Tibet

Chapter 1342: Battle of Nanzhao (Part 1)

The Tang army commander who led two thousand troops to ambush the Tubo army was named Zhou Bin, who served as the deputy governor of Jiannan. He had led his troops to ambush tens of thousands of troops led by Li Zhen, the son of Li Lin, on the Sanxia Road. He had rich experience in ambushes.

The first thing he did was to collect big trees near the cliff road and pile up the trunks into a small hill to block the road, and there was more than one pile.

In addition to arranging the pile of giant trees to block the road, he also arranged soldiers to climb the cliff.

There was indeed a narrow path above the cliff, about ten miles long, which was opened up by herbalists and passed through the top of the cliff. However, the entrance to the path was on the Tang army side, and the Tubo army could not go up.

The last time, the Tang army ambushed 1,500 Tubo soldiers on this path.

At this time, there was news from the front that the Tubo army had appeared twenty miles away.

Zhou Bin immediately ordered: "The army goes up the cliff!"

An army of hundreds of people climbed up the cliff carrying kerosene and iron fire mines.

More than 30,000 Tubo troops were running all the way. In the afternoon, they entered the more dangerous Lushui Gorge. There were steep mountains on both sides, and the turbulent Lushui River below. There was only a cliff road that was ten feet wide.

This section of road was about 40 miles in total. The merchants were terrified when they walked this section of road, and they led the mule team to walk close to the inside.

However, the Tubo army did not care about this cliff terrain. They continued to run in formation, and many soldiers ran on the edge. Perhaps they had seen too many such high-drop terrains, so they didn't take it seriously.

The 30,000 soldiers ran for about 30 miles and suddenly stopped. There was a shout in front. Qi Zang Zha Zha reined in his horse and asked loudly: "What happened in front?"

Soon, a soldier ran to report, "Report to the governor, the mountain road ahead is blocked by a huge tree, and everyone can't get through!"

Qi Zang Zha Zha frowned and ordered: "Why don't you throw the huge tree into the river quickly?"

"Yes!" The soldier turned around and ran back.

Qi Zang looked around and became a little nervous. He had walked this road countless times, but now he realized its danger. If the Tang army wanted to ambush him on this road, wouldn't his army be unable to escape?

He didn't know the details of the previous 1,500 soldiers who died in battle. He thought they died under Huichuan City.

It was because the Jianchuan area was full of cliffs and steep terrain. They walked every day and were numb. Just like a trainer, dealing with wild beasts every day, when he encountered wild beasts in the wild, he would be afraid to run away like an ordinary person. He would not realize the danger until the wild beast really wanted to bite him to death. This is actually the principle of boiling a frog in warm water.

A few miles ahead, a pile of hundreds of huge trees blocked the mountain road, covered with kerosene. If you walk about three miles forward, you will find another pile of huge trees. In order to be foolproof, the two thousand Tang soldiers who ambushed here in advance prepared a total of two piles of huge trees, distributed on the five-mile long cliff road.

The Tubo generals at the vanguard received the order from the commander and immediately ordered hundreds of soldiers to push the wood off the cliff.

Hundreds of soldiers had just approached the pile of giant trees when a rocket suddenly shot from a distance, igniting the giant trees and the kerosene on both sides. "Boom!" The fire started burning, and the kerosene was all over the feet of hundreds of soldiers. The fire spread rapidly and engulfed them in an instant.

Hundreds of soldiers screamed and fled back in fear. Many people fell into the river in panic, and saw balls of fire falling into the turbulent waves under the cliff.

Only more than 30 of the hundreds of soldiers escaped back. They were all black, their hair and beards were burned, and large pieces of skin fell off. They were seriously injured. The rest of the soldiers fell to the ground and were burned to death.

Qi Zang Zha Zha knew that something was wrong, and immediately ordered: "Turn around immediately and return to Huichuan!"

The army turned around quickly, but less than a mile away, a series of violent explosions suddenly came from the east, the mountain was shaking, the soldiers could not stand, and fell one after another, and huge rocks on the cliff rolled down.

The Tang army used more than a dozen heavy iron fire bombs, each weighing 300 kilograms, full of explosives. The explosion was so strong that the mountain shook.

The news came that the road was blown up by the Tang army. Qi Zang Zha Zha hurried to the explosion site. The scene in front of him made him gasp. A section of the road that was 300 feet long was gone, and it became a straight up and down cliff.

