Chapter 766 Big Harvest
Chapter 766 Big Harvest
Jiuyuan County is a strategic city in Hetao. It is slightly larger than Feng'an County, but it has not been abandoned. It was transformed into a warehouse city by the Turks. The sheepskins exploited from Hexi and the grain obtained from Shuofang were piled up in Jiuyuan County. The Turks wanted to accumulate them to a certain amount and then transport them away at one time. Currently, there are one thousand Turkic troops guarding Jiuyuan County.
The next afternoon, Su Dingfang led 7,000 cavalrymen to Jiuyuan County, which was still 20 miles away from the county seat. Su Dingfang ordered the soldiers to rest in a forest.
At this time, the scouts came back and brought back the basic situation of Jiuyuan County.
Su Dingfang and Luo Cheng discussed on a large rock. Luo Cheng suggested: "Our biggest advantage now is that the enemy doesn't know us. We can launch a surprise attack on the enemy. The scouts said that the county wall is only two meters high. We can build a ladder to climb up to this height. Once we capture the South City and make a big noise, the enemy will definitely escape from the North City. The general can lead the cavalry to ambush outside the North City and annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop."
Su Dingfang praised: "General, your idea is exactly what I want!"
After the two men finished their discussion, they immediately divided their forces, leaving a thousand men to guard the camels and horses, Luo Cheng led three thousand men to the south city, and Su Dingfang led three thousand cavalry to ambush outside the north city.
At 2:00 a.m., Luo Cheng led 3,000 soldiers to the southern city of Jiuyuan County. Luo Cheng used his clairvoyance to observe for a while and found that there were no soldiers on the city walls. A general whispered, "General, I am from Mayi County. I know that the Turks have no habit of defending cities. They will not arrange soldiers to patrol the city walls like the Han army does. Their cities are only for defense against wolves."
Luo Cheng nodded and ordered: "Go to the city!"
General Hu Xiaowu immediately led 500 soldiers towards the city. Jiuyuan County had no moat, so they went directly to the foot of the city. Everyone waited on the city wall for a while and found that there was no movement on the top of the city wall. They immediately built a human ladder and several thin soldiers were the first to go up to the city.
Sure enough, the Turkic army was indeed different from the Han army. It was quiet on the city wall, without a single person. The key point was that Jiuyuan County was far away from the Central Plains, and the nearest Lingwu County was thousands of miles away.
The defenders had never thought that there would be an enemy attack. The city wall was just a defense against wolves for them.
All five hundred soldiers went up to the city, but found several Turkic soldiers hiding and sleeping in the city gate. Without waiting for them to wake up, they attacked them with their swords, and several Turkic soldiers died in their sleep.
The city gate opened, and three torches flashed. Luo Cheng was overjoyed and shouted, "Follow me and charge into the city!"
He led 2,500 soldiers to attack the city.
On the surface, Jiuyuan County did not change much, but after entering the city, it was discovered that the county had been razed to the ground by the Turkic army. All the houses disappeared, and thousands of large tents were built. The two hundred large tents on the north side were soldier tents and horse sheds, and then the beams of demolished houses were used as camp fences, with a fence in the middle. The eight hundred large tents on the south side were all food and supplies.
It looks very neat, but this layout would be doomed if it encountered enemy fire attack, and the whole city would be burned down.
There was a passage beside the city wall, and three thousand soldiers rushed over. Luo Cheng gave an order, and the three thousand soldiers rushed towards the enemy camp.
A thousand Turkic soldiers were sleeping soundly when the Sui soldiers suddenly attacked them, catching them off guard. There were screams in the tent.
Many Turkic soldiers rushed out barefoot and were immediately shot down by dense arrows.
Luo Cheng killed dozens of people in a row, and he found that he had thought too much. There was no need to ambush outside at all. They were enough to kill the enemy.
The Turkic soldiers without horses were as weak as chickens. In just a quarter of an hour, one thousand Turkic soldiers were killed by three thousand Sui soldiers.
The north gate was opened, and Luo Cheng ordered three torches to be lit. Soon, Su Dingfang led three thousand cavalrymen to rush up.
"what happened?"
Luo Cheng laughed and said, "Sorry, I used a little too much force and killed all the enemy soldiers."
Su Dingfang laughed, "It seems we have worried too much!" The two began to check the grain and supplies. There were more than 500,000 dan of grain and nearly one million sheepskins. All the sheepskins in Hexi were looted. There were also more than 100,000 taels of gold and silver and hundreds of thousands of strings of money. There were names on the boxes, the An family, the Cao family, and the Shi family.
Su Dingfang patted the box and said with a smile: "Brother, do you know who owns these gold, silver and money?"
"I have no idea!"
"These are the wealth of the Sogdians in Zhangye. They are the money they earned from Chang'an and Luoyang. All of them were taken away by the Turks."
At this time, a general came running over and said, "Two generals, we found something strange!"
The two followed the general to dozens of large tents in the southwest, only to see that the tents were filled with black cakes, piled up like mountains.
Su Dingfang blurted out, "This is the Three Treasures Cake!"
"General Su, what is the Three Treasures Cake?"
Su Dingfang suppressed his laughter and said, "It was invented by the emperor in Hexi. It is made by mixing cow dung, horse dung and sheep manure and drying them. It is the best fuel on the grassland."
When everyone heard that it was animal dung, they were all shocked and then burst into laughter.
Su Dingfang soon discovered the secret of how the Turks transported so much food and supplies. He found thousands of large rafts in the warehouse. These rafts could be used to transport the food and supplies, and all the food could be moved in three trips a month.
At this time, he received an order from Li Jing, asking him to use rafts to transport grain, sheepskins and supplies to the Hukou Warehouse on the Yellow River.
Soon, thousands of rafts were divided into ten teams, each pulled by ten camels, loaded with food, sheepskins and other supplies, and sailed towards the Longmen and Hukou sections of the Yellow River, where the Sui army had already established a large transit warehouse.
One of the main reasons why the Tang Dynasty army led by Qu Tutong and Li Shimin had a hard time fighting against Xue Ju and his son in Longyou was that Xue Ju and his son had the full support of the Qiang people in Longyou. Tens of thousands of Qiang people joined the army of Xue Ju and his son. In addition, the Longxi noble group headed by Zong Luohou also supported Xue Ju and his son.
The Longyou wealthy group had been oppressed by the Guanlong aristocratic group for many years. When one of their members, Zong Luohou, started a rebellion, they quickly merged with the army of Xue father and son and fought with all their might against the Tang King's army supported by the Guanlong aristocrats.
The two armies basically confronted and fought fiercely along the Tao River. After more than a year of fierce fighting, the outcome was still unclear. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed, but they were still unable to defeat the other side.
But with the participation of Liang Shidu and Li Gui in the war, the Tang army began to find it increasingly difficult. However, after the Sui army joined the battlefield, Liang Shidu's army quickly retreated northward, greatly reducing the pressure on the Tang army on the Xiaoguan front line.
Yang Gongren is currently the commander-in-chief of Xiaoguan, with 20,000 soldiers under his command. Ever since Xiao Xia ascended the throne in Luoyang, Yang Gongren has been under tremendous pressure. As one of the few remaining royal family members of the Sui Dynasty, he should of course return to Luoyang without hesitation.
But the King of Tang treated him well, and it would be morally wrong for him to abandon his army and go to Luoyang.
Fortunately, he now has a sufficient reason. He is fighting against the southern invasion of the Turkic forces for the country. He believes that Luoyang can also understand his difficulties.
That morning, the eldest son Yang Siyi came from Chang'an and brought the order from King Li Yuan of Tang.
(End of this chapter)