For three consecutive days, timber and stones were transported from outside the city, and Zhao Ziliang led the generals and officials to inspect the defense arrangements at various city gates and city walls. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

When inspecting to the west gate tower, a Huya army galloped over, and soon passed through the city gate hole, and the Huya army commander Xuan 18 immediately ran down the city tower, and soon immediately ran back to Zhao Ziliang with a fist and reported: "Marshal, in the past three days, my Huya army soldiers have killed forty-eight Tubo outposts one after another, and the Tubo general Dazaru Gong in Linqiang is only afraid that he has found an abnormality!" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded when he heard this: "Tubo Marshal Dazarugong is not a fool, so many probe posts have not returned, he must have guessed that something is wrong here, and then I am afraid that instead of sending another outpost, I will send a small army to test it!" Erzhu, order the cavalry to prepare their tents! ”

Erzhu stood up and hugged his fists and said, "The last general will obey the order!" ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and said to Cen Shen beside him: "Mr. Cen, send two thousand people from the infantry to dig tunnels from outside the city to the outside of the city, and dig to the west, and you will preside over this matter!" ”

Cen Shen arched his hand and said, "No! ”

On the morning of June 12, Zhao Ziliang had just returned to Taishou Mansion from the city wall, and Xuan 18 hurriedly came to report: "Dashuai, the Tubo army is coming, Tanma has just come to report, there are 3,000 Tubo cavalry coming to Xiping City from the direction of Linqiang, their marching speed is not fast, it is slower than the normal marching speed, and it is only forty miles in an hour. ”

When Zhao Ziliang heard this, he immediately said: "Erzhu, order the three thousand cavalry of the escort army to assemble immediately, and prepare to go out of the city with this commander to meet the cavalry of the Tubo army!" ”

Cen Shen next to him immediately suggested: "The marshal is the chief general of the first army, and he must not be moved lightly, so he can make the commander of the escort army, Er Zhu, lead the troops to meet the enemy!" ”

Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "This first battle must be played with momentum and must be won beautifully, and now more than 200 soldiers have altitude sickness, this battle is the best time to boost morale!" ”

The generals and officials had no choice but to prepare, three thousand guards were soon assembled outside the west city gate, Zhao Ziliang carried a horse lance with his own army and galloped to the outside of the city, needless to say, Zhao Ziliang's appearance has made the guards soldiers have a strong fighting spirit, I saw him wave his big hand, and the soldiers followed him to gallop to the west.

The scene of 3,000 cavalry galloping together made the smoke and dust rise in the sky above the army, the yellow grass was flying, and the rumbling sound of horses' hooves alarmed the oncoming 3,000 Tubo cavalry, Zhao Ziliang led the escort army to 25 miles and encountered the 3,000 cavalry of the Tubo army, which they just lined up in a military formation to prepare for battle.

Zhao Ziliang saw it from afar, picked up the telescope on his chest to observe, and saw that the cavalry of the Tubo army had already completed the formation, if he ordered to stop advancing and arranging to meet the enemy, it would definitely be too late in time, and he would inevitably be attacked by the cavalry of the Tubo army, he immediately ordered loudly: "Advance at full speed, line up in a sharp formation, and follow me to crush the Tubo army!" ”

The herald behind him immediately raised a small flag and kept waving to convey Zhao Ziliang's order, Zhao Ziliang also intended to slow down the speed of the horse, so that the Tang cavalry behind could quickly follow up and form a formation, and the three thousand guards of the Tang army slowly completed the arrangement and arrangement of the formation in the process of galloping on horseback, and when the army rushed to the front of the Tubo army, the sharp arrow formation was just completed.

"Kill-" Zhao Ziliang roared, and the horse lance in his hand stabbed at the oncoming general of the Tubo army.

"Die!" The golden nail jujube yang lance in Zhao Ziliang's hand stabbed past with an incomparably fast momentum, and the Tubo general on the opposite side was shocked when he saw this speed, and it was too late to dodge, so he immediately withdrew the mace in his hand and blocked it in front of his chest.

"Nail-" sound, the golden nail Zaoyang lance stabbed on the mace, a huge force knocked the Tubo leading general out of the air, the mace hit the armor on his body, the armor was knocked out of a concave, the mace fell at any time, he was still in the air did not land, Zhao Ziliang had already ridden over and held the horse lance to split down, and the sharp lance head split the Tubo leading general in half.

Zhao Ziliang took back the horse lance but saw that the banner of the Tubo general in front of him was being held by a Tubo soldier, and the horse lance in his hand leaned forward, and the Tubo soldier was stabbed to death.

"The Tubo general has been killed by me, and all the soldiers have been killed!" Zhao Ziliang roared, saying that the horse lance did not stop for a moment, constantly stabbing and chopping, and the oncoming Tubo cavalry was swept into two pieces and died.

There was blood sprayed on his body, Zhao Ziliang didn't care, and led the cavalry of the escort army all the way through the formation of the Tubo army.

In a quarter of an hour of fighting, all the Tubo troops that had been left behind were killed, and the remaining part of the Tubo army had fled to the rear.

After chasing for about fifteen miles, more than a dozen cavalry members of the Huya Army suddenly rushed over from both sides of the vicinity, Zhao Ziliang immediately stopped his horse, and the guards behind him also tightened the reins and stopped.

