At the end of February, the Daibei grassland has not yet turned green.
Occasionally, a little green grass sprouted in some places, but the overall color was still monotonous withered yellow.
Jining County is the natural county of Rouzhou. This area near the city wall is home to a mixture of Tibetan and Han people. It is packed with thousands of people, most of whom are family members of Yinshan Zhenjun.
The Yinshan town army has two towns, the first and the second town. The original source was the Xinquan army that stayed in the north of Guan, as well as the Zhongwu and Huaining two vassal town soldiers who surrendered. Later, a thousand new soldiers from Lingzhou Academy were selected and sent.
A Thousand Green Tang Tubo is strong and powerful.
After forming an army, the former had 10,000 cavalry and was stationed in Feng, winning two states; the latter had 8,000 men and was stationed in Rouzhou.
Because the area that needed to be defended was too vast, I heard that the Privy Council intended to form another town army in the Yinshan area, so the personnel were selected from miscellaneous troops.
It's still the old rule, the most capable ones should join the Forbidden Army, add some fresh blood to the Forbidden Army, and prevent it from solidifying.
Those who were able to fight were organized into government troops and placed in various places in Liaodong, even in the Western Regions and Yunnan.
The remaining ordinary soldiers do not have much fighting power, and their morale is not as good as others. If they are coaxed and frightened, they will basically be eaten.
The garrison of the second town of Yinshan is Rouzhou, but it is impossible to gather them all in one place. In fact, they are scattered in various fortresses. The largest garrison in Jining County is only more than 2,000 people.
.
The family members of the Zhenjun army, the herdsmen of the Chebi family, the Han people with established households, and the merchants who came and went, formed the small society of Johor. If you look carefully, you can see that the vitality is quite strong.
Early in the morning, Qi Biyunnian rode his horse to the market.
"Buy according to order, move quickly." He waved his riding crop and said.
The civil servants in the Hanyin County Duke's Mansion responded to the order with a bang, took the gift lists, and walked into each shop one by one to purchase goods. Those who had not opened the door were directly beaten to a loud sound, and after opening the door sleepily,
I was shocked at first.
Johor is the official state of the imperial court, but everyone knows that there is another local force that cannot be ignored, and that is the Qibi family.
As the princes of Daxia and relatives of the emperor, the Qibi family has so much power that even the governor has to give way to it. Because their family controls nearly 80,000 herdsmen on the surrounding vast grasslands, they have to recruit troops to the limit.
Providing 30,000 cavalry is not a problem. And among the grassland tribes, their family is relatively capable of fighting, and has been commended by saints more than once.
But after all, it is not the end of the Tang Dynasty when discipline was relaxed. When the new dynasty was established, the rules were still relatively strict. It is true that the Qibi family was a local snake, but the camp in Rouzhou had not yet been cancelled, and there were many soldiers and horses stationed nearby.
There is also an endless stream of officials - the supervisory censor has just arrived in Yunzhou.
If someone sues you, it is quite troublesome. If the saint is in a bad mood, in addition to the normal punishment, you may also be fined with food. Even if you only fine 100 households, it will be quite painful.
Therefore, when the store owners saw people from the county government pouring in to move the goods, they were not in a hurry. They only asked their children and nephews to check the quantity and negotiate the price with the clerks, while they themselves talked with the county clerk who led the team.
"Cao Lu's incident, with so many troops and people mobilized, are the rumors true?" asked the shopkeeper.
"You are quite well-informed." Cao Lu was surprised.
"How can a businessman not keep an eye on all directions and an ear on all directions?" The shopkeeper smiled modestly and said, "My brother-in-law is doing business in Shenzhou, and there is more noise there."
"I see." Cao Lushi nodded and asked casually: "What kind of business does your brother-in-law do?"
"Trafficking in stone alkali."
"Good deal!" Cao Lushi praised.
Stone soda is also called haloalkali, which is natural sodium carbonate.
Chinese people have used halo-alkali for a long time. Some people collected it for washing clothes in the Han Dynasty, but the amount used has always been small and relatively stable.
In Daxia, the situation changed dramatically.
Due to the demand for wool degreasing, the use of soda ash has increased year by year, suddenly creating a huge market. Businessmen from all walks of life have gone to the northern grasslands, because the halo-alkali resources here are the most abundant, and they hire herdsmen to collect them and transport them to various places for sale.
Of course, there are also people in the north who are unwilling to spend money to buy halo-alkali.
"The one with the thickest brine is the one with the lowest flavor when fried with salt from Bingzhou."
