Chapter 514: Intrigue

The battle of Bushicheng ended in a bloody storm. The Tubo army was unwilling to surrender. They either fought with the Tang army in the city or rushed out of the city to flee. They were cruelly killed by the Tang army. More than 30,000 Tubo army were killed. In the end, less than 500 people fled to death. The main general Lunxizhu was shot and killed by the Tang army when he broke through the siege.

Killing three thousand enemies and 800 of them hurt themselves, the Tang army also suffered 50,000 casualties. Compared with the glorious victory, this casualties were nothing. The Tang army won the first battle as scheduled and seized the land on the north bank of the Amu River in an all-round way.

The Tang army added another 20,000 troops from Jie Su Country, and Li Qing'an left 10,000 people to guard the Bushi City. He personally led 90,000 troops to cross the Amu River from Tawei City and occupied the Great Khanate. The army was deployed on the front line of Hualucheng and Tiwei City to confront the main force of the Tubo army.

That afternoon, a 200-man Tang army patrol patrols the desert area north of the Great Khanate. This is a desert close to the Amu River. Although the desert in March is not as unbearable as summer, the bright sun shines on the desert, and the sun is so dazzling that it makes people unable to open their eyes.

This Tang army patrol was led by a brigade commander named Ami.

Zarik is a Sogdian from Anguo. He is over thirty years old. He believes in the Zoroastrian religion and is upright and sincere, smart and capable. Whenever his subordinates have difficulties in their families, he will take out his military pay to support his brothers. Therefore, he has a very good reputation, and the soldiers and generals from all over the country like him very much.

When Zarik was young, his family was captured and plundered to Syria as slaves. He grew up there and became a blacksmith. Later, he married a Sogdian slave and gave birth to a daughter. Soon afterwards, Abbas's army captured Damascus, and his parents, wives and daughters were killed by Abbas' army. He was convicted for building weapons for the army. In addition, he was a Zoroastrian, and was exiled to the silver mines in Possiy Mountain as mine slaves. Under the forced force of the cannibals, he mined day and night, and witnessed countless companions dying in a tragic situation. He also knew that he would sooner or later be buried in the silver mine.

But the arrival of the Tang army liberated him and organized them into the Silver Mine Army. He also became a soldier of the Anxi Army. As time went by, most of the Silver Mine Army retired and returned home. Because his parents, wife and children died at the hands of the Arabs, he was no longer homeless, so he treated the Anxi Army as his home and continued to serve in the Anxi Army. He gradually became a soldier and became a brigade commander. Last year, he was promoted to brigade commander and also won the title of deputy lieutenant Xuanjie, who was the eighth-ranked brigade commander. The brigade commander was equivalent to the company commander of later generations and was a middle- and low-level officer. Although his military position was not high, Zaryk was already satisfied. What made him particularly pleased was that the Anxi Army was not discriminated against because he was a Hu man with blue eyes and a high nose. If he fought for a few years, he could be promoted to a lieutenant.

Anxi encouraged Hu and Han to intermarry. Due to wars every year, there were a shortage of men in the Hezhong area, and it was obvious that most women were more than men. Many Han soldiers in the Tang army married Hu girls and settled their families in Hezhong. Similarly, some Hu soldiers married Han girls and saved up some money to start a new life.

Because Zarick has good conditions, many Han officers and soldiers are willing to introduce him to a Han woman as his wife so that he can re-establish a family. However, Zarick misses his deceased wife and children, and he has vowed not to remarry, and whether it is a Han or a Hu woman, he will never remarry for life.

Zarik led two hundred soldiers to march westward in the desert, and walked northward not far away and entered the Gobi Desert on the banks of the Amu River. After they rushed up a sandy mountain, a soldier suddenly pointed at the front and shouted: "Lucking coach, look there!"

Everyone looked northwest and saw a small black dot on the Gobi Desert near the Amu River, which was coming east. It was obvious that it was camels. The Tang army also had logistical camels, but at least it was a brigade of several thousand people. A small team of hundreds of camels like this would not be the Tang army.

"Let's go! Look."

The soldiers urged their horses to rush down the sandy mountain, rushed straight towards the black spots, and gradually approached the team. The camels were full of goods, which turned out to be a team of merchants.

The caravan also discovered the Tang army. They panicked and turned the team to escape. However, the Tang army was very fast and instantly blocked their retreat, surrounded them, and shouted loudly: "Where is the merchant?"

