readx; Although the Abbasids did not have a severe famine as Li Qing'an imagined, they did begin to face a severe winter test, the loss of two large granaries in Sindh and Punjab, which made the price of grain in Damascus soar sharply, coupled with the direct trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Romans, the trade interests of Arabia were greatly reduced, and all kinds of unfavorable clouds hung over the young Abbasid Empire, the people were panicked, and various prices continued to rise, and the ruling class of the Abbasid Dynasty finally realized that the Tang Dynasty was their most formidable enemy. At least a decade of eastward expansion by the Arabs had been ruined, and the Tang dynasty had replaced their traditional rivals, the Romans. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Aware of this serious consequence, Caliph Mansur finally made the decision to reconcile with the Romans, recognizing the island of Cyprus as Constantinople, and at the same time sending Vizier Khalid as an envoy to Constantinople.

The royal palace of Damascus, Mansur anxiously paced back and forth in his map palace, he faintly heard the dissatisfied shouts of the people outside the palace, this is thousands of Damascus people living at the bottom of the street complaining about the soaring price of food, taking the opportunity of the worship to explode the dissatisfaction in their chests, Mansur has ordered the transfer of food from Egypt, but this is only a temporary measure, Egypt is also in turmoil, if you plunder the wealth there too much, I am afraid that it will further intensify the contradictions, thus causing a great riot there.

In fact, al-Mansour's concern was not entirely about food, but about his territory, his authority, [***] The fallen Umayyad dynasty was still able to open up the eastern territories and obtain a steady stream of wealth from the east, while his new Abbasid dynasty did not expand eastward, but repeatedly lost the gains of the previous dynasty, what would the Arabs think of him?

Three years ago, the Abbasid never thought of giving up completely, he was waiting for the opportunity to recover, Abbasid unfortunately died, and the task of recovering the river fell to him Mansour, Mansur never admitted that the river had been lost, his negotiations with the Tang Dynasty were just a delaying tactic, they wanted to deal with the remnants of the Western Spanish Woma, but now not only the river has not been recovered, they have even lost Sindh and Punjab.

Mansur looked at the vast expanse of land east of the Amu Darya River on the map, and his fists clenched.

"Your Majesty, General Ziyad has arrived."

"Ahh Invite him in. ”

Mansur was pleasantly surprised, the arrival of Ziyad meant that a certain unhappiness between them had disappeared, Mansur once wanted to get rid of Ziyad, because he did not become his confidant as he imagined, Khorasan still kept a certain distance from Damascus, Ziyad just replaced the Muslims and became the new lord of Khorasan, which made Mansur dissatisfied with him, this dissatisfaction reached its peak when the Tang army attacked Tochar, and Ziyad actually stood by and watched, Seeing Tochar go missing, at that moment, Mansour's displeasure turned into a monstrous rage.

But now the change in the situation made Mansur ask Ziyad again, he rewarded Ziyad with a hundred beautiful slave girls last month, Ziyad understood, he immediately wrote a letter to Mansour, explaining why he did not support Sindh and Tocharo, the Tang army increased the military power in the middle of the river, Tun 40,000 troops are on the Amu Darya, as long as they divide their troops to Tocharo, the Tang army will attack Khorasan in a big way, and the army of Damascus is pinned down by the Romans, unable to help the east, in order not to lose Khorasan, Ziyad could only stand still.

His explanation was forgiven by al-Mansur, and Ziyad came to see him as scheduled.

Ziyad walked quickly into the map palace, and he bowed deeply to al-Mansur respectfully, and said, "Your Majesty the Caliph, your courtier Ziyad. Root. Sarish. Hu Zayi salutes you! ”

"General Ziyad has worked hard all the way, please sit down!"

Mansur invited Ziad to sit down, poured him a cup of hot tea from the Tang Dynasty, and asked with a smile: "How about it, I gave you a maid, do you like it?" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I like it very much, but I don't want to repay you for your gift anymore!"

"I don't need anything else from you, as long as you can keep your promise, that's the greatest gratitude to me."

"Your Majesty refers to..... In the river? ”

Ziyad remembered that when he assumed the post of governor of Khorasan, he had promised Mansur that he would retake the river in three years, and now he had a year and a half left.

