"I didn't expect that the resistance here would be so weak. It seems that the people here don't like the Kucha people's rule over them."
Looking at Nancheng that had just been conquered, and then looking at the reports in his hand that could be considered "tiny" battle losses for a siege battle, Li Shushi expressed a somewhat unclear emotion to the squadron around him.
"This is not surprising. After all, Gumo has not been attached to Kucha for a long time. The local nobles and the officials sent by Kucha have not yet reached an agreement on the redistribution of interests. If it were not for the current King of Kucha
It's still kind, and there isn't too much harsh rule. Perhaps Master Zhou Mu can see the people of Gumo eating pots of rice to welcome the army."
Regarding Li Shushi's question, Ban Fu took it as a matter of course and seemed unusually calm.
Gumo Country was a stop that Li Shushi had to pass when traveling along the Aksu River. It was also the first oasis that the army arrived when they came out of the Tails Mountains in the Tianshan Mountains. This was a very important part of the ancient Silk Road.
Station is an important origin of Western Region culture
One of the places, and because of the clear Aksu River, which is also the upper reaches of the Tarim River, the agriculture here is quite developed in the entire Western Region. Supplemented by animal husbandry and various natural stone mines, the lives of the people here are still quite
Abundant.
If they didn't have a powerful neighbor in Kucha, maybe this place could become a "fortress paradise".
Gumo now has about 4,500 households, a population of about 35,000, and about 5,000 soldiers. Of course, most of these soldiers are locals from Gumo, but most of the generals who command them are from Gumo.
Now, in the face of the unexpected
With an army of tens of thousands, most of the troops in Kucha had oil on their soles. The few hundred men commanded by a few generals with some integrity were really not enough for Li Shushi's men to fill their teeth, even if they planned to drive Gu.
It's useless for Mo people to be cannon fodder.
There are two main cities in Gumo. One is Shicheng, which is located in the upper reaches of the Aksu River in the north of Gumo. The other is Nancheng, which is located in the lower reaches of the Aksu River and was once the seat of the kingdom. However, these two cities are nothing more than nothing in Li Shushi's eyes.
They are just two large docks similar to those in the north. Although their defensive capabilities are commendable, they cannot stop his army at all.
Coupled with the inaction of most people in Gumo, Li Shuzhi did not spend much time in Gumo.
"I think that if a county is established in Gumo, Gumo will be divided into two counties centered on Shicheng and Nancheng. The first county magistrate will be decided by Bangong. After that, my Han Dynasty's "Three Mutual Laws" will be implemented. These two counties
The county will be affiliated to Kucha County or Kucha Kingdom, if that king is willing to be like the kings of the vassal states of our Han Dynasty
It's not that we can't keep him rich and prosperous. If we do this, I think the resistance of the local people will not be so great. Then we can open schools and even let the talented people among them work in the Han Dynasty. Just like the four counties of Hexi.
Even though it’s weak, I can’t give up. I don’t know if this idea is what Bengong thought of me.”
Because these matters have already involved the management issues after the establishment of the Western Region Protectorate. Logically speaking, Li Shushi did not have much say in the matter, but it was only because of his original plan that he took such an "overstep of authority" move.
"I thought I could give it a try. But I was also worried that this would strengthen the resistance of other countries, and even unite to oppose the extension of our Han Dynasty's rights in the Western Regions. I was even worried that it would cause worries and suspicions in Wusun and Kangju.
.”
"So they are not worried about the big countries in the Western Region annexing small countries, so why are they worried about us annexing those countries?"
"Even if Qiuci completely annexes Gumo, Wensu, Weitou and other countries, it will only have a population of 200,000 to 300,000 and tens of thousands of soldiers. At most, it will only be able to fight against Wusun, but if we talk about threats,
But there is no way to talk about it. But if it were me, a big man, the situation would be completely different. After all,
After all, the strength of the Han Dynasty is not comparable to that of other countries in the Western Regions. Previously, the Han Dynasty could not fight here for a long time just because it was a guest army and could not stay for a long time. But if the host and guest forces were reversed, it would be able to fight for a long time and be extremely familiar with the local geography.
