Chapter 295 Contributing to the Tang Dynasty's Cause
"It's not surprising that the Western Turks dare not take any action." Xu Jingzong recalled and said, "In the 16th year of Zhenguan, it was this Ashina Helu who led his troops to harass the Anxi Protectorate, but was defeated by Guo Xiaoke. Now Guo Xiaoke is still in charge of the Anxi Protectorate. I don't think Ashina Helu has the courage to challenge him."

"Yes, that's right." Li Xiang nodded and said, "Although Ashina Helu has temporarily submitted to the Tang Dynasty, he is a man of evil heart and will never yield to anyone."

"But he had hit a snag in the Anxi Protectorate before, so he may not attack the Anxi Protectorate this time. If so, there is only one way left, which is to join the Xueyantuo army, unite the forces, and fight the Tang Dynasty first."

Having said that, Li Xiang flicked the hanging map with his fingers.

"If it is true as Your Highness guessed, then the Duke of England is in danger." Di Renjie lowered his eyes and said.

"Should we do something?" Xu Jingzong looked up and asked Li Xiang.

Li Xiang smiled and shook his head, saying, "We can think of this, and so can the Duke of England. Moreover, the Duke of England has 30,000 troops, plus the more than 50,000 troops from the northern tribes. If we combine our forces, it is enough - in this war, having more people does not necessarily mean you will win."

"The Duke of Ying is a veteran on the battlefield. Let's see how he defeats the bandits." Li Xiang made the final decision.

"Hmm..." Xu Jingzong could only nod: "I hope it's as your Highness said."

"Haha, you're right if you trust me." Li Xiang waved his hand and looked at Xu Jingzong again: "Within ten days, there will be results in the north. Let professionals worry about the war in the north. What we need to do is to maintain the great achievements of Wuqing's reform to prevent them from being destroyed by villains."

"Yes, Your Highness." Xu Jingzong responded, and looked at him again: "Your Highness, if someone is unwilling to cooperate..."

"Do you still need me to teach you how to do things?" Li Xiang curled his lips and said, "If someone doesn't know how to handle things, can't you, Old Xu, deal with him?"

"I understand, Your Highness," Xu Jingzong replied.

"Well, we must also be prepared for both situations... Have you passed on the order to recruit soldiers from the twelve prefectures of Deng, Lai, Qi, etc.?" Li Xiang asked.

"Your Highness, within five days, the troops from these twelve states will arrive in Youzhou." Xu Jingzong replied.

Li Xiang did not say anything after hearing this, but just nodded slightly, glanced at the map again, and continued: "Make full preparations. Even if these twelve state soldiers do not need to go to the battlefield, it is also good to send them to collect and manage prisoners of war."

When it comes to his ability to get things done, Xu Jingzong was indeed first-rate. Three days later, the troops from the twelve states arrived in Youzhou one after another.

After careful consideration, Li Xiang decided to keep these soldiers in Youzhou for the time being. Wuqing was a treasure trove anyway, so he was not worried about not being able to support these soldiers.

Among the twelve states, the soldiers of Dengzhou had the best living conditions on weekdays. They were all allocated salt fields and had enough money to live a good life. The next were the soldiers of Laizhou. They benefited from the development of Dengzhou, reaped the dividends of the times, and got on the bus to take off with the rest.

In the remaining ten states, living conditions cannot be said to be bad, at least people have enough food to eat.

The treatment given by Li Xiang was far beyond the daily expenses of the people in these ten states, and was even comparable to the living standards of the soldiers in Dengzhou and Laizhou.

Naturally, the soldiers from these twelve prefectures had no complaints. They didn't have to go to the battlefield, nor did they have to work. They just stayed in Youzhou and were served with delicious food and drinks. What a wonderful life.

However, Li Xiang did not let them sit idle, and they still had to train the soldiers.

At the same time, Li Shiji's troops also arrived at Xueyantuo's tent.

The so-called yazhang is the location where the Turkic Khan is located, which is equivalent to the royal city of the grassland people.

Bazhuo had already made preparations for this. He joined forces with Ashina Helu, a total of 150,000 people, and his confidence was greatly inflated.

As the saying goes, when the number of soldiers reaches 10,000, they are boundless; when the number of soldiers reaches 100,000, they can stretch the land and the sky. This is the situation between the Xueyantuo and the Tang army now.

The grassland was flat, and the two armies' battle array stretched for dozens of miles.

The Xueyantuo originally planned to attack first and send out cavalry to harass the Tang army's main camp, but they were stopped by Ashina Helu.

He planned to lead his troops forward personally.

