Chapter 796: The First Profound Truth of War — How to Kill with Precision

The battle did not go as Guo Guangyi had imagined — just rounding up these fifty thousand head of... er, fifty thousand men would have taken the Zhou army a long time.

In fact, once Bai Congxin's troops arrived, the battle became simple.

Transoxiana and Persia — how to put it — their fighting strength sits at a very awkward middle tier, much like their way of production and life, which falls between farming and nomadism.

In infantry combat and elite cavalry, they are far inferior to the Chinese dynasties represented by the Han and Tang. Whenever a Chinese dynasty controlled Anxi, it would casually pull together some Anxi auxiliaries to do the dirty work, then thoroughly thrash them.

For example, my ancestor Zhang Xiaosong — that worthy fellow relied on a few hundred Tang soldiers to command over ten thousand Anxi auxiliaries, fighting all the way from Shule to Samarkand and Kabul, and gave the Arabs preparing to march into Transoxiana a little taste of Great Tang shock and awe.

At the same time, when it comes to light cavalry, the men of Transoxiana and Persia cannot match the hard cases of the southern and northern Gobi.

Historically, whenever the steppe peoples of the southern and northern Gobi migrated west, Transoxiana, Persia, and the like all suffered disaster — first the Western Liao, then the Mongols, both famous examples.

In fact, had the Hexi Corridor not suffered three hundred years of war that sharply reduced its population, and had the subsequent climate change not prevented a rapid population recovery, Zhang Zhao had no doubt that the historical Western Xia could have marched into Transoxiana as well.

The only brief moment they rose up was during that tiny window when the Heavenly Creed faith exploded outward and the Great Tang Empire was gradually collapsing — the Samanid Persians rose then.

But it lasted no more than twenty or thirty years, and then they quickly returned to their original tier.

So when they slammed headlong into the heavy infantry and elite iron cavalry of the Great Zhou, and were being sent fleeing in panic, they then slammed headlong into the steppe light cavalry from the great desert, brainwashed by the Six Dharma Sect.

The scene was like a father beating his son. Over thirty thousand steppe light cavalry seized these Transoxianan rookies and gave them a vicious thrashing. In no more than two hours, the first phase of the battle was completely over, and all that remained was pursuit.

In this battle, Guo Guangyi had marched out with fifty thousand troops, but over six thousand were cut down in formation, tens of thousands were wounded, more than forty thousand were captured, and no more than two thousand managed to escape — and even those would likely be found in the follow-up search.

After Bai Congxin and Hu Guang joined forces, Hu Guang produced the decree Zhang Zhao had issued long before, ordering Bai Congxin to immediately establish the Transoxiana Protectorate and the Transoxiana Field Headquarters.

Bai Congxin was appointed Grand Protector-General, Hu Guang Deputy Grand Protector-General, Yao Yuanfu and Lu Sanlang, Lu Zhen, as Deputy Protector-Generals, Guo Guangsheng as Marching Army Adjutant, Li Jixun and Pei Tongyuan as Left and Right Chief Troop Commanders of the Field Headquarters, with the army stationed at Talas.

Guo Guangcheng became Commander of the Suyab Protectorate, garrisoning Suyab to restore production.

Guo Guangyi was tied up outside the city of Hushui, his heart a dead ash, and at the same time even more shocked.

Only now did he begin to feel that he had indeed underestimated the Emperor's resolve — and even more so, the strength of a Central Plains dynasty.

Judging by current fighting strength, not only could the forty thousand elite cavalry Bai Congxin had brought across the great desert easily thrash him, but even if Hu Guang had led only a few thousand men into battle, he could not have withstood it.

Like Guo Tianfang, he now realized for the first time that heavenly troops truly existed, and that one Han was truly worth five barbarians.

Bai Congxin glanced at Guo Guangyi with disgust, then let his gaze pass over Hu Guang, Yao Yuanfu, and the others, and settle on Lu Sanlang in the distance and the military advisor Xue Shouli who had come with him.

"Cut out his tongue, sever the tendons in his hands and feet, but whatever you do, don't let him die — he still has to be sent back to the Divine Capital."

The meaning was clear: although Guo Guangcheng had not come over, this traitor should still be dealt with by your own people of the East-Returning faction.

