Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 23 Return
Zhao Huaian noticed that when the hero of the Baoyi Army introduced himself, Li Shitai of the Zhongwu Army had a sneer on his face, obviously looking down on this man.

Suppressing his doubts, Zhao Huaian respectfully said to Song Jian who was resting:
"Envoy, the Nanzhao army will be back soon. Why don't we take refuge in the mountains and forests to avoid the enemy's advance?"

After Zhao Huaian said this, he was teased by everyone around him, especially Li Shitai from the Zhongwu Army, who was the most exaggerated. Zhao Huaiyi, who had a similar name to Zhao Huaian, saw his embarrassment and hurriedly explained:

"Mr. Zhao, those Nanzhao people can't come back. Oh, no, no, no, they can come back, but perhaps only their heads can be brought back."

Zhao Huaian was confused and wanted to look at Xian Yu Yue, but suddenly he saw smoke and dust rising up in front of the dirt road. The Nanzhao cavalry who had stayed in the front fled in a hurry.

But before they had gone far, they were intercepted by a group of cavalrymen who had also rushed out. In particular, a Tang cavalry general in front of them, who was wearing a crimson cloak and wielding a 10-foot-long horse spear, suddenly stabbed and killed the Nanzhao cavalry in an instant.

Afterwards, a Tang army was seen charging out from the East Mountain, with flags of various colors fluttering and heads hanging from their spears and lances. Looking at the flags of each army, some had "Tujiang" written on them, some had "Baoyi" written on them, and some had "Zhongwu" written on them.

Standing in front of the army was the cavalry general in the crimson cloak who had just killed the Nanzhao cavalry. At this time, he had dismounted with the help of several guards and ran over with several generals.

The man looked at the weak Song Jian and knelt on one knee:

"General Yang Shifan pays homage to the envoy."

At this time, Zhao Huaian was standing near Song Jian. He looked at the Tang army that appeared in front of him, and there was only one thought in his mind:
"You bastard, we can't get the spoils this time."

Sure enough, not only he realized this problem, but those people in the mountain sheds also thought of it.

Seeing the increasing number of Tang troops, these people put their baggage on the ground in fear. It was obvious that these mountain people were also practical.

……

The next day, the sky was bright and the sunlight shone lazily on Zhao Huaian.

At this time, he and Lao Liu were sitting in an uncovered cart, swaying on the dirt road, and feeling drowsy.

Along the Luodai River valley, an army of hundreds of people formed a straight line and marched towards Qiongzhou at a steady pace.

Zhao Huaian and his team were at the back of the team, following closely behind the main force.

Except for Zhao Huaian and Lao Liu who were sitting in the car, everyone else was following behind.

Achimo and the liberated slaves were responsible for pushing four supply carts, which were loaded with Zhao Huaian's belongings, including clothes, armor, furs, gold, silver and agate.

Yang Mao, Sun Tai, Zhao Hu, Wang Li, Niu Li, and He Wenqin each led a horse and walked behind. The four five-inch men were also there, as well as the twelve young men Zhao Huaian bought from the market.

Finally, it was the group of people living in the mountain huts. They were not carrying anything on their shoulders or hands, but they all looked worried, obviously worried about their future fate.

After the ambush yesterday, the Tang army indeed seized all the Nanzhao people's baggage and left none for Zhao Huaian.

Even during the process, the Tang army saw Aqimo and others and the Tibetan armor they were wearing, and almost chopped them down as Tibetan soldiers.

Fortunately, Zhao Huaiyi was following Zhao Huaian at the time and stopped the situation when he saw it, otherwise who knows what would have happened.

Of course, when Zhao Huaiyi saw Zhao Huaian’s team, he couldn’t help but shake his head because it was too disorganized.

What kind of people are there? Qiang, barbarians, slaves, escaped households, and mountain huts. But when you think about it, their leader Zhao Huaian is also a defeated soldier, so it makes sense.

Although Zhao Huaiyi looked down on these people, he still valued Zhao Huaian. It was not because Zhao Huaian was really brave enough to fight against ten thousand men, but because he knew that this man had caught the eye of Envoy Song.

That's why he praised Zhao Huaian. Of course, the latter also spoke well and, most importantly, understood human nature.

However, when he saw Zhao Huaian's team, he still reminded them:
"Zhao Da, you look like you're about to get angry, but I still want to remind you, brother. You are still listed in the military register, and your governor Huang Jingfu is still alive."

It was this sentence that had been giving Zhao Huaian a headache until now.

He understood what Zhao Er meant. Wasn't it that he was already under someone else's command, and yet he still wanted to think about his subordinates? That was just a dream.

That Zhao Er is Zhao Huaiyi, the second child in his family. Although he is older than Zhao Huaian, he is still the second child.

But apart from this somewhat upsetting incident, Xian Yu Yue did bring him some good news last night.

The first is compensation.

Although Zhao Huaian and his men gained nothing in yesterday's battle, they rescued more than a dozen prisoners including Song Jian.

Among them, Song Jian told him very clearly that he would reward his bravery after returning to Chengdu.

The same was true for some other people. These people had extraordinary identities. They were all captured by the Nanzhao army and were about to be transported back to the country.

Zhao Huaian didn't know how many thanks he had received, but it shouldn't be a small number. Of course, Zhao Huaian valued the interpersonal relationships of these people more. With this rescue, his life in the army would be much easier.

