Xiao Quai's group of sixteen people and thirty-two horses hid in a vineyard next to the road. It's early summer in May, and Ferghana, where Bakhana is located, is one of the most fertile oases in the Transoxiana region. The vineyards are verdant and leafy, covering them tightly. It was not until the five knights had run away on the way that they led their horses out of the vineyard and continued on their way.

The twenty-six-year-old Prince of Ningyuan, Yamo, looked unhappy and said angrily: "Marquis Xiao, there are only five people on the other side, why do we need to hide?" Honestly, we can kill them without your help! ”

Xiao Qu was stunned for a moment, this prince was so cute: "Why kill them?" ”

"Didn't Xiao Hou see it? They went to Shiguo Talas to report the news. ”

Xiao Quzhi smiled and said, "I deliberately let them go to Shiguo Talos to deliver the letter. Prince, you think, you yourself have said that it is less than three hundred miles from the city of Thirsty Sai to the city of Hubo, and the army can reach it in a day and a half, and the city of Hubo can be broken in two days. Talas is more than 900 miles away from Hubory City, and by the time their reinforcements arrive, Hubory City has been conquered for a long time. At that time, wouldn't it be better for us to wait for work and hit it halfway? (The city of Thirsty is about today's Kokand, and the city of Hushu is today's Kujand, and the distance between the two is less than 300 miles.) Talas is today's Taraz. ）

The prince of Yama was stunned for a moment, and after thinking about it, indeed, he was not afraid of Siba Khan's request for help from Shiguo Talas. It's better for them to come to their aid, and it's much easier to annihilate them in the field than to siege them. He said embarrassedly: "It turns out that Zhongcheng and Xiao Hou have already planned, no wonder I asked my father to release the news early, it turned out that he wanted to lure them to the rescue and destroy them on the way!" ”

Xiao Quzhi smiled: "This is Zhongcheng's strategy, now it depends on whether they can be fooled." The prince knows them well, do you think Shiguo and Samad Jian will come to their aid? ”

Yama thought for a while and said, "Shi Guo knows that the Anxi Army is unparalleled in combat power, and it will definitely not come. It's the big cannibal built by Sama, who is used to being the king and hegemonic here, and is invincible, and it is very likely to come! ”

Xiao Quzhi said: "Zhongcheng and I also think the same way, so this time our purpose is not to sentry the movement of the city, but to sentry the movement of Samojian in black clothes." Along the way, tell me about the river. ”

I have to say that this area is really prosperous, and there are more than a dozen caravans along the way. On the way, we passed through some small towns, where most of the merchants gathered, and it was a lively scene. Listening to Yama, if it weren't for the robbery, greedy and tyrannical cannibalism, the entire river would be several times more prosperous than it is now.

Xiao Quzhi learned from Yama's words that the Sogdians surnamed Zhaowu Jiu in Hezhong were very good at business, and they contracted almost all the trade activities along the entire Silk Road, earning extremely high profits. Similarly, it is the huge wealth possessed by the people of Zhaowu Jiu that has caused all parties to compete for it. Among them, the Tang Dynasty is the most kind, and more than 100 years ago, the Tang Dynasty captured this place and divided the countries. But he has never been to the river to collect taxes, and the only burden of the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms to the suzerainty of Datang is to collect toll taxes when caravans pass through the territory of Datang, but these are all earned back in the business with Datang.

When the Turgish Sulu Khan occupied the river, he began to collect taxes, but the taxes were not heavy, and the river was stable. Only when the big cannibals came, they didn't treat the people of the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms as human beings at all, and wantonly plundered the property of the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, and seized everything, even their lives, from the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms. They killed as much as they wanted, and Anguo, Kangguo, Shiguo, and He Guo, who were close to Khorasan, were all miserable by the great cannibals.

In the Hezhong region, only Ningyuan and Shiguo were less persecuted by Dashi. The reason is simple, the kings of both countries are Turkic. The king's guards were also mostly Turkic, and they were more valiant and good at fighting. And both countries have a backer, Shiguo is Tuqishi, and Ning Yuanguo is the Tang Anxi Army.

On the contrary, the other Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, Kangguo, Anguo, etc., they were all Sogdians. The Sogdians were very good at business, but they were not good at fighting, they were martial but not good at fighting, and their combat effectiveness was far worse than that of the Great Cannibals, and the Turks and the Tang Army were far behind, so they were oppressed to death by the Great Cannibals.

Yama analyzed the problem from the standpoint of the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu, and of course felt that the policy of the Tang Dynasty was the best. As a later generation, Xiao Quzhi looked at the problem from the standpoint of the Tang Dynasty, but felt that the Tang Dynasty's restraint policy was the most unsuccessful of the three policies.

The Turgish is the land that is mine, I collect taxes, I run it; The big food is to plunder it first, and then operate; But the Tang Dynasty is not operating, you take care of yourself, I just need you to obey me. This is the policy of restraint that the Tang Dynasty has always practiced.

This policy was set from the time of Gaozu, the so-called: "Huairou is far away, righteousness is in bondage, and there is no vassal...... If you want to be deserted, you should be in harmony". To put it bluntly, after the conquest of other national regimes, let them be autonomous, military, economic, and administrative. The Tang Dynasty was a military deterrent to them, such as stationing troops next to them, such as recruiting them to participate in wars; There is also a small financial benefit, you pay tribute to me, and I will reward you.

In the early days of the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, when the power was not very strong and there were too many things to do, this kind of policy was indeed very applicable. But it can only be regarded as a stopgap measure, and long-term implementation will definitely be full of drawbacks. Those with strength and ambition, such as the Turks, were crippled by the Tang Dynasty and quickly developed under this kind of restraint policy, and after gaining strength, they began to rebel again.

