In the fifth year of Yuanfeng (76 BC), at the end of April, there was only a crescent moon in the sky in the Western Regions.

Qulitun is called Zhang Xiaoyan. One eye on his face is big and the other is small. As for why it is called Xiaoyan instead of Big Eye, it is unknown.

At this moment, Zhang Xiao’s eyes bent over and moved slowly on the Quli city wall, with the target of the beacon tower located in the northwest corner of the city.

Zhang Xiaoyan did not ignite the fire and did not dare to stand up. He also told his subordinates behind him: "The Legend of the Condor He didn't know where he was hiding outside the city, so he lowered his body."

In the past forty days, three or four robes have been not careful enough, and only exposed their heads and suddenly lost their lives.

Under the faint moonlight, Zhang Xiaoyan could see the beacon tower full of messy arrows, which were left by the Huns during the first wave of attacks.

Quli City is not that easy to fight. In addition to the two hundred Han army soldiers, there are more than a thousand Quli people. The Lord of Quli City surrendered to the Han army before and knew that the Huns would definitely not have good results after entering the city, and his resistance was even more firm than that of the Han army.

The ordinary people in Quli are even more fun. It’s not that they have deep feelings for the Han Dynasty in just half a year, but that they still remember the incident of Ren Hong’s “one night of a city” last year, thinking that there are gods who are helping the Han army.

Coupled with the intimidation of Quli City Lord's "The Huns will slaughter Quli when they enter the city", Quli people actively assisted Zhang Xiaoyan in guarding, and Quli was able to do so.

After the failed attempt to attack Quli, the Huns changed their strategy. They came in a total of more than 6,000 cavalry, which belonged to three tribes. One of them was camped outside the city to monitor Quli, while the other two 4,000 cavalry rushed towards Tiemen Pass and cooperated with the siege of King Rizhu on the other side.

The battle has lasted for more than forty days, and the number of casualties in the Iron Gate and how much food is left, Quli has no way to know.

But every day, Zhang Xiaoyan had to follow the rules of the Han army and ignite the beacon.

With more than ten miles apart, they could not rely on the beacon category to tell the details of the enemy situation, and could only use the faint fire light visible to the naked eye to convey a signal:

"I'm still here!"

Tiemen Pass will also respond, and the two lonely cities are just watching over each other and encouraging each other.

But today, when the beacon tower of the canal ignited the flames, the iron gate did not respond for a long time.

"Captain of the Tun, may I have already..."

The officials and soldiers behind him were a little anxious. The relationship between the iron gate and the Quli was like lips and teeth. The iron gate attracted all the hatred of the Huns. Once it collapsed, the Quli was besieged next.

Zhang Xiaoyan pretended to be calm, sat in the beacon tower, and took the naan in his hand to his mouth:

"Don't worry, it may be that the accumulated firewood is used up. The iron gate is not as good as the canal plow. We have a full warehouse of grain and firewood, but the iron gate and firewood are probably going to be used up."

The positioning of the two cities is completely different. Quli is regarded as the center and granary of the Han army in the north, while Tiemen is a fortress.

As Zhang Xiaoyan expected, after a while, the beacon fire at the Tiemen Pass was still lit, but the fire was a little weak. I don’t know what it was burning, clothes, or corpses? It was destroyed soon.

Zhang Xiaoyan knew that the situation at the Iron Sect would definitely get worse, but the fastest reinforcement would not arrive in twenty or thirty days. Can Xi Chongguo and the others hold on?

"Tun Chief, there is another fire!"

At this time, the soldiers of the war were pointing to the distance to report the news. Everyone hurriedly looked out, but saw a spectacular scene:

At the Xiongnu camp two miles away on the west side of Tiemen Pass, a long snake made of torches was slowly coming out of the camp. Look at the number, there were actually two thousand cavalrymen.

"Do you think the iron gate is hard to fight and you want to attack Quli?"

Zhang Xiaoyan was very nervous, and he asked someone to beat the war drum and ordered the officials and soldiers to go up to the city to prepare to fight the enemy.

But the Huns did not go south to the pier, but went west at the fork in the road, getting farther and farther away. After a while, they completely disappeared into the dark night.

At least half of the Huns who besieged Tiemen Pass from the west retreated to the west. In this way, the pressure on Tiemen Pass would be much less.

While being happy, Zhang Xiaoyan couldn't help looking at each other with the officials and soldiers:

"What happened to the west?"

...

The bodies of more than a thousand Kucha people were scattered outside the city, and the smell was stinking, attracting groups of wild wolves and crows and vultures. Luntai City could no longer stay in Luntai City for a short time.

After settling the wounded in its Gancheng, Ren Hong and others moved to Wulei City dozens of miles north of Luntai to use it as a base.

The right general of Wusun divided a thousand people to go to Kucha, and it could eat when it was dry, while the other thousand people were nomad nearby, guarding against the Huns' advance westward. For the Wusun people, the war was over.

