That night, the soldiers ate a sumptuous meal of wild boar, and each of them had an extra sheepskin as a foreshadowing, which was also a small benefit in the army.

Early the next morning, the army packed up and set off, going to Jinman County, thirty miles away, from Luntai County to Jinman County is an oasis, everywhere are large areas of wheat fields and endless forests, here is the last piece of territory controlled by the Tang Army of Beiting, but also the core of Tingzhou, the stream is murmuring, there are many small rivers, the north is the vast desert, and the south is the branch of the Tianshan Mountains.

It is not easy for the Tang army in Beiting to retain such a foundation, in addition to their desperate battle with the Shatuo people, there is also the ambiguous attitude of the Hui people, they also need the Tang army to resist the northern invasion of the Tubo people for it, and they also need the Tang army to contain the Shatuo people to sit big, of course, it is also related to the eastward expansion of the power of the other wolf.

Jinman County is the state of Tingzhou, just like the provincial capital today, the city area is significantly larger than Luntai County, the population is also larger, and the business is a little better than Tingzhou.

Outside Jinman County, Guo Song officially read out the will of Li Yu, the son of heaven, and promoted Li Yuanzhong to the Beiting town guard as the Beiting Protector, Feng Zheng Sanpin Champion General, gave the title of Yiguo Gong, Yang Zhengu was named the deputy capital protector, Feng Yunlu General, gave the Duke of the county, and the rest of the soldiers were promoted to three levels, and there were countless appreciators of the field.

Li Yuanzhong is about 60 years old, he is a thin old man, because he was young, he was injured countless times, leaving too many hidden dangers, so that now his health is not very good, his hair is completely white, and his speech is not full of qi, so it can be seen that he is not a longevity.

Compared with Yang Xi's old-fashioned face, Li Yuanzhong always smiled, which made people feel amiable.

In the military office of the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate, Li Yuanzhong carefully told Guo Song about the current situation.

"In fact, what we are most worried about is the Hui Hui, we have always called the Hui Hu, they keep saying that the Tang Dynasty is a brotherly state, but if it is not for its full support, how could the Shatuo people who were originally trampled under our feet rise so fast, in the final analysis, it is the Hui people who really want to destroy us, but they are still fighting with the Tubo people in the west of the Green Ridge, and they have no energy to take care of Beiting, once the war between them and Tubo is over, then both Anxi and Beiting will encounter a huge crisis at the same time."

Guo Song groaned for a while and said: "Is it possible for the Beiting Army to leave a way back for itself, such as Dunhuang, once the situation in Tingzhou is critical, the army and civilians will move to Dunhuang." ”

Li Yuanzhong nodded and said: "Guo Yuanjun and I want to go together, I have sent people to Shazhou several times to contact, but there is no result, I don't know if the attitude of Shazhou is unclear, or if the letter was not sent at all." ”

"It should be the latter!"

Guo Song said: "When we came over, we passed through Shazhou, and talked to the patriarchs of the two wealthy families, they were looking forward to the Tang army stationing, if the soldiers and civilians of Tingzhou moved over, they couldn't ask for it!" ”

"If that's the case, then it's best, we also have a way back."

When the two talked about the future, they both became very pragmatic and honest, Guo Song said: "I don't know if the imperial court will send troops to Beiting, under extremely unfavorable conditions, how long does Li Duhu think the situation in Beiting can be supported?" ”

Li Yuanzhong said lightly: "I think about this problem all the time, the battle between Tubo and Hui for the west of the Green Ridge has been fought for ten years, I heard that the Hui have the upper hand, I estimate that the war should end in a few years, once the war is over, the Hui and Tubo will turn back to attack Anxi and Beiting, my personal judgment, five years at the earliest, ten years later, Beiting and Anxi will face the final life and death catastrophe." ”

Guo Song was silent, history is true.

.........

After resting in Jinman County for two days, Guo Song completed his mission, and then he wanted to return to Chang'an to report the situation in Anxi to the Son of Heaven in detail, Guo Song's greatest wish was to persuade the Son of Heaven Li Yu to send troops to Suzhou and Guazhou, and open up the first line of Dunhuang.

That night, Guo Song's army quietly left Jinman County and marched in the direction of Yizhou.

At the same time that Guo Song led the army to leave Jinman County, several spies of the Shatuo Army who were ambushed outside the city discovered their traces and rushed eastward.

After a night of marching, the Tang army had left Jinman County for more than 100 miles, and the wheat fields had long since disappeared, surrounded by rivers and forests and large meadows.

As the sky grew brighter, Guo Song saw a small river not far from the left, so he said to the soldiers: "Go to the river and rest for half an hour!" ”

The soldiers led their horses to the river to drink water, and the soldiers sat on the grass and took out dry food and kettles, their dry food was the dough cake prepared by the Tang Army in Tingzhou, and there were also salted jerky,

Guo Song was also the same dry food, he had just nibbled a few mouthfuls of bread when a rapid chirp suddenly came from the sky.