The kind that has no military strength, such as the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu in Hezhong, was defeated by Su Dingfang when he was in Gaozong, returned to the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and was canonized by the Tang Dynasty. However, the Tang Dynasty did not manage it, and the result was that the Nine Kingdoms of Zhaowu could not protect themselves and had huge wealth, so they attracted competition from all sides, and there was no peace in the river.

As for relying on the method of harmony to make the distant vassal submit, it is even more wishful thinking. Like Ning Yuanguo, I sincerely convince you, and if you don't get along, you will stand with the Tang Dynasty; Like Tubo, Princess Wencheng and her relatives are completely enemies (bringing advanced technology and culture to the enemy), and Princess Jincheng married in the past, and she didn't fight every day; The worst thing is that Princess Yifang and Princess Jingle were killed less than half a year after marrying King Xi and King Khitan.

It seems that even if the Anxi army can conquer the river this time, it will have to think of a good way to make it a long-term peace and truly become the territory of the Tang Dynasty, rather than just being canonized by the Tang Dynasty in name. Fortunately, there are many successful experiences to learn from in later generations. However, this is not a problem that should be considered now, the immediate problem is to go to the vicinity of Samajian to find out the movements of the Great Cannibal.

After bypassing a small lake, they walked for about thirty miles, and at eight o'clock in the evening, Xiao Quai's party came to the outside of Hushu City. After riding the horses for a day, they were all tired enough, so they cheered up and washed the horses by the river, fed and drank. Many people ate a few rations indiscriminately and lay on the ground unwilling to move.

Hushu City was built on the south bank of Yaozhishui, Xiao Qu asked Gu Xiaojun, Wumo and others to rest in place, and if there was something to do, Ming Di contacted him, and took Amir Jiang and two people to the outside of Hushu City.

Hushu City is a small city in the river, with 70,000 or 80,000 residents, and the city wall is not high, about three zhang. I don't know why, there are not many people on duty on the city wall, Xiao Qu is sick and listens attentively, and finds that the city is also in chaos. Xiao Quzhi listened for a while, took Amir Jiang to Dongcheng secretly, hid the war horse behind the shadow of the poplar tree, and the two secretly climbed the big tree.

King Misabao (whom I made up) anxiously walked up and down the east gate of Humbo. Hearing the news that Gao Xianzhi was coming to attack Humyun City, he suddenly lost his mind. He knew the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army, thirty-six years ago, when he was a little boy of one or two years old. His father, Ajada, was made the king of Pakhana by the Tibetans and the Great Cannibals, and attacked the Eastern Bakhana kingdom, which immediately caused a reaction from the Anxi army of the Great Tang Dynasty. Zhang Xiaosong only led 10,000 miscellaneous troops that were temporarily put together, and he defeated his father, Da Shi, and the army left here by Tubo.

In one day, Zhang Xiaosong broke through the three cities of Bahan, and his father Adida fled into the valley with several horsemen, so as to save his life. And now Gao Xianzhi almost led the entire town of the Anxi Army to attack, as well as more than 10,000 mercenaries from Ge Lulu and Ning Yuanguo. And there are only more than 8,000 soldiers and horses on their side, and their combat effectiveness is completely inadequate, hearing this news, the whole army is frightened, I am afraid that they will have to surrender as soon as the Tang army comes!

Just as Misabao was about to give up resistance and flee to Samajian with his army and treasure for refuge, the Chuanqi sent out to ask for help from Samajian brought him good news. It turned out that when they arrived in the country of Dongcao, they happened to encounter a large food army of 500 people, and they were ordered by General Qiyad to collect troops in Dongcao and prepare to rescue Talas. As soon as the two sides exchanged news, the El G'aide (equivalent to a centurion) who led the team immediately sent people back to Samat to build a city to inform General Ziyad. And he himself will take 300 Great Food Cavalry to Humbo City tonight to help defend the city.

"Father, go back first, just keep me here. Isn't it enough for me, a prince, to greet him with a few ministers? Misabao's son Fu Diyan (still made up) said with concern.

Misabao was irritable, glared at him and said, "You know a fart, Lao Tzu wants to know how many reinforcements Da Shi can send over as soon as possible." ”

Fu Diyan said: "How can that Gauid say that he is preparing to support Talas when he is recruiting troops in the Eastern Cao Kingdom? Is that Gao Xianzhi going to snoring in the city or in the city of Talas? ”

Misabor shook his head irritably, and said, "Who am I going to ask again?" Maybe it's not necessary to attack two cities at the same time! ”

While he was talking, he heard a fast horse galloping towards him, and shouted loudly from afar: "My king, the great cannibal has arrived." ”

Sure enough, it didn't take long to see a group of big cannibal cavalry, armed with torches, rushing towards here. Fu Diyan hurriedly brought a few ministers to meet him, and the great eater Gaid was actually very proud, and did not dismount, and after saying a few words to him, he beat his horse and walked slowly into the city. Fu Diyan's face was full of embarrassment, and his face was full of anger, but he didn't dare to attack, and followed them with a cry. From a distance, Vatiyan and several of the ministers of the Eastern Bathhana looked like horsemen leading the horses of the Great Eater cavalry.

When the great eater Gaid walked up to Misabao, he found out that he was a king, and was wondering whether to dismount or not. He heard the sound of two sharp arrows breaking through the air, and a bloody eagle arrow came out of his left chest, and in front of his side, King Tunba Khanna, wearing a crown, also had a feathered arrow stuck in his right chest.

"What a quick arrow!" The last consciousness of the Great Eater Gauid.