Chapter 315: Emergency
Many major events are often induced by some unexpected events. The battle of Tubo was originally scheduled to start in early July, but on the tenth of June, a sudden fire disrupted the strategic deployment of the Tang Dynasty. On the evening of June, a fire broke out in the warehouse of the Weapons Bureau of Weiwei Temple near Shunyi Gate, Chang'an Imperial City, with huge fires and thick smoke.
Tens of thousands of soldiers stationed in the imperial city rushed to extinguish the fire, but due to the lack of water, they could never extinguish the fire. Instead, the fire engulfed several fire-fighting teams and eventually swallowed up the warehouse. The 470,000 weapons accumulated over decades were destroyed.
The fire was known to everyone in Chang'an City, especially in the imperial city. The court officials were even more worried. As soon as dawn, countless court officials ran to the imperial city to find out the news. All the gates of the imperial city were closed and no one could go in to check the details. They only received a few words from the soldiers guarding the gate. The fire not only destroyed the Weapons Department warehouse, but also affected the adjacent Dali Temple. Some buildings were destroyed. As for the number of casualties, the fire was too large and could not be counted. More than 200 people were known to be burned to death.
The seriousness of the problem is not only the fire was terrible, but the 470,000 weapons, which were the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's martial arts preparations. This time it was burned down and it took countless years to recover. Some of them were prepared to be transported to Longyou for war, but the weapons were not transported but destroyed. To what extent will this affect the Battle of Tubo?
Li Longji was awakened in the middle of the night. The terrain of Daming Palace was high, and the fire in the imperial city could be clearly seen. It was he who ordered the army to put out the fire, but the army was unable to turn the world back, which made Li Longji furious. Before dawn, he issued an order to dismiss the Weiwei Temple from Qing to Shaoqing, and even the eighth-rank office was not spared. Dozens of officials were dismissed from office and investigated. He ordered the Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple to conduct a trial to strictly investigate the cause of the fire. As for the affected Tubo Battle, Li Longji issued an emergency decree to go to Longyou to ask Geshuhan's opinion.
The imperial edict arrived in Shanzhou three days later by fast horse relay. In fact, on the night after the fire broke out, Geshuhan learned from the pigeon letter sent by Chang'an.
The destruction of 470,000 weapons really made Geshuhan sigh for a long time. Of course, this incident affected his battle of Tubo. The war required the consumption of weapons. His arsenal did not have any inventory, so he expected Chang'an to transport weapons for backup. Now Chang'an has no weapons to transport, which means that his military resources are insufficient and a vacant in his deployment.
It is possible to fight in wars. After all, every soldier has weapons in his hands, but he is no longer sure of winning. Despite this, for Geshuhan, this battle must be fought. If he wins this battle, his Geshuhan will become a famous general in Zhongxing who completely solves the Tubo troubles and will be famous throughout the ages. Moreover, the title of Prince Xiping is also his belonging to him.
He had already breathed a sigh of relief. An Lushan, Gao Xianzhi, and Li Qing'an were all made princes, but his brother Shuhan had nothing. He was not convinced. He must win this battle. When Li Longji's inquiry arrived, he immediately replied to Li Longji.
‘Fight! The battle of Tubo will be fought without delay, and the war will start half a month in advance!’
The war machine slowly started. The troops of the two major military governors of Longyou and Hexi gathered to the west of the Hehuang Valley, crossed the Shibao City and headed to the Dafeichuan Valley. Teams of cavalry, ox carriages, ox carriages, grain and grass, tents, military uniforms, leather boots, slaughtered cattle and sheep, various weapons, as well as warm-resistant liquor and various medicines. There were no more merchants on the Tang and Tibet Ancient Road, and they were covered with flags and troops, and the black army was elusive at a glance.
That afternoon, the handsome guy Shu Han arrived at Baishi City in Dafeichuan under the escort of the three thousand Longyou Iron Cavalry. Baishi City was built by Geshu Han last year and it was completed for nearly a year. It was used to store military supplies. It was named because the stone selection was mainly white.
