Cheshi, formerly known as "Gushi", was originally a descendant of the Sai species, nomadic herding on the east bank of Lop Nur more than 100 years ago, with the migration of Yueshi and Wusun was also affected, so he moved north across the Great Sand Sea, occupied this hot and low-lying land at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and began to settle down.Therefore, the appearance and customs of the Cheshi people are quite similar to those of Yanqi and other states who are also descendants of the Sai race, all of them are of the Turanian race, and the ordinary subjects are half agricultural and half herdsmen, wearing felt clothes and felt hats.But the upper class of the domestic aristocracy, the most favorite is still from the Han Dynasty light and cool silk, nobles, princes wear plain silk clothes, only the old car master king is the most conspicuous, a purple pattern inlaid against the Fengli people and beasts face Qi clothes.From their position, they can have a clear view of the Jiaohe River, it is unique in the Western Regions, in the whole world, because this city is not built with bricks, tiles and stones like ordinary cities, but on this island platform located in the middle of the two rivers, by the ancestors of the charioteers, with simple tools, inch by inch into the ground!
It's hard to imagine what it looks like unless you see it with your own eyes.The walls of the altars, royal palaces, city gates, and houses are basically thick raw earth walls, especially the streets and alleys, which are long and deep, like winding trenches.Generation after generation, they kept digging and carving, and turned Jiaohe into a huge loess sculpture.It is connected with the earth, strong to two thousand years of wind and rain erosion, can not destroy it, Chang'an has been built and disappeared several times, but the river can remain the same, left to future generations.As the master of Jiaohe, the king of the chariot master was naturally proud, and the slaves surrounded on the left and right tried to stretch out their hands so that the umbrella could shade the king, so that he could stand on the high platform and observe the movements of the Han army for a short time, and he would not sweat on his forehead.It was almost noon now, the air was very stuffy, and the king of the chariot master saw that after camping for a night's rest, the two teams of the Han army, one in front and one behind, had arrived outside Jiaohe City, that is, separated by two wide and deep river valleys, and stared at the earthen wall hundreds of steps away on the opposite side, with a total of nearly 10,000 people, which was already more than the six or seven thousand residents in Jiaohe City.But they saw that the Han army went down to the valley one after another, the first army faced the east gate on the other side of the river, the first army faced the southwest gate where the wooden rope bridge had been cut, and the translator with a loud voice called out in the chariot master and the Chinese dialect, asking the chariot master king to go out to meet their general.The king of the Cheshi asked the translator to respond, saying that there was some food in the stone city north of the Jiaohe River, which was specially reserved for the Han Heavenly Soldiers, and asked the Han army to leave after laughing, but the city may not be opened, because the Cheshi people are sacrificing to the god of Baishan.The word was spread, but the Han army had no intention of leaving, but warned the chariot master that if he didn't open the city to greet him, he would come to visit by himself!"
King, the Han is not like the kings of the Huns, who can easily pass away with a little food."
Su You, a noble man dressed in plain white silk clothes, bowed down and touched his head to the ground: "You should still send someone to welcome the Han envoy into the city to entertain and explain, don't offend the big country." ”Twenty or thirty years ago, the chariot division was often caught in war between the Han and the Huns, and then the Han army retreated for more than ten years, and the Xiongnu Youxian King directly sent 4,000 cavalry to the chariot division, following the example of the Han army Tuntian Jigu, to ensure that the right part of the Western Regions a few years ago.In recent years, the Han Dynasty began to return to the Western Regions, and got closer and closer to the Che Division, and finally arrived on the day when the soldiers came to the city, and the Hun Tian was shocked when he heard the news.In Su You's view, with a small state and a big country, it is not good to serve any side.However, the most trusted prince of the Cheshi King, Wu Gui, did not see it that way, the old Cheshi King has two sons, the eldest son Junsu is the grandson of Yanqi, when the Huns Tuntian soldiers withdrew, he was also taken away as a hostage, and the second prince Wu Gui was born to the Hun woman, naturally close to the Huns, and whispered to the Cheshi King: "If it is welcomed, wait for the Han people to withdraw, the envoy of the right king will come again, and the Che Shi will be taught a lesson again, the Han army is not easy to come to the Che Division, to cross the Great Sand Sea, it is good to be able to pass by once in ten years, but the Huns, but every year can go south from the north of Baishan." ”Compared with the Han army, he is still more afraid of the Huns, and it is impossible for Xiao Wang in the remote area to have the overall awareness of the central officials of the Han Dynasty, let alone the determination of the Han army to manage the Western Regions.But after all, the Han army was quite numerous, and when he returned to the palace where it was warm in winter and cool in summer, the old charioteer Wang then took the wine and talked about his experience slowly."
