Chapter 365: Fighting on two fronts

To the west of Songzhou, the terrain is getting higher. There are various mountain ranges such as Jishi Mountain and West Slope Mountain. The people who live in the mountains are all Qiang people, and their leaders and chiefs lead the history of the assassination of the prefecture, and they are under the jurisdiction of the Songzhou Governor's Mansion.

Today, the governor of the Songzhou Governor's Mansion is surnamed Han Mingwei.

When the wolf smoke of Jishi Mountain was transmitted to Songzhou through the beacon towers, Songzhou City was in an orderly state.

At the beginning, the Qiang people invited the Tang Dynasty and were appointed as the assassins of Zhujian Prefecture, these Qiang people rebelled and attached to them, and when they had no food to eat, they still came out to rob the Han people, and when they had enough food and clothing, they re-became the assassins of Zhuzhou Prefecture. Therefore, the residents of Songzhou City are already quite familiar with this wolf smoke. Even Han Wei didn't pay too much attention to it, thinking that as long as he arranged a group of soldiers to rush up to deal with those Qiang people, he would definitely be able to defeat the other party.

However, what he didn't expect was that this time they were no longer facing a mass of scattered Qiang people, but a full 200,000 Tubo people.

On the third day of the wolf smoke, a knight rode from the west.

Arriving at the gate of Songzhou, the knight suddenly fell from his horse. The soldier guarding the city gate helped the knight up: "Brother, brother, what's wrong with you?" ”

"Tell...... Dudu, Tubo, Tubo 200,000 troops are coming to Songzhou! The knight finished his sentence with all his might, and swallowed vigorously, thinking that the two soldiers would be able to bring a bowl of water to drink. After waiting for a long time, there was no movement, and when I looked up, I saw that both of them were sluggish and in a trance.

The knight couldn't help but push a soldier.

"Wow-" I heard the two of them let out a loud cry in unison, leaving the knight and running towards Songzhou City.

"Ouch-" The unprepared knight was thrown to the ground and let out a cry.

"What! Two hundred thousand! Han Wei looked at the soldier in front of him with a shocked expression.

"Yes, my lord, that's what the sentry said!"

"Immediately send fast horses to Yizhou and Chang'an for help, hurry up!"

So the fast horses set off from Songzhou and went straight to Yizhou and Chang'an.

However, when the fast horse had not yet arrived in Chang'an, Li Shimin had already begun to arrange relevant matters.

"Your Majesty, the land of Shuzhong, fertile fields for thousands of miles, and the warehouse is full, so when you fight, you can be in the rear. In the land of Shuzhong, there are 66 military offices with 70,000 troops, but only 20,000 can actually be mobilized. Therefore, the army was mainly transferred from Chang'an. As for the appointment of generals and the transfer of the army, please ask Your Majesty to decide! After reporting on the situation of the troops in Shuzhong, the squire of the military department said to Li Shimin.

Li Shimin groaned for a moment, and his gaze swept over the generals in the main hall.

"I ordered, order Li Daozong, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, to be the general of the Dangmi Road march, Li Daoxuan, the general of the Longwu Army, to be the head of the Bailan Road March, the left Wuwei general Niu Jinda to be the head of the Kuoshui Road March, and the right leading general Liu Lan to be the head of the Taohe Road march, the left Yulin army, the left Longwu army a total of 30,000 people, together with the 20,000 soldiers of the Shu Prefecture, to resist Tibet!" Li Shimin stood up and said loudly.

The generals whose names were called walked out of the queue one by one and fought in a neat row in the hall.

Zhang Yunwen didn't hear his name, and couldn't help but feel a little regretful. At the moment, he stared at Li Shimin with enthusiastic eyes.

Li Shimin turned a blind eye to the enthusiasm in Zhang Yunwen's eyes, picked up a fish talisman, and said loudly: "Li Daozong, Li Daoxuan stepped forward!" ”

The second will take a step forward. Li Shimin continued: "Order Li Daozong to coordinate the overall situation of soldiers and horses, deploy the logistics of Shudi, and Li Daoxuan will be the leader!" The Zuo Yulin Army and the Zuo Longwu Army must rush to Shu within forty days! ”

"Whoa!" The two stepped forward and took the fish talisman.

