The Golden Family, rising from the Western Regions

Chapter 252 Military Merit System, Reorganization of Prisoners of War

There is no war in Hexi.

Since the end of the Battle of Shanyue, the Hexi Corridor has fallen into an eerie calm.

The Northern Frontier Army is stationed along the Yanzhi Mountain line, remaining inactive.

The Western Xia army put on a show of defending Liangzhou City to the death, and the Hexi Corridor was restored to a brief period of peace.

Li Xiao took advantage of the ceasefire to reorganize the captured Western Xia prisoners of war.

In previous wars, the northern frontier captured more than 300,000 Western Xia soldiers and civilians, most of whom came from Ganzhou and Suzhou.

Li Xiao ordered that the women and children remain in their hometowns and be kept as hostages by a small contingent of the Northern Frontier Army.

The men, on the other hand, were taken to the battlefield.

After a simple reduction of the old, young, and disabled, a total of more than 50,000 soldiers were obtained.

"My name is Huang Daquan. I used to be a soldier in Blackwater City, but now I am a soldier in the Northern Frontier."

At this moment, on a Gobi desert outside Ganzhou City, Huang Daquan was conducting ideological work with fifty Ganzhou army prisoners of war in front of him.

He was tall and robust, with a strong physique, and in his early twenties, he was in the prime of his life.

He was captured after the Battle of Blackwater and became a slave of the Kuril army, but in the subsequent war, he fought bravely and killed more than a dozen enemies.

He was valued by Wang Cunxiao, the commander of the Fourth Garrison, who freed him from slavery and made him a soldier in the Northern Frontier Garrison. Not long ago, he also became a formal headman.

He was even awarded the Second-Class Warrior Medal by Luo Meng, the Deputy Commander of the Fourth Garrison.

However, Huang Daquan is about to be promoted again, but not as a formal officer registered in the Protectorate General's Office. Instead, he will temporarily serve as the captain for these fifty prisoners of war from Ganzhou.

“In the past, I worked as a farmhand for those officials. I worked hard farming all year round, but I couldn’t even get a full meal. My child was always crying from hunger.”

"I fought a battle with the Naiman people and finally earned some merit, but those damned officials cheated me out of it and gave me a few hundred coins to get rid of me."

"The child will still go hungry, and my wife will still have to endure hardship with me."

……

Fifty prisoners of war from the Ganzhou army sat in a circle, listening to Huang Daquan tell his story.

Huang Daquan is not a professional political worker, and his eloquence is also average.

But these experiences he had personally gone through often resonated with the prisoners of war.

Everyone seemed to empathize, after all, the military system of Western Xia was corrupt, and the lives of these people were not easy.

The land belonged to landowners, military commanders, prefectural officials, and even high-ranking officials of the imperial court.

They were just tenant farmers, and in addition to the high taxes and land rent, they were also required to perform military service regularly every year.

If that were all, I could tolerate it, but those damn officials even embezzled the military merits they earned with their lives.

Therefore, Huang Daquan's words resonated with many soldiers.

They weren't exactly filled with righteous indignation, after all, these people had become accustomed to being oppressed, but everyone was inevitably tense, drawn into the situation by Huang Daquan's words.

"But everything changed after the Northern Frontier Army arrived."

“In Heluochuan, I killed six lame men from Sari, and the commander immediately freed me from my slave status and made me a garrison soldier.”

"In the northern frontier, as long as you become a garrison soldier, you will immediately be given twenty acres of military farmland, which can be passed down to your descendants and no one can take it away."

"Moreover, a head can be exchanged for two strings of copper coins, which will be distributed directly after the war without any delay."

“Starting from Heluochuan, I, Huang Daquan, have killed a total of thirteen people, and the Grand Protector gave me twenty-six strings of copper coins.”

As he spoke, Huang Daquan pulled out some silver and copper coins from his pocket, a total of twenty-six taels.

This move immediately caused an uproar among the surrounding prisoners of war, who stared intently at the silver in Huang Daquan's hand, their envy evident in their eyes.

