Chapter 361: Ten Days in Huihe, an Isolated City

The battle of Princess City during the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition to the Uighur Khanate was fierce from the beginning due to the personal grudges between the two commanders.

Every inch of land inside and outside the Princess City became the focus of contention between the two warring parties.

Although the Tang Anxi Iron Army defending the city was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of manpower, it was superior to the Arab Empire and Wusun armies in terms of individual combat capability, fighting will, and teamwork, so that the two sides were evenly matched in the hand-to-hand siege.

In such a tragic offensive and defensive battle, there were no tactical skills or conspiracies to use. It was a cruel fighting method in which the soldiers of the offensive and defensive sides were bloody and deadly.

It was not that Turhong, the general of the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition who besieged the city, had not thought of ways to break the city, such as digging tunnels, poisoning, and flooding, but chose the siege method with the highest casualties.

In fact, time waits for no one.

Although, according to the intelligence Turhong currently has, the Tang Dynasty seems to have given up control over the Western Regions and instead stored most of its troops in Chang'an Prefecture to prevent Tubo, which has already signed an alliance with the Arab Empire, from marching south again to the Hexi and Longyou areas of the Tang Dynasty;

But this does not mean that Turhong can sit back and relax and fight a protracted war with Lan Yu outside the Princess City.

This time, Turhong led an army of 800,000 to the east. The casualties in the battle of Talas alone exceeded 100,000 soldiers, not to mention the food and salary consumption of the army on the way to the east;

With the deepening of the war, the lengthening of the eastward expedition, coupled with the continuous investment in war and manpower, even the huge Arab Empire was a little overwhelmed.

In the court of the Abbasid Dynasty, there were more and more voices impeaching Turhong.

But the results of the empire's eastward expedition were minimal.

Although thirty-five of the thirty-six Western Regions have declared their submission to the Arab Empire, these thirty-five countries combined are not as strong as one Uighur Khanate;

Even if Turhong and Caliph Safaqih wanted to fight to support the war, these thirty-five Western Regions could not afford to support the Arab Empire army, which had already stationed a million troops in the Western Regions!

What's more, the Abbasid Dynasty had to consider its influence in the Western Regions, and it was impossible to "drain the pond to fish, kill the chicken to get the eggs" for the Western Regions that had already surrendered to the Arab Empire.

So, Caliph Safaqih of the Abbasid Dynasty gave the latest order to Turhong, the general of the Empire's Eastern Expedition, to fight quickly and make a quick decision.

After quickly destroying the Uighur Khanate and unifying the Western Regions, he immediately sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to negotiate peace and discuss the matter of rebuilding the prosperity of the Western Silk Road.

For this reason, Turhong attacked the Princess City at the cost of casualties, intending to end the war in the Western Regions in the shortest possible time.

However, the reality was contrary to Turhong's wishes.

Under the garrison of Lan Yu, the brave general of the Tang Dynasty army and the Marquis of Anxi, the Princess City with only 30,000 defenders was like an iron plate. No matter how the imperial army attacked and attacked at the cost of casualties, the small Princess City was still indestructible and became the last barrier for the Arab Empire's Eastern Expedition Army to directly capture the capital of the Uighurs.

Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15, the first year of Zhaowu in the Tang Dynasty.

Three days have passed since the 300,000 Arab Empire troops attacked the Uighur Princess City.

During these three days, under the leadership of the Arab Empire's siege vanguard general and Wusun King Tibis, the Arab Empire's siege army left more than 20,000 empire warriors' corpses and more than 30,000 injured outside the Princess City, and failed to shake a single brick of the Princess City.

In this regard, Turhong, the general of the empire's Eastern Expedition, has lost confidence in Wusun King Tibis, who is the siege vanguard.

At the military meeting that night, Turhong finally issued an order to relieve Tibes of his post as the vanguard general of the siege.

At the meeting, Turhong said with a gloomy face: "From now on, Tibes will be relieved of his post as the vanguard of the siege of the empire's eastern expedition army, and General Caesar will take over;"

"Tomorrow, General Caesar will personally lead the troops to attack the city. At night, this general hopes to set up a celebration banquet for the empire's eastern expedition army on the top of the Princess City!"

"I have received your order!"

......

In the Princess City, in the central army tent of the garrison camp.

