A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 1207: Be careful when sailing the ship of ten thousand years

Big Rock,
Living in Dashicheng on Yanzi Mountain, it is still a bit cool in the morning and evening, but it is hot during the day.

The wheat on the plains along the Hulu River at the foot of the mountain is about to mature. The vast sea of ​​wheat sways in the wind, and as the mountains rise and fall, the gradually yellowing wheat makes people feel the joy of the upcoming harvest.

The riverbank and hillsides are covered with lush green grass and colorful wild flowers.

All the troops have been disbanded and returned.
Wu Huaiyu stayed in Dashi City with a thousand soldiers waiting for Lu Chengqing. He gave the soldiers a short vacation and took turns to rest for ten days.

The guards took off their armor and put on light summer clothes. They could relax in Dashicheng, a city on the Silk Road of Atakado, drink some wine, watch the dancing of the Hu girls from the Shiguo Kingdom, listen to the music played by the Qiuci musicians, or watch the gladiatorial fights of the Tocharians.
Buy some unique gadgets at the market and bring them back home for your wife and children.

You can also go out of the city to hunt in the valley plains below the mountain.
Wu Huaiyu also gave himself a vacation.
He went hunting and sightseeing during the day, and returned to the city at night to enjoy the rare leisure time and write letters to his wife and children in the Central Plains.

He has also been writing a book in his free time recently.

The tentative title of the book is "Journey to the West". It is not the Journey to the West where Monkey King and Monk Tang sought Buddhist scriptures, but the historical Records of the Western Regions narrated by Monk Tang and written by Bian Ji.

Historically, Xuanzang sneaked out of the country at the beginning of the Zhenguan period, went to the Western Regions to seek Buddhist scriptures, traveled around the countries, and finally returned to Chang'an in the east. In addition to bringing back many Buddhist scriptures and translating them in Chang'an, he later orally narrated his experiences in the Western Regions and asked his disciple Bian Ji to record them in a book.

But in this time and space, Sanzang's life trajectory was completely changed due to the actions of Wu Huaiyu and Li Shimin to suppress Buddhism and Taoism and purge illegalities at the beginning of Zhenguan period.

Although he successfully obtained a monk's certificate, due to the strict management of the court, he became a monk in a temple in Luoyang and did not go to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

He did not become famous for helping Xuanzang translate Buddhist scriptures and writing the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, which led to him being favored by Princess Gaoyang and having an affair with her, and there would have been no Golden Pillow Case.

It is highly likely that there will no longer be another version of the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions written by the Tang Monk Bian Ji.

Wu Huaiyu felt that this was a bit of a pity. This book was still very good. He had been in the Western Regions for more than a year and had visited many places. He was very fond of the beautiful scenery of the Western Regions. The customs and cultures of each country were also very interesting.

He often mentioned it when writing letters to his wife and children, and even to the emperor, the crown prince, and Wu Mei.

Now that he has time, he plans to compile these into separate books, which he can then share not only with his wives, concubines, and children, but also with the emperor and the princes. Of course, they can also be used as historical and cultural books to help people in the Central Plains of the Tang Dynasty understand the Western Regions.

Because I write about my own personal experiences, I write with a sense of inspiration.

I have already written a lot of things in my letters to my family. I am just re-arranging them now. The weather is cool in the mountains.

When you get tired of writing, you can open the window and look at the snow-capped mountains in the west.

Or you can simply go out to the market, have a drink in a bar, or order a pot of tea in a teahouse run by a Han merchant.

Listen to the songs and watch the dances,

It’s actually quite nice to feel the strong exotic atmosphere and the flavor of everyday life.

Occasionally, I go out of town to hunt and ride horses on the pasture.
Days like this are truly a time to enjoy your holidays.

As the manuscript of Journey to the West grew, it was completely different from Tang Monk's Records of the Western Regions. Tang Monk's Records of the Western Regions was concise and recorded what he saw and heard during his travels in the Western Regions, summarizing the geographical situation, climate, customs, religion, etc. of various countries.
It is more like a local record, except that it includes more than two hundred countries and city-states.

