Chapter 119: Tibetan Invasion
"The Tubo agreed with me that they would lead a large army to come on October 10th. They asked me to control the border garrisons and beacon towers before that. They promised that after the matter was accomplished, they would allow me to set up a thousand households, grant me a golden certificate, and allow me to inherit the title permanently..."

Gao Xiuyan told Li Xuan.

"How many troops will they send and how will they act?"

Li Xuan asked Gao Xiuyan.

"Replying to General Li, this plan is an internal matter of Tubo and they will definitely not tell me. On October 10th, they will definitely send soldiers to explore the Anbian garrison. If the garrison does not support them, they will be suspicious and may not enter my border." Gao Xiuyan shook his head.

"Then we have to think more carefully."

Li Xuan thought for a moment and nodded.

Gao Xiuyan certainly wouldn't want to ask about Tubo's specific actions, as that would reveal his flaws.

"I will look for some death row prisoners who have committed capital crimes from the various counties in Longyou. When the Tubo people come, we will dress these death row prisoners in leather armor and kill them at the Anbian garrison and beacon towers to avoid arousing suspicion."

Li Xuan thought it would be too fake if Gao Xiuyan captured the garrison without bloodshed.

Although killing the death row inmates who had been reviewed by the Dali Temple was against the rules, it was the only solution.

Even if he was impeached, Li Longji would not blame anyone.

"Li Shuai is really thoughtful."

Gao Xiuyan was filled with fear. If Li Xuan hadn't reminded him, he would have ignored this point.

"The county soldiers are not very reliable. I will order the Zhenxi Army to send out a thousand soldiers to pretend to be county soldiers and serve as your subordinates. At the critical moment, these thousand soldiers can also hinder the retreat of the Tibetan soldiers."

Li Xuan ordered the county troops to withdraw, and he trusted the border troops more.

"As ordered!"

Gao Xiuyan accepted the order.

After Li Xuan had another discussion with Gao Xiuyan, he asked Gao Xiuyan to return to Anxiang County immediately to make preparations.

Be ready to pass on any message at any time and wait for Li Xuan's next instructions.

In late September, Li Xuan's court prosecutor Cen Shen, chief secretary Gao Shi, and military commander Yang Wan arrived one after another.

At this point, the main officials of Li Xuan's shogunate were complete.

Yang Wan arrived first, and was the military commander responsible for assisting in military affairs and participating in planning.

He is in charge of military law, training soldiers, repairing military equipment, and preparing for military affairs. Military supplies and food wages also need to be allocated by the military commander.

Li Xuan believed that Yang Wan, who also had the talent to be a prime minister, could be competent for the position of military commander.

When Yang Wan arrived, Li Xuan summoned him into the mansion and had a pleasant conversation with him. The topic they talked about was roughly the same as Liu Yan's, hoping that Yang Wan could give him advice at the critical moment.

Gao Shi and Cen Shen met in Xianyang and came together.

As soon as they arrived at Huangshui, they presented poems to Li Xuan, praising Li Xuan's fame and martial arts and expressing their gratitude to Li Xuan.

Li Xuan personally hosted a banquet for them, hoping that they could leave behind poems that would be passed down through the ages in addition to their work in the shogunate.

In addition, Li Xuan also recruited more than 20 literati as his subordinates to serve under him.

He just thought that these literati were talented, and when the shogunate was short of people, he summoned them to join the shogunate and become minor officials or assistant officials.

If they are really talented, Li Xuan will promote them.

At the same time, the special envoy sent by Li Longji arrived in Huangshui City.

With irrefutable evidence before him, if anyone dared to throw dirty water on him and make a false accusation, Li Xuan would never yield and would arrest the special envoy.

Fortunately, these envoys were tactful and did not provoke Li Xuan.

They recorded all the fertile fields, gold, silver and jewelry they saw, and interrogated Guo Quan and Guo Dahu.

Finally, Guo Quan's uncle and nephew were escorted back to Chang'an, along with the gold, silver and jewelry that Guo Quan had embezzled.

