Chapter 244 Tianzhu December (two in one six thousand five hundred words, today
In the first year of Qingtai in the Later Tang Dynasty, the 22nd year of Tongqing in Khotan, December 934 AD.
In the Xindu River Basin of Tianzhu Continent, there were even a few snowflakes floating for the first time. The Little Ice Age that had appeared since the middle and late Tang Dynasty reached its peak at this time.
At this time, the snowy plateau, which was originally warm enough to grow rice, was covered with snow in June. In the Sichuan Basin, where lychees are a specialty, even the citrus trees were frozen to death. In the Huguang area where crocodiles were infested, the pig dragon was almost extinct.
In Anxi, the extremely cold weather prevents the snow on the snow-capped mountains from melting. Even the Green Jade River (Karakash River) and Baiyu River (Yulong Kashgar River) have been cut off several times, causing the heat to kill a large number of people every year.
Rivers and Ganges rivers, there will even be snowflakes falling.
But this extreme cold weather will begin to ease when it builds up in the next week. When the death of the sorghum racing god is basically over, Zhao Er's shameless son just got a big advantage.
At that time, the weather got warmer and the country had bumper harvests every year, leading to the Xianping Period.
Outside Chanzhou City, Xiao Taolin, an unlucky guy who has always been ranked high in history, was accidentally shot in the head, so Zhao Dechang gained another military exploit.
In the end, half of the country was enshrined in Mount Tai, which disgusted the later generations Zhu Hongwu and Zhu Di.
But this kind of weather, for me, King Zhang, is simply a blessing from heaven.
Originally, on the Tianzhu continent, due to the high temperature, even wearing armor to fight in winter was a dangerous matter.
Because soldiers wearing two or three layers of armor will suffer rapid dehydration and massive heatstroke in this terrifying sweltering heat.
But this year, the weather in December has dropped to a maximum of four or five degrees Celsius for the first time, which is very suitable for fighting with armor.
For Zhang Zhao, cotton armor and iron armor are readily available.
But for other countries in Tianzhu, their armor is very breathable and light, and they don't have the habit of stocking up on heavy armor. It was impossible to find so much heavy armor at that time.
The armor of a Kshatriya armor rider is not even as good as that of ordinary Fengtian Army and Palace Guard soldiers.
This is already close to a dimensionality reduction attack. The Fengtian Army, the Palace Guard Army, the Shunyi Left Army, the local tycoon children of Wenwen City, and the servant troops of Zhang Bingzhong and Bach Maha Kshatriya sent by Zhang Zhao are all prepared to go out.
A man who was beaming with joy.
They didn't look like they were going to fight, they looked more like a returning group going to rob.
The reason why Zhang Zhao waited until December to take action was because he had to wait for a reinforcement force, which was the Shunyi Right Army of more than 2,000 men from Anyuan Army Envoy Rashid Saliman.
These troops composed of the Persian surrender troops who originally fought in Juzhanti are good at water warfare. After all, Juzhanti is a river fortress, and Yaozhanti is also a big river.
Zhang Zhao would not send troops until they arrived, because this time he wanted to go down the Ganges River, and it would be inconvenient without a professional navy.
"Your Majesty, King Rajyapala has sent an envoy again!"
The swearing-in meeting was over, and just as he was about to set off, Guo Tiance ran over from a distance again, and Zhang Zhao smacked his mouth.
"This seems to be the seventh group of messengers, right? It seems they are really anxious."
Just when I, King Zhang, was preparing to go on an expedition and resettle the Tajiks on the south plateau, the Balihar Dynasty launched a large-scale attack on the Polo Dynasty.
Huasheng, the royal city of the Pala dynasty, had fallen at the end of November, and the Pala king Rajyapala retreated to Rajagaha.
The messengers asking for help came one after another. Basically, before one group arrived, the next group left again.
"Bring it here! Let him see that we are really going to rescue him. Let him go back and give Rajya Polo a reassurance so that he can risk his life to resist!"
Zhang Zhao smiled proudly. Although his face was full of kindness, it made Guo Tiance shudder.
This is still a lie! Poor King Polo, he probably knows that Juer Khan has sent troops, and he will probably put all the coffins on it.
At this time, India had not yet developed to the population density of later generations, and the entire wealthy area was basically along the banks of the Sindu River and the Ganges River.
The famous Madara, Prayaka, Qunu City, Hua Shi City, Rajgir City, etc. are basically along the Ganges, one after another like a pearl necklace.
By the way, this Tianzhu continent is really a place tailor-made for invaders!
