On the distant mountains, there are white clouds.
Beneath the mountainside, shallow valleys wind continuously.
The seasonal creek has dried up, and the grass has grown freely, covering up the horse hoof prints.
Beside the desolate ancient tomb, herds of cattle and sheep were walking happily, driven by shepherds.
A few naughty lambs wandered away from the herd, greedily munching on what might be the last wave of green pasture this year.
The sheepdog dutifully rushed forward and drove them back to the flock.
The little prince has given the order to march into the army.
Once this order is issued, not only the soldiers must follow, but also the logistics troops scattered everywhere.
The messenger who delivered the order stood on a high hill, made sure that the little prince's order had been carried out, and then disappeared on the other side of the mountain.
He led four fast horses and never stopped.
When you feel hungry, you take off the water bag from the saddle, drink the soaked and shaken milk powder, and then chew two mouthfuls of dry and hard meat.
When you feel sleepy, you will slow down your horse speed, squint for a while as if you are half asleep, and then run wildly after you wake up, delivering orders to one destination after another.
He came to the edge of the crop field. Larks were singing on the branches, and among the fragrant wild flowers, quails soared into the sky.
The soldiers were harvesting wheat in the fields. After hearing the little prince's order, they sped up their actions and loaded the first batch of ground coarse flour into the truck and sent it to the front.
He came to the clear river again.
It was a sunny afternoon. The fish jumped out of the river and splashed into the water.
The old wrangler rested his head on the saddle and took a nap in the shade of the tree.
Two young men were wrestling at the side, with horn bows and scimitars at their feet.
The messenger loudly conveyed the order.
After a while, countless horses rushed over the rough prairie like thunder. They were smooth, fat and strong, and were about to be sent to the front line to replace the tired horses under the soldiers.
He finally came to the town full of ashes and blood, and read the little prince's order loudly.
The soldiers got up from the woman and hurriedly put on their trousers and furs.
Some people also put on stolen leather armor and iron armor, and grabbed sharp scimitars and heavy hammers.
They set a fire and burned the village to the ground.
The women were killed one by one, and their bodies were thrown into the flames.
The little prince's orders were spread out across the vast prairie.
Turks, Uighurs, Yangmo people, Geluolu people, Shatuo people, Oghuz people, etc., as well as many unknown small tribes, began to gather together and rush to Talas according to their different marching routes.
direction.
Shao Siwu took the lead in heading west with more than 10,000 infantry cavalry from the Tianwu Army and more than 1,000 armored cavalry from Pinglu, Hengye and other armies.
Just this morning, he received news from Talos: The Persians had arrived with reinforcements, totaling more than 10,000 people, who had been defeated by Fu Cunjian.
After ten days, they had wiped out more than 8,000 Persian troops, and the results were quite great. As for the number of their own casualties, Fu Cunchen did not say. Asked Zhu Jin, he refused to tell, and only mentioned the number of soldiers who came out of the old forests in the northeast.
The Jurchen savages suffered heavy casualties.
Shao Siwu knew it well.
The Jurchen savages are quite fierce and dare to fight. After putting on the armor, they can be used as dead soldiers in the battle, which is very useful.
Their large number of casualties must have occurred during the battle between the two sides. In other words, when they charged, the Persians did not collapse at the first touch, but withstood, at least for a long time, and during this period,
It happens to be the stage where both sides continue to bleed and suffer casualties until one side can no longer hold on.
Persia eventually retreated, probably because it had too few troops.
The Xia army's infantry formation cannot be broken through head-on, and the cavalry assault that has been tried and tested in the past is not easy to use. If it is surrounded and harassed by the Tibetan light cavalry, this battle will indeed be impossible to fight.
At the same time, he also felt that there might be something wrong with the Persians' brains.
What's the point of sending a group of people like this? It's better to gather tens of thousands of troops and have a decisive battle. I just don't know if they can mobilize so many people.
Of course, Shao Siwu didn't think they could send many people.
According to the news recently compiled by Liu Mian: There is a feud in the southwest of Saman Persia, called "Safar Persia".
Around the Xiantong period of the former Tang Dynasty, Yakub bin Rais Safar started his career by suppressing the uprising in Sighistan (including eastern Yinlang and southern Afghanistan), occupied the entire territory of Sighistan, and established himself as the emir.
Founded the Safarid Persian dynasty.
In the eleventh year of Xiantong (870), Yakub began to attack Tahir Persia, and successively captured Herat (now northwest Afghanistan), Kerman (now south-central Yinlang), Fars, and Shiraz (now Yinlang).
