Tibet

At noon the next day, the army arrived in Lintan County. Fifteen miles away from the county seat, Xin Yunjing led 10,000 troops to ambush in the woods. Zhang Bingquan led 5,000 troops to continue to the Han prisoner-of-war camp.

There were two Han prisoner-of-war camps, also called Tang prisoner-of-war camps. They were actually two canyons close to each other. One large canyon was a male prisoner camp, and a smaller canyon was a female prisoner camp. More than 30,000 men were imprisoned in it. The prisoners and more than 7,000 female prisoners were all young men, women and children captured after the fortresses were broken. Children as young as seven or eight could also work, and they would become adults in a few years.

Women were mainly used to reward the Tubo Han people who joined the army, to be their wives, and to continue to have children. If a man died in battle, he would marry another man.

This has been going on for decades, and the Tubo Han people living in the Jiuqu area of ​​the Yellow River have multiplied to hundreds of thousands, becoming an important source of soldiers for the Tubo army.

The prisoner-of-war camp is currently guarded by a thousand Tibetan soldiers, who provide hundreds of tents and some food. The Tibetan soldiers just ignore them and let them fend for themselves in the camp. However, if they dare to escape, they will be shot to death!

The Han prisoner-of-war camp is about seven or eight miles away from Lintan County, and the county seat can be seen in the distance. There are two Tibetan military camps, one at the foot of the mountain, blocking the exit of the valley, and one on the mountain, monitoring the prisoner-of-war camp from top to bottom.

The exits of the canyons of the prison camp were blocked by boulders, and a deep trench three feet wide was dug outside, filled with spears inserted upside down. The prisoners had no tools, no wood, no ropes, nothing.

No one wanted to escape on the road, and now there was no chance. More importantly, the prisoners were too hungry to have the strength to escape. Even if they were lucky enough to escape, they would either starve to death or be overtaken and killed by the Tibetan cavalry.

The Tibetan soldiers also knew that they could not escape, so it was enough to send a thousand men to guard them. Five hundred men were stationed on the top of the mountain, patrolling day and night every day. Five hundred men were also stationed at the entrance of the valley, monitoring every move. If anything unusual happened, they would The army in the city will be notified immediately.

The entire Taozhou garrison of 5,000 people is concentrated in Lintan County, which is the key place where one move can affect the whole body.

Zhang Bingquan led five thousand soldiers to approach the camp at the entrance of the valley. They had received information from the scouts in advance and specially built several bridge planks.

The Tang army got closer and closer, and gradually reached 80 steps away from the military camp, hiding behind a low slope. At this time, the Tibetan soldiers were eating in the military camp. Zhang Bingquan waved his hand and the soldiers stopped.

"Prepare the crossbow!"

Thousands of soldiers raised their crossbows together.

"Archery!"

Suddenly, thousands of arrows were fired, hitting the Tibetan army's tent like raindrops.

The Tibetan soldiers who were eating were caught off guard and screamed. More than 200 Tibetan soldiers who were not hit by the arrows ran away like a nest. However, they were still unable to escape the arrows and were all shot down by thousands of crossbow arrows in the second round.

Zhang Bingquan shouted, and five thousand Tang army soldiers went out and killed all the remaining injured Tibetan soldiers.

The soldiers of the Tang Army began to build a wooden bridge and ran across it. At this moment, a rapid horn sound sounded on the top of the mountain.

This is when the soldiers on the top of the mountain asked for help from the soldiers in the city.

The soldiers of the Tang Army moved away the boulders and rushed into the valley, but an accident happened at this moment.

The soldier rushed back to report, "General Qi, the Han prisoners of war inside are too hungry to walk, so they can only carry them on their backs. But there are too many people, and we simply can't carry so many people."

This situation caught Zhang Bingquan by surprise. It was completely beyond their expectations. They thought of everything except that these prisoners of war were too hungry to walk.

Zhang Bingquan was sweating for a moment. What should he do?

A general nearby suggested: "General, why don't we pretend to retreat and lure the Tibetan army to chase us!"

Zhang Bingquan shook his head, "The Tibetan army will not come to chase us. They will only kill all the prisoners of war and then withdraw to the city to defend the city!"

At this moment, Zhang Bingquan decisively said to a soldier: "Go and notify General Xin immediately, tell him that the intelligence has changed, and ask him to come and support me immediately!"

The soldier turned and ran away.

The soldiers of the Tang Army removed the planks and temporarily gave up rescuing the prisoners of war.

Zhang Bingquan ordered: "The whole army assembles and prepares to fight!"

Just as the Tang army moved away the big rocks blocking the canyon, the city gate in the distance opened, and a long team ran out of the city.

The Tibetan army is generally composed of infantry.

