Tibet.

Chapter 1473: Sending Troops to Liao Tribe
Li Ye took out another stack of documents and placed them on the table. "This is the declaration that the previous abolition order is invalid. There are 19 copies in 19 states, and 98 officials have signed it, from the governor of a state to the chief clerk of a county. They have all signed it. This is taking sides. I do not intend to expand it, but I do not want to let the matter go. Therefore, this time the reckoning of the Bashu officialdom will be based on this declaration. All officials who have signed it will be investigated and punished for participating in treason!"

Wei Jiansu took the declaration and nodded, "I will obey your majesty's order!"

Bai Xiaode said, "Your Majesty, the rebels have nearly 100,000 soldiers, and we have to be careful of the Liao people's sneak attacks. The Jiannan Army only has 50,000 soldiers, isn't it a little less? I suggest sending another 30,000 soldiers to Jiannan!"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said, "In fact, there are still 20,000 troops stationed in Yunnan. I have ordered 20,000 troops to go north. 70,000 troops are enough!"

Bai Xiaode suddenly realized and said with a smile: "I overlooked the 20,000 troops stationed in Yunnan. Now I feel relieved!"

Minister of Rites Wang Jin asked, "Your Majesty, is there any news about the Liao people?"

Li Ye said slowly: "Wang Wei, the governor of Jiannan Road, has sent a special envoy to the Liao tribe to negotiate, asking them to know the current situation and hand over Jia Xiu's uncle and nephew. If they don't, then more than a hundred years of friendship will be gone, and what awaits them will be war. I hope the Liao king can know the current situation and not confront the Tang Dynasty."

Wang Jin added: "In fact, I am worried that if the Liao people surrender to Tubo at this time, it will be troublesome."

Wang Jin's words were very subtle, meaning to remind the emperor that the Liao people would surrender to Tubo, so he could not use force and could only negotiate.

Li Ye smiled faintly, "Minister Wang, don't worry about the Liao people surrendering to Tubo. I can guarantee that if the Liao people refuse to hand over the uncle and nephew of the Jia family, they will be completely finished before they have time to consider whether to surrender to Tubo."

The Liao people are a minority ethnic group in the western part of Bashu. In fact, they are the Qiang people, but there are many branches of the Qiang people, and the Liao people are one of them. They live in Maozhou and Yazhou areas.

Like the Tang Dynasty, they were wary and cautious of Tubo, and had been working together with the Tang Dynasty to resist the eastward expansion of the Tubo army.

For many years, the Liao people have been allies of the Tang Dynasty. However, as the strength of the Tubo army declined in recent years, they changed their tough strategy and began to implement a divisive strategy. On the one hand, they were hostile to the Tang Dynasty, and on the other hand, they tried to win over the Liao people and made many promises to them.

Some of the promises were fulfilled. For example, when Tubo invaded Bashu, it did not harm the Liao people.

It was the Tibetans' solicitation that caused the Liao people to not work as hard as before in recent years, and the number of Qiang horses supplied to the Tang army was greatly reduced. However, in order to appease them, the Tang Dynasty still provided them with various welfare subsidies, which made the Liao king begin to become arrogant.

The envoys sent by Wang Wei of Jiannan Road to negotiate with King Liao returned empty-handed. King Liao not only rejected the Tang Dynasty's demand to hand over Jia's uncle and nephew, but also accused the Tang Dynasty of killing Jia's family and threatened the Tang Dynasty not to confiscate Jia's salt wells, otherwise they would send troops to protect the salt wells.

Li Sheng was furious and personally led 20,000 cavalry to attack Maozhou.

At this time, the new soldiers recruited by the Guo family in the south were still in training. Li Sheng took this opportunity to send troops to Maozhou to solve the problems left by the Jia family.

Emperor Li Ye had previously told him that if the Liao people refused to hand over the uncle and nephew of the Jia family, there would be no need to persuade them, but to use force to deal with the Liao people and teach them a lesson for their arrogance in recent years.

The Liao people had more than one tribe, it was made up of many tribes, such as Penglu, Jiang, Shu, Ge, Tatar, Wu, Zhan, Da, Lang, Bin and so on. The largest tribe was Penglu, and their leader was the Liao King.

Of course, the Liao King is just a title, and it does not mean that he can control the entire Liao people.

In fact, when the other tribes heard that King Liao was going to make enemies with the Tang Dynasty because of the Jia family, they did not want to get involved. The reason was simple: the Penglu tribe could obtain a large amount of salt profit from the Jia family every year, while other tribes not only did not benefit from it, but also had to bear the high price of salt sold to them by the Penglu tribe.

The Penglu tribe has gained all the benefits, but now he wants everyone to share the risks with him. How is that possible?

