Tibet.

Chapter 1342: Battle of Nanzhao (Part )

The commander of the Tang army who led two thousand troops to ambush the Tubo army was named Zhou Bin, who served as the deputy governor of Jiannan. He once led his troops to ambush tens of thousands of troops led by Li Lin's son Li Zhen on the Sanxia Road, and had rich experience in ambushes.

The first thing he did was to collect large trees near the cliff path and pile the trunks into a small hill to block the road, and not just one hill.

In addition to arranging huge piles of trees to block the road, he also had to arrange soldiers to go up the cliff.

There was indeed a narrow path above the cliff, about ten miles long, which was opened up by herbalists and passed through the top of the cliff. However, the entrance of the path was on the Tang army side, and the Tubo army could not get up.

The last time, the Tang army ambushed 1,500 Tibetan soldiers on this trail.

At this time, news came from the front that the Tubo army had appeared twenty miles away.

Zhou Bin immediately ordered: "The troops go up the cliff!"

An army of hundreds of people climbed up the cliff carrying kerosene and iron fire mines.

More than 30,000 Tibetan troops marched in a mighty force, galloping all the way. In the afternoon, they entered the relatively dangerous section of the Lushui Gorge. There were steep mountains on both sides, and the turbulent Lushui River was below. There was only a ten-foot-wide official road on the cliff.

This stretch of road was about forty miles long. The merchants were terrified when they walked this route and led their mule teams close to the inside.

The Tubo army, however, did not care about this cliff terrain. They continued to march at full speed in formation. Many soldiers ran along the edge. Perhaps they had seen this kind of high-drop terrain too many times and did not take it seriously.

The 30,000 soldiers ran for about 30 miles and suddenly stopped. There was a loud shout in front of them. Qi Zangzhe reined in his horse and asked loudly, "What happened in front?"

Soon, a soldier came running to report, "Governor, the mountain road ahead is blocked by a huge tree, and we can't get through!"

Qi Zangzha frowned and ordered, "Why don't you throw the huge tree into the river quickly?"

"Yes, sir!" The soldier turned around and ran back.

Qi Zang looked around and felt a little nervous. He had walked this road countless times, but only now realized how dangerous it was. If the Tang army wanted to ambush him on this road, wouldn't his army be unable to escape?

He didn't know the details of the previous 1,500 soldiers' deaths, and he thought they were killed in the battle under Huichuan City.

This is because the Jianchuan area is full of cliffs and steep terrain. They walk there every day and have become numb to it. It is like a animal trainer who deals with wild beasts every day. When he encounters a wild beast in the wild, he will be afraid and run away like an ordinary person. It is not until the wild beast really wants to bite him to death that he realizes the danger. This is actually the principle of boiling a frog in warm water.

A few miles ahead, a pile of hundreds of huge trees blocked the mountain road, and they were covered with kerosene. If you walk about three miles forward, you will find another pile of huge trees. In order to be absolutely safe, the two thousand Tang soldiers who had ambushed here in advance prepared a total of two piles of huge trees, distributed on the five-mile-long cliff road.

The Tubo general in the vanguard received orders from the commander-in-chief and immediately ordered hundreds of soldiers to push the wood off the cliff.

Just as several hundred soldiers approached the pile of huge logs, a rocket was suddenly shot from a distance, instantly igniting the huge logs and the kerosene on both sides. "Boom!" It burst into flames, and the kerosene was all over the feet of the hundreds of soldiers. The fire spread rapidly and engulfed them in an instant.

Hundreds of soldiers screamed and fled back in terror. Many of them lost their way and fell into the river. Balls of fire fell into the turbulent waves under the cliff.

Only more than thirty soldiers escaped out of hundreds of soldiers. They were covered in black, their hair and beards were burnt off, large patches of skin fell off, and they were seriously injured. The rest of the soldiers fell to the ground and were burned to death.

Qi Zang Zha Zha knew that something was wrong and immediately ordered: "Turn around immediately and return to Huichuan!"

The army quickly turned around, but after walking less than a mile, a series of violent explosions suddenly came from the east. The mountain was shaking, and the soldiers could not stand and fell down one after another. Huge rocks were seen rolling down from the cliff.

The Tang army used more than a dozen heavy iron fire mines, each of which weighed three hundred pounds and was filled with explosives. The explosion was so powerful that even the mountains shook.

News came that the road was blown up by the Tang army. Qi Zang Zhazha hurried to the explosion site. The scene in front of him made him gasp. A three hundred-foot long section of road was gone, replaced by a straight up and down cliff.

