Anxi, after three days of marching, Zhang Huan's army had already pushed to Weitou City, which is also the capital of Anxi ancient country - Weitou City, and is nearly 350 miles away from Shule.

The terrain here is different from the Badengcheng. It is close to the edge of the desert, with arid climate, sparse rivers, and endless grasslands are no longer visible. It is more of the undulating Gobi Desert. Not far away are bare ridges. It can be moved westward and all the way to Shule. The Gobi Desert gradually decreases, the soil becomes deeper, the light and heat conditions are better, and the Chihe River water is irrigated. Therefore, the west area becomes the main agricultural area of ​​Anxi, and Shule, the second largest country in Anxi, is located in it.

It was early September, and it was getting colder in the morning and evening, and even frost was even early in the morning. When Zhang Huan saw that it was getting dark, he ordered: "Stay on the spot and go again tomorrow morning."

The army then set up a camp under a leeing ridge, burying pots to make rice, resting horses, and nearly a thousand marches rushed to patrol within dozens of miles of the surrounding camp. The soldiers in the camp were having dinner, and everyone was talking and laughing, which was very lively. The army wiped out the main force of the Tubo army east of the city, and its morale was greatly boosted. Now it was about to deal with the invading Dashi Army, and the Tang army was full of confidence in victory.

At this time, several soldiers brought the captured Prince Agush to Zhang Huan's tent. Due to Agush's special identity, he was not abused. Except for his lack of freedom, all kinds of conditions were pretty good. The Tang army even changed cities to get him some books on Dagush. After some days of living with the Tang army, Agush's attitude gradually changed.

He wrote in the Oriental Record of Experiences: I was fortunate to meet another group of Oriental people. They are from the hometown of silk and porcelain, and are real Oriental people. They are optimistic, tenacious, polite and disciplined, completely different from the natives in Anxi. The soldier who guarded me was a twenty-year-old young man. He was very honest and loyal to his duties. He often told me about his experiences in his hometown. It turned out that those beautiful silks were actually spit out from the mouth of a bug, which was incredible. If possible, I really wanted to follow them to the East and see with my own eyes.

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Zhang Huan was having supper at this time. Dinner was very simple, exactly the same as the soldiers, a few steamed buns, a plate of dried meat cut into slices, a plate of fried wild vegetables, and a bowl of soup. While he was having supper, he lowered his head to study the sand table beside him.

According to the information obtained by the scouts, when the Dashi Army arrived here, he received news that the Tubo army had been wiped out, and then withdrew Shule again. From this, it can be seen that the main purpose of the Dashi people's invasion in the east was to occupy Shule and build a base for them to advance eastward in the future. Shule is the largest agricultural area in Anxi. If it is fully developed, it can fully support tens of thousands of troops. Shule is also the starting point of the westward advance strategy he set. It will be the political center for the Tang Dynasty to rule the Western Regions in the future, and there is no need to be missed. Therefore, the war against Dashi for Shule cannot be avoided.

Although war is just a continuation of politics, any diplomatic rhetoric is pale and powerless when it comes to core interests. Any restraint and protest will be regarded as weak by the other party, thus pressing step by step and losing more vital interests. Territory or territorial waters are the core interests of a country. Only by using war can one show a country's toughness and determination to safeguard sovereignty. Since ancient times, the law of the jungle has been the prey of the weak. After the great cannibals occupied Shule, if the Tang army tolerated or negotiated, there could only be one result, that is, the complete loss of Shule.

Zhang Huan knew this better than anyone else. In this battle, he would take Shule back at all costs and wipe out the invading Dashi Army. He would use bloody consequences to defeat Dashi Caliph's ambition to invade east. This is the second rule of the jungle law. If the invader retreated without any loss, he would come again. Only by hurting him or crippling him or even killing him will it shock the latecomers.

After countless bloody wars, Zhang Huan's heart was already colder than ice and harder than iron.

"Governor, the great cannibal brought it." The personal soldiers' reports sounded outside the tent.

"Bring him in!"

Zhang Huan waved his hand and ordered his personal soldiers to take the food away first. The curtain was opened. Several personal soldiers led Agush and his translator in. The translator was no longer the strange-sounding Dashi soldier, but a Dashi merchant who went to Chang'an to do business. He was proficient in Chinese and could better express the subtlety of conversations between senior officials.

Zhang Huan looked at Agush and saw that his beard had grown longer and he had a little weight. He smiled slightly and said, "Your Highness, please sit down!"

In front of Zhang Huan, Agush no longer had the arrogance and indifference he had before. The translator told him that the commander of the Tang army was not an ordinary person. He was the strongest local prince in the Tang Dynasty and one of the most powerful people in the Tang Dynasty. The great cannibals have always believed in strength and respected the strong. Agush bowed to Zhang Huan and sat down on a chair.

"General Zhang has defeated Tubo, why should he continue to travel west? Do you also want to be an enemy of our big food?"

The translator translated his words to Zhang Huan intact. Zhang Huan sneered in his heart and said without hesitation: "There is an old saying in our predecessors in the East that we repay kindness with virtue and complain with straightforwardness. If you have great food first, we will naturally not treat you as friends."

