Chapter 273: The Sword of the Holy Lord (I)

In the autumn of the 15th year of China, Samosata, the eastern province of the Roman Empire (a small province in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, now in eastern Turkey, bordering Armenia and the Mediterranean River Basin). The weather was very hot, and the hot air also brought a fishy smell of the Mediterranean.

"Brother Ling, where have we been?" Zeng Mu turned his head and asked Murong Ling beside him.

"General, we have just left Cappadocia, this place should be Samosata." Murong Ling replied, and at the end of his speech, he still complained: "The names of these Romans are really difficult to pronounce!"

After saying that, Murong Ling shouted: "Adminton!"

"Come!" An officer who looked very young but had a beard quickly trotted up and responded loudly.

"Open the map!" Murong Ling said loudly.

"Yes!" the young officer responded loudly, then put a cylinder behind him down to his chest, unscrewed the lid, took out a roll of thick velvet paper, and handed it to Zeng Mu, and said softly: "Uncle, map."

Murong Ling next to him suddenly turned black, raised his horse whip and gently whipped the young officer's shoulder, shouting sternly: "Shegui, how many times have I told you that there are only the general manager and general in the army, and no uncle!"

Tuoba Gui shrank his neck, pulled the reins and turned to Zeng. Mu and the others went behind him, but they muttered: "Madam General, I'm my aunt, so why don't I call my uncle?"

Although the voice was small, Zeng Mu and Murong Ling both heard it. Murong Ling couldn't bear to worry about his face and was about to go up and kick Tuoba Gui, but was stopped by Zeng Mu.

"Brother Ling, you know this kid's virtue, why bother to get angry? Besides, you are his elder, let's forget about it."

When Murong Ling heard this, he would forget it. Isn't that true? Zeng Mu married Tuoba Guiyan, who was Tuoba Gui's biological uncle, and one of his cousins ​​married Tuoba Shiyijian. When it comes to Tuoba Gui, he had to call him cousin.

Zeng Mu spread out the map. It was a map of the Roman Empire Asia Minor, Armenia and Syria. It is a masterpiece of the Chinese Military Intelligence Department and the Ministry of Commerce for more than 20 years.

"We should be one hundred and fifty miles west of Sofina, less than one hundred miles from the Mediterranean Sea." Zeng Mu said, pointing to the map.

"Yes, I can smell the fishy smell of the sea." Murong Ling said with a shrugged nose.

"We are only two hundred miles from Antioch on the map." Zeng Mu said, pointing to a black dot.

"It was an important support for the Roman Empire in the Eastern Defense Line. It was said that it was also the central city of Christianity in Asia. According to information, Theodosie I concentrated more than 50,000 troops there. It seemed that they were preparing to take the opportunity to recover Palmyra." Murong Ling replied.

"Palmyra, Antioch, and Damascus are the three most important towns and support points of the Roman Empire in Syria, which can form a stable triangular formation. Palmyra was occupied by Persia and inserted a steel knife into this triangular formation. The Romans were uneasy in their dreams, and of course they hoped to recover it as soon as possible. Unfortunately, although the eastern emperor of the Roman Empire, Theodosio I was a capable man, the western emperor Valentinian II was too mediocre. He had to rely on Theodosio I to wipe his butt and help him to suppress the rebellion, Magnus Maximus and Flavius ​​Victor. Theodosio I was unable to deal with the sudden brave Persians alone. Of course, with the help of external forces, otherwise he would kindly use Trabson's path to us?"

Although the famous fence-headed Armenia Kingdom controlled most of the mountain passes of the Caucasus Mountains, a narrow mountain road on the east coast of the Black Sea was controlled by a narrow mountain road from Dioscurias (near Sochi, Russia, which was originally the central city of the Bosphorus Kingdom, and was later occupied by the Roman Empire) along the coastline to Cappadocia in Asia Minor, but was controlled by the Romans. This time Zeng Mu was appointed as the general manager of the Persian West Road and led 30,000 Xianbei troops to be the partial army of the Western Expedition. Zeng Mu gave up the plan to penetrate directly from the Caspian County to the Persian hinterland and boldly proposed another strategy - leading the army out of the Ural River, then rushing south, and with the help of the Romans, to take on the richest area of ​​Persia, the Mesopotamia Basin. This plan was approved by Zeng Hua, and even fell in love with the desire of Theodosio I, who was working hard to regain the lost land in the east.

