The night is deep, a crescent moon hangs in the dark blue night sky, sprinkling the boundless grassland with a layer of faint silver, on the grassland about twenty miles southeast of Bazha Tucheng, a military camp stands alone on the grassland, here is the Tianshan military camp, at this moment the soldiers who marched for a day are exhausted, and fell asleep early, the camp is silent, only the guards on the watchtower at the four corners of the camp are patrolling back and forth, suddenly, a sentry ran quickly to the side of the watchtower, looking nervously into the distance, he saw, under the moonlight, A black line appeared on the grassland, and it was speeding towards this side.

"Fuck! Are the scouts all dead? ”

The sentry cursed and slammed the hammer up. At the same time, another watchtower rang the alarm, the piercing bell rang through the barracks, the soldiers woke up from their dreams, there was a big chaos in the barracks, the main general Zhao Tingyu went to Dazhai and did not return, only one deputy general Lu Xiangyang, he ran out of the camp in rags, and asked loudly: "What's wrong, is the enemy killed?" ”

But no one knew that in the chaos, a sentry suddenly shouted on the watchtower, "It's not the enemy, it's your own people." ”

As the shouts continued to spread, the barracks gradually calmed down, it was their own people, not the enemy army, many Tang troops flocked to the gate of the camp to look, only to see a cavalry platoon hundreds of steps away in a long row, fan-shaped slowly surrounded the barracks, the banner was particularly clear in the moonlight, it was the Red Dragon Banner of the Tang Army.

At this time, more than a dozen cavalrymen galloped over and shouted at the gate of the camp: "General Li Qing'an has an order, all the officers above the rank of the team should come out and gather, and there is something important to announce." ”

Adjutant General Lu Xiangyang ran out of the camp and asked sharply: "My general went to Dazhai and didn't return, where is he now?" ”

"Who are you?"

"I am Lu Xiangyang, the deputy envoy of the Tianshan Army."

The shouting cavalry ignored him and continued to shout: "Jiedu has ordered General Li to send all officers above the squad out of the camp and concentrate, otherwise they will be punished as rebellion!" ”

When the dozens of officers hiding behind the camp gate heard the words 'Punish for rebellion', they all walked out in fright, Lu Xiangyang was furious, turned around and drew his sword to drive away: "Whoever let you come out, give me all back!" ”

More than a dozen cavalrymen glanced at each other, and suddenly urged their horses forward, and three spears pierced Lu Xiangyang's chest at the same time, Lu Xiangyang glanced at the spear inserted into his chest in disbelief, and fell to the ground and died.

An officer urged the horse forward and shouted to the officers again: "Zhao Tingyu assassinated the prison army and wants to rebel, do you want to follow?" ”

The officers of the Tianshan Army finally came out one after another, nearly 100 officers stood in the open space, waiting for the departure with anxiety, thousands of Tang troops surrounded them tightly, so that no one escaped, there was no officer restraint in the barracks, 2,000 soldiers crowded to the camp gate, whispering, everyone understood that the Tianshan Army was going to change masters, compared to the worries of the officers, the soldiers were more expectant.

At this time, hundreds of cavalry surrounded Jiedu to make Li Qing'an come out of the ranks, followed by Wang Tingfang, the superintendent, Li Qing'an slowly reined in the war horse, glanced at the officers of the Tianshan army, and said: "Zhao Tingyu, the governor of Xizhou, disobeyed the military order, held the superintendent army hostage, seriously violated military law, and has been beheaded!" ”

There was an exclamation of surprise in the group of officers, and everyone's eyes showed a look of shock, and many of them flashed a trace of grief and indignation in their eyes, and then lowered their heads.

"I know that many of you are Zhao Dudu's old subordinates and hardcore henchmen, but the military discipline of the Tang Dynasty army is like a mountain, and there is no exception in front of military law!"

Li Qing'an's voice was extremely stern, his face was cold and looked at everyone's gaze, and he said word by word: "Now that Zhao Tingyu has been beheaded, the new governor will be appointed by the imperial court, and the commander will temporarily act as the soldier and horse envoy of the Tianshan Army. ”

The brigade commanders and team leaders were relieved, and rushed back to the barracks to rectify the army, and there were only a dozen dejected lieutenants and lieutenants left in the open space.