The information is still very detailed, and it is quite good as a popular science book.

Wu Huaiyu's Journey to the West has a completely different style.

It is not just a local chronicle of the Western Regions, but it starts from when he was ordered to go west, describing the expeditionary march, what he saw and heard on the way, the thousands-mile raid, the surprise attack on the Khan's court, and the clever capture of the Khan...
This should be called the Records of the Western Expedition.

In particular, he was not as concise as Tang Seng, who could write about a country or city-state in just 100 or 200 words. Wu Huaiyu connected various places through the Western Expedition.
The main plot is the Western Expedition, and the novel's techniques are used, with deliberately created ups and downs in the plot. More words are also used to describe the customs and natural scenery of the Western Regions.

This book can even be seen as Wu Huaiyu's autobiography of the Western Expedition. The book also contains many detailed character portrayals of the Western Expedition soldiers, the Khans, Jijins, and kings of the Western Regions.

Although his Journey to the West is only a partial draft,
But after reading it, the guards such as Lian Xiong, Kuo Hai and Luo Cheng liked it very much and felt as if they had experienced the wonderful Western Expedition again.

Wu Huaiyu did his best to describe the Western Regions in his book.

There is a purpose for writing in this way, which is to prevent the people of the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains from regarding the Western Regions as a distant, remote and desolate frontier. They should not think of endless miles of yellow sand, boundless Gobi deserts, glaciers and snow-capped mountains, or deserted uninhabited areas when they mention the Western Regions.

We need to let everyone know through Journey to the West that there are three states in Yixiting, east of Tianshan Mountain, where there are oases and fragrant fruits.
In the Yili and Suiye River valleys, there are thousands of miles of fertile river valley grasslands, which are suitable for farming and grazing, and are like the Jiangnan region in the Great Wall.

The various governorates in the south of the country were oasis cities with prosperous Silk Road trade, etc.
We need to change everyone's stereotypes about the Western Regions.

Especially to make everyone accept and even yearn for the Western Regions,

Only in this way could the foundation be laid for the imperial court to mobilize large numbers of people from the interior to migrate to the Western Regions and enrich the frontiers in the future.

The Tang Dynasty could not rule the Western Regions for long with only the Anxi Army.
The military went first, and the Anxi Army was stationed there.

But in order to truly incorporate the Western Regions into the Han Empire, there must be enough Han people from the Central Plains migrating westward.

However, these cannot be achieved by administrative orders from the court alone; it is necessary to attract the people to go there voluntarily.

A rich, beautiful and vast Western Region will surely attract many people from the mainland.

The weather is fine,

The wind was gentle. The Anxi soldiers on leave even organized a polo match.

"As for the Dragon Boat Festival, according to the customs in our Central Plains, we have to eat rice dumplings, race dragon boats and drink realgar wine. We don't have the conditions for this in the Western Regions, so let's just have a polo match," Xiong Kuohai said to Wu Huaiyu with a smile. Although this kid followed them across the Boda Ridge, he didn't have the chance to fight in the battlefield and kill the enemy and make merit. As a result, Shule surrendered, Kucha obeyed, and Kepantuo and Zhujubo were destroyed by the coalition forces of Tocharistan and Khorasan.

But even if there is no credit, there is still hard work.
Wu Huaiyu never treated his brothers unfairly, so he also asked for merits and honors for the soldiers of the Anxi Army who went on this expedition.
The reasons were sufficient. He destroyed two countries, subdued two countries, established nine new states, and built two military towns. Isn't this a great achievement? No matter whether it was the Tocharian army or the Transoxiana Sogdian army, they were all vassal armies of the Anxi army this time.
The credit goes to the Anxi Army.

Of course, Wu Huaiyu would not be short of their share either.

Xiong Kuohai was awarded the second rank of honors, and with the first rank of honors he had previously received, he now had the third rank of honors.
A flying cavalry captain of the sixth rank.

