Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1384 Tribute Road

On the Yalu River, there are masts like forests.

The heavy-draft transport ship, dragged by the iron horse, split the river and went upstream.

Huandu County will arrive soon.

Gao Zhaowang stood at the bow of the boat and watched carefully.

Huandu County is the rationale for Huanzhou, the old capital of Goguryeo, which was conquered by the Xia people last September.Then they divided up their troops and plundered everywhere, hoarding food, grass and firewood, and made preparations for the winter.

In winter, Zhang Dingbao, who stayed behind in Xijing, Bohai Sea, led thousands of people to attack on sleds and sledges. They were defeated by two thousand government soldiers, and then withdrew. There was no more fighting throughout the winter.

After the beginning of spring, Great Xia Qin King Shao Chengjie came with a large number of people and used the Yalu River to transfer grain and grass. He set off from Huanzhou and went north to attack Shenzhou, which is Bohai Xijing—the three counties of Shenlu, Shenhua, and Jianmen.

As the governor of Le Prefecture newly established by the imperial court, Gao Zhaowang was ordered to lead five thousand Beibei disciples to escort grain and grass north to join the conquest of the Bohai Sea.

If there is no accident, their journey will probably be to capture Xijing, Tokyo, Nanjing, and Zhongjing in the Bohai Sea.

As for the main force, they directly took Beijing on the Bohai Sea, which the Xia people called "beheading tactics".

Judging from the military strategy, it seems that the Xia people do not intend to entangle with the local forces in Bohai, but try to destroy the center first, so that the Bohai state cannot form a whole, and then slowly clean up the local forces.

This strategy is correct!Gao Zhaowang slowly thought about the possible direction of the situation until the ship docked.

Within a few miles of the pier, everything is heavily guarded.

Gao Zhaowang looked around for his nephew, but he couldn't find it.After inquiring a little bit, he knew that they had followed King Qin to the north and attacked Shenzhou.

He sighed slightly.

Once the [-] Beibei disciples enter the stage of brutal siege warfare, how many of them will survive.The only consolation is that the Bohai people are not strong-willed, and the elite soldiers and generals suffer heavy losses and are easy to attack.

There are a large number of civilians working near the pier, most of them are from Bohai, and a small number of them come from Anton Mansion.

Gao Zhaowang listened carefully, and it seemed that they all spoke with a Hebei accent.Looking at their rebellious appearances, one might guess that they might be from Wei Bo.

These people seem to be the chiefs of the people, and each of them is in charge of at least seven or eight Bohai masters, who are constantly loading and unloading goods, and even preparing food and grass.

"Could this be fermented soybeans?" Gao Zhaowang walked to an open space where hundreds of jars were drying in the sun.

"Gao Changshi is here. The beans are almost fading out of the birds, and the rice in Beibei is the most fragrant." Zhou Jiying from the Yingzhou Military Academy greeted him from a distance and walked over.

Gao Zhaowang looked at the shiny armor on his body and was a little surprised.

"Captain Zhou..." Gao Zhaowang saw him once, and immediately saluted.

"It's Vice Admiral Zhou already."

"Gao Chang Shi Mo is going to bark."

"Beheading one of the bandit generals with your own hands, Jane is in the heart of the emperor, and he will be promoted to lieutenant general. The officials should not make mistakes."

Several sergeants around Zhou Jiying said loudly, as if they were honored.

Gao Zhaowang was a little surprised, and quickly asked about the situation.Knowing that there is a Bohai side division copying a small road to attack Huanzhou, intending to burn the savings of the Xia people, and discovering it for You Qi.The Yingzhou state soldiers stationed here made a big move to smash the bandits in the mountains. Zhou Jiying took the lead and beheaded one of the bandit generals, making great contributions.

After reporting it, because the sage heard the name "Zhou Jiying" for the second time, he was promoted to lieutenant general with a swipe of a pen.

No way, good luck!

