"Boom!" There was a loud bang on the ground, and an iron gate was violently struck by a thick giant tree, and the iron gate shook painfully and crumbled, and the soldiers of the city shouted and drew their bows and shot at the city, and the arrows rained down, and dozens of ragged slaves screamed and fell from the arrows, but more slaves took over, and they used planks as shields to resist the arrows from the city.

Silver City is a medium-sized city at the foot of Boxi Mountain, built by the Great Cannibal in the 20th year of Kaiyuan, it is the old nest of the Great Cannibal to control more than a dozen silver mines in the Boxi Mountain, there are more than 1,000 people stationed in the Great Eclipse, which stores a large amount of silver and grain, more than ten years have passed, it has lost countless wealth to the Great Eclipse Umayyad Dynasty.

Where there is oppression, there is resistance, and at this moment, a wave of slave revolts broke out in the mines of the Bosi Mountains.

All this came from the agitation of the three hundred Tang soldiers, who encouraged the enslaved slaves, telling them that the Tang army had come to the river to restore their freedom and their faith, and now that the Tang army had defeated the Great Food Army, they would all return to their hometowns and reunite with their relatives.

Most of the slaves in the Silver Mountains were followers of the Hung Sect who had been captured by the Great Cannibals from Sogdia and Tocharo, and they had been mining in the Bosi Mountains for five or six years, doing heavy physical work, eating the coarsest food, being exposed to the sun, beating and whipping, and being tortured, and they had watched countless times as their companions died beside them, and as their clay statues of Ahuramaz were smashed, anger burned in their hearts, and 50,000 slaves from a dozen silver mines north of the Bosi Mountains had revolted.

They fought with iron pickaxes, wooden sticks, iron chains, and all the tools at their disposal, and the more than 3,000 food troops who oversaw the silver mines were beaten to the ground, many were killed by angry slaves, their weapons were taken away, their tents were burned, and their rosters were torn apart, and they fled to the silver city for refuge, but soon the slaves gathered from all sides surrounded the silver city, they wanted food, they wanted to return to their homeland.

The black pressure of 50,000 slaves was like an angry ant colony, surrounding Yincheng to the ground, and 300 Tang army scouts galloped in it, commanding the slaves to attack the city.

But Qin Haiyang's heart was full of worries, he felt that the rebellion of these slaves was going to get out of control, yes, they were oppressed too much, they had too many grievances in their hearts, once their oppression was released, the grievances in their hearts exploded, then they would do something that harmed the interests of the Tang army, they would snatch the silver and gold stored in the city away, so that he Qin Haiyang would have no chance to be promoted and make a fortune.

But he knew that there was another person who could control the situation, Qin Haiyang rushed to the front of one of the most prestigious Wo Sect elders among these slaves, this person was called Barumi, he was the son of the Great Elder of the Wo Sect of Shi Guo, and he was also strong when he was captured, and after nearly twenty years, he also became an old man, he inherited his father's career in the silver mine, and became the elder of the Wo Sect who secretly worshipped 50,000 slaves in the silver mine.

"Barumi, you have to let them kill the big cannibals, don't loot the supplies in the warehouse, I will distribute them evenly among everyone."

Barumi sat on a wooden plank with six believers carrying him, his leg had been broken by a great cannibal during an escape ten years earlier and he had not been able to stand up since.

Barumi lowered his head and said slowly for a while: "You let them help you kill the big cannibals, but you don't give them any benefits, who wants to do it?" ”

"Well, you tell everyone that if you kill a big cannibal, you will be rewarded with a pound of silver, double portions of food, and everything on the big cannibal will belong to him."

"Everyone has to give a pound of silver, this is the fruit of their years of labor, they deserve it, kill the big cannibal, give double portions!"

"Damn, my heart is ruthless!"

Qin Haiyang scolded in Chinese, spat heavily and said, "Okay! I promise you. ”

With a wave of his hand, Barumi lifted him up to a high platform, and at this moment, countless pairs of eyes looked at him, and he stretched out his hands and waved them gently, and the outside of the city suddenly fell silent.

"My disciples!"

His voice was loud and clear, and it was carried far away by the wind.

"Today is the day for the Lord God of Ahuramaz to liberate us, and we will kill the great cannibals who insult our Lord God, but the goods in the city must first be used to worship our Lord God, and after we have held a worship ceremony, I will bring light to everyone according to the will of the Lord God."

"Damn, there's a set!" Qin Haiyang scolded in a low voice.

"My disciples, let us break through this gate in the name of God and kill all the great cannibals."

"Kill them!"

