Chapter 77: Recovering the Territory (Part )

"No problem." Li Heng did not intend to blame Li Siye, "Please trouble General Li to lead me there."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Li Siye knew that Li Heng was trying to remedy his situation, so he thanked him quickly and led the way.

On the way, Li Heng asked Li Siye again: "General Li, do you know the story of Wuxia Amon?"

What Li Heng meant was that when Lu Meng first served as a general of Wu, he had little education. Later, after being persuaded by Sun Quan, his knowledge improved by leaps and bounds, and he eventually became the Grand Commander of Sun Wu.

Li Siye knew something about these famous generals, and said, "Your Highness, I know a thing or two."

Li Ying said: "General Li is brave and unrivaled. If he can read more books, he will surely be a great general of the Tang Dynasty in the future."

Li Siye had not yet made a fortune, but Li Heng was able to teach him patiently, just like Lü Meng. Li Siye was grateful and said respectfully, "Thank you for your teachings, Your Highness. I will keep them in mind."

After a while, Li Heng and the other two arrived at the tent where Ni Nan was.

At this time, Ninan had not fallen asleep yet. He was sitting at the head of the bed with a sad face. There was mud on his face and body, and his hair was messy. He looked like he had completely lost the dignity and majesty of a king.

Li Siye wanted to go straight into the tent, but Li Heng stopped him and said, "Pay attention to etiquette."

"Yes." After hearing what Li Heng said, Li Siye went to the account and asked the person outside the account to report first.

When Ni Nan heard that Li Heng was coming, he hurriedly tidied up his appearance and came out to greet him with Ma Xi beside him.

Ma Xilai was fluent in both languages ​​and made the introduction.

Ni Nan and Li Heng saluted each other.

Li Heng said: "My subordinates are all rough people. Please forgive me for neglecting the king."

Ma Xilai served as the translator.

"Your Highness's personal presence at the head of the Khan's army is like a rain shower on the drought-stricken Little Bolor. Little Bolor is already extremely grateful, so how dare we blame you?"

The two exchanged a few polite words, and Li Heng ordered his men to prepare wine and food to entertain Ni Nan.

During the banquet, Li Heng asked about the military strength and other situations of the Ninan Tubo in Nieduo City, the capital of Xiaoboluo.

This is what Li Heng wants to know most at the moment.

Ni Nan spoke with a face full of sorrow.

Ma Xilai translated: "There were nearly 10,000 Tibetan soldiers besieging Nieduo City. As our king was marching north, he encountered some fleeing Tibetan soldiers and engaged them in combat."

After hearing this, Li Heng finally understood why Ni Nan ended up like this.

After all, Xiaoboluo was a small country with no strategic depth, so even though its capital fell and the emperor fled, Ni Nan was in a much more embarrassing situation than Li Longji later.

Gao Xianzhi, who was standing by, calculated for a moment and said, "Your Highness, it seems that Tubo has also invested some money this time, gathering more than 30,000 troops to capture Xiaoboluo."

Li Heng and his men have fought all the way here, and now only Nieduo City has not been captured, so Gao Xianzhi counted the Tibetan troops he encountered along the way, and combined with the situation in Nieduo City, he could roughly know how many troops Tibet had sent in total.

Now, of the more than 30,000 Tubo soldiers, 10,000 of them were defeated in Lianyun Fort and its south. More than 5,000 were killed by the Tang army, and more than 1,000 were captured.

Five thousand soldiers were defeated on the way to support, and Li Heng and his men advanced southward again, killing several thousand of them, and together with Xiao Bolü, several thousand were killed.

Gao Xianzhi pondered for a while, and then said: "Even if Tubo gathers the remnants, they have less than 10,000 soldiers and horses defending Nieduo City alone, but..."

"Just what?" Li Ying asked.

Gao Xianzhi said: "It's just that the Tibetans' march this time is a little strange. They split their troops into two groups. One group went straight to Nieduo City, and the other group went north and only took Lianyun Fort. They marched like this, as if they knew we were coming and divided half of their troops to defend us."

