At the end of February, Zhao Ziliang sent a letter to Wang Qi, the envoy of Hexi Jiedu, stating that he had temporarily solved the problem of food and grass for the Dadou army, and that he was sending people to recruit soldiers in various places.

Since the death of Princess Jincheng last year, Tubo tore up the Chiling Alliance (Sun Moon Mountain Alliance) without authorization, first seized Shibao City, and then launched a full-scale attack on Hexi, Hexi Jiedu made the eight armies directly under the jurisdiction of the three guards to capture several of the military towns have suffered great losses, located in the suburbs of Wuwei Chengcheng Chishui River Chishui also suffered a lot of losses, the previous war from the military towns from all over the military town can return alive are very few, Wang Qi in the past few months is also on the one hand to stabilize order, resettlement of displaced people, on the other hand to rectify the armament, Prevent Tibet from attacking again.

After Gao Xiuyan took over the recruitment of recruits, it took less than a month to recruit 5,000 soldiers, which still excludes those who are too young, too big and weak, and these 5,000 recruits are all light and strong.

With sufficient manpower, Zhao Ziliang strengthened the training of the original veterans on the one hand, and on the other hand, sent his subordinates to 5,000 recruits as instructors to preside over the training of the recruits, and also transferred 200 people from the original veterans to train according to the training plan he formulated.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient grain and grass, Zhao Ziliang also asked 5,000 recruits to spend an average of half a day a day to work in the fields, first of all, to build measuring farm tools, reclaim wasteland, and build new water conservancy.

Less than a month after the cultivation of wasteland, Zheng San rushed over from Anxi's family, this kid married two wives in Anxi the year before last, and already had a son and a daughter, both of whom were less than a year old.

After Zheng San arrived, Zhao Ziliang immediately appointed him to join the army. He was in charge of the logistics of the Great Dou Army, Tuntian, and the establishment of the intelligence system. At present, the two most important things are Tuntian and the formation of the intelligence system, these two tasks are Zheng San's old business, and they are easy to do, but when Zheng San first came, he was not very familiar with the high-level of the Great Dou Army, and he was not clear about the local situation, Zhao Ziliang could only temporarily set up the framework of the intelligence system for him, and Zheng San's main task during this time was Tuntian.

By April of the first year of Tianbao, the Tuntian of the Great Dou Army had reached 8,000 acres. According to the average grain output of 300 catties per mu in this era, two crops a year, these 8,000 mu of fields can produce 4.8 million catties of grain every year, or 30,000 stones, which is more than enough for 10,000 people to eat for a year, and the forage collected can also be used as fodder for war horses and livestock.

5,000 people seed 8,000 acres of fields, and it is necessary to complete the training and plant the fields well, and 8,000 acres is already the maximum limit. It is also a task that can only be accomplished with the use of livestock farming.

While the army was conducting drills, Zhao Ziliang not only had to put up the shelves of the intelligence system, but also had to solve the problems of the army's weapons and bows and crossbows, and some bows and arrows were also stored in the warehouse. The knives and guns had to be rebuilt, at least those old weapons had to be rebuilt, and Zhao Ziliang had to recruit a large number of craftsmen such as blacksmiths and carpenters from the homeless people, and the money was like flowing water.

April 12. On this day, Ge Shuhan suddenly rushed back from the front in person, and Zhao Ziliang was quite surprised, because the intelligence system had not yet been fully established. The movement of the Tibetans can only be reconnoitred by the reconnaissance cavalry, and Geshuhan's task can be described as very heavy, and he will not rush back from the front without anything particularly important.

"Geshu, why are you back? Is there something going on? ”

Ge Shuhan nodded solemnly, and arched his hand: "As the general expected, yesterday night, his subordinates found a Tubo army coming from the direction of Xincheng, with a strength of about 40,000, including 10,000 cavalry, 2,000 camel soldiers, and 28,000 infantry!" ”

When Zhao Ziliang heard this, he also felt that the situation was serious, the recruits had only been recruited for less than a month, and they had to be tuntian at the same time as training, so they could not be sent to the battlefield to fight at this time, even if they were sent to the battlefield, it was equivalent to sending food to the Tubo people.

No matter how Zhao Ziliang calculates, there are only 3,000 elite soldiers available in his hands now, while the Tubo people have 40,000, and the difference in strength is too great, but it is a pity that these 3,000 elite soldiers only have 600 cavalry, if the 3,000 people are all elite cavalry, Zhao Ziliang is confident that he will fight with these 40,000 Tubo people in the field.

After walking back and forth in the lobby for a few times, Zhao Ziliang stopped and asked, "Who is the Tubo people leading the troops this time?" ”

Ge Shuhan's reconnaissance is very in place, and he knows the situation of the Tubo people very well this time, he said: "According to the information obtained by his subordinates, the leader of the troops this time is Lang Zhidu, the son of Tubo Zampu, this Lang Zhidu is not very old, he is vigorous and agile, and he likes to ride famous horses and Baodian saddle!" ”

"Oh?" Zhao Ziliang was stunned for a moment, and said thoughtfully: "It seems that this Lang Zhidu, the son of Zampu, is still a particular person, how long will it take for the enemy army to arrive in my Fanhe County?" ”

Ge Shuhan said: "Three days at most!" ”

Zhao Ziliang immediately returned to the back of the case, quickly wrote down a letter of letters, put it in a bamboo tube, and shouted: "Someone! ”

A servant walked in and saluted, "What does the general command?" ”

Zhao Ziliang handed over the bamboo tube and said: "Immediately send someone to the Liangzhou Jiedu Embassy and hand it over to the Jiedu Envoy Wang Qi in person!" ”

"No!"

