Chapter 154: Shocking the enemy's courage

When Gehan arrived, the third floating bridge had been lost. Seeing that things were clear, Geshuhan knew that the remaining two floating bridges were fine, he ordered the heavy infantry to sleep and recover their strength. After waking up, he ordered the meal before the battle and eat 70% full, so that it would be easier to rush.

Before the war, it was a common practice for the army to ensure physical strength.

Before he was ready, he found that the Tubo army was loading sand on the beach. Geshuhan knew that Cheng Xiaotian's trouble was coming, so he sent some soldiers to tie branches on the horse's tail to stir up smoke and dust. One was to tell Cheng Xiaotian that a large number of reinforcements had arrived and asked him to stick to it. The other was to shock Tubo.

With a command, the heavy infantry were dressed neatly and followed Geshuhan to the south bank, captured Nujiang, defeated Jide Zuzan's army, and prepared conditions for the arrival of the army.

Nujiang is the last natural danger of Lusue City. Now it falls in the hands of the Tang army. Lusue City has reached the point where there is no danger to defend. Tubo has reached the last moment of life and death, and a decisive battle is about to begin!

Geshuhan was not satisfied with just setting up camp, and ordered the army to rebuild the floating bridge on the Nujiang River. After several days of hard work, five floating bridges appeared on the Nujiang River, plus two captured from the Tubo people, a total of seven floating bridges. One hundred thousand Tang troops could quickly pass through the Nujiang River and reach the south bank.

The Tang army arrived continuously, and soon, there was a barracks on the south bank of the Nujiang River.

The first sentence Fei Junxing said when he arrived was "General Geshu, give me back his Malay!"

Ge Shuhan quickly cleared up: "Who has the idea, who will you look for? If he doesn't have the idea, can I ask for a horse?"

Wang Zhongsi grimaced at Ge Shuhan: "General Ge Shu, you can do all the benefits. Don't behave like a cheap person!"

Cheng Xiaotian was a little gloating and patted Fei Junxing's shoulder: "Boy Fei, how does it feel to become a cavalry and an infantryman? It's hard to get another chance, come again next time!"

Fei Junxing was so angry that he blew his beard, and swung his fists and chased after him. Cheng Xiaotian jumped and ran away. Looking at the two of them playing, everyone burst into laughter.

The Tang army passed the floating bridge day and night until half a month later, and it was still arriving continuously. This shocked the Tubo people. I really don’t know how many Tang troops were. What surprised them even more was that the Tang army’s camps were getting bigger and bigger day by day, and there were at least sixty or seventy miles apart on the south bank of the Nujiang River. Look at this formation, the Tang army has no 500,000, and I believe it is not much short of it.

What surprised the Tubo people the most was that the Tang army had no intention of attacking, but instead set up camps to train, and the people were happy all day long and were very lively.

Logically, the Tang army should fight quickly instead of setting up camps and doing something irrelevant. This made the Tubo monarchs and ministers unable to guess thoroughly, and they were gathering in the tent of Jide Zuzan to discuss.

"You all tell me, what is the Tang army doing?" Jide Zuzan glanced at the ministers: "The Tang army has never done anything since crossing the Nujiang River. I originally thought that as soon as they arrived, they would attack immediately, but unexpectedly, the Tang army had no movement."

Due to the dangerous terrain of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the difficulty of transporting food and grass, the most wise decision of the Tang army was to arrive early and fight early, and retreat after the battle. Otherwise, when the mountains were closed and the ice and snow were covered, the food and grass would not be transported, and Tubo was very poor and could not supply hundreds of thousands of troops at all, and the consequences were unimaginable.

Guo Qianguan is a famous general and will not understand this principle, but the Tang army did the opposite. He only practiced all day long and did not do other things, which confused the shrewd Jide Zuzan.

Unable to understand, Jide Zuzan had to summon a group of generals and a group of ministers from Luoshecheng to discuss.

During the war, it is very important to understand the enemy's intentions. The generals immediately expressed their opinions. A thousand-household imperial guards replied: "Zanpu, the Tang army should be waiting for the troops behind to arrive. The Tang army crossed the Nujiang River and had not finished it. Not to mention that their camps are getting bigger and bigger. This time the Tang army invested more than 400,000 troops."

