Guo Song randomly convened the generals in the Shuai tent to discuss the matter of sending troops.

"It's the end of February now, the ice and snow have begun to melt, since the Son of Heaven has approved the battle plan, we have to be ready to send troops, we can't wait for the ice and snow to completely melt before setting off, so I decided to set off in five days, the night combat training will be over, and the soldiers must continue to strengthen martial arts training, and they must not slack off!"

The generals bowed together, "Obey!" ”

………..

When Guo Song returned to the house, he first came to the back house, his wife Xue Tao was already in confinement, and his daughter Xiaowei was also more than a month old, and she became a little baby carved in pink, most of the time she was sleeping, basically waking up and drinking milk, and continuing to sleep when she was full.

The yard is full of diapers,

Guo Song carefully picked up the swaddling clothes and kissed them on the pink little face, his eyes full of pity.

Xue Tao hugged her husband from behind and asked in a low voice, "How long will you be going this time?" ”

"One to two months!"

Guo Song thought for a while and said, "If the conditions allow, I plan to go to Anxi again and come back as soon as possible." ”

Xue Tao was used to her husband's expedition, and she sighed softly, "Husband, be careful!" ”

………..

Five days later, 20,000 Tang troops left Zhangye with a large amount of baggage to the north, they did not take Suzhou and Guazhou, but took the secret passage at the foot of Qilian Mountain, this secret road could not walk the cart baggage, but the Tang army did not carry a cart, but thousands of camels carried food and armor and other baggage, after most of the ice and snow melted, the camels themselves could also find forage from under the snow.

The 20,000 Tang troops were all on horseback, and riding a horse did not mean that they were cavalry, but only on foot strength.

The march was not fast, marching during the day and campfires at night, and after five days, the team began to hear the howl of wolves.

Guo Song then ordered the army to stop moving forward for a day, he called Liang Wu and Yao Jin up, and said to the two: "This group of wild wolves has endangered this road for decades, and today it is time to liquidate. ”

The two agreed without hesitation, and each led two thousand cavalry to the woods on the mountain.

Guo Song immediately ordered to be stationed in the camp to rest, and at dusk, the soldiers returned one after another.

There were two piles of wolf corpses in the clearing, both of which were more than 100 heads, and several sergeants announced loudly that the first battalion hunted 176 wolves, the second battalion hunted 192 wolves, and the second battalion had 16 more.

The soldiers of the second battalion were jubilant, and at this time, Liang Wu shouted loudly in the distance: "It is not necessarily who loses and who wins!" ”

Everyone looked over, only to see Liang Wu covered in blood, dragging a huge wolf corpse in his hand, followed by dozens of cavalry, everyone exclaimed, and they all surrounded the front, Liang Wu threw the wolf corpse to the ground, "This is the wolf king, the wolf king was hunted by us." ”

I saw that this wolf king was twice as large as the other wolves, and he had four or five arrows stuck in his body, but the fatal wound was in the throat, and it was pierced through the throat by a knife.

Liang Wudao: "I took dozens of elites to encircle and suppress this wolf king, and was escaped by it several times, and finally killed it, killing this wolf king can at least be worth hundreds of ordinary wolves." ”

Yao Jin said disdainfully: "It's good to win with more numbers, no matter how powerful the wolf king is, he is just a wolf." ”

"Nonsense!"

Liang Wu jumped up angrily, straightened his neck and roared, "You hunt a wolf king for me?" ”

Everyone's eyes turned to Guo Song, who had just arrived, Guo Song squatted down and looked at the wolf king, and said to everyone: "The significance of killing the wolf king is very significant, if the wolf king runs away, we will completely lose this encirclement and suppression, and this wolf king is very cunning, killing it is not an ordinary difficulty, so the wolf king really can't be counted as just one wolf, I think it should be counted as fifty wolves to be reasonable!" ”

The soldiers of the 1st Battalion immediately cheered, and they finally defeated the 2nd Battalion.

Guo Song apologized to Yao Jin again: "If there is a huge difference in the number of your two armies, I can sentence you to a draw, but the difference between your numbers is not big, and the other party has hunted the wolf king, so it is reasonable to judge the other party to win." ”

Yao Jin bowed and said: "Make Jun's verdict fair and reasonable, and be convincing, but this kind of small victory is nothing, let's compare the results of the battle against the Tubo army!" ”

Liang Wu raised his eyes coldly and snorted, "I'm looking forward to that day coming soon!" ”

Although Yao Jin did not take this encirclement and suppression of wild wolves in his eyes, they completely exterminated this group of gray wolves that had been active for more than 20 years under Qilian Mountain.

After a day's rest, the Tang army continued its westward advance, and ten days later, the team entered the territory of Shazhou.

