Chapter 387 Crisis
After the new Anxi Protector took office, the situation in Gaochang has not changed and is as stable as ever. According to the agreement between Fang Jun and the Gaochang nobles, a "popular election" meeting will be held within the next month. All Gaochang people will elect eight "rulings" to assist the Anxi Governor in governing Gaochang. They will also elect the entire Gaochang people. The middle and lower-level officials in Gaochang.
At the same time, "Gaochang" was renamed "Xizhou", which means the westernmost state capital of the Tang Dynasty...
But while all this was still in full swing, Fang Jun had already led the Shenji Battalion to retreat and return to Chang'an.
Before leaving, Fang Jun only notified Ju Wendou, Pu Quluo, Chimu Hague and others to prevent those who stabilized the situation in Xizhou from panic, and then led the two thousand soldiers of the Shenji Battalion and some medical officers of the sick and wounded battalion. , quietly set out on the road, embarking on the road back to Guanzhong...
Along the way, Fang Jun did not dare to be careless at all. He always had a terrifying feeling that he was being stared at by a poisonous snake and would launch a fatal blow at any time, because various signs showed that there was a cavalry troop waiting near him. ……
Fang Jun did not think that the Turks would send a large force to attack him. The situation in the Western Regions was now a bit delicate. Kucha, Yanqi and other Western Region countries openly expressed their surrender to the Tang Dynasty, and the Turks took the initiative to abandon the Khan Futu north of Gaochang. City, if a large number of troops come to embarrass Fang Jun, Qiao Shiwang only needs to unite the countries in the Western Regions and teach the Turks how to behave in minutes. No matter how many troops come, they will never come back!
On the contrary, the small group of cavalry is flexible and can advance and retreat freely. Even if the attack fails, it can retreat calmly.
But will the Shenji Battalion be afraid of a small group of Turkic cavalry?
The answer is of course no.
At the beginning, a thousand "Fu Li" soldiers of the Turkic Khan made a sneak attack at night and were defeated by the Shenji Battalion. This gave Fang Jun and the Shenji Battalion strong confidence.
The Turks are really stubborn. Don't they learn the lesson from their last failure?
Even though the Shenji Battalion was full of confidence, Fang Jun did not dare to be careless. No matter day or night, the twenty teams of scouts were placed far away, and all the disturbances in the dozens of miles around were under control to prevent surprise attacks by the Turks.
As long as you can be prepared when the Turks attack and set up an array, you will be foolproof!
It's a pity that he didn't expect that these barbarians on the grassland are sometimes not single-minded...
In the shade of a hill, Fang Jun jumped off his horse, slashed with the horizontal knife in his hand, and cut off a large piece of low shrubs. The half-man-high thatch in front of him covered the rugged sand dunes tightly, and the autumn wind rustled. , vegetation withered.
There are no birds singing here, and there are no animals. Looking around, the world is vast, the blue sky extends to the end of the earth, and the entire hillside is filled with a strong smell of blood. Even the crows that like to eat carrion stay far away. This land of death...
There are ten people in total, which is the number of people in the Shenji Battalion's scout team.
Now these most brave soldiers have lost their lives long ago. Their young bodies lie scattered in the messy grass. The hot blood has long dried up, leaving behind puddles of brown traces on the ground.
Fang Jun's face was ashen, and his heart was like a knife. A deep self-blame and soaring anger repeatedly gnawed at his heart!
He brought these brave young men to the Western Regions, but on the way home, due to his own carelessness, their souls died and they would never return to their hometown again. These scouts all had their eyes wide open, staring blankly at the vast blue sky, as if they were still thinking about when they could return to Guanzhong...
War makes a person mature quickly, and so does Fang Jun.
He was angry and blamed himself in his heart, but he did not show any violent emotions or special sadness. He just closed the eyes of the brothers one by one, and then said in a deep voice: "Find some firewood, cremate the brothers, and we will take them home." ! ”
He must take these brothers back. If they die here, no one will come to pay their respects...
This was one of several teams of scouts that were released before camping last night. They had not returned to camp at dawn. The army searched for a whole morning before discovering this team of scouts less than five miles away from the camp. But all of them were killed.
