Among the 5,800 soldiers and horses, only 800 imperial troops were equipped with three-eyed muskets, and the remaining 5,000 or so were cavalry armed with halberds, spears, and bows and arrows.
The advantage is that the whole army is very mobile, they are all light cavalry, they can come and go like the wind, and their logistics supplies are all relying on looting, making it completely impossible for the enemy to capture their traces, just like the way Huo Qubing used to attack the Huns in the north.
The disadvantage is that it is not aggressive enough.
Eight hundred three-eyed blunderbuss cannot actually play a big role on a large battlefield. When Li Qinzai destroyed the Japanese country, he had 6,000 three-eyed blunderbuss, which achieved an almost invincible effect.
Once they encountered the main force of the Tibetan army, which numbered tens of thousands, the more than 5,000 people under Li Qinzai could only flee in panic, and had to once again taste the embarrassment of breaking through the Tubo camp.
All the troops that could be mobilized were assembled, and Li Qinzai finally had some confidence.
The first step is to prepare the army. Most of the more than 5,000 soldiers and horses are not familiar with Li Qinzai. The soldiers do not know the generals, and the generals do not know the soldiers. This is a taboo on the battlefield.
So Li Qinzai ordered the entire army to rest in place for two days, and Li Qinzai also gave up the exquisite small stove life and ate and lived with the soldiers.
Every day, Li Qinzai scurried back and forth between various camps, gnawing on rice balls and drinking broth with great enthusiasm in front of the soldiers, and chatting with the soldiers about his family affairs with a calm expression.
Li Qinzai didn't say any inflammatory words. He was more interested in asking questions and listening. Any ordinary soldier Li Qinzai could maintain an equal attitude and talk to them.
In just one day, Li Qinzai was able to name hundreds of soldiers.
Song Jintu, the captain, was a bit introverted. Li Qinzai pretended to be a political commissar and had a heart-to-heart talk with him. The topics were a bit unreasonable. How many acres of land did he have at home? Did he have a wife? Did he usually help his children with their homework? What was special about the girls from which clubs in Chang'an City?
services, etc.
Song Jintu exchanged a few words with each other at first, but then the conversation became more and more intangible, and Song Jintu was too lazy to say anything.
After chatting with him, Li Qinzai gradually realized that Captain Song should be a very responsible person, not very sociable, but absolutely obedient, without the courage to disobey military orders, and he was also down-to-earth.
He's just a bit introverted and can't beat me with three sticks.
Such a character will definitely suffer in the officialdom, but in the army, he is worthy of trust.
During the two days of rest, Li Qinzai continuously sent out scouts to inquire about the military situation. Two days later, the scouts returned to the camp and brought the whereabouts of the Tibetan army's mobilization.
After the news was summarized and drawn on the map, Li Qinzai understood Lu Dongzan's intention at a glance.
More than 60,000 Tibetan troops were divided into groups, using Qinghai Lake as a dot and radiating in all directions.
After Li Qinzai led his troops to break through from the Tubo camp, Lu Dongzan decisively gave up the pursuit and instead focused his troops on how to completely annex Tuyuhun.
The old fox is an old fox. He knows what is important and what is secondary in this war concerning the fate of Tubo.
The soldiers and horses led by Li Qinzai were just a scabies problem to Lu Dongzan. What Tubo wanted was to completely swallow Tuyuhun before the Tang Dynasty king's army arrived.
As for Li Qinzai, in Lu Dongzan's eyes, he was just a little ant. If he ran away, he would run away. In terms of grand strategy, Li Qinzai's soldiers and horses could not change anything.
Unfortunately, Lu Dongzan did not know that Li Qinzai's troops were not just a few hundred, but more than 5,000. This was more than just a "little" army.
When necessary, he could bite off a piece of Tubo meat alive.
Two days later, the entire army was ready, and Li Qinzai ordered to set off on the deserted land filled with yellow sand.
From the intelligence obtained by the scouts, Li Qinzai determined the target of the first harassment.
A Tibetan army of about 3,000 troops was patrolling the southern part of Dafeichuan towards the border of Datang to eliminate the remaining Tuyuhun forces in this area.
Li Qinzai must swallow this piece of meat.
An ambush and sniper battle quietly took shape under the arrangements of Li Qinzai, Sun Congdong and Song Jintu.
It took half a day to arrive at a certain hill and lay in wait.
In the evening, as expected, three thousand Tubo troops arrived. They were marching towards the border, and their target was a fleeing tribe in Tuyuhun.
When passing through the hills, Li Qinzai decisively ordered an attack.
Two thousand soldiers and horses blocked the retreat, two thousand soldiers and horses pressed down the left and right flanks, and the Chinese army's 1,000 soldiers and horses and 833 muskets attacked from the front.
