Bai Congxin's side won a great victory, and Hu Guang was not idle either. Long before Bai Congxin's army set off, Hu Guang sent people to extort food from Amir, the governor of Saman Persia Stone Kingdom.
right! It was blackmail. In front of Amir, the envoy was sent without any concealment, asking Amir to supply 200,000 dan of military rations. He also showed the expression of a celestial king and regarded the entire Saman Persia as belonging to the Great Zhou Dynasty. Domain.
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Originally, because of Bai Congxin's gradually spreading reputation as the God of Killing, Amir might have extorted five to eighty thousand kilograms of rice and grain and repaid him as soon as he gritted his teeth.
But being so unceremonious, just like a master giving orders to his slaves, and asking for two hundred thousand stones, Amir would never give it.
But he didn't dare to do anything to the messenger, because at this moment, it was as if the memory of his ancestors suddenly had an effect on Amir.
He suddenly remembered that for thousands of years, what these peach blossom stone messengers loved to do most was to speak out words to provoke the king and city lord of a certain place to kill them, creating an excuse for the army to come to massacre and loot.
Therefore, Amir very 'wisely' served the envoy with good food and drink, but sent him away without mentioning the food at all.
But not long after, Amir heard about Bai Congxin's thousands-mile expedition to the Creeks, and he immediately recalled what was going on.
It turns out that you are not here to provoke me into killing the envoy and provide an excuse for the army to attack, nor are you here to extort food. It turns out that you are here to scare me so that I dare not touch you during your expedition, right?
This thing was simply more uncomfortable than being blackmailed. Amir only felt that his IQ had been greatly insulted.
He angrily planned that if the Zhou people failed to conquer the Creek tribe, he would immediately mobilize 50,000 soldiers and horses to beat up the drowned dogs, without even giving him a grain of food.
Amir knew very well that the biggest weakness of the Zhou people who defeated Guo Guangyi was that they did not have much supplies.
Originally, the area around Talos and Baishui City was relatively prosperous, but after the past few years of conquests, tens of thousands of troops went back and forth to conquer, and the food reserves were almost exhausted.
In addition, the people from Zhou Dynasty are completely outsiders. It would be good if they can distinguish the southeast, northwest and northwest. They have no idea which places in the local area are rich and where the herdsmen and farmers can squeeze out the most oil and water.
Therefore, after Talos and Baishui City were captured, the nearby herdsmen and farmers all fled.
There were originally a population of 1,340,000 people around Talas and Whitewater City, but now I don't know if there are still 20,000 to 30,000 people.
And when there are hundreds of thousands of Zhou people, they will soon be unable to support themselves.
Amir felt that as long as he could defend Shiguo City, he could starve the Zhou people away, and he might even have a chance to get Baishui City.
So, well, the governor of Shiguocheng, who felt his intelligence was insulted, directly issued an order to prevent the food from being robbed by Zhou people's horsemen, asking officials everywhere and Yin Keta to collect the food collected this year. Try to concentrate in walled towns.
The ancients often said that it is up to people to plan things, and it is up to heaven to make things happen. This is what it means.
As Amir expected, Hu Guang must have come to rob Shiguo City's food, but the method of plundering may not be what Amir thought.
Amir wanted the Zhou people to go on an expedition to the Creeks, and now he could only send a small number of rangers south to plunder.
And it will snow heavily soon. As long as we survive these ten or twenty days, the Zhou people will not be able to get a grain of food, and they will starve before the more severe winter comes.
Looking at it this way, it is definitely safest to concentrate food in walled towns, because according to the excellent matching mechanism of the Hezhong region, walled towns can generally be defended for a long time.
But what he didn't know was that Bai Congxin could lead a thousand-mile expedition with only 30,000 elite cavalry. These 30,000 people would be enough to defeat the Ogus Yehu Kingdom.
Therefore, in addition to the troops that must guard various places, Hu Guang can also easily mobilize 13,000 infantry and cavalry, all of which are elite.
In this way, Hu Guang did not need to send rangers to the countryside to plunder food. It was most convenient to rely on the powerful siege capabilities of the Han people to capture towns one by one.
This was God's arrangement. Under relatively unfavorable circumstances, Hu Guang met a rich and generous benefactor.
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Shiguo City, also known as Tashkent, was the capital of Uzbekistan in later generations. It was also the residence of the Dawan Dudufu during the Tang Dynasty. It was once called Tuoshengan and Tuozhicheng. These are all transliterations of the same Turkic word, meaning Stone City.
The reason for its name is that Tashkent is located in the foothills impact plain. It is the most important city in the Chirchik Valley formed by the Chirchik River, an important tributary of the Syr Darya River, rushing down from the snow-capped mountains.
When the Chirchik River rushed in, it brought and polished a large number of cobblestones. The residents of Tashkent polished these cobblestones and used them as the main material for building the city.
Therefore, in a sense, Tashkent and Shiguo City have the same meaning. The reason why the Tang Dynasty called Tashkent Shiguo City was because there were many cobblestones in the area, and cobblestones were also used as the main material for city construction.
The Chirchik River Valley where Shiguo City is located is also one of the richest areas in the river. The annual precipitation here is more than 400 millimeters. There are also Chirchik River, Syr Darya River, etc., there is no shortage of them. water.
In the records of the Tang Dynasty, it was recorded more than once that Shiguo City was surrounded by flat hills on all sides, with a wide range of trees, millet and wheat, long flowing water, and dense residents.
