The Tang army's 50,000 troops did not enter the city, but only took over the guards of the east city gate, which is a must, the Tang army did not enter the city is a respect for the stone country, but when it is far from reaching complete mutual trust, the Tang army must also symbolically make a little gesture, of course, this gesture must be effective, control the east gate of Tuozhi City, like a needle standing upright in a ball of soft cotton, the Tang army is friendly but does not lose its principles, as if choking the throat of the stone country, so that it does not dare to have any strange thoughts, can only return to the Tang Dynasty with all its heart.

Li Qing'an's tent was also set up outside the city, and at this moment, he was deliberating the alliance treaty with Shi Guo one by one, although he was authorized by Li Longji to give him full authority to preside over the affairs of the river, but this kind of alliance between countries still had to be decided by the imperial court, and he did not want to be seized on such a sensitive issue.

"It's okay, send it to Chang'an immediately."

Li Qing'an signed his name under the author of the covenant and handed it to the guard, who took it and walked quickly, and then Li Qing'an smiled at the marching Sima Liu She, who was waiting on the side: "Say it! What happened? ”

"General, when we regathered the soldiers of the Shi Kingdom, we found that there were two thousand people missing, I have already found out the situation, after the surrender of the soldiers of the Shi Kingdom, two thousand people left the north of the city of Kai Zhicheng, led by the general of the Shi Kingdom, Tambu, for unknown reasons."

"And that kind of thing?"

Li Qing'an pondered for a moment, and then said to his soldiers: "Go and invite Prince Hassan to me." ”

Li Qing'an walked quickly to the map, where will the 2,000 troops of Shi Guo go if they go north? Along the Tuozhi City to the north, is the boundless grassland and the Gobi, finally, Li Qing'an's eyes fell on the small northern city of Talas City, this once wrote a page of pathos in history, so dazzling into his eyes, Tianbao ten years, Gao Xianzhi's 70,000 troops did not take the Talas River, the time is still Tianbao ten years, but history has also taken a turn, will Talas become the focus of history?

Li Qing'an shook his head, and at this moment, the voice of the guards at the door was remembered, "General, Prince Hassan is here." ”

Li Qingan was stunned for a moment, did he come so soon? "Let him in!"

In order to establish a new alliance with the Tang Dynasty, Teller has officially handed over power to the eldest prince Hassan, and named Hassan as a prisoner, he said that he was sick and retreated behind the scenes, which is undoubtedly a bright decision for Hassan, only two days ago, his father had decided to set up the second prince Yuanen to inherit the throne, which made him extremely lost, but the arrival of the Tang army changed all this, finally let him ascend to the throne of Shiguo, for this, he was full of gratitude to Li Qingan.

"General, I was about to invite you into the city to live, when I heard that you were looking for me."

Hassan smiled and walked into the camp, compared with his brother Yuanen's tall and fair-skinned, and good at leading troops, Hassan is dark and fat, five short figures, likes food and women, so he is not as pleasing to his father as Yuanen, but his support for his father at the critical moment made him finally become the lord of the stone country, he bowed to Li Qing'an and said: "Living in the camp is difficult, I have prepared a mansion for you in the city, and there are twenty beautiful women to serve, the general will definitely listen to me." ”

Li Qingan smiled slightly, and said politely: "Of course I can't ask for a beautiful woman to serve me, but the big food army is here, I don't dare to slack off for a moment, thank you for the prince's kindness." ”

"Then there is no way, when the war is over, I will send to Samarkand to find my sister and gather with the general's legion, to be honest, she will be that saint, I am resolutely opposed, and I will not be able to marry for the rest of my life."

"It's up to your sister to decide! I'll get down to business with you first. ”

Li Qing'an invited him to the map and asked, "My subordinates just discovered that a stone [***] team of 2,000 people has gone north, although they have disarmed, I still want to know what is going on?" ”

"It's General Tamble!"

Hassan sighed and said, "He was originally unwilling to surrender to the Tang army, but my father finally persuaded him to surrender to the Tang army, but my father also promised him that he could return to his own tribe, general, he also had no choice!" ”

"Why?"

