As the Han army approached, Shule King Jingpan had to withdraw from Panlu City, which is located on the Tuman River ten miles southeast of Shule City, and retreat to Shule City.
Panlu City was once the base camp for Dingyuan Hou Banchao to run the Western Regions.
He was stationed here for seventeen years.
When Banchao was old, he wrote a letter requesting to return to the Central Plains for retirement.
After leaving, the city was used as a palace by King Shule.
Speaking of Ban Chao, I'm afraid no one knows that he led only thirty-six people to the Western Regions, and his fame shocked the Western Regions and Central Asia.
He made the Silk Road unblocked again and completed the grand mission of unifying the Western Regions.
At the age of sixty, He was granted the title of Protector of the Western Regions and Marquis of Dingyuan.
Ban Chao is the only person in history to receive the title of Marquis of Dingyuan, just like Huo Qubing's title of Champion Marquis, which was specially established for him by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to highlight his achievements.
When you hear about Ban Chao's life experience, you will lament your own insignificance.
There are such outstanding people in the world.
On the second day of April, Liu Cheng led his army to Shule City.
He first led his army to surround Shule City, and then sent Xu Huang with 3,000 Khotan troops to attack Panlu City.
Although the city covered a small area, It is big and the city wall is not very tall, but it can be the horns of Shule City.
"Lu" means pocket.
Ban Chao named it Panlu City because the terrain around it was like a pocket array.
There are more than a thousand defenders in Panlu City.
However, due to the small area, even though the city wall is not tall enough, the defensive power per unit area on the city wall is still quite amazing.
There are no trees around that can be cut down to build a siege city.
It took Xu Huang three days to capture the city with more than 3,000 Khotan troops, and he lost 1,800 people.
"General, Xu Huang sent people to report that Panlu City has been captured, but the troops and horses suffered heavy losses."
Chen Qun approached the tent and reported to Liu Cheng.
After hearing this, Liu Cheng stood up and said: "Okay, after taking Panlu City, we can concentrate on attacking Shule City.
This Jingpan is also stubborn.
Even after being attacked by soldiers, he is still sitting on Diaoyutai.
You think he is out of his mind."
Are you stubborn or stupid?"
Chen Qun smiled and said: "Perhaps Jingpan thinks he can hold Shule City until our army is exhausted and retreats."
Ma Chao stood up and clasped his fists and asked: "General, the soldiers can't wait.
How are we going to fight this battle?"
Liu Cheng waved his hand and said with a smile: "Why are you so anxious?
I can't eat hot tofu.
Siege warfare is not that easy.
There are no siege equipment.
Do you want the soldiers to climb the city wall with their bare hands and die?"
Ma Chao smiled and clasped his fists: "To build siege equipment, you need a lot of wood, but there are no trees for hundreds of miles around here.
Where do siege equipment come from?"
Liu Cheng turned around and asked Chen Qun and Liu Ye: "Do you have any ideas?"
Chen Qun concentrated on politics and was not proficient in siege matters, but Liu Ye had studied siege methods and the manufacture of siege equipment on weekdays.
Liu Ye thought for a while, stood up and said, "General, it's not that we don't have wood to build siege equipment, it's just..."
"Just say what you have to say.
Why hesitate?
Even if you say something wrong, I won't blame you, General."
After receiving Liu Cheng's promise, Liu Yecai said: "The student's idea suggested that the general order the demolition of the palace in Panlu City.
Enough wood will be collected to build siege equipment.
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However, Panlu City was built when Ban Dingyuan was running the Western Regions.
The station, demolishing the palace in Panlu City seems to be disrespectful to Dingyuan Marquis, and it is easy to cause criticism."
Chen Qun said: "Zi Yang's suggestion is good, but the students don't think it is disrespectful to Ban Dingyuan.
The palace in Panlu City was built by King Shule, and the buildings in Ban Dingyuan's period have long been built."
It was demolished and only the city wall was left.
How can we say it is disrespectful to Ban Dingyuan if we demolish the palace and use its wood to build siege equipment?"
Liu Cheng thought for a while and made a decision: "Then it's settled.
Send people to demolish the palace in Panlu City to get its wood to build siege equipment; send people to pass orders to Qiuci, Yanqi and King Cheshi, ordering them to speed up.
Speed, King Shule has already gathered most of his soldiers and horses in the royal city.
They should encounter little resistance along the way.
If they are still late, they will not be able to make it through."
"Yes, students will make arrangements now."
On the same day, Liu Cheng left Ma Chao, Zhang Xiu and Pang De to command the troops outside Shule City, while he himself rushed to Panlu City with his own soldiers.
Liu Cheng's purpose in coming to Panlu City was first to see if enough wood could be raised by demolishing the palace, and secondly to pay homage to Ban Dingyuan's base camp.
This city is more than a hundred years old, and the city has obviously been repaired.
It is nearly three hundred meters long and more than two hundred meters wide.
The base of the city wall is more than seven meters long and about six or seven meters high.
It is already remarkable that this place in the Western Region has such a high city wall.
Liu Cheng came down after visiting the city wall.
The craftsmen in the army and some Khotan soldiers were demolishing the palace.
A lot of large materials had been piled up beside the city wall, especially the palace columns and beams that were more than ten meters long.
Just right for the arm of a trebuchet.
Liu Cheng sent someone to find the chief craftsman in charge and asked: "After these palaces are demolished, will the wood obtained be enough to build siege equipment?"
