Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

"I don't know about that!" The Tubo officer shook his head in confusion: "Also, some people say that the Tang people were blessed by the gods, so they were able to fly and descend from the sky to occupy Shibao City?"

"Can the Tang people fly? Fall from the sky?" Brenzan laughed: "This should be a rumor fabricated by the Tang people themselves. If the Tang people could really fly as they said, they would have conquered the world long ago. Who can resist? What about enemies that can fly?”

"That's true!" The Tubo officer laughed: "You are right, I guess this is used to deceive those Tuyuhun people!"

"Yeah!" Brunzan nodded. "This kind of rumor is actually not difficult to deal with. Only fools would believe it. People with a little bit of brains would just treat it as a joke!"

"General, you are right!" The Tubo officer nodded: "But it is true that the Tang people captured Shibao City. What should we do?"

"First of all, we should gather our troops as quickly as possible!" Brenzan said: "Time is of the essence now. In this season, the strong men of each tribe are either preparing for farming or staying with their livestock. The scattered army It’s not worth mentioning, it’s only useful if we gather together first, but the Tang people should also know this, so they should be coming towards us!”

"General, we can retreat to the west, ask our troops to retreat to the west, and at the same time send a messenger to ask your brother to quickly return reinforcements, and attack the Tang people from both sides. Just like last time, we will definitely win!"

"Yes, you should indeed send a messenger to inform your brother!" Brenzan nodded: "But retreating to the west may not be that simple! If we do this, we will probably lose a considerable number of livestock and tribesmen!" said At this point, there was a rare look of hesitation on his face. Seeing the look of Brenzan Blade, the officers also shut up. In war, there are very few, or even no, choices that can get the best of both worlds. Most of the choices are actually choosing a less bad option among several bad options. Taking the options faced by Brenzan Blade, if we gather troops with Shudun City as the center, we will probably have to face the Tang army's attack before gathering enough troops; and if we retreat to the west, although we can avoid However, in the process of retreating westward, a large number of livestock that had just spent the winter in various departments would die. This kind of loss would be unbearable for the already very fragile Tibetan economy.

"We should first find out how many troops the Tang Dynasty has, and then decide whether to stay or go west!" After weighing the pros and cons, Brenzan said in a low voice.

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It was dawn on the ninth day of March, and it was freezing cold.

The Tang army had left the camp and was divided into six columns, six or seven miles apart, marching side by side. During the march, the smoke and dust brought up by the horses' hooves were blown by the cold wind and drifted eastward, like morning smoke. There were hot-air balloons sailing slowly in the air in front, on both sides, and behind the army. Standing on the hoist of the hot-air balloon. Looking down from the cabin, the marching column looked like a giant snake, with flags fluttering like ribbons and smoke like pillars. It was truly spectacular.

"Spectacular, spectacular!" Liu Zhiyu looked at the scenery below and exclaimed: "If a man can one day lead an army and conquer all directions, he would be willing to die!"

"Stop taking the sour soup here! Look down carefully!" Yuan Lin scolded while pedaling the propeller hard: "Don't miss the Tibetan reconnaissance cavalry, otherwise be careful of the ruthless military law!"

"How is that possible?" Liu Zhiyu smiled nonchalantly: "This is not a mountain, it's all flat ground, and there are telescopes. If I can't see it, I'm really blind!"

Yuan Lin was very disdainful: "If you like to risk sour water so much, you can stay in Chang'an and hang out with those poets and poets, and there is no need to go out to beat the Tibetans."

Liu Zhiyu was about to retort when he suddenly noticed some black spots in the distance to the west. He quickly picked up the telescope and took a closer look. He said happily: "There are many cattle and horses, they must be the escaped Tubo tribe. Get the signal tube quickly!"

"See clearly first, don't worry, otherwise you won't be able to take back your mistakes!" Yuan Lin jumped off the pedal, picked up the binoculars and took a closer look. Sure enough, he saw a group of people heading southwest, about two to three hundred people. There are one cow and horse, two to three thousand heads of various miscellaneous animals, and more than a dozen Lele carts. They should be from a small tribe on the grassland. The two people quickly took out a bamboo tube and lit the fuse. The bamboo tube immediately sprayed out thick gray and black smoke, which was particularly dazzling in the sky and could be clearly seen dozens of miles away.

