Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 402 Destruction of Gaochang
Qu Zhisheng walked back and forth anxiously in the palace, looked at the doctor in front of him, and asked with concern:

"Doctor, my father, how is the situation? Can you still live, even if you only have one breath!"

The doctor looked at Qu Zhisheng sympathetically, shook his head helplessly and said, "I tried my best!"

Qu Zhisheng couldn't help throwing himself on Qu Wentai, crying loudly, "Father, father, how can you die! Father!"

Qu Zhisheng's extremely sad cry made people feel sad when they heard it, and wept!
Everyone believed that Qu Zhisheng was crying from the bottom of his heart, because the Tang army had already arrived at Qikou, and after a while, they might come to the city of Gaochang.

At this time, the last thing I want Qu Wentai to die is Qu Zhisheng.

At this time, his younger brother Qu Zhizhan was waiting outside with Gaochang's ministers.

When the doctor was sure that his father was dying, he rushed out immediately, hugged his brother's thigh and cried bitterly,

"Brother, the country cannot live without a king, and today's father is in trouble, you must persevere and lead Gaochang through this crisis.

Younger brother, I pay my respects to Brother Wang! "

Qu Zhisheng looked at his own brother's affectionate look, and he didn't even have time to say that he didn't want to be the king, let alone be nailed to the pillar of shame in Gaochang country's history.

But immediately after, the ministers brought by his younger brother knelt down and shouted to Qu Zhisheng:

"I will pay my respects to the king!"

Listening to their uniform voices, Qu Zhisheng had no doubt that these guys might have been rehearsed.

But what can Qu Zhisheng do? No matter how unwilling a son is to be reconciled to his father's sins, he still has to come out and clean up this mess.

Immediately, he sent someone to write a letter to Hou Junji, expressing that his father, Qu Wentai, had been condemned to death by the heavens.
To be honest, when Qu Zhisheng sent this letter to the army camp, Hou Junji, who said that he had never seen any battlefield, even after fighting all his life, was a little stunned at the moment: "Damn, what's the situation?" , Qu Zhisheng is dead?"

"Could it be the Gaochang Kingdom, who strangled their own king in order to admit their mistakes, so that we have no excuse to send troops!"

At this time, Xue Wanjun couldn't help being somewhat shocked when he heard the news.

The Tang army in Gaochang did not come to make various jumps. When Tang army came, he directly killed his king so that the opponent had no reason to send troops, thereby increasing his own cohesion. It really refreshed the three views of Tang army generals.

Everyone wondered whether this Qu Wentai was actually just a puppet of Gaochang, and under Qu Wentai there was a powerful minister who controlled Gaochang's power.

Otherwise, if they killed their king before the battle, wouldn't they be afraid that their country's political power would be torn apart!
Besides, the army has come all the way to Gaochang. If you say you don't want to fight, can you stop fighting?Are you reimbursed by Gaochang for the supplies along the way?
Not to mention, Tang Jun at this time was counting on catching a wave of Gaochang people and bringing them back to Chang'an to make a fortune.

Is this something that can be settled by the death of a king?Gaochang Kingdom must be destroyed!
"This... Shall we take this opportunity to destroy Gaochang directly, and just choose the day of Gaochang Wang Qu Wentai's funeral!"

Niu Jinda wanted to finish the fight and return to Chang'an as soon as possible, after all, this journey was too far.

"Don't mess around!" Hou Junji said with an ugly face, "Gao Changguo's behavior is inhumane, but my Tang Dynasty cannot be unrighteous.

Today, my lord launched a crusade because of Gaochang's rudeness. Since ancient times, teachers have not attacked funerals, but launched attacks in front of other people's tombs. This is not a righteous teacher, but a villain who takes advantage of others' dangers.

I will go to attack Tiancheng first, so that Gao Changguo can have a funeral with peace of mind! "

Seeing Hou Junji make such a choice, Niu Jinda couldn't help muttering, thinking that Hou Junji was confused by reading Confucian books.

But Hou Junji's orders were still carried out very effectively, even Wang Xuance nodded in agreement when he heard Hou Junji's words.

After all, since Datang has already taken advantage, it is only natural to give him a certain demeanor.

However, Tiancheng, a small city, thought it could resist the Tang Dynasty's army, but closed its four gates to resist, and then successfully resisted for half a day, before being defeated by Hou Junji's army.

