Chapter 296: Looking back

Late at night, the Tang army began to evacuate, and the Uighur army finally took the Baiyun Castle, the westmost to Xingxing Gorge at the cost of more than 6,000 casualties. It took a whole day, but when capturing a castle in the middle, although the casualties were far less than the first castle, it took two days. The Tang army's gunpowder effectively slowed down their pace.

Time, Wang Siyu wanted time. After three days of targeted resistance, 25,000 reinforcements from Jiuquan and Dunhuang finally arrived. The Uighur army could no longer take the third castle. Jiegangas knew that the fighter plane was no longer there, so he stopped. Bu heavily guarded the middle and western ends of Xingxing Gorge, blocked the Tang army in Hexi, and led a large army south to fight against Tubo Zamp Chisong Dezan.

After May 20, Zhang Huan personally led an army of 150,000 to Xingxing Gorge one after another.

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This is the first time Zhang Huan came to Xingxing Gorge. He silently stared into the distance. Under the same blue sky, his ancestors had galloped across this land. Hou Junji, Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and Shuye, who was thousands of miles away, also established a military town. Today, he once again came to this fascinating land. Can he revitalize the glory of his ancestors and once again plant the dragon flag of the Tang Dynasty on the city of Talas?

The political situation of the Tang Dynasty has stabilized, Longyou's saber has been sharpened, with enough food and grass, and hundreds of thousands of war horses. His soldiers need to obtain land and wealth through war, and Zhang Huan also needs to use a louder reputation and stronger strength to reach the highest position in Hanyuan Hall.

It was already hot season, and the boundless Gobi Desert seemed to be shrouded in fire. The Tang army marched on the Gobi Desert with difficulty. Rows of lush red willow forests began to appear not far away. After crossing the treetops, you could faintly see the rolling mountains.

Seeing the vitality, everyone was refreshed and the trees were lush, which meant that their march was about to reach the end.

"Governor, there are military horses in front of you."

Zhang Huan put his hand on the curtain and looked into the distance. The bright white sunlight shone in his eyes. A team of cavalry rushed from the direction of the Red Willow Forest and was led to him in a moment. The person in charge was a general of the commander, Ding Xiaoyuan, the garrison commander of Xingxing Gorge.

"The last general will meet the governor!" He turned over and dismounted, half-kneeled and saluted Zhang Huan.

"You are General Ding Xiaoyuan."

Remembering the names and strengths of each subordinate are a must-have for being a qualified lord. Zhang Huan smiled and said, "I remember correctly the third place in the military academy's riding and shooting two years ago!"

"The governor still remembers the villain?"

Ding Xiaoyuan was very surprised, and an inexplicable touch trembled in his heart. You know, the Xiliang Army had nearly 400,000 people, and there were so many commanders in it, but the governor still remembered himself, a lowly slave who was rescued by him back then.

"The last general is ordered by General Wang Siyu to come to welcome the governor."

Zhang Huan nodded, and he smiled gently again, "Tell me, how about the enemy's garrison in Xingxing Gorge?"

He already knew that the three castles had lost two of them, but the Tang army only lost more than a thousand people, and they were all cavalry soldiers who died in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy cavalry, while the opponent lost nearly eight thousand people. It is obvious that this is Wang Siyu's combat idea. He does not stick to the gains and losses of a city and a fort. On the premise of ensuring strategic failure, he preserves his strength as much as possible and effectively annihilates the enemy's living power. This is also the combat idea of ​​Bai Guangyuan, the chief instructor of the Military Academy. Wang Siyu fully demonstrates it.

"Report to the Governor, Jiegangas deployed about 9,000 people in Minghui Castle and Baiyun Castle." Ding Xiaoyuan remembered the failure of this defense. He couldn't help but sigh: "The last general is not good at fighting and lost the pass. Please punish the Governor."

"Jegangas can take down the castle with 70,000 cavalry. We have more than 100,000 troops and advanced siege weapons. Can't we still take it back?"

Zhang Huan waved his hand gently, "I will talk about the punishment later. I will go and see the situation with my own eyes."

The army drove towards Xingxing Gorge. After two hours, it finally arrived at the town. The army set up a large camp beside the lake. The dense tents were invisible at first sight, and it stretched for more than ten miles.

The wooden fence outside the camp was already enclosed. Three long trenches were dug in front of the fence, covered with pickets and antlers. The camp was extremely busy, and a team of soldiers were unloading supplies from the carriage and moving them into the logistics tent.

‘One, two, three!’ More than a dozen soldiers pulled up a tent and then drove the wooden stakes on the other end into the soil. Another cheer came from both sides of the camp, and several high guard towers stood up.

Just as the military camp was busy, Wang Siyu came to report to Zhang Huan with more than a dozen personal soldiers. He kept nodding to the soldiers and quickly came to the commander's tent. Zhang Huan's personal soldiers immediately bowed to him and said, "The governor has been waiting for a long time, please ask General Wang to come in."

