Tibet

Chapter 238 War is Coming
The palace of Bahana is a white stone building covering an area of ​​tens of acres, surrounded by a large wall. Li Ye followed the guards into the palace, until they came to a magnificent hall. The middle-aged man was already waiting for himself in front of the steps, and this man was Murdo, the king of Rahana.

He said with a smile in fluent Chinese: "Welcome the distinguished guests of the Tang Dynasty, and welcome Li to pull sweat!"

Li Ye cupped his fists and saluted, Mo Duo enthusiastically invited Li Ye to the main hall, and sat down next to his throne. The floor was covered with thick carpets, and a table was placed in front of him, with all kinds of exquisite utensils on it, including gold utensils. Lord, the king clapped his hands, and immediately a maid brought a plate of fruits and hot goat milk.

“The king speaks Chinese very well!”

King Murdo said with a smile: "I studied in Chang'an when I was young, and stayed in Chang'an for eight years. My Chinese name is Wang Wan, which means Prince of Dawan. I'm used to the customs of the East. It took more than a year to gradually adapt to this place, and I miss Datang very much!"

Li Ye nodded, looked at the empty seat opposite, and asked with a smile, "Is Master Padmasambhava not here?"

"He has already left, just now, and thanks to him, I know that the danger is at hand."

"The king is referring to Shi Guochun's offensive?"

"No! I've known Shi Guo's bad intentions for a long time. I'm talking about the Tocharian Legion. They've already succeeded in attacking Juzhan, and they will attack us soon."

"But it's winter now!"

"I know that the Tocharian Legion is best at sneak attacking in winter. Isn't it because they succeeded in sneaking in the Infantry City? Winter is the time of rest, and it is also the time when we are most paralyzed."

Li Ye smiled wryly for a while and said, "Master Padmasambhava is really well informed!"

"He is a person with great supernatural powers, not something we mortals can understand."

It should be because of his many followers everywhere, Li Ye muttered in his heart, and then asked: "What can I do for the king?"

"Actually, I don't know, but Master Padmasambhava told me that as long as there is a general around, Kesai City will be safe and sound!"

Li Ye understood that this was an exam question given to him by Master Padmasambhava, and only if he passed the exam would he be the person who would be the one to undo the bell in his mind.

Li Ye immediately got up and smiled and said, "Master thinks too highly of me, I want to see the city wall!"

King Murdo beckoned, and a young and handsome prince walked up quickly. The king introduced to Li Ye: "This is my eldest son, Arolie. He is in charge of the army and the defense of the city. If you have any ideas, you can let him go. Do."

The king gave the prince a few more stern instructions,
Prince Alorie quickly agreed and bowed to Li Ye, "I will accompany the general to see the city wall!"

Li Ye walked out of the palace, the gate was facing the bustling main road, Li Ye suddenly thought of something, reined in his horse and said to A Luolie: "If it is a sneak attack, then it is very likely that it will be a combination of inside and outside."

A Luolie was startled, "The general is saying that the enemy has already entered the city in ambush?"

Li Ye nodded, "The Dashi Tucharian army is all cavalry, and it is impossible to carry siege weapons. They can only use sneak attacks. Either pretend to be a businessman, suddenly control the city gate when entering the city, and then the enemy army appears, or now They have been lurking in the city, and at night they will secretly open the city gate and let the enemy troops enter the city."

"The general is right!"

A Luolie was only 20 years old, had no experience in war, and was inexperienced. He was at a loss for a while, and asked anxiously, "Then what should I do?"

"Close the gates of the city immediately, start to investigate the foreigners who have entered the city in the past five days, and offer rewards for reporting suspicious persons!"

Alorie immediately called for several generals and ordered them to go down. Kesai City immediately took action, the city gate was closed, and the soldiers of Bahana began to register and check all the inns and business hotels.

Li Ye then came to the city wall again, and the circumference of Kesai City was twenty miles, which was considered a medium-sized county in the Tang Dynasty. The city wall was made of stone and was very strong, but the county seat was really not high, only one foot high.

Li Ye frowned, Shi Kingdom has heavy siege weapons, and the city wall is only one foot high, how could it be defended?
Moreover, the city gate is also a wooden door, which is relatively old. This kind of wooden door will shatter when hit with a battering ram, which is meaningless.