This is the chirping of the fierce son, but the sound is a little wrong, Guo Song looked up at the sky, only to see the fierce son hovering quickly above his head, chirping loudly.

This is the uneasy expression that Mengzi will only have when he feels danger, Guo Song suddenly felt bad, and shouted sharply: "There is an enemy situation, all soldiers get on the horse!" ”

The soldiers did not care about breakfast, they turned over their horses, held short spears in their hands, and quickly lined up, and at this moment, from the woods three hundred paces away on the left, suddenly struck out a large group of Shatuo cavalry, about seven or eight hundred people, and they urged the war horses to gallop and rush to the sky.

"Li Ji, you come to command the battle!"

Guo Song shouted, but he was observing the situation in the east and west, and his intuition told them that they might have entered the encirclement of the Shatuo people.

I saw that two black lines also appeared on the east and west, and they were surrounded by the Shatuo people from three directions.

"The 1st Brigade is facing head-on, and the 2nd and 3rd Brigades are ready to take 2 pieces!"

Li Jigang gave an order, but Guo Song hurriedly ordered: "Cancel the battle and immediately cross the river and retreat south!" ”

In the Eagle Strike Army, Guo Song's order was the highest order, completely surpassing Li Ji, and when the order came out, several brigade commanders immediately shouted, "Retreat south!" ”

The cavalry turned their horses and ran towards the river, and Li Ji was annoyed and rushed up and asked, "Why are you retreating?" With less than a thousand enemy troops, we can completely destroy them! ”

Guo Song said coldly: "You look to both sides!" ”

Li Ji hurriedly turned his head to take a closer look, his face suddenly changed, and he accelerated his horse speed and ran towards the river.

Guo Song admired the strategy of the enemy's main general, and first used seven or eight hundred people to attract himself to the battle, but the main force was outflanked from both sides, if it wasn't for his quick decision, this time he would really be surrounded.

But Guo Song knew that they were far from getting rid of the crisis, and since the enemy army had already laid a trap, how could it be so easy to get rid of it.

Sure enough, when the Tang army rushed across the river, it also killed a Shatuo cavalry of seven or eight hundred people from the south, and the Tang army could not get rid of it, so it had to fight and kill it.

The two armies collided suddenly, and the powerful Tang cavalry instantly overturned dozens of Shatuo cavalry, the Tang soldiers were strong in coordination, formation and personal martial arts, and the Shatuo cavalry also had an advantage, their equestrian skills were outstanding, and the soldiers were generally brave.

The two sides fought fiercely for several rounds, and the Tang army also suffered casualties, at this time, the Shatuo cavalry behind also killed, and the Tang army had to divide its troops to meet the battle, and 1,500 Shatuo cavalry instantly surrounded more than 270 Tang regiments.

At this time, Zhu Xie Jinhai also led more than 3,000 cavalry to the side of the river, Zhu Xie Jinhai was a little proud on his face, unless this cavalry was stationed in Tingzhou for a long time, as long as they left, they would not be able to escape their palms.

Zhu Xie Jinhai judged accurately, he knew that this cavalry was from Chang'an, not a supporting army, but should be a Tang Dynasty envoy, and after completing the mission, he would soon return to Chang'an.

So he ambushed a dozen spies on all sides of Jinman County, waiting for this cavalry to leave.

Sure enough, he expected it, this envoy team only stayed for two days before leaving, in order to completely annihilate this Tang army and avenge the horse bandits in the Hexi corridor, he laid a net more than 100 miles away from Jinman County.

Guo Song was unusually calm at this time, as the boss, he first considered breaking out, and could not fight to the death with the enemy with the courage of a horseman.

Before the main force of the enemy army had crossed the river, he immediately ordered: "Break through to the southwest!" ”

He had long discovered that the enemy's strength was more in the east and less in the west, and more in the north and less in the south, which was also related to the direction of the Tang army, while the strength in the southwest was relatively weak, with less than 500 cavalry.

Guo Song took the lead, wielding a halberd to stab left and right, blood flowed like a river everywhere he passed, corpses were all over the ground, no one could reach, he killed dozens of people in a row, broke the defense line in the southwest direction of the Shatuo people, and the Tang army rushed out of the encirclement.

Guo Song found that Li Ji and several soldiers behind the palace were surrounded again, he turned around and killed back, opened a bloody road, and shouted to Li Ji: "Break through with me!" ”

Li Ji led three soldiers to follow Guo Song to break out of the siege and galloped towards the southwest.

Zhu Xie Jinhai didn't expect that the Tang army would be able to fight his way out of the encirclement, he realized that he was a little underestimated by the enemy, and couldn't help but be annoyed and shouted angrily: "Hunt them down!" ”

More than 4,000 Shatuo cavalry closely pursued behind the Tang army.

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[Today's two chapters]