On Lituo learned a lesson, no longer divide the troops, but concentrate 8,000 troops, collect all the food and weapons, and give up the big camp, the big camp of the Tubo army is stationed in a high place, it is a slab wall building, there is a guarantee of drinking water, condescending, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but unfortunately there is no food, so they have to give up the advantage of the big camp and transfer to Shouchang County.

As soon as the Tibetan army was dispatched, the Tang scouts who were scouting the periphery immediately sent an eagle letter to Dunhuang City, which was thirty miles away.

In Dunhuang City, 15,000 Tang troops have been assembled and standby, Liang Wu's 2,000 Tang troops have other tasks, Guo Song left 2,000 soldiers to guard Dunhuang City, and sent 1,000 soldiers to occupy Shouchang County first, even if the Tubo army killed Shouchang County, it is meaningless.

"Envoy, the Scout Eagle Letter has been delivered!"

A messenger rushed to Guo Song and presented an eagle letter to Guo Song, who opened it with only one sentence on it, 'The main force of Tubo has left the camp and taken the southwest line, about 8,000 people. ’

The southwest line is the abandoned official road taken by a thousand Tibetan cavalry in the morning, and it is now afternoon, and the main force of Tubo is now out of the camp, and it must be to seize Shouchang County, which is now the only hope for the Tubo army.

Guo Song immediately ordered, "The whole army goes out of the city and goes north!"

Fifteen thousand troops marched out of the city from the north gate and rushed to the north.

The Tang army was not exactly cavalry, five thousand of them were infantry, of which one thousand were heavy infantry, one heavy infantry was accompanied by an assistant soldier, who was a sword and shield soldier, and the other three thousand were spear infantry, who protected the heavy infantry on both sides.

The 10,000 cavalry was the main force of the Tang army, and they were responsible for fighting against the Tibetan cavalry.

The information of the Tang Dynasty scouts continued to arrive, and Guo Song kept track of the movements of the Tubo army at any time, and the Tubo army still marched south along the abandoned official road, and the march was very fast, apparently also wanting to occupy Shouchang County when it was dark.

But the Tang army was one step faster than them, and the fifteen thousand Tang army had already set up a formation more than ten miles away.

At this time, the Tubo outpost also discovered the main force of the Tang army in front, and hurriedly reported to the main general on Lituo, who understood that the Tang army had mastered its own movements and was waiting for itself!

He knew very well that once the main forces of the two armies met, a major battle would be inevitable, and any retreat would cause a serious blow to morale, and besides, their food could not last for a few days, and he was even more eager to look forward to this battle than the Tang army.

"Command the whole army, march slowly!"

The biggest feature of the Tibetan army is that it has good physical strength, general strength, and is good at infantry combat, but this time there are not many Tibetan infantry, only 3,000 people, and the other 5,000 are cavalry.

The Tibetan army quickly reorganized, with 3,000 infantry as the main force of the central army and 5,000 cavalry as the left and right flanks, and began to advance.

At this time, a senior general stepped forward and said: "General, it is already afternoon, if we fight until dark, I am afraid it will not be good for our army!" ”

Because of living on the plateau since childhood, the Tubo soldiers generally have low night vision, and they will suffer losses in night battles, and they will suffer losses in night battles, and they will not get dark until they are at least half an hour, he shook his head and said: "Now the withdrawal of the army will be pursued by the enemy, which is not good for our army, and we will strive to defeat the Tang army in the shortest possible time and end the battle." ”

They had the confidence to say this, they had defeated the powerful Shatuo army in two hours last autumn, and he believed that he would be able to defeat the Tang army as well.

The two armies gradually approached, a mile apart, both sides stopped advancing, and on Lituo found that the Tang army's formation was not quite the same as the tradition, the archers and crossbowmen were gone, the front was a dense spear army, and the cavalry on both sides did not find the sharp Modao army in Dadou Bagu.

Both sides were unwilling to take the initiative to charge, confronting each other on the battlefield, time passed little by little, and the argument could not wait, and it would be dark if it waited any longer, which was extremely unfavorable to the Tibetan army.

He drew his sword and shouted: "The left and right cavalry charge the opposing infantry!" ”

The war drums in the Tubo army suddenly sounded, and the two cavalry, one left and one right, killed the Tang army like two sharp short spears, and the tactics of Lituo were obvious, he saw that the Tang army and the Chinese army were all infantry, relatively weak, so he wanted to concentrate superior forces and defeat the Tang army first, triggering the rout of the Tang army.

