The Qarluq people are a branch of the Turkic people since ancient times, and have been living in the vast land west of the Beiting Jinshan for more than 100 years, living nomadically, mainly divided into three tribes, also known as the three surnames of Gelulu, the leader of the major tribes is Ye Hu, and the three tribes are composed of countless small tribes, or thousands of people, tens of thousands of people, ranging in size, after the rise of the Hui, the Qarluq people gradually divided, one was attached to the Hui, became a tribe of the Hui, and the other moved west to the south of the Yibohai, Tianbao nine years, The Qarluqs became the mercenaries of the Tang Dynasty, participated in the Battle of Talas, and betrayed the Tang army in the war, resulting in a crushing defeat of the Tang army.

Since the tenth year of the reign of the Tang Dynasty, Tubo launched a war with Da Shi for Tocharo, which led to the deterioration of the situation in the Western Regions, and Da Shi then recovered the city of Broken Leaves, so that the Qarlu people moved back to the west of Jinshan again, looked at Beiting, and attacked Beiting in the war between Tubo and Hui for Anxi, so that the Hui army was defeated and returned to Mobei.

Four years ago, the Qarluq people encountered the Tang army of the western expedition, and were defeated under the Tang thunder, so that the 40,000 elite cavalry were wiped out, the Qarluq people suffered an unprecedented blow, under the strong expansion of the Tang Dynasty, they were forced to abandon the land west of Jinshan and move back to the Yibohai River Basin again, and then the three surnames of the tribe had internal strife, and the Qarluq people fell into a trough, but after four years of recuperation and the full support of the big cannibal, the claws of the Qarluq people grew again, and completely became the big cannibal lackey, and moved south to the north of the Daqing Pond by the order of the big eater, posing a huge threat to the broken leaves.

The Qarluqs have been unable to get a stable capital of their own after repeated migrations, and now they have established their tooth tent in a small city of Hatush, the current chief of the Qarluqs is called Athran, about fifty years old, who was originally the Ye Hu of the Assassination Department, and three years ago he was canonized as the king of Qarluq by the Great Caliph and served as the governor of the Chu River, which is also known as the Broken Leaf River. Although he assumed the name of governor, he actually did not get an inch of land on both sides of the Broken Leaf River.

On this morning, Khatush welcomed a distinguished guest: the Hui teacher Surman, who was revered in Manichaeism, and was deeply loved by the Sogdians because he was born in Persia and had a good relationship with the Great Eclipse. In this way, he had in his hands the Manichaeans and the Sogdians, and he played an important role in the Middle Land of the Hui state, and this time the Qarluq mission was based on the famine caused by the disaster in the Hui country. The Sogdians were dissatisfied with Hui favoring the Tang Dynasty, and the loyal khan ordered him to borrow grain from the Qarluqs. Later, he will go to Baghdad to ask the Great Cannibal for assistance, which can be regarded as balancing the contradictions between several forces in the country.

"My old friend, we haven't seen each other in two years!" Far away, Sulman spread his robe like black wings, his pale face reflected in the sun. It was like a black bat, which made the surrounding Qarluq soldiers feel gloomy. Sulman and Qarluq King Athran are old acquaintances, Athran's eldest son Atru is Surman's great apprentice, three years ago in the theft of the Tang Lei in the action to die under the Tang saber, for this reason, Sulman went to Qarlu to kneel down to Athran to plead guilty, Athran forgave Sulman, and let his most beloved third son Atre worship under Suerman's knees again, after all, the Qarluq people live under the eaves of the Uighurs, and the ground shield with a big food can prevent the Uighurs' open guns, but it may not be able to prevent their hidden arrows. That's it. Sulman turned into a leader in the future of Qarluq.

Athran also opened his arms to meet him, and the two laughed. hugged each other tightly, patted each other's backs, hugged each other, and after the hug was finished, the two held their arms intimately and walked towards the big tent together.

"National teacher, how is my son in Han'er Bali? Did he satisfy the national teacher? ”

"Atre is a brave eagle, and I believe that under my tutelage, he will be able to fly higher and farther."

"Then it's hard work."

The two talked and laughed and walked into the big tent of Athran, which was decorated with golden splendor, with thick Persian carpets on the ground, large food tassels adorned with precious stones on the walls, and the most luxurious Tang Shu brocade on the table, which was full of all kinds of exquisite gold objects from Byzantium, and a dozen coquettish and beautiful women half-leaning in the jewels, with a terrifying smile in their eyes.

