The Golden Family, rising from the Western Regions

Chapter 277 Seven Hundred Thousand Prisoners Await Feeding; Quickly Head to the Southern Frontier to Seize Grain
In June, the Northern Frontier Army launched a decisive battle in the Hexi Corridor, its iron hooves trampling across the west of the Yellow River, and more than 700,000 Xia soldiers and civilians were taken prisoner.

Meanwhile, the wheat in southern Xinjiang is also ripe.

Jimo is the area that later became known as Aksu.

An old man dressed in the attire of the Karluks, wearing a small white cap, with graying hair and beard, stood at the front of the field ridge, leaning on a wooden cane.

He gazed at the wheat fields stretching to the edge of the dunes, then suddenly straightened his hunched back, a broad smile spreading across his wrinkled face, revealing his only two large, yellow teeth.

"This year's harvest is pretty good."

The old man was speaking Karluk.

The Eastern Karakhanid Khanate was originally a state jointly established by the Uyghurs and the Karluks, with the Uyghurs taking the lead and the Karluks also being important shareholders.

Especially during the time when Li Xiao's mother-in-law was in power, given that the Karluks were unruly and repeatedly rebelled, she used an iron fist to forcibly relocate the Karluks from the Central Plains to southern Xinjiang.

Therefore, the Karluk population within the territory of the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate increased.

The Yushege family arrived in Jimo during that migration and, after a bloody battle, quickly established themselves in the area.

Through decades of development, they gradually became a powerful clan in Jimo and were even granted a title by the King of the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate, becoming nobles of the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate.

Today, one-tenth of the land in Jimo belongs to the Yushege family, and Yushege has laid a vast foundation for the family.

The wind swept across the heavy ears of wheat, and amidst the surging golden waves, the old man stood at the edge of the field, as if he could hear the echoes of the battles of yesteryear. Those once invincible powerful clans have now turned to dust.

He killed all the men of those families, took the women from those families, and buried all the children alive.

It can be said that every inch of the soil of the Yushege family is soaked with years of blood debt.

But the old man didn't think he was cruel at all. In southern Xinjiang, the strong prey on the weak, and if you're not ruthless, you can't stand firm.

Only by being more ruthless than everyone else can you rise above others.

"Grandpa, can we start the cutting now?"

Beside the old man, his eldest son, Yi Moshu, asked softly.

This is a tradition of the Yushege family. Every year during the harvest season, the elders would personally hold a ceremony, similar to a sacrifice to the god of grain, to pray for a bountiful harvest year after year.

The ceremony had now concluded, and the old man nodded slightly, saying, "Let's begin!"

Then, the servants and guards of the Yushege family rode off in all directions, each carrying a drum made of human skin, beating it and shouting, "Gemaile!"

Upon hearing this, the villagers, who were already prepared, rushed forward with their farm tools.

They were called commoners, but in reality they were all serfs of the Yushege family.

The Eastern Karakhanid Khanate was a slave-owning state where the people had a very low social status, were not nobles, and had no human rights whatsoever.

More than 80% of the grain produced had to be given to the Yushege family, leaving less than 20% for the family to barely survive.

It was extremely tragic.

However, the social hierarchy in the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate was already rigid, and unless there was another large-scale population migration, serfs would remain serfs forever.

This identity will never change from generation to generation.

"Grandpa, I'll keep an eye on things here. You should go back and rest."

Yi Moshu walked out from among the wheat fields, bowed slightly, and respectfully addressed the old man.

He appeared to be around thirty years old, wearing a loose brown robe with a curved knife at his waist.

The old man squinted at him and tapped the ground with his cane: "It's up to you now."

His cloudy eyes swept over the outline of the distant sand dunes again: "Keep an eye on the grain stacks, don't let those bandits smell the grain and take advantage of the situation."

"Don't worry, Grandpa."

Yi Moshu straightened up, patted the scabbard at his waist, and the clanging of metal was particularly clear in the wheat fields.

"What are a bunch of bandits? Everyone knows that the guards of the Yushege family are the most formidable!"

"As long as those barbarians from the northern frontier don't step into Jimo, our granary will only be piled higher than last year."