"What are you yelling about?" Zhou Jiying turned around and reprimanded, then looked at Gao Zhaowang, and said, "Gao Changshi would call me 'Zhou Dalang' more kindly."

"General Zhou was joking." Gao Zhaowang shook his head, and said, "Is this fermented soya bean? Korean fermented bean curd or Tang Gan fermented bean curd?"

"It's Korean soy sauce, and it's quite delicious. The locals like to make this stuff, and it's a specialty of Xijing. According to the general order of the King of Qin, a batch was confiscated and sent to the front line." Zhou Jiying said.

Korean soy sauce is similar to Tanggan soy sauce. Both fermented rice and wheat are added to the prepared bean paste, and then mixed with melon, eggplant, perilla, ginger and the like.The only difference between the two is the difference and amount of these accessories.

The practice of Tang Ganchi was gradually lost, but it was clearly recorded in Japan.When Monk Jianzhen traveled to the east, he brought a lot of Tang Ganchi as food for the ship, which was later spread in Japan.And it was dedicated to the throne when the great monk (Jianzhen) died of the moon.

"Xijing is rich in soybeans." Gao Zhaowang recalled: "In the past, we went to Zhongjing and Shangjing along the tribute road, and there were many bean fields along the way. There are many mountains in Xijing, but people in Bohai still cultivate fields in the mountains and plant soybeans everywhere, which shows that they really love it. thing."

The so-called tribute road refers to the route from the Bohai Sea to the Tang Dynasty.

"Yalu, the tribute road." From the mouth of the river, take a boat for more than a hundred miles, and then change to a smaller boat, and go upstream for 530 miles to Wandu City.It went back two hundred miles to Shenzhou.

Shenzhou is located in Linjiang City, Baishan City, Jilin Province, and is also the seat of Yalu Prefecture in Xijing.This is a water and land transfer hub, where materials and personnel go ashore, and then go to Zhongjing and Shangjing by land, so it is very prosperous.

"Whatever he loves!" Zhou Jiying said with a smile: "I also collected a lot of beans, made bean cakes and sent them away. Horses love to eat them. In Xijing, there are mountains everywhere. I thought it was extremely poor, but I searched carefully. But there is a lot of oil and water. Dried fruits, wild products, fish and shrimp, beans, rice and wheat, cattle and sheep, etc. are very different from the Central Plains, but they are really good. King Qin is also very satisfied and urges us to continue to search for food and grass. "

Gao Zhaowang smiled wryly upon hearing this.

Although Xijing is not poor, it is not rich either.The reason why ordinary people have a little savings at home is that there are too few people, and there are not so many people competing with you.According to the words of the Xia people, it means "abundant resources per capita".But no matter how rich he is, if he is robbed by these wolves and tigers, he will probably be poor.

But then again, it's the Bohai people who suffer, so it's none of my business for the Goguryeo people?
"By the way, within the borders of Xijing, Tokyo, and Nanjing, there are many Mohe tribes, which were resettled by Bohai people more than a hundred years ago." It is opposite to the 'Ministry of Health' in the north, but it is fierce and unruly, wild and unruly, so you should be more careful."

"They've been robbed, why are you talking about this?" Seeing his fuss, Zhou Jiying said angrily, "Gao Changshi might as well take a look over there."

Gao Zhaowang looked in the direction of his finger, but saw a large group of Mohe people driving the black guinea pigs to the grass.And on the grass, someone is already slaughtering.

The pigskin was taken away to make armor, the internal organs were kept locally as supplies for the garrison, and the meat was made into candied meat and shipped to the front line of China.

"They—didn't resist?" Gao Zhaowang asked in surprise.

There is also the Mohe tribe in Weibei, which has always caused them headaches.Not paying taxes, and often looting, there is simply no good citizen.Children are brave and ruthless when they are born, and even more so when they grow up.The northern counties have always been out of sight and out of mind, as long as they don't exist, the two sides can live in peace.

