Zhang Huan sat quietly in the tent, his eyes full of sadness. In front of him was the battle report sent by Saiye City. Nearly half of the Tang army was killed and injured, and finally took Saiye, but the chief general Guan Ying bombed the enemy with his body, and his body was gone.

Although he has seen too many deaths over the years and is very weak in life, Guan Ying's death made him feel the preciousness of life for the first time. Guan Ying was one of the last survivors of Zhang Sancheng's guard battle. Life was already a gift from God to him. He shouldn't have died again, but he should have lived well and eventually became a general, but in the end he died in Broken Leaf.

It was this deep regret that made Zhang Huan feel a spirit hidden deep in the humble bodies of these soldiers. This courage to sacrifice himself for the country and die for the dignity of the nation made him cry.

After a long time, he gradually calmed down and walked to the door of the tent to stare at the dark and endless mountains in the distance. There was the once-mile country of the Tang Dynasty. With a battle tomorrow, it will completely return to its hometown.

"Governor!" A figure slowly walked across from the opposite side. The light from the tent shone on his face. The three veins had long beards and fluttered chests. It was Pei Mingyuan. He walked up and smiled and said, "I can't sleep, I want to talk to the Governor."

“Come in and sit.”

The two of them went into the tent and sat down. The personal soldiers served tea to them. Pei Mingyuan immediately asked: "I heard that Wang Siyu has returned, and I also heard that Cao Hanchen took the Paoling Guard to capture him?"

Zhang Huan nodded, "Wang Siyu went south this time and encountered an ambush by the main cavalry of Dashi. Fortunately, there was a conflict within the Dashi Army, which made him seek victory in adversity and annihilated nearly 20,000 Dashi Army, including more than 8,000 main cavalry. The results were brilliant. Cao Hanchen also took the Paoling Guard Fort and cut off the road to returning westward."

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan's joy couldn't help but reveal it to Yan Biao, "Not only that, Suoye City has also been taken down by us."

He handed the battle report of Saiye to Pei Mingyuan, "Look at it for yourself!"

Pei Mingyuan's eyes were filled with surprise. He took the battle report and quickly scanned it. He couldn't help but slapped the table and exclaimed: "Take the broken leaves, and my Han and Tang dynasties will rebuild the Western Regions!"

Zhang Huan didn't say anything, he pondered for a moment and said, "I remember you told me that you had been to Jerusalem many years ago."

Pei Mingyuan smiled and said, "That's what happened more than ten years ago. I followed a big food caravan to go to the big food. A few days ago, the governor said that I would go on a mission to Da food. Is it just for the purpose of breaking leaves?"

Zhang Huan nodded, "The shattered leaves are only one aspect. I hope the Dashi Caliph can be pragmatic and acknowledge the control of the Rehai basin by the Tang Dynasty. In this way, I can complete the strategy of connecting Anxi and Beiting from the west, laying the foundation for the expansion of Beiting west to Yibohai (Today's Balkash Lake)."

"The governor is right. To the north of Rehai is the territory of Tuqi Shiren. To the west of Beiting is the territory of Geluo people. In the battle of Beiting, the main force of Geluo people has been eliminated by the governor. Both places have nothing to do with Dashi. I think this kind of favor should be given to Dashi. The key is what is the governor exchanged with them?"

"What to exchange?" Zhang Huan smiled coldly and said, "The Broken Leaf was taken by our Tang soldiers with their lives. Whether he admits it or not, it is already ours. Why do you need to exchange it with him?"

Zhang Huan stood up and walked with his hands behind his back, "After tomorrow, Prince Agush of the Great Sea will become my prisoner of war again, and at least tens of thousands of soldiers will become my prisoner of war."

Speaking of this, Zhang Huan stared into Pei Mingyuan's eyes: "But these prisoners of war are not trying to exchange territory with the cannibals, do you understand?"

Pei Mingyuan stood up and bowed and said, "I really can't understand, please forgive me!"

"I don't blame you. You can't guess what I want to exchange for these prisoners of war?" Zhang Huan stared at the top of the tent, with a hint of sadness in his tone. "In the Battle of Talas, nearly 20,000 Tang soldiers were taken to the West by the Great Food Army. This has been more than thirty years. If they are still alive, they are all old. I hope you can exchange them for the Great Food prisoners of this battle so that they can return their leaves to their roots. This has always been my wish and it is also your real mission to go to Great Food."

Pei Mingyuan's eyes also turned a little red. He bowed deeply to Zhang Huan, "I will definitely live up to the governor's trust!"

