It is already the consensus of Guo Song and Longyou generals that the Tubo army has a main force, and in fact, there are still 15,000 main forces in Tubo, which are hiding seventy miles away, and they are extremely familiar with this terrain and know how to make it impossible for the Tang army to find their traces.

After several years of recuperation, the vitality of Tubo has recovered slightly, but the power struggle of relatives is extremely fierce, Cai Bang has the upper hand, and another relative of the Na Nang clan has been repeatedly suppressed, and the great minister Shang Jiezan is an important figure in the Na Nang family.

At this time, Tubo Zampu Trisong Dezan had the idea of recapturing Hehuang again, in order to obtain military power and resist the blow of Cai Bang's clan, this time Shang Jiezan no longer opposed the idea of Zampu going to Hehuang, but strongly supported it, he personally planned a plan and led 15,000 troops to Hehuang.

Shang Jiezan stood on a high place, staring at the direction of the cold spring in the distance, he did not believe that Chang'an could endure the threat of salt cut-off, he knew the importance of the salt tax to the Tang Dynasty, once the cold spring salt field was broken, the other party could not build a new replacement salt field in a short time, and Hehuang's army would definitely send troops to seize the salt field.

As long as the army of Shanzhou is completely annihilated, even Shibao City will not be able to stop the footsteps of the Tubo army, and he is sure to seize the Hehuang Valley in one go.

Tubo also attaches more importance to intelligence, in the past, Tubo set up in Chang'an Tubo embassy is dedicated to collecting Tang Dynasty intelligence, Tubo also has spies in the Hehuang Valley and Shanzhou City, otherwise they will not know the distribution of troops in Longyou, and Guo Song led the main force of the Tang army over, Tubo spies will also send eagle letters back to Tubo, which are generally sent to Luoqi.

Shang Jiezan and the army were far away from the city of Luo at this time, and he did not know this important information for the time being, and when the messenger sent by the Tibetan Zanpu informed him, it might be six or seven days later.

There is a time lag in obtaining information, and it is the existence of this time difference that makes Shang Jiezan misjudge, he does not know that the main force of the Tang Army has arrived in Shanzhou.

At this time, a cavalryman rushed and shouted: "Prime Minister Qiqi, the Tang army has arrived at Lengquan, and it is reported that General Lin has retreated south, but the Tang army has not followed." ”

"How many Tang troops are there?" Shang Jiezan asked.

"About 4,000 people!"

The 5,000 troops of Shanzhou came out with 4,000 people, and it seemed that there were only 1,000 people left in the city of Shanzhou. ”

15,000 Tibetan troops appeared from the mountain col and slaughtered in the direction of Dafeichuan in the north, their goal was not to cold springs, but to cut off the retreat of the Tang army, and finally annihilate the 4,000 Tang army on the plateau.

The horse's hooves roared, and the 15,000-strong army galloped on the plateau, at this time, on a high post in the distance, the scout captain Yang Qi looked excitedly at the Tubo army in the distance, they searched for two days, and finally found the main force of the enemy.

Yang Qi quickly wrote a small note, rolled it up and handed it to his subordinates, "Send out the eagle letter!" ”

A letter eagle flew up and flew towards the north, Shang Jiezan, who was galloping, suddenly found the eagle in the sky, he immediately reined in the war horse, and wondered in his heart, this eagle is a little wrong........

An eagle slave blew the eagle flute, and a letter eagle in the sky let out a long whistle, began to circle in the sky, slowly falling, and finally landed on the shoulder of the eagle slave, and the eagle slave untied the red letter box tied to his legs and handed it to the soldier.

The red letterbox represented a hundred thousand urgency, and the soldiers immediately rushed towards the commander's marching tent.

At this time, it was noon, Guo Song was discussing the military situation with several generals in the big tent, and suddenly a soldier outside the tent shouted: "Your Highness, scout urgent information!" ”

Guo Song hurriedly said: "Take it in!" ”

A personal soldier walked into the big tent and presented a red letterbox, Guo Song poured out a roll of paper from the letterbox, unfolded it and looked at it, and said to the generals: "The main force of the enemy army is about fifteen or six thousand cavalry fifty miles south of us, and it is killing in our direction. ”

Everyone was shocked, and General Li Bing hurriedly asked, "Has the enemy discovered us?" ”

"It shouldn't be, the enemy army should want to cut off General An's retreat."

Guo Song immediately got up and ordered: "Order the three armies to assemble immediately!" ”

'Woo-'

The horn of the assembly sounded, and the army that was having lunch stopped eating, doused the fire with water, quickly packed up their equipment and equipment, and everyone turned on their horses, urging their horses to run towards the assembled flags of the battalions.

