After thinking for a long time, Zhao Ziliang instructed the soldiers standing next to him: "Go and invite all the generals and staff!" ”

"No!"

It didn't take long for the main generals and staff officials to arrive. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"I've seen the big handsome!"

"Excuse me!" Zhao Ziliang raised his hand and said to everyone: "I just received the news that the Tubo people sent an army of 50,000 troops, led by the general Iron Blade Xinuoluo, from the Dadou Gorge into the hinterland of Hexi, and all the way to the city, a few days ago, they even broke through Liangzhou Wuwei City!" ”

"Buzz ・・・・・・" The generals and officials in the big tent suddenly exploded.

"What can I do?"

"How good is this!"

"It's over, the Hexi Corridor has been cut off, and the imperial court has completely cut off contact with the Western Regions territories, how is this good?"

Words like these came out of the mouths of the generals and officials one after another, and the whole tent was as noisy as a vegetable market.

Zhao Ziliang raised his hand, and the generals and officials and staff suddenly stopped.

Gao Shang stood up and arched his hand and said: "Great marshal, it is a matter of great importance for the Tubo people to enter the hinterland of Hexi and break through Wuwei City, and they must send someone to report to the imperial court as soon as possible!" Moreover, our army cannot only take care of Longyou and ignore Hexi, Hexi is captured by the Tubo army, we will lose contact with Anxi and Beiting, and after a long time, the imperial court's control over all parts of the Western Regions will be weakened, which is only one of them; Second, there are a large number of business travelers between the Central Plains and the Western Regions every day, which is the only way for the Silk Road, even if the Hexi Corridor is only captured by the Tibetan army for one day, the financial loss to our dynasty is also extremely huge; Third, if Hexi is occupied by the Tubo army for a long time, it will inevitably loot and kill the local people, causing great damage, and if our army does not go to the rescue, the people of Hexi will lose confidence in the imperial court! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded and said: "Mr. Gao explained the impact and powerful relationship of this matter very clearly, we really can't leave Hexi alone, this commander is determined to send a general to lead 50,000 troops from Jincheng to Hexi to recover the lost territory, which general is willing to lead the troops?" ”

Li Sheng and Bai Xiaode both stood up and hugged their fists and said: "Commander Qiqi, the last general is willing to lead the troops to Hexi to quell the disaster of Tubo!" ”

"You two?" Zhao Ziliang looked at the two of them separately, and then shook his head and said: "You two can't do it, tomorrow the Japanese marshal will lead the main force west into Shanzhou, if one of the two of you goes, there is not even a usable and capable general under the command of the more than 100,000 troops of this commander, no, no!" ”

Li Sheng and Bai Xiaode felt pity when they heard Zhao Ziliang's words, but at the same time they were very happy, which showed that Zhao Ziliang attached great importance to the two of them and was an indispensable right-hand man, so the two hesitated for a moment and returned to their original positions.

There are not only the main generals of the Beiting Army in the big tent, but also the main generals of the Central Plains Army, these people looked at each other, and they all had the intention of standing up to lead the troops, but Zhao Ziliang said: "This time to command the troops, the generals who have never been to Hexi should not stand up and recommend themselves, and the generals who are not familiar with the weather and terrain in the desert area should not think about it, the terrain and weather in Hexi and Longyou are completely different from those in the Central Plains, because you have never been to Hexi, once there is abnormal weather conditions, you don't know how to deal with it, I'm afraid that before I have fought with the Tubo, the army will be defeated without a fight! ”

When the generals heard this, most of them put out this thought, and those who had experience in this area were either not qualified enough, or had never had the experience of leading troops alone, so no one stood up to take on this task.

Zhao Ting originally didn't have this idea, because he was too young, and many of the generals here were older than him, but there were so many generals in the big tent, but none of them stood up, and the qualified Chu Ge and Li Siye both had other tasks, and Bai Xiaode and Li Sheng couldn't leave, in terms of military position, he was the only one who had this qualification, but he didn't know the bottom in his heart, after all, he was young, and he had never led an army of 50,000 to fight alone, but he didn't stand up to take on this task.

After thinking about it, Zhao Ting gritted his teeth and stood up to Zhao Ziliang and said, "Father, the child is willing to lead the troops to Hexi to deal with the Tubo people!" ”

When the generals in the big tent saw it, they couldn't help but be dumbfounded, and let a hairy boy lead an army of 50,000 to deal with the Tubo people alone?

Zhao Ziliang was also stunned, walked to the seat and sat down, looked at Zhao Ting and asked, "Do you think you can do it?" ”

Zhao Ting stubbornly asked: "Why can't the child?" The child has not led an army of 50,000, the child grew up in the Western Regions, the desert and hilly terrain of the Western Regions is more complicated than that of Hexi and Longyou, and the weather is more harsh, in this regard, the child thinks that there is no problem, the child has never led an army of 50,000 alone! The father may feel that the child is young, unsteady and impulsive, but is this a reason why the child cannot take on this responsibility? Didn't my father lead the army to fight the enemy when he was a teenager? If the father can, why can't the child? ”

Everyone in the big tent couldn't help but say that this kid was bold enough, and he was right, although he didn't know if Zhao Ting had this ability, but Zhao Ting's courage made them all impressed.