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The sky was bright, ‘dong!dong!dong!dong!’ The intense sound of war drums sounded in the Tang army camp. The Tang army camp opened, and teams of black armored cavalry, dragon soaring spearmen, tiger swordsmen, and crossbows army rushed out like a torrent of torrent from the camp. There were also five hundred black thunderbolt chariots in the middle, rumbling and loud siege, huge stone cannons, towering cloud ladders into the clouds, heading towards Shule City twenty miles away.

This will be a reflection of the Tang army's full strength. They must make the great sacred people remember that the land in the East cannot be violated by the iron hooves of their great sacred army.

The 70,000 Tang army was divided into three parts. Wang Siyu was a general of the front army, leading 10,000 elite cavalry, 10,000 sabre soldiers, 5,000 archers and crossbow soldiers, a total of 30,000 people were the front army; Zhang Huan personally led 30,000 troops to be the central army, and the thunder chariots were also hidden in the army; Cheng Lie was not healed due to his injuries, and as a general of the rear army, he led 10,000 Qiang cavalry to protect siege weapons such as siege, stone cannons and cloud ladders.

The army did not go fast, and only traveled ten miles in an hour. At this moment, the city of Shule was already in panic. There was no suspense in the two choices of whether to go out to fight or whether to defend the city. Agush chose to defend the city without hesitation, while Moyali no longer had the right to speak. Because he suffered losses in the process of ambushing the Tang army, he was jointly complained by Rasher and the commander of the Damascus cavalry, accusing him of being defeated due to his poor command and blind pursuit of the enemy. Agush immediately removed Moyali's command and imprisoned him, and appointed Rasher, who was like his own interests as the main general, responsible for commanding the offensive and defensive battle with the Tang army.

At this moment, Agush stood on a lookout tower on the east side of the city and stared into the distance. After two wars of attrition and the replenishment of reinforcements, the total strength of the Dashi Army is still 50,000. In addition, they have captured some strong men in the city, and a total of about 70,000 people have defended the city.

The Dashi Army and the Tang Army had little difference in strength, and they had strong cities to complement each other. Therefore, Agush was not worried. The attack methods shown in the Tang Army's previous siege were nothing terrible. The pessimistic arguments of Melia made him feel extremely calm. It was already cold winter. With the heavy snow, the supply of the Tang Army would become increasingly difficult. The Tang Army would not stay in Shule for a long time and would withdraw to the Changcheng or Kucha. In other words, he still had one winter to arrange it calmly.

‘Here!’ He had already seen a long black line appear on the horizon. The moment to decide the victory and defeat finally came. Agush's mood also changed from calm to excitement. He immediately ordered the guards: "Go tell all the soldiers and defeat the Tang army. Each of them will receive a special reward from the Caliph!"

The entire Shule city was boiling, and tens of thousands of big food troops began to be busy and their morale was high. Some wiped guns, some checked stone throwers, and some carried stones and wood. More than 200 stone throwers lined up at the city wall. Nearly a hundred soldiers stood in front of each stone thrower.

Gradually, the dark Tang army was getting closer and closer, and the flags covered the sky and the sun were stretched for five miles. They stopped about three miles away from the city. The Tang army was able to confirm that it was going to be a siege battle. The front and central troops merged again, but the army did not launch immediately. They were waiting for the siege weapons to come up.

This day was October 20, the first year of Yong'an. After a full six months of war, the Battle of Anxi finally came to an end. Dark clouds were covered with dark clouds and the north wind blew. The heaven and earth were filled with murderous areas. The majestic Tang soldiers stood in the vast wilderness, quietly waiting for the arrival of the war.

Suddenly, dense small black dots appeared in the distance. As they pushed closer, the earth began to tremble. As they got closer, siege weapons began to reveal their hideous faces, huge and towering stone cannons, and huge bodies seemed like monsters from the unknown world. The cloud ladder with a long tail was inlaid with a solid steel frame on the ladder, which could withstand the horizontal smashing of rolling wood.

But what makes people feel heart-wrenching is that the three more huge siege sieges are compared to it. Compared with it, the stone cannon is a siege made of a thousand-year-old tree. It is a hundred feet long. It is pulled by thick iron chains and sways forward. The front end of the siege is inlaid with a siege head made of fine steel, weighing thousands of pounds, as if it has the magic power to destroy everything. This siege siege requires three hundred horses to pull and control it by thousands of Tang troops.

Its appearance calmed the big food army, which was clamoring loudly on the city, and a hint of fear began to appear in their eyes. A few days ago, the Tang army seemed to have nothing to attack the city, and even Agush felt a little uneasy. He began to doubt whether his decision was correct.

"Go and let Moyali out." He didn't know why he made this decision.

