Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1101 One person is better than a hundred thousand soldiers

  Gaochang King Ju Wentai was indeed frightened to death.

  This King Gaochang, who took the lead in joining the Tang Dynasty in Zhenguan, later betrayed the Tang Dynasty because of his interests, and repeatedly jumped between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks. He thought he knew the Central Plains and had been to the Tang Dynasty several times.

  When Datang sent Hou Junji out of town Xizhou governor and Tianshan military envoy to warn Gaochang, he didn't know how to repent, but intensified.

  Xizhou is actually a state established by the imperial court based on the land of Gaochang after Gaochang came to vote. Because Gaochang itself still exists, this state is actually an enclave. In fact, it is a military fortress thirty miles away from Gaochang City. It was built on the land that the Silk Road must pass. Road, built on an oasis.

  The imperial court built the city here to garrison troops, exile criminals, immigrant settlements and so on.

Xizhou City developed very quickly, and Datang also developed rapidly in the Western Regions. The Western Turkic Nishi Khan kept his promise, and when Datang defeated Si Yehu and granted him the title of Great Khan, he kept the land south of Tianshan Mountain as promised. The suzerainty of the five countries was transferred to Datang.

The Tang Dynasty then set up five military towns in Yanqi, Shule, Khotan, Qiuci, and Gaochang, built soldiers and immigrants, established post roads, and beacon piers, and began to enter the Western Regions in all aspects, especially in the areas south of the Tianshan Mountains. Strengthened, the Western Turks withdrew from the south of the Tianshan Mountains, and the imperial court resettled some tribes of the Eastern Turks.

This change is huge. In the past hundred years, Western Turks have always been the masters of the Western Regions. Gaochang and other countries have also surrendered to Western Turks. Nobles stationed in various countries, collecting taxes and so on.

  Gao Chang and others actively joined the Tang Dynasty, mainly because they wanted to use the power of the Tang Dynasty to get rid of the oppressive control of Gao Chang and others. Ju Wentai had a good idea at the beginning, driving away the tigers and wolves, and after driving away the Turks, he regained his freedom.

   Unexpectedly, after the Turkic wolf was driven away, the Datang tiger would really stay behind.

  Seeing that the Tang Dynasty stationed troops in the Western Regions, set up governor’s mansions, prefectures and counties, and built post stations and beacon piers, King Gaochang was also very frightened. They were only so small, and they were afraid of being annexed.

Although Gaochang, a small country in the Western Regions, was a military barrier established in the former Cheshi Kingdom in the Western Han Dynasty when it was managed in the Western Regions, the descendants of garrisoned immigrants, later the Central Plains was in turmoil, and the Gaochang people established the Gaochang Kingdom by themselves. It belongs to the Central Plains.

Later, Xiliang was destroyed by Beiliang. Li Bao, a descendant of the Xiliang royal family, the ancestor of the Li family in the Tang Dynasty and his uncle Xidu Liusha, occupied Yiwu Jianlongxing Year and established Yiwu Xiliang, also known as Houxi Liang, later Xiliang occupied Yiwu, imprisoned Gaochang, confronted the emerging Northern Liang, and surrendered to Rouran.

   Later the Northern Wei Dynasty destroyed Beiliang, and Beiliang also wanted to imitate Xiliang and move westward. Of course, Xiliang refused after that. When Beiliang came, where should I stay? So Hou Xiliang contacted the Northern Wei Dynasty, and then divided up the troops to intercept.

  Beiliang also took refuge in Rouran at this time, and secretly cooperated with Kan Shuang, governor of Gaochang County, to deal with Hou Xiliang.

After a great battle, Tang Qi, the uncle of King Xiliang, Yiwu King, died in battle. Tang Qi was the actual controller of Xiliang at that time. After his death, his younger brother Tang He led the army to continue to attack the remnants of Northern Liang and formally surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty. .

  After being defeated by Tang He, Juqu Anzhou, the remnant force in Northern Liang, led troops to attack Gaochang at night. Because during the war, it was originally agreed to fight Tang Qi with Gaochang, but Kan Shuang broke his promise and refused to send troops, which led to Beiliang's defeat.

