The Zhangye city wall is five miles in circumference, and the scale in the Central Plains is only the size of the county seat, but it is already rare in Hexi. Even if you walk around normally, it's not a light thing.

Late at night, Miao Jinqing yawned, he was really sleepy, but after this period of defending the city, he couldn't rest arbitrarily.

"Why don't you go and rest for a while first?"

The officials who followed Miao Jinqing were a little worried that if this Miao Fujun was too tight like a bowstring, if something went wrong, it would be a big disaster. Therefore, they all persuaded Miao Jinqing to rest for a while.

Miao Jinqing shook his head, of course he wanted to rest, but in addition to inspecting the city defense, he also had to go back to the public office to dispose of the official documents submitted that day.

"Alas, no matter how big or small, ordinary people may be exhausted to death!"

For a long time, Miao Jinqing has expressed this feeling, but if it is not so, those officials are afraid that they will have to be deceived and concealed before they die.

He is now suffering from the lack of a team of cronies, and he came to Zhangye in a hurry, and now he is fighting against the big food thieves to the end, if there is no reinforcement from the imperial court, I am afraid it will be difficult to hold on to the end.

"Fu Jun is not an ordinary person, even if everything is small, he can be calm!"

The assistant who followed him gave a fart at the right time. Miao Jinqing shook his head and smiled bitterly, if there was a choice, he would rather not have this calmness. However, in front of his subordinates, Miao Jinqing didn't want to complain too much, otherwise it would really affect the morale of the army.

Miao Jinqing was looking forward to the reinforcements from the imperial court in his heart, but a rational voice told him that it would be difficult for the reinforcements from the imperial court to arrive within a month, because according to his estimates, the imperial court would have to wait until autumn at most, and it was still in the middle of summer, and there were still two months before autumn.

When I arrived at the office, the official documents on the desk had piled up like a hill. There was a lot of fighting outside, Miao Jinqing stretched his hands and feet, and began to fight at night.

Suddenly, Miao Jinqing seemed to remember something, and the whole person was stunned on the spot.

What he was holding in his hand was a report on the movements of the Great Eaters of the Siege, which began to cut down trees around the perimeter from today, which was not a good sign.

During the previous half a month of siege, the big food soldiers just pretended to attack the city, and retreated after a while, and it didn't seem to be in a hurry to conquer the city. Miao Jinqing knew that the big cannibal must have other plans, but this move made the situation in Zhangye City not so critical, so he tried his best to deal with it.

Now, when I suddenly learned that the Great Cannibal had started to cut down trees in the surrounding area, I couldn't help but chuckle in my heart, could it be that the Great Cannibal had lost his patience and planned to attack the city with all his might?

After thinking for a while, Miao Jinqing summoned the rangers who went out to investigate intelligence during the day. This was not an ordinary thing, and even the ranger himself was surprised, but Fu Jun had a life, so he recounted in detail what he had seen and heard during the day.

"Can you remember the location of the livestock yard at night?"

"Replying to Fujun's words, of course I remember!"

Hearing this, Miao Jinqing high-fived and said:

"Well, let them regret their mistake tonight!"

In order to delay the progress of the big cannibal to build siege equipment, Miao Jinqing decided to send a dare to die, wanting to burn the wood of the livestock and wood farm.

In the middle of the night, the soldiers on duty standing at the head of Zhangye City faintly found that the black hole outside the city actually flickered a faint fire, at first they thought it was a hallucination in their eyes, but the fire soon rose to the sky, they realized that it was not an illusion, but that the fire outside the city was indeed on fire.

"Quick, go and report to Fu Jun, the camp of the Great Thief Soldier is on fire!"

At the same time, Miao Jinqing also learned the news of the successful fire to the Great Cannibal Wood Yard. He stretched his waist tiredly, now it was enough, there was no need to hold on, so he fell asleep at the end, and he was already snoring in the blink of an eye.

Yusuf was a little angry, and scolded his entourage, he couldn't believe that Tang Bing could actually send a daredevils to burn the trees he had piled up in the lumber yard in the midst of the siege.

These trees are used to build siege equipment, and seeing that the fire cannot be saved, they can only watch the fire burn more and more.

It's really a disappointment, I just found out the reality of the Tang Dynasty in Longyou, but I don't want to be exploited by Miao Jinqing.

Yousuf also secretly warned himself that he must not act rashly, the officials and generals of the Tang Dynasty are obviously not all straw bales, at least the opponents he has seen in the past few days are extremely capable people, but they are much stronger than the monarchs and generals of those small countries.

The army had penetrated to this point, which was already the farthest expedition in the history of the empire, and the legendary East produced gold and silk, and wealth was everywhere. He finally won the errand of the Eastern Crusade, and now he has gone deep into the hinterland of the Eastern Empire as he wished, but this land west of the river is still too different from what he imagined.

