Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1357 Meeting the Messenger

As a sacred place of Khitan, there is nothing magical about Muye Mountain.

In Shao Shude's view, this is just a sand dune.

Beyond the sand dunes, there is a typical northern Liaoze landform: the sand is fixed in the swamp, the elm and willow forests are not connected in one piece, sparse, and the east and west grasslands are dotted in the sand, which is the life of cattle and sheep. source of.

In fact, Shao Shude was very curious, how could there be so much sandy land in Liaoze?Some sandy areas are even completely surrounded by swamps, but have not been transformed into grass by the environment.

Some cultivated fields have been opened up next to Konoha Mountain.The farmers are still there, they are all slaves of the Xi people, and there are probably more than a thousand households.

Millet is planted in the field, and it is time to harvest.Shao Shude casually broke off a plant and held it in his hand to examine it carefully. It was millet, a famous crop in the north during the pre-Qin period.

Times have changed, and now there are very few places where millet is grown in the north, and it is basically dominated by corn and wheat.Moreover, the proportion of wheat planting is constantly rising, and it will gradually become a mainstream crop.Corn will only be found in dry or barren places as a supplement.

"I heard that Xi people grow millet and harvest three to five buckets per mu. With this output, what's the point of growing it? It's the same virtue as Hengshan Dangxiang more than 20 years ago. They have made progress now, and the harvest per mu is more than eight buckets, and you are still far behind. Shao Shude put down the millet, looked at Fu Guzhi and the others, and said: "If the Khitan people want to live a good life, they have to follow me."

"Your Majesty is the Supreme Khan, and the eight tribes of the Khitan can follow." Fu Guzhi immediately joked.

Shao Shude ignored him, looked at a child beside him, and said, "Zanhua, what do you think of this place?"

"It should not be as good as Central Plains." Zan Hua said.

"Zanhua" was originally named Yelv Tuyu, the eldest son of Abaoji, who was just named "Shao Zanhua" by Shao Sheng.

He doesn't like the saint very much, because he peeked at his mother last night being held in the arms of the saint, with a face of reluctance.But he is nine years old, he is not a child who doesn't understand anything, he understands that if he wants to live comfortably in the future, he really can only rely on this man in front of him.

"You finally have some knowledge." Shao Shude said with a smile: "It's far away. Not to mention Hebei and Henan, even the land in Guanzhong is much better than here. Look at the thorns and weeds there, which are short and short. It doesn't even grow tall."

Shao Shude was actually a little strange. He remembered that Dongmeng in later generations was a black land, but here was a landform of the Horqin Sandy Land, and he didn't know what went wrong.

But there is indeed some land available for cultivation, and the two sides of the river are obtained, which is also the farming area of ​​Xi people.

"Yue Liduo, you have been to Fuyu Mansion, what do you think of that place?" Shao Shude asked again.

This woman has changed into a Han Chinese clothes.

Last night, he had a thorough bath, and Shao Shude personally supervised it.The reason is that grassland people seldom bathe and their body smells heavy, so he keeps a close eye on it, washing every corner of his body and developing good hygienic habits.

After washing, he checked and accepted it himself and checked it carefully.

After checking, I found that there were still many sticky places, so I washed it again, and then I gave up.

Yu Lujiangu, Xiao Chonggon, and Bodhisattva Nu have all gone through this process, and Yue Liduo is no exception.

"It's too cold." Yue Liduo didn't want to speak at first, but after meeting Shao Shude's eyes, she could only say helplessly: "It's getting colder every year."

Shao Shude was a little surprised.It's not easy for her to discover this secret.

There may be many people who can feel the weather getting colder, but not many can observe it for many years and draw conclusions. This actually tests the degree of delicacy and meticulousness of mind.

"But Bohai Kingdom is still very good. What do you think of it?" Shao Shude asked again.

"I'm afraid it won't be a year's work." After Yue Liduo finished speaking, she walked over and held the eldest son's hand to prevent him from running around.

Shao Shude's eyes followed the past.

Seeing Gu, Yu Lu felt very uncomfortable.

"Your Majesty." She walked over gently.

"Don't run around with your body, go back to the south building to rest." Shao Shude glanced at her and said.

After speaking, he studied the surrounding environment again.

