Sixteen or seventy thousand Flame cultists, five days later attacked Talas. Mo said that the time was too short, and there was no time to mobilize the army, even if he could mobilize it, it would not be enough to gather all the ** people in Anxi and Beiting.

The poplar sat down dejectedly, covered with gloomy clouds.

Everyone unfolded the map and checked the strength of the cities around the Beiting and the subordinate Detention Mansions, and then sent a fast horse messenger to inform the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate and the guards of the cities.

There were more than 13,000 infantry and more than 8,000 cavalry defending the city.

Most of the Flame cultists lurking in the area of Broken Leaf have been annihilated and are relatively safe.

Yang Shuzheng transferred 4,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry, handed them over to his deputy general Li Dafeng, and went to Talas City with Guo Hua and Dugu Huan.

Talas and his party were too dangerous. Dugu Huan didn't want the magpie to go.

But he couldn't resist her. After a long argument, the magpie told the truth. Her master once gave her a headscarf, saying that it was a thief who invaded Broken Leaf and killed her whole family.

The turban was embroidered with a flame totem. It is the thing of the Holy Fire Shinrikyo religion.

"Don't worry, I can protect myself," the magpie shook his hair, packed up his clothes and supplies, and arranged his luggage, "Besides, if I can't even hold Talas, where can I be safely in Broken Leaves?"

Du Huan's "Jing Xing Ji": "Bodaling traveled more than 1,000 miles north to the Shaye River. There is Atami at the east end of Sichuan, and there is Broken Leaf Castle. It is connected to Shiguo in the west of Sichuan, which is about more than 1,000 miles long, and there are tribes with different surnames and Turks with different surnames in Sichuan. At the southwest end of Sichuan, there is a city named Talas, a big town in Shiguo, that is, ten years of Tianbao, and the place where Gao Xianzhi was defeated.

Four thousand cavalry, five thousand infantry, quickly marched to Talas.

The infantry of my Datang Dynasty was also on horseback, and the speed of the march was quite guaranteed, and they arrived at Talas City a day and a half ahead of schedule.

The sentinels at the head of Talas City saw the banner of Broken Leaf ** from afar, and they didn't feel very happy, but were terrified.

The army of 10,000 men, together with the weight of grain and grass and spare horses, is also quite a huge team.

Even if the rangers sent by the Beiting Metropolitan Protectorate patrol the border, they will be controlled below five hundred. Without warning or reason, such a large-scale mobilization of troops violates the large-scale system.

It is even possible that it was disguised by Turkic or Dashi's soldiers and horses.

When the Talas general Huo Shouguang received the report, he was also suspicious. Guo Xin just came from Broken Leaf before, why did so many people suddenly come?

"Give the order to go down, and the whole city is ready for war. ”

Huo Shouguang whipped his horse and hurried to the east gate of Talas City.

Someone who came to know it was Li Dafeng, as well as Guo Hua and Dugu Huan. Huo Shouguang was relieved.

Li Dafeng understood the rules, stopped the troops five hundred steps away, and he and Guo Hua came to call the door.

Even if you know each other, even if you are your own person, the necessary rules and procedures still have to be followed.

Li Dafeng put Yang Shuzheng's letters, as well as the documentary evidence of Dashiguo's contact with the Tang Realm Holy Fire Cultists to attack Talas and Broken Leaf City, into the basket erected at the head of the city.

Huo Shouguang read Yang Shuzheng's letter and those so-called evidence several times, and couldn't believe that this was true.

Dashi mobilized an army of 100,000 to attack Talas?

A bolt from the blue.

Huo Shouguang even doubted that Li Dafeng under the city would be a Holy Fire Cultist who came to the city in disguise and deceived the city, so he couldn't help but want to go down, grab the other party's face and pull it a few times to see if he was wearing a human skin mask.

It's not that Huo Shouguang is suspicious, but that the soldiers are acting, and that's what it is. In addition, after An Lushan rebelled, there were not a few envoys and generals in various places who did not want to be self-reliant.

