flstandardbreds Chapter 1146 The Lone Army in the Western Regions
Chapter 1146 The Lone Army in the Western Regions
Seeing that Li Che's eyes had lost their warmth, Yao Luoge felt utterly devastated.
He thought the Qing emperor wouldn't care too much about the previous dynasty's army, but he underestimated Li Che's feelings for his people.
In Li Che's view, the Qing people and the Huan people were just Chinese people from different periods, and they were all his own people.
The matter between Qing and Huan is a family affair, and it is by no means a matter for outsiders like the Tibetans and Uyghurs to bully.
Seeing how concerned Li Che was, Yao Luoge knew that life and death hung in the balance at this moment, and dared not hesitate for a moment longer, screaming:
"They're still in Shazhou! They're still in Shazhou!"
Shazhou?
Li Che's gaze suddenly sharpened.
A map of the Western Regions flashed through his mind.
Shazhou was formerly known as Dunhuang Prefecture in the earlier dynasty. It was renamed Shazhou in the mid-dynasty and governed Dunhuang and Shouchang, with its capital in Dunhuang.
This place is located at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, a vital passage on the Silk Road, and is just west of their current location.
Seeing Li Che's changed expression, Yao Luoge, driven by his survival instinct, continued speaking rapidly:
"Huan Chao stationed 5,000 troops from the Hexi region in Shazhou. Later, when the Central Plains were in chaos, Huan Chao urgently dispatched troops from Longyou and Hexi to Guanzhong to quell the rebellion. Taking advantage of the situation, the Tubo (Tibetan) forces invaded and captured Liangzhou, Ganzhou, and Suzhou..."
"The garrison in Shazhou retreated to the isolated city, and their communication with the interior was cut off. However, the soldiers and civilians of Shazhou refused to surrender and continued to fight against the Tubo.
"It wasn't until eight years ago, when the military and civilians of Shazhou were truly exhausted, that they had no choice but to open the city gates."
"But not long after the Tibetans left, the old Huan people in the city rebelled again. They drove out the Tibetan garrison commander, closed the city gates and established their own regime. To this day, they still fly the Huan Dynasty flag and are entangled with the Tibetan army in the Western Regions."
After finishing speaking in one breath, Yao Luoge gasped for breath.
No one paid him any attention; the area around the fire was deathly silent, the firelight flickering on the faces of Li Che, Luo Yueniang, Yu Daliang, and the others.
The garrison during the Huan Dynasty? That was nearly twenty years ago.
It has been nearly twenty years since the late emperor conquered Huandu and established his rule over the world.
If these garrison troops in Shazhou still have any of the original veterans, they are probably a generation older than the veterans in the Northwest Army.
They... are still persisting?
Did they know that the Huan Dynasty had already fallen?
The campfire crackled, illuminating Li Che's inscrutable face.
Shazhou......Dunhuang......
The two place names lingered in his mind, heavy with the dust of history.
“Huan Jun,” he repeated in a low voice.
Nearly twenty years is enough time for a boy to become a middle-aged man, and for a middle-aged man to enter his twilight years.
It seems like only yesterday that the late emperor quelled the chaos at the end of the Huan Dynasty, but in the far west, beyond the empire's sight, there is still a group of people stubbornly holding up the banner of a dynasty that has long since collapsed, fighting a bloody battle alone amidst the surrounding foreign tribes.
This has nothing to do with friend or foe, and even transcends loyalty; it is a kind of unwavering commitment akin to martyrdom.
Forgotten by time and abandoned by their motherland, their will and bloodline have not been worn away by the wind and sand.
Luo Yueniang broke the silence first: "Your Majesty, if this is true... what should be done with these... these soldiers from the previous dynasty?"
Moreover, compared to Qiu Bai and others, Luo Yueniang ruled the Shu region far from the central government before surrendering, so she could better understand the weight of persevering in dire straits.
