Tibet

There were several Shiwei cavalrymen following the migrating team from a distance. When the migrating tribe was captured by the Bayegu army, several Shiwei cavalrymen immediately turned around and rushed back to report.

A few days later, in a huge royal tent on the north bank of the Black Water River, the great Shiwei Khan Halder looked solemn. The soldiers' report made him realize that they could no longer migrate westward. The Bayegu tribe blocked their passage to the west.

Arudun, the brother of Wusu, the Khan of Xishiwei, said: "Khan, if we give enough benefits to the Kuluobo tribe, what if we borrow the road to the west through their territory?"

Hard shook his head, "To the west of the Kuluobo tribe is the Zhulong Mountain, which stretches for thousands of miles. There is no way to go. We can only go south along the mountains. We will either enter the territory of Bayegu or the territory of Pugu. They are more ruthless than each other. Who will spare us?"

Arudun wanted to say something else, but Khan Wusu waved his hand to stop his brother, "Don't think about anything lucky. The grassland has been divided up long ago. There is no place for us. We can only fight for it through war."

Hard also sighed and said: "It is impossible to go west. Either go north, To the east, in fact, it is impossible to go east, there are only two ways, to the south or to the north! "

Usu Khan gritted his teeth and said: "Brother, let's fight the Tang army to the death! If we win, we will keep our homes, and if we lose, we will retreat to the north. "

Arudun also said: "Khan, if this drags on, we will lose our morale."

Hard nodded, "We can organize a group of people to retreat to the north first, as pioneers, find settlements, make all preparations, avoid hasty retreat, and then the army will go south to fight the Tang army to the death. "

Hard thought carefully, and Usu Khan also deeply agreed.

The Shiwei people began to act, and all the Shiwei people were asked to pack up and prepare for migration.

But no one knew where they would migrate to. Although it was not stated, all families consciously packed up their things.

The Tang army scouts also discovered the unusual movements of the Shiwei people and immediately went south to report to the commander-in-chief.

Ma Lin had just received the news sent by Bayegu Khan that they had captured a small tribe of Shiwei who were preparing to migrate westwards. This immediately alerted the Tang army. This was a signal to retreat. The Shiwei tribe had plans to migrate.

In the big tent, the generals stood in front of the sand table to discuss the next move. Ma Lin highly praised Wei Feng's previous judgment. He asked, "What do you think of Wei Changshi?"

Wei Feng smiled slightly and said, "It's normal to run away if you can't win. The key is where to run. This small tribe that migrated westwards should be a test. To be honest, I don't think it's realistic for Shiwei to flee to the west. The grassland has been occupied for a long time. Where can there be pastures for them? More importantly, the Shiwei people and Tiele people are of different species and origins, and the grassland can't accommodate them. If they really want to migrate to the grassland by force, they will inevitably be jointly encircled and suppressed by the tribes of Bayegu, Pugu, Huihe, Sijie, etc., and finally be divided. So I never thought that Shiwei would evacuate westwards, They are not stupid, they should know what is going on. "

Zhang Dian pondered for a moment and said: "If they don't retreat to the west, they will retreat to the north or east."

Wei Feng stroked his beard and said: "To the east is our Bohai Prefecture, which is the territory of the Tang Dynasty. They will never go there. In the end, there is only one choice."

The generals said in unison: "To the north!"

"That's right, I believe that the Shiwei must want to retreat to the north!"

Ma Lin was inevitably a little anxious. He thought for a while and said: "In this case, we should go out and attack. We can't wait any longer. What do you think?"

Zhang Dian and Yu Changyang both supported Ma Lin's decision to go out and attack. At this time, everyone's eyes turned to Wei Feng. He was a military advisor and he had the veto power.

Wei Feng pondered for a long time and said, "I believe no one is willing to give up their hometown. The Shiwei people will not move north unless they have no choice. If we go north, we are likely to encounter their army. I am not worried about defeating them, but I am considering annihilating the enemy, so we need an army to bypass the enemy to the north and cut off their retreat. This army must have no less than 30,000 people, otherwise there will be loopholes."

"How many troops does the long-term historian think the other side will have?" Ma Lin asked.

"At most 50,000 or 60,000! After all, 30,000 have been annihilated before, and they don't have many people, including the 10,000 troops of the Kurobo tribe."

