Sure enough, as Xiao Yu expected, after the New Year's Festival, on the eighth day of the first month, the emperor summoned the political affairs hall and Wuying Pavilion to discuss sending troops to Tibet.

On the fifteenth day of the first month, the edict of sending troops secretly arrived in Hexi, and appointed Xiao Yu, the governor of Hexi, as the general manager of the Qingtang Road march, leading an army of 50,000 to attack Qingtang.

At this time, the Hexi Army was already on its way to Jingzhou.

On the sixteenth day of the first month, the three armies of Hexi arrived at the camp in Jingzhou and joined the Jingnan army.

At the beginning of the first month, the two Tang envoys in Tibet fell ill because of "serious illness" and most of the members of the mission were intolerant of the plateau climate, but the medical skills of Tubo obviously could not reassure the Tang envoys, and they left Luo Xue and Deqing on the seventh day of the first month to return to Xining to summon medical treatment.

The request of the mission to return to Tang made Luo Qi and Deqing breathe a sigh of relief, and while expressing their reluctance, they swore that they would definitely arrest the assassin and submit it to Datang as soon as possible, thinking that these weak Tang people should leave quickly, but don't die of illness here, and give the Tang people an excuse for blackmail.

Just after the Tang delegation arrived in Xining Dao, the crusade sent by the Tang Dynasty was delivered by the envoy, condemning the Tubo conspiracy to assassinate the Tang County Lord, and refusing to hand over the murderer and mastermind, in order to maintain the dignity of the Tang Dynasty and the safety of the imperial people, it was decided to send troops to fight.

In the crusade against the text, the Tang Dynasty asked the Tubo royal court to hand over the assassinated Tubo Buddhist monks and the head of the Tubo monks - the abbot of the Jokhang Temple, the Grand Master Degong, the spearhead was obviously aimed at the Tubo monks, and the crusade was also sent from the Jingnan army camp, which made the Luo royal court secretly happy, thinking that the Tang Dynasty was targeting the Tibetan monks and the Qingtang king, and decided to temporarily watch from the wall, intending to attack Gesang Dama from behind when Kelsang Dama and the Tang army were defeated, and then send troops to attack Gesang Dama, take back the Deqing land, and then hand over Kelsang Dama and Tubo monks to the Tang army. It's a big deal to assign the Qing Tang Dynasty to the Tang people, and the anger of the Tang Dynasty should be calmed, and they have also eradicated the two scourges of Kelsang Dama and Tubo monks, which is really a good plan to kill two birds with one stone!

The idea of the royal court is very wonderful, but they don't know that the Tang Dynasty court also has two secret edicts to send troops to Xining Road and Jiannan Road, appointing the commander of Xining Road and the head of Jiannan Road as the chief of the East Road and the South Road marching general, and the whole army is ready to go.

The marshal of the camp in the west was Li Yuzhen, the general of Zuo Shence and the princess of Jinyang, and commanded a total of 140,000 troops of the left and right Shence army and the Zuo Longwu army to conquer Tubo, which was the middle route army and the main force of the expedition to Tubo.

The grain for the Xiqiao camp was transported from Longyou Road to Xining Road at the beginning of the first month.

On the 17th day of the first lunar month, according to Li Yuzhen's military order, the Zuo Yongwu Army stationed in Longyou Province, the Zuo Shen Ce Army in Gyeonggi Province, and the Right Shen Ce Army in Hanoi Province simultaneously set up camp and left for Xining Province.

On the twenty-sixth day of the first month, the Zuolongwu army, which was closest to Xining Road, first arrived at Xining Road and secretly camped in Dafeichuan. This is the snowy plain at the junction of Xining Road and the eastern part of Tubo, which is already an alpine zone, and the Tang army will spend the adaptation period of the plateau here.

Before Zuo Longwu's army arrived in Xining Dao, Li Yuzhen issued a military order to Xiao Yu, the general manager of the Qingtang Road march, demanding that the Hexi Army must send troops to Qingtang before early February, so as to attract the attention of Tubo and conceal the Tang army's troop buildup in Xining Dao.

On the ninth day of the second month, Xiao Yu issued a military order, and 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Hexi Army were dispatched, with the Xiao Cavalry Army and the Jingnan Army as the vanguard, to attack Qingtang.

Gesang Dama, who was still in the Deqing camp, didn't know that the Tang Dynasty had sent a declaration of war to Tubo until Hexi sent troops, and those damn guys actually concealed the text, what a bunch of bastards! Gesang Dama cursed as he pulled out the camp and quickly evacuated Deqing and returned to Qingtang.

Because of the fact that Luo concealed the Tang Dynasty's declaration of war, the Hexi Army beat Qingtang in a daze.

When Kelsang Dama led 30,000 forward cavalry back to Qingtang, the Hexi Army had already crossed the eastern pass of the Zhagazangbo Mountains on the border, attacked the Southern Qingtang Plateau, took the Amdo pastoral area, and entered the Qiangtang grassland.