"There is black smoke, and there is an enemy situation in the southwest! There are less than 500 men and horses!" The scouts on the ground immediately reported to Gao Yannian. After Gao Yannian picked up the binoculars to confirm the number and direction of the black smoke columns, he immediately said to Changgoro on the side: " Chogoro, take your team and go take a look. If something goes wrong, use the drums and trumpets to communicate!"

Chogoro responded and rode out of the procession. The cavalry officer behind him raised the flag representing him and waved it. The cavalry under his command galloped out of the procession and followed the flag to the southwest. Since most of the Tang army this time were composed of brave warriors who were good at shooting from Hebei, Liaodong, Sanhan, Japan and other places, and did not have the Tang Dynasty's original military system, Wang Wenzuo followed the training of these warriors in Chang'an. They are divided into several teams based on their place of origin, blood relationship, and kinship. The person with a prominent reputation and many tribes among them is selected as the team leader. Chogoro and Gao Yannian are both leaders of these teams. The advantage of this formation method is that each detachment has the same language and habits, and has a strong centripetal force. The disadvantage is that the entire army is divided into forty or fifty detachments with varying numbers of people. , it is very troublesome for the commander of the entire army to dispatch.

Changgoro looked at the direction pointed by the fireworks in the sky, ran for about ten miles, and found the footprints left by a large number of livestock, chariots and horses. He was overjoyed and quickly ordered his subordinates to divide into three teams and chase them away. After about half a moment, he saw the carriages, horses and livestock in front of him. He took out a dynamite from the bow, put it on the string, filled the bow and shot towards the sky. He only heard a sharp dynamite sound and the rumble of horse hooves. Like a drum, it swept towards the people in front.

"Run, run!" The woman desperately pushed her son onto the horse and urged: "Hurry up and run, the Tang people are catching up!"

"Mom!" The young man looked at his mother who was crying behind him and said anxiously: "What will you do if I run away? Why don't you run away together?"

"I'm old, how can I escape?" The woman looked at her son on the horse and urged: "When the Tang Dynasty comes, they can take me as a slave at most. My life is safe. You are a strong man and a warrior of your tribe. , the Tang people will definitely harm you! Run away, run away, it will be too late!"

The young man on the horse looked back at the smoke and dust caused by the horse's hooves in the distance, gritted his teeth, and shouted to his mother: "Don't worry, when I get to Shudun City, I will bring my troops back to rescue you!" After that, he started to fight. The horse ran away.

Similar tragedies of parting between mother and son, between husband and wife, and between father and son occurred in this small tribe. When the cavalry led by Changgoro caught up with the herd, the remaining people put down their weapons and knelt down to beg for surrender. Looking at the knights on the other side who are armed to the teeth, no one is stupid enough to hit an egg with a stone.

"What's going on? There are only old and weak women and children in the tribe, and there are only a few young and middle-aged people? Also, are there too few horses? Ask, what is going on?" Changgoro also saw that something was wrong, and the grassland For the nomadic tribes in the world, horses not only provide milk, meat and other food, but are also important tools for production and life. A shepherd on foot can raise up to sixty or seventy sheep, while three or five shepherds on horseback can easily herd them. Three to five hundred sheep. Therefore, among the livestock of a tribe, horses, cattle and sheep are roughly in a fixed proportion.

"Yes!" the Tuyuhun herdsman who acted as guide and interpreter asked loudly: "Where are the young and strong men of your tribe? And where are the horses? Why are there so few? Answer the questions of Master Tang honestly, or else you may lose your head!" At this point, he pulled out his sword and gave it a weak strike, making a threatening gesture.

"Reporting to the master!" An old man with a yellow beard kneeling on the ground raised his head and said, "Just now, the young men in the tribe thought they were horse thieves, so they quickly rode away on horseback." "Bullshit!" the interpreter said angrily, "Do you think we are fools? You can't tell the difference between horse thieves and the army? How can there be four or five hundred horse thieves on the Dafei River? Tell me quickly, or I will tell the master of the Tang Dynasty, and you will suffer the consequences!"

The old man with the yellow beard had already seen that his son had fled away, and he was determined to die. He opened his collar and exposed his neck: "I can live to this age and have three more sons. What are you not satisfied with? If you want to chop it off, just chop it off!”

