The Flourishing Tang Dynasty: Beginning with Marrying Yang Yuhuan

Chapter 179 Old Enemy
It was already the end of March when we arrived in Anxi at full speed.

The generals and officials of Anxi knew the time when Li Heng would arrive, and they were waiting at the city gate early.

So as soon as he arrived at the city gate, Li Heng saw a group of familiar figures. In addition to the people who had stayed in Anxi before, there were also Li Siye, Cen Shen and Zhang Guangsheng, who were brought by Li Heng to attack Shibao City.

Li Siye and his men were originally soldiers from Anxi. Now that the war between Helong and Tubo had temporarily stabilized, they had to come back.

Li Heng made eye contact with several people, greeted them, and asked as he walked, "How is the war with the Arabs going?"

Li Siye replied: "The Arabs crossed the Tokharistan region and reached the Geluo Mountains in the east, the Kingdom of Bukhara in the middle, and the Baishui City in the north. In the Geluo Mountains area, General Xin Yunjing resisted in Shule, and Baishui City was commanded by General Fumeng Lingcha. General An Sishun went to Bukhara to take charge. I and my men have just returned from Helong and are temporarily in Qiuci to defend against the enemy in the north."

Li Siye reported the defense and battle line of Anxi truthfully to Li Heng.

Li Ying asked: "What is the specific battle situation?"

Li Siye shook his head and said, "Not so good. We can only hold the city firmly."

An Sishun, Xin Yunjing, Fu Menglingcha and others are all famous generals of the Tang Dynasty. Their military capabilities are not weak, but they will not be able to gain an advantage if they fight with the Arabs now.

Because the Arabs were also very powerful.

The Caliphate was founded in 630 AD, and from its early days, it was extremely expansionist.

In 637, the Arabs defeated Persia, destroyed the Sassanid Empire, expanded their territory to Khorasan, and appointed a governor in Khorasan as a springboard and base for the Arabs to invade Central Asia.

From 630 to 661, the Caliphate was ruled by four elected caliphs, a period known in history as the Theocratic Republic.

During this period, the Arabs successively pacified the Arabian Peninsula, attacked the Eastern Roman Empire, occupied Egypt, and destroyed Persia, ruling a population of more than 24 million.

In 661, Muawiyah, the governor of Syria from the Umayyad family, ended the rule of the four caliphs and established the Umayyad dynasty with Damascus as its capital.

The Umayyad Caliphate changed the caliphate into a hereditary monarch, and the Caliphate moved from a theocratic republic to a theocratic monarchy.

The autocratic Arab expansionism was even stronger than before.

The Western Front occupied North Africa and even crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, entered the Iberian Peninsula, and occupied Spain.

The eastern front used Khorasan as a springboard and base to enter Central Asia and compete with the Turgesh for supremacy in the Tokharistan region.

After Li Heng and his men captured Suiye City and beat the Turgesh half to death, the Arabs basically controlled the Tocharian region.

Today, the population ruled by the Arabs reached 30 million, and the battle line was pushed to Baishui City, Bukhara, and the Pamir Mountains.

Such a strong national strength and combat effectiveness cannot be solved by a few famous generals leading more than 10,000 people.

Feng Changqing, who was standing next to him, heard this and couldn't help but curse: "The Arabs are really despicable. They took advantage of Your Highness's battle with Tubo in Helong and had no time to look west to invade the weak countries in the Western Regions."

After Feng Changqing said this, the group arrived at Li Heng's residence.

At the gate of the mansion, Yang Yuhuan was holding Li Ling and waiting with Zhang Mujin.

After not seeing each other for more than a year, Yang Yuhuan became even more charming, and Li Ling in her arms was already more than two years old.

Li Heng did not answer Feng Changqing, but went straight to Yang Yuhuan and said, "Long time no see, you have suffered."

Yang Yuhuan smiled sweetly, shook her head, and said, "My dear, living in the open air is really hard."