This boundless prairie was the breeding place of the Qingtang King, and his royal tent stood on the bank of the Naqu River in the Qiangtang grassland. The reproduction of the Qingtang tribe and the breeding of war horses all depend on this prairie, and if the king of the Qingtang Dynasty loses this grassland, he will lose the source of life of the entire Qingtang Dynasty.

Gesang Dama must not let the Tang army occupy this Qiangtang grassland.

He left 10,000 tribal soldiers to defend Luo, and all other tribes were levied in the war against the Tang army on the Qiangtang grassland, and quickly organized an army of 160,000 people to resist the Hexi army.

The Tubo people are mainly nomadic tribes, except for the places where the city was built and the southern Tibetan River area has cultivated residents, the rest of the places are nomadic tribes with all the people in the army, pastoralism in peacetime, soldiers in wartime, and in the local war, the entire tribe is conscripted with the war, among which the old and weak women and children and slaves are engaged in nomadic breeding to ensure logistics supply, and men over fifteen years old and under forty years old are on horses to fight, so as long as a conscription order, you can quickly form an army of more than 100,000 or 200,000, of course, this is including logistics soldiers, Only half of the soldiers are officially fighting.

Therefore, the 160,000 troops recruited by Kelsang Dama can only fight 80,000 or 90,000 people, which is still more than the Tang army in terms of strength.

However, after Xiao Yu led the Hexi Army to attack Qiangtang, he did not rush to march, but set up camp in the northern part of the grassland, and the king of Deqing Tang commanded the tribes and gathered the army.

This is Xiao Yu's strategy, if you can't annihilate the main force of the Tubo people, even if you occupy the royal court of the Qingtang Dynasty, it is not the end of the war, under the grassland and snow-capped mountain terrain of Tubo, if the Tubo cavalry wants to retreat, it is very difficult for the Hexi army to pursue and annihilate, and then Hexi occupies the Qingtang garrison will face the endless guerrilla attacks of the Tubo cavalry, which is a headache.

Therefore, Xiao Yu would rather Gesang Dama gather a large army and die on the grassland with the Hexi army, rather than face the sudden surprise attack of the cavalry assembled by Gesang Dama after quickly occupying the royal court.

Moreover, Xiao Yu not only wants to win this battle, but also to preserve the strength of the Hexi Army, then he can't fight too fiercely and too quickly, and he must grind the Qingtang Army to death on the Qiangtang grassland.

Because of Xiao Yu's tactics, several battles between the Hexi Army and the Qingtang Army on the Qiangtang Grassland were fierce and short.

The Tubo people had many cavalry, and in addition to half of the 160,000 Qingtang troops who were non-combatants responsible for nomadic breeding and supply logistics, the other 60,000 were cavalry who fought on horseback. Among the 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Hexi Army, the proportion of cavalry also accounted for half. The first few battles on both sides were cavalry sorties. And the battle between cavalry and cavalry, unless the strength of the other side is several times that of the other side, can form a outflanking trend, otherwise one side has to withdraw, the other side will be difficult to fight, either collect the troops, or chase down, but it is very difficult to pursue the cavalry on the prairie.

The Hexi Army retreated after several elite light cavalry charges, attracting the Qingtang cavalry to pursue, and then collided with the Hexi Army's tight infantry phalanx, especially the famous Modao Soldier Formation, which made the Tubo cavalry a headache.

Therefore, the first few battles in the Qiangtang grassland were fierce and short fought on both sides.

The Hexi Army fought a grinding tactic, and the Qingtang Army was also restrained because of concerns about stabbing a knife in the back, and did not dare to let go of the war, and fighting a protracted war on the Qingtang Plateau was also beneficial to the Qingtang Army that adapted to the hypoxic climate. As a result, both sides had the intention to "fight slowly", and of course each battle would not be fought darkly, so the battle was fierce and short.

Because the duration of each battle was not long, this gave the recruits of the 11th Battalion a process of adapting to the battlefield, and the 11th Battalion was in the position of the rear flank, basically shooting from a distance with bows and crossbows, and even before the handover of short troops, the Tubo cavalry had already retreated under the rejection of the heavy infantry formation in front.

In the battle before the attack on Qiangtang, the 11th Battalion was also a rear assist team, except for long-distance archery, it did not engage with the enemy's soldiers, so from the time the troops were dispatched to the present, there were not many casualties, but seven or eight people were killed in the middle of the arrow.

Of course, this casualty rate was extremely low, and not only did it dispel the fear of the recruits when they first entered the battlefield, but also saw that the other battalions had made meritorious contributions and received rewards, and the recruits of the 11th battalion gradually became thirsty for battle.

Xiao Yan's heart is contradictory, she is eager to make war merits, only if she kills more enemies, this battle will be great, but judging from the current situation of the battle, both sides are shallow battles, and their battalions that have just gone to the battlefield have no chance to fall into the battle formation, unless it is a big war - Xiao Yan is looking forward to a big war on the one hand, and on the other hand, she hopes that this kind of big war will come later, and give the recruits of the 11th battalion more time to adapt, after all, fighting is to die, and she doesn't want to see many colleagues die.

In this contradictory mood, the 11th Battalion where she belonged experienced several fierce and short infantry battles between the Hexi Army and the Qingtang Army.

