How Ban Chao Made Eastern Han Power Felt in the West

After Ban Chao entered the Western Regions, the real challenge was not arrival but survival inside a complicated frontier world.

In the last episode, Ban Chao burned the Xiongnu mission at Shanshan and made the western kingdoms feel the weight of a Han envoy again. But Shanshan was only the first stop. The farther west he went, the more complicated the situation became.

The Shaman of Khotan

Ban Chao's next target was Khotan.

Khotan lay along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin and was one of the major states on the southern route of the Western Regions. Its king, Guangde, had recently won victories and was strong. He was also under the supervision of Xiongnu envoys. Ban Chao went there with only thirty-six men, knowingly walking toward danger.

When Ban Chao arrived, the king did not take him seriously. The reception was careless. This was not hard to understand. Khotan had long followed the Xiongnu. Why should its king immediately change sides for a Han envoy with a few dozen followers?

The more difficult problem was the kingdom's reliance on shamans. A shaman on the Xiongnu side told the king that the spirits were angry and asked why Khotan was leaning toward Han. He also said the Han envoy had a yellow horse with a black mouth, and the spirit wanted that horse as sacrifice.

The king sent his chancellor to ask Ban Chao for the horse.

Ban Chao immediately understood. If the Xiongnu envoy and the shaman were not removed, Khotan would not truly turn toward Han. He agreed to give the horse but set one condition: the shaman had to come and take it himself.

The shaman thought this was Khotan's own ground and the Han envoy would not dare act. He came with the chancellor. As soon as he arrived, Ban Chao drew his blade and killed him. He detained and rebuked the chancellor, then sent the shaman's head back to the king.

The king had already heard that Ban Chao had killed the Xiongnu envoys at Shanshan. Now he saw that Ban Chao dared act inside Khotan too. He was shaken. He ordered the Xiongnu envoys killed and submitted to Han.

After Khotan turned, the southern route began to loosen.

Taking Shule First

Eastern Han also had to compete for the northern route.

Kucha was a strong northern-route state. Its king was backed by the Xiongnu and controlled Shule. Earlier, Kucha had broken Shule, killed its king, and placed its own minister Douti on the throne. Douti was not from the Shule ruling house, and the local people disliked him.

Ban Chao judged that to check Kucha, he first had to recover Shule.

In Yongping year seventeen, Ban Chao reached Shule by a side route and camped ninety li from Douti's city. He first sent his subordinate Tian Lu into the city to urge surrender. He told Tian Lu that Douti was not a Shule man and the people might not obey him. If Douti refused submission, Tian Lu should seize him and bring him out.

When Tian Lu entered, Douti saw that he had few men and had no intention of surrendering. Tian Lu seized the moment, grabbed him, put a blade to his neck, and subdued him on the spot.

The palace attendants were shocked that a Han envoy dared act in the royal city and scattered. Tian Lu quickly sent word to Ban Chao. Ban Chao entered the city, gathered Shule officials, listed the crimes of the king of Kucha, and installed a son of the former Shule king's elder brother as the new ruler.

The people of Shule had never accepted Kucha's puppet. Once their own royal line was restored, they turned toward Han. Shule submitted.

That same eleventh month, Dou Gu attacked the Xiongnu and pacified Jushi and other states. The court reestablished the Protectorate of the Western Regions and the Wuji Commandants, placing troops at Jushi in distant support of Ban Chao in Shule.

But this did not mean the Western Regions were secure.

The Court Wanted Withdrawal, but Ban Chao Stayed

Although Han had stationed troops in the Western Regions, it did not truly control the whole situation. Xiongnu-aligned states still attacked Han positions.

Before long, Emperor Ming died. During the great mourning, the Protectorate headquarters in the Western Regions was attacked and broken. The new emperor, Emperor Zhang, weighed the situation and decided to abandon the Western Regions. He ordered Ban Chao to return.

Ban Chao received the edict and had to head east. But just as he was about to leave, Shule fell into fear. The Shule commandant said that if the Han envoy left, Kucha would surely destroy them again. He could not bear to watch Ban Chao go. Then he drew his blade and killed himself.

Ban Chao continued to Khotan. There, the king and the people held the legs of his horse and wept. They said they relied on the Han envoy as on father and mother and could not let him leave.

This road of pleas made Ban Chao unable to continue. He also could not bear to see years of work vanish. He chose to disobey the withdrawal order and return to Shule.

When he returned, two Shule cities had already gone back to Kucha and joined neighboring states in rebellion. Ban Chao immediately captured and killed the rebel leaders, defeated the rebels, killed more than six hundred, and restored order in Shule.

From then on, he could only rely on a few dozen Han core followers and on states such as Shule and Khotan to hold the west alone.

Five Years Holding Alone

At that time, the states on Ban Chao's side were mainly Shule and Khotan. Against Han stood Shache, Kucha, Yanqi, and others.

Ban Chao had no large court army. He had to use Shule and Khotan as his foundation while making ties with powers farther west, such as the Yuezhi and Kangju, to keep hostile states divided.

By Jianchu year five, Ban Chao had been holding the Western Regions alone for five years. He memorialized Emperor Zhang, asking the court to formally support the restoration of the Western Regions.

He suggested making Baiba, a Kucha prince held as hostage in Han, king of Kucha and sending several hundred infantry and cavalry to escort him back. The plan was to join the western states in taking Kucha. He also explained that Shache and Shule had fertile land, cattle, and horses. Campaigns there would not require massive grain shipments from the central plains. The kings of Gumo and Wensu had also been appointed by Kucha and were not of one heart with their own people. If Han appeared, the people might submit.

