The cruelty of war is vividly demonstrated in Bai Congxin's hands.
He wanted to stimulate Hu Guang and Zhang Zhong to come to the rescue earlier, so that his troops would not fall into passivity, and of course, more importantly, he wanted to lure the Saman Persian army to the north bank of the Yaosha River.
He actually let go of his hinterland, exposing the old and the weak to the Persian blade.
Bai Congxin was actually able to block the Saman Persian army on the south bank of the Yaosha River, allowing the two armies to confront each other across the river.
But this makes no sense, because Samampos has more than four million people, and there is the entire Tianfang Sect behind it as a hinterland to recruit divine warriors.
In Bai Congxin's Shiguocheng and Baishui City, where Lu Sanlang currently lives temporarily, there are only 110,000 Han people and 470,000 Hu people.
The gap is almost ten times. The only thing that can be relied on is that the fighting power of the Han people is far better than that of the Saman Persians, and because they are armed immigrants, the ratio of men to soldiers is extremely high.
In this case, constant confrontation will directly kill Bai Congxin.
Only by completely defeating Samampos through a decisive battle can we avoid being killed by the enemy's physical strength and achieve a great comeback.
After three medium-sized battles, this attack involving two hundred thousand soldiers and more than two hundred thousand civilians will be a decisive battle that determines the fate of both sides.
So Bai Congxin simply went straight to his home. In order to lure the Samanid Persian army to the north bank of the river and cut off their retreat, he opened his own door directly.
In September, more and more small Persian troops infiltrated, and the Han settlement fortress on the north bank of the Yaosha River continued to fall. Both Wang Liu and Chen Sanlang were forced to go to Wanli City because Yingchun Fort could not be defended.
And not only the Yingchun Fort, but also the entire Wanli Xuanwei Temple and the following ten fortresses could hardly be defended. People dragged their families and families back to Wanli City, gathering all their strength to hold on.
Immediately afterwards, the Han people in Beiqingzhou and other places north of Wanli City also began to retreat. Even Shiguo City was no longer a safe zone more than ten miles outside the city.
Although the Han people organized themselves voluntarily and formed four or five self-rescue cavalry groups with more than 500 people.
But they are all under the age of fifteen and over forty, and they can barely maintain a basic early warning and rescue.
In October, the sound of killing outside Zhenhu Fort was loud. The rebellious Hu people took advantage of the night and broke down the small gate on the west side of Zhenhu Fort. Nearly ten thousand Hu people armed with scimitars, wooden guns, and wooden sticks launched waves of attacks. A wave of attacks would have been driven in if the Han people in the fortress had not resisted tenaciously.
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Thirty miles north of Zhenhu Fort, Hu Guang led the Forbidden Army Shenshe Town and 7,000 Xi30,000 Grassland Jingqi, which had been arriving for two days.
Faced with this situation, Hu Guang, who was always known for his calmness, could not sit still. After taking a few steps back and forth, he muttered in a voice that only he could hear:
"Bai Congxin is so ruthless, one general's achievements will cause thousands of bones to wither!
He didn't even hesitate to risk the town of Hubao, and even his own future, betting that the imperial army would definitely come to support him.
This is not the time! But it must be dispatched. Bai Congxin would not regret his death, but if thousands of Han people were killed in Zhenhu Fort, the saint would definitely not forgive me.
If a thief kills a talented person, you must be cruel! "
Thinking of this, Hu Guang, who was called General Tiger by the officers and soldiers, suddenly turned around and waved his hand.
"Send troops to exterminate all the rebels and hunt down all the Persians who have infiltrated north of Heyang Town!"
The cavalry swept outside Zhenhu Fort like a torrent. The Han people at the top of the city looked at the bright silver-white Sanchen flag, cheered and then burst into tears.
The converts who participated screamed and were killed indiscriminately. Those who did not participate touched the cold sweat on their heads and pretended to cheer along with the Han people.
The so-called converted people are just farmers and herdsmen. They don't even have a few iron knives. Tens of thousands of people fought against more than 3,000 people in Zhenhu Fort and they couldn't defeat it for two months. How much combat effectiveness could they have.
They quickly collapsed under the sweep of Hu Guang's 10,000 cavalry. After Hu Guang captured and killed their leader, the Han militiamen who suppressed Hubao immediately left the city and hunted and killed these converts.
