"Deputy Chief, Cao Rengui is staying in Guazhou City now, what should we do?" In Guazhou, which is more than 100 miles away from the source of the Qingshui River, Zhang Sheng is living like a year, and the original plan is to cooperate with the main force outside the city to quickly take Guazhou. As a result, the main force ran to the northwest to fight with the Uighurs, and Zhang Sheng, who couldn't make a plan, planned to do it alone, anyway, in his eyes, the defenders in Guazhou City were not hard-boiled, and a surprise attack killed the other party's main general, and the rest might surrender, which he used to do. But Wang Houchun had just finished listening to his report, Cao Rengui's 100,000 army drove into Guazhou, and now Zhang Sheng didn't speak, but he was trapped in the city, seeing that the main force must have another big battle this time, he could only sit down, how could he stand it?

"Sit down, sit down, I'm stunned by you as you walk around like this. If you are free, go and keep an eye on Cao Rengui with Xuan Yingwei's people, I heard that it is going to snow soon, what are you anxious about? "Wang Houchun doesn't know this guy's thoughts, they all say that the northwest man is rough, but this guy's mind is not rough at all, but he has come up with a lot of ways these days, but he just looks at the main battle troops outside the city.

"Deputy Chief, are you in a hurry, I have long heard that you fought so many battles when you were in the Central Plains. It's like me, I haven't gotten a decent big battle since I came back from Chang'an. Zhang Sheng muttered a sentence and then suddenly leaned over and said, "Deputy Chief, do you have an idea, that's why you sit here so calmly?" ”

Wang Houchun squinted at Zhang Sheng and said with a smile: "The idea is there, and after this time, I think your troops should also be able to become the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army, but you have to be a little patient, it's useless to be anxious." First of all, you have to think about how to expand your subordinates, because the emperor has promised you that your army will not be replenished by the recruit department for the time being, so you can only rely on you to collect the descendants of Anxi to form it, do you have any way to think of it? ”

"This?" Zhang Shengyi frowned and said: "The descendants of Anxi back then had to go to Anxi at least to have a way, and recently I have also explored through my previous relationships and piggybacks, but the effect is very small." "When it comes to this Zhang Sheng, he is actually very helpless, the pace of the Tiance Army is fast enough, but he can't stand it and hasn't entered Anxi yet, even if he knows where those people are, there is nothing he can do. A hundred years later, even if there are descendants left, I am afraid that they will have changed their appearance long ago, unless the Central Plains army really enters and gains a foothold, otherwise those people will not have any response. The descendants of the Tang people in Anxi were very strictly guarded, and all the tribes in the northwest did not forget the Anxi army of that year.

"Stupid, let me ask you if these parts of the Guiyi Army are Han Chinese? They are also from the Northwest, you have to find a way to dig their corners! Wang Houchun said: "I have already asked Xuan Yingwei to find a way, you go to the person in charge of Xuan Yingwei in Guazhou and let them join you." Let me tell you, if you can't dig out 10,000 men before the main force division is divided, then I will ask the General Staff to remove you from your post as commander and send you to the logistics department to get food and grass. After Wang Houchun finished speaking, Zhang Sheng jumped up, pointed at Wang Houchun with his fingers stunned, turned around and ran out.

"I'm finally gone, it's a lot cleaner now." Wang Houchun picked up the tea cup on the table, thought about it slowly, and said to himself: "Ten thousand people, it's almost enough." Anyway, it would be good if the Flying Eagle Brigade was here, let Xiaohu arrange a few killers to kill Cao Rengui, and the defenders in this city may really be able to play a big ticket without a leader, but it's a pity. I don't know what's going on with Xiao Si. ”

In fact, when Wang Houchun raised his head and thought about the situation on the sandbank, Hu Xiaosi was also thinking about his plan almost at the same time, compared to Wang Houchun's side, the whole plan was foggy except for himself, and everyone else, including Zhang Sheng, was just guessing differently. Hu Xiaosi's side is directly and blatantly going straight to work, if it weren't for the time, the sandbar would have been in turmoil a long time ago.

"It's almost time, inform Xiaohu that their sandbar is ready to act tomorrow night, let's have a big one first." Hu Xiaosi's face became extremely exciting, and even Zhao Si on the side couldn't understand it, but with Hu Xiaosi's order, the Xuanying Guard in the entire Shazhou City was immediately activated, and the information began to be officially transmitted to the Flying Eagle Brigade in the western ambush. The personnel in charge of sniping in the dragon group were divided into three groups and ambushed in the three locations where Li Yichang haunts every day, and at the same time, one of Zhao Si's secret guards also activated the emergency plan and infiltrated Li Yichang's mansion to prepare to carry out the first plan and poison him.

