Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1072 Don't Hit the South Wall

  Bad news came back one after another, and the young Songtsan Gampo became more and more depressed.

Gansong Ridge is like a fortified Great Wall, with iron walls and copper walls. It doesn't give him the slightest chance to invade. Leiguan's offensive has been intermittent, and he attacks every now and then, just because he doesn't want the defenders of Leiguan back to other directions.

  Up to now, Songtsan Gampo still has illusions about the other groups. Although Jongpo Bangse’s army has been defeated, there are still several groups of soldiers and horses left. As long as one of them succeeds, they can still win.

  The continuous Minshan Mountains and Gansong Ridge shelter Songzhou. Leiguan Pass is the most spacious and convenient road. Although there is Leiguan guarding the critical point, other sections of the road are wide and flat.

Although besides Leiguan, there are many river valleys that can lead to Songzhou, but those are small and dangerous roads, and some even have to climb high snow mountain passes, cross deep and narrow mountain streams, and turbulent rivers, but the current situation is like this, Zamp can only hope for that.

The sun has come out in the sky, but the grayness is like a bunch of monkey buttocks in the leaves, blurred, and it looks like the blood oozing under the gauze of those wounded Tubo soldiers who were killed by the Tang people before Leiguan. .

  Ten miles away from Leiguan, in this relatively open river valley, countless Tubo tents are set up, and the war is in a stalemate. There are still 100,000 people here.

  So except some of them took turns to tackle key problems, the rest were free. The mediocre men were responsible for driving cattle and sheep to graze in the valley.

   There have been some bad rumors in the camp.

  Many warriors began to give up hope for this Eastern Expedition, thinking that they should not come.

  Especially when the news of Qiongbangboser's defeat came back, there were more voices like this, especially the sheep allied army in the army.

  This time, Tubo sent 200,000 people to the east, among them were not only Tubo soldiers, but also an allied army, the Xiangxiong Army from Songtsan Gampo's brother-in-law, Xiangxiong King Li Mixia.

  Shangshung is a plateau kingdom that stands side by side with Tubo. Like Tubo, Zhangshung already existed in the period of forty plateau states and then twelve states. The plateau has grown from forty states to twelve small states, and then the three heroes of Xiangxiong, Subi, and Tubo stood side by side, and now Tubo has destroyed Subi, leaving only two heroes.

Zhang Zhung, also known as Yangtong, is a country in the Ngari Plateau in later generations. It is not accurate to say the country, because in fact, even at this time, Zhang Zhung has inherited dozens of kings, but its essence is still a A coalition of small states.

  It is similar to the earlier Subi and others.

Under this state alliance system, the Zhang Zhung Kingdom is actually very loose, and the Zhang Zhung King actually does not have too much control over the small states. The same is true of Tubo in the early years, but with the efforts of these generations of Zanpu, Tubo is changing from the past era of loose tribal state alliances, and is beginning to transition to a feudal and centralized state.

  Songtsan Gampo’s younger sister married Li Mixia, king of Xiangxiong, and Songtsen Gampo actually married Li Mixia’s younger sister as his concubine. This kind of marriage, like a marriage exchange, is a manifestation of the alliance between the two parties.

At the beginning, the three heroes of the plateau stood side by side, and Tubo took the initiative to attack, adopting the strategy of linking up with Zhang Zhung and then destroying Su Pi. During the war of expansion, Zhang Zhung sent troops to assist Tubo many times.

For this Eastern Expedition, Songtsan Gampo also sent envoys to Zhang Zhung early. He met his younger sister Saimage first, and then learned from her the detailed situation of the dome and silver castle in Zhang Zhung's city. The envoy conveyed Songtsan's For Ganbu's plan, let the princess help persuade Li Mixia.

  In fact, Songtsan Gampo’s plan was good. Li Mixia did send 10,000 troops to follow Zanpu on the eastward expedition.

  Now there are ten thousand sheep and soldiers in the big camp in front of Leiguan.

  These Zhang Zhung soldiers come from various branches of Zhang Zhung, and they are not very united. After all, Zhang Zhuong is just an alliance of tribal states with a vast territory and a long history of the alliance.

Geographically, it is roughly divided into three parts: Li Zhangzhung, Zhong Zhangzhung and Outer Zhangzhung. Li Zhangzhung is actually the westernmost area of ​​Zhangzhung, which is the Kashmir area at the junction of India and Pakistan in later generations, while Zhong Zhangzhung refers to the westernmost area of ​​Zhangzhung. The hinterland of the Ngari area where the dome-shaped Silver Fort, the capital of King Zhangshung, is located.

  Wai Xiangzhung has a wider area, including the thirty-nine tribes and the twenty-five tribes of Beijia. Among them, the twenty-five tribes of Beijia have even reached the border of Subi, and went to the Yushu area of ​​Qinghai in later generations.

  The territory of the entire Zhang Zhung Alliance is actually very vast. It starts from Kashmir in the west, Congling and Khotan in the north, including the entire Qiangtang no-man's land in northern Tibet, and extends to Qamdo and Yushu in the east.

   It can be said that in the heyday of Zhang Zhung, they actually covered more than half of the snow area.

  After Tubo conquered Senbo and Subi, it expanded all the way from the south of Shanxi, and the tribes in the eastern region of Xiangxiong, outside Xiangxiong, almost became an enclave.