Xue Shouli could no longer contain himself. He stepped forward, grabbed Guo Guangyi by the hair, and delivered four great slaps back and forth, striking until Guo Guangyi saw stars and blood streamed from his nose.

"You donkey-fucked wretch, you've truly disgraced your ancestors! How did our Five Surnames and Three Wangs produce a thing like you!"

Lu Sanlang came forward personally with a short knife. His emotions were a tangled mix — had Zhang Zhao not come to Anxi, he too might well have walked down Guo Guangyi's path.

Although Lu Sanlang was not well received among the Five Surnames and Three Wangs of the East-Returning faction, it was precisely for that reason that he needed to use this affair to strengthen the legitimacy of his identity.

Although Guo Guangyi had been beaten into a pig's head, when he saw Lu Sanlang coming up with the short knife, he instinctively wanted to say something — but how could Lu Sanlang allow his filthy words to defile everyone's ears?

So before Guo Guangyi could open his mouth, Lu Sanlang seized his jaw, twisted and wrenched it, and Guo Guangyi's jaw dislocated on the spot, leaving him completely unable to speak.

At the same time, a delicate little hook appeared in Lu Sanlang's left hand as if by magic. Somehow he reached into Guo Guangyi's mouth, which could no longer close, and hooked the tongue right out.

Then Lu Sanlang pulled the tongue out straight, stretching it until Guo Guangyi's eyeballs bulged from the pain, as if the tongue would be ripped out the next second — and then he slashed down hard with the dagger.

An inhuman scream rang out. Though Guo Guangyi was bound to a wooden post, his whole body shook as if jolted by lightning, veins bulging on his forehead, and his desperate struggling made even the post begin to tilt.

Only after the blood had drained Guo Guangyi's face deathly pale, his wailing had grown hoarse, and the clothes on his chest were entirely dyed red with blood did Lu Sanlang take out a small packet of medicine and hand it to the accompanying army physician.

"Sever the tendons in his hands and feet after his wound has healed. If you do it now, the pains will stack together and actually hurt less. Lock him in the livestock pen these next few days, and when the wound is nearly healed, come call me."

Guo Guangyi stared at Lu Sanlang in terror, his eyes filled with the despair of a man who wished he had died earlier.

Luo Dingzhong fell to his knees with a thud. The bodies in Hushui City had been cleared out. In all, more than 3,700 able-bodied men had died in battle, and more than 2,000 elderly, weak, women, and children had died from various causes. Of the total forty thousand people, more than one-eighth were gone.

Yet he knew the people of Hushui City had gotten off relatively lightly, because before his eyes, a massacre unlike any he had ever seen was underway.

The more than forty thousand defeated troops of Guo Guangyi, plus the several thousand able-bodied men captured from Baishui City, totaled about fifty thousand people, all dragged to the banks of the Hushui River.

Soldiers in heavy armor walked among the kneeling prisoners, and whenever one took a dislike to someone, he slapped a lump of mud onto the man's neck — and the marked man would shriek and wail in terror.

Luo Dingzhong knew why they wailed: anyone whose neck was marked with mud would soon be dragged aside, his head chopped off with one blow, his headless body shoved into a great pit these very men had dug beforehand, and his head tossed into a large basket.

Luo Dingzhong looked around, and suddenly realized what the soldiers were selecting for.

Among them, all those with fierce faces, defiant temperaments, disabled bodies, frail frames, or somewhat advanced age were marked with mud on the neck and then executed.

And those who were spared were all simple-faced, or so terrified they had soiled themselves — yet happened to look healthy and strong, with a bit of muscle on them.

This was not selecting people — it was selecting oxen and horses, the kind that would plow until they dropped dead and never dare make a sound.

Bai Congxin yawned. In the Central Plains, one rarely saw such scenes anymore, because every able-bodied laborer was precious.

Even those guilty of capital crimes were spared whenever possible. In the rebellion of the Wuning garrison at Xuzhou, most of the men had been pardoned and then tattooed and exiled to Andong.

But the able-bodied men of this place, precious as they were as productive labor, would have to make room — for the herders of the steppe and the farmers from the Central Plains.

From fifty thousand, first one in three was killed, then one in three again, and finally Bai Congxin still felt there were fierce-faced fish that had slipped the net, so he ordered one in three killed yet again.

