A month later, the Shazhou war report was rushed to Chang'an.
According to the battle report, the Tibetan army sneaked to Longle Mountain Pass and rushed to Ziting Town late at night. There was a Tibetan response in the town, and the city gates were opened wide to lure the enemy troops into the city.
The Tang army was caught off guard and suffered heavy casualties. They defended the enemy in the streets and alleys, and used crossbows to kill the enemy chief Xibonu. Unfortunately, there was a huge disparity in strength. The whole town fought to the last man, sacrificing their lives for righteousness, no one surrendered to the enemy, and Ziting town was lost.
The Tubo cavalry lost its commander and was replaced by deputy general Gar Sangchiruo. After the enemy captured Ziting Town, they did not hold on and did not rest for a moment. That night they marched 180 miles north to attack Shounan County in Shazhou.
The enemy army was coming fiercely, and there was an internal response in Shounan County, which opened the city gate wide. There were also powerful families from the Western Regions in the county, and they sent private soldiers to join forces with Tubo inside and outside to attack the Tang army. Read the book
The guards of Shounan County fought bloody battles for half a day, but were defeated and the city fell.
Once this battle report was made public, the government and the public were shocked, and all officials were horrified when they heard about it.
The Tibetan army had marched north through Longle Mountain several times in the past to invade Shazhou, but to capture a military town and a county town overnight was something that had never happened since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Moreover, Ziting Town is a Shangzhen, and the number of Tang soldiers and military equipment are perfect; Shounan County, formerly known as Longle County, is in charge of Yangguan. It is not only a large county under the rule of Dunhuang County, but the treasury in the county is also an important tax revenue of the Tang Dynasty.
Although the county's military strength is not as good as that of Ziting Town, it is still sufficient.
These two important places fell at the same time overnight, which was really unimaginable to the officials in the court.
Zhou Jun, who was far away in Bachuan, did not attend the court meeting, but according to the news sent by Jin's family, he learned more details about the Shazhou War than those in the court.
The enemy forces that captured Ziting Town and Shounan County were not the Tibetan army, but the most elite three thousand vanguard cavalry under the Yi clan.
These three thousand cavalry troops, relying on internal assistance and marching speed, did not give the Tang army any chance to delay, and took over Ziting Town and Shounan County overnight.
After entering the city, the chief general of the Tubo Cavalry, Gar Sangchiruo, ordered the tax treasury in Shounan County to be opened and moved a large amount of goods out of it. He first rewarded the Tibetan sergeants, and then took out a lot and distributed it to those from the Western Regions who were accomplices.
Rich family.
After doing all this, the Tubo army attacked the local wealthy Tang people, massacred the men, raped the women, plundered the Tang people's private property, and set fire to the Tang people's houses.
However, the Tubo army did not do anything against the local barbarians.
After reading this, Zhou Jun and Kong You looked at each other with shock on their faces.
Zhou Jun frowned and asked Kong You: "This Tibetan army seems to be acting differently than before?"
Kong You nodded and said: "The Tubo army also invaded Shazhou in the past, but the objects they plundered were arbitrary and reckless... However, now this cavalry army of three thousand people has targeted them.
Tang people, this is unheard of."
Zhou Jun carefully recalled in his mind that in the history books, Tubo was defeated in Shibao City. During the ten years of Tianbao, it reduced its troops and focused on defense. Although it occasionally invaded the Tang Dynasty, it never had a major attack.
The scale of the war. Shazhou Ziting Town and Shounan County were lost overnight, which is something that has never happened in history books.
It can be seen from this that by constantly flapping its wings, the butterfly itself has exerted its influence on history from quantitative changes to qualitative changes, causing some invisible and intangible, but increasingly drastic changes to occur within Tubo, thousands of miles away.
.
Kong You read the information again carefully, and while thinking about it, he said: "You seem to have some impression of the leader of the Tubo forward, Gar Sangchiruo."
Zhou Jun: "Have you heard of this person?"
Kong You: "Instead of talking about this person, it is better to say that You has heard of the Tubo family of Gar."
Zhou Jun: "Oh? Tell me carefully."
Kong You: "A hundred years ago, the Gar family was the leading nobility in Tubo. Even Tubo ancestors had to bow their heads to ask for advice. There is no other reason than that there was a famous sage in the Gar family.
, Gar Dongzan."
Hearing the name Gar Dongzan, Zhou Jun finally realized that this man was the Prime Minister of Tubo a hundred years ago, with power over the plateau. The Han people usually called him Lu Dongzan.
Ludongzan was one of the most famous politicians, military strategists and diplomats in the history of Tubo. He single-handedly promoted the marriage between Songtsen Gampo and Princess Wencheng in Tang Dynasty and Tibet. He also spent many years in the crusade against Xiangxiong, destroyed Tuyuhun and unified the country.
After conquering the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it also established a bureaucracy for Tubo, delineated administrative boundaries, reformed the tax system and household registration, completed military expansion, etc.
