Although the Wei River flows slowly and the ice layer is thicker, it can only be used for marching, but it cannot bear the battle between the two armies. Once the fight starts, the ice layer will definitely break.

Especially the Yuan army, which was mainly cavalry, suffered even more. They could not use cavalry to fight on a large scale on the ice.

Moreover, in order to reduce the burden of marching, the Yuan army soldiers almost abandoned the heavy wooden shields. This made them unable to fight against the Tang army's muskets anymore.

In this way, although the Yuan army had several times the strength of the Tang army, it was in a full passive position. It could not attack or retreat. Both sides of the Wei River were full of mountains and steep mountains, and there was no room for detour.

For a moment, the two armies confronted each other on the river. However, the Tang army was leisurely and the Yuan army was anxious.

Not long after, the 20,000 cavalry led by Hu Gu, a cavalry general of the Tang Dynasty, also arrived.

Li Sijin, who rebelled against Yuan and surrendered to Tang, suddenly appeared behind the Yuan army.

The Yuan army was completely in desperate situation.

The problem is that although the Yuan army was intercepted from the front and back, the Tang army did not dare to launch an attack rashly because it was on the ice.

The next day, the desperate Yuan army finally took the initiative to launch a decisive attack on Wu Yan's troops in the west.

The Yuan army did not care about so much, so they could only force the Tang army to fight to the decisive battle on the ice.

As more than 100,000 soldiers and horses on both sides started to move, the ice surface several feet later suddenly made a crackling sound, and a huge spider web appeared on the ice surface in an instant. This scene made everyone frightened.

With a "boom", the ice surface completely collapsed during the Yuan army's war, as if half of the earthquake occurred, and large areas of ice surface were broken and poured down. The Yuan army was like sailors with a capsized ship, falling into the cold and bone-blown river water.

Why did the ice collapse in the Yuan army?

Because the 60,000 troops almost had war horses and a large number of pack horses. In addition, they took the initiative to attack, the ice surface was of course broken first in their formation.

"Retreat! Retreat! Release your feet, don't ride a horse!" Wu Yan's face turned pale and quickly ordered that the Tang army's usual hard training team played a great role at this time. After the order, they turned around together and kept their messy steps back slowly.

They had long known that when crossing the bridge and crossing the ice, they could not walk in step, but had to use broken steps.

At the same time, Hu Gu in the east also ordered the cavalry to dismount and retreat in a row, trying to distance themselves from the Yuan army.

A large number of Yuan troops fell into the water, causing other Yuan troops to rush forward in more horror, and the ice surface collapsed faster.

"Roar! Bounce over in one breath!" Xilibejin saw that the Tang army not only did not fight, but retreated, and he was so angry that his lungs exploded.

His original plan was to sink both sides into the water, and then have a melee and take the opportunity to escape and ascend to heaven.

Because once it falls into the water, the Tang army's firearms will be destroyed. The Yuan army has more war horses, but the horses can swim. With the war horses and floating ice, they can hold on for a while. If one goes up and down, the Yuan army will gain advantage.

But who knew that Tang Jun did not give this opportunity at all, but "escape". This made his last adventure tactics go to ruin.

Seeing that more than 10,000 people fell into the water on his side, and no one in the Tang army had fallen into the water yet, Xi Libijin's eyes were red.

The sound of "Kaku" that makes teeth sour, and the huge cracks were like a terrifying long snake, chasing the Tang army at the east and west ends. The Tang army retreated in an orderly manner, and the shattered ice surface never caught up with the Tang army.

However, the ice surface in the Yuan army formation collapsed faster and faster. As soon as each piece of ice was turned over, a large group of Yuan army landed into the water and was immediately covered by ice.

"ah"

The Yuan army, who fell into the water, screamed and chopped the broken ice with a knife, and tried hard to climb up the ice. However, because of the existence of the ice, the space was extremely small, and most people who fell into the water had no chance to climb up and were pressed into the water by the ice.

There were also no man and horses who stepped on ice, and only half of their bodies were exposed on the water surface. They were already lucky, at least they could still stand on the floating ice and breathe.

It’s useless to know how to swim because the water surface is covered with ice. How can you swim? How long can you last in the potential water?

