Tibet

In mid-March, the Tang army and the Ge Luolu army had traveled thousands of miles and arrived near the Saresu River. This area was also the territory of the Tuqishi people. However, this Tuqishi tribe was not a Tuqishi people attached to the Tang Dynasty, but a Tuqishi tribe. They migrated from the south of Yibohai.

The entire tribe has only more than 3,000 households, living on the narrow grasslands of the Saresu River Basin.

The Tuqishi people also smelled the coming of a war and quickly retreated north.

At noon that day, the Tang army arrived at Karacoin Lake and set up camp by the lake. At the same time, ten scouts were sent to various places to search for traces of the enemy.

In the northwest, there was a scout team composed of thirty Tang Army cavalry, led by Captain Yang Li. Yang Li also followed Li Ye to defend the people of Anle County. After defeating Absi's army, he was promoted to captain. After being transferred to the Hezhong Army by Li Ye, he was promoted two levels to become a scout battalion captain.

Yang Li was smart, capable, and talented, but he was from a humble background and didn't have many opportunities to get ahead. Li Ye boldly promoted him to the most powerful scout military captain.

In comparison, Wang Yu and Wu Tai were older, both over forty years old. Li Ye took care of them in spite of his old friendship, and also appointed them as school captains. However, they were appointed as military school captains, responsible for farming and farming, following Gao Gao. Suitable, it can be regarded as a pension job.

Yang Li led thirty Tang army scouts along the outer edge of the forest. This area was hilly and covered with large forests. However, the undulating terrain easily obscured people's sight, making it easy for them to pass by the enemy.

So Yang Li's idea was to run for dozens of miles, then go up the mountain, visit from a high place, and continue moving forward if no enemy troops were found.

At night, thirty Tang soldiers rested in a forest for the night. The resting place was also chosen on the top of a hill. A soldier looked out from a big tree, which could be seen for dozens of miles around.

After everyone had eaten dry food and drank water, they were about to wrap themselves in blankets and fall asleep. Suddenly, a series of night owl calls came from the top of the big tree, which was an alarm for the enemy.

Yang Li quickly woke everyone up and packed their things. He climbed up the big tree himself and asked, "What did you find?"

"Captain, please look!"

The sentry pointed in the distance, and Yang Li could see clearly that there was fire flashing at the foot of another hill about a few miles away.

"Captain, could it be another of our scout teams?"

"impossible!"

Yang Li said decisively: "Before setting off, the governor repeatedly ordered us not to use fire at night. Everyone knows that they are not our teammates. Let's go down!"

The two climbed down the big tree. The team had already packed up. Yang Li and the sentry briefly packed up, and everyone led their horses down the mountain.

Yang Li asked two soldiers to guard the horses and wait a hundred steps away, while he led the rest of his men in a fan shape towards the fire.

After seeing clearly, it turned out to be a group of Turkic spies, about ten people, who were lighting a bonfire and roasting meat. These Khazar Turk soldiers were chatting and laughing, not realizing that the danger was coming.

Yang Li whispered to the two brigade commanders: "I'll distract one person, and you shoot the others with arrows!"

The two brigade commanders nodded repeatedly, and Yang Li led a few soldiers away. The other soldiers raised their crossbows and aimed at the Turkic soldiers in the light of the fire.

At this time, there suddenly came from the depths of the forest ‘Crack! Click! ’ The sound of branches breaking continuously.

The leader, the captain, heard the sound. He thought it was a wild beast, so he said to his two men, "Go and see, what is the sound?"

The two men stood up and walked toward the sound. When the two men disappeared, the two brigade commanders simultaneously ordered, "Shoot!"

More than twenty military crossbows were fired at the same time, and dense arrows were fired at the Turkic soldiers who were grilling meat by the fire.

The soldiers were caught off guard and fell to the ground one after another, screaming in agony.

The scouts threw away their crossbows, drew out their short spears and rushed forward, assassinating several enemy soldiers who tried to resist. In an instant, only one of the eight Turkic spies was still alive.

At this time, two Turkic spies who went to check the situation were also pushed down and tied up by Yang Li and his men.

There were two people in the Tang army who could speak Turkic, and they immediately began to interrogate them.

The results of the interrogation were encouraging. The main force of the Khazar Turk army camped for the night fifty miles west of them.

