Tiger Guards

Chapter 163 Primary and Secondary Contradictions
The sky gradually brightened in the stable area.

The horses were crowded together, and the stallions bit each other at night, making it difficult for the five ministers to sleep peacefully.

Afraid that they would be trampled by the restless horses, they huddled in the corner of the stable and fell asleep in the hay pile.

They are not afraid of groups of disorderly soldiers or bandits, but they are afraid of herds of horses.

Being trampled to death by a herd of horses is too unfair and cowardly a way to die.

With the lifting of the night curfew, the horses were driven out of the camp and grazed outside.

The horse manure piled up in the stable, and after a night of crowding and repeated trampling, you couldn't even see the complete balls of horse manure.

Thinking of shoveling and cleaning the horse manure stuck to the ground, the five of them worked together to get to work.

In the past, we would clean the stables in the morning and then distribute breakfast to them.

Even if I worked myself to death in the stable today, I wouldn’t be able to clean it properly, so naturally there would be no breakfast.

Anyway, they were sure that Zhao Ji would not starve them to death, so they just lay down in the face of this huge difficulty.

The five men carried a few bundles of hay and lay down in the ventilated place outside the stable, basking in the morning sun, looking leisurely.

Upon hearing the news, Zhao Ji came over to check. The five old men were lying in the haystack and seemed unaware of it.

It seems that they are not afraid that Huan Dian's fate will befall them. They are not people from Pei, so what is there to be afraid of?
"That's what it means to be fearless. That's what the old scoundrels in the village are like."

Zhao Ji lamented to his companion Pei Xiu, "They won't even pretend to do something, and yet we expect them to help the court in times of crisis?"

The five people seemed not to hear it. Pei Xiu sighed when he saw this: "You too..."

I really don't know how to describe Zhao Ji's punishment methods, but the performance of the ministers and great scholars makes it difficult for him to associate them with integrity and uprightness.

It felt to him like a stable that had been trampled all night, with rotten horse manure everywhere.

Zhao Ji was fully armed now, otherwise he would have taken off his belt and poured some water on these old men.

He immediately instructed the stable manager, "Since they have the ability to fast, let them get more sun. Perhaps they can develop the immortal technique of sleeping outdoors."

"Here."

The stable manager nodded in agreement and naturally carried out the order actively.

The number of horses in the army increased dramatically. Even if some of them were distributed later, the more horses there were, the more people, horses, and supplies he would be responsible for managing, and his status would rise accordingly.

Horses are very important. This stable manager is from Wenxi, so we must make use of people from our hometown.

On the top of Jiangyi City, Liu Xie finally climbed up the city wall.

Under the umbrella, Liu Xie looked towards the northeast of the city.

When the Xiongnu from Xingcheng moved south, Zhao Ji transported the captured Xiongnu heads to them and left them to the Xiongnu to deal with.

He also began to reorganize the Heilang and Qiangqu tribes, appointing Sima and Changshi, and selecting volunteers.

The idle tribes that were not incorporated into Heilang and Qiangqu naturally became his direct tribes.

Bringing Pei Xiu here means letting Pei Xiu manage this tribal alliance that is about to grow stronger.

We were busy until noon and finally completed the reorganization.

The roughly designated pastures for the Black Wolf and Qiangqu tribes were also located in Xiangling and Yangxian on the east bank of the Fen River.

The Xiongnu tribes directly under Zhao Ji were settled in Pingyang on the west bank of the Fen River.

As for the Helai, Dalou and Dugu tribes of Qubei, they were settled in Beiqu and Puzi in the Luliang Mountain area in the northwest of Hedong County. Puzi City would become the headquarters of the Dugu tribe and the location of the royal court of the right wing of the Xiongnu.

As long as they were Huns in Hedong, they had to obey this system.

They either migrated away on their own initiative, or were defeated and dismantled, added to various tribes, and used as slaves.

Zhao Ji would redeem a large number of men and women, who had previously served as cheap labor, slaves, and lubricants in the tribes. If the Xiongnu tribes wanted to maintain stability, they had to replenish slaves and let the slaves bear the heavy burden of life.

Puzi City is controlled by another famous Xiongnu king, and another battle will have to take place in the future.

If the other party retreats on their own initiative, the war will naturally be ended.

But the grasslands are limited in various places, and the situation is already very chaotic.

Migration inland and southward is the mainstream trend. If you go against the mainstream trend and migrate northward, who will be willing to give you such a large area of grassland?
Therefore, the war in Puzi City was inevitable, and the other Xiongnu tribes were interdependent and were bound to intervene.

This is how wars between nomadic tribes work. Once a fight breaks out, surrounding tribes will be drawn in.

The longer the war lasts, the more like a brewing storm it will attract more and more tribes to join in.

After Zhao Ji reorganized the Xiongnu in Xingcheng, he returned to the military camp with more than a thousand cavalry.

Then, Liu Xie on the city wall saw Zhao Ji leading two thousand tiger infantry soldiers to cross the river and reorganize the Huns on the north bank.

He almost watched the boats coming and going, carrying about five or six hundred Huns to the military camp on the south bank.

