Under the escort of a thousand cavalry, Yang Yuanqing ran all the way, leaving the dusk and stars behind. When the second sunset came, he arrived in Lulong County. Looking around for miles, the sunset was dyed red.
The county town bathes this ancient county town in a magnificent halo.
The governor of Peking Dong Xi went out of the city to greet him. He couldn't help but feel excited, turned over and dismounted, knelt in front of Yang Yuanqing and cried, "Jia Qi meets the young master!"
Jiaqi was the number Yang Su gave him. Thirteen years have passed in a flash. He has gradually changed from a young general to a general on the side of the army. This loyalty that has withstood the test of time also touched Yang Yuanqing quite.
He turned over and dismounted and helped him up, "Each of you has a good home, and this is the most gratifying thing for grandfather."
Dong Xi wiped away the tears and looked at Yang Yuanqing. Seeing that he had a mature appearance, his eyes were full of confidence and indifference, and he had a temperament that was not angry. He couldn't help but sigh: "When I left the young master, there were only ten young masters.
At the age of six, the young master has now become a real dragon among human beings. If the old master is still alive, I don’t know how relieved he would be.”
Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly and patted his shoulder, "If you don't talk about this, tell me what Gao Kaidao is doing."
"Young Master wants to attack Gao Kaidao?"
"That's not necessarily the case, I just want to know his situation."
Yang Yuanqing entered the county town all the way. Compared with Youzhou, Lulong County seems dilapidated and poor, with a small city, with an estimated population of less than a thousand households. The streets are deserted, with low houses everywhere, bumpy streets, and crowds of
Children with delicacies surround them.
"When Gaokaidao retreated, nearly half of the county's population was taken away, and all the officials also took them away. The remaining ones were thousands of elderly, weak, women and children, and the food was exhausted. Fortunately, we came in time, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable."
Dong Xi sighed, his heart full of hatred for Gao Kaidao. His wife is from Lulong County. His wife's brother was taken to Liaodong by Gao Kaidao forcibly enlisting in the army. He wanted to launch a battle against Gao Kaidao tomorrow, but he
I also know that the young master had a plan in his mind.
Yang Yuanqing nodded and turned to the military officer of the Records Office Pei Qingsong and said, "Immediately send a message to Taiyuan City and order Ziwei Pavilion to immediately send a new Lulong County Magistrate. The prefect of Beiping County can be transferred to the chief of Yanmen County Liu Zigui, and Leping Ling Gao Zhu
Wen became the chief minister, and Zhao Qiong, the Yong'an Wei, was appointed as Sima. In addition, Wen Yanbo ordered him to quickly transfer the jade and ten thousand stone grain to Beiping County."
Pei Qingsong bowed immediately and said, "I'll write it right away!"
The group came to the county government office. Yang Yuanqing sat down in the county government office. Two soldiers brought a map and hung it on a wooden rack. This is a map of Beiping County and Liaodong. Dong Xi picked up the wooden pole and pointed to Linyu Pass to Yang Yuanqing.
"This is Linyu Pass. One of my subordinates pretended to be a herb collector and crossed Yanshan to the back of Linyu Pass. They found that Gao Kaidao had more than 10,000 troops stationed behind the pass, and summoned tens of thousands of craftsmen to chisel.
Shi Xiucheng."
Linyu Pass was not the later Shanhai Pass. It was named after it was close to the Yushui River. To the north is a branch of Yanshan. Linyu Pass guarded the mountain pass and was also a dangerous place. It was a nine-year-old Daye.
At that time, Yang Yuanqing had been stationed in Linyu Pass for nearly a month and knew the terrain there very well.
But this time he came to Beiping County not to Linyu Pass, nor to attack Gao Kaidao. Now he is not considering Liaodong yet. He has to concentrate on seizing Hebei and dealing with Dou Jiande, which is his main enemy.
Yang Yuanqing walked to the map, looked carefully for a moment and asked, "Is there any place on the map when there was no Hongsi shipbuilding place?"
Dong Xi scratched his head and said, "Young Master, the place where Wu Hongsi built a ship is at the mouth of Ruhe."
Lulong County is close to the Ruhe River. Yang Yuanqing went south along the Ruhe River on the map and soon found the Ruhe mouth. From the map, it is about a hundred miles away from Lulong County.
"Is there a way to pass?"
"I specially built an official road back then, but I haven't walked for many years, so I guess it's abandoned."
Yang Yuanqing immediately said to the left and right: "Let's go now!"
After leaving Lulong County, extending the Ru River to the southeast, there is an official road built by Wu Hongsi, the general manager of Youzhou. The official road is very flat and fine. Although it has not been used for many years, there is still no grass on the road, and more than a thousand cavalrymen have left.
After leaving the city, he ran along this official road to the southeast.
In the afternoon, Yang Yuanqing led his personal soldiers to the mouth of Ruhe. From a distance, he saw more than a dozen huge warehouses, like a dozen giants standing upright, standing on the shore facing the sea breeze.
At the end of the official road was an open land surrounded by high walls, and the warehouse was inside the wall. Since there were no people within dozens of miles nearby, the wall was not destroyed, and a rusty iron gate blocked their way.
Dozens of personal soldiers went up and knocked open the iron gate. Everyone rushed into the wilderness surrounded by high walls. The situation in front of them surprised everyone. There was a vast sea in the distance, and hundreds of ships were anchored on the long shore.
