After Xu Youchang entered Metasequoia City, he did not dare to explain his previous experiences to Lin Feng and the others. Stationed here is the Zhenjiang Protectorate, which also belongs to He Jingming's command. If this group of people heard that most of their guards were dead and that Xu Youchang was the number one suspect in killing He Jingming, they would most likely run away on the spot. The situation would not be much better than that of the Fierce Blade Army in Liangzhou.
So, he had no choice but to make up a lie, saying that he had a secret mission that he could not disclose to outsiders.
Unless they see Li Jiangyao, no one has the right to ask.
Xu Youchang is a serious Qianniu Lieutenant General, several levels higher than Li Jiangyao's rank of captain. If he insists on saying this, Lin Feng and Du Jian of course have no choice but to wait with him. Let Li Jiangyao come back to deal with it.
However, neither Xu Youchang, Lin Feng, nor Du Jian knew at this time that the school captain Li Jiangyao, a hundred miles away, was being shocked by an earth-shattering news.
The scout team led by Li Jiangyao set off nearly three days later than the Western Xinjiang rebel army. They hurriedly took shortcuts and chased them until they reached the Crescent Bay near the Chechi border. However, , they were still a step too late after all.
The scouts and horses did not see the rebels, but by chance they encountered a defeated army of the Zhenjiang Protectorate.
And it was from the mouths of this group of defeated soldiers that Li Jiangyao and the others heard a nightmarish news:
The 120,000 Shengtang main army was completely wiped out!
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In the year 821 of the Holy Tang Calendar, on the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon raised its head.
February is also called "Zang Yue" among the people, which means the beginning of all things and the resurgence of vitality.
The second day of February is the traditional annual "Spring Plowing Festival", "Spring Dragon Festival" and "Farming Festival" in Shengtang. According to folklore, this is the day when the dragon raises its head. On this day, people burn incense, beat gongs and drums, set off firecrackers, worship the dragon, pray for rain, and pray to God for a good harvest in the new year.
According to legend, this festival originated in ancient times. Fuxi, the god of agriculture, "worked heavily on mulberry and hemp, and plowed the fields" and led the people to start the work of the country. Therefore, every year on the second day of February, the Heavenly Queen comes to the earth to bring blessings, while the mortal emperor drives the plows and prays for good weather.
Especially after the founding of the Holy Tang Dynasty, the imperial court stipulated that a grand ceremony would be held on this day every year. The emperor personally went out to call on all civil and military officials to work on the farm. Regardless of the government or the public, people regard the second day of February as a special festival, saying that it is a good day to "welcome wealth and honor" and eat "wealth and honor fruits" on this day.
However, for the soldiers of the Shengtang Dynasty who guarded the Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang, on the day when the dragon raised its head in 821, what they ushered in was not wealth and auspiciousness, but an unexpected disaster.
The rebels of the vassal state, who claimed to have 200,000 people, under the leadership of their leader Loulan King Alike Jiang, decided to face the most powerful force in the Western Territory directly on the alluvial plain of Crescent Bay - the capital of Zhenjiang. The Shengtang Army consisted of the 70,000-strong army protecting the mansion and the 50,000-strong Fierce Blade Army that rushed in from Liangzhou Prefecture for emergency reinforcements.
The rebels chose to fight head-on. The emergence of this situation completely exceeded all the pre-war predictions of Zhang Sanpi, deputy commander of the Zhenjiang Army.
Li Xiangru, another deputy commander of the Fiery Blade Legion, after receiving the order from the imperial capital to rush to the aid of Western Xinjiang, led his troops to rush from Liangzhou to join forces with Zhang Sanpi. When he learned that the enemy intended to fight a decisive battle, he also Like Deputy Protector Zhang, he was also extremely surprised: "Are these rebels crazy? Are they actually taking advantage of us so much?"
The generals of Shengtang naturally had good reasons for thinking this way.
In terms of pure combat power, the rebel troops, mainly composed of the Loulan and Shule armies, could not be compared with the well-equipped and well-trained Shengtang Army.
Not to mention that the 200,000 troops claimed by the enemy is probably just an imaginary number. Even if he really has 200,000, or even 300,000 or 400,000, in a plain field battle, the 120,000 Shengtang elites will be completely confident. Crush them and decide the outcome in one battle.
This kind of head-on battle, which relies solely on strength, has never been a fluke, and it is even less possible to use any so-called strategy to pull off tricks. If the rebels planned to directly challenge the Tang army with only a slight numerical advantage, it would be like an egg against a stone.
What Zhang Sanpi and Li Xiangru were originally most worried about was that the rebels would adopt a guerrilla strategy of breaking up into parts, trying their best to avoid the main force of Shengtang, and choose to attack from all sides to destroy and disrupt. If that is the case, the Shengtang Army will inevitably need to divide its troops into multiple groups to attack them one by one, and the counterinsurgency battle will be protracted.
But they never expected that the rebels would not play according to the routine, instead of using their roaming style to exploit their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, they would choose to confront Shengtang head-on!
God knows where these turtle grandchildren get their confidence?
So, when the reconnaissance scouts finally found out that the Loulan and Shule rebels were indeed advancing towards the Crescent Bay alluvial plain after they merged, the commander-in-chief of the Shengtang Army was immediately overjoyed and immediately led the main force to rush over without hesitation. He rolled up his arms and sleeves and prepared to finish the fight as soon as possible and call it a day and go home.
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The great battle that shocked the entire Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang began in the early morning.
