Memoirs of the Heavenly Khan

Chapter 176 We're all family, aren't we?

Washington State.

"The Duke's army is incredibly brave and valiant. He captured Huazhou City with only a few hundred cavalry and defeated the traitor Zhang Shirong. I admire him greatly."

Wei Xiaokuan followed Li Shuang as he inspected the treasury of Huazhou City.

Su Chuo and his staff were tallying the amount of supplies in the government treasury and compiling it into a register.

Upon seeing Li Shuang arrive, Su Chuo bowed respectfully.

"Lord!"

How much grain is stored?

"The treasury only has 32,000 shi of grain left!"

Huazhou is located on the west side of the Yellow River, facing the Hedong region across the river, and has fertile land.

During the Warring States period, a large part of the Hexi region, which was contested by the Qin and Wei states, was located within the area now under the jurisdiction of Huazhou.

In order to secure the complete control of its capital Xianyang and the Guanzhong Plain, the Qin state fought against the Wei state in the Hexi region for decades, spending countless manpower and resources before finally conquering the Hexi area.

Today, Xiao Baoyin's foundation in Guanzhong is shallow, and he is completely incomparable to the Qin state of yesteryear.

Years of fighting have exhausted the manpower and resources of Guanzhong. The capital of Huazhou, the front line of the battlefield, has only so little grain stored up.

This small amount of food was probably only transported by Xiao Baoyin to prepare for the war.

"Issue my order, Grand Chancellor, to summon the party leaders of all counties in Huazhou to Zheng County."

After the Northern Wei Dynasty adopted Sinicization, it implemented the Three Chiefs System in local areas.

Five households form one neighborhood head, five neighborhoods form one village head, and five villages form one party head!

This system was designed to allow the Northern Wei court to better control the grassroots level.

The Han-Chinese groups of the Northern Wei Dynasty drew on the Qin and Han dynasties for their ideas on governing the country.

Even in powerful empires like the Qin and Han dynasties, the imperial court extended its reach to the grassroots level.

However, things didn't go as planned; the Northern Wei was not the same as the Qin and Han dynasties.

Within the territory of the Northern Wei Dynasty, conflicts between the Han and non-Han peoples were severe.

The Hu people served as soldiers, while the Han people farmed the land.

It seems like they don't interfere with each other, but that's not actually the case.

Especially in the Guanzhong region, where Han and non-Han peoples lived together, it was common for non-Han military officers to enclose land for grazing and to seize land, and the government dared not deal with it casually.

Even the government favored these non-Han military officers.

The implementation of the Three Chiefs system was intended to curb the land grabbing and population concealment by powerful clans.

In the end, however, the three chiefs had to rely on powerful and influential families.

Without banding together, how can we fight against the barbarians and protect our land?

Over time, the three-chief system became a mere formality.

Su Chuo was somewhat surprised and asked:
"Should we directly recruit a party leader?"

Skipping the county magistrate and going straight to the party leader—that's quite a task!

"Make sure they all arrive within twenty days. Send messengers to post notices in each county, proclaiming them day and night, and have them gather in the county seat. Our people will then escort them. Tell them that if they do not come, I will consider their territory as unclaimed land."

"promise!"

"In addition, notices were posted in the city to recruit talented people from all directions, telling them that as long as they passed the examination, they could be selected as officials."

Wei Xiaokuan was somewhat surprised to hear this.

Xiao Baoyin plotted a rebellion, but Wei Xiaokuan refused to follow him.

On the one hand, he saw that Xiao Baoyin was not capable of great things, since Xiao Baoyin had not won many battles since he came to Guanzhong. On the other hand, he came from the Wei clan of Jingzhao, and his interests were tied to the Northern Wei court.

He had assumed Li Shuang would quickly capture Chang'an and then govern Guanzhong. However, he hadn't expected Li Shuang to begin governing the region even before the war was over.

Wei Xiaokuan was thinking when he suddenly realized something!
He always viewed the entire Guanzhong region as a whole, believing that the war would end once Chang'an was captured.

