"Brother, how did you get there?" In Khotan City, Li Yang was a little surprised after welcoming Xue Yang's brigade to the city for settlement: "Didn't you wait to see the movements of the Safard Dynasty in Humi as planned?" And how many people did you bring with you? Are they all your captives? Li Yang knew about the tragedy caused by Xue Yang and Xu Ying in protecting secrets, and originally thought that killing 100,000 people in the first battle would still be regarded as killing all the defenders in the city, but he didn't expect that there were still 20,000 or 30,000 prisoners escorted into the city by the third battalion, and he was suddenly surprised.

"Didn't I miss you!" Xue Yang made a rare joke and handed over the military affairs to the deputy general, and said as he walked into the city: "You are fighting well here, you can subdue the local faction of Khotan with 10,000 people, and after you go back, the General Staff will give you a medal, and the emperor will give you a royal medal." ”

Li Yang shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Farewell brother, speaking of which, this is actually the credit of Xuan Yingwei, if it wasn't for Biao Zi and Qin Kong to persuade Monk Wuxin that day, I am afraid that with my temper, I will definitely convince them first." Li Yang didn't say much about the situation at that time, but Xue Yang nodded, he and Li Yang and Xu Ying have basically been together all these years, and they both know each other's temperament, Li Yang's personality is really not suitable for dealing with that kind of situation, this guy typically believes that the gun in his hand can solve the problem.

"Don't worry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should have already received the news, and when the time comes, Khotan will be handed over to them and the deputy prime minister to deal with, including if the Safarid Dynasty doesn't want to fight, it is more appropriate to hand over the work of grinding lips to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs." Xue Yang nodded and continued, "How is Zhang Sheng and his Anxi Corps doing now?" ”

"They're still regrouping outside the city, but they're pretty much on track and on schedule." After Li Yang brought Xue Yang to the palace of Khotan, he poured water for him and said. Under the training of Zhang Sheng's own Anxi Battalion and the grass-roots officers of the 15th Battalion, the Anxi Corps has basically adapted to the combat mode of the Tiance Army.

"Inform Zhang Sheng that from tomorrow onwards, the surrounding area will be swept with Khotan City as the center." Xue Yang looked at the palace layout in Khotan and nodded, and became a little interested in the heart of Khotan, a big country in the Western Regions, and said with a smile: "You are bold enough to occupy other people's palaces as the army headquarters, and you are not afraid that they will trouble you?" I've heard that they have an armed force of 50,000 men. ”

"I said it a few times, but I blocked it, and now Khotan belongs to my Tiance Army, and I will wait until the government officials come to talk about it. During this time, they had already begun to move out all the treasury and palace vaults of Khotan, and when the time came, they would be transported back to the Central Plains with the army. Li Yang said disdainfully.

"The third battalion was repaired in Khotan for three days, and after three days we joined forces to go east, time is running out, the sandbar is already in full swing, we can't wait any longer. In case the marshal is pinned down, we will be the only reinforcements on the sandbank. Xue Yang was about to continue talking about the outside of the palace, Zhang Sheng walked in with several generals of the Anxi Corps. Zhang Sheng and Xue Yang didn't know each other, so Li Yang immediately saluted Xue Yang after introducing it. Although he was the acting general of the Anxi Corps, he had also heard of the terrifying achievements of the young general in front of him, who was much younger than himself, so he automatically performed the gift of his subordinates in front of Xue Yang.

"Okay, it's just in time that you're here, although the third battalion has arrived in Khotan, according to the plan, we won't stay in Khotan. That is to say, in the future, the entire Khotan, your Anxi Corps will exist as the only armed force of my Tang Dynasty, so I ask you to collect the entire Khotan on the one hand, and secondly, if necessary, be able to rush to the mountain battalion stationed in the secret to support their battle against the Safarid Dynasty. Can you do it? Xue Yang didn't talk nonsense, and immediately opened his mouth to assign tasks after Zhang Sheng and the others saluted him.

"Please give the general an order, the Anxi Corps is ready to attack at any time." Zhang Sheng knew what Xue Yang was going to say, so he got up and took the order.

"Because Khotanese is the center of the entire Khotan, you must expand the scope of attack with Khotan as the center one by one, and ensure that at least Khotanese cannot be lost, and then capture Ya'er City to the north, enter the stone tower to the west and maintain direct contact with the secret guard, and go south to capture the upper reaches of the Tug of War, and reach the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain at the southern end." Xue Yang drew a large circle on the map and said: "This is the scope of your operation this time, and the specific battle plan is up to you to formulate and decide by yourself." ”

"Although it is a bit difficult, my Anxi Corps will definitely complete the task as scheduled, and I wish Khotan as a gift to my Datang to recover Anxi and recover the northwest as soon as possible." Although Xue Yang did not give them a clear battle plan, this vast area almost encompasses the essence of Khotan, and the entry and exit are the main routes of the Silk Road, as long as they occupy here, they will take the entire southern end of the Silk Road, so although Zhang Sheng smiled bitterly, he still solemnly accepted this order.

