Defend the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 90
Over the past 100 years, the city of Yele has fallen several times, but it has never been like this time that people ran for their lives without seeing Tubo.

The military city and Tuncheng were empty the day before yesterday, and more than 2000 old soldiers, women and children braved the bitter cold wind and marched to the north of Guishu. Not only the horses, cattle, sheep, food and grass had to be taken away, but also the things that could be used as firewood. They will all be burned.

The same is true for those villages outside the city, and now there is no one to see outside the city.

What is even more unbelievable is that the tribal leaders such as General Wang and Anu Shi were not defeated, but won a big victory in Yandu.

The Sogdian merchants didn't know how many horses, cattle and sheep they brought back, and how many slaves they bought back, but they still listened to Han Shimei's advice and went north after resting in the city.

There were no neighbors to be seen in the workshop, and Uudam was running around in a hurry.

Wu Tumu went out and walked around, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became, and as soon as he entered the house, he said eagerly: "Father, my father-in-law has been fooled!"

"What's the trick?"

"The reason why Wang Qingxiang and Han Shimei dare to fight at this time is because they have Sogdian merchants to help them transport food and grass. Although my father-in-law has many slaves, they can't provide enough food and grass for the expedition. Starve and freeze my father-in-law's army."

"What should I do?"

"Get out of the city quickly, go north with the Sogdian caravan, and then find a chance to go back and report to my father-in-law."

"It can only be this way."

The father and son were telling the family to pack up their things quickly, and Mitif had surrounded his house with more than 30 veterans of the frontier army.

Uudam was taken aback, and came out to welcome him and asked, "Mitiff, what do you want to do?"

"Tubo invaded aggressively. As the little leaders of the Yele tribe, you father and son did not want to serve the governor, but instead sent people to inform Tubo repeatedly."

"How dare you spout blood!"

"Whether there is, you know in your heart."

With the enemy at hand, there are too many things to do.

Mitiff didn't have time to talk to them, and said coldly: "Han Shiyu has an order, take them all down, and anyone who dares to resist will be killed."

"promise!"

……

At the same time, Han Shimei was standing on the tower overlooking the city.

Teams of soldiers are going from house to house to check if there is anyone, especially if there is any food left.

Those who didn't leave hurriedly left, and those who really didn't want to leave were only allowed to leave ten days of rations, and all the rest were confiscated.

In order to strengthen the walls and clear the fields, thick smoke from the fire was everywhere outside the city. In the past few days, millions of bundles of alfalfa that could not be taken away were burned.

Parts of the vineyards were burned, and they would rather be reduced to ashes than be cut down by Tubo for firewood.

While he was thinking about where the forward of Maza Tata was, a watchman quickly climbed up the tower and presented an official document.

He opened it and looked carefully, then turned around and said, "Got it, let's go back."

"promise."

Just as Shou Zhuo Lang went down the tower, a middle-aged scribe who shouldn't be here walked up to him and asked worriedly, "Shi Yu, is this news from Saburo?"

"Xu Haoran sent someone to say that all the people who should be evacuated from the Yaojian and Daman prefectures have been evacuated, and the villages outside Baisha City are also ready."

"If you save land and lose people, you will lose all people and land. If you save people and lose land, you will save all people and land. It is easy to say, but the loss is immeasurable when it is done."

"As long as the Mazhabu can be hit hard, it's worth razing Yele to the ground!"

Han Shimei folded the official document and stuffed it into his bosom, turned around and looked at Cui Han, who was already the inspector of Jiedu of the Four Towns of Anxi, thought about it and said coldly: "Maza Tata came out in full force, the old nest is empty, Sanlang will definitely not I missed this opportunity, but I don’t know if I can persuade that Xuebu to attack together.”

As the former Yele Town Cang Cao Junjun and Yele City Lord, Cui Han knew that General An and the man in front of him had planned to fight against the Mazha tribe in winter, and even asked him to estimate how much food and grass would be transported.

It's just that I didn't expect this battle to come so quickly, let alone that it would be so big that it could be called a decisive battle.

He was silent for a moment, then asked with a bitter face: "Shi Yu, aren't you worried about Saburo?"

"What's the use of worrying? He is now the Chief Governor of Yele. If I can take care of him for a while, is it possible that I can take care of him for the rest of my life?"

"Yeah, children will grow up after all."

"It's the same with this battle. Fighting late is worse than fighting early. If you don't subdue the Mazhabu, don't say that the long history of Sanlang will not live in peace, even Mr. An will not be able to sleep at night."

"It is."

Just as he was talking, two horsemen galloped forward, holding a waist card and charged into the Wengcheng.

As soon as the two walked to the edge of the city wall and looked down, they saw Li Youwei and other guards dragging and dragging the two horse soldiers up.

"General Wang has news, Chang Shi has news!"

"understood."

As soon as Li Youwei handed over a letter, the horse soldiers who were helped up said eagerly: "I report to you, Mazha's troops are divided into two groups, one is to attack General Wang, and the other is to go straight to Yele City."

"How many soldiers are there on the way to attack General Wang?"

"There are seven or eight thousand."

"How many have come to attack Yele City?"

"Twenty to thirty thousand."

"Twenty thousand or thirty thousand?"

"The little one doesn't know, and neither does General Wang."

"Go down and rest first."

"promise."

After reading the letter sent back by her son, Han Shimei took a few deep breaths and said in a low voice, "My son is really brave."

Cui Han asked nervously: "Sanlang intends to copy Maza Tata's lair?"

