Chapter 869: Destroy the Khazar Khanate
When the Western Qin army completely occupied the land of the former Khazar Khanate, the Alans living in the Caucasus Mountains also had to send envoys to Zhao Ziliang to express their willingness to submit. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Centuries ago, the Alans once established a state in the North Caucasus on the northern shore of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, and it has been recorded in the "Historical Records", "Book of the Later Han", and "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms".
The Alans were defeated by the Huns in the Don Valley, and the main part was forced to move westward, and later most of them moved to Spain and North Africa, and only a small part remained, the Alans who now live in the Caucasus Mountains, and after hundreds of years, these Alans still live tenaciously in the Caucasus Mountains to avoid the war between the Khazars and the Great Cannibals. They were called Akachir by the Byzantines.
The population of the Alans is small, they all live in the Caucasus Mountains, and they make a living by planting, hunting, and gathering wild fruits, and Zhao Ziliang looks down on these Alans, and recruiting them to fight is a waste of food. However, since the people sent an envoy to say that they wanted to surrender, Zhao Ziliang could not help but meet him in person, and the gesture still had to be done.
Through the meeting with the envoys of the Alans, Zhao Ziliang has some understanding of these Alans, the population of the Alans living in the Caucasus Mountains is not large, only more than 20,000 people, but everyone is a hunter, because they have been active in the mountains since birth, so these people are as simple and easy as eating and drinking, and they can even jump and swing on the trees at will like apes.
Zhao Ziliang thought about it, if he wanted to fight in the mountains, it would be a good choice to select some sturdy warriors from among these Alans to form a small but extremely elite mountain force for a surprise attack.
The envoys of the Alans brought Zhao Ziliang precious feathers and animal skins, and Zhao Ziliang gave them some weapons, bows and arrows, as well as some exquisite clothing, and they promised to pay tribute to the Western Qin State every year.
At the beginning of September, Zhao Ziliang came to the Crimean Peninsula to inspect the defense, the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire, but because the Western Qin occupied the Crimean Peninsula, it also had an outlet to the Black Sea, and the merchants of the Western Qin and the Tang Dynasty no longer needed to pay commercial taxes to other countries, and they could take a sea ship here to reach Constantinople directly.
This time Zhao Ziliang came to the Crimean Peninsula, Wang Jin and Zang Xiyan learned that the emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire was likely to come to meet with Zhao Ziliang, so they also came together, but until September 18, Constantine V did not come, and later the Eastern Roman Empire sent Hetius back to explain the matter to Zhao Ziliang, it turned out that Constantine V had already gone to the Greek province more than a month ago to inspect local affairs, and could not rush over.
Since he was unable to meet with Constantine V, Zhao Ziliang did not insist on it, and immediately set off for Samandhar. Speaking of which, Zhao Ziliang felt that it was not a good idea for the Khazars to set the capital in Samandal, but the relationship between the Khazars and the Great Cannibals was very bad, but the relationship with Byzantium was very good, so setting the capital in Samandar could launch an invasion of Armenia and Azerbaijan occupied by the Great Cannibals nearby.
The Great Cannibals basically lived in desert oases and Gobi deserts, and were accustomed to the hot weather, but when they arrived in the Caucasus Mountains, the climate became cold, and their combat ability was greatly reduced, so they only crossed the Caucasus Mountains once and destroyed Barungar, and after that they never managed to fight on the other side of the mountains.
Although the fall of the Khazar Khanate and the arrival of the Western Qin people made great progress to the countries and tribes along the Black Sea coast, Zhao Ziliang had no intention of continuing the attack, and he did not want to force these countries into a group, which was not in the interests of the Western Qin.
