Tibet

At night, the coach Gao Xianzhi led a group of generals to the Talas River. The Talas River is about twenty feet wide. In winter and spring, the river is slightly shallower. You can directly cross the river on horseback. However, summer and autumn are the seasons of high water, and the river is very deep. It is too fast to cross the river directly, so you have to use a pontoon bridge.

"This time the cannibal is coming fiercely, what are your thoughts and countermeasures?" Gao Xianzhi asked everyone.

Li Siye smiled and said: "The soldiers will stop him, and the water will drown him. How we defeated him last time, it will be the same this time!"

Cheng Qianli smiled slightly and said: "General Li's principle is right. There is only a real hard fight, there are no tricks, but there may be room for discussion in tactics."

Gao Xianzhi smiled and said, "What good ideas does Cheng Shijun have?"

Cheng Qianli said calmly: "Actually, there is no good way. It is either Tian Ji's horse racing strategy, where the top is against the middle, the middle is against the bottom, and the bottom is against the top. But the key is to know yourself and the enemy."

Gao Xianzhi sighed and said: "You're right, knowing yourself and your enemy is the key, but now we know ourselves but don't know each other, and the same goes for the other party."

Gao Xianzhi glanced at Li Ye and asked, "What do Li Bingmao think?"

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "Reporting to the commander-in-chief, we actually still had some advantages that we did not use in the last battle."

"What advantage?"

"We have at least two major advantages. The first is our crossbow. I tested it with the opponent's shield last night. The opponent's shield is relatively thin, the wood is loose, and it is only covered with a layer of cowhide. The biggest advantage of this kind of shield is that it is light.

So on the battlefield, they all held a shield in one hand and a spear in the other. The horn crossbow we used for the first battle, their shields could withstand the penetrating power of the horn crossbow arrows, but the humble post changed to the crossbow for testing, and the shot Heavy arrows can easily penetrate the opponent's shield and penetrate their leather armor. "

Gao Xianzhi nodded, "What about the second advantage?"

"The second advantage is kerosene. We still have 8,000 barrels of kerosene from Bukhan. It would be a pity not to use them!"

"Will kerosene have the effect of killing enemies?" Cheng Qianli asked with a smile.

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "The biggest effect of kerosene is not to kill the enemy, but to disturb the enemy. I believe that the enemy commander will not think of us using kerosene. Once a large amount of kerosene burns, in the chaos, the enemy's main force will definitely Fall back for now and then we have a chance.”

Cheng Qianli smiled and said to Gao Xianzhi: "General Li's strategy of kerosene makes sense!"

Gao Xianzhi nodded and asked Li Ye: "Then how should we take advantage of kerosene?"

"Bizhang will consider a few options, give him some more time, and he will report in detail!"

Gao Xianzhi pondered for a moment and said: "The enemy has arrived eighty miles away, and the war will break out the day after tomorrow at the latest. I hope to get your plan report early tomorrow morning!"

At the same time that the Tang army was discussing how to deal with the Great Food Army, about 80 miles away from Talas City, 75,000 Great Food Army were also camping by the same river. The Talas River flowed south for dozens of miles before turning. West, and finally flows into the medicinal killing water.

The Dashi Army did not carry any tents, so the soldiers lay down and rested on the spot, with only a blanket wrapped around them.

The sky is full of stars. Under the starlight, densely packed soldiers lie asleep on the sand by the river. Thousands of patrol sentries are standing guard around. There are open sentries and hidden sentries. Generally, enemy scouts can evade open sentries, but not hidden sentries. It is difficult to penetrate into the general area. camp.

In a tent in the camp, the lights are bright.

More than a dozen senior generals of the Dashi Army were also discussing strategies to deal with the Tang Army.

Undoubtedly, the Dashi Army was most afraid of the Tang Army's heavy armored infantry. The opponent's two thousand heavy armored infantry were the source of their disastrous defeat in the previous battle. They must find the opponent's weakness and kill the opponent's heavy armored infantry.

The heavy armored infantry of the Tang Army was also the focus of everyone's discussion of military affairs tonight.

Ziad said slowly: "We can't shoot through the opponent with bows and arrows, but what about the heavy blow? They will definitely not be able to withstand it. The first thing I consider is throwing spears, and the second thing is to use heavy hammer soldiers. You should not use cavalry to deal with them!"

