Chapter 203: Three Fires
Chapter 203 Three Fires
It is a common practice for a new ruler to make three major changes after taking office. This has been the same in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad, and is all for the purpose of consolidating status and power.
The same thing happened when Xiao Xia took office. The first thing he did was to liquidate Xie Tongshi. First, all of Xie Tongshi's thirty personal soldiers were forced to retire. Each of them was given twenty strings of cash as severance pay and was directly driven out of the barracks.
The second step was to check Xie Tongshi's personal property. Everyone knew that Xie Tongshi was not a clean person, but no one knew how much money he had made.
Soon, Xiao Xia found an iron box from Xie Tongshi's private box. Inside was a flying ticket from Zhangye Guifang. The deposit amount on it was as much as 83,000 strings of cash. This was the real reason why Xie Tongshi was unwilling to give up the position of the military commander.
The income from sending troops to escort caravans every year reached 20,000 strings of cash, and the income he earned from military settlements also exceeded 20,000 strings of cash. For example, every year thousands of sheep were slaughtered to provide food for the army. The meat was eaten by the soldiers, but what about the sheepskins?
For example, the Sui Dynasty implemented the system of military service, and generally there was no military salary. The inland military service had to provide their own weapons and food when they served every year, but the border troops were better off. The court gave each soldier 12 stone of food every year, as well as clothes and miscellaneous rewards. The miscellaneous rewards were subsidies that sometimes came and sometimes did not. Xie Tongshi could embezzle the miscellaneous rewards, and the soldiers would not know anyway.
Then he embezzled military rations. He used the excuse of loss to withhold one or two stone of grain from each soldier every year. These rewards and grain eventually went into the pocket of Master Xie, so he used the troops to make Liu Zhizhen sick. He was in charge of the Zhangye army for just two years, but he embezzled 83,000 strings of cash. It was truly shocking, and it also showed how crazy he was about making money.
Xiao Xia used all the 83,000 strings of cash as military expenses. Part of it was used for soldiers' welfare, such as improving food, repairing dormitories, and giving each person a sheepskin to keep warm. Another part was used to encourage training. Finally, 20,000 strings of cash were left to reward military merit.
Every soldier received a sheepskin to keep warm, and the food was also significantly improved. The three armies were immediately jubilant, and everyone praised the new military commander.
This was the first fire that Xiao Xia started, to completely settle accounts with Master Xie Tong.
The second fire followed, and the entire army conducted a 100-mile long-distance running training, running every three days. In Xiao Xia's opinion, physical strength is king when two armies are facing each other. No matter whether it is fighting, chasing or escaping, without physical strength, it is nothing.
The heavy snow that had fallen for two days has stopped. The snow was up to the calves. Although there is heavy snow in the Hexi Corridor every year, it is much better than the blizzards on the grassland. The snow here is at most up to the knees, while the snow on the other side of the grassland is up to the waist.
Mainly, the two east-west mountain ranges, Ganjun Mountain and Yanzhi Mountain, stretching for thousands of miles, blocked most of the strong cold air in the north, thus forming vast grasslands between the two northern mountains and the Qilian Mountains in the south, making it the most important horse breeding base for the Central Plains dynasty.
The Hexi Corridor was also a place that the Huns valued very much. In winter, it could become a place for the Huns to avoid the cold. Large armies of cattle, sheep and people moved south to the Hexi Corridor.
After defeating the Xiongnu in two battles, the Han Dynasty seized the Hexi Corridor and established four prefectures: Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang.
After the Xiongnu lost the prosperous Hexi Corridor, they composed the "Xiongnu Song": The destruction of Mount Qilian has caused my livestock to stop breeding; the destruction of Mount Yanzhi has made my women lose their color.
After the heavy snow in winter, the Hexi Corridor was indeed cut off from the Central Plains. This traffic severance mainly occurred in the Wushaoling Valley and the southern region. The snow here was not up to a person's chest, and even camels could not walk.
However, the interior of the Hexi Corridor is still passable on horseback after the snow stops.
On the vast snowy plain, the three thousand soldiers running in a line looked from afar like a giant black snake crawling on the snowy grassland.
Except for the main general Xiao Xia, all the generals including the deputy military commander Yin Shishi followed the soldiers and ran. One hundred miles sounds very long, but it is actually just a marathon plus eight kilometers. The army ran to the foot of Ganjun Mountain fifty miles away, then turned around and ran back.
