Tibet

The fire under the city was still burning, and the main force of Dangxiang's army had retreated three miles away. The last fire was extremely tragic, killing nearly 10,000 Dangxiang soldiers, forcing Tuoba Chaoguang to order the withdrawal.

In the two siege battles yesterday and today, more than 20,000 Dangxiang troops were killed. Especially in today's siege, 16,000 people were directly killed. Tuoba Chaoguang also risked his life and attacked the city regardless of casualties. In the end, he almost lost nearly 10,000 soldiers. Half, but Lingwu City was still not taken.

This made Tuoba Chaoguang fall into despair. In the afternoon, news that made him even more desperate came. The more than 200,000 people and millions of sheep who stayed on the grassland were missing, and all three thousand guardsmen were killed.

This news not only made Tuoba Chaoguang despair, but also panicked him. He ordered the news to be blocked so that the soldiers could not know that their family members were missing.

At dusk, a group of cavalry came rushing from the south. The leading cavalry was led into the tent. The cavalry saluted: "Inform the Khan, a Tang army has appeared in Mingsha County. Our leader asks the Khan for help!"

Tuoba Chaoguang was shocked, "How many people are there?"

"About 20,000 people!"

This should be the arrival of reinforcements from Hexi.

"I know, I will send reinforcements as soon as possible!"

Tuoba Chaoguang calculated in his mind that he had less than 30,000 troops in hand. After excluding the 4,000 to 5,000 wounded soldiers, there were only about 23,000 soldiers capable of fighting. Tuoba Chaoguang sighed in his heart, they After ten years of preparation, it still didn't work.

Qingzhou Dangxiang had to be rescued. Tuoba Chaoguang's eldest son Tuoba Yuan immediately led 13,000 people to Mingsha County for support, while he himself led 10,000 troops to continue to stare at Lingwu County.

In fact, it was Li Sheng's main force of 50,000 Tang troops who came. Of course, 10,000 reinforcements from Hexi also arrived, led by Pei Xiu, the governor of Liangzhou.

In order to completely wipe out the enemy, Li Sheng made careful arrangements. He handed over 10,000 troops to Pei Xiu, and asked Pei Xiu to lead 20,000 troops to attack Mingsha County in the name of the Hexi Army.

Li Sheng also sent General Ren Tianliang and his 10,000 troops to detour to the north to cut off the party's army from heading north.

He personally led an army of 30,000 to wait north of Mingsha County and laid out a large sack.

It takes two days to get from Lingwu County to Mingsha County, and the two places are about 400 miles apart.

At the first watch of the next night, Tuoba Yuan led more than 13,000 Dangxiang soldiers to rush south. Yuanzhou and Qingzhou were not grasslands after all, and they did not have such war horses. Qingzhou Dangxiang had more than 6,000 war horses. Yuanzhou Dangxiang was good. A little over 10,000 horses.

The 13,000 people led by Tuoba Yuan were all infantry. They ran in the dark and gradually opened up a distance of three miles.

In fact, this is a taboo for marching, especially at night. Once the march is ambushed, it will definitely be defeated.

Although Tuoba Yuan often trains soldiers, he has never been in actual combat, let alone read any military books. He has no marching experience at all.

The so-called experience is actually the accumulation of various bloody lessons. Every time you learn something, you gain wisdom. The more lessons you learn, the more experience you have.

It's a pity that the party members only have lessons and no more experience.

While running, there was a sudden sound of clappers, and countless soldiers of the Tang Army suddenly appeared on the sand to the east. They raised their crossbows and shot at the Dangxiang soldiers who were running on the official road. Thousands of arrows were fired. The running Dangxiang soldiers were unable to guard against them. He was shot down by random arrows and screamed in agony.

Immediately afterwards, there were violent explosions in front and on the official road. Fires shot into the sky and thick smoke filled the air. Then another raging fire broke out in front. There were screams and cries everywhere, and the party soldiers were in chaos.

The Dangxiang soldiers in the middle lay down one after another to avoid the arrows, while the Dangxiang soldiers at both ends scrambled to escape from the official road.

After the 10,000 Tang army infantrymen finished firing their crossbows, they immediately crouched down and hid in the gully dug in advance. Behind them came the deafening sound of the cavalry's hoofbeats.

Two teams of ten thousand Tang Army cavalry came from the northwest and southeast at the same time, and charged into the enemy crowd. They stabbed with spears and chopped with swords. Heads and mutilated corpses were everywhere, and thick blood pooled together. It became a stream.

The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty were killed until they cried like ghosts and howled like wolves. They had no way to go to heaven and no way to go to the ground. They knelt on the ground and begged, but their heads were chopped off by the Tang army's cavalry.

General Tuoba Yuan died in the first wave. He was injured and fell off his horse, and was burnt to a crisp by the raging fire on the official road.

At the third watch, all 13,000 party soldiers were killed. The Tang army did not bother to clean up the battlefield and immediately divided into two groups. General Guo Xi led 10,000 infantry to Mingsha County to help in the battle, while Li Sheng led 20,000 cavalry. Head north to Lingwu County.

Li Sheng has received information. There are not many party members left in Lingwu County, only more than 10,000 people. His 20,000 cavalry are enough to annihilate the opponent.

