Chapter 32 The smoke rises, and the layout is re-planned
In February, the Tibetan army captured the Anxi Duhufu and the four towns of Anxi, and the "Silk Road", an important trade route between the East and the West, was blocked. In recent decades, the national strength of Tibet is in a period of rapid rise, taking advantage of the Tang Gaozong's headache and intermittent eye disease, blurred vision two diseases, Wu Zetian took charge of the Tang Dynasty, reused the incompetent generals headed by the mother's family, suppressed and squeezed out the descendants of the Tang Dynasty's founding heroes who were loyal to the Li Tang royal family, the Tang Dynasty's national strength declined, the opportunity of the decline in military strength, three years ago (670 AD) began to compete with the Tang Dynasty for the vast land in the Western Regions, the Anxi Protectorate and the four towns of Anxi changed hands in just three years, the "Silk Road" was interrupted from time to time, and thieves were rampant along the way, Far more than the original Black Wind Ridge bandit group, this has become an important reason why the merchants on the "Silk Road" are willing to spend a lot of money to hire the "mighty dart bureau" and the horse gang to escort the materials and ensure the safety of the caravan personnel.
In the fourteenth year of Tang Zhenguan (640), the population was only more than 10,000 households, covering an area of only a few hundred miles from east to west and north to south, but it was located in the small country of Gaochang in the Western Regions (formerly known as the Western Regions small country chariot division in the Western Han Dynasty), which was located in the place where the Silk Road must pass, took refuge in the Tang Dynasty's enemy, the Western Turks, offended the Tang Dynasty's Tianwei, robbed the Western Regions countries to pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty, plundered the property of traveling and merchants on the Silk Road, and blocked the Silk Road. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was furious and sent Hou Jun to set up the Anxi Protectorate in Jiaohe City, the capital of Gaochang (now Turpan, Xinjiang), to deal with the Western Turks, and at the same time deter the countries in the Western Regions and ensure the smooth flow of the Silk Road. In the twenty-second year of Zhenguan (648), the Tang Dynasty destroyed the country of Qiuci and moved the Anxi Protectorate to Qiuci (now Kuqa County, Xinjiang).
In the second year of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty (657), the Anxi Prefecture Protectorate moved back to Gaochang's hometown. In May of the third year of Xianqing (658), the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate was moved to Qiuzi (now Kucha), and the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate was upgraded to the Dadu Protectorate, and later renamed the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate. In the 14th year of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty (640), the Anxi Protectorate was set up to unify the four towns of Qiuzi, Shule, Khotan, and Xiaye, and the territory was similar to that of present-day Xinjiang and eastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. During the reign of Xianqing and Longshuo (661-663), the Tang army defeated the Western Turks, forcing the Western Turks to move to the west and north, and the jurisdiction of the Anxi Protectorate expanded to Xinjiang, the five countries named after Stanstan, the whole territory of Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan, bordering Persia in the west. The Tang Dynasty's management of the Western Regions was not a simple military occupation, but the establishment of prefectures and counties, population statistics, stationing troops, appointing local military and political governors, and taking the Anxi Protectorate as the highest military and administrative body of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, and exercising direct military and administrative jurisdiction over the Western Regions.
Wu Zetian chaotic government for more than ten years, the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions to create a good situation was destroyed, the first year of Xianheng (AD 670) the Tubo army captured the Anxi capital of the palace, and captured the four towns of Anxi, the Tang army and the Tubo army in the Western Regions to start a battle, just a few years, the Anxi capital and the four towns of Anxi changed hands several times.
Xu Qing, as a soldier, was very angry at Tubo taking advantage of the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty and occupying the territory of the Tang Dynasty, but it was a pity that the new army was only established for a few months, the submachine gun had not been successfully imitated, and there were only a few hundred pistols, and the combat effectiveness of the new army had not yet been completed, Xu Qing did not dare to lead more than 10,000 in his control, and only 5,000 private armed forces could go into battle to kill the enemy, replacing the Tang army to crusade against Tubo and regain the lost territory. Xu Qinggan took the risk of becoming a general criminal of the Tang Dynasty, and became the boss of the Heifengling bandit group and incorporated the remnants of the Sui Dynasty, because he clearly knew that during the period of Wu Zetian's rebellion and proclamation as emperor, the territory of the Tang Dynasty continued to shrink, and he successively lost control of the Western Regions (generally referring to the vast area west of Yumen Pass), Mobei (now Outer Mongolia and Siberia), Eastern Turkic, Khitan, and Korea.
Xu Qing is the leader of the remnants of the Sui Dynasty, accidentally saved Sun Jieyu in the Lanzhou Palace, and then took Sun Jieyu and Jinchi Princess Li Qinglian, and Tang Gaozong Li Zhi became an enemy who did not share the sky, and in the eyes of Wu Zetian, it was also a chaotic party, if Xu Qing sent private armed forces to recover the lost territory of the Tang Dynasty, not only could he not get the support of the Tang Dynasty, but it was very likely that the Tang Dynasty would stab him in the back, taking advantage of the opportunity of his army's expedition to Tibet and the emptiness of the rear defense, and dispatched a large army to kill Xu Qing's lair. Therefore, Xu Qing could only be patient with the occupation of the Anxi Protectorate and the four towns of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty by Tubo.
