Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 142 Entering the Grassland for the First Time——To Youzhou
The economic and cultural center of Youzhou is in Jixian County. According to the records in "Yugong": In the territory of Jizhou, Shun set up twelve herds, one of them. "Chunqiu Yuanmingbao" also said: "The Jixing is scattered into Youzhou, which is divided into Yan Kingdom." The northern Taiyin, so it is named Youming.

Specifically speaking, the northern part of Hebei and the area around Liaoning is Youzhou. Such a transportation center between the north and the south is at the border of ethnic groups. Its military status is very prominent. To the east is Koryo and the Bohai Sea, and to the north are the Turkic and Jie people.Emperor Yangdi built the Linshuo Palace in Zhuojun, and he conquered Korea three times in the seventh year of Daye. He used Zhuojun, that is, Youzhou as the base, to gather troops, horses, weapons, and grain storage.

Youzhou is also the hub of land transportation at the northern end of the Hebei Plain.In the fourth year of Daye, the Yongji Canal was opened, and Qinshui was diverted from the south to the Yellow River to build a canal. When it was busy, there was a scene of "more than a thousand miles of boats and boats". Later generations of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project benefited from this.

Youzhou not only has a very concise geographical location, but also a very prominent regional economic status. According to the records of the Stone Scriptures of Fangshan Yunju Temple, before the Anshi Rebellion, there were rice shops, butcher shops, oil shops, Wushu shops, fruit shops, pig iron shops, etc. in Youzhou City. Milling, silk and silk, etc., are varied. It can be said that Youzhou, the economic backbone of Northeast Asia at that time, had to carry it.The Song Dynasty has been unable to deal with the northern minorities. One of the crux of the problem is that the Youyun Sixteen Prefectures have been betrayed.

With Xu Qing's town road, the group did not receive any obstruction or exploitation. Not only that, but other local officials and pass guards also took the initiative to give money and gifts to Xu Qing, hoping that he would "support".

The dark land in the distance is exposed, one or two piles of straw, old trees scattered on the side of the road, there are children and flower dogs chasing together, Xu Qing's motorcade passing by this official road, creaking and creaking sound of wheels.

"Shimei, look, that's Youzhou!" Xu Qing stood on the hillside, pointing his horsewhip with pride.

"It's only been eleven days, how fast..." Huang Shimei was wearing a female armor, and she was also very heroic.

"Quick? It will take another day to arrive in Qi County." Xu Qing smiled. He had enjoyed hundreds of kilometers in an hour, and he didn't know how to understand Huang Shimei's fast.

Huang Shimei nodded, and rode away with Xu Qing.

"It seems that Duke Wei and General Li Jing are stationed in Qi County. Does brother Xu know?" Huang Shimei reminded.

"Li Jing, I know this person, an acquaintance..." Xu Qing thought for a moment, he had met Li Jing once.

At this time, Huang Shimei admired Xu Qing very much. He recognized so many big people, and he was not the kind who recognized him in the news: "Brother Xu, do you recognize him? He is such a powerful person..."

Xu Qing just shook his head, smiled without saying a word, lightly clamped the horse's belly, and the horse started to trot immediately, and Huang Shimei followed.In two days, Xu Qing and his party will arrive in Qi County.

Although the Youzhou government is in Qixian County, the military camp still has to go a long way to the north.Xu Qing showed the documents and fish charms to the left-behind officials, asked for the detailed address, and walked for another day before arriving at the place where the salt was delivered, which was the barracks guarded by Li Jing.

First of all, Liu Zan came out to meet him. When he saw that the escort was Xu Qing, he was first surprised, then happy, and then worried. He asked Xu Qing:

"Could it be that Liu Mo ran on you?"

Xu Qing told all the ins and outs, things that he wanted to understand and things that he didn't understand.After hearing this, Liu Zan understood, and said coldly:
"Then Liu Mo is a fame-greedy person. You stole his limelight, so naturally you want to hate you."

But if you offend, you will be offended, and no one really takes it seriously.Liu Zan continued to ask Xu Qing: "Go and see General Li Jing first, you have met before. By the way, this time, you have to be careful..."