Fifty thousand slaves roared in anger, and the roar resounded through the heavens and the earth, and Barumi pointed to the city gate, "Go! Smash it. ”

Fifty thousand people surged towards the city gate like a wave, and nearly 1,000 people hugged the huge bumper wood and slammed into the city gate again, 'Boom! There was a loud bang on the ground, and the gates shook violently, as if the whole earth were trembling.

"One, two, three!"

The giant tree slammed into the city gate again, the dilapidated city gate could no longer support it, and was suddenly knocked open, thousands of slaves rushed into the city, the soldiers of the Great Food Diet fled in all directions, and two hundred Tang army horses that had been prepared followed the slaves and rushed in, Qin Haiyang shouted loudly: "Quick! Seize the treasury. ”

The Tang army rushed to the depths of the city like a gust of wind, they had already explored in advance, the silver vault was in the innermost part of the city, it was a huge white building, the Tang army saw the eye-catching white building from a distance, and they rushed away like a lightning speed.

Almost all the Great Food Army went to the city to defend, only twenty or thirty defenders were left in front of the silver treasury, and two hundred Tang troops galloped in, and before anyone arrived, the arrows arrived first, and the arrows were like meteors, and in an instant more than 20 fleeing defenders were shot to death.

Several big food soldiers knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, Tang Jun rushed up and slashed with a knife, Qin Haiyang was so anxious that he shouted: "Spare their lives!" ”

Only then did he save the lives of several prisoners of war, Qin Haiyang turned over and dismounted, pointed his sword at the forehead of one of them, and shouted in a not very proficient Sogdian language: "Open the silver vault!" ”

Several of the big cannibals trembled and took out the key, opened the storeroom, and as the heavy iron door creaked open, there was a stone house made of huge stones, which was unusually strong, and this was the place where the big cannibals placed their gold and silver.

An iron door was opened, and a ray of light shone into the black stone house, which covered an area of about two acres of land, but half of it was empty, and the other half was stacked with boxes of coarse silver ingots, which the big cannibals cast according to certain specifications, and each piece weighed about fifty catties.

The silver ingots were stacked like a hill, twenty pieces in a box, that is, one thousand catties, and there were about three hundred boxes in the silver warehouse, that is, at least 300,000 catties, this was the third batch of silver ingots that the big cannibals were ready to transport away, and the second batch was sunk into the dense water by the Tang army.

According to the 50,000 slaves, each of them was divided into one catty, and there were still 250,000 catties, so much silver, which was enough for him Qin Haiyang to be promoted to the rank of captain.

Qin Haiyang couldn't help but be overjoyed, at this time, there was a noisy shout from afar, and countless people ran towards this side, Qin Haiyang immediately ordered: "Lock the gold and silver vault, and no one is allowed to come in!" ”

．．．．．．．．． On the same day that the Tang army occupied the capital of Dongcao State, the Tang army's 300 scouts successfully instigated slaves to rebel and seized Yincheng, and four days later, Lifei Yuanli led 5,000 Tang troops to enter Yincheng, so far, the largest silver mine of the Great Cannibal was occupied by the Tang army.

．．．．．．．． In Samarkand, the report of the unfavorable battle of the Great Food Army in the first battle of the Eastern Cao Kingdom was sent to Abu. In front of the Muslims, he did not burst into a rage, on the contrary, this defeat was expected by him.

He sent only 30,000 men to the Eastern Cao Kingdom, including 10,000 Sogdian troops, and his elite Khorasan army, Qiyad brought back 15,000 men, which met his expectations.

Since Mansour returned to Damascus ten days ago, the Muslims have been in full control of the decision-making power of the Tang Dynasty's campaign, and in order to win the battle against the Tang Dynasty, the Muslims have made careful planning, even using the Eastern Cao State as a bait to lure the Tang army into the bait.

Now that half of his plan had been successful, the other half was up to Khaled's performance, and the Muslims stood in front of the map, staring coldly at the small northern city on the map, and taking it would allow them to restrain both Broken Leaf and Tashkent's neck.

Abu. A faint smile appeared on the corner of Muslim's mouth, and he said to himself: "First heir of the Barmak family, will you disappoint me?" ”

．．．．．．．．． The night sky is clear, and the moonlit Baishui River arcs eastward into the distant sky, flanked by long, endless forests, hidden in the haze, a low-lying valley in the Fergan Basin, much warmer than the city of Tuozhi, thanks to the Kent Mountains that keep it out of the cold currents in the north.

