After a moment, several soldiers of the Tang Army escorted the captured Tibetan people in front of Li Ji. The man turned pale with fright and his legs were shaking. Two soldiers lightly swiped the crooks of his legs, and the man fell to his knees.
, Li Ji looked at him for a moment and said: "I ask some questions, and as long as you answer them honestly, I don't have to kill you."
After speaking, he glanced at Xie Tianshan, who immediately translated. The Tibetan man nodded repeatedly, expressing his willingness to answer.
Li Ji pondered for a moment and asked: "It seems that you should be a Tibetan official, but an official in charge of the Tibetan herdsmen in Qiuci?"
Xie Tianshan translated, and the Tubo man nodded and said: "I am indeed an official in charge of herdsmen, but I am the lowest official in Tubo."
Li Ji asked again: "Can your sheep be prepared to be provided to the Tibetan army attacking Kucha?"
After listening to the translation, the Tibetan official said helplessly: "The herdsmen are not willing to ask us to provide all 100,000 sheep even though Xianggui asked us to provide them. I just went to the army to ask for mercy, if they could leave some for us."
Li Ji was startled and asked: "Have you not provided your sheep to the Tibetan army?"
"The first batch of 20,000 sheep was provided the day before yesterday, and the second batch of 50,000 sheep will be provided tomorrow. The herdsmen hope to keep half of the sheep."
Li Ji immediately realized that although they had misjudged the situation, there seemed to be room for recovery.
He immediately said: "Take him with you, let's go back to the military fort!"
A dozen soldiers took the Tibetan officials with them and followed Li Ji as they rushed eastward.
At noon, Li Ji returned to the military fort with his men. Guo Song heard that there was an important situation and hurriedly came out.
"Any news?"
"Reporting to Chang Shi, we captured a Tibetan official who was an official of the Qiuci herdsmen. According to his account, most of the sheep of the Tibetan herdsmen have not yet been handed over to the Tibetan army. According to the plan, they handed over the first batch of 20,000 sheep the day before yesterday.
The second batch of 50,000 sheep will be handed over tomorrow."
This news immediately made Guo Song overjoyed. He actually still had a chance. He carefully interrogated the Tibetan official. The situation was completely consistent with what Li Ji told him. Guo Song did not hesitate and immediately ordered: "Assemble the entire army!"
Three hundred Eagle Attack Army soldiers quickly gathered together. After burning incense, three hundred cavalrymen followed Guo Song and left the military fort, running towards the Tubo pasture in the northwest.
Time was very tight. They had to finish processing the sheep of the Tubo herdsmen tonight. The journey of dozens of miles passed in the blink of an eye, and the Tang army entered the Tubo pasture.
More than a hundred households of Tibetan herdsmen died and fled. Guo Song also ordered the Tibetan officials who had been arrested to be released. The Tang army immediately gathered 80,000 sheep. It was already the first watch of the night.
The captured Tibetan official also arrived at the Tibetan army camp at this time. He was taken into the tent by the soldiers, knelt on the ground and cried: "We are raising 80,000 sheep for the army, but we don't know where to kill one."
The Tang army was so ruthless that the herdsmen died and fled, and 80,000 sheep were snatched away by them. General, please make the decision for us!"
Lun Xianggui was dumbfounded. He had just received the news the day before yesterday that a Tang Army cavalry force of several hundred people forcibly drove the Tuyuhun herdsmen out of Anxi. Unexpectedly, something happened to the Kucha Ranch.
He asked urgently: "How many people are there on the other side?"
"There are about three hundred people, all cavalry."
Lun Xianggui and his deputy Murong Bianlin looked at each other and realized that they were driving away the Tuyuhun herdsmen with 300 cavalry, so they should be the same cavalry.
Lun Xianggui said: "If there are no sheep in the Qiuci Ranch, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on for a few days. They can't go far with the sheep. The general can lead three thousand people to catch up quickly."
Murong Bianlin nodded in agreement, and then suggested to Lun Xianggui: "We must make two preparations. We will lead the army to chase the sheep. The general will send another army to Yanji. We should be able to get some there."
Food, at least we have food for the return journey."
The Tubo people and the Anxi kingdoms signed an agreement not to plunder their wealth and food, but now they don't care about it. They need food now, so they can only attack Yanji City.
Lun Xianggui said happily: "This plan is feasible. I will let Naigui lead two thousand Tibetan troops to Yanji to collect grain."
