Early Tang Dynasty: forge ahead

Chapter 553: Marching into the Holy Land
Xue Rengui was delighted to hear that they were to act separately. Having known each other for many years, he was convinced by Liu Rengui's wisdom. He asked hurriedly, "General Manager, please speak directly. I am all ears."

Liu Rengui said: "The situation in the Kingdom of Dashi is not as stable as it seems. There are inferior factions and ten factions among them..."

He explained the internal conflicts in the Arab Empire to Xue Rengui in detail.

What Liu Rengui knew was naturally what Chen Qingsi told him. Before the expedition, although Chen Qingsi had not met with Liu Rengui, he had close correspondence with him, in which he wrote down in detail the inside story of the Arab Empire.

Whenever Liu Rengui had questions, he would write to ask for answers, and Chen Qingsi would tell him everything he knew.

Liu Rengui was also well aware of the general national conditions of the Arab Empire.

"The Arab Empire relies on two things. The first is its dominance over the Mediterranean and its control of the Mediterranean trade routes. Arab merchants make a lot of money through trade between the East and the West through the Mediterranean, which is their main source of income. The second is faith. Most of the Western people and nobles are ignorant. They don't believe in the king or their own ideals, but believe in illusory doctrines."

Liu Rengui was an idealist who scoffed at superstition.

"As long as we cut off their financial resources and destroy their faith, they will have to come back no matter what the situation in the Western Regions is."

Xue Rengui, a famous general, immediately understood Liu Rengui's intention and said, "Does the general want me to lead the troops to attack Mecca, the holy land of the Arab Empire?"

The three holy places of the Caliphate are Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem. Mecca is the first holy place, where the founder Muhammad was born and the most sacred place.

Liu Rengui nodded and said, "That's right. We have come from afar across the sea and are unfamiliar with the place. If we attack their key cities such as Damascus and Baghdad directly, we may not succeed. If we want to hit them in one blow, Mecca is the best choice. We should make as much noise as possible and say that we want to burn down Mecca. In this way, the soldiers and believers defending the surrounding cities will surely come to stop us in indignation. Field encounters are the area that the general is best at. As long as we take the opportunity to win a few battles in a row, the entire Arab Empire will be in turmoil."

He paused and said, "As for me, hey, I will control the key roads in the bay, attack their ports, destroy their navy, and wait for the general to return victoriously."

The two hit it off.

After making a plan, under the cover of a thick sea fog, the Tang Dynasty navy plunged into the Persian Gulf with invincible force.

With lightning speed, they attacked the port of Siraf.

This battle did not require much effort.

At this time, the Arab Empire was just like the Tang Dynasty. After four generations of caliphs, it was invincible in the Mediterranean region and had long developed an arrogant attitude.

Therefore, there were certain omissions and slackness in defense. Liu Rengui and Xue Rengui were both famous generals of the time. If they were given this opportunity, it would be like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and the Arab army in the port of Siraf would be completely stunned in one battle.

The Tang army easily occupied the port of Silav...

Liu Rengui asked his deputy general to be in charge of controlling the port of Xilav and personally saw Xue Rengui off.

"General, be careful on your way there and don't go too deep."

There was a certain amount of worry in Liu Rengui's tone. In this battle, they were alone and deep in danger. They were most likely to be surrounded and eaten in an unfamiliar place.

But they did not have any large siege equipment on their ship. Moreover, carrying siege equipment would greatly delay the march and give the enemy time to prepare, which would be bad.

But without siege equipment, they could not attack the strategic locations such as Damascus and Baghdad which were closer. The only way to attack Mecca was to attack the weakly defended Mecca, but Mecca was too far away from where they were and it was the spiritual home of the people of the Caliphate. So it was extremely dangerous to go there.

Xue Rengui said with great pride: "A real man can draw his sword and mount his horse, serve the country, and gallop on the battlefield. This is what he wishes for. The chief steward can rest assured..." As he spoke, he whispered: "If the situation changes, the chief steward can leave on his own." After he finished speaking, he smiled heartily and said: "Just wait and see how I make his brother turn the world upside down."

"Soldiers!"

He raised the huge Fang Tian Hua Ji in his hand and said, "Follow me in the territory of Daqin and make a big fuss. Let the scoundrels of Daqin know what the Heavenly Soldiers of the Tang Dynasty are!"

Accompanied by the shouts of the Tang army soldiers, tens of thousands of soldiers rushed towards Mecca.

It's not that he was unaware of the danger, but a good man serves his country and his people, and has long put matters of life and death behind him.

Liu Rengui looked at the soldiers going away and bowed deeply.

Liu Rengui did not know the situation in the Western Regions, but he understood that Xue Rengui's trip would be like stirring up a hornet's nest, causing a huge commotion.

However, Liu Rengui had no time to take care of other things at the moment. Neither the intelligence he had obtained from the Tang court nor the Arabs mentioned by Chen Qingsi were easy opponents.

They may lose the initiative due to momentary carelessness and underestimation of the enemy, but as long as they react, the power of their response cannot be ignored.

Liu Rengui knew that if he wanted to truly win an opportunity to fight for Li Ji in the Western Regions, he had to resist the counterattack of the Arab Empire.

If the soldiers left behind by the Arab Empire were destroyed, their cross-sea attack would be a joke in military history.

Liu Rengui had made sufficient preparations, but was surprised that he did not receive a response from the Arab Empire. He was at a loss for a moment and could not help but wonder: Did he overestimate the strength of the Arab Empire?
In fact, it was not that they overestimated the strength of the Arab Empire. It was Chen Qingsi, who was thousands of miles away, who used the intelligence information he controlled to cooperate with them.

Li Ji in the Western Region alienated Hussein, the son of Ali, and caused Hussein's elite troops to work without exerting their efforts. In order to fill the gap in strength, Muawiya transferred his confidant Abu Awar from Baghdad to the Western Region.

This also led to a vacuum within the Arab Empire, which was a lack of both military strength and the deployment of generals.

If veteran Abu Awal was still in Baghdad, even if he lost the initiative due to carelessness, he would make the most correct response in the first time and attack when Liu Rengui was not yet stable.

However, due to the departure of Abu Awar, the core areas of the Arab Empire needed to reorganize their military deployment, which naturally led to omissions in the dispatch and made it impossible to face the sudden attack of the Tang army in the first time, giving Liu Rengui the opportunity to reorganize and gain a foothold.

The reaction of the Arab Empire was still very fast. The prosperous Arab Empire had no shortage of smart and capable civil servants, and they quickly formulated a new attack plan...

Then, just as they were mobilizing their troops and preparing to retake the port of Silav, an even more explosive piece of news reached their ears.

A Tang army of 10,000 men marched toward Mecca with great fanfare, looting food and destroying temples along the way.

As soon as the news reached Damascus, the entire aristocratic circle of the Arab Empire was in an uproar, and everyone from top to bottom was completely boiling and crazy.

(End of this chapter)