Tibet

In the early morning, two monks on horseback arrived at Talas City and shouted in broken Chinese to the top of the city: "We want to see General Li!"

After a while, Li Ye hurriedly came to the city and asked: "Where are you monks?"

"We came from Bukhara, Anguo, and came here to notify the general!"

Li Ye immediately ordered: "Open the city gate!"

The city gate opened and two monks rushed into the county town.

Of course there are Buddhists in the Sogdian countries in the river, and there are still a lot of them. The eastward expansion of the Great Food Sect will not only be a disaster for Zoroastrianism, but also for Buddhism. Under the mobilization of Master Padmasambhava, Buddhist disciples from various countries have taken action to Help Tang Jun in various ways, and passing on information is an important part.

After entering the city, the two monks put their hands together and saluted Li Ye and said: "We came from Bukhara. The five thousand Sogdian army from Bukhara is coming towards Talas City. It is estimated that they will arrive in the next two days. Please general." be prepared!"

This news came too timely, and Li Ye asked again: "Is there a riot in Bukhara?"

"Exactly! The Dashi army wanted to demolish the Guangming Temple in Bukhara, which triggered strong resistance from the people of Bukhara, but it has been suppressed. Thousands of people died. Dashi has 15,000 troops stationed in Bukhara. Five thousand of them came to Talas City."

"Thank you! Thank you!"

Li Ye asked the soldiers to give thirty gold coins to the two monks. The two monks kept asking for them, so Li Ye had to give them dry food and water, and the two monks left immediately.

Li Ye thought for a long time and sent someone to find Pei Xiu. He said to Pei Xiu: "The enemy only sent 5,000 cavalry to attack Talas City. I guess their intelligence was wrong and they thought that only the initial 500 troops were in Talas. This This is our chance.”

"What does the general plan to do?"

"You lead five hundred troops to defend the city. I will pull the troops out to ambush and kill the enemy troops by surprise."

Pei Xiu nodded, "I will definitely defend Talas City!"

Two days later, the 5,000-strong Sogdian army arrived at the city of Talas in a mighty manner. The commander of this army was originally Airot, but the disastrous defeat of Bakhna caused Abu Muslim to remove him from the post of commander and appoint another. Said, a general, was the chief general, and Airot was changed to the deputy general.

Said looked at the tall and solid city of Talas and frowned. They didn't carry siege weapons. How could they capture this city?

It was already afternoon, and Said immediately ordered: "The entire army is stationed outside the West City!"

The Great Food Army is generally made up of cavalry, but the cavalry of the Umayyad Dynasty is very different from the cavalry of the Abbasid Dynasty. The cavalry of the Umayyad Dynasty were all served by nobles. They were more arrogant and extravagant. Each cavalryman would be equipped with a Servants, servants have to put armor on the soldiers, take care of the horses, and carry supplies, so the servants lead two camels with tents and supplies on them.

The cavalry of the Abbasid Dynasty were mainly low-level civilians. They basically did not have the habit of bringing servants, and they could not afford to keep servants.

This Sogdian cavalry is actually a cavalry from the Umayyad Dynasty. Generally, the families are wealthy and all of them have servants. In the past, Airot was the general, and he resolutely did not allow the soldiers to bring servants.

Therefore, in the Battle of Bakhna, soldiers were not seen with servants.

But now the commander was replaced by Said. In order to win over the troops, Said agreed to restore the tradition of the Sogdian cavalry and allowed them to bring servants to the expedition. This order to restore tradition also won him the support of the entire army.

Therefore, the Sogdian food army of 5,000 was actually 10,000.

Each soldier had his own small tent, and servants spread blankets to sleep outside the tent and take care of the horses and camels.

Although Airot had no way to stop the soldiers from bringing servants, he still worked diligently to arrange the camp and defense. As soon as he arranged the camp, soldiers came to him, and the general asked him for something.

Airot quickly came to the general's tent and bowed: "General, are you looking for me?"

Said nodded and said, "I heard that you sent 300 cavalry out to patrol?"

"Exactly, the situation here is unfamiliar, I think it is better to be cautious!"

Both men were generals, and their qualifications were similar, but their factions were different. Said was a close confidant of Abu Muslim, while Airot was a member of Mansur, the caliph's brother.

Therefore, Abu Muslim used the excuse of Bukhan's defeat to remove Airot from his post, but he could not really remove him completely, so he appointed him as deputy general.

Because of this relationship, the relationship between the two is relatively subtle. On the surface, they seem to be very polite, but they are wary of each other.

Said added: "What we mean is that it is better to send a few hundred people to find the woods, at least get back a battering ram, and break open their city gate. There are only a few hundred people in their city. We can win in one battle. But by arranging three hundred people to patrol the sentry, are you being too cautious?"

Airot nodded, "Then I'll send a hundred soldiers to search the woods and two hundred soldiers to patrol the sentry."

"No! Two hundred soldiers go to the woods and one hundred cavalry patrol is enough!"

