The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 690: Rather Give It to a Rebellious Son Than to an Outsider

Li Xianwen was still very wise. Although he had entered his twilight years and was far less motivated than his second son Li Xingtai, who was about to receive the title of King of Kokand, he was still far superior in terms of judgment at a more macro level.

For Li Xianwen, being able to take over most of Kokand is the limit of this army.

Because the army's gunpowder, lead bullets, artillery shells and spare parts needed to repair firearms have basically been exhausted.

The remaining supplies, especially gunpowder, lead bullets, etc., are only enough for the Northwest Army to mobilize 20,000 people to fight for five consecutive days. If this number is exceeded, the Northwest Army will become an all-cold weapon team.

However, the Northwest Army was only equipped with a certain amount of foam nail armor. Due to the presence of bayonets, there were almost no spears, and there were not many hammers, axes, bows and arrows and other weapons.

More importantly, the combat training of the Northwest Army was entirely based on the principle that all members were equipped with firearms. In other words, they could not fight the kind of cold weapon crushing battles that their ancestors of the Han and Tang dynasties waged against the local natives.

"Your Majesty, we have actually done very well. It only took us ten years to accumulate strength. With the meager coal and iron production in Hexi and Longyou, plus some support from the imperial court, we were able to capture Dayuan.

What we need to do now is to continue to accumulate wealth for the next ten years in order to plan for the future.

As for defeating the Bukhara and Khiva Khanates, that will be the imperial court's task. The Northwestern Army's mission has essentially concluded here."

Hearing what his chief official of the Prince's Mansion said, Li Xianwen nodded in agreement.

There is no way. In this era of extremely difficult productivity, especially transportation conditions, the limitations are so great.

With ten years of savings, one can have a prosperous basin as a foundation that is 300 kilometers long, 120 kilometers wide, and has a total area of 22,000 square kilometers, which is exactly one-fifth the size of Zhejiang Province. That would be enough.

Of course, this vassal state could not belong to Li Xianwen alone.

First of all, he had to resettle at least 100,000 people vacated from the Hui people, allow nearly 70,000 people from the three Kartijin tribes to come down the mountain, as well as 100,000 people from the Central Plains who came from northern Shaanxi, Shanxi and eastern Henan, and 100,000 people from the northwest who came from Hexi and Longyou.

Secondly, even if this vassal state belongs to him, the nobles below may not necessarily belong to him completely.

For example, the vassal state that will be established in Andijan is prepared for the royal family.

This relative of the imperial clan, the governor, was under his jurisdiction and paid taxes to him, and he could also mobilize the troops in his fiefdom.

But from the perspective of patriarchal law, the Marquis of Andijan was a vassal of the imperial court. Li Xianwen could control him, but he could not punish him at will, let alone depose or enthrone him.

In other words, if the Marquis of Andijan really wanted to go against him, the Prince, Li Xianwen would have no particularly good solution and could only write a letter to the emperor asking for his judgment.

Finally, the imperial court must station troops in the Dayuan Basin, and they will be rotated every three years. The Imperial Guards and the Beijing Camp will take turns. Li Xianwen's vassal army is just a supporting role.

Moreover, at least half of the output of the vassal states had to be used to support the court's military operations in Hezhong. Of course, the emperor would also grant houses and shops to the vassal states in the capital, so that they also had a large share of the industry in the capital.

To put it bluntly, Li Xianwen's future vassal state in the Dayuan Basin was actually a logistics base for the imperial court to settle in Hezhong.

The output of the vassal state was like transfer payments, that is, the output was directly used on the imperial court's armed forces in Hezhong, and the imperial court left assets to Li Xianwen and his descendants in the Central Plains.

"Hepu, please submit a petition to the court, requesting the construction of a steel plant with an annual output of 1,000 tons of iron, a cement plant with an annual output of 2,000 tons of cement, and 300 households of mechanical, carpentry, and stonemasonry workers."

Li Xianwen smiled and said to his chief secretary, Wan Chengfeng, a native of Ningzhou, Nanchang, Jiangxi, "I originally thought that the Dayuan Basin was as easy to defend as the Sichuan Basin, but I didn't expect it to be the Luoyang Basin.

Although we don't need to build eight defense passes, at least four are necessary. Furthermore, the basin is full of swamps and rivers, and without management, it is difficult to become a land of fish and rice."

What Li Xianwen said is that the Fergana Basin has such unique resources, but has never been able to surpass the Mesopotamian Basin and the Tocharian Basin in the south to become the richest place and center in the river.

