"Journey to the West"

Author: Scarlet Polyp

Chapter 19: Flying into the Red Valley

In the early morning of August 20, the Han army took advantage of the mist of the autumn morning to carry out a large-scale cavalry raid on the Kushan army in the north of the city. Ma Chao led the Xiliang cavalry as the main attack, Ling Tong's Yue cavalry battalion and Liu Tan's Changshui battalion left and right, and the three-way iron cavalry broke through the periphery of the northern camp of the Guishan people with lightning speed. Although the Kushan army tried to use bows and arrows and spears to fight back, they were neither prepared nor strong enough to resist. After a quarter of an hour of symbolic resistance, the Kushan soldiers began to break up and fled to the camp west of the city. When the main force of Guishan arrived, the swaggering squad of the Great Han Iron Cavalry had returned to the city, leaving only the camp burned to ashes. This incident made the Guishan lord general Ji Bonada so angry that he scolded him, and he even removed several responsible generals before he stopped.

This raid humiliated the Kushan army from top to bottom, but they did not notice that a lightly armed Han cavalry broke away from the group during the battle and galloped quickly to the north.

Five days later, Guan Ping led the surprise attack team to Chigu, the capital of Wusun, and camped in a nearby mountain recess. Although the long-distance continuous attack made the soldiers and war horses extremely tired, Guan Ping did not dare to delay. After settling down briefly, he immediately sent Tuoba Seal and a few powerful soldiers to infiltrate Akiti Castle in disguise and connect with Wusun Neiying. The people waited in the recess for a long time, but they did not dare to make a fire, but only ate some dry food and drank some mountain spring water. When the sun was waning, Tuoba Feng and his party finally returned to the camp with Wusun Neiying.

Guan Ping, Zhao Guang, Liao Hua and other major generals immediately summoned this Wusun dignitary. This person's name is Feng Xun, and he is currently serving as the chief official of Wusun's house. Feng Xun was originally a member of the Great Kunmi tribe (about Wusun and Da Kunmi, see Chapter 6 for details, Sanlu Pingxice), and he was also Princess Haiya's right-hand man. Because he has been doing business in various places in the Western Regions all the year round, and even went to Liangzhou in the Han Dynasty, he is familiar with the customs and customs of various places, and he is also proficient in Chinese. He could speak well, and as soon as he sat down, he began to talk eloquently.

It turned out that as soon as the princess returned to Wusun, she quickly reversed the domestic situation: Le Guangmi saw that the princess had won the trust of the Han Dynasty, and she was very jealous. Although he had already claimed the king, he did not dare to continue to oppress the people of the Great Kunmi tribe for a while, nor did he dare to start negotiations with Guishan immediately. After Haiya returned to China, she also found that after the defeat of the Tianshan Mountains, the trust of various domestic ministries in Le Guangmi seemed to have been loosened, so she deliberately tested some officials who originally supported Xiao Kunmi.

Wusun has been established for hundreds of years, referring to the political systems of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu and the countries of the Western Regions, and has developed a unique political structure: in addition to the king called "Kunmi", there is one minister, one Daqi, one left and right general, three Hou, one general and one captain, two eunuchs, one official, two officials, two officials in the house, and one horseman. Since most of Wusun was still nomadic, although these high-ranking officials were nominally appointed and dismissed by the king, in fact most of them were held by the heads of various departments. In this way, once the king's decision harms the interests of the tribes, it can easily cause dissatisfaction among officials at all levels. A few months ago, Le Guangmi suffered a fiasco in the Tianshan Mountains, and the losses of all tribes were very serious, and some small tribes even lost more than half of their males, and this year's winter has become a problem. After fleeing back to China, Le Guangmi naturally could not fulfill the benefits promised to the tribes in advance, and instead of doing so, he intensified the oppression of the tribes in order to restore the strength of his own tribe - in this way, the prestige and prestige he had built up in the country for many years were greatly diminished, and the various ministries now regretted supporting him to the throne at that time. When they heard that he was going to fall to Guishan and use troops against the Han Dynasty again, many officials simply ran directly to complain to Princess Haiya.

