Chapter 155: Imperial Guard
“Disaster, disaster~”
The smoke of war had just dispersed, but the common people conscripted by Xiao Chilü to defend the city had not yet been allowed to return home.
At this moment, all these common people were gathered outside the city, a vast expanse of them.
The Han people were leisurely and content, without much worry, but the Uyghurs had ashen faces, terrified and panicked.
Some even muttered incessantly, “Disaster has come.”
“Something big is going to happen!”
If the army of the Kingdom of Qocho had captured the Great Desert, it would certainly have been a good thing for them, the Uyghurs.
But now, the Qocho army had suffered a crushing defeat, and the Jin Prefecture army had occupied the Great Desert.
For many Uyghurs, it was like a bolt from the blue.
Even those Uyghurs who had wanted to secretly open the city gates for the Qocho army were now terrified.
They were afraid of being thoroughly investigated and held accountable by the Jin Prefecture army.
But as fate would have it, their fears were realized.
Just as everyone was filled with unease, a troop of cavalry, clad in white cotton cloth and with sabers at their waists, rapidly charged forward.
“Whoa~”
A Centurion dismounted and conferred with the general guarding these common people.
Following this, the troop of cavalry in white swiftly charged into the midst of the Uyghur common people.
“Next, all family members of those whose names I read will step forward.”
Beside the Centurion was a Han man from the Great Desert, who loudly addressed all the common people in the Uyghur language.
“Suman De~”
“Arslan~”
“Omar~”
“Ahmed~”
……
To prevent cases of mistaken identity, other information was appended to each name, such as their home address, profession, or position held in the Governor’s Mansion.
Those who heard their names read out all trembled.
They had already guessed what was happening.
“No, no, it’s not me.”
“I didn’t do it~”
“I am innocent.”
These people cried out in terror, constantly pushing into the crowd, attempting to hide or to escape by creating chaos.
However, the Jin Prefecture soldiers were well prepared.
The young Centurion sneered, “Before I’ve even announced your crimes, you already know you’re innocent?”
Then, without giving them a chance to speak, he loudly shouted, “Imperial Guard.”
“Take them!”
“As commanded!” One hundred soldiers in white cotton clothes responded loudly.
They were the special forces unit, the Imperial Guard, established by Li Xiao not long ago.
Currently, they were only at the scale of a Centurion.
Their responsibilities included gathering intelligence, combating crime, punishing corruption, and maintaining internal security within Jin Prefecture.
The Centurion in charge of the Imperial Guard was named Zhang Shi.
He hailed from Hexi Fort and had grown up alongside Li Xiao as his younger brother.
Previously, he had served as a Guard Squad Leader by Li Xiao’s side.
During this expansion of the army, Li Xiao selected elites from the entire army to form the Imperial Guard and appointed Zhang Shi as Centurion.
In terms of expertise, Zhang Shi might have been slightly lacking, but the most crucial aspect of the Imperial Guard Centurion position was absolute loyalty.
Everything else could be slowly cultivated and learned. To help him get up to speed quickly, Li Xiao had even assigned him some veterans with many years of scouting experience to serve as Squad Leaders.
This time, the apprehension of the Uyghur spies was the first mission for the Imperial Guard since its establishment.
Soon, under the identification of several locals from the Great Desert, the Uyghurs on the list, along with their families, were all apprehended by the fierce Imperial Guard soldiers.
This was because not long before, Baershu had honestly confessed the list of traitors in the Great Desert city.
There were a total of twenty-six people.
All of them were officials of a certain standing, or major merchants.
Originally, they had planned to create chaos in the city during the siege and open the gates to welcome the army in.
But unexpectedly, although Xiao Chilü was young, he was experienced.
He directly forced these individuals onto the city wall and even took their families hostage, threatening to kill their entire families first if the city fell.
This way, these individuals dared not act rashly.
However, they were ultimately betrayed by Baershu, the “pig teammate.”
A total of twenty-six people, along with their sons, brothers, and other family members, totaling over eighty people, were now kneeling on the ground.
