Li Bing immediately understood, put away their Qinwang's banner, and replaced it with the red flag prepared in advance, Guo Song immediately ordered the soldiers to mount their horses, the other party was infantry, so it was necessary to prevent the other party from making trouble and grabbing horses.

Not long after, an army of more than 10,000 people came mightily, and there was a huge red flag at the front, which was a public expression of support for Zhu Zhu, and the other big flag was black on a yellow background, with the word 'Hao' written on it, Guo Song immediately understood that this was Hao Tong, the envoy of Hezhou's soldiers and horses, and it was Zhu Zhu who was promoted when he was the envoy of Longyoujiedu, and of course he was loyal to Zhu Zhu.

At this time, the spies of the Longyou Army also found the cavalry in front and hurriedly reported to the commander.

Hao Tong is about forty years old, with a square face, thick eyebrows, protruding eyes, a bloody mouth, and a very fierce appearance.

Although he is strong in martial arts, his personality is very brutal, when he served as the Lintao soldier and horse envoy, he often used to drive the border people as prey, for them to shoot for fun, as for the rape of young women is commonplace, and finally annoyed Yan Zhenqing, who patrolled the border, dismissed him from his official position and demoted him, but was reused by Zhu Jun in a few years.

In fact, the defense area of the Longyou army was relatively extensive, from Shanzhou in the Hehuang Valley to Lintao and Hezhou to Diezhou and Qinzhou, the defensive line stretched for thousands of miles, and the army was more than 35,000 people, divided into four parts.

There are troops who support the imperial court, and there are also troops that support Zhu Zhu, mainly to look at the main general, but the Hehuang soldiers and horses who supported the imperial court made Dai Lan killed by his generals Zhang Tingzhi and Duan Cheng, and the Longyou army basically supported Zhu Zhu.

Hao Tong received the report, and had doubts in his heart, so he ordered his subordinates to go to inquire about the situation, and now that all the armies are marching towards Guanzhong, it is difficult to distinguish their respective positions.

After a while, General Ya came back and reported: "General Qiyu, in front is the army of Guo Song, the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, with about 5,000 cavalry, holding high the red flag. ”

Hao Tong frowned, it was actually Guo Song, he heard Zhu Zhu say that since the Chang'an nursery rhyme incident, Li Shi, the son of heaven, was very jealous of Guo Song, not only sent the supervising army, but also wanted to find an opportunity to transfer him back to Beijing.

It is not surprising that Guo Song is self-reliant, it is completely reasonable, but Guo Song actually supports Zhu Zhu, which is a bit incomprehensible.

At this time, a Hexi cavalry rushed over, stepped forward and hugged his fists and said, "My envoy invites General Hao to go and talk about it." ”

Hao Tong nodded, ordered the army to rest on the spot, and he took a dozen of his own soldiers to meet with Guo Song.

"Guo Yuanjun, the march is fast!" Hao Tong urged him to step forward and laughed heartily.

Guo Song smiled bitterly and said: "The Hexi Army has long been unable to open the pot, and the military has not been paid for half a year, and if you don't run faster, the soldiers will rebel." ”

The issue of military affairs is the easiest to resonate with the armies, and Hao Tong also sighed and said: "Who said it wasn't!" If the imperial court really can't come up with the money, it's fine, but I heard that there are tens of millions of dollars in the treasury of Qionglin and Daying, he is so stingy, no matter whether the soldiers live or die, who is willing to die for him? ”

Guo Song nodded, "The Son of Heaven is really unkind and criticized, I don't want to oppose him, but he should at least be a little sympathetic to the soldiers, in his eyes, it is as if the soldiers are straw men, they don't need to eat, they don't need to support their families, just like the general said, no one is willing to die for him." ”

"Well said, if you go to serve Taiwei Zhu this time, you will definitely be crowned the king of the county, I will congratulate you first!"

"I don't care about the title, I just hope that Captain Zhu can pay the military in time, and I will continue to guard Hexi."

The two chatted a few words, and Guo Song took his leave and took a step forward, leading five thousand cavalry to the east.

Hao Tong shook his head and said to several generals under him: "This Guo Song is very shrewd, what the military wants, let him give his life to Captain Zhu, it is estimated that it is impossible, didn't you listen to him?" When you get the money, you go back to Hexi, which is called retaining your strength and going back to Hexi to be the emperor of the soil. ”

Hao Tong ordered the army to rest for half an hour, and then continue to march eastward.

.........

As the night wore on, and a watch had passed, and behind a hill about three miles from the official road, five thousand cavalrymen were ready, and they were about twenty miles away from Hao Tong's army, and were patiently waiting for the enemy to garrison.

At this time, a scout rushed over, hugged his fist at Guo Song and said, "Envoy Qi, the enemy army has been stationed ten miles away to rest. ”

"Is there a tent?" Guo Song remembered carrying some of the baggage trucks.

