Chapter 307: The Third Campaign Against Western Xia, Woluohai City
That was a caravan, with a large number of carts and camels hauling goods, followed by many female slaves.
More importantly, two Chiliarchs actually came out to greet them personally.
This made Zhang Liujin extremely curious: exactly which big shot had arrived? To have such a big face.
The Captain Huang Laonian who arrived afterward told him.
“This isn’t some big shot, it’s the Hexi Merchant Guild’s caravan.”
“Hexi Merchant Guild?”
Zhang Liujin widened his eyes; it was the first time he’d heard of this organization.
Huang Laonian nodded and said, “Wherever our Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry conquers, the camel bells of the Hexi Merchant Guild will ring.”
Afterward, Zhang Liujin understood.
The Hexi Merchant Guild had come to sell things.
Salt, cotton cloth, cotton clothes, earthenware pots, iron pots, strong liquor, fire starters, soap, bronze mirrors, and other rare items—everything one could want.
Zhang Liujin looked on with envy, wishing he could buy a bit of everything, but unfortunately, he was short of cash.
He hadn’t even paid off his debts yet.
Why want a bicycle!
First secure food and shelter; talk about the rest later.
And this was also the current situation for the herdsmen in all the Chiliarch manors in the Northern Desert.
No money.
“Steward Wu, though what you’ve brought is all good stuff, us ordinary herdsmen can’t afford it.”
“Aren’t you afraid of making a wasted trip?”
Liu Cunxun held his son and greeted the steward of this caravan.
This Hexi Merchant Guild caravan had not only brought various supplies but also the families of reassigned local generals like Liu Cunxun and Wu Yong, allowing them to reunite in the Northern Desert.
Seeing his wife and children, Liu Cunxun was overjoyed. With a wave of his hand, he bought lots of household supplies for his family and even got two sugar lumps for his two sons.
It was only these reassigned generals who had money, all looted from the battlefield or earned as military merit rewards.
The other commoners truly had no spending power.
Steward Wu just chuckled, “No problem, Chiliarch Liu. Our caravan is like Jiang Taigong fishing—those who wish will bite.”
“Good stuff sells itself.”
In reality, he was hitting rabbits while grabbing grass: selling bits and pieces to these reassigned generals, while the bulk was smuggled to the Central Plains via the Shanxi Merchants’ Fan Family.
That was the real sky-high profit.
But some things couldn’t be smuggled.
Female slaves.
The Northern Frontier didn’t have enough people itself, so naturally, they couldn’t sell them outward.
Thus, these female slaves brought from the Ordu this time could only be absorbed internally.
“Chiliarch Liu, your Chiliarch manor must have quite a few bachelors.”
“If any are willing to buy a wife, they can come to me; I can give you a discount.”
Hearing this, Liu Cunxun nodded slightly.
The biggest problem in their Chiliarch manor was the lack of women.
Commoners from the tribal era might have had wives, but slaves did not!
The Northern Frontier Army only liberated slaves; it didn’t provide wives.
Those noble women from the former tribes were captives of the Northern Frontier Army, long since taken away or sold off.
“Good.” Liu Cunxun nodded heavily.
But he still said, “Though the men in our Chiliarch manor all want wives, they’re all dirt poor, so…”
Steward Wu nodded, “They can buy on credit.”
Adding debt to the herdsmen was an old tradition.
As long as they didn’t die, they’d pay it off someday.
When they learned they could buy wives, many single men cheered.
Even though they were dirt poor, they all came over to look.
But Zhang Liujin took one look and fancied a woman.
“I want her!”
Zhang Liujin pointed at a Grasslander woman in her twenties and shouted excitedly.
Only because this woman had been his former master’s wife.
The master was a minor noble, killed on the spot by the Northern Frontier Army.
The lady of the house was demoted to slavery and taken away.
Zhang Liujin never imagined he’d see her again.
Moreover, this woman was stunning in looks and figure—how bad could a tribal noblewoman be?
