A cavalry force of about 300 men of the Tang army galloped through the ravines between the mountains, and the Posi Mountains, part of the Trans-Alai Mountains, stretched for thousands of miles, with the Tocharian states to the south and the famous Fergan Basin to the north.

Boxi Mountain is rich in silver, there are large silver mines in the north and south, shallow burial, high grade, easy to mine, is the main source of silver ore for Dashi.

At this moment, the Tang army galloped on the westernmost part of the Boxi Mountain, and the low slopes on both sides were dense forests, and the autumn was dyed, and the jungle presented a colorful and charming scene, but the Tang army did not have the heart to appreciate this beautiful autumn color, and they quickly whipped up their horses and galloped towards Yincheng.

Scout Lieutenant Qin Haiyang was the executor of this mission, and his task was to probe the garrison of Yincheng and make preliminary preparations for the Tang army to take Yincheng.

"Captain!"

A soldier of Shiguo, who was familiar with the terrain, galloped to report: "Twenty miles ahead is the camel mountain outpost, after the outpost, you will reach the outpost, and then fifty miles ahead will go to the mine." ”

"Is there a beacon?"

"I passed by here last year, and there were no beacons."

Qin Haiyang pondered for a moment, last year, the Tang Army had not yet entered Shiguo, and the Great Food Army did not have any threat, so there was no need to establish a beacon tower at that time, but now the situation has changed dramatically, the Great Food Army has increased its troops in Yincheng, and the possibility of establishing a beacon tower at this time has been greatly enhanced, once he is discovered by the beacon tower, the plan to explore Yincheng will come to naught.

Thinking of this, Qin Haiyang immediately ordered the two scouts: "Go and investigate the enemy situation ahead and see if there is a peak fire platform." ”

The two scouts agreed and urged the horses to go, Qin Haiyang turned around and ordered the others: "Just get off the horse and rest and wait." ”

The Tang army dismounted one after another to rest, Qin Haiyang rested for a while, ate some dry food, he looked at the surrounding mountains, from his experience, this kind of mountain should have more than one road.

He summoned a soldier from the Stone Country, unfolded the map on a flat stone and asked, "Is there only one way from here to Yincheng?" ”

This soldier of the Stone Kingdom was born in Orion and was very familiar with the roads in this area, he shook his head and said, "There are still two paths, but the mountains are high and the slopes are steep, and the roads are difficult. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves in front of him, and Tang Jun, who was lying on the ground resting, jumped up one after another, stretched out his bow and arrows, and looked nervously ahead.

In a moment, two black shadows appeared around the corner, and gradually approached, it was the two Tang soldiers who went to explore the road just now, everyone put their hearts down, and the two scouts galloped forward to report: "There is a sentry tower on the cliff ahead, and there is also a beacon tower, and the past will inevitably be discovered." ”

"How was that night?"

The scout shook his head and said, "There is an active sentry hidden in the dense forest, and it is difficult to pass at night. ”

Qin Haiyang's brows furrowed, what can I do? At this time, the soldiers of Shiguo suddenly remembered something and hurriedly said: "Captain, there is still a road to go through, that is, it is a little farther, and it is necessary to detour through Mishui, which is two hundred miles farther than going straight to Yincheng from this side, and the advantage is that there is no patrol." ”

Qin Haiyang thought about it, and then resolutely ordered: "Okay, just go far!" ”

The Tang army mounted their horses one after another, following the Shiguo soldiers and galloping towards another rugged mountain road.

．．．．．．．．． Mishui is the most important river that originates from the Boxi Mountains and flows to the countries in the river, and finally flows into the Amu Darya River, and the country of rice, Kang, Xicao, He, Dong'an and even Anguo are all located on the bank of the Mishui River, so it can be said that the Mishui is the mother river of the countries in the river.

Dense water rushes from the southern foot of Boxi Mountain, immediately becomes gentle and wide after leaving Boxi Mountain, extremely conducive to shipping, the coarse silver ingots transported from Yincheng to Samarkand are waterways, Mishui is divided into two tributaries in the north and south in Boxi Mountain, Yincheng is located in the middle of the north tributary, but this section of the tributary water flow is turbulent, can not sail, until fifty miles away can be sailed, so the big food army of Yincheng built a wharf where the ship can be traveled, and the camel team needs to transport the silver ingots from Yincheng to the wharf first.

