Chapter 6659: Kingdom Collapse

Chapter 6659: Kingdom Collapse
Because they were planning to attack and destroy part of the Kushan main force, Zhang Ji would pay special attention to Lin Dai and others before they set off. However, with just this one attention, Zhang Ji discovered that something was not right.

"Why are there so many people? Are they all going to attack?" Zhang Ji looked at Lin Dai with some surprise and asked. Although ten thousand people are endless, when the scale reaches a certain level, even endless will have a difference. Moreover, Zhang Ji has seen armies of tens of thousands of people. How can we describe the scale of this time? It is even larger than the last time they encircled and suppressed Fu Ward.

"This is only a part of the young and strong. Each of the three tribes in our Tibetan area has put out a main force of this scale. I don't believe that Fu Ward is invincible." Lin Dai said with a grim face. The injury he got in the last battle still hurt a little when he recalled Fu Ward at this moment, but this could not stop Lin Dai's determination to send troops to wipe out Fu Ward.

Sweat broke out on Zhang Ji's forehead. Fuck! Say it again! That's not right. What are you talking about? What are the three tribes in the Tibetan area? Each of them has put out a main force of such scale. You, the Qing Qiang, Fa Qiang and Di people, have put out a total of 50,000 to 60,000 people. It's outrageous. Now your one tribe has put out so many, and the other two tribes have also put out so many. Are you crazy?

Zhang Ji quickly asked the people who were guarding him to go and take inventory. Although he had never learned the art of counting soldiers, as the governor of Liang Province, he had some impression of large-scale battles. He just never thought that Lin Dai would be so outrageous. After such an outrageous inventory, Zhang Ji was numb. Seventy thousand people?

Oh my god, do you Qing Qiang have so many young and strong men?
"Most of you don't even have armor!" Zhang Ji was numb and hurried to stop them. Damn it, even half-grown young men are mobilized, are you crazy? If we lose the battle, no, let alone lose, even if we win, tens of thousands of people will die, and whether you fall or not, I will definitely fall.

"No need. When we Qiang people went on the expedition before, most of us only needed two sheepskins and a bow and arrow. Now at least we not only have bows and arrows, but also spears. Moreover, the young men can at least wrap themselves in five sheepskins. Together with the 30,000 armored main forces in the lead, we can definitely deal a heavy blow to Fuward this time!" Lin Dai said with great confidence.

To be honest, this is not an empty statement. Fu Ward now has only 30,000 main forces left. As for the rest of Gao Yuan's vassal army, that is, the Xiangxiong soldiers, except for a very small number who surrendered to Fu Ward, the rest are just trying to get by. Very few of them are really willing to fight for their lives. As for the Qiang people, most of the Qiang people present were spontaneous.

Although this spontaneity was the result of Lin Dai asking the chief to distribute a bag of rice, a pot of oil, a large piece of tea cake, and half a pound of sugar to the Qiang people, you can tell whether it was spontaneous or not. At least Lin Dai did not force the Qiang people this time. He just scolded the chief and asked the chiefs of each tribe to mobilize as many young and strong people as possible and let as many young and strong people as possible sign up to participate in this event.

Originally, Lin Dai and Yang Pu estimated that they should be able to mobilize 40,000 to 50,000 people in each tribe, which would total 120,000 to 150,000. However, the supplies from the Han Dynasty were really delivered, and the three Qiang tribes had suffered from snow disasters and epidemics in Tibet in recent years, and they had to rely on the food, clothing, and medicine provided by the Han Dynasty to get through it.

Although Chen Xi had given the same treatment to other places during the previous snow disasters and epidemics, it can be said that the three tribes in the Tibetan area enjoyed the same treatment as the Han people for the first time. The situation in which seven out of ten people would die did not occur at all. Therefore, when the leaders of each tribe brought supplies to inform their Qiang people that it was time to work for the Han Dynasty, basically every household had evacuated all the adult men.