"Why?" Xu Qing asked, but Liu Zan remained silent, and only took a deep look at Xu Qing.

In the middle tent, civil servants and military generals stood on both sides, and Li Jing sat on top with his face sinking like water.If you ask Li Jing why his complexion is so bad, someone will tell you that within ten days, three batches of escort officers have been killed!Today's batch, I don't know how lucky it is...

Why kill the escort officer?The materials transported were insufficient, the date was too late, the quality was too poor, and they were all killed... The death rate of the escort officers was actually higher than that of the frontline soldiers.Because at the beginning of the transportation of materials, [-]% to [-]% will be deducted, and sand and mud will also be mixed.Cut off a little layer by layer and transport it to the front line, less than [-]% of the required materials are left.

At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the politics were clear and clear, but even so, they couldn’t withstand the loss along the way, and the escort officers themselves had no money to make up for the difference, so there were few and few, and every time they met Li Jing and other officials A general who is extremely strict in the army cannot escape death.

Xu Qing didn't understand the meaning of Liu Zan's words, thinking that his backstage was relatively hard, so he entered the tent nervously, first gave a military salute, and then said loudly:
"Xu Qing, the governor of Cangzhou, the lower official, was ordered to escort ten thousand catties of salt here, and now deliver it to the military order."

There was a commotion among the people present, and the governor personally escorted him?That's terrible... Seeing that this person is so young, could it be that he was being played like a monkey?I don't know how the materials are, whether they will also be chopped up with a knife.

Li Jing frowned, also thought of this, and Xu Qing recognized him, so he couldn't help asking: "You are a governor, you should guard the prefecture and county, why are you here as the escort?"

"Military resources are of great importance. I am afraid that there will be thieves and corrupt officials along the way, so I personally led the troops to escort them." When Xu Qing said it, his voice was trembling.

When everyone heard this, they nodded and praised this kid for being heartless, unlike someone in the officialdom.Li Jing didn't move, and asked, "That is to say, has the quality and quantity of your batch of salt been guaranteed?"

"Quality and quantity..." Xu Qing answered firmly.

"Master, how much salt will be delivered this time?" Li Jing said while tilting his head.

"Five thousand catties, more than yellow salt!" The master book said after a while.

"Xu Qing, did you hear clearly?" Li Jing looked at Xu Qing again.

"This..." Xu Qing was confused. Didn't you mean ten thousand catties? Why is there only five thousand catties left?No wonder that kid Liu Mo didn't want me to escort him...

Seeing this, Li Jing's heart sank, but after all, Xu Qing had some influence in the court, and he was also a little bit cautious.Running the army is serious, but it doesn't mean that you don't understand the world.Li Jing said softly, "What? Not enough or too much?"

Xu Qing shook his head: "It's not... Xiaguan, Xiaguan brought [-] catties of salt, all white salt!"

When everyone present heard this, they all opened their eyes wide. This is terrible. The requirement of ensuring quality and quantity has cut off so many heads, but you have completed it with high quality. You are not afraid of the wind breaking your tongue.Is it a lie to cover up, or is there a truth, Li Jing was even more surprised: "You, do you know that there are no jokes in the army?"

"No joke!"

At ten breaths, Xu Qing led Li Jing and his group to the place where the convoy stopped.Without Li Jing's inspection and acceptance of these materials, no one can send them in privately.

"Come on, open a bag and have a look..." Li Jing called out to the man who delivered the salt three feet away.Those folk husbands looked at Xu Qing, Xu Qing nodded, and they went to pull a bag out.With a stroke of a knife, the splashing white salt flowed to the ground, making people's eyes straight.

Li Jing frowned and became angry, and said anxiously: "You prodigal, you don't know what to do!"

"White salt, it's not yellow salt, it's the white salt that rich families eat carefully!" Li Jing was so excited that he dipped his finger in it, put it in his mouth, tasted it, and said, "Good salt! "

Everyone followed up and tasted it, and each praised it.Li Jing clapped his hands, picked up the salt on the ground, then stood up, and said to Xu Qing: "You kid has done a great deed!"