(Southwestern Iran) and other places, and then sent representatives to the court in Baghdad to express surrender.
The Caliph followed suit and made up a formality to recognize Yakub as the governor of the area he occupied.
In the fourteenth year of Xiantong (873), Yakub captured the Tahir Persian capital Nishapuran (today's Neshapur, located northeast of Yinlang), captured the last emir of the Tahir Dynasty, and moved the capital here.
Originally, this was an inspirational story about a "coppersmith" from a humble background who wielded a three-foot sword, conquered the world, and founded a country. But Yakub was so ambitious that he even wanted to march into Baghdad and put it into practice. He came to Qian.
In the second year of Fu (875), he went north and first destroyed the Ziyar dynasty in Tabaristan (the area on the south coast of the present-day Yinlang Caspian Sea), but was soon defeated by the caliphate's regent Muwafak.
Yakub led his remaining troops to retreat to the east. He died in depression two years later, and was succeeded by his younger brother Amur.
Amul showed his respect to the Caliph and paid many tributes of large sums of money, which finally eased the tension in the west. Then he decided to expand eastward. Fifteen years ago, he was defeated by Saman Persia in Balkh (now northern Afghanistan).
Amr was captured, and Samambas took him to the court in Baghdad to be executed.
At this point, the Saffar dynasty was completely weakened and had to retreat to its core territory of Sighistan to lick its wounds. At the same time, it paid tribute to Samman with a large amount of silver produced in the Panjshir Valley and begged for forgiveness.
However, news recently came that because the Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) Jayinhanni wanted to completely turn the Saffar Dynasty into a vassal, and forced the small regime in a small corner of Sigistan to rebel, the two sides once again broke out in war.
And because of the religious beliefs of the nine-year-old monarch Nasr (Shia), not only the generals (Sunnis) in Bukhara were deeply uneasy, but there were also many rebellions in various places. This seemingly huge empire was overwhelmed and suppressed everywhere.
——If the prime minister had not been more capable, it might have collapsed.
Shao Siwu was very interested in the information he learned, and at the same time he felt inexplicably familiar.
Isn't this the story of the emperor of Chang'an and the governors of various vassal towns? It turns out that the Dashi Dynasty also had this kind of virtue!
At this point, he felt a little confident: at least in the next few months, it would be difficult for the Persians to gather a large army to deal with them, so he could rest assured that they would retreat soon.
******
The news from the north traveled through the mountains and took ten days to reach Fergana, and it was already late August.
Shao Shude stood on the terrace of the Guba Town Castle, looking at the distant heaven and earth.
This fertile land is full of his soldiers.
Someone is harvesting grain from the fields.
Someone is herding sheep and horses.
Someone is looting property.
Some people are marching and fighting.
The largest group of people: 12,000 infantry from the Tielin, Tianxiong, Wuwei, Yicong, and Tiande armies, and 12,000 mounted infantry from the Feilong, Jindao, and Heiji armies, plus already
It has grown to more than 3,000 new vassal troops, more than 1,000 monk soldiers, and 10,000 Turkic tribesmen who have recently surrendered. They are fiercely besieging Bakhna.
As is the old rule, the main force is captured civilians from all walks of life.
If they are all defeated, each branch of the Forbidden Army will try to attack a few times. If they can't take it, forget it. There are only 40,000 to 50,000 people that can be attacked. If it is spent on siege, it will be a big loss.
"Your Majesty." Mengshi and Yueliduo called softly from behind the door.
Shao Shude raised his right hand and asked them to wait.
Mengshi and Yueliduo retreated to the palace gate.
There was a crisp slapping sound outside, occasionally mixed with a cry of pain.
After a while, Shao Shude came in.
Montessori took a peek outside and saw Adès lying on his side on the terrace. His chest was bruised and his buttocks were covered with bright red palm prints.
She was a little sad, but also a little lucky.
She also experienced this, and it was very painful at the time. But after giving birth to the child, the saint became more and more gentle, which made her miss him a little.
When she was alone, she even fantasized about the saint treating her roughly, and then she was so ashamed that she could not control herself, her legs twisted around, and her face was as red as the morning glow.
Adie stood up slowly.
Ten days ago, the Great Khan favored her like this on the terrace in Osh.
That time, her husband Satuk was beheaded in the audience. She watched helplessly on the stage, and her ears were filled with the sound of sweating and heavy breathing, which was almost crushed.
When the knife cut off the head, Satuk and Khan splashed almost at the same time.