Mansour nodded, "It's time for you to make good on your promise." ”

Qiyad hesitated for a moment and said: "But Khorasan only has 40,000 troops, if you want to take Hezhong and fight against the Tang army, you need at least 100,000 troops, and the Muslims also thought so back then, and they also need the most advanced weapons." ”

Perhaps it was Qiyad who mentioned a name that Mansur didn't want to hear, his face slowly became gloomy, and he said unhappily: "How many troops are needed to deal with the Tang Army, I know better than you, you are just one of my several people, and you are not the commander of the battle against the Tang Army, the commander is me, and you have to obey the command absolutely, do you understand?" ”

Ziyad knelt down, put Mansur's palm on his forehead, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, Caliph, I have no disrespect for you, I will faithfully carry out your orders, you give me orders!" ”

Mansur stared into his eyes, and from his eyes, he saw a trace of loyalty, which made him think of the Ziyad he saw in the Bosi Mountains back then, Mansour's face slowly softened, and he nodded, "You go and wait!" I'll give you orders shortly. ”

Ziyad retreated, Mansur stood by the map with his hands behind his back, silently looking at the vast land east of the Amu Darya River, and he saw in front of him Li Qing'an, the commander of the Anxi army who had met several times, the ambitious commander of the Tang army, who heard that he had become the prince of the Tang Dynasty, and wondered if he was ready to fight a big war with the Arabs.

"Your Majesty, have you summoned me?"

Khaled's voice came from behind him, he had only returned from Constantinople yesterday, and Mansur did not look back, so he asked: "Do you think that the Roman emperor will really abide by the military agreement with the Tang Dynasty and send troops to support the Tang army?" ”

"Your Majesty may be able to do so in half a year, but now he has no time to separate, and when I go to Constantinople, he is building a large number of castles to defend against the invasion of Westerners."

"You mean Bulgaria?"

"Yes! I have just received news that the Bulgarians have offered Princess Ellen to marry their prince, but it has been refused, and the Bulgarians have already launched an attack on the Romans, so I think that if we let go of the Tang Dynasty, now is the perfect opportunity for us to retake the island of Cyprus. ”

"No!" Mansour did not hesitate to reject Khalid's proposal to attack the Roman Empire, "Our number one enemy is in the East, and I have been waiting for this day for three whole years. ”

．．．．．．．． This year's winter is particularly cold, the north wind is howling, the cold wind will freeze the Amu Darya River solidly, and the Amu Darya River that stretches for thousands of miles has become a crystal clear jade belt.

On this day, the sky snowed heavily, this is a rare heavy snow in the Amu Darya River for decades, the snowflakes are overwhelming, sometimes carried by the cold wind, playing in the air in circles, only half a day, both sides of the Amu Darya River are already a white expanse.

In the evening of that day, a cavalry of about 3,000 camels appeared in the desert west of the Amu Darya River, a well-armed Khorasan army, wearing iron helmets, shining silver scales, bows and shields on their backs, and sharp spears in their hands.

They were all covered in white cloaks, and it was difficult to find them in the long snowstorm, but they walked quickly, unaffected by the wind and snow, and drove towards the Amu Darya River, ten miles away.

The Amu Darya River is called the Wuhu River on the Tang side, and now this river has become the dividing line between the Tang and the Great Eclipse, the Tang Army launched the Tocharian and Sindh War a few months ago, and has completely driven the forces of the Great Eclipse across the Amu Darya, in order to prevent Khorasan from supporting Tocharo, the governor of the river, and the soldiers and horses made Li Siye Chen tens of thousands of soldiers on the west bank of the Amu Darya River, and finally made the Great Eclipse Army of Khorasan dare not act rashly, and now the Tocharian campaign has long been over, Li Siye is still in the Amu Darya River with 20,000 soldiers, distributed in fifteen castles, The castles were connected by beacons, which were built all the way to Samarkand, forming a tight defensive system.

But today, the blizzard that has not been encountered for decades has made the defense system of the Tang army a little fragile, and there is nothing to see from dozens of paces, and the Tang army is hiding in the castle, waiting for the end of the blizzard.

The sky is getting dark, the blizzard is still raging on both sides of the Amu Darya, the three eastern cities are the seventh castle built by the Tang army on the side of the Amu Darya, and it is also the third largest city among the fifteen castles, there are about 3,000 garrisons, the sudden blizzard also made the garrison hide in the castle, the normal patrol had to be temporarily interrupted, at this moment, the outside of the castle is already dark, and the whole land seems to be swallowed by the demon fog.

And just about eight miles south of the three eastern cities, the 3,000 food army arrived at the Amu Darya River with great difficulty, and their march also encountered great difficulties, there was no direction to see at all, only the guide groped forward by feeling, and the 3,000 people and camels were connected by dozens of long ropes, step by step on the Amu Darya River ice.

