On the vast grassland south of Ashburai City, the first heavy snow of winter fell from the sky, and the boundless grassland became a white world, there was no figure in sight on the grassland, and the herdsmen and cattle and sheep went to the southern city to spend the winter, only occasionally flying a flock of birds, looking for possible grass seeds in the snow, in this snowy world, a black line appeared from the north, and this black line seemed so incongruous in this snowy world, as if a crack appeared on the white and flawless jade, The black line is getting closer and longer, and this is actually a cavalry team of nearly 2,000 people, to be exact, this is a cavalry of the Tang Army, everyone with two horses, galloping on the snow-covered grassland.

At the front of the team, Shi Yang took the lead, with red tassels flying on his helmet, and their sword was aimed at the far south, two hundred miles away, in the capital of Bahanna.

The battle of Broken Leaf has come to an end, Shi Yang, who guarded the city of Ashbura, finally got the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, seven days ago, Broken Leaf ordered him to send troops to attack Bahanna, the order was very simple, but Shi Yang seemed to have given himself the best opportunity to show his courage, Ashburai City was in the northernmost part of Bahanna, the two places were thousands of miles apart, separated by the endless Gobi and grassland, after seven days of galloping, they were about to approach the goal.

Shi Yang rode up a hill and looked into the distance with a curtain, the dazzling white of the snow field made his eyes squint involuntarily, and at this time he had seen a string of small black dots appear in the distance five miles away, which seemed to be camel riders, and the other party obviously saw them, and immediately turned around and fled.

"Stop them!" Shi Yang waved his hand. A cavalry of 100 men sped away at once, and in a few moments, one of them returned to report it. "General, it's a Sogdian caravan, and they're going to transit through our city of Ashbula."

Shi Yang frowned slightly. These Sogdians, who had gotten into the eyes of money, did not miss the opportunity during the war, but this group of Sogdians could provide him with some information.

Shi Yang led his army forward, and soon came to the Sogdian merchants, a large and medium-sized caravan of five hundred camels, all of whom were lying on the ground at the moment, each carrying heavy boxes and skins on their backs, and a total of more than 200 Sogdian merchants, all of whom looked timid and guarded beside their goods.

"General, this man is their leader. They came from the city of Thirst. The team was bringing a lean Sogdian to Shi Yang, who looked at him, with a sharp snort, a flat fish-like mouth, a sallow face, and eyes flashing with the shrewdness of a merchant. ^^, UC eBook, first release ^^

"Dear General Datang, I hope I can serve you." The shrewd Sogdian merchant flattered the young general in front of him in humble and proficient Chinese. "As long as I know the news, I will never keep a single thing."

Shi Yang was satisfied with the businessman's cooperative attitude, he knew the way of survival of these Sogdians, money and life were more important than anything else, let alone a little bit of news.

"I'll ask you. How many food armies are there in Thirsty City? ”

How many more big food armies? The Sogdian merchant hesitated for a moment, he was just a small businessman, how could he know about this kind of confidential military information, he blinked his small eyes, and looked at Shi Yang blankly.

Shi Yang also realized that he had asked abruptly, and he immediately asked from a different angle: "Regarding the situation of the Great Food Army in Thirsty City, tell me everything you know!" ”

The conditions were relaxed, and the fast-moving minds of the Sogdian merchants quickly summoned all kinds of information and organized it clearly," replied to the general's words. The reason why we went north did not dare to go east directly from Bahanna. I heard the news that the Great Eclipse army stationed in Bakhanna was collecting camels on a large scale. I heard that we were going to carry supplies to Crushed Leaves, and now the city of Thirsty Sai is full of soldiers of the Samanid family, and it seems that they have controlled the whole of Bahanna, and we bought them a pass for five hundred dinars, which is indeed very useful, and several checkpoints we encountered along the way have spared us because of it. ”

The Sogdian merchant carefully took out a piece of hard paper from his bosom and handed it to Shi Yangdao: "This is the pass, which is signed by Samander himself. ”

Shi Yang took the pass, he was still thinking about what the Sogdian merchant had just said, the Great Food Army of Bahanna showed signs of eastward advance, and temporarily ceded the defense of the Thirsty City to the soldiers of the Samanid family, of course, there is another possibility, the Great Food Army is still in Bahanna, but they don't care about the local security. Shi Yang looked at this pass a little absentmindedly, and a thought suddenly came to him in his heart, and he immediately asked him: "You just said that you met a few checkpoints along the way, where did you meet them?" ”

"General Hui, yesterday morning I met the last checkpoint in the Kuna Valley, about eighty miles from here, where about eighty or ninety soldiers of the Samanid family were stationed, and there was another checkpoint fifty miles further on, except for these two, there was no garrison until the city of Thirsty Sai."

