Tibet

The 50,000-strong army marched with overwhelming force. The Han people jumped for joy and supported the arrival of the imperial army. Nanzhao officials and people fled in despair.

This morning, the Tang army was less than fifty miles away from Huichuan Mansion.

At this time, Li Sheng had received information from the scouts from many sources. There were about 20,000 troops in Huichuan Prefecture, among which there were about 3,000 or 4,000 Tibetan troops.

Li Sheng also received detailed information about the city. Huichuan City was built by the Tang Dynasty to defend Nanzhao. Nanzhao renovated it ten years ago. The city is tall and solid, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The moat alone is ten feet wide. .

However, the county seat is not large, and the houses in the county seat are very dense.

Basically 90% of the people in the city were from Nanzhao. Tang Dynasty people fled and died. The remaining Tang Dynasty buildings were basically eradicated and replaced with Nanzhao people's residential style.

Li Sheng had seen a lot of the architectural style of Nanzhao people along the way. They were on both sides of the official road. They were basically bamboo-wood structure elevated houses. They looked very simple and comfortable, had good ventilation, and were relatively cool, but this kind of building There is one thing I fear most, and that is fire.

Li Sheng already had a battle plan. He immediately ordered the troops to rest where they were and set up a marching tent.

Li Sheng immediately sent someone to invite his deputy Qu Huan. Not long after, Qu Huan rushed to the marching tent, bowed and saluted: "General, are you looking for me?"

Li Sheng nodded and pointed to the sand table in the marching tent: "We are still fifty miles away from Huichuan County. Once the enemy troops evacuate, the Tibetan army will inevitably withdraw along this official road to Jianchuan Prefecture. The general can lead his 10,000 troops." The army intercepts and kills on the way, all troops must be killed, no prisoners of war left!”

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Qu Huan took the military order, and Li Sheng said to General Han Qiu: "The enemy army is defeated and will inevitably flee to the river to cross the river. The general can lead five thousand cavalry to the river bank to clean up and join the army. Once the enemy army is defeated, you Immediately go north to intercept them, and I will chase them from behind.

"Follow the order!"

Han Qiu also took a detour with five thousand cavalry to go ahead. Li Sheng immediately ordered the army to set off again and attack Huichuan Mansion in a mighty manner.

This time Li Sheng led an army of 50,000 people southward, along with 20,000 camels.

There were 20,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry in the 50,000-strong army. Qu Huan took away 10,000 infantry, Han Qiu took away 5,000 cavalry, and Li Sheng still had 20,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.

That night, the army arrived at Huichuan City.

The governor of Huichuan was Minao Luodong, the second grandson of Ge Luofeng. He was also the instigator of the attack on the Tang Dynasty prospecting team.

Minato Luodong was about twenty-five or six years old. He saw that the Tang Dynasty was weak, incompetent, and infighting. In addition, he was the grandson of the king, which gradually developed his extremely arrogant character.

He despised the Tang army from the bottom of his heart, so when he got the news that 50,000 Tang troops were coming south to fight, he didn't care at all.

Yin Qiukuan, an official of the Qing Dynasty, advised him to withdraw his troops and civilians to the south of Lu River, but he arrogantly said: "I have a strong city and ten thousand archers like tigers. What does the Tang army have? He can attack a ten-foot-wide castle." moat?"

He flatly rejected the suggestion that he withdraw his troops, but after Yin Qiukuan's repeated requests, he finally agreed to evacuate the people. Without the people, he could throw off his arms and fight the Tang army.

For several days, tens of thousands of people in Huichuan City were evacuated to the south of Lu River. The city gradually became empty, leaving only more than 10,000 people who were unwilling to retreat, as well as 17,000 Nanzhao troops and 3,000 Tubo troops.

The leader of the Tubo army was Lund Deling, who was the deputy general of the Tubo Governor of Jianchuan. He led 3,000 men to cooperate with the Nanzhao army to guard Huichuan.

So when Yin Qiukuan persuaded Couo Luodong to retreat, Lun Deling encouraged Couo Luodong to fight against the Tang army behind his back.

His one sentence surpassed the hundreds of words Yin Qiukuan worked hard to persuade.

"The reason why the king looks down on the envoy is because the envoy has not made any military achievements. If he flees without fighting, what will the king think? What will the Nanzhao soldiers and people think?"

This sentence made Minato Luodong determined to fight to the end with the Tang army.

Under the bright moonlight, 35,000 Tang troops arrived three miles outside Huichuan City.

This time, the Tang army did not carry any large siege equipment. They only carried two large trebuchets, which were disassembled and temporarily assembled during the siege.

Li Sheng stood on a high place and looked at Huichuan City not far away. The city wall was indeed tall and strong, but so what?

There are densely packed bamboo and wooden houses in the city, and the night wind is strong, which is a good opportunity for fire attack.

He immediately ordered: "There are five thousand heavy crossbowmen ready to go to war!"

The five thousand heavy crossbowmen carried 2,500 large yellow crossbows and prepared to use them to shoot arrows and thunder. However, Li Sheng did not plan to use fire thunder to attack Huichuan City, so as not to frighten the enemy. He planned to use gunpowder arrows to set fire to Huichuan County.