They desperately wanted to snatch it away, but they didn't dare.

Huang Daquan was a captain appointed by the Northern Frontier. To attack him would be tantamount to rebellion, and within a quarter of an hour, the cavalry of the Northern Frontier would rush over and slaughter them all.

Moreover, Huang Daquan himself is also terrifyingly strong in combat.

He is a formidable figure capable of single-handedly killing thirteen enemy soldiers.

"I know you want this silver, but you'll have to earn it yourselves." Huang Daquan put the silver away again.

He continued, "In the Northern Frontier Army, merits are never withheld; one is one, and two is two."

"Anyone who dares to embezzle war merits or misappropriate military funds will be severely punished by the Grand Protector; beheading would be the least of their worries."

"Moreover, if you can kill one enemy, you will no longer be slaves, but will become free people of the Northern Frontier. You will be able to rent land from the Grand Protectorate. You will only need to pay 20% rent and 20% land tax to the Grand Protectorate every year, and the rest will be yours."

"If you can kill more than three enemies like me, you can directly become a military household in the northern frontier and get twenty acres of farmland."

"The more enemies you kill in the future, the more farmland and silver you will be rewarded with."

"Besides these twenty-odd taels of silver, the Grand Protector also rewarded my two women."

"In short, in the northern border region, as long as you dare to fight and struggle, you can have as many women, money and land as you want."

Hearing Huang Daquan's words, the soldiers were even more excited, and longing appeared on the faces of each of them.

The vast majority of them were landless peasants who could only rent farmland from landlords and officials.

The annual land rent is at least 40%, and usually 50%. If you encounter those corrupt officials, it could be as high as 60% or 70%.

In addition to land rent, a poll tax must also be paid to the government.

In general, ordinary people work hard all year, but in the end, they don't have much food left, and many times they are on the verge of starvation.

In the northern frontier, both the private land of military households and the public land of the Grand Protectorate were required to pay 20% of their land as taxes in grain.

However, the poll tax was abolished in northern Xinjiang and replaced with a land tax.

Military households that owned private land only needed to pay land tax, while those who rented public land had to pay 20% rent.

However, compared to the Western Xia regime, the people's treatment was much better.

In the end, 60% of the grain was saved.

As long as we work hard, we can ensure that our family doesn't go hungry.

If one dares to fight bravely on the battlefield, one can definitely live a good life like a landowner, thanks to the spoils and rewards of war.

Thinking of that scene, the prisoners of war could not hide their excitement and began to discuss it among themselves, fantasizing about the future.

This scene was also playing out in many other prisoner-of-war camps outside Ganzhou City.

Li Xiao disbanded all the soldiers' original formations and reorganized them into teams of ten.

From the initial captured Blackwater Army and Dunhuang Army, soldiers who performed well and were ideologically inclined to join the Northern Frontier Army were selected to serve as shihu (household commanders) and deputy shihu (household commanders) for the prisoners of war.

Soldiers from the northern frontier were appointed as mid- to high-ranking officers, such as captains, centurions, and commanders.

In this way, a new army, the Kuli Army, will be formally formed, with soldiers from the northern frontier as the core of officers and Western Xia prisoners of war as the foundation.

There were more than 50,000 men in total, all of them infantry, divided into six units of ten thousand men each.

Each household had eight or nine thousand people, and they all used the original weapons of the Western Xia army.

"After this war, a new class will emerge in our northern frontier." Inside the golden tent, Li Xiao murmured softly as he looked at the reports presented by the various units of the Kuli army.

civilian!

Because among these 50,000 prisoners of war, only the elite could become military households, and most soldiers probably did not meet this requirement.

Therefore, Li Xiao gave them a chance to become ordinary citizens.

Apart from military farmland, private ownership of farmland in northern Xinjiang is not permitted.

For ordinary people to survive, the only options besides earning merit and becoming a military household to receive military land were to rent public land from the Protectorate General.

