Chapter 51 5. Siege warfare

As we all know, since Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions in the Western Han Dynasty, it has become a paradise for adventurers.In the Western Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian was the adventurer king; in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the adventurer king became Ban Chao.It is their invincible spirit of adventure that has encouraged the people of the Han Dynasty to strive to open up the Western Regions for many years.So, when someone heard that Liu Da was going to recruit a delegation from the Western Regions, they rushed to sign up. This guy's name was Xu Gan, and he told Liu Da that he had the same dream as Ban Chao, that is, to make contributions in the Western Regions.Today is a rare opportunity to go on a mission. I am willing to lead a delegation to the Western Regions and serve as Ban Chao's deputy.

People are not very famous, but they speak beautifully.Liu Da felt very relieved when he heard it, and readily agreed.Immediately appointed Xu Qian as a false Sima, and gave him more than a thousand people. The more than a thousand soldiers that Liu Da assigned were basically composed of two types of people: one was pardoned labor reform prisoners, and the other was volunteers eager for adventure.To put it plainly, this is a group of people who are not afraid of death. Looking at such a team, it is said that it is an expedition team, and no one will believe it.Who has ever seen such an expedition team - they are all desperate people, and even the envoys are temporarily sealed.

In fact, Liu Da's team was in the name of investigation, but they were actually sent out to grab territory.But the engineering team with only a thousand people wants to go to the Western Regions to expand the project. Is the number too small? In fact, Liu Da can't be blamed for being stingy. He calculates carefully, and naturally has a reason to calculate carefully.Ban Chao has said that the current problem in the Western Regions is a problem in Kucha.If you look at the project level, Kucha Kingdom is only a medium-sized project.Liu Da believes that with the engineering team he sent, together with Banchao's sponsors in the Western Regions, it should not be a big problem to win Kucha.

The above reasons are theoretically established.But a premise must be added, that is, what Ban Chao wrote must be true. Whether it is true or not, what Ban Chao said does not count, seeing is believing, what Xu Gan said counts. However, when Xu Gan arrived in the Western Regions, he discovered that half of what Ban Chao had told Liu Da was true, and half was not. Half of the truth is that there are indeed many countries in the Western Regions who were bluffed by Ban Chao and were willing to surrender to the Han Dynasty.The other half is not true, that the countries in the Western Regions said that they surrendered to the Han Dynasty, but they were actually talking about it, and they all had ghosts in their hearts, and no one knew what they were thinking.

You must know that the long-term harsh living conditions have taught the kings of the Western Regions to learn the spirit of grasshoppers, and whoever is strong will fall to whomever is stronger.In their view, whether the Han Dynasty is reliable or not cannot be decided by Ban Chao.So when Ban Chao sent someone to lobby, he could only make a verbal promise.What they most want to see is whether the Han Dynasty will take actual actions in the next step, sending troops to attack disobedient rogue countries like Kucha. They all waited and waited, and after waiting for a long time, they did not see any action from the Central Committee of the Han Dynasty.So, some people couldn't hold back, jumped up and rebelled.

The first one who lost his composure was King Shache.He believes that after waiting for so long, the Han army has not arrived, which means that it is impossible for the Han Dynasty to send troops to the Western Regions to protect a country that needs protection too much. Since the Han Dynasty is not coming, we can only find a reliable one to protect ourselves as soon as possible.Ever since, he surrendered to Kucha.Then, the captain of Shule State, the country where Ban Chao stayed, couldn't hold back anymore, and rebelled in response to the Kucha State. Facts have proved that it is better to calm down when you come out to hang out.If you are a little restless, you will suffer a loss right in front of you.The captain of the Shule Kingdom never dreamed that when he turned against Ban Chao, the divine soldiers of the Han Dynasty would fall from the sky and land in front of him.