With a "boom", the ice under Xilibekin's feet also shattered, and the piece of ice suddenly sank. Xilibekin held the war horse's neck and sank together.

Fortunately, there was ice floating under his feet, but it didn't sink completely, but his chest was all in water, which made his blood almost frozen.

It is true that the Mongolians endure bitterness and coldness, but they are not as good as they can still endure in northern ice water in the cold winter. If they don’t have clothes, they can still endure it for a while, but if they wear clothes and armor, it will be even more painful.

"It's over! It's over!" Xili Begin looked desperate. Wherever his eyes reached, Dayuan soldiers fell into the water like dumplings.

It was my own incompetence that caused more than 100,000 troops to fall into a desperate situation.

Khan, a servant deserves to die for thousands of crimes, and a servant deserves to die for thousands of crimes!

The Yuan army, which had not yet sunk into the water, rushed desperately to both ends, hoping to rush through the cracked ice layer. However, when they rushed to the level, the ice would shatter faster.

As heaven knows, there are the sound of "cracking" cracking everywhere. On the Wei River, which is hundreds of feet wide, the huge spider webs are rapidly growing bigger, which is shocking.

"Climb up the mountain! Climb up the mountains on both sides!" The Yuan army, who had fallen into the water, saw that they could not escape the cracked ice, had to turn to rush to both sides.

Although there are steep hills on both sides, you can climb with bare hands, which is better than falling into the water.

In this way, the ice surface could not withstand this impatient and crazy trampling.

"Crack boom!"

Large pieces of broken ice collapsed on a large scale again, and I don’t know how many Yuan troops fell into the water.

It completely shattered and collapsed.

The Yuan army who fell into the water screamed like a child who had lost his parents' protection, and tried hard to hold Floating Bing so that the heavy body in armor would sink.

The most miserable thing is the heavy cavalry of the Yuan army, because the troops and horses all carry heavy armor, it is most likely to sink. At this moment, it is too late to even remove armor.

At this time, the Tang army withdrew several miles in one breath, and finally narrowly retreated from the ice cracking range, safe again.

Wu Yan and Hu Gu used a telescope to look at Yuan Jun struggling in the ice cracking area, and couldn't help but smile.

They never expected that the Yuan army would be destroyed in this way. Originally, they thought they would have gone through the final decisive battle.

It can only be said that the Tang Dynasty has a prosperous fortune.

The Shatuo general Li Sijin, who had just surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, was extremely grateful and afraid.

If I hadn't seen the opportunity quickly and had to surrender to Tang at a critical moment, wouldn't I have to sway in the cold river at this time?

The Yuan army planned to pull the Tang army into the water, but shot himself in the foot. The Tang army refused to accept the move, but they were the only ones who sank into the water, but the Tang army had nothing to do.

Just ask if you don’t have gold in the past, are you angry?

In fact, although most of the Yuan army sank into the water, not many drowned. After all, there are broken ice and war horses to be used, and they can survive for the time being.

But in order not to sink, many people threw away all their weapons.

But it was obvious that they couldn't hold on for long.

Only a few Yuan troops who successfully climbed to the hillside were relatively safe.

"We have surrendered! We have surrendered!"

Finally, many Hu soldiers in the Western Regions couldn't help but shout. They were not afraid of fighting, but they were so painful that they were frozen to death.

Tang Jun just waited and watched silently, without any intention of accepting surrender.

This is not because the Tang army is unwilling to surrender, but... they cannot save them.

It is really hard to save people in the broken ice area ahead. So, just pretend that you didn't hear it.

In the end, only more than 10,000 Yuan troops escaped and surrendered.

The rest were all destroyed in the ice water.

Two hours later, tens of thousands of Yuan troops stood still in the water. The heavy snow continued to fall, and the river surface was frozen again.

On the next day, tens of thousands of "snowman ice sculptures" appeared on the ice surface that was several miles long. Some of them had half of their bodies exposed on the ice surface, some had only a head, and some had a hand stretched out.

It is dense and shocking, showing a cruel and tragic "beauty".

The despair, horror and pain on the dead faces were frozen in the last moment of life, like an eternal statue, quietly venting resentment between heaven and earth.

