Tibet

Tian Chengsi's army moved south rapidly. By the evening of the next day, it was only more than fifty miles away from Wuqiang County, but still no fleet was seen, which made Tian Chengsi feel something bad.

Judging from the time, they should have met a long time ago, but now they can't see their shadows, and Tian Chengsi finally lost his composure.

He ordered the entire army to rest on the spot and ordered the spies to go south to look for the fleet.

The soldiers gathered together and talked about it. Everyone could guess some clues. They have not encountered a baggage fleet so far. There is a high probability that something happened.

In a marching tent, Tian Chengsi was pacing back and forth with his hands behind his hands. He was extremely agitated. In fact, he also knew that something was likely to happen to the fleet, but the fact that no defeated troops escaped made him feel a little lucky.

Night fell, and at this time, someone outside shouted: "Your Majesty, General Pan is back!"

Tian Chengsi rushed out of the tent and saw Pan Xi, the leader of the escort fleet, being helped up in a state of confusion. His armor and weapons were gone. He was covered in mud and his hair was disheveled. He looked like a beggar.

When Pan Xi saw Tian Chengsi, he immediately knelt on the ground and cried loudly, "Your Majesty, they are all gone. We encountered tens of thousands of Tang Army cavalry, the fleet is gone, and so are our brothers."

Tian Chengsi’s heart was cut out with a knife, ‘Poof! ’ A mouthful of blood spurted out and he fell on his back. Everyone was in chaos and rushed to save Tian Chengsi. Tian Chengsi slowly woke up and his face was pale. He waved his hand, pointed at Pan Xi, and made a killing gesture to the soldiers.

The soldiers understood, drew their knives and swarmed in, hacking Pan Xi to death.

Tian Chengsi spurted out another mouthful of blood and fainted again. The soldiers quickly carried him into the camp and went to find a military doctor for treatment.

An hour later, Tian Chengsi finally woke up. His cousin Tian Qianzhen stepped forward and said anxiously: "The spies found Tang Army cavalry in the south, at least tens of thousands of them. I'm afraid they will launch an attack tonight."

Tian Chengsi said in a low voice: "The army will go to Dingzhou immediately. Conceal the news. Don't. Don't leak it!"

Tian Ganzhen nodded, "I understand!"

Tian Qianzhen immediately replaced Tian Chengsi to deliver the order, and the army immediately gathered and marched quickly westward!

In the night, Tian Chengsi's army began to get up and head west. Although Tian Chengsi ordered the news to be sealed, he gave the sealing order an hour after he fainted. The news that the fleet's food, fodder and baggage had been robbed had already spread throughout the entire army.

This news became the straw that broke the camel's back. The morale of the military collapsed completely. Most of the soldiers only had one day of dry food. If they didn't escape at this time, how could they wait?

Under the cover of darkness, soldiers began to flee en masse. On the official road, many soldiers disappeared without a trace after disappearing into the wheat fields under the pretext of tying their shoelaces.

After the army set off and marched less than ten miles, twenty-three of the fleeing soldiers were gone.

Dozens of miles behind, Xi Wanli led 30,000 cavalry, Li Feilei and Wei Ran each led 10,000 cavalry, and a total of 50,000 cavalry followed Tian Chengsi's army far behind.

This is the wolf pack tactic implemented by the Tang army. They do not attack the enemy immediately, but follow them from a distance. They wait until the enemy's strength is exhausted before attacking in one fell swoop to completely annihilate the enemy.

Xi Wanli was the leader of the wolf pack tactics and commanded the entire 50,000 cavalry. Twenty miles behind the 50,000 cavalry, Li Ye personally led an army of 50,000 to follow, while Guo Ziyi led an army of 100,000 north to surround Hejian County. .

Judging from the current situation, the Tang army can completely annihilate the armies of Tian Chengsi and Li Baochen before the Uighur army goes south, so there is no need for Wang Lun to send an envoy to the Uighurs.

However, this time Wang Lun succeeded in persuading Tian Chengsi to march westward, which was indeed a great achievement. He also sent his confidants to secretly inform Li Baochen of the news in time, so that Li Baochen could take precautions. In the end, Tian Chengsi fell short of success and was on the road to death.

