Late at night, the Tang army began to withdraw, and the Hui army finally took Baiyun Fort, the westernmost part of Xingxing Gorge, at the cost of more than 6,000 casualties, and it took a whole day, but when capturing the middle castle, although the casualties were far less than the first castle, it took two days, and the Tang army's gunpowder effectively slowed down their pace.

Time, Wang Siyu wants time, after three days of targeted resistance, 25,000 reinforcements from Jiuquan and Dunhuang finally arrived, and the Hui army could no longer take the third castle.

After 20 May, Zhang Huan personally led an army of 150,000 to Xingxing Gorge one after another.

This is the first time Zhang Huan has come to Xingxing Gorge, he silently stared into the distance, under the same blue sky, his ancestors once galloped across this land, Hou

"The last general will see the governor!" He turned over and dismounted, and half-knelt down to give Zhang Huan a military salute.

"You are General Ding Xiaoyuan

Remembering the name of each subordinate and their strengths, it is necessary to be a qualified lord, Zhang Huan smiled slightly: "The year before last, the military academy ranked third in cavalry archery." I'm not mistaken! ”

"Do you remember the villain?" Ding Xiaoyuan was very surprised, and an inexplicable feeling trembled in his heart, you know. The Xiliang army has nearly 400,000 people, and how many lieutenants are there. But the Governor still remembered himself, a lowly slave he had freed.

"The last general was ordered by General Wang Siyu to greet the governor."

Zhang Huan nodded, and he smiled gently: "Let's talk about it, how is the enemy's garrison in Xingxing Gorge?" ”

He already knew that two of the three castles had been lost, but the Tang army had only lost more than a thousand men, and all of them were cavalry officers who had died in a white-knuckle battle with the enemy's cavalry, while the other side had lost nearly eight thousand men. Obviously, this is Wang Siyudi's operational thinking, which is not confined to the gains and losses of one city and one fort, and on the premise of ensuring that there is no strategic defeat, he should preserve his strength as much as possible and effectively annihilate the enemy's local living forces. Wang Siyu brought it into full play.

"Return to the Governor. \\\\\\ Jie Gangars deployed about 9,000 people in Minghui Fort and Baiyun Fort. Ding Xiaoyuan remembered the defeat of the defensive ground this time, and he couldn't help sighing and said: "The last general is not good to play." If you lose the pass, please punish them. ”

"Jiegangas can take the castle with 70,000 cavalry, we have more than 100,000 troops, and we have advanced siege weapons, can't we take it back?"

Zhang Huan waved his hand lightly, "I'll talk about the punishment later, I want to see the situation with my own eyes." ”

The army marched towards Xingxing Gorge, and after two hours, they finally arrived at the town, and the army set up a large camp by the lake, and the dense camp tents could not be seen at a glance, and it stretched for more than ten miles. \\\\\\

The wooden fence outside the camp had been fenced, and three long trenches had been dug in front of the fence, covered with stakes and antlers, and the camp was extremely busy, and groups of soldiers were unloading supplies from the wagons and moving them into the logistics tents.

One, two, three! A dozen soldiers pulled up a tent and drove the stakes at the other end deep into the earth, and there was another cheer from both sides of the camp, and several tall guard towers were erected.

In the busy military camp, Wang Siyu came to report to Zhang Huan accompanied by more than a dozen personal soldiers, he kept nodding to the soldiers, and quickly came to the handsome tent, Zhang Huan's personal soldiers immediately saluted him and said: "The governor has been waiting for a long time, please General Wang in." ==”

There is a huge sand table in the middle of the tent, which is made up of more than a dozen small sand tables, which occupies half of the tent, and on it is a detailed map of Anxi, starting from Jiuquan in the east, reaching the Aral Sea in the west, reaching Yibohai (now Balkhash Lake) in the north, reaching Tocharian and Bolu in the south, there are snow-capped mountains on the sand table, there are long desert sand dunes, and there are oases and rivers and lakes one by one, hundreds of cities of different sizes, guards and captures are distributed in it, which is drawn by nearly a thousand scouts in three years.