Li Heng thought for a moment and said, "We ambushed nearly a thousand Tibetan soldiers outside Anxiershan Village and captured Dou Bai. I'm afraid the Tibetans have anticipated that we knew in advance that they wanted to invade Xiaoboluo." "That's right." Gao Xianzhi agreed with Li Heng's statement, "It's just that they didn't know that Your Highness was so smart and had already made preparations before, and they didn't know that our army would move out so quickly. Otherwise, they would have made preparations in Lianyunbao in advance, and our army would not have won so easily."

Li Heng nodded, and then asked Ninan about the military discipline of Tubo after they entered Nieduo City.

Ni Nan replied, and Ma Xilai translated: "According to the soldiers who followed later, because the king went north, His Highness led the soldiers of Tian Khan to help. After the Tubo army entered Nieduo City, they burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of atrocities."

The remaining soldiers defending the city had low morale, and they were unable to appease the military and civilians in Nieduo City, causing widespread resentment.

In this way, taking over Nieduo City is just a matter of formalities.

Li Heng finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing the news.

Although in history, Gao Xianzhi also took over Xiaobolü with more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and at that time Xiaobolü was pro-Tubo with no internal support and no involvement, but that was ten years later after all.

Li Heng did this ten years in advance, and the generals around him were definitely not as experienced as they would be ten years later, so he was still somewhat afraid deep down.

Now the victory is finally decided.

Li Heng was happy inside, but he couldn't show it at this moment.

Li Heng stood up and said angrily in a dress, "These beasts are so cruel and inhumane! Don't worry, King. It won't be long before our army will take back Nieduo City for you and let the people of Xiaoboluo rebuild their homes!"

After hearing this, Ni Nan burst into tears of gratitude and hurriedly came forward to bow and express his gratitude.

Ma Xilai translated: "The king thanks Tian Khan for his kindness and His Royal Highness Prince Shou for his kindness. From now on, if His Royal Highness Prince Shou has any mission, the Little Bolor Kingdom is willing to mobilize the whole country to accomplish it for His Royal Highness Prince Shou."

As he said this, Ni Nan presented the ring as a token of his love.

Ma Xilai said: "This is something that belongs exclusively to the King of Xiaoboluo. My king presented it to Your Highness as a token of proof."

Li Ying took the ring and said, "May the Great Tang and Little Bolü live in eternal harmony, forever and ever."

Li Heng and Ni Nan each bowed again.

……

……

……

The next day, Li Heng organized his army and marched towards Nieduo City.

As Li Heng expected, the Tang army easily captured Nieduo City, and the Tubo general Lun Qizang led his soldiers to flee. The Tang army pursued them all the way to the border river between Tubo and Xiaoboluo, and then stopped.

At this point, the entire territory of Xiaobolü was recovered. The Tang Dynasty, with less than 20,000 soldiers, traveled more than 3,000 miles on an expedition, defeated an enemy force of more than 30,000, and won a great victory.

King Ni of Xiaobolü was determined to empty his treasury, so he used the money donated by the people to reward the Tang army.

At the banquet, Li Heng and the other generals had a hard time enjoying themselves.

After three rounds of drinking, Li Siye happily started dancing. After the dance, he said to Li Heng: "Your Highness is a master in military operations, and is no less capable than Li Weigong. Why don't we seize the opportunity to pursue the enemy, cross the river, and attack the Tubo capital, Luoshui City, and take the head of the Zamp!"

Li Siye was obviously drunk.

Gao Xianzhi and An Sishun both looked at Li Heng. They were afraid that Li Heng was also drunk, so they agreed immediately.

"General Li, Your Highness said earlier that we would only drink and have fun today and not discuss official business." Gao Shi first came out to hold Li Siye, and then said to Li Heng: "Your Highness, I would like to write a poem to praise your Highness and the achievements of our army on this trip."

(End of this chapter)