Zhou Jun, who was at home in Liangzhou City, received two military reports, including two pieces of news, one good and one bad.
The good news is that outside Talas City, the Anxi army completely defeated the Dashi army, killing 40,000 enemies and capturing 20,000 enemies. The enemy general Abu Muslim fell off his horse while escaping and died of serious injuries.
The bad news is that the Tubo army, led by general Sang Chiruo, marched eastward from Zishan (today's Bayan Har Mountain) and successively captured Xiqing, Yamotang, Hungu and other areas occupied by the Longyou Army.
For the Shibao City occupied by the Longyou Army, Tubo only used three thousand mountain puppet troops to climb up the cliff, go around to the side, and attack the city from both inside and outside.
Faced with these two thick battle reports, Zhou Jun followed the habit of reading the bad news first and opened the battle report of Long You Army first.
The Tibetan army was defeated in Shibao City earlier and had to retreat. They gave up a large area of ​​territory and retreated to the Bailan Mountain area, taking advantage of the plateau to re-establish a defense line.
Ge Shuhan also took this opportunity to command the Tang army to advance westward and occupied a large amount of territory.
However, after the Anshi Rebellion broke out, a large number of Longyou elites were transferred to Luoyang and Tongguan, leaving only a few soldiers scattered and stationed in beacon forts in various places.
Longyouben is a vast area with few people, so it is very difficult to recruit soldiers.
After Ge Shuhan was transferred to Chang'an, he took over as the general of the Longyou Army. On the premise that the troops were already insufficient, he committed a taboo of dividing the troops.
Sang Chiruo, the commander-in-chief of the Tubo army, saw this clearly. He first organized the elite soldiers into a cavalry army, and then used the mobility of the cavalry to bypass the beacons where the Tang army was stationed. He quickly penetrated to the rear and cut off the Tang army.
The main link between the front line and the rear army.
As a result, the Tang army's front line could not receive orders from the rear army, and the rear army was blind to the battle taking place in the front.
Not only that, the Tang Army's frontline supplies, such as food, materials, etc., were also completely interrupted and could no longer be replenished.
At this point, the beacon forts on the front line of the Tang army had become isolated islands. After being besieged by the Tibetan army, they were captured one after another.
The Longyou Army had no choice but to concentrate its remaining troops and defend Shibao City, trying to use the terrain advantages to prevent the Tibetans from advancing.
In the eighth year of Tianbao, Ge Shuhan once led an army of 100,000 to attack Shibao City. Although it was finally conquered, it cost 60,000 Tang soldiers killed in battle, which can be said to be a heavy loss.
The Longyou Army held Shibao City, believing that the area was easy to defend and difficult to attack. If the Tibetans wanted to capture it, they would have to pay a very high price.
In fact, not only the Longyou Army, but also the Tubo people themselves regarded Shibao City as a desperate place, and even gave it an appropriate name - Tieren City.
However, the Tibetan general Sang Chiruo, contrary to everyone's expectations, captured this city that was easy to defend but difficult to attack with only 3,000 Misang Mountain residents.
Zhou Jun was full of doubts. He opened the intelligence album at the back of the military newspaper and saw this:
The Misang Mountain people have lived deep in the mountains for generations, making a living by hunting and collecting herbs. They often walk as fast as flying in the foothills, and are also called "mountain puppets".
In order to capture Shibao City, the Tubo army specially recruited a large number of people from the Misang Mountains, and specially trained them in mountain warfare methods. They were eventually organized into the "Mountain Puppet Army".
Before the war, the Tibetan army general Sang Chiruo gathered together the three thousand mountain puppet soldiers and their families.
He publicly announced that if anyone was afraid of fighting and ran away during the attack on Shibao City, his whole family would be executed together; if anyone attacked Shibao City, no matter how great or small their merits were, they would be rewarded with land, livestock, slaves, silk and other items.
Under the combination of kindness and power, the mountain puppet soldiers forgot about life and death and moved forward bravely.
