Moxi grassland, Xuanchi, is also known as Zhaisangbo in later generations.
Tens of thousands of prairie cavalry and hundreds of thousands of livestock are slowly moving forward.
The men regarded this as a country shooting competition to show off their strength. They rode their horses back and forth, showing off their riding skills and winning cheers from the few women in the team.
These women were there to wash and cook for the men on the expedition, milk the mare's milk, roll leather, and kill the boring time on the road.
But with them, the team could not move any faster along the way, and it would only take thirty or forty miles a day at most.
The sound of intensive horse hooves sounded, and a cavalryman with colorful bells hanging on his neck and colorful ribbons floating on his horse quickly passed by the left side of the team.
The men who were showing off their skills just now quickly retreated into the group, while the women, with stars in their eyes, sang loudly, and some of the bolder ones even twisted their bodies in a seductive manner.
Because this cavalry is the main force that prevents thousands of households from predicting the situation, and they are not even comparable to the herdsmen in terms of status.
In today's grasslands, after Zhang Yan established 120,000 households, the organizational structure and even the original tribal system were broken to a certain extent.
On the surface, below ten thousand households are thousands households, and below thousands households are hundreds of households, flags, teams, etc., but at the same time, herders can also obtain another identity.
The most courageous ones can be awarded the titles of Gui Yilang and Punishment Knight.
The former simply requires that the martial arts value is high enough and that he is canonized by the Khan of Heaven in the Xiangshe Ceremony.
The latter need to study the scriptures and meanings of the Six Methods Sect and related knowledge, and take an examination similar to the Han Dynasty imperial examination before they will be given the title of Punishment Knight. Moreover, this is not a canonization by the Khan of Heaven, but selected by the Supreme Heaven.
Under Gui Yilang and the Punishment Knight, there are also Jiabing, Zhengding, Zhuanding and Yicong.
As the name suggests, armor soldiers are relatively brave warriors who can receive armor and horses from the Khan of Heaven. Of course, if you have armor yourself, you will be given other rewards such as horses, weapons, bows and arrows.
Of course, the number of Gui Yilang, the Punishment Knights, and the Armored Soldiers was not large. There were only two or three in a hundred households, and the largest one was Zheng Ding.
Zhengding are generally used as unarmored archers or light armored hussars, but they can be upgraded to armored soldiers by accumulating merit.
The Zhuanding under the principal rank were auxiliary soldiers and provided their own horses and weapons. Tent and food were provided by the Khan of Heaven.
They are a large number of unarmored light cavalry. They have to do everything, including luring the enemy, feigning attacks, and deceiving defeat. It is also common to act as cannon fodder.
As for the most basic Yi Cong, that is, they bring their own dog food and rush to do everything. They are not even auxiliary soldiers, no! They are armed herdsmen who are not even cannon fodder. But they can also accumulate merit and go up.
Get a small amount of loot.
The hierarchy among them is very strict, but Zhang Gao had people slightly change the design from the military meritorious figures of the Qin Dynasty.
Each level has its own power. There are strict differences in equipment, wages, distribution of spoils, and even clothing and food. The purpose is to build these 120,000 herdsmen into a war machine that continues to move westward.
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Bai Congxin's big tent was erected on the edge of Xuanchi, and further to the west was the territory of the Nine Surname Ogus.
After defeating the Gaochang Uighurs and defeating Saktu's army, Zhang Gao did not choose to continue the pursuit, and did not conduct a campaign against the four Geluolu tribes and the nine surnamed Ogus who supported Saktu.
Although a small number of Geluolu and Oghuz people later participated in the meeting that elected Zhang Zhi as the Ili Khan.
But this time, Zhang Zhi was elected as the Khan of Heaven. The four tribes of Geluolu and the nine surnames Ogus did not send anyone to participate.
It seems that Zhang Gao's move to strengthen the 40,000 households in Moxi has made these guys feel threatened. Of course, they have never thought about truly surrendering to Zhang Gao and the Central Plains Dynasty.
