Because the news that Shen Bing was in Kucha had been spread before, the two thousand Shenwu troops looking for Shen Bing immediately gathered near Kucha from all directions.
These two thousand divine warriors are indeed nothing if placed in the Central Plains, but they are a force that cannot be underestimated in the Western Regions... The entire city of Qiuci only has 10,000 soldiers and horses, and there are another 10,000 soldiers and horses in the hands of various nobles. The two thousand cavalry troops were already one-fifth of the number.
Because the Shenwu Army didn't know which gate Shen Bing would leave the city through, they deployed five hundred at each of the south and north gates, and eight hundred at the east gate.
To be on the safe side, the nearly impossible West City Gate was also posted with two hundred people.
At this time, as soon as Shen Bing left the city gate, the Shenwu Army released the Qin Army's unique ringing arrows to contact the soldiers in other directions.
This kind of sounding arrow is not a sounding arrow.
The grassland nomads and even the Western Regions mostly communicate with each other by the sound of arrows. The styles are similar but the whistling sound is slightly different. This kind of sound arrows can easily confuse the information between the enemy and ourselves.
The sounding arrows used by the Qin army tied a small medicine bag to the arrow, ignited it and shot it into the air to make an explosion... This sounding arrow is especially suitable for contact at night, because friendly forces can see it in the air even at a long distance. Exploding fire.
Then, people fired arrows one after another in response to the news, and for a while there were explosions from all directions in Kucha.
King Qiuci couldn't help but feel frightened when he saw this scene. Fortunately, he turned to the Qin army at the last moment, otherwise the Qin army had no idea how many troops were ambushing around Qiuci and would attack the city at this time.
Thinking of this, King Qiuci asked Princess Wuyou with guilt:
"Princess, are you sure that this envoy is the general of Qin?"
Princess Wuyou knew what King Qiuci was worried about, so she smiled and replied:
"If you are not convinced, how can your daughter be willing to marry now after being unwilling before?"
King Qiuci, please do not be doubtful and ask:
"If this messenger is the general, why do you want to refuse marriage?"
"Princess, please don't trust what the envoy says. Maybe this is the envoy's tactic to delay the war..."
Princess Wuyou explained:
"My father is confused."
"The general got lost with his men in a sandstorm and was taken captive to Kucha."
"She is not here, and all her subordinates, including the general, are missing and their lives are uncertain. How can they agree to a marriage?"
After Princess Wuyou said this, King Qiuci suddenly understood and then relaxed again.
After thinking about it carefully, King Qiuci sighed:
"How can things in the world be so coincidental."
"The princess ran away from the marriage because she didn't want to marry the general, but she kidnapped the general to Qiuci to achieve this marriage."
Looking at Princess Wuyou who was enjoying herself again, King Qiuci smiled again and said:
"No matter what I said before, you wouldn't marry that general. Now I'm afraid I won't even let you marry!"
Princess Wuyou was so embarrassed that she wished she could find a hole in the ground and crawl into it.
Shen Bing rushed back to his aunt on the third day. Wang Ben and others were relieved to see Shen Bing return to the camp safely.
When they heard that they were going to marry Qiuci, they all came forward to congratulate:
"Congratulations, General. We were still worried about Kucha before. If the marriage is successful and we form an alliance with Kucha, the overall situation for the coalition to conquer the Huns will be settled!"
"Congratulations, General. It is said that Princess Wuyou is as beautiful as a fairy and extremely talented. The General can get this girl as a gift."
Shen Bing was somewhat interested in this and couldn't help but ask more:
"What kind of talent does this Princess Wuyou have?"
He replied:
"It's normal for the General to not know about Princess Wuyou when he first came to the Western Regions."
"Although Princess Wuyou is a princess of a country, she has been traveling to various countries for business since she was a child."
"At least half of the wealth in Kucha comes from the hands of the princess. Kucha's ability to become the largest country in the Western Regions is not unrelated to it. This is one of the reasons why King Kucha regards it as the apple of his eye."
"If Princess Wuyou hadn't had such high standards for choosing a mate, princes from all over the world would have come to propose marriage."
When Shen Bing heard this, he realized that she was a good helper, and he could safely leave all business dealings in the Western Regions to her.
that is……
Shen Bing asked worriedly:
"It is said that Princess Wuyou has some skills. I wonder if it is true or not?"
Answer:
"The general is joking."
"The princess is doing business abroad all year round. How can she defend herself if she doesn't know how to ride and shoot?"
This is true. Vehicles such as carriages are rarely used in desert areas. The reason is that carriages not only cannot move fast in the desert, but also get stuck in the sand when walking... That is just annoying. stuff.
So even the nobles could only ride horses. It would be more enjoyable to set up a small platform and a small tent on the camel's hump.
However, the latter is obviously not conducive to travel.
The target is too obvious and placed high on the hump. If you encounter a robber, you will become an attack target immediately.
So riding a horse is a must. After you can ride a horse, you will naturally learn archery, and then you must have some basic self-defense skills.
Thinking of this, Shen Bing couldn't help but swallowed hard. If the couple got into a fight from now on... maybe Shen Bing wouldn't be his opponent?
Let’s not think about these things for now.
Because at this time, we are already riding a tiger and it is difficult to get off. No matter what, we have to get married first.
So Shen Bing didn't think much, and immediately sent Ze as an envoy to Kucha with gifts, on the one hand to propose marriage, and on the other hand to form an alliance with Kucha.
On the other hand, Shen Bing sent people to Yuezhi and transferred 20,000 cavalry from Yuezhi to join the expedition against the Xiongnu.
Shen Bing estimated that the various countries in the Western Regions, including Qiuci, could muster 40,000 cavalry.
This is an estimate based on half of the total strength of the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions... If they are to form an alliance and hand over their troops to the command of the Qin army, even if Qiuci takes the lead and the Qin army guards the formation, it is not bad to send half of their troops. , and they are probably still old and weak.
Shen Bing had already been mentally prepared for this.
If he were to put himself in his shoes, if Shen Bing were a member of the Thirty-six Kingdoms of the Western Regions, he would probably do the same thing when faced with this situation.
There are 40,000 cavalry in the Western Region, 30,000 Yuezhi cavalry, plus the Shenwu Army, Pu Lei Army and the scattered soldiers recruited from various places, the total is more than 10,000 cavalry, and the number is 80,000.
During training, Shen Bing would also eliminate some of the remaining soldiers who could not be used, and then roughly organized a cavalry army of about 60,000.
If we cooperate with Li Yan's infantry, we may be able to compete with the Huns.
The reason why "maybe" is used here is because Shen Bing does not know whether such a coalition can form combat effectiveness.
Although in terms of strategy and tactics, we learned from and referred to Huo Qubing, who defeated the Huns in later generations and sealed the wolf in Xu Mountain, Huo Qubing led an elite Han army.
However, Shen Bing led a cavalry army that was pieced together from all over the Western Regions.
But no matter what, using the troops from the Western Regions to defeat the Xiongnu is still a strategic improvement.
Because no matter whether this battle is won or lost, it will not cause much loss to the Qin army.
Even this conquest of the Xiongnu can deepen the hatred between the Xiongnu and the Western Regions, making it easier for Qin to control the Western Regions.