There are two rich areas, one on the Sindu River and one on the Ganges.
They are not like the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers in China, which have natural dangers such as the Nine Bends of the Yellow River, the Hukou Falls, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and the Yunmeng Daze.
The Sindu and Ganges river basins are completely river valleys and plains. They are spacious and spacious, and the water flow rarely has particularly turbulent places. It is almost like a highway built for invaders. Entering and exiting is like going home.
Anyway, Zhang Zhao was like this. After arriving at the Yamuna River, the water flow became gentle. Logistics materials were put on the boat, and people and horses were lined up on both sides of the river, communicating with each other by small boats.
The Khotan palace guards took 600 crossbows and put them on board, while Shunyi's right army was in charge of driving.
At this time, water warfare was still very simple, although China had already evolved five-tooth warships and invented tactics such as collision, fire, and sledge hammering.
But this was in Tianzhu, the Shahi dynasty, the Palihar dynasty, and the Polo dynasty. The total number of warriors equivalent to the Kshatriyas was less than 20,000.
How can such a small number of people be able to play such a difficult task as a five-tooth battleship? Besides, they don’t have the skills!
At this time, the water battle on the Ganges was just a gang fight between two ships after they got close, without even throwing kerosene cans.
So inadvertently, the six hundred Khotan palace guards who could shoot bows and crossbows on the ship became a big killer again.
They were originally trained by Zhang Zhao to fight on the water with medicine and water when they captured Juju.
As a result, before the water battle could reach the stage of siege and siege, the defenders of Juzhan were pushed to a dead end by the politicians in Bukhara. They had been training for several months but were completely useless.
Of course, the navy of the Balihar Dynasty would also put bows on the boats, but the Indian bows in their hands were no match for the strong bows and crossbows in the hands of the Khotanese palace guards.
In addition, Zhang Zhao attacked from above, and he also prepared hundreds of small boats loaded with tung oil and firewood. The boats were equipped with hooks and chains, which would catch the Tianzhu people's warships and set them on fire.
During the war, small fireboats were first launched, waiting until the vanguard on the opposite side was burned down, and then the big ship was sent down the river, making a fierce charge and firing all bows and crossbows.
Since sailing down the Yamuna River four days ago, it has defeated three groups of warships of the Balihar Dynasty, with crushing results each time.
Zhang Zhao's fleet has grown from more than 200 large and small ships at the beginning to nearly 400 ships. Many of them had to be scuttled due to insufficient prisoners and no pilots.
Six days later, Juer Khan's army, which had an unimpeded journey, arrived at the first heavily guarded fortress city of the Balihar Dynasty - Boroyega.
In the Ganges River Basin at this time, this city's status was equivalent to Jingzhou or Anqing on the Yangtze River in China. It has always been an important river defense area.
If we break through here, Qunu City, the capital of the Balihar Dynasty, which has a status similar to Nanjing City in China, will be wide open.
"I don't think Tianzhu has such a majestic city. It's really majestic! It's taller than Dunhuang. I'm afraid it has to be Ganzhou or Liangzhou to compare with it!"
It was Yan Jin who sighed. The Parayaga city in front of him was at least six or seven meters high and built of loess. It was surrounded by satellite fortresses and a water city was built to control the Ganges waterway. It was definitely the first city Zhang Zhao had seen since he entered Tianzhu.
The tallest city.
"Although its city is majestic, it is not as numerous as the city of Liangzhou!" Cao Wuyuan'er, a military hero, disagreed with Yan Jin's opinion.
"Your Majesty, the envoy of Yan Jun, the city of Liangzhou is more than two feet high and spans ten miles. It is built with a stone foundation and three compacted earths. There are seven fields surrounding the fort.
In the past, when Taibao Gong took Liangzhou, 20,000 fine soldiers fought in bloody battles for nearly a year, only through coercion and inducement did they succeed.
Although the city of Parayaga is tall, it is made entirely of loess. Although there are six forts outside the city that are horns to each other, there are no brave men to guard it. How can it stop the king's heavenly soldiers?
Besides, Cao Dunhuang brought 1,200 kilograms of divine fire and thunder this time, and even a mere earthen wall exploded!"
Yan Jin had never been to the east of Dunhuang in his life, so he certainly could not have imagined how big a city Liangzhou was.
Liangzhou's status in the Tang Dynasty was comparable to Guangzhou in the mid-Qing Dynasty and Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty. It was the hub of the Middle Silk Road for the Tang Dynasty and was a great city in the world!
