Vol 2 Chapter 2704: Yang Liji’s three families conquered the Western Alliance, and the Western Regi

Vol 2 Chapter 2704: Yang Liji’s three families conquered the Western Alliance, and the Western Regi

Chapter 2704 Yang Liji’s three families conquered the Western Alliance, the anti-Sui alliance of the fifteen countries in the Western Regions

Chapter 2704 Yang Liji’s three families conquered the Western Alliance, the anti-Sui alliance of the fifteen countries in the Western Regions

Yang Su also guessed that Yang Guang would not be willing to bring Li Ji's family to send troops together. After all, the Sui State was the overlord of the Western Regions, and Ji Chang and Li Siyuan also took advantage of the Sui State's tiger skin to gain a foothold in the Western Regions.

 But today is different from the past.

After each of the Ji and Li families destroyed a country, they already had their own territory and population, as well as fixed grain-producing areas. Even if they were separated from the protection of the Sui State, they could still survive.

 For the Ji and Li families, it no longer matters whether there is the Sui State or not. Even if they leave the Sui State aside, they can still go it alone and grow stronger.

Looking at the Sui State, if they lose the two potential allies of the Ji and Li families, they will only have two more difficult enemies due to conflicts of interest. After all, the Ji and Li families are unlikely to give up their expansion in the Western Regions.

Yang Guang underestimated Ji Chang and Li Siyuan and failed to destroy them when they were weak, so that now the two families have completely established a foothold in the Western Regions, and have formed an alliance with each other to keep warm.

The combined strength of the Ji and Li families is not much less than the Sui army in the Western Regions, and their combat effectiveness is not inferior to that of the Sui army.

If the Sui State wants to deal with the Ji and Li families now, unless it mobilizes the entire country's troops to engage in a national war, it may even be swallowed up by the Ji and Li families if it only relies on local garrison troops in the Western Regions.

Of course, this is just a thought. After all, if the Sui State really mobilizes its national troops, the Yongliang Qin Army will definitely not sit idly by and ignore it. Once the Qin Army is triggered to march westward, it will not be good.

Even if the Qin army did not move out and watched the Sui Dynasty destroy the Ji and Li families, Ji Chang and Li Siyuan were not stupid.

If the entire Sui army invaded, even if the Ji-Li alliance couldn't defeat it, couldn't they still run away?

The Western Region is so big and the local power is weak. As long as there is a fighting army, Ji Chang and Li Siyuan can completely re-establish their power elsewhere.

It is impossible for the Sui State to pursue the Ji and Li families all the time, right?

 Judging from the current situation, the Sui State cannot destroy the Ji-Li Alliance at all, even if it mobilizes the power of the whole country.

Since Ji Chang and Li Siyuan both chose to venture into the Western Regions, they naturally could not just sit back and watch the Sui family monopolize the Western Regions. The Ji-Li Alliance was the biggest obstacle to the Sui Kingdom's occupation of the Western Regions.

If the Sui State does not join forces with the Ji and Li families, it will definitely fall into a situation of fighting alone. Not only will it have to face the counterattack of the local forces in the Western Regions, but it will even face the backstabbing of the Ji and Li alliance.

The Sui State was not the Qin Dynasty. If it wanted to rely on the strength of one family to challenge so many forces, it was obviously beyond its capabilities and it would be difficult to completely occupy the Western Regions in a short period of time.

This is also the main reason why Yang Su proposed to get the Ji and Li families to send troops together, because only by dividing the cake between the Ji and Li families can the Yang family get the biggest piece.

Yang Guang's intelligence attribute is as high as 94 points after all. Although he does not want to share the Western Region with the Ji and Li family, he also knows what cannot be done. .

With Yang Su's reminder, Yang Guang quickly figured out the key and had to accept the fact that the Sui State had nothing to do with the Ji and Li families, and had to join forces with the Ji and Li families to swallow up the Western Regions.