At the beginning of August, the leaves are already turning yellow.In a few days, colorful leaves will rise, and birds and magpies will fly south, and winter will really enter.

How much progress can the various soldiers and horses make before winter begins?He didn't even count.

However, a few days ago, he received two unexpected pieces of good news: [-]. The five hundred soldiers from the Anton Mansion who stayed behind in Black Bone City killed the lieutenant generals and captured the city; .

Regarding the first good news, his reaction was to order Anton Mansion to enlist local villagers who could ride horses to rush along the coastline to reinforce Black Bone City.

Black Bone City is the Fenghuang Mountain City in the southeast of Fengcheng, Liaoning in later generations. The fortified city that existed in the Goguryeo era is the gateway to Pyongyang, and it is particularly important.

During the heyday of the Xia Army, there were 2000 troops stationed here, but they were reduced to [-] later. The reason for staying here was to receive the grain and grass provided by the Bohai State—the grain from Meituo Lake (Xingkai Lake), the main rice production area, and transfer it by land to water. Finally, go down through the Yalu River and arrive at the Black Bone City distribution.

In fact, the Bohai State has always asked Xia Jun to withdraw from Black Bone City, but they would rather reduce the number of troops stationed than give up their military presence completely, and now they have made great achievements.

The second news was actually expected.In the former Tang Dynasty, there were great martial arts and martial arts, and now there are great Shuxians who want to vote for Xia, it is simply carved out of the same mold.

But Shao Shude didn't expect much from it.He heard that Da Shuxian had been relieved of his military power, so it was hard to know how much help he could provide.After all, the Bohai soldiers are loyal to the Bohai State, not him.It's hard to say how many people Da Shuxian can attract.

By chance.

This world was created by him with one sword and one gun, and he never expected the sky to fall.

******
"Your Majesty, the Bohai envoy has arrived." Chu Shenping reported softly outside the door.

"Let him in!" Shao Shude put down the skirt to cover the fat buttocks of the Bodhisattva slave, and asked her to wait aside, and said with a joke: "Next time, I will let you sisters compare, whose is it?" big."

The Bodhisattva slave blushed and left with tears in the corners of his eyes. When he ran to the inner room, he saw his younger sister Yue Liduo and almost burst into tears.

"Grassland girl, what's the use of crying?" Yue Liduo sighed, straightened her sister's skirt and said, "You look like a woman from the Central Plains."

The Bodhisattva slave stopped crying, and asked in a low voice: "Yue Liduo, did you have your menstruation yesterday?"

Yue Liduo was silent for a moment, then nodded.

The Bodhisattva slave sighed and said, "Shao thief is going to humiliate you."

Yue Liduo didn't say anything when she heard it, instead she signaled her to keep quiet and listened attentively outside.

"If Pei Shaoqing is willing to enter the court as an official, why should I begrudge the position of the prefecture?"

"Your Majesty is the lord of a big country, so why make things difficult for a small country? Bohai has been in power for 200 years, and has always been submissive. If the imperial court is willing to withdraw troops, our country is willing to give you rich coins as a gift."

"I heard that Liu Rengong has secretly accepted the position of Bohai. I am really surprised that the king of Bohai County can take in such a generation without father and king, so I want to ask the crime."

"There is absolutely no such thing. Liu Rengong has repeatedly invaded our country's territory and committed heinous crimes. How could our country take him in. It must be instigated by traitors, Your Majesty must not believe it."

"Whether it is true or not, you will know when you take down Fuyu Mansion. The three counties of Qiangshi, Xin'an, and Yugu in Xianzhou have been conquered by Wang Shi, and the two counties of Buduo and Xianyi in Fuzhou have also come to surrender. Only Fuyu is left , Quechuan is still fighting trapped beasts. With an army of 50, it is easy to overcome."

"Besides, this is just one of them. When the king's division attacked the Mansion of Hujie, the Bohai soldiers repeatedly obstructed it, even hunting and killing our army's rangers and scouts. Some envoys came from Shangjing to lobby the state and county generals to prevent them from descending in summer. What's the reason? Could it be that the Bohai County King thinks that the Mansion of Hujie should not be my possession? It's really absurd, what do you have to do with the land I got from Khitan?"

