Chapter 417 There are at least 50,000 people

After Wang Ping'an and his friends entered the village, the Turks followed one after another, and more and more people came. In just half an hour, four or five hundred people arrived.

These Turks still had no middle-aged men and no horses, but they still followed. The tenacious character of the grassland herders was fully utilized at this time. Because of the hope of survival, even if the hope was so small that there was only one cake, they did not give up and tried their best to follow the horse team!

After entering the village, these Turkic people surrounded the army and reached out to beg for it. Some of them got bread, but most of them came to hear the sound and did not really get food, so they all looked at the soldiers with anticipation, hoping to get alms.

Wang Ping'an frowned and said, "There are more and more people, are our dry food enough?"

Su Dingfang said: "Enough is enough. We have enough luggage. If we only help these people in front of us, it's nothing, but we can't get benefits from these people. They are all old and weak!"

He was a general, and the first thing he thought of was that when the pancake was left, could he replenish his troops from these Turks? Even if he couldn't attract strong men, he would have to bring in a few grooms and the like, as a servant. But these Turks were all old and weak, and they were also poor in their appearance. They could not get any benefits from them, so he was a little unwilling to pretend to be a good person!

Although Su Dingfang said it coldly, the reality was that. The soldiers didn't say anything and looked at Wang Ping'an together.

Wang Ping'an waved his hand and said, "Forget it, just a few cakes, but they can save lives. Why bother to be stingy, just give them!"

When the soldiers received the order, they divided the dry food they carried with them. The Turks knelt down to Wang Ping'an and cried and thanked him. The person who received the cake immediately ate it and choked, so they caught a handful of snow and ate the cake in the snow.

Di Renjie smiled and said, "Good people will be rewarded. Although my elder brother is a famous good person in Chang'an, he will get rewarded every time he does good deeds. This is a surprise to Chang'an!"

Ouyang Yi said, "Even if these people want to repay their masters, I don't think they can afford to repay them. They have nothing!"

After waiting for a while, the sound of horse hooves sounded outside the village, and Hou Ling was back!

As soon as Hou Ling entered the village, he ran directly to Wang Ping'an and shouted: "Master, the big thing is not good. Outside Liangzhou City, there are Turkic soldiers. There are few people in the south, but there are still thousands. The subordinates go around to the east and see tens of thousands of people, all of them Turkic soldiers!"

Wang Ping'an was shocked and stood up and said, "Where is the state city? Can it be lost?"

Hou Ling shook his head and said, "No, the city is still my Tang Dynasty banner, but the city gate is closed, and the Liangzhou soldiers did not leave the city to drive away the Turkic soldiers, for some reason!"

Su Dingfang shouted: "Where is Brother Yelu Jun, go outside and find a Turkic man to ask how many people they have come!"

Yelu Jun'er hurriedly ran out and happened to see the old Turkic man he met before. He also came with him. It was so cold that he followed the horse team for twenty or thirty miles. It was really hard for him!

After pulling the old Turkic man in, Yelu Jungeer asked, "My master asks you, how many Turkic soldiers are there under the city of Liangzhou, which tribe are they from?"

The old Turkic man replied: "Every tribe has it. Originally, everyone was eating it for a bite, but the Xihacha tribe in the north came..."

His words were very long, and Yelu Junge translated sentence by sentence, and the matter was clearly explained. Of course, it was not a difficult thing to understand. Such things happened every year on the grassland, and this old Turkic man had seen a lot of them!

It turned out that during the Turkic escape from east to west, war continued, and tribes of all sizes attacked each other. When they reached Liangzhou, they were exhausted and could not fight. The leaders of several of the slightly larger tribes planned to negotiate peace and then surrendered to the Tang Dynasty in order to survive this winter.

But at this time, a tribe came to the northern grassland, namely the Xihacha tribe. This tribe is a small tribe. If it is to be kept in normal times, no one took them seriously. They were not even qualified to go to Goguryeo to rob, but because of this, their tribe did not suffer any losses!

After the Xihacha tribe arrived at the city of Liangzhou, the leaders of each tribe came to the meeting in the name of supporting some grains of each tribe. At this time, the Turkic tribes had a difficult livelihood and had reached the end of their lives. Since there were brothers on the grassland coming to help, the leaders all ran to the meeting, afraid that they would go too late and the food would be divided by others!

But when the leaders arrived, they were all killed!

When the tribes were strong, the Xihacha tribe was the younger brother, but when the tribes were weak, the Xihacha tribe immediately refused to be the younger brother and turned into the older brother. The leader of the Xihacha tribe killed all the leaders of each tribe and then annexed the herdsmen of each tribe!

