On August 12, Zhao Ziliang led the army to Henglus City, Basai Ganye ordered 3,000 men and horses to join it, and the number of coalition troops officially exceeded 20,000. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

In the following two days, Geshushan and Axijie Qianquan also led 3,000 and 2,000 troops respectively to join the coalition army, and the 1,500 Tang troops who escaped from Henglus City were also ordered to join by Zhao Ziliang on August 14, and returned to Henglus City with the army, temporarily commanded by the adjutant general Huo Kan.

August 15, Mid-Autumn Festival! Ge Shukun and Ashi Jielin led 2,000 and 3,000 men and horses respectively to catch up with Zhao Ziliang's army, and arrived twenty miles outside the city of Henglus in the afternoon of the same day.

Although the Great Food Army in Hengrus City had already detected a large Tang army marching towards Hengrus City and was ready to face the battle, when a full 30,000 Tang troops appeared in the field of vision of the Great Food Army, it still shocked the leader of the Great Food Army, Said, he did not expect the Tang Army's reaction to be so fast, and it actually gathered so many soldiers and horses in such a short time.

At this time, there was a fierce quarrel in the city lord's mansion of Hengrus City, and a tall middle-aged cannibal with a hooked nose, sunken eye sockets, and black chain mail sat on the main seat holding a Damascus scimitar and listened to the generals discuss what kind of combat attitude the Tang army would adopt for the attack.

Saied raised his hand, and the generals on the left and right sides stopped talking, only to hear Said's cold face and angry words: "Didn't the spies report that there are only 24,000 people in the Tang Guo'an area?" This time, they sent more than 10,000 troops led by a general named Gao Xianzhi to attack Xiao Bolu, so there are only about 10,000 people left in the Anxi region, these people want to guard the cities and towns, where did they get so many soldiers and horses? How did the spies find out the news? How much passivity does such a major mistake give us? Babdul, you, as the leader of the spies, have made unforgivable mistakes and unshirkable responsibilities! Come on, drag Badul down to see the beheading! ”

A bearded man wrapped in a white robe fell to his knees in fright and shouted: "Your Excellency the Governor, there are indeed only 24,000 troops in the Anxi region, and the villain doesn't know where they transferred so many troops from."

Despite his best attempts to defend himself, no matter how loudly he begged for mercy, the guards outside the door turned a deaf ear, and two guards walked in and dragged him out, and soon saw that the pleas for mercy had stopped abruptly, and the leader of the spies had apparently had his head cut off.

Just a while after the head of the spy was cut off, a sentry hurriedly walked in and reported to him: "Lord Governor Qiqi, the situation of the Tang army has been clarified, the general of the Tang army who led the troops this time is called Zhao Ziliang, he is a guard envoy called Xilin Shou under the jurisdiction of the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate, and most of the 30,000 troops he commanded this time are actually soldiers and horses collected from nearby barbarian tribes, not the regular garrison of the Tang State!" ”

Saeed was overjoyed after listening to the report of the outpost, and said, "I said how could they gather 30,000 people in such a short period of time, it turns out that they are all barbarian soldiers recruited from nearby barbarian tribes!" Isn't that a rabble? In this way, they are a temporary patchwork army, and those brute soldiers have not received formal training, they must lack military discipline, and their combat power will be greatly reduced, and so many patchwork armies must lack tactical coordination, plus they are not subordinate to each other, and the leaders have the heart to preserve their strength, and the combat effectiveness will be reduced again, if we go out of the city to face the battle, the certainty of defeating them is at least half! ”

The generals listened to Said's analysis and echoed it.

Said asked the detective again: "What kind of person is this Zhao Ziliang?" What is the official position of a captive envoy? ”

"Your Excellency the Governor, according to the information we have investigated, Zhao Ziliang is a young general of twenty-five or sixteen years old, extremely tall and powerful, he was only a teenager and famous in this radius, and the barbarians in this vicinity trembled with fear when they heard his name! Later, for some reason, he was transferred, and he was recently transferred to the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate as the Xilin Guard, and the Commander was the highest commander of a military garrison in the Tang State Border Army, some guarded and captured thousands of soldiers, and some guarded and captured only a few hundred people, and the above were deputy military envoys, military envoys, soldiers and horses, deputy military envoys, deputy envoys of the Jiedu, Jiedu envoys and Duhu, and the official position of the governor was equivalent to their Duhu and Jiedu envoys, really to compare, Zhao Ziliang's official position is six levels smaller than the official position of the governor! ”

When Said heard this, he was so angry that he slapped the desk on the spot, and said angrily: "Tang Guo is really too deceitful, I, Said, am also the governor of a province, and they actually sent a junior official of the sixth level of a junior self to lead the troops to attack me, damn it!" Also, isn't this under the jurisdiction of the Anzai region? Why should they bother with this matter? Is the Beiting Protectorate full? It's hateful! ”

At this time, an older general stood up and said, "Your Excellency the Governor, now we should discuss how to deal with the arrival of the Tang Army!" ”

Hearing this, Said calmed down, nodded and said, "Yes, let's discuss it now, how should we deal with the Tang Army?" ”

