Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 518
After leaving Chang'an, Huang Tao and his party continued eastward, and it was already the sixth day of July when they arrived in Huazhou.

"Captain Wang, is it dangerous to go east? Why do you need the Zhen Guojun to escort you?" Huang Tao asked outside Pude Station.

"Captain Wang" is Wang Jiao, who has just finished resting in Huazhou, and this time he has accepted a mission to take Huang Tao and his party to Shanzhou to meet Li Fan—the new deputy envoy of Jiedu takes office, of course he must first go to his immediate superior reported there.

"Huang Shijun, I am not a member of the Zhen Guojun. The 50 members of our team have been incorporated into the Baoyi Army to make up for the war damage. The eastward trip is a military order." Wang Jiao replied.

Of course, there were more than 50 people who were incorporated into the Baoyi Army. In fact, there were as many as 3000 people.

These 3000 people formed a capital, with Tianzhu Army veterans and junior officers as the backbone, supplemented by soldiers of the Zhenguo Army, led by Wang Jianji, the tenth general of the Tianzhu Army.He is now also the envoy of the left wing of the Baoyi Army, a serious senior officer in the feudal town.

Shao Dashuai is particular about people and likes to pretend.Li Fan's title of Jiedushi will not be removed in the short term, and he will not be allowed to move the town, so let's start with cannibalization.

In the past few months, the fighting in Hezhong has been raging. The three battlefields of Yuanxian, Huoyi, and Fenshui are fighting at the same time. Heluo has turned to the defensive as a whole, but this does not mean that the war has completely ceased.

In fact, the Baoyi Army, the Heyuan Army, the Jishi Army, and the Shunyi Army took turns to attack Mianchi and Shuangqiao by force, causing considerable casualties, especially the Baoyi Army.

Li Tangbin is also a ruthless person, he only asked the Shanguo soldiers to retreat to rest when he estimated that the Shanguo soldiers had reached their limit and that if they were forced to mutiny.However, from last year to this year, there were less than [-] soldiers and horses at full strength.

Li Fan wanted to restore his strength, but found that he had no money to recruit soldiers, because Shao Shude was pressing hard and kept asking for money and food, which actually emptied the treasury of Shanguo.

Now he finally realized how Zhang Quanyi felt back then.Li Hanzhi came over every three days to ask for money, and if he didn't pay, he would hang up the officials of the Henan government and beat him. Zhang Quanyi couldn't stand it anymore, and finally stabbed his brother in the back and took refuge in Zhu Quanzhong.

Does Li Fan dare to backstab Shao Shude and seek refuge with Zhu Quanzhong?He dare not!Because their territory is not bordering, there are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under the command of Li Tangbin, the Heluo Jinglue envoy in the east of Shaanxi, and there are a large number of Shuofang army and Qianghu tribe who have retired to rest.

To the west is the National Army of Tongguan Town and Shao Shude's "loyal dog" Wang Bian, and to the north is Shao Shude's vassal Hezhong Jiedushi Wang Yao.

How to rebel?Is it possible to enter Xiong'er Mountain and fall grass as bandits, as grass thieves?

After thinking about it, Li Fan took a step back, planning to take it easy.Maybe this year Shao Shude won Hezhong, so he went to search for Wang Yao, and stopped staring at Shanzhou for money?Save some money and recruit another two or three thousand soldiers, and your strength will slowly recover.

But Marshal Shao was too particular. He knew that the Baoyi Army had lost a lot in continuous battles, so he directly sent him [-] soldiers, which was Wang Jianji's army, supported by Shaanxi.

Is Li Fan moved?

"Since there is a military order, let's go." Huang Tao nodded and said.

"My lord, wait a moment, I'm going to take my family to go eastward together." Wang Jiao said again.

"wife and children?"

"The source of the Zhen Guojun is complicated. There are state soldiers, Qiang people recruited in Cheng, Jie, He, Wei and other states, as well as surrendered soldiers. There are not many families. There are 50 people in our team, and only nine of them have families. Over there." Wang Jiao pointed to a group of people who were cooking not far away, and said.

Huang Tao looked over.

I saw dozens of men and women sitting around on the grass, cooking things in clay pots.

The child holds the fruit in his hand and fights while eating.

"Why don't you see livestock?" Huang Tao saw all kinds of simple household items piled together, but no livestock.This is strange, the land under Commander Shao may not produce as much grain as the Central Plains, but every household has livestock.

"I live near Tongguan on weekdays, and I don't farm land, so I don't have livestock," Wang Jiao explained.

By the city!Huang Tao quickly thought of a word.

"Qin, Cheng, Min, Wei, He, and Lan six prefectures have Goryeo and Qiang soldiers." Huang Tao is familiar with all kinds of books, and of course he knows this sentence recorded in "The Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty".

After Goryeo was destroyed, many people were relocated to the interior, and of course Longyou also had them.The Tibetans fought for the Tang Dynasty and received rewards. Their families lived under the city and built a house.Some still continue to graze and farm, but they live more on rewards and have already left the agricultural life.

These children from the city have strong martial arts and wild nature, but if they are recruited into the army, let them get used to and adapt to the rules of the army, after a few years of training, they will become good soldiers, because they all have a certain foundation.

As the saying goes, "Growing near the border town, he was born to bow and horse; a young man with courage, hunted alone at the foot of the Yin Mountain; occasionally met the Huns, and once captured the eagle shooter..."

Children of Chengbang, a large source of soldiers in Anlu Mountain, Huang Tao has mixed feelings about this.

Chunchun recruited soldiers, and he and his family stopped farming and grazing, and relied entirely on the money he got from the army to support the whole family.

