"Although the four towns in Anxi have fallen and foreign races have been fighting for hundreds of years, there are still many Han Dynasty generals and soldiers who are struggling to persist. However, the Western Region is vast and thousands of miles away. The soldiers and civilians in each place range from hundreds to thousands. The so-called name is justified. If Your Excellency has received the title of Jiedushi of Anxi. When our army advances into the Western Region, it will be of great benefit to conquer the remaining branches of these four towns." Seeing that Chen De was still thinking, Zhang Zhongyao added, fearing that he would not let go of the reputation of Jiedushi of Shuofang.
When the generals such as Fu Rengui and Shi Gongda, whose ancestors came from the Western Regions, first learned that the imperial court had granted Shuofang the title of Jiedushi, they didn't realize anything. When Zhang Zhongyao mentioned the word "Anxi", they were all horrified and moved, and they sat upright without knowing it. Chen De calmly observed the reactions of the generals and sighed in his heart. The four towns of Anxi had been annihilated for hundreds of years, but they still had accumulated prestige. If he asked to be granted the title of Jiedu in Anxi, it would not be an insult to the tens of thousands of soldiers who had followed him and fought bloody battles. Thinking of this, he nodded and said in a deep voice: "What Lieutenant Zhang said is true. I am here to submit a letter to refuse and ask the court to change the title of Anxi Jiedu." The same title is false, exchanging Shuofang for Anxi, but Gao On the other hand, Chen Deliao expressed his loyalty, and there was absolutely no reason why the court would not allow it. All the generals looked happy and felt proud.
Seeing that none of the generals had any objections, Chen De sent a military envoy to convey his intention to change the town. In the next few days, he began to arrange things for him to go to Que and enter the court.
"The land west of Hexi is long from east to west and narrow from north to south. Although there are natural barriers of mountains on both sides, it is still easy to be intercepted by enemy forces. In order to gain more room for maneuver, the Hussars will send out cavalry detachments to conquer Mazong Mountain and Heli Mountain. Mountain and the grassland tribes north of Longshou Mountain, strive to turn the thousands of miles of grassland north of the corridor into pasture for our army." Seeing Xingu accepting the order, Chen De nodded, and the Hussars were already familiar with organizing and carrying out battles to conquer the grassland tribes. The ruling system established step by step with sergeants as the backbone to manage the grassland tribes, including ten-centurions, centurions, and captains, is actually similar to the ruling system established by Temujin in later generations to unify the grasslands. It's just that Temujin made more use of his nobles and cronies to establish the core of rule, and used iron-blooded killing methods to annex other tribes. Chen De, on the other hand, made more use of the desire of the brave but statusless warriors in the tribe to change their status, and established a ruling order based on the sergeant-yinhu system on the grassland in a more peaceful way.
Warriors with strength and brains are the rulers arranged by Changshengtian himself. Nobles who claim to have noble blood and seize high positions in the tribe are just thieves and liars. These stupid and unenlightened aristocratic leaders are the root cause of the grassland tribes falling behind the Central Plains. The elders of Buddhism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and Nestorianism all swore that Chen De Khan's army was carrying out God's will. Now is the time when the world is created and a new group of people will take control of the power. The life of the grassland people can be as prosperous, decent, and even noble as that of the Han people in the Central Plains.
Whether it is the Central Plains or the grasslands, society is ruled by the government, the army, and swords on the surface, but in essence, these armed ruling machines are just the last pass, truly maintaining the society. What operates is the order recognized by everyone. This order is either an upright law or a hidden rule. What really makes cattle and sheep lower their heads to eat grass is not the sharp teeth and claws of wolves, but God's arrangement. Wolves eat sheep, and sheep eat grass. This is God's will.
The so-called moral order is just borrowing the metaphor of destiny, just like Chen De is using divine will at this moment to make thousands of people believe that life is like this. But in fact, man¡¯s will is not God¡¯s will. Just like all laws are impossible to break like the laws of physics and chemistry.
But suddenly there was a force, carrying brand-new concepts, rushing over like a violent storm, and the cattle and sheep suddenly discovered that they were not born to eat grass. As long as they have sharp teeth and claws, they are wolves, and they can be bloodthirsty. You can make those walking corpses who were originally aloof become sacrifices in the era of change and become weak cattle and sheep. At this time, all the majesty and force that maintained the old order were just a layer of paper gently peeled away by the violent changes in the face of the restless trend. Now, Chen De, through his Hussars, tells all the lower-level tribal warriors on the grassland that you can change.
This is the new concept that the Anxi Army will spare no effort to promote in the grasslands in the next few years, or even decades, with machetes, bows and arrows and wealth. It will disintegrate the tribes from the roots more than burning the pastures, and continuously use manpower to , land, cattle and sheep are added to the ever-growing towering tree of Anxi Army.
