Chapter 245: The North City Lost

"Boom!" There was a loud noise from the ground, and an iron gate was violently hit by a thick giant tree. The iron gate shook in pain and was about to collapse. The soldiers of the big food in the city shouted, pulling their bows to shoot at the city. The arrows were like rain. Dozens of ragged slaves screamed and fell down by arrows, but more slaves took over. They used wooden boards as shields to resist the arrows on the city.

Silver City is a medium-sized city at the foot of Bosi Mountain. It was built by the Great Cantonese in the 20th year of Kaiyuan. It is the nest of the Great Cantonese who controls more than a dozen silver mines in Bosi Mountain. There are more than 1,000 soldiers in Dashi. It stores a large amount of silver and grain. More than ten years have passed, and it has lost countless wealth to the Great Cantonese Umayyad Dynasty.

Wherever there is oppression, there is resistance. At this moment, waves of slave uprisings broke out in various mines in Bosishan.

All this comes from the instigation of 300 Tang soldiers. They incited enslaved slaves and told them that the Tang army came to Hezhong to restore their freedom and their faith. Now that the Tang army has defeated the Dashi Army, they will all return to their hometowns and reunite with their relatives.

Most of the slaves in Silver Mountain were Zorosa believers captured by the great cannibals from Sogdians and Tochar. They had been mining in Posishan for five or six years, doing heavy physical work, eating the roughest food, sucking in the sun and rain, beating and whipping, and suffering. They watched their companions die by their side countless times, and watched the statue of Ahuramaz made of soil be smashed. At this moment, anger burned in their hearts. More than a dozen silver mines in the north of Posishan Mountain had revolt one after another.

They fought with iron picks, wooden sticks, chains, and all tools that could be used. The more than 3,000 food troops who were supervising silver mines were beaten to death. Many were beaten to death by angry slaves, their weapons were taken away, their tents were burned, and their lists were torn apart. They fled to Yincheng to hide, but soon, slaves gathered from all directions surrounded Yincheng. They wanted food and they wanted to return to their hometown.

The 50,000 black slaves were like angry ants, surrounding the Silver City, and 300 Tang army scouts rode horses and commanded the slaves to attack the city.

But Qin Haiyang was filled with worries. He felt that the riots of these slaves were about to get out of control. Yes, they were under too much oppression and they felt too much aggrieved. Once their oppression was released and their aggrieved broke out, they would do things that harm the interests of the Tang army. They would snatch the silver and gold stored in the city, and then Qin Haiyang would have no chance to get promoted and make a fortune.

But he knew that there was another person who could control the situation. Qin Haiyang rushed to the front of the most prestigious elder of the Wo Cult. The man was named Barumi. He was the son of the great elder of the Shiguo Wo Cult. He was strong when he was arrested. Nearly twenty years have passed, and he has also become an old man. He inherited his father's career in the silver mine and became the elder of the Zoro Cult who was secretly worshipped by 50,000 slaves of the silver mine.

"Balumi, you want them to kill the cannibals, don't snatch the warehouse's supplies, I will distribute them equally to everyone."

Barumi sat on a wooden board, and six believers carried him, his legs were interrupted by the cannibals during an escape ten years ago and could not stand up ever since.

Barumi lowered his head and said slowly for a while: "Who would do it if you asked them to help you kill the cannibals, but you wouldn't give them any benefits?"

"Okay, tell everyone that you will kill a big cannibal and give him a pound of silver, double portions of food, and everything on the big cannibal belongs to him."

"Everyone has to give a pound of silver. This is the fruit of their years of labor. They deserve it. To kill the big cannibals to give them double portions!"

"Damn it, I'm cruel!"

Qin Haiyang cursed in Chinese, spat heavily and said, "Okay! I promise you."

Barumi waved his hand and his believers carried him onto a high platform. At this time, countless pairs of eyes looked at him. He stretched out his hands and gently waved his hands, and the outside of the city suddenly became quiet.

"My disciples!"

His voice was loud and clear, and was spread far away by the wind.

"Today is the day when Lord Ahuramaz liberates us. We are going to kill the great cannibals who insult our Lord God, but we must first use the materials in the city to worship our Lord God. After we hold a ceremony of worship, I will bring light to everyone according to the will of Lord God."

"Damn it, it's really a good thing!" Qin Haiyang cursed in a low voice.

"My disciples, let us break through this gate in the name of God and kill all the great cannibals."

