Ziad lowered his head and said with a little dejection: "How can my enemy be compared to gods and heroes, but he is indeed stronger than me, he has a well-armored, very professionally armed army to the face, everyone in this army is a professional soldier, they participated in the battle before the founding of our new dynasty, and even the powerful mercenary in the northeast, Qarlu, willingly became his lackey. ”

And Bo Xilin pursed his lips, waved his palm and slapped it heavily on the stone platform in front of him: "What you said alone is not enough for him to defeat you!" Who are we? We have the strongest cavalry in the world, and we are armed with the blessing of Allah, who has given us strength and courage to keep you victorious. We have defeated the armies of the Umayyad dynasty, we have defeated the armies of the Byzantine Empire, and we will defeat the Don army. ”

"Grand Duke Abu, I am willing to bear the sin of my defeat, but I still have to say that the Tang army seems to be only a little stronger than us, but this is just an illusion, their greatest strength is that they have no shortcomings, their cavalry is strong, and the infantry is as strong as the cavalry."

Don't equate your defeat with the strength of my army, they just put on a command that has become incompetent! ”

Ziad's body trembled twice, and he stood there in a pinched position, the brave general he commanded had collapsed, and all that was left was a loser who had fled back from the battlefield.

"To prove your incompetence, I have sent Kabata to Mulu City, and he will command an army of 50,000 men to reclaim the river! Then I hope that when he returns victoriously, you will be able to kneel in shame and commit suicide in front of him. ”

There was a brief silence in the hall, and an officer stood in the doorway, afraid of the atmosphere, who did not even dare to speak.

Bosilin noticed him and asked, "What are you doing?" ”

"Grand Duke, they sent me to deliver the urgent news of Mulu City."

"Urgent? Did he win the battle, read it to me! ”

"This," the herald swallowed half of his breath and said, "the Don army crossed the Amu Darya River and crossed the desert to break through the city of Mulu, General Kabata committed suicide in defeat, and his lieutenant sent someone to report the letter during the retreat. ”

The atmosphere in the hall was silent again, and Bo Silin awkwardly pulled the beard on his chin, turned his head and muttered: "He is at least more backbone than you, it seems that only I personally led the troops to resist the enemy, but there are not many elites available under the command of Khorasan, and the temporarily recruited militia cannot resist the enemy army at all." I can't cover up this matter, so I can only report it to the caliph and use the power of the caliph to mobilize the army of the whole country and keep the Tang army out of the city of Tus! ”

And Posilin hurriedly sent a messenger to Baghdad, the content of the letter read: Khorasan is in an emergency, the Tang army is pressing the border, the city of Mulu has fallen, and the caliph is asked to send reinforcements.

The first caliph of the Abbasids, Abu Abbas al-Safah, was shocked to hear the news and immediately sent troops from the western line of defense on the border with the Byzantine Empire. He also sent his own brother Mansur to quickly rush to the city of Tus with his army as a messenger to support. The first defense of the Abbasids was about to begin.

……

Mulu City is located in the Kizilkum Desert east of Tusi City, and is an important stronghold for Da Shi's march to the east, just three days ago, Li Siye led the Anxi Army into the desert, quickly approached Mulu City, and cut off the city's communication with the outside world.

The Great Food Guard General Kabata decided to stick to the city and stay up until the Tang army was short of food before making plans. However, at this time, the reinforcements sent from Tusi City were also on the way, and after Li Siye intercepted the information of the desert station, he immediately made a judgment and decided to attack the reinforcements first, and then turn around and attack Mulu City.

But Kabata, the defender of Mulu City, is not a vegetarian either, and once he learns that the Tang army is retreating, he will judge the situation and take the initiative to attack. In case of being flanked by Kabata and reinforcements, the Don army will be in a desperate situation of being besieged.

After discussing with the generals, Li Siye decided to make a time difference, first pretending to set up a camp on the Gobi Desert outside the city, burning a bonfire, and making a posture of fighting for a long time.

