(In the new January, let's vote for a few free monthly passes.) ）

That night, Wang Yuan met again with Yang Guozhong and Mrs. Qin Guo and confirmed the details of the illicit salt trafficking. Including the Yang family's investment of 300,000 yuan to Wang Yuan for the early stage of camel and horse manpower and the cost of purifying salt, Mrs. Qin also sent someone to accompany Wang Yuan to Chengdu to open a special carriage and horse shop to prepare for the transportation of salt, and signed a private sharing and cost-sharing agreement. It wasn't until the second watch that it was properly discussed.

After Yang Guozhong left, Wang Yuan and Mrs. Qin Guo said goodbye, and after a lot of grinding clouds and rain, after the third watch, Wang Yuan dragged his tired body back home.

In the early morning of the next day, Wang Yuan and Ge Luofeng, brothers and sisters, returned to Chengdu.

……

In late September of the sixth year of the Tang Dynasty, when Wang Yuan was on his way back to Chengdu, on the north side of Jishi Mountain, southwest of Tuyuhun, a Tang subject country in the northeast of Tubo, Wang Zhonghe's two armies of 150,000 troops and horses in the west of Longyou Hexi officially launched an attack on the area of Zhaling Lake and Ngoling Lake in the southwest of Jishi Mountain.

Wang Zhongsi's men can be described as strong and strong, with 150,000 soldiers and horses, 100,000 infantry, and 50,000 cavalry, which is the largest scale of soldiers and horses used by the Tang Dynasty against other countries in recent years. In the face of the swords and guns like a forest, the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses covered with rocky valleys like dark clouds as far as the eye can see, Wang Zhonghe's confidence has doubled. As a leading general who has experienced a hundred battles, Wang Zhongsi has been fighting against the enemies of the Tang Dynasty all his life, and he has never tasted defeat.

In the twenty-sixth year of Kaiyuan, when Wang Zhongsi was still the envoy of Longyoujiedu, he led 100,000 cavalry to Yanmen Pass to attack the Khitan and Xi tribes in the north. On the banks of the Sanggan River, he fought three battles and won three victories, defeated the combined forces of the Khitan and Xi people, and annihilated nearly 40,000 enemies.

In the twenty-eighth year of Kaiyuan, Wang Zhongsi led an army of 50,000 to break through the Turkic Yehu tribe and took Usumish Khan and sent it to Chang'an.

In the first year of Tianbao, during the Battle of Qinghai Lake, Wang Zhongsi led an army of 70,000 to break the main force of the northern line of Tubo and kill the two princes who led the army in Tubo. This battle also contributed to the return of Tuyuhun, which was originally controlled by Tubo, to the Tang Dynasty and became a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

I don't know how many other battles, large and small, have been experienced, but there is no need to repeat them one by one. After a lapse of six years, he once again led an army of 150,000 to attack the Tubo State, and Wang Zhongsi did not feel too much pressure, at least there was not the slightest nervousness on his resolute face.

But in fact, Wang Zhongsi knew very well that this attack was on the three cities of Tubo in the area of Zhaling Lake and Ngoling Lake. Doma City, Antelope Car, and Stone Castle City are three important towns in the northern part of Tibet, and nearly 80,000 Tibetan troops are stationed. The three cities are also the three fortified cities in the north of the Tubo Kingdom, and they have built strong city defenses, which are used as a barrier to defend against the attack of the Tang army, and it is not easy to capture these three cities. Even if the goal of this attack on Tibet is only to retaliate, it is not to destroy the Tibetan state, but only to take these three cities, occupy the settlements in the north of the Tibetan state, and weaken the strength of the Tibetan state. But this task will definitely not be easy.

The 150,000 troops marched from the Sandao Valley of Jishi Mountain to the vast Gobi area south of Jishi Mountain in three routes. The generals who led the army were all capable generals under Wang Zhonghe.

