Liaodong is three thousand miles away from Guanzhong, while Gongyue City is more than seven thousand miles away from Chang'an. Generally speaking, it is unnecessary for Fang Jun to rush back to the imperial court at this moment, because even though the road from Guanzhong to Liaodong is difficult to navigate due to the mountains and rivers,
But after all, it is much closer. It is expected that the Eastern Expedition army will have returned to Guanzhong halfway.
What's more, the information from Chang'an about Liaodong was already two months ago. Even if the army's departure team was bloated, it must be not far from Guanzhong by now.
But Fang Jun did not dare to place all his hopes on the Eastern Expedition army.
Otherwise, judging from the battle report sent from Chang'an, the Eastern Expedition army was really a bit strange. Hundreds of thousands of troops besieged Pingrang City but could not be defeated. His Majesty Li Er even fell off his horse in the army and fell unconscious.
Changsun Wuji broke away from the army and sneaked back to Guanzhong without authorization to preside over the mutiny... one after another, it was really weird.
No one knows what happened within the Eastern Expedition army. In case there are disputes among themselves, some people may even connect with each other to make Li Ji and others favor the King of Jin and deliberately slow down the army's march, but they think that it will inevitably return.
If Guanzhong supports the prince, isn't it a big deal?
No matter what, Fang Jun must personally lead his troops back to Chang'an to ensure nothing goes wrong.
…
Pei Xingjian wondered: "It's a long journey of thousands of miles. Even though it's freezing cold and it's rare to see travelers, it's hard to completely block the news on such a long journey."
After thinking about it, his eyes lit up and he suggested: "It is better to send a team of scouts, pretend to be the messengers of the Hanhai Protectorate, tell the remnants of Xue Yantuo that they are colluding with the Turks and intend to rebel, and go to Chang'an to ask for help..."
Fang Jun thought about it carefully and said with his hands: "Keeping the promise is really a skill and resourcefulness!"
Now that the situation in Chang'an has fallen into a stalemate, it will be difficult for the two sides to break the deadlock without external intervention, and the confrontation will last for a long time. At this time, if the Guanlong rebels learn that Fang Jun leads Wan
The remaining elite soldiers traveled thousands of miles to aid Chang'an, and they were bound to become the "external force" that broke the deadlock. Although it was difficult for the Guanlong clan to capture the imperial city, it was entirely possible to use some vicious means to check and balance Fang Jun.
Changsun Wuji was only greedy for power and had absolutely no moral bottom line.
If that were the case, Fang Jun would be in a passive position even if he rushed back to Guanzhong. The best way would be to remain invisible all the way, and by the time the Guanlong rebels noticed it, it would be too late to react.
But on the thousands of miles from Gongyue City to Chang'an, there are shops and warehouses set up by Chinese and foreign merchants everywhere. Trying to completely hide it from everyone's eyes and sneak back to Chang'an without anyone noticing is simply a fantasy.
Since it was impossible to hide their whereabouts, as Pei Xingjian said, he gave the Guanlong rebels a wrong judgment and mistakenly believed that the reason why the cavalry traveled all the way east was to reach Dingxiang Bing Chubai Road and rush to the Hanhai Protectorate to help suppress the rebellion of the remnants of Xue Yantuo.
, you can probably hide it from the Guanlong rebels and make them slack off.
Fang Jun thought about it carefully, but found a loophole: "This is somewhat unreasonable. Since our cavalry can rush to support the Hanhai Protector's Mansion, they can naturally go all the way east to Guanzhong. With Changsun Wuji's caution, there is no way
Just because the Hanhai Protectorate sent a request for help in advance, they will take it for granted that we are only going to Mobei Hanhai, instead of secretly traveling to Chencang and going straight to Chang'an."
Pei Xingjian was confident: "If we immediately send a battle report to Chang'an at this moment, we will say that we have suffered heavy losses in the bloody battle with the enemy under the Tianshan Mountains, and have to retreat to Luntai City, abandoning Gongyue City, Yili Valley and other places... and then we will attack the enemy."
The troops returned to the capital led by the commander-in-chief all wore the clothes of the Hu tribe and carried the banners of the Hu tribe, which was enough to confuse the Guanlong rebels."
Fang Jun thought this plan was very clever.
The great victory of this battle cannot be known to Chang'an in a short period of time, otherwise Chang'an will surely prepare for Fang Jun's return to the court, and all plans here will be meaningless. Instead of reporting the victory, he falsely conveyed the news of the defeat, leaving Chang'an without any knowledge.
Only by avoiding being careless can your plans be successful.
In fact, defeat was more convincing to Chang'an than victory. After all, there was a huge disparity in military strength between the two sides. Since the Dashi army entered the Western Regions, the Tang army had been defeated and retreated step by step. It is reasonable that it was another big defeat at this moment.
In this way, it is not surprising that the entire army retreated to Luntai City and at the same time sent a group of Hu cavalry to Mobei for reinforcements. After all, Luntai City was surrounded by mountains on three sides that were easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Tang army that retreated here dispatched some Hu tribesmen with low combat effectiveness.
