The night is slowly coming, because of a rainstorm, although it is wet in all directions, it is inconvenient to walk, but the sultry heat is not so difficult, the fresh breeze blows on the body, bringing people a rare coolness in midsummer, the starry sky after the rain is extraordinarily bright, a waning moon hangs obliquely in the sky, and the beautiful scenery of the stars and the moon makes people unconsciously intoxicated at first sight, but at this time Li Zhen has no intention to enjoy such a beautiful scenery, silently standing on the enemy tower at the gate of the camp, overlooking the city, There was a solemn look on his face.

This battle was fought too tragically, although the number of casualties was still within the range that Li Zhen could bear, however, whether he could rely on this battle to achieve the effect of mobilizing the army of King Shule Li Zhen was not sure in his heart, and now he could only wait, waiting for the news from the sentinel to come back, although Li Zhen also knew that even if the sentinel sent back the news, it would have to be at dawn at the earliest, and this time was just the hour, there were still five or six hours before dawn, so it was good to sleep and then discuss the rest, but Li Zhen just couldn't sleep, and even uncharacteristically did not hold a post-war seminar to comment on today's battle with his generals, but stepped on the high enemy tower alone, silently reflecting.

The arrogant army will be defeated, this is the common sense of the soldiers, it is the truth that cannot be broken through the ages, but if it is violated, it will have bad consequences, this Li Zhen knows it, but he still unconsciously made some mistakes, although it is not heavy, but the price is bloody and dazzling - the remains of nearly a thousand fallen soldiers who were transported back earlier and the hundreds of lightly and seriously wounded people lying in the field hospital deeply pierced Li Zhen's heart - careless, too careless, always thought that the enemy would definitely follow his baton, This in itself is an unavoidable manifestation of underestimating the enemy, and although the whole army is now unable to talk about advancing and retreating, it is an indisputable fact that it is in a difficult situation, and all this is due to its own underestimation of the enemy.

Since Zhenguan first led the troops out in the fifteenth year, Li Zhen has also experienced countless battles, and every time he can anticipate the enemy's opportunity to go first, leading the enemy's nose to go, so as to win more with less, which has created a great reputation at the same time, but also made Li Zhen unconsciously born a sense of pride in his heart, and he is too confident, although self-confidence is a necessary element for generals, however, it is an extremely dangerous signal, which has to be repaid with the blood of his soldiers and even his own lives. As soon as he remembered that today's bloody battle could have been avoided, Li Zhen's heart sank very much - to garrison Hetian, induce the Shule people to come to the aid of thousands of miles, and at the same time induce the king of Qiuci to launch a betrayal act, so as to achieve the gathering and annihilation of the Shule army, end the southern expedition as soon as possible, and then make every effort to exterminate the Qiuci country, realize the unification of southern Xinjiang, and lay a solid foundation for the expedition to northern Xinjiang in the near future. The key to this is that Namua, the king of Shule? Taganda's prudence.

Namua? Taganda's cautious Li Zhen is not unclear, in fact, long before the war, the "Rising Sun" system lurking in the Shule country has already passed the details of Taganda to Li Zhen, but Li Zhen did not take it to heart, in Li Zhen's opinion, Taganda is also a smart person, and he will not understand the truth of the cold lips and teeth, not to mention that his only son Hersa who can get on the table is also trapped in Khotan, and he will definitely send troops to rescue Khotan, however, what Li Zhen didn't expect is that Taganda is coming, but he stopped halfway, Unwilling to cross the Hotan River, Li Zhen's original plan to encircle and send reinforcements fell into vain, which led to today's cruel siege war, and the lives of nearly a thousand officers and soldiers were lost because of Li Zhen's miscalculation, which made Li Zhen's heart ache, and what made Li Zhen even more annoyed was that most of the dead and wounded were elite foot soldiers - unlike the Tang Army in Guannei, there was no shortage of horses outside the fortress, and there was no shortage of cavalry. After knowing the way of the battle formation, he is a qualified cavalry, but the infantry is not, without more than three months of rigorous training, he does not have combat power at all, even if the training is completed, it is not a qualified infantry, and he has to go through several bloody battles to withstand the tragic pressure of the battlefield to be qualified, therefore, this is also the reason why the infantry in the Tang Army of Anxi has always accounted for only one-third of the whole army, after all, Li Zhen's time in the Western Regions is still too short, and he can't train too many qualified infantry, Now the war has been lost by more than one-fifth, how can it be heartbroken.

