Chapter 384: The Hexi Crisis

Rajid was like a lurking wild wolf. He was always looking for loopholes in the Tang army. He knew that without using surprise troops, his five thousand great cavalry would not be able to defeat nearly 20,000 Tang army at all. He could only hit the weak points of the Tang army, and perhaps there might be a glimmer of hope.

He finally found a little opportunity, that is, the left wing of the Tang army, basically all archers. They are proficient in bowing skills and are obviously specialized archers. Then they will definitely be weak in fighting immediately. Perhaps this is the only weakness of the Tang army.

Rajid immediately led the Dashi cavalry to move to the left of the Tang army. While they were focusing on hunting the Xinde army on the back of the elephant, they suddenly launched an attack on the left wing of the Tang army.

Rajed was just the deputy governor of Sindh, who was in Abu at that time.

Among the generals under Muslim, he could only rank after 20. He was an inconspicuous intermediate officer. Because Dashi had cleaned up a large number of founding heroes and senior generals within the country, no one was available, and there was no general in Shu. Liao Hua became a vanguard, and Rajid was promoted to deputy governor, but he was facing defeating Abu that year.

The Muslim Tang army commander Li Qing'an and Lian Abu.

Muslims were both defeated by Li Qing'an, not to mention that he, an unknown little man, had only five thousand cavalrymen in his hands, but had to face 18,000 elite cavalrymen in the Tang Dynasty. If he could coordinate the overall situation, he should immediately withdraw his troops back to Shabrou and mobilize all troops to defend Shabrou. However, he did not do so. He did not realize the danger of the overall situation of Xinde and tried to win by surprise by surprise. This only shows that Rajid was just a charge general, and was definitely not the talent of the head coach.

He was facing Li Qing'an, who was experienced in many battles and the skilled Tang army. Li Qing'an immediately keenly judged that this cavalry was the core of the Xinde Army, and the complete annihilation of this Dashi cavalry would play a crucial role in this Xinde Battle.

With his order, the left-wing cavalry of the Tang army immediately gave up the attack of the target cavalry and divided the troops into two groups, like a pair of scissors, and penetrated directly into the left and right of the Dashi Army. The Tang army was like a tiger, and the bows and arrows of the archers disappeared, replaced with horizontal swords and spears. The two cavalry collided with each other, their limbs were broken, blood was splattered, and screams were wailing everywhere, which was so intense that it was suffocating.

At this time, the right-wing cavalry of the Tang army also gave up the attack of the target cavalry. They bypassed the battlefield and went straight to the southern front, cut off the retreat of the Dashi Cavalry, and then quickly formed an encirclement, clamping the five thousand Dashi Cavalry, so that they had no chance to escape. Until this moment, Rajid realized that he had made a serious mistake and missed the opportunity to escape. Now he had no way out and was firmly surrounded by the Tang army. He looked at the Xinde army anxiously, hoping that they could come to rescue and open a bloody road for him. However, the Xinde army's performance disappointed him. They seemed to be frightened by the fierceness of the Tang army, completely abandoning the minimum dignity of the soldiers, and following the elephant cavalry to flee south, being chased like a stray dog ​​by the Jiantuoluo people who were never ashamed of.

A team of Tang cavalry cooperated with tacit understanding. After they surrounded the Dashi cavalry, they began to divide the Dashi cavalry. A 2,000-man Tang cavalry was extremely violent. They were like a sharp horizontal sword, and they were too sharp to force the Dashi cavalry to two parts, disrupting the Dashi cavalry's formation. Chaos appeared in the Dashi cavalry and gradually headed to the brink of collapse. The Tang army became more and more brave as they fought. They were extremely patient and very organized, and they eroded the Dashi cavalry bit by bit. The Dashi cavalry was like a bug falling into a spider web. The resistance force became weaker and weaker, and the space was getting narrower and narrower. Corpse everywhere was everywhere, blood flowing into a river. Seeing that the defeat was settled, Rajid couldn't help but sigh, "Allah! Am I going to die here today?"

At this moment, he suddenly saw the commander of the Tang Army. He was shocked, "No wonder! No wonder!" He murmured to himself. At this moment, the despair in his heart completely drowned him.

He suddenly shouted loudly: "Put down your weapons and surrender!"

The Great Food Cavalry looked back at their commander, and Rajid rode his horse and raised his sword in the team and shouted: "As long as I order, put down his weapons and surrender to the Tang army!"

"Surrender to the Tang army!"

The fighting gradually stopped on the battlefield. The Dashi cavalrymen stared blankly at their commander, "Dang!". Who threw down the spear first, then one person led ten people, ten people led a hundred people, and thousands of people. More and more cavalrymen threw spears and surrendered. The sound of surrender on the battlefield sounded. Seeing that the enemy had no intention of fighting anymore, Li Qing'an finally ordered: "Accept surrender, and those who resisted would kill him or her!"