After three consecutive rounds, fewer than fifteen thousand remained. Most of these were exactly as Luo Dingzhong had discerned — pure, qualified, true oxen and horses who would work until death without daring to utter a sound, and who by now had soiled themselves in terror.

"Order Military Advisor Wang to compose a memorial, Secretary Zheng to bring craftsmen to erect a stele, and build a mound of skulls here — let everyone see what fate awaits those who dare betray the Heavenly Dynasty!"

Bai Congxin slowly stood up. It was already late, and he planned to rest in the city for the night before hurrying on to Talas.

After all, there would surely be more battles to fight. The Kelike tribe was finished, and although Samanid Persia could not yet be swallowed whole, a gash still had to be torn open in it.

"Lord Bai, Lord Bai, please give the people of Hushui City a chance! Lord Bai, we know we were wrong."

Luo Dingzhong rushed out just as Bai Congxin was about to enter the city.

He was clever enough not to imagine that having proven their loyalty with 5,500 lives would earn them preferential treatment.

Hadn't the able-bodied men of Baishui City also resisted Guo Guangyi alongside them? Yet in the three rounds of one-in-three killings just now, they had received no special treatment at all.

Bai Congxin had not wanted to pay Luo Dingzhong any mind, but after mulling it over for a few seconds, he stopped.

Because all along the way, he had been thinking — thinking about what method to use to realize the Sage's vision of Xia rulers and Yi subjects, to fully occupy this land.

And everything Zhang Zhou was doing here was something neither the Han nor the Tang had ever done — there was no precedent to follow at all.

A few years ago, Bai Congxin's thinking had been simpler. He had believed that to occupy this place, one need only kill everyone here. Once the people were all killed, the land would naturally be emptied out.

But after these years of reflection and practice, Bai Congxin had come to realize that killing people was simply unrealistic.

The reason was very simple: although the Great Zhou wanted to come to Hezhong and replace the barbarians with Chinese, the army it could actually dispatch — or rather, the army that could remain in Hezhong for eight or ten years — amounted to only forty or fifty thousand men.

Any more than that, and the burden on the court would be too great. With forty or fifty thousand troops, to slaughter close to five million people, each man would have to kill more than a hundred — that was simply impossible.

And this was massacre, a completely different concept from killing enemies on a battlefield. Apart from a very few utterly inhuman wretches, the vast majority of people could not bear that psychological pressure.

Moreover, once people learned that you had come to exterminate them to the last, the fighting strength they would unleash could never be put down by a mere few tens of thousands of troops — to say nothing of how you would solve your supply problem once you had killed everyone.

The second problem, and the most intractable one, was that both the Central Plains and the great desert now suffered from a scarcity of people across vast lands.

In particular, the Central Plains commoners who were the pillar of replacing the barbarians with Chinese — attracting them to come to Hezhong was no easy matter.

If you told these commoners: come to Hezhong, each family will be given five hundred mu of land, come and farm it.

They would certainly think you were insane. Never mind five hundred mu — even a thousand mu would not be worth leaving one's homeland and traveling ten thousand li.

To make this life-and-death journey to Hezhong, only to end up farming again, still a peasant scratching a living from the soil — my brain isn't broken, and the Central Plains isn't a place where I can't survive.

The only thing that could attract them would be, besides land, also having servants, and being given wives. The same thousand mu of land — if you dryly offered only land, certainly few people would come.

But if, besides giving a thousand mu of land, you also attached eight to ten households of serfs to work that land — ah! The attraction would shoot up at once.

After all, in the former case you were still a peasant, just with a bit more land, and you would still face many unknown dangers — not quite worth it.

But in the latter case, although you might very well still have to farm, you would at least be a master now — your status and position would have risen.

Therefore, simple killing could not be used to pacify Hezhong and carry out replacing the barbarians with Chinese, and so Bai Congxin still wanted to hear the opinion of a native like Luo Dingzhong.

And this problem was one that Zhang Zhao, far away in Jinling Prefecture, had also considered. Never mind how the Anglos in history had been able to exterminate the Indians in North America — they had the fruits of the entire First Industrial Revolution behind them.

No matter how many people they killed, they never lacked grain or supplies, because great seagoing ships could bring them in endlessly, and at no great cost.

Once the land was seized, whether timber, furs, or ore, everything could be immediately converted into wealth, and thus attract more people.

But in this era, with a productivity of just over two hundred jin of grain per mu, that could never be replicated.

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