Chapter 1083 Surrounded
One warrior with two auxiliary soldiers, one Han with two Tibetans, Qin Lang thinks this combination is more appropriate. The 40,000 Tang army's elite soldiers are few but fine. This is the town garrison, the number kept in the army town, not the number of Zhechong government soldiers.
Although it is scattered in dozens of prefectures in Jiannan and Yunnan provinces, it is still sufficient to focus on the western border. Coupled with the prefectural unity battalion that usually takes turns to garrison, and the tribal soldiers of various tribes, it can maintain an elite and powerful army. border guards and military forces.
The top priority right now, Qin Lang plans to quickly reorganize the tens of thousands of troops gathered on the front line of Songzhou according to this new arrangement.
The two armies of You Yi and Tabai were Qin Lang's left and right armies of the Ya army. Qin Lang organized them into the front compartment, as the vanguard cavalry, responsible for reconnaissance and charging.
Beiwei is responsible for guarding the central army, protecting Jiedushi and the six-faced banner, and filling the reserve force.
The Jingbian Army and the Ningyuan Army served as the right-wing troops, while the Baoning Army, Tianbao Army, and Pingrong Army were the right-wing troops.
The Zhongwu Army is the rear army.
As for the three armies of Tonghai, Nanning, and Kunming, they are temporarily organized as reserve troops, and they are still stationed in their own defense areas and are on standby at any time.
In Qin Lang's plan, the three armies in Yunnan will not be needed for this battle for the time being.
Jiannan and Yunnan provinces originally had six armies, with a total of 30,000 town soldiers, so they expanded to 40,000. In fact, there is no pressure. Under normal circumstances, one can be expanded to three, and one area can be expanded to two. 30,000 expanded to 40,000, and it can still maintain a strong combat effectiveness.
The various troops in Songzhou are actively reorganizing and training. There are veterans such as Su Dingfang, Qiu Xinggong, Liu Lancheng, and Han Wei, as well as some brave generals such as Yu Guni, and the original elite backbone of the Jiannan army In fact, the so-called expansion and reorganization did not have much impact. All ministries had already gathered on the front line of Songzhou. Except for a small number of soldiers who stayed at home, the reorganization started directly on the spot.
Money, food and equipment are also readily available.
Qin Lang was even able to transform his three infantry into two light cavalry and one cavalry infantry. Although the Tibetans attacked this time and the Qiangs fled in all directions, there are still many Xishan Qiangs who have not been affected on the Xishan line to the south of Jiannan. The power is smaller.
A Jimi Prefecture was originally a Qiang tribe, with more than a thousand small households and tens of thousands of households scattered in the vast valleys and mountains along the western and western rivers, remote and backward, but here are the most capable mountain infantry. Walk on flat ground.
Some even have mountain light cavalry, riding pony or mule unique to Yunnan, but they are very fierce.
The Qiangs in the Western Mountains used to be very chaotic. There were many alliances in private, and they fought against each other. Even the tribes in this alliance sometimes attacked each other. The forces unify all parties and can order all parties, so everyone acts in their own way, and you attack and seize.
Later, the Tang Dynasty unified the world, and its forces went all the way south, first entering Yunnan, and then deterring the western mountains and weak waters. On the one hand, the Tang Dynasty opened up border exchanges, engaged in tea and horse trade, and exchanged cloth, salt and tea for horses and mountain products. On the other hand, it was able to maintain regional stability. Order, after a long time, this credibility will be established. After killing a few guys who don't know what to do, everyone will gradually move closer to Datang.
First, he became an official of the Tang Dynasty, and built forty-eight Jimi states, and now it has been reduced to three states, which are under the jurisdiction of the Maozhou Dudufu. There are many benefits.
The Great Tang recruited them to fight, and every time they were recruited, they were rewarded generously, not to mention that the Qiang tribes captured on the battlefield were often rewarded directly to them. If the leaders of the Qiang tribe could lead their troops to make meritorious service, they would be able to get rich rewards such as official titles and titles. .
So now the Qiangs in the Western Mountains are actually very willing to fight for the Tang Dynasty, they are equivalent to mercenaries anyway. Usually, they take turns to be on duty in various military towns, accept the guidance and training of the Tang frontier army, and then stop by the army to farm the land. Even if there is no war, it is beneficial to come to train and cultivate the land.
The Fan soldiers who come to train can get the status of a soldier in the city. With this status, they can reduce part of the taxes they should pay. land, but also have an additional income.
Not to mention, the Fanbing who came to train usually also get weapons and equipment such as spears, horizontal knives, bows and arrows, and military uniforms. The equipment distributed to them can be taken home.
Dangxiang's Qiang cavalry and Xishan Qiang's mountain infantry are now famous Tang mercenaries.
If there is going to be a big battle this time, it is enough to pay more rewards than usual for the training army. When the time comes, more spoils, rewards, and pensions will be given, and the Qiangs are very willing.
Those Xishan Qiang leaders were originally granted the titles of governors and generals by the Tang Dynasty. After the land reform, the forty-eight governors have been cancelled, but the court still retains their military positions as generals. If there are a thousand households, you can have the title of school lieutenant, and if you have more than three thousand households, you can be a general.
If you have ten thousand households, you can even get a Huaihua General of the third rank or a Huaihua General of the third rank. Anyway, for the imperial court, the naturalized generals and Huaihua generals were originally specially awarded to those foreign generals.
At the end of this summer, a strange phenomenon appeared here in Songzhou.
