A long scream broke through the silence of the morning, and he got up from his bed and walked briskly to the window, where he was imprisoned in a tower in the palace next to a square in Damascus, where every morning a terrible scene took place, in which a hundred Sogdians were killed.

It had been seven days, and a hundred people were brought in and killed every day, including Persian and Tocharian slaves, but more of them were ordinary Sogdian civilians, who had committed no crimes, simply because of a decision of the Abbasids, who wanted to spiritually conquer the holy woman from the temple of Samarkand, to conquer this princess from the country of stone, Kulan slowly walked to the window, and after seven days of killing, she no longer dared to look at the bloody scene, however, she still involuntarily walked to the window and witnessed the atrocities of the Abbasids in anger.

From her window, she could see the situation in the square from afar, dozens of people had fallen in a pool of blood, and at this time, Julan saw a scene that broke her heart, a child, a little girl who was only a few years old, she was so thin, like a tender grass, she was staring blankly at the executioner walking towards him with a knife, her helpless eyes were full of fear, holding the stake and dodging backwards, but she was still carried out by the executioner like a chicken.

"No!"

Julan could no longer restrain the boiling grief and indignation in her heart, and grabbed the iron fence and shouted: "Stop! ”

"Pause!"

The leading officer shouted the butcher's knife, and the knife stopped on the little girl's head, and the officer looked up at the tower, a smug smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

On the tower, Julan closed her eyes in pain, and after a long time, she slowly opened her eyes, there was no one in the square, all the people who were killed were dragged away, the little girl was gone, the square was full of pools of blood, great sorrow hit Julan, tears flowed all over her face, and a kind of grief for the misfortune of the nation filled her heart.

At this time, the voice of the supervisor came from outside her door, "Princess Julan, someone has come to see you." ”

'Bang! The iron door opened, and a person walked in from outside the door, and when he saw Julan, he immediately shouted excitedly, "Julan! ”

Julan slowly turned around, only to see that the person who came in turned out to be her brother Chang En, and she was stunned.

"Second brother, why are you here?"

"Hey! I was captured and tortured while fighting the Great Eclipse. ”

Yuan En's expression was very painful, his face lost no time in revealing a few scars, he rolled up his sleeves, a few dazzling scars appeared on his arms, and said sadly: "Look at it, this is what they beat, they said that you refused to obey, so they tortured me desperately, and set a time limit for me, if you don't agree within ten days, they will kill me!" ”

"Say no more!" Kulan interrupted him, "I see what you mean. ”

She slowly walked to the window, and Yuan En behind her knelt down and cried: "Sister, just wait for the second brother to beg you, the second brother has been the best for you since childhood, have you forgotten?" You almost died of illness that year, it was the second brother who took care of you all the time and let you pick up a life, and now the second brother is killed by them, how can you not save you when you die? Even if it is not for the sake of my second brother, in order to save the lives of countless Sogdians, you should agree, and besides, to be an incomparably noble caliph concubine, this is an honor that countless women have never dreamed of! ”

Julan stared blankly at the puddles of blood in the square, she remembered the poor child, I don't know how many more children would be slaughtered, tears welled up again, she finally nodded, "Okay! I promise you. ”

Julan closed her eyes sadly, and after a while, she resolutely said, "Let that supervisor come in!" ”

The overseer was a local woman of about forty years old, surprisingly fat, with a pair of small eyes that were dazzling and full of a sly smile, she couldn't believe her ears, Princess Kulan agreed, and she cried out happily, "I'll go and report it!" ”

"Wait!"

Kulan stopped her, and she said calmly: "I have several conditions for me to convert to Islam and make me a caliphate. ”

"Conditions?" The fat woman was confused for a while, and the great caliph could still bargain?

"Yes, I have the conditions!" Julan said slowly: "You remember! First, give me back all my things, and you are not allowed to take them away, including my dagger, which is my most beloved thing; secondly, to give me the eye of light, to be free from the status of a saint, I need to apologize to the Lord God; Thirdly, as a holy woman who has broken away from the Teachings, I still need to apologize in front of all the believers, and ask the Caliph to gather the followers of the Confessions of Damascus for me. ”

The supervising woman remembered her words carefully, turned around and left, Julan no longer looked at her brother, Yuan En was overjoyed, his sister became a caliph's concubine, and the time for him to turn over was up, he wanted to say something more, but when his sister ignored him, he had to leave in a huff.

