readx; Whether in modern times or in the Tang Dynasty 1,300 years ago, intelligence is always extremely important for a war. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The actions of the Don army in Tocharian were undoubtedly like this for Damascus, and the royal palace of Damascus was still immersed in the ease of having just quelled the rebellion of the old Ali, and they did not know anything about the upcoming war in the far east.

After al-Mansur ascended the throne, the internal contradictions of the Abbasid Empire immediately came to the fore. The Muslims in Khorasan are self-respecting. Ali gathered his army in northern Syria to openly confront al-Mansur, and the momentum forced Mansur to temporarily move the capital to Kufa, and the crisis of his rule caused Mansur to abandon his attack on Spain and sign an armistice with the green-clothed Ahman, who needed to concentrate on dealing with his internal enemies.

In Khorasan, he took Abu by bribing the general Ziyad. The Muslims were in power and then killed Abu Abu. Muslim, he promised that he would never kill Abu. Muslims, he then used a natural disaster to make Abu . Muslims died in the collapse of their houses.

Immediately Mansour's sword was aimed at his uncle Ali the Elder, and he showed no mercy, did not negotiate, did not persuade, but immediately mobilized a large army to launch a fierce assault on Ali's army, and at the same time appealed to the Syrian people and soldiers, "I was the one who rescued you from the mines of the Don army, how can you be ungrateful?" ”

Mansour's appeal had a tremendous effect. Ali's army fell apart overnight, the Syrian soldiers did not want to die for him, they fled, more than 40,000 troops left less than 10,000 loyal to his dead friends, Mansur personally led an army of 70,000 to launch a fierce attack on Ali, the first battle defeated the old Ali's army, Mansur personally killed the uncle who made him hate, and sent all the loyal to Ali to the gallows, and slaughtered more than 10,000 rebels who supported the old Ali in the most cruel means.

Mansur turned around and headed for Egypt, where there was still a rebellion by the army that supported the elder Ali, and after months of bloody suppression, Mansur was loyal to the complete pacification of Ben. Ali's rebellion, returned to Damascus.

He got a little carried away, and he didn't deal with official business for more than ten days, locked himself in the palace and enjoyed the beauty of wine and beauty, enjoying the sweetness of victory.

At this time, Khalid had been waiting outside the palace for a noon, and the fierce and ruthless scorching him made him worried, although the empire was quiet, but looking around, there were many external enemies, the Romans and Gesars in the north, the remnants of the Umayyad in the west, the hatred was irreconcilable, and the aggressive Tang Dynasty in the east, did Mansur start to enjoy it so quickly?

"Let's take a look, has His Majesty the Caliph had lunch well?"

He shouted loudly, and the rage made Khalid so impatient that he lost his mind a little, and the two black eunuchs ran away in fright.

In the palace, Mansur is lying in the arms of several charming beauties, in front of him is full of all kinds of delicacies and luscious grape juice, a team of dancing girls dance in front of him, Miaoman's posture is telling the moving love words, Mansur has been on the throne for nearly half a year, only in this half a month, he finally enjoyed the extravagant life of the emperor, he felt that he was tired and needed to recuperate for a few months.

But in fact, half a month of drunken life has made Mansour's body obviously slimmed, his eyelids are swollen, his eyes are cloudy, and he is no longer as bright as before.

At this time, he suddenly heard a slight scolding, and when he turned around, he saw the chief of the inner palace reprimanding a eunuch at the door.

"What's the matter?" He asked, a little unhappily.

The head of the inner palace hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Vizier is here again, I ask to see you outside the palace, and I ask the eunuchs not to disturb Your Majesty again." ”

Mansour thought for a moment, then waved his hand and said, "No! Let him in and take him to my map palace. ”

"Yes! I'll go. ”

The head of the inner palace went down, Mansur sat up, only to feel dizzy for a while, he quickly stabilized his body, and said to the concubine behind him: "You all go down!" ”

He felt a pang of annoyance in his heart, he had just turned forty years old, how could his health be so bad..... Khalid followed the chief of the inner palace through one palace gate after another, and at this moment his anxious mood calmed down, and as he went, he pondered how to persuade His Majesty the Caliph to regain his strength.