The valley is lined with fragrant firs, cedars and cypresses, and there are wide glades filled with bushes in which unknown berries are ripe and bright.

There is a small castle in the upper reaches of this inaccessible river valley, called Baishui City, which is the only place to pass through the north of Tuozhi City to Talas City, and it is an important place for merchants to rest, its significance lies in this, there is no major strategic significance, so there are not many garrisons in the city, only one battalion, and five hundred Tang troops are garrisoned.

The population of the city itself is not large, only three or four hundred households, and the vice king of the stone kingdom, Qu Le, fell here.

That night, a large cavalry team composed of about 3,000 people slowly approached Whitewater City, but their march was not secretive, and the beacon tower near Whitewater City immediately discovered them, and suddenly three flames on the beacon tower soared into the sky, and the blazing flames were particularly dazzling in the night, which was the alarm of the arrival of the enemy army, and then the alarm bell sounded loudly on Whitewater City, and the same flames rose, and soon, the beacon tower of Kent Mountain in the north of Whitewater City was also lit, and the beacon tower transmitted the alarm to Talas City one by one.

Whitewater City is closer to Talas City than Tuozhi City, it is only more than two hundred miles away from Talas City, and half an hour later, the distress alarm from the beacon tower of Whitewater City reached Talas City.

At this moment, the city of Talas has increased to 5,000 troops, the position of the city of Talas is extremely important, to the east, along the north foot of Qianquan Mountain through the city of Julan and the city of Ashbulai, you can reach the broken leaves, about 700 miles apart, to the north is the famous trade road to Byzantium, the northern Turks go south, after crossing the Qianquan Mountain, the first is to the city of Talas, it is actually the throat of the Turkic people to the south.

It is that it has such an important strategic position, Li Qing'an also attaches great importance to it, from the initial 2,000 defenders slowly increased to 5,000 people, but Li Qing'an also made a mistake in the defense point when dealing with the status of Whitewater City, because Whitewater City is close to Talas, considering the historical origin of Talas City and Whitewater City, and can be each other's horns, Li Qing'an classified Whitewater City as a subsidiary city of Talas City.

But it was this subordination that made Tala City have a responsibility to Baishui City, and this responsibility evolved into a defensive loophole, and the help beacon of Baishui City came, and the general Bai Xiaojie immediately led 3,000 troops to Baishui City overnight to support.

The night slowly faded in uneasiness, and a fiery red morning sun rose from the top of a thousand springs in the east, casting a thousand rays of light over the vast land, and the defenders of Talas continued to patrol the city as usual.

The defenders looked at the black smoke faintly rushing to the west in the west, it was the alarm of a beacon tower twenty miles away, but the defenders didn't care, obviously, it was the distress alarm of Whitewater City that had not yet dissipated, and the beacon tower burned all night last night, and the soldiers were a little tired.

Suddenly, a soldier screamed, pointing to the west and shouting: "Look, what is that?" ”

The soldiers at the head of the city looked to the west together, and their hearts suddenly froze, and they saw that a long black line appeared at the end of the grassland a few miles away, and was rapidly approaching this side.

"It's the Great Food Army!"

Someone shouted, the alarm bell rang, and the Tang troops rushed to the city, and all of them were stunned.

A few miles away, the main force of the overwhelming Great Food Army was marching towards the city of Talas, like a black wave, wave after wave, as many as 30,000 people, mixed with huge trebuchets and huge wooden wheels rumbling and rolling on the grassland.

At the front of the procession, the Abbasid general Khalid Khaled. Balmak's eyes were gloomy as he stared at the city of Talas in the distance, and when an army of 30,000 attacked this small city, there was no need to attack Whitewater City at night, and his sea of men was enough to flood the city.

Khalid. Balmak was the eldest son of the famous Persian family of Barmak, they were descendants of the Persian royal family, and had the most noble blood. Muslims love general, but not anymore, because he is a Shiite believer. The Muslims' brutal repression of Shiism in the river aroused Khalid's displeasure, and he took refuge in Mansur instead, and since Mansur had reached a compromise with the Muslims before returning to Damascus, the Muslims could mobilize his army, and the Muslims ordered Khalid to lead 30,000 Syrian troops to attack the city of Talas.

Although Khalid was dissatisfied with the Muslims, he also admired the strategy of the Muslims very much, and used the Eastern Cao State to attract the main force of the Tang army to the south, and ordered Ziyad to contain the Tang army, and ordered himself to go north along the Syr Darya River (i.e., the Yaozhi River), cross the river west of Talas, and seize the city of Talas, and the front of the troops was directed at the broken leaves, so that the Tang army was in a passive state.

