At night, the Tang army rested in the canyon for the night, Guo Song brought Zhang Yun and the guide Sai Ke, and in the marching tent, Guo Song pointed to the map of the Yili River Valley and asked: "Is it possible to kill the enemy army from another path to the place where the enemy army is stationed?" ”

Saike hesitated for a moment and said, "There is a path to pass, but if you have to go over the mountains and mountains, people can pass, but horses can't pass." ”

Zhang Yun understood the lord's intentions, and he hurriedly said: "You can march from inside the forest, but you can't find it outside." ”

Guo Song groaned and said, "But with 20,000 marches, I'm afraid it's difficult to conceal it." ”

"Enlightening the envoy, the lowly duty means that when you are only thirty miles away from the enemy's camp, you can hide in the forest, and you can march at night, and the lowly duty has been tested, as long as it is not a fast horse, it will not alarm many birds."

Now the biggest advantage of the Tang army is that they know each other and know themselves, and the other party knows themselves and does not know the other, so Guo Song considered using this advantage to deal with the enemy.

Guo Song pondered for a moment, and finally nodded, Zhang Yun's plan was the best plan at present.

He said to Zhang Yun again: "You continue to lead the scout battalion to explore the way ahead, especially to kill the enemy's outposts, so that the enemy army can't find out about our existence!" ”

"Obey the order!"

Zhang Yun hurriedly left with Saike, and after a short time, he left the army with two hundred and seventy soldiers of the scout battalion and headed south first, while Saike stayed behind to continue to serve as a guide for the army.

Early the next morning, the Tang army continued to get up and set out, and from the information they had so far, the large battalion of the 10,000 Qarluq army was located about 150 miles east of the outlet of the Baiyang River, which was still relatively far from the Tang army, and the Tang army was still at least three days away.

.........

That afternoon, Guo Song received information from Zhang Yun's subordinates that the Qarluq camp was thirty miles away, and if they went further, they would encounter the dome of the Qarluq herdsmen, and their current location was the westernmost part of the pastoral area.

Guo Song immediately ordered the army to stop advancing and sent 2,000 troops to escort the camel caravan to a distance of fifty miles.

When night fell, the army entered the pine forest in the north, and slowly moved forward from the pine forest, Zhang Yun was right, they slowed down and did not alarm the birds, so that the team marched in the pine forest was very hidden, and they marched in the depths of the pine forest, the big trees here are very high, each big tree is more than ten zhang high, and the feet are thick pine needles, which make a relatively low sound, and can not alarm the birds in the high places.

An army of 20,000 marched silently through the pine forest, carrying more than 100 camels, which carried the whirlwind cannons of the Tang army.

At the fifth watch, they finally arrived at the north of the enemy's camp, through the woods, you can see the camp at the foot of the mountain more than ten miles away, the north bank of the Yili River is relatively narrow, only more than 20 miles wide, the south bank is very open, more than 100 miles or even hundreds of miles wide, all are endless grasslands.

The herdsmen were to be distributed on the south bank of the Ili River, the military camp was on the north bank, and the dense tents were stationed in the wilderness, with no barracks and no protection around them, and the Qarluqs obviously did not expect the Tang army to come, otherwise they would not have relaxed like this.

Qarlu only dug a circle of trenches around the camp, mainly to prevent wild beasts from attacking, and there were patrolmen in the camp, but there were not many of them, and there were no guards on the periphery.

The time had reached the fifth watch, and it would be dawn in another hour, Guo Song waved his hand lightly and ordered: "Use the incendiary ball!" ”

The soldiers unloaded a hundred cyclone cannons from more than a hundred camels, and the Tang army also carried fire mines, but in the current situation, Guo Song did not plan to use fire mines, but decided to use incendiary balls, which are the traditional arson weapons of the Han army, soaked in fire oil with fire cloth, then dried, and then wrapped into balls, with a diameter of about one meter.

It's just that the incendiary balls of the Hexi Army have been improved, they apply gunpowder on a burning cloth and wrap them layer by layer, and there are at least seven or eight catties of gunpowder in a burning ball, which will burn more violently, and it can burn cleanly, unlike most incendiary balls, which are extinguished after only half of the fire.

The biggest advantage of this incendiary ball is that it is extremely elastic, although the shooting distance is only more than 100 steps, it can bounce to a mile away.

Hundreds of soldiers sneaked into the enemy's tent two hundred paces away, crawling in the grass, they quickly set up the whirlwind cannon, put the incendiary balls on the catapult board is made of copper, like a crossbow to shoot out, the incendiary balls on the board are fired, each incendiary ball weighs 30 catties, can be launched 70 steps away.