The two of them sat down, a maid served them fragrant mare's milk tea, several young and beautiful Qarluq women sat behind them, gently kneading their shoulders for them, Sulman waved his hand, signaling that he didn't need to knead, Asseran saw that Sulman's face was a little heavy, so he whispered: "You all let me out!" More than a dozen charming women were so frightened that they stood up and ran out of the tent with their long skirts.

Seeing that they were all gone, Athran lowered his voice and asked, "National Teacher, what happened?" ”

"Do you know why I'm here?" Sulman took out a letter and threw it on the small table, "This is a handwritten letter from the Loyal Khan, see for yourself!" ”

Athran took out the letter, only read it in a hurry, and immediately his face changed greatly, his hands trembled, and he said in a trembling voice: "We Qarluqs themselves are seriously short of food, not to mention 500,000 sheep, even 5,000 sheep!" ”

Seeing that he was nervous, Sulman snorted and said, "What is the Great Chief afraid of, our Khan did not ask for your sheep for nothing, but only borrowed it, and it will be returned later." ”

Borrow? What is the difference between borrowing and asking for the Hui, and did they borrow less in the past? Athran smiled bitterly and said: "It's not that we don't borrow, it's that we have also suffered from a snow disaster, the national teacher should know that it has been snowing since September, and we really don't have sheep in our hands!"

Sulman glanced at the luxurious arrangements around him, and said with a faint smile: "Then how do you want me to go back and explain to the Khan, saying that the Great Chief is too poor to open the pot?" ”

Athran's face was swollen red, and he said embarrassedly: "They are all things that my subordinates have robbed, and they can't be eaten as food, if the national teacher likes them, I will give them all to the national teacher." ”

"Our Manichaean doctrine has always advocated frugality, what do I want to do with these messy things, the great chief should think about how to make sheep and explain to the khan!"

The Qarluqs gradually became stronger after the Battle of Talas, but after being defeated by the Tang army in Beiting, they fell into internal strife, and their strength was greatly weakened, although they can still mobilize more than 100,000 men, but they are still much weaker than the Hui, they can't afford to provoke the Hui, but there is really no extra sheep to explain, and Aserlan's forehead has begun to sweat.

"Alright! For Atre's sake. I've got a solution for you. Sulman sighed and said, "Actually, I also know that you can't get the sheep, so I thought all the way. ”

Athran was overjoyed, and he hurriedly thanked him deeply, "I knew that the national teacher would intercede for me." ”

"In the face of the survival of the Hui people, it is useless for anyone to intercede." Sulman shook his head, "I'm going to leave for Baghdad to borrow food from the Great Cannibals, I mean let the Great Cannibals provide this food for you." ”

"But half a million sheep. Will the big cannibals come out? ”

Surman laughed, "The big cannibals won't come out on their own, the caliph sent an order to the nine kingdoms of Zhaowu, of course, they will come out with this sheep." But

Sulman's eyes narrowed when he said no more than two words. Smiling gloomily, he stared at Athran and said, "But you have to show something, to make the caliph happy, do you know what I mean?" Athran was speechless, he certainly knew what Sulman meant. There's only one way to please the Caliph, and that's to attack Broken Leaf. But they are not ready to go to war with the Don Army now? And three months ago, one of their tribes secretly went to Jinlong Dao to try to rob Hu Shang, but they met the Tang Army's silver transport team, 3,000 people were wiped out, and even the chief died, and the fear of the Tang Army was like a dark cloud projected in the heart of Athrandi, and after a long time, he sighed and said: "It's not that I don't want to attack Broken Leaf, but I'm not ready, and the big cannibals also know that the siege equipment they promised has not been sent so far." Let me attack the city, forget it! I don't want to eat this favor. I will personally write to the Loyal Khan to explain this, no is nothing. What does he want me to do? ”

"If you don't give it, of course the Khan won't take you, what will you do? But have you ever thought about it, Atre Kehan is in the air. Sulman said coldly.

Athran couldn't say a word, Sulman pinched his soft underbelly, and Sulman suddenly smiled and said: "Actually, you don't have to really attack Broken Leaf on a large scale, the key is that you have to put on a posture and let the caliph know that you are very obedient, that's enough, Brother Athran, do you understand?" ”

"You're saying that Atheran suddenly understood what it meant to be posturing.