There was no suspense about victory or defeat. With calculated calculations and unintentional calculations, Li Qinzai's troops had an absolute advantage in terms of strength, weapons, and terrain.
The battle was over in half an hour, and all three thousand Tibetan troops were wiped out.
Li Qinzai ordered a group of Tibetan troops to be released deliberately, allowing them to escape back to the Tibetan camp to report the news.
The next step was to quickly clean the battlefield, collect the spoils of war, and take away all the food, water, weapons and horses.
Finally, Li Qinzai gave an order, and more than 5,000 soldiers and horses fled quickly.
After a day's rest, the scouts once again obtained information that a 2,000-strong Tibetan army was operating near the Qilian Mountains, with the purpose of wiping out the remnants of the Tuyuhun tribe.
Li Qinzai once again ordered the dispatch of troops, and there was another unsuspecting ambush and sniper battle. Two thousand Tubo regiments were wiped out.
The old rule is to let a group of Tibetan troops go and let them escape back to the Tibetan camp to report the news.
After several sniper battles for several days, Li Qinzai's troops killed nearly 10,000 Tibetan troops.
In the Tubo camp, Lu Dongzan finally couldn't sit still.
Li Qinzai's frequent actions had disrupted his deployment. From the sporadic intelligence of the Tubo troops who had escaped, we learned that after breaking out of the Tubo camp, Li Qinzai silently gathered more than 5,000 soldiers and horses.
This envoy of the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty was no longer a minor sufferer of scabies. He had become a serious problem for the Tibetan army in the process of annexing Tuyuhun.
Lu Dongzan was counting the days every day, calculating the time when Su Dingfang's army would arrive in Tuyuhun.
Every day is crucial for Lu Dongzan. Once Su Dingfang's army arrives at Tuyuhun, the entire war situation will change.
Li Qinzai had already posed a major threat to Tubo. After sitting in the commander's tent and planning for a long time, Lu Dongzan still made changes in his deployment.
To fight against the outside world, we must first secure the inside. We must first annihilate Li Qinzai's troops before we can freely annex Tuguhun and be prepared to resist Su Dingfang's army.
In any case, the backyard must not be set on fire. The Tibetan army had lost nearly ten thousand soldiers and horses in the past few days by using blunt knives like Li Qinzai's method of cutting flesh. Lu Dongzan could not withstand such a torment.
So Lu Dongzan ordered to end the deployment of divided troops, assemble the troops, and sent countless scouts to inquire about the whereabouts of Li Qinzai's troops.
He wanted to gather superior forces and deal a devastating blow to Li Qinzai.
Not only that, Lu Dongzan also ordered an additional 30,000 troops from Tubo.
The losses were too great. Originally, Tubo's 80,000 soldiers and horses destroyed Tuyuhun. Lu Dongzan thought it was a sure shot. However, due to Li Qinzai's unexpected change, the 80,000 soldiers and horses had turned into more than 50,000.
Lu Dongzan had increasingly lost confidence in his plan to annex Tuyuhun, and he felt at a loss.
Back in the Tubo camp, Li Qinzai held his head high and told him in front of him that he wanted all of Tuyuhun.
Now it seems that Li Qinzai's words are really his psychological bottom line. He has this strength, and Datang also has this strength.
When Tubo's superior troops were assembled and a total of more than 30,000 troops were ready to attack, Lu Dongzan in the commander's tent felt disheartened.
When the two countries are at war, in fact, long before the war, the coaches of both sides have a rough idea of whether they will win or lose.
It is a so-called "general trend" that cannot be explained, and it is a pure human intuition.
Now Lu Dongzan has this kind of intuition.
He found that Tubo, which had the upper hand in the early stage, had gradually shifted towards the Tang Dynasty after Li Qinzai's provocation.
This deep feeling of powerlessness was experienced by Lu Dongzan many years ago in Songzhou of the Tang Dynasty. It was one of the few major defeats of Tubo.
Thirty thousand Tibetan troops gathered and swept the world with invincible power. They set out from the Tibetan camp and vigorously pursued and killed Li Qinzai's more than 5,000 men.
As for Li Qinzai, after his scouts discovered that Tubo was concentrating its troops, he led his troops out of Tuyuhun territory without hesitation, and more than 5,000 soldiers retreated to Shanzhou in the Tang Dynasty to replenish food and water.
Hey, I just want to ask if you are angry.
Lu Dongzan was not angry at all, he just threw a bunch of pots and pans in the commander's tent, and in anger, he drew his sword and killed a blind guard.
Inside Shanzhou City.
Li Qinzai wore armor and patrolled the camp, assigning tasks to the governor of Shanzhou as he walked.
"Our troops will rest in the city for two days. Within these two days, we will summon all the blacksmiths in the city to make a three-eyed gun. It will take at least a thousand rods. If you can't make it, your head will be hung on the tower to ward off evil spirits."