On June 26, the Tang army crossed the river with great momentum to threaten the city of Hengrus, plus the Sogdian servant army anyway, the total strength of the Tang army reached more than 70,000 people, and the big food army in the city of Heng Les was less than 12,000 people, because the Tang army raided the camp before, the big food army that fled to this side of the river lost a large number of war horses, the number of cavalry in the city was less than 2,000 people, except for the original infantry, the other cavalry had no horses, and could only be used as infantry to defend the city. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Tang Army's mighty crossing of the river made the hearts of the big cannibals in Henglus City float, and the outposts of the Great Food Army finally figured out the general number of troops of the Tang Army, and the generals such as Ziad, Daoud and Said were not too surprised when they got the news, because they had already estimated it, and it was not far from this number, but when the Tang Army really crossed the river, they still felt a little frightened.

It is not realistic to prevent the Tang army from crossing the river, the Henglus River is too long, there are too many places for the army to cross the river, and the range of the Tang army's bow and arrow is much longer than that of the Great Food Army, as long as the Tang army uses archers for maintenance, the people and horses who erect the pontoon bridge can rest assured that the bold operation, the Great Food Army has tried to shoot the Tang army's operation troops erecting the pontoon bridge with bows and arrows, but instead they were shot by the Tang army archers.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Tang army brigade crossed the river, Ziad had an urgent discussion with Daoud and Said, and Ziad decided to leave Said and Daoud to lead 10,000 men to defend the city, and he himself quickly rushed back to Kangguo with 2,000 cavalry to meet and Posilin, and decided on the question of the fate of the Great Food Army in Sogdia.

However, both Daoud and Said disagreed, although Ziad as the leading coach, but he could not make Daoud and Said completely obedient, these two firmly opposed his opinion, Said believed that the walls of Heng Les City were too short, not too strong, the city was easy to be completely besieged, with the number of troops of the Tang Army, once the city was besieged, the city was afraid that even a fly would not want to fly out. If there are no other reinforcements, the 10,000 people left behind will be finished sooner or later, even if Henglus City is a very important strategic place, but it is really unwise to still hold on to it when you know that it cannot be defended, this is not the territory of the Great Food Country, and it is really not worth it to consume 10,000 elite soldiers here.

Said suggested that before the Tang army completed the crossing of the river and surrounded the city of Henglus, the whole army quickly withdrew to Baishui City in the south, but Baishui City had no danger to defend, and could only be used as a temporary resting place for the army.

Ziad could not refute the opinions of Said and Daoud, so he could only compromise, so he sent fast horses to report to the distant Kangguo and Bo Silin, telling the army to withdraw to the south on its own initiative, and on the other hand, gathering men and horses to evacuate the city of Henglus with grain, grass, gold, silver, and jewelry.

When the Tang army was still crossing the river, Zhao Ziliang, who was on the east bank, received a message from the scouts that the Great Food Army had abandoned the city and retreated, and before leaving, he also set a fire in the city, burning down many houses and grain that could not be taken away.

After listening to the scout's report, Zhao Ziliang looked at the generals and officials on the left and right sides in the big tent of the Chinese army and asked, "The Great Food Army took the initiative to retreat, what do you think about this matter?" ”

Bai Xiaode said angrily: "Is this big cannibal a rabbit? It is really hateful to abandon the city and flee before the battle has started, and to set fire to the city, grain and grass! ”

Someone couldn't help but ask, "Is there a rabbit in the zodiac?" ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and Bai Xiaode retreated to the side embarrassedly.

Cao Lingzhong, the envoy of Anxi's soldiers and horses, hugged his fist at Zhao Ziliang and said: "General Zhao, now our army can use more than 70,000 troops, and the Great Food Army only has more than 10,000 people, and the strength of the two sides is very different. ”

Zhao Ziliang looked at the others and asked, "Does anyone else have a different opinion?" ”

Zhao Hu stood up and hugged his fists and said: "General, now that the Great Food Army has taken the initiative to retreat, will our army continue to pursue, or will it stop?" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded with satisfaction and said, "This question is a good question, and this is also the next question for our army to consider." It stands to reason that the Shi Kingdom and the Zhaowu Kingdom are all under the jurisdiction of the Anxi Protectorate, and have nothing to do with my Beiting, but the Sogdian land where the Zhaowu Kingdom is located is a buffer zone between my Tang Dynasty and the Great Food Kingdom. Although the land of Sogdia is not under the jurisdiction of our Beiting, the behavior of the Great Food Army has seriously threatened the safety of our Beiting, and both Beiting and Anxi are the towns of the Tang Dynasty, and they should treat foreign enemies without distinguishing between each other."

Speaking of this, Zhao Ziliang looked at Cao Lingzhong and said: "General Cao, if the Anxi side does not need my Beiting side to intervene, this matter will be handed over to General Cao to be responsible, Zhao immediately led the army north to return to Tingzhou, and then treat the retreating Dashi Army, whether the Anxi side pursues and recovers the lost territory of various countries along the way, or returns to Qiuci for this class, it is all up to you!" ”

Cao Lingzhong subconsciously looked at Bian Lingcheng, but Bian Lingcheng was silent, Bian Lingcheng knew very well that the Anxi Army here had been captured by the Great Food Army, and its confidence had been hit, and now its morale was low, and its combat effectiveness was completely incomparable with before, and the Great Food was only afraid that there were still heavy troops stationed in Kangguo and other places, and the Anxi Army wanted to completely drive the Great Food Army out of Sogdia It was only afraid that it would be very hanging, but if the suzerainty of the Zhaowu States was abandoned, the imperial court would investigate it, and he, the supervising army, could not afford this responsibility. But let him ask Zhao Ziliang to stay and continue to attack Dashi, but he couldn't pull off this face, so he could only keep silent.

