A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1130 Death
Gaochang.

The hottest place in the Western Regions in summer is the Huoyan Mountain, and Gaochang is also the lowest place in China. It was originally the Cheshi Kingdom, and later became a military barrier of the Han Dynasty. It was named Gaochangbi because of its high and open terrain and prosperous population.

Today, this is a country in the Western Regions, whose inhabitants are mainly descendants of the Han Dynasty garrison soldiers.
The Gaochang Kingdom of the Qu family has been established for more than a hundred years.

But at this time, Gaochang Kingdom had come to an end.

King Qu Wentai walked into the sitting room. Whenever there was an important event, he would come to the sitting room to look at the painting of Gaochang's inheritance of the country, "The Image of Duke Ai of Lu Asking Confucius about Government". Gaochang was a small country with few people. Its land was 300 li from east to west and 500 li from north to south. At that time, its population was no more than 30,000 people.

Since the Han Dynasty, Gaochang Kingdom has always survived in the cracks and has been subservient to the Rouran, Gaoche, Turkic and other countries. However, the Gaochang people, who are mainly descendants of the Han army, have never given up Han culture. The writing of Gaochang is Chinese characters, and the etiquette and official system are also Han.

Gaochang often sent envoys to the Central Plains to borrow the Five Classics and various histories, and set up doctors in imitation of the Han Dynasty.

However, after all, it is located in the Western Regions, in the nomadic tribe settlement area, and on the Silk Road. Over the years, Gaochang folk culture has been influenced by Hu style, and folk clothing is mostly Hu clothing.

In recent years, not only a large number of Sogdian Hu from the Nine Clans of Zhaowu came to Gaochang to settle down, but also a large number of Turks lived in Gaochang.

Qu Wentai knelt in front of the portrait. Did he really want to destroy Gaochang Kingdom?

As each piece of intelligence came back, Qu Wentai became more and more restless. In just a few days, his hair turned completely white, and he seemed to have aged by ten years.

He knelt in front of the portrait, his eyes were red and his brow was black. He wanted to pray to his ancestors and ask for their protection.

"His Majesty."

The queen came to the sitting room, feeling a little anxious.

Qu Wentai looked at Queen Yuwen with some dissatisfaction. Ever since Gaochang fell out with the Tang Dynasty, the queen, who had changed her surname to Li, restored her surname to Yuwen. She no longer used the title of Princess Changle of the Tang Dynasty, but still used the title of Princess Huarong of the Sui Dynasty.

"What's disturbing?"

This small sitting room is where the King of Gaochang does not allow anyone to disturb him.

"The prince has returned from Jiaohe City. He said that Helu Yehu of Futu City has led his troops to withdraw. Also, that Shi Naju Tutun seems to be planning something. The prince wants to see Your Majesty immediately."

When Qu Wentai heard this, he felt a black screen before his eyes and almost fainted.

He could no longer sit there and stood up immediately. However, he stood up too quickly and felt dizzy again. He staggered and fell. The queen heard something was wrong and hurried in. Seeing the king fall to the ground, she hurried to help him up.

"His Majesty."

"I'm fine, help me up."

Qu Wentai's face turned pale and his hands were shaking.

I just felt weak and powerless along the way. Empress Yuwen supported me all the way and was very tired.

"Please send for the doctor."

"No need." Qu Wentai shook his head. He wanted to talk to the prince first. "You go out first."

The crown prince, Qu Zhisheng, was kneeling there with a look of loss on his face. When he saw his father coming in, he quickly stood up to greet him, "Dalang, help father."

Gao Zhisheng stepped forward and helped his father to the throne.

"Tell me, what happened to Helu and the others? Did his soldiers evacuate Futu City?"

"Futu City is still garrisoned by Helu Yehu's troops, but Helu led a thousand cavalrymen to the west yesterday."

He looked dejected and even panicked. "They all said that Helu went to meet Wu Huaiyu and led his troops to welcome him."

Qu Zhisheng's expression turned even uglier. "This is most likely true. Our strong reinforcements in the north have now become a gun on our backs."

"What about Shi Naju Tutun?"

"Father, since Luduo Khan has become Wu Huaiyu's captive, and even Helu Yehu has brought Zhenzhu Yehu to pay homage to Wu Huaiyu,

Now the entire Beiting has completely surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.

Shi Naju is just a Tutun. How can he be on the same side with us Gaochang at this time? He is making frequent moves at this time. He must be planning to seize our Gaochang City and give it to the Tang people. "What should we do?" Qu Wentai no longer had the wisdom he once had. In fact, after all, a small country with tens of thousands of people, even if it has many oases and occupies the main road of the Silk Road, is only a small country no matter how rich it is.
They can only survive in the cracks between those big countries.