"The more than 20,000 Safarid prisoners of war I brought back will also stay in Khotan, and when the time comes, you can send troops to garrison Khotan and cooperate with Xuanying to guard them." Xue Yang nodded and said, "You have to have a good talk with Wuxin and let them send troops to assist you, so that it will be a little less difficult, and it is not a good thing if there is a huge force near Khotan City." Xue Yang remembered something, so he said: "You make an appointment with Wuxin tomorrow and tell him to let him come to the palace to find me, it is best to let him follow me personally, and I will send them to Chang'an when the time comes." When Xue Yang said this, a cold glint flashed in his eyes, although it was only fleeting, but Li Yang beside him saw it and immediately realized it.

Zhang Sheng nodded, got up and left the palace with a few of his own people to start making a careful plan, and Xue Yang said to Li Yang immediately after they left: "You immediately send one of the fifteenth battalions to the border between Khotan and Anxi, find the commander of the Flying Eagle Brigade, and then take over for them to block the border and wait for the main force of our army to arrive." "Xue Yang made a vigorous arrangement in Khotan, and almost on the first day of his arrival, he began to completely adjust the deployment of the entire Khotan. He has always liked to fight skillfully, so he knows Wang Houchun's actions on the sandbank, and the most important thing about this method of inviting the king into the urn and then surrounding and annihilating him is the time when the reinforcements arrive and the degree of perseverance of the defenders in the city.

Early the next morning, Zhang Sheng's eyes were red and he came to the palace with Wuxin to see Xue Yang, what Wuxin didn't expect was that Zhang Sheng took him to see the highest-ranking general of the Tiance army in Khotan at this time was actually such a young person, but before he could think of anything, Xue Yang bluntly asked Wuxin to send troops to cooperate with Zhang Sheng to take several important towns in Khotan, and made it clear that he would let his party in Khotan send high-level officials to follow him, ready to go to Chang'an when necessary, or go to Shazhou to meet the deputy prime minister of the Tang Empire. This is almost equivalent to explicitly asking Wuxin to disband the army and obey any requirements of the Tiance Army, so Wuxin's face changed greatly when he heard this, but before he could continue to speak, Xue Yang spoke again: "The master should not know the rules of my Tang Dynasty, the separation of military and government, if the master wants to take charge of the army, I have nothing to say, and after the end of the Eastern Campaign, your army will all accept the changes of my Tiance Mansion, and the master and other senior generals also need to enter the Chang'an Military Academy to study for three months to half a year, and because they want to avoid the principle that the army must not be localized, The master also had no way to continue to control Khotan's army, so he could only be transferred to other units of our Tiance army. Therefore, it is best to disband all the troops or obey General Zhang's arrangement, and the master and others will borrow the road from Shazhou to Chang'an to meet my majesty the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, I think the emperor and the prime minister are very pleased with the master's contribution to stabilizing Khotan and cooperating with my Tiance army, and the government affairs system of the Tiance army will make proper arrangements for the master and others. As for other thoughts, they are absolutely not allowed to exist in my Tang Dynasty, and our Tiance Army will also use all means to maintain the implementation of the imperial national policy. ”

"The master can think about it, the day after tomorrow, the main force of our Tiance army will be pulled out from Khotan, I hope the master can give this general a satisfactory answer." Xue Yang looked at Wuxin's ever-changing face, and didn't pay attention to what he wanted in his heart to send off the guest directly. And after Wuxin left without saying a word, and after glancing at Li Yang, Li Yang nodded and immediately walked out and ordered all armies to be on guard and deal with emergencies at any time, and left Zhang Sheng behind and said: "Wuxin is unlikely to make any resistance, but you have to pay more attention to the other people under him, this person can compete with the Khotanese lord with a mere rabble, and the people under him still have some real skills, you have to be careful of them." ”

"Please rest assured general, it's okay for a few of them, and I'm not a fool of all over Anxi for so many years." Zhang Sheng nodded and smiled: "General, is this going east?" When the end of the day came to Khotan, the commander had an order, and I think it was almost time for the sandbar to have a showdown. ”

When Zhang Sheng was talking to Xue Yang about the situation on the sandbank, Wang Houchun in Shazhou City was facing Cao Rengui attacking the city with all his strength at this time, but it was obvious that although Cao Rengui had made a lot of preparations, under the long-range attack of artillery and bed crossbows, he had just been beaten out of battle, and more than 20 cannons almost filled the west wall of the entire sandbank, and the rumbling cannon sound and the sharp and piercing sound of metal breaking the air with crossbow arrows fired by the bed crossbow behind crossed the sky. The siege formation of the Guiyi Army was instantly shattered, and after the explosion of countless shells, the soldiers of the Guiyi Army who had escaped were pierced by the roaring crossbow arrows before they could recover their senses. The original range of the bed crossbow was as high as more than two miles, and the range of the artillery almost directly blocked these Guiyi troops at the starting point.

