Han Khan

Chapter 17, Kucha Uighurs

In the past, Emperor Zhang Chengfeng wanted to get rid of the hostage and control of the Li family, so he killed Li Shaozong's three uncles, but his father was not involved, so his father Li Hongding was not slaughtered and still held an important position.

After Li Hongding died in battle, Li Shaozong, due to his talent, was compensated by the emperor and held an important position in the Jinshan Kingdom.

His recently deceased grandmother, Mrs. Zhang, was actually Zhang Sheng's great-aunt, so Zhang Sheng and he were cousins.

But no matter what the explanation is, the bloody fight between Emperor Zhang Chengfeng and Li was undoubtedly a fratricide.

"Erlang, they all brought this upon themselves. I have no grudges against them. If Erlang thinks so, then I'll do as you say and let the grudge end between you and me! I only hope that Erlang can revive the glory of Taibao Gong and lead us to rebuild the country." Li Shaozong said.

Suddenly he knelt on the ground and said loudly: "Your Highness, Li Shaozong is willing to follow you and bravely enter the northern desert!"

"Brother, please get up quickly. With your help, I will be even more powerful."

Zhang Sheng hurriedly pulled Li Shaozong up and said.

In addition to him, there are Master Shancai of Lingtu Temple, whose original surname is Zhang. He became a monk at a young age and served as the lawyer (discipline) of Lingtu Temple, and Abbot Zhengxin.

Deng Shenshan of Longxing Temple is called Master Deng by everyone.

Li Youdao was the Chief Censor of Emperor Zhang Chengfeng. He was a great scholar who was well versed in Confucian classics such as the Spring and Autumn Annals, the Book of Songs, and the Book of Documents, as well as the thoughts of various schools of thought.

Yan Haiyuan, courtesy name Dajin, was the military quartermaster of Ziting Town in Jinshan State. Yan Shengquan was the defense commander of Guazhou City in Jinshan State.

"Your Highness, I pay my respects to you! I wish to follow you to explore the northern desert!"

Zhang Sheng said with joy: "Please stand up quickly. The Jinhan tribe will be even more powerful with you..."

"All centurions, listen up!" Zhang Sheng saw that the time was almost up, so he gave orders to the 17 centurions.

"Hun Ziying, Xue Shantong, An Shilang, Zhang Langjieri, the four of you will lead your respective teams of 400 men and households of people in front and advance towards the Ganquanshui Lake."

"Sir, obey the order!"

"Zhang Jingchong, Li Pajiaer and the other two led their own 200-man teams and households to my left.

"Wang Duoji, Zhang Congwuer and the other two led their own 100-man squadrons and 200 households of civilians to my right.

"Sir, obey the order."

"Zhang Chengming, Zhang Baoshan, Duobo, Luo Wenda, Zhang Liangzhen and the captains of the guards will come with me to lead the remaining people and supplies."

"As ordered, Your Highness."

"Liang Xingde, Kang Xintong, Tiemuge, Hunziji, the four of you will lead your respective teams of 400 men and households of the tribe to defend the rear within ten miles behind the tribe."

"Sir, obey the order!"

Zhang Sheng quickly gave orders, organized his troops, and, carrying a large amount of supplies, began to march towards the large lake downstream of Ganquan Water.

This is nomadism. On the grassland, it is called Guleyan, which means camp or circle. It is the nomadic way of life on the grassland in this era.

That is, when the Jinhan tribe migrated from here to the lower reaches of Ganquan River a hundred miles away and set up camp, they arranged their tents and carriages in a circle.

Because now, the Jinhan tribe has truly become a nomadic tribe, without land and agriculture. In order to provide grass for the numerous sheep, horses and camels, they must find pastures.

Moreover, the larger the livestock herd, the more frequent the nomadic activities. In addition, the Jinhan people now live in groups, so all the people in the Jinhan tribe have to roam together.

Wherever they roam, that is the territory of the Jinhan tribe. In order to protect their people and livestock, the Jinhan tribe must form almost two Guleyan groups based on the number of people to carry out collective nomadism, collective migration, collective camping, collective defense and collective attack.

The Jinhan tribe can only rely on this kind of cooperation and utilize the collective strength of the tribal members to maintain the survival and development of the Jinhan tribe. Therefore, Guleyan mainly means collective nomadic mode.

After that, whenever the Jinhan tribe migrated to a new pasture, the location of the tent and the tent of his camp were the center of Guleyan. His tent and the tents of his personal guards formed a circle outside his tent, and then continued to radiate outward.

The first outer circle is the shepherd's tent and chariot, and a corresponding large circle is formed outside the center point. Then radiating outward for several kilometers is the pasture where they graze their sheep.
The second outer circle is the tents and carts of the cattle herders, who migrate in the same way; of course, there are very few cattle in the Jinhan tribe nowadays, almost none.

The third outer circle is the horse herders, which is also the outermost layer. Horses are fast and have strong self-defense capabilities, which are good for retreating or attacking. They can be used to defend against attacks from wild beasts and looting by enemies.

Each Guleyan forms a tribe by roaming around in a radius of several kilometers or even dozens of kilometers from the central point where the leader lives.

The Guleyan formed by the arrangement of these tent cars looks like a moving town from a distance.

Of course, this so-called "city" refers only to a kind of nomadic city that circulates around the leader's palace. This kind of nomadic city often migrates with their leaders.

Although they are now called Jin Han people, the Han people are not used to such a life without walls, houses and land, while the Hu people are very adaptable. Zhang Sheng had no choice but to break up the Hu and Han people and group them together to act together.

