The Lamb incident is just a trigger. In fact, the Dangxiang people have been waiting for an opportunity. Since they were moved to Guannai Road from the Sui Dynasty, the Dangxiang people have never surrendered to the central court. They have been patiently waiting while secretly developing their own strength.
, established a complete military system.
Because of their low profile, the court did not pay attention to them until An Lushan rebelled and led an army of 200,000 to besiege Lingzhou. The party members saw with their own eyes the incompetence and weakness of the Tang Dynasty and the lack of strength of the Tang army.
Saw an opportunity for party members.
Party members are also divided into two factions, one is a hard-line faction that advocates the founding of the country, and the other is a moderate faction that advocates autonomy.
Ten years ago, the party hard-liners had the upper hand and had decided to establish the country. However, at the critical moment, the Helong Army attacked Longyou, Hexi and Shuofang, dashing the dream of the party hard-liners to build a nation.
At the same time, the moderates made progress. They successfully persuaded the emperor Li Heng by paying a pilgrimage to the emperor, and Li Heng gave them greater autonomy. From then on, the moderates began to gain the upper hand.
The party members began to tolerate it for another ten years, but as the moderate old chiefs died one after another, the hardline young faction came to power.
The Tang army launched the Liaodong War and the Western Region War in succession. The Dangxiang people saw the opportunity. Their various preparations were mature and they decided not to endure it any longer. Just when one hundred thousand Tang troops were sent to Shiwei, the Dangxiang people began to use the Sheep Incident to cause trouble.
The local government and the court thought it was the dissatisfaction of the Dangxiang people, but in fact it was the founding of the country by the Dangxiang nobles.
Their goal was very clear: to occupy Lingzhou and Fengzhou, establish the country in Lingzhou, and at the same time attack in the east and west, and use Yanzhou to attract the Tang army.
In Yanzhou, thousands of party cavalrymen were escorting thousands of carts along the northwest official road. Each cart contained dozens of cans of kerosene.
The Dangxiang people are not fools. They can't wait for the Tang army to kill them before starting to move the kerosene. While they are pretending to attack Yanzhou, they are desperately carrying the kerosene on the other side. They use all means, including manpower and mules and horses.
, pulled by a cart.
There are even waterways, with hundreds of large rafts carrying tens of thousands of barrels of kerosene, entering the Yellow River from the Qingshui River and heading north. This batch of waterway kerosene is heading to Lingzhou to support the Dangxiang army that besieged Lingzhou.
The motorcade passed through a low hill. Suddenly, a horn sounded from the hillside, "Woo——"
Immediately afterwards, a Tang Army cavalry force of more than a thousand people appeared on the hillside.
The general of the Party Army drew his sword and shouted: "Fight forward and protect the convoy!"
Thousands of party cavalrymen rushed towards the hillside, and the Tang army's cavalry turned around and left.
At this moment, hundreds of Tang Army cavalry appeared on the other side. They lit arrows and thunder, and fired their bows and arrows at the convoy.
Hundreds of arrows and thunderbolts fell into the convoy, causing a series of explosions, firelight bursting out, thick smoke rising everywhere, and a sound like thunder.
The convoy suddenly fell into chaos. The mules and horses pulling the cart were frightened and ran away desperately. The kerosene cans on the cart were smashed in the impact, and the kerosene poured everywhere. Then the Tang army fired dozens of rockets, igniting the kerosene.
Burning kerosene blocked the official road, and the convoy rushed to the open spaces on both sides in the chaos. After only a dozen steps, the cart overturned, and the kerosene fell to the ground and shattered. The kerosene flowed all over the ground, and was soon covered by
Sparks ignited, and thick smoke billowed everywhere on both sides of the official road.
The coachmen were running desperately in the wilderness, and the cart was no longer available.
Zhang Guangsheng saw that the Dangxiang people were transporting kerosene on multiple routes, so he also divided his troops to harass them. Zhang Guangsheng's strategy was very clear. Instead of fighting the Dangxiang people, he first stopped the Dangxiang people from transporting kerosene. He would rather destroy it than let the Dangxiang people get it.
On the Yellow River, hundreds of huge leather rafts are walking along the shore, and nearly a hundred trackers are dragging long ropes and shouting slogans as they walk along the Yellow River.
They were followed by thousands of party cavalry. At this moment, countless boats suddenly appeared on the river, lined up and coming southward.
The Dangxiang cavalry on the shore panicked and rushed forward to meet them. They opened their bows and shot arrows at the ship. The soldiers on the ship also raised their crossbows to fight back. Dangxiang soldiers continued to fall to the ground after being hit by arrows.
Soon, the boats surrounded the raft, cut off the ropes, tied the ropes to the boats, and dragged them to the other side of the Yellow River.
More than a thousand party cavalrymen watched helplessly as hundreds of rafts were towed away.
The emergency action of the Tang Army dealt a heavy blow to Dangxiang's attempt to snatch kerosene. Of course, the Dangxiang people did not gain anything. They still stole thousands of barrels of kerosene through early mules and horses.