After all, this was the other party's good intention, so Bazhuo did not stop him and agreed to Ashina Helu's request.

In Bazhuo's opinion, Ashina Helu is really a good brother!

Not only did they help him fight, but they even took the lead and charged forward.

What kind of spirit is this? This is a good brother who sacrifices himself for others!

We grassland people are such men!
However, he actually had a little idea in mind, if it didn't consume Xueyantuo's strength, then why not do it?

Ashina Helu led 30,000 cavalrymen and launched an attack towards the Tang army.

The cavalrymen of Uighur and Khitan faced off against Ashina Helu.

They had been fighting with the Xueyantuo for a long time and were familiar with their tactics. However, they suddenly encountered the Western Turks. In a hurry, they fought with the Western Turkic cavalry and gained no advantage. Even Tumidu's nephew Wuhe was killed in the battle.

The Uighur and Khitan cavalry could not withstand the attack of the Western Turks and retreated in a hurry.

Seeing this, the Western Turks continued to press forward and pursue.

Seeing that the front army had been defeated, Li Shiji ordered the cavalry to dismount, and he himself took the lead, holding a long spear, and charged straight into the Western Turkic army without fear.

The Western Turks were no match for the Tang army. As soon as they started fighting, they were defeated.

In an instant, the Western Turks were defeated and fled in panic.

When Li Daozon saw that the Western Turks were defeated, he took 4,000 cavalrymen from his own army and more than 6,000 cavalrymen from the Tongluo, Adie and Pugu tribes and rushed straight towards the direction of the Western Turks' defeat.

The Western Turks were unable to withstand the Tang army's offensive, and their defeated soldiers rushed to the front of the Xueyantuo army, disrupting it.

Li Shiji and Li Daozon seized this opportunity and took advantage of it to disrupt the Xueyantuo people.

The Xueyantuo people were first attacked by the defeated Western Turkic soldiers, and then by the Tang army. They could not withstand the offensive at all and were quickly defeated. No matter how Bazhuo shouted and cursed, they could not muster the will to resist.

Why are you still resisting? There are only a few cows and sheep every month. Why are you risking your life?
In fact, to be fair, if there had not been the attack of the defeated Western Turkic soldiers, the Xueyantuo people could have managed to hold on for a while, at least they would not have been defeated today.

However, the world is so unpredictable, and the Xueyantuo people were defeated completely.

Next, the coalition forces began to capture prisoners all over the mountains.

The grassland people who had lost their organization were even worse than pigs and dogs. They had no intention of resisting at all. As long as they were stopped, they would immediately kneel on the ground and surrender.

While the coalition forces were capturing prisoners, Ashina Helu also led his troops to escape.

The panicked Duomi Khan Bazhuo fled westward with the remaining 70,000 people. However, a few days later, he was intercepted by the Uighur Khan Tumidu on the road. Bazhuo was captured alive by the Uighurs in the battle, tied up and sent to the Tang army. Ashina Helu was more unlucky. He encountered three ambushes on the road. The first was by Li Daozong, the second was by the Tongluo tribe, and the third was by the Pugu tribe.

After three ambushes, his troops were almost completely wiped out.

He fled westward with a few remaining soldiers, but after a few days, he fell into a hunter's trap.

This hunter was a Han Chinese. When he saw that he had captured the frightened big shot from the grassland, he was very decisive. He used a fork to stab several people around the big shot to death one by one, leaving this "big shot" alone.

Just when he was worrying about what to do, Li Daozon's troops found him.

After learning that this man had captured a Turkic dignitary and confirming that he was indeed Yehu Ashina Helu of Western Turkic Khaganate, Li Daozon was extremely happy. He had people reward the hunter with a lot of money and also recorded a credit for his achievement. His reward would be decided by the court after all the merits were determined.

The hunter was a little hesitant at first, but after hearing that the person who made the promise to him was the Prince of Jiangxia, he simply let them take Ashina Helu away.

Just kidding, if it were someone else, the hunter would be worried that his achievement would be taken credit for - but the prince would not.

Five days later, Li Shiji also counted the spoils of this battle.

A total of 110,000 prisoners were captured, including Western Turkic cavalry and Xueyantuo people.

There were definitely some deserters who could not be captured, but they were not many.

This wave really made a fortune. The Tang army headquarters captured more than 30,000 people, and the rest were captured by other tribes.

Li Shiji thought that the Crown Prince would lose money this time, but he was not worried because he knew how rich the Crown Prince was.

Not to mention others, his youngest son Li Siwen always followed Li Xiang and also got a lot of dividends.

