Tibet.

Chapter 1296: Fighting with One Drum
Although the terrain south of Chiling is uneven, it is grassland with no gullies or rugged rocks, so the battlefield can be set up here.

The 70,000 Tibetan troops appeared on a gentle hillside. A few miles away on the flat grassland was the main force of the Tang army. They were neatly lined up, well-equipped, with spears like a forest, flags fluttering, and murderous intent.

In contrast to the Tubo army, the 40,000 Tang troops were mainly composed of cavalry, with only a small number of infantry.

"Woo--" a low horn sounded in the Tang army's ranks, the troops moved aside, and a huge statue slowly appeared. The statue was two zhang tall, colorful, and stood on a large wooden platform. It was pulled out of the team by dozens of strong bulls. Behind it were small statues of various appearances, all ten zhang in size, about a dozen of them, which were also pulled out.

These were clay statues of the Tuyuhun people, which were almost all smashed to pieces by the Tubo army. Only a dozen or so were left, which were dragged out by the Tang army.

Dazhalugong knew that these statues should have been transported from Huangshui County. In order to make the Tuyuhun people fight for their lives, he did not destroy these statues but preserved them.

But he was confused as to what the Tang army meant by taking out these statues.

At this moment, the Indian soldiers knelt down to worship. Dazhaglu Gong was stunned. Do the Indians and Tuyuhun people believe in the same gods?

What he didn't know was that the Brahmanism that the Indians believed in had hundreds of thousands of gods. There were so many gods that they themselves couldn't figure them out. Especially these Indian soldiers who came from low-class backgrounds would instinctively worship the gods when they saw them.

Dazalugong was furious and immediately ordered: "Blow the horn and charge forward with all your troops!"

"Woo--Woo--"

A long horn sounded in the Tubo army, which was the order to attack.

The five thousand Tibetan cavalry were actually supervising troops. They shouted loudly, urging the Indian army to charge forward.

After all, the Indian soldiers had been trained for two or three years and had developed instinctive reactions. When the charge horn sounded, they did not bother to bow down or worship, but drew their swords and shouted as they charged towards the Tang army.

The hillside was covered with running Indian soldiers.

Li Sheng could see clearly from a distance, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth. As he expected, the Tibetan cavalry were only supervisors and would not participate in the battle. They stood still in the back.

Li Sheng immediately ordered: "Shoot the rockets!"

The Tang soldiers immediately fired nine rockets into the sky, only to see a cavalry force coming from both sides behind them. Each cavalry force had about 10,000 people. The leading general was none other than Pei Xiu. He waved a spear and led 10,000 cavalry forces to attack the Tubo cavalry.

Another cavalry force of 10,000 people penetrated between the Tubo army and the Indian soldiers, cutting off the two.

Dazalugong was shocked. He immediately understood the other party's intention. The other party wanted to annihilate the Tubo army first, but the Zamp wanted the Indians to consume the Tang army instead of letting the Tubo army fight. If they continued to fight like this, the entire army would be destroyed.

Dazalugong never fought a battle without confidence, so he immediately ordered: "Retreat!"

The five thousand cavalrymen immediately turned around and retreated to the southeast, and Pei Xiu led ten thousand cavalrymen in hot pursuit.

Another 10,000 cavalrymen were led by Deputy General Zhang Bingquan. They did not pursue, but took out bags of kerosene, pierced them with knives, and threw them on the ground. The kerosene flowed out and soon formed a kerosene belt several miles long. Dozens of the 10,000 cavalrymen were left behind, and the rest of the army chased in the direction of the Tibetan cavalry's withdrawal.

If only Pei Xiu's 10,000 cavalry were chasing, the 5,000 Tubo cavalry would turn around and fight desperately. Even if they won, it would be a miserable victory. Only by using 20,000 cavalry to chase would there be a guarantee of a complete victory.

The 70,000 Indian soldiers were unaware of the incident, and they continued to charge forward under the leadership of the Indian generals. Their centurions and thousand-man commanders were Tibetans, and their deputy commanders were also Indians. But at the last moment of the battle, the Tibetan centurions and thousand-man commanders were withdrawn, and replaced by the Indian deputy commanders. Although the soldiers were confused and didn't understand anything, the Indian generals knew very well that the Tibetan army didn't regard them as human beings at all, but let them consume the Tang army, and even if they all died in battle, it wouldn't be a pity.

