The Sui Dynasty's chess game

Chapter 837 Danshui New County (Part 2)

The following morning, 1,500 households gathered in front of an open space outside the city. Five wooden platforms were set up in the open space, and the households were divided according to the five neighborhoods.

Although it was called an allocation, in reality everyone's land had already been drawn by lot, which was based on their household number. Kang Youfu's household number was No. 174 in the Third District, and his land was plot No. 174 in the Third District.

This is fairer; everyone draws lots on the boat, and no one knows what the land looks like, so no one will try to take advantage of the situation.

Kang Youfu saw a large herd of cattle and donkeys on the other side, so he nudged his brother's arm and whispered, "Are those cattle and donkeys for us?"

"should be!"

"It's a pity I can't choose, otherwise I would have picked the one with the long horns, it's so strong, like the King of Bulls."

At this moment, an official on the stage pulled out a slip of paper and shouted, "District 3, Number 174, Kang Youfu!"

Kang Youfu was stunned for a moment; he hadn't expected to be the first one drawn.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!"

He hurriedly raised his hand and ran forward. The official smiled and handed him the land deed and three wooden wedges, on which his name was written in red paint.

Kang Youfu bowed respectfully and accepted the land deed and wooden wedges. The official pointed to the side and said, "Go and choose an ox and a donkey. Soldiers will take you to see the land immediately."

Kang Youfu was overjoyed and immediately waved to his wife. The family rushed to the livestock area, and Kang Youfu finally picked out the bull he had long admired. He was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling.

At this moment, a soldier stepped forward and said, "I'll take you to see the land!"

Kang Youfu led the ox, his two children rode on its back, and his wife rode a donkey. After greeting his brothers, the family happily went to see the land.

Outside the city stretched an endless expanse of new fertile fields, crisscrossed by irrigation canals, dividing the land into plots of 100 mu per household.

Hundreds of soldiers were still planting wedges in the ground according to blueprints, with household numbers written on the wedges.

Kang Youfu's family walked along the ridge of the field. Not far to the south was the Danshui River, where three huge waterwheels stood on the riverbank, continuously pumping water into the irrigation canal.

"Excuse me, sir, what is that big house?" Kang Youfu asked, pointing to a huge wooden house in the distance.

"It's said to be a sugarcane juice extraction workshop that uses water power to drive the juicing process, just like a water-powered oil press. It's a good way to reduce manpower!"

Kang Youfu nodded. Water power was already very common. There were hundreds of water-powered workshops in Qinghe County, including water-powered flour mills, water-powered cotton ginning, water-powered oil pressing, water-powered paper pulp making, and water-powered hemp spinning. Kang Youfu had heard of them all.

After the group had walked two miles, the soldier pointed ahead and said, "That's the 174 plots of land in District Three."

The family walked onto their land, and their son, Kangpingwa, looked around and exclaimed, "Dad, this land is so big!"

Kang Youfu smiled and said, "Of course it's big, a hundred acres!"

The soldiers then took the three wedges from Kang Youfu, ran to the other three corners, and drove the wedges into the pre-prepared boundary markers, thus completing the handover of Kang Youfu's hundred acres of land.

The soldier ran back, panting, and said, "Let me give you one last instruction: the boundary wedges have already been driven into the ground. If you think anything is wrong, you can raise your objections with the county government, and they will send someone to review it. But you cannot move them without authorization. If you move them, this land will no longer belong to you, understand?"

"I understand, don't worry, buddy!"

The soldiers then went back, and the family of four sat on their land, reluctant to leave. It wasn't until the afternoon, when all the land had been allocated, that Kang Youfu's family finally returned to the city, still feeling nostalgic.

In February, after the first batch of immigrants successfully settled down, the second batch of 2,000 households departed from Jiangdu in mid-February, followed by a third batch of 3,000 households departing in early March. The third batch of immigrants will not live in the county seat, but will instead form villages around the county seat.

Just as the migration along the southeast coast was in full swing, Li Jing's army in the far northwest also began its journey.

In late February, an army of 50,000 men and 100,000 camels passed through Xingxing Gorge. The ice and snow on both sides of the official road had not yet completely melted, the snow-capped mountains in the distance were covered with snow, and the air was still bitterly cold. The 50,000-strong army braved the severe cold and marched westward in a mighty procession.

Xingxing Gorge was within the territory of the Yiwu Kingdom, but by this time the Yiwu Kingdom had been destroyed, its king had died in battle, and its prince had become an exile in Luoyang.