  Juqu Anzhou attacked Gaochang, and Kan Shuang had to flee to Rouran. However, Juqu Anzhou sent envoys to Jiantang to proclaim their vassals to the Southern Dynasty, in order to fight against Houliang and the Northern Wei Dynasty.

More than ten years later, Luo Khan in Rouran decided to help the Kan family take back Gaochang, so he sent a large army south to attack Beiliang, killed Juqu Anzhou, and let the Kan family return to Gaochang. At this time, Kan Shuang was dead, so Rouran made Kan Bozhou king of Gaochang.

  Kan Shuangshi only served as the prefect himself. In Kanbo Zhou, the Kan family officially established the Gaochang Kingdom. From then on, the Kan family took Rouran as its protectorate and completely severed official relations with the Central Plains.

  The Kan family passed on to the third generation under the protection of Rouran for thirty-one years.

  Later, Kan Shougui, king of Gaochang, was killed by Kezhiluo, king of Gaoche, Kan's Gaochang was destroyed, and the people of Gaochang embraced Zhang Mengming as king. But Zhang Mengming only served as Gaochang king for eight years, and was killed by the people of the country again, and Ma Ru was supported as Gaochang king.

After Ma Ru became the queen of Gaochang, he sent people to pay tribute to the Northern Wei Dynasty, requesting that the whole country of Gaochang be moved to the interior, so as to get rid of the shackles and control of Ruanguo. .

  Ke Ma Ru's plan to move eastward was opposed by the Ju family and the Gong family in Gaochang. They colluded to kill Ma Ru and made the right chief Shi Ju Jia king.

  Ma Ru also served as King Gaochang for five years.

  Gaochang has been controlled by the Ju family since then, and it has been passed down for more than a hundred years.

As the queen, the Ju family started the strategy of swinging on the wall. Between the Central Plains and Ruanyuan, there is a gap between the left and right. No one can offend. While vigorously developing trade and agricultural handicrafts, the economy developed rapidly. At that time, the Central Plains were frequently warred and many Han people took refuge The Western Regions flowed into Gaochang, and the arrival of the Sogdian Hu on the Silk Road greatly increased Gaochang's national power.

Later Turks destroyed Rouran, Midianshi went west, and Gaochang surrendered to Turks. When the Sui Dynasty ruled the world, they traded with the Western Regions in Zhangye, then marched into Yiwu, destroyed Yiwu Country, and established Yiwu County. Take the initiative to pay tribute to the Sui Dynasty and proclaim yourself a minister, and come and take the initiative to go to the Central Plains to worship.

  Yang Guang then bestowed Princess Huarong on the king of Gaochang who came to the court, and appointed a captain of Xirong in Gaochang to manage the affairs of the Western Regions.

  The relationship between the two sides was close. Later, the Sui Dynasty conquered Gaoju together, and King Gaochang personally took Gaochang soldiers to Liaodong to assist in the conquest.

  When Gaochang was in the Sui Dynasty, they were able to get rid of the Turks and no longer be so oppressed by the momentum of the emerging Central Plains Great Sui Dynasty.

   It was only later that Sui II died, and Gaochang was once again controlled by the Turks.

  Until the rise of the Tang Dynasty, Gaochang wanted to take advantage of the same situation as he did with the League in the past. At the beginning, he entered the Central Plains as a tribute, took the initiative to surrender, etc., all of which had excellent results, and the Tang Dynasty was also very good to Gaochang.

However, as the Tang Dynasty successively conquered the Moheduo Khan and Siyehu Khan of the Western Turks, supported the Nishu Khan, and set up a Khan with Russia, the Tang Dynasty entered the Western Regions in an all-round way, built cities and emigrated, and established the Governor's Mansion Set up military towns in prefectures and counties, and even set up a Xizhou in Gaochang, and stationed the Tianshan Army.

  Datang gradually controlled the Silk Road.

