"Da da da da~!"
Less than fifty miles away from Tanzhou City, two fast horses gathered together from different directions and ran quickly towards a temporary camp. The scouts on the horses began to roar from a long way away.
"Reporting to the Chief Manager, something strange has been discovered in the direction of Tanxiang Station!"
"Reporting to the General Manager, Tanzhou City has been captured by the Turks, and all dangerous locations in the city have been lost. There are many soldiers who escaped from Tanzhou City gathered in the forest to the north. May I ask the General Manager if you want to recruit them!"
A white-robed Confucian general in his forties walked out of the commander's tent with a sword at his waist. Surrounded by a group of generals wearing heavy armor, he strode out with great dignity.
Only the personal guards around him knew that in the few days since arriving in Tanzhou, this unknown general seemed to have aged much!
He is the boss of the entire Hebei Province and Cheng Yaojin’s immediate boss, Wei Xiaojie, the chief administrator of Youzhou Province!
With two thousand elite cavalrymen of the Tang Dynasty in hand, they can walk sideways basically anywhere, coming and going freely. Even if they go deep into the prairie and make trouble in the Turks' rear area, Wei Xiaojie can still lead the team away calmly.
But now, just dozens of miles away from this temporary camp, there are tens of thousands of people with their families and families fleeing south in panic.
Let Wei Xiaojie lead his army to charge into battle and go north to fight against the Turks, and he won't even frown! But if his elite cavalry were to cover tens of thousands of Tanzhou people to break through the Turkic encirclement, it would be a bit overwhelming!
He is just a military strategist, not a strategist!
When he received news from the scouts that a large number of Turkic cavalry had been discovered in the direction of Yanle, Wei Xiaojie led two thousand elite cavalry to Tanzhou without stopping, hoping to enter the city before the Turks approached the city.
But what people never expected was that as soon as the Turks reached the west gate, the lord of Tanzhou City did not even say hello, but fled to the east gate with his family members and the wealthy businessmen in the city, leaving behind a confused army. and hundreds of thousands of people in the city.
Tanzhou City was leaderless, and there were many factions among the grassroots officials. The strategies they conveyed to defend against the enemy were very different, and the defense was full of loopholes. The changes in orders from day to day caused the guards on the city wall to rush back and forth, causing chaos.
The spies planted by the Turks in the city became even more rampant, spreading rumors in the chaos that the city lord had defected, the garrison surrendered, and the Turks massacred the city. Encourage the people to break open the south gate, flee Tanzhou, and stay away from the battlefield.
In just two days, a city fell!
First, the city lord and merchants fled, and later the entire city fled. Normally speaking, as long as the granary in the city is intact, then a few thousand defenders can rely on the city wall to resist the Turks' attack.
But the truth is so bloody!
In order to express his determination to be loyal and patriotic to Li Er, who was far away in Chang'an, Tan Governor Shi Zhao Huan volunteered himself and climbed up to defend the enemy command with his sword and leather armor.
In the first round of the Turks' charge, the tall and tall Chief Shi Zhao Huan ignored the dissuasion of his men and dressed up in a dazzling manner. In the end, as expected, he died tragically on the city wall and sacrificed his life for his country.
The lord was about to die, his soldiers fled, and chaos began in Tanzhou again.
If the Turks hadn't been worried about the granaries and weapons depots in the city, they would have already asked the spies in the city to act as internal agents and take advantage of the chaos to burn the granaries and stop the Tang soldiers from defending the city.
But that's it, the defenders who were fighting on their own also lost the city in two days.
The reason turned out to be that the North City Gate and the West City Gate were desperately resisting. The East City Gate and the South City Gate successively received rumors that the enemy had broken into the city. After being unconfirmed, they fled to the nearby woods along with the fleeing people. . . .
After Wei Xiaojie combined the information submitted by all the scouts, his head became hot and he had the urge to vomit blood and die on the spot.
Pig teammate, you can't do anything, you are the number one cheater!
