Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1004 The world of horse thieves

Naturally, at this time, there must be a feast for the officials.But not long after the banquet started, an eight-hundred-mile express courier carrying a flag was assisted by two inner guards and walked into the Imperial Banquet Palace. Xin Shi had already run over to take out the cowhide letter box from the messenger's back, and handed it to Ye Chen with small steps. After Ye Chen opened it calmly, he sneered and said lightly: "Guazhou Something went wrong, Ganzhou Kurban somehow got the trust of Huang Dongqiu and Duanmu Zhongren, this time the army was reorganized and adjusted, the two of them asked Kurban to lead 3000 Ganzhou Uighur soldiers and the Second Brigade of Volunteer Army infantry to garrison fire Yangguan and Heifengzhai, as a result, Kurban rebelled and cooperated with Xizhou Uighurs to take away our Huoyangguan and Heifengzhai, and more than [-] volunteers died."

None of the civil and military officials in the palace showed the slightest fear or worry, but only anger and killing intent.Han Xizai even said loudly: "The barbarian country in the Western Regions dares to challenge me Chao Tianwei, it is really reckless."

Ye Chen smiled and said, "I thought that after this year, I would take back Shazhou in the spring of next year. I didn't want the Uighurs from Xizhou to make a move first."

After a pause, Ye Chen continued: "I will pass on my will to order Huang Dongqiu to take back Huoyangguan and Heifengzhai before December, and to take back Shazhou in the spring of next year. Duanmu Zhongren will fully cooperate in the logistics of food and grass. In addition, I read Huang Dongqiu's memorial a few days ago and mentioned that the stone wolf did a good job, and he was the commander of the second cavalry brigade of the Volunteer Legion who was killed this time, and he took over as the commander of the Second Brigade of the Volunteer Corps."

.........

.........

Nearly 20 days have passed since Xizhou's last war with the Song Army. With the reorganization and training of the newly reorganized army in the army, the progress of the Western Expedition to the Hexi Corridor and the successive wars with Tubo and the Song Dynasty has passed. The class summary and merit and award awards are also being carried out in an orderly manner.In order to make the evaluation of military merits as fair and equitable as possible, Guo Fei, the head of the Military Judiciary Department, the white-faced Yan Wang, led the military judiciary department to the bottom of the sky. It was warmly welcomed by the whole army, and it also guaranteed the fairness and impartiality of military merit evaluation.

The household department is also very busy, mainly because the household department is short of money again.Originally, four months of fighting started in May, and the treasury of Xiangfu Kingdom was exhausted, followed by the migration and resettlement of more than 60 Tubo people, the establishment of Qingzhou, Taozhou, and Qinghe Prefecture, and the return of the troops in victory If it wasn't for the fact that after the completion of the glass factory, a series of glass products, especially mirrors, were exported to various places at home and abroad, and the profits obtained were enough to increase Xiangfu's fiscal revenue by one-fifth every month. Fu Guo's treasury is really exhausted.

As for grain and grass, after Xiangfu Kingdom took Xizhou and Minzhou, they seized a large amount of grain and grass. As long as there is no more war in a short time, the army will be enough.As for the upcoming war between Huang Dongqiu of the Guazhou Volunteer Corps and the Xizhou Uighurs, according to Ye Chen and the court, they would not give Duanmu Zhongren and Huang Dongqiu a tael of silver or a grain of grain.In this case, Huang Dongqiu took people to fight, naturally he wanted to give food to the enemy.

.........

.........

Today, all parts of the Hexi Corridor except Shazhou and Yumenguan at the westernmost point are already the territory of Xiangfu Kingdom. Counting from Liangzhou, it is more than [-] miles long from east to west, and [-] to [-] miles wide.It can be said that it is a large territory. If you add the Hehuang area and Xizhou and Minzhou that were just captured from the Song Dynasty, the territory of Xiangfu Kingdom has doubled. Except for Minzhou and Minzhou, most of them are sparsely populated, and the proportion of ethnic minorities is very large. They have changed their land and returned to the local people, making these nomadic people of foreign races truly become the people of Xiangfu Kingdom, and they really think that they are from the bottom of their hearts. It is still a long process for Ye Chen's people.

Therefore, strictly speaking, these places are only occupied at present, especially the Hexi Corridor. In order to completely stabilize this territory, after Yang Jiye left, Duanmu Zhongren and Huang Dongqiu did a lot of extremely complicated and difficult tasks. matter.

Especially compared to Ganzhou and Suzhou, the re-establishment of the regime in Guazhou is very complicated. If it is not Duanmu Zhongren, if it is another person, even if Ye Chen sends Han Xizai and Ma Wentao, I am afraid it will be very troublesome.Among other things, the personnel arrangement alone is a brain-struggling task. It is necessary to reuse the Zhang family, let the descendants of the Zhang family use their residual energy, and use Zhang Yichao's prestige to offset the influence of the Cao family's rule over the Guiyi army for decades, so as to ensure that the Guiyi army In order to ensure stability, we have to weigh the pros and cons, and properly arrange the positions of the major families in Xinxiangfu Kingdom and their interests in Guazhou, so that they can not only cooperate with each other, but also check and balance each other. , Strengthen direct control over Guazhou, Suzhou, and Ganzhou.

