"General, the group army headquarters sent a message that the Flying Eagle Brigade has gone to the ancient city of Ganzhou and cannot come to support the operation." Outside the Yumen Pass, Shi Jian's figure grew in the sun, and his whole body exuded a dignified aura, and the captain of the guard behind him hurried to report. Previously, after Shi Jian arrived at Yumen Pass, he reported to Pegasus and asked to send the Flying Eagle Brigade to help in the battle, but what he didn't expect was that Wan Yi had already transferred the Flying Eagle Brigade to the front line in Ganzhou.

Shi Jian was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then sighed, looking at the ancient city wall in the distance with a little sadness. The Tang Dynasty basically did not build any Great Wall, because the Tang Emperor was not only the emperor of the Central Dynasty, but also the Heavenly Khan of the Saiwai tribes, and this title has existed since Taizong Li Shimin, and the Tang Dynasty army is the strongest force to protect the empire, without any city fortifications. Therefore, the ancient city of Yumenguan has become a period of the past so far, and the earthen city that has been in disrepair for a long time has almost been abandoned, not to mention the invincible Tang army back then, and even the forces of the Long family that now occupy this place are not stationed here.

Although Shi Jian wanted to pay tribute to the monuments, he had a greater mission at this time, so after hearing that the Flying Eagle Brigade could not come, he immediately led his troops to the north from Yumen Pass, and chose to build temporary fortifications outside Yumen Pass to stand by, and at the same time sent a large number of sentinels to cooperate with Xuanying Wei to investigate the news.

"General, we have found a few clear springs outside the city, the amount of water is not bad, if you save a little, you can supply the troops with drinking water." Northwest operations, water source is the biggest factor restricting the movement of troops, originally thought that there should be a spring near Yumen Pass, but Shi Jian sent people to look for a long time and did not find it, so it can only be stationed in a place more than 100 miles north of the pass, the terrain here is not very suitable for combat, but the better thing is that this place was originally a small oasis, but it was abandoned, the soldiers of the Tiance Army looked for a long time and finally dug out the spring of the year, and the bubbling spring made the soldiers overjoyed. With water, you can stay here for a long time. The other springs were almost forcibly dug out of the yellow sand and mud. Compared with the ability of the ethnic groups in the northwest to find water, the Han people in the Central Plains have their own unique skills in finding water or digging wells, and can easily dig out water veins.

"I'm afraid that Yumen Pass was abandoned by all ethnic groups in the northwest back then, and it was also because the water source dried up." Shi Jian took a sip of cool spring water, looked at the abandoned Yumen Pass fortress in the distance, thoughtfully, the world has changed, the vicissitudes of life, the old site of Yumen Pass has been more than a hundred miles away from here, and there is no water source in the city, so there is no need for a garrison.

The matter of encampment and fortifications Shi Jian was handed over to the deputy general to deal with, and all he had to do was wait here before the news of Xuan Yingwei came back, if the Long family sent troops here was the only way for them to enter Ganzhou, his task was to intercept the Long family and even the headquarters of the Guiyi army, and create a condition for the main force of the group army to annihilate the enemy.

Seeing that the time was still early, there was basically no chance for the other party to conceal the attack in the desert, so after the fortifications were built, Shi Jian simply took the guards to Yumen Pass to feel the changes of the years left by this thousand-year-old city. Yumen Pass has existed almost since the Han Dynasty, and in the era of Emperor Wu, Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, attacked Dawan in the Western Regions and seized the bloody BMW when he walked through Yumen Pass. In the Han Dynasty and beyond, Yumen Pass was the main road in and out of the Western Regions, and the Han dynasty used to build an ancient city post here for a long time, as a resting place for troops and officials and envoys on the Silk Road. Nowadays, the ancient city is abandoned, but because it is located in a desert area, drought and little rainfall, most of the ruins from a thousand years ago still retain their original marks in addition to being buried by wind and sand.

"Qinghai Changyun Dark Snow Mountain, the lonely city looks at Yumen Pass from afar, the yellow sand wears gold armor in a hundred battles, and Loulan will never be returned if it is not broken." Shi Jian stood on the high place of the earthen city wall, reciting this famous sentence that has been sung through the ages, and muttered to himself: "I don't know if the ancient city of Loulan is still there?" If I'm still there, I'm afraid I'll pass by again this time. The glory of the Han Dynasty was inherited and carried forward by the Tang Dynasty, and now the emperor inherits the past and the Tang Dynasty is also reborn with the fire, this Western Regions should change the sky, if you find the ancient city, maybe you can still rely on the sages. ”

To tell the truth, what can make a general like Shi Jian feel a lot of emotion is not only the enthusiasm of serving the country in his heart, but also the old things of the past. Before the expedition, Li Xuanqing went to Liangzhou and specially convened all the high-level generals of the Western Expedition to explain the history, the customs and changes of the times in the Western Regions, in order to let all the soldiers understand what place they were about to go to and what kind of enemies they were going to fight. The ancestors overcame all obstacles on this road, and carved out the wilderness in order to allow future generations to go further along the road they opened up, and also let this land sprinkled with heroic blood never be lost again, and become the eternal land of the Tang Empire.

