Tibet

Li Ye took out another stack of documents and put them on the table. "This is the declaration of the invalidity of the previous abolition order. There are 19 copies in 19 states, and 98 officials have signed it, from the governor of a state to the chief clerk of a county. This is standing in line. I don't intend to expand it, but I don't want to let the matter go. Therefore, this time the official settlement in Bashu will be based on this declaration. All officials who signed it will be investigated and punished for participating in treason!"

Wei Jiansu took the declaration and nodded, "I will obey your majesty's order!"

Bai Xiaode said on the side: "Your Majesty, there are nearly 100,000 rebels, and we must be careful of the sneak attack of the Liao people. The Jiannan Army has only 50,000 troops. Isn't it a little less? I suggest that another 30,000 troops be sent to Jiannan!"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "In fact, there are still 20,000 troops stationed in Yunnan, I have ordered 20,000 garrisons to go north, and 70,000 troops are enough! ”

Bai Xiaode suddenly realized and laughed: "I overlooked the 20,000 garrisons in Yunnan. Now I feel relieved!"

Wang Jin, the Minister of Rites, said: "Your Majesty, is there any news about the Liao people?"

Li Ye said slowly: "Wang Wei, the governor of Jiannan Road, has sent special envoys to the Liao tribe to negotiate, asking them to know the current situation and hand over Jia Xiu's uncle and nephew. If they don't hand them over, then more than a hundred years of friendship will be gone, and war will be waiting for them. I hope the Liao king can know the current situation and not confront the Tang Dynasty. ”

Wang Jin said again: "In fact, I am worried that if the Liao people surrender to Tubo at this time, it will be troublesome."

Wang Jin said very implicitly, just to remind the emperor that the Liao people would surrender to Tubo, so he could not use force, but only negotiate.

Li Ye smiled faintly, "Minister Wang, don't worry about the Liao people surrendering to Tubo. I can guarantee that once the Liao people refuse to hand over the uncle and nephew of the Jia family, they will be completely finished before they have time to consider whether to surrender to Tubo."

The Liao people are a minority in the western part of Bashu. In fact, they are Qiang people, but there are many branches of Qiang people, and the Liao people are one of them. They live in Maozhou and Yazhou.

Like the Tang Dynasty, they are full of vigilance and precautions against Tubo, and have been resisting the eastward expansion of the Tubo army together with the Tang Dynasty.

For many years, the Liao people have been allies of the Tang Dynasty. However, as the strength of the Tubo army has declined in recent years, they have also changed their tough strategy and began to implement a differentiation strategy. On the one hand, they are hostile to the Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, they win over the Liao people and make them many promises.

Some promises have been fulfilled. For example, when Tubo invaded Bashu, it did not harm the Liao people tribe.

It was the Tibetans' solicitation that made the Liao people less hardworking in recent years, and the number of Qiang horses supplied to the Tang army was greatly reduced. However, in order to appease them, the Tang Dynasty still provided them with various welfare subsidies, which made the Liao King arrogant.

The envoy sent by Wang Wei of Jiannan Road to negotiate with the Liao King returned in disappointment. The Liao King not only rejected the Tang Dynasty's request to hand over the uncle and nephew of the Jia family, but also accused the Tang Dynasty of killing the Jia family and threatened the Tang Dynasty not to confiscate the salt wells of the Jia family, otherwise they would send troops to protect the salt wells.

Li Sheng was furious and personally led 20,000 cavalry to attack Maozhou.

At this time, the new recruits recruited by the Guo family in the south were still in training. Li Sheng took this opportunity to send troops to Maozhou to solve the problems left by the Jia family.

The emperor Li Ye had told him before that if the Liao people refused to hand over the uncle and nephew of the Jia family, there was no need to persuade them anymore, and they would directly use force to deal with the Liao people and teach them a lesson for their arrogance in recent years.

The Liao people have more than one tribe. They are composed of many tribes, such as Penglu, Jiang, Shu, Ge, Tatar, Wu, Zhan, Da, Lang, Bin, etc. The largest tribe is Penglu, and their leader is the Liao King.

Of course, the Liao King is just a title, which does not mean that he can control the entire Liao people.

In fact, when they heard that the Liao King wanted to make enemies with the Tang Dynasty for the Jia family, other tribes did not want to wade into this muddy water. The reason is very simple. The Penglu tribe can get a lot of salt profits from the Jia family every year. Other tribes not only have no benefits, but also have to bear the high price of salt sold to them by the Penglu tribe.

The Penglu tribe has taken all the benefits, but now it wants everyone to share the risks with him. How is it possible?

The Liao king is called Penglu Anji, the chief of the Penglu tribe. He is not without reason to confront the Tang Dynasty for the sake of the Jia family. First, Jia Yuan is Penglu Anji's cousin and also his relative. His son-in-law Jia Wen and his daughter have been living in Maozhou and have a deep relationship with Penglu Anji. When he heard that the Jia family was exterminated by the Tang army, Penglu Anji had the idea of ​​revenge for the Jia family.