Feng Xun said confidently: "Now there are many officials in the country who have promised to pledge allegiance to Her Royal Highness the Princess, and most of the officials are sympathetic to the Great Kun Mibu, only Da Qi, the left and right generals who control the guards of the Four Gates, and the cavalry who controls the Praetorian Guard are still loyal to Le Guangmi. The princess's people have already connected some of the soldiers at the north gate and the west gate to make trouble, and have taken the opportunity to launch a mutiny to lead the army into the city. ”

When everyone heard this, they were all overjoyed, and then asked Feng Xun about the structure and defense situation in Akatani Castle, Feng Xun knew everything, and the two sides agreed on the specific details of the city break, and the discussion continued until late at night.

After sending off the Wusun guests, Zhao Guang asked, "Brother Guan, do you have a plan in your heart?" ”

Guan Ping nodded and said, "Ziyuan, you are clear about the situation, I have decided that you will be the main attack tomorrow." I will explain a few points to you here, and when breaking the city, you must abide by every word, and there must be no mistakes. First, after nightfall tomorrow, you will divide your men into two groups, one of which will remain at the west gate, and the other will go to the north gate, and wait for the city to be broken. Second, whether the north gate is opened first or the west gate is opened first, your cavalry will immediately rush into the city. At the moment of the breach, when rushing into the city, the rest of the centaurs gave way to your cavalry. Be swift, like an arrow on a string, and do not delay for a moment. This requires you to wait in the west and north gates in advance. If the city finds out, shoot arrows, and don't mess up the team. ”

Zhao Guang said excitedly: "Yes, yes." ”

Guan Ping continued: "Third, as soon as your cavalry rushes into the city, you must immediately rush to the palace and occupy the four gates of the palace first. It is said that the royal palace of Wusun was built in imitation of the Weiyang Palace in Chang'an, and the scale was very large. Thou shalt not cause a rebel to enter the king's house and set fire to it and rob it. Regardless of the army or civilians, anyone who dared to break into the palace and set fire to it and rob it was to be beheaded on the spot. Fourth, you have arranged in advance, after storming the city gate, you must immediately divide several cavalry to occupy the main passages and crossroads, and there are cavalry constantly patrolling the streets and alleys, and it is strictly forbidden to burn, kill, *, and rob. While patrolling, we were informed of the ban of our army. If there is any violation, whether it is the Wusun people who have surrendered to sincerity or our own brothers, they will all correct the Dharma on the spot and show their heads to the public. Fifth, Wusun Wang Leguang is extremely evil and must be captured alive. After the city was broken, he was bound to escape from the palace. No matter if they go to heaven or earth, they must be caught! Although all the soldiers will arrest Le Guangmi, but your cavalry will storm into the city and occupy the palace first, so if there is no man from King Wusun, I will not agree, and you will only ask when the time comes. ”

Zhao Guang replied: "Unless he has wings on his back, I will never let him escape!" ”

Liao Hua said with a smile on the side: "Ziyuan, Mokua Haikou, if you escape Le Guangmi, you should be careful to deal with the general's military law!" ”

Guan Ping glanced at Zhao Guang with a grim face, and then said, "Sixth, Princess Haiya must be protected in time without any harm." ”

Zhao Guang said: "Yes, I will definitely protect Princess Haiya properly, and the rest of the important people who surrender to Cheng will not be able to hurt half of them." But I'm worried about the four gates......"

Guan Ping said: "You are only in charge of the affairs of the palace, the east gate and the south gate are guarded by Uncle Hua, and the west gate and north gate are guarded by Uncle Neng (Zhao Neng has been appointed as the military Sima). If Le Guangmi escapes through the gates, the sin is not on you. ”

Late at night the next day, outside the north gate of Akiti Castle

Zhao Guang and Zhao Neng immediately watched the movements in the city dozens of feet outside the city. About a little more than a little later, there was a commotion on the castle tower: at first I heard only the noise of the soldiers on the west city, and they were noisily walking towards the north city, and there were people in the north city running, shouting, and making a mess. After a while, someone shouted, "Make way for the boss!" Move! Move! Another group of people hurried to the northern city, apparently the "old man" himself to settle the dispute. Zhao Guang was impatient and whispered to Zhao Neng:

"Uncle Neng, how about telling the brothers to shoot the drawbridge at this time?"