"Because his tribe still has a small garrison of big cannibals, right here!"

Hassan pointed to the city of Talas on the map, "His tribe is in the area of Talas City, and there are still nearly five hundred cannibal troops stationed in Talas City, I originally wanted to tell the general about this matter, since the general is asking now, I have to make it clear, in fact, Talas only nominally belongs to the stone country, in fact, it has been controlled by the big cannibals for many years, the army and the officials in the city are big cannibals, and the taxes are also enjoyed by the big food, it is an enclave of the big food." ”

Li Qing'an's gaze once again fell on this small northern city, no wonder Gao Xianzhi wanted to lead an army to attack Talas City in history, it turned out that this was an enclave of the Great Cannibal, he pondered for a moment and said: "Why did the Great Cannibal choose Talas as its enclave?" ”

"Because Talas has an extremely important strategic position."

On Li Qing'an's map, the city of Talas was already the northernmost point, and Hassan had to draw on the table with his hand, "General, general, the Silk Road will be divided into two after reaching Broken Leaf, one is to the west, through Tuozhi City to Samarkand, and finally to Mulu and Damascus, while the other is from Broken Leaf to the northeast to Talas, then to the city of Itytil, through the Sea of Azov, and finally to Byzantium."

Among them, the city of Itil is a very prosperous commercial city, hundreds of years of merchants from all over the world gathered, I heard that there are Gauls and even the Vikings from the far north will also come south to do business here, so choke Talas, that is, choke this trade route, the big food does not want the goods of the Tang Dynasty to go to Byzantium from here, affecting their trade interests, which is why Talas has been stationed here. ”

Li Qing'an suddenly realized, it turned out that Talas City had such an important strategic value, he couldn't help but look at the map carefully, Talas City not only has important commercial value, but it is also the northern passage to Broken Leaves, if the Great Food occupies Talas City and Ashburai City, it is equivalent to hanging a big knife on the top of Broken Leaf's head, threatening the safety of Broken Leaf at any time, the first Broken Leaf War, Great Food General Judier is marching to Broken Leaf from this route.

Thinking of this, he asked again, "Are you sure that there are only five hundred food troops stationed there?" ”

Hassan nodded, "I heard what Tambull said, there were originally quite a few troops, but most of them were transferred to Broken Leaf to fight the general, and there were only five hundred people left to defend the city, so it shouldn't be wrong." ”

Li Qingan pondered for a moment, then immediately turned around and ordered: "Quickly go and order Li Guangbi to come." ”

After a while, Li Guangbi hurriedly walked into the big tent and half-knelt down to salute, "See the general." ”

"General Li, you lead 5,000 cavalry to the north of Talas immediately, give me to annihilate the 500 food army there, and take Talas City."

．．．．．．．．． Talas City is located in the northeast direction of Tuozhi City, about 400 miles apart, the terrain is flat, Li Guangbi led 5,000 cavalry all the way to the north, at noon on the third, they arrived at a forest that stretches for dozens of miles, in the middle of the forest, a big river is in front of them, this river is called Baishui, Baishui City in the middle of the stone country is in its upper reaches, about 80 miles away from here.

The water is so clear that the white pebbles below are clearly visible, turning the entire river white, and it is the end of summer when the river is so fast that it is impossible to cross the river.

The scouts went to find the road, and the Tang army rested on the pebbled river beach to eat dry food, Li Guangbi looked at the other side with some thoughts, he had not fought a good battle from the north court to the present, and his name was not yet on the merit book, seeing that the battle with the Great Food Army was about to begin, Li Qing'an ordered him to take a small city in the north, would this be an opportunity to transfer him?

Li Guangbi's surname is more troubled by gains and losses, he always can't let go of some small things, it is easy to think of small things as big things, and because his military career has been unsmooth over the years, Li Guangbi has developed a habit of guessing the thoughts of the superiors, and he guessed An Sishun's thoughts with An Sishun, and Ge Shuhan He guessed Ge Shuhan's thoughts, and now with Li Qingan, he began to get used to guessing Li Qingan's thoughts with his surname.

