readx; Although General Li Qing'an planned to send Zarik to pretend to be the envoy of the Great Food to Tibet, it is also true that the Great Food Army wants to use the means of fighting with cranes and mussels and profiting from the fishermen, at this time, Mansur is on the bank of the Mulgabu River, about 400 miles away from the Tang Army, and the 70,000 Khorasan troops of the Great Food Army are stationed here. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

It has been almost half a month since Mansur came to Khorasan, and the battle of Tocharian between the Tang army and the Tubo army made his heart full of expectations, and he looked forward to the defeat of the Tang army and the Tubo army, and then he took the opportunity to send troops to recapture all the land taken away by the Tang army.

Recapture Tocharian, recapture the river, recapture Sindh and Punjab, this has always been Mansour's dream, in order to realize this dream, Mansur repeatedly fought with the Tang army, but repeatedly defeated, with the passage of time, his courage is also fading day by day, he no longer dares to hope to recapture Tocharian, only hope that the river can return to the Arab territory, he is satisfied.

Yes, just as Li Qing'an knew about him, he didn't dare to really use troops against the Tang army, the Byzantine army of 100,000 was waiting on the border, and if the Arab army invaded the Tang army, then the Byzantine army of 100,000 would attack Armenia.

There are also tens of thousands of Tang troops in the river, if they attack the Tang army, then the Tang army in the river will also attack Khorasan, which is empty, and Mansur has too many worries, so that he does not dare to move troops easily.

His original intention was the same, to lure the Tibetan army to attack the Tang army in a large way by jointly attacking the Tang army, so that they would lose both, and he would reap the benefits of the fisherman, and perhaps the Tang army and the Tibetan army would both withdraw from Tocharo, so that his Arab army could easily occupy Tocharo.

Mansur was dreaming in the tent when a sergeant came to report: "Your Majesty, Li Qing'an's envoy has arrived, asking to see His Majesty the Caliph." ”

Mansur was stunned for a moment, and then a bitter smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, it turned out that Li Qingan knew that he was here, "Take him in!" ”

In a moment, the soldier brought in a civilian officer, who bowed and said in fluent Arabic: "Counselor Wei Jin of the marching army of Anxi to see the caliph general." ”

Mansur heard that he could speak fluent Arabic, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart, a few years ago, there was only one civilian officer in the Anxi Tang Army who could speak Arabic, and now such a young civilian official can speak fluent Arabic, which shows the progress of the Anxi army.

Mansur nodded and said to him, "You're welcome, please take a seat!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

The envoy of the Tang army sat down at the head of Mansur, and at this time, Mansur suddenly noticed that he was a little familiar, so he asked curiously: "This envoy, have I seen you?" ”

Wei Jin said with a smile: "The year before last, when the general of my family signed a peace treaty with His Majesty, I was on the side, and I was the general's translator. ”

"Oh! No wonder, how do I feel a little familiar. ”

Referring to the peace treaty of the previous year, Mansur blushed a little, and it was clearly written in the peace treaty of the previous year that the border between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire in Tocharian was bounded by the Murghab River, and now, the Arab army has crossed the Mulghab River for ten miles.

Mansour laughed dryly, then changed the topic and said, "I don't know if your general sent you, do you have anything to talk to me about?" ”

"My general has a handwritten letter to give to Your Majesty!"

Wei Jin took out a letter and handed it to Mansur, who opened the letter, the letter was written in Turkic language, it was a handwritten letter from Li Qing'an, the letter did not mention the fact that his army was on the bank of the Murgab River, and there was not even any mention of the Tang army and the Great Food Army, the letter only said that Anxi was ready to fully restore the trade between the Tang Dynasty and Arabia, reduce the tax rate to the normal twenty taxes and one, and allow Arab merchants to go to the interior of the Tang Dynasty to do business.

Since the Battle of Talas, Anxi closed the Silk Road of Arab merchants to the Tang Dynasty, and then Anxi and Byzantium established trade relations, which further squeezed the share of Arab trade, and the Tang goods were transported to Byzantium and the West through Arabia, but now it is the other way around, and the Tang army is transported from Byzantium to Damascus.

Although the ban was later lifted in Anxi, Arab merchants were allowed to trade in Anxi, but the conditions were very harsh, first, the number of restrictions, a caravan was not allowed to exceed 300 camels, a day was not allowed to enter more than three caravans, and secondly, the tax was higher, the commercial tax in Anxi was 20 taxes and 1, but for Arab merchants it was 10 taxes, which was obviously a kind of commercial tax that discriminated against the surname, in order to punish the Arabs for repeatedly moving troops against Anxi.

And this time, Li Qing'an actually promised to fully resume normal trade with the Arabs, Mansour knew that this was not to please him, with Li Qing'an's toughness, there was no need to please him at all, this was actually a soft strategy, not blindly tough in the past, but both soft and hard.

This made Mansur sigh secretly, Li Qing'an's methods were becoming more and more sophisticated, war, diplomacy, trade and other means were intertwined, and he even saw that he did not have the courage to fight the Tang Army anymore, so he used this gentle method to accelerate the softening of his position.

"Is there anything else the general has to say?"

"Yes!"

