Chapter 164: Inspecting the Armies and Not Killing the Envoys

Zhang Xing at the front held a "large" Mo Dao. With his height, he could use such a Mo Dao to make large swings and kill both men and horses.

The Mo Dao were divided into teams of fifty men, forming fan-shaped and square formations.

This way, more strength can be concentrated when the enemy cavalry rushes over.

The Modao Army most feared a disorganized formation.

Even if the enemy cavalry rushes down in large numbers, it is necessary to maintain the formation of each team.

When forming a formation, they have both offensive and defensive capabilities; when forming a chaotic formation, they support each other.

This is the Modao Army!
"drink……"

With loud shouts, the Modao soldiers, armed to the teeth, led by Modao generals, spread out their formations and deployed sword formations in the open space.

The Modao Army swung their long swords outward, either slashing or stabbing.

With their might and power that swept across the rivers, they demonstrated their courage and strength to Li Xuan with their iron armor and long swords.

After a drill, the Modao general advanced with his Modao, and with every step forward, the Modao would suddenly chop down.

Push forward like a wall, leaving no gaps.

Under Zhang Xing's command, the Modao soldiers suddenly dispersed into small teams of five or ten people, relying on each other in the front and back.

Such a formation attack will be more fierce.

Li Xuan rode his horse and inspected the surroundings.

This was just a drill for tactics in case of a sudden encounter with the enemy.

The actual battle depends on the performance on the spot.

If a scout encounters the enemy while galloping in the wilderness.

The accompanying crossbowmen will first help the Modao soldiers and heavy armor soldiers put on heavy armor.

Heavy armor, large shields and large spears were lined up outside, followed by the Modao formation and powerful crossbowmen.

The heavy infantry needs to help the Modao soldiers relieve the pressure, so that when the Modao appears, they can be invincible.

If an enemy wearing iron armor was cut down, they would use the sharp spikes of the Mo Dao to stab the enemy's face.

It is impossible for the enemy to wear face guards like the Modao Army.

The main purpose of the Modao soldiers was to kill horses, and as long as they could stop a round of attack from the enemy cavalry, they could turn defense into offense.

The Modao Army had an obvious disadvantage in the wilderness, lacking mobility.

In order to prevent being kite-fed by enemy cavalry, cavalry escort is needed.

If it is in some narrow terrain or guarded terrain, the Mo Dao can be used in combination with heavy infantry and strong crossbowmen to exert more powerful effects.

In addition, when using the Mo Dao against infantry, although it is like using a butcher knife to kill a chicken, it is still a powerful weapon.

"That's right. It depends on whether we can maintain our formation when fighting the enemy."

After the training, Zhang Xing took off his helmet and came in front of Li Xuan. Li Xuan said to Zhang Xing.

"The Mo Dao generals under my command are strong-willed. Even if I die in battle, the Mo Dao army will not collapse."

Zhang Xing patted his chest and assured.

He had been training with the Mo Dao for a year and had not participated in the battle, and he could no longer wait.

He hoped that in this battle, the Mo Dao he wielded would bring him meritorious service.

After all, the Modao Army is composed of brave warriors who are eager to make meritorious deeds.

"Don't say such discouraging words. General Zhang still has to go back to Hebei to pick up your father!"

Li Xuan patted Zhang Xing on the shoulder.

If Zhang Xing made further achievements, Li Xuan would promote him to general and allow him to bring his parents and family from Hebei over.

In order to avoid accidents.

"Understood! If we fight next time, the Modao Army can be used as much as possible, especially when it comes to defense and counterattack. General Li can make all the arrangements."

Zhang Xing was deeply moved when Li Xuan talked to him about his parents and remembered his family from his hometown.

He knew that there was a lot of criticism about the Modao Army in the army, and he just wanted to quickly achieve military merit to prove the Modao Army and General Li's vision.

When the time comes, the Mo Dao can definitely restrain the enemy cavalry.

“There will definitely be a chance!”

