Early the next morning, Jingniang set off to return to Chang'an, Zhang Huan did not keep her, but sent a team of soldiers to escort her safety, at noon, Wang Siyu suddenly sent someone to invite him, there was an emergency military situation.

Zhang Huan immediately rushed to the Anxi Jiedu Embassy, and as soon as he entered the door, Wang Siyu reported: "Governor, there are scouts coming to report that Tubo has shown signs of evacuating westward. ”

"When?"

"It should have been secretly set off last night, and early this morning, the scouts found that the Tubo army had pulled out of the village and traveled westward, and had reached fifty miles away, and sent a sentry to intercept the scouts."

Zhang Huan walked quickly to the sand table and carefully inspected the withdrawal route of the Tubo army, he had realized that the situation had changed, the Tang army had gathered 100,000 troops in Anxi, while Trisong Detsen only had 50,000 troops, and the military strength was already out of balance.

Zhang Huan slowly paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, in fact, the Tubo army was no longer the focus of his consideration, what he was thinking about was how far this western expedition would go, whether to continue the western expedition with a lot of energy, or to stop and consolidate Anxi and Beiting?

From a normal strategic point of view, it should be to consolidate the control of Anxi and Beiting, and the labor expedition also requires a lot of material preparations, but it can also be seen from what Jing Niang told him last night that Da Shi has obviously accelerated the actual occupation of the west of the Green Ridge, including a series of means such as culture, religion, immigration, etc., and he is worried that after a few years, no one will miss the Tang Dynasty in the large area of land west of the Green Ridge. The big tent was silent, and none of the dozens of generals dared to interrupt Zhang Huan's contemplation. After a while, Zhang Huan realized, and he looked up to see that everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to make a decision.

He waved his hand and said, "Everyone, when dealing with Tibet, don't worry about the gains and losses of one city and one region with them, and annihilate their living force as much as possible." Trisong Detsen must not be allowed to calmly flee back to Tibet. ”

Speaking of which. He looked back at Wang Siyu and said with a smile: "How about letting me be the coach this time?" ”

Wang Siyu bowed down in fear and said, "My subordinates don't dare, please let the governor give orders." ”

"Good!" Zhang Huan strode into the handsome position, his face changed, and he immediately ordered: "Wang Siyu listens to the order!" ”

"The last general!"

"I have appointed you to be the front army. led 20,000 elite horsemen to chase the Tibetan army day and night, and cut off his retreat for me within three days. ”

"The last general obeys!" Wang Siyu arched his hand and strode away.

Zhang Huan arranged the military rations and logistics again, and when he caught a glimpse of Xin Lang's look of anticipation, he smiled slightly: "Bailing stays, I have other arrangements." ”

After the deployment was completed, the generals were ordered to leave one by one. At this time, he beckoned to Xin Lang and said, "Come!" Sit down and talk. ”

Xin Lang saw that Du Du's expression was serious. I couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive in my heart, and sat down opposite Zhang Huan, Zhang Huan sighed and said: "Anxi is not better than Hexi, the road here is far away, and the loss of grain transportation is too great, so since the Han Dynasty, the method of tuntian has been adopted on the spot, and in order to let the soldiers serve with peace of mind, my Datang has implemented the military household system." This is actually a kind of immigration in disguise. Therefore, I also plan to implement the military household system in Anxi, and temporarily defend it with the Western Liang Army in the early stage. In the future, I will encourage the landless peasants in the Central Plains to come to Anxi to join the army, and give their families generous land and be exempt from taxes, and I will also plan to implement a fixed holiday system for the soldiers, such as three to five days a month, so that they can have time to reunite with their families

Zhang Huan talked eloquently, Xin Lang gradually understood the intention of the governor, he wanted to let himself stay in Anxi for a long time, sure enough, Zhang Huan changed the topic, and asked him with a smile: If I order you to be the military envoy of Beiting and oversee the military and political affairs of Beiting, you may be competent? ”

Xin Lang immediately stood up and bowed in response: "My subordinates will never live up to the expectations of the governor!" ”

Zhang Huan nodded, satisfied with his attitude, and continued: "This time the civil strife in Huifu, I estimate that it will not be able to expand westward in a few years, and the vitality of the Qarlu and Shatuo people will be greatly damaged, this is our opportunity, I hope you will not be conservative, let alone limited to the former Beiting land, after gaining a foothold, immediately expand to the west and north, and actually control the land by establishing a castle to defend it, especially to prevent the rise of the Baifu Turks, if necessary, you might as well slaughter me, do you understand what I mean?" ”

"My subordinates understand!"

Zhang Huan patted him on the shoulder again and said with a smile: "Wang Siyu will guard Anxi, to a certain extent, it is also a competition between the two of you, you have read more books than him, and you are older than him, I hope you don't lose to him." ”

Xin Lang nodded silently, he felt that he had a great responsibility.

In the afternoon, Zhang Huan personally led the main army of 60,000 people, and pursued to the west, looking into the distance, it was the clear blue sky and the endless grassland, the north could faintly see the snow-capped peaks of the Tianshan Mountains, and the melting snow formed a river through the grassland, and flowed into the wide Chihe River to the south, and it was the irrigation of these rivers that made the vast area of hundreds of miles west of Qiuzi to the city of Bachang become the richest and most fertile land in Anxi.