At this time, the door of the barracks was wide open, a group of soldiers came out of the barracks, none of them were carrying weapons, two thousand soldiers lined up neatly in the wilderness into ten teams, Li Qing'an stepped forward on his horse, and said loudly: "I, Li Qing'an, was appointed by the Holy Lord to command the Beiting Army and horses, whether it is the Han Navy, the Tianshan Army or the Yiwu Army, I treat them equally, I myself am also from the fort pawn step by step to today, I know the suffering of the soldiers, here, I re-establish four military regulations, first, from today onwards, the officers of the Beiting Army are not allowed to keep money and property for the soldiers, During the war, the money and goods were temporarily managed by the marching Sima, and a receipt was issued, which was returned to him after the battle, and if he was unfortunately killed, he would be handed over to his designated family; Second, the Beiting Army will improve the supply of food, set unified standards, and will send soldiers to form patrol teams to inspect the food conditions of each army; Third, the military leave of the Beiting Army was changed from three years and one month to one year and one month, and family members were allowed to visit relatives; Fourth, the North Court will set up a military discipline inspection department, which will inspect the military in various places and allow soldiers to submit letters to the inspection department, and the inspection department will be directly responsible to the commander, and these four articles will be formally implemented from the date of promulgation. ”

Li Qing'an announced one, the soldiers cheered, not only the Tianshan Army, even the Han Navy also cheered and applauded, his four new rules and regulations cut into the army to accumulate shortcomings, not to mention anything else, the general soldiers' property is kept by the officer, this is an unwritten rule, many officers in order to obtain the soldier's property, have changed the method to torture the soldier to death, in order to swallow their property, as for the shortage of property, it is commonplace.

The cheers resounded in the night sky, and as soon as Li Qing'an's four new military regulations came out, he completely won the hearts of the Tianshan Army, and the original governor Zhao Tingyu had disappeared from their minds without a trace.

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Early the next morning, Yiwu Governor Han Zhi rushed to the camp, he knew the details of what happened to the Tianshan army last night, and it was not until last night that he understood that attacking the Qarlu people was just a means used by Li Qing'an to seize power, and the contradiction between the Shatuo people and the Qarlu people was estimated to have been concocted by him, since the Battle of Yumen, the Shatuo people have become a dog of Li Qing'an, step by step, link by link, Li Qing'an has no personnel power, and they cannot be dismissed, so there is a war against the Qarluq, and it is dealt with by military law in the army, everything falls into place.

Han Zhi was terrified for a while, he knew that it was Zhao Tingyu who killed him yesterday, so it would be his turn to take the next step, Han Zhi not only saw Li Qing'an's methods, saw his determination to eradicate dissidents, but also saw the support of the saint for Li Qing'an, without Zhao Tingyu, a muddy pond that made him fish in troubled waters, what was his need to confront Li Qing'an?

The biggest difference between Han Zhi and Zhao Tingyu is that he has no backstage, and the Qingwang East Palace has nothing to do with him, and he has no worries.

Han Zhi came to the camp, took off his shirt, and knelt in front of the camp gate with his upper body exposed, and after a while, Li Qingan walked out of the camp quickly, and hurriedly helped him up and said: "General Han must not do this." ”

"The lowly position is confused for a while, and he doesn't know the military regulations, so that he steals military power and respects himself, please make the king fall."

Li Qing'an helped him up, ordered his own soldiers to bring a piece of clothing, put it on him with his own hands, and said with a smile: "It's a shame that this is a grassland, otherwise General Han still has to do cheap things?" ”

The two looked at each other and smiled, and Li Qingan took his shoulders and walked towards the camp.

"Do you have any opinion on the four new rules I promulgated?"

"The envoy is worthy of being a pawn, and he knows the hardships of the soldiers, but isn't the envoy afraid of offending the officers?"

"How can you not offend people when you do things, but a soldier can be promoted to an officer, but it is difficult for an officer to be demoted to a soldier, what does General Han think?"

