Han Khan

Chapter 16: Unexpected Person

In summer in Dunhuang, even the early morning sun makes people feel hot, but the cool breeze blowing from the grassland in the north makes people feel a little cool under the scorching sun.

Beside the Shule River outside the city of Dunhuang, Zhang Sheng was riding on a tall and strong black and yellow warhorse, fully armed. Behind him were more than 2000 cavalrymen from the Jinhan tribe, with spears like a forest and holy flags like clouds.

And half a mile in front of him, on the other side of the Ganquan water, under the Sun and Moon Flag of the Tang Dynasty and the banner of the Jiedushi of the Guiyi Army, there was a strong general wearing black armor and a red cloak.

Behind him were two to three thousand soldiers lined up in neat rows and fully armed. Zhang Sheng looked at the general's thick beard extending to his chest armor and knew that it was Cao Yijin, but he did not see any of Zhang's tribesmen.

Seeing the enemy coming with a hundred or so cavalrymen, Zhang Sheng waved his hand to signal the centurions behind him to form a battle line. Immediately, more than 2,000 Jin Han people changed their formation under the command of the centurions, forming twenty centuries with their lances held horizontally.

Zhang Sheng led more than 200 people on horseback and galloped towards the enemy. When they were close, Zhang Sheng asked Cao Yijin: "Cao Jiedushi, where are my Zhang family's people?"

"Erlang, don't worry. I have organized the troops for you. They will be here soon and you will see them soon. Your uncle will not go back on his word, but I want to discuss something with you. Is that okay?" Cao Yijin replied.

Zhang Sheng could not see anything unusual on his face, so he dismounted cleanly, handed the reins to Yin Shanxiong beside him, and asked: "Please speak."

"Good skills!" Cao Yijin exclaimed.

Most people wear heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms and cannot get off the horse without help. Although Zhang Sheng is only sixteen years old this year and has not yet reached the age of adulthood, his martial arts have been honed since he was a child and are very sophisticated.

Seeing Zhang Sheng coming forward, Cao Yijin led Zhang Sheng to sit down and began to tell the story.

"Erlang, a hundred years ago, Pang Teqin's army in Anxi was defeated by Tubo. In order to prevent them from joining forces with Pugujun in Beiting, they were moved away by the Tubo to live as nomads in the Qilian Mountains.

When Tubo withdrew from Hexi, this group of Anxi Uighur bandits not only occupied the high-quality grasslands in Qilian Mountains, but also established connections with the Uighurs in Ganzhou.

Today, on both sides of the Ganquan River under the Qilian Mountains, they have tents and livestock grazing, and with the full support of the Ganzhou Uighurs, they have five or six hundred tents and thousands of people, and are constantly spreading to Shazhou and Guazhou and infiltrating into Dunhuang. "Cao Yijin said angrily.

Zhang Sheng replied: "Were they there when the Ganzhou bandits attacked Dunhuang?"

"Not only these dog slaves from Anxi, but also Tibetans, Uighurs, and Turkic tribes from Shanshan, Ruoqiang, and Loulan, forming the Canwei and Zhongyun people, joined in. Their Jinshan Kingdom blocked the trade route to the west.

Together with the Kucha Uighurs, they sent troops to join the Ganzhou Uighurs in the war, and also plundered the people, food and livestock of our Guiyi Army outside the city of Dunhuang. When Erlang personally led the cavalry to attack the Ganzhou bandits, they withdrew. "Cao Yijin said.

"Erlang, let me be frank. I need your help. It's not that I can't defeat these Kucha Uighurs, but I just finished the peace talks with the Ganzhou bandits, so it's inconvenient for me to deal with these dog slaves.

But don't worry, your uncle won't let you work in vain. You are going to Mobei, and I think what you need now are horses, armor, food and more troops.

As long as you serve the Guiyi Army and Dunhuang, you can kill or capture these barbarians and slaves.

How about Dunhuang, the Guiyi Army, and me providing you with 1000 horses, 300 camels, 300 sets of armor, 3000 shi of food, and some bows and swords?"

Zhang Sheng listened to the information Cao Yijin said, and remained silent, thinking carefully about the pros and cons. The Jinhan tribe he led now had more than 2000 soldiers. With the more than 10000 people Cao Yijin was about to return and the 100 herdsmen donated by the golden finger, there were more than 2000 households with a population of more than 13000.

Zhang Anzuo had already reported to him the situation of food and grass, which was simply not enough to sustain Mobei, so he was somewhat tempted by Cao Yijin's proposal.

Just when Zhang Sheng was about to say something else, the familiar golden finger prompt sound in his ear woke him up.

At the same time, a dialog box appeared on the retina.

【Temporary task release】

[Temporary mission: Conquer and annex the Kucha Uighur tribe under the Qilian Mountains]

【奖励：500户被回鹘掠夺至祁连山的汉家牧民，30000只羊、3000头牛、300匹马、30头骆驼、3000石麦子】

[Introduction: The wealthy Dunhuang has always attracted a group of hungry Uighurs. The newly established Jinhan tribe needs a large number of people and livestock. The Uighurs who have been enemies of your family for generations are right in front of you. You need to defeat and annex them.]

Now he has nearly 4000 households and more than herdsmen from the northern desert and the snowy areas under his command. He can speak Uighur, Kyrgyz and Turkic. Because of his mother, he is also known as the "special agent" - the prince - in the eyes of these herdsmen.

The Jinhan tribe had few people, and it would be advantageous to annex the Uighurs near Dunhuang to strengthen the Jinhan tribe, so they were prepared to agree to Cao Yijin's conditions.

Of course, before that, he needed to bargain with Cao Yijin.

