"It's really annoying." Niu Jinda put his helmet heavily on the table and said with a straight face. Suppressed by gun soldiers, covered by sword and shield soldiers, dogged by cavalry, and crushed by Mo Dao soldiers, the Tang army taught the Tubo people, who had a relatively single military branch, a valuable lesson. Their skillful cooperation greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the Tang army. It can be said that the Tubo soldiers had no Method. The Tang army had the upper hand on the battlefield, but Songtsen Gampo was very decisive and the momentum was wrong. He immediately asked for money and refused to fight. Although the Tang army tried its best, the soldiers led by Qiongbo Bangse were very tough and fought to the death. Resisting and covering their general's retreat, taking the tradition of honoring one's death in battle to its extreme, the Tang Dynasty fell short and allowed Qiongbo Bangse to escape back to Luoche City. Although most of the Tibetans were annihilated, the general was not killed or captured. Niu Jinda It can be said to be very unpleasant. Without a general, the success of this battle would be reduced to half. Hou Junji patted Niu Jinda on the shoulder and said: "General Niu, don't be angry. Qiongbo Bangse escaped, but he fled back to Luoche City. Now we have surrounded Luoche City. They are just turtles in a urn. No, if we didn¡¯t catch it this time, we¡¯ll catch it next time.¡± ¡°Yes, at least the momentum we lost yesterday is back,¡± Old Demon King Cheng said happily. Niu Jinda said without any appreciation: "Niu has so many brothers to help him, but he can't take down a small Qiongbo Bangse. It's embarrassing to say it. If I had known, I would have put more force and chopped him down. By the way, later General, the situation is so good. If the Tubo people call for gold and withdraw their troops, why don't you call for gold and withdraw their troops? Wouldn't it be better for us to defeat these bullshit cities in one go and decide the outcome in one battle? " Niu Jinda felt that he couldn't take the enemy general's head. I was a little unhappy, but I didn't expect that at the critical moment, Hou Junji ordered people to call for gold and withdraw their troops, and they all attacked Niu Jinda at the gate of the city. Under the heavy military orders. He had to withdraw. As a result, he had opinions about Hou Junji, and there was already an element of dissatisfaction in his words. Are you still afraid that you will steal his credit? Can't you let yourself take this first victory in breaking the city? You know, I made a huge sacrifice last night. Hou Junji heard the dissatisfaction in his words and said with a wry smile: "General Niu. You misunderstood. In fact, Hou wanted to break through these cities one day earlier than you did and take Songtsen Gampo's head." It was dedicated to the emperor, but in fact, Hou was forced to pay for it. "Oh. What happened?" Niu Jinda said in surprise. "The gunpowder in the army has almost been used up. It is no exaggeration to say that General Niu retreated a quarter of an hour late because he was afraid that the firepower would not be able to provide fire support." "Really?" Qin Qiong nodded and said, "How can this matter be adulterated? ? There is indeed very little gunpowder left. Once Tufan knows that our firepower is no longer available, he will definitely launch a massive counterattack, which will be detrimental to our army. " "How is this possible? How can we use up so much gunpowder so quickly. "Hou Junji said with a wry smile: "There are many reasons. The first one is the high consumption. We use the three-stage shooting method to maintain strong firepower output. This is a good thing, but this also consumes a lot of money. The second is that our army is increasingly relying on gunpowder. After entering Tubo, they have to use it in every battle. The inventory of gunpowder has been decreasing. The last one is transportation. Most of our troops are placed in Luoche City. After a while, the Tibetan remnants took the opportunity to disturb our logistics line. As a result, our supplies will not be able to follow, and our greatest weapon can only be used sparingly. "That's it. Niu Jinda heard this. He could only sigh and said: "Songtsen Gampo is lucky, let him live a little longer." The most important method he relied on was forced to be suspended. Niu Jinda could not imagine that the army would attack the city under such circumstances. The losses must be huge. . At this time, Li Kuijing, who was in charge of interrogating Xun, came back. After hearing this, Hou Junji quickly asked: "General Hou, how are you doing? What have you gained?" Although the war was over, the soldiers still captured many prisoners, and also rescued several The ten people of the Tang Dynasty who were relatively lucky, to use a good word, were not killed when they saw the Tibetan army for the first time, lived on the plateau, and did not have to go to them after several years of hard slave