If you have to choose a group from the Central Plains to correspond to it, then there is only "Cai thief".

Cai thief usually farms the land, but when money is tight, he goes out to rob.To the north are Luoyang and Bianzhou. Although they are rich, they have strong military strength.For example, Xuanwu Jiedu envoy raises [-] troops all year round, wouldn't it be a pleasure to fight them?As a result, a large number of Cai thieves appeared in Xiangyang, Eyue, Jiangxi, and Huainan, looting everywhere, and they were so brave that Tang Ting had to join forces with various towns and form special troops to encircle and suppress them. Only then did their arrogance be curbed a little. .

These people are too similar to Cai thief.

"What's the use of resisting?" Zhou Jiying seemed to have heard something funny, and said, "I've already selected a few small tribes. If you dare not pay tribute, you will have the consciousness of death. But these people are really ruthless, brothers. It took a lot of effort to subdue them."

Gao Zhaowang imagined that on the way there, he saw many corpses floating down the water from the bow of the boat, and immediately shuddered.

The state of etiquette in the Central Plains is rich in fierce and ruthless warriors, alas.

"The imperial court has good means. But to deal with these ignorant and stubborn barbarians, we still have to use a gentle strategy. Even if they rob their tribes, they won't get much, and they might still lose money." Gao Zhaowang laughed dryly, Finally, when we got down to business, I heard him say: "I brought thirty thousand hu of rice and wheat from Weibei, and please deliver it."

"You have to find Du Fuyin." Zhou Jiying said, "He's in the city."

"Okay, the old man will go look for him now." Gao Zhaowang cupped his hands and said.

At this moment, several cavalry came galloping from the north of the city, shouting loudly: "Great victory! Great victory! The Weisheng army repeatedly defeated the bandit army after ten days of attacking the city. On the sixth day of June, the bandit Zhang Dingbao stayed behind in Xijing and opened the city. Please surrender, and Shenzhou will be restored."

Gao Zhaowang subconsciously stopped in his tracks, and listened silently for two more times. After confirming that he was right, he sighed again and again.

The Bohai Sea is really dying, the sun is setting and the mountains are in the west, and it looks like a defeat.

Xijing governs four prefectures, namely Shenzhou, Huanzhou, Zhengzhou and Fengzhou.

Huanzhou was conquered last year, and Shenzhou had just been occupied, leaving only Zhengzhou and Fengzhou.

Zhengzhou is located to the west of Huanzhou, sandwiched between Shen and Huan, with few soldiers and few generals, and no one took care of it for a while.Is it time to drop?Anyway, when Xia Jun crossed the border last year, they didn't stop them at all, so it's probably about the same.

Fengzhou still has a lot of contention, after all, this is the gateway to the Zhongjing Xiande Mansion, and it cannot be easily discarded.But it can only be delayed a little bit, and the final outcome will not be any different.

Zhou Jiying also heard it from the side, and laughed again and again, happily.

"The general is going north?" Gao Zhaowang asked, not in a hurry to find Du Guangyi.

"No." Zhou Jiying sighed, and said: "The bandit army in Xijing has been wiped out, but there are always soldiers and horses from Nanhai Mansion in Nanjing going west to spy on them. I'm afraid I won't be able to leave."

"General, the bandits in the South China Sea are weak..." Gao Zhaowang's heart moved, and he said, "If you send a partial army to the east and cooperate with me, Bei Erlang, you may be able to capture them."

"Huibei has already contributed five thousand townspeople, and it is very hard to send troops." Zhou Jiying said with a smile: "It's up to the King of Qin to decide. It's useless for you to tell me."

Gao Zhaowang smiled to himself, and said: "The old man understands that, so he reported to the King of Qin. The Bohai Sea is already a dead bone in the tomb. If you don't seize the opportunity to make meritorious deeds at this time, you will only regret it in the future."

After all, he saluted and left.

(End of this chapter)