"I'm back to the Western Regions again!" Li You stood on the somewhat broken city wall, looking at the familiar vast and vast mountains in the distance, and the snow on the top of the mountain, Li You began to study his current situation. This time he possessed Cao Yanlu, the Grand Tutor of the Song Dynasty Special Procuratorate and the Secretary-General of the Central Secretariat. At that time, the titles above were all empty, and those were just things used by the Song Dynasty court to fool people. The name "Guiyi Army Jiedu" was really useful.

From the second year of Dazhong, Datang, Zhang Yichao, a native of Shensha Township, Dunhuang County, Shazhou, led a group of people to reign and expel the Tubo people from occupying Shazhou, and established the Guiyi Army, the Guiyi Army has been passed down for more than 150 years. When the Central Plains was in a melee of the Five Dynasties, they still guarded the last Han people's territory in the Western Regions.

After the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Suzong of Tang succeeded to the throne in Lingwu and ordered the army of the Western Regions to quickly serve the king. Overnight, the 150,000 main elite troops of the Tang Empire in the Western Regions were ordered to advance eastward, and the Western Regions were immediately in a military vacuum. So the Tubo people who were beaten up by famous generals such as Gao Xianzhi, Feng Changqing, and Geshuhan found an opportunity to embezzle many territories of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions.

The Tang Dynasty defeated Tubo in the isolated and helpless situation, and in the end, only a city of Shazhou (Dunhuang) was left. Yan Chao, the commander of Anxi, killed Zhou Ding, the Hexi Observer who decided to abandon the city and led the people to flee east. He led the soldiers and civilians in the city to defend Shazhou. After eleven years of persistence, the ammunition and food were exhausted, Yan Chao had to solemnly agree with the Tubo general Qi Xiner, that the people of Shazhou in Xiancheng would not be moved out and surrendered to the Tubo people.

Although Shazhou fell, thanks to the resolute resistance of Yan Chao and others, the Han clans such as Zhang, Li, and Suo in the city were not displaced, which preserved a glimmer of hope to regain Shazhou.

Tubo people strictly ordered Han people not to wear Han costumes in Shazhou, and they must be like Tubo people, with braided hair and left lapels. However, these Han people did not dare to forget their origins at all. They wore Han clothes at home to worship their ancestors during the Spring Festival, and they burst into tears for them.

These Han people endured humiliation and waited for the opportunity. They waited for 67 years and finally saw a glimmer of hope. At that time, due to years of disasters in Tubo, they were starving everywhere, and civil strife occurred. In the internal friction, their strength was greatly weakened. The Tang Dynasty saw the opportunity to launch a western expedition when its strength was already extremely weak. The Hedong Jiedushi Wang Zai led the army of Daibei and defeated Shang Horesou in Yanzhou. In December of the following year, the Fengxiang Jiedushi Cui Gong reported to "destroy Tubo and overcome Qingshui" and recovered Yuanzhou, Shimen and other six passes, Weizhou and Fuzhou in one fell swoop.

At the same time, the Tubo people burned, killed and looted in Hexi. The cruelty of the Tubo people and the victory of the Tang army made Zhang Yichao, who had been preparing for many years, raise the banner of resistance and launched an uprising when the Tubo people left Shazhou. For a while, countless Han people helped each other. The unexpected Tubo people were driven out of Shazhou. After the Shazhou Uprising, the Han people in Hexi rose up to resist and surrendered to Zhang Yichao one after another. Zhang Yichao became the supreme ruler of the Shazhou area.

After that, Zhang Yichao sent ten teams of envoys to the Tang Dynasty, but only the monk Wuzhen arrived in Chang'an alone, and the entire Chang'an was sensational. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang did not expect that the Han people in Hexi could recover the lost territory with their own strength, and were overjoyed by it. Unfortunately, the Tang Dynasty could no longer provide them with substantial help, so they could only give nominal commendations and rewards, the governor of Guiyi Army, the observer of the eleven states, the observation and disposal within the jurisdiction, the Secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and the General of Jinwu.

These inspirations greatly boosted the morale of the people of Hexi. Zhang Yichao led the rebel army to launch a comprehensive offensive against Tubo. In less than a year, all Hexi lands except Liangzhou were recovered. After more than ten years of hard fighting, Zhang Yichao led his army to finally recover Liangzhou. "Helong was trapped for more than a hundred years, and all his old places were restored." People at that time wrote poems to praise him, "Hexi fell for more than a hundred years, and the road blocked Xiaoguanyan was rare. I found that the general opened the old road and became famous all over the world."

Later, in order to avoid suspicion from the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yichao went to Chang'an as a hostage and handed over his power to his nephew Zhang Huaishen. Unfortunately, although Zhang Huaishen was not inferior to Zhang Yichao in military affairs, he was far inferior to Zhang Yichao in politics, which led to the Uighurs who had previously stood on the united front with the Han people and separated from the Guiyi Army and established the Gaochang Uighurs and Ganzhou Uighurs.

After decades, the Guiyi Army's regime was passed down among the Zhang family's children. Until Zhu Wen usurped power, Zhang Chengfeng finally broke away from the Tang Dynasty and established the "Jinshan Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty" and called himself the "Son of White". However, he was a person with great ambition and talent, and was completely unworthy of this title. Moreover, because his rebellion against Tang Dynasty, he caused many dissatisfaction among the military and civilians of Shazhou, resulting in the dissolution of the people. Shazhou was conquered by the Ganzhou Uighurs, and the descendants of the Zhang family also lost the power to take over the Guiyi Army.

After Zhang Chengfeng was defeated, Cao Yijin rebuilt the Guiyi Army, and endured for many years and finally found a suitable opportunity to defeat the Ganzhou Uighurs and regain the position of Hexi overlord.

From then on, the Guiyi Army's regime belonged to the descendants of the Cao family, and it has been passed down for 80 years. After Cao Yijin's son Cao Yuanzhong's death, the position of Guiyi Army's Jiedushi should have fallen into the hands of his son Cao Yanlu. However, because Cao Yanlu was still young at that time, his nephew and Cao Yuande's son Cao Yangong succeeded to the throne, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Cao Yuanzhong and his group of people until Cao Yangong died fifteen years later. Cao Yuanzhong and his group supported Cao Yanlu ascended the throne, but this also caused dissatisfaction among Cao Yangong's children, and an indelible crack had appeared in the Guiyi Army.

This is the situation I am facing. After reading Cao Yanlu's memory and figuring out his situation, Li You not only had a headache, but now there are Uighurs in the West, and although the Tubo people in the south are no longer the same, they should not be underestimated. In the east, the Song Dynasty did not provide any help to the Guiyi army except for nominal commendation. Instead, Li Jiqian, a Dangxiang man, besieged Lingwu and defeated the five reinforcements sent by Emperor Taizong of Song, and had already set his sights on the land occupied by the Guiyi army; in the north, it was the Shangjing Road of the Liao Kingdom, which was enemies on all sides.

Internal chaos, unstable people's hearts, and surrounded by wolves, it was really not easy to make a difference. Li You, who was a little confused for a while, admired Zhang Yichao who was circulating in Hexi. Such methods were really not something that ordinary people could do. It required great courage and unparalleled wisdom.
Chapter completed!