The leader of this army is called Shahim, is Ziyad's subordinate general, this time he accepted Qiyad's order, led 3,000 cavalry into the river, in order to test the reaction of the Tang army and the deployment of troops, it should be said that they are difficult to survive this operation, the lone army went deep into the hinterland, they have no way to retreat, but the military order is like a mountain, Shahim had to lead the army to risk crossing the Amu Darya River.

Although the legs of both men and camels were tied with thick grass ropes, camels and soldiers continued to slip and fall on the slippery ice, and the exclamations came one after another, but fortunately, the snow was heavy in the middle of the night, and the Tang army had no patrols on the opposite bank, so they were lucky enough to cross the Amu Darya River, and the heavy snow fell one after another, quietly covering up their footprints and traces.

Crossing the Amu Darya, the three thousand eclipse continued to march forward, the front was still the vast desert, the next dawn, the snow finally stopped, in the hazy morning light, they saw the distant mountains, Shahim sighed, he was very familiar with the terrain of this area, that year, he garrisoned behind the mountain, there is the famous gem rich in the river region - the sebo, this is the purpose of his adventure, the surprise attack of the sebo, the shaking of the countries in the river, for the subsequent large-scale attack to create momentum.

"Speed up, kill that color wave before dark!"

At the sound of Shahim's order, the three thousand cannibal cavalry urged the camels, shouted, and galloped towards the northeast.

．．．．．． Nasebo is the capital of the small history country, and it is also the closest small country to the Great Eclipse of the river countries, Nasebo is known as the city of gems, which is rich in all kinds of gems, bringing a steady stream of wealth to this city, but the wealth brought by the gems did not fall into the pockets of the Nasebo people, but into the pockets of several large families from Samarkand and Bukhara, who controlled the gem trade of Nasebo, and the locals became the helpers of these big families.

Xiaoshi country is also the westernmost edge of the Fergan Basin, the mountains here are huge, the mountains are undulating, about a hundred miles south of that Sebo, is the famous Tiemen Pass, here is the most dangerous place in the middle of the river to Tocharo, the strategic position is extremely important, the other end of the Tiemen Pass, is the first small country attacked by the Tang army in the Tocharian campaign, the liberation of the Soviet Union, the Tang army stationed 5,000 troops in the Tiemen Pass.

Shahim also knew that with their 3,000 camel cavalry could not capture the Iron Gate, and that the point of his sword was not the Iron Gate, but that the Celebo, and that his familiarity with the terrain of the area would allow him to bypass the mountains from the north, and then go south along the Dumo River to the city of Narsebo.

Because the Tang army stationed heavy troops along the Amu Darya, there were not many garrisons in the countries of the river, especially in Xiaoshiguo, a large number of troops were stationed in Tiemen Pass, so that there were only more than 1,000 Tang troops stationed in Nasebo, mainly to maintain order in the city.

Unlike Bukhara, the contradictions between Muslims and Zoroastrians in the city of Nasebo are not deep, and they can even be described by the word "living in harmony", they each have their own temples, and they usually do not interfere with each other, and there are about 30,000 residents in the city of Nasebo, almost half of whom are engaged in mining, mining a large amount of gem ore, and then chiseling the ore rock to find all kinds of gems inside.

After the Tang army occupied Hezhong, the gem industry here was still thriving, but the gems were originally mainly sold to the big cannibals, but now they are sold to the Tang people, usually to the broken leaves, and then the broken leaf merchants to the Central Plains.

Like the Amu Darya, Nasebo was hit by a snowstorm that had not been seen for decades, and it was dark early, and from noon onwards, the sky began to snow again, and the snow was overwhelming, and the night was enveloped, which soon turned the city of Nasebo into a world of black fog.

Dozens of Tang soldiers defended the city gate at the head of the city, the city gate was closed, the soldiers were crowded into the room, around the stove to keep warm, the Tang army was talking and laughing, most of the lamb legs were baked on the stove, and the whole room was filled with a rich aroma of meat, at this time, a Tang army seemed to hear something, and said to their lieutenant: "Deputy Lieutenant Sun, there seems to be someone shouting under the city!" ”

"Then go check it out!"

Deputy Lieutenant Sun was engrossed in the barbecue, ignoring him, the soldier got up and went out, and after a moment came in and said, "Lieutenant, it's a group of merchants, and I hear a lot of camel calls. ”

"Where did the merchant come from?"

"They said they were from Samarkand and asked us to open the gates."

"Close the door after dark, that's the rule!"

Vice Lieutenant Sun waved his hand impatiently and said, "Let them wait outside for one night and enter the city tomorrow morning." ”

At this moment, there was a loud crash outside, "Boom! There was a loud bang on the ground, and the whole tower trembled, and several soldiers fell to the ground unsteadily, and the barbecue rack also fell crookedly, and the lamb that was about to be roasted slipped to the ground.