Li Guangbi thought for a long time and had no clue, he sighed, picked up a pebble and threw it into the river, on the opposite bank was a dense forest, and a low hill in the distance blocked his view.

At this time, a scout rushed from the west, and he could see that he was very anxious, and Li Guangbi couldn't help but stand up, "What's wrong?" He asked aloud.

"General, there is an enemy coming this way!"

Li Guangbi was taken aback, and the soldiers around him stood up one after another.

"Where is the enemy? Who is it? ”

"General Hui, they are all Great Eclipse Cavalry, about 3,000 people, they are coming along the river towards our side, it is less than three miles"

"Get up!"

Li Guangbi shouted: "Leave the forest immediately, be quick!" ”

If there were only 3,000 Great Eclipse Army, he was worried that the scouts had only discovered a part of the enemy army, and if the Great Eclipse Army surrounded them on all sides, the consequences would be unimaginable.

The soldiers packed up their things one after another, quickly rushed south, ran for nearly seven or eight miles, and then went out of the forest and came to the grassland.

The grassland is vast, and there is no enemy situation in sight, Li Guangbi's heart is slightly lowered, the enemy army is very likely to be only 3,000 people, this is an opportunity.

He stepped forward and whispered a few words to the deputy general Bai Xiaojie, Bai Xiaojie nodded, waved his hand, and led 2,000 people to the east, once again hiding in the forest.

"Beat the drums!"

Li Guangbi gave an order, the Tang army's drums sounded like thunder, startling the birds and birds at the edge of the forest to scatter and flee, the Tang army slowly retreated while beating the drums, and about a quarter of an hour later, a large food army appeared from the forest.

This great food army that happened to encounter with the Tang army on the banks of the Baishui River was the vanguard army sent by the Muslims to fight for the city of Talas.

They learned that the Tang army had occupied the city of Tuozhi, so they made a detour to the north, preparing to go directly to reinforce the city of Talas, but the wooden bridge they were going to cross the river had collapsed due to disrepair, and Humet led the army along the river to the east, and they had already found the traces of a large group of men and horses, and when they were nervous, they suddenly heard the sound of drums coming from the south.

Humed is one of the four Muslim tigers, ranked third, behind Ziyad and Ibrahim who marched into Sindh, while Raschel, who is ranked fourth, is currently guarding Mulu.

Humed, who is also a native of Khorasan, is about forty years old this year, and is the same as Abu. Muslims are childhood friends, he was once the governor of Kabul of the Umayyad Dynasty, after the Muslims raised troops in Khorasan, he led 5,000 troops from Punjab to defect to the Muslims, has been following the Muslims to fight against the Umayyad army, and made great contributions, this time to quell the rebellion of the Shiites in the river, he was responsible for suppressing the rebellion of the small history country, only one month to quell the rebellion, killing countless people, this time, he rushed to the stone country as a vanguard, if he could not take the city of Tuozhi, he went to hold the city of Talas, ready to contain the Tang army from behind.

He had a smooth journey, but he did not expect to encounter the Tang army at the Baishui River, and Houmet quickly stabilized the army after the initial panic.

He immediately put up a curtain on the edge of the forest and looked at the Tang army, who had retreated three miles away, vacating a grassland, obviously wanting to fight him.

Hou Meide slowly narrowed his eyes, the Tang army was not numerous, basically similar to him, and it was estimated that he also wanted to go to Talas, this was an opportunity.

Humet was very conceited, his three thousand elite cavalry were veterans who had followed him for many years, experienced in combat, and were the elite of the Khorasan army, and they also participated in the last battle with Gao Xianzhi, as a result of which they routed the Tang army from the flank.

It was the last great victory that made him have a slight contempt for the Tang army, which may have been well equipped, but their fighting spirit was not high, and they were only stronger than the Sogdian army, which was still far from the Great Food Army.

"Prepare for battle!"