Shi Yang pondered for a while, then put the pass away, and said to the Sogdian merchants: "If you go north, there will be no army, and you won't need this pass anyway, so give it to me." ”

"I am willing to serve Datang, but respected general, can you give me another pass to enter the Datang North Court?" Shrewd Sogdian merchants wanted to trade a useless pass for duty-free access in the Tang Dynasty.

Shi Yang glanced at the group of panicked Sogdian merchants, and a brilliant idea came to mind.

Continue to the south, you will reach the mountainous and hilly area, no longer like the north can gallop indulgently, the road has become a little difficult, correspondingly, the speed of progress is also obviously slow, and then go forward ten miles is the Kuna Valley, where there are Sogdian merchants said that the first outpost, to be precise, a castle, this is the former Tang Dynasty Anxi Du Hu in Zhang Xiaosong Kaiyuan three years in the city of thirsty city after the construction of Qu Bodi, the outer circle and the inner square, typical oriental style. This outpost Shiyang also knew that two months earlier he had sent someone to Bahanna to feel the terrain, and that the Kuna Valley was the only way to get to the city of Thirsty Sai, and there was a beacon tower on the top of the mountain. It was also built by Zhang Xiaosong to warn of the invasion of the Great Cannibal, and if there was a Great Cannibal Army in the north, the beacon tower would immediately sound an alarm. One by one, the beacon towers were passed down, so that the thirsty city could get the news and mobilize the army in time. Although these beacon towers were abandoned after Da Shi occupied the entire territory of Bahanna, Shi Yang knew that if he occupied Ashi Burai City, these beacon towers would definitely be reactivated.

Shi Yang rode on a camel, wearing a Sogdian merchant's clothes, his face painted black, and his face completely covered by a wide curly brimmed hat, followed by more than 200 Tang soldiers who were also dressed and riding camels, but most of them were Turks. The exotic ground hole could dilute the speculation of their true identity, and five hundred steps away, they quietly followed the brigade of Tang troops, all dressed in white, hiding their tracks in the snowy night.

Next to Shi Yang was a Sogdian merchant with a bitter face, and this tax-free land transaction gave him a feeling that his investment had failed, and if he paid taxes to Datang, it would only be two hundred and fifty yuan. But this trip with Shi Yang may cost him his life, but he can't help himself, whether he wants to enjoy this tax exemption condition or not, he has to take this trip.

"If you can help me take this castle, I can issue you five tax exemption forms." Shi Yang seemed to understand the Sogdian's thoughts. He boosted his morale with a temptation that he could not refuse, and sure enough, the Sogdian merchants were immediately in good spirits, and five tax-free slips meant a very large bag of Datang silver coins.

"Don't worry, general, these Samanid soldiers are all extremely greedy, and I can let the general wipe them all out with a little trick. ^^^^”

After a pause, the Sogdians added with some unease: "But the general will return all the money I have taken out." ”

"Don't worry!"

Shi Yang smiled faintly, he was an important person, and these soldiers of the Saman family could tell him more detailed information.

Soon, the group was outside the Kuna Valley. You can see a swarthy castle in the distance. Particularly clear in the reflection of snow and moonlight, it is built on a gentle rock. About fifty steps away from the business road, Shi Yang kept looking up at the top of the mountain, the top of the mountain is not high, from him you can clearly see the beacon tower on the top of the mountain, he has sent ten skilled soldiers to go around from the side in advance, someone must first cut off the beacon fire sent to the distance.