"Kill them!"

Fifty thousand slaves roared, and their roars rang through the world. Barumi pointed to the city gate, "Go! smash it."

Fifty thousand people were undulating like waves, surging towards the city gate. Nearly a thousand people hugged the huge slamming wood and hit the city gate again. There was a loud bang of "boom!", and the city gate shook violently, as if the whole earth was trembling.

"one two three!"

The giant tree once again hit the city gate violently, and the dilapidated city gate could no longer support it. It was knocked open. Thousands of slaves rushed into the city. The big food soldiers fled in scattered. Two hundred Tang troops who had already prepared had followed the slaves and rushed in. Qin Haiyang shouted loudly: "Hurry up! Seize the silver trunk."

The Tang army ran towards the depths of the city like a gust of wind. They had already inquired in advance. The silver trough was at the bottom of the city. It was a huge white building. The Tang army saw the eye-catching white building from afar. They rushed away like lightning.

Almost all the Dashi Army went to the city to defend, with only two or thirty defenders left in front of the silver treasury, and two hundred Tang troops rushed over. Before the people arrived, arrows arrived first, and the arrows were like meteors. In an instant, more than twenty escaped defenders were shot to death.

Several big food soldiers knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. Tang army rushed up and waved their swords and slashed. Qin Haiyang shouted in a hurry: "Save their lives!"

Only then did the lives of several prisoners of war save. Qin Haiyang turned over and dismounted, pointed the sword at the forehead of the man, and shouted in a less skillful Sogdian language: "Open the silver vault!"

Several big cannibals took out the keys tremblingly and opened the warehouse. As the heavy iron door was creakingly pushed open, there was a stone house made of huge stones inside, which was extremely firm. This was the place where the big cannibals placed gold and silver.

An iron door was opened, and a ray of light shone into the dark stone house. The stone house covers an area of ​​about two acres of land, but half is empty, and the other half is piled with boxes of thick silver ingots. The big cannibal cast these silver ingots according to certain specifications, and each silver ingot weighs about fifty kilograms.

The silver ingots were piled up like a hill, with a box of twenty yuan, which is one thousand kilograms, while there were about three hundred boxes in the silver warehouse, which means at least 300,000 kilograms. This was the third batch of silver ingots that the great cannibals were preparing to transport away, and the second batch was sunk into dense water by the Tang army.

Each of the 50,000 slaves was divided into one pound, and there were 250,000 pounds. So much money was enough to promote Qin Haiyang to the capital lieutenant.

Qin Haiyang couldn't help but feel excited. At this time, noisy shouts came from afar. Countless people ran towards him. Qin Haiyang immediately ordered: "Lock the gold and silver treasury and do not allow anyone to come in!"

On the same day that the Tang army occupied the capital of Dongcao Kingdom, 300 scouts of the Tang army successfully incited slaves to rebel and seized Yincheng. Four days later, Li Fei Yuanli led 5,000 Tang troops to enter Yincheng. At this point, the largest silver mine of the Great Cannibal was occupied by the Tang army.

In Samarkand, the Great Food Army reported the unfavorable war in the early battle of Dongcao Kingdom to Abu.

In front of the Muslim, he was not furious. On the contrary, this failure was as expected.

He sent only 30,000 people to the Dongcao Kingdom, including 10,000 Sogdian troops, and his elite Khorasan army, Qiyad brought back 15,000 people, which was in line with his expectations.

Since Mansur returned to Damascus ten days ago, Muslims have fully grasped the decision-making power over the Tang Dynasty's battle. In order to win this battle against the Tang Dynasty, Muslims have made careful plans and even used Dong Cao as bait to lead the Tang army to take the bait.

Now that his plan has been half successful, the other half depends on Khalid's performance. The Muslim stood in front of the map and stared at the small northern town on the map with cold eyes. Taking it off, he could hold back the necks of Shaye and Tashkent at the same time.

Abu.

A faint smile appeared on the corner of the Muslim's mouth, and he said to himself: "Will you let me down the first heir to the Balmak family?"

The night sky is clear, and the Baishui River, which reflects the moonlight, is in an arc, disappearing eastward in the distant sky. The river is lined with long and narrow forests, hidden in the mist. This is a low-lying valley in the Fergan Basin, with a much warmer climate than Tuozhi City, thanks to the Kent Mountain blocking the cold current in the north.

