Chapter 38: The Thunderbolt

If we look at Xin Ruiye City as the center, the desert and grassland within a radius of 2,000 miles are intersected, and the snow-capped mountains are almost in between.

The north and west of Xinzaiye City are sparsely populated, with vast wasteland nomadic areas and primitive forest hunting areas.

The southeast along the Suiye River is the Uighurs' old nest Balasha.

Crossing the Saiye River to the south is a deserted desert. This desert stretches thousands of miles from northwest to southeast. It is pointed in the northwest and blunt in the southeast, and is shaped like a swimming tadpole. The Tang army generals called it the Saiye Desert. To the south of the Saiye Desert is Talas, another important stronghold of the Uighurs, and one of the two major strongholds of the Uighur deputy Khan Satuk Bogra.

Although the Western Regions are vast, if the Tang army wants to return east, it basically only has two roads, north and south.

The northern road goes to the Yili Valley, and the way to go is to go directly eastward, break through the defense of the Uighurs in Balasha, cross the Heihai, and enter the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains from the Yili Valley. This road is equivalent to stepping over from the Uighurs' base camp! And even if you break through Balasha, almost all the Uighurs' territory to the east of the Yili Valley are covered with the territory of the Uighurs.

The southern road is to walk through Shule (now Kashgar), from Shule, cross the Pamir Mountains (Pamir Plateau), and then you can head along the southern foot of Tianshan Mountains or the northern foot of Kunlun to get straight to Yangguan. From Xin Ruiye City to Shule, there are two strange and two ways to walk: the first is to break through Balasha, then turn south, and run to Shule, which is the right way; the second is to cross the Ruiye River, follow the Ruiye Desert, break through Talas, another stronghold of the Huihe people, follow the southeast, and walk about a thousand miles to reach Shule, which is a strange road.

These two roads, north and south, are actually the main roads of the Silk Road, and have been like this from ancient times to the present. Except for these two roads, most other places are natural dangers with an altitude of more than 6,000 meters!

Li Bai's poem says: The difficulty of Shu Road is as strong as going up to the blue sky, but the road between the Palacio Mountains is ten times more difficult than that of Shu Road! Zhang Mai came from the East and was very impressed: at that time, there were already various modern means of transportation that were shocking, let alone now relying on two legs or riding a horse.

At this time, Guo Shidao led the Feixiong Camp, Xiaoqi and Yingyang Camp to return first, and Yang Dingbang led the Baotao Camp to travel east to collect information to determine whether to go to the Yili Valley or Shule. If you want to go to Shule, which way should you go.

Zhang Mai also followed as a military supervisor. At the same time, the two teams of Guo Luo and Yang Yi were recruited. Four hundred people left Edan and walked for more than 80 miles. Because they were all light cavalry, the marching speed was extremely rapid.

Because he encountered a strange road, Yang Dingbang ordered Vice Captain Yang Sanggan to lead two teams of cavalry to the south, and ordered Guo Luo and Yang Yi to the east, and the other four teams of troops were temporarily suspended.

Soon, a report came to the east: "There is a Hu Qi over there!"

It was just a small team of cavalry, with only more than twenty people, and was driving more than a hundred herders to build a sentry tower. Zhang Mai said, "I'll go and have a look."

After meeting Guo Luo and Yang Yi, Guo Luo said, "The other party hasn't found us yet." They left horses behind a hillside. Zhang Mai, Yang Yi, Ding Hanshan abandoned horses and lay on the ground, climbed over and hid behind a pile of bushes.

I only heard a few herders who were rushed to build a sentry tower talking. They spoke Turkic language, which Zhang Mai couldn't understand, but he also felt that these herders were complaining from their tone.

Yang Yi and Ding Hanshan knew a lot of Hu language. After listening to it, they took turns to whispering in Zhang Mai's ear. It turned out that the herdsmen took advantage of the Uighur cavalry who supervised the workers to take a laziness and rest. After discussing, two said that it would be better to escape, and the other two said: "It's better to kill them while they are not prepared!"

After listening to the translation, Zhang Mai thought to himself: "The people in the Northwest are indeed very fierce. Although they have become slaves, they always want to kill people."

