The problems between the Golden Tribe and the Yelun Tribe did not arise in a day.
The first issue is the change in strength.
As the second largest tribe in the Turks, Yelun has experienced thousands of years of wind, frost, rain and snow, and its foundation cannot be underestimated. Whether it was the Blood Wolf Tribe before, or the Titan Tribe or Fire Demon Tribe in the distant past, the Turks developed from a khanate to an empire, and the ruling classes of each dynasty had all married into the Yelun Tribe, forming an intricate political network.
Nowadays, the Yelun Clan has become powerful again, and even has the potential strength to compete with the Golden Clan in some aspects.
Seeing this in Khan Ashina's eyes, he was naturally a little unhappy. The so-called "raising a tiger will cause trouble, and the tail will not fall off", which has always been the most feared thing by wise kings and heroes.
In addition to the threat in terms of strength, another problem is even more serious.
The battle for the crown prince.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, the Yelun tribe intervened in the dispute between the Turkic princes.
Ashina Zhijin had a simple style and only married one queen in his life. He had two sons, one daughter and three children. The eldest son is Chili, the second son is Tanli, and the youngest daughter is Hesijia, the Pearl of the Vast Sea.
After the two princes grew up, they have been fighting openly and secretly for the position of the crown prince, and the quarrel has become very common. This has long been known to everyone in the Turkic Empire.
Originally, the fight between these two people was quite simple. Prince Chili is heavy on martial arts, and Prince Tanli is heavy on literature. Within the Golden Clan, they each have cronies with equal strength, and have maintained a delicate balance of incomparability for a long time. However, just three years ago, Gema Khan, the leader of the Yelun tribe, suddenly proposed to Ashina Zhijin and married his daughter to the eldest prince, becoming Chili's father-in-law.
This time, the original balance was broken.
Because the powerful Yelun tribe and the Yakut Army chose to take sides, the political balance for the crown prince suddenly tilted towards Chili.
In order to stabilize the relationship within the Turks and further influence and control the Yelun clan through marriage, Ashina Zhijin gradually favored Chili and handed over more power and resources to the eldest prince.
Suddenly, there was a rumor within the Golden Clan that Chili would definitely succeed to the throne and become the next Turkic Great Khan. As a result, the centrist nobles and ministers who originally maintained a wait-and-see attitude immediately rushed to curry favor with Prince Chili, making the second brother Tanli very passive.
In turn, Chili's status has gradually improved, which has also led to the continued rise of the Yelun tribe. After the marriage, during several wars that broke out between tribes over territory, Prince Chili supported his father-in-law without hesitation, and even directly mobilized his troops to assist him in the war. To a large extent, he helped The Night Wheel tribe continues to increase in strength.
Having tasted the sweetness, Gema Khan was even more keen to participate in the power struggle between the two princes. He jumped up and down, relying on his connections and prestige to constantly win over the leaders of various tribes to strengthen Chili's momentum, and at the same time risk his life to squeeze out Tanli. .
This time during the Eastern Expedition to the Holy Tang, the Yelun tribe, in order to show their loyalty to Ashina and gain face for Prince Chili, dispatched an army of 120,000 people. Under the leadership of Gema Khan, they arrived in a mighty manner. Western Xinjiang.
According to the previous plan, the Yakut Independence Army, as Chili's subordinate, was preparing to accompany him to Shengtang. However, when Ashina Zhijin decided to let the main force of Temple Prince Ronya enter the Eastern Front battlefield early, Chili and Gema Khan immediately made their own little calculations.
For the sake of preserving their own strength, and also because they took a fancy to the fat piece of Western Xinjiang, Chili made a suggestion to his father Khan, hoping that Gema could succeed Ronya as the new governor of Western Xinjiang.
Eighty thousand children of the Yelun tribe stayed to guard Guimo in Western Xinjiang, while another 40,000 people followed him into the pass to fight.
Ashina thought about it for a long time and finally agreed.
