In September of the second year of Yonghui, the Arab Empire of the Western Regions suddenly launched an attack on the border of the Tang Dynasty. The war broke out very suddenly, and it was a sneak attack at night, and the previous patrol troops in the Western Regions could not detect the enemy's army in time, plus there was no war all year round, and the soldiers lax their defense.

Therefore, when the soldiers of the Arab Empire approached the city, the soldiers in the city were still asleep, and they did not realize that the catastrophe had come.

30,000 Arabs lurked under the city, finding the right time to launch a fierce siege, and the soldiers on the tower of the city did not have time to react, and even many were wiped off by the enemy in their sleep, and they did not know how they died. The city's defenses soon fell, and overnight, the city became a living hell, and countless soldiers and civilians were killed, and almost no one escaped, slaughtered alive!

When the news reached Chang'an, the entire emperor was shocked!

How many years! How many years has no one dared to come to Datang for trouble? According to the current national strength of Datang, it would be good not to go to your trouble, but there are still people who dare to provoke Datang's head and slaughter the soldiers and civilians of a city, although it is a small city on the border, but it also caused more than 60,000 deaths!

Massacre! This is a rare tragedy since the founding of the Tang Dynasty!

The sudden attack of the Arabs quickly calmed down the court, which was originally infighting among the monarchs and ministers.

Now is not the time for the kings and ministers to be discouraged, for the enemy has invaded the territory and slaughtered their people with impunity, and all that is left to do now is to immediately quell the war and drive out the Arabs.

The Tang Dynasty is strong, and there is no need to fear anyone!

Li Zhi immediately appointed Li Ji as the general manager of the march, Niu Jinda, and Cheng Yanjin as the general, leading 50,000 cavalry to attack the Western Regions, and be sure to completely annihilate this Arab army.

Chang'an City urgently recruited 50,000 soldiers in Guanzhong and sent them to the Western Regions five days later. And at the same time, Li Zhi ordered the recall of Chen Fei.

Because the army took a large number of firearms with him on this expedition to the west, Chen Fei is currently the only one who can prepare gunpowder, so he needs to return to Chang'an to replenish the warehouse.

Jiangnan Shipyard now almost doesn't have to worry about Chen Fei, whether it is shipbuilding or sailor training, it is already on the right track, and there is no need for him to stare at it every day. Therefore, he can also rush back to Chang'an without worry.

By the way, Leng Yueqing was also in his accompanying team, and several strongholds of the Holy Mother Sect had been destroyed with the cooperation of the Yangzhou Assassin History, and many members of the Holy Mother Sect had been arrested, including several Dharma protectors, and they knew a little about Ying Hao's whereabouts under torture.

The two Yan sisters almost chased after Ying Hao with knives after hearing about Ying Hao's whereabouts, but fortunately they were stopped by Chen Fei. After weighing it repeatedly, Chen Fei decided to let Yin Ping take someone to track down Ying Hao's whereabouts, after all, Yin Ping, a freak, has increased a lot of skills in the past few years.

In Leng Yueqing's words, when she met Yin Ping eight years ago, she only needed to use fifty percent of her strength, but now at least eighty percent, or even ninety percent of her strength, Yin Ping's kung fu is already very close to her, far above Ying Hao's skills, so it shouldn't be a problem for him to track down.

And Yin Ping also has an official position, although he is a low-grade military official, but with such an identity, it will be much easier to act.

As for the two sisters of the Yan family....... The two girls' families didn't want to do such a risky thing, they were stopped by Chen Fei and dragged to Chang'an.

However, when they walked for two months and had just entered Guanzhong, there was bad news from the front: the invincible Tang Army had been frustrated in the Western Regions!

Because of the light enemy, was lured by the enemy's design, went deep into the desert, and was ambushed by the enemy, after the bloody battle, both sides suffered a big loss, and the two main generals finally chose to cease fighting and retreated. After the war, the Tang army lost nearly 20,000 men and horses, nearly 20,000 thunderbolts, and 30 cannons.

Afterwards, Li Ji sent people back to the battlefield to find the lost thunderbolt, encountered the enemy with the same purpose, after a small scramble between the two sides, the Tang army won a small victory, and finally all the cannons were brought back, but only more than 17,000 of the 20,000 thunderbolts were found, and more than 3,000 were still missing.

Although the Tang army could not be called a defeat in this battle, such heavy casualties were enough to cast a shadow on everyone's heads.

This was the biggest setback for the Tang army in more than ten years, and most importantly, it actually lost more than 3,000 thunderbolts! You don't have to think about it to know that these thunderbolts must have been robbed by the people of the Arab Empire.

Moreover, after this war, the people of the Arab Empire quickly disappeared, and the invasion before the release was just a visit, and disappeared without a trace after the string. This made Tang Jun, who was regrouping and planning to make a comeback, feel very depressed.

Fatally, more than 3,000 thunderbolts were snatched back by the Arab Empire, which made it impossible to suspect their purpose. Could it be ...... They made such a big battle just to lure the Tang army out, and then snatch the thunderbolt? Arab Empire....... Do you want to make your own thunderbolt?

This had to make the whole court nervous. You must know that the reason why the Tang army can fight wherever it is relied on firearms such as thunderbolts to a large extent, if it is made out by the Arab Empire, then the situation of the war in the future will be much more tragic, which has to make the imperial court anxious.

Li Zhi hurriedly summoned his ministers to discuss the matter, and finally they decided to implement a very risky plan - the Anxi Protectorate and the imperial court to form an army of 80,000 men to attack the Arab Empire, in an attempt to recover the lost thunderbolts.

So by the time Chen Fei returned to Chang'an, the army of the Western Regions had already sent troops to the Arab Empire. As soon as he came back, before he had time to rest, he was immediately summoned into the palace by Li Zhi, and many ministers were also there, mainly to ask Chen Fei whether it was possible that the formula of the thunderbolt fire could be concocted by the Arab Empire itself.

This problem is not very easy to come back to, but according to Chen Fei's experience, there is no microscopic particle analyzer or anything in the Arab Empire at present, the components of gunpowder are very broken, and there is very little saltpeter in the desert, so it is unlikely that they will be tinkered with in theory, but ....... This possibility is not ruled out either. The risk still exists, so Chen Fei didn't dare to pack the ticket.

Hearing this result, the court was full of sorrow, and everyone could only hope that the army of the Western Expedition would recapture the thunderbolt that had been robbed.

Four months later, the army of the Western Expedition finally got the news back. They crossed the desert and came to the territory of the Arab Empire, where they fought against their defenders. During this period, the opposing army did not use Thunderbolt, and after capturing some prisoners and questioning them, it was learned that their main army had taken Thunderbolt to attack the country further west, and all Thunderbolt was taken away, and it was estimated that it would be difficult to catch up from the perspective of time. Moreover, the army of the Western Expedition was about to run out of food and grass, and had to retreat.

This is slightly relieved news. Although the risk of the Arab Empire imitating the Thunderbolt cannot be ruled out, it is the best outcome to think of it.

Li Zhi then agreed to Chen Fei's proposal to insert spies into the caravans to the countries to the west, and keep a close eye on the movements of the Arab Empire, so as to monitor their movements and avoid the consequences of this cold sneak attack.

In the later wars, thanks to the existence of these intelligence spies, the Tang Dynasty had a great upper hand in the process of the western expedition, of course, these are all later stories. With the end of the Western Expedition, the second year of Yonghui also turned to the third year of Yonghui, and Chen Fei finally saw with his own eyes how powerful the civil official group was in the court!

(End of chapter)