"Why not buy some land?" Huang Tao asked.

"Where is there any land in Huazhou?" Wang Jiao shook his head: "There are too many people here, and the local people don't have much land, so how much can they give to outsiders? The Heyuan Army and Jishi Army are in Huazhou, the same Wang Bian killed many people in Huazhou, but most of the sergeants still had no land in their homes. I heard from a descendant from Bianzhou that it was the same in Henan. The soldiers could not buy land next to Bianzhou, so they simply did not I bought it."

Huang Tao understood.

Now the commanders-in-chief of the towns wish to have all the troops around them, for fear of being dragged away to rebel.Even if it is necessary to set up an outer town army, it is reluctant.

But how can there be so many places next to it?

Marshal Shao has 10,000+ leading soldiers, and most of them used to make their homes in Lingzhou.But Huaiyuan County is so big, how can everyone have land, even if they have money, they can't buy it.And go to a place farther away, maybe you can buy it, but what's the point?It was extremely troublesome to collect the rent, so I simply did not buy it.

It is absolutely impossible to let the commanders disperse their soldiers to various places. They are afraid that they will be rebelled and the whole family will die.Then they can only gather as close as possible, and the shogunate spends money to support them.

According to the current trend, if Marshal Shao wins the world in the future, at least half of the 50 troops in the country must be stationed inside and outside the capital.Most of these people are destined to be military recruits who don't even care about their families.

The dozens of children in the city in front of me are the epitome of the future.

"The old soldiers in the army said that the two armies with the most land should be the Tielin and Wuwei armies." Wang Jiao walked over to talk to the group of people, and then came back, saying: "The two armies, go to Huaiyuan Going early, many people bought land and asked their families or relatives to cultivate it. But there are very few others, and it is even more impossible for the newly formed Zhen Guojun. But this is also good, let them move to Well, as soon as the house is sold, it’s all right. Or the house is gone, haha, it’s too dilapidated, and it’s only a few dollars to build a new one in the new home.”

Huang Tao also laughed when he heard it, and said, "This will save a lot of trouble. If the commander-in-chief stays in the river, let the soldiers move there, it will save a lot of trouble."

Of course, Huang Tao knew that it was not that simple.Lingzhou is now considered a bit prosperous. Although it is not as good as the big cities like Chang'an, Bianzhou, Weizhou, and Jinyang, it is not comparable to ordinary state capitals. The soldiers will definitely have emotions.What's more, after all, someone bought the land, and someone spent a lot of money on the house, so it was still very tricky to deal with.

Moreover, such an army has nothing to worry about, and it is also very dangerous.They are now loyal to the commander in chief, but do they still have that loyalty to the commander in chief's son?

Huang Tao thought about it for a long time outside the post station, but he couldn't understand it. He didn't wake up until Wang Jiao came to tell him that he could go on the road.

The city boy looked at him curiously.

The clothes on them were not bad, and their faces were ruddy. They were obviously not the kind of poor children who couldn't eat enough or wear warm clothes.When playing games, they are still eating fruits with their hands, and their family does not cultivate land. This may only be bought, and from this we can get a glimpse of their living conditions.

"Your son, you are very naughty, do you know Marshal Shao?" Huang Tao grabbed a boy and chatted with him when he was idle on the road.

Why do you say he is naughty?

Huang Tao and his party brought a lot of spare horses, the ones without saddles.The young man found a saddle from nowhere, directly caught up with a trotting horse, put on the saddle and started riding, which made people dumbfounded.

After being caught by Wang Jiao, he still boasted, saying that he would take the saddle to fight the Bian thief, shoot him to death with an arrow, and then rob the horse.

"You old man, aren't you kidding me?" The young man gave him a sideways glance, and said, "Who in Weizhou doesn't know Shao Sheng?"

Huang Tao couldn't accept the young man's words.

He has been an official in Helong for several years and knows some local conditions.Qinzhou is okay, but it’s different further west, just as the Hebei people only knew the two sages of An and Shi, and the Han people in those places were very ignorant, and only knew Shao sage of Lingzhou.But the country boy can say that, he can't.

"Since you know Shao -- Commander Shao, then the old man has something to say." Huang Tao was almost led astray by the young man, and said the word "Shao Sheng" out of his mouth, only to hear him say: "Marshal Shao is the most disciplined, rob others at will. Horses, but they will be chained to the military judge for conviction."

"It's just for fun, you old man is too stingy." The young man's face changed, and he muttered: "Since the saint said so, it's better not to do it in the future."

"Children can be taught." Huang Tao smiled and said, "When you grow up, you can join the army. After you get the reward, you can buy a horse yourself. Isn't it better than robbing others?"

"You can't snatch Bian thieves?" The young man immediately became interested when he heard the word "Join the army" and asked, "Who is the sage of Bian thieves?"

"This..." Huang Tao was silent for a moment, and Fang said, "Bianzhou is the reason for Zhu Quanzhong, the king of Dongping County."

"Then go and grab the Bian thief." The young man took out a small knife as if juggling, and said, "I only have a saddle now, but no horse. When I kill a Bian thief, I will have a horse, and then I will kill Zhu Quanzhong. Shao Sheng Dayue, maybe if you reward me with a hundred Bian bandit slaves, then I will be a noble person. According to A Niang, my ancestors are descendants of Gao Xianzhi, and they are also noble people."

Huang Tao laughed and said, "Then you have to practice martial arts diligently."

There are people to accompany and chat along the way, but it is not lonely.

On July 49, the group arrived in Shanzhou.Wang Jiao completed his mission, and then left with [-] soldiers and men and women near the city, and returned to the military envoy Wang Jianji at the Weijin garrison.

(End of this chapter)