"Also, give this letter to His Highness the Crown Prince."
Seeing Li Qi looking like he was surviving the disaster, Su Chen smiled and asked him to take his letter to Li Chengqian back with him.
It's not certain that Elsa will be able to deal with those big food nobles when she goes back.
Su Chen is going to ask Li Chengqian to cooperate secretly in this matter.
If the wealthy nobles really elected that Zubair as king,
Then there will be something good to watch.
I heard Li Chengqian say that he knew this Li Qi,
Li Qi has been following Elsa for several months and is quite familiar with her.
Let him continue to follow Elsa to Basra, which is the best choice.
…
Early the next morning, Elsa left the camp and hurried back to Basra.
Su Chen also let the army set off and began to continue heading north.
The army resumed its slow pace of dozens of miles per day and slowly advanced towards the city of Shila.
There was no resistance from the cannibals along the way. It seemed that in order to reduce unnecessary casualties, Osman had ordered all the troops along the way to be withdrawn to Hilla City to wait for him.
Su Chen led his army to slowly approach Shila City at the speed of a tortoise.
The Persians near Basra acted very quickly after receiving the military order.
Seeing the military report from the rear, Su Chen estimated that when he arrived at Xi,
The Persians in the middle will almost catch up with him, and the Persians in the west should also join up with the Lachems.
As for Hoslu on the east road, things were not going well there, and the resistance from the cannibals along the way was very tenacious.
When they were less than a hundred miles away from Shila City, Su Chen let several hot air balloons take off.
Scout around the army to prevent being ambushed and raided by the cannibals on the march.
Liu Jingren, who had arrived near Hilla with the Persians in advance to collect intelligence, was wandering around the south of Hilla City dressed as a cannibal.
After seeing the hot air balloon from a distance, Zhang Daan, dressed in the same man-eating costume, quickly returned to the army.
Su Chen summoned all senior military officers to listen to Liu Jingren's report.
"Commander! The terrain near Shila City has been roughly figured out."
Liu Jingren began to report to Su Chen and everyone, while Zhang Daan was holding a stack of maps he drew to assist.
"Commander, Osman has gathered a lot of troops in Hilla City this time, at least more than 60,000,"
"Not all of Dashi's army is stationed in the city,"
"Part of the infantry and cavalry were left by the Ottomans in a military camp northwest of Hilla City,"
"There are also some cavalry stationed on the river bank northeast of Shila City, guarding the head of the pontoon bridge."
Su Chen listened to Liu Jingren's report and asked Zhang Daan to spread out the map.
"Both of these military camps are not far from the city wall of Hilla City!"
Su Chen took a look and said.
"Back to Marshal, the one to the west is less than five miles away, and the one to the east of the bridge is even closer, less than three miles."
Zhang Daan replied.
Cheng Wuting shook his head: "Ottoman placed a large number of infantry inside the city to rely on the city wall for defense, while placing the cavalry outside the city to maintain mobility."
"Besides, the army outside the city is very close to the city of Hilla, so we don't have a chance to defeat them individually."
Su Chen looked at the map and frowned.
Ottoman divided his troops into three groups and arranged them in a zigzag pattern.
The three forces are so close together that they can support each other at any time, so it is really difficult to do this.
He waved his hand and signaled Liu Jingren to continue.
"The Great Cannibal has many artillery pieces, not only on the city walls, but also in the military camps outside the city."
"Also, Ottoman is digging trenches outside the city. It won't work for us to dig tunnels and blow up the city wall."
"And it will also cause a lot of trouble for us to attack the city."
Su Chen shook his head: "We can't attack the city by force anyway, let them do their work!"
"First, tell me where is a suitable place for us to camp nearby?"
Zhang Daan spread out several more maps: "Commander, there are not many terrains that can be used near Xila City, just these few."
As they spoke, the two told them about the situation near Shila City.
With the help of the Persians, this information was collected in great detail.
"Then let's go here."
Su Chen pointed to five miles southwest of Xila City, where there were several low mounds that could be used.
There is also a small reservoir with rivers and ditches around it, making it easy to get water.
"Commander, it's too close to the city of Shila, and I'm afraid the cannibals won't let us camp there easily. Moreover, there are many rivers and ditches near the reservoir, which is not conducive to our march."
Master Sun Ren reminded.
Su Chen waved his hand: "It's still far away now. It's not difficult to detect the marching route in advance. We are not in a hurry and we are not afraid of taking a longer detour."
"Besides, we have to get closer to Hilla City, so that we can force Osman to take the initiative to fight us."
Cheng Wuting shook his head: "Osman is obviously relying on Hilla City to have a long-term confrontation with us. I'm afraid it won't be easy for him to take the initiative to find us for a decisive battle."
Su Chen smiled and said: "He is lying. With the current war in Dashi, how dare he confront us for a long time?"
"If we delay it any longer, the Persians will be restored to their own country!"
"It is estimated that Yisi is running towards Ctesiphon desperately, and Khosrow is also heading north along the Tigris River,"
"When the Lachem people in the west become independent again, look at how much territory the Ottomans still have in the Mesopotamia."
"So it's Osman who's worried now."
Cheng Wuting nodded and said: "The commander-in-chief is right, but it's better to be careful. Osman will definitely not watch us camp five miles outside Shila City."
Su Chen said: "The hot air balloon is conducting reconnaissance in the air day and night. Lapu Pasu and Liu Jingren, you each command the scouts from Persia and the Tang Dynasty to cross-check the enemy's situation."
"Yuchi Baolin, lead three thousand cavalry to explore the road ahead."
"Fifty miles away from Shira, the army formed a battle formation and slowly rolled forward."
"I don't believe that under such circumstances, Osman could still find an opportunity to ambush us on the road and surprise us!"
Everyone accepted the order and went to carry it out one after another.
There were hot air balloons floating in the sky, and there were many scouts on the ground. Su Chen felt that it was impossible for a cannibal army of more than a thousand people to approach the army thirty miles away without being discovered.
Of course, Osman had known the whereabouts of Su Chen's army for a long time, and sent several troops to try to launch a surprise attack on the Tang army on the march from all directions.
However, the food army could not walk a few steps when they found a hot air balloon following them above their heads.
The Dashi army ambushing half way could not escape the reconnaissance of the hot air balloon. After being discovered, they had to withdraw in despair.
Osman stared at the hot air balloon above his head and gritted his teeth in hatred. With this thing around, any military actions of the cannibals would be exposed under the eyes of the Tang army.
However, Osman also roughly judged Su Chen's purpose from the direction of Su Chen's march.
Then Osman was very angry and led his army to block Su Chen's army from the front.
