Chapter seven hundred and seventieth hand-to-hand combat
It was still dark, and in the hazy morning light, the mountains in the distance showed black outlines, and the surrounding sky turned blue-white.
"Get up and get ready to go!"
The leading brigade commander kept urging and shouting, and under a huge stone, a group of sleepy soldiers got out of their sleeping bags, packing their bags silently, or going to a distant place for convenience.
The soldiers rolled up and bundled their sleeping bags as quickly as possible and put them behind the saddles. They took turns running to the creek below to wash their faces with cold water, drank a few mouthfuls of water, and then ran back quickly.
It only took a stick of incense for everyone to finish cleaning up. The brigade commander gave an order, and twenty soldiers got on their horses one after another, urging their horses to run away, munching dry biscuits as they ran.
This is a scout team of the Longyou Army, a total of twenty people, led by a brigade commander. Their mission is to go to the salt field to check the enemy's situation.
The salt for the tens of millions of people under the jurisdiction of the King of Jin came from the Hehuang Valley. There were two main salt fields, one on the north bank of Qinghai and one in the Cold Spring Salt Lake. Among them, the cold spring salt field accounted for 70% of the salt production. The cold spring salt field was used by Tubo
After the military attack, the large demand for salt lost its source. Now it can only rely on the salt stored in the Shanxian salt warehouse, but in the end it can only last for two months.
An Rengui, the military envoy of Longyou, received an order from Guo Song, asking him to recapture the Cold Spring Salt Farm as soon as possible and restore the supply of salt.
This twenty-man scout team was one of the three scout teams sent by An Rengui to Lengquan to investigate the enemy's situation. The brigade commander was called Yang Qi, who was from Zhangye, Hexi Province. He had been in the army for seven years and was promoted from a small scout to brigade commander through meritorious deeds.
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Cold Spring is the name of a place that is today's Chaka Salt Lake, located in the southwest of Dafeichuan, about a hundred miles away from Qinghai.
This was originally the territory of Tuyuhun. After Tuyuhun was annexed by Tubo, it naturally became the territory of Tubo. However, it is close to the Hehuang Valley and often became a battlefield between Tubo and Tang armies.
After Tubo strategically contracted due to the great loss of its national power, Tubo cavalry has not been seen in this area for many years. Because the terrain here is high and belongs to the alpine zone, the Tang army basically did not come. Therefore, in the past few years, this area has been very desolate, except for
Only when the team transporting salt passed by did it bring a glimmer of hope.
The scout team passed through a plateau meadow area, and further forward was the salt lake of Cold Spring.
As soon as Yang Qi raised his hand, everyone stopped their horses. Yang Qi turned around and ordered: "Wang Wei, take your two brothers to the lake first."
Yang Qi was very experienced. He knew that there were likely to be Tibetan soldiers by the lake, and if all of them went over, their strength would be exposed. He sent one or two people there to check first. Even if they were discovered, the enemy would not be able to figure out their true identity.
"Follow the order!"
A team member agreed loudly and waved his hand, "Qi Laoliu and Zhang Wu, follow me!"
Two cavalrymen galloped out and followed the team towards the lake.
The Salt Lake is a vast expanse of white. There used to be a salt field by the lake, and dozens of large tents scattered along the shore, which were the habitat of salt merchants. Now the tents have been destroyed and burned to a blackened state, and there are no traces of human life.
"Brother Wang, look over there, there seems to be someone!" one of his subordinates shouted, pointing to the south.
Wang Wei also saw that several black spots appeared in the south, which should be cavalry, but soon, the number of black spots turned into more than a dozen.
"No! It's a Tibetan patrol sentry."
The Tibetan patrol usually has no less than twenty-five people. When they encountered trouble, Wang Wei shouted, "Let's go!"
The three men turned their horses and galloped eastward. Dozens of patrol guards followed them several miles away and wouldn't let them go.
After a while, the three of them rushed to the resting place of the team. Wang Wei waved his hand and shouted: "Commander of the Brigade, there is a Tibetan patrol."
Yang Qi had a serious look on his face. If a Tibetan sentry appeared, there must be a Tibetan army within a hundred miles. But by withdrawing like this, they failed to complete their mission and they did not know the details of the enemy army at all.
After pondering for a moment, he suddenly ordered, "Run south!"
Everyone turned their horses and galloped towards the south. Not long after, the three kings and guards caught up with them. The large group of cavalry ran towards the south. Soon, more than 20 Tibetan cavalry appeared several miles away. Their mission was to intercept the Tang army spies, more than 20 people.
The Tibetan cavalry also turned around and ran southward. After running for about ten miles, a river appeared in front of them, with a large forest beside it.
But the cavalry of the Tang Army disappeared. At this moment, another Tibetan cavalry patrol arrived. The two patrols joined together, and there were as many as fifty people. The number of people made them more courageous, and the fifty cavalry rushed the horses.
Walk into the forest.
Fifty Tibetan patrol sentries were walking along the river. They looked left and right, looking for horse hoof prints on the ground. At this moment, they suddenly heard a "click!" sound from the dense forest on the other side, followed by the roar of twenty crossbow arrows.
