"Your Majesty, there is the latest news from the northwest, and the senior brother has begun to mobilize the entire Western Expeditionary Army." Xu Tianxiang and Hu Xiaosi jointly found Li Xuanqing and said: "Senior brother has made arrangements, ordering Hammud to lead the cavalry corps to enter the northern part of Yanqi and enter the northwest corner of the Luntai grassland, and quickly send a message to the Anxi corps to prepare for the intervention of the Safavid Dynasty." Xu Tianxiang handed Li Xuanqing the thick latest deployment of the Tibet and Western Expeditionary Forces that he received in his hand, and said with a smile: "Senior brother is really old and spicy, and launching a large-scale operation in the northwest at this time must be to deal with Chen Fan and Chen Yu. ”

"Yanqi, this is really entering Anxi, it's really difficult to do it." Wan Yi's move was not unexpected by Li Xuanqing, but Yanqi made him a little emotional, in fact, it was only from Yanqi that he really entered the old land of Anxi, and Yanqi was one of the four towns in Anxi back then, plus Qiuzi, Khotan and Shule together constituted the most solid ruling core of the Tang Dynasty in the northwest. The main areas where the Anxi Army was stationed back then were basically these places, and the more northern ones were actually under the jurisdiction of another Daduhu, that is, Beiting Daduhu. It's just that the Beiting Dadu Protector was far inferior to Anxi in terms of military strength and influence in the northwest, and Li Yuanzhong, the Beiting Dadu Protector, actually retreated to Anxi after the loss of Beiting during the Great Calendar year, and stuck to Anxi with Guo Xin, becoming another leader-level figure who stuck to the northwest that year.

Li Xuanqing waved his hand and motioned for the two to sit down, and then said: "Back then, I promised Shi Jian that he would lead his troops back to Anxi to avenge the Anxi army that held the desperate domain back then. But that's okay, Anxi's revenge back then can only be handed over to him, the descendant of Anxi, to comfort those heroic spirits. Summoned all the officers and soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army for me, and said that on the day of recovering the entire territory of Anxi, I will come to my hometown in person and sacrifice my Tang Dynasty heroic soul and Anxi war spirit with the respect of the emperor. ”

"Please rest assured, the emperor, I will tell all the officers and soldiers of the Western Expeditionary Army. When the time comes, I will accompany the emperor to pick up those ancestors who died in the desperate realm to go home, let their heroic souls enjoy the sacrifice, and pass on this tragic history forever, so that we can forge ahead without forgetting the national shame. Xu Tianxiang and Hu Xiaosi glanced at each other and stood up solemnly to receive the order.

"Okay, I see that the senior brother handed over the leadership of the merger of the two Uighurs to Xuan Yingwei, Xiaosi, do you have any regulations over there?" Li Xuanqing looked at the stack of materials in his hand and asked. The merger of the two Uighurs is of great significance to the northwest side, which is related to the entire ethnic structure of the northwest and the proportion of the population of each ethnic group, and it is also an important reference basis for how to deal with the relationship with other ethnic groups after the ruling power of the northwest is in the hands of the Tang Dynasty, so Li Xuanqing needs to know in advance how Hu Xiaosi thinks about it.

"Xuan Yingwei has a plan here, I also discussed it with Mr. Cen before I came, and I plan to ask the emperor to consider it, but the current situation is that if Shi Jian's side can't control his murderous nature, then I'm afraid that the whole Anxi will be bleeding, and then it will bring more unfavorable factors to the stability of Anxi, after all, there are hundreds of Uighurs and tribes of all sizes on Anxi's side, and the Uighurs are also divided into dozens of tribes. There are all kinds of contradictions in this, and the relationship with me before Datang is also completely different. Hu Xiaosi shook his head and said a little distressed: "So the basic principle on my side is to have different disposal principles according to the distance and proximity of the relationship with my Datang, similar to the surname Zhaowu Jiu and the Tang people who insist on supporting us, naturally as the priority to protect and appease the object, give them priority to the Tang household registration, according to the welfare standards of the people in the mainland." And the second class are those who are more neutral or other tribes who are in rebellion, all such people are handed over to Hammoud to deal with, I think relying on Hammoud's actions in Jiaohe City, these people will definitely be suppressed to death, and Zhao Si was sent to Hammoud's side by his senior brother, these people will not be able to break the fortune in the end to avoid disasters. ”

Hu Xiaosi didn't continue to say later, but Li Xuanqing and Xu Tianxiang both knew what he meant behind him, and there was no need to talk about the follow-up after that, I was afraid that under the joint cleansing of Shi Jian and Hammud, there would definitely be a river of blood on the Anxi side, and if it was captured on the battlefield at that time, it would be fine, at least it would be handed over to the National Guard to serve as a labor force and save a life, but relying on the information investigated by Xuan Yingwei, the leaders and nobles of the various tribes led by them will be unlucky this time. At the very least, the person in charge will definitely be slaughtered by these two red-eyed guys.