The commander of the 50,000 troops of the Left Route Army was Li Guangbi, the former military envoy of Hedong Province, who was transferred to the deputy envoy of the Jiedu of the Longyou Army. After Hedong Province was acquired by An Lushan, Li Guangbi was also transferred from Hedong Province by Wang Zhongsi and promoted to the post of deputy envoy of the Longyou Army. The commander of the 50,000 troops of the Right Route Army is Ge Shuhan, the deputy envoy of the Hexi Army, who is also a general that Wang Zhongsi relies on and a favorite general who Wang Zhongsi single-handedly raised. The Middle Route Army was led by Wang Zhongsi himself.

On September 21, the Third Route Army drove out of the large ** battalion north of Jishi Mountain and rushed to Doma City, the first frontier fortified city in Tibet, 150 miles away north of Zhaling Lake.

After passing the Stone Mountain, there is no barrier in front of you, and the endless barren land of the Gobi is full of eyes. As far as the eye can see, you can see the majestic Kunlun Mountains in the west, but it is already nearly four hundred miles away. To the east of the Kunlun Mountains and to the south of the Jishi Mountains is a large area of barren Gobi with a radius of hundreds of miles. The only inhabited places in the Great Gobi Desert are two lakes located 150 miles away. It is the Zhaling Lake and the Ngoring Lake, which are called the Baihai by the Tibetan people.

It's late autumn, and September is coming to an end. On the first night of the march in the Gobi Desert, the Tang soldiers and horses sleeping on the Gobi Desert felt the power of extreme weather. The freezing rain continued all night, the sound of beating on the tent was like a drum, and the temperature was frighteningly cold. The soldiers had to raise charcoal fires in their tents to keep out the cold. At dawn, when Wang Zhongji walked out of the big tent, he could see that the Gobi Desert was covered with white frost, and the hot breath exhaled from the mouths of the soldiers was clearly visible.

Wang Zhongsi knew in his heart that this crusade against the Tubo people was too hasty, and he had to spend more than a month preparing supplies, grain, and grass to reorganize the army, and he had missed the best time. The battle must be completed within a month, or the bitter cold on the Gobi Desert threatens to render it useless. Wang Zhongji is not too unfamiliar with this land, and in winter, it will snow several feet thick, and the temperature will be ridiculously cold. This is one of the reasons why this land is vast but uninhabited.

Wang Zhongsi ordered his soldiers and horses to march quickly, and ordered Li Guangbi's army on the left to advance and go to Antelope City in the east of Ngoling Lake, cutting off the road between Antelope City and Doma City. The right army, Ge Shuhan, went to the west of Zhaling Lake, cutting off the road between Shibao City and Doma City, isolating the three cities in a zigzag pattern, with the aim of quickly taking the convex front Doma City.

Three days later, Wang Zhongsi's middle route army arrived on the Gobi Desert north of Doma City, and the outline of Doma City was clearly visible in the distance. Wang Zhongji immediately ordered the advance to two miles north of the city of Doma and set up camp in preparation for the siege.

The city of Doma is located on the northeastern shore of the Zhaling and Ngoring lakes, facing the water on one side and the Gobi desert on three sides. It is an earthen castle made entirely of gravel and earth. The city was not large, but it was built tall and strong. Although it was made of gravel and earth, the Tibetans found a way to build a fortified city in the environment where they lived for a long time. The silt in the Zhaling and Ngoling lakes contains a certain sticky substance, which the Tibetans scooped up from the lake, mixed with the sand and rammed it in a plywood, and after the air drying, the gravel blocks were as hard as iron, so that the Tibetans could still build tall and strong cities without masonry and trees.

However, the size of the city determined that it was impossible for this city to be stationed with too many soldiers and horses, so Wang Zhongji also had no fear, and dared to place the left and right route armies on both sides of Doma City, and only used 50,000 troops in the middle to attack Doma City. Wang Zhongsi also hoped that he could personally lead the Chinese army to fire this first shot and set an example for the army.

The Tang army approached the city, but the panic of the defenders in the imaginary city of Doma did not appear. When reconnoitring the city defense of Doma City, Wang Zhongji saw that the Tibetan defenders standing on the walls of the city were not chaotic at all. The walls were being strengthened in various places, carrying earth, stones, bows and arrows, and other items, as if they were going to hold the city.