It can be said that Lu Dongzan contributed to and led the establishment of the Tubo Empire. However, after Lu Dongzan died of illness, the Gar family continued to grow in size and its achievements shocked the leader, which loomed as a threat to the status of Tubo Zuzan.
In the second year of the Holy Calendar (699), Tridu Songtsenpu launched a coup, invaded the Gar family's fiefdom, and massacred thousands of people on the charge of treason.
Most of the survivors of the Gar family rebelled against the Tang Dynasty and changed their surnames to "Lun". Only a small number of branches offered land and property to Zuzan in order to find a way to survive.
Kong You also said at this time: "If Gar Sangchiruo is a descendant of Lu Dongzan, then in Tubo, he is almost equal to a criminal family. This time as a deputy general, he commanded three thousand cavalry, and the commander happened to be
He died in the first battle. It’s quite interesting to see these things together..."
Zhou Jun: "This man knows how to use troops well, and he is different from ordinary Tubo generals. He kills and plunders only for the people of Tang Dynasty. This shows that this man is very scheming and may be a difficult character to deal with."
Kong You nodded: "What the master said is absolutely true. You originally thought that if the king's army conquered and the Talas army was defeated, the Western Regions would be the first to be in chaos... Unexpectedly, someone led the Tubo army to go north, and there would be no chaos in the Western Regions. Shazhou
It was a mess first."
Zhou Jun heard this and asked: "The countries in Anxi are dissatisfied with the king's memorial. Why haven't the memorials been sent to Chang'an?"
Kong You: "Have you forgotten, my master? The emperor had issued an imperial edict earlier that the court meeting would be suspended temporarily and all political affairs would be handed over to the right minister..."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Zhou Jun immediately understood that the memorials of the Anxi countries had probably entered the court, but they were all detained by Li Linfu.
Kong You: "My Lord, there is no need to worry. No matter how hard the right prime minister tries to cover it up, it will eventually be exposed. But the situation in Shazhou, if Jinggar Sangchi makes such a fuss, I am afraid it will
It has the potential to start a prairie fire, gradually burning through the entire Anxi, eventually causing the situation to collapse and getting out of hand."
Zhou Jun was a little skeptical: "You mean, those three thousand Tubo cavalry troops will still make moves after they capture Ziting Town and Shounan County?"
Kong You: "If my master doesn't believe it, it's better to wait for some time and news will come naturally."
More than half a month later, as Kong You expected, another battle report came from Shazhou.
This time, Zhou Jun read the battle report, his heart was shocked, his hands were shaking, and he didn't come back to his senses for a long time. He was too tired to read.
After the fall of Shounan County, the three thousand Tubo cavalry led by Gar Sangchiruo only rested for half a day, then marched westward, attacked Yangguan, cut off the Daqi trade route, and plundered the caravans and officials.
camp.
As usual, Sang Chiruo only targeted the Tang Dynasty's property, but spared the foreigners and foreigners.
Wang Zhi, who was in Dunhuang, was very anxious when he heard that Daqi Trading Road was attacked. As an envoy, he forced the Doulu Army stationed outside Dunhuang City to rush to the rescue urgently.
The Doulu Army set out to the south, marching hurriedly day and night. When they arrived at Yangguan, they were surprised to find that the scene was devastated, corpses were everywhere, and ruins of burned-out buildings could be seen everywhere, but there was no trace of the Tubo people.
Just when the Doulu Army was searching for the Tibetan army, a wounded scout sent an urgent letter with only eight characters on it - Dunhuang was attacked and in danger.
No one expected that the three thousand Tubo cavalry would have the courage to attack Dunhuang City, the capital of Shazhou, after capturing Yangguan and drawing out the Doulu Army.
It was almost the same as what happened in Ziting Town and Shounan County. They attacked at night, cooperated with each other inside and outside, and chaos broke out in the city. The Tibetan cavalry army used these three axes to capture the gate of Dunhuang City, and then entered into street battles with the guards. Finally, they even attacked for a time.
Go to Fang Street, which is less than 100 meters away from the inner palace in the city.
Fortunately, the palace guards were not afraid of death, and there were a large number of residents in the city to help them fight, and they were able to block the Tibetan offensive.
After a bloody battle all night, when the sun first rose, Sang Chiruo saw that he could not attack the city for a long time, and his men suffered heavy casualties, so he had no choice but to withdraw from the city.
After this battle, although the Tubo people failed to capture Dunhuang, the battle caused an uproar throughout Shazhou and even the Western Regions.
After the Tang Dynasty experienced several major defeats, it gradually began to show signs of decline in the hearts of the countries in the Western Regions.
Sang Chiruo led his troops to retreat and sent envoys everywhere to issue messages.
The article says that the Tang State, relying on its powerful army, made up excuses at will, attacked small countries arbitrarily, occupied trade routes, and collected exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, making the people miserable. As the suzerain, Tubo should help its vassal countries to seek justice, and hereby calls on all countries to work together.
Fight against the Tang State and drive the Tang people out of the Western Regions.
After Kong You finished reading, he sighed quietly, and then said to Zhou Jun: "I'm afraid the paper can't contain the fire..."