I have been a king for more than 20 years, and I have encountered the Han army besieging the Jiaohe River three times."
About 30 years ago, when the Han army was on the river for the first time, the king of Cheshi was still a prince, and the enemy had tens of thousands.It's just that they are too short of food, so they just casually surround the siege, and the Che Shi surrendered and withdrew his troops, and as soon as they left, the Che Shi turned his head and continued to throw himself into the arms of the Huns.Twenty years ago, the Han Dynasty sent a Xiongnu to the king and beat the soldiers of Loulan to the chariot division.Loulan is the old neighbor of the driver, how many catties are not clear to each other?
This time, he didn't even want to pretend to surrender, and the Xiongnu sent the right Xian King to rescue tens of thousands of horsemen, and the Han soldiers were unfavorable and led away.The last time was sixteen years ago, the Han army went to attack the Xiongnu army passing north of the Cheshi, and let a general take Loulan, Yu Li, Wei Xufan six countries to attack the Che Division, this time people looked at more points, Che Shi Wang then took the initiative to surrender, subordinate to the Han, but the Han army still could not leave a soldier in the Che Division, and soon evacuated the Western Regions.For a hundred years, no one has been able to truly break through this easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack Jedi, whether it is the horse king of the Xiongnu or the general of the Han Dynasty."
The number of people this time is only about the same as the second time, far less than the first and third times, so there is no need to panic."
King Cheshi comforted his lords and proudly raised his wine: "Yancheng, the capital of Qiuzi Kingdom, is known as the largest city in the Western Regions, and it will never fall. ”"That's their boasting, in my opinion, Jiaohe is the unsinkable ship on the sand sea in the Western Regions!"
Ren Hong could imagine that if he could share his vision with the eagles hovering in the sky, he would be able to see that the Jiaohe Ancient City was like a slender willow leaf, like an ark made of loess, floating on the Turpan Basin.At first glance, it is indeed a dangerous situation, easy to defend and difficult to attack.If the Han army wanted to attack, the first thing they had to face was the wide river during the autumn flood season.He had people try it, but it was enough to reach the neck of a seven-foot man, and there was a lot of silt in the river, so it was not easy to cross the team just by crossing it.There were not many people standing on the lowlands under Jiaohe City, and there were no offensive echelons, and many people had to wait in the muddy water that didn't reach their calves.The second trouble is the 30-meter-high loess cliff, plus a 90-degree vertical slope, there is not a single grass or tree to climb, even if they carry the ladder of the Central Plains, they can't reach it.Therefore, the road that can attack Jiaohe is only a narrow slope that has been chiseled upward, and Jiaohe is now the only east gate leading to the outside world."
Originally, there was a southwest gate, which was connected to the wooden plank rope bridge on the opposite bank, but now it has been cut down by the Che Shi."
After scouting around, Zhao Han'er came back to reply.And Yang Yun thought about it there, and mentioned the siege methods he had seen in the history books one by one."
How's the water attack?
Dam the upstream, emulating Zhibo's flooding of Jinyang. ”Do you give an example of Wang Ben water irrigation beams, will you die?
Why do you want to lift Zhiyao, who was cut off by Zhao Wuxian to make a wine vessel?
Ren Hong touched his neck and gave him a blank look: "Jiaohe is not afraid of water." ”"This river comes from the Tianshan Mountains, the flow speed is slow, it is not easy to build a dam to store water, and the flood wants to overflow the Jiaohe River" Ren Hong said with a smile: "Unless the entire Tianshan Glacier suddenly melts, flooding the entire basin, along with us, the people in the Jiaohe River can wet their feet." ”Next to him, Xin Qingji thought of the "fire attack" article in the Art of War, and proposed: "Fire" Ren Hong continued to deny: "Fire is useless, Jiaohe is not afraid of fire, the city is made of raw soil, which is called the method of reducing soil and building a city, and it is half-into the crypt, almost no wood, even if the entire oasis is burned down, Jiaohe can still be safe and sound." ”"What about the cave attack?