Wang Zhongsi sneered in his heart, these Tubo people are not self-sufficient, this is a mantis arm as a car. According to Wang Zhonghe's consideration, the best strategy for the Tibetan soldiers and horses should not be to hold the city separately, but to break through one part of their own army together. Of course, I won't give them this opportunity, but it's the best strategy after all. Now the Tibetans have not even done this, and obviously have no foresight in terms of tactics.

On the morning of September 25, Wang Zhongsi led the Central Route Army to launch an attack on the city of Doma. Hundreds of catapults began to bombard the head of the city with stones, suppressing the Tibetan defenders at the head of the city, and giving the infantry the opportunity to advance to the bottom of the city wall by laying bridges over the moat.

After the siege began, the Tibetan counterattack was very fierce. On the inside of the city wall, the Tubo people gathered more than 100 throwing towers and threw stones high and far into the ** array, causing a lot of damage to the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses. At the same time, the Tibetan soldiers and horses at the head of the city braved the stones thrown by the catapult to bombard the ** who charged and sniped with bows and arrows. When ** approached the city wall, a large number of boulders and clods were thrown down from the city, causing a large number of casualties.

Wang Zhongsi did not flinch, the siege battle caused a large number of casualties was expected, and he had the capital to fight against it, once the city was broken, this casualty gap would be immediately balanced. Doma City is already a lonely city, after breaking this city, all the Tibetan people in the city will be unable to escape, and then they can be slaughtered.

The siege lasted until evening, and ** launched five large-scale charges, several times to attack the city. However, it still failed to break through the city of Dom. More than four thousand soldiers were killed, and the number of casualties exceeded eight thousand. The Tibetan casualties were not small, but they stubbornly resisted the attacks again and again, as if they were determined to die here with **.

Although this situation was unexpected by Wang Zhonghe, Wang Zhongsi was not panicked. Wang Zhongji stopped the siege and allowed the soldiers to rest. At the same time, the order was announced to conduct a large-scale siege of the city at night. Wang Zhongji ordered that in addition to the wounded soldiers and thousands of logistics soldiers and horses, the remaining 30,000 soldiers and horses all participated in the night siege. The siege of the night must be taken in one fell swoop, and there is no talk of retreating.

After the first shift, a dark night shrouded the Gobi Desert. Taking advantage of the cover of the night, 30,000** rushed to the city of Doma like a tide along the hundreds of bridges of the moat built during the day. Thousands of ladders mounted on the city, and almost effortlessly, thousands of ** attacked the head of Doma City. The Tibetan defenders at the head of the city put up only sporadic resistance. When a large number of ** poured into the city, the Tubo soldiers and horses in the entire city seemed to evaporate and disappeared without a trace.

When Wang Zhongji received the report and entered the city, he also wondered when he stood at the head of the city and looked at the dark city of Doma. Just as he was about to order the soldiers and horses to rush into the city to search for the Tibetan soldiers and horses, suddenly the city was on fire, and after a while, the city became a sea of fire. Many figures set fire to the city, apparently by the Tibetans themselves.

Wang Zhongji hurriedly ordered the whole army to withdraw from the outside of the city, and the fire burned all night, and the fire was not extinguished until dawn. Wang Zhongji led his troops into the city, and the earthen houses all over the city were burned to the people, and all the houses were burned and destroyed, and there was not a single intact house.

The soldiers and horses who searched reported that there was no trace of the Tibetan soldiers and horses in the city, and a large number of Tibetan soldiers and horses seemed to have evaporated from the world burned by the fire, and there was no trace at all. Wang Zhongsi was very puzzled, he didn't see the Tibetan soldiers and horses escaping from Doma City last night, could it really be burned here? When he came to the south gate and saw the wharf facing the water outside the south gate, he suddenly realized. Dozens of reed boats are leaning on the wharf, which are improvised boats made from the lush reeds on the shores of Zhaling Lake. There were a large number of weapons and materials scattered on the dock, and the footsteps were mixed, and it was a chaotic scene.

"Misstep, blunder." Wang Zhongsi frowned and scolded: "Ben Shuai originally thought that they would be caught in the urn and could not escape, but now it seems that they took advantage of the interval of our attack to evacuate from the lake in such a reed boat. Before leaving, he burned the city, leaving us with an empty city, which is really hateful. ”