The "Bonfire Party" by the salt pond has a lively atmosphere.
A huge yellow sheep was put up for barbecue directly after being cleaned.
This prey was hunted by a Yinqiandu warrior. Shao Shude asked about it and learned that he had fired three arrows in succession today and hit three hares. He immediately called the person to him and asked his name. He learned that his name was Bijia.
, so he was rewarded with five pieces of Korean brocade and promoted to captain.
Another man who hunted a leopard and presented it as a gift was also rewarded with five pieces of brocade and promoted to leader of the team.
Silver Gun City was just established, and there were many vacancies. Marshal Shao was also an old politician, so of course he knew what to do at this time. He had promoted many people in the past two days.
The prairie warriors are not fools. Isn’t it the same as any big khan? The new khan just needs to be generous. The key is to understand the prairie people, their customs, behavior, demeanor, and speech. They seem to be the same.
It's like growing up on the grassland.
This kind of intimacy is difficult for other Han Jiedu envoys to have.
The soldiers rubbed the roasted meat with salt and pepper and brought it to Shao Shude.
While Shao Shude was cutting meat with a knife, he was chatting and laughing with Zhang Huaishen and Long Jue.
"In the past, when we were hunting captives, we were really blind. We didn't even have a map. We didn't know which road was easy to walk, which road was not easy to walk, let alone which tribe grazed where. If the Yue family hadn't sent a guide to lead the way, we wouldn't have known the way.
If I go into battle, I'm afraid I will make a fool of myself." Shao Shude was in a good mood while eating meat and drinking wine.
Naturally, there was no problem with the marriage agreement with Zhang. Zhang Huaishen even looked happy and breathed a long sigh of relief. It seemed that the pressure brought by Zhang Huaiding and his family was not small.
Of course, the Shao family has also benefited. By stabilizing the Guiyi Army, they have stabilized the western section of the Hexi Corridor. The Suzhou Long family is sandwiched in the middle, and they have been paying tribute to the Shazhou Zhang family all year round. Naturally, they can only surrender.
.
Things in this world really have advantages and disadvantages. You take some of the advantages, but you also have to bear the possible disadvantages. There are many warriors in Liang and Ganzhou, and the cattle and sheep are wild. If you take over, you have to guard against internal rebellion.
As well as the invasion of foreign enemies. With the Guiyi Army supporting the west, most of the hidden dangers of foreign enemies have been eliminated. Next, as long as we station troops in important locations, such as Xiedan Ridge, and cultivate some friendly tribes, we can almost stabilize the internal situation.
.
It may not be possible to be stable for a lifetime, but if you have twenty years of peace, it will be a big profit, and you can slowly improve it in the future.
"Today's viewing of Shuo Fang's powerful army is really impressive. It should be no worse than the Hexi armies during the Tianbao period." Zhang Huaishen picked up the wine bowl, toasted from afar, and said with a smile.
Shao Shude also picked up the wine bowl and drank it all in one gulp.
During the Tenth Festival of Tianbao's reign, some of the troops under his command already had mercenaries. Because of the corruption of the land equalization system, the sources of soldiers for the government were exhausted, so this had to be done.
A typical example is Fanyang Town, where there are a large number of family members of sergeants, many of whom are barbarians. They all rely on the food and salary earned by their family members as soldiers.
More than a hundred years have passed, and more and more bankrupt farmers have gone bankrupt, and now the world is basically dominated by mercenaries. In terms of combat effectiveness alone, it should be no worse than during the Tianbao years, or even stronger. But there are many bad habits, such as being brave when protecting the town.
Incomparably, everyone pretends to be dead when they go out to fight in the town, and they often make troubles and kill generals and drive away commanders at every turn. They are not as obedient as the soldiers in the Tianbao period.
The Shuofang Army under Shao Shude's rule had fewer bad habits in this regard, but it cannot be said that they did not exist at all. However, Zhang Huaishen's compliments at this moment made him smile a little more.
"Commander, I have sent someone back to Jiuquan. We must not delay the matters assigned by the commander." Perhaps feeling the neglect, Long found an opportunity and interjected.
His title of "Commander" is not wrong. Shao Shude is the Hexi Observer and can legitimately intervene in Suzhou affairs. Even Zhang Huaishen cannot comment on it.
What's more, they don't care at all. At nightfall, Zhang Huaishen just sent someone to deliver a gift list: twenty green wild horses, thirty white mink skins, fifty sand fox skins, a hundred pairs of antelope horns, and two hundred fine horses.
horses, a thousand camels.
Everyone has given gifts, and the political signal is quite obvious. The life and death of Suzhou is naturally no longer important.
"If Governor Long succeeds in this matter, it will be a great achievement. At a certain meeting, Governor Long will be reported to the court and he will be appointed deputy envoy of Hexi Observation and Military Envoy of Yumen." Shao Shude raised his wine bowl again and said to Long.