"Look, General." A sharp-eyed soldier discovered the situation on the top of the mountain, and Shi Yang also saw it, a dazzling light reflected from the mountainside, flashing three times in a row, it was a signal from the bronze mirror, which meant that the beacon tower on the top of the mountain had been successful.

"Full speed ahead!" Shi Yang gave the order, and the camel picked up speed and began to trot.

Jingling! Jingling! The melodious sound of camel bells was heard far away. Perhaps it was the caravan's peculiar camel bells that alarmed the soldiers in the castle, and they had an unusual sensitivity to the sound, and dozens of soldiers immediately ran out of the castle, and a steady stream of people rushed out of the castle, and no one would let go of this opportunity for the oil and water that might be in their hands.

"Let's see, where did the caravan come from?" A rough voice was faintly heard in the cold wind.

Immediately one of the soldiers ran down, stopped twenty paces away, looked at them, and immediately turned back and shouted: "Head, it's the Sogdian caravan!" ”

"Bring them over to pay the taxes." It was hard to hide the man's thirst for money in the laughter.

The soldier flew over, recognized the Sogdian merchant at a glance, and asked in surprise: "Why are you again?" ”

The Sogdian merchant smiled bitterly, "It's snowing heavily in the north, and you can't get through it at all, so you can only come back." ”

"You have to pay taxes when you come back." The soldier glanced behind him, and once again stated heavily: "Your tax exemption card can only be used once, and this time you must pay taxes, this is the rule, do you understand?" ”

"I understand." The Sogdian merchant said helplessly.

"Alright, you guys go in!"

The Sogdian merchant waved his hand and shouted: "Listen, everyone, I will pay the tax this time, and then I will share it with everyone later." ”

The caravan marched mightily in the direction of the castle, and soon they reached the trade road, where several large logs were piled up in front of them as barricades, and they would only move away after paying the money, and the slopes of the trade road were full of soldiers, who were like a pack of hungry wolves in the snow, and their eyes were greedily staring at the heavy goods on their camels.

A squadron of local soldiers, that is, a hundred, was stationed here, led by a El Qaed (officer. Equivalent to the Tang Army, this army is not a regular Great Food Army, but the private army of the Saman family. Mostly Turkic mercenaries, known for their bad conduct on both sides of the Pearl River, G'Ayed was a native Turk in his forties. Fat and sinister, he stood on the slope and looked at the fat sheep with twinkle eyes, this Sogdian merchant had crossed the border two days before, but because it was daytime, he only extorted a sum of money and let it go, and did not dare to take any chances, he had been regretting it for the past two days, but God had fulfilled him and sent them back. And it's night, isn't that providential? Ghad was so excited that his legs were shaking.

The Sogdian merchant handed a declaration to the soldiers, "We declare the goods of ten thousand dinars." ”

The soldier handed the declaration to the head, but El G'aid didn't look at it, and waved his hand, "Pay a thousand dinars!" ”

He's made up his mind, he can't do it here. Wait for them to get out of the canyon and do it again in the desolate place ahead, even if it happens, they can push it to bandits or wild wolves.

The Sogdian merchant opened a heavy chest filled with yellow gold coins, at least several thousand dinars. Everyone on the slope saw the soldiers, and everyone swallowed a mouthful of saliva, he picked up the heavy box, urged the camel to come forward and prepare to count a thousand gold coins, perhaps running a little too fast, but suddenly did not hold it steady, boom! With a bang, the box toppled to the ground, and thousands of gold coins spilled on the ground, and the golden coins rolled everywhere. Time. All of them widened their eyes and were stunned.

"My money!" The Sogdian merchant wailed from the bottom of his heart. Turning over and about to get off the camel, the officer suddenly reacted and yelled, "Wait a minute! ”

He roared at the Sogdians, and suddenly smiled sinisterly, "We'll pick up this money for you." He waved his hand, "Brothers, let's go and help him." ”

Nearly a hundred soldiers on the slope were already in their blood, they rushed down from the slope as if they were hungry wolves, fighting for gold coins on the ground, at this time, more than a dozen people rushed out of the castle, as if they smelled the bloody hungry wolf, scolded and rushed over, opened a few people, and joined the battle for gold coins.