"How about 1500 horses, 600 camels, 500 sets of armor, 5000 sheep, 5000 shi of grain, and some bows and swords?" After making up his mind, Zhang Sheng began to bargain.

"Erlang, sheep, camels and food are all fine, but the Guiyi Army does not have that many idle war horses and camels now. We only have 300 sets of armor at most, not more." Cao Yijin said.

"Okay, 1000 horses, 600 camels, 5000 sheep, 300 sets of armor, 3000 stones of grain, 300 swords and bows and arrows. If you deliver half of them today, I will agree to it." Zhang Sheng said.

"It's a deal. I'll bring them to you right now. As for Erlang and the Zhang family's men, are you going to take them away today? Or?" Cao Yijin said.

"I want to take away my people and supplies. I will leave Dunhuang today. Don't worry, I will not go back on my word and will deal with those dog slaves for you. I will give you news in five days." Zhang Sheng said. Cao Yijin looked at Zhang Sheng for a while, shook his head and said, "Okay, I promise you, but I don't know how you will settle nearly 10,000 people."

"I have my own plans." Zhang Sheng said firmly.

Cao Yijin waved back and Zhang Sheng looked towards Dunhuang. At this time, the city gate opened and one, two, and three long rows of people slowly walked out of the city and gradually came towards this side. Behind them were hundreds of horse-drawn carriages carrying a large amount of supplies.

At this time, Cao Yijin mounted his horse and said to Zhang Sheng: "Goodbye, Erlang, we will meet here again in five days." After that, he turned his horse around and led his troops away.

Zhang Sheng looked at the nearly 600 Han and Tibetan men, women, old and young, hundreds of horse-drawn carriages with mountains of supplies, and more than camels with the heavy supplies on their backs. He breathed a sigh of relief, and then had a headache again. …………

The two states of Gua and Sha, which are under the jurisdiction of the Guiyi Army, have a population of no more than 300,000 people today, but there are a large number of unregistered vassal citizens, Han serfs, and pastoral slaves under the rule of the major powerful families.

The Zhang family had vast territories in Dunhuang. After Jinshan King Zhang Chengfeng was defeated by the Ganzhou Uighurs, the Zhang family's manors and lands were handed over to the young prince Zhang Sheng.

His predecessor used his family's wealth to take in nearly five to six thousand vassal slaves, including Tibetans, Han Chinese, Tuyuhun and Tatars, who were displaced from the war and were poor and helpless, as well as Han Chinese who had fled from the Central Plains and the Western Regions.

Especially now that the Khitans in the east were rising, a large number of Tatar tribes were defeated, their people were massacred, and wave after wave of Tatars were forced to flee westward from the desert.

These people served as serfs and herdsmen, herding livestock and cultivating the land for Zhang Sheng.

Although Cao Yijin was reluctant to see so much population loss, he achieved peace and resolved the civil strife when Zhang Sheng left.

He will take over Zhang's land and settle his own agricultural and pastoral slaves, so he will not stop Zhang Sheng. The most important thing now is to restore peace to the Guiyi Army, develop East-West trade and the production of the Guiyi Army.

From this moment on, Zhang Sheng and his troops truly broke away from Dunhuang and Guiyi Army, and from then on they would be called the Jinhan Tribe.

Zhang Anzuo led the soldiers to carefully count the supplies and population.

Two hours later, Zhang Sheng found out that there were now 1987 soldiers left in Jin Han's army.

Among them, there are four royal guards, each of which is divided into five groups. Each group has eleven people and each team has a captain, so there are fifty-six people in a team.

The four guards have a total of 224 people. These guards are elite soldiers carefully selected from all the soldiers, and the captains are all loyal to Zhang Sheng.

In addition to the personal guard, there were seventeen centuries, organized as follows: each century was divided into two teams.

Each team is divided into five groups, and each team also has 56 people.

Two teams plus one centurion make a total of 113 people, and 17 centuries make a total of 1921 people.

The total number should be 2145, but it is impossible for all of them to be present, as the vacancies are all soldiers who were killed in battle or seriously injured.

In addition to the soldiers, Cao Yijin also returned the tribesmen and rewarded 100 households and 500 Han herdsmen.

Among them, there are 3237 adult males, 3912 adult females, 2269 boys and 3813 girls.

There were about 5000 dan of grain, 32547 sheep, 1241 horses, more than 780 swords, more than 367 bows and arrows, more than 650 sets of armor, and some cloth, spears and other supplies.

After he dealt with the Zhongyun people and the Kucha Uighurs, Cao Yijin would still have to pay the other half of the agreed supplies.

And these are all the property and manpower of Jinhan. Although the future is uncertain, Zhang Sheng is full of confidence.

What surprised him was that many people he had never expected came.

Li Shaozong, courtesy name Jizu, was the grandson of the then Grand Protector and the son of Li Hongding, the former governor of Guazhou.

He had previously participated in the Guiyi Army's campaigns against the Nanshan and Ganzhou Uighurs, and was promoted to the position of Jiedu Ya Ya and concurrently the governor of Dunhuang Township Affairs due to his merits. He was also a talented person who was proficient in music, poetry and prose, and was both civil and military.

Seeing his figure, Zhang Sheng was speechless for a moment. After a long silence, he slowly walked to his side and suddenly took his hand.

"Brother, long time no see..."

The two of them recalled that over the past few decades, the three major families of Zhang, Suo, and Li had been destroyed in the power struggle. Now, they were the only two descendants left in the Zhang and Li families.

Li Shaozong stared at the weathered Zhang Sheng in front of him, and after a long silence, he slowly said, "Erlang, you have changed a lot..."

"Brother, let the feud between the Zhang family and the Li family end in our hands. After all, you and I are both descendants of Grand Protector, so we really shouldn't continue to fight."

(End of this chapter)