In a moment, several Tang soldiers escorted the captured Tubo people to Li Ji, the man's face turned pale with fright, his legs trembled, the two soldiers swept lightly at the crook of his leg, the man fell to his knees, Li Ji looked at him for a moment and said: "I ask some questions, as long as you answer honestly, I can not kill you." ”

After speaking, he glanced at Xie Tianshan, Xie Tianshan immediately translated, and the Tubo man nodded again and again, indicating that he was willing to answer.

Li Ji pondered and asked, "It seems that you should be a Tibetan official, but the official who manages the Tubo herdsmen in Qiuzi?" ”

Xie Tianshan translated, and the Tibetan man nodded: "I am indeed the official who manages the herdsmen, but I am the lowest official in Tibet. ”

Li Ji asked again: "Can your sheep be prepared to be supplied to the Tubo army attacking Qiuzi?" ”

After listening to the translation, the Tibetan official said helplessly: "On Xianggui asked us to provide all 100,000 sheep, but the herdsmen were not very willing, I just went to the army to intercede, can you leave us a little." ”

Li Ji was stunned for a moment and asked, "Haven't your sheep been provided to the Tubo army?" ”

"The first batch of 20,000 sheep was provided the day before yesterday, and the second batch of 50,000 will be provided tomorrow, and the herders want to keep half of the sheep."

Li Ji immediately realized that although they had misjudged the situation, the situation seemed to have room for recovery.

He immediately decided: "Take him, let's go back to the military fort!" ”

More than a dozen soldiers took the Tibetan officials and followed Li Ji to the east.

At noon, Li Ji returned to the military fort with his subordinates, and Guo Song heard that there was an important situation and hurriedly greeted him.

"Any news?"

According to his confession, most of the sheep of the Tubo herdsmen have not yet been handed over to the Tubo army, according to the plan, they handed over the first batch of 20,000 sheep the day before yesterday, and the second batch of 50,000 sheep will be handed over tomorrow."

This news immediately made Guo Song overjoyed, he still had a chance, he carefully interrogated the Tibetan official, the situation was completely the same as what Li Ji told him, Guo Song did not hesitate, and immediately ordered: "The whole army assembles!" ”

Three hundred Eagle Strike soldiers quickly assembled, and after a stick of incense, three hundred cavalry followed Guo Song out of the military fort and ran to the Tubo pasture in the northwest.

........

Time was very tight, they had to deal with the sheep of the Tibetan herdsmen tonight, and the distance of dozens of miles passed in the blink of an eye, and the Tang army entered the Tubo pasture.

More than 100 Tibetan herdsmen died and fled, and Guo Song, the Tibetan official who was arrested before, also ordered him to be released, and the Tang army immediately gathered 80,000 sheep, and it was already one watch at night.

The captured Tubo official also rushed to the Tubo army camp at this time, he was taken into the big tent by the soldiers, knelt on the ground and cried: "We are raising 80,000 sheep for the army, but I don't know where to kill a Tang army, ruthless, the herdsmen are dying, fleeing, 80,000 sheep are also snatched away by them, please the general to call the shots!" ”

On Xianggui was stunned, he only got the news the day before yesterday that a Tang army cavalry of hundreds of people forcibly drove the herdsmen of Tuyuhun out of Anxi, but he didn't expect that something happened to the Qiuzi Ranch.

He asked urgently, "How many people are on the other side?" ”

"There are about 300 people, all of them cavalry."

On Xianggui and Deputy General Murong Bianlin glanced at each other, driving away the Tuyuhun herdsmen is also 300 cavalry, which should be the same cavalry.

On Xianggui said: "If there are no sheep from Qiuzi Ranch, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold out for a few days, they should not go far with the sheep, and the general can take three thousand people to chase after them." ”

Murong Bianlin nodded and agreed, and he suggested to Xianggui again: "We must make two preparations, lead the army to chase the sheep, and the general will send another army to Yanji, there should be some food over there, at least we will have food for the return trip." ”

The Tibetans and the Anxi countries had signed an agreement not to plunder their wealth and grain, but now they can't take care of each other's wealth, they need food now, and they can only use Yanji City to fight.

On Xianggui said happily: "This plan is feasible, I will let Naigui lead two thousand Tubo troops to Yanji to collect grain." ”

After a pause, he said again: "There is a large pine forest at the foot of the Tianshan Mountain, and you have to cut down some pine trees by the way, and we will supplement the lack of siege ladders,"

"Obey the order!"