Bathed in the morning light of early spring, the Shengtang soldiers and horses and the Western Xinjiang rebels fully laid out their formations, which stretched for several miles to the left and right. Shining armor and forest of flags almost completely covered the entire Crescent Bay.
The people on both sides are in the same mood - leaving no room behind! Go all out! Nearly 400,000 troops faced each other in the plains and wilderness, and the thick murderous aura steaming from the huge phalanx made the whole world change color.
The warriors from Loulan and Shule stood in their own camp with ferocious faces, waving their sabers and spears constantly, roaring and cursing at the Shengtang Army in the distance opposite. The momentum became louder and louder, even though they were thousands of steps away It was deafening; on the other hand, the 120,000 soldiers and horses on Shengtang's side were all silent, just staring quietly at the opposite side.
Their eyes were like those of a butcher looking at the lamb to be slaughtered.
Suddenly, the bugle was blown without warning, and hundreds of giant war drums beat at the same time. The sound of "dong-dong-dong" hit everyone's heart, making people's blood boil.
The commanders of both sides raised their long swords and scimitars and gave an order, and the forward formations on both sides moved almost at the same time. The two huge phalanxes like mountains and seas, holding different flags, gradually changed from advancing slowly at the beginning to running at a fast pace. The speed became faster and faster, and finally they rushed toward each other like flying. go.
In the blink of an eye, the forward soldiers and horses collided with each other like two huge waves, causing countless bright red blood flowers to rise.
Immediately behind the vanguard were the left and right wing armies and the main force of the Chinese army from both sides of the war. One team after another, one after another, countless soldiers entered the battlefield one after another, fighting together in an instant, entangled and strangled repeatedly.
In two or three hours, although the rebels showed rare bravery and Shengtang's army paid a heavy price, they gradually gained a clear advantage on the battlefield. Whether it was the Suppressing Army or the Fierce Blade Army, the soaring fighting spirit erupted by Shengtang's soldiers and horses could visibly overwhelm the rebellious enemies.
Loulan Shule no longer had the arrogance they had when they swept across the Western Border countries. Under the impact of Shengtang's armored cavalry, they completely understood what it means to be truly invincible.
One after another, the rebel formations were ruthlessly suppressed, destroyed, and crushed by Shengtang. Loulan soldiers and Shule soldiers began to collapse and scurry like wolves and mice.
Looking at the battle situation in front of them, almost all Shengtang soldiers, including Zhang Sanpi and Li Xiangru, believed that a glorious victory was within reach.
However, to their surprise, the balance of the battlefield tilted suddenly without any warning.
The decisive battle lasted from the sun rising to the west. Just as the Shengtang army continued to advance forward and was about to completely penetrate the rebel defense line, a figure suddenly appeared on the horizon far behind them. Large areas of bright light.
Any experienced veteran will immediately identify it as the reflection of countless swords in the sun!
The sound of the galloping hooves of thousands of horses was like muffled thunder, coming from far and near, roaring in the ears of the Shengtang soldiers - at the critical moment of the decisive battle, Roniya, Prince of the Turkic Temple, led one hundred thousand golden clan cavalry to kill arrive!
At this moment, although the Shengtang army had completely suppressed the rebels, they were also exhausted. Whether psychologically or physically, they could no longer turn around and deploy their formations to resist this sudden and powerful enemy. .
The Western Xinjiang rebels, who were originally on the verge of collapse, now gathered together again under the desperate command of Alik Jiang and others, turned around and fought back.
Zhang Sanpi and Li Xiangru were both experienced generals. Faced with this sudden change, the two men immediately rushed to the forefront of their own military formation without thinking, waving their swords and shouting, hoping that with this The way of leading by example once again inspired the morale of the Shengtang Army and rose up to fight.
But it is a pity that the pattern of being attacked from both sides has been determined, and all efforts are ultimately of no avail.
The Turks grasped the timing of the battle with astonishing accuracy. They seemed to suddenly join the battle, but in fact they were the result of countless deductions and calculations, and repeated weighing of plans. In the first half of the decisive battle, the 200,000 rebels in Western Xinjiang used all their strength to hold back the Shengtang soldiers and horses. With their piles of corpses, they successfully drained every ounce of strength from the Shengtang army. The Turkic cavalry of Prince Ronya of the Temple took full advantage of its high mobility at the critical moment before the rebels were about to collapse. They launched from a hiding place several miles away and took advantage of the limits of the Shengtang Army's scouts' alert response. , launched a long-distance attack, and at the most critical moment, he stabbed Shengtang's army in the back.
The Turks and rebels came well prepared and attacked from both front and rear; while Shengtang was unprepared and was attacked from both sides. Before all this happened, no one could have imagined that Shengtang's 120,000 elite main force would actually be engaged in an ambush that was not an ambush by several enemies on the open plains.
The Crescent Bay Battle ended in Shengtang's disastrous defeat.
In this battle, including Zhang Sanpi and Li Xiangru, Shengtang lost a total of two senior generals at the deputy commander level, 14 titled generals, more than 230 captains and captains, and 120,000 soldiers and horses. Almost the entire army was wiped out.
The Zhenjiang Protectorate and the Fierce Blade Legion, the two most prestigious main forces of the Holy Tang Dynasty, were almost wiped out of the organization on the second day of February in 821.
This was a tragic defeat that had never happened since Zhenjiang Lieblade formed its army, and even since the founding of the entire Holy Tang Dynasty.
