Chapter 798: Murderous Wretches and Thieving Barbarians

On the twenty-second day of the eighth month, Bai Congxin and Hu Guang joined forces, and together with the three thousand men left to garrison Talas, their total strength came to fifty-four thousand horse and foot.

Of these, eleven thousand were horse and foot troops from the Han lands, and forty-three thousand were elite cavalry from the grasslands.

For Transoxiana, this was already a force capable of destroying a kingdom.

For the court of the Central Plains, even Gao Xianzhi's expedition to Talas in former days had not possessed such military strength; this was the most powerful force a Central Plains dynasty had projected into Transoxiana in over a thousand years.

Even counting Anxi, apart from the peak period of the Great Tang's Four Garrisons of Anxi in years past, there would have been no force comparable to this expedition.

Moreover, strictly speaking, accompanying Bai Congxin this time were also the Grand Protector-General of three myriarchies west of the desert and seventy to eighty thousand herders.

From among these, at least sixty thousand cavalry could still be conscripted, though their equipment and fighting ability could not be guaranteed; still, they were more than enough for support work, dirty jobs, and following along in battles already being won.

But what came with this was enormous logistical pressure. Luo Dingzhong had actually been right: the total population along the line from Suyab to Talas was only some two hundred thousand, and it simply could not support so many troops. Never mind sustaining them for three to five years, even one or two years would not be easy.

Fortunately, however, Luo Dingzhong had proposed a solution: take the city of Shiguo, and seize the grain that the city's governor Amir had stockpiled in preparation for rebellion. It was said to amount to around a million shi, and obtaining even half of it would remove all worry about logistics.

Outside the city of Talas, Bai Congxin led his men in paying respects to the Great Tang soldiers who had fallen in the old Battle of Talas, and by the way ordered the army's craftsmen to build a small shrine, so that sacrifices could be offered there in days to come.

Although this was all a matter of two hundred years past, at this very moment when Zhang Zhou was about to make the barbarians into subjects of the Xia, anything in Transoxiana that could be linked to the Great Tang had to be treated with great solemnity.

As for the city of Talas itself, it had originally held more than forty thousand people, most of whom were either die-hard followers of Guo Guangyi or clansmen of Li Guoshou.

There was naturally nothing more to say about this. As soon as Bai Congxin arrived outside the city, he immediately gave the order to have everyone inside bound and brought out.

"Have Luo Dingzhong pick three thousand men from those fourteen thousand, and start digging the pits!"

The fourteen thousand men Bai Congxin spoke of were, of course, those who had survived the three rounds of drawing one in three for execution by the Hu River.

These people truly made good oxen and horses for labor. If they kept being this obedient, Bai Congxin was even prepared to let them bring their families over later.

When the tens of thousands of people in Talas were bound by the hands and led out of the city, and saw that pits were being dug, they immediately burst into loud wailing.

Bai Congxin's expression did not change in the slightest. He immediately gave the order: apart from women in the prime of life who had childbearing value and infants, all the rest were to be shoved into the pits and buried alive.

Yao Yuanfu clicked his tongue. He had thought these fellows in Hexi, so thoroughly tamed by Sage Zhang, would not do this sort of thing. It turned out he had truly misjudged them. When they got ruthless, they were quite ruthless indeed.

Since entering Transoxiana, this Bai Congxin had first buried alive forty thousand men of the Nine Clans Oghuz, then by the Hu River carried out three rounds of drawing one in three for execution, killing another thirty-five thousand to build a mound of skulls, and now outside Talas he was killing another thirty thousand.

Mother of—! In less than a single month, this fellow had killed at least a hundred and five thousand people along the way. Compared with him, the ten thousand or so he himself had buried alive at Suyab was simply not worth mentioning.

"Yao Gong!" Yao Yuanfu was still marveling when he heard Bai Congxin calling him.

Although Yao Yuanfu was more than twenty years older than Bai Congxin, he no longer dared put on airs. Who knew whether this fellow might have developed a taste for killing and decide to bury him too.

"What instructions does the Grand Protector-General have?" Yao Yuanfu kept his posture very low.

Bai Congxin looked at him and said with a chuckle, "I received the surrender of over a hundred thousand women and children of the Nine Clans Oghuz below Mount Wuzonggachi, and this city of Talas still has tens of thousands of able-bodied women. Does Yao Gong not wish to secure a future for his lads?"

Yao Yuanfu fell silent for a moment. He understood Bai Congxin's meaning. With his great merit here in Transoxiana, he, Yao Yuanfu, could naturally return to the Central Plains in three or five years and enjoy high office, fine wine, and beautiful women in his retirement. But the old yabing guards under him could not.

These men had never been able to endure the discipline of the Great Zhou army's regulations, or had, to varying degrees, lost brothers, uncles, or nephews in the unification wars. Making them serve as soldiers in the court's army now would only make them uncomfortable.

Besides, they were no longer young. Even if they were willing to serve in the court's army, most would have to start over as common soldiers, which they could not adapt to, and the court would not necessarily want them.

So the best choice was to settle down right here in Transoxiana, become masters, and at the same time get on with the business of begetting sons and raising daughters.

"As long as they are willing to stay, each man gets three oxen, three camels, ten horses, one hundred sheep, two thousand mu of pastureland, five hundred mu of arable land, and five able-bodied women.

