Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1589 Nanyuan and the old man

On the seventh day of August, the army arrived at the southern plains of Congling.

The so-called Congling Nanyuan is actually an intermountain basin at the southern foot of the Alai Mountains. The area is not small, and it is located in the southern part of Kyrgyzstan.

In the area of ​​the Pamir Plateau, this is a rare area with an altitude of 2000 meters.

The easternmost end of the basin corresponds to the Irkeshtan Port at an altitude of 2400 meters, which is an important channel of the ancient Silk Road.After the founding of New China, it was also the place where Sino-Soviet mail was exchanged.

The Kizilsu River flows in it, nourishing countless pastures along the coast.It was the end of summer at this time, and the water in the basin was gurgling, and the grass was turning yellow, which provided natural supplies for the flocking cattle, sheep, horses and camels.

"This basin is really wonderful." Shao Shude boarded a hillside and overlooked the panorama.

In later generations, he once watched a documentary about the construction of the Zhongji-Wuhan Highway.

That road passes through this area. On the way is a small town of Saretash, which is located on the mountain in the north at an altitude of more than 3000 meters. The local people make their main livelihood by grazing cattle and sheep.

From this channel at an altitude of about 3000 meters to the north, you will enter the Fergana Basin.

And this road is also a commercial route and even a military passage with a very long history.

Gao Xianzhi attacked Taluosi, all the way out from Qiuci, all the way to Congling South Plains.After the failure, thousands of remnant soldiers retreated in the direction of Pulling Khan, which is also the way they took.Li Siye used wooden galleons to shoot down the Tibetans blocking the way down the valley, most likely in the high mountains to the north.

In the Song Dynasty, Khotan captured Shule, and the Karahan Dynasty mobilized troops from Central Asia to counterattack, and they followed the same path.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Agubai invaded eastward, and he still followed this path.

Because it has to cross the mountains twice, the cost of transporting grain on this road is relatively high, so whether it is Gao Xianzhi, Buglahan or Agubo, they all drive cattle, sheep, horses and camels, marching while grazing, and Congling Nanyuan is the most important The rest area in the middle is very ideal because the plain here is large and the altitude is not high. There are rivers passing through it and mountains melting water.

At this time, a large number of livestock were driven to scattered places, shouting and gnawing on pasture.

Shao Shude looked left and right on the mountain, very satisfied.

Yang Liang's troops had passed through this area five days ago and headed north.

They carry a lot of milk powder and meat floss with them, and they can persist for more than half a month.However, when passing through the southern plains of Congling Ridge, this group of people still killed and killed hundreds of heads, and plundered the shepherd's livestock.

"This bunch of animals." Shao Shude smiled, but he didn't know who the shepherd here was or who he was taking orders from, so he started directly.

Everyone has seen Wufu's true colors.He is probably the only one in the world who can restrain the hearts of warriors. Erlang can also control a town, but the heat is not enough.

Shao Shude went down to the foot of the mountain.

Satuk's wife Adieshi walked over leading a cow. Her two daughters knelt on the ground and worked hard to milk the cow.

After seeing Shao Shude, all three of them knelt down.

Adie is one of the ten surnames of the Uyghurs, and later usurped the Khan position of the Yaoluoge clan, but because of the iron law of the Uighurs, non-Yaoluoge cannot be called sweat, so the Great Khan family changed its surname to Yaoluoge, but the Adie clan is still It is a large tribe with a very high status.

Adie is a noble lady.She has never done milking work, and now she is a prisoner, and the mother and daughter are about to work, but it seems that there is not much dissatisfaction.

Perhaps, they thought that according to the customs of the prairie, I married them into the Yan family, right?Shao Shude smiled, picked out the girl's pink buds casually, laughed and went hunting on horseback.

This time, it was a standard grassland khan's westward expedition. Even if he couldn't occupy Ba Khan, they would have to rob them of their family fortune accumulated for decades.

******
There are still a lot of records about Bahana in the historical materials of the Tang Dynasty, saying that there are "six big cities" and "hundred small cities".

From west to east, the six major cities are: Huzhi City (Chinese name Juzhanti), Shamgar (No Chinese name), Hajistan (No Chinese name), Turmugan (Chinese name Humen), Men City (no Chinese name), Pulling Khanna (Chinese name Kesai City).

The westernmost Kuzen is the later Huzhande (Khujand) of Tajikistan, and the easternmost is the later Namangan of Uzbekistan. It can be seen that they are basically lined up along the Yaoshashui, from the southwest Winding to the northeast—Yaosha means "pearl", so it is named "Pearl River" in Chinese, and it is the upper reaches of Syr Darya today.

Besides the six big cities, the one hundred small cities mentioned in the historical records of the Tang Dynasty are actually towns.The number is more than one hundred, which is just an approximation.

In the late 40th century, Arab geographer Mukadisi made statistics here, and about [-] towns and villages in the entire Fergana Basin had temples of the Creator.

It seems that even half a century later, the majesty and love of the Creator only covered no more than 40% of Fergana.