"Huh! There is some truth in what you say, but there are rules and countermeasures, and your plan needs to be refined. ”

"I know, first give the brothers a reassurance, boost morale, and let's defeat Gehu in one battle."

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The elders of Qarluq brought new variables, and the result was unexpected, and most of the tribal elders agreed with the plan of the eldest prince, and asked for help from the Hui Hui, forcing the Tang army to retreat south, and then destroying the Shatuo tribe.

Although Montenegro himself did not approve of this plan, in order to gain a certain position for his second son Sihan, he finally agreed to ask Hui for help and confront the Tang army.

At the same time that the Tang army of Beiting entered the territory controlled by Gelulu, the 10,000 cavalry of the ancient department of Hui Baye also crossed the Jinshan and entered the territory controlled by Gelulu, and at the same time, the 20,000 cavalry of Gelulu began to assemble, and the 30,000 Hu cavalry gathered east of Xuanchi, preparing to fight the Tang army of Beiting.

This is a medium-sized battle, just like Anxi vs. Tubo, Fanyang vs. Khitan, Jiannan vs. Nanzhao, this battle is also related to the Tang Dynasty's westward expansion policy, the Tang Dynasty is bent on restoring the Broken Leaf Military Town, and Ge Lulu is also ambitious for the Broken Leaf River, as for the third party Hui, this is a cunning wolf, he is waiting for the opportunity, if possible, he will not hesitate to swallow Ge Lulu and Beiting in one bite.

But for Li Qing'an, this battle was no longer just about destroying Qarluq's ambition for Broken Leaves, he looked further, he set his sights on the vast land of the Yibohai River Basin, which later became known as Lake Balkhash.

After taking the Balkhash Lake Basin, he stood on the roof of Central Asia, and Qarluq was the biggest stumbling block on his way forward.

On the first day of the fifth month, after several days of rest, the vanguard of the Tang army arrived in the hinterland of Qarluq, the upper reaches of the Dorus River, which is today's Irtysh River, which is the junction of mountains and grasslands, mostly low hills, distributed with large dense forests, and the swarthy Jinshan Mountains in the distance. ，

The vanguard of the Tang army had 1,000 cavalry, consisting of 700 Tang cavalry and 300 Shatuo cavalry, the main general was Nan Jiyun, and there was also a Shatuo general Zhu Xie Shengyi.

Zhu Xie is the clan name of the Shatuo people, that is, the homonym of the moon, and the Shatuo people are also the Turkic people of the month, so Zhu Xie has become the surname of the nobles of the Shatuo people.

Zhu Xie Shengyi is the nephew of Shatuo Ye's Bone Guard, about thirty years old this year, tall and powerful, one of the famous warriors of the Shatuo people, and his three hundred cavalry are also hunters who have been active in the Golden Mountain for many years, all of them have extremely rich experience in tracking wild beasts, and their task is to find the main traces of the Qarluq people.

Zhu Xie Shengyi knows a little Chinese, but he is not very proficient, and many of his exchanges with Nan Jiyun have to be achieved through comparisons.

"General Nan, we can reach the big water along the big river."

Zhu Xie Shengyi made a gesture to make Nan Jiyun understand that he was talking about a big lake, which is also the core area of Qarlu: Xuanchi.

Nan Jiyun understood what he meant, and said with a smile: "The Qarluqs are not a flock of sheep, let us enter his pen, I estimate that we will meet their brigade halfway." ”

Zhu Xie Shengyi waved his big knife and put on a slashing posture, and said, "Does General Nan mean to fight with the Qarluqs?" ”

"Not necessarily, if there are fewer people, we will fight, and if there are more people, we will withdraw."

As soon as he finished speaking, several Shatuo people rushed from the front, and they pointed to the mountains in the distance, and said something in Turkic with great excitement.

"What did they say?" Nan Jiyun did not understand Turkic language.

Zhu Xie Shengyi was also excited, and stammered: "They said that they found many, many Qarlu people in the mountains, and it seems that they are all women and children. ”

Unable to give an order from Nan Jiyun, the excited Shatuo people had already urged their horses to gallop towards the mountain range.

"General, go quickly! It's too late, but it's gone. Zhu Xie Shengyi urged the horse and chased after him.