At the fourth watch, a dozen Tang Army cavalry escorted several deserters to Xi Wanli. Xi Wanli asked, "Which army are you from?"

"Report to the general, we are a joint army!"

There are three armies under Tian Chengsi. One is the Dongsheng Army, which is the 30,000 cavalrymen who were wiped out. They are all Donghu people. They are the most elite troops under Tian Chengsi. After 30,000 people were wiped out, the Dongsheng Army is now There were only about 4,000 soldiers left in the victorious army.

The second group is called the Guards, which consists of 40,000 people. They are also veterans who have followed Tian Chengsi for many years. They are basically Han Chinese. This army is the current main force.

The third branch is the joint army, with a total of 50,000 people, 10,000 from each of the three vassal towns, and 20,000 from Tian Chengsi alone. The command is in the hands of Tian Chengsi, and the leader is his clan brother Tian Qianzhen.

The 50,000 Hezong Army are all new soldiers, and the four families are unwilling to send out elites, so the Hezong Army has the weakest combat effectiveness and the lowest morale.

Xi Wanli asked again: "How many people did you lose in the fire?"

"Basically all of them are gone, and there are only one or two left at most."

This was within Xi Wanli's expectation. The Hezong Army must have run away first. If the Guards also ran away, then they could take action.

At noon the next day, in a temporary tent, Tian Chengsi was angrily scolding a group of generals, including his sons and clan brother Tian Qianzhen, as well as several veteran generals who had followed him for many years.

"What do you mean you're afraid that I can't bear it? You're afraid that I can't bear it so you won't say anything? You won't say anything until all the soldiers have run away? Isn't that right!"

Tian Chengsi was extremely angry. If the soldiers had not been able to bear it and revealed something to him, he would not have known that more than half of the soldiers had fled.

The third son, Tian Hua, said helplessly: "The main thing is that it is useless to tell my father. It can only add trouble. The army rations have been exhausted. Most of the soldiers have not eaten breakfast and are hungry. So I sent military discipline soldiers to kill the deserters. As a result, The military discipline soldier also ran away."

"Hmph! That's because you are incompetent!"

Tian Chengsi turned around and asked Tian Qianzhen, "You are an old general, don't you have any solution?"

Tian Qianzhen sighed and said, "The only way is to let the army plunder the city, but tens of thousands of Tang cavalry are following us. Once we let the army plunder the city, they will definitely kill us."

Tian Chengsi pondered for a moment and said, "First tell me how many troops are left?"

Tian Qianzhen said, "So far, there are still 4,000 people in the Dongsheng Army, 28,000 people in the Jinwei Army, and 8,000 people in the Hezong Army, a total of 40,000 people. This humble official ordered the killing of 1,000 old horses this morning to appease the Dongsheng Army and the Jinwei Army, but did not give them to the Hezong Army because there are not enough to share."

"Where is the nearest county to us?"

"Raoyang County is less than 20 miles away from us. "

Tian Chengsi immediately said to Tian Qianzhen: "You lead 8,000 guards and 8,000 combined troops to intercept the Tang cavalry behind, buy me an hour, I will lead 20,000 guards and 4,000 Dongsheng troops to plunder Raoyang, at least to boost the morale of these 24,000 people. "

Tian Qianzhen hesitated and said: "The whole army may be destroyed!"

Tian Chengsi waved his hand, "I know the whole army will be destroyed. It is impossible to take care of everything now. I can only save a part of the main force, and the others can only sacrifice."

Pause, Tian Chengsi said again: "You promised these 8,000 soldiers that as long as they are willing to fight to the death, I will reward them with 300 taels of silver each, and I will never break my promise!"

Tian Qianzhen smiled bitterly in his heart. Tian Chengsi didn't have any money. It was obvious that he made an empty promise and deceived the soldiers to work hard.

But there was no other way, it had to be like this.

He originally wanted to kill another thousand horses to feed the 16,000 soldiers, but there was no extra horse. Although the Donghu soldiers all had war horses, they would immediately rebel if anyone dared to touch their war horses, so they really couldn't move.

Tian Qianzhen had no choice but to lead 16,000 troops to leave the team and run eastward to intercept the Tang cavalry and buy an hour for the lord.

Tian Chengsi personally led 24,000 people to run quickly to Raoyang County, more than ten miles away.