   Now, in fact, the various tribes in the east, in fact, have broken away from the alliance with Zhang Zhung, and basically joined the alliance of Tubo, and in fact became a subsidiary of Tubo.

  The area that Zhang Zhung really controls now is the Ngari Plateau.

  The 800-year-old Zhang Zhung has long been old and decayed, and is far less powerful than the emerging Tubo.

However, this time Tubo Zanpu led 200,000 people to conquer the East. Many people thought that this time they would defeat the enemy like Subi before, and seize large tracts of land, cattle, sheep, livestock, etc., and everyone could share them. A lot of spoils were captured, but who would have imagined that the last time Zanpu conquered Su Pi with 120,000 troops, all of them were killed, but this time, the 200,000 people fought so embarrassingly.

   All the way here, I didn't really have any hands-on with Zhu Qiang, and everyone only focused on Songzhou, but who would have thought that now I haven't even seen Songzhou City, so I was blocked under Gansong Mountain.

The Tubo people are better. After all these years of reform and rectification in Tubo, these Tubo Gui soldiers are still brave and obedient, but the soldiers who come from Zhangxiong are different. King Zhangxiong may not be able to really command these people. They did not come because of Zhangxiong The king's order was not because of Tubo Zanpu's deterrence, but was tempted by the various benefits that Tubo Zanpu and King Xiangxiong told everyone. He thought that this time he would get many benefits like the previous fight against Subi. .

Therefore, the nobles of the various ministries are also very active in gathering 10,000 powerful soldiers and horses to follow the expedition, but now they have not reaped any benefits. They stay in this valley every day, and the people who are holding back are going crazy, so naturally they are not happy. .

  The alliance between Tubo and Zhang Zhung relied on their marriage and mutual oath.

  The loyalty between King Xiangxiong and the nobles of various tribes is actually solidified by the marriage oath, but in the face of real interests, these are not worth mentioning. Otherwise, why would Tubo Zanpu be poisoned and rebelled by his old Shannan nobles? You must know that among the rebellious old nobles, there are many patrilineal clans and matrilineal clans who are all in-laws of the Zanpu family for generations, or vice versa.

  Songtsan Gampo's mood was hard to calm down and he was very irritable.

  Bringing tiger and leopard skin guard warriors, he rode slowly in the valley, saying that he was out to shoot and hunt, but he was in no mood.

  He now feels like a lost person who has strayed into the jungle. The jungle is not only full of trees, but also full of fog, covering his eyes and making him unable to see the direction.

  Who is in command of Songzhou City, and how many reinforcements of the Tang Army have come?

  He knows nothing.

  He now regrets that he underestimated the enemy.

This Qin Qiong has guarded Songzhou for many years, not only built an elite Ningyuan army, but also built Songshan in the west of Songzhou into an insurmountable Great Wall. I thought it was a frontier fortress of the Tang Dynasty, and it should be easy to invade. Who knows Now I can't even touch it.

  Riding on the horse, he tried to calm himself down, and thought carefully about the conclusion.

Firstly, Songshan is very dangerous, and the road is difficult to walk, but Qin Qiong has set up many beacon towers here, and put all the passages in Songshan under surveillance. Once the enemy is found, he can immediately send a warning to Songzhou .

   Then Songzhou can quickly mobilize troops and horses to deploy defenses at the first time.

  Qin Qiong also set up many pillboxes, military towns, guards, towns, etc. in various valleys and passes, making the border extremely tight and impenetrable.

Just like now, although they divide their troops into several groups, it is difficult to attack, and they can always be blocked by the Tang army. Firstly, those fortresses block the way, and secondly, the Tang army relied on those beacon towers to quickly mobilize troops to intercept them. How could the state army have guarded so many passes?

One more thing, it is absolutely impossible for Songzhou to only have Ningyuan's army now. With those thousands of people, it is impossible to defend so many places, let alone hold back 100,000 soldiers at Leiguan, and defeat Qiongbang Bosse again at Gansong Village Thousands of horses.

  This only shows one problem, that is, Songzhou has indeed received reinforcements from the Tang army, and it may not be as simple as the surrounding government soldiers, border town soldiers, and united soldiers.

  A terrible guess came to mind.

   Is this a trap from beginning to end?

   Or is it that Qin Qiong didn't die of illness at all, but just faked his death to lure them to attack? Then Qin Qiong not only did not die, but also mobilized many elites from Guanlong and other places early to set up a net here?

This is impossible.

  If this result is true, it would be terrible. Although Tubo has long intended to conquer the East, the real Eastern Expedition is a top secret, and it is even more uncertain. How could the people of Tang predict it?

   But other than that, how to explain the current foggy situation?

  In the past few days, some people have already proposed to withdraw troops.

  Some people said to withdraw directly to Tubo, while others proposed to adjust the direction and attack Weizhou in the south, or go north to attack Longyou, or simply attack Tuyuhun.

   Some people also said that it is better to go back to the division first and wipe out the Qiangs of Dangxiang Bailan and force them to surrender, and wait for the opportunity to make a comeback next time.

   After all, they all think that the Eastern Expedition has been defeated, and it is impossible for Songzhou to fight, or even see it.

  They all wanted to retreat, and they were unwilling to fight again.

  Songtsan Gampo did not let go, and he could not let go. It is impossible for the 200,000 soldiers to retreat in such a desperate way.

  How can you be willing to withdraw your troops if you don't see Songzhou City?

   At the very least, a victory must be achieved, even if it is a small victory.

  (end of this chapter)