The business of the "Shuguang Group" plummeted because of the interruption of the Silk Road, and Xu Qing had to re-plan the layout, intending to make a major shift in the focus of the business of the "Shuguang Group", first, to Chang'an (now Xi'an), Luoyang, Fanyang (now Beijing) and other large inland cities, and then to develop to the south of the Yangtze River when the time is ripe, and second, to use the "Shuguang Group" to have more than 5,000 employees to marry the East * Turk * Turk girl as a wife, and the East * Turk * Turk people to do business, the Tang Dynasty East * Turk * Turk activity area war horses, Ordinary horses, cattle, sheep and livestock products were sold to the Han residential areas of the Tang Dynasty, and the tea, silk, ceramics, rice, wheat, corn, sorghum and other agricultural products of the Han people of the Tang Dynasty were sold to the activities of the Eastern Turkic people.
In order to boost morale, Xu Qing convened a high-level meeting of the "Shuguang Group", bitterly criticized the harm brought by Wu Zetian's chaotic government to the Tang Dynasty, frankly confessed his helplessness, and vowed that one day, he would lead troops to smash the Tibetan nest and eliminate this small country that dared to compete with the Han people for land, and finally returned to reality, pointed out the current predicament and way out, re-planned the layout of the "Shuguang Group", planned the future, and proposed to turn crises into opportunities, challenges into opportunities, and put eggs in multiple baskets.
Xu Qing had 10,000 subordinates in Fanyang and Liaodong Province (now the northeast area), but most of them were recruited by Wang Shouxin, Yang Cheng stayed in Fanyang and Liaodong for another three years, nominally their young master, Xu Qing was worried that the 10,000 subordinates there were not loyal to him, but loyal to Wang Shouxin and Yang Cheng, even if Wang Shouxin was transferred back to Liangzhou (now Wuwei, Gansu), and sent his cronies Jia Quan to Fanyang and Liaodong Province to preside over the work for more than half a year, and later sent ten more of Yang Ziyan's cronies to Fanyang and Liaodong Province to assist Jia Quan in his work, Xu Qing was still worried that Jia Quan and Yang Ziyan's ten subordinates would not be able to control the situation. The Silk Road was interrupted, in order to make a living for tens of thousands of people, Xu Qing had to look for new business opportunities and shift the commercial focus from the west to the east, so Xu Qing sent Zhao Tuozhi and his wife to Fanyang to prepare for the establishment of a dart bureau, and transferred a battalion from the first dart division and the second dart division to Fanyang, led by Zhao Tuozhi and his wife, Zhao Tuozhi was fully responsible for the affairs of Fanyang and Liaodongdao, and Jia Quan was changed to Zhao Tuozhi's deputy.
Zhao Tuozhi deeply admired Xu Qing's patriotic feelings, last year Xu Qing predicted that Wu Zetian's chaos would lead to the loss of half of the Tang Dynasty's land, and soon the Tang Dynasty lost the Western Regions that had been operating for decades, Zhao Tuozhi was convinced of Xu Qingxing's ability to predict the future, and felt that he was with the right person, plus Zhao Tuozhi was not sure whether he could control Yang Ziyan's brother, Yang Cheng, who was fighting for power with Yang Ziyan, and Wang Shouxin, who was suspected of being Yang Cheng's henchman, was not sure at all, so he put his two younger brothers Zhao Tuocai, Zhao Tuoyong, sister Zhao Chunhua, Her sister Zhao Qiuyue, her family, and the entire Zhao family, more than 200 people, were all recruited to Xu Qing and swore allegiance to Xu Qing. After that, Zhao Tuozhi's younger brother Zhao Tuocai, sister Zhao Chunhua and their families were left behind, Zhao Tuocai and Zhao Chunhua respectively took over Zhao Tuozhi and Mrs. Zhao's positions in Liangzhou, Zhao Tuozhi led two hundred tribesmen and two battalions of dart divisions, and rushed to Fanyang in batches.
In order to hide his identity, Zhao Tuozhi's public identity is the head of the Longmen Dart Bureau, which is actually the Fanyang Branch of the Weiwu Dart Bureau, and the name change is to avoid the Weiwu Dart Bureau being too large, attracting the attention of the imperial court and investigating the background of the Weiwu Dart Bureau. The number of Longmen Dart Bureau was only 1,000 in the first month of its establishment, and since then, it has continued to recruit, and has rapidly expanded to 10,000 people in less than three months, with branches all over Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Northeast China. Recruitment is a disguise, just to give the 10,000 subordinates of the original king Shouxin a good reason to be absorbed by Zhao Tuozhi. Zhao Tuozhi and his family were businessmen and martial arts families, good at management and business, and opened many stores in Fanyang, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, and Northeast China during the same period.