Xue Yantuo is the most powerful tribe in the Tiele tribes, since the Eastern Turks were destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, Mobei was once very empty, and Xue Yantuo's true pearl Viga Khan returned to Mobei with Xue Yantuo, reoccupied the Mobei region that was previously robbed by the Turks, and built a tooth in the north of Duwei Qianshan and south of the Duluo River, and formally established the Xue Yantuo Khanate. Its jurisdiction extends to Murowei in the east, Jinshan in the west, Shamoi in the south, Hanhai in the north, and the Huifu, Bayegu, Afall, Tongluo, Fugu and other departments are all subordinate, with 200,000 troops, becoming another overlord of the northern steppe after the Eastern Turks.

Originally, when the Eastern Turks were still there, Li Shimin wanted to contain Jieli Khan, so he named Yinan, the leader of the Xue Yantuo Department, as Zhenzhu Viga Khan, but he didn't expect that this Yinan was not a simple person, he was very good at seizing the opportunity, and now he has become another threat to the north of the Tang Dynasty.

The fall of the Eastern Turks and the rise of Xue Yantuo made the Tang Dynasty leaders led by Li Shimin soberly realize that if they want to fundamentally eliminate the trouble of the Northern Grassland, the henchman of the Central Plains Dynasty, they must completely bring it under the control of the Tang Dynasty, otherwise they will destroy a strong enemy today, and another one will appear in a few years, and as long as they encounter a natural disaster, these grassland people will go south to plunder, and the Tang Dynasty has to waste national strength for this.

It is also under this strategic thinking, coupled with the application of new inventions of cement and firearms, that Datang finally began to take action on the grassland a few years ago, and they began to build cement roads and cement fortresses on the grassland from south to north with their own powerful force as the backing, and under the advance layer by layer, they seized and compressed the living space of the grassland people.

Under this strategy. Most of the steppe tribes chose to submit to the Tang Dynasty, and they lived in the pastures between the concrete roads and the fortresses. And accept the management of Datang officials, in addition with the development of industry and commerce. A large number of Han merchants who came from the Central Plains entered these tribes and carried out various trades with them, which made the communication between these steppe people and the Han people increasingly close, and they had begun to approach the Han people in terms of language and customs.

It was also in this situation that Luoyun and other tribes, who were approached by the Tang Dynasty, were cornered. Later, it was transported overseas by Li Su and became a sharp war knife in his hand.

However, the grassland people have always been respected by the strong, and those who are willing to submit to the Tang Dynasty are some weak tribes, and large tribes like Xue Yantuo are not willing to be annexed by the Tang Dynasty, and it is precisely because of this that the Tiele tribes headed by Xue Yantuo and some tribes that do not originally return to the Tang Dynasty have united and recommended Xue Yantuo Khan Yinan as the king of Khan. Form a Mobei Alliance to confront the Tang Dynasty.

In the face of the powerful Mobei Alliance, Datang was very calm, how to build roads and how to build them, and the scope of rule expanded to the north little by little. It seems that the military strength of the Mobei Alliance has not been seen at all.

Although Yi Nan's strength is strong, he is still a little weak in the face of the invincible Tang Army. Therefore, they did not dare to take the lead in provoking disputes, and they did not dare to take the lead in encroaching on the grassland by the Tang Dynasty. is also endured again and again, and even ordered the various tribes under his command. You must not provoke the Tang people without authorization, so as not to give the other side an excuse to go to war.

However, there is a limit to any retreat, every time the Xue Yantuo Khanate takes a step back, the Tang Dynasty will take a step forward, and at the same time move the border one step forward, this situation has continued until the winter of the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, today's winter is much colder than in previous years, and the Mobei grassland has been hit by several heavy snowstorms, resulting in heavy losses for various tribes. Under such circumstances, the Mobei Alliance finally couldn't bear it anymore and began to gather forces and prepare for a large-scale southern invasion.

However, the current grassland departments have already been infiltrated by the Tang Dynasty, even within Xue Yantuo, there are undercover agents of the Tang Dynasty, so when Xue Yantuo's army has just begun to assemble, the Tang Dynasty has already received the news, and Xinfeng County immediately responded.

In November of the 17th year of Zhenguan, the Xue Yantuo Khanate organized the Tongluo, Fugu, Hui and other tribes, with a total of 300,000 troops, with Yinan's son Dadu as the commander, and invaded the northern border of the Tang Dynasty. And the first to bear the brunt are naturally those nomadic tribes who have just returned to the Tang Dynasty, who have long been organized by the border garrisons of the Tang Dynasty to resist Xue Yantuo's attack through the fortress layer by layer.

However, this time Xue Yantuo was really forced to be anxious, on the one hand, he had enough of the anger of the Tang Dynasty in the past few years, and secondly, the tribes behind each warrior had suffered heavy losses due to the wind and snow, countless old people and children died of cold and starvation, and their families were also on the verge of life and death.

With the thrill of revenge and the pressure to survive, Xue Yantuo's army was particularly crazy this time, and the first line of defense formed by the obedient nomads was quickly broken by them. Compared with the poor Mobei tribes, the grassland tribes under the rule of the Tang Dynasty frequently traded with the merchants of the Central Plains, so they appeared to be very rich, but in the war, this kind of wealth was not a good thing, at least it aroused the bestiality of Xue Yantuo's army, and all the places they went were looted, and countless submissive tribes were exterminated.