In the wilderness west of Fushi County, Yunzhong Governor Zhang Guangsheng led 8,000 cavalry against 30,000 party troops. Amid the roaring drums, the two armies fought fiercely on the west bank of the Qingshui River.
The leader of the Dangxiang army is Tuoba Wen, the khan of the Dangxiang people in Xiazhou and Yinzhou.
Tuoba Wen was responsible for carrying out the task of leading the Tang army, but it did not mean that he did not want to plunder Yanzhou.
He planned to plunder the wealth and women of Fushi County before the Tang army from Chang'an came, and then retreat back to Xiazhou.
Unexpectedly, the Tang army suddenly killed an army, which ruined Tuoba Wen's plan and made Tuoba Wen angry. He immediately assembled an army of 30,000 to annihilate the Tang army.
Zhang Guangsheng, the commander-in-chief of the Tang Army, was about forty years old. He was a typical Confucian general. He had the bravery of a warrior and the erudition of a civil servant. He was also a key training target of Emperor Li Ye.
Last year, Gao Xiuyan retired from office and Zhang Guangsheng officially took over as the governor of Yunzhong.
This time he personally led an army of 10,000 to rescue Yanzhou.
Zhang Guangsheng did not go to Lingzhou because he knew the importance of Yanzhou. Once the party members occupied Yanzhou, the cavalry could enter Guanzhong in three days.
It is necessary to cut off the party members' road to Guanzhong.
Zhang Guangsheng led three thousand cavalry of the Chinese army to form a cavalry formation, using strong bows and crossbows to withstand the enemy's main attack. General Zhang Fu led three thousand cavalry to attack the left wing of Dangxiang's infantry. Another general, Li Jiuhuan, also led two thousand cavalry to attack Dangxiang.
Army infantry right wing.
Not all of the Dangxiang army was cavalry. The left and right wings had 10,000 infantrymen on each side and were poorly equipped. The Tang army took advantage of the highly mobile cavalry to launch attacks on the left and right wings.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" The surging drums resounded across the west bank of the Qingshui River, and the shouts of killing shook the sky. The sophisticated equipment made the Tang army not at a disadvantage at all although they fought with fewer troops and more troops.
"Bow and arrow ready, shoot!"
Three thousand guns rose into the air and shot towards the 10,000 galloping Chinese troops.
The Tang army's arrows came towards them, and Dangxiang's army raised their round shields to resist. But this time they were not resisting arrows, but terrible explosives.
The explosive arrow hit the shield and exploded instantly. Not only did the shield shatter, the hand holding the shield was also blown off, and many soldiers even had their heads blown off.
The attacking cavalry group exploded, smoke filled the air, and the party's cavalry was in chaos.
At the same time, the left and right wings of the Tang Army were also attacked by arrows and thunder from the Tang Army. Groups of cavalry rushed past when they were more than a hundred steps away from the infantry formation, and the overwhelming arrows and thunder were fired at the infantry formation of the Party Xiang Army.
The arrows and mines exploded among the infantry, and poisoned iron pellets flew everywhere. The infantry suffered heavy casualties, and the army was in chaos and began to flee in all directions.
Another side of the Dangxiang army began to be exposed. They were not professional soldiers, but ordinary herdsmen or farmers. It was their first time on the battlefield, and they had never seen firearms.
When thousands of arrows and mines exploded in the crowd, and hundreds of thousands of iron pellets burst out, this intensive killing effect was enough to make ordinary party soldiers collapse.
The collapse brought chaos.
Li Jiuhuan led his army to attack again and again. Gradually, the party's Chinese army became thinner and thinner, and the flag of the Chinese army could already be seen.
Seeing the opportunity coming, Li Jiuhuan immediately shouted loudly: "Pass my order, whoever cuts off the flag of the bandit army commander will be rewarded with thousands of coins!"
The morale of the Tang army was greatly boosted, and they rushed towards the enemy's commander's flag with a wave of offensive. A general brandished an iron rod and ran rampant among the enemy troops. Wherever he passed, there were numerous corpses. Under his iron rod, his brains would either burst or explode.
With broken bones and tendons, his state of death was shocking. He cut a bloody path and rushed toward the banner, invincible along the way.
The handsome flag was placed on a carriage. The flagpole was as thick as a wrist and about two feet high. There was a large green flag with two big Chinese characters for "party items" written on it.
Seeing that he reached the flag, the general roared and swung his stick to hit the flagpole. The heavy iron rod hit the flagpole, and the flagpole broke with a 'click!' and fell down.
At this time, the Dangxiang cavalry attacking the Tang army began to turn their horses and run away, and the infantry became even more chaotic, running around like headless flies.
If the powerful firearms of the Tang Army were the root cause of defeating the Dang Xiang Army, then the smashing of the handsome flag was the last straw that broke the camel's back.
The entire army of 30,000 was defeated. Zhang Guangsheng led the Tang army to pursue them. The party members lay dead for dozens of miles. Only a few thousand cavalry left in the army of 30,000 fled back to Xiazhou. The remaining soldiers were all mercilessly killed by the Tang army's cavalry.