The Tubo army rode tigers to the south, unable to attack the Songzhou pass, and unwilling to retreat, retreated a hundred miles, and began to graze on the spot.
The envoys from Tubo came to Songzhou every now and then, and there was also a special person in charge of negotiations here. The imperial court even later sent a luxurious mission composed of Taichang Qing Wei Ting, Li Baiyao, Minister of Rites, and Cui Renshi, Minister of Household Affairs, to come to peace talks.
Tubo saw that the Tang Dynasty had sent such a high-level peace mission, and they paid more attention to it. They believed that their garrison of troops did play a deterrent role, so they couldn't retreat, and they had to persist until the peace talks reached an oath before withdrawing.
Often the talks are good, they insist on picking the bones in the egg, and then make extra troubles, this peace talk is also a mess, especially that Han Wei, I am a rough man, I am uneducated, I am a hooligan. attitude, and often flips his face by slapping the table horizontally.
The progress of the peace talks is extremely slow.
In Songzhou, the Eighth Army gathered, but the progress of the reorganization has been racing against time.
The Youyi and Tabai armies have even sent out small groups of reconnaissance cavalry to go out of the customs and go around the back of the Tubo people to contact Dangxiang and other Qiangs.
The actions of the Dangxiang Zhuqiangs were a bit slow. Although Qin Lang had sent people to contact and call for the assembly of the Qiangs long before the battle, the various ministries dragged their feet until after the Tubo army had been defeated in Songzhou. Ci, Xifeng Bulai, these leaders who had changed their surnames to Li, finally began to send people with order arrows to call on the ministries to go to Hequ.
Of course, no matter how slow it is, there will be a day when they will gather together.
The time has entered the end of July, the weather in Songzhou is still cool, but the Tibetans are very heat-sensitive, and they have long been looking forward to going back, but although the peace talks are progressing slowly, there has been progress, which makes Songtsan Gampo I can only continue to wait according to my temper.
Fortunately, the Tang army did not launch an attack during this period, and the soldiers and horses did not leave the pass, so that the Tubo army could graze calmly outside the pass. In summer, there were pastures everywhere. And the livestock that came here don't have to worry that the livestock will have no grass to eat, and the people and horses will have no food to eat.
"The Eight Departments of the Party have assembled 80,000 soldiers and are located at the foot of Jishi Mountain."
On the last day of July, the leader of the largest Tuoba tribe in the party, Li Sigong, the governor of Jingbian appointed by the imperial court, came with a group of leaders of the party.
Along with Bai Lan, Domi and other Qiang tribe leaders.
They first went to Hequ, then bypassed Diezhou, then went south to Fuzhou, and then arrived in Songzhou, bypassing the Tubo army west of Songzhou.
Although there were some detours, the whereabouts were kept confidential.
"When I arrived in Songzhou at the beginning of May, I immediately sent someone to summon you. As a result, it will be August tomorrow. In three months, although I know that your Qiangs are nomadic and you are not close to Songzhou, but this time is too late. It took too long, why, you don’t want to obey orders, don’t want to come?”
Qin Lang sat on the pavilion in the middle of the mountain in Songzhou City, looking at such a large group of Qiang leaders standing in front of him, but he was very rude.
Li Sigong, who was once beaten by Qin Lang for jumping the Yellow River and almost killed himself with a sword, has always been a little afraid of Qin Lang. I don't have the slightest temper.
Li Sigong could only explain that when the Tubo army came, they were also scattered among the tribes. When they received Wei Gong's military order, they didn't dare to delay.
"You always have a reason. Earlier, you followed the prince to conquer Yuhun, and you said that you were lost in the snow. Hmph, don't play tricks on me."
"Dare not!"
"Absolutely not."
"Okay, today is not the time to pursue you guys. Although it's a bit late, it's not bad since they've all come, but the number is a bit wrong. There are only 80,000 soldiers left in your party? But I heard that when Tubo came , you just watched the wind and fled like birds and beasts, didn't fight at all, what about people, fell to death in a panic when running away?"
The Qiang chieftains were so scolded that they didn't dare to say anything, but they can only honestly say that some tribes were not contacted, some ran too far, and couldn't be convened for a while, and there were various other reasons.
Anyway, everyone did their best. Although only 80,000 were gathered, this time they were all elite fighters, and they definitely didn’t drag their families and children into battle. Therefore, although there are few soldiers, they are very capable of fighting.
Bai Lan and Duomi came even less, with a total of only 20,000.
Qin Lang, on the contrary, praised them, saying that they were loyal, and the reason was that they were far away from each other in the first place, and the tribe's troops were not as good as Dang Xiang's. The fact that 20,000 elites came here this time fully demonstrated their loyalty.
As for the Eight Departments of the Dangxiang, originally they could get at least 200,000 yuan, but only 80,000 yuan. Of course, they have to criticize a few words.
Although it was not as expected, the Qiangs were able to gather 200,000 troops in Hequ, and the Tang army from the Longyou and Qinghai provinces could not participate. It is also very good to gather 100,000 Qiang cavalry.
And Qin Lang is now gathering the Nine Armies here in Songzhou, plus the Fan Department and Tuanlian, there can also be 80,000 people.
180,000 against Tubo's 200,000, Qin Lang already has a huge advantage.
Just when a gust of wind blew past, Qin Lang picked up his teacup and said with a smile.
"The east wind has arrived, and everything is ready!"
(end of this chapter)