Just when Shi Jian was feeling nostalgic, Wan Yi also saw Zhang Sheng and his 3,000 deployments in the camp on the front line of Ganzhou. At this time, Zhang Sheng had been appointed by Li Xuanqing as the general of the Anxi battalion, but he did not give him the army to replenish, but directly sent the order to Wan Yi.

Wan Yi thought for a while, and suddenly understood what Li Xuanqing meant, nodded and said to Zhang Sheng: "Congratulations, the Anxi Battalion can be established as a special unit set up by the emperor to commemorate the achievements of the Anxi Army. ”

Wan Yi's explanation made Zhang Sheng suddenly realize, and immediately bowed directly in the direction of Chang'an, and said solemnly: "Please tell the emperor on my behalf, Zhang Sheng will live up to his trust, train the Anxi camp well, open up territory for the Tang Dynasty, and recover Anxi." ”

"Okay, you immediately lead your troops to Yumen Pass to join Shi Jian's department and prevent the Guiyi Army and the Long Family's department from coming to the east. Prepare a western barrier for our army to defeat the Uighurs. "The Flying Eagle Brigade can't be transferred, but Zhang Sheng's department has been crisscrossing the Western Regions before, and they are known as Tang Kou, so their natural strength is not bad, so Wan Yi immediately sent them to the direction of Yumen Pass to join Shi Jian's department.

After Zhang Sheng received the order, he went with Liu Xuan to collect combat equipment and logistics materials, and immediately drove in the direction of Yumen Pass. At this time, the Xuanying Guard Secret Guard operated by Zhao Si also sent news, reporting that the Flying Eagle Brigade had entered Ganzhou City, and it could be arranged in three days, and then the army would be brought into the city. Although the ancient city of Ganzhou is the center of Uighur rule for a long time, its walls are in disrepair, and the Uighurs have never thought of repairing the city defenses before, so there is almost no preparation in this regard, and after the Tiger Hill Pass, the Uighurs also focused on recruiting troops and horses and contacting foreign aid, and Su Xiaohu decided to rely on the combat power of the Flying Eagle Brigade to open the city gate in a short period of time after entering the city. Moreover, the arrangement of the Xuanying Guard in the city is not a day when the time comes, and they can cooperate with each other to achieve the effect of a surprise attack.

Wan Yi and Xue Wanli immediately arranged a battalion of secret soldiers and horses to lurk outside the city at this point in time, and dug out countless underground dark holes to hide the troops through night operations, while the main force drove to the east of Ganzhou City with great fanfare, making a posture of resisting both attacks at the same time.

However, at this time, the soldiers and horses of the Datan tribe on the grassland had already moved south, and the remaining two tribes were also gathering one after another, and the three tribes totaled no less than 100,000 people flocking towards Ganzhou, plus the Uighur soldiers and horses in the city, Wan Yi faced an army of almost 200,000 this time. Moreover, this time there was no incendiary bomb as a weapon of mass destruction, so Wan Yi and Liu Xuan repeatedly decided to attract the main force of the Uighurs out of the city and join the Datans, and the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army would fight a decisive battle with them, and a small force would attack Ganzhou, so that the Uighurs would suffer from the enemy on their backs and the morale of the army would be ruined, so as to reverse the situation.

According to this operational goal, Liu Xuan began to cooperate with Wan Yi to actively mobilize troops and horses, and set up a passive defensive formation near Ganzhou, relying on the built civil fortifications to build a large array of more than 100,000 people, and the main force of the heavy cavalry battalion of 20,000 people was ambushed outside the large array, ready to carry out counter-charge tasks when necessary and used as a campaign preparation.

The defensive positions built by the Tiance army in Ganzhou naturally attracted the attention of the Uighurs, especially when they learned that the steppe tribes had sent troops, and the Uighurs were no longer willing to defend the city and confront the Tiance army, in fact, they were not good at defending the city. Especially after seeing that the Tiance army took the initiative to change from offensive to defensive, the Uighur Pang Teqin transferred his main force out of Ganzhou after contacting the Datans, preparing to join the Datans to encircle and annihilate the Tiance army.

In fact, the Uighurs in Ganzhou did not have the supreme ruler of the Great Khan in the strict sense, when the Uighurs moved westward on a large scale after being defeated by the Uighurs, and the royal family basically moved to the Anxi side, and the highest official position on the Ganzhou side was Pang Teqin, which was originally just an official position, and the later generations of the Ganzhou Uighurs basically took Pang Teqin as the supreme ruler, and respected the Uighur Khan of Xizhou as their leader, in fact, the two have basically disengaged.

