Fenghou

Chapter 512 Brothers
Zhangye is a big city with a long history and the city walls have been repaired. It is currently the largest city in the entire Hexi Corridor. The county is nearly [-] miles in circumference and has a population of about [-] to [-]. However, there are not many Han people in the city, and the majority of Han people are mainly in Liangzhou. It is also because Liangzhou puts more emphasis on farming. There are about five or six hundred Han Chinese households in Ganzhou, and they are mainly concentrated in Zhangye City. They are mainly engaged in handicraft industry, and basically they are engaged in wine making and paper making.

Chen Qing drove slowly in this exotic city on horseback. The city was very quiet and was not affected by the Song army's entry into the city. The shops opened and closed normally. There were still many Xixia shops, and Chen Qing did not intend to dispose of them.

All these were decided to be left to the yellow-headed Uighur, but he was very interested in the official warehouse.

The warehouse is located behind the county government. It consists of five buildings and a high wall is built around it. The warehouse has been controlled by the Song army. Liu Cui is busy with more than a hundred soldiers to count.

"Is there any important strategic material?" Chen Qing stepped forward and asked with a smile.

"Report to Dutong, there is copper!"

Chen Qing's eyes lit up, "How many?"

"I don't know. There are a lot of them. The entire warehouse is full. I estimate that there are several million catties. They are all blister copper. There should be copper mines nearby."

A few million jin sounds like a lot, but in fact it is not much, and the minted money is only about a million guan.

"What else?"

"There is also frozen mutton. There are several large ice cellars here, which are full of mutton and mutton wine. The rest are fodder, grain, and armory."

At this moment, a soldier hurried over and reported: "Refined iron was found in the copper warehouse, and it seems to be a lot!"

Chen Qing's heart moved, and he hurriedly said: "Look!"

Everyone quickly came to a warehouse, which was full of black and red copper ingots, each of which weighed more than a hundred catties.

At this time, the soldiers moved out a large box from a corner inside, which they had just discovered, and the lid of one of the boxes had been pried off.

Chen Qing stepped forward, and saw pieces of black fine iron neatly placed in the box, which were solid and dense, and covered with a kind of light grain. Chen Qing recognized it at a glance, which was similar to his Fang Tian. The painted halberd is made of the same material, wootz steel.

It is normal for Wuzi steel to appear here. After all, Zhangye is the hometown of the Sogdians. A large number of Sogdians live and do business here. They brought this high-quality refined iron from the Western Regions.

"How many?" Chen Qing asked. .

A Dutou said: "We roughly counted it. There are a total of [-] boxes. Each big box is about [-] jin, so there should be about [-] jin."

Chen Qing nodded, "The copper ingots and refined iron have been put into storage and sealed up, don't take them away for now, wait for my notice!"

Everyone bowed and said: "Follow the order!"

Three days later, Liu Qiong sent someone to send news that the chief of the Yellow-headed Uighurs led [-] troops and asked to cross the border to fight for the valley, and Chen Qing immediately agreed to cross the border.

Two days later, Liu Qiong rushed back with more than a hundred cavalry.

"Reporting to Dutong, I escorted the Uighur tribe to the west, and encountered an army of yellow-headed Uighurs on the west bank of the West Sea, about [-] people, and old Mr. Xu Hongtu was also there."

"And then?" Chen Qing continued to ask.

"Then I negotiated with them initially, and their chief agreed to bring only [-] troops to the Hexi Corridor, the same strength as ours, and we will negotiate amicably after arriving in Ganzhou."

"Where are they now?"

"It was camped near the exit of Dadouba Valley. If they didn't come over, the humble army was also stationed there."

Chen Qing then ordered Liu Cui to lead [-] soldiers to defend the city, and he personally led [-] cavalry to the mouth of Dadouba Valley.

Ten miles away from the camp, when the horn blew, a cavalry of hundreds of people rushed towards this side, led by a robust man in his thirties, wearing a wide hat and a gray cloth robe, She looks very ordinary in clothes, but has an extraordinary temperament, and her pair of eyes are particularly sharp.

Beside him was Xu Hongtu, who personally went to the Yellow Head Uighur to communicate with Chen Qing.

