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The rugged and desolate Beisai Mountain, which lies in the north of Shazhou, looks particularly abrupt in the yellow sand. A soldier stood under a lone pine, looked around for a while with his hands on the pergola, and then suddenly said:

"It's coming, it's coming!"

On the desolate ancient road, a convoy is slowly walking towards Beisai Mountain, in the middle of the convoy are four carriages and more than a dozen carts, each car is full of flags, there are about 100 Tibetan cavalry guards on both sides, and there are dozens of slaves walking in the middle. A sturdy man in a Tibetan costume who came out from behind the rock squinted for a while, and said to a general who came out later:

"General, the villain can see clearly, it is from the west, and it seems to be the family of the Tubo official over there in Anxi."

The general frowned and said:

"Okay, why did the families of the officials in Anxi send to Shazhou? Is there fraud in it? Xu Teamzheng, have you investigated? ”

Team Xu, who followed behind the general, said rightly:

"Back to the general, the lowly scout team has already followed and investigated, and there is no one else waiting for twenty miles before and after."

The man in Tibetan clothes said:

"General, the villain may know a thing or two, when the villain was working a few days ago, he heard a few Tubo people say that the Uighurs and Tubo have not been in trouble very much recently, probably because they want to reoccupy the North Garden, the villain wonders if it is?"

The general asked again, and the man in Tibetan costume asked:

"Zhang Laosi, are there forests and valleys nearby that can hide soldiers?"

The man in Tibetan costume replied:

"Back to the general's words, the villain has been grazing in this area for many years, and there is only a small river valley fifteen miles away that can hide a few hundred people, and more than twenty miles to the north is a small fortress on the edge of the oasis, with only a few dozen people. And the one on this mountain, hasn't it been cleaned up by our Wang Shi? ”

The man's face was filled with a comfortable smile. Last night, a troop of * soldiers touched the oasis where he was, easily cleaned up the Tibetans there, summoned them and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this general is Li Jiyan, the vanguard officer under the command of Chen Guogong Li Guangyan, the envoy of the Tang Dynasty, and Li Jiyan, the commander of the vanguard officer, was ordered by the emperor to collect the west of the river and relieve the people from hanging upside down. From today on, you are no longer slaves, you are the upright people of the Tang Dynasty, you can walk with your waist straight, you can speak your own Chinese, and you don't have to worry about those Tubo people anymore. ”

Zhang Laosi remembered that at that moment, he seemed to be unable to believe his ears, until now he was a little dizzy and woke up like a dream, at that time he pinched his thigh several times, and now his thigh is still a little painful. Zhang Laosi still remembered that his father knelt down at that time, and howled:

"Official, why are you only here now, it's been more than forty years, and the little old man is looking forward to the return of Master Wang every day!"

General Li was very young, but he was thirty years old, so he naturally didn't know that the soldiers and civilians of Shazhou had been guarding the lonely city and fighting with the Tubo people for a full eleven years, until they had to surrender to Tubo until they ran out of ammunition and food.

So when Captain Li said that he wanted to find a few people who were familiar with the terrain as guides, Zhang Laosi was the first to sign up. When he was sent to the woods on the bank of the Dang River with several men in his thirties and forties, Zhang Laosi was surprised to find that there were black and oppressive officers and soldiers in the woods, which made him even more convinced that the life of the Tubo people would not last long.

After several people were questioned by a short general, they were assigned to various battalions, Zhang Laosi was very happy that he was assigned to Captain Li's account, and one of his cousins, Cao Liang, was assigned to General Shi's own personal camp by virtue of his familiarity with Qilian Mountain.

"No General Shi looks like a general at all, but General Li is respectful to him, and his ability is really not small. Speaking of which, which of our generals in the Tang Dynasty is not very capable? If you don't have the ability, how can you run more than a thousand miles in more than ten days and come to this Shazhou? ”

When Zhang Laosi was thinking wildly, he didn't expect that Captain Li was also upside down in his heart at this time. He was originally from a good family, but he fled to the West to join the army and fell under Shi Jingfeng. Shi Jingfeng was just an unambitious petty officer at that time, and he somehow had a temper with him, and he followed him for ten years, and was born and died countless times before he approached a middle-level officer. The passion for fame when he was a teenager but taking it immediately has slowly faded, if it weren't for Shi Jingfeng, I am afraid that he would have been disarmed as a lieutenant and would have served in the army. Now every time I go to battle, I just want to be able to return safely, but I didn't expect that last night's encounter rekindled my fighting spirit.

Last night, when Daddy Zhang fell to his knees, he cried for a while, he had never seen this situation in the army for so many years, and he was at a loss for a while. Later, it was Daddy Zhang who stopped crying and said:

"Don't cry, don't cry, Wang Shi is back in Shazhou today, it's a good day, what are you crying about? Go and boil water, find rice and noodles from your own house, kill a few sheep, and reward the king. ”

panicked and hurriedly stopped him, saying:

"Daddy Zhang, I can't help it."