Although this place is a basin, there are still several gaps if you insist on crossing it, and there is often a large river under each gap that flows directly to the core plain of the basin, which is simply a highway to guide the invaders.

Therefore, any kingdom that developed in the central Fergana Valley would be conquered by foreign races that came from the surrounding mountains as soon as it became slightly weak.

Secondly, the abundant water source in the Fergana Basin does not come mainly from precipitation, but from the melting snow from the surrounding mountains, which is too uncontrollable.

Because it rained heavily, we naturally knew that a flood would occur. However, the speed at which the snow melted was unpredictable and unmonitorable.

Sometimes it is extremely hot at the foot of the mountain, but the snow on the mountain has not reached the melting point and will not cause large-scale water rise.

After a few days, the weather will be gloomy and the temperature at the foot of the mountain will be around ten degrees or even several degrees colder, but the temperature on the mountain will be the same, which is just right for melting the snow.

Then one night a flood came rushing down, not only wiping out all the farmers’ income for the year, but they might even kill all their lives.

Therefore, in the past when there was no ability to build water conservancy projects, the abundant water resources in the Fergana Basin brought more disasters than irrigation advantages.

Either a year's water will run away in just a dozen days, or your home will be washed clean at a moment when you are completely unprepared.

Therefore, in addition to building several passes for defense, Li Xianwen also had to spend a lot of effort to manage the Dayuan Basin.

At least two reservoirs, two canals, more than fifteen river courses must be regulated, and a large number, possibly thousands, of small ponds must be built to store water. Finally, at least dozens of bridges must be built.
However, it is completely impossible for Li Xianwen, a vassal king, to achieve all of these things, and he must have the support of the court.

Just like the numerous water conservancy projects in the basin in later generations, all of them were built by the Soviet Union for the Central Asian countries, which enabled the Fergana Basin to become a land of fish and rice.

However, Chief Clerk Wan Chengfeng asked hesitantly, "Your Majesty, your Majesty purchased the patent for this cement from England at great expense ten years ago, and you personally participated in its design. It's said to be able to build tall buildings from flat ground. It's a national treasure and shouldn't be passed around easily. Can you give it to us?"

“Yes, of course we can establish settlements in the Dayuan Basin and provide the imperial court with a large amount of food, supplies, and laborers in Hezhong, which will be of great use to the imperial court.

But the steel plant is easy to deal with, but even if Your Majesty is willing, the court officials such as Luo Xiangye will stop it."

Nephew Liang Kexing also told Li Xianwen that he even felt that the steel plant would not be built.

Because this was actually using the court's things to build his own vassal state. Even if the Dayuan Basin was conquered with manpower and material resources brought by his uncle from the northwest, it was still the court's property.

Although my uncle had made great contributions to the court in pacifying the northwest, and was also the imperial concubine's captain and the first in the military merit, this was too much to ask for.

I'm afraid that this is the best that Your Majesty can do when enfeoffing his sons.

Li Xianwen laughed heartily, shook his head, pointed at Liang Kexing and said, "I told you long ago to read more of the books that His Majesty has personally written and praised over the years. You are just being cunning and cunning, and now you can't even see the big picture clearly.

Your Majesty has mentioned many times that this is an era of great contention and time waits for no one.

What do you think you're fighting for? What can be called a time-sensitive situation?"

Li Xianwen stood up again and looked at the vast mountains and rivers outside, and said in a heroic voice: "This vast world is what we are fighting for.

If we don't occupy it now, our future descendants will not only have less land to survive on, but will also suffer as a result.

Therefore, for His Majesty, as long as someone can occupy land for the Han family, he is willing to support them, even if these places fall out with the court in the future, it is still Han land."

"This is what they call giving it to a rebellious son rather than to a foreigner!"

"No matter how disobedient my son is, even if he doesn't recognize his father and only cares about himself, he is still my son. He speaks Chinese, studies the classics, and worships his ancestors. He has Han blood flowing in his veins, so he is not an outsider after all!"

He was indeed Mo Zibu's most trusted minister. The two of them had discussed these matters in detail when they went to the northwest. Li Xianwen really understood what Mo Zibu said.

During this period of time, don't worry about other issues. Just send the people out and occupy the land, and get rid of the natives who are blind and refuse to assimilate.

Mo Zibu would be willing to give money and supplies, and even send troops to help whoever could accomplish this task.

Napoleon was about to come to power, and the tide of nationalism was about to sweep from west to east. If we missed this window, it would be difficult to carry out such murderous colonial activities in the future.

