A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 542 Ransom
"Immediately issue an order for all tribes outside the city to withdraw back to Fanzhi City."

"Jielifa, are we going to have a decisive battle with the Tang people here?"

Awen glared at the guy who only had muscles but no brains. Three thousand Tang cavalry had already marched all the way to the gates of Fanzhi County. If those troops who were looting outside didn't come back soon, their heads would be chopped off by the Tang people and displayed in front of the city.

"Send men to destroy those three mounds of skulls and burn the heads of the tribal warriors," Awen said, pointing to the three mounds.

The Tang people built the Jingguan (a mound of heads) in a very haphazard way, layering heads, filling in a layer of mud, and then placing another layer, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, just like that, layer by layer.

There are three mounds of heads, each containing 160 or 170 heads, for a total of 500 heads.

Five hundred people! Even if these people are not elites, but just servants who gather grass and grain, they are still people of the Sijie tribe.

Five hundred of them were wiped out by the Tang cavalry in an instant.

In addition to the three thousand who perished in Wusui, and the thousands who were killed by Tang cavalry in the east of Fanzhi County during this period,

Unbeknownst to him, he had lost nearly five thousand men here.

This was a massive injury that made it hard for him to breathe whenever he thought about it.

"It's all because of that dog slave Gao Kaidao!"

Awen was indignant that he had already reported Gao Kaidao's collusion with the Tang people to the Great Khan Jieli, but the Great Khan Jieli was still giving Gao Kaidao, that lackey, a position of great importance.

His request to Jieli to send troops to attack Pingxing Village and rescue his son Wusui was met with complete silence; Jieli didn't even reply.

"Fanzhi, what a wonderful city! The Hutuo River Valley is also an excellent pasture. If only my Sijie tribe could occupy this place forever."

Awen stroked the battlements, gazing at the Hutuo River valley between the two mountains, his eyes filled with reluctance.

"Does anyone know what the Han Chinese word '繁禤' means?" Awen asked those around him.

Unfortunately, the generals of the Sijie tribe behind him were all strong men weighing two or three hundred pounds, skilled in horseback riding, archery, wrestling, and fighting. They were all warriors, even capable of fighting tigers and leopards. But when it came to these skills, even though they had been here for quite some time, not one of them could say anything about them.

Awen understands Chinese and even knows Chinese characters. He has accompanied the Turkic Shibi Khan to pay homage to Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty on several occasions, and even accompanied the emperor on his expedition to Liaodong.

For a time, Awen even became somewhat infatuated with the Central Plains, liking its prosperity, its culture, and everything about it. He even bought many Han women from the Central Plains as concubines, spending a lot of money, and specifically selecting women from prominent families who were well-educated but had ended up as prostitutes.

He liked that they wore Han Chinese clothing and spoke Han Chinese, so he spent a lot of money to buy them Han Chinese silk and brocade, provided them with Han Chinese servants and maids, and bought them books.

It seems that in doing so, he has also transcended.

A scholar who had surrendered after the fall of Fanzhi City stepped forward with a fawning smile to explain:

"This Fanzhi was first established as a county in the Han Dynasty. The earliest county seat was located a hundred miles to the north, south of the Hun River. In the past, that area was called Guochuan River, which was also a place with abundant water and grass, most suitable for grazing sheep and horses."

During the Jin Dynasty, the Tiefu Xiongnu and Baibu Xianbei rebelled. Liu Kun, the governor of Taiyuan, allied with Tuoba Yilu, the Xianbei leader from the northern desert, and annihilated the two tribes' camps. In gratitude for their military assistance, Liu Kun ceded the land north of Yanmen Pass to the Xianbei and relocated Fanzhi to Shicheng County.

During the Kaihuang era of the Sui Dynasty, the county seat was moved to the south bank of the Hutuo River.

This county town of Fanzhi is nestled against Hengshan Mountain to the north and faces Wutai Mountain to the south. The Hutuo River flows around the north of the town, its banks lined with fertile land, teeming with millet, oat noodles, and buckwheat—a scenic and prosperous land of plenty.

Awen stroked his beard and sighed, "If my Sijie tribe could occupy this place, why would we not prosper? And why would we need to worry about any white, black, or yellow disasters?"

