Ya'er City, an important town in the north of Khotan, is an important transportation hub connecting Khotan and Anxi in the north. Because the Anxi Corps also undertook the strategy of the Safar Dynasty, which the Third Corps focused on attacking at that time, when it took over the task of the Third Corps, so before Qinkong's Xuanyingwei Dark Guard Network did not complete the infiltration of the Safar Dynasty, the Anxi Corps had almost no ability to carry out any offensive operations to the north, and even after Zhang Sheng won the victory of protecting the secret, he still did not relax his vigilance in the south, but now with the infiltration of the Secret Guard within the Safar Dynasty, a large number of newly formed Secret Guard Divisions have been established. When the Anxi Uighurs put all their energy on the frontal corps, the Anxi Corps led by Zhang Sheng dispatched the main force of 30,000 people from Ya'er City to the north to implement the northward strategy.

"Lao Qin, have you gotten in touch with Shule?" Zhang Sheng personally led the army to the battle, Qin Kong also appeared in front of everyone for a long time, but Zhang Sheng was a little flustered, he had a field army full of only 30,000 people, although Zhang Sheng brought twenty artillery pieces in order to attack the city, and also brought over more than 150 old-fashioned mechanical crossbows hoarded in Khotan, but for Zhang Sheng, he was too familiar with Shule City, since the Uighur Ye Hu moved the royal court sweat tent from Yanqi to Shule, Shule's city defense was completely renovated, The multi-battlement, multi-layered castle-type fortifications from the west were built one after another, and it can be said that it was a well-known fortified city in Anxi, plus the royal court guards and several major Uighur tribes stationed here, the Uighurs could gather more than 100,000 troops in a short period of time, and if you count the reinforcements of the Kupila frontline troops, then the 30,000 people in their hands would not be able to win even if all of them were immortals. Since the results of the battle of Kupila did not reach his side in time, Zhang Sheng did not know that Gao Siji had defeated all the main Uighur forces on Kupila's side. Therefore, although Zhang Sheng received the order to send troops, he was worried along the way, so he had this dialogue with Qin Kong, as the chief general of the army, Zhang Sheng was still worried about another thing, as August gradually passed, the winter in the northwest is getting closer and closer, if the winter battle of the army is protracted, he will definitely not get any benefits under the fortified city, and he may be defeated by the other party. Zhang Sheng didn't want to bury the Anxi Corps he had worked so hard to pull up under Shule City in vain.

Qin Kong had no way to answer Zhang Sheng's question, although Zhao Si had already sneaked into the territory of Shule one step in advance, but the area in charge of the Northwest Xuanyingwei Branch was too large, and Zhao Si was not omnipotent, because the order of the command was so sudden that he did not expect that Wan Yi would let the Anxi Corps carry out the order to fight north, and he did not make arrangements in advance. So Wen Yan smiled bitterly: "You don't know that I have been busy with the deployment of the dark guards on the southern front during this time, and the command department has not informed me in advance, so it is estimated that the secret guards are still on the way to contact Commander Zhao." But don't worry too much, the Flying Eagle Brigade is now in Shule City, I have already sent someone to find them, as long as we can contact the situation in Shule City in time, we will definitely not have any omissions. And since the marshal can let you send troops to Shule alone, then it must have been arranged, maybe the battle on the Kupila side has already been completed, otherwise it is impossible for the marshal to let you send troops alone with a corps. And I have a suspicion that the previous order of the commander was to let the Uighur corps be responsible for solving Shule, but at this time he told you to go north, then eighty percent of Hamoud was already waiting near Shule. He himself was a Uighur himself, and no one would be able to find out if he wanted to hide in the area. Qin Kong's words made Zhang Sheng's face look a lot better, in fact, he could also think about these things, but he was too worried, so he smiled: "This battle is getting bigger and bigger, and the more people under my command are in charge, how do I find that my courage is getting smaller and smaller, I have done something before to break into Shule City with a few people." ”

"You were frightened by the casualties of the previous battle to protect the secret, right? To be honest, if it weren't for the urgency of the war on the Western Front, according to the tradition of the General Staff, you should have studied at the military academy at this time. I think it's better for you to go back to Chang'an after this battle, it's good for you. Although Qin Kong was not in charge of the army, he still didn't know Zhang Sheng's mentality at this time, so he said: "I heard that there is a special course in the command department of the Military Academy for new generals to overcome this mentality. ”

"And that kind of thing?" Zhang Sheng was shocked when he heard this, then nodded thoughtfully: "I heard the chief of staff talk about this before, I thought it was because the General Staff had some other ideas, so I asked the new generals to go back and study again. Lao Qin, you have to help me talk to the chief of staff when the time comes, the marshal and the deputy marshal don't seem to care much about this kind of thing. ”

"Okay, my General Zhang Da, hurry up and march, don't you say that the General Staff will arrange it when the time comes." Qin Kong couldn't laugh at this guy a little, urging him to hurry up, the journey from Ya'er City to Shule is not short, just in addition to Khotan, there are hundreds of miles, and there are also wide deserts next door during the period, if you add the possible interference of enemy troops along the way, this long-distance march is not a trivial matter.

