readx; At this time, many Tang soldiers saw the beacon smoke before dawn, they stood up one after another, and looked at the beacon smoke in surprise, originally many soldiers were puzzled that Li Sheng did not go to the stone barrier, but ran to Feiyundu, and now they understood Li Sheng's foresight. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The well-trained Anxi army was reflected at this moment, when the enemy situation appeared, the soldiers of the Anxi army woke up their companions from their sleep, they were silent, their movements were fast, and they quickly packed up and quickly lined up, ready to set off at any time, in contrast, most of the other five thousand Tuyuhun troops were still asleep, and the soldiers who were awakened just looked around blankly, and saw that no one called them, and continued to fall asleep.

Li Sheng couldn't help but secretly marvel at the well-trained Anxi army, compared with the Longyou soldiers, there was still a certain gap, at this time, Deng Shan, the lieutenant general of the Anxi army, stepped forward and said: "General Li, we have finished the equipment and can set off at any time." ”

Li Sheng pondered for a moment, then ordered: "The Left Guard Army and the Middle Guard Army will go to the Yellow River with me, and the rest of the army will be on standby!" ”

The first army was divided into three guards on the left, the center and the right, and three thousand men on the other, and under Li Sheng's order, 6,000 Tang troops immediately set off, mounted their horses, and galloped to the bank of the Yellow River ten miles away.

．．．．．．．．． Feiyundu is an important part of crossing the Yellow River, so in addition to two beacon towers in this area, there is also a scout camp, there are scouts nearly 100 people, as early as when the Tubo army is still 20 miles away from the Yellow River, the Tang army scouts found out, and immediately notified the beacon tower with the unique snow pigeon of the plateau.

Only half an hour after the beacon smoke was lit, the 6,000 Tang troops of the left and center guards arrived about two miles away from the Yellow River, and at this time, the Tubo army had not yet arrived at the Yellow River, and was still ten miles away.

Li Sheng has already obtained the scout's pigeon letter, the main force of nearly 20,000 Tubo troops is from the middle of Feiyundu, the jungle on both sides of the Yellow River here is dense, which is very conducive to concealment, but Li Sheng's eyes are on the cyclamen island in the middle of the river, the island is also densely covered with willow forests, and the canopy is extremely luxuriant, which is a natural hiding place, he pondered for a moment, and immediately turned around and ordered: "The first and second crossbow barracks immediately go to the island and prepare to ambush the Tubo army to cross the river!" ”

Li Sheng attached great importance to morale in the battle, not only for the Tang army, but also for the Tubo army, and for Ma Chongying, crossing the river was not good, he would probably not attack rashly, and would wait for the other 20,000 troops to converge before launching a new attack, so as to give him time to harvest wheat.

Although Li Sheng's idea is good, but he ignores one point, he did not communicate with the generals of the Anxi Army under his command, Li Sheng is not yet thirty years old, and he was also an unknown general in the past, in fact, it is not important to be young, and it is not important that the official position is slightly lower, young generals in Anxi abound, and there are precedents for low-level officers to command senior officers.

Therefore, Li Sheng's official position is not a fundamental problem, the key is that he is not a general of the Anxi Army, the Anxi Army has strong combat effectiveness, strict military discipline, orders are carried out, and orders are stopped, this is their advantage, but the Anxi Army also has a negative side, the main manifestation is that the Anxi Army is more xenophobic, all officers who are not from the Anxi system, want to control this army, unless this person is very good, it is difficult to control this army.

Li Sheng's deployment of troops and marching troops, these arrangements were all obeyed by the Anxi army according to military discipline, but when it came to the actual battle, some Anxi generals had ideas.

As soon as Li Sheng's order was issued, Zhonglang General Deng Shan stepped forward and saluted: "General Li, although the ambush on the island is good, if the Tubo people attack with fire, I am afraid it will be unfavorable to the soldiers on the island, please General Li think twice." ”

It is normal for ordinary subordinates to persuade, but this Deng Shan is extraordinary, he is a veteran who has followed Li Qing'an for many years, and has followed Li Qing'an to participate in the Battle of Xiaobolu and the Battle of Shibao City, and is very prestigious in the 20,000 army, and he is also a Zhonglang general Zhongwu general, it can be said that before Li Sheng took over the 20,000 army, he was the main general, and now his persuasion means that he opposes Li Sheng's battle plan, but he is more subtle and uses a tactful tone to dissuade.