On this morning, the docks were noisy, with groups of slaves carrying boxes of silver ingots onto ships, and hundreds of Great Food Soldiers with spears in their hands vigilantly patrolling back and forth around the docks.

Received the order of the Great Food Country, Yincheng nearly one million catties of coarse silver ingots and a part of the gold ingots to be shipped to Samarkand, this is the amount of silver minted in the silver mine in the past three years, due to the Great Food Civil War, the silver ingots have been stored in the Silver City, the outbreak of the Tang-Afghanistan War, the Great Food Vizier ordered the inventory of silver ingots to be transported back to Kufa.

This time the silver ingots were transported in huge quantities, by waterway, along the dense water to the west into Samarkand, and from there to the camels to be transported by land to Khorasan Mulu, a total of three batches, the first batch had been transported ten days ago, this is the second batch, but also the largest batch, a total of 500,000 catties of silver and 30,000 catties of gold, more than 100 boats moored in the river.

The ship was a flat-bottomed ship used by the Sogdians to transport goods, with a deep draft and a large carrying capacity, but the disadvantage was also obvious, that is, it was bulky and inflexible, and it was generally transported by wings.

As the last box of silver ingots was loaded onto the ship, a big food officer shouted: "Loading is complete, ready to go!" ”

The flotilla shook a little, and set off slowly, and the boats were tied to each other with thick ropes, led by a huge guide boat at the forefront, and the current was more rapid, and there was no power for the time being, and the speed of the ships was also fast, but after fifty or sixty miles, as the river widened, the speed of the water slowed down, and the fleet was driven by the lack of power of the current alone, and then the slaves were needed to pull on the shore, so that another thousand slaves went with the boat.

At the same time, there were 300 cavalry of the Great Eclipse, led by a cavalry commander, and there was also a Great Eclipse soldier on each boat, and the cavalry traveled with the boat all the way, and arrived at the confluence of the two tributaries at dusk, from here, the slaves would pull the boat, and after walking for two days, they would arrive at Juma Bazar, the capital of the United States.

A thousand slaves could not keep up with the speed of the boat, and were left far behind, and as the current slowed down, the fleet lost momentum and began to become sluggish, like the exhaustion of a marathon runner who had reached the finish line after a long run, and walked faster than it could on the shore.

The commander of the cavalry looked anxiously behind him, night was falling, but the slaves did not see the shadows, "These useless things! He cursed secretly, and when he saw that it was getting late, he ordered: "Camp on the spot, and set off early tomorrow morning!" ”

The flotilla slowly approached, the soldiers on board jumped ashore, the soldiers lit several bonfires, began to roast the mutton, some of them took wine jugs, their faces were reddened by the firelight, they talked about women and food, and the shore became lively.

．．．．．．．．．．． The Tang army scout camp passed through the long valley of the Boxi Mountain, and finally arrived at Mishui, this area is a gentle hill, the scenery is beautiful, the vegetation is luxuriant, a golden color of autumn, the berries hang all over the branches, countless colorful birds are beating between the branches, pecking berries, enjoying the gifts of nature, the dense water flows through the middle of the gentle low hills, the upper mountains are full of rain, the mountain streams are many clear springs, the dense water is deep before reaching the plain, the water is turbulent, nourishing the rich and beautiful land on both sides. As the Tang army's march accelerated, the sun had gradually set on the Boxi Mountain, the desolate twilight began to cover both sides of the dense water, gray mist was generated on the river surface, and the cold of late autumn invaded the armor of the Tang army, and they couldn't help but pull the cloak to wrap their bodies tightly.

"Buck, are there any caves up ahead?"

Qin Haiyang saw that a huge mountain appeared in front of him, so he asked the Shiguo soldiers who led the way.

Buck was the name of this Stone Nation soldier, a burly, honest Sogdian hunter who had been captured as a slave to work as a coolie in a silver mine, and he was one of more than a hundred slaves who escaped during a silver mine riot last year, and he knew the terrain of the area well.

