Established a thousand-year family from the end of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 90 Long Night Journey to the Western Regions ([-])
Chang'an City

Royal Mansion
"Wang Changyu, Lieutenant of Xiaoqi School, made meritorious service in the battle of Mobei, was promoted to admonish doctor, and was promoted to the title of a noble and a charioteer."

"Chen, Wang Changyu, thank you Your Majesty!"

An eunuch from the palace came to the Wang family's mansion in Chang'an and read to Wang Changyu the imperial decree to increase his rank.

Wang Changyu knelt on the ground to receive the decree. After the eunuch left, he even put this imperial decree in a wooden box. This wooden box treasured the imperial decree that he was promoted again and again by the emperor. Later generations pay homage to them.
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Western Region
Wu Sun Guo

Chigu Castle

"This is Wusun Kingdom."

After one year, Zhang Qian, Wang Changye and others finally came to Chigu City, the capital of Wusun Kingdom.

There are many cities in Wusun State, but only Chigu City, the capital, has a population of tens of thousands.

"Stop!" The Wusun soldiers guarding the city gate stopped Zhang Qian Wang Changye's emissary team.

Since the Wusun soldiers spoke Wusun language, Wang Changye and others couldn't understand it, even Zhang Qian, who had been to the Western Regions once before, couldn't understand it. After all, he was busy avoiding the Huns last time. No time to learn the language of the Western Regions.

"What is he talking about?" Wang Changye asked Zhang Qian.

"I don't know either." Zhang Qian shook his head, but it wasn't a big problem. Although he couldn't speak Wusun language, he could speak Hun language, so Zhang Qian respectfully said to the soldiers guarding the city gate in Hun language: "I am The envoy from the great Han came to pay a visit to the great king of your Wusun country."

Although the soldiers of the Wusun Kingdom could not understand the Huns language, they often came to Wusun to extort money on weekdays. Over time, they also understood the characteristics of the Huns language, so they whispered in Wusun language:

"This man seems to speak the Hun language, but the clothes he wears don't look like a Hun."

"There are hundreds of them, go and report this to the city lord."

Afterwards, a Wusun officer rode into the city and reported to the Lord of Chigu City that a large number of foreigners had come.

In the Western Regions at this moment, the language of the Xiongnu is the lingua franca. After all, the Huns have enslaved the Western Regions for decades, but this is the first time that the Han has formally contacted the countries of the Western Regions. Before that, they had been in contact secretly.

Therefore, many of the envoys who followed Zhang Qian to the Western Regions could speak the Hun language, and even Wang Changye made up some Hun language on the way, pestering Zhang Qian to teach him the Hun language every day.

Zhang Qian and the others couldn't understand Wusun language, so they didn't know what the situation was, so they could only wait outside the city obediently.

After a long time, a middle-aged man in satin clothes came to the gate of the city riding a horse also in silk satin.

Naturally, these silk clothes were not sold to the Western Regions by the merchants of the Han Dynasty. After all, the Hexi Corridor was occupied by the Huns before, and the Han people could not pass through the Western Regions.

These silks were first produced by the Han people, then robbed by the Huns, and finally sold by the Huns to countries in the Western Regions at a super high price.

Therefore, silk in the Western Regions was countless times more expensive than that in the Central Plains. Even in the Central Plains, only the powerful could afford silk. It is conceivable that in the more expensive Western Regions, the top dignitaries in the Western Regions were all able to wear silk clothes.

The fact is exactly the same. In the entire Wusun Kingdom, only members of the royal family, city lords, and generals have silk to wear, and ordinary Wusun rich people cannot afford silk clothes.

The middle-aged man in beautiful satin clothes has wavy hair and long hair draped over his shoulders. This is the Western Regions, so naturally there is no tradition of bundling hair in the Central Plains.

Moreover, even in the Central Plains, the hair-tying tradition is only more than 900 years old now. It was during the Zhou Gongdan period in the Western Zhou Dynasty that the hair-tying custom began to be extended to various regions of the Central Plains.