Baishi City is also one of Geshuhan's logistics base camps. It can store 500,000 stones of grain and a large amount of various military supplies. Geshuhan sent 5,000 troops to station them.
From afar, Geshuhan saw the strong and towering Baishi City. He smiled and said to his aide Gao Shi, "Sir, do you think the Prince of Pingxi may get it after this Tubo Battle?"
Gao Shi also smiled and said, "If you only talk about qualifications, the Grand Marshal is second only to An Lushan, and should be above Gao Xianzhi and Li Qing'an. However, in terms of military achievements, how can An Lushan, a general who has been defeated repeatedly, besides flattering and playing with the Grand Marshal, there is nothing to be desired, so I am not worried about the Grand Marshal's title, sooner or later, but...."
"But what?" Ge Shuhan glanced at him.
Gao Shi sighed slightly and said, "But his subordinates think that the appointment of the Hedong Jiedushi should arouse the high vigilance of the general."
"You mean the prince is responsible for it?"
Geshuhan said with some disdain, "Those wealthy princes can be taken from afar, and they can show off with a famous name. But when it comes to leading troops to fight, they can only get aside."
"Master, although the prince is not able to lead troops, he is a master of seizing power and profit. He heard that the emperor had just appointed the sixteen kings Li Lin to actually lead the commander-in-chief of Yangzhou to control the soldiers of the Jianghuai Mansion. What his subordinates are worried about is this momentum."
Geshuhan was silent. King Yong Li Lin actually led the commander-in-chief of Yangzhou. He also heard yesterday that Jianghuai was the only place in the Tang Dynasty with some military troops, and there were tens of thousands of people. Now it is handed over to Li Lin to control it. This shows that King Rong was not the result of Li Longji's sudden mentality, but was planned for a long time. It was his series of plans being implemented in an orderly manner. Li Mao's role as the governor of Jingzhou was actually one of the links. He controlled Jingxiang, where would the next step? Whether it was Bashu or Anxi, there were princes in both places.
At this time, Gao Shi said again: "Master, I heard a news that the emperor wanted to send King Liang to stay in Longyou."
Ge Shuhan was shocked and asked anxiously: "Which Liang King is it?"
There are two Liang kings in Chang'an. One is Li Xuan, the son of Wu Xianyi, who was originally named Liang King. In the ninth year of Tianbao, he was renamed King Xiliang King. The second is the old crown prince Li Heng. After being deposed, he was renamed King Liang King. Geshuhan's heart suddenly became nervous. At the beginning of the year, Li Longji set five places for the prince to take charge. Without Longyou, he breathed a little relieved. Unexpectedly, he actually heard the news again, which really shocked him. Could it be that Li Longji also intends to take back his military power?
This news seemed like a seed was quietly planted into Geshuhan's heart, and he began to feel a little anxious.
At noon, Geshuhan arrived at Baishi City. Cui Yan, the envoy stationed here, ran out and bowed to Geshuhan and said, "See the Grand Marshal!"
"General Cui, how much food has it been?"
"Reporting to the commander, it has reached 300,000 stones, 5,000 tents, and most of the hay and other supplies have arrived."
"Okay! Take me up to the city for inspection."
Geshuhan walked into Baishi City, led by Cui Yan, climbed the city wall and looked down from a high place. The city was filled with various supplies, piles of grain in sacks were like hills. Countless civilians recruited from all over Longyou were busy transporting supplies, a prosperous scene.
The preparation of supplies still made Brother Shuhan quite satisfied. At this time, he turned around and looked into the distance. On the endless mountains in the distance, I wonder how Li Qingan was preparing?
The handwritten letter from Geshuhan to Li Qing'an was delivered to Kucha on June 17 at the cost of running six horses to death. Li Qing'an himself happened to be in Kucha. After Li Qing'an arranged the matter of breaking leaves, he came to Kucha with the food and grass transportation team.
The Anxi Army was responsible for the Western Front of this Tubo Battle. According to the plan set by Li Qing, he not only wanted to stop the Tubo army from aiding east, but also completely eliminate the Tubo army on the Western Front and relieve the troubles of the Anxi Tang army. For this reason, he started to prepare for this several months ago.