In fact, the Tang army had already arrived at Nujiang. The reason why it was half a month was because Guo Qianguan ordered some Tang army to return to the north shore in the middle of the night. When the daytime, even more vigorously crossed the river, the Tubo scouts reported the news to Jide Zuzan, and it became "the Tang army crossed the river day and night, and it had not been completed for half a month."

The Tang army drove forward day and night in the seven floating bridges. After half a month, how many people would there be? I was dizzy when I thought about it. Can I not scare Tubo?

As for the expansion of the camp, it was just a cooperative measure. The middle part of the Tang army's camp was empty, and only the edge part was occupied.

The short speech does not agree with this statement: "Zanpu, I think the Tang army would not send so many people to come, which is probably a skeptical plan. The Tubo terrain is dangerous and food is unsustainable. If an army of more than 400,000 yuan arrives, the Tang people will not be able to obtain supplies."

This is very reasonable and immediately received a lot of congratulations. However, there were also many oppositions: "The Tang people have always used their resources to the enemy. If they dared to put 400,000 troops into the Great Tubo, they would be fully prepared. Even if they could not transport all the grain from the country, they could still get supplies from our Great Tubo.

"Since the Tang people arrived, the slaves were all looking forward to throwing into the Tang people's arms. They were not leaving empty-handed, but driving cattle and sheep, with jerky meat and barley. Isn't these enough for the Tang people to use for a while?"

Zhang said that he had let go and began to abolish the slaves. After Zhang said that he sent a large number of people to promote the news, all the slaves were excited to get the news, and all the people who could run to the Tang army. They often drove cattle and sheep, brought food and jerky, and gave it to the Tang army.

These things are what the Tang army urgently needs at present, so Zhang Shuo naturally accepted them without saying a word. In return, Zhang Shuo immediately announced that they were free people. Like everyone, they had personal freedom, could own grasslands, pastures, and then some cattle and sheep for them. The gratitude of slaves could not be described by pen and ink, and they followed the Tang army with a desperate heart.

When this matter was mentioned, the ministers and generals here all felt so angry that they gritted their teeth. Are they slave masters or the biggest slave masters in Tubo? How can they not hate them when the Tang army dug their corners?

"You all hate the Tang army, do you? I think the Tang army is good and did a good thing!" Ji Dezuzan was unstable.

As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd was shocked and stared at Jide Zuzan. Da Lun coughed and asked, "I dare to ask for advice from Zanpu."

Jide Zuzan stood up and walked slowly, saying, "You can sit here to discuss military operations with me, not because you have made contributions, but because your ancestors have made contributions. Your fiefs, slaves, grasslands, and pastures are obtained by you. The Tang people are going to abolish slaves now, but we cannot resist them. If this continues, there will be changes. We will also abolish slaves!"

This shocked the crowd. After a brief shock, the ministers immediately opposed it in unison: "Zanpu, this matter must not be done, absolutely not!"

This was the first time that the ministers and generals were so consistent, with their voices rising and falling, uniform, as if they were talking alone.

They are not only slave masters, but also the largest group of slave masters in Tubo. When Jidezuzan wants to abolition of slaves, do they still have a good life? They cannot agree no matter what.

The big and small theories, and several prime ministers quickly exchanged their eyes, and then said: "Zanpu has such kindness, which is actually a blessing for the Great Tubo. However, I think it is not appropriate to be too slow to do it early. Zanpu knows that the soldiers of the Great Tubo also have slaves. They fight to gain more slaves. If Zanpu abolishes the slaves now and the soldiers are unwilling to fight, the Tang people will take the opportunity to kill them, and the consequences will be unimaginable!"

This is too reasonable. The soldiers of Tubo are the little slave masters. If Jide Zuzan wants to abolish the slave, it is like igniting a powder barrel and causing a mutiny. He is about to fight the Tang army to amaze stability. He should put stability first. Jide Zuzan sighed inwardly and nodded, "I just sigh! This slave is the property of our great Tubo nobles, and the objects will always be!"

Once this statement is made, it is tantamount to announcing that the slave system will be spread forever in Tubo. Then these great slave masters will have no worries. They are overjoyed and praised in unison: "Long live Zanpu! Long live Zanpu!"

The voice is passionate and comes from the heart, and it is different when you hear it. This is the most sincere praise that Ji Dezuzan has ever heard in his life. He sighed in his heart: "Privacy can make people crazy!"