The Dahuang Crossbow is a seven-stone heavy crossbow. It cannot be pulled open by one person. Two people must lie down and use pedals to wind it up. It can shoot a three-foot heavy arrow to a distance of 700 steps. It is an out-and-out killer weapon. .

It is about two hundred steps away from the city, which is a safe distance. The furthest distance of Nanzhao's bow and arrow is only about one hundred and fifty steps.

The five thousand cavalrymen were divided into five rows, with five hundred people in each row, working in groups of two. They had been training in Jiazhou for more than a month and were already very good at it.

Each group of heavy crossbow soldiers of the Tang Army lit up the fire rods and stuck them on the ground. The burning time of each fire rod allowed them to shoot five arrows, which was enough.

The Tang army made deployment as soon as it arrived, and the defenders on the city were also panicked. Twenty thousand troops went to the city to defend, nervously looking at the Tang army two hundred steps away.

Minato Luodong stared at the Tang army below. The opponent was beyond the range of his bow and arrow, which was difficult to deal with, but what were they doing?

Liu Shaluo, the general of the Nanzhao army, whispered: "Your Highness, these should be the heavy arrows of the Tang army, with a very long range. Their target is not us, but the county town!"

Cou Luodong was shocked and quickly turned back to look at the city. He immediately ordered: "All the people should retreat to the south!"

But it was too late. As soon as his order was issued, the Tang army began to fire.

One soldier lit the match with a fire stick, and 2,500 heavy gunpowder arrows were fired at the same time.

The burning arrows shot up into the sky like a rainstorm, quickly passed over the top of the city, and shot into the city in an overwhelming manner. The tops of the Nanzhao houses were all hay, which was ignited by gunpowder arrows and began to burn rapidly.

The biggest advantage of gunpowder arrows is arson, flame spray, long burning time, and it is easy to ignite bamboo and wood.

Cou Luodong's eyes widened. It turned out that rockets flew into the city. This was something they never expected. The Tang army actually used rockets.

Then the second round of 2,500 gunpowder arrows whistled in, setting more bamboo and wooden houses on fire again. The entire northern part of the county was on fire, and the Nanzhao people who had not evacuated were frightened and fled to the south.

But the fire was driven by the wind, and burning thatch was flying everywhere. More and more bamboo and wooden houses were set on fire, and the fire had already burned half of the county.

Then the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of gunpowder arrows were shot one after another, and the whole city was in flames and thick smoke.

All the soldiers on the top of the city were stunned and at a loss. Suddenly someone shouted, "The warehouse is on fire!"

Cou Luodong stamped his feet and shouted anxiously: "Go and put out the fire, we must save the military rations!"

Countless Nanzhao soldiers rushed to the warehouse. At this moment, a soldier came to report, "Your Highness, the Tubo army opened the west gate and retreated!"

Cou Luodong was stunned. In the morning, he vowed to fight side by side, but now he was abandoned and ran away. At this moment, Cou Luodong's heart was chilled.

General Liu Shaluo said anxiously: "Your Highness, the Tang army has not yet been fully deployed, so the Tubo people took the opportunity to run away. Let's retreat quickly! It will be too late when the Tang army is deployed."

Cou Luodong took another look at the warehouse. The warehouse had been engulfed by the raging fire and could not be saved. Without military rations, they could not hold on for three days.

He looked inside the city again. The Tang army fired five rockets. The entire Huichuan city was already a sea of ​​fire. Tens of thousands of people were crying and shouting at the South Gate, asking for the gate to be opened to escape.

"Your Highness, give the order to retreat!" All the generals shouted together.

Cou Luodong's heart was bleeding. He could only sigh, "Open the East Gate and order the whole army to retreat!"

The South Gate was opened, and tens of thousands of people fled out of the city. The East Gate was also opened, and 17,000 troops retreated in panic.

Li Sheng had already received the news. He didn't care about the Tubo army. Qu Huan would deal with them.

He immediately ordered: "Order 15,000 cavalry to pursue and kill without mercy!"

The 15,000 cavalry of the Tang army launched, and chased south rapidly under the bright moonlight. The Nanzhao soldiers were immediately in chaos and scrambled to escape.

But they could not outrun the Tang cavalry and were soon caught up by them. The Tang cavalry killed them all along the way, without mercy, and did not accept surrender. They killed everyone without mercy, leaving corpses all over the ground and blood flowing like a river. Many fleeing Nanzhao people also died in the chaos.

Cou Luodong was frightened and had no fighting spirit. Dozens of personal guards protected him and ran all the way. When it was almost dawn, they gradually arrived at Lushui. Suddenly, a soldier who escaped from Lushui shouted, "Your Highness, there are Tang cavalry in the south. All 2,000 soldiers at the ferry were killed!"

Cou Luodong was immediately frightened to death. Seeing the yellow dust rolling in the south and an army coming, the leader of the personal guards immediately made a decision. He immediately split his troops into two groups and took most of the personal guards to surround the fake prince and escape to the east path.

Cou Luodong and several personal guards took off their armor and fled to a village not far away. He was betting that the Tang army would not burn, kill and plunder, and he could escape this disaster.