The two sides split up and Guo Xi led 10,000 infantrymen towards Mingsha County.

Guo Xi is the third son of Guo Ziyi. He has fought with his father all year round and has also made countless achievements. After Guo Ziyi became the privy envoy, Guo Xi was named General Zuo Xiao Cavalry Guard. This time he went out as Li Sheng's deputy general to suppress the Dangxiang rebellion.

The place where the Tang army annihilated Party Xiang's army in Yuanzhou was only about fifty miles away from Mingsha County. Before dawn, Guo Xi led 10,000 infantrymen to Mingsha County. However, the scene in front of them shocked the Tang army soldiers. They saw the Mingsha County town on fire. The fire was raging, and thick black smoke filled the entire county. The fire in the thick smoke was like a devil's head, constantly flashing a ferocious crimson color. The soldiers of the Tang Army were still using small trebuchets to pour kerosene and bamboo. Peach powder packets were thrown into the city.

When Guo Xi saw Pei Xiu, he quickly saluted and said, "Excuse me, Commander Pei, has the entire Dangxiang army been wiped out?"

"It's all inside!"

Pei Xiu looked at the county seat and smiled slightly: "At first we were preparing to attack the city, but the trebuchet threw kerosene balls into the city and caused a fire. We simply set fire to the city. When they broke out, they were all killed by our random arrows. Look at the city gates full of corpses!”

The city gate was open, with thick smoke and fire billowing inside. The city gate was filled with corpses, like hills.

"Almost!"

Pei Xiu waved his hand and said: "Send the order to stop adding kerosene!"

The addition of kerosene stopped, and the city was still in raging fire. Even if there was an open space in the middle that was not burning, it was still filled with thick smoke, and there was no air to breathe at all.

"Are there any enemy soldiers around?" Guo Xi asked.

Pei Xiu shook his head, "We defeated the five thousand cavalry of the Dangxiang people. Their remaining troops retreated to the city. General Dong's troops were watching around them. The Dangxiang troops did not escape and were all in the city. Perhaps they found that we did not carry siege weapons, so they They want to rely on the county to fight against us.”

Pei Xiu smiled again and asked, "How was the ambush?"

Guo Xi smiled slightly and said: "The enemy's reinforcements only had more than 10,000 people. We were ambushed by 30,000 people and easily killed them all. General Li led 20,000 cavalry to the north. I heard that there were only more than 10,000 people there."

Pei Xiu sighed, "It's a pity that we arrived a step too late. Mingsha County was massacred by them, and not one of the more than 5,000 people survived."

Guo Xi gritted his teeth and said, "Let them repay their debt with blood!"

Tuoba Chaoguang spent two days in fear. Their food was originally very tight, but nearly half of the army was killed during the siege. The food was abundant again, and it was enough to last for half a month.

In the past two days, the wounded soldiers have been wailing and dying. The nearly 5,000 wounded soldiers were basically hit by quenched iron pellets. The poison is extremely strong. If there is no antidote, the whole body will fester and die in a few days. It is very miserable. .

Tuoba Chaoguang had no choice but to order the bodies of the dead soldiers to be piled together and burned.

Although there was no shortage of food for the time being, Tuoba Chaoguang's inner fear was deepening day by day. He knew that more than 200,000 people could not disappear out of thin air. They must have been captured by the Tang army, not to mention the three thousand guard soldiers who were killed.

He still hid this news from the soldiers, but the question was, what could he do if he hid the news from the soldiers? Whether they can still save people or not, they will know sooner or later.

What should he do now? Tuoba Chaoguang wanted to surrender to the Tang army, but Tuoba Qimei cut off his retreat. They would die if they surrendered.

After much deliberation, he had no choice but to go to the grassland and join Huihe.

At this time, suddenly a rapid alarm bell sounded outside, "Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!"

Tuoba Chaoguang was shocked, got up and ran out of the tent. Several people came and shouted: "Khan, the Tang army's cavalry has entered the camp!"

Tuoba Chaoguang was shocked, "Where did the Tang army come from?"

He saw his soldiers running east and west, and the Tang army cavalry in the distance rushed into the camp like a tide. Tuoba Chaoguang couldn't help but was helped by dozens of soldiers to get on their horses and flee to the north.

Tuoba Chaoguang led more than a thousand soldiers to break out and escape. The army left behind by Tuoba Chaoguang was not lucky. Twenty thousand Tang soldiers killed them, leaving corpses everywhere on the ground. The sand was stained with blood. Nearly 9,000 people were killed. , no one escaped.

The fate of Dangxiang was destined to be destroyed. Tuoba Chaoguang led more than a thousand soldiers to escape less than a hundred miles before encountering 10,000 cavalry led by General Ren Tianliang. After receiving the order from the commander, Ren Tianliang led his army south to intercept, and happened to encounter More than a thousand cavalrymen who fled north immediately surrounded them.

Tuoba Chaoguang led the cavalry to break through desperately, but could not escape the encirclement of the Tang army. Seeing that his men were getting fewer and fewer, in despair, Tuoba Chaoguang sighed and had no choice but to draw his sword and kill himself.

The two rebel parties in Wonju and Gyeongju have since been completely wiped out.