An official of the Huya army immediately stepped forward and reported to Zhao Ziliang with a fist: "Marshal, there is a Tubo army coming in the direction of Xiping forty miles ahead, with about 120,000 soldiers and horses, including 60,000 cavalry and 60,000 infantry. ”

The distance from Linqiang to Xiping City is about 100 miles, the number of 120,000 troops is too large, and there are half of the infantry, even if they advance at full speed, it is impossible to arrive in Xiping City in one day, and it is already very fast to arrive before noon tomorrow, which depends on the dispatching and commanding ability of the commander Dazarugon, if the dispatching and commanding ability is strong, it is normal to arrive at noon tomorrow, if the commander's ability is not good, it is estimated that it will arrive the day after tomorrow, and it is necessary to dispatch and command 120,000 people, which is by no means comparable to 3,000 people, It only took two or three hours from the camp to the official departure, which was still well arranged, and the incompetent leading generals were only afraid that it would cause chaos.

Zhao Ziliang pondered for a moment when he heard this, turned his horse's head and shouted: "Order, the rear army becomes the front army, the former army becomes the rear army, and the whole army turns around and returns to the city!" ”

The herald immediately sent several heralds to the rear, shouting as they ran, conveying Zhao Ziliang's order, and in just a few minutes, the escort completed the turn and began to gallop in the direction of Xiping.

Returning to the Taishou Mansion of Xiping City, Zhao Ziliang immediately convened the main generals and officials to discuss the specific matters of defending the city.

Zhao Ziliang didn't care about the blood and water all over his body, and came directly to the lobby of the Taishou Mansion, the generals and officials were already waiting again, he said: "Everyone, this time the three thousand guards of our army went out of the city camp and killed more than 2,000 people, and some of them escaped, if it weren't for the fact that their main army had come in the direction of Xiping City, there would definitely be more gains!" Now their main army is still more than seventy miles away from Xiheisei, and it should be able to arrive tomorrow afternoon! So there is not much time left for us to prepare, about the deployment of the city, I have already made arrangements a few days ago, in the east, south and north of the three gates and the city wall each deployed a thousand infantry, these three sides of the terrain is low, in these three sides of the siege is not good for the Tubo people, they will definitely choose to attack the west gate and the west city wall, the three city walls of the 1,000 defenders divided into two groups to take turns on duty, no one is allowed to slack off during the duty period, violators of the order will be beheaded! Leaving 2,000 infantry as a reserve, these people are digging tunnels, the remaining 5,000 people are all deployed in the west city gate and the west city wall, these 5,000 people are divided into five echelons, each echelon takes turns to guard for two hours, rotate in turn, if the Tubo army offensive is too fierce, the commander will order the next echelon reinforcements, the guards of the city gate and the city wall have been appointed before, so I will not repeat it here, Wanger and the soldiers work together to guard the city wall! ”

All the generals clasped their fists together and said, "Obey!" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked again: "How is the trebuchet built?" ”

Wang Wei arched his hand and said: "Marshal, the lower officials have gathered the craftsmen in the army and all the craftsmen in the city to build, so far twenty trebuchets have been built, all the bed crossbows in the city have also been moved to the city wall, and the materials that can be used to defend the city have been transported to the city wall, and they can be transported to the city at any time!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "Okay, continue to build trebuchets!" Did all the earth and sand from the excavation get under the city walls? ”

"More than half of it has been transported, we have piled up six mounds of earth above the city wall, six trebuchets have been safely placed on them, and some stone bullets used to throw have been carried over, and they will definitely be deployed before the arrival of the Tibetan army tomorrow!"

Zhao Ziliang asked Cen Shen again: "How is the progress of digging the tunnel?"

Cen Shen said: "Dashuai, the tunnel has been dug fifty steps outside the moat, according to the current progress, it should be able to dig three miles away in five days!" ”

"Okay, you can have a snack on this matter, but you must pay attention to the arrangement of protection, don't let the tunnel collapse!"

"Yes, Xia Guan understands!"

In the afternoon, Wang Can got the news of Li Siye and Chu Ge, and immediately reported to Zhao Ziliang, "Marshal, the situation of the Second Route Army and the Third Route Army is not very good!" ”

Zhao Ziliang sighed in his heart, and after stabilizing his emotions, he said, "Don't worry, you speak slowly!" ”

"Yes!" Wang Can said: "After the two of them led the troops to set off, the first few days went very smoothly, after Li Siye's troops entered Anxiang County, they successively swept the eastern section of Laji Mountain (now Xunhua), Fenglin County, and Guangwei County (now Hualong) after entering large-scale altitude sickness, and then two-thirds of them have lost their combat strength in Michuan County, if they march slowly, there will never be such a large-scale altitude sickness, as long as the attack speed is too fast, the body of the soldiers can not adapt, Now they have stopped and cannot advance in Yonecheon Prefecture. Chu Ge also fell into the same situation, they successively took Hezhou City, and then recovered Caohan County, Lintan, they rested in Lintan for one night, ready to set off for Dohe County the next day, but that night there was a large-scale altitude sickness, in order not to delay the fighters, Chu Ge had to leave more than 8,000 soldiers who had lost their combat power, and led the troops to continue to advance to Dohe County, but they entered Xicangzhou (now Luqu) Large-scale altitude sickness continued to break out, and more than 5,000 people lost their combat power, Chu Ge continued to attack westward with the remaining 6,000 people, on the eighth day of the sixth month, they arrived in the southwest of Taoyang County, and could no longer advance, half of the remaining soldiers had symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath, unable to breathe, dizziness and nausea, in order to avoid the whole army losing its combat power and being slaughtered, Chu Ge had to stop in place to rest! So in a short period of time, at least half a month, they will not be able to complete the task of strategic encirclement! (To be continued.) )