Tibet.

Chapter 1338 Conflicts intensify

On a vast and undulating grassland, 20,000 Tang troops were arranged in a square formation, with sharp spears, bright armor, and murderous intent.

A dozen miles away, a black line could be vaguely seen. It was the main force of the 100,000 Tang troops, ready to come to the rescue at any time.

Ren Tianling was still a little hesitant, because the other side had a main force supporting them from behind. Nominally, there were 20,000 people on the opposite side, but in reality, that was not the case.

Yelu Shuci did not give him a chance and shouted: "The main force of the enemy is still 20 miles away. You have enough time to defeat the 20,000 Tang troops!"

Ren Tianling made up his mind, swung his sword and shouted, "Attack!"

The Bohai Navy was composed entirely of infantry. They originally had 20,000 cavalry, but the Khitans took their war horses away with various excuses and never returned them, turning the Bohai Navy's infantry and cavalry group into a true infantry group.

Thirty thousand soldiers also advanced forward in three large phalanxes. The front phalanx of ten thousand soldiers held shields and swords, and the two phalanxes behind were all spear soldiers.

"Woo——"

The low sound of the horn echoed across the grassland, accompanied by the orderly footsteps of the soldiers.

Zhang Dian stared at the enemy's troops getting closer and closer, and ordered coldly: "Firearms Battalion, prepare!"

A thousand heavy crossbow soldiers lined up in two rows, two people in a group. The bowstrings of the heavy crossbows were already wound. One soldier half-crouched on the ground, holding the heavy crossbow with his hands and shoulders, while another soldier placed the arrow grenade into the arrow slot.

The entire arrow mine is about two feet long, with an arrow tip at the front and a fire mine body at the neck. It looks very much like a lemon. The arrow shaft is made of very dense jujube wood, and the weight is evenly distributed front and back, without any top-heavy phenomenon.

The arrow mine is equipped with a fuse on the outside. It is actually an upgraded version of the gunpowder arrow, except that the gunpowder is replaced with explosives. The function of the gunpowder arrow is to ignite, while the function of the fire mine is to explode and injure people. Gunpowder cotton is used as the detonator inside. The burning speed of gunpowder cotton is faster than gunpowder, and the heat and pressure generated are greater, the detonation effect is better, and the explosion is more violent.

The mine body is filled with iron sand the size of soybeans, plus the fragments of the mine body after the explosion, the killing radius is two meters, and there is also a strong explosion sound and thick smoke. For the army that has never seen it, the psychological damage is even greater.

The Bohai Army marched forward step by step from a mile away and entered a range of 150 steps. The Bohai Army had already seen the heavy crossbow camp and had raised their shields.

Zhang Dian yelled, "Fire!"

The soldiers lit fires one after another, and in a moment, five hundred arrow bombs were shot out continuously, hitting the enemy crowd and instantly exploded in the crowd.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Sword thunders exploded one after another among the group of soldiers. The explosion was deafening, and the soldiers' flesh and blood flew everywhere. The surrounding soldiers were hit by iron sand one after another. For a moment, all the Bohai soldiers were frightened and stopped.

Immediately afterwards, the second round of arrows was fired, and five hundred arrows exploded in the crowd again.

The soldiers of the Bohai Kingdom finally reacted. They were so frightened that they shouted, turned around and fled, and the soldiers behind them followed them. For a moment, the Bohai Navy was defeated. The soldiers were unwilling to fight to the death, and now seeing the powerful firearms of the Tang Army, they completely collapsed mentally.

The deterrent effect was achieved, and Zhang Dian ordered his soldiers not to chase but to join the main army.

The Bohai Army retreated fifty miles in one breath. Yelu Shuci was furious. He led a thousand Khitan supervisory troops and killed hundreds of people but still failed to stop the defeat of the Bohai Army.

He found Ren Tianling and whipped him hard on the head. Ren Tianling was caught off guard and a deep bloody mark was left on his face.

Yelu Shuci whipped him in the face again. This time Ren Tianling was prepared. He grabbed the end of the whip and angrily asked, "What are you going to do?"

Yelu Shuci cursed, "Assholes! Cowards! A bunch of useless cowards. I have never seen you fail like this. Are you still soldiers?"

Ren Tianling could no longer bear it, his face flushed red as he shouted angrily: "If you have the guts, why don't you go and fight the Khitan army? Why don't you go and fight? You ran away and made us scapegoats. Do you think we are fools?"

Yelu Shuci cursed fiercely: "It takes a thousand days to raise soldiers, but only a moment to use them. The Khitans raised you with kindness, but when it was time for you to serve, you refused. What's the point of raising you? A dog is better than you!"

"Didn't we send troops? Didn't we have any soldiers killed? What kind of weapons do you think the Tang army has? Can you stop them?"