The blood dyed the land outside Zhenhu Fort red, and for a moment it seemed somewhat deserved.
Almost at the same time, Abu Yusuf was also preparing to start a general attack on the Han army in Heyang Town.
The famous Saman Persian general originally hoped to infiltrate with a small number of elite cavalry, completely ravage the hinterland of the Han army, cut off the retreat of the Han army in Heyang Town, and force them to retreat before pursuing pursuit.
Therefore, he selected a total of more than 5,000 knights, including hundreds of Yinketa noble knights, to carry out the mission.
But the situation did not meet Abu Yusuf's expectations. The cavalry captured many fortresses where Han people settled, but most of them were abandoned voluntarily. Five thousand elite cavalry penetrated through, and only a few Han people were killed by them. to a hundred people.
Most of the rest of the people gathered in a rather large castle, which was simply not something that a few thousand cavalry could break.
Moreover, the Han people also formed a very powerful cavalry, which has been protecting the Han army's logistics supply line. Abu Yusuf tried to cut it off many times, but failed.
As for the people in the hinterland of the Han who originally belonged to the Emirate of Samania, Abu Yusuf no longer had any hope for them.
Because those who dared to resist were either killed or taken away as slaves when Shiguo City was captured.
The rest are cowardly guys, and they are scared to death if they are allowed to lead the way, let alone resist together.
Well, when the noble officer Salal from Damascus was intercepted and killed by Song Heishan and the others, Abu Yusuf had no idea that there was already a commotion in Fort Zhenhu.
Otherwise, all the cavalry that infiltrated would have been sent to Fort Zhenhu. In that case, the game might have survived.
But now Abu Yusuf doesn't know this, so when the penetration battle cannot achieve good results, Abu Yusuf decides to start the decisive battle directly.
From the current situation, it seems that a small group of troops or even a few thousand people are fighting, and the combat effectiveness of the Saman Persian army is completely incomparable with that of the Han army.
Then we can only engage in large-scale decisive battles and use the difference in quantity to make up for the lack of quality.
winter! Dongdong! Hundreds of war drums beat continuously, shaking the ground as if it was shaking along with it.
The 52,000 Han troops were mainly composed of 30,000 Han troops in Heyang Town. On both wings, more than 10,000 troops were placed at Yesu Ridge and Lianghekou to guard the flanks of the army.
All the troops and horses have been compressed by the Persians to this place with a radius of seven or eight miles.
Abu Yusuf wears iron armor that shines with dark silver light, and wears an iron stomach with a nose guard on his head. The collar is integrated with the iron stomach and hangs down on both sides. It is both beautiful and protective.
Strictly speaking, Abu Yusuf was not a Persian, and certainly not a Sogdian. He was a cannibal.
His family is a large food family deeply married to the Persian nobles of Khorasan.
It is said that the ancestor of Abu Yusuf's mother was the founding father of the Abbasid Dynasty, Abu Muslim, who sent troops to attack Gao Xianzhi in Talas and was known as the Great Eater of Han Xin.
Therefore, throughout Samandria, Abu Yusuf has always had a strong interest in blocking the pagans from the east. He is also one of the people in Samandria who is most familiar with the Peach Blossom Stone Empire.
He is well aware of the power of the resurrected Peach Blossom Stone Empire, and clearly knows that the Samanid royal family can only have hope if they raise the banner of jihad, package themselves as a banner against Eastern pagans, and then gain the support of the entire Tianfang Sect world. Can save the country.
In order for the world of Tianfang Sect to know the determination and ability of Samampos, they must regain the Stone Kingdom City, drive away Bai Congxin, who is not fully supported by the Peach Blossom Stone Empire, and have another Talos battle to prove it to everyone!
On the broad river bend plain, the breeze carried the smell of poisonous water. Abu Yusuf rode out on horseback and shouted in front of tens of thousands of elite soldiers:
“My brothers, two hundred years ago, not far from here, our ancestors, under the leadership of the incarnation of God, blocked the invasion of the Peach Blossom Stone pagans and protected our homeland.
And now, when the pagans once again arrive in this land where their ancestors lay in ruins, my brothers, are these peach blossom stone people any luckier than their ancestors? "
"No, never! Because the descendants of heroes will thwart them again!"