Listening to Chen De calmly arranging various matters, Xingu believed that from the place where the sun rises to the place where it sets, this big tree will shade all the pastures, mountains, lakes and swamps. In an instant, he was the deputy military commander and the commander of the Hussars, as high as Xingu, and he felt like he had dedicated himself to this. When Chen De turned to Luo Youtong and told Luo Youtong about the attack on Qingtang City, Xingu just broke away from the feeling of almost converting to religion. This feeling was a bit awkward, and he looked at Chen De again.??Another complex and difficult-to-understand respect is added.
"It has been several months since our army defeated the Ganzhou Uighur tribes, but there is still no movement from the Gaochang Uighurs and Khotan. It seems that not only is the road far away, but there is no relationship between the two Uighurs and the Ganzhou Uighurs. Hexi and Gaochang, There is still a large area of ??unclaimed land between Khotan and our army can slowly infiltrate and conquer large and small forces along the way. Li Si led the army to conquer the northern foot of Tianshan Mountain in Yumenguan. General Xiao arrived in Hexi and settled in Dunhuang. Guo Nian led two thousand soldiers. The sharp army came out of Yangguan to manage the southern foot of Tianshan Mountain." He paused and then added: "Khotan King Li Shengtian admires China and has been at war with the Karakhan Dynasty for many years. As long as he does not threaten his inner circle, he will not threaten us. There should be little resistance to the army's westward march, and it is even possible to ask our Anxi Army to join forces, so that we can contact them before I come back." Guo Nian nodded and answered, thinking that the Lord has never set foot in the Western Regions, so he has no idea about the situation there. He actually knew it well and secretly admired it.
Chen De turned to Li Si again and said: "At the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the Gaochang Uighurs are a bit unruly. The Geluolu tribe is the old enemy of our Anxi army. You must work step by step and conquer more of the remaining four towns in Anxi. If you want to fight with the Gaochang Uighurs and the Geluolu tribe decided to fight, and discussed with Xingu to concentrate most of our army and defeat it in one fell swoop. Do not go deep alone." His words were not without reason. When Gao Xianzhi, the governor of Anxi, led the army to attack Talas, he was spared. The Arab and Western Region coalition forces met and were defeated. Although the Geluolu tribe's sudden rebellion was a big reason, the Anxi Army's hasty intrusion alone put itself in danger.
Fighting in the Western Region, the vast territory requires calmness in the use of troops. As long as the position is stabilized, Chen De believes that in the future, even if the people of the Central Plains rely on the settlement step by step, the Turkic forces will be squeezed out of Hexi. Once they break through the mountain barriers in the western part of the Junggar Basin and the Tarim Basin, it will be a smooth river. The Anxi Army, which has consolidated its innermost territory, can then march westward and occupy the unclaimed land that is not guarded by strong troops until it reaches the point of defeating the Persian Empire. directly bordering. At that time, the entire Silk Road was completely in his own hands.
Seeing that Li Si Ti had accepted the order, Chen De looked like he had listened to his instructions and nodded with satisfaction. In the expansion of the Western Region, the Gaochang Uighurs were the biggest obstacle. Using Li Si, who had been trained by him for the longest time, as the main general to run Shanbei, he also chose a stable character.
This era is truly a God-given opportunity. To the south, the Tibetans were divided into hundreds of tribes and civil war was in full swing. To the west, the Arabs were no longer as brave as they once were and civil strife was frequent. In a few decades, the Crusades would begin. The Russians had not yet crossed the Ural Mountains. No powerful empire could stop the pace of westward expansion based on the Western Region. The center of the entire world island has never been so close to China¡¯s fingertips. It's a pity that the Central Plains court's eyes were all on the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture, so this opportunity slipped away gently.
"Now that I'm here, I have to change." Such a sentence suddenly appeared in his heart. Chen De secretly smiled bitterly and drove this almost magical epiphany out of his mind. He turned to Generals Luo Youtong and Lin Hong, who were sitting dangerously, and sighed. The voice said: "Looking around the barbarians, only the Tubo tribes who have occupied Qingtang City still have the power to threaten Hexi. The Wenbuqi clan who is entrenched in Miaochuan and the Zhebugezhi who fled to Qingtang City have a combined force of no less than 20,000, but The Tubo tribes are constantly fighting among themselves and it is difficult to concentrate all their forces to fight with our army. The Chihhunting Army and the Jinfan Army should use Liangzhou as their base and follow the example of the Hussar Army to conquer and drive away the Tubo tribes north of Qingtang City. Take the Qingtang City and drive the old Tubo forces to the south of Dafeichuan." The meaning of his words is to digest the Tubo tribes that can be digested, and those who still disobey the Anxi army's rules will be driven away even more. Farther away, a large area of ??land has been expanded as a strategic buffer for the south of the Hexi Corridor. At the same time, Qingtang City is next to Qinghai Lake, with an altitude of only more than 2,000 meters. It is also called the Hehuang Valley in history books. The lakeside is rich in water and grass. Farming and pastoral land can be used to raise troops.
