Han Khan

Chapter 19, Conquest

With a muffled "puff" sound, the lance accurately pierced the body of the Uighur cavalryman.

The powerful impact sent the cavalryman flying and he fell heavily to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The lance nailed the enemy directly to the ground.

The Jinhan warriors beside him kept shooting deadly arrows at the enemy, and each arrow took the life of the Uighurs. Their figures shuttled through the battlefield like ghosts, and every shot and spear took away a fresh life.

However, Zhang Sheng did not pause at all. He moved extremely fast and quickly approached the lance stuck in the ground. He pulled it out and then continued to charge towards the enemy.

At this time, there were several armored cavalrymen guarding the fat man in the middle. Zhang Sheng secretly guessed that this man should be the leader of the Uighurs.

So he reached out and took the lasso hanging on the right side of the saddle, circled it in the air a few times, and then threw it out with all his strength.

The lasso was like a nimble poisonous snake, accurately catching the neck of the Uighur leader. Zhang Sheng pulled hard, and the leader fell off his horse and hit the ground heavily.

Seeing this, the other armored cavalrymen hurriedly turned around and rushed towards Zhang Sheng, waving their swords and lances.

Looking at the people rushing towards him, Zhang Sheng dodged the attack with a flash. At the same time, the lance in his hand stabbed out like lightning and instantly pierced through the chest of a cavalryman.

With a flick of his hand, he knocked the cavalryman off his horse, and then with a fierce swing of his lance, the sharp sound of the wind forced back several other cavalrymen.

At this time, Zhang Sheng's personal guards rushed to resist. Together with Zhang Sheng, they formed a solid defense to surround the few people.

The left and right wings saw that they were being pursued by the central army led by Zhang Sheng, and immediately surrounded them from the left and right sides, forming a circle with the central army, surrounding the Uighur cavalry and dividing them into two parts.

Arrows were continuously shot at them, and the battlefield was filled with blood and the sounds of killing could be heard one after another.

The leader who fell off his horse was dragged by Zhang Sheng for dozens of meters.

Zhang Sheng pointed at several Uighur armored cavalrymen who were surrounded by his personal guards and said, "Kill them all."

These are the guards of the Uighur leader on the ground.

The personal guards and the central army immediately dispersed, continuously shooting arrows and throwing spears at them. After a while, all of them, including their horses, were killed in the encirclement.

The Uighurs had a thousand cavalrymen when they came, but when they reached their camp, one third of them fell, and the leader and his guards were all killed.

"Pei Luo is dead!" The Uighurs in the distance naturally also saw the situation here.

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As for the rest of the Uighur cavalry, they had been surrounded from the front and back and were unable to retreat to their camp.

Looking at the dead leader and the camp with thick smoke behind him, the tribesmen were fleeing in all directions.

These Uighurs suddenly realized that the pain that the Han people had suffered when they plundered Dunhuang was now being repaid with retribution.

"Woo!" At this time, the horn sounded, "Buzz!" The Jin Han people shot a barrage of arrows at them, easily piercing the thin armor of the surrounded Uighurs.

They were like the reeds beside the water, falling down one by one when being beaten by children's sticks.

After the arrows, the Jinhan cavalry, led by the centurions, laid down their spears and lances and charged at the Uighur cavalry who were retreating to the camp. Zhang Sheng shouted in Uighur, "Drop your weapons, kneel down and surrender, and you will live."

The indiscriminate hacking and killing with spears, lances, swords, guns, bows and arrows made it almost impossible for the Kucha Uighurs of Ganquanshui to put up an effective resistance under the skilled techniques of the professional warriors of the Jin Han people. Those Uighurs on horseback fled in all directions, but were later caught up one by one and chopped to the ground.

The Uighurs, unable to escape or resist, dropped their weapons, prostrated themselves on the ground and begged for surrender.

The battle is over!!

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Blood flowed throughout the Uighur camp and merged into the sweet spring water. On the grassland, corpses of people and horses were scattered all over the field, and the stench was overwhelming.

Zhang Sheng and his personal guards walked into the Uighur camp. Except for the Jin Khan cavalry who were on guard and guarding the prisoners, the others had already begun to clean up the battlefield.

The wounded but not dead Uighurs were all killed with a single blow. The surrendered Uighur remnants, as well as the old, weak, women and children of the tribe were also picked out one by one, and lined up neatly to kneel on the ground, trembling. Whether in the grassland, snowy area or desert, the war of tribal annexation was not very beautiful. No matter who it was, they didn't know how the victor would deal with them. If they were kind, they might be able to keep their lives. If they were unlucky, according to custom, all men taller than the wheels would die.

"Count the wounded and the warriors who died in battle, and also count the cattle, sheep and horses. Confiscate the weapons and armor, and load everything that can be used onto the carts for me." Zhang Sheng ordered.

"Yes, sir." Yin Shanxiong, Koza and other personal guards who had always followed Zhang Sheng were very familiar with this job and quickly took their men to get to work.