But for Li Shuang, it was not like that. He treated Huazhou entirely as newly conquered territory, not as the imperial Huazhou. Wei Xiaokuan realized the danger, but also saw the enormous benefits.

"Wei Xiaokuan!"

"exist!"

"Would you be willing to do something for me?"

Wei Xiaokuan cupped his hands and said:

"Please give your orders, Duke!"

“Dongqin Prefecture has disobeyed my orders. I’ll give you three hundred cavalrymen to take Dongqin Prefecture.”

Three hundred riders?
Wei Xiaokuan hesitated for a moment, but then he heard Li Shuang say:
"After you take over Dongqin Prefecture, you will become the governor of Dongqin Prefecture."

Governor!
Upon hearing this, Wei Xiaokuan felt as if the blood in his body was flowing rapidly.

"This humble general will certainly not fail the Duke's mission!"

Li Shuang took off his sword and handed it to Wei Xiaokuan.

"If you can't get it, you don't need to come back!"

Upon hearing this, Wei Xiaokuan's surging anger gradually subsided, and he quickly regained his composure, solemnly cupping his hands and saying:
"promise!"
-
Changan.

After news of Li Shuang's actions in Huazhou spread, the Hu (non-Han) leaders in Guanzhong all switched sides to Xiao Baoyin and even paid tribute to him.

Just as Xiao Baoyin was secretly pleased to see the money and grain in Chang'an's treasury gradually increasing again, he heard two pieces of news.

Wei Xiaokuan led 300 cavalry to capture Dongqin Prefecture, while Gao Ang led 1,000 cavalry to occupy Beiyong Prefecture.

The land east of the Jing River, north of the Wei River, and west of the Yellow River, encompassing several prefectures, is now under Li Shuang's control.

However, he did not prepare his troops for a southward march to capture Chang'an.

Instead, they began to reorganize local government affairs across the Wei River.

Xiao Baoyin stared at Wei Langen in front of her and asked again.

"What do you think Li Shuang asked those Hu people to do?"

"Just like the case in Huazhou, Li Shuang treated the nobles and nobility of the Hu people in several cities in the counties north of the Wei River as treasoners and sent them to Luoyang as prisoners. He also conscripted refugees and Hu soldiers to start the dredging of the canals."

The Hexi region is home to the Zheng Guo Canal and the Liu Fu Canal, which were built during the Qin and Han dynasties.

Over time, these irrigation canals accumulated silt and lost their original irrigation function. Even worse, local powerful Han Chinese clans illegally cut off the canal water to irrigate their own fields, leaving downstream fields without effective irrigation.

These are all bad policies, yet they have not been properly addressed for a long time.

Xiao Baoyin was surprised and even more incredulous.

"It's one thing for Han Chinese refugees, but how did those barbarian soldiers agree to this?"

Wei Langen glanced at Xiao Baoyin, somewhat hesitant to speak.

"This concerns His Majesty!"

Xiao Baoyin frowned, somewhat puzzled.

"How could this have anything to do with me?"

"Li Shuang adopted a work-point system, ordering that as long as those Hu soldiers performed well and accumulated enough points, they would be granted official titles and ranks from the Great Qi, and then sent to Luoyang as captives!"

For the Hu (non-Han) leaders in Guanzhong and their subordinates, going to Luoyang might not have been a good thing. But for the Hu peasants below them, being able to go to Luoyang was equivalent to the Mexicans crossing the border wall of the "King of Hell."

Just as the court was unable to deal with the surrendered soldiers of the Six Garrisons, it had no way to deal with the prisoners sent to Luoyang. They couldn't kill them, nor could they drive them away, so they could only set up temporary camps outside the city, providing them with a small amount of food each day to keep them alive for the time being.

Xiao Baoyin was furious.

"Why should he bestow official titles and ranks upon me?"

Seeing Xiao Baoyin's appearance, Wei Langen paused for a moment and said:
"He appointed a crown prince for His Majesty!"

……

(End of this chapter)