When Li Xuan attacks Jiuqu, he will definitely let the Modao generals follow him.

Because Chiling is too close to Hongji Bridge.

It can be said that the winding Yellow River flows through Chiling.

It would have been impossible for him to march from the west of the Yellow River to Shudun City because the mountains blocked the way and prevented a large number of cavalry from passing.

The only way is to cross the Yellow River from other places to enter Ningsai County, and then enter Jiuqu from Ningsai County.

Li Xuan planned to let the Modao Army guard Hongji Bridge to hinder the Tibetan reinforcements.

Tubo had reasons to save Jiuqu. After decades of operation, the Tubo in the Jiuqu area, as well as the Tubo-affiliated Tuyuhun, Bailang Qiang and other tribes, had a total of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians.

There was no way to get the equipment in Shudun City and the food in Baigu City.

The inability to recapture Jiuqu was a huge loss for Tubo.

By taking the initiative of Hongji Bridge, the Tang army's troops on the front line of Chiling in Tibet were only more than 200 miles away.

The troops were sent across the Dafei River for more than a hundred miles.

The troops were sent more than 300 miles to southern Qinghai.

The initiative will be firmly held by Li Xuan.

After the sun came out, Li Xuan had his meal at the Modao Camp and then headed to the Zhujingqi Camp.

In five days, Li Xuan ran to all the training grounds of the Lintao Army, including the camp of 7,000 Tuyuhun soldiers, to watch the training and boost morale.

Li Xuan also arranged some cavalry tactics.

The Tibetan infantry was very good at forming battle formations and had strong combat power.

Infantry sieges and cavalry charges were both necessary.

In many cases, attacking a city or charging into a battle line is a way to seize the initiative and lay the foundation for victory.

Of course, there are still many generals in ancient and modern times who are eager for quick success and instant benefits, and they have repeatedly used infantry to attack tall and strong cities and cavalry to charge elite infantry phalanxes.

Although there were many successes, heavy casualties were inevitable.

Li Xuan did not want his cavalry to directly attack the Tibetan infantry phalanx.

Instead, when they encountered Tibetan infantry, they deployed their troops and attacked the Tibetan flanks and corners.

Thousands of horses galloping will cause great fear and oppression to the enemy. If the enemy is frightened and dispersed, you can just charge into the battle line.

If the enemy army did not panic and move, the cavalry would pass through the front of the enemy army, shooting arrows, just to scare the enemy.

While the enemy infantry had no time to catch their breath, another group of cavalry continued to attack the corners, repeating the same trick a few more times.

If the enemy infantry is elite and has not been in disarray, each team of cavalry can pass through the enemy's square formation and then move to the direction of each formation.

At the end, when the enemy infantry was surrounded by Tang cavalry on all sides, they attacked together to scare them again.

This was one of the tactics used by the Mongolian cavalry throughout history, and it was always effective against infantry.

Li Xuan also ordered the cavalry to practice other cavalry tactics.

In addition, the newly added war horses must be trained to prevent them from being afraid to cross spears and obstacles and throwing the soldiers off their horses.

After inspecting the Lintao Army, Li Xuan took advantage of the summer to inspect the various armies in Longyou with the Shen Ce Guards...

During the period when Li Xuan was inspecting, Enlanda Zhalugong crossed mountains and rivers and came to the Uighur royal court near Yu Dujun Mountain and upstream of the Ekun River.

After two days of deep entry into the Uighur territory, Enlandazalu and his servants were discovered by Uighur cavalry.

He hastily introduced his identity so that he could reach the Uighur royal court.

After Guli Peiluo unified the Huihe, his health was not as good as before. Now the country's affairs, big and small, and military conquests are mostly managed by his son Moyanchuo.

Moyanchuo has been confirmed as the next Khan of the Uighurs.

Upon learning that the Tubo king had sent a special envoy, Guli Peiluo and Moyanchuo went together to meet Enlanda Zhalugong.