Dig a tunnel" Zhang Yaoli denied this possibility halfway through his speech, and laughed at himself by stepping on the river on the ground: "This kind of place digs a hole, and before digging to the bottom of the Jiaohe River, we will be poured by the water first." ”Xin Wuxian sent people to propose a strong attack, but the population in the city is quite large, there are six or seven thousand, the car master can smelt iron, the equipment is not weak, and the strong attack is a great price, and Ren Hong remembers that the east gate of Jiaohe is still a little strange, and the city gate is not a passage and a square, but a very convenient cave for the defenders to catch turtles in the urn.If Ren Hong had come here with Zhao Ponu thirty years ago, Jiaohe might have another weakness, most of the rivers dried up during the dry season, and it was not easy to get water.But in the past two generations, the "Qin people" craftsmen who were captured by the Xiongnu and given to the Cheshi brought the technology of the Central Plains: sinking wells.According to the locals who were captured, under the heavy reward of the Cheshi Wang, the craftsman opened a few times in Jiaohe in one go, and there was water in his mouth, making up for the last shortcoming.Therefore, the general practice is to surround the dead until the ammunition is exhausted, for example, in history, the Xiongnu frustrated canal department in the Northern Wei Dynasty came to encircle the river, and it was surrounded for 8 years.Ren Hong couldn't wait eight years, and he didn't have eight days.The reason why he took the initiative to ask Ying and chose this road as the striker was to take the initiative to solve the Huns' younger brothers with lightning speed, and then take a shortcut to Wusun to support Princess Jiewu.Seeing that everyone was at a loss, Ren Hong smiled and said: "Don't try to use the water and fire crypt as much as possible, in fact, the final attack on the city depends on people, isn't it?"
”After a day of fanfare, at dusk, the Cheshi felt that the Han army was finally about to attack.Ren Hong still looked up, the campfire lit by the Han army outside the east gate at dusk dotted the Jiaohe River with vicissitudes, and the boundless slanting sun leaned on the earthen wall.This exotic scenery is so beautiful that it will surely become an unforgettable sight for many Han soldiers and soldiers in their lifetime.When later generations came to travel here, Ren Hong liked this Jiaohe Ancient City very much, ordinary tourists may be disgusted with the sun, and it is all loess lumps that are boring, but this kind of historical ruins within reach, he simply doesn't love it too much.In the hot ruins, close your eyes, as if there is a camel caravan passing through the city, the noise of people is sandwiched between the bells, and it is still a lively street market, and the cars are like flowing water.But when you open your eyes, the luxurious palace has turned into a ruin, and there is no trace of thousands of years of joys and sorrows.It may be difficult to find such a place in China, no wonder it is called "Pompeii of the East".But what Ren Hong has to do now is to draw his sword and attack it.It's really a sin, I just hope that there will be less destruction, and don't let yourself become a Ming destroyer like the Huns.With Xin Wuxian's order, his subordinates rushed to the east gate, and their voices were noisy.And Ren Hong picked up the drumstick and asked Yang Yun for the last time: "Have you practiced those things for everyone?"
”"After practicing for a day and a night, the daredevils are all familiar with it."
Yang Yun was rarely a little admired, Ren Hongming, like him, had never been to Jiaohe, how did he quietly make so many preparations when he was stationed in Jiuquan Dunhuang?
I don't even know that I'm a military horse, isn't this the so-called "anticipating the enemy first" in the art of war?"
As Daoyuan said, on this loess plateau, you can almost fly the eaves and walk the wall!"
Ding Zhuang of the Che Master was attracted to the east gate where Xin Wuxian began to storm it, where the sound of killing shook the sky, covering up the clear screams of insects and the rustling of grass and trees next to Jiaohe City on weekdays.was also covered up, and a group of people who dared to die in the dark along the reeds that had time to be cleared under the Jiaohe River.The leader is the agile Zhao Han'er, followed by the most elite three hundred soldiers in Hexi Qu, Gan Yanshou and others in Tianshui Qu, and others are also among them, the young man from the north has a fast heartbeat, and looks up at the high Jiaohe City from time to time, as if he wants to remember this scene forever.Under the cover of night and suspicious soldiers, they reached the north side of Jiaohe, clinging to the wall of the mound, hiding in the shadows, adjusting their breathing and heartbeat, and more than ten feet above their heads, it was the footsteps and shouts of the chariot masters who hurriedly supported the east gate.If the chariot masters patrolling the cliff were more vigilant and stretched out most of their bodies, they would have found that these Han soldiers had wrapped a thick hemp rope around one shoulder, crossed it over their chests, and then changed into peculiar soft deerskin boots with protruding iron spikes at the tops.And what he is holding in his hand is a pickaxe!
No one spoke, until they heard the slogan of the Han soldiers on the east gate "Bike Jiaohe" one after another, and then immediately turned around, led by Zhao Han'er and Gan Yanshou, and nailed the crane's beak hoe deep into the natural yellow raw soil that was moistened by flowing water all year round and was not so hard.They are climbers today!
PS: Chapter 2 is before 0:00.