"Niu Jinda stepped forward to listen to the order! Ling Niu Jinda was the vanguard, and led 5,000 Lin troops to Songzhou within 15 days to rush to the aid of Shudi! ”

"Whoa!"

Then, the rest of the generals were also given fish charms, either they followed Li Daozong's army to act together, or they led their own soldiers to Shu in advance to gather government soldiers.

After issuing the order, Li Shimin picked up the last fish talisman and said loudly: "Zhang Yunwen listens to the order!" ”

As soon as he heard Li Shimin call his name, Zhang Yunwen hurriedly came out of the queue: "The end will be!" ”

"Order you to select 1,000 gendarmes in the gendarmerie battalion, and select 100 guns from the artillery battalion to follow the army!"

"Whoa!" Zhang Yunwen hugged his fists. Then he asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, what about me?" ”

Li Shimin smiled slightly: "Well, just stay in Chang'an City and wait for the news of victory!" ”

Zhang Yunwen looked at Li Shimin dumbfounded: "But, but the last general also wants to go to the battlefield!" ”

Li Shimin waved his hand: "You have to take care of the new barracks of the reconnaissance battalion and the investigation institute, what time is there to go to the battlefield!" ”

Zhang Yunwen was about to refute, but Li Shimin continued: "Your subordinates can stand alone!" If you can be on your own, what are you going to do! ”

Seeing that it was impossible to go to the battlefield, Zhang Yunwen looked at the fish talisman in his hand: "Then why did Your Majesty give the fish talisman to the last general?" ”

"Ahem, you take it to the gendarmerie barracks. Artillery battalion recruits! Uh, not yet! ”

Due to the urgency of the war in Tibet, the army set out, and did not hold any oath-taking meeting like the expedition to Gaochang, but just gathered the soldiers, said the destination, gave the soldiers three days to prepare, and the army was launched. Niu Jinda's vanguard gave the soldiers only one day to prepare.

The 1,000 gendarmes and 200 artillery soldiers selected by Zhang Yunwen marched with Li Daozong's army. Before leaving, Zhang Yunwen specially went to Li Daozong's mansion and talked with Li Daozong for a long time, mainly about the importance of this Songzhou land. He even spread out the map and drew the locations of Tubo, Datang and Songzhou: "See, Brother Daozong, this place in Songzhou is guarding the pass of Tubo to the east into Shu!" From Songzhou to Jishi Mountain, this area is full of Qiang people, as soon as the Tubo people came, the Qiang people took refuge in the Tubo people, and even took up their own vanguards. As soon as the Tubo people retreated, these Qiang people put on a coerced appearance again, asking the Tang Dynasty for forgiveness. Such capricious people, when Brother Dao deals with it, don't be soft! ”

Li Daozong heard Zhang Yunwen mention something, and nodded immediately: "This matter will be handled by my brother!" ”

Zhang Yunwen continued: "In addition to the Qiang people, the junior brother also hopes that the Dao sect brother can establish a military fortress in Jishi Mountain, completely control Jishi Mountain and the area west of it, and completely cut off the idea of the Tubo people expanding eastward!" ”

After hearing this, Li Daozong couldn't help frowning: "I'm afraid this matter is difficult!" The cost of building a city is too high, and the rocky mountains are cold, even if the city is built, I am afraid that no one will live in it! ”

Zhang Yunwen couldn't help but show disappointment: "Okay, then forget it, the matter of Jishi Mountain will be postponed for a while, but Songzhou City can't be delayed, Brother Daozong is going, but you have to manage Songzhou City well!" ”

Li Daozong nodded vigorously: "Yunwen don't worry, you don't need to say anything about this matter, you should handle it for your brother!" ”

In the early morning, nearly 30,000 troops set off from Chang'an and went straight to Shuzhong.