In the magnificent tent, the great hero Guli Peiluo sat on a tiger-skin couch, while Moyanchuo stood beside him.

Before Enlanda Zhalugong entered, Guli Peiluo asked Moyanchuo, "The Tibetan king sent a special envoy here at this time. You should know the purpose of his visit, right?"

Guli Peiluo is not even sixty years old, but his body is extremely weak. Now he can't get on a horse and needs someone to support him when walking.

The grassland is like this, with battles from north to south, snow, frost and cold weather, which will cause a lot of diseases when you get old.

Only a small number of people can live to this age.

"Great Khan, we have heard about the war over there for a long time. In just one year, Li Xuan annihilated nearly 100,000 Tubo people in a few battles. The Tubo was seriously injured. Now Li Xuan is also in charge of Hexi and Longyou, commanding 150,000 troops, and can also mobilize troops from Helong and other Hu tribes. It is almost autumn, and they are afraid that Li Xuan will attack again, so they ask for help from our Huihe."

Mo Yanchu replied to Guli Peiluo.

"What do you think about this?"

Guli Peiluo asked again. His son was quite like his father, and he was very optimistic that his son could lead the Huihe to become powerful.

Instead of living under someone else's roof like his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.

Guli Peiluo's great-grandfather Dujiezhi led a part of his people to migrate to Gansu and Liang areas of the Tang Dynasty after being attacked by the Turkic Khanate. They submitted to the Tang Dynasty for generations and were used by the Tang Dynasty.

In particular, his grandfather Fu Difu also became the deputy envoy of the Hexi Jinglüe Army and the envoy of the Chishui Army of the Tang Dynasty.

After Fu Difu died, Guli Peiluo's father Chengzong inherited his father's position.

If nothing unexpected happens, Guli Peiluo will become a general of the Tang Dynasty in the future.

But something unexpected happened.

When Wang Jun, a general of the Tang Dynasty, was young, he traveled to Liangzhou and was looked down upon by the Huihe nobles of Liangzhou. Wang Jun always kept this in mind.

When Wang Jun became the governor of Hexi, the four tribes of Huihe, Qibi, Hun and Sijie in Hexi realized that Wang Jun wanted to deal with them.

At that time, Li Longji was in power in Luoyang, the eastern capital, and they wanted to send someone to Luoyang to report the situation to Li Longji.

But Wang Jun took the initiative and reported to the Uighurs and other four Tiele tribes that they were planning a rebellion.

Li Longji was furious and exiled the Hexi Uighur leader Chengzong, the Hexi Khitan leader Qibi Chengming, the Hexi Hun leader Hun Dade, and the Hexi Sijie leader Sijie to Lingnan.

Guli Peiluo's father, Chengzong, died of fever in the second year of his exile in Lingnan.

The Uighurs in Hexi naturally found it difficult to tolerate this hatred.

Especially Chengzong's nephews Hu Shu and Guli Peiluo.

After the news of Chengzong's death reached Liangzhou, in the 17th year of Kaiyuan, Hu Shu was elected as the leader by the Hexi Uighur tribes and launched a rebellion.

They took advantage of the fact that Wang Jun, the governor of Hexi, was out on inspection and attacked him with light cavalry.

Since the Huihe were a tribe that had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and were stationed in Liangzhou, the troops in Hexi had no time to react and Wang Jun was killed by Hu Shu.

Hu Shu knew that he and the Uighurs alone could never be a match for the Tang army.

After killing Wang Jun, he immediately led the rebels to flee. Among them, Guli Peiluo, who participated in the rebellion, also left with his children.

When the Tang army was in pursuit, Hu Shu threw Wang Jun's body off his horse and was able to escape.

Why did Li Longji appease the Hexi Uighurs afterwards and appoint Chengzong's eldest son, Fudinan, Guli Peiluo's biological brother, as the governor of Hanhai and command the Uighur tribe in Liangzhou?

Fu Di Nan has always been loyal to the Tang Dynasty.