Abu Muslim nodded, "This army is the nemesis of the cavalry, so we will also use infantry to deal with it. We have five thousand heavy hammer infantry who can be arranged to go up. As for throwing spears, I don't think the effect will be too obvious. They are We fight in formation, not in a cluster, so we only have one chance.”

Ziad smiled and said: "One chance is enough. When the cavalry approaches them, they can throw a spear at one time and kill at least seven or eight hundred of them. The key is to seize the opportunity!"

Abu Muslim pondered for a moment: "Let the three thousand spear-throwing cavalry be in the back row. When approaching the heavy armored infantry, they speed up and run to throw spears. This opportunity must be seized. The remaining more than a thousand heavy armored infantry of the Tang Army will hand over We have five thousand heavy hammer soldiers to deal with. As long as we kill these two thousand heavy armored soldiers, with our superior strength, we will definitely win this battle!"

Two days later, the Dashi Army and the Tang Army met again on the banks of the Talos River, almost at the same position as the previous battle. The Tang Army was out of strength and all three thousand lightly wounded soldiers went into battle.

King Murdo of Bukhanna sent the last two thousand cavalry, bringing the number of Bukhanna cavalry to 8,000. The Bukhanna cavalry plus Suiye Tang army totaled 9,000 people, all led by Li Ye.

But Li Ye's nine thousand cavalry were not in the team. Bai Xiaode led five thousand cavalry pretending to be on the left wing, under the banner of Li Ye.

Li Ye's cavalry is ambushing a few miles to the west. Once his first arson plan is successful, he will immediately lead his troops to attack and cut off the attacking enemy's retreat.

Li Ye also made a bet that the momentum and effect produced by the burning of 350,000 kilograms of kerosene would definitely scare the head coach of Dashi, Muslim, into retreating.

Then his chance comes.

Except for Li Ye on the left wing, everything else was normal. On the right wing was Cheng Qianli's 10,000 Beiting Army, and Gao Xian commanded 15,000 people in the central army.

In addition, on the other side of the Talas River, 10,000 Tocharian coalition troops also entered the battle. This was also one of Li Ye's plans. The battlefield was placed beside the Talas River, and the weaker Tocharian army could be blocked by the river water. Going into battle, they were mainly crossbowmen and trebuchets, and eighteen large trebuchets were pushed towards the river.

At the front of the Tang army were no longer 6,000 crossbowmen, but 2,000 strong crossbowmen. Each of these two thousand soldiers was tall and powerful. They used crouching crossbows and heavy arrows. There were two ways to string the crouching crossbows. One way is to lie on the ground, push the back of the bow with your feet, and pull the string with your hands. The other way is to stand and pull the string, with your feet on the back of the bow, and use both hands to pull the string upward.

But no matter which method is used, it requires the cooperation of leg strength, waist strength and arm strength.

Next is the heavy arrow. The arrow is two feet and eight inches long. The arrow head is in the shape of a wolf tooth. The arrow shaft is thick and heavy. Although this kind of heavy arrow is not as powerful as the crossbow and the big arrow can penetrate gold and crack stone, it can also withstand ordinary shields. Unexpectedly, especially the thin shields of the Great Food Army, not only one arrow can be shot through, but also the soldiers' leather armor can be shot through at the same time, and the lethality is extremely powerful.

All the Tang army's crossbows were handed over to the Tocharian coalition ambushing on the other side of the river. They launched crossbow attacks on Dashi from the side across the river.

In addition to the two thousand heavy crossbow soldiers, about 200 steps in front of the Tang army, there appeared a clay pot zone that was 150 steps wide and five miles long. There were a total of 7,000 clay pots, and the ground was covered with hay and wheat straw. .

This was Li Ye's most important arson plan. Using kerosene to attack the enemy troops, it is estimated that at least thousands of people can be burned to death, but the key is to burn 350,000 kilograms of kerosene! With such a powerful and shocking fire, Abu Muslim should be cautious and retreat to avoid its edge.

This was probably the first time that the Dashi Army had encountered such a situation in a field battle. They never expected that this would be a fire attack by the Tang Army.

"Woo——"

The scout cavalry in front blew the horn, and a black line appeared in the distance. The main army of Dashi had appeared several miles away, and they were slowly advancing north.

Gao Xianzhi immediately ordered: "Break the clay pot!"

Five hundred soldiers immediately rushed out, holding hammers in hand. They rushed into the kerosene formation. The division of labor was clear. In just one cup of tea, they smashed all 7,000 clay pots, and the black kerosene flowed out. Thick hay fields.

The Tang army was fully prepared and ready.