In February of the fourth year of the Qianyuan year of the Great Zhou Dynasty (AD 963), Zhang Xiantai, who had accepted the prairie cavalry, finally arrived in Shule.
The herdsmen were resettled in Shule, Qiuci, Yanqi, Khotan and other places. The local government was responsible for eating and drinking, and allocated temporary pasture for grazing.
At the same time, the three kings' Western Expeditionary Army was gathered together to train together while adapting to the local conditions.
Although the Three Kings' Western Expeditionary Army was a complete empty shell when they set off from the Divine Capital, there are still some supports to support this empty shell, and that is the veterans who have graduated from Longtao Academy and then entered the army over the years.
They serve as Lieutenant Generals above Yuhou and a small number of team members in the Western Expeditionary Army. These veterans are familiar with the local customs of Anxi. A few of them are proficient in Turkic language, and most of them can conduct simple daily conversations in Turkic language.
At the same time, they can also identify directions in the wilderness, and more importantly, they also know a little about medical science.
Well, it may be a bit exaggerated to say that it is medical knowledge, because what they know is just common medical common sense in the eyes of later generations, and they use Huoxiang Zhengqi Powder and Montmorillonite Powder to treat acclimatization.
The former is mainly used to treat dizziness, chest tightness, distension and vomiting, etc. It is a precious prescription that has been formed in this era and has been included in the Qianjin Prescription.
The latter mainly treats diarrhea caused by acclimatization, etc. Historically, it was invented by the French in the early 20th century.
But thanks to my "excellent" physique that even eating a banana could cause diarrhea when I was a child, Saint Zhang was very familiar with montmorillonite powder. Therefore, after he determined that he wanted Xiajun Yimin, he began to send people to search for and study it.
Finally, the hard work paid off, and the medical doctors of Jinyi Guards Yin Yang Feng Pharmacy made a large number of discoveries in the three provinces of Henan, Hebei and Andong.
In particular, Andong, the montmorillonite bentonite discovered in the Northeast, is large in quantity, good in quality, and easy to mine. It has now become one of the financial resources for the people of all ethnic groups in Andong Province.
Cinchona cream can't be solved now, so it is very dangerous to go to Southeast Asia.
However, with the use of Huoxiang Zhengqi Powder and Montmorillonite Powder, among the athletes who went west to Hezhong, Persia, the Caspian Sea coast and Tianzhu, the number of deaths due to acclimatization was directly reduced by more than 80%.
Therefore, Huoxiang Zhengqi Powder and Montmorillonite Powder have become prescriptions that every graduate of Longtao Academy must be familiar with. Even in extreme cases, they must be able to prepare medicines from medicinal materials themselves.
In April, the joint training of the army was completed, and the soldiers had basically adapted to the climate of Anxi, so Zhang Xianyu divided his troops into three groups.
The main force of the Southern Route Army was led by him, with 50,000 infantry and cavalry from Shule to Ningyuan.
The middle route army was led by Zhang Xianxi, the king of the Song Dynasty, and rode 6,000 people on foot from Shule north to Suiye.
Because Zhang Xianxi is Guo Waner's adopted son, and his biological mother is Princess Samanbos Sefiye. At the same time, he is also married to Hu Guang's daughter Hujie.
More importantly, as a heroine like Princess Pingyang Zhao, Hujie is in the army and helps Zhang Xianxi control an elite Dadan cavalry.
The Hu family comes from a small group of Bai Dadan people west of Ju Yanhai who surrendered to the Guiyi Army. After Hu Guang developed, more Bai Dadan people who could not survive on the grassland came to Hu Guang.
After Hu Guang collected them, he selected the best and sent them to the Central Plains to serve as Zhang Xianxi's personal followers.
Hu Guang has now served as the pacification and deposed ambassador in Anxi for more than ten years. He has firmly controlled more than a dozen cities from Suiye to Talas, with a population of more than 600,000, and has formed 8,000 elite soldiers and 12,000 A military system that recruits thousands of soldiers.
Zhang Xianyu couldn't help but be a little envious. Among the three brothers, Zhang Xianxi had the easiest task. Not only did his father-in-law take care of everything, but he also had the blood of Saman Persia.
