Chapter 311 Anxi Strategy (I)

In July of the seventh year of Xuanren, severe civil strife occurred in the Uighurs. Tuoba Qianli led his army to attack the capital, announced the abolition of the Zhongzhen Khan and the establishment of a new Khan. This move was supported by many Uighur nobles loyal to the former Dengli Khan. Under the severe ruling crisis, Zhongzhen Khan, who was far away in Beiting, was forced to helplessly, so he made peace with the Tang army. The two sides finally reached an agreement in two days of negotiations. Zhongzhen Khan admitted in writing that Beiting and Anxi belonged to the Tang Dynasty, and ordered Jiegangas of Anxi to put down his weapons and surrender to the Tang army. The Tang army promised that the Anxi Uighurs could pass through the border after they put down their weapons and return the weapons after they left Beiting.

At the same time, Zhang Huan also clearly stated that he would support the return of Zhongzhen Khan to the Khan throne, and that the Tang army could provide assistance when necessary. At the end of July, the news of the Khan's peace with the Tang army had not yet been delivered to Anxi. In order to open up the road to the north, Jiegangas, who was attacked north of Bosten Lake, fought a decisive battle with the Tang army north and south, but was defeated by the Tang army. Nearly half of the Uighurs' southern expedition army was killed and injured. A few days later, the Zhongzhen Khan ordered the put down his weapons and passed it to Anxi. Jiegangas, who had lost all the food and supplies, was also urgent and surrendered to the Tang army.

The 40,000 Uighur army left Anxi northwest under the surveillance of the Tang army, and finally joined the Zhongzhen Khan in the Duoluo River north of Beiting, and the army returned to the north of the desert. In this way, the Uighurs' battle that lasted for a whole year ended in the complete failure of the Uighurs.

But at the same time when the Tang army and the Uighur army fought in Bosten Lake, the Tubo army, far away in the city, began to march towards Kucha, trying to drive the Tang army out of Anxi. Wang Siyu's army took the initiative to attack. He personally led 8,000 cavalry to intercept the vanguard of the Tubo army in the Baima River Basin west of Kucha.

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The vast grassland was like a giant spreading his arms and stretching out in all directions. The sky was endless blue, the earth was shrouded in the hot blue dome, and several eagles soared in the sky, staring at the army on the earth with sharp eyes.

Wang Siyu's cavalry can be called the elite of the Xiliang cavalry. Part of them were veterans who captured the Stone Fort City with Wang Siyu, and the other was strong people selected from the freed Han slaves in Hehuang. There were also some Qiang cavalry. Their biggest feature was that they were all superb riding skills and could not get off the horse for days or nights. Then, under three years of cruel training in slept with firewood and tasting gall, they not only mastered fighting techniques such as riding and shooting, sword techniques, but also had strict organizational discipline. When moving, they were rushing like clouds, and when quiet, they were as heavy as mountains. It was this elite cavalry that allowed Wang Siyu to march day and night and seize Yanqi and Kucha in one fell swoop.

As the commander, Wang Siyu inherited the spirit of his grandfather Wang Zhongsi, the god of the Tang army. He is loyal, firm and decisive. Sometimes he is like a sharp sword that can cut off the killing without moving forward; sometimes he is like a calm sea, with surging undercurrents under the calm sea level. He is only 30 years old this year, but he is already a veteran who has experienced many battles, calm and yet sharp.

A scout rushed over from afar and reported loudly: "General, the vanguard of the Tubo people is twenty miles away, about 6,000 cavalry."

"I understand, let's check again!"

"As for your order!" The scout bowed and turned around. Wang Siyu looked at the terrain on both sides. The Baima River flowed from the northwest, drew an arc in the distance, and then flowed northeast, like a long bow, winding, and a large forest by the river five miles away.

Wang Siyu pondered for a moment, and then ordered Cao Hanchen, the commander of the First Battalion, to say, "You can lead three thousand troops to hide in the woods, wait for the Tubo soldiers to pass by and cover them from behind."

"The last general will obey the order!" Cao Hanchen waved his hand, and three thousand troops separated from the team and galloped northward.

The Tang army slowed down their horse speed and tried their best to rest. They moved forward for about three or four miles. At this time, more than a dozen cavalrymen appeared on a high ground in the northwest of the distant northwest. They were the scouts of the Tubo people. Wang Siyu immediately ordered to expand the banner and create a momentum of ten thousand people. Then a 500-year-old patrolman chased the Tubo scouts, and the Tubo scouts turned around and fled far away.