After running for just 20 miles, many soldiers could no longer hold on and stumbled in the snow. Fifty inspecting soldiers drove them away with sticks, shouting, "Get up and keep running. You'll be fine after this section. If you sit down, you'll freeze to death."
The soldiers had no choice but to take a few gulps of wine and continue running. After running thirty miles, most of the soldiers' bodies gradually adapted and they were no longer so tired. They could continue running even at a slower pace.
When they had run fifty miles, they were given a quarter of an hour to rest and then continued running back to the county town.
Xu Min, who had just been promoted to General of Chariots and Cavalry, led twenty soldiers to patrol the city. He was appointed by Xiao Xia as the commander of the scout battalion, but the scout battalion had not been established yet. Xu Min only took twenty soldiers to search for clues in the city.
There was definitely Tuyuhun spies in Zhangye City, this was beyond doubt. Although they knew this, successive military commanders had no interest in finding Tuyuhun spies, because even if they were found, new spies would soon arrive.
There are many Qiang people in Zhangye City, and their appearance, language, customs and clothing are exactly the same as those of Tuyuhun people. As long as the Tuyuhun spies do not send intelligence, they cannot be seen at all. But now is the war preparation period of the Sui army. Xiao Xia does not want Tuyuhun to have too much intelligence, so he is determined to find out the Tuyuhun spies.
There may be no way to find Tuyuhun spies in the summer, but there is a way to find Tuyuhun spies in the winter. That is, Tuyuhun spies cannot send letters manually, so they can only send letters through eagles. By staring at the eagles flying in the sky, you may find clues.
Raising falcons has always been a tradition in the Hexi Corridor, dating back to the Xiongnu era. However, raising falcons is not something that ordinary people can do; it is a hobby of wealthy families.
Xu Min stood on the top of the city wall, surveying the sky of Zhangye City from a high altitude. From morning till now, he had not seen any trace of the goshawk.
At this time, a subordinate came running to report, "General Xu, a caravan is entering the city!"
Xu Min was immediately cheered up. The appearance of a caravan at this time was a very strange thing.
Why is it so strange? Because the snowstorm lasted for two days and has just stopped for three days. That means the caravan encountered a snowstorm five days ago. They should have taken shelter in Guzang County and set out again after the snow stopped. With such thick snow, they could not reach Zhangye in three days.
Therefore, the timing of the caravan appearing in Zhangye was wrong, which is why Xu Min found it a bit strange.
"Go and see!"
Xu Min took a few of his men and walked quickly towards the east city gate.
They were near the East Gate and soon reached the top of the gate, where they saw a caravan consisting of more than a hundred camels and more than twenty merchants.
Xu Min immediately saw the clue. There were too many merchants, which did not match the number of camels. Moreover, the merchants were too young, each of them was only in their twenties, with ferocious and hideous looks. As the saying goes, appearance reflects the heart. A person with a cruel heart will not have a gentle appearance.
"General Xu, I feel like something is wrong with them. Could they be the bandits we encountered earlier?"
Xiao Liuzi, a capable subordinate, whispered, "The packaging of their goods doesn't look like goods from the Central Plains, but rather like the packaging style of goods from the Western Regions. Do you want to check their goods?"
Xu Min shook his head. "Let them pass, and then keep an eye on them in secret!"
Xu Min realized that this was an opportunity to catch the spies in the city in one fell swoop.
It was not until the afternoon that the exhausted soldiers finally returned to the county town. They stopped running and slowly walked back to the barracks.
After returning to the barracks, all the soldiers collapsed in the dormitory, too tired to move.
Two hundred militia soldiers temporarily served as logistics personnel, boiling water and cooking for the soldiers, so that every soldier could have hot water to soak their feet and have a full meal.
When the soldiers fell into a deep sleep, Xiao Xia was still sitting on the earthen kang in the room, carefully studying the map of the Hexi Corridor.
He had just received news from Xu Min that a merchant caravan from the south entered the city in the afternoon. This caravan was a bit suspicious and might be horse bandits or Tuyuhun spies.
If they were horse bandits, then it was very likely that a large group of them were near Zhangye City. Where would their target be?
(End of this chapter)