Chapter two hundred and thirty fifth grass transportation
At noon, the scorching early summer sun on the desert had already driven away the early morning chill. The air was dry and suffocating, but there was no shade anywhere along the way.
The speed of the convoy was getting slower and slower. After leaving Suzhou City, the terrain in the desert was relatively flat, and there were no official roads. The endless ruts naturally pointed out the direction of the road.
He Qizhou, who was following at the end, saw that Dahuang couldn't walk any longer, so he stopped riding his horse and spent half of his time walking and the other half sitting on the haystack of the last cart.
Notices of rest gradually came from the front of the team. He Qizhou saw a low cliff appearing in the distance, presumably to take shelter there, and felt relieved for Dahuang.
Before setting off, Chief Liang informed him that he would have to camp along the way. Although there were a few post stations, they were all very simple huts, and the army had expressly ordered that they could only be used by post soldiers. Therefore, if you could find shelter from the sun and wind along the way,
It is a good choice to rest somewhere.
Fortunately, the escorts and grain transport soldiers have been walking this route for many years, and they already know all the campsites. He Qizhou doesn't have to miss the campsites as often as he does when walking alone. The grass transport cavalry walking in front of them is Zhao Hu
He Qizhou went to enjoy the shade under the cliff ahead, leaving the team and their horses in the care of the driver.
He Qizhou was worried about leaving the rhubarb to others to cook, so he said that he would come to find them after he had fed his mounts. The man did not persuade him much and went ahead by himself.
Sixty carts, each loaded with thousands of kilograms of fodder, were all pulled by mules. Every five carts were tied in a string and were equipped with a driver. As soon as the twelve cartmen heard that they could rest, they immediately moved the mule carts quickly.
He was pulled aside, took off his bits and gave water and food, while some people took the initiative to take care of the cavalry horses.
He Qizhou turned away the coachman who came to feed his horse, took off the rhubarb's mouth, fed the rhubarb himself, and then walked to the front of the cliff to eat some dry food in the shade.
The cart drivers clung to the hay carts, avoiding most of the sun, sitting on the ground, eating and drinking quickly. He Qizhou walked hundreds of steps forward and found that the same was true for the cart drivers transporting food and escorts, but they all used horses.
It's a car, so sitting under the horse's belly can block more sunlight.
On the way here, He Qizhou discovered a rather strange phenomenon. It was clearly a large convoy of sixty vehicles, but only four soldiers were sent to escort it. Eighteen grain trucks were escorted by sixteen soldiers. The most exaggerated thing was that
There were only twelve cars in the escort team. There were actually more than twenty people including the grooms and the escorts and handymen, and they were all dressed in different styles. It was obvious that outsiders had joined the escort team.
When He Qizhou walked to the edge of the cliff, he found that the three cavalrymen who were traveling with him were not sitting in the shade under the cliff. Instead, they were leaning on a big stone and using dead branches to prop up the military robes they had taken off to make a simple awning.
People are eating and drinking in a hurry.
He Qizhou saw a dozen food guard sergeants and a dozen people from the escort agency sitting under a cliff not far away. There should be a few more people to squeeze in, so he asked the three of them why they didn't go to the cliff to escape the summer heat.
While the three of them were eating and drinking, they asked He Qizhou to sit down quickly, eat something, and explain to him later. He Qizhou could only untie the water bag and took a few sips. He didn't even take out the dry food, but saw everyone in the shade.
When I got up, some officers and soldiers transporting food shouted loudly, "Let's go now."
The coachmen seemed to be well prepared, and quickly put on the horse and mule harness, and pulled the carts one by one on the road. The three cavalrymen had almost eaten. One of them, named Zhu Minggui, was a corps commander and was considered the leader of the four.
, pulled off the robe that served as a canopy and put it on his body, and said to He Qizhou: "Brother, let's eat on the way. Let's talk while walking."
"Then thank you, Commander Zhu. I'm new here and I really don't understand the rules here." He Qizhou thanked him as he walked back.
He Qizhou was still sitting on the haystack of the last mule cart. Zhu Gui rode a horse and rode side by side with the mule cart. "Brother, you know the people in the guard camp, why do you want to do this hard work?" Zhu Gui was in his thirties, and he knew it at first glance.
I am a veteran and want to confirm He Qizhou's identity first to avoid saying the wrong thing later.
"I have a relative who is a soldier at the racecourse, and he happened to know Mr. Liang from the Guards Battalion, so he asked him to find me a job. He blamed me for my lack of ability. The Guards Battalion looked down on me, so they hired me for the time being.
If I accept this job, Brother Zhu, if the racecourse wants me, I will not go back with you. If I am still kicked away, I will hang out with you, Brother Zhu, from now on. I hope Brother Zhu will bear with me."
Zhu Gui saw that although He Qizhou was strong but fair and tender, he thought he understood everything and said with relief:
"Brother Zhou, you don't know that the newly arrived General Han is called Yan, and he cut off more than 300 people from the 500-person guard camp at once. So how can you, a newcomer, be so powerful as soon as you arrive?"
Recruiting you? But you don’t have to worry. Since your relatives at the racecourse know the commander of the guard camp, it means there is a noble person behind them. The racecourse will never dare to let you go. When you get there, you will be hundreds of times better than us!