When Wang Siyu waved his hand, the five thousand cavalry immediately stopped moving forward and stopped on the grassland. In addition to the knights' equipment and the excellence of the horses, the cavalry also paid attention to momentum and tactics. With his own strengths and weaknesses in defeating the enemy, the Tang army's advantage lies in its excellent equipment. It is not only equipped with long spears and horizontal swords, but also sharp bows and arrows, especially the Xiliang Army. They changed the traditional cavalry bow and arrow equipment to hard crossbows. The soldiers were equipped with Biao Zhang crossbows, with a range of 230 steps and an effective killing distance of 150 steps. Its power, range, and accuracy were far above the bow and arrows. The only disadvantage was that the rate of fire and flexibility were poor. For this reason, one of the main training courses of the cavalry of the Xiliang Army was to ride and shoot while running at high speed. Wang Siyu's cavalry could all use crossbows skillfully.

Arrows are not ordinary arrows. This time, Wang Siyu's army equipped with armored arrows specially designed for the Tubo people. The arrows are pointed and conical, long and thin, and grooved on three sides. They are specially developed for the chain mails of the Tubo people.

In order to deal with the cavalry of the Tubo people, the Tang army also made a lot of other preparations, such as war horses. The characteristics of the Tubo people's war horses are of excellent weight bearing and endurance, which are suitable for long-distance travel in high-altitude areas, but the horses are not fast and especially lack impact. The Xiliang Army is mainly equipped with Turkic horses, which are also lasting for a long time, but they are small in size and cannot keep up with the speed. For this reason, Zhang Huan sent people to introduce a batch of best Dayuan stallions a few years ago, and sent special personnel to manage breeding in Hexi. At the same time, a batch of Yanqi horses were purchased. These two types of war horses were tall and powerful, with long limbs, extremely sensitive to the control of reins, and extremely strong speed and explosive power. Unfortunately, there were not many such good horses. In the past few years, the entire Xiliang Army had only more than 20,000 horses, of which 10,000 were equipped in Zhang Huan's Guards, and the other 10,000 were equipped in Wang Siyu's army.

The sky was high and the west wind blew, and five thousand Tang cavalry were divided into two legions and stood on the vast grassland. This was a group of warriors fighting for the country and their ideals. Their blood was boiling. In order to clean up the shame that the Tang Dynasty suffered repeatedly after the Anshi Rebellion, they traveled thousands of miles to the distant Western Regions and fought for the glory and interests of the Tang Dynasty.

A long distance, a black line appeared. After more than 300 miles of day and night, the vanguard of the Tubo people finally arrived in Kucha. It should be said that Chisong Dezan's strategy was correct. He ordered the Tubo army to retreat westward, thus occupying the fisherman's power. However, he did not expect two things to happen. A Tang army would come from the south and occupy the Kucha he gave up. Secondly, he did not expect that civil strife would occur in the Uighurs, which made the originally inevitable large-scale and fierce battle ended in negotiations.

As a result, his strategic retreat turned into a strategic mistake, and he gave Yanqi and Kucha to the Tang army in vain. For this reason, Chisong Dezan hated Zhang Huan very much. When the Tang army was still fighting with the Uighur army in Bohu, he personally led a 50,000 army to Kucha. Among them, his 5,000 vanguards arrived at the bank of the Baima River in just two days and two nights.

The vanguard general of Tubo was named Lumang Zangbu. He was Chisong Dezan's son-in-law and was very brave and fierce. When Chisong Dezan was besieged by the Great Food Army in Tocharo, it was he who led his army to open a bloody road and rescued Zanpu out of danger. His five thousand subordinates were also professional soldiers. Compared with the Tubo army that was temporarily pieced together by herders, they were more bloodthirsty and brave. That's why they were always the sharp swords that Chisong Dezan made the way.

Compared with the Tang army, the equipment of the Tubo people was slightly inferior, especially in the level of bows and arrows. They were far inferior to the Tang army. The equipment of cavalry and infantry was no different. They were mainly wearing chain mail, holding spears and round shields, and using traditional long swords in close combat. However, they had strong physical constitution, long-lasting endurance, and rarely got sick, especially in high-altitude areas. Generally speaking, if the battle between the Tang army and the Tubo army fell into a stalemate, the Tubo army often won by relying on their physical strength.

