Chapter 488 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
At noon, the Dunhuang Tibetan army once again received a pigeon message from Jinchang County. The Tang army had already sent troops to the south. With this pigeon message, Lun Xipo's original doubts were completely relieved, and the troops were dispatched just three days after the reinforcements arrived.
No matter how capable the famous general is, he will not be able to integrate it in time. This is a fact that cannot be pretended at any cost.
He finally believed that the general of the Tang Army was a fool who was just talking on paper. The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty sent him, but God gave him the opportunity. He wanted to annihilate the Tang Army in one go, and then the army continued to march north to seize Beiting.
In the afternoon of the next day, Lunxi left a thousand Qiang soldiers to guard the city. He led nine thousand soldiers to leave Dunhuang County and rushed to Hu Liuze. Hu Liuze is the name of the place. It is forty miles away from Dunhuang County. There is a short mountain ten feet high here.
Behind the low mountain is a large swamp. The swamp is full of willow trees, which is very suitable for an ambush.
The Tibetan army arrived at Hu Liuze in the middle of the night. The enemy was still at least forty or fifty miles away. The Tibetan soldiers took the time to lie down and sleep.
Lun Xi was unable to sleep, so he sent a team of spies to inquire about the movements of the Tang army.
At this time, a Tang army passed Hu Liuze thirty miles east of them silently and continued to rush to Dunhuang County.
This army was the three thousand Shazhou Army commanded by Shazhou Li Kairan. Li Ye was responsible for deceiving the Tibetan army out of Dunhuang City, and the task of sneak attack and occupation of Dunhuang City was given to Li Kairan.
Li Ye did not need to integrate at all. Two thousand Guazhou troops stayed in Jinchang County, and three thousand Shazhou troops attacked Dunhuang County. Li Ye led one thousand of his own troops and 16,000 Beiting troops to go south. The Beiting army had
Complete system, no changes required.
Li Kairan was very nervous. At this time, he was still thirty miles away from Dunhuang County and met Yang Li and his men head-on.
Li Kairan ordered the army to rest in place for half an hour. Yang Li said to him: "To the west is Hu Liuze. Does Governor Li know?"
Li Kairan nodded, "I'm familiar with it there!"
Yang Li added: "Nine thousand Tubo troops are lying in ambush there, preparing to ambush our main force. Currently, there are only a thousand defenders in Dunhuang County, and they are basically Qiang soldiers. Can Governor Li have a way to make a sneak attack?"
Li Kairan smiled and said: "I plan to learn from the Tibetan army's internal and external cooperation and capture Dunhuang County in one fell swoop."
"But the city gate is closed, how can we get in?"
"There are two underground rivers under Dunhuang City. One enters and one exits. The water from the Ganquan River flows into the city through the underground rivers. I will send an army to sneak into the city from the underground rivers."
"The Tubo army should know the existence of this underground river!"
"It's useless to know. There are too many underground exits. They only have a thousand soldiers in the city, and the defensive walls are not enough. How can they divide their troops to defend the underground river."
"The Governor is right. I will report the Governor's plan to the commander!"
After half a rest, the Tang army continued to rush towards Dunhuang County, while Yang Li led his army north to join the main army.
At dawn, Li Kairan led 3,000 soldiers to Dunhuang County. At this time, the gates of Dunhuang County were closed, and the city was surrounded by defenders. The defense was very tight.
Li Kairan found General Cao Guangping and gave him the task of lurking into the city. The sweet spring water flowed from the west of Dunhuang City and poured into Dajingze in the north.
While it was still dark, Cao Guangping led 500 soldiers to find the entrance to the underground river. The soldiers followed the current of the underground river and sneaked into the city. This was a bit like the karez in Anxi. In fact, it was learned from the karez in Anxi and dug an underground river into the city.
Within the city, canals were built to connect the underground rivers, and Dunhuang City would have sufficient water sources.
The biggest advantage of the underground river is that there is still water in winter and it will not freeze. The sweet spring water will freeze, but the water will flow from under the ice into the underground river, and the temperature of the underground river in winter is still above zero.
It was already late autumn, and the underground river was not deep, just above the knees. Five hundred soldiers waded into the city.
It was already dark, and it was time for the changing of the guard. The five hundred Tibetan soldiers on night duty went back to the barracks to sleep, while the other five hundred went up to the city wall.