This gap could only be filled with a plank road, but the Tubo army did not master the technology of laying plank roads and could only look at the gap and sigh.

With no other options, the Tibetan army had to turn west again. At this time, rocks kept rolling down the mountain, the mountain was shaking, and the ground was trembling slightly, as if two small earthquakes had occurred in succession. "General, the mountain seems to be collapsing!" Several Tibetan generals shouted.

Qi Zang Zhazha also noticed that the ground was shaking noticeably, which was a sign that the mountain was about to collapse.

He was immediately anxious and issued a death order: "No matter how many people die, we must open up a road at all costs!"

Thousands of Tibetan soldiers were ordered to clear a path. They took off their armor and laid them on the burning ground. They shoveled the charred corpses into the river and quickly approached the fire.

At this moment, dozens of fire bombs rolled down from the mountain and exploded among the dense crowd on the mountain road. The Tibetan soldiers were immediately blown to pieces, and countless soldiers were blown off the cliff by the air waves. More than a thousand people were killed or injured in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of burning kerosene tanks fell from the cliff again. This time the threat was not great. Most of the kerosene tanks shattered during the rolling process, and only a dozen kerosene tanks fell on the mountain road.

But even these small fires caused by a dozen or so kerosene cans frightened the Tibetan soldiers so much that they fled back screaming.

Qi Zang Zhazha was furious and ordered his soldiers to go forward and kill people, killing dozens of people in a row.

The remaining Tibetan soldiers had no choice but to turn around and go back to move wood. This time they learned their lesson and walked forward one by one, sticking close to the cliff and protecting their bodies with shields. The Tang soldiers above could not see them, and neither the fire bombs nor the kerosene could work anymore.

Someone went back to report to the commander Zhou Bin, who immediately gave the order: "Pass the message, leave a team of observation posts on the mountain road, and the rest of the soldiers withdraw and prepare to detonate the heavy fire mines!"

Several generals advised: "General, the mountain is already unstable. If you detonate heavy fire bombs, I'm afraid the mountain will collapse."

Zhou Bin shook his head and said, "Our mission is to trap the Tubo army to death. We cannot be merciful at this time. Pass on my order, prepare heavy fire and torpedoes, and the army will retreat thirty miles immediately!"

The Tang army soldiers began to retreat quickly. They were prepared to do the same as the Tang army in the east, with two 300-jin heavy fire mines to blow up the mountain road and completely trap the Tubo army on the mountain road.

The heavy fire mines were installed in the cracks under the cliff, about a hundred steps apart, and were tied with two fire ropes several dozen feet long.

One of the heavy fire mines was less than a hundred steps away from the first pile of huge trees.

At this time, the Tubo army had already approached the pile of huge trees. They also found a way to move the trees. They wrapped them with leather armor, tied ropes and pulled hard. One by one, the huge trees were pulled down. Dozens of people pushed the huge trees off the cliff together.

After clearing the pile of huge logs, two Tang soldiers lit the fuse and ran away.

Qi Zang Zha Zha was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "The whole army advances at full speed!"

The Tibetan soldiers had already been terrified, but when they suddenly saw a glimmer of hope, they immediately rushed forward on the mountain path.

After running less than a mile, they heard two earth-shaking explosions and the mountain road suddenly collapsed.

The mountains in this area have experienced several earthquakes in history and have become very unstable, with large rocks often falling. The Tang army blew up the mountains twice, which finally triggered a huge landslide. Not only did the mountain road collapse, but even the cliffs above began to collapse.

There were still more than 20 Tang soldiers above monitoring the enemy. Suddenly they realized something was wrong and the brigade commander shouted, "Run!"

The Tang army turned around and ran, but more than a dozen Tang soldiers were unable to escape and were instantly swallowed up by the landslide. The mountains collapsed and the ground cracked, and they slid down with the irresistible powerful force of nature.

On the mountain road, countless Tibetan soldiers screamed in despair and slid down the hundred-foot cliff along with the huge mountain.

This was a landslide that had not occurred in a thousand years. The landslide was as long as six miles, and nearly 30,000 Tubo soldiers and thousands of Tibetan donkeys died on the cliff.

The landslide also raised the riverbed of the Lushui River, forming a barrier lake. The water quickly overflowed the barrier lake and continued to flow down, forming a torrent waterfall on the Lushui River.

(End of this chapter)