Red Tang

Updated: 2013-01-03

Outside Jiuqu City, the night is getting dark.

On a small hill not far from the city, clusters of firewood were burning, making crackling noises.

After three or four days of trekking and marching, Tang Jun finally arrived at Jiuqu Line in the afternoon of May 21, Tianbao Eight Years.After investigation by scouts, most of the nearby Tubo troops were huddled in the city walls, and no Tubo soldiers stationed outside Jiuqu City were found.

After discussing with the marching Sima, Gao Xiuyan, the commander-in-chief of the Tang army, issued an order for the entire army to hide and ambush.The scout team of hundreds of people searched for a long time, and finally found this hill with a height of more than 300 feet at a distance of [-] steps from the city wall.Seeing this excellent natural bunker, Gao Xiuyan was overjoyed, and immediately ordered Tang Jun to camp on the spot.

A small leeward depression was chosen for the temporary campsite. Firstly, the terrain here is obviously lower than the sunny side of the hillside, making it easy for a large number of troops to hide.Secondly, there happened to be a large river called the Yi River flowing through the depressions in the mountains, which solved the problem of drinking water for the army at once.

"Keep going, put this on the pole!" Dou Qing pointed to the north corner of the tent, and ordered a Tongwu veteran.

"Ah, ah." The old soldier hurriedly nodded and said yes, and walked towards the tent with a wooden pole on his shoulders.

Strange to say, the leather surface of this tent is not the triangular-style burlap commonly used by Tang Jun, but a mix-and-match product made of several curtains and leather sewn together.Due to the rush of production, anyone with a discerning eye can see the crooked and thick threads at the seams.However, when marching and fighting, the most important thing is practicality.It's not rushing to make a new jacket for the little lady, so why bother with needles and needles, threading through the heart?

What's even weirder is that this improvised tent is terrifyingly large, with more than [-] triangular single-top tents on top.

From a distance, this behemoth looks like a giant thatched cottage wrapped in yellow cowhide. Although it looks ugly, it is full of novelty inside and out.

"General, when the last pole is set up, the work will be finished!" Seeing Li Kuo walking in front of him, Dou Qing hurriedly cupped her hands and reported the latest situation.

"En." Li Kuo nodded in satisfaction, and patted Dou Qing's arm: "Brother Dou, you have worked hard this time. If this plan succeeds, you should have made a great contribution."

But Dou Qing didn't dare to take the credit, she waved her hands quickly and said, "What are you talking about? If you hadn't come up with such a clever plan, wouldn't everyone be anxious in this lump?"

"You can't speak like that. If it weren't for the hard work of the brothers, we wouldn't be able to finish the work so quickly."

"You two should stop arguing." Li Zigu walked over and said with a smile, "Qilang came up with a brilliant plan and deserves the first place. Captain Dou did his best to complete the project on schedule, and he is in the second place."

"Third Brother, you are such a good old man, I let you say all the good things!" Li Kuo has completely walked out of the shadow of being forced into marriage by the third brother, and his intimate relationship with Li Zigu is the same as before.

Li Zigu coughed lightly: "Now is not the time to joke, Gao Shuai wants to discuss important matters with you, and follow me to the Chinese Army as soon as possible."

"Yeah." Li Kuo smiled and nodded.

This time, in the tent of the Chinese army, the marching commander Gao Xiuyan was pacing anxiously.

"Hiss", the curtain opened, and a gust of cold wind poured in.

"You guys are here, hurry up and take your seats!"

Gao Xiuyan was obviously very anxious, her voice was in a hurry.

Li Kuo and Li Zigu took their seats one by one according to their rank in the army, and bowed their hands to Gao Xiuyan.

"We are late, please forgive me, Marshal Gao."

"Forget it." Gao Xiuyan waved his hand, sat down on the main seat and said, "I brought everyone here overnight, and you should all know the reason. It has been five days since we arrived at the Jiuqu Generation, so many people have been on the way. Tang's past, no matter how good the covert work is, the Tibetans have more or less noticed it."

"Gao Shuai is right. The scouts we sent searched all over the mountain, but they didn't even find a single person. According to my humble opinion, there shouldn't be a large Tubo army in a radius of tens of miles. They should have already obtained I got the news and hid in Jiuqu City."

An adjutant general of the Tang army patted his chest and responded first.

"En." Gao Xiuyan waved his hand, signaling him to be calm: "The reason why he marched all the way in a hurry was to avoid leaking the news. Now it seems that there is no impenetrable wall in this world."

He originally wanted to lead the crowd to defeat the Tubo army stationed on the outskirts of Jiuqu City first, and then concentrate superior forces to forcibly attack the city. Now it seems that this plan is impossible to realize.Although the Tubo people are smaller than themselves, they have a strong city to defend.As long as they firmly close the city gates and refuse to fight, there is nothing they can do.Although he had [-] elite soldiers and [-] white wolf warriors in his hands, he didn't have the absolute certainty and courage to forcibly attack the city.

Although Jiuqu City is not as tall and solid as the Central Plains city, it is still tens of feet high.His number is only twice that of the Tubo people. Even if he wins the city, the loss will be very heavy.

Moreover, their mission on this trip was not to capture the city, but to besiege the city to force the Tubo people on the front line of Chiling to return for help.But working outside the city is obviously not a good way. The garrison in Jiuqu City should be between [-] and [-], and the grain hoarded in the city is conservatively estimated to be enough for the Tubo people to eat for two full months.

two months!Gao Xiuyan gave a wry smile in his heart.Not to mention whether the Battle of Hehuang will be over after two months. Even if the army can face off against the Tibetans on the frontal battlefield, the Tibetans will not be exhausted by then, and my tens of thousands of brothers may be dying of hunger!

Fortunately, Li Kuo came up with such a brilliant plan!

Glancing at the young man, Gao Xiuyan felt mixed feelings.

As the commander-in-chief of an army, he is in a very contradictory mood now.On the one hand, he was thankful that the boy had come up with a clever plan, but on the other hand, he felt a strong sense of threat.Recently, this young man's performance is too eye-catching, too good-looking, even the limelight has faintly overshadowed him!

Hmph, if he is honest, give him some sweets, if he doesn't know how to advance or retreat, just take this opportunity...

"Thanks to Li Duwei for coming up with such a clever plan, now the Tubo people will suffer." Thinking in his heart, a smile had already appeared on his face. "I called everyone here in a hurry today, just to tell everyone that the river course has been improved!"

Looking around at everyone, Gao Xiuyan said quite proudly: "In the past, Wang Ben used the Tianhe River to irrigate the beams, and now I, Gao Xiuyan, lead the Yi River to flood the Jiuqu. I only hope that everyone will work together to take this fortified city. The history books will also write it down for us!" (Note 1)

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Note 1: In the 22nd year of Qin Wangzheng (before 225), Wang Ben, the general of Qin sent troops to attack Wei, diverted the Yellow River and Dagou water to irrigate Daliang, the capital of Wei (northwest of Kaifeng City, Henan today), the city of Daliang was destroyed, King Wei surrendered, and took all Wei Di.