Passing through the long corridor, there were Tianzhu Army sergeants standing solemnly on both sides. Zhou Yiyan carefully observed the expressions and postures of these people, then compared them with Jiedan's tribal army, and finally came to the conclusion:
These are probably the personal guards of Prince Lingwu, otherwise why would they be so elite.
A tall military general stood in front of the palace. When he saw Zhou Yiyan approaching, he immediately asked: "But Zhou Yiyan?"
"Zhou Yiyan, the guilty general, has met the general."
The military general signaled, and several sergeants stepped forward. After carefully searching inside and outside to make sure there were no hidden weapons, Zhou Yiyan was led in alone, while his entourage was kept out.
Joyous laughter came from the palace.
Zhou Yiyan took a sneak peek and saw a general wearing a bright red military uniform sitting on the Khan's seat, with several generals surrounding him, talking and laughing happily.
"Master Mani, since you are called Mani, why don't you join Manichaeism?" asked the general who was holding the moon in front of the stars.
If nothing else, he is Shao Shude, the king of Lingwu County. Zhou Yiyan took a second look and also noticed Master Mani sitting beside him. This monk is quite good at sneaking into the camp!
"Hui Lingwu County Prince has profound Buddhist teachings, so he wishes to teach Buddhism." Monk Mani said gently.
"Since you are willing to study Buddhism intensively, why do you always stay by Li Renmei's side and advise her?" Shao Shude asked again.
Zhou Yiyan was shocked. This was not easy to answer. Strictly speaking, it seemed a bit like calling an army to investigate.
"Buddha's teachings are in the world and cannot be separated from the world. Looking for Bodhi after leaving the world is just like looking for a rabbit's horns." Master Mani replied.
Shao Shude smiled and said nothing.
Most of the Uighur nobles believe in Manichaeism, but the belief of the middle and lower classes is mainly Buddhism. The fact that Master Mani can walk beside the Khan is of great significance to Buddhism. If it is managed well, over time, it may not be able to replace Manichaeism.
status.
Of course, this is actually very difficult. The Uighur civilization was almost brought about by Manichaean monks. At first, they used Turkic Runic, which was spread vigorously by Manichaean monks. Later, they switched to Sogdian to copy various texts including scriptures.
Official and private documents, Manichaean monks still played a huge role. They even adapted the Sogdian language in the Syriac Gospel style and completed the spelling of Persian. At that time, the Uighur Khanate successively used the Turkic and Sogdian languages.
Tevan, Syriac, Persian, and Chinese, all of which have Manichaean monks. Even the creation of the Uighur script is the work of Manichaean monks.
If the Buddhist family has no adventure, why should they compare with others?
"Commander, Zhou Yiyan is here." Lu Ming reported.
Shao Shude stopped smiling, turned around, and asked, "What's the matter with General Zhou?"
"Yesterday, many people came back to surrender. According to the order of King Lingwu, they were temporarily detained in the barracks outside the city." Zhou Yiyan replied: "There is a shortage of food and grass in the camp. They can only meet the needs of a few days. I still ask for help.
King Wujun allocated some grain and grass to support the military needs."
"How many people have surrendered?" Shao Shude asked.
"There are more than seven thousand cavalry and nearly six thousand infantry."
Shao Shude pondered for a moment.
Before arriving at Xiedan, we had collected more than a thousand Uyghur surrendered soldiers, and they are all currently detained in Liangzhou. After the Battle of Xiedan, the number of surrendered soldiers increased even more, numbering over 10,000, mostly Uighurs, but also some sergeants from other tribes.
"Choose five thousand elite soldiers and build an army. I will give you a reward." Shao Shude said.
Zhou Yiyan seemed to have realized it early and immediately asked: "May I ask, Commander-in-Chief, how to choose?"
"Those who excel in archery and riding skills will be given two pieces of brocade from the storehouse, a bushel of grain, and will be moved to Lingzhou together with their family members."
Zhou Yiyan looked complicated.
Is it really okay to leave the place where our ancestors have lived for generations, to be like a floating duck from now on, without belonging, working hard and working hard?
He knew that Prince Lingwu would definitely conquer the Central Plains in the future. With so many feudal towns, how long would five thousand Uighur soldiers be enough to conquer them one by one?
After a group of people were killed, they went to Ganzhou to recruit a group of people. Fighting day and night, all the best men in Ganzhou died in the Central Plains, achieving the hegemony and ambition of King Lingwu.
How wonderful it would be to stay in Ganzhou! There are many tribes farming here, and every year they harvest a large amount of white wheat, highland barley, Uighur beans (chickpeas), and many fruits and vegetables that are not available in the Central Plains and were brought from the Western Regions. At the same time, the tribes that engage in animal husbandry are more
There are a lot of horses, camels, yaks, and sheep, so life is very comfortable.
Shao Shude just glanced at it and knew what Zhou Yiyan was thinking.
What a good time for the nomads! Before the Anshi Rebellion, there were probably more than 2.5 million nomads living in the three towns of Hexi, Longyou and Shuofang. This does not include the Tubo, Dangxiang and other ethnic groups in the Western Regions who farmed the land.
, if counted, the population is larger.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the population declined slowly. After the collapse of the Tubo Empire, the decline accelerated. However, the foundation is still there, and the climate has not changed significantly. Some rich oases are even mainly based on settled agricultural and livestock production, such as the Hexi Corridor, which is purely nomadic.
, cannot support such a large population.
"Why, do the tribes in Ganzhou think there is a problem?" Shao Shude asked.
When the generals surrounding him heard this, they all turned their eyes.
Zhou Yiyan was sweating on his back and immediately replied: "Since the King of Lingwu County has given out a reward, I think the warriors from all departments have nothing to say."
