Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 238 The Craftsman and the River

On June 24th of the third year of Guangqi, Shao Shude received a group of craftsmen in Fanghan County.

Of course, there are craftsmen in Tibet, and the level is actually not bad, which has something to do with their history and geographical location.

During the heyday of this country, it once laid an amazingly large territory.

In the east and north, a large area of ​​Tang land was conquered, and millions of people were captured.In the south, rushing straight down from the plateau, plundering from time to time, brought a large area of ​​land south of the Himalayas into rule.In the west, go deep into the middle of the river and compete with Dashi.

The territory is vast, the people in the territory are complicated, and the population is large. Different cultures collide here and produce wonderful chemical reactions.

As far as the smelting and iron-making industries are concerned, Tubo, like every rising backward regime in history, plundered artisans in advanced areas, and then concentrated them in various important towns to serve their military machines.

The treatment of these craftsmen is actually not bad, after all, they are all craftsmen, no matter which regime they value.Even the brutal Mongols tried their best to give the craftsmen the best treatment.

The number of artisans brought back by the Tubo people reached tens of thousands at one time.After 40 years of war, it lost a lot.But considering that these people are also cultivating offspring and recruiting apprentices, the technology of the Tubo people is acceptable, and the output can satisfy themselves, and it also has a strong foreign style-artisans who were robbed from Central Asia, he made Naturally, the style of the craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty is very different.

At this time, the power of Tubo has been greatly reduced compared to decades ago.It once appeared in Arabic historical materials, and the huge empire that had been in Khorasan, Samarkand and the Abbasid dynasty for many years, which made the forces of Ge Luolu and Kabul Khan surrender one after another, has been weakened beyond recognition.

Most of Anxi was occupied by the Uyghurs, some of the Helong states were recovered by Tang Ting, and most of the land in Central Asia was also lost. At present, there are only Tubo warlords in the Pamirs and parts of the Fergana Basin.

The above-mentioned things were all learned by Shao Dashuai from the captured Tubo officials.The empire has collapsed, and the towns and villages are divided into separate regimes, but there is also information transmission, cultural and commercial exchanges between each other.

Shao Shude was very emotional, no wonder it is a dynasty that has been able to maintain a stalemate with Datang for so many years.After the Datang forces withdrew from the Western Regions, they unceremoniously pushed forward, and even went further, making the Central Asian forces feel the power of the "yellow peril" for the first time.

However, Tubo's local rule was brutal, far less sophisticated than that of the Tang Dynasty.The tribes and khanates in Central Asia were conscripted and fought wantonly, and a large number of goods, craftsmen, and women were also plundered and returned to Tubo.In fact, what he did was not much different from Li Hanzhi's, so it had to last for a long time.

After the collapse of the empire, it also left a lot of wealth to its descendants.Whether it is the Greek doctors who once appeared in the Zanpu court, or the craftsmen from Tang, Persia, Central Asia, and South Asia who came back from captivity, they are all a huge fortune, enough for their descendants to continue to enjoy for 200 years.

When attacking Huizhou before, to be honest, we didn't get many craftsmen, but only a hundred of them, all of them were sent to Lingzhou to make equipment for the army.The attack on Lanzhou this time did not yield much, but He and Linzhou did get hundreds of craftsmen, and even a batch of armor and weapons in stock.

It's just that those Tubo Zhajia, Tibetan spears, rattan shields, recurve bows, slings, water wave blades, iron hooks and so on that are full of exotic styles made Shao Shude speechless.

He had discovered before that the weapons styles of the Tubo people are very diverse and complex. After all, the rise time is short and there is no standardization.These equipment can no longer be used by themselves, and can only be distributed to the people in the reclamation for waste utilization.

The artisans caught in He, Wei, Lin, Lan and other prefectures were sent back to Lingzhou.But let people pay attention, don't let these craftsmen make a Persian-style helmet, with a "horn" on each side, the shape of the tauren army is really touching.

After meeting the craftsmen, each of them distributed two sheep as a reward, and then urged them to go on the road.

It was originally planned to build a Duzuo Academy in Lanzhou, but it was later abandoned.Let's wait until this place has a larger population and more material wealth.The Hewei states, as well as Minzhou, which Yang Yuezheng turned to attack, were too far away from the core ruling area, so he was not at ease.

"Chen Fushi, do you think this battle is a loss or a gain?" After returning to the state office, Shao Shude found Chen Cheng and Zhao Guangfeng and asked.

"The commander-in-chief has no other place to attack. It doesn't matter whether he wins or loses." Chen Cheng's words were a bit "playful", but it was the truth.

A large amount of military supplies and food was wiped out, and 6 to [-] poor Han people and more than [-] foreign people of various ethnic groups were harvested. In the short term, a large number of government troops will be stationed. Big loss.

But war is like this, it consumes a lot and damages the place.When you take over the territory after the war, what you get will definitely shrink significantly from what you saw before the war.

