A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1198 Six-Fingered Golden Lion King

"Pei Shi, King of Shule?"

Wu Huaiyu looked at the couple brought up by Xiong Kuohai and asked in a doubtful tone.

Pei Shi showed Wu Huaiyu his hands.
Each hand has six fingers.

Six fingers is a characteristic of the Shule royal family. If the Shule king gave birth to a son, he would not raise him if he did not have six fingers. Therefore, all the Shule kings had six fingers. As for the king's surname Pei, this was not the case before.

Pei Shi took out his golden lion crown,
This is also the proof of the King of Shule.

Six fingers, golden lion crown, Wu Huaiyu believed it about 80%.

Then he took out a gold seal with a tortoise-shaped knob that Li Shimin had awarded him, as well as the Shule King's seal carved from Khotan jade.

"General Pei Chuo of Jingzhao Huaihua is your great uncle in terms of seniority. Did you take his Han surname Pei?" Huaiyu asked.

Pei Shi nodded quickly in response.

At this time, the Queen of Shule next to him asked Wu Huaiyu directly, "Is Yehu Khan dead?"

Yehu Khan is Shaboluo Yehu Khan, who was also the former Nanting Jiwangjue Khan, Ashina Bobu.

The Queen of Shule was the daughter of Dilish Khan Tong Eshe. Bobu was Tong Eshe's nephew, and they were cousins.

The queen quarreled with Pei Shi all the way. She had thought that when she arrived in Suiye, she would return to her parents' home and go to her cousin Bobu Khan. She would never live with the Six-Fingered King.
However, as soon as he arrived in Suiye, he heard the shocking bad news that his cousin Bobu Khan had died.

Pei Shi apologized quietly and said that this was his queen, the cousin of Yehu Khan. When Dilishi Khan was in power, in order to strengthen control over the countries in the Western Regions, he married the girls of his own clan to the kings and princes of the various countries. At the same time, he also allowed the children of Ashina to marry the princesses of the various countries to strengthen the marriage alliance.

There were some benefits as well. He was defeated by the rebellion led by Tutun of Shiguo and Asijie and Yuguse, and could no longer stand in the north of Tianshan Mountains. He fled to his brother in Yanqi, and then with the support of the countries south of Tianshan Mountains, he was able to temporarily retain his position as Khan.

"My Queen, please accept my condolences!"

Wu Huaiyu did not have a good impression of the Queen of Shule who interrupted their conversation. This woman had a rebellious feeling. Perhaps it was because Shule was once controlled by the Western Turks, so this Turkish princess who married the king seemed a bit strong.

"Your Majesty, how many households and soldiers are there in Shule now?"

Shule is 9,300 li away from Chang'an, which is only 200 li away from Suiye from the north. To its west is the Pamir Mountains, to its east is 1,500 li away from Qiuci, to its west is 1,000 li away from Balkhana in Hezhong, and to its north is 800 to 900 li away from Zhujubo, which is on the road to Kangju and Dayuan.

Shule is located in a very important position. It is the most important town in Shannan and the throat of its southwest gateway. In Wu Huaiyu's plan, Tokharistan is an outer buffer zone, and Hezhong is also an outer circle.
As for the areas north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, they must be under actual control, especially the southern part of the mountain. Therefore, Shule is the top priority of Shannan in the future. It is necessary to establish the Shule military town and develop immigrants to guard the border in the future.

When Shule was at its peak, it had tens of thousands of households.

However, by now, Shule has become weak and is not as powerful as Qiuci in Shannan, let alone compared with Western Turks.

"To reply to Wu Pingzhang, there are 1,510 households in Shule, 18,600 people, and 2,000 soldiers." Pei Shi replied.

This population number is obviously inflated, just like the number of households in Gaochang at the time was only a few thousand.
However, soldiers, monks, slaves, retainers of nobles and powerful people, and some migrant workers were not registered as residents, so the actual population could have doubled or tripled.

