Chapter 376: Crisis is coming

Whether in modern times or in the mid-Tang Dynasty 1,300 years ago, intelligence is always extremely important for a war. It is said that knowing oneself and enemy will never be defeated. However, the distance of time and space makes it particularly difficult to obtain intelligence.

The Tang army's actions in Tochar are undoubtedly like this in Damascus. The Damascus palace was still immersed in the ease of quelling the rebellion of Old Ali, and they had no idea about the upcoming war in the distant East.

After Mansour ascended the throne, the internal contradictions of the Abbasid Empire were immediately highlighted, Abu.

Muslims are holding troops in Khorasan, and they are the ones who are respectful.

Ali summoned his army in northern Syria to openly compete with Mansour, and the momentum was huge, forcing Mansour to temporarily move the capital to Kufa.

The crisis of domination caused Mansour to give up his attack on Spain and signed an armistice with Ahman in Green, who needed to concentrate on solving internal enemies.

In Khorasan, he took Abu by bribing the general Chiaed.

The Muslims' military power then killed Abu.

Muslim, he promised back then that he would never kill Abu.

Muslim, he used a natural disaster to make Abu.

Muslims died of house collapse.

Then Mansour's sword aimed at his uncle, Ali. He showed no mercy, did not negotiate or persuade, but immediately mobilized the army to launch a fierce attack on Ali's army. He also called on the Syrian people and soldiers, "It was me who rescued you from the Tang army's mines at the beginning. How could you be ungrateful?"

Mansour's appeal has received a huge effect, Ben.

Ali's army fell apart overnight. Syrian soldiers were unwilling to work for him and fled one after another. More than 40,000 troops were left with less than 10,000 loyal friends. Mansour personally led a 70,000 army to launch a fierce attack on Ali, and defeated Old Ali's army in one battle. Mansour personally killed this uncle who made him hate him to the core, and sent all the loyal friends to Ali to the gallows, and massacred more than 10,000 rebels who supported Old Ali with the most cruel means.

Mansour turned to Egypt again, where the army supporting Old Ali was rebelling. After several months of bloody suppression, Mansour was loyal to completely quelling the capital.

Ali's rebellion returned to Damascus.

He was a little proud and did not handle official duties for more than ten days. He locked himself in the palace and tasted the mellow wine and the beauty of victory.

At this time, Khalid had been waiting outside the palace for a noon. The scorching sun was scorching him ruthlessly, making him feel worried. Although the empire was calm, there were many enemies outside. There were old enemies, Romans and Ghaza people in the north, and Umayyad's remnants in the west. Hatred cannot be mediated. There was an aggressive Tang Dynasty in the east. Did Mansur start to enjoy it so soon?

"Go and take a look, is His Majesty's lunch ready?"

He shouted loudly, and his anger made Khalid particularly impatient. He was a little unreasonable. The two black eunuchs ran away in fear.

In the palace, Mansour was lying in the arms of several charming beauties, with various delicious dishes and sweet grape juice in front of him. A group of dancers danced gracefully in front of him, and his graceful figure was talking about those moving love words. It has been nearly half a year since Mansour ascended the throne. Only in this half month did he finally enjoy the extravagant life of the emperor. He felt tired and needed to recuperate for several months.

But in fact, half a month of excessive wine and color made Mansour's body lose weight significantly, his eyelids were swollen and his eyes were turbid, and he was no longer as bright as before. Not only did he not take good care of his body, he destroyed his strong body.

At this moment, he suddenly heard a slight scolding sound. When he turned around, he saw the inner palace general scolding a eunuch at the door.

"What's the matter?" he asked with some displeasure.

The head of the inner palace hurried forward and said, "Your Majesty the Caliph, Lord Vizier is here again. I'm asking the eunuchs not to disturb His Majesty again."

Mansour thought for a while and waved his hand, saying, "No! Let him come in and take him to my map palace."

"Yes! I'll go now."

The inner palace general went down, and Mansour sat up, feeling dizzy. He quickly stabilized his body and said to the concubine behind him, "You all go down!"

He felt annoyed. He was just over forty years old, so why was his health so ineffective?

