Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 556: Pacification of Gaochang
However, these Uighur women thought too much. Although Zhao Mu was evil and treacherous, greedy and lustful, and indulged in pleasure, he would not allow his soldiers to do evil things.

At least they won't do evil things to ordinary people.

Zhao Mu has always believed in a principle, that is, "If you want to wear the crown, you must bear the weight." If you enjoy the benefits brought by status and position, which are not factors of strength, you must naturally bear the consequences.

He would not harm the common people, but those princes and nobles who were supported by the people but did not help the people were not within Zhao Mu's bottom line.

That day, Zhao Mu was in the palace of the Uighur King, and he enjoyed the authentic Western customs.

The Uighur King's army was vulnerable, and although there was a little riot, most of the city suffered no damage.

Zhao Mu and the wives and daughters of the Uighur king slept on the antelope fur blanket, drank the fine wine from the Western Regions, ate the fragrant roasted whole lamb, and even had the concubines and princesses dance to entertain them. Zhao Mu's joy this time really reached its climax.

However, the soldiers had no objection to Zhao Mu's extravagant enjoyment. After all, every time they attacked a city, it was Zhao Mu, the supreme commander, who led the troops. Even when they attacked a city, they just followed behind Zhao Mu to help. If Zhao Mu hadn't led the troops to fight, no one knew how much it would cost to break into the city.

Therefore, Zhao Mu deserved to enjoy the spoils alone, and no one was dissatisfied.

Zhao Mu lived happily in the Uighur palace, and Musa also sent a letter to Master Meng to recruit all the members of the Ming Cult to come and take up the post.

After the Ming Cult members arrived, Zhao Mu also began the "liquidation" operation under Zhao Mu's orders.

Most of the Mingjiao followers sent by Master Meng were locals. Like the Musa sisters, most of them had no choice but to seek refuge in the Mingjiao because of the harsh rule of the Uighur King.

Now that this group of people had arrived, they naturally led the people to "avenge their enemies and avenge their grievances." In a short while, many Gaochang officials who had oppressed the people in Gaochang City were taken to the market, and after their crimes were declared, they were publicly executed together with the Uighur king and his family.

All the male members of their families were implicated, and all the female members, young and old, were enslaved. All their property and wealth were confiscated by Zhao Mu.

However, Zhao Mu did not keep the money for himself, but distributed it to the families who had been persecuted according to the crimes that had been verified before. Zhao Mu then kept the rest in his own treasury.

After several days of investigation, Zhao Mu collected all the wealth in the city's treasury and redistributed it. First, Zhao Mu left a portion of the public funds to the local officials to improve people's livelihood. After all, if you want to stay here for a long time, you can't lose the people's hearts. What's more, this money will be used to pay the local garrison in the future. Zhao Mu naturally didn't dare to be greedy.

Zhao Mu used part of the money to reward the meritorious soldiers who followed him in the war. This was not to reward them for their military exploits, but if they were not fed, they would most likely harm the local people.

And this time, Zhao Mu not only rewarded them with money, but also gave them women.

Zhao Mu asked Musa to select the wives of the officials who were convicted and enslaved. He picked dozens of young, beautiful and good-looking women for him. The rest, which Zhao Mu did not need, were given to the generals as rewards. Zhao Mu also issued a decree on garrisoning troops, allowing some troops to stay here, and unmarried soldiers could also marry local people.

In order to stabilize the area as quickly as possible, Zhao Mu also left some benefits for the local religious priests. Except for those who did evil things that were hated by both humans and gods, Zhao Mu still protected the status of the other priests in the local area like the previous kings.

In addition, Zhao Mu promised to forgive their previous minor crimes. As for the major crimes, he would forgive them as long as they compensated the victims and got forgiveness. With Zhao Mu's guarantee, all the cities of the Western Region Uighurs quickly submitted to Zhao Mu. The Uighur soldiers also laid down their weapons and welcomed the Qi army into the city.

Zhao Mu fully protected the interests of local priests and divine officials, and even appointed them as "Tusi" city lords of Qi State, and assisted the officials and garrisons sent by Zhao Mu in managing these cities.

Zhao Mu was not afraid of their rebellion, because what Zhao Mu wanted was to divide them. It would be enough to split a complete empire into small countries with three or five small cities. In this way, his "Heavenly Kingdom" could control them and eliminate the border troubles in the northwest.

Although the Gaochang Uighurs were quickly destroyed, Zhao Mu's ambitions did not stop there, because his ideal "Anxi Protectorate" was still missing one thing, that is, the Karakhanid Khanate in the west had not been destroyed.

Although he still felt a little regretful, Zhao Mu had to withdraw his troops this time.

Although this time the gains were fruitful, not only did they eliminate the power of the Gaochang Uighurs, but they actually controlled the cities in the Western Regions. However, Zhao Mu also encountered a serious problem, that is, his logistics supply could not keep up. The speed of logistics supply could not keep up with the speed of his troops' advancement.

Moreover, the customs here are different from those in the Central Plains. If I don't give benefits to these local nobles, it will be difficult for me to completely rule here. Moreover, I can't fully promote Chinese language and Chinese characters here like in Xixia, I can only encourage them to learn.

Moreover, the land west of Gaochang Uighur was either high mountains or deserts. It was meaningless to conquer them. Therefore, Zhao Mu had to bow to reality and prepare to return to digest the results of this battle first. As for the westward expedition to defeat the Karakhanid Khanate again and recapture Shule and Baishui City, he had to wait until he had recuperated.

After all, the strength of his small Qi State was no match for the two great powers of Song and Liao. Without the support of manpower and materials from the mainland, Zhao Mu was unable to go deep into the desert and Gobi to continue his westward expedition.

After establishing his victory, Zhao Mu did not delay. He planned to send an envoy of the Ming Cult to the capital of the Karakhanid Khanate, Balasagun, to deliver a letter of "non-aggression" to the Karakhanid king. After receiving a reply, he would return to the court.

However, before Zhao Mu's letter was sent out, the Karakhanid Khanate itself sent an envoy.

Moreover, the envoys made it very clear that they wanted to make peace with Zhao Mu's Qi State and acknowledge the established fact that Qi State had annexed the Gaochang Uighurs. The Karakhanid King also expressed that he had no intention of opposing Zhao Mu.

The King of Karakhan sent envoys to Zhao Mu with many gifts, including gold, gems, beauties, rare animals, etc., in order to seek peace with Zhao Mu and a peace agreement between the two countries. He was also willing to pay tribute to Qi every year.

The arrival of the envoy was exactly what Zhao Mu wanted. Zhao Mu had originally thought of sending some benefits to the envoy and asking for non-aggression. But he did not expect the envoy to come to him.

(End of this chapter)