Tibet.

Chapter 1329: Fire Attack Huichuan
The 50,000-strong army advanced with great speed. The Han people were delighted and welcomed the arrival of the imperial army. The Nanzhao officials and people fled at the sight of them.

That morning, the Tang army was less than fifty miles away from Huichuan Prefecture.

At this time, Li Sheng had received information from scouts from various sources that Huichuan Prefecture had about 20,000 troops, including Tibetan troops, with a number of about 3,000 to 4,000.

Li Sheng also obtained detailed information about the city. Huichuan City was built in the Tang Dynasty to defend against Nanzhao. Nanzhao renovated it ten years ago. The city is tall and solid, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The moat alone is ten feet wide.

However, the county town is not big, and the houses in the county town are very densely populated.

Basically 90% of the people in the city were Nanzhao people. The Tang Dynasty people fled or died, and the Tang Dynasty buildings left behind were basically demolished and replaced with the Nanzhao people's residential style.

Li Sheng had seen a lot of Nanzhao people's architectural style along the way. It can be seen on both sides of the official road. They are basically bamboo and wood structure stilt houses. They look simple and comfortable, well ventilated and relatively cool. However, this kind of building is most afraid of one thing, and that is fire.

Li Sheng already had a battle plan. He immediately ordered the army to rest on the spot and set up a marching tent.

Li Sheng immediately sent someone to invite his deputy general Qu Huan. Not long after, Qu Huan arrived at the camp, bowed and said, "General, are you looking for me?"

Li Sheng nodded and pointed to the sand table in the marching tent and said, "We are still fifty miles away from Huichuan County. Once the enemy withdraws, the Tubo army will definitely retreat along this official road to Jianchuan Prefecture. General, you can lead your 10,000 troops to intercept them halfway. Make sure to kill all the troops and leave no prisoners!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Qu Huan took the order and left. Li Sheng said to General Han Qiu, "The enemy army has been defeated and will surely flee to the river to cross the river. General, you can lead 5,000 cavalry to the river first to clear out the supporting troops. Once the enemy army retreats, you will immediately head north to intercept them, and I will chase them from behind.

"Follow the order!"

Han Qiu also took 5,000 cavalrymen and took a detour first. Li Sheng immediately ordered the army to set out again and march towards Huichuan Prefecture in a mighty manner.

This time, Li Sheng led an army of 50,000 southwards, along with 20,000 camels.

Among the 50,000 troops, there were 20,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry. Qu Huan took away 10,000 infantry, Han Qiu took away 5,000 cavalry, and Li Sheng still had 20,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.

That night, the army arrived at Huichuan City.

The governor of Huichuan was Cou Luodong, the second grandson of Geluofeng, who was also the instigator of the attack on the Tang Dynasty prospecting team.

Cou Luodong was about twenty-five or twenty-six years old. All he saw of the Tang Dynasty was weakness, incompetence, and internal strife. Plus, he was a prince, which gradually led to his extremely arrogant character.

He looked down on the Tang army from the bottom of his heart, so when he got the news that 50,000 Tang troops were heading south, he didn't care at all.

The Qingping official Yin Choukuan advised him to withdraw his army and civilians to the south of the Lu River, but he said arrogantly: "I have a strong city and 10,000 archers like tigers. What does the Tang army have? Can they attack the moat that is ten feet wide?"

He flatly rejected the suggestion to withdraw his troops, but after repeated requests from Yin Choukuan, he finally agreed to evacuate the people. Without the people, he could fight the Tang army with all his strength.

Over several days, tens of thousands of Huichuan residents were evacuated to the south of the Lu River. The city gradually became empty, leaving only more than 10,000 residents who were unwilling to retreat, as well as 17,000 Nanzhao troops and 3,000 Tubo troops.

The main general of the Tubo army was Lun Deling, who was the deputy general of Qizang Zhazha, the governor of Jianchuan of Tubo. He led 3,000 people to cooperate with the Nanzhao army to defend Huichuan.

So when Yin Choukuan persuaded Cou Luodong to retreat, Lun Deling was secretly instigating Cou Luodong to fight against the Tang army.

His one sentence was more effective than the hundreds of words that Yin Choukuan had said to persuade them.

"The reason why the king looks down on you is that you have no military achievements. If you flee without fighting, how will the king see you? How will the soldiers and civilians of Nanzhao see you?"

This sentence made Cou Luodong determined to fight the Tang army to the end.

Under the bright moonlight, 35,000 Tang troops arrived three miles outside Huichuan City.

This time, the Tang army did not carry any large siege equipment, but only two large catapults, which were disassembled and carried, and then temporarily assembled during the siege.

Li Sheng stood on a high place and looked at Huichuan City not far away. The city wall was indeed tall and solid, but so what?

There are many bamboo and wooden houses in the city and the night wind is strong, which is a good opportunity to attack with fire.

He immediately gave the order: "Send five thousand heavy crossbowmen to prepare for battle!"

Five thousand heavy crossbowmen carried two thousand five hundred large yellow crossbows, ready to be used to shoot arrow bombs. However, Li Sheng did not intend to use fire bombs when attacking Huichuan City, so as not to alert the enemy. He planned to use gunpowder arrows to set fire to Huichuan County.