“Hey, it’s all my fault that I underestimated Ji Chang and Li Siyuan, so that I allowed these two to become big in the Western Region. Now it is even more difficult to restrain them.”

Yang Guang said with regret on his face, he would never have imagined that these two subordinates of Li Shimin, who were ordinary when Li Shimin was alive, would explode with such great ambition after Li Shimin's death.

But having said that, when Dong Zhuo was still alive, Yang Jian and Li Yuan did not dare to have any different intentions under Dong Zhuo's suppression, and their ambitions exploded after Dong Zhuo's death.

 Since ancient times, the human heart has been the most unpredictable.

Yang Su, Yang Shuang, Gao Jun, Gao Changgong and others, seeing Yang Guang's remorseful look, also offered words of comfort to Yang Guang, saying that the current situation was not his fault, but the result of good fortune.

After Yang Guang showed his self-examination, he naturally took the initiative and said, "Prime Minister, you will be solely responsible for forming an alliance with the Ji and Li families and jointly sending troops to conquer the Western Regions."

Gao Jiong stood up quickly, clasped his fists and said sternly: "Old minister, I will live up to my lord's trust."

Yang Guang nodded: "This time I form an alliance with the Ji and Li families, I have only one request. I, the Sui Dynasty, will be the leader of the alliance to conquer the Western Regions."

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The Sui State has determined the strategy of uniting the Ji and Li families to carve up the Western Region, but Ji Chang and Li Siyuan, who are far away in the Western Region, do not know yet, so they are anxiously waiting for the Sui State's next move. After all, the Sui State's next choice will affect them. of survival.

 In fact, neither Ji Chang nor Li Siyuan were willing to go against Yang Guang. After all, the increasingly powerful Da Qin was their common enemy.

But if Yang Guang is really short-sighted and thinks that their concession is because they are afraid of the Sui State, then they would not mind teaching the Sui State a lesson in the Western Regions so that Yang Guang can understand who the real overlord of the Western Regions is.

However, Yang Guang was quite rational and was not arrogant enough to think that relying solely on the power of the Sui family could conquer the Western Regions alone, leaving the Ji and Li families aside.

Ji Chang and Li Siyuan breathed a sigh of relief when Sui Prime Minister Gao Jiong personally came to discuss the alliance's dispatch of troops. This showed that Yang Guang had looked at them squarely and would give up his status as an equal rather than a vassal.

Ji Chang and Li Siyuan both agreed without thinking about Yang Guang's request for the Sui State to be the leader of the alliance after the three families formed an alliance. After all, the strength of their two families was still too weak, and only the Sui State had the strength to serve as the leader of the alliance.

 After some discussion, both Ji Chang and Li Siyuan decided to accept the Sui State as their alliance leader, and each dispatched 15,000 troops, for a total of 30,000 troops, to cooperate with the Sui State in launching the third Western Expedition.

Ji and Li both had nearly 30,000 troops, but they only sent out 15,000 troops. This was not because they wanted to conserve their strength, but because they did not have enough food to support the 30,000-strong army.

Nowadays, the Sui State has long ceased to provide grain and grass support to the two families. Although the Ji and Li families have their own territory and high-yield grain seeds from the Central Plains, most of the Western Regions are dry and short of water, and the land suitable for planting is not If there are too many, it will naturally be difficult to increase grain production.

Although Ji Chang and Li Siyuan each destroyed a country, they were both small countries. The population of the newly acquired land was not large. If they wanted to support such a large army, they could only establish military camps, and occasionally rob local forces in the Western Regions. Maintain food and grass consumption.

The food and fodder for the 15,000-strong army dispatched this time was already saved by Ji Chang and Li Siyuan by cutting back on food and clothing.

The number of troops sent this time is also related to how much territory they can occupy in the Western Regions, so Ji Chang and Li Siyuan also want Sui to sponsor them or borrow a batch of food and grass for emergency response.

But Gao Jiong was not stupid. After the Ji and Li families had food and grass, if their power in the Western Regions grew stronger, it would definitely squeeze the Sui State's power space in the Western Regions, so he refused without any hesitation.

