After entering April, Li Shouxin kept inviting invitations in Shule City and had banquets everywhere. He was very happy.
Of course, this is exactly what he wants, because it is a good opportunity to meet all kinds of people.
After a few days, he had become brothers with several people, received many gifts, and even a map of the Great Uighur Kingdom - a gift from Ogurchak's son Dun.
At this time, Li Shouxin had some doubts. Did Ogulchak and his son surrender on purpose? Sending a map meant a lot.
The author of the map is shocking: Samani, the deputy khan of the Great Uighur Kingdom.
He adopted a circular map view, with Balashagon as the center of the circle and surrounded by mountains on all sides. There was no other city in the mountains.
Talas is located on the left side of Balasagon Mountain.
Karasha is located on the outskirts of Balasagon Right Mountain.
Visual inspection of the map shows that the distances between Talos, Karasha and Balasagon are about the same.
It turns out that in the eyes of the Uighurs, Balasagun is the center of the world they live in, and Karasha and Talas are the secondary capitals second only to it.
"Bala" is actually the antiphonal sound of "Peiro", and "Shagun" means "general", so Balashagun also has another name: General Peluo City.
The founders of the Uighur Khanate, Guli Peiluo and Ge Luolu, were the guardians of the left and right Turks. After Guli Peiluo defeated his old master, the Turks defeated Ashina Shi of the Ximi tribe, he called himself "Gudulu·Pijia Queke"
Khan", people in the Tang Dynasty called him "Guli Khan". Because he held the position of "Peluo" in the post-Turkic period, he was also called Guli Peluo Khan.
Pang Teqin, the founder of the Great Uyghur Kingdom, was named "Pijaq Qadir Khan" (the Tang Dynasty canonized him as Pikja Huaijian Khan). He was a blood descendant of Guli Peluo, so this city was built to commemorate his ancestors.
There is also the intention of making a comeback.
After this city was built, it served as the capital of the Great Uyghur Kingdom until it was captured by Saman Persia. Now that Persia has retreated, this place has become the pasture of the Golulu people, but fortunately they still belong to the Great Uyghur Kingdom in name.
"Shule, Suiye, and Talos, if you get these three places, the country is already in your pocket." Li Shouxin quietly put away the map, preparing to take it back and present it to the saint.
"Has there been any unusual movement in Sartuk recently?" Li Shouxin called Yang Ningshi and Wang Chongwen and asked.
Yang Ningshi is a Hanlin bachelor and serves as deputy envoy of the mission.
Wang Chongwen is the general guarding the mission.
"Satuk's movement is actually not small." Yang Ningshi said: "He has been having banquets with people recently, staying up all night. But the banquet targets are different. Within ten days, he has come into contact with seven or eight people, isn't it?
The leader of the tribe is a member of the royal family."
Under the old Uighur system, members of the royal family were either Yehu or special agents, and they all held real power and commanded armed forces of varying sizes.
"Altai doesn't think it's a big deal, because the Uighur customs are like this." Yang Ningshi added: "I'm not sure either. But if in the Central Plains, they would have befriended vassals and generals so brazenly, they should have captured Ogurcha long ago.
She is a bit stupid, but also a bit womanly."
Li Shouxin nodded, indicating that he understood.
In fact, it's not that Ogulchak is stupid. Doesn't he know his nephew's ambition? But after all these years, why didn't he just kill his nephew? Because it can't be done.
He inherited this territory from his elder brother. If the matter was that simple, he wouldn't even have to think about marrying Daxia and just pass the throne directly to his biological son. In fact, this is extremely risky and may arouse the anger of many people.
Opposed, so he hesitated and needed to use external forces to suppress the opponents.
In short, Sartuk also has a basic base. He is the spokesperson of his late father Aslan Khan's old ministry, and many people automatically gather around him.
"Satuk has not left the city recently." Wang Chongwen said: "The Gulam Guards have also been training on the outskirts of the city, which is normal. But I suspect that he has other channels to contact this bodyguard. There are many people entering and leaving the military camp.
There are too many of them, and it’s hard for our people to wander around often, and Altai can’t say for sure whether the people entering and leaving the military camp are close associates of Satuuk, only that they don’t look like it.”
