Chapter 12: The Allies’ Hesitation

Since the establishment of the Anxi Protectorate in the Tang Dynasty, the four major military fulcrums of rule, the "Four Towns", have changed before and after. Most of the time, the four Anxi towns refer to Kucha, Shule, Khotan, and Yanqi. There was a period of time when Yanqi was replaced by broken leaves, but it soon recovered.

Guo Shiyong's envoy also set out to Shazhou - before Xue Fu's attack on Quli was a very conscientious action. Quli City was located at the west end of the Loulan Mountains, and it was the gateway to the Yanqi Basin and the Shazhou area. Since Xue Fu captured this city, the envoys of the Tang army entered and left Shazhou without any obstacles.

Under the guidance of the guide, the envoy followed the Peacock River straight to the southeast. This road is an ancient road of the Silk Road. Since the demise of Loulan in ancient times, it has been abandoned. It is deserted all the way, and the land with water in the middle is conveniently inserted into grass. This trip must bring enough water and food, because there is no stable supply in the middle, and the guide needs to be sophisticated, otherwise there will be a risk of losing direction. Fortunately, he did not encounter any military obstacles along the way. He arrived at Puchanghai soon and then turned eastward, and Dunhuang was in sight.

But far before Guo Shiyong's envoy arrived, the Guiyi army had already caused an uproar because of the great victory of the Anxi Tang army.

"The Anxi Army has attacked Kucha, and the Anxi Army has attacked Kucha!"

The first thing that came to the news was a group of businessmen.

There was no stable diplomatic relations between Shazhou and Kucha, but there was no obvious disgust between them. The merchants from the two places were intermittent, without being protected or encountering special resistance. Therefore, there were many merchants from Shazhou in Kucha City. After Guo Shiyong and other siege, before the three prime ministers of Kucha surrendered, many merchants had already escaped from the east gate and fled all the way to Dunhuang. The first person to bring news of the Kucha War was them - but these merchants didn't know that when they escaped, they were not far from the time when the Tang army took over Kucha.

"The Anxi Army actually attacked Kucha at this time!" Cao Yijin's eldest son Cao Yuande said to his father: "It seems that Zhang Mai has a great ambition."

Cao Yijin was also full of vigilance about this: "It's coming so fast?"

At this time, the Anxi Army and the Guiyi Army had formed an alliance, and the commander Faxin had already set off for Shule a few days ago - of course he was walking on the southern route, but Jialing and dozens of monks stayed there, and the merchants accompanying the delegation did not leave so quickly if they wanted to do business.

Cao Yuande said: "The Anxi Army is not interesting enough. Since we have formed an alliance, we will never know how to attack Kucha!

In fact, Cao Yijin knew that his eldest son was a little picky about the criticism of Anxi Army. The alliance between the two sides was reached recently, but it would take at least a few months to attack a military operation of Kucha of this scale from decision-making to preparation. In other words, it was completely a matter before the alliance between the two sides. Besides, the two countries are separated by a sea of ​​death, and the east and west are thousands of miles apart. If Anxi Army first sent the Guiyi Army to the Guiyi Army before attacking Kucha, it would be easy to leak the secrets.

But Cao Yijin did not refute the eldest son, but said: "According to information, Yang Yi, the Anxi Army, had harassed Kucha many times before. This time, he suddenly launched a large-scale attack, perhaps in response to Kucha's many requests for Anxi, which is a common bargaining matter for countries to intercede. Suppress it first and then negotiate it later."

"Did my father say that the Anxi army cannot defeat Kucha?" Cao Yijin's second son Cao Yuanshen asked.

Cao Yijin laughed: "It's not that simple! After all, Kucha is the location of the Anxi Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty. The city is quite large. The Kucha army is fighting locally, but the Anxi army has to transport food and grass from Shule thousands of miles. Even if the Anxi army is stronger than the Kucha army, it will not be easy to conquer the Kucha city. Besides, if Kucha is attacked, Gaochang will definitely have actions. The Kucha army is backed by the city and has great aid later. This battle will probably end up in the end."

Cao Yuanzhong shouted: "If Gaochang rescues Kucha, we have to help the Anxi army!"

After hearing his words, Cao Yuande frowned and secretly called his younger brother young and childish. At this moment, he was thinking about another direction of the same thing: "What if the Anxi Army demanded the Guiyi Army in the name of the alliance? What excuse should we use to refuse?"

Two days later, Murong Guiying from Guazhou also received the same news.

"Has Anxi Army attacked Kucha?" Murong Guiying shook her head repeatedly: "It seems that I overestimate Zhang Mai."