At that time, there were no airplanes, and people could not grow wings. It is a bit too much to say that the Han army is a magic soldier.It can only be said that the captain who rebelled was very unlucky.He didn't rebel sooner or later, but Xu Gan rebelled when he arrived at Shule Kingdom. It's not easy for Xu to join this team.They finally arrived at their destination, and even before they could drink their saliva, they were dragged to kill by Ban Chao.Everyone was desperate in this battle. More than a thousand people from the Han Dynasty, together with dozens of brothers from Banchao, killed more than a thousand people from the capital of Shule.

Then, Ban Chao was ready to take advantage of the victory and go directly to the country of Kucha.Capture the thief first, capture the king, and solve Kucha, and the rest of the problems are drizzle. Of course, if you want to beat Qiuci to the ground, it would be very unreliable for Xu Gan to bring only a thousand people.In order to successfully win the Kucha Kingdom, there must be a reliable and powerful sponsor to participate.Ban Chao believes that Wusun Kingdom is the most suitable for finding someone according to this standard. However, to invite Wusun Kingdom to send troops, Ban Chao's iron mouth alone cannot justify it.This has to ask someone to come out and speak.

This person is of course Liu Da, the emperor of the Han Dynasty. Ban Chao sent a letter to Liu Jin, preaching like this: Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty married the princess to the Wusun Kingdom, they have been very polite to the Han Dynasty.Today, Wusun Kingdom has 100,000 people who control strings, and its strength is very strong.In order for Wusun State to send troops on our behalf, you should send someone to say hello to Wusun State and negotiate cooperation, so that it will be much more secure for us to win Kucha. After the memorandum was sent out, news came back soon—Liu Da agreed to negotiate and cooperate with Wusun.Then, the two sides exchanged envoys to finalize the cooperation plan.However, at this moment, an unexpected event happened, which suddenly muddied the water in the Western Regions again.

The little protagonist of the story was the magistrate (Marquis of Wei) of the imperial city at that time, and his name was Li Yi.The process is like this, Liu Da sent him a task, that is, to send the Wusun envoy back to the country.As soon as Li Yi arrived in Khotan, he was so frightened that he lay on the ground and dared not leave. In fact, it's not a big deal, that is, when Qiuci heard that the Han Dynasty and Wusun were going to jointly attack him, he acted preemptively and launched an attack on Ban Chao.It made the coward Li Yi not to leave, or not to go, so he was trapped. So, he vented all his grievances on Ban Chao, and immediately wrote a letter to Liu Da, suing Ban Chao.

