Chapter 1184: Banditry in the Northwest

A distance of thirty li was not too long for a lightly equipped carriage procession, and after the brothers Liu Yang and Liu Xu had finished their meal and conversation, they set out on the road back to the capital.

Liu Yang and Liu Xu rode together in the same carriage, even taking a brief nap along the way. By the time the carriage entered the city of Luoyang, it was nearly dusk, yet the two brothers were still deep in conversation.

"The Great Han today enjoys peace within the seas, the nation prosperous and the people at peace. Yet what worries our imperial father is, externally, Liao to the north, and internally, the northwest!" Liu Yang told Liu Xu of what he had recently gleaned from conversations with Emperor Liu, and sighed: "Though I have never personally visited the northwest, I am deeply concerned about the situation there. Elder Brother, having just completed your inspection tour of the northwest, what did you observe?"

"Before I departed, Father summoned me and gave me detailed instructions, and I took them deeply to heart, inspecting carefully!" Liu Xu said: "On this journey, I, along with Fourth Brother and the Prince of Dongping, passed through the prefectures of Lan, Liang, Ling, Xia, Sui, and Yan — one could say we covered the entirety of the northwest's main territories. On the whole, the situation in the northwest remains stable, and in the short term, there should be no unrest!"

"And in the long term?" Liu Yang followed up immediately, and as he asked this question, he unconsciously displayed the authority befitting the Crown Prince.

To this, Liu Xu's expression remained calm and untroubled, and he merely said composedly: "The greatest problem in the northwest is still that the ethnic groups are too complex — the various barbarians are numerous, while Han people are scarce.

Although over the past fifteen years the court has relocated nearly three hundred thousand people to the various circuits and prefectures of the northwest, compared to the vast northwestern region, it is still not worth mentioning. Especially in those remote prefectures and counties, barbarian speech fills the land. If the court wishes to maintain its rule, it has no choice but to adopt certain compromises — granting them self-governance and buying them off with official salaries."

Liu Yang nodded; of course he knew these circumstances: "The court still persists in the policy of relocation — this is a long-term national policy. However, by now, to carry out large-scale resettlement as in the past, by force, is no longer appropriate."

Liu Xu said: "Indeed! The people of the Great Han are deeply attached to their native soil and loath to move. Nor can we, for the sake of securing the northwest, undermine the stability of the Central Plains. The excellent situation the Great Han enjoys today was hard-won!"

After this sigh, Liu Xu continued: "For the circuits and prefectures of the northwest, even those recovered longest ago by the court are still far short of twenty years. Half of them were only gradually recovered after the Kaibao era began. Compared to the hundred-plus years they were lost, it is clearly impossible for the court to completely subdue them!

As for the various barbarians of the northwest — even those like the Tibetans and the Qiang who have always been obedient to the court — most are compelled by the court's overwhelming power. Now that the Great Han is strong, with four circuits in the northwest and over one hundred thousand troops stationed in total, with such a mighty force garrisoning the region, they naturally dare not make any move!"

The Great Han's northwest currently comprises four circuits. Besides the original Guannei, Longyou, and Hexi, a new Yulin Circuit has been established, with its seat at Xiazhou, governing the northern part of Guannei, reaching Lingzhou to the west, Yanzhou to the south, Fengzhou to the north, and bordering the Yellow River to the east.

Hearing this, Liu Yang said: "The four circuits of the northwest, with a total population of over three million, supporting an army of one hundred thousand, have always been unable to sustain themselves. Every year the court must allocate a special appropriation of one million to support them! Yet the northwestern army cannot be withdrawn!"

"This is still under conditions where the northwest situation remains stable. Even so, if this continues, the northwest will only devour more and more of the court's revenue. Should there be even minor unrest, the price the court pays to maintain stability in the northwest will be even greater!" Liu Xu said: "Public order within the borders must be secured, bandit rebels must be suppressed, and the Khitan must be guarded against!"

Saying this, Liu Xu gave a long sigh and continued: "Hidden dangers, if we remain vigilant and take them seriously, can still be prevented. But the most pressing matter is still those bandits scattered throughout Hexi, active in the deserts and gobi wastelands! Especially after the wars in the Western Regions subsided and the trade routes reopened, those horse bandits have grown ever more rampant! When Fourth Brother and I passed through Lingzhou, we personally experienced a horse bandit raid!"

"Such a thing happened!" Anger immediately surged across Liu Yang's face, but seeing that Liu Xu appeared unharmed, he restrained himself.

Liu Xu chuckled lightly: "It was merely a chance encounter. Fourth Brother, brave and resolute, personally led men to strike down the horse bandits and rescued the merchants who had been waylaid!"

