The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 291 Wei Lu's Mother

Commerce flourished in Hami's royal city.

The streets are full of people wearing Hanfu and speaking Han language, and they all share the same identity—military dependents. The adaptation period to the new environment is particularly short.

Afterwards, the excitement gathered again at the grand grape banquet hosted by the old lady of the General's Mansion.

How could grapes picked by hand not be sweet?

Melon is so delicious you can never get enough of it!
There were also exotic delicacies such as tandoor-roasted meat, turning this banquet into a culinary tasting event of Western Region cuisine.
Meanwhile, in Weilumu, a thousand miles away from Hami City, the atmosphere was more lively than ever before.

Two hundred thousand horse archers of the Kashgar Khanate finally arrived at the place after a long journey of more than three thousand miles.

Weilumu is not the name of a city.

In Mongolian, it originally means "a pasture as beautiful as paradise".

Its origin lies in the fact that Weilumu is located north of the North Snow Mountain, surrounded by mountains on the southeast, west and south sides, with a terrain that is high in the south and low in the north, which allows glacial meltwater to nourish large pastures at the foot of the mountains.

Before the Western Han Dynasty.

More than ten nomadic tribes were scattered around Weilumu, and these different tribes formed several states, which was also known as the "Land of Thirteen States".

Western Han Dynasty.

The imperial court once established the Protectorate of the Western Regions here and stationed troops to cultivate land and maintain the security of the Silk Road.

Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty also established the Beiting Protectorate here.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty.

Weilumu became a coveted territory for various countries and tribes in the Western Regions, and war raged on its vast pastures ever since.

Today, this area is the nomadic land of the Oirat and Khoshut tribes of the Western Tatars.

The sheer number of 200,000 Kashgar Khanate archers terrified the herders of the two western Tatar tribes grazing in the area, causing them to relocate en masse.

This is the season when the pastures are at their most fertile in summer.

The old general ordered the troops to halt and reorganize at this location.

Hasbaren is indeed the only surviving veteran general who fought for the Khanate's expansion for decades.

His work style prioritizes stability and the overall situation.

The march proceeded with measured pace and deliberation.

There were very few times when they had to march quickly.

They even attacked many tribes that were currently under the control of the Kashgar Khanate along the way.

Incidentally, this also replenished the army's food supplies.

Hasbaren commanded three armies.

The vanguard general was Jebe, the third son among his five adult sons, who was the most skilled in combat.

Jebe, 25, whose original name was Arsleng.

Because of his superb archery skills, he was famous in the Khanate and was therefore given the name Jebe (meaning divine archer) by the king.

Jebe was brave and skilled in battle, and at the age of fourteen, he went to the battlefield with his father and brothers.

However, he has a fatal flaw.

In the major battles of the Khanate's expansion, every time Jebe conquered a small kingdom or tribe in the Western Regions, his favorite thing to do was to exterminate them all.

He killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, earning him the title of "serial killer".

He was not only bloodthirsty on the battlefield, but also incredibly lecherous off the battlefield.

The reason he wasn't included in last year's holy war was because he had raped a noblewoman in the capital three years ago.

And while forcing himself on the noblewoman, he accidentally caused her death.

The noblewoman was very favored at home and held a high status; she was the niece of the White Hat Khoja (religious leader).

This matter has caused quite a stir.

In the end, Jebe compensated the woman's family with a thousand sheep and three hundred camels, received a hundred lashes, and was sentenced to three years of hard labor.

That's just how unfair it is.

Even among nobles, a woman who is humiliated may lose her life, while the perpetrator can use money to avoid the death penalty.

Last year, during the jihad, Jebe's forced labor was not yet over. How could those who were forced to perform labor be qualified to participate in the jihad?

This year, this guy has finally been released from prison.

Hasbaren, who should have been enjoying his retirement, volunteered to go to war, perhaps hoping that his son could atone for his crimes through meritorious service.

Although Hasibaren practiced nepotism, he also knew how to make the best use of people's talents.

Jebe's fearless and reckless nature makes him perfectly suited to be a vanguard.

The meticulous and emotionally stable leader, Morigen, is well-suited to command the rear guard battalion and oversee the supply troops.

But the person he values ​​most in his heart is his youngest son, Suzhileg, who has just turned sixteen.

Surrage's horsemanship and archery skills were among the best of his peers, and most importantly, he was very fond of learning.

He not only grasped the essence of the four sacred books of the Isilan religion, but also, for the sake of the Khanate's plan to conquer the Central Plains, he became an apprentice of a Han Chinese scholar who had been captured by a merchant caravan and brought to the capital at the age of seven.

Now, his Mandarin is indistinguishable from that of a Han Chinese, and he speaks fluently about the Thirty-Six Stratagems in military texts.

A people who live on horseback have no shortage of warriors.

People who are both courageous and resourceful are highly sought after.

Although two family members were already going to participate in this battle, Hasibaren brought his youngest son along so that he could have more opportunities to practice.

During the march, Suzilege ate and slept with the archers in the central route, receiving absolutely no special treatment.

After setting up camp, Surilege was summoned back to the main tent by Hasibaren to serve him.

Along the way, Suzelleg did learn a lot of marching knowledge from those horse archers.

He had many questions about his father's decision:
“Ata (Father), why did you order the army to stay in Weilumu for three days instead of rushing to Huozhou in one go? Huozhou is only eight hundred li away from Hamiwei. Wouldn’t it be more in line with your strategy of slow advance and quick attack if we started from Huozhou to attack Hamiwei?”

Hasbaren cut a large piece of lamb leg into his mouth, squinting as he gazed eastward:

"A mere seventy or eighty thousand Han soldiers are not worth your family's resources, Ata (father). Ali's fifty thousand elite troops alone are enough to wipe them out!"

Su Rileg pondered for a while, then smiled and said:
"You've given the credit to General Shan Ali, and Third Brother is probably going to be unhappy! He's been keeping a low profile all the way here, and he's probably been holding back his anger for a while now, wanting to get his revenge on the battlefield."

"Hmph! Whether you're happy or not, you'd better keep it to yourself."

As the father and son were talking, an urgent report came from outside the tent.

"General Apak, the falcon has spotted the enemy!"

Yes.

In addition to the hundreds of scouts dispatched, General Suzhileg also brought seven falcons to scout enemy positions from the air for the army.

These falcons all come from the Kyrgyz ethnic group.

The tribe was implicated last year by the scapegoat teenager, Yaqub Beg.

Later, during the reckoning of the war results, the king punished one of his tribesmen.

War broke out again with the Han people.

The Kyrgyz people sent the seven most intelligent falcons in their tribe and their trainers.

I do not seek merit, but only hard work.

Don't tell me yet.

We were fortunate to have these seven falcons along the way.

The transmission of military orders between the vanguard, center, rearguard, and supply train of the 200,000-strong army was unimpeded.

Furthermore, these falcons possess exceptional night vision, giving them a keen eye for distances.

Those nomadic tribes that tried to rob the supply infantry on their march did not get anything good from the rear guard and the supply troops.

Surilege praised the Kyrgyz tour leader several times.

Now, they've discovered the enemy's presence even before the scouts?

(End of this chapter)