The Golden Family, rising from the Western Regions

Chapter 128: Gathering the elite troops from the northern border and attacking the royal court

"Damn Xiao Simo, he's causing trouble again!"

Looking at the letter in his hand, Li Xiao cursed in his heart.

The first half of the letter is a love letter written by Xiao Yanyan, expressing her longing for Li Xiao and so on.

But in the second half, the tone suddenly changed.

It tells a story that happened not long ago.

The Battle of Khorasan was over.

Just last year, the increasingly powerful Ghurid Kingdom marched north and occupied the city of Barik in the Khorasan region, forcing the city to stop paying tribute to the Western Liao Dynasty.

Subsequently, the army of the Kingdom of Ghur came into conflict with Khwarezm.

So, Khwarezm turned to his suzerain state, Western Liao, for help.

It was said that the Ghurid Dynasty would definitely seize the Khwarezm Empire just as they had seized the city of Barik, and then attack the Western Liao Dynasty.

Yelu Zhilugu saw the ambition of the Gur Kingdom.

So he sent General Tayanggu to lead an army of 20,000 to attack the Gur Dynasty, which gave Xiao Simo the opportunity to march east.

However, the Western Liao army had poor military discipline and burned, killed and looted everywhere after entering Khorasan. The local military and civilians instead helped the Gur Kingdom resist the Western Liao army.

One night, the Western Liao army was attacked by the Gur army, and many soldiers were drowned while trying to cross the Amu Darya River.

In this battle, the number of Western Liao soldiers killed or missing reached 12,000.

lost heavily.

When Yelu Zhilugu learned about this, he became furious.

But then he did something outrageous.

Instead of sending a large army to retaliate against the Kingdom of Ghur, the blame for the defeat was placed on Al-Khwarizm.

He believed that if it were not for your Khwarezmian request for help, my Western Liao army would not have gone to war with the Kingdom of Ghur, and would not have suffered such heavy losses.

So he asked Al-Khwarizm to pay 10,000 gold dinars for each soldier killed in battle.

The dinar is a currency circulated in the Arab world.

Similar to ancient Roman gold coins.

The value of one gold dinar is roughly equivalent to one copper coin.

Ten thousand gold dinars are about ten thousand copper coins.

What Yelu Zhilugu also demanded was that Khwarezm pay 10,000 copper coins as compensation for each soldier who died in battle.

This can no longer be described as a lion's mouth wide open.

Therefore, his unreasonable request was flatly rejected by Al-Khwarizm.

Yelu Zhilugu was furious and sent troops to attack Khwarezm.

But unexpectedly, the Western Liao army was defeated again.

It was defeated by its vassal state, Khwarezm.

Even the Khwarezmian army counterattacked Bukhara and occupied it for a time.

This result surprised everyone, and Yelu Zhilugu completely broke the defense.

It also made Xiao Simo see through Wang Ting's true strength.

Get ready to do something.

"Brother wishes to seize this opportunity to gather the best troops from the northern border and march directly against the royal court. The transfer order will reach Jinzhou soon. I urge you to make early plans and prepare your forces for the battle. Do not let me down."

This is the last thing written in Xiao Yanyan's letter.

The Western Liao army suffered two consecutive crushing defeats, which not only killed a large number of the royal court's elite troops, but also completely exposed the royal court's weakness.

On the other hand, Xiao Simo returned with a great victory from the eastern expedition against the Naiman, and his army was strong and powerful.

It was in stark contrast to the royal court.

If we don’t attack the royal court now, when will we attack?

"Xiao Simo, this bastard, can't he just let me live in peace for a year or two?" Li Xiao cursed in his heart.

The Naiman War had just ended last year, and before the spring of this year, Xiao Simo was ready to go to war with the Wang Ting.

He is simply a warmonger!

It doesn't matter if he wants to go to war, but the impact on Golden State is significant.

The most direct one is spring plowing.

"Did the royal court really suffer such a terrible defeat?" Li Xiao looked at Duoga and asked.

Although he remembered that Western Liao had indeed lost the war with the Kingdom of Gur, it was still a disastrous defeat.

Of the 20,000-strong army, less than 8,000 returned to Western Liao.

Tayanggu is such a fool to fight like this.

Doga nodded slightly and said, "In fact, the royal army suffered even greater losses. In the war with Khwarezm, the loss of troops was probably more than 4,000."

This is not just the loss of 16,000 soldiers, but the 16,000 families left behind.

This was a major issue that shook the foundation of the royal court's rule and affected the people's support and trust in Yelu Zhilugu.

No wonder Xiao Simo couldn't help but prepare to send troops.

"Four thousand people?" Li Xiao shook his head speechlessly: "Who is so smart and capable of commanding these troops?"

"Didn't Yelu Zhilugu kill his entire family?"

Duoga laughed and said, "It's still Tayanggu who leads the troops~"

"How could Jurghan kill himself?"

"What?"

Li Xiao was shocked and looked at Duoga in disbelief.

What happened to Yelu Zhilugu?

Did you get kicked in the head by a donkey, or do you really have no one else to use?
If it were Li Xiao, when Tayanggu suffered his first crushing defeat, he would definitely be beheaded and his family would be imprisoned.

