Chapter 337: The Tang Army Was Defeated by 500,000 Ambushed Troops (Part 1)

With the order of the two deputy generals Tan Li and Luo Quan, the 20,000 Tang Anxi cavalry, who were fighting more and more bravely, immediately separated into two cavalry teams of 1,000 people, took the initiative to break away from the contact with the Persian cavalry in the battle zone, and headed straight for the central army tent of the Arab Empire in the distance.

The two Yuhou armies were as fast as lightning, and they didn't even give the Persian cavalry in the fierce battle time to react. They rode out of the encirclement and headed straight for Turhong, the general of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition.

Hum!

In the distance, Turhong, who was sitting firmly in the central army watchtower, was condescendingly watching every move on the battlefield. The actions of Tan Li and Luo Quan personally leading the Yuhou army to attack his central army naturally did not escape Tuerxun's eyes.

However, for Turhong, who was sure to win, the actions of these two Tang cavalry were tantamount to suicide.

He sneered expressionlessly, then waved his hand and ordered: "Pass the order, let the camel cavalry and Persian war elephant team go!"

"By the way, let Ershiding and Caesar lead the troops to fight in person and wipe out this Tang army before sunset!"

"I have received the order!"

Soon, the shrill horn sounded again in the camp of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army.

The Arab camel cavalry and Persian war elephants, who had long been unable to hold back, urged the camels and war elephants under their crotches to rush to the two Tang cavalry who were attacking the central army under the command of the main general Ershiding and Caesar.

Woo-woo!

The huge Persian war elephants were like moving hills when sprinting at full speed, and the roar of the war elephants made people's backs cold and shudder.

If it were ordinary cavalry soldiers, when facing such a huge creature as a war elephant, they would probably have been frightened and trembling, and they would have been afraid and no longer had any fighting power.

At the beginning, during the process of Safahi establishing the Abbasid Dynasty, the Persian War Elephant Corps had made great achievements, defeating the Roman Empire and the Crusaders and causing them to flee.

In the eyes of General Turhong of the Eastern Expedition, once the Persian War Elephants, the great killer weapon, were used, the Tang cavalry, which had already been exhausted by the Persian Iron Cavalry, would probably flee immediately.

Unfortunately, Turhong underestimated the combat effectiveness and fighting will of the super elite soldiers produced by the [Born to be an Emperor] system.

The two thousand Yuhou troops led by the two deputy generals Tan Li and Luo Quan did not show any fear of fighting in the face of the Persian War Elephant Corps and the enemy's camel cavalry. Instead, they further stimulated the fighting will of the Tang cavalry, and they rushed up one by one.

"Kill!"

A moment later, the vanguard of the Tang cavalry encountered the vanguard of the Arab Empire's camel cavalry, and the two sides immediately fought fiercely;

Soon, the enemy's Persian war elephant troops also joined the battle.

A local battle of few against many, weak against strong started again.

At the same time.

General Lan Yu, who was in charge of the Tang army's central army, finally issued an order to increase troops: "Come on, pass on this general's order--"

"Except for the garrison (reserve) and the central army that stayed in the camp, all other armies, attack!"

"I got the order!"

Dong, dong, dong!

Soon, the low sound of war drums and radical horns sounded again in the Tang army.

The remaining 20,000 Anxi cavalry, who had been ready for battle, also rushed to the battlefield after receiving the order to go to war, and joined forces with the front army soldiers in the fierce battle to strangle the Persian cavalry.

At this point in the fierce battle, the Tang Dynasty had already deployed 40,000 cavalry, leaving only 2,000 garrisons to guard the camp, and 8,000 central troops to protect the main general and the banner.

The Arab Empire's Eastern Expeditionary Army also deployed 200,000 troops, including Persian cavalry, Persian war elephants and camel cavalry.

The two armies launched an unprecedented showdown in the vast wilderness of Talas in the Western Regions, and it was also a fierce military collision between the East and the West.

For a time, the sky above the huge Talas was filled with shouts, wails, the cries and roars of animals, interweaving and resounding into a tragic war symphony.

The fierce battle between the two warring parties lasted from the scorching sun to the sunset. On the wilderness of Talas, the corpses of the two armies piled up like mountains, but the tragic fighting continued.

At the end of the battle, Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, who was the commander of the army, personally went to the battlefield and led 8,000 cavalrymen in the central army to deal with the new Arab forces.