It is not entirely true that Tubo is poor. Those great slave masters are rich. Jide Zuzan once heard a story about a big slave master's jerky in his house, and even if the jerky from thirty years ago, there were tens of thousands of pounds of jerky.

It is endless. There is not much money in the treasury, so you have to save money to barely enough. It is not that Tubo has no money, but because Tubo’s money falls into the pocket of the slave master. If the slave masters are abolished and the slave masters have no privileges, Tubo will be a different appearance and suddenly becomes much stronger.

First, Jide Zuzan can collect taxes directly from the people. Once the tax source is wider, the money in the treasury will naturally be more. Second, slaves can join the army, and there will be more soldiers, and a stronger army can be established. Third, if the slaves are given freedom and property, they will be loyal. What the Tang army is doing is the best proof.

Jide Zuzan had never thought about the abolition of slavery before, but now he was really moved to see the Tang army doing a prosperous life. The benefit was so great that he couldn't help but not to be moved.

One thing is certain, no matter what the outcome of this battle, these slaves who gained freedom are no longer owned by Tubo. Even if the Tang army was defeated, these slaves would follow the Tang army to the Central Plains, live on the land of the Tang people, and be Tang people all their lives.

This is a population of hundreds of thousands. Once these populations are gone, what will Tubo look like? No one does the work, no one does cattle and sheep, and Tubo's strength will decline a lot. If the abolition strategy is implemented now, it may be possible to save some things, but the time is wrong, so I can only watch the slaves throw themselves into the arms of the Tang army.

In order not to let Jidezuzan mention this matter again, the big speech immediately changed the topic: "Zanpu, I think that no matter what the Tang people's intentions were, they would not attack for a long time. This would be beneficial to our Great Tubo without any harm! This gives the Great Tubo enough time to mobilize the army. We, the troops scattered in the mountains and dense forests, have all the troops in the Western Regions arrived?"

The Tang army did nothing after crossing the Nujiang River, but was implementing Zhang's strategy of "right to calm down". Nujiang was the last natural danger of Tubo, and now it fell into the hands of the Tang army. The psychological pressure caused to Tubo cannot be described in the form of writing. In order to ensure the city of Luosie, Jide Zuzan issued one order after another to mobilize troops.

Not only did the troops in the Western Regions arrive, but the private troops of the slave masters also arrived. So far, the Tubo army gathered in the plains south of the Nujiang River has exceeded 200,000.

The 200,000 troops are huge, twice that of the Tang army. Their real strength is very weak, and 50,000 Tang army can crush them to pieces. Only tens of thousands of imperial guards are truly qualified to be opponents of the Tang army. Because they are well-trained, well-equipped, wearing iron armor, dare to fight and fight.

As for the general Tubo army, wearing leather armor and poor protection, they had to kill each other when they encountered the Tang army protected by iron armor. Not to mention, a large part of these army still used bronze weapons.

China was abolished as early as the Warring States Period. After Qin Shihuang unified China, the bronze weapons ended. Of course, Qin Shihuang's invincible army wiped out the six countries with bronze weapons and forged Chinese civilization. After unifying the country, Qin Shihuang began to abolish bronze weapons, and by the Western Han Dynasty, the Iron Weapon Age was fully established.

This history is a thousand years away. How effective can the Tubo army have when it meets the Tang army?

Not to mention those private armies, they can only scare the people. Without organization or training, they will not be able to help them at all. They are just coming to promote their reputation.

Jide Zuzan also knew that private troops were of little use. After all, they were humans, so there would always be some benefits, right? So Jide Zuzan still ordered them to go to the battlefield.

The slave masters agreed very much with this order, because once they won, they sent troops and made great contributions, and could also help them to get the benefits. After receiving the order, they all brought people to the military camp and expressed their loyalty to Jide Zuzan. Jide Zuzan did not see 180 such slave masters in a day.

When he received the news, Guo Qianguan was very excited, and Chen Wanrong was also happy. He smiled and quoted Fei Junxing's words, "After this battle, Tubo really lost even the seeds to give birth to his cubs."

Now, the Tang army is not waiting for the opportunity, but the Tubo army in the Western Regions. The battle between Tubo and the Tang Dynasty mainly occurred in two directions. One was the land of Longxi, and Tubo wanted to seize the Hexi Corridor. The other was the Western Regions. Once, Tubo seized the four towns of Anxi, and Wu Zetian mobilized the army to retake it, which slightly frustrated Tubo's edge.

