At the foot of the Thirst City, it was clear that a large army was approaching, but the atmosphere was not as tense as a storm was about to come, instead, it revealed all kinds of weirdness.
Khotan's 16,000-strong army, carrying 50,000 to 60,000 tribesmen and civil servants, stopped thirty miles away from Kesai City.
They didn't seem to intend to attack the city immediately, but slowly began to build siege equipment, collect food and grass, and even set up a large net to catch fish in the poisoned water.
Is this for fighting? It looks like a spring outing in later generations.
It's even weirder in Kesei City. It is said that the enemy is coming from a distance, so we have to quickly fortify the walls and clear the fields to disrupt traffic!
However, the defenders of Kesai City only pretended to destroy the small pontoon bridge closest to them. Several bridges upstream were not destroyed at all, as if they had been forgotten.
The Khotan scout who went to investigate even suspected that if it was the season for wheat to mature, he might still be able to see acres and acres of wheat fields.
The Samanid-Persian army stationed two hundred miles to the south and fighting was equally strange. They didn't look like they were coming to rescue them at all.
Not to mention rushing on the road impatiently, they even walked slowly for dozens of miles and then set up a camp, moving steadily without panic at all.
Zhang Zhao touched his chin. It looked like he was a thousand-year-old fox! He had the idea of surrounding the area to call for reinforcements, so he took his time.
Yusupu was probably afraid that the Saman Persians would arrive first before Zhang Zhao arrived, so not only did he not destroy the pontoon on the Yasha River, he also did not even move any large or small boats away.
The Persians probably also saw Yu Supu's little thoughts. The 30,000 troops who came to support were very strict, and they seemed to protect themselves first when the situation was not right.
Well! Seeing that the Persians were so cautious, Zhang Zhao gave up the idea of going down the river to pounce on them first. This Saman-Persian warrior named Tihaqim was quite capable.
"Tiance, go and inform Governor Pei and Ashinasili and ask them to mobilize another two hundred Youyi troops to explore along the medicine-killing water.
Give them all the chain mail and chain mail in the army, and be sure to defeat the Samambas' sentinel horses, and first make the Persians blind and deaf!"
Zhang Zhao quickly changed his strategy. Since the Persians were attacking steadily and with the intention of fighting or not, he didn't care anymore and surrounded the city of Kesai first.
"Liu Zaisheng, use your position as the forward, gather the army, and first pull out the fortresses around Kesai City!"
....
Feeling thirsty, Yu Supu frowned, his heart sank, and he couldn't help but want to curse.
Where are the troops who agreed to besiege Khotan? Where are the Persians who agreed to come to the rescue at starry night? If you two won't come, where can I sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight?
It's really embarrassing. The bait was thrown out, but the two tigers hesitated to come forward. What's this?
"Brother, good news. Kadir Fort sent a messenger asking for help. A large number of Khotanese troops crossed the river before dawn today. They are surrounding Kadir Fort. It is said that there are no less than ten thousand people, all of whom are armored elites.
"
The one who ran in happily was Yusup's younger brother Musa. Although Yusup thought this brother was as stupid as a pig, his other brothers were even stupider than pigs. The only one who could barely use it was Musa.
If this news had happened a few days ago, Yu Supu would have definitely considered it good news, but not now.
Because the Khotanian army took so long to arrive, but the Persians never arrived.
This means that Ji Zhanti's Hakeem Abdul has probably seen through his plan and will not be easily fooled, at least not until his Yusupu strength is greatly damaged.
"Who is Abdul's backer in Bukhara? Does he have any enemies?"
There was no hint of joy on Yusup's face, but he turned around and asked Moussa about the situation of the joint battle with Tihaqim Abdul. Moussa touched his chin and thought for a moment.
"Abdul belongs to Prince Salar Hamid, and he is highly recommended by Hamid because he can sit in command and fight.
As for enemies, Abdul was promoted from slaves by Prince Hamid and has been serving in local positions, so he should have no enemies.
But Prince Hamid and Grand Wazir Bala'ami and Dargah Ahmed have been hostile to each other for many years."
Salar, this is the official position of Saman Persia, which is somewhat similar to the position of the general of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.
This is the supreme commander of the Saman Persian army. In addition to the emir guards in the Forbidden City of Alka, troops including the Ghulam Guards are all under the command of Salar.
Prince Hamid is the second son of the current Emir Nasr II of Samman Persia. He has served as Salar for more than ten years. He is the de facto crown prince and has high prestige in the country.
The Grand Wazir is the leader of the government and is actually the prime minister.
Dargah is the palace manager and is responsible for the internal affairs of the entire royal city - Alka Forbidden City. He is somewhat similar to the chief eunuch of the Ming Dynasty.
These two positions were also close associates of Nasr II.
This is the "separation of powers" that maintains the stability of the power of Saman Persia, especially the power of Nasr II.
That is, using the crown prince as Salal, the government is controlled by the heirs of the dynasty.
The Grand Wazir was the head of the government, while the internal affairs of the palace were handed over to the Dargah (the palace steward), and the royal guards of the royal city were controlled by the emir himself.
It does look good. The crown prince controls the standing army outside to limit the power of the royal guards in the royal city and to ensure that the guards obey the orders of the emir himself.
Use the Palace Controller to balance the prime minister, thereby controlling government affairs in the hands of the emir himself.
Then use the prime minister and the palace manager to work together to check and balance the Crown Prince Salal who controls the government.