Li Dafeng is loyal to Datang, he is really not afraid of fire refining, and waits patiently, this kind of thing is not in a hurry. Whatever Huo Shouguang asked, he answered honestly.

The topic of the question is also military affairs mixed with personal issues. It's temptation.

Guo Xin also had a simple conversation with Guo Hua and Dugu Huan, they had been in Chang'an for a long time, and the enemy knew very little about them, so it was difficult to fake them. Just ask a few questions and you'll be sure it's me.

Huo Shouguang finally settled down and personally went out of the city to welcome Li Dafeng and his party into the city. The soldiers and horses led by him also entered the city one after another.

The barracks of Talas were not very large, and the cavalry and infantry camped in the streets near the barracks. Yang Shuzheng explained this point before leaving.

In the General's Mansion, Li Dafeng, Guo Hua and others told in detail what had happened in Broken Leaf City in the past few days.

"Dadu Hu has sent a messenger to report to the past, and General Yang also sent someone to Anxi to inform the old general Su Dingyuan, it is difficult to save the near fire from far water, mainly to prevent just in case, in case the city of Talas is captured by the enemy, the cities of the prefecture can also organize a counteroffensive, and take advantage of the enemy's entry into the city to seize it back in time. Li Dafeng almost finished the situation with the belief that he would die.

"General Yang is very worried about Zhou Xiang-" Huo Shouguang praised it, wanted to say something, and was silent again.

The atmosphere in the chamber was extremely oppressive.

The city of Talas is close to the border, and there are more defenders, but the cavalry and infantry add up, and the number of cavalry and infantry is only 35,000, plus the 9,000 people brought by Li Dafeng, it is only 44,000 people.

The other party has an army of 100,000, plus those Holy Fire Cultists lurking in the Tang Realm, 150,000 or 60,000.

There is a huge disparity in the number of troops. It's like a mantis arm as a car.

"General Huo, when I entered the city, I saw that many Buddhist temples in the city were also destroyed, could it be that they were also committed by the Holy Fire Cultists?" asked Guo Hua.

There are indeed a few Buddhist temples on the road, the walls have collapsed, the houses have collapsed, they are burned in pitch black, and the blood stains on the streets have not dried, and they are in a mess.

"Yes, about 800 Flame Cultists acted at night and destroyed several old Buddha temples in the city, and the offenders have already corrected the Dharma on the spot. Huo Shouguang replied gloomily.

"How many of the remaining Flame Cultists live in the city?"

"More than eight hundred, these people?"

"I can't stay. Guo said ruthlessly.

There was no tangible evidence of rebellion by the Flame cultists, because they destroyed the temple and implicated everyone, and it was inevitable that some people would not be able to convince the public. It's too late to learn the methods of breaking leaves, to find some place to hide weapons, and to ask for evidence.

Some are embarrassed.

In the end, Guo Hua suggested that Huo Shouguang and several generals should first focus on resisting Dashi's attack, as long as they sent a staff member who was familiar with Talas City and a thousand elite soldiers to him, and he and Dugu Huan were responsible for solving the matter of the hidden Holy Fire Cultists.

In the documents found in Shattered Leaf City, a code word was found for the communication between the Holy Fire Cultists, and Guo Yu and Dugu Huanhui disguised themselves as big stone people, pretending to be Holy Fire Cultists to obtain information.

That's all it can be.

Huo Shouguang, Guo Xin, Li Dafeng and others discussed the matter of resisting the enemy. A general named Ma Azhu and a staff member named Cen Da Niu led a thousand people to listen to the orders of Guo Hua and Dugu Huan to deal with the Holy Fire Cultists lurking in the city.

In addition to mobilizing the army to distribute defense, it is also necessary to mobilize rolling logs, stones, bows, crossbows, arrows, shields, oil pots, and so on, and make sufficient arrangements on the city wall.

