Thirty thousand reinforcements led by Guo Xin set out from Liangzhou and headed for Kuozhou in the Hehuang area.
During the time when he led the army on the road, the speed of the Tibetan army's advance greatly exceeded everyone's expectations.
Guo Ziyi left 30,000 soldiers in Kuozhou, led by Chunyu Congrang, the general of Shuofang Army. His troops met the Tubo army forward at Jingyuan.
The general at the forefront of the Tibetan army was Zhuan Zhaojiacuo, the son of the Second Prime Minister Dun Renzeng. The latter received an order from Sang Chiruo before the expedition, telling him to retreat immediately when encountering the Tang army and not to fight.
Zhuan Zhaojiacuo kept Sang Chiruo's orders in mind, and as soon as they fought with Tang Army General Chun Yu Congrang, he pretended to be defeated, turned around and fled.
Chunyu Congrang did not know what the plan was and led the cavalry to cover up the enemy. When he was about to catch Zhuan Zhaojiacuo, the Tibetan ambush appeared and cut off the retreat of the Tang army's cavalry.
The Tang army wanted to regroup and counterattack, but due to the pursuit, the army formation was too long and they were unable to look at each other.
Chunyu Congrang was trapped in the enemy formation and was unable to break out. Although the deputy general tried his best to rescue him, he failed several times. In the end, the main general died in the battle and the army was defeated.
At this point, Guo Ziyi's first line of defense for Chang'an was breached.
After Kuozhou was captured, Chang'an's second line of defense was divided into north and south.
Among them, the North Road has about 20,000 troops, stationed in Fengxiang County northwest of Chang'an, and is mainly responsible for guarding Jingzhou, the only road from Chang'an to Liangzhou.
There are also 20,000 troops on the southern route, stationed in Fufeng County to the west of Chang'an, which is the front camp outside Chang'an City.
Since Fufeng Camp was closer to Chang'an, the Tibetan army gave up its plan to take the northern route and instead turned to the southern route to approach Chang'an.
The main general of the Fufeng Camp on the southern line was Zhai Gao, a surrendered general of the Yan Kingdom, who once served for An Shouzhong.
At that time, An Shouzhong was defeated in Chang'an, and his troops were completely defeated. Only the partial army led by Zhai Gao was on the battlefield. Although they suffered heavy casualties, they continued to fight against the Tang army. Even when they were surrounded, they did not surrender. In the end, they were exhausted.
Bu Zhi was captured by Guo Ziyi.
When he was captured, Guo Ziyi cherished Zhai Gao's talents and wanted to persuade him to surrender. The latter ignored him and planned to end it on his own. However, An Shouzhong dissuaded him and failed to do so.
After that, Shi Siming killed the Emperor of Yan State, An Qingxu, and the Yan State was destroyed in name only.
Guo Ziyi sent his son Guo Xi to persuade him to surrender. Zhai Gao put forward a condition, that is, he would serve the Tang Dynasty but not fight against the former soldiers.
In short, although they surrendered, they did not fight against the old colleagues of the Puppet Yan.
Guo Ziyi agreed to him and took Zhai Gao with him during the southern expedition.
When fighting against the Southern Tang Dynasty on Huainan Road, Zhai Gao took the lead and led the trapped camp. He was not afraid of the enemy being outnumbered and was able to defeat the enemy and win every time.
Guo Ziyi admired Zhai Gao and regarded him as a rare general, and asked him for merit several times.
Later, during the battle against Jiangcheng, Zhai Gao was wounded. Guo Ziyi was worried that he would follow in the footsteps of Li Siye, so he transferred him back to Fufeng County, Chang'an, so that he could rest in peace and recuperate.
However, what Guo Ziyi did not expect was that not long after Zhai Gao returned, he encountered a massive attack by the Tubo people.
Facing an enemy force that was ten times his own, Zhai Gao, who was stationed at the Fufeng Camp, told others in the military council: "This is the best time to go out to fight against the enemy!"
Some subordinates wondered: "The enemy army is coming fiercely, and they have just defeated General Chunyu of Kuozhou, and his morale is high. Moreover, our army does not have many troops. We should be defending while waiting for reinforcements. How can we abandon the camp and take the initiative to attack?"
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Zhai Gao said: "The enemy has just won, and it is the proud soldiers. At this time, we never expected that our army would take the initiative to attack... Therefore, as long as we choose a dangerous place to ambush, we will definitely win!"
With 20,000 soldiers, he fought against 200,000 enemy troops.
To others, this seems like a completely crazy idea.
However, since Zhai Gao was the commander-in-chief and had Guo Ziyi's trust and high prestige in the army, the other generals finally agreed to this plan.