The purpose was to prevent excessive land annexation and to keep most of the land in the hands of the Protectorate General.

In this way, a three-tiered social structure will initially form in northern Xinjiang.

Soldiers, civilians, and slaves.

However, social classes are not fixed; they are interconnected.

A slave who wants to earn merit and become a commoner needs to kill one enemy, while a commoner who wants to become a garrison soldier needs to kill three enemies.

For soldiers in the garrison to achieve greater success, they also need to make meritorious contributions in battle.

Driven by self-interest, the people of Northern Xinjiang live their entire lives striving for military achievements, which will become an inexhaustible driving force for the Northern Xinjiang war machine to expand its territory outward.

It is essentially still a merit-based system of military titles.

In the days that followed, Li Xiao ordered his generals to train the Kuli army. He did not expect them to be highly elite, but at least they should be able to fight battles when they had the upper hand.

According to news from scouts in Liangzhou City, reinforcements from Western Xia have arrived.

Previously, it was Wei Ming Shi'an who led the cavalry, but now the infantry has also crossed Tiger Wolf Gorge.

The total strength of the Liangzhou forces reached nearly 80,000.

Meanwhile, in the northern frontier, the armies of the four garrisons have been assembled, except for a small number of troops left to guard towns such as Heishui and Dunhuang.

Li Xiao only had less than 30,000 cavalrymen from the Northern Frontier Army at his disposal.

In addition, there were fewer than 5,000 auxiliary troops from Gaochang, but they were far inferior in strength to the Western Xia army.

Therefore, it is necessary to supplement the army with Curry as cannon fodder.

On this day, a scout suddenly reported: "Grand Protector, the Xia army in Liangzhou City has made its move."

"The cavalry set off this morning, heading towards Yanzhi Mountain."

Upon hearing this, Li Xiao's expression immediately tightened. Looking at the sand table in front of him, he determined the marching route of the Western Xia army based on the intelligence from the scouts.

He said calmly, "That old bastard Wei Ming Shi'an finally couldn't hold back anymore."

"Order all commanders and officers of various divisions to come to the main tent."

"The war is about to begin."

Meanwhile, at the gates of Liangzhou city.

Li Anquan, dressed in magnificent armor, rode his warhorse and led a large cavalry force out of Liangzhou City.

Facing this vast land of Hexi, I naturally felt a surge of pride and joy.

He shouted loudly, "Order all departments that if they discover any barbarians from the northern frontier, they must not pursue them lightly."

"Yes, sir." The personal guard relayed the order, and thousands of cavalrymen galloped across the land, kicking up clouds of dust several feet high, like giant yellow dragons rolling and rushing across the earth.

Li Anquan was originally the son of the King of Yue, but he failed to inherit the throne and was instead enfeoffed as the Prince of Zhenyi. He had been harboring resentment for a long time.

In this battle, he wanted to show everyone his abilities as Li Anquan, and he wanted to reclaim the throne of Yue.

Most importantly, he needs military achievements to gain control of the army.

His past experiences had taught him not to expect anyone's pity or charity.

Ultimately, what you need to rely on is your own strength.

Holding military power is more important than any throne.

"Hmph, Your Majesty, I, Li Anquan, will never let you down. I will fight this battle well and let the world know that I, Li Anquan, am the most outstanding descendant of the Weiming clan."

As the warhorse galloped, a cold glint flashed in Li Anquan's eyes.

At the same time, the infantry in Liangzhou City also sprang into action.

Only three thousand soldiers were left to guard Liangzhou City, while tens of thousands of troops were dispatched in full force.

"Prefect Supi, Liangzhou City is now in your hands," Weiming Shi'an said solemnly to Supi Naluo.

"Rest assured, Grand Councilor, I will not allow the barbarians of the Northern Frontier any opportunity to take advantage of us," Supinaluo said solemnly.

Although there were only three thousand men, the walls of Liangzhou were tall and strong, and they could easily cope with an attack by tens of thousands of soldiers.