"Sir, should we help the Romans capture Palmyra and make it the rear base for us to attack the Mesopotamians?" Murong Ling asked.

"No need, the Romans beat them, and we beat us, and we can't put all the logistics and support on the Romans." Zeng Mu said flatly.

"That's true. We walked with the Romans just because of the common enemy of Persia. If the Persians fell down, we and the Romans might be enemies." Murong Ling smiled and said, "Sir, what is our goal?"

"Damascus!" Zeng Mu replied.

"Damascus? That's the territory of the Romans!" Murong Ling asked in surprise.

"I just went to visit. I heard from my father that Damascus has always been the transportation, politics and cultural center of Syria and even the Middle East. It is a city called the kingdom of heaven. I want to go and see it." Zeng Mu replied with a little fascination.

"Sir, we are really just here to attack the Mesopotamian River Basin of the Persian Empire?" Murong Ling asked with a smile.

"Maybe, but we ran thousands of miles away and couldn't enter the treasure mountain but returned empty-handed." Zeng Mu replied with a slight shake of his head.

"Master General!" A general ran over from the front and saluted loudly.

"Ge Chong, what's the matter?" Zeng Mu replied while replying.

"We found six guides in Antioch. They are all groom porters in the caravan. They have been coming and going in Syria for twenty or thirty years, and are very familiar with the roads here." Ge Chong replied.

“Is it reliable?”

"Return to the general manager, two of the six people are greedy for life and death. We threatened them for a while and then passed away. Two of them are greedy for money and agreed with a lot of money. The other two are lists provided by the Ministry of Commerce and the Military Intelligence Department. We Chinese merchants have saved their family and are kind to them, so we are very loyal. The list of four people is still provided by them."

"Okay, we are fighting in a different place now, and intelligence is the most important thing. If we get lost, our horses will be exhausted no matter how fast we run, and we will be even more awkward if we accidentally get into a trick. That Roman emperor Julian was caught in this way. We cannot repeat the same mistakes!" Zeng Mu said seriously.

"Yes, Master, we must be careful. We will continue to look for reliable guides, and we will separate the guides from several groups to use them separately to confirm each other, and we will find local people to verify geographical information every time we go." Ge Chong replied solemnly.

"Okay, go and do it!"

"Pan Yue!"

"arrive!"

"You go to Antioch to receive the materials promised by the Romans, with less food and grass, and try to get as much as possible. Tell me to the Governor of Syria of Rome. We will set up a warehouse in Damascus, Samue, and the city of Palmyra, which is about to be recovered, so that we can buy equipment and supplies on the spot, and set up a clinic to treat the wounded and sick who we transferred back. By the way, you will ask the Governor of Syria for a complaint, Damascus is good, and we want to buy a batch."

Zeng Mu said something, Pan Yue replied and wrote it in a small notebook. After seeing Zeng Mu finished speaking, he closed it, put it in his arms and retreated aside.

"Wang Tong, pass on my order! Li Li and Lu Kuan are vanguards, leading five thousand cavalry, pointing directly at Palmyra, and assisting the Romans in besieging Palmyra. The mission is to block all the roads to the east for me, and no mouse is allowed to go east!"

"Follow the order."

On August 11, 15th year of China, a high dust suddenly rose to the west of Palmyra City. The experienced defenders immediately determined that a cavalry was coming quickly, and the number was expected to be thousands. The defenders were not too late to investigate why the scouts sent did not come back to report the message, but ordered the alarm bell to be sounded and the whole city was alerted.

After a while, in the dust, thousands of black cavalry roared over, and the heavy sound of horse hooves made the defenders standing on the city wall more and more nervous. Under the gaze of tens of thousands of pairs of eyes, the cavalry whistled past Palmyra. When they passed by, some cavalry rushed out of the formation, raised their hands and threw some things in front of the city gate, then drove away, and finally disappeared into a dusty dust with the large group of people.

