Chapter 569 Inspection of achievements
Fenglin pass.
Qin Lang was also a little hesitant. He came all the way from Diezhou. Although he also gathered Qin Qiong's troops, when he reached Hezhou, he had less than 20,000 troops under his command. Among them were soldiers from Diezhou, Songzhou. The army, the government soldiers, and the defeated soldiers from Minzhou and Taozhou, as well as the subordinate Qiang soldiers, have a complex composition.
It can be regarded as an impromptu patchwork army, and its equipment is also very general, and its supplies rely entirely on fighting to support it.
Up to now, the team is indeed exhausted, and the weather is cold, and everyone has no morale and fighting spirit. They all want to go home as soon as possible.
He has also received the order from the imperial court to Qin Lang.
From the lower governor of Diezhou, he was promoted to the middle governor of Diezhou, and now he has added the Xuanfu envoy of Longyou Road, the general manager of the Taohe Road march, and the deputy envoy of the two vassals. He was the deputy of the former army commander Qin Qiong. Both fronts have great power to play cheap.
But apart from providing official positions and convenience, they did not send more soldiers and horses to help them in the battle. In terms of logistics, food, grass and military equipment, they only let Longyou Jiannan and Hexi three ways raise their own funds.
After all, the imperial court did not start the war machine with all its strength, or it could not be started at all at this time.
Under such circumstances, it was not easy for Qin Lang and the others to quickly sweep away the invading enemies from Longyou by taking advantage of their great victory in Diemin.
The old army of the division is tired, and the logistics cannot keep up. How dare they cross the border and go deep to counterattack Tuyuhun?
Once out of the border, it is very likely that the supplies and reinforcements will be gone. In any case, Tuyuhun's strength is still far above that of the party, and even though Tuyuhun was involved in two wars this year, he also lost 20,000 to 30,000 horses, but this loss is true. For them, it's not really a bone injury.
The most important thing is that, based on Qin Lang's understanding of Tuyuhun's past, Tuyuhun must have already made preparations for the possible counterattack by the Tang army. The most likely thing is to run away immediately.
Although he has the king's capital Fuqi City on the Qinghai Sea, Fuyun's city is only built for appearance. They usually live in tents. When the Tang army comes, they can abandon the king city at any time. This is what he did when the Sui army conquered before.
Tuyuhun is thousands of miles away, and it is wild. Whether they are running to the mountains in the northwest, the desert in the west, or the plateau in the south, it will be very troublesome for the Tang army to pursue them, and supplies will be a serious problem.
If Fu Yun burns the grass fiercely, Tang Jun may fall into a dangerous situation where he cannot advance or retreat.
From Qin Lang's point of view, if you don't make a move, it's enough. If you make a move, you will be killed and disabled. Therefore, if you want to make a move, you have to accumulate strength, mobilize elites, and keep up with logistics and supplies. At least you have to send troops in two or three ways. Let's attack together, don't give Fu Yun the slightest chance. Like Cheng Yaojin, it's purely an act of seeking some cheapness, which is actually meaningless.
But Lao Cheng insisted on dawdling, and Qin Lang had no choice.
In the end, he had no choice but to agree with him. As long as three to five thousand soldiers were willing to go out with him, he would agree, but he finally made an agreement with Lao Cheng.
"It's limited to a thousand miles, and the maximum depth is a thousand miles. If you have a chance, you can walk away with one blow. You must not love to fight. Can you promise me?" Qin Lang asked.
Old Cheng patted his chest, "A thousand miles is a thousand miles, but how about counting from Chiling on the border of Hezhou?"
"Yes, Uncle Cheng must be more careful, he would rather return with nothing, and don't be greedy for success."
"Don't worry, Lao Cheng, I have fought hundreds of battles. Although I am not as good as your grandfather, it is impossible to be as stupid as Jiuqie Luosheng and Li Daoyan."
For a long time, Luosheng was captured by Qin Lang under the city of Minzhou, and he chopped off his head directly to pay homage to the soldiers and civilians who were slaughtered in Taozhou. There was no chance for him to argue. Although he was a governor, Qin Lang did not Let him have the opportunity to return to Chang'an.
Cheng Yaojin excitedly ran to lobby the soldiers.
"Sanlang, are you not afraid that something will happen to him?" Zhang Chao asked Qin Lang.
"Lu Guogong is also a battle-tested general. He has rich combat experience. He looks rough on the outside, but he is thick on the outside and thin on the inside. Moreover, he is good at cavalry combat. He has a high fighting spirit. It is not good for him to choose thousands of elite light cavalry to attack. No, it's wrong." Qin Lang smiled.
Qin Lang believes that in this phase of the battle, the strategic goal has been achieved, the invaders have been defeated, and especially the huge gain of recruiting and surrendering the party has been achieved, but Tuyuhun's invasion did not really have much loss.