It was conceivable that if Xiao Chilü had not made that decision at the time, these people, rallying their friends and bringing their household servants, would have been a serious threat.
Beshbalik would have truly been in danger.
“These individuals colluded with the Qocho rebels, intending to open the city gates, create chaos, and allow the rebels to enter the city.”
“Treason and aiding the enemy are unforgivable crimes.”
“By order of the Great Governor, these twenty-six individuals and the male members of their families shall all be beheaded, and the female members exiled to military service, as a warning to others.”
Zhang Shi, astride his war horse, lightly stroked the hilt of his saber, his sharp gaze sweeping across the crowd of Uyghur common people.
Beside him, a translator loudly conveyed his words to the Uyghurs.
It was at this moment that these Uyghur common people understood that these people were spies for the royal army, no, the rebel army?
Everyone fell silent, quietly looking at the spies who were struggling, loudly begging for mercy or shouting curses.
What they were thinking was unknown.
After all, they were just the lowest-level common Uyghur people, drifting with the current, following the strong.
They didn’t even have the qualifications to collude with rebels.
Li Xiao did not kill all of these common people; he only dealt with the spies, killing the chicken to warn the monkey.
“Execute!”
Following Zhang Shi’s command, the twenty-six spies, along with their sons, brothers, and others, were all shot dead by the Imperial Guard.
This scene made the numerous Uyghurs tremble in fear.
This was the price of failed opportunism; it was safer to be a commoner.
However, the Imperial Guard’s actions were not yet over.
After shooting the spies, Zhang Shi’s gaze turned to the person next to him.
“Uncle Gunzi, please go ahead, I’ll back you up.”
A middle-aged man, wearing a plain cloth robe and riding a horse with a leisurely air, slowly came forward.
It was Li Erguzi.
He nodded slightly at Zhang Shi and chuckled, “You’re becoming quite imposing now, kid.”
It could be seen that Zhang Shi, as a Centurion, was different from other Centurions in the army.
Usually, they didn’t have to fight on the battlefield but had to do a lot of dirty work.
And he was also highly valued by Li Xiao.
So Li Erguzi mused that the Zhang family was also about to rise.
However, Li Erguzi wasn’t envious at all, as no matter how imposing he was, it was thanks to the Li family’s influence.
Besides, he, Li Erguzi, was also doing well.
Although he didn’t have military power, he held considerable influence in other areas.
“Not at all, Uncle Gunzi, I’m just borrowing the Great Governor’s might to act like a tiger by borrowing its power,” Zhang Shi shook his head lightly.
Li Erguzi chuckled, thinking to himself that this kid hadn’t become arrogant yet.
He then stepped forward, his gaze sweeping through the Uyghur crowd, and soon spotted the person he was looking for.
He loudly called out, “Kamal, my old friend, it’s been a long time.”
“And Amir, why are you squatting on the ground, are you taking a crap?”
“Hamid, come out, let’s catch up, old friends.”
As Li Erguzi called out, a total of eight Uyghurs were brought out by the Imperial Guard.
At this moment, these eight people had ashen faces and were trembling.
Especially when they looked at the pile of corpses in the distance, their legs felt weak.
“Li, Li Erguzi~”
One Uyghur uttered his name in a strange tone, with a pale and weak smile on his face.
He seemed to be trying to curry favor with Li Erguzi in a friendly manner, but it wouldn’t change the final outcome.
“Didn’t expect it, my friends, we meet again so soon?” Li Erguzi said with a laugh, appearing very enthusiastic.
Listening to the translator beside him, these Uyghurs nodded quickly and simpered, “Yes, yes~”
“So soon!”
“How was that batch of cotton you bought?”
Li Erguzi nodded lightly and looked at Amir, the cotton merchant, “The cotton was very good, just too expensive.”
“But it’s all used up, so I came to Beshbalik to find you to restock.”
Upon hearing this, Amir quickly nodded, “No problem, no problem, I still have some, you can have as much as you want.”
“For the price, I’ll sell it to you for two hundred coins a jin.”
