Chapter 373 Arrival at Hexi
It only took half a day for the entire team to cross the Yellow River. Without resting or reorganizing, the army continued to move north.

Five days later, the team arrived at the Wushaoling Pass, passed Herong City, and walked for another three days before finally arriving at Guzang County, the seat of Wuwei County.

Yin Shishi, deputy governor of Liangzhou, and Fan Zigai, chief officer of the Liangzhou Grand Military Governor’s Office, led officials out of the city to welcome the arrival of His Royal Highness the King of Chu.

Yin Shishi led 30,000 Hexi troops back to Wuwei County a month ago. After the court reform, the Hexi General Administration Office was changed to the Liangzhou Grand Marshal’s Office, and the Weiwu County Yamen was changed to the Wuwei County General Administration Office. The original governor and military commander were combined into one, becoming the Wuwei County General Manager, who was also concurrently held by Xiao Xia.

Yin Shishi, the military commander of Weiwu County, was promoted to deputy governor of Liangzhou, and Fan Zigai, the governor of Wuwei County, was promoted to chief secretary of the Liangzhou Grand Military Governor’s Office.

The situation of Shanzhou Grand Marshal’s Office is similar. The current deputy governor of Shanzhou is Xiao Xia’s old friend Changsun Sheng, and the chief secretary of the Grand Marshal’s Office is Qifu Hui.

Guzang County is the largest county in Hexi, with a circumference of 30 miles and a population of over 30,000 households, including more than 20,000 Han households. The Han people all migrated from the Central Plains during the turmoil of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Hexi had a stable society and a prosperous economy, and a large number of Han people fled from the Central Plains. After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, a group of Han people returned, but the Han people who stayed behind still supported the prosperity of the Hexi region.

The military camp for the 30,000-strong army has been prepared. It is full of top-quality leather tents, with ten people in each tent, just enough to house one soldier. The soldiers went into the camp to rest.

Other clerks, staff and their families all went into the city. Fan Zigai arranged hundreds of empty houses, which were divided into three grades: A, B and C. The five-acre houses of grade A were for senior staff such as Liu Wenjing, the three-acre houses of grade B were for second-level staff, and the other two-acre houses of grade C were decided by drawing lots.

Xiao Xia lived in the Prince of Chu’s Mansion, which was originally the official residence of the Hexi Governor-General. Prince of Qin Yang Jun was planning to move the Prince of Qin’s Mansion to Wuwei County, so he started a massive reconstruction based on the Governor-General’s Mansion. Unexpectedly, before it was completely completed, he led his army into the capital and ended up being taken prisoner. Yin Shishi then took over and completed the Prince of Qin’s Mansion, renaming it the Prince of Chu’s Mansion.

The Chu Palace covers an area of ​​about fifty acres and is located in the north of the city. It is built with carved beams and painted buildings, various pavilions, towers, rockery and fish ponds. It is very luxurious. The main hall alone covers an area of ​​500 square meters, which is like a small palace.

The fifty-acre mansion was still too big for Xiao Xia’s family. There were only the couple, Cui Mei, Xiao Qing and A Chu, then the housekeeper Liu and his wife, two cooks, two male servants, a groom, two maids, and five serving girls, a total of nineteen people.

In addition, Li Luming and five female disciples also came. Among Xiao Xia’s thirty blood-sworn warriors, twenty-two male warriors became generals, and eight female warriors were previously arranged in the martial arts hall. Except for Li Luming, the other seven female warriors successively married male warriors and became generals’ wives, starting their family life of taking care of their husbands and raising children.

Li Luming was appointed as the chief security officer of the Prince of Chu’s mansion. She simply recruited five female disciples and had them follow Xiao Xia. Xiao Xia hired them as guards with high salaries to protect his wives and concubines.

All the personal boxes were delivered to the palace. The boxes containing treasures were sent directly to the basement, and other boxes and cages for daily use were placed in the lobby. There were still hundreds of them, which was a headache, but they had to bite the bullet and clean them up. Fortunately, there were Li Luming and five female disciples who were responsible for delivering the personal belongings to the inner house.