Even now down on her luck, dressed in rags, her once pretty face showed traces of hardship and fatigue.
Zhang Liujin didn’t mind that.
The only sticking point was her belly.
“Which bastard knocked her up?” Zhang Liujin felt his heart bleeding.
The goddess he’d once yearned for but couldn’t have had been ridden hard by those Northern Frontier soldiers.
Not a shred of care!
Steward Wu glanced at the woman and explained, “When we bought her, we didn’t notice she was pregnant either. She looked pretty and had a good figure, so we spent quite a bit.”
But this was all routine.
After the Northern Frontier Army captured female slaves, they often had their way first, even several times.
Depending on the situation, they might shell out two-thirds of her value in silver to redeem her as a concubine.
Or just sell her directly to the Hexi Merchant Guild.
Then the Hexi Merchant Guild sold her to bachelors needing a wife.
“How much?”
Zhang Liujin ignored the rest; he just wanted to buy this woman.
After all, she was his obsession.
As for the pregnancy, it wasn’t a big deal.
Whether on the grassland or in the Central Plains, widows remarrying with child in belly were plenty.
Plenty of men even liked that flavor.
“Even pregnant, it’s still eight strings.” The steward said.
Zhang Liujin gritted his teeth: “Bought!”
Eight strings of copper coins was a lot.
But Zhang Liujin didn’t care.
As long as this woman became his wife, it was all worth it.
But just skimping on food wouldn’t repay these debts, so Zhang Liujin planned to join the army.
Though these militia households could all mount up and fight, training every few days.
They could only count as militia, with little chance of seeing battle.
Only by becoming a regular soldier of the Six Garrisons could one go to the battlefield to loot and earn merit.
And winning one battle would clear half these debts.
This was the experience Captain Huang Laonian had told him.
With the establishment of sixty-five Chiliarch manors, wars among the grassland tribes gradually settled, and the Middle Sea and Eastern Sea areas returned to normal.
Herdsmen continued grazing on the grassland, the only difference being they were confined to their Chiliarch manor’s grassland and couldn’t roam freely.
At the same time, the Northern Frontier stationed an army each in the Middle Sea and Eastern Sea as rapid reaction standing forces.
Appointing Wei Xuan as Middle Sea General and Da Hu as Eastern Sea General.
Besides commanding their Myriad Household elite cavalry, they could also conscript militia during wartime.
Sixty-five Chiliarchs meant sixty-five thousand grassland cavalry.
All classified as militia—though not as elite as the Six Garrisons, if pulled to the Central Plains, they’d be a force to sweep a region.
……
“Boom boom boom boom~”
Shortly after the Northern Desert decisive battle ended, on the northern border of the Xia Kingdom, the thunderous roar of a cavalry legion’s iron cavalry rang out.
“Commander, we’ve already entered Xia Kingdom territory; there’s even a Xia Kingdom border marker ahead.”
During a rest, Fourth Division Myriad Household Commander Mo Jun pointed to a distant hilltop and said to Second Town Commander Li Dongjiang.
Not long ago, Li Xiao ordered Li Dongjiang to lead Second Town’s two Myriad Households and Fourth Garrison’s one Myriad Household—fifteen thousand elite cavalry total.
Plus twenty Chiliarchs’ worth of grassland nomadic militia.
A total of thirty-five thousand army marched south at once to reinforce the Hexi Corridor.
All because those shameless bastards of the Xia Kingdom, taking advantage of the Northern Frontier campaigning in the Northern Desert and the Hexi Corridor having empty troop strength, gathered an army to try reclaiming Hexi.
Fortunately, Li Xiao left ten thousand elites with Luo Meng and ordered him to conscript local militia on the spot to assist; at least they hadn’t let the Xia Kingdom succeed.
“What’s the situation in Gansu? Any news?”
While the army rested, Li Dongjiang sat on a rock, gnawing dry hard dried meat, and asked the nearby orderly.