It’s not Zhao Huaian’s fault for being prepared, but he discovered since yesterday that the discrimination in the Tang army is really serious. Not to mention the differences between people, even the army is divided into different levels.

Take yesterday's ambush as an example. The two teams of Baoyi and Muyi made the real contribution, while Tujiang and Zhongwu Army only dispatched dozens of people, but the latter was the one who made the greatest contribution in this battle.

Among them, the Zhongwu Army was particularly domineering. Not only did they eat and take more of the spoils, they also treated the soldiers of the Baoyi and Muyi armies as slaves, ordering them around.

At first, Zhao Huaian didn't understand the reason, until Xian Yuyue came back last night and explained it to him.

Although the Zhongwu Army was an external force, it had always enjoyed a special status because of its superior combat power. Meanwhile, the Baoyi and Muyi Army, though called armies, were in reality just a collection of village soldiers and miscellaneous braves, and were completely incomparable.

The Baoyi and Muyi armies were established when Li Deyu was in charge of Shu. They recruited one out of every two hundred households.

Although they had a nice name called "heroic border men" at that time, in fact these people were captured strong men, and their status was even lower than that of soldiers from other garrisons.

But even so, that was more than seventy years ago. As the military strength of Shu declined, many garrisons in the territory were abandoned, not to mention these heroic border warriors.

So these people are basically no different from those in the mountain huts.

However, four years ago, the Nanzhao people provoked border conflicts again. At that time, the general Yang Qingfu, who was also the one who established the Chengdu Tujiang Army, reorganized these several strongholds.

However, seventy years have passed, and most of the former powerful eleventh army have been destroyed, and the rest have scattered, only the Baoyi and Muyi armies are still there.

This time, the mission to rescue Song Jian was directly ordered by the Jiannan Jiedushi, and the troops were dispatched by General Yang Qingfu.

But at this time, the Nanzhao army had already blocked the Baizhu River area, and it was unrealistic to send out a large army.

Therefore, Yang Qingfu ordered his son Yang Shifan to lead fifty generals and fifty soldiers of the Zhongwu Army to secretly cross the Baishu River to command the Baoyi and Muyi armies behind enemy lines, and together they attacked the Nanzhao army's convoy, which led to this victory.

By the way, that Yang Shifan is the crimson-robed cavalry general who made a name for himself before.

After hearing this background, Zhao Huaian was shocked. He originally thought that the Tang army came to rescue the captured civilians and soldiers, but who would have thought that they came to rescue Song Jian?
Is Song Jian’s status so high?

When Zhao Huaian asked this question, Xian Yu Yue was quite hesitant, but finally he told the key.

He told Zhao Huaian that Song Jian's uncle was Song Wei, the governor of Pinglu. This official position was secondary. After all, Pinglu was far away in the east and had nothing to do with them in western Sichuan.

However, Song Wei and the current Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Lu Xie, had a close relationship, and their Jiedushi Niu Cong had become the Jiedushi of Western Sichuan through Lu Xie's connections. In terms of factions, the two sides were from the same faction.

Therefore, the Jiedushi specifically ordered elite troops to rescue Song Jian. This was the reason.

Although Xian Yuyue explained everything clearly to Zhao Huaian, Zhao Huaian still had doubts in his heart.

Because the reason is simple, since Song Jian is of high status, how did he get captured by the Nanzhao people? Now, the two sides have not even fought a battle, and an important general has been captured. This is very abnormal.

However, Zhao Huaian did not ask this at that time, but asked another question. He told Xian Yu Yue what Zhao Huaiyi said during the day and asked what to do next.

When Xianyu Yue heard that Lizhou Governor Huang Jingfu was still alive, he felt a little headache. He told Zhao Huaian the truth, that is, under such circumstances, he, Zhao Huaian, could only return to the army.

However, the good news is that the Lizhou Army now only has a military number left, and even the military flag has been lost. Now Zhao Huaian not only brings people back to the army, but also brings the military flag back. Maybe he can rebuild the Lizhou Army.

Of course, all this depends on the intention of Huang Jingfu, the governor of Lizhou.

After finishing talking about all these things, Xian Yu Yue finally told Zhao Huaian one thing, that is, he needed to serve Song Jian during this period of time, and asked him to go there to find him if he had any problems.

Zhao Huaian felt a little reluctant to part with his good brother, but he also understood that he should not hinder his progress.

So he could only pretend to be happy, but he was still sad inside.

But the next day, Xianyu Yue sent a big gift to Zhao Huaian. To be precise, it was Song Jian who ordered it. He had seen that he had a lot of supplies, so he asked Xianyu Yue to send five supply carts and also allocated some food to supply Zhao Huaian.

When Xianyu Yue left, he secretly told Zhao Huaian that Envoy Song really loved him. When he saw that Zhao Huaian had no troops, he specially selected some from the captured Tang army and said they would come over soon.

This is what really made Zhao Huaian happy. Although he loved gold and silver, what he loved more were his followers and warriors, as these were the capital for his success.

So, at this time, Zhao Huaian was happily sitting on the baggage cart, waiting for the arrival of the Tang army.

But before he could wait for his troops, Sun Chuanxiu from the Baoyi Army came over awkwardly with more than 20 people.

Is this what is going on?
(End of this chapter)