Aruhan was very attentive and asked Guo Ning to stay at his home. Guo Ning declined and instead chose a collapsed watchtower against the high wall outside the camp and set up a tent on the site of the watchtower.
Then he began to regret it. It was not because of the heavy humidity and harsh environment in Tunpu, but because he seemed to have underestimated Aruhan's appeal, just as Aruhan also underestimated Guo Ning.
Aluhan thought that Guo Ning was unaware of the bloated local military system of the Jin Dynasty and the situation of fierce military conspiracies everywhere. This was because he did not understand Guo Ning at all. Seeing that Guo Ning was young, he thought he was a distinguished Han minister in the capital city.
After that, he suddenly gained a high position and was unaware of the local situation.
In fact, although Guo Ning is young and has a dusty face, how does he look like he comes from a noble family?
He was born in northern Xinjiang, and his family was a regular soldier. He could clearly see the Jurchens' strong military control system, and the lack of positions.
Not only him, but all the soldiers who retreated from northern Xinjiang to Hebei knew that if those fierce An Mou Ke households still had 30% of the bravery of their ancestors, how could an army of hundreds of thousands be filled with Han, Bohai and Khitan people?
Rely on these conquered ethnic groups to fight against the Mongols?
So as soon as Guo Ning saw Aruhan, he knew that he was a disgraced Muke who lived in a remote village. And for such a Muke, his official status was high enough, but his actual status was low enough, so he could be used as a mouthpiece to speak to the people.
Deliver messages externally.
But maybe Aruhan has some prestige among the local Jurchens, or maybe the people on Shandong East Road have been living too hard in the past few years and really have no food. Not long after Guo Ning stayed, people started to gather from all over the place.
Come.
So many people cannot be accommodated at one time.
But ordinary people did not need any special arrangements. They gathered in the mountain depression below Tunbao and took weeds and reeds from the deserted beach to make fires to temporarily resist the cold sea breeze at night.
Guo Ning asked Aruhan to spread the word that only young and strong people came. But there were not only young and strong people, but also many men, women and children. Most of them were in ragged clothes, some were wearing white round-neck robes, and some were wearing messy clothes. Most of them
Their bodies were all thin, and their faces and bodies were covered in black dirt.
The place where the crowd gathered happened to be close to the watchtower high up in the fort. The dirty and musty smell from their clothes or bodies, as well as the strong smell of stewed sea fish and seaweed, drifted in the wind and poured into the military tent.
.
Guo Ning first visited from a high place, then left Tunbao and walked towards the mountain col with a few people.
Under the cover of night, he saw emaciated people huddled together to keep warm; he saw some people who seemed not to be afraid of being burned, taking out cracked shellfish from the clay pots on the fire and devouring them.
He saw old people huddled in a simple shack made of reed poles, helping children pick out lice from their bodies and hair, and eating them naturally; there were also children running around, occasionally picking up a piece of grass and deftly breaking it off.
Open the stem, bite the slightly soft part inside, chew it for a few times and then swallow it.
When Guo Ning and others approached, they saw the military robes and weapons of Guo Ning and others, and there was a sudden commotion. Some people ran outside the col in panic, while others did not run, but knelt down silently and got out of the way.
the way.
The road leads deep into the mountain col. The moonlight is dim and there is no light there.
The faint sounds that Guo Ning heard at the height of Tunbao were now clearer here. There were shouts and curses, as well as the sharp screams of women and the frightened cries of children.
It was the brave man in Meng'an Mukehu who took advantage of the opportunity to rob him.
This kind of thing is probably normal for the Jurchens. No matter how destitute the Jurchens are, they are always the masters, which is a higher level than the Han'er who are the expatriates and serfs.
The soldiers under Guo Ning were used to seeing death and were in danger every day. People's wild and ferocious nature could never be suppressed. To be honest, their performance in this regard was not necessarily very good.
Li Ting's troops, in particular, acted extraordinarily wantonly. Guo Ning had stated military discipline several times before, but the effect could not be enforced for the time being.
Guo Ning stopped and shook his head.
"When I was in Changzhou, I only thought that the sufferings of the frontier soldiers were the same in the world. Later I went to Anzhou and found that the people in Hebei were also suffering. Now, when I arrived in Laizhou, Shandong, I was sure that the rule of the Jin Dynasty was originally
No one can live with this horrible look."
He waved to Ni Yi.
"Mr. Lang?"
"Take a few people to see what the fuss is about. Pick the one you don't like and kill him. Then tell the others that they are noisy with me. If you don't want to die, all of them should shut up and be honest."
Ni Yi responded loudly. He took a few armored followers, put on the ferocious expression that Guo Ning often had, and strode deep into the mountain col with his own iron ax in hand.
Guo Ning turned around and turned back.
When he returned to the military tent at the top of the camp, the place where the crowd gathered below was already quiet. Looking a little closer, he could see that Ni Yi was coming out of the mountain col. He seemed to be holding more than one head in his hand... but that was nothing.
The work of expanding and maintaining the port will begin the next day. Although it is a pretext, it must be done well.
Between Tunbu and the bay, in addition to building roads, several simple military platforms should be built based on special terrain such as reef beaches or seawalls.
Because there were enough manpower, some were assigned to repair the fort.
The Fushan area in the northeast of Haicang Town is lush with trees. But the people have no tools at hand, so they tie thatch into ropes, braid reeds into boards, and then pour sand into the boards to serve as foundations or temporary walls.
.
There are more than 700 strong men and more than 500 strong women who do these things. In fact, the strong men are not very strong, and the strong women are not very strong either, but they all try their best and work hard in order to have a mouthful of food.
Because more people came than expected, if Guo Ning fed everyone as he boasted, the army rations might not last for two days. So he secretly greeted Yila Chucai, and finally gave him the
A meal is just enough to satisfy my hunger.
Fortunately, that was all, and the people were very satisfied. The next morning, Guo Ning also recruited some old and weak women and children and asked them to pick up shellfish along the beach to provide extra meals for everyone.
This made the people even more grateful. When Guo Ning and Yilan Chucai went out, they unexpectedly met people kowtowing by the roadside.
Yi La Chu Cai's talents in government affairs were also fully displayed at this time. It should be noted that Guo Ning's troops came across the sea and established in a hurry. The environment was unfamiliar and the affairs were complicated.
Thousands of troops and thousands of civilians have to distribute materials, allocate ordnance, organize and resume military training, and arrange labor. It is really complicated. And many of the people he faces are illiterate, even more than their fingers can read.
The number of people cannot be explained clearly by numbers.
Fortunately, although Yi La Chucai's family background is noble, he has been at the grassroots level for a long time and knows exactly what the people below him are thinking. He led several officials around, counting, counting, transcribing, and assigning information wherever he went.
, straighten out the process abruptly and arrange everything properly.
Monk Luo and others had long admired the move to assassinate Chu Cai. By this time, the soldiers under Ma Bao who originally belonged to the people of Jing'an, and even the poor Jurchens under Aruhan, all admired and said
The transfer of the assassination judge is really powerful.
On the morning of the third day, Guo Ning suddenly came to see him.
Yi La Chu Cai was writing when he saw Guo Ning coming and immediately said: "Don't worry, we can still last two days! I have calculated carefully and there is no problem in two days. We just need to find an explanation for the grain ship...
…”
Guo Ning shook his head: "It won't take two days. Jin Qing, a guest is here now, and he is an honored guest."