There is a small lake covering an area of ​​about ten acres in the inner house. Seven courtyards are fan-shaped along the lake. The main room is the main courtyard, covering an area of ​​five acres, divided into the front yard for living, the atrium for rest and the backyard garden. The other six courtyards are only two or three acres, but they also have the same three-in-one layout. The garden at the back is connected by a small round door. If there is no need to communicate with each other, the small door can be locked directly.

In accordance with the principle of not wasting, Cui Yu allocated the backyard. She and Xiao Xia lived in the main courtyard, and there were two personal maids. On the left was Xiao Qing and her maid, on the right was Cui Mei and her personal maid Xiao Bangzi. There was also a room for A Chu, who also had a maid. There was also a yard for Li Luming and her disciples, and the remaining two yards were temporarily used to store things. While Cui Yu, the Princess of Chu, was busy arranging the mansion, Xiao Xia also officially took office in the Grand Commander’s Office. He held too many positions concurrently, including the Grand Commander of Liangzhou, the General Manager of Wuwei County, the Envoy of Hexi Tuntian, the Envoy of Hexi Transportation, the Envoy of Hexi Supervision, the Hexi Criminal Supervisor, etc.

He still used the old method. He was just a figurehead, and the actual work was done by his staff. It was the same for all local officials. Almost everyone had dozens of staff members, and all the work was done by their staff. Therefore, there has always been a tradition of staff officials in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the salaries of staff officials were almost all borne by the court. Of course, it was impossible for the court to pay as much as Xiao Xia did, and it was impossible for the court to support so many people.

Xiao Xia had no time and energy to handle government affairs. He had to consider major issues, such as how to destroy Tuyuhun and how to retake Fengzhou and other upper Hetao areas. He also had to establish a complete intelligence system and understand Tuyuhun thoroughly.

Historically, the expansion of the Sui Dynasty was short-lived. The fundamental reason was that the Sui Dynasty had poor intelligence. After a large number of Tuyuhun nobles and troops fled from Fuqi City, the Sui Dynasty did not know where they had fled to. As soon as the Central Plains of the Sui Dynasty was in chaos, Tuyuhun immediately made a comeback, not only regaining all the lost territory, but also constantly invading Longyou, looting a large number of people and wealth.

In the official residence, Xiao Xia summoned Deputy Governor Yin Shishi, Chief Clerk Fan Zigai, Sima Li Datong, Recorder and Military Officer An Xinggui, and staff members Liu Wenjing, Pei Wen’an, Zhang Yunqiu and others to hold the first high-level meeting.

“As you all know, I am now the Grand Commander of Three Towns, and I am also the Grand Commander of Shanzhou and Lingzhou. My energy and time are limited, so many things are handed over to my staff. You can come to me for reports on important matters, and I will hand over the general matters to my staff. Then I will use two years to completely destroy Tuyuhun. The court’s food and supplies are on the way. In half a month, 30,000 troops will arrive in Hexi, so the focus this winter is to train troops and collect intelligence, and attack Tuyuhun in the spring of next year.”

At this point, Xiao Xia slowly continued, “What I am most concerned about now is how to collect intelligence on Tuyuhun, the situation of their army, the distribution of various strongholds, etc. I would like to hear everyone’s opinions.”

After a while, Sima Li Datong said: “If Your Highness wants to know the situation in various parts of Tuyuhun, you can find Sogdian merchants. They go deep into Tuyuhun and will go to even the smallest tribes.”

Xiao Xia was overjoyed and asked, “Where can we find the Sogdian merchants?”

An Xinggui beside him said with a smile: “Leave this matter to me. The most famous people doing business in Tuyuhun are the Cao brothers. I will find them in a few days and then find other Sogdian merchants through them.”

Xiao Xia nodded, “Then I look forward to their arrival!”

In the afternoon, Xiao Xia, accompanied by Fan Zigai, inspected Guzang County. Xiao Xia had only been to Guzang County once, to find Xue Shixiong. He came directly to the General Manager’s Mansion and was in a hurry, without taking a good look around the city.

The city is very lively. The Chinese New Year is still more than two months away, and all kinds of business activities are being carried out around the New Year. Merchants, Qiang people, and Sogdians are all busy with various transactions.

At this time, Xiao Xia saw a shop that said “Selling authentic Zhangye old candles”.

(End of this chapter)