Daqin arrests alchemists, what does it matter to me as a qi refiner?

Now Yang Ling personally led the cavalry battalion to attack the east gate, immediately attracting the main force of the enemy.

Upon seeing this, the Tibetans immediately rushed towards Yang Ling. Yang Ling waved his sword to fight back and killed more than 30 Tibetans in the blink of an eye.

Yang Ling was extremely brave, but the Tibetan troops continued to emerge outside the East City Gate, and Yang Ling's troops soon fell into a tough battle.

At this time, Yang Ling thought of what Li Gui had said, that the Tibetans were good at using the wheel tactic. Yang Ling's mind raced, and he decided to adopt the tactic of luring the enemy deep into his territory.

Yang Ling commanded his soldiers to break out in the northwest, north and south directions respectively, and then divided into four groups to break out towards the east gate from the east, west, south and north directions at the same time.

When the enemy was pursuing Yang Ling's troops, three of them quickly broke out towards the north gate.

Sure enough, when the Tibetan soldiers who were chasing Yang Ling's troops saw that Yang Ling had divided his troops, they hurriedly changed their strategy and pounced on the pursuing northern troops.

In comparison, the Tibetan army in the south was obviously much more clumsy and fell behind when pursuing Yang Ling's troops.

Yang Ling led the cavalry to rush to the foot of the city tower, then quickly climbed up the tower and ordered the troops to quickly occupy the commanding heights of the tower.

Yang Ling stood on the battlement and looked forward, and saw many people in the distance outflanking his cavalry.

Yang Ling knew the Tubo army's intention. They planned to outnumber the enemy and try to consume Yang Ling's troops while waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Yang Ling sneered, "Humph, what a wild idea! I will let you have a taste of the power of cavalry!"

Yang Ling made a prompt decision and shouted loudly: "Brothers, follow me."

Yang Ling rode his horse out of the city at a gallop, leaving blood and corpses along the way. The cavalry followed Yang Ling and attacked the flank of the Tubo army.

Yang Ling's sudden appearance disrupted the Tibetans' plan, and loopholes appeared in their encirclement, making it impossible for them to shrink in time. This allowed Yang Ling's cavalry to successfully break out of the encirclement, go around the enemy's flank, and engage in a fight with the enemy.

Yang Ling's troops consisted of 25,000 people. Although they lacked gunpowder weapons, they were equipped with old-style armor and spears from the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, and the quality was barely acceptable.

These old-style armors have been forged with heavy hammers and are very strong and wear-resistant, which greatly improves the quality of these armors.

The most important thing is that Yang Ling’s cavalry equipment is equipped with saddles, horseshoes and horse bellies, which can reduce the burden on the cavalry. This can prevent the cavalry from shaking and falling on horseback, reducing the possibility of injury.

The cavalry under Yang Ling were all equipped with arrows for horse shooting, so they would not be harassed by the Tubo army's matchlock and bird feather arrows.

Yang Ling's troops quickly established sufficient advantages in the battle. The Tubo army was defeated step by step and was soon forced back by Yang Ling to a position 500 meters away from the city gate.

When Yang Ling saw that the Tubo army was forced to stop attacking, he couldn't help but secretly exclaimed that it was a close call, as it almost capsized.

Yang Ling immediately ordered all the cavalry to charge and try to drive the Tibetan army out of the city completely in order to preserve his own strength.

Yang Ling's cavalry urged their horses to charge towards the Tubo army. The Tubo army was frightened and dodged in panic.

At the moment when the cavalry of both sides crossed, Yang Ling shouted: "Raise your shields!"

The cavalrymen who had been prepared for a long time raised their wooden shields to protect their faces and block the arrows from the Tibetan army.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Tubo army quickly turned their horses around and retreated.

"Chase him!" Yang Ling shouted.

Dozens of cavalrymen followed Yang Ling and continued to pursue the Tubo army. Yang Ling's subordinates all had stirrups and the horses were extremely fast. How could the Tubo army escape?

Soon, Yang Ling's pursuing troops had surrounded the Tubo Army.

"Shoot!" Yang Ling shouted.

Hundreds of arrows whizzed towards the Tubo army, who were caught off guard and screamed continuously.

"Charge!" Yang Ling roared.

Yang Ling's subordinates shouted in unison and urged their horses to charge towards the Tubo army.

The Tubo army originally thought that they could rely on the human wave tactics to destroy Yang Ling's cavalry, but they misjudged the situation. They thought they could rely on the human wave tactics to trap Yang Ling's cavalry, and then destroy the opponent with bows and arrows, but no one expected to encounter Yang Ling's crazy attack.

The Tubo army originally wanted to rely on the solid city walls to defend against Yang Ling's attrition, but now they were defeated by Yang Ling before they even touched the city walls, and fled in disarray.

