On this day, Zhao Ziliang was studying the map and preparing to cooperate with Huangfu Weiming, the envoy of Longyou Daojiedu, to jointly eradicate the stronghold of the Tubo army in Dafeichuan and the hometown of the original East Tuyuhun, when Brehan came in and reported: "General, General Ge Shuhan and General Gao Xiuyan have returned with their troops, and the soldiers and horses are already outside the camp gate, and they are about to arrive!" ”

Zhao Ziliang raised his head and was overjoyed when he heard this, and said: "Okay, General Ben was about to use troops, but I didn't expect them to come back, wait for them to settle the soldiers and horses, and then let them come to see so-and-so, and send someone to notify Ma Lu, Zhang Shouyu, and Liu Gong to come over."

"No!"

Two days later, in the Taishou Mansion of Fu Qi City, which had been completed, the generals and school officials gathered together, Zhao Ziliang held his waist knife and strode in from the outside with a few guards, and all the generals and school officials stood up together and shouted: "Meet the general!" ”

Zhao Ziliang walked to the main seat and sat down, and pressed his hand: "Sit down!" Come on, bring the Kanyu map! ”

The generals sat down one after another, and the two servants carried a wooden frame with a map on it beside Zhao Ziliang, Zhao Ziliang said: "Today I will find you, nothing else, this general has decided to start a war against Tubo, in the past, every time it was the Tubo people who fought us first, since last year's defeat in Tubo, Tubo's vitality was greatly damaged, from strategic offensive to strategic defense, and we are the opposite, now we have to fight the Tubo people first, this time our strategic purpose is here - Jiuqu Yellow River, take all the areas through which the Yellow River Jiuqu passes." , we have enough horse farms, the origin of the Hequ horse will all fall into my hands, and I will no longer lack war horses in Datang in the future! ”

Everyone was extremely excited after listening to Zhao Ziliang's words, Yan Zhenqing couldn't help but shed a few tears, he was so excited, just because of the natural geographical advantages, Tubo has always maintained a strategic offensive situation for Datang, and the current situation has finally reversed, if it can really take the Jiuqu Yellow River region and control the origin of Hequ horses in his hands, Datang will really not lack war horses in the future, and Datang can form large-scale heavy armored cavalry and light cavalry.

This situation is really not easy to come by, and Yan Zhenqing can't help but shed tears without excitement.

Zhao Ziliang continued: "But we can't get carried away, now the average altitude of our place here is only 9,600 feet, the closer to the direction of Tubo, the higher the altitude, the more and more cases of altitude sickness, more and more serious, in order to maintain the combat effectiveness of the soldiers, so we can't rush for quick success, for those cities and strongholds occupied by the Tubo army, we have to fight one by one, and hold it when we fight down, so that the soldiers can rest for a period of time and adapt to the new altitude. Wait for the soldiers to completely lose altitude sickness and then go to fight a new city! ”

Yan Zhenqing hugged his fists and said: "The general's method is the essence of the art of war, and the subordinate admires it!" Xiaguan has never understood why my Tang soldiers have repeatedly lost their combat strength when they attack Tubo, it turns out that it is because of this altitude sickness, and Xiaguan has been taught! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded, pointed to the map and said: "Now the stronghold of the Tubo Army in the Qaidam Basin in the western part of the sea has been pulled out by General Ge Shuhan and General Gao Xiuyan, and the vast areas east of the Altyn Mountains, south of the Qilian Mountains, north of the Kunlun Mountains and west of the West Sea have all been included in our Tang Dynasty territory, our next step is to march into the land of the Yellow River in Jiuqu, first of all, we must take the Shudun City and Huayuan County east of the West Sea, General Gao Xiuyan!" ”

Gao Xiuyan got up when he heard it and said, "The last general!" ”

"This time, it took you a long time to sweep away the stronghold of the Tubo army in the Qaidam Basin, and the soldiers have worked hard, this time you will attack Huayuan County and Shudun City, you will stay and guard Fuqi City!"

Gao Xiuyan said: "No! ”

Zhao Ziliang said again: "General Liu Gong, you led the Great Dou Army and a total of 13,000 county soldiers from Qilian, Dichi, Xincheng, and Changning counties to attack Shudun City!" ”

Liu Gong got up and hugged his fists and said, "Take the order!" ”

"Ma Lan, you guard Bailan!"

"No!"

"Ge Shuhan, you led the first and second battalions of the Fu Qi Army and the Haixi Tuyuhun tribe with a total of 10,000 people to attack Huayuan County! As for the Gongji City, Douhe City, and Xiqiang City east of the Yellow River, they will be handed over to General Huangfu of Longyou Daojiedu to solve them! ”

"Yes!"

On the eighth day of the first month of March, the Tang army sent troops to attack Shudun City, Huayuan County, Xiqiang City, Gongji City, and Xiqiang City occupied by the Tubo army at the same time.

Not long after the Tang army took these cities, the Tang army and the sentinels learned that a group of Tibetan soldiers and horses had come from the Tubo country under the banner of the mission, and this mission had passed through Mantoucheng, the most important military town in the Jiuqu Yellow River region, and the news soon spread to the Xihai Governor's Mansion.

Zhao Ziliang immediately convened the civil officials and military generals to discuss this move of the Tubo.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is just news that there is a group of Tibetan people under the banner of the mission, about 300 people have set off from Luo, and now they have arrived in Mantou City, not far from Huayuan County, they have sent people to negotiate, saying that they are going to Chang'an to meet the emperor, what do you think of this matter?"

