8,000 men against over 20,000 elite cuirassiers.
This war was destined to be a massacre. The densely charging cuirassiers spurred their warhorses, charging towards the barbarian cavalry like a mighty wave.
Just before the two sides collided, the cuirassiers collectively drew their crossbows and fired, then threw the crossbows as weapons at the remaining barbarian soldiers.
In the instant of collision, the barbarian cavalry fell one after another, causing their formation to fall into disarray.
Qi Guangyi, seeing this, immediately commanded his cavalry to flank and envelop the barbarian cavalry. After an hour of fierce fighting, the barbarian cavalry was completely annihilated. Only roaming warhorses remained on the battlefield.
“Clean up the battlefield. Gather all the warhorses.” Qi Guangyi was covered in blood. Achige’s body was nowhere to be found, having died at the hands of some soldier, but he was too lazy to search for it.
What he needed now were just the barbarians’ warhorses. As far as he knew, a total of 63,000 barbarians had entered Bashu this time.
Among them, 3,000 either died or fell behind after entering Tibet, leaving only 60,000 who entered Bashu.
But even so, the complete annihilation of 60,000 barbarian cavalry this time was a huge victory.
Because in previous wars, mainly barbarian slave soldiers were eliminated, while very few actual barbarian soldiers died.
Therefore, the failure of such wars had little impact on the Golden Tent Khanate.
For the barbarians, who were currently facing food shortages, it didn’t matter how many slave soldiers died. In their eyes, slaves were not people at all, but goods.
But this time, the barbarians, having lost 60,000 cavalry, would surely feel the pain.
In contrast, the current Qi Guangyi would probably wake up laughing in his dreams.
After accounting for losses, the warhorses from these 60,000 cavalry would allow him to form at least another 40,000 cavalry. This way, every army in the Great Yu Empire would be able to be equipped with a sufficient number of cavalry.
Smiling as he surveyed the horses on the battlefield, Qi Guangyi suddenly remembered something. He immediately called a soldier and had him relay the good news of Achige’s execution back to Qingzhou Province.
Thus, this Bashu rebellion was completely pacified.
Five days later, the news reached Qingzhou Province.
Xiao Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief after reading the news sent by Qi Guangyi. What he worried about most was the continued destruction caused by this group of cavalry in the Great Yu Empire.
Now that these people had all been cleared out, the Great Yu Empire was stable again domestically.
“Your Majesty, you must be relieved now. No one expected this matter,” Qian Dafu said with a smile.
Xiao Ming nodded. The Great Yu Empire was vast, which was why there were so many loopholes to exploit. Previously, he had not paid enough attention to Bashu, and his precautions against Tibet were also too low.
Now he had to raise his vigilance and stabilize the southwestern territory, because besides being the Land of Abundance for the Great Yu Empire, it was also the region with the highest chromium reserves within the Great Yu Empire, and especially the location of Tibet was where rich mineral deposits were found.
And the reason he needed chromium was very simple.
Because the development of firearms in the Great Yu Empire had now reached a bottleneck. According to the test data provided by Song Changping, these percussion cap guns, after using smokeless gunpowder, showed a low probability of barrel explosion.
This phenomenon had never occurred before. Xiao Ming had actually anticipated this problem, so he had Song Changping strictly limit the dosage of smokeless gunpowder and produce a small quantity of smokeless gunpowder paper cartridges, while still largely using black powder paper cartridges.
The reason was simple: he anticipated that the quality of the gun barrels would not be able to withstand the dosage of the gunpowder explosion. After all, with the advent of smokeless powder bullets, firearms began to use barrel materials like chrome-molybdenum steel, and this material was currently beyond his production capabilities.
Therefore, as long as they could not produce this alloy suitable for gun barrels, the Great Yu Empire’s firearms would probably have to stop at this point.
Technologically, they could only develop towards breech-loading, which still required precision parts to achieve.
Having thought through these problems, Xiao Ming felt that now was the time for strategic planning. The southwestern region of the Great Yu Empire was also a rich area for various rare metals in contemporary times. He wanted to firmly control this place.
To do so, he had to deal with the enemy in the southwest: Tibet. This time, Tibet allowing the Golden Tent Khanate to pass into Bashu gave him a pretext for war.
Once he had time to spare for an expedition against Tibet, he could always bring it out.
“Although this Bashu rebellion has been quelled, the culprits are still at large. I will deal with them one by one,” Xiao Ming said in a deep voice.
After a pause, he continued, “Oh, by the way, Qi Guangyi captured sixty thousand barbarian slave soldiers this time. These slave soldiers are precisely the strong laborers needed by the mines. You go and tell the Mining Department to send someone to Bashu and Tibet to secretly search for chromium ore.”
Qian Dafu was proficient in prospecting and naturally understood this. He said, “Yes, Your Majesty. I will go to the Mining Department later. These sixty thousand people cannot be wasted. Slaves are very scarce in the Great Yu Empire right now.”
Having settled the matter of prospecting, Xiao Ming felt he still needed to visit Lu Tong. After the chromium ore was found, the related smelting would need their expertise.
…
Vast grasslands, merchants departing from Shanhai Pass had already reached Shengdu. Along the way, they also spread the news of the Great Yu Empire executing the barbarian generals.
“Khan, these are the bones of Prince Bodo.” The merchant prostrated himself and wailed.
In front of the Golden Tent, Dolgor’s face was ashen, while Bodo’s birth mother, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, was weeping uncontrollably. At the same time, many Golden Tent Khanate nobles also cried sorrowfully.
This was the first prince of the Golden Tent Khanate to die in the Great Yu Empire since the war with the Great Yu Empire began.
Wuzhugu, Beishan, Anba, and other princes were all present. They stood in silence, looking at Bodo in the shroud.
Bodo had been dead for a month, and his body had already deformed, but they still recognized him as Bodo at first glance.
“Khan, Bodo died for the Khanate! You must avenge Bodo!” Bodo’s mother cried out, embracing Dolgor’s leg.
Dolgor had always been very fond of Bodo, which was why he had dispatched him to Bashu this time. He had thought this matter would be easy, but he hadn’t expected such a blunder to occur.
At this moment, he looked at Beishan, who showed no sign of guilt.
He knew he couldn’t blame him, because it was Bodo’s own greed that delayed the withdrawal this time.
Because according to the agreed time, Bodo should have already led his army out of Songzhou City, but the soldiers outside did not see them emerge at the appointed time.
“My son, Father Khan will personally slaughter the Great Yu Empire’s Emperor as a sacrifice for you.” Dolgor’s fingernails dug into his flesh from gripping too hard. Intense rage festered in his heart.
Since ascending to the position of Khan, all the humiliations he had suffered were brought by this Emperor of the Great Yu Empire. Now, he would lead his empire to destroy this enemy who had killed his son!