Two months later, all the men and women from the Xinyang Inspection Department of Qianxian County gathered together, and they went to the county seat of Qianxian County for a month of formal military training.
Among Webster's Five Young Men, the second child was calm, cautious, and extremely powerful. He could charge for two quarters of an hour with three layers of armor without resting. He was considered a top-notch beast, so he was immediately appointed as the captain of the team.
This official position is mediocre in the Central Plains. He can only supervise fifty people. To say that he is an officer is a bit flattering.
But it was different in the outer vassals. The elite troops of the Han army were stationed, and when the time came for enfeoffment, they would either serve as officers in the king's personal guard army, or they would be enfeoffed as vassals.
As long as you are a vassal, you usually become a prince directly and take charge of one or two thousand households.
The remaining fourth and fifth sons of the Wei family were proficient in bows and horses, and were immediately selected into the elite cavalry directly under King An Guo. They were considered to have a bright future.
As for the slightly younger Lao Liu and Lao Ba, they were also certified as regular men. If they were a few years older, they would also be sharp on the battlefield.
This time, more than 70 people were selected from the entire Xinyang Inspection Department. This is because although Zhang Zhou has his capital in Luoyang and his political center in Zhili (Henan), he is the one who listens to the royal orders and reassures the royal family the most because of his close confidants. , or Guanzhong and Helong areas.
At the same time, the athletes in these three places are as famous as Hebei, Hedong, and Ningxia provinces, or even better than them, as provinces rich in martial arts.
At the entrance of Webster's gate, Webster's five younger brothers were bidding farewell to their parents.
The straight-line distance between Guanzhong and Hezhong is about 8,500 miles. The actual distance must be less than 10,000 miles. Once you leave here, it will be difficult to return home.
The five people first kowtowed to their parents and thanked them for their upbringing. Then they kowtowed with great gifts to Mr. Wei and Mr. Wei who stayed at home. They would have to rely on them to take care of their parents in the future.
Of course, as long as all the Five Biao soldiers are not killed in battle, they will still send back a large amount of money from the river.
Amidst the cries of her parents-in-law, Mrs. Wei couldn't help but burst into tears.
Although these five younger brothers are not engaged in production, they are not completely a burden, because their force is a passport of power in the countryside.
Years ago, Sister-in-law Wei was stopped by some gangsters on her way to watch a social opera and was groped twice. She was in a terrible situation. As a result, she screamed and Wei's five young men rushed over and beat the gangsters away. After the beating, his bones were broken and his tendons were broken. He suddenly lost his arrogance and could only crawl on the ground, out of the sight of Mrs. Wei.
Even if her parents and brothers were bullied, Mrs. Wei could take Wu Biao back to her parents' house and beat the person who bullied her parents until they vomited blood and knelt down to beg for mercy.
Rural people solve problems in such a simple and unpretentious way.
In the midst of tears, Sister-in-law Wei couldn't help but think that the barbarians in the Hezhong area were blessed! Who knows how many disobedient thieves will be beaten by her five brothers until they cry for father and mother.
As for people like Webster's Wu Biao leaving, what will happen to the public security in the countryside?
Well, is there a possibility that they are the bullies in the village?
And at the end of this expedition, those with sullen eyebrows and sullen eyes were being escorted forward, and there were also those sneaky guys under the local bullies.
The prostitute who had touched Mrs. Wei twice was also in the queue.
This is my usual practice, Zhang Zhou. Once a scoundrel who steals, deceives, and harms a little girl is caught, the case will be quickly concluded and then all of them will be punished.
As for the truly ruthless bandits and gangsters, there are no more of them now. They were basically all dispatched ten years ago, and their roots were eradicated in a physical sense.
The feudal army of the tenth century was a furnace forged by violence. No matter what kind of petty thieves you were, if you entered the army, you would definitely be turned into a big bad person, and then you would go to bully others outside the territory.
. . . .
Zhang Xianyu was born in 935 and is twenty-eight years old this year.