Although they understood it, it was difficult to ask them to turn against their own side in the middle of a battle. They lacked an Indian general, and this was also the cleverness of Tubo. They must not allow an Indian general to appear, otherwise the 70,000 Indians would become united as one, and it would not be so easy to make them expendable. It was possible that the 70,000 Indian troops would counterattack Tubo.

The 70,000-strong army came charging towards the Tang army. When they were still a few hundred steps away, the place where the statue was placed suddenly caught fire, forming a raging fire that engulfed the statue.

The soldiers running in front were so frightened that they stopped in their tracks. At this moment, the 70,000 Indian soldiers saw an even more horrifying scene.

There was a series of earth-shattering explosions, and all the statues were suddenly shattered to pieces. The explosions sounded like thunder, one after another, continuously. A raging fire also started behind them, as well as on the left and right. Violent explosions occurred one after another all around.

The Indian soldiers had never heard of this and were terrified. They all thought that they had offended the gods and made them angry. The 70,000 Indian soldiers were terrified and knelt down and kowtowed to apologize to Lord Shiva.

At this time, a group of Tang cavalry came running and shouted in Tibetan, "The gods are angry, put down your weapons and you can avoid death!"

At this moment, an Indian general immediately realized that his chance to survive had come. He stood up and shouted to the soldiers behind him. The soldiers put down their swords and raised their hands.
Without the Tibetans supervising the battle, and with the people in front taking the lead, the Indian soldiers who did not want to offend the gods quickly put down their weapons, stood up, and groups of soldiers raised their hands and ran towards the northwest gap.

This is the nature that has been engraved in the genes of the three people of Tianzhu. When they see a weak person, they rush up to bully him. When they encounter a strong person, they become as timid as mice and scramble to escape.

Otherwise, Wang Xuance would not have been able to sweep across the Indian countries with just a few thousand borrowed Nepalese troops, and hundreds of thousands of Indian troops would not have been defeated by him.

Otherwise, more than a thousand years later, the feat of three Chinese soldiers capturing an ace artillery battalion of India would not have occurred.

Just when all the Indian soldiers chose to surrender, a fierce battle was taking place on the grassland more than 20 miles away. Seeing that the other side had only more than 10,000 cavalry chasing them, Dazalugong immediately ordered the entire army to turn around and fight fiercely with the Tang army.

But the fierce battle lasted only a quarter of an hour before the deputy general Zhang Bingquan came with 10,000 cavalrymen to support. The two cavalrymen attacked from the front and back, and the Tibetan cavalry was defeated, with countless casualties. Dazalugong led more than 2,000 remnants to flee south.

Unexpectedly, they were intercepted by Hun Yu's army again in Dafeichuan, and the Tubo army was almost wiped out. Dazalugong only managed to break out of the siege with dozens of people and escape back to the plateau.

Half a month later, before the heavy snow came, 70,000 Indian prisoners of war were sent to Chang'an.

These prisoners, known as Kunlun slaves, will soon board a ship to Jiangdu. After a short rest in Jiangdu, they will be sent to Quanzhou by sea in three batches. They will serve five years of labor overseas in the Tang Dynasty. After five years, they can choose. If they are willing to return to their hometown, the Tang Dynasty will send a ship to send them back to India. If they are willing to stay, they will be converted into hired workers and can get a daily wage of thirty cents and continue to work as lumberjacks.

In fact, most of the prisoners of war were unwilling to return to their hometowns. Even if they returned to India, they were low-caste untouchables or even untouchables.

There is a greater possibility that they will be sold as slaves again by the rulers of India and live an even more miserable life, worse than that of pigs and dogs.

At least in the Tang Dynasty, they could have enough food to eat, clothes to wear, a place to live, and doctors to treat them when they were sick.

These Kunlun slaves basically chose to stay in the Luzon Islands, and ten years later, they obtained household registration in the Tang Dynasty.

Many of them married women from Southeast Asia or India, and raised children in the Luzon Islands. Their children also became overseas civilians of the Tang Dynasty, and most of them made a living by farming and small trading.

(End of this chapter)