The Golden Family, rising from the Western Regions

Chapter 1 Western Liao, the Cold Wind is Coming

Western Regions, Northern Frontier!
It was early summer now, and all things were reviving. The glaciers were melting, and the snow water from the Altai Mountains flowed into the Longgu River, cold and clear, nourishing all things.

The breeze blew gently, raising layers of green waves.

On the dense green grassland in the distance, a group of cattle and sheep were leisurely eating grass, and a dozen children were galloping on horseback and playing not far away.

At this time, by the river, a young boy who looked about fifteen or sixteen years old was lying on the soft grass.

With his head resting on his sheepskin coat and wearing a patched long-sleeved cloth shirt, he was not afraid of the cold west wind in early summer.

As his chest rose and fell slightly, the outline of his muscles could be vaguely seen under his clothes. Although he had not yet reached the maturity and strength, he already had the firmness and strength of a young tiger.

Although his face is a little immature, it has already begun to show its edges and corners, as if brewing a sharp edge. In the red glow of the sunset, it reveals a bit of cold, wild and unruly nature.

This young man was Li Xiao.

I just turned fifteen this year.

At this moment, he put his hands behind his head, crossed his legs, held a piece of dogtail grass in his mouth, and felt the breeze, looking very relaxed and comfortable.

My eyes gazed at the clear blue sky, but my thoughts had already drifted far away...

"Oh~ I can't go back!"

There was a soft murmur in his mouth.

It has been more than half a month since I came to this world, and I have also figured out the current situation.

He crossed!

The era we live in today is one of the most turbulent periods in Chinese history.

A period of three kingdoms.

But it was not the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu, but Song, Jin and Xia.

Fifty years had passed since the Jingkang Incident. The Jin Kingdom occupied the northern part of China, and the Southern Song Dynasty could only live in peace in a corner, becoming a vassal, ceding land, and paying tribute every year.

According to the calendar used by later generations, this year is 1198 AD.

However, the place where Li Xiao is now does not belong to any of the three kingdoms of Song, Jin and Xia.

But it belongs to Western Liao.

A relatively unfamiliar country located west of Western Xia and Mongolia.

The geographical territory included the entire Xinjiang and southern Kazakhstan in later generations, as well as most of the other four Central Asian countries.

In 1125 AD, after the Battle of Jiajin Mountain, Emperor Tianzuo of Liao was captured by the Jurchen army. The Khitan Liao Kingdom, which had been established for two hundred years and had suffocated the Song Dynasty, was destroyed.

But whenever there is a dramatic change, there will always be a hero-like figure who can save the country from danger.

Yelu Dashi, a general of the Liao royal family, was undoubtedly a hero.

Although he failed to defeat the Jurchens and rebuild the Liao Dynasty, he took a different approach and led his army on an expedition to the Western Regions.

He crossed the desert, climbed over the Altai Mountains, and established a country in Central Asia thousands of miles away.

It is known in history as Western Liao.

The Western Liao Dynasty is considered to be the continuation of the Khitan Liao Dynasty, and is also known as the "Black Khitan" or "Kara Khitan". Its influence on world history is extremely profound.

Some Western countries in later generations even called China Khitan, which was precisely due to the influence of Western Liao on the West.

During its heyday, the Western Liao Dynasty had a very large territory, stretching from Dunhuang in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west, from Lake Balkhash in the north to the Kunlun Mountains in the south.

The territory area reaches more than 350 million square kilometers.

Li Xiao was located in the northern border area in the northeastern part of Western Liao, which was also the western northern border of China in later generations.

This is a vast area located north of the Tianshan Mountains, south of the Altai Mountains, and centered on the Junggar Basin.

This area is located between two major mountain ranges. The melting ice and snow nourish the earth, and it is also affected by the warm and humid air currents from the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore, the land is fertile, the rainfall is abundant, and there is abundant water and grass, which is very suitable for the development of animal husbandry and agriculture.

It is also rich in mineral resources and is one of the most famous scenic tourist destinations in later generations.

But today, it is still a desolate place, without even a decent town.

"I didn't expect to be reborn in this place again. What a fate~"

Li Xiao lay on the grass by the Longgu River, looking at the sky and feeling the breeze, feeling very relaxed.

"However, compared to the Northern Frontier in later generations, she is now truly charming and magnificent."

In his previous life, he spent most of his time living in the northern border grasslands.

There are fertile land and abundant water and grass here, so it has been the gathering place of many nomadic peoples since ancient times.

In addition to these numerous nomadic peoples, the presence of the Han people seems to have become an indelible bright color on this land.

Since Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty, the presence of Han people has never ceased in the Western Regions, and reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty.

The existence of the two major protectorates of Anxi and Beiting allowed the Han people to become the masters of the Western Regions for a time.

But time flies, and the glory of the Han and Tang dynasties has come to an end.

The former Han and Tang dynasty survivors may have gradually assimilated into other ethnic groups, but the origins of the Han people in northern Xinjiang today can be traced back to the war for the founding of the Western Liao Dynasty fifty years ago.

During Yelu Dashi's Western Expedition, the Liao Dynasty had already perished and the number of Khitan troops under his command was seriously insufficient.

Therefore, Yelu Dashi had to recruit people from other ethnic groups to enrich his army.

The Han people in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun became one of the main sources of military forces for Yelu Dashi.

Among the 60,000 main forces that Yelu Dashi led on the Western Expedition, at least one-third were Han people from Yanyun.

