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Volume 2: Looking to Chang'an Chapter 58: Autumn of the 15th year of Tianbao

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    Li Zuoguo drove non-stop all the way. He led three thousand soldiers and had already passed Yumen Pass. It was only ten days away from Qiuci. After entering Anxi, Li Zuoguo was not in such a hurry and slowed down and moved forward slowly.

    Li Zuoguo's soldiers were all composed of one person and three horses. Although the horse power was not damaged, the continuous travel still made the soldiers tired. However, Li Zuoguo's soldiers were the elite selected from among the thousands of troops. Many of them were from grassland tribes and traveled long distances on horseback.  That was a common occurrence, so there was no such thing as falling behind.

    In a small town outside Yumen Pass, Ma Fu replenished dry food and water. Li Zuoguo and his party advanced at a medium speed. A brigade of soldiers behind Li Zuoguo all wore white cloaks. Many of the soldiers looked very young.

    The white cloak in the Anxi Army means auxiliary soldiers, not regular soldiers. How can there be soldiers among the elite soldiers around Li Zuoguo who are not regular soldiers?

    The origins of these three hundred personal soldiers are not simple. They are all the children of the leaders of the tribes that surrendered to Anxi. These leaders personally sent these people to Li Zuoguo as personal soldiers. The meaning is that one is a hostage and the other is to get closer to Li Zuoguo. After all,  Li Zuoguo is like heaven in Anxi. Being able to get along with the supreme ruler of Anxi day and night, and gaining a friendship is of great significance to his own future and the survival of his tribe.

    The commander of this 300-man cavalry brigade is Ashina Puzhanluo, the second son of Li Zuoguo's father-in-law Ashina Hejia. Puzhanluo is more than one year younger than Li Zuoguo, and is already eighteen years old.  It doesn't look much like Ashina Fami, who looks a bit weak.

    Because they have been close to Li Zuoguo since childhood, the Ashina tribe has now basically integrated into Anxi. Ashina Fami is the heir of the Ashina tribe, so when Li Zuoguo formed this personal army composed only of heirs, Puzhanluo proposed  After joining, Ashina Hejia also wanted his second son to join Li Zuoguo. Relying on his relationship with Li Zuoguo, Puzhanluo became the chief general of this prince's army.

    The most senior among his subordinates was Musali Yuezhi, the prince of Tochar. Li Zuoguo did not pamper these people and directly left all the servants, slaves and guards they brought with him in Shule, leaving them alone.  After entering the army, he basically maintained the same training intensity as the soldiers.

    Some of the younger ones cried a lot after joining the soldiers under high-intensity training. However, after a few years, except for a few of these people who were in particularly poor health and were left in Shule by Li Zuoguo, the rest were qualified.  After all, Li Zuoguo couldn't really train a few to death.

    Li Zuoguo was talking to Puzhanluo, who was half a horse behind him. It had been more than half a year since the expedition. Puzhanluo also missed his father and brothers and sisters. At this time, Puzhanluo, who had a beard, showed a happy smile.  , that kind of pure joy made people see that Pu Zhanluo was actually just an eighteen-year-old boy.

    "Puzhanluo, your father will definitely find you a wife when you go back this time. I'm afraid you won't be able to follow me back to the Central Plains." Li Zuoguo teased Puzhanluo with a smile, and Puzhanluo, who had a darker face, felt shy.  When she got up, her dark face turned purple, and Ai Ai was speechless.

    Li Zuoguo laughed, and pointed the whip at him and said: "Is the eagle of Ashina shy? I heard that the wife your father arranged for you is Sutai Ahe, the youngest daughter of the chief of the Daromu tribe. She is a  A pearl, you are very lucky, you can rival your elder sister in appearance."

    Puzhanluo rubbed his hands excitedly and said, "Why don't you make me your eldest brother's wife? I heard that eldest brother also got married this year, but the wife is a Han?"

    Li Zuoguo knocked Puzhanluo's helmet with his horsewhip and said: "Puzhanluo, you have to use your brain. Do you think it is still necessary for the tribe in Anxi to exist? Or to put it another way, the tribe is now integrated with Anxi.  Now, do the original independent tribes still exist?"

    Puzhanluo said thoughtfully: "It's true. People from our Ashina tribe are now spread all over Anxi. Some are engaged in farming, some continue to herd, and some are in the military. It is indeed not like before. All  The tribesmen are together, chasing water and grass for a living."