Bai Congxin was currently surrounded by a group of staff officers, most of whom came from the Zhaowu Academician's Mansion in Luantai, Zhongshu Province.
In today's Zhangzhou, the Zhangtai Imperial Academy under the jurisdiction of Zhongshu Province trains political officers, that is, those who work in administration at the central level.
The Qionglin Academy of the Shangshu Province trains officials for specific local administration.
Luantai Zhaowu Academy is dedicated to training staff officers.
Most of the three are selected from the imperial examination, and the subjects of the examination will naturally vary.
Currently, Zhaowu Academy is the most popular, because after graduation, the future is the most promising.
In fact, most of today's civil servants have relatively clean hands and feet. Corruption? That is the patent of the military. If you dare to touch it, you don't want to live.
Moreover, in troubled times, promotion of civil servants is slow and seniority rankings are slow. A military officer only needs a big victory to reach the pinnacle of his life immediately.
For example, Zhang Mei, a native of Qinghe, Hebei, who is currently busy calculating, was admitted to the Zhaowu Academy by the emperor because of his proficiency in calculations, familiarity with military literature and bravery. Before that, Zhang Mei was just a
A small official in the county government's left treasury.
Li Chongju, a native of Shangdang Mansion in Hedong next to Zhang Mei, was in a similar situation. He was also well versed in the art of war and had courage. After passing the Ming Dynasty Economics Examination, he was selected into the Zhaowu Academician Mansion.
This time when Bai Congxin was marching to the west, Zhang Yan was not idle. He released almost half of the Zhaowu scholars in his hands to follow Bai Congxin.
Along the way, they calculated grain and grass supplies, observed the long-distance migration of war horses, and discussed the armaments for the Western Expedition. These valuable information will become first-hand information for the future Great Western Expedition.
After Li Chongju compiled all the information, he wrote down the pros and cons one by one, and then presented it to Bai Congxin.
"Mr. Bai, judging from the current situation, having women in the army still affects the marching speed and the morale of the army. It is especially easy to cause jealousy. Although they can take on tedious tasks such as washing and cooking, the gains outweigh the losses."
Bai Congxin touched his chin. These past few hundred years have been chaotic. Even in the Central Plains army before the Great Zhou Dynasty, there were many women accompanying the army.
Women could also wash and cook, serve as military prostitutes, and just like in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, women could also be on the table.
It was even more common among the marches of the grassland tribes, especially after the sage proposed the strategy of driving horses, eating horse meat and drinking mare milk.
Since the journey was far away, Bai Congxin added women to the army and asked them to do some jobs that men were unwilling to do. But now it seems that the effect is not good.
"But the number of people we go out to fight will not be too large at one time. If we don't let women do those jobs, and the warriors will become mere servants after thousands of miles, then there will be no war."
Lu Sanlang thought it didn't matter, just be jealous if you are jealous. Anyway, when these guys on the grassland are not marching, it is normal for them to be jealous of women.
The Khitan Qianhu Party members in the tent raised their heads in surprise. This guy was originally Du Chongwei's domestic slave. After Du Chongwei was killed, he was not held accountable because he had no bad deeds. Later, he even got in with the strength of his arms.
Forbidden Army Hanhai Town, made ten generals.
Recently, I don't know where the emperor heard his name, and after learning that he was originally from Xi, he was sent to the Lower Khitan Ten Thousand Households as a Thousand Households, and he was also given the official position of Fengzhou Military and Horse Administration.
Dang Jin looked at Lu Sanlang in surprise, "Lu Gong, how come there are no women to do these things? How can you capture two or three hundred people after conquering a tribe?"
Lu Sanlang touched his chin awkwardly, and couldn't help but secretly complain.
“Damn it, these guys have only been on the grassland for a few months, and they already look like grassland people compared to him.
It seems that the problem can indeed be solved through robbery. Just pick up the women and children of your own family after they have established a foothold."
