People in the early Tang Dynasty: I compete with Wu Zhao for the throne

Chapter 904: The generals gathered together to tell each other’s signs

The vast grassland has been covered with white frost.

Countless horse hooves trampled across the Xinghai Grassland, and finally crossed the Shazhuyu River and entered Qugou New City.

Standing in front of the city gate that already had some appearance, Li Xuan slowed down his horse. Then, thousands of cavalry in black clothes and armor slowly entered the city and began to move towards the military camp.

Qugou New City had no intention to build a city wall from the beginning, so when Qugou New City expanded northward to the Chinese Army Camp, although it was forced to stop, it seemed that the Chinese Army Camp was still included.

The Chinese Army Camp became the northernmost part of Qugou New City, and the north gate of the camp was also the north gate of the new city.

The long streets surrounding the camp are unusually wide, and with the long streets on all sides, thousands of soldiers can pour out at the same time.

When winter comes, the most troublesome thing is heating and accommodation.

It's okay in the city, where people gather together and it's warm. But it's the trouble outside the city, especially in the grasslands.

No one knew that a creek there would freeze and cause horses to slip.

Once the war horse is broken, the consequences will be extremely serious.

Those are the greatest enemies in winter combat.

In front of the south gate of the Chinese army camp, Li Xuan stood up and dismounted, and a group of black-armored cavalry returned to camp.

Li Xuan walked towards the Chinese army camp with a solemn expression.

Qianniu Guard was guarding the door. When he saw Li Xuan, he bowed slightly and opened the door curtain.

In the large tent, more than a dozen military generals were gathering in front of the sand table, discussing the next march plan.

Surrounded by everyone in the center, the man in a purple robe was none other than the Marshal of the Northwest Road March, Liu Rengui.

The left and right are: Left Guard General Xiao Siye, Left Guard Zhonglang General Wang Xiaojie.

The great general of Zhenguo, the general of the right Xiaowei of the inspection school, Shi Jian; the general of the Zhonglang of the right Xiaowei of the inspection school was given the gift of benevolence.

The right-leading Army Guard General Li Jinxing, the right-leading Army Guard General Li Qing, the right-leading Army Guard Zhonglang General Li Duozuo, and the right-leading Army Wei Zhonglang General Hei Te Changzhi.

Sun Renshi, the general of the right garrison, Jin Mulin, the middle man of the right garrison, and Murong Zhong, the general of the right leopard Tao garrison.

There are more than a dozen military officials around, including Cao Cao, Chang Shi, Sima and others.

Li Xuan opened the door curtain and entered.

The cold wind blew in, and everyone immediately turned their heads and looked at Li Xuan.

"King of Nanchang, have you gained anything?" Liu Rengui asked directly.

Li Xuan shook his head slightly, cupped his hands and said, "Reporting to the commander-in-chief, I did not find any hidden troops of the Tibetans."

Liu Rengui nodded, looked at everyone present and asked: "The King of Nanchang mentioned a few days ago that Qinling might have secret troops involved in the mountains. What do you think?"

Murong Zhong couldn't help but asked first: "Could it be that the prince made a mistake? There is no hidden plot in Qinling."

Xiao Siye, the left guard general on the opposite side, shook his head and said: "As for Qin Ling, he is cunning. Although he has been away for nearly a month, I believe that news from the Wuhai front line will be transmitted back to Luo Zu every few days. We will use a month to When we put ice on the mountain trail, even if we didn’t realize our intention at first, we should have realized it by now, how could we not react.”

"Yes, we can't hide our attack on Xinghai, especially the ice road. The only thing the Tubo people are not sure about is when our army will take action. After all, they can't send troops to fight with us at the first sign of trouble. Let's fight." Li Jinxing said, looking at the sand table and saying: "Maji Snow Mountain is four hundred miles long from east to west, and it is normal for there to be several mountain roads and trails hiding people."

Except for Murong Zhong, no one said that Li Xuan's recent actions were unfounded.

Whether it was Qingxi's war or Qingnan's plan to lay ice roads, what Li Xuan did was convincing enough.

"The ice road on the mountain road may still be of some use this year, but by next year, Lun Qinling will be able to figure out a way to break it." Li Xuan shook his head slightly.

This winter, they took advantage of the Tubo people's ignorance of the situation and sent troops into the Wuhai-Dafichuan Mountain Road.