After a pause, Lun Xianggui added: "There is a large pine forest at the foot of Tianshan Mountain. You have to cut down some pine trees when you come back. We will make up for the lack of siege ladders."
"I humbly obey orders!"
At the first watch, the two Tibetan coalition forces left the camp at the same time and marched towards the Tubo Ranch and Yanji City respectively.
The full name of the deputy general Bianlin is Murong Bianlin. He was born into a noble family in Tuyuhun. He is the nephew of Murong Daonu, the Khan of Tuyuhun. He was named the governor of Qiemo by Murong Daonu. His tribe has hundreds of thousands of people, and all young and strong men join the army.
There are more than 25,000 people in total.
But what makes Murong Bianlin extremely anxious is that his troops have suffered heavy casualties in recent months. Since October last year, under the command of Tubo, they launched a war in the five cities of Qiemo. In the end, all five thousand troops were wiped out.
, learned from the painful experience, and he opposed retaliation against the Tang army, but Tubo once again forced him to send 17,000 troops to attack Kucha. Together with the 3,000 people he lost last time, he almost committed most of his troops.
The result was just as he expected. In the first tentative attack, his army lost more than 4,000 people again. In just half a year, 7,000 Tuyuhun soldiers were killed. How many old men lost their sons, how many wives lost their husbands, and how many children
Lost his father.
Murong Bianlin was extremely angry towards the Tubo people, but he could only dare to be angry and dare not speak out. He could only suppress his hatred for the Tubo people deeply in his heart.
Murong Bianlin led three thousand soldiers to pursue the Tang army cavalry who had snatched the sheep. The reason why he agreed to Lun Xianggui's request was because he hated the three hundred Tang army.
The coalition camp, which forcibly expelled his tribe from Anxi, has become a poisonous thorn in his back. If it is not removed, he will not be able to sleep well at night.
Three thousand Tuyuhun cavalry followed him and rushed north. Half an hour later, they arrived at the Tianshan Pasture. At this time, there were no sheep on the pasture. Only some Tubo herdsmen fled back and stood in front of the sheepfold in despair.
At this time, Murong Bianlin's army rushed over, and the Tubo herdsmen gathered around them one after another as if they had found their relatives, crying and complaining to Murong Bianlin about the brutality of the Tang army.
"They killed people, set fires, and took away our sheep, which are all my property!"
"My brother knelt down and begged them, but they chopped off his head with a knife. My poor brother! The general must avenge my brother."
Nearly a hundred herdsmen complained and complained, which made Murong Bianlin extremely annoyed. He waved his hands and shouted to everyone: "Everyone, please be quiet and listen to me!"
Everyone finally calmed down, and Murong Bianlin said: "I know that everyone hates the Tang army, and I do the same. I led three thousand soldiers here just to hunt down this Tang army. The top priority now is to catch up with the Tang army and take away everyone's sheep."
Take it back, please tell me which direction the Tang army went in?"
Everyone pointed eastward, "They are going east!"
Murong Bianlin turned his horse's head and galloped towards the east. The three thousand cavalrymen passed by the herdsmen like a gust of wind and followed the general in galloping towards the east.
In the dark night, Guo Song led three hundred cavalry in formation on a low hill. The soldiers were holding spears and were full of murderous intent. They were waiting for the enemy's pursuit. There were only two or three thousand soldiers.
The pursuers just become the grindstone for their growth.
Eighty thousand sheep have been driven into a mountain col. Xie Tianshan and several soldiers are responsible for guarding the exit of the mountain col.
In fact, Guo Song's action tonight has two purposes. The first is to seize the enemy's food and fodder and use a tactic to drain the enemy's troops in Qiuci. The second is to disperse the enemy's forces to defeat them one by one.
Guo Song was not in the center of the formation, but was hiding on the side in the city. The commander in the center was Li Ji, and his deputy was Guo Chongqing.
After a series of fierce battles, Guo Song had formed his own fighting style. He advocated capturing the enemy first, capturing the king, and killing the enemy's general first, so as to deal a heavy blow and weaken the enemy's fighting spirit and morale. He had this advantage, so he used this
Maximize the advantages.
At this time, three thousand cavalry were coming from a distance. Murong Bianlin had received the news that the Tang army cavalry he was chasing was on the hill in front. He was afraid that the enemy might be ambushing him, so he waved his hands and shouted: "Stop running!"
The cavalry couldn't stop all at once, but they finally slowed down and came to a slow stop.