Tibet

At night, hundreds of soldiers were building a temporary floating bridge on the shore to the east of the first floating bridge. They strung the rafts together and tied them tightly. When the length was about the same as the width of the river, they put it vertically into the water. The north bank was fixed, and the floating bridge would flow along the water, and the other end would cover the south bank.

This was the fastest and most convenient way to build a floating bridge. More than a hundred soldiers were lying on the floating bridge, holding the rope on the floating bridge tightly.

After the floating bridge was put into the water, it was quickly washed horizontally by the current, and the middle part also became curved. At the top were two soldiers with excellent swimming skills. They jumped into the water with the rope, swam to the other side, and soon swam ashore, pulling the rope hard, and tied the rope to two large trees not far away.

The floating bridge was washed into an arc by the current. Dozens of soldiers hurriedly drove two wooden stakes into the bottom of the river to support the floating bridge so that it would not be broken by the current.

At the same time, two thousand spear soldiers jumped onto the pontoon bridge and rushed to the other side. The pontoon bridge was only eight feet wide, less than ten feet wide, and it was up and down from side to side. It was not suitable for war horses to cross the river, but infantry could.

In less than half an hour, two thousand infantry quickly ran to the other side, and there was no Tang army to intercept them.

Seeing that the crossing of the river was smooth, Zhu Ci immediately changed the plan and ordered another eight thousand soldiers to cross the river, and at the same time widened and reinforced the pontoon bridge to facilitate the cavalry to cross the river.

Zhu Ci originally planned to send two thousand soldiers to attack the Tang army crossbowmen, but now it was unnecessary. The army directly crossed the river, and ten thousand troops protected the pontoon bridge from damage on the south bank.

Thousands of craftsmen were involved in the process of widening and reinforcing the pontoon bridge. They first drove piles, and drove a wooden pile every thirty steps to firmly support the pontoon bridge, and then widened and reinforced it.

Of course, several steps were carried out at the same time, reinforcing and widening, while the soldiers were also running fast on the pontoon bridge.

Lai Zhen had already received the report. He left 5,000 soldiers to guard the half-destroyed floating bridge, and he personally led 15,000 soldiers to the newly built floating bridge 30 miles away.

At the first watch, Lai Zhen led 15,000 people to the enemy crossing the river. Suddenly, a burst of arrows shot from both sides. The Tang army was caught off guard and hundreds of people were shot down.

Lai Zhen was furious and urged his warhorse to kill the ambush. He swung his sword to chop off dozens of arrows and swung his sword into the crowd. Only the cold light flashed, the sword flew, the heads rolled, the limbs were broken, and dozens of people were killed in one breath.

The Tang soldiers behind rushed up and surrounded the 1,000 archers who ambushed them. The archers picked up the spears on the ground and fought fiercely with the Tang army.

The other side arranged a thousand people to ambush the Tang army in order to buy time for the Fanyang army three miles away to gather.

At this time, the number of Fanyang troops had reached 5,000, and the soldiers behind were still running across the river to reinforce the troops on the south bank.

Lai Zhen also saw through the opponent's intention. He left 5,000 people to continue to encircle and annihilate the enemy, and he led 10,000 troops to rush to the crossing point.

Five thousand Fanyang soldiers shouted and went to fight, and the two armies fought fiercely by the river.

Soon, more than 4,000 Tang soldiers who had annihilated the enemy came and joined the battle.

Fanyang soldiers desperately protected the floating bridge being installed. Three thousand people formed a semicircle and fought to the death with the Tang army. The bridge was constantly replenished with troops.

Twenty thousand Huihe cavalry were also eager to try and began to prepare to cross the bridge.

All ten thousand Fanyang troops had crossed the bridge. They were well-trained and fierce in combat, and they were inseparable from the Tang army.

The pontoon bridge had been reinforced and widened, and the Huihe soldiers began to lead horses across the bridge. Soon, the first batch of 500 Huihe cavalry had crossed the river and started to fight. The situation began to be unfavorable to the Tang army.

With the continuous addition of cavalry, the number of cavalry soon reached 2,000, and the battlefield gradually reversed. The Tang army began to retreat.

At this critical moment, a low horn sounded in the distance, and Xi Wanli led 20,000 supporting cavalry to kill.

Lai Zhen looked at the battle flag in the distance and shouted excitedly: "Our reinforcements are here, brothers, beat the war drums for me!"

"Dong! Dong! Dong!" The Tang army's war drums sounded, and the morale was immediately boosted. The Tang army began to counterattack.

But the Huihe cavalry also increased to 4,000 people. They were not afraid, shouted loudly, and rushed up to fight with the Tang cavalry.

In terms of strength, the Huihe coalition was inferior to the Tang army, and it was only a matter of time before it was defeated. However, the problem was that the tactics of the Huihe coalition were very clear. They were just buying time to let their army cross the river as soon as possible.

The Huihe cavalry obviously sped up the crossing of the river. The cavalry no longer dismounted, and used their skilled horsemanship to control the war horses to run on the pontoon bridge.

Soon, the cavalry increased by another 2,000 people and entered the battlefield. The cavalry on the pontoon bridge continued to run across the pontoon bridge.

At this time, a 5,000-stone Tang warship appeared on the river. The paddles rolled, and the warship accelerated and hit the pontoon bridge.

The soldiers of the Fanyang army shot arrows one after another, but it was useless. The huge bow of the ship crashed into the pontoon bridge. With a loud "click!", the pontoon bridge was broken into two sections, and hundreds of cavalry on both sides fell into the water.

Although the Huihe cavalry on the south bank increased to 7,000 people, they were still no match for the 20,000 Tang cavalry. At this time, the general Ma Sui also led 20,000 troops to come.

They cut off the retreat route of the Huihe cavalry to the east. The Tang army became more and more courageous, while the coalition forces became weaker and weaker. Many soldiers wanted to surrender, but they had no chance.

The battle lasted until the third watch. With the last few hundred cavalrymen being annihilated, the battle finally ended. All 10,000 Fanyang troops were killed, and all 7,000 Huihe cavalry were also annihilated. The Tang army did not take any prisoners, and all the wounded were killed.

But the Tang army also paid the price of 3,000 deaths in this battle, and more than 4,000 people were injured.

Although the first forced crossing of the Juma River failed and paid the price of nearly 20,000 people, the Uighur Dengli Khan also saw hope.

He believed that the reason for the failure of crossing the river was that only one pontoon bridge was laid. If three pontoon bridges were laid at the beginning, at least 50,000 to 60,000 people would be able to fight across, and they would definitely be able to break through the Juma River.

But the warships of the Tang army were distressing. They had no opponents in the river, and the pontoon bridges were hit by them at will. How to kill the warships of the Tang army was the most urgent thing at the moment.

That afternoon, a soldier came to report that the Tang army warships were on fire, which greatly boosted the spirits of Dengli Khan and he hurried to the river.

Not far from the half-floating bridge, a large ship on the river was on fire, and the Tang soldiers on the ship jumped into the water and swam to a small boat not far away.

"What happened?"

"Reporting to the Khan, the ship approached the pontoon bridge, and our soldiers threw several burning kerosene cans, and the other ship caught fire."

"Kerosene!"

Dengli Khan slapped his forehead, this is a powerful weapon against ships! He actually forgot it.