[Vol. 1] Section 184: The Western Crusade

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Chapter 184: The Western Expedition

In the first year of Yuanfeng (110 BC), Zhao Ponu was sent to the west to conquer Loulan.

The cause of the incident was the attack and robbery of the Han envoys by Loulan, a small country in the Western Regions, which caused the blockage of the Silk Road.

Zhao Ponu, wandering the Huns when he was a child, later joined the army, and was lucky to become Huo Quai's Sima. Before Huo Quai's death, Zhao Ponu followed him on several expeditions, made many military exploits, and was promoted to the general of Eagle Strike, and was awarded the title of Conghuhou for his merits after the Hexi War. It can be seen that Zhao Ponu is Huo Quai's right-hand man.

On this expedition to Loulan, Zhao Ponu can be regarded as a meritorious service, and he lost the marquis for breaking the law before.

With such meritorious service, and familiar with the terrain, experienced generals in the military set out for Liu Che, Liu Che is a hundred assured.

Sure enough, Zhao Ponu quickly brought good news to Liu Che.

He bewildered Loulan by threatening to attack the Cheshi, but secretly dispatched troops to attack Loulan, defeated Loulan in one fell swoop, and captured the king of Loulan alive. After breaking Loulan, he killed the car master with lightning speed, and the car master was broken.

As a result, Zhao Ponu was given the title of Marquis of Xunye and resided in the Western Regions to deter other disobedient countries in the Western Regions.

The Western Regions were given temporary tranquillity.

Liu Che understands that Loulan, the Cheshi incident is by no means an accidental incident, behind him is still the Huns who are making trouble, the so-called hundred-legged insects, dead but not stiff, and the Huns are not dead.

Although the Huns have changed their tactics over the years and taken the initiative to show favor to the Han, Liu Che still knows the actions they have secretly made. Although the current Xiongnu Shan Yu Uwei does not have the great martial arts of his father Yi Zhixian, but his scheming is good, he took the initiative to retreat, showed goodwill with the Han, and occasionally killed a few Han envoys to show that our feelings are not so strong.

Uwei Shan Yu discarded a large area of land in the East, but he started the idea of the Western Regions. During this period, the Han and Xiongnu fought with each other, focusing on diplomacy, Liu Che hoped to further suppress the Xiongnu by winning over the Western Regions countries, while Uwei harassed the Han frontier by controlling the Western Regions countries behind his back.

Although the confrontation between the two great powers was not as fierce as on the battlefield, it hurt those small countries in the Western Regions.

Neither party can be offended, and everyone has to accompany the smiling face.

During this period, the grass on the walls of the small countries in the Western Regions became instinctive when they saw the wind.

In the sixth year of Yuanfeng (105 BC), Uwei Shan Yu was very angry when he heard that Wusun and the Han envoys were connected, and he was ready to send troops to attack Wusun.

Uwei Shan Yu is nothing more than scaring and scaring Wusun. Because he will soon find out that with the efforts of Zhang Qian and his successors, not only Wusun, but also the larger countries in the Western Regions, such as Dawan and Yueshi, are all envoys to the Han Dynasty, and when the Xiongnu are the strongest, they can't kill them together, let alone now!

But Kunmo, the king of Wusun, was still panicked, and he immediately sent an envoy to Chang'an to propose marriage.

Kun Mo, who was seventy or eighty, wanted to obtain Liu Che's protection through marriage, but Liu Che naturally couldn't ask for it, so he chose Liu Xijun, the daughter of Liu Jian, the king of Jiangdu, to marry Wusun.

Liu Xijun, the princess of Jiangdu, became the first princess in history to go out and kiss. From then on, she was full of sorrow and washed her face with tears. We can see from Liu Xijun's poems:

My family married me to the side of the sky, and entrusted it to the king of Wusun in a foreign country. The dome is the room, the wall is the wall, the meat is the food, and the cheese is the pulp. I often think about my heart, and I am willing to return to my hometown for Huang Huxi.

Regardless of whether he contributes or not, Liu Xijun sacrificed his happiness in exchange for a moment of peace for the border, whether it is right or wrong, cruel or right, who can say clearly.

Liu Xijun is the first royal orthodox princess to be fake, but it is certain that she will not be the last. And we will also see that people's happiness is actually an attitude. When you look at everything pessimistically, you will not be happy. And when you're optimistic, happiness comes with it. For example, Princess Xie Wu, who was also sent to be a relative, Wang Zhaojun is the latter.

Seeing that King Wusun and Han had successfully intermarried, the Xiongnu were anxious, they thought about it and thought of a way, and almost let Kunmo roll off the throne.

The Huns informed Kunmo that we would also intermarry with you.

Kunmo was taken by the strength of the Huns, and only accepted. In order not to offend the two bosses, he made Princess Jiangdu the right lady, and the daughter of the Xiongnu clan as the left lady.