For Xuan Yingwei, Li Yichang is the biggest obstacle to the unification of the northwest, so no matter what method they use, as long as they can achieve their goal, they will not care about benevolence, righteousness, and solar terms. And poisoning is undoubtedly the best way to achieve the goal in a short period of time.

After arranging this, Zhao Si began to implement another plan formulated by Hu Xiaosi, choosing an opportunity to cut off the secret communication channel between Li Yichang, that is, the Guiyi Army, and the southern Tuboans. In fact, the best way for the Tubo people is to create contradictions, and the Tubo mercenaries brought to the front line of Guazhou by Zhang Chaofeng are actually the regular troops of the Qiangtang royal line. The Tubo Qiangtang royal line was originally a branch of the Tubo Ali royal line, and later merged with the border army that retreated from Anxi and became independent, and it was originally only an interest relationship with the Guiyi army. If it weren't for the energy of the Western Expeditionary Army at this time to face the Uighurs, Hu Xiaosi would even be sure to attract the follow-up troops of the Ali royal family to continue to come to the sandbank and then gather and annihilate them.

According to this plan, Zhao Si quickly found a small team of people who had been locked before to contact the Guiyi Army and the Tubo people, which was a secret contact location sent by the Ali royal family to the Guiyi Army's garrison, which was in a trading house opened by a Qiang in Shazhou City. However, Zhao Si didn't make a move, but forged a name that Li Yichang invited them to the mansion tomorrow night, and when the time came, the two sides would start together, and the whole plan would be connected.

After the whole plan was arranged, Zhao Si returned to Hu Xiaosi's residence, and the two began to wait for the arrival of action time. However, unlike Zhao Si, who was still carefully recalling whether there were loopholes in the plan, Hu Xiaosi's mind drifted to the Qingshui River, and to put it bluntly, all the planning considerations of his people had a premise, that is, the main army must achieve a good result on the battlefield, and Wan Yi must take down the Uighurs at the first time.

However, at this time, Wan Yi did not have the heart to think about things outside the battlefield, because the Uighurs on the opposite side had already launched an attack, but what made him feel strange was that the tactics of the first wave of the opponent's tentative troops made him feel strange, unlike the previous confrontation with the Uighurs, the opponent's large-scale cavalry assault, but the infantry phalanx.

"Marshal, when did the Uighurs have such a neat phalanx of infantry?" Not only did Wan Yi feel strange, but Liu Xuan beside him was also surprised, Xuan Yingwei's previous intelligence had not mentioned the other party's infantry. Although it was impossible for the Uighurs to be without infantry, according to the customs and military arrangements of the steppe people, the infantry was actually their auxiliary arm, and they would not carry infantry into battle if it was not necessary.

"This shouldn't be the Uighur infantry, you look at the other side's formation, it's a phalanx, and it's a spear and shield soldier, the spear is longer than ours, and there is armor on the body, it looks like a mercenary borrowed from somewhere." Wan Yi shook his head and said, "Let the artillery battalion prepare immediately, let me use artillery shells to blast away their phalanx, and the mechanical crossbow troops will not move for the time being." ”

The Uighurs began to act, and the Tiance army naturally did not remain indifferent, and the benefits brought to their own troops by the artillery preparation before the war also made this first army of the Tang Empire to participate in all the battles with all its equipment have strong confidence in their own weapons. The 250 guns of the artillery battalion were quickly raised by the gunners, adjusted the firing range, and loaded for the command of the standard-bearer.

"The 1st Capital Artillery Brigade has three test firings." Liu Xuan almost waited for the Uighur phalanx in front to order fire as soon as it entered the range of the artillery, only to see that in an instant, the thirty artillery pieces in the front line immediately let out a roar, and after the rumbling cannon sounded, thirty shells rushed out of the barrel of the cannon and smashed towards the other party. The observation post on one side and Liu Xuan and other generals who were responsible for directing the artillery bombardment also raised the clairvoyant mirror in their hands at this time to observe the impact point. Artillery against infantry, especially this kind of infantry in a neat formation, is no longer as simple as shelling, but slaughter. This is why the Gaochang Uighurs have never seen the fighting style of the Tiance army, so they stupidly put on this kind of dense formation charge, doesn't this give the Tiance army a chance to attack with artillery?