He wrote: Ban Chao can only brag, and the issue of the Western Regions is not as optimistic as he said.In my opinion, it is absolutely impossible for them to belong to the Han Dynasty.Also, Ban Chao had a lovely wife and a son in the Western Regions. He lived happily and happily, and he didn't have the ambition to kill the enemy. Li Yi almost shouted: Your Majesty, the Western Regions is not a place for me to hang around, so call me back quickly. The news of the complaint flew out immediately.Ban Chao was very sad when he heard about it.There are many kinds of men in the world, why did the Western Regions come to the bottom three?How many heroes in ancient times did not die on the battlefield, but at the hands of villains.Could it be that my Ban Chao is a brave man, will his future be ruined by this villain Li? Sadness turned into sadness, Ban Chao thought for a second, he had been away from the Han Dynasty for many years, Li Yi in front of him was just a small fish jumping on the water, he had no idea how deep the water in Luoyang was.Therefore, now is not the time to confront Li Yi.A surefire plan must be thought of to avoid Liu Da's suspicion of him. Thinking of this, Ban Chao gritted his teeth, and immediately sent someone to drive a person away. The person Ban Chao drove away was not someone else, but his life partner - his wife.When the news of Ban Chao's divorce reached Luoyang, Liu Da was shocked.He immediately wrote two letters and sent them back to the Western Regions. The first letter was written to Li Yi.Liu Jin scolded Li Yi first, telling him not to worry too much, do his job well, and hurry to see Ban Chao.The second letter was addressed to Ban Chao.Liu Da comforted Ban Chao in the letter, saying that it made you suffer.Li Yi should come to see you soon. If he thinks it is suitable for him to stay in the Western Regions, I will let him be your subordinate. Of course Li Yi is not suitable to stay in the Western Regions.A good pot of soup was almost spoiled by a piece of his mouse droppings.Soon, Li Yi came to see Ban Chao, and Ban Chao immediately arranged a job for him, sending Prince Wusun back to Luoyang as a hostage, and the job was completed. After sending Li Yi away, Ban Chao can finally work with peace of mind. In 84 A.D., Liu Da, who was stingy and stingy, sent another 800 soldiers to Ban Chao.Courteous but affectionate, when Ban Chao saw the eight hundred soldiers, he didn't panic, on the contrary he was very down-to-earth.Then, he mobilized the armies of Khotan and Shule to attack Shache. Shache Kingdom also fought back fiercely against Ban Chao.Unexpectedly, the opponent drove the Shule army away from the city without any effort. In fact, it is not that our army is incompetent, but that the enemy army is too cunning.The Shache Kingdom used sugar-coated shells and sent people to send a large amount of jewelry to the king of the Shule Kingdom.Ever since, the king of Shule Kingdom, who had taken advantage of others, voluntarily withdrew from the battlefield. Of course Ban Chao quit.The king of the Shule Kingdom was established by Ban Chao. If he can establish the first one, he will certainly be able to establish the second one.He immediately changed people, re-established a king, and organized an army to hunt down the defected king of the old Shule Kingdom. The situation on the battlefield is unpredictable, and at this moment, the situation has changed badly. After Banchao sent people to attack the rebel general Shule King, the guy couldn't hold on anymore, and sent people to send the benefits he got from Shache Kingdom to Kangju Kingdom, asking it to send troops to rescue.It didn't take long for Kangju Kingdom, which had taken advantage of it, to send troops to fight against Ban Chao. The king of Kang Juguo sent troops, after all, it was not for a word of money.Since everyone likes money, that's easy. Therefore, Ban Chao also sent someone to bring out a large amount of jewelry and property, and went to meet a king first. This king is not the king of Kangju Kingdom, but the king of Yuezhi Kingdom who has a political marriage relationship with Kangju Kingdom.Ban Chao told the king of Yuezhi Kingdom, I will pay and you will do the work.If you can tell the king of Kangju to withdraw his troops, these good things will be yours.The king of the Yuezhi Kingdom didn't say much, and immediately agreed. Soon, Kangju Kingdom really withdrew its troops.Ever since, the rebellious king of the old Shule Kingdom couldn't hold on anymore. He sent someone to see Ban Chao and said he was willing to surrender. Ban Chao happily agreed, held a banquet, invited beautiful women, and called the old king of Shule over to drink.The king of the old Shule Kingdom readily agreed to the appointment. However, when he was drinking happily, Ban Chao jumped out with a few knives and axes and killed him on the spot with just one look.The money diplomacy of Shache Kingdom ended in failure.Next, let it taste the taste of iron fist. In 87 A.D., Ban Chao mobilized troops from various countries in the Western Regions, a total of 25,000 people, to launch a major attack on Shache Kingdom.As everyone knows, Ban Chao's multinational troops have just started to move, and Shache's multinational troops have also arrived. The Shache Kingdom surrendered to the Kucha Kingdom, and of course the Kucha Kingdom would not stand idly by when it was beaten, so they also recruited troops from various countries to rescue