Ji Chang and Li Siyuan failed to borrow food and grass and could not go all out. They could only send out 15,000 troops each for the western expedition. Yang Guang saw that the Ji and Li families had dispatched 30,000 troops. After discussing with Yang Su and Yang Shuang, he decided to appoint Yang Shuang as the general to conquer the Western Regions and lead an army of 40,000 to conquer the Western Regions.

The reason why Yang Guang chose Yang Shuang this time instead of the experienced Yang Su who had already conquered the Western Regions twice was mainly because Yang Su's contribution was already too great. In order to prevent a situation where no reward was given and the merit was overshadowed by the master, Yang Su Guangzhou must support a new commander to check and balance Yang Su, and Yang Shuang is this candidate.

Although Yang Shuang is young, he has served as the deputy general of Yang Guang and Yang Su many times. He has made great contributions in exterminating the Qiang and conquering the West. He is experienced in military use and has extraordinary talents, so Yang Guang chose him to check Yang Su.

Yang Guang was preparing to completely occupy the Western Region this time. The reason why he only sent out 40,000 troops was not only because he had two more allies to share the pressure, but also because of Yang Su's persuasion. He was worried that if too many troops were sent for the Western Expedition, Huixiliang was empty and attracted the Qin army to advance westward.

No matter how important the Western Regions are, they are still not as important as Liangzhou in Yang Guang’s heart.

Although the 40,000 Sui troops were not too many, coupled with the 30,000 troops of the Ji and Li families, the three coalition forces totaled 70,000 troops. Their strength was already the highest in the history of the Western Expedition.

Yang Guang's first two western expeditions dispatched only 30,000 troops at most, but they still defeated the Western Region Allied Forces of more than 200,000 people. If Ji Xiaolan and Wang Ben hadn't stepped in, the Western Region Allied Forces would have been defeated. The Sui army was completely wiped out.

Now the three families of Yang, Li, and Ji have dispatched 70,000 troops, which is more than twice as many as before. It is not easy to deal with the backward natives of the Western Regions.

 The fourth year of Shenwu, June 15th.

Just when the Eight Route Army of the Qin Dynasty came out to fight fiercely with the Wei, Song and Ming Kingdoms in the Central Plains, Sui King Yang Guang, who was far away in Xiliang, suddenly raised his troops without any warning and launched the third Western Expedition to attack the countries in the Western Regions.

Yang Guang's third Western Expedition was led by Yang Shuang, who led 40,000 Sui troops, 15,000 Ji's troops, and 15,000 Li's troops, a total of 70,000 troops. Externally, he claimed that 100,000 troops were conquering the Western Alliance.

Yang Guang was very ungrateful and adopted an undeclared war. When the countries in the Western Regions learned that the Sui State was coming, many lines of defense on the front line had been breached by the three coalition forces.

As soon as this news came out, the countries in the Western Regions were extremely frightened.

Don't be afraid. After all, the Sui State only sent 30,000 troops in its two previous western expeditions, but the more than 200,000 coalition troops in the Western Regions were unable to lift their heads. But now they have sent a full 100,000 troops.

In their opinion, what virtues and abilities are there in my little Western Region, that it is worthy of the Central Plains Kingdom to send out a hundred thousand troops to crusade?

The former Western Regions were thirty -six countries, of which fourteen countries were destroyed by Yang Su, the two countries were destroyed by Ji Chang and Li Yiyuan.

 The first thing the remaining thirteen countries did after the Sui army retreated was to annex the neighboring countries that had been weakened by the Sui state.

People from the Western Regions are timid when facing the Han people, but they are ruthless when they kill their own people.

This annexation war lasted for half a year and got out of control. Even two of the vassal states of Great Qin were destroyed.

 In the end, due to Wang Bi's military intervention, in addition to the five vassal states of Qin, only ten independent states were left in the entire Western Region, including Loulan, Khotan, Qiuci, Shule, Dayuan, and Daliang.