Zhao Ziliang looked at Zhao Ting and was silent for a while, looked at Wang Wei and said: "Mr. Wang, Zhao Ting is young and not very familiar with Hexi, you have been an official in Hexi for many years and are familiar with the local situation. ”

Wang Wei stood up and arched his hand: "The lower officials obey orders!" ”

Zhao Ting was overjoyed, stood up and hugged his fists and said: "The child will definitely disappoint his father!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "Appoint Zhao Ting as the chief general of the Fourth Route Army, Wang Wei as the army, command the rear army of the Beiting Army, the first, third, and fifth armies of the Central Plains Army, and set off to Hexi to fight the Tubo Army two days later!" ”

The two of them agreed: "Yes!" ”

The next day, Zhao Ziliang led the main force of the Western Expeditionary Army 100,000 horses from Jincheng to go west along Huangshui to Shanzhou, the army walked very slowly, slower than the speed of the whole infantry, the speed of the daily march was up to 40 miles, you must know that when they came from Hebei before, the daily march was more than 100 miles, and now this situation makes many generals and soldiers in the army quite puzzled.

After two consecutive days, Zhao Ziliang began to hand over the reconnaissance task to his own pro-soldier team, the pro-soldiers of the pro-soldier team are the most elite soldiers selected from the Beiting Army, these people have rich combat experience, and many of them are from reconnaissance and reconnaissance horses, and the pro-soldiers of the pro-soldier team have all stayed on the plateau, and their ability to adapt to the sudden increase in altitude is much faster than others.

On the second day of the sixth month, during the march of the army, Li Sheng rode his horse to Zhao Ziliang and asked, "Marshal, is the marching speed too slow?" And it's not appropriate for you to let the pro-soldier team take charge of the reconnaissance! It's not that there are no horses in the army, so why don't you let them go? ”

Zhao Ziliang pointed to the front and said: "You were in Hexi when you were a child, and after you were a little older, you were recommended by General Wang Zhongsi to go to Beiting, but you didn't stay in the real plateau, the farther you go west, the higher the terrain, most of the army has never been here, the marching speed is too fast is more likely to lead to altitude sickness among the soldiers, slowing down the marching speed is to let the soldiers have enough time to adapt, altitude sickness is actually a phenomenon of water and soil adaptation, and it takes time for the soldiers to adapt to the local water and soil!" I asked my pro-soldier team to do the horse scouting because they have experience in plateau scouting, and they are easier to adapt than everyone else! ”

Li Sheng said: "I see, it seems that the handsome man has already planned, and the last general has the bottom in his heart!" ”

In this march, in order to confuse the Tibetan people, before setting off, Zhao Ziliang deliberately asked the generals and colonels at all levels to raise more flags, disguise the original army of only 100,000 horses as an army of 200,000, and at the same time double the number of stoves when camping and cooking every day, and use these means to confuse the Tibetan sentinels.

When the detective horse probes the size and number of troops of the enemy, it is impossible to get too close, and it is easy to be found if it is too close, so the distance and position generally selected by the scout horse when exploring should be concealed and the situation of the enemy's military camp or team can be roughly seen, but it is impossible to see too clearly, to judge the approximate number of troops of a large army, it is impossible to calculate the number of heads one by one, and there are generally several ways: the first is to check the number of flags, because the number of flags of each combat unit is fixed, It was not the first time that the Tibetans had fought with the Tang army, and it had long been clear about the establishment of the Tang army, which was one of the most effective ways to detect the enemy's army in the process of marching.

The second method is to determine the strength of a consistent army by calculating the number of tents set up by the enemy in the field camps and the area of the entire camp.

The third method is to wait for the enemy to leave, and then ride the scout horse to the camp before the enemy army to calculate the number of stoves, so as to judge the number of enemy troops.

Finally, the results of the exploration of these means are compared, and a comprehensive judgment is made, if they are all right, the size of the enemy's forces can be roughly determined, but if there are discrepancies after the comparison, it means that the enemy army has used the means of confusion, and if you want to explore the composition of the enemy's troops, it can also be identified and calculated by the color, size and shape of the flag, but if the enemy really wants to arrange the means of confusion, it will inevitably be carefully arranged, and it is not easy to be found. It is impossible to detect the truth unless you observe at close range or infiltrate the inside of the enemy camp, but ordinary detective and detective posts do not have this ability, after all, people's guard posts, patrols, and sentry posts are not vegetarian.

Since Zhao Ziliang was determined to confuse the Tubo army's Tanma, he made careful arrangements, and would not be easily seen by the Tubo Tanma, the army's strict measures to prevent the infiltration of spies were extremely strict, and the guard posts, sentry posts and patrols were not simple roles, and it was almost impossible for the Tubo people to get close to investigate and infiltrate and investigate, so they could only observe from a distance. (To be continued.) )