In this scene, even the Tang army soldiers with a heart-warming heart were stunned and creepy.

In addition to feeling terrifying, I also feel like a pity. It’s a pity that there are so many war horses.

On the third day, Wen Tianxiang personally led 30,000 infantry soldiers to arrive, and he remained silent for a long time when he saw this scene.

He could not have imagined that the remnants of the Yuan army would be wiped out in this way.

The commander of the Yuan army, Xilibejin, the Mongolian general Kuoshi, and the Han army general Zhang Xian, were not frozen to death, but committed suicide in despair before the freeze to death.

Or apologize to Kublai Khan.

This makes the ice and snow around them red.

Most of these Yuan troops were Hu people in the Western Regions. They had been staying in the Western Regions well, but under the instigation of the Yuan court, they invaded the east. As a result, a horse was not allowed to return to the west.

No, I've returned to the West. I'll never see their family again.

"Taiwei, when the ice melts next year, the corpses of such a man will go down the river and float into Guanzhong." Hu Gu said to Wen Tianxiang worriedly.

Wen Tianxiang was also frowning, and of course he knew the difficulty of this matter.

The number of people and horses that froze to death in the river exceeds 100,000. What will happen if so many corpses float into Guanzhong?

There is nothing we can do now, we can only salvage all the bodies at the right time, which is very troublesome.

"I ordered the Longyou counties to make up several large river-blocking nets and transport them to Qingshui Castle downstream. When the ice melts, I will immediately catch the river water layer by layer, and take advantage of the corpse not smelling, and salvage the corpse." Wen Tianxiang ordered.

This is also the best way. There are too many corpses, so you can only do this. Otherwise, when spring is in full bloom, tens of thousands of rotten corpses float into Guanzhong, which will be difficult to deal with.

Even the Yellow River is contaminated by rotten corpses.

Next, Wen Tianxiang wrote a memorial to Li Luo again, reporting the great victory in Longxi. The Yuan army was wiped out, more than 10,000 captured people, and more than 50,000 war horses were seized, with Wu Yan as the first contribution.

He also reported that Li Sijin led his troops to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.

Then, Taiwei Wen rushed his troops westward.

On the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, Wen Tianxiang crossed the Yellow River.

On that day, occupied Jincheng, Lanzhou

Immediately, tens of thousands of Tang troops headed north as if they were entering a land of no one, heading straight to Hexi.

At this time, there were almost no Yuan army stationed in Hexi and were unable to resist the Tang army. The Yuan court officials and the Mongolian Yuan Semu nobles fled to the Western Regions and sent fast horses to report to the Yuan court.

Before Wen Tianxiang arrived in Wuwei, Liangzhou, all the officials of the Yuan court in Ganliang ran away. During the Tang army marched, they could only see abandoned cities, empty manors and villages.

All the wheat fields were destroyed by the Yuan army long ago. They would not be resoiled until October next year, and harvesting would have to wait until the summer of the following year. In other words, the Han people in Gansu would need to provide relief for at least one and a half years!

There were originally hundreds of thousands of Han people, but the Han people were driven to Longyou by the Yuan army, and the population in Ganliang is even smaller. Often, the army marched for a day and there were no few people.

Very desolate.

The army headed north and saw the rich land commonly known as the Jiangnan of the Pass, nine out of ten rooms were empty, and it was a bleak scene. Taiwei Wen couldn't help but feel sad. When he felt something, he couldn't help but chant:

"I heard that the Jiangnan in the way was so beautiful, but who knew that it would fall to the side of the lonely city. The beacon smoke had not yet ended, and the sound of dogs was silent. The snow in Qilian fell for thousands of mountains and white, and the Yellow River was frozen and cold. If the Hu horses had not stepped on the Yumen, how could they teach Han Jia Yaoyang Pass? The cold north wind blew the vast sea, and the iron cavalry passed by Helan. It was pitiful that there were many loyal bones buried here in the battles in ancient and modern times."

Wen Tianxiang finished chanting, quite dissatisfied and sighed again: "Alas, I have been committed to military affairs and government affairs over the years, and my calligraphy has become so unfamiliar, so that I can't express my feelings in my heart by writing this mediocre poem. I am ashamed, ashamed!"