Guo Quan's ten thousand acres of fertile land belonged to Xiping County. Li Xuan asked Shangguan Qing, the chief historian of the Governor's Office, to take charge of making use of the fertile land, even if it meant distributing it to tenant farmers.

After the new military supervisor Zhang Daobin arrived in Huangshui City, he was the first to pay a visit to Li Xuan and took the initiative to express his support for all of Li Xuan's actions.

This was just as Li Xuan expected. After the Guo Quan incident, the new military supervisor dared not offend him again.

Don't hit a smiling person. Li Xuan also expressed his support for the military supervisor, and worked together to expand the territory for the saint.

"Reporting to General Li, a large number of Tibetan soldiers have crossed the Chiling Mountains and set up camp near the Chiling Mountains."

When Li Xuan was supervising the soldiers' training beside the Huangshui River, a messenger came on horseback to report.

"How much do you know exactly?" Li Xuan wanted to ask clearly.

"Reporting to General Li, the Red Ridge is a barrier and we cannot get close. Judging from the camp, there are more than 30,000 Tibetan soldiers."

The messenger replied.

"Go back to the government office!"

After Li Xuan finished speaking, he mounted his horse and returned to the Jiedushi Mansion with his personal guards. At the same time, he notified the main general, deputy general, and important subordinates of the Lintao Army to come to the main hall to discuss matters.

"As our army is about to turn to Anxiang, Tubo seems to be invading. What do you think?"

Li Xuan sat at the main seat and asked the generals and subordinates.

"In autumn and winter, Tibetan invasions are common, but Tibetans often attack quickly with cavalry, rather than setting up camp in front of the mountains. I think Tibetans intend to contain the main force of our army so that they can quickly attack in the Anxiang area."

Gao Shi stood up first and spoke to Li Xuan.

He had rich military experience. It is not difficult to guess that the Tubo thought Gao Xiuyan had defected, so this move was to contain the Lintao army before the Tubo marched into Anxiang.

"I agree with Secretary Gao. In fifteen days, Tubo will march into Anxiang. Their actions mean that they will definitely attack Anxiang." Yang Wan also stood up and said.

Other subordinates and generals nodded in agreement.

"Well... Tibetan scouts are monitoring our army's movements across the river. For the sake of Shanzhou City and Huangshui City, our Anren Army and Heyuan Army cannot be mobilized, and Lintao Army cannot be sent out in large numbers. They must secretly pass through Chencang and leave overnight, going north to the Anxiang County area."

Li Xuan wanted to complete an encirclement and annihilation campaign, but he could not lose sight of the main goal.

Shanzhou City and Huangshui City must not face any danger.

Once the Huangshui defense line was lost, just like in the early years of the Kaiyuan period, the Tubo would run directly to Lanzhou and Weizhou areas and rob the herdsmen’s horses on a large scale.

In addition to the herdsmen's horses, the originally safe civilians would also be exposed to the butcher knife of the Tibetan cavalry.

"General Li, after part of the main force is transferred away, our army can also cross the Huangshui River, relying on Suihe and Shouzhuo, and show a posture of fighting against Tubo. The momentum must not be weak."

Cen Shen said to Li Xuan, "Since we know that Tubo is afraid to fight, we should distract Tubo's attention here and make them think that the Tang army will take the initiative to attack them."

In fact, Tubo had Chiling and Shibao City at its back, so it could attack or defend.

If the Tang army attacks, it will suffer heavy losses.

"Sure! I'm going to dispatch 3,000 elite cavalry, 3,000 light cavalry, and 1,000 heavy cavalry from Lintao. The remaining soldiers of the Lintao Army, together with the Heyuan Army, will be dispatched from the Anren Army. The soldiers of the Jishi Army are ready for battle, and elite troops are also ready to support them at any time!"

Li Xuan left behind the crossbowmen and heavy infantry, as well as some cavalry.

Zhang Xing had just selected the bravest and strongest soldiers from among the various armies and formed a 500-man Modao Army.

But the Mo Dao is barely sufficient for now. The armor for Mo Dao fighters has not yet been completed, and many fighters have only touched the Mo Dao for a few days.