   What's more terrible is that Datang later directly opened up a new road directly to Yanqi, which greatly reduced the traffic of Gaochang's Silk Road, which was simply digging Gaochang's lifeblood.

  The Xizhou established by Datang is not only a decoration, but it has slowly begun to expand over the years, encroaching on Gaochang's power little by little.

   Counting household registration fields, measuring fields, and even collecting taxes, although not much, but this is no longer just tribute, but tax collection, even more comprehensive and detailed than the Turks.

   Datang has begun to intervene in all aspects of military affairs, internal affairs and trade. Gaochang is becoming more and more restricted and is constantly losing its independence.

  The Tang Dynasty is getting stronger day by day in the Western Regions. Even the people of Gaochang are gradually listening to the words of the Xizhou Yamen. The authority of King Gaochang is getting lower and lower. How can King Gaochang not be surprised?

  They voted for Datang, just wanting to get rid of the control of the Turks in Tang Dynasty, but they never thought about really integrating into Datang.

  When it comes to personal interests, King Gaochang, the most loyal vassal king of the Han family in the Western Regions, turned the other way.

Although the strength of the Tang Dynasty is at the peak of the sky, and it also has good strength in the Western Regions, but for Gaochang King Ju Wentai, if Gaochang is no longer the kingdom of the Ju family, how can the Ju family continue? Extinguish the body and die, and if it continues like this, the result will be the same.

  Resisting is perishing, and not resisting is also perishing. It is better to give it a try, especially when Yugu imagined to be the Great Khan of the Western Turks and the Great Tang refused to agree, and he was also at odds with the Great Tang. The two hit it off and formed an alliance to fight against the Great Tang.

  Hou Junji went out of the town of Xizhou, with no more than a thousand soldiers and no more than one city.

  Although he warned King Gaochang forcefully, how could King Gaochang be afraid of you scaring him at this time?

   Immediately retaliated against Hou Junji, sent troops to blockade Xizhou, issued an order to evict guests, and asked Hou Junji to lead the Tang soldiers to evacuate within a time limit. Hou Junji had the responsibility of guarding the land, so of course he could not leave.

  So King Gaochang sealed off Xizhou, cut off water and food, and forbade caravans to wait for supplies. The Tianshan army in Hou Junji's hands was small, and he was really no match for Gaochang and Yugu.

   Can only wait for the imperial court to grant the army.

When Cheng Yaojin worshiped as the general manager of the Jiaohe Road Marching Army and assembled troops in Dunhuang, Gao Chang also made up his mind and issued a national mobilization order to recruit young and strong men from all over the country to join the army, preparing to fight against the Tang Dynasty, and spent a lot of money Recruited mercenaries, hired Sogdian mercenaries from the Zhaowu Nine Kingdoms, and hired Western Turkic tribes.

  Both sides rolled up their sleeves and wanted to fight hard. Anyway, there is no other way to solve this matter. Either Datang destroys Gaochang and truly becomes Xizhou, or Datang can’t eat Gaochang and is forced to withdraw its troops.

That is, when Qin Lang fought against the Tubo army in Hequ, Cheng Yaojin also completed the army assembly, gathering more than 20,000 Tang troops from Hexi, Longyou and the Western Regions, and also gathered Yanqi, Shule, Kuzi, Khotan, Yiwu and other places The soldiers from the Western Regions, as well as the Eastern and Western Turkic troops from the Western Regions, formed a mighty coalition army of 100,000 people, and fought all the way to Gaochang.

Gaochang State is small, but after more than 100 years of management by the Ju family, its strength is already very strong among the countries in the Western Regions. At this time, there are tens of thousands of households in the state, with more than 20 large and small cities, and more than 20,000 people have been mobilized. soldiers and horses.

  They are not nomadic tribes, but city-states. They are guarded by the city, and they still have good combat effectiveness.

In fact, this is also the case. Ju Wentai was determined to fight against the Tang Dynasty. He mobilized more than 20,000 soldiers and horses to resist the Tang army. Can't take advantage of anything.

   can only attack by force.