Wu Yuan'er went there when he was a businessman, so he could look at Boroyaka in front of him with contempt.
Xiongcheng? You don’t have to look at where Xiongcheng is! In Tianzhu, even the top twenty in the Central Plains are not qualified.
"Wu Bing Cao is right. You, a Tibetan slave, do you know what a heroic city is? I think this city is just a chicken and a dog!"
Yan Jin was originally a little embarrassed by Wu Yuan'er's words, but Ma Yaozi came up and scorned him at the right time, which immediately relieved the embarrassment, and the two of them laughed and cursed a few times.
Yan Jin has always been deeply ashamed of being a slave of the Tubo people. Normally, anyone who says that he is a slave of the Tubo people will definitely be bloodied, but only Ma Yaozi can say that.
Not only because one of him and Ma Yaozi were the captain and the other was the deputy of Shouchang Town back then, but also because without Ma Yaozi's care back then, it would have been difficult for Yan Jin with a questionable background to join the Shouchang Town Army.
Can be a minor official.
"Your Majesty, this city is not simple. There are wooden stakes buried in the water. Those who visited Yidu looked downstream. Without pulling out these wooden stakes, the warships would not be able to approach the water city on the opposite side." Bai Congxin, who is in charge of the tour in Yidu.
Came from afar again.
"Can you find a way to pull it out?" If there are wooden formations in the water, the big ship will definitely not be able to get through.
The Balihar Dynasty is worthy of being the leader of the Three Kingdoms of Tianzhu. It seems that they have taken precautions. This wooden stake must have been put in recently, because usually such a busy river cannot only be used by small boats.
"It is possible to pull it out, but we are not familiar with the underwater undercurrents and do not know the specific locations of these wooden piles. I am afraid that it will be delayed for a long time and delay the advance of the army."
"Then I'll take you back first. Each Fire Knight will have thirty people who are familiar with the surrounding geography and will jump out from the captives to capture all the fishermen in the area.
It is impossible for the Kshatriya of Parayaka to bury the wooden piles himself, he must have recruited the surrounding fishermen to do it."
Zhang Zhao made a decision with a wave of his hand, and Bai Congxin hurried down to execute it.
Guo Tiance's face was still a little tensed, and he made a cross-hand salute to Zhang Zhao.
"Your Majesty, these fishermen are people under the rule of the Balihar Kingdom. Pulling out wooden stakes in the river is an extremely dangerous job. Even if they are willing, what will happen if they run away after entering the water?"
"No need to worry, I know how to make these fishermen obey." Zhang Zhao looked confident.
"You go and notify Cao Yanming and Shi Chongmin and ask them to prepare to blow up the city of Borayega.
Yan Jin, Ma Yaozi, each of you will lead two thousand people as the vanguard to pull out the fortress outside the city. Let Zhang Bingzhong and the Kshatriyas under Bach Maha come up first."
How can Zhang Zhao make these fishermen of the Balihar Dynasty risk their lives for him in deep water instead of running away as soon as they enter the water?
In fact, we still have to start with the Brahmanical caste system.
Strictly speaking, the Brahmin caste system is not untraceable.
If it is completely immobile and does not give any hope to the people at the lowest level, it is absolutely impossible for it to be passed down to future generations.
Although Indians are born without the spirit of resistance, they are insensitive cows and horses who cannot say, "Princes, generals, ministers, etc., have the guts".
But after all, there are more than a billion people. After thousands of years, it is impossible that there will not be anyone who dares to resist, right?
Not to mention they are just people called cows and horses, they are real cows and horses. If you squeeze them hard, they still know how to lose their temper.
Mules and horses dare to shake off the things on their backs and run away, and oxen dare to gouge people when they are in a hurry, let alone people?
Therefore, in order to attract people from lower castes who know how to resist, Brahmanism specially invented a word called Sanskritization.
This was originally a religious term. During the Samana trend, people called the choice of converting from caste-based Brahmanism to Buddhism, which advocates the equality of all living beings, Sanskritization, which means that he has upgraded and become noble.
After being hit hard by Buddhism, Brahmanism picked up the word Sanskritization. They called the way of upgrading low castes to high castes Sanskritization.
There are two ways to become Sanskritized. One is for a lower caste to marry their daughter to a higher caste, and then the whole family adopts the son-in-law's surname.
At the same time, they move out of the original low-caste settlements and learn the living habits of the upper castes. In one or two generations, they can declare the success of Sanskritization and become a higher caste.
