It took Shen Bing and his party more than twenty days to arrive in Dawan.
In fact, they had not yet reached Dawan at this time, and Shen Bing ordered to set up camp when he was more than thirty miles away from Dawan.
Wang Ben was a little curious and asked:
"General, it's just past noon now, and I'm only more than thirty miles away from Dawan. Why don't we rush to our destination and set up camp?"
Shen Bing replied:
"Do you know Dawan?"
Wang Ben shook his head:
"My subordinates only heard that Dawan has 60,000 soldiers."
"The enemy has 60,000 troops and we have more than 50,000 troops. Why should we be afraid of them!"
Shen Bing asked again:
"Do you still remember the danger of our attack on Loulan?"
Wang Ben replied:
"of course I remember."
Shen Bing asked:
"Then why is it that Loulan, a small country, makes us unable to advance or retreat, and is almost unable to gain a foothold in the Western Region?"
Wang Ben replied:
"It's all because the sandbank is far away from the Western Region and there is insufficient drinking water."
Shen Bing nodded and said no more.
Then Wang Ben suddenly understood:
"The general is wise. Our army's expedition to Dawan is like an expedition to the Western Regions."
"And there is also a lack of water near Dawan. We should first capture a place to gain a foothold."
Shen Bing nodded.
The problem in this area of Central Asia is serious salinization. Although there are lakes in many places, they are undrinkable saltwater lakes.
Therefore, the army urgently needed to seize a place as an advance base instead of rushing to start a war with the powerful Dawan.
This was the reason why Li Guangli's first attack failed.
The second time, Li Guangli was smart. He first occupied a water source and raised a large number of cattle and sheep before attacking. It is said that there were 100,000 cattle and sheep, 30,000 horses, as well as tens of thousands of donkeys and camels.
On this basis, it took more than forty days to besiege Dawan.
Since Shen Bing knows this and has the previous experience in Loulan, he will certainly not make such a mistake again... In a place that is short of water, the first thing to do is to find a place to establish a foothold.
But after looking at the map, Wang Ben frowned and said:
"But where should I wait?"
"Most of the places with water sources are occupied by people or other countries. We can't just destroy several countries in one fell swoop!"
This is indeed a problem.
There are not many countries in this area, such as Wusun, Kangju, etc., but their strength is much stronger than the thirty-six countries in the Western Regions.
This is especially true of rest.
The word "Parthia" is the name given by the Central Plains when they knew this country, and Rome called it "Parthia", which was the empire that defeated Crassus's Roman army and killed Crassus in the future.
Therefore, if the 50,000 men brought by Shen Bing came up indiscriminately and picked anyone up and beat them up, they would probably become a common threat to all countries and force these countries to form an alliance to drive Shen Bing out.
But Shen Bing already had an idea in mind.
He pointed to the Lanshi City Road in the southwest of Dawan:
"We can gain a foothold in this country."
Wang Ben was shocked and said:
"What is the name of the teacher?"
"Why did the general choose the Lan family?"
Shen Bing replied:
"Do you still remember the battle when you broke through the sandbank?"
Wang Ben replied:
"Of course I remember that in that battle, the Yuezhi King died, and we were freed from the trap of being attacked by the Xiongnu Yuezhi."
Shen Bing continued:
"In that battle, thousands of Yuezhi soldiers fled westward with a large number of cattle and sheep. Do you know where they fled to?"
Wang Ben couldn't help but widen his eyes:
"The general is saying that Gu Dunxi is fleeing to the Lan clan?"
Shen Bing nodded:
"Exactly."
"It is said that after Zhidun Xihou fled here, he captured Daxia."
"But Daxia is made up of tribes without a king. It is like a piece of loose sand."
"They were successively defeated by the Yueshi's troops, so they were enthroned as king by Yudun Xi, thus giving birth to the Lan clan."
Wang Ben said "Oh", and then said with joy:
"That's great. This way we will become famous."
"The secret is... Hou Dunxi killed King Yuezhi and fled. We will seek justice for King Yuezhi!"
Wang Ben's words surprised Shen Bing.
Originally, Shen Bing wanted to attack the Lan clan on the pretext of "rebelling against thieves", but he did not want Wang Bi to be more ruthless and directly blamed the death of King Yuezhi on Hou Dun Xihou.
But thinking about it, it seems right.
At that time, the moon was dark and the wind was high, and no one knew who was talking about the Yuezhi King. Maybe he was waiting for someone to stab someone in the dark?
In fact, it doesn't matter what the truth is.
The important thing is that the Qin army had an excuse to attack the Lan clan, so that other countries thought that the Qin army had a reason for fighting this battle, so they only attacked the Lan clan and not them, so they stood aside and watched.
Many people may even believe that it was Hou Dun Xi who killed King Yuezhi. Otherwise, why would he lead his troops and flee here?
Then other countries will think that this is just the Yuezhi's housework, and they will be even less willing to intervene.
Thinking about it, Shen Bing nodded and said:
"That's it, who is leading the Yuezhi army? You go and explain it!"
Wang Ben agreed and went down to make arrangements.
The leader of the Yuezhi army was a Yuezhi captain of ten thousand men named Gui Lu. This time he led five thousand troops and followed Shen Bing on the expedition.
This Guilu is a staunch supporter of Shen Bing. The reason is that he once sent troops with Shen Bing to surround Gu Shi. Shen Bing made a speech in the city and vowed to protect the nobles of Gu Shi who were held hostage by the Huns. Gui Lu believed this to be true. , so he became a supporter of Shen Bing.
From this we can also see that the ancient saying "He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world, and he who loses the hearts of the people loses the world" still has some truth.
For example, Shen Bing did what he did just to win people's hearts, but he did not win people's hearts in a sincere and pedantic way like Confucianism.
Shen Bing's actions may be called "hypocritical" and "realistic", but war is a thing where all kinds of extremes are used, and there is no sympathy or morality at all here.
What's more, if Shen Bing was able to deceive Gui Lu into trusting and supporting her, wouldn't that be a good thing for the Yuezhi?
Otherwise, if Yuezhi really fights with Shen Bing... it will be a bloody storm.
Wang Ben told Gui Lu the whole story, and Gui Lu immediately knew what to do.
First of all, Guilu conducted a "confidential" brainwashing of five thousand subordinates:
"Commanders, there is something that Guilu has to explain to you and others."
"When we lost Shazhou Yuezhi King and died heroically in battle, we all said that Yuezhi King was injured by random arrows..."
"Actually, there is something else hidden!"
When the Yuezhi soldiers heard this, they were shocked, so they all opened their eyes and asked:
"Captain of Ten Thousands, what's the secret?"
Gui Lu let out a long sigh, then continued with a look of sadness on his face:
"You don't know anything."
"I waited and pulled out the feathered arrow that injured King Yuezhi later, but it was a carved feather arrow!"
When the subordinates heard this, they all opened their mouths in shock.
They all know that the Qin army used wild goose feather arrows or even goose feather arrows, while carved feather arrows were only used by the Xiongnu and Yueshi.
There were no Huns on the sandbank at that time, so...
All the subordinates asked:
"Captain Ten Thousands, is it one of our own who hurt King Yuezhi?"
"Who is this person? How dare you take advantage of the chaos to hurt my king!"
"If we find this person, we will kill him with a thousand knives!"