The great man will live forever

Chapter 291 The Glory of the Eastern Han Dynasty (A group of people who overcame the Western Regions)

The Eastern Han Dynasty was no worse than the Western Han Dynasty. He traveled across the Western Regions for 30 years, covering the sky with one hand; he stabilized the Yellow River for thousands of years, and his kindness was infinite; the bloody battle with the Xiongnu in Shule City was a song that inspired songs; Yanran Mountain carved stones to record his achievements, and his heroic spirit was in the sky...

These are all inspiring and evocative figures and events in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Therefore, the highlights of the Eastern Han Dynasty are not only the great dramas like Guangwu Center and the magnificent and chaotic times of the late Han Dynasty with numerous heroes.

After all, the Eastern Han Empire, which lasted for 195 years, would still have more than 130 years even if it were cut off from beginning to end.

So to understand the Eastern Han Dynasty, let’s start with the heroes, and this time the main battlefield takes us to the Western Regions, a place that China cannot avoid.

The Western Region is not a barren and useless corner, its value is far beyond people's imagination.

For more than two thousand years, the Western Regions have played an important role in Chinese history, not only as the patron saint of the Han people in the Central Plains, but also as the starting point for the spread of farming civilization.

Its unique geographical location makes this area a strategic location, a gathering of diverse cultures. It has experienced the rule of Han, Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic and other regimes, forming a unique mixed state.

It effectively protects the Hexi Corridor, a narrow corridor bounded by the Tibetan Plateau to the south and the Kunlun Mountains to the north, which plays a key role in economic strategy.

The climate here is mild and the rainfall is abundant. It has been a large granary since ancient times. Its geographical location not only created developed agriculture, but also cultivated the fierceness of the nomadic people, contributing to the formation of powerful families in the Hexi region.

The countries in the Western Regions were controlled by the Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who created the Silk Road. They broke away from the Han Dynasty during the New Dynasty, but were again controlled by the Xiongnu. There was no doubt that they grabbed their necks and sucked their blood crazily.

Looking back on the Han Dynasty, not only did they not suck blood, but they also provided blood transfusions to the Western Regions, creating the Silk Road. They were equal exchanges, so the common people in the Western Regions were very thoughtful.

In fact, when Liu Xiu was fighting in the north and south, he had already received a request from the Western Regions, asking the big man to send a powerful person over to control the situation. Those bastards of the Huns were so fucking bullying, they just robbed them. , not civilized at all.

Of course Liu Xiu couldn't care less. He was busy suppressing domestic rebellions, stabilizing people's hearts, formulating policies, weakening the power of his relatives, gathering military power, and consolidating the land...

Therefore, busy man Liu Xiu's solution was to let a country called "Yarkand" be the leader of the Western Regions.

In the fifth year of Jianwu (29th year), Dou Rong, the general of Hexi Province, followed the usual practice and appointed King Huaide of Hansha Che as the meritorious king and the captain of the Western Regions, and asked King Shache to manage the fifty-five countries of the Western Regions on his behalf.

In the ninth year of Jianwu (33 years), King Kang of Yarkand passed away. Emperor Guangwu posthumously named Kang as King Xuancheng, and established Kang's younger brother Xian as King of Yarkand.

Later, Xian conquered the Kumi and Xiye kingdoms, killed the kings of Kumi and Xiye, and appointed his brother Kang's two sons as kings of Kumi and Xiye without the consent of the court.

This is the expansion behavior of the Yarkand Kingdom. Since the forces of the Eastern Han Dynasty have not yet entered the Western Regions, they have acquiesced in the expansion behavior of the Yarkand Kingdom...

After that, the wise king of Yarkand became more and more arrogant, demanding that all ethnic groups in the northwest frontier pay taxes to Yarkand, and also attacked the Qiuci kingdoms many times, which caused instability in the northwest frontier and also damaged the political image of the court. .

Yarkand used the background of the Han Dynasty to annex, and then imitated the Xiongnu and carried out crazy blood-sucking of these countries.

The poor countries in the Western Regions had no choice but to ask the Han Dynasty for help.

In the 45st year of Jianwu (th year), sixteen countries including Shanshan and Cheshi in the Western Regions "all sent their sons to serve as servants, and they were willing to ask for their protection."

Liu Xiu said that "China was initially settled, and foreign affairs were not neglected. Instead, he returned the favor to his servants and generously rewarded them."

Liu Xiu refused, he couldn't control it, he couldn't get out, and the country's conditions did not allow it.