The fifteen countries in the Western Regions survived through brutal wars. Logically speaking, they should be stronger, but even after Wang Ben's training, the combat effectiveness of their armies was still indescribable.

Wang Ben’s training of the armies of the countries in the Western Regions is not unsatisfactory, but high-intensity training often means investing more resources, and the countries in the Western Regions are unwilling to invest money to increase military pay and to improve food.

Wang Bikong had a good way of training troops, but he suffered from lack of resources, so he could only lower the training standards again and again. The final effect was naturally not good. Although the army's combat power was improved, it was not improved much.

Wang Ben was very dissatisfied with the results of this training. After training for so long, what kind of things did he get out of it? He was embarrassed to say it.

Wang Ben was not satisfied, but the kings of the Western Regions were very satisfied. After all, the army was completely different from the original. Even if the overall combat power was still not as good as that of the Sui army, they could still defeat the Sui army in a war of attrition based on their numbers. Consumed to death.

The fifteen countries in the Western Regions all felt that the Sui State, which was restrained by the Yongliang Army of the Great Qin Dynasty, could not send too many troops to conquer the Western Regions, but they never expected that Yang Guang would dispatch an army of 100,000 troops this time.

The number of 100,000 was so large that it frightened all the major forces in the Western Regions. The local forces in the Western Regions would definitely not be able to stop them, so they all approached Ji Xiaolan, the Great Qin Ambassador to the Western Regions, hoping that Great Qin could intervene to help the Western Regions. Defeat the Sui army.

“Master Ji, as long as Great Qin is willing to send troops, our country is willing to become a vassal state of Great Qin and pay tribute to Great Qin.” The ambassador of Shule State said.

 “Our country is also willing.” The ambassador of Kucha State agreed.

Although the envoys from Loulan, Dayuan, Xiliang and other countries did not express their stance directly, when the country was destroyed, they would definitely be willing to become a vassal state of Da Qin in exchange for the survival of the country.

It can be seen from this that the people of the Western Regions actually have a clear view of the pros and cons. Between subjugating their country and becoming a vassal state of the Qin Dynasty, they would choose the latter without hesitation.

Seeing this, Ji Xiaolan said calmly: "Everyone, our country, the Qin Dynasty, is currently at war with the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Ming. We will not directly send troops to the Western Regions until the war is over."

As soon as this statement came out, envoys from all over the world became anxious.

"What can we do? If the Qin Dynasty does not send troops, we will all become slaves of the Sui Kingdom."

“Yes, Master Ji, Da Qin cannot ignore us.”

"Yeah yeah…"

Envoys from the fifteen countries in the Western Region, including the five major vassal countries, you kept talking to me, as if the sky would collapse without Qin.

Ji Xiaolan said: "Everyone, the Western Region is your homeland. If Da Qin doesn't send reinforcements, won't you resist?"

 Hearing this, the envoys from various countries fell silent.

Yes, the Western Regions are the Western Regions of their Western Regions. Now that the Sui Kingdom has invaded their homeland, they have no way out. Regardless of whether the Qin faction sends reinforcements or not, they will have to fight until the last moment.

Seeing that everyone had calmed down, Ji Xiaolan continued: "The top priority is to form a coalition to resist the Sui army's offensive. Otherwise, even if I, Da Qin, send reinforcements, you will not be able to survive until the reinforcements arrive."

Under the leadership of Ji Xiaolan, the fifteen countries in the Western Regions that were hostile to each other due to the annexation war were united again by the Sui invasion. They jointly formed the fifteen-nation anti-Sui coalition to resist the Sui invasion. Naturally, there were only one candidate for the leader. It will be Wang Ben, the general who protects the Western Regions in the Great Qin Dynasty.

I was too busy during the Chinese New Year, with all kinds of trivial matters, and I really didn’t have the time to type. It got better after the seventh day of the Lunar New Year. The author still has a few days off, so I will update steadily in the future.

　　(End of this chapter)