stubborn thief

Chapter 664 Another Way

Liu Chengzong's territory.

There is a kind of beauty that seems very far away.

When he occupied the 400-li Hehuang Valley, he once mocked Yarkand, saying that it was a separatist oasis, feudal, tribal, and khanate.

Indeed, Yarkand is a khanate composed of several oasis towns on the edge of a desert. Although it is called a khanate, it is actually divided into two camps, with five chiefs under them.

And he was not much better... His Grand Marshal's Mansion was like a super Yarkand, a more powerful version.

In general, looking at this map, Liu Shizi felt that as a leader who used force and swords to make a living, he was very successful.

  Look at the terrain in your pocket. The vast grasslands south of the Tianshan Mountains and the U-Tsang Desert are not only a place that military strategists must fight for, but also a place that military strategists since ancient times have been unable to obtain!

Of course, it would be perfect if these weren't the only places that farmers have to worry about.

In short, with Liu Chengzong taking control of Xi'an Prefecture and the arrival of winter, the military disasters that had spread throughout Shaanxi subsided.

First, Ding Guodong successfully entered the city of Qingyang.

Ju Sirang, the prefect of Qingyang, originally wanted to sit on the fence and wait and see, but a few days later he heard the news that the city of Xi'an had fallen and Chen Qiuyu had surrendered.

Qingyang Prefecture also immediately changed its flag and, together with many officials in the prefecture, submitted a letter of surrender to Xi'an.

Liu Chengzong returned the favor by not dismissing them directly. He also exempted Qingyang from taxes this year and rewarded 2,200 taels of silver to 13 Qingyang prefecture officials including Ju Sirang.

To appease them and make them work hard, to resettle the people in groups, to build canals to divert water and reclaim wasteland, and at the same time to establish and repair community schools and work hard to recuperate.

Of course, the year is almost over. Even if Liu Shizi wants to collect, Qingyang Prefecture may not be able to give him money or grain. It would be better for him to say something nice.

As for letting these officials stay in Qingyang, it was naturally a bit risky, but there was no way, as the Marshal's Office really couldn't take care of Qingyang Prefecture at the moment.

Liu Shizi was in charge of a large-scale population migration and had no time to take care of anything else.

Because not only the surrendered soldiers of Xi'an Prefecture, the starving people in the prefecture, and the Qin vassal clan had to migrate to Lanzhou and Hehuang areas, but also the garrisons of the Marshal's Mansion in various places, as well as the government offices in Lanzhou and Xining and his family were mobilized.

There are more than 100,000 people inside and outside the city. It is easy to mobilize the army, but it is much more difficult to mobilize the civilians than the army.

What's more, Liu Shizi already felt guilty towards the people who moved out of Xi'an Prefecture.

It is not wrong to say that they are starving people.

But before he came to Xi'an, he was not a starving person.

With land, food and money, life is good.

It was he who came to besiege the city. People were driven out of the city by Chen Qiuyu and were not allowed to bring food or money. The land outside the city was also taken over by the Marshal's Office.

To be honest, they are all Liu Shizi's benefactors.

If it weren't for these people, Liu Chengzong would have been driven to death by the huge army under his command asking him for food.

Now, we have an unprecedented surplus of money and food, and our troops are exceptionally strong.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong attached great importance to the starving people in Xi'an Prefecture. After picking out the strong ones such as gangsters and old soldiers, he urged the soldiers to quickly escort the rest to the west.

Don’t spend the New Year in Xi’an Prefecture.

It’s certainly not that Liu Shizi thinks they are an eyesore, but he is mainly concerned about the lives of the remaining 20,000 people.

There is definitely no place for them in Xi'an Prefecture, there is no room for negotiation, but there are still many places in the Marshal's Mansion that can accommodate them.

They are on the road now. Wang Wenxiu's troops will provide meals in Fengxiang, Gongchang and Lintao along the way, and will take care of them all the way to Lanzhou.

During this period, a part of the people were settled in Qinzhou, Longxi and Lintao areas along the way. Finally, there were only a few thousand men left, and they were all settled in Xining Wei.