In order to prevent Tuyuhun from attacking and harassing again in winter, it is actually worth a try to let Cheng Yaojin, a beast, attack instead of defending.
Anyway, with Lao Cheng's ability, even if he doesn't get any unexpected gains, there will never be any unexpected surprises.
If Lao Cheng really hits a good counterattack, it will be a windfall.
If Lao Cheng was so fierce that Fu Yun abandoned the capital and fled, even if he couldn't kill or capture anything head-on, it would still be a great injury to Tuyuhun.
After all, when fleeing from the city in the winter, men, women and children have to drive livestock to escape in the wind and snow. They may have to run for hundreds of thousands of miles. The cattle, sheep and livestock will definitely die a lot, and even many women and children will be killed or injured. , especially when pregnant women escape, there will certainly be many miscarriages.
It is said that during the Han Dynasty, the Han army liked to launch raids on the Huns in winter and spring, forcing the Huns to flee and migrate. Every time during the winter and spring raids, when the Huns migrated and fled, many women and female animals would abort, which made them lost heavily.
"If it doesn't work, you can ask General Cheng to burn the grass of the Tuyuhun people."
The nomadic people's dependence on grass is as strong as that of the people in the Central Plains on crops. Without grass, livestock will have nothing to eat, and people will have nothing to eat.
These are all tricks.
As the commander-in-chief of the whole army, Qin Qiong is still far away in Minzhou, far away from him, so the deputy commander-in-chief Qin Lang has the final say on Hezhou.
Cheng Yaojin did have some skills, he ran into the barracks, and his words really made him pull thousands of people out. Old Cheng carefully selected the frontier soldiers from Song, Die, and Min. And selected people from Fuqiang, and put together enough five thousand.
Also basically picked out almost all the cavalry from Qin Lang's 20,000 men.
But facing Cheng Yaojin who came to ask for orders with a smile, Qin Lang certainly would not regret it.
After carefully discussing with Lao Cheng about the route of march and the matters to be guarded against, he simply gave him the 5,000 soldiers and horses, 3,000 cavalry, and 2,000 mounted infantry, all of which were relatively elite frontier troops. , Fubing, etc., are eager to do meritorious service, and are willing to fight with Lao Cheng again, and if they give it a try, the Honored Officer may become a martial artist.
For the government soldiers and frontier soldiers, it is actually quite hard work to go to the frontier and guard the border, but this kind of hard work has no chance to make meritorious service. Therefore, they are actually very active when encountering wars. After all, the purpose of being a government soldier is to make meritorious service. Those who have done meritorious service will have the opportunity to be awarded honors and officials, and then jump into the official career system. This is the opportunity, or even the only opportunity, for the vast majority of ordinary children of landlords and common people, and they can only fight with their lives.
After all, among the nobles and nobles in the court, which ones have not achieved their status through the hard work of several or even a dozen generations?
Qin Lang gave the 5,000 men and horses as much equipment as possible, with two horses, each with at least a hundred arrows, and portable dried meat floss, etc.
Lao Cheng got on his horse, crossed his hands with a smile, "With Saburo's good words, I hope I can catch old thief Fu Yun alive."
Both of them smiled, they both knew that it was impossible with the 5,000-strong army alone.
Old Cheng led five thousand riders westward along the Yellow River, while Qin Lang dismissed many troops on the spot in Hezhou, leaving only three thousand horses in the end, and then marched towards Hezhou.
As the envoy of Longyou Dao, Qin Lang, the entire Longyou prefectures are currently under his jurisdiction. He has just experienced a round of invasion by Tuyuhun. Many cities were destroyed, not to mention villages.
For the people on the border, although the Tuyuhun people were scared away, this winter will be very sad.
Qin Lang, the envoy of Xuanfu, is now the plenipotentiary representative of the imperial court. He has to arrange for the states and counties to repair the castle and restore the defense, and more importantly, to rescue the people and the victims of the disaster.
When he arrived in Hezhou, Qin Qiong had already crossed the border Chiling and entered the territory of Tuyuhun.
Qin Lang deployed border defenses in Kuozhou, organized village bravery, and city-side defenses, and then went north to Shanzhou (Xining). This was the frontline and the most important line of defense for Datang against Tuyuhun in Longyou.
Shanzhou has Daxueshan Mountain and Hemenshui in the north, Xiaojishi Mountain and the Yellow River in the south, and the Huangshui River in the middle runs from west to east, connecting Lanzhou to the east, Liangzhou to the north, and Qinghai Lake and Fucheng City to the west.
Shanzhou has the most important Hehuang Valley in the Tang Dynasty. This piece of Hehuang Valley is also the richest fertile land suitable for farming on the Tang-Tu border. , here is not only Liangzhou, an important town in the west of the Pingfan, but also guards Lanzhou, an important city in Longyou.
Every time Tuyuhun invades, he must attack Shanzhou.
