Chapter 705: Surrounding the Uighurs

"Captain, can we find it?"

On the vast grassland, ten cavalrymen ran quickly, one of them asked loudly.

"Anyway... try your best to find it!" The wind was loud, and the voice of the team was intermittent, "They... 100,000 people, the goal was very large!"

This is a team of Tang army scouts. Their mission is to find the main force of the Uighur army. The 100,000 Uighur army went south from Han'erduo Bali, but now they suddenly disappeared and disappeared on the grassland like air. It was not found for several days. Li Qing'an sent dozens of scouts to search for them like casting a net.

This team is responsible for searching the southern foot of the eastern section of Yinshan. The radius of hundreds of miles is their search range. It has been searching for two days. Now they are close to the southern foot of Yinshan.

"Let's find a place to rest!"

They had been running for three hours in a row, and were really tired. They slowly slowed down their horse speed and looked for a place to rest. The distance was the vast mountains, with undulating mountains, steep mountains, and large forests were distributed at the foot of the mountain.

"We go to the woods to rest, maybe we can even shoot a deer for supper!"

Team Qi pointed to a forest north, and everyone immediately cheered up and ran towards the forest. The characteristic of the grassland was that it seemed close, but in fact it was still far away. This forest was still ten miles away from them, and two or three miles away from the forest, the team led suddenly waved his hand, "Wait a minute!"

Everyone immediately stopped the horse, "Look!" Team Qi pointed to the distance and said, "What is that?"

Everyone looked towards him and saw two small black dots running towards him several miles away, "It seems that they are also cavalrymen!"

"Go into the woods to hide!"

Team Qi was urging his horse and led his subordinates to hide towards the edge of the woods. They quickly hid in the nearest woods. After a while, the two small black dots gradually approached. They also saw clearly that they were two Uighur cavalry, probably patrols, etc. They rushed towards this side quickly. Judging from their speed, they would not stay here.

"Chain the horse!"

The Qi team immediately ordered that the other nine subordinates all raised crossbows and aimed at the two horses of the other party. The cavalry was getting closer and closer and had already reached thirty steps away, but they did not find anyone here. In fact, they were careless. When the Tang army scout rushed into the woods just now, they were shocked by a bird, but they didn't notice it. Perhaps they thought that there could be no army here.

"shoot!"

The team was hushing the order, and ten poisonous crossbow arrows shot out at the same time, all hitting two war horses. The two war horses raised their hooves and neighed one after another, and fell heavily to the ground, throwing the two Uighur cavalry more than a meter away. They were so scared that they were scattered and got up and ran away. However, the Tang army scouts rushed forward like a gust of wind and held their throats with a spear. The two Uighur soldiers did not dare to move anymore and raised their hands obediently.

"Bring them into the woods!"

Several soldiers stepped forward, searched them, tied them up, and pushed them into the woods. After a moment, under the torture of the Tang army, the two Uighur soldiers explained them separately, which surprised the Tang army scouts. The main force of Uighurs was less than twenty miles away from them.

The Qi team was just winking, and several soldiers killed the Uighur cavalry with one knife, hid them and the bodies of the horses, and then ran forward along the woods.

Soon, they finally found a huge valley, with dense forests outside, which were several miles wide, and two cavalrymen came out from here.

They entered the woods and walked in the valley. Yinshan was a hundred miles wide, and there were many mountain pastures in the middle, which could hide millions of troops. If they did not go into Yinshan, they would not be able to find them at all.

Several Tang soldiers walked about ten miles, and there seemed to be a guard post from the Uighurs ahead. They no longer walked forward, but hid in the woods and waited until dark. Then the team was leading another brother to continue to explore along the edge of the cliff. Without riding a horse, the two of them kept dodging in the gaps of the cliff, bypassing several guard posts of the Uighurs, and finally came to a low post.

They climbed up a huge rock and looked at the other side of the low hill, which shocked them. They saw a mountain grassland with flames, densely dense like stars in the sky. It was the bonfire of the Uighurs. Under the reflection of the bonfire, the dark tent could not be seen at first sight.

