Chapter 1376: The Survivors of the Cold World

Chapter 1376: The Survivors of the Cold World

Due to the sense of crisis of being isolated and the greed for commercial interests, especially the latter was too tempting, Kua Lu finally chose to submit to the Tang Dynasty and join this system of control.

Li Tai did not deliberately suppress him with titles, but gave him the corresponding official titles, and named him the King of the West Sea and the Grand Commander of the Heyuan Protectorate of Qiang.

However, this official title also belongs to the reduction of the definition of Tuyuhun power, because whether it is the West Sea or the Heyuan, as a geographical concept, it is only a part of the current Tuyuhun power, not all.

In particular, Jiaohe and Huangyuan, which were also the core areas of Tuyuhun power, were not reflected in the official titles granted by the Tang Dynasty, which naturally meant that the Tang Dynasty did not support Tuyuhun's occupation of these lands and the population living there.

Of course, Jiaohe was still reflected. The son of the Tang Emperor who returned it to Kua Lu was the only person in Tuyuhun who accepted the Tang Dynasty's order except Kua Lu, and his title was the Duke of Jiaohe County. In the Tang Dynasty's system of nobility, Kua Lu could use this cheap son to achieve the rule over Jiaohe.

But the problem is that Jiaohe was originally the territory of their Tuyuhun, and it can even be said to be one of the ancestral towns passed down from generation to generation. As early as the early days of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tuyuhun had good relations with the Southern Song Dynasty, and the title he accepted from Liu Song was the Duke of Jiaohe!

But now that the Tang Dynasty is more powerful, the right to interpret related matters is naturally in the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Let's not talk about the origins that are too long ago. It should be noted that the last time the Western Wei Dynasty attacked Tuyuhun, Huangyuan, Jiaohe and other places, and even the current Tuyuhun royal city Fuqi City, were all occupied areas!

Although the Western Wei Dynasty gave up its garrison and withdrew to Longyou at that time, neither the Western Wei Dynasty nor the Tang Dynasty discussed the issue of returning these territories with Tuyuhun. It was just that Tuyuhun took advantage of the withdrawal of the Wei army and quietly returned. So if Kua Lu really wanted to care about these issues, the Tang Dynasty could legitimately ask him to get out of Fuqi City.

Because the Haidong area is close to Longyou and there is only a Chiling Mountain between them, the Tang Dynasty can no longer allow Tuyuhun to control it. At present, it is only through the control of the Diqiang group in Haidong to eliminate Tuyuhun's influence in this area. In the future, when the situation in Longyou is further stabilized, it is still necessary to directly manage the garrison.

After initially completing the establishment of this set of control order framework, Li Tai hosted a grand military review outside Guzang City. A group of Hu tribe chieftains who accepted the Tang Dynasty's appointment also led their troops to participate in this review, and they were shocked by the review and had a more intuitive and clear understanding of the strength of the Tang Dynasty's army.

Apart from anything else, the number of Tang troops alone far exceeded their previous knowledge. The army came all the way west from Guanzhong. When it arrived in Liangzhou, the scale of the troops had reached more than 100,000. If the Dingfu labor force recruited by various states to cooperate with the march is added, now there is a huge army of more than 300,000 troops outside Liangzhou City!

The sheer number of troops alone was enough to make people feel desperate and terrified. The Tang army soldiers were so well-armed that they were breathtaking, with strong armor and sharp swords, which were intimidating. Their troops were like a forest when they were still and a landslide when they moved. The sound of drums and horns resounded through the wilderness, and all the spectators were discouraged and chilled. When facing such a powerful army, they felt that they were as small as ants.

When the Han and Hu armed forces participating in the review were lining up to simulate the battle, the Hu armed forces were even more confused and could not form a battle formation for a long time. Some of the Hu soldiers even surrendered directly. Even though they knew in their hearts that the battle was fake, they were unwilling to stand opposite such a powerful army from the bottom of their hearts.

