Chapter 1247: Pursuit
The elderly Tualu and the young Mohe stood shoulder to shoulder on a high hill, looking at the Tang army's troops not far away, advancing slowly.
"How did they do it?" Mo He asked in horror when he saw the Tang army standing in the combat queue but still marching continuously.
Tu Alu was unable to come from a long time. He also wanted to know how Tang Jun did this.
Like the retreating Tubo army, the Tang army also carried a large amount of baggage and was constantly harassed by the Tubo army's cut-off rear, but their speed of advance was no slower than that of the Tubo army.
In other words, if Tu Alu had not been harassing him relentlessly these days, Li Cunzhong would have probably caught up with Chinan, Delhi.
"This is the first time in my life that I have seen an army with such strict military discipline." After a while, Tu Alu sighed. "Mo He, how can I fight this battle?"
"Earlier, Li Cunzhong built a turtle shell formation, and we couldn't fight for a while, but now that Li Cunzhong has come out, why should we leave again? Even if we want to leave, can't we fight a battle and then leave?" Mo He said a little annoyed.
"Of course it's okay to fight!" Tu Alu looked at the young and energetic Mo He and smiled bitterly: "But look at the current situation. At this marching speed, the opponent can still maintain the combat sequence. If you really fight, how long will it take for us to take them?"
No one can help but keep talking.
"Take a step back and say, even if we take them down, how much loss will we have? Have you calculated it?"
Mo He lowered his head.
"If we follow our earlier plan, it would be fine if we suffer heavy casualties. As long as we wiped out Li Cunzhong's troops, we would get a few years of peace and have a certain buffer time, it would be acceptable. But now, how can we do this?" Tuaru said: "I have paid a huge loss and defeated Li Cunzhong desperately. How to deal with more enemies next? They are already on the way!"
"But we still have to fight after all." Mo He said.
"Yes, I will fight after all." Tuaru nodded: "But how to fight and where to fight is something that we need to consider carefully now. Mohe, this is no longer an ordinary war, it is a war that concerns whether our Great Tubo can still survive under the sun. When Synobud was driven back by the Tang people, he already explained it clearly to us. Li Ze made up his mind to annex our Great Tubo, because the existence of our Great Tubo made Li Ze feel threatened."
"He will not succeed. All Tufanlangs will fight against the Tang people to the end." Mo He shouted loudly.
"Of course we will fight to the end!" Tuaru nodded: "But the enemy's strength is superior, and he has been planning it hard for many years. In the first half, we have lost. The destruction of Mangaba greatly damaged our strength, which made us only able to take a defensive moment in the second half. The stretched fingers must be retracted, and the strength of the fingers will never be compared with the fist, so we must bend our arms and clench our fists."
"Is the fist you are talking about around Lhasa?" Mo He asked.
Tuaru nodded.
"That is our foundation. Around Lhasa, it is our richest, most powerful and most populous tribe. There are fertile land, herds of cattle and sheep, and various systematic workshops. Wherever we will get the greatest support, and everyone unites and strives to resist the invaders. When we get there, we can also call on tribes from remote areas to come and support. As long as Lhasa is not lost, the Tubo flag will not fall. This is the reason why the great theory must be withdrawn no matter what."
Mohe nodded.
"The Tang people want to fight quickly." Tu Alu glanced at the changing clouds in the sky and then said, "And we need to stick to it, hold on to it, delay, and delay again. Do you know? We don't need to defeat the Tang army, we just need to persist. In the end, the Tang army will be the first to support it. Logistics supply is their biggest soft threat. Now it seems that the Tang people have mobilized at least an army of more than 100,000 people and civilians. On this land, they cannot obtain the supplies they need on the spot. Everything needs to be transported from the rear. No matter how rich the Tang people are in the road, no matter how rich the Tang people are, they can't withstand a long time of consumption. What's more, the Tang people are now suffering natural disasters. Floods and droughts are raging on their territory. As long as we persist, they will definitely fail in the end."
"Since that's the case, why should we pay attention to Li Cunzhong? Just marching in a big way. Anyway, with his current strength, he can't beat us." Mo He said.
"It's impossible not to fight!" Tu Alu sighed: "How do you know that Li Cunzhong will not come to attack us? What's the purpose of him biting us like this? Wouldn't we slow down our marching? He is waiting for their large-scale cavalry to arrive. Once their cavalry arrives and we haven't withdrawn, then it's over."
