Chapter 348: Sending troops to the Uighurs

When Li Qingan received the news that the Uighurs sent troops to Shuofang, he immediately rushed to Beiting. This news made him excited, which meant that Geshuhan finally made up his mind that the Uighurs' attack on Shuofang would create a chance for Li Longji to seize the military power of Shuofang. Li Qingan believed that Li Longji would not miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But Li Qing'an's purpose was just to create opportunities. He did not want the Uighurs to really enter the Guanlong area and loot Guanlong. It was not important whether Li Longji would let him send troops. He had long no longer cared about Li Longji's will. Whether he would send troops was decided by him. Of course, he would send troops. This was also a great opportunity to deal with the Uighurs and a key step in realizing his grassland strategy.

Li Qingan was concerned about the timing of sending troops.

On the endless grassland north of Jinman County, a small river meanders by. It is early April, and it is the most brilliant season for spring in Beiting. By the river, various nameless flowers sway in bloom, and large areas of bright colors cover the entire grassland.

There was an additional military camp near the river in the past two days. Hundreds of tents were neatly arranged, and a tall wooden guardhouse stood north of the barracks. The soldiers on patrol were watching the surrounding situation vigilantly.

This is Li Qing'an's temporary military camp. He had just arrived in Beiting and was about to go to Jinshan Camp. Just as he arrived in Beiting, the fast message of Li Yu from the crown prince Li Yu was also delivered to Jinman County. In the big tent, Li Qing'an opened Li Yu's fast message.

The pigeon letter cannot write many words, but in just a few dozen words, Li Qing'an felt Li Yu's anxious mood, "Send troops to the Uighurs quickly, which is what the court and the country hope for." The last ten words are enough to prove the eagerness of the Chang'an government and the people to ask Li Qing'an to send troops.

Li Qingan closed the letter and handed it to the military advisor Yan Zhuang. He himself fell into deep thought. Yan Zhuang read the letter and smiled and said, "It's true that it's not as we expected. The emperor does not want to see the general send troops."

"What Mr. Na, what I see, how should I do now?"

Yan Zhuang thought for a while and said, "I think the general should vent his anger. Don't rush to send troops. You should leave enough time for the Lord. Otherwise, once the General sends troops, the Uighurs will immediately retreat north. In that case, An Sishun and An Lushan will have a chance to breathe and find it difficult to force them to rebel. It is better to wait a little longer, wait until the conflict between the Lord and An Sishun intensifies, and when An Lushan reveals his ambitions, the General will send troops to the Uighurs again and reap the benefits of the fisherman. The General should still engage in accordance with the established strategy."

Li Qingan pondered and said nothing. Years of political struggle have made him no longer as passionate and impulsive as he was when he was young. He would consider many things repeatedly and consider them from various angles so that the plan he made will be perfect without regrets. Of course, the absolute perfection is nothing. The key is to obtain the greatest benefit and minimize the adverse factors.

When he encouraged Brother Shu Han, he only considered asking Li Longji to resolve the Shuofang crisis first and intensify the conflict between the An brothers, especially An Lushan, the biggest hidden danger in the mid-Tang Dynasty. No matter whether he has the ability to rebel now, his intention to rebel must exist. When Li Longji's fire of seizing power burned on him, he would not be so honest in handing over military power. He would definitely make a certain attitude of resistance and expose his ambitions. In that case, Li Longji's fire of reducing the vassals would not burn Anxi for a while, and Li Qing'an would have the opportunity to fish in the muddy waters.

This was Li Qing'an's idea for several months. If he followed this idea, he would not send troops to the Uighurs immediately, because sending troops too early would disrupt his plan. It is very likely that Li Longji would kill Geshuhan before he could deal with An Sishun, but now his ideas have changed a little.

From Li Yu's letter, he suddenly realized that this was an opportunity to achieve justice. His sending troops was what the government and the people hoped. If he immediately sent troops to the Uighurs and resolved the crisis of the Uighurs' southern invasion, he would win the support of the government and the people.

If this benefit is compared with the interests of forcing An Lushan to rebel, the former is undoubtedly more attractive. The open conspiracy to win justice is the king, while the latter's conspiracy is relatively inferior.

Thinking of this, Li Qing'an sighed and said to Yan Zhuang: "The Uighurs invasion in the south was more or less because of me. If I don't clean up this mess in time and let the Uighurs suffer the consequences of Guanlong, even if I have the power to dominate Guanlong in the future, I will make me feel uneasy. Besides, if I send troops to the Uighurs at this time, I will relieve the dangers of Guanlong, which will allow me to win the righteousness and the support of the Guanlong clan. So I thought about it over and over again and decided to send troops immediately and completely defeat the Uighurs."

"otherwise!"

Yan Zhuang still disagrees with Li Qing'an sending troops immediately. He advised again: "In fact, letting the Uighurs make trouble in Guanlong for a while may not be a bad thing. The Guanlong clan is like a business trip in the desert. Only when they cut off their drinking water will the clear spring sent by the general at this time make them cry. Sending troops too early will only weaken their gratitude. The general must set the right opportunity!"