As for the Hu chieftains who participated in the review, their feelings were naturally richer and more complicated. Many of them chose to get close to the Tang Dynasty, which was nothing more than hanging around the dock, looking for a backer and taking advantage. It was really not a clear and strong position and emotion.

But when they really saw the strength of the Tang Dynasty, especially when they thought that the Tang Dynasty was willing to take a gentle and tolerant attitude towards them while having such a strong strength, the original speculative thoughts in their hearts were gradually replaced by the sense of honor and steadfastness of joining a powerful camp. From then on, who dared to provoke them and the Tang Dynasty standing behind them in the entire Longyou and Hexi?

However, the Hu chieftains like Kualu who still had the idea of ​​​​growing up and setting up their own camps felt much more bitter after seeing the strength of the Tang army. Some people felt that this was really a difficult task, so they simply gave up similar ideas and stayed in the camp firmly from then on, following the Tang Dynasty to drink soup.

However, stubborn diehards like Kualu, who had once been glorious and still wanted to create glory again, were also deeply shocked, but for a while, it was difficult to dispel the stubborn ideas in their hearts, and their hearts were inevitably tormented and full of confusion.

The grand review in Liangzhou was held with great fanfare and success, and the effect of showing off one's power was maximized. Li Tai also ordered people to directly record the event on a monument outside Guzang City, including all the Hu chieftains who attended the meeting and were given titles, so that their names could be known to future generations thousands of years later, and they would not turn into a piece of nameless dust in the vicissitudes of the world in Longyou.

It snowed in August in the Hutian. Li Tai left Beijing for Long in early autumn. When he arrived in Liangzhou, it was already late autumn. He had a long journey to go, and he also had to keep up with the rhythm of the northern division, so he did not stay in Liangzhou for long. After the grand review, he had to continue his journey westward.

After receiving the order, some of the Hu chieftains who followed the emperor here from Longbian bid farewell to the emperor in Liangzhou, while others chose to lead their troops to continue following the western tour and recruited tens of thousands of Hu soldiers.

Tuyuhun Khan Kua Lu naturally did not want to continue to entangle, so he chose to bid farewell to the Tang emperor and return home. Li Tai's main purpose for targeting Tuyuhun this time was to deter and appease him, but he did not deliberately make things difficult for him. He just told him to treat his lost son well, otherwise he would be furious when he heard that Kua Lu abused his son when he returned to the army!

Li Tai was not sure whether this kid was Kua Lu's son. When Shi Ning and others led the army to attack Tuyuhun, they brought back too many people and materials. At that time, this child was still in his infancy and was raised by Kua Lu's wives and concubines, so he was naturally classified as Kua Lu's son.

Anyway, it was all easy to get, so Li Tai didn't mind making a move on the upper echelons of Tuyuhun. If Kua Lu continued to commit suicide next year, at most he would let him die and support this boy to take the throne. Even if this boy could not convince the public, it could still play a role in splitting the Tuyuhun royal line.

This time the army went west again and left the traditional Longyou area. The next stop was Guazhou Dunhuang in Hexi. Whether it was the road conditions, supplies, or climate, it was far worse than Longyou.

So this time the army no longer kept advancing as a whole, but was divided into several divisions and brigades. Linghu Yanbao, who was originally from Dunhuang, led the vanguard 10,000 divisions to continue advancing along the main road, passing through the traditional roads of Zhangye and Jiuquan and going west through Yumen Pass, opening the way for the army to go straight to Dunhuang.

Li Tai led the central army himself, and also divided it into 20,000 troops in the front, middle and back, and steadily advanced towards Dunhuang. By dividing the front and back divisions, the rhythm of the army's advance was guaranteed, and the pressure on logistics supply was also reduced.

Han Guo, the governor of Liangzhou, led the remaining divisions to Zhangye and then headed north. They crossed Heli Mountain and crossed the Quicksand River along the Ruoshui River to the north, and went straight to Juyan Lake. On the one hand, they ensured the safety of the Hexi flank, and on the other hand, they joined the divisions of He Ruo Dun and the Turkic Shetu Khan at Juyan Lake, and then went west to Jinshan together and went straight to the Western Turkic territory.