"No, no," said another herder: "We may not be able to beat them. Besides, if we kill them, where can we escape? I heard that there are troops coming from the south these days, and sentry towers have been built along the east side - one of them is built by us, don't you remember it? The more we go east, the denser the net. If you want to be caught, there will be only a dead end."

When Zhang, Yang and Ding heard that "the more you go, the denser the net becomes."

"It is better to run northwest than to live this beastly life every day," said the herder before.

Zhang Mai thought again: "It seems that the Uighurs can rule this generation only rely on force, and they are not popular on the grassland. These herders can actually fight for them."

However, it also requires strength to win support from others. The ethnic groups on the grassland are also very snobbish. When you are not strong enough, you will only respond to your cold butt when you are not strong enough.

But another herdsman said, "In the northwest, I heard that a group of Tang Kou had recently appeared, which is very powerful! Several defeated soldiers fled yesterday, but I heard that they were defeated by Tang Kou again."

An older voice said, "That group of Tang Kou is not just here. There are some before, but it hasn't been so fierce recently. I heard that it seems that a hero has recently appeared in Tang Kou. What's the name... What's going on? Hehe, Bograhan has never won the battle since he became an adult. This time the Khan transferred him to pacify this group of Tang Kou. Everyone said that this was the Khan asked him to taste the suffering of a thousand-mile expedition and torture him, but he didn't expect that he would be defeated by Tang Kou. Now there is a good show... Ah, they are here, work quickly, so as not to be whipped!"

They did not dare to delay any more, so they crawled back. Yang Yi asked, "Brother Mai, what do you think?" Zhang Mai said, "There doesn't seem to be many people in this group. I think we might as well fight a battle, surround them all and arrest them all, and torture the Uighur cavalry, and maybe we can get some information."

"Okay, it's just my wish!"

If they were just to win, Yang Yi would lead a team of people to rush out, but it would take some effort to capture them all. Guo Luo first went around and inserted the ambush everywhere. Yang Yi calculated that the ambush had been settled, and then suddenly rushed out. The Uighurs were shocked. They had heard that more than 2,000 Maswude had died at the hands of Tang Kou. Yesterday, they heard that Edan was lost. They were afraid first, and then they saw that there were many enemies and we were few, so they dared not resist, so they fled one after another. Yang Yi rushed out and intercepted half of them. More than ten other people fled on horseback. Ambushing up everywhere, easily captured the team of people.

This was another victory for the Tang army Rangers after the Great Win of Edan. Although they were defeated by the crowd, they won the battles in a row, and they were also strong in morale.

When the herdsmen who were serving hard labor were all panicked when they saw Tang Kou coming, Zhang Mai rushed forward, Guo Luo spoke out to comfort them, and said to them: "Don't panic, everyone, we are here to save you!"

These herdsmen were half-believing, but seeing that even the Uighur cavalry could not escape, they could not resist, so they all raised their hands and claimed that they were willing to surrender.

They said this, but Zhang Mai looked at their eyes and found that their eyes were very wandering.

Yang Yi went to torture the Uighur prisoners, and Guo Luo interrogated the herdsmen where they came from and what tribe they were. The herdsmen claimed that they were Tuqishi and came from the coast of Dalinkur. Zhang Mai asked Guo Luo what Dalinkur was. Guo Luo said: "Dallinkur is the name of the Hu people. We used to call it Yibohai."

Zhang Mai knew at this time that people of this era often called the large inland lake Hai, but the name of Yibohai was still a little unfamiliar. Guo Luo told him about the geographical location and size of Yibohai. After talking for a long time, Zhang Mai was confused and simply took out the map album of 15 million to 15 million.

There are also maps in the Anxi Tang army, but ancient maps are different from modern maps. Guo Luo and Yang Yi have also seen Zhang Mai's map album, but they can't understand it. It's not that the two of them have insufficient IQ, but that their ancient map formats are different from modern maps. When Guo and Yang first saw this satellite bird's-eye map, they felt unimaginable. This is just as Zhang Mai was used to seeing a bird's-eye map. When he looked at the map given to him by Guo Shidao, he always felt awkward and not used to it.

Zhang Mai told them: "This is a bird's-eye view, which is a map drawn after looking down from the sky. When you look at this map, you imagine yourself as a bird overlooking the ground."