The more Ren Tianling spoke, the more hateful he became. "You all know that you are no match for the Tang army and cannot stop their new weapons, so you dare not fight and you all fled, asking us to risk our lives. We endured it and risked our lives, but what about what you promised? Did you do it? You broke your promise and formed an alliance with the Japanese army, and you thought we didn't know?" Yelu Shuci was speechless. After a while, he gritted his teeth and said, "I won't argue with you. You lead your army back immediately. I'll give you one hour to reorganize the army. If you disobey orders, you will be subject to military law!"

After saying this, Yelu Shuci jumped on his horse and left with several of his men.

"What if our entire army is wiped out?" Ren Tianling suddenly asked loudly.

Yelu Shuci pulled the reins, turned around and said coldly: "That's your fate!"

After saying that, he left without looking back. Ren Tianling's face suddenly turned pale and his whole body began to tremble.

'That's your fate!'

These calm yet cruel words were like a knife, shattering all of Ren Tianling's fantasies and stabbing into his heart!
Ren Tianling suddenly made up his mind and coldly ordered his guards: "Quickly call all six generals!"

Soon, the six generals gathered in front of Ren Tianling. They all saw the blood on Ren Tianling's face and asked in astonishment, "What happened to the general's face?"

Ren Tianling's face turned pale as he said, "It was Yelu Shuci who whipped him!"

Everyone was furious, "Do the Khitans regard us as slaves?"

Ren Tianling waved his hands, "Everyone, now the Khitans have retreated north. They are afraid that the Tang army will catch up, so they let us go to the front to hold off the Tang army. In fact, they want us to be scapegoats. Just now I questioned Yelu Shuci. The Tang army has more than 100,000 troops. If we insist on fighting a decisive battle with the Tang army, we will be annihilated. He said that this is your fate. Everyone understands it! In the eyes of the Khitans, we are not even as good as dogs. Dogs can retreat with their masters, but the Khitans hope that we will die. Using our lives to stop the Tang army and consume the Tang army is really intolerable!"

Everyone shouted angrily, "You damned Khitan dog, you are going too far. General, what do you say we should do? We will listen to you!"

Ren Tianling waved his hand to quiet everyone down, and then he said, "We had no choice but to surrender to the Khitan. They were a treacherous and ruthless tribe. I also put forward clear conditions that the Khitan must help us restore our country, and the Khitan agreed. Now that I think about it, it was a complete deception. If the Khitan really wanted to help us restore our country, why would they form an alliance with the Japanese army?

I cannot tolerate the deception of the Khitans, so I came up with another plan, surrendering to the Tang army, but I want your support!"

Everyone expressed their agreement that the Tang Dynasty was originally their suzerain state, and that defecting to the suzerain state was not called surrender but submission.

Ren Tianling made up his mind and said to everyone: "We will kill all the Khitan troops tonight, and then go south to surrender to the Tang army!"

Yelu Shuci waited for about an hour, and the Bohai Army finally began to gather. At this time, a personal soldier of Ren Tianling came over and said, "The general has considered several battle plans. Please ask General Yelu to go and discuss them!"

Yelu Shuci nodded, "I'll go right away!"

Although he said he would go right away, Yelu Shuci had some doubts in his heart. He had just had a big fight with Ren Tianling. If Ren Tianling took the initiative to compromise, he should come to him to apologize and reconcile.

After thinking for a while, he said to Die Cifeng, "Take the brothers to check the morale and situation of the Bohai Navy first. I will finish writing the military report and come right away!"

Die Cifeng had no doubts and bowed, "As you command!"

Diecifeng led a thousand Khitan cavalry to the Bohai Navy's military assembly area to check their morale and combat readiness.

Yelu Shuci was anxiously waiting for news. Suddenly, he heard shouting and killing in the distance. He was shocked and quickly jumped on his horse and looked in the direction of the Bohai Army. The shouting and killing came from there.

At this time, two Khitan cavalrymen came running back, crying, "General Yelu, something terrible has happened. The Bohai navy has rebelled. General Diecifeng and his 1,000 men have been surrounded by them. Most of them have been shot dead. General Diecifeng has been hit by dozens of arrows. We don't know whether he is alive or dead!"

Yelu Shuci was horrified. The thing he was most worried about had indeed happened. He immediately turned his horse around and fled, with dozens of his men following closely behind him.

"They are a bunch of treacherous bastards!"

Yelu Shuci cursed and fled to the north on his horse.

After Ren Tianling killed Diecifeng and a thousand Khitan cavalry, he immediately led his army south. He sent a confidant to deliver a letter to the Tang army, expressing his willingness to lead the army to surrender to the Tang army.

(End of this chapter)