Chapter 399: Night attack on the city

Although the Abbasid Dynasty did not experience as severe famine as Li Qingan imagined, they did begin to face a severe winter test. The loss of two large granaries of Sindh and Punjab caused the grain prices in Damascus to soar sharply. In addition, the direct trade between the Tang Dynasty and the Romans greatly reduced the trade interests of Arabs. All kinds of unfavorable clouds enveloped the young Abbasid Empire. People were panic and prices rose continuously. The ruling class of the Abbasid Dynasty finally realized that the Tang Dynasty was their strongest enemy, and at least it had destroyed the Arabs' efforts to expand eastward for decades. The Tang Dynasty had replaced the traditional rival, the Romans.

Aware of this serious consequence, Caliph Mansour finally made a decision to reconcile with the Romans, acknowledging that Cyprus was affiliated to Constantinople, and at the same time, Vizier Khalid was sent as the special envoy to Constantinople.

In the Damascus Palace, Mansour was anxiously paced back and forth in his map palace. He faintly heard the people outside the palace screaming and scolding. These were thousands of Damascus people living at the bottom complaining about the soaring food prices and taking advantage of the opportunity to worship to burst out their dissatisfaction. Mansour had ordered the transfer of food from Egypt, but this was just a temporary measure. Egypt was also in turmoil. If the wealth there was too much, it would probably intensify the conflict and cause a great riot there.

In fact, what Mansur is worried about is not entirely food issues, but his territory, his authority, and the corrupt and depraved Umayyad dynasty were able to open up the eastern territory and obtain a steady stream of wealth from the east. However, his emerging Abbasid dynasty did not expand eastward. Instead, he repeatedly lost the achievements of the previous dynasty. What would the Arabs think of him?

Three years ago, Abbas never thought of giving up completely. He was waiting for the opportunity to recover. Abbas unfortunately passed away, and the important task of recovering the river fell on Mansour again. Mansour never admitted that the river was lost. His negotiations with the Tang Dynasty were just a delaying strategy. They wanted to deal with the remnants of the Uma in Western Spain. But now not only did the river not be taken back, they even lost Sindhi and Punjab.

Mansour looked at the vast land east of the Amu River on the map, and his fists couldn't help but clenched.

"His Majesty the Caliph, General Chiad has arrived."

"Ah! Please come in."

Mansour was surprised. The arrival of Ziyad meant that some unhappiness between them had disappeared. Mansour once wanted to get rid of Ziyad because he did not become his confidant as he imagined. Khorasan still maintained a certain distance from Damascus. Ziyad just replaced Muslims and became the new Lord of Khorasan, which made Mansour feel dissatisfied with him. This dissatisfaction reached its peak when the Tang army attacked Tocharo. Ziyad actually stood by and watched helplessly as Tocharo was lost. At that moment, Mansour's dissatisfaction turned into turbulent anger.

But the changes in the situation now made Mansour ask for Qiyad again. He rewarded Qiyad with a hundred beautiful female slaves last month. Qiyad understood it and immediately wrote a letter to Mansour explaining why he did not support Sindh and Tocharo. The Tang army increased the military strength of the Hezhong area and stationed 40,000 troops by the Amu River. As long as they divided their troops to Tocharo, the Tang army would launch a large-scale attack on Khorasan. The army in Damascus was restrained by the Romans and could not support the east. In order to prevent Khorasan from losing, Qiyad could only hold his troops.

His explanation was understood by Mansour, so Chiad came to see him as scheduled.

Ziyad quickly walked into the map palace, and he bowed deeply to Mansour respectfully and said, "Dear Caliph, your minister Ziyad Ben Sarih Huzayi pays tribute to you!"

"General Qiyad worked hard all the way, please sit down!"

Mansour asked Qiyad to sit down, poured him a cup of Tang Dynasty hot tea with his own hands, and asked with a smile: "How about it, do you like the maid I gave you?"

"Thank you, your Majesty, I like it very much, but I will no longer repay your gift!"

"I don't need any other reward from you. As long as you can keep your promise, that is the greatest gratitude to me."

"Your Majesty is referring to... in the river?"

Chiaed remembered that when he took office as Governor of Khorasan, he promised Mansur that he would retake the river in three years, and now he still has one and a half years.

Mansour nodded, "It's time for you to fulfill your promise."

