The Leisurely Life of the Prince of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 523: The magnificent scene of Tang Army construction

When Ali followed the two caliphs Affan and Abu to fight, he was still a young man. Now he is a young man in his early twenties.

The Caliphate was founded fifteen years later than the Tang Dynasty. In other words, the Tang Dynasty had its Heavenly Khan, but fifteen years later the Caliphate had its prophet?
According to the legends of the Arabs, the prophet was the one who founded the Arab Empire, and Ali had only met the prophet a few times. After that, the Arab Empire expanded most of the time under the conquests of the next few caliphs.

Ali was somewhat unwilling to accept this, because just because he appeared fifteen years later, people in the Pamirs always compared the Arab Empire with the Tang Dynasty.

Thinking back to the past, when we were conquering Persia more than ten years ago, there was indeed a Persian prince who fled eastward.

However, the Arabs did not care about this matter. The wealthy land of Persia was enough for them to squander, as there was countless gold here.

Ali still remembered what the wise men of the Caliphate said: the Pamir Mountains were like a roof and an excellent barrier. Whoever occupied the Pamir Mountains would occupy the richest and most dangerous land. But now the Tang people were going to fight with them for the Pamir Mountains.

The wise men of the Arabs also said that India was a granary, and if the Arabs conquered India, they would have endless food and would never have to endure hunger again.

But the Tang Dynasty actually had to compete with the Arabs for India.

Speaking of the East, the most famous person Ali has heard of is Xuanzang, a monk who traveled from the Tang Dynasty to India.

Ali left the Amu Darya River and headed for the Persian city of Murug, leaving a large army by the river. On the way back, the future Caliph of the Arabs had an uneasy look on his face.

He was afraid that he would never be able to return to beautiful Babylon in his lifetime, which was the most beautiful city he had ever seen in the world.

Now the Tang army on the east bank of the Amu Darya River has become a huge trouble.

After calming down, Ali even hoped that the Tang army would withdraw. If the Tang army withdrew, he could return to beautiful Babylon with peace of mind and spend the rest of his life.

Now, this place is very close to the Tang army but too far from Babylon.

Ali was worried, and it was written on his face, but no one could see it. He didn't want to become the caliph, but he was forced into the war because there was no "Sword of Allah" in this world to assist him.

There was no Omar or Abu who could stand in front of him. The young Ali didn't even have any children, but he was already the last legitimate caliph, like a lonely heir.

For some reason, Ali envied the Persian prince who fled to the East. It was good to just leave.

Ali did not want to return to the holy city, nor did he like the capital where the prophet left behind. He wanted to move the capital to Babylon, which is located on a tributary of the Euphrates River.

In the past, Babylon was the territory of the Persians. Ali valued that place not only because of its beauty, but also because there were many knowledgeable and wise men there. Ali liked to talk with the wise men.

When the Caliphate began its conquest, Ali was still a child. Khalid, a fierce warrior known as the "Sword of Allah" in the Caliphate, conquered Byzantium, captured Damascus and Jerusalem, and then died.

To this day, the Arabs have not found another warrior who can be called "Sword of Allah".

After that, the young Ali always followed the second caliph, whose name was Umar.

Omar was Ali's idol when he was young. He was defeated by the Persians several times in the city of Kufa. It was not until Affan succeeded to the throne and captured the capital of Persia that the current situation came about.

Unfortunately, Ali did not meet Xuanzang at this point in time.

The news that the Tang army conquered three cities in a row was indeed moving.

It seems that the Tang army cooks at 5 a.m. every day and moves out at 6 a.m.?
In the eyes of the Hu people in the Pamirs, the Tang army captured the Shi Kingdom, Dongcao and Mi Kingdom at an incredible marching speed.

And today, Shi Guo just received the news that the Tang army had conquered the United States. As soon as the news was delivered, the Tang army was already at the gates of the city.

In fact, this strangely fast marching speed was not due to the Tang Dynasty's divine army descending from the sky, but because Di Renjie's army did not participate in the war between Dong Cao and the United States at all.

The 50,000-strong army was divided into three routes. When one route arrived at Dongcao, the second route of the army in the rear did not stop at all and went straight to the United States. The third route of the army actually had the Shi Kingdom as its initial target.

The method of action is to bypass the city's defense line, surround the enemy from the front and back, and capture the city from behind.

The Tang army turned the war on the plateau into a mobile warfare.

Originally, they should have arrived here yesterday, but Di Renjie didn't know the way, and the Hu guide took a long time to find the main road leading to Shi State.

Di Renjie now planned to kill the Hu guide after taking down the earthen city, and immediately gave the order: "Besiege the city for a day and prepare the army for battle."

"Here."

Di Renjie did not plan to attack the city immediately, but instead asked several generals around him to lead their troops to surround the city.

