Chen Mu's statement seems reasonable at first glance, but if you think about it carefully, if you give up Dunhuang at this time, wouldn't Jiayuguan become a dangerous place for the enemy to suffer from the enemy?

Taking one's fate into someone else's hands is not the character of Aliday, the Sogdian god of war.

Seeing that Ali Dayi was embarrassed, Chen Mu immediately added: "Guazhou is also temporarily in your hands, Jinchang City (the capital of Guazhou), Yumen Pass, and Jiayu Pass are all in your hands, and the king is still worried that there is no way out?" ”

Alidayi's face softened.

Chen Mu smiled and said: "I only have 500 soldiers in my hands, and against the 100,000 male soldiers of the king, wouldn't it be an egg to hit a stone." ”

At this time, Ali Dayi did not have 100,000 soldiers in his hands, he had 20,000 in his headquarters, of which 10,000 stayed in Jiaohe City, and the other 10,000 hit Jiuquan, but only 6,000 were left, and now he is stationed in Jiayuguan. At this time, the soldiers who ran back from Wuwei joined Ali Dayi's troops one after another, and all of them were only more than 40,000 people.

Ali Dayi smiled: "Okay, you go to Dunhuang first." But I warn you, after you go, don't rush to regain the lost ground. When I attacked the city of Dunhuang, the queen of Quran stole your last city. Later, I went to ask her, but her attitude was very arrogant. That woman is not easy to provoke, you don't want to provoke easily. In the future, when the Wuwei War is over, I, Sogdian, and Daliang will be on good terms, and I will help you deal with the Gulan Kingdom together. ”

Chen Mu looked at the map of the whole country of the Liang Dynasty, and most of the cities inherited the titles of the Tang Dynasty, but there were some changes.

For example, Jiaohe City was actually the later Turpan, but there was no such thing as Turpan at that time, and Jiaohe City was called Gaochang in the Tang Dynasty. Now when I mention Gaochang to the people, everyone knows it.

The Sogdians occupied Jiaohecheng, Tingzhou, Yizhou, Guazhou, and Shazhou (the capital of Shazhou was Dunhuang), almost cutting off the Liang dynasty from other small states in the Western Regions.

But now Alidayi returned Dunhuang to the Liang Dynasty, which would make the Liang Dynasty suddenly add two neighboring countries, one is Gulan in southern Xinjiang, and the other is Wuzi Town (occupied by the Aziman people, Wuzi Town was the famous Anxi Protectorate during the Tang Dynasty).

In fact, Alidayi made a big concession this time, almost giving up more than half of the country's territory (if you count Guazhou), but it was not without his benefits to do so, such as letting the Liang Dynasty share the border pressure for him. At the same time, having a good relationship with the big beams has a long-term impact on their economic development. If he can accept the edict of the Liang Dynasty again, then he will also receive the military protection of the Liang Dynasty.

The Liang Dynasty may not fight for him, but he has a vast depth, and once he is defeated by other countries, he can take the people and the remnants of the defeated army to the Hexi Corridor to seek refuge from the Liang Dynasty. There are a few small countries in the Western Regions that can fight, but they don't dare to provoke the big beam easily. After all, the volume gap is huge, and once provoked, the consequences are unimaginable.

When the internal fighting in the Liang Dynasty was serious, he was in no mood to deal with these small countries with little oil and water for a while, but once he freed his hands and the soldiers arrived, the tornado swept around like a circle, and it completely stopped.

Of the sixteen small kingdoms in the Western Regions, not all of them were extremely vicious, and many of them maintained a high degree of calm, they were friendly to the local Han people, and their attitude towards the Liang Dynasty was also very respectful. Once the Liang Dynasty army arrived, they might not resist, anyway, the Liang army has always been the first to salute and then the soldiers.

But whoever can accept the edict of the Great Liang Emperor will bring some gifts to worship the Great Liang Emperor every year, and the army of the Great Liang will pass by and not fight.

The Liang Dynasty was still very tolerant of small countries, as long as they didn't make trouble, and they didn't expect to send much real money.

The Emperor of the Liang Dynasty may not have taken a look at the things they pay tribute every year, so he asked the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Work to send them to the ministers and the "princes and boys".