Qiyad hesitated and said, "But Khurasan only has 40,000 troops. If he wants to take down Hezhong and fight against the Tang army, it will take at least 100,000 troops. Muslims also thought so back then, and the most advanced weapons are needed."

Perhaps Qiyad mentioned a name that Mansour didn't want to hear. His face slowly became gloomy and said unhappily: "How many troops are needed to deal with the Tang army? I know better than you. You are just one of my teams. You are not the commander of the Tang army. The commander is me. You must absolutely obey the command. Do you understand?"

Ziyad knelt down, put Mansour's palm on his forehead, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty the Great Caliph, I have no disrespect to you at all. I will faithfully execute your orders. Give orders to me!"

Mansour stared into his eyes, and from his eyes he saw a trace of loyalty, which made him think of the Chiad he saw in Possier Mountain. Mansour's face slowly calmed down and nodded and said, "Go and wait! I will give you an order soon."

Qiyad retreated, Mansour stood by the map with his hands behind his back, silently looking at the vast land east of the Amu River. Before his eyes, the Anxi coach Li Qingan, who had met several times, appeared in front of him, the ambitious Tang army coach. He heard that he had become the prince of the Tang Dynasty. I wonder if he was ready to fight the Arabs.

"Your Majesty, have you summoned me?"

Khalid's voice came from behind him. He had just rushed back from Constantinople yesterday. Mansour asked without looking back: "Do you think the Roman emperor really abides by the military agreement with the Tang Dynasty and sends troops to support the Tang army?"

"If your Majesty is half a year later, it may be possible, but now he has no time to clone it. When I went to Constantinople, he was building a large number of castles to resist the invasion of Westerners."

"You mean Bulgaria?"

"Yes! I just received the news that the Bulgarians asked Princess Ellenni to marry their prince, but were rejected. The Bulgarians had launched an attack on the Romans, so I think that if the Tang Dynasty is released, it would be a great opportunity for us to regain Cyprus."

"No!" Mansour refused Khalid's suggestion to attack the Roman Empire without hesitation. "Our first enemy is in the East, and I have been waiting for this day for three years."

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It is already early December, and the Amu River Basin has also reached a season of ice and snow. This winter is particularly cold. The north wind is howling, and the cold wind has frozen the Amu River firmly. The Amu River, which stretches for thousands of miles, has turned into a crystal clear jade belt.

On this day, heavy snow fell in the sky, which was rare in the Amu River Basin for decades. The snowflakes were covered with the sky, sometimes wrapped by the cold wind, circled in the air. In just half a day, the banks of the Amu River were already white.

In the evening of that day, a camel cavalry of about three thousand men appeared in the desert west of the Amu River. This was a well-equipped Khorasan army, wearing iron helmets, silver scale armor, arches and shields on their backs, and sharp spears in their hands.

They were covered with white cloaks, which were difficult to detect in the long wind and snow, but they walked quickly and were not affected by the wind and snow, and rushed towards the Amu River ten miles away.

The Amu River is called the Wuhu River in the Tang Dynasty. Now this river has become the dividing line between the Tang and Dashi. In the battle between Tocharo and Xinde launched a few months ago, the Tang army had completely driven the Dashi power across the Amu River. In order to prevent Khorasan from supporting Tocharo, the governor of the river, Li Siye from the capital and the commander-in-chief of the capital, Li Siye, dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers on the west bank of the Amu River, and finally made Khorasan's Dashi Army dare not act rashly. Now the Battle of Tocharo has long ended, and Li Siye still dispatched 20,000 soldiers by the Amu River, distributed among the fifteen castles. The beacon tower was connected to Samarkand, forming a strict defense system.

But today, the blizzard that has not been encountered in decades has made the Tang army's defense system a little fragile, and nothing can be seen within dozens of steps. The Tang army hid in the castle, waiting for the end of the blizzard.

The sky gradually became dark, and the blizzard was still raging on both sides of the Amu River. The three eastern cities were the seventh castle built by the Tang army by the Amu River. It is also the third largest of the fifteen castles. There were about 3,000 garrisons. The sudden violent snow and snow also caused the garrisons to hide in the castle. The normal patrol had to be temporarily interrupted. At this moment, the outside of the castle was already dark, and the entire land seemed to be swallowed up by demon fog.