People are knives and servants, and I am fish and meat. What else is there to say?
Serving as a soldier for the Khan of Umu, there are no rewards. I can only hope to loot after the war and get three melons and two dates. Judging from the intention of the Lingwu County Prince, he should recruit people to serve as the Yamen Army.
, this is a good place to go.
But the leaders of each department should be quite resistant, especially when they have to take the sergeant's family away. If this is to live in Lingxia for ten or eight years, what does it have to do with the Uighurs? The appearance of the Uighurs is different from that of the Han, Dangxiang, and Tubo people.
There is no big difference. Two generations later, who still remembers his eight generations of ancestors?
"These five thousand people, mainly Uighurs, are called Silver Spear Capital." Shao Shude asked someone to serve tea to Zhou Yiyan and said at the same time.
"Silver Spear Capital?" Zhou Yiyan was startled.
Using long spears to fight is not what the Uighurs are good at. When the Central Plains vassal commanders went to the grasslands to recruit troops, they always valued their riding and shooting skills. With long spears, it was better to go to Guanzhong to recruit troops, and they had as many as they wanted.
Shao Shude smiled, knowing what he was thinking and was too lazy to explain.
There are five thousand silver spears, and the weapons they use are lightweight spears. The diameter of the spear shaft is thinner than that of a horse spear, and it is much lighter. The spear head is only a dozen centimeters long, and the blade of a horse spear is often more than 60 centimeters long and can be opened on both sides.
The blade is completely different. If you include the handle, the entire iron front end of the horse's handle is one meter long.
Such a lightweight spear can be hung on the side of the saddle, and does not have to be held like a horse spear. Of course, the freed hands can be used for shooting, and the skills of the Uighurs will not be wasted.
Silver Spear City and Leopard Cavalry City will be combined into one army. Marshal Shao thought about it for a long time and planned to name it Flying Bear Army. However, he felt a little guilty and did not dare to announce the name in public. He planned to let the cultural people in the town check it out in two days.
Check to see if there is such an army in history. If not, or it is not as famous as in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", then feel free to satisfy your bad taste.
After raising five thousand silver spears and cavalry, you need to be more cautious when forming other troops. Horses eat more than three times as much as people. There are many grasslands in Lingxia and Hexi. They can afford to raise these thousands of horses in normal times, but in war
The logistical pressure was then great. It was equivalent to sending at least 15,000 more infantrymen with food. Even if it was beans, grains, wheat bran and the like, the cost was not small.
Basically, Marshal Shao just wants to build a new army, and that is the Chishui Army stationed in Liang-Gan area.
There were too many places to defend, which greatly occupied his troops, leaving him with more than two million people in more than twenty states, but with very few mobile troops. How could he conquer the world in the future? This problem must be solved.
"General Zhou will have to work harder these days. He will recruit many scattered people and have them return to the area around Xiedan to cultivate wasteland and herd cattle and sheep. Lord Wumu has been defeated. He is not a murderous person. All tribes in Ganzhou
, they are all not guilty, so you can come back boldly." Shao Shude said again.
The second dividend obtained from the conquest of Hexi was population.
There are still more than 40,000 people at the end of Liangzhou. After taking back some of the captured Dingkou, there are still 80,000 people. The remaining small tribes have more than 60,000 people left. The six-grain Tubo suffered heavy losses.
There were more than 40,000 people left in total, and all of them were forcibly moved to Shengzhou.
In other words, including the Han people, there are about 150,000 people in the entire Liangzhou at this time. The population has dropped sharply, but it is not bad. Shao Shude recently plans to move more than 3,000 Ammo prisoners and their families to Shengli.
If the trip to Zhouzhou takes place, another 15,000 to 6,000 people will be gone.
Ganzhou originally had about 150,000 people, and suffered little losses in this war. However, about 25,000 people had to be forcibly relocated, leaving probably less than 120,000 people left.
The relocated population is also a bonus. In total, after capturing Liang and Ganzhou, they gained about 3.12 million people. The spoils of war, Shao Shude was most concerned about were cattle and horses, of which there were more than 120,000 cattle and horses.
There are more than 90,000 horses, more than 50,000 camels, and more than one million sheep.
This is basically the amount of spoils after the reduction. Compared with the gains of the Khitans in Liangzhou, it was still a little less. Xixia had already cleared the country, and the population of Xiliang Prefecture (Liangzhou) at that time was not as high as that of the late Tang Dynasty, but they were still taken away.
Two hundred thousand camels and one million sheep were purchased, but Marshal Shao's meat-cutting knife was still not sharp enough.
A careful calculation shows that the Ganzhou Uighurs alone had more than 2 million livestock with a population of more than 70,000. Before the Anshi Rebellion, there were 2.5 million nomadic tribes in the three towns of Shuofang, Hexi, and Longyou.
The total number of livestock should be around 80 million, of which more than 10 million are cattle and other large livestock. Together with the grain produced by farming, it is almost enough to feed these people.
But don't worry, the Hexi Corridor area will be Marshal Shao's treasure house from now on, and he will continue to provide soldiers, horses, and Silk Road commercial interests.
Especially horses. Since the Northern Wei Dynasty, all dynasties have liked to raise horses in the Hexi Corridor. It is not without reason. Why has the horse breeding industry in the Hetao, Hedong, and Yanshan areas never developed, so that the number of war horses provided by the Hexi Corridor accounted for
More than 80% of the country?
In addition to safety factors, the environment here is also unique. Liang and Ganzhou will be horse breeding bases in the future. Compared with the three ranches of Yinchuan, Yongqing and Xishi currently controlled by Marshal Shao, they can be completely thrown away.