"Since that's the case, then I will join the old general to stop Li Cunzhong."
"No, you go!" Tu Alu shook his head: "Go back and tell the Da Lu that I asked you to leave. You are still young. In the next battle of Lhasa, you still need a young guy like you. I am old. In this blocking battle, let me learn how capable is Li Cunzhong, a Khitan?"
"You want to block the attack head-on?" Mo He was shocked.
"Yes, you take all the cavalry away, and I will only leave the infantry and 20,000 civilians." Tuaru said: "They can't leave anyway. After going back, they told Da Lu that if necessary, they should abandon all the baggage, and return to Lhasa, and they can be rebuilt."
At night, Li Cunzhong's troops still set up camp in an orderly manner and began to rest. He was not worried that the Tubo army would retreat overnight. During such a marche, his subordinates were very tired, but the Tubo people would also be very tired. If they really wanted to travel overnight, it would only make his soldiers even more tired, and by the day tomorrow, the efficiency would be lower. And how far they could go in one night was still a big problem.
As soon as you go in and out, it may be more efficient than resting and rushing.
This is the reason why sharpening a knife does not delay chopping wood.
The next day it was bright and after breakfast, the Tang army began to set off again, but this time, they stopped before they moved forward for a long time.
Because in front of them, a barrier created overnight and a military formation appeared, blocking their way forward.
The so-called obstacles are just made up of countless baggage piles, and even countless mules and horses were killed and then piled up.
Tualu's flag was flying at the highest point of the obstacles. The veteran stood there with his arms naked and holding the flag with his big beard floating, which really added an endless sense of tragic feeling.
In front of this obstacle are thousands of fully armed Tubo warriors, and even ahead are civilians holding simple swords, guns, bows and arrows.
Abdula looked up at the shirtless old man and laughed: "Is this guy going to sing a big show?"
"This guy is going to fight to the death!" Li Cunzhong frowned. He didn't like such occasions. Under normal circumstances, such a battle was not easy to fight. Even if he had the upper hand, facing a group of guys who were determined to die, it was difficult to fight.
Tualu didn't attack, he just wanted to hold Li Cunzhong up as much as possible. With his current military force, if he took the initiative to attack, he would be defeated by Li Cunzhong's elite subordinates in a blink of an eye.
When Li Cunzhong saw Tu Alu's formation, he understood what the other party meant. He was trying to drive these young and strong men to fight against him. For these people, Xiang forward is death, and Xiang backward is also death.
"The civil servants are ahead and the elite are behind. They want to consume them with the civil servants!" Abdula hated such a formation. This is the standard routine for the Tubo nobles to fight and the combat method that they used to hate the most. Under such combat mode, they were not regarded as human beings at all, but became a tool of combat. "I led the cavalry to rush over, and the civil servants couldn't last long."
Li Cunzhong shook his head: "Wait."
"Why?"
Li Cunzhong said lightly: "At this moment, they were bewitched by Tualu, and their morale was strong. When they rushed forward, their will to resist was the strongest and their combat power was the strongest. Tens of thousands of civilians, even tens of thousands of chickens, could hurt people. One round of energy, then declined, and exhausted three times. When we waited for their morale to fade. Abdula, you led the cavalry to attack, tempted them back and forth, and always made their nerves tense."
Speaking of this, Li Cunzhong smiled and said, "If the bow string is pulled too tightly and the time is pulled too long, it will break."
Tualu waited, waiting for Li Cunzhong to take the initiative to attack.
But the Tang army just stopped moving.
However, the opponent's cavalry rushed up roaringly, and just approached the range of the bow and arrow, but then roared and left.
A stick of incense.
A quarter of an hour.
One hour.
Standing high, Tualu saw the Tang army opposite still standing like a mountain, and below him, the civilians began to get a little turbulent.
Even he himself became cold because he stood too high and the wind was too strong, and his body had a layer of fine goose bumps.
Logically speaking, Li Cunzhong did not attack, which was exactly what he wanted.
But he felt more and more unpleasant.
Such time consumption is completely different from what he imagined.
He wanted to use fighting, blood, and casualties to curb the opponent's pursuit speed. But if this continues, he is afraid that the opponent will not attack, and he will defeat himself in one attack.
But what can he do?
Take the initiative to attack?
Using these civilians to attack the heavily guarded military formation of the Tang army is tantamount to seeking death.
After half a day passed, the civilian team finally began to get messy.
Chapter completed!