As a result, the original estimated scale of 120,000 to 150,000 directly reached the peak of over 200,000 with a three-to-one draw.

You have to know that there are only 600,000 Qiang people in the Tibetan area, but so many young and strong men were mobilized. It was obvious that Lin Dai was going to fight in such a way that every family would be in mourning. He didn't believe that no matter how powerful Fu Ward was, he could withstand his army of more than 200,000.

Even though the army of more than 200,000 consists of old and young soldiers, but given the situation of the Qiang people, if they had not gone to Tibet and clung to the Han Dynasty, where would they have found fifty-year-old soldiers? Not to mention ordinary Qiang people, even most of the Qiang leaders did not live to be fifty years old. In this case, the army of 200,000 looked quite neat except for some half-grown young men.

After all, the oldest one is probably in his early forties like Lin Dai. He has improved his nutrition and maintained himself well in the past two years. At least he still has the ability to stab people with a gun.

"Drive back all the young men under the age of eighteen." Zhang Ji said with a dark face. He knew that Lin Dai was crazy, but he never thought he would be so crazy. Without enough weapons and equipment, many Qiang people simply covered themselves with a few sheepskins and came with a spear. This was courting death, do you know?
"Ah? These guys are the main force!" Lin Dai said in confusion.

"Once you defeat these people, your tribe will be gone!" Zhang Ji said angrily.

"It's okay. We can't finish the fight. No matter how powerful Fu Ward is, he can't kill all of our 200,000-strong army. We will attack him all at once and launch a full-scale encirclement and suppression from the northwest, central, Qiangtang, and south at the same time. Maybe some of our units will suffer heavy losses, but it doesn't matter. We are ready to die together with Fu Ward." Lin Dai said indifferently.

The tribe is gone? Le, in the past, the big blizzard the year before last, the blizzard the year before last, and the big blizzard last year were enough to kill most of the tribes. Now I still have the opportunity to speak here, so what else can I say? I will be loyal to the Han Dynasty!

Lindai's idea was very clear, which was to carry out a large-scale blockade and encirclement, to erode the points where the main Kushan forces were stationed from the periphery, and to force Fuward to lead his troops into battle. However, with more than 200,000 young and strong men, it would be impossible for Fuward to gather all the main forces in a short period of time due to the distribution of troops, so the battle line would be fully deployed, and this was what Lindai wanted - a large number of auxiliary troops to fill the line, and then use the well-armed super shield guards to strike the decisive blow.

After all, there are 200,000 troops here, and it is impossible for Lin Dai to dispatch them. In fact, even if there are strong leaders among the Qiang people, they can only lead 10,000 to 20,000 people at most, and they cannot command them well. Even if more than 200,000 young and strong people are united, it is difficult for the Qiang people to control them effectively.

In this case, it would be better to use these young and strong men to fill the line and force Fu Ward to send out his main force. Then the Qiang leader would lead the super heavy cavalry with three horses each to launch a sudden attack when Fu Ward's main force enters the front line. Maybe he could rely on the young and strong men who fill the line and the super heavy cavalry to perform a miraculous battle and kill Fu Ward directly.

That's right, the Qiang chieftain placed his hopes directly on the 500 super shield guards with defensive etched armor that the Han Dynasty prepared for them. The core of the entire strategy and tactics rested on them.

After all, these 500 men were the elites of the three tribes of the Qiang people, and they spent almost all of their capital to train these warriors. Even the Archers, who were already rare in themselves, were thrown in. In the end, they successfully raised a group of strong men by relying on muscle-building injections, bone-strengthening injections, and highly nutritious meals.

Then the Qiang people handed all their war horses to this group of people. There was no other way. Although Tibet could raise horses, on the one hand the quality was poor, and on the other hand the grassland was not suitable. Therefore, neither side in Tibet had many war horses. However, in order to create super heavy cavalry and make full use of the magic weapons given by the Han Dynasty, the Qiang people concentrated all their war horses, and thus the first cavalry corps in Tibet was formed.