Then Chen Mu took 500 soldiers to Dunhuang, before leaving, Chen Mu and Ali Dayi talked about the prisoners, Ali Dayi said that the domestic situation is not completely stable, you come to me after a while.

Since the captives are not coming, Chen Mu borrowed labor from Alidayi. Originally, he wanted to take all the 2,000 people away, but Alidayi said, "Now I also need people, and I can't let you take them all." In the end, he lent Chen Mu 500 people as if he had face, and they were all old, weak, sick and women.

These five hundred people were selected by Ajilhan, Chen Mu glanced at it, and said to Ajilhan: "I said Brother Aji, you are not very interesting. ”

Agilhan said, "What do you expect from me, this is the king's will, do I dare not listen?" ”

Chen Mu smiled, went to Alidayi, and borrowed Agilhan as well.

When Agilhan heard about it, he ran to change some people. Among them is also the beautiful girl "Xiaomei" in the Western Regions.

As he was leaving, the Sogdian king Alidayi said to Chen Mu, "There are many women in the team, and we Sogdians respect women very much, and when it comes to you, you are not allowed to harm them."

Chen Mu assured that the military discipline of the regular army of our Liang Dynasty was quite strict, and I dared to assure the king that if anyone dared to bully a female laborer, I would confiscate his tools for committing crimes.

The Sogdian king laughed and praised Chen Mu as a good young man.

In mid-September, Chen Mu led his troops to Dunhuang.

The historic city of Dunhuang has been devastated by the war like a broken arm and is crumbling.

Chen Mu led soldiers and laborers to rebuild Dunhuang City. Seeing that the Liang army had returned to the city, and the people who had fled the war came to inquire, Chen Mu said to the people that the war between Liang and Sogdia was over, and you could return to your homeland and participate in the reconstruction with the army.

The people rejoiced.

The population of Dunhuang is really small, only more than 1,000 people, the war has caused the population here to drop sharply, it is said that in its heyday, there were 70,000 or 80,000 people living outside the city. There is an endless stream of merchants coming and going, and the business of inns, taverns and other stores is very prosperous. But now there are ruins everywhere, and every alley is full of endless desolation.

Dunhuang City is not like Jiuquan, Jiuquan can be said to be a fortress military city, and Dunhuang has a small city structure, the city wall is more than five times longer than Jiuquan, and there are 400 people on one city wall, which seems loose. The city is difficult to defend, and it is no wonder that it cannot be defended twice.

Chen Mu had strict requirements for military discipline, and he ordered Zhang Han to be the commander of the "Temporary First Brigade" inspection commander, and he looked for faults everywhere, and if he found that he had violated military discipline, he must be dealt with quickly and strictly.

At the same time, he also took Xiaomei and Xiaomei's father to the Aksai area, where there used to be a saltpeter mine, which is now abandoned.

After arriving at the place, Xiaomei's disabled father said that there was still a lot of ore here.

Chen Mu was very satisfied.

But now that there is a shortage of manpower, Chen Mu does not plan to mine it immediately, anyway, these things are all military-controlled materials, and the people will not easily provoke them.

In the west of Dunhuang City, there is another city, called Shouchang City, when there were many soldiers in the past, both cities had garrisons, forming the trend of cornering. But now there is nothing but crows, foxes, coyotes, and other animals.

Aru, who was originally named a centurion of the captive soldier by Chen Mu, chose to stay when he returned the captives this time, and wanted to be an entourage for Chen Mu, Chen Mu felt that it was quite good to have an interpreter by his side, so he agreed, and retained his rank of centurion.

Chen Mu in the company of Xiaomei and Alu, around the vicinity of Dunhuang City, although it is located on the edge of the desert, everywhere is the semi-desert Gobi Desert, but there is no shortage of water here, and there are Xinghubo and Dajingze two seasonal lakes in the north, the surrounding green grass is like grass, very beautiful.

The river flows down from the Altyn Mountains and runs from south to north.

"Dunhuang is a good place."

Looking at the devastation, Chen Mu was able to say such a sentence, and the sogdian girl with a high nose and deep eyes next to him sneered.