Walking to a thick gate, the head of the inner palace said in a low voice: "Your Majesty is inside, please come in!" ”

Khalid was just about to push the door to enter, and the head of the inner palace suddenly whispered behind him: "It may be a good way to let His Majesty the Caliph feel the crisis. ”

Khalid was stunned, and when he turned around, he saw the chief of the internal management standing there expressionlessly, he nodded, and pushed the door in.

The hall was dimly lit, and the walls were covered with maps of all kinds, and Mansur stood with his hands in his hands and his back to the gate.

Khalid walked into the main hall, put his hand on his chest, and bowed deeply, "Your Majesty, Caliph! ”

"How's Baghdad doing?" Mansur asked in a deep voice.

"It's under construction and additional funding is needed."

"How much does the tax come into the local government?"

Mansur asked this sentence, which immediately made Khalid feel a burst of joy in his heart, which shows that His Majesty the Caliph still cares about the empire and does not blindly pursue pleasure, but the tax is indeed not optimistic, he said a little gloomily: "This year's tax revenue is not very good, only 30 million Dillard was received in the first half of the year, which is 5 million less than last year, mainly because the commercial tax has been sharply reduced." ”

"Why?" Mansur Horan asked, turning around.

"I have received news that the Tang Dynasty and Rome have reached a treaty of direct trade, and a large number of goods will be transported directly from the broken leaves to Constantinople, and will no longer change hands through us."

"When did this happen, and why didn't you report it to me sooner?" Mansour's voice became stern, he knew very well the consequences of this incident, once the Tang Dynasty directly traded with Constantinople, it would mean that Arabia would lose its central position in East-West trade and be marginalized.

"I learned the news ten days ago, and I have come to His Majesty three times, but I have no way to see Your Majesty."

"I see, what else?"

"And.... Island of Cyprus. ”

Khalid's tone was a little slurred, but that was what he was anxious to report today.

"What's going on with the island of Cyprus? Was it taken away by the Romans? ”

"No, it's still in our hands, but...."

"But what, you made it clear to me!" Mansour's tone looked annoyed.

"Yes! The day before yesterday the Romans launched a small attack on the island of Cyprus, it can be concluded that this was a tentative attack, although our defenders resisted, but the result was not good, our defenders actually lost more than 700 men, killed by the enemy's crossbow arrows. ”

"What did you say?"

Mansour's eyes widened suddenly, "Crossbow arrows? Are you saying that the other party also has crossbow arrows? ”

"That's it, and the range is longer, more than our crossbows, their crossbow arrows are exactly the same as those of the Tang army, I can conclude that they bought crossbow arrows from the Tang army."

"O Allah! How so? ”

Mansour was a little dazed, they imitated the crossbow of the Tang army to create their own crossbow, crossbow, in the last battle for the island of Cyprus, they relied on this sharp weapon, the 20,000 Romans who attacked the island were defeated, and also killed one of their princes, I didn't expect that the Romans had the crossbow arrows of the Tang army so quickly, which made Mansur feel a kind of fear, they could not completely imitate the crossbow arrows of the Tang army, the power of the cross bow was still significantly inferior to the Tang crossbow, and now the Romans have the same crossbow arrows as them, Perhaps with more weapons than theirs, would they still be able to compete with the Romans?

"Your Majesty, now that our crisis is very serious, trade and military disadvantages, Your Majesty, we can't sit still like this."

Mansour sat down abruptly, and after a while, he sighed, "Then tell me, how should we deal with it?" ”

"Your Majesty, what worries me most is whether the Tang Dynasty will form a military alliance with the Romans to jointly deal with us."

"Will they?" Mansour's eyes were full of vigilance, and this was the last thing he wanted to see.

Khalid sighed in his heart, His Majesty the Caliph was indeed fascinated by the color of wine, and he couldn't see such an obvious thing?

"Your Majesty, since the Tang Dynasty is willing to sell weapons to them, this may be very big."

There was silence in the palace, neither of them spoke, and this terrifying conclusion weighed heavily on their hearts, making it difficult for them to face.

"So what are we going to do?"

"Plan ahead and speed up your war readiness, I estimate that the Romans will soon have a major attack on the island of Cyprus, but in any case, Your Majesty must no longer indulge in wine, and must brace himself for the coming trade and military crisis."