Next, Hou Junji gave Qu Zhisheng a final ultimatum to open the city gate and leave the city to accept surrender.

But Qu Zhisheng chose to rely on Gaochang City to make a final fight with the Tang army, and at the same time the Western Turks also reached Khan Futu City.

Qu Zhisheng believed that relying on the fortification of Gaochang City and the aid of the Western Turks, he would definitely defeat the Tang army who had gone on an expedition, and then he would be able to secure the throne of Gaochang and become the new king of Gaochang.

Hou Junji was not polite either, and asked the academy soldiers to wear armor to fight forward. The 10,000+ army moved together, and the ditch in front of Gaochang City was filled in a few days.

As for the so-called strong city of Gaochang City, Hou Junji dispatched craftsmen to build nest carts, on which the soldiers could clearly see the dispatch of soldiers in the city, and then built a wave of siege weapons, directly conquering the city Gaochang city.

At this time, the Western Turks looked at the powerful Tang Jun, and felt that even if they charged from the flanks, they would not be able to take advantage of Tang Jun.

Needless to say, the warrior in heavy armor turned out to be nimble like a light infantry. The Western Turkic Khan felt that his head was fine, so it was impossible for him to bring his army to hit such a Tang army.

After all, if it is for one's own country, it is enough to fight with Tang Jun, but for Gaochang, even if it is not sick.

From the perspective of Western Turks, if Gaochang can block the Tang army for three months, it is not impossible to do it by himself after the Tang army is exhausted.

But the problem is that Gao Chang faced Tang Jun and said that he couldn't survive for ten days, so what's the point of going to the rescue by himself.

Therefore, Gaochang City was captured very smoothly by the Tang army led by Hou Junji, and Hou Junji did not restrain his soldiers, and even rushed into Gaochang City first to plunder Gaochang.

This kind of thing is almost always the case with the Tang army. When they attacked Tuyuhun, the Tang army also looted the capital of Tuyuhun.

After all, under the Fubing system, it is almost unrealistic for soldiers to fight against you. It is almost unrealistic to say that one by one becomes a general in order to get ahead.

They just want to get wealth from the enemy after winning the battle.

The army of the Tang Dynasty has always been like this. It is not something that Hou Junji can stop, even Junji itself is more active.

However, in such a feast of looting, there were two armies that did not join in the carnival of gluttony.

One is the school army led by Wang Xuance himself, because Wang Xuance himself is a Confucian general who was born in the imperial examination, and his subordinates are also the school army. To some extent, they exist in the form of a recruiting system. Li Tai is allocated funds every year. of.

After all, in Qinghai, few people are willing to go there under the Fubing system, and it is very troublesome to rotate.

So all of it was handed over to Li Tai, and the problem of garrisoning troops was solved in the form of the recruitment system, which was more or less a problem left over from history.

But as long as the mission of these soldiers stationed in Qinghai for three years is over and they return to their original places, Li Tai will take the initiative to cut off contact.

For this kind of thing, the court also turned a blind eye to it, thinking that Li Tai was raising soldiers for the court.

After all, only the king of Wei could afford the money, and if he wanted to change the crown prince, he might have to think about whether to sell the East Palace.

Therefore, under the recruitment system, soldiers are greatly influenced by generals.

If the general is a person who emphasizes military discipline and integrity, then the soldiers will watch the guys in front of them steal money, but as long as Wang Xuance does not give orders, then they cannot move, otherwise they will be kicked out of the army if they violate military discipline .

To be honest, these students who came out of agricultural colleges were more or less baptized every day in courses such as loyalty to the emperor, patriotism, and military discipline.

They have always been doing the job of defending their home and country, but if they are suddenly let go to rob, the academy soldiers really can't do it!
Moreover, Wang Xuance only curled his lips when he saw the scene in front of him, always feeling that he had humiliated his identity by being with this group of guys.

The only thing I can do is to restrain my own army and not to join forces with these guys.

But Wang Xuance turned around, but he didn't expect that there was an army among the foreign races, and they didn't participate in Datang's looting of Gaochang.

This made Wang Xuance feel a bit of interest and patted the horse forward.

When the alien commander saw Wang Xuance, he also bowed respectfully first and said, "Ashi Nasheer has met Director Wang."

"Ashnasheer? The son of Khan?" Wang Xuance looked at Ashinasheer and admired Ashinadur and said,

"I didn't expect that among the Turkic people, there are also prudent and noble people who can restrain their subordinates from being dominated by desires!"

