There was a clear eagle call, and everyone looked up, only to see a huge sea turtle hovering in the sky for a week, and then swooping down like a black lightning.

One of the many knights stretched out his arm, and a bamboo whistle sounded from his mouth. Hai Dongqing's rushing momentum suddenly changed to a level flight. After another small circle, he landed steadily on the man's arm.

.

A group of people cheered in unison.

The knight took out a stick of meat from the leather bag on the saddle and stuffed it into Hai Dongqing's mouth. Hai Dongqing held the stick of meat in his mouth, raised his slender arms, and shook his head several times.

, has already swallowed the meat strips.

"Manager, this Haidongqing is really a divine horse, and it is very useful in battles. It's a pity that there is only one like this." Xin Jian looked at the bird on Yingnu's arm with envy, and smacked his lips and said:

"It will be great if we can get one and keep it sometime!"

"There will always be." Xiao Ding laughed: "I have already ordered people to go down. The caravans going over to the Liao Kingdom will also pay attention to it and get a few back if there is a chance. But this thing, even if it is

It's also rare in the Liao Kingdom, but you can't be anxious."

Xin Jian was overjoyed, "Of course there's no rush, just have something to look forward to!"

This sea turtle is the only one in the entire Western Army, and it was obtained by chance.

Near Heishan, a group of sentry riders under Xiao Ding clashed with a group of Liao people. The two sides fought a battle, and the Western Army won a complete victory and captured more than a dozen Liao people, including the eagle slave in front of them.

Hai Dongqing didn't want to leave, so he naturally became their prisoner.

After careful inspection, one of the prisoners was actually the nephew of Yelu Huan, the governor of Xijing Road in the Liao Kingdom, and a real member of the Liao royal family.

This matter was reported to Xiao Ding all the way. At that time, Xiao Ding was preparing to have a big fight with Tubo blind medicine and Mu Zhan. Otherwise, he did not want to cause any conflict with Yeluhuan at this time, so he returned the person. However, this Yingnu and Yingnu

, but swallowed it without ceremony.

In the battle of Qingtang, Yingnu and Yingke also made great achievements.

Now this man named Zhezhe is following Xiao Ding wholeheartedly.

When he was in the Liao Kingdom, he was just a slave who specialized in raising and training eagles. It was common for him to be beaten and scolded. But now, he is an officer under Xiao Ding, and his name is listed under the scout camp.

His duty is to serve the only Haidongqing. During the battle, he will drive the eagle to soar in the sky to search for the enemy.

Qingtang is a place where the sky is the limit. Especially in cavalry combat, it is extremely difficult to find the opponent. Generally speaking, the time for both sides to fight is very fast. A few hedging can basically be done.

Son, if you lose, you run away, if you win, you chase. But it takes a lot of effort to find the enemy.

With this scout in the sky, when the Western Army pursues the Tibetans again, it can be said that there is no disadvantage.

Xiao Ding immediately gave the eagle slave named Zhezhe a heavy reward, incorporated him into the army, and promised to find more Haidongqing for him to train.

But that being said, Haidongqing is really hard to handle.

In fact, the Liao people couldn't catch Haidongqing. The Haidongqing in their hands was a tribute from the female straight tribe. However, most of the military artifacts in Xiao Ding's eyes were used as playthings for wealthy families by the Liao people.

.

Of course, you can always get it if you set your mind to it.

The war against Tibet was basically over in February. Xianyao and Muzhan suffered heavy losses, and their subordinates were reduced to seventy-eight. From the king on the plateau, they were reduced to a small force not worth mentioning.

Now I don’t know where it is hidden in the corner.

This is also the reason why Xiao Ding does not want to seriously drive them all away.

Both of these two people have the blood of the Tubo royal family, and they have unique conditions for gathering people in Qingtang. First, Xiao Ding also wants to use them to contain Yu Zanghuama, so as to prevent Yu Zanghuama's family from being alone.

It's hard to control. Secondly, Xiao Ding also hopes that these two guys can gather manpower for him. After two years, he will lead the army to sweep again.

The territory now under Xiao Ding's control is extremely vast, but the population is not worth mentioning, and most of them are concentrated in the Xingling area. Like the Hehuang area that just fell into his hands, you can sometimes walk for dozens of miles without encountering a single person.

Households.

If you want to wait for the population to grow naturally, it will take ten or twenty years to see no effect at all, and it will only be possible in a peaceful era without wars and disasters.

Xiao Ding naturally couldn't wait.

If you want to increase the population quickly, the most convenient way is to grab it.

Like this time, after the battle with Mu Zhan and Blind Yao, more than 200,000 people from each tribe under these two guys were robbed.

All these people were recruited to the Hehuang area, which suddenly made these places popular.

Of course, after he took away these people, the land of Qingtang would inevitably decline.

This was not within the scope of Xiao Ding's consideration. No matter how ugly Yuzang Huama's face was, this matter could not be changed.

Xiao Ding went on patrol this time just to inspect the placement of these people.

Xiao Ding still attaches great importance to these people. Only with people can the wasteland be turned into fertile land, wealth can be continuously created, soldiers can be sourced, and civilian husbands can be found. But without people, the Western Army, which seems to be extremely strong at the moment, can only

I am afraid that it will decline in the blink of an eye.

