In the early morning, the Hehuang army unexpectedly did not attack, they retreated to nearly ten miles away and set up a large camp, in the large camp, Ma Chongying walked back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back, his face was extremely gloomy, and his eyes were faintly flashing with anger.

The reason for his annoyance was not the defeat of last night and the arrival of reinforcements from Huixi Fort, but a letter from his handsome case, written by Zampu, which had just been sent in the early hours of this morning, in which he rejected his suggestion that Zhang Ye send troops to Wuwei and attack Zhang Huan back and forth, and asked him to return to Hehuang immediately, not to hinder the upcoming alliance between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty.

At the end of the letter, he implicitly told him that now Tubo had fought on two fronts, one was taking advantage of the civil strife in Huifu to fight for the northern court, while the other was to the south to conquer Tianzhu, and had reached the north bank of the Ganges River, and he could no longer afford to fight on the third front, hoping that he could keep the granary of Tubo's river, and the implication was that he did not approve of his use of troops to the east.

Ma Chongying also knows the predicament faced by Tubo, the population is insufficient, and he has to have troops for thousands of miles, in fact, in addition to going south to Tianzhu and taking Beiting in the north, but also because Tubo used troops against Tianzhu, Dashi also stepped up the deployment of troops in the Tocharian region, and the contradiction between Tubo and Dashi is also on the verge of breaking out, and it is really impossible to use troops against the Tang Dynasty that is gradually recovering its strength, so it is indeed a wise political choice to meet with the Tang Dynasty, but before the alliance, Ma Chongying hopes to take the strategic commanding heights of the Tang Dynasty.

Ma Chongying can understand the current situation in Tibet, but what he is annoyed about is not this, but that this letter is not actually what Zampu himself meant, but the suggestion of his political enemy, the prime minister Shang Xidongzan.

After the death of the former Tibetan Zampu Chide Zuzan. Xinzanpu Trisong Detsen was only thirteen years old when he ascended the throne, and the internal and foreign affairs of Tibet were co-located by the three Shangs. The theory refers to him Ma Chongying (Ma Chongying's name in Tubo on Xinuo), by him and Sanshang Zhongdi Shang Xi Dongzan as the prime minister, the two originally got along very well, and cooperated tacitly in several battles to attack the Tang Dynasty, but as Zampu grew up, the two began to contradict each other in order to gain Zampu's trust, and finally they had a disagreement on the introduction of Tianzhu Esoteric Master Padmasambhava into Tibet, and the two did not agree since then.

Because Shang Xi Dongzan was supported by the Na Nang clan, another major aristocratic force in Tibet, he gradually gained the upper hand, five years ago. Ma Chongying was slandered by Shang Xidong for opposing the alliance with the Tang Dynasty and dismissed the prime minister and was reappointed as the governor of Hehuang.

Ma Chongying knew that Shang Xidongzan's selfishness was hidden behind this letter, and he didn't want to let himself intervene in Hexi, let alone let himself get the elite of the 20,000 Tubo troops stationed in Hexi, otherwise attacking a small Wuwei County would not affect the overall strategic layout of Tubo.

But he couldn't help but listen to Zampu's order, but fortunately, Zampu didn't have a time limit, which means that he still had at least three or five days of buffer time.

Ma Chongying's pace in the big tent slowly slowed down, he frowned, and began to reassess the feasibility of capturing Huixi Fort, according to the original plan he would attack on both the north and south sides at the same time today. Defeat all your forces and completely overwhelm the opponent in momentum to achieve victory. But the sudden arrival of reinforcements from the Tang Army last night disrupted his deployment, and the other party's reinforcements were not much, only four or five thousand people, but the combat effectiveness was very sharp, which made him have to reconsider the battle of Huixibao.

He didn't know who came last night, but he knew that Zhang Huan had a very elite cavalry under him, judging from the performance of the reinforcements last night. This is most likely Zhang Huan's cavalry, which means that Zhang Huan, the commander of the Tang Army, has arrived.

Ma Chongying is a person who attaches great importance to intelligence, as early as last year, when the Donghelong Change, he paid close attention to the situation in the Tang Dynasty, he was very clear about the contradiction between Zhang Huan and Wei Ge, which is also the reason why he dared to concentrate the army on the ground, Wei Ge is very timid, not to be afraid. However, Zhang Huan dared to snatch food, fought thousands of miles, and laid a foundation, this is the person who should be paid attention to by Ma Chongying, and his ambition will never be satisfied with the domain of small martial arts.