........

At the first watch, the two Tubo coalition armies left the camp at the same time and marched in the direction of Tubo Ranch and Yanji City respectively.

The full name of the deputy general Bian Lin is Murong Bian Lin, born in the Tuyuhun nobles, is the nephew of Murong Daonu, the Khan of Tuyuhun, and was named the governor of the end by Murong Daonu, his tribe has more than 100,000 people, young and strong men are in the army, a total of more than 25,000 people.

But what made Murong Bianlin anxious was that in recent months his troops had suffered heavy casualties, from October last year, under the strong orders of Tubo, they launched the war of the last five cities, and finally 5,000 troops were wiped out, and he learned from the pain, he opposed retaliation against the Tang army, but Tubo once again forced him to send 17,000 troops to attack Qiuzi, together with the last loss of 3,000 people, he almost threw most of his troops.

As he expected, in the first tentative attack, his army again lost more than 4,000 men, and in just half a year, 7,000 Tuyuhun soldiers were killed, how many old people lost their sons, how many wives lost their husbands, and how many children lost their fathers.

Murong Bianlin was extremely resentful of the Tubo people in his heart, but he could only dare to be angry but not speak, and he could only suppress his hatred for the Tubo people in his heart.

Murong Bianlin led 3,000 soldiers to pursue the Tang cavalry who stole the sheep, and the reason why he agreed to Xianggui's request was also because this 300-strong Tang army made him hate it to the core, and the 300 Tang army burned down and ended the coalition army camp, forcibly expelling his tribe from Anxi, which had become a stinger in his back, and if he didn't pull it out, he couldn't even sleep well at night.

Three thousand Tuyuhun cavalry followed him all the way to the north, and after half an hour, they arrived at the Tianshan Pasture, at this time there were no sheep on the pasture, only some Tubo herdsmen fled back, and stood in front of the sheepfold in a daze.

At this time, Murong Bianlin's army rushed in, and the Tibetan herdsmen immediately gathered around Murong Bianlin as if they had found their relatives, crying and complaining to Murong Bianlin about the brutality of the Tang army.

"They killed, they set fires, they took our sheep, and that's all my property!"

"My brother knelt down and pleaded with them, but they cut off his head with a knife, my poor brother! The general must avenge my eldest brother. ”

........

Nearly 100 herdsmen complained about their grievances, which made Murong Bianlin very annoyed, and he waved his hand and shouted to everyone: "Everyone, please be quiet, listen to me!" ”

Everyone finally quieted down, and Murong Bianlin said: "I know that everyone hates the Tang Army, and I am the same, I led three thousand soldiers to come here just to hunt down this Tang Army, and now the top priority is to catch up with the Tang Army and take everyone's sheep back, please tell me, which direction is the Tang Army going?" ”

The crowd pointed to the east, "They went east!" ”

Murong Bianlin turned his horse's head and galloped eastward, and the three thousand cavalry passed by the herdsmen like a gust of wind, following the lord and galloping eastward.

In the dark night, Guo Song led three hundred cavalry to form a formation on a low hill, the soldiers were holding spears, murderous, and they were waiting for the enemy's pursuers, and the few two or three thousand pursuers just became the whetstone for their growth.

Eighty thousand sheep had already driven into a mountain col, and Xie Tianshan and a few soldiers were in charge of guarding the exit of the mountain pass.

In fact, Guo Song's action tonight had two purposes, one was to seize the enemy's grain and grass, and to use the enemy army in Qiuzi to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, and the second was to disperse the enemy's forces to achieve various breakthroughs.

Guo Song is not in the middle of the formation, but hiding on the side in the city, and the commander in the middle will be Li Ji, and the deputy will be Guo Chongqing.

After a series of fierce battles, Guo Song has formed his own combat style, he advocates capturing the enemy first to capture the king, first kill the enemy's main general, deal a heavy blow and weaken the enemy's fighting spirit and morale, he has this advantage, he will give full play to this advantage.

At this time, 3,000 cavalry came from afar, Murong Bianlin had already received the news, the Tang cavalry he was chasing was on the hill in front, he was afraid that the enemy army would have an ambush, so he hurriedly waved his hand and shouted: "Stop running!" ”

The cavalry could not have stopped all at once, but in the end it slowed down and slowly stopped.