Wei Jin was humble but dignified, and said: "The general asked me to tell His Highness that he does not want to have another war with the Arabs, but if the Arabs insist on provoking a war, then this time the Tang army will not stop at the Amu Darya, and the general said that he will personally go to the palace of Baghdad to have tea with the Byzantine emperor." ”

Li Qing'an's toughness was not written on paper, but it made Mansur feel a chill, this is the first time that the Tang army proposed to no longer take the Amu Darya River as the boundary, he believed that Li Qing'an was not a threat, he said that he could do it, and after a moment of silence, Mansur said slowly: "Please tell the general, the Abbasid Empire has no intention of being an enemy of the Tang Empire, we Chen Bing Murgabu River want to recapture Tochar from the hands of the Tibetans, if the Tang army wants to take Tochar, then we will not do it, but if the Tang army loses and withdraws from Tochar, Then my army will continue to fight against the Tibetan army until we recapture Tochar from the Tibetan people, and we have not violated the treaty in this regard, I hope your general will understand. ”

Wei Jin stood up and saluted deeply: "The general of my family also agrees with Your Majesty's point of view, if the Tang army loses and is forced to withdraw from Tochar, the Arabs can send troops to Tochar, but if the Tang army does not leave Tocharian for a day, then the Arabs will not be allowed to cross the Mulghab River for a day, so please retreat to the west of the Mulghab River, so as not to misjudge the situation of the Tang Army." ”

．．．．．．．．．． Wei Jin was gone, Mansur fell into deep thought, and after some time, he tapped his forehead lightly and ordered his opponent: "Pass my order, and the army will immediately retreat west and retreat to the west of the Mulghab River." ”

．．．．．．．． The distance between Achuan City and Lan City is 100 miles, the middle is not flat, it is an undulating hilly area, if you ride a horse and gallop, you can run it in half a day, but if you use camels to transport supplies, then it will take at least two days.

On the third day of the agreement between Shang Xi Dongzan and Shang Jiasu, a convoy composed of thousands of camels and hundreds of carriages went out from Ashu City, transporting 50,000 stone of grain to Lancheng, a camel can carry about four stones of grain, moving slowly, in order to prevent the local people from attacking the grain convoy, Shang Xi Dongzan specially sent 3,000 cavalry to protect the safety of this transport convoy.

The procession traveled for a whole day, and at dusk, a sandstorm suddenly blew near the city of Achu, which was the most susceptible natural disaster in the Tocharian region in the spring.

Not only could he not open his eyes and his nose could not breathe, but the thick sand and gravel struck his head and face, which hurt people, and if he was hit by a larger stone, he would even die.

The camels lay on their stomachs with their heads buried and their eyes closed, and the camel drivers and soldiers crowded around the camels to escape the unbearable sandstorm.

The sky gradually darkened, and the sandstorm subsided, but the air was filled with dust, these were fine sand blown from the northern desert, except for the nose was uncomfortable, there was no effect, the sky was yellow, and the sight distance was less than fifty steps, and the Tibetan lord who escorted the grain would see that the weather was unfavorable, so he ordered to camp on the spot.

It is said that it is camping, but in fact it is sleeping in the open, the shadow of the camp tent is not visible, everyone has to rest on the camels, the Tibetan soldiers gnaw a mouthful of dried meat, drink a sip of wine, those camel coachmen can only swallow spittle, eat a mouthful of dry cakes, drink a sip of water, and have to give the camels a little to drink.

In the second half of the night, most of the people fell asleep, dozens of patrolmen patrolled around meaninglessly, and the sky was still cloudy, and it was impossible to see the situation in the distance.

At this moment, the ground trembled slightly, and gradually, the trembling feeling became heavier and heavier, and the sentinels were a little strange, this was not the muffled thunder of horses' hooves hitting the ground, but the vibration felt very much like a large group of galloping horses.

"Do you want to report to the general?" One of the sentries lost his breath.

"Go report it!"

The two sentries turned around and ran towards the place where the escort general was resting, and at this moment, a large black shadow suddenly appeared in the yellow dust, rushing towards this side overwhelmingly.

Several sentries exclaimed, "It's cavalry!" They were so frightened that they turned and fled.

It was 10,000 cavalry of the Tang Army, led by the general Tian Qianzhen, this was an improvised, Shang Xi Dongzan was too excited, and leaked the agreement between him and Shang Jiasu to Zarik, Zarik immediately ordered someone to send this information to Li Qing'an, Li Qing'an immediately decided to intercept this batch of grain, and he sent the general Tian Qianzhen to carry out this task.

The 10,000 cavalry of the Tang Army also encountered a sandstorm, but they did not stop, still continued to advance in the sandstorm, and soon discovered this transport team, Tian Qianzhen ordered the horse's hooves to be wrapped in cotton cloth, so that the sound of the horse's hooves was greatly weakened, and took advantage of the dusty night to suddenly kill in front of the transport team.

Thousands of camels were alarmed, they got up and fled, the soldiers and camel coachmen woke up, dazed and bewildered, when 10,000 Tang cavalry swept in like a sandstorm, they rushed into the enemy like a storm, and the furious hooves of the horses and fierce knives tore the enemy to pieces.

The Tibetan soldiers shouted and fled in all directions, but they could not outrun the Tang army's horses, and were soon chased and killed, and the coachmen were already frightened and knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

The purpose of the Tang army this time was not to kill the enemy, but to snatch the grain, if it could not be carried away, it would be burned on the spot, and the camels would also be pulled away, and if the Tibetan army had no food, the camels would also be slaughtered to fill the army food.

It was only thirty miles away from the city of Ashu, and it was necessary to withdraw as soon as possible, and the Tang army soon gave up the pursuit of the Tibetan deserters, but surrounded the camels and led them away, and some of the chauffeurs who escaped for their lives also drove the carriages with the Tang army.

More than 100 carriages had broken down, and the thousands of bags of grain on them were taken away by the Tang cavalry one by one, and in less than half an hour, the Tang cavalry beautifully attacked and looted the 50,000 stone military rations of the Tubo army, and the brigade soon disappeared into the yellow night.

(To be continued)