But the right general didn't know that although the main force of Wusun had withdrawn and the remaining people would never go east half a mile, they still became the cards played by Ren Hong.

"The Xiongnu's men and horses besieged the Iron Gate withdrew two thousand cavalry and traveled thirty miles west to guard against Wusun?"

When Han Gandang and others who went to inquire in front of him brought back the news, Sun Baiwan felt incredible.

"The right general of Wusun had clearly sent an envoy to explain to the Huns that Wusun only wanted to revenge on Kucha, not to be an enemy of the Huns, why..."

"It's very simple."

Ren Hong smiled and said, "If a wolf suddenly rushed to the village and ate your sheep, then lie in the sheep pen, saying that he was full, he would leave after sleeping, and never bother the owner, can you believe it and sleep well?"

"Of course not. Although we will not be able to drive the wolf away for a while, we will have to send people to watch outside the door. So no matter what Wusun plans, out of caution, the Huns must send troops to guard against it."

This is the role of strategic deterrence, and it is also the reason why Ren Hong strongly urged the right general of Wusun to lead troops to stay near Wulei and Luntai to "protect Princess Yaoguang".

This will not only violate the promises of the right general to the fat king, but also can essentially intimidate the Huns, and can produce something in nothing.

"But just that, it's not enough to help the iron gate relieve the pressure a little."

At this moment, Liu Yaoguang came and brought the interpreter who was sent to the east by the right general. He had just returned from there.

This envoy was a Wumu Zen native in Central Asia. He was captured by Wusun and became a slave. Later, he was rescued by Princess Jieyou and released as a free man. He was a member of Princess Jieyou's sect. He was a member of Princess Jieyou's sect.

This time, the head of the translator went to see the Hun kings who besieged Quli Tiemen. In addition to the explanation of "peace" for Fei Wang and the Right General, he also responded to Ren Hongzhi's request to inquire about the truth and truth for him.

"The Huns have learned about Kucha and Luntai from the head of the lieutenant. The leader of the Youguli King was very angry. However, they also took a long way to reach Quli. There were not many soldiers and more than 6,000 cavalry, so they were unwilling to turn against Wusun completely, so they let me go and asked Wusun to withdraw from Kucha and Luntai immediately."

Ren Hong cherished this information very much: "Is it true that King Youguli personally sent troops?"

King Youguli was one of the Hexagonal Kings of the Huns, equivalent to the second-in-command of the Right Land, and his status was second only to King Youxian. King Youguli was stationed in the graveyard north of the Tianshan Mountains, near Urumqi in later generations. He was strong, with more than 40,000 troops and tens of thousands of soldiers under his command.

However, this time, the King Youguli seemed to have only brought a small number of people. Of course, it was also possible that the rest of the troops were cruising in the middle of the Peacock River to protect the road to retreat from the mountain country to the right, and to guard against the arrival of the Han army reinforcements.

The chief ethics continued to tell Ren Hong what he knew: "When I arrived, King Youguli personally led his troops to watch Quli, and the one who besieged Tiemen Pass from the west was King Yiwu and King Puyin."

The two kings' patriarchal lands were surrounded by the Youxian King's Court located in the Balikun grassland in the later Hami City, like stars supporting the moon. They were equivalent to the subordinates of the Youxian King.

They often sent people south to cut off Loulan Road. The subordinates of King Puyin who attacked Xichong last year were the ones who attacked the country of Xichong.

No matter how powerful the powerful King Youguli, King Yiwu, and King Puyin were even weaker as the vassals of the Right Xian King. They probably brought up all the male members of the entire tribe and gathered four thousand cavalry.

Because he was not the direct lineage of King Youguli, he was also arranged to chew the hard bones of the Iron Sect, while the elite King Youguli watched the show in Quli?

Ren Hong felt that things began to become interesting.

"It seems that the Huns are not a solid piece of the same body!"

Using Wusun to deter the Huns was just an appetizer, and his real plan could begin.

Ren Hong asked someone to prepare pens, inkstones and bamboo slips, and he planned to write a letter to King Youguli and King Riju of the Xianxian Shan.

"But this letter will fall into the hands of the confidants of King Yiwu, King Puyin, these two Right Virtuous Kings."

The second trick in Ren Hong’s heart was a plan of discord.

However, although the Huns were deeply influenced by the Han Dynasty and were rumored to use Chinese texts in various countries, are there people around the two little kings, King Yiwu and King Puyin?

Wusun Yicheng replied: "Yes, King Puyin often brings a Han official who surrendered to the Youxian King, whose name is..."

Yi Chang thought about it carefully for a while before he remembered: "By the way, his name is 'Wu Zongnian'!"

Ren Hong's pen froze suddenly.

...

ps: I went out for dinner tonight, and there were only two updates today.
Chapter completed!