Chapter 433: Strategy established

An hour later, Li Tianchen, who received the news, immediately sent Shi Yang to lead 300 cavalrymen to the dark forest at lightning speed. "General, that's it!" The thunderbolt hunter pointed at the bloody patch of distance and said tremblingly.

Before the captain's order was issued, one hundred soldiers turned over and dismounted, took pickaxes to dig up the bodies, and the rest of the cavalry served as guards around. Several scouts ran to the distance to observe the movement within 500 steps. Shi Yang frowned and looked at the dark place around, which was not far from where he had wiped out the cannibals last time. It was located in the depths of the dark forest. There was an abandoned path. Walking along the path, you could walk out of the other end of the forest for more than 40 miles away.

Soon, more than a hundred corpses were excavated and placed all over the ground. Most of these corpses were incomplete, and even the nipples of several women were cut off. All the valuable things on them were stripped away, showing the cruelty and greed of the killer. Who did this and dared to commit violence under the eyes of the Tang army. Shi Yang gritted his teeth and asked the Tukha Hunter who reported the news, "I heard you, the killer said in the end in Tukki. Is that true?"

"Yes! I think their accent seems to be the Geluo people." The Tukki Hunter hesitated for a moment, and suddenly affirmed: "They are Geluo people."

‘Gelu people? Shi Yang also believed that Gelu people were extremely likely. Apart from them, he could not think of any other forces here. The question now is whether these Gelu people were robbed like a wanderer? Or was there a huge conspiracy hidden.

"Captain, we found this!" A soldier handed over a tax bill, Shi Yang took it and looked at it. This was the tax bill issued by the Yaolong City Government Office. The date on it was today. The owner of the goods was named Pierre and Maier. The deceased was the pair of Sogdian brothers in the morning. After clarifying their identities, Shi Yang's mission ended. He immediately ordered the corpses to be buried. Just as he was about to leave, the thunderbolt hunter suddenly remembered something.

"General, I forgot to say something."

"What's the matter?" Shi Yang stopped the war horse.

"I remember the Sogdian merchant shouted a word when he first arrived here, and he shouted, go and call the guy who was loaned for usury!" The Hunter of Tukchi carefully recalled some details at that time. Yes, he could be sure that the other party was shouting "The guy who was loaned for usury."

"What then?" Shi Yang asked without saying a word.

"Then. Then someone shouted, the man didn't follow, and seemed to be missing."

"Get out!" Shi Yang gave the order and led 300 cavalrymen to disappear into the distance like a gust of wind.

In the Tang army camp, the Sogdian tax bills were lying quietly on Li Tianchen's table. Li Tianchen paced back and forth in the tent with his hands behind his back. The young general was also confused about this matter. The Gelulu people and the Sogdians have always had a good relationship. Why did they kill each other? And it was the first caravan after the Tang army occupied the Yaolong City. Is it really the Gelulu people's wandering soldiers and brave soldiers? If so, why didn't they do it on their own territory, but ran to the Tang army's territory to take risks? And where did they come from in Tang army uniforms? It is impossible for the wandering soldiers and brave soldiers to do it.

From the many suspicious points, Li Tianchen sensitively realized that there must be a conspiracy of the Geluo people. When he looked up, he saw Shi Yang standing beside him wanting to speak but stopped, and asked him with a smile: "What else do you have to say!"

"General, my subordinates have checked the so-called loan shark. There is only one Sogdian named Jalandra in the Demon Dragon City, which is worse than that."

Before he finished speaking, Li Tianchen waved his hand and interrupted him, "Don't alarm the snake on this matter for the time being. I have sent someone to find Kang Ming, and he will give me an answer soon."

After pausing, Li Tianchen asked again: "What other ideas do you have?"

"I'm wondering why these Gelulu people wanted to wear the Tang army's uniforms. In addition to concealing their identities, would there be a strategy to frame the Tang army? If this is true, I'm afraid that Gelu people would not be as simple as killing people and seizing money."

Li Tianchen nodded, "I think so too, but I still need some evidence."

At this time, a soldier outside the tent reported, "General Li, Manager Kang of the Yaolong Inn has arrived."

"Shit him in." Li Tianchen ordered, and he turned around and smiled at Shi Yang, "The Sogdians are not united, and we may get some useful information from this shopkeeper Kang."

After a moment, the curtain was lifted, and Manager Kang walked in under the guidance of the soldiers. Manager Kang was the old man surnamed Kang. He advocated to compromise with the Tang army to maintain the interests of the Sogdians in the Yaolong City. Although all the Sogdians finally registered with the Government Affairs Office, Manager Kang sincerely surrendered to the Tang Dynasty. He walked into the tent and bowed: "Caomins meet the general."