So Zhai Gao led 20,000 Tang troops and set up an ambush at Taihe Pass (today's Qishan area).
Zhuan Zhaojiacuo, the former general of the Tibetan army, had just won the battle and was very proud of himself. He never expected that the Tang army would dare to leave the camp and set up an ambush at such a time.
Without sending out any scouts and with the entire army on lax alert, Zhuan Zhaojiacuo walked into the trap carefully laid by the Tang army.
After waiting for all the front troops of the Tibetan army to enter the ambush circle, Zhai Gao first ordered the soldiers to beat the war drums, and then the gunpowder barrels were mixed among the rolling stones and pushed down from the cliff to the middle of the Tibetan army.
Amidst the successive explosions, the Tibetan front troops showed little resistance and began to flee backwards.
Zhai Gao mounted his war horse, raised his horse's shaft, and was the first to rush down the slope to the high ground, shouting: "Kill the Tubo dogs!"
The cavalry of the Tang Army followed closely behind the general, like a pack of hunting wolves, and rushed directly into the deserters of the Tubo Army.
In that battle, nearly all the 30,000 Tibetan front troops were wiped out, and less than 2,000 people actually escaped.
Zhuan Zhaojiacuo, the former Tibetan army general, was shot in the back of the heart by Zhai Gao with an arrow and died on the spot.
After this battle, Tubo Second Prime Minister Dunrenzeng heard that his beloved son had died tragically, and he was so angry that he almost died on the spot.
He first obtained Sang Chiruo's approval and executed thousands of Tibetan soldiers who had escaped. Then he swore in front of the mourning hall that he would cut Zhai Gao into pieces with a thousand swords.
After the former army was defeated, Sang Chiruo led the Tibetan central army and arrived at Fufeng County.
What troubled him was that when facing the main force of Tibet, General Zhai Gao of the Tang Army never asked for a direct battle. Instead, he broke his troops into pieces and began to fight guerrilla warfare with the Tibetan army with the help of the terrain in the Wuzhangyuan and Qishan areas.
Facing Zhai Gao's tactics, an ordinary general would probably be dragged back to Fufeng, unable to move forward even an inch.
However, Sang Chiruo found another way and used a trick to build a plank road in secret to infiltrate Chen Cang.
He first ordered the army to station in Fufeng County and put on an all-out search and arrest posture.
However, secretly, Sang Chiruo sent a Tibetan army to bypass Fufeng and go north to attack Fengxiang.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After the Tubo army entered Fengxiang, they burned, killed and looted all the way. The tragic scenes in the villages and counties along the way were unbearable to witness.
After the Tubo army arrived in Fengxiang, they piled the heads of the slain people into a hill and threatened to massacre the city immediately if the Tang army did not surrender.
Fengxiang Camp is located in Jingzhou. General Fengxiang ordered his subordinates to defend the city and not surrender.
However, Gao Zheng, the governor of Jingzhou, and some other generals in the army were greedy for life and afraid of death.
This group of people met in secret and made a plan to surrender to Tibet. They seized the city gate at night and let the Tibetan army enter the city.
As a result, the Tibetan army captured Fengxiang Camp without spending a single soldier.
Gao Zheng, the governor of Jingzhou, did something that outraged both humans and gods in order to win the favor of the Tibetan people.
He pointed out to the Tubo people that there was a trail starting from Jingzhou that could go straight to the rear of Fufeng County.
In this way, under the leadership of Gao Zheng, the governor of Jingzhou, the Tibetan partial army circled to the rear of the Fufeng Camp, and cooperated with the main Tibetan force led by Sang Chiruo to attack Tang Army General Zhai Gao from front to back.
The latter was outnumbered and eventually captured.
In order to avenge his beloved son, Tun Renzeng, the second prime minister of Tubo, cut off Zhai Gao's skin bit by bit with a knife in front of the prisoners of the Tang army, gouged out the latter's eyes, and cut off the latter's ears and nose.
Under the severe pain, Zhai Gao did not cry out in pain, let alone beg for mercy. From the beginning to the end, he cursed the Tubo people until his blood ran out and he died.
Dun Renzeng originally thought that with this kind of torture, he could frighten the prisoners of the Tang army.
However, among the prisoners of the Tang army, not only were there no survivors, but they followed Zhai Gao's example and cursed the Tubo people.
Sang Chiruo couldn't stand hearing this and directly ordered all Tang army prisoners to be killed, ending this farce.
At this point, the three lines of defense in front of Chang'an Gate have all been breached by the Tibetan army.
The Tubo army came to Chang'an, the old capital of the Tang Dynasty, and once again faced a fateful fate.