readx; The military alliance between the Tang Dynasty and the Byzantine Empire was signed without any incident, and the two sides agreed that within three years the two countries would work together against the Abbasid Empire, including coordinated military operations, that is, one side went to war, and the other side must fight together. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

But this is only a framework agreement, in terms of specific implementation, the two sides signed several additional agreements, including Datang will sell 10,000 pairs of Mingguang armor and 10,000 horizontal knives to Byzantium within three years, and add 2,000 Tang crossbows, these weapons will bring Datang two million gold coins in income.

Another additional agreement was the first specific period of coordinated operations between the two sides, in which the two sides agreed that in the first half of August of the Tang calendar, both sides would simultaneously launch an attack on Dashi, with the Byzantine Empire to take the island of Cyprus and the Tang army to take Sindh and Punjab.

There were still fifty days, and the time was already very tight, and Li Qingan didn't even participate in the next business negotiations, so he directly led the army back to Broken Leaves, leaving the business negotiations to Yang Fengche to continue to complete.

On the one hand, he sent people to Beijing to record the conclusion of the treaty with the imperial court, and on the other hand, he issued more than a dozen orders on the road, ordering the Anxi army to prepare for Tocharian and Sindh on three fronts: eastern, central, and western.

The western front is the battle of the war, and the general Li Guangbi is the chief general of the Western Route Army, and the 30,000 Han-Hu coalition troops are ready to attack Tochar, and the middle line is the Wuyun Pass of Ilshad, from which you can directly enter the famous Wakhan Valley, which is also the only way to pass through the Southern Silk Road, and the eastern line is from Lianyunbao to Xiaobolu, and then from Xiaobolu through Dabolu to a lost secret, which is today's Kashmir Indian actual control area, from here you can directly enter Tianzhu, Li Qing'an handed over the Eastern Front army to Feng Changqing, the general who had been robbed of military power by him, and ordered Feng Changqing to lead 5,000 troops from Lianyunbao to Xiaobolu.

In the middle of July, Li Qing'an rushed to the Wuyun Pass, the Wuyun Pass is two hundred miles west of the Green Ridge, here is the entrance to the famous Wakhan Valley, the Tubo people built a large castle that can accommodate tens of thousands of people here - Wuyun Fort, choke this castle, it also blocked the most convenient road from Anxi to Tocharo, Tianbao in the early years, the Wuyun Pass was conquered by the Tubo people, they garrisoned 10,000 troops here, six years later, Gao Xianzhi was ready to attack Xiao Bolu, but the Tang army could not take the Wakhan Valley, only bypassed the Wai Alai Mountain, Then passing through the middle of the Wakhan Valley and entering the Secret Road, that difficult march was Li Qing'an's rise to the top.

After the Battle of Xiaobolu, the 10,000 Tibetan troops stationed in the Wuyun Pass were cut off from support and were forced to withdraw south, and the Wuyun Fort was immediately occupied by the Tang army, where the Tang army garrisoned 3,000 people, controlled the Wakhan Valley, and at the same time, also restored the southern Silk Road.

In fact, as early as half a year ago, Li Qing'an began to prepare for the Battle of Tocharo, and he gradually increased his troops to Wuyun Fort to 8,000 people, transported 100,000 stone of grain, tents, marching sleeping bags, bows and arrows, forage, dried meat, dry food bags, salt, tea cakes, wine, wounded medicine and a large number of other materials, all concentrated in Wuyun Fort.

Li Qing'an led 20,000 Broken Leaf troops to Wuyun Fort, which also included 5,000 Eastern Front troops, and they would go directly to Lianyun Fort from the Wakhan Valley. On this morning, strong winds were blowing, and the dark clouds were flying from the southwest, and the air was filled with the fishy smell of impending rainstorm.

The Tang army immediately pulled out the camp and moved the camp tent to a high place to prevent the flash flood from breaking out, less than half of the camp, the overwhelming downpour spread out, the Tang army shouted, and hid in the camp tent that had been set up, and the rain became heavier and heavier, as if the entire Wakhan Valley was swallowed up by the heavy rain.

"Such rainstorms are rare even in the middle of summer, in my memory only the rainstorm in the eighth year of Tianbao is impressive, the rainstorm fell for five days and five nights, the flash flood broke out, and a group of merchants from Tochar were unfortunately swept away by the flash flood, but unfortunately the more than 10,000 catties of silver they brought were also gone."

