Chapter 184 Soldiers and Bandits
Wu Chudao looked at his brother-in-law and said viciously: "You go with the cavalry. If the people in Yiheli dare to resist, they will be charged with treason!"

Wu Chudao was also ruthless, and the time limit for the Hexi Jiedu envoy to change horses to mulberry was three months, which included the process of measuring the land, leveling the land, replanting mulberry seedlings, and selling the land.

Ganzhou has the most horse farms and the most fertile land.As soon as the news of changing the horse to mulberry was announced, many wealthy gentry came to Zhangye City with money, vying to buy mulberry fields.

Today's silk prices are rising three times a day. Although the war in the Central Plains has seen the dawn of victory, after a few battles, the silk in the Central Plains will definitely be rewarded to the soldiers who have made great contributions.

Any businessman who knows something about the silk trade knows that Longyou has not had a stable supply of silk in the past three or four years.

Merchants in the Western Regions saw a huge commodity gap, and the price of silk rose three times a day.

Today, the purchase price of silk in the Zhangye market has tripled compared to before the An Lushan rebellion.

Moreover, the price of silk is still soaring at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Both the Byzantine Empire and the Dashi Kingdom were in a period of stability that was rare in history. The consumption power of the aristocracy was growing day by day, and they were very eager for oriental silk.

Food merchants swarmed into Longyou, vying for the few remaining silks.

Silk is a golden egg, so Sang Tian is a golden rooster that lays eggs.

These horse farms are all good land, and they will definitely survive if they grow mulberry seedlings, and then buy some weavers from the south of the Yangtze River, and sell the silk produced in Longyou directly, and they will definitely make a lot of money!
With this expectation, the Governor's Offices in Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Wuwei are all vigorously promoting the transformation of horses into mulberry. Wu Chudao's desk is already full of letters. Those who want to buy land in Zhangye.

Wu Chudao was also forced to do nothing. The cavalry outside Zhangye City belonged to the soldiers and horses controlled by the Hexi Jiedu Envoy, but Wu Chudao, as the prefect of Ganzhou, also had the right to call the cavalry.

Although Zhang Hun was a little afraid of going out of the city, he was forced to do nothing by the big family in Zhangye City, so he could only bite the bullet and agree.

Holding Wu Chudao's military order, Zhang Hun came to the cavalry battalion outside the city.

The cavalry in the early Tang Dynasty were all government soldiers recruited from good families. These government soldiers worked in the fields on weekdays, conducted military training during the slack season, and were regularly recruited by the court to perform the tasks of guarding, guarding borders and fighting. .

However, since the period of Tang Gaozong, due to the increasingly frequent border wars, the foundation of the Fubing system - the land grant system has been destroyed, and it has become increasingly difficult for Fubing who require their own horses and weapons to survive.

Even in places like Longyou, where there are many war horses, it is impossible to recruit good family members who can fight on horseback.

From the first year of Emperor Kaiyuan, Longyou began to replace Fubing with recruitment and conscription.

Zhechong Mansion, which was responsible for recruiting and training soldiers, has been abolished by the imperial court. Instead of setting up Zhechong school lieutenant, the county magistrate was appointed concurrently.

Recruiting soldiers means that the government pays people to serve as soldiers. The cavalry battalion outside the city is the soldiers recruited in Hexi.

These soldiers were originally idlers wandering around in Zhangye City, some were brave hooligans, and some were even habitual criminals in the prison cells, because they had no money to atone for their sins and were sent to serve in the barracks.

The soldiers in the early Tang Dynasty were all children of good families, and these children of good families were eager to make contributions on the battlefield. It was also by relying on the soldiers formed by the children of good families in Guanlong that the Great Tang was able to quell the troubled times at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

At that time, the soldiers of the government were very powerful, often winning more with less, and there were even more elite cavalry troops in Hexi, and there were no disadvantages in conquering from east to west.

But the current cavalry are all local hooligans recruited from Zhangye City. These people came to serve as soldiers for military pay, and the military discipline is much worse than that of the Fubing period.

Every time these cavalry are dispatched, they will take the opportunity to plunder the people, and even kill ordinary people to pretend to be military leaders.

These cavalry were timid and timid when they encountered the Tubo army, but they were fierce and greedy when they encountered ordinary Hu tribes.

The last time they went out of the city to patrol the border, they encountered a tribe of Qiang herdsmen. These cavalry rushed into the tribe and captured this group of unarmed herdsmen.

Datang, who used to be a glorious soldier, now everyone shouts "good men don't serve as soldiers".

Even if the son of a good family spends a few years in such a military camp, he will be blackened by this dye vat.

Zhang Hun was originally unwilling to deal with these vulgar soldiers, but in order to implement the transformation of horses into mulberry as soon as possible, Zhang Hun had to bring Wu Chudao's military order to the barracks himself.

The captain of this cavalry was surnamed Sun, and he was originally a gangster in Zhangye City.

This Colonel Sun entered the cavalry battalion coveting the military salary, and was almost tortured to death by the former captain.

Fortunately, Captain Sun's younger sister was quite attractive, so he sent her to the former captain's home, and became a popular person around the former captain.

The former school captain was promoted back to Hexi Jiedu's mansion, so he recommended Sun Xiaowei to take over as the school captain of the cavalry battalion.

I don't know if it's because the same sex repels each other, but Zhang Hun just can't understand this Xiaowei Sun.

However, Xiaowei Sun warmly welcomed Zhang Hun, because the order this time was not to escort a few scribes to the countryside, but to suppress bandits!

Since ancient times, suppressing bandits is the most lucrative, and they can't wait to go out of the city every day to suppress bandits.

