Perhaps because he learned too much truth in a short period of time, Dong Juyi was a little lost and walked unsteadily. Fortunately, there was a group of Mongolian guards surrounding him, so he didn't have to worry about being delayed on his return, or that he would suddenly regret it and turn to the Mongols.
Cause trouble.
Tuo Lei smiled and accompanied Dong Juyi away, several hundred steps away, to the opposite side of a ravine. He stared at the figures of Dong Juyi and others until they disappeared into the smoke and dust in the sky, and then he turned his horse back.
At this time, the army was located between the Qinling Mountains and the Longshan Mountains. Along the way were the Wei River and its tributaries, which had cut into the high wasteland slopes for hundreds of millions of years, creating continuous gorges. This kind of terrain was actually not suitable for the army to march, and there was no way to do so.
Expand the front to speed up.
Moreover, this area has been the border that has been repeatedly fought over by the Jin, Song, and Xia kingdoms over the years. The local soldiers and civilians have long been scattered, and the roads have been abandoned for a long time. In order to avoid leaking the news and arousing the vigilance of the Zhou army stationed in Fengxiang, Jingzhao and other places, there was no warning before the army marched.
Have any renovations been done.
Fortunately, the Mongols are the best and most hard-working warriors in the world. Their army is like a migrating herd of cattle and sheep. As long as the herdsman blows the whistle, they will follow the orders without hesitation. Other than that,
Don’t think too much and don’t stop.
Especially at this moment, when Genghis Khan is riding his horse under the umbrella canopy, the prestige of the Great Khan is the best incentive, urging everyone to speed up the march regardless of all dangers.
Tuo Lei raised his head and looked at Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan was taller than the average Mongolian. When he was young, he was stronger, stronger, and handsome in appearance. Therefore, he was recognized by the Jurchen officials and received fame and material support.
Now he is a bit old. Tuo Lei clearly felt that since the tragic defeat in the Central Plains, Genghis Khan has obviously aged. His body shape is a bit stooped, his back is not as straight as before, and his hair and beard have become sparse.
But his spirit is not weak at all. To outsiders, it seems that Genghis Khan's energy does not originate from his body, but from the army, from the army's continuous massacre and conquest. Tuo Lei also feels the same way.
, at least after wiping out the Western Region and the river, and reorganizing the army that defeated the Mongol Uluth, Genghis Khan's whole body and spirit were recovering quickly. He was happier and more active than usual, unlike at the beginning of the Western Expedition.
So irritable and depressed.
After releasing a burst of anger in the palace tent, Genghis Khan was in a better mood than Tuo Lei expected. He looked at the endless flow of cavalry, as well as the vehicles, camel teams, and herds of cattle and sheep that accompanied the army.
Showing satisfaction.
This time, he suddenly sent an army into the Xia Kingdom. There was no warning at all. Many thousands of households thought at first that Genghis Khan's intention was to let the Kangli and Kipchak troops wear down the Zhou army. They would wait until the spring of next year and the snow on the grassland melted.
It was the time when the army was about to attack. So when the army was about to go out, every household failed to prepare enough supplies for the army in advance.
When many cavalrymen set out, they only had time to grab a lamb or two and wrap them in their coats. Then they ate them all on the way and were ready to fight the Xia people hungry.
But the soldiers were not hungry. After the army entered the territory of Xia Kingdom, they did not fight.
On the contrary, thanks to the help of the King of Xia, the army received a large amount of food and livestock support along the way, and the armor weapons collected from the arsenals of various parts of the Xia Kingdom were simply piled up. Together, they were enough to arm an army of 100,000 people to the teeth.
Genghis Khan knew that after his fourth son was sent back to the East, he had been operating intensively in the Xia Kingdom and even the Song Kingdom under various pretexts. But he did not expect that Tuolei's management would be so effective.
This prompted Genghis Khan to immediately take over Tuo Lei's previous arrangements. Genghis Khan felt that he should use his familiar methods to eliminate hidden dangers for Xia King Li Zunxu and fulfill his friend's promise.
At this time, in the fort, the roars of the party nobles had gradually become inaudible, and the faint smell of barbecue began to spread.
When a group of Xia Guoding's cavalry, who were closely following the movement of the army, approached the fort, they may have heard something or smelled something, and their steps suddenly slowed down. Genghis Khan pointed with his hand, and a timid Xue cavalry immediately passed by and led them to the roadside.
They began to line up to behead one by one.
The blood of the deceased quickly seeped into the dry sand. The hounds in the cavalry queue howled excitedly, wanting to pounce on the corpse and bite it. At the turn of autumn and winter, the last batch of blood-thirsty flies also buzzed and gathered.
In Tuo Lei's view, although these servants all came from the Dangxiang family who was close to the former Xia King Li An'an, they were probably overtired at the moment and couldn't help but want to rest instead of remembering the deceased. But Genghis Khan never suffered from failure.
