In the Western Regions, at the northern foot of the majestic Kunlun Mountains and in the south of the vast Taklamakan Desert, the setting sun shines on the beautiful poplar trees.

Zhang Liao rode an elephant dragon and stood on the bank of the Niya River, watching the winding Niya River disappear into the desert.

Niya River is the mother river of the exquisite country, originating from the majestic Kunlun Mountains Huitag Glacier, flowing from south to north, the upstream waves are rushing, but not into the sea, but after four hundred miles of high temperature exposure, it becomes calm and shallow, like a beautiful ribbon zigzag falling on the yellow sand, disappearing from time to time, gradually weak, can no longer rush through those dwarf sand dunes, and finally disappears in the vast sea of sand.

There is no spectacular sunset over the long river, but it has a kind of beauty.

The golden-yellow, dark green poplars on both sides of the Niya River have become the signposts for the locals to judge the river, and the green poplars indicate that the terrain is slightly lower and the water is more abundant, while the yellow-leaved poplars are high and have less water.

It is now the fourth year of Jian'an, and after taking Liangzhou in one fell swoop two years ago, Zhang Liao did not use troops against the Central Plains, but focused on operating Guanliang, opening up the Hexi Corridor and rebuilding the Silk Road.

Although the Silk Road was opened by the Han Dynasty, this road was not stable, especially since the Later Han Dynasty, the Qiang Rebellion for a hundred years has become the biggest disaster.

After Zhang Liao defeated Ma Teng Han Sui and took Song Jian, the powerful forces of the Han people in Liangzhou were no longer afraid, but there were still Qiang tribes everywhere in Liangzhou, plus Yizhou, Bingzhou and other places, there were millions.

The Eastern Han Dynasty did not pacify it for a hundred years, mainly because the center of gravity of the Eastern Han Dynasty was in the eastern part of the country, and there were many disputes over whether to abandon Liangzhou, so naturally they would not try their best to pacify, and the troops were originally weak, the imperial court had very few troops before the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and after the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the two main forces of the imperial court, Song and Dong Zhuo, were only fifty or sixty thousand, and they could not all be thrown into Liangzhou.

Now Zhang Liao is different, his center of gravity is in the northwest, and he threw the elite infantry into Liangzhou, swept in all directions, and cut the Qiang forces into pieces.

Although Qiang Di is belligerent, it is not blindly plundering, but the Eastern Han Dynasty's poor border policy led to years of trouble, and since Duan Xi several battles to break the Qiang, the Qiang people's vitality has been greatly damaged, and then the chaos is Ma Teng, Han Sui, Song Jian, Bian Yun and other Han people are strong, Qiang Di has become a subordinate.

After Zhang Liao exerted the power of thunder, the Qiang people no longer had the power to resist, but Zhang Liao did not rush to kill them all, but suppressed Tongshi, and he transferred many officials from the north to Liangzhou, including the former Zhang Ji and other capable ministers.

The officials in the north had settled down and surrendered to the Xiongnu at the beginning, and they were quite experienced, and now they have entered Guanliang, which is just for their use.

Coupled with the persuasion of Ma Teng, who surrendered, Liangzhou settled down in the shortest possible time.

Later, Zhang Liao, with Xu Rong and Fan Chou as the vanguard, and Dian Wei as the wing, personally walked the Hexi Corridor to rebuild the Western Regions Protectorate.

The Silk Road is sandwiched between the Tianshan Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains, and is divided into two routes, north and south, around the Taklamakan Desert, and dozens of countries in the Western Regions are distributed along the way.

The Protectorate of the Western Regions encompasses the entire Taklamakan Desert and controls both the north and south of the Silk Road.

More than 300 years ago, after Zhang Qian opened the Silk Road, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the Western Regions Protectorate in the Western Regions, which was equivalent to a county of the Han Dynasty, governing the forty-eight countries in the Western Regions east of Dawan and south of Wusun.

However, because of the remoteness of the region and the strong Xiongnu forces in the north, the countries of the Western Regions have been oscillating between the two great powers of the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, and the Silk Road has not been stable for hundreds of years.

