Chapter 158 Anxi white-haired soldier (two in one, no change at night)
"Therefore, General Wuwei, the ambassador to the Khotan army, the envoy to the Khotan garrison, and the seventh grandson Zhengtong of Zhenggong, pay their respects to Lord Zhang Erlang of Shazhou!"
"Therefore, the garrison envoy of Yanqi, the magistrate of Shule Pianzhou City, and the commander-in-chief of Yanqi, Yang Gongtao, paid homage to the seventh generation Sun Yanghe, and paid homage to Lord Zhang Erlang of Shazhou!"
"Captain Guo Yi of Han Haijun in Ting Prefecture, who knew Shenxian Town, and deputy envoy of the photojinglue Adya Cao Gongba Lingjie, the eighth grandson Li Wang, paid a visit to Mr. Zhang Erlang of Sha Prefecture."
The three people who reported their families to pay homage to Zhang Zhao were all old acquaintances.
Zheng Tong is the bald monk Huitong.
Yang He is the monk Huixing, Daozhen's great disciple who practiced silent meditation but never spoke much.
Li Wang is Li Qilang.
Behind them, Master Daozhen, who had already announced his family status, was sitting on a futon.
As the three of them talked, they also raised an already worn fish bag and handed it to Zhang Zhao.
Zhang Zhao took it and took a look. It contained the official seals and fish charms of the last Khotan garrison envoy Zheng Zhi, Yanqi garrison envoy Yang Riyou, and Han Haijun Guoyi Captain Cao Lingjie.
"A lonely city thousands of miles away is full of white-haired soldiers!" Zhang Zhao's eyes were filled with heat as he took the three fish bags and raised them high above his head.
"I have finally found you, and finally found the descendants of Anxi's loyal ministers! The sky has eyes!"
After speaking, Zhang Zhao solemnly put the three fish bags into the prepared wooden box.
"If the three of you are willing, Zhang Erlang would like to keep these three fish bags with him. When the matter is over, I hope to take the fish bags with me personally to Qiuci to pay homage to the heroes of the Tang Dynasty!"
After Zhang Zhao finished speaking, Master Daozhen on the futon smiled and nodded, "Erlangjun is determined. From the day when my ancestors left Kucha, I have always been looking forward to returning to Kucha and returning to Kucha in a dignified manner.
I’ll leave the three-fish bag to Mr. Erlang.”
Monk Huitong, also known as Zheng Tong, touched the terrible scar on his head and said, "Zheng really didn't expect that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty had long forgotten us homeless people, but Mr. Erlang still thought of me.
It would have been nice if Erlangjun could have come a few decades earlier. At that time, my ancestor Zheng Gong’s taboo was still there. How happy he would be if he could see this day!"
"How many decades earlier have you come?" Zhang Zhao asked doubtfully.
If he remembers correctly, Zheng Zhi, the garrison envoy to Khotan, should have been around 790, because the reason why his name has been passed down to later generations is all because of the records of Monk Wukong. When Monk Wukong passed through Anxi, it was in 790
about.
According to records, the time when the Tubo army captured Qiuci, the last stronghold of the Tang Dynasty, was around 808. 808 was more than a hundred years ago from the current year of 932. How could it have happened decades earlier?
Moreover, his current identity is the Duke of Fengtian of the Jin Kingdom of Khotan and the governor of Polu Prefecture. Normally, when calling a person, you should use the highest official rank to address him. How come he is directly called Zhang Erlangjun of Shazhou? What do these people think about Khotan?
Jin Guo doesn’t seem to trust him very much!
However, judging from Zhang Zhao's observations over the past six months, Li Shengtian's Khotan Kingdom can be said to be quite Chinese. Li Shengtian himself also has great trust in Anxi Tang'er. In the Khotan Kingdom alone, there are at least four to five thousand Tang'er.
.
So, why did these descendants of Guzhong from the Western Regions hide in Shule instead of going to Khotan?
"Just a few decades! Zheng Linggong lived until the Gengshen year and died at the age of eighty-seven. At that time, he seemed to have heard from merchants from the east that the Tang Dynasty was in the early years of Huichang.
Our ancestors lost control of Qiuci one year before the early years of Huichang, and it was only more than ninety and less than a hundred years ago.
When he could no longer stay in Qiuci and moved to Shule, it was less than sixty years." Zheng Tong thought that Zhang Zhao had not calculated clearly, so he calculated it for him.
No! The time is wrong! Zhang Zhao tapped his head lightly and motioned to Zhang Zhong to bring him the almanac.
Huichang, the year of Gengshen, Zhang Zhao searched one by one. It is true that the year of Gengshen was the first year of Huichang, Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, but this was wrong! Zhang Zhao started to calculate carefully with his fingers.
He doesn't know the specific AD now, but he remembers that Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang Dynasty, ascended to the throne around 930.
Assuming that the second year of Changxing is 931, then ninety years ago it was around 840, and didn’t Qiuci fall around 808?