This Western Front Battle attack was attacked from two routes, with a total of 50,000 troops. One route went south from Khotan and to the south of Sabize to cut off the retreat route of the Tubo army. This route was commanded by the deputy guardian Feng Changqing as the main general; the other route was attacking front-line, attacking the Tubo army that attacked Sabize from Shazhou south, completely removing the tumor that Tubo was planted in Anxi, and the front-line attack was commanded by Li Qing'an himself.
In this battle, Li Qing'an originally used the method of veterans leading new soldiers to achieve the purpose of training new soldiers, but Feng Changqing believed that the battlefield was too high and the new soldiers might not be able to adapt. He suggested that it should be the veterans. Li Qing'an accepted this suggestion and transferred 40,000 elite soldiers from Shule and Saiye to cooperate with the 10,000 troops stationed in Kucha, totaling 50,000 troops.
A month ago, Feng Changqing led 20,000 troops south to Khotan. Today, Li Qing'an and King Qing Li Cong went to Shazhou together. At this time, Geshuhan's letter was delivered. Li Qing'an had just learned about the reason for launching the Tubo battle half a month in advance. The Han and Tanghui of Chang'an sent him the most timely information. The weapons department fired and destroyed 470,000 weapons. It should be said that in addition to the frustration of the court, any ambitious frontier official would be secretly surprised. This means that the court's ability to suppress rebellion will be greatly weakened. Of course, Li Qing'an hoped to hear this news, and he also knew who did this. Except for An Lushan, there would be no one else, but compared with the burning of 470,000 weapons, Li Qing'an was more interested in personnel changes of several princes.
Thirty thousand troops marched from Kucha to Shazhou. The 30,000 troops were composed of 12,000 cavalry, 5,000 crossbowmen, 3,000 chariot crossbowmen and 10,000 infantry. There were more than 1,000 scouts, light cavalry, and Li Longji had agreed that the 4,000-dou Lu army stationed in Shazhou would be commanded by him.
There are two roads to walk from Kucha to Shazhou. One is to go through Xingxing Gorge in Yizhou, and detour from Yumen Pass to the south. The second is to cross the Puchanghai Desert directly, which is today's Lop Nur, walk along the Chi River, and go straight to Shazhou. Li Qing'an chose this road.
The 30,000 army and supply vehicles left Kucha in a mighty manner and headed towards Shazhou.
Li Qing'an did not ride a horse, but sat in his wide carriage, rushing on the road while handling official duties. This time Yan Zhuang was also walking with him. In the shaking carriage, Yan Zhuang looked at the carriage of King Qing a hundred steps away from the car window, and said to Li Qing'an with some emotion: "I'm afraid the general guessed it. After the Tubo battle is over, the emperor will increase the power of King Qing."
"This is his usual style. First deploy it, and then slowly increase efforts. Otherwise, what would he let these princes go to the place to do?"
Li Qing'an also received news that during the appointment of the Hedong Jiedushi, Cheng Qianli, whom he recommended to Li Yu, was not adopted, but King Rong Li Wan, received this position. I am afraid that this is the real purpose of Li Longji's request for Li Wan to be the Hedong Observation Envoy. Similarly, King Yong Li Lin also received the position of Yangzhou Grand Governor, commanding the soldiers of the government, but the soldiers of the government were mainly controlled by the Ministry of War. If the Yangzhou Grand Governor's Office was changed to the Jiedushi of Huainan, then Li Longji's intention would be undoubtedly to use the prince to control the border army, which can be regarded as a major institutional reform. This must be the ruling group of the Tang Dynasty also realized the crisis of too concentrated troops on the border. It is said that it was Yang Guozhong's suggestion.
But Li Qingan knew that even Yang Guozhong's idea was not to solve the problem of the army's borderline weight and internal weakness. His purpose was to suppress the emperor's grandson Li Yu, which formed a pattern similar to that in the early Ming Dynasty. The emperor's eldest grandson was the emperor, while the princes led the army outside. Li Yu's power was even worse than Zhu Yunwen. Zhu Yunwen had nearly one million troops in his hands. What did Li Yu have? Li Longji was so stupid that he was confused!
