Chapter 67 Zhang Baoxiang

The meeting between the Turki Khan and Li Jing, the governor of Dingxiang Dao, came to an end, and Tuli returned to his territory with his subordinates, waiting for Li Jing's army to report to the Tang Emperor Li Shimin in triumph, and Tuli would lead the Turkic chiefs to Chang'an at that time and get Li Shimin's reward.

While organizing the army to make corrections, he controlled the movements of the tribes in the grassland, especially the tribes that originally belonged to the forces of Jieli Khan, to prevent them from jumping out to do things when the Tang army withdrew.

On this day, Li Jing was discussing with the generals the day of the return of the army, with the continuous arrival of the Tang army, the entire Turkic royal court has been full, at a glance is full of tents, as well as a large area of cattle, sheep and horses, black pressure is tightly guarded on the other side of the Han slave and Turkic captives, this more day of people eat horses and chew consumption is astronomical, so Li Jing is ready to immediately pull out the camp and return to the south, as soon as possible to hand over the prisoners, Han slaves to the imperial court to settle, and all the spoils of war should be enough to make up for the loss of the war, There can also be a lot of surplus, which just leaves the prime ministers of the government hall with money, food and grass to house these people.

Li Jing was in the middle of discussing with the generals, and suddenly thought of something and raised his eyes and swept around, the generals in the big tent basically arrived, only Chai Shao, the chief manager of Jinhe Road, Qin Qiong, the deputy general of the marching army, and Zhang Baoxiang, the deputy general of the Datong Dao march. Chai Shao and Qin Qiong, Li Jing didn't worry that they were coming from the east, and the journey was relatively long, but this Zhang Baoxiang was intriguing when he set off from the royal court.

"Daozong, why hasn't your deputy Zhang Baoxiang come back yet?"

Li Daozong also shook his head suspiciously and said, "Chief Administrator, I am also very confused, it stands to reason that he should also come back at this time, Zhang Baoxiang has been very cautious and cautious for many years, and he should not be tripped by the remnants of Jieli Khan." ”

Li Jing also thought that now that the forces of Jieli Khan were uprooted by the Tang Dynasty, even if there was a little wave, it would not be able to turn over a little wave, Zhang Baoxiang could not be used to fighting for many years, and it was impossible to capsize the boat in the gutter, if it was not entangled by the Turks, then he was the only one missing in the case of all the soldiers coming back, it must be unusual, Li De asked everyone in the tent, "Which of you has ever met Zhang Baoxiang?" ”

Everyone looks at me, I look at you, I don't know, only Xue Wanche came from the northeast with Tuli, and said, "Back to the chief governor, I have met with the chief of Chai, and at that time I happened to receive the order of the chief manager to divide the troops and sweep the entire Jieli Khan's sphere of influence, as if they went north with General Zhang." ”

When Li Jing heard the north, he seemed to have grasped something in his heart, and he couldn't remember it for a while. At this time, the guards ran into the big tent and reported to Li Jingyu, "Qiyu, the chief manager, the chief of the Jinhe Road march, Chai Shao, and the deputy chief Qin Qiong have arrived." ”

The Tang army of Jinhe Road led by Chai Shao has already arrived, so Zhang Baoxiang has not arrived for a long time, something must have happened, Li Jing stood up and ran out, wanting to ask Chai Shao if there was any news from the north.

Chai Shao's face was sallow, with strips of cloth tied around his shoulders, and the Tang army behind him was obviously after the battle, many of them were wounded, and they were helped by Qin Qiong to walk in front of Li Jing.

Li Jing hurriedly went up and condoled, "General Chai, how can you be like this? Was it an ambush by a Turkic army? ”

Chai Shao coughed twice and said, "Chief Qiyu, I'm ashamed, we were ambushed by Xue Yantuo on the way back, and we were secretly shot by a sharpshooter under an arrow, but fortunately, there was no worry about our lives, thanks to General Qin's bravery, I was able to come back with soldiers, but our weapons were robbed by Xue Yantuo." ”

Li Jing said in surprise, "General Chai, can you see how many people are in Xue Yantuo's army?" ”

Qin Qiong took over and said, "Chief Administrator, the Xue Yantuo army that ambushed us at that time was estimated to be 10,000 people, but it was very late, and I couldn't see if there were more troops in the rear, so I dropped the spoils of war with the Chief Chai Manager, broke away from the battle, and came back to protect myself, and I was scheming with the Xue Yantuo people." ”

Li Ji said, "I heard that Xue Yantuo Khan Yinan, is also an ambitious figure, on the one hand, he is a pseudo-snake with Jieli, and on the other hand, he secretly sends Jieli to me from time to time in the Tang Dynasty. ”

Li De stepped forward and asked, "General Qin, are you sure you attacked your Xue Yantuo?" ”

Qin Qiong nodded affirmatively. Li De said, "No, at this juncture, our Datang is sweeping the grassland from the sky, and his little Xue Yantuo dares to come over to raise the tiger whiskers of the Tang Dynasty, isn't he afraid that we will hit the door now and kill him?"

