The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 529 Volume : Frame City

Dayuan and the Han Dynasty were, if not old enemies, mortal enemies.

In the past, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered an envoy to bring a thousand gold coins and a golden horse to the capital of Dayuan to exchange for the Ferghana horse.

However, King Wugua of Dayuan refused the offer, believing that the Ferghana horse was the national treasure of Dayuan. The Han envoys cursed at Wugua in front of them, smashed the golden horse, and turned away. Wugua became furious and killed the envoys and took away the gold and silver treasures.

……

Following the killing of the Han envoy, what followed was the conquest that the Han Dynasty loved to see.

When Emperor Wu of Han learned about this, he was furious and appointed General Li Guangli as General Ershi, who led a large army to attack Dayuan.

The expedition to Dayuan was a long journey, and the small countries along the way refused to supply supplies. When the Han army arrived at Yucheng City, there were only a few thousand of them, all hungry and exhausted, and unable to take the city. Li Guangli retreated to Dunhuang to spend the winter.

Afterwards, Emperor Wu of Han launched a nationwide mobilization and sent large-scale reinforcements to Li Guangli's army. The Han army bypassed Yucheng City and directly besieged Guishan City in Dayuan for more than 40 days, killing countless Dayuan soldiers and generals and cutting off Dayuan's water supply...

The Dayuan nobles were finally forced to kill King Wugua and seek peace. The Han army selected dozens of good horses and 3,000 male and female horses of medium and lower quality and brought them back to their country. They also appointed the pro-Han Dayuan noble Mai Cai as the king of Dayuan.

Although in the eyes of the Han people, Emperor Wu of Han's move was indeed the behavior of a prodigal; but in the eyes of the Dayuan people, the Han Dynasty was truly a divine army sent from the sky, which completely shattered the backbone of Dayuan.

Even though hundreds of years have passed, the people of Dayuan still can't help but tremble when they think of the brutality of the Han Dynasty back then, and they don't know how to respond to Cao Cao's order this time.

"Let's send troops! Fortunately, the General of the Western Expedition did not require a certain number of troops. As long as we send a few dozen people, we should be able to save the country."

Although King Lanbai of Dayuan was helpless, he had no intention of provoking the powerful man from the East.

Merchants from the Han Dynasty passing through Dayuan have brought news that the Han Dynasty has recovered from the previous war and its national strength is even greater than before.

There were even news from merchants in Kushan that the Han Dynasty had opened a passage on the sea, which would allow them to contact Kushan in the south and conduct trade...

Therefore, the King of Dayuan had no intention of going against the Han Dynasty. After all, just sending a few dozen people would be enough to show his respect... After all, no one knew whether the current Emperor of the Han Dynasty would be so cruel as his ancestor Emperor Wu of Han, and really send a large army on an expedition over a disagreement.

Originally, Lan Bai had agreed to send soldiers to Cao Cao to express his submission.

However, the arrival of the envoy from Shule Kingdom made Lan Bai hesitate again.

After learning of Cao Cao's order, King Hede of Shule immediately sent an envoy to Dayuan.

"The Han people are greedy. If they return to the Western Regions, they will definitely ask Dayuan for the precious Ferghana horses."

"As the king of Dayuan, do you really want to hand over the treasures of your country to the Han people?"

Dayuan's Ferghana horses are world-famous!
Not only is it as fast as the wind on the plains, it can travel a thousand miles a day! In the mountains, it can also cross streams and rivers as if walking on flat ground!

Whenever the Han Dynasty entered the Western Regions, it would inevitably demand that Dayuan pay tribute with Ferghana horses.

So the big bowl king Lanbai was also very uncomfortable after hearing this, but at the same time he was also worried: "But the Han people are strong, what if they really come to conquer us like General Li Guangli did back then?"

The Shule envoy said, "Your Majesty, don't worry!"

"Dayuan is located to the west of Shule."

"If the Han Dynasty wants to conquer, it must first cross Shule, and then it will be possible to attack Dayuan."

"As long as Dayuan is willing to join Shule and Wusun in resisting the Han Dynasty and preventing the Han Dynasty from even conquering Shule, how can Dayuan be harmed?"

Due to geographical factors, the Han Dynasty could only conquer Shule before it could march to Dayuan.

Therefore, as long as Shule was not conquered by the Han Dynasty, the Han army would not be able to threaten Dayuan.

That is why Shule asked the King of Dayuan not to surrender to the Han Dynasty, but to join him in resisting the Han Dynasty.

King Lanbai of Dayuan showed an interested look.

But he couldn't help but say, "The great Han general Cao Cao has brought 10,000 Han troops! Even if the three of us were united, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to resist the powerful Han army, right?"

"Your Majesty, this is wrong!"

The envoys from Shule State were extremely confident about this!
"More than 20 years ago, Meng Ta, the governor of Liangzhou of the Han Dynasty, led the Wu Ji Sima Cao Kuan and the Western Regions Chief Zhang Yan to lead the front and rear troops of Yanqi, Qiuci, and Cheshi, a total of more than 30,000 people, to attack Shule."

"But even if there are more than 30,000 people, they still can't break into our Zhenzhong City, right?"

"Cao Cao only has 10,000 men now, how can we defeat him?"

"Besides..."

Shule was an enemy of the Han Dynasty, so naturally they had also obtained intelligence about the Han Dynasty.

"The most capable and skilled warrior in the Han Dynasty is called the Pillar of the State."