At the same time, Duanmu Zhongren centered on the two prefectures of Shagua, and strengthened the propaganda of the surrounding areas. The various ethnic groups in the Hexi prefectures lived together, especially Ganzhou, which was originally the territory of the Uyghurs. Most of the people were Uyghurs in the form of nomadic tribes. , but there are also a large number of Han people in its territory, and although the Guazhou area has been under the regime of the Han people for many years, there are also a large number of Tubo and Uighurs in its jurisdiction, and of course these people must also be included in the rule.In addition, outside the states of the Hexi Corridor, there are many tribes or villages and towns dotted across the desert oasis. Standing still, there are also those who build their own castles to protect themselves. It is almost impossible to register these people as households and become citizens of Xiangfu Kingdom without using force.Duanmu Zhongren asked Huang Dongqiu for help, and the latter specially allocated a brigade of troops to assist Duanmu Zhongren in this matter. During this period, there were several small-scale conflicts and bloodshed.

The most serious one is that an unknown tribe in a remote oasis indiscriminately killed a civil official and ten guards sent by Duanmu Zhongren to persuade Wang Hua to accept Wang Hua, in order to deter similar forces and prevent future incidents from happening What happened, the adult men of this tribe with only more than 6000 people were directly exterminated by Huang Dongqiu, and other people forcibly implemented it according to the established method of Xiangfu domestic reform.

In addition, the natural environment of the Hexi Corridor is difficult, and the places where people live in large numbers are all scattered in small green states. Although the nearby Shibandun, Suoyang City, Yulin Caves, Shibao Caves, and Hongliu Gorge are under the rule of Guasha, However, the distance is extremely long. If it is placed in the Central Plains, it is equivalent to crossing the distance of several counties before you can see the population. For these places, if you want to quickly withdraw and bring them into rule, you must rely heavily on the giants of Guazhou and Suzhou. The power of the aristocratic family has grown. They went to meet the local shepherd officials and greeted them, explaining the current situation in Guazhou, and they can smoothly incorporate this place into the territory. Running around, mobilizing troops everywhere, it is impossible to take it down within a year or so, and a large number of troops must be stationed to succeed. At this time, the role of the local big family comes into play.

In addition, the formulation of money, food and taxation is also very cautious. It is necessary to let the people of Guazhou, Suzhou, and Ganzhou feel that after becoming the people of the Xiangfu Kingdom, they are obviously better than the Uighurs in Ganzhou, the Dragons in Suzhou, and the Caos in Guazhou. When ruling, but it can't be unrestrained and generous, so that the people of all ethnic groups in the three states take low taxes and low taxes for granted.The expenses required for raising soldiers to fight and government rule are all collected through money, food and taxes.Whether it is Ye Chen, Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, Jia Xian who are far away in Xiajing, or Duanmu Zhongren who is in charge of this matter, they have never worried about this, because after the unification of the Hexi Corridor, the long-abandoned ancient commercial roads can be restored. Rejuvenated, the income from the Lika taxation of the gold business is enough to offset the loss of the agricultural and animal husbandry tax, and it is still very rich.However, in fact it is not the case.In other words, the realization of ideals has never been so easy. After Yang Jiye led [-] cavalry to Liangzhou, there seemed to be countless more in the Gobi, desert, grassland, and oasis near Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Guazhou overnight. A horse thief.And this was the most troublesome thing for Duanmu Zhongren and Huang Dongqiu a few days ago.

At that time, according to the results of the investigation led by Kou Minglu, the chief envoy of the Western Regions Branch of the Ministry of Security, these horse thieves, in addition to the original horse thieves, the newest and more numerous horse thieves were the former Ganzhou Uyghur Khan Pang Teqin. of the men.The Ganzhou Uighurs were destroyed by the Xiangfu Kingdom. After the death of the Uighur King, although Yang Jiye considered that the various tribes under the Uighur King's command scattered within [-] miles of Ganzhou City would be troublesome, he used Ganzhou City as a bait to send Nearly [-] cavalry from these tribes were introduced into the city of Ganzhou one by one and defeated in one fell swoop.But how can these tribes not leave some cavalry to guard their own tribes. Now that the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom has been destroyed, these tribes will go their own way, divide their territories, and rule as kings.For foreign forces and passing caravans, they turned into horse thieves.

Knowing that the Hexi Corridor was opened up by the Xiangfu Kingdom, some merchants in Xiangfu and the Western Regions saw business opportunities from the payment documents issued by the Xiangfu Kingdom. When they were about to start a new round of business, they discovered that most of the Hexi Corridor was open. For them, it has become a real battlefield of flesh and blood.

Horse thieves are hungry wolves with green eyes. They will never care about the future development of the Hexi Corridor. As long as they encounter a caravan, they will rush to it until they eat up the caravan including its people and goods. Jing just give up.

Upon receiving the news, the caravans in Liangzhou and Guazhou stranded at both ends were all terrified.

It is conceivable that once their fully loaded caravan enters Ganzhou and Suzhou, the first thing they will face is overwhelming horse thieves.

So, they naturally thought of Xiangfu Kingdom's government offices in the Hexi Corridor states. To be precise, this matter became the biggest matter for Duanmu Zhongren and Huang Dongqiu some time ago.

(End of this chapter)