Only then did Li Sheng realize that he had ignored the opinions of the Anxi army, and being able to communicate effectively with his subordinates was also one of the important abilities of the general, so he smiled slightly: "General Deng doesn't know, although the island is densely forested, but the Tubo will not use fire to attack, this island is a springboard for their attack, if they attack with fire, the Tubo army itself will not be able to use this island, and secondly, the Tubo army is not good at fire attack, which is limited by the climate of the plateau, and I also took into account the danger of the Tang army on the island, Therefore, only a small number of crossbowmen of the Tang army were sent to ambush on the island, in order to undermine the morale of the Tubo people. ”

Deng Shan thought for a while and said: "Our Anxi army has small trebuchets, and twenty catties of stones can be thrown two hundred paces away, I think it is enough to block the Tubo army on the shore, so why risk going to the island?" ”

Li Sheng also understood in his heart that he could not use strong orders for the Anxi army, otherwise it would arouse the disgust of the soldiers, which would be detrimental to the future Jiuqu defense battle, and he could only convince them as much as possible, especially this Deng Shan's prestige in the Anxi army was very high, if he could support himself, it would play a pivotal role in whether the future campaign would be smooth, thinking of this, Li Sheng whispered a few words in Deng Shan's ear, "The general doesn't know, I went to the island ten days ago to investigate......

Although Deng Shan was still a little skeptical, the boldness and excitement of Li Sheng's plan were quite to his liking, so he smiled and nodded, "Okay!" I agree with General Lee's plan to fight and ask General Lee to give the order. ”

．．．．．．．． When fighting against the Tang army, Dazarugon preferred the enemy to call himself Ma Chongying, he advocated strategy in battle, especially the strategy of the Han people made him intoxicated, he named himself Ma Chongying, there is a sense of competing with the Han people.

This time Ma Chongying did make a mistake in attacking Jiuqu, the spies he sent several times got the same information, there are only 15,000 Tuyuhun troops stationed in the Jiuqu area, for the Tuyuhun people, Ma Chongying knows better than anyone else, he had nearly 100,000 Tuyuhun troops under him, the biggest feature of the Tuyuhun army is that the battle is not brave enough, or timid, they are not as fearless as the Tubo army, nor are they as well-trained as the Tang army, they are backwardly equipped, morale is low, once there are two percent of casualties, they will often collapse.

It was precisely because of his understanding of the Tuyuhun people that Ma Chongying would divide his troops into two ways to attack Jiuqu and Dafeichuan, but it was not until he recovered Wuhai that he got the latest information, a 60,000-strong Anxi army had been stationed in Longyou, of which 20,000 entered the Jiuqu area to garrison.

In other words, he was no longer facing the fragile Tuyuhun army, but the elite Anxi Tang army, although he had realized that it was difficult to occupy Jiuqu with 30,000 Tubo troops, Ma Chongying still decided to test the reality of the Tang army first.

He sent his general Sidhazang to lead an army of 3,000 pretending to be 10,000 men, rushing to the south of the Ranshikan to cross the river, in an attempt to attract the main force of the Tang army to the Ranshikan, this is his usual trick, more victories and fewer defeats, if the Anxi army is not familiar with him, it is likely to fall into his trap, so that his main force can calmly take Feiyun to cross the river.

Ma Chongying also sent a large number of spies to investigate the situation on the side of the Yellow River, he had received information that there were about five or six thousand Tang troops on the other side of the Yellow River, and in addition, there were about a thousand Tang troops on the Cyclamen Island, obviously trying to ambush him, he couldn't help but sneer, more than a thousand Tang troops could stop him from occupying the Cyclamen Island?

He immediately waved his sword and gave a vicious order: "The whole army speed up, and when you reach the shore, you will immediately cross the river and seize the cyclamen island!" ”

．．．．．．． The 15,000 Tang troops were divided into two routes, and 9,000 were hidden 20 miles away, while Li Sheng led 6,000 Tang troops to appear on the banks of the Yellow River, and another 1,000 Tang troops carried crossbow arrows and other military supplies to the island on sheepskin rafts.

At this time, Ma Chongying's Tubo army was already several miles away, and the spies he sent had already seen through the deployment of the Tang army's army one by one.

Not long after, the mighty Tubo army arrived at the bank of the Yellow River, Ma Chongying has ordered first, the Tubo army has been the sheepskin bag or cowhide bag to blow enough air, dozens of leather bags into a huge raft, and then tied to a thick cowhide, a raft can carry dozens of people to hundreds of people, in a moment, more than 30 rafts have been launched, 3,000 Tubo army forwards jumped on the raft, and struggled to row to the cyclamen island in the river.