Han Shimei calmed down his emotions, and said lightly: "Su Dabolu is as cowardly as a mouse, and he dare not attack with the whole army. He plans to lead [-] soldiers to attack the Kela Mountain Pass, and let Su Dashagun lead [-] soldiers." Follow Saburo and Su Dasushi to destroy Maza Tata's lair."

If you order troops then dare to go deep alone, you deserve to be called Han Sanmad.

Cui Han thought for a while, and said consolingly: "It would be great if we can capture and defend the Kela Mountain Pass. It can not only cut off the back of Mazha Tata, but also take care of Sanlang and Su Dasushi."

The son, adopted son, adopted daughter, son-in-law and in-laws have all gone, if this battle cannot be won...

Han Shimei didn't dare to think about it, and clenched his fists and said coldly: "Li Youwei, Tubo is far away from here, you don't need to stay here, go and help search quickly, no one is allowed in the city, let alone food !"

"Follow your orders!"

Li Youwei didn't dare to delay for a moment, and hurriedly led his guards to help.

Cui Han knew that Han Shimei was very worried about Han Sanlang, so he pretended to be relaxed and said: "The Mazha Department's lair is empty, and with Li Chengye here, Sanlang will be fine."

Thinking of Wang Qingxiang's willingness to go all out to make a great contribution, Han Shimei murmured: "The night watchmen and Youyi people are all by Sanlang's side, and even Yinniang and Qu Tong have gone. It is reasonable to say that even if you don't win, you won't be in danger of your life."

This is a gamble for the Han family!

Cui Han thought for a while, and couldn't help laughing: "Shiyu, as long as he can win this battle, Sanlang is a veritable king of Yele. If he can take the opportunity to destroy the old lair of Mazhata Tower, it will be difficult for him to travel south and thousands of miles away. It belongs to Saburo."

Han Shimei really thought so, but he couldn't say that, he could only sigh softly: "No matter how big the area is, no one is of any use."

"The Mazha tribe did not take many people in Tang Dynasty captive. More than half of the Han people who made a living in Anxi 20 years ago were captured by him as slaves. As long as those people can be rescued, Sanlang, the King of Yele, He Chou unstable."

"That was 20 years ago. They were captured by Tubo to be used as cows and horses. It is estimated that there are not many alive now."

"Slaves can have babies, too."

Cui Han smiled, and added: "Isn't Yu Wangli born and raised in Tubo? There should be a lot of Han Chinese at his age."

Han Shimei nodded slightly, and sighed: "If Sanlang can really save three to five thousand Han people, then I can safely go to Guishu with you to serve Mr. An."

……

As Cui Han said, Han Ping'an put all his eggs in one basket for the Han slaves in the Mazha tribe.

The scouts found out that Wang Qingxiang had met the Tubo forward in the Uskul Valley with Anu Shi and other Jimi tribes, and then withdrew. He didn't want to wait at Yinma Beach.

This morning, after discussing with the three Suda brothers, we set off for the Kela Mountain Pass.

The night watchmen are all out, so there is no need to worry about the whereabouts of the army being exposed. In fact, that old bastard Mazha Tata never thought that Datang would join hands with the Snow Turk who is attached to the black-clothed Dashi.

Su Dabolu led [-] warriors as the vanguard, and Suda Shagun led [-] Turkic warriors in the rear.

More than 1000 miscellaneous troops led by him, Su Dasushi, and the old man Li Chengye were in charge of the luggage, driving cattle and sheep with grain and grass in the middle.

The main workers are more than 100 Shouduolang and the more than 400 people from Suda's ethnic group.

He rode on the horseback, looked back at the thirty or so pack horses that Qu Tong personally escorted, and asked in a low voice: "Uncle Six, are all the things at my brother-in-law's place?"

Li Chengye was full of confidence in this battle, and said with a grin: "Hurry up, hurry up, make 320 nine, even if the old bastard knows that we are going to copy his lair, hurry up!" We have nothing to fear if we lead our troops back to aid.”

"A horse carries ten horses, is it safe?"

"Don't worry, the Leiyin tube is not inserted, it's safe, your brother-in-law will be fine."

Sulfuric acid was refined by the local method of the Eighth Route Army, and nitric acid was produced.

With nitric acid, you can use defatted cotton and wheat starch to make Judison explosives. The only trouble is how to detonate.

In Guanzhong, where there are not many Taoists in Anxi, it is difficult to find cinnabar to refine mercury.

If there is no condition to use thunder mercury to detonate, then we can only use the local method of the Eighth Route Army to make thunder silver detonators.

In the customs, silver is not a currency in circulation.

But in the Western Regions, silver coins were the main currency in circulation.

First smelt and purify the silver coins, then dissolve the silver in nitric acid, add some distilled high-concentration alcohol to make it react, and soon some needle-shaped crystals will precipitate under the pottery basin.

It looks very thin and fluffy, but if you pick it up with a wooden stick and put it on a stone, although it is filled with water, it will make a loud noise when you hit it.

After countless experiments by the veterans of "Thunder Valley", two kinds of thunder silver tubes, which are wrapped in oil paper and sealed with wax, can be detonated by pulling with a rope or ignited with a fuse, have been able to be refined in batches.

It's a pity that I only know chemistry but not smelting, so I can't make a usable spring, otherwise I can make a time-delay fuze.

But these 320 nine mines were the hole cards. Thinking of so many Turkic warriors around him, Han Ping'an turned his head and said: "If you can use it, don't use it. Even if you have to use it, you must drive away irrelevant people."

Li Chengye also didn't want people to know that Ye Lebu had a trump card, so he laughed and said, "Uncle knows, since it's a treasure, if you can see the light, you won't see the light."

(End of this chapter)