The Shanshan royal court was one of the first feudal capitals to be destroyed by the rebellion in Western Xinjiang.

The king of Loulan, Alikjiang, was the nephew of the king of Shanshan and the cousin of Huo Liya, the lord of Nanhua, who secretly colluded with the Turks and raised the banner of rebellion with the Tajik, the king of Shule, to directly challenge the rule of the Shengtang. And the first target he chose to attack was his uncle.

The Shanshan royal court was first baptized by the Loulan army, and soon after, it was destroyed by the Turks, including the royal palace, and most of the buildings in the city were dilapidated.

Therefore, when Gema Khan chose to set up the governor's official residence in Shanshan, he did not choose the royal court, but took a fancy to the city of Ulan, which was eighty miles away from the royal court.

Ulan, originally a military fortress, both the role of garrison and grain storage, is the strategic place of the Shanshan Kingdom, so the construction is very perfect, the town is particularly complete facilities. Originally, this place was designated as one of the twelve military towns by the Prince of the Temple, Ronia, precisely because of its important geographical location and size.

After Gema Khan took office, he naturally set up the Western Xinjiang Governor's Office in Ulan, and the main force of the Yakutia Army and the Turkic officials in Western Xinjiang were all stationed here.

At this time, Ulan City has changed a lot compared to before.

After months of renovation and renovation, a military fortress that was once neat and clean now has become quite nondescript.

First of all, the streets in Ulan were widened as much as possible by Gemar Khan, and many of the houses facing the streets were torn down one by one, in order to facilitate the galloping of cavalry and horses.

The original castle guard mansion has also more than doubled in size, and the surrounding walls have extended outward for nearly 100 paces. However, although a lot of new space has been added to the house, there is no construction or construction of houses, but a huge bare plaza has been leveled.

In the middle of the wide square, a huge purple tent stood tall, surrounded by small tents, which were densely guarded.

This is the official residence of the governor of Western Xinjiang - the tent of the Yelun clan.

In addition to the Governor's Palace, which was built with Turkic characteristics, the arrangements in various parts of Ulan City also had a "rule" meaning.

According to Gemar Khan's request, the countries of Western Xinjiang, large and small, must send their important members of the royal family to be stationed in Ulan as emissaries, ready to receive questions and orders from the governor.

All of a sudden, dozens of large and small, nameless, and chaotic vassal missions crowded into this small town. Just to house these people, Ulan City suddenly became difficult to find.

Larger countries, such as Loulan, Shule, and Chechi, naturally spend a lot of money to buy spacious courtyards, carefully repair them, and show their grandeur. Those little-known small countries could not find a suitable house for themselves in search of everywhere, and in the end they could only rent one or two thatched huts for a few hundred gold coins to act as embassies.

In order to create a prosperous scene, Gemar also forced merchants from all over the western Xinjiang to move to Ulan, where they set up shops, set up bazaars, and set up all kinds of businesses.

Originally, the town was not large, and the Western Xinjiang Governor's Mansion and the Yakutia Army lived, and so many missions, officials and their families came, and they were already a little crowded.

What's even worse is that Gema Khan was so greedy that he forced other countries to cooperate with him in the reorganization of the Western Xinjiang army at this time. In the blink of an eye, the Western Xinjiang countries scraped together 150,000 miscellaneous troops and squeezed into Ulan City.

In addition to the soldiers and horses of Yakutia, the entire army of more than 200,000 people who could be stuffed into the city was forced into the city, and if they couldn't fit it, they set up tents around the city and settled down.

It's a crowded and complicated situation, and it's a headache just thinking about it.

As soon as Li Jiangyao and the others arrived in Wulan City in Shanshanguo, they were immediately stunned by the strange scene in front of them. Colorful flower tents, round and round, layer after layer, as far as the eye can see, densely packed everywhere, in the middle of that splendid sea of flowers, surrounded by a small earthen city with teeth and claws, smoke everywhere.

Li Jiangyao couldn't help but laugh and said: "If this is a big fire, isn't it just a giant earthen stove that is alive and well?" ”

Zhou Xing nodded understandingly, let his subordinates catch up the ox cart, and squeezed into Ulan City with the bustling crowd.

This little-known small place can now be described as a gathering of merchants, and it is not difficult to do business, just find a vacant place on the side of the road, set up a stall, and sell along the street. Li Jiangyao instructed the three spies to look at the goods, while he pulled Zhou Xing and Shi Shiran wandered around.

The two of them only turned around for half a morning, and then walked all over Ulan. Seeing that the sun was in the middle of the day, it was time for lunch, so they found a clean and bright restaurant to shoot.

At this time, it was a meal, and the small restaurant was full of people. Under the warm greeting of the shopkeeper, Li Jiangyao and Zhou Xing picked a small table in the corner and sat down, ordered a plate of hand-handled mutton, three catties of roasted buns, and two large bowls of hot and fragrant haggis soup.

Waiting for the food to be served, Li Jiangyao eavesdropped on the diners next to him drinking and bragging, because Zhou Xing didn't know anything about the Western Xinjiang dialect, so Li Jiangyao listened and translated for him.