Li Erguzi scoffed at this, patted Amir’s cheek, and chuckled, “Last time, cotton was sold to me for four hundred coins a jin. Has the market changed so quickly?”
“It has changed quite a bit, the cotton has just been harvested~”
“Nonsense!” Li Erguzi roared, his face instantly turning cold, his eyes fixed on Amir.
He then looked at the merchants behind him, who were all as frightened as quails.
But when they were doing business before, they were very arrogant.
Because Li Erguzi needed to purchase large quantities of grain and cotton, these people hoarded goods and colluded to raise prices significantly.
They had made a considerable profit from him.
So what if Li Erguzi had the Jin Prefecture Governor behind him?
Driven by profit, with profits reaching one hundred percent, people had already become greedy.
Moreover, the Uyghurs in the Great Desert were the local power, and a large amount of land was in their hands. They had absolute say in agricultural products like grain and cotton.
Even Xiao Tula Duo was powerless in this regard and could only try his best to balance the interests of various parties.
After all, Xiao Tula Duo was different from Li Xiao; Li Xiao had a large Han population as his basic support.
Xiao Tula Duo, being a Khitan who had recently arrived in the Great Desert and lacked a stable foundation, had to make certain compromises with the local powers.
If someone were to sabotage Li Xiao’s business, Xiao Tula Duo would definitely not let them off.
But he could not interfere too much in what appeared to be normal business conduct.
After all, these merchants also had their own backing.
In essence, they were just the front men for the Uyghur nobles.
But now, with the Jin Prefecture army at their doorstep, those behind them were either dead or had just been shot dead by the Imperial Guard.
A mere handful of merchants immediately became lambs to the slaughter.
Li Erguzi no longer wasted words with them.
He directly shouted, “Guards.”
“Kill them all.”
“Confiscate their property!”
“Their families are to be demoted to servitude.”
As his words fell, Zhang Shi waved his hand lightly, and the surrounding Imperial Guard immediately stepped forward, pinning the eight Uyghur merchants to the ground.
“No, don’t~”
“Brother Li, we’ve drunk together!”
“Spare me, I’ll never dare again~”
These Uyghur merchants begged for mercy loudly, but the Imperial Guard’s butcher knives were already raised high.
In the next second, the sound of ‘thwack, thwack, thwack’ was heard repeatedly.
Eight heads were severed on the spot.
Blood gushed out, staining the sandy ground.
Not long after, three Han men were brought over.
When they saw the corpses of the spies in the distance and the eight severed bodies on the ground, the three were terrified.
Especially since they knew these eight people, and they were colleagues.
The three knelt on the ground in fear and said to Li Erguzi.
“Lord Li, that, that’s not our fault from before.”
“We were forced by those Uyghurs.”
“If we didn’t raise prices, we wouldn’t be able to do business here anymore.”
“You don’t know how overbearing those Uyghurs are in the Great Desert; we have to listen to them on how to do business and how to set prices.”
“We were helpless.”
“Please, Lord Li, show mercy and let us off this time.”
The three kowtowed to Li Erguzi, their faces pale, fearing they would suffer the same fate as those eight.
The reason was that they were also merchants selling grain and cotton.
Previously, under duress from the Uyghurs, they had joined the grain and cotton monopoly group, selling high-priced grain and cotton to Jin Prefecture.
Of course, they instinctively supported such an outcome.
After all, the more they sold it for, the more they earned.
But now, the aggrieved parties from Jin Prefecture had come knocking, and they had forcefully killed those Uyghur people, and these three finally knew fear.
They trembled all over, their faces pale, and they begged Li Erguzi for mercy.
However, Li Erguzi’s attitude towards them was completely different from his attitude towards those Uyghur merchants.
He even personally helped the three of them up one by one, chuckling and saying, “Three shopkeepers, three elder brothers.”
“What are you doing?”
“Such a grand gesture, aren’t you putting me to shame?”
“Get up quickly, get up quickly.”
“Also, don’t call me Lord or anything like that.”
“I’m just a merchant. Call me Shopkeeper Li, as you did before.”
“Of course, if you think highly of me, you can call me Brother Li, or Old Li.”