But for a high-caste man to marry you, a daughter of a low-caste family, regardless of his face and family obstruction, there are only two possible situations.
First, you have a daughter who is so beautiful that even the king could not walk after seeing her.
The second is that if you are extremely rich, you can just use your money to make a high-caste person willing to marry your daughter.
Moreover, it can only be promoted one level at a time, that is, a Sudra can only be promoted to a Vaishya, and cannot be promoted to a Kshatriya all at once.
But there is a very obvious problem, that is, your low-caste status first limits your own appearance, and also makes it difficult for you to marry a beautiful wife and give birth to beautiful daughters, especially in Tianzhu and the skin color.
Require.
At the same time, lower castes are those who work in menial jobs, so it is difficult for you to amass a lot of wealth.
There are very few people who can become Sanskritized through this path.
The second way has the highest success rate, which is to cause trouble.
One is to cause trouble with the Brahmins and Kshatriyas until they can no longer suppress it, and will eventually be willing to give you a high-caste status to take you under your wing.
Mr. Mo Di, the great commander of Tianzhu in later generations, is a typical representative of this kind of Sanskritization.
The second is to help Brahmins and Kshatriyas to cause trouble, and to help the highest-ranking Brahmins and Kshatriyas to cause trouble.
Only in this way will people promote your caste out of the norm. For example, what Zhang Zhao wants to do now is to prepare to sanctify a group of people in this way.
Zhang Dahan walked to the group of fishermen who had been recruited. There were at least six to seven hundred people. It seemed that Bai Congxin had recruited all the fishermen around him.
These people don't even need to ask their names, nor do they need to see where they live or what their occupation is.
Just by looking at their skin color, you can basically tell their caste, they must be as low as the mud.
Look at this person with the same black and dark brown skin as an ox or horse, with a face full of bitterness and hatred, and a straight and straight temperament that reveals the word "untouchable".
According to the rules, as soon as Zhang Zhao appeared, they knelt down with a thud and hid their heads in the mud.
Not to mention looking at Zhang Zhao, I didn't dare to breathe loudly for fear of contaminating Zhang Zhao.
What's even more amazing is that several Brahmins who took refuge in Zhang Zhao pulled Zhang Zhao upwind of these fishermen like a gust of wind, and spread a layer of fine cotton cloth on the ground for Zhang Zhao to step on.
The former is to prevent these lower castes from polluting the air that Zhang Da Khan breathes, and the latter is to show that they are not even qualified to step on the same ground as Zhang Da Khan.
"My request is very simple. I need to pull out the wooden stakes in the river. For this purpose, I have prepared twenty Vaishya surnames and forty Sudra surnames."
As he spoke, Zhang Zhao pointed at the two Kshatriyas around him who were trying hard to look willing.
"In addition, there are two Kshatriya masters here. They are willing to give two of you a chance to marry. Whoever makes the most contributions will have their next generation become Kshatriyas.
."
Not to mention Kshatriyas, for the following, most of whom are Dalits, that is, untouchables who are not within the caste system at all and are called untouchables, becoming a Shudra is a qualitative leap.
If you can become a Vaisya, it will make no difference if you ascend to the sky in one step. As for becoming a Kshatriya, it is called ascending from the same place.
For these people, not only their own lives are no longer important, but the lives of their entire family and clan are no longer important.
Therefore, after the translator finished translating Zhang Zhao's words, although no one of the kneeling fishermen in the distance dared to raise their heads, a burst of sobbing sounds sounded like ghosts, and they knelt on the ground and buried their heads in the mud.
The crowd in the ground swayed collectively, like leaves rustling in the wind.
Seeing this situation, Zhang Zhao decided to add another fire, "Finally, I need a family. As long as whose family can send the things I designated to the city of Boroyega, place them and light them, I can give them a gift."
A surname, a single character, belonging to the Han Ritian race!"
In Tianzhu, caste is not only divided into four classes and one untouchable. In fact, there are many sub-castes.
As far as Zhang Zhao now knows, the Kshatriyas in the Xiaxi Kingdom are divided into more than a dozen sub-castes, which can be distinguished based on their ancestors, place of residence, and even language habits, etc., and they are despised layer by layer.
Originally, the highest ranking Brahmins and Kshatriyas in Shahi were of course related to the surnames of the Shahi royal family.
After Zhang Zhao arrived, the highest-ranking Brahmins and Kshatriyas had the single-character surname known as the Hanri Celestial Race.
Of course, at present, this rule is only valid in the Xiaxi Kingdom, because Juer Khan only conquered this place, but it will also be implemented in the territory of the Balihar Dynasty soon.