    Li Zuoguo said: "Then do you think it is good or bad for the tribe's population to integrate into Anxi?"

    Puzhanluo said: "It must be a good thing. It used to be that the tribes lived on the grassland. Being able to have enough to eat was a luxury. Many people died every winter. It was even more miserable when encountering natural disasters. The Tang Dynasty put great pressure on us. Now life is worse than  In the past, the differences were too big. The old and the weak had the same things to do, and warriors could earn wealth by virtue of their bravery, which was something that was simply unimaginable before."

    Li Zuoguo nodded and said: "Actually, whether they are Han people or Hu people, ordinary people actually need very little. They are just food and clothing. It is only a few people who get the most benefit anywhere. You are the second son of your father-in-law. I'm afraid you don't have any."  Have you ever tasted the feeling of hunger? Then you know that last year I killed?What are the leaders of more than thirty tribes for?  "

    Puzhanluo thought for a while and said, "I understand now. We have integrated the population of these tribes into Anxi. These tribal leaders feel that their days of responding to everything are gone. They want to cause trouble after losing power, so my brother-in-law killed them?"

    Li Zuoguo said: "You are basically right, but this is only one of the reasons. Another reason is that they have not really tasted the profits gained from cooperating with Anxi. Even the tribal leaders probably will not live like they did in Anxi.  Days, right? But these people have neither the strength nor the patience, and in the end they will end up dead."

    Last year, more than thirty tribal leaders, led by the surrendered Mu tribe, jointly put pressure on Li Zuoguo to obtain the official canonization of the Tang Dynasty. They even made careless conditions with Li Zuoguo, asking how much food and property they needed. As a result, Li Zuoguo  Let Li Hu defeat the more than 30,000 warriors gathered by these 30 families, and behead more than 30 leaders and their family members, more than 1,000 people, ending this farce of overestimating one's own capabilities.

    This approach shocked the leaders in Anxi who were dissatisfied with the loss of their tribes. They had no choice but to accept Li Zuoguo's request and take their belongings with them to live in the city. Later, these leaders did benefit and ran around on the grassland.  It is indeed not as comfortable as living in the city. Life supplies are greatly abundant, and there is no need to worry about a battle coming at the next moment.

    These leaders are the richest people in the tribe, and they are also people with a relatively good investment spirit. Prairie people do not think that buying houses and land is everything in life. This is completely different from the idea of ????a farming civilization. These retired tribal leaders have organized large and small  There are thousands of small caravans, which have become an important fulcrum of Anxi's prosperity.

    If you ask these leaders to go back to the days where they lived in the open air and could be killed in a tribal war at any time, I am afraid that none of them will go again. Now Li Zuoguo does not blindly promote officials mainly based on Han people. People who want to satisfy their power also  You can go to Li Zuoguo to try to become an official. Anxi has truly stabilized now.

    Otherwise, Li Zuoguo would have to fight for several months and half a year at a time, and he would not be able to do it without a stable rear. Dashi has been fighting for two years now. Zerfar and Abu Muslim have always had the upper hand, but they just can't really do it.  Defeating the opponent and pacifying Dashi, almost all cities in Dashi were experiencing war. Countless Dashi refugees entered Anxi through Anqisi Pass, which became the foundation for Anxi.

    Both sides were buying weapons and equipment from Anxi. Later, even war horses were purchased through Anxi. The Great Food War was in full swing, and Anxi became richer. Wangxiang Fort behind Anqisiguan has now become a city with a population of more than three people.  In a big city of 100,000 people, although Abu Muslim and other Dashi elites know that continuing to fight like this will only benefit Anxi in the end, but when the war reaches this point, both sides are red-eyed and will never stop until the other side is eliminated, especially  Religious issues were also involved, and the fighting was even more brutal.

    Li Zuoguo's interest in Dashi is no longer as simple as making money and making profits. The population inflow caused by the Dashi War is the key. These Dashi civilians who have suffered religious persecution and war fled into Anxi and became an important source of soldiers and labor force in Li Zuoguo's hands.  source.

    Originally, it was risky to do so. The Han base in Anxi could easily lead to an imbalance in the proportion of Hu and Han in the face of a large influx of foreign races. However, this year's war solved the problem of Li Zuoguo. Li Zuoguo now occupies four roads in the Tang Dynasty.  Although the populations of Shuofang and Hexi are not large, Guanzhong is the most populous place in the Central Plains.