At this time, the tribes were no longer able to resist, and the leaders were killed, so the herdsmen had to obey the Xihacha tribe. The strong tribe annexed the weak tribe. This kind of thing happened often. The herdsmen just changed their leaders. Some herdsmen even had to change seven or eight leaders throughout their lives, which had been accustomed to them, but they did not cause much resistance!

But the Xikhacha tribe was a small tribe, and they brought not much food, and because they expanded from small tribe to large tribe overnight, their leaders' thinking did not change and did not have the means of the leaders of the large tribe.

At this time, the leader of Xihacha should immediately surrender to the governor of Liangzhou and ask for assistance from the governor as a servant. The governor will definitely agree. This is a great contribution. If the army is defeated without fighting, the court will have a heavy reward, and the governor will not be able to push it out! If the Xihacha tribe receives assistance, the situation can be stabilized, and the tribe can truly prosper and become a majority of the grassland.

But the leader of Xihacha's head got into the water and his confidence expanded. He thought that with his current strength, he could conquer Liangzhou, and then return to the grassland after a big grab, so as to establish his authority and become famous all over the world!

So, the leader of the Xikha tribe ordered the old and weak to expel the old and weak, and let them raise their own food to support themselves. The food he brought could only support the middle-aged man in order to fight for him and attack Liangzhou.

In this way, a large number of Turkic elderly and weak people appeared around Liangzhou, and Wang Ping'an happened to encounter some!

After listening to the translation, Wang Ping'an said, "In this way, the real Turkic soldiers gathered at the city. How many people are there?"

The old Turkic man said a number, and Yelu Junge'er translated it and said, "At least 50,000 people, and these 50,000 people are all middle-aged men and soldiers!"

Everyone looked at each other, how could there be so many? It's all in line with the national war. Even if the Turkic Khan leads troops south, the people who control the string may not be much more than they are now!

Wang Ping'an asked: "How many soldiers are there in Liangzhou City?"

Su Dingfang didn't even think about it and said, "There are two thousand elite soldiers in the palace, all of which are iron-armored cavalry, and at least three thousand county soldiers. Well, the iron-armored cavalry must be a sufficient number, but the county soldiers may not be necessary. There must be an empty quota, but it will not be less than two thousand!"

Di Renjie said from the side: "County soldiers can defend the city, and iron armored soldiers can go out to fight. Although it is difficult to defeat 50,000 Turkic soldiers with two thousand iron armors, give the Turkic soldiers a color and drive them away. This is what can be done. Why not send troops to drive them away?"

Everyone thought to themselves: "Yes, most of the Turkic soldiers are hungry and cold. They can't withstand cruel battles. They only need one or two fierce attacks to make them collapse. The Liangzhou soldiers have always been known for their bravery, so why don't they go out of the city to attack the enemy? This is unreasonable!"

Wang Ping'an asked the old Turkic man, saying, "Will the army in the city go out of the city to go to war with you?" Yelu Junge'er immediately translated.

The old Turkic man shook his head. The defenders never opened the city to fight. Not only that, they also strengthened the walls and cleared the fields, and brought all the people outside the city into the city.

This is obviously a sign of weakness. Is there no soldiers in the city and the governor of Liangzhou is too cruel to eat empty salary. Will it be too cruel to eat all the soldiers and get empty salary?

Wang Ping'an called Hou Ling and asked him to investigate again. It would be better to touch the city, meet the governor of Liangzhou, and ask what was going on. Hou Ling had to order him to leave.

Everyone stayed in the village and sent scouts to patrol several miles outside the village.

Liangzhou City, the city top.

The governor Shi Mutang was covered in his body, standing behind the battlements, looking out of the city. The moat outside the city was already frozen and could not stop the Turkic soldiers from attacking.

A single arrow outside the city, under the big flag, on the back was Gudor, the leader of the Xikha tribe. Gudor was in his thirties and was full of arrogance on his face. He waved the whip.

A team of Turkic soldiers drove a ox cart toward the city gate. A stone tablet was placed above the ox cart, and there were two big characters "Wuwei" written on the stone tablet!

When he drove the ox cart to the city gate, Gudor shouted loudly: "Shi Mutang, you a Turkic scum, have even changed your surname. Are you pretending to be a Tang Dynasty person? Today I will let you see the might of my Sihacha warrior!" He suddenly pressed the horse whip down.

The Turkic soldiers immediately threw the stone tablet from under the car, took out a sledgehammer, and began to smash the stone tablet with a bang. This stone tablet is the symbol of Liangzhou. Liangzhou is known as the silver and martial arts power. This stone tablet with Wuwei written by Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty has been kept until now.

