Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 888 Zhang Erlang 30 Years Later
Two months later, the Ding Zhuang of the Xinyang Inspection Department of Qianxian County had all assembled, and they also went to the county seat of Qianxian County to conduct a month of formal military training.

Among Webster's five champions, the second child is calm, cautious and extremely powerful. He can charge through a three-layer armor for two quarters of an hour without resting. He can be called a top horse, so he was immediately appointed as team leader.

This official position is unremarkable in the Central Plains, and he can only manage 50 people. To say that he is an officer is a bit flattering.

But it's different in foreign domains. The elite troops of the Han army are upright, and when they are entrusted, they will either serve as officers of the king's personal protection army, or be entrusted as vassals.

As long as they are vassals, they are usually the ones who directly become gentlemen and manage one or two thousand households.

The rest of the Wei family's fourth and fifth sons were proficient in horse bows and horses, and they were immediately selected into the fine cavalry directly under the king of Anguo, and they had a bright future.

As for the younger Liu Liu and Lao Ba, they were also exceptionally certified as Zheng Ding, and if they were a few years older, they would also be sharp on the battlefield.

This time, more than 70 people from the entire Xinyang Inspection Department were elected. This is because although Zhang Zhou established his capital in Luoyang and his political center is in Zhili (Henan), his confidant site is the one that listens to the royal family's orders and reassures the royal family the most. Or the Guanzhong and Helong areas.

At the same time, the athletes from these three places are as famous as Hebei, Hedong, and Ningxia, or even better than the provinces with abundant martial arts.

At the gate of Webster's gate, Webster's five Biao are saying goodbye to their parents.

The straight-line distance between Guanzhong and Hezhong is about [-] miles, and the actual distance must be less than [-] miles. Once you go there, it will be difficult to return to your hometown.

The five people first kowtowed to their parents, thanking them for their kindness in nurturing, and then kowtowed to Eldest Wei and Eldest Wei who stayed at home with big ceremonies. In the future, they can only rely on them for trivial matters of taking care of their parents.

Of course, as long as the five biaos are not all killed in battle, they will still send a lot of money back from the river.

Amidst the crying of her parents-in-law, Mrs. Wei couldn't help but burst into tears.

Although these five younger brothers are not involved in childbirth, they are not entirely burdensome, because their force is a passport to power in the countryside.

A few years ago, Mrs. Wei was stopped by some apprentices on the way to see a social drama, and she was touched twice. His bones were broken, his arrogance disappeared immediately, and he only dared to crawl on the ground, out of Mrs. Wei's sight.

Even if her natal parents and brothers were bullied, Mrs. Wei could take Wu Biao back to her natal home, beat the person who bullied his parents until he spat blood, and begged for mercy on his knees.

Villagers solve problems in such a simple and unpretentious way.

With tears streaming down her face, Mrs. Wei couldn't help but think that the barbarians in the Hezhong area are blessed!I don't know how many disobedient thieves will be beaten by her five younger brothers and cry for their parents.

As for people like Webster Wubiao leaving, what will happen to the security in the countryside?
Uh, is there a possibility that they are the bullies in the village!
And at the end of the expedition team, the ones who were escorted forward with shameful eyebrows and eyes were those sneaky guys under the bullies in the village.

The apprentice who touched Mrs. Wei twice was also in the team.

This is my Zhang Zhou's practice. Once caught, the disciples who steal, cheat, and harm little girls will quickly close the case and then distribute them all.

As for the really ruthless bandits and bandits, there are no more of them now, and they were basically dispatched ten years ago, realizing the physical eradication.

The feudal army in the tenth century was a melting pot of violent reforging. No matter what kind of petty thief you are, if you join the army, you will definitely be able to turn you into a big villain, and then go outside to bully others.

. . . .

Zhang Xianyu was born in 935 and is 28 years old this year.

He just came out at this age and became a vassal. Unlike his elder brother Zhang Xiancun who was the king of Chu at the age of 19, he was very similar to his righteous brother Murong Nobunaga who broke into such a big career at the age of 30.

And the reason why Zhang Tie kept Zhang Xianyu until this age was because Zhang Xianyu's mother was weak, and a son like him couldn't bear him to travel far.

Zhang Ting didn't want to be so cruel, so he only waited for the matter of the feudal clan to be put on the agenda after Zhang Xianyu's mother Ayiguli died of illness four years ago.

The second reason is that the complexity of the situation in the river is a bit beyond Zhang Tie's expectations.

In addition to the contradictions between Bai Congxin, the king of the Zheng Kingdom, Lu Sanlang, the Duke of Dinghai, and Li Congde, the King of the Jin Kingdom.

Guo Yuer, who has held the real power in Saman Persia for nine years, has also gathered a group of people, and they also have their political demands.