    Duan Tianhe has now begun preparing to immigrate to Anxi in Chang'an. The land annexation in Guanzhong has become more serious, and a large amount of land is concentrated in the hands of aristocratic families. Although a large number of aristocratic families fled with the fall of Chang'an, the population density in Guanzhong is also destined to be  It was not enough for Li Zuoguo to distribute the land.

    What Duan Tianhe did was to let the Han people from Guanzhong go to Longyou and Hexi in Anxi to fill in. All the people who agreed to immigrate could be divided into twenty acres of farmland based on their capita, and given cattle and farm tools, and a year's grain tax was exempted.  This condition still attracts many people who are willing to go to the west. The allocated fields can be cultivated by the people themselves. If it is mature land, the grain tax will be exempted for one year. If it is wasteland cultivated by oneself, the grain tax can be exempted for three years.

    Volunteering alone is not enough. In the decisive battle of Ulan in Chang'an%% before, apart from some of these Tang soldiers who joined the army, most of them embarked on the road to reclaim wasteland in Longyou, Anxi, and also brought all the families of these Tang soldiers with them.  In this way, not counting the people who voluntarily went to Anxi, the family members of the captives plus the captives themselves, the number of people moved exceeded one million.

    This policy will continue until the number of Han people in the entire northwest exceeds the population of Hu people, and Li Zuoguo requires that the proportion reach more than 60%. This is a long and systematic work, and Li Zuoguo predicts that it can be achieved within ten years.That's pretty good.

    The Ashina Tribe was the first tribe to attach itself to Li Zuoguo. Ashina Hejia even married his daughter Ariel to Li Zuoguo. Now Ashina Hejia is in charge of all animal husbandry matters in Anxi, and the herdsmen under him have increased their  The total number of cavalrymen exceeds 1.5 million, which is much larger than the original Ashina tribe's population of more than 200,000.

    However, the original tribal population of the Ashina tribe was dispersed to Anxi. Li Zuoguo knew that a tribe that would always be peaceful and have no dissent would not exist. However, in Anxi, which combines agriculture and animal husbandry, in another ten years,  Who still remembers what the original tribe looked like?  This is a process of assimilation and dissolution. Now, as long as Li Zuoguo maintains strong force deterrence, no one will jump out to challenge his authority. People on the grassland all agree that whoever has the biggest fist has the final say.

    Looking at Pu Zhanluo who was silent, Li Zuoguo knew that due to his own level, there were some things that Pu Zhanluo was not very clear about, and he did not intend to explain them thoroughly. It would be better to let Pu Zhanluo experience it himself.

    Anxi has always been a vast land with sparsely populated areas. Three thousand cavalry were galloping on the official road. Apart from the caravans, there was a desolate scene on both sides of the road. The wasteland at this time was not like it would be in later generations. It was all barren. Large tracts of woods still existed.  The grassland is spread out, mixed with some streams and small lakes, making the scenery even more beautiful.

    This is a land that has not been polluted and over-exploited. Hare and deer can be seen everywhere. One day after heading west from Yumen Pass, you can see some villages on both sides of the road. This is Tuntian Village in Anxi. Most of the villages are people who originally lived in Anxi.  Han people, while the villagers in the villages near Tocharo in the southwest, northwest and Anqisiguan were composed of captives and refugees. The situation there was not as safe as that near the Tang Dynasty.

    The farms of criminals and refugees are not tax-free. In addition to ensuring the rations for the next harvest season, the rest of the annual harvest must be turned over as food reserves in Anxi. In addition to the soldiers who are organized into prisoner-of-war camps to fight, prisoners of war,  The rest have to stay in the criminal army camps for three years before they can get their own land. Although the time for freedom in the prisoner-of-war camp is short, they have to fight for their lives.

    The prisoner-of-war camp is also called a death battle camp. It is stipulated that captured soldiers who enter the prisoner-of-war camp can be freed after receiving ten local heads. Prisoners who cannot obtain ten local heads in ten battles will be directly beheaded. After five battles, they will receive ten local heads.  Soldiers automatically become regular soldiers of the Anxi Army and receive the same treatment as regular soldiers.

    Therefore, the prisoner-of-war camp is the most desperate unit in the Anxi battle and has the highest death rate. However, the soldiers who successfully survived the prisoner-of-war camp are also the most elite units in the Anxi army. Among Li Zuoguo's soldiers, these soldiers came from the prisoner-of-war camp.  There are only a few people.