A little trivia: a few decades ago, there was a Hulami sect of the Tianfang Sect active in the Hezhong area.
This is a very alternative Tianfa sect, which was formed after the Abbasid Caliph Mansour unjustly killed Abu Muslim.
This sect incorporates a certain amount of Manichaean thought, believing that light and darkness are opposites, advocating for the equalization of wealth and poverty, opposing social oppression, and also likes to play with divine revelation.
They believe that Musa, Yinsa, Muhammad and the Hulamite prophets are all God's messengers in the world.
Muslims regard the unjustly killed Abu Muslim as the incarnation of God in the world, and believe that he will return to the world at some point to kill evil and uphold justice.
What a coincidence, isn't it? I, Zhang Shengren, don't really want to take advantage of others, but I arrange a prophet for the Hullami sect.
It is still okay for a prophet from the east, sent by the Supreme Heaven, to lead them to demand justice and righteousness from the cannibals.
After two hundred years of suppression by the Abbasid dynasty, the Khurami sect has apparently declined, but this sect naturally exists among the people.
Now, in order to use the prestige of his half-ancestor Abu Muslim to boost himself, and to deceive the lower class of Saman Persia into fighting for the upper class for free, Abu Yusuf 'released' the Hulamis.
The cheers of the Saman Persians spread throughout the battlefield, but the costs behind them were increasing exponentially.
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"Retreat three miles further. Lu Zhen, Bai Congyu, and Chen Tingxiao each lead their troops to stand firm outside Heyang Town and let the Persians attack the city first!"
On Bai Congxin's side, he didn't have any rhetoric, because there was no need for it.
The people who could follow him, Bai Congxin, here were either Kucha people under the rule of the original Bai family, who were once called yellow-headed Uighurs, or armed immigrants from Han.
Everyone knows that if you win, you will be rich and powerful, but if you lose, you will die without a burial place, so there is no need for verbal mobilization at all.
On the seventh day of October, Abu Yusuf's army officially arrived to the west of Heyang Town and immediately began to attack.
However, Abu Yusuf was very smart. He did not directly attack Heyang Town, which had two large military camps outside the city. Instead, he first cut off the garrisons on the two wings of Heyang Town, namely Yesu Ridge and Lianghekou.
Yesu Ridge is actually not a mountain ridge, but a low hilly area. The mouth of the two rivers is the intersection of two tributaries on the north bank of Yaosha Shui.
Abu Yusuf's army numbered 120,000, of which there were at least 40,000 armored soldiers. However, Bai Congxin's actual armored soldiers were only 7,000 under his control and 1,200 under Lu Sanlang's command.
This is also an important reason why Bai Congxin has always been on the defensive. Although the Han army is powerful, it is still too few to face Saman Persia.
Therefore, you must use it with caution. If the boat capsizes in the gutter, you may lose all your capital at once.
The Persian army first chose Yesu Ridge between Yesu Ridge and Shuanghekou because the terrain of Yesu Ridge was relatively complex and could hide ten or twenty thousand people.
Abu Yusuf was afraid that Bai Congxin would have an ambush here, so he first sent General Ziad with 30,000 infantry and cavalry to attack.
As soon as the battle at Yesuling began, Bai Congxin in Heyang Town began to mobilize troops to try to attack the Persian army's rear route.
However, there are still tens of thousands of troops in the Persian camp outside the city, and tens of thousands of Samanid Persian civilians can also be mobilized, with the number reaching nearly 100,000.
Their morale was strong. Bai Congxin sent troops to fight three times, with up to 20,000 troops dispatched at one time. However, they still could not completely repel the Persian army outside the city and could not safely go to Yesu Ridge.
On October 19th, the Han army in Yesuling was forced to retreat. Because Yesuling was too low and there was no large city to hold on to, there were only more than 2,000 regular soldiers among the 9,000-strong army, which really could not hold up the 30,000 Persian army. attack, they can only retreat to the north.
After winning this battle, the morale of the Persian army was greatly boosted. Abu Yusuf immediately began to add 15,000 troops to Ziyad and ordered him to attack the Han army at the mouth of the two rivers.
But this time it was not so easy to fight, because all the Han troops at Lianghekou were cavalry, with one person and three horses.
Although there is only a small ferry at Shuanghekou to rely on, they can leave at any time if they cannot defeat it.