Ma Lin immediately made a decision to leave 10,000 people to guard the old nest of Liucheng. He and Yu Changyang led 60,000 troops to the north to face the enemy head-on. Zhang Dian led 40,000 troops to intercept the enemy's retreat, and ordered General Wang Zhao to lead 10,000 troops to directly attack the enemy's old nest. The four armies performed their duties.

Ma Lin and Yu Changyang led 60,000 troops to the north. At the same time, the 60,000 Shiwei coalition forces also happened to go south.

The two sides met in the north of Lake Julun.

The sky was gloomy and covered with dark clouds these days, and a decisive battle concerning the fate of the Shiwei people slowly kicked off on the grassland north of Lake Julun.

Unexpectedly, the Shiwei army actually set up a large camp, set up fences around it, and cut a large number of wooden spikes, which were inserted within 300 steps around the camp.

The layout of the Shiwei people confused the Tang army. Did the Shiwei people want to weaken themselves by defense?

In fact, the Shiwei army had no choice but to camp. The great Shiwei Khan Halder fell ill at this critical moment.

The Shiwei army could only choose to defend and wait for the Khan's condition to improve before fighting the Tang army.

But the Tang army did not have the patience to wait for their Khan's illness to recover. That night, the Tang army engaged in a night battle.

‘Dong! Dong! Dong! Dong! ’ The passionate drums sounded in the dark night. Ten thousand troops escorted a thousand ox carts and slowly approached the Shiwei army camp. Each ox cart had a swarm launcher and was equipped with five boxes of gunpowder arrows.

The 1,000 ox carts quickly arranged a large formation 380 steps away. This distance not only avoided the wooden spikes on the ground, but also was the distance that the opponent's crossbows could not reach.

The swarm launcher was made of pig iron, and the production cost was relatively expensive. The Tang Army Firearms Department invested a lot of manpower and material resources. It took a year to produce a thousand swarm launchers, which were operated by 4,000 soldiers and used for positioning and shooting. It had great lethality.

It is a bit like a multiple rocket launcher. A launcher has 81 tubes. After ignition, it is propelled by gunpowder and can fire 81 crossbow arrows at the same time. The range is about 600 steps.

The gunpowder is tied to each arrow, and there is a bus. After the bus is ignited, the fuses of the 81 rockets will be ignited.

These are relatively simple. Its highlight is the modular design. The arrow boxes are ready-made. You only need to replace them on site and put them directly into the launcher and fasten them. It is very simple.

Four thousand soldiers lined up in front of the ox cart. Four people operated a launcher. They put the arrow box into the launcher and fastened the iron door. Only the main fuse was exposed outside.

One thousand launchers aimed at the camp fence in the distance, which was brightly lit by torches.

Behind the launcher were 30,000 Tang cavalry. The Tang army had opened eight passages, pulled out the wooden spikes inserted by the enemy, and sprinkled kerosene on both sides. As long as the kerosene was ignited, eight passages would appear on the ground.

At this time, the Shiwei army camp had discovered the Tang army's intentions, and immediately fired thousands of arrows. The sky became darker, and arrows were shot at the Tang army. However, whether it was a bow and arrow with a shooting distance of 100 steps or a crossbow with a shooting distance of 150 steps, it could not hurt the Tang army 380 steps away.

"Fire!"

As Yu Changyang gave the order, a rapid clapper sounded, a flash of fire, and 81,000 gunpowder arrows shot towards the enemy camp from all directions like a storm.

Arrows fell like raindrops, hitting the chests or heads of the enemy soldiers in the camp, and blood burst out. Soon, the second round of 81,000 arrows came like a rainstorm, and countless screams rang out in the enemy camp.

Wusu, the Khan of Xishiwei, was standing behind the camp. A rocket shot past him and hit his warhorse. The warhorse screamed and fell to the ground, throwing him heavily to the ground. A dozen personal soldiers rushed up, lifted him up and ran to the back along the camp fence.

The gunpowder arrow array of the Tang army was not as powerful as the arrow thunder, but its number was extremely large. Five rounds meant that 400,000 arrows were shot out, which showed more of the powerful national strength.

It was originally intended to deal with the enemy's charge, but the enemy actually took a defensive position.

Ma Lin ordered it to be put into use to test its power.

In the darkness, round after round of gunpowder arrows were fired into the enemy camp from all directions, and the enemy's casualties were unknown.

When all 400,000 gunpowder arrows were fired, there was silence in the camp.