At this time, Lumang Zangbu also saw the Tang army in the distance. He waved his hand gently and the army slowed down. He had already received a reply. The Tang army looked at the momentum of about 10,000 people, but in fact it was similar to his own troops, with only 5,000 people.

Lumang Zangbu looked back at his team, his morale was high and his momentum was like a rainbow. He smiled proudly and said, "Zanpu said that those who take Kucha first can be named King Anxi, but he sent me as a pioneer. Obviously, I did not take me into consideration. Brothers, if I can help me take Kucha, you can use the women, cattle and sheep you see."

When the news came out, five thousand Tubo people let out a wolf-like cry. They were professional soldiers and made a living by plundering and killing. In their eyes, the Tang army in the distance was nothing more than a group of sheep they could slaughter.

"Kill!" Lumang Zangbu waved his long sword and roared wildly. The Tubo army used his legs to activate the war horse, raised the shield with his left hand, held the spear with his right hand, and rushed towards the Tang army overwhelmed the sky. The murderous aura filled the grassland.

The Tang army was as solemn as a mountain. They were holding crossbows and staring at the rushing Tubo army with sharp eyes. The rear army began to trot backwards and stopped about two miles. In this way, the army was deployed in two square formations on the grassland.

The advantage of the Tang army lies in crossbow arrows. For cavalry crossbow arrows, the most famous is the wheel tactics, but he needs high horse control skills and strictest discipline. Even if his companions are killed in front of him, he cannot mess up the formation. The principle is the subsequent three-stage shooting.

The distance of several miles was only a short time for the Tubo army, and it was 'five hundred steps.

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Four hundred steps.

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’Two thousand Tang troops stood quietly on the horse, slowly lifted the crossbow arrows and aimed at the front. Their formations were already arranged, divided into five rows, each with four hundred people, and there were five hundred people on both sides to suppress the formation.

‘Two hundred steps.

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One hundred and fifty steps.

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’The Tubo army has entered an effective killing distance, and the grin on their faces is clearly visible. When the shield is raised, they are not afraid of the Tang army’s arrow formation at all.

"Shoot!" The commander of the Tang army commander gave the order, and the arrows were like rain. The first row of crossbow arrows rose into the air and shot towards the Tubo army. Despite the shield guards, the Tubo army that rushed in the front fell down. The war horses neighed and flew out. The Tubo army's attack speed immediately slowed down. The Tang army shot an arrow from the first row of Tang army immediately turned back. The Tang army in the second row had already been fired. Then the Tang army in the second row also turned back and the Tang army's crossbow arrows from the third row had been shot. After the fifth row, the Tang army's originally first row had installed crossbow arrows again. This way, the wheels and rings were buckled, as smooth as flowing clouds and water, without any obstacles. The Tang army's war horses were agile and retreated very quickly, and they were only one point slower than the impact of the Tubo people.

From a distance, it seemed as if countless elliptical circles were rolling rapidly on the ground. After only a few rounds, the Tubo army was less than fifty steps apart. The Tang army immediately stopped shooting, accelerated the horse speed, and instantly pulled away the Tubo people. After they rushed to the rear army, they set up camp again.

With a blink of an eye, the two thousand central army's hard crossbow rose again, and the arrow pointed coldly at the enemy. The Tang army's arrow formation was extremely lethal. In just a few hundred steps, thousands of people had been killed or injured in Tubo. The morale and fighting spirit of the Tubo army had dropped significantly. Faced with the Tang army's retreat like a strong wind, no one tried to catch up.

Lumang Zangbu had also calmed down. He realized that if he pursued this way, his army would be shot to death by the Tang army sooner or later. He shouted: "Stop the whole army!"

The remaining 4,000 Tubo troops stopped abruptly. The two armies were one mile apart and looked opposite the grassland. The west wind blew strongly on the field, shaking their own flags.

At the sudden order of Lumang Zangbu, the four thousand Tubo troops immediately formed a huge neat square formation. Hundreds of Tubo cavalry holding giant shields were walking in the front, and the Tubo troops behind each held round shields, arranged densely together, forming a shield mountain, which was not fast, and was forced toward the Tang army.

This is also the method summarized by the Tubo people during the century-long war with the Tang army. It was a special way to deal with the Tang army's bows and arrows. It was originally an infantry formation, accompanied by sharp cavalry shocks, and now it is also used for cavalry. Although the strongest impact of the Tubo cavalry is gone, the number of deaths has also dropped significantly.

