Chapter 2330 Destroying the Army
General Guo Xiao reluctantly stood up to see Bai Shan and the others off.
He glanced at the army that had already set off, then turned his gaze back to General Meng, Bai Shan and the others, and said solemnly, "Take care."
Bai Erlang also said cheerfully: "Take care of yourself too."
Bai Shan nodded calmly, "Without us here, the military doctor may not be able to give you a blood transfusion."
General Guo: "...it's time for you to set off."
General Meng simply reached out and patted him on the shoulder, then mounted his horse and looked at Bai Shan and the others.
Manbao was also riding on a horse, and he pulled his cloak tighter around him. The weather was getting colder, and it was even colder riding on a horse.
Although the weather was getting colder, General Ashina did not plan to stay in Kucha for a few more days. On the third day after convening a city-wide meeting, he reorganized his troops and headed directly towards the place where the Turks retreated, capturing more than 20 small cities along the way.
It is really small, about the size of a town, but the area is vast and sparsely populated, so such a place can also be a city.
This time he did not think about conquering the people, so he moved much faster. He almost took the city, collected food and grass, and then left. He only left people at important checkpoints, and the rest of the people followed the army.
The Western Turks were greatly alarmed, and the Shule State, which thought it had escaped a disaster, was also greatly alarmed and immediately sent reinforcements to the border towns. However, General Ashina continued to advance with great momentum and captured twelve cities in a row.
A rebellion broke out in Shule, and they replaced the king internally. Then they surrendered to General Ashina, pleaded guilty, and sent gold, silver, food, and beautiful women.
General Ashina gave the beauties to his men, kept the food and fodder for his own use, registered the gold and silver and sent them back to the national treasury, and then led his men towards Khotan.
From Shule to Khotan, you can just follow the Tuduo River. It is much closer than from Kucha to Khotan, and the journey through the desert in between only takes two days.
When the King of Khotan heard that the army was coming to Khotan, he was so anxious that he burst into tears. If he had known earlier, he would not have believed the rumors and joined Kucha and Western Turks in making trouble. Damn it, who said that the gods punished the emperor of the Central Plains by making him contract smallpox?
Does this look like smallpox?
The King of Khotan did not dare to be negligent, and even ignored the dispute with Tubo. He immediately prepared a batch of food, fodder, gold, silver and jewelry and sent them to Ashina's military tent.
After checking on the sick soldiers in the medical tent and some wounded soldiers, Manbao washed his hands with warm water and covered himself tightly with his cloak before going out to watch the fun.
Bai Shan and Bai Erlang were standing there watching the excitement. Manbao came over, watched for a while, and asked, "Is General Ashina still going to Khotan?"
Bai Shan said: "I will definitely go!"
Bai Erlang: "We have taken their money and food."
"So what?" Bai Shan said, "I have to meet the King of Khotan in person. He should have thought of this when he started stirring up trouble."
He said, "Because of them, the trade routes to the Western Regions have been cut off for a year."
Originally, after the smallpox epidemic in Xiazhou ended, the trade routes should have slowly recovered. However, because they kept spreading negative words about the Jin Dynasty and allowed their soldiers to rob passing merchants, the trade routes were cut off.
He even spoke rudely to the Great Jin and Your Majesty, causing great damage to the image of the Great Jin and Your Majesty.
General Ashina did decide to go to Khotan, so he accepted the gifts sent to him, but after that he still moved camp to Khotan.
After hearing the news, the King of Khotan couldn't sleep for a whole night. Finally, he got up and drafted a confession. Then, with a sad face, he took his men to the border, where he met General Ashina's army.
General Ashina took a look at the food, fodder, gold and silver he had sent again, snorted coldly, and then looked at the letter of confession he had handed over.
He thought for a moment, then looked at the clouds in the sky. They were so dark that the sun was hardly visible.
When his confidant saw this, he said considerately, "General, it seems like it's going to snow soon."
General Ashina held up the confession and asked, "Is the soldiers' winter clothing all right?"
The confidant paused and said, "It's still a little thin. There are still some soldiers from the south in the army, and many of them are unwell. Recently, the medical records have reported that there are more sick soldiers.
General Ashina tapped the confession letter under his palm, and finally snorted softly and said, "Please invite the King of Khotan to come in and see me."
The confidant bowed and left.
At this point, after Yanqi was incorporated into Anxi and lost its royal family, Kucha and Shule changed their kings, and the Western Turks lost two groups of warriors and the land of twelve cities, the King of Khotan temporarily retained the throne and the city by sending out a letter of confession and food, fodder, gold and silver.
He again pledged allegiance to the Jin Dynasty and found many treasures from the palace treasury and gave them to General Ashina, asking him to take them back to the capital to present tribute to the emperor.
Of course, he also sent a team of envoys to accompany General Ashina back, and he sincerely asked the envoys to go to the capital to apologize again.
General Ashina was very pleased with his understanding, so he collected his things and left with his men.
Manbao and his companions saw a lot along the way. If the King of Khotan had not overreacted, they might have been able to enter the royal city of Khotan and take a look.
They followed General Ashina back with regret, saying, "I heard that beyond Khotan are Tubo and Dabolü, and beyond Dabolü is India. Master Zhiren's greatest desire is to go to India."
Bai Shan lamented again, "It's a pity that Master Zhiren and his men didn't join the army. Otherwise, if we had gone with them, we could have met the King of Khotan and perhaps even asked him to help us pass through Daboluo to Tianzhu."
Bai Erlang: "Didn't I hear that Dabolü was fighting with Xiaobolü?"
"They can fight as they please. It won't affect Dabolü's efforts to win over the King of Khotan."
Manbao looked ahead, a little excited, "Are we going to walk through this big desert?"
Bai Shan nodded. "We can take the Chiyu River and cross the desert directly back to Qiuci. It will be half the journey faster than going through Shule."
From here to Qiuci, it is basically desert, but there is an intermittent river in the desert called the Chiyu River. With this river, there are oases along the way. They also received food and grass sent by Shule and Khotan, so they basically don't have to worry about food and drink.
The march of a large army is different from the march of small groups led by Bai Shan. Twenty thousand people advance and retreat together. Basically, as long as they don't encounter a storm or get lost, there is nothing to fear in the desert. Even the animals have already avoided them.
Manbao felt that when they slept outdoors at night, the world was filled with tranquility, as if they were the only people under the sky.
General Ashina heard their sighs and said, "It's cold, so the scorpions and rats have all gone into hiding. When it gets hot, even if a hundred thousand or twenty thousand troops pass by, they'll rustle and rustle."
So there is no need to have such feelings.
Manbao and his friends: ...
General Ashina didn't notice and asked them directly, "I want to return to the capital as soon as possible. After returning to Xizhou, will you follow me back to the capital?"
Bai Shan couldn't help but ask, "What about Xizhou? If the army leaves, what will happen if the Kucha states rebel again?"
See you at 6pm
(End of this chapter)
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