Daddy Zhang said:

"How not?"

Say it yourself:

"The fathers and villagers have lived a hard life for so many years, so let's keep these things for ourselves, and we will have to have some foundation to live a good life when the land is divided in the future."

Daddy Zhang said:

"The soldiers came from afar, and the little old men couldn't repay them, so couldn't you invite the soldiers to eat some coarse tea and fresh water? General, Xiao Lao'er also guarded Shazhou back then, don't lie to Xiao Lao'er and say that the soldiers are not cold or hungry when they come out on such a cold day. ”

I couldn't help it, so I said:

"In that case, then the food should come out of the army's share - the generalissimo has ordered that half of the property of the Tubo people will not be included in the army as military funds, and half will be distributed to the people."

Father Zhang, who knew that he had property, was overjoyed, but he still did not give up, and wanted to eat food from the public school to reward, forcing himself to tell the military law:

"We understand the kindness, Chen Guogong's military law is severe, and he issued a military order before the expedition, and those who dare to disturb the people will be beheaded, and the people of Hexi have been exploited by Tubo for many years, and their livelihoods are ruined, and those who dare to accept the rewards of the people of Hexi without authorization are regarded as disturbing the people, and they are also killed."

As a result, Daddy Zhang still refused to let him go, and said:

"Little Lao'er doesn't recognize Chen Guogong and is grateful for his great kindness, but doesn't Xiao Lao'er believe that Chen Guogong won't even let us work together? He doesn't know the hearts of our people in Hexi! As long as we can drive away the Tubo people, we are willing to even give up our lives, not to mention these coarse tea and light rice? If his old man doesn't let him, the little old man will reason with him. ”

Thinking that Chen Guogong was talking nonsense now, he had to order the soldiers to eat some food, and then left some Xingzhi treasure money and went back. Before leaving, Daddy Zhang said:

"Xiao Lao'er is old, and he still knows some people, so he will go to a few oases nearby, shout at everyone, kill the Tubo people, and give Wang Shi a hand."

Watching Daddy Zhang's thin body go away in the morning breeze, Captain Li's heart felt like something baked, and from then on, Captain Li felt that something that had not been lost for a long time had returned to his body.

Originally, after Shi Jingfeng led them to quietly leave the army from Helan Mountain, his intention was to bypass the Uighurs occupying Liangzhou, attack Ganzhou, strive to cut off the Hexi Corridor, block the Tibetan reinforcements from Anxi, and if they can't, harass the enemy army so that it can't be unblocked. Unexpectedly, he encountered a snowstorm on the road, and was discovered by the Uighurs, and ran to Shazhou, thousands of miles away from Ganzhou. Geographically speaking, Shazhou is already in the hinterland of Tibet, Shi Jingfeng's army is far away from the army, and the most important thing is to hide his tracks, but when Shi Jingfeng heard that Shazhou was in front of him, he suddenly made up his mind to attack Shazhou. Li Jiyan was dissatisfied and asked:

"Does the general know that our army only has 2,000 soldiers and horses?"

Shi Jingfeng said:

"Of course, but there are only 2,000 Tubo troops in Shazhou."

Li Jiyan said:

"But Shazhou is surrounded by the Tibetan army, and our army must be attacked on all sides by the enemy when it is defeated, and the general is known as a guerrilla general, guarding the lonely city, and responding to the enemy's strengths with his own shortcomings, only afraid that he will fall into a bitter and dangerous battle, so that there is a danger of defeat. Besides, the task of our army is to attack Ganzhou and cut off the things in Tibet, and now the general wants to attack Shazhou, this is not the task of our army, what should Chen Guogong do in the future? ”

Shi Jingfeng said:

"Jiyan, I know you are worried about our two thousand soldiers, but now our army is hundreds of miles away from Ganzhou, and there are fortresses of the Tubo army along the way, if you go east to attack Ganzhou, you will have to pass through Suzhou in the middle, and it is impossible to avoid the Tubo people on the road, how is these two thousand people different from sending them to death? Turning back north, it was the land of the Uighurs, and as the weather was getting colder, we could not afford to take that risk. Anyway, it is no longer possible to capture Ganzhou on time, and the military period is missed, so it is better to do it vigorously. As long as Shazhou is occupied, it can also play the role of separating the east and west, and the east can seek Anxi and Beiting, and the south can coerce Tubo. ”

Looking at the endless desert, Shi Jingfeng said:

"Moreover, our army is far more than two thousand."

At that time, Li Jiyan couldn't understand Shi Jingfeng's words, but now, he understands.

"Captain, they're about to enter the valley."

Team Xu reminded. Li Jiyan nodded, and pulled out his war knife at the Tubo convoy that was getting closer and closer.

"Tell the sons and daughters to move quickly, and don't get away with one of them."

In the Qilian Mountains south of Shazhou, looking at a fortress converted from a post station, Shi Jingfeng pulled out his war knife.