Originally, artillery and bed crossbows could only be regarded as the first wave of blows, as long as Cao Rengui's side was well prepared, it was impossible to stop the advance of the huge siege force gathered by 100,000 people, but in the past few days, the non-stop harassment of the Flying Eagle Brigade day and night has caused the morale of the Guiyi Army to drop to the freezing point, and these Guiyi soldiers have no intention of fighting at all, and their morale is completely lost after being bombarded by artillery, and they are unable to deal with this kind of scene at all, so the first wave of vanguard troops was directly defeated and collapsed less than a quarter of an hour after the start of the war.

"Brother Yang, it seems that your troops are temporarily useless, I think it is impossible for Cao Rengui to reorganize his troops to attack the city without half an hour, take advantage of this time to see what this guy Shi Jianjiao is doing." Wang Houchun saw the artillery and the bed crossbow making meritorious contributions, and did not disturb the happy laughter of these soldiers on the city tower, and nodded towards Yang Yi beside him.

Yang Yi didn't know much about Shi Jianjian, plus he had been in charge of the National Guard all these years, and he had not participated in the operations of the regular troops, but he was still very experienced in grasping and analyzing the battle situation, so he nodded when he heard this, knowing what Wang Houchun was talking about, and said: "I'm afraid that Shi Jianjian's cavalry is dispatched to solve the Flying Eagle Brigade." Cao Rengui attacked with all his might, if no one watched the Flying Eagle Brigade, according to Li San'er's personality, eighty percent of this battle was stirred into a pot of porridge by him. And Shi Jianjiao was afraid that he was reluctant to let his cavalry be consumed in vain in the siege battle. ”

Wang Houchun didn't say anything, he was just talking casually, and the two of them just stood on the city tower and watched Cao Rengui in the distance recover the first wave of retreating soldiers little by little, and then transfer them to the back camp, and then send other troops to attack the city. However, at this time, Cao Rengui was obviously prepared, and the Guiyi army that went into battle also targeted the defense of artillery and crossbow arrows, and stepped forward in a loose formation, and those engineering equipment were no longer as concentrated as before. Although the effect was slow, and the dispersion of troops did not play much role in the siege, it successfully avoided the concentrated fire of artillery and bed crossbows. This time, most of them managed to get close to the walls, avoiding the range of the bed crossbows and artillery. But before Cao Rengui could be happy, the continuous explosions that had been within 300 zhang of the city wall sounded again, and the mines that Li San'er had planted before were once again active at this time, and the continuous explosions made these soldiers blown up again. And taking advantage of this opportunity, Yang Yi also began to arrange the city defense army in his hand to prepare immediately, and all the soldiers pressed the Guiyi army under the city that looked like ants into the crosshairs, waiting for them to enter the firing range. And after the first row approached the women's wall, there were two more rows of soldiers behind them who stood up straight and took aim with their guns. Yang Yi is obviously ready to apply the three-stage strategy to defense.

Wang Houchun did not interfere with Yang Yi's command, and the National Guard's understanding of the new tactics is not as thorough as that of the regular army, but the three-stage style is actually not bad if the city is defended, and these soldiers in front of them at least know that they have to aim and then fight, unlike the previous breech gun era when they lined up to shoot. And this is almost the first time that the Tiance Army has been equipped with new weapons to fight this kind of city defense battle, so Yang Yi also arranged three teams of soldiers to attack in front of the city gate, and the appearance of the city gate wide open made the Guiyi Army who did not know the truth think that there was a problem on the side of the Tiance Army, and accelerated to rush up.

"Bang bang bang" Countless gunshots rang out after the Guiyi Army entered the firing range, and the rifle bullets roared towards the formation of the Guiyi Army, those soldiers of the Guiyi Army who were running had no corresponding experience at all, and their upright posture made the hit rate of the Tiance Army higher than when they were trained, and countless lives were taken away at this moment.

The guns and cannons on the Shazhou side were roaring, and on the main road between the Shazhou and Guazhou, Li San's Third Brigade of the Flying Eagle Brigade also exchanged hands with the Shatuo cavalry who met in a hurry at this time, and Shi Jianjiao personally led the Shatuo cavalry to be beaten back head-on by Li San'er.