Just about eight miles south of the three eastern cities, the Three Thousand Great Food Army arrived at the banks of the Amu River with difficulty. Their march also encountered great difficulties and could not see the direction at all. Only the guide was able to explore and advance based on his feelings. The three thousand people and camels connected with dozens of long ropes and stepped onto the ice surface of the Amu River step by step.

The leader of this army was Shahim, who was a favorite general under Qiyad. This time he accepted Qiyad's order and led 3,000 cavalry deep into the river to test the response and deployment of the Tang army. It should be said that it is difficult for them to survive this operation. They went deep into the hinterland alone and had no way out. However, the military orders were as high as a mountain, and Shahim had to lead the army to risk crossing the Amu River.

Although the legs of the man and camel were tied with thick grass ropes, camels and soldiers continued to slip on the slippery ice surface, and screams were heard one after another. Fortunately, it was snowing late at night, and the Tang army had no patrol soldiers on the other side, which made them lucky to cross the Amu River. The heavy snow fell, quietly covering up their footprints and traces.

Crossing the Amu River, San Thousand Dashi continued to march forward, and there was still a vast desert ahead. The next day at dawn, the snow finally stopped. In the hazy morning light, they saw the continuous mountains in the distance. Shahim was extremely moved. He was once very familiar with the terrain of this area. Back then, he stationed troops behind the mountain, which was the famous gem-generated place in the river area - Nasebo. This was his purpose of adventure this time. He attacked Nasebo, shocked the countries in the river and created momentum for the subsequent large-scale attack.

"Start up and kill that color wave before dark!"

At Shahim's order, the three thousand great cavalrymen urged the camels, shouted and ran wildly towards the northeast.

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Nasebo is the capital of the Little Shi Kingdom, and the small country closest to the Great Food in Yehe. Nasebo is known as the city of gems. It is rich in various gems, which brings endless wealth to the city. However, the wealth brought by the gems did not fall into the pockets of the Sebo people, but into the pockets of several large families from Samarkand and Bukhara. They controlled the gem trade of Nasebo, and the locals became helpers of these large families.

The small Shi Kingdom is also the westernmost edge of the Fergan Basin. The mountains are huge and the mountains are undulating. About one hundred miles south of Nasebo is the famous Tiemen Pass. This is the most dangerous place to the Hezhong area to Tochari. The strategic position is extremely important. The other end of the Tiemen Pass is the first small country attacked by the Tang army in the Battle of Tochari. The Tang army stationed 5,000 troops at Tiemen Pass.

Shahim also knew that with their three thousand camel cavalry, they could not capture Tiemen Pass, and his sword edge was not pointing to Tiemen Pass, but Sebo. With his familiarity with the terrain in this area, he could bypass the mountains from the north and then head south along Dumo River to Nasebo City.

Since the Tang army stationed heavy troops along the Amu River, there were not many troops stationed in the river, especially the Xiaoshi Kingdom. A large number of troops were stationed in Tiemen Pass, leaving only more than a thousand Tang troops stationed in Nasebo, mainly to maintain order in the city.

Unlike Bukhara, the conflict between Muslims and Zoroastrians in Nasebo City is not deep, and they can even be described as the four words "harmoniously living together". They each have their own temples and do not interfere with each other. There are about 30,000 residents in Nasebo City, and almost half of them are engaged in mining, mining a large amount of gems and ore rocks, and then shredding the ore rocks to find various gems inside.

After the Tang army occupied Hezhong, the gem industry here still flourished, but the gems were originally mainly sold to the cannibals, but now they are sold to the Tang people, usually for the broken leaves, and then transported to the Central Plains by the broken leaves merchants.

Like the Amu River, the color wave was hit by a blizzard that had not been seen in decades. It turned dark early. From noon, heavy snow fell again. The snow was covered with snow and the night was shrouded, which quickly turned the inside and outside of the color wave into a world of black fog.

Dozens of Tang soldiers defended the city gate at the top of the city. The city gate was closed. The soldiers squeezed into the room and surrounded the stove to keep warm. The Tang soldiers were talking and laughing. Most of the lamb legs were baked on the stove, and the whole room was filled with a rich aroma of meat. At this time, a Tang army seemed to hear something and said to their deputy lieutenant: "Deputy lieutenant Sun, it seems that someone is shouting under the city!"

"Then you go and have a look!"

Deputy Commander Sun was focusing on barbecue and ignored him. The soldier stood up and went out. After a moment, he came in and said, "Deputy Commander, it's a team of merchants. I heard a lot of camels screaming."

