Taihe City is a city that is extremely difficult to capture by foreign troops. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is definitely the most obvious sign of this city. The people who chose the site to build the city must have taken advantage of its favorable and complex terrain from the beginning.
Because of its complex terrain, the city of Taihe City does not look like the square city common in the Central Plains. Instead, it is built on the slope between the peak of Cangshan Buddha and Wuzhi Mountain, thus forming a unique shape with only two walls. city.
The steep Cangshan Mountain forms a natural defensive barrier to the west, while to the east is the boundless Erhai Lake. These two natural strategic barriers are enough to prevent Taihe City from spending time and money on defense here. Both directions.
The two city walls in the north and south are based on the terrain and wind like two long dragons. They lie between Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake, forming a strong city that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Similarly, when Shelong was still the king of Nanzhao (Meng Shezhao), he built two small cities less than a hundred miles away from Taihe City in the south and north, and named them Longkou and Longwei. City, thus guarding Taihe City together, making Taihe City even more impregnable.
Lawless, Yuan Shuji, Guo Shifeng, Shelong, Xinuluo, Luo Shengyan and others are now standing under the gate of Longkou City, waiting for Li Hong's arrival.
The city is not very big. The winding small streets have the artistic conception of a water town in the south of the Yangtze River. In addition, the land of Yunnan and Guizhou is full of mountains and rivers, with small bridges and flowing water, ponds and small courtyards in groups, and thatched huts or yellow walls with rammed earth. From here, it also seems to have quite a lively artistic conception.
People wearing various costumes would secretly look at the passing army from the loosely sealed wooden windows from time to time, but no one would come out to investigate.
At this time, the people of Nanzhao were not separated into various ethnic groups like they were in the previous life. Now, most of them consider themselves Cuan people and call themselves descendants of the Ban clan.
The formation of the Ban family was during the Spring and Autumn Period, when the descendants of Ruo Ao from Chu State multiplied. According to legend, their ancestors grew up eating tiger milk, so they took the tiger spots as their surname.
Li Hong didn't know any of this at all. While listening to Shelong's eloquent talk about their history, he sat on horseback and looked at the Erhai Lake and Cangshan Mountain that were connected to the sky in the distance.
Shelong's argument is obviously very easy to convince people. After all, the meaning of the two words here is tiger. From this, it can be basically determined that their ethnic group is the Cuan ethnic group that mainly develops with the descendants of Banshi.
During the pre-Sui Dynasty, the Cuan tribe was divided internally, resulting in the formation of Dong Cuan and Xicuan. At the end of the pre-Sui Dynasty, with the decline of Dong Cuan, Xicuan took advantage of the situation and once again led to internal divisions, thus forming the following The six imperial edicts named after their kings were: Mengxu, Yuexi, Langqiong, Yongzhen, Shilang, and Mengshe.
Mengshe Zhao is often called Nanzhao because it is south of the other Five Zhaos.
In addition, its strength was stronger than other tribes, and Li Hong sent people to give Nanzhao strong military support when they were in turmoil. Therefore, in a short period of time, he assisted Nanzhao to unify the other five imperial edicts and formed Today's Nanzhao.
Li Hong understood the purpose of Shelong and Xinuluo telling him about their history. This was to tell him in a subtle way that they were under the Shezhao to unify the other five imperial edicts. Although they had their own support at the time, they were just like the Tang Dynasty that established the Central Plains. , here it has absolute legitimacy.
Li Hongduan sat on the horse without saying a word. According to their Nanzhao etiquette, he stepped on Xinuluo's back and slowly got off the horse after hearing the etiquette of gods and ghosts wearing various unusual costumes.
Xinuluo waited for Li Hong to stand firm on his feet before getting up from the ground. Instead of being annoyed at the big footprints on his back, he seemed extremely excited.
Especially when his son Luo Shengyan saw the dazzling big footprints on his back after he stood up and wanted to help him brush them off, Xi Nuluo stopped him with a stern look in his eyes. From this, we can know that Xinuluo was still quite afraid of Li Hong's arrival.
The gate of Taihe City is not very tall, but as a relic of the ancient city of Dali, most of the streets and lanes are made of hard stone. Even the main body of the city gate is also made of stone. Only in other places with steep terrain would compacted loess be used to build city walls.
There are many buildings made of stone throughout the city. Even the winding alleys at your feet are also paved with stone. However, after years of trampling, they have become slightly uneven. But overall, especially after the rain, Walking in the narrow alley is like walking on a mirror.
Xinuluo is famous for his love for beauty, and even his son has inherited his fine tradition. Any pretty woman in Taihe City will be forcibly recruited by him into the palace. If he likes it, he will keep it. In the palace, someone will be sent to give a sum of money to his family.
If he doesn't like her, it's not bad, and he will let her go home. But many times, the women Xi Nuluo gives up will be kidnapped by his son Luo Shengyan and become Luo Shengyan. of private things.