"In the plains of Shanxi Province and in the highlands of Taigu and Yuci, bittern grows in autumn. It looks like water when you look at it, and like snow when you get close. The natives scrape and refine it into salt. The slightly pale yellow color is called bittern salt."
At least many places in Hedong will naturally precipitate sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate in autumn. Whether it exists in other places depends on your local environment.
In short, this is a business, and it is a very big business - daily consumables that are needed by thousands of households are a huge business.
"It's not bad." The shop owner smiled reservedly and said, "My brother-in-law knows a Qianhu from Woyang Palace, and I have to take care of him, so I can barely make a living."
Cao Lushi smiled along with him, and inadvertently, he put away a little of his arrogance, and his expression became slightly kinder.
In fact, there is also halo-alkali trading here in Johor. Because the salt ponds are mostly distributed on the grasslands, most of them are operated by the Chebi family, and a small part is distributed on the land under the jurisdiction of the imperial court.
The trading of halo-alkali has now become an important source of income for the Qibi family, which was hard to imagine ten years ago. However, I heard that starting next year, the court will impose taxes on halo-alkali, and the tax rate is expected to be quite high.
Saints like this. Let you develop for now. When more and more people participate in a certain business, it becomes more and more prosperous, and the people who use it become more and more inseparable, the court will come to collect taxes. It may be possible at the beginning
The tax rate is very low, but the situation will be observed every few years and the tax rate will be readjusted - usually higher.
But even so, no one will give up the halo-alkali business. Especially the chiefs of the grassland tribes. How can the originally useless halo-alkali be sold to the Central Plains? Why not sell it desperately? It doesn't matter if the price is lower.
, the cost is very low anyway.
The chiefs have made money, and the herdsmen can get a share of the soup by selling their coolies. And when the herdsmen have money, businessmen will flock to them, bringing cheap goods, so that everyone's lives can be improved.
Cao Lushi was a down-and-out scholar who had taken refuge with Qi Bizhang when he was campaigning in Henan. He had been in the county government for a long time and was fully aware of the changes in the grassland in the past twenty years.
There was once a fool who talked nonsense, saying that the Great Xia sage kept extracting men from them to fight wars and collect cattle and sheep, so he should have rebelled against him. Well, this person's last whereabouts should be in a brick kiln in Jining County, where he was moved in shackles
brick.
Everyone is not a fool. The economic ties between the grasslands and the Central Plains are getting closer and closer. How many benefits does this bring?
In fact, it’s not just halogens. Live animals, furs, dairy products, horns, tendons, and brown sugar, honey, etc. that have emerged in recent years are not only purchased by ordinary merchants, but also by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In exchange for iron products for the grassland
Tools, porcelain and pottery, pots and pans, tea, liquor and even silk, books, musical instruments and other former luxuries.
Both sides of the trade have benefited greatly and their lives have improved.
What kind of rebellion is this? Will it make life worse? Sorry, ordinary herdsmen don't agree.
What kind of rebellion? My family is a relative of the royal family! Sorry, even the Qibi family doesn’t agree.
This time the saint summoned all the tribes to go north to meet for alliance, and he agreed to gather tens of thousands of soldiers and horses early in the morning, bring enough food and fodder for the journey, and hurriedly went north. There is a reason why he carried out the order so resolutely.
Da Xia Zi, if he really regards them as his own people, and does a better job than Tang Na would do before him, then he will return the loyalty of his own people, that's all.
******
"Where is Heichengzi?"
"Will you starve to death if you go?"
“Is that place really suitable for farming?”
"Is there any danger? Have all the people who went last year come back?"
Outside Fugu Town in the northeast of Linzhou, three thousand native tribesmen from Suisi, Yin and Linzhou were on their way.
They had just finished the spring sowing at home, but they didn't expect to drive the carriage to the Qibei grassland for spring sowing. They were really busy.
Fugu was originally a military town, but it has been abolished and slowly turned into a commercial market.
Going north from Guanzhong via Yifang, going south from Nuozhenshui, Kedun City, Shengzhou and Shenzhou, as well as the east-west trade routes between Guanbei and Hedong via the Yellow River all intersect here. After thirty years of development, the number of household registrations has gradually increased.
, the commercial prosperity is not even worse than that of Xinqin, the prefecture city.
When the rural soldiers passed by here, another group of people followed them. They were officials from Sinong Temple. They bought a lot of farm tools here, hired some veterinarians, horsemen, etc., and followed them northward.