He had just come out to join the vassal state at this age. Unlike his elder brother Zhang Xiancun who became the king of Chu at the age of nineteen, he was very similar to his sworn brother Murong Nobunaga who did not achieve such a great career until he was thirty years old.
The reason why Zhang Xian kept Zhang Xianyu to this age was because Zhang Xianyu's mother was weak and a son like him would not be willing to let him travel far away.
Zhang Xian didn't want to be so cruel, so he only waited until Zhang Xianyu's mother Ayiguli died of illness four years ago before the issue of vassalage was put on the agenda.
The second reason is that the situation in the river was so complicated that it was beyond Zhang Yan's expectation.
In addition to the conflicts between Bai Congxin, the King of Zheng, Lu Sanlang, the Grand Duke of Dinghai, and Li Congde, the King of Jin.
Guo Ting'er, who has held the actual power in Saman Persia for nine years, has also gathered a group of people with their own political demands.
The Liufa Sect also paid a considerable price in the battle with the Tianfang Sect when they entered the city of Rest (Bukhara). Naturally, they also had political demands.
In addition, they have to deal with the Bweshi dynasty in Baghdad, the Safar dynasty in southern Persia, and the descendants of the traitor Prince Sadid of Anyuan Kingdom in Tochar.
At the same time, he also had to bear the task of going north to conquer the Kimak-Kipchak alliance, the Turkic survivors Pechenegs and the Khazar Khanate, laying the foundation for the subsequent large-scale western expedition.
Therefore, if Zhang Xianyu had been asked to abdicate ten years ago, Zhang Xianyu would not have been able to complete the task at the age of eighteen, even Bai Congxin and Guo Ting'er, Zhang Xianyu would not have been able to do it.
Therefore, in the past ten years, under Zhang Xian's arrangement, Zhang Xianyu served in the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Privy Council, and even served as the Deputy Privy Envoy for three years.
In addition, Zhang Xianyu also went to Yanshan Mansion (near Ulan Bator), the capital of Mobei Province (near Ulan Bator) in the tenth year of Shaoming Dynasty, 955 AD, and served as the ambassador to appease and deposed for two years, and served concurrently as a Buddhist disciple. Mobei Dushengtong.
In the Liufa Sect at this time, the living Buddha was a native of the teaching area and had high prestige. He spent half of his time in the teaching area and the other half in Chengde, Dunhuang, Chengtian, Liangzhou and even the capital, receiving enlightenment from the Supreme Heaven.
In terms of teaching affairs, the great virtues who supplement the living Buddhas and actually hold the teaching power are devout believers sent from the Central Plains or trained locally.
Finally, there is the Dusengtong, which sounds like it is in charge of monks, but in fact it is in charge of local administration and even has military functions to a certain extent.
Zhang Xianyu worked as a monk leader in Mobei for two years, which greatly improved his ability to deal with grassland peoples and became more familiar with grassland culture and laws.
In the thirteenth year of Shaoming Dynasty, in 958 AD, Zhang Xianyu was sent to Pengtai Mansion (Kurume, Kyushu), the capital of Penglai Province, to replace Zhao Yanjin and guard Penglai for a period of time, accumulating rich experience in dealing with newly conquered places.
At the same time, while serving as the left minister of the Ministry of War, Zhang Xianyu also went to Dali City as a court angel to learn from his brother Zhang Xiancun, the king of Chu, about the governance of the vassal state and foreign conquest.
It can be said that this year's 28-year-old Zhang Xianyu has completely matured. He is no longer the fat guy with low self-esteem and poor words when he was a child.
Rather, he was a king who was young, powerful, extremely charismatic, proficient in Turkic and Persian, familiar with internal affairs and foreign wars, knew the political compromise, and knew how to pacify newly conquered lands.
If Zhang Yan died now, Zhang Xianyu would be a qualified emperor, even a more suitable emperor of the Zhou Dynasty than his brother Zhang Xiancun, the king of Chu vassal.
