Traveling through the early Tang Dynasty starts with hanging

I have to admit that Su Dingfang bears the most important task in Li Shan's plan.

This famous general in history not only perfectly blocked the Turks' escape route from Yanmen Pass, but also exceeded everyone's expectations, including Li Shan, by attacking Yanmen Pass at night and rout thousands of Turks more than ten miles away from Dai County. .

Most of the resulting series of reactions were in favor of the Tang army. For example, the Turks in Lingqiu, Yuzhou, fought among themselves in order to gain access. This directly led to Yuchi Gong and Tian Liuan taking over the entire Yuzhou. .

For example, they forced Ashina Jishe to take advantage of the Turkic troops near Yuanping and Nao counties to flee, and were blocked by Yuchi Gong at the borders of Yuzhou and Daizhou.

But at the same time, it also brought about a change that surprised everyone.

Until he stood on the slightly higher hill of Tanglingang, Qin Wutong was still a little confused. He was ready for a brutal fight, but he did not expect that Tanglingang only had more than a hundred war horses and no one.

He set off from the northwest side of Xiurong County in the middle of the night, crossed the mountains, and marched along the east side of Yunzhong Mountain in the direction of Tanglingang. Qin Wutong had an extremely difficult time walking, partly because it was at night, and partly because of heavy snow.

In fact, Qin Wutong arrived not far from Tanglingang later than Li Shan and Wen Daya judged... and not all the five thousand infantry arrived. Qin Wutong rushed there with only two thousand light infantry.

Logically speaking, Tuli Khan decided to return north only after dawn and after knowing the defeat of Ashina Nishu. This was much later than Qin Wutong's departure, but because they were all cavalry, they should be more likely to return north than Qin Wutong. Qin Wutong arrived at Tanglingang first.

However, because there were 6,000 Tang cavalry led by Liu Hei'er and Zhang Shigui in the rear, Tuli Khan did not dare to let his horse run wildly. At the same time, because Qin Qiong and Xue Wanjun led more than 3,000 Tang cavalry on the east side to threaten them, the Turks' advance was accelerated. Not fast.

Of course, this was also the time when the scouts who came back early in the morning told Tuli Khan that there was nothing unusual in Tanglingang... The Great Khan could not have imagined that when he received the news, Ashina Jishu had already threatened Tanglingang. The troops fled north.

This chain reaction led to an extremely unexpected situation. Qin Wutong was still thinking about whether to send part of his troops over the mountains and attack Tanglingang from the north... As a result, the scout told him in an unbelievable tone that at a glance, No one was seen!

In Xinzhou and Daizhou, there are extremely important passes in the north, south, east and west, such as Yanmen Pass, Feihu Trail, Lingqiu, Chitang Pass, Shiling Pass... But Tanglingang is the most important for connecting Xinzhou and Daizhou.

Nearly 100,000 troops crisscrossed the battlefield between the two states, and Tanglingang, which was highly regarded by the commanders of both sides... unexpectedly had no troops to garrison it.

After a brief hesitation, Qin Wutong personally led his troops to attack and seize Tanglingang.

In fact, with Qin Wutong's usually stable and cautious temperament, he would not do this. After all, he was a general who had been on the battlefield for many years. From the fact that the Tanglingang defenders escaped, he could also judge that it should be Su Dingfang and Cheng Mingzhen... At least one side has succeeded, causing the Turks in Daizhou to flee, regardless of the approaching Tuli Khan.

But Qin Wutong was unwilling to just let Tuli Khan go north. Since Li Huairen revived Daizhou, he had been the governor of Daizhou three times. Li Huairen was the most prestigious, and Qin Wutong was the weakest.

If that was all, that would be fine, but the paleness a month ago, the fall of Yanmen Pass, the ruins of Dai Di, and the almost total annihilation of the Daizhou Army... Afterwards, many people looked at Qin Wutong with strange eyes.

In his early years, Li Shan took charge of the land as acting governor, and did not neglect Yuzhou. He even built a camp at the entrance of the valley on the west side of Feihu Trail. Later, Li Yaoshi focused his main energy on Shuozhou, building the Thirteen Fortresses, but also strengthening them. After arriving at the camp at the entrance of Feihu Trail Valley, Yuzhou Lingqiu was not ignored when allocating troops.

It was Li Yaoshi who was transferred to Yanzhou Road Marching General Manager, Tuli Khan led his army south to Shuozhou, and Qin Wutong, who succeeded Daizhou General Manager, twice transferred troops from Yuzhou to strengthen the defense of Yanmen Pass.

Therefore, the Turks unexpectedly attacked Feihu Trail, then broke through Lingqiu, and fought all the way to Dai County... Less than twenty miles away from Yanmen Pass, Qin Wutong's deployment of troops was the biggest responsibility.

Of course, it was South Korean Gong Pang Yu who led Yuzhou's troops at that time...but Pang Yu had already been killed. Therefore, the biggest blame could only be placed on Qin Wutong... not on Huaiyang King Li Daoxuan, who had just arrived at Yanmen Pass.

Li Daoxuan himself didn't think so, but Xue Wanjun, Xue Wanche and other generals and officials below all thought so.

However, Qin Wutong was not reckless and decided to deploy defenses at Tanglingang to block the Turks in Xinzhou. He was still certain.

Because of the terrain of Tanglingang.

It borders Shahe River to the south and Tuoshui River to the east. There are many hills. Two thousand infantry soldiers of the Tang army occupied the main road. The hills on both sides were even more commanding. Although there were no chariots to cover them, there were large shields. At the next time, big trees were cut down from the mountains and placed there. As a cover in front... Qin Wutong's judgment is that there is no problem in blocking Tuli Khan for a short time.

As long as they can be blocked, King Wei Si in the rear will be able to defeat the enemy.

At this time, we can see what the consequences of the information mismatch will be... If Li Shan knew that Su Dingfang and Cheng Minzhen had succeeded, he would not have Qin Wutong rush to Tanglingang, but would choose to let the Turks go north, and then seize Tanglingang. The Turks were blocked in the long and narrow passage between the two states in the Xin Dynasty.

If Qin Wutong knew that Hu Yan and Qu Silang were leading their troops to the south in the north, he would have chosen to continue heading north, and the two sides would join forces to block the Turkic army on the left and right sides of Yuanping County. That would be much safer.

Unfortunately, in this era, lag in information exchange is unavoidable.

In fact, Tuli Khan hated this the most. If he had known that the Tang army had seized Yanmen Pass, he would have led the five thousand king's troops to rush north regardless.

Well, some of the remnants of the Turks who were defeated by Su Dingfang also fled south. This is how Ashina Jishezu knew about the battle at Yanmen Pass... But everyone was thinking about escaping, so who had the time to inform Tuli Khan.

Therefore, after learning that the Tang army had seized Tanglingang, Tuli Khan secreted large drops of sweat on his forehead.

Although it is not possible to determine what happened to Daizhou from this, two things are certain.

First, Ashina Jishe led the army to escape, otherwise the defenders of Tanglingang would not have escaped.

Secondly, Li Huairen's goal is himself.

Does he want to kill me?

Tuli Khan looked back with a sullen face and looked at the Tang army who was still following him from a distance. He drove his horse north and galloped all the way to the front.

After a moment, Tuli Khan suddenly pulled out his scimitar.

There is no other choice. If Tanglingang cannot be breached, everyone will have only one end.

Maybe Li Huairen would release him...but would he still have the nerve to go back and compete with Dubu Khan for the throne?

The black mass of Turkic cavalry was like a torrent, galloping northward in the snow, their deafening shouts of killing shaking the pine trees on the hills.