As for the military officer, he was also promoted to the brigade commander of the guards, starting from the eighth rank.

The orphans of the Wu family from the Liyuan who followed him on the Western Expedition were all rewarded and promoted.

"We have also sent invitations to the local chamber of commerce and tribes. They have also organized several polo teams to play polo with us during the Dragon Boat Festival."

"The various guilds in Dashi City have also contributed some money as bonuses."

Dashicheng is at the foot of a mountain, where the Hulu River flows. However, the river is relatively shallow, and the people here do not have the traditional custom of dragon boat racing, so the guards did not bother to organize dragon boat races.

Playing polo, horse racing, sheep trolling, wrestling, and archery are also very interesting and more in line with local traditions.

"It is also necessary to establish good relations with the local Chamber of Commerce and the people. We must also offer generous prizes."

Wu Huaiyu has always been strict in managing his army.
The Anxi soldiers were stationed in Dashi City. They had strict military discipline and never harmed the civilians. They had a good relationship with the local people.

To maintain long-term rule, high pressure alone is not enough.

We must integrate and unite the majority.

"Why hasn't Minister Lu arrived yet? I heard that he set out from Chang'an after the first month of the lunar year. He's traveling too slowly, and it's almost the Dragon Boat Festival." Xiong Kuohai said.

"Lord Fanyang was sick at the Yinshan Mountain in Yanqi, and spent a lot of time recuperating in the posthouse. Otherwise, he would have arrived long ago." Wu Huaiyu explained. It really took a long time for Lu Chengqing to travel thousands of miles.

But it's not all bad.

He knew the purpose of Lu Chengqing's visit. If he had come earlier, Wu Huaiyu would not have sent troops to resolve the issues with the southern countries. If Lu Chengqing asked him to stop military operations and appease the countries, or even the Asijie tribe, it would have put Wu Huaiyu in a difficult position.

His delay

Wu Huaiyu solved all of them, including the two tribes of Asiqie, the three kingdoms of southern China, and even half of Qiuci was solved.

Now that he comes again, it is just right to tie things up.

"Prime Minister,"

Luo Cheng, who had just been promoted to the commander of the Anxi Yabing Brigade, hurried over. He was on duty these days, responsible for guarding the city gate and checking the people and goods entering and leaving.

"We noticed something was not right,"

Luo Cheng was a little anxious and nervous.

"Oh, what's wrong?"

"There have been a lot of caravans coming from the direction of Qiuci these past two days, and there are a lot of people in the caravans, especially with a lot of guards, but when we checked their goods, we found that they didn't carry much goods, which is very abnormal."

"And after they entered the city, none of them left."

Xiong Kuohai was standing nearby and was a little surprised when he heard it. "It's a little abnormal. Have you asked them where they are going?"

"They all say we have to go through Suiye and Qianquan to Hezhong. But their goods are not normal at all. Besides, there are too many people and guards in these merchant groups, and they all carry a lot of weapons."

"After entering the city, I didn't see them making purchases or trading in the city, but they didn't leave either."

After hearing this, Wu Huaiyu also became alert.

Although it is normal for a caravan to bring guards, and even normal to pass through Dashi City for some time to rest, now that all the doubts mentioned by Luo Cheng are added together, it becomes abnormal.

Wu Huaiyu pondered for a moment.
"Luo Cheng, take some people to secretly monitor these people and find out where they live, who they contact, etc."

"Xiong Kuohai, go inform the captains and have them secretly strengthen the defense of the three gates of Dashi City."

"Cancel all leave, and all soldiers return to Dashicheng as soon as possible."

“Also, don’t make it public, proceed quietly. If something really happens, don’t alert the enemy,” Wu Huaiyu was very calm. Although there were just some abnormalities now, it is better to be safe than sorry. They only have a thousand soldiers around them now, and if something really happens, it will be very dangerous.

Guan Yu lost Jingzhou because of his carelessness.

When Wu Huaiyu came to the Western Regions, he often used surprise attack and decapitation tactics, so he was particularly wary of this tactic.

(End of this chapter)