"Twenty thousand stones of army rations?!"
Wei Xiaojie began to look at the old man in front of him again. For someone who could casually donate 20,000 shi of military rations, one can only imagine how rich the assets behind him were!
This old man is indeed extraordinary!
Nowadays, the world is not peaceful, and coupled with natural and man-made disasters in various places, the price of food in Youzhou has gone from ten cents per dou to as high as fifty cents per dou by unscrupulous businessmen.
At this time, the traditional money in Datang was equivalent to one tael of silver, which was 1,000 Kaiyuan Tongbao, or 1,000 Wen. Ten dou is equivalent to one stone, and one stone is worth five hundred coins. Twenty thousand stone of grain is equivalent to ten thousand guan.
Proper wealth!
After thinking for a moment, Wei Xiaojie regained his senses and glared angrily:
"There is no joke in the army. I have never heard of the wealthy Cai family in Tanzhou! Even if my father-in-law's family is engaged in grain business, it is impossible to store so much grain!"
"Cough cough cough~!"
Cai Liuxin coughed and almost couldn't breathe.
After calming down for a while, he casually took a delicate handkerchief handed over by the young man behind him and wiped it on his face randomly.
"To be honest, General Manager Wei, I predicted a few days ago that the city of Tanzhou would be destroyed by the Turkic cavalry, that the Tanxiang official road would be occupied by the Turkic cavalry, and that the Cai family and I would also flee south!"
Wei Xiaojie:. . . . . .
The personal guards nearby sensed that the atmosphere of the chat was a little different. They winked at each other, held their sword scabbards, and quietly formed a siege in order to respond to emergencies at any time.
"Actually, my Cai family is not a famous family in Tanzhou, but our strength cannot be underestimated. Some time ago, we did not know that the Wang family had betrayed the Tang Dynasty and was still delivering food and supplies for them."
"It wasn't until that day that Turks from all over the mountains and plains appeared in Tanxiang Town. They burned, killed and looted. They just didn't take us as a group of people transporting supplies and ignored our existence. I knew that some people were rebelling."
"At that time, Tanxiang Town was a hell on earth. There were murderous Turkic cavalry everywhere. People could be heard begging for mercy and screaming everywhere. There were scenes of Turks robbing property and dividing the spoils."
"I secretly rescued some villagers from Tanxiang Town and hid the supplies in the valley between the inn and Tanxiang Town. If General Wei fails to capture Tanzhou City, we only need to attack Tanxiang City Town, lead these people to escape into the valley, and rely on the mountain roads to hold on and wait for help!"
After Cai Liuxin finished speaking in one breath, Wei Xiaojie arranged for personal guards to protect the Cai family, re-drawn the battle plan, and sent several cavalry to inform Lieutenant General Zheng Jun.
While Wei Xiaojie was talking with Cai Liuxin, Zheng Jun led a cavalry group to quietly explore the mountains and forests near Tanzhou City.
Wei Xiaojie originally planned to let his deputy Zhu Xu lead more than 100,000 people to slowly go south to create an illusion. Lure away the Turkic scouts in Tanzhou City, let the Turks guarding the city relax their vigilance, and then raid Tanzhou City.
After two days of fighting, after the enemy leaves, the Turks in Tanzhou City will probably enter a state of rest. This is the best time to backhand attack Tanzhou City.
An hour later,
The vanguard heading south led by Zhu Xu encountered the Turkic cavalry.
After conducting several tentative attacks, Zhu Xu commanded his cavalry to continuously change their formations like a quick release to encircle and suppress the Turkic cavalry.
After several rounds of fierce battles, a Turkic reconnaissance team of five hundred cavalry emerged. Under Zhu Xu's skillful military command, there was a momentum of defeat, and he was crushed and beaten by the elite led by Zhu Xu.
Except for some fish that slipped through the net, they rushed into the refugee pile and drove the people away as cover. The remaining four hundred cavalry were all the achievements of Zhu Xu's victory in the first battle, and were severely trampled by the cavalry.
"Do these Turks think that we are poor? We have come all the way from the prairie to give us war horses. Brothers, they Turks are not strong in fighting ability, but their war horses are not bad. They have captured all the war horses. Send it to me to the chief steward, and we'll have horse meat soup tonight!"
"General Zhu is mighty! We have horse meat to eat tonight!"
"The general is mighty, the broth is mighty!"
"Haha! Send horse meat thousands of miles away!"
Zhu Xu ordered his men to clean the battlefield, bring all the horses that died in the battle to the rear army to use as broth, and packaged the captured equipment to Wei Xiaojie at the back of the team, then calmed the people and continued on the road slowly. . .
On the other side,
Zhao Deyan, who was in charge of Tanxiang Inn, became uneasy after receiving the letter.
Before Zhou Jie died, he ordered his soldiers to burn all important documents, but those soldiers had never burned anything before and threw all the letters into the fire without thinking.
Until the battle at Tanxiang Station ended, Zhao Deyan's guards searched carefully and found many half-burned letters in the fire and handed them to Zhao Deyan.
Tuli Khan colluded with Li Yuan for a private deal? !
"It's impossible for these important clues to be kept for the last time. This must be Li Shimin's conspiracy!"
In order to restore the Sui Empire, the Turkic tribes must not be divided. At least before the overthrow of the Tang Dynasty, all the Turkic tribes must be united. Zhao Deyan threw the letter back into the fire.
"Master, the scouts are here to report that the general who led two thousand Tang Dynasty cavalry into Tanzhou territory a few days ago is Wei Xiaojie, the general manager of Hebei Province!"
Just as a guard finished speaking, another spy ran in behind him.
"Report! Report to the Imperial Guard, Wei Xiaojie is leading a hundred thousand refugees to break out in our current direction, and will arrive in three hours at the speed of the Tang Dynasty cavalry. But now they are escorting the refugees, and their marching speed is slow!"
Wei Xiaojie is a big fish!
He couldn't understand why he could catch such a big fish in the trap he set.
Now that Tanzhou City has been conquered and Tanxiang Station has been captured, Wei Xiaojie's thousands of elites alone will not be able to escape from their encirclement if they don't leave this group of refugees behind, no matter how noisy they are.
Zhao Deyan was in a good mood. With Li Yuan and Wang Shen making a fuss in Youzhou this time, it would be much smoother for him to lead the troops to fight.
The Turkic Jieli Khan wanted to go south to plunder the money, land and food, and he perfectly solved it within a month.
"Come here! Please ask Mr. Yang to lead three thousand knights and escort all the Han people and supplies captured recently back to the prairie."
"If you continue the order, recall all the tribesmen who are fighting the autumn wind in the surrounding counties. Set up three lines of defense to block Wei Xiaojie between Tanzhou City and Tanxiang Station and starve him to death!"
"If any tribal soldier disobeys the command and allows Wei Xiaojie, an elite cavalry, to escape for the small profits brought by the autumn wind, he will be a traitor to the entire Turkic tribe, and the tribal leader will also be implicated in his death!"
In Zhao Deyan's center, money, land and food are far less important than eliminating Li Shimin's elite!