The officer laughed and shouted, "Brothers, be careful, don't let the gold fall into the rat hole." ”

The Sogdian merchant looked at the gold coin distressedly, and slowly retreated, the opportunity had come, Shi Yang gave an order in a low voice, and the Tang army immediately took out the bow and crossbow, wound the arrows, and quickly surrounded it.

The officer first noticed the anomaly, he was stunned to see the crossbow arrows in the hands of these Sogdians, suddenly shouted, turned around and fled, Shi Yang raised his hand, and a crossbow arrow swished! The arrow pierced the officer's thigh, and he screamed and rolled down the slope. Shi Yang's arrow is an order, the Tang army pulled the crossbow machine together, hundreds of arrows shot at the enemy group vying for money, and suddenly screams were everywhere, dozens of people fell to the ground with arrows, and the rest either knelt down and surrendered, or stumbled and fled in all directions, but all their ways were blocked, and the Tang army was merciless, and all the people who tried to escape were killed with one arrow.

At this moment, a hurried bell rang in the castle, and a ball of fire rushed into the sky, which was the soldiers in the castle sending a message to the beacon on the top of the hill, but the beacon was as silent as death, and did not respond.

Shi Yang laughed, he turned over and jumped off the camel, drew his knife and pounced on the officer, the officer was desperately crawling forward, suddenly a cold spike thing against his neck, he slowly turned around, in front of him was a sharp Datang horizontal knife, the blade flashed a cold light, he only felt a heat in the crotch of his pants, and he was so frightened that he cried.

"Tell me what I want to know, and I'll spare your life."

The cavalry of the Tang army galloped in the white snow, they bypassed the city of Thirsty Sai, and went straight to the Pearl River, the Great Food Army deployed 10,000 Khorasan troops in Bahanna, a few days ago 7,000 people escorted hundreds of trebuchets to Broken Leaves, only 3,000 people remained, all stationed in the east of the Thirsty City, and now the entire Bahanna has been controlled by the army of the Samanid family, and most of them are stationed in the Thirsty City, because the Great Food Army is too concentrated in the Thirsty City, so that there is a gap in the defense of the Pearl River.

The Tang army galloped all the way, bypassed all the checkpoints, and arrived at the bank of the Zhenzhu River two days later, at this moment the Zhenzhu River no longer has the previous two months of the fleet like clouds, the crowd of people like ants, the river has frozen, hundreds of large ships are moored on a huge wharf, the wharf is about 100 miles away from the thirsty city. It was particularly deserted on a bleak winter day, but despite this, millions of stone of grain and various military supplies were hoarded in the huge warehouse complex next to the dock. It will be sent to the front line of Broken Leaf at regular intervals every month, where 2,000 troops were originally stationed defensively, but 10 days ago 500 heavy trebuchets had to be transported. Fifteen hundred people were transferred, leaving only five hundred soldiers to guard the warehouse.

At dusk, in a misty snow, the Pearl River ushered in the second snow after winter, as night fell, the door of the warehouse was closed, the soldiers of the garrison hid in the room, only two sentries on the high sentry tower were patrolling back and forth, the north wind swirled on the ground with snowflakes, and the sharp wind whistled in the night sky. Three miles away, the 2,000 Tang troops had completed their final pre-battle preparations, some wounded horses had been selected, their swords were unsheathed, crossbows and arrows were wound, and their morale was very high.

"The action must be fast, and no materials are allowed to be taken privately, and they will all be burned. Captain Lee! Shi Yang's eyes fell on a lieutenant and ordered, "It is very likely that there is a big cannibal fire oil in the warehouse, and you are responsible for finding them." ”

"Yes!"