life. Life is used as cannon fodder to survive for the second time in the midst of thousands of troops. He is simply a Xiaoqiang who cannot be beaten. Li Jing frowned and said: "After checking clearly, and taking into account the opinions of the people and prisoners, the people dispatched this time are only the people detained in one of the dungeons, about 3,000 people, while there are dungeons of the same size in the city. There are four more. In other words, there are still 10,000 people from the Tang Dynasty in Luoxue City." When everyone heard this, their hearts began to feel heavy again. Tubo has repeatedly invaded the border areas in recent years. In addition to property, people were not spared, and they were taken back to Tubo as slaves. Especially when the city of Songzhou was destroyed, an unknown number of people were taken away. The total number of people in several camps was about 20,000. The crowd, but plus those who died by the sword??For those who were not adapted to the Tubo Plateau, those who died on the road, those who died of torture, those who were tortured and killed, etc., the blood debt was huge. Old Demon King Cheng punched the case and said through gritted teeth: "These dogs are so hateful." "Yes, they are so pitiful." Li Jing, who was in charge of the interrogation, rarely said with emotion: "These people have been suffering so much In the eyes of the Tubo people, the inhuman treatment is not as valuable as a cotton sheep, which is chilling to hear. "As a general, countless people died under Li Jing's hands. It can be said that he has a great disregard for life, but. Such people also say that they are heartbroken. From this, we can see how miserable the lives of these people in the Tang Dynasty are. In fact, it can be seen from when they were driven out. The men and women were naked and skinny. Not only the stripes on their bodies The shocking scars are shocking, and their indifferent and desperate attitude towards life is even more heartbreaking. Hou Junji frowned and said: "In the name of rescue, if we don't care about the lives of the people of the Tang Dynasty, and it seems that our words are not honest and our actions are not smooth, Hou is going to use the Tibetan hostages in exchange for our people of the Tang Dynasty. How many of them?" What do you think of the general? "The Tang army swept through more than half of the Tubo territory, especially the city of Pibo, and captured a large number of Tibetans. Hou Junji planned to exchange these people for the common people of the Tang Dynasty. "Those guys are cheaper, let's change them, and we can catch them back when the time comes." Old Demon King Cheng was the first to agree. Thinking of those desperate faces, Niu Jinda said without hesitation: "Change." Qin Qiong and Duan Zhixuan agreed, and Li Jing also said: "This is also a good idea. We have surrounded them in Luoche City. They It's hard to fly with wings, so it would be good to put these noble uncles in and let them consume more food. Besides, using this reason, we can also speed up the delivery of the gunpowder needed for the firecrackers. It can be said that we kill two birds with one stone. No, we can save the people of the Tang Dynasty. This It was originally a great merit, achieving three things with one stone." Everyone nodded. In the middle of business, there was a sudden noise outside, and some soldiers seemed to be shouting something loudly. Hou Junji's face darkened, and he immediately shouted: "Come here." "General" and several close guards came in immediately, respectfully He saluted respectfully. Hou Junji frowned and said: "Why is it so noisy outside? Where is the military discipline? What happened?" "Returning to the general, the Tubo people drove the Tang people on the city wall to act as human shields, and also hung the people on the top of the city. , the soldiers were so angry that they shouted loudly, "What?" Use the common people as human shields? As soon as the generals heard this, they immediately walked out of the barracks to take a look. They were free to look at it, but their lungs exploded at the sight: they saw Tang people with their hands and feet tied standing on the city wall, and the Tubo soldiers were hiding behind them. , In addition, there is a row of common people hanging on the city wall, which looks strange and a bit sad. Songtsen Gampo simply did everything he could. Hou Junji's eyes were burning, and he turned around and ordered: "Come, go and ask for Mr. Lu." "Yes, General." Not long after, Lu Yuqing, the Minister of Rites, who usually hid behind the military camp, carried the man again. A white flag, Shi Shiran, rode alone towards the gate of Luoxue City. His body was straightened up, his face was calm, and his eyes were firm and proud. The envoys of the Tang Dynasty represent the attitude of the Tang Dynasty. As a celestial kingdom standing in the east and a state of etiquette, naturally they cannot lose face. It is truly remarkable that a civil servant has such courage.