It can only be a good business.If the business is done well, there will be hope in the future. Marshal Shao is also a warlord who likes to manage territories. To some extent, he is in the same category as Zhang Quanyi.However, Zhang Quanyi was scolded by Li Hanzhi as a "farmer husband", and he didn't mind being called that. He felt relieved and satisfied when he saw the neat seedlings in the field and the slightly stronger bodies of the children.

"We can't lose any more." Shao Shude said, "Is there any news about the envoy who went to Shanzhou to appease him?"

"Commander, Tubo in Shanzhou is powerful, and now only the Tibetan tribe in Longzhi County can send officials to manage it if they want to be attached to it. The Tibetan tribe in the Huangshui River Basin is self-reliant and only wants to restrain it." Zhao Guangfeng replied.

"Let's restrain it first. It won't be done this year, and it will cost too much. Wait for the river and Wei states to improve, and then find a way to swallow it slowly." Shao Shude said.

From the current point of view, Shanzhou is a Tibetan nest.It seems that the later generations of Gusiluo rose here. At this time, Tubo may not be able to gather hundreds of thousands of people like Gusiluo, and dispatch an army of [-], but the strength should not be small.That is to say, the forces of the various ministries are relatively dispersed, otherwise I am afraid that even Jiji will not be willing.

Li Yuanhao, who was so majestic in the war against the Song Dynasty, also suffered a big loss in Shanzhou. He fought several times in a row and lost every time.

Shanzhou, let's do this first.It is enough to have a name, and it will be gradually drawn in the future.

"By the way, Deputy Envoy Chen, after Tubo Zanpu was assassinated, are there any descendants left behind?" Shao Shude asked suddenly.

"There should be." Chen Cheng and Zhao Guangfeng looked at each other, and they both understood what the lord meant.

"You can send people to do more investigations. Tubo's power still has considerable influence in Shanzhou, Liangzhou, and the Western Regions. If you can find it, it may be of great use." Shao Shude said.

Chen Cheng and Zhao Guangfeng should be.

The lord's old problem has happened again, and Chen Cheng complains in his heart, maybe he wants to take the daughter of a descendant of Tubo Zanpu as his concubine again.Tubo customs are expensive, they value blood, they have such a big appetite, do they actually want to plot the entire Western Regions?

But also poor.The Tubo Dynasty fell to the ground with a bang. In its heyday, the military government was established to control the population of several million people. Counting the vassal tribes, there may be tens of millions of people.With such a rich inheritance, some people naturally want to share it.It is normal for the Fan people in Longyou, Hexi, Anxi and even Hezhong to share their food, and it is common for the commander in chief to step in and get a share of the pie. Who makes it impossible to enter Guanzhong in a short period of time?
"It's time to be a class teacher." Shao Shude stood up, looked at the map hanging on the wall, and said with a smile: "Yang Yue is still attacking Minzhou, if he wins, this time he will have five prefectures and more than ten counties. How will you see it?"

******
"General Fu, this place is already in the middle of the river. You must restrain your troops, and you must not cause chaos." On the ninth day of July, outside Yicheng County, Jiangzhou, Pei Tong looked at Yang Shihou who was eager to try, and quickly moved to Fu Cun. Interrogation, let him help to restrain.

This fellow Yang Shihou is really not decent.They looted again in Qinshui County, coercing thousands of people into the gang, regardless of whether they wanted it or not.Now, their team has swelled to more than [-] people, and if they continue to do so, they may really be out of control.

Fu Cunshen did talk to Yang Shihou several times, but it didn't work.Now, even Fu, who has always been humble and kind, has murderous intent and wants to kill Yang Shihou.If you let him continue to make trouble, big trouble will happen if you don't keep it together!
Although there was no owner in Hezhong before, Wang Chongying had been appointed by the imperial court to serve as the Jiedu Envoy of the National Defense Army (Hezhong Jiedu Envoy).A few days ago, when he entered Hedong County, he arrested the rebel general Chang Xingru and planned to take him to Wang Chongrong's tomb and chop him up to death.

The will of the imperial court is still quite powerful.

If there is no imperial edict, there may still be some competition for the position of commander-in-chief in the wealthy Hezhong.But Wang Chongying holds a righteous name in his hand, and he is also a member of the Wang family, so the generals are not easy to object.

So far, the handsome position in Hezhong has been decided!

After hearing Pei Tong's words, Fu Cunshen remained silent.He can control the troops now, not only his ability, Pei Tong also helped a lot.

Along the way, this guy kept preaching in front of the soldiers how wise and powerful the King of Lingwu County is, how rich the rewards in the army are, and how the Dingnan Army won the battle, boasting that Shao Shude is rare in the sky and hard to find on the ground.

Don't tell me, it still has some effect.When these sergeants applied for the recruitment, they knew that they were serving as soldiers for the King of Lingwu County. Although there were some twists and turns in the middle of the process, they gradually stabilized after walking so far.

The human heart is such a wonderful thing.

In Yangcheng County, if Fu Cunshen made a decisive decision and took the troops away, these Cai recruits might have been taken away by him, at least a considerable part of them.