Zhao Neng replied calmly: "Don't worry, my lord. Soon you will be able to enter the city without even a single arrow. ”

Zhao Guang said: "While the soldiers in the city are clamoring now, our brothers shoot the drawbridge and set fire to the gate, and no one in the city will resist." Wouldn't it be nice to get into town faster? ”

Zhao Neng listened attentively to the noise in the city, paid attention to the movement in the city, and the corners of his mouth showed a hint of a smile, and replied indifferently: "It's almost over." Look at the moon in the sky. It's probably almost the second watch, right? Probably soon. ”

Da Qi Yuzhao rode his horse to the Beicheng Tower surrounded by a group of personal soldiers. Due to his panic and nervousness, coupled with his old age and frailty, he ran all the way down and gasped. The defenders of the western and northern cities had many of his own men, and he received a report that it was his nephew who threatened the right general and shouted injustice. He wanted to take advantage of the critical moment that the soldiers had just clamored about to personally rescue the right general, so that things would not completely break up. When he approached the noisy crowd, he saw the mutineers twisting the arms of the right general, holding a big knife on his neck, and telling him to quickly take out the military rations and spare his life. The right general was so frightened that his teeth chattered and he couldn't speak. Yu Zhao wanted to speak, but the soldiers were crowded and noisy, so that he did not have a chance to speak. The eunuch beside Yu Zhao shouted: "Lord Yu Zhao has arrived!" Don't shout! Don't shout! Speak well, don't be unreasonable! Immediately one of the soldiers angrily retorted:

"Now that the Han cavalry is under the city, what are you adults still angry about? We left our respective tribes, cattle and sheep alone, and defended the city for the king, and we did not remember our merits for our hard work, and we did not have our share in the promotion, and now we can't even eat enough? If we want to let go and go back to the grassland to graze, what does this broken city have to do with us! So far, even if he is a big man? Big picture? ”

An officer of the same clan was afraid that Yu Zhao would suffer, so he pushed him and said, "This is not the time for the boss to speak, please leave quickly!" ”

Some of Yu Zhao's own soldiers followed the crowd of soldiers and shouted, and some of them crowded his mount and went down the city from the corner road, and fled quickly. Someone took advantage of the chaos to raise a knife to cut the right general, but was desperately blocked by his own soldiers and was seriously injured. The soldier was then killed by the mutineers, but the right general himself was rescued left and right in the chaos and fled down the city. At this time, several mutineers on horseback galloped from the west city to the south city in the city, and shouted at the same time: "The Han army has entered the city!" The Han army has entered the city! ”

A group of mutineers opened the north gate and shouted, "Come into the city!" Fast into town! Zhao Guang saw that the drawbridge had not yet been lowered, so he ordered the interpreter to shout loudly on the horse: "Hurry up and release the drawbridge!" Fast! Fast! At this time, Guan Ping sent a few personal soldiers Pegasus to the north gate and the west gate, and passed down the message: After the city is broken, all the civil and military officials of Wusun and large in the city, unless they lead the people to resist stubbornly, will not be killed, nor arrested, but not allowed to leave the city casually. Guan Ping also sent an order to the soldiers who entered the city to make this military order known throughout the city. When the soldiers heard this, they were all surprised and didn't understand why Guan Ping was so tolerant. Although Zhao Guang did not fully understand Guan Ping's intentions, his troops were the main troops entering the city, so he immediately conveyed Guan Ping's military orders to the whole team. He heard the soldiers behind him chattering, and turned around and said, "Don't say much! Follow General Guan's military orders! The drawbridge at the north gate fell, and Zhao Guang knocked the stirrup, and at the same time waved his spear, and ordered loudly: "Enter the city!" He took the lead and led his soldiers across the drawbridge and rushed into the city. The castle tower was burning in flames, and from time to time flying tiles and burning wood fell. A piece of fire happened to fall from in front of Zhao Guang, almost hitting the horse's head. With a wave of his gun, he knocked aside the pieces of fire that had fallen in the air, turned around and shouted, "Quick! He himself rushed into the city first, and the cavalry followed behind him and galloped forward. Running to the intersection near the Wusun Palace, Zhao Guang waved his hand again and said loudly: "Separate!" So the cavalry separated, Zhao Neng led people to occupy the city gate, and the teams that were originally waiting at the west gate had also rushed to the north gate at this time, led by Luo An and He Chong respectively, to carry out the designated task. Zhao Guang himself led three hundred cavalry and galloped directly towards the gate of the palace.

