A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 675 Western Region
Wang Xuanjing took advantage of the drought to implement the New Deal. First, he used grain to trick nobles and aristocratic families, making them cough up a lot of profits.

Then they took the opportunity to move a large number of people to the border areas to relieve the population pressure in Guanzhong. At the same time, we will immigrate to the border and strengthen our control over Hexi, which is also to prepare for the next connection with the Western Region.

The imperial court was anxious to control Hexi and connect the Western Regions. One of the important reasons was war horses. The Sui Dynasty was in chaos, and the court's horse farm also suffered heavy losses.

There are basically not many horse farms left in Shandong, Hebei, and Youzhou. The imperial court will need enough war horses to face the Turks next.

Otherwise, they can defeat the Turks but cannot catch up with them, so they can only be beaten passively.

What's more, Li Shimin has never forgotten the Weishui Alliance. As the immediate emperor, Li Shimin was very proud. As a result, in the first year after he ascended the throne, he was driven straight into the capital by the Turks, and Chang'an City was almost destroyed.

In this case, relying on the alliance and paying a lot of goods, the Turks were able to retreat.

If you want to deal with the Turks, war horses and cavalry are the top priority, so the court wants to restore the Yinshan Racecourse as soon as possible.

War horses are a consumable item, and once they go to the battlefield, the consumption becomes even greater.

Horses are very delicate creatures. They will wear out if they run for a long time, charge and kill enemies, and even rush on the road.

Wang Xuanji came to Hexi this time not only to resettle the victims of the disaster and appease the local nobles and powerful people, but also to contact the Wang family in the Western Regions.

It's just that it has never been successful because of the terrain, but small groups of miscreants are basically unstoppable. After all, there are many trails on this mountain, and you can't block all of them.

In fact, in order to ensure that the Wang family in the Western Regions would not be assimilated by the local people, every generation of the Wang family would send direct descendants to the Western Regions through the Cave World.

Of course, because of the loss of the support of the Central Plains dynasty, the actual scope of control of the Wang family's branches in the Western Regions is also decreasing year by year.

Wang Xuanji and Wang Xuanjing are cousins, and they are also direct descendants of the Wang family. They were sent here this time to prepare to contact the Wang family in the Western Regions.

The land in Hexi is very long and narrow, also known as the Hexi Corridor. It is surrounded by mountains on both sides. This place is the only way from the Central Plains to the Western Regions.

Therefore, the direct line of the Wang family still has a high degree of control over the Western Regions.

At that time, the power of the five countries in the Western Region had shrunk to a large extent.

But with the help of the God-given city and the force in their hands, they are still a decisive force in the Western Region.

Because of the mountain peaks, the climate here is much better than the grassland on the other side of the mountain, so the northern nomads have always wanted to take it back.

If something serious happens, emergency communication can be carried out.

The connection between the Wang family in the Western Region and the direct lineage of the Wang family is still very close. Although the road is blocked, the Wang family can enter and exit through the cave world. However, using the Dongtian World will consume the family's luck, so it is only fixed once a year.

After a large-scale cavalry duel, the number of horses lost can reach thousands. Therefore, the imperial court must have a sufficient horse breeding base.

This is why the Western Region has been in the hands of the Wang family for so many years.

Western Region, the city given by heaven.

As the largest city in the Western Region, more than 100,000 people live in this oasis. Since the rise of the Turks, they have been coveting this place. However, in several confrontations, the Turks were defeated.

The Turks are very different from the previous Hu people. After continuous development, the Turks have relatively mature iron smelting technology.

At the same time, due to Yang Guang's mischief at the end of the Sui Dynasty, a large number of people from the Central Plains fled to the Turks, which led to the rapid development of the Turkic handicraft industry.

Many people have the impression that the nomadic people in the north do not know how to smelt iron, and an iron pot is extremely expensive on the grassland. But in fact, nomadic people also have iron smelting technology.

It's just that the iron smelting technology of the nomadic people is backward, and the iron products smelted are not as good as those in the Central Plains. At the same time, because there are too few places suitable for iron smelting on the grasslands, there is a shortage of iron tools on the grasslands.

Charcoal is needed to make iron, and water is needed to transport iron ore. This results in only a few areas where iron can be smelted.

But in recent years, the grassland has developed rapidly. Although the Turks have split into East and West Turks, their strength cannot be underestimated.

The DTZ occupied the central and eastern parts of the grassland, while the Western Turks occupied the original territory of the Wusun Kingdom. That's right, the once great country in the Western Regions with a population of millions has been destroyed by the Western Turks.

In addition to part of the large area of ​​​​the Ili River Valley occupied by the Wang family, more was occupied by the Western Turks.

If the Wang family had not had deep roots in the Western Regions and had been contacting other small countries around to resist the Turks, I am afraid that the Western Regions would have become the territory of the Turks.

The Turks and the Wang clan fought several times in the Western Regions. Although the Turks had a large number of cavalry, they did not gain any advantage in the confrontation with the Wang clan.

After all, the environment in the Western Region is special. Many places are Gobi Desert, and cities are basically built on oases. Every time the Turks attack, they need to cover a long distance, and the supply of food and grass is difficult.

Coupled with the convenience of the city, the Turks were not good at attacking cities. In several battles, the Turks did not take advantage.

But the situation has been a little different recently. The Turks have actually begun to send out a large number of rangers, wandering in the wild, making trouble everywhere, destroying crops, killing people and stealing goods.

Most of these rangers are in groups of dozens. They do not attack cities and towns, but specifically attack lone pedestrians or caravans, and at the same time trample crops on horseback.

Destroy wells, throw dead livestock into water sources, etc.

In this land of the Western Regions, due to the arid climate, any water source is very important. Only with water sources can humans survive. For a long time, no matter how fierce the battles in the Western Regions are, water sources are rarely polluted. situation occurs.

This is even a well-established rule in the Western Regions, but the Turks broke this rule.

This is a red flag.

This has shown that the patience of the Turks is approaching the limit. They are eager to conquer the Western Regions and will use all possible means.

The Turks are nomadic people with a large number of war horses, and they come and go like the wind. The land in the Western Region is very suitable for cavalry warfare because of its flat land.

Destroying crops, setting fires, destroying wells, and polluting water sources are things that humans do?
If this continues, it will be difficult to hold on to this part of the Western Region, but the Turks should not even think about controlling it.

This method is a strategy often used by the Turks to harass the Central Plains, making the cost of border defense increasingly higher. But this method is not easy to use in the Western Regions, because the Western Regions are not as lacking in war horses as the Central Plains. Although the Western Regions are not as good as the grasslands, they still have many war horses.

(End of this chapter)