The merchants stopped. Most of them were wearing white robes and mostly Arabs. Zarik hated Arabs very much. Every time he saw Arabs, he would involuntarily think of his parents and wife and children who died tragically under the iron hoof of Arabs. His face suddenly became gloomy and he asked in Arabic: "Where are you from? Where are you going?"

A middle-aged Arab man walked out and said in panic: "We came from Egypt and transported a batch of cotton cloth to Ayan City. We went every year."

'Egypt?'

When Zarik was a teenager, he went to Egypt with his master and lived in Alexandria for four years. He was very familiar with the situation in Egypt. He heard that the Arabs did not have the accent of the Egyptians, but the accent in the southern part of Khorasan made him feel a little suspicious, but this doubt flashed in his heart. He put it aside for a while and said, "Don't you know that Ayan City was occupied by the Tubo people?"

"Reporting to Jun Ye, we have also heard that the tax is very high, but cotton cloth is a hot item in Ayan City and can be sold at a high price, so we can make money even if we pay a little tax."

"Hmph! You guys are quite confident."

Zarik waved his hand and said to his subordinate Sergeant: "Check!"

Tang soldiers came up one after another and stabbed the boxes and cloth bags with spears. Several merchants shouted in pain: "You will break the cotton cloth!"

The Tang army ordered them to take down all the goods and spread them out, carefully check them one by one, including their tax payment and identity certificates. Zarik looked squintingly and pay attention to the actions of the middle-aged man. The man's eyes flashed from time to time, which aroused Zarik's suspicion. The man only had two camels and brought more than twenty bundles of cotton. Although the cotton cloth was large in size, it was not an expensive item. These twenty bundles of cotton cloth were sold for up to forty silver dollars. If half of the tax was deducted, he could only earn twenty silver dollars. He came from Egypt thousands of miles away. These twenty silver dollars might not even have enough travel expenses. This is a bit unreasonable.

Zarik became more suspicious and smiled silently: "I heard that Egyptians plant cotton by the Nile River and started picking it in July and August. You can transport cotton now. Can you make money?"

The businessman agreed and said, "We bought cotton cloth last August. It has been stocked up until now and is sold at a high price."

"Is that true? Everyone is busy in the fields in July and August, so how can I have time to weave cotton? You remember it wrong!"

"Haha! Remember right, although everyone was busy in the field at that time, women could buy cotton cloth at home."

Zarik's face changed. July and August were the time when the Nile River flooded. The river flooded the land and could not be cultivated at all. Egypt's cotton was picked in April and May. This man was lying, and he had never been to Egypt.

Zarik suddenly smiled at him in Egypt and said, "I understand, you are a spy!"

The middle-aged man smiled and nodded repeatedly, as if Zarik was saying it was very reasonable. Zarik took two steps back and shouted: "These people are spies, arrest them all!"

The middle-aged man understood this sentence. His face changed drastically. He turned his horse's head and fled. He only escaped for more than twenty steps. Zarik took an arrow and hit his horse's hind leg. The war horse fell and threw the middle-aged man more than ten feet away. He was about to get up, Zarik had arrived and pushed his throat with a spear, and said coldly: "You should be honest, otherwise you will die here!"

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In the Tang army camp, Li Qing'an was talking about the situation in Chang'an with Du Hongjian, who had just arrived from Ziye to escort grain. Li Qing'an received an urgent report from Ziye the day before yesterday. Only then did he realize that there had been drastic changes in Chang'an, Li Heng had forcibly ascended the throne, and An Lushan established a new emperor in Youzhou and proclaimed himself the right prime minister.

From when Li Qing'an left Chang'an, he knew that this would be the result. Li Heng's desire for the throne had ruined his morality and killed his son and grandson one after another. Even if he succeeded in such a person for a while, he would not be able to last for a long time. The resistance of all officials to him best illustrates this point.

"General, the officials of Anxi all hope that the Battle of Tochar is over as soon as possible, and hope that the General will return to Chang'an as soon as possible."

Du Hongjian smiled a little embarrassedly. As an official in Anxi, if Li Qing'an ascended the throne, he would definitely reuse the officials of the Anxi faction. This is the expectation of all their Anxi officials, and Du Hongjian is no exception.

Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "The Battle of Tocharo will not last too long. The Tubo people have no foundation. They are opposed by the Tocharo people. They can last for a month at most. Their food will be in crisis. At that time, I will win without a fight, so everyone will rest assured. When the battle in Tocharo is slightly calmed down, I will immediately return to Chang'an and clean up the mess again."

"But we are very worried that over time, Li Heng's throne will be firmly settled, and many changes will happen at that time."