Shi Mutang is over 60 years old, and his forehead is full of vicissitudes. He looks at the Turkic soldiers below with expressionless face, without saying a word.

Shi Mutang was a Turkic royal family with his original surname Ashina. When the former Turkic Khan Jie Li was defeated and was captured by the Tang army, he also surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. He then changed his surname and registered in Chang'an. He became a citizen of the Tang Dynasty. He served as the governor of Liangzhou a few years ago.

A while ago, the court issued a document asking him to dispatch troops westward to annihilate the Turkic herdsmen who were wandering from east to west. He immediately transferred two thousand iron-armored soldiers in the city to Ganzhou and Suzhou to gather with the Tang army in other states.

At that time, he did not expect that the Xihacha tribe would suddenly pop up, and actually annexed other divisions and gathered the Turkic troops at the city. Due to the slow transmission of information, his urgent documents were afraid that they had just been sent to Chang'an, so Chang'an made a reply and sent to Liangzhou. It would take a while. During this period, he had to protect the people of a state!

Shi Mutang was a Turkic person. He was an official in the Tang Dynasty. The Tang court did not discriminate against his background and had entrusted important tasks. However, from his own perspective, he was extremely disgusted with others' mentioning this matter. If anyone mentioned his background, even if he did not turn against him on the spot, he would hold a grudge in his heart and would definitely take revenge if he found an opportunity!

Tinggudor called him a Turkic scum in public. Although Shi Mutang had no expression on his face, his eyes were full of anger. If he hadn't transferred the iron-armored soldiers away, he would have to rush out of the city and teach Gudor a lesson!

Turning back, he said to his subordinate Tang Bing: "Don't rush to take action, aim first. I will shoot an arrow immediately when I ask you to shoot!"

Tang soldiers hid behind the battlements, raised their bows and arrows to aim at the Turkic soldiers who smashed the stone tablets below. One of the giant crossbows that required four people to pull was aimed at Gudor!

The Turkic soldiers smashed the stone tablet and beat their chests to the top of the city to show off their strength. They were within the range of the Tang soldiers' bows and arrows, but they were not afraid. In the past few days, Shi Mutang repeatedly showed weakness. They all thought that this Turkic scum had no ability. It was a piece of lamb meat, which was easy to bite!

These Turkic soldiers howled, and the Tang soldiers on the city did not react much. Many Turkic soldiers behind them relaxed their vigilance and slowly moved forward. Even Gudor himself couldn't help but knock down the stirrups and walked towards the moat.

Gudor moved, and the big star behind him also followed his war horse and slowly moved forward. Dozens of personal guards behind the star also followed him and approached the city gate!

How far can a single arrow be?

In just a moment, at least 200 Turkic soldiers, including Gudor, entered the range of the Tang army. When the Turkic soldiers approached, the Tang army on the city wall did not react much. There were only a few Tang soldiers who cursed downwards, but did not shoot arrows and no other actions to prevent the Turkic soldiers from approaching!

Gudor shouted loudly: "Shi Mutang, you were once a famous warrior on the grassland. Why did you just hide behind the city walls when you get old? You dare to come out to fight me!"

Shi Mutang took a shield from Tang Bing and blocked him. He shouted: "Master Gudor, in terms of seniority, I am your uncle, why do you force me like this? There are places with a lot of food, so why do you have to raise it in my Liangzhou?"

"Because we are acquaintances, I won't look for you, who will I go to?" Gudor laughed, feeling proud in his heart.

Once upon a time, the governor of Liangzhou was like a god in his eyes! But now, he has heavy troops in his hands, while the governor of Liangzhou, who was once like a god, was begging for mercy to him!

Shi Mutang said: "Mr. Gudor, if you can withdraw your troops, I am willing to offer five grains..." After the five words, he spoke vaguely and his voice became weaker.

Gudor whined, couldn't help but grab the war horse again, approaching the city gate, he raised his head and shouted, "How many, what are five?"

Shi Mutang said: "As long as you retreat thirty miles behind, I will give you the best five-pointed rice..." It was still vague, but it seemed that after the five words, there was ten thousand words!

Could it be 50,000 stone of essence rice? Gudor was overjoyed and shouted, "Is it 50,000 stone of essence rice? Are you talking about 50,000 stone?" The war horse was closer to the city gate, and the guards behind him followed closely. Not only was he anxious, but the guards were also anxious, and they all wanted to know how much food Shi Mutang was willing to give out!

Shi Mutang took a step back and shouted, "Let it go!"
Chapter completed!