Tibet

The palace of Ba Khanna was a white stone building covering an area of ​​dozens of acres. It was surrounded by a large wall. Li Ye followed the guards into the palace and came to a magnificent hall. A man wearing gorgeous royal clothes A middle-aged man was already waiting for him in front of the steps. This man was King Murdo of Bukhana.

He smiled and said in fluent Chinese: "Welcome to the distinguished guests of the Tang Dynasty, and welcome Li Lai to Ba Khanna!"

Li Ye cupped his fists and gave a salute. Murdo enthusiastically invited Li Ye to the main hall and sat down next to his throne. The floor was covered with a thick carpet. There was a table in front of him with various exquisite utensils and gold utensils. Lord, the king clapped his hands, and a maid immediately brought plates of fruits and hot goat's milk.

"The king speaks Chinese very well!"

King Murdo smiled and said: "I studied in Chang'an when I was young and stayed in Chang'an for eight years. My Chinese name is Wang Wan, which means the prince of Dayuan. I have become accustomed to the customs of the East. After returning to China, I It took more than a year to gradually adapt to this place. I miss Datang very much!"

Li Ye nodded, looked at the empty seat opposite, and asked with a smile: "Isn't Master Padmasambhava here?"

"He has already left. As soon as he left, it was thanks to him that I realized that the danger was at hand."

"The king is referring to the Spring Offensive in Stone Kingdom?"

"No! I've known Shi Guo's bad intentions for a long time. I'm talking about the Tocharian Legion. They have already succeeded in sneak attacks and will attack us soon."

"But it's winter now!"

"I know that the Tocharian Army is best at sneak attacks in winter. Isn't it because they succeeded in sneak attacks in Bushi City in winter? Winter is the time to rest, and it is also the time when we are most paralyzed."

Li Ye smiled bitterly for a while and said, "Master Padmasambhava is so well-informed!"

"He is a person with great supernatural powers, which is not something we mere mortals can understand."

Probably because of his large number of believers in various places, Li Ye murmured in his heart and asked, "What can I do to help the king?"

"Actually, I don't know either, but Master Padmasambhava told me that as long as the general is here, Kesai City will be safe and sound!"

Li Ye understood that this was a test question set by Master Padmasambhava for him. Only if he passed the test, he would be the bell-resolver in his mind.

Li Ye immediately stood up and said with a smile: "Master thinks too highly of me. I want to see the city wall!"

King Murdo waved, and a young and heroic prince walked up quickly. The king introduced Li Ye: "This is my eldest son Arole. He is responsible for the army and city defense. If the general has any ideas, you can let him go." Do."

The king gave the prince some stern instructions,

Prince Arolie quickly agreed and bowed to Li Ye, "I will accompany the general to see the city wall!"

Li Ye walked out of the palace, and the gate faced the bustling main road. Li Ye suddenly thought of something, reined in his horse and said to Alolee: "If it is a sneak attack, then it is most likely to be a combination of inside and outside."

Arole was startled, "General, are you saying that the enemy has already lurked in the city?"

Li Ye nodded, "The Tocharian legions are all cavalry and cannot carry siege weapons. They can only use sneak attacks. Either they dress up as businessmen and suddenly control the city gate when they enter the city, and then the enemy appears, or now He was already lurking in the city, waiting to secretly open the city gate at night and let the enemy troops into the city."

"The general is right!"

Arole was only twenty years old. He had never experienced war and lacked experience. He was at a loss and asked urgently: "Then what should I do?"

"Close the city gate immediately, start checking the outsiders who have entered the city in the past five days, and offer rewards for reporting suspicious persons!"

Arolie immediately called for several generals and ordered them to go down. Kesai City immediately took action. The city gates were closed, and Bahna's soldiers began to register and conduct checks at all inns and commercial hotels.

Li Ye then came to the city wall again. The circumference of Kesai City was twenty miles. It was a medium-sized county town in the Tang Dynasty. The city wall was made of stones and was very strong. However, the county town was not high, only one foot high.

Li Ye frowned. The Shi Kingdom had heavy siege weapons and the city wall was only one foot high. How could it be defended?

Moreover, the city gate is also a wooden gate, which is relatively old. This kind of wooden gate will shatter when hit with a battering ram, which is meaningless.

