"Damn it, he married his mother! At that time, a certain family was just a few dozen steps away. This was all luck!
If I'm lucky, I, Li Erlang, will be able to kill the enemy general among thousands of troops! What a pity! What a pity! "
Li Ruotai patted his thigh and held a leg of lamb, cursing while chewing it.
It was indeed a pity that the three people around him, Bai Congxin, Hu Guang, and Guo Guangcheng, all felt sorry for him. After interrogating the prisoners, they found out that the high-ranking official they were chasing today turned out to be Ali Duraf, the coach of the Samandro-Persian invaders.
This is the commander-in-chief of an army with 30,000 troops! Or Wazir of Saman Persia and the provincial governor. If Li Ruotai could capture or kill him today, what would that be? That is to take the head of the enemy commander with one hundred and fifty cavalry in the midst of thousands of troops!
Such a great contribution will leave a name in history, and maybe he can be worshiped in the Martial Temple after his death.
Wouldn't it be heartbreaking to lose such a brilliant record?
Hu Guang thought about it for a moment, almost feeling heartbroken and unable to eat the mutton.
"Captain Li, look at it more clearly. Although the thief Durav escaped with his life, we will burn at least 40% of the food in his granary today.
His defeat has been decided, and it will be a matter of time before he withdraws his troops. After traveling a thousand miles from Balasagun back to Talos, are you afraid that you won't have a chance to kill him? "
Bai Congxin wiped the grease from his hands and comforted him.
"Yes! Two captains, we'd better send someone to inform the Duke as soon as possible, so that the Duke can adjust the strategy in time."
Hu Guang added a bowl of wild vegetable soup cake to the two veterans before speaking.
"Yes, General Hu Guangtou is right. We should send someone to inform Mr. Erlang immediately!" The two nodded with satisfaction. They didn't know whether they were satisfied with Hu Guang's idea or his attitude.
People's joys and sorrows are indeed not the same. When Bai Congxin, Li Ruotai, Hu Guang and others were intoxicated with today's great success and felt quite regretful, the hearts of the Saman Persians, or to be precise, the officers above the flag level, were Panic.
Officers who can command a thousand soldiers are already mid-level and upper-level officers, so they know what kind of blow the army has suffered today!
First, dozens or hundreds of people were killed by a combined light and heavy cavalry force outside the city. The heavy infantrymen of a banner were beaten to the point of despair. A thousand-man warriors were unable to continue fighting after being repaired for a few days, and were later burned. The granary.
What’s even more frightening is that the significance of those one hundred and fifty armored cavalry is so unusual!
This is not something that ordinary forces can afford. A country that can have armored cavalry must at least have a population of hundreds of thousands.
Coupled with the five to six hundred soldiers in the city, all the evidence shows that there may be huge gaps in their intelligence.
But... but who is this force with armored cavalry?
The Peach Blossom Stone King who calls himself the King of Jin? But aren't they in the far east?
It is said that Saktu's base camp is called Kashgar, and there are more than two hundred Balashans away from here? The Kingdom of Jin cannot have five hundred Balashangs?
In fact, we cannot blame these Persians for not doing a good job in intelligence, because since the decline of the Silk Road, communication between the East and the West is far less smooth than it was two hundred years ago.
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Balashan is the unit of length in ancient Persia. One Balashan is about eleven miles. Kashgar is Shule. There are indeed more than 200 Balashans, which is more than a thousand kilometers away.
Zhang Zhao's entire army was lightly armed and had enough horses to travel, and they traveled for almost three months. Li Ruotai traveled day and night for nearly two months.
Such a long distance, let alone in the tenth century, even in later generations, was quite a distance, farther than Shanghai to Wuhan.
With the development of modern information, when an epidemic broke out in Wuhan, no one in Shanghai knew about it for a while. Let alone a society like this in ancient times, one can imagine how difficult it is to find out information from such a distance.
The current situation is that the Saman Persian invaders headed by Ali Duraf are qualified if they can know the situation in Balashagon three to four hundred kilometers away.
It is indeed too demanding to ask them to figure out things more than a thousand kilometers away and blocked by snowy mountains and glaciers.
Let alone figuring out where these armored cavalry came from, in fact they don't even know where the Khotan Kingdom is.
In the fantasy travel notes written by the Saman Persians decades later, Li Shengtian was also regarded as the king of China and he was called Peach Blossom Stone Khan.
So you expect them to figure out the situation now, how is that possible?
However, the situation was unclear, but Ali Durav, who almost sent Li Ruotai to the martial arts temple yesterday, knew that he could no longer fight.
It's even time to think not about victory or defeat, but about how to get out.
The amount of grain burned in the granary today was far more than the 40% Bai Congxin and others thought. In fact, nearly 60% was burned.
Although the remaining military rations can still supply the entire army for ten days, due to constant attacks on the food roads, the delivery speed of the military rations is far less than the rate of loss.
If the granary had not been burned today, Ali Duraf could have persisted for more than a month, but today it was 60% burned, and it would be difficult to persist for fifteen days.
However, in just fifteen days, the grain road was attacked, the enemy cavalry was constantly harassing outside, and the soldiers were defending inside, it was absolutely impossible to break Balashagon.
Moreover, one of the three trebuchets had been damaged due to long-term use, and the repaired wood had to be cut down several miles away, so the battle could no longer be fought.
In the dull and anxious atmosphere, Ali Duraf could only speak on his own.
He originally wanted one of his officers to suggest retreating, but after waiting for a long time, no stupid officer came forward to offer advice for this matter that was likely to end up taking the blame.