Speaking is the Wuyun Fort soldier and horse envoy Zhao Chongjie, he is the former Shule soldier and horse envoy Zhao Chongwei's second brother, Zhao Chongwei followed Gao Xianzhi to Anxi, his two younger brothers, Zhao Chongjie and Zhao Chongji stayed in Anxi as generals, Zhao Chongjie also participated in the Tianbao six years of the Xiaobolu Campaign, at that time he was a brigade commander, only one level lower than Li Qing'an, he followed Xi Yuanqing, not Li Qing'an's scout system, so his promotion was obviously a little slow, six years before he was promoted two levels, promoted to the Wuyun Fort soldiers and horses, named Lang General, There are two kinds of soldiers and horses in Anxi, one is the governor and the soldiers and horses, such as Cui Qianyou, the governor of Tingzhou and the Han Navy, this is the big soldier and horse envoy, the commander of more than 5,000 troops, the official worships the Zhonglang general or general, and the scattered officials are also from the three products, and the other is the castle soldier and horse envoy, who is below the 5,000 army, like Zhao Chongjie's Wuyunbao soldiers and horses, for Lang General or Zhonglang General, Zhao Chongjie because he did not participate in the Battle of Talas, so his official position is slightly lower, only for Lang General.

This time the feng shui turns, Li Qing'an wants to attack Tocharian and Xinde, the opportunity is finally his turn, Zhao Chongjie has already held back his strength, Tianbao eight years he once followed Gao Xianzhi to fight Tochar, and finally failed miserably, that time was the shame of his life, and this time he was going to do a big job, and the snow washed the shame of the last time.

Zhao Chongjie was the Tang general who was most familiar with the Wakhan Valley, and he was the first to discover this sudden heavy rain, and promptly informed the Tang army to move to the highlands.

Li Qing'an is not very familiar with Zhao Chongjie, but he has a very good relationship with Zhao Chongjie's brother Zhao Chongwei, and he also takes special care of his two brothers who stayed in Anxi.

In the big tent is spread a huge Tocharian map, this is the march map left by Gao Xianzhi in the past, very detailed, Li Qing'an stood in front of the map, his brows were tightly locked, Tocharian and Xinde's information was insufficient, making him a little unsure of this battle.

From the eastern, central and western fronts, he used a total of 55,000 troops, according to the intelligence of the previous year, the Sindh and Punjab Great Food Army only had about 20,000 people in total, which was enough to deal with the Great Food Army, but if you consider the local army, the certainty is not very large.

Li Qing'an walked to the tent door and watched the pouring rain coming from the sky, and suddenly turned around and asked, "General Zhao, according to your experience, will this heavy rain affect the march in the Wakhan Valley?" ”

"Returning to the general, it depends on the extent of this rainstorm, if the time is short, it will not affect the march, but if it rains for more than three days, it is very likely to cause flash floods, and even mountain rock collapses, at that time it will destroy the road, which will affect the march, but that is in the narrowest part of the Wakhan Valley, generally speaking, the Wakhan Valley is more than ten miles wide, and the widest is even more than a hundred miles, it will not have any effect."

Li Qingan nodded, he glanced at Feng Changqing, who had been standing in front of the map and had been silent, and said with a smile: "Old Feng, why don't you speak?" ”

Feng Changqing only rushed to Wuyun Castle from Yincheng yesterday, compared with last year, he has obviously lost a circle, he is not stupid, of course he knows that he was robbed of military power by Li Qing'an, but he does not resent Li Qing'an, Li Longji's handwritten letter to him is still on him! For this reason, he only had bitterness in his heart, Li Longji thought too simply, was it so easy to let him and King Qing jointly seize power? Now he hasn't seen the shadow of King Qing anywhere, it is said that he was placed under house arrest by Li Qing'an in Shiguo, and he Feng Changqing was also under house arrest in Yincheng, and he couldn't leave at will, he couldn't even mobilize fifty soldiers, the original deputy marshal of Anxi fell to such a point, you don't have to think about Feng Changqing to guess that Li Qingan probably already knew that Li Longji secretly sent a secret decree to himself.

This time he was suddenly activated, and the reason is also very clear, Datang has changed the Son of Heaven, and Li Longji's secret decree no longer has any meaning.

Hearing Li Qing'an ask him, Feng Changqing reluctantly smiled and said: "I think the general is thinking too far, there are still twenty days before the appointment with Byzantium, could it be that the general wants to send troops now?" ”

Li Qing'an shook his head and said: "Lao Feng, have you not understood the treaty, attacking the Great Food at the same time means attacking the Great Food at the same time, not starting from here, that is to say, the Tang Army will appear in the land controlled by the Great Food in twenty days and launch an attack on the Great Food Army, either Tocharian or Xinde." ”

"But there is also Li Guangbi's Western Route Army! He's close to Tocharo, so he should be able to catch up. ”

Li Qing'an looked at him and laughed, "Lao Feng, could it be that you have been a civil official for a year, and you can't even fight?" ”

