Datang: From exiled prince to eternal tyrant

Chapter 173 Actively prepare for battle
Yazhou is the westernmost state of Jiannan Road, and the terrain is slightly higher, so Li Ke placed soldiers and horses here to train the soldiers to cope with altitude sickness.

Of course, in order to prevent the Tubo people from knowing in advance, the army was scattered in the mountains all over the place, hiding their whereabouts.

When Li Ke first arrived in Yazhou, he already felt a bit strenuous, but fortunately, he was possessed by Lu Bu's battle spirit, and his physical adaptability far surpassed that of ordinary people. After a few days of adaptation, he got used to it.

In the past few days, he has been waiting for news from Tubo, and he is not in a hurry to march.

This Yazhou is a place of restraint, and most of the people who live here are foreigners, and many tribes of different tribes have lived here for generations.

This place is known as the "Throat of Western Sichuan" and is the gateway to the plateau with many mountains and rivers.

Li Ke intends to use this state as his base, and all grain, grass and supplies will be transported here, and then enter the plateau.

This time is different from the past, it is not an encounter battle, it is very likely to be a siege battle again and again, so he has prepared a lot of troops.

Of course, since there are not so many war horses on the plateau, the main force is still infantry. Li Ke did not increase too many cavalry, but transformed a large number of plateau horses into chariots, which were used to transport mules and horses into infantry, as well as food and supplies.

When marching on the plateau, the food and grass must not be cut off. Once the food runs out, I am afraid that we will not be able to dig wild vegetables.However, the mules and horses can transport far more troops than the cavalry. In the battle of attacking the city, the role of the cavalry is not that great, and it is far inferior to transporting more infantry.

In addition to 40 light cavalry and [-] heavy cavalry, Li Ke also prepared an infantry camp of as many as [-].

However, most of these infantry are not used for combat, and the infantry that has really undergone rigorous training and is capable of combat is only 18.

The battle line was extremely long, and he had to fight every step of the way along the way, attacking many towns. Li Ke needed some reserve forces to defend the city and provide food and grass for the main force in front, so this time he made an exception and recruited more backup troops.

In the yamen of Yazhou Prefecture, Li Ke, Ma Liuzhi, Gu Wu and others sat in a crowd, examining the marching map.

"Your Highness, please see, the location of the Arrow Stove is only a hundred miles away from our Yazhou. We have to kill it, or we can get there in less than a day!"

Ma Liuzhi had been looking forward to this battle for a long time, and his voice was sonorous and powerful, as if he had already accumulated all his energy.

At this moment, he was pointing at the location of the Arrow Stove, describing the surrounding terrain.

The attack on Da Jian Furnace was planned by Li Ke long ago. Everyone took this city as the target of attacking the city and set up many plans early on.

"This city is surrounded by mountains on both sides in the northwest and water in the east. It is really difficult to attack. But we built a road to get here earlier, and this road leads from the south side. If we want to fight, we can spare it to the south and drive straight in!"

Ma Liuzhi spoke with spit, full of passion.

This road was built by Li Ke before to facilitate traveling westward.

At this time, we need to march urgently, so taking this road is naturally the fastest.

Although there is a long detour on the road, it is a newly built road after all. Compared with the old road, the road is much wider and flatter, and there is no natural danger of Dadu River, so marching is naturally much more convenient.

Li Ke looked at the city. Although it was very close to Yazhou, it was too difficult to get there because of the deep river separating it.

This big river was very fast, and across the river was the city wall of Dajianlu. If he wanted to lead his army across the river, he would have to lose a lot of troops.

It is much easier to pass by the road on the south side.

This road can go straight to Dajianlu City, it is the main road of this city, and it is connected to the main gate of Dajianlu.

In addition to this road, there are two other small roads in this city that can lead to the outside of the city.

One is the crossing bridge over the big river, where Dajian Furnace opened an east gate.

There is also a small road, which is a mountain road in the two mountains in the northwest, and there is also a west city gate opened there.

Since it is necessary to attack the city, these three city gates naturally have to be taken care of.

Li Ke's idea is to first send an army of [-] people to guard the other side of the river to guard the bridge.

Then the main force passed from the south, and dispatched cavalry to detour to the northwest to guard the northwest trail.

The main force attacked the city from the main gate, that is, the south gate.

"This time we are fighting a quick battle. This city has a lot to do with it. We need a quick battle to take it down when the Tubo people are unprepared!"

Li Ke ordered.

Although this city is regarded as an important town by Tubo, and there are heavy troops stationed in the city all year round, Li Ke is confident that he will be able to take it quickly if he makes a surprise attack with heavy troops.

"Yes! After taking down this city, let's march to the southwest and take down the city of Yupen, and then go all the way west, take down the cities of Medog and Pibo, and then we can look directly at the cities of Luoxie!"

Ma Liuzhi was so careless that he verbally captured many subsequent cities in one breath, and he almost went straight to Songtsan Gampo's hometown.

What he said made Gu Wu straight shake his head, and stopped again and again: "Let's talk about fighting the arrow furnace first! This battle is very important, we can't be careless!"

"Hi! Don't worry! With His Highness here, it's no problem to take down the arrow furnace!"

Ma Liuzhi slapped his chest, shook his legs, and said with confidence.

Li Ke smiled: "Don't be too confident!"

Although he was a little conservative in words, Li Ke still had confidence in his heart.

It is true that Dajianlu is an important military town, and the terrain is dangerous, but Li Ke has one of the most important advantages in his expedition this time, and that is speed.

Launch a surprise attack with heavy troops, no matter how prepared you are, you will not be able to withstand the pressure of my soldiers!

Besides, Yazhou is not far from Tubo, and the military training has been in the deep mountains for a while, so if you kill them directly, you will definitely catch the opponent by surprise.

And this time, a large number of special forces were arranged to accompany the army. Gu Wuhui led the special forces, as the vanguard, to wipe out the detection posts on the road.Such a well-planned surprise attack, I am afraid that the other party will not be able to react at all.

In the absence of external reinforcements, it is only a matter of time before the city is taken down by itself.

Even if the Tubo people heard the news and temporarily sent troops to support them, Li Ke would not be afraid.

The distance between the two cities is so close, there is no need to worry about the food and grass on my side.

The big deal is to stay outside the city and gather around to fight for reinforcements. No matter how many reinforcements you come, it will be useless.

Of course, encircling the spot to fight for aid is just a backup idea. Li Ke guessed that Songtsan Gambo is now tired of the Southwest War and has to worry about domestic turmoil, so he should not have the mind to send troops to support Dajianlu.

When he draws his body away, if he wants to take care of Jianlu, the Tang people may have already beaten him to some extent.

The three of them were looking at the map and studying the city behind, when they heard a report from someone outside: "Your Highness, there is an urgent military situation!"

The visitor had a letter in his hand, and he didn't bother to salute as soon as he came in, and directly delivered the letter to Li Ke.

Li Ke thought that this letter should be a report on the civil strife in Tubo, so he quickly read it.

Seeing this, he was stunned...

(End of this chapter)