The leader of the craftsmen said: "Back to the general, I went to see Shule City.
With the height and length of its city wall, these wood materials are enough to build siege equipment, and there is no room for more."
Liu Cheng nodded, turned around and looked again, pointed to the open space in the middle and said to Chen Qun and Liu Ye: "After the craftsmen have finished their work, find someone to collect a big stone from the mountain, and find a stonemason with superb carving skills to make it A car far away The stone statue should be erected here.
The life experience and achievements of Marquis Dingyuan should be engraved on the base.
The stone statue should be more than one foot high.
There should also be statues of the thirty-six warriors accompanying him on both sides of the road from the city gate to here.
The attendant statues could be smaller” This is not a small project, but it is a great thing to record and praise the achievements of the sages.
Liu Ye agreed without any hesitation.
No matter how great the difficulty is, he must find a way to overcome it.
At this time, facing the siege of the Han army but not attacking, King Jingpan of Shule began to wonder what the hell the Han people were planning to do.
At this time, a minister reported to Jingpan: "Your Majesty, the coalition forces of Kucha, Yanqi and Cheshi are only five days away."
Anguo, the original Khotan king, said with a solemn expression: "Your Majesty, it seems that the Han army plans to wait for the arrival of the three kingdoms' coalition forces before attacking Shule City together.
The Han army now has a total of nearly 30,000 people, plus those coming from the northeast.
The armies of the three countries and two armies only number fifty to sixty thousand.
There is a huge disparity in the strength of the troops, and the city is not tall and thick enough.
I am afraid that it will be difficult to resist their attack for a long time.
I think we should still find ways to ask for help from the outside world."
The captain of the Shule Kingdom stood up and said: "Yes, Your Majesty, I think King Khotan is right.
We should ask for help from the outside world.
We alone may not be able to stop the Han people's attack."
Jingpan frowned and asked: "In your opinion, which country should we ask for help from?"
The captain said: "Although Kang Juguo has good strength, it is too far away.
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Now it is too late to send people there to ask for help.
Dayuezhi, Dayuan and Wusun are a little closer to us, but Wusun is afraid that they will not be able to help us."
Dare to send troops to become enemies of the Han Dynasty, this is The former Dayue clan also sent troops to help our country.
Now if the king sends people to ask for help and promises to pay a large sum of money when the task is completed, he will definitely be able to borrow soldiers and horses from the Dayue clan.
After the envoy leaves the Dayue clan, he can go to Dawan.
If It would be great if we could get reinforcements from Dawan."
After careful consideration, Jingpan decided to adopt the captain's advice and sent a small-scale envoy to break out of the city at night to ask for help from the Da Yueshi.
After Liu Cheng returned to the camp outside Shule City from Panlu City, he sent people to the city to deliver a letter of persuasion to surrender to King Shule Jingpan, stating his powerful relationship and persuading him to offer the king of Khotan to Anguo.
Jingpan was a man with a violent temper, and he had the daughter of King Anguo of Khotan as his queen.
Jingpan was naturally unwilling to hand over Anguo.
Some ministers had privately persuaded Jingpan to surrender to Shule.
Considering the future and destiny of the country , kidnapped An Guo and gave it to Liu Cheng in exchange for the safety of Shule State, but Jingpan not only did not listen, but also killed the officials who suggested it, so that other Shule ministers and officials no longer dared to persuade them, and could only follow him.
Bite the bullet and fight against the Han army.
That night, Liu Cheng heard a report that some Shule people had broken out of the city and headed west.
Chen Qun, Liu Ye, Zhang Yan and others judged that they should have gone to the surrounding countries for help.
Liu Cheng was very puzzled: "Does King Shule think they can persist until reinforcements arrive if there are no reinforcements?"
Zhang Yan said: "General, I heard that King Shule is a very arrogant person.
It is not surprising that he wants to defend Shule City.
Maybe he firmly believes that he can hold on until reinforcements arrive."
Liu Ye stood up and cupped his hands and said: "General, the craftsmen have built some siege equipment.
Although they are not many, they are ready for siege.
Should we start the attack tomorrow so as not to give King Shule too much time to prepare?"
Liu Cheng thought about the balance, shook his head and said: "The time has not come yet.
In fact, the long-range siege equipment such as trebuchets and ballistas are not very lethal.
Their function is to have a deterrent effect.
For example, a stone in a trebuchet The bullet hit, causing rubble to fly and houses to collapse.
The damage caused was scary, but it could actually hit several people.
If the Shule army defending the city is allowed to adapt, it will not be of much use.
If we want to attack the city, we must make all preparations and strive to defeat it with irresistible rapidity.
We must not let the war be delayed.
Go on, after all, we have a large number of people and the logistical pressure is too great.
Once the war is prolonged, we will have no choice but to retreat when we run out of food and supplies."
Zhang Yan felt the same way about this.
When he was the long history of the Western Regions more than 20 years ago, he ordered the mobilization of 30,000 coalition troops from Yanqi, Qiuci, Cheshi and other countries to attack Shule Kingdom.
He had to retreat because he could not attack for a long time.
Three days later, a large number of siege ladders, well railings, trebuchets, ballistae and stone bombs were all completed, which coincided with the arrival of the Cheshi, Kucha and Yanqi allied forces.
Liu Cheng immediately ordered: "Give all the soldiers extra food today and attack the city tomorrow":