Wei Ming Shi'an nodded slightly, looked up at the tall city wall, and sighed helplessly in his heart.

The Northern Frontier Cavalry, unparalleled in open field battles, truly did not want to initiate an attack, but unfortunately, the emperor issued twelve imperial edicts to him.

He was instructed to defeat the northern barbarians and reclaim Hexi.

I've reached my limit with his cowardly behavior.

Left with no other choice, Wei Ming Shi'an had to lead his troops out to find an opportunity to annihilate the northern frontier cavalry.

"Set off."

Wei Ming Shi'an spoke in a deep voice, and the army set off one after another.

The vanguard had already traveled more than ten miles, but the rear guard had not yet left Liangzhou City.

Like a long dragon, it is majestic and stretches endlessly.

Wei Ming Shi'an then dispatched two more cavalry units to guard the left and right flanks, forming an angle with Li Anquan's vanguard cavalry to protect the main army's advance.

Throughout this process, the Northern Frontier Scouts kept a close watch from a distance, constantly observing the movements of the Western Xia army.

If pursued by a large group of enemy cavalry, they would turn their horses around and leave, returning only when all was well. They were as persistent as a leech.

That evening, the Western Xia army set up camp sixty li away.

Wei Ming Shi'an solemnly instructed, "The Northern Frontier Army is adept at night raids, so you must be on high alert."

He had already studied the tactics of the Northern Frontier Army. The Ganzhou Army was slowly worn down and killed by the constant harassment from the Northern Frontier Army.

The barbarians of the northern frontier will surely resort to their old tricks again.

That night, the Northern Frontier Army did indeed launch a night attack, but instead of storming into the camp, they turned back outside the camp.

Seeing the soldiers who had been startled awake in the military camp, Wei Ming Shi'an's face darkened: "They're here."

"A common tactic of the barbarians of the northern frontier."

They harassed the Western Xia soldiers by constantly launching night raids, preventing them from getting enough rest.

However, if left unaddressed, the harassment could easily escalate into a real attack.

It's a game where falsehood and truth intertwine, making it impossible to discern the underlying pattern.

"Ignore them. Leave one army soldier on guard, and the rest of you go back to rest," Wei Ming Shi'an said in a deep voice.

He knew perfectly well that he must not let the enemy throw him into disarray.

Moreover, some ambushes have already been set up in the camp. If the Northern Frontier Army really launches a night attack, we will have to capture them even if it means losing some troops.

The army continued its advance early the next morning.

Compared to the former Ganzhou Army, Weiming Shi'an had more cavalry under his command, all of whom were elite Western Xia troops, including the ace cavalry, the Iron Falcons.

Therefore, Wei Ming Shi'an was more composed when it came to arranging his troops.

They even dared to send out cavalry alone to test the waters with the cavalry from the northern frontier.

Meanwhile, atop a high mountain ahead, Li Xiao, wielding his telescope, gazed intently at the Western Xia army formation.

The more he looked, the more somber his expression became.

Finally, he slowly lowered his telescope and said in a deep voice, "Weiming Shi'an is indeed a famous general of Western Xia. He's an old man who has fought wars all his life, but his eyebrows are hollow."

The skinny monkey beside him asked, puzzled, "Grand Protector, what's wrong?"

"That old man made his move?"

Li Xiao nodded slightly, pointed to the Western Xia army formation and said, "Wei Ming Shi'an doesn't have any special tricks, he just charges in head-on."

"Hehe, with 80,000 troops spread across the Hexi Corridor, they can almost completely block off the north and south of the corridor."

"If we allow him to advance step by step like this, our army's room for maneuver will be gradually compressed, and we will eventually lose Ganzhou, Suzhou, and the entire Hexi Corridor."

The Hexi Corridor is an east-west corridor with an average width of only a few dozen miles.

In particular, the oasis between Ganzhou and Liangzhou is only a dozen miles wide on average.

Wei Ming Shi'an divided his army into eight 'groups', lined up in a row from north to south, spaced apart, yet able to support each other.