"Shopkeeper Kang, don't be polite." Li Tianchen handed him the tax form on the table, "Are you familiar with these two people?"

"Brother Pierre?" Manager Kang was stunned. Why did their tax bills be in the hands of Tang Jun? He saw them in the morning! This time they were afraid of Tang Jun and refused to stay in the hotel. He replied with confusion: "I am very familiar with them. I have known their brothers for more than 20 years. Every time they come to Yaolong City, they have to stay with me for one night."

After hesitating, Manager Kang asked again: "Has something happened to them?"

"They were killed in the dark forest by the Gloro people, and there was no living life, and the goods were taken away."

"Geluo people!" Manager Kang cried out in a low voice: "How is this possible?"

Li Tianchen and Shi Yang quickly looked at each other, and they heard a clue from Manager Kang's tone. Li Tianchen stared at him and asked, "Then tell me, how could it be impossible?"

Manager Kang knew that he had already missed his words and was helpless. He had to say truthfully: "The Pierre brothers and Ye Huduotu, the second largest force in Gelulu, have an extraordinary relationship. Half of the members of their caravan were voted by Duotu. Moreover, Pierre's daughter married Duotu, who was deeply favored, and gave birth to a son for him. Therefore, it is really incredible that they were killed by the Gelulu people, unless these murderers don't want to live."

After saying that, Manager Kang sighed slightly, feeling very sad about the death of the Pierre brothers, but Li Tianchen frowned. He became even more confused. These Geluo people not only killed their own people, but also offended the Geluo nobles. This is indeed a bit incredible. Could it be that they were not Geluo people, but were sent by the Uighurs to provoke the war between Geluo and the Tang Dynasty.

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Li Tianchen pondered for a long time again, and finally made up his mind that he must come to light on this matter. When Manager Kang said goodbye, he immediately said to Shi Yang: "I have changed my mind now. You can arrest that Jalandra, but it's better to do it again at night and don't make the noise too much."

"The last one will obey the order!" Shi Yang gave a military salute and quickly walked out of the tent.

Zaoye, more than a dozen doves came out of the clouds piled up like hills in the sky, making a buzzing sound, hovering around the Zaoye. On the highest watchtower in Zaoye City, two sentry thugs were staring at the group of pigeons. Suddenly, a soldier shouted: "Look! It's a red bamboo tube."

Red represents the most urgent situation. Two soldiers began to blew the pigeons and attracted the pigeons to descend. A flock of pigeons slowly restrained their wings and finally landed on the watchtower. A soldier skillfully untied the thin red bamboo tube tied to a pigeon's legs and ran down to the tower quickly.

Currently, the Western Regions Protectorate is located in the City of Suiye. This is a magnificent stone building built by the Great Cannibal. It was built seven years ago. It was originally a translation museum for the Great Cannibal. It was planned to translate a large number of Islamic scriptures into Turkic language and spread Islamic culture to the Turks. However, just two years after it was built, Suiye was recaptured by the Tang Dynasty. This huge building was also requisitioned by the Tang army and became a place to train low-level officers. Now it has become the headquarters of Wang Siyu's Western Regions Protectorate.

Wang Siyu has a series of dazzling positions, including the Great Protector and Governor of the Western Regions Protectorate, the Young Tutor of the Crown Prince, Duke of Min, and the champion general. However, the position that really has real power is the Great Protector of the Western Regions, who directly controls the 60,000 army, while the Great Protector of the Western Regions must obtain the temporary authorization of the emperor before he can exercise his actual position.

But even if Wang Siyu actually led an army of 60,000, he could not do whatever he wanted. According to the Tang Dynasty's power checks and balances, Wang Siyu's power was checked and balanced by two levels of measures. The first was the rotation system, and the border generals were rotated every four years. For example, the Longyou Jiedushi Helou Wuji exchanged with the Shuofang Jiedushi Luo Guangzheng in April, the Hexi Jiedushi Lin Jiuhan and the Fanyang Jiedushi Li Shuangyu exchanged, etc. The second was the military supervision system. The military supervision system did not refer to the military supervision system that Li Longji sent eunuch Bian Lingcheng to supervise Gao Xianzhi. It was an abnormal behavior. The real military supervision system of the Tang Dynasty was that the Censorate sent the Censor to station in the border to exercise supervision power. In order to prevent the collusion between the Censor and the Border General, the Censor will also be replaced every two years.

