In the autumn of the fifteenth year of the Chinese Dynasty, the eastern province of the Roman Empire - Samosata (a small province in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, in present-day eastern Turkey, bordering Armenia and the valley of the two rivers). The weather was very hot, and the hot air smelled of the Mediterranean.

"Brother Ling, where are we?" Zeng Ji turned his head and asked Murong Ling beside him.

"General, we just got out of Cappadocia, and this should be Samosata." Murong Ling replied, still adding a grumble at the end of his words: "The names of these Romans are really awkward!" ”

After speaking, Murong Ling shouted: "Adjutant! ”

"Here!" An officer who looked very young, but already had a beard, hurriedly rode up and trotted up, and answered loudly.

"Spread out the map!" Murong Ling said loudly.

"Yes!" The young officer replied aloud, then brought a cylinder behind his back to his chest, unscrewed the lid, took out a roll of thick paper, handed it to Zeng Mu, and said softly: "Uncle, map." ”

Murong Ling, who was next to him, suddenly darkened his face, raised his horsewhip and lightly whipped it on the young officer's shoulder, and shouted: "She, how many times have I told you, there are only chiefs and generals in the army, and there is no uncle."

Tuoba shrunk his neck, pulled the reins and turned behind Zeng and Mu, but he still muttered in his mouth: "General's wife, my name is aunt, what is the name of the general, what is my uncle's name?" ”

Although the voice was small, Zeng Mu and Murong Ling both heard it, and Murong Ling couldn't save face all of a sudden. was about to go up and kick Tuoba well, but was stopped by Zeng Mu.

"Brother Ling, you know this kid's virtue, why bother to be angry, besides, you are also his elder, let him forget it."

Murong Ling listened. That's it. Isn't it, Zeng Mu married Tuoba Guiyan, who is Tuoba's own uncle, and one of his cousins married Tuoba Shi Yijian, and Tuoba has to call himself a cousin.

Zeng Mu spread out the map, on which were the maps of Asia Minor, Armenia and Syria of the Roman Empire, which was the work of the Chinese Military Intelligence Department and the Ministry of Commerce for more than 20 years.

"We should be one hundred and fifty miles west of Sofina, less than a hundred miles from the Mediterranean." Zeng Mu pointed to the map and said.

"Yes, I smell the sea." Murong Ling shrugged his nose and said.

"From the map, we are only two hundred miles from Angok." Zeng Mu pointed to a black dot and said.

"It was an important support for the Roman Empire's defense line in the East. It is also the central city of Christianity in Asia. According to intelligence, Theodosius I had concentrated more than 50,000 troops there, and it seemed that they were preparing to take advantage of the opportunity to regain Palmyra. Murong Ling replied.

"Palmyra, Antioch, and Capascus were the three most important towns and support points of the Roman Empire in Syria, which could form a solid triangular formation. The occupation of Palmyra by Persia had just inserted a steel knife into this triangular formation, and the Romans had never dreamed of being at ease, and of course hoped to recover it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, although Theodosius I, the Eastern Emperor of the Roman Empire, was a capable man, the Western Emperor Valentinian II was too mediocre. It was up to Theodosius I to wipe his ass and help him pacify the rebellious Magnus Maximus and Flavius Victor. Theodosius I was powerless to deal with the Persians who had suddenly risen to prominence on his own, with the help of external forces, of course, or he would have kindly lent us the path of Trabsson? ”

Although the Armenian kingdom controlled most of the Caucasus mountain passes, the Romans controlled the coastline from Dioscurias (near present-day Sochi, Russia, the center of the Bosphoru kingdom before being occupied by the Roman Empire) along a narrow mountain road on the eastern coast of the Black Sea to Trabçon in Cappadocia in Asia Minor. This time, Zeng Mu was appointed as the chief of the Persian Western Road march, and led 30,000 Xianbei troops to be the division of the westward expeditionary army. Zeng Mu abandoned his plan to penetrate directly into the Persian hinterland from Caspian County. He boldly proposed another strategy, and then moved south, with the help of the Romans, to take advantage of the two river valleys, the richest region of Persia. This plan was approved by Zeng Hua, and it was even more in the hands of Theodosius I, who was trying to recover the lost lands in the East.