There are large areas of fir, cedar and cypress on both sides of the river valley, and there are wide open clearings in the forest. The clearings are covered with bushes, and the unknown berries in the bushes are ripe and bright.

There is a small castle in the upper reaches of this rarely visited river valley called Baishui City. This is the only place to go to Talas City in the north. It is an important place for merchants to rest on foot. Its significance lies in this. It has no major strategic significance. Therefore, there are not many troops garrisoned in the city, only one battalion, and five hundred Tang troops are stationed.

The city itself is not large, with only three or four hundred households, and Qule, the deputy king of Shi Kingdom, fell into ruin.

That night, a cavalry team of about 3,000 people slowly approached Baishui City, but their march was not secret. The beacon tower near Baishui City immediately discovered them. Three flames suddenly soared into the sky, and the bright flames were particularly dazzling in the night. This was the alarm of the attack of the enemy troops in the brigade. Then the alarm bells in Baishui City sounded loudly, and the same flames rose. Soon, the beacon towers on the Kent Mountain in the north of Baishui City were also lit, and the beacon towers spread the alarm to Talas City one by one.

Baishui City is closer to Talas City than Tuozhi City. It is only more than 200 miles away from Talas City. Half an hour later, the warning for help from the beacon tower in Baishui City reached Talas City.

At this moment, the city of Talas has increased its troops to 5,000. The status of Talas is extremely important. To the east, along the northern foot of Qianquan Mountain, you can reach Sailai by Julan City and Ashibulai City. It is about 700 miles apart. To the north is the famous business road to Byzantine. The Turks in the north go south and after crossing Qianquan Mountain, they first go to Talas City. It is actually the throat of the Turks' key road to the south.

It is precisely because it has such an important strategic position that Li Qingan also attaches great importance to it, and gradually increased from the initial two thousand defenders to 5,000. However, when Li Qingan dealt with the status of Baishui City, he also made a defensive mistake. Since Baishui City is close to Talas, considering the historical origins of Talas and Baishui City and can be mutually supportive, Li Qingan classified Baishui City as an affiliated city of Talas.

But it was this affiliation that made Tala City have a responsibility to Baishui City, which turned into a defensive loophole. When Baishui City's beacon of help came, general Bai Xiaojie immediately led three thousand troops to Baishui City overnight to support.

The night faded slowly in anxiety, and a fiery red sun rose slowly on the top of Qianquan Mountain in the east, casting the rays of light into the vast land. The defenders of Talas City were still patrolling the city as usual.

The defenders looked at the faint black smoke rising into the sky in the west. It was the alarm of a beacon tower twenty miles away, but the defenders didn't care. Obviously, it was the alarm for help from Baishui City that had not yet dissipated. The beacon tower burned all night last night, and the soldiers were a little tired.

Suddenly, a soldier screamed, pointing to the West and shouting: "Look, what is that?"

The soldiers on the city wall looked west together, and their hearts suddenly became cold. A long black line appeared at the end of the grassland several miles away, and was approaching here quickly.

"It's the Great Food Army!"

Someone shouted, the alarm bell rang, and the Tang army rushed to the top of the city, all of them were shocked.

A few miles away, the main force of the Great Food Army was surging towards the city of Talas, like a big black wave, wave after wave, a total of 30,000 people. There were huge trenchers mixed in between them, and huge wooden wheels rumbled and rolled on the grassland.

In front of the team, Khalid, the general of the Abbasid Empire.

Barmak stared at the city of Talas in the distance with time. The 30,000 troops attacked this small city without any need to attack Baishui City at night. If he digs the tiger away from the mountain, his sea of ​​people would be enough to flood the city.

Khalid.

Balmak is the eldest son of the famous Persian Balmak family. They are descendants of the Persian royal family and have the highest noble bloodline. He was once Abu.

The Muslim beloved general, but not now, because he is a Shiite believer, Abu.

The brutal suppression of Shiites in the River aroused Khalid's dissatisfaction, and he instead surrendered to Mansour. Since Mansour reached a compromise with the Muslims before returning to Damascus, Muslims could mobilize his army. The Muslims ordered Khalid to lead 30,000 Syrian troops to attack Talas.

Although Khalid was dissatisfied with the Muslims, he also admired the Muslims' strategy very much. He used the Dongcao Kingdom to attract the main force of the Tang army to go south, and asked Qiyad to restrain the Tang army, and ordered himself to go north along the Sir River (i.e. Yaosha River), cross the river west of Talas, seize the city of Talas, and aimed directly at the Thunder Leaf, which put the Tang army in a passive state.