The Han army will be a nightmare for all countries in the Western Region."
"A nightmare is a nightmare. In the past, the Han Dynasty was unwilling to waste more power in the Western Regions just because it could not make ends meet. Now if we can operate the Silk Road, this land will no longer be a piece of useless land that is 'tasteless to eat and a pity to abandon'
Already."
"But this will also be a reason for Wusun and Kangju people to feel uneasy."
"As long as we don't attack Shule westward for the time being and focus on stabilizing these two routes leading to Wusun, there will be no problem."
"In this case, there is no need to think too much. It's great that Mr. Zhou Mu can help."
"Why do I suddenly feel like I'm being used as a weapon by you?"
"This is definitely an illusion of Mr. Zhou Mu, not to mention that this is also for your great wish, Mr. Zhou Mu."
As a result, due to a series of chain reactions, Li Shushi and Ban Fu's Western Region plan underwent new changes.
The work of splitting the Gumo hometown into two counties went very smoothly. After all, most of the people who wanted to object had been dealt with by the Kucha people, and the remaining Kucha prisoners naturally had no chance to object.
Of course, all this is just a plan now. After all, both Li Shushi and Ban Fu need to race against time to launch an attack on the Kucha mainland. They cannot give the Kucha people time to react and mobilize.
So leaving behind hundreds of powerful Dunhuang troops, Li Shushi's army left Gumo's hometown along the Tarim River.
Although there are only a few hundred troops, Li Shushi is not worried that Gumo will be attacked by others. After all, Li Shushi's new plan is not something intolerable to the Gumo people, let alone Li Shushi's promise to give them
Bringing the advanced culture of the Han people and even those who show talents among them can serve as officials in other Han-controlled areas in the Western Regions or even in the Han Dynasty. The temptation of such conditions is obviously not something that a mere King of Qiuci can open.
came out.
In fact, Li Shushi's method somewhat imitated a well-known example of the Sima family. After the Jin Dynasty destroyed Shu, they used this method to quickly grasp the people's hearts in Shu. After all, although Shu occupied almost the entire Yizhou, the upper-level official positions
long time
It was temporarily controlled by the troops brought by Liu Yan, Liu Zhang and Liu Bei from other places and their descendants, which had long aroused the dissatisfaction of the local powerful people in the Shu Kingdom, so that the Sima family showed a little intention of recruiting and succeeded.
The local heroes return home.
Li Shushi is not very clear whether there are other versions of similar stories, but as long as there is an example, it is enough.
What's more, his more important goal in front of him is to capture the Kingdom of Qiuci to shock the entire Western Region.
In this way, with the two countries of Wusun and Qiuci as examples, Banfu's work will surely be easier in the future. To borrow a favorite expression from ancient books, it depends on passing on the message. Anyway, those guys are just fagots, and if
They were facing a super hurricane with central winds reaching Category 17. It would be no problem to uproot them and send them thousands of miles away.
I have to admit that the soldiers of Kucha Kingdom are not weak in individual combat ability alone, or compared to the strongest combat group of the Han Dynasty, the border soldiers. Except for those veterans among the border soldiers who may have the ability to advance and transfer
The guy may still have a high chance of winning. And this is definitely not Li Shushi’s rhetoric to promote the other party to cover up his failure. It is Li Shushi’s personal experience.
In fact, his view was unanimously agreed by all the generals, including Lu Bu and Ban Fu.
But even with such a strong personal fighting capacity, it was still difficult to escape the fate of defeat when facing the Bingzhou Army in the wild.
Li Shushi even felt that even if he were to direct the battle, there was basically no chance of losing if the numbers were equal.
Some people may find it strange, or maybe some people have already guessed the crux of the problem.
Yes, these soldiers of the Qiuci Kingdom really paid too much attention to the cultivation of personal combat effectiveness and neglected the overall military formation coordination.
This may have a big reason for the battles between the countries in the Western Regions.