The siege war itself is cruel, and it can be like this, Li Zhen can also feel satisfied, after all, in the case of the absolute disadvantage of the army and the geographical advantage, the battle loss ratio of 1:2 can be achieved, which is already rare since ancient times, of course, if the gunpowder weapon can be put into actual combat, this ratio is afraid that there will be a lot of disparity, and it is not impossible to even take Hotan in one fell swoop, but it is a pity that Li Zhen can not and cannot put the gunpowder weapon in his hand into actual combat - gunpowder, especially black powder, is not difficult for Li ZhenAs early as the time of the Beijing Division, the black powder and its granularity have been successfully studied in the secret laboratory, and after arriving in the Western Regions, some were also organized and produced, although it is not much, it is enough to use it to lay down Hotan City, but Li Zhen did not plan to use it in Hotan City, without him, not only considering that after taking Hotan in one fell swoop, the army of King Shule will slip away, so that Li Zhen has to attack Shule Country again with the whole army, once the battle situation is too long, it will affect the overall strategy of Anxi, moreover, Li Zhen also does not plan to expose these weapons prematurely, after all, before the yellow explosives are not rectified, black gunpowder is already Li Zhen's last hole card, if there is an accident in Beijing, the black powder weapon will be Li Zhen's trump card to save his life, if it is exposed prematurely, the unexpected effect is gone, not to mention, it is easy to attract the attention of the court, it is really worth the loss, therefore, no matter how difficult the battle situation is, until the last moment, Li Zhen will never easily play the trump card of black powder weapons.

The night gradually deepened, but Li Zhen still did not move, standing on the enemy tower, like a sculpture, the enemy downstairs Ying Da and other guards all knew that Li Zhen was in a bad mood, and it was not clear whether Li Zhen was thinking about the war, for fear of interrupting Li Zhen's train of thought, yes, he was in a hurry, but no one dared to go upstairs to persuade him, all of them were in a hurry downstairs, and in the end, Ying Da came up with a ghost idea, and regardless of the night black, he ran to the Ranger camp and moved Yan Eighteen, the old boss, Let Yan Eighteen go upstairs to see what is going on.

Yan Eighteen is the first veteran in the army to follow Li Zhen, and is Li Zhen's cousin, but he is not very afraid of angering Li Zhen, as soon as he heard that Li Zhen stood on the enemy tower for most of the night, he was more anxious than anyone else, the eagle had not finished speaking, he didn't care about the armor, hurriedly put on a single coat and rushed to the gate of the camp, and rushed to the enemy tower in a hurry.

"Eighteen, what are you doing?" Li Zhen came back to her senses from her contemplation, and as soon as she turned around, she saw Yan Shibai running up in disheveled clothes, and couldn't help frowning, and asked angrily.

Seeing that Li Zhen was displeased, Yan Shibai hurriedly gasped for a few breaths, and replied with a smile: "Your Highness, it's almost midnight, and my subordinates have learned that Your Highness has not fallen asleep yet, so I came to accompany you." ”

Talk nonsense, you kid is not a beauty, what do you want to accompany? Well, it's midnight? Damn it! Li Zhen glanced at Yan Eighteen angrily, just thinking about scolding a few words, and suddenly realized that it was the middle of the night at this time, and was stunned, and looked back at the brightly lit Hetian City, his heart suddenly moved, and he didn't have time to talk nonsense with Yan Eighteen, strode down the enemy building, and ordered to Yingda in a loud voice: "Go, summon Chen Wu, Dong Qianli, and Lin Chenghe to the big tent of the Chinese army, and this king will discuss matters overnight." Li Zhen gave the order, and Ying Da didn't dare to slack off, so he hurriedly answered, and commanded a group of guards to go to the camps of the various armies, please don't mention it......