However, what Zhang Sheng and Qin Kong didn't know was that it was not only his lone army heading towards Shule at this time, the Northern Advance Corps divided his troops with Hammud after sweeping the Shuanghe Governor's Mansion, Tuobas led his troops north to intercept the reinforcements of Qarlu and Turgish, and Hammoud led the reorganized Uighur Corps to attack the garrison of Balsi Khan and Kulan City from north to south. As the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army, in the direction of Kubiluo, when Wan Yi and Gao Siji returned to Qiuzi to participate in the memorial ceremony, Chai Jia led the main force of the 11th Corps and a part of the 7th Corps to set out from Kubiro to capture Axiyan City, and completely dispersed the 30,000 people of Gelulu's troops stationed in the city.

In this way, along the Silk Road to Shule, only the last two important towns of Gumo Prefecture and Ultou Prefecture remained, and Ultou Prefecture could not be compared with Gumo Prefecture in terms of Uighur preparedness and army numbers, and compared with Gumo Prefecture, although there were lonely stone mountains around Ultou Prefecture, there were not many Uighur tribes around, and it was impossible to recruit young and strong troops from various tribes, so basically as long as Gumo Prefecture was taken, it meant that the road to Shule was smooth from now on. Compared with the Tiance army coming from the east, the journey after passing Gumo Prefecture was much easier, the large-scale desert area was basically gone, and the lush grasslands and oases allowed the army to temporarily get rid of the embarrassing water shortage. Therefore, after Gao Siji returned to the front line from Qiuzi ahead of schedule, he immediately issued an order to order Chai Jia to immediately lead the main force of the front line to carry out the task of attacking Gumo Prefecture, intending to take this important town before the end of August.

There are many rivers around Gumo Prefecture, the northern zone is rich in water and grass, densely populated, rich in products, and it is a traffic artery in Anxi, with roads in the east, west and north directions accessible, and taking Gumo Prefecture can cut off the way for the Turks to advance eastward to cut off the retreat of the Tiance army, and it is also to completely introduce the war into the enemy-occupied area, so that dozens of tribes around Gumo Prefecture will not be able to fight against the Tang Dynasty with the Uighurs from now on, weakening the war potential of the other party. Therefore, after Gao Siji gave the order, he directly threw Kupila to Liu Xuan without stopping, and he quickly rushed to the front line with the men and horses of the Seventh Corps.

Gao Siji's arrival made the battle on the front line of Gumo Prefecture start quickly, and Zhang Sheng's side was still worried that his own troops were too small, Gao Siji directly sent troops to set up a position to forcibly attack the city, relying on the continuous bombardment of rumbling artillery, the 11th Corps immediately organized a blast to blow open the closed city gate after the siege day completely suppressed the opponent's defensive forces, 100,000 troops swarmed into the city and the Uighur coalition army launched a fierce street battle in the city, after a day and a night of continuous fighting, after paying more than 5,000 casualties, After nearly 10,000 soldiers were wounded, they finally strangled most of the Uighur army and completely mastered this transportation hub. Because of the need to destroy the other party's living force, so Gao Siji issued a kill order after entering the city, and all those who were unwilling to lay down their weapons were killed unconditionally, and the more than 100,000 troops originally stationed here were almost slaughtered, and no less than 70,000 corpses were found when the battlefield was cleaned up afterwards, and almost all the defenders of Gumo Prefecture were killed in a battle. The brutal killing made the surrounding tribes tremble, and the bloody anger rose to the sky, and even the soldiers of the Tiance Army were terrified afterwards, not believing that it was done by their own people. And this battle also made Chai Jia famous in the northwest, winning the title of "butcher", and almost all the tribes and tribes in the place where the 11th Corps appeared were looking down on the wind, and they did not dare to negotiate terms with this group of slaughtering and crazy butchers. This later made Gao Siji change his strategy and let the 11th Corps devote himself to deterring those large and small tribes.