The Tubo people originally planned to lure the enemy deep into the Tang Dynasty's grain road, so they fought and retreated along the entire mountain road until they were hundreds of miles away.

At this time, the Tang army began to lay water trucks on the front line.

The Tubo Wuhai garrison immediately noticed that the Tang Dynasty was trying to use water trucks to transport grain, and immediately organized his soldiers to fight back. However, they were directly ambushed by the Tang army.

The waterwheels laid by the Tang Dynasty were just an attempt to spread water on the mountain roads with waterwheels, and the effect was not very great. Therefore, before starting, no one thought to pay attention, and directly used the waterwheels as bait to ambush the Tibetan people.

After the Tibetans completely evacuated, they began to use water trucks to spread water on the mountain roads.

There is a waterwheel every ten miles. The water volume is controlled from below, and the water is carefully spread to the top. Then, boats are used to move down the river from upstream. At the same time, the waterwheel is disassembled and buried in the mountains.

Next year, once Wuhai is attacked again, these water trucks will be put to use immediately.

Tang troops were always harassing the front line, which made the Tubo people think that Tang's goal was Wuhai.

It was not until half a month ago that the Tubo people suddenly attacked and defeated the Tang army under Wuhai City, and then they discovered the true intention of the Tang army.

But the two-hundred-mile mountain road was already full of ice, and it was barely possible for people to walk on it, let alone horses.

In Wuhai in winter, even during the day, the temperature is below zero, and even if manpower is used to shovel the ice, it is not known how long it will take.

Originally, what Li Xuan and the others were worried about most was that the Tubo people would desperately use manpower to remove ice on the mountain road, but they didn't.

The Tang army stationed a 500-man military camp thirty miles away from the foot of the mountain, but the Tibetans never reached there.

They didn't even use boats to come down from the mountain. Li Xuan originally wanted to knock the Tibetan soldiers without horses, but unfortunately the Tubo people didn't give him this chance.

Seeing that the time to attack Wu Hai was getting closer, Li Xuan became inexplicably uneasy.

He suspected that somewhere they couldn't see, there was a back-up plan arranged by Lun Qin Ling in advance, but unfortunately Li Xuan couldn't find it after searching for a long time. The sound of "cough" immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Liu Rengui coughed lightly, and everyone immediately handed over: "Commander."

Liu Rengui, who was wearing a purple robe, looked at the sand table and said solemnly: "When marching and fighting, you need to be careful in everything."

"Here!" Everyone held their hands in awe at the same time.

Liu Rengui's eyes fell on Xinghai, and then he said: "Xinghai, where the Qingdong Protectorate of Tubo is located, has [-] Tubo cavalry and [-] Tuyuhun cavalry, which is equivalent to our own strength and has a slight terrain advantage."

The northern part of Xinghai is an open grassland area, and to the south is a hilly and low-mountainous area. Beyond the hilly and low-mountainous area is the Xinghai Valley.

The Yellow River flows down from the east side of Majixue Mountain and flows into Longyang Gorge on the east side of Xinghai.

Maji Snow Mountain also has many streams flowing down from the mountain and finally flowing into the Yellow River.

The abundant amount of water makes Xinghai the most fertile place in the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, except for Golmud and Fuqi City.

Liu Rengui said calmly: "In this battle, the main force will be [-] left guard cavalry. They will break in from the north and kill any Tibetan cavalry they encounter immediately."

Zuowei General Xiao Siye and Zuowei Zhonglang General Wang Xiaojie stood up at the same time, cupped their hands and said: "The last general takes orders."

"There are two thousand infantrymen in the right garrison guarding Dafeichuan and the army camp, and the remaining four thousand cavalry are in the middle army and will follow my commander."

Sun Renshi, the general of the Youtun Guard, and Jin Mulin, the lieutenant general of the Right Guard, stood up at the same time, cupped their hands and said: "The last general takes the order."

Liu Rengui looked up at Ren Enci and Murong Zhong and said directly: "Three thousand Right Xiao Guards and three thousand Right Leopard Tao Guards are advancing from Dafeichuan and the west bank of the Yellow River."

The right general of the right Xiaowei Zhonglang, General Murong Zhong, stood up at the same time and said, "The last general takes the order."