Under the clear sky of the Northwest Plateau, the cannonballs whizzed out across the sky, and with a sharp whistling sound, they instantly smashed into the Uighur phalanx that had not yet reacted, and the explosion that rose into the air tore everything around it apart with boundless slaughter. The first test shot did not hit well, half of the thirty shells missed, but the remaining half had already stunned the Uighurs. The second round of large-scale artillery bombardment also began in an instant after observing the explosion point on the side of the Tiance army, this time more than 200 artillery pieces roared together, almost instantly completely submerged this group of Uighurs lined up in five phalanxes, and the fireballs that exploded into the air with broken arms and stumps flew in all directions, continuing to cause damage, and the neat phalanx was also torn apart in an instant, countless figures were blown to the ground, and the whole battlefield seemed to be ploughed over, becoming fragmented, around huge deep pits, Blood stained the sand like a river.

"Prince, this is the firearm of the Han people, they are all devils." Zadler, beside him, turned pale and muttered to himself, "We can't do this anymore, this is the devil slaughtering us." Before he finished speaking, there was a hint of anger on the face of Qibi Heli beside him, because his eyes were very good, and just now he happened to see his vanguard concentrated by a cannonball, and then after the smoke passed, the whole team was gone. Jacques, who was in the midst of it, was his own vanguard general, and he fell to the ground inexplicably.

"Bass archers, charge me up and smash their formation with arrows." Chebi Heli originally turned his eyes to look at Zadler beside him after Jacques fell, but the other party's body shook on the surface, and the former leader of the Ganzhou Uighurs had been frightened by the other party's methods and could no longer appear on the battlefield, so he did not hesitate to start investing in the real elite of the Uighurs, the Basr archers. I saw that with his order, the horn began to resound throughout the battlefield, and countless figures in the whining sound began to gallop from behind Qibi Heli, and rushed towards the position of the Tiance Army. At this time, Qibi Heli had even forgotten that he just wanted to test the depth of the other party before, and directly sent out the most elite archers under him.

After coming to the Western Regions, they absorbed the essence of the various ethnic groups in the Western Regions, especially the archery tactics in Central Asia, and brought the already very superb cavalry to the fullest.

"Dashuai, why did they directly send the main force? And there are only more than 10,000 people? Fueling tactics? Liu Xuan's question Wan Yi did not answer, in fact, Liu Xuan did not need Wan Yi to answer, the artillery battalion has begun to adjust, some artillery stopped to adjust the firing range, and the infantry brigade that had been standing still in the front position began to prepare, and all kinds of orders began to come out continuously.

"It seems that the Uighurs are not very good, even if 10,000 people are elite, they will not be able to break through our blockade line, it is better to press the whole army, so that at least they can rush in. But it's a pity, it seems that the Guiyi Army didn't keep up. But that's fine, take this opportunity to let Gao Si cut into the rear army after them, and then block the border of Yizhou to cover us for the winter. Wan Yi shook his head, and the sound of cannons was bursting, even Liu Xuan, who was beside him, didn't hear what Wan Yi said clearly. But immediately after that, the smoke and rockets of the guards behind him rose into the sky, and Liu Xuan suddenly understood what was going on.

The sound of cannons at the source of the Qingshui River also quickly made the city of Guazhou, a hundred miles away, tense. In fact, whether it was Wang Houchun and Zhang Sheng, who were lurking in the city, or Cao Rengui, who was sitting in the defense of Guazhou, they were all paying attention to the development of this battle. However, unlike Wang Houchun, who was sure of Wan Yi's victory, Cao Rengui's idea was simple: if the Uighurs took the initiative on the battlefield, then he would be ready to raid the rear of the Tiance army, flanking the front and rear. If the Tiance army has the advantage, then rely on the city defense to hold on. This strategy actually communicated with the Uighurs before the war began, and even advised the Uighurs to retreat to Kuazhou without gaining an advantage. It's just that there is a little contradiction between Qibi Heli's plan and him, that is, the Uighurs came from afar and don't know what the combat strength of the Tiance army is, but there is no good way to return to the Yi army's side at this point, and almost all the senior generals who participated in the battle of the Guiyi army in Suzhou were wiped out, and the stragglers who escaped back by luck only gave a general description of the equipment of the Tiance army, not to mention that those small soldiers had no knowledge, and they didn't know what was going on. Therefore, Qibi Heli's plan is to test the level of combat power of the Tiance Army first, and then implement the plan.

What Cao Rengui never expected was that Qibi Heli did not test the Tiance army according to the plan this time, but decisively pressed his elite troops, this unplanned behavior caused a huge accident in the whole campaign, and even Hu Xiaosi made a special trip to visit the Uighur prince who was wounded and captured after the war, and it was because of him that many plans on the side of the Tiance army also had accidents. But this is all later, at this time, Cao Rengui immediately sent someone out after hearing the sound of artillery, ready to find out, and even began to recall the spies he had arranged to lurk near the battlefield early in the morning, he wanted to know the actual battle situation.