The Dahuang Crossbow is a seven-stone heavy crossbow that cannot be pulled by one person. Two people must lie down and use their feet to pull the string together. It can shoot a three-foot heavy arrow seven hundred steps away. It is an absolute killer. It is about two hundred steps away from the city, which is a safe distance. The farthest distance of the Nanzhao bow and arrow is only about one hundred and fifty steps.

The five thousand cavalrymen were divided into five rows, with five hundred men in each row and two men in a group. They had been training in Jiazhou for more than a month and were already very proficient at it.

Each group of Tang army's heavy crossbow soldiers lit a tinder stick and stuck it into the ground. The burning time of each tinder stick was enough for them to shoot five arrows, which was enough.

The Tang army made deployments as soon as they arrived. The defenders on the city walls also panicked. Twenty thousand soldiers went up to the city to defend and looked nervously at the Tang army two hundred steps away.

Cou Luodong stared at the Tang army below. The enemy was out of the range of his bows and arrows, so it was difficult to deal with them, but what were they doing?
Liu Shaluo, the general of the Nanzhao army, whispered: "Your Highness, these should be the Tang army's heavy arrows with a very long range. Their target is not us, but the county town!"

Cou Luodong was startled and quickly turned back to look inside the city. He immediately ordered, "All the people should retreat to the south!"

But it was too late. As soon as his order was given, the Tang army started firing.

One soldier after another lit the match with a tinderbox, and 2,500 gunpowder arrows were fired at the same time.

The burning arrows shot up into the sky like heavy rain, quickly passed over the top of the city wall, and shot into the city in an overwhelming manner. The roofs of the Nanzhao people's houses were covered with dry grass, which was ignited by the gunpowder arrows and began to burn rapidly.

The biggest advantage of gunpowder arrows is that they can set fire. They spray flames, have a long burning time, and can easily ignite bamboo and wood.

Cou Luodong's eyes widened. It was actually rockets that flew into the city. This was something they had never expected. The Tang army actually used rockets.

Immediately afterwards, a second round of 2,500 gunpowder arrows whizzed in and ignited more bamboo and wooden buildings again. The entire northern part of the county was on fire. The Nanzhao people who had not evacuated were frightened and fled to the south.

But the fire was fanned by the wind, and burning thatch was flying everywhere. More and more bamboo and wooden houses were set on fire, and the fire had already burned to half of the county town.

Then the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of gunpowder arrows were fired one after another, and the entire city was engulfed in flames and thick smoke.

All the soldiers on the city walls were stunned and at a loss. Suddenly someone shouted, "The warehouse is on fire!"

Cou Luodong was so anxious that he stamped his feet and shouted: "Go put out the fire quickly, we must save the military rations!"

Countless Nanzhao soldiers rushed to the warehouse. At this moment, a soldier came to report, "Your Highness, the Tubo army opened the west gate and retreated!"

Cou Luodong was stunned. In the morning, he had vowed to fight side by side with her, but now she had abandoned him and ran away. At this moment, Cou Luodong's heart sank.

General Liu Shaluo said anxiously: "Your Highness, the Tang army has not yet fully deployed, so the Tibetans took the opportunity to escape. Let's retreat quickly! It will be too late when the Tang army is fully deployed."

Cou Luodong took another look at the warehouse. It had been engulfed by a raging fire and could not be saved. Without rations, they could not hold out for three days.

Looking inside the city again, the Tang army had fired five rounds of rockets, and the entire Huichuan city was already a sea of ​​fire. Tens of thousands of people were crying and shouting at the South Gate, demanding that the gate be opened so they could escape.

"Your Highness, give the order to retreat!" all the generals shouted together.

Cou Luodong's heart was bleeding. He could only sigh and say, "Open the east gate and order the whole army to retreat!"

The South Gate was opened, and tens of thousands of people rushed out of the city. The East Gate was also opened, and 17,000 troops retreated in panic.

Li Sheng had already received the news. He didn't care about the Tubo army because Qu Huan would take care of them.

He immediately gave the order: "Order 15,000 cavalry to pursue and kill without mercy!"

Fifteen thousand Tang cavalrymen launched an attack and rapidly pursued southwards under the bright moonlight. The Nanzhao soldiers were immediately thrown into chaos and scrambled for their lives.

But they could not outrun the Tang cavalry and were soon caught up by them. The Tang cavalry killed them all along the way without mercy and did not accept surrender. They killed them all without mercy, leaving corpses everywhere and blood flowing like a river. Many fleeing Nanzhao people also died in the chaos.

Cou Luodong was terrified and had lost all his fighting spirit. Dozens of his personal guards protected him as he ran all the way. When daybreak approached, they gradually reached the Lushui River. Suddenly, a soldier who had escaped from the Lushui River shouted, "Your Highness, there are Tang cavalry in the south. All the 2,000 soldiers at the ferry have been killed!"

Cou Luodong was so frightened that his soul left his body. Seeing the yellow dust rolling in the south and an army coming, the leader of the personal guards made a quick decision. He immediately divided his troops into two groups and took most of the personal guards to escape to the east path along with the fake prince.

Cou Luodong and several of his personal soldiers took off their armor and fled to a nearby village. He was betting that the Tang army would not burn, kill or loot, and he would be able to escape this disaster.

(End of this chapter)