He shook his head and smiled: "There are no caves here, there are countless huge caves on the silver mine, each cave can accommodate hundreds of people, and this side can only camp by the river, and the humidity in the woods is too heavy, and if you stay for two nights, you will have joint pain." ”

"Oh well! We'll camp there and set off tomorrow. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a whistle came from the front, and I saw a Tang soldier bending over and hurrying over, shouting in a low voice: "Captain, there is a situation ahead!" ”

Qin Haiyang was stunned, hurriedly waved his hand, ordered the Tang army not to dismount, he jumped off the horse and led the two of them to run forward, in front of them was a low hill, blocking their sight, they rushed up the hill in one breath, the hill was overgrown with shrubs, they ignored the small thorns on the bushes, lying in the bushes and looking into the distance, only to see about five hundred steps away, a few bonfires were exceptionally bright in the dark night, if you listened attentively, you would hear laughter floating in the wind.

"It's a Big Food Soldier!" Sogdian Orion Buck whispered, and he heard the familiar wild laughter of the Great Eater.

Qin Haiyang was an old scout, and his eyesight was also excellent, and he quickly recognized that the enemy army was about five hundred people, and at this time, he saw suddenly a fleet of boats by the river, which seemed to be full of goods.

"Let me ask you, what will the big cannibals transport on the river?"

Orion Buck reacted immediately, and he said excitedly: "It must be silver ingots, which have been transported by ship from Silver City to Samarkand before. ”

"Silver!"

Qin Haiyang's eyes lit up, he smacked his lips and smiled: "Lao Tzu is going to make a fortune." ”

He looked around the campfire, and the woods were dozens of steps away from the Great Eater soldiers, which was a godsend.

"An army might be lurking in the woods over there?"

"Captain, the woods are all the same here, what we look like on our side, what they look like on their side."

Qin Haiyang retreated, and gathered several brigade commanders and teams to discuss countermeasures, they have three hundred cavalry, to be prepared to win or not, they should be able to gain the upper hand, and more importantly, there are more than a hundred silver ships in the river, so how much silver should there be, each of them became excited.

But soon they discovered a serious practical problem, even if they killed the Great Food Army, he may not be able to get a tael of silver, the river is too wide, and when they kill the Great Food Army, the boat has already sailed to the other side, what can I do?

"It's better to set the boats on fire and let them sink to the bottom of the river, we won't be able to take the silver anyway!" A brigade commander offered advice.

Although Qin Haiyang wanted to make a fortune, he also knew that they were now in the control area of the Great Cannibal, how could they take the silver from the boat, burn it and sink it into the river, and wait for the Great Cannibal to be defeated in the future, and then slowly fish it out, they brought fire oil, which just came in handy.

"That's it, burn the boat!"

Qin Haiyang made a decision, the implementation of the following is not very difficult, they are all scout army, scouts are equivalent to the special forces of the Tang army, each has its own specialty, and there are not a few people who are good at water, they quickly picked out more than a dozen Tang soldiers with excellent water surnames, and they dived into the water with skins filled with fire oil.

The rest of the Tang army entered the dense forest, at this time the night had just fallen, the birds and finches in the woods were still chirping and noisy, the Tang army entered the woods, and immediately startled a large number of birds, and flew away in a daze, fortunately, the big food army did not notice the abnormality of the woods, maybe they did not think that the Tang army would come here at all.

These big food troops stationed in the silver mines have no news, at most they know that the Tang army has occupied Tashkent, and Tashkent is far away from here, even if they come, there will be news first, and the news that the Tang army has crossed the Yaozhi River a few days ago is even more unheard of.

It's no wonder that decades have passed since the Great Cannibal came to Boxi Mountain to open a mine, and countless silver ingots have been transported, and there has never been a slight miss, and today is just one of them, what will happen?

Bonfire hunting, the big food soldiers drank and ate meat to their heart's content, and a few drunken soldiers danced in front of the campfire.

"Are there any residents in this neighborhood, let's go find some women!" A soldier shouted in a strange voice.

Another soldier pursed his lips and said disdainfully: "You dream! Where is there a family here, the day after tomorrow we will go to Juma Bazar, but we can go to visit the Jiyuan in the city. ”

"Stop talking in your dreams!"