The man smiled brightly and spoke fluent Chinese, "I'm Cao Changchun, I've heard about the classics for a long time, and I'm famous!"

Chen Qing also laughed and said, "Each! Each other!"

The two laughed and stepped forward for a hug. Cao Changchun held Chen Qing's wrist, pointed at the subordinates behind him and smiled, "The Song army is well-equipped, which is enviable. Although my army is not well-equipped, the soldiers are all good at fighting. It's a prairie eagle."

Chen Qing saw that hundreds of people were extremely majestic, and all of them looked like bears. He said sincerely: "Eagles live on cliffs and can spread their wings for thousands of miles. You live in the harsh plateau. Although the conditions are harsh, you can still fly." Sharpen your will and physique, and become true grassland warriors."

Cao Changchun was overjoyed and said with a smile: "Since we intend to join forces to deal with Xixia, is the envoy willing to sworn brotherhood with me?"

Cao Changchun's suggestion was somewhat beyond Chen Qing's expectations, but Chen Qing knew that the other party, as the leader of the Yellow-headed Uighur, would never be over-the-top, and they were all deliberate. Only sworn brothers can eliminate each other's defenses and live in harmony. It must be Xu Hongtu's suggestion.

Chen Qing glanced at Xu Hongtu quickly, Xu Hongtu nodded to him with a smile, Chen Qing laughed and said: "I, Chen Qing, have no brother, no brother, no father and no mother, it is my honor to have an elder brother like Chief Cao." Fortunately!"

The two got off their horses, put on three sticks of incense, and took heaven and earth as witnesses, and became brothers with different surnames. Cao Changchun was five years older than Chen Qing, and was the elder brother.

Cao Changchun took out his golden dagger and gave it to Chen Qing, and Chen Qing took out the Condor Shooting Bow in return.

Cao Changchun said happily in his heart: "Tonight, our two armies will drink and eat meat together, and we will never stop getting drunk!"

That night, Cao Changchun ordered the slaughter of [-] fat sheep and took out thousands of bags of milk wine. The two armies sat around dozens of bonfires, gorging on meat and drinking to their heart's content.

A group of young and pretty women danced in front of the bonfire. Chen Qing looked at the stars in the sky and asked with a smile, "Why is your eldest brother named Cao? I don't quite understand."

Cao Changchun smiled slightly and said, "Do you think Cao has a Han surname?"

"I always thought it was a Han surname. It wasn't until I met Cao Baozong, the son of Cao Jie, the former prime minister of Xixia, that I realized that someone in Xixia also had the surname Cao."

"The Cao surname of Xixia actually comes from the same line as my surname, both from the Cao family in Shazhou."

Chen Qing was taken aback, "Could it be that elder brother is not only Uyghur, but also of Han blood?"

"There must be. We originated from the Uighurs in Shazhou. We fought against Tubo together with the Guiyi Army. The Han people and the Uighurs lived together. From the late Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, nearly two hundred years of blood fusion, no one dared to say that they were pure Uighurs, pure Han Chinese."

"Why does my brother have Han blood?" Chen Qing asked again with great interest.

Cao Changchun was also very interested. He looked at the starry sky and said slowly: "In the fourth year of Qianhua in the Later Liang Dynasty, after Cao Yijin replaced Zhang as the leader of the Guiyi Army, in order to gain the support of the Ganzhou Uighurs, he betrothed his daughter to the Ganzhou Uighurs Khan Ba ​​Yasu, and later she gave birth to a son, and Khan let the son follow his mother's surname. This is my ancestor, and his descendants have always been named Cao. There are five major tribes in Ganzhou Uighurs, and the tribe surnamed Cao is one of them. "

At this time, more than a dozen Uighur generals lined up to toast Chen Qing, each of them holding a two-three-jin earthenware bowl.

Cao Changchun chuckled, "I'll teach my virtuous brother a trick. If you show your skills, they can't compare, so you have to drink the wine yourself."

"Okay! I'll give it a try!"

Chen Qing ordered people to fetch a few bundles of standard short spears, and smiled at everyone: "These spears are all the same, I will give you a question, if someone breaks it, I will drink twice as much, if it can't be broken, drink the wine yourself ,how?"

(End of this chapter)