He thinks too much, and killing these people is no more worrying to him than crushing a few ants.
Including all the Mongolian nobles, they all looked indifferent, and some were even very interested.
In fact, this is a bit too much. From crossing the Iron Gate to Gongzhou, it is only a few hundred miles. On the way, no less than 3,000 Xia people who were demoted to serve as diners in the army have died. There are also people who were found hiding along the way.
The old, weak, women and children were also killed.
When Tuo Lei made a promise to Li Zunxu, saying that he would eradicate all enemies for him and protect his position as king of the Xia Kingdom, he did not say that he would kill so brutally. The current situation is simply going to stretch the territory of the Xia Kingdom for hundreds of years.
All the famous people in Li Zunxu's court were wiped out. How many people were left in Li Zunxu's court?
Hey, do I have to apologize to Li Zunxu?
Amidst the laughter of the Mongolian swordsmen and axemen, some heads were chopped off, and the bones rolled past Tuo Lei's feet. Tuo Lei quickened his pace and walked away from these servants.
These party members were quite calm. No one begged for mercy or cried.
Perhaps they were frightened by the massacres during the Mongolian invasion a few years ago, and knew that begging for mercy was useless. It would only arouse the Mongolians' violent emotions and suffer more torture before their death. It may also be because the kings of the Dangxiang people have been kings for several generations.
Due to the coup, they have become numb from fighting each other, knowing that the loser will die sooner or later, and the sooner he dies, the easier it may be.
Many Dangxiang people believe in Buddhism. From the Buddhist perspective, life is so painful that when the sword falls and blood surges up, relief is unknown.
Tuo Lei saw a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old, who was being kicked to the side not far in front. The boy was very tall, with very broad shoulders and strong bones. He was obviously a warrior. Unfortunately, he was skinny and skinny.
His head, body and face were all covered with open wounds. Blood flowed with his movements, and no intact skin could be found.
Under such an injury, unless a good doctor diagnoses and treats it in time, sooner or later the sores will break out and death will be inevitable. Even if he survives for a while, he will still be in great pain all the time.
So the young man didn't resist at all, he just looked up at the sky and murmured to himself. The sky was very dark, and when his sight passed by the tow mine, it was just as dark.
??????????.??????
A shirtless Qie Xue stood behind the young man, holding a knife and gesticulating twice, looking for a suitable position to strike. Tuo Lei could hardly help but speak to save the life of this young man.
This is not out of pity. In the eyes of the Mongols, massacre is not a sin, but an inevitable part of the process of conquest. Whether in the Central Plains or in the far western regions, they killed millions of people without any psychological pressure, using their flesh and blood to
To irrigate the land. Tolui himself once ordered the massacre of the population of several cities, and even watched the enemies die in different ways for entertainment.
But after all, people not only have the two options of life and death, they can also be divided into useful or useless.
Tuo Lei is constantly gathering useful talents around him in the Central Plains and the Western Regions. The Dangxiang boy in front of him may also be useful. He may be resentful of the Mongols now, but as long as he follows the Mongols to fight a few battles and kill some
People, over time, will naturally integrate into the Mongolian circle and become bloodthirsty warriors.
Not only this boy, but if done properly, Xia's Bubazi, Iron Kites and other soldiers and horses can be used as fierce dogs of the Mongols.
Tuo Lei was very confident about this, because at this time, in the eastern part of the grassland, the troops of the Kipchaks, Kangli people or other ethnic groups in the Western Regions who would fight with the Zhou army were full of such people.
But Tuo Lei also knew that he would not open his mouth to save this young man's life.
During the Western Expedition, the person who fought the most and made the most merits could not get the turn of Tuo Lei, but afterward, by governing the local area, gathering people's hearts and grabbing the most power, Tuo Lei did. Genghis Khan was not happy about this, so he split it up.
He captured Tuo Lei's henchmen and threw him back to the grassland from the Western Regions, asking him to serve as the front line for the returning army.
Now that the good office plan has been launched, Father Khan will not allow the retreat of the army to be in the hands of Tuo Lei, so he will kill as many party members as possible. This method can not only make Xia Kingdom completely weak,
It can also make Li Zunxu, who obeyed Tuo Lei, become a single man hated by all his people, suppressing Tuo Lei's influence again.
At that time, Genghis Khan relied on his relatives to suppress thousands of households in various Mongolian tribes, and relied on his sons to suppress his relatives. After his sons' power expanded rapidly, he began to suppress his own sons.
This has nothing to do with trust or distrust, doting or not doting, but out of the instinct of a conqueror and ruler. Tuo Lei compared his feelings and felt that there was nothing wrong. Just as he felt that there was nothing wrong with his brother Shuchi's support of the army early on.