"Okay, okay, let Governor Xu transport all our supplies in the future, right? Hahaha..."

"It's too good, it's just a little bit of salt..." Xu Qing shook his head hastily.

"It's just salt? It's really easy for you to say it..." Li Jing's eyes shone brightly: "With this kind of good salt, it's just a trivial matter to make the soldiers eat better..." Li Jing stopped speaking halfway. .

It was half-talking again, Liu Zan was half-talking just now, and Li Jing was talking again, why did these generals learn the tricks of literati one by one?

"Huh? Where did you find these peasants? It's not easy." Li Jing suddenly glanced at those humble peasants. With his tiger eyes, he could tell the difference in the eyes of these peasants at a glance.

They looked at the barracks without the slightest sense of fear, but like... what?Li Jing couldn't find that smell, but Xu Qing knew that it was like an old student who went back to his alma mater.One look at that look, you know it's different.You know, when other people saw the barracks, they couldn't wait to take a detour!

"They are all retired wounded soldiers, veterans..."

"Are you raising them for nothing?" A trace of pity flashed across Li Jing's eyes, but disappeared immediately.

"I found a piece of wasteland for them. They can also do simple farm work. After all, they won't be hungry. After the autumn harvest, there is nothing to do. Take them here to see them off..." Xu Qing said plainly.

"That's right, your boy is affectionate and righteous, brother Xu is right..." Li Jing showed a gleam of joy, the kind of joy that looks at his own people.Everyone also praised Xu Qing as a good person.

"Brother Xu Shiji?" Xu Qing asked.

"Hmph, let's not talk about this..." Li Jing said, "I'm afraid you didn't come here to send these salts, did you?"

"Hahaha, my little brother still wants to see the scenery beyond the Great Wall here!" Xu Qing scratched his head and calmly climbed into friendship.

With Li Jing's permission, Xu Qing released the escort of more than a thousand people and the peasants back, leaving only thirty cavalrymen, and let go to play in Youzhou.

After Li Jing learned that Xu Qing had brought a woman, he taunted Xu Qing, laughing and scolding him for abandoning the public for personal reasons.But in the end, they specially set aside a quiet place for Xu Qing to live in.

Someone compared the war victory rate of the Tang and Song dynasties and found that the victory rate of the Song Dynasty was much higher than that of the Tang Dynasty. From this, it was concluded that the Tang Dynasty was not as good as the Song Dynasty.Originally, history is progressive. Comparing two dynasties is like comparing a three-year-old with a young man.From a military point of view, in the Tang Dynasty, no Great Wall was built to resist foreigners.Why not fix it?Because there is no need... In this way, it can be seen that the Tang Dynasty's military is strong.

Now Li Jing is stationed here, half of them are relying on the city wall left over from before, and half of them are camping and guarding by themselves.The rooms are limited, Xu Qing and others can only set up tents.Fortunately, the tents are originally military supplies, so after picking and choosing, there are some good ones.

Xu Qing and Huang Shimei simply settled down in the area behind Li Jing, with Xu Qing and Huang Shimei's big tent in the middle, and those of the thirty cavalrymen next to them.

The daily food, one catty of rice per person, and two taels of pickled vegetables, were delivered by people in the army.Xu Qing must not be used to eating these, but Xu Qing whose main purpose is to travel, how could he treat himself badly?I brought a cart of air-dried meat and smoked fish, and I had a picnic every day.

Three days passed in a flash, and Xu Qing felt bored again after seeing all the surrounding scenes.Thinking of the [-] catties of salt, which only cost half of it, Li Jing also left Xu Qing another [-] catties.This thousand catties of salt, in Xu Qing's hands, can only be transported back, rather than transported back...

By the way, how about going out to see it?

Suddenly a flash of inspiration flashed in Xu Qing's heart: Ah, Li Jing was able to return me a thousand catties of salt. Could it be that he planned for me to go back to the outside of the Great Wall and make waves?It is worthy of the title of Datang Army God!
(End of this chapter)