It was just dark, and tens of thousands of Tang troops were approaching the city. At this time, Li Sheng received news that about a thousand troops in the city had retreated through the west gate, and the city was currently an empty city.
Not long after, several scouts opened the east city gate, and Li Sheng immediately ordered two thousand soldiers to enter the city to conduct a thorough search to prevent the enemy from hiding sulfur and other flammable materials in the city.
Soon, a soldier came back to report that no fire starter was found in the city and everything was normal.
Li Sheng then ordered the entire army to enter the city.
The county town is full of Nanzhao folk houses with bamboo and wood overhead structures. A small river passes through the city and is divided into several tributaries in the city. All the houses are close to the water and are quite clean.
Of course Li Sheng had his own plan. He never thought about burning Yaocheng County. He wanted to seize Yaocheng County and give his army a place to rest and reorganize.
In a hot and humid place like Nanzhao, it is not enough to have medicinal materials. The best way to adapt to the climate is to give the soldiers enough rest to maintain sufficient physical strength. Especially the Yaocheng area is a rare plateau basin in Nanzhao.
This area is covered with fertile fields for hundreds of miles and has always been called the granary of Nanzhao.
The Tang army occupied the Nanzhao granary and cut off the connection between Nanzhao and Kunzhou to the east. The food would be ready in two months. By then, it would not be himself but Nanzhao who would be anxious.
This is the difference between the third battle between the Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao, and it is also the brilliance of the general Li Sheng. He changed the Tang army's eagerness and wanted a quick victory, and instead established a grain-producing land in Nanzhao to fight.
Recuperate and prepare for long-term combat.
If he left ten thousand troops and stationed them in Yao City for a long time, Nanzhao would collapse without a fight and surrender to the Tang Dynasty in less than a year.
Li Sheng ordered the whole army to enter the city to rest. The soldiers cheered. They lived in a clean and comfortable bamboo building with good ventilation and coolness. After placing mugwort mosquito coils on the upwind side, there was no mosquito harassment overnight. They slept very sweetly all night and woke up refreshed in the morning.
full.
In the early morning, the soldiers ran along the field ridges to exercise their physical strength. Camels brought food and supplies in batches from Huichuan County. Tens of thousands of soldiers settled in Yaocheng County peacefully, even though the distance from the capital of Nanzhao was no longer enough.
Two hundred miles away, but the Tang army showed no sign of advancing westward.
At this time, Nanzhao was in chaos. The Tang army marched south, and people from all over Nanzhao flocked to Yangjumei City and Taihe City. Both the inside and outside of the city were overcrowded. Not only were the people living in crowded areas, but they also consumed huge amounts of food, which made the people and officials complain.
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Outside the city, a team was guarding Wangsun Yimouxun as he inspected the people who had fled. Wherever he went, a group of people surrounded him, complaining about all kinds of inconveniences and dissatisfaction. Yimouxun was so worried that he could only comfort him with kind words.
Finally finding an opportunity, he hurried back to the city on horseback.
In the Nanzhao Palace, Nanzhao Prince Ge Luofeng, who is nearly sixty years old, is listening to the report of the army general Ruan Shaofeng.
Yimouxun hurriedly walked into the hall, bowed and said: "Grandpa, my grandson is back!"
Ge Luofeng nodded, "You came back just in time, the situation is a bit bad!"
Yimouxun is now not only the heir to the throne, but because Geluofeng is old and lacks energy, power is gradually handed over to him. Yimouxun is now also the Grand Marshal of Nanzhao, holding military and political power.
Yimouxun was extremely ambitious, and his dream was to annex Xichuan and Bozhou of the Tang Dynasty and establish a Nanzhao empire to compete with the Tang Dynasty.
He also made the same mistake that all small countries have made, fearing power but not virtue, and mistook the tolerance of the Tang Dynasty for weakness.
After he took control of the military, he promoted the hard-liners in the army and drove the moderates out of the army. As a result, the Nanzhao army became the toughest force against the Tang Dynasty. Because they were too tough, they attacked the imperial prospecting team.
He killed 300 Tang soldiers who were guarding them and kidnapped more than a dozen officials and craftsmen. Finally, he angered the Tang Dynasty and attracted a large army of Tang soldiers to suppress the situation.
However, in Yimouxun's view, this crisis in Nanzhao is also an opportunity for Nanzhao. If the Tang army can be defeated, it is not impossible to take advantage of the victory of the Northern Expedition and sweep the entire Xichuan.
Yimouxun stepped forward and asked, "Grandpa, what happened?"