After returning to Samandar, Zhao Ziliang put the return of the class teacher to Henglus on the agenda, but there were still some things to decide before that, but the seat of the Sadu Protectorate was still set in Samandar, and the seat of the Yayik Protectorate was set in the Urals on the Ural River. In addition, in view of the fact that the army of the Kimak Khanate had been exhausted, Zhao Ziliang ordered the Kimak Khanate to be directly incorporated into the territory of Western Qin, and set up the Kimak Protectorate within the territory of the former Kimak Khanate, and the seat of governance was set up in the former capital city of Kemakya.
Zhao Ziliang ordered to leave the First Army Zhao Hu to defend the Khazar Protectorate, the Second Army to leave the Bai Xiaode Division to defend the Yayi Kedu Protectorate, and ordered the Fourth Army Wei Meng's Department to go to Kemaya to defend the Kimak Protectorate, leaving the Fifth Army Hokan and the Kipchak Army to continue to attack the Bolgars on the Volga.
On September 22, the first year of Baoying of the Tang Empire, Zhao Ziliang led the escort army, the Dragon Guard, the sixth, seventh, eighth legions and the slave legion, a total of 40,000 horses, from Samandar to the division, all the way to cross the Caspian Sea by sea ships and warships to reach Huazim, and then set off from Huatzim, through the area around the Aral Sea where the Oghuz people lived, and then from the Aral Sea, through a desert area into the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River, along the lower reaches of the Syr Darya River to the upstream.
On October 27, after more than a month of marching, Zhao Ziliang finally led his army back to Henglus, and was warmly welcomed by the officials and soldiers and civilians of Western Qin, and the welcoming people lined up 30 miles outside the city.
This war was caused by the sacking of the Western Qin caravan in the territory of the Khazar Khanate, from the beginning of the incident, until the end of this war, which lasted more than a year, the Western Qin spent a lot of military expenditures, but the loss of troops was not much, a total of more than 2,000 people were killed and more than 4,000 were injured, and the Western Qin earned huge prestige and huge profits.
This is only the current interests, in the long run, the power of the Western Qin has not yet extended to the coast of the Caspian Coast, although Oghuz and Hua Thorn Zimo surrendered, the West Qin side is difficult to intervene, but this war has allowed the West Qin to completely break through all the obstacles on the northern line of the Silk Road, through this war not only established a military base in the territory of Oghuz, but also sent a garrison in the territory of Hua Thorn Zim, where the army has been, where the post fort was built, now Oghuz and Hua Thorn Zimo are sandwiched between the territory of Western Qin.
The merchants of Western Qin benefited the most from this war, from Tingzhou to the mouth of the Crimean Peninsula in the Khazar Protectorate, the distance was tens of thousands of miles, but the merchants of Western Qin no longer had to pay commercial taxes to other countries on this road, because all the way was the territory and sphere of influence of Western Qin, and the goods of Western Qin could directly enter Byzantium and even the Frankish kingdom more westward, without going through the Great Food Country.
As early as after Wang Jin and Zang Xiyan arrived in Hengluosi, Princess Xinping already knew about the death of her brother Li Heng last winter, and Princess Yining also knew about the death of her father. After Zhao Ziliang led the army back to Hengluos, the two proposed to him that they wanted to return to Chang'an to worship, Zhao Ziliang understood this very well, although they were royal children, but they also had family affection, not all people in the royal family were cold-blooded and ruthless, and he agreed to let them return to Chang'an to pay respects.
At the family banquet that night, Zhao Ziliang said to his family: "Today, Lord Wang Jin and General Zang Xiyan have come to bid farewell to me, and they will leave to return to Chang'an in three days. Of course, the royal palace will also send guards to protect the safety of the two of you along the way! ”
Xinping and Yining hurriedly got up and saluted: "Thank you Fujun (father) for your success!" ”
Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and said to Zhao Ting: "Now that the founding of the Western Qin Dynasty is about to be founded, there are still many things to deal with as a father, and he can't be separated. In this way, Ting'er, you accompany them to Chang'an, and congratulate the new emperor on the throne for your father! You must remember that although Western Qin is about to be founded, it is still a subject country of the Tang Dynasty, and it is still a vassal to the Tang Dynasty, and we are still the people of the Tang Dynasty, which is unchangeable, no matter how long time passes, Western Qin cannot cut off contact and contacts with the Central Plains, and must move around often! Because we have always been compatriots connected by blood, and we are all descendants of Yan and Huang! ”
"Yes, Father!"
