The small town of Maiskenay.

After the Battle of Lake Asad, the Western Qin army advanced here, Zhao Ziliang ordered a temporary rest here, the battlefield by the lake has been cleaned, and the two thousand cavalry sent to track the Eastern Roman army have arrived in the town of Jebula, and sent people to send back the news that the hastily withdrawn Eastern Roman army did not retreat in the direction of Beloea, but turned to the south.

This news made Zhao Ziliang and the generals and officials stunned, Zhao Ziliang looked at the generals and officials and asked: "Nisserus actually retreated to the south with his men and horses, and they don't plan to defend Beloea?" Ladies and gentlemen, what do you think about this matter? ”

Xuan 15 stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, the Byzantines are not all fools who don't know about military affairs, although Niserus was defeated, but judging from his performance in commanding the battle yesterday, he still has some talents and abilities, the reason why he lost was because he didn't know that we used the siege convoy to take the lead, and destroyed his plan to use heavy cavalry and heavy infantry to break down our middle road, in addition, he let those slaves who had little combat power and basically no equipment to fight on the left and right wings to confront our elite light infantry, which was undoubtedly hitting the stone with an egg, If he can line up the regular army of his headquarters in the front, this battle may still have to be fought, at least he will not lose easily, the regular army of Eastern Rome has a much stronger will to fight than the slaves, and he deployed all the regular army in the middle and was restrained by our army, and the two flanks have become weak points, how can he not be defeated? Wechen thinks that Niserus is still very experienced in combat, but he will be defeated when he meets the king, he did not lead his troops to retreat to Beroeia but to the south, Wechen thinks that he may lead his troops directly to Damascus, ready to organize more troops to fight with our army, but to Beloeia can only be passively defended, the town was broken and captured by our army, under these two choices, of course he chose to go to the south! In addition, he led his army to the south to avoid the edge of our army, if our army captures the Beloea line, it will be under the attack between southern Syria and Antioch, if we want to attack south, we must guard against the Eastern Roman army in the north, if we want to attack Antioch in the north, we must guard against the Eastern Roman army in the south, so Beloea seems to be a very important strategic location, but it is the place of four wars, and it will be attacked by the north and the south! ”

Wei Gao stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, Weichen admires General Xuan's inference, but does not agree with the view that Beroeia is in danger of being attacked by the north and the south, and it is possible that Niserus led the army to retreat to the south as General Xuan said, so that we are under the attack of the north and the south, at that time, Weichen thought that this form would not appear at this stage, because Constantinople was still under siege by the Bolgars, and the Eastern Roman Empire wanted to defend the capital, how could it have the energy to take care of things here?" Also, our army launched a sudden attack, the Anatonian region of the Eastern Roman Empire did not have such a quick reaction time, and besides, if they want to send troops to attack our army, they must have orders from Constantinople, and Weichen does not think that Leo IV has the courage to let the army of Anatonia attack attack us in the case of Constantinople being attacked, if he really does this, then his situation is that the front is attacked, but the rear is empty, and when Constantinople is about to be unable to withstand the reinforcements, there are no troops to adjust, He wouldn't be stupid to that extent, would he? ”

"Therefore, we are not in danger of being caught between the north and the south at all, and now we are attacking the Eastern Romans, not the Eastern Romans attacking us, and the Eastern Roman army in Antioch is worried that we will attack them, how can they have the courage to attack us? Wechen established an immediate attack on the front line of Beroeia to cut off the connection between the Eastern Roman Empire and Syria and Canaan on land, and then used a small number of troops to contain the Eastern Roman army in the Antioch region, and at the same time ordered the Ninth Army stationed in Armenia to make an attack posture and contain the Eastern Roman army in the Anatonian region, so that our army can be free in the north, and the king can safely lead the army south to a decisive battle with Niserus! ”

Zhao Ziliang nodded hungryly, but did not speak.

Marching Sima Chen Qing stood up and said: "The two generals have a point, but isn't this something that Niserus did on purpose, he didn't want to attract us to pursue, and then set up an ambush to ambush us somewhere, right?" ”

Wang Can stood up and hugged his fists and said: "Great King, we have already conducted a comprehensive topographical exploration of Syria and Canaan and drawn a map, and all the dangerous places on the map are marked, if Nisserus is really prepared to ambush us in a dangerous place, then he really miscalculated!" ”

Zhao Ziliang is an old warfighter and has a wealth of experience in commanding operations, and of course he knows that it is by no means a simple and easy thing to ambush an army and that the success of the ambush requires a specific timing, dangerous terrain, superb command ability, and psychological tactics of the generals. Timing and psychological tactics are the most important of these conditions, without a particularly good timing, it is almost impossible to succeed, after all, no one is a fool, the army has reached a dangerous place, as long as there is a general with combat experience, who can not see the danger of the terrain? Someone will definitely be sent to investigate first, and only after making sure that there is no danger will they continue to march. Only under special circumstances, when the commander of the army has no time to send people to investigate, or because of other reasons, he has not sent people to investigate, or he has sent people to investigate, but the investigators have also been concealed, and the ambush soldiers have been well hidden, and even the outposts have not been discovered, and so on, will there be a chance of successful ambush. At the same time, the person commanding the ambush must have a good understanding of the character of the commander of the ambushed army, and some of the commanders are not intelligent generals, and they act in a careless manner, and they simply cannot remember to send people to investigate; as long as they understand the character characteristics of such people, it is not particularly difficult to succeed in the ambush.

