Tang Dynasty

Chapter 1178: The door is free from the green countryside

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Thirty-six people touched the Western Regions, and six torches walked away from the Huns.

The skulls of Hepo from ancient to modern times are full of falcons.

"Song History·Ban Chao"

—I am the dividing line —

At the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain, the pearl of the flood plain and oasis where the three Yuhe rivers converge is now in the devastated and smoky capital of Khotan—West City. It has finally been under attack for several months. After the killing, the day when the dust settled amidst the wailing and howling all over the city.

At the expense of hundreds of nobles in the city, tens of thousands of citizens were affected and poisoned, with countless deaths and injuries; the last victor in the battle of the king’s capital, known as the Three Princes Rebellion, came from prison. Minister Zuo, one of the members of the country, also proudly took his nephew, the fifth prince, Wei Chi Baoshu, who was just a year old, and walked into the open king city.

While they hugged and hugged and walked through it, there still remained blood and other stains between the pillars, gardens, and flowers and trees where they could see that they passed by; and they were being towed for loading. Corpse. That was the result of a lot of melee between the palace guards who were bought before, the monks and soldiers who remained neutral and watched, as well as the royal family, the children of the noble family and their guards who first entered the palace to avoid disaster.

The soldiers who were in the period of continuous influx, also ignored them, dragged and captured the clan and noble surnames hiding between the palace buildings and gardens from their hiding places; they stripped away all possible valuables. Then put on his body and laughed at him, or embraced, resisted, and dragged the female relatives among them, and couldn't wait to go to a place with fewer people under the bushes and trees.

And surrounded by a group of neatly dressed and smeared blood-colored soldiers, they finally came to the Golden Book Hall where they were used to receive the courtesy, deliver the credential, and meet the envoys; and here, the large blood stains that have penetrated into the bluestone ground, It was also paved and covered with precious carpets and 氍毹, and it led to the top of the jade mountain in the depths of the temple, which is a throne carved with a whole piece of sapphire and covered with fine silk.

Later, on the side of this throne representing Khotan’s supreme authority, the Minister of the Left Minister was also amidst the greetings and prayers, and for his blood nephew, the new generation of Khotan’s treasure tree kings, personally draped jewels and jewels. The fringed Zhujin brocade robe and jade necklace, wearing the Rat King Golden Crown (Note 1) snatched from the old queen dowager in the harem, completed the simple and hasty ceremony of succession.

(PS, as the hub of the north-south junction of the Tianshan Mountains and the important town of the Silk Road, Khotan is also the only place where Buddhism spreads to the east. While worshiping Buddhism, it also contains many foreign cultural elements; for example, the twelve zodiac The patron saint of heaven, and among them, the rat king is the most noble, and is regarded as a totem and symbol of the royal family's inheritance and replacement; but it originated from the outbreak of rat infestation in the oasis near the royal city when the Huns invaded Khotan. Allusions of failure)

In fact, as the ascension ceremony of the kings of Khotan in the past, in addition to the recognition and canonization of the emissaries of the Middle-Earth Dynasty, which was long overdue but absolutely indispensable, it also required the monastery and great virtues as the largest Buddhist country in the Western Regions. The formation of the monk within the king, representing the major ministries of the country and the chiefs of the vassal tribes in the country, was present, as well as the envoys from the surrounding countries to observe and testify.

Then, I saw the Minister Zuo, with gray hair and eagle-eyed eyes, slowly sitting on the brocade on the side of the throne with his legs together, and accepting the worship of the subordinates and the remaining ministers in the hall with peace of mind. Soon afterwards, the Minister Zuo took the new lord of Khotan, the Treasure Tree King, who was still only on his shoulders even if he was wearing a lifelike silver rat crown, and reappeared on the Qifeng Tower, the main entrance of the road to the east on the side of the city;

Then, he stood under the vermillion canopy with the new king, accepting the many soldiers and private soldiers who participated in the battle of the royal city and won the final victory, as well as the civilians who were driven out of their homes. Qiangyan laughed and danced unevenly, thinking that he wished the new king a gift; then, the attendants behind the new king carried a basket of belongings and sprinkled the colorful silk coins flying all over the sky.

At this moment, as a playmate who grew up in Wangyuan with his wife's uncle and a young boy, he devoted himself to serving and loyal to the former leader Wei Chi Wa for most of his life, and Minister Zuo, who suddenly became ambitious in his later years, was also intoxicated at this moment. Among them, I felt that compared to the nephew who didn't know anything, I was the real Khotan Lord.

However, a hundred or so baskets of goods were spilled, and the atmosphere of singing and dancing in front of Qifeng Tower was barely heated up; but there were also a few messengers who rode through the city along the east-facing central axis street to bring him. The unexpected news and bad news that came, also made the winner of the Royal City Chaos no longer willing to enjoy and experience this glorious moment.

Because the various parties in the civil strife that occurred in the royal city have convened and attracted a large number of garrisons, private soldiers and tribes from all states and cities across the country, they gathered near the royal city; the result was that the local defense and guarding became empty. Therefore, when foreign troops from the south arrived at the westernmost city of Jochang (Qiemo Town) in the name of helping the royal family to counter the rebellion, not many people were able to respond, and naturally no one sent news.