At this time, it is already early March, the ice and snow in Shazhou have melted, poplars spit buds, birds and birds are singing, and there is a spring everywhere.

It was already dusk, Guo Song ordered the soldiers to camp on the spot to rest, and sent a few scouts to Dayun Temple to inquire about the news.

Although Zhang Yun led the scouts into Dunhuang City, he still arranged two liaison soldiers in Dayun Temple just to wait for this moment to come.

By noon the next day, several scouts brought back the news in the city, Zhang Yun made an appointment to seize the south city gate at the third watch tonight, and he would cooperate with the outside to help the main force of the Tang army capture the city, and agreed to raise fire.

Guo Song carefully read the pigeon letter twice, and Zhang Yun meant that the Tubo army was relatively well defended in the north of the city, and relatively lax in the south of the city.

"How is Commander Zhang doing in the city?" Guo Song asked a liaison soldier.

The liaison soldier bowed down and said: "Envoy Qi, Commander Zhang and a hundred brothers are mainly scattered in the shops of the Cao family and the Zhang family as partners, with the cover of the two family heads, everyone is doing well, and the Tubo people do not have the slightest suspicion. ”

Guo Song was more concerned about the logistics materials of the Tubo people, and he learned that the warehouse of the Tubo was located in Dunhuang County, so he decided to seize the county seat first, on the one hand, to protect the people of Shazhou, and on the other hand, to seize the logistics materials.

The Tubo army has no logistics materials, and it will inevitably take the initiative to seek war, or withdraw from Shazhou, at least the Tang army does not have to attack the sturdy Tubo battalion.

Guo Song looked at the map, they were about twenty miles away from Dunhuang County, and Guo Song immediately ordered: "Rest on the spot and set off at one watch!" ”

.........

Dunhuang City has been a strategic place since ancient times, and it is the only place where the Hexi Corridor travels to Anxi, where Eastern and Western civilizations meet, creating a splendid Buddhist culture.

Dunhuang is a big city, with a population of more than 10,000 households, most of whom are Han people, which is very different from other cities in the Hexi Corridor, Hu and Han, and is also because after Emperor Wen of Sui destroyed Chen and Western Liang, he exiled a large number of Jiangnan royal families and nobles to distant Dunhuang, so that they could stay as far away from their hometown as possible, but at the same time, it also created the prosperity of Dunhuang.

The circumference of Dunhuang city is 30 miles, the city wall is tall and solid, there are two city gates in the south of the city and the north of the city, at the time of a watch, 100 Tang army scouts quickly assembled in the compound of the Cao family, here is very close to the south city gate, only more than 200 steps apart.

The 100 Tang scouts were all dressed as Tibetan soldiers, and the identification method was that there was a white flower on their chests, which was clearly recognizable at night, and their weapons were spears, knives, and bows and arrows, which were completely different from the Tibetan soldiers.

It is about the time of the third watch, this time is also the most sleepy of the day, which is conducive to them seizing the city gate, Zhang Yun of course has repeatedly observed, Tubo attaches great importance to the north of the city, and deploys heavy troops at the city gate, which is also related to the logistics warehouse of Tubo close to the north city gate, in contrast, the number of Tubo soldiers in the south of the city is much less, only less than 100 people.

Two shifts have passed, Zhang Yun gave an order, led a hundred soldiers out, they took the south side door, there is a small alley, from the small alley, opposite is the ramp of the city.

Zhang Yunyi waved his hand and led fifty soldiers to run up the ramp, and the other forty-eight soldiers, led by a brigade commander, went straight to the city gate.

It is completely different from the strict defense of Jiuquan City, the defense here is very lax, dozens of Tubo soldiers are sleeping in the city tower, it is no wonder that first of all, there must be Shatuo's army from the north to kill, Tubo will enter the wartime state, now the winter has just passed, Shatuo has not yet sent troops, Tubo naturally did not enter the wartime state.

It was very windy at night in Shazhou, and most of the soldiers hid in the city tower to sleep, and only two soldiers on duty sat on the ground and dozed off.

Zhang Yun beckoned, two soldiers rushed up like thunderbolts, cut the throats of the two soldiers, several soldiers with sharp daggers pushed the door in, they bent over, as if looking for a place to sleep, but touched the sleeping Tubo soldiers to cut their throats, and then pierced the back of the heart, clean and neat, only a moment, more than 30 Tubo soldiers were all killed in their sleep.

There were not many soldiers under the city gate, and more than a dozen soldiers who were sleeping on the edge of the city were all killed, and the Tang soldiers pretended to stand guard, but they opened the gate, and the city head also lowered the drawbridge, Zhang Yun lit two torches on the city and waved them.

In just a moment, the main force of 20,000 Tang troops killed silently and rushed directly into Dunhuang City.