    Seeing that it was getting late, Li Zuoguo ordered the team to speed up. Ahead was Minzhi, the small town closest to the east of Anxi. Li Zuoguo's heart was filled with excitement. He would soon see his wife and children. I wonder how Ariel's health is?  This was his second child, and Li Zuoguo's arrival in the Tang Dynasty had already been deeply marked.

    At this time, a fast horse galloped in front, and the small flag behind it let Li Zuoguo know that this was a scout cavalry sent out. Li Zuoguo raised his right hand, and the entire cavalry team slowly stopped. In this way, after the galloping cavalry stopped, the knight  Rows of people standing in silence, showing strong discipline and good training.

    The scout came on a flying horse. When he got to a hundred meters in front of Li Zuoguo, he dismounted and led the horse closer. Puzhanluo urged his horse to meet him. At this time, the rules were that if the horse did not stop and rushed directly, Li Zuoguo's soldiers would immediately shoot.  After killing him, Puzhanluo came back soon and reported in front of Li Zuoguo's horse: "There is a messenger coming from Qiuci, right in front. Come right away. It is eight hundred miles away."

    Li Zuoguo frowned, eight hundred miles to rush?  What happened to Kucha?

    Soon the messenger arrived. There were four messengers, but only one of them knelt down on one knee in front of Li Zuoguo's horse. He took out a letter directly from his arms and handed it to Li Zuoguo. Li Zuoguo took a look and saw that it was from Li Yifa, the military commander of Qiuci.  He didn't open the letter immediately. If something really happened in Qiuci, Li Yi would definitely send Xue Yu to deliver the letter. It seemed that this was not a big deal.

    Li Zuoguo opened the envelope, took out the letter and read it immediately. Pu Zhanluo also looked at Li Zuoguo with concern. The more Li Zuoguo looked at it, the weirder his expression became. After reading the letter, he put his hands together and looked up to the sky and laughed. Pu Zhanluo came up  A few steps forward he said, "What happened in Kucha?"

    Li Zuoguo took the letter to Puzhanluo and said, "Read it for yourself. Puzhanluo can read and write Chinese characters now. After taking the letter and reading it, his face became weird like Li Zuoguo.

    Puzhanluo suddenly laughed: "These civil servants are really funny, making such a farce."

    Li Zuoguo suppressed the smile on his face at this time: "What is Li Yi doing? Such an incompetent person actually leads a snake out of his hole as if facing a powerful enemy. This is just a joke for my family. If someone is really hurtWhen it comes to his mother, what will Li Yi do?  "

    Li Yi's letter was talking about Qin Yizhou's rebellion. In the end, all the more than a thousand people organized by Qin Yizhou were captured. Li Yi did not kill them, but locked them up, waiting for Li Zuoguo to go back and deal with it. In the letter, Li Yi apologized to Li Zuoguo.  It was said that he did not pay attention to the killers hired by Qin Yizhou, and the killers sneaked into the Protector's Mansion. Zheng Chunyun took action in time and killed all the killers.

    At this time, Li Zuoguo's heart had already flown to Kucha, and he decided not to stop at Myizhi. He ordered Puzhanluo to go to Myizhi to collect dry food and catch up with him. Li Zuoguo decided to drive all night to try to reach Kucha as soon as possible.

    Li Zuoguo was no longer in the mood to appreciate the scenery on the road. He hurried on without stopping in any city. Later, Li Yi sent another letter saying that neither Ariel nor the old lady was frightened, but that Mrs. Huan was there.  When I went out to inquire on the night of the accident, I saw that the assassin who was killed was slightly frightened, but he was fine.

    On September 25, the fifteenth year of Tianbao, Li Zuoguo returned to Kucha after seven months of fighting. Three thousand soldiers entered the city, making the entire Kucha city boil. Li Zuoguo, the master of Anxi and the military god of millions of soldiers and civilians, swept across  During the Five Ways of the Tang Dynasty, numerous generals captured more than a hundred cities, and even captured Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty. After returning to Qiuci, countless Anxi people welcomed Li Zuoguo home with pride and excitement on both sides of the street, cheering.  Almost knocking down the city of Kucha, it took Li Zuoguo an hour to walk from the city gate to the door of his mansion.
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