Shiguo is today's Uzbekistan, located in the Fergan Basin of Central Asia, the capital is Tuozhi City, in the Sogdian nine surname Huzhong, it is in the easternmost place, is the second largest country in the nine surname Huzhong after Kang, because of its domestic many goose-shaped boulders and take the country name Shi, especially in the capital city Tuozhi City near there is a huge rock called 'Farhad', it is the symbol of Tuozhi City.

In the third year of Tang Xianqing, the Tang court officially established Tuozhi City, the capital of Shiguo, as Dawan Mansion, and its king Qu Zhaomu as the governor of Dawan.

Shi Guo has a special meaning for Li Qing'an, the first time he attacked Broken Leaves, the vulnerable Shi [***] team, as well as the two Shi princes who competed for the throne, and even earlier, the skeleton of the Shi Guo people buried by the yellow sand, under it, he found the burning jewel, but the burning flame made Li Qing'an think of Shi Julan's enthusiastic and unrestrained smile, as if it was still shaking in front of his eyes, a chance encounter, like a faint lilac petal falling between his lips, the beauty has gone, But Li Qingan has always been unforgettable.

In the middle of summer in the river, the heat is unbearable, the mighty Tang army marches on the endless field, the soldiers are on horses, their faces have been tanned, there are leather bags on their horses, each Tang army is equipped with spears, horizontal swords, round shields and bows and arrows, they carry water bottles, and from time to time put their hands on their brows to look around, this strange land makes the Tang soldiers full of curiosity.

At the back of the team is a baggage cart, composed of thousands of flatbed carts, each cart is pulled by three camels, the cart is full of grain, grass and various military supplies, 3,000 Tang Army cavalry escorts, these baggage is transported by 10,000 troops sent by Ning Yuanguo.

At this time, a group of cavalry galloped in the distance, and the head of the scout lieutenant reported to Li Qing'an in a loud voice: "Report to the general, the envoy of Shiguo asks to see you!" ”

"Where are the people?"

"Ten miles away, they didn't dare to approach without the permission of the general."

"Them?" Li Qingan asked, "How many people came?" "More than 100 people came, and brought 10,000 sheep, saying that it was a reward for the Tang army."

A mocking smile appeared at the corner of Li Qing'an's mouth, when the matter was approaching, he rushed to burn incense, and he was rectifying the soldiers and horses in Broken Leaf for a month, but they didn't come, did they think they would stop at Broken Leaf?

"Bring them up!"

The scout lieutenant agreed, turned around and walked towards the end of the grassland, Li Qingan turned around and asked the guide, "How far is Tuozhi City from here?" ”

The guide was a Turkic merchant who had been traveling on the Silk Road for many years, and his Chinese name was Ma Wanli, who spoke fluent Chinese.

Seeing Li Qing'an ask him, he pointed to a huge round rock in the distance and said with a smile: "The general didn't see that rock, it is called 'Farhad', which is the symbol of the stone country, there are about fifty miles away from Tuozhi City, there is a river next to the rock, called the Kindling River, the river water is clear and sweet, in summer, we usually camp by the river, take advantage of the cool after dark, and arrive at Tuozhi City at dawn tomorrow." ”

At this time, it was almost noon, and it was the hottest time of the day, and Li Qing'an heard that he was reasonable, so he ordered: "Camp by the river in front and march after dark!" ”

The Tang soldiers were all listless, and after listening to the commander's order to camp, everyone immediately came to their senses and hurried to the river in front of them.

Li Qing'an rode through this big boulder called 'Farhad', which was more than a dozen stories high in later generations, covering an area of more than 20 acres, and found that it was originally a huge pebble, and less than 100 steps next to it was a clear river, and it could be seen that this was originally the bed of a huge river, and after the vicissitudes of life, the river had disappeared, leaving only a small river less than ten zhang wide.

In fact, Li Qing'an did not know that more than a thousand years later, under his feet was the capital of Uzbekistan, the famous Central Asian city of Tashkent.

The Tang army has already begun to rest by the river, they only rest by the river for half a day, so they did not set up camps, just rested on the spot, the river was crowded with people and horses drinking water, people shouted and neighed, and it was noisy, and dozens of cavalrymen were upstream to inspect the situation on both banks, which was the main point of camping by the river, to prevent people from poisoning and intercepting the river.

At this moment, a large white flock appeared in the distance, and on both sides of the flock were riders waving long whips to drive them, and behind the flock were dozens of Sogdians in black robes.

