Late at night on the eighth day of December, 8,000 men and horses on the school field were ready to go, including 5,000 infantry, 4,000 cavalry, 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry led by Liu Gong, the new deputy envoy of the Great Dou Army, Gao Xiuyan as the deputy general, but under the banner of Zhao Ziliang, and the 3,000 cavalry was led by Zhao Ziliang, and the deputy general was Ma Lan, among the 3,000 cavalry, 1,000 were infantry with horses, and 3,000 cavalry had 6,000 war horses.

Liu Gong rode over and hugged his fist at Zhao Ziliang and said, "General, everything is ready, and you can set off at any time!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said to Liu Gong: "General Liu, after dawn tomorrow, your troops don't have to hide their whereabouts, but they have to swagger quickly towards the new city under the banner of this general, and after arriving in the new city, immediately converge with Ge Shuhan and approach Changning County, causing oppression to the Tubo army from the north and distracting the attention of the Tubo people!" ”

Liu Gong hugged his fists and said: "The last general understands!" ”

"Let's go!"

Liu Gong waved his hand forward, rode his horse forward, and the 5,000 infantry behind him either held banners and daqi, or held spears and bows and arrows, or followed behind with shields, in a row, neat and orderly, and the army quietly left the camp.

After Liu Gong led 5,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to leave the camp, Zhao Ziliang instructed Zhang Shouyu, the commander of the third battalion who stayed behind: "General Zhang, after I leave, the soldiers left behind by your department must practice non-stop every day, and the momentum must be huge, and the appearance that the army is still in the camp must be made, and the Tubo army must not be allowed to find that the camp is empty."

Zhang Shouyu arched his hand and said: "The general can rest assured, the last general will be saved!" ”

Subsequently, Zhao Ziliang also quietly left the military camp with 3,000 men and horses, because the military camp was located outside the city, the brigade left in the middle of the night, and the people in the city knew nothing.

At noon the next day, Zhao Ziliang's 3,000 cavalry arrived at the small village of Mole, did not stop and crossed the Datong River directly, it is now winter, the water level of the river is very low, 3,000 men and horses quickly crossed the Datong River along the river bank to the southeast, and in the afternoon along a tributary to the south.

On both sides of the river are high mountains and mountains, and the terrain is dangerous, if there is an ambush of the Tubo army here, Zhao Ziliang can only cry.

Everything was normal when the army was in the barracks, but after crossing the Datong River, the altitude began to increase all the way, from more than 2,000 meters to more than 3,000 meters, and many soldiers turned pale and began to breathe.

Fortunately, during this time, Zhao Ziliang often took the soldiers to carry out adaptive training in the high mountains to help the soldiers overcome altitude sickness.

On the night of the ninth day of December, the sky began to snow, and it snowed heavily on the plateau at an altitude of more than 3,600 meters, and the cold wind was bitter, and the army could not move forward at all, Zhao Ziliang could only order the whole army to stop advancing, and all battalions and regiments looked for wood to live and keep warm, and drove the war horses together, lit fires around the war horses, and built simple horse sheds to prevent the horses from freezing to death and frostbite.

Zhao Ziliang took out a large amount of fresh beef and mutton from the wrench space, asked the men to cook mutton soup for the soldiers to drink, and gave each soldier a piece of meat, so that they could roast the beef and mutton with cumin and pepper to eat it to get rid of the cold.

The soldiers originally thought that they were going to be cold and hungry in this cold and snow, but they didn't expect that not only would they not be cold and starving, but they would also have meat to eat and broth to drink.

A piece of barbecue meat and a bowl of mutton soup were in their stomachs, and the soldiers were all warm, and a dozen of them fell asleep around a pile of fires.

In the early morning of the tenth day of December, the heavy snow stopped, but the cold wind was still howling, and Zhao Ziliang, who wanted to rush for time, did not let the army stop again, and ordered the army to continue its journey.

At about noon, Zhao Ziliang and Ma Lu led 3,000 cavalry to arrive at the Hash River, at this time the temperature had dropped to below zero, and the surface of the Hash River was all frozen, but Zhao Ziliang did not let the army step on the ice to advance, and the cavalry was not suitable for sliding on the ice.

The whole army ate simple dry food by the river, and when they were thirsty, they grabbed the snow from the ground and stuffed it into their mouths, and the army soon set out on the road again, and marched southeast along the banks of the Hash River.

At the front of the team, Naiga, a young man of the Qiang tribe, said to Zhao Ziliang: "General, according to this marching speed, we can reach the north shore of the West Sea at noon tomorrow, and we will be able to reach the hometown of the original Longqi City in the evening tomorrow!" ”

As the army approached Qinghai Lake, the terrain became lower and lower, and the sequelae of altitude sickness of the soldiers gradually disappeared, but the altitude here is still very high, the lake is more than 3,200 meters above sea level, and the temperature is still cold.

On December 11, at noon, the army arrived at the north shore of Qinghai Lake as scheduled, and it was snowing heavily from last night until now, and the lake was endless and white, and the shadow of a creature was seen.

Ma Luan's lips were frozen, he rubbed his hands, rode his horse and ran over to Zhao Ziliang and said: "General, let the soldiers rest for a while, if they continue like this, even if they arrive at the hometown of Longqi City, the soldiers will have no combat power!" ”

Zhao Ziliang observed it with a telescope, took out the map and looked at it, and then said: "It's not okay here, order the whole army, go further, and go to Kubahai for repairs!" ”

"No!"