The Tang army quickly started, divided the remaining 2,000 cavalry into four pieces, began to confiscate the weapons and horses of the surrendered people, and ordered them to sit on the ground with their hands above their heads. Dozens of those who attempted to resist were killed on the spot. At this point, the 5,000 Great Food Army was completely annihilated by the Tang army, capturing more than 2,000 people and 3,000 people were killed.

However, the Jiantuo army was not able to pursue the Xinde Army effectively. Except for chasing thousands of elephants who were at a loss, most of the Xinde Army escaped. They were unable to fight, but they ran away faster than rabbits.

A bloody battle gradually returned to peace. The setting sun shone on the field, and there were teams of dejected prisoners of war. Under the escort of the Tang cavalry, they walked towards the city of Dolangas in a daze. They were sent to the Possishan Silver Mine for five years. At this time, a group of elephants composed of hundreds of elephants slowly came. The war was over, and the elephants also regained their gentle habits and followed the command of the Tang army obediently.

Li Qingan was very interested in these elephants. He walked up and patted the nose of an elephant, and smiled at Zhao Chongjie and said, "In the future, these elephant herds will be our faithful porters, so you must treat them well."

Zhao Chongjie heard that Li Qing'an's words seemed to mean leaving him in Xinde. He was stunned for a moment and hurriedly said, "I understand!"

Li Qingan smiled, he looked at the group of elephants again, and said to everyone: "It's getting late, now follow me into the city and take a look at the grain warehouse."

Everyone surrounded Li Qing'an and was about to enter the city. Suddenly, more than a dozen cavalrymen rushed from the distance, coming from the north. The cavalrymen were exhausted and looked very anxious. Li Qing'an couldn't help but be slightly stunned. An ominous feeling rose from his heart. The cavalry rushed to the distance and shouted: "General, the shattered leaves are urgent!"

The cavalry dismounted and bowed to Li Qing'an, and took out a letter for the cavalry, saying: "This is a letter written by Mr. Yan to the general, and it is urgent."

Li Qing'an took the letter and quickly opened it apart. Gradually, his brows frowned. Something happened in the capital. Nan Jiyun was promoted to the general of the left military guard. Li Yuxin appointed Li Guoliang as the general of the East Palace Liurufu, and took over the 20,000 soldiers of the East Palace Liurufu. At the same time, he announced that in order to reduce the burden on Anxi, the military salary and food of the 20,000 soldiers were all given by the court and no longer borne by Anxi. Li Guoliang was Guo Ziyi's beloved general, which means that Li Yu had taken away the 20,000 soldiers recruited by Anxi in Chang'an. Yan Zhuang mentioned a major event at the end of the letter. Right Prime Minister Yang Guozhong firmly opposed dividing Hexi and still advocated the retention of the Hexi Jiedu. Yang Guozhong's objection was supported by Zhang Yun and Chen Xilie, and the Ministry of War also clearly opposed the division of Hexi.

The sudden situation made Li Qingan suddenly realize that Li Yu was already starting to attack him. Although Li Qingan knew that his honeymoon period between him and Li Yu would not be too long, he did not expect that it would end so soon. In less than half a year, Li Yu was so impatient. The 20,000 troops in the capital were taken away. Maybe he could still accept it. After all, it was someone else's territory, but Li Yu wanted to get involved in Hexi, which made Li Qingan feel a little anxious. He immediately ordered: "The army camped on the spot!"

The Tang army quickly set up a camp in the field, and a large tent appeared. Several high tents were quickly built beside the camp. Two thousand cavalrymen entered the city to take over the grain warehouse. The Tang army's actions were orderly and everything was carried out step by step. However, the atmosphere near the central tent was a bit unusual. The two thousand cavalrymen were still fully armed. Each person and two war horses were also following. They were Li Qing'an's confidant soldiers. Li Qing'an was obviously going to take action.

Zhao Chongjie hurriedly walked past the camp and came to the central army's tent. He bowed to a Li Qing'an's personal soldier and said, "Please report to the general, Zhao Chongjie is ordered to see you."

"General Zhao please wait, I'll report to you now."

The personal soldiers picked up the curtain and entered the camp. Zhao Chongjie looked at the neatly lined up not far away with him with concern, and thought to himself: "Is the general going back?"

He saw Li Qing'an receive a letter with his own eyes, and his eyes showed worries. It was very likely that something big happened to Anxi, otherwise the general would not have rushed back halfway through the southern expedition. At this time, the personal soldiers walked out of the tent and smiled at him: "General Zhao, General Zhao invite you in."

“Thank you!

