Chapter 201 Seeking support
Chapter 201 Seeking support
At dusk, An Luo met Xue Ju and Xiao Xia, who was disguised as his subordinate, in his mansion.
An Luo is about fifty years old, with deep eyes and a high nose, a typical Sogdian. Due to his poor health, he is rather thin. He served as the governor of Wei County and is currently retired due to illness and recuperating at home.
Although he is not good-looking, An Luo is very smart. When he learned that Xiao Xia was asking him for help, he immediately realized that this was a rare opportunity.
Xie Tongshi actually wanted to confront the imperial court. He was simply blinded by greed. Who did he think he was? Xue Ju had already entered the city. How could he still make up a lie that the new military commander died in the snowstorm?
An Luo had long been dissatisfied with Xie Tongshi. The former military commander Liu Zhizhen had a close relationship with the An family, but Xie Tongshi took advantage of Liu Zhizhen's illness to gradually seize the military power.
Especially before, Division Xie Tong had forcibly incorporated the 1,000 Zhangye militia soldiers led by the An family into the army, which seriously damaged the interests of the An family.
Although Master Xie let his son An Xiuren continue to command the thousand soldiers, it was far from enough to make up for the losses of the An family.
An Luo smiled and said to Xiao Xia: "As a former court official, I fully support the court's determination, but I also hope that General Xiao can return the militia soldiers who were forcibly taken away by Xie Tongshi. This is my only hope. This is not a condition. Even if General Xiao disagrees, I will fully support General Xiao."
"What's the militia?" Xiao Xia asked.
An Luo pondered for a moment and said, "A few years ago, a group of horse bandits suddenly appeared in Zhangye, called the Qilian Gang. In fact, this group of horse bandits was formed by the merger of six gangs of bandits in the Qilian Mountains with the support of Tuyuhun. There were about six to seven hundred horse bandits in this group. With the support of Tuyuhun, they killed and burned people, looted caravans, and committed all kinds of evil. The people of Zhangye were also harassed and invaded by them repeatedly. Although the Zhangye army also sent troops to attack them, they could not cross the border. As soon as they sent troops, the horse bandits fled to Dunhuang County, and they could do nothing.
In addition, the army reacted slowly. The horse bandits came like a gust of wind, burning, killing, looting, and then turned around and left. By the time the army arrived, the horse bandits had already gone far away. So last year, several of our large families discussed and pulled out the servants from each family to form a militia of a thousand people specifically to deal with the invasion of horse bandits and defend our homes.
Xue, the chief of the militia, also agreed to the establishment of this militia. When the previous military commander General Liu was there, everyone had been living in peace. Three months ago, General Liu died of illness. Less than a month later, Commander Xie used the excuse of assisting in training to take the 1,000 militia soldiers to the military camp for training. They never came out again. 1,000 people! How much manpower, financial resources and material resources have we lost? It's simply too much."
Xiao Xia nodded, "In other words, the Zhangye Army now has 6,000 people?"
"Exactly!"
Xiao Xia frowned, "What's the point of taking these 1,000 people? What's his purpose?"
An Luo sneered and said, "We guess that he wants to apply to the court for another thousand soldiers' rations. After the court verifies and allocates the rations for a thousand people, he will return the thousand troops to us. In this way, he can eat the food of a thousand people openly. Of course, I am just guessing."
"Are you still responsible for the military salaries and food for the 1,000 soldiers?"
"Of course we bear the responsibility. He just used it as an excuse to train them and didn't formally recruit them. But two months of training is still training, one year of training is still training, and three years of training is still training. But we have been paying for the rewards and food, but he took the army to use. Is it fair to us?"
Xiao Xia nodded, "If that's the case, I can return the 1,000 militias, but it's best not to use the name of private soldiers. The court won't allow it."
An Luo was overjoyed and said, "It's definitely not a private army. The name approved by the general manager is the local army, which is led by the county magistrate and is only used to defend against horse bandits."
"Let's just call it a deal! I will take action around 4am tonight, please help me calm the troops down in time."
Under the cover of night and heavy snow, Xiao Xia sneaked back to the military camp. Their tent was at the westernmost part of the camp, less than fifty steps away from the camp fence. This was because Master Xie did not want others to know of their arrival, so he arranged them in the most remote place.
Xiao Xia easily climbed over the camp fence and soon returned to his own tent. Xu Min and Cao Taiyue came to report the situation to Xiao Xia.
"Master Xie did not show up this afternoon. One of his men brought us a lot of mutton and wood and asked us to grill the meat ourselves. He said Master Xie had an emergency at home and had to rush back to the county town. He will hand over the military power to the general at the county government tomorrow morning."
Xiao Xia sneered and said, "It's about two miles from the military camp to the county town. He just wants to attack us halfway."
"General, what should we do now?"
"Let's leave the barracks first and come back tomorrow morning!"
"Xie even sent people to monitor us!"
"I know, it's just what I want to be watched!"