Upon hearing Yi Moshu's words, a shadow crossed the old man's face.

Just last year, barbarians from the north raided the south, sweeping across places like Kucha and Kuqa.

Even the heavily guarded city of Jimo could not stop the northern barbarians' offensive.

If the old man hadn't been cunning and hidden away with his family beforehand, the Yushege family would have been wiped out last year.

Although Ke Ren survived, much of the family's grain, gold, and silver was looted.

Fortunately, the northern barbarians quickly retreated, leaving behind a blank space.

There was a family whose power was not much different from that of the Yushege family, but unfortunately, many of their members were killed by the Northern Frontier Army.

So the old man simply killed the rest of them, seized the family's land and slaves, and thus recovered some of his strength.

Therefore, the old man felt very uncomfortable when he heard the words "barbarians from the northern frontier".

He gave Yi Mo a light snort: "Shut your mouth."

"If the food is stolen, you might as well dig a hole and bury yourself."

Hearing the reprimand, Yi Moshu subconsciously shrank back, watching the old man's receding figure, and shook his head helplessly, saying, "How could it be such a coincidence?"

"The barbarians of the northern frontier only reached a reconciliation with the Khanate last year, so it's impossible for them to come to the southern frontier again."

After saying that, he turned around and looked at the people in the fields who were toiling under the scorching sun like cattle and horses, a hint of disdain flashing in his eyes.

"Too slow, too slow."

"Boost."

"Anyone who doesn't finish their work isn't allowed to eat lunch."

"Crack~"

After saying that, the whip lashed heavily across the back of a man standing nearby.

The man groaned heavily, but still dared not stop what he was doing, continuing to work with his back hunched over.

After more than ten days of such intense work, the last heavy bag of wheat was carried into the Yushege family's granary by the serfs.

The serfs did not disperse; each carrying an empty basket, they stood on tiptoe, gazing at the tall rammed earth walls of the granary, their eyes filled with hope.

On the high platform in front of the granary, Yi Moshu stood with his hand on the curved sword at his waist, the hem of his brown robe still covered with wheat stubble.

He cleared his throat, his voice echoing across the empty courtyard: "Listen up, all of you!"

“The land beneath your feet belongs to the Yushege family, and the grain before you also belongs to the Yushege family.”

He raised his hand and pointed to the ground beneath his feet, then to the tightly closed warehouse door, his tone filled with disdain and condescension.

"From now on, you must behave yourself and pay your rent in full and do your duty without shirking. When the lean season comes, you will naturally have food to eat."

As soon as he finished speaking, a few low responses rang out from the crowd.

In essence, these people were no different from serfs.

Only by working for the Yushege family year-round can one receive a share of the harvest.

The vast majority of the grain went into the granaries, with less than 20% left to be distributed among so many families.

There aren't enough to go around.

Not convinced?

Kill a few ringleaders, and the others become more docile than domestic dogs.

That's human nature; everyone wants to wait for others to take the lead so they can reap the benefits without lifting a finger.

But if everyone thinks like that, the group will eventually fall apart and deserve to be oppressed.

Yi Mo glanced at the commotion in the crowd, chuckled, and waved to the steward: "Give each household half a bushel of old grain first, and let them go back home."

A burst of soft cheers erupted from the crowd as they moved forward in a queue.

An old woman, her back hunched, watched as the steward poured a basket of stale grain into her own. A choking dust and musty smell assaulted her no whiff, but she paid no heed.

His withered hands held it tightly, as if afraid of dropping a single grain of food.

Finally, he knelt down with a thud: "Thank you, sir! Thank you, Master Yu Shege, for the reward!"

"Get lost~"

The steward scoffed. Although he was just a servant of the Yushege family, and usually had to bow and scrape before his master, he stood taller than anyone else when facing these lowly people.

It seems that only by bullying these lowly people can they gain a sense of psychological superiority.

Just as the old woman was about to get up, she suddenly felt the ground beneath her knees tremble slightly, as if some enormous thing was rolling in from a distance.

At first, there was a barely perceptible vibration, but it quickly turned into a series of loud "thump-thump" sounds, and the dust underfoot seemed to be jumping around.

