A soldier covered in blood stumbled into the Khan's tent, knelt on the ground, and shouted to the nobles in the tent: "Report! Zuo Shesuhetai was shot in the back by a musket and died in the Hunyi River.
!The Sayan Tribe, the Rotel Tribe, and the Shagana Tribe were defeated, and only a few people escaped!"
Huihe Khan Yi Dijian's face was pale and his body was shaky, and he asked: "Where did the Tang army hit?"
The visitor replied: "The forwards of the Tang army have passed through Qing'ebo and are less than two hundred miles away from the camp."
Many of the Uighur generals in the large tent were injured and their expressions were gloomy. No one dared to speak at this time.
Yi Dijian looked around the tent, steeled himself, and said with a laugh: "It doesn't matter if the Tang army can fight again. The grassland is vast. Is it possible that they can still chase us to Xiaohai (today's Lake Baikal)? The whole army obeys the order."
, break camp and head north!”
At the same time, at the Qikou Camp where the main force of the Tang Army was stationed, Sun Aying, the military commander of Shuofang, was looking at the march map in his tent. Suddenly, a guerrilla captain came outside the tent, saying that a state and city supervisor came to the camp gate.
Officials, as well as representatives of many commercial firms, wanted to see the general.
Sun Aying heard this and said angrily: "Didn't I tell you? During the war, let them stay away from the back and don't come to the front!"
The guerrilla captain hesitated and said: "I heard from those people that they have useful information about the main force of Huihe and came here to report it to the general."
Sun Aying was stunned and blurted out: "Intelligence? The Shuofang Army and the Dragon Cavalry Army sent so many spies, but they couldn't find out the main force of the Uighurs. How did they know about it?"
The guerrilla captain paused and tried to ask: "How about we let them leave in the end?"
Sun Aying thought for a moment, waved his hand and said, "Let them come in."
Not long after, a dozen businessmen, led by a state and municipal supervisory official, walked into the big tent and saluted Sun Aying one after another.
Sun Aying looked at the city supervisor official from that country, vaguely impressed, and asked: "You are the one under Supervisor Kang..."
The official raised his hands and said, "My surname is Lu and my name is Ensheng."
Sun Aying: "Yes, that's right, Lu Ensheng...you said that you already know the location of the main Uighur force?"
Lu Ensheng: "Sun Duhu, when the trading company was disposing of the Mobei grassland, they took in a group of Uighur slaves from the Bozihai tribe. Some of them were Uighur horseherds in Yazhang and knew the movement route of Yazhang every year."
Sun Aying was dubious: "The Uighur people have very tough mouths. The prince Yu in the army used torture but could not pry open the mouths of the Uighur prisoners. How did you businessmen do it?"
The leader among the merchants nodded and bowed to Sun Aying and said: "Sun Duhu, using force to deal with those Huihe barbarians has little effect. You must use other tactics to pry information out of their mouths..."
Sun Aying saw the businessman rubbing his fingers and asked, "You spent a lot of money to bribe him?"
The businessman smiled and said: "The Uighur people all have tribes. If one person betrays, the whole tribe will be implicated, so money alone is not enough to bribe these people..."
Sun Aying: "Then what did you do?"
Businessman: "It's very simple. We just told them some of the national policies of the Tang Dynasty. For example, the people of the Tang Dynasty have now abolished their slave status, and the untouchables no longer sell themselves to their masters, but have signed employment agreements; and the industrial and commercial miscellaneous
Families can send their children to take the imperial examination and enter official careers; regardless of whether the family is poor or not, all children must go to school, and the tuition and miscellaneous fees are paid by the state; the small rent of the population is abolished, and there is no longer forced labor; as long as they are willing, everyone has a land.
Every household goes into farming and so on.”
Sun Aying was quite surprised: "You told the Uighurs this and they started talking?"
Businessman: "More than that, the trading company signed a contract with those Uighur captives, hiring them to manage pastures, herd livestock, tame horses, mine ore, etc. As long as the contract is signed, these people are no longer slaves, but
The clerks under the name of the trading company not only receive a monthly salary, but also provide food and accommodation. Moreover, the trading company is also willing to provide a guarantee to the court to allow these Uighurs to move to Tang nationality within three years and officially become Tang citizens."
Sun Aying was quite surprised when he heard this.
Lu Ensheng said at this time: "Protector, most of the Huihe people are dependent on the nobles. Food, livestock, pasture, etc. must be provided to the nobles of the family first, and the children of the side families are born into lowly households. Even if they are promoted through military merit,
And you can never become a free citizen."
"Commercial firms can provide jobs and monthly salary to Huihe people. The most important thing is that after three years, these Huihe people can freely join Tang nationality and enjoy such things as compulsory education, exemption from Ding tax, land for farmers, and participation in imperial examinations, etc."
Waiting for a series of policies, this is the real reason why the Uighur people are willing to surrender."
Sun Aying said with emotion at this time: "When the Tang army fought against the Uighurs, they only wanted to drive out and enslave them, but they never thought of using a businessman's perspective to try to divide and submit to the Uighur people at the bottom. Looking at it now, it's you who
He has made great achievements."
Lu Ensheng and the other businessmen quickly humbled themselves.
Sun Aying: "Let's record this achievement for now. Did you just say that you know the location of the main force of Uighur?"
Lu Ensheng: "According to the narratives of the Uighur prisoners, the Uighur tooth tents moved along the river. According to past practice, the main Uighur force should be stationed two hundred miles northwest of Qing'ebo at this time."
Sun Aying nodded, found the location on the map, and drew a circle with charcoal.
Lu Ensheng: "The captives also said that if the Uighurs gave up the south and evacuated northward, then the choice of migration route would include the Suoleng River (today's Selenge River) and the Jianhe (today's Selenge River) from east to west.
The Nisei River) and the Gusha River (today's Angara River) have more than 60 branches. The migration route will change with the rise and fall of the river bed and the intensity of wind and sand."
Sun Aying listened and thought.
If it is true as the prisoners said, then there are roughly three routes for the main army of Uighur Yazhang to evacuate to the north. However, there are many uncertain factors in the stopping places along the way. It is difficult to achieve full coverage in the pursuit direction.
.
Seeing Sun Aying's expression of embarrassment, Lu Ensheng said: "Back then, Wang Zhongsi and Wang Duhu made three expeditions to Mobei. The first two times they returned without success. The reason was that once the war was unfavorable, the nomads would abandon their camps and move north.
However, the climate in the northern region is harsh and the frozen soil is widespread. After the pursuers follow them northward, it will be difficult to supply supplies and the follow-up force will be weak."
Sun Aying recalled at this time that one of the big reasons why Wang Zhongsi was able to annihilate the Turks was that during the third northern expedition, he alienated Bashimi, Geluolu and the Uighur tribe, allowing these three tribes to fight against each other.
The Turks turned against each other and finally completed the encirclement network, completely wiping out the Turkic forces in Mobei.
However, now that the Uighurs are the dominant family in Mobei, when the war is unfavorable, they can move north and use strategic depth to lengthen the Tang army's logistics line, thereby gaining an advantage.
Therefore, if you want to eliminate the Uighur tribe, the most critical point is to find an opportunity to launch a decisive battle before the main Uighur force moves north.
Lu Ensheng looked at each other with the businessman behind him, and then replied to Sun Aying: "Guardian, the prisoners made a suggestion on how to defeat the main Uighur force."
Sun Aying: "Proposal? What proposal?"
Lu Ensheng: "The prisoners suggested that we let them go, and they would rebel against their respective tribes and become enemies of the Uighur family."