After hearing that the Tang Dynasty only sent 30,000 troops, Lu Dongzan couldn't help but smile at the sky: "My family Zampu led 200,000 troops, and I am still afraid of 30,000 Tang troops?" It seems that the Tang Army is really carried away by victory after victory! ”

"Hmm, big brother, doesn't this Tubo have an army of 200,000? Why did Your Majesty only send 30,000 soldiers and horses? Li Daoxuan and Li Daozong walked side by side, and Li Daoxuan asked in a low voice.

"Two hundred thousand? Hmph, among these 200,000, at least 100,000 are slaves, and less than 100,000 are in charge of logistics and can fight. And among these 100,000 people, at least one-third are the armies of Yangtong, Subi and other plateau countries, and the other one-third are the private soldiers of the Tibetan nobles. Do you really think that a small Tubo can lead 200,000 troops, plus the 80,000 people who attacked Tuyuhun, wouldn't this country have 300,000 troops? I'm afraid there aren't even that many Western Turks! Li Daozong replied disdainfully.

"The eldest brother is really powerful, he has not yet fought with Tubo, but he knows the situation of this Tubo army!" Li Daoxuan said with a smile.

"Uh, Yoon-moon told me!"

“…… Why didn't he tell me! ”

Just when the Northern Ya army was heading for Shuzhong, the first battle between the Tang Dynasty and Gaochang had already taken place in Gaochang in the Western Regions. It was a skirmish.

Previously, the Yanqi Qiuzi coalition army organized by Wang Xuance fought a battle with the Gaochang Turkic coalition army before the arrival of Hou Junji's army, but was defeated. Compared with the Western Turks, who fought all the year round, these small countries had a limited population, and they cherished each soldier very much, and there were fewer wars between each other, so the combat effectiveness of these soldiers and the Turkic soldiers were not at the same level at all. I'm afraid that some of the soldiers who have not even seen blood.

So this one was a well-deserved defeat. After the defeat, the Yanqi Qiuzi coalition army went east under the leadership of Wang Xuance and went straight to Yiwu, first, to see if Yiwu's side was the same as Gaochang City, which was difficult to attack, but to meet the Tang army.

However, less than 6,000 people were also struck under the city of Iwu, with the loss of nearly 1,000 people.

The general of the unified army had no choice but to order a retreat.

And those Gaochang soldiers and Turks stationed in Gaochang saw that there was an opportunity, so they sent thousands of people to chase and kill. That's almost half of the troops stationed at Igo.

The so-called defeat is like a mountain, although they have an absolute advantage in troops, but how can these soldiers with no morale resist the Turks who are like wolves and tigers? When a chase was about to begin, I could only hear the sound of horses' hooves from the south, like rolling thunder, and I could see the fine sand on the ground begin to beat.

A cavalry suddenly appeared to the south.

I saw that these cavalrymen were all in iron armor like ink, and a fluttering flag had a big "Tang" character written on it.

"Kill—"

The general of the Tang army waved the long knife in his hand, and the two thousand cavalry rushed towards those Gaochang soldiers and Turkic soldiers like a flood.

The Yanqi Turtle Coalition Army has finally seen what a strong army is. Originally, it was thought that the cavalry of the Western Turks crisscrossed the Western Regions and could be called a strong army. However, watching these Tang soldiers slashing and killing the Turkic soldiers one by one, a kind of worship for the Tang Army suddenly surged in my heart.

In less than half an hour, the encounter was over.

When Wang Xuance stepped forward to communicate with Tang Jun, he saw a familiar face under the helmet - Su Dingfang.

Su Dingfang was appointed by Hou Junji as a vanguard officer, leading 2,000 cavalry to advance in the vast desert. If it weren't for the fact that he had a guide and more than twenty scouts by his side, I am afraid he would have lost his way in the desert.

As for why he was able to save the coalition forces by chance, it was the scouts who discovered these pursued coalition troops in advance and reported them to Su Dingfang. When Su Dingfang heard this, he immediately led troops to rescue.

Seeing that Wang Xuance was in the coalition army, Su Dingfang couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, he really didn't save the mistake!