Chapter 1223 – Xihai Province

Mongol Empire, Karakorum.

Genghis Khan had been playing close attention to the Battle of West Xia. The moment the Great Xia Army was invited and officially interfered, he knew that the Empire had no chances of winning the battle.

If they wanted to win, they would have to send more troops toward West Xia.

That could change a small side battle into an uncontrollable large scale war. The Empire could increase their troops in the region but so could Great Xia. Moreover, Great Xia’s speed would be faster, and their scale would be larger.

“Send orders to Tolei; tell him to immediately retreat from West Xia. He must not stay and fight or else he will have to face military law.”

“Yes!”

Genghis Khan was even more decisive than Tolei and knew when to give up. Although this battle was not a total success, they had obtained a huge amount of resources and solved the empire’s burning problems.

As for how to solve the remaining grain shortage issue, that was a problem for another day.

If they fought on, they might even suffer losses. Genghis Khan never did businesses that he would make losses in.
…
Tolei did not dare to disobey his orders.

12th month, 19th day, Tolei gathered up Muqali remaining troops, a total of 250 thousand troops, to bring back the huge quantity of resources from West Xia.

For this batch of resources, the Mongol Empire had lost 150 thousand elite cavalry. As such, it was not hard to imagine why Tolei would feel annoyed and unwilling when he was asked to retreat.

Tolei hated the kill stealing Great Xia to the bone.

Seeing the Mongol army retreat, Yeli Wangrong was even more unwilling. He did not bother about Li Yuanhao’s orders and personally led 50 thousand troops to chase them and try to delay their retreating speed.

Tolei, who had a lot of pent up frustration, worked together with Muqali. They turned around to face the enemy, once again crushing Yeli Wangrong’s forces. Even Yeli Wangrong himself was shot to death by Tolei.

This battle also signaled the end of the Battle of West Xia.

Three days later, Li Mu led his troops into Xingqing House and accepted the defense of the city from the West Xia army, signaling that the West Xia country was now a part of history.

From this day on, Great Xia’s Eagle legion corps’ base would shift from Shu Lands to West Xia, becoming the elite troops to defend against the Mongol Empire.

Along with the Shu Han Dynasty submitting, there were no more hidden problems in the Shu Lands and having the Bear legion corps there was enough.

After receiving orders from the warzone headquarters and the Privy Court, the West Xia army, apart from some that were taken by the Eagle legion corps to replenish their loses and some to build garrison forces, the remaining 200 thousand were disarmed.

With the size of the Great Xia Army, they could not expand easily. Hence, even though the 200 thousand West Xia troops that survived were elites, Ouyang Shuo had no choice but to do just that.

Moreover, after this battle, West Xia had suffered a population loss, especially in terms of able-bodied men. These men would help to replenish their production.

Ouyang Shuo had already ordered the Civil Affairs Department to move a batch of Han people over from the Shu Lands to West Xia to replenish their population.

As for his plans for Li Yuanhao and West Xia, that would have to wait till the imperial decree arrived.
…
The moment news of West Xia submitting to Great Xia spread out, there were many jealous parties.

On the surface, Great Xia had done nothing to occupy the huge West Xia country. In truth, not just anyone could have taken advantage of that situation.

For example, the neighboring Qin country.

Even if Li Yuanhao was willing to lead West Xia to surrender to Qin, they would not have enough strength to protect Li Yuanhao from the Mongol Empire.

The Mongol Empire also would not retreat without engaging like now.

Great Xia had used its huge strength and invincible authority in China to successfully reclaim West Xia. If it were any other country, they would not be able to do that.

Moreover, accepting West Xia was not a good thing from a short term standpoint because it meant that there were over 10 million hungry civilians asking the Imperial Court to dish out relief grain.
…
12th month, 25th day, Shanhai City.

After days of discussion, the plans of the Imperial Court had finally been settled.

First, the decree for Li Yuanhao. Due to the fact that they had chosen to submit under special circumstances and did not have a strong foundation, the Cabinet only gave him 1st class Marquis.

Moreover, he could not stay in Xingqing House and had to move to Shanhai City.

Such an arrangement was due to the fact that West Xia had a huge congregation of Qiang people, and he had a great amount of influence on them. Once the calamity passes and life returned to normal, who knows whether they would gather by his side and try to ask for gains for their race.

This was something that Ouyang Shuo did not want to see no matter what.

Of course, Great Xia had always focused on equality and would treat the Qiang people well.

Next would be the administrative planning regarding the West Xia territory.

Li Yuanhao used Xia as the country title when he established the country. As he was in the west, the Song people called it West Xia.

Hence, the country title of West Xia unavoidably triggered Great Xia, and they could not directly call it West Xia Province. Another name had to be thought of.

Ouyang Shuo wanted to be lazy and use the Qing Dynasty land as reference to call it Qinghai Province. It was Jiang Shang who recommended calling it Xihai Province.

There was a reason for that.

The name of Qinghai Province came from the Qinghai Lake in its territory. Xihai was the olden term for Xihai Lake. Changing it to Xihai Province not only fit, but it was also right opposite to Donghai Province, making the name really suitable.

Ouyang Shuo naturally agreed.

Next, they needed to decide on the Provincial Governor.

Ouyang Shuo insisted on his bold theory of using native people, promoting Wuzhou Prefecture Governor Cui Shousi.

Cui Shousi was the pride of the Cui Family and joined the territory when it was at the county stage, rising up from Country Magistrate to Prefect to Administration Director of Zhenan Prefecture to Wuzhou Governor.

This promotion meant that he was finally a truly important official.

In a short few years, he went from a county magistrate to a primary Grade 3 ranked Provincial Governor, forming the two pillars of the Cui Family along with his sister.

This was because local officials had a higher chance of being promoted compared to officials in the court.

Hence, it was not hard to understand why some officials in the court loved to go out to the local regions to train up and learn and obtain the chance to be promoted.

Replacing him was a special person.

This person was called Ouyang Heng, and he was just a normal, unassuming official in the Imperial Court before he was selected by Ouyang Shuo. This promotion officially raised him up into the eyes of everyone.

It was not that he was really talented, rather, it was because of his special identity.

Ouyang Heng was Ouyang Shuo’s distant third uncle and could be considered half a royal relative. He was one of the top people in the Ouyang Family, and his promotion signaled the gradual appearance of the royal family.

The Cabinet and the Imperial Court did not discuss this matter.

The matters of the royal family were not to be discussed by others.
…
Royal place, Imperial Reading Room.

Ouyang Shuo was meeting the hot topic of recent times, Ouyang Heng.

“Third Uncle, your promotion puts you under the microscope, and everyone is staring at your actions. Me doing this is putting you on the barbecue.” Ouyang Shuo said half-jokingly.

Ouyang Heng was a middle-aged man whose face looked really steely like a knife. He looked like a really powerful, man but he was really quiet and rarely spoke.

This was a point that Ouyang Shuo admired about him.

As an imperial relative, the worse ones were those loose cannons. If one said the wrong things, it might cause him to lose face and make things hard on Ouyang Shuo.

The wheels of history had pushed the Ouyang family to such a status, and they had to cherish it.

When Ouyang Heng heard that, he nodded and said, “Do not worry!”

“I know that third Uncle is the real deal; this trip to Wuzhou is for you to show off your skill.” Ouyang Shuo was really confident in his judgment of people.

The two of them exchanged glances and smiled.
…
In the blink of an eye, it was the 12th month, 30th day.

As usual, Gaia would release a new round of system updates on this day. Who knows what kind of surprises Gaia would bring this time?