Tibet.

Chapter 1324: Burning the Xi Army
Guo Qingyun ordered several of his men to guard the war horses from a distance. He and other scouts climbed up the left side of the valley and climbed up a big tree. The situation in the valley was clearly visible. The valley was brightly lit and filled with leather tents.

This discovery really made Guo Qingyun excited. They found the main force of the enemy.

One of the scouts whispered, "Should we capture a sentinel and interrogate them about how many troops they have?"

Guo Qingyun shook his head. This was an unwise idea. Not to mention that it would alert the enemy, the sentinels might not know how many troops they had. More importantly, they couldn't speak the language and didn't know what the other party was saying. What was the point of interrogating them?
Guo Qingyun drew a rough map, wrote down the approximate strength of the troops, and handed it to a fire captain.

"Ading, take the three brothers back and report immediately. I will continue to monitor!"

The fire chief took the sketch, put it away, and hurried away with his three men.

Guo Qingyun took his other men to a safer place and monitored the main force of the enemy from a distance.

At noon the next day, Ma Lin led 10,000 cavalrymen and appeared thirty miles away. At this time, he received a report from Guo Qingyun's men. Ma Lin looked at the sketch and from the markings, the opponent's main force was thirty miles away, with about 20,000 people.

Ma Lin sneered. Just as he expected, the Xi army deliberately broke through Ru Luo Shouzhuo as a strategy to lure troops and wait for his own army to rescue, and then they would ambush them halfway.

Now that the Xi army was hiding thirty miles away, he knew where the enemy would ambush them, it must be in Dragon King Valley.

Ma Lin led an army of 50,000. He now had 10,000 troops to paralyze the enemy and make them think that these 10,000 troops were going to rescue Ruluo Shouzhuo, but in fact there were still 40,000 troops behind.

The key is how to annihilate these 20,000 enemy troops?
Ma Lin pondered for a moment, then turned around and ordered, "Please invite our guide, General Song, over!"

Soon, the guide Song Kuan hurried over, bowed on his horse and said, "Greetings, General!"

Ma Lin unfolded the map and pointed to a place thirty miles ahead. He said, "The Dragon King Valley is thirty miles ahead. Is there a small path that goes around the Dragon King Valley?"

Song Kuan nodded, "Of course, there are paths on the east and west sides!"

Ma Lin immediately took out a brocade bag and handed it to his personal guard along with the command arrow, and ordered: "Take General Song to the back to find General Wei Ran, and ask him to lead 10,000 troops to take the eastern path to the south of Dragon King Valley and follow my brocade bag. Then have General Tian Weiguo bring the other 30,000 troops to see me!"

"Follow the order!"

The personal soldiers took General Song away, and Ma Lin immediately ordered the entire army to rest on the spot and wait for the arrival of the rear troops.

At dusk, Ma Lin led 10,000 troops to the outside of Dragon King Valley. Guo Qingyun showed up with his men. He stepped forward and clasped his fists, saying, "General, 20,000 Xi troops are lying in ambush on both sides of the valley, waiting for you to enter."

Ma Lin nodded and asked, "Do you still have any men on the mountain?"

"Reporting to the General, there are no more!"

Ma Lin looked at the sky and saw that the time was almost up. He immediately shouted, "Fire the signal arrow!"

The soldiers immediately fired nine gunpowder arrows into the sky, which was the signal to take action.

Ma Lin immediately gave the order: "Order the whole army to cut down the big trees!"

Thousands of soldiers worked together, and in just a few moments they had cut down thousands of pine trees, blocking the entrance to the official road.

Ma Lin gave another order: "Fire gunpowder into the woods and pour kerosene!"

Tens of thousands of gunpowder arrows were fired into the pine forest, and the forest began to burn. The soldiers then poured a large amount of kerosene, making the fire even bigger, and the thousands of large trees that blocked the official road also caught fire.

The terrain and environment of Liaodong are similar. The Dragon King Valley is almost identical to the White Wolf Valley in the north. It is about seven or eight miles long, with gentle slopes on both sides covered with pine forests. Twenty thousand Xi army soldiers are lying in ambush in the woods on the slopes on both sides, waiting to rescue the Tang army captured by Ru Luo. They have received news from spies that ten thousand Tang cavalry are coming to this side of the valley.

The soldiers were ready for a big fight.

But at this moment, the pine forest behind them suddenly caught fire, and the pine forests on the mountains on both sides also caught fire.

Soon after, the fire spread rapidly from both ends of the valley.

The 20,000 soldiers were immediately panicked and didn't know what to do. At this time, the Xi army commander shouted: "Go to the official road to avoid the fire!"

