Tibet.

Chapter 1340 Stand still
Just as it was getting dark, tens of thousands of Tang troops arrived at the city. At this time, Li Sheng received news that about a thousand troops in the city had opened the west gate and retreated, and the city was now an empty city.

Soon, several scouts opened the east gate, and Li Sheng immediately ordered two thousand soldiers to enter the city for a thorough search to prevent the enemy from hiding flammable materials such as sulfur in the city.

Soon, a soldier came back to report that nothing that could cause flammability was found in the city and everything was normal.

Only then did Li Sheng order the entire army to enter the city.

The county town is full of Nanzhao residential buildings, with bamboo and wooden overhead structures. A small river runs through the town and is divided into several tributaries within the town. All the houses are located near the water and are quite clean.

Li Sheng certainly had his own plan. He had never thought of burning Yaocheng County. He wanted to seize Yaocheng County and provide his army with a place to rest and reorganize.

In a humid and hot place like Nanzhao, medicinal herbs alone are not enough. Giving soldiers enough rest and allowing them to maintain sufficient physical strength is the best way to adapt to the climate. In particular, the Yaocheng area is a rare plateau basin in Nanzhao. This area is covered with fertile fields for hundreds of miles and has always been known as the granary of Nanzhao.

The Tang army occupied Nanzhao's granary and cut off Nanzhao's connection with Kunzhou in the east. In two months, the grain will be ripe. By then, it will not be them who will be anxious, but Nanzhao.

This was the difference between the third war between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao, and also the cleverness of the main general Li Sheng. He changed the previous Tang army's mentality of being anxious and wanting a quick victory, and instead conquered a grain-producing area in Nanzhao to recuperate and prepare for a long-term war.

If he left 10,000 troops and stationed them in Yaocheng for a long time, Nanzhao would be defeated without a fight and surrender to the Tang Dynasty in less than a year.

Li Sheng ordered the entire army to enter the city to rest. The soldiers cheered. They lived in clean and comfortable bamboo houses with good ventilation and coolness. After lighting mugwort mosquito coils in the upwind direction, they were not bothered by mosquitoes all night. They slept very sweetly and woke up full of energy in the morning.

In the early morning, the soldiers ran along the ridges of the fields to exercise their physical strength. Camels brought batches of food and supplies from Huichuan County. Tens of thousands of soldiers settled down peacefully in Yaocheng County. Although the capital of Nanzhao was less than 200 miles away, the Tang army showed no signs of advancing westward.

At this time, Nanzhao was in chaos. The Tang army marched south, and people from all over Nanzhao flocked to Yangzhumie City and Taihe City. The cities were overcrowded both inside and outside. Not only was the living environment crowded, but the food consumption was huge, which made the people and officials complain.

Outside the city, a team escorted Wang Sun Yi Mouxun as he inspected the fleeing people. Wherever he went, a group of people surrounded him, telling him about all kinds of inconveniences and dissatisfaction. Yi Mouxun was overwhelmed and had to comfort them with kind words. Finally, he found an opportunity and hurriedly rode back to the city.

Inside the Nanzhao Palace, the nearly sixty-year-old Nanzhao King Geluofeng was listening to the report from the army general Ruan Shaofeng.

Yi Mouxun hurried into the hall, bowed and said, "Grandfather, your grandson is back!"

Ge Luofeng nodded, "You're back just in time, the situation is a little bad!"

Yi Mouxun is not only the heir to the throne now, but also the Grand Marshal of Nanzhao, holding both military and political power, as Geluofeng is old and lacks energy.

Yi Mouxun was extremely ambitious. His dream was to annex Xichuan and Bozhou of the Tang Dynasty and establish a Nanzhao Empire to rival the Tang Dynasty.

He also made the same mistake that all small countries have made, fearing power rather than virtue, and mistaking the Tang Dynasty's tolerance for weakness.

After he took control of the military power, he promoted the hardliners in the army and drove the moderates out of the army, causing the Nanzhao Army to become the toughest force against the Tang Dynasty. Because they were too tough, they attacked the imperial court's prospecting team, killed 300 Tang army guards, and abducted more than a dozen officials and craftsmen, which eventually angered the Tang Dynasty and attracted the Tang army to invade.

However, in Yi Mouxun's view, this crisis of Nanzhao is also an opportunity for Nanzhao. If they can defeat the Tang army and take advantage of the victory to march north, it is not impossible to sweep across the entire Western Sichuan.

Yi Mouxun stepped forward and asked, "Grandfather, what happened?"

Yi Mouxun glared at Ruan Shaofeng with dissatisfaction. He actually dared to bypass him and report directly to his grandfather!

