"Use these two captured Xihous to subdue their tribes and then attack Hexi?"
Zhao Tuo nodded slightly.
The Qin State has always had the tradition of subduing the Hu people and Rongdi.
In Qin's administrative system, "barbarians called Dao" existed below the county level.
Dao is an administrative unit at the same level as the county. It is located in places dominated by barbarians and dispatches officials to rule. For example, the "Yidao" where Li You fought before was a gathering area for the Yi people.
When the Qin army went out to fight, the barbarians in the Dao would be recruited to serve like ordinary Qi people. Many of the cavalry under Zhao Tuo were recruited from the border troops.
Chen Ping suggested subduing the two Yueshi and turning them into sharp swords in the hands of the Qin army. This was actually a routine operation. This approach was indeed much better than killing all the Yueshi prisoners.
After thinking for a while, Zhao Tuo said: "Keep the captured prisoners for now. Mr. Li can speak Yuezhi language, so you can go and see if these two Jihou are willing to serve us and become our Qin army's eagle dogs."
"Don't worry, General. I think they will definitely be willing. After all, the Marquis of Ji just licked the General's shoes. With his appearance, there is no way he would refuse."
Li Shiqi smiled and followed the order.
Chen Ping pursed his lips, feeling unhappy. He felt that his idea was assigned to Li Shiqi to execute it, and he felt like he was being plucked from the peach.
However, he had to accept it, after all, Li Shiqi understood Yuezhi language.
Chen Ping could only secretly make up his mind that he must learn some foreign languages as soon as possible.
Zhao Tuo glanced at his counselor and knew what Chen Ping was thinking. He smiled and reassured: "Chen Sheng has many suggestions for this battle. I will reward him later for his merits, and he will be promoted and rewarded."
Chen Ping was overjoyed when he heard this, and his unhappiness disappeared.
He traveled thousands of miles from Wei to Xianyang to defect to Zhao Tuo. In addition to the other party's recruitment, he wanted to be promoted and worship officials. Naturally, it was also an important reason.
Next, Zhao Tuo did not send troops to chase the fleeing Yuezhi people. He only sent some sentries to patrol, and then gathered the troops to count the gains of this battle.
Qin Shang's first contribution.
Soldiers at the bottom can be promoted to the first level of nobility by beheading one person. This is an important reason why the Qin army can fight bravely and swallow up the six countries. Therefore, it is very important to record and award achievements after the war, and it is also something that everyone looks forward to.
The sun was setting in the west, and the dim sunlight enveloped the grassland. Headless corpses were thrown together randomly, and the blood dyed the grass below scarlet.
The missing heads of these corpses appeared in another open space, and were carried and placed in order.
"Ten, eleven, twelve...brother, we have twelve heads this time!"
Xi Juan shouted happily and turned to look at Wang Ling and Wang Sui who were resting behind them.
The three of them were conscripted rangers from Peixian County, and they were in the same Shiwu. Wang Ling used some tricks to achieve their best.
In this battle, facing barbarian attacks, they fought bravely on the front line to save their lives. In the fierce battle, several people were killed in the whole battle, and most of the others were injured. Wang Ling's shoulder was even hit by an arrow falling from the sky. At this moment, his younger brother Wang Hui was bandaging him.
Because they were on the front line of the battle, when the heads were divided after the war, they were naturally taken care of by the military law officials and allotted twelve heads.
Wang Ling made some calculations in his mind and his face turned slightly red.
"Nai Gong is going to be a superior. You two can also get the title of Duke."
Hearing Wang Ling's words, Xi Juan and Wang Sui looked at each other, quite excited.
Qin had ruled Chu for several years, so they naturally knew the benefits of Qin's title.
Although most of the cultivated land in Chu District is in the hands of powerful local clans, they may not be able to get full land and houses after receiving the title, or the land they are allocated is remote uncultivated wasteland, but they can still get some benefits.
Even rangers like them who don't like farming will not dislike the few fields and houses under their own names.
Compared with land, the greater benefit is that with their title, they are qualified to be officials.
This is a way to climb up. If they can become a pavilion chief in Sishui County, it will be a blessing.
Moreover, the title can be used to reduce the sentence when they commit a crime, which is equivalent to an extra layer of protection.