“Reporting to Commander, no latest news from Gansu,” the orderly said.
The last message was half a month ago, sent by a messenger from Luo Meng.
The Xia Army main force fiercely attacked Tiger Wolf Pass but was held firm by part of Fourth Garrison’s elites and militia using favorable terrain.
The Xia Army then sent a cavalry army to attack Hexi from the north road.
Luo Meng personally led the cavalry main force to meet them, and the two sides clashed in a decisive battle in the Gobi north of Tiger Wolf Valley.
Losses on both sides, but overall, the Northern Frontier Army won more than it lost.
However, the Xia Army had vast troops and could replenish endlessly.
The longer it dragged, the worse for Luo Meng’s forces.
Faced with this, Li Dongjiang didn’t choose to rush to reinforce the Hexi Corridor but to besiege Wei to rescue Zhao.
Marching directly south from the Middle Sea to strike the Xia Kingdom’s northern frontier head-on would directly threaten the safety of the Xia Kingdom Capital Xingqing Prefecture.
At that point, the Xia Kingdom would have to withdraw its Hexi army to defend the capital.
“How far is it to Woluohai City from here?”
Li Dongjiang stood up, gaze toward the distance: beyond the Northern Frontier Army stretched endless Gobi Desert.
Nominally Xia Kingdom land, but utterly devoid of people.
Only continuing south to the Xia Kingdom’s northernmost border town Woluohai City would mean truly entering the Xia Kingdom.
“Reporting to Commander, about two days’ journey from here to Woluohai City,” the guide said.
Li Dongjiang exhaled lightly, his gaze deep as an abyss, and said heavily, “Press on.”
A day later, Second Town’s vanguard scout squad encountered a Xia Kingdom border patrol in the Gobi.
After a fight and chase, the Xia patrol was routed.
Only a few soldiers escaped amid the chaos, with Northern Frontier scouts pursuing and killing.
Lijili City.
A satellite town north of Woluohai City, garrisoned with a few hundred soldiers, almost no commoners—a military village.
That evening, garrison soldiers at the gate looked toward the distant Gobi.
“It’s this late, and Wu Big Head’s squad still no sign?”
“Who says otherwise? Usually back by now—hope nothing went wrong.”
A younger soldier chimed in, voice uneasy: “Regulations say close the gates at sunset, but they’re still out there…”
The sergeant glared fiercely: “Nonsense! Brothers who’ve lived and died together—think we’d leave them outside? Wait a bit; they might arrive any moment.”
Though he said that, his expression grew graver.
And in the next second, urgent hoofbeats suddenly sounded from afar.
“Finally back.”
“Wait, how come only two men?”
Before the garrison soldiers could relax, their faces drastically changed.
A patrol of over twenty had returned only two.
Instantly, everyone felt chills down their spines.
In a flash, the two fast horses charged to the city base; the riders were covered in blood, faces full of terror, as if they’d seen ghosts.
“Quick! Close the gates!”
“Tell the company commander—Northern Frontier People! Northern Frontier People are coming!”
The other also roared: “Close the gates quick! Too late and we’re done!”
“What?” Hearing this, the garrison soldiers were horrified.
Northern Frontier People?
Since the Hexi War, that name had become the Xia Kingdom’s nightmare, enough to hush crying children in the folk.
Now rumors said the Imperial Court was sending an army to reclaim the Hexi Corridor, but these Northern Frontier People weren’t reinforcing Hexi—how’d they reach Woluohai City?
Chaos erupted at the gate as they hastily shut it.
With the sun fully set below the horizon, the Gobi around grew eerily quiet.
In this deathly silence, a deafening roar suddenly rose from the distant land.
“Boom boom boom boom~”
The sound grew nearer, like muffled thunder rolling on the ground or ten thousand horses charging—even the walls beneath their feet seemed to tremble faintly.
Soldiers on the wall peered out and instantly paled at the sight.
