both of them disappointed Li Yi.

If Bai Minzhong and Pei Xiu were here, they would never behave rudely at first and respectfully later.

Thinking of this, Li Yi looked at Lu Yan, only to see Lu Yan said: "Your Majesty, I think Liu Jilong must be guarded against."

Lu Yan's words instantly attracted everyone's attention.

You have to know that ten days ago, Xu Shang and Gao Qu were in favor of war, while Lu Yan was conservative. But now, only a short period of time has passed, Xu Shang and Gao Qu have become conservative, while Lu Yan has become much more radical in his words.

They all wanted to know what Lu Yan’s ideas were.

However, they did not know that Lu Yan knew nothing about military affairs. He just saw the emperor's attitude change, so he changed along with the emperor's attitude.

Seeing the emperor asking him, Lu Yan thought for a moment and then took the initiative to say:

"I think that regardless of whether Liu Jilong ordered the bandits to invade or not, and whether they would occupy the imperial land afterwards, the imperial court should have made preparations early."

"I suggest sending the imperial army and the troops from various garrisons to rush to the aid of Xichuan. If Liu Jilong dares to invade the imperial court's prefectures and counties, the imperial court should send troops to suppress him!"

"Yeah!" Li Yi nodded with satisfaction, and became more and more satisfied with Lu Yan.

Indeed, ever since Li Yi learned about the secrets of the Shence Army, he had never thought of defeating Liu Jilian.

But this is based on the premise that Liu Jilong behaves himself, guards Longyou and does not cause trouble.

Now the foreign bandits invaded, it was very likely that Liu Jilong was instigated, so Liu Jilong undoubtedly stepped on Li Yi's red line. Because of this, Li Yi wanted to take advantage of this crisis to properly rectify the Shen Ce Army, and then deal with Liu Jilong, and bring Longyou back to the court.

Thinking of this, Li Yi looked at Wang Maoxuan, Qi Yuanshi and others: "Now the foreign bandits are invading, and the Shen Ce Army was the border army to guard against the foreign bandits in the past."

"Xichuan is in trouble now. I want to dispatch 30,000 Shen Ce troops to Xichuan to fight against the barbarians. What do you think?"

Faced with Li Yi's seemingly light question, Wang Maoxuan, Qi Yuanshi and others' eyelids jumped.

The Shence Army did have more than 100,000 soldiers on its roster, but most of them had already been taken up by a few Beisi and Shence Army families.

The current Shen Ce Army would have difficulty in sending even 20,000 people to Xichuan, let alone 30,000.

If they really wanted to gather 30,000 soldiers, they would have to dismiss most of the general's family members who were drawing salaries without doing any work, and then save some money to recruit new soldiers.

After all, gathering 30,000 people to go to Xichuan is one thing, and the capital area is another.

The capital area must retain enough Shen Ce troops, and the Shen Ce troops in Xichuan...

Thinking of this, Wang Maoxuan took the initiative to say: "Your Majesty, although the Shen Ce Army has more than 100,000 troops, the capital is vast and still needs to be protected. I am afraid that we cannot spare 30,000 troops."

"If Your Majesty insists on dispatching the Shen Ce Army to Xichuan, the Right Shen Ce Army can probably mobilize 7,000 men."

"Your Majesty, the Left Shence Army can probably mobilize 8,000 men." Yang Xuanji bowed and spoke.

The Shen Ce Army, which was said to have more than 100,000 soldiers, now barely had 15,000 soldiers. This made Li Yi so angry that his forehead was burning.

Fortunately, he was good at cultivating his Qi, and he quickly used the two people's words to test them:
"The Shen Ce Army has over 100,000 soldiers, so why can they only mobilize 15,000? Could it be that someone has taken up the vacancies in the army?"

"Your Majesty, this is absolutely not the case!"

Faced with Li Yi's temptation, everyone in the Beisi denied it righteously.

Li Yi nodded and said, "Since there are no vacancies, could it be that there are too many elderly soldiers in the army? Unable to travel far?"