The next day, Cheng Chumo, who had conquered Dongcao, arrived. The two armies stood at the foot of Shiguo City and began to attack the city.

The 30,000 reinforcements from the Kingdom of Xiaoboluo were finally used at this moment. Under Di Renjie's arrangement, they took the lead in attacking the city.

However, the siege method of the Little Bolor Kingdom was very crude, and there was basically no coordination. Basically, some people held ropes and hooks on the city wall and climbed up. If they couldn't climb up, they would fall down and then continue climbing.

Or maybe the people of Little Bolor set fire to the city and imitated the Tang army in making some siege equipment, but they were not very effective to use.

It was not until the soldiers of the Lesser Bolor Kingdom broke through the city gate that the Tang army entered the city.

In mid-May of the eleventh year of Qianqing's reign, the Tang army conquered Shiguo, Dongcao, Mi and Shi in half a month.

Among them, the most difficult to attack, Shi Kingdom, was conquered by General Liang Jianfang and General Xue Rengui, while the other three places were not too difficult for the Tang army.

It was not until Liang Jianfang, Xue Rengui and Pei Xingjian brought a large army to Shiguo that the Tang army gathered in Shiguo.

When Kangguo heard the news, there was no need for the Tang army to send any more troops. Frightened by the swift and incredible offensive of the Tang army, they took the initiative to surrender to the Tang army together with Xicao, and offered cities and money for it.

At this point, the six areas of Shiguo, Dongcao, Mi, Shi, Kang and Xicao were occupied by the Tang army, and most of the Pamir Mountains had fallen into the hands of the Tang army.

The only two countries left were Anguo and Huoxun, which were located on the banks of the Amu Darya River and bordered the Arabs. I heard that these two countries were controlled by the Arabs, otherwise they might have surrendered.

Just as the Tang army was planning how to capture Anguo, Di Renjie met Murong Shun here.

Murong Shun has only five attendants around him. He is the ruler of the small Bolor Kingdom. His status is no longer the same as before. He is loyal to the Tang Dynasty and is an ally of the Tang Dynasty recognized by the emperor.

For this reason, this person went to the Tang army camp, where Liang Jianfang met him in person.

Although the process of Murong Shun's transformation from a Western Region merchant to the ruler of the small Kingdom of Bolor was not glorious, a merchant could not enter the government, let alone join the army.

This guy was quite good at finding a different way and directly usurped the throne to become the ruler of a small country.

Liang Jianfang smiled politely and said, "In fact, the king does not have to come in person."

Murong Shun saluted and said, "I heard that the general has occupied six areas of Pamir Mountains, so I came to congratulate you." Liang Jianfang smiled again.

Although he said congratulations, there was not much of a smile on Murong Shun's face. With nearly 100,000 troops marching through the Pamir Mountains, these small countries were just appetizers. The scale of the attack was even smaller than the one on Yanqi and Qiuci back then.

Yu Tu asked Xue Wanbei who was standing beside him, "Why does he still call himself an outsider?"

Xue Wanbei explained in a low voice: "He was originally a Tuyuhun. Even if he became the ruler of the Little Bolor Kingdom, he should call himself a foreign minister. In fact, he is also a Tang person."

None of the generals in the camp spoke. They were all eating or taking a nap.

After leaving Suiye City, everyone had nothing good to eat and had eaten all the dried meat they had brought with them.

The rice in Pamirs is not very tasty and the wheat yield is not high.

Cheng Chumo nudged Liu Rengui with his arm and asked in a low voice, "When will Zhang Daan bring the food?"

Liu Rengui sat cross-legged and replied, "Just these two days."

Cheng Chumo nodded and continued to tear a piece of bread in his hand. The food in the Congling area was not very appetizing.

Murong Shun knew that, apart from the Shi Kingdom, the other small countries were just appetizers. The biggest enemy the Tang army had to face was the Arabs. He added, "There are 100,000 Arabs in An Kingdom, and 200,000 Arabs on the other side of the Amu Darya."

After hearing this, there was a gulp sound, and I didn't know who was swallowing the food.

Pei Xingjian asked, "There are 300,000 people in the Arab world?"

Murong Shun replied: "Ali of the Arabs has not gone far. He is still in the city of Mulu in the old Persian land. He is accompanied by the most brave Arab soldiers and horses."

Pei Xingjian asked in return: "How do they feed 300,000 troops?"

It is said that the Tang army here has nearly 100,000 people. Just to transport the baggage of these 100,000 people from Suiye City to Talas City, and then from Talas City to here, it requires nearly 10,000 manpower and animals.

Not to mention the 300,000-strong Arab army, and it is still unknown whether the Arabs would engage in military farmland. At least the Tang army did have military farmland in Suiye and Talas.

