Evacuation order 35

  The leaden clouds pressed down on the earth, and the pale sunlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, weakly sprinkling the withered yellow wilderness. From a distance, the low hills blew a west wind "Woo, woo" one after another, like an invisible long whip waving in the air, sharply whipping the vast yellow soil wilderness. In the rustling grass clumps, in the dunes of yellow sand, occasionally a gray-brown wild rabbit would jump out, and a pair of fat sand chickens would take flight. In the blink of an eye, they would disappear without a trace, making this wilderness seem even more desolate and lonely.

  On the western gray hillside, a black line appeared, which slowly moved and gradually became a team. The team was long, along the ups and downs of the hills, winding down. This team was chaotic, majestic, and noisy, with fully armed knights at the front and back, each covered in dust, looking tired and stern, and many knights had several empty saddled horses and mares behind them. In the middle of the team were many large and small horse-drawn carriages, loaded with tents, grain, luggage, and crowded with women and children, and one or two hundred camels carrying water and miscellaneous items also squeezed into the team, moving forward slowly. The barking of dogs, the neighing of horses, and the shouting of people driving livestock came from afar, carried by the "whirring" autumn wind, suddenly adding a few points of vitality to this vast and desolate wilderness.

  This was a major migration of the common people, but unlike in the past when large herds of cattle and sheep were seen, only one horse group followed the team under the drive of more than ten herdsmen; also greatly different from the relaxed atmosphere of the past when the herders moved to new pastures, the whole team looked urgent and restless during the march.

  Twenty or thirty armored knights surrounded a leader riding a black horse to the front of the troops. The leader wore a copper helmet, draped in fox fur cloak, with tight-fitting soft armor inside, standing upright on the saddle, looking majestic. He reined in his horse, gazing forward for a while with two sharp and piercing eyes, then looked up at the gradually darkening sky, scanning the troops marching beside him, seemingly very dissatisfied with the speed of the troops' march and the tired and slack atmosphere shown by the entire army.

  The knight riding the black horse was Gao Fei, who had fled back from Xining. Along the way, he visited every city and told the county magistrate, county lieutenant or governor that the Qiang barbarians were about to rebel, but those officials just sneered at him and no one believed his words.

  Gao Fei didn't force the issue, he had already done his utmost in benevolence and righteousness. Since it was impossible to convince the officials, he could only spread the word among the common people. He ordered Zhao Yun, Pang De and others to disseminate the news separately between various cities. The common people were skeptical, but a small number of them were willing to follow Gao Fei. Along the way, they gathered more common people, and thus a force of over 2,000 men was formed.

  Gao Fei halted the horses and, seeing how slow the troops were moving, turned his horse's head to shout at Xiahou Lan behind him: "Hurry up and urge them on! What are you dawdling for? Don't you want to save your lives? Put the old and young in the carriages, and use whips on any disobedient animals. Make them all run!"

  Xiahou Lan heard Gao Fei's order and rode his horse to the back of the team. Before long, the shouting and whistling in the team became louder and more frequent; that chaotic and disordered team immediately became neat and compact, and the horses and vehicles all started to trot quickly.

  After a while, more than a dozen swift horses followed from behind, led by Zhao Yun. Zhao Yun rode a yellow horse, galloped to Gao Fei's side, reined in his horse, bowed to Gao Fei and said: "Lord, Jincheng has been breached, the Protector of the Qiang and the Governor of Jincheng have all been killed, Bei Gong Boyu has set up Bian Zhang and Han Sui as the leaders of the rebel army, tens of thousands of Qiang barbarians are marching towards Yuzhong, another cavalry unit of over 10,000 men led by Bei Gong Boyu himself is coming to Longxi, claiming...claiming that they will not stop until they capture you!

  Gao Fei furrowed his brow after hearing this and asked: "What about Pang De?"

  Zhoa Yun said, "Pang De is still scouting with a few men in the rear. General Hou, it's not far ahead to Xiangwu. Even if Bei Gong Bo Yu rushes over, he won't dare come up. This army has been marching continuously for three days and everyone is exhausted. Why don't we rest for a night when we arrive at Xiangwu and let everyone take a break?"

  Gao Fei nodded and said to Zhao Yun, "Send someone to inform Pang De to hurry back immediately. If they encounter the main force of Beigong Boyu, it will be difficult to escape even if they want to. There is no need to investigate further. In Hanshui County, there are still 20,000 soldiers from the governor of Liangzhou who can be used to hold off the enemy first."

  "Alright! I'll send someone to summon Pang De back right away!"

