Chapter 126: Assembling The Northern Frontier’s Elite Troops To Strike Straight At The Royal Court
“That dog Xiao Simo is stirring up trouble again!”
Looking at the letter in his hand, Li Xiao cursed inwardly.
The first half of the letter was a love letter written by Xiao Yanyan, expressing her longing for Li Xiao and so on.
But in the second half, the tone suddenly changed.
It described an event that had happened not long ago.
The Battle of Khorasan had ended.
Just last year, the increasingly powerful Ghur Kingdom marched north to occupy Barih City in the Khorasan Region, forcing the city to stop paying tribute to the Western Liao Dynasty.
Subsequently, the Ghur Kingdom’s army clashed with Khwarazm.
Thus, Khwarazm sought aid from its suzerain state, the Western Liao Dynasty.
Claiming that the Ghur Kingdom would surely seize the Khwarazmian Dynasty just as it had taken Barih City, and then attack the Western Liao Dynasty.
Yelü Zhilugu saw the Ghur Kingdom’s ambition.
He thus dispatched General Tāyánggǔ with twenty thousand troops to campaign against the Ghur Kingdom, giving Xiao Simo the opportunity for an eastern expedition.
However, the Western Liao Dynasty army’s military discipline was corrupt; after entering Khorasan, they burned, killed, and looted everywhere, causing the local soldiers and civilians to instead help the Ghur Kingdom resist the Western Liao Dynasty army.
One night, the Western Liao Dynasty army was ambushed by the Ghur army, and many soldiers drowned while trying to ford the Amu Darya River.
In this battle, the Western Liao Dynasty army suffered twelve thousand dead or missing.
The losses were disastrous.
Upon learning of this, Yelü Zhilugu flew into a direct rage.
But what he did next was a bizarre move.
Instead of sending a large army to take revenge on the Ghur Kingdom, he blamed the failure on Khwarazm.
He believed that if Khwarazm had not sought aid, the Western Liao Dynasty army would not have gone to war with the Ghur Kingdom, nor suffered such heavy losses.
Thus, he demanded that Khwarazm compensate one thousand gold dinars for each soldier killed in battle.
The dinar is a currency circulated in the Arab world.
Similar to ancient Roman gold coins.
The value of one gold dinar is approximately equivalent to one string of copper coins.
Ten thousand gold dinars is roughly ten thousand strings of copper coins.
Moreover, Yelü Zhilugu demanded that Khwarazm compensate ten thousand strings of copper coins for each soldier killed in battle.
This could no longer be described as the lion’s big mouth.
Thus, his unreasonable demand was firmly rejected by Khwarazm.
In great anger, Yelü Zhilugu directly sent troops to attack Khwarazm.
But unexpectedly, the Western Liao Dynasty army was defeated again.
Routed by its own vassal state, the Khwarazmian Dynasty.
The Khwarazm army even counterattacked to Bukhara, occupying it for a time.
This outcome shocked everyone; Yelü Zhilugu was completely broken.
It also allowed Xiao Simo to see through the Royal Court’s true strength.
Preparing to stir up some trouble.
“Brother intends to seize this opportunity to gather the elite troops of the Northern Frontier and strike straight at the Royal Court. The military order will reach Jin Prefecture soon; hope you prepare early, assemble the army and wait, do not fail the heavy trust.”
This was the last thing written in Xiao Yanyan’s letter.
The Western Liao Dynasty army’s two consecutive crushing defeats not only decimated a large number of the Royal Court’s elites but also fully exposed the Royal Court’s outward strength masking inner weakness.
In contrast, on Xiao Simo’s side, he returned victorious from the eastern expedition against the Naiman Tribe; his subordinate army was strong in soldiers and horses, with momentum at its peak.
Forming a stark contrast with the Royal Court.
If not now to strike the Royal Court, then when?
“This bastard Xiao Simo can’t even let me have a peaceful year or two.” Li Xiao cursed inwardly.
Last year they had just finished the Battle of Naiman, and spring hadn’t even arrived this year, yet Xiao Simo was preparing to go to war with the Royal Court.
He was simply a war maniac!
It was fine if he wanted to fight, but the impact on Jin Prefecture was not small.
The most direct was spring plowing.
“Did the Royal Court really lose that badly?” Li Xiao asked Duōgá.
Although he remembered that the Western Liao Dynasty did lose the war with the Ghur Kingdom, this defeat was too miserable.
Of the twenty thousand troops, fewer than eight thousand returned to the Western Liao Dynasty.
For Tāyánggǔ to fight the war like this, he was simply a stupid pig.
Duōgá nodded lightly and said, “In fact, the Royal Court army’s losses were even heavier; in the war with Khwarazm, the troop losses probably exceeded four thousand.”
This was not simply the loss of sixteen thousand soldiers, but the sixteen thousand families behind them.
This shook the foundation of the Royal Court’s rule and greatly affected the people’s support and trust in Yelü Zhilugu.
No wonder Xiao Simo couldn’t hold back and prepared to send out troops.
“Four thousand?” Li Xiao shook his head speechlessly: “Which genius was commanding this time?”
“Didn’t Yelü Zhilugu kill his whole family?”
Duōgá chuckled: “It was still Tāyánggǔ commanding~”
“How could Jie’er Khan kill himself?”
“What?”
Li Xiao said in shock, looking at Duōgá with an incredulous expression.
What was wrong with Yelü Zhilugu?
Had his head been kicked by a donkey, or did he really have no one usable under him?
