Chapter 103: After the Battle

Although the gates of Guazhou had been breached, three or four thousand troops remained within the city. However, following Li Gui’s flight to the west, their will to resist had largely evaporated. Apart from a few die-hard loyalists who fought to the bitter end, the rest were lost and chose to surrender to Li Wenyuan’s forces.

The remnants of the resistance were quickly isolated. Those fewer in number or poorly equipped were driven by traditional infantry toward dead ends, while those with larger numbers and superior equipment were systematically annihilated by Mo Dao infantry coordinated with musketeers behind them. Guazhou was soon cleared of defenders. Aside from those who scattered and fled or fought to their deaths, Li Wenyuan captured nearly ten thousand prisoners, who were dispersed to rear-echelon recruit camps for training. Li Wenyuan had no desire to expand his army through forced conscription, but given the critical shortage of manpower, he followed Zhang Juntai’s suggestion and prepared to integrate these prisoners into his own ranks.

With Guazhou taken, the administrative officials Li Wenyuan had prepared departed from Zhangye Commandery, traveling day and night to reach the city and begin pacifying the populace and implementing new policies. It was the abundance of political cadres that finally allowed Li Wenyuan to formally commit to pacifying Li Gui; otherwise, he would have considered following his predecessors’ example and fostering a bandit faction within his own territory. Fortunately, the training of political cadres had proceeded smoothly. Guided by a strategy of steady progress—securing a firm foothold in each commandery occupied to deny hostile forces any opportunity—Li Wenyuan, after auditing his available resources, decisively set his sights on capturing Dunhuang Commandery next, followed by Shanshan and Qiemo Commanderies.

Handing his horse to his personal guards, Li Wenyuan strolled through the shattered city gate. Once inside, he observed military physicians directing soldiers to collect the corpses of the garrison for mass cremation, while others splashed vast amounts of clean water across the blood-stained streets to prevent the outbreak of plague; the saying that great pestilence follows great war was no mere superstition.

Within the gatehouse, craftsmen had already erected makeshift scaffolding to assess the damage, and repairs to the city walls were underway. This policy of providing work as relief was Li Wenyuan’s preferred method, especially since his own coffers were not exactly overflowing.

One never knows the cost of daily life until one heads the household, and Li Wenyuan sighed at the difficulty of governance. Having reclaimed Guazhou, the expenditure of military grain aside—which could be drawn directly from official granaries—it was the work of pacifying the local population that proved most vexing. Li Gui’s forces had lived off the land, effectively looting the grain from the populace, leaving the people of Guazhou with little in reserve. Furthermore, upon fleeing, Li Gui had ordered the burning of any grain he could not carry; though the fire was discovered in time, most of the supplies were lost. Consequently, the burden of feeding the populace fell to Li Wenyuan, who was forced to draw from the civilian granaries he had established.

In the distance, Li Wenyuan spotted a familiar figure and waved, calling out, "Qiuniang, why have you come here yourself?"

Qiuniang approached gracefully and bowed, asking, "What does the Governor require of me?"

"Why are you here? Should you not be in the rear, overseeing operations?" Li Wenyuan asked with curiosity.

"There was no choice. My subordinates still lack the polish to handle these matters; some things require my personal touch."

"What could possibly require you to handle it? Can neither Aili nor Gai Suzhen manage?" Li Wenyuan frowned. He had never questioned the development of the Night Owls, leaving it entirely to Qiuniang’s discretion. But for her to have infiltrated the military with spies and even established a military intelligence wing in such a short time—that was beyond his expectations. Yet, what could be so pressing that the head of his intelligence organization had to intervene personally?

"Though they possess skill and intelligence, they are still deficient in handling complex intelligence networks. Moreover, with Guazhou just captured, the situation is unstable, and many 'dark pawns' remain. Some can be activated now, while others must remain dormant. These decisions require my personal judgment; I cannot entrust them to others," Qiuniang said, rubbing her temple.

Hearing this, Li Wenyuan felt a sense of relief. Such matters were highly subjective and required a delicate touch; they indeed demanded her direct involvement. Since seizing Guazhou, Li Gui had reorganized the local bureaucracy, and now, acting under the banner of a righteous pacification campaign, Li Wenyuan was ruthless in his own administrative purge. All officials, regardless of rank, were suspended and investigated. Those found guilty of harming the people were handed over to the courts, while those who had not oppressed the populace were sent to the rear to undergo retraining at the political academy, awaiting future placement. It was precisely this approach that caused many officials who had previously leaned toward Li Gui to shed their caution and defect to Li Wenyuan’s side.

After seeing Qiuniang off, Li Wenyuan slowly made his way to the command post Li Gui had abandoned, sifting through the documents left behind in the hasty retreat. Once Li Gui had arrived at the front lines, official reports requiring his personal approval were directed to Guazhou, only ceasing when Qin Qiong blocked the supply lines.

Beyond the daily reports on the status of Li Gui’s territories, these documents mentioned that the four commanderies under his control were suffering from grain shortages, and that in parts of Qiemo Commandery, banditry had erupted, overwhelming the local garrisons.

Li Wenyuan smiled and shook his head, picking up another file. It detailed the aftermath of the bandit uprisings, noting that Turks appeared to be involved. The local governor had inferred that these bandits—or horse thieves—were backed by the Turks. Li Wenyuan sighed again; Li Gui’s cooperation with the Turks was akin to asking a tiger for its hide. Now that Li Gui was waning, the predatory Turks would surely seize the opportunity to move against the three frontier commanderies. Should that happen, the people would be crushed under the Turkish iron cavalry, and the slaughter of entire villages would no longer be confined to a single location.

At this thought, Li Wenyuan shuddered, recalling the horrors he had witnessed of the Turks' handiwork. This was not what he wanted. He did not lack territory, but he expanded because his own lands lacked sufficient population. While Shandong Commandery could easily raise an army of over a hundred thousand, his four Western Regions commanderies could barely muster fifty thousand. Li Wenyuan turned to the map hanging in the room, his gaze fixed on the lands further to the west.