Zhao Chongjie raised the curtain and walked into the big tent. In the big tent, Li Qing'an was writing a letter to Feng Changqing, who was far away in Tianzhu. Due to changes in the court, Li Qing'an had to change the plan of the southern expedition, give up the conquest of Tianzhu, and recalled Feng Changqing to Xinde as the chief general and continue to attack the Dashi Army. He himself had to rush back to Shuye immediately to deal with the crisis that Hexi was about to face.

"See General!" Zhao Chongjie walked forward and bowed.

"You sit down first, I'll finish this letter right away."

Zhao Chongjie sat down a little nervously. Seeing that Li Qing'an's tent had been packed, he was even more sure that the coach was going back.

Soon, several generals walked into the tent, all of whom were the main generals who followed Li Qing'an's southern expedition, including the Central Army General Yuan Song, the Lang General Zhang Enjue, the Lang General Shi Yun and the Lang General Yao Mingzhi, and they also sat down.

At this time, after Li Qing'an finished writing the letter, he put down his pen and read it quickly, then handed the envelope to the personal soldiers beside him, and whispered a few words, and ordered him to find someone to deliver it to Feng Changqing of Tianzhu. After the letter was sent away, Li Qing'an smiled at Zhao Chongjie and others and said, "You should have guessed it! What am I going to do with you?"

"Is the general going back?" Zhao Chongjie asked.

"Yes, I have to rush back."

Li Qing'an also felt a little regretful. It has always been his wish to lead the army to conquer Tianzhu, but God did not give him this opportunity and made him give up halfway. He sighed secretly and said, "Before I go back, I must arrange everything. Don't let me in, listen to me finish my words."

"yes!"

Li Qingan thought about it and said to everyone: "There are three things I have to explain clearly. The first is who will take over me and continue the southern expedition after I leave. I have already sent a letter to Feng Changqing. After I leave, he will replace me as the commander general of the southern expedition. Before he comes back, General Zhao Chongjie will be in charge of military affairs. In the future, General Zhao Chongjie will serve as the deputy general of General Feng."

Zhao Chongjie felt a little disappointed. He thought he was the reason to serve as the chief general, but he didn't expect it to be Feng Changqing. However, he could not compare with Feng Changqing's qualifications. He had nothing to say about this. He quickly stood up and expressed his opinion, "As for the order of humble duty!"

Li Qing'an waved his hand and asked him to sit down, and then continued: "The second thing is what we are going to do below. It is important to fight against the cannibals, but I am worried that the Persian food army will help Xinde in the east, so we must transport the food back to the jun Zhantu as much as possible before the food reinforcements arrive. We can use elephants to transport it. I will leave this matter to General Zhao Chongjie and it will be implemented as soon as possible."

Then Li Qing'an said: "The third thing in the end is, that is, how many troops we need to stay in Xinde. I have already explained this to Feng Changqing in the letter. Here I will explain it to you. Now we are 18,000 Tang troops, plus Feng Changqing's 5,000 troops, that is 23,000. I plan to keep 8,000 Tang troops permanently stationed in Xinde, plus 20,000 Jiantuoluo troops and 80,000 Xinde New Army. As long as we are well-trained, we should be able to deal with the cannibals. The other troops will return to Anxi one after another after the war is over. As for which 8,000 people to stay, it is up to General Feng Changqing to decide, and you must not disobey!"

"Abide by the orders!"

Everyone stood up to receive the order. Li Qing'an nodded and smiled, "General Zhao Chongjie stayed, and the rest of the generals will go back and prepare!"

Everyone retreated, and the tent became quiet again. Li Qing'an stood in front of the map and carefully checked something. Zhao Chongjie stood aside, waiting for the coach to speak.

"Just just now, I received a message from He Yansi that they had successfully instigated the Xinde army guarding the Shabro grain depot. The grain depot had nearly four million stones of grain, which was very important to us. We must seize the Shabro grain depot before the Punjab's Great Food Army headed north."

Zhao Chongjie understood the commander's meaning. He originally wanted to lead his army south, but now he had to return to Anxi, so he handed over the task to himself.

"Please rest assured that the general, Beishi will surely go south quickly and seize the Shabro grain warehouse."

"Very good. Now you set out and lead 10,000 troops south, so that Yuansong can stay in Duolangas City. I looked at the map. Shabro is less than two hundred miles away. You two can support each other and respond to each other, focusing on defense. In short, before Feng Changqing arrived, you are not allowed to fight with the Great Food Army. No matter how they lure you, they are not allowed to fight. Keep the grain warehouse to the death. If you dare not obey my orders, I will deal with the military law!"

Zhao Chongjie was so proud that he bowed and replied: "I will never dare to disobey the general's orders!"

Li Qingan stared at him for a while before nodding, "Okay! Take action now."

That night, Zhao Chongjie led 10,000 cavalry to run towards the Shabro Grain Depot, and Li Qing'an also set out overnight and returned to Anxi under the escort of two thousand personal guards.
Chapter completed!