With a wave of his sword, Khalid shouted, "Forward, take Talas!" ”

．．．．．．．．． The main force of the Great Food Army went north, and the news of the loss of Talas City and the annihilation of the defenders reached the capital of Dongcao State two days later, at this time the Tang Army was preparing for the battle of Samarkand, and the loss of Talas City shocked every Tang army general, especially the general Bai Xiaojie encountered an ambush when returning to help, and unfortunately died, which made the Tang army generals sad.

Li Siye and Li Guangbi came to Li Qing'an's big tent together.

"The general locked himself in a big tent and saw no one." Li Guangbi took the first step, and he sighed.

Li Siye nodded and said, "We should persuade him that the situation is not so bad and can be reversed." ”

"Let him be quiet! Let him think about it. Li Guangbi can understand Li Qingan's mood at this time.

In the big tent, Li Qing'an sat in front of the sand table and looked at Talas in a daze, the loss of Talas City put him in a strategic passivity, and the death of Bai Xiaojie made him feel even more painful, this is his responsibility, he underestimated the enemy, and he has been smooth sailing since the capture of broken leaves, so that he underestimated Abu. Muslims think that his current poor performance is due to his bad relationship with al-Mansour.

But he forgot, Abu. Muslims once defeated Gao Xianzhi, he is such a powerful character, he actually underestimated the enemy, and actually wanted to take Samarkand in one fell swoop.

Li Qing'an only now understands that he has actually been in Abu. In the calculation of the Muslims, he used Ziyad's 30,000 troops to contain him, but he secretly sent the main force north, captured the city of Talas in one fell swoop, and exchanged a useless small state of Dongcao for his strategic location.

Li Qing'an couldn't help sighing, the price of underestimating the enemy was so heavy, he glanced outside the tent, and saw Li Guangbi and Li Siye standing outside the tent, so he said, "Let the two of them come in!" ”

As soon as the curtain was lifted, Li Guangbi and Li Siye walked in, they looked at each other, no one was embarrassed to speak first, Li Qingan smiled slightly: "Do you think I am uncomfortable locked in the tent alone?" ”

Li Siye scratched the back of his head and said with a smile: "We are afraid that the general will lose confidence due to this blow." ”

"Losing faith?"

Li Qingan sneered and said, "Why did I lose confidence? ”

He walked a few steps in the big tent with his hands behind his back, and then turned back to the two of them: "I admit that I underestimated the enemy, I underestimated the Muslims, and I also know that once the city of Talas is lost, the great cannibals will seize the commanding heights, and thus grasp the initiative of the whole battle, but will I lose confidence because of this?" If so, what will be fought in the battle that follows? ”

At this time, Li Guangbi smiled and said: "In fact, even if the battle of Dongcao Kingdom is a trick of the enemy army, their price is also very heavy, especially the loss of Yincheng, it is estimated that Muslims will not be able to explain to their caliph." ”

Li Qing'an nodded, "For the seizure of Yincheng, I want to reward the three hundred scout troops, especially Qin Haiyang, although this person has a criminal record, he is a talent, and he also grabbed 700,000 catties of silver for Anxi, this is an immortal achievement, I will promote him to Zhonglang General." ”

Speaking of this, he said to Li Guangbi again: "I will leave 10,000 troops for you, you don't care about the life or death of Dongcao Kingdom, you have to defend the silver city for me, and you must fish out the silver that sank to the bottom of the river as soon as possible, if the silver city really can't hold it, you can also give up, but in any case, you have to give me all the silver and transport it back to Anxi safely, you especially have to prevent the Great Food Army of Tocharian from cutting off your back road." ”

Li Guangbi bowed and said, "Don't worry, general, I will start this matter immediately." ”

At this time, Lifei Yuanli also walked in, and Li Qingan smiled: "You came just in time, I have a task for you." ”

Li Fei Yuanli arched his hand, "Please give the general orders!" ”

Li Qing'an thought for a while and said: "Don't let the 50,000 slaves in Yincheng go back for the time being, you have to find a way to take them to Crushing Leaf first, select the strong ones from among them for training, and tell them that in the future, the Nine Kingdoms of Sogdia will be their world." ”

"The last general obeys!"

Li Qing'an arranged the aftermath, and said to Li Siye: "Next, we will rush back to Tuozhi City and prepare to face Abu. The workhorse of Muslims. ”

At this time, a personal soldier outside the big tent reported: "General, there is a Taoist priest outside the big camp who asks to see him, and he says that he is from Chang'an." ”

(To be continued)