"Brother Zheng means that the time when Kucha, which your ancestors held firm, was conquered by Tubo was in the Gengshen year, which was around the first year of Huichang. But how did I hear that Kucha fell in the third year of Yuanhe, which was also the first year of Huichang?
Is it the Year of Wuzi?"
This is so strange. Could it be that the records of later generations were wrong? Zhang Zhao walked up to the four people with the almanac and said softly.
Now it was the turn of the four of them to be confused. Li Qilang looked at Zhang Zhao in confusion, "Where did Mr. Erlang get the news that Tibet had captured Kucha? The Tibetan army had never captured Kucha!"
"Qilang is right. If the ancestors' records are correct, the Tibetans did besiege Qiuci in the third year of Yuanhe. However, at the end of the year, the Uighur Baoyi Khan sent 30,000 troops to cooperate with us inside and outside to defeat Tibet. From then on, Tibet never again
They were unable to attack Kucha, and from beginning to end, they never captured Kucha."
Did Tubo never capture Kucha? Zhang Zhao was completely shocked. He grabbed Zheng Tong's hand in surprise.
"So, Duke Guo led everyone to hold on? How long did they hold on? When did you come and why did you come to Shule? Tell me quickly."
Zheng Tong nodded, recalled something and began to say: "After the Tibetan army was repulsed in the third year of Yuanhe, the danger in Kucha City was relieved. I originally wanted to rely on the Uighurs to resume production, but at that time Anxi was fighting every year, and the Uighurs were
The people themselves are also very poor and cannot support us at all.
And we are even worse. At that time, the four towns of Khotan, Shule, Yanqi and Kucha had a total of 23,000 households and a population of more than 110,000. However, three years after Yuanhe, there were only more than 20,000 left in Kucha.
people.
Moreover, most of the farmland and wells outside the city were destroyed. In addition, the weather became colder and the harvests failed every year. The output near Qiuci could not even supply 20,000 people. Therefore, there was no choice but to let Li Qilang's ancestors bring
People migrated to places such as Quli and Yanqi.
After seven or eight years, farming in Kucha and other places resumed, and some of the people who moved out returned to Kucha, but Dingkou was still a big problem.
When Khotan, Shule, Yizhou, and Xizhou fell, almost all women and children were lost. As a result, we always had more men than women. We originally had more than 20,000 people, but after seven or eight years, we only had more than 10,000.
There are 20,000 people."
"How could this happen?" Ma Yaozi blinked in confusion, "There are no more Han women, so why not Miss Hu Ji? You guys don't know how to adapt!"
Zheng Tong smiled bitterly and said, "The cavalry team is unaware of something. We thought the same way back then. If there are no Han women, then we can just marry some Orchid girls."
But at that time, the Tang Dynasty was in decline, and the Uighurs and Tubos successively dominated Anxi. We Tang children were no longer popular, and we were no longer in an era where we could just wave to Hu Ji.
Not to mention the Hujis from the Uighur and other tribes, because of language barriers and incompatibility in habits, few are willing to marry to Qiuci, and more often than not, the Tang family's sons who marry Hujis end up becoming Hujis."
"What...what's the point of this? How could they not want their ancestors anymore?" Ma Yaozi's eyes suddenly widened. It was extremely difficult for him to understand that there were still people who wanted to become Hulu instead of Tang'er.
"This is a cultural disqualification! Without the majesty of the Tang Dynasty, in Anxi where there are beards all over the place, the Tang children have turned from the people of the celestial dynasty into homeless people!"
Zhang Zhao nodded to express his understanding. When the Tang Dynasty lost its prestige, the 20,000 Tang children surrounded by millions of barbarians became the bullied aliens.
"Erlangjun is right!" Although Zheng Tong didn't know what cultural disqualification meant, the situation at that time was just like what Zhang Zhao said.
"According to my grandpa, there was nothing good about being Tang'er at that time. He was often bullied by the large barbarian tribes nearby. It was difficult to get married and have children. Even traveling far away was dangerous, so everyone had to retreat to Qiuci to survive.
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Because there are barbarians everywhere outside Qiuci and they are often plundered, so many people can't stand it and simply find a way to become barbarians."
Zhang Zhao and all the Xishandu soldiers behind him were silent. Although Zhang Zhao felt very uncomfortable, he knew that he had no reason to blame them.
After 808, most of the descendants of the Anxi Army in Kucha were born after the Tang Dynasty completely lost contact with them.
They could only know about the glory of the past from their fathers' mouths, but after all, they had never seen it themselves. Moreover, because they were born in an environment surrounded by barbarians, apart from the blood flowing through their bodies, the Tang Dynasty court did not give them any favors.
Not to mention that there were a large number of naturalized Sogdians, Qiucians and Yanqi people among them. It is understandable that they could not bear it anymore and gave up their Tanger status.
"At that time, we were led by the Prince Guo family. Seeing this situation, the grandson of Prince Guo, Duke Guo, was not allowed to marry Hu Ji. Even if they married, their families would have to be kept in Qiuci City." Huixing monk Yang
Kazuya narrowed his eyes and said as if recalling.