In order to avoid casualties among the Modao soldiers, they were not allowed to fight this time.

Li Xuan wanted to take the only 1,000 heavy cavalrymen of the Longyou Army who were fully armed.

"General Li leads a total of 7,000 cavalry. Is that too few?" Liu Yan was worried because the exact number of Tibetan soldiers who invaded Anxiang was unclear.

"The Suihe garrison has 3,000 troops, and the Zhenxi Army has 10,000. In addition, I will secretly order the Momen Army to secretly dispatch 5,000 troops to move out of Taozhou and toward Anxiang. On October 10, they will arrive several dozen miles east of Anxiang City and wait for orders."

"For the sake of the overall defense, our army can only dispatch so many people. But I believe that even if 50,000 Tibetans enter the country, we can rely on our armor and soldiers to keep the Tibetan soldiers who have traveled a long distance in Anxiang."

Li Xuan said to the generals and assistants.

Soldiers are better in quality than in quantity, and the Longyou Army is mostly elite. This time he also brought heavy cavalry and 3,000 armored cavalry, which are the key to victory.

"I wish Coach Li a successful start."

When Li Xuan said this, his subordinates had no way to refute it, because they had all just "joined the army" and obeyed Li Xuan in terms of tactics.

He planned to stay in Xiping County first, and the Lintao Army would set out on October 5th.

Li Xuan and his subordinates discussed and speculated on the specific tactics of Tubo's march into Anxiang.

Gao Shi speculated that Tubo would not occupy Anxiang City, because Gao Shi believed that Anxiang City was difficult to defend and if Tubo occupied it, it would be attacked by the Tang army, so Tubo would mainly loot items and people.

Cen Shen speculated that the Tibetans would first attack Pingyi Shouzhuo, and after conquering Pingyi Shouzhuo, they would cross the Li River to the various pastoral supervisors and plunder their horses. The Tibetans had already taken actions targeting the Tang army's Longyou pastoral supervisors many times.

Yang Wan thought that Tubo would occupy Anxiang City and would send more troops to Anxiang, because Anxiang County was very important to the Tang Dynasty.

Liu Yan believed that Tubo would occupy the land south of the Yellow River and west of the Li River.

Li Xuan felt that what they said made sense.

He could not gamble on what Tubo would do, so he pointed at Anxiang City and decided to encircle and annihilate the Tubo army as soon as they entered the area around Anxiang City.

After the military meeting ended, Li Xuan, with his personal guards, rode out of Huangshui City on two horses and crossed the Huangshui Bridge.

He was not going to Anxiang right now, but was going to Chiling first to take a look at the Tubo formation.

Now his Shen Ce team has a full staff of 200 people, almost all of whom are former ranger masters and are very brave.

Everyone wore black armor and carried bows and arrows. Li Xuan was confident that he could lead the Shen Ce team to face the enemy cavalry that was ten times larger than his own. Two days later, when they arrived at Suihe Shouzhuo, they could always see Tibetan scouts nearby.

"Meeting General Li!"

Gao Kai, the governor of Suihe, met Li Xuan.

"I won't go into the city. Take me to see where the Tibetan troops are stationed."

Li Xuan ordered Gao Kai to ride a horse and take Li Xuan directly to Chiling.

"General, you only lead less than 200 cavalry. I, Suihe, have less than 200 horses."

Gao Kai asked Li Xuan to be cautious, as there might be tens of thousands of Tibetans stationed at the mountain pass through Chiling.

"As a guard commander, have you forgotten my bravery? My personal guards are strong and agile, and everyone can change horses in the battle. Even if Tubo wants to send cavalry, it will be difficult to catch up with me."

Li Xuan said with a smile.

To change horses in formation means to change horses while they are running.

"As ordered!"

Gao Kai just thought that Li Shuai's status was different from before. Thinking of Li Shuai's bravery, he also led two horses and accompanied Li Xuan.

They marched until dusk, rested for a night, and arrived twenty miles away from the Tubo camp on the morning of the next day.

The Tibetan scouts had already discovered Li Xuan and his party, but seeing that Li Xuan's men all rode two horses and were well-armored, they did not dare to get close and could only go to report.

