When leaving the holy city, Lu Dongzan made a special trip to see the Tubo Dynasty's financial resources. The war had only been going on for a few months, and the Tubo Dynasty didn't have much left. If there was no new income, they probably wouldn't be able to hold on. No matter whether you are a central government or a local government, if your pockets are empty, don't expect anyone to work for you.
In normal times, those chieftains who submit to the central government are good, but at critical moments, in order to ensure the continuation of the central government, you have to contribute your family property and your wives, children and the elderly.
When Lu Dongzan proposed this, Songtsen Gampo refused. After all, Songtsen Gampo wanted the same reputation as Li Shimin, and he could not do such a thing as robbing his subordinates. But Lu Dongzan laid out all the circumstances and said, either you go and rob these chieftains, or we can't even get next month's military pay.
In desperation, Songtsen Gampo could only agree with Lu Dongzan's idea. If Lu Dongzan knew that Li Xiang was behind the scenes, he would never resort to such a desperate measure. Such a desperate measure could only be used once in a critical moment. If used for a long time, it would have a devastating impact on the entire empire.
What he wanted to do now was to put out all the wars on the entire plateau before Li Xiang arrived, and reduce everything to zero, so that Li Xiang could see a strong Tubo.
Unfortunately, Li Xiang had already known the situation on the plateau. Everything he did accelerated Li Xiang's plan and caused the entire Tubo to decline.
The battle of the second day came soon. The Tubo central army broke through the defense line of the rebel chieftain with unstoppable force. All the thousands of troops of the rebel chieftain on the first line were killed, and the remaining troops also retreated to the second line of defense. After Lu Dongzan returned to Tubo, he got off to a good start.
Lu Dongzan did not let anyone rest, but immediately started the second round of attack. Even if it was a long journey, he had to take this opportunity to kill his way into the camp of the rebellious chieftain and not let them continue to stand here, on the way for the Tang Dynasty personnel to enter Tibet.
After two days of consecutive defeats, there was no smile on the face of Chief Maiqi. Although he had the support of Li Xiang, Li Xiang's support was only long-term. If he could not withstand the attack now, Li Xiang would probably turn around and leave.
Therefore, Chief Maiqi and several other chieftains went to the battlefield in person, brought out their most powerful men, and barely held the second line of defense. Lu Dongzan led the troops on the battlefield, but unfortunately, these rebellious chieftains were not easy to deal with, and their private soldiers were also extremely powerful.
The two sides fought hard on the second line of defense, and both sides lost thousands of soldiers in one day. Chief Maiqi had already mobilized all the people who could fight.
Li Xiang and his group had been watching the fire from the other side of the river. A rebellion of this scale had occurred in Tubo, and the casualties in one day were as high as several thousand people. If such a war could last for half a month, then Li Xiang could immediately return home. Tubo had lost tens of thousands of troops in one go, and it would take at least a few years to recover from this. However, the leaders of both sides were still calm and stopped on the third day. They also knew that if they continued to fight a war of attrition like this, neither side would be the winner.
Chieftain Maiqi made a decision in the meantime. He sent all the things Li Xiang brought to Chieftain Ronggong and Chieftain Laxueba, and asked Li Xiang to meet with several other chieftains. Originally, Li Xiang did not want to come to the front, but now the war situation is sluggish. If Li Xiang does not come out, it will be difficult to give confidence to the chieftains.
With the help of various operations, the chieftains Laxueba and Ronggong also came with their own 8,000 troops. The rebellious chieftains breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the arrival of a fresh force. In addition, with the large amount of money sent by Li Xiang, although they suffered heavy losses in the past few days, they did not lose confidence.
On the other hand, the Tibetan central army originally thought that they could defeat the rebel army within three days, but now five days have passed and the two sides are still in a stalemate. Lu Dongzan can only order the army of the Holy City to go back first. Before solving the rebel army, if you rob the chieftains around the Holy City, the army on the front line will probably mutiny immediately.
During this period, Chief Maiqi also talked with Li Xiang several times, hoping that Li Xiang could give them more support. But Li Xiang had already realized at this time that with the addition of two chieftains, your strength would be able to withstand it. If he continued to support you, then you would most likely overwhelm the Tubo central government, which was definitely not what Li Xiang wanted to see. Let the strength of both sides be almost the same and continue to fight. This is a good way to weaken you.
So Li Xiang pretended to write a letter on the one hand, and on the other hand he used the long journey as an excuse, saying that he could just keep going. Tusi Maiqi also knew that it would take more than ten days to send the letter from here to Chang'an, even with the best carrier pigeon, and a month would pass before it flew back.
During this month, we don’t know what will happen.
"Master, we have learned that the army on the Tuyuhun border has begun to withdraw."
That night, when Li Xiang was reading, Long San came back from outside. Their people on the road sent back a message that the army on the border between Tuyuhun and Tubo had begun to retreat, probably because they received orders from Lu Dongzan.
"Is Lu Dongzan crazy?"
This was Li Xiang's reaction. In order to quell the rebellion, Lu Dongzan had already mobilized all the troops he could. In addition to the more than 10,000 troops defending the holy city, there were other troops that could not be moved. Now he had mobilized all the troops that could be moved, hoping to defeat the chieftains' army in one fell swoop.
"Send a pigeon immediately to tell Tuyuhun to take some action. We absolutely cannot allow that army to return."
Li Xiang also made arrangements immediately. If the border troops were allowed to come back, the strength in Lu Dongzan's hands would increase greatly. At least the current chieftain Maiqi would not be able to hold on, which was contrary to Li Xiang's intention.
Chieftain Maiqi has already contacted new allies. Before the new allies agree, if the border army comes back, Chieftain Maiqi and his allies will not be able to stop them at all. They are a border army as fierce as wolves and tigers, with extremely strong combat effectiveness.
As the scale of the war grew and more and more people participated, Li Xiang's mood became better and better. This meant that after this war, the decline of Tubo would be inevitable...