Qubei, who had been stationed at the south bank camp, also led his troops across the river. He would lead the Dugu, Dalou, and Helai tribes to sweep across the Xiongnu northwest of the Fen River and south of the Lüliang Mountains, as well as the Qiang and Hu peoples who had been relocated and resettled by Dong Zhuo. Dong Zhuo had used the Hu people to control the Hu people, settling the Qiang people to resist the Xiongnu's inward migration and prevent them from causing rebellion.

Over the years, these Qiang people have survived tenaciously by relying on cities.

After all, the Huns lacked the skills and determination to attack cities, nor did they have the objective conditions for a long-term siege.

We can only reduce the scope of activities and survival of these Qiang towns, but cannot eliminate or annex these Qiang people.

The Qiang people also did not trust the Xiongnu people, but now the situation has changed and the Qiang people have lost their choice.

Before this, when the various Hun tribes were fighting each other, no one had the determination to attack the city, nor did they have the conditions to lay siege.

Now that we have unified the deployment, even if we don’t attack the city, just surrounding it can trap these Qiang people to death.

Therefore, the Qiang people had little choice but to send envoys to negotiate early, strive for favorable conditions, and then surrender to the imperial court and accept the imperial court's control.

At least with the imperial court mediating disputes, the Qiang people could rely on cities to expand the scope of their activities, production, and development.

The price is nothing more than paying a blood tax and sending out a number of people to serve.

Before this, the Xiongnu tribes had been in long-term confrontation with the Qiang people. No matter how good the Qiang people were at defense, it was very difficult for them to defend, and a large amount of labor had to be invested in the military.

Insufficient productivity, an increasing population to feed, and a shortage of daily necessities naturally lead to poverty.

Sending three to five hundred people to serve every year can bring stability to the entire tribe... This choice is not difficult.

The Xiongnu, the Qiang people, the Wuhuan and the Ba people all had similar traditions.

For the Qiang people, these tribal leaders did not need any special reasons to convince themselves or their tribesmen. For hundreds of years, serving the powerful Han army was itself a part of their life culture.

Young people served in the Han army, learned culture and technology, and returned to the tribe after retirement to become the backbone of the tribe.

Those who are older are the tribal elders and leaders.

The Qiang leader is not a fixed hereditary position. Going out to gain experience and knowledge is also beneficial to the development of the Qiang people themselves.

Therefore, neither Qu Bei, Zhao Ji, nor Jia Xu regarded the Qiang city in Hedong as an enemy.

If we negotiate the terms openly and honestly, the Qiang people will pay the blood tax and send people to serve, and then everything will be the same as before.

In the border counties, the Han army was strong. Under the leadership of the Han army, all the Hu tribes, big and small, were able to live a stable life.

How much can we grab in a war?
If it weren't for natural disasters or other reasons that made it impossible to survive, most herders would not want to leave their wives and go out to fight.

What Zhao Ji wants to deal with now is mainly the people of Taiyuan. The negotiation conditions with the Xiongnu and Qiang people can be relaxed, so it will naturally not be difficult to reach an agreement.

In this way, Liu Xie stayed on the city wall for most of the day without getting tired.

He really couldn't understand why the Huns, who had fought to the death and had 3,000 of their men killed in battle by Zhao Ji, surrendered so readily.

Outside the entire Jiangyi City, a logic that was completely difficult for him to understand was operating.

Sima Fang and Fu Wan, who were beside him, naturally understood what was going on, but were reluctant to explain it.

The two men looked puzzled and accompanied Liu Xie to watch the reorganization of the Huns outside the city.

In the afternoon, Liu Xie was tired and was about to leave the city. He did not see Pei Mao around, so he asked, "Where is Minister Pei?"

"Your Majesty, Minister Pei injured his ankle and has left the city for treatment."

Fu Wan explained in a low voice, "I have sent someone to offer his condolences. His injuries are serious. Guanqiu Yulin went out of the city to take him to the hospital, but they had a conflict with the Huben soldiers and seemed to have been injured."

"Is there such a thing?"

Liu Xie's eyes widened: "How is his injury?"

"It was just a misunderstanding. He was concerned about Minister Pei's injury and got into an argument with the guards. During the fight, he injured his face. He didn't want to disturb Your Majesty, so he asked for leave."

Fu Wan gave a thoughtful explanation and exonerated Guanqiu Yi.

Thinking of Guanqiu Yi's face injury, Liu Xie was helpless and said, "Let him recover from his injury and don't rush him. Zhao Qing is outside the city, and the city is safe. I have no worries."

"only."

No matter what Liu Xie thought, Fu Wan just bowed and accepted it.

Unexpectedly, Liu Xie asked again: "Zhao Qing has beheaded 3,000 people and defeated tens of thousands of Xiongnu. How should he be rewarded?"

The Three Provinces system was already dead in name only. Liu Xie took the initiative to raise this issue. Fu Wan could not refuse, so he said, "Your Majesty, I believe that Minister Zhao's meritorious service deserves the title of Marquis of County, with a fief of 10,000 households. However, Lord Yuanming still has to preside over the succession and coming-of-age ceremonies, so there is no need to rush into the title of Marquis."

Liu Xie nodded and said, "Well, now that the Xiongnu have been pacified, we can summon Yuan Minggong to escort the Queen and others to Jiangyi."

Sima Fang stood with his head bowed. Upon hearing this, he raised his head slightly to glance at the emperor's young and thin profile.

Liu Xie noticed it but pretended to ignore it.

(End of this chapter)