That night.
King Tibis of Wusun, accompanied by his prime minister Aiheti and escorted by a group of royal guards, broke through the west gate of the capital city of Chigu.
To prevent a failed breakout due to their large size, hundreds of royal family members were left behind in the palace.
Among them was Queen Aria, wife of King Thebes.
Originally, Tibis had intended to break through the encirclement with his queen, Aria.
However, Prime Minister Ai Hai stopped him.
He told Tibis that the Tang Dynasty considered itself a land of propriety and a superior celestial empire, and even after conquering the capital of Wusun, it would certainly not harm the royal women and children.
Otherwise, how could Emperor Zhaowu of the Tang Dynasty, Chen Huai'an, have styled himself as the Heavenly Khan in the Western Regions?
If we were to break through the encirclement with the princess now, there would be no mercy from swords and spears in the darkness and on the battlefield. If something went wrong and the princess was injured, it would be a great loss.
Tibis, upon hearing this, seemed to agree with the argument and stopped insisting.
Finally, Tibis and his party of over a hundred people broke through the blockade of the Tang army outside the city and headed west, where they met up with Tebar, the special envoy of the Abbasid dynasty, at Lake Balkhash.
The news that Wusun King Tibis had broken out of the city overnight was only learned by the Tang army, which had breached the outer city of Chigu City, after dawn the next day, from the captured garrison soldiers.
The Tang generals, including Lan Yu, only knew that people from the Wusun Kingdom had broken out of the city through the west gate late last night, but they did not know the identities of the people who broke out. They thought they were messengers sent by King Tibis to ask for help.
Little did they know that the one who broke through the siege would be King Tibis.
Inside the central command tent of the Tang army camp.
Lieutenant General Tan Li finally felt a surge of pride, his voice rising in arrogance: "Reporting to the Great General, our vanguard, the Trapped Camp, breached the outer city of Chigu City a short while ago, and the main force is now converging on the inner city of the royal palace;"
"In less than an hour, the battle flag of my Great Tang Dynasty will be flying over the walls of the Wusun Palace in Chigu City!"
Um!
In response, General Lan Yu simply nodded calmly.
Although the capital of Wusun was already in the hands of the Tang army.
However, the fact that King Tibis escaped last night left Lan Yu with a slight regret about this campaign against the Wusun Kingdom.
At this moment, another deputy general, Luo Quan, said, "General, according to the reports from the generals who besieged the city last night, the Wusun king Tibis, who broke out of the city, fled westward towards Lake Balkhash."
"Should we send a team to pursue Tibis west of Lake Balkhash and bring him back?"
"Forget it!"
Lan Yu waved his hand and said, "It's been a whole night. That bastard Tibis has probably already disappeared. He's just a fallen king of a vassal state. Let him wander in the Gobi Desert and the grasslands!"
"Issue the order: the three armies shall advance and follow me to the capital of Wusun!"
"Your subordinate obeys!"
One hour later.
The Wusun royal city's garrison, whose morale was already low, offered only token resistance for a short while after the Tang army launched its siege, before collectively surrendering to the Tang forces.
Immediately, the vanguard of the Tang army surged into the capital of Wusun like a tidal wave, quickly occupying key roads throughout the city. Banners bearing the character "Tang" fluttered in the strong wind blowing towards the top of Chigu City.
In this battle, the 50,000 Anxi cavalry led by Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, ultimately killed and captured the 50,000-strong army of Wusun after suffering fewer than 2,000 casualties, and captured their capital city, Chigu City.
Noon.
Lan Yu, the Marquis of Anxi of the Tang Dynasty, wearing bright armor and a ring-pommel sword at his waist, rode a tall white horse and entered the Wusun Palace surrounded by a group of Tang generals.
On and below the city walls, Tang soldiers waved flags and shouted, their voices shaking the heavens.
Under the spotlight, Marquis Lan Yu of Anxi was full of vigor and looked incredibly impressive.
Upon entering the main hall of the Wusun royal palace, Lan Yu was visibly shaken by its magnificent and extremely luxurious appearance.
Their gazes were also fixed on the golden, gilded throne in the very center of the hall.
Lan Yu took a deep breath, as if bewitched by something, and finally couldn't control herself. She climbed the steps of the palace hall step by step, then turned her back to the golden throne and sat down without any politeness.
At this moment, Lan Yu's vanity was greatly satisfied.
He leaned back in his throne, squinted, and dozed off, savoring this moment of being at the "pinnacle of power."
After a long while, he opened his eyes and ordered, "Deputy General Tan, immediately draft a memorial in the name of the Anxi Protectorate (Northern Protectorate) to inform the Emperor that our Anxi Protectorate has quelled the Wusun rebellion..."
Lan Yu spoke eloquently, essentially claiming credit for the suppression of the Wusun rebellion as her own and that of the Anxi Protectorate (Northern Prefecture), hoping to gain favor with Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an and pave the way for her competition to become the Anxi Military Governor.
