Tibet

The soldiers of the Tang Army squatted down on the edge of the mountain road, using their shields to resist the impact of boulders and rolling logs.

"Bang!" A soldier's shield was hit by a rebounding boulder, and the shield was cracked. The soldier groaned, held his arm and fell to the ground, his face turned pale, and his arm was broken.

After the round of rolling logs and boulders subsided, Yu Changyang ordered two soldiers to quickly send the injured soldiers down the mountain. He made a gesture to ask all the soldiers to squat down and keep quiet.

He stared at the movement above. He reached the top in more than a hundred steps. He took out his clairvoyance and took a closer look. He could clearly see that a dozen Tibetan soldiers were also looking down.

Yu Changyang rolled his eyes, and after giving a few instructions to his deputy Wang Junlin, he led twenty soldiers to lie down on the mountain road and slowly climbed up.

Wang Junlin made a gesture of picking up a crossbow, and everyone took off the crossbow arrows, pulled the string of the crossbow together, put the arrows on, and raised the crossbow arrows to aim at the top of the hillside.

A quarter of an hour later, Yu Changyang and his twenty men climbed closer and closer, only thirty steps away from the top of the mountain.

Suddenly a Tibetan soldier shouted, and he discovered the Tang army soldiers lying on the mountain road.

The Tibetan soldiers raised the huge rolling logs one after another, preparing to launch a new round of rolling log offensive.

Wang Junlin shouted urgently: "Arrow!"

Two hundred and eighty crossbow arrows ‘Whoosh! Whoosh! ’ Shooting towards the top of the mountain, the arrow was very powerful. The Tibetan soldiers on the top of the mountain were caught off guard and were hit by the arrows one after another, screaming in agony.

Yu Changyang seized this opportunity, jumped up, and rushed towards the top of the mountain. The twenty men behind him climbed up and charged together.

At this time, it was too late for the Tubo soldiers to throw down the rolling wood and rocks. They shouted and drew their swords to fight. Yu Changyang stabbed a Tubo soldier with a spear. The spear was stuck on the opponent's bone and could not be pulled out. He simply threw away the short sword. He took out his spear, pulled out his sword and fought fiercely with the enemy. Twenty of his men also rushed up and fought fiercely with the enemy.

"Kill!" Wang Junlin shouted and rushed out first.

The 280 Tang troops behind him also shouted and rushed forward. There were only about 40 Tibetan soldiers in Mopan Valley. How could they defeat the Tang troops who were like wolves and tigers? They were killed and retreated steadily. They were swallowed up by the Tang army, and no one was left. They were all killed by the soldiers of the Tang army.

Wang Junlin then shot three gunpowder arrows down the mountain. The bright red gunpowder arrows streaked through the air. Li Ye gave an order and he personally led 3,000 soldiers and more than a hundred craftsmen up the mountain.

Not long after, Li Ye came to the top of Mopan Valley, which was halfway up the mountain. Yu Changyang quickly stepped forward to see him, "I'm sorry to see you, Your Highness!"

Li Ye asked anxiously: "How many brothers were injured or killed?"

"Reporting to your highness, a total of eight brothers were killed and three wounded. We killed forty-two Tibetan soldiers."

Li Ye nodded. He was very satisfied with this result, which showed that his elite troop tactics were completely successful. Of course, Mopan Valley was also relatively easy to capture.

The next step is not easy. To attack Tongtian Road, there is actually no passage. You have to climb up from a cliff of more than 90 degrees.

The way Li Ye came up with was to lay a rope net, a rope net ten feet wide, and a rope net every fifty steps. It only took six rope nets to reach the top. In this way, soldiers could also use the rope net. Crossbow arrows.

The most important step in making a rope net is to drill enough holes in the rock and then drive wooden stakes, just like laying a rock plank road, but it takes time. It cannot be completed in a day or two, but it will take at least ten days to complete. .

Li Ye gave an order, and one hundred and fifty craftsmen took action. These craftsmen were all skilled workers in laying plank roads. Drilling holes and laying piles in rock walls was their specialty.

Li Ye left another thousand soldiers to cover the craftsmen, and he led other soldiers down the mountain.

Li Ye personally led 20,000 soldiers to attack Shibao City, but Xin Yunjing and Li Baozhen each led 30,000 cavalry and attacked south of Chiling in two groups. Li Baozhen went to deal with the Tuyuhun people, while Xin Yunjing led an army and 20,000 camels to Dafei. Sichuan marches.

