Chapter 154: The Mighty Jin Prefecture Army
“No, don’t~”
“Help, I know I was wrong~”
Upon hearing Li Xiao’s words, Shi Gu Bi trembled all over and a wet patch appeared beneath him. He desperately begged for mercy.
But he was still dragged away by Xiao Chilü and his men.
The hatred for his father’s murderer was irreconcilable; he wanted to grind the traitor to ashes with his own hands to vent his anger.
Listening to Shi Gu Bi’s pleas, Li Xiao silently shook his head and said faintly, “If a simple ‘I know I was wrong’ can bring forgiveness, isn’t that too unfair to the victims?”
“Don’t you think so?”
“Da He Chu Luo Duo?”
“Speaking of which, this is the first time we’ve spoken face-to-face.”
Li Xiao’s gaze fell upon Da He Chu Luo Duo.
His current appearance was quite disheveled; his hair was scattered messily, making him look particularly unkempt.
His eyes were bloodshot, his mouth corners slightly downturned, and his dry lips bore a trace of dried blood, a mark left from the earlier beating.
Despite this, Da He Chu Luo Duo’s toughness remained undiminished.
He sneered, “Yes, a year ago, a Han slave like you wouldn’t have even had the right to see me.”
“Even your father could only kneel before me like a dog.”
“My biggest regret is not killing all you Han slaves in Jin Prefecture back then.”
Hearing this, Li Xiao was not angered. Instead, he calmly nodded and said, “You wronged my father and fled alone on the battlefield. That was indeed a foolish act, but it cannot be called wrong.”
“The greatest mistake you made was not completely eradicating your potential enemies.”
Da He Chu Luo Duo sneered and let out a low hum.
He wasn’t ignorant of the principle of eradicating enemies, but he had simply not taken the Han people of Jin Prefecture seriously at the time, not believing they had the ability to threaten him.
By the time he truly began to regard this threat, Li Xiao’s rise had already become unstoppable.
In just one year, he had become the Governor with great power over Jin Prefecture’s military and administration, holding even more real power than Da He Chu Luo Duo had back then.
At this point, Li Xiao was no longer someone he could stop.
“It’s simply a case of the winner takes all.”
“There’s no point in saying more. Kill me or flay me, as you see fit.” Da He Chu Luo Duo didn’t want to say any more.
After all, he knew very well that no matter how he pleaded or knelt for mercy, Li Xiao would not let him go.
The best outcome would be no different from Shi Gu Bi’s, being skinned alive and cut into a thousand pieces.
If Da He Chu Luo Duo made a sound, he wouldn’t be a true man.
“I didn’t expect you to be such a tough fellow?” Li Xiao walked up to him, looking down at Da He Chu Luo Duo, who was being held down.
He shook his head and said, “Originally, this Governor did intend to skin you and cut you into pieces, but your mother and wife pleaded with me endlessly.”
“It made me feel too embarrassed to kill you.”
Hearing this, Da He Chu Luo Duo’s face instantly contorted in rage, and he gritted his teeth, looking at Li Xiao.
“Li Xiao, you bastard~”
“You deserve to die.”
“I will kill you.”
Da He Chu Luo Duo was provoked to madness and wanted to fight Li Xiao to the death, but he was tightly restrained by the soldiers behind him.
At this moment, Li Xiao seemed like a villain, malicious and ruthless, constantly tormenting people’s hearts.
In reality, his hatred for Da He Chu Luo Duo was not that deep. It was more based on a desire to eliminate potential threats.
Da He Chu Luo Duo’s continued existence always made him feel uneasy.
“So you have a weakness too.”
“How boring.” Li Xiao said indifferently, his heart instantly feeling a sense of emptiness.
Li Dahai and those forty-odd Hexi young and strong men had died at the hands of the Geluolu people.
However, they were ultimately tricked by Da He Chu Luo Duo, who believed his lies and failed to escape in time.
Therefore, capturing Da He Chu Luo Duo today was considered revenge for Li Dahai and those dozens of Hexi common people who died in battle.
“Drag him away.”
“Turn him into a human swine, keep him well, and don’t let him die easily.”
Li Xiao waved his hand casually.
He had no intention of repaying cruelty with kindness. One must be as cruel as the harsh winter towards enemies and retaliate a hundredfold.
“Li Xiao, may you die a terrible death.”
“Scoundrel, Han slave, I will not let you go even as a ghost!” Da He Chu Luo Duo roared as he was dragged away.
However, before he could shout more than a few times, Tie Tou next to him drew his dagger and brutally stabbed it into Da He Chu Luo Duo’s mouth, stirring it a few times.