At this time, a Tang army rushed over and rushed to the city gate, shot a headless arrow, with a letter inserted diagonally, and the arrow drew an arc. On the head of the city, a soldier hurriedly ran to the viewing tower with the letter and handed it to Agush.

The letter was written in Zhang Huan's handwriting and written in Chinese. Agush couldn't understand it. A translator quickly translated it. It was actually a letter of surrender that persuaded Agush to surrender. The Tang army would ensure his safety and send him back to Dashi.

Agush tore the letter in half, and the people of the Abbas family never knew what surrender was.

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Under a big banner several miles away, Zhang Huan also smiled coldly. He already knew that Agush was in the overlooking tower at the top of the city. No matter who he appointed as a general, he would inevitably command the battle.

"Start!" He calmly issued an order to attack.

‘Dong! dong! dong!’ The rumbling drum sounded again and the Tang army’s attack began. All the Dashi Army in the city were squeezing their guns, sweating in their hands. The speculation machine squeaked and put the round stones into the net pockets of two hundred catapults.

But unexpectedly, the Tang army did not swarm up, and they were still standing there motionless. Suddenly, the northernmost Tang army separated from both sides and made way for a way. Behind them, one dark carriage after another appeared, with very long bodies and covers on them, like a long wooden box. Each car was pulled by eight horses and walked like flying. They formed a long convoy, like a black dragon, winding towards them.

The Great Food Army on the city were at a loss. They didn't understand what the Tang Army was doing, but soon they discovered something strange. The routes taken by these carriages seemed to have been accurately measured. The shooting distance of the gun was too far, but the catapults were too close, just about two hundred steps away from the city wall. This was a blank point for the Great Food Man's defense.

"Relax and pull the rope and shoot!" The big cannibal's catapult did not shoot out with all his strength. The soldiers only used half of their strength, and nearly a hundred big rocks shot towards the carriage convoy under the city from a distance. In terms of power alone, the big cannibal's catapult was not much worse than the Tang army's stone cannon, and could also shoot out 800 steps, but from a technical point of view, the two were far apart.

The Tang army's stone cannons can not only shoot far away, but also accurately control the range. There are five scales of gold, silver, purple, red and yellow on the cannon, just like the Wangshan of the crossbow machine. They represent a thousand steps, eight hundred steps, five steps, three hundred steps, and two hundred steps, respectively, and are controlled by a complex set of machinery. The stone cannons can be fired on a certain scale. In this way, the stone cannons are also specially standardized, with the same size and weight.

Not only that, as early as the Three Kingdoms period, Ma Jun, a skilled craftsman of Wei, invented a continuous bead cannon, which could automatically load and continuously fire, making the stone bullets one after another, as fast as lightning.

The big cannibal was obviously weaker than fineness. More than one hundred stones fell in front of and behind the carriage with weak strength, but none of them could hit the carriage. Five hundred thunderbolts lined up in a row. Suddenly the bottom cover was lifted during high-speed movement, and half of the side plate was also lowered, revealing a small stone cannon. Four Tang soldiers were slitting the lever, and another Tang army ignited the fuse, and the fuse burned wildly. Four Tang soldiers let go at the same time, and five hundred porcelain bullets of the size of grapefruit flew into the air. Starting up, hundreds of black lines were drawn and accurately shot onto the city wall. For this reason, the Tang army had practiced countless times and calculated very accurately. Five hundred porcelain bullets suddenly exploded violently on the city wall. There were 2,000 porcelain bullets in total, and they also came with Pei Mingyuan. This was the latest gunpowder developed by the Longyou Gunpowder Bureau. The content of nitrate reached 76%. Although it only increased by less than half a century compared to the previous nitrate content, its power was several times greater.

The red flames soared into the sky, and the explosions were astonishing as hundreds of fire trees and silver flowers bloomed together. The strong waves of air overturned many big cannibals and trespasses down the city. Hundreds of black smoke rose into the air, and finally formed several huge mushroom clouds.

Not to mention the great cannibalism, even Tang Bing, who had seen gunpowder explosions under the city, was stunned by the power of this explosion. Many people instinctively squatted down and covered their ears.

At this time, the city was in a mess, and there was no standing person, with broken limbs and broken trenchers sprinkled all over the ground, blood gathered along the wall to form a stream. With the moans of the dying people, the three thousand defenders on the east city wall had been swept away half of the three thousand defenders on the east city wall, and even Rasher, who had just been promoted to the throne, was blown away to the point of no bones.

Agush, who was standing in the viewing tower, was not affected. After a long time, he slowly stood up, with an extremely horrified look in his eyes. He suddenly remembered something that Melia had said: "Big Tang Thunder."