There was originally a large area of natural pasture by Qinghai Lake, there are many herdsmen living around, there are the original inhabitants of the Qiang people, there are Tubo people, and Tuyuhun people, now it is snowing heavily, once the snow stops, these herdsmen will definitely come out to collect forage for livestock, and then it is impossible to hide the traces of the army, Zhao Ziliang can only take advantage of the heavy snow to order the army to continue to advance.

After arriving at Kubahai, the army is not far from the distance of the original Longqi City, only a few dozen miles away, not an hour to arrive, do a good job of perimeter vigilance, let the soldiers have a good rest, recuperate enough, and wait for night to attack the Tubo army in Longqi City.

The snowflakes are still floating in the sky, and there is no sign of stopping. Before that, Zhao Ziliang led the army through the northwest canyon of Riyue Mountain on the north shore of the West Sea and approached Longqi City. In this weather, the Tubo Army Guard Cavalry stationed in the hometown of the original Longqi City disappeared, and Xu hid in a corner to avoid the wind and snow.

As night fell, the temperature began to drop and became colder, and the marching army did not speak, and the whole team moved forward silently and quickly.

At this time, there was a fork in the road in front, Zhao Ziliang took out the map and looked at it, and thought of Naiga who was riding a horse next to him and said: "General, the road on the left leads directly to the hometown of Longqi City, and you Han people also have a name called Triangle City, and the right side of the road leads directly to the Huangshui River!" ”

Zhao Ziliang looked at the map again when he heard this, and said to Ma Lan: "You take a thousand infantry to the right to block the Huangshui River, not ready to let go of a Tubo soldier, we must hurry, if it is too late, the temperature drops too fast, the Huangshui River may freeze, then the pocket will not be able to do, half an hour later, a certain will take two thousand cavalry to attack the Tubo army in the hometown of the triangle city on time, you must pay attention to the time, don't be scattered by the Tubo rout!" ”

"Don't worry, the general understands!"

The team was divided into two, Zhao Ziliang led 2,000 elite cavalry from the left road to the Tubo army garrison, and Ma Lu led 1,000 infantry on horseback to the Huangshui River in the northeast.

When Zhao Ziliang led the army to arrive at the periphery of the Tubo army station, the sky had completely darkened, the snowflakes still did not stop, the Tubo army camp was located on the site of the original Longqi City, this site is full of ruins and broken walls, the years and the sun and rain of nature, wind and rain have made this site weathered very seriously.

In order to maintain concealment, Zhao Ziliang deliberately did not take the road of Jinyintan Prairie, but walked by Qinghai Lake, and then passed through the canyon in the northwest of Riyue Mountain.

When Zhao Ziliang led two thousand elite cavalry into two groups of men and horses to rush into the camp of the Tubo army, the Tubo army had not yet reacted, and when the Tubo army hiding in the tent of the camp ran out of the camp in a mess, most of the camp had been set on fire by the Tang army.

Together, the Tubo army was even more panicked, and the soldiers of the Tubo army were scurrying around like headless flies everywhere, the stables were pulled down by the Tang cavalry with ropes, and a large number of Tubo army horses rushed out of the camp in horror and scattered.

The initial plan of the raid was to mess up the Tubo army, causing panic and panic, this purpose has been achieved, Zhao Ziliang immediately led the Tang army to start slashing and killing the soldiers of the Tubo army, unorganized and chaotic, each only thinking of fleeing for their lives The soldiers of the Tubo army fled outside in a swarm, but there were Tang cavalry everywhere, and a group of cavalry rushed over, waving the horizontal knife and spear in their hands, and the heads flew into the sky, and blood spurted out.

Screams, cries for help, begs for mercy and shouts of slaughter show that a catastrophe is being suffered here, a small number of Tubo troops escaped from the camp, some fled to the Jinyintan grassland, and some fled east along the Huangshui River, no one paid attention to the Tubo rout fleeing eastward, and there were many Tang cavalry chasing behind the Tubo army fleeing to the Jinyintan grassland to the west, these Tubo soldiers had no war horses, and they were cut down by the Tang cavalry who caught up with them only by relying on their legs without escaping far, and the snow was bright red everywhere all the way, The blood quickly coagulated and turned black, and the corpse was then covered in snow.

The chaotic Tubo army in the camp has been almost killed, Zhao Ziliang stopped in front of a big tent, in front of the big tent, the body of a Tubo general lying on the snow has already died, this guy just came out of the big tent was poked by Zhao Ziliang and died in a big hole.

Jumping off the war horse, Hu Cong took the golden nail jujube lance and reins from him, Zhao Ziliang lifted the curtain of the camp tent and walked in, the tent was burning horse dung, and a pot of mare's milk wine was hanging on the tripod warm.

Zhao Ziliang walked over and picked up the mare's milk wine jug, took a cup from the desk and poured a full glass, poured it down, and immediately became hot all over his body, as a Jiangnan person, Zhao Ziliang didn't like this kind of drink with a strong fishy smell, but after staying in the northwest and border regions for a long time, he got used to it. (To be continued.) )