Emperor Zhang saw the possibility and gathered ministers to discuss sending help.

Xu Gan of Pingling memorialized that he was willing to go. The court appointed him deputy Sima and sent him west with more than one thousand pardoned convicts and volunteers to serve under Ban Chao.

Just as Xu Gan arrived, Shache had already turned toward Kucha, and Fan Chen, a Shule commandant, had rebelled against Han. Ban Chao and Xu Gan joined forces, attacked Fan Chen, defeated him, and killed more than one thousand rebels.

Ban Chao prepared to move further against Kucha. He also proposed drawing in Wusun to use that large state to restrain the west. Emperor Zhang accepted, appointed Ban Chao Senior Clerk in Command of Troops and Xu Gan Military Sima, and sent additional reinforcements.

The Battle with Shache

When Ban Chao prepared to call up Shule and Khotan troops against Shache, the situation changed again.

Shache secretly bribed the king of Shule. This long-time ally suddenly betrayed Ban Chao. Ban Chao immediately installed a new king and attacked the old one.

Kangju sent elite troops to help the old Shule king, and Ban Chao could not take him quickly. Fortunately, the Yuezhi had recently formed a marriage alliance with Kangju. Ban Chao sent gifts to the Yuezhi king and asked him to persuade Kangju to withdraw. Kangju did withdraw and took the old Shule king away.

Three years later, the old king borrowed troops from Kangju again, connected with Kucha, and sent someone to pretend surrender to Ban Chao. Ban Chao saw through the plan but accepted it. When the old king came lightly escorted to meet him, Ban Chao gave a banquet. At the signal, hidden troops emerged, killed him, and then defeated his followers.

The southern route of the Western Regions opened again.

The next year, Ban Chao gathered more than twenty thousand soldiers from Khotan and other states to attack Shache. The king of Kucha sent a general with fifty thousand allied troops to rescue Shache. Ban Chao was outnumbered. He deliberately gathered his officers and the king of Khotan and said they had too few soldiers. Better for each force to scatter and withdraw when the drums sounded at night.

He also loosened the watch on captured Kucha men so that they could escape and report this.

The king of Kucha fell for the deception. He personally led more than ten thousand cavalry west to intercept Ban Chao and sent another king with eight thousand men east to intercept Khotan.

Once the enemy left camp, Ban Chao attacked at cockcrow, striking straight at the Shache camp.

Shache was unprepared. Its soldiers broke, and its supplies were burned. Ban Chao killed more than five thousand allied troops and captured large numbers of horses, livestock, and goods. Shache had to surrender, and the king of Kucha fled.

Ban Chao's prestige now shook the Western Regions.

Marquis of Dingyuan

The Yuezhi had once helped Han attack Jushi and had merit. Later the Yuezhi king sent envoys to Ban Chao with jewels and lions and requested marriage with a Han princess.

Ban Chao could not promise an imperial marriage on the emperor's behalf, so he refused. The Yuezhi king resented this.

In Yongyuan year two, a Yuezhi deputy king led seventy thousand men across the Pamirs to attack Ban Chao. Han forces were few, and many were afraid. Ban Chao judged that the Yuezhi had come from far away across mountains and most feared lack of grain. If he fortified positions, cleared supplies, and refused battle, the enemy would become trapped after several dozen days.

The Yuezhi attacked for a long time and could not win. They also could not seize grain. Ban Chao predicted they would send men to Kucha for supplies, so he set an ambush to the east. The Yuezhi envoys did indeed take gold and silver toward Kucha and were intercepted and killed.

Ban Chao sent their heads to the Yuezhi deputy king. Shocked, the deputy king sent envoys to apologize. Ban Chao let them return, and the Yuezhi restored friendly relations with Han.

In Yongyuan year three, Kucha also surrendered. The court appointed Ban Chao Protector-General of the Western Regions, the highest Eastern Han official there.

In Yongyuan year six, Ban Chao gathered more than seventy thousand allied troops from Kucha, Shanshan, and other states to attack Yanqi and two related kingdoms. He first sent envoys saying that if they repented and submitted, they should send leading men to welcome him, and he would grant colored silks to kings and nobles.

King Guang of Yanqi pretended to welcome him but destroyed bridges in the mountain passes so Ban Chao could not enter. Ban Chao took a side road, suddenly entered Yanqi, and camped twenty li from the royal city.

The king panicked and wanted to flee into the mountains. Ban Chao first steadied the situation, then held a banquet for the kings and ministers of the three states. When the banquet began, he asked why certain men had not come and ordered soldiers to arrest the rulers. They were executed at the old Protectorate city, and their heads were sent to Luoyang. Han troops then advanced, killing five thousand, capturing fifteen thousand, and seizing more than three hundred thousand horses, cattle, and sheep.

Ban Chao installed a pro-Han king in Yanqi and stayed there half a year to stabilize the region. At this point, the Western Regions all submitted.

In Yongyuan year seven, the court rewarded Ban Chao. The edict said he had served in the Western Regions for twenty-two years, traveled ten thousand li, and restored the region through courage and strategy. Ban Chao was made Marquis of Dingyuan.

The copyist who had thrown down his brush had finally become a marquis ten thousand li away.

Later, as Ban Chao aged, he repeatedly asked to return home. When he had left Luoyang, it was still Emperor Ming's age. By the time he returned, several emperors had passed, and the winds inside the palace had changed completely. Next, the story turns from Ban Chao's glory back to Empress Ma in the deep palace.