Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 303: Big countries compete, small countries are destroyed; three-stage shooting

Inside the city of Lhasa, Xie Shufang and Songtsen Gampo looked solemn.

“Xie General, seven tribes no longer support us. The situation is critical. I suggest that we can’t wait any longer.

We will break out to the east, retreat back to the king's fiefdom, and then fight back later.

Otherwise, given the current situation, we may not be able to hold out for much longer."

Songtsen Gampo was very haggard. Since he and Xie Shufang returned to Tubo, the situation had become out of control.

Now they were surrounded heavily in the city of Lhasa, and only the surrounding areas could continue to resist the enemy outside. Songtsen Gampo knew very well that without Li Yuanji's reinforcements, they might not be able to hold out for even half a year.

They had less than 50,000 soldiers, but were now besieged by an army of hundreds of thousands, leaving Songtsen Gampo with no hope at all.

The internal support for him was getting smaller and smaller. Many tribes in the Lhasa region had abandoned him and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, which made him angry and helpless.

He didn't know when Li Yuanji's army would arrive, but now he really wanted to evacuate, retreat back to Li Yuanji's fiefdom, and then come back to take revenge.

Songtsen Gampo didn't want to die. He didn't want to die so young. They had been guarding here for almost four months, and Li Yuanji's army had not arrived yet. He couldn't wait any longer.

This time he never imagined that so many forces would interfere in the internal affairs of his Tubo. It was only now that he realized deeply that in the game between Li Yuanji and Li Er, Tubo, which he thought was powerful, was so vulnerable.

He didn't quite understand the current situation here before, but now he can see clearly that it is a fight between Li Yuanji and Li Er. Li Er temporarily gained the upper hand, and his Tubo became a victim.

If Li Yuanji had the upper hand, Yang Tong would become the victim.

This is their tragic fate, they have no control over it. They cannot resist even if they want to. The consequence of resistance is the destruction of their country. If they choose to take sides, they can continue.

At this moment, he was very clear that Tubo was no longer his reliance. Even if he wanted to retreat, he needed to seek Xie Shufang's consent. Now that Xie Shufang was here, he was the boss of Li Yuanji, just like Niu Jinda was in Yangtong, he was the boss of Li Er.

Xie Shufang looked at Songtsen Gampo, and a flash of murderous intent flashed across his mind.

"We can't retreat! The king's army must be on the way. What we need to do now is to guard all directions and wait for the king's reinforcements to arrive and eliminate all these invading bandits!

Don't mention this kind of words again. Before you come, don't forget what you said to the king. This is now the king's fiefdom. Even if we fight to the last soldier, even if we die in battle, we must defend here to the death!"

Xie Shufang stared at Songtsen Gampo. Before he came, Li Yuanji had explained to him the importance of this place. This was their stepping stone to enter the Western Regions and strengthen their influence in the Western Regions, and it must not be lost.

Once they lose this place, the influence of the Tang Dynasty will surpass theirs, and it will be extremely difficult for them to enter again.

And Xie Shufang would never allow himself to escape back like this. He was entrusted with an important task by Li Yuanji and came here. Other places were expanding their fiefdoms, but he was defeated so badly here. He would not be ashamed to face Li Yuanji when he returned.

Although the current situation here had little to do with him, and he only led 10,000 troops while the enemy had hundreds of thousands, it would be understandable even if he retreated, but Xie Shufang could not tolerate it.

Xie Shufang firmly believed that Li Yuanji's army was on the way. If he gave up, all his efforts would be wasted once Li Yuanji's army arrived.

Songtsen Gampo sighed when he heard this. He already knew this would be the answer, and when he actually heard it, he felt helpless.

"General Xie, if we want to hold on now, we can't keep doing this. We still have 5,000 troops left by General Xie. How about we take the initiative to attack and dampen the enemy's morale?"

Xie Shufang still shook his head when he heard this.

"Don't think too much about these 5,000 soldiers. They are for emergency situations. If the enemy really comes to the city, with these 5,000 soldiers, we can at least hold out for more than half a year.

And now the king's army is on the way, when the king arrives, these five thousand soldiers will attack again and cooperate with the king's army to counterattack the enemy!"

In a battlefield with hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, the role that 5,000 soldiers can play is very limited. This is why Xie Shufang has not used them. He wants to give those people the illusion that he does not have any reserve troops and is looking for opportunities in secret.

At the same time, it is also a preparation to defend the city of Luoshui. Now the reserve materials in Luoshui City are enough for them to support another year. These 5,000 troops are Xie Shufang's last reliance.

Just then, Xie Shufang's personal soldiers hurried in.