"Zhao Huan is a pig-headed scholar, but he doesn't think about how to stabilize the people in the city, muster up the morale of the army, allocate supplies to defend the city, and even imitate others who go to the city to give blind orders. Does he really think he has the courage of ten thousand men?!"
The more Wei Xiaojie heard, the angrier he became, and he cursed loudly at Tanzhou City. Then he turned to look at another scout and roared:
"What happened to the Sandalwood Station?! How did the good-looking Turkic cavalry in the Tang Dynasty come and go freely? What happened in Liaoxi and Yanzhou? So many Turkic cavalry appeared out of thin air behind them!"
Not caring about rest, the scout got off his horse, took out the secret document obtained from Yang Miao from his back, walked quickly to Wei Xiaojie and said:
"Back to the general manager, Wang Shen, the governor of Yanzhou, colluded with Zhao Deyan, a former Sui official, to rebel against the Tang Dynasty. The mighty army guarding the territory was raided by internal and external raids and was completely wiped out. The western city of Liaoning was besieged by the Turkic army, and all surrounding counties and cities have fallen."
"Wang Guinai, the lord of Tanzhou City, is a member of the Wangshen tribe, the governor of Yanzhou. When he saw the general manager coming with his troops, he was afraid of being implicated in treason charges, so he fled to Korea overnight with wealthy businessmen in the city..."
Wei Xiaojie immediately grasped the key point of the question and continued to ask:
"In addition to the city lord Wang Gui and some wealthy businessmen who fled to Goryeo, how do the remaining officials in Tanzhou City make decisions? Are they all involved in resisting the Turkic invasion?! How many remnants of soldiers have gathered in the forest?!"
Another scout knelt on the ground and replied swornly:
"My subordinates combined all the relevant information and found that the rest of the people in Tanzhou did not surrender to the enemy. It's just that Zhao Huan, the chief minister, had never experienced combat and was dressed too conspicuously, so he was shot by the Turks by beheading, causing the defense line to be completely defeated."
"The largest one in the forest is a group of remnant soldiers led by Chief Sun Qun. Their number is about a thousand. They are currently very short of food, and they don't know that the Sandalwood Station has been breached. They were still gathering around when their subordinates came back. Strong men and skirmishers.”
Wei Xiaojie was walking back and forth, and suddenly his eyes lit up. He immediately ordered his soldiers to assemble their troops and make rice, and then whispered in the ears of deputy generals Zheng Jun and Zhu Xu.
After everything was arranged, Wei Xiaojie went to the gathering place of the fleeing people to comfort them.
"Dear fellow citizens of Tanzhou City, reinforcements from our Tang Dynasty are coming from all directions. There will be food, and Tanzhou will be recaptured. From now on, you will follow General Zhu's cavalry, and he will be safe. I will escort you to Youzhou."
An old man on crutches cried with joy after hearing this. He ordered two young people in the clan to help him walk towards Wei Xiaojie, tremblingly.
He was in his seventies, and his wrinkled face was very pale, but he could not hide his sharp eyes. In just a short distance, he showed an inexplicable majesty. His identity suddenly made Wei Xiaojie interested.
"Liu Xin, Cai clan of Tanzhou, a grassroots citizen, pays homage to the general."
Wei Xiaojie withdrew his guard, showed a sincere attitude and returned the greeting:
"I, Wei Xiaojie, the general manager of Hebei Province, what advice can I give you?"
Cai Liuxin might be too old and had difficulty speaking, so he got straight to the point and said:
"The common people want to make a deal with the general!"
Wei Xiaojie sighed secretly, businessmen's pursuit of profit is deeply rooted in their bones. How long has it been? Do they still want to make a fortune with their own blood? ! So he laughed and said:
"Oh~! I wonder what kind of business I'm talking about?! Although I hold a high position and have a lot of troops, my family is not wealthy. Maybe I've made a mistake!"
Cai Liuxin laughed loudly, shook his head and waved his hands:
"General, don't blame me! This old man is not a profit-seeking businessman. He just wants to contribute his meager strength to the Tang Dynasty's fight against the Turks and sends 20,000 shi of military rations!"