"Just sort out your opinions and send them to the northwest, so that the senior brother and the deputy prime minister can handle them as appropriate." Li Xuanqing waved his hand to signal that he had agreed, stood up and stared at the northwest in deep thought. From the perspective of his descendants, such a purge is only afraid that he will be suspected of genocide, but in this life, this is the best choice, at least Hu Xiaosi's plan is there, and the northwest side will select according to his own orders, and he will not care about it at all without a butcher's knife. At the very least, the combined Uighurs would not be swept into the corners of history, and the other tribes, large and small, would be able to retain most of the lower tribes. As for the scattered Tubo people, Li Xuanqing didn't think about it, Shi Jian could let any tribe go, but he would definitely not tolerate the existence of the Tubo people, and even all the soldiers of the Tiance Army would not allow the existence of the Tubo people. This is also the time to enter Tibet, Li Xuanqing Sizhi repeatedly chose Chen Yu, so this righteous brother can be a little merciful because of Hu Xiaosi and Gesang, and others are afraid that the snowy plateau will also be a mournful.

While Chang'an was pondering the merger of the two Uighurs, Zhao Si and Hammoud also led their armies to Yanqi territory, but they first joined Shi Jian when they went to the northwest of the Luntai steppe. After all, the main commander of the front line at this time is Shi Jian. Among the internal rules of the Tiance Army that Hammud has learned these days, the distinction between the upper and lower levels and obedience to orders are the two strictest system regulations, so after arriving at the meeting, Hammud saw Shi Jian very solemnly and saluted Shi Jian and informed Shi Jian of the orders from the headquarters of the Western Expeditionary Army, and led the entire Uighur army to obey Shi Jian's orders.

Shi Jian didn't have much of an opinion on Hammad, and the system of the Tiance Army also made him understand that being able to be incorporated into the official Tiance Army sequence meant that Datang had agreed with Hammud, so he was included in the list after returning the salute.

"This is Yanqi's current information, it's all here." Zhao Si nodded when he saw the state of the two, took a document from the entourage behind him and handed it to Shi Jiandao: "Yanqi is a thousand-year-old city, and it has been baptized by war, the city is larger, and compared with other earthen cities, the cities of Yanqi and Qiuzi are basically built of large stone barriers, and they are still said to be strong. At present, the garrison in the city is about 500,000 to 100,000 people, but as the first line of fortresses in the eastern part of Anxi Uighurs, in addition to the strength of the Yanqi city, there are also a large number of Uighur tribes and other small and medium-sized tribes nearby. ”

In fact, about the latter article, there is no need for Zhao Si to introduce Shi Jian and Tuoba Siji's feelings, in the past two days, Tuoba Siji's cavalry corps has fought with these troops who have been turned into militia by Shi Jian almost every day, and after Wan Yi's order was transmitted to the front line, Tuoba Siji also suddenly adopted harsh and bloody suppression methods, all those who participated in the attack and harassment of the Tiance Army, regardless of men, women, and children, were all killed, and even their tribes were uprooted, some of the rebels were killed on the spot, and the rest were all taken prisoners and sent to the rear. This method similar to Zhulian finally weakened after a few days of continuous sweeping, and the population of more than a dozen oases outside Yanqi City, especially in the eastern region, also suddenly decreased by a small half, and a large number of young and middle-aged people died because of their participation in the attack on the Tiance Army, which also weakened the population potential of these tribes in disguise and weakened the resistance to the Tang Dynasty.

"Do they continue to send reinforcements from their base camp?" Shi Jian thought for a while and asked, after all, the number of Uighur troops on Yanqi's side is dead, and even if they are recruited, they are actually all water without a source, so the key to this battle is the Uighur reinforcements. After Hammud led the army to the front line, it was equal to Shi Jian's hands and there were nearly 70,000 cavalry troops, and when his Modao battalion was responsible for attacking the city, the strong cavalry force was enough to ensure that the reinforcements could be attacked at the same time as the siege. Therefore, Shi Jian needed news of Uighur reinforcements, and in fact, Shi Jian was also planning to use Yanqi City to attract reinforcements from the other side after they arrived, at least to attract Uighur reinforcements from nearby Qiuci and Shanshan, so that he could quickly wave his troops to take Qiuzi after Yanqi City was taken.