Zhao Ziliang shouted again: "Come on, notify all the generals to come to discuss it immediately!" ”

After the notice was issued, no matter what the generals were busy with, they all put down their affairs and rushed over quickly.

Zhao Ziliang said to the generals and colonels with a serious face: "Everyone, the situation is not good, just now Ge Shuhan came to report that there is a Tubo army of about 40,000 people is coming to our side, and it can arrive in three days at the latest, there are 5,000 cavalry, 2,000 camel soldiers, and nearly 30,000 infantry. ”

As soon as Zhao Ziliang finished speaking, the generals and colonies in the hall changed color together, and began to talk about them one by one, and they didn't blame these generals and colonies, there were too many Tubo soldiers who came this time, more than ten times the number of soldiers that the Great Dou Army could fight at this time.

Zhao Ziliang looked at the reactions of the generals and continued: "Before you arrived, General Ben had already sent someone to send a letter of help to Lord Wang, the envoy of Jiedu, and now the question is how should we respond to the arrival of the Tubo army?" In addition, we can't have too much hope for Lord Wang, and it is still unknown whether he can send reinforcements! ”

Gao Xiuyan, the commander of the first battalion, got up and saluted Zhao Ziliang and said: "General, the difference between the strength of our army and the Tubo army is too great to be invincible. And then try to do it".

"I don't agree!" A voice sounded, and everyone turned their heads to look, only to see that it was Zhang Shouyu, the commander of the second battalion, who was the younger brother of the famous general Zhang Shoujue, who was Zhang Shoujue? Zhang Shouqi is a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, has been on the border for a long time, and has been in trouble all his life, growing from a junior officer to a border commander of the powerful side, and the official to the Youzhou Festival Envoy, the Auxiliary General, the Right Yulin General, and the founding prince of Nanyang County, Zhang Shouqi is a civilian with no background, but in the end he was able to do this to this extent, which is inseparable from his own talent, hard work and luck, Zhao Ziliang is simply another copy of Zhang Shouju.

Zhang Shoujue's contribution to the prosperity of the Kaiyuan Dynasty has an irreplaceable role, like Wang Zhonghei and Huangfu Weiming, these people can rise so quickly and be so valued, more or less related to the appreciation and promotion of the emperor and the crown prince, and Zhang Shouqi is completely promoted by his own talents, and the two are not the same.

The year before (740), Zhang Shoujue's subordinates falsely passed on his order to let the Pinglu army make Wu Zhiyi intercept the Khitan and other tribes, first won and then defeated, the general falsely passed the order led to this defeat, should have learned from this painful lesson, and shook the military prestige, but Zhang Shouqi was so happy at this time, deliberately concealed the news of the defeat, and lied about the military situation, after the matter was leaked, Xuanzong sent Niu Xiantong to Youzhou to investigate the facts, but Zhang Shouqi bribed Niu Xiantong with a lot of money, and later Niu Xiantong was found because of bribery, Zhang Shoujue's bribery was also implicated, and the crime was reduced with old merits, so he was demoted to the history of the Kuozhou assassination. is a generation of famous generals, meritorious deeds, what kind of arrogant person is Zhang Shouqi, where can he withstand this kind of blow? So he couldn't afford to get sick, and died of illness in May of the previous year in the official residence of Kuozhou.

Zhang Shouqi's contribution to the Tang Dynasty is undeniable, in addition to the late festival, he also brought a very fatal danger to the Tang Dynasty, that is, the promotion and appointment of An Lushan. In 732, An Lushan was just a sheep thief, and after being caught, he was almost beaten to death by Zhang Shouqi's order, who knew that he had an idea to say that there was a way to help Zhang Shouqi destroy the room Wei and Khitan, Zhang Shouqi saw his bold words and let him go, and in less than eight years, he was promoted from a sheep thief to a Pinglu soldier and horse envoy. After Zhang Shouju's bribery of Niu Xiantong was exposed, many of his subordinates were implicated, but An Lushan was good at management, and secretly bribed the internal servants who investigated the case, and the internal servants said in front of Xuanzong how good An Lushan was, so An Lushan was not only not implicated, but also became a military envoy of Pinglu, although the status of the Pinglu military envoy was higher than that of the Pinglu military envoy, but he had no real power, just a temporary position, and the Pinglu military envoy was a real shortage, with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and he was a real general.

The generals looked at Zhang Shouyu, only to see Zhang Shouyu arching his hand to Zhao Ziliang and saying: "General, as a general of the imperial court, we all have the responsibility of defending the territory, and it is a big crime to evacuate the defense area without an order!" Moreover, if Panhe County is handed over to the Tubo people, the people of the whole county will suffer, and the general will be invited to learn from it." (To be continued.) )