The atmosphere in the Zichen Hall of Daming Palace is very tense, an important meeting is being held here to prepare for the war of broken leaves, the Tang Emperor Zhang Huan and twenty important ministers, including the seven prime ministers, gathered together to discuss the upcoming battle of broken leaves, the Tang Dynasty has obtained accurate information, including the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, many small countries in the Western Regions gathered troops to pull the Khanna, countless baggage teams transporting various materials from Khorasan filled the ancient silk road, thousands of sails gathered on the Pearl River, from the scale and quantity of materials transported are unprecedented, all kinds of intelligence shows, The Great Eclipse is preparing for an unprecedented battle west of the Green Ridge, and from the flow of Great Eclipse's supplies to Bahanna, it can be judged that the Great Eclipse Battle Sword is pointing at Broken Leaves.

In the middle of the Zichen Palace, there is a huge sand table map, and the important ministers gather in a circle, listening to the emperor's narration while thinking about the impact of this battle.

"You have also seen that the Great Eclipse controls the vast land and population west of the Green Ridge, and in this battle they occupy the time and geography, but our army has a high morale after destroying Gelulu, and has been preparing since February, all kinds of materials are sufficient, and the Broken Leaf Army is equipped with the most advanced weapons of our Tang Dynasty, although the number is insufficient, but Shule still has 80,000 soldiers who have not moved, and they can all support Broken Leaf, so that the Broken Leaf army can also reach 140,000, which is enough to compete with the Great Cannibal."

Zhang Huan glanced at everyone, and then pointed to the distance between Chang'an and Broken Leaf with a wooden pole and said: "The biggest disadvantage of Broken Leaf is that the road is long, and it is not easy to supply from the Central Plains, so I think twice, we really want to establish a long-term supply system along the way, so I decided to use Liangzhou, Shazhou, Luntai, and Yuegong City as military reserve cities, do you have a good opinion?" ”

"Let me start with a few words!" Zhang Potian was the first to speak: "The minister once followed General Li Guangbi to fight the Battle of Taiyuan, and he has a little experience in defense, if it is a short-term defensive battle, the more people in the city, the better, and there is no chaos for a while, but if it is besieged for a long time, then how to win this defensive battle has a lot of attention, and many details need to be considered." And General Wang has rich combat experience, the specific tactics of the minister will not be repeated, the minister only makes a suggestion here, this time the big food is menacing, the scale is grand, the ministers think that the big food for this battle should also be prepared for many years. We can't be careless, it's early autumn, according to the scale of the cannibal attack, this winter will inevitably form a siege, so we need to make a long-term war plan, the minister heard that there are more than 300,000 residents in the city, the personnel are mixed, not conducive to long-term defense, the minister suggested that some residents be transferred to Luntai or Shule. Especially for the elderly, the weak, women and children, on the one hand, this can save food, and on the other hand, it is conducive to the army's control of the city. Secondly, the army defending the city is enough, and the 60,000 soldiers of Shule should be used as foreign aid, not as an internal response, and the internal and external attack is the way to win, and the above is the minister's humble opinion, please refer to Your Majesty. ”

Zhang Huan nodded, Zhang Potian is worthy of being born in the army, and the problem is seen thoroughly, and the 80,000 soldiers will indeed be more flexible when they are placed outside. He corrected his thoughts, "What Zhang Aiqing said is reasonable, 80,000 soldiers are stationed in Shule to be on standby at any time!" ”

He looked at everyone again, and said slowly: "Which Aiqing still has a good suggestion, but just put it forward." ”

"Your Majesty, the minister also has something to say."

