That night, Wang Qi held a feast in the city of the canal, not only feasting his meritorious soldiers, but also feasting the two Tuyuhun commanders who surrendered, Xi Qin and Mo Luo.

The generals of the Tang Army watched several young women of Tuyuhun dancing folk dances, eating meat and drinking wine, and they were so uncomfortable that they completely forgot the fighting scenes during the day.

And Xi Qin and Mo Luo seemed a little absent-minded, after all, the fate of the two of them was in the hands of Wang Qi, but Wang Qi had done enough work to save face, and he could be said to be respectful to the two of them, which made them feel a little relieved.

After three rounds of drinking, Wang Qi smiled and said to Xi Qin and Mo Luo: "Two generals, can this official trust you?" ”

The two didn't know what it meant, and said in surprise: "What does the handsome mean?" Since we have surrendered, we will naturally belong to Datang **** wholeheartedly, and there will be no two hearts! ”

Wang Qi shook his head and said, "That's what I said, but how can this official believe in the two of you?" The two of you may be sincerely attached to my Datang, but what about your soldiers? How many of them are truly attached to my Datang? If one day they instigate the two generals to oppose our Datang again, will the two generals allow it or not? Even if you don't agree, I'm afraid that you won't be able to help yourself! ”

Xi Qin and Mo Luo looked at each other, "This ······ I'm waiting for the dull, and please say it clearly! ”

Wang Qi sighed: "This official doesn't like to do one thing in front of him, one thing behind his back, let's explain it today, if you want to make this official and the court completely reassured, the only way is to separate the two of you and your subordinates!" Now the Yumen military envoy and the Jiankang military envoy each lack a guerrilla general, and they are all battalion commanders! This official wants the two of you to go to the post, each of you can bring thirty guards with you, the other generals must stay, the other soldiers and horses are all left, this officer will order people to take them, their treatment is no different from other Tang Army, presumably the two of you also know that there are many foreign generals and soldiers in my Tang Army, they are the same as everyone else in my Tang Dynasty, regardless of each other! What do the two generals think? ”

Xi Qin and Mo Luo's faces changed, but the two finally agreed: "Everything is up to the boss!" ”

At this point, they didn't agree to it, and Wang Qi didn't break his promise, but just separated them from the original soldiers and horses, and they could still lead the troops in their new positions.

This night can be described as a happy guest and host, except for the two new defectors Xi Qin and Mo Luo, who were a little depressed, the other generals and officials were very happy.

On the second day, Xi Qin and Mo Luo each took thirty Hu selected from the original soldiers and generals to set off for the Yumen Army and the Jiankang Army respectively, in order to show their attention, Wang Qi also took a pole of officials to send the colonels out ten miles away, until their figures disappeared at the end of the road, Wang Qi announced: "All go to the city to discuss matters!" ”。

On the way back to the city, the officials and generals talked and laughed, most of them thought that the canal bend had been captured, and the army would soon go back, and then the armies would return to their respective stations, and this battle was fought very easily, basically there were no casualties, and it was the easiest battle!

As long as Zhao Ziliang guessed that Wang Qi's intention was not just to recapture the canal bend, otherwise why wouldn't there be a need to mobilize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to attack the canal bend? Isn't this a knife used to kill chickens?

Sure enough, after everyone returned to the city and sat down in the lobby of the City Lord's Mansion, Li Hongding, the envoy of the Shazhou Thorn Shi and the Doulu Army, asked: "Marshal, since the canal bend has been recaptured, when will I return to the station?" ”

Wang Qi glanced at Li Hongding and did not answer, but asked Wang Wei: "Mr. Wang, how much grain and grass is left in our army now?" ”

Wang Wei got up and arched his hand and said: "Qiqi Marshal, Xi Langshen has hoarded a lot of grain and grass in the city, according to the number of troops in our army, the current grain and grass can support our army for half a month!" ”

"This month?" Wang Qi nodded, looked at the generals on the left and right and said: "The water canal bend is not the ultimate goal of this official to mobilize all kinds of troops at this time, it doesn't take so many soldiers and horses to take a mere water canal bend, the purpose of this official is to recapture the new city south of Qilian Mountain, and our army will have an outpost to march to the hinterland of the Tubo army!" ”

Someone couldn't help but say: "But Dashuai, we only have half a month of grain and grass!" It is not known whether the new city can be taken within half a month, and if it can't be taken, our army is afraid that there will be no food and grass to return! ”

Wang Qi sighed: "Yes, grain and grass is a big problem, our army has and only half a month's grain and grass, since the beginning of our army's siege to Xi Qin and Mo Luo led the troops to surrender, there should be no leakage of news, it will take about three days to cross the Qilian Mountain, and it will take two more days to reach the new city, so we will spend five days on the road, before the tenth day, our army must take the new city, otherwise we can only return!" After taking the new city, our army had an advance base to attack Tubo, and it could be attacked and defended! ”

Zhao Ziliang asked: "Dashuai, I don't know how Tubo Jun is doing in Xincheng?" How many soldiers and horses are there? Who is in charge of the troops? ”

Wang Qi looked at an official sitting on the left and said, "Wen Shiji, you come to tell you about the situation in Xincheng!" ”

"No!" The official named Wen Shiji agreed and stood up, he was the official in charge of intelligence gathering in the Hexi Jiedu Embassy.