The Qi team was ecstatic. They found the main force of the Uighurs. At this time, he suppressed his inner excitement and pulled the soldiers. The two of them quietly returned from the same route, very careful, afraid that they would shock the Uighur sentry, so they would waste their previous efforts.

They retreated back to the woods, retreated from the valley, and returned to the woods where the Uighur sentry was ambushed, setting up a small tent to cover up the candlelight. In the tent, the Qi team carefully drew the map and marked the location of Yinshan, where the main force of the Uighurs, very clearly.

When the moji was dry, he stuffed it into a small bamboo tube and handed it to his subordinates, "Send it back!"

The soldier took the bamboo tube and took off the eagle cage from the horse. There was a letter eagle inside. He tied the bamboo tube to the eagle's legs, opened the cage, and shouted softly: "Go!"

The eagle soared into the sky from the cage, piercing the sky, and with a clear chirping, it flapped its wings and flew towards the west.

"Squadron, what should we do?"

Team Qi was looking at the dark mountain and smiled, "Of course we are staring at the Uighurs!"

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Since the annihilation of Shi Siming's army, Li Qing'an led a large army to withdraw back to Heicheng. At the same time, the Tang army also captured nearly twenty tribesmen of the Pugu tribe. Li Qing'an ordered the marching Sima Xin Yunjing to escort these Turkic herdsmen to Ninety-Nine Springs, and gathered with the Tongluo and Sijie tribes captured by Li Guangbi, and a total of more than 400,000 Turkic people.

He will escort these ordinary herdsmen to Hedong for temporary residence. After the entire Uighur Battle, all grassland herdsmen will be changed to Tang people from mines and will be assigned to settle in major mines, cultivate fields and weave cloth, and officially become ordinary civilians of the Tang Dynasty.

But what Li Qing'an is most concerned about is the whereabouts of the Uighur Gele Khan. It is already late April. It has been almost a month since they sent troops to the grassland. The main force of the Uighurs is still missing. It is like a sudden collective disappearance, which made Li Qing'an deeply confused. Of course, they will not disappear, but hide. So where will they hide?

In the big tent, Li Qing'an stood in front of the sand table and stared at Yinshan for a long time. He believed that the main force of the Uighurs must be still near Yinshan, but Yinshan was more than 2,000 miles long and more than a hundred miles wide, making it difficult for him to find the hiding place of the main force of the Uighurs.

But one thing is certain that Gele Khan no longer had the idea of ​​attacking the Tang Dynasty. Perhaps he had never thought of it. He just used the excuse to attack the Tang Dynasty to annex Shi Siming and the Turks. From his fear of sending troops this time, it can be seen that he had no confidence in attacking the Tang Dynasty.

The Uighurs' troops heading south and the Tang Dynasty's troops to the north were just a coincidence. Regardless of whether the Uighurs attacked the Tang Dynasty or not, Li Qing'an decided to take advantage of the opportunity to eliminate Shi Siming and completely eradicate the threat from the north.

After pondering this, Li Qingan suddenly asked Li Sheng beside him, "What's going on with Li Baozhen? Is there any news about the Wei Department?"

Li Sheng had just walked into the big tent and wanted to report the situation on Bohai to Li Qing'an. However, Li Qing'an was thinking, he did not disturb him. He immediately said: "Li Baozhen just sent the news that Shi Wei had surrendered and was willing to accept the Chineseization and enter the Bohai Kingdom to be a farmer."

"The tribe I specifically advised, Shiwei Mengwu tribe, have they moved to the Central Plains according to my plan?"

"Yes! More than 10,000 people from the Wei tribe of the Mengwu clan were all broken up and moved to Silla, Henan, Hebei, and live with the Han and Silla people. This matter is underway."

Li Sheng was a little confused. The Wei tribe of the Mengwu Semen is just a small tribe in the Wei tribe and is rarely known. Why does Li Qingan attach so much importance to it?