  Bei Gong Bo Yu returned to Luo Du Valley the day after Gao Fei and others escaped. After learning that Gao Fei had fled, he rebelled ahead of schedule. On one hand, he sent people to contact the Qiang people, and on the other hand, he personally led a large cavalry to pursue Gao Fei. When he arrived at Po Qiang County, he learned that Gao Fei had already gone far away. In a fit of rage, he slaughtered 700 households of civilians in Po Qiang County, and then attacked and killed wherever he went, killing anyone who did not follow him in rebellion. He continued to attack and kill all the way to the residence of the Taishou of Jincheng, who was caught off guard and had no defenses, and was killed by Bei Gong Bo Yu.

  On the other hand, after receiving the news from Bei Gong Bo Yu, the Qiang people quickly gathered their troops and launched a siege against the Hu Qian school lieutenant stationed in Huangzhong with tens of thousands of cavalry. The Hu Qian school lieutenant's 10,000 cavalry were no match for them and were slaughtered clean within half a day. Later, when the two armies met at Jincheng, Bei Gong Bo Yu himself was not famous enough, so he nominated Bian Zhang and Han Xi, who had already been hijacked by the people of Jincheng, as leaders. Bian Zhang and Han Xi actually became the leaders of the rebel army, commanding tens of thousands of Qiang barbarian rebels to attack various counties in Jincheng Prefecture, and sending out separate teams to attack neighboring prefectures. They themselves led the main force to attack Yu Zhong, preparing to enter Hanyang Prefecture from Yu Zhong, catching the governor of Liangzhou off guard.

  At dusk, Gao Fei and others could already see the city wall of Xiangwu.

  In ancient times, information transmission was very backward. Everything in Xiangwu City was very quiet, and no one knew about Beigong Boyu's rebellion. At the city gate, Bian Xi rode a horse and waited there early, for ten days, he visited the three major wealthy households in Longxi County according to Gao Fei's instructions, stealing a lot of gold from them. Yesterday, he returned to Xiangwu and began waiting for Gao Fei's return at the city gate.

  The sun sets in the west, and the dusk is vast. Bian Xi sees from afar a troop of about 2,000 men marching towards Xiangwu, led by Gao Fei. He feels a surge of joy in his heart and rushes over quickly, thinking to himself: "Marquis Hou really has some ability, four people went, and more than 2,000 returned, I didn't expect that one trip to the northwest could recruit so many brave warriors."

  As he approached the team, Bian Xi suddenly saw clearly that this was actually a refugee migration. Every face looked very tired, old and young, male and female. The real Liangzhou strong men were only over a hundred people. He hastily rode his horse to Gao Fei's side and immediately saluted: "See Lord Hou!"

  Gao Fei was also exhausted, if it weren't for the fact that he had to bring these common people with him, he should have arrived in Xiangwu yesterday. Adding to that, he had to take care of them along the way so they wouldn't fall behind, and there were some minor frictions between the common people themselves, which was really wearing him out. Fortunately, almost all of these common people knew how to ride horses, and every household had horse-drawn carriages; otherwise, it's estimated that they wouldn't have arrived in Xiangwu until the day after tomorrow. When he saw Bian Xi excitedly dismounting his horse, he reined in his own horse and let Zhao Yun, Xia Houlan, Pei Yuanshao, and others escort the common people into the city slowly, while he himself dismounted and walked to Bian Xi's side, asking slowly: "How did the things I entrusted you with go?"

  "Rest assured, milord," replied Bo Xi. "I've already taken care of everything. Over the past few days, I've retrieved 3,000 to 4,000 catties of gold from three wealthy households. If someone were to assist me, perhaps we could have obtained even more. It's just that it's too much trouble for me to transport alone."

  Gao Fei nodded in satisfaction and said, "This is enough, can't be too greedy. By the way, no one suspects you, right?"

  Bian Xi said: "Master Hou, rest assured, no one saw me commit the crime, so where did this suspicion come from?"

  "Ha ha, it's great! I'm sure they never thought that a noble like me would stoop to such thievery. But taking from the people and using it for the people, what's wrong with that? We're using this money to quell the rebellion, so let's just say they've made a contribution to the cause."

  "What rebellion?" Bo Xi looked at the passing civilians and asked, "Lord Hou, where is the rebellion happening?"

  Gao Fei said, "The Qiang and Hu rebels have tens of thousands of people, this time Liangzhou will surely suffer disaster. Let's not say more, let's hurry into the city. Now rest for a night in the city, then mobilize the whole city to evacuate. Otherwise, once the rebel army reaches here, they will all be affected."

  Bian Xi nodded and led the horse, following Gao Fei into Xiangwu City.

  Upon entering Xiangwu City, Gao Fei first returned home and had the head of the Gao clan come over to help resolve the food and shelter issues for the common people. However, with over 2,000 commoners, it was no small task, especially since the entire city only had a population of just over 2,000. Nevertheless, relying on Marquis Hou's title and Gao Fei's reputation in Xiangwu City, they were able to quickly resolve the issue by having each household take in one family of commoners.