The Tibetan general Lun Xinuluo thought that the 200 cavalrymen were trying to lure them into their camp and that there were ambushes in the rear, so he ordered his men to hold their ground and not move out.

The military order he received was to set up camp for defense and tie down the elite Lintao Army of the Tang Army.

Although the scouts did not detect anything unusual, with 200 riders each riding two horses, he might not be able to catch up with them. Even if he caught up with them and killed them, it would only be a small achievement.

So Li Xuan led the Shen Ce team to a small hill several miles away from the Tibetan cavalry to watch the Tibetan camp.

"There are more than 10,000 war horses in the horse farm alone. Judging from the size of the camp, there are at least 30,000 Tibetan soldiers."

After seeing this scene, Li Xuan guessed.

The main reason was that they relied on the stone fortress in the mountains, making it difficult for Li Xuan to send troops to attack them.

"The Tibetan soldiers were afraid to come out. This is not their style."

Gao Kai was unaware of military secrets, so he was very puzzled by the actions of the Tibetan soldiers.

"You will know it soon."

Li Xuan felt more reassured after observing the Tubo camp and their actions.

He ordered all the troops to march to Suihe Shouzhuo, and also set up camp there, facing the Tibetan army across a hundred miles.

A few days later, Suihe was guarding the area around them, and there were 3,000 powerful crossbows gathered there. The camp was densely packed with deer horns and fences, and was impregnable.

Li Xuan asked Wang Nan to be the temporary chief general and Li Fei Yuanli to be the temporary deputy general, to guard here.

If a fight breaks out, there is unified command.

Li Xuan deliberately displayed nearly 20,000 "cavalry" to the Tubo vision.

Lun Xinuluo once thought that all the troops in Longyou were gathered here.

He sent people to contact the Tibetan troops and thousand-household units in the direction of Qinghai Lake, asking them to provide support immediately if they saw beacon fires.

In fact, some of the cavalry were infantrymen riding horses, and Li Xuan only wandered around Lunxinoluo for a while.

At the same time, hundreds of light cavalry teams began to hunt and drive away the Tibetan scouts.

In just two days, there was no trace of Tubo cavalry between the Yellow River and Huangshui River.

Seeing this, Lun Xinuoluo no longer sent scouts deep into Tang territory, but only asked them to patrol several dozen miles in front of the camp and report immediately if the Tang army attacked.

"It is said that the new Tang army commander Li Xuan once captured Basmith Khan and the Turkic Khan alive. The battle of Jishi City was his work. But now it seems that Li Xuan is just that capable. My other army has already set out. By the time he got the news, he had already lost tens of thousands of horses..."

Lun Xinuluo is the name given to him by the Han people, and his Tibetan name is Enlan Dazhalugong.

He was a new general of the Enlan family of Tubo, and was deeply trusted by Chidai Zhudan. He had fought a great battle with the Uighurs and defeated them, but the Uighurs had not yet established their country at that time.

Seeing that the Longyou Army had been confronting him for several days and did not dare to attack, he could not help but look down on him.

Although he didn't want Li Xuan to attack suddenly, it didn't prevent him from thinking that Li Xuan was cowardly.

"The damn Tang army built fortresses all over the Hexi Corridor, like the Great Wall. Otherwise, our Tubo would have occupied the Hexi Corridor long ago."

Lun Xinuluo's deputy general was always very angry when he thought of this.

The Tibetans have always had a dream to occupy Hexi and open up the Western Regions. In this way, their territory will connect the north and the south, reaching the Long Mountains in the east and the desert in the north, completely reversing their strategic passivity against the Tang Dynasty.

Hexi was like a sharp knife, piercing into the gap between the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the Western Regions, cutting off the dreams of the Tibetans.

Limited by its own strength, Tubo's basic strategy was to constantly test through harassment, to strike once the Tang Dynasty took a nap, and to quickly seek peace if it suffered a loss. Chidai Zhudan was Li Longji's brother-in-law, and the relationship between uncle and nephew lasted from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty to the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

Now the Tubo generals and ministers have always believed that there are too many fortresses, military cities, town cities, and garrisons in the Tang Dynasty, which forced them to retreat every time.

