There are two hundred miles from Panhe City to Liangzhou City, the road condition is not too good, if it is an infantry march, a daily march of sixty miles is already the limit, the larger the number of troops, the slower the marching speed, as far as thousands of people are concerned, it basically takes three days to reach Liangzhou City, and the cavalry led by Zhao Ziliang, although only six hundred cavalry are elite, and the others are improvised patchwork, but this is also much faster than the infantry.

Zhao Ziliang's plan was to arrive near Liangzhou City in the evening, find a suitable place for the army to rest, and wait until the Tubo army besieging Liangzhou City was clearly explored, and then wait until the dead of night to attack the Tubo army camp at night.

After marching for 200 miles during the day, if it is an elite cavalry, it will still be able to carry out high-intensity combat after arriving, but this improvised cavalry team can reach the vicinity of Liangzhou City at dusk is already Zhao Ziliang's highest expectation, and he plans to use a few hours of rest to restore their combat effectiveness.

The wind and sand in the Hexi Corridor are very large, the luck of Zhao Ziliang and others is not bad, there is a white expanse everywhere on the marching road, and the yellow sand in the sky covers the sight of a few miles away, this kind of weather is very effective to cover the army on the march, and it is not easy to be found by the Tibetan outpost.

The wind and sand are strong, coupled with the dry weather, every other hour, the lips begin to dry out, and they have to drink water to quench their thirst, but fortunately, most of these Tang soldiers live in this vicinity, and have already adapted to the climate here.

To arrive near Liangzhou City within the specified time, Zhao Ziliang had to strictly order the army not to stop on the road, eat and drink Lazar on horseback, eat and drink Lazar on horseback, eat dry food when hungry, drink cold water when thirsty, sleep on horseback when tired, and let the robe in front of him lead him. In order not to let the people behind fall behind, when setting off, Zhao Ziliang also ordered everyone to prepare a one-zhang long rope to tie to the saddle of the horse in front, so that even if someone is tired and sleeps on horseback, as long as they do not fall down, they will not fall behind.

On the way to the process of a fast march. Because each cavalry is equipped with two horses, so you can change mounts at any time, and the horses do not rest, but people can rest on horseback to eat and drink, horses are not, and the war horses must stop to eat and drink, but Zhao Ziliang stipulates that every four hours and half an hour of rest let the war horses eat and drink, and the knights can also take advantage of this time to solve their physiological needs.

As the general of this cavalry, Zhao Ziliang's task is the heaviest. He needed to send a scout team to reconnoiter in front, and the scout team had to send people back every half an hour to report the road conditions ahead and the details of the detection, and sometimes Zhao Ziliang had to adjust the marching route according to the detected situation.

In addition, Zhao Ziliang had to control the speed and rhythm of the march at all times, if the march was too fast, it would consume a lot of the physical energy of the horses and knights, and if it was too slow, he would not be able to rush to the outskirts of Liangzhou City at dusk.

In the afternoon, the army continued to advance in the direction of Liangzhou City. In order to save the physical strength of Wuli horses, Zhao Ziliang equipped himself with two other war horses. They were all sweaty and bloody horses, one of them was carrying his god of war armor, the other was carrying a horse armor, dry food, horse feed and drinking water, and he himself was wearing an ordinary leather armor with a cloak hanging on his back to minimize the burden on the Uli horse.

Zhao Ziliang rode his horse and galloped on the right side of the middle of the army at this time. was holding a water bag and pouring a mouthful of water into his mouth, when a scout rode from the front at a fast gallop, Zhao Ziliang saw that he stopped strangling the war horse.

The scout rode over and stopped and reported: "General Qiyu, ten miles ahead of you will enter the boundary under the jurisdiction of Liangzhou City, and it is less than fifty miles away from Liangzhou City. For the time being, no trace of the Tibetan army has been found."

Zhao Ziliang pondered for a moment and ordered: "The scout cavalry will expand the scope of the investigation to twenty miles, send people to Liangzhou City to investigate the situation, and at the same time find a place where the army can hide!" ”

"No!"

After the sentinel left, Zhao Ziliang summoned the herald and ordered: "Give Ma Lan an order, the whole army slows down!" ”

"Yes, General!" The herald agreed, and immediately rode his horse to deliver the order to Ma Lu.

Ma Lan is a deputy general, mainly responsible for the implementation of the military orders issued by Zhao Ziliang, the execution of the order is not an easy job, especially to convey the order to everyone, and fast and effective implementation, this is a very training position, this is also the reason why Zhao Ziliang appointed Ma Lan as a deputy general, Ma Lan is a talent that can be created, Zhao Ziliang took him with him with the idea and plan to cultivate him, Ma Lan is not a fool, he has no background, the relationship between his fathers in the army has long been broken, he knows that Zhao Ziliang took him by his side, And the original intention of giving him the burden was to appreciate him and plan to cultivate him, how could Ma Lu not be grateful to Dade for this kind of support and cultivation? Therefore, he was extra attentive, many times he did not understand Zhao Ziliang's intentions, or did not do well enough, or was not thoughtful, but Zhao Ziliang did not reprimand or even severely punish him without any emotion, he had no complaints, because he knew that the reason why Zhao Ziliang was so strict with him was to let him remember and learn more things, which was for his good.