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and asked, "Where are the thirteenth centaurs?" Still in Jebula? ”

Zhang Ben, the commander of the scout battalion, stood up and replied: "Before the news came, they were in Jebula, and now they have chased the trail of the retreat of the Eastern Roman army to the south!" ”

Zhao Ziliang got up and walked a few steps, stopped and said: "Thirteen have two thousand elite horsemen in their hands, and most of the retreating military horses that Nissellus took away are infantry, and there are very few cavalry!" Thirteen's two thousand cavalry should not be in danger as long as they don't act brutally, and they sent an order to Thirteen, asking him to lead his troops to hang behind the army of Niserus, waiting for the opportunity to move, fighting if he can, attacking if he can, disturbing if he can, and leaving if he can't fight. His army is out and supplies can't be delivered in time, allowing him to act cheaply! ”

"Yes!" Chen Qing agreed.

Zhao Ziliang turned around and looked at the map hanging on the wall, and said, "The army will leave for Beloeia tomorrow!" All departments should be ready! If nothing else, just disperse! Wang Can, Li Muchen stayed! ”

The generals and officials left one after another, only Wang Can and Li Muchen stood still and did not move, Li Muchen followed Zhao Ziliang to Persia a few days after being transferred back to Xinjing from Chang'an, which is also a rare expedition in recent years, this kind of opportunity is not much, in short, it is a good errand to be with Zhao Ziliang.

Zhao Ziliang asked, "Li Muchen, is there any news from Xinjing today?" ”

Li Muchen took out a piece of music and arched his hand and said: "There is nothing important for the royal court to report to the king, only a report on the battle of Silla was sent over, and the chapter said that the war of Silla has been carried out to a critical moment, and the Tang army of my north and south has successively captured Sihyun, Ada City, Qichong City and Maixiao City, and is currently marching into Jincheng, and the Empress Dowager of Silla sent people to Chang'an to ask for guilt, and the regent princes of the palace have different attitudes towards this matter, and cannot make decisions, so they can only report to Sinjing, The eldest prince Lei has walked out of the relevant instructions······"

"Oh? How did Zhao Lei give instructions? Zhao Ziliang asked.

Li Muchen said: "The eldest prince instructed the Silla envoys to go to Xinjing, but he did not order the soldiers in front to stop the fighting!" ”

Zhao Ziliang was stunned when he heard this, and then said with a smile: "This kid will actually play such a long time, and when the Silla envoys rush to Xinjing, I am afraid that the Silla war will be over long ago!" ”

Li Muchen arched his hand and said: "The king is wise, Wang Zilei's move did not make the Tang Dynasty lose his demeanor, but also allowed the soldiers in front to have enough time to finish the battle of Silla!" ”

Zhao Ziliang took the piece from Li Muchen's hand, opened it and spread it on the desk to write the words: "known".

returned the piece to Li Muchen again, and said, "Send someone to send it back!" ”

Li Muchen took it and promised: "Yes!" ”

Zhao Ziliang asked Wang Can some questions about the current situation in Constantinople, and Wang Can answered them one by one, he was the governor of Dongchang and the head of the intelligence department in charge of the West, so he naturally knew these things very clearly.

On the 22nd day of the first month of 777 AD, after a three-day march, Zhao Ziliang commanded the Western Qin army to advance to Beloea, 180 miles from the Bola River, which was a crucial communication artery between the Euphrates River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Beroeia was influenced by the Hittite, Assyrian, Achaemenid civilizations, ancient Greek civilizations, ancient Roman civilizations, and Arab and Byzantine civilizations. There is a huge castle in the center of the city, most of which originated from the Ayyubid dynasty. With the arrival of the Western Qin army, almost all the defenders in the city retreated to the castle to garrison, many houses outside the castle were damaged long before the Byzantines brought them, and many local people had moved away to escape the suffering of the war, and only a few remained here.

Zhao Ziliang rode on horseback and looked up at the castle located on the cone-shaped hill, his eyes involuntarily narrowed, and the other Western Qin generals around him couldn't help but gasp, this castle was built too dangerously, surrounded by a trench twenty meters deep and thirty meters wide, this trench surrounded the entire hill, from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the castle on the hill at least sixty meters, this height was simply insurmountable in this era, from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the hill castle is a slope of nearly fifty degrees, the slope is all paved with smooth stones.

"How do you fight this castle? Crawling from the bottom of the ditch to the bottom of the castle is afraid that there will be countless deaths and injuries, right? Li Muchen couldn't help but say.

Zhao Ziliang observed for a while and ordered: "Order, the army retreats ten miles back and camps!" ”

"No!"