Like eight massive fortresses, they formed an impenetrable wall, pressing in step by step toward Ganzhou City.

Under this formation, the Northern Frontier Army has very limited space to utilize, making it impossible to fully leverage the mobility of its cavalry.

"This old bastard is only trying to pull this stunt on us because he has more men than us," Skinny Monkey said angrily.

This is a time-consuming and laborious tactic that cannot be implemented with a small number of people, but Wei Ming Shi'an has a total of 80,000 troops under his command.

It completely covered the Hexi Corridor, unless the Northern Frontier Army crossed it from the Qilian Mountains in the south or the vast desert in the north.

“Wei Ming Shi’an is very cautious and won’t give us a chance to launch a sneak attack,” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.

"He's forcing us to fight him to the death."

Li Xiao wanted to use the same trick he had used against Mi Qin Tiele.

However, thanks to Wei Ming Shi'an's actions, the mobility of the Northern Frontier Cavalry was completely restricted, and they could no longer carry out harassment and attacks along the way.

The only option left is a decisive battle.

"Let's go."

“Our battlefield with him is not here, but at Yanzhi Mountain,” Li Xiao said calmly.

Then, he turned and left with the Wuwei Army.

After two more days of marching, the Western Xia army arrived at the foot of Yanzhi Mountain.

Wei Ming Shi'an convened a meeting of his generals: "Gentlemen, there are three routes to take from the north and south of Yanzhi Mountain and Ganjun Mountain."

"However, Shanle City in the middle route has been captured by the Northern Frontier Army, and the Yanzhi Mountain Ancient Road is no longer passable."

"We only have two paths before us: the north and the south."

Wei Ming Shi'an pointed to the markings on the simplified map and said.

"The southern route is rugged, with many valleys and rivers, while the northern route is mostly desert, making it equally difficult for the army to march."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Anquan, the deputy marshal, said in a deep voice: "The commander-in-chief's tactic is to build an impregnable wall and advance with overwhelming force."

"We cannot give the barbarians in the north a chance to breathe."

"But we must first remove the thorn in Shanle City's side."

Shanle City could not be left standing, otherwise it would endanger the retreat of the Western Xia army.

However, Le City is not so easy to attack.

“Shanle City is located between Yanzhi Mountain and Ganjun Mountain. The terrain is rugged. If we attack it rashly, we will suffer ten times the casualties.”

"The garrison commander of Liangzhou City, Yeli Duowen, said in a deep voice."

"If we can't take it by frontal assault, then we'll encircle it from both sides."

"We will take the detour from the south of Yanzhi Mountain and advance westward, joining forces with the main army to remove this thorn in our side," Li Anquan shouted.

His finger traced a semicircle across the location of the military horse farm on the map, returning to Shanle City in the middle of the road.

As for why we didn't take the northern route, it's because Ganjun Mountain is very long, and going around Shanle City would be too far. We could have gone directly along the desert to Ganzhou City.

After Li Anquan finished speaking, no one objected.

Wei Ming Shi'an nodded slightly: "Your Highness is right, let's proceed with this plan."

Li Anquan smiled.

If his plan succeeds, he will surely gain the favor and support of a large number of generals in the army.

His prestige in the military was growing, bringing him one step closer to his ultimate goal.

At this moment, Li Anquan did not reveal his ambition in the slightest.

Not to mention Wei Ming Shi'an, even Li Chunyou himself considered him a great loyal minister.

The next day, the Western Xia army divided its forces.

Li Anquan personally led an army of 30,000 to launch a frontal attack on the Yanzhishan Ancient Road.

This is a valley that is only two miles wide, and at its narrowest point it is only an arrow's width apart.

The Northern Frontier Army occupied advantageous terrain and launched a series of attacks.

Li Anquan's army faced extreme difficulties during their march.

Meanwhile, the main force led by Wei Ming Shi'an also encountered difficulties.

Because they were intercepted by the main force of the Northern Frontier Army.

(End of this chapter)