After the Battle of Kavant, Yelu Dashi defeated the Seljuk Empire, the former overlord of Central Asia, and established the Western Liao Empire, with its capital in Husiwoerduo, located in the territory of later Kyrgyzstan.

The 20,000-plus Han troops were dispersed and resettled, most of them bringing their families to the four northern border prefectures, as they were closer to the Han territory. With China shattered and the Jurchens taking control of the Central Plains, these Han people, having lost their homeland, wandered thousands of miles and could only express their longing in this way.

Against this background, Li Xiao's ancestors led their troops and their families to Jinzhou at the foot of the Altai Mountains.

They built their own home on a plain on the south bank of Longgu River and named it Hexi Fort.

The reason for choosing this place is that it is adjacent to the Longgu River and has abundant water and grass.

More importantly, the ancestor of the Li family used his half-baked Feng Shui skills, which he learned from who knows where, to see that this place contains a dragon vein, and he insisted on staying here.
Today, fifty years have passed, and the older generation of Yanyun Han Army has long since turned to dust.

Li Xiao and other new generation Han people have taken root in this land. While spreading Han culture, they are also accepting the integration of other ethnic groups.

Through Li Xiao's understanding during this period, he believes that the Han people in the northern border can no longer be considered a pure farming nation.

Because the Han people in northern Xinjiang, while cultivating the land, also grazed animals like nomads, raising large numbers of cattle, sheep, horses, and camels.

Moreover, the four prefectures in northern Xinjiang are located between the Tianshan Mountains and the Altai Mountains, and are crossed by the Longgu River and the Irtysh River.

Therefore, the Han people in northern Xinjiang are also good at fishing and hunting.

In Li Xiao's view, the Han people in the northern border have become a standard fishing and hunting nation.

"They herd sheep, fish and hunt, men farm and women weave, working from sunrise to sunset."

“This is the life many people dream of!”

"It's a pity that such a good life won't last long."

Li Xiao slowly sat up from the grass, still holding the dogtail grass in his mouth, and muttered.

He sat cross-legged and looked towards the western sky, where the setting sun looked like blood and the sunset was boiling in the sky.

It’s a beautiful scene, but it’s a pity that night comes after sunset.

In Li Xiao's eyes, this setting sun seemed to represent the Western Liao Empire at that time.

The dusk has already come and will soon be completely destroyed.

And who destroyed the once powerful Western Liao Empire?
It’s almost the thirteenth century, who else could it be?

"Mongols!"

Li Xiao sighed lightly and said with a headache.

It is now the 1198th year of Tianmu in the Western Liao Dynasty, which is AD.

And just nine years ago, on the eastern Mongolian Plateau, a man named Temujin officially became the leader of the Qiyan tribe.

Afterwards, he led his Mongolian cavalry to conquer the east and the west.

Eight years later, in 1206 AD, Temujin completely unified the Mongolian tribes, and then turned his minions against the Jin Dynasty and Western Xia.

But it was Western Liao that was the first to suffer a devastating disaster.

In 1218 AD, the Mongolian generals Jebe and Subutai led cavalry to attack Western Liao.

At that time, Western Liao was in the midst of civil strife. The emperor became a puppet, internal and external conflicts occurred frequently, and the soldiers had no desire to fight.

The Western Liao army was completely vulnerable in the face of the powerful Mongolian cavalry.

Western Liao Dynasty was destroyed at this point, and Central Asia fell under the rule of the Mongols.

But at that time, where would the Han people in the northern border go?

The land in the northern border is fertile, with abundant water and grass, which is very suitable for grazing. The Mongolians will not let go of this place.
"Submission or resistance?"

"Haha~"

"Submission is useless."

In the previous life, Mongolia occupied the Western Regions and ruled the Central Plains for more than ninety years. If there is no change in this life, then Li Xiao’s trip here would be in vain!
Watching the light of the setting sun becoming dimmer and dimmer, Li Xiao shook his head slightly and turned to look towards the east.

I don’t know when it started, but the sky in the east seemed to become a little gloomy, and the wind blowing to the northern border became a little stronger.

Although the dark clouds in the east are still far away, Li Xiao knows that sooner or later they will come over the northern border and bring about a violent storm.

Li Xiao stood up from the grass, looked at the dark clouds over there, and suddenly smiled lightly.

"The dark clouds can also be dispersed!"

Besides, Temujin was just an "entrepreneur" at that time, and was still lurking under the shadow of Wang Han, with an army of only three or four thousand people under his command.

It would take another eight years for him to unify the Mongolian grasslands, and another twenty years for the Mongolian army to march west.

Li Xiao still has time.

"Eight years!"

Li Xiao looked towards the dark clouds in the eastern sky with a sharp gaze, and whispered in a low voice: "Before Temujin unifies the Mongolian grasslands, I must at least grow to the point where I can fight against the Mongolian cavalry under his command."

In this way, Li Xiao might still have a chance to stop the rise of the Mongol Empire.

Otherwise, if Li Xiao didn't want to be a dog for the Mongols, he would have to go to the South Asian subcontinent and become a Brahmin.

However, when he thought about his offspring smelling of curry and shitting on the beach, Li Xiao felt a chill in his heart.

It's really a disgrace to our ancestors!

Li Xiao quickly drove this thought out of his mind. He would never allow his descendants to be assimilated by his third brother.

Just as Li Xiao was thinking about the future, a child's loud shouting was heard in the distance.

"Brother, brother, the wind is blowing."

"Go home~"

(End of this chapter)