Maybe I will benefit from you again in the future."
"I was also about to ask Brother Zhu, we are all cavalry, do we still need to look at the faces of those in charge of the warehouse?" He Qizhou asked.
Zhu Gui said angrily: "What bullshit cavalry! Look at our horses. They are the horses that the border troops retreated to die. Well, they are probably better than yours. Let me tell you this, here we are
, the border troops look down on the Cang soldiers, the Cang soldiers look down on the government officials, and the government officials look down on us cavalry patrolling the city."
"Why is this?"
"The frontier army wants to fight, and there is nothing to say because it has a high vision; the Cang soldiers are in charge of food, and they only have people to ask for, not others, so they are the most useless thing; the Yamen servants drink tea and listen to music all day long, and they are more or less the same.
There are some connections among the officials; the most miserable thing is that we, the city patrol cavalry and the old gatekeepers, have no father or mother, and anyone can overwhelm us. Because we have horses, the above sentence will make this messy thing come to an end again.
It’s all on us.”
"There is so much grass, why did we only send four people?"
"The boss only gave you a few copper coins? If there are more people, you won't be able to share the money. Even if there are three of us, not many of them will be willing to eat ten days of sand. Oh, brother Zhou, don't worry, I definitely won't give you your brother's share.
You will get greedy."
He Qizhou said: "Then thank you, Brother Zhu. If anything happens on the way, just tell me. By the way, we are better than these escorts at least. Why can they go in to take shelter, but don't let us in?"
"Brother Zhou, listen to me. Just with my piercing eyes, Lao Zhu, I can tell at a glance that there is a noble person in this escort agency!" Zhu Gui approached the mule cart and pretended to be mysterious and said: "Chai Run, you son of a bitch."
In order to please the other party and save face in front of that noble man, he deliberately made things difficult for us, bah!" Of course He Qizhou also discovered that there was a young man in the escort agency who had a different temperament, and he probably brought at least six or seven followers. These people
The horse he was riding was much better than the other people's mounts. Seeing that Zhu Gui, an old man, was getting angry, he deliberately teased him and said: "Brother Zhu, let's go directly to shade from the sun. What can they do?"
"I can't do it, I can't do it." Zhu Gui suddenly softened and waved his hands hurriedly: "Little brother, he is a man from a hundred households. He can punish us for any reason he chooses. Please don't act on your own initiative. I
It’s just an addiction behind my back.”
"I listen to you, but this kind of snob looks down on others, so calling him a son of a bitch is perfect." He Qizhou said sincerely. The two of them laughed at the same time, making the driver in front of him couldn't help but turn his head.
Looking around.
"By the way, why do you think this noble man went so far to the racecourse?" He Qizhou asked.
"What else can we do? Let's go to Altai to harness horses," Zhu Gui replied.
"Then why did I hear that only people from the armament hall can go? And it seems that horse roping is quite dangerous."
"Tsk, who cares if the mountains are high and the emperor is far away? How dangerous can those high-ranking officials' children be as long as they bring enough bodyguards and camels? At this time of year, some people bring wild horses to show off, but every three years at the Arms Museum
When people come, there will be far fewer people tying horses.”
"Are there many people who tricked Tianju?" He Qizhou asked.
"Hey, little brother, you also know about Tianju? I haven't seen him even once in more than ten years of service! But I heard that people often get caught in the armament hall."
He Qizhou secretly laughed, you have been watching for a long time, and the horse following you that you despise is Tianju.
The two of them had a good conversation along the way. Zhu Gui said that they could go to Jiayuguan the next night, but they could only sleep in Wengcheng. Then they expected to go to the racecourse on the fifth day. When they arrived at the racecourse, soldiers like them could stay in the military barracks.
Have a good sleep here.
Seeing that there were so many supplies shipped to the racecourse, He Qizhou asked Zhu Gui why the racecourse had to be guarded by two battalions.
Zhu Gui knew a lot. He replied that there were more people in the past when the pastures were plentiful. There were more military horses in this racecourse than in all other racecourses in the country combined, so heavy troops had to be deployed to guard them. In addition, horses had to be tamed.
It was completed at the horse farm, where many soldiers were dedicated to training horses.
He Qizhou also told Zhu Gui about the scenery in the south, which made the veteran envious. The two were talking and laughing. Unconsciously, the sky was getting darker and a red sun was setting in the west, pulling the shadow of the cavalry into an infinite distance. He Qizhou discovered that,
I like green mountains and green waters, but I also like this desolate and vast majestic scenery.
In the evening, the camping site was chosen on the sunny side of a hill. Of course, the best accommodation was still occupied by the soldiers and escorts. Seven tents were set up on the gentle slope, one of which was particularly large, and the tents were formed in a circle.
, a huge bonfire was built in the middle.
All the carts formed a large circle at the bottom of the slope, and the horsemen and handymen worked in groups in the circle to make rice, and at night they slept next to the carts with some hay.
After Zhu Gui went to ask Chai Li for instructions, he was finally able to set up two small tents at a relatively good place on the slope. The tents were set up by the driver, three or four feet away from the seven big tents. It was suddenly cold at night.
But outside the tent, I could hardly feel the warmth of the large bonfire.