Tibet

Anqi Guan was about sixty years old, a skinny old man. He once served as Sima of Hexi Jiedu Prefecture and governor of Suzhou. Due to poor health, he retired from his official position and stayed at home to recuperate. Li Baozhen was his youngest son.

An Qiguan was also a member of the Sogdian Presbyterian Church and was considered a leader of the Sogdians.

When he saw Li Ye, he couldn't help crying, "What a catastrophe! The last time it was robbed and massacred by the Tubo people was in the 15th year of Kaiyuan. In more than 30 years, Zhangye has suffered such a tragic fate again. Your Highness, You must help us.”

Li Ye repeatedly comforted him and promised that he would seek justice from the Tibetan army. It took a while for An Qiguan to calm down.

"Five of the eight members of our Presbyterian Church were killed by the Tibetan army. It was simply inhumane. So many young men and women were kidnapped. I watched these children grow up, but..."

"Mr. An was once the governor of Suzhou. Do you know the situation in Jiuquan?"

An Qiguan sighed: "It's the same, maybe Shazhou and Guazhou are better. They were not plundered. After the Tibetan troops in those two states withdrew to Suzhou, they received orders from Longyou to plunder all Hexi." After retreating, it was too late to go back and rob them, so they robbed Suzhou and Ganzhou particularly ruthlessly."

"They have all retreated from Dadou Bago!"

"Yes, Dadou Bago still has their garrison. They are unwilling to give up Dadou Bago. They probably still have ambitions for Hexi."

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "Are these plundered wealth and young men and women still left in Dadouba Valley?"

An Qiguan shook his head, "They have learned their lesson. It is impossible for wealth and people to stay in Dadou Bugu. They must have been sent away. There is no hope of recovering the money. They must have been transported back to the plateau, but people may have Hope to save him."

"Why do people still have hope?" Li Ye asked in confusion.

"Actually, the Tibetan troops stationed in Hexi are all Tuyuhun people. The wealth belongs to the Tubo nobles, but the slaves belong to the Tuyuhun. I heard from their leader that eight of us members of the Presbyterian Church went to negotiate with them and asked them to release them. People, their captain of ten thousand said that these slaves would not be sent to the plateau, but would be placed to graze around the West Sea. A fierce quarrel ensued, and the captain of the Tibetan army turned against him and killed five elders, and the other three were driven out. Military camp.”

Li Ye pondered for a while and said: "As long as the person is still alive, it will be fine. I have more than 10,000 Tuyuhun prisoners of war on hand, and I can exchange the person back."

An Qiguan was so excited that he held Li Ye's hand and said, "Your Highness is simply the reborn parent of the people of Zhangye!"

"Gong An is so polite. This is what I have to do. Now I need someone to talk to the Tubo people. Is there anyone suitable?"

An Qiguan nodded, "Then let me go! The reason why they didn't kill me or kidnap my family is because my surname is An, and the people of Tuyuhun will give me some face."

But Li Ye refused to agree, "Mr. An can't take risks again. If anything happens to you, I can't explain it to your son!"

But An Qiguan insisted on going, "I am an old man, if I can do something more for Zhang Ye, I can die in peace."

Li Ye was helpless, so he wrote a letter to Shang Jiezan and sent a small team of scouts to escort An Qiguan to Dadou Bugu.

Li Ye immediately sent Li Xiyue and led 10,000 cavalry to the prisoner-of-war camp in Guangwu County, and escorted 13,000 Tubo prisoners of war to Zhangye. These more than 13,000 prisoners of war were from the garrisons of Liangzhou and Huizhou, and they were also Tuyuhun people. .

More than 13,000 Tibetan prisoners of war were exchanged for the people of Zhangye and Jiuquan. I believe Shang Jiezan would definitely agree to this deal.

Dadouba Valley is located in the southeast of Zhangye. It is a natural crack in the Qilian Mountains and a shortcut connecting the bottom of the Hehuang Valley and the Hexi Corridor. It has extremely high military and commercial value.

The 10,000 Tibetan troops in Ganzhou did not retreat south to Shanzhou, but were ordered to strictly guard the Great Battle Valley.

Dadouba Valley is about seventy miles long. The road is extremely narrow. The narrowest point is only a few feet, and the widest is only more than twenty feet. There are cliffs of thousands of feet on both sides. The entire valley is like a passage carved out by a knife.

The Tang Army and the Tubo Army had been fighting for the Battle of Dadou Valley for decades. Three military cities were built in the slightly wider area. Both sides repeatedly repaired it and made it impregnable.

Of course, it was impossible for all the 10,000 troops to be stationed in the three military cities. Most of them were stationed outside the southern exit of Dadou Bago Valley, guarding the exit.

But the three small military cities in the valley are also extremely difficult to attack. If they had to attack by force, they would never be able to capture the three military cities without paying the price of thousands of casualties.