But now, the more they go forward, the more determined the sergeants are, and if they try to pull people to stand on their own feet, the effect is not as good as before.Even Li Hanzhi's four hundred subordinates gradually felt that the king of Lingwu County was much stronger than the precarious Marshal Li.

Li Shuai stole Huaizhou, didn't even have a court appointment, and belonged to King Caotou, so everyone felt shameful.

Furthermore, there are many shortages of food and salaries, and the morale can only be boosted by allowing people to plunder places, but the problem is that the people are also poor, what can they plunder?The people in Heyang are fierce, and the martial arts are very strong. Even if they go to plunder, there may be a lot of casualties--it's not that they can't beat them, how can the common people beat Wufu, there is no need for that.

These days, life is neither human nor ghost!It's better to go to Xiazhou and vote for a new owner. Anyway, everyone basically has no family.

With this kind of thought, Pei Tong properly promoted brainwashing, and the thoughts in the hearts of the soldiers were strengthened day by day, and they even decided that they were going to vote for the King of Lingwu County.

Of course, Yang Shihou, Wang Jian and the two of them also keenly sensed this trend, and felt restless in their hearts.

But they have lost their best chance.In Zezhou, he was afraid of Fu Cun's trial and did not dare to take risks. Now that people's hearts are gone, he can only do nothing.

"President Pei can go to the river with peace of mind, and I will sit here. No one can drag the team away." Fu Cunshen looked at the two hundred party cavalry that Pei Tong specially left for him, and said loudly.

It took only ten days to walk more than 100 miles, in order not to let the people fall behind.Fu Cunshen now also knows that the land of Lingwu County King needs a large number of people to reclaim wasteland, and every time a commoner is left behind, the states that will be difficult in the future will lose a bit of vitality.

Besides, he is not the kind of brutal warrior who doesn't take human life seriously.For women and children who are left behind, try to let them sit on the stolen carriages and horses, and come down to walk after recovering a little.Although the number of chariots and horses is still seriously insufficient, and many people are still left behind, other people are deeply impressed by their virtue.

Fu Cunshen's reputation among this group of people is indeed quite high, although some people secretly scolded him for not letting everyone go back to Zezhou and Heyang.

Pei Tong went to the river to borrow food.

He has friendship with Wang Chongying, and he also knows that this person has no great ambitions, and only cares about the family's wealth.Therefore, he has great confidence in borrowing grain, and he can even borrow chariots and horses.

Wang Chongying just came to power, didn't he want to get the support of the neighboring vassals?He is such a fastidious person, of course he knows how to do it.The food borrowed might not even have to be repaid, just to make Marshal Shao owe him a favor.

Favors may be of average value among ordinary people, but when it comes to generals with tens of thousands of soldiers, favors are the most expensive and the most difficult to repay.

This time Wang Chongrong had an accident, so he was stabilized in time.What if something happens to him in the future?Whether the descendants of the Wang family have favors is very important.

Of course it also depends on the person.If Zhu Quanzhong owes you a favor, forget it.Most of them won't pay it back, and they will even turn around and mess with you.

This involves a question of personality.Among all the commanders, Marshal Shao's reputation is quite good. He is faithful, generous, and repays favors. This kind of favor is valuable only if you hold it in your hands.

After Pei Tong left, Fu Cun adjusted his armor, and after a moment of meditation, he called for his own soldiers and said, "Go and call Yang Shihou and Wang Jianji, and say that I have something important to discuss."

The soldiers froze for a moment, Fu Cunshen gave him a glare, and said, "Be smart."

The soldier nodded and left quickly.

Fu Cunshen looked around the big tent again, it was very good, a lot of people had already been deployed, and they were all his trusted subordinates.

After making up his mind, Fu Cunshen didn't have so many worries.He put a jug of wine on the table and poured himself a drink.

Yang Shihou's looting of Yangcheng and Qinshui counties is not useless, otherwise it would be difficult to drink some wine along the way.

Footsteps sounded outside, faintly accompanied by Yang Shihou's angry cursing, and Wang Jianji's muffled echo.

As soon as the two lifted the curtain, they strode in. Seeing Fu Cunshen drinking alone, they were even a little annoyed.

"Take it!" Fu Cunshen put down the wine bottle and shouted.

Startled, Yang and Wang turned around and wanted to run away, but they were held back by the oncoming Dangxiang soldiers.More than a dozen Cai people also rushed out from behind the curtain, with equipment in their hands—well, they were all "sponsored" by Yangcheng and Qinshui counties—surrounding Yang Shihou, Wang Jian and the two of them.

Yang and Wang cursed loudly.

Fu Cunshen's complexion remained unchanged, he strolled up to the two of them, and said, "I've met you for a while, and I don't want to harm you. Commander Yang and Commander Wang, if you two want to leave, I will give you horses, money, or money today." Go back to Huaizhou, or go to another place, it's up to you. If you want to stay, you can, but you will be wronged for a while."

"Stay? Go? Give me a quick word!"

(End of this chapter)