"General, I heard that Xiliang King Li Xuan will go to Longyou to take charge. Will this be the emperor who wants to seize Ge Shuhan's military power?"
"There is a possibility. After the Tubo Battle is over, it will not be done in one step. It will take one step at a time. If you go too fast, Ge Shuhan will not do it either!"
"How is the general going to deal with the man in front?" Yan Zhuang glanced at King Qing's convoy.
Li Qingan was confident about this crisis. He smiled faintly and said, "I have considered this problem and solved it with one word, 'Drag!'"
Yan Zhuang was stunned. He suddenly realized and praised: "The general's strategy is high, Anxi is far away, and it has passed in half a year. Unlike Longyou and Hebei are close to Chang'an, he asked An Lushan and Geshuhan to play the striker and drag it to the end."
Li Qingan shook his head, "It is impossible to leave nothing. At most, it will only delay the outbreak of conflicts. Maybe he might attack An Xi first."
Speaking of this, Li Qingan also sighed slightly: "Fortunately, God blessed me, and a stupid prince came. In this way, I can make a calm arrangement and let this idiot serve as a shield for me."
"But the general should not be careless. The stupid emperor of King Qing should also be very clear. We must prevent him from using the strategy of building a plank road openly and crossing Chen Cang secretly. It is openly delegating power to King Qing, but in fact it is secretly dismantling the Anxi Army from within."
"You mean, he will use the insiders of the Anxi Army to deal with me?"
"General, this kind of thing must be done without any leakage. Since he can replace Wang Zhongsi with Geshuhan, he will also replace you with others. As long as there is such a possibility, I must be careful. The general is already in a difficult position. If he is negligent, he will die at the mouth of the tiger. General, don't be careless!"
Li Qingan secretly agreed that Yan Zhuang is worthy of being a conspiracy expert. He can not only design but also defend. He must listen to his words. He pondered for a moment and asked, "Who do you think is the most likely?"
"I have considered that this person must have prestige in the Anxi Army and actually hold military power, and cannot be promoted by a general. There are two people who are the most likely to have two people. One is Li Siye, but he is training troops far away in Shiguo and has no military power. The possibility is not very high. I think it should be another person. For him, the general must be guarded against."
"The person you are talking about is..."
Li Qingan understood what he meant a little. He pointed to Nan, and Yan Zhuang nodded slowly, "I am talking about this person."
After pausing for a moment, he smiled and said, "But then again, it is easy to avoid open guns, but hidden arrows are hard to defend against. Since there is open guns, the general should not destroy his open gun."
At this time, a horse galloped over, and a soldier immediately bowed and said, "General, Your Highness, King Qing, please invite me!"
"I got it, I'll go now."
Yan Zhuang also smiled and said, "Then I will go back to the carriage, I am a little tired, I want to have a good sleep."
Li Qing'an got off the carriage, flew onto a horse, and chased King Qing's carriage. From a distance, he saw King Qing's fat face exposed from the window, waving to him, smiling like a bad boy who had just done something bad.
King Qing followed Yan Kai's advice to move to Dunhuang. From his inner thoughts, of course, the closer it is to Chang'an, the better it is, but Yan Kai advised him to leave Bian Lingcheng a little far away. Maybe the eunuch would pass on some of his scandals in Anxi to Chang'an. In Dunhuang, he could slowly move to Liangzhou to Longyou in the future, step by step, and in Kucha, he would only go westward in the west.
More importantly, King Qing Li Cong did not realize that his father sent him to Anxi to monitor Li Qing'an. In his opinion, Anxi had a military supervisor, and he was just exiled. Exile to Anxi was just a means for his father to protect the emperor and eldest grandson, and to transfer these uncles away so that Li Yu could calmly take over.
Therefore, he hated Anxi. When Yan Kai suggested that he go to Dunhuang, he agreed without hesitation. Now that he is finally leaving Kucha, Li Cong was overjoyed and wished he could put his wings on and fly to Dunhuang.
