As soon as the news came out, the young lord and the minister of the Huangmen, and the captain of the Hu Qi, made a sensation in the city. Especially the Hu Shang, who was in the foreign residence, were all honored. Wu Lian even went in and out of the foreign residence and had a close conversation with Hu Shang. The news was reported to the traitor, but Geng Yong weighed the pros and consequently reported to Liu Bei.

Liu Bei called Wu Lian to ask. Wu Lian replied: Recruit soldiers and horses.

Liu Bei immediately asked: What is the intention?

Wulian is righteous and upright: go north with you.

Liu Bei couldn't help but stagnate: I went outside the gates, and there were many crises. You should be at home.

Wu Lian shook her head: With me here, you and Brother Wang will be less suspicious.

From Liu Bei also commanded the Hu Qi Captain, Wu Lian knew that when he went outside the pass, he would have to go with Wu Yan, the king of Wuhuan of Youbeiping. With her here, the relationship between Liu Bei and Wu Yan would not be too stiff.

Sure enough, he knew the general idea. What else could Liu Bei say? Then he asked: Who are you recruiting?

Wu Lian replied: Most of them were Wuhuan, Dingling, Xiongnu, and Western Qiang warriors. They were hired by Hu merchants in the Western Regions along the way, crossing the Gobi desert and reaching the Central Plains. All the signs were death contracts, and after arriving at Lousang, they were used as guards. Seeing the peace in the city, Han and Hu were harmonious. Assassinated traitors arrested and enforcing the law impartially. The guards were useless, but instead became a burden. I spent money to buy them, and Hu merchants were willing.

Liu Bei nodded: How many are there?

Wu Lian replied: I plan to gather 900 people.

Liu Bei was stunned: How can the mansion hold nine hundred guards?

Wu Lian smiled and said: Hu merchants are in border counties and there are merchants everywhere. Do you think they are only in Lousang? I heard that they have independent camps outside the pass. Even if the Silk Road merchants are Xianbei, they will not harm them.

Liu Bei understood.

By the way, among these Hu merchants, there are no one who makes profits by selling samurai.

Liu Bei did not believe how loyal these mercenary-like armed forces could be. Wu Lian said it was okay. Once the money and goods were completed, the contract was handed over. The Hu warriors would serve loyally until they died.

True or fake?

The Hu people actually had such a spirit of contract? Liu Bei was skeptical.

Seeing that Liu Bei's face was quite suspicious, Wu Lian said again: You are recruiting 4,000 soldiers in Jiujiang. Are you also a mercenary? Why don't you suspect him?

Liu Bei felt relieved when he thought about it. As Wu Lian said, in Jiujiang, Liu Bei raised a flag at the entrance of the city and piled up money boxes and took it by his own strength. Isn’t it the same as Wu Lian’s recruitment of Hu warriors? The main reason for his deep belief is that the soldiers he recruited were all my great men.

Hu is narrow-minded and suspicious, but he has never heard of it but has no faith. He just needs to negotiate the price and make a contract. He will be loyal and loyal.

There are more and more Hu warriors in Xilinyi, and their equipment is even more diverse.

The most famous ones in the Pamir Mountains are: Shanshan, Cheshi, Kucha, Yutian, Wuyi, Shule, Gumo, Dayuan, Pule, Guhu, Wusun, Dayuezhi, etc. They are all along the Silk Road and live by nomadic life.

The reason why Wu Lian trusts them is because they are all Xihu. They are not the same as the Xianbei who belongs to the Donghu.

"If you are not a person of my race, your heart will be different."

Liu Bei did not dare to take it lightly. He ordered his subordinates to assassinate the traitor and investigate it carefully.

These Western Hu warriors traveled to and from the Silk Road and were familiar with languages ​​from various countries. Even Youzhou Mandarin is similar in size. It is not difficult to communicate.

In "Book of Han", there is a record of Kucha, the capital of Yancheng. The country connects to Yanqi (Wuyi) in the east, Gumo in the west, and Wusun in the north. The population is more than 80,000 and the mercenaries are more than 20,000. At that time, it was the most powerful among the countries in the Western Regions. "Book of Jin: Xirong": "The Kucha country goes west to Luoyang with 8,280 miles, and there are city walls, with three levels of the city, and there are thousands of pagodas and temples in it. People take the property of farming and animal husbandry, and both men and women cut their hair and lower their heads. The palace is magnificent and glorious as a god."