Xiao Ding has clearly felt that the imperial court is now afraid of him.

Even the military pay and materials for the Guangrui Army, the Dingbian Army, and the Zhenrong Army, the three formal Forbidden armies, have not been distributed for several months. As for the armies built in the name of the Tibetan Army, let alone

.

However, it doesn't matter to Xiao Ding now that he is not given money or food. The foundation that Xiao Cheng laid here has finally been put to great use. Hundreds of thousands of party members have left Hengshan to reclaim wasteland and herd livestock. After two years,

I can already make a living, and the refined salt produced in Yanzhou has now almost monopolized the markets of Shaanxi Road, Qinfeng Road, and Hedong, and the money is almost rolling in.

The salt produced in Yanzhou now not only dominates the high-end market, but also sells the middle and lower-end products in one pot without ceremony, leaving almost no room for other salt merchants. Their salt is of good quality and cheap. Salt merchants in other places are in the market.

There was no resistance before them.

They want to be tough, but behind the salt merchants in Yanzhou is Xiao Ding, the commander-in-chief of the Western March. What can everyone do?

Xiao Ding does not pay the salt and iron tax.

Because he wants to use these profits to support the army, and this is the privilege he asked for from the court when he crossed Hengshan. You can't expect Xiao Ding to kill Li Xu with a few thousand people, right? Xiao Ding wants to

To form the Tibetan army, if the imperial court did not provide any money, it would naturally allow Xiao Ding to raise money on his own, and this salt and iron tax was one of them.

However, the imperial court at that time did not expect that salt from Yanzhou could sweep almost the entire western market in such a short period of time.

Xiao Ding felt that it wouldn't be long before the court would find a way to curb this matter.

The one who took action must be Yantie Yamen.

At least on Qinfeng Road and Hedong Road, I'm afraid I won't be able to sell my salt anymore.

So during this period, the salt fields in Yanzhou are working hard to ship goods, and the salt merchants in these two places are also working hard to stock up on goods. They are also preparing to wait for the closure of these two places to take out the salt and make a lot of money.

!

Needless to say, when salt from Yanzhou cannot enter these two places, the price of salt in these two places will inevitably go up.

Who is making this money?

Local officials!

However, things that cannot be done openly can be done in private. If a private salt dealer is caught, of course he will be beheaded, but if the person who does this is an official, then it is a different matter.

The salt in Yanzhou has now become Xiao Ding's most important source of finance. It is not only sold to the Song Dynasty, but also to the Xijing Road and Shangjing Road in the Liao Kingdom. The price there is much more expensive.

In addition to these, the original hundreds of workshops of Hengshan Trading are no longer what they used to be. Just like the weapons workshop that has been moved to Xingqing Mansion can now imitate the divine arm bow, the technical level of the other workshops is also the same.

The sesame flowers are blooming higher and higher.

The series of reward and punishment incentives formulated by Xiao Cheng greatly stimulated the inventive and creative spirit of the craftsmen.

As long as he makes an effective invention, a penniless craftsman can become a rich man in an instant.

The craftsman who solved the most critical step of imitating the God's Arm Bow now owns a farm with an estate of more than 100 acres outside Xingqing Mansion. It is a bright benchmark that inspires everyone to work hard towards this goal.

Zhang Yuan, the head of the General Administration Bureau, is undoubtedly an extremely capable person.

In the past two years, Xiao Ding's main task has been to fight, chasing Li Xu to fight, and then transporting the captured prisoners, plundered people, livestock and even wealth back to Xingqing Mansion and handed them over to Zhang Yuan

, Xiao Ding is too lazy to take care of the rest. As for Zhang Yuan, he must properly arrange these people and make the most effective use of these wealth.

This is an extremely hard job.

But Zhang Yuan enjoyed it.

Some people think that having a wife and children on the hot bed is the highest state of life, while for some people, if you let them have nothing to do, they feel that most of their life has been lost.

Zhang Yuan is undoubtedly the latter type of person. The more things are done and the more complicated they are, the more enthusiastic he is to do them.

In fact, he did a pretty good job.

The area currently controlled by Xiao Ding's Western Army is undoubtedly extremely vast, but it has several absolute center points.

The first one is, of course, Xingqing Mansion. Needless to say, Li Xu has been operating here for more than ten years. When Xiao Ding attacked here, because Xingqing Mansion fell too quickly, he suffered almost no major losses.

In the hands of Xiao Ding, Zhang Yuan then moved most of the wealthy households in the surrounding areas, including the homes of the party chiefs and elders who had migrated from Hengshan, to Xingqing Mansion. In addition, many important

Workshops were also moved in one after another, making Xingqing Mansion more prosperous than before. The city originally had less than 50,000 people, but in two years, it suddenly increased to more than 100,000 people.

Man.

The second center point is Xiping Prefecture. If Xingqing Prefecture is run by Zhang Yuan as a political center, Xiping Prefecture is run as an economic center. It is connected in all directions, has convenient transportation, and has better natural conditions than Xingqing Prefecture.

It is very suitable as a commercial center, but it is too dangerous to be used as a political center.
To be continued...