On the twenty-eighth day of June in the seventeenth year of Zhenguan, Namua, the king of Shule? Taganda's army finally crossed the Hotan River, the whole army crossed the desert at the speed of a rapid march, marched in the direction of Hotan City, and by the time of Shen Zhengpai, the army had arrived about thirty miles away from Hotan City, ready to set up camp, intending to attack the Tang army camp with the Three Kingdoms Alliance Army in Hotan City early the next morning, but when the whole army was busy arranging the camp, a tight horn suddenly sounded behind a large sand beam less than three miles away from the Shule army, and then a group of Tang cavalry poured out from behind the sand beam. First, a fiery red battle flag was waved in the wind, and a huge "Li" character on it was particularly conspicuous - the Tang cavalry had arrived!

"No way, this can't be!" Taganda looked at the Tang cavalry gushing out in the distance, and was dumbfounded for a moment, muttering non-stop in his mouth, without him, Taganda has always acted cautiously, even in the rapid march, he did not forget to keep in touch with Hotan City, and the flying eagles continued to pass books between each other, knowing that the Tang army had not launched a siege battle today, but sent nearly 7,000 cavalry to invite battle under Hotan City, until this time, the Tang cavalry was still in battle under Hotan City, which was specifically mentioned in the Flying Eagle Biography of Fu Yanxiong a quarter of an hour ago, But isn't it strange that the Tang Dynasty cavalry appeared here at this time?

Strange? To put it bluntly, it's not strange at all, without him, the cavalry invited to fight under Hotan City is actually dressed up by infantry and rangers under the banner of cavalry, that is, the suspicious soldiers who saw the weakness of the Three Kingdoms Alliance Army in Hotan City did not dare to go out of the city to meet the enemy, even Li Zhen who was under the city was also a Xibei goods, but a sergeant with a figure similar to Li Zhen was selected from the army to pretend to be, as for Li Zhen himself, he had already quietly led more than 4,500 cavalry to sneak out of the camp last night, and quietly ambushed in the depths of the desert. Waiting for the arrival of the Taganda army, without him, Li Zhen saw the slightest flaw from the defenders on the head of the city who had nearly doubled compared with the previous days - half of the defenders of the city were heavy infantry, but the other half was wearing the leather jacket of the cavalry, obviously, those heavy infantry alone was enough to guard against the night attack of the Tang army, as for those cavalry troops were clearly not used to prevent the night attack of the Tang army, but to prevent Li Zhen's troops from withdrawing at nightTherefore, Li Zhen did not wait for the news of the Shule army to come, so he changed the original operational deployment and set up suspicious soldiers to confuse the enemy in the city, but he led the cavalry of Chen Wusuo to attack the desert, intending to forcibly defeat the Shule army first, and then turn back to clean up the enemy in Hetian City.

"Array, array!" Although Taganda was frightened by the appearance of the Tang army, he looked at the place where the smoke and dust came from, and soon judged that the Tang army's strength here was only one-third of his own. As soon as this order was given, the terrible horn sounded, and the Shule army, which was originally in chaos, immediately began to nervously arrange the cavalry array according to the military order, and the Tang army did not attack immediately, but stopped at a distance of one and a half arrows from the Shule army, and the whole army also lined up in formation to form a confrontation with the Shule army.

Li Zhen's reputation for being good at fighting has already spread throughout the Western Regions, at this time, although his own troops are superior, but whether he can win in battle, Taganda has no bottom in his heart, not to mention that the whole army has just experienced a long-distance and rapid march, and the men and horses are tired, it is not a good opportunity for war, seeing that the Tang army array is rigorously arranged, Taganda can't help but secretly feel bitter in his heart, and hurriedly stepped forward immediately, shouting loudly in not too standard Chinese: "The widow is the king of Shule, Taganda, and I implore His Royal Highness the King of Yue to come out and see him." ”

Hehe, this old man seems to be planning to play tricks to retire from the army. Li Zhen saw through Taganda's intentions at a glance, but the etiquette on the scene still had to be told, Li Zhen didn't mind theorizing with him, so that his own cavalry who had just galloped took a breath, so he rode out and said with a smile: "This king Li Zhen is here, and you can say anything about it." ”

Taganda had long known that Li Zhen was brave and martial, but when he saw Li Zhen's majestic appearance with his own eyes, he was still shocked, swallowed his saliva, and arched his hand with a smile: "I have seen His Royal Highness King Yue for a long time, and I have heard of His Royal Highness's reputation for a long time, and I am really admirable when I see it today......