The Six Dharma Schools also paid a considerable price when they entered the city of Anxi (Bukhara) and fought against the Tianfang Sect. Naturally, they also have political demands.

In addition, they have to deal with the descendants of the Buwehi dynasty in Baghdad, the Safar dynasty in the south of Persia, and the traitor of Tocharian Anyuan Kingdom Prince Sadid.

At the same time, it is also necessary to go north to conquer the Kimak-Kipchak Alliance, the Turkic survivors of the Pechenegs, and the Khazar Khanate, laying the foundation for the subsequent large-scale Western Expedition.

Therefore, if Zhang Xianyu was allowed to become a fan ten years ago, let alone complete this task, Zhang Xianyu would not be able to handle even Bai Congxin and Guo Yuer.

Therefore, in the past ten years, under the arrangement of Zhang Tie, Zhang Xianyu worked successively in the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, and the Privy Council, and even served as a deputy envoy of the Privy Council for three years.

In addition, Zhang Xianyu was still in the tenth year of Shaoming, in 955 AD, he went to Yanshan Mansion (near Ulaanbaatar), the capital of Mobei Province, and served as an ambassador for appeasement and dismissal for two years. Mobei is the monk system.

Among the Six Dharma Schools at this time, the Living Buddha is a native of the religion, with high prestige, half of the time is in the religion, and the other half is in Chengde, Dunhuang, Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture and even the capital of God, receiving enlightenment from the supreme heaven.

As a supplement to the Living Buddha in terms of religious affairs, the great virtues who actually hold the teaching power are devout believers sent from the Central Plains or trained locally.

In the end, there is the command of the monks. This sounds like a management of monks, but in fact it is in charge of local administration, and even has a certain degree of military function.

Zhang Xianyu served as the head of the capital in Mobei for two years, which greatly improved his ability to deal with grassland peoples and became more familiar with grassland culture and laws.

In the 13th year of Shaoming, in 958 AD, Zhang Xianyu was sent to Pengtai Prefecture (Kurume, Kyushu), the capital of Penglai Province, to replace Zhao Yanjin in guarding Penglai for a period of time, and accumulated rich experience in dealing with newly conquered lands.

At the same time, during the time when he was the left servant of the Ministry of War, Zhang Xianyu went to Dali City as an angel of the court to learn the skills of governing the feudal state and conquering foreign countries with his elder brother Zhang Xiancun, the king of Chu.

It can be said that the 28-year-old Zhang Xianyu has fully matured this year, and he is no longer the little fat man who had low self-esteem and was not good at speech when he was a child.

It was a young and vigorous man with great personal charm, proficient in Turkic and Persian, familiar with internal affairs and foreign wars, knew the way of political compromise, and knew how to appease the king of the newly conquered land.

If Zhang Ting died now, Zhang Xianyu would be a qualified emperor, even a more suitable emperor of the Zhou Dynasty than his elder brother Zhang Xiancun, the king of Chu Fan.

Therefore, only now did Zhang Ting feel relieved to let Zhang Xianyu take his two younger brothers Zhang Xianxi and Zhang Xiantai to the west to annex Saman Persia and make a stand for the Western Expedition.

And the last reason, which is the most important reason, is strength.

The biggest difference in strength between the third year of Qianyuan in 962 AD and the seventh year of Puppet Jin Tianfu 20 years ago is the population.

In 942, the population of the whole world was between 200 million and 500 million, and the Central Plains was so poor that even 10,000+ troops could not afford food for a year's battle.

But now, according to the results of the national household registration census in 961 A.D. in the second year of Qianyuan, the population of the whole world has recovered to more than 5000% of the peak of the Tang Dynasty, which is a full [-] million people.

Among them, a large number of hidden populations have been found out in the past 20 years, and the black households who fled to the mountains and swamps are also relieved to accept Juntian, and there are also populations from Khitan, Grassland, Nanzhao, Koryo, and Wa.

The population base they pushed up together has nearly doubled in 20 years.

Thanks to the promotion of corn and other new crops, especially Champa rice and yellow rice paddy, sufficient food, stable political situation, relatively clear officialdom, and reasonable taxation policies, a couple in Zhangzhou had a birth rate of Horrific stats for more than five kids.

For example, in Wei's family, 20 years ago, he had only three sons, all of whom were children of a certain age.

Even ten years ago, although Father Wei had seven children, the oldest was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest was four or five years old. It would be unrealistic for you to ask such children to go on an expedition.

Only after waiting for Father Wei's five brothers of Webster's to grow up, with the appearance of such idle men like the five of Webster's who were born for war and colonization, can the Western Expedition be carried out.

Zhang Xianyu went all the way from Guanzhong to Chengtian Liangzhou Mansion, and along the way, there were inspectors who had already received orders from the imperial court to send people like Webster Wubiao in the countryside under control, and sent them to the team. After the selection of the three great kings and their military officers, they will be incorporated into the army.

