Tibet

Chapter 1250 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Tian Yue led 8,000 cavalrymen in the back and prepared to charge through the woods, but found that the woods were on fire. The entire several-mile-long forest was burning rapidly. It was obvious that the other party had arranged a fire trap long ago. It seemed that the thousands of people trapped in the woods were in great danger.

Tian Yue was very anxious, but he had no choice but to shout, "Follow me!"

Tian Yue led 8,000 cavalrymen and galloped eastward along the burning forest. The only way was to bypass the forest.

The eight thousand cavalrymen ran for more than ten miles in one breath and finally bypassed the woods. Unexpectedly, shouts of killing arose in the darkness, and arrows flew like locusts. They avoided the trap of the woods, but fell into the encirclement of the Tang army. Tens of thousands of cavalrymen surrounded and killed them from all directions.

Tian Yue fought desperately to break out, but the encirclement of the Tang army was like a solid wall and he could not get out no matter how hard he tried. The number of soldiers behind him was decreasing, and more than half of his 8,000 men had been killed. The remaining thousands were also cut to pieces by the Tang cavalry.

Tian Yue was getting anxious, when he suddenly realized that there seemed to be few enemy troops in the northeast. He didn't care whether it was a trap or not, and shouted, "Follow me to break through!"

There were 300 cavalrymen behind him, following Tian Yue to break through. At this moment, an arrow came towards him with a "whoosh!" speed. Tian Yue just saw it, and the arrow was already in front of him. Oh no! Tian Yue had no time to dodge.

"Puff!" The arrow hit Tian Yue right between his eyebrows. The arrow force penetrated his head, and the tip of the arrow came out from the back of his head.

Tian Yue opened his mouth wide and fell off his horse and died.

A hundred steps away, Li Ye put away his bow and ordered coldly: "Kill them all, leave no one alive!"

Two thousand Tang cavalry rushed forward and surrounded hundreds of enemy cavalry. In just a moment, hundreds of cavalry were all killed, without a single one left.

Eight thousand men fell into an ambush of thirty thousand Tang cavalrymen. None of them escaped, including their leader Tian Yue, and all were killed.

The more than 5,800 cavalrymen who rushed through the woods were intercepted by 6,000 heavy armored infantry and 10,000 cavalrymen of the Tang army. Most of the 5,800 cavalrymen were killed by the heavy armored infantry like cutting melons and vegetables. The remaining more than 1,000 people did not escape and were all surrounded and annihilated by the 10,000 Tang cavalrymen.

At this point, the 30,000 cavalrymen brought by Tian Yue were completely wiped out, and no one escaped alive, including the wounded soldiers who were shot by arrows. Li Ye ordered them to be executed, leaving no one alive.

This also means that the hundreds of thousands of Donghu soldiers who followed Shi Siming and Cai Xide to massacre in Hebei were completely wiped out, ending their sinful lives. Of course, Tian Chengsi still had thousands of Donghu cavalry around him, but the main force had all been eliminated.

Wuqiang County is the northernmost county in Jizhou. The Zhang River runs through the county, and another river, the Jiang River, also runs through Wuqiang County, merging with the Zhang River in Wuqiang County and flowing northward through Hejian County.

At five o'clock in the morning, more than a thousand flat-bottomed tugboats loaded with food and supplies came from the north, and ten thousand infantrymen guarded these more than a thousand cargo ships on both sides of the Zhang River.

At this time, they were already two hundred miles away from Changlu County, and Wuqiang County was ten miles ahead. To the east of Wuqiang County, the fleet would enter the Jiangshui River and continue northward.

The fleet was moving, but slowly stopped. The chief guard on the shore was called Pan Xi. He was stunned when he received the report and quickly ordered: "Go and check quickly, why did they stop?"

Before the soldiers could investigate, someone from the front came to report, "There is a fleet on the river, blocking our way."

Pan Xi suddenly became nervous. What was going on? Did they encounter bandits?

At this moment, the army in front was in chaos, and countless soldiers were seen fleeing towards this side. The same was true on the other side, where the soldiers were fleeing desperately.

"What happened?" Pan Xi stopped a soldier and asked.

