Chapter 27: The Stormy Weather of Yu Guan (6)

  The next morning, Wang Dalang, Meng Xuxing and Jiao Chengqiao set out on horseback from Yu Pass, expanding their reconnaissance range. The horses were the ones that pulled carts in the caravan, although they couldn't compare to warhorses, at least they were much faster and more convenient than traveling on two legs.

  For the whole day, Li Chengzhong was drilling the squad of new recruits on the training ground. His words yesterday had some effect, at least these new soldiers had mustered up some courage, although their tense expressions and stiff movements still betrayed their fear, but they were no longer as panicked as they were yesterday. Moreover, the tension and stiffness during training were gradually being covered up by the repeated mechanical actions, and even the formation marching and rifle handling were slowly becoming more familiar, and when shouting "Kill", their voices sounded much more uniform and loud.

  Jiang Miao was always arranged on top of the pass wall, gazing out at the desolate wilderness outside the pass. As soon as he encountered enemy situation, he would immediately sound the alarm.

  Feng Dao continued to urge the civilians to rush and make wooden guns. The area near Yu Guan is rich in elm trees, which is very convenient for making wooden guns. Last night, the civilians cut down some young elms, this kind of wood material is tough and has good elasticity, it's a good raw material for making wooden guns. Therefore, Feng Dao ordered the civilians to make fifty elm wooden guns, no one was assigned one, and they were considered to have completed their task. Because time was tight, the wooden guns were hastily made and were very rough, only barely resembling guns, many of the gun handles were not symmetrical, and the tips were cut roughly.

  Li Chengzhong looked at these wooden guns with some helplessness, and simply let people use black sticky soil to apply a layer evenly on the gun tip. He himself went down to the outside of the pass and looked up, vaguely seeming to have iron spearheads installed, which made him slightly relieved.

  These civilians heard that they were going to hold guns and guard the city gate, and they all shook their heads. Some of the timid ones even wanted to leave immediately. Feng Dao and Li Chengzhong hurriedly comforted them for a while, and Feng Dao even promised that as long as they went up to the city gate, each person would get three rations. After getting the promise that they wouldn't really have to fight, and even getting Li Chengzhong's "promise" that if the Khitan people attacked the city, everyone would be allowed to turn around and run away, they reluctantly opened the city gate.

  The front of Yu Guan is not long, about 150 steps from east to west. The fortress is even narrower, with a diameter of less than 50 steps. There are 50 civilians in total, and Li Chengzhong would definitely not dare to let them stand evenly spaced. He believes that if these civilians were within a few steps of each other without anyone around, they would probably run away as soon as they saw the Khitan people appear. Having more people can boost courage, which is an eternal truth. Therefore, Li Chengzhong divided the civilians into ten groups of five people each, with about 20 steps between each group. Seven groups were set up on the city wall and three groups in the fortress. Now, at least from below, Yu Guan has a somewhat heavily guarded appearance.

  In the past few days, Li Chengzhong and Feng Dao gradually became familiar with each other, and he found that this young scholar was very easy to get along with. He didn't have the stereotype of being a bookworm, but instead had flexibility in doing things, and at the same time, took responsibility. To describe the feeling of interacting with him, it could be summed up in four words: "like a spring breeze". Now that everything is ready, he doesn't want anything unexpected to happen to this young man, so he kindly suggested that Feng Dao return to urge the second wave of supporting troops.

  Feng Dao smiled and thanked Li Chengzhong's kindness: "Dao wants to take a closer look here, before it was all from books and scrolls to understand the Khitan people, having such an opportunity for face-to-face contact, Dao doesn't want to miss it. The situation here Dao had written a letter last night and sent someone back to the Cishi Prefecture, Zhang Shijun is very worried about this matter, he will definitely think of a way, no need for us to worry."

  Since Feng Dao arrived with the convoy last night, the two have been busy arranging and had no chance to talk in detail. Li Chengzhong heard that Feng Dao knew some general information about the Khitan people, so he quickly told him about the situation Wang Dalang had investigated yesterday, then asked Feng Dao if he knew the actual strength of the Khitan people.