Yu Daliang, who was standing to the side, clicked his tongue, as if he wanted to say something.
But after glancing at Li Che's expression, she held back her words, though a hint of emotion flickered in her eyes.
"Don't rush, let's check the situation first." Li Che suppressed his emotions and regained his composure.
His gaze fixed again on Yao Luoge's face as he asked, "No falsehoods?"
At this moment, Yao Luoge dared not hesitate for a moment, kowtowing repeatedly: "Absolutely not! I guarantee it with my life!"
"Inside Shazhou City, there is indeed a force calling itself Huan Army resisting the Tubo. The leader seems to be surnamed Zhang... As for his specific name, I am of low rank and do not know the details!"
"Tell me their exact location." Li Che's voice was calm and even.
Yao Luoge's eyes darted around rapidly, as if he were grasping at the last straw.
He raised his head, forcing a fawning smile—more painful than a grimace—on his swollen face: "Your Majesty... if I were to speak... perhaps I could save my life?"
Li Che narrowed his eyes.
The wind outside the tent seemed to have stopped for a moment, with only the faint crackling sound of flames devouring firewood.
Li Che was not in a good mood at the moment.
Upon hearing about this isolated army, he felt a deep sorrow for the nameless heroes.
In contrast, his disgust for the despicable person before him was even stronger.
Li Che said calmly, "Are you threatening me?"
"No! I dare not! I only beg Your Majesty to have mercy and spare my dog's life!" Yao Luoge hurriedly prostrated himself on the ground, his forehead pressed against the ground.
Li Che remained silent for a moment.
For Yao Luoge, this moment felt as long as a cycle of reincarnation.
Finally, he heard a word from above:
"can."
Yao Luoge breathed a sigh of relief, almost collapsing from exhaustion.
But before he could catch his breath, Li Che's next words made his heart stop again: "But you must prove your worth. I need to make sure you are not lying to me."
Yaoluoge quickly replied, "My Left Commander is in charge of affairs in the Western Regions. Your Majesty can ask him."
Without needing Li Che's further prompting, Qiu Bai turned around and went to fetch the person.
Before long, a Uyghur general, who was also tightly bound, was dragged to the campfire.
The man was about forty years old, with a scar on his face. He looked more ruthless than Yao Luoge, but at this moment he was filled with fear.
Yao Luoge urged, "Quickly! Tell His Majesty everything you know about the Huan Army in Shazhou! Don't leave anything out!"
The Left Commander glanced at the Khan, who seemed to have gone mad, and then at Li Che, who stood expressionless behind the firelight. He instantly understood the current situation.
Although he knew that his Khan was unlikely to succeed, seeing the other side so cowardly and afraid of death still made him feel somewhat sad.
But things had come to this point, and he was not one to be blindly loyal.
He then spoke with difficulty, “Your Majesty… there is indeed a remnant army in Shazhou, with about two thousand soldiers still capable of fighting, guarding Shazhou city and several beacon towers and grottoes in the surrounding area.”
"The leader called himself the envoy of the Guihuan Army, surnamed Zhang, and named Yi."
"They frequently clashed with the Tibetan garrison in the Western Regions. In recent years, with the main Tibetan forces being transferred eastward, their activities have become more frequent. They have even attempted to contact countries like Khotan to jointly resist Tibet..."
The Left Commander was a unique military position among the Uyghurs, equivalent to the Khan's deputy, and was quite capable.
The information he provided was much more specific, after all, the Uyghurs and Daqing were different.
In recent years, Daqing has completely lost its sources of information from the Western Regions, while the Yellow-headed Uyghurs have had frequent trade and communication with the Western Regions.
Li Che noted down this information and then turned his gaze back to Yao Luoge.
Yao Luoge felt uneasy under his gaze and forced a fawning smile: "Your Majesty, I will speak frankly and without reservation, you see..."
Li Che slowly stood up, his black cloak fluttering slightly in the night breeze.