He also had his own thoughts on this suggestion: the Eastern Expedition, especially the attack on the Holy Tang Imperial Capital, was bound to be very difficult. In such a decisive battle, only the most powerful elites of the Golden Tribe can win with certainty. At the same time, as the strategic rear area, the importance of Western Xinjiang cannot be underestimated. It is of course more reassuring to leave it to the guard of his blood alliance tribe and to the troops under his son.
Therefore, the day when the Turkic army marched eastward was also the day when Gema Khan took office. The leader of the Yelun tribe has officially become the new master of the Ghost Desert in Western Xinjiang.
Comments on the character of Gema Khan in the later history books of the Holy Tang, Turks and Western Xinjiang countries all have the same description: arrogant and tyrannical.
From this, it is not difficult to imagine how bad the character of the new governor is.
From an objective point of view, as a Turkic nobleman, Gema's sense of national superiority was indeed excessive. Compared with other Turkic princes of the same period, he was very prominent.
In the context of the "Great Turk" thought, Gema Khan did not regard any foreign race as a human being, so that in the early days of his rule in Western Xinjiang, he directly implemented two policies that would be considered unbelievable to later generations.
This was also a policy that surprised Li Jiangyao and others.
One is the overlapping of tax burdens, and the other is the reorganization of the Western Xinjiang Army.
More than 500,000 Turkic troops, plus 250,000 Western Xinjiang subordinate troops, and nearly 800,000 soldiers and horses traveled thousands of miles to expedition against the powerful Shengtang Dynasty. Its important attack springboard and logistics base was the Thousand Miles Western Xinjiang.
The Turkic army has always adhered to the strategy of "fighting to support war" in operations, that is, "fighting and grabbing wherever it goes", using the enemy's territory and population to solve the supply problem on the spot.
However, this time, this method didn't work.
The main reason behind this is also very simple - the army is too large!
The Shengtang Dynasty had a vast territory, but the truly prosperous areas were the Central Plains, Huaihe and Jiangnan. The prefectures and counties west of the imperial capital had poor land and a small population, and could not support the needs of the 800,000-strong Eastern Expedition Army.
Therefore, the Turkic Command concluded that only by completely capturing the imperial capital could it have a chance to solve one-third of the army's supply difficulties; only by completely capturing the Central Plains could it fundamentally solve the army's ration problem.
Before that, they must rely on, and can only rely on, Western Xinjiang.
What is the concept of eating for 800,000 people?
If on average a soldier consumes two kilograms of food a day, then the entire army will eat 1.6 million kilograms a day. This number, when packed in a 100-pound sack, is a total of 16,000 sacks, stacked up like a hill.
In just one day, a small mountain disappeared.
At this time, it had been nearly half a year since the army went on the expedition. According to rough calculation, more than a hundred grain mountains have disappeared, and it is still unknown how many more will disappear in the future.
In addition, the transportation of grain requires a large number of laborers and livestock. The further the front advances, the higher the cost of transporting food. In the end, if you send one hundred catties of grain and grass to the front line, you will also have to consume one hundred catties of grain and grass on the way.
As a result, the pressure on military supplies has doubled!
The above are just rations. The food of the Western Xinjiang subordinate army is usually very poor, but the Turkic warriors must eat meat every meal so that they can have the strength to fight. Therefore, in addition to rice and flour, it is also common for the army to slaughter two thousand cattle or five thousand sheep a day.
Half a year has passed, and the number of cattle and sheep contributed by various countries in Western Xinjiang alone has exceeded 500,000!
Such a huge supply of supplies all comes from the war-torn countries in Western Xinjiang, which are still in need of recuperation. The pain and misery is beyond description.
In order to complete the military supply task, Gema Khan's men kicked open the doors of every household in Western Xinjiang and took away all the food rations they depended on and the livestock used to give birth.
However, if it was just to urge food, Gema would not be too hateful, because after all, it was the entire Turkic problem, and he was just fulfilling his duties. The really fatal problem is that Gemma Khan actually creatively invented a new tax model-overlapping tax burden based on the huge supply pressure.
