After secretly concluding a one-year peace agreement with the countries in Western Xinjiang, the Shengtang Dynasty's only remaining lone army west of Zijin Pass, the Zhenjiang Army's Metasequoia Army, truly began to enter a period of rapid development.
At this time, the thirty-six countries in Western Xinjiang had gradually recovered from the haze of war.
Although the Silk Road trade route to the Central Plains is still blocked due to the blockade by the Turks, mutual trade in the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang is slowly recovering as the wars everywhere subside. Coupled with the mediation and paving the way by the Persian business mission, business travelers from the Western Continent also came here one after another.
Economic vitality has reappeared in this vast land.
At the same time, the political power map of Western Xinjiang has been basically delineated. Since Loulan and Shule were the first to launch rebellions, they were tantamount to seizing the opportunity, and they had strong military support. Therefore, each of them either coerced or attracted seven or eight subordinate vassal states, and their spheres of influence were huge.
Although the Chechi Kingdom and the other four or five weaker Western Xinjiang countries could not compare with Loulan Shule, they did their best to form gangs and continuously expand and consolidate their territory.
After nearly a year of fighting for carving up, the Ghost Desert of Western Xinjiang was finally controlled by the seven vassal states with the strongest military strength. The remaining twenty-nine countries could only choose to stand in line, follow the big boss's wings, and live a careful life.
The Turkic Empire focused its main efforts on Zijin Pass and Shengyuguan. Prince Roniya of the Turkic Temple personally took charge of the north and south camps and commanded an army of 100,000 to prevent Shengtang from sending troops to counterattack the western border.
Relatively speaking, their control over the hinterland of Western Xinjiang appears to be very loose, and they only rely on Duolun's scattered patrols to exert influence.
This is also the strategy decided by Khan Ashina. He warned his subordinates not to over-stimulate the Western Xinjiang vassal state, which is extremely sensitive to this, at this stage, so as to affect his future plans because of the nominal right to rule. What we want to focus on now is to seize the wealth and resources of Western Xinjiang as much as possible through covert means to supplement the Turks' national and military strength. As for politics, there is no need or need for any major actions.
Under the intentional restraint of Ashina Zhijin, Roniya, Gunie and others, the Turkic Empire and the Western Xinjiang Alliance maintained a relatively friendly and equal relationship. Although everyone can see the Turkic ambitions for the Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang, But as long as they haven't gone too far, they might as well get along.
It can be said that this is a rare period of stability in Western Xinjiang after more than a year of rebellion. All the forces that were involved in the chaos are now seizing the time to rest, restore their strength, and recharge their batteries to prepare for new challenges that may arise at any time.
This situation also happened to give Li Jiangyao and the others the opportunity to develop and grow.
Hundreds of officials from the Holy Tang Dynasty were added to various towns, and soon they played an unimaginable role.
They were all officials stationed in Western Xinjiang who had been trained by the Shengtang Dynasty for many years. They were proficient in various government affairs and familiar with local people's conditions. They also had strong support from the Xinjiang Army, so it didn't take long to rebuild a complete set of The Shengtang version of the urban governance system kept the area under the jurisdiction of the Metasequoia Military Mansion in an orderly and prosperous manner.
Xie Tanzhi, in particular, shined in the process of governance and construction.
Originally, Li Jiangyao arranged for him to temporarily assist Ma Mu and Situ Wushou, but later, it turned out that Ma Mu and Situ Wushou were hanging around him all day long, asking about this, asking for advice on that, and obeying orders. Finally, Li Jiangyao simply appointed Xie Tanzhi as the chief registrar of the Metasequoia Military Mansion, fully responsible for all administrative affairs within the jurisdiction.
When Xie Tanzhi took office, he immediately began to vigorously promote commercial trade, so that businessmen in the jurisdiction would bravely go out and do business with various vassal states. Only when trade routes are completely opened will agriculture, animal husbandry and handicrafts be viable. Because the secret peace agreement eliminated military risks and threats, this policy of "promoting prosperity through business" also progressed very smoothly.
People's livelihood is stable and all industries are prosperous.
With the government affairs and economy gradually improving, generals such as Li Jiangyao can also devote more energy to military construction.
Through a round of large-scale conscription, the Metasequoia Military Mansion, which originally numbered more than 20,000 people, quickly expanded to 60,000 people.
Once the new soldiers were in place, Li Jiangyao immediately ordered to dismantle the original organizational structure and reorganize the troops, which had been officially named the "Xinjiang Army".
First, he recalled all the main troops to Metasequoia and formed three armies to form a fist force. As the core of the military government, he specifically dealt with strategic battles. The defense tasks of towns in various places are left to the local garrison troops.
Of the three newly formed armies, the first army is a pure cavalry force with a total of 10,000 well-equipped armored heavy cavalry, named "Blast". The commander-in-chief will be Xu Youchang, deputy commander of the military government, and the two deputy commanders will be Wang Chenglong and Sun Jianzhong, former officers of the Xuanjia Army's forward battalion.
The Gale Cavalry Army will be the core force to attack the enemy in future battles, and shoulder the important task of deciding the outcome in one battle.