It's just that Li Tuo couldn't have imagined that this was a tactic by the Tang army to deliberately hide its strength and show weakness, covering up the 1,000 heavy armored infantry behind it with 3,000 spear infantry.

The Tibetan army is getting closer and closer, only two hundred steps away from the Tang army, like a galloping torrent, the momentum is overwhelming, the horse's hooves stir up rolling yellow dust, and the sand and dust fill the sky.

Guo Song resolutely ordered, "Modao soldiers attack!" ”

'Boom! Boom! Boom! The drums of the Tang army were loud, and the three thousand spearmen quickly retreated and ran to the sides, as if the curtain had suddenly opened, and a thousand heavily armored infantry suddenly appeared in front of the enemy's eyes, and the Mo swords that had been placed on the ground were erected, and they were half-kneeling on the ground, and pressed their knives against the solid earth.

The sudden appearance of a thousand heavily armored infantry was so shocked that Lituo's scalp was about to explode, he never thought that the Tang Army's Mo Dao was actually hidden behind, and now it was too late to change his tactics, he had to watch the five thousand cavalry crash into the Tang Army's Mo Dao array.

The Tubo cavalry also saw the sudden appearance of the large array of swords, their faces were so frightened that they were deformed, and they were terrified, but they could no longer dodge, and many soldiers had to close their eyes and crash into it screaming.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, thousands of Tubo cavalry took the lead in colliding with the Modao array, and the wood-like Modao swords pierced the body of the war horse, and also pierced the body of the cavalry, and for a time the blood mist was filled, and the corpses of hundreds of cavalry were piled up in front of the Modao array.

Seeing that the enemy's shock had been disintegrated, Commander Kang Bao roared, stood up and swung his sword at an enemy centurion, which slashed through his shoulders and split the centurion and his horse in half.

The Modao soldiers also stood up one after another, neatly brandishing their swords and killing the enemy, advancing like a wall.

At this time, Guo Song ordered: "Cavalry attack!" ”

Two armies of 5,000 men each came out from the left and right, and they galloped along the perimeter of the enemy's cavalry, like two closed gates, cutting off the retreat of the 5,000 Tibetan cavalry.

On Lituo led 3,000 infantry to rush to kill, but met the same number of 3,000 spear infantry of the Tang army, and the two sides fought fiercely.

The Tibetan soldiers held shields and short swords, and were very brave and good at fighting, while the Tang soldiers sprinted with spears and slashed with swords at close range.

Guo Song had received information before that this Tibetan army was transferred back from Tocharo, and it was the elite army of Tubo, which was very strong and brave in battle, and very tenacious, never said defeat lightly, and often fought to the last man.

Last autumn, 10,000 troops defeated 20,000 Shatuo cavalry, killing more than 7,000 enemies, and the combat effectiveness of the Shatuo cavalry itself was very strong, and it was actually defeated in a battle, which shows the strength of the combat effectiveness of this Tibetan army.

Although the Tang army had twice as many troops as the other side and was very well equipped, it was not easy for the Tang army to defeat this Tibetan army.

It was also aware of this that Guo Song especially strengthened the army's physical training and night combat training, which was to prepare for this moment.

There is also a team hidden in the distance, composed of more than 300 carts, there are military doctors, there are Dunhuang young men, once the wounded soldiers of the Tang Army are sent, the military doctors will immediately stop the bleeding and bandage, and then the Dunhuang young men will drive the carts back to Dunhuang City to continue treatment, this is the experience of the Ganzhou army, can greatly reduce the number of wounded soldiers.

After a quarter of an hour of fierce fighting, the first batch of wounded soldiers of the Tang army came, about forty people, accompanied by more than a dozen soldiers, all of them cavalry, pierced through the body by the short spears of the Tibetan cavalry, and the wounded were more serious, and the lightly wounded basically did not leave the battlefield.

More than a dozen military doctors quickly used hemostatic ointment to stop the bleeding for them, bandaged them simply, and sent several large carts to Dunhuang City driven by young and strong people.

This measure does not completely prevent the death of wounded soldiers, and serious injuries will still occur, but it can reduce the death rate of serious injuries by half.

The two sides had been fighting fiercely for more than an hour, and the sky was getting dark.

(End of chapter)