After Zhao Ziliang's words fell, the civil officials and military generals immediately discussed, Ge Shuhan stood up and arched his hand: "General, what is there to say about this, the Tubo people clearly want to make peace with our court, and want to get a chance to breathe, they can't let them go to Chang'an, in the opinion of the last general, as long as they enter the control of our army, they will be killed immediately!" ”

Many generals nodded one after another, saying that Ge Shuhan's method was indeed a good one, and Zhao Ziliang asked rhetorically: "What if the imperial court sends someone to ask?" From Tubo to Chang'an, they can not only take our road, they can also take Nanzhao and Jiannan Road, and when their second wave of envoys arrives in Chang'an, they will tell the court and the emperor about the first wave of envoys, and the court will send someone to verify, how is it good? ”

Ge Shuhan spread his hands: "How do we know this, there are horse bandits everywhere these days, who knows where they went?" We haven't seen them anyway! ”

All the civil officials and military generals nodded their heads and said yes, this kind of one-time push, two-six-five, and one-time practice is often a way for the border army to fool the imperial court and send people to investigate certain matters.

Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "It's too unconfident to do this, too unrelenting in the spirit of a big country, the embassy is coming, no matter what the purpose is, we have to welcome it, how can we do such a thing?" How to deal with them is a matter for the court bosses, and we can only fight the war. Where is Brehan? ”

The chief of the guard, Brehan, stood up and arched his hand: "The subordinates are here!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "You take the general's personal soldiers to go to Mantou City to meet the Tubo delegation, and escort them all the way to the jurisdiction of Longyou Dao, and hand them over to the people sent by General Huangfu, don't slack off along the way, on the one hand, show my Tang Dynasty's broad mind, on the other hand, let me monitor anyone in this mission, and don't let them take the opportunity to spy on our army's defense, do you understand?" ”

Brehan clenched his fists and said: "My subordinates understand!" ”

After Brehan left, the judge Yan Zhenqing bowed his hand to Zhao Ziliang and said: "General, although General Geshu's disposal method is a little unauthentic, but what he said is not unreasonable, now most of the original Tuyuhun hometown has been occupied by our army, and the military strength of the Tubo people in this area is pitifully weak, and in southern Tibet and eastern Tibet, there are Jiannan Province and Lingnan Road to contain most of the soldiers and horses, in a short period of time they are simply unable to draw more troops to resist the attack of our army, for the sake of today, they can only seek peace, It is estimated that this time the mission will ask the emperor for peace, in order to ease the relationship between the two countries, in this way, the Tubo country has a chance to breathe, and when they recover, and raise a large army to attack, so repeatedly, a cycle of decades, endless, once there is an accident in our dynasty, Tubo will take advantage of the void! ”

Zhao Ziliang snorted coldly when he heard this, patted the case and said angrily: "The Tubo people also think too well, do you really think that I am a group of fools above the Tang Dynasty?" Want a truce? I'd rather die! ”

Yan Zhenqing couldn't help but smile bitterly: "General, those things above the court and between countries are not so simple, as long as there is enough exchange of interests, anything can happen!" ”

Zhao Ziliang suddenly became vigilant when he heard Yan Zhenqing's words, Yan Zhenqing said well, as long as there is enough exchange of interests, or the Tubo people spend a lot of money to buy a court boss like Li Linfu, the court is really likely to agree to a truce, if it really comes to that point, the Tang Dynasty soldiers braved the wind and snow, gnawed like a stone, and braved huge casualties to advance the battle line to the south of Dafeichuan, wouldn't the truce be a failure at this time?

No, absolutely not, the war must not be stopped, and the Tubo people must not be allowed to have the final say when they want to stop! Zhao Ziliang immediately said to Yan Zhenqing: "Lord Yan, your writing is good, please write a recital for General Ben to the Shengshang, and explain to Your Majesty the great relationship of the truce and strike at this time, and the truce must not be stopped at this time, otherwise our soldiers who have died in the past year will really die in vain!" Let the Tubo people ease their breath, they will raise troops to march eastward, and it is up to our DPRK to decide when they want to cease fighting, and on this point, the DPRK and China must reach a consensus! In addition, trouble Lord Yan told Li Linfu that if the Tang Dynasty is strong, his power will be greater, and if the Tang Dynasty is weak, his power will be weak, so the size of his power is proportional to whether the Tang Dynasty is strong or not, he and the general are not on good terms, it is just a difference in political views, it is an internal contradiction, Tubo is our common enemy, in the face of this great enemy, at any time we should be consistent with the outside, not internal friction to let outsiders take advantage, if he betrays the interests of the Tang Dynasty because of the contradiction with the general, or puts his personal interests above the interests of the Tang Dynasty, don't blame General Ben for not paying attention to the rules, don't think that there are countless masters around him, and there is His Majesty's favor, General Ben can't do anything about him! ”

Yan Zhenqing opened his mouth, he wanted to say something but he couldn't say it, so he had to sigh: "General, don't think that Lord Li Linfu is a person who can betray the interests of the Tang Dynasty for the sake of his own power, the lower officials think that you have a strong prejudice against Lord Li Linfu, you have been in the DPRK for several years, and it is best not to mix personal feelings and preferences in handling the relationship between colleagues and major affairs in the DPRK and China." In addition, there is more than one force in the DPRK and China, Lord Li Linfu, and the lower officials can write for the general, but the lower officials advise the generals not to pin their hopes on the folds, Chang'an is thousands of miles away according to this, and the generals are beyond the reach of the whip even if they are capable. It is better for the general to raise a large army and attack the military stronghold of Tubo in the south of the West Sea with all his might, and complete the general's strategic plan before the imperial court and Tubo reach an agreement! ”

Hearing Yan Zhenqing's words, Zhao Ziliang's eyes flashed with light, and he slapped the table and said loudly: "Lord Yan is reasonable, come here, prepare the horse!" I want to go to Shanzhou to meet General Huangfu." (To be continued.) )