At this time, Han stepped forward and saluted: "Broken Leaf has become the largest source of silver in my Great Tang Dynasty, and it is true that we can't afford to lose, but our opponent is the Great Food Country." A strength is no less than our Western empire, Baghdad is also far away from the broken leaves, this battle is frankly actually a contest of strength between the two great powers, these months, the Tang Dynasty's food and various material resources have been continuously sent to the Western Regions, my Datang's national strength is in the stage of recovery, far from being compared with the prosperous era, in addition, we also have to guard against the invasion of the Hui people, a month or two can still be supported. But after a long time, I am afraid it will be difficult to continue. Therefore, the minister has always been very worried about the situation of long-term warfare that Zhang Xiangguo said, but this situation is very likely to happen. Taking precautions, the minister suggested that Your Majesty should start from now on to set off a strict wind of frugality throughout the Tang Dynasty, save the limited financial resources, and support the war in the Broken Leaf Land. ”

"The minister agrees with the words of Zhang Xiangguo and Han Xiangguo, and asks His Majesty to adopt the suggestions of the two Xiangguo." Chu Xingshui also bowed and said: "The minister is worried that Da Shi will take the opportunity to collude with Hui Hui, and use Hui Hui to put pressure on Datang in order to consume the national strength of my Datang, although the princess of Datang has been married to Hui Hui last month, but in the face of interests, I am afraid that the marriage will not have an effect, the minister suggested a two-pronged approach, on the one hand, we should use the influence of the princess to win over the pro-Tang faction of Hui Hui, so that they can persuade the loyal khan to give up the idea of becoming an enemy of Tang, on the other hand, we should also get out of the move of Huang Jiasi, and order them to act at the same time as the Battle of Broken Leaves, In order to restrain the energy of the Hui people, so that they have no intention of going south. ”

Zhang Huan pondered for a long time, and finally nodded: "All Aiqing's proposals are golden and jade good words, I will consider it carefully, but the response to the battle of broken leaves is not one or two plans can be solved, I hope you will go back and carefully consider the response plan, give me a twist, let's brainstorm, use the strength of the whole Tang Dynasty, we must win this war." ”

Beside the Chi River in Qiuzidi. Wide, dusty on the official road. Covered with oilcloth grain carts, carts with straws and hay, and baggage carts. There are also huge pontoon boats. Wobbly and creaking forward. The sky above the official road was shrouded in a layer of dark yellow sand. But a hundred steps out of the official road. It's another scene of blue skies. At this time, it is the harvest season in autumn. Everywhere, herds of cattle and sheep can be seen grazing leisurely on the grassland. In the distance, the mountains are vaguely outlined.

The Tang army stepped on the dust and braved the flying sand all over the sky. With shouting and cursing. Mixed with the crackling of leather whips and the creak of axles, they marched westward. Full flood. Like the tide of the sea. From time to time, you can see dying animals or dead animals lying on both sides of the official road. There is also the occasional cart with wheels facing the sky. Sometimes a detachment of cavalry rushed into this flow of people. So the soldiers kept shouting and cursing. The horse also stood up and neighed incessantly. A cart full of grain and grass rolls down the slope. The people in the car also rolled down.

Front. In the middle of the torrent of vehicles. Soldiers came all the way from Shazhou in a long queue. Walk hard through choking dust. The flow of people was mixed with horse-drawn carts carrying knives, guns, bows and crossbows, and other light weapons. The escort was lying on the canopy. There are constantly people running out of the line. Dig into the bushes. Squat down.

Further ahead was the cavalry troops. From time to time, several carriages can be seen in the cavalry corps. Inside the ground sat civilian officials and military officers. After a while, I walked through a dense forest with springs. The cavalry dismounted one after another to fetch water. After a while, the queue was expanded. Cross the White Horse River. Then there came wagons from Qiuzi laden with grain, hay and thistles. Occasionally, a small group of scout cavalry rushed to the front of the queue.

Two miles away from the official road is the Red River. Thousands of people recruited from the countries of the Western Regions are pulling a large fleet of ships with difficulty. A low, rhythmic, and shocking trumpet. The large ships were loaded with food and a variety of heavy fortifications and firearms. Giant stones, bed crossbows, chain crossbows, and thunderbolts that have not yet been assembled. There was also a huge row of people listening on either side of the ship. There were also horrific gunpowder bombs, incendiary bombs, and barrels of gunpowder and oil. They were all heavily guarded.

