In a military camp of Youzhou Province less than 200 miles away from the mouth of the gourd, a thin, one-eyed old general slowly walked onto the reviewing platform. Before the old man showed up, Chen Yunchui the deputy commander of the infantry of Beiliang Province, Huangfu Ji the general of Youzhou Province and Hu Kui the provincial governor of Youzhou Province were already standing on the platform. The old man then walked to the center of the platform. Strangely, even laymen who were not familiar with the army of Youzhou Province would consider it reasonable for the old man to be the head of the army. Standing there with his hands on his saber, the old general in iron armor remained silent for a long time as he watched those officers and soldiers who remained still under the hot sun. The old man remained silent as if he wanted to look over all the tens of thousands of infantrymen who were going to set out for the battle and identify all the flags of the old camp of the infantry of Youzhou Province.
With a gloomy look, the old general finally opened his mouth slowly, "The general has passed away; the lord is not in Youzhou Province. Even if I, Yan Wenluan, don't die on the battlefield, I don't have many years left. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to say something that I've been hiding for almost 2 decades."
The old general picked up his saber and pointed at Chen Yunchui the deputy commander of the infantry of Beiliang Province on his side, "Old Chen, you must know our deputy commander. I remember that this guy accompanied me to drink in Lord Qingliang's mansion 16 years ago. At that time, Chen Yunchui was just a Class III general. The general joked that it was a waste of talent for you to lead 40,000 to 50,000 infantrymen in Youzhou Province. Why not go to the border of Liangzhou Province and give you 30,000 cavalries?"
Yan Wenluan didn't look at her best friend who had known her for most of her life. She just pointed at the embarrassed Chen Yunchui with the cold knife. "This old bastard can't hold his liquor, and his behavior is even worse when he's drunk. He was pretending to be drunk at that time, but as soon as the general said that, he immediately stood up. His eyes were so bright! Guess what the deputy commander of the infantry of Beiliang said? He said, do it! Why didn't he do it? Of course, the general didn't succeed in poaching him. Why? Did Chen Yunchui regret? No, I, Yan Wenluan, was too anxious and almost fought with the Great General! I still remember clearly what I said at the time. As soon as I smashed my wine cup, I stood up and told the Grand General that Beiliang's infantry only had this much strength. For the past two years, the Liangzhou Cavalry had swindled and stolen so many of them. They had picked out most of the old ones, and even some of the young ones weren't spared. How could I, Yan Wenluan, still be the commander of Beiliang's infantry? It's not impossible for Chen Yunchui to join the cavalry of Liangzhou Province; however, you have to throw Yuan Zuozong, Chu Lushan and Qi Dangguo into our Beiliang infantry! "
The veteran general Chen Yun lowered his head as if he had turned a deaf ear to Yan Wenluan's words. However, he probably wanted to dig a hole and hide in it after being exposed so mercilessly by Yan Wenluan.
Yan Wenluan then pointed at Youzhou's Provincial Governor Hu Kui with the cold knife. "This Provincial Governor is the founder of our Beiliang's crossbowmen. He is the most legitimate cavalry general. When Lord Hu replaced Wang Peifang as the Provincial Governor of Youzhou, he came to me, Yan Wenluan, to establish a relationship with me. According to the rules of the officialdom, he said some polite words to an old man like me. Then, I asked him a question. How did he feel about being an official in Youzhou, which had fewer warhorses than Lingzhou a few years ago? Provincial Governor Hu is an honest man, so he told me honestly that he felt quite sullen. He said that he thought he had a chance to be Liu Jinu's assistant in Hutou City. Otherwise, he could have gone to Liuzhou's Long Xiang Army to work with his old subordinate Li Mofan and Wang Lingbao. That's not bad either. "
Yan Wenluan leaned on the knife with both hands again and looked at the more than 10,000 infantry soldiers. "Our Beiliang has 300,000 border soldiers. Therefore, in Liyang, I've always heard that 'Beiliang's 300,000 Iron Cavalry are the best in the world'. I found it strange! Beiliang's cavalry has never made up more than half of the border army. How did it become 300,000 Iron Cavalry? Does Liyang think that our Beiliang infantry doesn't exist? It seems like Beiliang doesn't take our infantry seriously either. "
The one-eyed old general tilted his chin to the east and sneered, "There's a fellow in Jizhou named Yang Shenxing. He's the idiot who was later toyed with by a few youngsters at the Guangling Road. Back then, he wasn't even fit to carry my shoes. Heh, under his command are tens of thousands of infantry soldiers left behind by the old Northern Han. They've come up with the nickname 'Southern Ji Infantry.' Afterwards, for the past decade or so, they've been called the 'Unrivaled in the World' in all of Liyang. In addition, there's also the Wufeng Army led by Wang Tongshan, the number one general under the command of the King of Yan from the southern border, and Wu Zhongxuan's Dajia. Their reputations aren't small.