Along the way, there are wastelands, cultivated lands, and irrigated fields, all the way to Xining Wei in the west, where there is the Yaoshui River military farm that Liu Chengzu led his troops to reclaim.

Go there early and get the cattle from Xincheng so as not to delay next year's spring plowing.

With half a year's supply of military supplies, the situation will be stable by next summer.

In fact, the biggest winner of Liu Chengzong's eastern expedition was not him, but Dalai Taiji of Lianbingwei, Bao Hu, a thousand-householder of Guide, and Chen Shiwen, a small chieftain of Hehuang.

As soon as the news of the fall of Xi'an reached Lanzhou, Liu Xiangyu sent the three of them over without stopping.

When they arrived at Fengxiang Prefecture, Li Wanqing there sent a message to Xi'an.

When Liu Chengzong knew they were coming, he laughed out loud on the spot.

Of course he knew why these three guys came here in such a hurry. His father had written him a letter.

The Marshal's army launched a massive eastward expedition, which completely drained the troops in the Hehuang area and caused a lot of trouble in the rear.

At the same time, captives and clan members were continuously sent to Xincheng, which directly led to the unprecedented expansion of the power of these three people.

There is no need to talk about Chen Shiwen. He used to be a small chieftain of Hehuang, a really small one.

There are more than 600 local people under its jurisdiction, with one local captain, two local battalion commanders, and 25 cavalry and infantry.

But when Liu Chengzong first entered Hehuang, this little Han chieftain was the only one who came to greet him with sheep.

Bao Hu was the deputy captain of the Guide garrison. When the Oirats invaded the east, he captured 18 heads. The court wanted to give him 12 taels of silver, but he didn't give it to him.

When Liu Chengzong won a great victory, he summoned him and, knowing the incident, rewarded him with 180 taels of silver. He also promoted Bao Hu and six others to the rank of chief captain and five deputy captains.

Dalai Taiji was the most powerful of the three. He was the leader of the Oirats' Durbet tribe and had tens of thousands of people under his command.

After a military defeat on the Heka grassland, he was traumatized by the Tangqi of the Marshal's Office. After the war, he took over Du'erbo of the Marshal's Office and stayed in Xincheng Academy to learn the Tangbing tactics thoroughly.

As a result, Liu Chengzong arranged for him to be the co-director of the training guard of the Tianshan Army, and the commander was Li Bei.

However, Li Bei retired due to illness not long after taking office, and all matters of the Training Guard fell on the shoulders of Dalai Taiji.

Actually, this is nothing. It's just training a few thousand new soldiers a year, which is neither too much nor too little for Yu Dalai.

However, as Liu Chengzong sent his troops eastward, groups of troops were sent to the Heka grassland. Before the old Tianshan Army had arrived, new soldiers and guards arrived.

Dalai Taiji was unable to handle the situation, so, at the instruction of Master Liu, he brought in the chieftains of Guideso of Bao Hu and Bajiaocheng of Chen Shiwen, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the cause of military training.

A few days ago, Old Master Liu wrote a letter to Liu Shizi, which mainly talked about moving.

But apart from that, it also describes the achievements of Dalai Taiji and three others.

In the past six months, the army of the Marshal's Office was transferred from the Hehuang Valley, and horse bandits broke out in Qinghai. The pseudo-official of Gongchang Prefecture of the Ming army and the Ningxia Lieutenant General Tu Shixian also sent troops to threaten Lintao Prefecture and Lanzhou area.

Duerboda Lai Taiji became Liu Xiangyu's first choice to guard the house.

To suppress the horse bandits in Qinghai, Duerbo, who was training soldiers on the Heka grassland, was pulled over to suppress them nearby.

To fight against the Gongchang soldiers, we also pulled out Duerbo's trained soldiers to fight, which was useful.

To defend the Ming border troops, we also need to mobilize Duerbo's training guards and soldiers who are familiar with the army.