The Censorate is not of high rank, only from the sixth rank, but its power is very great. Its main responsibility is to supervise whether the border generals have committed any violations of power or lack of military discipline, and to review their money and grain expenses regularly. At the same time, they have two judges as assistants and are directly responsible to the Censorate. In special circumstances, they can participate in military planning and even lead the army to fight. There are also some special powers. For example, if Wang Siyu wants to obtain actual command over the major governors' offices in Anxi during the war, his application must also have the deputy signature of the Censor.

The current censor in charge of supervising the Western Regions is Wu Yuanheng. He was transferred to the Censorate last year and was sent to Anxi to take office this year. He had just arrived at Shuye a few days ago. After settling down, he came to see Wang Siyu directly.

In the living room, Wang Siyu was smiling and kindly introducing some basic situations of the recent occurrence of the Shattered Leaf. Although Wang Siyu was a first-rank high-ranking official and a rank-ranking official, he did not dare to act like a high-ranking official in front of Wu Yuanheng, who was a sixth-ranking Wu Yuanheng. He knew that in order to prepare for the Great Food this time, the emperor made an exception to extend his Western Regions Majesty's post for another two years. If he was ungrateful and was afraid to treat the supervisory and censor sent by the court, it would inevitably arouse the disgust of the emperor and the court, which would greatly damage his future.

The years have worn away Wang Siyu's sharpness, and he has also begun to become a little sophisticated and smooth, but one thing has not changed, that is, his loyalty to Zhang Huan.

"I have nothing major to do here in the past two months. It is mainly to receive various military supplies from the Central Plains, as well as to train the newly established 30,000 Han People's Corps. They mainly assisted the regular army in defending the city during wartime. Another major thing is to occupy the city of Atumu in the north. It has now been renamed Yaolong City and has garrisoned 10,000 troops. I have reported this to the emperor in advance and received approval."

Speaking of this, Wang Siyu's face turned solemn again and said frankly to Wu Yuanheng: "In short, Yu Shishi Wu can supervise all kinds of situations in Suiye and even Anxi. If anyone dares to obstruct the supervision of Minister Wu, he can tell me directly that I will be engaged in military law."

Wu Yuanheng was a little younger than Wang Siyu. Facing this military general with the highest position in the Tang Dynasty, the emperor's former confidant beloved general, he said sincerely: "I also ask the general to rest assured. I will do everything according to the system and will never participate in personal likes and dislikes. I will write a supervision report based on the truth and will never exaggerate it."

"Okay, I hope we can cooperate happily!" Wang Siyu bowed and smiled slightly.

At this time, a soldier suddenly ran out of the door. He reported loudly at the door: "Report to the Grand Marshal, there is a red pigeon letter delivered to Yaolong City, and it is urgent to get one hundred thousand!"

Wang Siyu and Wu Yuanheng stood up at the same time, and Wu Yuanheng spoke first: "Since General Wang has military affairs, I won't disturb you."

He said goodbye and was about to leave, but Wang Siyu stopped him and said with a smile: "The Martial Envoy was once a famous military counselor in the Ministry of War. This time, the urgent report must be related to the Geluo people. The Martial Envoy might as well advise me for one or two."

Wu Yuanheng did not postpone it, and bowed and said, "Yuanheng is willing to contribute to state affairs."

Wang Siyu took the pigeon letter, opened it, and immediately took Wu Yuanheng to the military affairs office next to him. The military affairs office was where Wang Siyu decided on military affairs. It covers a large area, but it mainly placed a huge Anxi sand table, starting from Dunhuang in the east and ending on the Mediterranean coast of Dashi in the west. Although the sand table was huge, it was relatively simple to the west of the Amu River. It mainly drew some cities and main mountains. The details were concentrated in the vast area east of the Amu River. Every city, every mountain range, every river, and every oasis were clearly marked. There were even another volume for each city, specifically introducing the garrison and population distribution here. It was controlled by a chief clerk and changed at any time according to the latest information.

"The latest information has been heard from the Demon Dragon City. The main war faction within the Gelulu people sent people to pretend to be Tang army to attack a Sogdian caravan. This caravan involves the vital interests of Ye Hu, the second force in Gelulu, which is very likely to reach a consensus within the Demon Dragon City."

Speaking of this, Wang Siyu pointed at a place with a long wooden pole at a mountain at the north side of the Qing Dynasty with several small houses and said: "This is Yaolong City. Our scouts found that from the adjacent Yaolong Lake, a thousand stone ship can reach Yibohai directly, which has extremely high strategic value for our future containment of the Uighurs. For this reason, I specially reported to the emperor. The emperor immediately ordered me to take this place as soon as possible as the logistics base for the Tang army to go north to Yibohai."

