Ah Shu tightened the reins with one hand, and the galloping horse circled the ground and stopped.
In front, the place that should have belonged to the Mongolian army's camp was empty, leaving only a patch of horse dung.
Looking back to the southwest, in the distance, Gongchang City still stands beside the Weishui River, with lights on the top of the city.
"Where's the camp?"
It was easy for the Mongols to gather together. Ah Shu led five thousand soldiers and followed the horse hooves, horse dung and various traces left by the army, and marched more than thirty miles north to find the station of the army.
Only a few tents were set up.
Horses were lying everywhere, and soldiers were sleeping on the ground or sleeping on their horses.
The scouts had already seen five thousand horses approaching. Several thousand captains came forward to greet them and spoke frankly.
"Commander, we don't want to fight with Tiberius. He will disgrace the Golden Family."
Ah Shu asked: "What's going on?! Could it be that I was away for a month and failed to support you in time, so you were driven here by an old man who was about to rot?"
"Tebili is a coward and unworthy of being the son of King Kuoduan of Liang."
"..."
It doesn't matter if the cavalry retreats to avoid the real situation, but today when Tiebi Lie fled, he only took care of the troops and horses from the east and north, but he didn't take care of the troops and horses in the west and south.
If the Song army had not had a small number of troops... In fact, it would not have mattered even if the Song army had a large number of troops. As long as the Meng cavalry did not want to fight, they could still escape.
But Tebili's performance is indeed not a hero that can be respected by Mongolian warriors.
At this time, when the generals saw Ah Shu coming back, they couldn't help but complain.
Tiberius came out of the tent and heard this. Although he was very angry, he didn't say much.
Although he belongs to the Mongolian clan, his status is not very high...
Although Kuoduan was the most outstanding son of Ogedai Khan, neither Ogedai Khan nor Queen Naimazhen wanted him to be the Great Khan. They only wanted to enfeoff him in Xiliang.
Kuo Duan wanted to compete for the throne of Khan, but it was a pity that when Guiyu Khan died, he also died of illness. Otherwise, even if he did not win the throne of Khan, he could still build an independent feudal state like the Golden Horde.
As soon as Meng Ge came to power, he began to severely suppress the Wo Kuotai clique, and he did not forget to exploit Kuo Duan.
Back then, in order to weaken the power of the Tuo Lei Clan, Wokuotai assigned the troops and horses of the Tuo Lei Clan to Kuo Duan without consulting the kings and ministers, and asked him to go out to control Xiliang.
Now, Tuo Lei's other son, Kublai Khan, sent A Shu to claim to be the commander-in-chief of the military power on the west route. In fact, he was trying to seize back the troops and horses that Wokuotai's group had snatched from Tuo Lei's group.
All in all, Tebila Khan was not favored by Kublai Khan.
He was very polite to Ah Shu and carefully explained: "The Song people used terrible cannons on the city..."
"I've heard that, when we attack Gongchang City, we will leave the craftsmen behind." A Shu asked, "Where is Qukou?"
"Of course we have thrown away the expulsion." Tiebileh smiled and said, "Can we still withdraw with the expulsion?"
"If expelling them is useless, why didn't I kill them all early? If I didn't kill them all, it would be useful!"
"Then just go grab it. It's all a trivial matter."
Ah Shu spat, secretly scolding Tie Bilie for being so incompetent.
Originally, the Mongols "when attacking a big city, attack the small counties first and plunder the people for driving. Each cavalry must plunder ten people." Originally, A Shu wanted to plunder at least 100,000 people to attack the city. This time they plundered
fifty thousand.
After he arrived in Gongchang, he sent detective horses to explore the vicinity of Gongchang Mansion, and found that the Song army had deployed various defense lines, and it was already difficult to plunder.
It's better to go elsewhere.
But if you want to move elsewhere, you should first assume a posture of continuing to attack Gongchang, encircle the point to get reinforcements, then consume some Song troops, and force the Song troops to mobilize their defense lines.
