After the sacrifice of the prisoners, it was the banquet.

The banquet was set up in the living room of the small courtyard where Li Hong lived, which was spacious enough to accommodate hundreds of people for dinner.

In this banquet, in addition to the generals around Li Hong and the defenders of Hezhou City, there were also Wang Fangyi and the cavalry leaders of the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions beside him. Although the generals of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions are all nobles, they have not eaten much of the dishes of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, and they have never seen many things produced in the Tang Dynasty, so they are very comfortable with this meal, and Li Hong has no shelf, and there are not so many rules at the banquet, so that the generals of the Tang Dynasty get along very well.

Wang Fangyi sat next to Li Hong, Li Hong raised his glass and said to him, "Wang Qing, this time you have made a great contribution, on behalf of your father, and the people of the Tang Dynasty, I will give you a drink." ”

"Your Highness, don't dare to be!" Wang Fangyi hurriedly raised his wine glass and said, "This is not the result of His Highness's careful planning and the use of the lives of the soldiers of the three armies. ”

"Anyway, it's your credit to capture Lu Dongzan alive, Wang Qing shouldn't be humble anymore, come, let's have a drink." Li Hong raised his glass and drank it all. Wang Fangyi and everyone present hurriedly raised their glasses and drank all the wine in their hands.

In addition to Wang Fangyi and Sun Chuyue, the people sitting at Li Hong's table also included Guo Shifeng, Heiya Changzhi and Yang Sijian, and the rest were A Man and several cavalry generals from the 36 countries of the Western Regions. As for Li Duoqi, Zhao Zhongyong, and other cronies, he arranged them to other tables, the purpose was to enliven the atmosphere, if he invited all his henchmen to one table, wouldn't he snub everyone?

"Wang Qing, what advice do you have for Gu's expedition to Tibet?" Li Hong asked. He attaches great importance to Wang Fangyi's opinions, because Wang Fangyi has made great achievements in history and is another famous general of the Tang Dynasty after Su Dingfang, Liu Renliang and Pei Xingjian. To be able to be called a famous general, he naturally has his uniqueness. Besides, Wang Fangyi showed his wisdom through this battle against Tibet. By understanding Lu Dongzan's personality, Lu Dongzan's actions can be judged. It cannot but be said that Wang Fangyi is talented on the battlefield.

Li Hong's war experience comes from the accumulation of more than 1,000 years in later generations, and it is more than 1,000 years of thinking, but Wang Fangyi's combat experience comes from his actual combat and hard study.

"The last general feels that His Highness's expedition to Tibet this time is not easy to rush." Wang Fangyi said, "We should be fully prepared and strive to capture Tibet in one fell swoop, so that we will not fall into passivity." ”

Li Hong nodded slightly, he also thought so, Tubo is on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the Tang soldiers may not be able to adapt to the environment of the plateau, so if they want to attack the hinterland of Tubo and break through the capital of the Tubo people, the first thing to do is to let the cavalry adapt to the plateau environment of more than 4,000 meters.

If you want to adapt to the highland environment, you can't have enough time.

Therefore, Wang Fangyi's statement is in line with the needs of the current battle.

"However, our preparation time should not be too long, too long for Tubo to be fully prepared, which is still very unfavorable to us." Wang Fangyi said firmly.

"Wang Qing, how long do you think it will take for us to prepare?" Li Hong asked.

"Two months." Wang Fangyi replied.

"Is it just two months? Is time too short, and will our soldiers adapt to the highland climate? Li Hong was surprised, and his mental preparation time would take at least three months.

"Your Highness, a cavalry is formed from scratch, and if the horses, soldiers, and equipment are complete, it can be formed in three months. If they can attack the hinterland of Tibet within three months, their army has not yet been formed, and we will be very little hindered, if they attack them again after three months, three months is enough time for them to establish a 100,000 or even 200,000 iron cavalry, although such cavalry does not have much combat effectiveness, but it can still cause us trouble. Wang Fangyi said eloquently.

Li Hong nodded slightly, feeling that what Wang Fangyi said was really right.

Indeed, now that the Tubo army is empty, it is not difficult to attack them, but if they have enough time to prepare, and give the Tubo enough time to form cavalry, with the ability of the Tubo people to fight on horseback, even if their new army is not as effective as the old soldiers, Li Hong's army will be very troublesome if it encounters it.

"Besides, you go on." Li Hong raised his glass and took a sip of wine and said.

What was supposed to be a drinking banquet has now become a time for the two to discuss strategy and tactics. The people around them couldn't help but stop eating and drinking, and turned their eyes to Wang Fangyi. After all, the people sitting here are all people who want to make contributions, who doesn't like to be able to participate in it, or listen to Wang Fangyi's strategy and tactics a little more, and be able to make greater contributions.