They used the climbing tools passed down in their clan, and after sacrificing more than two hundred lives, they finally succeeded in climbing up the cliff and appeared behind the Tang garrison.
The Tubo army attacked from both inside and outside, but the Tang army only lasted for half an hour before the entire army was defeated and killed. Countless people fell off the cliff.
After this battle, the Longyou Army was almost completely wiped out.
After reading the Longyou battle report, Zhou Jun let out a long sigh and turned back to the first page of the battle report. He looked at the name of the Tibetan army coach - Sang Chiruo and fell into deep thought.
From the beginning of the Battle of Dunhuang to the Battle of Longyou, the name Sang Chiruo appeared more and more frequently in battle reports.
Taken together, any battle he commands is a victory.
However, the most important thing is that Zhou Jun can be sure that there is no such famous Tubo general in the history books.
In some places in history, quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, and some completely different signs have begun to appear.
After putting down the Longyou Battle Report, Zhou Jun picked up the Anxi Battle Report.
As expected, Abu Muslim led his troops to launch the Third Battle of Talas.
In fact, there is nothing wrong with the timing of Abu Muslim launching this war.
Civil strife broke out in the Tang Dynasty, and the rebels captured the city. The situation was extremely critical, and the court even had to dispatch border troops to return to defense. The Anxi Army and the Beiting Army dispatched 15,000 people and rushed to the Central Plains. The number of Tang troops in the Western Regions was at a historical low.
level; Anxi Jiedushi and a large number of generals also left, and the control of the entire Anxi army was also in a relatively weak period.
Therefore, Abu Muslim launched the Third Battle of Talas at this time. From a purely strategic perspective, not only did it not have any problems, but it was actually a good move.
However, what Abu did not expect was that in addition to the visible factors, this war also had many invisible factors.
For example, the people of Khorasan Province are on the verge of breaking out with their dissatisfaction with the Abbasid army; another example is that the Umayyad rebel army led by Hua Yue fought against the Yinmen, the Dashi Order, the Egyptian Legion and the Pagos.
With the help of the Par people, he has become more and more mature; of course, the last and most important thing is the advent of gunpowder and artillery...
Before the two armies went to war, the Anxi Army arranged the location of the decisive battle in the Wunu Gobi to the west of Talos City. This was actually the result of careful consideration within the Anxi Army.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Wunu Gobi Desert is mostly sand dunes and rocky land, which is covered by wind and sand all year round. The visibility is very poor. After barreling the black powder and burying it underground, the Great Eaters marched.
It's hard to detect; and the ground there is vast and vast, like the Gobi Desert, which is very suitable for ricochet-style artillery attacks.
All these factors came together, and before the Third Battle of Talos began, Abu Muslim's chances of winning were already reduced by eight points.
Even so, after actually reading the Anxi Military News, Zhou Jun realized that he might have underestimated the impact of thermal weapons on the war.
According to Li Siye's statement in the military newspaper, after the Abbasid army encountered a gunpowder barrel explosion, although only a few hundred people were killed, the tens of thousands of troops were already in complete chaos; the subsequent artillery attack killed only a dozen people.
, but ultimately led to the enemy's defeat.
Although black powder weapons are powerful, their lethality is not obvious unless they are installed in batches. The fear caused by the unknown is the ultimate reason for the failure of the Abbasid army.
Seeing this, Zhou Jun also discovered two problems with Anxi's gunpowder weapons.
first question.
After hot weapons are put on the battlefield, in the early stages of the war, they can create a certain deterrent capability and gain battlefield advantages by taking advantage of the enemy's unfamiliarity with the weapons.
However, once the enemy adapts to thermal weapons, this deterrent effect will be greatly reduced.
second question.
The current bronze artillery is small in number, high in cost, and very dependent on terrain.
If the combat site is not a hard ground similar to the Gobi, then the artillery shells are likely to get stuck in the soil, unable to eject, and their power will be greatly reduced.
Therefore, it is also a top priority to find ways to improve artillery and make it more suitable for war environments.