Yimouxun glared at Ruan Shaofeng with dissatisfaction, actually daring to bypass him and report directly to his grandfather!
Ruan Shaofeng said quickly: "I am also preparing to report to the Grand Marshal that after the Tang army occupied Nongdong City, they stopped moving westward and settled in the city. They even repaired the damage in the southwest corner of the city wall."
Yimouxun frowned, turned around and asked Yin Qiukuan, the Qingping official sitting below: "Xiang Yin, what does the Tang army mean by this?"
Yin Qiukuan bowed and said: "According to Weichen's observation, the Tang Dynasty may have changed its strategy. It used to attack us directly, but now it may have changed to cutting tactics and occupied the lanes, causing us to lose the lanes and Tuodong. Shao
Lord, this is a very cruel method. Losing the food in Nongdong and the salt in Tuodong will be a disaster for Nanzhao."
Ge Luofeng sighed and said: "Wang and Sun now know the methods of the Tang Dynasty! They are cutting the flesh with blunt knives, suffocating us to death bit by bit. Now let the captured people go quickly and send someone to apologize to the Tang Dynasty.
, see if we can make a turn for the better."
Yimouxun bowed and said: "Grandfather, we haven't attacked yet, why do we say defeat first? We have more than 200,000 troops, and the opponent only has 40,000 to 50,000 men. We can also let the Tibetans attack Huichuan first, cutting off the Tang army's logistics supplies and
Our retreat is to use more than a large army to destroy the Tang army with powerful troops and war elephants. We were able to succeed in the past, so why not now?"
General Liu Fanren also said: "Your Majesty, the young master is right. Secondly, there is no difference between this time and the second Tang Dynasty war. I remember clearly that at that time, Tang general Li Mi also occupied Nongdong City and held a stalemate.
A few months later, he led his army to the Erhai Lake. He believed that as long as the Tibetan army occupied Huichuan City, the Tang generals would have to send troops westward to find an opportunity to fight us."
Generals Meng Chengjin and Ruan Shaofeng also expressed their support for Yimouxun, which meant that the entire military supported a war with the Tang army and was unwilling to seek peace.
Several Qingping officials also believed that Nanzhao currently had the advantage in military strength and should not easily seek peace.
Ge Luofeng could not find any supporters, and Zheng Hui was not around, so he could only sigh and said, "Okay! Please ask Tibet to send troops first!"
In fact, Tubo had already sent troops. Qizang Zhezhe, the Tubo governor of Jianchuan, personally led an army of fifty thousand to Huichuan Mansion.
This is a tacit agreement between Tubo and Nanzhao. The Tubo army is responsible for cutting off the enemy, while the Nanzhao army is responsible for annihilating the Tang army that is advancing alone in the Nanzhao area. As long as the Tang army is wiped out in one fell swoop, peace can be guaranteed for decades.
Qizang Zhezhe originally only wanted to send 30,000 troops over, but spies found that there were at least 20,000 Tang troops in Huichuan Mansion. He knew that 30,000 troops were not enough, so he simply led the entire 50,000-strong army to attack Huichuan City.
That afternoon, 50,000 troops arrived at Huichuan City. Qu Huan, the governor of Jiannan, led 18,000 troops to wait solemnly.
Why are there only 18,000 people instead of 20,000? Because Qu Huan learned that the main Tibetan army was coming and immediately sent 2,000 people out of the city first and went around to the west of the Tibetan army, cutting off that extremely dangerous road section.
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Fifty thousand Tibetan troops carried more than 300 siege ladders and set up camp outside the West City.
As night fell, Qu Huan stood at the top of the city, looking at the small tents dotted outside the west city. He was so full of pride that he wished he could lead his army to attack tonight and kill the Tibetan army. But his reason told him that tomorrow is the time to kill the enemy and serve the country.
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Qu Huan came from a family of Guanlong generals. Like Xin Yunjing, he guarded Shuofang and Hexi for a long time, but he was relatively low-key and not well-known.
But those who know Qu Huan know that he is brave, resourceful, decisive, and he leads troops well and has strict military discipline. He is a rare general.
Guo Ziyi specially recommended Qu Huan to Li Ye, and Li Ye appointed Qu Huan as the deputy governor of Jiannan the year before last, and was promoted to the governor of Jiannan at the beginning of this year.
"General, it's already late at night, please go and rest first! Recharge yourself for tomorrow's battle."
Qu Huan nodded and ordered several generals on duty: "Send extra troops to patrol tonight and closely monitor the enemy. Don't be careless and be attacked by the enemy!"
Several generals bowed together and saluted, "Obey the order!"