"what happened?"

Someone noticed something was wrong and looked around with the empty bag in hand.

"What is this sound?"

Has there been a flood?

"Impossible, it hasn't rained for many days, how could there be a flood?"

The people gathered outside the manor, nervously shaking their heads and looking around.

Standing atop the wall, Yi Moshu felt a vague sense of panic and unease.

He was more knowledgeable than these lowly people and immediately realized that this was not a natural disaster, but more like the roar of galloping warhorses.

His hand rested on the hilt of his knife, and he nervously scanned the sand dunes to the northeast.

The tremors grew stronger and stronger, like muffled thunder rolling across the Gobi Desert. Then, a gust of wind swept in, carrying sand and gravel that made it impossible to open one's eyes.

At the top of the sand dunes, a striking red wave appeared.

Battle flag!

On the red flag with white borders, the sun and moon patterns are dazzlingly bright under the blazing sun.

Behind the flag formation came the gleaming red cavalry, their hooves shattering the silence of the sand dunes, like a burning red cloud pressing down, making the rammed earth walls of the granary hum.

"Giddy up!"

"Drink, drink, drink!"

"kill!"

The roar of galloping warhorses, mixed with the shouts of soldiers from the northern frontier, swept in.

"Barbarians from the Northern Frontier".

"The barbarians from the northern frontier have arrived."

Suddenly someone screamed, and the crowd erupted in chaos.

Just last year, the Northern Xinjiang Army raided Southern Xinjiang, sweeping through Jimo City and routing the Eastern Karakhanid army.

Therefore, the sun and moon battle flag of the northern frontier is no stranger to the people of Jimo City.

Seeing countless Northern Frontier soldiers in red armor approaching from afar, the people scattered like startled birds and fled.

Yi Moshu's face also turned pale instantly, his expression filled with terror.

He stared intently at the crimson sun and moon battle flag, a flag he had seen from afar when the Northern Frontier Army passed through last year.

A family whose strength was comparable to that of the Yushege family was completely slaughtered by these demons in red armor simply because they resisted with weapons.

At this moment, these people actually arrived outside the Yushege family's manor.

"Quick! Close the gate!"

He roared and turned around, only to find that his legs felt like lead.

The cavalry arrived too quickly; their red cotton armor darted through the yellow sand like a swarm of bloodthirsty red ants. In the blink of an eye, they had reached the foot of the dunes, the dust kicked up by their hooves obscuring the sky and dimming the sun. "Roar! Roar! Roar!"

"kill!"

On the distant sand dunes, the red and white war flags fluttered in the hot wind.

Erhu was dressed in a crimson cotton armor, the white trim outlining his rugged features in the sunlight. He raised a telescope in one hand, his gaze fixed on the Yushege family's manor.

The rammed earth walls, a deep yellow color, surrounded a row of granaries. The people moving around inside and outside the threshing ground resembled a dense swarm of ants; they were the people receiving their grain and the guards of the village.

"Haha, you've come at just the right time!"

Erhu put down his telescope and laughed heartily, "The winter wheat has just been harvested, and these kids' granaries are probably going to burst."

His personal guards behind him laughed, their red cotton armor blending together in the yellow sand like a blazing bonfire.

Jimo is the later Aksu, which is adjacent to the Yellow River and is one of the oases in southern Xinjiang.

Two harvests a year are possible. Right now, the winter wheat has just been stored, and the summer millet is still in the field filling out. This is the time when our harvest is at its best.

The reason Erhu led his troops here was because of a letter that Li Xiao had sent by fast horse not long ago.

"The war in Xia State has ended, and 700,000 prisoners of war in Hexi are waiting to be fed. Quickly go down to the southern border to plunder grain."

Erhu received the letter and grinned even wider.

Erhu had always regretted not being able to follow Li Xiao on his eastern expedition, but he never expected that Li Xiao would entrust him with an even more important task.

With over 700,000 mouths to feed, this job needs to be done thoroughly and honestly.

"The Yushege family is quite wealthy." Erhu squinted at the manor's arrow tower, and could vaguely see figures behind the crenellations on the earthen wall.