"But I am worried that when I really get that step, the emperor will ask the Hedong Army to come to support, or An Lushan's Hebei Army to come to support, which will actually undermine my role."

Yan Zhuang shook his head and smiled, "It may be possible that the Hedong army will come to support, but I know him well. He will never go to assist Guanlong or send troops to Mobei. He will only take advantage of the Hedong army's opportunity to support the west and occupy the empty Hedong. He has been looking forward to Hedong for more than a day or two."

Li Qing'an paced back and forth in the big tent with his hands behind his back. Those who are good at playing chess often see more than a dozen steps away. Those who are hasty can only see in front of him. Although the chaos caused by the Uighurs' troops cast a fog on the situation in the Central Plains, one thing is certain. After stabilizing the situation in the river, his focus will gradually shift to the Central Plains in the future, and he must be prepared enough.

At present, there are 240,000 troops he can control. In addition to the 50,000 Hu soldiers from the three divisions of Kingsoft, there are actually only 190,000 people. Among these 190,000 troops, there are nearly 60,000 of them, including the Sogdian army in the Western Regions, including the Sogdian army in the river. Then he can only have 130,000 Han soldiers, 20,000 troops in the river, 30,000 troops in the river, 30,000 troops in the Saiye Chang stationed, and about 20,000 other border troops stationed in various places. Li Fei Shouyu brought 10,000 to Xiaobolu and 10,000 troops in the Beiting army. In this way, his mobile troops were only less than 40,000.

He was not worried about food. He had enough food to support his hands. The key was the army. His front line was too wide and he dispersed too much force, which was not conducive to his fighting for the world. The reason why Dong Zhuo, the tyrant of Xiliang, dared to march into Chang'an was because he had 200,000 soldiers in his hands.

In the era of cold weapons, the army was still the battle! Li Qing'an sighed in his heart. Although he occupied a vast area, most of it was an unmanned area. Hezhong area had years of war and riots, and a large number of young and strong men were captured as slaves. There were a shortage of young and strong men, which was also one of the main reasons why they could not make trouble. Other small countries in the Western Regions had few populations and had no sufficient military sources. Although he had nearly 200,000 Han immigrants, this was the foundation for his transformation of Anxi. He would not use it until he had no choice. On this point, he was very grateful to the advice given to him by his former staff member Li Mi.

In the Anxi Han people established a regiment training system, imitating the nomadic peoples to implement the whole nation's soldiers, allowing every household to have weapons and armor, hide their soldiers from the people, and concentrate on training during slack farming. On the one hand, it is to allow them to protect themselves, and on the other hand, in the event of crisis, he can mobilize at least 100,000 troops.

Since last year, Anxi has begun to implement team training methods, which have very good results, but the time is slightly short, and it will take some time to form combat effectiveness.

"Are the general hesitating?" Yan Zhuang asked with a smile when he saw that Li Qingan seemed to be distracted.

"I'm considering gathering troops, but I'm not strong enough!"

"This is to blame the general for being a little greedy."

Yan Zhuang smiled and criticized him kindly: "The general wants to fight the Uighurs in the north, guard against Tubo in the south, control the river, and wants to fight Tocharo and Xinde. Now he has discovered the opportunity in the Central Plains, just like three heads and six arms. How can the army be enough? I suggest that the general shrink the defense line, and Tocharo will be temporarily released. Tubo should not station too many troops. In this way, there will be at least 60,000 or 70,000 troops in his hands, and mobilize some regiments to train to station Saiye, and transfer the Saiye elite troops to Beiting, so that the general will have 100,000 available mobile troops, which is enough to deal with emergencies."

Li Qingan thought about it and said that it was indeed not the time to fight Sindhi and Tochar, so he closed down with Dashi. Once he fought Sindhi, he would start a war and confrontation with Dashi, which would make him have no time to interfere in the Central Plains. He could only wait until the situation in the Central Plains stabilized before turning around to Sindhi.

Thinking of this, Li Qingan himself laughed, "Sir, you are right. People are not satisfied with their hearts. I am a little too greedy. OK! I listened to my husband's words and temporarily transferred back to Lizhi Shouyu's army and transferred the elite soldiers of the Sacred Leaf to Beiting."

"What about the Uighurs?" Yan Zhuang asked, "Does the general have to wait and fight?"

"No! I don't want to wait any longer for the Uighurs. We are too far away from Guanlong, and it is difficult to seize the opportunity. If the opportunity is missed and Guanlong suffers a disaster, I will become a sinner of the Tang Dynasty. I must have this righteousness."

Li Qingan resolutely made up his mind and immediately turned around and said, "Tell me my order and set off to Jinshan Camp immediately!"

