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Dayan Ochir Khan's several thousand troops were in a panic like dogs that had lost their homes. They were forced by Hao Yaoqi and Han Gang into the mountains in the upper reaches of the Datong River. There was no way out for them, and it was estimated that they would starve to death in the mountains soon.
Qin Zuoming seized Xining City while he was victorious. This gateway to Qinghai-Tibet was no longer as important as before, because Gao Yigong's 15,000-man army had already crossed Qinghai Lake and was heading towards Lhasa. Lhasa is a Tibetan transliteration, and some people also translate it as Lhasa.
In fact, among the more than 50,000 troops brought into Longyou by Gushri Khan, nearly half were young and strong men drawn from various Tibetan tribes, and most of them have now become prisoners.
Qin Mu would not keep these captives in vain, so he selected 3,000 of them to form an army. Although it was not called a vassal army, in fact these 3,000 young and strong Tibetans were the vassal army.
This has one advantage: they are familiar with the terrain, climate, tribal distribution, etc. of Qinghai-Tibet, so it would be best to have them as the lead.
At the same time, they could be asked to do hard, dirty, and unpleasant work. Moreover, this different treatment from the Mongols played a great role in prompting the Tibetan tribes to submit.
As the army advanced rapidly into Qinghai-Tibet, the Dasima, Arige and other tribes surrendered one after another.
According to Qin Mu's intention, Gao Yigong ordered every Tibetan tribe that came to submit to him to provide food and fodder, and at the same time, he transferred 60% of the Qinghai-Tibet people to follow him into Tibet to "clean up the remnants of Gushri Khan."
The annihilation of Gushih Khan's 50,000-man army caused an unimaginable shock to Qinghai-Tibet. At this time, all the Tibetan tribes dared not disobey Gao Yigong's request.
Moreover, Gao Yigong also guaranteed that any spoils of war after the elimination of the remnants of Gushri Khan would be divided according to the proportion of the number of troops sent by each unit.
In this way, when the army led by Gao Yigong crossed the Dajishi Mountain and arrived near the source of the Yellow River, Zhaling Lake, the total force had increased to 20,000, which was quite a powerful force.
At this time, the weather was getting colder and colder. But this was not what Gao Yigong was most worried about. The soldiers had prepared thick winter clothes and even had special leather gloves made for their hands for protection.
Gao Yigong was worried that a large number of Qin soldiers would suffer from altitude sickness. This was the issue he asked about most during their daily march.
Perhaps the Sedum red taken early in the morning had an effect. Although the advance was very fast this time, not many soldiers suffered from altitude sickness.
This good news made Gao Yigong feel very proud. As long as the soldiers didn't suffer from acclimatization, there was nothing to worry about.
This time, he brought 1,500 Type 68 rifles and 30 rocket launchers. With the momentum of a great victory, Gao Yigong did not believe that anyone could stop him from conquering Qinghai and Tibet.
Since ancient times, there have been few Han generals who could conquer Qinghai-Tibet. If he could accomplish this great feat, his merit would be enough to be recorded in the official history.
It was Yu Shangyou who accompanied the army into Tibet. Gao Yigong was in charge of the march and fighting, while he was in charge of dealing with the leaders of the various Tibetan tribes. The two of them, one civil and one military, worked together.
The weather in Qinghai-Tibet is terrible, needless to say. And with winter approaching, it is hard to imagine that under such circumstances, there were still seven caravans following Gao Yigong and his team into Tibet.
The seven caravans had a total of nearly 500 people. They were even more hardworking than the soldiers. Although they were carrying a large amount of goods, they were able to follow the army's footsteps without falling behind. Their desperate spirit made the Qin soldiers feel ashamed.
This phenomenon shows how fast Daqin's business has developed in recent years, how fierce the domestic competition is, and how eager merchants are to expand abroad.
Now the Qin army, whether it is the army or the navy, has formed a very special relationship with the merchants. The army is happy to provide the necessary protection to the merchants, and the merchants also like to follow the army's footsteps, providing the army with various conveniences while also relying on the army to make money.
No minister in the court has impeached this phenomenon, and although Qin Mu did not support it openly, he was secretly happy to see it happen.
As far as Qin Mu knew, this model of combining military and commerce was the driving force behind Western colonial expansion.
In the back hall of Lanzhou Prefecture, Lady Hong was talking to Qin Mu about this matter. To be more precise, Lady Hong was reminding him to be careful: "Your Majesty, this is not a solution. It will easily lead to collusion between the generals and profiteers. We cannot take this lightly. One of them is in charge of the army, and the other is rich. If they really collude, the consequences will be unpredictable."
