He had great hopes for Ziade, who was in Kangguo, and Ziyad did not disappoint him, and soon sent someone to send the good news of a great victory, and Bosilin was very happy after receiving the good news, and he was fortunate to have several Kangguo women in the palace of the king of Kangguo that night. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

But a few days later, Ziad was raided by the Tang army in the front, and after the news of the fiasco came, and Bo Silin could not be happy anymore, but as a rational commander, he did not interfere with Ziad's command on the front line, but only sent someone over to tell Ziad that there were no reinforcements for the time being, so that he could decide whether to defend or retreat. Two days later, Ziad sent a letter to tell him that he would take the initiative to lead the army to retreat to preserve his strength, which made Hepo Silin, who was not aware of the battle situation ahead, realize the severity of the unfavorable battle situation, and he had a premonition that the Tang army might kill Kang, so he immediately ordered to recruit tens of thousands of Kang people to build a city wall north of the capital city of Kang, Samad Gand, to resist the attack that might come from the Tang army, this wall was later called the Samarkand Wall.

In addition to recruiting people to build walls and strengthen fortifications, and Posilin also tried his best to block the news to prevent the news of the defeat of the Great Eater Army in front from coming back and triggering a revolt in various parts of Sogdia, and at the same time he also sent a group of soldiers and horses to attack the Tiemen Pass, which was originally controlled by the Tocharians, and he was worried that after the news of Ziad's defeat spread, the Tocharians in the south would raise troops and the Tang army to attack him from the north and south.

After taking the initiative to retreat, Ziad led the army to arrive at Baishui City, just a little rest and quickly led the army to continue to retreat to the south, after Daoud's reminder, Ziad also sent a fast horse to rush to Tuozhi City, and ordered the big food guard to strengthen the city defense and increase vigilance, so as not to be copied by the Tang army to sneak attack Tuozhi City, so as to cut off the retreat of the Beigui army, because Daoud suffered a big loss here, and was sent by Zhao Ziliang to send 3,000 light cavalry to sneak attack Tuozhi City, so that Daoud almost wiped out the whole army here.

This time, Zhao Ziliang did not send strange soldiers to attack Tuozhi City like he did back then, but directly led the army to Tuozhi City in an upright and mighty manner, and now the strength in his hands is not the same as that year, more than 70,000 troops, compared with the big cannibals, there is no need to play conspiracy.

Located in the center of the oasis in the Chilchik River Valley, it is an important commercial hub of the Silk Road, and there are no other cities around, and its geographical location is important because it is a necessary place for the Northern Silk Road, and it is located at the corner of Yaozhishui and its tributary, the Chilchik River, and the Tang army must pull out this nail if it wants to continue south.

Tuozhi City, the royal palace.

Ziad summoned Said, Daoud, and a number of other generals to discuss the strengthening of the city's defenses.

As soon as the opening scene, Said poured a scoop of cold water on Ziad, "Your Excellency General Ziad, please forgive me, if the wall of Tuozhi City is just like this for us to see first, I don't think we can block the attack of the Tang Army!" ”

Ziad said: "I also know that it is difficult to block the Tang army with the walls of Tuozhi City, but we need to buy time for the Governor to reorganize the armament and strengthen the city fortifications in the city, although the walls of Tuozhi City are not high and thick, but this is the place where the two rivers meet, and it is beneficial to us in terms of terrain, the Tang army can only attack from the north, and the enemy side of our army's city defense is much smaller, and we can calmly arrange the deployment of troops!" ”

Said asked, "How long is Your Excellency the General going to hold it?" ”

"Of course, the longer you keep it, the better!"

Said shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's up to us to decide!" I have seen with my own eyes how the Tang army attacked the city, even those barbarian cavalry siege the city is extremely brave, and the Tang army infantry attacking the city, not only is not afraid of death, but also their siege tactics are countless, and the siege equipment is powerful, just with the current city wall of the city, as long as they push the siege equipment over, our army will not be able to stand on the city wall at all! ”

Ziad frowned and said, "Then how long do you think we can hold with our existing forces and city defense conditions?" ”

"It will be breached in less than three days!"