the Shache Kingdom. When Ban Chao heard that Qiuci was coming, he felt as if someone had punched him hard in the chest, and he was suddenly discouraged. The reason is very simple, there are many people in Kucha, and there are few people in Banchao.Banchao has 25,000 people, and Kucha has 50,000 people.Converted to a ratio, it is two fighting one, how to fight this battle? Ban Chao brought together the generals of the Han Dynasty and the commanders of the coalition forces from various countries for a meeting.Ban Chao analyzed that the two warring parties are multinational parts. They have many people and we have few people. I guess we can't play against them.If you can't provoke us, we can still hide. Everyone withdraws first.As for what to do in the future, let's talk about the future. As Ban Chao said, the generals couldn't help but feel heavy.Everyone looked at each other, feeling like being scratched by a cat, not knowing what it was like. Then, I only heard Ban Chao say: I will tell you the withdrawal plan now, and the Khotan Kingdom will return to its own country to the east; as for me, I will lead the army back to the Shule Army and continue to stay for revolution.We preliminarily set the retreat time in the middle of the night, and you can set off when you hear the sound of the drums. After Ban Chao finished speaking, everyone dispersed. This meeting was a failure. The troops, which were originally high-spirited, suddenly turned into a mess.Someone told Ban Chao that the management of the troops was loose and some of the prisoners had escaped.Ban Chao smiled wryly, let them run, we are going to run anyway. The accident continued, and the news of Ban Chao's withdrawal in fear of the enemy reached King Kucha under the wind of the Western Regions and the advocacy of the escaped captive soldiers.King Kucha was overjoyed when he heard this. Isn't the legendary Ban Chao awesome?Now he has finally seen it, the Western Region is huge and the forests are deep, it's not like you, Ban Chao, can stir up waves with a few guns. King Qiuci believed that now is the time to destroy Banchao's prestige, and his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity has finally arrived.He immediately divided his troops into two places, and led 10,000 cavalry to wait to intercept Banchao; he also divided 8,000 soldiers to lie in ambush in the east, preparing to attack the Khotan army. The decisive battle is tonight, after dawn, black and white will be divided.King Qiuci seems to see a bright and splendid tomorrow, right in front of his eyes; the sun in the sky will witness his brilliant achievements. It's over, Kucha has been tricked. Lao Sun said in "Sun Tzu's Art of War" that if you know yourself and the enemy, you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles.King Kucha didn't understand Ban Chao too much.Back then, thirty-six of his men dared to kill the envoys of the Northern Huns.Since then, he has never known what fear is.Later, Emperor Liu Da issued an edict to revoke the Protector of the Western Regions and order him to return to the country. Was he ever afraid?No, but stay bravely and keep fighting. After years of bloody battles in the Western Regions, Ban Chao never gave up fighting even in his most desperate moments. Will he give up his attack on Shache Kingdom in a one-on-two situation? The answer is of course no. In fact, Ban Chao's so-called discouragement, discouragement, depression, and even deliberate laxity to let the prisoners escape were all pretended.He has only one purpose, which is to divert the tiger away from the mountain, divert the main force of Kucha, and swallow Shache Kingdom in one breath. Ban Chao wanted to tell the enemy with his actions: You can give up everything. Even if you lose your teeth, you have to tear this fat piece of Shache to pieces. The evening in the Western Regions is really beautiful, a round of beautiful sunset hangs in the sky, and the afterglow is slowly receding in the melodious sound of reed pipes.At this time, night fell, the wind stopped, and the land was silent. At this time, the scouts sent back information, and the King of Kucha and other countries' troops were already on their way.They lay in ambush on the east and west avenues, ready to intercept and kill them. The tiger finally left the mountain.Sure enough, King Kucha fell for it.The once-in-a-lifetime opportunity finally came. Ban Chao assembled his troops urgently and set off immediately.Instead of going home, they rushed to the city of Shache Kingdom before dawn.At this time, Shache Kingdom was still sleeping in a dream.I believe that they have intercepted the information about Ban Chao's withdrawal, and they are all relieved to dream. At dawn, Ban Chao blew the horn to attack Shache Kingdom.One can imagine the result of a well-prepared army attacking a defenseless city.Ban Chao quickly entered the city, beheaded 5,000 people, and the city was in chaos. At this time, the king of Shache Kingdom woke up like a dream.But the situation was gone, and he had to surrender.The news of Shache Kingdom's defeat soon reached King Qiuci, and they suddenly realized that they had been deceived, so they had to withdraw their troops and go home in despair. The Western Regions are the rivers and lakes, and Ban Chao is the leader.In the first battle of Shache Kingdom, Ban Chao became even more famous.Since then, all countries in the Western Regions have been somewhat jealous of Ban Chao.