Turhong, the general of the Abbasid Dynasty, was not much better.

In addition to the 20,000 Yuhou troops who stayed in the central army, the rest of the 280,000 troops gathered in the Talas area have all been deployed on the battlefield.

Until this time, Turhong, who was commanding the battle in the central army watchtower, finally realized the horror of the huge empire and the Tang Dynasty located to the east of the Arab Empire.

With only 50,000 cavalrymen, facing the 280,000 Arab Eastern Expedition Army with cavalry, war elephants and infantry, they did not lose the upper hand on the battlefield, but took advantage of it.

According to Turhong's rough estimate, the two armies have fought in Talas until now, and at least more than 50,000 soldiers of the Arab Empire have died on the battlefield, while the Tang cavalry has only suffered more than 10,000 casualties at most.

The casualty ratio between the two sides was as high as five to one!

That is to say, for every Tang cavalry killed, at least five Arab soldiers were buried with them.

The key is that the accounts on the battlefield cannot be calculated so simply, and the morale and spirit of the army must also be considered.

Even though they concentrated such superior forces, they still paid such a heavy price in casualties when facing the weak Tang cavalry. This had a great impact on the morale and military spirit of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army.

Fortunately, the night of Talas came in time, which gave the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army a moment of respite, and also gave Abbasid Dynasty's Eastern Expedition General Turhong the opportunity to regroup and fight again the next day.

The same is true for Lan Yu, the commander of the Tang Army.

Before the war, he thought that the Arab Empire from outside the Western Regions would be similar to the Thirty-Six Kingdoms in the Western Regions, and the so-called 300,000 troops were just a group of rabble.

But when the two sides really fought today, Lan Yu suddenly realized that he had underestimated the enemy before.

The combat effectiveness of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army is not weak, and it is completely incomparable to the Thirty-Six Kingdoms in the Western Regions. Even the strongest Uighur Khanate in the Western Regions is not enough in front of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition.

Especially the Persian war elephants in the Arab Eastern Expedition Army, which caused a lot of trouble to the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Iron Cavalry in the daytime battle.

After this battle, Lan Yu realized that the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition was not only supported by military strength, but also by huge national strength.

That night, both sides called back their troops and returned to the camp to regroup and fight again tomorrow.

Lan Yu had no intention of hosting a banquet for Guo Dingfang and Zuo Liangcai who came from afar, and he was not in the mood to get drunk. His mind was full of how to defeat the enemy next.

As night fell, both sides tacitly began to clean up the bodies of their soldiers who died in the battlefield under the light of the night.

Until the second half of the night, the casualties of the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Iron Cavalry were finally counted, with more than 8,000 killed, more than 3,000 seriously injured, and more than 10,000 slightly injured.

Looking at the cold casualty figures in the battle report, a solemn look appeared on the handsome face of Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty for the first time.

He even locked himself in the central army tent and refused to see anyone.

Guo Dingfang and Zuo Liangcai, who were responsible for conveying the imperial edict, looked solemn and worried after witnessing the tragic battle in Talas today.

After the commander, Anxi Hou Lan Yu, "stayed at home", the two had to shoulder the responsibility of reporting to the court and the emperor. They wrote a memorial on the battle of Talas overnight and sent the accompanying 800-li express messenger to leave the camp under the cover of night and report to the imperial city of Jinling.

On the other side, in the camp of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army.

Turhong, the general of the Abbasid Dynasty's Eastern Expedition, also received the specific casualty statistics of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army in the second half of the night - more than 60,000 soldiers were killed in battle, more than 10,000 were seriously injured, and more than 100,000 were slightly injured.

This is a very eye-catching set of numbers, which means that more than half of the 300,000 Eastern Expedition vanguard troops under Turhong's command suffered casualties in a daytime battle.

This was the largest casualty of Turhong's hundreds of battles since he followed Caliph Safaq.

Moreover, he was severely damaged by the weak Tang Dynasty cavalry despite his absolute superiority in military strength.

After this battle, Turhong not only changed his view of the Tang army, but also made him determined to annihilate the Tang cavalry in Talas!

Turhong issued an order overnight: "Pass on this general's order to ambush the 500,000 Arab Empire's eastern expedition troops in the Western Regions of Shiguo, Ronglu, Gumo, and Bilu, and they must arrive in Talas at noon tomorrow;"

"Those who disobey the order will be killed without mercy!"