Chapter 287 Domination of the Western Regions
In the summer of the tenth year of Taiping, the Tang Dynasty spent three years digesting the grasslands, moving all the excess monks and Taoists from the Central Plains there, and strictly setting up pastures and grazing areas for each tribe.
He also ordered the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Works to look for land suitable for farming on the grassland, allowing nearby tribes to switch from pastoralism to farming. State and county schools were set up in the ten states on the grassland, and outstanding people could serve as officials.

In the past two years, all the successful candidates in the imperial and military examinations were arranged to serve as officials in the grasslands, establishing a new order.

In the Western Regions, under the governance of Tong Yehu, conflicts in the Western Regions became increasingly acute, and the various countries continued to attack each other over trade routes and taxation.

At this time, Japan had become another piece of fiefdom. The emperor sealed the heroes of the Northern Expedition there and completely destroyed the Japanese book heritage.

The emperor issued an edict to change the reign title to Gongyuan, which was to take effect from the next year and would not be changed throughout the Tang Dynasty. The vassal states also used the same reign title for the sake of unification.

In the first year of the Common Era, Gaochang ruler Qu Wentai, with the support of Tong Yehu, sent troops to Yanqi, successively conquered three cities of Yanqi, and looted many men and women.

The King of Yanqi, Long Tuqizhi, could only shout from the top of the city wall: "Qu Wentai, you are so brave! You actually dared to disregard the order of the Supreme Tengri and mobilize troops without authorization. Aren't you afraid of the punishment from heaven?"

Qu Wentai sneered, "The hawk flies in the sky, the pheasant hides in the weeds, the cat frolics in the hall, and the mouse eats in the hole. They all have their own place. Can't they all have their own way of living and their own world?

You have forgotten your own glory, but I have not!"

The capital of Yanqi was still very strong. Qu Wentai only tried it out and then led his troops to retreat, dividing the treasures he had obtained into three parts.

One copy was sent to Qianquan City, one copy belonged to himself, and the other one was kept in case Tong Yehu failed to appease the Tang Dynasty. In this case, he would offer these in exchange for avoiding war.

By the way, he also ordered the envoy to convey a message to Tong Yehu: "Since you are the Khan, you are on par with the emperor. Why do you have to kowtow and worship the Tang Dynasty?"

During these three years, Qu Wentai, relying on the accumulation from the monopoly of the trade routes in previous years and with the strong support of Tong Yehu, continued to recruit soldiers and horses. The Gaochang Kingdom was no longer the same as before.

His strength was enough to annex several surrounding countries, but he was hindered by his fear of the Tang Dynasty. But now he can't help it.

As for the dissent within the country, he began to build high walls, dig deep trenches, and actively prepare for war, while at the same time appeasing his son and ministers.

"Chang'an is 7,000 miles away from us, of which 2,000 miles are in the desert Gobi. There is no water or grass on the land, the cold wind is like a knife, and the hot wind is like a fire. How can the army pass through?

When I went to Chang'an before, I saw with my own eyes that the northern part of Qin and Long was desolate and the cities were deserted. It was incomparable to the Sui Dynasty at all. Now that they are attacking us, if they send too many troops, we will not be able to transport food and grass in time. If they send less than 30,000 troops, we are fully capable of subduing them.

Our best option now is to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and reap the benefits. If the Tang army camps outside the city, they will definitely withdraw after 20 days at most, and when their food runs out, we will chase them and capture them. There is no need to worry at all!"

When the ministers heard this, they thought it made a lot of sense, so they praised his wisdom and began to actively advise the emperor not to capture too many prisoners to avoid mutual losses.

Qu Wentai gladly accepted the advice and rewarded his ministers to show his intention of sharing the glory.

The King of Yanqi, Long Tuqizhi, did not hesitate to send his confidants to Luoyang to ask for help from the Supreme Tengri and ask him to uphold justice.

The King of Yanqi's request for help was soon accepted, and the Emperor sent Duke Ying to lead 80,000 troops to the west to attack. They marched at a very fast speed along the newly built highway.

