Chapter 439

Chapter 439

Can a strategist not ascend the throne? Side Story: The Winds of the Western Regions (8)

Book: Can a Strategist Not Ascend the Throne?

Chapter 439 Side Story (8) (Part 1)

The soldiers of Da Yong… pacifying the borderlands?

The transition between the Da Yong and Han dynasties might not have been known to the rulers of the southern nations due to the lack of information, but the King of Kushan would never be unaware.

This king, who harbored grand ambitions of rebuilding his empire, had only made up his mind to launch an expedition after hearing about the chaos in the Central Plains and the rise of a new dynasty when his envoy reached Liangzhou.

He intended to take advantage of the ongoing reestablishment of order in the Central Plains to first pacify Khwarazm and bring Kangju and Dayuan, which had broken free from their vassalage, under his control. This way, he could outpace the new emperor of the Central Plains and restore Kushan to its former glory.

If he could seize the Western Regions Protectorate, a land of many small states, it would be a great achievement!

But it had only been two years since the new dynasty was established. How could they already send troops to the Western Regions and even sweep through the borderlands?

This was simply too fast.

According to the information he had received, the Central Plains had been divided between two rival courts for six or seven years. Even if one side, led by the Son of Heaven of Da Yong, was indeed powerful, it shouldn’t be this strong, right?

Didn’t she need several years to pacify the various provinces within her territory and then spend more years building up her forces?

But pondering this now was pointless. What mattered was that the soldiers of Da Yong had indeed arrived.

They had traversed countless mountains and rivers, crossed the Western Regions, scaled the Congling Mountains, and descended into the river valley, all without him noticing, and were now so close to him.

If the Congling Mountains were considered part of the Western Regions Protectorate, then his soldiers stationed in the river valley below might indeed have overstepped. But for them to launch an attack without a word was simply too much!

King Bo Diao of Kushan was young and strong, and this was precisely the time when he needed a victory to establish his reputation. He could not tolerate being thwarted at such a crucial moment when he was about to reclaim lost territory.

“Is this how a great Central Plains nation displays its might?”

If he did not retaliate effectively, he would surely lose the respect of his soldiers and embarrass himself before the newly established dynasty, which was only two years old.

However, just as Bo Diao was about to mobilize his troops, he hesitated.

The lingering prestige of the Han Dynasty still weighed heavily on him like a mountain.

He would never forget the lessons of his predecessors.

In the fourth year of Yuanhe, the Kushan Empire, believing it had assisted the Han Dynasty in attacking Cheshi, had its then-king ambitiously offer treasures to the Han and request to marry a Han princess. After being refused by Ban Chao, he harbored resentment and three years later launched an attack with 70,000 troops across the Congling Mountains against Ban Chao’s forces.

However, Ban Chao ordered strict defense of the granaries and ambushed the Kushan army on their way north to Qiuci to borrow grain, delivering a crushing blow that forced Kushan to surrender and retreat. The following year, Ban Chao recaptured Qiuci, Wensu, and other states, reinstating the Western Regions Protectorate.

This ill-fated and humiliating attack, even though it had been a hundred years, could not be erased from Kushan’s military history.

Da Yong had replaced the Han, and its strength was likely even greater than that of the Han at its peak.

He indeed had many soldiers, but were they truly a match for the enemy?

If he were forced into a humiliating peace with Da Yong like the previous Kushan king, the internal opposition within Kushan, which had swallowed up over a dozen small states, would surely erupt violently, spelling almost certain disaster for him.

He could not afford to lose!

He immediately changed his tone: “Send someone to inquire why Da Yong is taking such actions. Do they truly intend to go to war, fighting to the death?”

Invading another country’s territory without cause was absolutely unjustifiable.

When the Han Dynasty controlled the Western Regions Protectorate, it primarily stationed troops to mediate disputes and did not actually annihilate the various small states. If Da Yong, which had just taken control of the eastern Huaxia lands, were to take such actions, he could surely unite the states of the Western Regions Protectorate to strike back at Da Yong.

Back then, the Kushan army had been defeated by Ban Chao’s smaller force due to logistical failures. But now, it was not he who had stretched the front lines so long!