Li Daozong said, "Otherwise, I have seen that Yi Nan, the last time I came to pay tribute, I felt that this person was a person who could not live for a long time, he must have calculated that we have just destroyed Jieli, and the strength is not enough to immediately launch a war against Xue Yantuo, after all, we are now dragging a lot, not counting tens of thousands of wounded or the 200,000 Turkic prisoners, we can't easily send troops, once Yi Nan sneak attack, the 200,000 Turkic prisoners will immediately erupt, we can't stand it now, or we will kill all the prisoners now, and send troops north." ”

Li Jing also recognized the analysis of the two managers, and immediately asked Chai Shao to go down to recuperate from his injuries and said, "It's not appropriate to kill prisoners." The two of them said a lot, that Yi Nan did not have a good heart, this is to transfer the tiger from the mountain, once we send troops, the royal court can take advantage of the emptiness, not only can we get a large number of grain and grass but also 200,000 Turkic prisoners, then Xue Yantuo will immediately have enough soldiers, Yi Nan is the second Jieli, can fight against the Tang Dynasty. So he let Chai Shao and them go back to report the news. Let's see if we send troops, and if we send troops, he will come and sneak attack. If he doesn't send troops, then he has also intercepted a lot of booty, just a scheming, Yi Nan is not except for me, I am afraid that the grassland will be troublesome in the future."

Li De secretly guessed on the side that this Xue Yantuo had to take refuge in Jieli before he was beaten into a dog by Jieli, and now Jieli was defeated by the Tang Dynasty and immediately raised his tail, although the grassland barbarians are mostly sycophants who turn their faces immediately after getting benefits, and that Yi Nan will not be provoked at this time unless his brain is kicked by a donkey. It must be a test of Datang's attitude, rather than causing Datang's fierce resistance. It may also be that Datang's combat power is too rich, and it may be red-eyed.

At this time, a fast horse came running, and the knight on the horse turned over and said to Li Jing, "The chief manager of Qiqi, the villain is under the order of General Zhang Baoxiang, our army encountered Xue Yantuo's 50,000 main force in the north, please send troops to rescue." ”

Li Jing picked up the letter and saw that it was indeed there, then turned his head and asked everyone, "What do you think?" If there are fewer troops, it will simply be sent to death, and if there are more, we will be empty, so there is a good strategy. ”

Li Ji, Li Daozong, Wei Chigong and others all frowned, there was no good way for a while, and the chief manager also said too much about the internal emptiness, and if it was less, not only could not save Zhang Baoxiang, but he might also have to put himself in.

Li De stood up and hugged his fists and said, "Boss, give me 10,000 cavalry, and I will go to rescue Zhang Baoxiang now"

Li Jing said, "That's 50,000 cavalry, the prince can have confidence and win more with less."

Li De said proudly, "It's okay, only 50,000 barbarians are not in the eyes of me Li Yuanba, please rest assured, even if I can't defeat the enemy army, I can save General Zhang Baoxiang." ”

Li Jing "Okay, this matter will be handed over to the prince, I expect that with the prince's martial arts, he will be able to retreat with his whole body, Wei Chigong, Su Dingfang, as the deputy general, accompany the prince to send troops to protect the safety of the prince." This governor immediately summons His Majesty to ask for reinforcements, so you can go now. ”

Li De, Wei Chigong, and Su Dingfang hugged their fists together and said "obey"

The three of them gathered 10,000 cavalry and rushed north.

North of Yinshan Mountain, south of Yu Du Jun Mountain, Zhang Baoxiang led the 5,000 Tang Army, head-on encountered Xue Yantuo's army from Yu Du Jun Mountain Tent, Zhang Baoxiang did not dare to lead the soldiers to retreat, sent a messenger to Li Jing to send a letter to ask for reinforcements, I don't know for what reason, Zhang Baoxiang did not fully know Xue Yantuo's strength in the case of lying about the military situation, exaggerating the fact that it was 50,000 troops, and after the messenger left, Zhang Baoxiang led the army to keep a distance from Xue Yantuo's army, and there was no major conflict.

When Li De arrived at the destination with the army, except for seeing a part of Xue Yantuo's army in the distance, he thought that there was no trace of the cavalry, and Li De turned over and dismounted.

Zhang Baoxiang greeted him and hugged his fists and said, "Humble Zhang Baoxiang, meet His Royal Highness King Wei." ”

Li De said "En", "General Zhang, do you have heavy casualties?" This king looks at the Xue Yantuo army on the other side as if it is only watching from a distance, and there is no intention to annihilate you, do you have something to tell this king? ”

Zhang Baoxiang thought to himself that there was nothing in the first place, if it weren't for you and Li Jing to arrest Jieli, so that I didn't get any credit, would I lie about the military situation, I originally thought that according to the situation, Li Jing could not ignore the safety of the royal court and send troops to rescue, at most he sent a junior officer to lead the troops to rescue him back, when the time comes, he Zhang Baoxiang killed a few Xue Yantuo soldiers, took the head and pretended to be cut, how can he go back and mix a blocking work, who knows that people are not as good as the sky and other people did not come, but they recruited Li De, the killing god, He had long known that Li De had annihilated the most elite Golden Wolf Army in Jieli with 5,000 Beiwei troops, this time Zhang Baoxiang was on wax, in order to escape the responsibility of being found out by Li De that he lied about the military situation, Zhang Baoxiang said hard-headed, "Lord Wang, that Xue Yantuo people are as cunning as foxes, there were 50,000 people before, and when they saw that the prince was leading the army, they must be hiding, preparing to kill us with a surprise attack." Why don't you withdraw to Yinshan now."

Li De stared at Zhang Baoxiang without speaking, Li De didn't believe what he said at all, in exchange for you have an army of 50,000 in your hands, and the enemy on the opposite side is only 5,000, you are still fucking watching from the side, do you say it's possible, why put a long line to catch a big fish? You are stupid, both sides are cavalry in this vast grassland, and a casual movement has long been known by others, how do you fish if you run away early, Li De doesn't believe that the Yi man dares to fight with Datang at this time, he must be the same as Tuli Waiting for Datang to withdraw and immediately fill the void left by Jieli, who is not willing to do this kind of thing that can take advantage of the boss without wasting his strength, and who will be a fool if he can be the leader.