A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1139 Luntai
At the end of May,
As the army marched eastward, they encountered another river with gurgling water, cool breezes, and green trees lining the river banks.

"This is Daxigou, and its other name is Laolong River."

"This used to be Luntai Kingdom,"

Looking at the river ahead, Shaboloye Huhelu introduced to Wu Huaiyu that this river originated from the Tianshan Mountains and was mainly composed of meltwater from ice and snow. It was more than 400 miles long from south to north and flowed into the southern edge of the Junggar Basin.

This river once nurtured the splendid civilization of the ancient Cheshi people. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, this place was part of the Six Kingdoms of Cheshi. During the Western Han Dynasty, there were more than ten nomadic tribes distributed here, which was called the Land of Thirteen Kingdoms.

The Han Dynasty established the Protectorate of the Western Regions, and this place was under the jurisdiction of Luntai.

During the Three Kingdoms period, the Cheshi Kingdom established Yulai City in the Upol Depression of this river, which was the first city here.

The ancient city is no longer there. The last time Wu Huaiyu passed by here, he didn’t see the ancient city.

"There are still remnants of rammed earth city walls, and the remains of square corner towers at the four corners of the city. The remaining earth walls are still more than two meters high, right in the Upal Depression," said Helu.

Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the Silk Road opened up a new northern route, and this place is a strategic point.

It is backed by the Tianshan Mountains and controls the Baiyanggoukou of the Tianshan Mountains, an important road leading to Gaochang and southern Xinjiang in the east, and is located at a strategic point.

This place was originally controlled by Helu, and his troops stationed and set up checkpoints at the ruins of the ancient city to collect taxes from passing commercial goods.

However, to the north of Gaochang,
There are now two cities, one is Mohe City, on the east bank of the Laolong River, dozens of miles northeast of their current location. It was also the city where Helu was originally stationed.

There is another city that is larger and more solid, which is Khan Buddha City. It is more than 300 miles northeast of here and was named after the Turkic Khan who once built a Buddha there.

Now, Mohe City and Khanfutu City have fallen into the hands of Gaochang Prince Qu Zhisheng.

Wu Huaiyu looked at the oasis in front of him, which was full of vitality.

Because of the war,

Now that the Silk Road is blocked and there is no trade, this place has become a bit quiet.

Recalling the time during the Western Han Dynasty, Li Guangli launched an expedition to the Western Regions, destroyed the Luntai Kingdom, and set up envoys and colonels to establish military farms.

Historical celebrities such as Chang Hui and Ban Chao once struggled here.

Wu Huaiyu asked Helu to take him to the ruins of the ancient city.

Only the broken walls and broken walls remain, and the city walls, corner towers, and urn city can be vaguely distinguished. It can also be seen that the inner city and the outer city are different. It is roughly estimated that the original city had a circumference of four or five miles, which was considered a large city in the Western Regions. It is said that herders still occasionally find Han Dynasty bronze mirrors, copper coins, small ironware and other relics at the site.

There are clusters of red willows.

The Han Dynasty's orders were sent to the Western Regions.
It is conceivable that in the past, this city, in the Han Dynasty, had countless warriors who traveled thousands of miles to guard the border.
Seoul is still here today.
But what about Han Er back then?
The only ethnic group of Han descendants left in the Western Regions is the Gaochang Kingdom. But now the Tang Dynasty wants to destroy the Gaochang Kingdom, which makes people feel complicated.

But the situation is such that the only option is to conquer and unify.

Climbing up the remaining walls of the earthen city and looking around, it feels extremely desolate. This was once a place where countless Han people settled and farmed. They came from thousands of miles away and reclaimed wasteland and cultivated land here for generations. It is said that 100,000 acres of grain fields were once reclaimed here.

But now, the grain fields have long since become pastures again.

"I will once again convey my military order to all tribes. The father and son of the King of Gaochang betrayed the Tang Dynasty. I have been ordered to carry out the punishment of heaven and destroy Gaochang. However, the crime is only committed by the father and son of Gaochang, not the people of Gaochang.

All tribes should not harm the people of Gaochang when attacking cities and seizing land.