When his younger brother established the Uighur Khanate, he had no intention of leading the Hexi Uighurs back.

After all, the Hexi Uighurs had lived in Liangzhou of the Tang Dynasty for four generations and basically could speak Chinese. Many of their brave warriors also joined the Hexi and Longyou armies.

It can be said that they belong to two different tribes from the Uighurs under Guli Peiluo.

At that time, some of the Uighurs migrated south, but most of them remained north of the Yudujun Mountain and served the Turkic Khanate.

After Guli Peiluo fled to the Turks, he was gradually valued by the Turkic Khan Bilge, who made him the leader of all the Uighur tribes in the Turks to check the increasingly uncontrollable power of the Turkic tribes.

Not long after, Bilge Khan was poisoned by his minister Meiluchuo. Before Bilge Khan died of the poison, he ordered an attack to kill Meiluchuo, which caused chaos among the Turks.

As an "outsider", Guli Peiluo led the Uighur tribes, annexed large and small tribes, and took the opportunity to rise.

When Wang Zhongsi attacked the right wing of Tubo, the Uighurs were already known to have "an army of 100,000 men."

After the establishment of the Khanate, it continued to grow and its combat force doubled.

It was impossible for Guli Peiluo not to resent the Tang Dynasty for the murder of his father, but he could endure it and hoped that the Uighurs could become stronger.

Seeing that Li Longji issued an imperial edict, the leaders of the Tiele tribes in Hexi were demoted to Lingnan. He knew that living under someone else's roof would not have good results.

"The Khan told me to be patient and accumulate strength. So I think we should not clash with the Tang Dynasty."

Faced with this question, Mo Yanchuo did not hesitate.

His hatred towards the Tang Dynasty was not as great as that of Guli Peiluo.

He had seen the power of the Tang Dynasty and had met war god-level Tang generals like Wang Zhongsi and Li Xuan!

Now Li Xuan and Wang Zhongsi are alone in Shuofang Hedong.

One person is in Hexi, Longyou.

This is a strategy of attacking the Huihe from both sides and helping Tubo. It would be fine if we win a great victory.

Failure would be devastating.

Guli Peiluo and his son were still far from completing the territory of the Uighur Khanate in their minds.

"That being said, I am afraid that after Tibet is defeated by Li Xuan, the 300,000 border troops of the Tang Dynasty from Beiting to Hexi and then to Hedong will only point their spearheads at the grasslands."

Guli Peiluo thought a lot.

There is no doubt that Li Longji was a monarch who was eager for military merit.

The new star general of the Tang Dynasty, Li Xuan, was brave and aggressive.

In just two years, there were battles all the time, from autumn to winter.

And most of the wars were initiated by him.

This warmongering maniac made Guli Peiluo worried.

As a person who grew up in Hexi Liangzhou, Guli Peiluo knew that the commanders of Hexi and Longyou in the Tang Dynasty were always greedy for border merits and would create wars at any time for the sake of border merits.

Li Xuan was so powerful that Guli Peiluo was worried that after defeating Tubo, he would start to threaten them to return to Huihe.

"I have discussed this with Li Xuan. He was only sixteen years old at the time, but he could say some very meaningful things. He tamed a wild horse in front of me. I also saw him capture Wusumishi and Jiediishi with my own eyes. I couldn't guess what he was really thinking. But he listed the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, and Turks, all of whom were defeated by the Central Plains dynasties. From his tone, I always felt that he would deal with us Uighurs sooner or later."

Mo Yanchu shook his head and said, "But no matter what, it is not feasible to join forces with Tubo to attack the Tang Dynasty now. Even if Li Xuan is defeated, what does it matter? There is still Wang Zhongsi in Shuofang and Hedong."

Although the Uighurs are strong now, they are still not strong enough in front of the Tang Dynasty.

He must become stronger, at least as strong as when the Later Turkic Khanate was first established, in order to protect himself.

"Wait for the Tibetan envoy to enter the account and see what he says!"