Qin Lang left 1,000 troops to guard Hezhou, and led 2,000 troops to Shanzhou.
Not long after he arrived in Shanzhou, Duan Zhixuan, the new governor of Shanzhou, arrived.
Hearing that Cheng Yaojin, the governor of Kuozhou, actually tricked five thousand people from Qin Lang to go to Qinghai, he couldn't help shaking his head.
"Too risky."
"Replacing defense with offense, try the Tuyuhun people's skills." Qin Lang was very relaxed.
"What if?" Duan Zhixuan asked.
"If there is an eventuality, the responsibility will naturally be shouldered by General Cheng and I."
Duan Zhixuan fell silent. Although he was of Qin Qiong's generation, but now that Qin Lang is above him, he can't say much.
He originally wanted to say that he should send troops to respond, but Qin Lang's attitude was not easy to mention, so he gave up. Qin Lang brought two thousand soldiers and horses, and asked Duan Zhixuan to gather soldiers from the Shanzhou Prefecture, border soldiers, Tutuan, and Chengpang. Exercise training, let them be stationed in various fortresses, enrich the border, no matter what, they have to beware of the Tuyuhun people coming back.
It is even more necessary to be prepared in case Cheng Yaojin is defeated.
At this time, Tang Jian and Zheng Yuanxuan came. They came all the way from Luoyang, first went to Chang'an to meet the prince, then went out of Guanzhong, first went to Minzhou to meet Qin Qiong, and at the same time checked the heads, checked the military records, and even visited the soldiers. The soldiers and civilians learned about the details of the war, and also met the attached Qiang people.
Finally followed all the way to Shanzhou.
The official imperial edict that the emperor gave Qin Lang a new post, and the emperor's imperial armor bestowed on Qin Lang by the emperor, the Shangfang horse lance and sword refined by Shangfangfang, and finally a pair of tile-faced gold maces.
"Envoys and Chijie, the governor of Diemin, Taotang, Wucheng, the military forces of the seven prefectures of Wei, the governor of Diezhou, the Xuanfu envoy of Longyou Road, the general manager of the Taoshuidao march, the deputy envoy of Tuyuhun, and the deputy envoy of the two feudal clans, and Zhongshumenxia to make peace... "..."
Tang Jian read out the emperor's new position to Qin Lang, and supervised the military affairs of the seven prefectures.
Although it is a title of the same school as Zhongshumen, Qin Lang has not had any disturbances in the face of this white hemp Xuanxiang.
It wasn't left and right servants, it wasn't Zhongshu Ling, it wasn't servant, other prime minister titles, whether it was participating in political affairs or peace affairs, in fact, there was nothing that would make Qin Lang fluctuate too much.
He no longer takes this to heart.
Of course, Li Shimin specially asked Tang Jian to tell Qin Lang that the war is not over yet, so these new posts are not rewards for this time’s meritorious service.
Tang Jian and the two chased all the way here, not just to proclaim the decree, they also came with another important task, which was to get the record book of military exploits that Qin Lang gave to the soldiers of this battle from Qin Lang, and then check it Check etc.
Qin Lang called the recording room to join the army, and asked him to hand over the military record to the two.
"After careful inspection and inspection, we will truthfully report to the imperial court."
"Check it casually, Liu Jishi, please accompany the two of you to check it carefully, and check it carefully."
The atmosphere was a little awkward, Qin Lang was obviously very rude to these two, and the two of them knew that this situation would happen, so they kept smiling.
After they entered Longyou, they were shocked a lot, especially after they arrived in Taozhou, Minzhou, they witnessed the cruelty of the war for themselves.
Taozhou city was massacred for three days, more than ten thousand soldiers and civilians were massacred, wars ravaged several states, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed or injured.
On the roads in Taomin and other places, there are corpses everywhere.
Rentou Jingguan has many seats.
People in the Taomin prefectures now have to accept food relief from the imperial court, but they dare not eat the fish in the Tao River, because the belly of the fish in the Tao River is now full of corpses.
In the warehouses in Minzhou and other places, there are piles of ears, all of which have been pickled with lime or salt. The dense piles make them feel numb and get goose bumps all over their bodies.
During this period, they counted nearly 50,000 ears in total, all of which were left ears.
Zheng Yuanxuan suspected that Qin Lang's subordinates cut off the ears of the casualties and pretended to be the ears of the enemy, falsely reporting military achievements, but there was no evidence. Taking the left ear as a certificate of military merit, Qin Lang is the only one in the entire Tang Dynasty. Although this is not in line with the rules and conventions, it is obvious that these things will not work here in Qin Lang.
When they took Liu Jishi's military merit book and opened it and looked at the densely recorded military merits, they couldn't help but feel suspicious.
But in front of Qin Lang, they didn't dare to say a word of doubt. They were very worried that this young Rentu would beat them violently.
(end of this chapter)