Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 342 A Thousand Miles Away (1)

A group of Han soldiers gathered around the bonfire, facing the fire. Nie Chounu took out a few crumpled pieces of paper from his arms. I looked and looked at those colorful patterns over and over again, and finally put the pieces of paper into my arms, and asked in a low voice, "Can this stuff really be exchanged for food?"

The surrounding Han soldiers all looked at each other in blank dismay. They were all going to the Juanmen River area in the north. They received such a stack of fifteen pieces of paper on Tieshan Island. It is said that one piece of paper can be exchanged for a bucket of grain on the shore.All the Han soldiers were skeptical.Nie Chounu sighed, everyone's faces were cloudy and uncertain. If there is no food and grass in the extreme north, they will have to wait for death.Others talked about it for a long time, but Zhou Guangzong just smiled and said nothing, frowning and fiddled with the firewood with a wooden stick.Finally someone noticed something was wrong, and asked with a smile: "Brother Zhou, is this piece of paper good? Why are you so sullen and silent?"

"What am I talking about?" Zhou Guangzong said with a smile, "If you throw away all these things, it would be best for me to pick up a bargain."

The more he joked like this, the more humbly everyone asked for advice. Nie Chounu remembered that he had been to the north for business, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile, "Whether this piece of paper is useful or not, and give advice to the old brothers?" The two of them escaped from the same village. Nie Chounu was older, and Zhou Guangzong usually took care of him more, so he didn't let it go, and said with a smile: "When you go to the north, this piece of paper is better than gold and silver. In the twelfth lunar month, as long as it can be exchanged for enough food. Big guys, you have to be careful, don’t be cheated by others for a small amount of money.”

"Oh, it looks like this." All the Han soldiers suddenly realized.

Of course, some people doubted: "It's so easy to use, really?"

"Is there still a fake?" Zhou Guangzong laughed, "Why don't we exchange it, one tael of silver for ten tickets, will you do it?" He stretched out his hand as he said. "Don't change, don't change," the man stepped aside as if stung by a scorpion, and put the piece of paper on his chest carefully and put it away.

Such things happened in every corner of Tieshan Island. In this world, except for the matters of men and women, gossip related to money and food will always spread the fastest, and its credibility is far better than government announcements.In another corner of the camp, facing more than a dozen Han army officers, Wang Tongdeng said in a deep voice: "The Dongmu ticket must be issued to each soldier by the quartermaster himself. This is the rule set by General Zhao." , no one can disobey!"

All the officers gasped, Zhao De's rules are strict, one after another, one set after another, interlocking, almost rigid, but there are many reasons behind it.Ever since he was in charge of defending the city of Nanshan, in Guannan, Suzhou, no one, including Han Ningshuang, was willing to argue with him or break his rules.

The use of this Dongmu ticket, the officers know much better than the soldiers below, it is actually a kind of handover.People in the Song Dynasty often said that gold was collected in prosperous times in troubled times, and that money can make ghosts turn millstones.But in the winter in Liaodong, food can buy a person's life, and food can make a mill push away ghosts.At the beginning, Dongmu tickets were issued with grain as the main reserve. An ordinary ticket is worth a bucket of grain, and there is no deception.In the north, Xia Guoying was the only one who stocked up enough food and brought in a large amount of food without fear of others thinking about it.At the beginning, the soldiers and common people were skeptical about the credit of Dongmu tickets. After a period of time, they began to exchange them for various items. The Yalu River and the Gunmen River area are even stronger than gold and silver.Even the Jurchens exchanged Dongmu tickets for food, and Jin Changtai ordered that only the tickets be recognized, as long as the tickets were issued with grain as reserves, they would be exchanged for grain.The strength of food stamps indirectly supported the issuance of mink fur, ginseng, pearls, gold, wood, etc. as reserves. Later, Xia Guoying only needed a stack of Dongmu tickets to buy a tribe to do things for him.It’s just that Xia Guoying has no way to control the exchange ratio between food stamps, gold tickets, wooden tickets, pearl tickets, and ginseng tickets. It will take time to unify them into the kind of money tickets used in Xia Kingdom. .

The distribution of food and salaries in the army is one of the most important powers. It is common for officers to draw some oil and water from it, or to give more to their confidants, and ordinary soldiers to pay less.The quartermaster directly issued Dongmu tickets to the soldiers, and the officers of the Han army lost many opportunities to fight.After a moment of silence, some people were still dissatisfied and said: "The rules of pay in the army, why should Zhao De change it as he pleases, I will only listen to the commander's office!" This remark aroused the resonance of some dissatisfied officers, and many people expressed their dissatisfaction. He muttered in a low voice: "That's it!" "Why do you hear the surname is Zhao?" His tone became a little disrespectful towards Zhao Xingde and Xia Guoying.

"That's all!" Wang Tongdeng's eyes seemed to burst into flames.Hearing a "snap", he threw a stack of Dongmu tickets on the table, "This is the ticket that General Zhao agreed to issue, so naturally follow his rules, whoever doesn't want to accept it, here Please go, I won’t send you far.”

In the north, a capable cavalry general was needed to protect the settlements, but Zhao Xingde left him in Kaizhou.Therefore, Wang Tongdeng did not take advantage of the opportunity to fight Liaoyang and Suzhou.This trip to resettle the soldiers and civilians of the Han army going north needs to carry and distribute Dongmu notes with a face value of tens of thousands of guan, and a reliable person must be required to handle the affairs. Jin Changtai ordered his general again.The bullshit thing at the stall made Wang Tongdeng suffocated every day, and he didn't have any good looks towards those messy guys.

