Russell shook his head, cupped his hands and said: "The general is the benefactor of my family, there is nothing he can't say."
After a pause, he said: "To be honest, the Turkic tribes are very dissatisfied with the Tang Dynasty. If the bad weather in recent years had not prevented the Turkic strength from recovering, I am afraid they would have started to resist the Tang Dynasty a few years ago."
"Why are they dissatisfied? Is it because the imperial court treats them badly?"
Russell said solemnly: "The Chanyu Protectorate basically cannot interfere in the internal affairs of the Turks. The reason why the Turks are dissatisfied is because the Tang State does not respect Turkic culture and the Turks, and the Turks hope to have a khan of their own."
Wu Chengsi was silent for a while and asked: "Do you think so too?"
"Yes, I think the same thing. People in the Tang Dynasty discriminate against Turks and do not respect Turks." Russell said in a low voice.
Wu Chengsi fell into deep thought. The Central Plains Dynasty could defeat the nomads, but it could not make them surrender. The fundamental reason may be cultural differences.
In ancient times, the Central Plains dynasties regarded themselves as the superior kingdom of heaven and regarded the four directions as barbarians. This concept was formed over hundreds of years.
Li Shimin had actually proposed the concept of racial equality, and the Tang Dynasty was also the most open-minded dynasty. If it could remain strong, this kind of discrimination might fade away in a few hundred years.
However, after the An-Shi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty weakened.
It is estimated that every emperor has thought about making future generations powerful forever. However, no matter how outstanding the emperor is, he can only exert influence while he is alive. No one can control what happens after death.
After the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains dynasties began to gradually fall behind in the wars with the nomadic peoples. The Liao Kingdom, the Jin Kingdom, the Mongolia, and the Qing Dynasty are all good examples.
Starting from the Song Dynasty, the civilization of the Central Plains gradually became more conservative and lacked initiative towards the nomads, and the capital gradually moved south.
Although Zhu Di moved the capital back to Peiping, his enterprising spirit was far less than that of the Tang and Han Dynasties. He moved the guards in Monan back to the pass, and also moved the guards in the Hetao area to Beiping to protect the capital, making the capital a burden.
An important manifestation of the enterprising spirit of the Central Plains Dynasty is the Silk Road. This Silk Road not only brought huge wealth to the country, but also reflected the Central Plains Dynasty's opening up to the outside world.
It is a pity that since the Tang Dynasty, the Silk Road has gradually been abandoned, and the country even began to close itself off in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. This loss of enterprising spirit towards the outside world eventually led to the decline of the country.
As long as a country becomes closed and loses curiosity and exploration of the outside world, it will inevitably lead to decay and destruction.
But having said that, the reason why the Song Dynasty shifted its center of gravity southward was mainly because it lost two important areas, one was the Hetao area, and the other was the Liaodong area.
The Hetao area is a battleground for the battle against the nomads. It can be attacked when advancing and defended when retreating. It is also a key area for the westward advance. The Silk Road was forcibly blocked because of the loss of the Hetao.
The Liaodong region is the birthplace of many nomadic peoples because of its good terrain and fertile land. It is a mixed area of farming civilization and nomadic peoples, and has a strong tolerance for civilization.
If it is occupied by nomadic people, it is easy to form a united and powerful nomadic regime.
Due to certain accidents, both places were lost in the Song Dynasty. The Hetao was equally divided between the Liao Kingdom and Xixia, and the Yanyun Sixteenth Prefecture in eastern Liaoning was also occupied by the Liao Kingdom. This is also the reason why the Song Dynasty had a strong economy but a very weak military.
The Ming Dynasty once took back the Hetao area, but due to Zhu Di's period, he voluntarily abandoned the Hetao Plain, which led to the settlement of Mongolian tribes. From then on, the Ming Dynasty never had peace.
In order to protect the capital, the Ming Dynasty, which occupied half of Liaodong, defended instead of attacking and lacked enterprising spirit.
In contrast, the current situation of the Tang Dynasty is much better. Most of the land in Hetao and Liaodong is in its hands, and the Silk Road continues to bring wealth to the empire every year.
But having said that, even with the powerful Tang Dynasty, these two areas were not without hidden dangers.
Especially in the Hetao area, the Tubo Dynasty is the biggest threat. They want to cut off the Hexi Corridor and seek huge profits by transferring business between the East and the West.
The Liaodong region is not that stable either. Goryeo has been competing with Tang for the Liaodong region. This is why the Tang Dynasty is obsessed with attacking Goryeo.
Even if Goryeo is destroyed, the Khitans will still be a hidden danger. Although they were not able to become popular during the Tang Dynasty, by the Five Dynasties period, they established a powerful Liao Dynasty.
For Wu Chengsi, the priority of attacking the Khitans was even more urgent than that of the Koryos.