"Isn't it just military service?" The leader of the team was Ye Lizhu, the deputy commander of the Yinzhou Prefecture Army. He only heard him say: "When I was called into battle in the past, I had to face the enemy directly. This time I was just farming, why?
What are you worried about? After we come back, each person can still receive a piece of money, a piece of cloth, and a sheep, which is already quite good."
After hearing this, the village warriors' morale improved slightly.
Indeed, isn't it just farming? It's better than fighting. What's more, there are rewards from the court, which are much better than before.
The sound of horse hooves came from the grassland to the west of the post road, causing everyone to look around.
The military town was dismantled but turned into a warehouse. The main materials in the warehouse were hay and a small amount of miscellaneous grains. At this time, an overwhelming number of cavalry stopped near the warehouse. The door of the warehouse was opened wide, and carts of fodder were pulled.
Come out and feed the horses.
"It's the Imperial Guard Cavalry!"
"I don't know which part it is, but my brother is a deputy in the Golden Sword Army. He returned to his hometown once last year, and he was very impressive."
"The Imperial Guards are here. Could the Saint be nearby?"
"Where is it? Where is the saint?"
At the mention of saints, the local heroes who were full of complaints just now suddenly became energetic. When I was a child, I listened to the ancestors telling various legends about saints. If I could see a real person, wouldn't I be envied to death by others after I returned home?
Ye Lizhu, who was talking with the officials of Sinong Temple, also raised his head and looked around.
"The saint is still meeting the elders in Yinzhou. This is just a vanguard team." The official of Sinong Temple said.
"That's it." Yeli smiled.
In fact, he also wanted to see the saint. As the third generation distant branch of the Nori clan, it was impossible for him to get much care from the family. The only way to climb up was to rely on his outstanding martial arts to establish a
War exploits.
Isn't Oritsugu Yu also a member of the Orishi clan? Now his branch is not much worse than the main one. This is a role model.
The arrival of a large group of cavalry also alarmed the people of Fugu Town.
Rumors that "the saint is coming" spread like wildfire, attracting people to look around.
"Long live my emperor!" After a while, someone saw a gorgeous carriage and shouted out.
"Long live my emperor!" People follow the crowd. One person shouted, and soon the others were brought along, and the cheers resounded through the sky.
Yue Liduo opened the car curtain and looked outside with a complicated expression.
Sometimes, she really hopes that these cheers are directed towards her, but after so many years, she knows that this is wishful thinking.
Look at the other women in the car.
There is the Bohai Queen Gao who was captured in Longquan Prefecture in the 8th year of Jianji, the Changhe Queen Mother Wang who was captured in Dali in the 12th year of Jianji, and the Uighur princess who was captured in Heichengzi in the 3rd year of Qianning (896).
Gu family, and she - Ke Dun, a member of the Eight Khitan tribes, was betrayed by her brothers in Beilou in the seventh year of Jianji and fell into the hands of the saint.
On this trip to the north, the saint didn't take any other women with him, but just a few of them. Isn't it just to show off? For men, this is an achievement, but for them, isn't it a humiliation?
Of course, Yue Liduo doesn't care about this very much, as grassland customs have always been like this.
What she cares about is that during the alliance, when the saint accepts the cheers of the crowd, what an honor it would be if she could stand beside him?
The lord of the grassland, the Supreme Khan's Ketun, even if it is fake, every time she thinks of this scene, Yue Liduo is so excited that she is dizzy and can hardly control herself. At this time, she is willing to do anything for the saint, even if she takes off her clothes
She can accept all self-esteem as long as no outsiders see it.
"Definitely!" Dozens more riders came to Fugu Town.
Looking at that green face, I don’t know which young man slipped out.
"The saint takes me north!"
"I would like to serve in front of the army!"
"The only way to achieve fame and success is by riding a horse. Holy man, please take a look at my martial arts skills. I can shoot arrows on Pegasus and hit 78 out of 10!"
"Sage, please take me away! I have defeated all the invincible opponents in the whole town. I am willing to lead my horse and serve in front of the army. Even if I die, I will not hate you!"
The people of Fugu looked at them and laughed loudly.
This is too urgent!
The Imperial Guard cavalry who was feeding the horses also laughed.
The saint issued an order, and those who were requested came, and those who were not requested also came to join in the fun. With the saint's temper and interest, he might actually take them with him.
As long as one of these people achieves fame and returns to his hometown, he will become an immortal local legend and inspire more young men to practice martial arts hard and follow suit.