However, when Luo An led a group of cavalry to disperse the thousands of enemies gathered near the palace, he encountered hard stubble. He thought it would be easy to kill the enemy, but this enemy was clear-cut, well-armed, well-equipped, and apparently the elite and well-trained guards guarding the royal city, and only mobilized to fight at critical moments in the palace. Luo An rushed to the front with his own soldiers, shot several enemies in a row, and saw that the enemy not only did not flee in panic, but shouted and killed more fiercely. He thought that the two hundred cavalry around him were all lightly armed, and many of them were new to the battlefield, and they must not lead them to charge the enemy's formation—not only would they not win, but they would suffer heavy losses. He instructed the officers of the squad to remain calm. The brothers who led their own teams slowly retreated, and they were not allowed to mess up. After he himself broke off with his own soldiers, he kept shooting down the enemy, forcing the enemy to only dare to chase slowly, not too close. When retreating to a street, the terrain is slightly more open, and the cavalry is easy to play to their strengths. He said to the hundred people around him:

"You see, the one who rode the red horse is a general, as long as you get rid of this guy, it won't be difficult to defeat this team of guards."

The hundred people asked, "Then we will rush straight in front of him and behead him?" ”

"No, I can't. It seems that he is a person who knows martial arts. If we can't kill him at once, our two hundred horsemen will be surrounded instead. Today, our capital is not big, and the business is not small, so we can't fight hard, and we must be particularly cautious. ”

"Shoot him with an arrow?"

"No, I want to catch it alive and give it to my lords."

"How do you catch it?"

Luo An smiled confidently: "Each of you has three arrows in your hands, and when I say shoot, you will shoot his left and right soldiers in a volley, and I will do the work of capturing him alive." ”

A large white banner of the Wusun Praetorian Guard followed the red horse general, and he was already within seventy paces. The hundred people stole a glance at Luo An's face and asked in a low voice, "Shoot?" Luo An didn't make a sound, hung the two-stone strong bow back on his back, picked up the short bow hanging from his waist, took out three feather arrows, and clasped them in his hand. The enemy had already advanced to within fifty paces and began to take advantage of the open terrain to charge the Han cavalry guarding the street entrance in three directions. The Wusun officer raised his sword and shouted, as if he wanted to direct his soldiers to rush over. Luo An suddenly shouted in Xiongnu dialect:

"Wusun is against ****, the crime is monstrous, and now **** has sent 10,000 iron cavalry to attack, and you still don't surrender?"

Wusun had been adjacent to the Xiongnu for many years, and the relationship was very deep, and there were many people in the upper class who knew the Xiongnu dialect. When the enemy general heard this, he was really surprised, hesitated slightly, and looked left and right. Luo An immediately ordered: "Shoot!" At the same time he shot three arrows with his short bow: one of them struck the general's right hand, and the steel sword fell to the ground; Another shot hit his left hand, causing him to lose his reins and control his mount, and to run away from his horse's head; The third arrow hit one of the eyes of the horseman who came from behind to save him, and he fell off his horse. At the same time, Luo An's war horse was as swift as an arrow, and he had already rushed to the leader of Lian Yong, raising his sword in his right hand and grabbing his belt with his left hand, and throwing the enemy off his horse. "Bundle up!" He gave the order and continued to rush forward, slashing the flag-bearer who was panicking immediately, only to see the banner swaying and falling. There were more than 100 Wusun soldiers desperately rushed to rescue their generals, but Luo An slashed several people in a row, and they were not allowed to get close, and at the same time, the Han cavalry in the rear team also killed the chaotic Wusun soldiers. At this time, Guan Xing was ordered by Guan Ping to lead a team of Yue cavalry to outflank the enemy, and when he saw this, he took advantage of the situation to cut off the way back. Under the attack from both sides, the enemy was finally defeated, regardless of whether there was a road or not, he fled for his life in all directions, and those who could not escape threw down their weapons and knelt on the ground to beg for mercy.

Luo An joined forces with Guan Xing and reorganized the team. This time, because of the clever killing, although there were more than a dozen of the cavalrymen, only three died. Luo An and Guan Xing led the victorious men and horses, took the prisoners, and walked towards the square where Guan Ping immediately commanded in the center.

At this time, Zhang Bao also defeated another stubborn enemy, in addition to beheading a hundred ranks, he also brought back a group of prisoners and more than a dozen war horses. All the soldiers gathered in a square, lined up according to the Shiwu, gathered the bodies of more than 20 comrades who had fallen in battle, made arrangements for the wounded, and then beheaded all the captured Wusun guards, and hung their heads on the trees on both sides of the road. After doing all this, Guan Ping ordered Haosheng to take care of the leader of the Praetorian Guard captured by Luo An, escorted him by a chief, and then led the whole army into the palace.