Luntai

Luntai was a town east of Kucha.^[1] The Zhou Shu and the Wei Shu both say that it was the town that the Han general Li Guangli had put to the sword.^[1]

The Han farms

After Li Guangli’s campaign against Dayuan, the Han set field soldiers at Luntai and at Quli. Several hundred men worked the land at each place, under a commissioner and a colonel, and the grain fed the envoys who went abroad.^[2] The Shiji, which writes the name Luntou, tells the same.^[3]

In his memorial Sang Hongyang proposed to send field soldiers east of Old Luntai. The emperor Zhao took up the plan. The prince Laidan of Yumi was made a colonel and sent to farm at Luntai, which adjoined Quli. The king of Kucha had him killed.^[2] The attempt to farm at Luntai under Laidan thus ended with his death.

Under the Tang

In 719 the Tang court ordered Yanqi, Kucha, Kashgar and Khotan to levy duties on the merchants of the Western Regions. On the northern route, the order says, Luntai was to collect the duty.^[4]