Chapter 68: Xue Yantuo

Li De stared at Zhang Baoxiang like this, which made Zhang Baoxiang uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to tell the truth, so he could only continue to make up, "Lord Wang, with my years of experience, we still slowly retreat, withdraw the troops and go back, there is no need to confront the Xue Yantuo people now, it is a matter of time before they are cleaned up." ”

Li De snorted, turned his head and ordered, "Wei Chigong, Su Dingfang"

The two hugged their fists and said "the last general"

Li De said, "Order the two of you to lead the cavalry to destroy the Xue Yantuo soldiers opposite this king, let them taste the edge of my Datang, and if they dare to provoke Datang, they must be ready to die." ”

Seeing that there was a ready-made merit to pick up a bargain, the two of them would not work hard, and rushed towards the Xue Yantuo soldiers opposite with 10,000 cavalry, 10,000 against 5,000, plus two fierce generals, easy and pleasant rhythm.

The Xue Yantuo people over there saw the arrival of the Tang reinforcements, and they didn't want to do anything, they just followed Zhang Baoxiang to provoke the Tang army on the order of Yi Nan, observe their movements, and see if the Tang Dynasty had to be wiped out by Longwang Shu Jieli was ready to attack them Xue Yantuo, and they didn't want to really start a war with the Tang Dynasty at all. As a result, after the Tang reinforcements converged with Zhang Baoxiang's troops, they went straight to them. Frightened, they fled with their horses, and the 10,000 Tang cavalry on the opposite side were like wolves, and they really didn't have the courage to be tough head-on.

Wei Chigong and Su Dingfang saw that the other party was about to escape, and the duck that was about to arrive could not be allowed to fly, so the two of them divided the army into two as soon as they combined, and the two breads were copied up, so they must be annihilated.

Zhang Baoxiang smiled bitterly and watched Wei Chigong and Su Dingfang chasing and killing Xue Yantuo, he knew that he had gotten away, seeing that Li De was by his side, he didn't move, and he knew that his plan was seen through when he sent others to fight, if he wanted to escape punishment, unless he killed Li De with a knife, and took the soldiers to Yi Nan or Tuli, this idea was only thought about in his mind, Zhang Baoxiang looked at the two golden hammers in Li De's hands, just like a deflated ball, he didn't dare to act at all, and he couldn't assassinate him and smashed his head with a golden hammer. At most, he was arrested by Li De and pleaded with Li Jing and Li Daozong, and the two of them should help him in the face of his many years in the army.

Li De gave the black dragon some forage to eat, and played with the double hammer in his hand, just to make Zhang Baoxiang jealous, if others estimated that this guy would dare to kill and frame Xue Yantuo, he would not be able to play any tricks with him.

Wei Chigong and Su Dingfang chased and killed Xue Yantuo one after another, the front was blocked and rushed back, and the final blow of the non-stop arrows in the back did not take half a day to return triumphantly, and came back to report to Li De.

Wei Chigong said, "Lord Wang, Xue Yantuo has been killed by us, and two prisoners have been captured, do you want to interrogate them?" ”

Li De nodded and said, "Very good, there is General Lao Weichi, bring me the prisoners"

Su Dingfang pressed the two captives forward, kicked them to the ground one by one, and said, "This is our Prince of the Tang Dynasty, what is the best answer for you to answer, otherwise I will kill you." ”

The two didn't understand Su Dingfang's Chinese, and they couldn't understand Li De, Su Dingfang, and Wei Chigong, and at this time Zhang Baoxiang flattered and said, "Don't worry, the prince is stationed at the border all the year round, and he can speak some Turkic language, so that the last general will translate for the prince." ”

Seeing Li De nodding, Zhang Baoxiang hurriedly stepped forward to translate. I saw Zhang Baojiao muttering a few words in the past, and the two Xue Yantuo people immediately gave Li De a five-body gift.

Li De turned his head to look at Zhang Baoxiang, and he explained, "Lord Wang, your name is now spread all over the grassland, I just told these two people your identity, and they will immediately pay homage to you, you don't know that these barbarians admire the strong the most, as long as they admit defeat if they are stronger than them, you just want to sleep with his wife." ”

Su Dingfang pouted and looked down on Zhang Baoxiang very much, he was a general when he came, and he became this virtue when he came back. Or the deputy head of the march of Datongdao, phew.

Wei Chigong laughed and said, "Lord Wang, why don't you find a few Turkic girls to try it, it's not easy to come to the grassland, haha." ”

Li De glared at Wei Chi Gong, the black goods, with a black line on his face, and interrogated the two prisoners and said, "Which of you will explain to me, Xue Yantuo intercepted and killed Chai Shao, the head of the Jinhe Road march, and monitored Zhang Baoxiang's Tang army, what does that Yi Nan look like?" What about your army of 50,000? ”

One of the captives who seemed to be of a relatively high status passed through Zhang Baoxiang and translated: "The villain is just an officer of Xue Yantuo's army, and I can only carry out the Khan's orders, just let the villain with five thousand cavalry hang behind this drum Tang army, monitor their movements, and if they continue to go north, go back and inform the chief." Then the villain doesn't know what happened to intercept and kill Jinhe Road,"

In order to verify the authenticity of this person, Li De asked Zhang Baoxiang to ask another captive on the side, and the answer was the same, even if he couldn't ask anything, he was not afraid that Xue Yantuo had better not come to provoke him, otherwise Li De would definitely arrest Yi Nan and be a companion with Jieli.