"Boss Wang, that's a compliment!" Ashinasheer looked at Wang Xuance and explained:
"It's just that I was ordered to crusade against foreign races, but I didn't follow the order to plunder Gaochang, so I didn't have the guts to plunder.

If the saint has a will to allow it, I will not let it go."

Hearing Ashnadur's words, Wang Xuance nodded and shook his head, saying,
"It was precisely because I restrained my subordinates from looting Gaochang that I realized the difficulty of this matter.

The school soldiers under my command have been influenced by classics for many years, and they can only barely curb the greed in their hearts under the military order.

But you were able to restrain the desire of your tribal fighters, you can imagine how strict you are in governing the army! "

To be honest, I experienced watching the rest of the army vent their inner tyranny in Gaochang City, and then saw that the two of my troops had committed no crime outside Gaochang City.

For a moment, the two of them unconsciously felt that they were not alone.

Of course, because of this behavior, the rest of the Tang army looked at Wang Xuance and Ashnadur's troops quite differently.

After all, in the Tang Dynasty, being conscripted to crusade against foreign races was either for promotion or to make a fortune.

After all, for the government soldiers, their only advantage is to avoid military service. If they don't get rich by being promoted on the battlefield, can't they get rich by dreaming.

But Hou Junji knew that Wang Xuance and Ashnadur's army did not participate in the looting of Gaochang City, so he couldn't help but curl his lips.

"If you're really hypocritical, you can only command an army general. If you want to become an army commander in the future, you don't have to think about it!"

To be honest, Hou Junji's judgment on Wang Xuance and Ashinadur was actually very accurate.

Because even if Li Shimin wanted to command the army to stop the looting of the city after the siege, he had to pay for it himself.

It can be said that the main body of the military system derived from the land equalization system of the Tang Dynasty and the Fubing system is doomed for the soldiers of the Fubing to not commit any crimes against the defeated opponent's city.

And if you don't understand this, if you want to forcibly instill your own cleanliness thoughts on your soldiers, it may be possible for an army, but if you become an army commander, you can't.

Because it violates the will of the army in this way, it is tantamount to placing yourself on the opposite side of the army, how to command the army like this.

And Hou Junji has already seen it clearly, don't look at Wang Xuance stepping on him to rise to the top, but if Wang Xuance can't change the cleanliness in his heart, then Wang Xuance will become a side general stationed on one side. Wouldn't it be nice if he wanted to be the commander of an army like himself? possible.

Because not everyone is like Wang Xuance, in this army, the soldiers who want to rob the enemy are the vast majority.

At the same time, the Tubo envoy Lu Dongzan, who was a special envoy with the army, saw that Gaochang City, a large city in the Western Regions, had completely become history under the attack of the Tang army, and he couldn't express his sadness in his heart.

It was this time when he acted with the Tang army that Lu Dongzan could feel the strength of the Tang army from the inside out.

Their strength is definitely more than just their steel armor. The equal-field system allows soldiers to own fields, the mansion system makes soldiers eager for war, and the crazy plundering of the losers after defeating their opponents. All of these elite generals made Datang's army extremely powerful.

Not to mention, there is the elite of the Tang army, who can rely on military discipline to resist the temptation of looting and abide by themselves.

To be honest, in Lu Dongzan's eyes, the troops led by Wang Xuance and Ashnadur were even more elite.

"If Tubo wants to be strong, it must carry out military reforms, otherwise the current Gaochang may not become tomorrow's Tubo!"

At this moment, Lu Dongzan looked at the still burning Gaochang City, what he thought in his heart.

"I will never allow Luoxi City to suffer such a disaster. Today's Gaochang is the best warning for Tubo."

To be honest, although Gaochang City was defeated, the war is not over yet.

Next, Gaochang's sphere of influence needs to be wiped out, but even Gaochang City cannot be defended, and other cities in Gaochang are even more vulnerable to the Tang army.

Hou Junji continued to divide his forces for several days in succession. He conquered 3 counties, 5 counties, and 22 cities. He gained 8046 households, a population of 3.77, and 4300 horses. Zhizhan and the Qu clan in Gaochang were all captured, and arranged by Hou Junji to send them all the way to Chang'an.

This battle directly announced that the power of the Tang Dynasty extended to the Western Regions, and also allowed the Han people to once again rule the territory that originally belonged to the Han people.

(End of this chapter)