Murong Teng asked, "Why did my father say that?"

Murong Guiying said, "There is only one chance to fight Kucha. If you miss a single attack, you will never have a chance in the future. Since Zhang Mai has formed an alliance with our Guiyi army, he will use our Guiyi army to restrain Gaochang, and then make an appointment with our army to attack from the east and west, so that he will have a chance of victory. Now that the battle is suddenly started, it is obviously a tricky move. I don't know why Zhang Mai started the war so rashly, but he acted rashly before his plan was settled. It is expected that he was just a brave man who was blinded by successive victories."

Although Cao Yijin and Murong Guiying both determined that the Anxi army's "remitting" attack on Kucha would inevitably fail, wars in neighboring countries must be closely watched. In order to find out the latest news, both of them quickly sent people to the northwest. However, a few days later, even more shocking news came one by one.

"Report - the spy's return, Kucha has been captured by the Anxi army! The generals of Anxi have entered the city!"

"What!" Cao Yijin, who had been lying on Hu's bed on the recliner for more than a year, suddenly struggled and rolled down. The sons hurriedly came to support him. Cao Yijin himself also supported Hu's bed and shouted, "Is the news accurate?"

Seeing that Cao Linggong reacted so much, the spy did not dare to answer yes. Cao Yijin ordered: "Searching again!"

After his subordinates, Cao Yijin murmured: "How is this possible? Something went wrong? Or did Gu Du do something stupid?"

After all the calculations, he always felt that Zhang Mai had no chance of winning by rashly advancing eastward to attack Kucha. If he was really allowed to capture Kucha, the only explanation was something that was very beneficial to the Anxi Army!

The news that followed was acknowledgement of the previous news-

"Kurcha Khan Gudu was defeated by Yang Yi, the general of the Anxi Army, to the north of the city! Now he has fled to Yanqi!"

"Shi Ba, the commander of the Anxi Army, led his troops to chase Gu Du, and broke through several cities in a row. Now he has arrived at the city of Yanqi!"

"The general of the Anxi Army, Guo Shiyong, took charge of the military and political affairs of Kucha, and has already made an appointment with the people."

"The general of the Anxi Army has entered Tiemen Pass. The commander Shiba is forcing the city to challenge every day. The guard of Yanqi is shrouded in the city and dare not come out!"

"The commander of the Anxi Army has led his troops into Yanqi and meet with Yang Yi!"

"The general of the Anxi Army Xue Fu has led his troops to capture Quli. Now the three armies have surrounded Yanqi City on three sides!"

When the information reached this point, Cao Yijin knew that Kucha had indeed fallen into the hands of the Anxi Army. The ally who had thought it was thousands of miles away suddenly appeared at the doorstep, which made him feel at a loss.

That night, Cao Yijin had a dream, dreaming that a tiger in the distant mountains suddenly appeared outside Dunhuang City! With a tiger roar, the entire Shazhou was shaking, and the people rushed out of the city, crawling at the tiger's feet and shouting long live. However, he himself was alone in the empty Jiedu Mansion. A panic dragged him into a dark abyss. He wanted to scream, but he couldn't scream! He couldn't move his feet, and his hands kept holding, as if he wanted to grab a life-saving straw, but he couldn't catch anything!

"Master, Master! Don't scare me!"

Finally, after a sharp pain of needle prickling, Cao Yijin woke up with a roar, and found that his wives, concubines and sons were already around the bed. The men breathed a sigh of relief, while the women cried: "Master, you scared us to death!"

Cao Yijin felt dry mouth but couldn't speak until his wife and concubine served him and poured the medicine into it, and then his spirit gradually recovered.

However, Cao Yijin, the governor's residence, lived in a bad mood. After two days of boredom, he asked his sons to move him to Lingtu Temple and listened to the evening drum and morning bell in the quiet meditation room. Only then did his heart slowly settle down.

"Yuande, Yuanshen."

"Baby is here!"

Cao Yijin hesitated for a while, found an excuse to support Cao Yuanzhong away, then held the hands of his two sons and said, "Our Cao family and our Guiyi army may encounter an unprecedented crisis!"

Cao Yuande nodded silently, but Cao Yuanshen said, "Did my father say that the Anxi Army conquered Kucha?"

"Can there be anything else?" Cao Yuande said coldly: "If they can destroy Kucha so quickly, they may annex us. It seems that the military power of the previous article was not false. Maybe the Anxi army can really defeat the Five Barbarians with one Han!" Speaking of "the Five Barbarians with one Han", Cao Yuande was shocked by what he said. The combat power of the Guiyi Army has never been so strong!