When the news of his arrival in the river spreads, I don't know how many Samandro Persians will come to pledge their allegiance to him.
The Northern Route Army was led by Zhang Xiantai, the king of Shu, with 30,000 infantry and cavalry, and entered the land of Qihe via Qiuci.
The main task is to recruit about 50,000 to 80,000 Geluolu people as a servant army, and then go to Dinghai City (Felt) to join Lu Sanlang.
The Geluolu people are a little bit miserable now. Historically, it was not a big deal to be a second or fifth son in the Battle of Talos. However, at this time, the Zhang Zhou court had a large number of Donggui faction who were descendants of the Anxi army. At the same time, they also followed Sa The dark history of Ketu Khan’s confrontation with Zhang Hao.
Therefore, although the number of people is nearly half a million, and they still occupy the fertile land of Seven Rivers, they are not even included in the establishment of 10,000 households. They are divided between the 20,000 households of Bashmi, Yili, and the Beiting Provincial Yamen. Control, whenever there is a war, they will be recruited as an army of servants to do dirty, tiring and deadly work.
It is estimated that when only a few hundred thousand people are left after the population is transferred, the Land of Seven Rivers will no longer belong to them, and the remaining people will definitely integrate into other tribes.
In May, Zhang Xianyu arrived at Xining City, the capital of Ningyuan, and began to replace Cao Bin, who had been garrisoning here for nearly ten years and was about to return eastward when Hezhong was completely pacified.
Different from Cao Bin's official position of ambassador to appease and depose Ningyuan, Zhang Xianyu's full official position is called governor of Ningyuan's military, political, financial and food affairs, or governor of Ningyuan for short.
Today, Zhang Zhou and Ningyuan have a very special status. In today's Hezhong and Anxi, Ningyuan has the highest proportion of Han people. Zhang Yan has also made it clear that he will not enfeoff kings in Ningyuan.
At the same time, it is neither a province nor a vassal state, but a Zhili Prefecture that is clearly distinguished from the two.
Zhang Zhou now has three Zhili. The original Henan province in the capital is called Zhili. The official is the military governor of Zhili Qianliangxingmingwei Station, which is referred to as the Zhili governor.
The second one is the Pengtai Zhili Prefecture in Penglai Province. The official is the Quan Photographer of the Penglai Island Qianliangjun and the Pengtai Prefecture Yin.
This position was proposed by Zhang Xianyu after he left Pengtai, and it was not mainly to control Penglai Island (Kyushu Island).
But it was to let the people in Penglai and Asahi provinces, which originally belonged to the Japanese country, know that there was still a court above their heads, and they were now part of the Central Plains court.
The third one is Ningyuan Zhili Mansion. The official is responsible for supervising Ningyuan's money, food, military and political affairs, and is referred to as Ningyuan Governor.
At the same time, unlike the other two Zhili governors, the governor of Ningyuan was appointed directly by the emperor and did not go through the Ministry of Officials of Shangshu Province.
To put it bluntly, Ningyuan is a private domain of the royal family, and it also has the function of providing blood packs to the people of Xiajun.
For example, the millions of stones of grain, hundreds of thousands of arrow shafts, and the arsenal started here by Longtao Institute and Tiangong Institute are all prepared for the future Western Expedition in Ningyuan.
Therefore, every governor of Ningyuan is the most trusted confidant of the royal family, and he is even the royal family's own person.
Zhang Xianyu stayed in Ningyuan for a month, and he was not idle during this month. The current situation in Hezhong Province is complicated, especially the fight between several forces among his own people. Zhang Xianyu must calmly analyze the results before making any plans. action.
You must know that among these people, even the most leftover Grand Duke Lu Sanlang of Dinghai is also a member of the Donggui Sect.
The remaining Bai Congxin is not only a member of the Yuancong sect, but also the second most meritorious veteran of the Yuancong sect.
Not to mention Li Congde. The Li family in Khotan worked hard and made great achievements. They were deeply involved with the Zhang family, the Cao family and even the entire Guiyi Army. They even completed Zhang Zhou's first round of angel venture capital.
