Chapter 168 Liyang City (1/2)
Chapter 168 – Liyang City
September 21st, 182 A.D.
Six thousand soldiers departed from Ye City along with 5,000 logistic reserved troops, drafted from the surrendered nobles' private troops. Among the 60,000 soldiers, five thousand of them was light cavalry, ten thousand heavy cavalries, and the rest were footmen.
Fortunately, they had stolen the warhorses from Bao Xin, so they had to luxury of having more cavalry troops.
Meanwhile, Ju Shou and Zhang He would depart a week later as they had to sneak away from the territory undetected. They had to use Tong and his men as a decoy to divert Huangfu Song and the other's attention first before they could leave the city.
The remaining nobles had 15,000 private troops in the Ye, which Jia Xu planned to use them as a garrison force to deter the merchants and opportunist individuals. He also planned to enlist the unemployed mercenaries from the dead nobles, which Tong had to fork out 300,000 gold from his inventory for the additional city budget.
He still had 1,800,000 taels of gold in his pocket inventory. Julu also profited from the food trade every month, and Hua Shi still had 2,500,000 gold with her. Splurging a bit in Ye City to develop the domestic stability would not hurt.
Tong, who was leading the troops, turned around and gazed at the city wall of Ye one more time.
Jia Xu did not even bother sending them off. He was busy running the city in full steam.
'Will it be 60,000 against 240,000? Or will it be 160,000 against 140,000?'
'Dong Zhuo, you'd better be a backstabbing biatch or I'll kill you instead of Lu Bu!'
'Dammit! Who would have thought that I will have to rely on Dong Zhuo of all people!?'
Tong turned to look at the 60,000 marching men. It was his first-time solo-commanding this massive troops. Because of the abrupt departure from Julu, he did not take any other officers with him. Zhang Xiu and Zhang Ji still stationed in Julu, acting as temporary guardians in the case Liu Yan, Yuan Shao, or Sun Jian were to make a move on his home turf.
...
...
September 28th, 182 A.D.
Tong and his troops arrived at Liyang County. With his recent experiences, a two-hour-forced-march order was issued to his army, making them rush one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon to hasten the march.
As a result, they managed to move 20km a day, instead of 15 to 17, with all supply convoys tagging along, which covered the distanced of 140km on the seventh day of the march.
They made it to Liyang three days ahead of the schedule!
Tong was elated as he gazed upon the city wall of Liyang Region Capital City in front of him.
'It's all mathematics and the well-planned schedules.'
The smile on Tong's face did not last for long. He hesitated if he should siege on this small city, or should he negotiate with the Prefect of this city. By now, they should have noticed his arrival. The army flags inside the small city kept increasing the longer Tong looked at it.
Tong approached the wall, carrying a white flag and acted as a messenger.
”I am Zhang Tong of Ye Army! Please open the gate and let us in! We have come in peace!”
It did not take long to get his reply from the soldiers on the wall.
”BULLSH*T! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A TRAITOR!”
”COMING IN PEACE!? PTUT!”
”SCRAM!”
”GET LOST!”
Several arrows flew and pieced the ground in front of Tong. These people made their stance, declaring themselves as his enemies.
”Wait! I meant no harm! We've brought food for the citizens!”
”WE DON'T BELIEVE YOU!”
”GO HOME!”
”BE GONE!”
Tong gulped as he tried to calm himself. Being chased away like a stray dog was not a pleasant feeling for anyone. Since the situation escalated this far, Tong had no choice. He had to be aggressive and threatening now.
”You have one day to surrender! After the sunset and the gate is still closed, we will siege the city!” Tong shouted.
Instead of getting panic, the well-dressed Prefect of this city stepped forward and shouted back.
”We shall fight to the death! We will not surrender to the rebels!”
With the brave prefect's declaration, his soldiers also roared.
”That's right! We are fighting to the death!”
”Get lost, traitors!”
Seeing their reaction, Tong retreated. Sullen expression showed on his face as he galloped his horse back to his men.
'Liu Ping's edict should have reached this city already. They're brainwashed!'
Persuading people in this era depended on the information manipulating abilities and the credibilities of the manipulator. This time, Liu Ping was faster and more efficient.
'Should I avoid the fight? But his city is the strategic point.'
'If my soldiers can rest behind the tall wall, their morale will be high.'
'What should I do?'
While Tong was pondering and looking back at the wall, his brain activated the overclock mode by accident, causing everything around him to become a slow-motion movie.
He snapped back to his sense and canceled the spider-sense mode.
'I've forgotten again. I have a new toy, haven't I?'
'Let's test it tonight! My favorite way of doing things.'
'Sometimes I wonder if I was a cop or I was an assassin in my previous life.'
The eyes of Tong turned red again. It happened every time he leaked out his killing intent.