Chapter 89

  "Cavalry is of course necessary," explained Shangguan Yongqi, "I just mean that Feng's warhorses have no special abilities. For the same price, it would be better to buy warhorses from other countries!"

  "Another war horse?" Tang Yin rubbed his chin and muttered.

  "War horses of the Mo country?" Shangguan Yuanyi said: "The speed of the Mo country's warhorses is unmatched by other breeds, and one of the greatest advantages of cavalry is speed, so buying Mo country's warhorses is the most cost-effective."

  Tang Yin naturally understood the ferocity of Mo Guo's war horses, and the horse he was currently riding was indeed a Mo Guo war horse. However, since Feng Mo was still in an enemy state, where could they buy Mo Guo's war horses? He said with a sigh: "What you say is not wrong, but we can't find any sources of horses, even if we have money, we can't buy them!"

  Shangguan Yuanyi smiled and said: "I do have acquaintances who are horse merchants from the Mo country, but the problem is that relations between our two countries are tense at the moment, and the borders are completely closed. Even if the Mo country's horse merchants can pass through their own border checkpoints, they will not be able to pass through our Feng country's checkpoints."

  Tang Yin heard this and a flash of inspiration suddenly appeared in his mind. He asked, "Is the checkpoint on our side the Ba Guan?"

  Shangguan Yuánjí nodded and said, "That's right!"

  Tang Yin's eyes rolled around and he said, "I only met the guardian of Ba Guan, Ying Bu, once, but we had a great conversation. I think he might be able to help me with this!"

  "Oh?" Shangguan Yuanguo's face lit up with joy, and he hastily said: "If the commander of the Baoguan Pass is willing to assist us, that would be even better, we can achieve twice the result with half the effort..."

  Tang Yin waved his hand and shook his head, saying, "Don't hold too much hope, I'm not very familiar with Ying Bu, it's uncertain whether he'll be willing to help or not. I'll write him a letter first to test the waters."

  Shangguan Yuanyi nodded and said: "Alright! I'll send someone to deliver the letter to Ba Guan, and at the same time, we can also contact the horse merchant from Mo Guo. If everything goes smoothly, a batch of war horses from Mo Guo can be transported over!"

  "Ah!" Tang Yin responded with a sound, and immediately got up to go to the study, prepared paper and ink, picked up his pen and wrote a letter of thanks to Ying Bu.

  The main content of the letter is just some unrelated and insipid polite phrases to maintain a relationship, until the other party finally mentions that they like Mongolian war horses and want to buy several, asking if Ying can help with this.

  After finishing writing the letter, he handed it over to Shangguan Yongji and instructed him that the letter must not be lost.

  Now that the two countries are in a tense period, he wants to buy war horses from Mo country. If someone with ulterior motives finds out, they will definitely make a big deal out of it and might even give him a big hat to wear on his head.

  Shangguan Yuánjí naturally understood the reasoning behind it. He spoke seriously: "Please rest assured, Your Excellency, I will arrange for reliable and capable personnel to go, guaranteeing that nothing goes wrong." The Shangguan family was indeed large and powerful, with many exceptionally talented individuals under their command.

  Tang Yin was very reassured about his ability to handle things, and he nodded with a smile: "Then I'll leave this matter in your hands, Yuanji!"

  "Don't be so polite!"

  The next day, Tang Yin went on a tour of inspection in front of the city.

  It has become a city as its name suggests, a border town located at the intersection of Fengguo and the Mofei Federation. Logically speaking, a border town should be thriving with commerce, but Biancheng is far from it. The city suffers from barbarian raids and harassment all year round, and most of its citizens have been slaughtered or killed, leaving only a few remaining. The once large and prosperous city has become desolate and dilapidated, with no pedestrians on the streets, only patrolling soldiers in formation, and the city has turned into a military fortress.

  Tang Yin had only a few people with him, and by his side were only the two brothers Shangguan Yuanwu and Shangguan Yuanbiao, as well as twenty famous personal bodyguards.

  The current defense of Biancheng is now in charge of Zhang Zhou's Pingyuan County First Army.

  Learning of Tang Yin's arrival, Zhang Zhou led several thousand men out of the city to welcome him.

  This was still his first time in Biancheng, being led into the city, seeing the situation in the city, Tang Yin.

  It's no wonder that Pingyuan County has so little left after taxes. Although there are two cities below, the border city is as good as non-existent and the other one is still a huge burden. Even the prosperity of Heng City, the county seat, is just an illusion.

  The degree is probably not as good as the ordinary cities of other counties.

  Tang Yin had Zhang Zhou lead him up onto the city wall for a look around.

  The city walls of the border town have been reinforced several times, both in height and thickness. Various defensive facilities are well-prepared, and food and fodder are stored in abundance within the city. If an enemy were to besiege the city, it could hold out for a month or two without issue. However, the problem is that the border town is too large, with open spaces on all four sides and no natural defenses to rely on. Moreover, there is no moat outside the city walls, so if a powerful enemy were to attack, how long could the city walls withstand the siege of an entire army?

  If you don't come to inspect, you won't know; once you arrive on the scene, you'll feel that there are problems.

  Tang Yin stopped in front of a watchtower and looked out at the city. Outside the city was a vast grassland, which was part of the Besa City-State's territory. Seeing him stop to gaze out, Zhang Zhou walked up and explained, "That is the Pabu Great Grassland within the borders of Mofei!"

  "Oh!" He responded lightly and then turned to Zhang Zhou, asking: "Is one battalion enough to guard the border city?"

  Zhang Zhou smiled wryly and said, "Of course it's not enough!"

  "If it's not enough, why didn't you send more manpower?"