These words made Ziad gasp, and he frowned tightly and said, "Is the Tang army attacking the city so powerful?" ”

Said said: "I don't know how the other generals of the Tang Army attacked the city, I personally commanded the defense of the city back then, and the attack was a small number of Tang troops under the command of Zhao Ziliang and most of the northern barbarian soldiers and horses, I still can't resist, now he has an absolute superiority in troops, and there are elite infantry of the Tang Army, I really don't know that this Tuozhi City can block his attack for a few rounds!" ”

Ziad muttered, "Are we still going to retreat?" But we must buy time for the Governor! ”

Daoud said at this time: "Your Excellency General, I suggest that we abandon the city of Tuozhi, move away the grain and all the valuable things here, and after crossing the Chirchik River, we will camp on the opposite bank and demolish the bridge, we should be able to temporarily block the Tang army from going south by using the natural defensive barrier of the river, as for the Syr Darya River in the west, because the current is too fast and the river is too wide, the Tang army will not choose to cross the river from that side, it is too dangerous, they can only cross the Chirchik River to the south, and we will block them on the other side of the river, It will take some time for them to build a pontoon bridge, and we can still occupy the land of the river beach, if their army rushes over and we occupy the river beach, they will have no place to stand, I believe that this will delay time! ”

When the others heard this suggestion, they began to talk to each other, and Ziyad asked Said: "What do you think of General Daoud's proposal?" ”

Said nodded and said: "I think it's very good, we take away all the grain and valuable things in Tuozhi City, and take away all the grain and livestock in the surrounding villages, so that the Tang army will not be able to get supplies here, and then deploy a defensive line on the other side of the Chilchik River to hold back the Tang army, and it should be able to delay for a while!" ”

At this time, an official said: "If you want to abandon the city of Tuozhi, why retreat only to the banks of the Chilchik River, why not directly to the other side of the Syr Darya?" What if the Don army crossed the Syr Darya River directly to the west? ”

Daoud shook his head at this time and said: "The western section of the river where the Syr Darya River meets the Chilchik River is too wide and the current is also very fast, if they cross the river from there, it will be dangerous for you to cross the river, but the section of the Syr Darya River east of the confluence of the two rivers is much narrower and the current is gentler, if it were me, I would definitely not risk it!" If we can't stop the Tang army on the bank of the Chirchik River, we can retreat to the other side of the Syr Darya River and then deploy defenses, and the layers of defense will definitely delay time as much as possible! ”

Ziad said at this time: "Okay, it's decided according to what General Daoud said, and now start to evacuate gradually, General Daoud, you are responsible for leading the troops to collect food and take it away, General Said, you are responsible for leading the troops to take away valuable things, and General Ben is responsible for breaking the rear, and you must try to empty the city before the arrival of the Tang army."

In fact, Ziad and others looked too highly at the execution of the soldiers under their command, and also underestimated the marching speed of the Tang army, Ziad since the east bank of Hengluo was raided and retreated to Heng Luos after the horse almost lost, only less than 2,000 cavalry, the other 10,000 or so capital infantry, the distance from Heng Logos to Tuozhi City is not short, and the Tang army quickly sent fine cavalry to pursue after crossing the river, the big cannibals just began to carry out operations in Tuozhi City to prepare to empty the city, and the Tang Army's forward fine cavalry 3,000 men and horses arrived.

When he received the report from the outpost, Ziad knew that his previous plan would not be fully implemented, so he could only send someone to inform Daoud and Said, abandon everything he could abandon, quickly cross the river, and burn the bridge before the Tang army's vanguard elite cavalry could chase after him.