Yang Li killed the Turkic spies and led his men to continue rushing westward.

At the fourth watch, they climbed to the top of a hill and looked to the west. They saw dots of firelight scattered in the valley to the west.

Yang Li found the small river where he drew water at noon on the map. Using the small river as a reference, he quickly found his current location. He used charcoal to mark the enemy's position on the map, about one mile away from their main camp. One hundred and twenty miles.

They couldn't see the exact size of the enemy army at night, so they had to make a rough estimate. It was between 10,000 and 20,000, which was consistent with the confession they asked, which said it was more than 15,000 but less than 20,000.

Yang Li immediately sent two of his men back to the camp to report, while he led other scouts to continue observing the enemy.

At noon the next day, Li Ye received an urgent message from Yang Li and discovered the main enemy force near the Qibai River, numbering between 15,000 and 20,000, about 120 miles away from the main camp.

But it is definitely less than 120 miles away now. Although the Tang army has not left, the opponent should have gone thirty or forty miles. Li Ye immediately sent someone to find Nalman.

"We found the enemy, about a hundred miles away to the west of us. We still follow the first set of combat strategies agreed upon before. The Tang army attacks from the east, and you attack from the west, attacking the enemy from both ends. It is estimated that the enemy is not there yet. Upon discovering us, the chief immediately led his troops to detour from the north, behind them, and then waited for the battle between us and the enemy."

Li Ye had discussed several combat plans with Nalman before. The first combat plan was to attack from the east and west. We were all cavalry. As long as we defeated the opponent first, the rest was a matter of cavalry pursuit.

Nalman nodded and immediately led an army of 10,000 people northward.

Just half a day after Ge Luolu's army left, that is, at the first watch of the night, Li Ye received Yang Li's second express message.

He immediately summoned the generals overnight to discuss the military situation.

"According to the latest intelligence, the enemy is about fifty miles away from us, but they have stopped moving forward and may have discovered us."

"Commander, please tell me the specific situation of this army first!" Wang Xuanwu raised his hand.

Li Ye nodded and said: "According to the latest news from the scouts, this army has 16,000 to 7,000 people. The equipment is similar to the 3,000 people we annihilated last winter. They are wearing leather armor and holding spears. Their combat effectiveness is estimated to be very high." Tough and organized, we all know that, so it’s going to be a tough battle.”

"Please make arrangements, Commander-in-Chief!" Pei Xiu said.

Li Ye pondered for a moment and said: "I have already talked about the plan for this battle before, so I won't repeat it again. Our main force will be heavy armored infantry and black spears. It depends on you!"

Black Spear nodded slowly, "I have been looking forward to this battle for a long time!"

………

The army immediately moved forward and marched another thirty miles to the west. At this time, the scout captain Yang Lili's men came back and reported, "Report to the Commander-in-Chief, the main force of the enemy army is twenty miles to the west of us. They have set up a formation. It's slowly moving eastward."

"What formation did they set up?" Li Ye asked.

"Lying knife formation!"

The Crouching Sword Formation, also known as the Qinglong Yanyue Formation, is a classic formation of the nomadic cavalry. This is a name given by the Han people. They themselves call it the Half Moon Formation. The formation is like a half moon, in an arc shape, thick in the middle and thin on the sides. Viewed from a high altitude, it looks like a half-moon spread across the grassland.

This formation is very suitable for cavalry assault, breaking up the enemy's positions with powerful impact.

The other party put up this formation, which showed that the other party did not know the existence of the Ge Luolu cavalry.

"Are there any short spears in the opponent's equipment?" Li Ye asked again.

This is very important. The Dashi infantry are good at using throwing spears. The throwing spears are so lethal that even the heavy armored infantry cannot withstand it. In the Battle of Talos, they used a fire formation to defeat the opponent's spear throwing army. Otherwise, the consequences will be disastrous.

"Reporting to the Governor, no projectile spear was found on their spies."

Li Ye nodded. The scouts of each army were the best-equipped troops. No throwing spears were found among the enemy's spies, and no throwing spears were found among last year's three thousand vanguard troops, indicating that they were not equipped with this sharp weapon.

Li Ye immediately ordered: "Set up the wild goose formation to fight!"