Li Xiang did not have any discrimination towards Li Siwen.

After all, surrendering to Wu Mei is something that will only happen in the future. Besides, Li Xiang has the confidence that he can make Li Siwen loyal to him.

He understood Li Siwen. After all... Li Zhi's two sons at that time were really hopeless.

There are Li Xian and Li Dan. Li Xian can say such nonsense as "I can give the world to Wei Xuanzhen", and Li Dan... Li Dan is good at protecting himself, but he is not suitable to fight against Wu Zetian.

After gathering the captives and counting the number of captives captured by each tribe, Li Shiji led his army and spoils and marched towards Youzhou in a mighty force.

At the same time, Li Shiji did not forget to send a letter to report the victory. He sent two groups of people, one to Youzhou and the other to Chang'an, to report the victory to Li Xiang and Li Shimin respectively.

The reason for reporting the victory twice was naturally very simple. After all, Li Xiang was also a monarch, the crown prince, and the Grand Chancellor of Hebei and Henan Provinces. Of course, the victory had to be reported to him, so that he could then focus on the Andong Protectorate.

Four days later, on August 27, Li Xiang received a report of victory from the north.

"Great, great!" Li Xiang clapped his hands on the table in delight. "Duke Ying has made a great contribution this time. He defeated 150,000 with 80,000 men, killed more than 10,000 people, and captured 110,000 people. This is truly a great achievement!"

"Your Highness, it seems that you are too happy too early." Xu Jingzong took the letter and glanced at it, trying to get Li Xiang back to his senses: "The total number of prisoners of our army is 30,000, and the rest are all captured by the grassland people. You have to pay for this."

"Go!" Li Xiang waved his hand, "Isn't it just money? What else do I need? Not only the grassland people, but also the 30,000 people captured by my Tang army this time, I will also reward them according to the price of buying prisoners!"

"This... Your Highness, there is no need to spend so much money, right?" Xu Jingzong raised his head and said, "Our army has its own rules for rewards and punishments, so it is not appropriate to give additional rewards."

"Yes, Your Highness, please think twice about this matter." Everyone said.

Now that everyone said so, Li Xiang also came to his senses.

The army has its own laws. Whoever captures prisoners alive and whoever obtains the emblem will be awarded. The military merit system is clearly arranged, and it is indeed not appropriate to give additional rewards.

"You are right. I am a little excited." Li Xiang nodded with a smile and said, "Then prepare a celebration banquet. When the Duke of Ying and others return, we will welcome them back!"

"Yes, Your Highness!" everyone responded.

Li Xiang was still a little excited. There were 110,000 people!
One hundred and ten thousand people, what does that mean?
Guangshen can use it as consumables to build one-tenth of Luoyang!

Of course, people certainly cannot be so harmful. Li Xiang already had plans for these captives.

People are needed in the mines, people are needed to dredge the canal, people are needed to transport goods, and people are needed to build Wuqing. So just leave these captives in Youzhou and go to Liaodong to let them do the work.

Not only these people, Li Xiang also set his sights on Silla and Andong Protectorate which were still in the midst of battle.

The Japanese...well, it's right to let the Japanese mine.

Capture more Japanese and make them suffer. At least they won't be blamed.

The Tang Dynasty needs people now. It needs people to do everything, and there is a serious shortage of labor.

Li Xiang's head started to hurt because of the labor.

It's time to collect more prisoners and let them contribute to the construction of the Tang Dynasty.

However, there was not much money in the Youzhou treasury, so Li Xiang wrote a letter and had it delivered to Chang'an, asking Li Su to transfer some money from the treasury closest to Youzhou to Youzhou.

Although there is no need to buy the 30,000 prisoners from the Tang army, the business with the grassland people still needs to be done.

Li Xiang was afraid that favoritism would cause resentment among the Tang army, but after being persuaded by Xu Jingzong and others, he finally understood that rewards should be given based on military merit, so he saved this part of the money.

On September 3rd, money was also transferred to Youzhou.

With the money, Li Xiang felt more at ease.

The next step was to welcome Li Shiji and Li Daozon, and then purchase captives from the leaders of the various grassland tribes.

Thinking of the spoils of war, Li Xiang suddenly remembered that this time the spoils of war included not only captives, but also Xueyantuo's cattle and sheep, as well as the treasures in the yamen.

The rule of the Tang army was that the spoils of war of the Tang alliance army belonged to themselves, so after considering it, Li Xiang felt that he should not only buy prisoners, but also pick and choose the spoils of war from the various tribes on the grassland and buy some back.

(Ask for monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)