Wu Yuanheng looked at the town carefully and suddenly said, "The key point of this town is probably not only that it can lead to Yibohai. I see its location seems to have strangled the throat of the Dashi connecting Gelu and Uighurs. If this is true, the Gelu people want to attack this place, perhaps there is a shadow of the Dashi people behind it."

Wang Siyu secretly raised his thumbs up and praised him. As expected, he was well-known. This person had a broad mind and suddenly caught the key point of the problem. He smiled slightly and said, "Since the Martial Envoy has seen this level, I won't hide it from you. The emperor issued a secret order to me half a year ago. This time, the attack on the Geluo people is Xu, and the emperor's real purpose is here."

Wang Siyu used a wooden pole to draw a circle on the Tochar area and smiled: "As early as four months ago, the court mobilized 80,000 elite troops from the mainland to station Shule, and reached an agreement with Tubo. The Tubo people will send 20,000 troops to make a move on the Tochari border. As long as the Tochari Dashi Army comes to rescue the Geluo people, Shule's 80,000 Tang troops will cross the Pamir Mountains to seize Tochari."

"A clever plan!" Wu Yuanheng couldn't help but slam the high-five and praised: "Who came up with this plan? It was indeed extremely clever. Tochar is critical. Should the Great Food Army of Bahanna be saved or not? If it is saved, the Tang army of Saiye can take advantage of the opportunity to seize Bahanna. This plan can be said to have fully utilized the strategic advantages of Saiye City."

"I heard that this was the plan of Li Mi, the common prime minister, back then. It was indeed very clever. If the Tocharian army refused to help the Geluo people, then we simply destroyed the Geluo people and completely remove the nail behind the Broken Leaf City."

"But if the Geluo people are destroyed, we will face the Uighur people directly. If the Uighur people form an alliance with the Great Cannibal, wouldn't we be attacked from both sides? And I heard that the Great Cannibal has strong national strength, and our Tang Dynasty has gone from chaos to rule, and it was just in the recovery period. I'm afraid that the national strength will not be able to support the battle on both sides." Wu Yuanheng was somewhat worried.

"You can't think like this." Wang Siyu immediately refuted Wu Yuanheng's weakness. "The more you are afraid of war, the less courage you have to go to the enemy opposite. We have the powerful Tang thunder, and we also have strong armor and sharp Modao. These are not for appearances. We must fight the war that should be fought. Even if we lose, we cannot lose dignity. As long as our blood and dignity are still there, we will have the opportunity to regain victory. We are afraid of comfort for a long time. The court is afraid of the enemy like a tiger, becoming blindly tolerant and retreat, and even the minimum blood is completely lost. Is there the dignity of a great country? Whether it is the Uighurs or the great cannibals, the weaker you are, the more they will bully you. You will know just by looking at Tubo. If there was no battle in Anxi, would they be so obedient now?"

Speaking of this, Wang Siyu gently patted Wu Yuanheng on the shoulder and smiled: "I heard that you were famous for being tough when you were in the Ministry of War, why are you becoming indecisive now?"

Wu Yuanheng was silent. He admitted that Wang Siyu's statement was reasonable. Now the court has formed a rare consensus on the possible battle with the Dashi. Everyone has realized that if the Tang Dynasty wanted to restore the prosperous world that was so arrogant in Zhenguan, it would be impossible to please the opponent by just being friendly and friendly. Yes, since the Han Dynasty, the dignity of the Han dynasties has always been exchanged for iron and blood. Weakness can only be exchanged for more humiliation. Sometimes it would be better to be tough!

He nodded, picked up the wooden pole and pointed at the northwest of the Saiye, Ashibulai City, smiling and said, "I don't know if General Wang has discovered it. Although the location of the Saiye is important, it is located in the valley, and there is little room for expansion to the west. If we can take this opportunity to take down the Saiye City, we can take the city of Talas to the west and sweep Bahan to the south. The initiative of the war will be in our hands all at once. What does General Wang think?"

Wang Siyu's expression became extremely serious. He carefully checked the geographical location of Ashibulai City again and again. It was backed by the steep Qianquan Mountain, and to the east were Julan City and Talas City, and to the south was Bahanna, which had the geographical advantage of raising the fur. He took a breath. Wu Yuanheng was very right. Taking Ashibulai City, he indeed took the initiative in the war. It can be said that this will be a key fulcrum of the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Dashi.
Chapter completed!