These inspectors are the new generation of bullies in Zhang Zhou's countryside who maintain force.

From Zhang Ting's perspective, he would definitely not go the way of the Northern Song Dynasty's overcorrection. The folk martial arts style must be maintained.

But Zhang Zhou's control over the country's tyrants was stronger than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties.

It's not that the overall quality of Zhang Zhou's officials is higher than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but that Zhang Zhou's civil and military examination system has matured, and the progress of printing has brought about a decline in knowledge.

At the same time, compared with the Han and Tang Dynasties, Zhang Zhou had sufficient channels for "opening the floodgates" after solving the grassland problem.

These rural tyrants and their descendants will either pass the civil and military examinations in the future, be selected to be officials in the central government and other places, or be ordered to follow Wang Huzheng to show their talents outside the territory.

Through this uninterrupted pumping type of 'flood discharge', it is estimated that Zhang Zhou can keep the domestic power at a low level for at least 150 years without destroying the martial arts among the people.

As for 150 years later, hehe, Zhang Tie is not really a god. It would be great if he could last for such a long time. For the next things, we really have to believe in the wisdom of future generations.

Therefore, when Zhang Xianyu left from Shendu, the three kings and three guards of the three brothers were basically empty shells, but after arriving in Liangzhou, there were already [-] cavalry, including more than [-] fine cavalry and [-] pawns.

Among these 2 people, there are as many as [-] people who have their own armor and horses, the imperial army, and the children of low-level officials.

Counting the 3000 full-armored guards assigned by their father Zhang Tie to each of the three brothers when they set off, this is not a large team, and it already has [-] armored soldiers.

As for the training, needless to say, when Webster's Five Biao came to the river, they were all Xiong Zhi's men who killed indiscriminately.

And within a few days after Zhang Xianyu arrived in Liangzhou, the messenger from the grassland arrived.

This time he marched west, except for Bazimi, Yili and Xiajiaswanhu who were near the river.

With the cooperation of Fu Zhaoxu, the pacification and dismissal ambassador of Mobei, and the ten thousand great virtues of the Six Dharma Schools and the Du Sangtong, the remaining nine ten thousand households allocated a total of 11 Jingqi, 7000 herdsmen, men, women, and elders. A total of [-] people were recruited.

Compared with the Han land, the grassland is the area that Zhang Zhou closely monitors. Of course, this monitoring does not mean restricting personal freedom, but monitoring the population growth in the grassland area.

After the grassland and the Central Plains have been integrated in these years, a large amount of grain from the Han area flowed into the grassland through the government's market and merchants, and the fur, horn, tendon and bacon on the grassland also smoothly entered the Central Plains.

Therefore, the population on the grasslands is increasing rapidly, but their carrying capacity is very low, so it is even more necessary to continuously lead the population to the west to avoid chaos.

At the same time, on the grassland, Zhang Zhou formed a cross-control mode of ten thousand households-thousand households-hundred households and Dusangtong-sangtong-teaching Buddhist monks.

It is said that the whole family will follow Wang Huzheng, except that the delivery of relatives can be delayed for a month, and the rest will basically start immediately.

If you dare to say no, you must have been bewitched by the devil. If you dare not listen to the decree of the sky, you will immediately beat your whole family into slaves.

But fortunately, with the material support from the Han land, marching westward from the grassland is not a hard job, and most people are very willing.

Therefore, the prairie cavalry assigned to Zhang Xianyu and the other three kings this time are very elite and have a strong will to fight.

Among the [-] fine cavalry, there were [-] heavy armored cavalry, [-] light armored cavalry, and the rest were the leading unarmored cavalry on the grassland.

And among these [-] herdsmen, if they were mobilized to the limit, they could still pull out about [-] to [-] unarmored horse archers, and their combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

Zhang Xianyu was also very happy when he heard that, to control Hezhong and Khorasan, which have many cities, the Han Chongbu and Jingqi are good minions.

But to attack the various nomadic peoples west and north of the West Sea (Caspian Sea), these steppe cavalry will be used.

Considering the huge logistical pressure brought by the entire army going through the Hexi Corridor, Zhang Xianyu immediately asked Liu Tingrang, the commander of the horse army, to accompany the tenth brother Zhang Xiantai, the king of Shu, to lead five hundred fine horses from Shu to accept and control these grasslands. The cavalry, then walked the grassland into the North Court and then joined Anxi.

The tenth son of the emperor Zhang Xiantai this year, his biological mother is Da Fu Yinger, Zhang Xiantai inherited the military general genes of Zhang and Fu, and his grandfather Fu Yanqing personally taught martial arts.

