"Journey to the West"

Author: Scarlet Polyp

Chapter 23: A Hundred Years in the Western Regions

The sixth day of the first month of October is the fifth day when the prince of Qiuci, Bai Hechou, arrives in Chang'an, and it is also the day when he faces the saint. On this day, he got up early in the morning.

With the help of the attendants, he was fully dressed, and the genius was numb. In order to show the solemnity of the imperial court on this matter, Prime Minister Li Wei personally came to the accommodation, said some words of comfort to Hechou, accompanied him on horseback, opened the way with the gift of state guests, and walked towards Weiyang Palace. Along the way, many Chang'an people had already gotten up early, set up various food stalls on the street, and started their day's work in the morning mist. Bai Hechou looked and listened, feeling very fresh, and thought in his heart: "After all, it is the capital of the **** kingdom!" The people are so diligent and prosperous, but I wonder if I, the people of Qiuzi, will be able to be so happy in the future. Thinking of the situation in Qiuzi, his heart tightened, he glanced at Li Wei, and couldn't help asking:

"Prime Minister, what is the holy will for us and the other states of the Western Regions?"

Li Wei smiled slightly and replied: "The emperor summoned the prince today to ask what the prince has to say about the affairs of the Western Regions. ”

"The prime minister is high and powerful, and the emperor trusts him very deeply, but I don't know what the public opinion is?"

"Prince, you know that the emperor is a longitudinal emperor, and many things are arbitrary......

"The important ministers of the public department, often accompany the Son of Heaven, and hope to solve the confusion of the river."

"I want to caress it."

"That's it! On behalf of the people of the Western Regions, the people of Hechou thanked the prime minister. Bai Hechou said happily.

"But now that the Kushan thieves are very strong, combat is still the first priority."

Bai He said with a sad face: "As long as the Great Han can treat the people of the Western Regions well, we are all willing to die for the Great Han and fight against Guishuang together." ”

"Hehe, that's good, that's good. After the prince has met the emperor, we will discuss it carefully. ”

Bai Hechou's heart stirred: "It seems that the emperor is indeed the lord of holiness!" It was he who saluted Li Wei on the horse and said, "

"Bai He is sad to smear his liver and brain to repay the emperor's grace!"

Li Wei didn't make a sound, and he admired this prince of Fan Bang very much in his heart. He felt that although Bai Hechou had a strong temperament, he was loyal, knowledgeable, and thoughtful, and he was a talent that could be created.

They dismounted outside the east gate of Weiyang Palace and entered the imperial city. There is a Han generation, the prime minister's mansion was built in the east of the Weiyang Palace, for the sake of secrecy, non-three princes and nine kings or prime ministers, no one can enter without a summons, so Li Wei can not invite Baihe Chou to sit in the mansion, although it is convenient to rest in the Honglu Temple, after the east gate of the road and Zongzheng Mansion is, but the inner servant came out to announce the edict into the palace and saw His Majesty too far, so Li Wei accompanied him to sit in the cold front hall of the court room (today is not the day of the Chang Dynasty) to chat, waiting for the eunuch to pass the decree.

About a meal later, an attendant came out of it, and it was rumored that the prime minister and the prince of Qiuzi rushed to the Chengming Palace to see the driver, and the two hurriedly dressed up and followed the eunuch into the palace. When they walked over from the west side of the front hall, passed through the Youshun Gate, and walked outside the Chengming Palace, Emperor Liu Shuo was already sitting on the couch waiting. Behind the couch, there are eunuchs holding umbrellas and fans, and there are many palace maids standing on both sides. Two one-person-high brass crane incense burners are emitting fine smoke, the hall is full of strange incense, and there are two rows of gold-armored Yulin guards standing outside the hall, and the honor guard in his hand is shining golden in the rising sun in the morning. Li Wei entered the palace first, Bai Hechou carefully learned the etiquette from Da Honglu and the officials in the Taichang Mansion before seeing the car, and then skillfully performed the Chang Chao salute, holding the ivory Chao Wat in his hand, kneeling on the ground paved with white marble outside the door with his head down, waiting for the question. When he heard the edict of the chamberlain telling him to break into the temple, he quickly got up, bowed down and climbed the steps from the left, and after entering the hall, he saluted again, and did not dare to raise his head.