Ma Chongying stood at the tent door and stared at Huixi Fort for a long time. The defenders of Fort Huixi should have seven or eight thousand by this day. Together with some militia groups, it has reached 10,000 people. With such a strong castle to rely on, and only 30,000 people left, there was no possibility of victory in a normal offensive and defensive battle.

However, Ma Chongying did not want to quit the army, and it was no longer important to him whether he could take Huixi Fort or not, he valued that this would be his first encounter with Zhang Huan, and that he could really get a feel for this potential opponent's style of play from this encounter.

He pondered for a moment, and immediately summoned his general, Sasha, and instructed him: "You lead three thousand infantry, carry three ladders, and go around to the north, and make a great siege of the city, remember, only to make a possibility, not a real attack, and act according to my orders." ”

After Sasha led the army, Ma Chongying ordered another general and said: "You lead 5,000 Qiang cavalry, stop the drums, and set up 1,000 suspicious soldiers into the dense forest in the east, and if the enemy's cavalry goes out of the city, cut off the rear road for me." ”

After giving two orders, he raised his white-haired head and shouted loudly: "Beat the drum, prepare to attack!" ”

Huixi Fort, Zhang Huan looked far away from the observation tower, and could only vaguely see the shadow of the enemy camp, Ma Chongying is a veteran of a hundred battles, he should know that in the three-to-one comparison of offensive and defensive forces, there is the leading fort in the Helong area, and it is extremely difficult for the attacker to achieve victory.

Judging from the fact that he immediately retreated when he saw the unfavorable opportunity last night, this famous Tubo general has rich combat experience, and he will never be rash, and he will not know that Wei Ge has the possibility of taking advantage of the situation to sneak attack Hehuang, so what does he want to do? Zhang Huan squinted his eyes and smiled slowly, could it be that he Ma Chongying wanted to test himself? If so, isn't he afraid that he will be tempted by himself?

He looked up at the Wusheling Ridge of the Qianzhang Cliff, turned around and asked Li Hengqiu, "Is there any way to connect the Huixi Fort and the beacon tower above?" ”

Li Hengqiu shook his head, "Back to the Governor, except for the beacon fire, there is no way to contact him." ”

Zhang Huan set his eyes on Luo County Commander again, and Luo County Commander pondered for a while and said, "Does the Governor want to expand the role of the beacon platform?" For example, spying on enemy troops? ”

Zhang Huan smiled and didn't go any further. He changed the topic and asked him again: "How is the demolition of the houses going?" ”

Luo Xianling's face showed a look of shame, he lowered his head and said: "Nearly 300 houses made of larger stones have been demolished, and more than 10,000 boulders can be thrown. ”

Zhang Huan knew his mood, so he patted him on the shoulder and comforted: "This is to kill the enemy, the people will understand your hardship, and when the war is over, they will repair it." ”

"My subordinates told the people the same thing, and everyone was very supportive." Luo Xianling thought that the people were actively cooperating, and he said with some emotion: "Wait for the war to end." I'll fix the house for everyone right away. ”

At this time, there was a rumbling drum in the distance, like thunder in the depths of the clouds, Zhang Huan stared at the enemy camp ten miles away, he waved his hand and ordered coldly: "Order the flying ape team to go!" ”

After capturing Wuwei, Zhang Huan asked Li Shuangyu to select some soldiers with certain specialties to form a special service battalion of about six or seven hundred people, which was subdivided into five or six teams, such as those who are skilled in archery are called the Flying Eagle Team, and those who are burly and powerful. is called the Flying Bear Team, and now the Flying Ape Team is going to be dispatched, and it is naturally a soldier who is physically strong and climbs over the wall and over the house like walking on the ground.

When the order was issued, I saw more than 100 soldiers dressed in the same color as the city wall quickly sliding down from the city with ropes, each of them carrying a large leather bag, and galloping to a distance of 600 steps from the city wall, all wearing thick deerskin gloves, and quickly taking out small bags from the big leather bags. The contents of the pouches were evenly scattered on the grass, and they sprinkled and retreated, each careful not to step on the things themselves.

They sprinkled more than 400 steps before they finished sprinkling the contents of their skins, turned around and ran towards the city wall, flew over a dozen deep trenches, and quickly climbed the city wall.

If we zoom in on the lens. When we look under the grassroots, we will find that there is an iron spherical object about the size of a thumb lying quietly under the grass, and the terrible thing is that this small iron ball has three and a half inches of spikes symmetrically growing on it. The spikes glowed blue.