This aptly illustrates the dilemma of Wusun and Kunmo--- and they are trying to survive in the gap between the two countries.

In the sixth year of Yuanfeng (105 years ago), Wu Wei Shan Yu died, and his son Wu Shilu succeeded to the throne.

At a young age, the Xiongnu continued to migrate to the northwest.

Once again, the tension between Han and Hungary eased.

In the first year of Taichu (104 years ago), I have to mention one thing, from this year, the beginning of our lunar calendar was changed to the first month, which is still used today. And this change is related to a figure we have a lot of respect for, his name is Sima Qian. More about him later.

In August of the same year.

Something happened again to the west.

This time, the protagonist is Dawan.

Liu Che sent someone to Dawan's Second Division City to buy some sweaty BMW and came back. This was a trivial matter, but because of the preciousness of the horse, King Wan solemnly summoned his ministers to discuss the matter. After discussion, King Wan thought that the horse in Ershi City was Dawan's BMW. Besides, the Han Dynasty is too far away from Dawan, and even the Han Dynasty envoys are killed or injured more than half of the risk, not to mention the army, so the Han can't help us. So I'd rather offend them than give BMW.

The Han envoy said all the good things, hoping that King Wan would understand the difficulties of being an envoy, and he would lose his head if he returned empty-handed. But King Wan ate the scales this time. This caused great anger among the Han envoys, who cursed King Wan one after another, and smashed the golden horses brought by the envoys, and then returned home with the pieces. Who knew that the matter was learned by King Wan, and King Wan was furious, thinking that he had been insulted, so he ordered King Yu Cheng on the way back to the Han delegation to rob and kill him. As a result, the Han envoys were killed and their belongings were looted.

The bond between the two countries was thus concluded.

People all over the world know that Liu Che is by no means easy to mess with.

Dawan is far away, but if you provoke him, he still wants you to suffer.

This is Liu Che's bottom line.

When the envoy who bought the horse came back, Liu Che was really furious.

He immediately summoned a man, gave him the title of General of the Second Division, and ordered him to immediately lead his troops into battle.

This person's name is Li Guangli, he is the elder brother of the favorite concubine Lady Li, and he has never been on the battlefield.

Liu Che let Zhao Ponu and other frontier generals not use, but let Uncle Lang, who had no military experience, go to the battlefield and fight from afar, it was crazy.

In fact, Liu Che is not crazy, he is selfish.

Li Guangli's younger sister, Mrs. Li, is another beauty who is favored by Liu Che's harem after Mrs. Wang.

Mrs. Li's other elder brother, the court musician Li Yannian, once described his sister's appearance as follows, "There are beautiful women in the north, peerless and independent, who look at the city and the country." ”

After Mrs. Li was favored, Li Guangli never rewarded her, but the wind on Mrs. Li's pillow blew tightly.

Therefore, Liu Che took advantage of this expedition to Dawan to let Li Guangli get credit, the purpose was to give him a marquis. In Liu Che's eyes, in a country like Dawan, there are not many soldiers, and stepping on it is like pinching an ant to death, and Li Guangli is enough.

Besides, Li Guangli doesn't know how to fight and doesn't have to worry, Liu Che arranged a few battle-hardened generals for him. Li Guangli only needs to be able to ride a horse and speak.

In the second year of Taichu (103 BC), Li Guangli traveled thousands of miles to Yanze after many hardships and hardships.

Seeing that there was still a long way to go, Li Guangli was shaken, he originally thought that this was a beautiful difference, but he didn't want to suffer all the hardships in the past year. Along the way, small countries closed their cities and took refuge, food and water could not be replenished, and sixty percent of the soldiers died of illness.

"Damn, this fight is a fart." Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, finally made up his mind and went back.

He led his troops back to Dunhuang. The above table shows the difficulties to Liu Che.

Liu Che smashed the recital, thinking that he had given a good news, but now it was in vain.

He issued an edict mercilessly, "Those who retreat into the Jade Gate Pass, behead!" ”

The general of the second division looked at his brother-in-law's edict, and there was one word on his face, bitter!

However, he didn't want to go to the desert to die now, so he came down in Dunhuang on the grounds of rest. Looking at his appearance, he hoped that his brother-in-law could change to a general to conquer Dawan.

This time, it's another year, and Liu Che has no intention of changing people.

But Li Guangli still dragged on, and in this year, another major event happened, which made Li Guangli see the hope of being replaced.

Zhao Ponu led 20,000 cavalry to Junji Mountain to surrender, and it was the left and right captains of the Xiongnu who were ready to surrender. Because the Xiongnu's son Shan Yu was young, but his temper was not small, he liked to kill, and the natural disasters in the northwest were frequent, and the Xiongnu people's minds changed, and the left and right captains of the Xiongnu were willing to exchange the head of Er Shan Yu for the assistance of the Han Dynasty.

