Tibet

The saint ceremony has ended. After two days of rest, the new saint Haye of Gallulu will follow the thirteen saint representatives to Samarkand and spend five years in the Great Guangming Temple there.

Nalman, the chief of the Pogo tribe, was invited to the tent. Sarai invited him to sit down at the small table with a thick and soft carpet under him. Sarai poured him a glass of milk wine and said: "Today the food envoy is here. Got it!"

Nalman was startled, "What's the big food messenger doing here?"

"The Great Eater handed Yuluo Huo, the last chief of Tuqishi, to me!"

Nalman smiled and said: "This is a good thing! What about the demands of cannibalism?"

"The Great Eater hopes that I will send troops to cut off the Tang Army's supply route and attack the Tang Army from the back. If possible, it is best to capture Suiye. Once the Tang Army is defeated, they will not be able to gain a foothold to the west of Congling. The Great Eater promises to capture the Tang Army." Give me all the land east of Khana.”

Nalman said after a while: "Do you want me to do it with you?"

Sarai nodded, "If it succeeds, I will give the Elli Valley to my brother!"

The Yili River Valley is the most desirable place for the Gallulu people, and it is also the dream of the Gallulu rulers of all generations. The conditions given by Sarai are not unreasonable.

Nalman squinted his eyes and said: "Even if I am willing to work with you, there is not enough time! I have to go back to Xuanhai to lead the troops. I will be back and forth for at least twenty days. I am afraid that the war between Datang and Dashi has already ended. ”

Sarai quickly shook his head and said: "Of course I know there is not enough time. I will cut off the Tang Army's food route and attack the Tang Army's back. I am worried that if Dashi loses this battle, how will I face the Tang Army?"

Nalman immediately understood that the other party was trying to pull him together to fight against the Tang army's counterattack, so he smiled and said: "Ge Luolu is a family. If the day comes, I will definitely not stand idly by!"

With Nalman's words, Sarai was completely relieved. If the three Geluolu families joined forces, they really wouldn't be afraid of the Anxi Tang Army.

Nalman returned to his tent and was silent in thought. He knew that Sarai had already made the decision to join the war, and he just wanted to find him to cover for him. If he won, he might not give him the Ili Valley. If he lost, he would He will drag himself into the water and confront the Tang army.

In fact, he did not agree to Sarai, but he did not reject him either. He just said that he would not stand by and watch. "I will not stand by and watch" has many meanings, and it may not be the one that Sarai understood.

At this time, the youngest daughter Jinshan Aling walked into the big tent and said, "Dad, we are going to leave today."

Nalman was surprised, "Isn't he leaving only the day after tomorrow?"

Aling explained: "Everyone is worried about encountering a war, so they want to leave early."

Nalman nodded, "It doesn't matter if you leave early, Geluolu will also send troops. If you leave late, you will be affected by the war. You'd better go to Zhenzhu River via Suiye, it's safer there!"

"Ge Luolu also wants to join the Tang army to fight?"

Nalman sneered and said: "Sare is not joining the Tang Army, but preparing to stab the Tang Army in the back!"

Aling was shocked, "Dad, are you kidding me? Ge Luolu attacked the Tang army, how can he gain a foothold in Yibohai in the future?"

"He was betting that the Tang army would be defeated and would eventually have to return to Anxi. All the land here would belong to him. This is what the food envoy promised him."

"The food messenger is here?"

Nalman nodded, "You should leave quickly! Don't get involved in the disputes here. I also want to set off to return to Xuanchi tonight. I don't want to be involved in such nonsense."

Aling returned to her tent, she was very anxious. Her man was the general of the Broken Leaf Tang Army, and he was fighting the Great Eater in Talas. She had to tell him this important information.

Thinking of this, she wrote a note, called for her two confidant maids, handed the note to them, and gave them a few instructions.

The two maids found an excuse, left the Yazhang camp on horseback, and rushed towards Talas City.

The 80,000 food army rested in Baishui City for a day. Abu Muslim used Baishui City as a logistics center and left 30,000 troops to guard it. He led 50,000 people to attack Talas City.

In the morning two days later, the 50,000-strong Khorasan army that rushed to the rescue finally arrived at the south bank of the Talas River.

At this moment, the main force of 37,000 Tang troops appeared on the south bank three miles away, with flags fluttering and trumpets wailing. Abu Muslim did not expect to encounter the main force of the Tang army so soon. He drew his sword and ordered: "The whole army is ready, prepare." Fight!"