After the order was delivered, the whole army slowed down to normal marching speed, and the knights and horses could take this opportunity to rest and slowly regain some strength.

After marching for half an hour, there were scouts galloping again, this time with a change of people, the scout cavalry reported to Zhao Ziliang: "General, people have been sent to Liangzhou City to investigate, the people who were sent have not returned, I waited to explore to the southeast twenty miles There is a cliff on three sides, the middle is an open space Gobi, like a horseshoe, that place is called 'Horseshoe Pass' on the map of Hexi Kanyu, about thirty miles away from Liangzhou City, the wind and sand are blocked by the cliffs on three sides of the Horseshoe Pass, the location is also relatively hidden, the army should be able to rest there."

Zhao Ziliang immediately ordered: "Order Ma Lu, the whole army will march towards Horseshoe Pass, and the reconnaissance area of the detective and cavalry detective post will be expanded to a radius of twenty miles from Horseshoe Pass!" If you find a Tibetan army spying outpost, if you are not discovered by them, pay attention to hiding and dodging, and if you are discovered or can't hide and hide, you must not hesitate to kill the opponent and come back quickly to report."

The herald and the scout said yes at the same time, and then turned and left.

Scout cavalry, night does not collect these two professions is not so easy to do, scout cavalry is responsible for daytime reconnaissance, and night is responsible for night reconnaissance and vigilance, encounter enemy reconnaissance cavalry, not first to kill the other party, you must know that the other party is not without some arrangements, for example, half an hour to send someone to report once, if the scout cavalry does not come back for half an hour to report the investigation situation, it means that something happened, the general situation is delayed, the serious situation is that the enemy reconnaissance cavalry to kill, so not a last resort, It's best not to kill the opponent's outpost, otherwise you will leak the location of your own army, which is equivalent to telling the enemy that you are coming! Dodging the enemy guards and rangers, continuing to move forward to get closer to the enemy and detect useful information is the real task of the detective post.

The army had just finished camping at Horseshoe Pass, the sun had sunk into the horizon, and after eating dry food, Zhao Ziliang ordered the whole army to seize the time to rest, maybe when they would pull out the camp.

There is a big difference between the temperature during the day and at night in Hexi, it is already April, the temperature is very high during the day, but it is very cold at night, and in order not to be discovered by the Tubo army, Zhao Ziliang ordered that no one should light a fire, and everyone was not allowed to unload their armor, weapons and horses.

In order to maintain their body temperature, the other generals and soldiers were close to their horses to warm up and rest, and for the convenience of command, they gathered together in a group of ten horsemen to keep each other warm.

Don't look at the fact that there is no camp, but these two thousand men and horses are scattered in the concave Gobi Bay of Horseshoe Pass under the command of Zhao Ziliang, and the formation is very tight, even if there is a sneak attack by the enemy, the army can form a military formation and launch a counterattack in the shortest possible time.

After Zhao Ziliang ate dry food and drank water, he was a little worried, the detective cavalry detective has been sent out for so long and has not collected at night, why hasn't he turned around? Did you encounter the Tubo army scouts and were killed?

When he was worried, Ma Lan walked briskly and reported: "General, the night that was sent to Liangzhou City to investigate is not recovered!" ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately said: "Let him come over!" ”

Got up from the ground and patted the dust on his hands, Zhao Ziliang saw Ma Lu coming over with a cavalry, and the night did not receive a report: "General, when I sneaked to the vicinity of Liangzhou City, the Tubo army had just finished the siege and was ready to return to the camp, and then we reconnoitred the situation of the Tubo army camp, according to the number and size of the camp tents in the Tubo army camp, the Tubo army besieging Liangzhou City was about 45,000 people, and the troops were mainly concentrated in the south gate and the east gate, of which there were 10,000 people outside the south gate and 30,000 outside the east gate, And the west gate is close to Chishui, the Tubo army only deployed 5,000 people, and the north of the north gate is a large desert, and the Tubo army has no troops! ”

Zhao Ziliang listened to the report that was not collected overnight, touched his chin and said: "The Tubo Marshal Mangbu Zhiqi is also familiar with the art of war, and knows that the siege of the three queyi, but outside the north gate that is not blocked is the great desert, even if the defenders withdraw from the north gate and enter the great desert, I am afraid that it will be more auspicious than lucky, it seems to be a way of life, but it is still a dead end!" The Tibetan army didn't even have to send troops to pursue, and if the defenders fled from the north gate, they would be killed, but they would die a day or two late! ”

Ma Xuan said: "The general's words hit the nail on the head! ”

Zhao Ziliang asked: "Which city gate is the camp of the commander of the Tubo army standing outside?" Where is the grain and grass camp?"

The night did not accept and said: "The commander's camp is outside the east gate, and the grain and grass camp is five miles outside the south gate!" According to the tongue, the commander of the Tubo army was located outside the east gate, and the siege of Liangzhou City has been half a month, during which more than 10,000 people were lost, and five or six thousand people were injured, and the defenders of Liangzhou City suffered many casualties. (To be continued.) )