It's a pity that the news leaked, the left and right captains were killed, and the Xiongnu tightly sealed the news, and when the appointment was about to be reduced to the day, Er Danyu prepared 80,000 cavalry and waited for Zhao Ponu's cavalry.

As a result, due to being outnumbered and unprepared, Zhao Ponu became a prisoner of the Huns.

The most important generals in the northwest were captured, which shocked the government and the opposition, and the ministers all wrote to the courtiers, hoping that Liu Che would not fight the idea of Wanguo again, and should raise the strength of the whole country to deal with the Xiongnu.

Liu Che didn't think so, he said that Wanguo was small, and if he couldn't take it, then the Xia Kingdom, Wusun, Luntai and other countries in the Western Regions would despise our country even more, and we wouldn't get Wanma. So Wanguo must fight.

He immediately issued a reminder order, and replenished the soldiers, grain and grass of the Vawan troops. Liu Che mobilized the world and sent all the world's criminals, outlaws, sons-in-law, Jia people, people with city registration, and those with city registration and their parents' eldest parents to become soldiers in Dunhuang (Qike). In order to increase the defense of the northwest, another 180,000 troops were sent to defend Jiuquan, Zhangye and other places.

He did all this, only hoping that Li Guangli would have no worries and bring him a hearty victory.

Li Guangli finally understood his brother-in-law's determination, and the sand in the northwest would inevitably have to take a few more sips.

In the third year of Taichu (102 BC), the second division general finally raised 60,000 troops again and set out to conquer Dawan.

The general of the second division found that the treatment of this expedition was very different from the previous one.

The countries along the way can be described as extremely friendly, not only taking the initiative to make the east, but also helping each other, which made the second division general sigh for a long time, "I knew earlier, Lao Tzu would have brought more soldiers and oil." ”

The general of the second division led his troops to Luntai, but Luntai did not know how to lift it, and the general of the second division attacked for several days and encountered stubborn resistance. But after all, Luntai was a small city, and it was finally broken, and after the city was broken, the second division general brutally ordered the city to be slaughtered.

The general of the second division led 30,000 horses to continue westward and arrived at Wancheng, the capital of Wanguo, and the Wan army could only retreat into the city to protect itself. Wancheng is strong, the second division general is ready to lead a thousand people to attack Yuchengcheng, the place where the Han mission had an accident, before moving the troops, his idea is to cut off the water source of the capital of Wanguo, leaving most of the troops to continue the siege.

However, Yu Chengcheng was not easy to attack, and the general of the second division suffered defeat and fled back. The second division general ordered the deputy general Shangguan Ji (remember this man) to continue the attack on Yu Chengcheng, and finally the city was broken, and King Yu Cheng fled to Kangju, and Shangguan Ji pursued all the way to Kangju. Kangju was forced to hand over King Yu Cheng to Shangguan Ji in person. Later, King Yu Cheng was beheaded by the Han knights and sent to the base camp of the second division general.

The Han army besieged Wancheng for more than a month, the outer city has been destroyed, the brave generals of the Wanjun army have been captured, and the people in the city are already panicking. The princes and ministers of Wan Kingdom saw that if they continued like this, they would soon be destroyed and slaughtered, so it was better to surrender than this.

Surrender is to have a greeting gift, and the initiator of this matter is King Wan, in order to show sincerity, the nobles of Wan can only borrow the head of King Wan as a greeting gift.

Wan envoy went out of the city to see the general of the second division, "Please don't attack again, you want the BMW of the second division, we will give it all, if your country continues to attack, then our ally Kangju will definitely send troops, when the time comes, your country will be attacked inside and outside, then it will not be cheap." Think again, general! ”

There was a threat in these words, if he met other generals, I am afraid that he would have pushed the envoy out and beheaded him a long time ago, but the general was Li Guangli.

Li Guangli didn't want to fight, but now he can force the enemy and get a BMW, which is better. Moreover, he heard that Kangju was also a large country, and that there was still enough food in the city, and although their water source was cut off, they could still ensure drinking water by digging wells. If you procrastinate, you don't have the holding to win.

Besides, this strange ghost place is really uncomfortable.

Therefore, he immediately changed his smile, "It's all your lord's fault." ”

As a result, the two armies shook hands and made peace, and Li Guangli obtained rich spoils of war and returned to the dynasty with high spirits.

In the spring of the fourth year of Taichu (101 BC), Li Guangli returned to Chang'an, bringing back countless booty, and the countries of the Western Regions even sent royal children to Chang'an as hostages. Li Guangli was awarded the title of Marquis of Haixi, the deputy general Shangguan Ji was promoted to Shaofu, and the rest of the soldiers were rewarded.

Li Guangli broke Wan, and the countries of the Western Regions really understood the strength of Han.