Zhang Huan introduced the situation along the way to the veteran Lu Yang, who has been stationed in Anxi for nearly 40 years, and he is familiar with every grass, acre, mountain and river here.

"Anxi is different from Beiting, Tulun moraine almost occupies most of the land, only on the edge of the desert there are large and small oases, here an oasis is almost a small country, their power is scattered, it is difficult to form such a huge force as the Qarluqs and the Tuqishi people, so he is willing to attach himself to the Tang Dynasty, and also welcomes the garrisons and military households of the Tang Dynasty, so for more than 100 years, the Tang Dynasty has almost all been competing with the Tubo in Anxi, and has never competed with the local natives for any control, so they will supervise Anxi in the future, The subordinates suggested that they should also adopt the consistent strategy of our Datang Dynasty, with the four military towns as the core, distribute guards and capture envoys in various oases and passes, establish a military household system, separate from the local people's political power, and perform their own duties, so that the way is to achieve long-term peace and stability. ”

Zhang Huan couldn't help nodding, it should be said that Lu Yang's ideas coincided with him, for Beiting, he advocated the implementation of a strategy of expansion and assimilation, the continuation and expansion of the state and county system in the Central Plains, and a large number of immigrants to achieve the purpose of actual occupation; As for Anxi, he also advocated supporting the local pro-Tang royal family, with them hereditary to manage local government affairs, and sending his prince to Chang'an to study, so that Wang Siyu could focus on military preparations to march west of the Green Mountains.

"I will consider General Lu's suggestion carefully." Zhang Huan smiled and asked: "Since General Lu has been in Anxi for nearly forty years, he must also know the situation of the Anxi countries, in your opinion, which country is the most pro-Tang among the Anxi countries?" ”

Lu Yang replied without thinking: "Of course it is Shule, during the reign of Taizong, it was the Shule State that ignored the threat of the Turks and wrote to the imperial court three times, requesting to be attached, so that Emperor Taizong resolutely decided to send troops to Anxi and Beiting, and finally established the rule of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, and the ministers were forced by Tubo after cutting off contact with the imperial court, and there was almost no place for them, and it was also the Shule king Pei Lengleng who withstood the pressure of Tubo and contained us in Shule, this time the Tubo army went north from Tocharo, and it was Pei Lengleng who arranged carriages and grain, And personally sent troops to escort us to Khotan. ”

"Wait!" Zhang Huan suddenly interrupted him, and he asked in surprise, "You mean that King Shule still has his own army?" ”

"Absolutely!" Lu Yang saw his surprise, and he hurriedly explained: "Maybe the governor doesn't know that in the past, these small countries in the Western Regions had their own armies, ranging from thousands to tens of thousands, to maintain local order on weekdays, and if they fought a war, they would be vassals of the Tang Army and accompany the army, otherwise there were only more than 20,000 people under the Anxi Jiedu, and they would have to be stationed in various places to guard and capture, how could they fight with the Tubo people?" ”

"I see!" Zhang Huan nodded slowly, but this detail was unknown to him, if Shule itself had an army and was pro-Tang, then why couldn't the ruling center of the four towns of Anxi be moved from Qiuzi to Shule, which would be more conducive to the development of the Tang army to the west.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huan immediately asked, "How many troops does the Shule Kingdom still have?" Also, how much of the Don army can be stationed there? ”

"There are still 6,000 troops in Shule, and the Tang army was stationed there more than 10,000 people at the peak of the past, but according to the estimates of his subordinates, Shule can garrison at least 30,000 people." Lu Yang seemed to have understood Zhang Huan's thoughts, he hugged his fists and said: "Governor, my subordinates have an idea, I wonder if the governor wants to hear it?" ”

"Just say it!"

"In the territory of the Anxi Protectorate south of the Tianshan Mountains, there is the northern defense line centered on Qiuzi and the southern defense line centered on Khotan, they are also the main roads of the Silk Road, and the west end of these two lines of defense always converges in Shule, which makes Shule in the military strategy of the western part of the Tang Dynasty, has an important position that affects the whole body, and it is really pivotal, and the subordinates are worried that the big cannibals will take advantage of the war between my Tang Dynasty and Tubo to send troops to occupy Shule, at that time, Trisong Dezan may not collude with the big cannibals."

A sentence suddenly reminded Zhang Huan, he remembered the news that Dharma Dadu said yesterday, the big cannibal tun heavy army is in Shi Khan, if they are worried that they will cross the green ridge to break the leaves, then they should be stationed in the north of the dense group, the garrison is in Shi Khan, from the south across the green ridge is Shule, do they really want to

Thinking of this, the cold sweat on Zhang Huan's back had already fallen, if Da Shi really sent troops to Shule and joined forces with the Tubo people, then the situation in Anxi would most likely be reversed.

He immediately ordered without hesitation: "Pass my urgent order, order Wang Siyu's troops to give up the interception of the Tubo army, march to Shule with all their might, and must prevent the possibility of the great cannibals going north." ”