The room was quiet, and Julan's eyes looked at the east with great affection, refusing to take it back for a long time.

．．．．．．． The snow had stopped, the earth had turned into a white world, and the sudden heavy snow interrupted the great battle between the two countries, and they each collected their troops and returned to their camps, waiting for the arrival of the next big war, or the next big war is the time to decide the victory or defeat.

The large camp of the Tang army stretches for several miles, there are huge fences and deep trenches outside the camp, and the three hundred steps outside the trench are sprinkled with thistles, and what is more troublesome is that these thistles are covered by thick snow, and they are completely invisible to the naked eye, only the moment when the war horse steps on it, it will feel its existence painfully, only there is no thistle terrestris on a road facing the gate, this is the main road for the Tang army to enter and exit, if the big food attacks along this road, they are greeted by the strong bow and crossbow of the Tang army.

In the camp, the Tang army camped according to each army, among which 10,000 people of the Shatuo mercenaries and the Qarluq mercenaries were stationed in the northeast corner, and they played an active role in this war with Dashi, and each lost nearly 1,000 people.

While lunch was being eaten in the Qarluq camp, the fat sheep were roasted and fragrant, and the soldiers were making a loud noise, and the noise was very lively, when a Turkic soldier walked quickly through the camp and came to the tent of the assassin Sihan, and several guards stopped him, and he saluted respectfully and said: "Please tell the prince, and say that the Turkic Dos wants to see him." ”

"Wait a minute!" The guards turned and went in.

This time with the Tang army to the great food of the general Ge Lulu is the prince to assassinate Sihan, after the death of the eldest prince, Mou Zhu Sihan became the first heir to the position of the great chief of Gelulu, Mou Sihan and the hatred of the Tang army The big prince is completely different, he is very smart, and he is also ambitious, he is good at using all external conditions in his favor, such as the Shatuo people, he will not be as hostile as the eldest prince, but try to get along with them, put aside the past grievances, solve the worries, his goal is not in the south, but in the north, He longed to one day become one with the Qarluq tribe of the Hui and become a powerful nation to take his place.

To achieve this goal, it was necessary to have the strong support of the Tang Dynasty, and on this point, Mou Jian Sihan and Li Qing'an reached a consensus.

At this moment, he was having dinner with several generals in the tent, and the guards came in to report: "Report to the prince, a Turkic named Dos asks to see you." ”

Mou Sihan was stunned for a moment, and he suddenly remembered that Dos was the son of the leader of a Turkic tribe who lived in the south of the Qarluqs, and had a good relationship with him when he was a child, but eighteen years ago, their entire tribe had moved to the west, and now why did it suddenly appear.

"Ask him to come to my tent."

Mou Assassin Sihan picked up a piece of Hu Biscuit from the table, took a bite and said with a smile: "You eat slowly, I'll come when I go." ”

He picked up the tent and strode out, the side tent was his private small tent, close to the side, he walked into the tent, the Turkic Dos had been waiting for a long time, seeing him come in, he hurriedly saluted respectfully: "Prince Sihan, do you remember me?" ”

Mou Jian Sihan laughed and hugged him tightly, and gave him a punch in the shoulder, "You Jinshan eaglet, why did you fly away and never come back?" ”

Doss smiled, "Aren't I coming back?" I heard you were there, so I came to see you. ”

Mou Jian Sihan glanced him up and down, and asked with some confusion: "Why are you in the Tang Army, are you the Shi [***] team?" ”

Dos nodded and said, "You're right, I'm in the Shi [***] team." ”

"That's not right!"