That’s right, all the wars in Tibet before were infantry wars. Even Fu Ward gave up the core force of his own camel cavalry in order to go to Tibet and went to Tibet as an infantry.

There was no other way. People eat what horses chew. If there was a mount, the loss of food and supplies would increase significantly, so there was no cavalry in the early wars between the two sides.

In the eyes of Qiang leaders such as Lin Dai, the super heavy cavalry currently produced by the Qiang people is the most important decisive force in this war. As for the more than 200,000 young and strong men, they are used to fill in the line and entangle Fu Ward.

"Those under the age of eighteen should go back. They are not yet adults and have not even experienced military service training. What are you doing?" Zhang Ji said to Lin Dai with a dark face. He did not want to explain to Lin Dai all those nonsense. At this time, he had to show the majesty of the governor of the Han Dynasty and order Lin Dai to quickly disband the young people, otherwise what would he do if his hometown was raided?
Lin Dai was helpless. He had finally gathered over 200,000 troops and was confident that he could kill Fu Ward. However, before he even set out, he was stopped by his own governor. He was truly impressed.

But in the end he was persuaded by Zhang Ji, not because of anything else, but because Zhang Ji said that the Han Dynasty now does not recruit people under the age of 18 for military service. This is an official requirement. In this regard, the country must treat everyone equally. The Qiang people are their brothers, and they cannot cheat their own family members.

Therefore, all those under the age of eighteen were driven back. Although they were not completely disbanded, they were organized to patrol their own villages after the army set out to prevent Kushan soldiers from crossing the front line and committing foul acts in the rear.

"It feels like after those under the age of eighteen left, you're missing half of your people?" Zhang Ji looked at the young and strong men under Lin Dai's command and said with some surprise.

Lin Dai glanced at Zhang Ji and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? After those under the age of eighteen left, how much less will be less than half?"

"This population structure is a bit strange." Zhang Ji looked at Lin Dai with a strange expression and said, it seems that there are far more young people than old people.

"What's so strange about that?" Lin Dai glanced at Zhang Ji. "In the past, half of the children would die before the age of five. Between the ages of five and eighteen, another half would die of hunger due to the grassland's climate, epidemics, civil unrest, and so on. Not many could live to the age of eighteen."

Why were they willing to fight to the death? Why did Lindai scold Mangzhong so harshly some time ago, and Mangzhong did not refute him, and other chiefs did not try to persuade Lindai to do so? Because they really needed to fight to the death. After they were truly accepted by the Han Dynasty, their lives changed dramatically.

The simplest one is that Lin Dai believes that he can live to be 60 years old, and that at least 15 of his children and grandchildren will grow up, which was something he never dared to think about before.

Similarly, Mangzhong was scolded like that in front of all the chiefs. If it were in the past on the grassland, Mangzhong should have prepared a large army to fight Lindai to the death. After all, in an era when no one could live to be fifty, for both sides who were already forty years old, face was more important than life.

But now it’s different. Mangzhong has accepted the fact that he did a bad job, because just looking at his seven or eight sons growing up healthily, Mangzhong feels that he should accept the fact.

Living for face, living for dignity, many times it is just because there is nothing else worth living for, only these two things are left.

But now Mangzhong has more things, so he can accept being scolded by others for his mistakes and is no longer as extreme as before.

"Those young and strong people you saw just now, at least 60% of them were born before. Well, it's not because of any special reason. They were just not healthy and lucky enough, and then they died in the process of development." Yang Pu said calmly.

Zhang Ji was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and remained silent for a while. Although he was not a wealthy man, Zhang Ji, who lived in the Han Dynasty, had never experienced such an exaggerated situation. After all, typhoid fever, which should have swept across the Han Dynasty and caused a horrific record of seven or eight out of ten deaths, was suppressed early by Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo, so that Zhang Ji, Chen Zhen and others had never thought that there would be such a brutal death rate.

"Is that so?" Zhang Ji spoke after a long while. Even if he did speak, he didn't know what to say. He could only grunt.

