On March 27, the second year of Jianji, the spring rain continued. Zhou Shi came to Beizhou again.
Everyone fights back and forth, but the envoys between each other are still very frequent. Even when there is no war, the traffic of caravans is not prohibited. It is just that more inspections are required to prevent the women from doing things. In fact, it is difficult to prevent.
Both sides collect a lot of information in this way, and you don't even need to engage in much espionage. Most of it is public.
As a shogunate judge, many people knew Zhou Shi, and he didn't expect to sneak into Weibo. What's more, he was on an envoy, and there was nothing shameful about it, so he followed a caravan and headed to Beizhou Lisuo Qinghe in a dignified manner.
County, and was then arranged to wait for news at the inn.
"Beizhou missed the farming season this year." Zhou Shi stood by a ditch and looked at the barren fields with some emotion.
The ditches were overgrown with weeds and even accumulated a lot of silt. This was supposed to be cleaned up in the winter, but the Beizhou War last year lasted for a long time and there was no one to take the initiative to organize the people to do this kind of thing.
So, when war comes, it is the common people who suffer.
"Wouldn't it affect the business?" Someone in the caravan asked with a frown.
"It shouldn't be so." An old man said while taking care of the livestock. "It seems that the mulberry forest has not been destroyed. I just don't know if anyone is weaving."
"The price of Qinghe silk is going to increase again." Someone said with certainty.
When caravans came to Beizhou for trade, the most important commodity they purchased was Qinghe silk. To paraphrase later generations, this was a "national famous brand" with huge output and good quality. It was a first-class product designated by the former Tang Shaofu and also the Weibo shogunate.
important source of fiscal revenue.
It's just that such a wealthy county with a population of more than 800,000 was massacred once in history by Liu Rengong and again by the Khitan people. Its vitality was severely damaged and it was unable to recover.
Beizhou is actually a microcosm of Hebei. Throughout the Five Dynasties, the population dropped by more than half, and the losses caused by the Khitan invasion during the later Jin Dynasty were the most serious.
The horse farms in Chengde have almost disappeared, Qinghe silk production has also declined, the population has lost a lot, farmland and water conservancy are becoming increasingly desolate, and the overall situation is on a downhill road, and people keep stepping on the accelerator. It is pitiful.
These are troubled times, and no one can escape them.
Henan, Guanzhong, and Jiangnan lost a large number of people in the "first half". Hebei thought it had escaped, and was even complacent that the population had returned to the peak of Tianbao. However, in the "second half", it still had to die in a wave of deserved deaths.
"The Xia people don't want to run Weibo well." After talking about silk fabrics, the group talked about what they saw and heard on the road.
"It is outrageous to prevent people from farming and instead arrest them to open up wasteland elsewhere."
"This year has been wasted. If ten people leave, will half of it be left on the land?"
"It may be abandoned for more than one year." Someone sighed: "After the spring of the second year, there will definitely be farm tools, seeds, and cattle? If you want to weave cloth, you can also loom, not to mention whether there are mulberry forests in the local area.
"
"The good weaving skills of the people of Beizhou were wasted."
"What are the people of Xia thinking? With fighting like this every year and not thinking about making money, the people are afraid that they won't be able to survive."…
Zhou Shi listened for a long time and burst into laughter.
It is true that the life of the people in the Weibo states is very good in Hebei, and they often make Chengde, Cangjing, and Youzhou towns envious. But does the life of the Xia people have to be very bad?
To the extent that Shao Shude went to war, it might indeed be quite difficult, but it was far from being unbearable.
"If the Xia people occupied Chengde, the four states of Zhao and Hebei would be controlled in the same way. Wives and children would be scattered, and families would not be able to maintain their homes." Zhou Shi turned around, looked at the merchants who were walking out of the post one after another, and said: "
Does anyone want to surrender now?"
The merchants sighed together.
This Xia Dynasty doesn't look like it can succeed. It doesn't know how to appease Wei Bo first, get money, use his elite soldiers for his own use, and drive him to attack all directions.
Zhou Shi also sighed, he had the same idea.
If it were up to him to handle it, the first thing he would do would be to re-appoint a trustworthy person.
He passed the military governorship, installed trusted officials, and tried every means to make use of Wei Bo's wealth.
Wei Bo has been defeated and will probably not cause trouble in the short term. It is not difficult to abolish the military electoral system and replace it with the appointment system of Jiedushi. Then tens of thousands of Wei Bo's elite troops can be used to attack Hedong and Hebei and unify the north.
.If you are really worried, you can serve as Wei Bo's military envoy yourself.
Of course there are risks, but how can anyone in this world not take risks? This step by Shao Shude really went astray.
But this also gave other vassal towns an opportunity, so it didn't seem like a bad thing.
"How difficult things are in the world." Zhou Shi sighed: "Now that Wei Bo is destroyed, where will the Xia people's military front be directed next? Let's get to know you, and prepare early. Now that the world is in a general trend, we can only place our hope.
Something has changed."
"Judge Zhou." A merchant bravely asked, "Will the Xia people attack Chengde next?"
"Nine times out of ten." Zhou Shi didn't hide it either.
"Why doesn't Commander-in-Chief Wang come forward and declare his vassal status?" someone asked.
Zhou Shi sighed after hearing this.
Don’t you want to be Wang Shuai? You’re going crazy! But Shao Thief didn’t give him a chance.