After the great victory, Qin Mu was in a good mood and had fed her well these past few days. The skin on her face was noticeably more supple, and she even unconsciously revealed a hint of laziness.
Qin Mu paced around the room with his hands behind his back. He had to be on guard against what Hong Niangzi said. If money and guns were combined, once someone really rebelled, the consequences would be serious.
"Ying'er, you gave me a good reminder. I will find a way to prevent this."
Lady Hong frowned and asked, "Your Majesty, isn't it okay to just stop them from doing this?"
Qin Mu shook his head and said, "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater."
Military expansion is not the fundamental goal, but only a means to expand the circulation of goods.
The result of commodity circulation is to ensure that the army has an inexhaustible source of funds.
On the other hand, the social status of Chinese merchants was too low, which was extremely unfavorable for promoting the Industrial Revolution.
In the Ming Dynasty, no matter how rich you were as a businessman, you had to wear linen clothes, and your descendants could not even take the imperial examinations.
In short, all kinds of discrimination make businessmen think about buying land once they have money, and try every means to get rid of the identity of "lowly merchant" and change their identity to "landlord", instead of thinking about continuing to expand the scale of business.
This will not only accelerate land annexation, but also make it difficult for the industrial revolution to occur.
The Qin Dynasty adopted the policies of the Song Dynasty, encouraging industry and commerce, and did not stipulate that the children of merchants could not participate in the imperial examinations. However, the concept of "despising merchants" could not be eliminated in people's minds all at once.
If businessmen can be combined with the powerful machine of the army, it will be beneficial to both businessmen and the army.
Of course, Qin Mu would never allow the domestic garrison to have any interaction with the merchants, but he might as well turn a blind eye to the army that was expanding outward.
Hong Niangzi is quite sensible. Since she went to the war, she has actually crossed the line that the harem is not allowed to interfere in politics. This is Qin Mu's tacit approval of her during this special period, but if she does not know when to advance or retreat, it will definitely disgust Qin Mu.
"I have said everything I need to say, Your Majesty, I hope you understand."
It is not enough to just be aware of it, but also to take concrete preventive measures. Qin Mu was thinking about how to prevent it when a little girl reported outside the door: "Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty, Lord Li sent a message saying that there is good news from Nanjing, the Queen gave birth to a prince, both mother and child are safe, and Concubine Song also gave birth to a princess..."
When Qin Mu heard this, he couldn't help but clap his hands and said to the little maid, "Go quickly and call Li Shi in. I want to ask him clearly."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Lady Hong came up with a smile, bowed her head and said, "I congratulate Your Majesty. Congratulations, Your Majesty."
Qin Mu laughed and stretched out his hand to count: Qin Ye, Qin Mingyue, Qin Jing, and now with one more son and one daughter, he now had three sons and two daughters.
"A sign of the prosperity of the royal family, a sign of the prosperity of the royal family, hahaha..." Qin Mu laughed and said, "This is not enough. The world is so big, I must give birth to more sons, hahaha..."
When Hongniang heard what he said, she was secretly delighted. It sounded like he wanted to divide the land among his sons. However, this question was too sensitive and she didn't dare to ask more.
Li Shi came in hurriedly, bowed, congratulated Qin Mu happily, and repeated the news from Nanjing.
"I just defeated the Khoshut army and this son was born. Great, let's call him Qin Polu. As for the daughter..." Qin Mu was so happy that he immediately wanted to name the son and daughter, "What should I call my daughter?"
"Your Majesty, why not call her Shuangxi..." Hongniang hurriedly said.
"Qin Shuangxi?" Qin Mu asked back, and Hongniang's face immediately turned red. She was not well educated, and she said it out loud when she thought of the gimmick of "double happiness coming to the door". After she said it, she realized that it was a bit vulgar to call the dignified Princess of Qin Shuangxi.
She quickly changed her words and said, "Your Majesty, how about calling me Bi Yao? How about Qin Bi Yao?"
"Hey, this name is not bad, Ying'er, you are really good."
Lady Hong said uncomfortably, "This is not what I came up with. It was the name given by Your Majesty to the Biyao Gold Mine."
"Gold mine, a fortune, yeah, it's good after all, I'll call her Biyao, hahaha..."
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ps: Today, a girl next door is getting married, so I have to go and help entertain the guests... But don't worry, I worked hard until midnight last night to code today's chapter. I will continue to update twice a day, and I ask for double monthly votes and annual work votes! (To be continued...)
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