Before dawn the next day, Guo Song set off with 20,000 cavalry, together with 500 cargo ships loaded with grain, grass and supplies. The cargo ships would go south to Tongyi County, Meizhou, and then be transported by camels from Tongyi County to
Mingshan County, Yazhou, if transported by ship, the distance traveled by camel to transport goods directly from Chengdu is shortened by half.
There are 30,000 new troops staying in Chengdu. Basically, there will be no war in Chengdu. The role of the new troops is more to maintain order.
Twenty thousand cavalry rushed south. The reason why Guo Song was eager to return to Yazhou City was that he had just received Pei Xin's flying eagle message. Tang army scouts intercepted several Tibetan messengers coming from the plateau. The second Tibetan army
Reinforcements are coming to Yazhou.
Twenty thousand cavalry galloped day and night towards Mingshan County...
Yazhou City was as peaceful as ever. The Tang Army's cavalry would come to provoke them every morning, and then withdraw their troops back to the camp in the evening. This happened every day, and the Tubo people turned a blind eye.
The food reserves in the city are quite sufficient, but the people in the city are in a miserable state. Many families have run out of food and can only rely on Tibetan relief. They can barely survive with a bowl of porridge at noon every day. If they are strong laborers, they will be treated slightly better.
They worked for the Tubo people, demolishing houses and building stone forts. The Tubo people wanted to build a three-story stone fort covering an area of 60 acres as an official office. They needed labor.
Zhou Fei and his men were the laborers who built the stone castle. The labor intensity was quite high. They started working before dawn every day and stopped working after dark. There was no wages. They only had two meals a day, barely able to eat 70% of their food.
Every day I came back so exhausted that I fell asleep.
But Zhou Fei continued to look for loopholes in Yazhou City. In the past two days, he heard a secret story. The Tubo army captured Yazhou City by breaking through the wall. This made Zhou Fei immediately interested.
The person who told him the news was a young Qiang man who worked as a clerk in a shop and lived at the foot of the west city wall. He saw with his own eyes a large number of Tibetan soldiers pouring out of a private house, thousands of them, and they immediately headed south.
The city gate launched an attack.
Zhou Fei immediately realized that this was extremely valuable information. Of course, a private house could not accommodate three thousand people. There was only one possibility. A big hole was dug in the city wall, and the Tibetan troops from outside the city poured in from the big hole.
Today, he obtained the specific location of this house from a young Qiang man.
Their civilian camp is near the west of the city. It is a place where poor people live, with shabby houses and many alleys. The Tubo people have designated an area for them to live in, with 20,000 civilians living there. There are Tubo patrol posts all around, and they are very tightly guarded.
If they had just lived here, Zhou Fei would really not be able to find a way out, but they have lived here for almost a month. They are all familiar with this area and know it well. There are at least three loopholes that Zhou Fei can exploit.
At night, there was thunderous snoring in the house. Zhou Fei jumped up and waved, and two of his men immediately got up and followed him out of the back door.
Going out from the back is a very deep alley. The alley is a dead end. There is an empty house next to it that is their toilet. The smell here is so bad that the Tibetan soldiers will not go near it. If you go out through the window of the toilet, you can avoid the Tubo.
Patrol.
They were strong and flexible and very familiar with the terrain. After a while, they left the civilian area.
"It should be right here!"
They rushed to the foot of the west city wall and stopped in front of a private house. There was a Tibetan flag on the courtyard door. The meaning of the flag was that the courtyard was the territory of the Tibetan military and ordinary people were strictly prohibited from entering. But it was also this flag.
The flag made it the only identification in the surrounding area, allowing Zhou Fei to easily find his target.
"General, let me go and take a look first!"
One of his men is short in stature, just like a child, but he is extremely skilled in Qinggong.
Zhou Fei nodded, and his men rushed out like a monkey...
Zhou Fei faintly saw the figure of his subordinate appear on the roof, and then disappear in an instant. Another subordinate next to him asked in a low voice: "General, do you think there are still Tubo people here?"
"Judging from the dust on the gate, it should be gone. Just in case, the Tibetans don't enter or exit through the courtyard gate, so it's better to be cautious."
"The general said it well, we cannot be exposed in the slightest."
At this time, his subordinates appeared on the courtyard wall and waved to them. Zhou Fei was overjoyed and ran over with his subordinates, jumping into the courtyard easily.
This house was indeed abandoned. There were no Tubo people living in it. The door was locked from the outside. They jumped into the house through the window and walked inside until they came to the innermost room.