"I don't need you to say much about this, I have my own measure."

．．．．．．．． Kuzhanti, that is, Leninnabad of today's Tajikistan, here is the hub of the Anxi water transport channel, it is located at the confluence of the Pearl River and the medicine killing water, the traffic is very convenient, through the Pearl River water transport to the west can reach the river, to the east can reach the broken leaves, and the north is the capital of the stone country Tuozhi City, to the south is the silver mining center of Anxi, the silver city of Boxi Mountain, it is also the nearest city of Anxi to connect Tocharo, from here to the south three hundred miles, over the Bosi Mountain, you can reach the liberation of Tocharo, merchants from all over the world gather here.

But the strategic significance of Kuzhanti is still in his transit freight and material storage, the huge wharf can accommodate hundreds of large ships at the same time to load and unload goods, a large number of materials are distributed here, on the wharf, hundreds of huge warehouses show the status of this city.

More than a month has passed since the alliance was formed from Atil City, and the Tang army's combat readiness has reached the most critical moment, more than 10,000 Han troops from Shiguo and Ningyuan have arrived in Kuzhanti, and more than 20,000 Tang troops in Kuzhanti itself are also ready.

The Tang army was not the Han army, but the Zoroastrian Sogdians in the river, they were originally slaves in Yincheng, after the liberation of the Tang army, most of these slaves joined the Tang army, with the passage of time, half of the soldiers have retired home, and those who remain are young soldiers, who have undergone rigorous training, and gradually become the Sogdian army who are brave in battle.

At present, the general of the Tang Army who is defending the battle is Li Guangbi, he went north to the city of Arthur with Li Qing'an, accepted the important task given to him by Li Qing'an, served as the commander of the western front of the Tocharian campaign, and led 30,000 troops to take Tochar, and at the same time, Li Guangbi's western front is also the logistics corps of the entire southern expedition, and after they enter Tochar, they will directly provide logistics support to Li Qing'an's army on the central line.

In the past two days, a brigade of 10,000 camels from the country of Gesa began to arrive at the Kuzhan body one after another, and Li Guangbi was extremely busy, and the arrival of these camels meant that the war would begin.

On the wharf, thousands of camels gathered together, surging uneasily, the air on the wharf was filled with a pungent stench, and more than a hundred Geza people who came with the camels were busy greeting the camels, obeying the arrangements of the dock management to take the camels away in an orderly manner.

At the beginning, King Gesa promised Li Qing'an to send 2,000 camel troops to assist the Tang army, but in fact this is a kind of sending troops to participate in the war, and it is not necessary to control the camel soldiers, and 200 professional camel servants are enough to take care of 10,000 camels.

Bran Khan was a clever man, in order to curry favor with the powerful neighbor of the Tang Dynasty, he used a more direct way to express his sincerity, he sent a camel army of 2,000 people, and together with 10,000 camels, rushed to Kuzhanti, without delaying the war, which is enough to prove that Bran knew that the real purpose of these 10,000 camels was not for trade, but for war.

Under the maintenance of dozens of personal soldiers, Li Guangbi rode to the wharf, and a ferry full of camels was creaking and docking at this time, and as soon as he landed, the owner of the boat, who was covering his nose, impatiently urged the camels to go ashore quickly.

"Can't you control the camels from defeting on my boat?"

The ship's owner was furious, jumping to his feet and scolding several Gessars who could not understand him and hundreds of camels who also did not understand him.

Li Guangbi rode up and asked the ship's owner in a loud voice: "Sirat, is there an army on the other side?" I don't mean the Don Army, but the Gessars in high hats and leather armor, they are supposed to be soldiers. ”

"I think so! I saw thousands of strange soldiers on camels, on the other side! They seem to be very afraid of taking a boat, and they look very timid, General Li, don't want this batch of troops, they will drag you back. ”

"Stop talking nonsense, go get them here."

"One boat is not enough, I'll call a few more boats and transport them over together."

Li Guangbi nodded and said to one of the soldiers: "You wait here, and when the number of people is complete, take them to the warehouse to meet me." ”

After Li Guangbi finished giving the order, he turned his horse's head and galloped towards the side of the Juzhanti warehouse.

(To be continued)