In addition to Shiguo City, there are at least twenty or thirty wealthy towns with more than 5,000 people in this river valley.
There are more than 500,000 residents in the Qilqike River Valley and both sides of the Yaosha River under the jurisdiction of the governor of Shiguocheng. The farming is mixed with nomadic herding, the grain production is rich, and the folk customs are strong.
Historically, half of Saman Persia's powerful army came from around Shiguo City, and the other half came from the hinterland of Persia.
This is why the governor of Shiguocheng, with only over 500,000 people, dared to challenge the emir of Bukhara.
However, the strong folk customs are still based on the Hezhong area. Not to mention moving to the Central Plains, even to the Mobei grassland, it is very unsatisfactory.
Hu Guang sent the envoy to deliberately and arrogantly extort. The original intention was not at all what Amir thought. It was to paralyze him and cover the army to attack the Creeks. In fact, Hu Guang wanted to cover up his next surprise attack.
On September 25, just as Bai Congxin was about to start the decisive battle, Hu Guang suddenly led 10,000 cavalry southward.
Yao Yuanfu personally led a thousand fine cavalry as the vanguard and ran for 180 miles day and night, uprooting the sentries placed by Amir along the way and cutting off Shiguocheng's external connections.
It wasn't until Hu Guangguang's army arrived more than 20 miles outside Shiguo City that Amir knew that the Zhou army had actually gone south.
And if it weren't for the astuteness of Amir's general Mahmoud, Yao Yuanfu would have almost snatched Shi Guocheng directly.
Governor Amir did not realize the seriousness of the matter at this time. When he saw that there were only Hu Guang's 10,000 cavalry outside, he immediately lit up the smoke at the top of Shiguo City and summoned the Yinketa knights from the surrounding countryside to lead the retinue of cavalry to Shiguo City. 'King of Diligence'.
Hu Guang, on the other hand, was originally a little worried about the food problem, but he captured a small town with a few thousand people and immediately seized more than 40,000 shi of food. Hu Guang's eyes were almost shocked out of his head.
Seeing that tens of thousands of stones of grain could be obtained by destroying a small town, and seeing that the water transportation around Shiguo City was convenient and the irrigation system was complete, he thought that this place was already so rich that it could be compared with Shuzhong, Huainan and Huaibei.
With the food in hand, he no longer panicked. Hu Guang picked up the map and studied it carefully, which further strengthened his determination to capture Shiguocheng.
Because Shiguocheng is stuck between Juzhanti and Baishui City at the southwest end of Ningyuan. If Shiguocheng is captured, the passage from Baishui City to Juzhanti can be opened.
In this case, a complete closed loop can be formed from Suiye - Talos - Baishui City - Shiguo City - Juzhanti - Kesai City - Shule - Suiye.
Holding the three valleys and basins of Ningyuan Basin, Shiguocheng Valley, and Suiyechuan, with rich products and a large population, it will be enough to completely overthrow Samanpos and the big food behind Samanpos in the future.
On the first day of October, Hu Guang was impatient with waiting. Amir, the governor of Shiguocheng, finally summoned his "King Qin" army, a total of 50,000 cavalry.
They took the initiative to cross the Chirchik River and attack a town that Hu Guang had just captured.
The tactics are still the same as when Bai Congxin defeated Ye Huguo's army.
Hu Guang hid three thousand fine cavalry in the city, led by Yao Yuanfu, and personally led the army to defend first in this small town built on a hill, surrounded only by wooden fences and short earth walls.
Amir personally led an army of 50,000 to attack from all sides, but it was obvious that although the Zhou army had fewer people, it was more powerful in combat. The two sides surrounded the town and fought for several days. The Shiguo army almost broke into the city several times, but was driven out in the end.
The fight lasted until the seventh day of October. Both sides were exhausted. Hu Guang saw the opportunity and ordered Yao Yuanfu to lead three thousand fine cavalry to attack suddenly at Maozheng (six o'clock in the morning).
At that time, Shi Guocheng's army was making breakfast and was very tired after fighting for several days, so it did not organize any effective defense at all. Yao Yuanfu directly penetrated the commander's tent of Shi Guocheng's army in the first battle.
Although Governor Amir narrowly escaped death by crossing the Chirchik River under the protection of his personal armor, Yao Yuanfu directly cut off the banner that Amir had set up in the military tent, and Hu Guang in the city also took the opportunity. Fight your way out.
The Shiguo City Army was defeated, with more than 20,000 casualties. Most of them were taken away by the cold water when crossing the Chirchik River.
On October 11, Hu Guang's troops came to Shiguo City and tried to attack Shiguo City.
However, the foundation of this city is very solid built with stones, and the compacted loess on top is quite Central Plains style.
After arresting some people and asking, I found out that this city was built and reinforced by the Central Plains rammed earth method after the Great Eaters captured Tang army prisoners after the defeat of Talas.
Hu Guang was speechless and observed for a long time. The foundation was made of stones and the city wall was made of rammed earth more than ten feet thick. The only way to break the city was to blow up the city gate with gunpowder.
But now, he only has 10,000 people, and there should be more than 20,000 soldiers and 20,000 to 30,000 men in the city. If he blows up the city gate and breaks in, he won't be able to get much. That Amir must find a way to escape. Might as well wait until next year to come again.
Sure enough, a few days later, heavy snow fell and the weather suddenly turned extremely cold. Hu Guang pretended that he couldn't bear the tough stone of Shiguo City, and retreated back to Baishui City with tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of shi of food.