Zhou Fei immediately noticed something unusual about this room. There were no windows and it was completely dark. At this time, his men opened several pieces of the roof, allowing a few rays of moonlight to enter the room.
Soon, their eyes adapted to the darkness of the room, and the scenery in front of them became clear.
The room was empty, with nothing but two cupboards. Since Zhou Fei guessed that the Tibetan army entered through the wall, there must be a passage behind the two cupboards.
He stepped forward and pushed the cabinet hard, and his men quickly stepped forward to help. The two cabinets creaked open, and a big hole appeared in front of them.
The large cave was filled with stones, occupying almost half of the pit, and the roof and supporting pillars had not been removed. This is because the city wall would collapse after being removed.
"Come! Let's clear out the rocks."
Zhou Fei gave an order, and the three of them started working together. In less than an hour, more than two thousand stones were cleared out. The room was filled with large and small stones, and a large dark hole appeared in front of them.
Although the stones have not been completely cleared away and there is still a layer on the ground, it does not prevent them from entering the cave to check.
Zhou Fei suppressed the excitement in his heart and walked into the big hole. There was a "clang!" sound. He seemed to have tripped over some metal pole. He squatted down and touched it for a moment. He was suddenly surprised and delighted. It turned out to be two iron hooks, thin and thin.
It's long, and all the soldiers who serve as scouts know this tool, which is specially used to retrieve city bricks.
Immediately afterwards, Zhou Fei touched another fire sickle. There was a small cloth bag tied under the fire sickle, which was usually filled with tinder.
"Shichiro, bring the oil lamp from the outhouse!"
Just now they found an oil lamp outside. There was still some lamp oil in it, but there was no fire starter. Zhou Fei was surprised! The Tubo people would not deliberately take something like flint away. It turned out that it was left here.
His men rushed out, and after a while, they came back holding an oil lamp. Zhou Fei gently twisted it, and the wick was still on it. "Click! Click!" He struck the fire sickle, and a few sparks fell on the tinder, which immediately ignited.
stand up.
Zhou Fei lit the oil lamp, raised it high, and the entire city cave became clear.
The hole is about eight feet high and seven feet wide. There are scattered stones on the ground. Anyway, it will be filled back later, so there is no need to clean it up.
The top and sides of the cave were covered with wooden planks, and four large wooden pillars supported these wooden planks. Zhou Fei carefully observed these wooden planks and pillars, and he understood why the cave could not be restored. The inside of the city wall was full of mud and sand. As long as any of the pillars were removed, the cave would be restored.
Silt will flow out and fill the entire cave, but the walls will probably collapse as well.
"General, there are still weapons here!"
Zhou Fei was startled, and looked back, only to see more than a dozen weapons on the other side in the innermost corner. Zhou Fei was surprised and happy, and quickly walked up to take a closer look. There were six spears and seven horizontal knives, all of which were from the Tang army.
The weapon is not the Tubo dagger.
"The weapons are all good, why are they missing here?" the subordinate asked in confusion.
Zhou Fei thought for a while and then smiled and said: "They are probably the weapons of the undercover Tibetan spies. Their weapons are usually hidden here. When the Tibetan army enters the city, they take weapons from the Tang Dynasty. It is a bit nondescript, so they simply discard them here."
"I see!"
The two subordinates happily stepped forward to inspect the weapons and asked, "General, do we want to take these weapons away?"
"You can take it away!"
Zhou Fei agreed casually. His mind was already on the wall. He groped the wall tiles gently. The lime between the wall tiles had fallen off, making the gap appear very wide. But if there was no light coming in from the outside, it should have been plastered.
Once soil.
Zhou Fei picked up a horizontal knife at any time and thrust it in. As expected, the outside was sealed by mud, and it opened with a light stab of the knife.
Use an iron hook to probe in, turn it slightly, and the hook will hook the city bricks outside. With two iron hooks, you can pull out the city bricks.
Zhou Fei understood in his heart, he smiled and said: "That's enough, take out the weapons and let's return to the original position.
The three of them worked together to fill the cave with stones, push the wooden cupboards up, and put the oil lamps back far away. Even the footprints on the ground had to be erased, so that Tibetans would not find out that their secret was exposed.
It was almost three o'clock when they returned to their residence. They dug a hole and buried the weapons. Then Zhou Fei and the other three fell down to sleep. They lost consciousness as soon as their eyes closed. They were too exhausted that night.