Jin Feng chatted with Qinghuai in Xihewan and learned about the basic situation of Dakang.
The territory of Dakang is similar to that of the Northern Song Dynasty in the previous life. The northwest is the Dangxiang regime established by the Dangxiang people, the Khitan people are galloping on the prairie to the north, and the southwest plateau is occupied by the Tubo people and a country named Dazhao.
Dazhao and Dakang are separated by many mountains, and recent generations of kings have believed in Buddhism, so they get along quite harmoniously with Dakang.
The Tubo people are extremely ferocious, and have had numerous conflicts with the Central Plains regimes in history. But now there are several regimes in Tubo. They are fighting among themselves, and they have no energy to invade Dakang.
Dakang's biggest enemies were the Khitan in the north and the Dangxiang in the northwest, who often raided the borders and provoked wars.
In fact, this is Dakang’s own fault.
At the beginning of the founding of Dakang, there were many soldiers and generals, the country was rich and the people were strong, but the Khitans and Dangxiang people were still very backward, and they still used wood and bamboo as weapons in their wars. The three parties were peaceful for more than a hundred years, and there was still a lot of trade.
Dangxiang and Khitan are really too backward, and those herdsmen are too stupid. With only a few iron tools, grain, and cloth, they can buy a large number of cattle and sheep from the grasslands and Gobi.
Countless wealthy people have made a lot of money by relying on this method.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. As the method of iron smelting spread to the grasslands, the Khitans and Dangxiang people quickly produced solid weapons and armor.
Seventy years ago, the Khitans began their first invasion of the Central Plains.
Two thousand fierce cavalry, riding similarly heavily armored horses, charged straight towards the border.
At this time, Dakang's policy of advocating civility and restraining military force had been implemented for many years. The army was full of dandies inserted by civilian officials to gain seniority. Where could they be the opponents of the fierce Khitan cavalry?
Wuzhou's 13,000 defenders, with the help of the tall and solid city wall, were actually killed by two thousand Khitan people. They threw away their helmets and armor and ran away with their heads in their hands.
A mere two thousand Khitan people marched straight in and fought until they reached the Yellow River before stopping.
This battle frightened Emperor Dakang, and he hurriedly sent envoys to the Yellow River to negotiate peace. Finally, after presenting the emperor's daughter and countless supplies, as well as the letter of credence signed by Emperor Dakang to pay annual tribute, the Khitans returned to the grassland.
When the party members saw it, they thought, oh, Dakang is so easy to bully, wouldn't it be a big loss if he didn't rob him?
So as soon as the Khitan people left, the Dangxiang people came. Five thousand cavalry rushed to the border, and the 30,000 defenders were beaten and fled eastward in confusion.
Then, the party members also returned with the princess, supplies and credentials.
After receiving the benefits, the Khitan and Dang Xiang were indeed honest for two years.
This made Emperor Dakang and his ministers naively think that the Dangxiang and Khitan people would just stay in the Gobi grassland after accepting the imperial daughter and annual tribute.
Later, facts proved that human greed cannot be overcome.
More and more royal daughters were sent to the Gobi grasslands, and the annual tributes became heavier and heavier. However, the number of Khitan and Dangxiang people going to the border to fight in the autumn wind became more and more frequent.
In desperation, Dakang could only start to resist.
However, the Dangxiang and Khitan cavalry were too powerful and could not be defeated, so they had to use their lives to pile up.
Starting from last year, the party members started a new round of invasion. At first it was just a tentative invasion. After the New Year, they began to gather large armies at the border. It seemed that they were preparing for a full-scale invasion of Dakang.
Jinchuan County is located in northern Sichuan, and Qinghuai's destination is Weizhou in northern Shaanxi. The straight-line distance between north and south is less than 400 kilometers. In later generations, it would only take a few hours to drive there.
However, there are no expressways in Dakang, and there are even no mountain roads in many places, so traveling is much slower.
You need to go to the Jialing River first, go upstream, and reach near Fengyang, then change to the dry road.
Along the way, I didn’t even think about going anywhere for more than ten days.
That's why Qinghuai set off in such a hurry.
Jinchuan is not far from the Jialing River. The team set off before dawn in the morning and arrived at the dock in the middle of the morning.
A huge wooden boat was docked at the pier, waiting quietly for the Marquis Qinghuai.
The guards led the war horses onto the wooden boat, while Jin Feng's carriage was left on the shore.
Because the carriage took up too much space, and there were still hundreds of miles of land to travel before we got off the ship in Fengyang, the carriage was too slow.
So Jin Feng and Mancang had an extra task during this time - learning to ride horses on the boat.
Qinghuai took Jin Feng on board the boat, and a fat man in gorgeous silk clothes ran up to meet him, bowing to Qinghuai from a distance:
"Master Hou, I've finally waited for you."
He is a salt merchant, and this wooden boat is his, carrying salt on it, ready to be transported to Guanzhong.
When Qinghuai sent people to Bianjing to deliver letters home, he made preparations to go north and sent people to the Jialing River to intercept passing ships.
This salt merchant was the unlucky guy who was stopped.
As an important tributary of the Yangtze River, the Jialing River flows very fast. When you go down the river, you can run from Fengyang to Jinchuan in a day or two. But going upstream is troublesome. You can't even use oars or sails, so you can only hire trackers.
Boat.
This wooden boat is large and can haul a lot of cargo, so it hires many boatmen and trackers. If it is delayed for one more day, its cost will increase by one point.
The status of merchants in Dakang was very low among scholars, farmers, and merchants. Even if he lost money every day, this unlucky salt merchant did not dare to run away. He could only follow Qinghuai's request and park the ship on the shore to wait.
This wait lasted seven or eight days.
Yesterday, Fatty was so excited that he almost cried when he received the news that Qinghuai was coming.
"You are the captain, right?"
After being made to wait for seven or eight days, Qinghuai didn't even look embarrassed at all. He casually glanced at the fat man and asked, "Is our cabin ready?"
In response to Qinghuai's arrogant attitude, the fat man became even more respectful, hunched over and leading the way:
"It has been prepared a long time ago. They are the best cabins on the ship."
Jin Feng thought of the business tycoons of later generations and couldn't help but feel sad for the businessmen who lived in this era.
The businessman did not dare to lie. He did give up the best cabin on the ship. Jin Feng and Qinghuai were each assigned a single room, and Mancang and the guards shared a room for four people.
After receiving Qinghuai's order to sail the ship, the fat man shouted excitedly at the top of his voice: "Weigh the anchor and sail the ship!"
"Weigh anchor! Let's sail!"
The trackers on the shore shouted, and the wooden boat began to move slowly.
"Three feet of white cloth, hey! Four ounces of hemp, hey! Pedaling on rocks, hey! Hands digging sand, hey! Naked, hey! Climb up, hey!..."
From the shore, the sound of trackers' uniform chants could be heard.
It was the first time for Jin Feng to ride on such a human-pulled wooden boat, and he curiously ran to the deck to watch.
On the river beach on the left bank, there were thirty or forty dark-skinned men, all naked, carrying a palm-wide strip of cloth on their backs, leaning forward hard, almost crawling forward on all fours.
"Why are they not wearing any clothes? There are two women behind them, and they don't know how to cover up."
It was Mancang's first time on a boat, so he also got on the deck.
I was very surprised to see that none of the trackers were wearing a strand of hair.