Chapter 1067 Gloomy and bleak
It was still noon, but the sky was dark.
Strong wind mixed with drizzle, and even graupel, it was already summer after the Dragon Boat Festival, but this day changed quickly, and suddenly it seemed to return to winter overnight, the wind was blowing, and it was bleak.
Songtsan Gampo came to the pass again, stood with his hands behind his back, and watched from a distance.
Being blocked by this little thunder pass for more than a month, Songtsan Gampo’s heart is the same as that day.
Zanpu's intimidating aura made the guards wearing tiger and wolf ornaments cautious and dare not make a sound.
Gal Dongzan got off his horse from afar and came here on foot.
"Zamp."
"Which military situation is it?"
Gal Dongzan bowed his head and reported in shame, "It's bad news again. Qiongbangbose has been able to attack Gansong Village in Gansongling several times, and the loss of troops will be heavy."
Songtsan Gampo was prepared in his heart, but he still felt dizzy after hearing this. He shook his head, "How many casualties?"
"There were more than three thousand casualties."
Hearing that only more than 3,000 people were injured, Songtsan Gampo was relieved, but Dongzan immediately added that more than 3,000 people injured in Qiongbangbose were all elite Gui soldiers.
Songtsan Gampo's eyes darkened, and he almost didn't fall down.
Gal Dongzan stepped forward and quickly supported Zanpu.
"We can't get through Leiguan, and we can't get through Gansong Village. Now we can only wait for news from Ningyuan Town. But I guess it won't be easy."
Qiongbangbose, also known as Qiongbangbangsesuzi, is now the second prime minister in the Tubo dynasty after Niang Shangnang, and is also the representative of the three major powers in the Tubo kingdom. In the era of Songtsan Gampo's father, Langri Lunzan, Qiongbao Bangse, who was the prime minister of Tibet and Tibet in the Houzang area at that time, killed the king of Houzang, and then dedicated the entire Houzang area and its more than 20,000 households to Lang. Rilun Zan, for Tubo, this is simply a great gift.
It is precisely because of this achievement that in the era of Langri Lunzan, Qiongbao Bangsesuzi also became the top upstart in the Tubo court. Langri Lunzan was overjoyed and rewarded all 20,000 households to Qiongbao Bangsesuzi. And let him continue to manage Houzang, so as to stabilize the Houzang area, so that he can focus on dealing with Subisenbo.
You know, there were only tens of thousands of households in Tubo at that time, and Qiongbao Bangse received the reward of 20,000 households alone, so you know how shocking it is.
But for Tubo who wanted to conquer Subi at that time, there was no way to fight on both sides, especially since the population of Houzang was not much smaller than that of Tubo, and its strength was not weaker than them. It can be regarded as using the barbarians to control the barbarians, so we can first concentrate on dealing with Subi in the north.
Later, Langri Lunzan's strategy was relatively successful. With the support of Yingniang in Supi, he finally succeeded in destroying Supi.
Supi was stronger than Tubo at that time, and Tubo, who started from Yalong in the south of the mountain, was like a snake swallowing an elephant. After capturing Supi, Langri Lunzan also used force to suppress it, and at the same time reused some of the old nobles who belonged to Supi to govern Subi methods, such as Niang's.
The Niang family used to be a local territory in the era of the plateau small state. Among the twelve city-states of the Subi Alliance, it was one of the traditional twelve big families. I had no choice but to seek help from Tubo, and finally Niangshi led Tubo to destroy Supi, so Niangshi naturally made great achievements.
After destroying Supi, Langri Lunzan still used some political means to retain the Supi royal family on the surface, appointed his children as local leaders, and asked him to take charge of the territory, and then married the daughter of the Tubo royal family. The old aristocrats next to him were generous rewards.
For example, Zenggu, the mother who acted as the leader of the party, was rewarded with Nianjisong Castle Bowa and 1,500 slave households.
After this, the population of Tubo not only doubled several times, but also added a large amount of farming land in Houzang, as well as the vast pastures and grasslands in Subi. Tubo also began to form the Tubo cavalry who later ruled the plateau.
At the same time, the conquest of Subi also allowed them to own a large amount of salt-producing land. Relying on salt, Tubo also mastered the Subi people's tea horse salt cloth trade, and wealth began to flow to Tubo.
However, the rapid expansion of Tubo, especially Langri Lunzan's appreciation of Qiongbaobangse and Supi's new nobleman, also made the old Shannan nobles in Tubo feel dissatisfied.
Among the upstarts, the Subi and Senbo upstarts, represented by Niangshi and Webster, even competed with the Houzang upstarts, represented by Qiongbao Bangse, and made a fuss. Zan's disposition was to further reward and reuse the upstarts, and appointed Niang's mother, Mangpoche Shangnang, as the Dalun.
At that time, the patrilineal subjects had grievances, and then the matrilineal subjects rebelled. Qi Xiangxiong, Pianniu producer Sun Bo, Neni, and Dabu all rebelled. Langri Lunzan was also poisoned to death by guards from the old Tubo nobles.
Songtsen Gampo was only thirteen years old at the time.
The situation was very critical at that time. Fortunately, he had the full support of his mother, uncle and the royal family. Under the suggestion of his uncle Lun Keer, Songtsan Gampo invited his mother Shangnang and Qiongbang Bose to comfort him with kind words. With the support of the upstarts in Houzang and Subi, these upstarts also knew that the old nobles in the south of Tubo would not tolerate them.
