At this time, the Tang Dynasty and Qin'er were enjoying the beautiful scenery in Chang'an, but in the southwest of the Tang Dynasty, a cruel war was about to take place.

At this time, it was late at night, and Lang Zhengxuan's army was carrying out the most arduous and mysterious march.

Most of the other armies in Nanzhao, such as the soldiers of the Yi tribe, are not in order and have poor military orders. They can only be regarded as rural warriors. Only the soldiers in Lang Zhengxuan's hands can truly be called regular troops. Moreover, he is leading That is, he did not draw from the Nanzhao army, but directly used his own soldiers as the elite of his team.

This is similar to the imperial guards led by Tie Ning in the imperial court, and its combat effectiveness is considered to be the strongest in Dali.

During the last rebellion in Nanzhao, the elite soldiers in Lang Zhengxuan's mansion were able to withstand Li Gesang's sudden attack because these soldiers were one in a hundred. Otherwise, there would be no way to wait for Sheva's reinforcements. I'm afraid they would have been destroyed long ago. Li Gesang put down the rebellion.

Not long ago, the Nanzhao border troops suffered a huge loss from Zhangchou Jianqiong. They lost more than 2,000 troops, many were killed and captured, and very few escaped. The army was already in disarray.

This was the worst defeat between Nanzhao and the Tang Dynasty in the nearly twenty years of war. Most of the time, both sides were in peace, but the few battles that occurred ended with Nanzhao's victory. , I didn’t expect that the losses would be huge this time. Although the losses in military strength were very small, the impact on the morale of the troops was indeed immeasurable.

Therefore, as soon as this incident occurred, Li Gesang and Lang Zhengxuan unanimously decided that force must be used against the Tang Dynasty. Li Gesang had been waiting and enduring for twenty years, and could no longer endure it. They knew clearly that , To fight against Zhangchou Jianqiong at this time, both sides must pay a high price, but they cannot care about these, because if they do not win the victory against the Tang Dynasty army in a short time, the entire Nanzhao military morale will be destroyed. They will all be greatly shaken. By then, once the momentum is weakened, it will be a problem to even be able to protect themselves, let alone occupy the Tang Dynasty.

The morale of the military is the same as the morale of the people. Once lost, it is difficult to recover, just like once love is broken, it is difficult to repair.

Moreover, the battlefield is different from ordinary martial arts. The stronger one wins. The most important thing on the battlefield is momentum. Once the momentum weakens, it means that the morale of the army has been depressed. Even if you have twice as many troops as others, it will be difficult to win.

The ratio of the Tang Dynasty's army to Nanzhao's army is roughly two to one. Although the Tang Dynasty's army guarding Jiannan Border Pass only had **0,000 troops, Nanzhao's army now has 200,000, which is almost an overwhelming force. To guard the border, of course, Nanzhao's only major enemy was the Tang Dynasty, so it was normal for the army to be stationed at the border. The Tang Dynasty's army was well-equipped. In the past, although Gao Xianling had poor management and had little combat effectiveness, now Zhang As soon as Qiu Jianqiong took office, the army immediately changed.

The reason why Lang Zhengxuan rushed to attack Zhang Jun was to seize this time. Once Zhang Qiu Jianqiong finished reorganizing Jiannan's troops, it could be said to be a very powerful force that Nanzhao wanted to defeat. He must make huge sacrifices. Even if he wins, he will definitely not be able to march into the Central Plains and occupy the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, Su Wen Zhangchou is both civil and military, and if he is not careful, he will be defeated in his hands. By then, Nanzhao will be in danger, and we cannot rule out the possibility that Li Longji will take the opportunity to annex Nanzhao at this time.

Therefore, this battle can only be won, not lost.

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At this time, a scandal was being staged in the military tent of the Jiedushi Envoy in Jiannan, because although Zhangchou Jianqiong was very reluctant, he still had to respectfully greet a man, Gao Jingang from Chang'an.

Gao Jingang was a eunuch, so why did he come to the Jiannan Army at such a time?

Of course he was sent by the imperial court. His purpose was very simple, to supervise the army and guard this powerful army for the emperor.

This is the intention of the imperial court, and to put it bluntly, it is Li Linfu's intention. Since the emperor does not want to dismiss Li Linfu at this time, he must continue to attack Zhangchou Jianqiong until he is removed from the throne of Jiedushi. Come, so he easily sent Gao Jingang to the Jiannan Army during the meeting of the Eight Great People. If there was any trouble, he would have an ear to hear about it and could slander the emperor.

This Gao Jingang was a gift from Li Han, the governor of Lingnan Province, to the emperor. At that time, the palace needed smokers, so tributes were sent from various places, and Lingnan was a place that made great contributions. At that time, Li Han gave the young children of smokers At that time, a total of two people were given as gifts, named "Lishi" and "King Kong" respectively. Gao Lishi was one of them. Although this Gao Jingang did not do as well as Gao Lishi in the palace, Gao Lishi thought the same thing. People who came from the area took good care of him. Now that he was assigned to supervise the army, he was naturally sent out to get some oil and water.