"The people of Qin are good at this. As long as you perform meritorious service, you can be promoted to a noble title, and if you have a noble title, you can become an official. It's not like in the Chu State. Although we had military merit titles, we couldn't get them."
The three of them muttered.
The State of Chu also had a military merit title system similar to that of Qin. Its titles ranged from state official, lieutenant, Shangjian, Qidafu... all the way to king, marquis and so on.
However, the state of Chu did not rule by law, and the degree of implementation of military merit was far less than that of the state of Qin.
In addition, the treatment and transparency of titles in Chu State are not as good as those in Qin State. Most of the people who can obtain titles are nobles and children of wealthy families. It is even more difficult for ordinary people to climb up.
Now that Wang Ling and a few others can obtain the title of Qin Kingdom, their mentality has changed a little involuntarily.
"I heard that the general Zhao Tuo started from a small soldier, and in the battle of conquering Yan, he rose from a public servant to become a great concubine today. If we work hard, maybe we can also climb to a high position in the Qin State. "
The three of them looked eager.
The story of General Zhao Tuo has spread all over the world, and he has almost become the spokesperson of Qin's military merit system.
Zhao Tuo's experience is the best advertisement for the military merit system.
At this moment, Wang Ling and others naturally thought of Zhao Tuo.
The three rangers who once complained about the harsh laws of Qin in Peixian County and had a dislike for Qin's system quietly changed their mentality after they integrated into the Qin army and were about to receive titles for their meritorious service.
They have also become vested interests in the military merit system.
…
"General, our army succeeded in trapping and killing Shuangmi Yuezhi. We killed more than 10,000 people and captured more than 5,000 people. We captured one Xihou from Shuangmi tribe, one person from Wanchang, and more than ten nobles from Qianzhang and below. Only about five Thousands of people escaped before our army could complete the encirclement."
"Our army's food team relied on the Wugang chariot formation and caused a large number of casualties to the Yuezhi people who came to attack. Including the casualties of the follow-up cavalry, our army annihilated about 7,000 Yuezhi people of the Guishang tribe and captured 3,000 people. Shooting and killing There are about 2,000 Yuezhi people in the Xiumi tribe. Because the Xiumi Marquis retreated in time, no prisoners of the Xiumi tribe were captured."
"Our army suffered about 7,000 casualties, of which about 2,000 were killed in battle."
Zhao Tuo stood on a hill and looked at the Qin army camp where they began to cook rice and roast horse meat under the setting sun.
Beside him was Xiao He, the chief official who was reporting the military situation to him.
Zhao Tuo's brows knitted together tightly.
In grassland warfare, it is indeed easy to defeat but difficult to annihilate.
Because the Shuangmi tribe was lured into a trap, half of its troops were wiped out by the Qin army and five thousand of its soldiers were captured, which was considered to be a complete heavy loss. The five thousand people who escaped, without the command of Marquis Shuangmixi and the nobles, could almost be ignored in the subsequent battle.
However, the Kushan and Xiumi tribes still maintained strong combat power.
The two groups combined had 70,000 cavalry, and the total number of annihilated and captured troops was only about 12,000, which meant that they still had nearly 60,000 troops.
Nearly 60,000 cavalrymen are by no means a number that can be ignored on the grasslands.
Even though Guishuang Xihou was captured by the Qin army, Xiumi Xihou was still there, and Guishuang Xihou's son Lajiagu also ran away.
If they are given a certain amount of time to gather the remaining troops and make a comeback, they will still pose a great threat to the Qin army.
"It's better to be brave enough to chase the poor bandits!"
A cold light flashed in Zhao Tuo's eyes.
The war is not over yet, and he must seize this favorable opportunity.
Zhao Tuo turned around and said to Xiao He: "Send the order, let the knights in the army eat and drink enough tonight, and wait until early tomorrow morning to carry enough wheat cakes and water bags to go on the road, and take the Marquis of Guishuang to pursue them. The Yueshi people leave!"
"The old, weak, women and children of their tribe, as well as the grazing cattle and horses, are all in the Helan Mountain area. They will definitely return to Helan to regroup."
"I want to catch them off guard and let my Great Qin cavalry break through the Helan Mountain gap!"
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(End of chapter)
