Chapter 109: Thirty-eight Centurions
The Uliji Tribe left a ground full of corpses and retreated in a panic.
Li Dashan and Luo Ping continued to pursue and kill for some distance, seeing that they were about to leave the area where Han People lived.
Further ahead were mostly the grasslands of nomadic tribes. To avoid unnecessary trouble, plus the troops they were leading at this time were not too many.
So, they could only slowly retreat.
But the anger after the victory had not yet dissipated.
Li Dashan and Luo Ping gathered together and began angrily venting about Wuliji.
“Wuliji this bastard, he’s simply eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard, daring to come to our Han Tribe to act wildly.”
“We absolutely cannot let this bastard go~”
“After the wheat harvest is done, we’ll gather more troops and go find him for revenge.”
“Blood debt must be repaid with blood.”
“Right~”
The two were filled with righteous indignation, but soon this anger dissipated, and they began boasting to each other.
“Dashan, when the hell did you secretly practice archery on your own?”
“That arrow you shot just now was damn accurate, directly shooting that guy Wuliji off his horse, hahaha.”
“I reckon he might not hold out until we go find him for revenge and will die on his own first.”
Luo Ping said with a haha laugh.
Li Dashan immediately shook his head frantically and said, “That wasn’t shot by me. The arrow I shot missed.”
Luo Ping was stunned: “Then who shot it?”
On such a chaotic battlefield, accurately hitting Wuliji through so many people without good archery skills really couldn’t be done.
He had thought it was Li Dashan, but Li Dashan denied it.
Afterward, the two went to ask others, and the subordinate cavalry all said they didn’t shoot arrows.
After all, in that chaotic situation where enemies and allies couldn’t be distinguished, who would dare to shoot randomly without some certainty?
Not finding the person who shot the arrow, Li Dashan and Luo Ping were both a bit baffled.
“This is strange?”
“Who shot this arrow?”
Although the Han People cavalry had stopped the pursuit, Wuliji’s remnants still didn’t dare to stop.
Even if they encountered nomadic tribes on the road that were usually on good terms with Wuliji, they absolutely could not enter.
Because the rule among nomadic people is big fish eat small fish.
Now, the Uliji Tribe’s strength was greatly damaged, and the chieftain was seriously injured. Going to another tribe in this situation would be seeking death.
Moreover, the lowly herdsmen had no absolute loyalty to the tribe; they simply admired the strong and believed the Uliji Tribe could protect them.
But once at this time, other tribes recruited the herdsmen, the Uliji Tribe would likely fall apart.
Young Chieftain Amo led people to flee very far, arriving at an uninhabited mountain, before temporarily settling down.
Then it was to treat Wuliji’s wounds.
“Make way, make way, the High Priest is here.”
Just as everyone was surrounding the seriously injured Wuliji, chattering away, E Tu Lu shouted loudly, shocking the many tribe headmen into silence.
Then he escorted a dark-skinned old man with his face full of tattoos over.
This old man was the Uliji Tribe’s High Priest, also the one who conveyed the deity’s will to Wuliji.
He looked at the seriously injured Wuliji and said to everyone, “All leave here. I need to treat the chieftain.”
After everyone had gone far, he fiddled around with Wuliji.
In the end, he successfully treated the dying Wuliji to death.
“Father~”
“Chieftain!”
The tribe let out mournful cries, especially Young Chieftain Amo, who cried until the sky was dark and earth black, extremely pained.
The High Priest also had a face full of grief, as if blaming himself for failing to move the deity to exert divine power to heal the chieftain.
Only E Tu Lu stepped forward to support the High Priest: “The High Priest has done his best.”
“It is the deity that has abandoned the chieftain.”
“Wuliji is no longer the son of the deity. We need to select a new chieftain and regain the deity’s favor.”
As he spoke, E Tu Lu exchanged a glance with the High Priest, and the two nodded imperceptibly.
By rights, with Wuliji dead, his son Amo should inherit the leader position.
But the High Priest suddenly said, “No need to rush selecting a new chieftain. The most important thing now is what to do with our tribe?”
“And how to avenge the chieftain?”
In the end, after some discussion, they decided to go to Wuya Village to complain to the Eastern Capital Governor.
Jin Prefecture Deputy Governor Li Xiao tolerated his subordinates slaughtering a meritorious minister.
Moreover, Wuliji was after all a proper Chiliarch; his death was no small matter for Jin Prefecture.
Wuya Village.
Li Xiao had been very busy during this time.
The reorganization of Jin Prefecture’s Han Tribe had consumed a great deal of his energy, to the point that even the times he played poker with Xiao Yanyan had decreased.
This caused Xiao Yanyan to always complain, wondering if after getting her body, he had started to get tired of her?
Bastard man, all of them tire of the old and love the new, not a single good one.
Li Xiao cried injustice; he was really very busy!
But fortunately, the busy time was about to pass; the reorganization work was basically finished.