The Yellow River of Feiyundu is about five miles wide, the water is gentle, the land on both sides of the bank is flat, it can go directly to the hinterland of Jiuqu, it is very suitable for the army to cross the river, but the long-term paddling is very physically demanding, and when encountering the army defense, the room for maneuver is smaller, in this way, the cyclamen island in the middle of the river is an excellent transit place, if the cyclamen island can be occupied, for the army crossing the river, it is nearly half of the crossing.

At this time, two battalions of the Tang Army and one thousand troops had already occupied the Cyclamen Island first, and they were deployed on the two-mile-long island, which was ready according to Li Sheng's deployment, and now they were hidden in the dense willow forest, with the crossbows of the Pingduan Army, watching dozens of small black dots on the river drift towards this side.

On the west bank of the Yellow River, about two miles from the island, the Tibetan soldiers paddled shirtless, paddling hard in the harsh sunlight, and at the front of each raft stood six or seven Tibetan soldiers, holding high special iron shields, and behind them there were more than two dozen Tibetan soldiers with bows and arrows, ready to meet the Tang army.

More than 30 rafts are getting closer and closer to the island, and there are still 300 steps from the island, and the drums on the rafts are beating, boom! Boom! Boom! The drums inspired the oarsmen, and the Tibetan army shouted in unison, and they shaved their hair and painted their faces, and their faces were particularly hideous, and the raft suddenly accelerated, and it was getting closer and closer to the island of cyclamen, two hundred and fifty steps, two hundred steps, two hundred and fifty steps, one hundred and fifty steps...... One hundred and fifty steps is the effective killing distance of the Tang army's crossbow arrows, at this time, a bang sounded on the island, and thousands of Tang crossbowmen fired at the same time, the arrows were like flying locusts, and a thousand crossbow arrows shot quickly towards the raft on the river.

The six rafts at the front were the first to be attacked, and a dense rain of arrows jingled on the shields, although the Tubo army raised their shields to defend, but the Tang army's crossbow arrows were strong, and the thin and sharp crossbow arrows passed through the gaps, shooting through the chain mail of the Tubo soldiers, and the soldiers continued to scream and fall into the water.

In particular, the oarsmen had no cover on both sides, and they were naked, and the casualties were particularly serious, many raft oarsmen were shot to death, the raft was swirling in the river, it was difficult to continue to move forward, the raft was also shot through by arrows, and began to leak, only to see a raft with serious air leakage, it was difficult to bear the weight of the Tubo soldiers, 'Wow! With a thud, dozens of Tibetan soldiers fell into the water, struggling desperately in the water, wearing heavy chain mail, unable to float, and soon sank directly to the bottom of the river.

The crossbow arrows of the Tang army were round after round, the arrows were dense, seven rafts had capsized, and four rafts had no oarsmen, and there was no power to move forward, drifting downstream along the river, despite this, there were still fifteen rafts that took the lead in rushing into the hundred paces, the drums were like thunder, the shouts shook the sky, and the oars struggled, getting closer and closer to the cyclamen island.

On the other side of the river, Li Sheng watched expressionlessly the attack of the Tubo army on the cyclamen island, there are only 1,000 troops on the cyclamen island, and it is difficult to deploy large-scale weapons to defend the island, the fall is inevitable, judging from the current situation, the first batch of Tubo troops are about to rush to the island, his eyes looked at the other side of the river five miles away, the sky is beautiful today, the wind on the river is very strong, the fog is blown away, the visibility is very good, you can clearly see the situation on the opposite bank.

On the other side of the river, more rafts appeared, a piece of black spots, there were more than 100 ships, it was obvious that Ma Chongying did not go all out, he only used thirty percent of the army, Li Sheng couldn't help but have a trace of regret in his heart.

On the surface of the river, fifteen rafts were shot over three more, twelve rafts had been rowed within fifty paces, and they were about to reach the shore, and the other six rafts behind them had also entered within a hundred paces, and the ferocious faces of the Tibetan soldiers were already clearly visible, and their arrows were also overwhelmingly shooting towards the island, and some soldiers brandished their swords, their eyes were round, and they roared hysterically like wild beasts.