"The Tubo army has a total of 5,000 soldiers and horses in the new city, and the leading general is called Dazaru Gong (Han name is Ma Chongying)! This person was only twenty-six years old, in the twenty-fourth year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty (736 years), the Uighurs invaded, all the way from the north to the south, successively broke through my Yizhou, Xizhou and Shazhou, and finally entered the territory of Tubo, he had led the Tubo army to break the Uighurs, because the princess of Jincheng was still alive at that time, and the Tubo and our dynasty were quite friendly, so Dazarughan led the troops back after breaking the Uighurs, and did not occupy my Shazhou, when he was only twenty-one years old! ”

"It seems that this new city is still a hard bone! I'm afraid it's not easy to fight! The Chishui Army made Yang Jingshu say with some concern.

Ganzhou Thorn History, Jiankang Military Envoy, and veteran General Yuan Kui said with some emotion: "If it is really the back waves of the Yangtze River pushing the front waves, a generation of new people replacing the old people, the current young people are amazing, one is more powerful than the other, and they have such a ability at a young age, and they have a great reputation, such as General Zhao, and now a young Tubo general Dazaru Gong has popped up, it's amazing, it's amazing!" ”

Zhao Ziliang heard the name Dazarugong, his heart moved, and he asked quietly: "Lord Wen, is this Dazarugong surnamed Enlan?" ”

Wen Shiji looked at Zhao Ziliang with some surprise and said, "Dazaru Gong is indeed surnamed Enlan, he was born in the Enlan family, an aristocratic family in Pengyu (now Linzhou County, Tibet Autonomous Region)!" ”

Zhao Zi said in his conscience: "Sure enough, it is him, and he is also a celebrity, this person later became an important minister in the period of Trisong Dezanpu (king) of the Tubo State after the regent Ma Xiang Zhong Bajie, but I am afraid that it will be difficult to deal with."

Wang Qi said coldly: "No matter what, I will give it a try, five days of marching, five days of siege, and return if we can't take the new city within the specified time!" General Zhao Ziliang listens to orders! ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately got up and arched his hand and said, "The end will be!" ”

"Make your department the vanguard, and in the afternoon, pull out the camp and march to the new city through the mountain path, inform the official of the enemy situation in front at any time, and immediately block the passage from the new city to other states and counties after arriving in the new city, and prevent Dazaru Gong from sending people to other states and counties for help!"

"Command!"

Wang Qi said: "The other armies set off with their own officers, and General Yang Jingshu left 2,000 people to guard the bend of the canal to protect my retreat!" ”

All the generals stood up together and clasped their fists and saluted: "Obey!" ”

After the meeting, Zhao Ziliang immediately rushed back to the camp and instructed the men to immediately make a fire to make food and make dry food, so that the soldiers could prepare enough drinking water, the infantry each prepared two cowhide water bags, and the cavalry each prepared five cowhide water bags.

After lunch, after the soldiers received the water bags and dry food, Zhao Ziliang led the army through the canal and bent the city to climb the Qilian Mountain behind.

The high-intensity physical training in the past few months was not in vain, and despite the hot weather, under Zhao Ziliang's planned control, the marching speed was maintained at a certain level, so that the soldiers would not be too tired, but it would not be very easy.

Mountain marching was a great test for cavalry, and on some steep mountain roads, the horses did not dare to move forward at all, and had to rely on the help of manpower.

The average altitude of the Qilian Mountains is between 4,000 meters and 5,000 meters, and many mountain peaks are covered with snow all year round, and everything is extinct above 4,000 meters. Although it was August at this time, it was extremely cold on Qilian Mountain, but fortunately, Zhao Ziliang had made some preparations in advance, he carried a large amount of distilled spirits in the wrench space, and after going up the mountain, he gave each soldier a kraft wine bag at a time, relying on drinking it to resist the cold snap on Qilian Mountain.

When marching in the mountains, in order to reduce the burden of the soldiers, Zhao Ziliang ordered the soldiers to carry everything other than weapons with war horses, the Great Dou Army this time there are 3,000 cavalry among the 5,000 people, a total of more than 6,000 war horses, evenly divided, a person is divided into one and more, on the relatively flat road, Zhao Ziliang ordered, everyone rode forward, made full use of horsepower, saved manpower, and allowed the soldiers to preserve their mental and physical strength.

Under the command and coordination of Zhao Ziliang, the Great Dou Army crossed the Qilian Mountain in only two days and arrived at the foot of the southern side of the Qilian Mountain, but in these two days, it lost more than 100 people and war horses.

After the whole army went down the mountain, Zhao Ziliang immediately ordered that the whole army ride horses and advance to Xincheng as fast as possible.

After getting the news, Zhao Ziliang was anxious, since the two sides had already been in contact and had fought each other, the Tubo Dazarugon of Xincheng would soon find out the problem, and he must lead the big fighting army to block the passage from Xincheng to other states and counties before Dazarugong reacted, and set up an ambush. (To be continued.) )