But even if it doubles or triples, the population will only be 50,000 or 60,000, and its strength is not much stronger than Yanqi.

Of course, the nomadic tribes in Shule, especially those led by the Turkic Tutun, were certainly not included in their household registration, and there must have been several thousand or tens of thousands of them.

But no matter what, the current Shule Kingdom is indeed a small country with a small population.

The Anxi Army now has 48,000 soldiers, which exceeds the population of Shule State.

Shule had only two thousand soldiers, and this was the restriction the Western Turks had imposed on them since they conquered Shule.

Shule is actually the name of the capital. The real name of the country should be Sri Khilduodi, which can also be translated as Jiasha. The title of its king is Amozhi, and the Turkic Khan gave him the title of Jielifa.

Therefore, the King of Shule is generally called Amozhijielifa.

And now the King of Shule claimed to Wu Huaiyu that he was King Pei Shi, just short of saying that he was from the Jingzhao Pei family of the Tang Dynasty.

Pei Shi came to ask for forgiveness.

I also came to ask for surrender.

His trip to Chang'an was not forgiven by the emperor, so with the guidance of his great-uncle Pei Chuo, he came to Wu Huaiyu to apologize, hoping to gain forgiveness from the Anxi Protector-General.

"In fact, Your Majesty should stay in Chang'an and become a member of the Jingzhao Pei family. Your uncle has been in the Central Plains for more than 20 years and has been in the Tang Dynasty for 20 years. He is now over 70 years old, but he has long been happy and reluctant to leave. He is very happy to be the general and county lord of Huaihua."

Wu Huaiyu said with a smile.

Pei Shi was shocked. Although Chang'an was beautiful, it was not his hometown after all.

"Shule is a good place. When I was young, I read the story of Geng Gong, the commander of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty, who defended Shule City. It was very moving. The 20,000-strong Xiongnu army attacked Cheshi, and Geng Gong retreated to Shule City. The Xiongnu army besieged it.
They held out for several months until all the food in the city was gone. They boiled the armor and crossbows and ate their tendons and leather, but they still held out and refused to retreat.

By the time the Han reinforcements arrived, there were only 26 people left in the Geng tribe in Shule City, and only 13 of them made it to Yumen Pass.

"There was also Ban Chao who gave up writing and joined the army. He also held Shule and defeated the King of Qiuci established by the Xiongnu. He made more than 50 countries in the Western Regions return to the Han Dynasty. He stayed in the Western Regions for 31 years and returned to Luoyang at the age of 70." Speaking of these histories,

Pei Shi was of course also aware that although Shule had once been very powerful, it was ultimately just an oasis city-state. During the Han Dynasty, it was controlled alternately by the Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty. Later, when the Central Plains was in turmoil, Shule still paid tribute to the Central Plains and accepted the title during the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

But later Shule still could not escape being annexed by Qiuci, and its king was demoted to a noble. The King of Qiuci sent generals to guard Shule. The noble of Shule was actually a puppet, and this situation lasted for a hundred years.

It was not until later when Kucha was invaded by Tuyuhun that the Shule nobles found an opportunity to kill the Kucha guardian and restore their original status.

But unfortunately they were soon conquered by the White Huns.

After the Turks marched westward and expelled the Yanda people, Shule fell under the control of the Turks again.

During the Sui Dynasty, Shule, like other countries in the Western Regions, actively paid tribute to the Sui Dynasty, hoping to annex the dynasty and use the power of the Sui Dynasty to get rid of the slavery and control of the Turks. Unfortunately, the Sui Dynasty was short-lived, and Shule King Pei Chuo was stranded in the Central Plains.

The King of Shule moved closer to the Central Plains, mainly to make friends with distant countries and attack nearby ones, in order to maintain his independence.

After all, Shule was a vassal state of the Central Plains, which meant it was only paying symbolic tribute. The Central Plains dynasty was out of reach and would not actually interfere too much. But the Turks were different. Not only did they send Tutun to lead troops to station in for supervision, they also collected taxes and various levies. They were the supreme kings.