On the contrary, some people took the initiative to stand up and became the pioneers of this foreign army, leading them to familiarize themselves with the road and pass through many cities and towns in the middle and lower reaches of the Hetian River without any offence. When these pioneers of foreign allied troops, who claimed to have come to help the peaceful rebellion, advanced to Kezhou (present-day Yutian County, Xinjiang) in the Gubisha Dudu Mansion, no one took it out to report it.

But at this time, the forward of the horse-buying army in the name of revitalizing the division and helping the war, has already approached Bi Mo City, an oasis of water less than a hundred miles away from the western city of the king's capital. At this time, as the left minister who stayed at the periphery of the royal capital, he was a close friend and a follower brother, and finally ascertained the specific identity of the other party and the origin of the people. But it was attracted by the fourth prince who fled outside.

This fourth prince’s mother’s family is not a distinguished person, just the daughter of an ordinary royal court official. She was able to serve her son because of her loneliness when the country lord went hunting; therefore, in the royal palace filled with many famous families China is not a strong succession choice. The only thing that is commendable is that he is eager to learn the style of the Tang Dynasty and is fluent in literary classics.

Therefore, in the early years when the lord of the country was seriously ill, he sacrificed himself to pray for the king on the grounds of filial piety; and later, the lord of the country gave him the name Vitrarama, and he was made to worship under the knees of the lord of the Xishan King Xingda Temple. , Practice Buddhism and other knowledge; so that after the new king ascended the throne, he can continue to be in charge of the Sangha and help the new king with the blood of a member of the royal family.

Therefore, the families and horses in this turmoil actually never took this seemingly weak and timid, and hurriedly fled into the royal city from the beginning, praying for the protection of the old queen dowager, who served as the general of the right servant. In the throne battle, the prince Visara, who was disguised out of the game; even the Minister Zuo himself did not have an urgent plan to remove him from the rest of the world.

On the one hand, this is because compared to the other brothers and brothers with profound backgrounds, his strength that he can rely on and rely on is really negligible; on the other hand, he takes into account the influential Buddhist monks in Khotan; Without cutting off the foreign enemy, killing such a prince who was destined to become a Buddhist prince would only teach people reality and increase Buddhist variables.

I thought that in this chaos, there was no other person around him, so he would just die in any corner of the royal city; but everyone did not expect that he would bring foreign aid and help to calm the chaos, too. Khotan has inextricably linked and originated traditional allies-the Guiyi Army, as well as the unheard of guardian Liberation Army (Yi Cong Tuan).

However, since he has successfully defeated many opponents and successfully supported the new king, the Minister Zuo, how can he sit still at this moment of success? At least he still has more than ten thousand kings defenders who have been merged after defeating each family, as well as the same number of generals, tribes and private soldiers inside and outside the city, as well as thousands of control strings in the north of the mountain that are attached to him; more There are hundreds of thousands of people in this magnificent city and a large amount of reserves.

Therefore, after finishing the court congratulations of the subjects, Minister Zuo announced that the new king would personally conquer the rebellious king order. Because he understood very well, even if the new king has just come to power and the foundation is not yet firmly established, as the promoter behind the scenes, the less he can show weakness; he naturally does not hope to defeat the returnees who have come from afar; but as long as he shows enough If his strength is slightly frustrated, he can carry out a series of negotiations and negotiations that will force him to withdraw at a price.

But before sending troops to fight against the edge of the oasis, for the sake of the stability of the rear, he once again issued an order to ban the daily activities of more than 30 monasteries large and small in the royal city; in case some of them might become the enemy’s internal response and the one who leaked the news. In case it is possible. However, it was Wang Ling who had been Wang Ling, but once again made an almost uncontrollable movement in the royal city.

Khotan was originally the kingdom of Buddhism, and in the royal city, the heart of the country, there are many believers gathered and there are many believers, from the princes and nobles to the people of Li Shu, and even among the royal guards, there are many believers; even It is a major national holiday, and a Dharma meeting will also be held, such as "Guardian of the Great Thousand Land Sutra", "Great Peacock Curse King Sutra", "Da Suiqi Dharani Sutra", etc.

Even when the leader of the country personally leads the army on the eastern land, he must also order the monks to sing the three sutras of the protector of the country: "The Nene King Prajna Paramita Sutra", "The Lotus Sutra of Wonderful Dharma" (translated by Kumarajiva), and "Golden Guangming the Most Victorious King The Classics (translated by Tan Wu Zhen, Yi Jing) thought of strong deeds and blessings. Therefore, Wang Ming was up and down in an uproar, and there were even disobedience and uproar among the defenders gathered in the royal city.

After the Minister Zuo led the loyalty to his royal guard and the family generals trilogy, he managed to re-press and clean up the situation; and forced the execution of this difficult king's order. But because of this, a whole day's time was delayed; therefore, whenever he was able to swear his army into battle, all he got was that all the people outside the royal city were raided, and they had been defeated one after another under their own fighting.

Therefore, after the side play that day, the flag of the foreign army has appeared in the wilderness outside the capital of West City. (End of this chapter)