Although Hexi is much more prosperous than the places it passed before, it is definitely not rich, and it is not compatible with the legendary wealth everywhere.

So much so that Yusuf was a little skeptical about how many of the legends about the Eastern Empire were true and how much were exaggerated.

"Pontler, I heard that you have been to the capital of the Eastern Empire? Tell me, how prosperous it is......

Pontler, the leader of the Turgish people, had been with Yusuf to show his loyalty, which was also stimulated by the disposition of the bones, for fear that he would follow in his footsteps.

"The villain is clumsy, I don't know what to say, but I've also heard that the circumference of the Chang'an city wall is more than 70 miles, even if you ride a horse around for a week, it will take more than half a day!"

Hearing this, Yusuf frowned, obviously he didn't believe it, thinking that Ponteler was talking about it. But because there was no evidence to prove that Ponteler was lying, he could only nod his head with a stiff face.

"The capital of the Eastern Empire is so big, I don't know how much it has a population?"

Ponteler was stunned for a moment, smacked his lips, and said:

"At least there should be a million people!"

Millions?

Yusuf felt as if he had heard the most ridiculous joke, even the capital of the empire, Ctesiphon, had a population of only 200,000, and he did not believe that there was another city in the world with a population of more than five times that of Ctesiphon.

These barbarians on horseback were not only capricious, but also liked to lie, Yusuf thought to himself, knowing that it would be such a horrific description to ask any more, so it was better not to ask and not to listen, and to be quiet and worry-free.

After a long time, Yusuf still asked:

"The Tang Dynasty is so strong, why do you still have to be an enemy of it?"

Pontele thought for a moment and replied:

"Although the Tang Dynasty is big, it is like a horsewhip, no matter how long it is, there will always be a range, and the west of the Western Regions will be difficult to reach, of course, it can't compete with the big food!"

Yusuf glanced at Pontele, this seemingly rude fellow, the metaphor is also appropriate, but in the future, when the whip is out of reach, will these repeated barbarians have to turn against each other again?

Of course, these are unrealistic assumptions, and the strength of the Great Eclipse is really unprecedented in a century, not to mention that the two river valleys are within the control of Khorasan, unless the Turgish people want to leave the two rivers area, they must always look up to the empire's breath.

Therefore, Yusuf is not worried that these capricious barbarians will rebel again at a critical moment, the strength of the Tang Dynasty seems to exist only in legends, and the Tang soldiers seen along the way are not peculiar, although there is no shortage of people who dare to fight to the death, but after all, they cannot stop the eastward expansion of the empire.

"Since you have been to Chang'an, let's talk about it, should the empire march to Chang'an from the direction of Liangzhou, or should it cross the Qilian Mountain and attack Chang'an from Longyou?"

Ponteler thought about it for a while, and then replied solemnly:

"Ordinary armies and merchants all crossed the Qilian Mountains and crossed the Longyou line, and the Tang soldiers must have set up an ambush on the road to block the general's eastward advance. Therefore, the villain suggested that the general could go to the direction of Lingwu in Liangzhou and go south to Chang'an via Shuofang, then the Tang Dynasty would definitely be caught off guard!"

Yusuf praised:

"This plan is very good, but I still have to cross the Qilian Mountain, take the right line of Long, and the empire will defeat the main force of the Tang soldiers in a dignified battle, and completely crush their determination and morale to resist!"

Only by crushing the past head-on with the power of destruction can the legendary and powerful Tang Dynasty completely submit to the empire and make them become the empire's servants in the east.

In Yusuf's opinion, a large eastern empire like the Tang Dynasty, with its vast land and large population, was not suitable for direct rule even after conquest by force, and the best way was to send a governor to restrain the local military and political affairs.

It's just that these are all later words, first of all, you have to defeat the main force of the Tang soldiers, otherwise everything is empty talk.

The Tang soldiers in Zhangye City burned down the lumber storage yard, and Yusuf was only a little annoyed, and after yawning, he was about to send Ponteler away and prepare to rest.

How do you know that Ponteler said with a smile on his face:

"Although the general is resting, the villain is willing, willing to serve from the side, serving water, serving water, fanning ......"

Yusuf felt awkward, and Ctesiphon did have the habit of serving the bedside with a boy with fine skin and tender flesh, but it was really unappetizing to look at the bearded barbarian in front of him. Besides, he didn't dare to trust this person, and what should he do if he tried to do something wrong while he was asleep?

A few scoldings drove out the bearded Pontele, Yusuf took off his outer armor, stretched his hands and feet, and the journey all night was really exhausting.

As for the night attack and fire on the lumber yard, these are just small details that have nothing to do with the general trend, and it is a big deal to spend some time cutting down again.

In a daze, Yusuf felt that someone beside him was whispering to him.

"General, General, wake up, the Governor has sent a messenger to ......"

It took a while for Yusuf to open his eyes violently.