When he said this, even if Wang Maoxuan and the others were slow-witted, they understood what he was thinking.

It was nothing more than taking this opportunity to reduce the number of people in the Shen Ce Army on paper and reduce the burden on the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance.

When Li Yi ascended the throne, Wang Zongshi took advantage of the purge of Wang Guichang, Ma Gongru and others to reduce the number of soldiers of the Shence Army by several thousand. Now he is just repeating the same old trick.

Guessing this, Wang Maoxuan said with pain: "In the Right Shen Ce Army, there are indeed more than 5,000 old soldiers who are no longer useful, but the previous emperors of previous generations have not dismissed them out of consideration for their old friendship."

Seeing him cutting the flesh, Yang Xuanji's palms suddenly began to sweat. After all, he was not the only one who had the final say in the Zuo Shence Army.

At the critical moment, Qi Yuanshi took the initiative to take over the conversation and said:
"There are already more than 7,000 old soldiers in the Zuo Shen Ce Army who are no longer useful. If Your Majesty needs to cut them down, Lieutenant Yang and I will naturally accept your order."

"Very good!" Li Yi nodded with satisfaction. He did not dare to push the eunuchs of the Northern Department too hard.

Being able to cut more than twelve thousand of the virtual balance from them was already beyond his expectations.

This amount not only exceeded his expectations, but also exceeded the expectations of Lu Yan and the other two.

Originally they thought that Bei Si would not cut the meat, but they did not expect that Bei Si not only cut the meat, but also cut a large amount.

Cutting the number of more than 12,000 Shen Ce Army soldiers not only means reducing military pay, but also non-existent fictitious expenses such as armor maintenance, food, and horse feed.

After a moment's calculation, Lu Yan realized that the emperor's move reduced the expenditures of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Finance by nearly 500,000 strings of cash.

Thinking of this, Lu Yan felt that the eunuchs in the Beisi were truly greedy.

Not only did they occupy most of the farmland in Guanzhong and hide it from paying taxes, they also sucked blood from the Shence Army, siphoning off millions of dollars and grain from the imperial court every year.

If the Shen Ce Army disappeared, the military pay in the country would be reduced by at least 30%, and the court would have an extra 4 million strings of cash to do many more things.

But after Lu Yan thought about it for a while, he knew that this was simply impossible.

Not to mention the eunuchs in the Northern Division, just the generals and eunuchs of the Shence Army who sucked the blood of the soldiers will not let go of this blood bag of the Shence Army.

"In that case, we will cut off these twelve thousand old and weak soldiers and transfer another fifteen thousand Shen Ce troops to Xichuan to resist the foreign bandits!"

Li Yi was greatly encouraged and issued an imperial edict directly to everyone.

Lu Yan and the other two didn't think there was anything wrong with it. After all, this move did not harm their interests.

Although the eunuchs of the Northern Division felt painful, they also knew that only as long as the Tang Dynasty survived could they suck blood from the backs of the Shen Ce Army.

If the Tang Dynasty no longer existed, their fate would not be much better.

"I am tired, so I will leave this matter to you gentlemen."

"Tens of millions of years old..."

Li Yi stood up and walked down the golden platform, leaving everyone singing and paying their respects.

After Li Yi completely disappeared at the door of the side hall, all the ministers walked out of Xianning Palace with different expressions.

Lu Yan and the other two hurried away.

Wang Maoxuan stopped, and Qi Yuanjian, Qi Yuanshi, Yang Xuanji, Yang Xuanjie and others understood and stopped one after another.

"You all know the current situation. If we continue to raise taxes, bandits will surely rise up again in Hehuai."

"It would be good to reduce the number of troops a little to give the court some time."

"In addition, for the 15,000 soldiers, you and I, the Left and Right Shen Ce Army, will recruit new soldiers according to the number of soldiers mentioned in the temple just now."

"As for the person who will lead the troops, do you have any candidates?"

Wang Maoxuan asked everyone, and Qi Yuanjian said, "How about letting Yang Gongqing and Yang Xuanji lead the left and right Shen Ce armies respectively?"