The old man paused for a moment. "If that's all, I, Yan Wenluan, can tolerate it. After all, we can't go to Ji Zhou or Nan Jiang to fight with them. Besides, we Northern Liang people are not good at talking. However! Let's not talk about Beiliang. Let's talk about our Beiliang. Let's not talk about Liangzhou, Lingzhou, or even Liuzhou. Let's talk about our Youzhou! In Luanhe City, our infantry battalion was stripped of its battalion number. Who was it that crossed Hezhou and entered Jizhou, and in the end, at the mouth of the gourd, reduced ten thousand soldiers to only three thousand?! We traveled a thousand li, fought a series of battles to the death, and killed nearly thirty thousand enemies! We almost completely paralyzed the Beimang barbarians' eastern supply line! "
Yan Wenluan mocked himself, "What? Do you think that our Youzhou army also has heroes?"
Yan Wenluan laughed, "Of course. However, it's a pity that the 'No Retreat Battalion' of three thousand four hundred soldiers is Youzhou's first cavalry battalion! The prince who fought alongside the ten thousand Youzhou cavalry is an ordinary soldier in the No Retreat Battalion in name! Haha, it has nothing to do with you, a bunch of pitiful creatures who don't have warhorses and only have two legs! "
The old man's face turned ferocious, "Let's not talk about Yu Luandao, the Deputy General of Youzhou Cavalry, or Shi Yulu and Fan Wenyao, who were promoted to General of Vow Cavalry and General of Agile Cavalry, let's talk about Tian Heng, the newly appointed chief general of thirty thousand Youzhou Cavalry. At that time, this old man despised the prince for not daring to fight to the death, and even said that the prince had used up all his courage after resisting the Imperial Decree. Therefore, he had long retired and returned to his farm. That was why Yu Luandao was appointed as the Deputy General of ten thousand Youzhou Cavalry. Tian Heng, a bastard who never went to Ji Bei or outside the mouth of the gourd, is the only one who dares to slap his chest and say, 'Old Yan, don't worry, I, Tian Heng, promise you that I'll create another cavalry battalion for you.'
The old man placed the cold saber on his waist again and rubbed his cheeks. He took a few steps forward and asked with a deep voice, "Since when did the Youzhou infantry fall to such a state?"
The entire place was silent, but everyone's eyes were red.
Yan Wenluan pointed at herself and said, "Ever since I, Yan Wenluan, joined the Xu family's army, I've been following the Great General for thirty-six years. From the very first day, I was a foot soldier, and today, I'm a major second-grade general. In the end, I'm just an old foot soldier. I don't dare to say that I'm the leader of the entire Beiliang infantry, but I, Yan Wenluan, am the one who raised all your Youzhou infantry! "
The one-eyed old man casually pointed in the direction of Xiaguang City behind him and said, "Over there, and to the north, you'll see the Beimang barbarians. They claim to have an army of two hundred thousand. Both Crouching Bow City and Luanhe City are gone, and the Beimang barbarians say that Xiaguang City will fall soon."
The old man turned around and said, "But I, Yan Wenluan, will not agree to it!"
— —
At the northern border of Youzhou and River Province, a huge scarlet flag was flapping in the wind.
The chief general of Youzhou Cavalry, Tian Heng, his deputy general, Yu Luandao, General of Vow Cavalry, Shi Yulu, and General of Agile Cavalry, Fan Wenyao, were all riding their warhorses in a line.
Behind them were thirty thousand light cavalrymen from Youzhou.
The old general, Tian Heng, had a simple appearance. He didn't look like a general with great power. If he wasn't wearing armor, he would look more like an old farmer. At that time, this old man was resentful of the young vassal king's' inaction '. In a fit of anger, he resigned from his post and returned to his hometown. He used the excuse that he was old and his body couldn't withstand the torment, so he could go home and play with his grandchildren. Only then did Yu Luandao have the chance to lead an army to Ji Bei. But in fact, the entire Youzhou knew that the old general had no children. They had all died outside the pass. Later on, Hsu Fengnian and Yu Luandao appeared outside the mouth of the gourd together. Out of the ten thousand cavalrymen, only three thousand of them returned. When the old men, whose experience was not much inferior to Yan Wenluan, Chen Yunchui, and the others, heard the news, they rushed to Yan Wenluan's tent that very night. Tian Heng was waiting outside. Even when the Huaiyang Pass Protectorate issued an order to restore Tian Heng's status as a general, Yan Wenluan still refused to accept it. In the end, Hsu Fengnian was forced to write a letter to Yan Wenluan personally. Only then did Youzhou reluctantly admit Tian Heng as the chief general of Youzhou Cavalry.
The old man pressed the hilt of his saber with one hand and turned to Yu Luandao with a laugh, "Old Yan must be furious with me this time. But you can't blame me for this. This guy didn't even care about our friendship for half a lifetime and refused to see me."
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