These are his brothers of life and death. Before the tour last night, everyone was still joking with him. Fang Jun also joked that after returning to Guanzhong, he would invite them to Zuixian Tower to eat the most delicious food in the world and drink the most fragrant wine. Fine wine, and then try the famous singer from Zuixianlou in Guanzhong...
But now, they will die forever on this desolate uphill slope, burying the best years of their lives here!
Fang Jun clenched his fists tightly, gritted his teeth, straightened up, and looked around.
The Turks' tactics gave him a headache. He was afraid of the Shenji Battalion's huge firepower and the extremely effective battle formation against cavalry, so he started to engage in guerrilla tactics. Do you want to defeat them one by one?
You don't even need to kill many people. Just killing the scouts one by one can quickly collapse the morale of the Shenji Battalion.
This kind of blunt knife is the most uncomfortable when cutting meat!
"Master Hou," Liu Rengui came up from behind. Seeing Fang Jun's angry expression, he persuaded with some worry: "Being a soldier and eating food, shrouding corpses in horse leather is already prepared. Life and death are determined by fate. Master Hou, don't worry too much."
The most taboo thing in the army is for a general to be emotionally influenced by factors such as sadness, regret, anger, underestimation of the enemy, etc. Because in this case, the mind will inevitably fall into an irrational state, and it is easy to make wrong judgments and get into dangerous situations.
In the Shenji Camp, fewer and fewer people now call Fang Jun "Admiral", replaced by "Master Hou", which is obviously a much more intimate title. This shows that Fang Jun's status in the Shenji Camp is The prestige is getting stronger and stronger, and the soldiers all regard themselves as Fang Jun's private soldier...
Of course Fang Jun understood what Liu Rengui meant. Although he had copied "The Art of War" many times and still failed to understand the essence of it, his rich experience in two lifetimes made Fang Jun know that the commander of an army should never "raise an army out of anger". .
Glancing to the side, Xi Junmai was arranging the bodies of the fallen soldiers neatly one by one. The boy's face was stern, not much sad, but there was a cold light in his eyes and he kept mumbling something. His mouth showed determination.
The remaining soldiers searched for thatch and dead shrubs from all around, piled them together, and waited for the cremation of these fallen soldiers. Then they took the ashes back and sent them to their relatives back home.
When everyone did all this, some were angry and some were sad, but no one was afraid. When he was in the army and went on an expedition to the Western Regions, everyone was open-minded and ready to die at any time. When he fought, not only did he have the full support of his comrades, but even after he died in the battle, he could take his ashes with him. Returning to your hometown so that you can continue to protect your parents, wife and children, what more do you have to fear?
Morale is like a storm, brewing in silence and gathering in silence. Just waiting for a special moment, it will completely burst out and sweep away everything in front of it!
Fang Jun let out a breath from the bottom of his heart and said in a deep voice: "The Turks have changed their tactics. We can't stand still and stop marching, right?"
When it comes to the art of war, two of them are not as good as one Liu Rengui, and Fang Jun himself knows this. All of his "arts of war" are actually based on insights far ahead of the times. They emphasize taking the initiative and copying successful cases in history. But when it comes to passively facing the enemy and formulating tactics according to local conditions, his pitiful "strategy" is completely inadequate...
Fang Jun was helpless, but Liu Rengui seemed completely indifferent to the Turks' guerrilla tactics.
"There are only ten scouts in each team, and this place is only a month away from Yumen Pass. It is impossible for the Turks to kill ten or ten people like this, and then gradually go deep alone and put themselves in danger. For the Turks, the more As they approach Yumen Pass, the danger becomes greater. Once their whereabouts are detected by the army at Yumen Pass, they will not be able to escape even if they want to. The soldiers are chasing behind them and they dare not stop supplying for a moment. The only way is to destroy the demons with the entire army! Therefore, the purpose of the Turks is definitely not to kill many of our scouts, but to attack the entire army through this method! As long as the morale of the Turks collapses, the surprise attack technique that the Turks are proud of will be able to exert its greatest effect and give us a fatal blow.”
Liu Rengui is calm and calm, his eyes are shining with brilliance, as if he has the demeanor of a peerless general... (End of this chapter)