Chapter 443: The might of the army, scrambling for peace [Subscription Request]

The Wei army marched out in three directions from the Wusun Kingdom to the west to attack Kangju, and the campaign lasted for half a month.

During this period, they used the food and grass supplies from the Wusun Kingdom as baggage and transferred them nearby, thus defeating Kangju's eastern defense line.

Cao Cao had just received news that Kangju wanted to cede land in exchange for peace.

First of all, the occupation of Wusun was a great shock to Kangju.

After the battle, Kangju suffered repeated defeats and was no match for Cao Wei.

In addition, their desire to negotiate peace was also influenced by geographical location.

To the south of its border, it borders the Kushan Empire, and to the west, it borders the Parthian Empire.

Kangju was quite powerful decades ago. It successively annexed the northern states of Yancai and Yan. Its national strength once caught up with Kushan and Parthia.

But as one gained strength, the other lost strength. Both the Kushans and the Parthians wanted to annex Kangju, and both put pressure on it.

Its national strength deteriorated and gradually weakened.

This time, after the border defense was defeated, Kangju immediately proposed to cede a small area in the southern part of the border to Cao Wei.

With this area, the Wei Dynasty could ensure that the east-west trade routes were unobstructed and that they could control the territory of Parthia.

This achieved Cao Cao's strategic goal when he first raised his army.

Kangju also had its own plans.

The part they ceded was the southern part of the border, adjacent to the Dayuezhi and Parthia.

Rather than facing the covetous Dayuezhi, Anxi, which could not defeat Cao Wei, simply gave up this area. By separating Dayuezhi and Anxi, it also bought itself time to make other plans.

Even though the Wei Dynasty is also a group of tigers and wolves.

But they gave up some areas to allow Wei, Dayuezhi and Parthia to fight against each other and restrain each other.

For Kangju, the situation will never get worse.

Kangju's attitude of voluntarily ceding land gave Boss Cao the opportunity to take control of the country without fighting, just like Buyeo.

As Cao Wei becomes increasingly powerful in this area, its influence on Kangju will grow, and it will gradually devour it.

This is called cutting flesh with a soft knife, and sometimes it is more effective than war.

December.

Cao Cao left the Xiahou brothers to guard Wusun, and would later send troops westward to take over the land ceded by Kangju.

Cao Cao also ordered the migration of a large number of Wusun people, bringing them to the Western Regions and dispersing them.

The Great Wei also issued an announcement at the same time that countries in the Western Regions who were willing to move to Wusun could get land for free and pay less taxes.

This was done to exchange populations between Wusun and the countries in the Western Regions, so as to share the population concentration and reduce the hatred caused by the war.

At the same time, Cao Cao sent reinforcements from the Hexi region to the Western Regions and adjusted the military deployment of the Wei Dynasty.

By the end of December, the Kushans actually sent a letter requesting peace.

They said that they had been instigated by the Xianbei and did not understand the situation. Now that the trade routes have been reopened, they will never set up checkpoints again and are willing to maintain friendly relations with the Wei Dynasty.

Compared with Kangju, the Kushans were completely forced to adopt a delaying tactic under the circumstances.

Cao Wei's spies had discovered that after the Parthian Empire learned that the Wei army was raising troops from the east, it also intended to take the opportunity to go to war with the Kushans.

The situation between Parthia and Kushan suddenly became tense.

The Kushans became fearful after the Wei army demonstrated its military might.

They did not want to make enemies with Wei while fighting their old enemy Parthia, and be attacked from all sides, so they also sent a letter of peace negotiation.

Cao Cao threw the Kushan letter aside and sneered.

From December to mid-January, Xiahou Dun and Guan Yu led their troops to attack the northern border troops of Wusun.

Now that the main forces around Chigu City have been defeated, there will be little resistance in the subsequent cleanup.

You should know that some of the Kushans and Wusuns were Jie people among the Five Barbarians.

When Cao Cao first established the country, he made a great wish to wipe out the Five Barbarians and eliminate future troubles.

Months of fighting left the land of Wusun stained with blood, and the casualties may have exceeded 180,000.

If one observes carefully, one will find that the order received by Cao's army was to select and behead all those who had Jie, Qiang, and Di ancestry and had merged into the Wusun.

This was a purposeful way to clean up the Five Barbarians.

In the Wusun country, those who had the power to raise an army were mostly subjected to hard labor or executed.

After Cao Cao arranged everything, he returned to the Western Regions and met Yao Jing and Bian Mei who were waiting there.

They were not idle in the Western Regions either. The women from the families of leaders of some of the existing forces in the Western Regions often came to visit and build relationships with them.

When Cao Cao came back, he found that Bian Mei and Yao Jing had several new "close friends", which was somewhat similar to the diplomacy of ladies in later generations.

By late January, the situation in Wusun had further stabilized.

Cao Cao set out to return to China.

At this time, Dao Zun also rushed over and walked with Cao Cao.

“I chased the head of the Buddhist sect to his lair.

I hit him hard several times, but he survived thanks to the Buddha's relics. I chased him and killed quite a few Buddhists."

Dao Zun and Cao Cao each rode a horse.

Cao Cao said: "You went to hunt down the Buddha's head, did you want to take his holy relics, or for some other reason, or was it simply because you were keen on killing?
Taoism advocates inaction and non-contention. Your style of doing things is different from that of ordinary Taoists."

"My Taoist philosophy can be summed up in eight words: follow the laws of nature and conform to the nature of things."