Seeing the Tibetan army collapse, Yang Ling led his troops back to the east gate.

Li Gui in the city immediately relaxed when he saw Yang Ling coming back. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked, "General, why did you come back just now? I just heard shouting and killing outside the city. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. We were just ambushed by the Tibetan army, with hundreds of casualties." Yang Ling replied calmly.

"The Tibetan bandits actually dared to attack the general. This is simply outrageous. I will send people out of the city to suppress the bandits now!" Li Gui said angrily.

"No need. Now the main elite Tibetans have been transferred to the vicinity of the East City Gate, and the rest of the city area is empty. If you send troops out of the city to fight, it will be easy to be ambushed. Let's wait until after dark." Yang Ling groaned.

Li Gui felt that what Yang Ling said made sense and could only suppress his anger.

Li Gui comforted him: "General, don't worry. There are only 20,000 to 30,000 Tubo soldiers left. The crisis can be resolved tonight, and the army will continue to attack the city tomorrow."

Yang Ling smiled and patted Li Gui on the shoulder: "Brother Li, please help the people in the city to resist the Tibetans' night attack tonight."

"That's no problem. Take a rest for a while, then go outside the city to inspect the battle situation."

"Well, thank you for your concern."

As night fell, the Tubo camp was brightly lit, and the Tubo generals gathered in the central military tent to discuss how to break into the city.

"Everyone, we were suddenly ambushed by Yang Ling during the day and suffered heavy losses. Morale is low. If we attack the East Gate again, I'm afraid it will be difficult to win." Tibetan Deputy Marshal Balstan said.

"General Balstan is right. There is a shortage of supplies and food in Tibet right now. If we continue to fight, our army will definitely be in a tough battle."

"We can only outwit them now, not act recklessly. Yang Ling's cavalry are brave and good at fighting. Our bows and arrows can't stop them from approaching. If they launch a strong attack, it will be difficult for us to resist with just these infantry, because we don't have enough shield soldiers and swordsmen.

So I think we should try to delay time and send messengers to deliver supplies to the logistics department and request reinforcements. "The Zanpu has agreed to come from Hexi to rescue you. We just need to hold on tonight and wait for the Zanpu to bring his troops to help us. Then we will have hope of capturing Hanyang County."

Balstan frowned, "The only way now is to outsmart them. The cavalry under Yang Ling's command is too fierce. Our bows and crossbows cannot deal with them. It may not be easy to outsmart them."

"I have a plan. Although Yang Ling's cavalry are brave, they are just infantry after all. As long as we set up barricades outside the East City Gate, or block the exit with boulders, Yang Ling's cavalry will have to bypass the barricades or boulders to rush into the city. Otherwise, Yang Ling's cavalry will inevitably suffer heavy losses, and then we can take the opportunity to seize it."

"This is indeed a solution, but our soldiers cannot leave their posts without permission."

After thinking for a moment, Tubo Deputy Marshal Agulu said, "General, you can send out 2,000 cavalrymen to set up checkpoints along the way to intercept the enemy. Although their mission is only to hinder Yang Ling's cavalry, as long as they can delay the enemy, it will be fine. The rest of the troops will stay outside the East City Gate. After daybreak, we will attack the East City Gate."

"This is a good idea. Let's do it this way. I will personally command this matter. General, leave this task to me!" Balstein replied immediately.

"We are also willing to assist General Balstan." The generals echoed.

Agulu said: "Well, General, thank you for running so far. You will be in charge of these two thousand soldiers. But let's not just have fun. Let's take advantage of the time to get some beauty sleep and recuperate!"

The generals agreed loudly and dispersed.

After Yang Ling returned to his room, he lay on the bed, but his mind was extremely clear and he didn't feel sleepy at all.

Yang Ling knew that the Tubo army would adopt a new strategy starting tomorrow. They would definitely not attack the city foolishly. They would most likely choose to attack at night or besiege the city in order to delay him and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Yang Ling was not afraid of the Tubo army's night attack, but he was worried that his cavalry would suffer heavy losses. After all, he only had about two thousand cavalry.

This time Yang Ling led 2,000 cavalrymen to fight, which was beyond his expectation. These 2,000 cavalrymen were almost his main force. If they were seriously injured, it would affect tomorrow's battle. Because Yang Ling still had 5,000 to 6,000 young and strong auxiliary soldiers, he didn't want all of them to be lost here.

"It seems that I can only let Li Gui lead the troops to defend the East City Gate tomorrow, and I can only lead 2,000 Iron Guards to fight in person."

Yang Ling murmured to himself, and finally he decided to lead the Iron Guards in person.