"The cavalry is coming!"

"what?"

Pan Xi was shocked and asked anxiously, "Where are the cavalry from?" "I don't know, but there are at least several thousand of them!"

Pan Xi's heart sank into the abyss at once. Needless to say, these several thousand people must be the Tang army.

At this time, the sound of shouting and killing came to him. He saw countless cavalrymen charging towards him, less than a hundred steps away. Several arrows flew over his head. Pan Xi panicked and turned his horse around to flee.
The cavalry they encountered was the 20,000 cavalry led by Xi Wanli. Ten thousand cavalry were deployed on each side of the Zhang River, and they killed the ten thousand guards so badly that they knelt down and surrendered.

On the river, hundreds of vehicles and ships intercepted the baggage fleet. More than a thousand soldiers on the vehicles and ships jumped onto cargo ships and took control of more than a thousand baggage ships. The fleet could no longer go north. After reaching Jiangshui, it turned south and after traveling for dozens of miles entered another branch of Zhangshui and headed towards Beizhou.

Li Ye's strategy was called "cutting off the firewood from under the cauldron". He used Wang Lun to persuade Tian Chengsi to go west, so that his logistics and troops would inevitably be separated.

If we take away Tian Chengsi’s food and supplies, how long can his army last?
Tian Chengsi's 80,000 troops failed to enter Hejian County. Li Baochen flatly rejected Tian Chengsi's suggestion for cooperation between the two armies. He knew Tian Chengsi too well. This was a weasel paying a New Year's visit to a chicken, and he had no good intentions. What's more, Wang Lun had sent someone to inform him in advance.

The four gates of Hejian County were closed, and the city walls were filled with soldiers, staring at Tian Chengsi's army several miles away with a fierce look.

Although Tian Chengsi had a large number of troops, they did not carry any siege weapons and could only watch helplessly as the tall and sturdy Hejian county city was destroyed.

In order to trick the city gate open, Tian Chengsi promised to return the 10,000 troops of the Hezong Army to Li Baochen, but Li Baochen was not fooled.

The only requirement was that these 10,000 people be stationed in Bowang County, a hundred miles to the west.

What was even more desperate was that there was not a single tree within a radius of fifty miles, as all had been cut down by Li Baochen. There was also not a single house, as all had been demolished.

This was originally a strategy aimed at the Tang army to clear the countryside, but unexpectedly it was used on Tian Chengsi in advance. This shows the importance of intelligence. If it could be predicted in advance, Tian Chengsi might have come up with another countermeasure.

I stayed there from morning till night, but still couldn't do anything.

Seeing that there were only two days' worth of dry food left, Tian Chengsi had to make a decision.

My cousin Tian Qianzhen suggested: "Why not go to Dingzhou, get supplies in Dingzhou, and then go to Hengzhou. With Hengzhou as our base, we can find a way to capture Jingxing, and then we can move to Hedong."

Tian Chengsi sighed and said, "I thought so too, but our supply fleet has not arrived yet, and we still have Tian Yue's 30,000 cavalry. Let's do this! The army will go south first, and then consider the plan after receiving the fleet."

This is their only choice. Instead of being stuck here with low morale, it is better to take action and let the soldiers see hope.

The 80,000-strong army packed up and set off, marching south along the Jiangshui River.

On the top of the city wall, Li Baochen watched Tian Chengsi's army go away. General Xin Zhongyi whispered, "Tian Chengsi is heading south, is he going to have a decisive battle with the Tang army?"

"You think too much. Tian Chengsi had the courage to fight in Weizhou. You see he didn't carry any baggage. I guess his baggage went by water, and he went to pick it up."

Xin Zhongyi sighed and said, "I wonder what the situation is like in Zhaozhou?"

Li Baochen frowned. He was most worried about Zhaozhou. He only knew that Lei Wanchun's army was attacking Zhao County. He had no news at all as to whether Zhao County had been breached or defended.

Li Baochen's mood suddenly turned bad, and he immediately ordered: "Without my order, no one is allowed to open the city gate. Anyone who violates the order will be executed immediately!"

(End of this chapter)