At this time, the Tang army on the island began to retreat, their original intention was not to seize the island, seeing that the soldiers of the Tubo army were about to land, they abandoned the island one after another, carrying the wounded soldiers, and boarded the raft from the other side, a soldier had already boarded the raft, but remembered something, turned around and ran back to the dense forest, cut the flagpole with a knife, untied the battle flag of the Anxi army, bent over, and rushed to the river with the battle flag in his arms, the arrows of the Tubo army swished over his head, ran to the river, he jumped on the last raft, More than a dozen Tang soldiers immediately rowed towards their shores.

The Tang soldiers were extremely efficient, and all the Tibetan troops were evacuated by the time they were still twenty paces from the island, they were not wearing heavy armor, and the rafts were light and lumpy, and the twenty rafts quickly sailed away from the island.

The cries of victory of the Tibetan army resounded on the island, and their battle flags fluttered on the island, as if they had won the battle.

Li Sheng's eyes showed a sneer, his eyes were still fixed on the other nearly 100 large rafts, they were paddling quickly on the surface of the river, without the interception of the Tang army, these rafts all entered within 100 steps of the island, together with the Tubo soldiers on the island, there were as many as 10,000 people, and the moment for them to cry was coming.

On the other side, Ma Chongying saw that his army occupied the cyclamen island as planned, a smile appeared on his face, capturing the cyclamen island means that they have won half of the victory, and the strip on the opposite bank is more than ten miles long is conducive to landing, even if the Tang army has trebuchets, it is difficult to prevent them from landing flexibly, he immediately turned around and ordered: "Beat the drums, tell the warriors, prepare to attack the other side immediately!" ”

The sound of huge leather drums rumbled on the shore, which was an order to urge the Tibetan army to attack.

The forest on the cyclamen island is dense, and it is difficult for large rafts to pass through the island, so after the Tibetan soldiers landed, one or two people would be left on each raft, and they rowed the raft across the cyclamen island and went around to the other side of the island, the cyclamen island was in a long shape, the north side was covered with reefs, it was difficult to land, and the south was easy to get on the island, so the raft could only bypass the cyclamen island from the south, Li Sheng personally went to the island to explore as early as ten days ago, and he found that the whole island was covered with a kind of big-headed willow tree, the crown was huge, and the wood was loose, and this material could not make a house. But it's the best fuel.

Li Sheng had a bold plan in mind, if the Tubo army really crossed the river from Feiyun, then he could use this island as a battlefield.

Just when more than 100 rafts lined up in a long line and bypassed the southern tip of the island in turn, several Tang Army water ghosts hidden on the edge of the island quietly went to the ground, wearing only a pair of shorts and biting a sharp knife in their mouths, quickly dived into the water and swam silently under the rafts of the Tubo army.

Meanwhile, on the north side of the island, two other water spirits crept ashore, and they found an oil-paper bag from a cave in the rock, which was quickly opened, and it was full of fire-starters.

Obviously, the Tang army was ready to attack with fire, the island was densely covered with willow forests, which were extremely flammable, and when a thousand Tang troops came to the island, they brought a large amount of fire oil, and many branches on the island were coated with fire oil.

Nearly 10,000 Tibetan soldiers crowded on the east side of the island, anxiously waiting for the raft to come, but no matter how they waited, none of the rafts came, and many soldiers were anxiously shouting and scolding, but they did not know that most of the rafts had sunk, and the sharp knives were the most terrible natural enemies of the raft.

At this moment, the south of the cyclamen island suddenly ignited a raging fire, the flames soared to the sky, these dry willow forests were coated with fire oil, a little bit of burning, by the wind, the fire spread rapidly, instantly spread to the whole island, only to see the island red flames soaring, the woods spit out terrible tongues of fire, the whole island was swallowed, more than 10,000 Tibetan soldiers were trapped on the island with no way to escape, they were so frightened that they shouted and trampled on each other, some threw themselves into the Yellow River, and more people instinctively ran back to the dense forest, trying to find a raft to escape from the other side, But the other side was already engulfed in flames, and the circuit was also cut off by the fire, and thousands of people were trapped in the fire, and under the scorching fire, they let out their last desperate cries.

On both sides of the Yellow River, all the soldiers were dumbfounded, no one could have imagined that the war would turn into such a tragic result, Li Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, there was no smugness in his eyes, and his plan of fire attack was finally successful.

Ma Chongying stared blankly at the fire engulfing the entire island, listening to the screams coming from the island, his heart seemed to be engulfed by the fire, he learned the strategy of the Han people, but he failed to learn the essence, the essence of the strategy of the Han people is actually only one sentence: success or failure lies in the details.

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(To be continued)