The two of them were a little shocked when they heard this: "Looking from the sky? Are you standing on the mountain and looking down?"

Zhang Mai coughed, thinking that he couldn't explain it clearly to them, so he said, "This is a treasure in the palace. In fact, I don't understand how it was made."

Guo Yang and the others thought to themselves: "It turns out to be a secret treasure in the palace, that's a big wonder. I think it was because the envoy was coming to the Western Regions, so the emperor specially gave it to him."

The terrain of the Tang Dynasty has changed compared to modern times. The desert will expand or shrink, and the rivers will disappear. If there is too much earthquake, even the mountains and rivers may shift. However, the large mountains and lakes will not change. The three people discussed it repeatedly, Guo Luo and Yang Yi said and gestured, and Zhang Mai finally understood: "Yibohai is Lake Balkashh!"

The group of herders called themselves Tuqishi, which was originally a different tribe of the Western Turks. During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, it was very powerful. It included the Yili River Basin and the Suoye River Basin. At its peak, it had twenty governors, and each of them was supervised 7,000 soldiers. It was known as 200,000 horseback control men. In the second year of the Shengli period of Wu Zetian, his king sent his son to the court and was named Prince. He was an important vassal state of the Tang Dynasty in this area. After the middle Tang Dynasty, the power of the power gradually declined. Now its old border has changed hands twice and was replaced by Gelulu. Later, Gelulu was defeated by Uighurs who migrated from the east. Now Tuqishi has become a slave to the destruction of the country and is only allowed to be driven by Uighurs.

After Zhang Mai figured out these situations, he asked someone to call them and reveal their identities. These herders of the Tuqi Shi were surprised when they heard that they were the old army of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty and cried, "Is the Tang Dynasty still there?"

Zhang Mai said to them: "You Tuqi Shi was originally a vassal state of my Tang Dynasty, and you are also a citizen of my Tang Dynasty. Everyone is their own people. Because of the civil strife in the Central Plains, they had no time to look west for a while, which led to the Western Regions falling into the hands of the barbarians who did not know what kind of benevolence and righteousness were - but this is only a temporary situation. Now the Central Plains have been restored, and the national strength of the Tang Dynasty has gradually recovered. Therefore, the court sent me to contact the tribes and tribes living in the Western Regions, and did not want to save you by chance - go back, tell the tribesmen, let's endure it for a few more years, wait for the royal army in the East, and just wait for the time to ripe, Chang'an will send a large army to fight back to restore order in this area. At that time, everyone can live a good life again."

These Tuqishis could not speak Chinese. His words were translated by Guo Luo. Zhang Mai then distributed half of the horses seized from the Uighur scouts and gave them to the herdsmen.

After hearing Zhang Mai's words, more than 100 herders discussed with each other. Most of them were convinced and asked Zhang Mai to take in: "Now we go back, even if we are not liquidated and punished by the Uighurs, we will continue to be slaves. We are willing to rely on the Tang army and ask the master to take in."

Guo Luo was overjoyed and translated these words. Zhang Mai said: "My Anxi Tang army's military discipline is severe and life is difficult. I'm afraid you can't stand it, so let's go back and live."

But these herdsmen thought: "Now when they go back, they still live like cattle and horses under the command of the Uighurs. It is better to follow them, and there may be a way out." They all said: "The master is so kind and righteous. As long as we are willing to take us in, we will have no complaints when we are doing cattle and horses."

Seeing that they were all strong and spoke earnestly, Zhang Mai was willing to take in, so he asked those who were willing to stay, a total of 78 people. Guo Luo and Yang Yi selected the strongest twenty people from them, and sent them the weapons confiscated from the Uighur soldiers to them, and invaded them into the Tang army. These thunder cavalry, young and old, were all grown up on horseback. The twenty people selected by Guo Luo and Yang Yi were particularly fierce. As for the more than thirty people who were reluctant to surrender, Zhang Mai did not break his promise and released them together.

Yang Yi said: "If we ask these people to go back, we will be afraid that our whereabouts will be revealed."

Zhang Mai smiled and said, "I'm not afraid, I want them to go back and help us with publicity."
Chapter completed!