Shi Yang saw that the soldiers were all ready, he turned his head and stared at the huge black warehouse group, and waved his hand. In a low voice, he ordered, "Send troops!" ”

The sound of huge horses' hooves rang out, and the murderous aura that rushed to the sky burst out, and the two thousand cavalry rushed to the target like a torrent on the snow, and the snow and dust flew in the air, and the three-mile distance was instantaneous, without any concealment, and the wind swept up in front of the camp fence,

A mile away, the sentry of the Great Food Army spotted a large group of cavalry rushing towards them, and the sound of sirens and shouts was mixed together, and the warehouse was in chaos. Five hundred soldiers rushed out of the camp. Blocking the camp gates, this kind of sneak attack, did not give them any chance to defend. The Tang army has rushed to the front of them, they don't go to the camp gate at all, countless flying ropes are set to the thick fence, in a shout, the fence around the warehouse collapsed, the Tang army brigade rushed into the warehouse area like a flood, they did not immediately kill the warehouse, but concentrated their forces to exterminate the big food army concentrated near the gate, a long lance strike, blood and flesh splashed, shouts and screams resounded in the night sky, five hundred hastily faced the big food army was far from the morale of the Tang army, they formed a long spear phalanx, stubbornly resisted the impact of the Tang army, The Tang army immediately changed its tactics, using crossbow arrows to deal with the phalanx, the arrows were like flying locusts, only a few rounds of strong arrow rain, the Great Food Army was reduced by nearly half, there was a gap on the right side, a Tang Army of five hundred cavalry took advantage of the situation to break through from the right side, and two rounds of back and forth rushed to tear open the dense spear phalanx, and the Great Food Army fell into a state of crazy chaos.

"Kill! Not a single one is left. Shi Yang issued the final slaughter order, the Tang army pressed on the whole line, and the last of more than 300 soldiers quickly disappeared in the surging tide of the Tang army. Flames rose in the sky above the warehouse, thick smoke billowed out, 3,000 barrels of fire oil fueled the fire, nearly a million stone grain and a large amount of materials were burned, the raging fire was as high as a hundred zhang, dozens of miles away are clearly visible, the Tang army quickly broke away from the fire, turned around and killed the thirsty city.

The three thousand food troops stationed in the thirsty city learned of the accident in the Pearl River warehouse before dawn, and the main general of the defenders, Qi Saier, was angry and anxious, and immediately led the army to the warehouse to kill, the Pearl River warehouse also belonged to his responsibility, five days ago he ordered the camels that were ready to transport grain in the warehouse to transport trebuchets, and at the same time there were 1,500 warehouse defenders who were seconded, and the heavy snow paralyzed his vigilance, making him forget the city of Ashi Bulai, which was thousands of miles away, he originally thought that short-term secondment would be fine, and it would not be so coincidental, But the crisis is based on this carelessness, Zissel rushed to the Pearl River warehouse like crazy, he was not worried about the safety of the thirsty city, if something happened to the thirsty city, it was Saman who first took the responsibility, but if the battle of Broken Leaves failed due to logistics supply, it was him who lost his head.

The distance from the thirsty city to the Pearl River is about 100 miles, the road is flat, the ground has not frozen for the time being in the snow, which does not affect the march of the war horses, if you don't stop halfway, you can reach the bank of the Pearl River at about dusk, despite this, Ziselle is still extremely careful, he keeps sending scouts to explore along the way, lest he fall into the ambush of the Tang army halfway.

It wasn't until it was dark that he finally arrived at the warehouse on the banks of the Pearl River, the fire burned for twelve hours, most of the places had been burned to ashes, only the armory was still a little fire that had not burned out, Zisell inspected the burned warehouse one foot deep and one foot shallow, and his heart was terrified to the extreme, the military rations and forage of the 200,000 army for three months, or countless military supplies such as fire oil, spears, and armor, were now all burned by a fire.

It wasn't until dawn that the Great Food Army finally extinguished the flames and snatched out two thousand spears, which were the only surviving things, Zisell stared blankly at a large pile of smoke-black spears in the clearing, and his heart was blank, what should I do! How to explain to the caliphate?

Suddenly, a hurried sound of horses' hooves came from behind him, and two cavalrymen galloped forward, they jumped off their horses in horror, and galloped to report: "The general is not good, a Tang army broke through the city of Thirsty City last night, the Samanid army suffered heavy casualties, and the city of Thirsty City has been lost!" ”

"What!" Ziselle's liver was broken, and he could no longer withstand the stimulation, so he collapsed to the ground.

(Asking for a monthly pass, the gap is more than 100, I don't know if there is still a play this month?) ）