Xiao Xia whispered a few words to the two of them, and they nodded repeatedly.
At four o'clock in the morning, twenty Sui soldiers finished packing and rode out of the tent. They tied a rope around the fence and pulled hard. The fence fell to the ground. The twenty cavalrymen rushed out of the camp and ran away. The two soldiers who were responsible for monitoring Xiao Xia and his party found something wrong and ran out. They watched the fence being pulled down and the twenty people rushed out on horseback.
The two were so frightened that they quickly turned around and ran towards the central military tent, but they didn't know that a dark shadow was following them like a ghost.
Xie Tongshi was woken up by his personal soldiers while he was sleeping. He put on his fur coat and walked to the outer tent and asked, "What's going on?"
The two soldiers in charge of surveillance knelt on one knee and said, "Reporting to the general, the man named Xiao and his men broke through the camp fence and escaped."
Division Commander Xie was greatly shocked, and hurriedly led dozens of his men through the snow to the West Camp, only to see that the western camp fence had been pulled down several feet, and the snow outside was covered with dense horse hoof prints.
Master Xie Tong was so angry that he started cursing. Xiao Xia's escape disrupted all his plans. What should he do now?
Wang Xiu also hurried over and said, "I guess we sent someone to monitor them, but they found us and they ran away because they felt something was wrong."
"It's no use saying this now. The key is what to do next?"
Wang Xiu smiled and said, "Actually, it's a good thing that they ran away!"
"Why do you say that?" Master Xie Tong asked puzzled.
"General, it's snowing so hard, they can't run far. Tomorrow we'll send people out to look for them, and kill them when we find them. We'll just say they died in the snow, and no one can blame you!"
Xie Tongshi's mood improved again and he nodded, "This is a good plan. We will send someone to find them tomorrow morning. Let's all go back to the tent!"
The weather was too cold, so everyone went back to their tents. Master Xie Tong also returned to his own tent. It was only the fourth watch, so he could still sleep for another two hours.
He took off his fur coat and got into the warm bed again. Before he fell asleep, Xiao Xia appeared above his head and knocked him out with a punch.
Xiao Xia took out a small porcelain bottle from his arms. This was the poison wine called Crane's Beak Red. He pinched open Master Xie Tong's mouth and poured the whole bottle of poison wine into him. Master Xie Tong instinctively swallowed the poison wine into his stomach.
The next morning, Xie Tongshi's personal soldiers discovered that their lord had died with blood gushing out of all seven orifices. For a moment, there was an uproar in the military camp, and no one knew what had happened.
More than a dozen mid-level generals gathered in front of the big tent, talking and asking each other what had happened.
At this time, Sima Anxinggui came out and said to the generals: "The military doctor has found that General Xie died of poison. There was no sign of struggle in the tent. It can be determined that General Xie committed suicide."
The cavalry general Yin Shishi asked in confusion, "Why would the deputy military commander commit suicide by taking poison?"
“The answer should be found!”
An Xinggui turned around and waved his hand, and several soldiers brought Wang Xiu up. Wang Xiu looked as pale as death, as he could never have imagined that Master Xie Tong had committed suicide by taking poison.
Wang Xiu knelt down, trembling all over. An Xinggui winked at his brothers, and An Xiuren drew his sword, put it on Wang Xiu's neck and shouted, "How could General Xie commit suicide by taking poison? Tell me now!"
An Xiuren insisted that Master Xie Tong committed suicide by taking poison. Wang Xiu had already received instructions from An Xinggui that the An family could save his life, but he had to explain according to An Xinggui's instructions. How could he dare to say anything wrong at this time?
He lowered his head and said to everyone, "Yesterday afternoon, the military commander appointed by the court arrived at the military camp, but Master Xie did not want to hand over power. He wanted to kill the new military commander and then put the blame on the blizzard. Unexpectedly, the new military commander discovered his intention and escaped in the middle of the night. Master Xie must have been unable to explain himself, so he committed suicide out of fear of punishment."
Everyone was in an uproar. They didn't even know that a new military commander had taken office.
Yin Shishi asked quickly, "Excuse me, Sima An, where is the new cavalry commander?"
An Xinggui said slowly, "I just got the news that the new military commander is currently in the county government office, waiting for General Xie to hand over the military power. Now General Xie has committed suicide by taking poison, so I can only hand over the military power on his behalf. Everyone, come with me!"
Chief Clerk Cao Zhen also said: "Since the court has appointed the military commander, how to deal with General Xie will naturally be decided by the military commander. Let's go see the military commander!"
General Guan Jin said: "An Sima is right. The army must be stable and we cannot give the Tuyuhun people a chance. Let's go to see the military commander together."
With the support of An Xinggui's brothers, Cao Zhen, Guan Jin and others, although a few generals felt that something was a bit strange, they did not dare to ask too many questions. A group of generals mounted their horses and followed An Xinggui into the city to meet the new military commander.
(End of this chapter)