"Unfortunately, we ran into a real man."

These nobles from the southern borderlands were very shrewd; they all built their manors into earthen fortresses, with hundreds of servants and guards.

But they forgot that last year, the earthen fortress in Kuxian City was also flattened by their own cavalry in the same way.

Inside the manor, a girl's pitiful screams echoed from a courtyard.

The guards outside, hearing this, felt a pang of pity, but none of them dared to interfere.

The old man, though old in years, was still young at heart, and often plundered the daughters of the common people to provide for his luxuries.

But he's too old and can't keep up anymore, so he can only resort to this perverse way to vent.

The girls all left the room lying down, covered in blood, not a single piece of their flesh intact.

Just then, a young man galloped towards them on horseback from the backyard.

He was dressed in a short robe in the style of the Karluks, and was the most trusted steward of Yimoshu. He suddenly pulled on the reins and roared at the guards in the corridor, "Where is the master? Where is he?"

The guards exchanged glances and then looked at the closed door of a room not far away.

The manager, disregarding everything else, pushed open the half-closed door and rushed inside.

"Master! Something terrible has happened! The barbarians from the northern frontier are attacking!"

The sight inside the room made him gasp for breath. A girl dressed in light gauze was lying on a blanket, her fair back covered with crisscrossing whip marks. She was curling up in pain, and broken screams were coming out of her throat.

Meanwhile, an old man with graying hair and beard was chasing after them, whip in hand, his wrinkled face flushed with a sickly redness.

But as soon as he heard the words "barbarians from the northern frontier," the old man's whip-wielding motion suddenly froze, as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water on him from behind.

The leather whip in his hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

"What? The barbarians from the northern frontier have arrived?"

His voice was shrill, like a cat being stepped on; his usual authority had vanished, leaving only incredulous terror.

“It’s absolutely true, sir!” The steward knelt down with a thud.

The old man's face turned even paler. He thought about how he had just talked to his eldest son about the Northern Frontier Army not long ago, and he never expected that they would actually come!
"How is it possible? How is it possible?"

"Didn't they say that the Khanate had already made peace with the Northern Frontier?"

"The three princesses have already been sent to the northern frontier for marriage alliances, so why are those barbarians still coming to our Khanate?" the old man muttered to himself, his expression flustered.

But little do people know, what does last year's peace talks have to do with this year?
If you want peace in southern Xinjiang, then let's continue the talks.

"Where is Yi Mo? Where did that good-for-nothing go?" the old man roared, his voice stern but his words betraying his inner cowardice.

"The young master is directing the servants to defend against the enemy from the courtyard wall..."

Before the steward could finish speaking, a terrified scream suddenly erupted from the depths of the manor.

"The young master has been killed."

"The eldest young master is dead."

"The barbarians from the northern frontier have invaded!"

"Help!"

"Run."

The Yushege Manor was very large, and the sound wasn't very clear, but the old man still heard it.

His eldest son is dead?

His pupils suddenly contracted, and he staggered back two steps, crashing into the wall.

“It’s over…it’s all over…” The old man slumped onto the carpet.

The main gate of the manor had long been reduced to a pile of rubble by the bombardment of the Tiger Cannon. Countless cavalrymen wearing crimson cotton armor charged in, their iron hooves roaring, shaking the entire manor.

The guards had long lost the will to resist and scattered and fled.

"Kill~"

The northern cavalry charged forward, their sabers flashing through the air as the blades deftly grazed the necks of the guards.

Another guard slipped into the room and was about to close the door when a cavalryman's lance pierced his chest through the crack in the door.

Inside the manor, more guards were being surrounded by cavalry. Some knelt down and begged for mercy, while others tried to climb over the wall but were shot dead by the Northern Frontier Army.

In fact, the number of guards in the manor is even greater than that of the Northern Frontier Army.

Because the Northern Frontier Army attacked several manors simultaneously while dividing its forces.

The only force attacking Yushege Manor consisted of three centurions personally led by Erhu.

However, these Karluk guards were terrified.

Everyone has a sense of侥幸 (a gambler's mentality), and as long as there is a glimmer of hope, few people will choose to fight desperately until the very last moment.