Da He Chu Luo Duo immediately spewed blood, and a piece of his tongue fell out. All that could be heard were desperate, muffled screams.
Afterward, Li Xiao turned his attention to the last remaining person, the Prince of Gaochang, Baershu.
The moment their eyes met, Baershu collapsed to the ground, a wet patch appearing beneath him.
His face was pale and bloodless. With a trembling voice, he said, “Governor Li, I, I, I surrender.”
“I surrender, don’t kill me.”
“I have a mother, I have a wife, I can give them all to you, everything can be yours~”
At this moment, Baershu was utterly terrified by Li Xiao’s methods.
Being skinned alive, cut into a thousand pieces, ground to ashes?
Or turned into a human swine, living a fate worse than death?
Any of these fates were simply terrifying to the extreme.
He was a prince and did not want to die, nor did he want to be made into a human swine. He still had a great future of wealth and pleasure to enjoy.
Therefore, at this moment, no matter what Li Xiao asked him to do, he would agree without hesitation.
As long as he could live.
“Mother?”
“Wife?”
Hearing Baershu’s words, Li Xiao lightly touched his nose, feeling somewhat speechless.
This fellow really took himself for a Cao Cao.
However, why refuse a good thing that was delivered to his doorstep?
In any case, Li Xiao had no intention of killing him.
Da He Chu Luo Duo and Shi Gu Bi were no longer valuable, but Baershu was different.
As a prince of the Kingdom of Gaochang, he was still useful.
“It seems that Your Highness Baershu is a sensible person.” Li Xiao said with a faint smile.
Baershu nodded frantically, “Yes, yes, yes~”
“As long as you don’t kill me, I’ll do anything.”
Li Xiao smiled, walked forward, and patted Baershu’s face.
He nodded and said, “Since you are so sincere, this Governor cannot be unreasonable.”
“Write a letter to your father.”
“Tell him to surrender, and perhaps Gaochang will be spared.”
“Otherwise, this Governor will personally lead the Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry and crush Gaochang.”
“At that time, there will be no survivors in the entire Kingdom of Gaochang.”
Hearing this, Baershu felt a sense of relief, knowing that his life was temporarily saved.
So, he hurriedly nodded and said, “Yes, yes, I will write it now.”
“From now on, all of Gaochang will follow the Governor’s lead.”
Watching Baershu act like a dog, obediently complying, Li Xiao lightly shook his head, knowing that this person could not be kept alive.
Would the King of Gaochang, who could kill the Western Liao Minor Supervisor, lead the entire Kingdom of Gaochang to surrender to Temüjin, and then follow Temüjin in campaigns across the land, achieving great merits, be a cowardly and timid person?
Deeply cunning, with rebellious intent.
He must be killed!
After dealing with these three, Li Xiao led his men to clear the battlefield and count the losses.
Because Li Xiao chose to launch a surprise attack from the direction of White Bone Plain, this battle caught the Huihu army completely off guard.
Therefore, the losses of the Jin Prefecture Army were almost negligible.
Li Xiao primarily inspected the losses within the Great Desert Army Camp.
“Governor, our garrison had two thousand soldiers. Afterward, your subordinate mobilized four thousand Han common people and six thousand Uyghur common people to participate in defending the city.”
While inspecting, Xiao Chilü walked beside Li Xiao and explained.
The execution of Shi Gu Bi had not yet concluded; he needed time to torture him properly. The most important person now was Li Xiao.
“However, after a fierce battle, only a little over a thousand defending soldiers and seven to eight thousand common people remain.”
Xiao Chilü’s expression was slightly dejected.
This war had dealt a devastating blow to the Great Desert.
The Great Desert Iron Cavalry, forged by Xiao Tula Duo through actual combat during his Western Expedition, was almost wiped out.
In the future, the Great Desert would need the protection and support of Jin Prefecture.
“They are all heroes and must be heavily rewarded.” Li Xiao nodded emphatically.
“Open the treasury and reward every soldier and commoner who participated in defending the city. For those who died in battle, their families must be compensated.”
This concerned the foundation of rule in the Great Desert, so money should not be spared.
Although such lavish spending would deplete the Great Desert’s accumulated wealth, Xiao Chilü couldn’t afford to worry about that now.
He nodded heavily, “As you command.”
Then, he introduced Li Xiao, saying, “Those in front are all innocent common people captured by the Uyghurs.”
“They were used as shields to attack the city, and countless were accidentally injured.”
“The Uyghurs are simply a group of beasts,” Xiao Chilü said hatefully.
Li Xiao sighed lightly, “The captive confessed that this was Da He Chu Luo Duo’s idea. I have already ordered him to be made into a human swine.”
