Chapter five hundred and fortieth fierce battle Shule
There is not much suspense in the battle of Shazhou. Although Zhu Xie Jinhai still has 11,000 soldiers, 3,000 of them were hit by poisonous nails and lost their combat effectiveness. Their bodies are far from recovering.
Zhu Xie Jinhai actually only had 8,000 available troops, but the morale of the 8,000 people was low and they were seriously war-weary. Under the attack of two Tang armies, the Shatuo army collapsed without a fight. They were defeated like a mountain and were killed and captured.
There are countless of them.
Zhu Xiejinhai also had no intention of fighting and led more than 3,000 Chuyue soldiers to flee back to Xizhou in panic. He did not dare to go to Yizhou. After this disastrous defeat, the old bastards from the Presbyterian Church had to skin him.
20,000 Shatuo troops went to Shazhou, but less than 4,000 people escaped and the remaining 16,000 people were abandoned in Shazhou and Guazhou. They suffered heavy casualties, and more than 10,000 people were captured by the Tang army alone.
This time the Tang army accepted prisoners of war. They needed labor to mine the mines, and these 10,000 prisoners of war came at the right time.
The most direct consequence of this battle in Shazhou was that the Tang army captured Guazhou, and the entire Hexi Corridor was recovered by the Tang army.
Zhu Xie Jinhai's another disastrous defeat also led to the outbreak of feuds among the various tribes within Shatuo, and Shatuo began to show signs of splitting. This is a story for later, so I won't mention it for now.
Among the four towns in Anxi, Shule is second only to Qiuci in importance, and its strategic position is extremely important. It is the only way from Anxi to Tochara. It can be said that it is the west gate of Anxi.
Moreover, the oasis here is vast and the land is fertile. Since the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains army has been stationed here. This is the place with the most fertile land in Anxi. It has more than 50,000 acres of wheat fields. Based on an output of two dan per mu, it can harvest 100,000 dan in a year.
Wheat can feed an army of ten thousand.
In the Tang-Tibet alliance the year before last, the town of Shule was completely ceded to Tubo. The Tang army was forced to withdraw from Shule, and the century-old foundation that they had worked so hard to build was handed over to Tubo. This incident caused Jiedushi Guo Xin to feel sad and angry.
Died of illness.
There are currently 5,000 elite Tibetan soldiers in Shule, which is the center of Tibetan rule in Anxi. The Tibetan army also knows about the alliance between the Tang army and various countries in Anxi, but they don't take it to heart at all.
What's interesting is that when King Shule went to Kucha to gather the alliance, he also asked the Tibetan generals for their opinions, but he had no opinions and just listened to him, as if the Kucha alliance had nothing to do with the Tibetan army.
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This is also the characteristic of the Tubo army. They are more pragmatic and unwilling to pay attention to those complicated etiquette matters. They only like to use force to resolve all contradictions and conflicts on the battlefield. Even if King Shule and the Tang army meet ten thousand times, as long as they
After killing the Tang army, King Shule had to kneel at his feet like a dog.
That morning, the Tubo general Lun Shanghu received news from spies that more than 40,000 allied troops appeared thirty miles north of Shule City. Lun Shanghu looked down on the armies of Anxi countries at all and had no fighting power. They were defeated in one battle.
Out of the crowd, he was more concerned about the number of Tang troops, and there was no news from the end of the city. It was more ominous than anything else. He guessed that they had been annihilated by the Tang troops.
Based on his nearly ten years of experience in garrisoning troops in Anxi, Lun Shanghu knew that this was definitely not the work of the Anxi army. The old and weak troops in Anxi could not annihilate a thousand elite Tibetan soldiers. This must be an army from outside.
How many people did they come? How were their equipment? What was their combat effectiveness? These issues were the focus of his concern.
Lun Shanghu sent spies again to inquire about the situation of the Tang army in detail.
After five days of marching, the Anxi Allied Forces finally arrived at Shule and set up a camp thirty miles away from Shule City. It should be said that they set up two camps. One was the camp of the Anxi Allied Forces. They did not
He joined the war just to cheer up the Tang army.
In fact, the Tang Army was not willing to camp with them. Although they were allies, the Tang Army really couldn't stand the freedom and looseness of these Anxi local troops, doing whatever they wanted, disobeying orders, and continuing to give orders.
Assembling in the early morning, the Tang army was all assembled before the end of the drumming, while the Anxi local army took at least half an hour to assemble. Everyone yawned from the big tent to gather. No wonder they were defeated by the Tubo army. Such an army is really
Terrible.
In the main tent of the Chinese army, Guo Song was checking the map of the Tubo garrison provided by the King of Shule. The Tubo camp was the former board-walled camp of the Tang army. It was built extremely solidly. They were obviously afraid that the Tang army would sneak into Shule City or spread out.
The soldiers and people of Le secretly helped the Tang army, so they were unwilling to garrison the city.
The camp covers an area of about two thousand acres, with a thousand tents. Part of it is a military camp, and the other part is a sheepfold.
"Are there any loopholes in this camp?" Guo Song asked Lu Yang next to him.
Lu Yang thought for a while and said: "There are basically no loopholes in this military camp. If we must search strictly, then it is too old and the walls are a bit old. Perhaps this is its only flaw."