“Northern Frontier People—Northern Frontier People are really coming.”
“Quick, everyone to the walls~”
In the moonlight, endless shadows surged from the darkness, war horses thundering endlessly, dust clouds blotting sky and sun.
A massive crimson Sun and Moon Battle Flag snapped in the evening wind; beneath it, soldiers all wore crimson cloth armor, surging toward Lijili City like a tide with menacing aura.
It was Second Town’s vanguard, five thousand elite iron cavalry led by Bali’ala.
The rest of the troops had already camped and rested behind.
Lijili City’s garrison commander saw the terrifying sight of the Northern Frontier Army outside and went pale as paper.
“The messenger… sent out?”
A subordinate quickly replied, “Company commander, already gone!”
“By his pace, he’ll reach Woluohai City in two hours.”
The moment those two patrol soldiers fled back with the alert, the commander had sent a rider whipping south to Woluohai City.
Even so, seeing the sea of Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry outside with his own eyes filled him only with despair.
Lijili City had only a few hundred soldiers; outside at least five or six thousand cavalry—tenfold disparity.
The low walls offered no defense; this battle was lost before it began.
Soldiers on the wall were panicked and uneasy, many pale-faced with eyes full of fear.
Then, a Northern Frontier Captain in red armor rode to the base.
Wall soldiers nocked arrows at him.
The captain paid no mind and called loudly, “Brothers of Lijili City, no more pointless sacrifice.”
“Lay down your weapons and surrender—your only way to live.”
“Otherwise, once the city breaks, no survivors.”
……
“I used to be from Heishui City, soldier like you all, but in Zhenyan Army Command. Later surrendered to the Northern Frontier; now I’m a Northern Frontier Army Captain.”
“Married three concubines, got five kids.”
“We’re all Huaxia people, all brother compatriots—Huaxia don’t fight Huaxia.”
“Just surrender and work hard; I guarantee you’ll live well in the Northern Frontier.”
Hearing this Northern Frontier Captain, many soldiers in the city wavered.
All soldiers, but what a gap.
These years, the Xia Kingdom mainly fought defensive wars, battles mostly domestic—no chance to loot.
Daily military pay was embezzled and docked by half or more.
So even ordinary low officers lived poorly, let alone bottom soldiers.
Same soldiers, but he’d surrendered to the Northern Frontier, already with three concubines—life looking up.
And themselves?
Many soldiers felt unbalanced.
More crucially, they were isolated and without aid.
Likely before Woluohai City’s reinforcements arrived, Lijili City would fall.
“Company commander, what now?”
Soldiers looked pleadingly at the garrison commander.
Company commander was a mid-level Xia Army rank, managing about five hundred soldiers.
He gripped the wall tightly, face twisted, thinking of Northern Frontier Army legends.
Eight wan Imperial Court army annihilated in the Hexi Corridor, then sweeping Hexi, forcing the Court main force to huddle in Hedong afraid to fight.
And Northern Frontier People were vicious—really dared massacre cities.
The company commander wanted to hold, but his soldiers were terrified.
Seeing their fearful struggling faces, he knew if he didn’t decide soon, someone would bring him his head to surrender to the Northern Frontier.
“Fine, open the gates!”
Watching the gates slowly open, Bali’ala chuckled.
This was the Northern Frontier’s prestige.
The next day, Bali’ala’s vanguard army breached another town.
Luosi City!
A border trade town set up specially for grassland markets.
But with war’s outbreak, the market had temporarily closed, though many merchants still stockpiled goods and gold and silver, waiting to reopen and fleece the Grasslanders.
Now, all cheapened to the Northern Frontier Army.
……
“What?”
“Lijili City and Luosi City both fallen?”
In Woluohai City, Heishan Weifu Army Commander Gao Yi shot up from his chair in shock upon hearing this.
“How many Northern Frontier Army came?”
“Roughly, uh, several thousand~” Luosi City’s garrison commander said disheveled and lacking confidence.