Cao Lingzhong saw that Bian Lingcheng didn't say anything, his attitude was unclear, he hadn't been completely in charge before, and he was still a little worse in terms of responsibility, so he didn't dare to make his own decisions, so he had to say to Zhao Ziliang: "Can the general allow Cao to discuss with Lord Bian?" ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded and said, "Feel free to do so!" ”

Cao Lingzhong immediately pulled Bian Lingcheng to a remote place outside the tent and asked, "Lord Bian, what do you think, you can always tell Cao Mou now, right?" ”

Bian Lingcheng said: "General Cao, you should know that now the morale of the Anxi army is low, and the combat strength is greatly reduced, and we want to drive the big cannibals back to the big food country with our own strength, but we are afraid that it will be a little difficult, but if we give up Sogdia, the court is afraid that it will take us to blame, so if you want to drive the forces of the Great Food Army out of Sogdia, you can only use the troops of the Beiting side, and this person surnamed Zhao is loud and murderous in the Western Kingdom, and can deter those Sogdian generals who surrender." However, the miscellaneous family has a disagreement with the surnamed Zhao, so it is not good to beg him in a low voice, this is still the case for General Cao to tell him, which is why the miscellaneous family did not speak out just now."

"I'll rub it, you dead eunuch is dead to face and suffer! Such a military event did not express its stance and inaction because it did not want to pull down its face and beg for help? Cao Lingzhong scolded Bian Lingcheng in his heart, and his impression of Bian Lingcheng became worse.

Cao Lingzhong suppressed the anger in his heart and said to Bian Lingcheng: "Okay, Cao will tell General Zhao about this, but in the future, please ask Lord Bian not to conflict with General Zhao again, at this moment, we should work hard to be serious with the outside world, if we mess things up, it will not be good for anyone."

Bian Lingcheng glanced at Cao Lingzhong and said lightly: "The miscellaneous family has its own measure, and there is no need for General Cao to remind him."

Cao Lingzhong didn't bother to worry about Bian Lingcheng, and when he returned to the big tent, he hugged his fist at Zhao Ziliang and said: "General Zhao, Cao has already discussed with Lord Bian of the prison army, the land of Sogdia must not fall into the hands of the Great Cannibals, and they must be driven back, but the morale of the Anxi Army here is low, and I am afraid that it will not be able to bear the heavy responsibility of attacking the Great Food Army alone, so General Zhao's Beiting Army is still needed to stay, please see that the general is loyal to the same saint and serves the Tang Dynasty!" ”

Zhao Ziliang pondered for a moment and asked, "Here you and I have the highest military rank, if our army stays, who should be the main one?" ”

Cao Lingzhong said: "The general is powerful in the world, if Beiting is willing to stay, it is natural that the general will be the main general, and Cao is willing to be the deputy auxiliary general!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was relieved at this time, nodded and said: "Since this is the case, my Beiting Army will stay and continue to fight against the Great Food Army!" ”

Cao Lingzhong was overjoyed, as long as he could regain control of the Zhaowu Kingdoms, at least the responsibility for this defeat would be much smaller, although it was taken back with the help of the Beiting Army, he hurriedly said: "Thank you, General!" ”

Zhao Ziliang said again: "Okay, now we have decided to continue to fight against the Great Food Army until we are completely aware of the Great Food Force in the land of Sogdia, which is our strategic goal this time!" According to our military intelligence, the power of the Great Cannibal Army is mainly concentrated in a few major cities in the Zhaowu Kingdom, so we don't need to sweep the entire Sogdian land, we only need to conquer these major cities, and the power of the Great Cannibal in the Sogdian land will disappear naturally. Now the front-line leader of the Great Food Army, Ziad, took the initiative to lead his troops to retreat, and they did this with two advantages, the first was to preserve the living force, because he knew that if he could not wait for reinforcements in time, he would only be dead; Second, the retreat of the Great Food Army shortened their grain routes, greatly increased the possibility of timely reinforcements from friendly forces, and could also lengthen the grain road lines of our army, if the war took too long, the supply of grain and grass for our army would become a problem, although the grain and grass we captured now can support the army to fight for two or three months, but no one can predict the future war situation. I have already thought about it, to solve the problem of grain and grass, in addition to the captured batch of grain and grass, it is unlikely that we will transport grain from Beiting and Anxi, because the road is too far, so we can only raise grain and grass on the spot, on the one hand, by attacking the city garrisoned by the big cannibals, on the other hand, let the local officials help raise grain and grass, and nothing else is in terms of ordnance, but the arrows are consumed very much, so the replenishment of arrows must also be solved on the spot! The problem of grain and grass is handed over to Zheng San, and the matter of raising arrows is handed over to Lord Bian, you don't have anything to do here, just take care of the matter of raising arrows! ”

Bian Lingcheng wanted to refuse, but Zhao Ziliang said in front of so many people that he had nothing to do all day, and he really couldn't refuse, so he could only swallow his anger and agree. (To be continued.) )