"Lord Governor, are we going to help the Romans capture Palmyra and make it our rear base in the valley of the two rivers of Juda?" Murong Ling asked.

"No need. The Romans fought theirs, we fought ours, and we could not put all the logistics and support on the Romans. Zeng Mu said categorically.

"That's right, we came together with the Romans only because we had the common enemy of Persia. If the Persians fall, we and the Romans will be enemies. Murong Ling smiled and said, "Lord Steward." So where are we aiming for it? ”

"Damascus!" Zeng Mu replied.

"Damascus? That's the land of the Romans! Murong Ling asked a little surprised.

"I'm just going to visit. Listen to my father. Damascus has always been the transportation, political and cultural center of Syria and the Middle East. Download Beauty-Girl is a city known as the Kingdom of Heaven. I want to check it out. Zeng Mu replied with a little fascination.

"Lord Governor, are we really just here to flank the two river valleys of the Persian Empire?" Murong Ling asked with a smile.

"Maybe, but we ran thousands of miles away, and we couldn't enter Baoshan but returned empty-handed." Zeng Mu shook his head slightly and replied.

"Lord Steward!" A general rode his horse and ran from the front, gave a military salute and said loudly.

"Ge Chong, what's the matter?" Zeng Mu replied while returning the salute.

"We found six guides in Antioch, all of them caravan grooms and porters, who had been in Syria for twenty or thirty years, and who were very familiar with the roads." Ge Zhong replied.

"Is it reliable?"

"Back to the chief steward, two of the six people are greedy for life and afraid of death. We threatened and obeyed, two of them were greedy for money, and they agreed under the lure of heavy money, and the other two were the list of places provided by the Ministry of Commerce and the Military Intelligence Department, and we Chinese businessmen saved their family and were kind to them, so they were very loyal. The list of those four people is still where they provided. ”

"Well, we're fighting in a different place now, and intelligence is the most important thing. If we get lost, our horses will die of exhaustion no matter how fast they run, and even more so if they are ambushed by trickery. That's how the Roman Emperor Julian was tricked, and we can't afford to repeat the mistakes of the past! Zeng Mu said solemnly.

"Yes, Lord Land, we must be careful. We will continue to look for reliable guides, and we will divide them into groups and use them separately to corroborate each other. And every time I go to a place, I ask the local people to confirm the geographical information. Ge Zhong replied solemnly.

"Okay, go get busy!"

"Pan Yue!"

"Here!"

"Go to Antioch and receive the supplies promised by the Romans, with less grain and grass, and as many arrows, knives, guns, medicines, etc. as you can. Tell the Roman governor of Syria that we are to set up warehouses in Damascus, in Same, and in the city of Palmyra, which is about to be recovered, for the purchase of equipment and supplies on the spot, and a hospital for the treatment of the sick and wounded whom we have returned. By the way, you ask the Syrian governor for a petition, Damascus has a good steel knife. We would like to buy one batch. ”

Zeng Mu said a word, Pan Yue answered, wrote it in a small notebook, and when he saw Zeng Mu finish speaking, he closed it, put it in his arms and stepped aside.

"Wang Tong, pass on my orders! Li Li and Lu Kuan were the vanguard, leading 5,000 cavalry, directly towards Palmyra, and assisted the Romans in besieging Palmyra. The task is to block all the roads to the east for me, and not a single mouse is allowed to go east! ”

"Obey."

On the 11th day of the eighth month of the 15th year of the Chinese Dynasty, a high cloud of dust suddenly rose to the west of the city of Palmyra, and the experienced defenders immediately judged that a cavalry was approaching at a rapid pace, and the number was expected to be in the thousands. The defending generals did not have time to investigate why the scouts did not come back to report the news, but ordered the alarm bell to be sounded one after another. The whole city is on alert.

After a while, in the dust, thousands of black cavalry roared, and the sound of heavy horses' hooves made the defenders standing on the city wall more and more nervous. Under the watchful eye of tens of thousands of pairs of eyes, the cavalry whistled past the south side of Palmyra, and some of the cavalry rushed out of formation as it passed. He threw something in front of the city gate. Then he walked away, and finally disappeared into the dust with the group.