Seeing him silent for a long time, Russell on the side thought he was dissatisfied with what he just said, so he bowed and said: "General, although I miss my hometown, you have saved my entire tribe, and I will not be betrayed again when I return to the Turks.
They accept it, so please believe in my loyalty."
This guy spoke so frankly that Wu Chengsi glanced at him and asked, "Why won't they accept you again?"
Russell said sincerely: "The most prestigious chief in the Turks today is named Ashnad Wenfu. I took his woman away, so he always wanted to kill me."
Wu Chengsi was secretly amused. He didn't expect Russell, a little Turk king, to have done such a thing. However, Wu Chengsi still believed in Russell's loyalty.
Before moving his tribe to the Hetao area, in addition to showing kindness, he also used them as hostages, so that he would not be afraid that Russell would dare to betray him.
In the next two days, Wu Chengsi kept wandering around the military camp, looking here and there.
General Gelang would often take his troops to nearby mountains for training, and he would follow them there to observe and then record them.
On this morning, Wu Chengsi was watching soldiers drill on Julang Mountain near the military camp. In the open space in front of his field of vision, a group of spearmen formed a square formation, with a distance of more than ten feet between each spearman.
A hundred feet away in front of the spearmen stood a group of cavalry. At an order, the cavalry were like black clouds, rushing towards the spearmen on horseback, passing between the spearmen at a terrifying speed.
During the whole process, the spearmen were like tree stumps, motionless on the ground.
This is somewhat similar to the psychological training of later generations, allowing these spearmen to become familiar with cavalry charges. When encountering cavalry charges on the battlefield in the future, their psychological pressure will be reduced a lot.
As he was watching, Pei Xingjian, who was observing with him, suddenly said: "General, I think the army should be reorganized. Although a mixed team of cavalry and infantry is conducive to training, it is not conducive to mobilizing command during war."
Wu Chengsi had already had this intention.
At present, each army of the Tang Army is composed of cavalry and half infantry. During battle, the infantry will slow down the cavalry. He immediately nodded and said: "After lunch, let's call the generals to discuss this matter."
At the end of noon, the generals received the order and came to the commander's tent. Wu Chengsi put forward Pei Xingjian's opinion, and Hei Te Changzhi said carelessly: "The general agrees to reorganize the troops and requests to be a cavalry general!"
As soon as the words came out, Russell, Wu Youji, Hou Yanjing and other generals all expressed their wish to serve as cavalry generals.
Wu Chengsi thought for a while and smiled: "There are only four cavalry generals. Who can be chosen depends on his ability!"
All the generals' eyes lit up and they said in unison: "General, please tell me!"
Wu Chengsi stood up and said: "Let's go to the school field and shoot at the target. Whoever has the best cavalry and archery ability will be the cavalry general."
Everyone was a proud and arrogant person, and they refused to obey anyone, so they immediately cheered in unison.
When they came to the main campus, they asked the soldiers to set up ten targets ten feet away. Each man shot ten arrows. The four who hit the target most often were the cavalry generals.
There were seven generals under Wu Chengsi, namely Hei Te Changzhi, Russell, Liu Shenli, Hou Yanjing, Han Cheng, Wu Youji and Yuan Biao.
Among these seven people, Wu Chengsi only knew that Hei Te Chang had excellent archery skills and didn't know much about the others. This was a good opportunity to get acquainted with them.
"I'll go first!"
Russell was the first to go out, riding a horse and shooting ten arrows in a row. Each arrow hit the target, and nine of them hit the red heart!
Everyone cheered loudly, and Russell held his head high, feeling quite proud of himself.
Then Liu Shenli, Hou Yanjing and Yuan Biao also shot one after another. Liu Shenli hit the target with nine arrows, two of which hit the red heart. Hou Yanjing hit the target with ten arrows, three of which hit the red heart. Yuan Biao hit the target with ten of his arrows, and three of his arrows hit the red heart.
red heart.
Although the three of them are far inferior to Russell, they also showed good riding and shooting abilities.
Next came Wu Youji and Han Cheng. Wu Youji only hit the target with eight arrows, which was unexpected by Wu Chengsi.
What surprised him was Han Cheng. He actually hit the target with all ten arrows and six arrows hit the red heart, second only to Russell.
The other generals had not taken Han Cheng seriously before, but seeing his amazing riding and shooting abilities, they started to respect him a bit.
Hei Te Changzhi made his final appearance, and he did not disappoint Wu Chengsi. Ten of his arrows hit the target, and all of them hit the red heart.
As everyone cheered in unison, Pei Xingjian smiled and said, "General, can you give me a try too, general?"
"Of course." Wu Chengsi agreed, just wanting to see his strength.
Seeing the soldiers in the distance about to pull out the arrows from the target, Pei Xingjian said loudly: "No need to pull out."
After the soldiers had gone far away, they rode on horseback and shot arrows with their bows.
After the ten arrows went down, not only did they all hit the red heart, they even penetrated all the ten arrows that Heijia Changzhi shot at the red heart!