On March 20, after the capture of Wuwei County, another 30,000 Tibetan troops rushed from Zhangye to support, and Trisong Dezan arranged a small number of troops to be stationed in Wuwei, and personally led 120,000 troops to the Yellow River.

After three days of marching, the Tibetan army finally arrived at the Yellow River, at this moment there is no ship on the side of the Yellow River, the wharf has been destroyed, the big ship is far away, there is no one, the refugees who can escape are transported to the other side, there is only a lonely fortress, Huixi Fort, it is now the last castle of the Tang Dynasty in the west of the river.

There are still 5,000 Tang troops in Huixi Fort, they are also the last army of the Tang Dynasty in Hexi, they have not withdrawn, they have decided to live and die with Huixi Fort, the city gate has been blocked by huge stones, most of the houses in the city have been demolished, a large number of stones have been obtained, hundreds of trebuchets are waiting for battle, there are 500,000 arrows, and a small number of gunpowder weapons and fire oil balls.

The county commander and soldier and horse envoy Luo Youjun was standing on the city wall, looking coldly at the mighty Tubo army in the distance, if the enemy did not cross the river to the other side, then they would go south along the Yellow River, if it was the latter, then Huixi Fort would be a hard bone for them to gnaw on.

The Tibetan army did not rush to attack Huixi Fort, but set up a large camp five miles away from the castle, and 10,000 craftsmen captured from Zhangye and Wuwei were rushing to make the big ships day and night.

Tri Song Detsen, escorted by thousands of men, had reached two miles from Huixi Fort, and he looked with interest at the fortified castle that had made Ma Chongying retreat, and which had now become a stumbling block in his path.

Trisong Dezan only learned that the Tang army of Longyou was attacking Hehuang on a large scale after the capture of Wuwei County, and this unexpected news disrupted his original plan, which meant that he would not have ready-made ships to cross the river, and he would have to build a boat to cross the river, which would delay his time to occupy Longyou, and he immediately made strategic adjustments, and now he not only had to occupy Longyou. It is also necessary to cut off the back road of the Tang army in Hehuang and annihilate all the main forces of the Tang army in Longyou in Hehuang.

At this time, the general Shang Xi Dongzan knelt down and shouted an order: "Zampu, I am willing to personally lead the troops to pull out this nasty thorn!" ”

Trisong Detsen did not speak. He carefully looked at the terrain around Huixi Fort, then smiled slightly, and praised Shang Xidong: "You take 40,000 troops, bypass the castle to Hehuang, cut off the retreat of the Tang army for me, Ma Chongying will cooperate with you to fight, as for this castle, don't worry about it for the time being." When we take Longyou, it will naturally die. ”

Speaking of this, he coldly ordered: "I will wait for ten more days, and a hundred great ships must be built for me." ”

Under the city of Hehuang Stone Fort, in the Tang army camp, Du Mei paced back and forth in the camp tent with his hands behind his back, while Zhang Huan stared at the corner of the tent like ice water. He had just received a quick message from Shancheng. The beacon fire in Hexi was lit, and the Tibetans attacked from Hexi, but the specific situation is still unclear.

Now Zhang Huan finally understands Ma Chongying's strategy, he lures himself to go deeper, that is, to create an opportunity for the Tubo army in Hexi, so that his army can go deep, and it is difficult to defend back, but the problem is how many Tubo troops are in Hexi, so that Ma Chongying even does not hesitate to give up the entire Hehuang to cover. This is what worries Zhang Huan.

"Governor, I have a ridiculous idea." Du Mei suddenly stopped.

"Tell me about it!"

"I wonder if the Tibetans are also preparing to attack us in a big way, and we are also attacking Hehuang, and the two armies are so staggered."

"It's not ridiculous, I think the same thing as you." Zhang Huan shook his head lightly and said, "Otherwise, Ma Chongying will not lead us deeper at the cost of giving up Hehuang." ”

He sighed. The timing of the Tubo people's pinching is indeed very accurate. The army of Guanzhong suffered heavy losses in the first battle of Shuzhong, and he had just won Longyou. The foothold is unstable, so at this time, it is just a coincidence that he attacked Hehuang by himself.

"If that's the case, then what about Longyou? The imperial court may be able to send reinforcements. Speaking of this, Du Mei suddenly remembered something, his face turned pale in an instant, only Hedong could save Longyou, but it is easy to please God, it is difficult to send God, will the army of the Pei family or the army of the Cui family leave again after coming?

The atmosphere in the camp was solemn, and after a while, Zhang Huan stood up and straightened his waist, and he smiled faintly: "The eldest husband can bend and stretch, fall this time, and then slowly get up in the future." ”

He immediately ordered, "Order the garrisons of Longwu, Huangshui, and Shancheng to quickly withdraw to Longyou, and then order the Tang troops in Suirong City, Linfan City, and Suihe City to immediately move closer to me." With that, Zhang Huan slowly walked to the front of the tent, overlooking the towering Stone Castle City, and he muttered to himself: "Ma Chongying, are you waiting for me to retreat in a hurry?" ”

Chang'an City, night has fallen, at this moment Chang'an City is still immersed in the joy of recovering Hehuang, but a small number of high-level people have obtained the news of Tubo's large-scale attack on Longyou from Hexi through various channels, the news is tightly sealed, but the emergency coordination between high-level people is in full swing.