  After finishing all this, Gao Fei didn't even have time to rest and hurriedly took Zhao Yun to the county government office. As soon as the county magistrate and county lieutenant heard about the Qiang Hu rebellion, they were very frightened and immediately expressed their willingness to mobilize the entire city to evacuate. They also dispatched bailiffs to notify every household of the evacuation news, letting all the citizens in the city make preparations for evacuation. Valuables, food, and drink were all taken away.

  When they returned home, it was already night. The lights were shining brightly at the Gao family ancestral hall. It turned out that Xiahou Lan had told the head of the Gao family about recruiting righteous warriors, and the head had gathered all 100 strong men from the clan in the ancestral hall. They all expressed their willingness to follow Gao Fei to resist the rebel army. The head of the Gao family also contacted other surname clans in the city, and they followed suit, gathering brave warriors. Overnight, they got 340 righteous warriors, plus the more than 160 horsemen who had returned with Gao Fei, forming a team of 500 people.

  Every household in the village has a horse, and everyone has a bow and arrow. They are all skilled archers on horseback. This makes Gao Fei feel overjoyed and grateful to be back in his hometown.

  The next day at dawn, under the escort of 500 cavalrymen, more than 4,000 civilians evacuated the entire city and started along the official road towards Chen Cang.

  At the second watch of Chen, only a small part of the evacuating civilians remained. Pang De returned alone from the west gate, his whole body as if he had been baptized in blood, and his eyes were all red. The horse under him was also sweating like rain, as if it had galloped back overnight.

  Gao Fei hastily went to meet Pang De as soon as he saw him, and saw that Pang De had fallen off his horse, with a knife wound on his left arm, the skin split open and fresh blood seeping out. He anxiously asked: "Pang De, have you encountered the rebels?"

  Pang De grasped Gao Fei's arm with his bloody hand and hastily said, "General, I was caught by the rebel vanguard and all my brothers who followed me were killed. I managed to escape after a fierce battle. Now, the rebel vanguard of over 1,000 cavalry is less than 30 li away. General, please leave quickly for the capital of Hebei Province, where the governor's office is located, and there are also 20,000 government troops... Cough, cough, cough..."

  Gao Fei hastily called out: "Pei Yuanshao! Pei Yuanshao!"

  Bai Yuanshao, with a big bald head, immediately squeezed out of the crowd, with a bandage wrapped around his arm. The bandage had already been stained with blood, which was an arrow wound left from the breakout at Luodu Valley a few days ago. As soon as he arrived beside Gao Fei, he loudly replied: "Your Excellency!"

  "You take a few brothers to take good care of Pang De, let Xiahou Lan and Bian Xi lead two hundred cavalry to escort the civilians to retreat, along the way, let the county magistrate and county lieutenant direct, first to Ji City to hide. After finishing this sentence, Gao Fei turned his face to Zhao Yun beside him, "Zilong, you and I will bring three hundred cavalry to guard the rear, absolutely cannot let the rebel army's vanguard bite the civilians!"

  Zhao Yun clasped his fist and said: "I understand, I will go gather the troops immediately. But... what about General Li?"

  "Li Wenhao?" For the past few days, Li Wenhao had been tied up by Gao Fei, who was busy with this and that along the way, and had almost forgotten about Li Wenhao. At Zhao Yun's reminder, he hastily said, "Leave him behind too, maybe he'll be of some use against the rebels!"

  Zhao Yun nodded and immediately walked out to gather people.

  Gao Fei grasped Pound's hand tightly and said, "Ling Ming, you're overworked and injured. For now, follow the main army to Jicheng and rest for a while. When I arrive, we'll retreat to Chencang together."

  Pang De endured the pain and said: "Lord Hou, I want to stay... I want to stay and kill the rebel army... Ah..."

  Gao Fei shook his head and said to Pei Yuanshao, "Quickly have Ling Ming taken away. Also, send someone back to Chen Cang to inform Liao Hua and Lu Heng, telling them to prepare to receive the common people and resist the rebel army. Prepare more rolling logs and stones on the city wall."

  "Understood!" replied Pei Yuanshao.

  Pang De was carried away by Pei Yuan Shao and placed on a horse-drawn cart, following the fleeing civilians. To avoid causing panic among the people, Gao Fei did not inform them of the arrival of the rebel army's vanguard, but instead summoned the county magistrate and county lieutenant to direct the evacuation as quickly as possible, and also instructed them to go to Ji City to inform the governor to make defensive preparations.

  Gao Fei and Zhao Yun, along with three hundred cavalrymen, stayed behind. Taking advantage of the rebels' delay in arriving, they took up an ambush within the city, waiting for the vanguard of the rebel army to arrive.