However, when Gao Siji took Gumo Prefecture strongly and killed a river of blood in the city, Wan Yi was also saying goodbye to Li Xuanqing, because Li Xuanqing's trip was to preside over the memorial ceremony of Qiuzi, and there was no way to go to the front line in person, so when he parted, he talked with Wan Yi about the strategic tasks in the northwest, Li Xuanqing clearly told Wan Yi that the recovery of Shule was only the first step in the Western Expedition, and the ultimate goal of the Western Expeditionary Army was to recover all the lost territories of most of the subordinates of Anxi, including those in the prefecture. In this way, the task that fell on the shoulders of Wan Yi and the Western Expeditionary Army was more than doubled at once, and the farthest Persian Governor's Mansion in Gumo Prefecture was still nearly a thousand miles away from Shule, and it was now occupied by the Tianfang Sect country, so Li Xuanqing reminded Wan Yi to be mentally prepared to fight against the Tianfang Sect world in advance, and even Li Xuanqing was not sure whether Saman in the northwest of Anxi had converted to the Tianfang Sect, if so, then maybe in the near future, the conflict between the Tang Dynasty and the Tianfang Sect would be further intensified.

"Senior brother, rest assured, the next batch of rotating troops on the side of the General Staff is already being organized, Chen Fan of the Eastern Expedition quickly resolved the battle, and there are still many troops who can reach the Western Front to participate in the war, and I will assist Tianxiang Tiancheng to complete the rotation of the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army before the arrival of winter. After taking Shule, the task of the Modao battalion can also come to an end temporarily, let Shi Jian take the troops back to repair, and I will let the direct battalion and the personal guard battalion come over to participate in the battle. Wang Houchun knew how heavy the burden was on Wan Yi's shoulders, so he smiled and said: "Now that Chen Fan has also returned to the General Staff, Tianxiang and Tiancheng's courage is also a lot lighter, and when I go back, I will come back as soon as possible to help Senior Brother." ”

"Haha, if you can come to the northwest, I can make it half easier." Wan Yi patted Wang Houchun's shoulder and laughed.

"Brother Siji, you have worked so hard in the northwest, and the places taken by the army must be restored to order as soon as possible." Li Xuanqing saw that Wang Houchun had finished explaining the affairs of the military, turned his head to look at Tuoba Si and said with a smile: "I miss you very much for leaving you in the northwest, Mr. Cen." ”

"The emperor laughed, Si Zhi can follow my Tiance army to expand the territory is enough, I dare not say that I am hard, I must do my best to share the emperor's worries." Tuoba Si Ji smiled slightly, for more than a year, he, the deputy prime minister, went out with the army to take over the vast territory taken by the army, and was able to restore order in the shortest possible time to eliminate the contradictions between the tribes, although he was tired of describing weight but his spirit was very good, especially two days ago Li Xuanqing's speech at the memorial ceremony mobilized all the people in the entire northwest who were interested in the Tang Dynasty for this new empire, so he arched his hand and said: "The northwest is my Tang Dynasty land, and Si Ji will work hard." ”

"Okay, I originally wanted to wait for your soldiers to come to Shule before leaving, but there are still many things to deal with in the Central Plains, which is really a pity." Li Xuanqing sighed leisurely, and then said with a smile: "After becoming the emperor, I found that it was inconvenient to go out, so it is better for you feudal officials and generals to see the scenery of all parts of the Tang Dynasty and watch the ebb and flow of the tide." ”

Li Xuanqing's words made Wan Yi and Tuoba Siji a little unsure of what to take, Li Xuanqing, the emperor, is already very good, compared to the previous emperor, which one did not spend his life in the deep palace? How can there be so many opportunities to go out? Even if you go out, it's not a hug. However, the few people in front of him are all veteran ministers who started with him, and they have a deep understanding of this young emperor's concept of governing the country that is different from the emperors of previous dynasties, so Wan Yi smiled and said: "If the emperor comes to the front line in person, I am afraid that our prime minister should be in a hurry, if the emperor does everything himself, then what do we want to do as ministers and generals?" I'm afraid that Brother Si and I will be scolded to death by the history books of later generations. As soon as he finished speaking, everyone laughed, and after a few jokes between the monarchs and ministers, Li Xuanqing, Qiaoxi and Wang Houchun got on their horses and set off from Qiuzi to return to Chang'an. At this time, although Li Xuanqing had regrets, but the war on the front line was advancing non-stop, and the speed of Hamoud on the northern front was very fast after dividing his troops, and even when Gao Siji had just taken Gumo Prefecture, he had already arrived in Zhaosu, and then rushed west along the source of the Turks River, and then went south to Bodaling, walking in front of Gao Siji.

And the first large-scale battle after the division of troops encountered by Hamoud in Bodaling, it was also this battle that once again boosted Hamoud's reputation in the northwest, and this battle even directly affected the entire north of Shule.