A bearded general stood up and saluted Said: "Your Excellency, the Tang army has 30,000 people, although it is temporarily put together, but the number is several times ours, and our army is only 10,000, I think it is not very certain to go out of the city to meet the battle and win, but if it is besieged by the Tang army, our army will be in a passive position, after all, this is the land of the East, we are in a foreign land, if we are besieged and cannot get domestic support, in terms of the amount of grain and grass stored in the city, we can only support for a month at most, but the Tang army is different, The Tang army can get a steady stream of food and grass, they don't need to attack the city at all, they only need to besiege the city for a month, and we will all starve to death! If the Governor does not intend to abandon the city of Henglus, the last general suggests that he immediately send people back to Khorasan to transfer at least 10,000 men, so that we can repel the Tang army!" ”

A tall and thin general stood up and said, "Your Excellency, if you want to send reinforcements, the last general thinks that there is no need to send people back to Khorasan Province, and directly transfer troops from the Zhaowu Kingdom and Tocharo, we have about 10,000 garrisons there, as long as they arrive in time, the siege of Henglus City can be lifted!" ”

After hearing this, Said said: "There are only 10,000 garrisons in the whole Zhaowu kingdom and Tocharia, and they are scattered all over the place, and it will take a long time to gather them all, and we cannot pin all our hopes on those 10,000 garrisons; In addition, our army left in Khorasan Province is only 3,000 men, and even if we send people there, we will not be able to transfer any troops, and even if there are troops, we will not be able to transfer them in a short time; According to the city, defending the city is only a last resort, and now our only way is to send troops out of the city to meet the Tang army, half of the chance of winning is not low! So this governor has decided, go out of the city to meet the Tang army, but how to meet the battle, how many soldiers and horses to send out of the city, do you have any ideas? ”

Someone said, "Your Excellency, the difference between the forces of the enemy and us is too great, and I think we should send as many troops as possible, and now that we have 10,000 men in the city, it is most appropriate to send 8,000!" 3,000 heavy riders, 5,000 light riders! The remaining 2,000 infantry defended the city! ”

Someone else said: "Three thousand light horsemen, two thousand infantry!" ”

Everyone has their own suggestions and reasons, and they all seem reasonable, but in reality, most of these suggestions do not take into account external factors.

In the end, Said clapped his head and said: "The Tang army is all cavalry, and our infantry is only 2,000 people, which cannot play a role!" Therefore, the infantry stayed to defend the city, and left another 2,000 light cavalry for emergencies, and sent 3,000 ironclad heavy cavalry and 3,000 light cavalry to meet the Tang army! In addition to this, he also sent people to the Zhaowu kingdoms and Tocharo, and ordered the garrisons in various places to quickly assemble and rush to the city of Henglus to join the battle."

All the generals stood up and shouted, "Yes, Lord Governor!" ”

After camping twenty miles outside the city of Hengros and resting for three days, the Tang army assembled a large army in the early morning of August 18 and marched to Hengluos, during which the craftsmen of the Tang army built a large number of siege equipment, including trebuchets, ballistas, bed crossbows, siege ladders, siege vehicles and wells.

As the Tang army approached the city of Henglus in a neat phalanx, the big food army in the city immediately moved, and they went out of the city under the leadership of the governor Saide to meet the Tang army, sending 3,000 heavy cavalry and 3,000 light cavalry, of which 3,000 heavy cavalry were lined up in the middle, and 1,500 cavalry were placed on the left and right wings, and the Tang army was waiting for ten miles outside the city of Hengros.

Under the scorching sun, a cool breeze swept across the grassland, and the two armies were blown up, as if they smelled death, and several crows and vultures flew from afar and circled in the sky.

Zhao Ziliang heard the cries of crows and vultures, looked up at the sky, and then looked at the Great Food Army formation two miles away, and gave an order to Brehan beside him: "Pass my general's order, each of the five land divisions will send 1,000 cavalry to face the enemy's direction, according to the strength of the headquarters in order to form a vertical formation on the left flank, the headquarters has more troops in the front, and those with fewer troops in the back are behind; The five crossbows were lost, and each tribe also sent out a thousand horsemen to line up on the right flank, and the order was according to the five land divisions; The 3,000 cavalry of our army lined up in the middle army, and the armies of Shiguo and Bakhana were lined up at the foot of the hill on the left rear side to stand by! Move the general's headquarters to the top of the hill on the left rear, and 2,000 infantry will accompany you to guard the headquarters! ”

"No!"

Zhao Ziliang's military order was issued very clearly and simply, these barbarians controlled the war horses at a very high level, and the barbarian armies who got the order moved to the left or right on their horses, and soon the Tang army formation showed a long column on the left and right wings of the rectangular military formation, and the Chinese army of two thousand Tang army infantry rode war horses in a dozen rows of horizontal rows, although there was some confusion when the re-array, but fortunately, the time was very short and calmed down.

The other party has 3,000 heavily armored iron cavalry, this kind of big killing weapon is not something that Zhao Ziliang's current troops can stop, Zhao Ziliang rode to the hill on the left rear side, and set the headquarters here, where the terrain is higher, you can watch the overall situation of the battlefield and adjust tactics in time. (To be continued.) )