The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 298: Blooming Everywhere

Although Tride Zuzan had the intention to kill, his face showed no sign of it. He just said calmly: "It is useless to say this now. The most urgent task is how to deal with the military operations of the Tang army in Dabolü."

Lunjie Sangjia Gong said: "The Tang army's capture of Dabolü is obviously intended to threaten our western Tubo, so we should send troops to support it no matter what."

Tridezu praised: "Where should we send the troops?"

"Dabolü is adjacent to Zhangzhung, Yangtong and Qiang. The Zamp should immediately mobilize troops from these three tribes to support Dabolü." Shang Jiexi on the side immediately made a suggestion.

Trisong Detsen knew very well that he should mobilize these three tribes for support, but these three tribes were not loyal enough to Tubo. Their elite soldiers had been deployed to the Helong front line before. If most of their troops were now mobilized to support Dabolü, they would most likely turn against them and defect to the Tang Dynasty.

War is an extension of politics, and it affects not only the two fighting forces, but also the fate of the entire empire.

Chide Zuzan pondered for a while and said, "At this point, this is the only way. Let Lang Niexi be the commander-in-chief and Mo Dongcha be the deputy commander-in-chief to go to the front to recruit troops and rush to help Dabolü."

Lang Niexi and Mo Dongcha were stunned when they heard this.

Both of them knew how difficult the war on the western front was. It was obvious that Trisong Detsen's arrangement was for them to set up a trap, but they could not refuse, otherwise Trisong Detsen would most likely turn against them immediately, so the two of them could only obey the order.

The two men headed west the next day, and after much effort they mobilized three tribes totaling 20,000 soldiers to the front line, only to find that Feng Changqing had already captured the capital of Dabolü and re-established the pro-Tang faction in Dabolü.

After Feng Changqing captured Dabolü, he did not rush to advance eastward. Instead, he built a defense line in Dabolü and cleared out the opposition within Dabolü.

Lang Niexi and Modongcha had no choice but to retreat to Tubo territory and build fortifications.

It was already late spring and early summer, and the news of Feng Changqing's conquest of Dabolü had not yet arrived, but Li Heng could no longer wait and ordered An Sishun and Li Guangbi to lead the Hexi Army to advance into Tubo from Dadouba Valley and Zhangye respectively.

The temperature in early summer was not low, but Li Heng asked An Sisun and Li Guangbi to bring winter clothes.

The two were already skeptical about Li Heng's order to let Hexi move first, and they became even more confused when they were asked to waste manpower to bring winter clothes.

However, despite their doubts, they still obeyed the order.

Li Guangbi led his troops to Dadouba Valley. The sun was shining brightly during the day, but at night, the wind and clouds suddenly changed, the temperature dropped sharply, and it even snowed in Dadouba Valley.

Li Guangbi immediately issued an order to the entire army, asking everyone to put on winter clothes.

Deputy General Lun Weiliang said: "Your Highness Prince Shou is truly a master of foresight. He actually predicted that there would be snowstorms in Dadouba Valley long ago."

Lun Weizhen said, "When Emperor Yang of Sui conquered Tuyuhun, he also encountered snowstorms in June. Your Highness Prince Shou must have just prepared for a rainy day. What I am more curious about is where Your Highness Prince Shou prepared 30,000 sets of winter clothes. We had no idea about this beforehand."

"No wonder the Anxi Beiting Army is so brave. His Royal Highness Prince Shou has prepared everything that should be prepared for them." Li Guangbi sighed and said, "Let's not talk about these for now. Our top priority now is how to break through Ebao Ridge."

Ebao Ridge is the exit of the Dadouba Valley, which is located high on the mountain. The Tubo built a wooden stronghold here, overlooking the Dadouba Valley. The Tang army could not go around it and could only attack from above.

Lun Weiliang said: "I will obey the orders of General Li."

"We can only launch a surprise attack." Li Guangbi had already made plans, so he spoke out his plan without hesitation. "The snow has come at the right time. In such a dangerous place and such bad weather, Tubo would not have expected that our army would dare to launch a surprise attack here. Select the best troops in the army, slaughter pigs and sheep today to reward the soldiers, and follow me to attack Ebao Ridge at midnight."

After Li Guangbi finished speaking, he gradually understood why Li Heng let the Hexi Army move first. Logically speaking, the Longyou Army was the main force in entering Dafeichuan and Mohuanchuan, and the Hexi Army was the auxiliary. Anyone with a discerning eye could see this.

But Li Heng did the opposite, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, using the auxiliary Hexi Army to attack the main force.

The same logic applies to attacking Dabolü first.

This trick is actually not very clever to say and is difficult to do.

Because the logistics and equipment provided to the auxiliary army were far inferior to those of the main army, Li Heng did use most of the food and supplies given by the court in Longyou.

However, Li Guangbi did not know what methods Li Heng used to provide sufficient logistical support for Anxi Beiting to send troops to Dabolü, and at the same time obtained winter clothes for the Hexi Army. He also gave full trust to the commander-in-chief of the Anxi Beiting Army and the commander-in-chief of the Hexi Army.

Even Wang Zhongsi could not have such logistical and personnel mobilization capabilities, full trust in his subordinates, and confidence in a battle line stretching thousands of miles.

As soon as the Hexi army moved, Li Heng summoned the generals from Longyou, divided the troops into two routes, and advanced towards Tubo from Longyou.

One route was led by Gao Xianzhi as the chief commander, with Li Siye, Bai Xiaode, Li Chengguang and others as deputy generals, and they entered Dayuechuan from Shibao City. Another route was led by Ma Lin as the chief commander, with Cen Shen, Lai Zhen, Li Sheng, Ma Sui and others as deputy generals, and they left Mohuanchuan from Taozhou.

For a time, there were wars everywhere in Tubo, and reports were continuously delivered to Trisong Detsen's desk.

At the beginning, Tubo could still hold out for a while, but as the Tang army continued to lose strength and the Tang army's generals used various tactics, Tubo could no longer hold on and retreated on several fronts.

Tridezuzan sighed and said, "I thought that Prince Shou would be proud of his military achievements and strictly control the war on all fronts. I didn't expect that he would not go to the front in person, but gave full autonomy to the generals of the Tang army and only coordinated in the middle. After fighting with the Tang army for so many years, how come I didn't know that the Tang army had so many brave and skilled generals? Where did they come from?"

Enlan Dazalu said: "The battle line stretches for thousands of miles, and we cannot fully control every line, otherwise it will only delay the battle opportunity. I think Zamp should fully delegate power to the generals in the front."

Tridezuzan sighed heavily.

How could he not know that he should delegate power? It's just that it's easier to delegate power than to take it back. He has worked so hard to concentrate power. Once he delegates it, what kind of struggle will he have to go through to take it back?

No matter how much power Li Heng delegated, it was only a corner of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty still had a long strategic depth, but Tubo did not.

But now that things have come to this, what can he do if he doesn't give up power?

Chide Zuzan was silent for a long time, nodded, and agreed to Enlan Dazhalugong's proposal to delegate power.

Chi De Zuzan thought he was forced by Li Ying to follow Li Ying's footsteps, but he overlooked the most important point.

That is the strategic control and tactical autonomy that Li Heng insisted on.

Li Heng allowed the various coaches to use their tactics freely and only asked them to stick to one strategy, which was to advance slowly.

Therefore, although the fighting on each battlefield was in full swing, they only advanced slowly, completely avoiding the Tibetan customary tactic of concentrating heavy troops to attack one place.

(End of this chapter)