In addition to Zhang Huan in the tent, there are several military advisers, and a military minister who specializes in managing the sand table is standing aside with a thick booklet, which contains detailed information about each city, history, ethnicity, garrison, population, city situation, etc., but it is not very complete, and many cities west of the green ridge are still being collected.

At this moment, Zhang Huan is pulling down a small yellow flag from the head of Shule Town, he just got the news on the way, because Trisong Dezan from Tocharo to the north, must pass through Shule Town, Cao Lingzhong, who is alone in Shule, has been forced to abandon Shule, more than 2,000 Tang troops and more than 10,000 of their families have been diverted to Khotan Town, and now the situation is unknown, that is, there is no city belonging to the Tang Dynasty in Anxi now.

Recapture of Anxi has always been Zhang Huan's established strategy, after the occupation of Hexi, due to the instability of the situation in the two Huai, he temporarily shelved the plan to go west, turned to the east, now with the establishment of the new cabinet, the situation of the three powers of the Tang Dynasty has been formed, the situation has gradually stabilized, taking advantage of the opportunity of the temporary stability of the situation, he continued to implement the westward strategy, in the court, he let Zhang Potian represent his voting rights, and he himself put all his energy on Anxi. \\\\\\

The capture of Anxi, not only to restore the glory of the Tang Dynasty, it also has a more far-reaching strategic significance, due to years of military and poor soldiers, Tibet has slowly declined from the strongest time twenty years ago, the army has been sharply reduced, the financial depletion, and the loss of the source of slaves, in order to save the decline, Tri Song Dezan in the battle for Tocharian failed, then bet the last hope on Anxi, trying to control the whole of Anxi, with Anxi as a base, from the East and West trade to obtain the greatest benefits, and once it loses Anxi, The power of Tibet will retreat back to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and will only perish in decline and infighting.

The Hui has turned the national policy to the West, but the Western nation is full of contradictions, and the Great Cannibals, the Qarluqs, the Charlius, the Turgish and other forces may not let it go west easily, so the capture of Beiting and Anxi will also become a springboard for its westward expansion, and once the westward expansion fails, the Hui Hui will look back to the east, so that Anxi and Mobei, the Hui will form a strategic encirclement of the Tang Dynasty, if Hexi, Hehuang and other horse breeding places are lost, then the Han people will face hundreds of years of disadvantages against the northern nomads.

On the contrary, if the Tang army could take back Anxi, the Hui people could only cross Jinshan and open a road to the west from the Qarluqs, which was of great significance to the stability and security of the Western Regions.

It is for this reason that Zhang Huan made up his mind to take advantage of the opportunity of Tubo and Hui to compete for Anxi, and sent troops to recapture this land that once belonged to the Tang Dynasty under the pretext of supporting Cao Lingzhong, the envoy of Anxi Jiedu.

"Subordinates, see the governor!" Wang Siyu walked into the big tent, knelt down on one knee, and Zhang Huan bowed deeply.

Wang Siyu has always been Zhang Huan's confidant, it is precisely because of his trust in him that Zhang Huan gave him the decision-making power to deal with changes at the right time, Wang Siyu also lived up to his expectations, and handled it properly in this Hui raid on Xingxingxia, with a small loss, won the time, and also exchanged for the overall situation.

Now that Zhang Huan has declared war on the Hui Hui, he has the most sufficient reason that he is forced to fight back.

Zhang Huan stepped forward with a smile and helped him up, seeing that there was a look of frustration in his eyebrows, knowing that he was still worried about losing the two cities in his heart, he patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "You are also a veteran, why don't you think about the overall situation, losing the two cities, but giving us an excuse and a fighter to go west." ”

In fact, Wang Siyu had a bold idea before giving up Baiyun Castle, but he didn't want to say it too early, for fear that it would be understood as an excuse to cover up his failure, he would rather be punished first and then put forward his own ideas.

Today's words from the governor made his eyes gradually brighten, the excuse for westward expansion and the warplane, is it the same as the governor and his thoughts?

Zhang Huan had already seen the change in his expression, so he took the wooden pole and handed it to him, and said with a slight smile: "Say what you think, see if we coincide?" ”