The officer of the Han army who was born in a reckless way really liked this trick. When Wang Tongdeng got mad, no one objected loudly, only some whispers were still moaning.Wang Tongdeng narrowed his eyes, and said in a deep voice: "One more thing, if someone wants to break the rules and mess around, I advise him not to go to the north. In other places, the sky is the biggest. In the north, General Zhao The rules are bigger than the sky." He said coldly, "People who don't follow the rules, I guarantee that you will never survive this winter!"

All the military officers looked at each other in blank dismay, silent like cicadas, and finally no one said anything more, honestly let the quartermaster sent by Wang Tongdeng personally issue Dongmu tickets to the soldiers.But on that night, someone found Wang Xuansu, and wailed about the situation with embellishments.Wang Xuansu reported to Han Ningshuang overnight.

"When a soldier eats food, he will fight for whomever he eats." Wang Xuansu said with a worried expression on his face.If the Han army hadn't encountered repeated setbacks and lacked enough food and grass, they would not have asked Xia Guoying to help supply food and grass. Unexpectedly, Xia Guoying not only exchanged food and grass for Dongmu tickets, but also sent officers to distribute them to the soldiers.It has become a common practice in the army to falsely report the number of heads and eat empty pay. After this drama, Xia Guoying not only has the morale of the army, but also has a better understanding of the number and strength of each battalion than the commander of the Han army.

Han Ningshuang's eyes narrowed slightly, she was silent for a moment, and said in a deep voice: "It is indeed Xia Dynasty's custom that the commanding officer does not handle the food and pay. The military supplies above the Xia State camp are transported by the supply department, and the food and salary below the battalion are controlled by the marching commander. The lieutenant has a very high reputation in the battalion, but he is still bound by the military government, and the sergeants will not regard themselves as someone's private soldiers. This is the way to long-term stability. We will also do the same in the future, lest the soldiers only know that there are generals , I don’t know there is a handsome mansion.” She paused, and sighed, “Although there are established systems that can be imitated, but they can be used in a corner of Liaodong, General Zhao and Jin Sima are indeed A rare talent."

Her emotion was not purely due to the payment of wages, but because of Xia Guoying's many arrangements in Liaodong.

Wang Xuansu nodded, he unfolded a Dongmu ticket repeatedly, and murmured: "The general is worried, Xia Guoying took this opportunity to gather the army's morale, and the general's mansion was empty, and over time, these brothers who went to the north, only knew that Zhao General, I don't know there is a handsome mansion."

"Since the demise of the Bohai Kingdom, there are only some wild tribes of fishing and hunting in the north. It was originally a land without an owner," Han Ningshuang said slowly, "General Zhao saw the opportunity first, and put down his chess pieces there one step earlier, and started to operate it, and then occupied it." They have Xia Guo's continuous support, and it is extremely difficult to reverse the host-host situation in the north. And General Zhao's original intention is not to divide the power of our Han army."

Having said that, her eyes dimmed slightly.If Zhao Xingde wants to control the Han army, there is the simplest and most direct way, but this person is not even willing to do this, let alone deliberate to evade himself.Maintaining a reliable ally in Liaodong is the original intention of the Huguofu.To maintain a force that is completely subordinate to the Xia Kingdom, the Huguo Mansion will pay far more than maintaining a local ally.But far away thousands of miles away, it is difficult to control the generals who are in command, no different from allies.It is not in the interest of Xia to take over the army and civilians of Liaodong and assume overall responsibility.

The night was dark, and the people who were holding hope by the bonfire finally fell asleep one by one, until the sky was light, and the sea ships moored in the port carried groups of Han troops to various places. The island is even more transported to the northern lands that the Liao army cavalry has not yet stepped on.The people who arrived earlier have formed a camp that has begun to take shape.Although crops cannot be grown in winter, it is a good season for logging.Dongmuhang gives priority to felling trees that grow on fertile flat land. When the land thaws in spring, the cleared woodland can be used to plant the first crop of grain.The big tree just felled, and the unnecessary branches are cut down to make firewood. The huge wood can be put on the sled and slide along the ice track all the way to the storage yard by the river. In the severe winter, the majesty of nature is here. Instead, it became the biggest helper.Just wait for the river to thaw after spring, and then release the discharge downstream.Some of the high-quality wood were directly pulled to the shipyard on Yueyang Island, and more were shipped to the south along the wind and water.

Many lumberjacks and soldiers of the garrison camp moved from the south, and most of them liked this job, which was cheaper and quicker than farming.In the camp throughout the winter, there were scenes of people sweating profusely, and in the silent mountain forest, the chant of bringing down big trees sounded from time to time.The soldiers of the Han army who had just landed were quickly infected by this hopeful atmosphere.

A merchant wearing a dog fur hat enthusiastically pulled a Han soldier, and asked mysteriously: "Brother, do you have Dongmu tickets? It's exchanged for "colorful" silver, one tael of silver for twenty paper tickets, how about it?" ? I think you are kind enough to let you take advantage of this."

"Don't change, don't change," Nie Chounu subconsciously covered the bag, and after walking a few steps like guarding against a thief, he turned his head and waited for the man, and whispered: "Your mother, when I'm stupid!"