"It's nothing. We are used to it. You see, Yang Pu and I have a very good relationship now. To be honest, before, my main focus would be on how to kill him." Lin Dai said calmly, then pointed at Yang Pu and explained to Zhang Ji.

This time Zhang Ji was really shocked. In his opinion, Yang Pu, who was brought by Lin Dai, was basically the next generation leader of the Qiang people in the Tibetan area. But what was happening now?

"It's true. The living conditions were too cruel in the past. A chief would start to decline in all aspects after he turned 40." Yang Pu didn't think there was anything wrong with what Lin Dai said. He got along well with him now because resources were no longer tight. Even if Lin Dai didn't pass the throne to him, he wouldn't kill him. If he didn't become the chief of Qing Qiang, he could still find a way to make a living elsewhere. The two sides were no longer in a life-and-death situation, so they could naturally get along well.

"So, Governor, let's fight hard this time. We were ready to die when we came here. If you don't believe me, you can ask the soldiers under my command. They were well prepared when they came. Maybe we are not as strong as Fu Ward, but it is wishful thinking for Fu Ward to destroy us." Yang Pu pointed at the soldiers behind him and said sincerely.

Zhang Ji had a complicated expression, but he still went to the team to ask. He saw an old soldier who looked a little old, but he straightened his back when he saw him coming over.

"Father, how old are you? It will be very dangerous to go and fight Ward this time." Zhang Ji asked the old man.

"I'm over forty years old. The chief told us that we are going to fight Fuward. He gave us millet, meat, oil and sugar before we came. I'm already forty years old. It's worth dying for just to fight Fuward!" The old soldier answered loudly, trying to stand as straight as possible.

"Um, do you know who Fu Ward is?" Zhang Ji took back the titles of "father-in-law" and "you". The other party was actually not ten years older than him, so he better not call him father-in-law.

"Yes, they are the bastards who sneaked in to our border while we were not paying attention. I heard they are from Kushan and are very good at fighting." The old soldier answered loudly. He could feel that they were indeed his own people.

"See, we really didn't force them to go to the war. They all came voluntarily. We also told them it was very dangerous, but they were all willing to come." Lin Dai also came over after Zhang Ji questioned a group of people. In this respect, they really did not deceive anyone.

"The military's morale is good." Zhang Ji said after a moment of silence.

Although they were not in good order, and their weapons and equipment were not very good, and some people even wore sheepskin because of insufficient chain mail, all of them were very determined to go out to fight against Fu Ward, and the reasons they gave were very simple. Most of them were because the Han Dynasty needed to deal with Fu Ward, so they followed to deal with Fu Ward. Otherwise, their lives were saved by the Han Dynasty, and they helped the Han Dynasty, and they lived longer, so it was not a loss. What's more, they lived so long and had two sons, which was a huge profit!
"If I had known you were going to fight like this, I would have applied for more scale armor from Chang'an." Zhang Ji said after a long while, "You can count all the families who participated in the war later. It's too late now. After the battle, give each family a set of scale armor."

Zhang Ji knew very well that the Han Dynasty had no shortage of scale armor, and there were even still a lot of scale armor thrown away in the treasury. After all, the reuse rate of this thing was very high. Ten pieces of broken scale armor could be pieced together to make eight new ones, and there was also half a set of patches or something. This was really too normal for scale armor.

However, Chen Xi and Zhang Ji had not imagined that the Qiang people had such mobilization capabilities. They only issued 60,000 scale armors for military training. They did not expect that such a day would come. Moreover, Zhang Ji now really believed that these Qiang people had completely surrendered. As long as he found another group of teachers to teach them, in at most one generation, these people would be no different from the Han people.

The Qiang people went out. Even those under the age of eighteen were driven away. The remaining young and strong Qiang people still numbered about 120,000 to 130,000. They launched an all-round attack on the Zhangzhung Dynasty occupied by Fuward from the northwest, central, Qiangtang, and south.

