novelAbuy Chapter 140 Slicing the Steamer and Cleaning the Dung for Feed
Chapter 140 Slicing the Steamer and Cleaning the Dung for Feed
Kang Sili, Long Min, and their few remaining troops were in dire straits when they were rescued by friendly forces, and they were overjoyed.
Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing were also overjoyed. After being trapped for more than eighty days without any news from the outside world, seeing the imperial reinforcements was like a long-awaited rain after a drought.
The clatter of hooves and the tinkling of bells—the long rope with bells that had been wrapped around the warhorses during the raid on the camp, which originally made a jarring warning sound, now sounded rather crisp and pleasant.
Without time for further details, Gao and Fu let Kang Sili and the others pass and unleashed a volley of arrows at the pursuing Khitan army.
Several enemy riders fell from their horses at the first sign of trouble, while the remaining riders quickly reined in their horses, turned around to look back, and awaited Gao Mohan's instructions.
In the past three months, Gao Mohan has fought Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing dozens of times. He knows their skills and abilities well. If it weren't for his strong troops and excellent warhorses, he would have been defeated several times.
Seeing that it was the two of them who had come to support him, Gao Mohan laughed twice, pretending to be generous.
"These are just a few dozen defeated soldiers. I'll show them mercy and spare their lives."
After saying this, he ordered his men to cut off Lang Wanjin's head, stick it on a spear, raise it high, and show off his power. He then called on his men to strengthen the defenses and not let the southern soldiers escape. He then withdrew his troops and returned to camp.
"That is...?"
"Chenzhou Prefect Lang Wanjin".
Kang Sili looked around and couldn't help but feel deeply saddened: "Of the 1,058 riders who set out, only a few of them are still alive."
Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing remained silent. They knew very well the terrible price that would be paid to break through the Khitan camp, which was dozens of miles thick. They raised their weapons to mourn their fallen comrades and warriors.
Kang Sili roused himself and made sure to say the crucial sentence.
"Imperial reinforcements have arrived at Tuanbai Valley!"
Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing had already guessed this, and were overjoyed to receive confirmation.
Before I could ask for details, I saw that Kang Sili was sitting unsteadily in his saddle, his body swaying precariously.
They initially thought it was because he was old and frail, and had lost his strength after fighting all the way. But when they saw the long arrow stuck in his back, they quickly helped Kang Sili off his horse, ordered the soldiers to carry a door panel, spread a felt blanket on it for the old general to lie on, and then carried him away to treat his wound.
"Grand Tutor Gao, do you recognize an old friend?"
Long Min rode forward to speak. His plan had worked, and as a civil official, it was truly remarkable that he had managed to survive amidst the chaos of war.
When Li Cunxu pacified Weibo, Long Min heard that Feng Dao was the secretary of the hegemon's government, so he returned to Taiyuan and stayed at Feng Dao's house. That's how he met Gao Xingzhou, who came to visit him.
Long Min spoke with the two men, who revealed that Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing had received a report late at night that there was fighting going on in the direction of the camp, and they had hurriedly gotten up and led their personal cavalry to meet them.
"I haven't been sleeping well lately. I wake up at the slightest sound, worried that it's an enemy night attack, but also hoping that reinforcements are coming."
"Shi Jingtang and the Khitan army attempted to attack several times, but failed to gain the upper hand, and decided to starve us out."
When Gao Xingzhou and Fu Yanqing talked about how the reinforcements had arrived at Tuanbaigu twenty days ago, they were both happy and moved.
"If we had known that reinforcements were so close, we wouldn't have had to endure this for so long; we should have made up our minds to break through long ago."
Whether or not there are troops to provide support makes a big difference in the outcome.
As Yang Guangyuan said, fighting alone, only three or four out of ten troops can succeed; if they are attacked from both inside and outside, the Khitan army will be caught in a pincer movement, and not only will most of them be able to escape, but they may even be able to turn a breakout into a counterattack.
The two men removed their helmets, and Long Min noticed their gaunt cheeks, haggard faces, and blisters on their lips, clearly caused by a lack of vegetables and fruits. She sighed, "You two generals have suffered."
Gao and Fu exchanged a glance, both seeing the bitterness and sorrow in each other's expressions.
"We generals are doing alright, but the soldiers below are suffering the most."
Long Min wanted to ask more questions, but the two didn't want to elaborate and changed the subject, asking why the reinforcements were so late. News of the defeat at Hubei Pass had been back for almost three months; the reinforcements should have arrived long ago.
Long Min was from Yongqing in Youzhou, and could be considered a fellow townsman of Gao Xingzhou from Huairong Army in Guizhou. When it came to the deeds of another fellow townsman, Zhao Dejun, it was truly a long story.
"The Prince of Beiping, really, sigh."
Fu Yanqing was furious when he heard about the various circumstances of the detour of a thousand miles and the delay in entering.
"I never thought of him and his son as such people, but when it comes to the rise and fall of the nation, and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers, how can they act like this!"
Gao Xingzhou, prioritizing the overall situation, advised, "Let it go. Once we're out of this predicament, everything will be fine."
Upon entering Jin'an Village, as dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight appeared, the soldiers emerged from their tents to begin their busy day.
What seemed like an ordinary daily routine for the army turned into something unusual for Long Min.
When marching, accommodations are not a big deal; a hastily built hut will suffice. But even the simplest hut shouldn't have only four mud walls and a bare roof, right?