"I am the lord of Chigu City, are you the Huns?" The wavy-haired middle-aged man asked Zhang Qian and the others in the Huns language, with some respect in his words, as if he was afraid of offending the Huns.

"Respected Lord of Chigu City, hello, I am an envoy from the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains, and I am here to visit the King of Wusun Kingdom." Zhang Qian bowed and said respectfully. He also spoke the Hun language.

This is the Western Regions, and no one can understand the etiquette of the Central Plains, so Zhang Qian does as the Romans do, just bend down according to the customs of the Western Regions.

It is also an interesting thing for a Han Chinese to communicate with a Westerner in the Xiongnu language.

"Big man from the Central Plains?" The lord of Chigu City was very puzzled. He really had never heard of the Central Plains, let alone a big man.

"The country that is now fighting with the Xiongnu, our suzerain country, seems to be called a big man. The silk clothes we wear seem to have been snatched by the Huns from that big man in the Central Plains." General Wusun explained to the owner of Chigu City in Wusun language road.

"Oh, hehe!" After hearing this explanation, the lord of Chigu City smiled at the general in Wusun language: "What kind of big man, he can't even keep such exquisite silk clothes, and he can be snatched by the Huns. Countries with similar strength to Sun’s are even weaker than our Wusun’s.”

"Maybe." The general was not too sure.

They are obedient to the powerful Xiongnu, but they are not polite to the "weak" big man, so after learning that Zhang Qian and others are not from the Huns, the lord of Chigu City put down his previous respect and turned to arrogantly speaking to Zhang Qian in the Hun language. The others said: "Our king is not something you can see if you want, but our Wusun country is a noble and civilized country, and we will not take you by force. You can enter the city to do business, just like Dawan, Jingjue, Caravans from Gumo, Loulan, Cheshi and other countries are the same."

Among the countries in the Western Regions, the Da Yue clan is the strongest, then Wusun, then Kangju, then Dawan, then Cheshi, then Loulan, and finally other messy small countries.

To the southwest of Wusun Kingdom is Dawan, to the west is Kangju, to the north is the court of Youxian King, to the northeast is the tribe of the Xiongnu, and to the south is the Tianshan Mountains. The front is Cheshiguo in Tuntian District of the Huns.

After the disastrous defeat in the Mobei War, the Xiongnu Yizhi Xie Shanyu felt that Mobei was not safe anymore. In order to avoid the sharp edge of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, he re-established a new Shanyuting in the west of Mobei near the Western Regions.

This Shanyu Court is located on the north side of Yanran Mountain. At the same time, Yizhixie Shanyu rebuilt a dragon city on the east side of Yanran Mountain.

Moreover, due to the loss of the two agricultural reclamation areas of Hetao and Hexi, and the loss of the Monan grazing area, the Mobei grazing area is very unsafe, and the Mobei grassland is too cold, and snowstorms will occur from time to time, which caused the Xiongnu's economy to collapse completely. , a large number of Huns starved to death.

Therefore, Yi Zhixie Shanyu carried out the strategy of making up for what was lost in the east and making up for what was lost on the side of the great Han, and he had to make up for it in the countries of the Western Regions.

Therefore, the Huns started farming in their vassal Cheshi State to increase their food sources.

This information was learned by Zhang Qian, Wang Changye and others when they passed through other countries in the Western Regions on their way to Wusun.

Originally, Zhang Qian planned to seek an alliance with the Alexander Empire, but the information he learned along the way made him understand that the Alexander Empire was probably dead long ago, so he turned his alliance target to the most powerful kingdom in the Western Regions. The strongest Da Yueshi, and the second strongest Wusun.

It would be best if they could form an alliance with the Da Yuezhi. Even if they could not, at least they should form an alliance with Wusun. This was the idea of ​​Zhang Qian and others.

(End of this chapter)