Cavalry, reasonable.
After thinking over and over again, there were no obvious loopholes. Fang Jun made a decision immediately: "Just do it. You can write a letter of resignation and send the news of our army's defeat here to Chang'an. At the same time, send someone to Dingxiang and set off from Dingxiang."
Then go to Chang'an, and send the forged Mobei request for help to Chang'an a day or two in the evening. At the same time, I immediately mobilized soldiers, made complete preparations, and set off back to Chang'an as soon as possible."
Pei Xingjian stood up immediately: "Here!"
…
This battle was a complete victory, but the Tang army could not rest for a moment, and everyone was moving quickly.
There was not much food and baggage in the enemy camp, and most of the weapons and weapons captured were of inferior quality. They could only be transported back to Guanzhong to be re-melted for iron making. The camp tent was not bad, it was considered baggage that the Tang army could use, and it was usable anyway.
Everything that can't be used will be transported back to Gongyue City, and not a brick, a tile, a knife or a gun will be left behind.
In addition, Fang Jun gathered Pei Xingjian and Xue Rengui together to discuss how to mobilize elite soldiers and generals to support Chang'an, and specifically asked Wang Fangyi to participate in this discussion.
Wang Fangyi was extremely excited. This was the highest-level combat meeting of the Anxi Protectorate, which meant that he had been recognized by the Anxi Protectorate. Although his rank had not yet been promoted, his seniority and status were completely different from before.
However, he is also a well-behaved person. He did not raise his tail because of Fang Jun's appreciation, thinking that he was some unparalleled genius giving advice in front of an extremely powerful person. Instead, he honestly wrote and took charge of recording, and served tea and water...
Naturally, all of the Youtun Guards followed Fang Jun back to Chang'an, but the 20,000 troops of the Youtun Guards were obviously not enough. Xue Rengui carefully selected some elite soldiers and generals from the Anxi Army, totaling seven or eight thousand men, and delivered them to Fang Jun.
, to help him rush to Chang'an.
Fang Jun looked at the list of captains listed by Xue Rengui on the paper and frowned: "With so many people following me to help Chang'an, the strength of the Anxi Army will be too weak. Once the situation changes, what will you do to deal with it?"
?”
The number of the Anxi Army is only more than 40,000. The Western Region has such a vast territory that even a drop of water cannot be seen. Once something happens, it is inevitable to focus on one thing and lose another.
Xue Rengui was confident: "Commander, don't worry. For a long time to come, the task of the Anxi Army will be to defend important towns. As long as we survive this winter, the army can attack at any time, and there will be no problem in supporting each other. And
The Turks are now facing a rebellion by the Uighurs, and the various ethnic groups within their territory that are dependent on them are inevitably ready to make a move, and they have no time to take care of the Western Regions for a moment. As long as Tumidu does not rebel, they will eventually have full confidence in stabilizing the situation."
Does Tumidu dare to rebel?
Definitely I don't dare, and it's not just a question of whether I dare or not. Only a fool would re-join the Turks in the face of the extremely high treatment given by the Tang Dynasty.
Even if the Turks come to persuade them to surrender, they have already lost trust in each other, and there is no way Tumidu can go back...
As long as Tu Midu does not rebel, even if he just stands by and watches when trouble occurs, Xue Rengui is confident in ensuring the stability of the Western Regions. After this battle, the Anxi Army has been quenched in a furnace and made into steel. It has truly become a powerful army in the world, and it is enough to guard the Western Regions.
Seeing Xue Rengui's confidence, Fang Jun nodded in approval without saying anything else.
He has always known people well and appointed them without hesitation. I believe that with Xue Rengui's talent, ability and familiarity with the situation in the Western Regions, since there is absolutely no problem with such a categorical statement, then there will naturally be no problem.
The more soldiers and horses he brings back, the greater the certainty of defeating the Guanlong rebels. This is naturally a good thing. After all, the battle report states that the Guanlong rebels have gathered more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, and there is a steady stream of reserve troops that can be deployed at any time.
Battlefield. Having occupied Guanlong for more than a hundred years, created several dynasties single-handedly, and always stood at the center of power, the Guanlong clan’s heritage is naturally extremely profound.
Such a huge alliance of clans, group forces, intricate and tyrannical forces, once they make up their mind to participate in the struggle for imperial power, the power they will unleash will be extremely astonishing. Even though it is only a mob of more than 100,000 people, the various governments are watching behind the scenes.
Soldiers, how many are there in Zhe Chong Mansion? How many of them are actually peeking at the opportunity and planning to personally participate in it?
The critical situation in Chang'an is not just as simple as the crisis in the East Palace. If you are not careful, it will be a huge disaster that will affect the entire empire.
The glorious age is very likely to come to an abrupt end, and even the great empire of Nuo will decline and be unable to recover. The people who have just struggled from the war for only thirty years will once again be plunged into dire straits...