There was a wooden bridge about two miles downstream of the river, and soon, the flocks of sheep filled the wooden bridge, and hundreds of Tang cavalry galloped up to meet it, and in a moment, brought more than a dozen black-robed men to Li Qing'an.

An elderly white-haired old man knelt down in front of Li Qing'an, followed by all kneeling, and the old man held up a gold plate with the soil of Shiguo, and said in a loud voice in Chinese: "The Tang Dynasty enshrined the king of Shunyi, and the Tutun Teller of Shiguo donated the land of Shiguo to General Li of Anxi." ”

Li Qing'an was stunned, he glanced at the old man, and asked, "You are Shi Guozheng Wang Teller?" ”

The Sogdian countries all implement the double monarchy system, that is, there are two kings in a country, the origin of this system is unknown, and the stone country is no exception, the main king is called Tutun, and the vice king is called Yi Tutun, Yi is small in Turkic language, so the vice king is also called Xiao Tutun, the current situation of the stone country is the prince of the big food, the vice prince of Tang, but today it is the king.

In fact, before the eastward expansion of the Great Food, both the king and the vice king of the stone country were loyal to the Tang Dynasty, during the Kaiyuan period, the king of the stone country Mo Helu followed the Beiting Festival to make Gai Jiayun to attack the Tuqi Shi Sulu son of the fire fairy, defeated the enemy army in the broken leaves, made meritorious deeds, was named the king of Shi by the Tang court, Jia Tejin, gave the festival, and the following year was canonized as the king of Shunyi, and now the king of the Zheng Le is the son of Mo Helu, inherited his father's title of Shunyi King.

In fact, Teller is only over 50 years old this year, a few years ago he had a serious illness and almost died, his body has been weak, coupled with the Tang Army's westward advance, he will find them at any time to settle the old accounts, and the huge pressure makes Teller have to be white in less than a month, and today he came to ask the Tang Army in person.

"The slave is the king of the king, Teller, the shameless Khan's tent to make the general, please punish the general!"

After speaking, he put the gold plate on the ground, took off his black robe, exposed his upper body, and inserted a thorn strip on his back, but this is not the tradition of Shiguo, but the Han rules that Teller learned when he was young in Chang'an, 'bear the guilt of Jing pleading', he took off his clothes, and the entourage behind him all took off their black robes, and showed his upper body like the king.

Li Qing'an didn't help him up because he inserted a few wickers on his back, nor did he treat him favorably because he was Shi Julan's father, he snorted coldly and said sharply: "Because the big cannibal is not by your side, so you bring wicker and land to ask for surrender, but if the big cannibal is by your side, then you will bring spears and knives and arrows, isn't it!" ”

Teller was so frightened that he kowtowed again and again, and said with tears: "Even if the slave has 10,000 guts, he doesn't dare to be an enemy of the Celestial Empire, it is really the slave who was coerced by the big cannibal and forced to send troops, in fact, the stone [***] team has been controlled by the big cannibal, and sending troops to attack the broken leaves is a decision made by the big cannibal himself, and the slave has no room to interfere at all." ”

If Li Qing'an didn't have the intelligence of the Han and Tang Societies, he might have believed Teller's words, but the intelligence of the Han and Tang Societies had clearly told him that when Beiting attacked Broken Leaves for the first time, the Stone Kingdom was not coerced by the Great Cannibals, on the contrary, the Great Food was in a civil war at that time, and the control of the distant Stone Kingdom was not strict, and at that time, the Great Food only had a lone army stationed in the north of the city of Ashbulai and Talas City, led by Judil, whether it was Ashbulai City or Talas City, it was far away from Tuozhi City, and the Stone Kingdom at that time was completely autonomous, However, King Teller sent 10,000 troops to support Judir, and this 10,000 army led by his son Yuan En is ironclad proof of his decision.

Li Qing'an looked at this old king with tears on his face and sincere appearance, he suddenly remembered what Gao Xianzhi had done in history, Gao Xianzhi and him today, led the army to crusade against Shiguo, in the name of peace talks, deceived the king of Shiguo Teller and his nobles out of the city, captured them all, and then ransacked Tuozhi City, as for the reason why Gao Xianzhi did this, there was no explanation in history, and now Li Qingan understands that Gao Xianzhi must be the same as himself, and he has seen through the hypocrisy of the king of Shiguo.

