After entering February, the snow thickness has become significantly lighter, and the war horses can also gallop in the field, most of the time later, Guo Song rushed to the military camp in the east of Zhangye City, he directly arrived at the Chinese army's tent by horse, and then turned over and dismounted and asked: "Where is the intelligence in Shazhou?" ”

The soldier presented three eagle letters, "A total of three eagles flew in, and three express letters were delivered, and the contents were relatively large, and they had not yet had time to sort them out." ”

"It's okay, I'll take a look first, and then I'll sort it out."

Guo Song took the eagle letter and entered the big tent, he has been paying close attention to the intelligence of Shazhou, it is the beginning of February, a month earlier, the ice and snow in the Hexi corridor began to melt completely, and it was time to send troops.

Despite the amount of information, Guo Song got the information he wanted and deduced the internal situation in Tibet from some details.

It can be seen from the appointment of the main and deputy generals that the Tubo moderates have the upper hand in Tibet, but the Tubo hardliners are not reconciled, so there is such a thing as the deputy general killing the main general.

If the Tang army can seize Shazhou and defeat the Tubo army this time, it will be a heavy blow to the hardliners led by the Tibetan minister Shang Xijie, and the moderate Shang Jiezan will come to power and reconcile with the Tang Dynasty, and the Tubo will begin to recuperate and restore its national strength, which will greatly reduce the military pressure on the Tang Dynasty.

It can be seen from this that the significance of the battle of Shazhou is very significant, once the Tang army is defeated, the Tubo hardliners will come to power in an all-round way, which will be very unfavorable to the Tang Dynasty.

In this battle, I can only win, not lose.

Guo Song felt that it was necessary for him to write a letter to the Son of Heaven to clarify the meaning and get the full support of the Son of Heaven, Li Shi.

.........

Guo Song sent an eagle letter to arrive in Chang'an as quickly as possible, this time the eagle letter took the official route, first delivered to the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of War sent a copy to the political hall, and then presented it to the Son of Heaven.

Guo Song's decision to attack Shazhou once again caused a strong backlash from the political hall, which in the view of the political hall would inevitably trigger a new round of confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, and would cause great constraints to the western part of the Tang Dynasty.

Li Shi stood in front of the window of the imperial study and looked at the sky silently, this time Guo Song decided to attack Shazhou, which was proposed with a formal plan, which made Li Shi a little surprised, but also made him deeply gratified, this is a respect for the imperial court, and it is a manifestation of Guo Song's maturity.

In his letter, Guo Song insisted that the defeat of Shazhou would lead to a change of power within Tibet, that the hardliners would fall and the moderates would come to power.

Li Shi didn't expect this, in fact, Datang didn't know much about the internal situation in Tubo, and only knew that the internal power struggle in Tubo was serious, but he didn't know the details.

If it is really as Guo Song said, if this battle can bring down the hardliners in Tibet, then it is worth fighting.

At this time, the eunuch Huo Xianming reminded: "Your Majesty, the Xiangguo have arrived. ”

Li Shi nodded, the prefect proposed to convene a temporary military and political meeting, which was obviously a plan for Guo Song to send troops to Shazhou, needless to say that Li Shi also knew that the political hall was against sending troops to Shazhou, but this time, he had to do it according to his own ideas.

Li Shi came to the side hall, the five Xiangguo were already sitting, Qiao Lin was replaced by Zhang She, Zhang Yi had gone to Longyou to take up his post, and the other Xiangguo basically did not change.

Li Shi sat down in the middle, and the five Xiangguo immediately stood up and saluted, "See Your Majesty!" ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, please take a seat!"

Everyone sat down, Yang Yan got up again and said: "Your Majesty, this military discussion is to discuss the plan to attack Shazhou proposed by Guo Song, the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, and some people in the political hall are in favor and some are against, and the opponents have the upper hand, but the final decision on the use of troops abroad is up to Your Majesty, so the Political Affairs Hall asks Your Majesty to discuss it together." ”

After Yang Yan finished speaking, he glanced at Han Rong dissatisfiedly, and Li Shi immediately understood that Han Rong was in favor of sending troops.

The final decision on the use of foreign troops lies with the Son of Heaven, but the political affairs hall has formed a consensus and has a great influence on the final decision of the Son of Heaven, but the opinions of the political affairs hall itself are inconsistent, and the attitude of the political affairs hall will not have a great impact on the Son of Heaven.

Li Shi nodded and said, "Yang Xiangguo must be against it, tell me your opinion!" ”

"Your Majesty, Wechen's opinions are always the same, oppose the expansion of the war in the west, we do not have the financial resources and energy to deal with the east and west fronts at the same time, once the battle of Shazhou triggered a full-scale confrontation between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty, its impact is not only Hexi, but also includes Longyou and Xichuan, we have to increase military investment in Longyou, first of all, the financial resources can not bear, Weichen hopes that Guo Song can focus on the overall situation, dedicate himself to protecting the territory and defending the territory, and do not talk about military affairs."