Yiwu Kingdom is today's Hami. It is the first stop after passing through Xingxing Gorge and entering Beiting.

When the Sui army was still ten miles away from Yiwu City, the two thousand Turkic soldiers in the city realized that they were no match for the enemy and immediately abandoned Yiwu City and retreated to Gaochang.

In the Sui Dynasty, abandoning a city and fleeing for one's life would likely be punished, but for nomadic armies on the grasslands, this was perfectly normal behavior. If they couldn't win, they would flee. This practice was ingrained from the Xiongnu onwards. With a limited population, protecting their own forces had long been a consensus.

Li Jing led his army and immediately occupied Yiwu City. Like Gaochang, about 60% of the soldiers and civilians in Yiwu City were Han Chinese, 30% were Wusun people, and the rest were Sogdian merchants.

In addition, Yiwu Kingdom also has two small counties, Rouyuan and Nazhi.

However, the phenomenon of Han people being the majority only existed in Yiwu City and two other small counties, while other nomadic peoples such as Wusun and Gushi lived on the grasslands in the north of Yiwu.

Furthermore, the Shatuo Turkic tribe lived east of Lake Pulei. After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Shatuo tribe, led by Li Keyong, invaded the Central Plains, established the Later Tang Dynasty, and became the main force of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

But at this time, the Shatuo tribe was still a small, weak, and insignificant force, only able to live on the edge of the desert.

When the Sui army entered the city, tens of thousands of Han Chinese people rushed out of their homes, singing and dancing to welcome their arrival.

The fact that tens of thousands of Han Chinese were able to survive under the iron heel of the Western Turks was mainly due to the change in the Western Turks' national policy. The Western Turks no longer raided everywhere like the steppe tribes, but instead, like the Sui Dynasty, focused on expanding their territory and siphoning blood from the various ethnic groups in the occupied areas, that is, collecting heavy taxes, so that the Western Turks had enough wealth to support their army and then expand.

Whether they were Han Chinese, Wusun people, or Sogdians, they were all prey for the Western Turks, so of course they wouldn't kill them easily.

Of course, if the Western Turks invaded the heart of the Central Plains, things would be very different. They would plunder and kill everywhere. They knew very well that they could not conquer the Central Plains, so they would only loot and smash everything.

Li Jing immediately announced the establishment of Yiwu Prefecture, changing Yiwu City to Yiwu County, and appointing a prefect and magistrate. However, these appointments were not made by Li Jing himself; they were made by the imperial court when he set off. Officials from Yiwu Prefecture and Gaochang Prefecture followed Li Jing on his expedition.

The biggest advantage of capturing Yiwu City was that the Sui army now had a foothold in Beiting, meaning the 100,000 camels no longer needed to follow the main army and could remain in Yiwu County.

Li Jing left 5,000 men to guard Yiwu City, while he led 45,000 elite troops straight to Gaochang Kingdom.

The Gaochang Kingdom is today's Turpan Basin. The entire basin is shaped like a horizontal olive, surrounded by mountains. It is hot and dry, and is rich in grapes, cotton, and wheat. Its wines are of extremely high quality and are popular in the Central Plains.

The white cotton cloth they wove was a luxury item for the powerful and wealthy in the Central Plains. Xiao Xia had once considered introducing Gaochang cotton, but later found that the fibers of Gaochang cotton were short and difficult to weave, which also led to the low production of Gaochang white cotton cloth.

Xiao Xia eventually gave up and temporarily used kapok to fill the holes for heating. Only after high-quality American cotton appeared did she begin to plant cotton on a large scale.

Of course, cotton originally from India was also of good quality, which is the famous Egyptian cotton of later generations. Xiao Xia sent Chai Shao to Ceylon, and one of the most important tasks was to obtain seeds of high-quality Indian cotton.

The Gaochang and Yiwu kingdoms had a total of 10,000 troops stationed there, and the commander was a commander of 10,000 named Baricha. When he learned that the Sui army was coming, he did not think of fleeing, but of fighting. Of course, he would not defend the city. The Western Turks were good at cavalry. Abandoning cavalry to defend the city would be tantamount to cutting off his own two legs.

But Baricha did not dare to be careless. He immediately sent a centurion to lead a thousand troops to guard the Cheshi Ancient Road, which was their only way to retreat. If the Sui army occupied the Cheshi Ancient Road first, they would be trapped in the basin of Gaochang Kingdom.

Baricha led 9,000 cavalry eastward and encountered the main force of the Sui army on the southern slope of the Tianshan Mountains, about 50 miles from Gaochang City.

(End of this chapter)