He smiled faintly and said: "Things can't be explained clearly in one or two sentences, and it's not that you give me the land symbolically, I can control Shiguo, this time I came to Shiguo, to completely solve some remaining problems, but one thing you can rest assured, as long as you surrender sincerely, the Tang army under my command will not massacre ordinary civilians, how to deal with you, after entering the capital." ”

After speaking, Li Qingan waved his hand, "Take them down!" ”

．．．．．．．． Samarkand, the capital of Kangguo, in front of the largest temple in the middle of the river, thousands of soldiers are demolishing the huge statue of Ahuramadaz, the god of light, the statue of the god of light is majestic and majestic, with both hands to the sun, this god is the largest statue of the Hangjiao in Sogdia, and the temple is the last holy relic of the Yuanjiao in the river, in the long history of hundreds of years, whenever the first rays of the sun of the new year rise on the horizon, there will be hundreds of thousands of Yuanjiao believers from all over the world on the huge square to worship the idol devoutly, Some of them even came as far away as Persia. During the decades-long Crusade of the White Warriors, the statue was retained by the White Eater as a means of stabilizing the situation in the river because of its symbolic significance, but today, after the Abbasids suppressed the Shia and Pak Christians' uprising, al-Mansur ordered the demolition of the temple and the statue as punishment.

With an order to dismantle, fifty hundred-zhang long iron chains wrapped around the head and neck and waist of the idol, thousands of soldiers and hundreds of camels pulled together, and the idol began to stagger, and finally in a burst of screams and shouts, the idol fell down violently, stirring up dozens of feet of dust, the idol broke into dozens of sections, and immediately hundreds of temple believers broke through the cordon under the leadership of two elders, crying and pounced, caressing the idol and crying loudly.

But the fall of the idol was only a prelude, and the large-scale demolition of the temple began, and thousands of cannibals swarmed up, using iron pickaxes and ramming wood to start hitting the temple walls, and the cultists hiding in the temple fled one after another, and the scene was chaotic.

Mansur sat two miles away, his eyes cold as he watched the majestic idol being pulled down, his heart filled with loss and anger, and a few months earlier he had received the exact news from the Zoroastrian Persian Sect that the Abbasid Caliph's desired gem of the Eye of Light had been secretly sent to the temple in Samarkand four hundred years earlier.

But an hour ago, the Great Eclipse Army searched every corner of the temple and found no whereabouts of the flame gem, in other words, it was most likely no longer in the temple.

As the idol fell, he felt a slight balance in his heart.

At this time, a group of soldiers came with two Sect Elders, and an officer bowed down and reported, "Your Highness, it is said that they know the whereabouts of the Eye of Light. ”

"Really?" Mansur stared sharply at one of them, "Do you know the whereabouts of that gem?" ”

The two elders knelt down and wept and said, "The idol has fallen, I just ask Your Highness not to destroy the temple, and we will tell you the truth." ”

Mansour sneered, "How dare you bargain with me?" Go ahead! Where are the gemstones? Maybe I'll spare your lives. ”

The two elders looked at each other and said bitterly, "The Jewel was sent away when General Qubodi conquered Samarkand thirty years ago, and is currently in the Stone Country. ”

"Shiguo?"

Mansur became angry and scolded, "How dare you lie to me! ”

"We don't dare to deceive Your Highness, the gem has always been collected by the King of Shiguo, and this is the document that the Messenger of Light escorted the gem to the west."

An elder handed over a yellowed paperwork, which Mansur flipped open, and it recorded in Sogdian detail the process of escorting the relic, the Eye of Light, to the Stone Kingdom thirty years earlier, and the seal of the King of Stone to receive the relic.

Mansour believed that he was indeed sent away, and then he became interested in the paper on which the text was recorded, he had long heard that the Far East used paper to record history, and that it could spread culture and art on a large scale, and one of the most important things in this time he came to the East was to learn the art of papermaking.

Historically, Mansur was the true founder of the Abbasid Empire, he built the city of Baghdad on the lower Tigris River, and the culture and art of Arabia flourished greatly under his rule, and also changed the history of Europe, at this moment, his attention turned to the paper.