"No! No! No!" Agush waved his hands repeatedly, "I think General Zhang was a misunderstanding. Shule was stolen from the Tubo people, not from the Tang Dynasty. If you want to complain, it should be the Tubo people who treat us, not the Tang Dynasty."

Zhang Huan laughed to the sky, and his laughter suddenly stopped, and then said coldly: "You snatched the robber's stolen goods. Are the things yours? Very good! Shule has been one of the four towns in Anxi, our Tang Dynasty since ancient times. Now that the master has come back to ask for things, do you give it or not?"

"This..." Agush was speechless. He didn't know Anshi's history. Even if he knew it, he would not pay attention to it. In their opinion, nothing was owned, and as long as he got it, it was his own. Otherwise, the Persians asked them to ask for Baghdad, and the Wumaiyes asked them to ask for Jerusalem, would he give it?

The problem is that he is still a prisoner of others and is slaughtered. He doesn't want to be quick to speak out for a while and annoys the commander of the Tang army. It's more important to save his life.

His eyes rolled and he said sincerely: "We never knew that Shule would be the territory of the Tang Dynasty. If we knew, we would not have come from Tochar. We came from the east to punish the Tubo people for invading Tochar. If General Zhang was willing to let me go back, I would definitely convince General Aros to let him withdraw from Shule."

Zhang Huan glanced at him and couldn't help but smile and said, "The rules of our Eastern people have always been to give things first and then pay. His Highness Agush can write a letter. As long as he is willing to withdraw from Shule, I will let you go back."

The translation was very well spoken. Agush suddenly heard the grammatical problem in Zhang Huan's words. He seized the loophole in his words and asked, "As long as you leave Shule, can you go anywhere?"

"Yes, as long as you leave Shule, you can go anywhere! As long as he is willing to leave Shule, I will never break my promise." Zhang Huan replied without hesitation.

Agush had already taken it down, and he wrote a letter, ordering the commander of the Great Food Army Aros to temporarily evacuate Shule and occupy other cities. Zhang Huan immediately ordered a businessman to deliver the letter to him.

It was already very late at night, and Zhang Huan was still studying the terrain on the sand table. From Kucha to the west, the sand table was made relatively simple because there were fewer scouts from the Tang army. Only one main section was marked, that is, a piece of road near the Chi River. The large area to the north was made into continuous mountains, which was not very familiar to Cao Hanchen and Luyang.

But Jing Niang told him that she did not leave Shule when she went to Shuye. Zhang Huan didn't pay attention at that time. Now when she remembered it, she realized the importance of this information. She met her in Kucha, which means that there was actually another way to Shuye.

Unfortunately, Jingniang has already returned to Chang'an, otherwise she would be a good guide. At this time, Guan Ying, the personal soldier next to her, saw that the lord was stunned when he looked at a large blank space on the sand table, and he couldn't help but talk, "Why didn't the governor ask the Dashi merchant?"

One sentence reminded Zhang Huan that today the translation of Dashi is proficient in Chinese, and he must have traveled back and forth many times. He should know the distance. He immediately ordered his personal soldiers to invite him.

The big food merchant was named Aming, who was fifty-five years old this year. Since he was a teenager, he has traveled with his father between Baghdad and Chang'an, and is familiar with every tree and grass on the Silk Road. However, after Tubo occupied Anxi, he interrupted the land trade between the East and the West. He then took the water route to Guangzhou, or switched to Chang'an from the Uighurs. This time, he heard that the Tang army was going to recover Anxi, so he brought some goods to try his luck. He happened to meet the Tang army in Weitou City and was invited to be an interpreter.

He entered the tent and bowed to Zhang Huanshen and said, "Meet the noble Shangshu Zhang!"

Zhang Huan nodded and smiled, "I heard that you know very well about the Silk Road. I want to ask you for something."

Aming knew Zhang Huan's status in the Tang Dynasty. If he could get in touch with him, he and his sons would get great benefits in the future. He did not dare to neglect and quickly responded: "Shangshu Zhang please say bluntly that as long as the grass-roots people know, they will never hide it."

"Okay, let me ask you, can you only go from Shule to Shuye to Pantuo Ridge and then go north?"

"This..." Ahming was a little sensitive when he heard the word "Broken Leaf". He hesitated for a moment. Zhang Huan looked at his expression and smiled and said, "If you don't know, forget it, I'll ask others again."

"No! I know." Although Amin was a great cannibal, he had no good feelings for the black food from Persia. His grandfather was once a court official of the white food Wu Maiye Dynasty. Speaking of which, he was also a man who lost his country, but more importantly, he was a merchant. The biggest characteristic of a merchant is that he could seize opportunities.

Just as Zhang Huan was about to give the order to expel the guest, he immediately said: "Overy merchants go to Tuopang Ridge, but there is a mountain pass about 250 miles north from Shule, called Toyun Pass (today's Tulugarte Pass). You can go straight to Saiye and Rehai by walking."

‘Tuyun Mountain Pass’, Zhang Huan slapped his forehead suddenly. He should know that when Gao Xianzhi fought against the Battle of Talas, he just walked through Tuyun Mountain Pass? He set up an inn there during the Han Dynasty, so why did he forget?