“He will be cut as many times as there are common people here.”
There were two methods of creating a human swine: one was to cut off all four limbs and blind the eyes and ears.
The other was similar to Lingchi, starting from the hands and feet, cutting upwards with each slice until only a bare body remained, which was then placed alone in a jar.
Without a doubt, Da He Chu Luo Duo’s treatment was the second type.
Afterward, Li Xiao had people count these common people.
It was unknown how many were initially captured.
But now, only a little over five thousand remained.
Many common people had fallen at the walls of Bie Shibali City.
Many survivors searched through piles of corpses; some found the bodies of their relatives and held them tightly, weeping.
Others sat in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, as if they were soulless shells.
“Order those Uyghur captives to dig pits and bury these common people properly,” Li Xiao said in a deep voice.
“As you command!”
So many corpses piled up inside and outside the city could easily lead to plague; caution was necessary.
At this moment, Li Xiao suddenly heard a cry.
“Chiliarch, Chiliarch~”
“Wuwuwu~”
Turning his head, he saw a blood-covered man running towards him, crying and shouting, staggering, with many wounds.
Li Xiao initially thought he was calling for Xiao Chilü, but to his surprise, after being stopped by the personal guards, the man knelt before Li Xiao.
“Who are you~”
At this moment, Li Xiao realized the man looked familiar, but he couldn’t recall his name for a moment.
“Lord, I am Zhang Da Wa,” the man said, crying.
Zhang Da Wa?
Li Xiao immediately remembered who it was.
No wonder he called him Chiliarch.
During the great battle with the Naiman people, Li Xiao, on the orders of Xiao Simo, selected two thousand soldiers from various tribes, plus the original thousand elite troops under Li Xiao’s command, making a total of three thousand men. They crossed A Lai Ridge to attack the Naiman people.
After the battle, out of those two thousand soldiers, twelve hundred chose to remain in Jin Prefecture and became Li Xiao’s Dongshan Chiliarch Army.
The remaining eight hundred returned to their homes.
This Zhang Da Wa was one of them.
“Let him come over,” Li Xiao said, waving to his personal guard.
Then he walked up to Zhang Da Wa and said as if meeting an old acquaintance, “Zhang Da Wa, it’s been a year, and you’ve changed so much. You’re covered in blood.”
“I almost didn’t recognize you.”
“It’s not your fault, Chiliarch, it’s my mistake.” Zhang Da Wa shook his head frantically.
Then Li Xiao asked, “What happened?”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Da Wa’s tears immediately flowed, and he wailed loudly, “My mother is gone.”
“My mother is dead.”
Zhang Da Wa had only an old mother to rely on, but he and his mother were captured by Shi Gu Bi to be used as cannon fodder.
When the Uyghurs fled, his mother was trampled to death.
By the time Zhang Da Wa found her body, only her clothes could be used to identify her; her body had been reduced to a pulp.
This caused Zhang Da Wa unbearable pain.
It was only when he saw Li Xiao that he rushed over.
After hearing his story, Li Xiao also sighed heavily.
There was no excessive pity, war was like this, either you die or I die.
His heart had long been as cold as iron.
“What are your plans from now on?” Li Xiao asked.
“Chiliarch, I want to follow you and avenge my mother,” Zhang Dawa said through gritted teeth.
The reason he had returned initially was that his mother still needed to be cared for.
Now that his mother was dead, he had no more worries and wanted to follow Li Xiao to kill at least ten Gaochang people to avenge his mother.
“Good.”
“Follow me, and we’ll go attack the Gaochang Kingdom,” Li Xiao said, nodding as he personally pulled up the blood-soaked Zhang Dawa.
Then, he ordered, “Go and ask how many more people are willing to follow me to fight the Gaochang people.”
“To avenge our villagers.”
“Yes, as you command!” Zhang Dawa nodded heavily.
After he left, Da Hu walked over and reported the situation of the Jin Prefecture Army to Li Xiao.
“Among the three thousand slaves, over one hundred and twenty killed more than three enemies and can be exempted from their slave status.”
“Also, over five hundred and twenty captured one to two enemies respectively.”
It wasn’t that the other slave soldiers weren’t brave, but that the Uyghurs were defeated too quickly.
They were routed by the surprise attack of the Jin Prefecture Army, followed by the cavalry’s pursuit and encirclement of the Uyghur infantry.
It was a complete massacre.
If Li Xiao hadn’t ordered to stop the slaughter at the end, needing these prisoners to dig mines for him.
Otherwise, the three thousand slave soldiers, in order to get rid of their slave status, could have completely wiped out these more than ten thousand Uyghur prisoners of war.