Therefore, Zhang Xian was now relieved to let Zhang Xianyu take his two younger brothers Zhang Xianxi and Zhang Xiantai to the west to annex Saman Persia and prepare the front line for the Western Expedition.
And the last reason, which is also the most important reason, is strength.
In AD 962, the third year of Qianyuan, the biggest difference in strength from the seventh year of Tianfu in the puppet Jin Dynasty twenty years ago was the population.
In 942, the world's population was between 22 million and 25 million, and the Central Plains was so poor that it could not even provide enough food for hundreds of thousands of troops to fight for a year.
But now, the results of the national household registration census in 961 AD, the second year of Qianyuan, show that the world's population has returned to more than 60% of the peak of the Tang Dynasty, with a population of 50 million.
Among them, a large number of hidden people have been identified in the past twenty years. The black households who fled to the mountains, forests and swamps have also come out to accept the equalization of land, as well as the populations of Khitan, grassland, Nanzhao, Goryeo and Japanese countries.
The population base they pushed together has nearly doubled in two decades.
Thanks to the promotion of new crops such as corn, especially Champa rice and Huangrang rice, sufficient food, a stable political situation, a relatively clear officialdom, and reasonable tax policies, a couple in Zhangzhou had an average of 10,000 children per capita. Horrifying statistics for more than five children.
For example, in Dad Wei's family, twenty years ago he only had three sons, all of whom were only a few years old.
Even ten years ago, although Father Wei had seven children, the oldest was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest was four or five years old. It would be unrealistic for you to ask such a child to go on an expedition.
Only when Dad Wei's Five Young Men of Wei have grown up, and strong men like Wei's Five Young Men who have nothing to do and are born for war and colonization, can the Western Expedition be carried out.
Zhang Xianyu went all the way from Guanzhong to Chengtian Liangzhou Prefecture. Along the way, there were inspection envoys who had already received orders from the imperial court. They sent people like Webster's Wubiao who were under control in the countryside to the team. After passing After being selected by the three kings and their military attaches, they were incorporated into the army.
These inspection envoys are the new generation of bullies who maintain force in Zhangzhou's countryside.
From Zhang Yan's perspective, he would definitely not go down the path of overreaching in the Northern Song Dynasty. The folk martial arts style must be maintained.
But for the powerful people in the countryside, Zhang Zhou's control was stronger than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties.
This is not to say that the overall quality of Zhang Zhou's officials was higher than that of the Han and Tang Dynasties, but that Zhang Zhou's civil and military imperial examination system had matured, and the advancement of printing technology had brought about a decline in knowledge.
At the same time, compared with the Han and Tang Dynasties, Zhang Zhou had sufficient channels to "open gates and release floods" after solving the grassland problem.
These rural tycoons and their descendants will either pass the civil and military examinations and be selected to serve as officials in the central government or other places in the future, or they will be ordered to accompany the king's expedition to show their talents outside the region.
Through this uninterrupted pumping-type 'flood discharge', it is estimated that Zhang Zhou can keep the domestic power at a low intensity for at least 150 years without destroying the martial arts among the people.
As for one hundred and fifty years later, haha, Zhang Yan is not really a god. It is good to be able to maintain it for such a long time. For what will happen next, we really can only believe in the wisdom of future generations.
Therefore, when Zhang Xianyu left Shendu, the three brothers and the three guards were basically empty shells. However, after arriving in Liangzhou, they already had 20,000 infantry and cavalry, including more than 8,000 elite cavalry and 12,000 infantry.
Among the 20,000 people, there were more than 4,000 people from various pro-army, forbidden armies, and junior ministers who had prepared their own armor and war horses.
Counting the 3,000 full-armored guards assigned to each of the three brothers by their father Zhang Yan when they set out, this not-so-large team already had 13,000 armored soldiers.
As for the training, it goes without saying. When the Five Wei Biaos of the Wei Dynasty arrived in the river, they were all bully men who killed them indiscriminately.
A few days after Zhang Xianyu arrived in Liangzhou, the messenger from the grassland arrived.