Yang Gongqing was the deputy envoy of the Right Shen Ce Army under Wang Maoxuan. Qi Yuanjian's arrangement was considered appropriate, so Wang Maoxuan did not refuse, but nodded and said:
"I am old too. Once this matter is over, I will hand over the Right Shen Ce Army to Yang Gongqing."

"We will naturally follow the arrangements made by the prince." After Qi Yuanjian finished speaking, Qi Yuanshi and others also bowed and responded.

Wang Maoxuan was very satisfied, and then invited Qi Yuanshi and others to his home.

A few days later, many young men who had vacant positions in the Shen Ce Army were laid off, while those with a stronger background were asked to find someone to join the army in Xichuan on their behalf.

For a time, many wealthy young men in the capital began to hire young and strong men inside and outside the city, paying them 15 strings of cash per month to train outside the city.

Many poor families accepted the offers and flocked to the Shen Ce military camp outside the city.

Such actions naturally could not escape the eyes of the various towns' Jinzouyuan, and the strength of the Shen Ce Army was thus exposed.

However, since there were indeed many elite troops left in the Shence Army, the various towns only regarded them as newly recruited soldiers of the Shence Army and did not pay too much attention to them.

Compared to them, Liu Jilian knew too well the foundation and methods of the Shence Army.

"They probably hired some good family boys to fill the gap. Time is tight now, so they won't have much time for training. By then, I'm afraid they won't even have time to wear armor."

On May 20th, when Liu Jilian led his troops south to Pandi, the intelligence from Chang'an was not delivered to him until ten days later.

When it comes to the recruitment of soldiers for the Shence Army, he is dismissive and his focus is all on the battlefield in Xichuan.

"Are there any changes on the front line?"

On the official road, Liu Jilong, riding a big horse, glanced at the Longyou army soldiers who were riding in horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts heading south, and asked Li Ji, Chen Ying and others without turning his head.

Li Ji heard this and said, "The troops of Duokang Tubo are still fighting in the three states of Wen, Fu and Long. There has been no news for more than ten days. It seems that it is not easy to fight."

After all, the three states of Wen, Fulong and Longyou are directly facing each other, so their troops are trained relatively frequently and can be regarded as the elite of the Xichuan army.

Compared with the troops of the three states of Wei, Yi and Mao, their resistance was more powerful, so much so that Shang Moyan mobilized 60,000 troops but failed to capture them for more than ten days. This was not beyond Liu Jilong's expectations.

"Don't worry." Liu Jilong comforted everyone, "As long as these six states are lost, it will be basically impossible to recover them with the means of the court."

"Unless the imperial court does not want Rongzhou and transfers all the Dongchuan troops to Xichuan, there will be a chance to recapture these six states."

"The court has been making frequent moves recently. I am worried that someone in the court has guessed my intention of driving the Tibetans to invade."

Liu Jilong turned his horse and looked at Chen Ying: "Where is Dali's army fighting?"

When asked, Chen Ying bowed and said, "Ten days ago, Dali's army captured Hanyuan County and Tongwang County in Lizhou. Most of the 7,000 official troops were killed, and half were captured. The people in the city were taken away to Tuodong City (Kunming)."

"After three days of rest, the Dali army headed north to Qionglai Pass to confront the 20,000 Xichuan troops led by Cui Xuan."

"There is news from Chang'an that an official named Zheng Ting has twice impeached you in the regular court for instigating the Tubo to invade Xichuan."

"In addition, the imperial court seems to have dispatched troops from Dongchuan to support Xichuan."

"Zheng Ting?" Liu Jilong frowned slightly, feeling that the name seemed familiar, but he couldn't remember who it was.

After thinking for a while and realizing that he really couldn't remember, Liu Jilong said:

"Send a message to Shang Duoluo, and ask him to tell You Shilong of Dali about the news that Dongchuan has transferred troops to Xichuan."

"As long as Yu Shilong is not stupid, he should know what to do at this time."

As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Jilong shook the reins and led the army to the Pandi in the south...

(End of this chapter)