When the carnival of Broken Leaf City was not over, Gao Buer in Hami received an order from the imperial court that the grain to support the Turkic expedition to the west could be shipped, as for the abnormal situation in the Western Regions, Li Er asked Gao Buer to investigate in detail, once it was determined and changed, he could immediately send troops to levy, Li Er's purpose was only one, that is, to force the Turkic coalition army to march westward, so as to completely stabilize the western border and completely remove the threat to the western part of the empire.

Since the imperial court has made a decision, Gao Buer decided to carry it out, in order to gather strength to deal with the unknown, in addition to leaving enough garrisons in the fortress place, the other armies are gathered together, 100,000 people, he stationed 5,000 people in Xingxing Gorge, and allocated firearms, let them build a pass to defend, the leading general is Zhang Zhongping.

handed over to Hou Jun to gather 30,000 people, let him go to Qiuzi, to prevent the Tubo people from going to Kunlun, and then left 20,000 people to garrison Hami, on the one hand to ensure the safety of the army's materials, on the other hand, it can support on both sides, and Zhang Zhongping is also responsible for leading the army, and he took Li Jing to lead the remaining 45,000 people to march to Tingzhou, where the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate is located.

In order to ensure the safety of the army, Gao Buer asked Li Jing to lead 10,000 cavalry as the front army to guide the army, and soon the army marched to Gaochang.

But the further you go, the more tribes you encounter that have been looted by robbers, these tribes are very small and not valued by the sudden Shi at that time, that is, dispensable, they are lucky to stay, but many did not escape the fate of being slaughtered, these robbers are extremely cruel, not only robbing goods and women, but also killing.

When Li Jing led 10,000 cavalry to Gaochang City, he actually saw thousands of bandits attacking Gaochang, the Tang army stationed in Gaochang, it was difficult to organize the people in the city to resist the enemy's attack, today is the third day, the people in the city are sleepy and tired, if there is no reinforcement coming, I am afraid that this Gaochang City will not be able to hold.

The nomadic people have always been good at destruction, thousands of miles of long drive, burning and looting is their strength, the siege is basically their own short attack on the other's long, this is that Su Dingfang with the army back to the pass, the army in the pass has not yet come, they saw the opportunity to exploit the loophole, ready to loot and flee away.

Now seeing that Gaochang is about to go down, today's siege is more vigorous, trebuchets actually appeared, from the morning to noon, seeing that there were gaps in the city walls, just as they were about to rush into the city, they suddenly found the overwhelming Tang cavalry behind them, how could they still care about entering the city, turning the horse's head, ready to stand out before being surrounded.

Li Jing, as the god of war of the Tang Dynasty, not only set up a strong formation, but also good at long-distance running, cavalry battles, so the robbers who were besieging the city began to turn their horses' heads, Li Jing ordered the artillery carried by the army to shoot, and when the bandit formation was in chaos, he immediately ordered the army to surround the bandits, and a wave of sword rain attacked down most of the robbers were killed and wounded, and before the robbers approached to fight, the Tang army had already thrown grenades out in pieces, and after the smoke of gunpowder, there were few horses and robbers who could stand.

After ordering the army to clean up the battlefield, Li Jing entered the city on horseback, and the guard general Gaochang knelt down in front of him crying: "General, you are here, the last general has not dishonored his mission, please enter the city." ”

Li Jing nodded, lightly pinched the horse's belly, and slowly entered the city, where the soldiers and civilians had already begun to tidy up the houses destroyed by the robbers' trebuchets, and also organized the transportation of the wounded and killed in the war.

Li Jing rode a horse and walked slowly around the city, seeing that the city was full of devastation, his heart was sad, and he said to Liu Chuanwu, the Gaochang guard general who had been following him: "After the first battle, how about the battle damage?" ”

"Returning to the general, in the past six months, there have been several bandits composed of this kind of flowing army around Gaochang, people from various tribes, these people burn, kill and loot all evil, the surrounding tribes and caravans that were destroyed by them are no less than ten, Gaochang City has also been attacked many times, fortunately, Gaochang City has been firmly repaired, only to resist these thieves, and the loss of soldiers in the city has been more than sixty percent in half a year, and there are more than 300 people and light people in the city."

"What is the first wave of bandits to attack the city this time?"

"It's the fourth wave."

"Is it all that large?"

"There were about 5,000 people in the previous three times, and this time I don't know where these robbers gathered more than 3,000 people, but there were more than 8,000 people."

"Can you find out who they are? Can you be sure that it was a pawn, and not the commander of the coalition forces, Tush, who had come to test our reality? ”

"According to the interrogation of the captives by the last general, they are actually either exiles or subordinates of Tushi, who said that they came to raise food on the orders of Tushi and prepared to use them for the westward expedition."

"With a team of less than 10,000 people, I am afraid it doesn't make sense to raise food for so many people."

"yes, that's what the Admiral doesn't understand."

"Is there a similar situation elsewhere?"

"I didn't see the official documents, but I heard from the caravans that they had encountered many bandits with such a large number of robbers, and they were found in Tingzhou, Boluo City, Yile and other places."

Li Jing wrote the situation as an army report to Gao Buer, and then he did not stop in Gaochang, but left 500 soldiers to help defend the city, and then led the army to continue to march towards Tingzhou.