Make the best use of it, just ask Xue Yantuo about the details, and then ask, "You tell me about Xue Yantuo's current situation, where is the tooth tent, how many troops are there, and does that Yi Nan have the intention of going south?" ”

The captive said, "I, Xue Yantuo, currently have more than 200,000 troops in the Yudu Army Mountain north of this tooth tent, because you defeated the Jieli Khan single-handedly, and before the villain took the order to set off, the Khan had already summoned the Hui Hui, the servant bones, the Xi tribe and other grassland tribes who were friendly with our clan to join the alliance, and the villain didn't know the specific things,"

Li De pondered carefully, although the captives did not say much, but the amount of information in it was very small and a lot, first of all, the tooth tent was not far from here, and it would soon be able to reach Yinshan, and the strength of the army had reached 200,000, at this point, the captives were originally officers of the army, it must be true, I didn't expect Zhenguan to lead 70,000 Xue Yantuo people to take refuge in Jieli's Yi Nan, who secretly already had such strength, and it had swelled almost 3 times, if the Tang Dynasty still let it go, there would be a situation of conflict between Tuli and Yi Nan on this grassland. It's good that the two sides can maintain a balance, once one side is weakened, another grassland hero will be born immediately, which must be what the Tang Dynasty does not want to see, although there is no evidence to prove that Yi Nan has the intention of going south immediately, but when the Tang army defeated Jieli, Yi Nan intercepted and monitored the Tang army on the one hand, and convened the alliance of the surrounding grassland tribes on the other side, the meaning of this is obvious, Yi Nan does not fight with the Tang Dynasty head-on is just a test to take advantage, unite all ethnic groups and other Tang troops to withdraw, Yi Nan will enter the fertile land of Yin Mountain and even Hetao in a big way, Grow yourself. The ambition is obvious.

Li De will definitely not let this kind of thing happen, go back and tell Li Jing, let's give Li Shimin a book together, let him have a headache, Li De stood up and said to the two Xue Yantuo captives, "For the sake of you who have to answer questions, this king will let you live, take what I said back to your Yinan Khan, just say what I said, let him remember that his position as a khan was enshrined by my Tang Emperor, remember his duty, don't test the bottom line of the Tang Dynasty, otherwise next time this king will personally lead the army north and meet with Yinan." Do you hear me clearly? , come and give them a horse and let them roll"

When the two captives heard Zhang Baoxiang's translation, if they were amnestied, they kowtowed to Li De again and again, and swore in their mouths that they would bring the words to them, and thanked the prince for not killing him, and then jumped on the horse and ran.

After dealing with Xue Yantuo's matter, Li De turned around and prepared to find trouble with Zhang Baoxiang, and said, "General Zhang Baoxiang, aren't you ready to give an explanation to this king until now?" ”

Zhang Baoxiang thought that Li De should let himself go for the sake of seeing that there were no casualties in the army, and he was also bent to welcome him, but he still couldn't run away, so he could only grit his teeth and say, "Lord, the last general is guilty, and he failed to find out the truth of Xue Yantuo, please punish the prince."

Li De shook his head and said, "No, General Zhang, you still go back with me, meet Chief Manager Li, let him call the shots, someone will tie up Zhang Baoxiang for me." ”

Zhang Baoxiang was anxious when he heard this, and it was a big crime to falsely report the military situation and disrupt the deployment of the army. immediately begged Li De, and when he saw that Li De was unmoved, he shouted, "Lord, don't you think about the love of the robe and must deal with the last general?" Don't push the general."

Li De said contemptuously, "What, do you want to play tricks on me, aren't you forgetful, I have 10,000 soldiers in my hands, just with the 5,000 soldiers in your hands, you dare to commit it?" ”

Li De said to the soldiers opposite, "Soldiers, Zhang Baoxiang violated military law by falsely reporting the military situation, and this king will take him down now and bring him back to the royal court to be dealt with by the chief administrator, who of you dares to stop it." ”

The 5,000 soldiers, under the leadership of the lieutenant and the brigade commander, immediately said, "Obey the orders of the prince," these captains are not stupid, they can't beat just one Li De, not to mention the 10,000 cavalry, at most, they just lose their officials and go home to farm, they don't want to lose their lives.

Li De saw that Zhang Baoxiang's face was like ashes, and gave Wei Chigong a look, and Wei Chigong knocked Zhang Baoxiang to the ground with a fist, and the soldiers next to him immediately stepped forward and tied Zhang Baoxiang into a zongzi. Thrown on horseback.

Li De ordered the whole army to turn back. When I came, I had 10,000, and when I went back, I had 15,000 more horses.

Yin Mountain Royal Court

Just when Li De led the army back to the royal court, Li Jing, as the general manager of the Dingxiang Road march, was intercepted by Xue Yantuo in order to protect the huge wealth he had obtained and so many Turkic captives. He also sent his own messenger to Chang'an, asking His Majesty the Emperor to send reinforcements to help him lead the army to return to the Tang Dynasty safely with prisoners and wealth. If Xue Yantuo really sent 50,000 cavalry, then Li Jing decided not to fight, and immediately pulled out the camp and returned south, so as not to let Yi Nan take advantage of it.

The entire Yinshan royal court was filled with a solemn atmosphere, all the soldiers did not leave their swords, did not take off their armor at night, and were always ready for battle, and the major governors and generals took turns to lead the cavalry to patrol around the royal court. Near the crack of the night, the army led by Li De returned to the royal court, and Li De pressed Zhang Baoxiang to go directly to Li Jing.