The Jingnan Army and the Xiao Cavalry Army, which adapted to the climate of Tibet, were still the main forces of combat.

If you get rid of the influence of the plateau climate, the Tubo cavalry in the weapons and armor well-equipped, well-trained Hexi army in front of almost no bargain, and the Hexi army infantry bow crossbow range than the Tubo cavalry bow and arrow range, long-range bow and arrow strike plus heavy infantry Mo knife formation, Tubo cavalry is difficult to break the Hexi army's foot formation, in the face of the arrow rain in the infantry often a round of charge down dozens of people, and a few charges down can not break the front of the heavy infantry Mo knife formation, the Tubo cavalry is about to retreat.

After more than a dozen battles like this, the Qingtang Army has also lost a total of four or five thousand horsemen.

Four or five thousand cavalry is already a great loss for the Qingtang tribe, whose population is very precious, but compared to the eighty thousand cavalry that can fight, it is a small casualty.

The Hexi Army also lost more than 1,000 casualties, plus those who were seriously injured and could not fight, and those who suffered from altitude sickness in the Qiwu Army and the Weisheng Army, the total number of combat soldiers was reduced by more than 3,000 people.

There were many Tubo soldiers in the Jingnan army, and Xiao Yu deliberately let people exaggerate the impact of the plateau illness strictly, so that Qing Tang Xizuo, who was hidden among these Tibetan soldiers, spread the news.

Kelsang Dama was very excited when he got the news, and thought that it was right to fight this kind of war with the Tang army, and the longer the war dragged on, the more unfavorable it would be to the Tang army.

The two sides continued this war of attribution until mid-March.

At this time, the 140,000 soldiers and horses marching into Xining Road had already spent the plateau adaptation period in Dafeichuan, and the cold weather was about to pass, and it was time to launch a general attack. On the tenth day of the first month of March, Li Yuzhen issued a second military order to Xiao Yu, asking the Hexi Army to severely damage the Qingtang Army in the near future, and induce Luo to send troops to attack the rear road of Kelsang Dama.

Xiao Yu must obey the order.

In terms of authority, Li Yuzhen was appointed by the imperial court to conquer the Tubo capital, and had the right to control and transfer troops to the troops and horses of Hexi Road, Xining Road, and Jiannan Road.

Strategically speaking, Li Yuzhen's order is also completely correct, and it is the best strategy for the three-way army to cooperate with the main force of the imperial court to attack Tubo.

If Xiao Yu resists, it will be his fault.

"The conspiracy is not terrible, but I am afraid that this kind of conspiracy is above board, so that you have to jump even if you know that it is a pit." Gu Di sighed with the military order.

Xiao Yu raised his eyebrows, "Then fight!" "She has long been impatient with this kind of painless combat.

Cao Yuandu touched his sideburns and beard and said: "We didn't fight hard before, and we have paralyzed the Qingtang people, and now we suddenly come to remember the fierceness, hey, these barbarians will definitely not be able to react!" ”

The two deputy commanders of the Qiwu Army and the deputy commander of the Weisheng Army also bowed slightly.

"Military orders cannot be violated." Xiao Yu's voice was not slow, he had long expected this situation, Princess Jinyang would not let him fight without pain, sooner or later he would have to urge him to fight and attract some troops, his early use of grinding plate tactics was not only to preserve the strength of the Hexi Army, but also to give the Qiwu Army and the Weisheng Army a process of adapting to the Tubo battlefield, and the third important role was to paralyze the Qingtang Army as Cao Yuandu said.

Xiao Yu's Jingnan Army and the Qingtang Army have always been fast and crazy, and they will not fight a dozen, retreat, or fight again, and Kelsang Dama should have believed the news that the Fan soldiers in the Jingnan Army passed down - "The imperial court sent Xiao's Hexi Army to attack Qingtang in order to weaken the strength of the Hexi Army and Qingtang at the same time, and then reap the benefits of the fisherman, Xiao does not want to become a pawn of the imperial court", and the battle between the Hexi Army and the Qingtang Army did indeed prove that the Hexi Army did not exert all its strength and was fighting a delaying war.

The so-called most true lie is seven points true and three points false, and Xiao Yu's lie is mixed with seven points of truth. In addition, Gesang Dama's support for Qingtang is similar to that of the Xiao family in Hexi, he pushes people by himself, and feels that the discord between the Xiao family and the Li royal family is certain, and he is convinced of the information sent back by Xizuo.

And once the Qingtang Army formed the inertia of "slow war", it was time for the Hexi Army to storm onslaught.

"Generals obey orders!" He said.

The generals in the tent all stood up and shouted in unison.

Xiao Yu had rehearsed the tactics of this battle many times in his heart, and ordered in an orderly manner.

The congregation will obey the command and go away.

The Battle of Qiangtang is about to break out.

The author has something to say: after careful thinking, the early war is still sketched, and this chapter is a transitional chapter at the beginning of the war -

I went out on a business trip in the afternoon, and I might come back late in the evening, so I sent this chapter before I set off (I wanted to revise it). If there is a worm, please point it out, and change it when you come back at night~

(l~1`x*>+``+