Chapter 357: Just a Few Thousand Riders, Dare You Be so Presumptuous?

Um?

Hearing this, General Turhong raised his eyebrows and asked solemnly: "Have you found out how many reinforcements there are in the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition? Who will lead the troops? What types of troops are they divided into? What kind of troops are they carrying?" Which marching route did the weapons and baggage take to enter the Western Region?"

Facing a series of questions from General Turhong, the messenger kneeling in front of the big tent hurriedly presented the information in his hands and reported the simple information he had.

The messenger said: "General, according to the detailed reports of the scouts stationed along the Chang'an Prefecture, the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition troops who arrived at Chang'an Prefecture amounted to 300,000. They were the generals who had just participated in quelling the Youzhou mutiny. The main force of the Tang Dynasty’s troops;”

"But, for some reason, these 300,000 soldiers and horses began to stand still after arriving at Chang'an Mansion. Only a thousand or so cavalry of the Tang Dynasty set off from Chang'an Mansion and headed west;"

"Based on the information time sent back by the scouts ahead, these more than a thousand cavalrymen should have passed through Yumen Pass and entered the starting point of the Silk Road at this time."

When the messenger was reporting the information he had in full, General Turhong, who was sitting on the throne of Tibes, the former king of Wusun Kingdom, had also quickly read through the information in his hands. Read it again.

When he repeatedly confirmed and discovered that the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition Army described in the intelligence only had a thousand cavalry departing from Chang'an Mansion, and the remaining 300,000 soldiers and horses remained stationary in Chang'an Mansion;

There was a rare look of confusion on Turhon's rough cheeks. Combined with the report from the messenger, it made him even more confused.

Turhong first waved his hand, signaling the ordering soldiers to retreat.

Immediately, he said to himself: "What on earth does the Tang Dynasty want to do? A mere thousand cavalrymen dare to march to the Western Regions, while hoarding 300,000 heavy troops in Chang'an Mansion;"

"Could it be that they are already ready to let my Arab Eastern Expedition Army march all the way to Chang'an Mansion?"

"Or, this is a trap!"

"General——"

At this time, Battelle, who was sitting in the main hall, suddenly stood up and reported to Turhong: "General, the Han people of the Tang Dynasty have always been cunning and scheming;"

"I have been dealing with the Han people at the border in Mobei all year round. They are really bad people."

"Could it be that the Tang army secretly built a plank road in order to deceive others?"

Battelle seized every opportunity to express himself in order to regain the trust of General Turhon so that he could "borrow troops to restore the country" from him.

In participating in the Youyun Mutiny some time ago, Battle had almost spent all of his family wealth;

Who would have thought that in the end, only a few dozen of the 30,000 Turkic cavalry under his command fled with him from the battlefield outside Juyong Pass back to the Western Regions.

I thought that after the failure of the military operation eastward to the Tang Dynasty, General Turhong would relegate him to the cold palace and no longer use him;

Who would have thought that instead of holding Battelle responsible for the defeat, General Turhong made him a counselor and directly participated in the Arab Empire's subsequent military operations against the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions;

In this way, Battelle saw in Turhon the opportunity to "borrow troops to restore the country", and then he seized the opportunity and spared no effort to prove to General Turhong that he could not do anything without 30,000 cavalry. After the endorsement, he was still the useful person to the Arab Empire.

Battle continued: "General, is there a possibility that the 300,000 Tang troops stationed in the Chang'an Mansion are just suspected soldiers of Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huaian's old post?"

"Will the real main force of the Western Expedition take a detour from other places and go straight to the Western Regions?"

With that said, Battle came to the combat drill sand table in the palace and pointed his finger on the vast grassland from Mobei to Moxi;

Battle said: "General, the road from the Tang Dynasty to the Western Regions is not just the Overland Silk Road. The grasslands of Mobei can also reach the Western Regions;"

"I, when I was defeated at Juyongguan some time ago, I went all the way west from the grasslands of Mobei and returned to the Western Regions;"

"At this time, the water and grass are abundant on the Mobei grassland, and the pastures along the way can fully supply the food and grass for tens of thousands of cavalry;"

"If so, if Chen Huaian treats the 300,000 troops in Chang'an Mansion as suspicious soldiers and sends elite troops to take a detour to the west of Moxi to retrieve He, he will be able to catch our army by surprise and be caught off guard!"

Um?

Battle's words immediately aroused the interest of General Turhong.

He stood up and came to the combat drill sand table. He squinted and carefully observed the march route that Battle pointed out to him. He looked at it seriously for a long time.

Then, Turhong frowned and said: "Consultant Battelle, your mention has really made me think about something. It is really possible that the main force of the Tang Army's Western Expedition will detour all the way to the Mobei Grassland and head west with the Mobei Grassland. The stubborn and heroic Khan of the Uighur Khanate took his time to join forces and caught the general by surprise."

"However, if these tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of cavalry are mobilized and marched, even if they are marching on grasslands with rich water and grass, it is impossible to leave no trace at all!"

After a pause, Turhong continued his analysis: "Besides, the Tang Dynasty has assembled heavy troops in the Liaodong Peninsula and Goguryeo Peninsula. Coupled with the Youyun mutiny and the 300,000 troops hoarded in Chang'an Mansion, Let alone 1.2 million;"

"Where can Chen Huaian draw another cavalry from in a short period of time to gather and march westward through the Mobei grassland to the Western Regions?"

"Could it be that he does not need to station troops in the southwest, southeast and coastal areas, and open the door of the Tang Dynasty to foreign enemies?"

It is not difficult to hear from Turhong's words that he is skeptical about the opinions raised by the senator Bater who just suffered a defeat.

However, he did not refute it in person, but analyzed it according to Bater's words.

In the end, Turhong still gave an order with a cautious attitude: "Come here, pass the order and immediately send a 1,000-man scout team to search eastward and northward along the Moxi grassland bordering the Uighur Khanate to find out the enemy situation for the army as soon as possible;"

"I don't believe it. Even if the Tang Dynasty wants to take the Mobei route, it is impossible for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops to march on the grassland without leaving a trace!"

"I have received your order!"

Turhong also ordered: "By the way, don't be too cautious about the offensive of the Uighur Khanate. We must stop. Whether the Tang Dynasty has an ambush or not, it cannot shake the Abbasid Dynasty's determination to exterminate the Uighur Khanate; "

"It is also a good opportunity to use the brave Khan to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, so that those wavering kings of the Western Regions can see clearly that the only way out for them is to completely surrender to the Arab Empire!"

"I have received your order!"

......

A few days later, the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition General Turhong sent a scout team of more than a thousand people. After searching on the Mobei grassland, they did not find any trace of the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition Army.

The scouts and spies wandering on the Silk Road in the Western Regions saw with their own eyes that the Tang Dynasty's Western Expedition Army, which had only more than a thousand cavalrymen, marched all the way into Shule City, where the Anxi Protectorate (Northern Prefecture) was located.

Immediately, the Tang Anxi Iron Cavalry stationed in Shule City actually voluntarily abandoned the city and marched towards the Uighur Khanate.

After summarizing the intelligence gathered by numerous scouts, General Turhong finally believed that the reinforcements sent by the Tang Dynasty to the west were just a cavalry of more than a thousand people, and there was no deliberate deployment of troops.

Turhong could not help but sneer and said, "You dare to be so presumptuous with just a thousand cavalrymen?"