  After a few days of tentative attacks, Cheng Yaojin also had to lament that Gaochang was indeed a military barrier set up by the Western Han Dynasty when it was managing the Western Regions, and it was really not easy to attack.

  The city is high and the walls are strong, and the soldiers are sturdy.

   We can only postpone the siege, recruit craftsmen, and start building siege equipment. If we can't attack quickly, we can only prepare for a tough battle.

  The 100,000 coalition forces of the Tang Dynasty besieged Gaochang, and they had to be on guard against the enemy's intentions.

Seeing that it was almost New Year's Eve, and Cheng Yaojin's siege equipment was almost ready. At this time, shocking news came from the Central Plains. Qin Lang wiped out 250,000 Tubo troops at Hequ 100,000, nearly 50,000 prisoners...

   There was another news that Qin Lang led a victorious army and was heading towards the Western Regions, intending to destroy Gaochang and Yugushe together.

  Qin Lang has made great military achievements in these years, destroying Tuyuhun, Pingling Nanman, breaking the Turkic soldiers, and now he is annihilating Tubo Man, if he leads the Jiannan army westward, it will be terrible.

  The first person to be afraid was not Ju Wentai, but Yugu She, who had an inexplicable fear of Qin Lang. Hearing that Qin Lang had killed 200,000 Tubo troops, and now led the victorious army to the west, he was frightened and panicked.

However, Chumi and Chuyue, who are subordinates of Yugu, secretly asked Cheng Yaojin to surrender. Of course, Lao Cheng accepted it with a smile, and even let the second department accept the nomination certificate. , turned around and launched a surprise attack on Yugu.

  Yu Gushe never expected that the day would change, and the tooth tent was raided. He was caught off guard and couldn't gather the troops in a panic, so he had to flee west in a hurry.

As a result, he did not run far, and was ambushed by Hu Luwu, a subordinate of the Great Khan of the Western Turks who was enshrined by the Tang Dynasty, and Hu Luwu, who was set up by Russia. After surrendering, Yugushe wanted to summon the old troops, but no one would follow, so he had to flee all the way to Tocharo with his entourage.

   The rapid defeat of Yugushe also caused Gaochang to become a lone army.

  All kinds of true and false disappearances spread, and those powerful families in Gaochang Kingdom who originally wanted to follow the Ju family to resist the Tang Dynasty because of their interests were damaged panicked.

  They thought that the alliance with Yugushe would be able to fight against the Tang Dynasty, but who knew that Yugushe would be defeated so quickly now. The original allies such as Chuyue Chumi and others turned around and became the vanguard of the Tang army's attack on Gaochang.

   And the God of War is about to come, making people even more terrified.

   Someone took the initiative to send someone to meet Cheng Yaojin secretly, wanting to surrender.

  Ju Wentai was in panic, but the situation was over.

  When he found that he had lost the control of Gaochang Kingdom, and only the palace was still under his control, he finally vomited blood and died in fright.

  Ju Wentai was frightened to death.

  Of course, some people say that Ju Wentai was actually poisoned and killed by the guards who were bribed by the Gaochang tycoons who secretly surrendered to Tang Dynasty, but no one admitted it.

  After the death of Ju Wentai, the prince Ju Zhisheng also completely lost the control of Gaochang. Finally, Kaesong surrendered under the persecution of a group of ministers and nobles who had surrendered to Tang secretly.

  Cheng Yaojin besieged Gaochang for more than three months, built many siege equipment, gathered countless troops, and finally destroyed Gaochang without a fight.

  When Li Shimin received the good news in Chang'an, he was very emotional.

   "Taiwei alone is worth more than a hundred thousand soldiers!"

   Li Jing was amazed.

   "It's all about the sage Tianwei, the great power of the Tang Dynasty, and it has nothing to do with the minister."

  Qin Lang said while packing the fish.

   "I have merged Gaochang into Xizhou, divided its land into five counties including Jiaohe, and added Gaochang Army..."

  (end of this chapter)