  "The Pingyuan County originally had only three legions. Putting one legion in Biancheng was not a small number. In the past, it was true that the county guard put two legions in Biancheng, but then the Moersi barbarians suddenly attacked Hengcheng, and Hengcheng's defending soldiers were insufficient, resulting in the reinforcements from Biancheng not arriving in time, and the county city was breached. The losses in that battle were severe, and even the county guard was killed by the barbarians!" Zhang Zhou shook his head, sighing endlessly.

  "There's such a thing as being in the know." Tang Yin said, "That's why I say that having access to information is crucial. If we can grasp the movements of the barbarian troops at all times, we wouldn't have had this mess happen!"

  Yes, sir! Zhang Zhou nodded in response.

  The defense of Biancheng is quite complete, the only problem is that there are not enough personnel, and Tang Yin has no good solution to this problem. Although five battalions have been established in the county, the newly formed fourth and fifth battalions have just been formed, with incomplete staffing and all new recruits who cannot be deployed. If they were to rush to Biancheng, two battalions would become a problem for rotation.

  Recently there was an enemy situation, right? Tang Yin finished inspecting the city wall and then went down to ask.

  "There is no discovery, Zhang Zhou said frankly"

  "These days the barbarian troops seem to be very quiet and have not invaded or harassed us. Tang Yin also has something to say, since he arrived in Pingyuan County, he has not encountered a single case of barbarian troops crossing the border to launch a surprise attack, this is vaguely a good omen."

  Zhang Zhou also felt somewhat unwell about this, and he muttered to himself: "Yes, it's been very peaceful recently, and there's a normal situation on the other side."

  Others reacted the same way as Jie, who expressed his incredulity. Tang Yin couldn't help but laugh at the sight. It was a good thing that the barbarian troops didn't come to attack, but now it seemed like their own side wasn't taking it seriously.

  Since the enemy won't come to us, we won't bother with him. This is a good opportunity to tidy up our troops, said Tang Yin.

  "What the elder says is absolutely right!" Zhang Zhou said in agreement.

  The dishes in Biancheng were quite sumptuous and all gamey. Although they didn't look so exquisite, the aroma wafted up to the dining table. Tang Yin picked up a piece of meat and sniffed it before declaring, "This is wild boar meat!"

  Zhang Zhou on both sides and Qianfu Zhangmen below simultaneously exclaimed in unison: "How did the lord know?"

  How could he not know? Tang Yin had been living in the deep mountains since childhood and was familiar with them. He smiled and said, "I've eaten it before." After a pause, he asked, "Are there any mountain bamboo shoots near the border town?"

  "Yes!" Zhang Zhou said: "The mountain forest on the east side of Biancheng is very large, and there are all kinds of wild game inside. If you're lucky, you can even catch tigers and bears."

  Seeing Tang Yan's eyes gleaming with an unusual light, Zhang Zhou smiled and asked, "If you're interested, sir, we can go hunting this afternoon and take a dip in the hot springs at the same time."

  "Hot spring?" Tang Yin raised an eyebrow.

  "Yes!" A thousand husbands followed Zhang Zhou's words and said: "Sir, the hot springs there are very good, especially in winter, the effect is better, you can soak in the hot springs while admiring the snow scene!

  Tang Yin looked up and smiled, saying: "After you've said that, I have no choice but to go."

  When they heard this, Zhang Zhou and others also laughed.

  Everyone enjoyed the meal together. Originally planning to go hunting in the mountains after lunch, just as they finished eating, urgent footsteps were heard coming from outside.

  Hug

  With a long bugle call, a soldier wearing light military uniform came from outside without distinguishing between the two sides.

  As they entered the hall, the soldiers knelt down on one knee and exclaimed urgently: "Brother Tang, General Zhang, something terrible has happened! The barbarian troops have suddenly attacked Yuwang Town. The town's garrison is fighting back, but they are outnumbered and the situation is critical!"

  "What?" As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's faces changed color and they subconsciously stood up.

  Yuàn Wàng Town is one of the eight towns under Pingyuan County, and it's only twenty miles away from Biān Chéng. It can be said that it's right in front, but it's also a place that often suffers from enemy attacks.

  Zhang Zhou hastily asked: "How many barbarian soldiers are there?"

  "It's still unclear. But at least over a thousand people!"

  "Oh no!" Hearing that thousands of barbarian soldiers were approaching, Zhang Zhou immediately realized it was bad. The defending troops in Yuanyang County only had three battalions, which was less than a single array, at most

  Only three hundred people, how can they be the opponent of over a thousand barbarian soldiers? With the ferocity and savagery of the barbarian soldiers, even if we rush to rescue them immediately, it's probably already too late.

  While he was dazed, Tang Yin's face turned gloomy and asked, "General Zhang, are there any war horses in the city now?"

  "There is indeed, but only a hundred!" said Zhangzhou with a masculine face.

  "Give me a hundred skilled riders and I'll rush over to reinforce!" Tang Yin said as he walked towards the outside. The Shangguan brothers saw this and hesitated for a moment before following closely behind Tang Yin.

  Zhang Hai and others trembled in their hearts, hastily following up, and asked in shock: "Sir, do you plan to bring only a hundred people? That... that's too dangerous!"

  "What if not?" Tang Yin turned his head to look at Zhou and said: "If we don't go forward, even if we reach Yuwang Town, everything will be too late."

  Seeing Zhang Zhou still wanting to intercept, he frowned and said in a cold voice: "No need to talk nonsense, go prepare the war horse quickly. And, after I leave, you can send 2,000 brothers to reinforce, but you must guard the border city firmly, don't fall into the enemy's ploy of luring the tiger away from the mountain, understand?"