He closed the paperwork and said with a faint smile: "Okay! I won't mention the Eye of Light, and if you can tell me how I can make this paper, I'll keep your temple for the time being. ”

The two elders were stunned, jumping from the gem to the paper, the highness's thinking was too fast, one of the elders suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said: "I have a clue about papermaking." ”

"Say! What clues? ”

The elder thought for a moment and said: "Last year, in the east of Khorasan, there was a battle between the Great Food Army and the Tang Army, when the Muslim general captured more than a thousand Tang troops, which were placed in Samarkand, and there were many craftsmen in it, and our temple once hired more than a dozen Tang Army painters to draw for us, I remember that some of them said that they would make paper, and His Highness could go to them. ”

Mansour was overjoyed, and at this moment the matter of the flame gem was temporarily put behind him, and he hurriedly asked, "Where are these prisoners of war now?" ”

"We don't know about this, we have to ask the Muslim general."

"I see!"

Mansur was in a happy mood, he stood up and waved his hand, "Pass my order, suspend the demolition of the temple!" ”

Mansur turned on his horse and hurried to the military camp outside the city, surrounded by hundreds of followers, the temple was saved, the square was full of jubilation, the worshippers bowed to the sun, thanked the Lord God for his appearance, and the Great Eclipse soldiers also withdrew from the temple one after another.

At this time, the two elders quickly came to the west side of the square, and twelve black-clothed saints were kneeling in front of the idol and praying.

"Kulan!" An elder shouted, and one of the holy women stood up, and she took off her scarf, it was Shi Julan, the princess of the Stone Kingdom.

"Elder, what's the matter?"

"You come with me!"

Shi Julan followed the two elders into the temple and came to a secret room, where one of the elders whispered, "Give me the Eye of Light." ”

The secret of the Holy Relic Eye of Light on Kulan's body, only the three of them knew, Shi Julan took out a close-fitting leather bag, took out the flame gem that Li Qing'an gave her from the skin, and handed it to the elder.

The elder placed the gem on the table, knelt down, and in the faint light, there was a flame burning inside the gem, like a mysterious eye in the middle of the flame.

"O Lord God Ahuramazi! Bless you believers! ”

They knelt on the ground, prayed silently, and after reciting a scroll of scriptures, one of the elders solemnly handed the gem to Kulan, and said: "We can only lie to Mansur for a while, he will soon know the truth, the temple is estimated to be unable to be saved, in order to keep this last holy relic, you should immediately return to the stone country with it, may the Lord God of Ahuramaz take care of you." ”

"May the Lord God of Ahuramaz bless you!"

．．．．．．．．． In the barracks outside the city, Muslims, the governor of Khorasan, were silently watching the map, and behind him, the general Ziyad and Saud, who had just escaped from Broken Leaves, stood the general.

He already knew the news of the Tang army's occupation of Broken Leaves, but he had just learned the news of the Tang Army's change of general, and after he defeated Gao Xianzhi last year, he knew that the Tang Dynasty would invade Broken Leaves, so he sent spies to disguise themselves as businessmen to collect information about Gao Xianzhi, Gao Xianzhi's surname, hobbies, habits and other details, he collected a lot of information.

However, after the change of generals in the Tang Army, it meant that all his efforts for several months were in vain, and he knew nothing about this new general.

"Your Excellency the Governor, I know a little bit about this Li Qingan." The general behind him, Ziyad, said in a low voice.

"Well, you name it!"

"I have a few soldiers under my command who escaped from the Battle of Broken Leaves the year before, and they say that this commander of the Tang Army is very good at using bows and arrows, and he himself is a master of archery, and Judir was killed by him with an arrow on the battlefield, so we should work defending against bows and arrows."

"I'm also very worried about Tang Jun's bow and arrow!"

Muslim sighed and said: "From the hands of the Tang army captured last year, I got a lot of Tang bows, which are indeed very sharp, but unfortunately no one among the prisoners of war can make them, and their armor is also very strong, it can be seen that the Tang army is a strong opponent, even stronger than Byzantium, we can't take it lightly and deal with the Tang army, I decided to use the Macedonian phalanx, you have to speed up your training!" ”

"I understand that I am already starting training, and it is almost over."

The Muslim nodded, and then to the other general, Ben. Hou Meide said: "I'm very worried that Shiguo is not capable of implementing my strategy, you lead three thousand light cavalry to Shiguo immediately, if you go late, don't rush back, directly stationed in the north of Talas City, if the Tang army has a tendency to continue to advance westward, you will send troops to Ashi Bulai City to force the Tang army to come back, understand?" ”

"Yes! Obedience. ”

At this moment, someone at the door announced: "Governor, His Highness Mansour has come down!" ”

Abu. The Muslim was taken aback, and he hurriedly put away the map and said to the generals: "Remember, you must not tell him that the broken leaf is missing." ”

(To be continued)