Sulman nodded slowly, "I heard that Broken Leaf is building a city north of the Great Qing Pond, can you make an idea from this aspect?" "Broken Leaf is located in the Broken Leaf Valley in the northwest direction of Daqing Pond, and it itself is still dozens of miles away from Daqing Pond, so there are some small cities distributed near Daqing Pond, such as Yezhi City, He Hunting City, General Peiluo City, etc., but most of these small cities are distributed in the west and south of Daqing Pond, and in the north and east of Daqing Pond are a blank for defense, so three months ago a Qarlu cavalry was able to go south unimpeded to rob the caravan, although the patrol post was strengthened afterwards, but it was only an inspection, In order to solve this problem, Cao Hanchen decided to slow down the mining of silver mines and concentrate manpower to speed up the construction of a defensive city.

The plan to build a defensive city was approved by the imperial court as early as last year, but it has been delayed because of lack of manpower, and now with the increasing pressure of the Qarluq people to the south, the construction of a defensive city has become an urgent need, according to the plan, the Tang Dynasty will build two cities in the north and east of the Daqing Pond, and in the east will build two cities of Canglong and Baihu, and in the north of the Daqing Pond, Xuanwu City and Vermilion Bird City will be built, each city is separated by twenty miles, which can echo each other and be horns for each other, among which the nearest to the Qarluq people is Xuanwu City, Xuanwu City has become a city with the most manpower and material resources, which is less than five miles away from Daqing Pond, standing on the head of the city, crossing a large forest, you can faintly see the sparkling lake.

Early in the morning, Shi Yang and his 100 subordinates escorted 3,000 prisoners of war to Xuanwu City to build the city, and now this young officer is a cavalry team under the Broken Leaf Army, he killed the enemy the most in the battle of the Golden Dragon Road to annihilate the Gelulu cavalry, and finally slashed the enemy chieftain, and made a great contribution, according to the military merit standards of the Tang Dynasty, he can be promoted to two levels, that is, he is promoted from the captain of the team directly to the captain, but Cao Hanchen ignores him when calculating his merits, but counts from a small soldier, so that he is promoted two levels and becomes a team leader, He had a hundred brethren and two hundred horses.

Maybe it's out of guilt. When Cao Hanchen filled in his resume, he quietly changed his age to eighteen years old, so that he could lead a hundred big men, but this seems to be a bit too much, not to mention that Shi Yang himself is born old and mentally mature, and more importantly, the tradition of the Anxi army has always been to rank seniority based on military merit and ability, but it does not attach much importance to age. Shi Yang soon won the respect of his soldiers with his impressive record of killing sixty-seven Qarluq cavalrymen, coupled with his elusive marksmanship and white-haired archery skills, which made his subordinates admire him even more.

The fortifications of the city had already begun, and all the laborers had taken up their posts. Some are mixing mortar, some are dragging boulders, and some are chiseling ashlars. The stone is taken from the Uzman Mountain, and then hand-hewn into ashlar, on the side of the city wall, two high hanging towers made of wood are responsible for carrying the large stones to the city, and the Xuanwu City has been built successively after two years. Eighty percent of the city has been built, and battlements are already being built on the city walls. The city tower has set up a shelf, a moat dug by hand is three zhang deep, four zhang wide, the suspension bridge has just been built yesterday, but the city gate has not yet been installed, if the whole city is completed, it will be able to accommodate 5,000 soldiers, become a strong fortress in the north of the Qing Pond.

There are several simple wooden plank bridges built on the moat, and the river water is connected to the Daqing Pond, because the Daqing Pond does not freeze all year round, but the moat still has a thin layer of ice. But the ice is not thick. Unable to walk on the ice, more than a thousand prisoners of war carrying stones were coming and going. Very busy, these prisoners of war are the prisoners of the Anxi campaign that year, there are Tocharians, big cannibals, Zhaowu people and Egyptians, there were originally more than 50,000 people, after the end of the war, part of the Zhaowu people were released, leaving more than 30,000 cannibals, Tocharians and Egyptians, last year, the Great Food Caliph sent an envoy to Chang'an to negotiate the prisoners of war, and finally the two countries reached an agreement on the exchange of prisoners of war, the Great Food released more than 4,000 surviving Tang Army prisoners of war in the battle of Talas, and the Tang Dynasty also released 10,000 cannibals, However, there were still more than 20,000 Tocharians and Egyptians who were willing to be released by ransom, but Da Shi refused to pay the ransom and no longer cared about the lives of these prisoners of war, so the imperial court decided to send them all to Crushed Leaf to mine silver mines, and serve five years of hard labor before being released.

Shi Yang and more than 20 soldiers were patrolling along the moat, and there were a total of 500 garrisons in Xuanwu City, mainly supervising thousands of prisoners of war who were working, and preventing the incursion of the Qarluq sentinels.