Chiling is the dividing line between agriculture and animal husbandry. To the east of Chiling is the agricultural area, and to the west of Chiling is the pastoral area. There are large tracts of alpine grassland everywhere.

Of course, the Tubo people also have agricultural areas, mainly on the plateau, where they grow highland barley and other crops. There are also large agricultural areas in the Jiuqu area of ​​the Yellow River where they grow wheat. Most of the Han slaves who were taken to Tibet were also concentrated in that area, specifically to grow crops for Tubo. food.

A Tang Army scout cavalry consisting of a hundred people was galloping on the vast grassland. The leader was the scout captain Zhou Zhi. It took him five years to become a captain from a small scout. He not only had numerous military exploits, but also had rich experience.

He knew how to find the information he needed. To put it simply, it was to find local snakes, and he couldn't find just one person, he had to find several.

Their translator is called Cao Lu, who was transferred from Zhangye County Government. There are many civil servants there who can speak Tubo, and this Cao Lu can not only speak Tubo, but also fluent Qiang.

Cao Lu pointed to a low and gentle ridge in the distance and said, "If you cross that ridge, you may find something!"

Zhou Zhi smiled slightly and said: "You are right, I feel that the air is moist, there must be a river over there!"

"Come with me!"

The cavalry quickened their horses and followed the general towards the ridge. When they ran up the ridge, they saw a river in the distance flowing like a jade belt on the vast grassland, with a few tents beside the river.

The cavalry cheered and galloped towards the river tent in the distance.

The tribe the scout cavalry encountered was a small Tuguhun tribe. There were basically no young men left, only some old men, women and children.

In the clan leader's tent, the dark-skinned old clan leader was very afraid of the Tang army. He knew very well what the arrival of a cavalry army meant to their small tribe.

He was silent for a moment and said to Cao Lu: "I am willing to tell them the news they want to know. I only ask them to let us go, not to kill anyone, and not to insult our women."

Cao Lu translated to Zhou Zhi, who nodded and said, "Tell him, our military regulations do not allow the slaughter of civilians, but we need to take away 300 sheep and 300 bags of milk wine as supplies!"

Cao Lu translated, and the old patriarch felt his heart drop. He nodded and said, "Just take the sheep wine, as long as it doesn't move anyone. I know what you are looking for? You are looking for the Tibetan army, right?"

Zhou Zhi nodded, "Is there any news from the clan leader?"

"Normally I shouldn't say it, but the Tubo army went too far. All our young and strong people were forcibly taken away by the Tubo people. None of them came back. They were ruthless, and I was unjust. Let me tell you, two hundred people in the south There is a Tibetan army stationed next to Liwai Salt Lake."

After listening to the translation, Zhou Zhi asked anxiously: "How many people are there in the Tibetan army?"

The old patriarch said slowly: "I don't know how many people there are, but there are about a thousand tents, and I tell you, the Tibetan army has been stationed there for half a year. We have been monitoring them. Once they send troops, We will evacuate immediately."

Zhou Zhi was overjoyed. With one thousand tents, there would be at least four to five thousand soldiers.

He immediately walked out of the big tent and said: "Each person will take three slaughtered sheep and three bags of goat's milk wine, and set off south immediately!"

At night, Zhou Zhi crawled on a high ground and took out his clairvoyance to look at the brightly lit Tubo camp in the distance. Their camp was less than a mile away from the salt lake, and they could see the silvery lake in the distance.

The Tibetan soldiers were eating around a bonfire and lit dozens of bonfires.

Zhou Zhi couldn't figure out why the Tubo army camped here? Cao Lu smiled and reminded him: "This is the dividing line between Tang and Tibet in the 13th year of Tianbao. We saw the military camp ruins during the day and it should be where the Tang army was stationed in the past. So Tubo also needs to station an army on the border, so they chose this place." The camp has just not been moved, there should be several Tubo tribes nearby to support this army."

Zhou Zhi nodded, probably for this reason. He immediately divided his troops into two groups. He sent a brigade commander and ten of his men to rush back to Dafeichuan to report to the main force of the Tang army.

He led other cavalry back to the small Tuhuhun tribe two hundred miles away, stationed there, and continued to monitor the movements of the Tibetan army.