  Feng Dao thought for a moment, then said: "The Khitan people were once subjects of the great Tang two hundred years ago. The emperor established the state of Guiyuan to govern them. However, this tribe has been wavering between the Turks and our great Tang, with no fixed allegiance. In the ninth year of Tianbao, An Lushan, who was then the military governor of Pinglu and Fanyang, led a large army to attack the Khitan, advancing north for a thousand miles, all the way to the banks of the Tuotuo River, where the Khitan Khan's tent was located. Unfortunately, the Xianbei people in the army defected during the battle, causing our northern expeditionary force to suffer a great defeat. After that, the Khitan people broke away from the control of our great Tang but fell into the hands of the Uyghurs. It wasn't until sixty years ago, when the Uyghur kingdom was destroyed, that the Khitan submitted again. The court appointed the then-Khitan Khan, Jiedushi, as 'Cloud Flag General' and issued the 'Seal of Loyalty to the Tang by the Khitan'. Although the Khitan nominally surrendered, they have never been truly submissive. To say the least, over these sixty years, our great Tang has experienced many hardships and difficulties, with the state in turmoil; where was there any spare energy to make these northern barbarians submit sincerely?"

  He sighed for a moment, and then continued: "In the past two years, I have been reading books and traveling around. I have been to Wei State, Chan State, Ji State, and now I am serving under Zhang Shijun in Ping State. I've heard a lot about the Khitan people and read many records and documents from the past. Currently, the Khan of the Khitan people is Xue Yantuo, but the one who actually holds the power is Yelü Ruyi from the Yelü Department. I heard that he has given himself a title called 'Yu Yue', which means 'General Commander of Military and National Affairs' in the Khitan language. His power is much greater than that of all the officials in our government combined..."

  Li Chengzhong interrupted Feng Dao's words and asked, "Wait a minute, can you tell me what you just said about 'Ye Lü's family'?" When he asked this question, his tone was obviously somewhat anxious and tense.

  Feng Dao didn't understand what Li Chengzhong was worried about, so he explained: "The Khitan has eight tribes, namely Yishu tribe, Dielei tribe, Tulu tribe, Tulie tribe, Niande tribe, Wuzhu tribe, Nielei tribe and Pin tribe. Although it is said to be an alliance of the eight tribes, the real power is in the hands of the three families of Dielei tribe: Yaolu family, Yelü family and Shulü family, which also have the most prosperous population. The Yaolu family has been the Khan of Khitan for generations, and Xiede is the Khan of this generation from the Yaolu family; the Yelü family has always held military power, and the title of the Khitan people is called Yilizhen, which means 'Grand Marshal of the Heavenly Army' in our Han language. The current Yilizhen is Yelü's Huadi; the Shulü family has been married to the Yelü family for generations and also enjoys extremely high honor..."

  Li Chengzhong asked again: "Who is that Yu Ruzi you mentioned earlier? You said he was from the Ye Lü family?"

  Feng Dao was somewhat surprised why Li Chengzhong would ask this about Shi Lu, and said: "This generation's Yelü Dashi is the bottom line. According to reason, he should be the one who holds the military power of Khitan, but it is said that this Yelü Dashi is just a noble scion, and the real person in charge of the military power behind the scenes is Shi Lu. Both of them come from the Ye Lü family, and it is also said that even Yelü Dashi's appointment as Yelü Dashi was promoted by Shi Lu behind the scenes. Therefore, Shi Lu self-proclaimed himself as 'Yu Yue', ranking below the Khan and above the Yelü Dashi, not only holding military power but also controlling all the civil rights of the tribal alliance."

  Li Chengzhong hesitated for a moment before asking: "The Shilu you mentioned, does it have any other names? Like 'Abaoji' or something?"

  Feng Dao thought for a moment and shook his head: "Never heard of it."

  Li Chengzhong finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  "For decades, the imperial court has been in decline and lacks the grandeur of a prosperous era. Although our Lulong Army is nominally one of the great Tang military garrisons, in reality it operates outside the imperial court... The country is so weak that it naturally does not have the strength to conquer the barbarians. Over the years, the Yingzhou region has gradually fallen into disuse and become a hunting ground for the Khitan people... Before our commander's southern campaign, our military prestige was still intact, and the Khitan people did not dare to act rashly. Unfortunately, the southern campaign ended in defeat, and now the Khitan people have begun to raid outside the passes, which is a pity for these ordinary people living outside the passes."

