On the eighth day of the first month of June, the main force of the Tang army's westward expedition has been stationed in the east of Shanzhou City for three days, and the main force of the Tubo army has not moved after retreating to Linqiang, but in the past three days, there are five or six small cavalry units of Tubo who have been constantly harassing Zhao Ziliang's main force of the Tang army, but Zhao Ziliang has arranged the detection posts and guard posts extremely strictly, and the small cavalry of Tubo has not succeeded. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The five or six small cavalry of the Tubo army retreated after not taking advantage, and the Tang army, which originally had more than 3,000 people suffering from altitude sickness, returned to normal after these three days of rest, and still had more than 1,000 people still not recovered.

Zhao Ziliang walked around the sand table in the big tent of the Chinese army with his hands behind his back, the armor on his body rustled, the generals and staff of the various armies in the big tent did not speak, and the other three armies may have not heard from the road due to the road, weather and terrain until now, which made Zhao Ziliang and the generals a little anxious.

"No, we're too passive to be led by Dazaru Gong!" Zhao Ziliang stopped and said.

Cen Shen arched his hand and said: "Marshal, here, the time and location are not conducive to our army, if you act rashly, there may be a danger of annihilation of the whole army!" ”

Gao Shang also got up and arched his hand: "Marshal, the lower officials also think that this matter cannot be acted rashly, it should be done steadily, isn't the previous deployment and arrangement of the marshal very good?" The slow march gave the soldiers plenty of time to adapt to altitude sickness, and now it seems that there is no problem for the marshal to arrange and arrange it like this, and the Tubo army will not find an opportunity to take advantage of it! ”

Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "This kind of deployment seemed to be no problem before, but now it seems to be passive, the Tubo army has no worry about altitude sickness, and is also familiar with the terrain here, sooner or later they will find the movement of the second and third road armies, if the main force of our army has been marching at this speed, the Tubo army will have enough time to draw troops to encircle and annihilate the Second Route Army and the Third Route Army, and they will never allow our army's Second Route Army and Third Route Army to cut off their retreat!" Now the initiative is not in my hands, and the Tubo people can fight as much as they want! If the main force of our army goes further, it will fall into the encirclement of the Tubo army's sphere of influence! You are right, if today's time and geographical advantages are not conducive to our army, but our army at least still has people, my Datang has been operating in Longyou, Hexi and Tuyuhun for so many years, and it is still deeply popular, this is our only advantage here, we must seize this advantage to be able to win, otherwise with the current state of our army, it is impossible to win! ”

Gao Shang asked, "Could it be that the marshal already has a better plan?" ”

Zhao Ziliang didn't make a sound, just kept looking at the sand table, and suddenly asked, "How high and thick is the wall of Xiping City?" ”

This kind of thing should have been Du Fu's responsibility, but within the scope of Shanzhou, Du Fu also had altitude sickness, he has been vomiting and dizzy for the past two days, his whole body is weak, and he has lost a lot of weight.

Wang Wei arched his hand and said: "Dashuai, according to the regulations, the city wall of Xiping City is three zhang high and one zhang and six thick!" ”

Although the system of the imperial court is so stipulated, it is difficult to say whether the officials will complete the construction of the city wall without compromise when organizing the people to build the city wall, and some officials in order to save money and practice, the city wall is not even half of the regulations, and the city wall in some places is purely a tofu scum project.

The height and thickness of the city wall of Xiping City are related to Zhao Ziliang's next plan, and he must find out, he immediately asked: "Are there any officials in the army who have escaped from Xiping?" Find it quickly! Xuanwu, how many Tubo troops are stationed in Xiping City now? ”

Wang Wei immediately went out to find someone, and Xuan Wu, who was in charge of the reconnaissance and reconnaissance post, stood up and said: "Great commander, there are 5,000 Tubo defenders in Xiping City, and there is no change in strength!" ”

A garrison of 5,000 people, not too much, not too little! Zhao Ziliang looked at the sand table and was silent for a while, and then asked: "Shanzhou City is still an empty city?" The Tibetan army did not send troops back to garrison? ”

"Yes, Shanzhou is still an empty city!"

Soon, Wang Wei walked in with an official and reported: "Dashuai, someone brought it, this is Yang Youping, the former staff member of the Taishou Mansion of Xiping County!" ”

Yang Youping bowed and saluted: "The villain greets the handsome!" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked: "Mr. Yang, do you know how high and thick the current city wall of Xiping City is?" ”

Yang Youping arched his hand and said: "Back to the big handsome, Xiping built the city in the Han Dynasty, but then there were several major wars, Xiping City was destroyed in the war many times, after the founding of our dynasty, Xiping originally had only one pavilion, Huangfu Weiming General later wrote to the imperial court to suggest that the city be built as a western barrier to defend Shanzhou and set up Xiping County to govern Linqiang, Huangzhong, Changning and other counties, so the city wall of Xiping City was built, according to the regulations should be built three zhang high, one zhang six thick, but in fact there is a little gap, according to the villain's memories and estimates, The height should be only two zhang eight, and the thickness should be only one zhang two."

Cutting corners, this is definitely cutting corners, but at this time, it is useless to pursue it, Zhao Ziliang asked: "How strong is it?" Is it built according to the prescribed materials? ”

"Yes, Dashuai, there should be no shoddy construction materials!"