Mou Jian Sihan shook his head, "I heard that your tribe has moved to the area of Dong'an Kingdom, how can you be in the Shi [***] team?" ”

Dos smiled and did not answer, he took out a roll of parchment from his bosom, handed it to Mou Jian Sihan, and said solemnly: "Your Royal Highness, this is Abu. I am really just a messenger of a letter from the Muslim governor to you. ”

"Abu. Muslim! ”

Mou Assassin Sihan was taken aback, how could the commander of the Great Food Army write to him? He slowly unfolded the letter, which was written in Turkic language, and the meaning of the letter was very clear: if the Qarluqs could help the Great Eclipse army, once the Great Eclipse army defeated the Tang army, the Great Eclipse would assign Broken Leaf and Bahanna to the Qarluq, so that they could replace the Turgish and become the overlords west of the river.

Mou Zhu Sihan lowered his head and pondered silently, he should say Abu. The Muslims offered a very tempting offer to obtain the broken leaves and the Bakanna, which had been dreamed of by the Qarluqs for generations, so that they could escape the oppression of the Uighurs and develop south of the Golden Mountain.

Doss saw that he was a little tempted, so he smiled and said, "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you Qarluqs, you think about it, and I will come to you tomorrow." ”

With that, he bowed and hurried away, looking at the parchment scroll and falling into deep thought.

．．．．．． Li Qing'an talked to Li Mi about the capital in the big tent, since Li Mi admitted that he was recommended by the former prince Li Heng, he no longer concealed his purpose, and was honest with Li Qing'an, he just wanted Li Heng to re-enter the East Palace, and came with the help of Li Qing'an's power.

He knew that Li Qingan had this ability, the key was how to use it to the greatest extent, this was the real purpose of his defection to Li Qingan, he didn't hide this, and he knew that he couldn't hide it.

"Envoy, I have a way to make the Holy Lord stop worrying about your excessive forces."

"What's the solution? Tell me about it. ”

"Implement the Lianbao Mintun Law in Anxi!"

Li Qing'an muttered two sentences to himself, and asked with interest: "Let's talk about it specifically, what is the Lianbao Mintun Law?" ”

Li Mi smiled and explained: "The so-called Mintun Law, the difference between it and Juntun is that the identity of the soldiers is no longer soldiers, but farmers who unload their armor and return to their hometowns, but these farmers do not return to their hometowns, but build a castle according to the battalion, their families live in the castle, they are together in the tuntian, of course, in order to protect their homeland, they must carry weapons, and in the future, the Han people in the interior will be attached to each castle, so that the battalion will be expanded into a military government, and then later, when the Tang Dynasty has a firm foothold in the Western Regions and Lingxi, These castles have been turned into counties again, so do you know what I mean? ”

Li Qing'an smiled, it can be said that the hero sees the same thing, he thought of a way to convert a part of the army into a militia group, the purpose is the same, to reduce the number of troops in the formation, but Li Mi's idea is more innovative, first the army fort and then the state and county, it is completely feasible, he must do this gesture of reducing the army, before he has full control of Anxi, he can't give Yang Guozhong and others a handle.

"You write a detailed plan to me, if you are not familiar with the geography of Anxi, you can ask the marching Sima, in half a month, I hope to see this plan."

"Rest assured, I'll start drafting it today."

At this time, a personal soldier walked in outside the tent and reported: "General, Ge Lulu has something important to ask for to see Sihan. ”

"Let him in!"

Li Qingan smiled at Li Mi again: "Sir, go back and start writing!" I can't wait. ”

Li Mi nodded, then said goodbye and left, at this time, Mou Sihan walked into the big tent, he half-knelt and gave a military salute to Li Qing'an, "See the general." ”

"General Sihan, please get up!"

Li Qing'an was quite satisfied with Mou Assassin Sihan, this person had great foresight and took the initiative to reconcile with Shatuo, so that the Qarlu people would have one less strong enemy and could develop wholeheartedly towards Hui.

Although Ge Lulu is currently very loyal to the Tang Dynasty and fully supports Beiting, Li Qing'an still has a deep wariness of them, and it was the betrayal of the Ge Lulu people in history that made Gao Xianzhi lose to Da Shi in Talas, but history has been rewritten by him Li Qing'an, and the Ge Lulu people will not cause much loss even if they really betray the Tang army, and he ordered the Shatuo people to fight side by side with the Ge Lulu people, just to prevent the betrayal of the Ge Lulu people.