The second is profit. The profit of the Jia family's salt well must be divided into 20% to the Penglu tribe every year. At the same time, a batch of salt must be sold to the Penglu tribe at a price of ten coins per bucket, and then the Penglu tribe will increase the price by fifty times and sell it to other Liao tribes.

Once the Jia family is completely finished, their annual profit of at least 200,000 strings will be gone. Penglu Anji will of course try his best to save the Jia family and hope that the Tang Dynasty will give them face and let the Jia family go.

Another more hidden reason is that the Tang army discriminated against the Liao soldiers. The discrimination was manifested in two aspects. One was equipment. The Tang army always gave the Liao soldiers the worst equipment. For example, the advanced firearms of the Tang army were not even accessible to the Liao soldiers.

Another example was military rations. The Tang army soldiers' supplies were provided by the court, including rice, meat, vegetables, oil, etc., as well as military salaries.

However, the Liao soldiers did not have food and military salaries provided by the court. Everything was borne by their own tribes. However, it was not that the court did not give them food, but that the court gave them subsidies to the tribes, so naturally they did not care about the supplies and military salaries of the Liao soldiers.

But the annual court subsidies are divided up by the nobles and never given to the Xun soldiers. Therefore, the Xun soldiers have nothing and they will definitely feel it is very unfair. They will not think it is the fault of their own tribe, but will blame the contradictions of dissatisfaction. Point to the court.

Penglu Anji heard that Li Sheng had sent 20,000 troops to kill him. On the one hand, he sent his eldest son Penglu Anbo and Jia Xiu to lead 20,000 Xue soldiers to fight. On the other hand, he sent people to various tribes to ask them to send troops to support him.

As soon as 20,000 cavalry entered Maozhou, Li Sheng received news from the scouts that about 20,000 horsemen were found thirty miles ahead.

At this time, the Tang army was marching in a long river valley, which was at least twenty miles long. If the Tang army rushed directly, they would probably be blocked in the valley by the Xue soldiers.

Li Sheng pondered for a moment and said to the general Yu Jianliang: "You lead a thousand cavalrymen holding heavy crossbows to the entrance of the valley. If the horned soldiers block the entrance of the valley, you can use arrows and thunder to shoot them from a distance!"

"Follow the order!"

Yu Jianliang immediately led a thousand soldiers and rushed to the mouth of the valley carrying a thousand heavy crossbows.

The reason why a thousand men were sent was mainly because they were small and flexible, so even if they encountered an ambush, the losses would not be great, and the lethality of a thousand arrows and thunder was extraordinary.

Li Sheng immediately led an army to follow from a distance.

In less than an hour, a thousand cavalrymen of the Tang Army gradually arrived at the mouth of the valley. The mouth of the valley was about five or six miles wide and relatively open. However, 20,000 horseback soldiers had already placed obstacles such as large rocks and trees to block the entrance of the valley. The 20,000 horseback soldiers held Bow and arrow stand behind obstacles.

This is of course Jia Xiu's suggestion. He has been a military envoy to Yazhou for more than ten years and has rich experience.

But he didn't know about the firearms of the Tang Army. After the Yongwang Army was destroyed, Jia Xiu was liquidated, and the firearms of the Tang Army had not yet come out at that time.

When Yu Jianliang saw the concentration of soldiers at the entrance of the valley, he immediately said to a thousand soldiers: "Launch from about 250 steps away!"

Thousands of Tang troops marched forward slowly. They were about 250 steps apart. Yu Jianliang shouted, "Shoot an arrow!"

A thousand Tang Army cavalry raised their crossbows at the same time, lit the match ropes, and a thousand arrows and thunder rose into the sky, shooting densely at the mouth of the valley.

The soldiers at Taniguchi yelled to dodge. You must know that this is an arrow thunder. Its lethality has nothing to do with whether it is hit or not. A thousand arrow thunders exploded in a series, and dense quenched iron particles were scattered in all directions, and there was a sudden sound. There was a sound of wailing and crying.

The heavy crossbow of the Thousand Tang Army was not the ten-stone big yellow crossbow, but only the three-stone heavy crossbow. It could be loaded with stirrups while riding on a horse. It was also called a hard horse crossbow.

Soon, the Tang army fired a second round of arrows, which continued to fall into the group of horse soldiers who had not yet reacted, severely damaging the horse soldiers again.

At this moment, the Xun soldiers finally reacted. Without waiting for the general's order, the frightened Xun soldiers turned around and ran wildly, leaving behind countless soldiers and injured soldiers.

Li Sheng, who was watching the battle two miles behind, waved his sword and said, "Charge out!"

Twenty thousand cavalry were launched, rushing out of the valley like a flash flood.