This time he marched westward, except for Bashmi, Yili and Chigas, who were near the river.
The remaining 90,000 households, with the cooperation of Mobei's pacified and deposed ambassador Fu Zhaoxu and the great virtues and monks of the six dharma sects, mobilized a total of 25,000 fine cavalry and 19,500 herdsmen, including men, women and elders. 117,000 young people accompanied the expedition.
Compared with the Han Dynasty, the grassland was the area that Zhang Zhou closely monitored. Of course, this monitoring did not mean restricting personal freedom, but monitoring the growth of the population in the grassland area.
After the grasslands and the Central Plains became integrated over the years, a large amount of food from the Han Dynasty flowed into the grasslands through government sales and merchants, and the fur, horns, tendons, bacon, etc. from the grasslands also entered the Central Plains smoothly.
Therefore, the population on the grasslands is increasing rapidly, but their carrying capacity is very low, so it is even more necessary to continuously lead the population to the west to avoid chaos.
At the same time, on the grassland, Zhang Zhou formed a cross-control model of ten thousand households-thousand households-hundred households and the monk tradition-monk tradition-the Buddhist monks.
It is said that your whole family will go with Wang Huzheng. Except for the birth of a relative who can be postponed for a few months, the rest will basically start immediately.
If you dare to say no, you must be bewitched by the devil. If you dare not listen to the decree of the Supreme God, your whole family will be immediately made into slaves. If you dare to disobey, the only result will be the execution of the male.
Fortunately, with the material support from Han, it is not a chore to march westward from the grasslands, and most people are very willing.
Therefore, the prairie cavalry assigned to Zhang Xianyu and other three kings this time are very elite and have a strong will to fight.
Among the 25,000 fine cavalry, there are 3,000 heavy armored cavalry, 5,000 light armored cavalry, and the rest are the leading unarmored horse archers on the grassland.
And among these 19,500 herdsmen, if mobilized to the maximum extent, they can still pull out almost 30,000 to 40,000 unarmored horse archers, and their combat effectiveness cannot be underestimated.
Zhang Xianyu was also extremely happy after hearing this. If he wanted to control Hezhong and Khorasan where there were many cities, the Han people Chongbu and Jingqi were good minions.
But to attack the various nomadic peoples west and north of the West Sea (Caspian Sea), these steppe cavalry will be used.
Taking into account the huge logistical pressure caused by the entire army taking the Hexi Corridor, Zhang Xianyu immediately asked the powerful generals to camp and the horse army commander Liu Tingrang, accompanied by his tenth brother Zhang Xiantai, the King of Shu, and led 500 Shu elite cavalry to accept and control these grasslands. The cavalry then walked through the grassland into Beiting and then met in Anxi.
The tenth son of the emperor, Zhang Xiantai, is eighteen years old this year. His biological mother is Fu Ying'er, the great Fu. Zhang Xiantai inherited the martial arts genes of the Zhang and Fu families, and her martial arts skills were taught by her grandfather Fu Yanqing himself.
Therefore, although he was only eighteen years old, his horsemen and horses were all unparalleled warriors. Even Zhang Liechao, the little black bear who accompanied them on the western expedition as the main general this time, was no match for him.
And the current Mobei pacification and deposed ambassador Fu Zhaoxu is also Zhang Xiantai's uncle. It is appropriate for him to go to Juyanhai to receive these grassland cavalry.
The team walked to Dunhuang and passed through Dangjin Mountain Pass and Ganquan River from the Batang Plateau. Two thousand Tibetan heavy soldiers had been waiting for a long time under the leadership of Lunshi Lun Tongheng.
At the same time, Pan Mei, who succeeded Guo Tiance as the Defense Ambassador of Batang Province and the Protector of Batang, also dispatched a thousand armored soldiers to arrive in Khotan directly from Congling, waiting for Zhang Xianyu and others to receive them.