"I defeated Lian Xixian, robbed him of his baggage, brought back everything I could, burned what I couldn't take away, and drove the Semu traitor like a dog to the other side of the Zhang River..."
~~
The same night, by the Zhang River.
Lu Xiaoyou rode his horse in a long circle before arriving at Lian Xixian's camp. He was repeating Li Zengbo's words. The reason why he did not write them down was simply because he was afraid of being intercepted by the Mongolian army.
"...A Shu has no other ability in fighting. His only strength lies in 'finding a path'. Li Gong defeated A Shu several times. However, in the battle of Laocangguan, A Shu found the Yining path. Although Li Gong was not defeated in the battle, he was completely defeated.
.
As for the so-called erratic march and detouring behind it, it is simply that Ashu didn't know where he was going, not even himself. Of course we couldn't guess and we couldn't guard against all the routes.
Then instead of guessing, it is better to turn passivity into initiative. Ashu doesn't know Liu Zheng's defeat yet, so he doesn't know how many troops we have, so he may be able to lure him into a decisive battle..."
Lian Xixian nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
Because Lu Xiaoyou was paraphrasing Li Zengbo's words, there would be no answer if he asked.
When he heard the end, his expression remained calm, as if he had already made a plan.
~~
The next day, A Shu once again led his troops to surround Gongchang City.
This time it was a siege but not an attack.
After losing his mouth, he was not willing to let the warrior suffer in vain.
He has already begun to look for the direction of the next robbery.
In fact, there is another way. Li Zengbo and Lian Xixian are simply unable to block it, and they can completely let A Shu enter western Sichuan...
Nowadays, there are not many Song troops in the west. After Lintao, the west is no longer Li Xia's territory.
It's easy to break out of the encirclement and enter the Aba grassland.
There are two roads going south from the Aba grassland. One of them, Ashu walked, was the route he took when he followed Wu Lianghetai to attack Dali.
The other is the path taken by Kublai Khan.
From the Aba grassland, follow the west bank of the Dadu River southward, pass through the Tibetan settlement area, and cross the Dadu River to the east of Luding to enter Lizhou.
Go further east and enter Yazhou, then go north to Chengdu.
Li Zengbo and Lian Xixian can't guard against this road no matter what. It just depends on whether Ashu is willing to go.
Ah Shu hasn't thought about it yet.
The food should be enough to last them all the way to Chengdu, although Tie Bilie lost a lot of the supplies he looted along the way.
In the Mongolian army, a mare can produce enough milk to feed three people in one day.
The soldiers themselves would also hunt, and they would also eat rabbits, deer, wild boars, and mice. If they had to, they could eat horse meat and human flesh.
Mongolian warriors are like lions. As long as they are hungry, they will naturally hunt wild beasts.
If there is no water, horse blood can also be used.
As for forage, the biggest advantage of Mongolian horses is that they eat everything, including bamboo leaves and tree bark.
Of course, crossing Tubo in this way is indeed risky.
The key is that his Great Khan did not ask him to do this, but only ordered him to "guarantee that Li Xia cannot respond to Li Fen, and to recover the Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces before the Northern Expedition to Ali Bu Ge".
According to common sense, there is really no need to take this route.
But Ah Shu wanted to go this way.
He was already irritated and excited at the thought of being able to get around it again.
He wanted to rush into Hanzhong, kill Li Xia's family, and avenge Wu Liang's death.
"Let's go, this is the method of fighting between Wu Liang and A Shu."
"No, as long as the forces in Longxi are contained, there will be more than one force involved in tackling the key problem."
Ah Shu murmured to himself and finally made a decision.
"I came back from my horse inspection today. If I haven't found any flaws in the Song army, I might as well go to the Aba grassland..."
~~
Li Zengbo looked at the map, his old eyes filled with deep contemplation.
He was analyzing where A Shu could go.
"Nine and familiar roads...Nine and familiar roads..."
This is not the first time Li Zengbo has pronounced this name these days.