Therefore, although there is only one, there are unparalleled warriors immediately and off the horse, and even the little black bear Zhang Liechao, who is the main general and accompanied them to the west this time, is not his opponent on the horse.

And now Fu Zhaoxu, the Mobei appeasement ambassador, is Zhang Xiantai's uncle, and it is appropriate for him to go to Juyanhai to receive these grassland cavalry.

The team went to Dunhuang, passed through Dangjinshan Pass and Ganquan River, and there were two thousand Tubo heavy armored soldiers from Batang Plateau, who had been waiting for a long time under the leadership of Lun Shi Lun Tongheng.

At the same time, Pan Mei, who succeeded Guo Tiance as the defense ambassador of Batang Province and the governor of Batang, dispatched [-] armored soldiers directly from Congling to Khotan, waiting for Zhang Xianyu and others to receive them.

So far, all the armed forces of the Three Kings' Western Expedition have been assembled, including 7000 elite soldiers who retired from the pro-army and forbidden army, [-] elite Han soldiers, [-] grassland cavalry, and [-] Tubo soldiers, a total of [-] people .

In addition, there are 3 local rogue rangers issued by the Han area, and more than 12 grassland cavalry can be obtained from the limit conscript. A total of more than [-] people have good combat effectiveness.

Then count the two kings and one prince in the river, Anxi Army and Ning Yuan Army.

Not counting the Saman Persian servant army, a maximum of 22 to [-] soldiers can be mobilized.

And there are at least 20 armored soldiers, and the food currently hoarded by Ning Yuan, Sui Ye, and Zheng Fan is enough for [-] troops to fight for four to five years.

Obviously, such a terrifying military force, even in the Central Plains in the past, should have the strength of the combined army of Nantang and Nanping, and it would not be used simply to deal with a Bwehi dynasty.

. . . .

Shule, Li Shengtian saw Zhang Xianyu leading the army to arrive, with a joyful smile on his face.

After Zhang Xianyu led Zhang Xianxi to visit him with the etiquette of visiting his grandfather, Li Shengtian took the hands of the two and immediately began to explain the specific situation of Ning Yuan.

In his life, Li Shengtian had been bullied by such a good nephew, Zhang Tie.

He wanted to stay in the Central Plains more than ten years ago, but he has been working until now, with gray temples and old age, that he has the chance to escape from Anxi.

Li Shengtian could have left a few years ago, but the sudden illness of old Zhang Zhong interrupted Li Shengtian's plan. During the four years when old Zhang Zhong couldn't see things until he died of illness, it was Li Shengtian who actually controlled Ningyuan. .

Only Li Shengtian and Zhang Yu understood the hardships.

This Khotan was actually the family property of his Yuchi family. As a result, under Li Shengtian's arrangement, not only did he have to move the vassal to hand over the ancestral property, but even Ningyuan, who had been defeated by Zhang Ting but had already been handed over to Khotan, had to be handed over.

One must know that Ningyuan is now richer than Shule and Khotan. From the eldest son Li Congde to the ordinary clan, there is no one in the Li family who is not jealous.

Li Shengtian almost always insisted on Zhang Ting's strategy despite everyone's opposition.

Li Shengtian was also very emotional about this, and he said to Zhang Xianyu and Zhang Xianxi: "Reviving the great dynasty, defeating the great food, and protecting the Dharma, this is the grand plan that your father is realizing, and it is also a certain Li Shengtian's great wish in the past!"

Almost from the very beginning, the nephew of Zhang Tie was Li Shengtian, a king who was not very good at martial arts, and a "dream fighter" who achieved great achievements, so the two of them were so united.

But in fact, there is another reason that Li Shengtian didn't say, that is, he is very aware of Zhang Ting's temper.

This nephew of his always had a red line in his heart. Before crossing this line, he was still a benevolent king, but after crossing this line, he was absolutely ruthless, and his relatives would not recognize him.

Compared with the imperial court, Khotan is just a small vassal state. Historically, if the rulers of the Western Regions disobeyed the imperial court's orders, they would often end in misery. Li Shengtian himself invested in Zhang Zhou, so he couldn't turn a good thing into a bad one.

He stayed in Anxi to ensure that things would not go to that point.

Zhang Xianyu prostrated himself on the ground again, "Don't worry, my father, I know that my father has made great achievements in his hard work. Before my grandson came to Anxi, my father gave all kinds of instructions, and my grandson knew it well."

"Okay!" Li Shengtian was overjoyed, "With Erlang's words, Ah Weng is relieved."

After all, Li Shengtian sighed deeply: "30 years ago, your father Zhang Erlang came from Dunhuang, so there was a great Zhou Dynasty.

Today you are also Zhang Erlang, what will happen to the west of the middle land is all in your hands. "

(End of this chapter)