Of course, because the Tibetan area is too vast, the encirclement of 120,000 to 130,000 people could hardly create a real blockade of the Zhangzhung Dynasty occupied by Fu Ward. However, the battle reports from various places allowed Fu Ward to quickly realize that the Han militia in the Tibetan area had been mobilized collectively.

"Fuward, the Han army has launched an all-out attack. They indeed can't find your main force, but with such an all-out attack, your operation of dispersing your main forces to raise troops in various tribes will only cause you to lose many soldiers and generals." Masinde came to see Fuward again. The movements of the Qiang people made Masinde realize once again what kind of monster the Han Dynasty was. Did the Kushans have the amazing mobilization capability of drawing one out of five?

"Isn't this your design?" Fuward asked Masinde.

"I don't have to do this, you know that." Masinde said calmly, "Make up your mind. If you continue like this, it will be a question of how many of the soldiers who followed you to Tibet will survive."

Just as Lin Dai and others estimated, they were indeed unable to defeat the main force of the Kushans, but it was still no problem for tens of thousands of people to defeat the main force of the Kushans of a few hundred people. Even if these elite Kushans desperately drew young and strong people from the Zhangzhung tribe as servants, they would only have the choice of being defeated when facing the more determined Qiang people.

For example, in the large Zhangzhung tribe that Liuzi discovered at that time, after the Qiang people suppressed the five or six hundred elite Kushans, the hidden Zhangzhung nobles jumped out directly and rebelled on the spot, leading the young and strong Zhangzhung people and the Qiang people to attack the Kushan elites, so that only dozens of the five or six hundred Kushan elites escaped.

This is what Masinde meant by an unstable foundation. Zhangzhung and Kushan were not of the same mind to begin with, but he used special means to suppress the internal problems of Zhangzhung. This ingenious method made it impossible for the Zhangzhung Dynasty to rebel when it was attacked conventionally. But facing the Qiang people's outburst, to be honest, how could the Zhangzhung nobles, who already had resentment towards Fuward, fight to the death?

"I'm already retreating, but the speed of the Han Dynasty's Tibetan militia's attack is beyond imagination. The local militia in Xiangxiong seems to be collapsing under the leadership of our main force." Fu Ward stared at Masinde. He felt that Masinde was just playing himself.

"Because it is self-destructive, you don't think that the dozens of elite troops you arranged can suppress a tribe of thousands of people. That is only possible by relying on the original organizational ability of the tribe. Now there is an external force to disintegrate this organizational ability. What can your dozens of elite troops do?" Masinde sighed and said, Fu Ward is really strong, but there are some things he really doesn't understand.

A dozen people drive thousands of people, not because those dozen people are so powerful, but because those thousands of people are bound by various reasons and cannot take action against these dozen people. If there is no restraint, even if they are unarmed, facing a dozen fully armed soldiers, what can they do?

The arrival of the Qiang people gave courage to the Zhangzhung tribe. It gave those nobles who were forced to retreat and lost their power but were not killed in order to maintain the stability of the tribe a chance to rise up. How could a dozen Kushan soldiers suppress a tribe with a leader?

"Fuward, it's time for you to make a choice." Masinde sighed and said, "During this period of time, you have also gathered the necessary personnel. Whether to fight a losing battle, withdraw, or choose to join the Han Dynasty, you should have figured it out by now."

Fuward looked at Masinde and said, "I really want to kill you."

"We've been together for a long time, why do this?" Masinde looked at Fuward who had already stood up and shook his head, "We probably won't have a chance to meet again in the future."

After saying this, Masinde turned and left, while Fuward took a deep breath and began to summon his soldiers, preparing to evacuate Tibet through the Karakoram Corridor and return to Kushan.

I finished writing it before the update, but it seems that something went wrong with Dian Niang, and I can't publish it no matter what. I thought it was a computer problem for the past few days, but now I'm sure it's a problem with the Writer's Assistant. It's really disgusting. The Writer's Assistant I developed can even have problems with publishing. It's really funny.