But that was for the Shi Kingdom, and the top priority was to defend against the Tocharian Army's sneak attack.

Li Ye could also guess why the large Tocharian cavalry wanted to attack Kesai City, because the Shi Kingdom also wanted to attack Kesai City. The Tocharian army was a pack of wolves. They would definitely eat the meat first and leave the bones. Stone country.

"How many troops are there in the city?"

"Our Bahna army has a total of five thousand people, but there are only two thousand people in the city. The other three thousand people are distributed in three military cities a hundred miles away to the west to defend the Stone Kingdom."

"Are they all cavalry?"

"They are all cavalry. General, do you want me to withdraw them all?"

Li Ye thought for a while and asked, "Can you briefly tell me where the three military cities are."

Aluole placed four small stones on the ground. The big one was Kesai City. The three military cities were arranged in the west, about a hundred miles away from Kesai City.

Li Ye nodded and asked, "How to contact them?"

"We use Eagle Letter to contact the military city."

Li Ye then said: "You can let them come back, but the cavalry from the southern and central military cities must first be concentrated in the northern military city, and then circle back together from the north. This way you can avoid being ambushed by the cavalry along the way. Do you understand what I mean?" ?”

Arole nodded repeatedly, "I understand, I will send someone to send the eagle message immediately."

At this time, a soldier came to report: "A few Tocharian businessmen have come and want to meet General Li of the Tang Dynasty!"

Li Ye was startled, and walked over. He saw several businessmen, and it turned out to be Juan Jialuo whom he met on the road. Li Ye stepped forward with a smile and said, "Didn't you go to Shiguo? Why are you at Bahan's?"

Juan Gallo stepped forward and saluted, and said with a wry smile: "Originally we were going to Shi Kingdom, but to go to Shi Kingdom we had to go through Juzhan Ti. We heard that the Persian cavalry gathered there, so we didn't dare to go to Shi Kingdom. We came first to pull the Khan. Then try your luck."

"Have the goods been sold?"

"It has been sold. The price of brown sugar here is also very good. We don't want to go to Shiguo anymore."

Li Ye nodded, "Then what do you want from me?"

Juan Gallo said: "I heard that there are spies searching for Persian cavalry in the city. Maybe we have some clues."

Li Ye was overjoyed, "What clue?"

"We met a caravan in Anji City. They said they were Kumi merchants, and then we came to Bakhna together, but we always felt that they did not look like merchants."

"Why?"

"There were too many of them, close to thirty people, but only forty camels. The goods were all long boxes. They said they were fine iron rods, but we accidentally discovered that there were weapons in them, but we didn't think much about it. After they came to Kesai City, they didn't go to sell anything, and just stayed in the hotel all day long. We were very surprised, so when we heard that the city was searching for spies, we thought of this group of people."

Arole asked urgently: "Where do they live?"

"In Junma Merchant Village!"

Junma Merchant Inn is the second largest inn in Kesai City. It is full of businessmen from all over the world. Soldiers have searched it before and checked the origin of each businessman, but no suspicious businessmen were found.

In a large stone house lived thirty-five businessmen, all of them young and strong. Their identity certificates showed that they were from the Kumi Kingdom. These thirty-five people did come from the Kumi Kingdom, but they were big people. They were spies from the Tocharian Legion. They prepared to assassinate the king of Kumi, but failed. They were urgently sent to Bakhna, preparing to cooperate inside and outside to capture the city of Kesai.

However, from various official documents obtained through normal channels, there is indeed no abnormality found in them. They are all Tocharians, not Persians.

After the search team left, the leader immediately ordered a long pit to be dug and took out spears, swords and bows and arrows. As agreed, they would start at the third watch tonight.

At this moment, a subordinate who was on guard outside ran in and shouted: "The army has surrounded us!"

"Damn the Gandhara people!"

The leader immediately realized that they had been betrayed. It must be the Gandhara merchants who came to Bukhanna with them. They had seen their weapons.

The leader drew his sword and shouted, "Fight out with me!"

He rushed out with a knife, followed by several men, and rushed out of the door. Suddenly, a big net fell from above his head, covering him and three men, and dragged him aside. At this time, Ba Khan's The soldiers fired arrows at random, and dense arrows shot into the room, causing screams in the room.