“Help! Fire! The stables are on fire! Come quickly and put out the fire!” A figure rushed out from the stables, running while shouting in panic, with flames still on his clothes.
Even without his shouting, everyone could see the burning stables. People rushed to fetch water to extinguish the fire, and even the soldiers responsible for guarding the horse grounds joined the firefighting efforts. Only the person who had run out from the stables didn’t go to fight the fire. Instead, taking advantage of no one paying attention to him, he came before Li Jiancheng and the others. Who else could it be but Zhishisili? He smiled and said, “Does this humble strategy of mine meet with the Crown Prince’s approval?”
Li Jiancheng looked at all the people rushing toward the stables and nodded, “Though simple, it’s very effective.”
“I remember there were other people in the stables. How is it that none of them stopped you?” Facing Li Yuanji’s question, Zhishisili smiled slightly, “Though this humble one lacks talent, I’ve practiced martial arts since childhood. My skills are passable, and killing a few people is no difficult matter for me.” Speaking thus, he said, “While their attention is all drawn to the stables, let’s leave quickly.”
Li Jiancheng nodded and, bringing Li Yuanji with him, followed Zhishisili outward. Everyone in the horse grounds was focused on fighting the fire, so throughout their journey, no one noticed them. They smoothly exited the horse grounds and arrived at an official road leading to the outside world.
“Where are you going?” The soldiers guarding the official road stopped them and inquired sternly.
Zhishisili stepped forward with a servile smile, “Honored soldiers, several horses in the grounds have fallen ill and keep having diarrhea. They can barely stand up. Those horses are all superior breeds, one in a thousand, so the supervisor sent us outside to buy specific medicine for diarrhea.”
Another soldier laughed, “These horses are quite precious, even taking medicine now.”
Zhishisili went along with his words, “Exactly! When we fall ill, we just endure it ourselves. But when the supervisor gives orders, we servants can only comply, right?”
The soldier nodded and was about to order the roadblock removed when he inadvertently looked up and saw black smoke and flames rising from the direction of the horse grounds. This was clearly a fire, yet these three men hadn’t mentioned it at all, only saying they were going to buy medicine. It was quite suspicious.
Thinking this, he swallowed his words and whispered a few sentences in another soldier’s ear. After the latter left, he said, “Since you’re going out to buy medicine, do you have identification badges?”
Zhishisili glanced calmly at the departing soldier and said, “As far as this humble one knows, entering and leaving the horse grounds has never required identification badges.”
“It wasn’t needed before, but now there are two court criminals in the horse grounds. If we let them escape, none of us can bear the responsibility. Don’t you agree?” As he spoke, his eyes kept wandering over Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji, clearly having grown suspicious. Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji also secretly clenched their fists, ready to force their way out if things went wrong.
“Those two are the exiled criminals! Don’t let them leave!” The sudden voice broke this delicate balance. The soldier who had left earlier was now standing not far away with a clerk-like person, and it was the clerk who had spoken. Before the soldier could react, he was kicked in the chest and sent flying backward, landing heavily on the ground and immediately losing consciousness.
Zhishisili moved quickly. After dealing with that soldier, he immediately charged toward the other two with the same clean efficiency, but this inevitably alarmed others who began rushing toward them.
“Break through!” Zhishisili shouted these three words while leading the charge outward. Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji followed closely behind. All three were skilled in martial arts, and as long as the numbers weren’t too overwhelming, ordinary soldiers were no match for them. They quickly broke through the official road.
Although more and more soldiers surrounded them, the thousand Türk soldiers Zhishisili had arranged earlier also spotted them. Compared to these Türk soldiers who had grown up on horseback, the Tang soldiers were clearly weaker. Their several defensive lines were forcibly broken through.
By the time the Liangzhou garrison commander arrived with troops, they had already left Liangzhou. This result made him furious, and he shouted angrily at the soldiers responsible for the initial interception, “So many of you couldn’t stop just three people, and instead suffered heavy casualties. What exactly happened?”
One soldier boldly replied, “Reporting to the General, they weren’t just three people. From what this humble one observed, there were at least a thousand.”
“A thousand?” The garrison commander stared at the soldier in disbelief. When he received news of Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji’s escape, the messenger had clearly said it was three people. How had it suddenly become over a thousand?
“Yes, after they broke through the official road, a force of about a thousand came to support them. It was because of their intervention that the criminals escaped. Also…” The soldier glanced at him and said, “This humble one heard them communicating in words I couldn’t understand, as if it were a foreign language.”
The garrison commander’s cheek twitched, and he urgently asked, “Do you know which tribe?”
The soldier shook his head, “This humble one doesn’t know.”
At this moment, another soldier walked over and said, “This humble one knows—it was Türk language.”
Hearing this, the garrison commander’s already unpleasant expression turned iron-blue, “Are you certain it was Türk language?”
The soldier replied definitively, “Yes, this humble one has previously fought Türk soldiers and heard their speech. It was very similar to what this thousand-man force spoke today. Moreover, the curved sabers they used are also the weapons most commonly used by Türk soldiers.”
After hearing his words, the garrison commander immediately selected several trusted subordinates, ordering them to each lead a team of soldiers out of the city to pursue along the roads, while he himself immediately returned to the general’s residence. Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji’s escape was a matter of utmost importance, especially since it involved the Türks. He immediately wrote about the incident in a memorial and ordered it sent to Chang’an by express courier.
As for Li Jiancheng’s group, though they successfully escaped Liangzhou, they hadn’t completely gotten away. Behind them, Liangzhou soldiers kept pursuing relentlessly. They clashed several times along the way, with casualties on both sides, but overall, Li Jiancheng’s side held the advantage. The Türk soldiers that Zhishisili had brought to Liangzhou for this important mission were all elite troops, one in a hundred, capable of fighting three opponents each.
However, they weren’t having an easy time either. After their whereabouts were exposed, the Liangzhou garrison commander deployed all available soldiers to their pursuit, even personally leading troops in the chase, determined to capture them before they could escape Liangzhou. With his personal command, Li Jiancheng’s group suddenly faced increased pressure, with escalating casualties and their numbers sharply reduced to eight hundred men.
Though Liangzhou was remote and impoverished, it was quite vast in territory. After fleeing for three days and two nights, Li Jiancheng’s group was still within Liangzhou’s borders. The constant flight day and night, along with battles against Liangzhou forces, left them utterly exhausted.