Maybe everyone thinks that Tubo is a nomadic people, but in fact they are not. Tubo is also mainly agricultural and has very few war horses.

But many of his vassal forces were nomadic peoples, such as the Tuyuhun people, the later Shatuo people, etc. They basically lived by herding.

Gao Xianzhi also commented that the Tibetan army had weak bows and weak cavalry, but the heavy infantry was exceptionally brave.

Li Ye also experienced the power of the Tibetan heavy infantry in Anxi. Two thousand heavy infantry defeated them miserably.

The Tibetan heavy infantry wore iron helmets, chainmail armor, and held short swords and shields. They were full of physical strength and amazingly powerful.

In addition, the Tubo army's mobile trebuchets were also very powerful and became a nightmare for the Tang army.

But this does not mean that all Tibetan soldiers are heavy infantry. Their national strength cannot afford chain armor for the entire army. Only a few troops directly under the nobility wear chain armor. The vast majority of Tibetan soldiers still wear leather armor and hold hand-held armor. Dagger and dagger.

The strength of the Tibetan army actually lies in two points. First, they have abundant personal physical strength. After coming down from the plateau, everyone's lung capacity is very high, so that they are generally powerful.

The second point is their fighting will. The soldiers will never run away or surrender. Without the command of the general to retreat, they will fight to the end, fighting one after another, until death. It is this that makes the Tang army extremely uncomfortable.

Five thousand Tang troops completed the formation, and one mile away opposite, 4,500 Tibetan troops also completed the formation.

Both sides were infantry. Although the Tang army came on horseback, the horses were only means of transportation and they were not cavalry themselves.

The Tang army had three thousand cavalry, led by Xin Yunjing, and all Zhang Bingquan's men were infantry.

The soldiers of the Tang Army were armed with short spears and round shields, crossbows on their backs, and swords on their waists.

"Three thousand crossbow arrows ready!"

Zhang Bingquan was also very nervous. This was the first time he independently commanded an army to fight, and the opponent turned out to be the powerful Tibetan army.

Three thousand crossbow soldiers put their shields and short spears on the ground, knelt on one knee, raised their crossbows at an angle of 45 degrees, and aimed at the Tibetan soldiers in the distance.

Zhang Bingquan is buying time for Xin Yunjing's main force to arrive.

At this moment, "Woo--" a deep horn sounded, and the Tubo army began to move, marching quickly towards the Tang army's formation.

Zhang Bingquan was so nervous that his heart almost jumped out of his chest. He took a deep breath to calm down and shouted sternly: "Fire the arrow!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" A crisp bang sounded.

Three thousand Tang army soldiers fired arrows together, and three thousand crossbow arrows rose into the sky, densely shooting at the Tibetan soldiers one hundred and fifty steps away.

The Tubo soldiers suddenly increased their speed, raised their shields high and shouted, running. Arrows shot into the crowd like raindrops, and soldiers fell to the ground after being struck by arrows.

The arrows of the Tang army had very strong penetrating power. The shields of the Tubo army were slightly smaller and could only cover the head, chest and abdomen and other vital parts, but not the lower body. Many soldiers were hit by arrows in the legs and fell to the ground.

"Second round, shoot!"

The Tang army raised their crossbows and fired again. The crossbow arrows were like a storm, and they shot at the Tubo soldiers who had rushed a hundred steps away. The Tubo soldiers screamed and fell down. Although most of the soldiers were not hit by the vital points and died, the arrows shot very deep. , injured the muscles and bones, and even if the Tubo soldiers survived, they lost their combat effectiveness.

However, there were still many soldiers who bled profusely after pulling out their arrows and could not stop the bleeding. They shouted in pain and beat their legs desperately. Finally, they lost too much blood and fainted. Even gods could not save these soldiers.

Immediately afterwards, the third round of arrows was shot into the crowd, this time at a level of seventy steps. The Tibetan soldiers who were running at the front fell to the ground again. If the opponent was a cavalry, the Tang army only had two chances to shoot arrows, but the opponent was The infantry, Tang Jun grabbed another round of flat shots at the 70th step.

After three rounds of arrows, only about 3,800 of the 4,500 Tibetan soldiers were left, with more than 10% casualties. However, the Tibetan soldiers turned a blind eye and continued to run.

"Get ready to fight!" Zhang Bingquan shouted again.

"Woo——"

The trumpet sounded, and three thousand crossbowmen shouldered their crossbows, picked up their shields and short spears, and prepared to fight.

"Kill!" Zhang Bingquan waved his spear and rushed out first.

"Kill!" Five thousand Tang troops shouted and rushed towards the Tubo army. The two armies got closer and closer, colliding with each other and fighting fiercely.