Strictly speaking, Long Jiu's Suzhou governor was self-proclaimed. When he retreated all the way from Ganzhou and occupied Suzhou, the imperial court was too lazy to do anything and just acquiesced.
The governor of Ganzhou and Suzhou usually also served as the deputy envoy of Hexi Jiedu. Shao Shude recommended him as the deputy envoy of Hexi Observation, which was in line with the practice of the country. At the same time, the military envoy of Yumen was also concurrently served by the governor of Suzhou until Hexi fell to Tibet.
The Yumen Army has always been like this, with 5,200 troops in charge. It is located at the ancient pass of Yumen, near Yumen County (today's Yumen City). The county has been abolished.
"Thank you, Marshal, for your kindness." Long was elated upon hearing this, and immediately stood up from the table, bowed to salute, and almost knelt down.
Shao Shude's words finally made him feel relieved.
In fact, he has no ambitions. He just wants to live a life guarding this one-third of an acre in Suzhou. As for expanding the territory, you think highly of him. Suzhou has not been integrated yet, and it is a bunch of tribes that are in conflict with each other. Especially that
Many of the 20,000 Uighurs came directly to Kongtong Mountain to pay their respects to Shao Shude, not taking the dragon seriously at all.
Even when Long met these people, he just pretended not to see them.
Marshal Shao is now the co-leader of the Uighur tribes in Liang, Gansu and Suzhou. If the Uighur tribe in Shaqi is appeased again, it will be great. The title of Yingyi Khan awarded to Umu Lord by the imperial court will simply be changed.
Give it to Marshal Shao.
Seeing Long acting like this, Shao Shude also stood up and helped him back to his seat.
After all, the Long family has actually controlled Ganzhou and Suzhou for many years, and also semi-controlled Liangzhou. They still have some old foundations. The Long family doesn't look like he is going to be a big deal, so let him send a proton here.
If there is some bloodshed in Xiazhou, it would be fine if Suzhou is still handed over to the Long family.
The three major forces of the Momo, the Uighurs, and the Long family restrained each other, and slowly dealt with the Tuyuhun, Tubo, Tatar, Sogdian, Qiang and other small tribes. After ten or eight years, the situation was almost stable.
Of course, there must also be a garrison here, which is the Chishui Army that is about to be formed.
The scale of the Chishui Army was relatively large, and the total number of infantry and cavalry may be close to ten thousand. As for where the soldiers came from, Shao Shude had already made preliminary conclusions. The most loyal minister in Guanzhong, Cheng Zongchu, the governor of Jingyuan Jiedu, was seriously ill. When he died, Jingyuan
Who will inherit the power of the town has a say.
The Jingyuan soldiers are actually capable of fighting. They are all old soldiers. The reason why they look more decadent is because their food and wages are not adequate. You pay them enough, train them rigorously, and one day they will go to the battlefield and explode.
The fighting power that comes out can scare you.
Shao Shude inquired and found that there are currently seven or eight thousand people in the three prefectures of Jing, Yuan, and Wu, as well as the Yamen Army. If they can be recruited, the Chishui Army will have a solid foundation.
The newly formed Chishui Army, like the Tianxiong Army, will slowly fill in a large number of martial arts graduates to serve as grassroots officers, changing the blood step by step. It is not an exaggeration to call these two armies the "Martial Arts Department" in the future. Well, Principal
Ah no, he is a direct descendant of the handsome man.
Well, the horoscope has not been revealed yet. How to operate the Jingyuan Town matter still requires a lot of thought. The court should not let go so easily. There will definitely be some overt and covert competition, and then it will depend on each person's ability.
"Long Cishi, there is one more thing..." Shao Shude said again after eating a piece of meat.
Long Jiu's heart was raised, and Zhang Huaishen also looked at him in surprise.
"The demand for Tibetan goods in the Central Plains is huge. Pearls, jade, coral, jade, ivory, frankincense, woody incense, amber, stamen cloth, dragon salt, brocade, Venus stone, mercury, Parthian tongue, hu powder, pigments, musk
, armor, gold and silverware, leather, livestock, etc., there is no need for them." Shao Shude said: "And Hu merchants also have a great demand for silk, coins, porcelain, gold and silverware from the Central Plains. This way of making money,
You have to run a good business."
Only then did Long feel relieved. It turned out to be a business, so good! In the past, when the Uighurs in Ganzhou did not rob the trade routes, Hu merchants sold more than 30,000 kilograms of frankincense to Chang'an every year. This alone was enough to make a profit.
Get a lot of money.
What's more, there are other things to buy, such as silk.