The huge ships were all sea ships of five thousand stone, but most of them were invisible to see the masts. These were obviously large ships that had not yet been completed.
Yang Yuanqing narrowed his eyes. He had heard Cui Hongsheng say that there were hundreds of unfinished sea ships in the shipbuilding station in Beiping County. It was built by Wu Hongsi, the then general manager of Youzhou, at that time, under the order, but Wu Hongsi was later
After being transferred, the shipbuilding station was stopped. Yang Yuanqing had no time to come to inspect. Until today, it was only after nearly six years that he had come to this shipbuilding station belonging to Youzhou for the first time.
Although the Sui army had tens of thousands of ships of all sizes, those ships could only sail in the inland rivers and could not go out to sea. If they wanted to go to Goryeo, they had to build large sea ships to fight against the wind and waves on the sea.
Yang Yuanqing couldn't help but think of the great general of the navy. When Yang Guang died in Yangzhou, he was building ships in Danyang County under the order. Later, it was said that he surrendered to Xiao Xian and became Xiao Xian's navy commander-in-chief, which made him a little bit.
Unfortunately, he lacks the general to command the navy.
"Report to the Chief Executive, we have found many people living here." A personal soldier ran up to report, interrupting Yang Yuanqing's thoughts.
Yang Yuanqing saw the soldiers bringing more than twenty people, including men and women, and a large group of children followed behind. Everyone was timid and their eyes were filled with fear.
This made Yang Yuanqing feel a little strange. There were still people living in the shipbuilding station that had been abandoned for several years. He walked up to ask these people and said, "Who are you?"
Everyone was so scared that they knelt down and stuttered. Most of them had accent from Qi County. After talking for a long time, Yang Yuanqing probably understood what they meant. They were all from Donglai County. They were originally craftsmen in the shipbuilding center, and the craftsmen stopped working.
After disbanding, they returned to their hometown in Donglai County, but the bandits there were too fierce. They fled back to the shipbuilding station, growing grain and vegetables here, and there were cloth to make clothes in the warehouse, so dozens of them regarded this place as
Their home has been living for five or six years.
At this time, Yang Yuanqing remembered something and ordered his personal soldiers to say, "Let them all go and find two leaders to talk to me."
The soldiers found a clean room and placed a couch. Yang Yuanqing sat down. The personal soldiers brought two middle-aged men in. They knelt down in front of Yang Yuanqing in fear. Yang Yuanqing saw that they were strong and had strong muscles.
, able to see that they were doing physical work, so he smiled and asked them softly: "What are your names? Are you from Donglai County?"
A slightly older man said to the Communist Party, "Report to the general, we are brothers, my name is Zhang Long, and his name is Zhang Hu. Both are from Huang County, Donglai County, and their ancestors make a living by building ships."
Yang Yuanqing pointed to the hundreds of large ships on the coast and asked them: "It seems that those ships have not been completed. Can they be repaired?"
"It can be completely repaired. We often go up and the ships are very strong. As long as there are enough materials and boatmen, they can be completely repaired in a few months. We repaired a ship ourselves and often drove the boat to sea and fished."
The reason why Yang Yuanqing asked them was that there were not many shipbuilding craftsmen in Youzhou, and most of his craftsmen had no experience in building sea boats. He needed a large number of craftsmen who could build sea boats. Wu Hongsi recruited three thousand from Donglai County.
Famous shipbuilders, these boat craftsmen from Donglai County, gave him an idea. Yang Yuanqing nodded and asked, "Can you go back to your hometown recently?"
"General Hui Zun, we returned to our hometown to visit our mother's grave last fall."
"Then do you have shipbuilding craftsmen in your hometown? I mean the craftsmen who build sea boats.
The two brothers looked at each other and nodded together, "There are still many, but now there are no one to build ships. Everyone has changed their careers and farms and does some small business. Xu Wulang has heavy taxes over there, and everyone lives.
It's hard."
Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment, pointed at himself and asked, "Do you know who I am?"
The two brothers shook their heads timidly, and Yang Yuanqing smiled slightly, "Have you heard of Yang Yuanqing? I am!"
Who knows the name of Yang Yuanqing in the world? When the two heard that the general in front of them was the famous King of Chu Yang Yuanqing, they were so scared that they kowtowed, "The villain has no eyes and does not recognize Mount Tai. Please forgive your highness."
Yang Yuanqing waved his hand to stop them, "I don't want to scare you, I just want to tell you as the King of Chu that I plan to recruit a large number of shipbuilders in Donglai County to build ships here, and give the most money and grain. Every month I can
Give each shipmaker fifty hush money and one stone of rice. You brothers recruit shipmakers for me. Every time I recruit one person, I will reward you with one tael of silver. In the future, I can still make you an official. How about it, can you do it?
Dry?"
Under the temptation of officials and interests, the eyes of the two brothers were lighted, which was easy for them. They had repaired a large ship and could directly drive the ship across the sea to recruit people. More importantly, the other party was a dignified person.
Wang, he would not break his promise with the common people, so they nodded together, "We will return to our hometown tomorrow and recruit shipmakers for His Highness. We are sure of at least one thousand people."
"Okay! Then we'll make up for it."
...
,Note: Historically, Wu Hongsi's shipbuilding land should be in Donglaihaikou. For the plot, it was changed to Beiping County. The mouth of Rushui River is in today's Leting County, Hebei, and the hometown of Li Dazhao.—