Hou Meide shouted, and the three thousand food soldiers raised their spears on the ground, and their movements were uniform, showing superb military quality.

"Queue up!"

The Great Eclipse Army marched slowly, the three thousand cavalry were divided into five rows, each row of six hundred people, two feet apart, as if carefully measured, each of them was equipped with ten short spears, each short spear weighed about seven catties, made of fine iron, thrown far by arm strength, thirty steps away to pierce the enemy, this is the sharpest weapon of the Great Cannibal against the Byzantine heavy cavalry.

The cavalry began to trot, shield in one hand and spear in the other, still lined up, their sharp spears glittering in the sun.

The army led by Li Guangbi is the Tianwei Army from Shibao City, the earliest is the Longyou Army, who have been fighting with the Tubo people for many years, and also have rich combat experience, they are equipped with horned bows and crossbows, and the effective killing range is 100 steps away, the only drawback is that the winding is slow, and it can only be fired twice at most within 100 steps, in order to make up for this weakness, each Tang army is equipped with a pair of bows and arrows, suitable for short-distance shooting, followed by knives, spears and shields, fully equipped.

Although this Tang army was fighting the Great Cannibals for the first time, their rich combat experience allowed them to see the strengths and weaknesses of the Great Cannibal Army at a glance.

Not to mention the well-trained, they can keep a neat queue in the run, even the Tubo people can't do it, obviously they are very skilled in overall cooperation, from this point alone, this is a strong opponent, secondly, they have no bows and arrows, each has a number of short spears, and there is a spear in addition to the short spear, from which it can be inferred that the short spear is their throwing weapon, and the range of the short spear is not as good as the crossbow arrow, at this point the Tang army has a slight advantage, but the horse of the big food seems to be very strong, tall and strong, which is much more powerful than the plateau horse of the Tubo people, Even faster than the horses of the Tang Army.

But his weakness is also obvious, that is, their armor is tight-fitting leather armor, this kind of leather armor is not able to withstand the bow and arrow of the Tang army, Li Guangbi saw the weakness of the Great Food Army, and he immediately ordered: "Swing the Glaive Array!" ”

The Tang army flag waved and began to quickly adjust the formation, adjusting it into a crescent-shaped military formation with heavy two ends in the middle and a slight arc, with five rows in the middle and two rows on both sides, so as to ensure the maximum density of bows and arrows, while the Tang army in the first two rows held a giant shield, which was to defend against the big cannibal spear.

The Tang army also slowly moved forward, holding crossbow arrows in their hands, controlling their war horses with their legs, maintaining a tight formation, the two armies were getting closer and closer, neighing and shouting into one, and the drums rumbled, boosting the morale of their respective soldiers.

Two hundred steps..... One hundred and fifty steps.... One hundred steps, has entered the Tang Army's crossbow arrow killing range, the Great Food Army brushed the ground and raised the shield, but Li Guangbi did not give the order to shoot arrows, his eyes were sharp staring at the Big Cannibal's shield, as if he had seen through these shields, at a hundred paces, these shields could resist the Tang Army's hard crossbow, the Tang Army had stopped its pace and was ready to fight.

Eighty paces, Li Guangbi still did not give the order, and many Tang Jun's palms were soaked in cold sweat, which they had never fought for many years, and they had not released arrows at eighty steps.

At this time, the Great Food Army accelerated suddenly, and the spacing of the queue began to widen, but the queue was still neat, which was Hou Meide's cleverness, and the spacing was widened at the last moment, so that the killing area of the Tang Army's bow and arrow was small.