Through Li Xiao’s efforts over this period, Jin Prefecture Han Tribe’s eight forts and sixteen villages had now been divided into thirty-eight Hundred Households Offices.
Like Yinshan Fort, Tangshan Fort, Hexi Fort, such villages with over two hundred households, or even over three hundred people.
Li Xiao divided them into two or three Hundred Households Offices based on population and households.
They no longer had jurisdiction over each other, all obeying their respective Chiliarchs’ orders.
The original Fort Masters would definitely receive certain compensation.
Just like Tangshan Fort’s Fort Master Tang San Cai, who was appointed as Deputy Chiliarch and became Li Xiao’s deputy.
It was a position where honor exceeded power.
After all, with Li Xiao’s dominant personality, he naturally wouldn’t let Tang San Cai have too much power.
In the short term, the ones truly affected by him were still those two Hundred Households Offices in Tangshan Fort.
But in the long term, this influence might slowly diminish.
For Hexi Fort, Li Xiao would definitely reorganize it as well.
The original Hexi Fort had over two hundred households, and after absorbing the population from Hou Village and Sanhe Fort, it reached four hundred households.
Li Xiao divided these four hundred households into three, forming three strengthened Hundred Households Offices.
One Hundred Households Office stayed to guard Hexi Fort, the other two were respectively moved to Sanhe Fort and the Hou Village renamed ‘Dongshan Village’.
Sanhe Fort and Dongshan Village, after decades of reclamation by Han People, had large grain fields and fertile grasslands.
Completely suitable for living and breeding.
Li Xiao naturally wouldn’t leave these two feng shui treasure lands empty for others to occupy.
So, he had long planned to send people after the war ended to reoccupy them.
From then on, Hexi Fort split into three; strength seemed weakened on the surface, but in reality it was still that Hexi Fort.
It was just equivalent to Hexi Fort having two branches.
Compared to large villages like Hexi Fort and Yinshan Fort, small forts and villages like Huangsha Village and Qiyun Village were very simple to reorganize.
Their populations were relatively small, around a hundred households.
So basically keeping the structure unchanged, directly designated as a single Hundred Households Office.
The Centurion was still served by the original Village Master, mainly just changing the name from Village Master to Centurion.
Don’t underestimate this small change, because it was a powerful infiltration of imperial power into local power.
Previously, the replacement of leaders in each fort and village was inherited within the family, sufficient as long as recognized by most of the fort and village people.
But after this reform, replacing a Centurion must receive approval from the Governor’s Mansion.
This showed that the Governor’s Mansion had preliminarily gained personnel authority over each fort, village, and tribe.
Just waiting for time to settle, after the grassroots people became accustomed to the Centurion system, the family-inherited Centurions would eventually be replaced by appointed officials.
Although this reform would affect the Li Family’s interests in Hexi Fort, overall, it would actually benefit the unity of Jin Prefecture Han Tribe.
Preliminarily eliminating the invisible barriers between forts and villages, integrating them into a whole.
Li Xiao already regarded Jin Prefecture Han Tribe as his base, the more thorough the reorganization, the more it would solidify his status and power.
He would naturally push this reform with all his might.
So, aside from Xiao Simo, he Li Xiao was the biggest beneficiary in this Jin Prefecture reform.
This morning, Li Xiao rode on horseback standing on the hillside, looking at the increasingly empty camp and the gradually withering grassland, feeling a bit empty inside.
Most of the Han Tribe soldiers had been sent home by Li Xiao to harvest grain.
The reason Li Xiao didn’t go back was also for Xiao Yanyan.
This woman refused to go home with him, saying she wanted to return to the Eastern Capital to live out her lonely old age alone.
Li Xiao naturally knew this woman was joking, but he was also considering if he went to Xiao Simo to propose marriage now, would he be chased out by the bastard?
Although Li Xiao’s physical age was less than sixteen, considering himself still a child, in this era, he was indeed at marriageable age.
No matter from which aspect, if Li Xiao chose a marriage partner, none was more suitable than Xiao Yanyan.
Figure and appearance, cultural quality, family upbringing, vision and magnanimity, etc., no need to say more.
The most important point was that marrying Xiao Yanyan would be like opening a cheat code for Li Xiao’s official career.
As long as Xiao Simo didn’t fall, he Li Xiao could absolutely strut in the Northern Frontier.
Even if Xiao Simo fell, with this connection, Li Xiao could more easily receive his political legacy.
So, no matter from which aspect, Xiao Yanyan was the most suitable choice.
“However~”
A girl’s stunning figure suddenly appeared in Li Xiao’s mind.
He then gently shook his head.
Pretty was indeed pretty.
But besides being pretty, the other aspects didn’t seem very strong.
Li Xiao admitted he was a realistic man; eating soft rice was very appealing.
Just as he was thinking about how to propose marriage to Xiao Simo, Da Hu rode over hurriedly.
“Elder Brother, Sixth Uncle sent someone over.”
“Said someone targeted the grain at Sanhe Fort, but they’ve been driven away by Sixth Uncle.”
