The name Loulan is beautiful, but this country has never been an easy host to deal with.
I don’t know how many times in history Loulan followed the Central Plains and followed the Huns, and just followed it. In order to show loyalty to the Huns, he intercepted and killed envoys from the Central Plains several times...
Therefore, there is a poem in the Central Plains: "The yellow sand will wear golden armor in a hundred battles, and the Loulan will never be returned until it is destroyed."
However, this matter seemed normal to Shen Bing.
There are only more than 14,000 people in Loulan, and the strength of the army is no more than 3,000... At this time, the Xiongnu occupied them, killed some and drove away some, and it would be difficult to recall even 2,000 soldiers.
Such a small country was sandwiched between the two great powers of the Central Plains and the Xiongnu. If it hadn't become a backwater when the wind blows on both sides, it would have been destroyed long ago.
Therefore, the Central Plains always hate Loulan for his betrayal of faith and lack of martial ethics, but in fact this is just the helplessness of a small country.
What Shen Bing has to do is to make Loulan have the conditions and must move to the Central Plains for a long time... The Western Region is actually divided into two parts by the east-west Tianshan Mountains, with the Junggar Basin at the top and the Tarim Basin at the bottom.
The gateways to these two basins are Gushi and Loulan respectively.
Compared with Gushi, the road from Shazhou to Loulan is longer but safer, so it is particularly important to station in Loulan for a long time.
But of course, Shen Bing wouldn't say it directly.
As mentioned before, when the Qin army entered the Western Regions, they had to face the thirty-six countries, and they had to implement a "soft" policy in the Western Regions.
Therefore, Shen Bing pretended to be difficult and said:
"Your Majesty, you don't know. Maybe it won't be a problem for me to stay a few more days."
"But our army cannot be stationed for a long time to guard against the Huns at all times."
"One day the Huns will come as soon as our army leaves..."
King Loulan thought it made sense, so he asked:
"What the general said is true."
"So, General, what do you think we should do?"
Shen Bing replied:
"That's why Shen Bingcai said that the king should prepare early and build high walls and train his troops diligently."
"Although the Xiongnu are good at riding and fighting, they are not good at defending and attacking cities."
"If we can complete the city wall and add thousands of people, and only Loulan has water within a hundred miles away... why should the Huns be afraid if they come with tens of thousands of troops?"
What was Shen Bing talking about?
On the one hand, the Xiongnu are indeed only good at cavalry warfare and not good at attacking and defending cities. This can be concluded from the fact that the Qin army can easily defeat the Xiongnu.
On the other hand, Loulan controls the water source.
Controlling the water source in the desert is a big deal.
Because this means that the Xiongnu cannot send too many troops to attack Loulan...the more people there are, the greater the demand and consumption of water will be.
In other words, the cost of attacking Loulan will be very high, and once the army cannot attack Loulan, they will withdraw due to lack of drinking water, so Loulan is safe.
But King Loulan had a second thought:
This is not okay!
The Xiongnu's so-called "not good at attacking and defending" is relative to the Qin army.
Loulan's two thousand soldiers were fine against his own people or small countries in the Western Regions, but they were powerless against the Xiongnu.
This is not because the King of Loulan is too big. Even though Loulan only had two or three thousand troops, when he moved south, he successively destroyed Nuqiang, Xiaowan, Jingjue, Qiemo and other countries and became one of the seven strongest countries in the Western Region.
The top seven in the Western Regions sounded very glorious, but King Loulan knew that he was nothing in front of the Xiongnu.
No matter how "bad at attacking and defending" the Xiongnu were, it was only a matter of time before they could capture Loulan, which had only over 2,000 troops. They might even open the city gates and surrender just by shouting at the soldiers a few times.
With the brutality of the Xiongnu, they will massacre the city... How can Loulan still survive?
What's more, when it comes to city defense, Loulan has to learn from Qin Jun!
Thinking of King Loulan, he quickly raised his hands to Shen Bing and said:
"What the general said is absolutely true."
"But Loulan has few soldiers and a weak country. I'm afraid the Huns will attack before the city wall is built."
"I wonder if the general can..."
Shen Bing said "Huh" and frowned pretending to be embarrassed:
"The king's words are not unreasonable."
"Then according to the king's wishes..."
King Loulan quickly requested:
"I hope the general can leave one of his troops to help defend Loulan."
"This can also protect merchants from being harassed by the Xiongnu. For the general, it can be said that it serves multiple purposes!"
Shen Bing hesitated for a moment, then nodded slightly and said:
"This is a good move, but the supplies..."
Before he finished speaking, King Loulan rushed to say:
"I will be responsible for all expenses of the soldiers stationed in Loulan. The general only needs to keep his troops."
Shen Bing asked again:
"I wonder how many soldiers your Majesty will need?"
At this time, King Loulan hesitated.
Because if there were too many troops, King Loulan would be worried that he would not be able to control them.
But if it is less, it will be ineffective and cannot withstand the Xiongnu army.
So it's really a bit difficult.
At this time Shen Bing added:
"Not to mention anything else, there were about 4,000 Xiongnu stragglers who fled in this battle alone."
"Shen Bing can't guarantee whether they are waiting for our army to leave in the dark!"
After saying this, King Loulan no longer hesitated and said immediately:
"If the general can leave a thousand soldiers, I can rest assured!"
Shen Bing sighed and said:
"The troops Shen Bing brought this time are only eleven thousand, but the king wants one thousand!"
"This makes Shen Bing very embarrassed!"
"But now that King Chrysostom has opened his mouth, Shen Bing can't refuse."
"As the king has requested, Shen Bing will leave a thousand soldiers behind!"
King Loulan couldn't help but be overjoyed, he cupped his hands and said:
"Thank you, General. With the help of the General, I can rest assured!"
The reason why King Loulan mentioned the number of one thousand was because Loulan had more than two thousand soldiers.
In addition, there are still more than 10,000 civilians, so he believes that the situation can still be controlled in extreme circumstances.
However, King Loulan soon discovered that his idea was wrong, and very wrong.
These thousand Qin army helmets were bright and murderous, and they also carried several boxes of weird spherical objects.
King Loulan asked curiously, and the answer he got stunned him on the spot...
The person in charge of garrisoning Loulan was a 2500-year-old named Zhang Ke. He raised his hands and replied:
"Your Majesty, this thing is called 'Huahua Dan', so named because it exploded from the middle."
King Loulan was stunned:
"Exploded in the middle?"
Zhang Mei replied:
"When our army attacked the city, we used this thing to blow up the Huns and routed them. Your Majesty must have heard the sound!"
King Loulan half-opened his mouth, then swallowed hard and said:
"I thought...this 'explosive bomb' needs artillery to shoot it out..."
Zhang Mei replied:
"It is better to fire this thing from a cannon, but it can also hurt the enemy if you light the fuse and throw it by hand."
"Since our army wants to prevent the Xiongnu from attacking the city, this is the best choice!"
King Loulan groaned secretly when he heard this.
How can a thousand Qin troops with "explosive bombs" be controlled by two thousand Loulan soldiers?
In other words, his life is also in the hands of these Qin troops. How can he, the King of Loulan, be assured of being the King of Loulan in the future?
But it is easy to invite gods but difficult to send them away, so how can we drive them out now?
What's more, if the Qin army is driven away, how will we deal with the Xiongnu?
King Loulan suddenly felt like he had been deceived.