Tibet.

Chapter 1463: Another Expedition to Bolü (Part )

When the army arrived at the mountain city of Shangmi, they thought there would be a fierce battle, but unexpectedly, nearly 3,000 Tibetan troops retreated again.

Deputy General Li Feilei was really puzzled and said to Xi Wanli: "The Tubo took great pains to seize the Kingdom of Qishi and operated here for several years, but they just gave up and ran away like this. This is too much of a joke!"

Xi Wanli pondered for a moment and said, "There is only one possibility, that is, Tubo wants to fight a decisive battle with us in Dabolü."

Li Feilei was shocked. "General, do you mean that there will be a lot of troops in Dabolü?"

Xi Wanli nodded, "It should be quite a few. Together with the army of the Qishi Kingdom, they can compete with us. That's why the Qishi Kingdom's garrison will retreat. Once we are defeated, the Qishi Kingdom can still take it back. It doesn't matter to Tubo to give up temporarily."

Li Feilei thought for a moment and said, "What about the king of the Qishi Kingdom?"

"It can be abolished temporarily. There is no need to kill him. There is no point in killing him. Leave a thousand troops to guard the country of Qishi, and leave the baggage behind. Our army will move forward lightly and continue to head west!"

The king of the Kingdom of Qishi was the fourth of four brothers. His three older brothers were either killed by Tubo or the Tang army. When the king learned that the Tang army had occupied the Kingdom of Qishi, he was scared to death and thought he was doomed. Unexpectedly, the Tang army did not kill him this time, but just let him live in seclusion temporarily. When the Tang army defeated Tubo, they would let him be king again.

This moved the king deeply. They were not pro-Tang or pro-Tubo, but had no choice but to depend on whoever won.

The Tang army left a thousand soldiers to garrison in the Kingdom of Qishi, and also left behind 20,000 camels, and then they marched towards Dabolü with 20 days' worth of dry food.

To go to Dabolü, one has to travel west along the trade road on the stone walls of the Posuo River Valley to the junction of the Posuo River and the Xindu River. This is Xiaobolü, but they did not go to Xiaobolü, nor did they leave the canyon.

Although there were vast snow-capped mountains on both sides, they were walking in the river valley and the altitude was not high, only about two thousand meters.

The army continued to move along the Sindhu River, which is today's Indus River, the mother river of Pakistan. It originates in the western part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Its upper reaches are called the Shiquan River. The Tang army is currently marching along the Shiquan River.

Dabolü was located near today's Pangong Lake. As a small country, Dabolü had actually been destroyed, but its people were still there, scattered across the vast plateau.

The area around the royal city of Dabolü is at a low altitude and has fertile land that can be used to grow wheat. It was burned down by Li Ye that year, but soon the people of Dabolü returned, as they were reluctant to give up this fertile land covering thousands of hectares.

Dabolü had been peaceful for seven whole years. Five years ago, 10,000 Tibetan troops occupied Dabolü again. They built a city, occupied 70% of the fertile land, and began to operate here.

Last year, Tubo began to expand westwards, occupied the Kingdom of Khushi, used religion to establish good relations with the Buddhist holy land of Uddiyana, and sent people to contact Bukhara.

They did not alert the Tang Dynasty, thinking they could occupy Tocharistan without anyone noticing, but they overlooked the merchants, who told the Tang army their intentions, and the war finally came.

Dozens of miles away in the distance is an extremely majestic mountain. The setting sun shines on the mountain, shining with golden light, which is extremely spectacular. At the foot of the mountain is the core area of ​​Dabolü.

Xi Wanli looked at Jinshan silently. He was very ambitious and today he wanted to erect his own monument at the foot of Jinshan.

His father, the famous Anxi general Xi Yuanqing, was on an expedition to Xiaobolü. He was frostbitten while crossing the snow-capped mountains and injured his lung veins. From then on, he became almost a disabled person and died of depression.

Today he wants to fulfill his father's last wish and completely destroy Tubo's dream of westward expansion.

At this time, Li Feilei came running with a scout and said, "General, the scouts have spotted the enemy!"

"speak!"

The scout stepped forward and saluted, "We found something unusual in the woods thirty miles ahead. There are enemy patrols around and we can't get close. We initially judged that there is an ambush!"

Xi Wanli nodded, "Keep exploring!"

After the scout left, Li Feilei said with a smile: "The enemy will surely attack the weakest part of our team, the middle part. Why not take advantage of their own strategy?"

Xi Wanli smiled slightly, "Great minds think alike, we think alike!"

The commander-in-chief of the Tubo army was the veteran general Ma Chongying, also known as Dazalugong. He was previously the Tubo Western Marshal. Because Tubo’s national strength could not support fighting on two fronts, it was finally forced to abandon its western strategy.

Although it had recuperated for several years, Tubo's national strength did not rise, but declined instead. On the one hand, this was related to Tubo's defeat in Nanzhao, and on the other hand, the Tang Dynasty cut off all trade with Tubo, which had a huge impact on Tubo.