This seemed to be a good idea. Twenty thousand Xi troops ran down the hillside and gathered on the official road.

But they don't know firefighting knowledge! In a real fire, most victims are not burned to death, but suffocated to death by thick smoke.

Flames rose into the sky and thick smoke billowed. Both hilltops were burning. The fire was so fierce that even the Tang army had to retreat twenty miles away, otherwise they would not be able to withstand the scorching flames and suffocation caused by the thick smoke.

Thick smoke filled the earth, and the entire area within a radius of thirty miles was shrouded in flames and thick smoke.

The fire burned for three days and three nights before it gradually subsided. The Tang army had already evacuated the Dragon King Valley area, leaving only 5,000 soldiers to clean up the aftermath.

When the soldiers walked into Dragon King Valley, it was like hell. There were burnt trees standing on the mountains on both sides, and twisted corpses lying on the official road, all of them suffocated to death by the thick smoke. Under the huge trees blocking the road on both sides, the corpses were piled up like mountains. Many soldiers wanted to escape by crossing the huge trees, but they could not escape and finally died among the piles of corpses.

The 20,000 Xi troops were completely wiped out, and no one survived.

The port of Longyuan Prefecture of Bohai State is located in a bay called Longwan. It is also the only seaport of Bohai State and a natural harbor. Thousands of warships of all sizes are moored in the harbor, including Japanese turtle ships and Bohai State's imitation Tang ships.

However, the Bohai Kingdom had no navy, and their ships were almost all merchant ships, which were not as sturdy as the Japanese turtle ships.

In the Battle of Baekgang a hundred years ago, the Tang army's ships' spades showed their power, either breaking the Japanese warships in half or smashing them into pieces. After learning from their mistakes, the Tang army designed their warships to be round, so that the Tang army's spades could no longer break the Japanese warships in half.

Secondly, a lid was added on the top to resist the battering rams of the Tang army, and a dragon head was designed in the front. Japan named this type of ship Tuanlong, but intuitively it looks like a turtle, so it is also called turtle ship.

There were more than 600 turtle ships in Longwan. They sent 30,000 troops into Bohai Kingdom for the first time and destroyed it. The Japanese high-ranking officials were extremely happy and immediately sent turtle ships to add another 20,000 troops, determined to completely control Bohai Kingdom and make it their first territory on the mainland.

At this time, there were more than 10,000 Japanese soldiers in the harbor, training not far from the harbor.

At noon, the sentry tower south of Longwan discovered something unusual. A fleet was approaching in the distance, and the harbor immediately sounded the alarm.

"Dang! Dang! Dang!"

The alarm bells sounded, and twelve thousand Japanese naval forces rushed onto the turtle ships. Two hundred turtle ships began to sail out of the bay and head toward the southern sea.

The turtle ship does have its unique features, which is that it is stable and resistant to wind and waves, but its disadvantage is also obvious, which is its slow speed. In fact, everyone knows that warships are designed to be streamlined and long, with a sharp front end like a knife, in order to minimize resistance.

But the turtle ship did the opposite, and formed a round fish shape. How could the range of obstruction not be large? If the sailing resistance is large, then the speed of the ship will naturally not be high.

In order to solve the problem of slow speed, the turtle ship was designed with multiple people rowing. There were eight oars on each side, and three people rowed one oar. A ship could carry about 60 people, but it needed 48 people to row the oars. How many soldiers were left for combat? That's right, only 12 people.

There were only twelve combat soldiers on a boat, which was certainly not enough, so the military required the rowing soldiers to also fight at the same time. This led to the emergence of the Japanese style of combat. When the two armies were fighting, the boats did not move, everyone was busy drawing bows and shooting arrows, and no one was rowing.

After a round of fierce fighting is over, everyone puts down their bows and arrows and continues rowing.

At this time, the Tang army's cabin appeared, and the two fleets were only ten miles apart.

Li Chengshi saw that there were no more warships coming out of Longwan in the distance, so he immediately ordered: "Send flag signals and launch the tail-cutting tactic!"

The tail-cutting tactic is to cut off the enemy's retreat. Every tactic of the Tang army is under the charge of a general. Once the flag signal is sent out, the ships behind will send out the same flag signal one after another.

Liu Mingzhan, the Lieutenant General of the Tiger Guards, shouted, "Raise the red flag, the third team, follow me!"

The 5,000-stone warship that Liu Mingzhan was riding on sailed quickly, and the ships he commanded followed behind.

On the sea, a fleet of fifty 3,000-koku warships sailed rapidly from the side, overtaking the Japanese turtle ship fleet and heading towards Longwan.

(End of this chapter)