Therefore, the countries in the Western Regions who could not tolerate Yarkand had no choice but to seek refuge with the Huns. As soon as they drove away the tigers, the wolves came, and they had no choice but to seek refuge with tigers again. Anyway, they had to hug their thighs, so why not hug a thicker one? I want to hug the big man’s dragon claws, but they won’t let me!

From then on, no matter what happened in the Western Regions, it had nothing to do with the Han Dynasty, and it didn't matter if they all surrendered to the Xiongnu.

Until AD 72, under the management of Han Ming Emperor Liu Zhuang, the Han Dynasty became strong and powerful. He decided to take action. What to do? Defeat the Huns in the north and recover the Western Regions!

Liu Zhuang sent Dou Gu, the captain of the carriage, and Geng Bing, the captain of the consort, to station their troops in Liangzhou to prepare for the management of the northwest.

Previously, around 60 BC, the Huns' Xu Lu Quan Qu Chanyu died, which caused internal divisions. Five Chanyus fought over each other successively, and melees continued.

In the end, it developed into mutual attacks between Huhanxie Chanyu and Zhizhi Chanyu.

Around 53 BC, Huhanxie Chanyu attached himself to the Han Dynasty and became the Southern Xiongnu. Under the leadership of Zhizhi Shanyu, the Northern Xiongnu defeated Dawan, Wusun and other countries, forced all ethnic groups to pay tribute, shocked the Western Regions, and once led the short-term revival of the Xiongnu.

The Southern Xiongnu surrendered to the Han Dynasty. Although they became their younger brothers, at least they had no worries about food and drink.

Of course, the Northern Huns were greedy. Not only was the weather in Mobei extremely cold, but there were also various famines and plagues. People, horses and livestock were dying one by one, and there was a serious shortage of supplies.

So the Northern Huns sent envoys to the Han Dynasty to ask for peace. In fact, they just wanted money, food and materials. The Han Dynasty's answer was to go aside, I can't even eat enough, and I have to feed the wolves? Do you think I'm a big guy who's easy to bully, or am I a fool?

The Northern Huns were rejected and gritted their teeth. In order to break this situation, they pulled their younger brothers from the Western Regions and began to continuously attack the Han Dynasty, so Liu Zhuang decided to fight back.

In the spring of the 73th year of Yongping ( years), Liu Zhuang ordered Dou Gu, Geng Bing and others to attack the Northern Huns in four directions.

However, after four groups of troops were defeated, only Dou Gu's group gained more than 1000 men.

Dou Gu led his army out of Jiuquan and defeated King Huyan of the Huns in the Tianshan Mountains. He left troops to garrison Yiwulu City (now in the west of Hami, Xinjiang).

During this battle, Dou Gu found that one of his lieutenants was brave and invincible, so Dou Gu sent him as an envoy to the Western Regions.

So this young man took 36 brothers and began his legendary road to becoming a god.

This young man is Ban Chao, Ban Gu’s talented younger brother!

Ban Chao was a man of great ambitions. He had set his ambition to be a marquis of thousands of miles since he was a child. He did not pay attention to details, but he was filial and respectful in his heart and scrutinized the affairs.

He was eloquent and well-read, unwilling to copy documents for the government, and joined the army with his pen. He followed Dou Gu to attack the Northern Huns. He was the same model as Xin Qiji in later generations.

Since the huge Taklimakan Desert divided the Western Region into north and south, Banchao gave priority to the southern route farther away from the northern Huns.

This was a very smart choice, his first stop was Shanshan Kingdom.

I heard that the Han Dynasty envoy came to visit. King Shanshan took it very seriously and treated him with the highest standards. After all, he had been sucked blood back and forth. The Han Dynasty father was much stronger than these vampires.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before the specifications were lowered and attitudes changed.

Ban Zhao felt something was wrong. Unsurprisingly, the envoy from the Northern Huns must have arrived. Most people or countries weigh the pros and cons, bullying the weak and fearing the strong. This is human nature!

At this time, King Shanshan should be struggling with who to hang out with. In his heart, he wanted to hang out with the Han Dynasty, but if the Han Dynasty withdrew and angered the Huns, wouldn't he be waiting for the destruction of the country?

So Ban Chao immediately called Shanshan's servants in and asked, "How many days have the Xiongnu been here? Where are they staying?"

The servant was confused. How did he know that the Huns were coming? He quickly replied truthfully: "Sir, I have been here for three days and live 30 miles away."

"I know, someone's here to kidnap me!"