"The suggestion of the last general is that to attack Tibet, we can attack in three ways." Wang Fangyi said, "The first way is to send troops from Hezhou, all the way to the southwest, and approach Luoqicheng. The second road is from the south of the Western Regions, through a no-man's land, to the city of Luo. The third road is from Yizhou, the army enters Tianzhu, and then goes north from Tianzhu to the city. ”

"Tell me your reasoning." Li Hongdao.

These three-way attacks were very sharp, attacking Tibet from three different directions: east, north, and south, although it may be a waste of time, but at the strategic level, it is definitely difficult for Tibet to guard against.

"Now the Tubo soldiers are outnumbered, there is no Lu Dongzan to suppress the nobles in Tubo, and the Tubo king Mangsong Mangzan cannot dominate the entire Tubo, so our troops are divided into three routes, respectively from the east, the north, and the south to invade Tubo. This will make more use of the large number of our troops to disperse the enemy's current forces, and make them more overstretched in defense. In addition, even if the Tibetans hastily formed a cavalry and blocked the route of our army's advance, as long as any of our three armies entered the city of Luo, we could be regarded as successful. ”

"Indeed." Li Hong nodded with satisfaction.

Through Wang Fangyi's analysis, he felt that such an offensive line was the best plan.

"Your Highness, if we attack Tubo according to the plan of the last general, I think the time for us to prepare will not take two months, only one month will be enough, because the remaining one month will allow the soldiers to adapt to the plateau climate, and we can slowly adapt to it after stepping into Tibet, and we can adapt to the climate in Tubo while solving the attack of the Tubo people and consuming their combat effectiveness." Wang Fangyi said, "Of course, the drawbacks of this plan are also obvious, that is, we need a sufficient supply of grain and grass, as long as the supply of grain and grass is cut off, we will fall into passivity because of lack of food." ”

"The first way to send troops from Hezhou, there is no problem with the supply of grain and grass. The second way is to enter Tibet from the Western Regions, let the 36 countries of the Western Regions provide grain and grass, and we will give them silver money, and this will not be a problem. The only problem that can go wrong is Tianzhu, whether Tianzhu can allow us to lead a large army from their land into Tibet, and it is even more difficult to let them provide food and grass for our army. Sun said about it.

"Don't worry about that." Li Hong said confidently, "If Tianzhu doesn't agree, we will destroy Tianzhu first and then destroy Tubo, anyway, it's very unpleasant to look at Tianzhu alone." ”

Nima!

This is too domineering, seeing that a country is unhappy, I want to destroy him, what kind of pride is this, what kind of self-confidence can I say?

Everyone present, the generals of the Tang Dynasty did not react, but several cavalry leaders of the thirty-six countries of the Western Regions heard this, and their hearts couldn't help but shudder, Tianzhu can be destroyed like this, can't their own country?

No, you have to send a letter to your king immediately after the banquet, you must not annoy His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Tang Dynasty, otherwise you don't know how you offended the Tang Dynasty, and it will destroy you first.

"But there must be a number of courtesies." Li Hong said, "When Pei Xingjian comes to Hezhou, Lone will hand over the task of reorganizing the army to Wang Qing and Pei Xingjian, and then Lone will set off to escort Lu Dongzan back to Luoyang to return to his father's emperor, during this period, he will trouble Sun Xiang to go to Tianzhu and talk to their king about this matter. ”

Seeing that Sun Chuyue's face was a little pale, probably frightened, Li Hong continued to speak, "Don't worry, this time you let Zhao Zhongyong and his four thousand troops accompany you, and your safety will not be a problem, and besides, as long as you show yourself as the messenger of the Tang Dynasty, Tianzhu will not dare to do anything to you." ”

Hearing that Zhao Zhongyong's four thousand Tubo elite horsemen were protecting him, Sun Chuyue was confident enough, so he hurriedly got up and replied, "Weichen takes orders!" ”

"Of course, Zhao Zhongyong is not the only one who is traveling with you." Li Hong said, turning his gaze to Guo Shifeng and said, "General Guo, you also heard Wang Qing's tactics against Tubo just now, Gu is ready to be the commander of the Third Route Army and lead 60,000 troops from Tianzhu into Tubo, are you willing?" ”

Guo Shifeng is overjoyed, he can lead the army alone, if he captures some cities, how much credit should he have? He hurriedly got up and said, "The last general will obey the will of His Highness." ”

"Okay, after you go back, learn more about the terrain of Tianzhu and Tubo, as well as your lieutenant general, what kind of general you need, just tell Gu when you think about it." Li Hong said that let the main general pick his own deputy general and pick his favorite general, so as to make a team more harmonious.

Of course, Li Hong did this, because he was not afraid that Guo Shifeng would pick the best generals, because every military general around him was very good, and Guo Shifeng could choose the person who was the opponent of him, but Li Hong didn't need it, no matter who was by his side, they wouldn't dare to disobey him, so that there would be no problem of incongruity in his army.