They even wanted to marry the Khan's princess to the king so that the royal family of Shule would have Turkic blood in the future in order to strengthen control.

Under the control of the Turks over the years,

The Shule State could only retain 2,000 soldiers, and even these 2,000 soldiers had to be under the control of Shule Tutun.

This Tutun had more power than the king in Shule State.

Not to mention the taxes and levies, which are extremely heavy.

Before, when Asijie wanted to rebel against the Tang Dynasty, the King of Shule was unwilling to follow him. However, Shule Tutun was Asijie Shijin's man, so he had no say in the matter.

Now that disaster has struck, he can only come and ask for forgiveness.

"Do you know what is under your feet?" Wu Huaiyu asked?

"This is the platform for selecting generals. I have already assembled 100,000 Han and Hu soldiers and will divide them into three groups to attack the three kingdoms of Shule, Kepantuo, and Zhujubo that have joined the rebellion of Asiqiya."

"Do you know who built this platform?"

"They are slaves captured by the Asiqie tribe."

Wu Huaiyu asked himself and answered, "The Asiji and the Nushipi tribes were once the strongest tribe in the west wing, with hundreds of thousands of tents and a force of 200,000.

But I spent only one winter and spring to send their Dashijin to Chang'an and wiped out all of their more than 100,000 tents. Now there is no more Asikyi tribe in the Western Regions.

Their young and strong men all became prisoners of war and slaves of the Anxi Army, responsible for building cities and forts, and constructing post houses and beacon towers. Their wives, children, and parents were also divided up by the various tribes in the Western Regions and became slaves of each tribe.

"This is the fate of those who repeatedly rebel against the Tang Dynasty. We will not tolerate it."

Pei Shi trembled.

Before he came, he really didn't know that Asijie had been exterminated. Although he knew that two Asijies were captured, he was still deeply shocked when compared with the extermination of two powerful tribes with more than 100,000 tents.

Wu Huaiyu stood on the stage, looking into the distance, his voice without any emotion, "If you don't come, I will lead my troops to Shule soon.
Since you are still quite obedient, I can give you two choices."

The King of Shule stood on the high platform. The spring breeze was very warm, but his forehead was covered with sweat. He lowered his waist a little, "Please give me some advice, Minister Wu."

"The first option is that you go to Chang'an. You can bring your six-fingered royal family with you to move to Chang'an. You can also bring your property and servants. I will also send soldiers to escort you all the way. When you arrive in Chang'an, you will be like Pei Chuo. At least you will have a title of duke and will not lose your wealth."

The King of Shule did not respond. This was not the result he wanted.

Wu Huaiyu added, "For the second option, you can continue to be the King of Shule."

Pei Shi looked at Wu Huaiyu nervously, he knew it wouldn't be that simple.

really,

The second condition Wu Huaiyu proposed was that Pei Shi continued to be the king, but the Tang Dynasty established the Shule Governor's Office in the Shule Kingdom. However, he was not allowed to be the governor, but was appointed by an official sent by the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, the Anxi Army also had to establish the Shule Military Town in the Shule Kingdom and build the Shule Army.

The Shule Military Governor's Office was in charge of administration, finance, taxation, justice, and farming, while the Shule Military Town was in charge of military affairs.
In other words, although the King of Shule still exists, he is just a puppet, just like when Kucha annexed Shule and made the King of Shule a nobleman, which is more thorough than the control of Shule by the Turks.

Although Wu Huaiyu did not say to directly change it into a Zhengzhou of the imperial court like Gaochang did, and set up prefectures and counties, it was just a difference in name.

Pei Shi was silent and distraught.

He found it difficult to agree to both conditions.

"Of course, you don't have to agree. My Anxi Army will take what they want. Then you won't have the final say, and you won't be treated so well."

(End of this chapter)