"The people of Gaochang are our Han people. We have been left in the Western Regions for hundreds of years, but now we have returned."

He patted the old earthen wall,
"I have decided to rebuild this city and name it Luntai."

Dou Dan, the chief secretary who was accompanying Wu Huaiyu, said to him, "Prime Minister Wu, the Luntai Kingdom destroyed by Li Guangli in the Han Dynasty was not here, but to the south of the Tianshan Mountains, between Yanqi and Qiuci."

Wu Huaiyu smiled and said, "I know that during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty, Li Guangli went on an expedition to Dayuan in Hezhong. The countries in the Western Regions closed their borders to the Han expeditionary army and refused to provide them with supplies. Li Guangli destroyed the countries to establish his prestige.
He happened to be passing through Luntai at the time, so he conquered Luntai State. In order to intimidate the other states in the Western Regions, he ordered the massacre of the city, leaving no one alive, young or old, man or woman.

The countries in the Western Regions were shocked, and from then on there was no more obstacle for the Han army to attack Dayuan.

Han Luntai is more than a thousand miles away from here.

How could Wu Huaiyu not know this? After all, in later generations, there was still a Luntai County in the Western Regions, which was the Luntai Kingdom back then.

When talking about Li Guangli's destruction of Luntai Kingdom, we have to talk about the strategy of conquering the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty.
At that time, Luntai Kingdom was located in the Tianshan Mountains in the Western Regions, on the Southern Silk Road. It was a very ordinary small oasis country in the Western Regions, but was later massacred by the Tang Dynasty. The Han Dynasty also established the Western Regions Protectorate there.

Back then, the Han Dynasty and the Dayuan Kingdom fought a three-year war.

Dayuan was far away in the river, and was separated from the Western Regions by the natural barriers of the Pamir Plateau and the Pamir Mountains. Later generations said that Emperor Wu of Han was ambitious and wanted to send his troops on a long expedition just to get the Ferghana horses of Dayuan.

In fact, this is to underestimate Emperor Wu of Han. From the perspective of Emperor Wu of Han at that time, his biggest enemy was actually the Huns, and it has always been the Huns.

In order to destroy the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of Han took great pains to open up the Western Regions and the Silk Road. Although the opening of the Silk Road was beneficial to the Western Regions, these countries were always wavering between the Han and the Xiongnu. So Emperor Wu of Han had the idea of ​​showing off his power in the Western Regions and forcing the Western Regions to turn to the Han Dynasty by attacking a small country. His initial target was Loulan, which was close to the Hexi Corridor and not very strong.
Emperor Wu of Han assembled tens of thousands of troops and prepared to advance step by step along the Hexi Corridor to destroy Loulan and spread his power in the Western Regions. However, before the army set out,
However, the brave general Zhao Po Nu led 700 cavalrymen to successfully launch a surprise attack on Loulan, capturing the royal family and a number of ministers alive.

From a tactical point of view, this battle is worth writing about, but it goes against the strategic intention of Emperor Wu of Han. He assembled a large army to attack Loulan, but his real purpose was not to attack Loulan, but to demonstrate the great strength of the Han Dynasty and to show his power in the Western Regions.

However, Zhao Po Nu launched a surprise attack and although he successfully captured the royal family and ministers of Loulan, in the eyes of the Western Regions, this battle did not make them feel how strong the Han Dynasty was.
This sneak attack made them very dissatisfied with the Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of Han's plan for tens of thousands of Han troops to appear before the oasis states in the Western Regions and destroy Loulan in a dignified manner, killing the chicken to scare the monkeys, and the scene that shocked other countries did not occur.

The strategic plan failed.

This led to the expedition to Dayuan, which was later launched by Li Guangli under the pretext of the Ferghana horses. Li Guangli's vanguard consisted of only 60,000 infantry and cavalry, but the Western Regions did not cooperate.

So they attacked and destroyed the Luntai Kingdom along the way.

It just happened that the Han army was there in Luntai at that time. If it were any other country, it would have ended up the same way.

