The Sun and the Lion

A few days later, a team of scouts arrived in Azerbaijan. They passed through many villages south of Tabriz. From the flames that had not been extinguished and the corpses that were not fully decomposed, it can be known that these settlements were abandoned not long ago.

The tragic situation here does not surprise the scouts. For them, they are used to seeing ruins, blood, corpses and scavenging creatures, and they do not know how many times they have inflicted the atrocities behind them on others.

"It seems that the rebels are not here. They should have left long ago. Go back." After completing the investigation of the area, the leading scout ordered the surrounding scouts.

After receiving the reconnaissance reports from the scouts, Heraclius was able to continue marching eastward with confidence. At the same time, he also wrote a letter telling Ibrahim that there were no enemies on the road to Tabriz and he could proceed with peace of mind.

About 150 kilometers southeast of Tabriz, there is a valley and river. In this green valley stands a small settlement called Miyane, which is similar to famous cities such as Tabriz and Shiraz. Unlike major towns, the fortifications of this small town with a population of ten thousand people are naturally not very strong and magnificent.

However, the huge rebel army was blocked here by the local militia and Turkmen. The city was on the east bank of the river, and the wall on the river bank was an insurmountable obstacle for them. Although there is a plain to the south of the city, the rebels were unable to send too many troops at once because they did not have enough equipment to cross the river. The small group of troops was harvested by the Turkmen as soon as they crossed the river.

"General, why don't we take a detour? The food on the farmland on the river bank is enough for us to cross Azerbaijan." Lin Dengwan's cronies were very frustrated. This negative mood gradually spread throughout the army, but he had no good solution. The only way to regain morale is to win a battle, even if it is a small victory with only a few people.

But he can't win even a small victory now. The enemy will stick to the west bank of the river and never cross the river. The Turkmen riders and the residents of the city cooperate with each other tacitly. The military activities carried out by both sides can get varying degrees of support from the other side. This also makes the rebels His actions were repeatedly frustrated.

"A detour? Then where should we go? Besides, can we go? The farmers at the bottom don't care, but the real estate owners and priests in the army will not agree. For them, Azerbaijan's real estate is everything. They leave Azerbaijan. Nothing."

After listening to Lin Dengwan's analysis, the defeatist counselor thought for a moment and came up with an idea for Lin Dengwan: "General, we can't take Miane and we can't lead the army out of this place, then this team is destined to Failed, if that’s the case, why don’t you take your cronies and those who are willing to go with you and leave this dangerous place to continue your career?”

As soon as these words were spoken, they were unanimously scorned by other cronies, but the defeatist counselor faced everyone's scorn and annoyance as if nothing had happened, and remained calm and composed.

"No, no, even so, this is still a team that resists tyranny. Besides, it's still the same question, can we escape? The west is the way we came. We can't get supplies from the scorched earth. Maybe we still have pursuit. Soldier, go north to Tabriz. The mountain pass to the south is not far from us, but the passage from the station to the mountain pass is very narrow and there is no obstruction. The Turkmen on the other side of the river can easily spot us."

"So our only choice is to wait to die with those who hold us back, right?"

"almost."

Lin Dengwan did not stop the discussion among his cronies. He just watched all this while thinking about ways to break the situation.

"General, the herald is here. He said that your Lordships would like to invite the general to come over for a meeting." The notice from the guard at the door interrupted the discussion.

"I know." Lindenwan adjusted his clothes a little and walked out of the house.

After a brief meeting, the rebels formulated a new combat plan. They recognized the reality and no longer chose to attack Miane, but crossed the river and circled the city to leave.

The troops were divided into two parts. One part was mainly composed of old and weak remnants and military relatives, and some were supported by young and strong people. Their task was to attract the firepower of the militia in the city. They had to directly attack the city defenses across the river as before, and the offensive could not be weakened.

The other part was composed entirely of strong cavalry. The cavalry composed of real estate owners took the lead, facing the Turkmen horsemen with infantry of varying quality.

This plan was risky, but Lindenwan still agreed.

Early the next morning, Heraclius's Georgian cavalry were less than two days away from the rebels' location, and the rebels, who did their best, launched a new offensive on this day.

When the militiamen saw the old and weak rebels who were struggling to cross the river and approach the city wall, they first showed disdain, then took out their crossbows and started firing. The archers' shooting skills were not very good, and most of the crossbow bolts hit the wooden boards. Despite this, many rebel soldiers still fell into the water.

In the southern section of the river, the first group of cavalry and skirmishers had already crossed the river. The Turkmen horsemen discovered them and shot them with arrows as before. Find the Book Garden www.zhaoshuyuan.com But this time the situation is a little different. The first batch of skirmishers crossing the river were selected archers. The cavalry first used shields and armor to carry the round of arrows, followed by the infantry archers. The output has started.

The shooting skills of the rebel archers were not outstanding, but they also shot down several Turkmen riders. Because the riders were not wearing armor, there were many wounded. The riders were unwilling to accept that they were at a disadvantage in the shooting. But they had to retreat, so they had to retreat a certain distance to get out of the range of the infantry archers.

The riders sent messengers to the city to request the support of infantry archers, but received a reply that the archers were on the walls to deal with the siege.

Seeing more and more rebels crossing the river, the riders felt a little uneasy, but they knew that the core of these rebels were the cavalry. As long as they could defeat these cavalry, everything else would be easy.

A few riders who were not afraid of death broke away from the team and went forward. Arrows fell sparsely around them, but fortunately no one was injured or killed. They just stepped forward, rudely provoking these former property owners in Turkic language, hoping to get them to go out and fight the riders alone.

But the horsemen thought wrong, although a few horsemen got on top, broke away from the team, and were killed in the end. But more cavalry continued to defend, placing themselves within the range of their own archers and cooperating with the infantry.

Seeing this, the leader of the riders felt powerless in his heart. He called a messenger: "Go and tell the people in the city that we cannot destroy the enemies outside the city, we can only protect ourselves. Go ahead."

In short, the evacuation was relatively smooth. After abandoning the baggage and crossing the river, Lin Dengwan marched along the river bank in a battle formation with the best of the rebels, without giving the Turkmen riders a chance to make a sneak attack. They arrived at a village and settled down temporarily. Come down and prepare for the next step into the Alborz Mountains.