Chapter 438: New Commandery

The last Zangma bear collapsed, the assassin's halberd of Dayin Valley declared failure, and Shangdang completely lost its ability and will to resist.

The air was filled with a nauseating smell of blood, when the silver armor of the Snow Cavalry was completely dyed red, the sun rose overhead, and the slaughter ended.

The Northern Border King slaughtered all the armored Qiang people of Shangdang.

The Great King sat expressionless on the horse, gazing at the earth-and-stone fort ahead, when the guards asked whether they should first clear out the residence of the Great Hero and go inside to rest, the Great King shook their head.

"Have people clean it thoroughly; once cleaned, push it all over for me! It's filthy!" the Great King would rather stay in their own tent.

This cleaning refers to valuable spoils of war.

Wei Shen removed the face covering, standing beside the fallen warhorse, eyes wet. His platinum wild horse had its neck slashed by the bear's claws, the vertebrae already broken.

When everything ended and the Great King came over, it only had one breath left.

The Great King lifted their armor, took out two pieces of peanut candy from the inner pocket, crouched down, pried open the platinum wild horse's mouth, and slipped them in.

"Your favorite candy… goodbye."

Wei Shen heard this, tears immediately fell from his eye sockets; no matter how tall he grew, he was still just a youth. He had grown up in the army since childhood; the status of a warhorse in a cavalryman's heart goes without saying; this was his best companion. His horse loved peanut candy the most; this thing is expensive to buy, so he would constantly find ways to flatter and beg at the Suiyu Hall to get some for it.

"I gave that pill from my armor to it to eat, but it seems too late; I should have come back earlier."

"That pill can't bring the dead back to life. Turn around, return to Youzhou and I'll buy you another just like it."

Wei Shen shook his head. "That's not this horse either. I won't like platinum-colored horses anymore."

Great King: …

The Great King could understand him; if his White Dragon or Little Jujube died so tragically, the Great King wouldn't ride the same kind again.

After the battle, blood stained vast stretches of grassland, and Dayin Valley was also brought under control.

Besides Wei Shen's warhorse, the sudden charge of the Zangma bears also caused many casualties, fortunately all within controllable limits.

The objective achieved, the mission moved into post-battle cleanup, and the Great King began staying in their own tent.

The next day, statistics showed that nearly two thousand Jin people from the surrounding areas of Dayin Valley had been captured and enslaved, both men and women.

"Free them. They can return to Jinhui, or continue living here; anyway, this place will also be mine… Wait! Don't let them go yet, I'll think again." This person's thoughts shifted quickly, and they changed their mind.

The Great King stayed here for two days, finally seeing from the map that Tang Qian had arrived at Jinhui.

Old Tang dared not delay, marching urgently to reach Jinhui; his first task was to carry out the verbal order left by the Great King, ordering that upon arriving at Jinhui he immediately send people to Longxi to take control of the Longxi Governor Zhang Fangtong's entire family, exactly, the whole family.

Capturing a governor doesn't require so many people; leaving a few would suffice. Tang Qian was planning to bring the remaining troops to support the Great King, but Lord Zhetian arrived first.

The Great King ordered him to send Zhang Fangtong and the male members of the Zhang family to Dayin Valley, while placing the women and children in Jinhui.

Others were busy with post-battle settlement, while the Great King idled in the royal tent, thought a lot, and also went to see their dog-headed strategist Bai Ge.

The conclusion reached was that Shangdang's territory was not bad, and the Great King wanted it.

There should be a large Hetian jade mine here, plus the Yellow River and lakes, the pastures are also quite suitable for grazing; except for some high-altitude areas, it's much better than the stretch of Liangzhou near the Yumen Pass.

The Great King had already taken it all; there was no reason to hand it over to other Qiang tribes, so the Great King had to establish a regime, deploy troops to occupy, make it actual possession, in order to obtain the full topographic map.

The Great King had even decided on the name for the new commandery, and would absolutely not let go.

The governor of this new commandery was the first problem; neither Jinhui nor Longxi had anyone to fill it, and for Shangdang there was even less of a choice. Thinking of the hateful Longxi Commandery, the Great King had a brainwave and got it.

"What's the point of killing Zhang Fangtong? It's not like you like to flirt with the Qiang people, so why not—come mine for us!"

Mine some foreign exchange for me, and you won't die too soon.

Tang Qian received the Great King's letter, learned that Shangdang had already been taken, and almost gasped in disbelief. Really? Five hundred people had conquered a major Western Qiang tribe that could be counted on the fingers?!

After thinking more about the quality of the Great King's Eagle Riders and Snow Cavalry, he also thought it possible, then began to crave, specifically manifested by first scolding the five thousand elites he had brought.

After scolding, he left a thousand troops to garrison Jinhui and led four thousand straight for Longxi.