A hundred soldiers at the same time shook off the fire fold and lit the incendiary ball, 'Boom! With a bang, the incendiary balls turned into fireballs, and a hundred whirlwind cannons were fired at the same time, and a hundred red fireballs flew out and shot into the Qarlu camp.

At this time, Guo Song ordered, "Rocket cavalry attack!" ”

Rushed out of the forest three thousand Tang cavalry, rushed all the way, rushed to the front of the trench, fired gunpowder arrows into the camp together, a ball of fire shot into the camp, at this time the fire in the Qarlu camp was everywhere, the fire was burning, the smoke was filled, the Qarlu soldiers woke up in their sleep, yelling, running for their lives, many people were barefoot, not even wearing shoes, the sheep and horse pens in the west had been opened by the Tang soldiers, and 10,000 horses were driven to the west.

"Attack with all your might, and kill the enemy!"

Guo Song issued an order to kill, "Kill-" The Tang cavalry in the forest shouted angrily and slaughtered, except for the heavy infantry, the rest of the Tang soldiers were killed, including 12,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry.

The Tang cavalry pursued the fleeing Qarluq soldiers in all directions, and many of the Tang cavalry rushed into the two-foot-deep Yili River and killed the enemy soldiers who fled to the opposite bank.

It was a one-sided massacre, and the Qarluqs were not ready for war with the Tang army, but the Tang army took the initiative to find them, and the Tang army pursued them for more than 20 miles and killed the last group of soldiers.

As the day dawned, the north bank of the Erie River was strewn with corpses, many soldiers were floating on the river, and the river was carrying downstream, and the fire of the Great Tent was finally extinguished, and more than a thousand Great Tents were burned to the ground, and charred corpses could be seen everywhere in the camp.

The soldiers of the Tang Army began to clean up the battlefield, piled up the corpses and set them on fire, and then dug pits and buried them, and all kinds of weapons that had not yet been burned were piled up together.

The spoils of the annihilation of the Qarluq people were not very profitable, only 10,000 war horses and more than 100,000 sheep, but Gongyue City also stored a batch of supplies, and Guo Song ordered Luo Daxiao to lead 5,000 cavalry to capture Gongyue City.

After cleaning up the battlefield, the Tang army continued to march eastward and began to drive out the herdsmen, and many of the rebels were killed by the Tang army.

Thousands of Qarluq herdsmen had only been here for more than ten days, and they were forcibly driven away by the army, and they packed up their belongings, drove their cattle and sheep, and wept and cried eastward.

Although Guo Song gave the order to kill the Qarlu army, he was by no means a brutal commander, and the Tang army basically did not kill or rob the Qarluq army of the old and weak women and children, but only expelled them from the Yili River Valley.

However, like the Tibetan herdsmen in Anxi, these herdsmen also shouldered the heavy responsibility of supporting 10,000 soldiers, and each family raised 70 sheep and 10 cattle for the army, adding up to more than 300,000 sheep and more than 40,000 cattle, and these cattle and sheep belonging to the military were seized by the Tang army as trophies.

Two days later, Guo Song led the army to arrive at Gongyue City, which is located on the north bank of the Yili River, it was built on a high place, the terrain was dangerous, the city wall was tall and strong, easy to defend and difficult to attack, it was the only stronghold of the Tang army in the Yili River Valley, and it could garrison 3,000 people.

When Luo Daxiao led the army to kill, the hundreds of Qarluq soldiers stationed here had already fled first, and they found a large number of Qarluq soldiers' corpses floating in the river.

When the 5,000 Tang troops arrived, there were no defenders in the city, and the tents in the city were filled with a large number of supplies, such as grain, tents, sheepskins, milk wine, tea, cheese, salt, medicine and a small amount of armor, which was enough for 10,000 soldiers to consume for more than half a year, and the Tang army also accidentally found 200,000 gold coins.

These were the gold coins used by the Sogdians in the river, and were also the currency used by the Qarluqs, and these coins were estimated to have been worth 10,000 troops.

Guo Song walked on the city wall of Gongyue City, looking to the east, the Yili River extends into the distance like a jade belt, on both sides are the snow-capped mountains, here is the Huocheng of the later generations, is the open area of the Yili River Valley, the endless grassland, all kinds of flowers bloom on the grassland, a large area of fruit trees also bloom, everywhere is a beautiful scene of purple and red.

How can such a beautiful land be left to the Qarluqs?