In short, as Liu Xiangyu wrote in the letter, among the many titles bestowed upon the Oirats by the Marshal's Office, only Dalai Taiji, the Duerbe, was the most valuable.

A truly trusted and beloved general.

The old man even mentioned that Duerbo's Chinese was very good, so it would be no problem to send him back to Tianshan to replace Liu Chengzu.

Liu Shizi pretended not to notice this metaphor.

Dalai Taiji was his defeated general, and was also close to him in the Hehuang Valley. He knew his level and resume.

It was natural that Dalai was trusted by his father and became his trusted and beloved general. This was because his old father had the ability to judge people.

First of all, he was one of the four leaders of the Oirats. Moreover, because of his outstanding talents, he was the third son of his father and was supported by his two elder brothers and one younger brother to succeed to the throne.

Secondly, although they suffered losses at his hands, they had often led expeditions to the Tianshan Mountains in the past, organized many expeditions against the Nogai and Kazakhs, and had also dealt with the Russians.

It is no exaggeration to say that when Liu Chengzong led his troops to the east, Dalai Taiji was a famous general from Hexi in the Marshal's Office.

After all, apart from being young, Basang and Xie Erhu are indeed inferior to Dalai Taiji in other aspects.

These two and Ren Quaner are three blank slates from Han, Mongolian and foreign backgrounds. They are the younger brothers that Liu Chengzong watched grow up. Their main purpose is to have fun in their development and they are not on the same track as the other generals.

Liu Chengzong had a banquet held in the palace and personally welcomed Dalai Taiji, Bao Hu and Chen Shiwen outside the moat at the west gate, along with new faces including Ren Quaner.

When the three men saw that he had come to greet them outside the city, they were flattered and thanked him one after another.

Unexpectedly, Liu Shizi just told them to mount their horses, and while pacing towards the city, he said with a smile: "The palace has been changing its furnishings these days, and it is a mess during the day. There is no point staying here."

"These past few days, I have been reviewing drills at the training ground outside the west gate. If the guards were not stationed in the palace, I would have just slept in the training ground."

The guards he mentioned were the Huben and Yulin battalions.

On the way, Liu Shizi introduced several people to each other, praised their achievements in stabilizing the rear when Hehuang was empty, and talked about their battle experiences over the past six months.

It was not until he entered the palace for the banquet and drank three rounds of wine that he asked Dalai Taiji: "Brother, you have made great contributions in suppressing bandits and resisting the rebels in the past six months. I heard from my father that he wants you to take over as the governor of Tianshan. What do you think?"

Dalai Taiji was holding a Chenghua-era blue and white wine glass bestowed by the emperor, and grinning foolishly. Upon hearing this, the smile froze on his face.

Bao Hu and Chen Shiwen, who were chatting and laughing, suddenly stopped talking.

After a moment of silence, Dalai realized that someone was calling him.

He thought that the Liu family was really capable of their own things. He was Liu Chengzu's father-in-law. In Lanzhou, the old man called him "brother"; in Xi'an, the Khan called him "brother".

Of course, he didn't want to be the Khan's uncle. He was older than Liu Xiangyu, and it was quite comfortable for him to be called "brother".

He was stunned. On the one hand, Chinese was not his native language, so he had to translate it in his mind; on the other hand, he had to consider what answer Liu Chengzong wanted to hear.

Dalai Taiji put down the exquisite wine glass, restrained his smile, and said respectfully: "I will obey the Khan."

But in response to this statement, Liu Chengzong just chuckled while holding his wine glass: "Brother, there is no need to be so serious. It is not a big deal. You have made great contributions. I just asked what you think."

Dalai had a smile on his face, but he was crying out in pain in his heart, thinking that the old man had made him suffer.

Your son is more like a tiger than Hun Taiji, and he is a smiling tiger who is not easy to fool. I didn’t say I wanted to go back to Tianshan, so how can I answer you!

"My Lord Khan, everything is fine in Xining, but I do miss my hometown, my wife and my children."

Dalai was still respectful, looking at Liu Chengzong and smiling, "But I am old and not as strong as before. I am afraid I can't stand the long march and the wind and rain of Tianshan Mountain."