"My lord, woohoo!"

The servant was tied up after saying this.

Ban Zhao called 36 brothers together and started drinking. When he was drunk, he said: "Brothers, we are in great danger now. If King Shanshan kidnaps us and hands us over to the Huns, we will probably die without a burial place." "

"Sir, just tell me what to do!"

"Clap!"

"We will follow you to the death!"

These people were so heroic that some even dropped their bowls. Their eyes were firm and they immediately said that they would follow Ban Chao to the death.

If a person dies, a bird will look up to the sky, and he will not die for tens of thousands of years!

Ban Chao laughed loudly, "Okay, you are enough. We will live and die together in this life. If we don't enter the tiger's den, we won't catch the tiger's cubs. We will kill the Northern Huns tonight."

"Okay, let's live and die together!"

As night fell, the squad leader took action. He first asked ten people to ambush the camp with war drums, and then ordered: "When you see a fire, knock as hard as you can, and shout as hard as you can."

"promise!"

Then let the remaining troops ambush near the camp gate.

Ban Chao rushed in and took advantage of the strong wind to start lighting a fire. "It's gone."

"Someone, put out the fire!"

In the strong wind, the fire spread rapidly, getting bigger and bigger, and the Huns were in chaos.

All of a sudden, "Boom, boom, boom!"

"Kill!"

"Come on!"

The war drums thundered and the shouts were deafening. The sleeping Northern Huns were like being struck by lightning, running wildly in a trapped state.

"The enemy is coming."

"Run!"

"what!"

"Help!"

"Pfft!"

As a result, one was cut down when he went out, two were cut down when he went out, a total of more than 30 people were cut down, and the remaining more than 100 people were all burned to death.

After Ban Chao returned with a bunch of heads, he called King Shanshan over.

"These are the heads of the Huns' envoys. Count them yourself. One is a lot. Why do you still want to surrender to them?"

With a "plop", King Shanshan knelt on the ground, "Shanshan will always surrender to the Han and will never betray!"

King Shanshan's face turned pale, and he swore so firmly that he almost dug out his heart and soul and showed it to Ban Gu.

After completing his mission, Ban Chao led his troops back to the division and reported the situation to Dou Gu.

Dou Gu was very happy. He was really discerning. He reported to the Ming Dynasty the experience and achievements of the Ming Dynasty's envoys, and asked Emperor Ming to select another envoy to go to the Western Regions.

Emperor Ming Liu Zhuang admired Ban Chao's brave strategy and thought he was a rare talent, so he issued an edict to Dou Gu: "Why don't you send an envoy like Ban Chao instead of choosing someone else? You can promote Ban Chao to serve as an envoy." Army Sima, let him continue to complete his mission."

Dou Gu thought that Ban Chao had too few people and wanted to allocate more people to him.

But Ban Chao refused. He said: "I only need to lead the more than 30 people who followed me. If an accident occurs, more people will become more burdensome."

Boy, this is so awesome!

So Banchao started his second stop, Khotan (now Hotan, Xinjiang).

At that time, King Guangde of Khotan had just conquered the Kingdom of Yarkand (today's Yarkand, Xinjiang) and was ruling the South Road of the Tianshan Mountains. The Northern Huns sent envoys to Khotan, claiming to be guardians of it to the outside world, but in fact they held the power of Khotan, so this was a An extremely difficult bone to crack.

As expected, Ban Chao's arrival was not welcomed at all. The wizard in Khotan was even more provocative, saying that the arrival of the Han envoy had angered the gods, and his horse had to be brought over to be sacrificed.

The King of Khotan believed in witchcraft, so he asked Ban Chao to ask for a horse.

Ban Chao said there was no problem, but he had to trouble the wizard brother to come and get it in person. After receiving the news, the wizard immediately ran to fetch the horse with steps that he would never recognize, only to hear a 'whoosh' sound, and his head fell off.

After beheading the wizard, Ban Chao whipped the prime minister of Khotan with a whip, and then asked him to carry the head back to report, explaining the benefits and harms, and censuring him morally.

The King of Khotan was so frightened that he immediately killed the envoys of the Northern Huns and surrendered to the Han Dynasty. The surrounding countries also surrendered and obediently sent the prince to Luoyang as a hostage.

"So all the countries sent their sons to serve as servants. The Western Regions were separated from the Han Dynasty for sixty-five years, and finally the connection was restored."

At this point, there is only one player left in the South Road of the Western Regions, Shule Kingdom (Kashgar) at the intersection of the North and South Roads.