The 20,000 troops commanded by Guo Song were divided into 11 large battalions, each with 2,000 people, and there were also heavy infantry battalions, each battalion had its own banner, and the army assembly, marching, camping and even fighting had to follow the banner, as long as the banner did not fall, the army would not be scattered, and the soldiers would follow the banner closely.

In less than half an hour, the 26,000-strong army had been assembled, rushed out of the valley like a torrent, and rushed southward.

The weather on the plateau is changing, just now the sky was clear, but in the blink of an eye, the clouds were thick, the wind was cold, and the sky was actually snowflakes.

The Tibetan army had slowed down its march and was no longer elongated, but advanced in formation.

Shang Jiezan's heart was full of doubts, what was the matter with the enemy spies he saw just now? Could it be that the Don Army still has an army?

He had already sent a lookout post to investigate, but he was afraid that the Tang army in Lengquan would escape, so he formed a military formation and advanced.

At this time, the sentry he sent rushed over and reported in a loud voice: "Qi Qi Daxiang, the main force of the Tang Army has been found in front, about twenty miles away from us. ”

Shang Jiezan was taken aback and asked urgently, "How many people are there?" ”

"About 20,000 people!"

Shang Jiezan hurriedly shouted, "The army has stopped advancing. ”

The Tibetan army stopped advancing, Shang Jiezan was in turmoil, what should he do now?

He used a thousand people as bait to lure the Tang army in Shanzhou, but he didn't expect that the Tang army in Shanzhou was also a bait, and there was another larger Tang army hiding behind.

Is this battle fought or not?

The Tibetan generals didn't know what was going on, so they urged their horses to come and ask, "Prime minister, what's wrong?" ”

Without waiting for Shang Jiezan to answer, the sound of the bottom horn was faintly heard from a distance, 'Woo-woo-'

The generals all looked to the north in shock, there was actually a Tang army in front of them?

Shang Jiezan looked up at the snowflakes fluttering in the sky, and his chest suddenly surged with pride, why should he be afraid? This is the plateau, the world of the Tibetan people.

He shouted sharply: "Order the whole army, prepare to fight the enemy to the death!" ”

The main force of the Tang army finally appeared in the distance, and at this time, Guo Song also saw a black line in the distance, and the Tubo army actually did not retreat? It seems that he wants to fight to the death with himself.

"Your Highness, it's snowing!" Li Bing looked at the sky and said.

"It's not surprising that the plateau is like that, and it snows in the August heat."

Li Bing glanced back at the soldiers and said in a low voice: "Fighting on the plateau, I'm afraid we don't have an advantage." ”

Li Bing did not explicitly say that if they have no advantage, it means that the other party has an advantage, and the Tubo army is indeed good at plateau warfare, which Guo Song does not deny.

In fact, the altitude here is not very high, and their own army can withstand it, if they go hundreds of miles to the south or west, the altitude will be even higher, and the physical strength of many soldiers may not be able to keep up.

The troops he brought this time are the elite of the elite, both in terms of physical strength and combat experience, and they should be able to hold out for half a day at this altitude.

But if it takes more than half a day, I'm afraid it will be a little unbearable, Guo Song quickly made a trade-off decision, he needs to fight a quick battle in this encounter, and he can't delay time with the Tubo army to fight a protracted war.

In the cold wind, the two armies were approaching, and by this time, the hoplites had moved to the front, and they knelt down on one knee and formed three rows of 1,000 men each, while the 3,000 auxiliary infantry of the hoplites were transformed into crossbow troops, and they were in the front with crossbows in hand.

The remaining 20,000 cavalry are arrayed into four phalanxes, and the heavy infantry has a phalanx on the left and right, and the 10,000 cavalry is called the positional army, which will not easily change positions, and the other two phalanxes are called guerrilla armies, and they are more flexible and can be moved at any time.

In the snowflakes flying in the sky, the 26,000 Tang troops stood on the plateau like a mountain, and time seemed to stop at this moment.

Shang Jiezan and the Tang army have no combat experience, the last time the Hehuang battle, he happened to return to Luo to report on his work, and his deputy will lead the army, but whether he and the Tang army have combat experience or not, it does not matter, every mature army has its own combat style.

In particular, the Tibetan army has always adhered to its own combat style and will not be easily changed by the enemy.

The Tubo army is mainly infantry-based, which is also their short weapon decision, the Tubo army is good at using short swords and shields, riding on horses with short swords can not reach the enemy at all, and secondly, the Tubo infantry is extremely strong, full of toughness, never surrender, fighting to the end, it is this kind of undying combat spirit that makes the Tang army fearful, many wars, the Tang army and the Tubo army are fighting to the end and collapse.

"First team!"

Shang Jiezan waved his sword and gave the order.

Two thousand Tibetan soldiers with shields and short swords lined up to kill the Tang army.

(End of chapter)