Although Changgoro on the side couldn't understand what they were saying, he knew something was wrong from the tone of voice on both sides and the old man's movements: "What's going on? What did the old man say?"

The interpreter replied angrily: "That's what happened. I asked them where the young people and horses of the tribe had gone. The old man actually said that he had just seen the smoke and thought it was a horse thief, so he let the young people escape on horseback. . Doesn’t this clearly call the Master of the Tang Dynasty a horse thief? You must give them some color!”

"That's it!" Changgoro waved his hand: "Whether it's a horse thief or Master Wang, it doesn't matter if you don't talk about it, just follow the old routine!"

Hearing Changgoro's order, the accompanying cavalry cheered. According to the "old practice" stated by Changgoro, in situations like this where there is no fighting, they can get one-tenth of the spoils. Although this ratio is not It's high, but it's really good to get it without firing a single arrow. They immediately dismounted, tied the men, women, old and weak of the tribe with ropes, dragged them behind the horses, and then divided into groups of twenty or thirty riders to drive the horses, horses and livestock away on the road.

This episode did not affect the speed of the Tang army's advance. Most of the livestock were organized into the baggage train as part of the future supply of the army. These men, women, old and weak will be purchased by the accompanying merchants and then brought back to Longyou and the lands to be reclaimed. Hehuang Valley as a military slave.

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The four-wheeled carriage creaked forward, and the tea cups on the low table shook. Brothers Yan Liang and Hu Liang sat cross-legged on both sides of the low table, concentrating on writing and drawing on the map. Suddenly, the carriage stopped, the door was opened, and a guard bowed and said: "Grand Governor! The Chang Wulang team just intercepted a Tubo tribe and captured ninety-seven horses, two hundred and thirty-two cattle, sheep, There are more than 1,400 donkeys and other miscellaneous animals, and more than 400 old and weak women and children!"

"How many people were killed or injured on our side?" Hu Liang asked.

"No one was killed on our side!" the guard replied: "When the young men of the tribe found out that they were being overtaken, they all mounted their horses and fled. The old, weak, women and children who were left behind all knelt down and begged for surrender without any resistance!"

"All the young and strong people have escaped?" Hu Liang frowned. He and Yan Liang looked at each other: "Do you know which direction to escape?"

"I heard that he seemed to have escaped to the west!"

"Yeah! That's it!" Hu Liang nodded, and the guard quickly closed the car door. The carriage began to move forward swaying, and Yanliang smiled: "What's wrong? Something feels wrong?"

"Well, if Qingzhuang escaped, that means they should have a place to go!" Hu Liang subconsciously stroked the beard on his chin: "And a normal person would definitely not be willing to just leave his family and children without caring about his livestock."

"Yes, even if they don't want to take care of it, they won't be able to live long on the grassland without their livestock, cattle and sheep!" Yanliang said: "Even if they don't want to do something, the situation will force them to do something!"

"Should more scouts be sent out?" Gu Liang asked: "After all, hot air balloons fly in the sky, and there are some things that cannot be replaced by running on the ground!"

"Not bad!" Yan Liang nodded: "I also have a feeling that it won't be long before we have to fight the Tubo people!"

"Yes!" Hu Liang nodded: "If I were the general of the Tubo people, I would also fight. Otherwise, if he continues like this, his own men may not be able to stand it!"

"I have long heard that the Tubo people are brave and brave! I want to see it first!" Yan Liang said with a smile: "Let's see if they are the opponents of our cavalry!"

"Yes!" Hu Liang nodded: "I hope it will be a sunny day, so that our hot air balloon can also come in handy."

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Shudun City.

"What, the Tang people were divided into six teams, marching abreast, with each team six or seven miles apart?" Brenzan asked in surprise: "Are you mistaken? How could the Tang people make the army so scattered? "

"Reporting to the general, this is the news I got from many people who fled!" The Tubo officer said solemnly: "I have repeatedly confirmed that the Tang people arranged their ranks in this way, so many tribes have been robbed by the Tang people and suffered losses. The total number of cattle, horses and miscellaneous animals is 60,000 to 70,000!”

"So many!" Brenzan was shocked when he heard this number. In Tubo society, the population was almost equal to the army, and these livestock were almost equal to the population. A rough calculation showed that Tibet had already lost six people before the war started. The population is seven thousand, which is not a negligible number for the Gar family. (End of chapter)