The first county along the thousand-mile-long Hutuo River.

Unfortunately, the Sijie tribe was unable to possess such a precious land.

"Jielifa, are you really going to cede Fanzhi County to the Tang people?"

"If we could exchange a Tang dynasty city for Wu Sui and our two thousand warriors from Si Jie, do you think it wouldn't be worth it?" Awen asked the young chief of the Si Jie tribe.

"value."

Anyway, it's just an empty city that's been looted.

Apart from Awen's somewhat reluctant and possessive desire for this prosperous place, the vast majority of Sijie tribe members never thought of possessing it forever; all they wanted was to plunder it and leave.

In fact, some people had long felt that Fanzhi County had already been plundered by them, and there was no point in staying there. They were thinking of going to Xinzhou or even Taiyuan to plunder.

They had long heard that Taiyuan was a prosperous place, a huge city with a circumference of dozens of miles, an imperial palace, and countless riches and beauties.

However, since Yanmen Pass could not be captured, the Sijie tribe had to defend Fanzhi.

The night before dispatching troops,

Li Yi called Wu Sui over and invited him to have a meal at the Lingqiu County government office.

The young chieftain of the Wu Sui clan has lost weight.
When he was first captured, he weighed 250 pounds, but now he barely weighs 200 pounds. Li Yi wrote to Awen, asking him to use Fanzhi City and gold to ransom the young clan chief.

Equal weight of gold.

During this period, Wu Sui hardly ate any meat. Every day he ate millet porridge or wild vegetable soup. He was treated like a lowly slave, farming, building roads, and moving goods.
At first, the young chieftain of Wusui couldn't lower his proud head. After all, their Sijie tribe was in the northern desert, one of the fifteen tribes of Tiele, one of the top nine Tiele clans, and a powerful force of twenty thousand households.

There are one hundred thousand people.

But the Tang army didn't care about his noble status as the young chieftain of the Wusui clan. Sikong Li Yi had given orders that he be subjected to hard labor and reform, and treated the same as other prisoners.
They eat worse than pigs and dogs, but work harder than oxen and horses.

If they disobey, they'll be whipped, but they'll still have to work, and they'll even be punished by going hungry.

In just a few days, they had the young clan leader completely under their thumb.

Toil their muscles and bones, starve their bodies—this was true labor reform.

He lost weight quickly and went from 250 to less than 200 pounds.

If he works for a while longer, he might only be 150 pounds.

Li Yi prepared a few side dishes, a pot of wine, as well as Lingqiu buckwheat cold noodles and Flying Fox pancakes.

Wheat-fed fish coated in flour and deep-fried; braised grouper; loach with tofu; crucian carp soup; pan-fried grass carp chunks.

Roasted frog legs, stewed pheasant, spicy rabbit cubes, and finally, a cold slice of mutton head.

Wu Sui was brought in, and his eyes were glued to the food.

It's not that he's never seen the world, nor that he's never tasted good food. The most delicious food in the world is called hunger.

For over twenty years, Wu Sui had never experienced hunger, but during this period, he was almost always hungry, constantly burning fat and even muscle.

Seeing these fried and pan-fried foods, and looking at the golden pancakes, he felt like a hand was reaching out of his throat, and his saliva was uncontrollably gushing out.

"Come, Young Clan Chief Wu Sui, sit down."

Wu Sui reeked of sweat and had long since changed into coarse linen clothes, looking no different from the other slaves.

Li Yi poured him a glass of barley wine.
"You're welcome, just eat."

Wu Sui glanced at Li Yi. This was the second time he had seen Li Yi since he was captured. During this time, he had cursed this Tang general a thousand times in his heart.

"Say what you have to say," Wu Sui said in Mandarin. He tried his best to restrain himself from touching the delicious food, afraid that he would lose control of himself.

"You can speak Chinese?"

“Yes, I also have four Han female concubines, who were once daughters of officials and gentry families,” Wu Sui said. His Han Chinese had a slight accent, but it was still understandable.

"You speak Mandarin quite well. Let's eat and chat. Don't worry, you can go back tomorrow."