.
What's more... Tuo Lei raised his face slightly and glanced at Genghis Khan under the umbrella with his peripheral vision. Although Genghis Khan's physical condition was not as good as before, during the Western Expedition, Jochi even thought that Genghis Khan was unfair and confused, but as long as Genghis Khan was around,
Everyone must bow under his authority.
It was Genghis Khan who created the Golden Family, and it was Genghis Khan who created the Mongol Uluths and even the Mongols themselves. No one dared to question the orders of the Great Khan, and no one could afford to question the Great Khan.
So Tuo Lei continued to move forward, only briefly glancing at the flash of the sword and watching the head of the gangster boy being suddenly rushed up by the violent surge of blood.
After a while, Tuo Lei rode up to Genghis Khan's umbrella.
"Great Khan, King Li Zunxu of Xia has been settled properly, and the representatives of the Song Dynasty's Sichuan envoy have also been sent away smoothly."
Genghis Khan nodded.
"The Dangxiang people have always been on good terms with the Kelie tribe. The concubine of the dead king Li An'an is the niece of the Kelie tribe Tuolihan... I don't think they can be trusted! So except for a few cronies around Li Zunxu, I ordered people to
All Xia generals and nobles wherever they passed were gathered into the army and killed. Over at Zhongxing Mansion, Tuohu Cha'er and three thousand-man troops were stationed and they would also clean it up."
Genghis Khan said casually and then asked: "But I don't understand why Li Zunxu listened to your words and agreed to introduce the Mongolian army?"
Tuo Lei replied without hesitation: "Because Li Zunxu really wants something from us."
"You mean, you want us to cleanse his political enemies for him?"
"Father Khan, that was just a matter of convenience. The kings of the Dangxiang people came to power through dog-eating-dog for generations, and they are not worthy of our attention. What Li Zunxu is looking forward to is for us to open up the trade routes in the Western Regions and restore trade on the grasslands."
At this point, Tuo Lei paused, and seeing that Genghis Khan did not show any impatience, he continued: "The land of the Xia Kingdom is barren and spread all over the desert, and its livestock officials and soldiers number hundreds of thousands. This is achieved by relying on Uighur merchants.
Support for hundreds of years. Generally speaking, the trade route opened up by Uighur merchants goes from the Western Regions to Shazhou and Guazhou of Xia State, and then passes through Gansu, Liang and other places. It is divided into two branches. One branch goes to Xingqing Prefecture and Xiazhou.
and other places to deal with the Jurchens; the other group crossed the Tubo tribes and dealt with the Song people of the Southern Dynasty... I heard that when this road was at its peak, there were tens of thousands of business travelers, and the goods sold were often
Ten times the price difference.”
Genghis Khan was thoughtful.
Tuo Lei continued: "The huge profits gained on this trade route are actually an indispensable financial source to support the existence of the Xia Kingdom. However, because our army has moved to the Western Regions in the past few years, this trade route has actually been interrupted. As a result,
, no matter how hard Li Zunxu tried, Xia's court and army could not be maintained. Without our army's crusade, their own family had only one ending, which was to fall apart and die in poverty. Therefore, when I promised to reopen the trade route, I would also
To ensure that Li Zunxu gets his share, Li Zunxu immediately turned to us."
In fact, how could it be so easy to communicate with Xia Kingdom?
No matter how frequent civil strife the Xia Kingdom was, it was still a big country. The twelve military divisions under its rule all had tens of thousands of troops. When the Mongols attacked its strong city walls, they also suffered heavy losses and many people died. Earlier, Tuo Lei only brought
Several subordinates sneaked into the Xia Kingdom and spent countless efforts to hook up with Li Zunxu, almost losing their lives several times. The agreement he reached with Li Zunxu was not that simple, and there were several more promises made in private.
But Tuo Lei didn't intend to say more. Firstly, Genghis Khan would not be interested in hearing those trivial matters, and secondly, this was also to protect Li Zunxu.
Sure enough, Genghis Khan diverted his attention.
He asked again: "So, what about the Song people? I heard that the Song people are more greedy than the Dangxiang people. So, the king or high officials of the Song people also want to resume trade. Have they reached an agreement with you?"
Tuo Lei immediately shook his head.
His dealings with the king of the Xia Kingdom were enough to make Genghis Khan jealous, and the Xia Kingdom only had two million soldiers and civilians.
The territory of the Southern Song Dynasty was thousands of miles wide, with billions of residents, and its level of wealth could not be matched by hundreds of Xia Kingdoms. If the Southern Song Dynasty was also holding a handful in the palm of Tuo Lei, then Tuo Lei would probably have another
They will be transferred to a direction that is ignored. Before that, Tuo Lei's subordinates who have reunited may also face another split.