As the Tubo people gradually approached, the Tang army also merged into one place. Five thousand Tang soldiers remained motionless, as heavy as a mountain. Wang Siyu stared at the Tubo people coldly. The big iron spear in his hand had already risen up, and he took out a devilish bronze mask and put it on his face.

Gradually, the Tubo army reached the effective range again, but the Tang army still did not move. One hundred steps later, the Tang army suddenly burst out with a shocking roar, and two thousand cavalrymen rushed out like thunder, and the murderous aura in the sky even changed color.

"Boom!" The ground sounded like a huge wave colliding. The sharp Tang army instantly tore open the cavalry formation of the Tubo people. Wang Siyu led the way. He waved a large iron spear weighing 150 kilograms, and roared, and pierced the chests of five or six Tubo cavalrymen. With a big spear, the big spear was swung, accompanied by a long scream, the five or six Tubo people on the gun were thrown out.

Wang Siyu's wildness suddenly broke out. His big iron spear flew up and down, sometimes like a rainstorm of pear blossoms, sometimes like a force to pull a thousand pounds, killing Tubo soldiers overturned their horses, with many casualties. His war horse was extremely tall and powerful, and his steps were as strong as clouds and fog. Combined with his majestic figure, a large iron spear, and his devilish face, it made Tubo soldiers frightened. When they saw him coming, they shouted and ran to both sides. For a moment, Wang Siyu was like a tiger or a flock of sheep.

When Lumang Zangbu saw that Wang Siyu was invincible, he couldn't help but be furious and danced his spear to him. Wang Siyu glanced at him, he smiled coldly and shouted loudly. Then a low horn of the Tang army blew up, and five thousand Tang soldiers turned their horses and rushed east like a strong wind.

"Chasing me!"

Lunmang Zangbu was played with by the Tang army and applauded. He was so angry that he went crazy and roared and chased the Tang army. In a moment, the two armies had run five or six miles away and had rushed through a large forest. The Tang army suddenly stopped. They quickly lined up, skillfully loaded crossbow arrows, waiting for the Tubo people to approach.

At this time, Wang Siyu rode his horse past the cavalry formation, and his vague and loud voice sounded in front of the formation: "Put off the crossbow and pull out your sword. The shame of our fathers will be washed with the blood of the Tubo people. The Tang Dynasty will remember you. The millions of people in the Tang Dynasty will be proud of you. Now is the time for you to fight for the Tang people. Let the Tubo people taste the iron blood and blades of our Tang cavalry!"

His knife swung forward and shouted loudly, "Kill!"

"kill!"

The blood of the five thousand cavalry began to boil. Since ancient times, the unity of the country and the strength of a great power can only be achieved in iron and blood. Begging and weakness will only bring more humiliation and ridicule. The strength of the Han Dynasty lies in its momentum of swallowing thousands of miles away, and the strength of the Tang Dynasty lies in its mind that it embraces all rivers and its iron-blooded military achievements.

Men should exude blood on the battlefield, and the country should straighten their backs for the prosperity of the nation. Five thousand Tang cavalrymen were like a sword that was unsheathed, sweeping away towards the Tubo army. The two armies finally collided in the most direct and tragic way.

The sword and the sword hit, making a clanging sound, the knife slashed into the human bones and made a clicking sound, the groaning of the dying person, and the terrible giggles and breaths.

Wang Siyu was flying in the Tubo army. He killed and was invincible. He and his five hundred personal guards were like an iron fist. Wherever he passed, the Tubo army's formation collapsed and the heads rolled down, killing the dense walls of people. He was looking for the leader of the Tubo army.

Seeing it, Lunmang Zangbu waved his spear and stabbed him from the slant. His roar was like thunder, but before the spear approached, he suddenly felt that he had soared into the air. He saw the blue sky. The sun was so dazzling that he couldn't even open his eyes. All his strength disappeared in an instant. Wang Siyu's spear tip pierced his neck, lifting him up high like a flag.

The Tang army suddenly heard a thunderous joy, "The enemy chief is dead! The enemy chief is dead!" The Tang army's morale was greatly boosted, but the Tubo army was sluggish and people were in panic.

At this moment, a new force suddenly broke out from the forest and came from behind the Tubo army. The Tubo army was attacked from both sides and the will to resist collapsed in an instant and began to defeat the west.

Seeing that the victory was decided, Wang Siyu immediately ordered coldly: "Chasing to the end, and not accepting surrender!"

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Chapter completed!