Airot had no choice but to change his order. The three hundred patrol soldiers were changed to a hundred soldiers patrolling and guarding. Two hundred soldiers went around to find the woods and cut down the giant trees.

Li Ye led 1,500 cavalry and hid in a mountain depression ten miles to the south. It was very close to the Qianquan Mountains. Talas City was actually not far from the foot of the mountain. Standing on the top of the city, the towering mountains were in the background. .

The Qianquan Mountains are very fragmented, with a large number of ravines criss-crossing them, and they are all bare with no green in sight. The silver mines that represent wealth are hidden in these ravines.

So the only way to find woods was to the east and north. Even when they came from the west, they didn't see any green along the way.

As night fell, the soldiers who went looking for the woods came back. They found woods fifty miles away to the east, but the trees were not strong enough to be used as a battering ram. However, there seemed to be woods further east, but it was already getting late. They Plan to go see it again tomorrow.

The camp of the Great Food Army occupies a large area, and there are so many small tents that you can't see the end of it at a glance. It is really not enough for a hundred patrols to keep watch on the outside. The camp is too wide, and many places are difficult to guard against.

However, it is indeed a bit unrealistic to attack the tents of the Great Food Army with fire. They are not like the big tents of the Eastern Army, which are placed one next to each other and burned down in one fire. However, the large food army has thousands of small tents, and the fire is difficult to connect. Into one piece.

Li Ye immediately stood on the hillside several miles away. Not far ahead was the Talos River. The river reflected the moonlight and was sparkling. His eyes were fixed on the large tent of the Great Food Army under the moonlight. Among the countless small tents, he I saw seven or eight large tents, and I guess that's where the enemy's commander is.

"What time is it?" Li Ye turned around and asked.

"Reporting back to the general, it's almost two o'clock."

Li Ye nodded and ordered: "Notify the entire army to attack at the third watch!"

Time gradually came to the third watch, and the three Tang armies were already in place. Colonel Zhang Dan led 500 cavalry to the east, Colonel Yang Qing led 500 cavalry to the north, and Li Ye personally led 500 cavalry to the south. .

"Rocket launch!"

Li Ye gave an order, and nine soldiers fired nine rockets into the sky. The burning rockets shot into the sky, which was the signal to attack.

Li Ye waved his hand and shouted, "Attack!"

The five hundred cavalry following him suddenly launched into action, and hundreds of cavalry followed him closely and rushed towards the enemy camp several miles away.

Fifteen hundred Tang Army cavalrymen from the east, south, and north directions launched together, like a flood that broke a dike, sweeping towards the enemy camp from three directions.

As soon as the Tang army was dispatched, they were immediately discovered by the Dashi Army patrol. They turned their horses and rushed back to call the police, but Li Ye didn't care at all that they called the police. camp.

The Dashi military camp was in chaos. The reason why Li Ye arranged to attack in three directions was mainly because he considered that the enemy camp was too large and he might attack from the south. The soldiers from the north and west had already lined up, so he had to break through from multiple sides and blossom from multiple sides. , killing the enemy troops by surprise.

In fact, the army of the Umayyad Dynasty was most afraid of sneak attacks. One of the important reasons why they brought servants was that it was too troublesome to put on their armor and leather boots. They could not complete it by themselves. They had to be assisted by someone, and the social status of the soldiers was relatively high. , all had their own slaves, so the army allowed each of them to bring a servant with him.

The Umayyad dynasty's army was repeatedly attacked by the Abbasid army and defeated in one battle. One of the important reasons was that the soldiers were too arrogant and extravagant.

Of course, servants have many other roles, but wearing armor for their master is the most important thing. With servants, of course soldiers must take off their armor when sleeping at night. Otherwise, what else do servants do? They lie comfortably in the tent without any Mosquito bites.

After getting up the next day, it took more than an hour to put on the armor, which was more time-consuming than a woman putting on makeup.

When the Tang army stormed into the barracks, it would be great to see how these big-food soldiers had time to put on their armor and flee for their lives in a hurry.

The cavalry of the Tang Army smashed into the enemy camp like a sharp axe. Blood and flesh flew everywhere in their path, and corpses were strewn on the ground. The soldiers and servants were shouting and crying, running like wolves and pigs, looking for life everywhere.

Li Ye did not bother to kill the enemy soldiers. His war horse flew straight towards the enemy general's camp. He saw dozens of soldiers guarding a general running out of the tent.

Li Ye hung his long spear on the saddle bridge, drew his bow and arrow, opened the bow and nocked an arrow, and shot an arrow. The enemy general 70 steps away swayed, turned over and fell from his horse, and the arrow shot through his head.

The person killed by Li Ye's arrow was not the general Said, but the leader of Said's soldiers. He disguised himself as a soldier and successfully deceived Li Ye's sniper kill.

But Said was also frightened and ran wildly to the west. He didn't care about the other soldiers. At this time, it would be good if he could escape with his life.