He pulled Amin to the sand table, pointed to the mountains to the north and said, "Tell me, where is the mountain pass?"

This was the first time Amin saw a sand table. He praised the exquisiteness of his work. He looked at the sand table carefully and pointed to a mountain to the north and said, "It's here, the road is very difficult to walk, but camels and horses can pass through the Tianshan Mountains and reach the Broken Leaf."

"You can go straight to the Broken Leaf." Zhang Huan stared at this place in a daze. This was an extremely bold idea. Suddenly, he discovered that he had completely overturned his original strategic plan. Continuing the westward expedition was his general direction. The original plan was to accumulate in Shule for several years and then attack westward. But in that case, Dashi also completed its assimilation of culture and religion west of the Pamir Mountains, and at the same time, it would also deploy a large army to resist the Tang army's advance westward.

However, if surprise troops were sent to take down the Saiye, it would greatly encourage the determination of the countries in the Western Regions to resist the Dashi, and would greatly delay the Dashi's occupation of the west of the Pamir Mountains. At the same time, it could also be connected with Beiting in the west, which would be a perfect strategic arc.

Thinking of this, he raised his eyes and smiled at Ah Ming, "Are you willing to be my guide? After the matter is done, I will never treat you badly."

"The people of Caoshu are willing to serve Shangshu Zhang!" Ah Ming bowed and agreed without hesitation.

The personal soldiers took A Ming down to prepare, and Zhang Huan looked at Tuoyun Mountain Pass carefully. From here to Shuye, there is still a thousand miles away. You can use surprise troops to seize Shuye, but you must find someone who is bold and careful and dares to take risks to complete this task.

He suddenly imagined something, turned to look at Guan Ying beside him, and couldn't help laughing, smiling like an old fox. Guan Ying's heart was so nervous that he jumped. Zhang Huan walked up and patted his shoulder, and said in a deep voice: "If you can take the broken leaves for me, I will promote you to General of the Central Army!"

"General of the Central Army", a flame suddenly burst out from Guan Ying's eyes.

Shule, which is today's Kashgar, Xinjiang, was attached to the Han Dynasty as early as the Han Dynasty. Later, the Central Plains turmoil at the end of the Han Dynasty, Shule lost contact with the Central Plains dynasty. However, for hundreds of years, its desire to rely on the Central Plains has never stopped. From the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, it was King Shule who sent envoys to the Central Plains again and again to request attachment, which finally prompted Li Shimin to make up his mind to rebuild the Anxi Protectorate.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Tubo occupied Hexi and Kucha, blocking the Anxi Tang Army's journey to return to China. The survival of the Anxi Tang Army was in danger. It was King Pei of Shule who coldly accepted them, which allowed the remnants of the Anxi Tang Army to persist until now.

But at this time, Shule had become the focus of the competition between the Tang Dynasty and the Great Food. As Tubo and the Uighurs faded out of Anxi successively, the final victory of Shule was the end of the Tang army's battle in the past six months.

At present, the King of Shule Pei Lengleng has traveled east to Yutian, and nearly 50,000 elite large food troops have arrived from Tochar one after another. The Governor of Tochar, Aros, was personally in charge.

Aros was once the governor of Egypt and was a famous general in black and fed food. He made great achievements in the war to fight for the big food in white. Of course, his hands were covered with blood. He was fifty years old this year, with a strong figure, sharp eyes and extremely clear thinking.

At this moment, he was meeting a great food merchant from the Tang camp in the Shule Palace. He brought a handwritten letter from His Highness Prince Agush. Agush disappeared on the way to meet with Tubo Zamp. Later, the entourage who fled back told him that His Highness Agush was captured by an unidentified army. Of course, Aros knew that this unidentified army was the Tang army. The matter was serious. He immediately ordered 30,000 troops to quickly join the Tubo army. However, not long after the troops were sent, news of the defeat of Tubo soldiers was heard. Although His Highness Agush was important, the Eastern Strategy of the Caliph was more important. After weighing the pros and cons, Aros ordered the army to retreat to Shule. Just when he was about to write a letter to report to the Caliph that something happened to His Highness Agush, Agush's letter was delivered to him.

Aros paced back and forth in the palace with his hands behind his back. Agush asked him to temporarily withdraw from Shule in exchange for freedom. It was very simple, and it seemed that he had taken a big advantage. But Aros was like Zhang Huan, who knew very well the consequences of temporarily withdrawing Shule. Once Shule was lost, how could the 50,000 army survive? How long could he stay here? The Tang army did not have to fight him at all, and could easily drive him back to Tcharo. Agush was too naive and knew nothing.

But if he did not agree to his request and he sued himself in front of the Caliph, he would have to follow Abu back then.

The Muslims' retreat was killed after Talas defeated the Tang army, but they were killed because of their great achievements.

Aros was in a difficult situation. If he was defeated by the Tang army, the Caliph would not spare him. He had to sigh that the Tang army commander was very skillful and saw through Agush's incompetent nature. He just made a gesture and forced himself into a dilemma.
Chapter completed!