Li Bing suggested: "Your Majesty, try using gunpowder arrows?"
Guo Song smiled and said: "Gunpowder arrows are not good, the opponent must be prepared. The military camp occupies a large area and there are relatively few tents. The big tents in the military camp should be far away from the wall..."
Speaking of this, Guo Song suddenly thought of something. He pondered for a moment and said, "The secret of conquering this military camp may lie in the sentence 'the military camp occupies too much space'."
Lu Yang and Li Bing realized at the same time that the Tubo army of 5,000 men was too small, and the camp covering an area of more than 2,000 acres could not be defended at all.
........
In the afternoon of the next day, 20,000 Tang troops appeared east of the Tibetan army camp. The army was lined up neatly, with flags fluttering, spears like a forest, and full of murderous intent.
The Tang army's troops beat the slow and shocking drum sound, 'dong-dong-'.
The drum beat was very rhythmic, as if it was provoking the Tibetan army and waiting for them to fight.
Five thousand Tubo soldiers appeared on the surrounding high walls. General Lun Shang looked coldly at the Tang army two miles away. Of course he understood the Tang army's intentions and urged him to send troops to fight.
"General, do you want to go to war?" a captain asked in a low voice.
"You idiot!"
Lun Shang suddenly shouted angrily: "The enemy's army is four times ours, and their morale is at its peak. You want us to go out and die?"
He turned back to the generals and said: "It is up to us to decide when to go to war. We cannot let the Tang army lead us by the nose and leave them alone for a few days. When their morale weakens a little, it will be our time to go to war."
Time passed little by little, and night gradually fell. The Tang army did not camp or retreat. They were still guarding the south of the camp, seeming to be waiting for something?
Five thousand Tibetans were waiting in full formation, including 2,000 on the east side and 1,000 on each of the other three sides.
Just as night fell, something strange happened in the west of the camp. A group of 3,000 Tang Army crossbowmen launched a fierce attack on the east wall. The dense crossbow bolts were fired at the east wall. The Tang Army's crossbows had a killing range greater than that of the Tubo Army.
The bows and arrows were much farther, and the dense arrows suppressed a thousand Tibetan soldiers on the wall.
In the critical situation, the commander-in-chief Lun Shang suddenly ordered that the Tibetan soldiers defending the north and south sides send 500 men each to support the Western Wall.
The Tubo camp was a rectangle, long from north to south and short from east to west. When only 500 people were left guarding the north and south sides, the crisis came quietly.
The east section of the north wall belongs to the sheep and horse pen. Now there are basically no soldiers to defend it. The soldiers are all in the west section.
A dozen soldiers of the Tang Army crawled towards the high wall. They used wooden planks to support the ditch outside the high wall. Two soldiers rushed up and inserted a long pointed wooden stick deeply into the gap in the mud wall.
A huge porcelain vase of fire thunder was hung up. There were no Tibetan soldiers guarding his seat. They had just been transferred to defend the Western Wall.
Several Tang soldiers ran quickly, and after running for dozens of steps, they fell to the ground and covered their ears.
"Boom!" There was a violent muffled sound, and black smoke rose into the sky. Just as Lu Yang said, the high wall was decayed, and the shock wave of the porcelain bottle's fire and thunder also blew a large hole several feet long in it.
Hundreds of Tang soldiers rushed over and quickly set up wooden planks with a width of twenty feet on the trench. They pushed hard to another section of crumbling board wall, and the gap became ten feet wide.
At this time, a thousand heavily armored infantrymen trotted over in formation, holding long swords in their hands, the tip of the sword pointing straight to the sky. The team was neat and murderous, and they ran directly into the large hole that had been exploded.
Behind them, another three thousand Tang Army cavalry appeared, followed closely behind the heavy armored infantry.
There was a large open space in the military camp, right between the sheep and horse pens and the military camp. Countless Tibetan soldiers were seen running towards this direction. They also heard violent explosions and rushed towards this direction.
The heavy armored infantry quickly lined up, and a thousand sword and shield soldiers guarded the left and right sides and behind them, and went to fight the Tibetan soldiers.
Three thousand cavalry galloped through the camp, cutting the Tubo camp into two, and the five thousand Tubo armies became two armies fighting separately.
Lun Shanghu finally understood the tactics of the Tang army. They launched an attack in the west in order to disperse their forces and then break through from the middle. He immediately made a decision and loudly ordered: "Break through to the west and join the west army!"
In any case, the 5,000 Tibetan troops must be united as one to compete with the Tang army, otherwise they will definitely be divided and annihilated. At this time, he was so anxious that he could not care about the Tang army in the east, and the 3,000 troops quickly rushed to the west.
At this time, Guo Song also issued an order, "Attack!"
Ten thousand Tang army cavalry rushed towards the camp gate. They threw ropes and pulled down the camp gate. The army rushed into the Tibetan army camp. The 3,000 Tibetan army who were evacuating saw the enemy troops coming in and had to quickly assemble and pursue them.
The cavalrymen of the Tang Army who came up fought fiercely.
At this time, two thousand Tubo soldiers in the west were killed to pieces, leaving only a few hundred Tibetan soldiers struggling to resist. They were surrounded by three thousand Tang army cavalry.
The heavy armored infantry turned eastward and attacked the backs of three thousand Tibetan soldiers...