"General, the foreign enemy army broke through Pari, and Generals Zhong Fan and Yu Dingyan were killed in the battle. No one of the two thousand soldiers survived, and all died in Pari!"

Xie Shufang stood up suddenly, staring blankly at the soldiers in front of him, his eyes suddenly red.

After a moment, Xie Shufang slowly came back to his senses, his eyes firm.

"Record all their military records and achievements. After the battle, if I am not dead, I will personally ask the king for their achievements!"

He already knew what the enemy forces in the south were like. Xie Shufang was unwilling to face the blacks, whites, and other races with similar skin color, and was most wary of this large army.

Xie Shufang then looked at Songtsen Gampo fiercely.

"The army defending Naining and Luoza is yours. You must pass the message on. No matter what the cost, even if we have to fight to the last man, we must not let those foreigners in! Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed!"

Looking at Xie Shufang's red eyes, Songtsen Gampo agreed without any hesitation.

The enemy forces in other directions were not much different from them, except for the army of the Harsha Dynasty, which Songtsen Gampo also disliked very much.

At this moment, the soldier suddenly spoke.

"General, I'm afraid the alien army in the south can't come. A plague broke out among those aliens, and now they have suffered heavy casualties and are retreating."

Xie Shufang was stunned again. A sudden plague?
Xie Shufang felt that it was a bit outrageous. The probability of him suddenly appearing in the army was very small, because there were many requirements in the army, especially cleaning the battlefield. It shouldn't be like this, but now he appeared.

Then Xie Shufang stopped thinking about it and looked relieved. No matter what the reason was, now that it was the fact, he was happy.

"Okay! Okay! These people deserve to die!"

Xie Shufang then looked at Songtsen Gampo.

"Send a message to the defenders of Naining, and make sure they don't let their guard down!"

"Send a message to the troops stationed in Lhoza, telling them to be careful of the enemy troops coming through the mountains in Subonie and to be on guard at all times!"

Songtsen Gampo also agreed with a happy look on his face. The demobilization of the 100,000-strong army of the Harsha Dynasty allowed them to breathe a sigh of relief. At least there was no need to worry about the south, and their military strength could be relieved to a certain extent.

However, at this moment, another personal soldier came over.

"General, something terrible has happened. Niu Jinda's army has obtained firearms. Lazi has been defeated, and our army has retreated to the area of ​​Shabulon in the Nasser region! The enemy is advancing eastward along the Zang River!" Xie Shufang was shocked. Niu Jinda actually had firearms?
This time Xie Shufang was really shocked. The Tang army actually had firearms!

Xie Shufang came to his senses and immediately looked at his personal soldiers.

"Send a message to Xue Pinglin to lead 3,000 men to garrison Qitou (southeast of Shigatse) and Xiongxiong (northeast of Shigatse, north of the Tibetan River) immediately, with the main defense being Qitou, followed by Xiongxiong, and bring five artillery pieces with him.

Tell Xue Pinglin to march out immediately after receiving the order. No one can lose the Qitou. Even if everyone dies in battle, they must die in Qitou for me!"

Xie Shufang knew very well that if Lazi was captured, Xiabulun would certainly not be able to be defended, so he had to increase his troops to defend it. After Lazi was captured, the position of Qitou became particularly important.

If Niu Jinda's army wanted to attack the city of Luoshui, they had to take Qitou. If they wanted to support the enemy in the east and then besiege the enemy after conquering the city of Pibao, they also had to conquer Qitou. Even if they wanted to cross the river to the north and join the coalition forces of Subi in the north and the Tang Dynasty, they still had to conquer Qitou to do so.

This is why Qi Tou is so special, and Xie Shufang will never tolerate any loss in this place.

If the Qitou order is lost, all their external defenses will collapse. Even the 5,000 troops that he had not mobilized before will have to be mobilized this time.

Xie Shufang turned around and looked at Songtsen Gampo again, pointing at the map.

"You must immediately send a message to the defenders of Naining. After confirming that the Harsha Dynasty's army has evacuated, leave a thousand people to guard the city, and the rest of the people should immediately go to Niangruo and Jiapu Temple (both are located in the north and west of Gyantse) to garrison and be ready to support Qitou at any time!"

Xie Shufang's face was solemn as he kept looking at the map. Suddenly, his pupils shrank.

"Come here! Pass the order, send one thousand more troops to Bai Bi Ze immediately, go quickly!"

Xie Shufang looked at Yema Yilin with a serious look. Niu Jinda on the west side had firearms, so the Tang army in the north might also have firearms. If Yema Yilin could not be defended, only Bai Bi Ze could hold on, otherwise they could come directly to Lhasa City.