In the face of the locust-like army of Xue Yantuo, some tribes who did not sincerely submit to the Tang Dynasty were also aroused to have the same hatred and began to actively participate in this war.

And until this time, Datang, who had already received the movement of Xue Yantuo's army, but had been slow to move, finally sent a real army. This time, Li Ji was the main commander, leading an army of 60,000 to attack from the front.

And Anton Duhu Zhang Jian led 10,000 iron horsemen, as well as 30,000 original Goguryeo soldiers, now collectively known as Buyeo, and outflanked Xue Yantuo from the east. Originally, there were still many Hu tribes such as Khitan, Xi people, and Yan people in Andong Prefecture and Yingzhou, but in recent years, he cooperated with Li Su and secretly vigorously supported the slave hunting team to attack these Hu people, and as a result, the Khitan and other tribes were almost wiped out, and a few lucky ones have fled to the Siberian region in later generations, struggling to survive in that permafrost, and the powerful Khitan or Jurchen and other ethnic groups in later generations can no longer appear.

In addition, Li Daliang, the general of the right guard, was the head of the march of Lingzhou Road, leading 40,000 troops and 5,000 elite cavalry to garrison Lingwu; Zhang Shigui, the general of the Right Tun Guard, was the head of the march of Gyeongju Road, and led 20,000 troops to Yunzhong; Li Xi, the governor of Liangzhou, was known as the head of the march of Liangzhou Road, and led 30,000 troops to outflank the western part of Xue Yantuo.

The Tang army, which attacked from several sides, surrounded Xue Yantuo's army on three sides, but was not in a hurry to counterattack, but to take a policy of stubbornness, and consumed time with Xue Yantuo. Xue Yantuo's main purpose this time was to solve the lack of goods caused by the heavy snowstorm, but now he was dragged in place by the Tang army, not only could he not loot, but also consumed a large amount of materials every day, which made Xue Yantuo's army unable to consume it at all.

In this case, Xue Yantuo, the commander of Dadu, made a decisive decision and led an army of 300,000 to return to Mobei, after all, they had robbed a lot of grassland tribes some time ago, although the Han people in the south were richer, but they were blocked by Li Ji's army, and they couldn't rush through at all, so instead of consuming supplies here, it was better to collect them when they saw it.

However, Li Ji did not intend to let Xue Yantuo go like this, but pursued all the way along the opponent's retreat route, and finally sent 6,000 elite cavalry to take a shortcut to cross the Baidao River, blocking Xue Yantuo's retreat route under the green mountains. In desperation, Dadu had no choice but to set up a battle formation in Nuo Zhenshui, preparing to fight with the Tang Army.

Faced with this situation, Li Jiqin led a large army to start a decisive battle with Dadushi, at first it was the Turks under Li Ji who fought with the other party, but the first battle was unfavorable, and the Turks were killed and defeated, and then Li Ji's army arrived and started a bloody battle with Xue Yantuo.

Originally, he thought that 300,000 against 60,000 Tang troops would definitely be a winning game, but what he didn't expect was that the Tang army actually gave up the horses, and then lined up in a tight and neat formation, with artillery in the rear, to disrupt the opponent's cavalry formation, and then used grenades and other firearms to kill at close range.

Under this method of combining firearms and cold weapons, Xue Yantuo's 300,000-strong army could not give full play to its numerical advantage, and the two armies were in a stalemate for a while, and the battlefield was in a state of stalemate. And Li Jineng relied on 60,000 infantry and the opponent's 300,000 cavalry to kill inseparably, and he is indeed worthy of a generation of famous generals. (Historical records show that Li Ji retreated again and again with 200,000 Xue Yantuo cavalry killed by 60,000 infantry, and there was no addition of firearms at that time, which can be said to be a miracle in the era of cold weapons.) ）

And just when the two sides could be separated, the five thousand elite cavalry led by the deputy marshal Xue Wanche bypassed the battlefield and suddenly entered from behind the Xue Yantuo army, the addition of this strange soldier made the army of Xue Yantuo unstable, and Li Ji also seized the opportunity to command the army to attack with all its might, and as a result, Xue Yantuo's troops were defeated, including 10,000 killed in battle, 70,000 people were captured, and many troops were scattered.

The battle of Nuozhenshui was a turning point in the war between the Tang Dynasty and Xue Yantuo, under the strong logistical guarantee, Zhang Jian, Zhang Shigui, and Li Xiyu each led a large army, and copied the back road set by Dadu from the east and west, cutting off the connection between Xue Yantuo's army and the rear.

Xue Yantuo Khanate this time is pouring out, most of the young and strong have already joined the army, so there is no way to rescue, and finally the 200,000 remnants of the Dadu set up have no way to retreat, and there is a strong enemy to block, and finally when the grain and grass are exhausted, they finally surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

In addition, after Zhang Jian joined Zhang Shigui's army, he personally led a cavalry to kill into the Xue Yantuo Khanate, but the internal emptiness of Xue Yantuo was turned upside down by Zhang Jian, although the Khan King Yi Nan was angry like thunder, but there was no way, and when the news of Dadu's surrender reached his ears, the Khan King who brought Xue Yantuo to the top was so angry that he vomited blood three liters, and finally fell ill, and vomited blood and died after ten days. (To be continued.) For mobile phone users, please go to read. )