Han Khan

Chapter 73: Seizing the Great Lakes Basin

When Zhang Sheng led the Jinhan army and arrived at the Jiluo camp under the guidance of Yan Zhi, night had already fallen.

Zhang Sheng originally thought he would see a devastated scene, but he never expected that the camp had already been tidied up and in order.

Trenches and dense chevaux de frise were built around the camp to defend against cavalry.

Of course, it was impossible to build a camp that could accommodate more than 40,000 people.

Its size was only enough to serve as a camping place for the priests' camp, blacksmiths' camp, guards and Zhang Sheng's big tent.

The 33 slave soldiers and more than livestock were stationed outside the camp.

Worried about slaves escaping?

Where could they escape to? They all came from the Western Regions, and were unfamiliar with the Jinshan area. If they escaped and were captured by other tribes, they would still be slaves or even killed directly.

Moreover, not all guards will enter the camp. A total of 12 guards from four regiments, 36 battalions and 3600 centuries will take turns patrolling the camp.

Once a slave household or a hundred households discovered a runaway slave, if one escaped, the entire ten households would be executed directly, and if ten escaped, the entire hundred households would be executed. At this time, the laws previously established by the Jinhan tribe did not allow any room for negotiation.

Here, relying on the protection of the Jinhan tribe, although he lost his freedom, at least his life was safe.

Moreover, by grazing for the leader every day, they can still obtain a small amount of food and survive.

They could even just wait until the next time the chief recruited soldiers and plundered other tribes, then join the chief's army and make meritorious service, thus escaping slavery and becoming the chief's subjects.

After all, at this time, the leader had not yet assigned them to the guards and the main priests as slaves.

This was what the slaves thought, because the elites among these captives were either killed or absorbed into the Jinhan tribe. Without anyone to command or lead them, they were just a group of mobs, and no one wanted to risk their lives.

Meeting Zhang Sheng's gaze, Keza knelt down in front of Zhang Sheng's horse and greeted him in elegant language:
"Your servant Koza, kowtows to His Highness!"

Seeing the chief of the Xidan tribe, Zawankade, standing nearby, he paused for a moment, then knelt down and said respectfully in Turkish:
"Your Excellency Jinhan Tribe Teqin, I am the chief of the Xidan Tribe under the Gobi Golden Mountain, Zawankade. I am willing to lead the two hundred tribesmen of the Xidan Tribe to submit to Teqin and serve you."

It was night time, and the people of the Jinhan tribe scattered around the camp and began to set up camp and tents.

More than a thousand fully armed elite warriors of Jinhan stood in an orderly manner behind Zhang Sheng, making him even more majestic.

Some of the prisoners who were still in the camp couldn't help but tremble.

The 900 cavalrymen of the Jinhan tribe defeated the entire Jiluo tribe in just one night. No one escaped, and a large number of disobedient captives were executed on the spot. This scene really scared them.

Zhang Sheng took off his helmet and handed it to Hailat beside him. Since Yin Shanxiong became the head of the Guards, Hailat, who was born in Tatar, was now serving beside him.

Zhang Sheng said:
“Get up, Captain Koza.

You have done a great job! Are these prisoners still organized into 100-household units or battalion units?"

Upon hearing this, Koza said respectfully:
"Yes, Your Highness! This time, a total of 6 centurions were reorganized. The remaining 600-plus people have no family members or their family members have died."

Zhang Sheng walked towards Zawankad who was kneeling on the ground and said:
"Chief Zawankad, do you and your people want to continue to be Naiman people, or become Jinhan people?"

Zawankad was extremely surprised to hear Zhang Sheng speaking fluent Turkic. He did not expect that the leader of the Jinhan tribe, who was of Tang origin, could speak Turkic.

But in fact, the language on the grassland has not changed much over the past thousands of years. Most of the language is intelligible and borrows each other's vocabulary. Especially with the Tiele people, who have been expanding westward for hundreds of years, the common language on the Eurasian grassland is Turkic, because there is no difference between Turkic and Tiele.

After discarding other ideas, Zawankade quickly replied to Zhang Sheng:
"Your Excellency Teqin, we, the Xidan tribe, are willing to follow you forever and become Jinhan people!" Zawankad said respectfully.