This team is the Shazhou Army and the Suzhou Army from afar. There are about 10,000 people. and transported 500,000 stone grain. The soldier and horse envoy is Zhonglang General Yu Chonglou. Their goal is thousands of miles away. The team has been walking for 10 days since they came from Shazhou.

At this time, it was already the beginning of August, and the battle between Datang and Dashi had entered the most critical juncture, and Datang mobilized the strength of the whole country to concentrate 8 million stone grain and countless various military supplies, requisitioned nearly 100,000 horse-drawn carts from all over the country, and continuously sent these materials to the Western Regions, and at the same time mobilized 50,000 soldiers from all over the country to rush to Anxi again, so that the Tang army in the entire Anxi region reached an unprecedented 250,000. The army was divided into two routes from Yiwu (now Hami), one way to Shule, the Golden Dragon Road to the north to the broken leaves, the other way to Luntai, across the Tianshan Mountains to Gongyue City, along the Silk Road to the north of the Daqingchi River Basin.

But at the same time that the Tang army was reinforcing Broken Leaves, the big cannibals were impatient, and the war for Ashi Burai City started first.

Twenty days earlier, the Tang army had captured the fortress of Ashibulai, in the northern part of Broken Leaves. When this news reached Baghdad, Rashid was furious and immediately dismissed the governor of Bakhana, who had transferred the defenders of Ashbulai to the south without authorization, and at the same time transferred 20,000 of the 50,000 Turkic slaves who were preparing to go to Bathhana, and went straight to Ashbulai to take this important castle before the Battle of Broken Leaves began in September.

The 20,000 food army marched north from Samarkand, turned east through the city of Talas, and marched nearly 800 miles, and finally arrived at the city of Ashbulai on this day.

The Tang army in Ashi Burai City has also increased to 2,500 people. It has almost reached the limit of 3,000 garrisons. The original Turkic inhabitants of the city have all been relocated, making the city a purely military fortress. After nearly a month of intense deployment, the city of Ashi Burai at this moment has been built by the Tang Army like an iron wall.

Fifty of the newly developed giant trebuchets were placed at the head of the city, and three hundred bed crossbows, which were used against the enemy's large siege engines, in addition to 300,000 crossbow arrows and a large number of boulders for throwing, and even hundreds of gunpowder and incendiary bombs.

After dark, the scouts came with the news that a large number of enemies had passed through Kulan City and were approaching the city of Ashibulai, carrying a large number of siege weapons, neat and well-equipped.

Kulan City is eighty miles away in the west, it is a land city on the plain, mainly for herdsmen and cattle and sheep to hide from the blizzard and built, very simple, and there is no danger to defend, since the enemy army has passed Kulan City, even if the city siege machine is slow, but it is not far from the city of Ashi Bulai.

At dusk the next day, the dark clouds were thick and the wind was blowing, Shi Yang stood on the highest observation tower in Ashbulai City, staring at the dark clouds rolling in the sky, he had been promoted to lieutenant by Wang Siyu because of his merit in capturing Ashburai City, and led 2,500 Tang troops to defend Ashburai City, but no one thought that another war between Dashi and Datang after fifty years was kicked off from them.

Next to Shi Yang stood Lai Jinlin, the commander of Guoyi, who was very familiar with the terrain in this area with his father since he was a child, and he calculated and said: "General Shi, if the enemy army is dragging siege engines with war horses, then they can generally walk twenty miles every hour, plus the stop time in the middle, they should have arrived." ”

"You're right, they've arrived." Shi Yang looked into the distance expressionlessly, and under the sky, a long black line appeared at the end of the grassland.

"General Shi, what should we do?" Lai Jinlin, who experienced a big battle for the first time, began to get nervous.

"What else can I do?" Shi Yang coldly ordered: "Ring the bell to warn, and order the brothers to take their places!" ”

The piercing and rapid bell rang over the city of Ashibulai, and two thousand Tang troops rushed to the city, either with bows and crossbows, or with giant trebuchets and bed crossbows, nervously watching the enemy approaching, the dark clouds hanging low at the city, the storm was coming, and the war was about to break out. To be continued, if you want to know what will happen next, please log in to p8com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading! )