But if you attack them strategically, you can capture them without losing a single soldier.

In the 16th year of Kaiyuan, the Tang army captured Dadou Bagou without hurting a single soldier.

At the entrance of the valley, there was also a group of Tibetan military sentries monitoring the movements in the Hexi Corridor.

In the morning, a team of 30 Tang army scouts escorted Anqi Guan and approached the entrance of Dadou Bagou. They were immediately discovered by the Tibetan patrols, who got on their horses and looked at them warily.

An Qiguan said to the Tang army scouts: "You wait for me at a distance, I will go up and tell them!"

The leading scout hesitated and said, "How about I shoot the letter to them with arrows."

An Qiguan shook his head and smiled: "If the archery letter is valid, then there is no need for me to make a trip. Captain Luo doesn't understand them. These people are rough and illiterate. They will tear the archery letter into pieces. We must Talk to them and let them know how important this letter is."

"But if they hurt Mr. An, we can't go back and explain?"

An Qiguan smiled and said, "I have a way to prevent them from hurting me."

He took out a flag from his horse bag, placed it on the big flag, unfolded the flag, and it turned out to be an eagle with spread wings.

"This is the god that the Tuyuhun people believe in and the origin of shamanism. When they saw this flag, they didn't dare to hurt me. Alas! I didn't think of it until later."

An Qiguan was a little sad and said to the Tang Dynasty scouts: "Just wait here, I will be back soon."

Anqiguan raised the shaman sacred flag and urged his horse to run towards the mouth of the valley. Soon, the Tubo sentries came up to meet them. When they saw the flag, they immediately put away their weapons and shouted loudly.

An Qiguan spoke a few words to them in Qiang language and handed them the wooden box containing the letter. The leader of the cavalry opened the wooden box and looked at it, then accepted the letter and pointed to the flag and said something. The flag was given to them, and the Tubo sentry raised the flag and turned his horse's head away.

An Qiguan then returned to the Tang army. The scout captain Luo Ping came forward and said, "Are they going to deliver a message?"

"They said that the abducted people are all in Shanzhou. They will send the letter to the governor immediately. It is up to their governor to decide whether the exchange can be carried out."

A scout next to him laughed and said, "That flag is really effective!"

An Qiguan smiled slightly and said: "Of course, they don't dare to kill people at will in front of the shaman god. It will offend the god. But if you go there, it will be useless to carry ten more flags."

"let's go!"

Colonel Luo Ping led his men and escorted An Qiguan towards Zhangye.

A few days later, Shang Jiezan received a letter from Dadou Bugu. It was Li Ye's personal letter, written in Tubo script, and there was a seal underneath.

Li Ye was willing to exchange 13,000 Tubo prisoners of war for the captured Hexi people. Of course Shang Jiezan was willing to this deal. The captured Hexi people were slaves for the Tuyuhun people and had little to do with him.

However, the 13,000 Tubo prisoners of war were very important to him. He was able to recover all the losses in Hexi. This proved that he was stronger than Ma Chongying, which was of great significance to consolidating his position.

He immediately ordered that all the more than 15,000 young men and women from Zhangye and Jiuquan who had been captured were sent back, and he also ordered his deputy general Lun Mangre to be responsible for the exchange of prisoners of war.

Ten days later, a few miles away from the entrance of Dadou Valley, both sides set up a large camp. The Tang army escorted 13,000 Tibetan prisoners of war to the large camp. This included the Tibetan troops from Liangzhou and Huizhou, a total of 13,500. Hundreds of people.

The Tubo army also escorted more than 15,700 captive civilians to the camp. The Tang army was led by Pei Jun, who stayed in Hexi. Pei Jun had been hiding in Xiedan County, Ganzhou. He heard that his nephew Li Ye had led an army to Ganzhou. State, he also showed up immediately.

Pei Jun is Pei Sanniang's brother. He is about thirty-six or seventeen years old. He has been serving as the governor of Ganzhou and joining the army. He is very smart and capable. He is proficient in Tubo and Qiang languages. It is most suitable for him to come forward to negotiate with Lun Mangre.

The two sides quickly negotiated an exchange method and agreed to release 3,000 people in batches at the same time.

A spectacular scene appeared on the vast grassland. Three thousand Hexi people rushed towards the Tang army camp, crying and shouting. On the other side, three thousand prisoners of war also cheered and ran towards the Tubo camp.

Two hours later, the last batch of hostages were exchanged, and the Tubo army broke camp and returned to Dadou Bagou. The 20,000 Tang troops also returned to Zhangye with more than 15,000 Hexi civilians.

After receiving the news that their abducted relatives had been rescued by the Tang army, Zhangye and Jiuquan cities were filled with joy. First, outside Zhangye city, tens of thousands of eager people came out of the city to look for their children.