Zhang Sheng heard this and said in a deep voice:

"That is absolutely impossible. In the Jinhan tribe, there are only Jinhan people. There are no other tribes and clans such as Uighurs, Naimans, and Kyrgyzs. The Jinhan tribe, whether in the past or in the future, will not have other tribes or clans. There is only the Jinhan tribe, and I am the only leader.

Therefore, you need to think carefully before joining the Jinhan tribe. Although your people can be reunited now, they will be scattered in the future."

Zawankad glanced at Koza, who said, "It is true. Now I am a Jinhan, a guard and servant of Your Highness, and a holy warrior of the Holy Church. I am no longer a warrior of the Khitan Abhan tribe.

Moreover, Your Highness is a descendant of the Khitan, Kutlug Yar Khan, so he is a noble of our Khitan and Naiman people, so what is wrong with becoming his tribe member? "

Zawankad wanted to say, I came here on my own initiative to join the Jinhan tribe. Lord Koza, you did not mention that joining Jinhan requires dispersing our people.

Without my tribesmen, what kind of leader or clan leader would I be? But now I have brought my tribesmen into the camp. If I don't agree and anger the nobleman in front of me, and he kills me and my tribesmen, what should I do?
Never mind, there are only 1,800 of us, let’s just separate.

Zawankad, who was kneeling on the ground, gritted his teeth and said to Zhang Sheng in a low voice:
"Your Excellency, from today on, the Xidan tribe will no longer exist. My people and I are willing to join Jinhan and receive your protection. In the future, our Xidan tribe will regard ourselves as people of Jinhan."

Hearing this, Zhang Sheng nodded with satisfaction, "Okay! Since you now have 200 tribesmen, I will allocate another 100 tribesmen to you and appoint you as a battalion commander of the Jinhan tribe.

Each battalion was divided into three hundred households, each hundred household had a population of 100 households, and three hundred households formed a battalion.

You will be in charge of the camp, and you can appoint two centurions to assist you in managing the 300 households."

Hearing this, Zawankad was secretly delighted. This ups and downs of the conversation made his heart beat faster.

That is to say, although he lost his position as the chief of the Xidan tribe, he will be able to command 300 households in the Jinhan tribe in the future.

300 households, with a population of about 1800 at most and more than a thousand at least. At least it is a little bigger than the previous Xidan tribe.

I heard that Koza is the captain of the guards, and now he commands 900 households and four to five thousand followers, and he is deeply trusted by the nobleman in front of him.

It seems that my status can be promoted in the Jinhan tribe. As long as I make contributions and gain trust in the future, I will be able to manage more people in the tribe.

"Thank you, Lord Teqin!" Zawankad followed Hailat away with tears of gratitude.

He will arrange his people with Hailat
Zhang Sheng stared at Keza and said in a deep voice, "Tomorrow, we will separate these six centurion captives and mix them with the slaves from Yizhou, and reorganize them into 39 centurion slaves."

"Yes, Your Highness!" said Koza.

Afterwards, the priest camp, blacksmith camp and four Han camps set up camp in an orderly manner in the camp. After half a month of migration, everyone was exhausted.

Then, Zhang Sheng's servants and slaves quickly built Zhang Sheng's big tent, and the guards also built their own felt tents around Zhang Sheng.

Zhang Sheng walked into his felt tent, knelt in front of the holy flag and fell into deep thought. In his heart, he was praying to the supreme god - God Haotian.

The guards began to take turns patrolling the camp of the Jinhan tribe.

As the night deepened, the camp gradually became quiet. Zhang Sheng still knelt in front of the holy flag and prayed silently. He knew that taking in these slaves was only the first step. It would take time and effort to truly integrate them into the Jinhan tribe.

………………

It was dawn on August 914, 8.

Zhang Sheng stepped out of the tent and looked at his busy tribesmen, who were driving their livestock out of the camp.

At this time, a scout under Koza's command came running over, knelt on one knee and reported:
"Your Highness, several of my subordinates have already found out that the Guchuwuti tribe has made some movements today."

Zhang Sheng's eyes lit up, and he said in a deep voice: "Oh? Tell me quickly!"

At this time, the Jinhan tribe had already migrated to the Jinshan Mountains. After a night's rest, he regained some energy.

So I have been thinking about how to seize the Great Lake Basin from the Guchuwuti tribe.
(End of this chapter)