In Cui Yuan's quiet room, Cui Yuzheng, the new right minister of the Tang Dynasty, was nervously discussing the situation in Longyou with Cui Yuan, the head of the family, and the two had the same idea, that is, no matter what, Pei Jun would send troops to Longyou.

But when talking about the Cui family's plan to send troops, the atmosphere in the room immediately became a little solemn, Cui Yu paced slowly in the room with his hands behind his back, unlike Cui Yuan, as the current right minister, he thought more about how to repel the attack of Tubo, as for the interests of the Cui family, it was not important to him, at least not now, the most important thing was how to use this opportunity to establish his personal prestige, so as to get rid of the reality that he was Cui Yuan's puppet.

But there is only one way to save Longyou, and there are only four ways to send troops, one is to send troops from Shuzhong, but letting Zhu send troops is tantamount to asking the wolf to drive the tiger, this plan will never work; The second is Duan Xiushi of Lingwu, but I heard that there are only more than 5,000 troops left in his hands, and he himself has accepted Cui Xiaofu's will to return to the West to surrender to the city on the condition of sustenance. the third is to send troops from Guanzhong, or Cui and Pei; The two coalition forces, or the Cui family sent troops alone; The fourth is to send troops from Hedong, which is the most feasible plan at present.

In addition to the first two unfeasible plans, the latter two plans involve the Cui family sending troops, but this can't bypass Cui Yuan, Cui Yu has no choice but to discuss with him.

"The head of the family, although the troops from Fengxiang are close, the Cui family's army in Guanzhong is too small, and it can't be reduced in any case, so I think I can only send troops from Hedong, what does the head of the family think?"

Cui Yuan's body has gradually recovered, and he is as energetic as before, but he has lost sensation in his legs and can never stand up, he sits on a special circle chair, and four generals are responsible for carrying him to walk.

At this moment, Cui Yuan was not in a hurry to answer Cui Yu's words, he was considering the feasibility of sending troops from Hedong, since the first battle in Shuzhong, the Cui family has suffered heavy losses, and the vitality has been greatly damaged, and the strength of the Cui family has been weaker than that of the Pei family, in fact, this is not the most serious thing that the Cui family is facing, the serious thing is that there is chaos within the Cui family, the 200,000 Qinghe Army in Shandong has been mastered by Cui Qinggong, and Cui Qinggong has always been at odds with Cui Yu, and he hates Cui Yuan for removing him from his official position, so even Cui Yuan wants to mobilize 60,000 Shandong troops to supplement Hedong, but he also writes a letter to coax each other, Cui Qinggong reluctantly emphasized that the 30,000 army went to Hedong.

This is an extremely terrible sign, if this matter is not resolved well, the Cui family is likely to be like the Zhang family in Hedong, and finally split, for this Cui Yuan is also trying his best to conceal it, he knows very well that this is the evil result of his decades of exclusive use of Cui Qinggong to take charge of military power, and he does not dare to rush it for a while, so he can only rely on time to slowly mend it.

At this time, Longyou had an accident, which exposed his embarrassment, he was unable to send troops to Longyou, and the Shandong army could not be transferred, and the Cui family's army in Hedong was only 70,000, while the Pei family had 200,000 troops in Hedong, and they could transfer troops from Hebei at any time.

After pondering for a long time, Cui Yuancai said slowly: "You go to Pei's Mansion now, and frankly tell Pei Jun that the Cui family suffered heavy losses in the battle of Shuzhong, and this time to support the Cui family in Longyou will not participate, in addition, in order to prevent the Tubo people from attacking Guanzhong from Fengxiang, I decided to transfer 20,000 Hedong troops to supplement Fengxiang's troops, and ask him to let the army pass through Tongguan as appropriate." ”

The night is getting deeper, many Chang'an people have fallen asleep, there is silence in the Great Wall, suddenly, the fierce sound of horses' hooves sounded on the Vermilion Bird Street, dozens of war horses galloped from the direction of Mingde Gate, this is Pei Mingyuan and his party of ten people after three days and nights of non-stop galloping, rushed back to Chang'an, he was entrusted by Pei Ying, specially came to ask his father for help.

The war horse turned around, galloped into the Xuanyi Fang, and arrived at Pei's mansion in a moment, far away, Pei Mingyuan saw countless people standing in front of the mansion, his father stood in front of the steps, as if he was sending off guests, he slowed down the horse, and slowly approached the door of the mansion, at this time he had seen clearly, his father was sending off the right prime minister Cui Yu, Pei Mingyuan simply stopped the horse, and waited for Cui Yu to get into the carriage and drive away, he urged the horse forward.

Pei Jun had just negotiated with Cui Yu about the plan to rescue Longyou, and the imperial court would pay for the grain, and his Pei family would send troops from Hedong to cross the Yellow River to rescue Longyou, and in return, Pei Jun agreed that the Cui family's 20,000 troops in Hedong would garrison Fengxiang through Tongguan.

Just when Pei Jun sent Cui Yu away with a smile and was about to turn around and enter the mansion, he suddenly felt something, and turned his head, but suddenly found that his son Pei Mingyuan was standing twenty steps away with a few entourages, he was dressed in dust and dust, and his face was haggard.

The two looked at each other for a long time, and Pei Juncai smiled slightly: "I was still thinking just now, you should rush back."