As for Guo Ting'er, this woman is not just simple. She is also deeply involved with the radicals in Samanbos and the radicals of Liufa Sect in Hezhong, and she cannot be easily moved.
All this led to Zhang Xianyu not being able to use force when facing them. How to solve their respective needs and twist them into a rope was a complete test of Zhang Xianyu's personal ability and political wisdom.
There are a vast amount of various documents, including the records of Jinyi's secret agents for more than ten years, the reports of the forerunners who were born in Longtao Academy but have taken root in the river, official documents and documents, folk rumors, businessmen's accounts, What the court officials saw and heard, etc.
All kinds of things need Zhang Xianyu to filter out useful information in a short time.
This is ability. These records are not what you will see in the future. Subordinates carefully prepare and organize them with pictures and tables.
Rather, it is a large collection of rather concise records written in classical Chinese on various rough papers, parchments, and even white boards.
And there is a lot of useless information in it, which requires you to screen and make choices.
When most people see this, their brains will immediately shut down and their CPU will smoke. However, Zhang Xianyu only spent five days to sort this out.
Let's look at Bai Congxin first. General Yuan Cong has been making trouble, actually out of anxiety.
Because although his Zheng Fan Kingdom occupies prosperous land in the river, including Shiguo City and Baishui City, its land area is actually not large.
It is only a little more than two-thirds of Ningyuan, which is about the same size as the Hanzhong Basin. There are more than 500,000 people living in this area, of which 150,000 or 60,000 are Han people.
In addition to Bai Congxin, there are more than 10,000 original Qiuci people, also known as the Yellow-headed Uighurs in history. There are also thousands of vassals of Zheng Fan Kingdom, large and small.
This resulted in the fact that the Zheng Fan Kingdom was not very large. Although it had a population of more than 500,000, there were still a lot of people who could serve as lords, so that everyone could be rich, but not too rich.
As for continuing to expand outward, Bai Congxin is bounded by Lu Sanlang's Dinghai Grand Duchy to the west, to the north by the Song vassal state controlled by Hu Guang's son-in-law, to the east by Ningyuan Zhili Prefecture, which he cannot move, to the southwest by Saman Persia, and to the southeast by The golden vassal state that occupied Samarkand.
Damn it, this is completely blocking the future of Zheng Fanguo from all sides. The future can already be seen.
In order to win the fourth battle of Shiguocheng, Bai Congxin offered a very high reward.
In order to resettle the clansmen after the war and have to fulfill their promises, they could only reduce the land controlled by the royal family.
Among the vassal states of Yan, Chu, Song, and Zheng that have been formed in the world today, Zheng vassal state is the one with the smallest land and other wealth owned by the royal family and the smallest population. It is not even comparable to Lu Sanlang's Dinghai Grand Duke, and the rich peasants of Japan. Nan Junhou.
Why doesn't this make Bai Congxin calm? Just like Guo Ziyi, he now has seven sons and eight daughters. He already has more than 20 grandchildren and granddaughters, and there will be more and more in the future.
The wealth, land and population that the Zheng Fan royal family could control were simply not enough.
If this continues, as soon as he dies, Zheng Fan will be in civil strife within twenty years, or it will be a huge civil strife. Bai Congxin can't help but be anxious!
He was so anxious that his hair almost fell out, but he had no other choice but to try to cannibalize Li Congde's Jinfan and Samampos, and do whatever he could.
As for the Jin Fan Kingdom, Zhang Xianyu figured it out one by one. The status of the Jin Fan was unusual. Khotan was within the imperial court, stable and wealthy, and it was still the ancestral land.
Now that the vassal was moved to Kangju (Samarkand), the people under the rule were unwilling to accept the rule of the Jin vassal, and kept running to the nearby Anxi (Bukhara), Dong'an, and Jiesu (Dushanbe).
At the same time, they also have to face the pressure of Bai Congxin in the northwest, Saman Persia in the west cannot be trusted, and in the east they have to fight against the traitors who occupy Tocharia and have not yet surrendered to the Anyuan Kingdom.