“Pursuing defeated soldiers doesn’t make a hero.”
“Truly capable people kill enemies on the battlefield, break formations head-on, slay generals, and capture banners,” Li Xiao said calmly.
However, he still kept his promise and pardoned the more than one hundred and twenty slaves, allowing them to become genuine Jin Prefecture Army soldiers.
Their treatment from now on would be no different from others.
Afterwards, he began to screen the prisoners of war.
These prisoners of war were mainly divided into three parts.
The fifteen thousand Gaochang soldiers were commanded by Baershu, and now about ten thousand were captured.
Da He Chu Luo Duo’s Eagle Unit Khitan Army, which was reduced to only five hundred remnant soldiers by Li Xiao at the Yili Riverbank, was then reinforced by Yelü Zhilugu with another five hundred, totaling only one thousand.
Now, after more than two hundred died in battle, and after killing Da He Chu Luo Duo’s confidant among those captured, there were over seven hundred remaining, who would be incorporated into the Kuli Army by Li Xiao to become war slaves.
Like those Han slaves, capturing three heads would grant them the status of Jin Prefecture Army soldiers.
In addition to these, there was Shi Gu Bi’s Great Desert Army.
During the Battle of Changbalyk, Xiao Tula Duo was killed, and only over a thousand Han soldiers escaped back to Beshbalik.
The remaining Uyghurs, Khitans, and Hans voluntarily or involuntarily surrendered to the Gaochang Army.
Their numbers were nearly three thousand, with fewer Khitans and Hans, only about a thousand.
Li Xiao ordered them to be screened, and those who voluntarily sided with the Uyghurs and had acted against the Great Desert were directly executed.
Those who were forced to surrender were incorporated into the Kuli Army.
However, they belonged to the first-class Kuli Army. Li Xiao’s requirement for them was to kill just one enemy head in the upcoming battles to return to the embrace of the Northern Frontier.
In this way, Li Xiao had an additional one thousand seven hundred Kuli Army soldiers and over ten thousand Uyghur prisoners of war under his command.
Not long after, Zhang Dawa returned.
He reported to Li Xiao, “Reporting to the Governor, over two thousand people are willing to go and fight Gaochang.”
There were over five thousand surviving common people. Excluding the old, weak, sick, disabled, and women, and then removing those who had lost their courage and were timid and cowardly.
That over two thousand people were willing was already beyond Li Xiao’s expectations.
Among these people, some had their relatives tragically killed and wanted to seek revenge on the Uyghurs.
Others were like Zhang Dawa, soldiers who followed Li Xiao over A Lai Ridge back then; the bond of camaraderie was still there.
When Li Xiao summoned them again, they chose to follow without hesitation.
Li Xiao accepted all of these two thousand people.
“These two thousand people will be divided into two, forming two Chiliarch units.”
“Dawa, today I officially appoint you as Chiliarch.”
Hearing Li Xiao’s words, Zhang Dawa was stunned, never expecting that he would one day become a Chiliarch.
Then, he immediately knelt on one knee and said loudly, “Thank you, Governor.”
“From now on, I, Zhang Dawa, will definitely obey the Governor’s orders. Whoever you tell me to kill, I will kill.”
Li Xiao smiled, gently helped Zhang Dawa up, and nodded, “Good, I trust you.”
“After the army rests, we will go kill Gaochang people.”
“We will capture many, many Gaochang women and have them bear your children.”
“Once your Zhang family has descendants, your mother’s spirit in heaven will also be happy.”
Zhang Dawa’s eyes welled up with tears, and he nodded heavily, “Yes!”
Not long after, Li Xiao appointed another Chiliarch.
Like Zhang Dawa, he was also a local from the Great Desert and had crossed A Lai Ridge with Li Xiao.
He was one of Li Xiao’s old subordinates.
His name was Su Da Qiang.
Not only these two, but the appointments of Centurions and Squad Leaders below were also based on whether they had participated in the A Lai Ridge campaign.
Those who participated were Li Xiao’s old subordinates and were to be reused.
Centurions and Chiliarchs were basically filled by these people.
In this way, the troops under Li Xiao’s command increased again.
There were over a thousand soldiers from Xiao Chilü’s command.
One thousand seven hundred Kuli Army soldiers and Zhang Dawa’s two Chiliarch units.
A total increase of a full five thousand soldiers.
The total strength reached thirteen thousand men.
Replicating the might of the former Left Route Army.
Moreover, because this army was entirely under Li Xiao’s control, its combat strength was even greater than that of the former Left Route Army.
“Relay the order: in two days, the army will march to Changbalyk to attack the Gaochang Kingdom.”
“Let them pay for their blood debt.”