In a moment, except for the Tang army, the Shatuo cavalry had already run away without a trace, and Nan Jiyun couldn't shout, so he had to wave his hand to the Tang army, "Everyone keep up, pay attention to the enemy ambush, and follow my orders!" ”

The Tang army turned their horses' heads one after another, rushed up a hill, and galloped north along the footprints of the Shatuo people, they first ran upstream, found a shallow bay flowing across the river, and galloped for more than 30 miles, getting closer and closer to the huge mountain, in front of which was a wide mountain col, as if a giant sword would cut the mountain, forming a deep mountain col about two miles wide, surrounded by lush forests, overgrown with towering trees, the big trees projected at the mouth of the valley, covering the sun, making this area quite gloomy, cool breeze, several streams gurgling out of the valley, It forms a small river that flows all the way to the south of the Dolas River.

"General, there is blood in the water!"

A Tang soldier found the blood stains in the stream, Nan Jiyun Huo Ran looked up at the mouth of the valley, and a sense of foreboding rose in his heart, most likely Sha Tuo was ambushed.

"Rush in!"

Nan Jiyun gave an order, the water splashed, seven hundred Tang cavalry urged the horse to rush into the valley, the valley was very deep, walked three miles before hearing the sound of shouting and killing in front, around a bend, the valley was suddenly wide, a tragic scene was presented in front of the Tang army, only to see the corpses of the Shatuo people everywhere, the stumps and broken arms, the blood flowed like a river, and most of the corpses were inserted with arrows, indicating that they had encountered an ambush.

Not far away, hundreds of cavalry were fighting together, Zhu Xie Shengyi was wearing two arrows, he was fighting with his sword, he was surrounded by more than a dozen Qarluqs, only half of the three hundred Shatuo cavalry remained, and there were not many Qarluqs, at most two or three hundred, and the success of the ambush gave them the upper hand.

The Qarluqs were like mad tigers, desperate to stop Shatuo from invading the valley, "Kill! ”

Nan Jiyun shouted, the cavalry of the Tang army swept up, the arrows were like dense rain, the spears were wielded, the horizontal knife was chopped, the combat power of the Tang army was extremely high, he was not only well-trained, but also extremely well-equipped, strong bows and arrows, sharp spears, sharp horizontal knives, and solid Mingguang armor, compared to the equipment of the Qarluq people is much inferior, the general Qarluq people have no armor, the weapons are also simple, the bow and arrow are also self-made, they are herdsmen in peacetime, and they are soldiers in wartime.

But the Qarluqs were relatively well-armed, they all had uniform leather armor, and their armor and clothing were the same, as if they were the guards of some noble.

The Tang army's entry suddenly reversed the tide of the battle, more than 200 Qarluqs were difficult to resist, under the sharp offensive of the Tang army, most of them were killed in a moment, and the remaining dozens of people fought and retreated, and were finally swallowed by the strong arrow rain of the Tang army.

The valley finally fell silent, and the flat land of more than ten acres was covered with corpses, and more than a dozen wounded and undead Qarluqs were chopped off by the hated Shatuo people, and the valley let out a final scream.

The rest of the Shatuo rushed into the valley,

Zhu Xie Shengyi was hit by two arrows in his body, neither of them was critical, although he was exhausted, he still rushed into the valley with his subordinates, and Tang Jun also sped up his horse speed and followed.

The valley was much deeper than expected, wider and wider, as if it was a paradise, they rushed to a pass, and suddenly their eyes lit up, only to see that the valley was more than ten miles wide, the terrain was open, in the middle was a lake, surrounded by dense trees, and hundreds of tents were stationed in several open spaces by the lake, most of the tents were of good quality, and there were several brightly colored tents mixed with them, which were only owned by the Sogdian nobles.

Nan Jiyun suddenly understood, no wonder those Shatuo people were all excited, they really had vicious eyes, and they actually found that this was where the nobles of the Qarluq people were.

He looked up overhead, surrounded by cliffs, and it was from above that the Shatuo hunters had spotted the Qarluqs hiding in the deep valley.