It's like a rich second generation who originally had no worries about food and drink, but was suddenly kicked out to start his own business. The company finally opened, and there are problems in all directions. It's strange to feel comfortable.
As for Guo Ting'er, the problem has two aspects. One is that Mansour is already sixteen years old and has grown up.
Although he was very close to Han culture under Guo Ting'er's upbringing and converted to Liufa Sect, it was obvious that the imperial court did not intend to give him this land in the river.
At the same time, Zhang Yan seemed reluctant to let Mansour go to the Central Plains, which was very troublesome. He had to find a place for Mansour to settle as soon as possible.
The second is Guo Ting'er. She has just turned thirty this year, but she is no longer suitable to be Mansour's adoptive mother. Guo Ting'er has also shown that she does not want to continue to be Mansour's adoptive mother.
At the same time, Guo Ting'er also formed an alliance with the fanatical Six Dharma Sect master Sri Vuluo, the disciple of Master Cixian who originally preached in Goryeo, but quickly sold out to King Wang Zhao of Goryeo.
Sri Vuluo networked a large number of people, and Guo Ting'er himself also recruited a group of people. It seemed that Sri Vulu was ready to support Guo Ting'er as the leader, and left the river with a large number of believers to become a queen somewhere and preach.
This is a bit difficult to handle, even more difficult than the problem of Bai Congxin and Li Congde.
As for Dinghai Grand Duke Lu Sanlang, his problem is actually the best to solve.
The Grand Duchy of Dinghai is located in the Lei Zhuhai (Aral Sea), with nomadic tribes to its west and north.
Ogusi Yehuguo Yehudanushimi was beaten away at the beginning.
Zhang Shengren's old rival, Xiaoqiang, who was still running on the front line against the Zhou Dynasty in his fifties - Saktu Khan of the Kara Khanate, was on this side.
They united a large number of grassland tribes from the Central Asian grasslands to the Caspian Sea and the Volga River, and constantly raided the pastures and cultivated land of the Dinghai Grand Duchy.
Although Lu Sanlang, especially his adopted son Lu Ketu, was brave and good at fighting, he defeated these thieves many times and beat them to the point where they cried for father and mother.
But after all, there are only over 200,000 people in the Dinghai Grand Duchy. It is already very difficult to defend such a long national border. It is indeed difficult to deal with all-round harassment.
Therefore, the problem between Lu Sanlang and the Dinghai Dukedom is that they urgently need a big partner.
Originally, Lu Sanlang was in alliance with Bai Congxin, but after seeing Bai Congxin's plight, Lu Sanlang was afraid that he would become hot-headed and commit suicide to anger the emperor, so he severed his alliance with Bai Congxin.
Without the support of Zheng Fan, the other Samanpos, Jin Fan and Song Fan could not be Lu Sanlang's thigh.
Therefore, Lu Sanlang has been tortured by Danushmi and Saktu over the years and has become a little crazy, and he urgently needs the court to help him.
Once you understand the needs, you can prescribe the right medicine.
At the end of May, King Shu Zhang Xiantai sent someone back with news that he had successfully recruited 65,000 Ge Luolu servants. With a mighty army of 100,000, he drove directly to Dinghai City, the capital of Grand Duke Dinghai, and then... captured He took over the military power of Dinghai Principality.
The reason why it went so smoothly was because Zhang Xiantai’s staff was not only filled with talents, but also stars.
In terms of civil servants, there was Zhao Kuangyi, who had already served as a governor in the local area, a scholar of Zhaowu in the central government, and a person in Luantai.
Brother Zhao is twenty-four years old this year. He is at the peak of his intelligence. He is proficient in strategy, planning and ruthless.
In addition to the second brother Zhao, the civil servants also include Duke Lu Duan and Lu Zhenghui, who is 28 years old this year and is known in history as being unambiguous in important matters.
In terms of military generals, there is Cui Han and Cui Zhongwen, the famous founding generals of the Northern Song Dynasty who were brave and resourceful in history, despised money for justice, and had extraordinary magnanimity.