Moreover, the reason why the Qarluq people betrayed the Tang Dynasty was that the Tang Dynasty had promised to give them broken leaves, but then they reversed themselves, which made the Qarluq people very disappointed in the Tang Dynasty, so they finally chose to betray, and now, the consensus reached by themselves and the Qarluq people is to support them to develop eastward, so that the Qarluq people have become a big enemy to strangle the Hui people, and the best way to deal with the grassland peoples is to let them have internal friction, and then go to clean up the mess when the internal friction is almost over.

Thyhan stood up, and he took out Abu. The parchment scroll given to him by the Muslims was handed to Li Qing'an and said, "This is a gift from the governor of the Great Cannibal, please take a look at it." ”

Li Qing'an took a deep look at him, opened the parchment scroll, and after reading it, a smile slowly appeared on the corner of his mouth, things really happened along the historical line, the big cannibal found the Qarluq, but why did the big cannibal find the Qarluq people in a different background? This made Li Qingan a little puzzled.

The words of the assassin Sihan solved Li Qing'an's doubts, "General, the desire of our Ge Lulu for several generations is to replace the Turgish people to become the lord of the Broken Leaves, for this reason, in the past ten years, we have tried to migrate south several times, but we have failed, and we have been defeated by the Turgish people, and the Great Cannibals have taken advantage of us to tempt us with the Broken Leaves and Bahanna. ”

Li Qing'an suddenly realized, it turned out that this was the case, he glanced at Mou Sihan and smiled: "Then why did you give up this good opportunity now?" ”

Mou Jian Sihan sighed and said, "It's because there is a great general, so give up!" ”

"Why?"

Mou Jian Sihan smiled bitterly and said: "If you want to agree to the Great Cannibal, there must be a premise, that is, the Great Cannibal must be able to defeat the Tang Army, otherwise, betraying the Tang Army, we will only bring about our own destruction, with the General's understanding of the Great Food Army, tolerance and encirclement of the Sogdians, it can be seen that the Great General has a long-term plan for the Hezhong region, just by virtue of this, I understand that the Great Cannibal will be defeated, so I will not take this risk of extermination to make an impossible dream." ”

"Then what if Gao Xianzhi and Da Shi fight? Will you betray? Li Qingan asked with a smile again.

Seeing that Mou Jian Sihan didn't speak for a long time, Li Qingan smiled again: "Although you tell the truth, I'm just making an analogy, to be honest, I don't think I'm optimistic about Gao Xianzhi fighting with the big cannibal." ”

Mou Jian Sihan nodded slowly, and said: "The reason why Gao Xianzhi failed in Tocharo is because he is a kind of domineering thinking that is doing trouble, thinking that the Tang Dynasty can slaughter and plunder cities at will, and he can indulge soldiers to destroy silver women, he doesn't know at all, Da Shi is a Western empire as powerful as Da Tang, they have conquered Hezhong for decades, and the Hezhong and Tocharian countries are looking forward to Datang to rescue them, not to slaughter and plunder them like Da Shi, Gao Xianzhi has this kind of thinking first, I dare to say, Even if he occasionally wins one or two battles of the Great Eclipse, he will still be defeated in the end, to take the river, he must not use domineering methods, but should use the royal road to solve it like the general, grace and power, rigidity and softness, have a broad mind, and have a far-sighted vision, this is the posture of the one who wins the world, so the general asked me, if Gao Xianzhi is against the Muslims, I Ge Lulu will definitely betray, without him, the bird chooses a good tree to perch, and we Ge Lulu is willing to follow the victor to write history. ”

Li Qing'an was silent, history has gone on a fork in the road because of him, if he can restore history, what kind of truth will the Qarlu people be?

"General, what should I do now? The people sent by the Muslims are still waiting for my reply. ”

Li Qing'an's thoughts returned to reality, he pondered for a while, and then smiled faintly: "Since Jiang Gan is here, why should I be Zhou Yu once?" ”

．．．．．．．．．．

(To be continued)