Li Hong walked in the front, followed by Xinuluo on the left, Shelong on the right, and behind him were Jingzhe and Mangzhong who had not appeared for a long time.
The two men quietly described to Li Hong what Xinuluo had done in Nanzhao, and reminded Li Hong from time to time that when he came this time, Xinuluo was in the north of Taihe City, that is, their dragon. A large number of soldiers and horses were stationed in Weicheng to prevent other leaders of the Five Zhaos from coming to Taihe City to meet with them.
There is also a royal palace in Taihe City. After Shelong passed the Mengshe Edict to Xinuluo, the young Xinuluo, after getting the support of the Tang Dynasty, suppressed the Five Edicts in one fell swoop and unified the entire tribe. Then he began to imitate the Tang Dynasty and built a royal palace.
Once a person enjoys the supreme pleasure brought by supreme power, his ambition will become bigger and bigger, just like Xinuluo, after ruling the entire tribe, became dissatisfied with continuing to be favored by the Tang Dynasty. act.
Instead, they began to secretly communicate with some Tubo forces who wanted to restore their Zanpu, including some forces in Zhenla, and Princess Fangling of Jiannan Road, so they tried their best to get close to all forces, which was the hope. It can completely break away from the control of the Tang Dynasty and become an independent kingdom like Zhenla.
The Annan Protectorate of the Tang Dynasty was in Songping Mansion (Hanoi, Vietnam), which was not very close to Taihe City. Moreover, before the dictatorship of Li Hong, the Tang Dynasty did not deploy many troops in Annan. After Xinuluo unified Nanzhao, he symbolically placed troops at Songping Mansion in Annan to guard against Zhenla's threat to the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, the road from Songping Mansion to Taihe City is long, and the terrain is complex, humid and hot dense forests are very common, and the endless mountains are interspersed. It takes a month to go back and forth, so the Annan Protectorate has no control over Taihe City. , obviously there is less deterrence and restraint, which gives them more opportunities to win over others to help them secretly.
Liu Yanyou is now in Songping Mansion, and the warship navy of Pei Xingjian and Chen Jingzhi are also at the dock closest to Songping Mansion on Lingnan Road. Although this move does not pose much of a threat to Xinuluo, it also makes Xinuluo Luo realized that the Tang Dynasty was dissatisfied with him.
"How much do they know about Chengdu Mansion?" Li Hongli was standing in the center of the palace entrance as he should be, accepting the Nanzhao ministers, led by Xi Nuluo and She Long, to pay their respects to him.
"My slave has tried her best to let Jingwei cut off the messengers along the route. Judging from the observation in the past few days, Xinuluo has obviously not noticed any movement, but... It is hard to say for the other tribal leaders of Wuzhao. Lingnan Road is too big. It is even more difficult for all the places in Liuzhao to be monitored by Jingwei. Even if Miss Bai later secretly mobilized the seventy Jingwei, it was still not enough." Jingzhe stood behind Li Hong as usual, looking at Nanzhao's ceremonial guards. The lengthy ceremony to welcome the prince continued.
"When we were in Chengdu Prefecture, we didn't have enough Jingwei, but we couldn't help it. The stalls were too big, but these are interrelated matters. If we don't solve the problem in Chengdu Prefecture, we won't be able to get here. If we don't solve it, we won't be able to get here." There is no way to face Zhenla without any scruples. What happened to Prince Zhenla? Has Xinuluo asked about it?" Li Hong smiled and nodded at Xinuluo, who was standing at the bottom of the steps. Very satisfied with the grand ceremony they welcomed me.
"Xinuluo has asked twice, but until now, he doesn't know where the three people are being held by the slaves. But Liu Duhu is also urging the slaves now. If he wants Jingwei to sneak into Zhenla, now Returning their prince first is the best opportunity. I hope your highness will consider it carefully." Mang Zhong lowered his head, and Xi Nuluo below could only see his lips moving, but could not hear clearly what they were saying. What.
So Xinuluo smiled with Li Hong on his face, but he was worried in his heart. He didn't know what the eunuchs around Li Hong were plotting with Li Hong, or what kind of orders they were receiving from Li Hong. .
"Then reveal it to Xinuluo. Remember to be passive and let him think that he discovered it by himself. Let Zhenla accept Xinuluo as a favor. As for Jingwei's infiltration, there is no need to cross the Hengshan Mountain for the time being. Let Pei Xingjian know "Tell Chen Jingzhi, let us release some of the merchant ships coming from Quanzhou and other places, and let Jingwei follow the caravan into Zhenla by water." Li Hong watched the lengthy ceremony finally complete, and then Xinuluo followed She. After the dragon got his consent, he slowly climbed up the steps and began to lead the way to the palace.
Behind them, the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty and the officials of Nanzhao were arranged in two rows, closely following Li Hong and others, and began to walk to the main hall of the palace under various ceremonial guards like ghost paintings.
(End of chapter)