Jiuheshu Road was the name he gave to the route taken by the Mongolian army to destroy the Dali Kingdom.
Before Kumitili destroyed Dali, the Mongolian army attacked Dali once, which was regarded as a stepping stone.
At that time, Li Zengbo was appointed as the economic and strategic envoy to Guangxi. He sent his subordinate Xie Tunan to Dali. He keenly captured this information and published it in "Shuai Guangtiao Chen Wushi Memorial", saying that a Mongolian army was marching in the Tibetan territory without passing through.
Sichuan, invaded the territory of Dali, destroyed three cities, killed three Jiedu, and advanced as far as Jiuhe Town of Dali.
Li Zengbo wrote this memorial four years before Kublai Khan destroyed Dali.
It's a pity that he failed to save the situation in the southwest and only found a familiar road.
"Then...can the Mongolian army kill from Tubo to Chengdu?"
Uncle Li Zeng's eyes became increasingly filled with anxiety.
Lian Xixian has been worried about the Yinping Ancient Road, which is almost as much as he can budget for.
But maybe there are roads that are more difficult to guard against than the Yinping Ancient Road...it's impossible to guard against them.
The best outcome is if Lian Xixian can lead A Shu into a decisive battle.
Nowadays, Li Xia's military strength in Sichuan and Shaanxi is different from that before the Song Dynasty, and he has the strength to win decisively in field battles.
If we can figure out more strategies for using cavalry to control cavalry in this battle...
"Commander! The Mongolian army has moved!"
An announcement sounded outside the garrison.
Li Zengbo quickly left the garrison, raised his telescope and looked outside the city.
I saw groups of Mongolian troops rolling towards the northwest, filling the sky with dust and smoke.
"Ximian? Ximian... Lian Xixian didn't succeed? He didn't succeed..."
Li Zengbo stood there stunned, feeling extremely disappointed.
He has been guarding it all his life.
You can only defend for the rest of your life. Fighting in this kind of battle is too frustrating, too frustrating!
This time I lost the opportunity to decisively annihilate the enemy, and I don’t know if I can see the soldiers of the Song Dynasty win the field battle against the Mongols...
"That's all, that's all. Let's tell them that Western Sichuan must prevent Mongolia from entering from Tibet... Beware, beware, it's annoying."
~~
Ashu rode his horse, and the army headed west.
He seemed to be trying to break through the Song army's defense line in Lintao and fight towards Hezhou.
Hezhou is not Li Xia's territory. He can rest in Hezhou, and heading south from Hezhou, he can go to the Aba grassland.
But actually he didn't plan to go to Aba.
Because according to reliable information, Li Xia has defeated Liu Zheng and is rushing to Longxi. His troops have just left Tianshui and are looking for a decisive battle...
Ah Shu doesn't know how to fight decisively.
Groups of Song armies are encircling Gongchang, including Li Xia's reinforcements. The decisive battle is not favorable.
He wanted to mobilize the Song army and attract them to the west, giving the Song army time and time again opportunities to seem to be able to surround the Mongolian army.
Then, he suddenly headed north and jumped out of the encirclement.
In front of us is the Yellow River rushing, and the wind is blowing and the horses are neighing.
He wants to bypass the entire Longxi, move thousands of miles, go straight to the Jinghe Ancient Road, and enter Guanzhong!
As long as he walked 1,500 miles, the defenseless Guanzhong was right in front of him, which was much faster than traveling to Tubo.
Ah Shu laughed loudly and raised his whip to the east.
"Warriors! We've had enough of Gong Chang's petty quarrels. Let's go to Jingzhao Mansion. We have ten times the gold and silver. You can take the women for yourselves. We can destroy the city without sealing the sword!"
What responded to him was the roar of the warriors and the thunderous sound of horse hooves on the yellow earth.
The Yellow River, the loess... finally penetrated the Jinghe River Valley, and after walking along the river for several days, there was Jingchuan River in front of us.
Further ahead from Jingchuan River, there is Qianshui Plateau...