Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 307
For Ming Ren and Ming Li, they were more interested in panning for gold. According to the map given to them by the Kun people, Fan Ning quickly found the river rich in gold sand.

The river is located in the northwest corner of Kunzhou. It is two to three hundred miles long and only two feet deep. There is nothing beyond the grass.

Even the horses from the racecourse will not run here, and it is a completely undeveloped land.

Fan Ning hired twenty Kun people at the horse breeding base, left Xu Qing to them, left three large tents and ten days of food supplies, and made an appointment to pick them up in five days.

After arranging everyone, the boat then went north to Jingzhou.

Jingzhou is Sakhalin Island. Fan Ning originally named it Beikunzhou, but the court rejected this name. Considering that it is located in the northern part of the Jinghai Sea, it was named Jingzhou.

Although the development of Jingzhou is far behind that of Kunzhou, Fan Ning has already started to implement the development plan.

Fan Ning did not consider turning Jingzhou into a second horse farm. He considered Jingzhou more from a military perspective. He considered building two military cities in Jingzhou that could accommodate tens of thousands of troops in ten years.

One military city is located at the southernmost tip of Jingzhou Island, separated from Kunzhou by a strait dozens of miles away, and can get timely supplies from Kunzhou.

With these two military cities, the foundation will be laid for the future attack on Liao from the north.

At present, the Song Army has established a small military camp at the southernmost tip of Jingzhou, and fifty soldiers have successfully spent a winter in the military camp.

The barracks has been expanded from accommodating 50 people to accommodating 300 people. Since Song Dynasty has designated Jingzhou as its territory, stationing troops all year round is a necessary condition.

As Fan Ning is preparing for Jingzhou's military and political affairs, he is fully responsible for all the affairs of Jingzhou.

Of course, Fan Ning is also working on the affairs of Jingzhou. Before that, he sent an exploration team consisting of three officials, five craftsmen, thirty soldiers, and several Kun guides to carry out a half-year expedition to Jingzhou. Comprehensive investigation, this exploration team has been in Jingzhou for half a month, and there is no news yet.

Another thing Fanning came to Jingzhou this time was to learn about the situation of more than 100 wild horses.

These wild horses must have come from the mainland. During the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the northern grassland entered the ice age, and the strait between Sakhalin Island and the mainland also froze in winter. A large number of horses and animals and some tribes who escaped the cold should have crossed the strait and entered the library at that time. Page Island.

Although the current strait freezes in winter, it is mainly composed of floating ice, and it is no longer possible to reach Sakhalin Island directly from land.

These more than 100 wild horses attracted the great attention of the Kunzhou Group Herdsman, and the governor Yang Yun personally led dozens of his men and [-] Kun people to Jingzhou to capture these horses.

Fanning's ship docked in the southernmost bay. This is a natural deep-water harbor and an ice-free port. The military camp is located on the shore.

Fanning took Jupe and a dozen soldiers ashore to the barracks.

The barracks covers an area of ​​about [-] mu, consisting of more than forty wooden houses, surrounded by tall and dense fences, and tall sentry towers. The enemies here are mainly wolves. Last winter, the barracks were attacked by wolves three times. The soldiers Dozens of wolves were shot, but seven soldiers were also killed.

There are currently about 200 troops in the barracks, led by a commander. As soon as Fan Ning arrived at the gate of the camp, Wu Lin, the commander, came out quickly and knelt down on one knee to salute. "See Fan Yushi for the humble Wu Lin!"

"General Wu please rise!"

Fan Ning quickly helped him up, and said with a smile, "Judging from General Wu's accent, it seems like we are from the same village?"

Wu Lin hurriedly said: "The humble job is from Wujiang County, Pingjiang Prefecture!"

"That's right, I'm from Wu County, but my companion is from Wujiang County."

He pointed to Zhu Pei behind him, "This is the granddaughter of the senior official Zhu in Shengze. This time, she is here to inspect Kunzhou on behalf of the Zhu family."

When Wu Lin heard that he was from Shengze Zhu's family, he was speechless secretly, hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and said in a local accent: "See you, little official!"

Zhu Pei was delighted when he heard the accent, and quickly asked, "Where is General Wu from Wujiang?"

"I am from Songling."

"That's really a fellow countryman."

The local accent made the distance between the two sides much closer, Wu Lin invited Fan Ning and Zhu Pei into the barracks, there were not many people in the barracks, Wu Lin said with a smile: "The soldiers have all gone to help capture the wild horses, only a dozen people are left behind. "

Zhu Pei saw that all the wooden houses were built on stilts, and there were wooden piles built underneath, so he asked strangely, "Why are the houses built in the air?"

"This is the experience of the Kun people. In winter, the snow is as high as a person. If the house is not erected in the air, even the doors and windows cannot be opened."

"Isn't that cold?"

