At the time of Boyan Timur and Guo Gai, everyone thought of the simplest method: learn from the Liao Kingdom and directly implement two systems.
Boyan Timur needs to be responsible for dealing with his superiors, and he also needs to recruit fellow prairie people to protect the security of the territory and fight with the surrounding lords with ill intentions. As the big brother, he became the leader here. Guo Gai and others were responsible for appeasing and recruiting local farmers, and organizing people to farm, so as to complete the work arranged by the Khan.
But in actual implementation, the work of Guo Gai and others goes beyond farming. Due to the war, various local infrastructures were greatly damaged and had to be repaired. Moreover, Bulgaria has been fighting for decades, and the large water conservancy facilities were not considered advanced to begin with, and are now almost completely abandoned. This point alone cannot be ignored.
Therefore, on the one hand, Guo Gai asked Boyan Timur to retain as many Greeks as possible, and on the other hand, he went around recruiting technical talents from the East. These two groups of people were the best at technical work, and they became the foundation of various institutions in Nanya.
The Golden Horde's management of Boyan Timur and others was quite extensive. Every year, they only needed to hand over some millet to the Great Khan, and it would be considered completed. The Salai Khanate did not bother to do anything else.
Guo Gai suggested that in this case, we should not imitate these Hellenistic countries and collect such high taxes. In this way, it can reduce the resistance of local people to these "outsiders" and even attract people around them to take the initiative to join. This also became a basic idea for the Purple Horde Khanate to stabilize itself and expand its strength.
Guo Gai was also a novice at the time. He never thought that a few simple principles copied from books would be so useful. Of course, it is also possible that he underestimated the extent to which Greece and Bulgaria, countries with long-term civil wars, are squeezing the people. There is an endless stream of people coming to seek refuge, and the land rewarded by Yue Jibie Khan is not even enough. At the same time, such a large-scale population loss also caused dissatisfaction among the local nobles.
Several Bulgarian nobles wanted to join forces to attack them. These nobles have many relatives, and they have attracted a lot of people to help.
Boyan Timur's nomadic fellows were not enough this time, so Guo Gai and others urgently asked Cao Meng, the ancestor of Cao's accountant, to buy some ordnance from the Venetians, and also brought Li Tianying, Li Tianying, and others who were still digging trenches at that time. The Li Tiance brothers came over and told them that you two are the militia leaders.
Guo Gai thought that while everyone else was scattered around, busy clearing the fields, the engineering team of the Li brothers stayed together all the time and got to know each other well. They had a lot of free time when they were not working on projects. These people were originally the strongest and most obedient people in the territory. They were specially selected to do heavy physical work. They were more reliable than the farmers who gathered in a hurry.
Guo Gai showed Cao Meng's account to everyone, saying that all the villagers bought these equipment together. Several families are organized into a group, and the equipment money and wages of each militiaman are shared equally among everyone, and they will be paid back together when the time comes. Anyone who is timid can withdraw and be replaced by another volunteer who was not selected previously.
Everyone expressed support for this, and this construction team was the earliest Nanya Army. Those "regular troops" who were selected at that time also became the first batch of military households in the Purple Horde Khanate. Even though this system has been revised many times, many of these families still keep the tokens Guo Gai gave them at that time.
It is a pity that the Nanya Army's first battle was unremarkable, and future generations will not be able to boast about it. Facing the mercenaries of the nobles, the militiamen were timid and relied almost exclusively on the two Li brothers who had practiced martial arts to embolden everyone. Fortunately, the cheap mercenaries on the opposite side probably had the mentality of "just poking a spear twice in front of the battle is worthy of the lord". They were paddling from beginning to end, trying to find opportunities to plunder the farm, and did not want to confront the militia head-on.
During the confrontation, Boyan Timur led dozens of rabbits from the tribe to attack the headquarters of the noble army at night. The Bulgarian nobleman who served as the general was having sex with the prostitute who accompanied the army. As a result, both of them were hacked to death on the bed by Boyan Timur. The noble army, which lost its command, immediately dispersed.
When the mercenaries returned, they took the opportunity to plunder their employer's unprotected territory, and everyone was happy to end the war.
Later, noble lords continued to come to trouble them, but Boyan Timur, Guo Gai and others had figured out the way of thinking of these nobles.
The temperament of Bulgarians always likes to reconcile and compromise. For example, if you say that if this serf escapes, he will be under my protection, and everyone will not allow it. But if you claim that you want to report to the Great Khan and ask him to send troops to kill everyone, they will come to mediate and say that they are just a few escaped serfs and not like this.
When Boyan Timur had nothing to do, he took his men, the most ferocious and frightening ones, to visit nobles from various places, bragging about how many people he had killed and how many cities he had massacred while fighting in Persia with the Great Khan in his early years. Although he probably spent the first half of his life farming, the nobles were afraid of the Golden Horde and felt that what he said should be true. They did not dare to mess with him unless they had to, allowing the territory to maintain peace for a long time.
The only problem was that until he became Khan, the Bulgarians were still spreading rumors that only the ugliest one would be chosen to be the coward of the purple tent. As a result, many young people would rather have less salary than work there.
In the early years, Beiya's military capabilities were so indispensable to the Khan's court.
However, later, when the strength of the Nanya Army grew like a snowball, and when it seemed that it would not be reversed, the conflict between the two sides finally broke out, almost destroying the Beiya system at that time.
Guo Kang feels that this is actually a historical necessity and the result of irreconcilable contradictions. But at that time, many people could not accept it, thinking that this must be a tragedy of brotherly hostility created by a few conspirators for personal gain.
After the war, the middle and lower-level officers of the Nanya Army even signed a letter asking the court to pardon the rebel officers and soldiers who did not lead the rebellion, and only punish the Rus and vassal tribes. There are also princes who believe that the title of Grand Master should be restored and allowed to be inherited by his other descendants.
As for the reason, everyone basically believes that this is the fault of corrupt Boyan and other nobles, colluding with Polish bad guys. Most of the Beiya brothers are just too simple and are still good people.
If you think about it carefully, it is indeed not easy for people of Guo Kang's generation to understand their emotions.
This troublesome relationship of both opposition and cooperation continues to this day.
These two directions are the two ruling groups, and at the same time, they are also the two thinkings within the Purple Tent—to put it simply, they are the choices between Rome and Mongolia.
Some people believe that the old lands of the Golden Horde should be recovered, restored to their former glory, and opened up to the grassland. Others believe that the Mediterranean coast should be managed to restore the situation of the prosperous period of the Eastern Roman Empire, so as to open up the Indian Ocean sea channel further south.
Neither of these two factions can convince the other, but the power of the Khan's court is limited. They often have to fight with their enemies and need everyone's help. As a result, the current situation was formed.
What Cao Jian put forward is the most basic request: I can support you in going north, but you need to give your expectations for the cost and effectiveness. If the effect is too bad, then we might as well continue going south, and no one can say anything.
Lama Wang thought about his question for a while and seemed to be serious about answering this key question.
After a while, he shook the whisk again and spoke seriously. What he said almost made Guo Kang unable to hold back.
Lama Wang said in a deep voice: "Mr. Cao, do you know the legend of the kobold?"