Generally speaking, the forces in the Western Region can be called the Thirty-Six Big Countries. Small forces are dotted all over the place. A small oasis may evolve into a city, and then gradually decline or even disappear after a hundred years. So even these countries
The largest ones in the country have a population of only more than 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands, and can recruit tens of thousands of soldiers. However, most countries have a few thousand people to support their appearance, and they have to piece together everything to get it.
.And this is at the expense of production of various materials.
Therefore, instead of thinking about how to have more soldiers, the better, it is better to hone an elite army, which will not only occupy too many people, but also be easy to use, and can also exert more powerful combat effectiveness in battle.
The initial melee among the countries in the Western Regions was fought in this state.
Originally, as various small forces and small countries were gradually annexed, large corps was still the main direction of development. At the same time, various training and combat methods that matched them would also emerge. This can be said to be an inevitable law of history.
But who would have thought that with the establishment of the Western Region Protectorate, this process would be stopped by the Han Dynasty.
Although we fought many battles with the Han Dynasty, because more than a dozen countries participated in the war each time, the number of conscripts allocated to each country was not large, and in most cases, the armies of these countries were more like joining the numbers and waving flags, or
It is used to carry out long-term sieges, and there are not many opportunities for real large groups to fight, so the experience and lessons learned are far less than those of the four major alien mercenaries.
It has only been a few decades since the Han people gradually withdrew from the Western Regions, and the pattern of war is far from reaching the level of qualitative change. In other words, the wars between the countries in the Western Regions are still in the "decided victory" phase.
stage.
If the scale of the war were increased to more than a few thousand people, they might have already fallen into disarray by the time they were halfway through the fight.
For such a strange enemy, and the fact that Li Shushi's cavalry troops had not yet noticed the outflanking of his retreat, one can only imagine how many soldiers were left in Yancheng, the royal city of Kucha after the First World War.
However, the soldiers of Qiuci Kingdom are indeed very capable individually. Although they were in such an unfavorable situation, they were able to send many generals back to Yancheng City during a scattered breakout. This performance is indeed worthy of
Li Shushi’s evaluation of his combat effectiveness.
Yancheng, the royal city of Qiuci Kingdom, can be said to be the most majestic city that Li Shushi has ever seen in the Western Regions except Chigu City. This yellow-white city has a rather tall city wall, and like Chigu City, it has three layers.
The city walls. And looking down from the top of the mountain in the distance, you can see that the city is dotted with pagodas and pagodas of various sizes. There are more than a thousand of them at a rough count.
This made Li Shushi think of Du Mu's Jiangnan Spring, but here, perhaps it should be changed to "Qiuci 840 Temple, many towers in the sand and dust" to suit the situation better, but from this we can also know what Buddhism is here.
prosper.
Since Buddhist temples are already so magnificent, the palaces in Qiuci are even more magnificent.
"Looking at it makes me feel like I can't sleep unless I grab a fortune." Lu Bu's eyes had turned into the shape of copper coins.
"Okay, now it's up to our most powerful Tamago-chan to break that thick wall with your hands~!"
"I'm not that violent~ And you're willing to leave such a heavy job to a weak woman."
If you are a weak woman, then there won’t be a strong man in the entire army!
This is the common sentiment of all the men present who have been deeply "poisoned" by Su Xiaololi.
While Li Shushi and Su Xiaoluoli were discussing how to break the city wall, on the city wall of Yancheng, the King of Qiuci, Fante Babini, was also looking at the dense army below with a sad face, and the officials of all sizes behind him were doing the same.
Silent.
In fact, the king of Kucha has done a good enough job. At least he has expanded the territory of Kucha to the largest state since the founding of Kucha. At the same time, facing Li Shushi's army, he did not release all his strength at once.
.In fact, the previous battle was more like a test for him. Although this time
The results of the test made him unforgettable. However, it also made the number of troops in Yancheng far beyond Li Shushi's imagination. In other words, the King of Qiuci made the decision to defend the royal city at the first time, and even asked Li Shushi to defend the city.
Envoys seeking help from all directions were dispatched as soon as possible after hearing that the Han army was approaching.