However, when his envoy arrived at the enemy camp stationed below the Congling Mountains, the response he received was as follows:

“They say that among the thirty-six states of the Western Regions, Kangju and Khwarazm aside, Dayuan is under the jurisdiction of the Western Regions Protectorate. The Han imperial authority handed over the jade seal to Da Yong, thus transferring the Western Regions Protectorate to the new dynasty, which naturally has the right to oversee its affairs.”

The subsequent influence of Liu Xie publicly presenting the jade seal to Qiao Yan had indeed given her generals a seemingly absurd yet plausible reason for sending troops to the Western Regions.

Bo Diao’s face darkened as he listened to his subordinate’s report from the enemy camp:

“They also said that during the internal chaos in the Central Plains, Kushan, relying on its military strength, extended its reach into the Western Regions Protectorate, killing Dayuan soldiers and seizing Dayuan’s prized horses, an act that clearly sought to antagonize the Central Plains. Now that Da Yong has pacified the thirteen provinces of the interior, Dayuan has petitioned the Son of Heaven to reclaim its resources and deliver a… painful blow to us.”

Had Kushan seized many of Dayuan’s prized horses?

Of course.

If not, how could Xu Rong, Ma Teng, and others have taken a batch of Dayuan horses during the chaos of war without anyone suspecting the Han Dynasty at the time?

Twenty years ago, during the height of Kushan’s power, the Han Dynasty under Emperor Ling was at its darkest hour due to the eunuchs’ misrule, and the Western Regions Protectorate had completely lost contact with the Han court. This led to the King of Yutian annexing the surrounding areas and Kushan invading Dayuan.

Now that the Central Plains had regained its strength and had the capacity to spare, it was only natural to teach this unruly neighbor a lesson.

Originally, killing Kushan soldiers would have been unjustifiable, but now the unruly neighbor was Kushan itself!

The problem was, they couldn’t verify with Dayuan whether Da Yong’s troops had launched the attack first or if Dayuan had requested support from the court.

Bo Diao couldn’t be sure if, with Da Yong’s elite troops having crossed the Congling Mountains, sending an envoy from his position to Dayuan would even be possible.

He couldn’t be certain if the accumulated grievances from years of conflict would allow him to communicate normally with Dayuan.

He could only ask his subordinate who had gone to negotiate: “What kind of horses are their cavalry using?”

The subordinate hesitated for a moment before replying: “They seem to be Dayuan’s Ferghana horses.”

For this expedition, Xu Rong’s vanguard was not using the offspring of Dayuan horses and the famous horses of Liangzhou and Bingzhou, but purebred Dayuan horses.

This outward signal made Bo Diao even more convinced that their claim of acting on Dayuan’s behalf was true.








Even if it wasn’t the case that the Dayuan presented their precious horses to Da Yong, prompting them to send troops, the fact that they could reach from the Congling Mountains at least indicates that the various small states along the way have returned to the control of Huaxia. The appearance of the Dayuan horses, if not a tribute, suggests that Dayuan has already submitted to Da Yong due to their military intervention.

Their disadvantage of coming from afar has likely diminished as they gained support among the Western Regions’ states. Defeating them in one decisive battle is an incredibly difficult task!

Moreover, this isn’t even the biggest trouble Bo Diao is facing.

He then heard his subordinate say, “The other side also mentioned that to expedite this military campaign for justice, they have already seized our capital and cut off communications at the Big Snow Mountain pass…”

“If the conflict started over Dayuan, let it end in the land west of Dayuan and north of Big Snow Mountain, saving trouble for all parties.”

Hearing this, Bo Diao’s expression turned extremely grim.

He had no idea that Xu Rong and Zhang He, who had sent troops from the Congling Mountains, merely speculated that Ma Chao and Yan Xing, who were supposed to cross the Xuandu Mountains to reach the city of Fulusha, had succeeded without failing their expectations. They had perilously crossed mountains and successfully cut off the Kushan’s retreat, hence presenting such a statement when Bo Diao’s envoy came to inquire, without actually having confirmed news.

For the Kushan king, who already felt uneasy due to the absence of the grain carts, this was no different from being directly informed of a fact.

He had no time to ponder how the other side had accomplished the nearly impossible cross-border intrusion. He only knew he had to make a decision now.

Should he confront them on the battlefield, engaging in a fierce battle in the Panj River Valley, to see if the force that had completely taken his flank could also defeat his main army in one battle? Or should he make a desperate counterattack with his retreat cut off? Or…

Should he follow the example of his ancestors a century ago and decisively seek peace with the other side, even if it means resuming the submission of treasures to preserve this already precarious dynasty!