More than 10,000 soldiers died in Khorasan. How dare you, the commander-in-chief, escape back?
He should have died on the battlefield with his brothers, or at the very least, committed suicide like Xiang Yu. That way, his family might have felt better.

But Yelu Zhilugu was very smart. Not only did he not punish him, but he also continued to appoint him as the commander-in-chief.

This resulted in the army suffering a second disastrous defeat.

Li Xiao was speechless.

Yelu Zhilugu is simply amazing.

"What's next? How's Tayanggu doing?"

Li Xiao asked curiously, "Is he dead?"

"No." Doga shook his head frantically.

"Tayanggu's status is not ordinary. He grew up with Jur Khan, and his sister was Jur Khan's concubine."

"Jürhan was a man who cherished the past, and with Tayanggu's sister pleading for him, they only punished him and didn't kill him."

After Yelu Yile died, Xiao Yanyan's mother became regent, and Yelu Zhilugu naturally lived in fear every day.

It was during this period that Tayanggu and his father remained steadfast by Zhilugu's side.

He also married his sister to Zhilugu.

This made Zhilugu always grateful to the Tayanggu family and he trusted them very much.

Even though Tayanggu had caused such a big disaster, he was only given a light punishment and a severe warning.

Hearing this, Li Xiao laughed.

No wonder Xiao Simo was preparing to rebel, it turned out that the royal court had been rotten to the core.

It is foreseeable that Yelu Zhilugu's unfair treatment will definitely cause resentment among the families of the soldiers and generals who died in the battle.

Maybe many nobles have already secretly contacted Xiao Simo.

When the army arrives, prepare to launch a counterattack.

So, on the surface, Xiao Simo has a great chance of winning this war.

"Okay, I understand."

"Thank you for your hard work, Duoga." Li Xiao patted Duoga's shoulder and said gratefully.

"You two will rest in Hexi Fort for one night."

"Wait until I finish writing my reply to the princess before you leave."

Duoga nodded gently: "As you wish."

Li Xiao asked Sanbao to take the two of them to find a room to rest for the night, and also sent them some delicious food and drinks.

When I returned to the room, I heard the old man sigh and say, "Oh, I'm afraid this year's spring plowing will be troublesome."

The Jinzhou army was dispatched to fight in the royal court. It was a journey of two thousand miles, and it would be good if they could return before the autumn harvest.

There is definitely no need to think about spring plowing.

Li Xiao sat on a chair, drank a cup of hot water, shook his head slightly and said, "Spring plowing cannot be affected."

“Food is the foundation of my Golden State.”

Then, Li Xiao looked at the old man and said, "Since Xiao Simo has issued the military order, we certainly cannot refuse it."

"But I plan to take only half of the troops with me, leaving the other half to continue the spring plowing and guard against the Naimans."

Last year, taking advantage of the opportunity when the Naiman tribe was defeated by the Northern Frontier Army, Wang Han of the Kerait tribe sent troops to attack the Naiman tribe, but the result was shocking.

Wang Han was defeated.

When Li Xiao heard the news, he was extremely surprised.

After the Naiman tribe was defeated, the Kerait tribe became the largest force on the grassland, but they were unable to defeat a group of defeated soldiers?
Later we learned that the fool Wang Han had made the same mistake as Xiao Simo and fell into the two brothers' counter-espionage scheme.

Buyiluhei Khan pretended to surrender, and Wang Han believed it for some reason.

In the end, he was attacked from both sides by the two brothers and almost died.

So the situation on the grassland is a bit complicated now. Wang Han still has the upper hand, but he no longer has an overwhelming advantage.

After the two brothers Taiyang Khan captured some of the captives from the Kerait tribe, they led their men to the north to heal their wounds and restore their strength.

With the Kerait tribe watching closely, although the possibility of them attacking Jinzhou is small, Li Xiao has to be on guard.

"Well, don't worry."

"With my old body, I can still defend Jinzhou." The old man said in a faint voice.

Li Xiao nodded silently, thinking of Taiyang Khan, Wang Han, and even the man named Temujin.

“I hope they can continue to fight.”

"Next year, when I have time, I will send troops directly to the grassland and wipe them out in one fell swoop." Li Xiao said secretly in his heart.

Solve his own worries and completely eliminate Temujin, the biggest threat to him.

Afterwards, Li Xiao began to write orders, asking the six thousand-household armies to prepare to assemble and select half of the most elite soldiers to come to Hexi Fort.

All the soldiers selected will be exempted from this year's taxes, so that they have no worries.

At the same time, Li Xiao sent a message to the Horma tribe in the east of Jinshan, asking them to gather 500 cavalrymen to come to Jinzhou.

Although this tribe surrendered to Li Xiao and obeyed his orders, it was not considered his direct force.

Li Xiao did not place his own people in this tribe.

The main reason was that during the previous period, the power under Li Xiao expanded too quickly, and there was a shortage of manpower everywhere, so there were not so many confidants to be placed in the Horma tribe.

We can only let them develop on their own.

Now, after such a long period of settling down, Li Xiao is also ready to completely bring them under his own command.

After writing the order and stamping it with his own seal, Li Xiao had the letter delivered.

Next, I began to prepare a reply letter to Xiao Yanyan.

In his two lives, this was the first time that Li Xiao wrote a love letter.

(End of this chapter)