The Tang Dynasty struggled in the Western Regions, and there were two main reasons: one was the collusion between Tubo and the Dashi Empire, and the other was the limited military strength of the Tang army in the Western Regions. In the heyday, when Gao Xianzhi was in charge of Western Regions, there were less than 30,000 Tang troops in the Western Regions. In the Battle of Talas, the Tang army only participated in the war, and the rest were troops of the vassal states. This was an important reason why the Tang Dynasty failed in the Western Regions in the Battle of Talas.

If Tubo's army in the Western Regions is attracted to the vicinity of Luoshecheng, there is no need to mention the benefits. Once this battle is over, the Western Regions Protectorate will immediately take action, and the Tang Dynasty's reputation in the Western Regions will increase greatly.

Tubo's army in the Western Regions had good combat power, but they rushed for more than a thousand or two thousand miles, and were trapped in people and horses. How much combat power could they have? Guo Qianguan had already prepared, and as soon as this Tubo army arrived, they would start war immediately.

Jide Zuzan spared no effort to search for soldiers and soldiers, and hit the Tang army's thoughts, but Jide Zuzan was confused.

"What he said makes sense!" When Jide Zuzan thought of the arrival of the army one after another, he couldn't help but feel relieved and sat back on the throne easily.

The great theories continued: "Zanpu, I think that the Tang army gathered more than any other time this time. The so-called "whoever comes is not good, and the good ones do not come, they will aim to destroy the Great Tubo. Therefore, I have a word but dare not say it."

"Tell me!" Ji Dezuzan looked at the big speech with some curiosity.

Da Lun shook his head and said, "If you want me to speak, I will praise you and pardon me for not being guilty. Only then will I dare to speak."

Jide Zuzan became even more strange. He rolled his eyes, stared at the big remnant, and raised his thick eyebrows: "Okay! No matter what you say, I will forgive you for your sins!"

"Thank you Zanpu!" said the great remark, and then said: "Zanpu, please forgive me for your frankness. I think that the Tang soldiers are numerous and you should not be able to win over their sharpness. My great Tubo should avoid its sharpness. When its morale is low and the food and grass cannot be sustained, then the battle with them will be the best strategy!"

Jide Zuzan remained calm: "This is also a saying!"

The Dalun continued: "Zanpu, I think the equipment of the Great Tubo army is not as good as that of the Tang army, and its training is not as good as that of the Tang army. It is not its opponent when confrontation head-on. The most important thing now is to preserve its strength, and should withdraw the troops and retreat to a place with high mountains and far waters to station."

He was not an incompetent person, what he said was exactly what the Tang army feared the most. Once the Tubo army did not confront the Tang army head-on, but instead adopted the method of preserving its strength and using the dangerous terrain to deal with the Tang army, the Tang army was really powerless and had to withdraw its troops early.

The idea of ​​the Dalun is very good, but Jide Zuzan's character is strong and unyielding, so he would not lose easily. He sneered: "Dalun, are you afraid? Before the army can unite, the loser will be the one who will be defeated by the army! If I had not forgiven you for being innocent, I would have to give you a sacrifice to the flag!"

The cold sweat was pouring down from Dalun's forehead, and he secretly thanked that Ji Dezu praised him for his guilt: "Zanpu, I will tell you every truth, please think twice!"

"According to what you say, we will withdraw, what should we do if we do? What should we do if Qi Zong Nongzan's grave? Let the Tang people raged?" Ji De Zuzan became more and more angry as he spoke, and he slapped the mountain on the desk: "We are descendants of Qi Zong Nongzan, and we will never be turtles with heads! Anyone who dares to withdraw his troops will be killed!"

Zhang said that he was very talented and calculated the reaction of Jide Zuzan very accurately!

The anger was so powerful that it scared the ministers and the generals did not dare to show their anger, so they could only stare at them.

After a while, Da Ren was the first to speak: "Since Zanpu does not accept the strategies of his ministers, I have nothing to say. However, I think there is another thing I should do, that is, ask the Tang people to send an envoy to discuss the matter of the withdrawal of the army with Zanpu. If you do not recognize the outcome of this battle, it is imperative for the Great Tubo and the Great Tang to stop the army. You can not only make some preparations for the future strike, but also take the opportunity to peek into the reality of the Tang army."
Chapter completed!