If it were Li Xiao, after Tāyánggǔ’s first crushing defeat, he would definitely have him beheaded, and his family thrown in prison.
Over ten thousand troops died in Khorasan, and you as the commander still have the face to escape back?
He should have died on the battlefield with his brothers, or at least learned from Xiang Yu and committed suicide.
That way, his family might have fared a bit better.
But Yelü Zhilugu was a genius; not only did he not punish him, he even continued to use him as commander.
Leading to the army’s second crushing defeat.
Li Xiao was speechless.
Yelü Zhilugu was simply too impressive.
“What next? What happened to Tāyánggǔ?”
Li Xiao asked curiously: “Did he die?”
“No.” Duōgá shook his head frantically.
“Tāyánggǔ’s status is not ordinary; he grew up with Jie’er Khan since childhood, and his sister is Jie’er Khan’s consort.”
“Jie’er Khan is a sentimental man, and with Tāyánggǔ’s sister pleading on his behalf, he was merely punished and not killed.”
After Yelü Yilie’s death, Xiao Yanyan’s mother acted as regent, and Yelü Zhilugu naturally lived in fear every day.
It was during this period that Tāyánggǔ and his father steadfastly stood by Zhilugu’s side.
Moreover, he married his sister to Zhilugu.
This made Zhilugu always grateful to Tāyánggǔ’s family and place great trust in them.
Even after Tāyánggǔ caused such a disaster, he was only lightly punished.
Hearing this, Li Xiao laughed.
No wonder Xiao Simo was preparing to rebel; the Royal Court had long been rotten to the core.
It was predictable that Yelü Zhilugu’s unfair handling would breed resentment among the families of the fallen soldiers and generals.
Perhaps many nobles had already secretly contacted Xiao Simo.
Waiting for the army to arrive to turn their coats.
Thus, on the surface, Xiao Simo had a good chance of winning this war.
“Alright, I understand.”
“Thanks for making the trip, Duōgá.” Li Xiao patted Duōgá’s shoulder gratefully.
“You two rest one night at Hexi Fort.”
“Wait until I write the reply to the princess, then you can leave.”
Duōgá nodded lightly: “Understood.”
Li Xiao had San Bao take the two to find a room to rest for the night, and have good food and drink sent over.
Once back in the room, the old master sighed: “Sigh, this year’s spring plowing is going to be troublesome.”
Drawing Jin Prefecture Army troops to fight at the Royal Court, a two-thousand-li journey—coming back before the autumn harvest would be lucky.
Spring plowing was definitely out of the question.
Li Xiao sat in the chair, drank a cup of hot water, shook his head lightly and said: “Spring plowing cannot be affected.”
“Grain is Jin Prefecture’s foundation.”
Then, Li Xiao looked at the old master and said: “Since Xiao Simo’s military order has been issued, we definitely cannot refuse.”
“But I plan to take only half the troops, leave half to continue spring plowing and guard against the Naiman people.”
Last year, taking advantage of the Naiman Tribe being crippled by the Northern Frontier Army, Ong Khan of the Kereit Tribe sent troops to attack the Naiman Tribe, but the result was shocking.
Ong Khan was defeated.
Hearing this news also shocked Li Xiao greatly.
After the Naiman Tribe was crippled, the Kereit Tribe became the strongest force on the grassland, yet they couldn’t defeat a bunch of defeated remnants?
Later it was learned that the fool Ong Khan made the same mistake as Xiao Simo, falling for the two brothers’ counter-intelligence ploy.
Buyiru Khan pretended to surrender, and for some reason Ong Khan believed it.
In the end, he was pincered by the two brothers from front and back, nearly getting himself killed.
So the current situation on the grassland was a bit complex; Ong Khan still held the upper hand, but no longer had an overwhelming advantage.
After Sun Khan and his brother absorbed some Kereit Tribe captives, they took their people north to lick their wounds and restore strength.
With the Kereit Tribe eyeing them covetously, though the chance of them attacking Jin Prefecture was small, Li Xiao still had to guard against it.
“Mm, don’t worry.”
“This old man’s body can still hold Jin Prefecture.” The old master said calmly.
Li Xiao nodded silently, thinking of Sun Khan and Ong Khan, and even that man called Temüjin.
“Hope they keep fighting.”
“Next year, once I free up my hands, I’ll send troops to the grassland and wipe them all out in one go.” Li Xiao thought fiercely to himself.
Eliminating his worries at the rear and thoroughly destroying the confidant threat Temüjin.
Afterward, Li Xiao began issuing orders, having the six chiliarch armies prepare to assemble and select the most elite half of the soldiers to come to Hexi Fort.
Any soldier selected would be exempt from this year’s taxation, so they had no worries at home.
At the same time, Li Xiao sent a letter to the Huormar Tribe at Jinshan East, ordering five hundred cavalry to come to Jin Prefecture.
This tribe had surrendered to Li Xiao and obeyed his orders, but it wasn’t exactly his direct force.
Li Xiao had not placed his own people in this tribe.
Mainly because in that previous period, Li Xiao’s forces had expanded too quickly, lacking manpower everywhere, without enough confidants to insert into the Huormar Tribe.
He could only let them develop on their own.
Now, after this long period of accumulation, Li Xiao was prepared to fully bring them under his command.
After writing the orders and stamping them with his seal, Li Xiao had the letters sent out.
Next, he began preparing the reply to Xiao Yanyan.
Reborn twice, this was actually Li Xiao’s first time writing a love letter.