The Tubo cavalry were unable to dodge and were hit by arrows one after another. In an instant, more than a dozen cavalrymen were shot off their horses. The rest of the Tubo cavalry were shocked and ran towards the woods in panic.
They also unfurled their bows and nocked arrows and shot towards the dense forest on the other side, but it was pitch dark in the dense forest and no one could be seen.
The Tibetan soldiers who were shot down from their horses were not killed. They groaned, struggled to get up, and tried to mount their horses to escape. At this time, the second round of crossbow arrows came, and more than a dozen wounded soldiers were hit by arrows again. Most of them were hit in the vital parts and screamed in agony.
They fell to the ground, and this time they basically couldn't survive.
The Tubo centurion finally discovered the problem. They were backlit, and the sun was shining directly into their eyes, so it was dark in the woods on the other side, but on their side of the woods, the sun could shine through, and they could see very clearly from the opposite side.
The centurion cursed secretly and ordered: "Kill him!"
Thirty-six Tibetan cavalry shouted and rushed out of the dense forest, rushed into the fast-flowing stream, and fought towards the dense forest on the other side.
Yang Qi calmly watched the enemy troops coming and shouted: "Fire the arrows!"
Twenty men picked up their crossbows and fired. Twenty crossbow arrows were shot out at the rushing Tibetan soldiers. The Tibetan soldiers' leather armor could not block the sharp crossbow arrows, and the ten cavalrymen running in front were shot one after another.
He screamed in pain, fell from his horse into a rushing stream, and was immediately washed away by the water.
But another twenty or so Tibetan cavalrymen had already rushed ashore and charged into the dense forest. The Tang army's cavalry came from all directions with spears. For a moment, the two teams were fighting together in the dense forest, with swords and spears flashing.
Both armies have their own advantages. The Tang army clearly has the upper hand in equipment. They are all equipped with Mingguang armor, equipped with horizontal knives, standard spears, military crossbows and bucklers. They are very well-equipped, while the Tibetan patrols are all leather armor and use short swords.
It is also related to their extremely low pig iron production. Their pig iron was basically plundered from the Tang Dynasty and has been almost consumed over the years.
However, the Tubo soldiers were well adapted to fighting on the plateau, had abundant physical strength, and fought fiercely. The Tang army was well-trained, but naturally inferior to their opponents in terms of physical strength.
Precisely because they knew this, the Tubo cavalry did not care and insisted on fighting the Tang army head-on, trying to win by relying on their abundant physical strength.
After a fierce battle for about half an hour, the Tang army suffered five casualties, while the opponent lost ten people. This made the Tibetan centurion a little frightened. The opponent was much stronger than he thought.
The experience of the Tubo centurion is correct. If it were an ordinary Tang army, their physical strength would not be able to sustain a fierce battle on the plateau for half an hour. However, this Tang army is not an ordinary Tang army, but a scout for the Tang army. They are the elite of the Tang army. They
After long-term training on the plateau, their physical strength is no worse than that of the Tibetan soldiers. This is also the reason why they dare to fight the Tibetan army on the plateau.
Another important reason is tactical coordination. They have trained jungle cavalry. The essential tactic of jungle warfare is to cooperate in pairs. Using big trees to separate them, you can attack the enemy from the left and right. When a Tibetan soldier is fighting a Tang army soldier on the left,
When fighting, a spear will strike silently from the right and pierce the body.
The Tang army had been training for many years and cooperated very well. Basically, the Tibetan soldiers who died in the battle were killed by this tactic.
After nearly an hour of fierce fighting, the Tang army became more and more courageous as they fought, but the Tibetan soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Only seven or eight soldiers were left, while there were 14 or 5 on the other side. The Tubo centurion realized that something was wrong and shouted: "Exit the dense forest! Exit."
Jungle!"
They didn't want to retreat, they just planned to change the battlefield and fight in the dense forest. They suffered too much.
The Tibetan army always fought to the death and refused to retreat. They could only win miserably and take the enemy's heads to report their merits. However, if they suffered heavy casualties and returned empty-handed, the general and deputy generals would be beheaded and the other soldiers would be reduced to slaves.
Cruel military discipline meant that the Tibetan army would either win or die in battle. Unless the commander ordered a retreat, they would never be allowed to retreat.
However, the Tubo soldiers could not retreat. The Tang army had surrounded them. They had the advantage in numbers, so five soldiers were left. These five soldiers hid in a group and fired cold arrows, making the Tubo cavalry unable to defend themselves.
After several rounds of arrows, there were only three soldiers left, but they still refused to retreat. Yang Qi knew very well that the other side would not surrender, so he ordered: "Kill them all!"
The scouts swarmed forward and pierced the bodies of the last three Tibetan cavalrymen with ten spears.
In this encounter, the Tang army suffered three casualties, two seriously wounded and two lightly wounded, while all fifty of the opponent's men were killed, with no one surviving.
Without enemy patrols, Tang army scouts finally found their target at night. A thousand-man Tibetan army was stationed twenty miles southeast of the Salt Lake.