A Kucha with a population of more than 80,000 has 20,000 mercenaries!

This is probably true for all countries in the Western Regions.

This means that the mercenaries in the Western Regions were a huge organization, or group. They were employed by the king and the city lords to protect the people under their rule. The countries in the Western Regions were more like city-states than tribal alliances similar to the Donghu.

This is the most significantly different from Donghu.

In other words, the level of civilization of the Western Regions must be above the Donghu.

Since all the countries in the Western Regions recruited mercenaries to protect the country, this proves that the loyalty of the mercenaries is still credible.

Liu Bei asked the assassin to investigate carefully, the main purpose was to prevent the Donghu Xianbei from mixing in.

Kucha is famous both at home and abroad. Mercenaries from Western Regions have excellent military armor. They have Dayuan horses under their crotch, wearing lock mail, and holding Kucha scimitar.

The typical style of Kucha knife is that the upper tip of the knife is curved in a curved shape, and the handle is made of copper, silver, jade, bone, gems, cow horns and other parquet rivets. The knife handle is like a bird's head, the upper tip of the knife is leaning backward, and the lower end of the knife handle is crescent-shaped scimitar. The knife is forged by black steel (tungsten steel). The blade is inlaid with "copper bard wood" patterns, which are sharp and exquisite. The copper bard wood pattern requires the pattern to be chiseled on the blade first, and the high-temperature copper water is poured into it. Then polished and polished. These links require superb skills and cannot be completed by a good craftsman.

The most famous Kucha "Peacock Knife". The knife handle is made of selected brass, yak horns and gems. The blade is extremely sharp, with blood grooves on both sides, and the blade body is water-grained and engraved. The scabbard is made of cow and sheepskin, which is stored in the knife.

I want to hire a Kucha mercenary with a Dayuan horse under my crotch, wearing a lock mail, and holding a peacock knife. It's expensive.

Wu Lian came to find Liu Bei and said that there were more than 300 Kucha Rangers who were just right. However, the offer was very high and he was unwilling to break up and could not pay.

Liu Bei sighed and said, "Let's meet again."

Wu Lian left with great joy.

Soon, a mercenary leader wearing a beard robe was led into the study by Wu Lian.

Seeing that he was quite etiquette and proficient in Chinese, Liu Bei felt very surprised. He asked: Who are you?

The mercenary leader replied: "I am the king of Kucha, with the surname Bai and Zhuo. When he was in a disaster, he led his trusted guards to the court and wanted to ask for reinforcements to restore the country. It happened that the Western Qiang was in chaos and the Silk Road was blocked from Chang'an. This was the name of a mercenary. He followed the caravan and marched eastward along the outside of the pass, and arrived in the Central Plains a few months ago. He also heard that Shaojun Hou built a mansion and traded with the Hu Shang he was protecting. He came to Lousang with him.

It turned out to be Bai Zhuo, the king of Kucha.

The Kucha Bai surname found in the recorded records starts with Bai Ba.

Bai Ba, King of Kucha during the Eastern Han Dynasty, was originally the attendant of the Han Dynasty. In the third year of Yongyuan, Ban Chao, the guardian of the Western Regions of Hedi Na, suggested that Bai Ba be appointed King of Kucha and sent Sima Yao Guang to escort back to the country. Ban Chao and Yao Guang coerced Kucha together to abolish the former king Yulido and establish Bai Ba.

For nearly a hundred years, the descendants of the Bai family still practiced Chinese and performed Han rituals. When they encountered great trouble, they traveled thousands of miles to ask for troops to restore the country. It can be seen that the power of the Han Dynasty is still there.

No wonder Wu Lian said that the offer is very expensive. How could it be cheap to restore the country?

Liu Bei asked: Do you want to go to Luoyang?

Bai Zhuo shook his head: I don’t want to do it now.

Liu Bei asked again: Why?

Bai Zhuo said: The Western Qiang, Xianbei, Southern Barbarians, Shanyue. The Han Dynasty was too busy to take care of themselves. How could they care about the country thousands of miles away?

Liu Bei sighed: This is indeed the case.

Bai Zhuo also said: If you become a great Han and become a young lord, can you treat everyone equally like the Hu Shang, a mansion, and reward and punishment are the same as the Han.

Liu Bei understood: Save the country in a curve. Could it be that you have fallen in love with the position of Hu Qi Captain?
Chapter completed!