Although they were forcibly helped up by Li Erguzi, the three of them remained hunched over, not daring to straighten up or look him in the eye.
Although they were all merchants, the one behind them was the Jin Prefecture Governor, and a royal merchant.
Unlike them.
Calling him Brother Li, Old Li?
They still hadn’t died a tragic enough death!
“The three of you, we’re all old acquaintances.”
“I, Li Erguzi, genuinely consider you friends, so don’t be so formal.”
Hearing this, the three of them, like quails, kept their heads down and only nodded repeatedly.
Seeing that they were clearly scared, Li Erguzi knew he had to reassure them.
So he said, “Actually, I know you were threatened by the Uyghur people.”
“Therefore, I didn’t intend to hold grudges with you. Killing these few Uyghur people to vent our anger is enough.”
After saying this, Li Erguzi could clearly feel the three of them heave a sigh of relief, as if they were about to cry, and said.
“Yes, yes, Lord Li, you are absolutely right.”
“It was those Uyghur people who forced us to raise prices, otherwise they would have ruined our families.”
“We had no choice.”
Li Erguzi extended his hand to comfort them, “That’s right, the Uyghur people are the worst.”
“From now on, you won’t have to worry about being bullied by the Uyghur people anymore.”
“Because, you now have my Jin Prefecture behind you.”
Having said that, Li Erguzi changed his tone, “However, you will no longer open your respective shops from now on.”
“Come and work for me.”
Hearing this, the three of them were stunned for a moment.
Among them, a grain merchant named Lu Weiming was the most shrewd. He naturally understood that they had no room to refuse at this point.
Whatever Li Erguzi said, they would comply. He quickly nodded and said, “Yes, yes, we will close our shops when we get back.”
“But what do you need us to do?”
“You’ll continue doing what you’ve always done,” Li Erguzi said indifferently.
“Those who sell cotton will continue to sell cotton, and those who sell grain will continue to sell grain.”
“However, the owner will now be my Hexi Merchant Guild.”
Moved by the price gouging of the desert merchants, Li Xiao decided to implement commercial reforms for strategic commodities like grain and cotton.
All of them would be unified and managed by the Hexi Merchant Guild.
Private merchants would not be allowed to engage in these two sectors.
In Jin Prefecture and the desert regions, only the Hexi Merchant Guild would be allowed to purchase and sell all grain and cotton produced, and free trade would be prohibited.
The Hexi Merchant Guild would naturally set a range of purchase prices, ensuring that the Common People would not suffer losses, nor would they themselves.
In short, there was only one objective: not to make a profit, but to stabilize grain prices in both regions and ensure the rational utilization of resources.
This was to prevent merchants from hoarding goods and creating unrest among the populace and causing famine in case of war.
In Li Xiao’s plan, the Hexi Merchant Guild would function like state-owned enterprises in later generations, acting as economic pillars.
Not only grain and cotton, but also steel, military industry, salt, and financial currency sectors, must be under the absolute control of the Hexi Merchant Guild.
Industries such as textiles, winemaking, and glass were open to private merchants, but only if they possessed the relevant technology.
After all, only the Hexi Merchant Guild could do it best at this time.
Under Li Erguzi’s combination of kindness and authority, the three merchants, including Lu Weiming, had no right to refuse.
Moreover, Li Erguzi also promised them official positions in the future.
Although they gave up wealth, they gained social status, which could be considered a good thing.
Thus, the three became the first employees of the newly established ‘Hexi Grain Store’ and ‘Hexi Cotton Store’.
Their main task was to use their previous connections to take over the market vacuum left by the eight deceased Uyghur merchants.
And to quickly establish purchase points for the grain and cotton stores.
Soon, Li Erguzi reported the establishment plan for the grain and cotton stores to Li Xiao.
This was the result of discussions between him and the three merchants, Lu Weiming, throughout the day.
“Approved, let’s do it!”
Li Xiao nodded slightly after listening.
In fact, the ideas for the grain and cotton stores were first conceived by him, and Li Erguzi was responsible for refining them.