Although it has been in power for many years, it is not a small number to meet with Chief Hu, but it is the first time that Liu Shuo has summoned the royal family of the Western Regions alone. In his heart, he very much hoped that the national policy of the Western Regions that he had decided would be supported by this prince of the Western Regions, who was quite popular. For a moment, Liu Shuo didn't speak, but glanced Bai Hechou up and down. This prince of Qiuzi, who was from a prominent background, proficient in martial arts, and familiar with various cultures, gave him a particularly good first impression: Bai Hechou is only nineteen years old this year, similar to the Son of Heaven, with a handsome face and fair skin, a high nose and deep eyes, a slightly pointed chin, and looks thin. But his pair of sword eyebrows, angular face, and broad forehead have a calm and resolute look. After looking at Bai Hechou, who was kneeling in front of him with his head bowed, the Son of Heaven spoke:

"The king went west, the whole country responded, and made great contributions, and now he has worked tirelessly, thousands of miles to see, and his loyalty and diligence are commendable. I was very pleased. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Shuo asked the eunuch to take out money, jade amber, sword, and crown clothes, and give them to Bai Hechou. After he was grateful for his gratitude, Liu Shuo went straight to the topic: "Now that the Western Regions are at the beginning of peace, and all kinds of waste are waiting to be rebuilt, in Yiqing's opinion, how should the decisions be made in the future of the Western Regions?" ”

He Chou said: "Your Majesty, the people outside the courtiers, are rude, and they dare not speak lightly about state affairs, but I hope that Your Majesty will treat the people of the Western Regions well." ”

"I'm too worried. After this battle, the Western Regions will no longer be a vassal of the Han Dynasty, and in my hands, he will become a state of the Han Dynasty, and it will be owned by the Han Dynasty forever. Liu Shuo was a little emotional, stood up and said, "The people of the Western Regions are the people of the Han Dynasty from now on, and I will naturally treat everyone equally, and I will not be biased." ”

"Your Majesty loves the people like a son, which is a blessing to hundreds of thousands of living beings in the Western Regions. However, although the land of the Western Regions is large, the water source is scarce, the land is weak, and there is not much arable land, which is far inferior to the fertile soil of the Central Plains. ”

Li Wei said with a smile on the side: "No agriculture is insufficient, no work is unfavorable, no business is not rich." The Western Regions can make great profits from trading with the countries of the Far West, even if their land is insufficient, they can also benefit the country and the people. Don't worry, the prince is already in the works. ”

"Since Your Majesty has already made up your mind, the minister has nothing to ask for. The ministers often feel despised, admire the king, and implore His Majesty's quasi-ministers to enter Taixue to study. ”

"Qing is too modest, the affairs of the Western Regions, I will rely on Aiqing more in the future." After comforting Bai He's sorrow for a few words, the Son of Heaven said in a peaceful tone: "Aiqing has come all the way east to Saddle Horse and Fatigue, let's rest today." As for the matter of entering Taixue, it will be a hard trip by the prime minister. Aiqing is in Chang'an, and for the time being, it is handled by the county marquis, and the Shaofu is handled. ”

Bai Hechou stopped saying anything, kowtowed and resigned. As soon as he walked outside the door, a eunuch came out and said that the emperor had given him wine and food in the Jinhua Palace, so he followed the eunuch to the east. The Son of Heaven gives wine and rice as usual, and the dishes are only boiled pigs, beef, mutton and fish four products, which cannot be eaten seriously, and each product can only move the chopsticks and taste a bite; You can't drink the wine seriously, you can only pour the wine in the cup on the ground, and you have to kowtow again to thank you. But at that time, this event was considered a special favor of the Son of Heaven, and it was also a rare honor as a foreign minister. Bai Hechou knew the Han rites, and at this time he was moved to tears, kowtowing to the north, and the mountain shouted long live.

Qiuzi, he Qiancheng.

The offensive and defensive battle of his Qiancheng has been going on for more than two months, and the situation has become more and more favorable for the Han Dynasty.

At the beginning of October, the Western Regions gradually entered the late autumn, and the cold north wind blowing from the Tianshan Mountains made the earth boundless and gloomy, and the military supplies of the Kushan army outside the city became more and more difficult - there was no grain and grass to collect around his Qiancheng, and the supplies from Shule City in the rear have gradually become unsmooth in recent days. The Kushan commander Ki Bonada knew that before the winter came, the army would either break the city or withdraw to Shule to rest, otherwise there would be a danger of annihilation in the winter. He made up his mind to make a last-ditch effort, and launched a new round of frantic offensive against him in a few days in early October. Unlike the previous times of multi-use infantry, Guishan mixed a large number of light cavalry from nomadic tribes in this offensive, suppressed the head of the city with cavalry shooting, and finally succeeded in luring the Han cavalry out of the city to engage in battle. When the Great Han Iron Cavalry cut through the Guishan cavalry like a sharp blade and roared towards the main general of Guishan, Ji Bonada took the opportunity to use the hole card in his hand - the war elephant army that had swept Tianzhu.