"But we are different from Kucha after all." Cao Yuanshen said: "We are the same clan as him, and we have just become allies. After hearing Ma Jirong's narration, that Zhang Dadu is also a very kind and righteous wise king. I think even if he gets Anxi, he may not continue to go east to annex our Sha, Gua and Erzhou."

"Ma Jirong!" Cao Yijin let out a loud voice in his nostrils: "I'm a little suspicious now - is his heart really still in Tian?" At this point, Cao Yijin sighed long and long: "I'm wrong, I'm wrong! I really shouldn't have allowed Anxi's mission to spread the "Long March Change" in the territory. Now the Han people in Hexi have trust in the Anxi army and admire Zhang Mai. The future will be even more difficult. Alas, now they think about it, obviously they have made some plans to do this! Alas, Master Lingjun, Master Lingjun, I really regret not listening to your advice."

Then, more and more news about how the Anxi Army defeated the Kucha Army was spreading, and the entire layout of Zhang Mai's strategy for Kucha became clearer and clearer!

Although Zhang Mai did not publicly announce his entire plan, Kucha had been taken and Gu Du was defeated. A discerning person turned around and looked at the things that happened before. It would be not difficult for Zhuge Liang to do it afterwards.

"Awesome, amazing!" Murong Guiying said: "It seems that his game of chess has been deployed since he took down Shule. He pretended to make peace with the Uighurs, and that archery arena, all of them are scheming! At the beginning, I thought he was an alliance with us to attack the Uighurs, but who knew that Zhang Mai had planned to defeat Kucha alone from the beginning!" Suddenly, his heart moved: "If so, then what is he who alliances with us for?"

This veteran suddenly realized something. Fortunately, he was over the age of obedience. After experiencing countless storms, his psychological endurance was already very strong. But after thinking about that incident, his heart still hopped wildly twice!

Murong Teng said from the side: "This Zhang Mai is so terrible! It seems that he not only wants Kucha, but even Yanqi wants to take it back!"

"Yanqi, Yanqi..." Murong Guiying murmured: "What are you talking about now? Child, is your gaze only that?"

Murong Teng looked at Nai's father with little clarity: "Did his father say he has a longer-term plan?"

"Of course!" Murong Guiying said: "Although Yanqi has not yet captured it, Anxi's strategy should be coming to an end for Zhang Mai. The place he will annex the next step has obviously started to be deployed a few months ago. It's a pity that we are still in the dark! It's too late to see through his intentions until now!"

Murong Teng was shocked, but he was still a little confused: "The child doesn't understand very much..."

"Don't you understand very much?" Murong Guiying said: "His next step..." The veteran pointed to the land under his feet!

Murong Teng's face changed slightly: "Does he still want to annex Shazhou and Guazhou?"

"No!" Murong Guiying said: "It's not Shazhou, Guazhou, but the entire Hexi! And he not only wants land - he also wants people! He wants people's hearts, people's hearts!"

Murong Teng's eyes were as big as a circle, and his eyes were filled with disbelief!

Murong Guiying murmured: "Do you still remember the "Long March Transformation"? Didn't it mention the four major goals set by Zhang Mai for the Anxi Army? Before this battle, I thought he was just used to inspire people, but now it seems that since he can conquer Kucha in such a short time, he should have this weapon and courage."

It took a long time, Murong Teng to come back to his senses and said, "So, we have to be on guard against them."

Murong Guiying glanced at her son, suddenly sighed, and said to herself, "Teng'er's qualifications are only average after all, and she is just good at maintaining her success, but she still can't do big things." But she did not say that she would hit her son, but she just smiled and said, "What are we going to do when we are not interested in Hexi? Although Zhang Mairou had no intention of Hexi, she had to rely on the power of our Murong family. In the next game, our Murong family is invincible! Teng'er, don't worry, no matter how the situation develops, it will only be more beneficial to us!"

At this moment, Cao Yijin's call came from Shazhou - Murong Guiying was asked to rush back to Shazhou to discuss important matters quickly. Moreover, it was Cao Yuanshen who sent to invite Murong Guiying!

Seeing that Cao Yijin actually sent his son to invite him, Murong Guiying knew that he could not refuse and asked, "What big thing happened in Shazhou?"

Cao Yuanshen said: "The Anxi Army has sent another envoy."

Murong Guiying was shocked: "No, let's calculate the days. Master Faxin should be still on the road now, and he hasn't returned to Shule yet."
Chapter completed!