Of course, the more important reason is the internal strife within Tubo.

Under pressure, the Tubo court was eager to break the blockade of the Tang army, so it turned its attention to the west. Ma Chongying took office again as the Western Economic Envoy, responsible for opening up and developing the Tokharistan line.

At this time, the 10,000 cavalry led by Ma Chongying were hiding in a vast forest. He deployed 3,000 men in the State of Qishi and 7,000 men in Dabolü.

Ma Chongying was already old and no longer as brave as he used to be. He did not put the enemy in the Kingdom of Qishi, but in Dabolü. This showed that he no longer had the courage to fight to the death and was only thinking about retreating.

Moreover, there was nothing new in ambushing the Tang army. He didn't think that once the ambush failed, they would have little chance of turning the tables.

In order to prevent being defeated one by one by the Tang army, he issued strict orders to the generals stationed in the Kingdom of Qishi, ordering them to immediately abandon the Kingdom of Qishi and retreat to Dabolü once the main force of the Tang army arrived, concentrating their forces for a decisive battle with the Tang army.

The Tang army seemed unaware of their presence and continued to march towards the capital of Daboluo. More than 10,000 troops stretched for three miles.

However, the Tang army did not take the road in front of the woods, but took another road slightly north of the woods, about one mile away from the woods.

But this road to the north is a horizontal 'S' shaped curve, getting closer and closer to the woods of the Tibetan army. The distance has gradually shortened from three miles at the beginning to one mile, and then the road turns to the north.

A bright moon rose up. Under the bright moonlight, Ma Chongying's eyes were cold and flashing with murderous intent. He had already seen a black line moving rapidly in the distance.

The main force is in the front and the baggage train is in the back. There are also many soldiers, but the waist in the middle is relatively weak.

Ma Chongying knew very well that the wolf's weakness was at the waist, and the same was true for the army. If he cut the marching army into two parts, it would be difficult for them to take care of both ends, and they would inevitably fall into chaos.

Ma Chongying slowly drew out his sword, looked up at the bright crescent moon, and narrowed his eyes. Fighting under the moonlight was his favorite way of fighting, but the Tang army might not like it. A cruel smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, and his sword drew an arc in the moonlight and slashed straight forward.

"kill!"

"Woo--Woo--"

The horn sounded mournfully, and the low sound of the horn resounded throughout the wilderness. Ten thousand cavalrymen set off, running rapidly through the woods, like a group of wild beasts, venting the murderous aura that had been accumulating in their chests for a long time.

Thousands of horses were galloping, covering the sky and the earth. The heavy sound of their hooves was like thunder on the flat ground, making the earth tremble, and they swept towards the Tang army with a roar.

When the horn sounded, the Tang army discovered the ambush and the team was suddenly in chaos. They were now a marching team, about three miles long, and it was not easy to quickly form a combat formation.

At this time, the Tang army also blew a series of horns, which was the order for the front and rear cavalry groups to assemble. The 3,000 cavalry in the middle watched the Tubo army rushing towards them a mile away, getting closer and closer.

They suddenly abandoned thousands of items and fled north in panic. Ma Chongying suddenly felt something was wrong. The Tang army was too well organized. The front and back troops gathered, while the soldiers in the middle fled north.

Ma Chongying suddenly understood that the other party was preparing to attack him from both sides.

He shouted: "Stop the pursuit, retreat! Retreat!"

"Woo——"

The Tibetan army blew the horn to stop the pursuit, and the Tibetan soldiers in front stopped one after another.

At this moment, there was a violent explosion under the feet of the Tubo army. Not just one, but thousands of grenades exploded at the same time, and thousands of iron balls soaked in poison flew everywhere.

Batches of war horses fell to the ground neighing, and thousands of Tibetan troops in the north were in chaos.

The front and rear Tang armies each had 6,000 cavalrymen, led by Xi Wanli and Li Feilei. They quickly concentrated their formation. Xi Wanli issued a counterattack order, and the front and rear cavalrymen of the Tang army attacked the Tubo army at the same time.

The 3,000 cavalrymen who had previously pretended to flee in panic also turned around and fought back under the leadership of General Wei Zhen.

The two Tang cavalry units in front and behind were getting closer and closer, and finally collided with Ma Chongying's 7,000 main cavalry. Another 3,000 cavalry suffered heavy casualties in the chaos and were unable to gather together. They were scattered by the 3,000 Tang cavalry who counterattacked.

The seven thousand Tibetan cavalry were like a huge rock in the river. They gathered together and tried their best to resist the attack of the Tang army which was twice their number. It was their gathering together that gave the Tang army another plan. Three thousand Tang cavalry circled around the enemy and continuously shot powerful arrows into the central part of the Tibetan cavalry group.

Ma Chongying was extremely anxious. He had a very bad feeling in his heart. He was afraid that he would suffer another disastrous defeat in today's battle. How would he explain to the Zamp when he returned?
At this moment, a smoking arrow grenade fell in front of his saddle, and before Ma Chongying could react, the arrow grenade suddenly exploded.

(End of this chapter)