A look of surprise flashed in Wu Sui's eyes.

Li Yi poured him a glass of wine. "Come on, cheers."

Seeing Li Yi's smiling face, Wu Sui felt uneasy.

"To tell you the truth, your father agreed to exchange you for Fanzhi County and two hundred catties of gold."

Upon hearing this, Wu Sui's hand holding the wine glass trembled slightly.

He raised his glass and drank the wine in one gulp. It was an unparalleled feeling; the wine was incredibly mellow and sweet.

He reached out and grabbed a deep-fried minnow, then began to chew it.

Incredibly crispy,

Even the bones were fried until crispy, making them fragrant and crunchy to chew. The urge of the oil in his mouth was especially thrilling, especially for someone who had been eating only thin porridge and wild vegetables these past few days. It was enough to make his soul tremble.

Li Yi watched with a smile as Wu Sui ate like a starving ghost.
When a person is starving, they really don't care about etiquette.

Wu Sui devoured the entire table of dishes in one go.

He didn't even miss out on the Flying Fox Yellow Pancake and Lingqiu Buckwheat Cold Noodles.

"Are you full? If not, I'll call more people."

Wu Sui let out a burp and said contentedly, "I'm full."

He estimated that he had eaten several kilograms of gold in that meal. Li Yi laughed and said, "If I had known to let you eat your fill for a few days before sending you back, I could have gotten an extra ten or twenty kilograms of gold."

"Did your father really promise to give you two hundred catties of gold?"

"Ah."

Wu Sui couldn't help but sneer, "The dignified Minister of Works of the Tang Dynasty actually resorts to kidnapping and extortion."

"Two hundred catties of gold, you really dare to ask for it."

"Is that a lot? It's only three thousand two hundred taels of gold, equivalent to twenty thousand strings of cash. How much wealth and how many people did your Sijie tribe plunder when you went south?

"You must have robbed more than three thousand taels of gold, right?"

Wu Sui rubbed his bloated belly and glared at Li Yi: "You have to release my two thousand men as well."

"Are you bargaining with me, or are you ordering me around?" Li Yi asked with a smile.

“Three thousand taels of gold plus a city, in exchange for me and two thousand men, you still make a profit.” Wu Sui gritted his teeth.

"Hmph," Li Yi scoffed, "Fanzhi originally belonged to my Great Tang. Even those two hundred catties of gold were stolen from my Great Tang by you."

If you want my two thousand men back, you'll have to offer something in exchange.

"One Sijie prisoner of war will be exchanged for ten Tang Dynasty civilians you have abducted."

Wu Sui said angrily, "One for ten? How dare you say that? At most, it's one for one."

"You're trying to bargain with me? Do you think this is a business transaction?" Li Yi sneered.

"One for two, that's the most we can do. After we passed Yanmen Pass, we only robbed Fanshi and Wutai counties, and didn't kidnap many people."

"Bullshit! Haven't you kidnapped enough?"

“One Sijie prisoner can be exchanged for one Han family, with a minimum of five people. If a family has less than five people, they must be replaced.”

One for five, that was Li Yi's condition: two thousand Sijie tribe prisoners in exchange for ten thousand abducted civilians.

“We didn’t plunder that many people at all. We have at most five thousand captives. Are you expecting us to go elsewhere and rob another five thousand for you?”

"If it's not enough, you can use other things to offset it, such as cattle, sheep, livestock, money, silk, and grain. One person is counted as ten bolts of silk, and one household is counted as fifty bolts of silk, or ten thousand coins. You can also use two horses or five oxen to offset it."

Wu Sui's face flushed red. "You're robbing me!"

"Bullshit! You're the ones who migrated all the way from the northern deserts to the Tang Dynasty to rob us!" Li Yi slammed his fist on the table in anger. "You can exchange them or not, we'll chop up all two thousand prisoners and build a mound of skulls tomorrow!"

Wu Sui gritted his teeth: "You have to return all our warhorses, weapons, and armor to us."

"Don't think about it!"

"I didn't cut off their thumbs or big toes before releasing them, which is already showing leniency. Do you still want your warhorses, weapons, and armor back? Do you still want to continue robbing?"

(End of this chapter)