This is something that all eunuchs know. As long as they are in charge of the army, the border commander will not dare to offend him and will bribe him with heavy gifts. Otherwise, he will report unfavorable news to the emperor.

Before leaving, Gao Jingang accepted Li Linfu's instructions and received a heavy gift. He traveled to the Jiannan Army and even used his qualifications as the Supreme Emperor to intervene in the affairs of the Jiannan Army as a concurrent soldier. Zhangchou Jianqiong gave him a heavy gift, but he didn't accept it. It was clear that he was going against you, Zhangchou Jianqiong.

Zhangchou Jianqiong had just taken over the army, and all kinds of cumbersome things happened one after another. He didn't expect to encounter Gao Jingang coming to make trouble at such a time, so he had to endure it. I saw this guy gathering the army every day to lecture and talk about loyalty. Such nonsense as the royal family and serving the country with meritorious services wasted precious time for reorganization, and also greatly affected the training and their absolute leadership of the army. Many generals began to waver. It seemed that the court was dealing with General Zhang, and it was also a big deal. It affected the morale of the military.

This made Zhangchou Jianqiong murderous the supervisor Gao Jingang, but he finally thought that the situation was tight now, and at the same time he was afraid that the court would be angry. Don't go around without food, and his whole life's future would be ruined. It's clean. He worked hard all his life from being a martial arts champion to the high position of a military governor today. It is indeed extraordinary. He doesn't want to fall down like this. What he wants is to become a general and become a prime minister. When the time comes, he only has to make a decision. With meritorious service like that of Niu Xianke in those days, he would definitely be able to return to the court and become the prime minister, be granted three generations of titles, and honor his ancestors. In fact, this was the wish of most people in that era. They would travel thousands of miles to find a title, settle the affairs of the king and the world, and win fame before and after his death.

Zhangchou Jianqiong wanted to reorganize the army with all his strength, but when this supervisor came, he was hampered everywhere. Fortunately, Zhangchou Jianqiong was flexible and thought of many ways to deal with it. In the end, he could only hastily reorganize the Jiannan army. After all, Gao Xianling failed to manage the army well in the past, and there were many loopholes left. The most important thing was the deduction of military pay, which caused chaos in the military.

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Fifteen miles northwest of Jiannan, there is a large stone shaped like a human head, almost a foot in diameter, which is called the Human Head Stone. An army of 200 people was stationed under the stone. Because of the high terrain, a large stone was built. A high pile of wolf dung is piled inside the beacon tower, which is used to make smoke in times of crisis.

In ancient times, beacon towers were built in most important places to convey warnings. The history is very old. When King You of Zhou used beacons to tease the princes, nearly a thousand years had passed since the Tang Dynasty. However, beacon towers were used to convey warnings. However, it has been preserved. After the wolf dung is dried, it is easy to preserve in Jiannan, a place where tigers and wolves are infested. And once it is lit, the smoke is so huge that it can rise dozens of feet into the sky and can be clearly seen dozens of miles away. Using firewood to make smoke cannot achieve such an effect, so according to the rules passed down from generation to generation, the best method is of course wolf dung, followed by horse dung and cow dung.

When chaos occurs, there will be bright fire at night and wolf smoke during the day.

It is now midnight, and the officers and soldiers on the beacon tower are all sleeping in their homes. Only the thirty soldiers on guard have not slept yet. However, they do not stand upright and guard the border. Instead, they gather together to gamble. There are two handles at the door. The windy man still glanced at the card table, but he couldn't help it. Just now, one of the two people lost five taels of silver, and the other one who had no money had already lost his underwear. In the cold spring days, it seemed a bit cold, and he kept Rubbing his hands.

These two people are not really guarding the border to warn against enemy attacks, but are guarding the more than a hundred soldiers who have fallen asleep. Once the commander wakes up and comes up, the gambling will stop immediately and the beacon tower According to the rules, there is one captain and two lieutenants to command the 200-man army respectively. The discipline is still strict, but behind the back of the captain, you can still gamble twice on the beacon tower. After all, there are no enemies. At night It was so lonely at the time. As long as the Rong Lord didn't catch him on the spot, even if the Rong Lord knew about it, he would turn a blind eye and wouldn't really do anything to his soldiers.

Lang Zhengxuan and Rong Gong were the first to go. Only five hundred meters away from the human-headed stone beacon tower, they waved their hands and the team immediately stopped. There was silence. There was no movement in the beacon tower, and they obviously were not discovered.

Originally, Lang Zhengxuan led eight hundred soldiers on an expedition. Although the sound of horse hooves was covered with cloth and the golden bells were removed, and the people held their breaths, eight hundred people were different from one person, and they could still make a lot of noise, walking at night. There are always traces of animals that are disturbed at night. If the thirty guards were really on guard, they might not be able to find Lang Zhengxuan, but in the current situation, these guys are quietly gambling inside, and Where can I find Lang Zhengxuan when I am in high spirits?

Of course, with Lang Zhengxuan's shrewdness, he had naturally sent people to test it long ago, otherwise he would not have chosen this beacon tower as the primary target.

At this time, Lang Zhengxuan waved his hand, ordered the horse to stay where it was, rushed out first, and rushed towards the beacon tower.
Chapter completed!