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Khalid followed the inner palace chief through one palace gate after another. At this moment, his anxious mood calmed down. While walking, he was thinking about how to persuade His Majesty the Caliph to cheer up again.

Walking to a thick gate, the inner palace general whispered: "Your Majesty is inside, please come in!"

Khalid just pushed the door and entered, and the Inner Palace Chief suddenly whispered behind him: "Maybe it is a good way to let His Majesty the Caliph feel the crisis."

Khalid was stunned and turned around and saw the inner manager standing there expressionlessly. He nodded and pushed the door and went in.

The hall was dimly lit and all kinds of maps were hung on all sides of the walls. Mansour stood with his hands behind his back to the gate.

Khalid walked into the hall, put his hand on his chest, and bowed deeply, "His Majesty the Caliph!"

"How is Baghdad built?" Mansur asked in a low voice.

"It is under construction and additional funds are needed."

"How much taxes are earned in various places?"

When Mansour asked this, Khalid felt joy in his heart, which shows that His Majesty the Caliph was still concerned about the empire and did not blindly pursue pleasure, but the tax was indeed not optimistic. He said a little sadly: "The tax revenue this year is not very good. He only earned 30 million dirhals in the first half of the year, which is a full five million less than last year, mainly due to a sharp reduction in commercial taxes."

"Why?" Mansour turned around and asked.

"I have received news that the Tang Dynasty and Rome reached a treaty of direct trade, and a large amount of goods were transported directly from the broken leaves to Constantinople and no longer traded through us."

"When did this happen? Why didn't I report it to me earlier?" Mansour's voice became stern. He knew very well the consequences of this matter. Once the Tang Dynasty traded directly with Constantinople, it would mean that Arabia would lose the central position of East-West trade and be marginalized.

"I learned this news ten days ago. I have come to see His Majesty three times, but I can't see His Majesty."

"I got it, what else?"

"And... Cyprus Island."

Khalid's tone was a little hesitant, but this was what he was anxious to report today.

"What's going on in Cyprus? Was it taken away by the Romans?"

"No, it's still in our hands, but......"

"But what, you've made it clear to me!" Mansour's tone seemed a little annoyed.

"Yes! The day before yesterday, the Romans launched a small-scale attack on Cyprus Island. It can be concluded that this was a tentative attack. Although our defenders rose up to resist, the result was a little bad. Our defenders actually killed more than 700 people and were shot dead by the opponent's crossbow arrows."

"What did you say?"

Mansour suddenly opened his eyes wide, "Boundary arrow? Are you saying that the other party also has a crossbow arrow?"

"That's right, and the range is longer than our crossbows. Their crossbows are exactly the same as those of the Tang army. I can conclude that they bought crossbows from the Tang army."

"Allah! Why is this happening?"

Mansour was a little confused. They imitated the crossbows of the Tang army and made their own crossbows. In the last battle for the island of Cyprus, they defeated the 20,000 Romans who attacked the island with this sharp weapon and killed one of their princes. Unexpectedly, the Romans had the crossbows of the Tang army so quickly, which made Mansour feel a sense of fear. They could not completely imitate the crossbows of the Tang army. The power of the crossbows was obviously inferior to that of the Tang crossbows. Now the Romans have the same crossbows as them, and perhaps they still have weapons and equipment that exceeds them. Can they still compete with the Romans?

"Your Majesty, now our crisis is very serious. There are trade and military disadvantages. Your Majesty, we cannot sit and wait for death like this."

Mansour sat down dejectedly, and for a while, he sighed, "Then tell me, how should we deal with it?"

"Your Majesty, what I am most worried about is whether the Tang Dynasty will form a military alliance with the Romans and deal with us together."

"Will they?" Mansour's eyes were full of vigilance. This was the last thing he wanted to see.

Khalid sighed in his heart. His Majesty the Caliph was indeed fascinated by the wine and color. Can't you even see such an obvious thing?

"Your Majesty, since the Tang Dynasty is willing to sell weapons to them, this may be very big."

The palace was silent, and neither of them spoke. This terrifying conclusion was heavy in their hearts and made it difficult for them to face.

"What should we do?"

"Prepare for the future and speed up the preparations for war. I guess the Romans will soon launch a large-scale attack on Cyprus, but in any case, His Majesty can no longer indulge in wine and sex, and must cheer up to deal with the upcoming trade and military crisis."