How did they feed the 300,000 people of the Arab Empire with so much food?
Therefore, when Pei Xingjian asked this question, everyone present became skeptical about the 300,000-strong army.

It was just a suspicion, and Murong Shun did not explain. In short, the Tang army had to capture the entire Pamir Mountains. No enemies could be left east of the Amu Darya River, and they would attack the Arabs west of the Amu Darya whenever possible.

With this attitude, the conversation in the camp ended simply.

Murong Shun returned to his camp and met Ru Laijie there.

Seeing Ru Laijie leisurely, Murong Shun asked, "Why don't you go see the general?"

Ru Laijie said, "Three hundred thousand troops, the general believes it?"

"Of course I don't believe it."

Ru Laijie drank his milk tea and said, "Then you shouldn't have said it."

Murong Shun said: "I really saw the 300,000-strong army of the Arabs. You have never seen an army that covered the sky and the sun."

Looking at Ru Laijie again, he was still drinking milk tea. It seemed that this old man had endless milk tea. Every time he stopped at a place, he would take out the kettle to make tea.

Murong Shun took the kettle and took a sip of warm milk tea with annoyance.

After Ru Laijie finished speaking, he huddled aside and whispered, "Wang Xuance has prepared 100,000 cattle and 500 war elephants."

Murong Shun asked in return: "Did he catch all the cattle in Tianzhu?"

Ru Laijie smiled and said, "There is also a Chongwen Hall in Tianzhu. The head of the Chongwen Hall in Tianzhu is called Liu Hongye. Although I have never set foot in Chang'an, I heard that Guanzhong cherishes oxen very much. After Liu Hongye arrived in Tianzhu, he asked many Tianzhu people to raise cattle. In just five or six years, he raised 100,000 cattle in Tianzhu. Can you believe it? When Wang Xuance and Wang Xiaojie saw the 100,000 cattle, they actually cried..."

Wang Xuance cried when he saw the herd of cattle because he had a deep affection for the cattle. This affection came from the Fire Bull Formation. Wang Xuance was good at using the Fire Bull Formation and it always worked.

Wang Xuance's army was almost riding on the backs of cows.

The young general Wang Xiaojie cried when he saw 100,000 cows for another reason. It was because after arriving in India, he could eat beef as much as he wanted and he had more than enough beef.

The cattle are a very important livestock, so important that they are indispensable in marching and fighting.

Now Wang Xuance and Wang Xiaojie have arrived in Eastern India with 100,000 cattle and 500 war elephants, ready to head north at any time.

Ru Laijie closed his eyes and said, "When the King of East Tianzhu saw Wang Xuance's army, he personally went out of the city to surrender, bowed down before Wang Xuance's war elephants, and offered countless treasures."

Murong Shun was still drinking milk tea.

"Later, the Arabs learned about this and sent messengers to inquire about it, but they were captured by Wang Xuance. This happened half a month ago." Ru Laijie added, "In fact, the Arabs were not that powerful. Three caliphs died in the past twenty years, leaving behind a young heir. However, the Arabs' territory was so large that they were not good at governing."

If you think about it carefully, the situations of the Tang Dynasty and the Caliphate were actually very similar. It only took more than 20 years for them to go from the bottom to the top.

The Arabs were only powerful for more than twenty years, which lasted for three generations.

The Tang Dynasty is now going through its third generation, while the Arab Empire is fifteen years behind.

Murong Shun did not lie, he really saw countless Arabs on the other side of the Amu Darya River. Although he was not sure there were really 300,000 of them and he did not know the situation on the other side, they still should not be underestimated.

The Tang army was like this. When fighting, the Tang army never considered the number of enemies or our own forces. Ru Laijie felt that what Murong Shun said was just to arouse the Tang army's desire to advance westward. Murong Shun wanted to avenge his son so much, and he also wanted to make contributions to the Heavenly Khan of the Tang Dynasty.

These days, the Tang army has not advanced, but has been waiting for food and supplies to be delivered from the rear.

This Tang Dynasty army has the tyrannical style of Liang Jianfang, the courage and initiative of Xue Rengui, and the calmness of Pei Yan and Liu Rengui.

In June of the eleventh year of Qianqing's reign, Yang Jiong arrived in Talas City, where he saw large tracts of farmland.

There is a magnificent scenery next to the city of Talas. This magnificent scenery was built by the prisoners of war at the request of the Tang army. They built thousands of hectares of fields on a plain south of the city of Talas.

Now the field is full of grain, and some people are harvesting it. The harvested grain is loaded onto carts and taken to the battlefield in the west without being dried in the sun.

Li Fengjie explained: "These are the people arranged by Jingzhao Prefecture to cultivate land for the army."

(End of this chapter)