This was an iron thistle against the cavalry. However, it has been improved to deal with enemy soldiers. Its presence causes great psychological fear to the Trooper and effectively hinders the Soldier's running speed, which is an extremely brutal means of killing.

The drums were getting closer and louder, and a long black line appeared five miles away, and then a magnificent black brocade was spread, and the low and strange sound of horns continued to sound in the ranks,

The team traveled three miles away, the formation of the Hehuang coalition army began to become clear, the soldiers on the black pressure ground could not see the edge at a glance, exuding a murderous aura in the sky, each soldier was the same equipment, holding a thick sword and a round shield, some people were wearing helmets, and most of them were directly draped in their hair, or their faces were painted with oil paint, looking hideous, nearly a hundred ladders and dozens of ramming malls were mixed in it, walking slowly, tens of thousands of people suddenly shouted a shocking slogan, as if a thunder thunder rose from the ground.

Ma Chongying is in the middle of the army, he is riding on a horse, his body sways from side to side with the movement of the horse, he squints at the defenders on the city wall, the defenders today are significantly more than yesterday, densely standing all over the city wall, the momentum is mighty, the flag is waving on the head of the city, the armor and crossbows are shining in the sun, and from time to time you can see some figures running behind the battlements.

Ma Chongying's gaze fell on the westernmost observation tower, there were obviously more soldiers on both sides of the observation tower than elsewhere, and there were faint figures flickering in the observation tower, he smiled slightly, could it be that Zhang Huan was also looking for himself?

At this time, a war horse galloped over, and immediately the soldiers reported loudly to Ma Chongying: "Qi Qi Marshal, General Sasha has led the army to arrive outside the southern city, please make your next move clear." ”

"Order him not to set up camp, assemble the ladder on the spot, and prepare for the siege!"

Another knight soldier rushed to report, "The five thousand Qiang cavalry has been deployed, and it is hereby reported to the commander." ”

"Good!" Ma Chongying shook his head full of white hair, he stared at the Weiwei Huixi Fort, and roared wildly: "The first attack!" ”

The drums beat loudly, and the earth-shattering drums stirred under the Wusheh Ridge, and the first group of nearly 5,000 Tuhun Valley infantry roared and rushed towards the city wall like a rushing tide, their main task was to fill in the ravines for the advance of the ladder. Zhang Huan is not in the observation tower as Ma Chongying guessed. He stood atop the wall, watching with a blank face as the frenzy of attack roared below.

In offensive and defensive battles. Morale often determines the outcome of a battle, it should be said that now the two armies are equal, the Hehuang coalition army has the advantage in numbers, and there are hundreds of siege weapons, morale is like a rainbow; And the Tang Army's reinforcements were newly arriving, and the governor personally pressed the formation, and the morale of the army was stable and high.

The city's first 2,000 crossbowmen were already in battle, and they waited for the enemy to come within range. 1,000 steps, 800 steps, 600 steps

The corners of Zhang Huandi's lips began to show a cold smile, and the rushing enemy wave suddenly moved, and the soldiers fell down one after another, as if there were cracks in the road surface through which the wave passed, and there were terrible wails mixed with the drums of the attack, and countless people rolled on the ground with their feet in their hands, and their faces turned black in a moment, and they died quickly.

The sudden change of events frightened the attacking soldiers, who did not know what was terrible on the ground, and suddenly became cautious to raise their feet. Someone finally found the poison quenching weapon on the ground and shouted loudly, and the speed of the attack slowed down noticeably as more and more people fell.

At this moment, a gong gong came out from the city wall! With the sound of projectiles, dense boulders screamed and smashed into the Hehuang army that entered the firing range, with the grim smile of death, and flesh and blood flew in an instant. Smash the slices of the river army into meat sauce and smash them into meat patties. The stone is powerful, but its weakness is also obvious, its range has a certain range, and the experienced siege army will definitely run desperately in this range to reduce casualties, generally speaking, it will lose about two percent, that is, five thousand siege troops will suffer one thousand casualties, but in this siege. Because Zhang Huan sprinkled a large amount of poisonous thistle on the grass, the speed of the attacking army was more than doubled, but it was this running that slowed down, and the casualties of the Hehuang army increased exponentially, plus this was a round of indiscriminate bombardment regardless of the cost. In just a short time of a pillar of incense. The Hehuang army suffered more than 3,000 casualties, and the rest of the soldiers were scattered. They all turned around and fled out of range.

