The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 122: The two armies meet and decide on a plan to capture the city

A month goes by in a blink of an eye.

Mohedagan sent his own son, while Li Heng personally escorted Gao Xianzhi and his men to the battle.

In addition to Gao Xianzhi and An Sishun, other generals who went on the expedition included Feng Changqing, Li Siye, Cheng Qianli and others.

In addition, Xin Yunjing also followed.

Xin Yunjing had previously served Li Heng in the name of Li Heng's bodyguard. Now that Li Heng had become a Jiedushi, he naturally had no shortage of bodyguards. When the Turks besieged Qiuci, Xin Yunjing also made contributions. Such a talent did not want to be just a bodyguard for his entire life, and Li Longji would not let him be just a bodyguard. Therefore, this time when Xin Yunjing came to Anxi, Li Longji gave Xin Yunjing the position of Jiedushi.

The main responsibility of this position is to lead troops into battle.

As for monitoring Li Heng, Xin Yunjing had been monitoring him for four years. During these four years, Li Heng had not made any unusual moves. Li Longji had gradually relaxed his vigilance and no longer needed someone to keep an eye on him all the time.

Gao Xianzhi bid farewell to Li Heng and led his team on a quick march all the way to Helie City.

Going beyond Helie City, you will reach Dumozhi's sphere of influence.

Therefore, Gao Xianzhi stopped and waited for Mohedagan to join him.

After waiting for a day, Mohedagan arrived with his men.

When Mohedagan saw Gao Xianzhi, he was excited and admired him. He said, "General Gao is really fast. It has only been a few days and he has arrived at Helie City. I hurried as fast as I could, but I was still a step behind."

A general's talent, in addition to commanding battles, is also the ability to lead the army to march at a very fast speed.

Especially in a terrain like Anxi, with desert and Gobi everywhere, ordinary people would be lucky if they could not get lost, let alone a quick march.

But Gao Xianzhi, known as the "human radar", had his own positioning direction and was familiar with the Anxi area. In addition, he had good military management skills and the army was at his disposal, so he always appeared where he should be on time.

Gao Xianzhi didn't care about Mohedagan's praise. He just smiled and invited Mohedagan into the main tent of the army. He asked, "Khan, how is the situation in Suiye City?"

Moheda Gan said: "Dumozhi and Yehu are guarding Suiye City. I fought them several times but failed."

When Mohedagan said this, his expression became somewhat unnatural.

When Gao Xianzhi saw Mohedagan's expression, he knew that Mohedagan had not only returned empty-handed, but was being chased and killed by someone.

However, Gao Xianzhi did not point it out and asked, "How many soldiers are there in the city?"

Moheda Gan said: "There are 20,000 in Suiye City, plus the surrounding cities of Suiye City, there are probably no less than 60,000 people."

Gao Xianzhi was not surprised to hear that Dumozhi had 60,000 defenders.

Because there are so many people, it is related to the military system of the Turks.

The Turkic army was based on tribes, organized in the form of hunting and encirclement, and combined the soldiers and civilians of the tribe with conscripts from subordinate tribes.

In other words, his 60,000 people included the core combat team, soldiers from other tribes, tribal people who followed the army, baggage trains, and slaves.

The supply system of the Tuqishi army was not much different from that of the Tubo army. Military logistics only accounted for a part of the supply, and the other part was provided by the tribal people who followed the army. Wherever they went, they would bring all their belongings, which included not only food but also livestock.

This is why history records that after a Tang army won a battle, it captured tens of thousands of cattle and sheep. In other words, of the 60,000-strong army of Dumozhi, only 20% or 30% were truly combat-ready, or less than 20,000 people.

However, 20,000 people is almost twice the number of troops led by Gao Xianzhi.

Gao Xianzhi first considered in his mind whether what Mohedagan said was true.

Gao Xianzhi knew that during the heyday of Sulu's unification, the Turgesh could probably muster more than 200,000 troops to march. Now that they were defeated by the Arabs and Mohedagan had split from them, it was reasonable to reduce the number of troops by two-thirds.

After confirming that the information was not leaked, Gao Xianzhi began to think about how to fight.

Dumozhi's main force of less than 20,000 people still sounds like it has more people than his, but the equipment level of Dumozhi's army is far inferior to that of the Tang army, and Suiye City is not a very strong city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Even if he hits hard, he can still chew the broken leaves off.

However, no matter how strong the city is, the casualties of the soldiers attacking the city will be heavy. After being influenced by Li Heng for some time, Gao Xianzhi is unwilling to bear too many casualties of the soldiers.

Gao Xianzhi thought for a while and said to Moheda Gan: "Can the Khan lead Dumozhi and others to open the city gate?"

Moheda Gan said: "As long as I appear under Suiye City, the people of Dumozhi will chase me out and want to kill me."

"Okay." Gao Xianzhi nodded and said, "I have hurried here, and Dumozhi must not have noticed it yet. Please ask the Khan to go and lure them to open the city gate. The Khan will pretend to be defeated and I will take the opportunity to lead the troops to attack the city."

Mohedagan was a little hesitant.

He was afraid that Gao Xianzhi would deceive him, and he was also afraid that the Tang army would be unable to defeat Dumozhi after he opened the city.

Seeing Moheda Gan's hesitation, Gao Xianzhi said, "The Khan is a true hero. He was able to go to Qiuci and tie himself up to plead guilty to His Royal Highness Prince Shou. Now that there is only one step left, are you going to give up? Moreover, I have led the troops here to join the Khan, which shows the sincerity of the Tang Dynasty. Could it be that the great Celestial Empire would lie to the Khan?"

"It's not that I don't trust General Gao." Mohedagan came to the side of the map and pointed at it, saying, "Yezhi, Peiluo, Jiangjun, and Dajun are all in Dumozhi's hands. If we go straight to Suiye, once we fail and a stalemate is formed, we will be easily surrounded and the outcome will be unpredictable. Therefore, I think the safer way is to take the four outer cities first and then besiege Suiye."

The method Mohedagan suggested is indeed safer, but it will result in greater casualties.

Gao Xianzhi hesitated for a moment and asked An Sishun and others beside him, "What do you think, generals?"

An Sishun looked at the map and pondered for a while, then said, "Although advancing step by step is safe, it will result in too many casualties. If we fight all the battles this way, how many soldiers in Anxi will be sacrificed? General Gao's plan to take Suiye directly is a brilliant one. As long as we take Suiye City, the other border cities will naturally surrender. I agree with General Gao's plan."

Li Siye said: "Lianyun Fort is extremely dangerous, but it will only take half a day to take it down. How difficult is it to take over Suiye City?"

Xin Yunjing, Feng Changqing and Cheng Qianli also seconded the motion.

The six people who spoke in the Tang army were all famous generals of the Tang Dynasty in history. Naturally, they were confident about taking over Suiye City.

But at that time they were not very famous.

Therefore, when Mohedagan saw the momentum of these people, he was shocked and couldn't help thinking: "The Tang Dynasty is really full of famous generals. Anxi alone is such a hidden dragon and crouching tiger."

So, Moheda Gan agreed and said, "In this case, I will go and lure the enemy myself. I hope that all the generals will work together with me to destroy Yecheng."

Gao Xianzhi led the Tang generals and said: "Work together to destroy Yecheng!"

(End of this chapter)