"There is no need to talk nonsense, this king doesn't have time to listen to these gossip, let's talk about it, do you want to fight or surrender?" Li Zhen smiled coldly and interrupted Taganda's compliments with a wave of his hand. "Fight or surrender!"

"Fight or surrender!"

"Fight or surrender!"

As soon as Li Zhen's words fell, more than 4,500 Tang cavalry shouted in unison, and the majestic momentum suddenly made Taganda's face suffocated, and even his burly body shook slightly.

Seeing that the momentum of the Tang army was pressing, Taganda did not want to weaken his morale anymore, and said loudly: "Your Highness sends unrighteous soldiers to fight unrighteous battles, even if you do unrighteous things, the widow acts in accordance with the sky, and stops the atrocities of His Highness, which is a matter of the sky. At this point, Tagan replied and shouted an order to the whole army in Shule language: "The whole army will meet the battle, attack on the left and right flanks, and capture Li Zhen alive!" ”

Oh, what an old boy, it's really fucking simple, and it's really hit! Li Zhen glanced at the Shule cavalry outflanked from both wings, laughed, took the bright silver spear from the victory hook, and shouted: "The whole army assaults, kill!" As soon as the words fell, he waved the bright silver gun in his hand, kicked the horse's belly hard, and suddenly got up and rushed out like a sharp arrow, aiming directly at Taganda, who had not yet had time to retreat to the formation, and had already rushed through the center of the field without counting his breath, and at this time Taganda had not had time to retreat into his own Chinese army array.

Taganda didn't expect Li Zhen's war horse to start so fast, and when he heard the sharp sound of horses' hooves behind him, he was so frightened that he was so frightened that he desperately beat his horse to speed up, and galloped towards the Chinese army, and the four Shule generals saw that Li Zhen was fierce, and they all came out of the Chinese army's formation, and each brandished his horse lance to fight Li Zhen.

At this time, Shule came out on both wings, each with 3,000 cavalry, and in addition to the four generals who rushed out, the rest of the nearly 5,000 men and horses did not attack, but each bent their bows and arrows to suppress the position, and the Tang army was divided into three routes, led by Chen Wu, Liu Xuanfeng, and You Sifan, and lined up in three extremely sharp conical assault formations to comprehensively press - Chen Wu was in the center, Liu, and You were separated from the left and right wings, completely ignoring the actual situation that their own forces were at an absolute disadvantage, and they actually planned to break the enemy with one blow.

It's too late, it's fast, Li Zhen has already killed the heart of the field, and he is only a few steps away from Taganda, but unfortunately: at this time, the enemy's four generals have also arrived, and the four horse lances stabbed at Li Zhen at the same time, so that Li Zhen could not pursue Taganda again, and had to deal with the siege of these four generals first.

Battlefield heads-up is not a very uncommon thing for Li Zhen, even leading the army to charge into battle has long been commonplace, but it is still the first time to meet the four enemy generals at a time, at this time to see that the four will be fierce, but they do not dare to underestimate, roared, the bright silver gun in the hand shook violently, a shot to open the two horse lances attacking from the left, and the latter borrowed strength, the body of the gun swinged, people took advantage of the situation to twist, dodged a shot when the chest stab, and the bright silver gun in the hand roared and smashed to the waist and abdomen of the enemy general who killed the general on the right, and its momentum was extremely fierce, Shocked that the enemy general didn't care about stabbing Li Zhen, he hurriedly collected his gun to block, and tried to unload the spear that Li Zhen swept over, but he didn't expect Li Zhen's strength to be shaken, but listening to the "click", the horse lance in the hand of the enemy general had been broken into two, and Li Zhen's grabbing momentum did not slow down at all, swept heavily on his waist, and pulled his whole person out of the saddle and flew up, the person was in the air, the blood in his mouth spurted wildly, and he was already a life before he landed, and the other three generals saw the tragic death of their comrades, and they were all red-eyed immediately. They each circled their horses, desperately covering up the past with Li Zhen, and had the momentum of never dying with Li Zhen......

Finishing (full book)