Wan Yi and the others basically didn't know about these things, and in fact, even many of the Uighurs themselves had forgotten about them. However, this did not affect Wan Yi's judgment of the Uighur tactics, and when there were conditions to fight an offensive war and conditions to maximize the power of the cavalry, Wan Yi himself would not give up, not to mention that the troops were still superior. After gaining insight into the tactics of the Uighurs, Wan Yi did not think about anything else, but told Zhao Si to find out when the alliance of the three tribes of Dadan arrived.

The wind is surging in Ganzhou, and the war is imminent. On the side of Yumen Pass, Shi Jian didn't wait for the Flying Eagle Brigade, but he waited for Zhang Sheng's troops. Although Zhang Sheng's troops are not familiar with the new weapons in their hands now, these people have spent almost ten years in the fighting, and it can be said that they are proficient in all tactics, and their combat power is not inferior to the elite troops of the Tiance Army after a little run-in. Therefore, after Zhang Sheng arrived, Shi Jian almost did not hesitate to send him to prepare an ambush to attack the Long family's troops.

At this time, the Long family actually had different opinions internally, and a small number of people contacted the Tiance Army for the idea that Datang would never forget, recognize their ancestors and return to Datang. However, a hundred years after breaking away from the Tang Dynasty, the Long family has almost become an out-and-out separatist force like the Guiyi Army, and the Long family was originally a descendant of the Yanqi royal family back then, and a subsidiary kingdom within the Dadu Protectorate of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, not a real descendant of the Tang Dynasty, so at this time, the dragon king of the main family decided to send troops to reinforce the Uighurs after thinking about it for a long time. Although they were hostile to the Uighurs, and the two sides had fought many times before, the Long relied on the help of the Guiyi army to resist the Uighur invasion of Suzhou.

"No, the Uighurs are the old enemies of my Long family, how can I explain to the dead family martyrs when I go to save the enemy at this time? I think it's better to report this matter to the commander of the Guiyi Army and let them decide, right? Long Xuan, the elder of the Dragon Family, strongly opposed this, he was originally in charge of commerce and trade, and the news that came from the business route over the years had already vaguely known that the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains had risen, and choosing to confront the Tang Dynasty at this time was tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, so he was shocked by the Dragon King's decision.

"There are no rivals, just different racial demands. However, the opinions of the three elders are also worth considering. My Long family's power is weak, and it is not easy to survive in the cracks, and this matter should be reported to the Guiyi Army. It's just that Suo Xun may not listen to us, and he has been under threat lately. Compared to Long Xuan's opinion, the second elder was obviously on the side of the Dragon King, but he had no objection to reporting to the Guiyi Army.

"Then let's do it, Second Elder, you personally go to the sandbank, and send an order to Long Yi, the Long family army will raise 30,000 troops and immediately go to fight with the Tiance army." The Dragon King no longer ignored Long Xuan's opinion, and directly issued an order, and at the same time asked Long Xuan to collect detailed information about the Tiance Army during this time, and block the trade route to the east if necessary.

When Long Xuan saw the Dragon King's direct order, he had to flick his sleeves and leave with a sigh. And after he left, the Dragon King's face became more and more ugly, the Long family has actually been relatively prosperous in recent years, but the unfortunate thing is that these family forces have become more and more thoughtful after they have grown, and it has become more and more difficult for him, the head of the family, to suppress the forces within the family.

"Datang? What a distant memory. After everyone was gone, the dragon king was alone and calmed down before muttering to himself, and his voice seemed to come with distant memories, but no one but himself could hear it.

However, at this time, Zhang Sheng relied on his eyeline in Suzhou and his familiarity with the surrounding terrain, and had begun to ambush his troops into the vicinity of Suzhou in batches.

It's just that before he could connect with his previous eyeliner in the city, the Long family army had already left the city, and the appearance of the 30,000 army roaring past made Zhang Sheng's face extremely ugly. In the case of the failure of the previous tactics, Zhang Sheng sent someone to urgently contact Shi Jian to prepare for war, and at the same time led his troops to quietly follow behind the Long Jiajun, preparing to follow them. As Tang Kou, who has not been caught in the Western Regions for so many years, their ability can be said to be almost invincible, and Long Yi and their spies can't find that they have a tail hanging behind them at some point.

The attack of the Long army according to the plan is equivalent to saying that the Uighurs have single-handedly directed this great war, and all the parties involved in the war have been dispatched. It's just that at this time, Suzhou City is quietly brewing a drastic change. After a hundred years of vicissitudes, the ancient city of Suzhou has come to the time to change.