Of course, another meaning behind his memorial was how the Tang Dynasty should deal with the Xiaowan Kingdom, which had been destroyed by the Wusun, and the Wusun Kingdom, whose king Tibis was missing.
"Report—"
"Reporting to the General, the Imperial Guard has discovered remnants of the Wusun royal family hiding in the rear courtyard of the palace and captured several hundred people, including Queen Aliya of Wusun. Please give your instructions, General!"
Suddenly, Lan Yu, who had just sat on the throne of Wusun and finalized the content of his memorial, received a report from the commander of his personal guards that the Wusun queen and her entourage had been captured.
Um?
Upon hearing this, Lan Yu on the throne raised an eyebrow, immediately becoming interested.
Immediately, he waved his hand and ordered, "Bring up the Queen of Wusun and all her family members. I, the general, will personally interrogate them!"
"Your subordinate obeys!"
A moment later, a beautiful young woman from a foreign land, dressed in gorgeous clothes, was led into the royal palace. Behind her followed a group of royal women and children.
The young, exotic beauty was none other than Aliya, the queen of Wusun King Tibis.
On the throne, Lan Yu's eyes lit up the moment he saw Aria; it was the natural desire of a powerful man in a feudal dynasty to conquer the opposite sex.
Accustomed to being autocratic and arrogant, Lan Yu immediately ordered, "Leave the princess behind; I will interrogate her personally. Take the rest of the royal family members away and keep them under strict guard."
"All of you, leave. I wish to interrogate the Princess alone!"
"Your subordinate obeys!"
Inside the royal palace hall, all the Tang generals under Lan Yu received their orders and withdrew from the hall.
Inside the vast palace hall, only Lan Yu and Queen Aliya of Wusun remained.
After watching Lan Yu's personal guards close the palace gates, Tan Li, the deputy general, hesitated for a moment, glancing back at the palace out of the corner of his eye.
But in the end, he shook his head and left.
Before they had taken more than a few steps, they heard the painful and desperate cries of Queen Aliya of Wusun coming from inside the palace hall: "You, you mustn't come any closer!"
"I...I am the Queen Consort of Wusun! You can't treat me like this!"
"ah--"
After a piercing scream, the vast palace hall was filled only with the sounds of rough tearing of clothes, primal panting, and sobbing.
Outside the main hall, the guards stood as straight as javelins, ignoring what was happening inside.
After a short while, Lan Yu, still feeling unsatisfied, pushed open the door and came out, still tidying up her disheveled clothes.
Inside the main hall, Queen Aliya of Wusun, her clothes barely covering her body and her hair disheveled, collapsed to the ground, tears welling in her eyes, her heart filled with despair.
Finally, unable to bear the humiliation any longer, Alya staggered to her feet and slammed her head against a jade pillar in the main hall with all her might, causing blood to gush from her head.
When the guards of the Marquis of Anxi, who were on duty outside, heard the commotion and rushed over, they found that the man was already dead.
When his personal guards reported to General Lan Yu that Queen Aliya of Wusun had been killed by crashing into the palace hall, the latter completely disregarded it.
He simply said nonchalantly, "A vassal king's wife who lacked the proper etiquette between ruler and subject, she's dead, so be it. It's not worth mentioning!"
On the contrary, Tan Li, who was a member of the Anxi Border Army during the previous Daxin period and was responsible for guarding Yanqi City, felt an ominous premonition after learning the news.
After much deliberation, he finally drafted a report himself and sent it directly to Jinling by express courier without going through Marquis Anxi Lan Yu, to report everything that had happened that day to Emperor Zhaowu Chen Huai'an.
Everything that happened inside the royal palace was witnessed from a distance by a prisoner of the Wusun Kingdom.
That afternoon, the prisoner escaped the capital while the guards were not paying attention. After stealing a horse, he headed straight for the west of Lake Balkhash.
The next day.
After a night of trekking, the Wusun captive finally caught up with King Tibis, who had fled to the Abbasid Caliphate, and told His Majesty everything he had witnessed in the palace.
boom!
Upon learning of this tragic news, King Tibis of Wusun was devastated and fainted.
The attendants frantically tried to revive Tibbs by pinching his philtrum and feeding him water, and after much effort, they finally managed to wake him from his unconscious state.
Upon waking, Tibis, his eyes bloodshot, immediately bit his lip and swore a blood oath: "Blue Jade, the hatred for the insult and murder of my wife is irreconcilable—"
"I swear this solemn oath: if I cannot tear you apart by five horses in this lifetime, I, Tibis, swear I am no longer a human being!"
snort!
Tibis sneered, his eyes sending chills down one's spine, and continued, word by word: "Chen Huai'an, you hypocrite who claims to be from a superior nation and a virtuous gentleman, you are worse than a true villain;"
"For the hatred of this nation's destruction and the humiliation of my wife, children, and elderly parents, I, Tibis, will make you pay for this in blood, and let you taste the pain of losing your dearest loved ones!"
"Just you wait, I, Tibbes, will definitely come back to take my revenge on you!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com