This is how the current Samambas operates. As Prince Hamid becomes more powerful, the prime minister and the palace manager unite to target him. Nasr II also strengthens the military strength of the imperial guard to prevent accidents.
So although these three people have been fighting each other for seven or eight years, no one can do anything about the other. As long as one of them is too strong, the other two will join forces to deal with him.
However, there may be a slight mistake now. Nasr II himself was quite young when he succeeded to the throne, and naturally Prince Hamid was basically an adult at that time.
After Nasr II served as emir for ten years, he handed over the position of Salar to Prince Hamid.
He originally thought that he was already in his fifties and that if he lived for another ten years, he would be almost there.
But no one could have imagined that today, ten years later, the sixty-three-year-old Nasr II is still in good health. There is even a princess born this year. It seems that there is no problem in staying in power for another ten or twenty years.
This is troublesome, because of the long life of Nasr II, Prince Hamid has been Salar for ten years.
This kind of position in charge of the government makes it easy to form cliques and win over people, so over the past ten years, Prince Hamid has also gathered around a large number of powerful factions who want to be the hero of the Conglong.
Nasr II had several opportunities to get rid of Prince Hamid, but after all, he was his own son and he had not made any mistakes. Nasr II still couldn't bear it, so he could only watch Hamid step by step.
The prince of Germany grows stronger.
Until now, he could only support the Grand Wazir Bala'ami and the palace manager Ahmed, and use them to fight against the increasingly powerful Prince Hamid.
It seems that there is no big problem, but whether it is Grand Wazir Baraami or Palace Manager Ahmed, they are all human beings first and foremost, and they all have their own little thoughts.
Nasr II wants to support them to check and balance Prince Hamid, and they have no problem with it, but Nasr II is already over sixty! He may go to see God one day.
If they cannot bring down Prince Hamid before then, then on the day when Nasr II goes to see Allah, both of his family will also have to go to see Allah.
Therefore, in these years, with the capital Bukhara as the center, an extremely fierce political struggle broke out in the glorious and prosperous Saman Persia.
In every 'fight', a large number of dignitaries fell, and the methods of both sides became more and more cruel, even to the point where even Nasr II could not control them.
"Musa, you set out immediately, take all the treasures in the city, and go to Bukhara to find the great Wazir Balami.
The news that we are willing to go to Bukhara to pay homage and fight against Tihaqm Abdul without any action must be conveyed to the Grand Wazir of Balami!"
A trace of cruelty flashed in Yusupu's eyes, and then he looked at his younger brother Musa.
"This old guy Abdul wants to see both us and the Khotanese lose. We can't let him succeed, otherwise you and I, brothers, will definitely die in the prison of Bukhara."
"Okay! I'll go prepare and set off tomorrow morning." Moussa nodded and agreed. He was not good at strategy and military affairs, but he was still very good at intrigues.
Seeing his brother Musa go out, Yusup let out a long breath and his mind was in confusion.
Why did the Khotan army arrive so quickly? If it had been a year and a half later, he would have been able to train officers who were loyal to him. How could he be like now, where he could only take risks and gamble.
....
It was dark at night, and the Saman Persian army, wearing black and white Persian-style robes, was on the road and had already built a military camp.
The mighty 30,000 troops and more than 10,000 civilians were lined up in a long snake shape along the medicine-killing water. The low voices and the bright lights of the military camp made the entire medicine-killing water seem to come alive.
Abdul is forty-seven years old. He is of medium height but extremely strong. Although he is past middle age, he has no signs of gaining weight at all.
Brown skin and brown hair indicate that he is not a pure Persian, but has a large amount of Turkic ancestry.
Hakeem is also an official of Saman Persia. He is actually the governor, but his authority and scope of jurisdiction are smaller than that of a real governor, such as Ali Durav, the governor of Tashkent Province who was captured by Zhang Zhao. Perhaps he can be replaced by a small governor.
Name this position.
As an officer who was promoted from slaves, Abdul was very self-disciplined because he knew that people like him would soon be abandoned by the Bukhara court if they lost their military abilities.
Moreover, the competition in this industry is still very fierce, because with the glory and prosperity of Saman Persia, a large number of Persian nobles are no longer willing to go to the frontiers to endure hardships. They prefer to live in big cities such as Braha and Samarkand.
.
This resulted in a large number of middle- and lower-level officers being occupied by converts from various Turkic ethnic groups. There were only so many positions, and there were as many Turkic slaves as yellow sheep on the grassland, so the competition was naturally fierce.
"Father, our search range has been suppressed to less than twenty miles. Now we can only prevent the two sides of the river from being infiltrated and controlled.
Those Khotan scouts are very difficult to deal with. Whether it is armor or weapons, they are better than ours. Except for the war horses, we can't take any advantage."
Seeing that there were still blood stains on his son's armor, Abdul quickly asked the guards to get a basin of water and let him wash it off.
"The Khotanese..., in my impression, they are better at infantry fighting in formation, similar to the disappearing Peach Blossom Stone Empire.
When did these people have such elite cavalry scouts? They dare to send them more than a hundred miles away to harass us. The Khotanese commander is very confident in his soldiers!"
Abdul looked at his son who was taking off his armor to clean himself and sighed, "Alput, do you think these people should be related to the Juer Khan coming from the direction of Tashkent?"
"Ju'er Khan?" Alpt, who was cleaning his body, was stunned for a moment, "Glorious sweat of all sweats! Has another Great Khan arisen on the grassland?
Father, I will personally lead our wolf guards out later tomorrow night to capture a few survivors. If a khan really appears on the grassland, we will be in big trouble."