As long as they did not deviate from the direction set by Li Xiao, there would naturally be no major problems.
“What do you two think?”
After listening, Li Xiao looked at Chen Chong and Han Jiuyuan.
These two were officials who had defected to Li Xiao at Kuyun-Ordu.
One was a former Minister of Revenue, and the other was an Imperial Secretary. Both were close confidantes of the Son of Heaven and held high positions.
However, they had now become advisors to Li Xiao.
“The Great Governor’s idea is unprecedented. Although implementing it will be somewhat difficult, it is not without merit,” Chen Chong said.
Han Jiuyuan also nodded, “If all the grain can truly be controlled, then man-made famines can be avoided.”
“However, regarding the commercial tax of the Hexi Merchant Guild…”
As the former Minister of Revenue, Han Jiuyuan was sensitive to taxation and was the first to focus on commercial tax.
It was conceivable that once the Hexi Merchant Guild completed its monopoly in sectors such as grain, salt and iron, cotton, and military supplies, it would inevitably become a behemoth.
In later generations, it could be called the ‘Hexi Conglomerate’.
For a merchant guild of this scale, and being Li Xiao’s private enterprise, should commercial tax be levied?
However, before Han Jiuyuan could finish, he was interrupted by Li Xiao.
“Levy it normally.”
“The taxes levied on the Hexi Merchant Guild will be even heavier than those on ordinary small merchants.”
Li Xiao said in a deep voice.
He would not cripple himself like the Ming Dynasty.
Once commerce developed, tax revenue would far exceed that from agriculture.
Taxes must be levied.
Therefore, the Hexi Merchant Guild could not be given special treatment.
“Then there is no problem,” Han Jiuyuan said with a slight nod.
However, in his opinion, the Hexi Merchant Guild was merely Li Xiao’s private property.
Important industries like salt and iron, and grain, must be brought under official management.
However, the structure of the Jin Prefecture Governor’s Mansion had not yet been fully established, so this idea could only be suggested to Li Xiao later.
After discussing the Hexi Merchant Guild, the next most important matter was the disposition of these ten thousand Uyghur captives.
“I intend to establish a ‘Camp Cultivation Department’ under the Governor’s Mansion, specifically responsible for land reclamation matters within my Governor’s jurisdiction.”
“The two of you will temporarily serve as the Director and Deputy Director of the Camp Cultivation Department, responsible for land reclamation in the desert.”
“All farmland in the desert will be inventoried, and ownerless land will be confiscated by the Governor’s Mansion and assigned to the Uyghur prisoners for cultivation.”
The desert prefecture was not entirely desert.
From the Tianshan Mountains northward, to the edge of the Tungus Desert, lay an oasis over a thousand li long and an average of two hundred li wide.
Nurtured by the snowmelt from the Tianshan Mountains, this oasis corridor had fertile soil, abundant water and grass, and a suitable temperature, making it ideal for farming and grazing. It yielded two harvests a year and was a veritable granary of the Western Regions.
It had also been developed and cultivated by the Uyghur people and ancient peoples of the Western Regions for a long time.
Furthermore, in this war, many Uyghur people had died in battle or become slaves.
Especially the Uyghur nobles, almost all of them were killed by Li Xiao, and their lands naturally had to be confiscated by the Governor’s Mansion.
This was considered rightful.
Li Xiao’s task for Chen Chong and the other was to sort and inventory these farmlands, assign prisoners of war to cultivate them, and utilize them fully.
However, there was still a problem.
Li Xiao was the Jin Prefecture Governor, and it felt inappropriate to be carrying out land reclamation in the territory of the desert.
“Will Lord Xiao dispatch a new Great Desert Governor to take up the post?” Han Jiuyuan frowned.
If so, their actions would be meaningless.
They would just be working for someone else.
However, Li Xiao gently shook his head, “My Jin Prefecture army has conquered the desert, and I will naturally not hand it over to others.”
Even if one were to come, Li Xiao would find a way to sideline him.
“Moreover~”
He frowned slightly, recalling some intelligence from the Eastern Capital, and realized that some matters required early preparation.