While he was wondering, footsteps suddenly came from outside, and a personal soldier reported loudly: "Report to the General, report to Deputy General Li, we have scouts discovered the main force of the Uighur army, and send the letter to us!"

Li Qing'an and Li Sheng were both overjoyed, and Li Qing'an hurriedly ordered: "Get the letter in!"

After a moment, a personal soldier brought in a letter of eagle and presented it to Li Qing'an. Li Qing'an took out a piece of silk paper from the letter tube, which turned out to be a map. He spread the map and Li Sheng also moved the candlestick a little closer. Under the candlelight, the map was drawn in very detailed.

"We're here!"

Li Qing'an pointed to a black triangle sign, and his fingers moved eastward again, and finally stopped at a black circle point in Yinshan. Here is where the main force of the Uighur Army was found.

"Hmph! It's actually in Yinshan 600 miles away, no wonder I can't find them."

Li Qingan couldn't help but snorted coldly, "It seems they don't know the news of Han'erduo Bali's fall."

"I don't understand why Ger Khan kept hiding in Yinshan?" Li Sheng asked with a frown.

"That's because you have been fighting with the Tubo people, so you don't understand the Turks."

Li Qingan smiled and explained to him: "After the Turkic split, there were many tribes, basically they all formed a sect. Although the Uighurs were powerful, they were just one of them. Because of the many tribes, the tribes were intrigue, exploited each other and fought against each other. Just like Shi Siming hid in Yinshan, he wanted to wait for us to defeat the Uighurs, and he would take over the grasslands. The Uighurs were actually the same. At first, he was eager to send troops to subdue Shi Siming and several other Turkic tribes, but found that we had sent troops, and he had been delayed, but he refused to go back, so he hid in Yinshan waiting for us to pass, and then they came out to plunder the captured Turkic people. I guess this was his purpose."

"Aren't he afraid that his nest will be attacked again? Just like last time?" Li Sheng still couldn't see through it.

"It's very simple! Because he didn't know that I was going to send troops to attack the Uighurs in the north, he thought I was temporarily dispatching troops to defend him from going south. In that case, Tongluo was in the west, and the Beiting army was not too late. There were only more than 10,000 Shatu people in Juyan Haiti. He was not afraid. If he knew that I had started to dispatch troops from Beiting and Tongluo as early as winter, I would probably not dare to leave Han'er Bali if he died."

After years of dealing with each other, Li Qingan has seen through the inferiority and darkness of Ger Khan. He is like a greedy and timid dog, huddled in the Yinshan Mountains and waited for a bit of leftovers to appear, but now, he has become the target of being hunted.

At this time, Li Sheng looked at the sand table carefully and suggested to Li Qing'an: "General, I have a suggestion that I can wipe out the Uighur army."

"You said!" Li Qingan was still very impressed by Li Sheng's tactics.

Li Sheng pointed to Jiujiuliquan with a wooden pole and said, "Did the General find out? In fact, the place where the Uighur army was hiding is very close to General Li Guangbi's station, only more than 400 miles apart. Perhaps as the General said, they still want to eat the captured Turkic herdsmen. If General Li Guangbi retreated at this time and left hundreds of thousands of Turkic men and women in Jiujiuquan, as a bait, I think even if the Uighurs would not rush up to eat the bait all at once, they would be eyeing each other and waiting for the opportunity..."

"Then what?"

Li Qingan was very interested in Li Sheng's suggestions. Li Sheng was very right. The Uighurs were as suspicious and greedy as prairie wolves. They would not leave easily when they saw prey, nor would they utter it easily.

"Then....."

Li Sheng pointed to Nuozhenshui City with a wooden pole, "Then we quickly cross the Yinshan Mountain from here and cut off their retreat route to the rear of the Uighurs. At this time, Li Guangbi's army was pressing forward again, and our 300,000 troops could trap the Uighurs to death in the Yinshan Mountain."

"Wonderful! This plan is amazing!"

