A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 498 Treating guests, beheading, accepting as a dog

In the fourth year of Emperor Qian Yuan's reign, just after the New Year, the north was still covered with ice and snow. Ma Heng finally commanded the army and began to attack. After being fully prepared, Ma Heng used a completely different strategy.

Ma Heng appointed local hunters, and then used various tactics to attack the southwestern barbarians. After training, the Dagan soldiers had adapted to the environment here. Under the suppression of Dagan troops and advanced armor, they successively defeated the barbarians. A large number of southwestern barbarians were killed and captured in several mountain strongholds.

For a time, everyone in the southwestern barbarians in the mountains and forests was in danger and wanted to gather together again to deal with Daqian's army.

After Ma Heng learned that the southwest barbarians had united again, he still continued to fight steadily. While he sent a large army to block the mountain road and prohibited all kinds of materials from entering, he also sent people to contact other barbarians.

Southwest barbarians are just a collective term, which includes many ethnic groups. Ma Heng sent people to contact these barbarian cave owners, and then allowed them to go to Bazhong to trade, and was willing to sell salt and iron at a fair price, while not lowering the price of the furs they sold.

These barbarians live in poverty. They don't know how to smelt iron, they don't have any salt, and they have very little cloth. Now Daqian tells them that he can give you all these things. How can those barbarians endure it?

Ma Heng quickly united some of the southwest barbarians around him through trade, and then with the cooperation of these barbarians, he began to attack the remaining southwest barbarians.

With the help of these barbarians, the southwest barbarians could not maintain their advantage in the mountains and forests, and the poisonous miasma and poisonous insects in the mountains and forests were also overcome. Ma Heng led the army and marched straight in. Even the southwestern barbarians who clung to the mountain stronghold were conquered by Daqian soldiers.

With the help of other barbarians, Daqian continued to win, and finally forced the remaining southwestern barbarians into the dangerous places deep in the mountains and old forests. At this point, Ma Heng did not attack again, but adopted a siege strategy.

There are a large number of barbarians living in the jungle, and it is difficult for the barbarian court to wipe them all out with its current power. So the best way is to give them a good beating and then divide them.

The imperial court has always used the strategy of treating barbarians, including treating them to guests, beheading them, and accepting them as dogs.

With this set of strategies, it can be said that there is no disadvantage. First, hit those hard-core people hard, then befriend some of them, and then accept some of them as dogs.

After severely attacking these southwestern barbarians, these southwestern barbarian coalition forces have reached the point of falling apart. Even the leader with extraordinary means can no longer control the situation.

The imperial army is besieging them, and even if they don't attack, they won't be able to last long with their current food reserves.

The imperial army used trebuchets and bows and arrows to attack every day, but they did not send anyone to attack. Even if these barbarians had the geographical advantage, there was nothing they could do.

The trebuchet, which has been improved several times, requires four or five people to operate and can throw stones weighing several kilograms 120 meters away. Ma Heng used this trebuchet to attack, and the southwestern barbarian coalition forces had no power to fight back.

If they leave the camp to fight back and lose their geographical advantage, these barbarians are no match for the Daqian soldiers. If they cannot hold on, they will only be beaten. Faced with this situation, these barbarians were in a dilemma and were trapped in a lonely city.

At this time, Ma Heng asked other barbarians to go secretly to persuade them to surrender, saying that as long as they surrendered their leader, they would be spared the death penalty.

The southwestern barbarian coalition, which was already in dire straits, suddenly became more chaotic. Ma Heng did not send anyone to attack, but continued to besiege the city every day and then harass it. Just one night, a fire suddenly broke out among the coalition forces of the southwest barbarians, followed immediately by shouts of killing.

Fires shot into the sky, and shouts of killing resounded through the sky. It was not until dawn that the southwest barbarians' fortress finally opened. A group of barbarian leaders escorted a large number of barbarians to ask for surrender. At this point, the barbarian rebellion in the southwest was completely put down.

Ma Heng sent all the surrendered southwestern barbarian leaders to Luoyang, and at the same time brought back all the robbed Gan people. At the same time, he killed all the men who were taller than a wheel in the tribe of the southwestern barbarian coalition leader, and rewarded the women who stood there. Soldiers who have made great achievements in battle.

More than five cave masters and twelve village masters among the southwest barbarian coalition were defeated, and the entire population was plundered. The other barbarian tribes in the southwest were also severely beaten, with the least young ones losing about half of their strength.

The imperial court captured a large number of prisoners, but instead of releasing them, they were organized to come for farming.

After Daqian defeated these barbarians, he then began to return to the court. At the same time, in order to prevent the barbarians from rebelling, he directly forced these barbarians to move out.

The chiefs were given a title and lived in the surrounding counties. The barbarians lived in the mountains and forests of the counties, and the court selected adult men from them to form auxiliary troops.

After completing this, the remaining southwestern barbarians had no chance of resisting.

Next, Ma Heng reported the meritorious soldiers to the court, and the court rewarded them with titles based on merit. Some of the soldiers who were not worthy of the title were enfeoffed in Bazhong counties and became peasant soldiers.

It is too difficult to become a marquis or prime minister, and peasant soldiers can be said to be the pursuit of the vast majority of soldiers. As long as you are called a peasant soldier and do not make a big mistake, you will basically not be deprived of your status as a peasant soldier.

More importantly, after becoming a peasant soldier, he has time to learn martial arts, money to train his descendants, and is qualified to learn the art of war. In the future, those recruited into the army will be at least fifty men long. If you pass the military strategy and work hard yourself, you will have the opportunity to be called a captain. Only after being called a lieutenant can one have the possibility of making great achievements and becoming a marquis or prime minister.

This is also the easiest promotion path for common people in the world besides the academy.

In order to help these peasants and soldiers develop, the imperial court sold the captured southwest barbarians as slaves to these peasants and soldiers for farming. At the same time, the imperial court set up barbarians in the southwest counties for mutual trading.

The imperial court sent envoys to convey orders to other barbarians in the southwest, and the counties in the southwest established forgeries so that everyone could come and trade. The imperial court would sell salt, cloth, ironware, wine, sugar, tea, lacquerware, and grain at low prices. The trading of weapons, armor, crossbows, books, and other supplies was prohibited.

Of course, the so-called low price is only relative. The price here is definitely much more expensive than in the Central Plains. After all, material transportation also costs money.

The price is 20% cheaper than the goods sold by powerful county officials in the past.

Those southwestern barbarians trade herbs, gems, ivory, rhinoceros horns, furs, big trees and even slaves. Although these things are very expensive in the Central Plains, they are hardly more expensive than cabbage here. They can be obtained as long as they are transported to the Central Plains. Huge profits.

The imperial court could completely control the barbarian tribes through trade and make good friends with the officials. Those who were obedient would be given some benefits, and those who were disobedient would be given no or less benefits. He even provoked the barbarians to fight among themselves.

(End of this chapter)