Wu Lin smiled and said: "Actually, it's not very cold. In winter, I basically stay indoors and burn firewood to keep warm. Like Kunzhou, as long as I don't go out, there is basically nothing to do. It's just that the sentry must wear bearskin to resist the cold." cold."

Fan Ning sat down with Zhu Pei in the main house, and Fan Ning asked again: "What is the difficulty of stationing in Jingzhou now?"

"Reporting to the censor, the supplies are sufficient, but there are too few horses, there are only ten horses, and we can't go to far places for inspections, and the soldiers use wild fruits to make wine, but military regulations do not allow drinking in the barracks. Everyone secretly drank it, it’s very embarrassing for a humble job.”

Fan Ning nodded, "The number of horses can be increased to [-]. I will tell Yang Dujian later that as for alcohol, I have licensed the Jingzhou garrison to drink alcohol during non-wartime."

Wu Lin was overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed to salute, "Thank you for your understanding!"

Fan Ning waved his hand and asked again: "A survey team came to the island half a month ago, General Wu should know about it!"

"The humble staff knows that the humble staff is also worried that they are too small to deal with the wolves, so they have assigned thirty more crossbowmen."

Fanning also became a little worried. When he arranged the expedition team, he did not consider the threat of wolves.

"Any news from them now?"

Wu Lin shook his head, "Jingzhou is very narrow and long, at least 2000 miles long, and they haven't heard anything since they went north, maybe you can ask Yang Dujian, they hunt horses in the north, and they have supply land, or ask the Kun people, they should know too .”

Fan Ning was taken aback, "Didn't all the Kun clan move south to Kunzhou?"

"Probably not! At least I know that there are still some Kun people who don't want to go south to Kunzhou and stay in Jingzhou. They are in the north. According to our distance of about four or five hundred miles, several of their hunters encountered wolves last month. Injured in the attack, come to us for rescue."

Fan Ning immediately asked about other situations, and then he was ready to set off for the north.

Taking advantage of Zhu Pei's inattention, Wu Lin took advantage of Zhu Pei's inattention and found an opportunity to whisper to Fan Ning: "The biggest problem, brothers, is that you are too lonely. Can Yu Shi arrange some camp prostitutes to come over? Hey! Without women, life is really hard."

Fan Ning nodded with a smile, "It should be fine, I'll make arrangements later."

Wu Lin was so grateful that he personally sent Fan Ning and Zhu Pei onto the big ship, and the ship set sail immediately, heading north along the land.

The base where the group herdsman captured the wild horses was near the former Kun tribe. They built dozens of large tents. When Fan Ning arrived with his men, they happened to meet the supervisor Yang Yun. Yang Yun hurriedly stepped forward to salute, " I didn't expect the governor to come too!"

"How's the progress on capturing the Mustang?" Fanning asked with concern.

"It's not bad. We divided into ten teams and captured the wild horses separately within a radius of three hundred miles. We used the method of setting up nets to capture wild horses. We have already caught 130 or four wild horses."

"How many horses are there in total?"

"Before we only found one herd of horses, and later we found two herds of horses, about 300 horses. Now we are very short of time!"

"How do you say that?"

"The northern part of Jingzhou is still covered with ice and snow. By mid-April, the ice and snow will melt. At that time, the horses will flee to the north, and we will be hard to catch."

"I see!"

The two talked while walking, and soon they came to the camp. Muzi built dozens of large wooden cages out of trees, and each cage mostly held two horses.

"There are too many male horses in the wild horses, and they are fierce and irritable. They kicked and injured many people. We brought some mares over and arranged one male and one female, and they calmed down!" Yang Yun pointed to the cage and laughed.

Fan Ning stepped forward to inspect these wild horses carefully. They are very big, with a shoulder height of about 1.6 meters, while Turkic horses are generally around 1.5 meters. Moreover, the wild horses are eight feet to one foot long, with strong muscles in the body and limbs, and the mane is strong. The hair is particularly long, full of wild breath.

Yang Yun stepped forward and said: "Our number of stallions is too small, which is not good for the long-term breeding of war horses. Having these wild horses is very beneficial for us to cultivate high-quality war horses."

Speaking of this, Yang Yun regretted again: "It's a pity that the horse king was not caught. If the horse king is caught, the other 200 wild horses can be easily led back without any effort."

"What does the horse king look like?" Fanning asked curiously.

"A white stallion is very majestic and very smart. It escaped us several times when we rounded it up."

"It's really a pity, but it's also exciting."

At this time, Yang Yun laughed again: "There is one more happy event that I haven't told Governor Fan. Our first batch of foals were born, a total of 430 two foals!"

Fanning was overjoyed, "Is it so fast?"

"Almost! We came here in March last year, and now a year has passed, and a foal will be born every month in the future. Governor Fan, this is a great event, we must celebrate it!"

This is of course a great event for Fanning, and a batch of foals are born, which means that the ranch is a success.

"Yes! We're going to celebrate."

The two laughed.

At this moment, someone suddenly shouted: "Mawang is coming!"

(End of this chapter)