Zhou Shi felt very pessimistic about what the Guan Xia people were doing in Hebei. This time he went south to Luoyang as a last ditch effort.
If it fails, we can only prepare our troops for war and fight to the death. There is no other way.
******
Zhou Shi left Beizhou at the end of March and hurried to Luoyang.
On the post road, there were soldiers from the victorious Imperial Army of Great Xia everywhere.
Zhou Shi had seen the Xia soldiers many times and knew that they were capable of fighting and had high morale, so this meeting was just a casual look at them.
After more than a year of war, although these sergeants are homesick, their overall military discipline is still maintained quite well, which can be seen from the queue————
On the way back to the division after a simple victory without enemy pursuit or harassment, they would collectively stop to reorganize their troops at each section, beat drums, and continue moving forward.
Is this necessary? Maybe, maybe not. But the Xia people can do this, and the sergeants have no complaints. Obviously military discipline is very strict, and it is comparable to the Liang Army under Zhu Quanzhong's rule. So, the same
It is a force with very strict military discipline.
People from Henan and Guanxi are really obedient!
What really caught Zhou Shi's attention in the queue was the endless baggage vehicles...
Horse-drawn carriages, mule carts, donkey carts and even ox carts were loaded with all kinds of supplies. The strong wind blew up a corner, revealing the true contents of the goods on the carts.
There are more than a thousand carts of colorful silks, golden copper coins, exquisite gold and silverware, and other kinds of treasures!
By defeating Wei Town, the Xia people made a lot of money. Even if production did not resume soon, they all made a fortune just from this one-shot deal - generals, government soldiers and even ordinary sergeants were killed.
One can only imagine whose hands all their wealth fell into.
Alas! Wei Bo's hundred years of savings were all in ruins. Zhou Shi looked up to the sky and sighed, not knowing what to say.
"Moo..."
"What..."
Not far away, the sounds of livestock shouting could be heard one after another. When Zhou Shi came to his senses, it turned out that they had caught up with another team.
In the barren farmland and in the deserted villages, there are herds of cattle, sheep, dolphins and horses. Some people dressed as auxiliary soldiers patrol around and greet these livestock.
The village was full of auxiliary soldiers and husbands, who were busy cutting fodder and feeding livestock. Even some abandoned farmland, because it was overgrown with weeds, let many sheep in to browse.
"General, how many livestock did you capture in this campaign against Wei?" Zhou Shi approached the Xia army officer escorting him and asked in a low voice.
The officer glanced sideways at him and held out a hand.
"Five hundred thousand?" Zhou Shi asked in shock.
"It's just the first batch." The officer smiled proudly and said, "There will be a second batch later, totaling no less than a million."
Zhou Shi was silent.
Judging from Wei Bo's wealth, it must be far more than one million livestock. But Xia Jun's raids are indeed ruthless. I just don't know whether they got it through donations or killing people.
What you get is probably a combination of both.
These beasts! Zhou Shi frowned secretly. If the Xia people invade Zhenzhou, Chengde will be in such a miserable state, right?
Thinking of this, he got a little scared. After several generations of people, they had accumulated some wealth. If they were robbed by the wolf-like Xia Bing, it would be really hard to cry without tears.
"I have always heard that the saint is generous and benevolent. How could he be so arrogant and give out donations like this?" Zhou Shi asked cautiously.
"In the past few years, the three towns of Yun, Yan, and Xu were destroyed, but not much was gained. Ziqing Town is slightly richer, but after all it is not as good as Hebei." The officer said: "Weibo, a big town, can't stop our heavenly troops.
, what’s the point of taking some of their possessions, cattle and sheep? Can’t we make up for the expenses of a hundred thousand troops?”
"Same." Zhou Shi smiled awkwardly and stopped talking.
After several days of marching westward, the army arrived at Anyang County, Lisuo, Xiangzhou. Here, he unexpectedly met Wang Chuzhi, the envoy of Wang Gao, the governor of Yi Ding.
It was awkward for both parties to meet, but they soon started talking naturally.
Wang Chuzhi is Wang Gao's uncle and Wang Chucun's younger brother. He is forty-one years old this year and can be considered a veteran on the battlefield. He is currently the military commander of the Dingzhou shogunate's backyard army. The backyard army is a large-scale army.
The troops numbered more than ten thousand, and the Chinese army was the most elite, so they were led by Wang Chuzhi.
When a person of this level went to Luoyang as an envoy, Zhou Shi was quite speechless.
Li Keyong, Li Keyong, your in-laws are shaken, what's the use of occupying the beautiful land east of Hedong?
Zhou Shi subconsciously felt that this kind of news should be reported to Zhenzhou.
If Yi Dingzhen surrenders to the Xia Dynasty, Chengde will be very uncomfortable, almost the same dangerous situation as when Li Weiyue was surrounded by enemies from both sides.
They did not stay in Xiangzhou long.
On the second day after Qingming Festival, after gathering a huge team of immigrants, the entire army set off southward towards Weizhou.
The mournful and weeping people, the proud warriors, the goods in large and small carts, and the overwhelming number of cattle and sheep constitute the main theme of this army.
Zhou Shi and Wang Chuzhi glanced at each other subconsciously, and then quickly averted their eyes.
(Friendly recommendation of my friend Lao Li’s new book "My Girlfriend is a Robot". If you are interested, you can read it.) -