The road from Tuozhi City to the banks of the Chilchik River was full of food bags and heavy objects that hindered the retreat, and even many of the Great Eaters discarded their armor on the side of the road in order to reduce their burden, and some of the Great Eaters retreated in panic because they accidentally left gold and silver in the grass on the side of the road.

The Tang Army's forward cavalry was led by Li Sheng, and pursued all the way from Tuozhi City, although the roads along the way were full of valuable things, but none of the soldiers stopped to pick them up, which shows the strict military discipline of this Tang army's elite cavalry.

After chasing to the river, Li Sheng saw that the bridge had been burned by the Great Eclipse Army that had withdrawn to the other bank, and the Great Eclipse Army began to deploy defenses on the other side of the river, and sent additional scouts to patrol and probe along the river bank, Li Sheng knew that the other party was planning to use the danger of the river to block the Tang Army from moving south.

As the elite cavalry of the Tang army stopped on the bank of the river, the angry smoke and dust scattered in the air all the way, and the rumbling sound of the galloping war horses disappeared.

However, when Ziad and others found that this Tang army only had about 3,000 horsemen, they began to regret whether they had retreated too quickly, the Tang army did not have many troops, and it was chasing wildly, so it must be difficult and lacking in horses, if the formation was set up on the bank of the river before, maybe it could still defeat this Tang army.

Daoud regretted it a little, and said: "It turns out that they only have 3,000 horsemen, and if we had known this, we would have set up a camp on the other side of the river by relying on the river, and we should be able to defeat them!" ”

Ziad looked at it carefully, shook his head and said: "I'm afraid that it may not be, you look at this Tang army, when it was quickly chasing over just now, the ranks were neatly arranged between the ranks, and we lost so much grain and grass and the previous gold, silver and jewelry along the way, and none of them even picked it up, let alone looted, this must be a strict military discipline and how well-trained the army is, at least such an army, I have never seen it, this is the first one I have seen!" We must not confront such an army head-on, otherwise we will definitely be defeated! ”

Not long after Zhao Ziliang led the main force past Baishui City, Li Sheng sent someone to report the military situation, and after learning the news that the Great Cannibal had abandoned Tuozhi City and retreated to the bank of the Chilchik River, he immediately asked people to bring the map.

After studying the map for a while, Zhao Ziliang instructed the cavalry who came to report the news: "You go and tell Li Sheng to send someone to find out if there is a big food army stationed and patrolling on the other side of the Yaozhishui River west of the confluence of the two rivers of Yaozhishui and Chirchik River!" If there is, let him stand still, send people to closely monitor the movements of the great cannibals, and wait for the arrival of the main force of the army; If there is no garrison and patrol of the Great Food Army in the western section of Yaozhishui, let him recruit some local Shiguo people to cut down a large number of trees and transport them to the bank of the river in the western section of Yaozhishui. ”

"No!" The cavalry who reported the news agreed, turned on his horse, turned around and galloped away.

Dugu Jun next to him asked: "The general asked General Li to recruit the locals to cut down trees because he wanted to build a pontoon bridge on the bank of the Xiduan River in the direct medicine killing water?" But the big cannibals shouldn't be stupid, if the western section of the medicine killing water can build a pontoon bridge to cross the river, they won't send people to garrison and patrol, right? ”

Zhao Ziliang said: "That's for sure, if the western section of the medicine killing water can build a pontoon bridge for the army to cross the river, why should they run to the other side of the Chirchik River?" It is better to cross the river in the western section of the medicine killing water and garrison it on the other side of the river. They thought it was impossible for us to build a pontoon bridge in the western section of Yaozhishui, and General Ben really didn't want to build a pontoon bridge over there, but it should be possible to build ships, right? ”

"Building ships?"

Zhao Ziliang nodded and said: "Yes, build a troop carrier, as long as you can cross the confluence of two rivers with three thousand elite cavalry, it is possible to eat this big food army!" (To be continued.) )