The 500 people were divided into five teams, led by a captain surnamed Fang, today Captain Fang led 200 people to escort more than 1,000 prisoners of war to Uzman Mountain to carry stones, and there were still 300 Tang troops left in Xuanwu City, and the three teams were each responsible for the construction of a section of the city wall.

Shi Yang just walked to the northwest corner, suddenly there was a commotion from the city, and some people in the city also threw down their work, sat on the ground and shouted loudly, Shi Yang looked up in surprise, and saw that more than 1,000 prisoners of war on the city had stopped working, sitting on the city and shouting to the sky.

Shi Yang immediately turned around and ordered a few soldiers to say, "Go and see, what's going on?" ”

The three soldiers rode away, and after a while, the three of them rushed back again, "Team up! The three horsemen rushed forward, and one of them carried a prisoner of war in his hand and threw it in front of Shi Yang, "This Tatam incited the prisoners of war to sabotage. ”

The prisoner of war in front of him was about forty years old, named Tatam, with dark skin, not the kind of tanning, but born black, with thick eyebrows and rough eyes, typical of the Tocharian appearance, he was a senior general of the Tollian Fire Army, his duty was to cooperate with the Tang Army in the management of prisoners of war, and he did not work, and he had been cooperating well for four years after being captured, and they would be released at the end of their term in October next year.

Maybe it was about to be released, the prisoners of war began to pay attention to their bodies, try to eat and sleep as much as possible, and the work was not so hard, it turned out that 20,000 people were already rich in silver mines, so they couldn't see it if they were lazy, but this time the construction of Xuanwu City was different, due to the tight time, there were not many laborers, the Tang army in order to speed up the progress, the construction volume was broken down to every day, and they were not allowed to eat and sleep if they couldn't finish the work. Tang Jun was asked to shorten the working time.

After staying in the silver mine for nearly four years, this Tatam had already become an old fritter, and he saw that this officer of the Tang Army was only a small team, and he was very young, so he couldn't help but snort contemptuously in his heart, and lay on the ground, ready to refuse to communicate with the language barrier, waiting for the other party's senior generals to come.

"Drag him to be cut down, and show his head to the public!" Shi Yang had no intention of negotiating with him at all, and with a wave of his hand, he ordered his subordinates to kill, and several soldiers rushed over, grabbed his arm and dragged him to the head of the city, Tatam jumped up in fright, raised his hand and said loudly: "Okay! All right! That's what I told them to do. ”

Several soldiers stopped and looked at Shi Yang, but Shi Yang didn't seem to hear anything, and shouted: "Cut him!" ”

A soldier cut him down with a knife, and a scream like a pig sounded, and another soldier immediately chopped off the head of Tatam with a knife, Shi Yang looked coldly at the end of the execution, and he waved his hand and ordered: "Go, take the head of other people to show the public, whoever dares to make trouble again, behead immediately!" ”

When Tatam's head was lifted on a bamboo pole and displayed high, a small labor tide caused by the venting of dissatisfaction immediately subsided, and the construction site began to work hecticly again.

The day passed quickly, and in the section of the north city wall that Shi Yang was in charge of, the work that was supposed to be done until late at night was completed ahead of schedule.

"Team, today's progress has been completed." A soldier came running to report.

Shi Yang looked up at the sky, the sun was hanging obliquely in the western sky, and there was still half an hour before it got dark, "Team up, the hour is still early, do you want to let them work for a while?" A captain cautiously suggested.

"No!" Shi Yang categorically rejected Commander Wu's suggestion, "Let them eat and rest, and continue to work tomorrow." ”

"Yes!" The commander immediately ran to announce the end of the work, and the more than 1,000 prisoners of war who were sitting on the city wall waiting for orders cheered together, and when the groups of prisoners of war lined up to walk across the city wall, laughter continued, only the head of the person in the corner of the tower swayed lonely in the cold wind, and no one wanted to look at it.

The night is getting deeper, and several other sections of the city wall have also accelerated the construction progress under the influence of the north city wall, and all of them have ended today's project ahead of schedule, and the prisoners of war have returned to the prisoner of war camp one after another to eat.

Suddenly, a few black shadows appeared in the woods in the distance, they watched the movement of Xuanwu City, and soon turned around and galloped north, a few miles away, a black and oppressive Qarluq cavalry was dressed and haired, the black war horse snorted, Athran pulled the reins, staring at the lonely Xuanwu City in the distance with an expressionless face, his gray eyes were as piercing as winter.

(The second part of "Collision of Empires" will be carried out layer by layer from point to line and from line to surface, and finally it will be paved into a magnificent picture.