The sudden cavalry envoy disappeared on the horizon of the pasture on his horse. Fumeng Lingcha turned back from the crenellation of the earth city wall and said to Li Siye and other generals behind him: "Mohe's envoy was just a delaying tactic. He has now begun to actively
We are preparing for war, so not only can we not stop, we must also speed up our pace and reach Suiye River as soon as possible for a decisive battle with the Moga tribe."
In the next few days, the Anxi Army accelerated their march, walking for nine hours a day. At night, they formed a formation with horses, sleeping in the open air with sheep felt pillows and quivers. When they were hungry, they ate hard compressed dry food.
Salty bacon. The whole army is like this. Even Fumeng Lingcha also eats these. The only difference may be that when General Fumeng rests under the scorching sun, there are soldiers holding oil fans behind him.
, nothing more.
Thunderstorms rarely occur on high mountain pastures. At this time, everyone has to brave the rain. The only piece of sheep felt is used to cover the dry food bags on the horses. Once the fried noodles are wet, they will soon spoil and become inedible.
.
Fumeng Lingcha straddled his horse and encouraged the soldiers behind him: "Everyone, move quickly. Once you get out of this rain cloud and see a clear day, you can dry your wet clothes!"
Li Siye rode Hei Pang, holding Qing Zhuo's reins. He also fixed the sheep felt on Qing Zhuo's back to prevent the dry food from getting wet. Because this mountain armor has two layers of tanned leather, the outer layer is used for weaving.
The armor piece, the shoulder strap and the shoulder cape prevent rainwater from penetrating into it, which is equivalent to wearing a raincoat. The armor of ordinary soldiers does not have such waterproof properties, and most of them are already soaked inside and out.
In fact, it rained for a long time and did not stop until it was completely dark. At this time, there was no dry place in the world. The soldiers trekked to the higher hills, took off the wet sheep felt and spread it on the ground.
Wear armor and fall into deep sleep. If a person is extremely tired, he doesn't care about comfort. He can fall asleep as long as he has a moment of rest.
Suiye City was already in sight. Fumeng Lingcha rode up to a high place. He just glanced at the top of the city and concluded that Mo He's tent was not in the city. He directed everyone to bypass the city and head towards Suiye River.
The Shule army was at the rear of the military column. Li Siye reached a high place and stopped where Fu Meng Zhongcheng had just stopped. He also took a look at the top of the city. He saw a few flags standing on the city wall, and the sky above the city was clear and clear.
Or there were a few wisps of cooking smoke floating in the air. Li Siye couldn't help but wonder, how did he know that Mohedagan was not in the city? Is it a way to bring hope?
Regardless of whether Mohe Dagan is in the city or not, their strategy should be to first cripple the enemy forces outside Suiye City one by one, no matter how many, and then concentrate their efforts to siege the city.
Li Siye was riding on a war horse, holding a pergola and looking at the mountains in the distance. He had a tangled attitude towards this war. In the short term, sending troops to kill Mohe Dagan and tame the unruly wild horse of Tu Qishi would be helpful.
Consolidate the rule of the Western Region in the Anxi Protectorate. But in the long run, Dashi has a strong neighbor on its side. This battle consumes its own strength. It is a civil war.
A civil war is also brewing within Dashi in the west. The once powerful Umayyad dynasty is about to come to an end and will be replaced by the even more powerful Abbasid dynasty, a superpower of the same size as the Tang Dynasty.
How to win at a smaller cost is something that Fumeng Lingcha should consider. Li Siye is not yet able to access the more core levels, so anything he thinks about at this time is unfounded.
…
Mohe Dagan had already retreated the tribal group to the pastures further north of Suiye River. Qingzhuang joined the army and organized an armed force of 30,000 people, which were deployed on both sides of Jiedan Mountain.
He also summoned various ministries in front of the tent and held a military meeting to discuss how to deal with the aggressive Tang army.
