A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 542 Colonizing Central Asia (2)

Wanli Fort is located on a plain, with a small river next to it. The water and grass here are rich. There is a mountain not far to the north, which blocks the cold current from the north, so the climate is not too cold.

In the past, there were a large number of grazing here. After the pioneering nobles of Daqian came here, they quickly drove away the bastards and then built Wanli Fort here. Gan people farm and graze here, and success takes root here.

Because it is suitable for grazing, it has also become the main cattle and sheep supply point for Majia in Hanoi.

Wanli Fort is not big. The city wall is only ten miles long. It is built with stones mixed with rammed earth. It is four to five meters high. There are more than a thousand households and 7,000 people living in the fort.

Because it is convenient for grazing, most of the soldiers here are cavalry. These cavalry are wearing light armor, and the war horses also have simple horse armor (only the front part is available). The horses are also selected war horses. They charge very fast in short distances and have good endurance. These cavalry are a combination of rangers and war cavalry. Those bastards can charge, and they can harass and shoot against infantry, and Zhang Heizi is the best among them.

Of course, this kind of cavalry seems to have both advantages, but in fact, if it really wants to face a large number of elites, it will be beaten. But it's very suitable for bullying those bastards who don't even have iron armor.

The troops of these pioneering aristocrats used horizontal knives, bows, arrows, and spears, which were far beyond what those bastards could resist. At the same time, due to the shortage of manpower, in this Western Region, no matter what kind of bully and scum you are in the Central Plains, as long as you can kill people with a knife and obey orders, you can dominate here.

Just like in Wanli Fort, all the farmers and soldiers had more than a dozen slaves in their homes to farm and raise horses for them. Each home had good farmland and pasture. If you can make great achievements and reach the level of Zhang Heizi, you can get hundreds or thousands of acres of fields, hundreds of cattle and sheep, and more than a dozen families of slaves to serve as your slaves.

It can be said that beyond the Five Kingdoms of the Western Regions and beyond the borders of the Daqian Kingdom, the royal family and the Qian people share the same world. Just like this Wanli Fort, only one-third of the people are Ganren, and the rest are all Ganren's slaves.

The court here is far away, and there is basically no jurisdiction, and no officials will be sent here. However, the nobles here still have to respect Daqian and the royal family.

The imperial court has the supplies these people need most and can provide them with support. Without the support of the imperial court, these people will not be able to hold on even if they build a Wubao.

When the royal family and Prime Minister Chao Cuo jointly promoted the development order, the court ministers were very opposed to it, and they all advised the court not to carry out large-scale enfeoffment, so as not to cause separatism among the heroes and threaten the central government.

But the royal family strongly refused, directly saying: "Opening up a barbaric land can be said to be a narrow escape from death. If no benefits are given, why should people work with their heads high?"

"The land there is ownerless, so whoever contributes the most will get the biggest share! If a noble family wants to be completely independent, then it will be because all the officials in the court are incompetent!"

"There are so many ways to control those pioneering nobles. What else is it if it's not incompetence?"

"The pioneering nobles lived in those places with different races, languages, and customs. If they would rather join those people than listen to the court, you can imagine how bad the court must have been at that time!"

"If that time comes, it must be the time for Daqian to perish!" Hearing what Wang Yi said, the ministers in the court did not dare to say anything more. And with the emperor's endorsement, those pioneering nobles became more heroic. The land they conquered became their own. Is the enthusiasm of working for themselves and working for others the same?

Nowadays, it can be said that the nobles who want to open up the wilderness are becoming more and more radical. Many nobles whose families were not wealthy went to the court to borrow money. When they went to the border areas, they went to camps in various places to rent weapons, armor, and war horses. Then he gathered people and horses to seize the land, defeat and exterminate the barbarians.

Then kill the barbarians who dare to resist, and use the rest as slaves. Let these slaves build settlements, raise horses, and farm. Then they continue to mount war horses and wield swords to conquer more people.

When the position is stable and the construction of the fortress is completed, it will be reported to the court and the family will start investing resources and manpower. During this period, these pioneering nobles will enter a stage of rapid development.

After they have established a foothold, the weapons, armor, and war horses borrowed will be used as loans, and the pioneering nobles will need to repay them in three to five years.

After that, if the loan is repaid every year, and the person is willing to accept the rule of Daqian and pay part of the taxes, he will become a vassal, and the court will assign titles to him. If there is a large-scale enemy attack and you cannot resist it, you can also ask for help from the nearby imperial government office and get support from the imperial court.

The money turned over by these pioneering nobles would be kept in the border areas and used as food and salary for the border troops, which was usually the responsibility of the guarding generals and county guards. As for the Western Region, the five countries in the Western Region are responsible for it respectively.

Of course, these pioneering nobles will also form alliances with each other and then help each other. Every year, they would go out on a large scale, either going south or west, to drive away the barbarians, plunder their cattle, sheep, people, etc.

In addition to some of the plundered cattle and sheep being used for their own use, many people were trafficked back to Daqian to be used as slaves. Da Gan stipulates that Gan people cannot be slaves, and those who interfere with taking Gan people as slaves will be severely punished. Therefore, the tenants and slaves in Daqian were not slaves, but the nobles and powerful men who controlled the means of production, and they could only rely on them.

Nowadays, the pioneering nobles have captured a large number of barbarians. These barbarians are not considered as slaves and can naturally be used as slaves. As a result, these barbarian slaves were very popular in Daqian. There were even many caravans that specialized in this kind of slave trade.

These caravans will select slaves and then train them. Once they are well trained, they will be sold to noble, powerful, and official families.

The court also turned a blind eye to these slaves. After all, in this era, slaves had many uses. The court did not allow Gan people to be slaves. Everyone agreed. It would not be appropriate if barbarians were not allowed to be slaves.

What's more, if these slaves were not used, the pioneering nobles would not have enough money to repay the loans or buy weapons and equipment.

Even with the support of the imperial court, it would not be so easy to open up. The farming in the previous few years could not satisfy me at all, so I had to rely on the imperial court's support. The slave trade was one of the few profitable businesses for the pioneering nobles.

The life of a nobleman is more dangerous than the life of other powerful nobles in the Central Plains court, but after success, the benefits will be great. For ordinary people, this place is no different from the wars at the end of the Warring States Period, but for those killers, this place is a paradise.

(End of this chapter)