Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 219

The Kyzyl Kum Desert covers an area of ​​300,000 square kilometers. This is a very strange desert.

Because it is the only desert in the world that is sandwiched by large rivers such as the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and it is red.

Kyzyl Kum means the Red Desert in the Kazakh language. There was no Kazakh nation at this time, so this desert is simply called the Red Sand.

The only difficulty in crossing this red sand is not the lack of water, nor the hot climate, but that you will face getting lost at any time.

Compared with the terrifying Taklamakan, the Red Desert is not very short of water, what it lacks is recognition.

It is too flat, and even the low desert vegetation looks similar, there is no reference to determine the orientation and identify the path.

But fortunately, Zhang Zhao does not lack the original compass here, and even contacted some survivors of the Western Cao through the descendants of the Eastern Cao.

With the guidance of these indigenous herdsmen living in the red sand oasis, and the compass to determine the approximate direction, they have not deviated from the route.

A little Sogdian leading a camel held up a water bag and handed it to Zhang Zhao graciously. He was a native of Xicao whom Zhang Zhao recruited.

After 200 years of coming to this place for Tianfang enlightenment, most of the religions and races have been changed.

The only ones who can guarantee that they will not be overwhelmed by the surging Tianfang Sect culture are these Zoroastrian Sogdians who would rather bear a heavy poll tax than convert. People from history.

Historically, these races were actually closely related to the Central Plains. Not to mention that there were a large number of people from Kang and Shi on the territory of the Guiyi Army, and the Cao Yijin family was even mixed with people from the West.

In fact, even in Yunzhongdaibei and other places in the Central Plains, there are a large number of Sogdians with the nine surnames of Zhaowu, most of whom are Kang and Shi.

Even from the late Tang Dynasty to the early Northern Song Dynasty, these places formed a peculiar chain of national contempt.

At this time, among the three tribes of Shatuo Daibei, only one was from the real Shatuo, and the rest were Sogdians with the surnames of Kang and Shi. People at that time called them false Shatuo.

Even if the fake Shatuo people achieve high positions, they still have a sense of national inferiority complex in the face of the real Shatuo.

The most famous one is Kang Fu. He is the majestic founding marquis of the later Tang Dynasty and Kaifu Yitong Sansi of the later Jin Dynasty. He would actually envy a judge under his command.

Because this Shatuo judge was originally from Longyou Jincheng, which is the birthplace of Li Keyong’s grandfather Zhu Xie Zhiyi, Kang Fu was very envious of him, thinking that he was the real Shatuo, and he was a fake Shatuo, with a distant family background. Not as good as the other side.

Damn it, a bunch of beards are talking about their family status so frankly, it's really a miracle through the ages.

Of course, there are also Hu'er who are despised by Kang Fu, that is, Xi people and Khitan people outside Daibei.

When Kang Fu served as the Jiedu envoy of Qinzhou, he fell ill once, and his staff all came to say hello.

Kang Fu was wrapped in a brocade quilt and sat on the bed to meet everyone. After he came out, an aide smiled and said to his companion, "The brocade quilt is rotten."

Originally, this was just a joke, but Kang Fu, who was not well educated, misunderstood it. He angrily called back the staff who spoke, and scolded his head and face.

"Although I was born in Saixia, I am from Tang Dynasty. How dare you call me Lanxi?"

Unexpectedly, decades later, the Khitan and Xi people, who were regarded as the great powers in the northern part of the Great Song Dynasty, were of extremely low status at this time, and even the Sogdians with the nine surnames of Zhaowu looked down on them.

Five generations of warriors died, but their strength and national self-confidence were still very high. When Yelu Deguang went south to the Central Plains, he was beaten and defeated several times, and there was even a record of escaping alone on a camel.

The god of war on camels and the god of war on donkey carts echoed back and forth for a moment.

Generally speaking, the group of Sogdians with nine surnames in Zhaowu actually had a great influence on the Han people.

Among the Han surnames Kang, Shi, Bai, Shi, and Mi in later generations, there are a large number of Sogdian blood, especially the Kang surname. More than half of the people with the Kang name in history basically have the shadow of Sogdian Kang

At the same time, it is similar to how Li Ke used his family to carry the three northern tribes to the south to the Central Plains. It is estimated that a large number of Sogdians will participate in the rise of King Zhang.

It's just that the Li family relied on the Sogdians surnamed Kang, while King Zhang was on the fence with the Sogdians surnamed Cao.

The great-grandmother of the wife Cao Yanxi and Cao Sanniang is the Sogdian Western Cao daughter, and the Saktu queen Cao Yanmian who was robbed by Shule is the Eastern Cao daughter.

At the same time, in this piece of red sand, the people who acted as his guides were directly Dongcao people and Xicao people, and the leaders of these people expressed to Zhang Zhao more than once that they were willing to return east with King Zhang.

Of course they were willing to return to the east. The Cao Yijin family, who was mixed with the Sogdian Cao Kingdom, had already mastered the power of the Guiyi Army, and there would be no religious poll tax there.

What's more, King Zhang married a bunch of Sogdian Cao daughters. From their point of view, Zhang Zhao is definitely his own person, and his own person is the king, so of course he should live a good life with him.

. . . . .

Six days and seven nights, day and night, after a long journey of nearly two hundred miles, Zhang Zhao personally led seven thousand elite soldiers, and was finally about to walk out of this red sand.

Among the 800 elites, [-] belonged to horse-mounted heavy infantry, another [-] people were horse-armored heavy cavalry, and [-] elite light cavalry.