On the contrary, Ziad had only a few thousand cavalry under his command, and the infantry accounted for the vast majority. After several days of testing, the Han army could not hold the small ferry at Shuanghekou, nor could it defeat the Persian army of nearly 50,000 people, but the Persian army could not capture it either. Live this cavalry team.
The stalemate lasted until October 22nd. Bai Congxin ordered someone to send an order to An Cunzhong, who had been evacuated from Wanhu Anqi in Ximi and guarded Qianhu, and ordered him to lead his army to bypass Ziad's Persian army and go to meet Chen Tingxiao's troops. .
It turned out that Bai Congxin had received the news that Huguang had lifted the siege of Hubao.
The Saman Persian cavalry was not as numerous as the Han army. If a decisive battle was to be fought, it was natural to take back the elite cavalry originally sent out.
As soon as they withdrew, Bai Congxin's communication with the rear was immediately restored.
Bai Congxin was overjoyed to know that Hu Guang had sent troops, and he immediately formulated a bolder battle plan.
Let Chen Tingxiao, who is stationed on the left wing of Heyang Town, break out, and send Bai Congyu, who is stationed on the right wing of Heyang Town, back into the city.
Chen Tingxiao had a lot of cavalry, so he could maneuver when he broke out. Bai Congyu had mostly infantry and archers recruited from Beiting, which he could use to defend the city.
The biggest advantage of doing this is that it allows the Persians to directly attack Heyang Town, which has a relatively strong wall, and it can also give the Persians the illusion that they defeated the Han army outside the city.
After they violently attacked Heyang Town until the division veterans were exhausted, Hu Guang and Chen Tingxiao, An Cunzhong and others from outside rushed back, and the Persian army was finished.
However, this is not without risks. Heyang Town is not big. It is already a bit crowded with 20,000 people. In addition, Bai Congyu's 6,000 people are squeezed in, plus a large number of livestock. Regardless of the living environment, The supply of water and food will be very tight.
Counting the farmers who could be used as cannon fodder, the Persian army outside the city numbered approximately 150,000 to 60,000 and tens of thousands of soldiers. If something went wrong, it was not impossible for Heyang Town to be captured.
This was a big gamble. Bai Congxin bet that he could hold Heyang Town and that Hu Guang would suddenly appear when the Persian soldiers were exhausted.
On October 27, the Persian army began to attack Chen Tingxiao's tribe on the left wing of Heyang Town, but Bai Congxin still sent a large army to contain it.
Three days after the battle, morale was at its peak, and the Persians, who risked their lives in a frantic attack and suffered more than a thousand casualties, finally 'captured' the left-wing camp.
More than 5,000 cavalrymen on the left wing broke out under the support of An Cunzhong.
All the Persian troops immediately attacked the right wing without stopping. Although Bai Congyu's troops on the right wing also had 10,000 horsemen.
But most of them are Han people who came to the river after the last battle in Shiguocheng. Their fighting strength may be okay, but their organization is not high.
Bai Congxin's adventure indeed went amiss. On the battlefield, people screamed and horses neighed, weapons clashed with each other, arrows were lost like rain, and the smell of panic brought by the smell of blood filled the front, back, left, and right.
When the right wing was retreating into the city, it was charged by the Persian cavalry. As a result, it broke up and almost caused a collapse of the entire right wing army. It took seven to eight hundred people to barely stabilize the situation.
Abu Yusuf was overjoyed when he saw it on the hillside. He originally suspected that Bai Congxin deliberately attracted him to attack the fortress, but now he was 'convinced' that the Han army was indeed unable to withstand the pressure and was forced to retreat.
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Outside Tianmen Pass, Lao Zhang Zhong has also assembled his troops. The Ning Yuan Army of the Yamen Army dispatched three thousand elite troops, commanded by the fierce general Dang Jin.
Jin Guofan's army dispatched 15,000 troops. Li Congde personally wore a helmet and armor and led Ma Jirong, Xue Shouli and a group of blond Khotan generals to stand on the left side of Zhang Zhong.
However, they would not move out immediately. They would wait until Bai Congxin sent a signal from Heyang Town, then go down the river from Yaoxashui, break the Persian water fortress in the river, and cut off the Persians' retreat.