This time, the Tang army was not only mobilized on a large scale, but also dispatched an unprecedentedly vast area, and the road was thousands of miles away. Whether it was from the initial planning to the preparation and the final execution, it was a huge test. The main purpose of this action, in addition to stabilizing the situation in Longyou and Hexi, was to declare that the Tang Dynasty was on the stage in the Western Regions with a strong image!

Although there are many states in the Western Regions today, a new order is gradually taking shape. The grassland forces headed by the Western Turks are rapidly expanding and developing in the Western Regions and establishing authority. In contrast, the Tang Dynasty is very lagging behind in this regard, and it can even be said that there is nothing good to say.

The management of the Western Regions was not just to satisfy Li Tai's ambition to be a king, but it was of extraordinary significance to the development and growth of the Central Plains Dynasty and the establishment of regional hegemony.

This has been fully verified in history. If the Western Regions cannot be controlled, the borders will be uneasy in the distance and the Guanlong will be shaken in the near future. Especially in the same period, the Turks and even the plateau regime Tubo were actively expanding their living space and sphere of influence. If the Tang Dynasty fell behind in this competition, then in the future competition for regional hegemony, it would be in an extremely passive situation.

Although the Tang Dynasty was far behind the Turks in the development of the Western Regions, and even had not taken a practical step so far, the Tang Dynasty also had advantages that the Turks did not have.

The first point is that the Tang Dynasty took a direct lead in the competition with the Turks. Mugan Khan and Wuzun Khan died one after another, and now the successor Shetu Khan is simply a puppet supported by the Tang Dynasty.

However, the Tang Dynasty could not use this to completely suppress the Turks, because as the Turkic Khanate once again experienced an unconventional succession, there were many resistances within the Turks. The prestige of Shetu, the Khan, was unprecedentedly low. He could only control the Turkic tribes in the north and south of Yinshan Mountain and the south of the desert. His Khanate was also established in Yinshan Mountain, but he could not effectively control the Turkic tribes in Jinshan Mountain in the north of the desert.

In particular, after learning that Shetu had established a Khanate in Yinshan Mountain, the leader of the Western Turks, Shi Dianmi, expressed his strong dissatisfaction. He actually led his troops directly to the Khanate in Jinshan Mountain to collect the Khan's flags and other tokens, and called on the tribes in the north of the desert to migrate to the west of Jinshan Mountain. He also officially stated that he would not obey the orders of Shetu, the Khan, and called himself Khan. Since then, the Eastern and Western Turks have officially split.

Although the independence of the Western Turks made it difficult for the Tang Dynasty to influence and control them through the Khan Shetu, this behavior also greatly reduced the prestige and appeal of the Turkic Khan. The damaged prestige naturally also included the Western Turkic Khan who was brazenly independent, which was bound to have a significant impact on the Western Turks.

In addition, compared with the rising star of the Turks, although the Central Plains regime has neglected the management and control of the Western Regions in recent years, the origin and history between them can be traced back to a long time. Unlike the Western Turks, which were only based on military conquest, when the Tang Dynasty turned its attention to the Western Regions, it could take many more measures.

In particular, Li Tai was not only the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, but also the direct descendant of the Longxi Li family, and the direct descendant of Li Hao, the ruler of Xiliang. Even his ancestor Li Bao once established the post-Xiliang regime in the Western Regions.

When this kind of friendship and loyalty had no power to be used, it was nothing more than a story that brought about a few sighs. However, now that the Tang Dynasty has risen strongly and has a strong desire to resume operations in the Western Regions, the value of united front work that can be tapped is very considerable!

This became clear to Li Tai after he arrived in Dunhuang. Outside the city of Dunhuang, soldiers and civilians also came out to welcome him. However, unlike the shouts of the people in other states and counties welcoming the emperor, the shouts of the people in Dunhuang were less enthusiastic and more solemn: "The people of Liang and the people of Jian, welcome our lord back to the country! The elders of Liang have cried for generations, but the heavens will never abandon us. The wise king will return to his ancestral home!"