"Bring here all the Uighurs who surrendered, as long as they are ten men or more in length, tie up the rest of the herdsmen and the old, weak, women and children and keep them under guard, and let them herd livestock for the Jin Han people in the future."

"As ordered."

Seeing that it was getting dark, Zhang Sheng said, "Arrange people to cut trees and build fences, and camp here tonight."

It wasn't long before the prisoners were counted.

Today, there are only about 1000 adult males left in the Kucha Uighur tribe. These are those who were defeated and surrendered or those who were captured. The rest are basically all dead. The remaining 2000 or so people are mostly the elderly, the weak, women and children, and some of them have escaped.

Zhang Sheng had his own idea about how to deal with these people, which was to annex them and use them to enrich the population of the Jinhan tribe.

Women could be given as rewards to tribesmen, made as slaves, and forced to do productive labor such as sewing felt tents, herding cattle and sheep, and milking. Children could be slaves to herd livestock, and when they grew up they would be recruited to fight in wars. It would be a huge waste of manpower if they were lost, and most children would face death if left unattended.

There were about 1 people in the Jin Han tribe, among whom there were too many bachelors, both men and women. The gap between the number of men and women was too large. With the addition of these captives, the gap between the male and female tribesmen was finally filled.

This allowed the male tribesmen without wives and the Uighur women who had lost their husbands or had no husbands to gain basic stability in Jinhan, which amounted to nearly 1 people.

There is no way, you can't be picky. Although many Uighur women are now captives and spoils of war, and their status is not good, there is no way.

Even for a Uighur woman, it was not a big deal to have a child. Being a father was not a bad thing in that era.

Herding livestock requires labor. When the children grow up, the daughters can be married off, the sons can stay at home to help herd the livestock, and the workers can have a few more children, and then they will have a large family. The population of the Jinhan tribe has been greatly enriched.

Okay, let’s do this for now!
"You Ganzhou thieves are really going too far, thinking that just because Yaoluo Gerenmei defeated the Jinshan Kingdom, the backbone of the Jinhan people is broken?

You don't want to stay in the Qilian Mountains, but dare to occupy the land of Dunhuang. You really don't know how to live or die. Do you really think that I, the Jin Han people, have no blood?" Zhang Sheng came over and saw the personal guard Keza, pointing at the faces of several Uighur centurions and decanters with bruised faces and kneeling on the ground, and scolded them in Uighur language.

As for these captives, they could see that the one who had the final say in this army was Zhang Sheng, although this Tang general looked a bit like a Uighur with his deep eyes, high nose, and curly hair.

"Who is your leader and where is he?" Zhang Sheng stopped Koza's chattering. This guy was very arrogant towards these Uighurs and treated them with a barbaric attitude.

Hearing Zhang Sheng's question in Uighur, the Uighurs kneeling on the ground were shocked and looked at each other.

"Dog slaves, the Teqin (meaning princes and noble leaders) is asking you questions, answer quickly. If you are slow, I will chop off your dog head." Seeing that no one answered, the irritable Koza immediately punched and kicked the people in front of him.

When everyone heard that the warrior in iron armor and Han Chinese costume was called "Special Agent", they quickly answered. In the grasslands, snowy areas and the Western Regions, people pay great attention to bloodline and status.

"Peroda was killed. He was our leader. The one who was lassoed off the horse by you, Master Special Service was our leader." A Uighur man wearing chain mail said to Zhang Sheng immediately without waiting for the fist to land on him.

"Oh! What's your name? Can you tell me why you want to come down from the Qilian Mountains?" Zhang Sheng asked with interest, looking at the bearded, red-cheeked, and fairly strong Uighur man.

This guy was very clever, and he immediately said to Zhang Sheng: "My dear lord, my name is Huo Zhihal, and I am a warrior of Peroda.

Although the Qilian Mountains are rich in water and grass, all the high-quality pastures are occupied by the Tibetans, so we can only graze in places far away from the salt lake.

However, the Tibetan nobles in the mountains were too brutal. They forcibly recruited and even captured Uighurs like us to participate in the melee among the nobles in the mountains.

In addition, we had to pay a large amount of livestock and grain every year, which caused heavy casualties among the Uighurs and a decline in population. Our tribe was rich in salt, so Yaoluoge Khan from Ganzhou kept sending us grain and iron tools, which enabled us to survive.

Later, the Khan of Ganzhou sent a letter asking Dagan to lead us down the Qilian Mountains towards Dunhuang along the Ganquan River to graze the livestock there.

Now I can't go back, because the pastures beside the salt lake have been occupied by the Tibetans. "This guy has a clear mind, and when he said this, his hatred for the Tibetans made him beat the grass angrily.

After nodding to the Uighur named Huozhihar, Zhang Sheng said to the captive kneeling on the ground in front of him: "I am a special agent of the Jinhan tribe. Are you willing to fight for me?"

(End of this chapter)