Khalid waved his sword and shouted loudly: "Go forward and take Talas!"

The main force of the Dashi Army went north, and the news that the city of Talas was lost and the entire defender was wiped out two days later. The Tang army was preparing for the battle in Samarkand. The loss of Talas City shocked every Tang general, especially the general Bai Xiaojie encountered an ambush when he returned to the aid and unfortunately died in battle, which made the Tang generals very sad.

Li Siye and Li Guangbi came to Li Qing'an's tent at the same time.

"The general locked himself in the tent, no one saw him." Li Guangbi took a step first, and he sighed.

Li Siye nodded and said, "We should persuade him that the situation is not that bad, and it can be saved."

"Let him be quiet! Let him think about it." Li Guangbi could understand Li Qing'an's mood at this time.

In the big tent, Li Qing'an sat in front of the sand table and stared at Talas. The loss of Talas City made him strategically passive, and Bai Xiaojie's death made him feel even more distressed. This was his responsibility. He underestimated the enemy. From the capture of the Shattered Leaf, he has been smooth sailing, so he underestimated Abu.

Muslims think that his performance is not good now because of his bad relationship with Mansour.

But he forgot, Abu.

The Muslim once defeated Gao Xianzhi. He was such a powerful character. He underestimated the enemy and actually wanted to take down Samarkand in one fell swoop.

Li Qing'an only now realized that he has always been in Abu.

In the Muslims' calculations, they used Qiyad's 30,000 troops to restrain him, but he secretly sent the main force to go north and seized the city of Talas in one fell swoop, and exchanged a useless small country of Dongcao to exchange for his strategic place.

Li Qingan couldn't help but sigh. The price of underestimating the enemy was so heavy. He glanced out of the tent and saw Li Guangbi and Li Siye standing outside the tent. He said, "Let them both come in!"

As soon as the curtain was lifted, Li Guangbi and Li Siye walked in. They looked at each other and were embarrassed to speak first. Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "Do you think I was alone in the tent and felt uncomfortable?"

Li Siye scratched the back of his head and said with a smile: "We are afraid that the general will lose confidence when he is hit."

"Lost confidence?"

Li Qingan sneered and said, "Why did I lose confidence?"

He walked a few steps in the tent with his hands behind his back, turned to the two and said, "I admit that I underestimated the enemy, I underestimated the Muslims. I also know that once the city of Talas was lost, the cannibals grabbed the commanding heights and thus took the initiative in the entire battle. But will I lose confidence? If so, what else will the battle be fought in the subsequent battle?"

At this time, Li Guangbi smiled and said, "In fact, even if the battle of Dongcao is the enemy's strategy to lure the enemy, their price is also very tragic, especially the losses of Silver City. It is estimated that Muslims cannot explain to their Caliph."

Li Qing'an nodded, "I want to reward the three hundred scouts in the matter of seizing the Silver City, especially Qin Haiyang. Although this person has a criminal record, he is a talented person and even robbed Anxi 700,000 kilograms of silver. This is an unparalleled merit. I will promote him to the General of the Central Army."

Speaking of this, he said to Li Guangbi again: "I will leave you ten thousand troops. Don't worry about the life and death of Dongcao Kingdom. You must guard Yincheng for me, and you must also fish out the silver that sinks to the bottom of the river as soon as possible. If Yincheng really cannot be defended, you can give up, but no matter what, you must transport all the money back to Anxi for me, especially to prevent the Tocharian army from cutting off your retreat."

Li Guangbi bowed and said, "Don't worry, General, I will start this matter immediately."

At this time, Li Fei Yuanli also walked in, and Li Qing'an smiled and said, "You are here just in time. I have a task to you."

Li Fei Yuanli bowed, "Please give orders to the general!"

Li Qingan thought for a while and said, "Don't let the 50,000 slaves in Yincheng go back for the time being. You have to find a way to take them to the Sailed Leaf first, select strong people from among them for training. You have to tell them that the Nine Kingdoms of Sogdian will be their world in the future."

"The last one will obey the order!"

After Li Qing'an arranged the funeral, he said to Li Siye: "Next, we will rush back to Tuozhi City and prepare to fight against Abu Muslims."
Chapter completed!