By the time Gaochang reacted, the army was about to arrive. The ministers went to look for the king in horror, but they heard the crown prince Qu Zhisheng say sadly: "Father, when he heard that the Tang army was approaching Qikou, he was terrified and had no idea what to do. He suddenly fell ill and fainted. After waking up with great difficulty, his mouth and eyes were crooked, hemiplegia, and speech was not smooth..." "What...what should we do here?"

All the ministers turned pale, their hands and feet became weak and they almost fell down with the king.

While Gaochang was still discussing, the Tang army arrived at the city of Tiancheng. The army was exhausted, so the Duke of Wei ordered the defenders to surrender. The defenders refused, and the Duke of Wei was furious. He immediately launched a strong attack and captured it in only half a day. More than 7,000 people were captured, all of whom were beheaded and made into a Jingguan.

They had just set up camp and cooked, and not only were the people of Gaochang terrified to death, but the spies from the Western Regions who had received the news and came to watch were also frightened to the point of shitting and pissing.

At night, Qu Zhisheng hurriedly sent an envoy to come and said, "The late king Qu Wentai offended the Supreme God and was punished by heaven. He was seriously injured and could not get up. He is almost a cripple. I have only been on the throne for a short time. I beg you to have mercy on me and stop the war so that we can go to the emperor to apologize for our crimes."

Li Jing, Duke of Wei, said: "Your country's crime is deceiving God. This crime cannot be pardoned. I will only offer my head to you for execution!"

No one would be willing to offer his head and wait for death, not to mention that reinforcements from the Western Turks would arrive soon, so they decided to hold on first, as the capital was very strong.

The next day, the Tang army arrived at the city. Looking at the thick and tall city walls, the Duke of Weiguo didn't care at all. He ordered his men to push out a nest car, which was ten feet high and overlooked the city walls from a distance.

The Gaochang defenders were confused as to what was going on. They only saw several black objects that looked like iron barrels being pushed out from above. With flashes of fire and loud bangs, bricks and stones on the city walls splattered everywhere, blood rained down, and broken limbs were everywhere.

The soldiers of Yanqi State who came with the army knelt down and sang praises: "The soldiers of Gaochang are like frost and snow, while the soldiers of Han are like the sun and the moon. The sun and the moon shine on the frost and snow, but they will be wiped out in a flash!"

In just two days, twenty-two cities of Gaochang were captured, a total of 17,700 people were captured, and the Gaochang Kingdom was destroyed.

The Duke of Wei beheaded all the princes, nobles and officials of Gaochang State in their palace, and circulated their heads to other countries. In this way, the country's prestige was shaken and the Western Regions were greatly frightened!

The Yiwu Kingdom of Yanqi came to Luoyang and requested to submit to the emperor. The emperor agreed and established the Anxi Protectorate in the capital of Gaochang, temporarily appointing the Duke of Weiguo as the protector.

And King Qin Li Shimin had already gone south to the Linyi Kingdom.

At present, the easternmost part of the Tang Dynasty is the sea, the westernmost part is Yanqi, the southernmost part is Linyi, and the northernmost part is the desert. They are all prefectures and counties, with a total area of ​​9,510 miles from east to west and 1918 miles from north to south.

Obviously, this is only temporary. The ambition of the Supreme Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Tengri, to expand the territory is lofty.

Soon, the Duke of Weiguo identified his target: to the west of Yanqi, with Kuche as its center, stretching from Luntai in the east to Bachu in the west, backed by the Tianshan Mountains in the north and facing the Taklamakan Desert in the south, there was a powerful Western Region country called Qiuci with more than 80 cities of various sizes.

Gradually losing the courtesy of a subject and invading neighboring countries, this was the reason. After the Duke of Weiguo reported to the emperor, the emperor did not let the Duke of Weiguo lead the troops of Anxi Protectorate to fight against the bandits.

Instead, he appointed Ashina She'er, the general of the left guard of the grassland, as the commander-in-chief, and Qibi Heli, the general of the right guard of the grassland, as the deputy commander-in-chief. They assembled the thirteen Tiele tribes and other cavalry, totaling more than 100,000 people, and joined forces to attack Qiuci.

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(End of this chapter)