When night fell, the Tang army camp was lit with sparks, looking like a sky full of stars. Li Siye took advantage of the night to lead the main force to leave, leaving only 2,000 cavalry to continue to maintain the camp.

They took the Sogdians on the trade route as their guides, and after dark, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, they marched in the direction of the city of Tus, the vast desert felt strange, and in this geographical environment, if they wanted to intercept a reinforcement army hundreds of miles away, luck must have played a large part.

After the Tang army withdrew, Kabata did not notice it, until the afternoon of the next day, he stood on the city wall for routine patrol, looked at the Tang army camp in the distance and found a clue, and hurriedly sent scouts to the vicinity to investigate, only to find that most of the Tang army had withdrawn, leaving only some cavalry here to confuse themselves.

It was time to test Kabata's judgment, there were only two roads in front of him, the first way to take the initiative to go out of the city to pursue the main force of the Tang army, and join forces with reinforcements to defeat Li Siye. The second way continued to hold out in the city, allowing the reinforcements to be defeated and wiped out by Li Siye.

General Kabata is not a conservative person, not to mention that the reinforcements sent by Tus City carry a large amount of supplies, once intercepted by Li Siye, it will greatly extend the Tang army's activities in the desert, which is very unfavorable to his persistence.

He immediately led most of the Great Food Army out of the city, first swept away the empty camps left by the Tang army, and wiped out the two thousand Tang troops who were used to confuse him.

Leading the 2,000 Tang troops was General Ma Phosphorus, who led this cavalry to fight and walk, sticking to Kabata like kraft candy in the desert, buying time for Li Siye to defeat the reinforcements of the Great Food Army.

Kabata's subordinates advised him to ignore the harassment of the small Tang army and rush over to join the reinforcements according to the predetermined route, so that he would definitely be able to attack Li Siye on both sides before he attacked the reinforcements.

However, Kabata decided to divide his forces again, sending out the 5,000 camel army to fight to the death against the 2,000 Tang troops led by Ma Phosphorus, while he himself led the main force to continue the journey.

General Ma Pho fell into a desperate situation in the desert, the mobility of horses in the desert was far inferior to that of camels, the Tang army relied on horned bows and crossbows to fight at a distance from the enemy, the two sides fought and walked more than 80 miles, and constantly had comrades buried in the yellow sand, and the enemy was never able to eliminate them.

People do have strong willpower in desperate situations, and they have no room to break down, and they can only survive by uniting as one, how many times they have looked at the moon rings in the sky in the night in the yellow sand, and plucked up their courage again and again, although most of them may never return to their homeland.

Ma Phosphorus was originally opposed to Li Siye's plan to cross the Amu Darya River and attack Mulu City, but after he entered the desert, he put this disagreement behind him and resolutely carried out Li Siye's mission to let him stay and lure the enemy. He knew that their desperate situation was about to be exchanged for the victory of the main force.

……

Good fortune seemed to have been favoring Li Siye, and the Anxi army, led by Sogdian guides, was confronted by the Great Eclipse Army only two days later, relying only on the judgment of the night stars on the direction. He used the tactics of suppressing the central infantry with bows and crossbows and outflanking the cavalry on both flanks, and in one fell swoop defeated the reinforcements sent by Bosilin.

He did not rest after the victory, and quickly turned back to meet the pursuing Kabata, and the two sides fought fiercely in the undulating sand dunes, from morning to afternoon, when the enemy camel army was about to break through the Chinese army, he personally dismounted and led the Modao team to fight bloodily, and finally reversed the disadvantage. The Great Food Army was defeated and retreated, some of them fled to Tus City, and the other part fled in the direction of Mulu.

The Tang army turned around and marched towards Mulu City, once again defeating the rout organized by Kabata, and the Great Eater General committed suicide in despair.

Li Siye confidently believed that the current Mulu City was like an unguarded girl who had opened her arms to him.