Zhao Si nodded but said with a little disdain: "There are still about more than 100,000 elite cavalry in the Uighur headquarters of Anxi, but this is already their last strength, so this battle of Yanqi will basically not be sent, so Shule is organizing a coalition of other tribes, and it should be able to reach the front line before you start the war, according to the information we have obtained, it should be the alliance of Balsi Khan and nearby tribes, and even some of the descendants of Dawan and Wusun were also involved. According to the appeal of the Anxi Uighur Yehu, he was afraid that he would be able to form a coalition army of about 100,000 men in a short period of time. These people are half the combat strength, but there are a lot of them. And there is also news that Ye Hu has contacted Ge Lulu to discuss letting the other party send reinforcements into the country to fight our army, but we have not confirmed it yet, and the secret guard on Ge Lulu's side has just been formed, and it is a bit difficult to listen to the news. "Xuan Yingwei's ability to quickly roll out in the northwest is not only the early efforts, but also related to the collective defection of the descendants of Zhaowu Jiu to the Tang Dynasty, relying on the advantages of the descendants of Zhaowu Jiu and the locals almost having the same origin, Xuan Yingwei's infiltration in Anxi is extremely terrifying, and he can easily detect and hear the movements of the high-level in Anxi. But it is a bit difficult in Qarluq, although the Qarlu tribe is actually a descendant of the Telle people, but it does not play a good role in the history of Anxi, when Gao Xianzhi and Li Siye led the battle of Everros against the Arabs is the rebellion of the Qarluqs in the middle of the process, which led to the Tang Dynasty losing the dominance of the northwest when the two empires competed for the northwest, and then the Anxi army returned to China to quell the rebellion, which led to this incident becoming a regret for all Anxi people. Later, after Gelulu replaced the Turkish and occupied the western Turkic homeland in the Chu River Valley, he began to unite with the Tibetans to sweep the Anxi left-behind corps. Therefore, after Zhao Si said that Qarlu might participate in the war, almost everyone's eyes, including Hamoud, turned red all of a sudden, Qarlu was no stranger to the Uighurs, and after the Anxi army withdrew from Anxi, Qarlu also joined forces with the Tibetans to fight against the entry of the Uighurs, and the two tribes were originally feuding.

"General, if Ge Lulu participates in the war, please take our army as the vanguard, I want to see if this former defeated general still has the courage to come." Hammoud snorted coldly and immediately stepped forward to fight.

"General Hammoud, don't be impatient, it is not known whether Ge Lulu has joined forces with Ye Hu at present, and even if it is a union, he is the enemy of my Tang Dynasty, and all the soldiers of my Western Expeditionary Army will fight side by side with you at that time." Shi Jian patted Hammoud's shoulder and nodded.

"It's okay to hand over Yanqi City to my Modao Battalion, but what I want to say is that we are implementing the tactics of attacking the city and sending reinforcements in this battle, that is to say, all the generals of the Western Expeditionary Army under Yanqi City are divided into three routes, and all the men and horses of the Modao Battalion are responsible for attacking Yanqi City all the way, creating and attracting the other party to draw troops to help. Yanqi City is the original base camp of the Anxi Uighurs, and its importance is not inferior to Shule, so as long as our army continues to storm Yanqi, it will inevitably attract the other side's troops and horses to help, even those miscellaneous coalition forces will definitely come. Therefore, General Hammoud, your cavalry headquarters will immediately set off tonight and go to the northwest of the Luntai Grassland to camp in secrecy and wait for orders. General Tuoba, the final task of your unit is to clear all the local resistance forces in Yanqi, and on the other hand, to reach the southwest direction of General Hammoud and join forces with him to encircle and suppress the reinforcements of the other side before the Uighur coalition arrives. This battle is not so much about taking Yanqi City as it is about using Yanqi to annihilate the opponent's main combat power, so the two of you must cooperate sincerely and make no mistakes. Shi Jian saw that Zhao Si's information had been all said and nodded, and began to deploy his own plan, it can be said that this method of operation is almost a continuation of the battle of Jiaohe City, but the difference is that Wan Yi of Jiaohe City implements the tactics of besieging the city and sending reinforcements, and Shi Jian obviously does not have such a good battlefield insight, so he simply no longer pays attention to these, and changes the siege to a siege. That is to say, if the opponent's reinforcements do not come, or if your own reinforcements and siege troops do not cooperate well, the whole battle will be divided into two goals, directly take Yanqi, and then rely on Yanqi to support the reinforcements. It can even be said that in Shi Jian's original idea, siege was the first element, and if Yanqi City was taken, regardless of whether the other party had support or not, Yanqi could be immediately turned into the rear and then the troops could be mobilized to advance.

Shi Jian's deployment, Tuoba Siji and Hammoud have no opinion, this kind of deployment is actually that no matter what reaction the other party makes, their tactical goals will be achieved, and the tactical effect will not be much discounted. Moreover, including Zhao Si, they all knew that Shi Jian's choice of this tactic was only to free up enough time and energy for the troops to deal with or suppress the Uighur movements, so he would let Tuoba Siji's cavalry corps delay its action.

However, what Shi Jian didn't know was that his deployment allowed Hammud to defeat the Uighur reinforcements in one fell swoop with his 40,000 cavalry in the subsequent battle, and created Hamoud's first brilliant victory after returning to the Tang Dynasty.