I saw an old man dressed as a merchant shouting loudly: "Oh, what kind of Metasequoia Town Frontier Army you are talking about, that's not new news." The two most eye-catching things at the moment, one is far away in the sky, and the other is close at hand. ”

When the surrounding people heard this, they all coaxed him and asked him what the big deal was.

The old man smacked a sip of the liquor and said triumphantly: "Let's talk about the one far away in the sky, which is naturally the great war between the Turks and the Holy Tang." Have you heard? The Crusade Army has begun to attack the Imperial Capital! ”

"Wouldn't it? Is it so fast? ”

"yes, yes, no, right? Didn't you say a few days ago that the army was still in Liangzhou? ”

"Listen to the old man's nonsense, where is the emperor, you can fight if you say you can fight?"

"Hey, don't believe me." The old man snorted: "My son is on an errand in the governor's palace, and when he was working a few days ago, he happened to hear several Turkic officers chatting, and two of them had just returned from the front line. According to them, the imperial capital was surrounded by regiments a month ago, and the battle was extremely fierce! ”

Li Jiangyao couldn't help but lift his spirits and listened carefully with his ears pricked up.

The old man continued: "Speaking of which, I have had the privilege of visiting the imperial capital twice before. Oh, that's amazing! The walls were built like cliffs, and when you stood below and looked up, your hat could fall off. Looking at both sides from the city gate, you can't see the bend of the city wall at a glance......"

"That's right, that's right!" A middle-aged Hu Shang nodded and said, "I've been there too." The city of Shengtang is built with bull spirit! Don't talk about fighting, just don't stop you, let you build a ladder and climb up casually, you may not be able to climb up! ”

When the people in the restaurant heard this, they couldn't help but sigh in amazement. Someone asked, "Oh, you're talking nonsense." Let's talk about it, have you captured the imperial capital? ”

The old man pouted: "Captured?" Saying it scares you to death! Even before the city walls were approached, tens of thousands of Turks died! Hey, have you ever heard of the eight-armed crossbow? It was the magic weapon of the Holy Tang Army. A giant crossbow is half the size of a house, and the shaft of the crossbow arrow is as thick as an arm! An arrow shoots out, and the brush sweeps down a large area in one fell swoop. My son heard from those officers that thousands of crossbows were placed on the head of the imperial capital, and they were fired like a torrential rain, whirring and whirring, and they did not stop for a moment. He suddenly lowered his voice: "The Turks have been beaten badly this time!" ”

The diners all had expressions of relief on their faces, looked at each other, and smiled silently.

A young man asked, "So, did the Holy Tang Army win?" ”

"Alas, it can't be said to win." The old man had a sad face: "After all, the Turks are the main attackers, and the Holy Tang is the main guard, so it can only be regarded as temporarily keeping the imperial capital." After all, there were many soldiers in the Eastern Crusade, and my son heard from the officer, and later they also fought desperately to the bottom of the city, and they also attacked the city gates in turn. But so far, it still hasn't been able to score. ”

"! You heard this a month ago! The young man complained, "What's new?" Maybe if we talk now, the Turks have already taken the imperial capital! ”

The old man glared at him: "What do you know about a hairy child?" Do you think Sheng Tang is a vegetarian and only knows how to stretch his neck for people to cut off? A large number of reinforcements are rushing to the imperial capital! They call it ...... What's it called, oh yes, it's called the army of King Qin! It is said that there are millions of soldiers and horses who will fight a decisive battle against the Turks. ”

After Li Jiangyao translated the old man's words to Zhou Xing, he looked at each other and smiled bitterly, and at the same time shook his head gently.

During the war, rumors like this were usually unreliable. What's more, Western Xinjiang is thousands of miles away from the imperial capital, and the battlefield situation is changing rapidly.

Like the two of them, the diners also felt that the news was too old to be believed, and after a few casual discussions, they felt uninterested.

Seeing that everyone's mood was not high, the old man continued to show off: "Ladies and gentlemen, the news of the Holy Tang Imperial Capital is just one of the two major events I just mentioned, and there is an interesting anecdote close at hand, do you want to know?" ”

A bearded man who looked like an official gentleman smiled and said, "You always say, could it be the riot in the military camp outside the city yesterday?" ”

"Yo? Looks like you've heard about it too? The old man was a little surprised.

The Hu official smiled slightly: "It's not that I heard about it, but I saw it with my own eyes." ”

At this time, even the old man was interested: "Oh, it's amazing! Tell us about it, did you really fight? Did you kill anyone? ”

Most of the people eating next to him had never heard of this time, so they couldn't help but ask what was going on?

The Hu man stopped talking, glanced at several companions, and saw that they all nodded and said that they might as well say something, so he cleared his throat and said, "I won't hide it from you." We are all subordinate officials of the court of Qiuci, and this time we are escorting military rations to Ulan. Yesterday afternoon, after the delivery procedures were completed, a few of us had planned to return to China overnight. Unexpectedly, there was a mutiny in the barracks! ”