Guli Peiluo can endure humiliation, but he also knows how to weigh the pros and cons.

After a while, Enlanda Zhalugong entered the tent and bowed to Guli Peiluo: "I am the Tibetan king Enlanda Zhalugong, I am honored to meet the Great Khan!"

He spoke Chinese, and he believed that Guli Peiluo and Moyanchuo could also speak Chinese.

Like Tubo, the top nobles of the Uighurs had to know Chinese in order to read important military strategies and documents of the Han people.

What's more, Guli Peiluo has lived in Wuwei since he was a child.

"Tell me, why did you come to my royal court? Aren't you afraid that I will arrest you and send you to the Tang Dynasty?"

Although Guli Peiluo was in poor health, he also wanted to suppress the arrogance of Tubo.

The Tang Dynasty, the Arab Empire, and Tubo were recognized as powerful countries on the Silk Road.

The Tang Dynasty was the most powerful among all the countries.

Tubo often formed an alliance with the Arabs to deal with the Tang Dynasty's Western Regions.

When the Tang Dynasty recruited soldiers, all of them were over five feet seven inches tall. With this height, they could crush all other countries.

Guli Peiluo hoped that during his lifetime, he would hear the Uighurs being mentioned frequently by merchants on the Silk Road.

Even if it is not as famous as the Tang Dynasty, it should at least be as famous as Tubo.

"When two countries are at war, envoys will not be killed. As the founder of the Uighur Khanate, I believe you have such magnanimity."

Enlanda Zhalugong was not afraid. He spoke eloquently and held Guli Peiluo high up.

If he were sent to the Tang army, it would seem that the founder of the Uighur Khanate had no magnanimity.

"I have never heard of your name, and it is not worth my bothering you."

Guli Peiluo smiled magnanimously, then waved his hand: "This Khan knows that you are here to ask for help from the Huihe. We are allies of the Tang Dynasty and will never side with Tubo. Go back!"

It seemed like an order to expel Nlandazalugong was issued directly.

"If the Great Khan had no intention, he would not have summoned me to his camp. The Great Khan is also afraid of Li Xuan, a warmongering man."

Instead of leaving, Nlandaza Lugong spoke loudly.

He came with a mission, how could he leave easily?

"What a joke! I, the Huihe, have 200,000 soldiers. How could I be afraid of Li Xuan? We are just upholding the loyalty of our allies. But you, the Tibetans, were captured and killed by Li Xuan in just one year. You claim to have 500,000 soldiers and are trying to intimidate the Western Regions, but how many years can you hold out?"

Mo Yanchuo, who was standing nearby, saw that Nlandazalugong was eloquent, so he retorted to him.

"Yes! We Tubo and its subordinate tribes lose 100,000 people a year. We can't hold out for another year at most. It's not that we Tubo are too weak, but that Li Xuan is too brave. After a year, we will retreat to the snowy plateau and block the entrance. No one except us Tubo can invade. You will have to face Li Xuan and the 300,000 garrison troops of the Tang army. Li Xuan likes war, and the Tang army is eager for border achievements. Do you think Li Xuan will attack you? By then, the Huihe Khanate will be like the Huihe tribe in Hexi, driven at will by the Tang Dynasty."

Enlanda Zhalugong was not angry at Moyanchuo's words. Instead, he boldly admitted that Tubo could not defeat Li Xuan.

He also suggested that after the defeat, Tubo would abandon Jiuqu and Qinghai, retreat to the snowy plateau, and close the road.

By then, there will be only one enemy left for the Tang Dynasty in Hexi, Longyou, Hedong and Shuofang: the Uighurs!

The Uighurs were only nominally subject to the Tang Dynasty; everything else was left to the Uighurs.

According to ancient examples, a conflict between two parties is just a matter of confrontation.

Although Guli Peiluo and Moyanchuo tried their best to control the tribes, wasn't it easy for the Tang army to create conflicts?

Nlandazalukong's words touched the hearts of Gulipei Luo and his son.

(End of this chapter)