Two days later, news from the south left him no choice.

A subordinate who had escaped from Fulusha, luckily crossing the mountains beside the pass guarded by Yan Xing, arrived before him.

In his account, the Da Yong troops descended from the sky, using divine thunder to blast open their city walls and destroy their palace. After distributing grain to the city’s inhabitants and having them assist in defending the city, another strong force boldly headed north, cutting off their retreat.

This matched exactly what the northern Da Yong army had said.

Meanwhile, the force that had succeeded at the foot of the Congling Mountains, perhaps due to his delayed decision, advanced closer to his camp.

Accompanying the Da Yong caravans out of the frontier were not just food supplies but also improved crossbow carts from the past two years.

By the time Bo Diao received the news, a heavy crossbow shot from the enemy camp had already pierced through, splitting the large flag in his camp.

In this pin-drop silence, no one knew if the next arrow would fly towards someone’s head, potentially taking the life of the Kushan king.

And what awaited them was not just the deadly crossbow arrows from hundreds of meters away but also the elite cavalry riding Dayuan’s precious horses, clad in fine armor, wielding sharp weapons!

“Pass my order—” Seeing this, Bo Diao struggled to utter a few words, “We shall seek peace with Da Yong.”

Submitting to such an enemy whose military actions were nearly unbelievable couldn’t be considered shameful; after all, his predecessors had done the same.

But he never expected that the other side, in such a winning position, would push further, requiring him and his troops to accompany the Da Yong army along the northern Silk Road, traveling thousands of miles to Chang’an to personally surrender to their Da Yong Majesty.

“Absurd! If we do this, our dignity will be completely lost!”

But before Bo Diao could speak, Jiang Tang, who had come under Zhang He’s escort to discuss peace talks, calmly said in the Kushan language, “You can also choose not to accept our proposal and continue to fight us. Then we will hold our camp, harass from the north, and have another force flank from the south. By then, we can still escort you to Chang’an as a prisoner, and perhaps His Majesty would prefer you in such a state for an audience.”

“After that, whether we take direct control here or support the lords of Dayuan or Khwarazm to become the new rulers, it will no longer be up to you.”

“Smart people should know that putting on airs in front of us, the vanguard envoys, brings no benefits. We have traveled thousands of miles, and none of us fear death, only that we might not spread the grace of our Da Yong Majesty abroad, tarnishing His Majesty’s prestige!”

In the months since leaving the frontier last year, Jiang Tang’s initial trepidation towards foreign rulers had vanished in the face of their army’s steady advance, replaced by a firm belief in showcasing their nation’s might.

Bo Diao couldn’t comprehend how a newly established dynasty could command such universal respect but clearly understood that in the face of the power displayed by the other side, he had no room for arrogance or caprice.

The only thing he could do was surrender.

Accept their terms and personally go to Da Yong to pay homage!

“Actually, he doesn’t have to march with such a look of resignation,” Lu Yuan, upon arriving at the pass north of the Congling Mountains and meeting the Kushan king, said to Xu Rong, “Although His Majesty intends to awe and subdue him, it’s not to annihilate him completely.”

“His Majesty has plans to teach farming techniques in the Western Regions, gradually assimilating the people of the thirty-six states into Da Yong, and surely has arrangements for this western neighbor as well.”

The lives of the foreign people are also lives. Just as there is the strategy of using barbarians to control barbarians in Liangzhou, it can also be applied in the Western Regions and Kushan.

However, the specific arrangements Qiao Yan has for them are not for Lu Yuan to inquire about. For her, the most immediate gain at this moment is that they will accompany the Kushan army, going to Chang’an to pay homage, along the northern route.

This is not just a journey!

Bo Diao has already been tied to their ship, so even if he realizes halfway that they haven’t yet reclaimed the northern states, it no longer matters.

When a large number of troops pass through, states like Dayuan, Qiuci, and Cheshi will only know that before they received any news, the central court’s army had already made the Kushan king submit, leaving them with no room for resistance.

This already more accessible northern route will become a path of surrender for the states of the Western Regions!

Author’s note:

The Western Regions part has one more chapter to go.

I didn’t want to write this much, but the current situation is different from Ban Chao’s time.

See you at 9 PM.