Shanshan Royal Court was one of the first batch of vassal capitals destroyed by the rebellion in Western Xinjiang.
King Alekjiang of Loulan was the nephew of King Shanshan and the cousin of Holia, the princess of Nanhua County. He secretly colluded with the Turks, raised a rebellion flag with King Tajik of Shule, and directly challenged the rule of Shengtang. And the first target he chose to attack was his uncle.
The Royal Court of Shanshan was first bloodbathed by the Loulan Army, and soon afterwards, it was destroyed by the Turks. Most of the buildings in the city, including the palace, were dilapidated by the flames of war.
Therefore, when Gema Khan chose to locate the governor's official residence in Shanshan, he did not choose the royal palace, but the city of Ulan, eighty miles away from the royal palace.
Ulan was originally a military fortress, which was used to station troops and store grain. It was a strategic location of the Shanshan Kingdom, so it was very well constructed and all the facilities in the town were also very complete. Originally, this place was designated as one of the Twelve Military Towns by Temple Prince Ronya precisely because of its important geographical location and size advantages.
After Gema Khan took office, he naturally established the Governor-General's Palace of Western Xinjiang in Ulan. The main force of the Yakut Army and the Turkic official system in Western Xinjiang were all stationed here.
At this time, Ulan City has changed a lot compared to before.
After several months of renovation and renovation, what was once a clean and tidy military fortress has now become rather nondescript.
First of all, the streets in Ulan City were widened to the maximum extent by Gema Khan, and many street-facing houses were knocked down one by one, in order to facilitate the movement of cavalry and horse teams.
The original city guard's mansion has more than doubled in size, with the surrounding walls extending outward for nearly a hundred steps. However, although a lot of new space has been added to the mansion, there is no large-scale construction or building of houses here. Instead, a huge bare square has been leveled.
Right in the center of the wide square, a huge purple tent stood tall, surrounded by many small tents dotted around, densely guarding the big tent.
Here is the official residence of the Governor of Western Xinjiang - the royal tent of the Yelun Clan.
In addition to the Governor's Palace built with Turkic characteristics, the arrangements in various parts of Ulan City also have a "ruling" meaning.
According to the request of Gema Khan, all countries in Western Xinjiang, no matter how big or small, must send their important royal members to be stationed in Ulan as envoys, ready to accept the questions and orders of the Governor-General at any time.
Suddenly, dozens of vassal missions, large and small, famous and unknown, crowded into this small town. Just to accommodate these people, it suddenly became difficult to find a room in Ulan City.
Larger countries, such as Loulan, Shule, and Chechi, naturally spend a lot of money to buy spacious courtyards and carefully repair them to show their style. Those little-known small countries couldn't find a house suitable for them after searching everywhere. In the end, they could only spend a few hundred gold coins in vain to rent one or two thatched houses to serve as embassies.
Not only that, in order to create a prosperous scene, Gema also forced merchants from all over Western Xinjiang to move to Ulan, set up shops and markets here, and set up various businesses.
The town was not big to begin with. The Western Xinjiang Governor's Mansion and the Yakut Army lived there, and there were so many envoys, officials and their families that it was already a little overcrowded. Now that thousands of merchants were moved in, it became even more crowded. It was full of smoke and chaos.
What's even worse is that Gema Khan was so greedy that he forced all countries to cooperate with him in reorganizing the army in Western Xinjiang. In the blink of an eye, the Xijiang country scraped together 150,000 miscellaneous troops and crowded into Ulan City.
Including Yakut soldiers and horses, there were more than 200,000 troops. Those who could fit into the city were forced into the city. Those who couldn't fit in the city set up tents and settled around the city.
That kind of crowded and complicated situation gives me a headache just thinking about it.
As soon as Li Jiangyao and the others arrived at Ulan City in Shanshan Kingdom, they were immediately stunned by the wonderful sight in front of them. Colorful flower tents, circle after circle, layer after layer, are densely packed everywhere. In the middle of the splendid sea of flowers, surrounding a small earth city with teeth and claws and smoke rising everywhere.
Li Jiangyao couldn't help laughing and said: "If we set off a big fire, wouldn't it be like a giant earthen stove?"
Zhou Xingxin nodded understandingly, asked his men to drive up the bullock cart, and followed the bustling crowd into Ulan City.
This little-known little place is now home to merchants, and it is not difficult to do business. You just need to find an empty space on the roadside, set up a stall, and sell along the street. Li Jiangyao asked the three spies to look at the goods, while he pulled Zhou Xing and wandered around casually.
The two of them only walked around for half a morning and walked all over Ulan. Seeing that the sun was shining brightly and it was time for lunch, they found a clean and bright restaurant to eat.
It was dinner time, and the small restaurant was full and bustling with people. Under the warm greeting of the waiter, Li Jiangyao and Zhou Xing chose a small table in the corner and sat down. They ordered a plate of mutton, three kilograms of grilled buns, and two large bowls of hot, spicy and fragrant haggis soup.