  Li Chengzhong was silent for a moment before suddenly asking: "I heard that our side is mainly facing the Pin Department and the Wuyi Department, how strong are these two departments?"

  Feng Dao shook his head: "Not very clear, among the eight tribes of Khitan, these two tribes belong to small tribes, and Dingkou should not be too many."

  Since it wasn't the entire Khitan Eight Divisions, and the enemy wasn't even from the Yelü clan, Li Chengzhong felt a lot more at ease. He stood on the city wall, gazing out into the distance, waiting for Wang Dalang, Meng Xuxing, and Jiao Chengqiao to return after scouting out the enemy situation outside the pass, hoping they wouldn't encounter any unexpected events.

  Wang Daling and the three of them returned, bringing back a fairly good piece of news. Within a radius of thirty miles outside the Yu Pass, apart from this branch of Khitan people, there were no other military camps. Moreover, the number of Khitan people in front of us was also clear, with a total of forty-six, twenty-three of whom were regular soldiers, one person with two horses, and the remaining twenty-three were auxiliary soldiers, among whom there seemed to be Han people.

  "Shall we take the initiative to attack them? They are fewer in number and seem to be off guard!" Wang Dalang's eyes sparkled with excitement as he made this suggestion.

  This proposal seems tempting, Li Chengzhong thought for a moment and simply gave up. If his subordinates were the strong soldiers of the southern expedition, he would have liked to go and try, but the soldiers in front of him... forget it. The order of the general commander Zhou Zhiyuan was to investigate the enemy situation at Yu Guan, and if possible, re-occupy Yu Guan, blocking the Khitan people's passage for southern raids. Now that this task has been basically completed, all that remains is to firmly control the pass city before reinforcements arrive, and Li Chengzhong will have thoroughly completed his mission.

  Li Chengzhong is not a conservative who does not think about making progress, he also understands that the best defense is offense, but he knows how strong his own strength is, and being measured in action is a qualified commander.

  Feng Dao suddenly interjected: "Are the civilians they kidnapped a few days ago in the camp?"

  This question made Li Cheng's heart tighten, and he immediately stared at Wang Dalang. Wang Dalang was also stunned, saying: "I haven't seen any, but there are indeed no other Khitan people within thirty miles nearby."

  It is clear that the Khitan people in front of us are just a small team, and behind this small team, there is an unknown number but larger scale Khitan camp. The captured civilians were sent to that camp, which should be thirty miles away from here. The main purpose of the Khitan people in front of us is likely to explore the movement and reality of the Lulong Army inside the Yuguanguan Pass.

  Everyone's back was covered in cold sweat. Wang Dalang gritted his teeth and said, "Commander, shall I go and investigate again? This time I will definitely find that camp!"

  Li Chengzhong shook his head and didn't let Wang Dalang ask further. In the current situation, knowing this much information was enough, even if he understood more, it wouldn't add anything to the big picture, and would only unnecessarily increase the risk for Wang Dalang and others. Now everything depended on holding onto Yu Guan and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

  "Or we could just let Minfu pile up stones to block the city?"

  This proposal was directly vetoed by Li Chengzhong. The people of Minfu would need at least three days to pile up the stones, not only would it be too late, but it would also be equivalent to telling their opponents that they were very weak and afraid. So Li Chengzhong decided to rebuild the gate.

  "Rebuild the gate? But... it will take even more time!" Several partners didn't understand.

  "It doesn't matter. We will not only rebuild the gate, but also build it big and strong, so that the Khitan people can see it clearly!" Li Chengzhong gave a decisive order: "Ke Dao brother, divide your laborers into two groups, one group to guard the city head, and the other group to cut wood and build the door!"

  Feng Dao smiled and nodded in agreement, then left.

  The militiamen on guard had already begun shouting in a panic: "Khitan! They... have come!"