When the yellow dust finally fell. Only then did the defenders discover that the cavalry had been dropped in front of the city gates with dozens of heads, all of which were spies sent out to hold on to the movement of the Roman army in the west. Looking at this strange head, the defenders all took a breath of cool air. Palmyra is the Persian front-line town against Rome, and the spies sent out to insist on the Romans are all selected, and now they have been cut off and thrown here, which shows that this cavalry is not only amazing in combat, but also has a higher level of scout spying than the Persians.

Palmyra's face was even more gloomy, as if it were covered with a layer of frost. He looked carefully, the flag of this cavalry was the military flag and the flag of the Chinese people, and each cavalry had one or two war horses behind them. The appearance of a cavalry behind the Persians was enough to make any Persian general break out in a cold sweat. It seems that what the Persians feared most had happened, and the Romans and the Chinese were finally ready to join forces to attack Persia.

But the only thing the defender was fortunate enough to borrow from the Roman Empire should not be many Chinese cavalry, because that would require a detour of tens of thousands of miles, and the Chinese would not be stupid enough to put the main force there and let them travel long distances to torture their own army.

The Keeper immediately wrote a letter and sent messengers to deliver the news to Ctesiphon, and to be on the safe side, the Keeper wrote five letters in one breath and sent five messengers to Ctesiphon in separate ways.

Five days passed quickly, and there was no more Chinese cavalry or Roman legions outside the city of Palmyra, but it was empty and lonely outside the city. No one dared to leave the city, because all those who went out of the city were sent back by the Chinese cavalry in twos and threes, and thrown in front of the city gate, including five messengers and hundreds of retinue guards, but only their heads were sent back.

An inexplicable fear permeated the city of Palmyra, and the soldiers and civilians of the city looked far away at the empty field outside the city, where, as before, the fruit trees and grains ripened in the autumn colors, and the air was filled with the smell of harvest, floating over the wells, huts, and roads, but it was empty. Everyone knows that in this familiar wilderness lies a danger that no one knows exists. They now feel like a pack of sheep surrounded by wild wolves.

After an almost maddening wait, on the seventh day Palmyra finally waited for a Roman legion of 60,000 men and quickly surrounded the city. Seeing the endless tents of the Roman legions outside the city, the Palmyra guards and the soldiers and civilians were relieved that they could finally see the real enemy.

While the Romans were building equipment and digging trenches in preparation for the attack on the city of Palmyra, Zeng Mu and his party made a big purchase in Damascus. Huaxia encouraged the common people to purchase and possess conventional weapons such as knives, guns, and longbows, but restricted "weapons of mass destruction" such as crossbows, knives, and chain crossbows. Therefore, the militia in various parts of China generally prepare their own weapons, and when they enter the government soldiers and the box army, in addition to the standard waist knives and armor helmets, they will also be allowed to choose a few "handy" weapons by themselves.

More than 20 years of busy trade between the East and the West, the Chinese soldiers have been admiring the Damascus knife for a long time, although the Chinese weapons are also very sophisticated, but most of them are "industrialized" and "assembly line operations" out of the product, naturally there is no handmade exquisite, and relative to the high-level weapons handmade by the Chinese craftsmen, the Damascus knife has an exotic flavor, worthy of collection. Therefore, the Chinese cavalry, led by Zeng Ji, almost bought out the good knives in the Damascus market. The smiling Syrian businessman secretly nagged to himself while collecting the money, these Chinese soldiers are really rich, and the Damascus grass steel knife is a little painful for the local nobles to buy, but these Chinese warriors have blinked their eyes.

However, these businessmen don't know the abacus of the Chinese cavalry, and if they want to do a good job, they must first sharpen their tools! These cavalrymen still understand this reason, everyone is ready to make a fortune this time, how can they do it if they don't prepare the guys? Now it's a foreign war, and once the fight starts, the ghost knows when there will be a supply of weapons? Moreover, the more fierce the battle, the faster the weapons will be damaged, and when the time comes, they will not be able to carry wooden sticks on their horses to fight, even if they capture the Persians, they do not know whether they are competent or not, and it is still unknown. So it's not a bad thing to be more prepared now, anyway, everyone has a horse or two. If you want to be rewarded, you have to put in the investment.

On 29 August, more than 20,000 Chinese cavalrymen who had been in Damascus for more than ten days suddenly disappeared one night, and no one knew where they had gone, including the Roman defenders and the Persian spies.