Some things are really not that simple.

In the early morning of the ninth day of August, Satuk led a group of soldiers to inspect his new territory.

Samani wasn't there, but he was lucky.

He offended Nasr I, the previous Persian monarch, and was forced to flee.

After the death of Nasr I, the young master succeeded to the throne.The royal family continued to strife, members withered, and there were many local rebellions.

After Samani fled back in embarrassment, Jayhani, the great vizier (prime minister) who assisted the new king, persuaded the new king to pardon him for his crimes, and called him back to Bukhara. It is said that he has another appointment.

Satuk's luck was not as good as that of Samani. After a trip to Bukhara, he was sent to Woshi (now Osh, Chinese name) by the Grand Vizier without even seeing the new king Ershi City), served as "Dihekan" (noble lord), and led his remnants of defeated soldiers to guard this small town in the east.

When he arrived at a post station, he frowned when he saw a large group of travelers eating and drinking.

In theory, the Samanid dynasty cannot be called a country, and the Samanid family is actually an official under the Abbasid dynasty.

The official title of the Samanid monarchs is "Emir", that is, the governor of the Greater Khorasan region. They are theoretically responsible for the Caliph of Baghdad, and they are serious subjects.

Therefore, even if the country has actually been founded, there is still work to be done on the surface.

Baghdad has followed the regulations that existed in the era of Baiyi Dashi. The post stations on the entire Khorasan Avenue must provide free drinking water to believers who have recently converted to the Creator-"Build an inn on your land for the convenience of believers. Come and go at any time, let them stay for a day and a night, take care of his livestock; if they are sick, provide them with two days and two nights entertainment; anything at home."

This was a policy found in newly conquered lands, and its main purpose was to attract conversions.Unfortunately, Kuhan is the land of new conquests, and this policy needs to be enforced.

In fact, there is a saying in China that "there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom", and of course foreign countries also have the same.

This kind of post station policy, which consumes a lot of money, is destined to not get the support of the lords everywhere, so the actual implementation is out of shape.

Free food and drink?Pull it down!

However, when Satuke's new official took office, he was afraid of being sued, so he didn't dare to obey the law, but it was destined to pay a lot of money.

"Let's go." Satuk looked at it for a while, upset, and quickly got on his horse and left.

But at this moment, several messengers galloped over on horseback, and they were overjoyed when they saw Satuk.

"Dihkan, there are robbers who have climbed over the mountain and rushed down, burning, killing and looting everywhere."

"There are also people looting in Uzkand. They rob everyone they see. They want everything. Livestock, food, money and even people will be killed if there is any resistance. It is very cruel."

"I'm from Aitbash, there are also robbers there, but it seems to be just early reconnaissance."

Sutuk frowned.

The essence of Bahanna is in the west, and Juzhanti is the largest city, more prosperous than Turmgan and Bahanna, which used to be the capital.

Compared with the six big cities, Woshi, Uzkander, and Aitbash in the east can only be counted as towns. Although they have a large population, they lack solid city defense facilities because of their late development—Uzkander, That is, Uzgen in Kyrgyzstan in later generations, and Aitbashi is now Atbashi, and it was named "Atebashi" in the Yuan Dynasty.

Take Wosh as an example. Satuk has a castle, which is very strong.In the castle there are government offices directly under his management, prisons, granaries, and armories.But outside the castle, there is only a low and weak earth wall, which is called the outer city.

The outer city is where most officials, soldiers, businessmen, craftsmen, scholars, and priests of Woshi live. There is a large-scale creator temple and a prosperous bazaar (bazaar) inside.

Because there are many streams passing through the outer city, a large area of ​​farmland has been reclaimed near the outer city wall, and more ordinary people live there.

Can he protect these people?

"What does this person look like?" Satuk asked.

He originally set his capital in Karasa and knew that most of the small Turkic tribes lived in the southern part of the Congling Mountains, and they had no ability or courage to go north to plunder, so the origins of these people were very suspicious.

"Some were wearing furs, some were wearing leather armor, and some were driving camels and pack horses. They were watching from a distance, but they didn't participate in the battle, so they couldn't see their attire clearly." A messenger said.

The other two nodded after listening.

"With leather armor?" Satuk was surprised.

Don't look at the grassland tribes who have many cattle, sheep, horses and camels, and are rich in leather, but this is different from leather armor.

After the leather is taken off, it needs to be washed, tanned, and then layered to make leather armor.This is no simple task and often requires specialized craftsmen to make it.Otherwise, wouldn't the grassland herdsmen each have a piece of leather armor?But what you see in reality, most of them wear furs and less leather armor.

If you think about it from this angle, things will develop in the worst way...

"Let's go back to the castle and gather people!" Satuk didn't hesitate any more, he pulled his horse's head and ran towards Woshi City.

The soldiers also waved their whips and followed quickly.

Everyone looked dignified and felt uneasy.Especially those who followed Satuk and fled all the way from Karasa were even more miserable, because they had already guessed.

(End of this chapter)