"Moreover," Li Xianwen said with a smile, pointing at Li Xingtai approaching from a distance, "the imperial court needs to ruthlessly kill people if it wants to eradicate the poisonous Muslim sect founded by the Three Khanates of Khorasan. I can't do this kind of work, you can't do it, not even Dong Jinfeng can do it. The only one who can do this is our Second Prince Li!"

"Kexing, I originally thought that your second brother's bloodline of our Li family's ancestor, King Chuang, had awakened, but now it seems more like the Great Western King has come, hahahaha!"

"Only someone like the Great Western King can remain calm amidst a sea of blood and corpses, and accomplish his mission without being affected by anything.

Just for this, His Majesty will give us the cement plant. Someone with such a big heart, willing to do this for future generations, is a rare find. If you miss it, it might never come back."

Liang Kexing couldn't help but chuckle when he heard this, because he remembered the characters that his father, Li Xianwen's brother-in-law Liang Wenying, had interpreted for Li Xianwen.

"His surname is Li, but there's a character called 'Xian' in the middle. The characters 'Wen' and 'Zhong' are often seen together. He's also a descendant of the rebel king of northern Shaanxi. Could this be a sign that my brother-in-law's family will produce a new King of the Great West, Li Xianzhong?"

Li Xingtai didn't know that he had become the King of Dayu and Great West. He looked at the three of them and said with some depression:

"The Crown Prince's Right Secretary Wang Guoyuan came in person and said that Dong Jinfeng had led the main force of the Dingxi Army north to the grasslands."

Although the Northwest Army had little supplies, Dong Jinfeng's 30,000 Dingxi Army was still well-supplied. After all, there were more than 40,000 civilian laborers transporting supplies to them, and they basically emptied all the supplies from Ganzhou to Hami.

Li Xingtai was waiting for Dong Jinfeng to come so that he could share some gunpowder and lead bullets from the Dingxi army, and the two families would jointly attack Samarkand from the Dayuan Basin.

"Russia must have sent troops. Dong Jinfeng has already reached Yanqi and is now heading back to the grasslands, taking the Yangwu Army with her. The only possibility is that the Russian army has already arrived."

Li Xianwen quickly said that the only people who could make Dong Jinfeng leave so quickly and take away all the Yangwu Army members who had horses that could be used as dragoons were the Russians. Other countries did not have such deterrent power.

"Second brother, stop making trouble for now. Let Baoning take 500 people to escort our envoy to Bukhara and tell Shah Murad of the Bukhara Khanate and Abul Ghazi Gayip of the Khiva Khanate.

Since Kokand has submitted to the Celestial Empire, it is under its jurisdiction. They rebelled and attacked the suzerain as subjects, and this is what they deserve.

Now that Kokand has been pacified, the Celestial Empire's conquest comes to an end.

Moreover, over the past twenty years, all the land that Kokand had taken from them, that is, all the land west and south of Khujand, has been returned to them.”

Li Xianwen said with a smile, looking like a kind and amiable older brother.

Khujand is located at the entrance of the valley of the Dayuan Basin (Fergana Basin). There are four small fortresses surrounding Khujand, forming a solid blockade. As long as Khujand is closed, it will be difficult for the enemy to enter.

When Li Xingtai heard his father say this, he did not object, because he knew that if Bukhara and Khiva really accepted these lands, he would send another delegation after he recovered.

They claimed that the original information was wrong, and that it was not Kokand that occupied the lands of Bukhara and Khiva, but Bukhara and Khiva that occupied the lands of Kokand, and asked them to return all the lands they had previously taken.

These two countries will certainly not give up the meat they have in their mouths, so the excuse to challenge war will come.

If they are willing to spit it out, it will be easier. We can continue to forge a large number of maps of Kokand and claim that more land of the two countries belongs to Kokand.

Now that I found out that I had occupied your land, I readily returned it to you. Now that you have occupied more of my land, I can't just make excuses.

Anyway, after I recover, you will be guilty of everything, unless you don't accept these lands, then I may have to spend some time finding excuses from other places.

. . . .

On the west side of Jintang City (Semipalatinsk Fortress) in the Western Xianbei Ice Field, you can already see the red, white and blue double-headed eagle flag of the Russian Empire from the artillery position here.

Li Xianwen's guess was correct. The army of the Russian Empire had already appeared on the west side of Jintang City, and there were quite a few of them.