But Liu Yang still wore an angry expression, his brows slightly furrowed: "The court has issued several edicts ordering all circuits to suppress bandits and purge the public order. The various regions have reported considerable success. How can there still be bandits so brazen as to alarm an imperial prince? Could the reports be false?"

Liu Xu shook his head: "The circuits and prefectures of the northwest naturally would not dare deceive the court on such a matter. In the early years of Kaibao, there were already signs of banditry resurging in the northwest. Over these years, the prefectural governments and garrisons have indeed conducted multiple bandit-suppression campaigns, striking at key targets, and have indeed wiped out over a dozen large-scale horse bandit gangs. However, they cannot be wiped out completely!"

"What is the root cause?" Liu Yang asked, getting to the crux of the matter.

The bandit problem had always been severely cracked down upon by the court. Within the vast territory of the Great Han, though banditry had not been completely eradicated, only a few remote regions still had this problem. One was the southwest, the other the northwest — and in terms of severity, the northwest was worse, and the destruction it caused was also in the northwestern region.

Liu Xu said: "The horse bandits of the northwest operate in small, agile bands, coming and going like the wind, appearing and disappearing in the great deserts and gobi wastelands. For the official army to pursue and suppress them is indeed no small difficulty. But most importantly, they have backing!"

Hearing this, Liu Yang said: "What backing does Elder Brother refer to?"

Noting Liu Yang's calm yet serious expression, Liu Xu said slowly: "I exchanged words with many officials in the northwest, and from their mouths I learned that the horse bandits mostly come from the various barbarian peoples of the northwest, and they often have countless tangled connections with the tribes among the various circuits and prefectures!"

"These barbarians, being subjects of the Great Han, actually dare to collude with bandits to cause harm and disrupt local order?" Liu Yang's brows knitted slightly.

"They naturally do not dare to collude openly, nor are all tribes like this. But even if it is only a small group, the harm they cause is already severe!" Liu Xu said: "Therefore, if we cannot sever the connection between the two, rooting out the bandit scourge of the northwest will be impossible. And the northwest has many tribes, but the land is vast and the population sparse — to distinguish among them and cut off the root of the calamity is extremely difficult!"

"If that is so, the bandit scourge of the northwest truly has become a chronic ailment!" Liu Yang's mind clearly raised its estimation of the severity of this situation.

Liu Xu continued: "Among these, the two main types of horse bandits are, first, Uyghur bandits, and second, Tangut bandits. As for the Uyghurs, no need to say much — the remnants of the Ganzhou Uyghurs, when the court pacified them with strong forces back then, many refused to submit, and thus a great number turned to banditry!"

"Back then, when we took Gansu to the west, Generals Wang and Guo killed too excessively — this is one of the lingering consequences!" Liu Yang immediately recalled the events of those years and sighed from the heart.

"Exactly so!" Liu Xu said: "Now in the northwest, the place most lacking in peace is Gansu. The Uyghur tribesmen harbor much resentment and hatred — a blood feud is not something that can be erased or forgotten in just a few short years!"

"As for the Tangut people, counting the scattered barbarians throughout the circuits, they are currently the most numerous tribe in the northwest. When the great army entered Xia, Sui, and Yin, most of the Tangut tribes submitted, and the Li clan and its great families were relocated inland. But of those who remained, there are still many unwilling to submit to the Great Han." Liu Xu continued: "Thus, many Tangut people have turned to banditry, and their connections with the numerous Tangut people of Xia and Sui are even closer — there have even been cases of them recruiting among the various tribes..."

"No wonder Father often says the Tangut people especially need to be guarded against!" Liu Yang could not help clenching his fist.

"I spoke with General Yang. In the wastelands north of Xiazhou, there is no lack of oases, and Tangut bandits often lurk within them. Previously, there was a fierce bandit gang that occupied an oasis called Dijin Marsh, wreaking great havoc, and their numbers once swelled to five hundred.

Later, Generals Li Jilong and Yang Yanzhao launched a surprise attack after a forced march of several hundred li and finally routed them. But once the official army withdrew, the remnants of the bandits gathered again. General Yang again dispatched troops to break them, and stationed soldiers to guard the area — only then was the bandit scourge at Dijin Marsh brought under control.

However, how could the court station soldiers to guard every single oasis? If it did, the burden on the court's northwestern garrisons would only increase!"

"The key still lies with those tribes that collude with the bandits, wavering between two sides, harboring treacherous intentions!" Liu Yang said coldly: "If they are not dealt with, the bandit scourge will never be pacified!"

"Indeed..."