"It doesn't look like it?" Li Shouxin grinned.
At this time, how could it be possible to communicate with familiar faces? Altai's words would be regarded as farts and would be of no use.
"How strong is this guard force?" he asked.
"It's interesting." At this point, Wang Chongwen looked a little solemn, and he said: "It seems to be relatively elite. It has strict orders and well-equipped equipment. I heard that it has been in battle many times, so it should be a strong force."
"General Wang said it is a powerful force, so it should be good." Li Shouxin said: "If he launches a mutiny with this force, will it succeed?"
"If you are in the city, there is still a great chance of a sudden attack." Wang Chongwen thought for a while and said: "But if you can't enter the city, it will be useless. No matter how stupid Ogulchak is, he will still look at it.
The target of this unit is too big, and it is not appropriate to use this unit to stage a mutiny."
After Li Shouxin listened, he leaned on the back of the bed and thought silently.
According to what he has learned these days, there are more and more officials and leaders in the city who are inclined to cooperate with Daxia. Because to be honest, the current situation of the Uighurs is not good.
From the perspective of the Persians, the Turks, Geluolu, Yangmo and other tribes under the leadership of the Uighurs were their "border troubles". Therefore, they sent troops to attack, occupied part of the territory, and then retreated -
—A bit like the relationship between the Central Plains dynasty and the grassland nomadic tribes
Therefore, this degraded version of the Uyghur Khanate actually has enemies and poses a great threat to them. Maybe one day the Persians will be interested and do "ploughing the courtyards and sweeping holes" again?
The city of Talas, where Ogurchak was once stationed, was attacked by the Persian army from Liting, and 15,000 people were captured. The Persians killed 10,000 of them, which greatly shocked all tribes.
Just like the Khitan Great He clan alliance was defeated by the Tang army and suffered heavy losses, they turned to the Turks as backup. The Great Uighur Kingdom now has a strong urge to recruit Daxia for aid and fight against the Saman Persians. This is the cooperation between the two parties.
Basics. As for marrying a princess, that is the icing on the cake to further consolidate the relationship.
Judging from what Saturk has done, he should be a very smart person. The situation is changing bit by bit, and he will not turn a blind eye.
So, what will he do?
"Immediately send people to Kucha and prepare more horses to send the news back." Li Shouxin smelled an unusual smell, as if he saw the raging countercurrent under the calm lake, so he made a quick decision and said: "I'll go see Augu
Erchak and Dunyu, father and son, there are some things where the more hesitant, the worse it will be."
The most important thing is that they are also very dangerous. If he were not carrying a heavy responsibility, he would want to leave now and stay away from this place of right and wrong.
"Okay, I'll do it right away." Wang Chongwen said immediately.
The Uighurs did not prohibit their entry and exit. It was not difficult to find a reason and send one or two envoys to leave.
I don’t know where the saint is. If he is still in Gaochang, he may not be able to keep up with the changes here.
******
On the fifth day of April, Shao Shude arrived at Yanqi Mansion.
Accompanying him were more than 30,000 horse and infantry sergeants of the Forbidden Army, 5,000 bodyguards, and more than 7,000 silver saddles, totaling more than 40,000 people.
There are only more than 3,000 troops left behind in Yanqi, and most of them have gone to Kucha. However, 2,000 new local veterans have arrived. They are the soldiers Shao Shude ordered to recruit last year. After several months of long journey, most of them have arrived.
"When I ordered to recruit 2,000 soldiers out of more than 100,000 people, I was worried that no one would come. Now it seems that the soldiers are still happy to move." Looking at the magpie nests occupied by doves, the soldiers moved into ready-made houses.
"Sir," Shao Shude said with a smile.
Can we not "move happily"?
If you don't come to the Western Regions, you will be sent around. This year you will be in Yunnan, next year you will go to Liaodong, and if you are not ready the next year, you will be sent to the mountains in central Guizhou to conquer the barbarians who do not obey the king.
Warriors are not fools. After being tortured like this, there are basically only two ways: to rebel or go home.
I no longer dare to rebel.
I don't want to go home either. My income is small and I'm tired. The most important thing is that after being a soldier for so many years, I really don't know how to farm, and there may not be enough land for you to farm.