About a hundred steps away from the west city gate, two soldiers got out from the exit of the underground river, startling several laundry women. The soldiers quickly waved to them and whispered: "We are the Tang Army!"
Several women nodded quickly and did not dare to say a word. When the two soldiers saw that there was no enemy movement around, they immediately went back to send a signal. Cao Guangping led 500 soldiers and got out one after another and ran into the alley ahead.
The soldiers passed through a private house and looked at the city gate in the backyard of the house. There were more than a dozen defenders near the city gate, only thirty steps away from them, and next to it was the corridor to the city.
There are not many enemy troops at the west gate, and there are slightly more on the top of the city, but there are only about thirty of them.
Cao Guangping observed for a while and found that there was no other way except a strong attack. In any case, the enemy would be alarmed.
One of his subordinates, the captain, said: "General, go around from the south and walk close to the city wall. The defenders in the cave can't see us, so we can get to the city as quickly as possible."
This suggestion was good, and it was also the most feasible way. Cao Guangping personally led 300 people to circle south, come out of an alley, run directly against the city wall, and ran down the corridor in a moment.
At this time, they were only a few steps away from the city gate defenders. If they took another step forward, they would see them.
Cao Guangping knelt down and made a gesture. The soldiers in the yard understood and fired dozens of crossbow arrows at the defenders at the city gate. More than a dozen Tibetan Qiang soldiers were caught off guard and were shot down one after another by the crossbow arrows, screaming in agony.
At the same time, Cao Guangping jumped up and led three hundred soldiers to rush up the corridor and rush to the city. Another two hundred soldiers also rushed out from the back door of the courtyard and rushed towards the city gate.
The screams of the soldiers guarding the city gate alerted the defenders on top of the city. They looked over and saw a large group of Tang Army soldiers appearing. They were so startled that they immediately sounded the alarm.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!" The alarm bells rang throughout the city, and the Tibetan and Qiang soldiers rushed to the west gate from all the city walls.
Cao Guangping had led his army to the top of the city. The Qiang soldiers on the top of the city only resisted for a moment before being swallowed up by hundreds of Tang soldiers. The Tang soldiers began to open the city gate, and the gate slowly opened.
A few hundred steps away, Li Kairan led 2,500 Tang army soldiers to fight out from behind a row of houses and rush toward the city gate.
All five hundred Tang soldiers went up to the city and fired dense crossbow arrows at the large number of Qiang soldiers rushing towards the city walls on both sides. The two sides launched a fierce crossbow battle on the city walls.
The Qiang soldiers finally broke through the blockade of crossbows and arrows, attacked and fought fiercely with the Tang army.
At this time, the trumpet sounded loudly outside the city, "Woo——"
Li Kairan took the lead and led the army into Dunhuang City. They finally fought back.
After marching for a day, Li Ye led the army into Shazhou, which was still eighty miles away from Dunhuang County. In front of him was Daliujing, where the Tang army was ambushed last time. Li Ye ordered the entire army to stop moving forward, and he sent people to investigate in the woods. Explore.
Liu Yong, the envoy of Han Haijun, urged his horse forward and walked side by side with Li Ye. He whispered: "Is the envoy worried about the safety of Anxi and is that why he is so eager to attack Dunhuang County?"
Li Ye knew Liu Yong. When Cheng Qianli led 12,000 Han navy to participate in the Battle of Talos, Liu Yong was the deputy commander of the Han navy and Cheng Qianli's deputy general.
In the original Battle of Talos, Li Ye's military power ranked third among the Tang army, second only to Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli. Liu Yong knew how powerful Li Ye was and was quite convinced of him.
Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "Generally speaking, I should integrate the army for a period of time before going out for an expedition. Such a hasty expedition makes me appear very inexperienced and immature. What does General Liu think the Tibetan military commander will think?"
"You would think that this is your first time on the battlefield and you have no experience. You can defeat him in one battle. But the question is, how do the Tibetan troops know?"
There was a hint of coldness in Li Ye's smile, "They must know because there are spies from the Tibetan army in Jinchang City."
After a pause, Li Ye said again: "Commander, don't worry, I have already made arrangements. We will win this battle and completely wipe out the opponent, and we will not lose a single soldier."
Liu Yong was astonished. He wiped out all the opponents without losing any of his own soldiers. How could he do this?
At this time, a soldier came to report: "The scout is back!"