General Guo reluctantly got up and went to see Bai Shan and others off.
He glanced at the troops that had already set off, then looked back at General Meng, Bai Shan and others, and said solemnly: "Take care."
Bai Erlang also said happily: "You should also take care of yourself."
Bai Shan nodded calmly, "If we are not here, the military doctor may not be able to help you with blood transfusion."
General Guo: "...it's time for you to set off."
General Meng just reached out and patted his shoulder, then got on his horse and looked at Bai Shan and the others.
Man Bao was also riding on the horse, tightening his cloak. The weather was getting colder, and it was even colder when riding on the horse.
Although the weather turned cold, General Ashina had no intention of staying in Qiuci for a few more days. On the third day after convening the city-wide meeting, he organized his troops and went directly to the place where the Turks retreated, capturing two cities along the way.
A dozen small towns.
It is really small, about the size of a town, but the area is vast and sparsely populated, and such a place is also a city.
This time he didn't think about subduing the people, so he went much faster. He almost captured the city, collected the food and grass, and then left. He only stayed behind at important passes, and the rest followed the army.
The Western Turks were shocked, and the Shule Kingdom, which had only escaped disaster, was also shocked. They immediately reinforced the border towns. As a result, General Ashina was still unstoppable and conquered twelve cities in a row.
There was a rebellion in Shule, and a king was directly replaced internally. Then he submitted a petition to General Ashina, confessed his guilt, and sent gold, silver, grain, grass, and beautiful women.
General Ashina gave the beauty to his subordinates, kept the food and grass for his own use, registered the gold and silver and sent them back to the treasury, and then led his people towards Khotan.
From Shule to Khotan, you can just walk along the Tuduo River. It is much closer than Qiuci to Khotan, and the journey through the desert is only two days.
When the King of Khotan heard that the army was coming to Khotan, he was so anxious that he shed tears. If he had known it earlier, he would not have listened to the rumors and started making trouble with Qiuci and the Western Turks. Damn it, who on earth said that the gods punished the emperor of the Central Plains and caused him to contract smallpox?
of?
Does this look like having smallpox?
The King of Khotan did not dare to neglect, and even ignored the dispute with Tibet. He immediately prepared a batch of grain, gold, silver and jewelry to be sent to Ashina's military tent.
Man Bao looked at the soldiers who were sick today in the medical tent, and then checked some wounded soldiers, then washed his hands with warm water and held his cloak tightly before going out to watch the fun.
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang stood there and watched the excitement. Man Bao came up to him, looked at it for a while and asked, "Does General Ashina want to go to Khotan?"
Bai Shandao: "Definitely go!"
Bai Erlang: "I've already collected other people's money and food."
"So what?" Bai Shan said: "We must meet the King of Khotan in person. He should have thought of this when he followed others to make trouble."
He said: "Because of them, the trade routes in the Western Regions have been cut off for a year."
Originally, the smallpox epidemic in Xiazhou was over, and the trade routes should have slowly recovered. However, because they continued to spread bad words about the Jin Dynasty and allowed their soldiers to rob passing merchants, the trade routes were cut off.
He even spoke rudely to Da Jin and His Majesty, which greatly damaged the image of Da Jin and His Majesty.
General Ashina did decide to go to Khotan, so he accepted the things he sent, but after accepting them, he still broke camp and went to Khotan.
After hearing this, the King of Khotan had a sleepless night. Finally, he got up and drafted a confession. Then he led his people to the border with a mournful face, where he met General Ashina's army at the border.
General Ashina glanced at the food, grass, gold and silver he sent again, snorted coldly, and then looked at the confession he sent.
He thought for a moment and then glanced at the clouds in the sky. They were so dense that the sun could not be seen.
When the confidant saw it, he said thoughtfully: "General, it seems like it's going to snow."
General Ashina pressed the confession and asked, "Are the soldiers' winter clothes okay?"
The confidant paused and then said: "It's still a bit weak. There are still some soldiers from the south in the army who are feeling unwell. Recently, there have been more sick soldiers reported in the medical accounts.
General Ashina tapped the confession written under his palm, and finally snorted softly and said, "Please come in and meet the King of Khotan."
The confidant bowed and left.
At this point, after Yanqi was merged into Anxi and lost the royal family, Qiuci and Shule changed kings, and the Western Turks lost two warriors and twelve cities, the Khotan king temporarily relied on the confession he sent and
Food, grass, gold and silver saved the throne and the city.
He proclaimed himself a minister again to the Jin Dynasty, and found many treasures from the palace's warehouse and gave them to General Ashina, asking him to take them back to the capital to pay tribute to the emperor.
Of course, he also sent a team of envoys to go back with General Ashina. He sincerely asked the envoys to go to the capital to plead guilty again.
General Ashina was very satisfied with his knowledge, so he collected his things and left with his people.
Manbao and the others had experienced a lot along the way. If the King of Khotan had not reacted too much, they might have been able to enter the royal city of Khotan and have a look.
They regretfully followed General Ashina back and discussed: "I heard that going from Khotan is Tubo and Dabolu, and beyond Dabolu is Tianzhu. The place Master Zhiren wants to go to the most is Tianzhu."
Bai Shan regretted again, "It's a pity that Master Zhiren and the others did not accompany the army. Otherwise, if we had gone with them and met the King of Khotan, we might have been able to ask the King of Khotan to help us cross Dabolu to Tianzhu."
Bai Erlang: "Didn't I hear that Big Bolu was fighting with Little Bolu?"
"They beat them, but it didn't affect Da Bolu's efforts to win over the Khotan king."
Man Bao raised his eyes and looked ahead, a little excited, "Are we going to go through this big desert?"
Bai Shan nodded, "Let's take the Red Jade River and return directly across the desert to Qiuci. It's half the journey faster than taking the detour to Shule."
From here to Qiuci, it is basically desert, but there is an intermittent river in the desert, called the Chiyu River. With this river, there are oases along the way, and they got the supplies sent by Shule and Khotan.
With food and grass, you basically don’t have to worry about eating and drinking.
The march of the army is different from the march of Bai Shan and his small team. Twenty thousand people go in and out at the same time. Basically, as long as they don't get caught in a storm or get lost, they have nothing to fear in the desert. Even the animals have arrived early.
to avoid.
Man Bao felt that when he slept in the open at night, the world felt peaceful, as if they were the only people under the sky.
General Ashina heard their sigh and said: "It's cold, and the scorpions and mice have all been hidden. When the weather is hot, even if an army of 100,000 or even an army of 20,000 passes by, they will be able to hide themselves."
Rustling."
So there is no need to feel this way.
Man Bao and others:...
General Ashina didn't notice and asked them directly, "I want to return to the imperial court as soon as possible. When I return to Xizhou, will you follow me back to Beijing?"
Bai Shan couldn't help but ask: "What about Xizhou? What if the army leaves and the Qiuci countries repeat themselves?"