Yang Ling had thought about letting the Iron Guards serve as scouts, specifically responsible for detecting the enemy, but this method was too risky and could put their lives in danger at any time. So Yang Ling temporarily gave up the idea of ​​letting the Iron Guards serve as scouts.

Yang Ling also thought that when attacking the city tomorrow, he could ask Li Gui to send the Iron Guards to the north to monitor the enemy's movements, so as to avoid being hit head-on by the enemy's fierce arrows.

However, Li Gui only had seven or eight hundred soldiers around him, which was totally insufficient.

"It seems that we must find a way to expand the number of troops. Only with sufficient troops can we have a greater chance of winning. I wonder where I can get the money." Yang Ling thought to himself.

However, Yang Ling also knew that recruiting soldiers was very difficult, especially recruiting new soldiers. It was a problem for these people to eat and drink water, let alone form a new team?

Yang Ling thought about this question, and suddenly an idea came to him: "If I can make armor and weapons, and then sell them in the market, I believe I can make a lot of money."

Yang Ling's armor was brought from the Ming Dynasty and was of very poor quality. This set of armor was a gift from Wang Junkuo to Yang Ling, but Yang Ling disliked it because it was too heavy and was reluctant to wear it at ordinary times. He only wore it when fighting.

As for the weapons, they were spoils of war sent by Wang Junkuo, and they were very old and worn out.

Yang Ling's armor was fine, but the Iron Guards' weapons were very simple, basically iron rulers with wooden handles and wooden swords. These were Yang Ling's original words, and the Iron Guards could only accept them silently.

When Yang Ling thought of this, he quickly found his notes and looked through them carefully, looking for the right technology. He planned to make armor to equip his subordinates.

In his previous life, Yang Ling had learned a lot of engineering techniques, especially metallurgy, and had reached the top level, but he lacked the materials for training.

"If I can provide qualified materials and make armor, each of these cavalrymen can be allocated several sets, and they can reduce casualties."

The more Yang Ling thought about it, the more excited he became. He wanted to buy cast iron tools right away. However, Yang Ling finally suppressed his impulse and decided to go find Li Gui tomorrow morning and tell him about this matter.

The next day, the war drums sounded in the Tubo camp, and the Tubo general Balstan led 5,000 troops to form a line under the city wall.

Last night, Agulu sent people to deliver hundreds of horses and two carts of armor to Balstan. He also told him that there would be a night attack tomorrow night and asked him to take precautions in advance.

"Sir, the battle tonight will not be easy. The enemy will definitely not give up the night attack, so we must strengthen our vigilance to prevent the enemy from suddenly rushing into the East City Gate."

Balstan nodded slightly. He had heard about the existence of 3,000 Iron Guards arranged by Yang Ling outside the East City. Since the defenders of the East City Gate had been transferred away, the enemy would definitely take the opportunity to attack the East City.

However, Balstan was not too worried, because they had collected a lot of food in the city during this period. This solid city was like a copper wall and iron fortress. Even if the enemy captured the east gate, they would not be able to break through the city in a short time.

Yang Ling stood on the top of the east city wall, looking down at the situation of the Tibetan army below.

Balstan leads a large army of about 4,000 people. Excluding auxiliary troops and the elderly, weak and sick, the overall strength is still good.

Yang Ling's goal was not to defeat the enemy, but merely to contain them.

Yang Ling discovered that the battlements behind Balstan were full of soldiers, but these soldiers had their backs against the wall and had their ankles tied with ropes to prevent them from slipping.

"So this is to prevent the defenders from climbing up the city wall. That would save trouble."

However, Yang Ling frowned again in the blink of an eye: "No, if there is a gap in the city wall, then the Tibetans below the city can use artillery to smash the city gate. At that time, the defenders can only retreat into the city."

Yang Ling sighed inwardly: "Alas, it is so difficult to capture the city wall in this era."

However, Yang Ling was not discouraged, he had already made plans for the worst. If the problem of the city gate could not be solved tomorrow, he would defend the city gate with all his might until the Tubo army was completely wiped out.

When Yang Ling was deep in thought, he suddenly saw smoke and dust billowing in the distance, and could faintly hear a whistling sound.

"Come here! Hurry and report to the commander-in-chief that the Tibetan army is on the march."

Yang Ling shouted immediately. Soon, a scout rushed to the bottom of the tower.

"Marshal, the Tibetan army has set out and is about fifty feet away from the east gate. Please respond quickly." The scout knelt on the ground and said anxiously.

Yang Ling's face was solemn. Although he guessed that the Tibetan army would launch a surprise attack at night, he did not expect that the Tibetan army would come so soon.

However, Yang Ling did not panic, and immediately ordered: "You immediately rush to the Marshal's Mansion to report to the Marshal, and ask the Marshal to summon all the generals to discuss countermeasures." (End of this chapter)