Xie Shufang felt heavy-hearted. The current situation was becoming increasingly unfavorable for them, as enemy forces from all directions were gradually moving closer to the city of Lhasa.

Especially the firearms of the Tang army. Xie Shufang really couldn't understand why the Tang Dynasty had firearms?
Xie Shufang couldn't figure out this problem for a moment, but he had no choice but to stop thinking about it.

"Your Majesty, I will never give up Luoshui City. Even if I am the only one here, Luoshui City will not be lost!"

In fact, Xie Shufang didn’t know whether Li Yuanji’s army had arrived or not. Their contact with the outside world had been cut off for a long time, but he believed that his king Li Yuanji would not ignore this place. He had to defend this place for Li Yuanji.

On the other side, Li Yuanji was leading his army rapidly towards Bowo. Xi Junmai, with 30,000 vanguard troops, had already arrived at Bowo (Bomi). Looking at Bowo City, Xi Junmai immediately launched an attack.

"Fire the city with artillery! Get the army ready!"

"attack!"

At Xi Junmai's order, the attack on Bowo began. Under the bombardment of the red cannon, the city of Bowo, which was not very big to begin with, had gaps blown out on the top of the city wall one after another. Xi Junmai immediately ordered the army to launch an attack.

Under the cover of the musketeers, the ground army began to gradually climb the city.

Today's flintlock rifles have a high degree of accuracy and shortened reloading time, which can quickly provide necessary assistance to the attacking army.

In less than an hour, the Qiang Man abandoned Bowo and quickly fled backwards. After Xi Junmai captured Bowo, he continued to move westward and began to move towards Zelagang (Nyingchi).

After the army had marched for a day, a scout came to Xi Junmai.

"General, the Qiang barbarians have gathered tens of thousands of troops ahead, about 70,000 to 80,000 people, and are heading towards us!"

After hearing this, Xi Junmai suddenly became extremely solemn.

"Send this message to the king immediately, quickly!"

Then Xi Junmai opened the map and selected a place with relatively favorable terrain nearby. The army began to set up camp and deploy defenses.

He had 30,000 men, but he had never thought of engaging in a head-on confrontation with the 70,000 or 80,000 men. Even if he won, he would suffer heavy losses. He only needed to wait for the army in the rear, and he could win this battle without suffering much casualties.

Three days later, the Qiang barbarian army attacked. Xi Junmai watched from afar with a telescope. Seeing that these Qiang barbarians had no formation and just rushed forward, he sneered.

When the Qiang Man approached, the artillery began to fire immediately. Under the bombardment of the red cannons, the densely rushing Qiang Man suffered heavy losses and began to flee backwards.

When Xi Junmai saw this scene, he was delighted. The two sides did not even meet each other. These Qiang barbarians were scared away by the red cannon.

Xi Junmai saw through the telescope that the casualties caused by the red cannon were no more than a thousand people. This was because the Qiang barbarians were too close to each other. If they were farther away, there would probably be only a few hundred casualties.

Compared with the number of 70,000 troops, it can be said to be a drop in the bucket, but even so, it directly scared away these Qiang barbarians.

Xi Junmai just shook his head.

"Barbarians are barbarians after all. They don't understand military formations. If the battle goes wrong, they will be defeated. They are really useless."

Xi Junmai, who was originally worried, no longer had any worries at this moment. By the time these barbarians recovered and adapted to firearms, Li Yuanji's army would arrive behind them, and these Qiang barbarians would not be able to cause any trouble.

On the second day, the Qiang Man attacked again, and the red cannons began to bombard again, continuously harvesting the lives of the Qiang Man in places where the Qiang Man could not see.

This time there was turmoil among the Qiang Man army, but they were still charging forward. Xi Junmai smiled coldly and waved his hand, and the flintlock musketeers immediately began to prepare.

Three thousand musketeers, arranged in three rows.

When the Qiang barbarians gradually approached, Xi Junmai immediately gave the order.

"shooting!"

The first row of musketeers started shooting without even aiming. After firing, the Qiang barbarians fell to the ground.

The musketeers in the first row squatted down immediately after firing, and the second row began to shoot, taking away another group of people. After the second row squatted down, the musketeers in the third row began to shoot.

This three-stage shooting technique was directly adopted by Li Yuanji from Mu Ying's method, which he then optimized.

In this way, the time needed to load ammunition into the flintlock rifle can be compensated.

Xi Junmai looked at the actual three-stage shooting and was amazed.

"Your Majesty is truly a god. This method is absolutely amazing!"

(End of this chapter)