Lieutenant General Ibn Ziyad stepped forward and suggested: "The army is tired from coming far, so it is better to retreat to Talas City first and rely on Talas to fight the opponent."

Ibn Ziyad was the brother of Ziyad, the lord of Talas City. Both of them were famous Persian generals. Before that, Ibn Ziyad led an 80,000-strong Khorasan army to participate in the war of plundering Egypt.

In contrast, Abu Muslim trusted Ibn Ziyad more and entrusted him with an army of 80,000 men.

Ibn Ziyad's words immediately reminded the Muslims. He immediately put up a curtain and looked at the city of Talas several miles away. The city was clearly visible, and there seemed to be not many troops surrounding the city. Why didn't the food army in the city come out to help?

Are they no longer in the city? Break out from the east and go south through the Qianquan Mountain Canyon, or are they too injured to participate in the battle?

Abu Muslim thought about many possibilities, but he did not expect that this army had been completely destroyed. If the entire army was destroyed, there would definitely be soldiers who would escape and report to him.

Abu Muslim immediately ordered a centurion to lead a group of soldiers to take a detour to Talas City to check the situation.

"Governor, the enemy is coming!" the soldiers shouted.

The main force of tens of thousands of Tang troops had already appeared a mile away and stopped moving forward.

The Tang army also had one main formation and two wings. The main formation consisted of 20,000 Anxi Army and 6,000 Beiting Army infantry. Among them, the 6,000 Beiting Army infantry were crossbowmen. They were led by Cheng Qianli's deputy general Yang Xiao. They were deployed among the 20,000 Anxi Army. In front of them and behind them were two thousand heavily armored Modao troops, including five hundred heavy armored infantrymen from the Beiting Army.

Both wings are cavalry, the right wing is composed of 6,000 Beiting cavalry, led by Cheng Qianli, and the left wing is called Suiye Ningyuan Army, composed of 2,000 Suiye cavalry and 3,000 Bahanna cavalry, led by Li Ye, the military envoy.

At this time, the rumble of war drums came from the enemy formation in the distance, and the 50,000 elite Khorasan army launched.

The overwhelming army was like the tide of Qiantang on August 18th, rushing towards the Tang army.

This was the first time that the Tang Army fought against the regular army of Dashi, and of course it was also the first time that the army of Dashi fought head-on with the Tang Army.

The Great Food Army is also divided into five legions, three of which are cavalry legions and two infantry legions, each with 10,000 people.

Each legion is divided into ten squadrons of thousands, and below the squadrons of thousands there are ten squadrons of hundreds.

Dashi soldiers mainly wear leather armor, but they also wear a short leather robe and a black belt around the waist. This is also because the temperature difference between day and night is large. They need to keep out the cold at night, and their heads are covered with turbans.

The centurions and above were all in iron armor, and the Muslim commander even wore a gold armor.

The spear is the main weapon of the Da Shi Army. Their spears are thinner and lighter than those of the Tang Army. They generally have shields. In addition, there are sword and shield troops, who hold round shields, Damascus scimitars and one-handed long-handled hammers. In addition, Da Shi Army The food army had bows and arrows, but no crossbows.

The crossbow was a unique weapon of the Han army and was later spread to the West.

Running at the front were 10,000 cavalrymen, led by Aziz, the leader of 10,000 people. They galloped with momentum, stirring up billowing yellow dust that filled the sky.

Yang Xiao shouted: "Crossbowmen prepare!"

The red flag was raised, and six thousand crossbowmen raised their crossbows together. The cold and sharp crossbow arrows pointed at the sky at a 45-degree angle. They were divided into three groups, one group of two thousand people, and they would execute three-stage shooting.

In addition, there is a spear at the feet of the six thousand soldiers. They will soon transform into a spear army.

The enemy cavalry was getting faster and faster, getting closer and closer, entering a killing distance of 300 steps. Yang Xiao sternly ordered: "shoot arrows!"

The red flag was waved, and the bang suddenly sounded, ‘Bang! state! state! ’

The first group of two thousand crossbow arrows were fired at the same time, and the black crossbow arrows were fired at the enemy crowd.

This is the role of Aling. If Aling had not reported the news, it is very likely that the Tang army and the Dashi army would be attacked from behind by the Geluolu people during the fierce battle. Moreover, the Tang army's food route would be cut off, which would seriously shake the morale of the army.