"Your Majesty, this is really a misunderstanding. Our country doesn't know that Master Wang has arrived in Bohai..."

"Okay, okay! If you only have these words, you can go back."

"..."

"Your Majesty, before the ministers came here, the lord of the country specially told him that he was willing to present the two prefectures of Hujie, Fuyu and Suzhou to the state, and to remove his honorary title and year name, to send envoys into hostages, and to offer 20 yuan in cash and cloth. 30 horses, [-] bags of pearls, and [-] pieces of gold and silver wares to make amends, and I only hope that the great powers will withdraw their troops.”

"The two prefectures of Hujie and Fuyu are already in the hands of Khitan. How can the king of Bohai offer it? How about cutting off the three prefectures of Changling, Yalu, and Nanhai? It can still show sincerity."

"This...Yalu Mansion is our country's Xijing, and Nanhai Mansion is Nanjing, an important place in the capital. It is really difficult to cede it."

"Since you don't want to offer soil, what are you talking about?"

"Master Wang really wants to attack Bohai Sea?"

"How can I bear to kill my soldiers? The arrow is on the string, and I have no choice but to shoot."

"..."

The outside was silent for a long time, and then there were footsteps, and they gradually faded away.

Yue Liduo withdrew her listening attitude and continued to be busy with the matter in hand.

Bodhisattva Nu suddenly felt absurd, as if his sister didn't particularly care about her captivity.She thought of the scenes of her brother-in-law and younger sister riding together on the same horse, going out for outings, and loving each other, and she felt very unreal.

What happened to my sister all these years, why did she suddenly become like this?
After Shao Shude in the outer room saw off the Bohai envoy Pei Qi, he sat there thinking quietly.

He doesn't intend to give up on the Northeast.

The imperial court has just decreed that Sikong Bing will be the governor of Shenzhou, and the development of the middle reaches of the Liaohe River has been put on the agenda.

The land in the Northeast is fertile, and he has seen many pastures that grow almost as tall as a human, which is hardly seen in the Central Plains and the Helong area.

Goguryeo did not have Western Liaoning in history, only Eastern Liaoning, part of Jilin, and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. After many conquests in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it still had a population of about 350 million before its demise.Before Emperor Sui Yang's Eastern Expedition, the population should be much higher than this figure.

This can be seen from Yang Guang's mobilization of more than 100 million troops to conquer.At least he took Goguryeo's strength very seriously, thinking that this was a large-scale war comparable to the attack on Chen.

The existence of Goguryeo proves that the northeast region is sufficient to support millions of people.

The only concern is the Little Ice Age.

But it's actually not that scary.

Can it be colder than the extreme cold period of 1645-1715?This 70 years, which was colder than the end of the Ming Dynasty, was actually the stage when the national power of the Qing Dynasty reached its peak.

And the temperature at this meeting, he felt that it was just a prelude to cooling down.In real history, something should have happened, or there was an opportunity that led to a rapid cooling.Either an external cause, such as solar activity, or an internal cause of the earth, such as a volcanic eruption, or a superposition of two factors.

He knew that Icelandic volcanoes had erupted continuously for several years, which led to the entry of human beings into the Little Ice Age.Did the so-called small glaciers of the Five Dynasties also have this factor?Very likely.

But even so, the Liao Kingdom did not perish in history.On the contrary, their farming scale in the Northeast has been expanding year by year, and it is prospering year by year.

How many people could the Northeast of the Little Ice Age feed?Shao Shude thinks that 300 million people is not a problem, in fact, more can be raised.

In Xiaobinghe at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, there were more than 60 registered households in Liaodong and Liaoxi counties, but there may actually be a million people.

During the Five Dynasties, the Liao Kingdom had a great time reclaiming the small glaciers in the north of Liaodong and Liaoxi. There were tens of thousands of people in Shangjing alone.

The population of the Northeast has never been able to increase in history. The main reason is that it is periodically cleared, either massacres or migrations, and civilization regresses.

From now on, the threat to the Central Plains Dynasty will mainly come from the Northeast. After all, the innate conditions here are much better than those in the Northwest.

He really cares about Northeast.Therefore, whether the Bohai envoy comes or not will not affect the final result.

Five capitals and fifteen mansions in Bohai, he made up his mind.

(End of this chapter)