While waiting for the food to be served, Li Jiangyao eavesdropped with interest on the diners nearby drinking and bragging. Because Zhou Xing knew nothing about the Western Xinjiang dialect, Li Jiangyao listened and translated for him.
I saw an old man dressed as a businessman shouting loudly: "Oh, what you said about the Metasequoia Army, that's not new news. The two most eye-catching events at the moment are one far away and the other right in front of you. .”
Everyone around him heard this and started booing, asking him what the big deal was.
The old man took a sip of strong wine and said triumphantly: "Let's talk about the far-off thing first, which is naturally the war between the Turks and the Holy Tang. Have you heard about it? The Eastern Expeditionary Army has begun to attack the imperial capital!"
"No way? So fast?"
"Yes, yes, you can't, right? Didn't you say a few days ago that the army was still in Liangzhou?"
"Listen to the old man's nonsense. Where is the Imperial Capital? Do you think it can be beaten?"
"Hey, don't believe it." The old man snorted: "My son is on duty in the Governor's Mansion. When he was working a few days ago, he happened to hear a few Turkic officers chatting. Two of them were just... They came back from the front line. According to them, the imperial capital was surrounded a month ago, and the battle was extremely fierce!"
Li Jiangyao couldn't help but cheer up and listened carefully.
The old man continued: "Speaking of which, I have been fortunate enough to visit the imperial capital twice before. Oh, it's incredible! The city wall is built like a cliff. If you stand below and look up, your hat will fall off. From the city gate If you look to both sides, you can't even see the corners of the city wall..."
"That's right!" A middle-aged Hu Shang nodded and said: "I have been there too. The city of Shengtang was built with arrogance! Let alone fighting and fighting, they just don't stop you and let you build a ladder and go up as you like. Climb, you may not even be able to climb up!”
After hearing this, everyone in the restaurant couldn't help but marvel. Someone urged: "Oh, don't talk nonsense. Tell me, have you captured the imperial capital?"
The old man curled his lips: "Captured? I'll scare you to death if I tell you! Tens of thousands of Turks died without even getting close to the city wall! Hey, have you ever heard of the eight-armed crossbow? That is the magic weapon of the Shengtang Army. A huge crossbow, as big as half a house, and the shaft of the crossbow is as thick as an arm! Once the arrow is shot out, it will sweep down a large area in one stroke. My son heard from the officers that the divine machine crossbow was placed on the top of the imperial capital city. Thousands of them were launched, like a heavy rain, whirring and whirring non-stop." He suddenly lowered his voice: "The Turks were beaten badly this time!"
The diners all had expressions of relief on their faces, looked at each other, and laughed silently.
A young man asked: "So, the Shengtang Army won?"
"Well, we can't say we won." The old man said with a sad face: "After all, the Turks were the main attackers and the Shengtang was the defenders. We can only temporarily save the imperial capital. After all, there were many soldiers in the Eastern Expedition. My son heard from the officer that later they also We fought desperately to get to the bottom of the city, and also took turns attacking various city gates. But so far, we still haven't been able to get in."
"Shit! This news of yours happened a month ago!" The young man said dissatisfied: "What kind of new news is this? Maybe while we are talking now, the Turks have already captured the imperial capital!"
The old man glared at him: "What do you know, you stupid kid? Do you think Shengtang is a vegetarian and only knows how to stretch his neck to be chopped? A large number of reinforcements are rushing to the imperial capital! What do they call this...? Oh yes , called King Qin’s army! It is said that there are millions of soldiers and horses, and they are going to fight the Turks."
After Li Jiangyao translated the old man's words to Zhou Xing, he looked at each other with a wry smile, and shook his head gently at the same time.
During the war, hearsay rumors like this were usually untrue. What's more, Western Xinjiang is thousands of miles away from the imperial capital, and the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly. If it reaches Ulan, it may have changed beyond recognition.
Like the two of them, the diners also felt that the news was old and untrustworthy. After a few casual discussions, they felt that they were not interested.
Seeing that everyone was not in a high mood, the old man continued to show off: "Everyone, the news about the Holy Tang Imperial Capital is only one of the two major events I just mentioned. There is also an interesting anecdote right in front of you. Do you want to know?"
A foreigner who looked like an official and a gentleman smiled and said: "You always said, could it be the riot in the military camp outside the city yesterday?"
"Huh? It seems you've heard about it too?" The old man was a little surprised.
The Hu official smiled slightly: "It's not something I heard about, but something I saw with my own eyes."
At this time, even the old man became interested: "Oh, that's amazing! Tell us quickly. Did the fight really start? Did anyone lose their lives?"
Most of the people eating next to me had never heard of this, so they couldn't help asking noisily what happened.
The barbarian hesitated to speak. He glanced at his companions and saw that they all nodded to express that he might as well talk about it. Then he cleared his throat and said, "I'll be honest with you. We are all officials of the King's Court in Qiuci." , this time we are escorting military rations to Ulan. The delivery procedures were completed yesterday afternoon, and we originally planned to return home overnight. Unexpectedly, we encountered a mutiny in the military camp!"
