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After reading this letter, Wang Yuan finally understood the attitude of the imperial court towards this crusade against Tibet. Maybe it was just to avenge the defeat of Stone Fort City at first. Xuanzong's face couldn't get by, so he mobilized the people to send a three-way army to crusade against Tibet. Xuanzong would not have had the idea of destroying Tubo at first, but when the successes of the three-way army were frequently reported, Xuanzong's mentality changed, and he probably thought that the ambition of destroying Tubo in his lifetime was not far away, so he had such an idea.

Wang Yuan fell into deep thought. Of course, it is a good thing that the three-way army has frequent successes. Even if he can really destroy Tubo this time and achieve the great cause of the Tang Dynasty, Wang Yuan will be happy to see this happen. However, reason told Wang Yuan that things might not be so simple.

The Tibetans did not hoard a large number of soldiers and horses in the surrounding cities at the beginning, only 10,000 in the yak city, and more than 30,000 soldiers and horses in the city, and when they attacked the city last month, the defenders in the city were only 40,000. Although there were more than 30,000 soldiers and horses in this city of Metuo who refused to defend it, in fact, almost half of them were defeated and retreated from the city. In other words, the number of soldiers and horses of the Tibetans was not as large as imagined. And that's where the worry lies.

As everyone knows, the Tubo State had an extremely strong ability to recruit troops at a critical time. In the battle of Qinghai Lake in the Kaiyuan period, the Tubo State mobilized nearly 400,000 troops to participate in the battle, which can be seen. And now, the Tang Dynasty three-way army is attacking fiercely, how can the Tubo State not go all out to recruit troops to resist the enemy. If in terms of 400,000 troops. It should be able to divide about 150,000 soldiers and horses to deal with the three-way Tang army at the same time. But in fact, the total number of soldiers and horses encountered by Wang Yuan during this attack was only more than 60,000. So the question is, where are the 80,000 or 90,000 soldiers and horses on the East Road? The answer is self-explanatory. The Tibetans retracted their defense and placed their main army around the city of Luo.

The disadvantage of this is that the surrounding cities may be captured by the Tang army, but the advantage of this is that it can first ensure the safety of the capital and the prosperous areas to the left. For the Tibetan state, the core area is the area around the city of Luo, where the people gather and the products are also concentrated. The surrounding outlying areas are all snow-capped mountains and valleys of the Gobi Desert, and there are very few people living there. In the long run, the gains and losses in these places may be strategically damaged, but the actual strength has not been greatly affected.

Moreover, with the infiltration of the Tang army, the logistics supply and strength of the Tang army were gradually depleted, if the Tang army retreated in time, if there was really a redundant idea, then the battle around the city of Luo was the time when the Tubo people really exerted their strength.

Taking the Jiannan Army as an example, when Wang Yuan led the army to the expedition, there were 50,000 troops of the Jiannan Army, plus 10,000 barbarian soldiers of the Nanzhao Kingdom, plus 10,000 soldiers and horses put together by the West Road of Gannan, and the strength reached 70,000. And now, Wang Yuan's troops that can be used for combat are only 50,000 people. These 50,000 also included nearly 6,000 lightly wounded soldiers, who were barely able to fight with the army.

In the same way, although Yang Guozhong's letter did not specify it, Wang Yuan was still able to make a rough estimate of the general situation of the other two soldiers. The total number of the two armies on the North Road, Hexi and Longyou was only 60,000 to go on the expedition, and it was said that the main force of 80,000 in the northern part of Tubo would be broken in Shibao City, and 60,000 against 80,000, even if it was won, I am afraid that it would have to pay a huge price. According to the best prediction, it is estimated that there are only 40,000 capable soldiers left of these 60,000 people, which is already a very beautiful victory. And if half of the 80,000 people in Tibet were lost, it would be a complete defeat. I am afraid that the situation of the Western Route Army is even worse, and the Anxi Army will attack on a farther route, and it will have to capture the Great Bolu Kingdom first, and then attack the Tubo State. This road is eight or nine hundred miles away, and the hardships of fighting the Tubo people on the plateau wilderness can be imagined. At such a long distance, the supply will definitely not be able to keep up, and the loss of troops must be huge. Comparatively speaking, the situation of their own Jiannan Army is much better than theirs.

Now Yang Guozhong said that the Western Route Army and the Northern Route Army have been ordered by Xuanzong to advance into Luoqi City, and their troops are greatly insufficient, plus the supply line is out of reach. Coupled with the heavy concentration of Tibetan troops around the city of Raksha, all this would be an extremely dangerous situation. If you advance into the area around the city of Rods in this way, you may suffer a catastrophe. This is what Wang Yuan is worried about.