"You don't need to say too much about this, I have my own sense of responsibility."

Ju Zhanti, which is today Leninabad in Tajikistan,

This is the hub of the Anxi water transport channel. It is located at the intersection of the Zhenzhu River and the Yaoshui River. The transportation is very convenient. Through the Zhenzhu River, it can reach the river to the west, and it can reach the Saiye to the east. The capital of Shiguo Tuozhi City in the north, and the silver mine center of Anxi to the south, and the silver city of Bosishan. It is also the closest city to Anxi to connect to Tochar. From here, it is three hundred miles south, and crossing Bosishan, you can reach the Jiesu Kingdom of Tochar, where merchants from all over the world gather here.

But the strategic significance of the clan lies in its transit freight and material storage. The huge dock can accommodate hundreds of large ships at the same time to load and unload goods. A large amount of materials are distributed here. On the dock, hundreds of huge warehouses show the status of this city.

More than a month has passed since the alliance between Atir City, and the Tang army's combat readiness has reached the most critical moment. More than 10,000 Han troops from Shi Kingdom and Ningyuan Kingdom have arrived in Ju Zhanti, and more than 20,000 Tang troops from Ju Zhanti themselves are also ready.

The Tang army in Ju Zhanti was not the Han army, but the Sogdians who believed in the Zoroastrianism in Hezhong. They were originally slaves from Yincheng. After being liberated by the Tang army, most of these slaves joined the Tang army. As time passed, half of the soldiers had retired and returned home. Those who were left were young soldiers. After rigorous training, they gradually became the Sogdian army with fierce fighting.

At present, the general of the Tang army who is guarding the battle between the two is Li Guangbi. He followed Li Qing'an north to Atil City and accepted the important task assigned to him by Li Qing'an. He served as the head coach of the Western Front of the Battle of Tochar and led 30,000 troops to capture Tochar. At the same time, Li Guangbi's Western Front was also the logistics corps of the entire southern expedition. After entering Tochar, they would directly provide logistics support to Li Qing'an's army on the center.

In the past two days, the 10,000 camel brigade from Gesa Kingdom began to arrive at the Jun Zhan team one after another. Li Guangbi was extremely busy. The arrival of these camels means that the war will begin.

On the pier, thousands of camels gathered together, surging uneasy. The air on the pier was filled with a pungent stench. More than a hundred Geza people who followed the camels were busy greeting the camels, following the arrangements of the dock managers, and took the camels away in an orderly manner.

At that time, King Gesa promised Li Qing'an to send two thousand camel troops to assist the Tang army. In fact, this is a kind of sending troops to participate in the war. It does not require so many people to control camel soldiers. Two hundred professional camel soldiers were enough to take care of ten thousand camels.

Bran Khan was a smart man. In order to please the powerful neighbor of the Tang Dynasty, he used a more direct way to express his sincerity. He sent a two thousand camel army and rushed to Ju Zhanti with tens of thousands of camels, without delaying the war. This is enough to prove that Bran knew that the real purpose of these tens of thousands of camels was not trade, but for war.

Under the protection of dozens of personal soldiers, Li Guangbi rode to the dock. A ferry full of camels was squeaking to the dock. As soon as he got to the dock, the owner of the ship covering his nose was urging the camels to get on the shore as soon as he got to the dock.

"Can't you control the camels and don't excrete on my boat?"

The ship owner was furious and jumped to his feet and cursed several Geza people who couldn't understand his words and hundreds of camels who also couldn't understand his words.

Li Guangbi rushed over on a horse and asked the ship owner loudly: "Silat, is there an army coming on the other side? I am not referring to the Tang army, but those Geza people wearing high hats and leather armor. They should be soldiers."

"It seems to be there! I saw thousands of strange soldiers riding camels on the other side! They seemed to be very afraid of taking a boat and were very timid. General Li, it would be better if this group of troops didn't want it, it would drag you down."

"Stop talking nonsense, go and transport them over."

"One boat is not enough, I will call a few more boats to bring them over together."

Li Guangbi nodded and said to a personal soldier: "You can wait here, and after all the people are all, take them to the warehouse to see me."
Chapter completed!