The drums fell silent, the stones on the city stopped firing, there was silence above and below the city, the air was filled with a thick smell of blood, and in the short distance of five hundred to six hundred paces from the city wall, the ground was already full of blood, and only some people who had smashed their bones and not died groaned and wriggled in the pool of blood.

Sometimes a small rivet can change the course of a big ship, and today compared with yesterday, it is the same first round of attack of 5,000 people, and it is also the use of stones, Zhang Huan only made a small preparation more than Li Hengqiu, and the ending is very different, it is these small and inconspicuous thistles that have changed the entire battle situation.

This is the details that determine success or failure, Li Hengqiu is only a fraction of Zhang Huan, but he is a thousand miles away.

Zhang Huan smiled coldly, enough, he knew that Ma Chongying would not attack again, his morale had been discharged, and there was no point in fighting this battle.

"Governor, what about the enemy army in the north?" Luo Xianling asked cautiously.

Zhang Huan glanced at him, smiled and asked, "Then according to your intentions, how should we deal with it?" ”

Luo Xian Ling glanced at Li Hengqiu, who had a gloomy face, and sighed slightly in his heart, from today's conversations, he had already understood Zhang Huan's intentions, Zhang Huan wanted to replace Li Hengqiu and be fully responsible for the military administration of Huixi Fort.

Luo Xianling guessed correctly, although Zhang Huan did not condemn Li Hengqiu, but he also found that Li Hengqiu was indeed not suitable for commanding large-scale operations, and on issues involving principles, he Zhang Huan would not tolerate mercy and delay, although Luo Xianling had not led troops, he was sober-minded, cautious, and could be entrusted with important tasks.

At this time, Li Hengqiu interjected in a loud urn on the side: "Ma Chongying sent 3,000 people to the north to attack the ground with the intention of distracting our troops, and if we send heavy troops to defend in the north, he will not attack; If we ignore him, he will inevitably take advantage of the opportunity to attack the city and put us in a dilemma, so I suggest that we go out of the city and kill the enemy, and use the easiest way to deal with the enemy in the north. ”

"Then aren't you worried about the cavalry in the woods to the east?" Zhang Huan asked quietly.

Li Hengqiu is not stupid, he also feels the governor's dissatisfaction with him, but he is not convinced, he has made some mistakes, but he is not as weak as a young scholar!

"My subordinates have carefully observed, and there are only more than a thousand people in the woods, and since they are deliberately exposed, it means that their intention is not to ambush us, on the contrary, they want us to be suspicious and dare not go out of the city."

Ma Chongying's plan and Li Fanyun's desire to capture and retreat outside the Miao family manor in Taiyuan, how could Zhang Huan not see it, but he didn't want to hit Li Hengqiu too much, he looked at the enemy formation from a distance for a moment, and then smiled faintly: "Maybe you are right, but Ma Chongying is very fond of deception, we might as well wait and see what happens." ”

In the enemy formation, Ma Chongying's face sank like water, as Zhang Huan expected, he also knew that the general trend had gone, there was no need to make senseless sacrifices, this time he lost the battle of Xibao.

It's just that he can use the excuse that he can't disobey Zampu's order and withdraw with dignity, but he still wants to know if Zhang Huan will go out of the city to chase and kill, or this may be his last chance to turn the tables.

Time passed little by little, and the two armies quietly confronted each other on the battlefield, and no one moved, which was actually a silent contest between the two commanders to see who could hold out to the end.

At this time, an arrow was shot from the city wall, which seemed to be wearing a letter, and a personal soldier of Ma Chongying carefully walked through the position and picked up the letter and handed it to Ma Chongying.

Ma Chongying tore open the letter cover, pulled out the letterhead inside, and saw that only one sentence was written on it, "If the public goes out of Zhangye first, and then takes the west, he will win Wuwei." ”

Ma Chongying was stunned for a long time, he suddenly sighed, turned his horse's head and waved his hand: "Withdraw the troops!" "In July of the second year of Xuanren, Ma Chongying, the governor of the Tubo River, attacked Huixi Fort in a big way, repeatedly failed to fight, and retreated to Hehuang, not long after Ma Chongying withdrew from the army, Wei Ge was sent to Chang'an to send an envoy to Chang'an to reconcile with the Tang Dynasty, and it was not appropriate to make a big move, and politely refused Zhang Huan's request to send troops, in August, the Tang Cabinet unanimously decided to ally with the Tubo, and sent Pei Yi, the secretary of the Taifu Temple, to the Tubo envoy to Luo.