I am afraid that after such a sweep by Zhang Da Khan, in Tianzhu in this time and space, skin color will still become the most intuitive judgment standard, but among high castes, there is a more intuitive judgment. There is no doubt who has a single Chinese surname.
It is the highest caste.
"Khan! The entire Bagali clan is willing to serve you!"
Finally someone reacted. A strong man who looked much bigger than the fishermen around him put his head on the ground, like a bulldozer, pushing the soft wet soil by the river to a place not far in front of Zhang Zhao.
Zhang Zhao knew a little bit about the language at this time. Bagali means people who live on the high soil by the water. In short, it is a group of fishermen who live on the hills by the water.
The biggest basis for Brahmanism to judge caste is based on skin color and surname. Looking at the dark back and adding the meaning of the surname, even if you say you are a Kshatriya, who will believe you?
Therefore, Zhang Zhaocai did not mention promoting these fishermen to high castes. Simply put, they cannot become high castes without changing their surnames and leaving the original low-caste settlements.
This is also the reason why when I heard that Ju'er Khan gave him a single-character surname, he immediately became a strong man.
Zhang Zhao waited for more than a minute. It seemed that this strong man had a high prestige among the surrounding fishermen. As soon as he came out, no one else dared to come out to fight, so Zhang Zhao waved to Cao Yanming.
"Journey 14, take this guy down. If he can transport the divine fire and thunder to the gate of Paroyega, give him the surname Yu and reward him with a thousand rupees!"
The officers of the Borayega Water City have never seen anything like this. The Dalit fishermen living on both sides of the river shouted for their children and threw themselves into the water. Many of them did not even bring pig urine bubbles for ventilation.
, just rushing into the water.
Not long after, those wooden stakes that had been driven into the river by these people more than a month ago, where they had killed and injured dozens of people, floated up one by one. Of course, there were also many people who went down and never came up again.
Every time a wooden stake came up, the women and children of the same tribe by the river would cry and rush to hug it. If anyone wanted to grab it, they would risk their lives to fight it.
These wooden stakes are the conditions given by Zhang Zhao. If you pull out two sticks, they will be given to a Sudra. If you pull out five sticks, they will be given to Vaishyas. If you pull out the two families with the most, they will be given directly to Kshatriyas.
Only then did Zhang Zhao realize that those captured by You Yidu were not 600 fishermen, but the heads of 600 fishermen families, large and small.
At present, there are at least more than 10,000 fishermen on both sides of the Ganges River.
Guo Tiance stared dumbfoundedly at the crowds of people moving like rats in the vast Ganges River, as well as the wooden piles that were constantly floating. His outlook on life was greatly impacted.
He couldn't understand that just changing a last name could make these people so fanatical that they would not avoid life and death?
If this were the case in China, before the emperor bestowed a surname, he would have to find someone in private to test whether the person being given the surname would be willing to do so.
However, Guo Tiance was not the most stunned person here. The most stunned person was the guard of Boroyega Water City.
Looking at the decreasing number of wooden piles, he had to send out a large number of small boats, hoping that the archers on the boats could stop the fishermen who kept jumping into the water.
Zhang Zhao also quickly sent out archers in small boats to protect him. The navy from both sides held the boats and began to engage in bloody exchanges of fire while people kept jumping into the water.
‘Boom!’ At the same time, there were violent explosions at the South Gate and the West Gate of Balayaga. Mushroom clouds rose into the sky. Not to mention the city gate, a large part of the wall of the west gate was collapsed.
"Enter the city! Charge!" Yan Jin drew his horizontal sword and shouted loudly. Barbarian Xiong, Dunzhu and others, as well as thousands of troops, rushed in directly from the damaged city wall.
Zhang Zhao looked at Shi Chongmin, whose face was stained by gunpowder, and for the first time a slightly unbearable look appeared on his face.
"How many people are left?"
He was asking about the entire Bagali clan who were going to deliver gunpowder to the city.
"Seventy or eighty of the more than two hundred men are gone!" Shi Chongmin lowered his head and replied, feeling a little emotional after speaking.
"You're really desperate! You dare to risk your life even if you're holding a piece of wood!"
There were more than a hundred people left. Zhang Zhao let out a breath. He originally thought he would be almost dead.
"If it were you, would you risk your life like them?"
Shi Chongmin thought for a moment and nodded sharply.
"Yes! Change your appearance and reach the sky in one step. Dozens of men will die. It's definitely worth it!"