Suppressing bandits can rush into people's homes and "search" them, and they can easily take away some valuable things.

If you see someone with a little money at home, if you catch the family and arrange a conspiracy, you can blackmail them out of drinking money for several days.

Anyway, there are many benefits to suppressing bandits, what?What if you encounter a real bandit?

If you encounter a real bandit, of course you will run away!Serving as a soldier eats food, and being a soldier is to eat food. If you really kill a bandit and die, there will be no food to eat.

"Lieutenant Sun, the Fu Zun has issued a death order this time, and must kill the gangsters! This Ma Sanlang in Yiheli is the most suspect, let's go to Yiheli to catch him first!"

Xiaowei Sun said with a smile: "Don't worry, Zhang Hucao, it will take time for the brothers to gather together, and Yiheli is not far away, so we will leave after lunch, and we will be back in the evening."

Then Xiaowei Sun called another soldier and said, "Go to the restaurant next door and get some wine, and some food and drink. I want to catch up with Zhang Hucao."

The soldiers also looked at their captain suspiciously. It is well known in Zhangye that Lieutenant Sun and Zhang Hucao did not deal with each other. What old things do these two people have to talk about?

After a while, Zhou Shi, dressed as a clerk, pushed the cart and walked into the barracks.

"Zhou Lang, if you send the wine and food to the camp of the Chinese army, the old rule is to pay for the wine first!"

Zhou Shi immediately said: "It's okay, it's okay, I just went in like this?"

"Hurry up and send it in, the captain is entertaining guests, you have to be careful in serving them!"

Zhou Shi immediately walked into the big tent carrying wine and appetizers, and he recognized at a glance that Xiaowei Sun was hosting Zhang Hun from the Governor's Mansion.

After serving the wine to the two, and setting out the appetizers, Zhou Shi carefully exited the big tent, but he found a place to hide and eavesdropped on their conversation.

Looking at the wine with a strong aroma, Zhang Hun asked, "Good wine! Why haven't I had such a good wine in Zhangye City?"

Xiaowei Sun said: "The wine shop on the west side of the city has changed owners. The wine tastes good, so I asked my buddy to send it to the barracks."

"Drinking in the barracks at noon doesn't seem very good, does it?"

"What's wrong with this, isn't it just to go to Yihe to suppress the bandits? We'll go out after drinking, and we'll be back in the afternoon after finishing our work. At that time, we'll go to the store to drink celebration wine at night!"

Zhang Hun picked up the wine glass, the wine tasted sweet, it was a fine wine he had never drunk before.

"Good wine!" Zhang Hun exclaimed.

Captain Sun continued: "Zhang Hucao, do you know my brother-in-law?"

Zhang Hun despises in his heart that the brother-in-law Sun Xiaowei mentioned is the former captain he offered his own sister to curry favor with.

That brother-in-law is ten years older than Xiaowei Sun, and Xiaowei Sun's younger sister is not his wife, but just a concubine.

However, Lieutenant Sun's brother-in-law was promoted to the military envoy of the Jiedu Mansion in Hexi, and he was considered number one in Hexi, so Zhang Hun didn't dare to offend him at will.

Sun Xiaowei said again: "My brother-in-law loves the child and wants to buy some mulberry fields in Ganzhou for my sister's son born last year. Do you think so?"

Zhang Hun also knew that Xiaowei Sun was not easy to fool, but there are indeed too many people asking to buy land, so he still half-shirked and said:

"Lieutenant Sun's brother-in-law is a soldier and horse envoy of the Jiedu envoy's mansion. He wants to buy fields, why doesn't he buy them in Liangzhou?"

Hexi Jiedu envoys were stationed in Wuwei City, and Wuwei was the seat of Liangzhou.

Fang Guan's promotion of changing horses to mulberry trees in Liangzhou has been quite effective, and it is said that a lot of land has been cleared.

Xiaowei Sun sighed and said, "Where can my brother-in-law be ranked in Liangzhou? I heard that all the dignitaries who want to buy land have trampled on the Jiedu envoy's mansion."

"It's not that my sister's natal family is in Ganzhou. If we buy some mulberry fields in Ganzhou, our natal family can also help take care of it."

Zhang Hun knew that he had to rely on Lieutenant Sun's soldiers and horses to promote the transformation of horses into mulberry, so he had no choice but to say: "When the bandits are defeated, I will help the soldiers and horses to get a good field!"

"You scholars often say that a gentleman has no jokes, and what is said on the wine table counts, right?"

Seeing that Xiaowei Sun and other vulgar warriors are also playing with words, but the suppression of bandits depends on this person, Zhang Hun raised his hand and said, "No joke!"

Lieutenant Sun immediately raised his palms and clapped oaths of oath. The two had a great time as the host and guest, and the estrangement in the past seemed to disappear.

Satisfied with wine and food, Xiaowei Sun, who was slightly drunk, finally ordered his soldiers and horses, and rushed to Yiheli with [-] cavalry in a mighty manner.

And Zhou Shi, who had heard all this, immediately sent the news to Li Daoyuan in Yiheli.

Yu Xiaoxiao, who saw the news in the chat channel, looked at Li Daoyuan worriedly: "Captain, everyone is ready, shall we start now?"

Li Daoyuan said with a smile: "Let the old, weak, sick and disabled in the village retreat first, and the people from the Mutual Aid Association follow me, let us fight guerrillas with the officers and soldiers!"

Looking at the electronic map, Li Daoyuan, a graduate of Geography Surveying and Mapping, already has a comprehensive plan in mind.

(End of this chapter)

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