All that's left is for everyone to defend the city with one heart and pray that the Han people will also return in vain this time.
But the only thing that makes Fentebabi Ni feel at ease is that this is not Gumo's hometown. The people here support him quite a lot because of his more benevolent rule. Therefore, with the support of the triple city and the people, as well as the large amount of wealth and wealth hoarded as a royal city,
In terms of supplies, Fentebaby Mud is confident that it will last two years with this support.
The size of the army outside the city obviously cannot afford two years of food consumption. But it is also conceivable that after this battle, other areas of the Kucha Kingdom will be hit to varying degrees, and the Kucha Kingdom will also be affected.
will lose the ability to continue to expand.
This made the originally ambitious Fentebaby somewhat melancholy and unwilling.
The Han army slowly assembled various siege equipment outside the city.
Although it is not impossible to assemble it immediately, and even relying on Li Shushi's golden cupping cannon is enough, in the end, I still chose this approach. After all, such an action does not cost too much, and it can also give the enemy a burst of energy.
This kind of pressure of "the killing is coming". Even if we don't expect that such behavior will directly crush the nerves of the defenders, if we can plant the seeds of "the Han army is powerful and invincible" in their hearts, it will also be helpful for the recovery of Qiuci after the war.
There are benefits.
After all, compared to peaceful settlement, the method of war not only needs to consider the issue of battle, but also needs to consider the issue of how to win the hearts and minds of the occupied areas after the battle. After all, the land and properties of Qiuci are very suitable for being the seat of the Western Region Protectorate. If
Failure to obtain a stable base will obviously have no good impact on Li Shushi and Ban Fu's Western Region plan.
Because of this reason, I spent the whole day in this dillydally.
Time gradually came to that night.
"Because I didn't expect it, I didn't prepare a lot of materials, and the stone projectiles fired by other trebuchets don't look good."
"Then what are those trebuchets made during the day used for? Are they just wasted like this?"
"It would be good to capture this city and put it on the city wall to defend the city. Or it could be on the city wall of the Western Region Protectorate. If it doesn't work, just let the soldiers do a drill. Practice makes perfect."
★ze~”
No matter who it is, there is nothing that anyone can do when faced with the malicious and cute Su Xiaololi, not to mention that Li Shushi still has a little bit of expectations.
Looking forward to what kind of power Su Xiaololi's shells will unleash with the cooperation of the Golden Cupping Cannon and the Imperial Seal.
I hope the soldiers and civilians in Yancheng opposite will not be frightened out. After all, the power of this thing cannot be controlled even by Li Shushi himself.
Meteors rise and fall, bringing with them a dull explosion.
Li Shushi's golden cupping cannon didn't seem to hit the city wall for the first time. Instead, it shot into the place between the first and second city walls. However, after hearing various panic sounds in the city, the effect didn't seem to be bad.
?
Anyway, Li Shushi just needs to sit back and enjoy the experience.
Of course, while enjoying the experience, he can also savor the mysterious feeling when firing cannonballs, as if the cannonballs he fired have some unique power and a mysterious trick, which will inevitably cause maximum damage.
.
This feeling is wonderful and fascinating, as if you don’t need to calculate the ballistic trajectory to cause maximum damage...
The biggest damage is the same...
So because the city wall is a dead thing, cannonballs were allowed to hit the heads of the crowd?
No matter what, Li Shushi didn't want to admit that it was actually because his ability was too low to control this ability that ultimately led to this result.
Therefore, the revolution has not yet succeeded, comrades, please continue to work hard.
So all night long, the people in Yancheng listened with fear to the rumbling sounds like thunder. And because it doesn't rain often in Qiuci, and thunder is even rarer, such sounds caused even more fear to them.
Obviously, rumors that "the Han people invited gods to help attack Kucha" have even begun to spread in the city.
The outermost wall of Yancheng looked crumbling amidst the explosions one after another. (To be continued...)
ps: After watching the latest "Amber Sword", we expressed that we wanted to pay homage to Feiyan. This setting really made us feel like tears filled our eyes. I know that I am still feeling overwhelmed and can't help myself...