Liu Shizi gave a thumbs up in his heart. He was worthy of being the leader of the nobles. His words were like farts. What a master!

But in fact, Dalai Taiji is very sincere.

He had never thought about it before.

Because he had seven sons, his favorite and most talented ones were the fourth son, Ombudaiqing, and the seventh son, Sonomu Cheling.

After his defeat, he stayed in Qinghai and divided his tribe's property among his seven sons, with the fourth and seventh sons receiving the most.

Just now when Liu Chengzong asked him and he thought about it, he indeed had this thought in his mind.

Xining is a nice place and life here is very comfortable, but homesickness is inevitable.

After all, everything was fine when I came here, but I didn't expect that I would never come back.

But he didn't want to go back. Weiwuer's military support came from the Marshal's Mansion, and the military industry core of the Marshal's Mansion was in Hexi, which was currently under the control of his relative, Old Master Liu.

What's more, my teacher Cheng Wo, who is in charge of Gongya, is his mentor, friend and brother.

When he was in Xining, the Durbet tribe led by his seven sons had great say in Oirats.

Of course, sincerity is only relative. He knows very well that what he thinks about this matter is not important.

What Great Khan Liu Chengzong thinks is important.

  So I reminded Liu Chengzong in a very subtle way that I have been out for several years and I miss my son. It is human nature. Doesn’t Old Master Liu miss his son?

His reminder was powerful.

Liu Chengzong gave up his tentative intention.

But let Dalai Taiji return to Tianshan, and replace his brother Liu Chengzu?

Don't even think about it!

If Dalai Taiji returns and takes office in the Tianshan government, the already unstable Oirats will have to go to war.

The Durbet tribe was already very powerful in Oirats, and it was he who trained the Tianshan Army. How would Batur Hun Taiji deal with himself when he returned?

What's more, it's no problem for his brother Liu Chengzu to come back and live with him for a year or two.

Liu Shizi did have this thought. He thought about giving Zhou Riqiang an epic reinforcement and sending Crazy He and his troops over. If the two of them cooperated happily, he would transfer his brother back.

Let Zhou Riqiang, the fanatical enthusiast of expanding new territory, be the governor of the mountains for the day.

But later he thought that even if he brought Liu Chengzu back, he had to take Liu Chengyun with him.

The nominal leader of the Marshal's Office in Tianshan must be surnamed Liu.

Because the Oirat did not dare to kill.

And the best candidate is Liu Chengzu.

Because even if someone takes the risk, it is not easy to kill his elder brother.

It’s just that Liu Chengzong doesn’t need to explain these things to others.

He sighed and said sentimentally: "The vast territory and inconvenient transportation are indeed a problem. I miss my brother too."

"In that case, I will send a message to Hun Taiji, asking him to send a son from among your descendants and bring some of his people back. I will allow him to stay in the pastures of Ordu on the sea and serve you."

"In exchange, the arable land over there will also be handed over to the Tianshan Army for safe and stable living. What do you think?"

Liu Shizi is good at thinking from other people's perspectives.

The number of Tianshan soldiers was small, so they were diluted by the Oirats.

If I draw people from Wei La Te here, won't that dilute his strength? If I send people there, it will reduce the trouble for my brother and Zhou Riqiang.

Dalai Taiji was naturally overjoyed about this, as the pastures in Haibei Oirud were no worse than those in the Tianshan Mountains.

He immediately thanked him and said, "Thank you, Great Khan, for the land! Please allow my youngest son Che Ling to lead his people to graze on the sea."

Liu Chengzong naturally agreed to this.

When the Durbet tribe came to settle down there, they naturally had to follow the rules to recruit Mongolian captains from each brigade. During the expedition, the various tribes moved inland and eventually became one.

However, there are hundreds of thousands of Ming dynasty clan members with royal blood, and it is not so easy to assimilate them.

Under Liu Shizi's leadership, they could carry on Emperor Taizu's will in another way and expel the Tartars.

good evening!