Hu Gu heard this and said, "What is the Taiwei saying? In the last opinion, this poem is considered an excellent masterpiece."

Wen Tianxiang smiled bitterly, "You don't understand, you don't understand! It's better not to say it. General Wanyan, you lead the cavalry first and take over Yangguan and Yumen. Within five days, you must go there."

In order to prevent the Yuan army from seizing Yangguan and Yumenguan, Wen Tianxiang decided to divide his troops.

"No!" Hu Gu ordered 20,000 cavalry to go first.

Wen Tianxiang led tens of thousands of infantrymen to take over Zhangye, Jiuquan and drive straight to Dunhuang.

On the 26th day of the 12th lunar month, the Tang cavalry passed Dunhuang, arrived at the south of the Crescent Spring and the north of Mingsha Mountain. Hu Gu divided the troops into two, and ten thousand people were led by himself to Yangguan, and Li Yi was led by him to Yumen Pass.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Tang cavalry easily annihilated the Yuan army defenders with only more than a thousand people and recovered the two passes respectively.

The Tang army's phoenix battle flag was flying above the ancient city of Guancheng.

At this point, Yangguan and Yumen Pass, which had been in the hands of foreign races for hundreds of years, returned to the hands of the Central Plains dynasty!

The Tang army occupied two passes and restored the four counties of Hexi, completely blocking the "Silk Road" known as later generations and controlling the land keys on the East and the West.

This is the strategy of Emperor Wu of Han that year: "List four counties and follow two passes."

If the Western army invades eastward, it will either attack the two passes that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, which will cost a lot. Or take a detour to the south of the desert and attack the Great Wall.

No matter which road, it's very difficult.

But if the Tang army goes out of the frontier, it will be easy. As the strategic rear, the four Hexi counties can fully undertake the logistics base for the Tang army's western expedition.

The strategic position is even more important than Yan Yun!

Kublai Khan originally planned to use refugees to cross the Yellow River, attack Longyou in one fell swoop, and block the Guanlong Road.

As a result, the Tang army had already prepared, and the Yuan army compensated their wife and soldiers. Not only did the army be wiped out by more than 100,000 troops, the Tang army also took the opportunity to seize Hexi.

Hu Gu led the Tang army soldiers to Yangguanguan City. Looking at the lakes south of the pass and the mountains north of the pass, looking down at the Wengcheng Street in Guancheng City, he couldn't help but say: "I'll drink more than a glass of wine. There is no old friends when I go west to Yangguan. There is no wine, and no old friends, but this Yangguan is still the same Yangguan."

"Long live! Long live the Tang Dynasty!" The Tang army warriors first raised the Tang sword and shouted.

The soldiers shouted together, and the sound shook the mountains.

"The Tang Dynasty will win! Long live! Long live!!"

"Western Expedition! Western Expedition!" A Tang army warrior came to Hugu and saluted: "Master, just go west and conquer the Western Capital of the Yuan court!"

"Okay." Hu Gula looked down, "Who dares to go east without an imperial edict? Even Taiwei Wen, who is in charge of military affairs in the northwest, can't go west without asking for an imperial edict."

Another Tang army warrior said, "The general is right. Without an imperial edict, you can't move even if you want to fight. Otherwise, even if you defeat the Xidu of the Tartars, you will be guilty and incompetent."

Hu Gu held the hilt of the knife in his hand, "The most troublesome thing about Your Majesty and the court are now, the best thing to do is to provide relief. I guess that the people of Heshuo should all go south of the Yellow River. Millions of people are a headache to think about it. We can only defend two passes and defend Hexi, and we must not make a quick move. Humph, there are heavy troops in the Western Regions, is it that easy to fight?"

Hu Gu guessed it well. At this time, the people from the north who went south to the Yellow River had reached nearly five million. Among them, 400,000 to Longxi, 700,000 to Guanzhong, and the remaining 300,000 to Qilu, 400,000 to Henan, 700,000 to Guanzhong, and 300,000 to Henan.

The day before New Year's Eve, the total number of refugees traveling south was as high as more than 4.8 million!
Chapter completed!