Chapter Five Hundred and Twenty Five The Battle of Grabbing Wheat (1)
As soon as Li Bing crossed the Yellow River, a scout immediately came to report that a thousand Tubo soldiers were harvesting wheat in the wheat fields thirty miles south of Jincheng County. The county town was empty, but the scouts discovered that nearly 10,000 tons of wheat harvested by the Tubo soldiers were drying in the county town.
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This news made Li Bing overjoyed. He sent people to report to the commander-in-chief and led an army of 5,000 people to kill the wheat fields in the south.
Halfway through the road, the Hexi Army scouts discovered a team of oxcarts coming in front of them. There were about a thousand oxcarts carrying loaded wheat. The drivers driving the carts were all Han people, and there were also a group of more than a hundred people following them.
The Tibetan cavalry.
Five thousand Tang troops immediately hid in a forest on the west side of the official road, and drew their bows and arrows. When the convoy approached, Li Bing gave an order, and thousands of arrows were fired at hundreds of Tibetan cavalry.
This round of sneak attack caught the Tubo cavalry by surprise. They were hit by arrows and fell off their horses. Most of them were killed in an instant. More than a dozen cavalrymen turned around and fled, but were killed by the Tang army cavalry, cutting off their retreat. A cavalry force also shot out from behind and killed these cavalrymen.
Surrounded by more than a dozen Tibetan soldiers, amidst the desperate cries of a breakout, the Tang army's cavalry swarmed forward, thrust out random spears, and killed the last dozen cavalrymen.
More than a thousand cart drivers were so frightened that they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. "We are forced. If we don't transport wheat to them, we will be killed!"
The soldiers of the Tang Army calmed them down with kind words, and a leader of the coachmen was brought up.
"Where are you from?" Li Bing asked.
"General Qi, we are all farmers in Weizhou, and we were captured by them and forced to cut wheat."
"How many of you are there?"
"There are probably tens of thousands of people. We are all harvesting wheat in the south, and Tibetan soldiers are watching us around."
Li Bing arranged for dozens of his men to take them to transport grain to the bank of the Yellow River, while he led five thousand soldiers to fight south.
‘Woo——’
The Tibetan soldiers also discovered the Tang army coming from a distance. They blew their horns urgently, and 900 Tibetan cavalry who were supervising work in the wheat fields came from all directions and quickly assembled.
Without the Tibetan soldiers to supervise the work, the people harvesting wheat in the fields took the opportunity to flee, but the Tubo soldiers could no longer care about them. They shouted and urged their horses to kill the Tang army.
The Tibetan infantry generally used short swords and shields, but the Tubo cavalry used spears. The Tubo cavalry and the Tang army cavalry collided with each other, and the two sides fought fiercely in the wheat field.
.........
An hour later, when Guo Song led 3,000 cavalry reinforcements to the scene of the fierce battle, the battle was over. All 900 Tibetan cavalry had been wiped out, and the Tang army had suffered more than 100 casualties.
"How many brothers were killed in the battle?" Guo Song asked.
"Reporting to the envoy, sixty-nine brothers were killed and one hundred and seven were injured, nine of whom were seriously injured. Military doctors are rescuing them!"
At this time, the more than 10,000 farmers who were harvesting wheat did not flee far. They discovered that the Tang army had won, and they returned one after another. Weizhou had been occupied by the Tibetans, and they did not dare to go back.
A middle-aged man was brought up. He bowed to Guo Song and said, "I have a humble position as Chen Yao. I am the magistrate of Tianshui County. Please see Guo Shijun."
Guo Song pointed to the people around him and asked, "Are they all people from Tianshui County?"
"Some are, but most are not, but they are all from Weizhou. Their families were kidnapped by the Tibetan army, as were their families who held low-level positions. The young and strong men were left to cut wheat."
"When were they kidnapped?" Guo Song asked.
Chen Yao couldn't help but choke up when he thought of his wife and daughter who had been kidnapped. It took him a while to calm down and said to Guo Song, "It must have been more than twenty days ago!"
Guo Song turned around and asked a military doctor: "Are there any Weizhou people in the refugee camp in Ganzhou?"
The military doctor nodded, "Many of them were rescued from Shanzhou City."
Guo Song said to the county magistrate Chen Yao: "We captured Shanzhou City half a month ago and rescued more than 300,000 plundered Longyou people. There were many Weizhou people among them, probably your family members. They
They are all in Ganzhou now."
Chen Yao screamed in ecstasy, jumped up, and ran back to announce the news to everyone regardless of being rude. More than 10,000 people suddenly cheered. They were all desperate, but now they suddenly heard that their family members had been rescued, how could they not let them go?
They were so excited that many of them burst into tears.
Chen Yao was brought up again. He wiped away his tears and said apologetically: "I am too happy for my humble position. I am rude."