"You go back to the camp tent and wait, Ben Shuai will summon you if there is something!"

"No, the villain retires!"

Zhao Ziliang walked back to his seat, sat down, looked at the generals and staff, and said: "The main force of our army must put tremendous pressure on the main force of the Tubo army, and we can't let them encircle and annihilate our second and third armies respectively!" Ben Shuai decided to take 15,000 elite soldiers of the Beiting Army, including 10,000 infantry and 5,000 light cavalry, to set out to attack Xiping City overnight, and defend it after taking Xiping! After I left, the main force of the army was led by Li Shengtong, Bai Xiaode guarded the left wing, and Ma Sui guarded the right wing! You will quickly march to Shanzhou tomorrow, and rest after entering Shanzhou, and this commander will give you ten days to adapt to altitude sickness! In addition, Zheng San and Zhang Boji conveyed the commander's order to Jincheng to use all manpower and material resources to transport enough grain, grass and medicine as soon as possible at all costs! Ten days later, if there are still people who have not adapted to it, then leave those people in Shanzhou, and the main force will reinforce Xiping at full speed, and the commander will be in Xiping for you! ”

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Ziliang ordered 5,000 infantry from the left army of the Beiting Army, 5,000 infantry from the right army, 2,000 light cavalry from the Youyi army and 3,000 cavalry from the escort army, a total of 15,000 soldiers and horses to accompany him to attack Xiping City overnight! In order to reduce the burden as much as possible and speed up the march, Zhao Ziliang also ordered each soldier to carry only ten days' rations! Xuan Eighteen's Huya Army was also ordered to follow and act together this time.

It is nearly 140 miles from Shanzhou to Xiping City, and it is 170 miles from the army garrison to Xipingcheng, in order to speed up the march, Zhao Ziliang ordered to equip the infantry with war horses, siege equipment, camp tents, baggage and other materials that seem to slow down the march are not brought.

The fifteen-thousand-strong army began to set out at dark, marching rapidly in the direction of Xiping at a marching speed of thirty miles per hour, and Zhao Ziliang's personal army team served as a forward reconnaissance post to clear all possible Tibetan army reconnaissance and cavalry detection posts.

In the middle of the night, Zhao Ziliang was carrying a weapon and riding a horse in front of the army, and a sentry came rushing towards him, it was one of his personal soldiers Liu Shi, Zhao Ziliang immediately raised his hand to signal the army to stop advancing and stop the horse, the herald immediately held a torch to convey the order, and the entire army soon stopped.

Liu Shi stopped clasping his fists and saluted: "Qiqi Marshal, twenty miles ahead is Xiping City, and the six outposts of the Tubo Army around have been cleaned up by us, and the army can approach Xiping City unimpeded!" There is nothing unusual about the Tibetan defenders in Xiping, they are all asleep! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, and said to Duan Xiushi beside him: "Order to go down and rest for two quarters of an hour, count the number of people in each department, and count the number of people who have altitude sickness or chest tightness, shortness of breath, dizziness and vomiting!" ”

"No!" Duan Xiushi clenched his fists and agreed, and immediately sent someone to convey the order to the back.

Zhao Ziliang knows that the altitude around Xiping City is only more than 2,200 meters, and most people should not have altitude sickness at this altitude, but for people who have never been to such a high altitude, it is really impossible to say, more than 3,000 people have been hungry for altitude sickness before they have arrived in Shanzhou City, and now they have arrived in Xiping, who knows how many people will have this situation?

Twenty minutes later, the various departments reported the results of the statistics, and Duan Xiushi immediately reported to Zhao Ziliang after getting the results: "Marshal, after statistics, a total of 126 people in the whole army have dizziness, vomiting, chest tightness and shortness of breath on the plateau!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was a little relieved when he heard this, and said to the surrounding generals: "After all, the officers and men of our Beiting Army have all been active on the plateau, and their resistance to altitude sickness is much stronger!" Send an order to let these people stay where they are for a while to rest, give them some medicine, and then send someone to pick them up after we go to Xiping City more!" ”

"No!"

Half an hour's time came quickly, the soldiers basically ate some dry food to supplement their physical strength, and also solved other physiological needs, with Zhao Ziliang's order, the army set off and slowly approached Xiping City!

Just over half of the time, Zhao Ziliang's army finally arrived three miles outside Xiping City, at this time the entire Xiping City was in a silence, there were a few lanterns hanging on the gate tower of the city wall to emit a faint light, faintly you can see only the sheepskin banner of the Tubo people on the city wall, but you can not see a single figure.

The main force of the Tang army has been marching at a speed of thirty miles every day since Jincheng, and it has been more than ten days, which has given everyone in the Tubo army an illusion, and it is basically impossible for the Tang army to suddenly kill Xiping City from more than 170 miles away, because suddenly speeding up the march will inevitably lead to strong altitude sickness, but the Tubo army does not know that in addition to the Central Plains Army that has never been to the plateau, there are 110,000 Beiting troops among the main forces of the Tang army, and these Beiting troops are not people who have not been to the plateau. The carelessness and underestimation of the Tubo army gave Zhao Ziliang the opportunity to attack! (To be continued.) )