"What's the matter?" Shao Shude quickly sat down on the sofa and pulled Nanzhao Queen Mother Mengshi over to clean her.
Yue Liduo handed over an official letter and said: "Military situation in the north."
Shao Shude took it, read it carefully, closed his eyes, and tasted it silently.
It has been ten days since they entered the Fergana Basin, and they have already captured more than 200,000 cattle and sheep, more than 40,000 horses, and more than 6,000 camels, all of which have been sent back to Shule one after another.
Good luck to cattle and sheep, but very troublesome for food.
Since the looting, there are always 300,000 hu of dendrobium. But after half a month, the 50,000-strong army has only consumed less than 20,000 hu of dendrobium, millet and wheat. There is so much food that the warriors are reluctant to go out to herd horses and just take it.
Food feeding.
The harvest was huge. Now the mood in the army was high. They were talking about capturing a big city and robbing it hard before withdrawing their troops. Shao Shude had agreed before.
Things seem to be going well in the north.
In almost half a month, more than 100,000 cavalry swept across various places, directly knocking Persia into confusion.
In his view, the Persians' several troop dispatches were all self-rescue actions of local officials, lacking coordination at the imperial court level. So he kept sending troops just like a gourd boy saving his grandfather.
Shao Shude put himself in his shoes and thought that if he were the Prime Minister of Persia, after receiving the news, he would hold a meeting to discuss how to rescue Talas, Bakhna, and Shashi (Tashkent), Samarkand and other places that may be threatening.
If the efficiency is high, this will almost reach a decision.
The next step is to coordinate the large armies that are fighting rebellions in various places and withdraw some of the troops.
This is not an easy task, and retreating in front of the enemy is not that simple. In some places, it is even impossible to retreat. It is necessary for the imperial court to pardon the rebellious officials in order to cease the war and withdraw.
Therefore, there is a high probability that a wave of mobilization will be needed in the hinterland where no war has broken out, and local garrisons will be mobilized and assembled in the capital, Samarkand and other places.
The dispatch of a large army requires huge supplies of materials. Naturally, they cannot rob their own people in the country. They can only allocate and transport them from various treasury. The army also needs to march from various places to the assembly point.
This process cannot be completed within a month. A small number of vanguard troops will set off if they are exhausted. However, if they rush into the battlefield rashly, with the huge gap in troops, it will also end up with the Calabash Man saving Grandpa.
So, there is still plenty of time.
But manpower is ultimately no match for the weather, and Shao Shude's biggest enemy is actually the winter snow.
"Draft a copy of the edict and send it to Secretary Supervisor Cui." Shao Shude opened his eyes and said: "Let my son fight south. If the Talas can't take it, forget it. Don't force it, you can go around. Go south, go
Move forward in the direction of Shashi. On the other hand, tell Dalang that I will leave in mid-September and let him make his own decisions. The Persians may send reinforcements, so they must consider the retreat in advance and how to arrange their troops. Think about it in advance.
.Please note that this is a secret decree, and my son can only reveal it to close people."
"According to the order." Yue Liduo responded.
"Do you have any opinions?" Shao Shude looked at Mengshi and asked.
"Well……"
"Forget it, work hard." Shao Shude closed his eyes.
Time was running out, and he had decided to find a way to transport the captured grain back to Shule, at least part of it.
Don't worry about the losses on the road, it's a business without capital anyway.
Whether Fergana can be captured in the future depends on the generals and Dalangs stationed in the west.
The cultivated land area of a small basin was close to one-third of the entire Xinjiang in later generations, which is astonishing.
Even at this time, more than four million hu of grain was produced a year. It seemed that the Persian governor did not receive much tax, but was that because he was poor? Yield is output and tax is tax. The two are not the same concept. In fact
Most of the food in the world is eaten by producers and consumers themselves, but what if they are not allowed to eat it?
From now on, we must continue to attack. Let the country's 176,000 miscellaneous soldiers take turns to go westward, win and eliminate internal troubles, defeat and eliminate internal troubles, and also prevent Persia from taking action to solve internal problems, and finally form an internal
Samampos is full of contradictions and relatively weak overall.
This is beneficial. Because the Great Cannibals do not have as strong a desire to expand the majesty of the Creator as Samampos, and I don’t know what is wrong in the minds of those people in Bukhara.
But it doesn't matter, I will help you lose weight and reduce your burden. From now on, focus your energy on the country, and stop thinking about expanding in the Western Regions.
On August 30, Shao Shude left Guba, which was captured by his son-in-law, and went to Ba Khana to supervise the battle under the escort of Yin Anzhi.