The envoy who was driven back by the Tang army knelt down on one knee, folded his right hand across his chest, and told the story of his conversation with Fumeng Lingcha. The three sons of the Khan were so angry that they gritted their teeth and stepped forward to express their loyalty and wanted to fight to the death with the Tang army.
Mohdagan laughed twice and said: "If Gai Jiayun comes, I may still be afraid. What can he do if he is wise? Guys, please tell me how we can retreat from the enemy."
The Khan did not know that Gai Zhongcheng, whom he was deeply afraid of, had gone downhill and was lost in the long river of history.
Some people think that the Tang army should take the initiative to avoid its sharp edge, continue to retreat, and wait until the Tang army is exhausted before fighting with it. Others believe that the Tang army should take advantage of the Tang army's weakness to seize the Hanna Kingdom and Dumozhi before they can catch up.
To join up with the Tang army, they should attack and defeat the Tang army preemptively, and the other two parties would naturally run away in despair with their tails between their legs.
Both sides have certain truths, but Mohe judged based on his current situation. Now the Tang army has penetrated deep into the hinterland of Suiyechuan, which is the livestock land of his summer pasture. If he goes further north, it will be a barren tundra with a lack of forage.
It is really not worth the loss to starve the livestock.
After careful consideration, Mohe decided to meet the enemy behind the Suiye River and use the danger of the river to block its halfway crossing, which would surely lead to a complete victory. He divided all the organized forces into three groups, one of which was led by his eldest son Duolu
, one force was led by the third son Quechu, and the central army was personally commanded by him.
After Mohe issued the order, he ordered his sons to disperse three teams behind the Suiye River and send patrol teams to guard the hundreds of miles of river.
At nightfall in late June, the Anxi Army continued to march forward. As it was approaching the Tuqishi people, Fumeng Lingcha ordered the entire army to roll up the flags and not light torches. They only relied on the starlight on the sky at night and the phosphorus and fireflies in the grass and trees.
The insects came to identify the road, but fortunately the visibility was not very low.
The left wing and rear armies led by General Ma Phosphorus were in the front as the vanguard. After they climbed up a gentle slope, they seemed to hear the sound of running water, the rustle of spring silkworms eating mulberry leaves, or the breeze blowing through the pine forest.
The soldiers walking in front were overjoyed. There might be a river in front of them, or there might be a wide lake. They heard its sound before seeing its shadow, and they were full of anticipation.
The team leader was the first to climb to the top of the slope. Under his feet was the winding Suiye River. The river was more than thirty feet wide and shimmered in the night. It is this river of life that has irrigated the Tianshan Mountains since then.
The pasture of Beishanqianli raised the former Western Turks and is now raising the Turks.
He didn't have time to appreciate the beautiful scenery under the starry night. He had already seen a camp set up with felt tents three miles away on the other side of the river. There were teams patrolling around with torches, and some riders were walking slowly along the river bank.
Come this way.
The soldiers following behind talked while climbing the slope: "Are we going to the river..."
The soldier covered his mouth and quickly waved to the people behind him. The soldiers climbed to the slope one after another, looked at the approaching horses, and retreated on their knees.
"Hurry up and report to the rear. We have arrived at the Broken Leaf River. There are Tuqishi people camping on the other side of the river."
Soon General Ma Phosphorus climbed up the slope in person. After observing carefully for a while, he went to the Chinese Army to report to Fumeng Lingcha.
Fumeng Lingcha called Gao Xianzhi, Li Siye, Ma Li, and Wang Zhengjian together, and the five-person group met to discuss.
"The Tuqisi people are stationed on the other side of the river. They probably want to attack our army halfway across the river. I want to cross the river tonight to find a place where the water is wide and shallow enough to wade through."
After Fumeng Lingcha gave the order, all armies sent people to explore westward along the river and went down into the water to explore the depth, but found no river surface that could be crossed.
This was a difficult situation for people. There was not enough time to cut down trees and build rafts. People could swim across, but there were many animals and they could not go into the water.