"There are camp tents, about 300 camp tents, and a spear array is set up around with hundreds of thousands of spears, and large carts are used to block the entrance."

"How's the patrol going?" Next to him, Li Bing asked.

The scout shook his head, "The lowly didn't find the patrol. ”

Li Bing asked suspiciously, "Envoy, why is Hao Tong so careless?" ”

Guo Song said with a smile: "Maybe he thinks it's unnecessary, there will be no Tubo army here, everyone is a Tang army, either support Zhu Zhu or go to King Qin, who knows what the relationship between Zhu Zhu and the imperial court is?" In short, it was a mess, and only when the imperial court and Zhu Zhu's army started a large-scale war would they distinguish between friend and foe. ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

Guo Song turned back to the generals and said: "Pass the order, it's all the Tang army, and those who surrender will not be killed!" ”

Time passed little by little, and at about two watches, Guo Song waved his hand and led the cavalry to set off.

The horses walked slowly, the hooves of the horses did not make a sound on the barren meadows, and after about half an hour, they saw the large camp of Hao Tong's army in the distance, which was less than a mile away from them.

"Disperse!"

Guo Song gave an order, and the five thousand cavalry began to disperse, surrounding the enemy camp from five directions, at this time, the cavalry accelerated sharply, and in a moment rushed to the front of the big tent, which was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of spears, and the sharp spear head was obliquely outward.

At this time, the 10,000 Longyou army marched for a day, they were already very tired, and they were in a deep sleep, the Hexi cavalry killed from all directions, countless rockets shot at the big tent, the big tent burned rapidly, spread very quickly under the night wind, and the sleeping soldiers were awakened by the fire, they were panicked, shouting and running in all directions.

There were spears on all sides, but the spear array was mainly against the cavalry, not very dense, about half a foot wide gap, the soldiers crawled out from between the spear gaps, did not run a few steps, and met the Hexi cavalry, they were unarmed, and had to kneel and surrender and beg for mercy in desperation.

Hao Tong took more than a hundred guards cavalry to open a cart and open a road, they came out of the mouth, and were immediately surrounded by a thousand cavalry, Hao Tong did not wear armor, his hair was scattered, he brandished a big iron spear, and his appearance was very vicious.

Of course, he knew that he was ambushed by the Hexi cavalry, which made him hate it to the core, so he wanted to find Guo Song and knock him off his horse with one shot to vent his hatred.

It's a pity that he didn't have a chance, he suddenly heard Guo Song on the left shouting: "Hao Tong, Guo Song is here!" ”

Hao Tong turned his head suddenly, and a sharp arrow 'poof!' The ground shot him in the center of the eyebrow, the arrow was powerful, the tip of the arrow came out of his head, Hao Tong screamed, and immediately fell off his horse and died.

The enemy's main general is dead, the Hexi cavalry suddenly boosted morale, surrounded more than 100 personal soldiers, only a moment, more than 100 personal guards were killed, none survived, this is the rule on the battlefield, the main general is dead, the general personal guards can not live, all must be killed, in order to prevent future troubles.

This sneak attack ended in only half an hour, and none of the 10,000 soldiers of the Longyou Army escaped, hundreds of people were burned to death, more than 800 people were killed, and more than 8,900 surrendered, while the Hexi army only suffered a few minor injuries and none of them died.

Nearly 9,000 soldiers sat on the open ground and finally survived until dawn, and the soldiers of the Hexi Army immediately pulled out more than a dozen of Hao Tong's henchmen and generals from the prisoners of war and killed them with a single knife without mercy.

Guo Song stepped forward and said loudly to the 8,900 prisoners of war: "The Hexi Army fought against Tubo and never left prisoners of war, but you were the Tang Army before, and you fought against Tubo like us, so I kept you all, most of you were deceived, and you didn't know that you were going to Chang'an to join the anti-thieves, it is understandable, I will give you two ways, either go back to your hometown to support your parents, take care of your wife and children, if you are willing to continue to serve in the army, I will send you to Hexi and join the Hexi Army, these two paths are your own choice." ”

The soldiers made a choice, most of the soldiers were willing to return to their hometowns to farm, and nearly 3,000 soldiers were willing to continue to serve in the army, Guo Song immediately ordered a Lang general to lead 500 cavalry with 3,000 soldiers to Hexi.

He ordered that the grain obtained from cleaning the battlefield be distributed to the prisoners of war as dry rations, and also seized Hao Tong's personal property of about 100,000 taels of silver, Guo Song gave each prisoner of war three taels of silver as travel expenses, and the remaining 70,000 taels of silver were rewarded to 5,000 cavalrymen.

At this time, Li Bing handed a gold medal to Guo Song, "Envoy, this is from Hao Tong." ”