This gap can only be filled with a plank road, but the Tubo army did not master the technology of laying plank roads, so they could only sigh at the gap.

Helpless, the Tubo army had to turn west again. At this time, rocks kept rolling down the mountain, the mountain was shaking, and the ground was shaking slightly, as if two small earthquakes had occurred in succession.

"General, the mountain seems to be collapsing!" Several Tubo generals shouted.

Qi Zang Zha Zha also noticed that the ground was shaking significantly, which was a precursor to the collapse of the mountain.

He was immediately anxious and issued a death order: "No matter how many people die, we must open up the road at all costs!"

Thousands of Tubo soldiers were ordered to open the way. They took off their armor and laid it on the burning ground, shoveled the charred bodies into the river, and quickly approached the fire.

At this time, dozens of fire mines rolled down the mountain and exploded in the dense crowd on the mountain road. The Tubo soldiers were immediately blown to pieces, and countless soldiers were blown off the cliff by the air wave. More than a thousand people were killed and injured in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of burning kerosene tanks fell from the cliff again. This time the threat was not great. Most of the kerosene tanks shattered during the rolling process, and only a dozen kerosene tanks fell on the mountain road.

But even the small fires caused by these dozen kerosene cans scared the Tubo soldiers so much that they ran back screaming.

Qizang Zhazha was furious and ordered the supervising soldiers to go forward and kill people, killing dozens of people in a row.

The remaining Tubo soldiers had no choice but to turn around and go back to move wood. This time they learned their lesson and walked forward one by one, clinging to the cliff wall and protecting their bodies with shields. The Tang soldiers above could not see them, and neither the fire bombs nor the kerosene could work anymore.

Someone went back to report to the commander Zhou Bin, who immediately ordered: "Pass the order, leave a team of observation posts on the mountain road, and the rest of the soldiers will withdraw and prepare to detonate heavy fire mines!"

Several generals advised: "General, the mountain is already unstable. If you detonate heavy fire mines again, I'm afraid the mountain will collapse."

Zhou Bin shook his head and said: "Our mission is to trap the Tubo army to death. We can't be a bit lenient at this time. Pass my order, prepare heavy fire mines, and the army will retreat 30 miles immediately!"

The Tang army soldiers began to retreat quickly. They were ready to blow up the mountain road with two 300-jin heavy fire mines like the Tang army in the east, completely trapping the Tubo army on the mountain road.

The heavy fire mines were installed in the cracks under the cliff, about a hundred steps apart, with two dozens of feet long fire ropes.

One of the heavy fire mines was less than a hundred steps away from the first pile of giant trees.

At this time, the Tubo army had already approached the pile of giant trees. They also found a way to move the pile of giant trees. They wrapped them with leather armor, tied ropes and pulled hard. One by one, the big trees were pulled down. Dozens of people pushed the giant trees down the cliff together.

After clearing the pile of giant trees, two Tang soldiers lit the fuse and ran away.

Qi Zang Zha Zha was overjoyed and immediately ordered: "The whole army advances at full speed!"

The Tubo soldiers had been terrified for a long time. Suddenly, they saw a glimmer of hope and immediately rushed to run on the mountain road.

After running less than a mile, they heard two earth-shaking explosions and the mountain road suddenly collapsed.

The mountains in this area have experienced several earthquakes in history and have become very unstable. There are often large rocks falling. The Tang army blasted the mountain twice before and after, and finally triggered a huge landslide. Not only did the mountain road collapse, but also the cliff above began to collapse.

There were still more than 20 Tang soldiers monitoring the enemy above. Suddenly, they found something wrong and the brigade commander shouted, "Run!"

The Tang army turned around and ran, but more than a dozen Tang soldiers were unable to escape and were instantly swallowed by the landslide rocks. The mountains collapsed and the ground cracked, and they slid down with the irresistible power of nature.

On the mountain road, countless Tibetan soldiers screamed in despair and slid down the cliff with the huge mountain.

This was a landslide that had not been seen in a thousand years. The landslide was as long as six miles. Nearly 30,000 Tibetan soldiers and thousands of Tibetan donkeys died on the cliff.

This landslide also raised the riverbed of the Lushui River, forming a barrier lake. The water quickly overflowed the barrier lake and continued to flow down, forming a torrent waterfall on the Lushui River.

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