Ruan Shaofeng said quickly, "I was just about to report to the Grand Marshal. After the Tang army occupied Nongdong City, they stopped advancing westward and settled down in the city. They even repaired the damaged part of the southwest corner of the city wall." Yi Mouxun frowned and turned to ask the Qingping official Yin Choukuan who was sitting below, "Prime Minister Yin, what does the Tang army mean by this?"

Yin Choukuan bowed and said, "According to my humble observation, the Tang Dynasty may have changed its strategy. In the past, they directly attacked us, but now they may have changed to a cutting tactic, occupying Nongdong, causing us to lose Nongdong and Tuodong. Young Master, this is a very cruel method. Losing the food in Nongdong and the salt in Tuodong will be a disaster for Nanzhao."

Ge Luofeng sighed and said, "Your Highness, you now understand the Tang Dynasty's methods! They are cutting our flesh with a blunt knife, suffocating us to death bit by bit. Now quickly release the people you have captured and send someone to apologize to the Tang Dynasty to see if there is any chance of a turnaround."

Yi Mouxun bowed and said, "Grandfather, why are you saying you're defeated before we even start the fight? We have an army of more than 200,000, and the enemy only has 40,000 or 50,000. We can also let the Tibetans attack Huichuan first to cut off the Tang army's logistics supply and retreat. Then we can increase our army and use our powerful forces and war elephants to destroy the Tang army. We were able to succeed before, so why not now?"

General Liu Fangren also said: "Your Majesty, the young master is right. Secondly, this war is no different from the second Tang war. I remember clearly that at that time, Tang general Li Mi also occupied Nongdong City. After a month of stalemate, he led his army to Erhai Lake. I believe that as long as the Tibetan army occupied Huichuan City, the Tang general would have to send troops westward to find an opportunity to fight us."

Generals Meng Chengjin and Ruan Shaofeng also expressed their support for Yi Mouxun, which meant that the entire military supported a battle with the Tang army and were unwilling to seek peace.

Several Qingping officials also believed that Nanzhao currently had the upper hand in terms of military strength and should not easily seek peace.

Geluofeng couldn't find any supporters, and Zheng Hui was not around, so he could only sigh and say, "Okay! Let's ask Tubo to send troops first!"

In fact, Tubo had already sent troops. Qizang Zhazha, the governor of Jianchuan, Tubo, personally led an army of 50,000 to attack Huichuan Prefecture.

This was a tacit understanding between Tubo and Nanzhao. The Tubo army was responsible for cutting off the enemy's territory, while the Nanzhao army was responsible for annihilating the Tang army that was advancing alone in the Nanzhao area. As long as the Tang army was annihilated in one fell swoop, decades of peace could be guaranteed.

Qi Zang Zhazha originally only wanted to send 30,000 troops, but spies discovered that there were at least 20,000 Tang troops in Huichuan Prefecture. He knew that 30,000 troops were not enough, so he simply led all 50,000 troops to attack Huichuan City.

That afternoon, 50,000 troops arrived at Huichuan City, and the Jiannan Governor Qu Huan led 18,000 troops to wait for them.

Why were there only 18,000 people instead of 20,000? Because when Qu Huan learned that the main Tubo army was arriving, he immediately sent 2,000 people out of the city first, went around the west of the Tubo army, and cut off that extremely dangerous section of the road.

The 50,000 Tibetan troops carried more than 300 siege ladders and set up camp outside the west city.

As night fell, Qu Huan stood on the top of the city wall, looking at the small tents dotted outside the west city. He was filled with heroic spirit and wanted to lead his army tonight to kill the Tubo army. However, reason told him that tomorrow would be the time to kill the enemy and serve his country.

Qu Huan came from a family of military generals in Guanlong. Like Xin Yunjing, he guarded Shuofang and Hexi for a long time, but he was relatively low-key and not very famous.

But those who know Qu Huan know that he is brave, resourceful, courageous and decisive. He also has good command of troops and strict military discipline. He is a rare general.

Guo Ziyi specially recommended Qu Huan to Li Ye, and Li Ye appointed Qu Huan as the deputy governor of Jiannan the year before last, and promoted him to governor of Jiannan at the beginning of this year.

"General, it's late. Please go and rest first! Get enough rest to face tomorrow's battle."

Qu Huan nodded and told several officers on duty, "Send double the number of troops to patrol tonight and keep a close watch on the enemy. Don't let your guard down and get ambushed by the enemy!"

Several generals bowed together and saluted, "As ordered!"

(End of this chapter)