He walked up to Yao Luoge, looking down at him with a cold, indifferent gaze.
“You did well,” Li Che said calmly, “but I cannot forgive you.”
"His Majesty?!"
Yao Luoge's smile froze instantly, replaced by horror: "You...you just promised..."
"I agreed to listen to your intelligence, but did I promise to spare your life?" Li Che interrupted him coldly.
"The Yellow-headed Uyghurs aided the Tibetans in their tyranny, invading our territory and slaughtering our people, leaving behind a blood debt!"
Yao Luoge quickly replied, "Your Majesty, please understand. That happened a long time ago; I did not do it..."
Li Che sneered, "Where did that Qing woman in your tent come from?!"
Upon hearing this, Yao Luoge's face turned pale.
Li Che continued, "How much blood of border residents and merchants have you spilled on your hands over the years as you robbed Qing people's caravans?"
"Such sins cannot be atoned for with just one or two pieces of intelligence!"
Yao Luoge felt as if he had been struck by lightning, and his whole body trembled.
Realizing that Li Che had no intention of letting him go, he was so frightened that he became furious: "You! You are the emperor, your words are law, yet you go back on your word!"
"Aren't you afraid of being ridiculed by the world, and that no one will dare to trust or surrender to you in the future?!"
"I am afraid." Li Che nodded seriously.
People in this era still value integrity; even street vendors do this, otherwise no one would do business with them, let alone an emperor.
If word gets out, the enemies of Daqing will probably not dare to surrender in the future and will fight to the death.
Even so, Li Che's eyes grew even colder: "But what I fear even more is that everyone thinks my people of Qing are easy to bully and that they can kill my subjects like weeds!"
"I fear that the foreign tribes of the world will think that it is no big deal to oppose Daqing. Afterwards, they can simply bow down and utter some innocuous information, and then they can rest easy."
He paused, then said, word by word, "A blood debt must be repaid in blood."
"I will avenge the victims and give the people of Qing an explanation!"
Yao Luoge's eyes widened in fury, and he opened his mouth to curse.
Yu Daliang, who was standing nearby, had already lost his patience and kicked him right in the mouth!
"puff--"
Yao Luoge let out a miserable howl, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth, and fell backward.
Yu Daliang was also a fierce general in Sichuan. His kick was so powerful that it knocked out half of his teeth!
Yao Luoge could only make a hoarse, leaky sound; he could no longer utter a complete sentence.
Li Che stopped looking at him and said to Qiu Bai, "Gouge out his eyes, sever his tendons, and throw him into that quicksand sea ahead."
"If he can survive seven days and seven nights without dying, it means that Heaven has not abandoned him, and his life can be spared."
The order was given in a calm tone, but its content sent a chill down the spine of the Left Commander, who began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Yes, sir!" Qiu Bai accepted the order without hesitation, cupping his hands in greeting.
With a wave of his hand, several armored soldiers immediately stepped forward.
Yaoluoge convulsed violently like a dying animal, but could only utter pitiful whimpers.
The screams gradually faded into the distance, eventually swallowed by the wind.
The area around the campfire quieted down again.
The aroma of the meat remained, but no one had any appetite anymore.
Li Che walked back to his original seat, picked up the water bottle and took another swig of wine. The spiciness burned his throat and suppressed the complex emotions in his heart.
He looked at the Left Commander: "Tell me in detail about the terrain of Shazhou, the Tibetan garrison, and the troop deployment of that Huan army... everything you know, big or small."
The Left Commander was already terrified and dared not hide anything.
He immediately spilled out everything he knew about Shazhou, like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.
Li Che listened quietly, but his gaze had already passed over the leaping flames and turned to the deep night sky in the west.
Shazhou, Dunhuang, Guihuan Army, Zhang Yi...
A group of loyal followers forgotten by the times, and an old flag that has been flying for nearly twenty years.
He's going to take a look.