Guo Hua also suggested that it is best to mobilize all the people, and those who are young and strong in the city but can shoot bows and arrows should be used as reserve militia.

Let's talk about the arrest of undercover spies first, and after lunch, I went in a hurry.

The Holy Fire Cultists outside the city really didn't have time to take care of everything, so they could only dispose of the most harmful batch in the city first.

There are more than 800 Holy Fire cultists, a total of 176 households.

These people like to live in clusters, and live in three settlements: the East Gate, the West Gate, and the North Gate. There are forty or fifty households each.

Another 26 households are scattered in various neighborhoods.

First, send troops to surround the three settlements. Guo Hua and Dugu Huan took fifty soldiers and went to the other twenty-six scattered households.

Based on previous experience, these diasporas are the most likely to serve as intelligence agents.

They all live near the market.

There is only one large market in the city of Talas, located in the middle of the city to the west, where all kinds of people gather every day. It is an excellent place to gather intelligence and disseminate intelligence.

The soldiers hid in the shadows.

Guo Hua and Dugu Huan had already changed into the costumes of the Holy Fire Cultists, and the Holy Fire Cultists' Holy Flame nameplates hung from their waists.

With the face covered, only the eyes exposed, this kind of disguise is very simple.

When the leaves were broken, they learned the Flame Cultist's joint code words a few times through the staff translators, and then asked the staff of the Talas General's Mansion to help correct the accent and learn the tone and gestures of the stone man. There are always seven or eight points of similarity.

In addition, the homes and shops of those Flame Cultists will always have a Flame nameplate hanging on the left hand side to declare their identity as Flame Cultists.

These plaques are the size of a palm, some are copper, some are iron, some are made of copper and iron, and some are inlaid with orbs such as agate turquoise.

But in general, it is all in the shape of a flame, but some of the graphics and texts are simpler, and some of the textures are complex.

For outsiders who don't know what's going on, these bells and whistles all mean the same thing, just to tell people: the owner here is a Holy Fire cultist, pay attention to respect people's beliefs.

But if you understand the meaning of the different materials, patterns, and characters on these signs, you can read a lot of information from them.

The Holy Fire cultists are highly hierarchical and well-managed, and the different ornaments on this sign represent their status and functions in the Holy Fire Cult.

A flame and an iron nameplate with three flames branching out indicate that the male owner of this family is an ordinary Holy Fire cultist, who is the most primary.

A flame and an iron nameplate with four flames indicate that the male owner of this family is a "ten-person teacher", which means that he has successfully taught ten disciples.

A flame and an iron nameplate with five flames indicate that the male owner of this family is a "master of 100 people", which means that he has successfully taught 100 disciples.

The bronze nameplate, with a flame dividing into six flames, is "a thousand people division." ”

The bronze nameplate, where a flame divides seven flames, is a "master of ten thousand people", and generally respects the "mage." ”

And so on, there are also "middle mages", "great mages", "elders", "great elders" and so on.

Those flame totems are like a coral tree, and the slender flames are intricately intertwined.

These people may not have taught so many apprentices themselves, apprentices, apprentices, grandchildren, etc., which is also considered his merit.

Since the beginning of the "Ten Thousand Teachers", the nameplate can be inlaid with lapis lazuli, turquoise, red agate and other gemstones to show honor.

However, what can generally be seen are iron nameplates, ordinary disciples, ten-person divisions, hundred-person divisions, and the like. A thousand-person division is already rare.

As for the spies, their nameplates also have special markings, made of iron, disguised as ordinary cultists, but there is a slight difference in the texture of the flames.

At this point, after getting that batch of documents, Guo Hua and the others carefully compared the nameplate in front of the house of the Holy Fire Sect spy in Shattered Leaf City, and they had a lot of experience.

The spy personnel of the Holy Fire Sect, named "Wind Ear" in the Sect, their nameplate is also made of pig iron, and the flame totem is a flame with four flames, and some wind and cloud patterns are swirled around the flames.