"But General Cao Cao is not a pillar of the Han Dynasty, which shows that he is just an unknown person! And I heard that Cao Cao's father was a high-ranking official of the Han Dynasty. Maybe he is just a dandy who got a high position by luck thanks to his father's legacy!"

"I'm afraid this kind of person is far inferior to General Ershi back then. What do you have to fear?"

After hearing this, Lan Bai, the King of Dayuan, immediately felt that what the other party said made sense. He immediately stood up and said happily: "That's right! Although the Han Dynasty is powerful, what is there to be afraid of Cao Cao?"

"Let us defeat Cao Cao together and win the respect of the Han people!"...

At this time, Cao Cao did not know that he had been given the title of "dandy boy" by the envoy of Shule.

At this moment, he stared at the Western Region Allied Forces behind him and nodded slightly.

The pro-Han states of Shanshan, Khotan, Shache and Qiuci have all sent envoys.

However, the three neutral powers of Dayuan, Cheshi and Yanqi did not send any soldiers or envoys.

On the contrary, some small countries, intending not to offend either side, sent some soldiers to Cao Cao to show their attitude.

"Shule and Wusun."

"Dayuan, Cheshi, Yanqi..."

Cao Cao recited the names of these five countries silently.

In the future, the Han Dynasty may have five more vassal states...

The one-month deadline has arrived, and Cao Cao no longer waits. He immediately and decisively sends troops to the State of Shule!

The coalition forces of Shule, Wusun and Dayuan had also received the news.

"When fighting against the Han army, we cannot just focus on defense, we must also use our army's strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses!"

Wusun and Dayuan were both rich in war horses, and their cavalry numbers were the largest in the Western Regions.

The Wusun Kingdom in particular sent two thousand cavalrymen, led by General Zuo, to fight against the Han army.

"Cao Cao has gathered so many soldiers and horses, just like a bloated beast. As long as we attack with cavalry at night, the Han army will be thrown into chaos and fall without a fight!"

The Wusun left general immediately traveled lightly and led two thousand cavalrymen directly to the Han army led by Cao Cao.

The terrain in Shule is generally flat, so its tracks were quickly discovered by Han scouts and reported to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao was about to order Cao Ren and others to fight, but was stopped by Guo Jia.

"This is the first time for both sides to fight, and they must be very nervous."

"But the Han Dynasty is powerful and majestic after all. The Wusun cavalry may not dare to engage in direct combat with our army. They will most likely launch a surprise attack at night! In this case, you don't have to risk your soldiers' lives to fight the enemy at this time. You can win a great victory by just waiting for them to tire themselves out!"

Cao Cao thought that because it was an expedition, the army did not have enough thick armor, weapons, and war horses, and was indeed not suitable for a head-on battle with the Wusun cavalry on the opposite side, so he agreed to fight the enemy according to Guo Jia's strategy.

At night……

When the left general of Wusun saw that the Han army did not set up too many defenses in the main camp and only relied on the mountains as half a barrier, he immediately led his troops to attack with joy!
"Kill those damn Han people!"

General Zuo took the lead, riding on the excellent warhorse of Wusun and charging directly into the camp of the Han army!
But what was strange was that the Han army camp did not react at all when attacked by the enemy, and there was not even a scream!
General Zuo suddenly felt something was wrong and quickly opened a Han army tent, only to find that there was no one inside!

At this moment, a roar suddenly erupted from behind the rocks that the Han army used as a barrier!

On the left, Ma Chao and Meng Da led the troops from Shanshan, Khotan, Qiuci and other countries to attack!
On the right side, Xiahou Yuan and Cao Ren led the Han army to encircle them!

Wusun's left general was horrified and immediately denounced: "Cunning Han people!"

At this moment, behind the Wusun cavalry, the Han cavalry, which had only a few hundred war horses in the general's army, were also circling behind Cao Chun and charging towards the Wusun cavalry!
When the Wusun general Zuo saw the Han army on three sides, he was immediately horrified and said, "Retreat! Retreat!"

However, because they rushed forward too hastily, one third of the cavalry had no time to withdraw and were surrounded by the Han army in the camp and became prisoners.

Cao Cao and Guo Jia stood on a high place with contemptuous eyes.

"These Wusun people are really going backwards! They have no rules at all in fighting!"

When the envoys and soldiers from the Western Regions saw that the Han army easily defeated the powerful Wusun cavalry, they were shocked and respected the Han Dynasty even more!

"Use the war horses for military use, and tie up all these Wusun captives!"

After cleaning up the battlefield, Cao Cao ordered his soldiers to rest until noon before continuing their advance.

Fa Zheng and Meng Da, seeing how skillfully Cao Cao used his troops, no longer doubted him and instead patiently served as his guides, leading the Han army all the way to the city of Zhenzhong.

Meng Da pointed to a city not far away and said:

"This is the city that my father attacked for more than 40 days but failed to capture. In the end, he had no choice but to retreat. It's really a pity!"

A zhen is a wooden pillar.

Zhenzhongcheng, as the name suggests, is a city surrounded by wooden pillars.

Cao Cao looked around the city and saw that there were mountains behind it, a lake on its left side called Baishan Lake, and ditches dug on the right and front to serve as moats for protection.

In addition, its meters-high walls built with wooden pillars allow soldiers to stand on them and use bows and arrows for defense... Although such a city is nothing in the Central Plains, it can indeed be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack in the Western Regions!
----

I have pinned the relatively clear map of the locations of the Western Regions in the comments section, and readers can go and take a look~~~
(End of this chapter)