Slaughtering Luntai, conquering Dayuan,
Although Li Guangli did not fight well, the Han Dynasty fought for three years and demonstrated its powerful strength to the countries in the Western Regions.

Wu Huaiyu's Western Expedition
The raid method they first used to capture Yugushe alive shocked the Turkic tribes, but it was not enough.

That's why he summoned all the tribes to attack Gaochang together.

If we really want to destroy Gaochang, we don't need them.

However, Wu Huaiyu chose to summon the Nanbei and Beiting Ten Arrow Tribes and let them go first, in order to use Gaochang to truly establish his authority and demonstrate the powerful strength of the Tang Dynasty.

If you launch a sneak attack, others may not admit that you are strong.

Cheng Yaojin laughed and said, "Prince Consort Dou, Prime Minister Wu is different from a rough man like us. Prime Minister Wu is a master of poetry, calligraphy, painting and medicine. He also edited several history books in the court. Moreover, the Zizhi Tongjian written by Prime Minister Wu is famous all over the world. How could he not know where Luntai State is?"

Dou Dan's reminder was meant to be kind, but it made him feel a little embarrassed.

"I'm just showing off my skills."

Another old rogue who has read a lot of books, Liu Lancheng, laughed and said, "Prime Minister Wu used the name of Luntai, probably to remind and intimidate the Western Turkic tribes today by using the incident of Li Guangli of the Han Dynasty destroying Luntai on his way to conquer Dayuan."

"Those guys from Western Turkic are worse than me, Old Cheng. They probably don't even know about the Han Dynasty's destruction of Luntai."

"So what? If they don't know, we can tell them. If we spread the word in the Western Regions, they will know." Liu Lancheng laughed. This guy was born as a clerk. He originally returned to his hometown to help defend the city during the chaotic period at the end of the Sui Dynasty, but suffered injustice. Later, he took the initiative to join the bandits he defeated, brought them back, offered advice, and broke through the city.

He was the most daring and cruel person, cruel to both his enemies and himself. He often led the suicide squad to attack the enemy camp at night, and he used his big knife to cut through the enemy from the end of Daye to the Tang Dynasty.

He was well-versed in history books, and when he heard that the city would be built under the name Luntai, he knew what Wu Huaiyu was thinking.

"How do you think we should build this Luntai City?" Huaiyu asked.

Accompanying Wu Huaiyu were not only Han generals such as Cheng Yaojin, Liu Lancheng, Niu Jinda and Wu Huaiyi, but also Shabolayahu Helu, as well as Bobu, Mishe, Buzhen and other khans, Chuoshe and Shijin.

Liu Lancheng just spoke loudly on purpose.

In fact, he intentionally mentioned the historical event of the Han Dynasty's destruction of Luntai, and he was afraid that they would not understand, so he took the opportunity of talking to Dou Dan to explain why the Han Dynasty attacked Loulan, destroyed Luntai, and conquered Dayuan.

That is to remind them why Wu Huaiyu wanted to rebuild Yulai City here but used the name of Luntai.

"I think the old city can be restored to its original state,"

"The old city is a bit small," Liu Lancheng suggested that it be rebuilt bigger. "After the old city is repaired, it will be used as the Yacheng, and then an outer city will be built."

Wu Huaiyi also suggested, "I think we can expand two more sub-cities in the east and west."

Inner Yacheng, Outer Luocheng, plus East and West Sub-Cities,

Such a city would be much larger.

It is divided into several cities, and the functions are allocated differently.

For example, Neiyacheng was naturally the government office and garrison of the Tang army.

The outer city can be used to house garrison families, markets, etc. As for the East and West Yacheng, the West City can be used as a foreign quarters, where Hu people can live, and the East City can also be used for garrison and storage of supplies.

This separation of Han and Hu people will help with management and be more conducive to security.

"Well, a city needs soldiers to garrison it. I think we can set up a Luntai military town, just like Gongyue City and Gongyue Town." Wu Huaiyu didn't care whether the Turkic leaders could follow or not, and said, "Then set up a Luntai town here and station 3,000 troops there."

"Who do you think is suitable to be the first governor of Luntai?"

(End of this chapter)