From the royal families, officials and merchants of the Western Xinjiang to the common people and servants and slaves in Guimo, all must pay taxes directly to the tax officials sent by him according to their levels.
There are also various types of taxes. In the past, the poll tax, land tax, transaction tax, and city gate tax were all child's play. In Gema's concept, even giving birth to a child, marrying a wife, attending funerals, seeing a doctor, and even going out on the street are all considered trivial matters. There is a way to pay money.
This is equivalent to saying that the people of Western Xinjiang not only have to pay taxes to their king in order to support the expeditionary army, but also have to pay money to the Turkic tax officials. Several overlapping exploitations have completely squeezed the wealth of the people. Clean and tidy.
As for the collected gold and silver, only a small part of it was sent to the front line, and the rest was stuffed into Gema Khan's own pocket.
Compared with the harm caused by excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes to the people, another policy - the reorganization of the Western Xinjiang army, is tantamount to directly attacking the kings of Western Xinjiang.
Previously, Ashina Zhijin Great Khan had a similar idea to integrate the armies of various countries in Western Xinjiang for unified training and unified command, so that Western Xinjiang would truly become a Turkic territory.
Ordering 250,000 subordinate troops to go out together was also an attempt based on this idea.
However, Ashina Zhijin also knew that it would not be easy to fully realize the plan to reorganize the Western Xinjiang Army. In order to avoid unnecessary backlash, he decided to take it step by step and destroy Shengtang first.
But I never expected that the Gema Khan of the Yelun tribe was far more courageous than the Turkic monarch. On the third day after he took office, he issued an order simply and neatly: Except for the royal guards, all other armies in the Western Xinjiang countries must immediately concentrate and carry out large-scale reorganization training.
Anyone who dares to disobey orders will be regarded as a betrayal of the Turks and will be strangled by the Yakut Army.
Gema Khan was so forceful, so he had his own considerations behind it. But the problem is that the Western Xinjiang country now has no additional troops except the royal guards. After years of wars, the armies of various countries have suffered extremely serious losses. Now that the main forces have been dispatched to accompany the Turks on their eastern expedition, where are there any extra troops for Gemma to train?
However, the order of the Governor of Western Xinjiang is also very clear: Anyone who dares to disobey the order will be hanged immediately!
In order to prevent the Turks from finding excuses to destroy the country, many countries in Western Xinjiang had to use their brains and even started to recruit soldiers again. Even the old man on crutches and the baby with a runny nose were pulled into the team and sent to Gema. before.
Anyway, the Turks said that they are responsible for taking care of the food and sending the elderly and children there. Wouldn't it be possible to save some rations?
Although the various countries were barely able to cope with the errands, which made Gema Khan a little dissatisfied, fortunately they still followed the orders. In contrast, there was a special existence in Western Xinjiang that was extremely arrogant: they did not obey the orders to hand over The army was reorganized and never paid any taxes or food.
In fact, even the envoys sent by Gema ignored him: "Your Prince Tanli personally promised us not to give in to these messy orders!"
Stanley? What is Stanley? This is really unreasonable!
[[I have received a lot of support and encouragement from readers and friends recently, and I am extremely grateful! The Army of Zhenjiang may be different from other hegemony novels in that its protagonist is not Li Jiangyao alone, but more importantly, the portrait of a group of people. Because I feel that when the country is in crisis, everyone who is unwilling to give in and fight for it is a hero. 】
[One more thing is about Murong Xue. This character, from the very beginning, was relatively tragic. He comes from a wealthy family, but he is an illegitimate son; Li Jiangyao fights alone, at least there are many comrades around him, but he is truly a loner. Including Ni Linsi's life-saving rescue, it was just a mission, and no one really regarded him as his dead brother. 】
[As for Rui Ji, Murong Xue cannot see everything we see from God’s perspective. He can only be repeatedly entangled between suspicion and emotion. Just like when we face the people we love in life, sometimes we may not be so rational. 】
[Of course, for a thousand audiences, there are a thousand Hamlets. Anyway, thank you all for your love for Zhenjiang Army. See you on the battlefield! 】】