The Tang soldiers looked at each other, not knowing what was happening, suddenly, there was another loud bang, the city wall shook violently again, and Adjutant Sun reacted suddenly, he shouted loudly: "Alert, someone is banging on the city gate!" ”

'When! While! The shrill bell rang in the night sky, dozens of Tang troops defending the city rushed up the city wall, no human figure could be seen in the dark night, they opened their bows and arrows, and shot arrows under the city gate, and there were screams under the city, at this moment, the city gate again came a huge and dull crashing sound, the ground shook, the city gate finally could not support it, and was knocked open.

Three thousand camel-eating cavalry shouted and rushed into the city of Nasebo, at this time the first batch of about 400 Tang troops also rushed out, in the dark night, they saw a large group of black camels rushing into the city, so they opened their bows and arrows together, the arrows were like locusts, densely shot into the camel cavalry, shot the big cannibal soldiers on their backs camels, the screams were loud, Shahim's eyes were red, he was about to rush into the city, but encountered strong resistance, how was he willing, he brandished a scimitar and shouted: "Rush up, either the whole army will be destroyed, or occupy Nasebo!" ”

The Great Food Army rushed forward with a wild shout, resisted the sharp bow and arrow of the Tang Army with a shield, and rushed to the Tang Army in an instant, and the Tang Army also put down its bow and arrows, fought with spears, and fought fiercely with the rushing Great Food Cavalry, and the square inside the gate became a bloody battlefield.

The Great Food Cavalry continued to pour in from the city gate, at this time, the thousand Tang troops stationed in Nasebo also arrived, the situation was urgent, they didn't have time to get on their horses, they were all in the form of infantry into the battle, the beacon tower on the head of the city of Nasebo was red and flamed, and it was exceptionally bright in the dark, and they were asking for help from the defenders of the Iron Gate Pass in the south.

The battle in the dark was particularly fierce, they couldn't see each other's faces clearly, and they only fought bloody with a sense of high and low, the tall ones were the big food cavalry, the short ones were the Tang infantry, and they couldn't see each other's weapons, often after a spear pierced the opponent's chest, they were also cut off by a knife, and the screams came one after another, the limbs flew sideways, and blood splashed everywhere.

The Tang Army's soldiers and horses guarding Nasebo are called Luo Yanguang, he is a Lang general, he is an old army of Anxi, he has participated in the Battle of Juzhanti and the Battle of Talas, he has rich experience, he has found that the number of the Great Food Army far exceeds his own, and they are camel cavalry, which is more advantageous than the infantry of the Tang Army, and the Tang Army is in its own formation, obviously at a disadvantage.

He was so anxious that he shouted: "Infantry formation! Infantry formation! ”

Under his command, the well-trained Don army began to assemble, quickly assembled from the initial state of confusion into an infantry phalanx, they were back to back, with spears in a spear formation, coordinated with each other, moved forward step by step, and began to launch a counterattack against the Great Eater cavalry with a collective force.

At this time, the black fog is shrouded, the eyesight is difficult to see, the combat effectiveness of the two sides depends on who is more well-trained, if it is the Tocharian army, or the Sinde army, even if it is a thousand infantry against three thousand cavalry, the Tang army will sweep the other side, but they encounter the elite Khorasan army, especially these three thousand people are selected from the elite of the 40,000 Khorasan army, they can even break through the maze of the blizzard, and the combat effectiveness can be imagined.

At this time, most of the Great Eclipse cavalry rushed into the city gate, and Shahim also began to set up a formation, and they launched a powerful attack on the infantry formation of the Tang army from all directions with a team of 100 people, and the two sides once again fell into a fierce fight.

A Tang soldier in the front row was pierced through the chest by the spear of a big food officer, screaming and falling to the ground, another Tang army soldier behind him immediately filled his position, and cooperated with the left and right, three spears stabbed at the big food officer, and immediately pierced his body, the big food officer screamed, and his body was raised high..... With the passage of time, the battle situation became more and more unfavorable to the Tang army, they had killed nearly half of them, although the Great Food Army also lost a lot of lives, but the number of people was superior, and the more obvious the advantage of the Vietnam War, from three to one, gradually became five to one.

Luo Yanguang already knew that if he continued to fight, the Tang army would be annihilated, so he immediately ordered: "Give up the city and break through!" ”

More than 500 soldiers of the Tang Army broke through the encirclement of the Great Food Army and quickly retreated to the south.

．．．．．．．．

(To be continued)