The second army is pure infantry, with a strength of 20,000, and is named "Fire Fire". It is built according to the standards of the "Jianzu Camp" of the Zhenjiang Protectorate. The entire military has complete arms and rich combat experience. The commander of the army will be Du Jian, and the deputy general will be Shanshan veteran Pal Tahong.
The Agni Infantry Army focuses on positional warfare, siege warfare and defensive warfare, and can be called the "backbone" of the Xinjiang Army.
The third army had 10,000 troops, consisting of a mixture of infantry and cavalry, and was designated "Thunder". Ho Liya, the princess of Nanhua County, serves as the commander-in-chief of the Third Army, and Lin Feng assists her in commanding as deputy general. Their main task is to serve as a reserve force for the entire army, providing supplements and support to fraternal forces in all directions.
Li Jiangyao's direct personal soldiers, the famous ghost-faced white-robed army, were carefully selected from the entire army and expanded to 5,000 troops, organized into the "Commander's Battalion". At the same time, there are two independent teams in the coaching camp. One of them is to select elites from the elite to form a Pegasus Scout Brigade, which is responsible for detecting the enemy's situation and raiding important enemy targets for the entire army. The other is the military law brigade, which supervises the military law and discipline of the entire army and punishes those soldiers who resist the law and violate the prohibitions.
Regarding the establishment of the army, Kuliban, the young prince of the Shenhua family, originally wanted to incorporate his tribal guards into the Xinjiang Army, but Li Jiangyao did not agree. After all, that armed force was the soldiers and horses responsible for protecting the safety of the prince during the establishment process of the Shenhua family, and it involved the foundation of the Shenhua family. Now, it is inappropriate both emotionally and rationally to include him in the Shengtang Army.
After Li Jiangyao's analysis and persuasion, Kuli reluctantly agreed to temporarily let his Ten Thousand God Flower Army hide outside Zhenjiang's sphere of influence and secretly cooperate with Li Jiangyao's actions. However, he also put forward an additional condition, asking Li Jiangyao to send an officer from the Zhenjiang Army to serve as the deputy commander of the Shenhua Soldiers and Horses, and to assist the commander-in-chief Heishan in carrying out daily military training and combat operations.
With the participation of Zhenjiang officers, both training standards and operational coordination will become smoother.
Li Jiangyao thought about it, so he chose a young officer named Zhao Yulong from among the veterans of the Pegasus Scout Battalion to join the Shenhua Army on his behalf.
At this point, the Zhenjiang Army, which was affiliated to the Shengtang Dynasty but had not been certified by the imperial court, had officially established its own complete structure. Among them, the number of Shengtang soldiers and local soldiers in Western Xinjiang maintained a ratio of one to three, which was unique in the history of the Shengtang army.
In addition to the reorganization of the troops, the two issues that Li Jiangyao, Xu Youchang and others were most worried about before: intelligence and supplies have also been fundamentally improved.
With Xie Tanzhi's advice and help, Situ Wushou carefully designed and weaved an intelligence network covering almost the entire Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang. As the right-hand man of Situ Wushou, Samor and Yuduoluo of the Shenhua family used the Shenhua connection to collect and organize all kinds of information specifically for the Zhenjiang Army, and constantly penetrated the core figures who instigated the enemy's rebellion, known as Metasequoia's clairvoyance and ears.
Ma Mu was appointed as the general quartermaster of the entire army. According to Li Jiangyao's idea, a large strategic reserve warehouse was built in the core area of the jurisdiction to store large quantities of grain, grass and equipment collected from all over. At the same time, his quartermasters also went to various strategic locations outside their jurisdiction, either in hilly mountains, or in the oasis next door, or in unknown towns, to secretly set up hidden supply relay stations to prepare for future army combat operations. Lay the foundation for logistics.
In addition, Li Jiangyao was innovative and founded a "Zhenjiang Military Academy".
He personally served as the principal of the military academy, and Xu Youchang served as the chief instructor. Lin Feng, Du Jian, and a large number of officers from the Zhenjiang Army and Xuanjia Army all served as instructors at the military academy. The classes at the military academy cover everything from astronomy to geography, military training, and warfare. They also include reading and writing. The content is rich, interesting and useful. In addition to the traditional two major categories of infantry and cavalry, Li Jiangyao pioneered the establishment of multiple arms majors, including munitions department, ordnance department, military intelligence department and ordnance department, to provide various business talents for the army.
During that period, after dinner every night, there would always be large groups of rude men, carrying small stools, sitting side by side, listening attentively and carefully to the lecturers on the stage, teaching them what they had never learned before. New knowledge that I have heard but never thought of.
The Zhenjiang Military Academy located in Metasequoia City, based on the experience of running martial arts halls in the imperial capital and modern military schools, regards cultivating a large number of outstanding middle and lower-level officers as its important mission, laying the strongest foundation for the Zhenjiang Army.
In the following decades, there was a powerful faction in the Shengtang military that played a decisive role in controlling the government and the opposition, and that was the famous Zhenjiang Military Faction. Many of the outstanding generals in this faction were young people who studied diligently in this military academy.