Liu Rengui turned to look at Shi Jian and said in a deep voice: "General, the Turkic cavalry is the rear army. As soon as there is a military order, they will rush forward."

"The last general takes the order." Shi Xian accepted the order without any hesitation.

Although Liu Rengui looked at Li Jinxing, he said in a deep voice: "Jinxing, the army of Wei on your right will pass through the Yellow River Road and attack Guinan. The troops of Heijichang will come out from Zeku and attack Tongde. We must let the troops of the two counties Don’t let it loose, it’s best if you can directly defeat the two counties.”

"The last general takes orders." The right-leading army general Li Jinxing, the general Li Qing, the middle lieutenant general Li Duozuo, and the middle lieutenant general Hei Te Changzhi handed over their hands at the same time.

Liu Rengui nodded, his eyes finally fell on Li Xuan, and he said directly: "The right guard is a mobile cavalry. If there is any change, we will support you."

"General, take the order." Li Xuan couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief and accepted the order.

This time, Li Xuan was not the main force in the attack on Xinghai, not because his men were too powerful, but because Li Xuan had said that if he acted as Lun Qinling, he would be fully prepared for any accident. .

In today's battle, Qingxi was lost, and the Wuhai-Dafichuan mountain road was blocked by ice roads. The Tubo people only had Xinghai road left.

Although the possibility of Qin Ling thinking of this situation was very low, once he thought of it, he would definitely make some back-up arrangements.

What Liu Rengui is doing now is to prevent any accidents that may happen.

Among all the accidents, the most frightening and worrying thing is that Lun Qinling has not returned to Luozhong at all, but is still hiding in Wuhai.

The news about Luoxue spread from Luoxue to Songzhou, then from Songzhou to Chang'an, and then from Chang'an to the front line, with an unknown amount of time delayed in between.

"If Lun Qinling really does not return to Luochang, then the Tibetan Dafeichuan Ice Road may be breached by the Tibetan people.

When the time comes, those who will be attacked by two groups will most likely be ours. Therefore, General, King of Nanchang, you must be prepared to attack at any time. "

Liu Rengui gave his final explanation.

Li Xuan and Shi Xian handed over their hands at the same time: "The last general will take orders."

At this time, Liu Rengui raised his head and looked at everyone and said: "Everyone, after this battle, once we win, we will be safe until the New Year. By then, the generals who are relatively close to home, and I can also We will let you go home to visit relatives as appropriate, but if we lose this battle today, then it is very likely that we will not be able to go back."

"When the army goes out, there will be no victory but no defeat." More than a dozen generals present surrendered their hands at the same time.

Liu Rengui nodded solemnly and said coldly: "Okay, everyone returns to the army and prepares separately. Three days later, at Chen time, each ministry will attack as planned."

"Here!"

……

Li Xuan walked out of the big tent. Wang Xiaojie walked on the side and said with a low smile: "There is a rumor in the court that the prince will be the next governor of Xinzhou. Is this true?"

"Brother Xiaojie is well-informed." Li Xuan glanced at Wang Xiaojie in surprise, then shook his head and said: "There is no official appointment document regarding matters in the court, so everything is just talk."

Li Xuan was very calm and in a relaxed mood. The emperor said that he should be the king of the northwest, which was just the emperor's words.

When the time comes, all the opposition in the court will be opposed, and the ministers will oppose it, and Li Xuan will not be able to say anything.

Although Wang Xiaojie understood the reason, he still said "hehe": "If they don't give the prince the title of governor, then with his military achievements, I'm afraid he will have to become the minister of Honglu Temple, right?"

Li Xuan smiled accordingly. His biggest trump card was his military exploits. If he was not given the title of governor of Xinzhou, then he would have to find a suitable position for him in the court.

All the clans in the world are watching.

Li Xuan retracted her thoughts, looked at Wang Xiaojie and said, "Brother Xiaojie, after this battle, you, the lieutenant general, should be promoted."

Although Wang Xiaojie grinned, he still said modestly: "It is better to be a general in the left guard than to be a general elsewhere."

Li Xuan nodded. Zuo Wei was the head of the sixteen guards, apart from Qian Niu Guard and Jinwu Guard, so his reputation was not in vain.

"Humph!" A cold snort sounded from the side, and the right-leading army guard Zhonglang General Li Duozuo and Zhonglang General Hei Te Changzhi walked by.

(End of this chapter)