Therefore, they remained consistent on the matter of countering the rebellion. In the end, with the assistance of Niang Shangnang, Qiongbang Bose, Lun Keer, etc., Songtsan Gampo quelled the rebellion. The rebels wiped out all their clans, nationalized their fiefdoms, subjects, slaves, and property, and completely disintegrated the Shannan Yalong Group among the three major forces in Tubo.
The Shannan aristocratic group, which was originally the base of Tubo, was killed after this chaos. In the previous dynasties of Tubo, Zanpu was only the leader of the alliance. After all, it was the era of the alliance of noble clans. But since then, Tubo has entered a new era, Zanpu's authority is extremely high, and even began to transition from a tribal alliance to a feudal kingdom.
In recent years, Songtsan Gampo has been very generous to Niang Shangnang and Qiongbangbose and other heroes who have quelled the chaos, and these two people have been serving as the prime minister and the second prime minister in the court these years, and they are also loyal.
Niang Shangnang not only assisted Songtsan Gampo in setting up the new system of Tubo, but also played an irreplaceable role in stabilizing the situation in Subi, while Qiongbao Bangse not only stabilized the Houzang area excellently, but also defeated the anti-Zanpu regime more than once. The rebellious plots of the Zamp brothers, especially when Mon Wembu rebelled, saved the lives of the Zamp brothers.
However, Songtsan Gampo was secretly wary of these two extremely capable ministers. After all, his father was poisoned to death by his subordinates, and Niang Shangnang and Qiongbangbose were not only the top ministers in the court, but also both of them. It is a great nobleman holding ten thousand households, and his strength is too strong.
Songtsan Gampo has been handling it carefully, such as reusing the Gar family, using the son of the former prime minister, Mang Xiangsong, to prepare the army, and command the Tubo soldiers and horses.
In fact, more than once, he hoped that these two overly capable acquaintances would die accidentally or something, so he didn't have to worry about it all day long and couldn't sleep.
But right now is the Eastern Expedition after all, and they are still facing the mighty Datang, so they naturally have to be consistent with the outside world.
The defeat of Qiongbangbose is not good news.
The Second Prime Minister has made countless contributions, and has also demonstrated incomparably excellent military capabilities, but now he is leading tens of thousands of horses, and he was also defeated in Gansong Village.
This shows that Tang Jun is stronger than he expected.
"It's not quite right. Songzhou is stronger than we expected. Qin Qiong is dead. Han Wei can't have such a skill. Maybe we've all been deceived. The people of Tang have been prepared for it. There must be more than Songzhou soldiers and horses here, and maybe even more As for the soldiers and horses in Jiannan, I suspect that Guan Long Jingrui has been transferred here to strengthen the defense, but they have been lying to us all the time."
Songtsan Gampo said worriedly.
Gal Dongzan has been thinking about this issue these days, and came to a conclusion similar to that of Zanpu, and he nodded in agreement at this time.
"Is there no news about Sanguo Michen?"
"Not yet. The border of Songzhou is full of mountains, and the roads are difficult to travel. It is even more difficult to find a route to attack. There are only 10,000 people in the Sanguo Michen tribe, but they are not birds. They can easily fly over the snow-capped mountains."
"Sanguo Michen was unknown to my father, but he took the initiative to fight during the Bota rebellion. At that time, Qiongbangboser lost the first battle. Sanguo Michen only led a light army, but he wiped out the rebellion in one fell swoop. Very impressive." Songtsan Gampo still had high hopes for this Sanguo Michen.
The 10,000 troops under his command are surprise soldiers, and the direction of attack is uncertain.
Now that Qiongbang Bose is defeated by Gansong Village, it is estimated that there will be no good news when Shangnang attacks Ningyuan Town on the other side, so we can only hope for Sanguo Miqin.
"As long as Sanguo Miqin can make progress, we can bypass the Daxue Mountain and penetrate Songzhou behind the Tang army's defense line, we still have a chance."
Gal Dongzan was silent for a while.
Finally, I persuaded Zanpu, "I think the chance is not great. The Tang people are too prepared. Just like what Zanpu said, they may have prepared for a long time and deliberately set up a net to lure us. We have been here for more than a month. The number of casualties gathered here is nearly 20,000, and ten stops have already been broken, and I am still worried about what is behind us. When we came earlier, Domi, Bailan, and Dangxiang Zhuqiang all ran away after hearing the news, and we also I didn’t do much sweeping and chasing. It’s been so long now, and I haven’t seen these Qiang people. I’m worried that if the Tang people here have been prepared and deliberately set up traps to lure us, then they have no reason to let the Qiang people behind us go. Zhu Qiang Adding up, we can gather two or three hundred thousand people at any time, and once the time comes, we will keep advancing and retreating, and the Tang people and the Qiang tribe will attack from both sides, and we will be in danger!"
Songtsan Gampo said somewhat unwillingly, "Then why are we just retreating? Don't forget the purpose of our Eastern Expedition, we are to show the strength of Tubo to Emperor Tang. Wouldn't it be ridiculed if we retreat like this now? Needless to say, Dangxiang and the other Qiangs still look down upon them, so how can the Qiangs submit to them if they withdraw like this? How can we take the land of Tuyuhun from the Tang Dynasty?"
Tibetan mobilized more than 200,000 people, so powerful, it can be said that they invaded the country to fight, and retreated without any results. How could it be done?
(end of this chapter)