It happens that the Western Regions are recruiting government soldiers, so go and supervise the farming of the tribe, which is better than farming the land yourself, right? Although the environment in the Western Regions is a bit worse.
Therefore, the recruitment work was quickly completed. Two thousand soldiers from the government packed their bags and took their families with them. A total of more than 1,700 households arrived in Yanqi Prefecture in two batches. They are still concentrated in Fucheng and will be dispersed to Yanqi County in the future.
Nearby villages - try to arrange them in places with canals for irrigation near the "sea" (Bosten Lake) and Kongque River, which is considered a kind of preferential treatment.
The household registration statistics in the four counties of Yanqi are almost complete, with a total of 10,000 households and more than 49,600 people. They have experienced wars and killings, but they are still larger than the population in the Gaochang Uighur household registration register.
Not saying it is a travesty.
Adding these 10,000 households to the 8,000 households of Fubing and his tribes, the total population of the four counties of Yanqi Prefecture is close to 90,000. In the future, with the addition of more officials, craftsmen, businessmen, monks, scholars, etc., Yanqi Prefecture may become a
An important town in the Western Region with a population of 100,000.
But it is still not as large as the Yanqi Kingdom in the Northern Dynasties, and it is not even half of what it was at that time, which is quite helpless. At the same time, it also shows from the side that this place has never been truly peaceful since the Tang Dynasty. Even before the Anshi Rebellion,
Yanqi also fell several times and was repeatedly attacked by war.
"Your Majesty." Zang Dubao, who has been staying here since the winter last year, came over to salute.
"Thank you for your hard work, Zang Qing." Shao Shude said, "Can the people of Yanqi still obey?"
"Those who are disobedient will die or leave, and those who remain will be obedient," Zang Dubao said.
After that, he gave a brief explanation.
Anyone who is disobedient and has different intentions will be killed by the Long family. Or they may run away to the west or south, such as those who ran to Atami before.
"In what month will the wheat be harvested?" Shao Shude asked.
"We will be able to harvest wheat next month, but only less than a thousand hectares of overwintering wheat have been planted. Coupled with the war, people's property has been damaged, and people are panicked, fearing that they will not be able to harvest too much. After spring this year, I ordered the people to sow seeds urgently.
We have harvested some millet and wheat grains, which can be harvested as early as June and as late as August. These grains are only enough for the people of the province and new immigrants to eat, and cannot supply military supplies." Zang Dubao told the truth.
"I understand." Shao Shude said.
In fact, it is not completely impossible to supply military supplies. For example, the surplus grain in the hands of the people can be collected first to supply the army. After the military grain from the rear is delivered, it can be returned to the people - of course, you can also not return it, otherwise you will starve to death.
People.
This is the inconvenience of fighting in the Western Regions, and this is the main reason why Shao Shude did not bring all the troops over.
Wait a few more months, when the pastures in the sea, Kongque River and other places with rich water and grass have considerable reserves, and after another batch of cattle and sheep are transported from the direction of Beiting, the supply difficulty will be alleviated, and more supplies can be mobilized.
Many troops moved south.
It’s just that you don’t necessarily have the time.
Shao Shude stayed in Yanqi Prefecture for about ten days, checking on the people's situation and talking with the families of newly immigrated soldiers. It was not until April 16th that an envoy from the direction of Qiuci came over to check on Chen Shule's situation.
I smelled a hint of war.
"Send the order, Xizhou sends out a large number of slaves, speeds up the transportation of grain and grass, and sends them all to Qiuci."
"The governor and governor of Rehai Prefecture will come immediately to see you."
"Ma Sixun, the commander-in-chief of the Black Army in Yuhou, was appointed as the Qing Dao beheading envoy, and led more than 3,000 people from his headquarters to go south first."
"Zang Du Bao led his headquarters to stay in Yanqi to guard the way back and supervise the transportation of grain and grass."
"The rest of the troops will follow me south to Kucha without any mistakes."
"I obey the order." All the generals present responded one after another.
A sudden south wind blew up, filling the sky with smoke and dust.
Everyone subconsciously looked in the direction of Shule, as if a war was inevitable.