Not long after, Erhu walked into Yushege Manor, stepping on the blood-soaked ground.

The first thing you see is the corpse of Yimoshu hanging under the doorway, and a large number of Karluks kneeling in surrender.

Immediately afterwards, a centurion used an iron hook to pull the old man to Erhu's side.

"Commander, this old bastard is Yu Shege. I heard he often tortures and kills women for his own amusement."

The ground behind them was stained with the old man's blood, forming a long, blood-red corridor, and was filled with the old man's agonizing cries.

"Taking pleasure in torturing and killing women?"

"Let him experience that feeling too!"

"Take him to the next manor and, in front of those barbarians from the southern frontier, tear him to pieces," Erhu coldly ordered.

In northern Xinjiang, although women have a low status, it is rare for anyone to kill a woman without cause.

Because women can reproduce and are considered an important asset.

Li Xiao even established military regulations to strictly prohibit the killing of women without cause.

Therefore, Erhu was very angry about the old man's behavior.

Jimo has been conquered by the Northern Frontier, and the women here are now considered the property of the Northern Frontier.

That old bastard dares to kill a woman from the northern frontier?
He deserves to be cut!

"As ordered."

The centurion shouted in a deep voice, "Drag the old man away!"

The first thing the Northern Frontier Army attacked when they arrived in Jimo City was Yushege Manor.

Unfortunately, the Yushege family became the 'chicken' in the "two tigers killing the chicken to scare the monkey" scenario.

Subsequently, Erhu ordered his men to clean up the Yushege Manor and the surrounding area.

Looking at the full granaries in the manor, Erhu's face was full of smiles.

"Now, Big Brother should praise me for being efficient," Erhu said with a smile.

"Men, go and arrest all those prisoners of war and civilians."

"We want them all, regardless of gender."

These Karluk men could be used like livestock to transport grain to Yanqi City, and they didn't care if the men starved or died of exhaustion along the way.

Women can also be used as tools.

It just so happens that among the people who migrated westward this time were hundreds of thousands of Western Xia soldiers and laborers.

Their wives all remained in Western Xia, and some of them had not even married yet.

These Karluk women could be sold to them to produce offspring, and could also gradually make these Western Xia soldiers and laborers feel a sense of belonging to the northern frontier.

That evening, the three centurions under Erhu's command camped and rested at Yushege Manor.

They ate succulent roasted mutton from southern Xinjiang and had sex with a fiery Karluk woman; the noise didn't stop for most of the night.

Just as Erhu led three centurions of cavalry to break through Yushege Manor.

The other northern frontier armies also advanced smoothly, successfully breaking through several manors.

There were Karluk nobles and Uyghur nobles.

They seized more than 50,000 shi of grain and captured thousands of civilians, including more than 2,000 women of childbearing age.

In reality, the population of the Jimo area was certainly not that small. Many people living outside the city fled into the mountains or deserts after learning that the Northern Frontier Army was coming.

Erhu had no intention of sending people to hunt them down.

On the contrary, keeping them around will be of great use.

After the Northern Frontier Army leaves, these people will definitely come back to continue farming. Next year, Erhu can come back to harvest the crops again.

Ten days later, there were no more large manors or towns in Jimo, and Erhu did not know to send people to surround and suppress the scattered villagers.

So he summoned one of his commanders, a thousand-man commander.

"Shunzi, take your men and escort these slaves and grain back to Yanqi City."

During the last southern expedition, the two tigers had already turned Yanqi City into a wasteland, and a cavalry force from the northern frontier had been stationed there ever since.

Moreover, it is located on the essential route between Yili and southern Xinjiang, so the people of Western Xia would have to rest in Yanqi City before heading to Yili.

These grains and women were also considered supplies prepared for them.

Subsequently, Erhu continued to lead his troops south.

During his last southern expedition, he only reached Jimo City. This time, he wanted to visit Kashgar, the capital of the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate.

The previous Khan of the Eastern Karakhanid Khanate has just passed away.

The person who just took over is the father-in-law of both Li Xiao and Erhu.

So, Erhu decided to go to his father-in-law to borrow some grain.

(End of this chapter)