Agush suddenly stood up and shouted with a loud voice: "Hurry! Go and call General Melia."

The sound of drums from the Tang army once again sounded passionately, and the prelude of the large-scale attack officially opened. Hundreds of stone cannons hit the city walls. The city tower directly above the east gate was smashed and fell down suddenly. Even the viewing tower where Agush was located was hit, with debris splashing everywhere, and half of the viewing tower was cut off. Under the protection of more than a dozen guards, Agush fled from the city in a panic.

Twenty thousand Tang troops shouted and rushed up like a tide. They held shields in one hand and swords in the other, jumped up the ladder and climbed up hard. More than one hundred cloud ladders stretched out their giant-like long hands, and the hooks at the front end hit the battlements one after another. The Tang army rushed up like an ant colony, fearlessly. The Tang army's stone cannon range increased, and stone bullets crossed the city and shot into the city to prevent the Tang army from accidentally injuring the attacking city.

At this time, thousands of large food troops suddenly emerged from the east city wall. The heads were like lions, with long curly hair floating in the black smoke. Melia led the three thousand large food troops to come from the west city. They threw javelins and threw down countless huge rocks and rolling woods. The Tang army began to suffer casualties. In a moment, more than a dozen ladders broke, and hundreds of Tang soldiers screamed and fell to the city.

The attacking Tang army also began to counterattack. They fired arrows at the top of the city. The arrows were as dense as rain, suppressing the Dashi Army on one of the city walls. Many Tang army took the opportunity to rush up to the city from here and fight with the Dashi Army. However, as the number of Dashi reinforcements continued to increase, hundreds of Tang troops who rushed up to the city were all killed, and the Tang army's attack was greatly hindered.

"Fire gunpowder bullets with stone cannons!" Zhang Huan gave the order coldly.

With the huge whistling sound, dozens of giant porcelain bullets burning from fuses were shot onto the top of the city. Countless giant cannibals shouted in horror, desperately dodging and running away. Like the Tubo people, this extremely fearful thunder and fire left a huge shadow in their hearts, but many people still had no time to escape. More than a dozen giant porcelain bullets exploded in the crowd. This giant porcelain bullet was brought before and was not as powerful as the porcelain bullets in the Thunder Cart just now. Despite this, the lethality of more than a dozen porcelain bullets was still very huge. The bursting porcelain pieces and explosion waves caused heavy casualties and injuries to more than a thousand people.

Melia was held tightly by more than a dozen personal soldiers before she escaped. The flesh and blood of the personal soldiers were stained like a bloodthirsty devil. He looked at the tragic situation around him in disbelief and closed his eyes in pain. In this battle, the cannibals would definitely lose.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a slight vibration under him, and accompanied by the rumbling sound, Melia got up in surprise, leaned her head down to look down at the city, and he was stunned.

Two huge siege hammers, almost half of the city walls, were slowly approaching the city gate. Behind the siege hammers, followed by the dense Tang army. The gate of Shule City was made of iron and was as thick as one foot. Perhaps it was extremely strong, but it was the most critical part and the weakest link among the insurmountable tall walls.

The drums were loud, the siege hammer rolled forward, and the rumble sounded across the sky. It had already approached the city gate. Melia screamed and threw the iron spear in her hand at the extremely ferocious monster with all her strength. But the javelin seemed to fall into the sea and disappeared silently.

Suddenly the city gate shaking violently. Melia was unsteadily standing and fell to the ground. A deep rumble sounded throughout the city, like thunder sounding in the heavy rain. The iron gate and steel pillar withstood the attack. Then, the thousand Tang troops who controlled the giant beast shouted, and the siege hammer hit the city gate again.

The iron lock of the city gate finally could not withstand the force of ten thousand pounds and was severely distorted and deformed. When the siege hammer hit the city gate for the third time, Shule's east gate was knocked open.

Ten thousand black armored cavalry shouted, waved their swords and long spears, and rushed into Shule City first. Zhang Huan ordered: "The whole army entered Shule City!"

Tens of thousands of Tang troops rushed into Shule City like a turbulent wave. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, General Melia ordered the Dashi Army to stop resisting and surrender to the Tang army. Prince Agush escaped from Shule City from the southern gate under the desperate escort of three thousand personal guards. General Wang Siyu led 10,000 cavalry to pursue him. Agush was unable to defend the fort through the Pamiring Mountains and was trapped in Hepantuo City.

On October 25, the first year of Yong'an, Prince Agush surrendered to Zhang Huan in Hepantuo City. At this point, the Battle of Anxi, which had been in full swing for more than half a year, finally came to a perfect end. After nearly thirty years of separation from Anxi, Beiting was finally recaptured.
Chapter completed!