These war elephants, which came out of their own poison (present-day India), have been domesticated by humans for more than two generations, and have undergone rigorous training since birth, washed wildly, and tamed like war horses when they reach adulthood. The elephant is two feet tall and weighs as much as a mountain, and is wrapped in armor at all vital points, and carries a hut-like platform on its back, equipped with a pikeman, an archer, and an elephant slave (the war elephant is blindfolded during battle, and all are controlled by the elephant slave). When fighting, in addition to being assisted by two warriors on their backs, under the control of the elephant slaves, the impact and trampling of the war elephant itself are the most terrible weapons, ordinary cavalry and infantry cannot resist at all, and ordinary weapons cannot pierce the tough skin of war elephants. This terrible weapon was a local specialty of Tianzhu, and was used by many princes during the civil war in the last years of the Mauryan Empire. After the Kushan Empire established by the Otsutsuki clan unified the northern body poison, this type of army was continuously improved, and it was used many times in battles with the Western Anxi, and it had greatly killed and injured the cavalry units that the Anxis were proud of in field battles. Although it has such outstanding combat power, the shortcomings of the war elephant army's huge consumption, slow speed, and low adaptability make it impossible to deploy a large number of them, and the 90,000 army of Kushan is only a hundred war elephants in the east.

Although he had been mentally prepared for the appearance of the war elephant, Ma Chao's Xiliang Iron Cavalry still suffered a loss in one face. After breaking through the Kushan cavalry, the war elephants that were originally quietly crawling behind the Guishan infantry phalanx suddenly pressed towards the Han army with a overwhelming momentum. The knights in the vanguard of the Zhenxi Army could not hold their feet, and constantly bumped into the war elephants like city walls, or were rolled up and thrown out by the long noses of the war elephants, and suffered heavy casualties for a while. The forward general Ma Dai was one, and he hit the war elephant with a fierce shot, which made the tiger's mouth numb, but the head of the gun only entered more than an inch, and there was no blood at all, and there was a huge shock in his heart, and he heard the soldiers behind him shouting "General be careful!" "I saw an elephant soldier on the back of the war elephant stabbing from above. Ma Dai hurriedly dodged sideways, grabbed the spear and dragged it down. The bows and arrows of the follow-up troops of the Xiliang cavalry fell on the war elephants like a torrential rain, but the iron armor and mud-coated skin on the front of the war elephants had a high defense against the bows and arrows, and this round of blows could only slightly hinder their progress.

"What a brute!" Seeing this, the main general Ma Chao hurriedly shouted to the soldiers around him: "Quickly blow the horn and assemble, don't rush into the enemy formation." ”

"Woo~woo" The huge horn sound resounded across the battlefield, and the Xiliang cavalry stopped advancing and gathered towards Ma Chao's team. When Ma Dai saw Ma Chao, he threw his helmet on the ground and said, "Big brother, this beast is evil, and he is invulnerable, how can this be good?" ”

Fa Zheng looked at the approaching elephant array in the distance, and said in a deep voice: "Fortunately, this thing moves slowly, if I run on an iron horse, I think I won't be able to catch up." ”

"We have suffered such a big loss, we have lost thousands of brothers and sisters, should we just run back to the city in disgrace?" Ma Dai shouted dissatisfiedly, "No, I will bring my own soldiers to fight with this group of beasts, even if I die in battle, I can't lose Xiliang Jian'er's face!" ”

"Presumptuous! Shut up! Ma Chao glared at his younger brother and turned back to Fa Zhengdao, "What does filial piety mean is that our army uses the speed of the iron cavalry to bypass the group of beasts in front of us and directly intersperse the enemy formation, right?" ”

"The general is wise, that's exactly what it is!"

The Xiliang cavalry reacted very quickly, and without waiting for the war elephants to rush closer, they divided into several groups and ran away from the distance, attacking the rest of the Kushan army. After the war elephant succeeded in one blow, it had no place to use, and could only continue to go back and forth to support the Kushan army. However, the Han cavalry did not fight deeply in every blow, but only used cavalry shooting to make the Kushan army constantly lose blood, and wear down the enemy's defense layer by layer. Except for the elite pikemen, the Kushan soldiers were not very well protected, and under the rain of arrows of the Han army, the casualties continued to increase, and the morale was on the verge of collapse.

"This group of enemies is too cunning!" Looking at the eroded battle situation, Ki Bonada's heart was filled with a deep sense of powerlessness. The Kushan people's invincible tactics in the long-term war for hegemony, spear formations, city digging, catapults, and war elephants, did not achieve any results in front of this opponent. The opponent is not only strong in military strength, but also quickly discerns its own strategy. In the past, I had only heard of how rich and vast the Eastern Dynasty of the Great Han was, but I didn't expect it to be so good at fighting, is this really an enemy that Guishan can't deal with?

"My lord, the war elephants are exhausted! Let's retreat! ”

The anxious voices of the soldiers on the left and right interrupted the thinking of the Guishan commander, yes, it's time to retreat, maybe this year is destined to be unable to defeat Qiuzi, but our army has occupied Shule and has the gateway to the east, when returning to the country, exaggerate the results of the battle, beat the close ministers, and want to come to my emperor's side, and should also explain the past. After the spring of the next year, some more people will be mobilized from the country, and after the preparations are more sufficient, the victory or defeat is not certain. Ki Bonada persuaded himself like this, and his mood gradually calmed down, and he waved his hand and said, "Retreat." ”

This retreat announced the end of the entire Qiancheng Campaign, and also put the Kushan army on a bloody road back.