"If Qianniuwei and Anxi Army were not in Chang'an, the ministers might be frightened by Li Heng's tyranny and surrendered to him, but as long as my Qianniuwei is in my way, those ministers would not surrender to him. The longer the time, the more his crisis, and I am not worried at all."

"That's good, I hope the general will return triumphant soon."

As the two were talking, suddenly the report came from outside, "General, the Tang army patrol captured the spy who cannibalized the great cannibal."

"Yeah?"

Li Qingan was surprised and hurriedly said, "Come on!"

After a moment, Zarik and more than a dozen personal soldiers escorted the middle-aged man into the tent. The middle-aged man was tied up and knelt on the ground.

Zarik knelt down on one knee and reported: "Zarick, the brigade commander from the third scout camp of the Broken Ye Army, met with the general."

He took out a letter and presented it with both hands and said, "General, this is a letter I have found from the spy. Please check it out."

Li Qingan took the letter and frowned. Judging from the handwriting, it looked quite like Mansour's handwriting, but he wrote it in Arabic and there is a Tubo translation below. Li Qingan couldn't understand both of these words.

At this time, Zarik understood Li Qing'an's thoughts and said, "General, I understand Arabic and speak Tubo, and I am willing to translate."

"I can't tell you know four languages, it's not simple!"

Zarik took the letter and smiled embarrassedly, "Report to the general, Huye actually knows six languages, including Turkic and Egyptian."

"Is that true? I didn't expect that there were still dragons and tigers in my army."

Li Qingan patted his shoulder and smiled and said, "Read it to me!"

With a wave of his hand, the soldiers took the Dashi spy first, and Li Qingan immediately stood in front of the window with his hands behind his back.

"The Caliph Mansur of the Abbasid Empire sent General Shangxi Dongzan. Now the Tang army and the Tubo army are fighting each other. My Khurasan has a great army of 70,000. The Tang army and our army have been fighting for many years. I know that its military strength is strong, and I also know that Li Qing'an has a profound strategy and superb wisdom. With Tubo alone, it is difficult to defeat the Tang army and it is difficult to defeat Li Qing'an. God often says that there are brothers in the world. I am willing to regard Tubo as my brother, and work with General Shangxi Dongzan to fight the Tang army together...."

A faint smile appeared on the corner of Li Qing'an's lips. It was rare that Mansour looked up to him so highly. He knew Mansour's thoughts better than anyone else. At this time, Li Qing'an turned around and looked at Zarik with thoughtful eyes.

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In Ayan City, the commander of the Tubo Army, Shang Xi Dongzan, had already obtained information about the defeat of Bushicheng. He was furious and drew his sword to slash and kill the room, slashing the room with holes. Finally, he threw the sword to the ground and sat heavily in the chair. The Tocharo chair squeaked.

Shang Xi Dongzan pressed his forehead, and Bu Shicheng's failure made him upset. Forty thousand people were annihilated by the Tang army, which reduced his strength to 60,000 at once. However, Shang Jiasu had 80,000 troops, which had surpassed him in all directions.

Now Shang Xi Dongzan is worried. He has seen the strategy of the Tang army, which is to concentrate superior forces and gradually divide and eat them. Forty thousand people will be wiped out, and the next step will be his sixty thousand troops.

The Tubo army clearly had an advantage, but was taken advantage of by the Tang army because of the inability to concentrate its troops. If the failure of the Bushicheng was caused by his excessive greed and unwilling to give up his land, then his lack of troops now belonged to the internal strife of the Tubo army.

After Zanpu died, he sent someone to report some news, but found that Dabolu had been captured by the Tang army and the Tang army had cut off their return, which made Shang Xidongzan even more frightened. The Tang army surrounded them in Tochar like a cloth bag.

Of course, they could also retreat south to India, but that was their last retreat. He did not want to give up Tochar. Now, no matter what, he wanted monk Jiasu to talk about it. They needed to unite together. If they unite, they would benefit from each other, and if they would lose each other, they would suffer from each other.

At this moment, a report from a soldier came from outside, saying, "Master, the envoy of the Great Food has arrived, please see the Great Magistrate!"

Shang Xidongzan was stunned. The envoy of the Great Food came. He thought about it and suddenly understood that he came. He hurriedly said, "Please invite him in!"

After a moment, two envoys of food in white robes were led in by Tubo soldiers. The leader stepped forward and put his hands on his chest, bowed respectfully, and said in a skillful Tubo language: "The minister of Mansur Caliph, Damascus tax officer Ami Zarik, met General Shangxi Dongzan. I will serve as an envoy to Tochar on the order of His Majesty of the Caliph."
Chapter completed!