If you think of your opponent as too stupid, you are stupid. Wang Yuan has always been cautious in warfare, and he has not missed the slightest detail. Those who can outwit will never fight hard, and those who can calculate will never be lazy. It may be true that the Tibetans are inferior in military formations and stratagems, but they are by no means fools. They are also people, they also have brains, and the combat effectiveness of the Tubo soldiers is no worse than that of the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses. And it's still fighting in their land.

Wang Yuan did not feel that he was worrying about the sky, the analysis of the battle situation was extremely important, and the process of deducing the war was also a skill that a general must master. Those people in Chang'an City were carried away by the victory, and they were not in the battle situation, so it was understandable to make wrong judgments. But as a general who leads the army, if he also miscalculates the situation, he can only be greeted with a defeat and a broken reputation.

In the current situation, Wang Yuan felt that it was necessary to immediately remind the other two soldiers and horses to be careful and not rash. The so-called battle for the first merit is a joke in Wang Yuan's eyes. Yang Guozhong didn't know the situation, so he said those words, and for Wang Yuan, Wang Yuan didn't say a word of his words. If the Tubo Kingdom was destroyed so easily, how could he still exist in the world for hundreds of years? When the male lord Li Shimin was in power, he had millions of male soldiers, but he needed to use the policy of peace to appease Tibet, and he wanted to destroy the country with only these three roads and 200,000 soldiers, I am afraid it is a fool's dream.

Wang Yuan pondered for a moment, and immediately took up the pen to write two letters, and chose a shrewd soldier to deliver the letters. This letter was addressed to Gao Xianzhi and Ge Shuhan. According to the time of Yang Guozhong's letter, at this moment, these two lines of soldiers and horses should have arrived not far from the west and north of the city. This is already within the reach of being able to contact. Wang Yuan believed that the soldiers sent to deliver the letters would deliver the two letters to the two commanders within four or five days. Hopefully, nothing has gone wrong by then.

The army was immediately rectified and started, and Wang Yuan felt that he could not delay any longer, and he must immediately lead the army to the city of Pibo. If it is swallowed slowly at this time, it is very likely that the soldiers and horses in the city will be dispatched to cooperate with other Tibetan soldiers and horses to besiege and kill the other two armies that are close by. And he has to put the most pressure on Pibo City. Some of the previous predictions may not be accurate in today's situation, and timely adjustments need to be made.

In the city of Metuo, Wang Yuan only left a thousand soldiers and horses to garrison. Wang Yuan wanted to ensure that more troops went to Pibo City. Although Wang Yuan originally wanted to leave more soldiers and horses stationed here, because it was not only a transit for supplies, but also an excellent way back. If the battle in Pibo City is unfavorable, Wang Yuan can at least return to Motuo City. Resist the terrain of the city of Meto, and you can protect yourself. But now, Wang Yuan had to take the risk of garrisoning here with only a thousand soldiers and horses. The situation to worry about here is the return of the defeated army of Metuo. A large part of the defeated soldiers and horses were driven into the mountains and forests, and Wang Yuan didn't want to wait for the army to pull out, and these guys ran back to retake the city of Motuo. Therefore, Wang Yuan gave the 1,000 soldiers and horses left behind enough arrows and food, and strictly ordered them to defend this pass city.

Five days later, the army walked out of the mountains and headed straight for the two towering snow-capped mountains in the distance. The two snow-capped mountains are landmarks, and Pibo City is in the north of the snow-capped mountains. After Metuo, the terrain became wider and wider, but the altitude increased sharply. The altitude of Pibo City is about 3,500 meters, which means that in a short distance of more than 100 miles, the soldiers and horses of the Jiannan army have to bear a drop from 900 to 3,500 meters above sea level.

Although Wang Yuan was in a hurry to advance, he couldn't ignore this, so he could only slow down the march so that the horses had time to adapt to the altitude. In this way, the distance of more than 100 miles was a full seven days. When I saw the big city that stretched for miles at the northern foot of the snow-capped mountain, it was already the afternoon of the eighth day.

Pibo City is the second largest city in Tibet, it was the capital of Tibet a long time ago, and later the capital of Tubo moved west to Luo, here as the important town of troops in the east of Luosome City, it became the city of the arch of Luozhicheng. This is the place where the strongest military force of the Tubo State and the Shenchuan with a large number of soldiers and horses under its jurisdiction are located.

When the cloud-like banner of the Jiannan Army slowly rose from the horizon. The general of the Shenchuan Metropolitan stood at the head of the city, staring at the soldiers and horses that had penetrated the eastern border of Tubo. Behind him, the ten military camps in Pibo City were almost full, and nearly 100,000 troops were stationed here.