Samampos has been blooming with flowers and cooking oil in the past few decades. Which officer can't understand politics? Those who don’t understand politics have long been unable to survive.
"Ben Wazir suspected that this expedition was a tragedy misled by wrong information.
I have reason to suspect that the pagans in Talas and other places deliberately misled us for some unexplainable reason. They are traitors! "
Ali Duraf had a serious look on his face, his voice was sonorous and powerful, and he was waving his big hands. This speech was really just!
The officers below immediately understood what Ali Duraf meant. He was worthy of being a governor and a Wazir. He looked at the problem from a longer perspective than them.
Because although the Emir of Bukhara does not care much about the governors of various provinces and regions, the premise is not to smear the face of my great Nasr II.
The last governor of Tashkent was imprisoned and his house was confiscated because he lost Balashagon and Talos, which made Nasr II very unhappy.
But this time, including the God Warriors, nearly 30,000 troops were mobilized. If they were sent back to Tashkent like this, wouldn't it be equivalent to smearing the face of the great Emir Nasr II? .
Tens of thousands of soldiers were killed, and Bukhara must be given an explanation for this.
So if you want to save your life, you can blame this matter on the Karakhanites in Danros, Julan City and other places!
Although they believe in Tianfang religion, most of them are Turkic people with black heads, black eyes and light flaxen skin. They are quite different from the blond and fair-skinned people of the Eastern Iran-Scythia-Sogdia lineage.
Deep down, Ali Duraf and all the generals, including Nasr II of the Alka Forbidden City in Bukhara and the Great Wazir Baraami of the Jacques Castle, had never completely conquered these Turkic peoples. Live as one’s own.
Their status is only slightly higher than that of the conquered pagans, so it is completely feasible for them to top the vat.
Moreover, there is only enough food for ten days, and the food roads are being constantly attacked, so it is impossible to bring so many people back to Tashkent. It is estimated that it will be good to run back with the core three or four thousand people in the end.
We are back in Tashkent, but we have suffered such great losses. Do we need to answer to the higher authorities, but not to the lower ones?
In this case, wouldn't the Karakhanites who believed in religion in Talos, Julan City and Baishuihu City be the best blood packs?
He is indeed a man who can become the governor of Tashkent! As soon as Ali Duraf spoke, he immediately calmed down the already flustered senior officer.
Now that the scapegoat has been thought of and there is a place to make up for the losses, all that remains is to simply think about how to run back.
"Your Excellency Wazir! If we are considering retreating now, the small group of troops that wantonly attacked our food routes must be cleared out first.
Otherwise, it would be very troublesome if we were attacked by them when we retreated.
Your loyal jackal flag Qianhu Ismail is willing to lead five hundred elite warriors to clean up these nasty cockroaches! "
A Qianhu named Ismail was the first to stand up and say.
Finally, someone came forward and proposed a retreat. Ali Duraf smiled secretly in his heart. He only said that the war was misguided. He did not say that he wanted to retreat.
He also knew what it meant for Ismail to stand up and speak out. Since he was going to run away, someone had to make arrangements.
And it is indeed necessary to eliminate those enemy troops who are constantly ambushing the grain road, but in the current situation, the farther away from the battlefield, the safer it will be, right?
"I agree, brave General Ismail, you can take five hundred people from this department to carry out your mission.
Remember, we have to get rid of all the beggars who attack us in the jungle. "
Ali Duraf pretended to appreciate it and glanced at the chief scapegoat who was the first to jump out and say retreat.
Ismail was also happy. He would be able to stay away from the battlefield soon. There were now about a thousand people guarding the food road. Even Governor Duraf's nephew was sent there. If he could bring another 500 people, he would There were fifteen hundred people.
If these people still need to protect the food road and destroy the enemy, it is indeed not enough.
But if you don't have to guard the grain road deliberately and only use it to hunt down the rats hiding in the woods, it should still be a very easy task.
Of course, he never imagined that the commander of the army who dared to kill 20,000 of them with only 2,000 men was not commanding Balasagon, but on the mountain.
"Wazir, in this case, we will launch a large-scale attack on the city tomorrow. Your loyal Masudi requests to lead the warriors to attack Balasagon regardless of casualties!"
The second person to speak was Masudi. Since he wanted to retreat, the God Warriors would definitely not be able to take them with him. It would be better to consume them under Balasagon City.
Only the fierce attack of the divine warriors can paralyze the enemy, making them unaware that their side intends to retreat.
You must know that there were two to three thousand light cavalry who came to carry out the task of burning down the granary today. Of course, these were reluctant light cavalry and should be said to be herdsmen. This is why the other party did not let them fight at all.
However, these two to three thousand herdsmen still pose a considerable threat to our own side, because although their combat effectiveness is not strong, once our own side begins to retreat, their pursuit ability is too strong.
There are less than 3,000 cavalry in his army of nearly 30,000 people. If he cannot give the illusion of continuing the fierce attack, he will be in trouble if he is caught up in the pursuit of these enemy herdsmen during the retreat.
Moreover, as Ali Duraf's most trusted general, Masudi knew very well the character of Wazir and the governor of Tashkent.
His favorite thing was to find scapegoats. He had just suffered a defeat in the siege, and he had to gain more courage quickly, otherwise it would be worse if he went back.
Ali Duraf was satisfied. There were those who opened the way, and there were those behind the scenes. As long as these thousands of elites could be brought back and covered up, it could still be disguised as a failure.
"Okay! Tomorrow the three armies will reward you with enough meat and cakes, and then attack Balasagon!"
