Water Margin people

"It still doesn't make sense. Why did they come out now? And why did they dare to come out?"

Zhang Qing shook his head and said, everything was calm before, but recently there have been sudden increases in incidents.

"General, enemy cavalry appears outside Baghdad!"

A team of messengers came on horseback to report.

"What? Another enemy?"

Zhang Qing frowned even more tightly, the frequent appearance of enemies seemed strange.

"Let's go back to Baghdad!"

Zhang Qing gave the order directly, saying that he could no longer patrol around at this time, running around like this was not a solution, he had to stick to the principle of keeping one's mind focused, concentrate all his strength, and be able to respond to all changes with the same attitude.

After Zhang Qing left, Saladin appeared in the desert with his men.

“These people really were fooled!”

Saladin said with a smile. He was really afraid that Zhang Qing would take his men upstream. Once they were discovered, everything he had done would be in vain.

"Sir, should we also go to the outskirts of Baghdad?"

A group of generals said excitedly.

"No, it would be dangerous if we go. If the Qi army attacks everywhere, can you stop them?"

"Also, we can't let Zhang Qing know that we are nearby. Although he may have guessed that it was arranged by me, I can't show up! I have to encourage the tribes in the desert to take action."

Saladin looked at the generals around him and said, doing it yourself and sending others to do it are completely different concepts.

"Come on, let's go upstream!"

Saladin led his men to the Asia Minor Plateau in the north.

……

Baghdad.

Qiongying led her men to the city wall to observe the surrounding situation.

"General, the enemy that attacked the village has escaped!"

A female soldier reported to Qiongying.

"Have you found out who it is?"

Qiongying looked unhappy. Under her governance, enemies actually attacked the village.

Qiongying did not blame the defenders. The plain was too large and it was impossible for them to provide absolute defense with such a small number of troops.

"It's the Ozark tribe in the desert!"

The female soldier replied.

"How dare a reptile hiding in the desert come to our territory!"

Qiongying said with a gloomy expression.

"General, the enemy has already escaped. Should we send people to pursue them?"

A general asked.

"In the desert?"

Qiongying hesitated.

"General Zhang, it's General Zhang who is back!"

The defenders on the city wall suddenly pointed to the distance and shouted that Zhang Qingzheng was coming with a large army on the road.

Zhang Qing led his army directly back to the city.

"I know everything. I also found some problems during this inspection!"

Zhang Qing looked at Qiongying and said.

"The storm is coming and the wind is blowing all over the building!"

Qiongying sighed and said that things in the Mesopotamian region have been very unstable recently, with bandits and tribes causing all kinds of trouble, and Saladin's shadow is behind all of this.

"They are taking advantage of us. Han Shizhong in the Red Sea is fine, Yuan Lang in the Persian Plateau is fine, Mi Sheng in Tianzhu is fine, but we are in trouble in the Persian Gulf!"

Zhang Qing said with a gloomy face, which showed that he looked down on him.

"We can't do anything. Our area is all plains, with no strategic locations to defend. The enemy can come from anywhere, and we have no way to defend ourselves."

Qiongying said helplessly that every place is different, and the biggest problem on their side is that they can't defend effectively.

"Since we can't defend, then we have to fight back. I don't care what those people want to do. If they get close to Baghdad, I will kill them immediately!"

Zhang Qing said with murderous intent on his face.

"Don't be so impulsive. I have already sent a message to His Majesty. It won't be too late to see what His Majesty has to say."

Qiongying looked at Zhang Qing and spoke.

"Did you send a message back?" Zhang Qing looked at Qiongying in confusion.

"These are not secrets, so it's normal to report them back. Otherwise, what are we reporting?"

Qiongying knew that Zhang Qing was worried that he would lose face if he reported such a small matter back.

"Hey, just say it!"

Zhang Qing sighed. He wanted to solve all these problems by himself. After all, he was the governor of the Persian Gulf. It was a bit embarrassing to ask the emperor for instructions.

“Drip…drip…drip…drip!”

The telegraph machine started beeping, and soon the telegraph operator compiled a message.

"General, there is an urgent telegram from the Ministry of War!"

The telegraph operator reported to Zhang Qing and Qiong Ying.

Zhang Qing immediately took the telegram and started reading it, and Qiongying also leaned over to read it.

"Let's analyze the situation and make our own decisions?"

Zhang Qing was a little suspicious, as he didn't understand the telegram.

"Your Majesty is in Liangshan City and doesn't know the situation here, so he wants us to analyze it based on the actual situation at hand!"

"Let me think about it. The villagers in the outlying villages were forcibly relocated by Saladin, and there are quite a lot of them!"

"The bandits and tribes in the desert have been behaving strangely and have been moving closer to Baghdad recently."

"Water flow in the two river basins has dropped sharply this year, leading to drought in some places."

Qiongying listed out everything she knew.

However, Zhang Qing and Qiongying both frowned, as they could not analyze any useful information from these situations.

"General, enemy cavalry appears from the north!"

A soldier ran into the hall to report.

"No matter what, just kill him. I don't believe that killing him won't give us the answer!"

Zhang Qing stood up and walked out, and Qiongying couldn't stop him.

"Oh, such a temper!"

Qiongying could only stamp her feet helplessly and then go back to the hall to continue thinking.

"Population, cavalry, and water flow!"

Qiongying marked everything on the sand table.

Zhang Qing led three thousand cavalrymen out of Baghdad and headed north.

Zhang Qing was angry, so he led his army to intercept the cavalry team directly.

"Kill them all!"

Zhang Qing gave the order directly.

"Bang bang bang!"

Gunshots rang out, and the desert cavalry who had just finished looting were knocked to the ground one after another.

"run!"

Those cavalrymen had no intention of fighting at all. They turned around and ran, and fled in all directions, leaving the Qi army with no direction to pursue them.

"Running like this? This is a harassment tactic! Is this intentional?!"

Zhang Qing analyzed the situation on the battlefield and thought that these people did not seem to be here to plunder. If they were here to plunder, they would have brought things back to the tribe instead of abandoning their weapons and running away in all directions.

The battle ended quickly, and after interrogating the survivors, all they got was the reasons for looting supplies.

"Huh! Looting supplies?"

Zhang Qing didn't believe it at all and ordered his men to kill all the prisoners.

"Pass on my order that people from the surrounding villages move to Baghdad!"

Zhang Qing looked at the generals around him and gave orders. After doing all this, Zhang Qing led his army back to Baghdad.

The trip took two days. When Zhang Qing returned to Baghdad, Qiongying was still meditating beside the sand table.

"General Zhang, General Qiong has been here for two days!"

A female soldier reported to Zhang Qing.

"Two days?"

Zhang Qing looked at Qiongying's back as she stood there thinking and shook his head.

Zhang Qing walked into the hall. He did not call Qiongying directly, but poured a cup of warm tea, then came to Qiongying with a smile. (End of this chapter)