Li Shi nodded, his gaze turned to Han Yun, "Han Xiangguo seems to have a different idea?" ”

Han Rong got up and said: "Your Majesty, Tubo's attack on Shazhou was actually expected by Wechen, last year Tubo sent an envoy to Chang'an, saying that he wanted to assist us in recovering the Hexi Corridor, at that time the imperial court did not agree to Tubo's conditions, Wechen realized that Tubo said that the troops, most likely refers to Shazhou, the battle of Dadou Tugu was an accident, it was to take advantage of the situation, it was not Tubo's plan, Shazhou is the only way to go to Anxi, Tubo captured Shazhou, in fact, it is still for Anxi, if we can send troops to recapture Shazhou, First of all, it will not affect the hostility of the Hui Hui, and secondly, it will reduce the pressure on Hehuang and Xichuan, after all, Tubo does not have such great strength to fight on several fronts, and thirdly, if the hardline main battle faction in Tubo falls because of this battle, this is indeed good news. ”

"Your Majesty, Weichen opposes Han Xiangguo's opinion!"

Cui Youfu got up and said: "Tubo's attack on Shazhou has nothing to do with Anxi, this time it is because Shatuo first broke the balance and violated the rules of Shazhou's neutrality, Tubo found an excuse to send troops, this is against Shatuo, not against Datang, for Datang will still start from Hehuang and Xichuan, we are fighting fiercely with Tubo in Shazhou, Tubo will find an excuse to send troops to Hehuang and Xichuan, it will definitely cause war, and it will not end the war with war as Guo Song said, as for his vain speculation about the internal situation in Tubo, it is even more nonsense, he stationed troops in the Hexi CorridorHow is it possible to understand the internal situation in Tibet? Obviously very self-righteous. “

Li Mi got up and said: "Cui Xiangguo seems to have ignored another fact in Guo Song's report, the deputy general of the Tubo Shatuo Army killed the main general, and the Tubo people themselves said that they belonged to two factions and killed the main general, this is not a trivial matter in any army, how can it be said that the two major forces in Tubo get along well?" ”

Yang Yan also said: "Li Xiangguo, we can't be too optimistic, whether the Hexi Army is the opponent of the Tubo army is still the same thing, originally the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo were safe, if this war led to a comprehensive war between the two countries, who would bear this responsibility?" ”

"Yang Xiangguo was surprised by this!"

Han Yun shook his head, "When did Datang and Tubo have nothing to do?" If it weren't for the fact that Tubo and Hui had been at war for many years and their national strength had been damaged, it would have sent troops to the Tang Dynasty a long time ago. ”

"Okay, all the prime ministers, stop fighting."

Li Shi interrupted everyone's argument a little unhappily, "I have decided to approve this plan, and my condition is that if this battle fails, or if it causes serious consequences, all the responsibility will be borne by Guo Song!" ”

........

Under the cover of night, the actual combat training on the military camp exercise ground was very intense, and the fierce fighting had been more than three hours, and the time for the actual combat competition at night had been extended to four hours, and it had been expanded to the confrontation of 1,000 people and 1,000 people, which was an extremely severe test of the army's physical strength, but at the same time it was also a great exercise.

In the fierce battle, there are constantly soldiers falling, the fallen soldiers struggle to get up, and go down the field in disgrace, everyone competes according to the rules of the competition, if someone falls and continues to get up and fight, not only will the individual be heavily punished, but the whole team will lose, strict rules, so far, there has been no violation.

In the stands, Liang Wu looked nervous, and his first battalion below also participated in actual combat training, although his physical strength has been greatly improved, but other battalions are also improving, whether he can make it to the top five, Liang Wu is really worried.

At this time, the timing incense burned out, and immediately a magistrate shouted: "It's time!" ”

The gong sounded, the soldiers stopped the game one after another, the result was easy to judge, the less soldiers who retreated on the battlefield won, the referee quickly reported to Guo Song, "Qi Yu envoy, the eighth battalion wins, the third battalion wins, the first battalion and the second battalion draw, and the number of retreats on both sides is one hundred and fourteen." ”

"Who made it to the top five in the first and sixth battalions?" Guo Song asked again.

The results of the first and sixth battalions are currently three wins, two losses and one draw in six games, and whoever can make it to the top five depends on the total number of 'killed'.

The magistrate bowed down and said, "In the five competitions, the total number of people from the first battalion is 571, the total number of people from the sixth battalion is 622, and the first battalion is fifth. ”

Liang Wu was so excited that he hid his face and cried, nearly a month of hard training was not in vain, and they finally made it to the top five.

When the news broke, the soldiers of the 1st Battalion cheered with excitement.