Li Qing'an praised Li Sheng as a famous general. After listening to his analysis of the psychology of the Uighurs, he was able to learn from one example and learn from it. It was indeed amazing.

"Just follow your methods, you should go to reorganize the army immediately, I will write to Li Guangbi!"

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Li Qingan adopted Li Sheng's suggestion and the Tang army began to take action. That night, 150,000 Tang troops set out overnight, leaving behind a huge empty camp and 5,000 military horses to confuse the Uighur spies.

Five days later, the army crossed Yinshan Mountain and turned eastward. Just as Li Qing'an led the army to advance north, Li Guangbi also received Li Qing'an's order, ordering 300,000 Turkic people, elderly, weak, women and children, in the 99th spring, and he himself led an army of 150,000 to escort more than 100,000 Turkic people, retreating to the south, using more than 300,000 Turkic women and children as bait to lure the Uighurs to prey, leaving less than 10,000 troops to guard.

The core of Li Sheng's strategy is to let the Uighurs stay in Yinshan and not leave, and to buy time for the Tang army's siege. Just as Li Qing'an understood the Turks, the Uighurs were also a Turks. They worship wolves. The biggest characteristic of wolves is that they are suspicious and good at waiting. Once they find prey, they will not give up easily, but will wait patiently for opportunities, carefully observe whether the surroundings are safe, and then raid on the prey like lightning.

The characteristics of these wolves were fully reflected in the Uighurs. In the Uighur camp, Gele Khan had already learned of the news that the Tang army had withdrawn from the Nine Nine Springs and headed south. There were still hundreds of thousands of Turkic women and children who had not had time to evacuate, and there were only less than 10,000 Tang troops left.

On the surface, this is the Tang army first evacuated some Turks. Why did they not withdraw women and children and withdraw young and strong? It is very likely that the Tang army adopted the separation method adopted by fearing that the Turks would cause trouble, using women and children as hostages, threatening young and strong to go south obediently. This is the usual practice of the Anxi Army. When they were in Anxi, they also dealt with the Tubo people in this way, separated women and children, and let the young and strong Tubo men open mines for them.

Is this the same thing this time?

Gele Khan was full of doubts. He felt that the Tang army should not leave people on the grassland so easily. There might be conspiracy, but hundreds of thousands of women and children undoubtedly tempted him strongly. Women and children are huge temptations to any grassland nation, which means that the population is reproduced and breeding. They are so confused and worried, and they are full of desire to seize these populations. The purpose of his leadership of the army south this time was to eat Shi Siming and the Turks who were attached to the Tang Dynasty. Shi Siming had no hope, but he was unwilling to give up these Turks no matter how he was.

He hesitated to observe the situation and sent one group of Uighur spies to Nine Nine Springs and around him, just like a wolf pack also spyed on the prey. Another Tang army on the other side of the Heicheng destroyed Shi Siming's army, and there was no sign of going north.

The Uighur army was waiting for an opportunity in doubt and great temptation, but they didn't know that they had become the prey of the Tang army.

Nearly ten days later, Gele Khan could no longer help. He led a 100,000 army to leave Yinshan, preparing to go south to ninety-nine springs to grab hundreds of thousands of Turkic women and children. This prey that made them extremely jealous, and a news that made him both regretful and shocked came. The Tang army's army's more than 100,000 army was back, and at a very fast speed, and was coming to their side.

Gerkhan regretted and hated him. He lost a huge wealth while he was hesitating and watching. If he had made a quick decision to go south to plunder the population, he would have now been on his way back to Hanerdobali and he would have lost the opportunity.

Gerkhan knew there was no chance. When he returned to his base and was about to cross Yinshan to return to Hanerduobali, a more terrible news came, which scared his heart to stop beating. Another Tang army with more than 100,000 people had cut off the exit from the north.

He finally realized that he had been fooled and was eager to break south. At this time, Li Guangbi's army of 150,000 had already caught up with him, and more than 100,000 troops were blocking the south of Yinshan.
Chapter completed!