"Alas! This is a stupid move! Isn't this forcing people who can't get a wife to leave?"
Zhang Zhao shook his head. In his opinion, if this happens, he should quickly unite several small tribal alliances to marry and protect the basic base first. How can he be so arrogant and blanket!
"As Mr. Erlang expected, as soon as this order came out, more people ran away. In the end, there were only more than 8,000 people left in Qiuci!" Zheng Tong smiled bitterly.
"Originally, we can still live with these 8,000 people, because everyone who is willing to leave has left, and those who remain are the real Tang'er.
We built water conservancy projects, set up schools, organized households into all the people, and all the people were soldiers. Life was a little better, but God refused to let us be comforted!"
"Are the Uighurs in chaos?" Zhang Zhao let out a long sigh. This should be the beginning of the collapse of the Uighur Khanate.
The Xijiasi people, the Geluolu people and the Bashmi people joined forces and began to constantly challenge the Uighurs. The Uighur Khanate finally collapsed under the double blow of the Xijiasi people and the Tang Dynasty.
At this time, the rest of Anxi was probably dependent on the Uighurs. Naturally, they would not be able to survive the collapse of the Uighur Khanate.
"Yes! After more than ten years of peaceful life, Anxi began to be in chaos again. The Xijias, Geluolu, Bashmi, and Uighurs attacked each other.
We only have a few thousand people. Although there are thousands of strong men who can fight, but unlike the Hu'er who can roam around and have a place to run if they are defeated, we can only defend Qiuci and be beaten, and the more we fight, the fewer people we have.
After the complete collapse of the Uighurs in the Gengshen Year (840), we could only cancel the title of Anxi Army.
The fact that we have been able to sustain it for so many years is actually due to the continued support of the Uighurs. The Uighur Khanate is gone, and if we still carry the name of the Anxi Army, we will definitely be attacked.
However, after the name of Anxi Army was cancelled, people's hearts were even more dispersed. We persisted for another seven or eight years, and then Guo Dalang, the head of the Guo family, betrayed us, and Qiuci... Qiuci was gone!"
Zhang Zhao felt a wave of discomfort in his heart. He really didn't want to hear Zheng Tong's words.
What a hero the iron-blooded prince Guo Xingong was! He led a lone army to protect the Western Regions for the Tang Dynasty for his entire life. In the end, the Anxi Army was betrayed by his descendants! Why did God play with these loyal ministers and righteous men like this?
"This is impossible!" Yan Jin's eyes widened, and he stood up suddenly with his face flushed, "Who is Prince Guo? He is a great hero who is upright and indomitable. How could his descendants betray the Anxi Army?"
"We don't want to believe it either! But it's the truth!" Li Qilang sighed, and then continued what Zheng Tong said.
"At that time, Kucha City could no longer be defended, and when everyone was planning to hoard supplies for emergencies, Guo Dalang, who returned from Xizhou, suddenly brought back a piece of news.
He said that the Tang Dynasty had been revived and that the imperial court still remembered us and sent an angel who was also the governor of Yixi. Guo Dalang asked everyone to organize their troops and horses and go to Xizhou, that is, Gaochang, to welcome the angel.
At that time, everyone was very excited and gathered two thousand soldiers and horses to go to Xizhou, thinking that life would be better in the future. Someone from the court finally came, but before we reached Xizhou, we were intercepted and attacked by Hu cavalry.
Two thousand people went, but less than half of them escaped, and Guo Dalang disappeared. Soon after, even Kucha was surrounded. We fought a bloody battle and temporarily repelled tens of thousands of Hu'er, but Kucha really couldn't hold on any longer.
At that time, the Karakhan people had not converted to Tianfang religion, Shule was close to Khotan, and there was Dayun Temple, so we slowly moved to Shule to live.
Later, when we arrived in Shule, everyone felt strange. How could those horsemen block us on the road so accurately? Someone must have leaked the news.
So some people began to say that Guo Dalang betrayed us, and several families had a lot of quarrels over this, and almost got violent. The Guo family gradually distanced themselves from us, and later I heard that they had moved back to the Qiuci area."
Zhang Zhao turned around and looked at each other with Zhang Zhong, Yin Yaozi and others. Their eyes were filled with hatred. It was indeed strange that the descendants of the Anxi Army were ambushed this time.
"Li Qilang, can you tell me exactly in which year Guo Dalang said that the new Yixi Jiedushi of the imperial court would arrive? I suspect that perhaps it was not Guo Dalang who betrayed the Anxi Army!" Zhang Zhao took a deep breath and said gloomily.
Li Qilang glanced at Zhang Zhao in surprise, thought for a moment and said: "According to my grandpa, it should be twenty-seven years after we went to Anxi Army to win the title!"
"Ah! Pu Gujun! You beast!" Zhang Zhao felt as if his head had been struck by thunder. The extreme anger made his whole body start to heat up, and he suddenly overturned the table in front of him.
land.
"Pugujun deserves death! I will kill all your descendants!"