The next day, Zhao Ziliang convened the ministers and officials of Western Qin to discuss the matter of sending a delegation to Chang'an to meet the new emperor, and finally decided to send the second prince Zhao Ting as the chief envoy, the second minister of the Government Council Dugu Wenshu as the deputy envoy, twelve officials, 200 followers, 500 guards and horses, and Princess Xinping and Princess Yining also went together.
The Western Qin delegation will carry 3,000 cattle and sheep, 2,000 war horses, a lion, a snow leopard, 20,000 gold coins and 100,000 silver coins as tribute to the new emperor.
On the second day of the first month of November, Wang Jin and Zang Xiyan returned to Chang'an with the delegation, and the Western Qin delegation also went on the road with them.
Zhao Ziliang held the hands of Wang Jin and Zang Xiyan and said: "The road from Henglus to Tingzhou is a cement gray road, which is easier to walk, it only takes half a month to complete, and if you go fast in the back of the journey, you should be able to rush back to Chang'an before the year!" ”
Wang Jin sighed: "It's winter now, I hope the road won't be blocked by wind and snow along the way!" ”
"There is one thing, this king wants to ask Lord Wang to forward it to the court!"
Wang Jin said: "The king, please speak!" ”
Zhao Ziliang pondered for a moment and said: "Now that the imperial court has just quelled the rebellion, all kinds of ruins are waiting to be rebuilt, and it is time-consuming and labor-intensive to resettle the displaced people and disaster victims in various places, and the treasury is already empty, and then to resettle these people, the imperial court is only afraid that it will not be able to come up with the money, what this king means is that if the imperial court really can't settle these displaced people and disaster victims, they will be allowed to move to Western Qin, on the one hand, it can reduce the pressure on the imperial court, and on the other hand, it can also increase the number of our Han people in Western Qin, so that Western Qin's rule in the Western Regions will be more stable, Although we are about to build a country in Western Qin, but no matter what, we are still the people of the Tang Dynasty, this point is unchangeable, the strength of the Western Qin is enhanced, it is equivalent to the strength of the Tang Dynasty, the king hopes that the Central Plains court will not divide the Western Qin and the Central Plains into each other, artificially demarcate the boundaries between the two sides, even if the West Qin is founded, I Zhao Ziliang is still the minister of the Tang Dynasty, the people of the Western Qin are still the people of the Tang Dynasty, and my descendants will serve the Tang Dynasty as the suzerain! ”
Wang Jin deeply understood Zhao Ziliang's feelings, and he nodded heavily: "Don't worry, the king, I will bring your words to the court and Your Majesty as they are!" ”
Zhao Ziliang took a tray from Zhao Lei's hand on his side and said to Wang Jin: "Lord Wang, this king seized the sword, scepter and seal of Habil, King of the Khazar Khan, when he conquered the Khazar Khanate, this king will present these three spoils to the emperor today, please bring them back to Chang'an and hand them over to the saint!" The King of Labor told His Majesty that Western Qin and the Central Plains would always be like a family, and if one day, the Central Plains Imperial Court needed Western Qin to send troops to escort King Qin, and with just an edict, Ziliang would definitely lead the army to the Central Plains against all odds! ”
"King Gaoyi, please accept my worship!" Wang Jin took the tray and handed it to his entourage, and then bowed to Zhao Ziliang.
"Hurry up, please! The hour is not early, Lord Wang, let's go, this king wishes you a smooth journey! ”
"Say goodbye today, I don't know what year and month it will be when we meet again, take care, I'll say goodbye!"