In fact, in the late Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty lost control of the Western Regions, Wang Mang, the Xiongnu went south to take the opportunity to take the Western Regions, Yanqi rebelled first, Wang Mang ordered to attack Yanqi, the Han army was divided into two routes, one way to Wang Jun as the ambassador of the Western Regions, Wuwei Zuo led the captain, and the Western Regions Protector Li Chong led the troops from the south road, through Shanshan to Yuli, Huishache, Qiuzi, Yuli and other Western Regions soldiers totaling more than 7,000 people, to the north to attack Yanqi; On the other hand, 5,000 troops led by Zuo Shuai He Feng and Wu Ji Lieutenant Guo Qin attacked Yanqi from the north and southwest through the chariot division.

Yanqi surrendered, Wang Jun divided his troops into Yanqi, Gumo, Yu Li, and Wei Xu turned against Wang Jun, and the whole army was gone, Li Chong retired to protect Qiuci, and was killed by the same rebellious Qiuzi. He Feng and Guo Qin's troops arrived, but the Shiyan soldiers had not completely withdrawn, and after Guo Qin led his troops to kill his old and weak, he retreated to defend the car division. Yanqi and the Xiongnu joined forces to attack the chariot division, He Feng and Guo Qin fought alone, and finally because the food was exhausted, they could not hold on, so they withdrew to the Yumen Pass.

The Xiongnu completely controlled the stolen countries, and although the most powerful of the Western Regions in the Southern Regions, the Shache State, led the Southern States to confront the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty had lost control of the Western Regions, and the Western Regions Protectorate was abandoned.

In the early years of the Later Han Dynasty, Dou Rong, the general stationed in Hexi, was ordered to set up Shache Wang Kang as "Hansha Che Jiangong Huaide King, Captain of the Western Regions", Shache Kingdom was supported by the Han Dynasty, so he took the opportunity to attack Qiuzi and other Western Regions countries, and the Western Regions were in chaos.

At the same time, all the countries in the Northern Province of the Western Regions were suffering from the heavy taxation of the Xiongnu, and eighteen monarchs, including the former Wang Ting, Shanshan, and Yanqi, sent protons to serve and asked the Han to send the capital to the Western Regions to confront the Xiongnu. However, at that time, Liu Xiu was stabilizing the situation in the Central Plains, and he had no time to take care of anything else, so he did not agree to the request of the Western Regions countries, and sent back his servants after rewarding them generously.

Seeing that the Han could not be protected, Nandao Shache stepped up its attack on Shanshan, Qiuzi, Khotan and other countries. The king of Khotan led the kingdoms to rebel, captured and killed the king of Shache and destroyed his land, and the Khotanese state succeeded the Shache state to dominate the southern road. However, Khotan was then defeated by the Xiongnu and the allied forces of the northern states attached to the Xiongnu, and was forced to accept the guardianship of the Xiongnu envoys.

Since then, the entire northern and southern provinces of the Western Regions have been completely subordinated to the rule of the Xiongnu, and the Xiongnu have regained the manpower and material resources of the Western Regions as the rear of the southern invasion of the Han Dynasty.

During the Ming Emperor, the Southern Xiongnu were attached, and the political situation of the Han Dynasty was stable and the economy recovered, so they turned from defense to attack the Northern Xiongnu. Dou Gu and Geng Zhong led the army from Liangzhou out of Jiuquansai, defeated the king of Huyan, occupied Yiwulu, the gateway to the Western Regions, set up Yihe Duwei, and left the army to garrison Tuntian. The following year, Dou Gu and Geng Bing attacked the rear of the nearest Che Division, and the Hou Wang surrendered; The former king of the chariot division was the son of the latter king, and he also led the people to surrender.

At this point, the Northern Xiongnu forces withdrew from the eastern foothills of Tianshan Mountain, and the Han Dynasty restored the capital of the Western Regions, and divided the Jinpucheng of the Houwang Department and the Liuzhong City of the former Wangbu to restore the passage to the Western Regions.

However, at this time, the restored capital of the Western Regions was only a small part of the easternmost part of the former Han capital, and most of it was still under the guardianship of the Xiongnu. Therefore, Dou Gu sent the fake Sima Ban to surpass the horse, and asked him to contact the kings and governors of various places in the Western Regions, so that they would be pro-Han and not be used by the Xiongnu.

At the beginning of Ban Chao's recovery of the Western Regions, he did not lead the army, only brought 36 retinues of officials, and first went to Shanshan Country in Nandao. King Shanshan began to be very respectful to Ban Chao, but then suddenly neglected. Ban Chao judged that the Northern Xiongnu sent an envoy to come, so he used fire to attack and raid the Xiongnu envoy overnight, and held his head to show the king of Shanshan, Shanshan was afraid and surrendered to the Han.