At this point, all the armed forces of the Three Kings' Western Expedition have been gathered, including 9,000 retired elites from the pro-army and forbidden armies, 20,000 elite soldiers from the Han region, 25,000 grassland cavalry, and 3,000 Tubo warriors, for a total of 57,000 people.
In addition, there are 20,000 local ruffians and rangers distributed by the Han region, and more than 30,000 prairie cavalry that can be obtained through the extreme recruitment. In total, there are more than 120,000 people with good combat effectiveness.
Then count the two kings and one prince in the river now, the Anxi Army and the Ningyuan Army.
Not counting the Saman Persian servant army, a maximum of 200,000 to 220,000 soldiers can be mobilized.
Moreover, there are at least 50,000 armored soldiers. The food currently hoarded by Ningyuan, Suiye, and Zheng Fan is enough for an army of 200,000 to fight for four to five years.
Obviously, such a terrifying military strength, even in the Central Plains in the past, should have been as powerful as the two families of Nantang and Nanping combined, and would not be used simply to deal with the Bweshi dynasty.
. . . .
In Shule, Li Shengtian saw Zhang Xianyu and his army arriving, with a happy smile on his face.
After Zhang Xianyu led Zhang Xianxi to pay homage to him using the etiquette of meeting his grandfather, Li Shengtian took their hands and immediately began to explain Ning Yuan's specific situation.
In his entire life, Li Shengtian had been tricked by his good nephew, Zhang Yan.
He wanted to stay in the Central Plains more than ten years ago, but he kept working until he was now gray-haired and old before he had the chance to escape from Anxi.
Li Shengtian could have left a few years ago, but Lao Zhang Zhong's sudden illness interrupted Li Shengtian's plan. During the four years when Lao Zhang Zhong was not able to take things seriously enough to die of illness, it was Li Shengtian who actually controlled Ningyuan. .
Only Li Shengtian and Zhang Gao understood the hardships involved.
Khotan was actually the property of his Yuchi family. As a result, under Li Shengtian's arrangement, not only did he have to transfer the vassal state to hand over his ancestral property, but also Ningyuan, who had been captured by Zhang Zhi but had been handed over to Khotan, had to be handed over.
You know, Ningyuan is now richer than Shule and Khotan. From the eldest son Li Congde to the ordinary clan, no one in the Li family is jealous.
Li Shengtian almost always had to carry everyone's opposition to adhere to Zhang Xiao's strategy.
Li Shengtian was also very emotional about this. He said to Zhang Xianyu and Zhang Xianxi: "Reviving the great dynasty, defeating the Great Eclipse, and protecting our Buddha. This is the great strategy that your father is realizing, and it is also Li Shengtian's ambition in the past!"
Almost from the beginning, Zhang Yan, the nephew, was Li Shengtian, a king who was not very good at military strategy, and the 'dream fighter' to achieve great things. That's why the uncle and nephew were so united.
But there was actually another reason that Li Shengtian didn't say, and that was that he knew Zhang Yan's temper very well.
His nephew has always had a red line in his heart. Before crossing this line, he was still a kind and generous king. But after crossing this line, he would definitely be cruel and disown his relatives.
Compared with the imperial court, Khotan was just a small vassal state. Historically, if the rulers of the Western Regions did not respect the imperial court's orders, they would often end up miserable. Li Shengtian invested in Zhang Zhou himself, so he could not turn a good thing into a bad thing.
He stayed in Anxi to ensure that things would not come to that point.
Zhang Xianyu once again bowed to the ground and said, "Don't worry, my grandson. My father knows that my hard work has made great achievements. Before my grandson came to Anxi, my father warned me in every possible way, so my grandson knows what he is doing."
"Okay!" Li Shengtian was overjoyed, "With Erlang's words, Aweng will feel relieved."
After saying that, Li Shengtian sighed deeply: "Thirty years ago, your father Zhang Erlang came from Dunhuang, and then the Great Zhou Dynasty came into being.
Today you are also Zhang Erlang, and what will happen to the west of Central Earth is entirely in your hands. "
(End of chapter)