"Where did the businessman come from?"

"They said they came from Samarkand and asked us to open the city gate."

"Close the door when it's dark, this is the rule!"

Deputy Commander Sun waved his hand impatiently and said, "Let them wait outside for one night and enter the city tomorrow morning."

At this moment, a huge impact sound came from outside, "Boom!" and the entire city tower trembled. Several soldiers stood unsteadily and fell to the ground. The barbecue rack was also tilted, and the soon-to-beat lamb slid to the ground.

The Tang soldiers looked at each other, not knowing what happened. Suddenly, there was another loud noise, and the city wall shook violently again. Deputy Commander Sun suddenly reacted and shouted loudly: "Check warning, someone is hitting the city gate!"

‘Dang! Dang!’ The sharp and harsh bell sounded throughout the night sky. Dozens of Tang soldiers guarding the city rushed up to the city wall. There were no figures in the dark night. They set their bows and arrows and shot arrows under the city gate. Screams kept coming from the city gate. At this moment, the city gate again heard a huge and dull collision sound. The earth was shaking, and the city gate finally couldn't support it and was knocked open.

Three thousand Cavalry Cavalry rushed into Nasebo City and shouted. At this time, the first group of about 400 Tang troops rushed out. In the dark night, they saw a large group of black camels rushing into the city, and they opened their bows and arrows, and the arrows were shot into the camel cavalry team in a dense manner, shooting the big food soldiers overturned the camels, screaming in pain. Shahim was red in an anxious manner. He was about to rush into the city, but encountered strong resistance. How could he be willing? He waved his scimitar and shouted: "Stop up, either the entire army will be destroyed or occupy the Sebo!"

The Dashi Army rushed forward with a roar, using its shield to block the sharp bow and arrow of the Tang army, and instantly rushed to the Tang army. The Tang army also lowered the bow and arrow, fought with the spear, and fought with the Dashi Cavalry that rushed in. The square inside the gate became a bloody battlefield.

The Dashi cavalry kept pouring in from the city gate. At this time, all the Tang troops stationed at Nasebo also arrived. The situation was urgent. They had no time to get on the horse and all went into battle in the form of infantry. The beacon tower on the head of Nasebo City soared into the sky, which was particularly bright in the dark. They were asking for help from the defenders of Iron Gate Pass in the south.

The battle in the dark was particularly fierce. They could not see the other person's face clearly, and they fought bloodyly based on their height and low feelings. The tall ones were the Dashi cavalry and the shorter ones were the Tang army infantry. They could not see the other person's weapons. Often, after a spear penetrated the other person's chest, they were also cut off their heads with a knife. Screams one after another, limbs flew everywhere, and blood splashed everywhere.

The Tang army envoy guarding Nasebo was named Luo Yanguang, a Lang general. He was an old army in Anxi. He participated in the Battle of Ju Zhanti and the Battle of Talas. He had rich experience. He had found that the number of Dashi Army was far greater than that of him. Moreover, they were camel cavalry, which was more advantageous than the infantry of the Tang army. The Tang army each had its own formation and was obviously at a disadvantage.

He shouted anxiously: "Infantry formation! Infantry formation!"

Under his command, the well-trained Tang army began to assemble and quickly formed an infantry phalanx from the initial chaotic state. They leaned against each other and formed a spear formation with their backs, cooperated with each other, moved forward step by step, and began to launch a counterattack against the Dashi Cavalry with a collective force.

At this time, black fog was shrouded in sight, and the combat effectiveness of both sides depends on who is more well-trained. If it is the Tochar army or the Xinde army, even if one thousand infantry against three thousand cavalry, the Tang army will sweep the other side, but they encountered the elite Khorasan army, especially the elite selected from the 40,000 Khorasan army. They can even break through the maze of the blizzard, and their combat effectiveness can be imagined.

At this time, most of the Dashi cavalry rushed into the city gate, and Shahim also began to set up a formation. They teamed up with a hundred people and launched a powerful attack from all directions of the Tang army's infantry formation, and the two sides were once again in a tragic battle.

A Tang army in the front row was pierced by the spear of a Dashi officer and fell to the ground with a scream. Another Tang army soldier behind him immediately filled his position and cooperated with the left and right. Three spears suddenly stabbed the Dashi officer, and immediately pierced his body. The Dashi officer screamed and his body was raised high.

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To be continued...