Ban Chao was promoted to Sima because of his meritorious service in subduing Shanshan, and was ordered to go west to Khotan. At this time, Khotan was a pro-Xiongnu force in the south of the province, and the king of Khotan was very careless about Ban Chao's courtesy, and listened to the words of the witch and asked for Ban Chao's horse to worship the gods. Ban Chao pretended to allow him to come and take the horse. and Wu Zhi, Chao immediately beheaded it to send to the king of Khotan. The king of Khotan was shocked by Banchao's prestige in Shanshan, and killed the Xiongnu envoy and surrendered to Han.

Later, Ban Chao continued west along the South Road to Shule. The king of Shule was established by Qiuzi, not a native, and a henchman of the Northern Xiongnu, who brutally oppressed the Shule people with the support of the Xiongnu. Ban Chao grasped this situation, sent an envoy to capture Dou Di unexpectedly, and set up the nephew of the former king of Shule Zhong as the king, relieving Qiuzi's slavery to Shule, so Shule also attached to the Eastern Han Dynasty.

At this point, the Silk Road, which had been interrupted for more than 60 years, resumed the southern route.

The slave lost the Western Regions, and it was bound to fight. In March of the eighteenth year of Yongping, the Northern Xiongnu launched 20,000 cavalry, crossed the Tianshan Mountains to counterattack the chariot division, and surrounded Jinpucheng and Liuzhongcheng.

In the same year, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty died, and the Northern Yanqi Kingdom took the opportunity of the Han Dynasty's mourning to attack and kill Chen Mu, the capital of the Western Regions. And Qiuzi, Gumo and other countries also repeatedly sent troops to attack Shule, Ban Chao and Shule Wang Zhong were each other's horns, echoing from end to end, and defended in Panlu City. The Northern Xiongnu plotted against the Cheshi State again, and Geng Gong, the captain of Wuji, was also besieged.

In the following year, that is, in the first month of the first year of the founding of the country, Emperor Zhang, who succeeded to the throne, sent Geng Bingtun to Jiuquan, and sent soldiers from Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang and Shanshan in the Western Regions to help, and joined Liuzhong, defeated the Che Division and the Northern Xiongnu, and the Che Division surrendered.

However, due to the frequent rebellions in Wuling and Yizhou that year, natural disasters such as earthquakes, and chaos in the following year, the Western Regions were remote, and the Han Dynasty was unable to hold on to the Che Division, so it was finally decided to abandon the Western Regions.

The Han retreated from the Western Regions, and the southern states were terrified, fearing that the Northern Xiongnu would come back to retaliate. When Ban Chao was ordered to prepare to return to Beijing, Shule and Khotan earnestly comforted him, and Li Yi, the commander of Shule, committed suicide with a knife. As for Ban Chao's travel, the princes and princes of Khotan all cried, and even hugged Ban Chao's horses and feet and did not let him go.

Ban Chao knew that some areas in the south of the road could be trusted, so he was determined to stay in the Western Regions, turn around, and return to the Shule country where the north and south roads converge at the western end of the Silk Road.

At this time, two cities in Shule were reunited after Ban Chao left, and they united with the Weitou Kingdom with the intention of causing great chaos. Ban Chao arrested the rebel leader, broke the Weitou country, killed more than 600 people, and then Dingshule.

At that time, the northern provinces of the Western Regions were subordinate to the Xiongnu, and most of the southern provinces were subordinate to the Han Dynasty. The northern road was dominated by Qiuci, and the Shache between Shule and Khotan in the south took refuge in Qiuci, and the road from Shule to the east to the interior of the Han Dynasty was cut off, so Ban Chao decided to eliminate the threat of Xiongnu forces from the vicinity of Shule first.

In the first three years of its establishment, Ban Chao united more than 10,000 soldiers from Shule, Khotan, Kangju, Kumi and other countries in Nandao to break through the Gumo Kingdom, kill 700 people, and isolate Qiuzi.

In the first five years of its establishment, Ban Chao was written to Emperor Zhang, and the Han Dynasty successively issued a thousand people and 800 soldiers, led by Xu Gan and He Gong to support Ban Chao in the Western Regions.

In the first year of Yuanhe, Ban Chaofa Shule and Khotanese soldiers attacked the Xiongnu's winged Shache in the southern province. Shache bribed Shule Wang Zhong and betrayed Ban Chao.