Before the collapse of the Uighur Khanate, the imperial court sold horses to it, and each horse was offered a price of forty pieces of silk. It was originally a mutually beneficial business, but the Uighurs saw the business opportunities in it, so they began to buy and sell by force, and sent them over
The Uyghur horses of "often tens of thousands", sometimes more than 100,000, came every year. The imperial court coaxed them to help deal with Tibet and bought them all. For this reason, millions of horses of silk were exported to the Uighurs every year.
In the first year of Jianzhong, the Uighurs even owed 1.8 million pieces of silk, which they were unable to pay. It was not until the Yuanhe year that the debt was paid off. As soon as the payment was settled, the Uighurs came again and wanted to sell horses again.
As long as the Uyghur Khanate was in arrears and the Uighur Khanate was destroyed and the Uyghur Wujie Khan was defeated by the German army in Tiandi during Wuzong Huichang's reign, this transaction of forced buying and selling would not be considered terminated.
The Uighurs wanted so much silk, so naturally they couldn't use it themselves, and they couldn't digest it. More than 90% of it was resold to Hu merchants for huge profits.
Isn’t the scale of this business scary?
"During the Taiping years of the Guo Dynasty, Hu merchants left Chang'an and walked to Hexi and Longyou out of Yumen Pass. After the Anshi Rebellion, Helong fell into Tibet. If you wanted to get to Anxi and Beiting, you had to take the grassland Uighur Road." Shao Shude said: "This is expedient.
Plan. Now that the Ganzhou Uighurs who obstructed the trade route have been eliminated, the Gaochang Uighurs have always valued business travel and did not harm them, so the Hexi Road can be opened."
After the Tubo occupied the Helong land, the Silk Road moved to the north. That is, after the Hu merchants arrived at the Uighur territory of Gaochang, they followed the grasslands to the Yinshan area and entered the Central Plains in several lines.
Shao Shude managed the four roads north of Guan well, and his household registration was strong and his wealth was increasing. In the past few years, the city of Kedun, which had been prosperous a hundred years ago, became prosperous again, so much so that he even wanted to take back the city and build it there.
The garrison collected taxes.
Yuan Yuquan has now become a gathering place for Hu businessmen.
According to the report of the inspector of the shogunate's branch office, when he went to inspect Yuanyu Spring, Xiang Zhuanglang, a party behind the mountain, had already built an earthen city there. There were many craftsmen living in the city, mostly Hu people from the Western Regions, making bronze wares.
The handicraft industry for processing rosin is quite developed.
Outside the city, a lot of farmland has been reclaimed, water is diverted for irrigation, and the grain, fruits and vegetables grown are used for business travel, so it is prosperous.
Shao Shude is reluctant to cut off the wealth of the Zhuang Lang family and the Hun family for the time being, so he might as well rebuild the Hexi trade road and divert some business travel. If it is managed well, even most of the Hu merchants will be attracted, and the profits here are quite large.
Enough to support tens of thousands of troops.
"Zhang Pushe, Governor Long, you might as well take action and let's open up this trade route together. You know the benefits better than I do," Shao Shude said.
"You must obey the orders of Prince Lingwu." There is nothing that the two of them cannot do if it is beneficial.
Shao Shude was also very satisfied.
The source of war horses has been expanded, many more holes have been added, the security situation in the rear has been consolidated, and there are more benefits from the Silk Road. This western expedition can be regarded as a full success, and it is not in vain to make such a trip in person.
After finishing all these preparations, it was almost time to prepare the class.
When I return to the army, I will naturally not take the same route, although it is relatively close.
Shao Shude meant that this time he would go to Longyou, make a circle and then return to Lingzhou.
As for why we went this way, the reason is very simple: deterrence!
In the land of Longyou, there are also many Tubo and Qiang tribes, and even the Amo people who followed Shang Yanxin to the Tang Dynasty are there, but they are scattered in various states and are not very eye-catching.
Go south from Ganzhou, pass through Dadou Valley, and reach Shanzhou. Then go east, take Fenglin Pass, pass Linzhou, Weizhou, then go north to Huizhou, and finally return to Lingzhou.
The focus of this journey is Shanzhou.
Shao Shude plans to meet with the Tibetan tribes in Shanzhou. These Tibetans will not have a long memory if you don't lead a large army in front of them from time to time. Maybe they will rebel at some point.
Marshal Shao planned to impress them, so not only his own troops were going south, but also the Liangzhou Lamo, Ganzhou Uighurs, Suzhou Longjia and even the rebel army were going south.
After the alliance with the Tubo and Qiang tribes in Shan and Kuo states is completed, they can return on their own.
The local tribes in Shan and Kuo are ignorant and it is useless to talk about big principles. However, after seeing that Marshal Shao can command so many forces in Hexi and Longyou, any sane tribal leader should know that
How to do.
If you want to plunder, just plunder your own people. If you want to plunder Lan and Hezhou, think about the consequences first. There is no harm in adding a few more tribes to the list of tribes that Shao Papi slaughtered.