Because he’d only seen three or four thousand Northern Frontier Army attack, and Luosi City fell.
He had no clue how vast the army truly was.
“Commander sir, the Northern Frontier Army is too terrifying; they have this weapon with huge power.”
“Like thunder; after a few blasts, Luosi City’s walls collapsed.”
“Then~ then their cavalry just charged in.”
Lijili City fell utterly; only a few orderlies escaped early—Gao Yi didn’t know the details.
But Luosi City’s commander offered little value.
That horrific weapon had been used by the Northern Frontier Army in the Hexi War.
Terrifying power, capable of mass killing cavalry too.
One could say the Northern Frontier Army’s Hexi War win owed much to this horror weapon.
Now with Luosi City fallen, Gao Yi wondered if Woluohai City could hold.
“Damn it, how’d the Northern Frontier Army come from the Mobei Grassland?” Gao Yi said angrily, fist slamming the desk.
“Has the Northern Desert war ended already?”
But the Hexi War hadn’t been decided.
Northern Frontier Army resistance in the Hexi Corridor was stubborn.
Gao Yi had a premonition: this Court western expedition, poured with vast manpower and resources.
Likely to return empty-handed again.
“Quick, send word to Xingqing Prefecture: Northern Frontier Army pressing the border; Woluohai City requests aid.” Gao Yi said gravely.
Once the clerk finished the plea letter and sealed it, it was sent off by fast horse.
Gao Yi then ordered Woluohai City’s garrison to heighten alert, conscript all city strength—men, women, elderly, children—to defend.
Though the Xia Kingdom threw its domestic main force into Hexi, fortunately Li Chunyou considered the northern threat and hadn’t touched Woluohai City’s troops.
Now the city held twenty thousand army, plus city men women elderly young—nearly fifty thousand defending.
“My Gao family has received imperial grace for generations; this time even in death, this commander won’t let Northern Frontier People cross Woluohai City one step.” Gao Yi stood on the wall, gripping his saber, voice firm and resounding.
On the wall, soldiers bustled.
Hauling stones, boiling feces, repairing bow and arrow weapons, etc.
Amid this tense air, Bali’ala led the vanguard army to Woluohai City base.
But they didn’t rashly attack; instead, they sent troops to seal all four gates, barring any passage.
Another day later, Li Dongjiang led the Northern Frontier Army main force to arrive.
Fifteen thousand elite cavalry in yellow and crimson, all in armor.
Surrounding them, twenty thousand grassland cavalry in motley gear, weapons outdated and worn, but combat strength equally not to be underestimated.
Historically, Temüjin had led these grassland cavalry to breach Woluohai City multiple times and massacre it.
“Wooo wooo wooo wooo~”
“Wooo wooo wooo~”
With horn blasts, the army outside spurred horses thundering, kicking up dust clouds several zhang high.
“Roar roar roar roar~”
Gao Yi in armor, expression gravely solemn.
Low voice: “Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry, well-deserved world’s elite.”
“Field battle outside, our army likely no chance of victory.”
And seeing the Northern Frontier Army’s numbers—around forty thousand, twice the Xia Army.
This further steeled Gao Yi’s resolve to defend; no rash field battle.
“That thing—the Northern Frontier Army’s terror weapon?”
Soon, Gao Yi’s gaze fixed on the open ground before the main gate, where the Northern Frontier Army had arrayed a line of iron tubes.
Only half-man tall, black muzzles aimed at the gate.
Seemed small, but gave Gao Yi a sense of deadly threat.
“Yes, that’s the thing—makes a huge noise; Luosi City’s walls were blasted down by it~”
“Commander, dangerous on the wall; best go down now…”
Before Luosi City’s commander finished, the cannons outside were ready.
Sixty Tiger Zun Cannons in semicircle array, muzzles all trained on one spot on the wall.
A Centurion drew his cavalry saber, snarling loudly.
“Fire cannon.”
“Boom boom boom boom~”