Another two hundred were Zhang Zhao's personal guards, the soldiers of Regret Shandu who were used as attacking hammers, and there were several hundred Dong Cao and Xi Cao leading parties.

There are more than [-] people with three war horses per person, plus hundreds of camels. Even if they brought a lot of wine mixed with clean water when they set off, they were tortured enough along the way.

"My lord, there is a village of our Dongcao people about fifteen miles ahead, but they have converted to Tianfang religion for a long time. Please send two warriors with me to have a look. If you can persuade them, we will have A place to rest."

This little Sogdian is the guy who has been courting Zhang Zhao with a water bag for the past few days. He is 15 years old this year. In terms of seniority, he is the nephew of Cao Yanmian.

The little guy understands it very well!Why did he come over and ask Zhang Zhao for some warriors to go with him?Isn't it just to prevent Zhang Zhao from not believing him.

Along the way, Zhang Zhao also found that although he had never been to school, he was a very good veterinarian. Whether it was taking care of horses or camels, he had a lot of experience.

Considering that his age is unlikely to have the opportunity to accumulate a lot of experience, this should be attributed to talent.

"Are you willing to recognize someone as a foster father?" This is a talent, and he has a little connection with him, so Zhang Zhao decided to win him on the spot!
The little guy suddenly raised his head to look at Zhang Zhao, his eyes glowed with blazing light, and every inch of his face was releasing shock and joy.

"Boy Greyhound pays respects to father!" Greyhound knelt down to Zhang Zhao with a plop, and slammed his head on the ground.

Yan Jin looked enviously at Greyhound and said to Zhang Zhao: "Congratulations to the king for his adopted son. Greyhound's parents died early, but he is smart and intelligent. He is good at riding and archery and raising horses. His Majesty can accept him as his adopted son. In the future, he will be a hero of our army!"

People around came to congratulate Zhang Zhao one after another, and of course more congratulations were directed at the greyhound who was still on the ground tearing up with joy.

Because although King Zhang formed a juvenile army dubbed the Yizi Army, it was just a joke. Zhang Zhao only admitted that they were his students, but he did not admit that they were righteous sons. This Greyhound was the first one that King Zhang accepted a adopted son.

"Get up! From now on, you will follow a certain surname Zhang, and enter my Zhang family tree. Of course, the name Greyhound can no longer be used. Let's call it Zhang Liecheng!"

The Zhang Zhao family came from the Long Tong Zhang family, a branch of the Zhang family in Nanyang. Their ranking in the past few generations is based on the inheritance of Yihuai Yan Zhaolie and loyalty to Shize.

It's just that in Zhang Zhao's father's generation, after his father Zhang Chengfeng claimed to be the emperor in white, this ranking is useless, and Zhang Zhao will just use it.

"Lie Cheng kowtowed to thank his adoptive father for giving him the name! From now on, he would follow him even through fire and water!" After receiving the name from Zhang Zhao, Greyhound, who had just stood up, knelt down again and kowtowed.

Zhang Zhao hurriedly stopped him, "Stop knocking, bring more people over, show righteousness, and lure them for profit. If you still refuse, then you should reason with them!"

Zhang Zhao deliberately emphasized reasoning, and Zhang Liecheng nodded emphatically, with the light of a chicken thief in his eyes, obviously understanding how to reason.

. . . .

Zhang Zhao is accepting his adopted son, while Emir Nasr II of Saman Persia is thinking about how to deal with his son.

Sitting in the position of the emperor, all family, friendship and love have to be put aside.

Among the hundreds of kings in China for thousands of years, there are not many good emperors like Ming Xiaozong, and this is also the case in Persia. The struggle involving imperial power is very cruel.

Prince Hamid, bright and healthy, was Nasr II's favorite son when he was young.

Otherwise, he would not be willing to give Prince Hamid such a key position as Grand Salal, who holds the military power in the capital, after defeating his brother and becoming emir.

But as he got older, especially when he was getting older but still in good health, his son, Prince Hamid, who was in his forties, gradually changed from a guarantee of imperial power to the biggest threat to imperial power.

Which crowd wants to enjoy it the most?Definitely the older crowd.

Because people at this age do not have the energy of youth, and their bodies are not allowed to climb the peak again. At the same time, facing the passage of time, the anxiety in their hearts keeps increasing.

When facing the energetic young people around me, I am full of the sense of urgency that the time is getting old and the time is running out.

In this case, especially for those who hold great power, family affairs, state affairs, and world affairs are no longer their pursuit.

How to let yourself enjoy the sweetness of the world in the limited time, and even live forever, that is the most important thing.

Of course, when you are old and frail, you can no longer control everything because of your limited energy, and the fear of losing power is gradually deepening.

This is also the reason why no matter how wise and mighty an emperor is, once he gets old, he will often become faint.

Whether it is Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, or famous emperors such as Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty and Kang Mazi, it is normal for people to become dull as they get older, but the degree varies from person to person.

Nasr II is a typical example of this. He worked hard when he was young, and Saman Persia reached its peak under his hands.

But as I get older, the four-piece suit of extravagance, sexiness, moodiness, and grandeur comes together.

Now he just wants to enjoy, to make money, and to stabilize the power in his hands. Prince Hamid, who is already too big, has become an unstable factor that threatens the royal power in his heart.

The same is true for Prince Hamid. His father, Nasr II, has also changed from a good father to a terrifying existence who will kill him at any time.

The father-son game of Saman Persia is about to start!

(End of this chapter)