Li Ying took Li Ling from Yang Yuhuan's arms and said, "You have grown so big."

Li Ling said with some fear: "Grandpa."

When Li Heng heard the call and saw Li Ling's frightened look because of the unfamiliarity, he couldn't help but sigh, touched Li Ling's head, and smiled, "You are so good."

Yang Yuhuan looked at the group of people behind Li Heng, hugged Li Ling, and said, "Let Grandpa take care of the official business first."

"Yeah." Li Ling nodded obediently. Seeing that Li Ying looked kind, she smiled at Li Ying.

Li Ying smiled back, glanced at Yang Yuhuan and Zhang Mujin, and led the people behind him into the mansion.

Arriving at the lobby, Feng Changqing continued what he had just said, "Your Highness, I request your permission to go and fight against the Arabs."

Li Ying said: "Only if you know yourself and the enemy can you fight a hundred battles without danger. If you act rashly, the outcome is unpredictable."

"Your Highness, this makes sense." Gao Xianzhi agreed, and then asked Li Siye, "Who is the commander-in-chief of the front line of the Arab army?"

Li Siye replied: "It is Nasr, the governor of Khorasan."

"So it was him." Gao Xianzhi took over the conversation and said to Li Heng, "Your Highness, this Nasir is a rare general. He was once a subordinate of Qu Dibo and followed Qu Dibo to fight everywhere in his early years. After Qu Dibo's death, the Arabs negotiated peace with the Tang Dynasty and set out to deal with the Turgesh. In the process of fighting the Turgesh, Nasir made many military achievements and was promoted to the governor of Khorasan in the 28th year of Kaiyuan. This person is not pro-Tang. When I went to withdraw the troops from the Arabs before, if he was the commander, it would have been more difficult to succeed."

Li Heng nodded and asked, "Who will lead the vanguard of the Arabs?"

Li Siye said: "A man named Abu Muslim. I have heard that he is very brave and invincible, so I have long wanted to fight him."

"It's actually him." Li Ying was stunned.

Everyone looked confused when they heard this.

Gao Xianzhi asked curiously, "Does Your Highness know him?"

Li Heng didn't know this person, but he had heard of the name.

Abu Muslim was the gravedigger of the White Caliphate. It was he who joined forces with Abu Abbas, the founding emperor of the Black Caliphate, to overthrow the White Caliphate.

Abu Muslim deserves more than half of the credit for the founding of the Caliphate.

But Abu Muslim was not an Arab, but a Persian.

Since he is a Persian and his achievements are greater than his master, he is bound to end up being cooked after the cunning rabbit dies.

Historically, when the Black Caliphate was just established, its king Abu Abbas sent Abu Muslim and Gao Xianzhi to fight the Battle of Talas.

Abu Abbas's intention was to use the Tang Dynasty to get rid of Abu Muslim.

However, not only was Abu Muslim not eliminated by Gao Xianzhi, but Gao Xianzhi was defeated and fled away in disgrace.

If it weren't for Li Siye's loyal protection, Gao Xianzhi would probably have been killed by Abu Muslim.

However, although Abu Muslim defeated Gao Xianzhi, he could not escape the fate of being killed. Abu Abbas recalled the victorious Abu Muslim to the capital and ordered his guards to assassinate him.

Li Ying was stunned for a moment, glanced at Abu Muslim's old enemies Gao Xianzhi and Li Siye, shook his head and smiled, "I don't know them, I just heard of them once before."

"I see." Gao Xianzhi didn't pay attention to this detail and asked, "Your Highness, you are now also the governor of Beiting. Will you immediately transfer the troops from Beiting to support the war in the front?"

"Yes." Li Heng nodded and said, "Immediately send a message to Beiting to dispatch 10,000 troops to Suiye City. I will make the specific arrangements for the battle at that time. Everyone go back and rest first, and I will make the specific arrangements tomorrow."

Seeing that Li Heng was so confident, everyone felt relieved and retreated first.

(End of this chapter)