There was a crackle of abacus, Zhang Mei finished calculating the consumption and raised her head.
The abacus should be regarded as the most significant change brought by Zhang Yan to this era, just like the tea making method.
Abacus in history only became popular at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was not the mature upper and lower row calculation model of later generations, and it was still very cumbersome.
But after Zhang Yan arrived in this era, he not only 'invented' the abacus, but also wrote the quick operation formula for the abacus to calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, which played a great role in promoting the development of mathematics at this time.
Even Zhang Yan didn't know that the abacus he "invented" would greatly promote the development of mathematics throughout Chinese history.
"Mr. Bai, we set out from Yanran Mountain this time and traveled a full two thousand miles, but the food we consumed was only one-fifth of the march in the Han Dynasty. The strategy of drinking horse milk and eating horse meat proposed by the sage is extremely
feasible.
If we can still plunder some supplies along the way, we can drive the horses and travel tens of thousands of miles westward with only one-eighth or even one-tenth of the consumption in Han Dynasty."
Zhang Mei is the best at arithmetic among these people. When he said this, everyone became excited.
Although this marching method of drinking mare milk and eating horse meat is not very unusual, no one on the grassland has ever regarded this as a major event, and no one has ever raised it.
Now that Zhang Yan has proposed it, everyone has calculated and concluded that it is really feasible!
With this method, tens of thousands of miles are no longer the horizon, but a distant place that can be conquered. The geographical distance is shortened in one go.
"Report! Great victory!" The messenger shouted from outside, and Bai Congxin quickly led everyone out of the tent to take a look.
In the distance, the messenger with wild pheasant feathers stuck on his leather jacket did not wait for the horse to stop, but jumped off the horse while crawling.
"The general manager, the vanguard of the west blocking Bu, personally guarding Lu Ketu, the leader of thousands of households, defeated the 30,000 troops of Ogus and Geluolu in the old place of the Yinshan Governor's Mansion in the Duotan Mountains, and killed the leader of the Ogus Awu banished.
There are more than a hundred nobles, big and small, six thousand prisoners, and tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and horses taken away."
Duotan Ridge was the Tarbahatai Mountain on the border between China and Kazakhstan in later generations. The old site of the Yinshan Governor's Mansion was Tacheng, Xinjiang. After crossing this mountain range, you entered the land of Seven Rivers.
There are nearly 300,000 Galulu people nomadic in the southwest of Dotan Ridge, and further to the west are more than 200,000 Oghuz people scattered in the vast area from Lake Balkhash to the Caspian Sea.
If we are afraid of them, the road from Mosi to Talas will be smooth.
"Hahahaha!" Before Bai Congxin could speak, Lu Sanlang burst out laughing and asked the courier in detail about the battle report on the front line, making the courier extremely embarrassed.
However, although Lu Sanlang is not very knowledgeable, his son is really a talented general.
He only led nearly a hundred Guiyi Lang, three to four hundred armored soldiers, more than three thousand regular soldiers, and less than five thousand Zhuan Ding and Yi Cong. He actually defeated the 30,000 Ogus-Geluolu coalition army in one battle.
Judging from the capture and prisoners, it was not a simple victory, but a rather beautiful battle of annihilation.
Bai Congxin laughed loudly, "Okay! Luktu is better than his master, and he, as a pioneer general, has done the work of our army.
Immediately inform A Luocha, the Protector of Ten Thousand Households in Naiman, and Li Guizhong, the Protector of Ten Thousand Households in Xiajiasi, to come to my tent."
Oghuz in the ancient Turkic language means tribe, alliance, surname, etc. In a broad sense, the nine surnames of Oghuz even include the Higas and the Naiman tribe, and they are all relatives.
Now that the Ogus tribe that nomadically lives in the Land of Seven Rivers, which is the area from Ili to Lake Balkhash in later generations, has been defeated, the matter of annexing them will naturally be put on the agenda.