As for the rest of the serfs, however many they can seize, that is how many they get. If the land is not enough, I can even add more!"

As soon as Bai Congxin's words fell, not only Yao Yuanfu but the whole group of old yabing guards gathered around him were stunned.

This was, without question, an extremely generous offer. With such property, one would never have to worry about food and clothing for the rest of one's life.

"If anyone can gather five hundred men, I will even give him an official post!" Bai Congxin immediately added.

"Even give an official post? Does that mean if I go occupy some small tribe right now and declare them my serfs, you, Grand Protector-General, would recognize it?" The speaker had shifted from Yao Yuanfu to an old yabing guard with gleaming eyes.

Bai Congxin quickly nodded. "As long as you can make them all obey you, you are their official superior—even their lord."

"Would such a matter not require the Sage's permission? Can the Grand Protector-General decide it on his own?" Another yabing guard looked at Bai Congxin expectantly.

"Of course I can." Bai Congxin nodded. These old yabing guards had been out of touch with the court for too long and still did not know what he, Bai Congxin, was about, so he spoke plainly.

"The Sage has already agreed to enfeoff me with the four hundred li of land from Baishui City to Shiguo City. The state will take the surname Bai as its dynastic name, and be called the State of Bai."

The old yabing guards were collectively shaken. One quick-witted old yabing guard immediately clasped his hands and performed a solemn bow.

"It seems the Grand Protector-General is about to be promoted to Great King of a vassal state beyond the borders. I still have two brothers in the Central Plains. May they come here as well?"

"Naturally. As long as they are sons of the Great Tang, they may all come." Bai Congxin smiled. He could not have wished for more.

But the old yabing guard had a somewhat uneasy look on his face. He hesitated for a moment, then spoke truthfully.

"Before the Grand Protector-General, I dare not speak falsely. These two brothers of mine were once yabing guards of the Guide Army in Songzhou. They followed that fool Song Yanjun in surrendering to the Khitan. Though they have not been wanted by the court, they have done their share of robbery, theft, and murder. They are not law-abiding folk."

"Hahaha!" Bai Congxin burst out laughing. "What of killing? Who has killed more men than I, Bai Congxin?

What I want is exactly murderous wretches like your brothers. If they were not murderous wretches, how could they keep these barbarians all across Transoxiana under control?"

The old yabing guard suddenly remembered—right! This fellow had killed a hundred thousand men in a month. No matter who had done more evil, none was more steeped in wickedness than he!

Yao Yuanfu also suddenly understood. He now knew why Bai Congxin had said all this to him: he wanted Yao Yuanfu to help find the old yabing guards hiding in the mountains, forests, and marshes—men who dared not come out because of their past crimes—and send them to Transoxiana.

And rightly so! A place like Transoxiana could only be held down by such murderous wretches.

"I will not let Yao Gong work for nothing. For every murderous wretch who comes, I will pay Yao Gong five strings of cash."

On the twenty-eighth day of the eighth month, Bai Congxin left Li Jixun to hold Talas, while he and Hu Guang led forty-five thousand troops toward Baishui City.

Before they arrived, Talib, chieftain of the Kelike tribe, who had learned of the disastrous defeat at Hushui City, led his remaining ten thousand cavalry in a desperate flight back to their stronghold by the Leizhu Sea.

And as soon as they took Baishui City, Captain Zhang appeared with Guo Zhou'er. As for the black-robed family retainer, he did not even dare show his face.

Although Guo Tiance had obtained Zhang Zhao's tacit approval, it was still only tacit approval—an unspoken rule. That was why he dared not come. If Bai Congxin took the slightest displeasure, he could simply cut him down with one stroke.

To tell the truth, if Hu Guang had been in command, the black-robed family retainer might have dared to come. But Bai Congxin—this god of slaughter's reputation not only terrified the surrounding steppe tribes into not daring to speak loudly, even the black-robed family retainer, a fellow son of Tang and Han man, felt his heart quail.

Guo Zhou'er wore a tattered sheepskin jacket, with a silver-white gauze veil covering her mouth and nose, and led a boy and a girl, one by each hand.

There had originally been two boys and one girl, but when they were routed, one boy had been separated in the chaos. By now he had probably either been killed or devoured by wild beasts.

Although Bai Congxin did not soften when it came to killing, he knew Guo Zhou'er was not someone he could deal with. After thinking for a moment, he turned to Guo Guangcheng, who had just arrived, and said,

"I must trouble Commander Guo to dispatch one hundred picked cavalry to escort this woman, together with the traitor Guo, to the divine capital Luoyang, to await the Sage's judgment."

After that, Bai Congxin avoided Guo Zhou'er as though fleeing a plague.

But Guo Guangcheng quickened his pace a few steps and caught up with Bai Congxin. He had not come to plead for Guo Zhou'er, because there was no need — this woman's fate rested entirely with the Emperor, not something Bai Congxin could decide.

"Great Protector-General, Suyab is ten thousand li from the Divine Capital. For our tens of thousands of troops to march west and bring back only one Guo Guangyi seems a little meager. Better to seize a few more chieftains of weight, and have them all dance in homage together at the Purple Tenuity Palace in the Divine Capital."

Bai Congxin thought it over, found it reasonable, and chuckled.

"Then as Governor Guo says — send out the whole army, seize more rebel chieftains, and present them to the Sage."

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