The difficulty with Shule was that their king Dooti was from Kucha, and Kucha was a die-hard brother of the Northern Huns. With his elder brother behind him, he captured Shule and killed his king.

Ban Chao knew this information very well.

In the spring of the seventeenth year of Yongping (74 years), Ban Chao led his men to the Shule Kingdom from the trail.

Ban Chao went to a place ninety miles away from Jialu City where Dooti lived, and sent his subordinate Tian Liu to recruit Dooti.

Ban Chao instructed: "Touti is not from Shule, and the people of Shule will definitely not serve him loyally. If he refuses to surrender, he will be detained."

Ban Chao's subordinate Tian Liu came to see Dooti alone. Dooti saw that Tian Liu was alone and had no intention of surrendering.

Tian Liu took advantage of his unpreparedness and rushed up to kidnap him. In this emergency, Dooti's men ran away in fear.

Tian Lu galloped on his horse and returned to Ban Chao.

Banchao immediately came to Jialu City, gathered all the civil and military officials of Shule, told them about all the unreasonable behaviors of Kucha, and announced that Zhong, the nephew of the originally killed Shule king, would be appointed king. very happy.

The new king and a group of officials wanted to kill Douti, but Banchao considered the overall situation and said: "Killing him will not be conducive to the great cause. Kucha should let Qiuci know the kindness and power of the Han." He persuaded everyone to release Douti, and Shule was also pacified.

At this point, the entire southern part of the Western Region was restored to the Han Dynasty.

In order to cooperate with Ban Chao, in November of the 74th year of Yongping ( years), Emperor Ming sent Dou Gu, Geng Bing, and Liu Zhang to lead an army out of Kuncang Fortress in Dunhuang County to attack the Western Regions.

Geng Bing and Liu Zhang were ordered to hand over the troop deployment talisman and return it to Dou Gu.

At this time, the Han army assembled a force of 14,000 men, defeated the Northern Xiongnu army in Baishan at the Pulei Sea, and then advanced to attack Che Division.

The former king of Cheshi was the son of the queen of Cheshi. The two royal courts were more than five hundred miles apart.

Dou Gu believed that the Han army was far away from the rear king and the valley was deep and dangerous, and the soldiers would be tortured by the cold, so he planned to attack the former king first.

But Geng Bing believed that he should attack the queen first and concentrate his efforts to get rid of the old man. Then the former king would surrender without a fight.

Before Dou Gu could think through his decision, Geng Bing stood up and said: "Please let me be the vanguard!"

So he mounted his war horse and led his troops to advance north. The other troops marched together as a last resort and killed thousands of the enemy.

Wang Ande, the driver behind the chariot, was shocked and panicked. He went outside the city gate to greet Geng Bing, took off his crown, hugged the horse's feet and surrendered.

Geng Bing took him to see Dou Gu. The former King of Chariots also surrendered. The chariot divisions were all pacified, and the army returned to their divisions.

Dou Gu and Geng Bing captured Cha Shi, and the Northern Huns were completely isolated from the Western Regions.

Dou Gu then wrote a letter proposing to re-establish the Western Region Protector and Wuji Xiaowei.

Emperor Ming appointed Chen Mu as the Protector of the Western Regions, and also appointed Geng Gong and Guan Chong as captains of Wuji School. Each commanded several hundred people, and they were divided into Jinpucheng, the rear division, and Liuzhong City, the former king's division.

Geng Gong, courtesy name Bozong, was born in Maoling County, Fufeng County (now Xingping City, Shaanxi Province). The grandson of Geng Kuang, the governor of Shanggu, the nephew of Jianwei General Geng Yan, and the son of Zhonglang General Geng Guang.

This is another extremely awesome person, and he has not disgraced his uncle Geng Yan at all!

But hundreds of people were just decorations. If the army withdrew, it would be easily eaten by the Northern Huns. Therefore, as soon as the army returned to the court, the Northern Huns dispatched 2 cavalry to attack the chariot division.

Geng Gong received the news and immediately sent 300 troops to support.

300 versus 2, this is like a moth flying into a flame, an egg hitting a rock. The result is self-evident, the team is wiped out in an instant.

With such a huge military gap and no reinforcements, even if Huo Qubing comes back to life, Liu Xiu is still alive, and the Overlord comes out, there is probably nothing we can do!

After the Northern Huns captured the chariot division, they immediately surrounded Jinpu City. What should Geng Gong do? There are only a few hundred of them in total!

(End of this chapter)