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In Heyang Town, the siege battle had reached its most brutal stage. Abu Yusuf cruelly drove a large number of civilians to fill up the trenches outside the city with their lives, and also consumed a large number of arrows from the defenders. Then the army They took turns to launch fierce attacks.
The battle lasted from October 29th to early December, and both defenses suffered heavy casualties.
The Shiguocheng area has a typical temperate continental climate. From June to September every year is the dry hot season, and from December to April next year is the rainy season with lower temperatures.
At the beginning of December, the temperature that should have been around zero suddenly rose to six or seven degrees. The precipitation in December should be less during the rainy season, but it suddenly rained for several days in a row.
This brought great pain to both sides. If the temperature was too low, the rain would turn into heavy snow and fall, but the impact on humans would not be great. At worst, the war would be suspended temporarily.
But the temperature suddenly rises by a few degrees, and then a heavy rain and sleet calms you down. The ice is as cold as soaking into your bones. Especially in ancient times when there were not many means of protection against cold, it is definitely not an exaggeration to say that life is worse than death.
Abu Yusuf looked at the broken city wall of Heyang Town. Although he was extremely reluctant to leave, he still thought about retreating.
Bai Congxin also saw Abu Yusuf's hesitation, so he directly increased the pressure.
Although the Han army also suffered from the cold wind and bitter rain, the benefits of giving practical benefits at this time, including land, food, money and women, became apparent.
Compared with the Persian soldiers of Abu Yusuf who used the Khurami sect to deceive them, the Han soldiers knew who they were fighting for and knew clearly that whether they died in battle or were injured and retired, there were protection regulations that they could trust. Therefore, They are better able to fight hard against the enemy in this cruel weather.
Abu Yusuf already understood that Bai Congxin wanted to drag him here.
However, the victory of "defeating the Han army" along the way and the desire for success suppressed his reason. When Abu Yusuf saw the Han army arrayed out of the city, he also mobilized the army to move forward to fight the Han army.
Just when Abu Yusuf commanded 100,000 troops to besiege Bai Congxin's 20,000 men, Lu Ketu, the son of Lu Zhen and Lu Sanlang, broke out from the city and headed north, finding Chen Tingxiao and An Cunzhong who had been ambushing here. Twelve thousand cavalry.
At this time, Luktu had become a famous general in the river. He was from Xizubu and had a stronger influence on this cavalry, which was mostly from the grasslands and believed in the Six Dharma Sect.
In the cold wind, the rain stopped for a while. Compared with the rain of the previous few days, the ground was much drier, which was perfect for the cavalry to attack.
Luktu ordered people to light more than ten huge bonfires, and all the monks in charge of it were the monks of the Six Dharma Sect.
Luktu shouted and drew out his sword, took the lead and put the blade into the fire, letting the flames lick it for a while before taking it out.
There is a special word for this ritual in the Liufa Sect called tempering. All weapons that go through this ritual will be contaminated with the magic power given by the Supreme God, which can cause enemies killed by these weapons to fall into the eighteenth level of hell.
Tens of thousands of cavalrymen began to forge one after another, the scene was very spectacular, and then a huge wine basin appeared in front of them.
Hundreds of monks from the Liufa Sect drew countless talismans with cinnabar on yellow paper like ghosts drawing talismans, and then threw them into the wine basin to turn into talisman water.
Anyone who drinks this talisman water will receive the blessing of the supreme heaven and be invincible.
Don't doubt it, this is all about engaging in divine fighting and recruiting divine soldiers. Even these guys who look like monks are directly transferred from the Taoist sect.
After tempering their weapons and drinking the talisman water, all the prairie cavalry felt that they were invincible.
Luktu led them and devoutly sang the Sutra of the Supreme God to combat disasters and ward off calamities, and then raised his arms and shouted:
“The supreme heaven punishes the knights, the pagans are in Heyang Town, they don’t know God, they are stubborn and barbaric.
Let us go over and teach them what the truth is with the sword in our hands and the long bow on our back!
Barbarians who cannot feel the glory of the supreme heaven only deserve to be killed by the noble disciplinary knights, and their souls will forever wail in the eighteen levels of hell.
Attack and punish the Knights of Punishment! "
As soon as he finished speaking, hundreds of silver and white gold swastika flags were played, and twelve thousand fine cavalry began to slowly approach the battlefield in Heyang Town!