Even if we occupy Shibao City, we still have to face Shanzhou City and Huangshui City in front, and Anren Military City and Jishi Military City on the side.

Not to mention the numerous garrison towns and forts.

"Our national strength is growing stronger and stronger, and we can now compete with the Tang Kingdom for the Western Regions. Sooner or later, we will break down these military cities and fortresses of the Tang Kingdom one by one. However, now we are going to watch a good show. Guess what Li Xuan's reaction will be when he learns that Anxiang County has been conquered by us."

Lun Xinuolu is very confident about the future.

"He will surely be furious and attack us. Then we can lure him across the mountain pass, defeat the main force of the Tang army, and then launch a counterattack."

The deputy general said with a smile.

"Ha ha……"

Lun Xinuluo also laughed.

That night, Suihe guarded the rear, and Li Xuan led three thousand elite cavalry and three thousand light cavalry, with each man riding two horses.

There were one thousand cavalrymen, each with four horses.

The assistants Li Xuan brought with him included the military judge Liu Shan, the prosecutor Cen Shen, the chief military officer Che Shensai, the chief secretary Gao Shi, five other military officers, four military commanders, and a dozen other assistants.

They set out north, went around Longzhi, then crossed the Yellow River at the ferry near Lingyan Temple, reached the Li River, and went downstream along the Li River.

It was October 8th.

Gao Xiuyan had sent him an order a few days ago, asking Tubo to take action.

Li Xuan was also secretly deploying troops. He asked An Sishun, the commander of the Zhenxi Army, to gather all the soldiers of the Zhenxi Army and leave the city of Fuhan.

The 3,000 Zhenxi troops who were originally stationed in Yanquan City also rushed to Fuhan.

At this time, the four gates of Fuhan City were closed, and only the army was allowed to enter and exit.

The Zhenxi Army was mainly composed of infantry, with one thousand crossbowmen, three thousand archers, and more than three thousand sets of iron armor.

This infantry unit is deployed in battle formation and has strong combat effectiveness.

The Momen Army envoy Qian'er Dafu also reported to Li Xuan that he could arrive at the designated location at the designated time.

On the evening of the 8th, Gao Xiuyan, with border troops disguised as county soldiers, escorted dozens of death row prisoners to Anbian Garrison.

Anbianshu was an important garrison on the border between Tang and Tu, built at the foot of a mountain.

There were fifty soldiers and thirty horses in the garrison, guarding the border day and night.

When Li Xuan's military order arrived, all the soldiers stationed at the border withdrew to Anxiang City, lighting beacons along the way.

Replaced by Gao Xiuyan.

On October 9, Gao Xiuyan killed the death row prisoners and piled them outside the garrison, waiting for the arrival of the Tibetan army.

One day later, a group of Tibetan cavalry came to Anbian to guard the outside world.

They watched from a mile away and did not approach.

Upon seeing this, Gao Xiuyan immediately ran over holding the Tibetan army flag.

"I am Gao Xiuyan, and I have a golden certificate granted by the Zamp!"

As Gao Xiuyan approached, he saw a golden certificate of status on his arm.

The leader of this team of Tibetan cavalry stretched out his hand, signaling his men not to attack Gao Xiuyan.

"Can the general's military strategy be exposed?"

The Tubo leader asked Gao Xiuyan in Chinese.

"I was close to the army to deliver meat to reward them, so I didn't get caught. I also killed a few patrolmen who returned last night. After I interrogated them, I found that there were no soldiers patrolling outside. Their bodies are still piled outside the garrison!" Gao Xiuyan said, pointing outside the garrison.

The Tubo leader nodded slightly and followed Gao Xiuyan to the outside of the garrison, where he saw dozens of corpses of "Tang soldiers" wearing leather armor.

Judging from the wounds, it was obvious that he died from a sneak attack.

"Inform the Marshal of everything here!"

The Tibetan cavalry leader gave orders to the messenger.

(End of this chapter)