In the middle of the tent is a huge sand tray, made of more than a dozen small sand trays, occupying half a tent. On it is a detailed map of Anxi, starting from Jiuquan in the east, ending at the Aral Sea in the west, reaching Yibohai in the north (now Balkash Lake) in the south, and to Tochar and the Big and Big Bolu. There are snow-capped mountains on the sand tray, with long desert sand dunes, and oasis and rivers and lakes in one place, hundreds of cities of different sizes, guarding and capturing are distributed among them. This was drawn by nearly a thousand scouts for three years.

In addition to Zhang Huan, there were several military strategists in the tent. A military man who specialized in managing sand tables was standing beside him holding a thick booklet. The booklet contained detailed information about each city, history, ethnicity, garrison, population, city situation, etc., but it was not very complete. Many cities west of the Pamir Mountains are still collecting.

At this moment, Zhang Huanzheng pulled out a small yellow flag from the city of Shule Town. He had just received news on the road that because Chisong Dezan went north from Tocharo, he had to pass Shule Town. Cao Lingzhong, who was guarding Shule alone, was forced to give up Shule. More than 2,000 Tang troops and their families turned to Yutian Town. The situation is unclear now, that is to say, there is no city belonging to the Tang Dynasty in Anxi now.

Recapture of Anxi has always been Zhang Huan's established strategy. After occupying Hexi, due to the unstable situation in the two Huai Rivers, he temporarily shelved his plan to advance westward and turned to the eastward. Now with the establishment of a new cabinet, the situation of the three powers of the Tang Dynasty has formed, and the current situation has gradually stabilized. Taking advantage of the opportunity of temporary stability in the dynasty, he continued to implement the westward strategy. In the dynasty, he asked Zhang Potian to act as his voting rights, and he himself focused all his energy on Anxi.

The capture of Anxi was not only to restore the glory of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, but also had far-reaching strategic significance. Due to years of military poverty, Tubo had gradually declined from its strongest moments twenty years ago, with sharp decline in military strength, exhausted finances, and lost the source of slaves. In order to save the decline, after the failure of the battle for Tochar, Chisong Dezan put his last hope on Anxi, attempting to control the entire Anxi, use Anxi as a base to obtain the greatest benefits from the trade between the East and the West. Once it loses Anxi, the power of Tubo will retreat completely back to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and will only perish in decline and internal strife.

The Uighurs have turned the national policy to the West, but the Western ethnic groups have many conflicts. The forces such as the cannibals, the Garlu, the Xialius people, the Tuqi Shiren may not allow it to move west easily, so the capture of Beiting and Anxi will also become the springboard for its westward advance. Moreover, once the westward advance fails, the Uighurs will definitely look back and look eastward. In this way, Anxi and Mobei will form a strategic encirclement of the Tang Dynasty. If the horse-raising land such as Hexi and Hehuang are lost, the Han people will face hundreds of years of disadvantage against the northern nomadic peoples.

On the contrary, if the Tang army could take back Anxi, the Uighurs could only cross Jinshan and open the road to the west from the Gelulu people, which would be of great significance to the stability and security of the Western Regions.

It was for this reason that Zhang Huan made up his mind to take advantage of the opportunity of Tubo and Uighurs to compete for Anxi, and use the excuse of supporting Anxi Jiedushi Cao Lingzhong, to send troops to regain this land that once belonged to the Tang Dynasty.

"Sir, please see the governor!" Wang Siyu walked into the tent, knelt on one knee, and Zhang Huan bowed deeply.

Wang Siyu has always been Zhang Huan's confidant general. It is precisely because of his trust in him that Zhang Huan gave him the decision-making power to deal with changes at the moment. Wang Siyu did not disappoint his expectations and handled it properly in this Uighur raid on Xingxing Gorge. With a slight loss, he won time and exchanged for overall benefits.

Now that Zhang Huan declared war on the Uighurs, he had the most sufficient reason, and he was forced to fight back.

Zhang Huan smiled and helped him up. Seeing that there was a look of depression in his eyebrows and eyes, he knew that he was still worried about losing two cities, so he patted his shoulder and smiled: "You are also a veteran. Why don't you think about the overall situation? Losing two cities has given us excuses and opportunities to move westward."

In fact, Wang Siyu had a bold idea before giving up Baiyun Castle, but he was unwilling to say it too early, for fear that it would be understood as an excuse to cover up the failure. He would rather be punished first and then put forward his own ideas.

Today, the Governor's words made his eyes lit up, "Exceptions to move west and fighter jets," Does the Governor have the same idea as him?

Zhang Huan had already seen the change in his expression, so he took the wooden pole and handed it to him, smiled and said, "Tell me your thoughts and see if we coincide with each other?"

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Chapter completed!