Tibet

At night, the two sides of the east gate of Bukhara were filled with dozing soldiers. In fact, the gate was very narrow, with layers of buildings on both sides. The ground was paved with stone slabs, and the soldiers leaned against the buildings to sleep.

At this moment, 500 Arab warriors flashed out of the alley, rushed up, and swung their swords to kill the dozing soldiers. The poor more than 100 soldiers had not reacted yet and became ghosts under the sword.

The gates of Sogdia were not like the gates of the Tang Dynasty. Their gates were not connected to the top of the city. They just used a few iron bars as bolts and could be opened directly.

The Arab warriors opened the gates, and the leading warrior waved a torch.

Sabah, who was a mile away, saw it clearly. He was overjoyed and swung his sword and shouted: "Capture Bukhara tonight, kill into the city!"

With a shout, 15,000 soldiers followed Sabah to rush to Bukhara.

The guards on the top of the city found something unusual and immediately rushed down to fight for the city gate, but were blocked by the Arab warriors. The two sides fought in the streets below the city.

At this time, Sabah rushed in on horseback, holding a scimitar in his hand, and killed a general with one blow. Countless soldiers behind him rushed in.

Sabah raised his knife and shouted to the guards on the top of the city: "Go home quickly! I won't kill you."

Many soldiers knew Sabah, and they were terrified and fled home one after another.

In the palace, King Amman was pushed awake by the guards, who said in horror: "King, Sabah is coming into the city!"

"What?"

Amman was stunned, and he suddenly turned back to his wife and said: "You leave the palace quickly and take your daughter to find a place to hide. Sabah will definitely kill you."

The queen hurriedly put on her clothes, took some jewelry, and left the palace from the back with her daughter to find a place to hide.

Amman rushed out of the palace with a group of guards and met the defeated soldiers. He asked anxiously, "How did Sabah get into the city?"

"King, Sabah has an insider, and it is rumored that he is a Arab warrior!"

King Amman felt his scalp tingling. How could there be Arab warriors in the city?

At this moment, Sabah rushed to the palace with thousands of soldiers and saw King Amman. Sabah said nothing and rushed to King Amman. King Amman waved his sword to block, but Sabah chopped him on the back of his neck with a backhand. Blood spurted out and Amman fell to the ground and died.

The rest of the guards fled in fear. Sabah pointed his sword at the palace and said, "Go into the palace and kill all the king's family members, leaving no one alive!"

Thousands of soldiers rushed into the palace like wolves and tigers.

The news of the fall of Bukhara spread quickly, but the first to respond were the 30,000 Arab troops. Sabah had long been in contact with Khorasan Governor Ziyad, who sent 30,000 Arab troops from Mulu to the Amu Darya River to ambush. As soon as they received the news, the 30,000 troops immediately rushed to Bukhara.

The next to receive the news was Anguo Prince Ambre. He received his father's request for help and immediately led 20,000 troops from Samarkand to Bukhara, but halfway he received the news that Bukhara was broken and his father was killed.

Ambre was filled with grief and anger, and immediately led his troops to seek revenge, but was persuaded by General An Tingyu. They waited for two days and received the news that 30,000 Arab troops had arrived in Bukhara. Ambre was shocked and led his troops back to Samarkand.

King Constantine of Kangguo was very frightened by the Arab troops' invasion of Bukhara. On the one hand, he ordered the Six Nations Alliance to prepare the army, and on the other hand, he immediately sent people to Shiguo to ask for help from the Tang army.

Although they were also afraid of the Tang army, at least the Tang army did not destroy the Shi Kingdom, but only sought wealth. The Arabs wanted to annex the countries in the river and force them to convert to the Arab religion. At this time, the Tang army became their only life-saving straw.

In the Tang Dynasty, a severe drought shrouded the Central Plains. From spring to now, no rain has fallen in the thirteen states of the Central Plains. The drought has become more and more serious. The rivers have dried up. The price of grain has risen to 150 wen per dou of rice. This is the result of the suppression of the court, otherwise the price of grain will rise to the sky.

Rain-praying ceremonies are being held everywhere in the Central Plains. Incense is curling in major temples, and monks are also chanting sutras and praying to the Buddha to bless them to rain soon.

But the people did not pray for rain, but for overwhelming locusts. While the drought demon was raging, the locust plague also broke out. It started from Ruzhou and soon swept through Ruzhou, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou and Henan Prefecture.