When the yellow dust finally fell, the defenders found that the cavalry had dozens of heads thrown in front of the city gate, all of which were scouts sent to insist on movement of the Roman army in the west. Looking at these familiar heads, the defenders took a breath. Palmyra was a major front-line town in Persia against Rome, and the scouts sent to insist on the Romans were selected. Now, the heads were cut off by others and threw them here without missing a trace, which shows that this cavalry not only had amazing combat effectiveness, but also had a higher level of scouts than the Persians.

The face of the guard Palmyra was even more gloomy as if a layer of frost was covered with frost. He looked carefully. The flags that the cavalry were the Chinese military flags and church flags, and each cavalry had one or two war horses behind each cavalry. Who else had such a "luxury" cavalry except the Chinese? A cavalry appeared behind the Persians, which was enough to make any Persian general sweat. It seemed that the thing that the Persians were most worried about happened. The Romans and the Chinese were finally ready to attack Persia together.

But the only thing that the guard generals are glad that there should not be many Chinese cavalrymen borrowed from the Roman Empire, because they would require a detour of tens of thousands of miles. The Chinese would not be so stupid that they put their main force there and let the long journey to torture their troops.

The guard immediately wrote a letter and sent an envoy to report to Taixifeng. To be on the safe side, the guard wrote five letters in one breath and sent five envoys to Taixifeng.

Five days passed quickly, and there was no more Chinese cavalry or Roman legion outside the city of Palmyra, but the city was empty and lonely. No one dared to leave the city because all the people who left the city were sent back by Chinese cavalry in groups of three or three and thrown in front of the city gate, including five envoys and hundreds of followers and guards, but it was only their heads when they were sent back.

An inexplicable fear permeated the city of Palmyra. The soldiers and civilians in the city looked at the empty fields outside the city from afar. There was as before, fruit trees and grains ripened in autumn colors, and the air was filled with the smell of harvest, floating above the wells, huts, and roads, but there was no one here. Everyone knew that in this familiar field there was danger that no one knew. They now felt like a group of sheep surrounded by a pack of wild wolves.

In an almost crazy waiting, the Palmyra military and civilians finally waited for a Roman army of up to 60,000 on the seventh day and quickly surrounded the city. Seeing the endless camp tents of the Roman army outside the city, Palmyra's guards and military civilians were relieved and could finally see the real enemy.

When the Romans were step by step to build equipment, dig trenches, and preparing to attack the city of Palmyra, Zeng Mu and his group made large-scale purchases in Damascus. China encouraged the people to purchase and hold conventional weapons such as swords, guns, longbows, and only restricted "major weapons" such as god-arm crossbows, modao, and serial crossbows. Therefore, militias in various parts of China generally brought their own weapons, and when they entered the palace and wing army, in addition to the standard waist knives and armor helmets, soldiers were also allowed to purchase several "supervised" weapons by themselves.

After more than 20 years of busy trade between the two countries, Chinese soldiers have long admired Damascus swords for a long time. Although China's weapons are also very good, they are mostly products produced by "industrialization" and "flow operation", so naturally they are not as exquisite as handmade. Moreover, compared with the high-level weapons handmade by Chinese craftsmen, Damascus swords have a unique exotic flavor and are worth collecting. Therefore, the Chinese cavalry led by Zeng Mu almost bought the good swords in the Damascus market. The smiling Syrian merchants were nagging while collecting money. These Chinese soldiers were really rich. The Damascus steel swords were a little painful when they bought them, but these Chinese warriors blinked their eyes.

However, these merchants do not know the abacus of the Chinese cavalry. If you want to do it well, you must first sharpen your weapons! These cavalry still understand this truth. This is where everyone is preparing to make a fortune. How can you do it without preparing the guys? Now it is a foreign country. Once it is a battle, do you know when will the weapons be supplied? And the more intense the war is, the faster the weapons are damaged. You can't carry a wooden stick to fight. Even if the guys seized the Persians don't know whether it's worth it or not. It's still an unknown number. So it's not a bad thing to prepare more now. Anyway, everyone is ready for one or two horses. If you want to get a reward, you must have investment.

On August 29, more than 20,000 Chinese cavalry who had been in Damascus for more than ten days suddenly disappeared one night. No one knew where they were, including the Roman defenders and the Persian spies.
Chapter completed!