Tibet.

Chapter 1454: Yanzhou Blockade
The lamb incident was just a fuse. In fact, the Dangxiang people had been waiting for an opportunity. Since they were relocated to Guannei Road during the Sui Dynasty, they had never submitted to the central court. They had been patiently waiting, while secretly developing their own strength and establishing a complete military system.

Because of their low profile, the imperial court did not pay attention to them until An Lushan rebelled and led an army of 200,000 to besiege Lingzhou. The Dangxiang people saw with their own eyes the incompetence and weakness of the Tang Dynasty and the lack of manpower of the Tang army. They saw the opportunity for the Dangxiang people.

The Tanguts were also divided into two groups: one group was hard-line and advocated the establishment of a nation, and the other group was moderate and advocated autonomy.
Ten years ago, the Dangxiang hardliners had the upper hand and had decided to establish a new country. But at the critical moment, the Helong Army swooped in and occupied Longyou, Hexi and Shuofang, shattering the Dangxiang hardliners' dream of establishing a country.

At the same time, the moderates made progress. They successfully persuaded Emperor Li Heng by paying homage to him. Li Heng gave them greater autonomy, and the moderates began to gain the upper hand.

The Dangxiang people began another decade of forbearance, but as the moderate old chiefs died one after another, the tough young chiefs came to power.

The Tang army launched the Liaodong War and the Western Region War in succession. The Dangxiang people saw their opportunity. All their preparations were ready, and they decided not to endure any longer. Just when 100,000 Tang troops were setting out to attack the Shiwei, the Dangxiang people began to make trouble by taking advantage of the lamb incident.

The local government and the imperial court thought that it was the dissatisfaction of the Dangxiang people, but in fact it was the beginning of the establishment of the country by the Dangxiang nobles.

Their goal was clear: to occupy Lingzhou and Fengzhou, establish a country in Lingzhou, and at the same time make a feint to the east and attack in the west, using Yanzhou to attract the Tang army.

In Yanzhou, thousands of Tangut cavalry were escorting thousands of carts along the northwest official road, each cart loaded with dozens of cans of kerosene.

The Dangxiang people were not fools. They would not wait for the Tang army to arrive before starting to move kerosene. On the one hand, they were feinting an attack on Yanzhou, and on the other hand, they were desperately moving kerosene, using all kinds of means, including carrying it by manpower, mules and horses, and pulling it with carts.

There were even water routes, with hundreds of large rafts carrying tens of thousands of barrels of kerosene entering the Yellow River from the Qingshui River and heading north. This batch of kerosene was headed for Lingzhou to support the Dangxiang army that was besieging Lingzhou.

The convoy passed a low hill, and suddenly, a horn sounded on the hillside, "Woo--"

Immediately afterwards, a Tang cavalry force of more than a thousand people appeared on the hillside.

The Tangut general drew his sword and shouted: "Fight and protect the convoy!"

Thousands of Dangxiang cavalry rushed up the hillside, and the Tang cavalry turned around and fled.

At this moment, a hundred Tang cavalrymen appeared on the other side. They lit arrow bombs and drew their bows to shoot arrows at the convoy.

Hundreds of arrow bombs fell into the convoy, causing a series of explosions, flames, thick smoke, and thunder-like sounds.

The convoy suddenly fell into chaos. The mules and horses pulling the carts were frightened and fled desperately in all directions. The kerosene tanks on the carts were shattered in the collision, and the kerosene spilled everywhere. Then the Tang army fired dozens of rockets and ignited the kerosene.

The burning kerosene blocked the official road. The convoy ran towards the open spaces on both sides in the chaos. After running only a dozen steps, the carts overturned, and the kerosene fell to the ground and shattered. The kerosene flowed all over the ground and was soon ignited by sparks. Thick smoke was everywhere on both sides of the official road.

The drivers fled desperately in the wilderness, not even caring about their carts.

Seeing that the Dangxiang people were transporting kerosene via multiple routes, Zhang Guangsheng also adopted the method of dividing his troops to harass them. Zhang Guangsheng's strategy was very clear. He would not fight with the Dangxiang people first, but would first prevent them from transporting the kerosene. He would rather destroy it than let them get it.

On the Yellow River, hundreds of huge rafts were moving along the shore, and nearly a hundred trackers were dragging long ropes and shouting as they walked along the river.

Thousands of Tangut cavalry followed them. At this time, countless boats suddenly appeared on the river, lined up in a row, and headed downstream to the south.

The Dangxiang cavalry on the shore panicked and rushed forward, drawing their bows and shooting arrows at the ships. The soldiers on the ships also raised their crossbows to shoot back, and Dangxiang soldiers were constantly shot and fell to the ground.

Soon, the boats surrounded the raft, cut the tow ropes, tied the ropes to the boats, and towed it to the other side of the Yellow River.

More than a thousand Tangut cavalrymen watched helplessly as hundreds of rafts were towed away.

The emergency action of the Tang army dealt a heavy blow to the Dangxiang people's attempt to seize kerosene. Of course, the Dangxiang people did not gain nothing. They still managed to steal thousands of barrels of kerosene using the early means of transportation by mules and horses.