The war horses galloped, and the cavalry shouted and slaughtered the Tang army overwhelmingly, sixty paces, Li Guangbi pointed at his horizontal knife and roared: "Shoot flat!" ”

The first row of thousands of arrows shot out horizontally, this is the advantage of sixty steps, no need to shoot the parabola, direct flat shooting, the arrows are like strong rain, whistling towards the group of big food cavalry, the strong crossbow arrows shot through the shield of the big food cavalry, shot through the leather armor, straight through the body, the war horse fell to the ground, the cavalry screamed and fell from the horse, instantly people turned over on their backs, nearly two hundred people were shot over, the momentum of the big food attack was a setback, followed by the second round of the third round of two thousand arrows also shot, within sixty steps, the three thousand food army lost five or six hundred people, As soon as the three rounds of arrows were fired, Li Guangbi immediately ordered, "The geese march in formation!" ”

The Tang Army's Glaive Town suddenly dispersed, and before the short spear of the Great Food Army was not thrown, it quickly pulled away to both sides, as if an inverted figure-eight wild goose returned to the north, and the Tang Army's change of formation caught Hou Meide off guard, he originally saw the Tang Army's first two rows holding giant shields, which seemed to be to resist their spears, which made him happy in his heart, the big cannibal short spear was extremely sharp and powerful, and no shield could resist it, and the Tang Army's formation was dense, just to make their flying spears rain slaughter.

However, the Tang army suddenly changed formation at fifty paces, and Hou Meide had no time to adjust, so he had to order: "Throw the spear!" ”

The big food cavalry threw their arms one after another, thousands of short spears intertwined into a dense rain, flying in the air, although the momentum was terrifying, but most of the cavalry were thrown fifty or sixty steps away, despite the help of war horses, but most of the short spears failed to reach the position of the Tang army, only the hundreds of short spears at the front shot to, the last part of the Tang army did not have time to separate, the strength of the sharp short spears pierced their shields, dozens of Tang soldiers also screamed and fell off their horses, and the short spears pierced their bodies.

The Tang army obviously did not intend to fight hard with the Great Food Army, they took fifty people as a team, each fought flexibly, and tried to shoot from the side of the Great Food Army with bows and arrows, they sometimes cooperated with each other, dissolved into one, but dispersed, fighting separately, although it seemed scattered, but as if there was a rope that held them together, the shape was scattered but not dispersed, this rope was the command flag of the Tang Army, and the banner constantly changed into various combinations, commanding the Tang Army to attack the weak link of the Great Food.

This flexible combat mode of the Tang army is obviously the nemesis of the large cavalry queue combat mode, this queue combat mode is designed to deal with the Byzantine phalanx, in the group-to-group operation, this kind of queue combat is very sharp, can form a dense and consistent spear rain, a large number of kills and wounds of the enemy, but for the scattered Tang army, its overall advantage can not be brought into play, on the contrary, its clumsy and slow weak side is vividly embodied.

This is where Li Guangbi's military ability lies, he can adapt measures to local conditions, adjust tactics at any time, find the weak point of the enemy army to attack, this is the purpose of his 60 steps to release arrows, rather than one less round of arrows, but also when the enemy army has no time to change the formation, attack its weak link, then the big food army will change the formation and passive, the Tang army will not give them the opportunity to adjust calmly.

The Tang Army's flexible small-scale multi-point attack made the queue of the Great Food Army begin to be chaotic, and they gradually became as separate as the Tang Army.

At this time, Li Guangbi saw that the time had come, and he immediately ordered: "Shoot rockets!" ”

A rocket soared into the air, dragging a long black smoke through the air, and two thousand Tang cavalry suddenly killed in the forest behind the Great Food Army, but they were lined up neatly, lined up in a complete phalanx, and the war horses were fast, and the Tang Army was murderous and swept towards the Great Food Army.

As the Tang army's ambush came out, the Great Food Cavalry finally couldn't support it and began to retreat, the Tang Army covered the pursuit behind, the Great Food Army suffered heavy casualties, and countless surrendered people. Abu. The 3,000 pioneers sent by the Muslims to Talas encountered the Tang cavalry at the Baishui River, and the Great Food Army was defeated, Humed only led less than 300 remnants of the army to flee back to Samarkand, and two days later, Li Guangbi led the Tang army to arrive in Talas City, they received the help of the Kent tribe of Shiguo, and they broke through Talas City that night, so far, the Tang army completely gained a foothold in Shiguo.

(To be continued)