It was only a hundred miles away from the sweet spring water and we arrived there the next day.

The sweet spring water also stopped here, forming several unconnected small water bodies and two huge lakes, namely Xinghu Lake and Dajingze. Next to the water bodies were endless grasslands and numerous water birds. Zhang Sheng arranged people to settle down here first, graze livestock, and stay for a few days.

----------------

On the eighth day of the sixth month of the Jiaxu year (914 AD),

The north wind was howling, and people were shouting and horses were neighing.

Zhang Sheng led a thousand cavalrymen of the Jinhan tribe and galloped along the Ganquan River towards the Qilian Mountains. Today, the water volume of Ganquan River is much more abundant than in the future. The water and grass on both sides of the river are abundant, which is very suitable for grazing. There are many wild animals, including wolves, wild donkeys and gazelles.

Relying on the meltwater from the glaciers on the Qilian Mountains, the water of the Ganquan River is surging. Both the Tang Dynasty and the Guiyi Army used Ganquan water to transport military rations and supplies and settled some vassal tribes here to graze.

Today, the vast grasslands between the foot of the Qilian Mountains, the upper reaches of the Ganquan River, and near Shouchang Town are occupied by five or six hundred Uighur households.

Most of these Uighurs were Qiuci Uighurs who were forcibly relocated from Anxi and Shule to the Qilian Mountains by the Tibetans. Some were early Uighurs who were led by their leaders to migrate to Hexi when their country was defeated by the Khitan people in Mobei.

In recent years, due to the rapid decline of Tubo's power, it was unable to restrain these Uighurs. The war between Guiyi Army and Ganzhou Uighurs gave these Uighurs an opportunity.

With the support of the Ganzhou Uighurs, they began to come down in groups from the cold and mountainous Qilian Mountain grasslands, infiltrate the warm and wealthy Shazhou, Guazhou, Loulan and other places, occupy the land of the Guiyi Army, and graze there.

The Guiyi Army led by Cao reached a peace agreement with the Ganzhou Uighurs. However, the Qiuci Uighurs, relying on the support of the Ganzhou Uighurs, began to migrate northward down the mountain and invaded the territory of the Guiyi Army.

Eventually, the Kucha Uighurs roamed in Shazhou and Guazhou of the Guiyi Army, becoming the most unstable factor in the area under the jurisdiction of the Guiyi Army today.

However, Zhang Sheng was quite interested in these Uighurs, and there were also many Uighurs in the Jinhan tribe.

In addition, although the Jinhan tribe had more than 13000 people, only about cavalrymen were good at fighting. How could such a large force be so powerful? Therefore, he wanted to annex these Kucha Uighurs.

Not only did it solve Cao Yijin's request, but it also increased the number of his followers in one fell swoop. Why not do it?

The Ganzhou Uighurs controlled the important roads leading to the Central Plains. If the Guiyi Army wanted to go to the Central Plains, they had to maintain good relations with Ganzhou.

In order to maintain this relationship, the Guiyi Army had to allow the Kucha Uighurs to roam in Shazhou, and was unable to exercise jurisdiction or sanction over them.

What Zhang Sheng found most hateful was that these dogs were burning, killing and looting in Gua and Sha states when the Jinshan Kingdom was at war with the Ganzhou Uighurs. How could he let them go for such evil deeds?

After arriving at Xinghu Lake and Dajingze, the troops grazed there. After resting for two days, Zhang Sheng immediately called on his troops and mobilized his four personal guards, including Koza, Yin Shanxiong, Boniek, and Zhang Xibao.

As well as Hunzi Ji, Hunziying, Zhang Chengming, Liang Xingde, Xue Shantong, Luo Wenda, An Shilang, Kang Xintong, Wang Duoji, Li Pajia and other ten teams of one hundred people, carrying two days' food and fodder, marched towards the Qilian Mountains in a mighty force.

The rest of the soldiers stayed downstream of the Ganquan River to guard the tribesmen who were grazing there.

He led the charge, with more than a thousand cavalrymen, and attacked the tribe of about 2000 people.

"Bang!" Accompanied by a deafening sound of a bowstring, a feather arrow came rushing like lightning. With its astonishing speed and power, it hit the iron shield that Yin Shanxiong was holding high.

The feather arrow was so powerful that it not only pierced through the iron and wooden shield held high in Yin Shanxiong's hand, but even more surprisingly, even after passing through the shield, it continued to vibrate on it, showing its powerful penetrating power and the strength of the archer.

Yin Shanxiong could not help but feel astonished and frightened, thinking to himself: "What a powerful bastard! This arrow is made of fine iron, and the archer's arrow skills are so accurate!"

He gripped the arrow on the shield tightly and broke it with force, then turned his gaze to his lord beside him.

At this moment, Zhang Sheng issued the combat order without hesitation.

"Hun Ziji, Hun Ziying, Zhang Chengming, lead your respective 100-man teams to quickly attack the right wing. Be sure to surround and kill the enemy and draw them over.

Xue Shantong, Kang Xintong, An Shilang, you will lead your respective teams of 100 men to march towards the left wing.

The rest of you will follow me and form the central army, and attack from the front!" Zhang Sheng's voice was firm and decisive, full of determination.

Everyone responded in unison: "Yes, Your Highness!" Their response was uniform and their morale was high.

A looting war is about to begin.

Immediately afterwards, each team acted quickly according to instructions and entered the battle.

(End of this chapter)