After Luo Youtong and Lin Hong received the order, Chen De said again: "The terrain south of Dafeichuan is high and the cold miasma is severe. In the first year of Xianheng in the previous dynasty, the Tubo invaded. The famous general Xue Rengui was the general manager of the Luosuo Road march and met with the Tubo soldiers at There was a huge defeat at the gate of Wuhai City, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers lost. In the third year of Yifeng, Li Jingxuan and Liu Shenli, Minister of Industry, led their troops to fight against Tibet in Qinghai, and were defeated again. It was not that the soldiers were not brave, but because of the cold miasma. You wait The sergeants must be restrained and must not enter the Wuhai area before they adapt to the cold miasma. Remember." Seeing Chen De's harsh words, Luo Youtong and Lin Hong both obeyed the order. Lin Hong was still a little surprised in his heart as to why Chen De was so clear about the situation in Tubo territory, but Luo Youtong secretly admired him. When he was riding alone to attack the Tubo people, he also entered the area south of Dafeichuan and encountered Cold miasma, narrowly escaped death, and never dared to cross the south side of Dafeichuan again.
Note 1: In May 981, Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty Zhao Kuangyi sent Wang Yande, the enshrined official, and Bai Xun, the envoy to Gaochang.
In April 984 (the first year of Yongxi's reign in the Song Dynasty), Wang Yande and others returned to Beijing and said that the state general in Yizhou (now Hami City, Xinjiang) was named Chen. "He first led the state in the second year of Kaiyuan of the Tang Dynasty (714). In the tenth generation, the imperial edict of the Tang Dynasty was still there." ?To the west of Xizhou is the jurisdiction of the Gaochang Uighurs. It faces Khotan (today's Hotan City, Xinjiang) across the present-day Taklimakan Desert to the south, to the north is the Gurbantonggut Desert in the present-day Junggar Basin, and to the west includes Qiuci (today's Kuqa County, Xinjiang). The Gobi in the west of Baicheng County in Xinjiang is bounded by the Black Khan Dynasty. Among the residents under its jurisdiction are "Southern Turks, North Turks, Dazhong Tie (Zhongyun), Xiaozhong Tie, Yangmo, Geluolu (Geluolu), Xijiasi, Moman, Geduo, Yulong", etc. Most of the tribes are ancient peoples who speak Turkic languages.
Note 2: The concept of the world island comes from Mackinder¡¯s article Geographical Elements in the Process of History published in the Royal Geographical Society in 1902. In this article, he extends geopolitical analysis to a global perspective. Mackinder believed that the earth was made of two parts. The World Island, composed of Europe, Asia, and Africa, is the largest, most populous, and most fertile land combination in the world. On its edge are a series of relatively isolated continents, such as America, Australia, Japan and the British Isles. In the center of the World Island is the heartland from the Volga River to the Yangtze River, from the Himalayas to the Arctic. Protected by the frozen Arctic and the mountains and deserts to the south, this heartland could only face the threat of land invasion from Western Europe. Mackinder believes that due to the backward transportation conditions in ancient times, this heartland could not have been controlled by a single power in the past. Due to difficulties in human resources and supplies, continuous military expansion from east to west or from west to east has been impossible to achieve since ancient times.
Mackinder believes that the advent of railways has greatly reduced the difficulty for a single power to dominate the heartland. When Eurasia is covered by a dense railway network, a powerful continental country will dominate this vast land starting from the gateway to Eastern Europe. And this will be the prelude to this country dominating Eurasia and then dominating the world:
"Whoever controls Eastern Europe controls the heartland; whoever controls the heartland controls the world island; whoever controls the world island controls the world."
Author: Although the Four Towns of Anxi fell, the centipede insects remained alive. Just like the ending of "Flying in the New Wind" also arranged for the protagonist to return to the Western Regions. There should be many remaining Four Towns in the vast Western Regions. The purpose of this book The elites of Kyushu gathered together to recast the Xia Ding. The famous four towns of Anxi in the Tang Dynasty cannot be missed. So far, what the Great Xia has gained is what the Song Dynasty has abandoned.
In the next volume, Chen De enters the court as a hostage, and there is also Taizong's Northern Expedition. The highlight of the conflict between the two great powers of the world, the Liao and Song Dynasties, is to be written. The next volume mainly focuses on Bianliang and Yanyun, so this chapter also includes the general deployment of the northwest. Talk to the authors.
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