Ban Chao changed the establishment of the mansion Cheng Cheng Dawei Shule King, mobilized troops to attack Zhong, Kangju sent elite soldiers to help Zhong, Ban Chao bribed Kangju's in-law Dayue with brocade silk, persuaded Kangju King to strike the army, Kangju King boycotted the army, and brought Zhong back.

In the third year of Yuanhe, Zhong borrowed some soldiers and horses from King Kangju, colluded with Qiuzi, and sent people to surrender to Ban Chao, who saw through his tricks and promised him to surrender. Loyal to Daxi, light Jane has never seen Ban Chao. Ban Chao held a banquet for him, and during the banquet, Ban Chao ordered people to kill Zhong and took the opportunity to defeat his subordinates.

In the fourth year of Yuanhe, Ban Chao sent 25,000 soldiers from Khotan to attack Shache. The king of Qiuzi in the north province sent 50,000 people to the rescue.

The enemy is strong and I am weak, and Ban Chao decided to use the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain. He summoned the generals and the king of Khotan, discussed the military situation, deceived each other to retreat, and secretly instructed the people to deliberately relax the custody of the captives of Qiuzi, so that they could flee back to report the news. When King Qiuci heard the news, he was overjoyed, and led 10,000 cavalry to intercept Ban Chao in the west, and sent King Wensu to lead 8,000 men to block Khotan in the east.

Ban Chao detected that they had sent troops, and quickly ordered all the troops to go straight to the base camp of Shache when the rooster crowed. The battalion was defenseless, the sergeants fled, and Ban Chao chased and beheaded more than 5,000 people, and obtained countless horses and livestock property.

Shache surrendered, and Qiuzi and other countries could only withdraw their troops. So the south road was opened.

Two years later, that is, in the first year of Yongyuan, Dou Xian of the Han Dynasty led the army to break through the Northern Xiongnu in Yanran Mountain and Jinwei Mountain, and went out of the fortress for 5,000 miles. The main force of the Northern Xiongnu was forced to migrate westward, and the situation in the Western Regions changed in favor of the Han.

The Otsuki clan in the west wants to take advantage of the entanglement of the two major forces to profit from it. In the second year of Yongyuan, the Guishan Dynasty of the Great Moon Clan sent 70,000 troops to cross the Green Ridge in an attempt to eliminate the Banchao forces with the Northern Dao countries of the Western Regions.

Ban Chao's army was at a disadvantage, and everyone panicked. Ban Chao thought that although there were many Yue's soldiers, they had traveled thousands of miles and crossed the green mountains, which was inconvenient to transfer, and the grain and grass could not be supported for a long time, so he took a firm strategy.

Sure enough, Xie Xie, the vice president of the Dayue clan, attacked Ban Chao, but he couldn't overcome it, looted grain and grass, and gained nothing, and was exhausted. Ban Chao estimated that they were running out of food and grass, and they would definitely send people to Qiuci for help, and ordered hundreds of soldiers to ambush in the east in advance.

Ban Chao's ambush soldiers killed the messenger and sent someone to show it to Xie. Xie was frightened and had no basis for advancing and retreating, so he had to send an envoy to Ban Chao to plead guilty, begging them to be released and return to China, so the Da Yue clan was greatly shocked and reconciled with Han.

The Northern Xiongnu both failed to move westward, and the Dayue clan was frustrated and retreated southward, so Qiuzi led Gumo and Wensu to fall to Banchao in the third year of Yongyuan. The Later Han Dynasty rebuilt the Western Regions Protectorate, Ren Banchao was the protector of the Western Regions, and Xu Gan was the long history.

Ban Chao was stationed in Qiuzi, and Xu Gantun was stationed in Shule. He also set up Captain E to lead 500 soldiers, Gaochangbi in the front of the Juche Division, and Houcheng in the rear of the Ebu Waiting Che Division, echoing each other from afar.

At this time, only Yanqi, Yuli, and Wei Xu were attacked and killed in the Western Regions, and they were suspicious and had not yet surrendered. In the sixth year of Yongyuan, Ban Chao sent a total of 70,000 troops from eight regions such as Qiuzi and Shanshan, as well as 1,400 Han officials and merchants, to attack Yanqi, and at the same time sent envoys to lure the princes of the three regions to surrender. Under military pressure and political pacification, the three places were surrendered, and the northern road was opened, so far more than 50 countries in the Western Regions were all subordinate.