The Liao king was called Penglu'anji, the chief of the Penglu tribe. There was a reason why he was willing to confront the Tang Dynasty for the sake of the Jia family. First, Jia Yuan was Penglu'anji's cousin and also his relative. His son-in-law Jia Wen and his daughter had been living in Maozhou and had a deep relationship with Penglu'anji. When he heard that the Jia family was exterminated by the Tang army, Penglu'anji had the idea of ​​avenging the Jia family.

The second is profit. Twenty percent of the profits from the Jia family's salt wells must be divided among the Penglu tribe every year. At the same time, a batch of salt must be sold to the Penglu tribe at the price of ten coins per dou, and then the Penglu tribe will increase the price by fifty times and sell it to other Liao tribes.

Once the Jia family is completely finished, their annual profit of at least 200,000 strings of cash will be gone. Peng Lu'anji will of course try their best to save the Jia family and hope that the Tang Dynasty will give them face and let them go.

Another hidden reason is the Tang army's discrimination against Liao soldiers. The discrimination is manifested in two aspects. One is equipment. The Tang army always gave the Liao soldiers the worst equipment. For example, the advanced firearms of the Tang army were not even accessible to Liao soldiers. Another example is military rations. The Tang army soldiers' rations were provided by the court, including rice, meat, vegetables, oil, etc., as well as military salaries.

The Liao soldiers did not receive any food or military pay from the imperial court. Everything was borne by their own tribe. It was not that the imperial court did not provide them with food, but that the imperial court provided subsidies to the tribes, so naturally they did not care about the Liao soldiers' food and military pay.

However, the annual imperial subsidies were divided up among the nobles and never given to the Liao soldiers, so the Liao soldiers had nothing and must have felt it was very unfair. They would not think it was the fault of their own tribe, but would instead direct their dissatisfaction towards the imperial court.

When Peng Lu'anji heard that Li Sheng had sent 20,000 troops to attack him, he sent his eldest son Peng Lu'anbo and Jia Xiu to lead 20,000 Liao soldiers to fight. At the same time, he sent people to various tribes to ask them to send troops to support him.

As soon as the 20,000 cavalry entered Maozhou, Li Sheng received news from scouts that about 20,000 Liao soldiers were spotted 30 miles ahead.

At this time, the Tang army was marching in a long river valley, which was at least twenty miles long. If the Tang army rushed forward directly, they would most likely be blocked in the valley by the Liao soldiers.

Li Sheng pondered for a moment, then said to General Yu Jianliang: "Take a thousand cavalrymen with heavy crossbows to the valley entrance. If the Liao soldiers block the valley entrance, you can use arrows and torpedoes to shoot them from a distance!"

"Follow the order!"

Yu Jianliang immediately led a thousand soldiers, carrying a thousand heavy crossbows, and rushed to the valley entrance.

The reason for sending a thousand people is mainly because they are small in number and flexible. Even if they encounter an ambush, the loss will not be great. Moreover, the lethality of a thousand arrows and thunders is extraordinary.

Li Sheng then led the army and followed from a distance.

In less than an hour, a thousand Tang cavalrymen gradually arrived at the entrance of the valley. The entrance of the valley was about five or six miles wide and relatively open, but 20,000 Liao soldiers had set up obstacles such as large rocks and huge trees to block the entrance of the valley. 20,000 Liao soldiers stood behind the obstacles with bows and arrows in hand.

This was of course Jia Xiu's suggestion. He had served as the military commander of Yazhou for more than ten years and had rich experience.

However, he did not know about the Tang army's firearms. After the Yongwang army was defeated, Jia Xiu was liquidated. At that time, the Tang army's firearms had not yet been invented.

Seeing that the soldiers were densely packed at the valley entrance, Yu Jianliang immediately said to the 1,000 soldiers, "Fire from about 250 steps away!"

A thousand Tang soldiers lined up and slowly advanced. When they were about 250 steps apart, Yu Jianliang shouted, "Shoot!"

A thousand Tang cavalrymen raised their crossbows at the same time and lit the fuses. A thousand arrows flew into the air and shot densely towards the valley entrance.

The Liao soldiers at the valley entrance shouted and dodged. You have to know that these were arrow mines, and their lethality had nothing to do with whether they hit the target or not. A thousand arrow mines exploded in succession, and dense poisoned iron particles flew everywhere, and suddenly there was a sound of wailing and crying.

The heavy crossbows of the one thousand Tang soldiers were not the ten-stone large rhubarb crossbows, but only the three-stone heavy crossbows, which could be strung using stirrups while riding on horseback, and were also called hard horse crossbows.

Soon, the Tang army fired a second round of arrows and lightning, which continued to fall on the group of Liao soldiers who had not yet reacted, severely damaging them again.

This time, the Liao soldiers finally reacted. Without waiting for the commander's order, the terrified Liao soldiers turned around and ran away, leaving behind countless soldiers and injured soldiers.

Li Sheng, who was watching the battle from two miles behind, waved his sword and shouted, "Charge out!"

Twenty thousand cavalrymen launched their attack, rushing out of the valley like a mountain torrent.

(End of this chapter)