In the wilderness west of Fushi County, Zhang Guangsheng, the governor of Yunzhong, led 8,000 cavalrymen to fight against 30,000 Dangxiang troops. Amid the rumbling drums, the two armies engaged in a fierce battle on the west bank of the Qingshui River.

The leader of the Dangxiang army was Tuoba Wen, who was the Khan of the Dangxiang people in Xiazhou and Yinzhou.

Tuoba Wen was responsible for the task of attracting the Tang army, but that did not mean he did not want to plunder Yanzhou.

He planned to plunder the wealth and women of Fushi County before the Tang army arrived in Chang'an, and then retreat to Xiazhou. Unexpectedly, a Tang army suddenly arrived, shattering Tuoba Wen's plan and making him angry. He immediately assembled 30,000 troops to annihilate the Tang army.

Zhang Guangsheng, the commander of the Tang army, was about forty years old. He was a typical Confucian general, possessing the bravery of a general and the knowledge and elegance of a civil servant. He was also the focus of training by Emperor Li Ye.

Last year, Gao Xiuyan retired and Zhang Guangsheng officially took over as the governor of Yunzhong.

This time he personally led an army of 10,000 to rescue Yanzhou.

Zhang Guangsheng did not go to Lingzhou because he knew the importance of Yanzhou. Once the Dangxiang people occupied Yanzhou, the cavalry could enter Guanzhong in three days.

It is necessary to cut off the Dangxiang people's road to Guanzhong.

Zhang Guangsheng led 3,000 cavalrymen in the central army to form a cavalry formation, using strong bows and crossbows to withstand the enemy's main attack, while General Zhang Fu led 3,000 cavalrymen to attack the left wing of the Dangxiang infantry, and another general Li Jiuhuan also led 2,000 cavalrymen to attack the right wing of the Dangxiang infantry.

The Dangxiang Army was not composed entirely of cavalry. There were 10,000 infantry on each wing, with simple equipment. The Tang army launched an offensive on the left and right wings with the advantage of highly mobile cavalry.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The stirring drumbeats resounded throughout the west bank of the Qingshui River, and the shouts of killing shook the sky. The Tang army's excellent equipment meant that although they were outnumbered, they were not at a disadvantage at all.

"Bow and arrow ready, shoot!"

Three thousand arrows rose into the air and shot towards the ten thousand galloping central troops.

The Tang army shot arrows towards them, and the Dangxiang army raised their round shields to block them, but this time they were not blocking arrows, but terrible explosives.

The explosive arrows hit the shields and exploded instantly, not only blowing the shields into pieces, but also breaking off the hands holding the shields, and even blowing off the heads of many soldiers.

The charging cavalry group exploded, the air was filled with smoke, and the Dangxiang cavalry was in chaos.

At the same time, the left and right wings of the Dangxiang Army were also attacked by arrows and torpedoes from the Tang Army. Teams of cavalry galloped past when they were more than a hundred steps away from the infantry formation, and a barrage of arrows and torpedoes shot at the Dangxiang Army's infantry formation.

The arrow mines exploded among the infantry, and the poisoned iron balls flew everywhere. The infantry suffered heavy casualties, and the army was in chaos and began to flee in all directions.

The other side of the Dangxiang Army began to be exposed. They were not professional soldiers, but ordinary herdsmen or farmers. It was their first time on the battlefield, and they had never seen firearms.

When thousands of arrow bombs exploded in the crowd and hundreds of thousands of iron balls burst out, the effect of this intensive killing was enough to make ordinary Tangut soldiers collapse.

The collapse brought chaos.

Li Jiuhuan led his troops to attack again and again. Gradually, the Dangxiang people's central army became thinner and thinner, and the central army commander's flag could already be seen.

Seeing the opportunity coming, Li Jiuhuan immediately shouted loudly: "Pass on my order, whoever cuts off the enemy army's flag will be rewarded with a thousand strings of cash!"

The morale of the Tang army was greatly boosted, and they charged towards the enemy's flag with great momentum. A general wielded an iron stick and rushed into the enemy army, leaving corpses everywhere he passed. Under his iron stick, their brains burst or their bones were broken. The scenes of death were horrifying. He killed his way through the blood and rushed towards the flag, invincible all the way.

The commander's flag was placed on a carriage. The flagpole was as thick as a wrist and about two feet high. It was a large green flag with two huge characters "Dangxiang" written on it.

When the enemy was about to kill the flag, the general roared and swung his stick at the flagpole. The heavy iron stick hit the flagpole, and it broke with a "crack!" and fell down with a loud bang.

At this time, the Dangxiang cavalry that attacked the Tang army turned their horses around and fled, and the infantry was even more in chaos, running around like headless flies.

If the powerful firearms of the Tang army were the root cause of the defeat of the Dangxiang army, then the breaking of the general's flag was the last straw that broke the camel's back.

The 30,000-strong army was completely defeated, and Zhang Guangsheng led the Tang army in pursuit, killing the Dangxiang people for dozens of miles. Only a few thousand cavalrymen escaped back to Xiazhou from the 30,000-strong army, and the rest of the soldiers were all mercilessly killed by the Tang cavalry.

(End of this chapter)