Feng Changqing's old face turned red, and he bowed down and said, "Please advise the general!" ”

Li Qing'an walked to the map, pointed at Tocharian with a wooden pole and said: "My troops are divided into three ways this time, the strategic goal is very clear, Li Guangbi's task will be to take Tocharian and drive the Great Food force across the Amu Darya, he must fight this battle first, once Tocharian engages, it should be Khorasan to send troops to help, but because Byzantium is pressuring Great Eclipse in the north, Mansur will not focus on the east, he will inevitably concentrate his forces to prevent the Byzantine army from going south, so that It is likely that Mansur will send Sindh and Punjab troops to the aid of Tochar. ”

Li Qing'an pointed to Sindh and Punjab and continued: "If that is the case, the forces of Sindh and Punjab will be empty, and this will give me a chance. ”

Feng Changqing sighed and praised: "The general's strategy is getting more and more clever, and his subordinates are beyond his reach. ”

After a pause, he suddenly frowned and said, "But in that case, one army of the Great General will be enough to take Sindh and Punjab, so what's the use of me going to Little Bolu?" ”

"That's a good question!"

Li Qingan smiled slightly: "Because I want you to fight Tianzhu." ”

"Tianzhu?" Feng Changqing was stunned.

"That's right, it's to fight Tianzhu, it's a pity that I don't have a map here, so I can't explain the situation to you, but I know that Tianzhu has a flat land, a large population, extremely rich food, and the army there is not good at fighting.

"But... Our attack on Tianzhu seems to be unknown? Feng Changqing hesitated.

"There is no division without a name, I don't need their land, and I don't want to slaughter their people, there is no need, I am not a murderer, but I want their food and gold, this time you attack Tianzhu, at least you have to get me back more than two million stone of food, as for gold and silver, I don't give you a quota, the more the better."

Li Qing'an saw that Feng Changqing was still a little hesitant, so he patted him on the shoulder and said: "Lao Feng, I don't want food and gold and silver to satisfy my selfish desires, seeing that the Central Plains is about to break out, An Lushan's ambition is like Sima Zhao's heart, everyone knows that once he rebels, the Central Plains military disaster will inevitably arise, and the poor people are still ordinary people, I need food to help the victims, I need gold and silver to save the financial taxes that the Tang Dynasty is about to collapse, do you understand?" I'm thinking about the long-term of Datang. ”

There are some things that Li Qingan doesn't need to say very clearly, Feng Changqing also understands that Li Qingan is now the king of Zhao of the Tang Dynasty, the descendant of the crown prince, and he is determined to be in the world.

Feng Changqing thought that he had no hope, so he lived in Yincheng for the rest of his life, but he didn't expect that Li Qing'an would be able to use him again, that is, give him another chance, if he didn't cherish this opportunity, then his life would really be a failure, and he would end up depressed, he had already thought through this truth, even if Li Longji came to Anxi in person, he would not be able to take away Li Qingan's military power, and Li Longji's strategy of seizing power seemed to be completely wrong, not only would the Tang Dynasty be torn apart. Moreover, An Lushan sat big, and even Li Longji himself fell in Shuofang, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead, so what did he have to serve the old emperor who brought disaster to the country and the people? No! He Feng Changqing should go his own way, his interests have been tied to Li Qing'an's body, everyone in Anxi is loyal to Li Qing'an, why doesn't he do it, Li Qing'an has a big heart, use him again, why doesn't he cherish this opportunity?

Thinking of this, Feng Changqing's heart was extremely excited, he took out the secret decree given to him by Li Longji from his arms, and said with great shame: "General, this is the secret decree given to me by the first emperor, ordering me to assist King Qing and seize the military power of the general, I have always kept this secret decree by my side, it is like a big stone, it has been pressing on my heart, let me spend the year, today I will hand it over to the general, and ask the general for sin!" ”

After speaking, he held the secret decree high above his head, knelt down in front of Li Qing'an, and said with tears: "Back then, the general didn't care about the old hatred, and personally came to Qiuzi to invite me and reuse it for me, but I didn't think about reciprocating, but wanted to frame the general, ruthless and unjust, please punish me!" ”

Li Qing'an took the secret decree, he didn't even look at it, he directly took it to the candle and lit it, a fire quickly engulfed the secret decree, and burned into paper ashes in a moment, he shook it, and the paper ashes floated out of the tent with the wind, Li Qingan helped Feng Changqing up, and said sincerely: "The man has gold under his knees, don't kneel down for me easily, I don't want to mention the past again, I only look at the future, I believe that one day in the future, you Feng Changqing will be the commander of the Anxi Tang Army, and conquer the Quartet for me." ”

"The last general will not disappoint the general!"

(To be continued)