"Your Highness, are you looking for me?" Li Qing'an immediately stepped forward and bowed and smiled.
Perhaps because of his estrangement from Yang Guozhong, Li Cong's hatred for Li Qing'an also weakened a lot. After coming to Anxi, Li Qing'an took good care of his life, which made him feel very good. Moreover, his concubines each received expensive gifts from Mrs. Li Qing'an, so everyone told him good things about Li Qing'an by his pillow, and everyone talked to him, and Li Cong's attitude towards Li Qing'an naturally changed slowly.
Seeing Li Qing'an's respectful attitude, he couldn't help feeling satisfied. He pointed to the carriage and smiled: "My concubines want to know, have we arranged our residence in Dunhuang?"
"Don't worry, your highness, there are a few good palaces in Dunhuang. I have sent someone to repair them. And those are Han palaces, so I will ensure that your highness is satisfied. In addition, I will also protect your highness's safety."
This is exactly what Li Cong was eager to know. He just chatted with a guard next to him and heard that there were Qianghu horse bandits in the Hexi Corridor. Last month, hundreds of immigrants were attacked by horse bandits, more than 100 people were killed, and more than 20 young women were stolen. Moreover, there were also in Shazhou, and it appeared like the wind. He was immediately worried. Since Li Qing'an also mentioned this, he hurriedly asked: "I heard that there were horse bandits in the Hexi Corridor, which were very fierce. How should the general protect me?"
Li Qing'an looked at both sides and lowered his voice: "The so-called horse bandits are actually many of the troops in Hexi. As far as I know, the horse bandits in Shazhou are related to the Doulu Army. These are open secrets. I have hated them for a long time, but I am the governor of Anxi and it is difficult to interfere in the affairs of Hexi. I just happened to use the name of protecting Your Highness. I will send 5,000 troops to protect Your Highness's safety, and also take the opportunity to suppress the bandits."
"That's good, I'll be relieved!"
Perhaps he felt that this sentence was not enough to express his comfort, Li Cong smiled and said, "Don't worry, General, I will write to the emperor to give the general good words."
"Good intentions of your highness, Li Qing'an thanked me here!"
Li Qingan dismounted and bowed deeply to him, with an extremely respectful attitude, which caused laughter from Li Cong and several concubines in the carriage.
Sabize is a plateau lake with vast waters in the south of Shazhou. It is located south of Alkin Mountain. Although it is within the jurisdiction of Shazhou, it is actually more than a thousand miles away from Dunhuang and is separated by the snow-capped Alkin Mountains. The Alkin Mountain is tall and majestic, and it also blocked the Tubo people's way north. It is precisely for this reason that although Sabize has 20,000 Tubo troops stationed, it is difficult for them to attack Dunhuang.
On the contrary, Sabize is very close to Anxi, and you can directly reach Boxian Town along the Qiemo River (today's Qiemo County). Historically, the Tubo army invaded Anxi from this road, and took place in the Battle of Boxian Town in the 12th year of Tianbao, which is the background.
Of course, Li Qing'an did not go south to Boxian Town because he wanted to use Shazhou to control Dunhuang, an important town in the northern part of the Hexi Corridor. However, if he really wanted to attack the Tubo army in Sabize, he had to start with Boxian Town. This oasis between Boxian Town and Dunhuang County was an important supply transfer station.
This oasis is located in the southwest of Puchang Sea, the middle section of the Qiemo River, north of Aljin Mountain, which is today's Ruoqiang County. There are vast grasslands, abundant snow-capped mountains and rich grasses, and it is a high-quality pasture. The Tang army built four castles here to control this oasis, Pu Tao City, Qitun City, Xinghe City, and Nouzhi City, each with hundreds of troops stationed. As early as two months ago, a scout of 300 people had already arrived.
The leader of this scout army was Qin Haiyang, who made military achievements in the Battle of Talas. He was promoted to General of the Central Army for his contribution to blocking the silver from Dashi. This time he came here from Saiye. His mission was to monitor the movements of the Tubo army in Sabize.
Chapter completed!