At this time, he had no time to think about it, and the Shatuo people rushed into the nearest camp like a pack of wolves, and began to plunder the silver, and the screams of women, the cries of children, and the rebuke and screams of old men, resounded throughout the valley.

Nan Jiyun shouted angrily: "Go and stop them, don't kill women and children indiscriminately!" ”

The Tang army rushed into the camp with large horses, they had a large number of troops, and soon stopped the killing of the Shatuo people, and dozens of Shatuo cavalry wanted to rush into another camp tent, but were blocked by more than 200 Tang soldiers with spears.

"My general has an order not to steal property!"

The Shatuo people suddenly clamored, Zhu Xie Shengyi was furious, and shouted with a knife: "Why are we desperate, aren't we just to rob women and property?" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, an arrow whistled, grazed his face, and nailed to the big tree, and Zhu Xie Shengyi was suddenly speechless.

Nan Jiyun slowly stepped forward with a bow and said, "If I save your life, you have to listen to me." ”

With a wave of his hand, he ordered his subordinates: "Drive everyone out of the tent, pack up and take away their belongings, and kill anyone who dares to resist, whether male or female." ”

After speaking, he said to the angry Sha Tuo: "The Tang army has strict discipline, no indiscriminate killing of innocents, let alone annihilation of silver women, all property women and children, all brought back to the camp, how to deal with it, according to the Tang law, belong to your share, my family will reward you, so that the king has words, dare to violate the military law, regardless of the Tang army Shatuo, all will be killed." ”

A translator said again in Turkic in a loud voice, Zhu Xie Shengyi did not dare to offend the Tang army, he saw that the robbery was hopeless, so he had to sit down depressedly, and ordered someone to bandage his wounds, and the Shatuo people were also deflated, one by one, listless, looking at the Tang army to collect money and arrest women, they did not understand what military discipline was, in their opinion, it was the Tang army that was eating alone, and there was no share of them.

"General, come quickly!"

A soldier ran up to Nan Jiyun and whispered a few words, Nan Jiyun was surprised, and followed him into the largest tent, which was resplendent in gold, covered with precious carpets, and everywhere you could see all kinds of gold objects.

A dozen bewitching young women squatted in a corner in horror, several Tang soldiers guarded them, and a woman dressed equally bewitching was brought up, and it was obvious that she was a famous Han person.

She knelt down and kowtowed again and again: "Please ask the military master to spare us." ”

"Are you Han?" Nan Jiyun glanced at her and asked.

Nan Jiyun's words evoked the woman's sad past, and she wept and said: "The slave maid is a Han from Yizhou, who was robbed by the Qarlu people three years ago, and was favored by the eldest prince and became his wife and concubine. ”

"The Great Prince?" Nan Jiyun was stunned, "You mean to assassinate Luoduo?" ”

"It's him, it's his tribe, we're all his women."

The woman timidly glanced at one of the orchids and said, "That Sogdian woman is his wife." ”

"General Nan, come and see these boxes." A soldier pointed to the back tent.

Suddenly, the wife of the assassin, the daughter of a great Sogdian merchant, screamed, and rushed forward desperately, her long nails desperately grabbing at the soldier who found the box.

A Tang soldier slapped her to the ground, and several women quickly pulled her back, but she struggled desperately, cried loudly, tore her clothes, and sat on the ground half-naked, kicking and kicking, as if she wanted her life.

The woman's unusual behavior made Nan Jiyun even more interested, and he strode to the back tent, where there were twenty large boxes, wrapped in iron sheets, and all locked.

'Click! With a knife in his hand, he split open a large box, and slowly opened it, and suddenly the golden light flashed in front of him, and all the people exclaimed, and in the box was a neatly stacked gold nugget, each weighing at least two or three catties.

"General, this side is too!" A soldier opened another chest, also gold.

"It's the same over here!"

The box was basically full of gold, which was a huge fortune, the accumulation of more than ten years of plotting to assassinate Luoduo, and all of them were captured by the Tang army.

"General Nan, what should I do?"

Nan Jiyun pondered for a moment and said in a low voice, "Let the brothers carry this gold with them, and don't let the Shatuo people know about it for the time being." ”

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(To be continued)