If I let you stay in Lingnan, how could you become the crown prince of the Tang Dynasty?

Chapter 98: Firepower from the front, heavy hands from the back

After Tuyuhun Prince Fushun led his troops to break out from the east gate, he was left with only 30,000 Tuyuhun cavalry. The remaining 10,000 were left in the city by Chai Shao, and another 10,000 were dispersed by Li An's indiscriminate killing when they were leaving the city.

He had no choice but to retreat and gather the scattered soldiers along the way. By evening, they had reached a place 400 miles away from Shanzhou, and most of his fleeing soldiers had been gathered together.

Along the way, the Tang army did not pursue closely, and most of the troops led by Chai Shao were infantry. Attacking cities and conquering territories were the infantry's strengths, so it was unlikely for them to pursue cavalry.

Fu Shun knew this and felt that the Tang army would definitely not pursue him any further, so he decided to set up camp on the spot and wait until the next morning to march back to Shanzhou.

Soon it was late at night, and countless bonfires were lit in Fu Shun's military camp. All the cavalrymen set up simple tents on the spot to rest.

Although the Tuyuhun people are very cold-resistant, it is still very cold at night near Shanzhou, and the simple cowhide tent can block the cold wind.

Fu Shun assigned the patrol and defense forces and went into the tent to rest.

As soon as he lay down, he suddenly heard a muffled thunder.

The Tang army's musket fire in the morning had caused him to overreact to the noise. He jumped out of the tent and rushed out to look. He saw a sudden flash of fire at the edge of the camp in the distance.

"Prince, it's bad, the enemy is attacking!"

Yanzhi ran over and said in surprise:

"When the Tang army rushed to our camp, they threw an explosive firearm at the tents, injuring many soldiers. Then they used kerosene to set fire!"

"When the camp caught fire, they didn't charge into the camp, but only fired at it from a distance. Our cavalry didn't dare to charge in at all!"

Fu Shun was so angry that he was fuming.

Most of the Tang troops that attacked Liangzhou this time were infantry, and there were definitely not many cavalry.

But their nighttime raids and the use of such firearms made the Tuyuhun people afraid to rush out to attack, which gave Fushun a headache.

Li An's firearms had an extremely strong shocking effect in this era.

Although the Tuyuhun people knew that the enemy would not have too many people, they did not dare to rush forward in the face of their muskets.

The noise made by this type of musket was very loud at night, and coupled with the presence of fire thunder, the Tuyuhun people became even more frightened.

"I just don't believe that our army of nearly 40,000 people was led around by the nose by them like this!"

Fu Shun was so angry that he immediately ordered the cavalry to mount their horses and personally led the cavalry to rush towards the fire in the distance.

But as soon as the Tang army saw them rushing towards them, they immediately turned around and left, firing sporadically behind them as they walked.

The Tuyuhun people were also not afraid of night battles, let alone field battles.

But these Tang soldiers were very ruthless and rushed westward. If the Tuyuhun people were far away, they would stop and rush over to fire guns and throw fire bombs.

If the Tuyuhun people came close, they would ride away at full speed.

It's like a fisherman walking his fish, sometimes tight, sometimes loose, just walking them like that.

The Tuyuhun people did not dare to rush too close, but did not want to let the Tang troops go, and were soon led westward by the Tang army for nearly a hundred miles. The team of nearly 40,000 people soon formed a long dragon.

At this moment, Xue Rengui suddenly led two thousand cavalrymen and rushed over from one side, attacking the weakest point in the middle of the Tuyuhun team!
The two thousand Tang soldiers' armored long-horned soldiers fought very fiercely and killed the Tuyuhun troops in an instant, but they did not linger on the battle and rushed out from the other side of the Tuyuhun troops.

At night, Fushun did not dare to send troops to pursue, and quickly stopped to reorganize. But at this time, the cavalry guards in front turned around and ran over, firing guns and throwing fire bombs at them.

Fu Shun was furious and immediately sent a large army to quickly surround the Huqi Guards, but due to the vast terrain, the Tang army detected their movements and turned around and left. When the Tuyuhun people chased them out again, Xue Rengui led 2,000 Tang soldiers to attack again, also attacking the weakest part of the Tuyuhun people.

This is what Li An calls the anal digging method.

The cavalry guards in front were responsible for attracting firepower and harassing the enemy, making them reveal weaknesses when they were exhausted, and then Xue Rengui would lead two thousand cavalrymen to attack them.

The Tuyuhun people were exhausted after being beaten!
The Tang army never engaged them head-on during the day, but only launched surprise attacks at night, which made them very uncomfortable.

It's like a strong man with plenty of energy and a sturdy build, who always wants to knock down his opponent with one punch, but his opponent is agile and keeps circling around him, ready to suddenly attack him.

The key is that the opponent's attacks are all insidious moves, such as poking eyes, kicking the crotch, and poking the buttocks...

How sudden and insidious it is!
In the middle of the night, many Tuyuhun people were killed by the Tang army.

In the second half of the night, the Tang army finally stopped attacking.

Fu Shun and his men could finally take a breath. Looking at the location of their troops, they found that they were already nearly two hundred miles west of Shanzhou.

There was no choice but to rest on the spot. No one dared to close their eyes. They could only sit on the ground to rest, and they didn't even dare to set up their tents.

Early in the morning, Fu Shun got up to check the troops and found that another three to four thousand men were missing.

Many of them were killed during Xue Rengui's surprise attack, and others ran away in the middle of the night.

"Prince, let's go back to Shanzhou first!"

Yanzhi gave another very correct suggestion at this time.

Fu Shun nodded helplessly, and then led his troops towards Shanzhou.

After most of the day, they finally arrived at the city of Shanzhou, but were suddenly surprised to find that the flag of the Tang army had been replaced on the top of the city wall.

It turned out that after the Tang army stopped their raids in the second half of the night, the five hundred cavalry guards changed into Tuyuhun people's clothes and ran to the city of Shanzhou with several Tuyuhun captives.

Fu Shun brought most of the Tuyuhun troops to Liangzhou, leaving only a few thousand garrisons in Shanzhou.

The Cavalry Guards asked the Tuyuhun people to tell the soldiers guarding the city walls in their own language that they were the prince's soldiers and asked them to open the city gates immediately.

Seeing that the other party's words were flawless and that they were dressed like Tuyuhun people, the defenders opened the city gate without any suspicion.

As a result, the Cavalry Guards launched an attack immediately after entering the city, and the entire Shanzhou City was enveloped in thunderous explosions from their muskets.

The Tuyuhun defenders had never seen such a battle before. In addition, the Tang army suddenly launched an attack in the second half of the night, so they were immediately beaten and dared not to hold their ground. Four or five thousand Tuyuhun defenders took advantage of the night and fled directly from the south gate.

At this time, Xue Rengui also rushed over with two thousand Tang cavalry and recaptured Shanzhou City.

Fu Shun was so angry at this time that his eyes were red with anger.

He had never seen such a tough opponent before. Not only were his tactics cunning and varied, but he also often attacked unexpectedly and caught the enemy off guard.

You thought he was harassing them at night, but he turned around and caught the Shanzhou defenders off guard, and by the way recaptured Shanzhou.

He took back the city that he had conquered with great effort in the middle of the night!
At this time, Li An stood on the top of the city wall and looked at Fu Shun below with some pride:
"Fushun, there are only more than 2,000 Tang troops in my city. Do you dare to come up?"

(End of this chapter)