Chen Guangyao had already rushed to Jintang City from Yili, and Yao Zhifu, who was in charge of guarding the city, was reporting to him.

"The Russians' intimidation was still quite strong. As soon as they arrived, the small Cossack tribe in the west that had been used as a warning immediately surrendered. Two or three thousand Kazakhs from the Yuz on the right wing also fled over.

However, these Russians did not come to attack. At the beginning, there were only a few hundred or a thousand of them, and now they have slowly increased to around 20,000."

"This is because their supply is also difficult. Aside from Jintang City, there is no other place suitable for settlement in the entire Western Xianbei Icefield. Pavlodar can only serve as an outpost."

Chen Guangyao spoke calmly, then gave a bold order: "Dispatch 4,000 light cavalry from the southern desert and 1,000 cavalry from the northern Jilin region. Go and tell Dong Jinfeng in person to lead the Yangwu Army westward. I will use the cavalry to cover him and force the Russians back."

Deputy General Yang Kaijia's eyes widened when he heard this. After a long pause, he asked hesitantly, "General, do you think a fight won't break out?"

"There will be a fight, but it won't be a big one!" Chen Guangyao answered confidently, "Because these Russian troops arrived too quickly, they can't be real elite troops transferred from their hinterland.

If the Russians really have the strength to dispatch 20,000 elite troops to the outside of Jintang City without transferring troops from the hinterland, we will not be able to capture Jintang City.

Because they have such strength, they would come when we attacked last year.

Such a strong city is defended by 20,000 elite soldiers. We cannot take it down without 100,000 men, and we will need at least 20,000 to 30,000 guards and Beijing garrison troops."

"Then where do these people come from? At least the number cannot be faked. The reconnaissance ability of the Moxi Altan cavalry is still trustworthy." Yao Zhifu asked in great confusion.

"I guess there are probably about a thousand people who rushed all the way from the heart of Russia to help, and some are the garrison troops from Yekaterinburg. These are all their elite troops, no more than three thousand people.

The majority of the rest should be all the Ross settlers that the Ross commander could find in the Western Xianbei Icefield.

These settlers have certain military skills and generally will not be exposed unless they engage in combat.”

"Besides," Chen Guangyao smiled, "we actually have 13,000 elite soldiers here. If a fight really comes, we're not afraid."

The sounds of drums and horns with an oriental flavor reached the temporary camp of the Russian army.

Army General, Count Ivan Vasilyevich Gudovich, stood at the highest point of the watchtower and personally observed the Dayu army led by Dong Jinfeng.

The Mongolian light cavalry from the south of the desert, carrying the red flag with a golden sun and swastika, known as the Mingwang Banner, were spread out very widely, with thousands of cavalrymen running as if they were tens of thousands of cavalrymen.

They formed groups of three to five hundred riders, like a pack of wolves on the grassland, sometimes dispersing, sometimes gathering, driving away all the Russian cavalry they encountered to block the advance of the main force of the army.

Intermittent gunshots rang out, and smoke from the burning continued to rise over the vast plain. Count Gudovich clearly saw that his light cavalry was actually at a disadvantage and was being forced to continuously reduce its range of movement.

This made Count Gudovich frown even harder, because he could clearly see that after the revival of the Khitan dynasty, the Mongolian cavalry accompanying them also began to recover their combat effectiveness.

After the light cavalry drove out, a large number of mounted infantry marched in an orderly manner with various bright flags. The whole plate armor of a few cuirassier cavalry in the team continued to reflect light under the faint sunlight.

"The commander on the opposite side is really powerful. He realized so quickly that we are not from St. Petersburg." Count Gudovich said in a low voice, but he soon put on a smile.

"But he's not familiar with us yet. He doesn't know what a Slav is, what the Slavs of the Third Rome are, a great people who can endure extreme suffering and still maintain their fighting spirit."

"Tell the boys to prepare for battle. Go test the Khitans' strength and see if they can compare to the terrifying Mongol Qiexue of five hundred years ago."

Chen Guangyao did miscalculate one thing, because Count Gudovich brought not only one thousand people, but 3,500 elite soldiers selected from the Southern Legion, the legion that had just won the Sixth Russo-Turkish War.

But it was indeed difficult to defeat them, because Count Gudovich did not have much food at all.

The straight-line distance from Catherine Castle to here is 1,800 kilometers, and the Russian Empire simply does not have the projection capability.

Therefore, Count Gudovich only has a window of two to three months. If the opponent becomes tougher, he will have to withdraw his troops.

And now, it's time to test.

(End of this chapter)