But that was for Shi Guo, and the top priority was to defend against the Tocharian army's surprise attack.

Li Ye could also guess why the Dashi Tucharian cavalry wanted to sneak attack Kesai City, because Shi Guo also wanted to attack Kesai City. stone country.

"How many troops are there in the city?"

"Our Bahana army has a total of 5000 people, but there are only 2000 in the city. The other 3000 people are distributed in three military cities a hundred miles away to the west to defend the Stone Kingdom."

"Are they all cavalry?"

"It's all cavalry, does the general need me to pull them all back?"

Li Ye thought for a while and asked, "Where are the three military cities, can you tell me briefly."

A Luolie put four small stones on the ground, the larger one was Kesai City, and the three military cities were arranged in the west, about a hundred miles away from Kesai City.

Li Ye nodded and asked again: "How can I contact them?"

"We use Eagle Letter to communicate with Juncheng."

Li Ye said: "You can let them come back, but let the cavalry from the southern and central military cities gather at the northern military city first, and then come back from the north together, so that you can avoid being ambushed by the cavalry halfway. Do you understand what I mean? ?”

Arrow nodded again and again, "I understand, I will send an eagle letter immediately."

At this time, a soldier came to report: "A few Tocharian businessmen have come and said they want to see General Li of the Tang Dynasty!"

Li Ye was stunned, and walked over, saw a few businessmen, it was Hu Anjialuo who met on the road, Li Ye smiled and stepped forward and said, "Didn't you go to Shi Country? Why are you at Bahan?"

Juangalo stepped forward to salute, and said with a wry smile: "I was going to the country of Shi, but to go to the country of Shi, we have to go through Juzhanti. We heard that the Persian cavalry gathered there, so we didn't dare to go to the country of Shi, and we came to sweat first." Take your luck."

"Is the item sold?"

"It's already sold, and the price of brown sugar here is also very good, so we don't want to go to Stone Country anymore."

Li Ye nodded, "Then what do you want from me?"

Juan Jialuo said: "I heard that the spies of the Persian cavalry are being searched in the city, maybe we have a little clue."

Li Ye was overjoyed, "What clue?"

"We met a caravan in Anji City. They said they were Jumi merchants, and then we came to Bahanna together, but we always felt that they were not merchants."

"why?"

"There are too many of them. There are nearly 30 people, but only forty camels. The goods are long boxes. They say they are high-quality iron rods, but we accidentally found weapons in them, but we didn't think much about it. They After coming to Kesai City, we didn’t go to sell anything, just stayed in the business hotel all day, we were very strange, so just now we heard that spies were being searched in the city, so we thought of this group of people.”

Arrow asked anxiously, "Where do they live?"

"At the Junma Business Travel Village!"

The Junma Merchant Hotel is the second largest inn in Kesai City. It is full of merchants from various countries. The soldiers have searched and checked the origin of each merchant before, and found no suspicious merchants.

In a large stone house lived 35 businessmen, all young and strong. Their identities proved to be from the Kumi Kingdom. These 35 people were indeed from the Kumi Kingdom, but they were Dashi Tochara. The spies of the legion, they were going to assassinate the king of Jumi Kingdom, but they failed, and they were urgently sent to Bahana, preparing to cooperate internally and externally to capture Kesai City.

However, from various official documents through normal channels, it is true that there is no abnormality in them. They are all Tocharians, not Persians.

The search team left, and the leader immediately ordered to dig a long pit, and took out spears, knives, bows and arrows from it. According to the agreement, they will do it at three o'clock tonight.

At this moment, a subordinate who was on guard outside rushed in and shouted: "The army has surrounded us!"

"Damn Gandhara!"

The leader immediately realized that they had been betrayed. It must be the few Gandhara merchants who had come to Barhana with them. They had seen their weapons.

The leader drew his sword and roared, "Follow me!"

He swung his knife and rushed out, followed by several subordinates, rushed out of the door, suddenly a large net fell from the top of his head, covered him and three subordinates, and dragged them aside. The soldiers fired arrows in unison, and the dense arrows shot into the room, and there was a scream in the room.

(End of this chapter)