Guo Song nodded, "We have 80,000 regiment training recruits on the north bank harvesting wheat, and they are all just like you. You go to the north bank to participate in wheat harvesting, and finally everyone returns to Hexi to reunite with their families."
When the news came out, everyone shouted together: "We are willing to help!"
Guo Song did not want to cut the wheat on the north and south banks separately, which would disperse the troops. Once the Tibetan army came to attack, he would face a very unfavorable situation. He concentrated his manpower to cut the wheat on the north bank first, and then cut the wheat on the south bank.
He ordered Li Bing to burn and bury the bodies of the Tibetan soldiers, and led more than 10,000 people across the river to go north.
Wheat was harvested for five consecutive days. The wheat harvest on the north bank of the Yellow River has been completed. All the wheat harvesters moved to the south bank of the Yellow River to harvest wheat. Teams transporting wheat were on the official road in an endless stream. Teams of carts, teams of mules and donkeys, and teams of camels were on the road.
Marching on the official road, looking from a high altitude, it stretches for nearly a hundred miles, and the momentum is extremely spectacular.
The Tibetan army that Guo Song was worried about did not come to Lanzhou. The scouts came with the news that the 10,000 Tubo army in Shanzhou were also robbing wheat in Shanzhou. The people and materials that the Tubo army had previously looted were intercepted by the Hexi army. So,
Seizing food has become the biggest task of the Tibetan army at present.
By the end of September, the wheat had entered a fully mature stage, and the wheat on the south bank of the Yellow River had also been harvested. The Tang army and the wheat-harvesting army marched westward to the Hehuang Valley in the west, which is the most famous grain-producing area in Longyou.
This is also the focus of this wheat grab.
The Hehuang Valley is located between the Huangshui River and the Yellow River. Part of it is in Lanzhou, but most of it is in Shanzhou. It stretches for hundreds of miles. The land here is fertile, the irrigation is conducive, and the sunshine is abundant. It has been a place of population settlement since ancient times. The Tang Army was in Shanzhou
More than half of the people rescued by Lanzhou came from the Hehuang Valley.
In the grain-producing belt that is more than 200 miles long, the Tibetan army is harvesting wheat in the northwest, while the Hexi wheat-grabbing army is harvesting wheat in the southeast. The two hostile armies have no time to worry about fighting, and they are doing their best to harvest wheat.
At this time, the Tang Army in Hexi had changed the mode of transportation from land transportation to water transportation, using large rafts to transport grain along the Yellow River. They first arrived at the mouth of the Wuni River about fifty miles west of Jincheng County, and then went north along the Wuni River to Hexi.
Arriving at Wucheng Shouchu in the southernmost part of Liangzhou, they disembarked from here and were transported by cart, livestock and camel team to Guzang County, a hundred miles away.
Taking the waterway not only brings a huge amount of transportation each time, but also greatly reduces the long distance of land transportation. It is transported by dozens of giant rafts, pulled by strong cattle on the shore, and can transport 20,000 stones of wheat at a time.
As the wheat harvest process accelerated, various risks also accumulated rapidly. On the last day of September, a small-scale conflict broke out first.
To the north of Longzhi County, Shanzhou, a Tang Army scout team of more than fifty people was rushing westward along the official road. At this time, a group of frightened birds suddenly flew out of the woods in the lower left corner in front of them. Colonel Han Qing immediately
Pulled the reins.
He waved his hand to stop his men, and one of his men whispered: "I'm afraid there is an ambush!"
Han Qing took out a dynamite, stretched his bow and shot an arrow over the frightened bird. "Whoosh--" the dynamite made a harsh sound.
At this time, dozens of Tibetan cavalry rushed out from the woods, yelling sharply, and rushed towards them.
It was a Tubo patrol, and Han Qing also shouted sharply: "Gather up and fight!"
Fifty Tang soldiers immediately formed five combat teams, each with ten people, led by a brigade commander. This is also the special feature of the scout army. He has many opportunities to make meritorious deeds. Most of the soldiers are relatively high-ranking. There are no fire captains and captains.
Officers are directly brigade commander and colonel.
The Tang army paid great attention to formations in battle, and the same was true for cavalry. A well-coordinated formation could double the combat effectiveness.
The Tibetan cavalry did not have any formations. They always relied on their fearless ferocity to defeat the opponent.
This was an evenly matched battle. There were fifty men on both sides, both of whom were elite troops. However, the equipment of the Tang army was obviously better than that of the other side. The soldiers of the Tang army were equipped with bright light armor, eagle-edge helmets, spears, swords, and round shields.
There are also horned bows with a range of up to 300 paces, while the Tubo army wears leather armor, leather helmets, and short swords on their waists. Their spears are a bit crude, and the range of their bows and arrows is far inferior to that of the Tang army.
The cavalry of the Tang Army drew their bows and arrows while running. Han Qing calmly ordered: "Shoot the opponent's leader, the one with the black leather hat on the far left!"