Even without bricks and tiles, at least some thatch should be laid down to provide shelter from the wind and rain.
Gao and Fu both wore wry smiles. The coarse, thorny thatch had long been removed and used as horse feed.
With drafts coming through the roof, the soldiers endured the hardship, and on windy and rainy days, the cold was even more unbearable.
"The roof leaks above my bed, leaving no dry spot; the rain falls like a never-ending stream. Du Fu wrote 'My Thatched Hut Is Broken by the Autumn Wind,' and little did he know that this scene perfectly describes it."
Long Min sighed.
"No."
Fu Yanqing points out a difference: "Du Fu wrote this poem in the golden autumn of August in Shu, but this is Jinyang in the depths of winter."
Long Min was startled awake, just as a gust of cold wind swept by, causing her skin to sting painfully.
Gao Xingzhou said calmly, "It is common for soldiers to endure wind and rain and sleep in the open. Their perseverance is far beyond that of ordinary people. If this is all the hardship they have, what is it?"
These words seemed to have a hidden meaning. Long Min looked in another direction and saw several soldiers using their swords to chop and slice a cooking pot.
As a Confucian scholar, he naturally knew the uses of vessels such as he, yan, gui, lei, you, and jia, which are not easily distinguished by ordinary people.
The yan is a cooking vessel. The upper part is the zeng, where food is placed; the lower part is the li, where water is added and boiled. Simply put, it is a steamer.
"They're even abandoning the cooking utensils? Does Commander Zhang intend to emulate Xiang Yu's desperate act of burning his boats?"
"No."
Fu Yanqing shook his head and said, "The steamer is made of fine pine wood, shaved into thin strips and chopped into wood chips. Warhorses can barely eat it, but it's not easy to digest."
Long Min, who was from Youzhou, knew the habits of warhorses and was greatly surprised to hear this.
Removing the thatched roofs was one thing, but feeding the horses with sawdust was unheard of; one can imagine how difficult those days were for the garrison.
Fu Yanqing was filled with bitterness and hesitated to speak, but Gao Xingzhou stopped her with a look and shook his head.
As we were talking, we passed a simple stable made of rough wooden fences.
The stable housed dozens of warhorses. At a glance, their once robust bodies had become emaciated due to the lack of fodder, with their ribs faintly visible protruding from their bellies. Their four hooves helplessly pawed at the ground in search of food, but apart from dust, there was not a single blade of grass.
These warhorses rubbed against each other, and at first glance, one might think they were getting warm and affectionate.
"Minister Long, look more closely."
Upon hearing this, Long Min looked closely and realized that they were chewing on the other's mane and tail!
The warhorses were starving, and most of their manes and tails had been eaten away. Their once glossy coats were now bald from neck to tail. The weakest of the horses were trembling and swaying, barely able to support their bodies, their lives hanging by a thread.
The soldiers half-leaded, half-dragged them out of the stable. It was obvious that they would soon become food for the day, their meager flesh and blood offered to their deeply bound masters for a meal.
At the moment of parting, both the knight and his warhorse seemed to have tears in their eyes.
"While not a one-in-a-million steed, it is still a fine horse selected from among the best."
Fu Yanqing sighed, "These warhorses are so unfortunate that they didn't die on the battlefield, but starved to death meaninglessly and were even eaten."
Long Min felt a pang of sympathy, but little did he know that what truly sent chills down his spine was yet to come.
He saw a group of soldiers cleaning up horse manure and piling it up in one place.
Keeping the stables clean to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and flies is common sense, and dried horse manure can be used as fuel, so there is nothing unusual about it.
To everyone's surprise, they actually used large ladles to scoop up horse manure and poured it into a sieve, filtering it carefully.
Loose horse manure fell through the mesh, while undigested food scraps remained on the sieve. The soldiers, disregarding the stench, carefully scraped them off.
Another group of soldiers fetched a basin of water, rinsed off the sticky yellow and white filth, and poured it back into the manger.
Even with such filthy food, the warhorses still swarmed forward, vying to eat it.
The sergeant's movements were wooden and mechanical, clearly indicating that he had become accustomed to this scene.
Even though Long Min was far away and couldn't smell the odor, she still felt nauseous and wanted to vomit as soon as she looked down.
When he looked up, tears welled up in his eyes.
"Generals, how have you managed to get through these days?"
Fu Yanqing refused to meet Long Min's gaze, afraid that he would see her eyes were wet, and raised her head high.
"Exactly! Even if we had to destroy our houses, cut up our pine nuts, and wash away horse manure for fodder, we would never yield!" (Note 1)
"Minister Long, you have already seen the dire straits of the soldiers. They are killing horses to survive, and they can probably hold out for another ten days or half a month. After that, the cavalry will have to be converted entirely into infantry."
As Gao Xingnian grew older, his emotions were more stable, and he calmly recounted the difficulties he faced in the military.
Long Min said urgently, "There's no time to lose, let's quickly discuss how to break through."
"Commander Zhang rises early every morning to hold his tent, and all the generals gather at the commander's camp to pay their respects. We have already missed our appointed time."
Gao Xingzhou solemnly extended his hand in invitation.
"This will surely encourage Vice Minister Long to go and meet with him, which will surely boost the morale of the commander-in-chief and help him devise a plan to escape the predicament."