Chapter 192 The enemy retreats

"The enemy retreats! The enemy retreats!" Seeing the Xueyantuo army retreating like a tide, the defenders on the city wall cheered.

"I didn't expect the Xueyantuo to be so vulnerable."

"Your Highness, just use a little trick to make them lose their courage and not dare to attack Wantong City." An officer from the East Palace said.

It was his first time out of Chang'an, and he was a little scared of the Xueyantuo army approaching the city.

While he was scared, he was more excited.

He thought it would be a fierce battle, but who knew that the opponent was so vulnerable.

A casual scare would make them lose their army.

He not only thought, with such an army, how dare they dare to offend the Tang Dynasty.

"Don't underestimate the Xueyantuo, Bazhuo's native troops have never moved." Li Chengqian said.

"Your Highness is right! Those who attacked Wantong City are not the Xueyantuo's native troops."

"They should be a large army assembled from various tribes. Bazhuo's native troops should be arranged at the back to supervise the army." Shishisili said.

As Shishisili had dealt with the Xueyantuo for so many years, he could naturally tell them apart at a glance.

Was the one who just charged the troops assembled from various tribes, or was it Bazhuo's native troops.

"This time, Bazhuo suffered a loss outside Wantong City, and he didn't get any advantage. I'm afraid he won't let it go. We still need to be careful." Tian Renhui said.

"General Tian is right, but the Xueyantuo is a little strange today. They have never been defeated like this before. It's really puzzling." Shishishili was puzzled.

Shishishili had dealt with Xueyantuo for many years, and he knew how strong Xueyantuo was.

But they would definitely not be as weak as they were today, which was what Shishishili was puzzled about.

"It seems that our newly appointed Duomi Khan is so unpopular that these people are unwilling to fight for Bazhuo." Li Chengqian said as he looked at the enemy army that was gradually going away.

"Your Highness, why are you saying that? Maybe this is a trick of the enemy! They intend to lure our army to attack, but in fact they have already set up an ambush."

​​"If our army leaves the city rashly, it will definitely be ambushed by the enemy! Otherwise, the Xueyantuo army will never withdraw like this." Shishisili said.

This is the result of his analysis based on his understanding of Xueyantuo.

Li Chengqian did not agree with Shishisili's statement. Now that Bazhuo has just taken the position of Khan and his foundation is not stable, he is eager to attack the Tang Dynasty.

Will the tribal leaders of different surnames under him agree? Will they have any opinions?

This is obviously impossible!

If Bazhuo wants to establish merit and prestige by provoking the Tang Dynasty, it will not work by driving the troops of other tribes.

He had no choice but to use his own troops to go south to establish merit and prestige.

Unfortunately! His 30,000-strong army was trapped in Xiazhou and was completely wiped out.

The army in Mobei could not be mobilized at will. After all, he still needed to guard against other tribes' rebellion.

If he drained his internal forces, he would most likely suffer a disaster.

As for driving other tribes to charge and break through the formation for him, no one would be willing to do so unless there were enough benefits to move their hearts.

Otherwise, Bazhuo would not be able to mobilize the troops of other tribes.

Obviously, the reason why other tribes were able to follow Bazhuo to the south this time was mostly because of the Tang Emperor's expedition to Goguryeo.

They thought they had an opportunity to make a fortune by going south this time, but the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had already thought of this and made arrangements early on.

These tribes saw that there was nothing to gain and that they might even offend the Tang Dynasty, which was contrary to their original purpose.

Naturally, they were unwilling to continue going south and had already developed the mentality of retreating.

"No! Uncle, you overestimate Bazhuo! Bazhuo is irritable and suspicious. He is not popular among the people. If he hadn't taken the initiative to kill his brother, who would support him to become Khan?"

"But even if Bazhuo ascends to the throne, the tribes below will not be willing to obey them, especially the Uighurs, whose strength is second only to the Xueyantuo, and will not support Bazhuo."

"In order to secure his position as Khan, Bazhuo must make enough military achievements to prove that he can sit firmly on the position of Khan. So what should Bazhuo do?" Li Chengqian asked.

"If Bazhuo wants to gain enough military merit to secure his position as Khan, he must attack the nearby countries."

"To the east of Xueyantuo is the situation of a melee between Silla, Baekje and Goguryeo, and the strength is the weakest." "

But the east is small, the production is low, and the people are fierce. Your Majesty is now in Liaoning, so Xueyantuo will never attack the east."

"To the west is Tubo, which is powerful and Xueyantuo is no match for it. Bazhuo is not stupid, so he will naturally not attack the west."

"Now that Your Majesty is on an expedition, our Tang Dynasty is undoubtedly the best target. Your Majesty has long anticipated this, so he asked us to prepare early."

"Ba Zhuo saw that there was no opportunity to take advantage of, so he might want to lure me out of the city, set up an ambush outside the city, pretend to be defeated to lure our army out of the city, and then catch our army off guard." Shi Shisi said.

He still believed that Ba Zhuo was plotting, otherwise he would not retreat so easily.

Although their front army was disorganized and looked like they were defeated and fleeing, it can be seen from their calm and orderly retreat of the central army.

Ba Zhuo did not flee because of the defeat, but deliberately wanted to lure the Tang army out of the city to pursue, and then counterattack and catch the Tang army off guard.

"No! I think Bazhuo is really retreating. The main reason why the tribes can follow Bazhuo south this time is because of my father's expedition."

"Others think the same as Bazhuo. They think that our Tang Dynasty is weak and want to take this opportunity to attack."

"They didn't expect that my father had already made preparations. Now the King of Jiangxia is stationed in Shuozhou, Ashina She'er is stationed in Shengzhou, and the Left Marquis General Xue Guwu is stationed in Lingzhou."

"They have no chance to take advantage of. The tribes will definitely want to retreat to Mobei. Bazhuo will definitely not agree, so he suppressed the tribal generals who opposed him."

"Recruited the troops of these generals and used these forcibly recruited troops as cannon fodder to let them attack Wantong City."

"These people are not stupid, they will not really work for Bazhuo, so they dispersed as soon as we used fire attack!"

"Bazhuo was unable to gather these retreating soldiers, so he had no choice but to order a withdrawal. Now if our army could go out of the city to meet the enemy and pursue them, we would definitely achieve something." Li Chengqian said.

He analyzed this problem from another angle and guessed the reason why Bazhuo withdrew.

If we took the opportunity to go out of the city to pursue, even if we could not destroy Bazhuo's troops, we would still be able to gain something.

What a pity! No one would believe the words of a newcomer on the battlefield.