Since the sixteenth year of Emperor Yongping of the Ming Dynasty, Ban Chao ordered to envoy to the Western Regions, and the sixth year of Emperor Yongyuan to pacify Yanqi, after twenty-one years of hard struggle, the Western Regions finally got rid of the Xiongnu again, and returned to the Han Dynasty.

After Ban Chao returned to the east, the successor of the capital protector was still lost in the Western Regions and was attacked by various countries, and then the Qiang people in Longxi had a war with the Han Dynasty, and the Longdao was cut off.

In the sixth year of the early Yuan Dynasty, the Dunhuang Taishou Cao Zong sent the commander Shi Soban to lead the troops to garrison Yiwu, and the Northern Xiongnu and the rear of the Che Division jointly attacked and killed Soban. Shanshan was anxious to Han and asked Cao Zong for help. Empress Dowager Deng summoned Ban Yong, the son of Ban Chao, to the court to meet with the secretary of state for countermeasures. The ministers mostly advocated that it was advisable to close the Yumen Pass and abandon the Western Regions.

Ban Yong grew up with his father in the Western Regions since he was a child, and was familiar with the situation in the Western Regions, and he thought that if he surrendered to the north, the counties on the edge of the border would be trapped, so he suggested that the deputy lieutenant of the Western Regions should be placed in Dunhuang, and the Dunhuang battalion of 300 soldiers should be restored, and the Western Regions Changshi General would be sent to Tun Loulan with 500 people.

In the second year of Yanguang, the Han Dynasty took Ban Yong as the long history of the Western Regions and led his troops to run the Western Regions. In the following year, Ban Yong enlightened Qiuci, Gumo and other countries and made them subordinate. Later, Ban Yong sent his infantry to ride more than 10,000 people to the front of the chariot division, struck away the Northern Xiongnu, and tuntian Liuzhong.

In the autumn of the fourth year, Ban Yong sent soldiers from Dunhuang, Zhangye, Jiuquan and Hexi counties, as well as the front soldiers of Shanshan, Shule and Che Divisions, and broke the rear of the Che Division, and beheaded its Wang Army and the Xiongnu to hold the envoys.

In the first year of Emperor Shun's Yongjian, Ban Yong sent soldiers from all countries to attack the Huyan King of the Northern Xiongnu, and the Huyan King fled, and more than 20,000 of his people surrendered.

In the second year of Yongjian, Ban Yong and Dunhuang Taishou Zhang Lang discussed Yanqi together. The two divided their troops into two routes and agreed on a date to arrive at the same time. Zhang Lang wanted to invite merit alone, so he rushed to Yanqi in advance, and Yanqi surrendered. Ban Yong was convicted in the later period, was conscripted and imprisoned, dismissed from office, and later died at home.

During the reign of Emperor Huan, Changshi resided in Khotan.

During the Zhongping period, Liangzhou was in turmoil, and the Western Regions were once again cut off from the Central Plains.

After Ban Yong, the Eastern Han Dynasty no longer placed the protector of the Western Regions, but used the chief history of the Western Regions to act as the protector. The long history is undoubtedly one level lower than the capital protection, which also means that the Later Han Dynasty's attention to the Western Regions has weakened under the toss of the Qiang chaos.

Zhang Liao admires Ban Chao very much, and looking at the process of Ban Chao's subjugation of the Western Regions, it is a wonderful drama that is vertical and horizontal, courage, determination, vision, and strategy are all indispensable.

Nowadays, people include Cao Cao, Liu Bei and other heroes, whose energy is still in the Central Plains, and they don't attach so much importance to Guan Liangzhou, let alone the Western Regions.

However, Zhang Liao, who came from later generations, knew that the Western Regions and even the world outside the Western Regions were still lacking in shipbuilding and navigation technology, and navigation was not good for a while, and only the Western Regions was the only passage to the Mediterranean and Indian civilization.

Therefore, Zhang Liao attaches great importance to the Silk Road, not only for the development of commercial economy, but more importantly, for long-term layout.

Now, the most important thing is to control the Western Regions.

No matter how the Central Plains fights, it is all Yanhuang, if it can pass through the Western Regions in this era and extend the Yanhuang power to the two rivers and even the Mediterranean, it will undoubtedly be beneficial to Yanhuang.