There is also Guo Shouwen, who was also the founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty and received a posthumous gift from King Qiao, as well as the posthumous title of Zhongwu, the highest honor for a warrior in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was good at strategy and poetry.
Compared with these two, Liu Tingrang, a historical Northern Song general, seemed a bit inferior.
At the same time, supporting Zhang Xiantai was the famous general Zhang Zhou, Weiyuan Marquis, and Weizhou native Li Zun, who had served as the general of Zuo Shenwei in the pro-army.
Li Zun's younger sister is Zhang Xiantai's concubine, so the two have a very close relationship.
With such a combination of civil and military forces, as well as the three hundred elite Yanzhao cavalry trained by his grandfather Fu Yanqing, mainly the children of the Fu family, he should not be too easy to handle Lu Sanlang and Lu Ketu.
When the news was sent to Zhang Xianyu, Zhang Xiantai had already been generous to the outside world on the advice of the sinister Zhao Erge and Guo Shouwen.
He led 65,000 Geluolu people to come to criticize Lu Sanlang's actions. He lied that the Geluolu people could not bear the oppression and wanted to come to Dinghai City to grab a handful and then go west to find a way to survive.
Under the planning of Brother Zhao, the leaders of Ge Luolu were very happy and agreed to cooperate with Zhang Xiantai in acting.
When the news reached the grassland, Saktu immediately said that this was probably a trap.
This old Xiaoqiang knows the characteristics of the Geluolu people very well, and he also understands that there is nothing on his side that is worthy of the Geluolu people's surrender.
However, Danushimi, who was eager to fight back to Lei Zhuhai (Aral Sea), had a different view. He believed that Lu Sanlang was simply unable to mobilize the Geluolu people to accompany him in acting.
This is indeed the case, but unfortunately, it was not Lu Sanlang who made the Geluolu people willing to act, but Zhang Julang and Zhang Kenta.
Although Saktu claimed that this was a trap, it was only his speculation and could not be used as evidence.
As a result, driven by the fervent desire of his subjects to go to the Grand Duchy of Dinghai to rob him, Saktu gradually stopped insisting on his own views.
In early June, Danushimi and Saktu paid heavily to bribe a group of Kimaks and Kipchaks, allowing these tough grassland people to form a coalition army with them.
In mid-August, these people arrived at a place more than 500 miles northwest of Dinghai Town.
This place was located near Aralsk in later Kazakhstan. During the Qing Dynasty, it belonged to Xiaoyuzi, Kazakhstan. It was about 1,200 miles away from the Ural River and the Caspian Sea. It was an important commercial node between the Ural River and the core area of Central Asia.
Danushmi arranged for more than 100,000 coalition troops to be parked in Aralsk, and he was also prepared.
This place is still five hundred miles away from Dinghai City. When he arrived in Aralsk, he sent people to Dinghai City to verify the situation. If it was a trap, he would retreat immediately. He would only go to plunder if he was sure it was true.
This arrangement was not imprudent, but Zhang Xiantai never thought of waiting until they were close to Dinghai City before taking action.
Because the closer to Dinghai City, the easier it would be to expose the secret, so he decided that he only needed to make sure that Danuximi really brought people here, and then he would take action.
Therefore, before Danuximi's spies approached Dinghai City, Zhang Xiantai learned the specific location of the Danuximi coalition through Geluolu and the Ogus people who believed in the Six Methods Sect.
Zhang Xiantai immediately, with the assistance of Li Zun, Lu Ketu, Lu Duan and others, selected 30,000 elite cavalry from the North Route Army of the Western Expedition, which numbered hundreds of thousands. Under the leadership of one person and three horses, they marched day and night. Fight against Aralsk.
Four days later, the Han army, which ran for five hundred miles, arrived more than thirty miles east of Aralsk.
Danushmi's coalition forces didn't know anything yet. They brutally arrested the local Oghuz women, robbed the Oghuz people's cattle and sheep, and were happily eating, drinking and opening a bank party.
Seeing this, Zhang Xiantai ordered the army to rest for four hours. After they had eaten and drank enough at dawn, they suddenly launched an attack on the coalition forces surrounding Aralsk within a radius of six or seven miles.