The commander of the Great Food Legion came over and patted the soldiers on the shoulders and instructed them: "The silver transportation is very important this time, so you should drink less wine, and when you arrive in Samarkand, let you drink enough." ”

"Captain Razman, what are you worried about? Are you worried that the slaves will come to rebel and steal the silver? ”

All the soldiers laughed together, the commander of the Great Food Legion laughed twice, then walked quickly to the river, shook his body, and peed loudly, he peed while looking at the other side of the river, the night was deep, and he couldn't see the other side at all, at this time, he seemed to feel the boat shaking, he rubbed his eyes, no! How did the boat that was originally close to the shore leave the shore, at this moment, a flame appeared in front of him on the right, he was stunned for a moment, that was to guide the big ship, how could there be fire on the boat, he suddenly felt a spirit, reacted, turned around and yelled, "Quick!" There's a fire on board, come and put out the fire! ”

At the moment when he turned to shout, a poisonous crossbow shot out from the water, and shot at the back of the heart of the Great Food Legion Leader with great speed, 'Poof! With a thud, the crossbow shot into his body, and he screamed and fell into the river.

The sudden situation by the river made all the soldiers stunned, they all turned their heads to look at the river, at the same moment when the screams were made, there was a bang in the woods, hundreds of arrows whistled from the woods, the arrows were extremely accurate, each arrow was critical, the two sides of the bonfire suddenly screamed together, the soldiers of the big food were in a mess, many soldiers jumped up, stumbled and ran towards the horses, the second round of arrows arrived, many people were shot in the run, screaming and falling.

At this time, the boats on the river were in flames, and the boats had reached the middle of the river, and the ropes connecting the boats were burned, and the boats loaded with silver ingots drifted in groups, and in a short time there was a clattering sound on the river, and some of the boats began to break and sink.

On the bank of the river, the Tang army rushed out of the dense forest, they urged the war horses, brandished horizontal knives and slashed the scattered and fleeing big food soldiers, or rode horses and arrows, and shot the big food soldiers who had been on the war horses with an arrow, the big food soldiers shouted wildly, the fear of death made them forget the silver boat, and also forgot to resist, they only cared about running, but the effective deployment of the Tang army cut off their hope of escape, the Tang army surrounded from three sides, ruthlessly killing every big food soldier.

In less than half an hour, the killing gradually came to an end, the burned tents emitted black smoke, corpses everywhere, blood pooled into a blood stream, and flowed into the river, and the boats on the river basically sank to the bottom of the river, and the sinking range stretched for miles, and it was difficult to fish out without a month.

Despite the slaughter of the Tang army, dozens of people were escaped, most of whom jumped into the river and swam to the other side.

"Captain, what are we going to do now?" A brigade commander asked worriedly, if something happened to the silver ship, the Great Food Army would definitely come to support, what should they do now?

Qin Haiyang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and said resolutely: "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you will get the tiger, we will continue to march towards the silver mine and turn him upside down." ”

The Tang army cleaned up a little, changed into the military uniforms and war horses of the big cannibals, threw all the corpses of the big cannibals into the river, and continued to gallop in the direction of the silver mine.

At the same time when the Tang army's 300 scouts were exploring the silver mines of Boxishan, 20,000 Tang troops arrived at the capital of Dongcao State under the leadership of Li Guangbi, the general of the Tang army, and set up a large camp ten miles away, while Qi Yade's 30,000 mixed army also entered the capital a day earlier, he was not in a hurry to fight, and the two armies were in a state of confrontation.

By this time, the Abbasid campaign in Egypt was drawing to a close, and the last Umayyad royal family, Rahman, had fled Egypt and was on his way to Moldova, Spain.

Caliph Abbasid's attention turned to the East, and he ordered the Egyptian army to return to Damascus, while Kufa's three legions went to Khorasan to prepare for support in the war with the Tang dynasty for the middle of the river.

At this time, the Tang Empire's campaign in the southwest also achieved a preliminary victory, and the 50,000 recruits recruited by Gao Xianzhi defeated the Nanzhao army in Jiazhou that attempted to enter Shuzhong in the north under the leadership of Gao Xianzhi after half a year of training, and the Nanzhao king Pi Luoge was forced to retreat to Yaozhou.

Gao Xianzhi's victory greatly boosted the morale of the Tang army, and after the rear was stabilized, Li Longji also set his sights on the distant Western Regions, and Li Qing'an's report on the occupation of Shiguo made him very excited, and he immediately approved the alliance agreement with Shiguo, and ordered the military department and the household department to recruit 20,000 military households from Hedong and Guanzhong to Anxi, and sent 100,000 weapons from the ordnance supervision warehouse to Anxi urgently, fully supporting the Tang army's struggle for the Sogdian region, and the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Abbasid Dynasty began to escalate imperceptibly.

That night, a carriage slowly stopped in front of Yang Guozhong's mansion.

(To be continued)