Dao Zun: “But this does not mean we should accept everything as it comes and not fight.

If someone becomes our enemy, I will let him know the consequences.”

"What I look like depends on the person I am facing. To do more evil when seeing evil and to do good when seeing good is the true compliance.

What you do is just an appearance and a means. Only by following your heart can you truly be inaction and fearless. "

The two walked and talked, and soon changed the topic:

"Regarding the Qinling Tomb and Kunlun Ruins, what are your subsequent plans?"

...When Cao Cao returned to the east, Afu Yu also returned to the central royal tribe of the Xianbei and immediately summoned the leaders of various tribes.

Inside the tent, Afu Yu sat in the center, wearing a thick fur robe.

Next to him stood a sturdy man, about forty years old, with a bitter and resentful look on his face, and he seemed to be in a sad mood all the time.

This man is Afu Yu's first disciple.

When the tribal leaders entered the tent and saw Afu Yu, they were all shocked.

In the past, Afu Yu always wore thin clothes regardless of the season, and had a strong physique, as if he would never be knocked down.

His practice had long reached the point where he could ignore the cold and heat.

But he still had to wear a thick fur robe while sitting in the tent.

This shows that Afu Yu is in an unprecedented state of weakness.

“I went to ambush the Lord of Wei, but was ambushed instead.

He has so many brave soldiers and generals under his command that even if we three joined forces, we were still defeated and fled."

"I need to retreat for a while. I'm not sure when I can come out."

"At present, the Han territory is stable internally and focused on external affairs. Its ruler is determined to expand the territory. This is a disaster for the tribes around us.

The soldiers of Cao Wei joined the army in times of chaos and were all good at fighting.

In two years at most, Wei will attack us, and that will be a matter of life and death for our race."

Tuoba Jiefen, who was in the first place, felt his heart tighten when he heard this.

Not only him, but the high shaman on the other side also looked nervous.

They had never seen Afu Yu be so formal and describe the war situation between the Xianbei and the Wei Dynasty in terms of life and death.

"We have already retreated to the north, but the Wei people still refuse to give up?"

A tribal leader said angrily:

"If there is no way to retreat, Cao Wei will come and we will have no choice but to fight. We Xianbei have not yet declined to the point where we have no strength to fight.

The grassland is our place. In a cavalry battle on an open field, we Xianbei will never be afraid of him."

Afuyu shook his head: "What we lost was not our combat capability, but our equipment and our people's courage to die.

The tribes on this grassland are not all our main troops. If we really want to fight to the death, we can only rely on ourselves. Other tribes may turn against us at any time and deal with us.

Just like when we dealt with the Huns back then."

“If the Wei army attacks, we must prepare for the worst and gather some of our men to the northernmost part, or disperse them to the mountains on the western side.

We Xianbei were originally a small tribe. If the situation becomes dire, we must have the courage to start over and maintain the heritage of our tribe."

Before Afu Yu finished speaking, he started coughing lightly.

He returned injured and traveled thousands of miles, but his injuries never recovered. It was time for him to rest and receive treatment.

That evening, Afu Yu disappeared from the tribe and his whereabouts are unknown.

……

The great Buddha, Maha, sat in the city of Patraya, facing the small Buddha.

His injuries were more shocking than Afu Yu's.

There was even a palm print on his forehead, and half of his forehead was collapsed.

To be able to survive this kind of injury is nothing short of a miracle.

There was also a tear in his chest that was difficult to heal, the muscles were bright red, and some of his internal organs could be seen.

"I am still alive thanks to the holy relics, which have sustained me through countless kalpas of practice and blessings."

The Great Buddha said: "I was chased and my realm was almost knocked down.

The ruler of Cao Wei could control a real dragon and nourish the dragon soul with the fortune of the country. His personal practice also reached the realm comparable to that of a worldly Buddha.

As for the Taoist who pursued me...Back then we decided to go to the Middle-earth to preach and acted as Taoists. It was the cause, and now the result has come."

As the Great Buddha spoke, the golden light flowing around his body shook unsteadily, as if the remaining power of the Daoist Master was still destroying his vitality.

"I came back all the way, using the holy relics to drive the Three Worlds Pure Fire and purify all signs of 'life', but I was still found by that Taoist several times."

"Fortunately, some of the things left by the Buddha were still there, and the relics pushed him back."

There was a hint of fear flashing across the solemn face of the Buddha.

"Perhaps we should make peace with the Brahmanism," said the little Buddha head.

The Buddha said: "We have been fighting for so many years, how can we make peace?"

"Tell them we want to merge with them."

Little Buddha Head: "And they will introduce their teachings to Kushan."

The Buddha said: "You want to use the Brahmans to deal with the Eastern Dao Sect and the Lord of Cao Wei?"

The little Buddha said, "The three Brahman gods are not weak in cultivation, otherwise they would not have suppressed us so much that we had nowhere to go."

The Great Buddha showed a thoughtful expression, shook his head and sighed:

“Brahmins will never be easily fooled. If we are not careful, we will suffer the consequences and suffer even greater losses.

I'm afraid this won't work. Let me think about it."

Early spring in March.

Cao Cao returned to the heart of China and approached Yecheng.

It was Xun Yu again who led all the officials to welcome him.

And there is a new face in the team.

Cao Cao was in a hurry to return from the Western Regions, which was also why he wanted to meet this person.

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(End of this chapter)