The summer grain in the Central Plains will definitely be ruined this year. It would be good if we can have 30% of the harvest. The government is also trying hard to provide disaster relief. First, they are digging wells to find deep groundwater. Secondly, they are reducing taxes in the thirteen states of the Central Plains this year. Thirdly, they are setting up porridge stalls in various counties to provide relief to the victims.

Emperor Li Ye came to the Central Plains to inspect the disaster in person. Li Ye mainly inspected Henan Prefecture and Ruzhou. As long as he inspected the two severely affected areas, he could know the extent of the drought.

On the official road of Ruzhou, thousands of people surrounded Emperor Li Ye. In the fields in the distance, countless farmers were beating locusts. The locusts didn't care about the power of the emperor. Groups of locusts also flew recklessly in front of Li Ye.

Li Ye frowned and turned around to ask Liu Yan, who was accompanying him on the inspection: "Have the white-necked ducks from Bashu arrived?"

They urgently transferred 30,000 ducks from Bashu to participate in the locust eradication. Liu Yan hurriedly said: "They have arrived in Jiangling and will arrive in Ruzhou in two days!"

Liang Fang, the governor of Ruzhou, said worriedly: "I am a little worried that the farmers will steal ducks for food!"

Li Ye glared at him, "That's why I asked you to increase relief, so that there will be no hungry people, and to publicize a lot. I think that as long as the farmers are not starving, they will not steal ducks!"

"I understand!"

Li Ye said to another assistant prime minister, Zhang Hao: "I am most worried that there will be a flood after the drought. I require local governments to make flood prevention preparations in advance, relocate people from low-lying areas, and mobilize farmers to protect good farmland. Once it is soaked by floods, the good farmland will be destroyed. It will take decades for the soil to recover its fertility."

Zhang Hao was urgently appointed as the pacification envoy of Henan Province, with full responsibility for fighting the disaster. Zhang Hao took vigorous action to organize relief and disaster relief. He had not eaten well or slept well for more than a month, and he lost a lot of weight, but he endured it silently.

Zhang Hao bowed and said, "Your Majesty is right. I will mobilize all forces to prevent floods!"

At this time, several old farmers who killed locusts were brought in. They knelt down to pay homage to the emperor. Li Ye waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite, old men!"

Several old men stood up, and Li Ye asked again, "Now the disaster is serious, what are you most afraid of? What are you most looking forward to? Don't worry, just tell me the truth!"

The leading old man said, "Your Majesty, what we are most afraid of is starving without food. Now everyone is packing up. If one day the relief food is gone, we can only go to the south to find a way to survive."

Another old man also said, "No one wants to leave their homes, but when that day comes, there is nothing we can do!"

Li Ye nodded, "What about expectations?"

The leading old man said, "We heard that the government organized ducks from other places to participate in locust killing. We look forward to it every day! Our necks are sore from looking forward to it. This is our biggest expectation."

Everyone was talking at once, looking forward to the arrival of the army of locust-killing ducks.

Li Ye sent the old men away. He said to Zhang Hao and several officials earnestly, "The most important thing is to provide relief to the victims. As long as the victims are stable and do not become mobile hungry people, they can fight the disaster at home and minimize all the losses caused by the disaster.

I have ordered to dispatch 500,000 shi of wheat from the Hehuang Valley, 400,000 shi of grain from Silla, and 300,000 shi of grain from Jiangnan. In this way, there will be 1.2 million shi of grain, which should be able to stabilize the victims.

Jiangnan is also dispatching 100,000 ducks to participate in locust control, and Hexi and Hedong will dispatch 300,000 livestock. Minister Zhang, I have given all the food and supplies. The only thing left is the problem of people. I I grant you the sword of the emperor. If any official dares to take advantage of it to enrich himself or to do nothing, you have the right to dismiss him directly. If the crime is serious, he can even be beheaded publicly to serve as a warning to others! "

Zhang Hao was excited and solemnly stated: "Thank you for your support, Your Majesty. I will never let you down!"

Li Ye also told Liu Wutong, the deputy commander of the inner guards: "Transfer 3,000 inner guards to the Central Plains to assist Minister Zhang, obey the command of Minister Zhang, and monitor officials in various places. If there is any situation, don't make decisions on your own. You must report to Minister Zhang and let Minister Zhang decide!"

Liu Wutong bowed and said: "I obey your order!"

Li Ye inspected Ruzhou, Xuzhou and Zhengzhou, turned back to Luoyang, and then ended the inspection and returned to Chang'an.