This city was built after the Arab Empire conquered this place. The original city had been burned down. It is located about 150 miles south of today's Tehran.
If it were the 21st century, there would probably be nothing here except deserts and wastelands, but in this day and age, the climate here is still relatively humid. Although not as humid as the south of the Yangtze River, it is at least a place where crops can grow.
The Tang army set up the southernmost outpost here. Once the Arab Empire's army comes, our people will be able to find them. At this moment, more than one hundred cavalrymen came back from patrolling outside, and each of them was very tired. They searched the area fifty miles to the south over and over again, but found nothing in the end, so these people came back to rest.
When searching in such a place, you can only work half a day every day. If you stay in such an environment all day, I'm afraid your body will not be able to bear it. Don't think that your body is much stronger than others. In such an environment, unless you increase your water intake, you cannot prevent dehydration.
A warhorse or camel can only carry a limited amount of water. Traveling long distances in such a high temperature environment every day would make it impossible to drink more water even if you wanted to. There is indeed water in those places outside, but the Tang Dynasty court has issued an order that no one is allowed to drink water from unknown sources.
Last month, our patrol team of about 40 people replenished their water supply outside. After drinking it, we thought everything was fine, so we didn’t report it to the higher authorities after we came back. But something happened that night. These people kept stretching themselves to exhaustion, and a quarter of them could no longer stand up. The rest of them took a long time to recover.
So from that time on, all water from unknown sources was not allowed to be drunk. Li Xiang had already given orders to his subordinates that even if the water was drawn from the well here, it had to be completely boiled first, and then cooled down in a place for everyone, and then poured into water bags. This was everyone's drinking water. If anyone drank raw water outside casually, they would be punished when they came back.
Li Xiang was afraid that some generals did not care about this. You must know that in such an environment, if you do not care about this, you will really lead your army into the ditch. Don't think this is a joke. In the current situation, many people may die because the water source cannot support it.
After this team of patrol soldiers came back, someone immediately brought them cold boiled water, which was also a term invented by His Highness. They didn't understand why it was called cold boiled water, but they understood one thing, that is, after drinking this water, no one seemed to get sick.
"Did you gain anything today?"
The person stationed here is the sixth-rank general Sima Jun. By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the Sima family had already declined and this family only existed in some small places. However, after joining the army with Li Xiang, some people in the family also rose up. For example, Sima Jun in front of us was promoted from an eighth-rank official to a sixth-rank official in just one and a half years.
"General, just like before, we haven't seen any Arab reinforcements. However, we've noticed something unusual along the way: the local civilians are migrating south. We've stopped and questioned them, and they're worried this area will become a war zone, so they're considering returning to the Arab Empire. Aren't we any better than them? Besides, we haven't harmed any civilians, so why are they fleeing from us?"
A soldier said with some confusion that in his opinion, what we did was not evil, and it also brought a lot of benefits to the people. At least we distributed some food to them to help them tide over the difficulties. But when the two sides were chatting, it seemed that they thought we were like demons. If we were really demons, you guys probably wouldn't be alive.
"Don't worry about it. The local people believe in different things from us. Haven't you seen them chattering away all day? We have no idea what they're talking about, and that's why we can't communicate. If they want to go to Arabia, then let them go. They don't bring much war potential to the Arab Empire anyway. We've left everything we need behind. They think they're loyal when they go there, but they're just mouths to feed. The Arab Empire will definitely continue to decline because of their joining. This area is their grain-producing area, and as far as I know, the heartland of the Arab Empire doesn't produce any grain at all."
Sima Jun said with disdain that they had encountered this several times since coming here. The local people regarded them as pagans and could not even communicate with them. Obviously, we are much better than the people of the Arab Empire, but these people just can't get along with us. If this is the case, then there is no need to continue fighting. Let's all go our separate ways to the east.
Just as they were chatting, the sound of hurried horse hooves came from outside. It seemed that another patrol team had returned. The two patrol teams were heading from one direction, left and right. The one that just returned was from the right. The patrol team on the left returned half an hour later than them.
General Sima was a little confused. You know, the two patrol teams went out together, and the time they returned would not be so different. Could it be that they encountered something?
General Sima and his men went to get water. Although he was a general, he was still able to strictly restrain himself when he was with the soldiers. He supplied the soldiers with what they needed and did not retreat when it was his turn to work. It can be said that he worked perfectly with the soldiers.
"General, the vanguard of the Arab Empire has been discovered."
After hearing the words of the patrol leader, General Sima immediately understood what was going on. He took out a written letter from his pocket and handed it to a soldier next to him. The soldier immediately knew what to do. After getting on his camel, he headed towards the rear as fast as possible.
Our troops are all in the city of Ali. We need to prepare them for battle. The support troops from the Arab Empire have finally arrived, and we don’t have to sit idle anymore.