These guys, including the mature Saktu, never thought that the elite cavalry of the Han army would suddenly appear. Therefore, most of them did not even talk about fighting, but did not even have horses and weapons around them, making the battle lost as soon as it started. suspense.
Zhang Xiantai first ordered 15,000 prairie cavalry to outflank the two flanks, giving the illusion that at least 100,000 troops were attacking.
The frightened coalition forces could not tell the difference under the limited field of vision at dawn. They were so frightened that they abandoned their carefully built camps and ran towards the gap in the west.
The two sides chased until dawn. Except for a small number of coalition forces who escaped, most of them were surrounded by a Gobi desert.
Danushmi was furious when he discovered that there were only tens of thousands (actually more than ten thousand) cavalry attacking from a high place. He ordered the coalition troops to dismount and form a formation, and use infantry bows to repel the attack of the prairie cavalry.
Zhang Xiantai immediately changed his tactics and ordered five thousand Ge Luolu soldiers to die in a desperate attack on the dismounted main force of the coalition forces.
But this was a trick to deceive people. Sure enough, the Geluolu people suffered heavy casualties in the rain of arrows, which immediately boosted the morale of the coalition forces.
Zhang Xiantai also deliberately let the Geluolu people wear the general's brocade clothes and even brightly colored clothes and gold and silver ornaments before setting off to lure the coalition forces.
The coalition forces were indeed fooled. Seeing that the enemy was vulnerable and the loot was rich, they, accustomed to poverty, rushed out to snatch the loot. Even Danushmi could not stop them.
In order to snatch the spoils more quickly, many Kimaks and Kipchaks even dismounted and went back to look for their horses, then remounted and charged forward.
As a result, some people were moving forward, while others were looking for horses from behind. People were quarreling, robbing, and people were busy picking off the good-looking clothes of the Geluolu people everywhere. The more than 100,000 coalition troops were in chaos and completely lost. took command.
At this moment, the five thousand fine cavalry of the Han army hidden five or six miles away got the signal and immediately rushed towards them.
These elite cavalrymen of the Han army are all warriors who are one in a thousand. They are equipped with well-equipped armors, weapons and strong horses. Their fighting will and skills are extremely superb and tenacious.
After they finished shooting their bows and arrows, they drew their horses, and then fired their bows and arrows. They charged and killed them repeatedly. In just one hour, they completely defeated the chaotic coalition forces.
At this time, the prairie cavalry on both sides came to outflank and drive them away. They kept biting the severely wounded bison of the coalition forces like wild wolves. Hundreds of thousands of coalition troops collapsed and ran around on the Gobi, unable to form a formation to resist.
In the second hour of the battle, when the battle situation became clear, Zhang Xiantai personally put on armor and went into battle, leading three hundred Yanzhao elite cavalry to rush towards Danuximi's location.
One of the three hundred Yanzhao elite cavalry was worth a hundred, and it only took one attack to disperse Danushmi's elite guard.
Zhang Xiantai jumped on his horse and took half of Danushmi's head out of the tens of thousands of troops. The coalition army finally collapsed.
In this battle, Zhang Xiantai actually only used 25,000 men to annihilate an enemy that was almost five times his number.
The coalition forces were crying for their fathers and mothers, and corpses were scattered all over the field. The Han soldiers even fought until the third spare cross sword was curled up, and then the battle ended.
In this pursuit of more than 20 miles, the coalition forces were killed by more than 30,000 people and captured more than 40,000 people. Only 40,000 to 50,000 people were able to escape.
Zhang Xiantai then executed 40,000 prisoners and 20,000 on the edge of this unknown desert, and built three giant Beijing temples with the heads of 50,000 and 60,000 coalition troops to show the majesty of Zhang Han's army.
Hundreds of thousands of livestock carried by the coalition forces were even abandoned because they lacked drinking water and could not be taken away.
A few days later, Saktu, who was lucky enough to escape, let out a shrill scream in front of this terrifying sight, and then disappeared into the endless desert with his last hundred or so confidants.
He knew that he was destined to fail in this life.