"You said, Dulu Khan was so powerful, how come he suddenly became a prisoner of the Tang army? You said that there were five Dulu in the east wing of Beiting, and there were also other tribes such as the Jijin tribe. How come there were so many people and horses that Wu Huaiyu and his 10,000 cavalrymen captured Dulu Khan, and no one dared to attack?"

"Father, it's not that no one dares to go up, but no one can beat Wu Huaiyu. We are old acquaintances of Yuzhi Jijin of the Gongyue tribe. He was an extremely brave man, and was once known as the Tiger of Shatuo. But he also died in Gongyue City.

There is also the Chishi tribe of the Qalluk tribe, which is the strongest among the three surnames of the Qalluk people. They are very loyal to Dulu Khan, and Dulu is also good to them. He led them to migrate westward and gave them the Shuanghe Basin.
Chishifu was also known as an eagle-like man. He tried to save Duolu Khan, but was defeated and killed by the Tang army. More than a thousand were killed in battle, more than seven thousand were captured, and more than three hundred leaders, big and small, were captured.
Now Wu Huaiyu has relocated them from Shuanghe to the desert, but no one dares to resist anymore."

It's not that no one resisted, it's that no one could resist.

If someone had told Qu's father and son before the Tang army set out on the expedition that the Tang army would achieve such results, they would have thought that others were joking, but now these are all facts.

Not to mention that no one of the five great Chuozhujijin of Beiting dared to confront Wu Huaiyu, let's just talk about Gaochang themselves. When they knew that Wu Huaiyu was leading more than 10,000 cavalry to attack the northwest of Xiting in Dianhe Mountain, they did not make any move. They neither sent troops to attack Yizhou of the Tang Dynasty nor sent troops to Beiting to help Duolu Khan.

The two of them sat in Gaochang City, drinking from their cups, laughing at Wu Huaiyu's arrogance and underestimation of the enemy, and looking forward to the news of Wu Huaiyu's defeat.
But I didn't expect that the news I received would be like this.

There were reasons why Gaochang betrayed the Tang Dynasty and clung to Duoluk Khan. This was also the tragedy of a small country. Since it chose to rely on Duoluk Khan of the Western Turkic Khanate, it naturally had to cut ties with the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, it chose Duoluk because the Tang Dynasty supported Yanqi in reopening the Loulan Road, which Gaochang could not tolerate.

I thought that since we were thousands of miles away from the Tang Dynasty, even if we fell out, it wouldn't be a big deal.

But who would have thought that it would be such a disaster now.

"The situation is such that there is no way to change it,"

"Stop."

Qu Wentai sighed helplessly.
At the beginning, he still hoped to have a better attitude towards the Tang Dynasty, even if he had to rely on Duolu Khan, he could still be hypocritical to the Tang Dynasty. However, the prince was young and hot-headed, and after a few simple provocations from Duolu Khan, he lost his sense of the world.

Qu Wentai also mentioned the idea of ​​being the crown prince, but thinking that he was already old and Gaochang would eventually be inherited by him, he did not argue with him.

Who would have expected such a catastrophe?

"Call the Duke of Jiaohe, the Duke of Tiandi, the Ling Yin, the left and right guards, the eight chief secretaries, the five generals, the eight Simas, etc. to the royal city. We will surrender."

Qu Wentai's eyes were dull.

"No,"

Qu Zhisheng was unwilling to give up. His eyes were red, his fists were clenched, and he growled angrily, "We cannot surrender. We Gaochang can still fight."

"Shut up." Qu Wentai was also furious, his hair standing on end. "It's already this time, can't you see the situation clearly? What can you gain by continuing to resist now? You want to perish together with your enemy, but in fact you are just throwing an egg against a rock!"

Qu Zhisheng refused. He proposed to summon Anashiju to discuss matters immediately, and then arrest him, control the Turkic officers under him, and surround his soldiers who were monitoring Gaochang. Then he was willing to pretend to be Ashinaju to open the Khan's Futu City and seize it.

"That's enough, don't..." Qu Wentai shouted angrily, but he suddenly stopped talking halfway, his eyes and mouth were crooked, and then his face turned pale and his lips turned purple.
His head tilted and he fell to the ground.

"Father!"

"Here we are, call the doctor."

By the time the doctor arrived, it was too late.

"Your Highness, Queen, the King has passed away!"

Kou Zhisheng looked at his father's distorted face and his eyes that were wide open as if he died. He stood there in a daze, without any reaction for a long time.

Until he was awakened by bursts of crying.

Qu Zhisheng's face turned green and he gritted his teeth and said, "Please restrain yourself for your majesty."

"Prepare it for me immediately. I will take the throne of Gaochang before the coffin."

"Your Majesty was killed by the Tang people. I want to avenge my father. I swear to die in Gaochang and fight the Tang people to the death!"

(End of this chapter)