On the sixth day of the fourth month, Li Qing'an arrived at the Jinshan Camp and formally ordered the Tang army in Anxi to send troops to the Uighurs. The Tang army general Cui Qianyou led the 60,000 coalition forces of four tribes including Geluo, Shatuo, Tongluo, and Xiagas, and 6,000 Tang troops to rush to the depths of the grassland.

Li Qing'an immediately returned to Yizhou. While he dispatched troops, he watched the development of the situation in the Central Plains.

The journey from Wudejiao Mountain, where the Uighurs' tent is located, is thousands of miles away. It can not be reached in a day or two. Just as the Tang army in Anxi sent troops to the Uighurs, the situation in Guanlong also underwent subtle changes.

The original intention of the Uighur Army was not to invade the Tang Dynasty. At first, it just wanted to threaten the Tang Dynasty with powerless threats and force the Tang Dynasty to send people to negotiate with them, thus extorting a lot of money from the Tang Dynasty to compensate for the losses suffered last winter, and then returned to the grassland. After all, Gele Khan was very worried that Li Qing'an would take the opportunity to send troops to the empty grassland hinterland.

However, the development of the situation often does not change according to people's wishes. When the Uighur army defeated An Sishun's 30,000 troops in Dingyuan City, Gele Khan's ambitions began to expand. He realized that this southward would be a profitable deal. He immediately divided his troops into two groups, one led by Pugu Huaien to continue besieging Lingzhou. He himself led 40,000 troops to continue southward, preparing to loot the prosperous Guanlong area of ​​the Tang Dynasty.

In late March, Ger Khan led a large army to capture Yanzhou. Liu Yi, the prefect of Yanzhou, committed suicide. The Uighurs rushed into the city like locusts and massacred civilians who were taking refuge in Yanzhou. More than 10,000 men and the elderly were killed, and thousands of women were plundered into the military camp. The Uighurs looted the Yanzhou city. They then divided their troops into four groups and plundered their property in the states in the north of Guannei Road.

The Yanzhou tragedy shocked Guanlong, Xia, Yin, Qing, Yuan and other refugees fled south. The people who fled on the official road were out of sight. People of all ethnic groups such as Han, Dangxiang, Shiwei, Tuyuhun and other ethnic groups fled to the distant south.

At the same time, officials from various prefectures and counties organized young and strong people to resist, and one after another of the anti-Rong rebels rose up.

There is a strong Dangxiang tribe living in Changze County, Xia Prefecture, with a population of about 10,000. The tribe leader was Fang Dangluo, who was the leader of the Central Fang Dangxiang Department of the Eighth Ministry of Dangxiang. He had a son and a daughter, Yingke, who married Tuoba Xiong, the chief of Dangxiang chief, and his son was Fang Dangyingyi. He was about 25 or 26 years old, over 100 meters tall and extremely powerful. He was called the No. 1 Warrior of Dangxiang.

Dangxiang was a branch of the Qiang people. During the Sui Dynasty, they moved to the northern part of Guanlong and lived a peaceful nomadic life. However, this time the Uighurs invaded the south, which also broke the peace of the Dangxiang people. In the Yanzhou tragedy, thousands of Dangxiang people were also killed with the Han people, which also aroused the anger of the Dangxiang people. The chief of Dangxiang Tuoba Xiong ordered Dangxiang tribes to resist the invasion of the Uighurs, and the prefect of Xiazhou Luo Xiyan also called on people of all ethnic groups to resist the robbery of the Uighurs.

That morning, Changze County Magistrate Yang Yingyuan came to the Dangxiang tribe and found the tribe leader Fang Dangluo, hoping that he could lead his troops to join the Changze County Anti-Rong Yi army, but Fang Dangluo politely rejected Yang Yingyuan's plan.

"The determination of Yang County Magistrate to resist the Uighurs is admirable, but the Dangxiang people have always been alone and are not used to fighting with other tribes. I have decided to lead my subordinates to defend their homeland. Please rest assured by Yang County Magistrate."

County Magistrate Yang had already convinced another Tuyuhun tribe in the territory to join the anti-Rong army, but Fang Dangluo's polite refusal disappointed him, and he wanted to persuade him again. At this moment, Fang Dangluo's son Fang Dangyingyi rushed in like a gust of wind and shouted: "Father, sister sent someone to report the news. A Huihe army with more than 10,000 people is attacking Xiazhou and begging us to help."

Fang Dangluo immediately stood up and said, "Mr. Yang County, Tuoba's troops are in danger. I want to go to rescue immediately. Time is no longer waiting, so let's leave first!"

County Magistrate Yang didn't expect that they would leave and could not help but be stunned. In the chaos, Fang Dang Luo and his son Fang Dang Yingyi turned over the horse, Fang Dang Yingyi raised a big horn and blew it into the sky: "Woo--" The whimpering horn echoed in the air, and the three thousand party cavalry quickly assembled, Fang Dang Yingyi waved his big copper stick and shouted: "Go!"
Chapter completed!