A group of garrison generals were in the tent, anxiously waiting for the return of General Lan Yu.

At this moment, Lan Yu, the commander, was under a bright moon in the Western Regions, and personally came to the city wall guarded by the Tang Anxi Iron Army, delivering freshly baked moon cakes to the hands of the garrison soldiers.

In this way, the garrison soldiers had a different Mid-Autumn Festival in the Western Regions thousands of miles away from home.

After three days of hard fighting, of the more than 10,000 Tang Anxi Iron Army soldiers in the Princess City, only more than 5,000 soldiers who can fight and more than 2,000 wounded soldiers are left, and more than 3,000 Tang soldiers are forever sleeping in the Princess City of Huihe.

Lan Yu knew that after tonight, many soldiers would probably sleep in the Princess City, so he personally climbed the city wall and delivered the mooncakes made by the kitchen to the soldiers.

So far, he has not received any news from Emperor Zhaowu and reinforcements.

However, judging from the reaction of the Arab Empire army attacking the city outside the city, the battle to defend the city will become extremely cruel in the next period of time, but it also forced Lan Yu to grit his teeth and persist until the emperor and reinforcements arrived.

After inspecting the city defense, Lan Yu hurriedly returned to the central army tent.

Swish!

As soon as he came in, the generals who had been waiting anxiously in the tent stood up and greeted Lan Yu:

"General--"

"General, you are here!"

Lan Yu nodded slightly and signaled to everyone, then walked to the main seat with a dragon-like step, sat on it with a big horse and a golden sword, and waved to everyone to sit down, saying: "Everyone, sit down!"

Then, he ordered: "Then who, distribute the mooncakes made in the kitchen to everyone, today is the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival of the Han people in the Central Plains;"

"We guard the border for the country and bleed on the battlefield. Although we cannot reunite with our families during this Mid-Autumn Festival, we cannot live without mooncakes. The ingredients in the city are limited, and we can only make mooncakes of a single flavor. Everyone, just eat it!"

After saying that, Lan Yu took the lead in picking up a mooncake and ate it by himself.

Seeing this, the other Tang generals followed suit, eating mooncakes while mumbling, "Thank you, General!"

Mawulani and Ababekli, who were Huihe people, were originally Western foreigners who had no habit of celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, at this time, they also followed the example of General Lan Yu and a group of Tang generals and stuffed the mooncakes, a specialty of the Central Plains, into their mouths and chewed them.

The mooncakes, which were originally filled with sugar, tasted like a mixture of all kinds of flavors when eaten by Mawulani and Ababekli.

After three days of hard and fierce battles, Mawulani and Ababekli, as well as the more than 20,000 Huihe soldiers under their command, witnessed the Tang Dynasty's Anxi Iron Army fighting bloody battles with the powerful enemies who invaded the Huihe Khanate on the walls of the Princess City, and the tragic scene of fighting to death was inevitably moving;

Yes!

Whether it was Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty, or the Tang Anxi Iron Army under his command, they could have chosen to stand aside and watch the battle of the Arab Empire's invasion of the Uighur Khanate;

Or, they could have watched the battle in the Princess City as a reserve force, and let the Uighur soldiers who were supposed to fight the invading enemy go to the front line to fight the enemy.

However, General Lan Yu and his soldiers, knowing that they were in danger of death, resolutely rushed to the front line, leaving the chance of survival to the Huihe garrison soldiers;

This move not only demonstrated the responsibility of the Tang Dynasty as the suzerain of the Huihe Khanate, but also demonstrated the righteousness of the Tang army led by Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty;

Ma Wulani and Ababa Keli were both upright soldiers, without as many scheming minds as the civil servants in the court;

Facing the Tang soldiers who sacrificed their lives for themselves and the Huihe garrison soldiers under their command, they admired them from the bottom of their hearts at this time.

Finally, the young Huihe general Abababekli could not help it. He chewed mooncakes and said with sobs: "General, for tomorrow's battle to defend the city, please transfer me and the royal guards to the east gate wall to replace the Tang army brothers who have been under fierce attack by the enemy for several days;"

"General, I and the soldiers of the royal guards have already prepared for a decisive battle with the enemy. I hope the general will give us a chance to serve the country;"

As he said, Abababekli stood up, looked at Lan Yu, who was standing still on the main seat with red eyes, and volunteered: "Please help me, general!"