Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1150 Crossing the River Raptors

   Yelang Wanli Road, going west makes people old.

  It is said that the road to Shu is difficult, and it is difficult to go to the blue sky, but walking on the mountain road in central Guizhou can feel what is really difficult.

Guizhou Road is more difficult than Shu Road. After all, since Qin conquered Shu, the Central Plains Dynasty has experienced more than a thousand years since then. There have been many mature and convenient passages. After entering Shu, it is Tianfu Plain. Higher roads are more dangerous.

  In particular, there is no large plain like the Chengdu Basin in the territory, only some scattered dams, not even large dams like the Dianchi Lake and Erhai Lake in Yunnan, but all small dams, which makes this side more closed and remote, and the roads are even more backward.

  The intestines of the sheep are dangerous and untouchable, and there is no way to get money. There are only some winding trails in the wilderness of the mountains, and they are not connected in series.

   "With the Yachi River in Wujiang River as the boundary, if you go west, it is called Shuixi, and if you go east, it is called Shuidong."

  Shuixi is the territory of the Tian family, Shuidong is the territory of the Xie family, and in the Beipanjiang River Basin is the territory of the Zhao family.

Among these three great powers, there are also many small and medium-sized forces mixed in and out. For example, in the area around Bijie, Jihuo, the leader of the barbarians during the Three Kingdoms period, was established. When Zhuge Liang went south, Jihuo sent troops in response. Meng Huo made meritorious service and was named the king of Luodian, and his descendants took Luo as their surname.

  Now Datang is located in Baozhou and Haozhou with its land, and lives in the area of ​​Baipu River.

  The most powerful Tian family, in fact, should be called the Jiangbei Tian family, and they mainly live in the area north of Wujiang River.

  Qin Lang listened to the words of Tian Yangming, the son of the leader of the Sizhou Tian clan who came to greet him, and looked at the mountains on the bank of the Yelang River.

  After he received the order in Xiangyang, he separated from his family.

First take a boat through the river from Jiangxia, and then go upstream along the Jingjiang River. After a short rest in Jingzhou, enter the Three Gorges through Kuimen, and then go straight to Yuzhou (Chongqing). The water route along the way is also fast and easy. .

  After arriving in Yuzhou, the Tian family took the initiative to send his children to greet him. Qin Lang transferred from Jiangjin to Yelang River and entered Guizhou. This river was later Qijiang.

  At this time, Datang has almost connected four inter-provincial arterial roads to the central Guizhou area, all of which were planned and designed by Qin Lang himself. After several years, the old roads were connected in series, widened again, and bridges were built.

  These four roads connect Jiannan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Hunan respectively.

Qin Lang is now taking the Tongsi Road, also called Yubo Road, because it runs from Yuzhou to Bozhou. This road basically runs along the Qijiang River Valley. The distance is not long, but one end is connected to the Yangtze River in Yuzhou , one end is connected to the Wujiang River in the south of Banzhou, so it has become an important road.

  In the past few years, it has been continuously widened, making this road a road that can pass thousands of people. The convenience of transportation also enabled great business and commerce along the way, and the imperial court also set up many post stations along the way, and many immigrants who entered Guizhou also took this road.

  Bozhou became the bridgehead for the imperial court to enter Guizhou from Sichuan. Zhang Shigui sealed Bozhou, and the imperial court set up the Zunyi Army here.

  The Zunyi Army in Bozhou also separated the Tian family in Jiangbei from the Luo family in Shuixi, and at the same time passed through the bridgehead of Bozhou and continued southward to Juzhou.

  The imperial court changed Xie's Juzhou to Dongning Governor's Mansion. In recent years, it was through Bozhou that a steady stream of immigrants went south.

  The Yunnan Road in central Guizhou also starts from Juzhou, where the Dongning Dudufu is located, from Guiyang to Weiqing, to Pingba and Anshun, and then to Kunming from Fuyuan.

  As for the Guangxi Road, it also goes from Bozhou to Juzhou, then to Yingzhou, and then enters Liuzhou, Guangxi.

  Through the South Road, it also passes through Zunyi of Bozhou, Juzhou of Dongningfu, Zhenyuan of Chongzhou, then enters Yelang of Yezhou, and then Tanyang, Chenxi, and Ruanling.

   From these four major traffic arteries, it can be seen that the strategic support points for the imperial court to manage central Guizhou in recent years are Bozhou and Juzhou.

   Especially Yu Bodao is the most important thing. Bozhou has become the most important portal, and Juzhou has also become the core of controlling the entire central Guizhou.

   Pass through Bozhou and Juzhou, and then connect to the surrounding four roads, and then use these four traffic arteries to control Yingzhou, Dingzhou, Chongzhou, Qianzhou and other places.

  Having mastered these core points and the lifeline of transportation, Datang has basically completed the initial actual control of the central Guizhou area. It is precisely because of this that Li You's rebellion and proclaiming himself emperor this time has become a joke.

Not only the garrison of the Tang Army in Dongning Mansion refused to follow, but none of the surrounding tyrants responded sincerely. The Si family, Xie family, Zhao family, Luo family, etc. were all just coaxing Li You, but secretly they were all mobilizing troops, preparing to Tied up Li You in exchange for credit.

   It's just that no one expected that a soldier from Dongning Dudu's Mansion in Juzhou City solved Li You in one day.

  After they got the news, they could only pat their legs and regret that they were slow.

  Sizhou Tian's is okay, they are still far away, but Juzhou Xie Longyu is very annoyed, he is in Guishan, five miles north of the city, and he has not come in time to catch up.

  Du Xingmin broke through the Governor's Mansion, beheaded the rebels, and immediately sealed off Dongning City. As a result, when Xie Longyu arrived with a large group of troops, the Tang army in the city didn't let them in at all, and asked loudly, but came to join the rebels?

Xie Longyu is angry, but he can only explain in a low voice, saying that he is here to pacify the chaos and beg for thieves, but Du Xingmin doesn't believe it at all, not only not letting them enter the city to share a share, but also ordering him to stay away immediately, and even let him disband immediately People and horses threatened him that he was good at mobilizing troops and horses, and said that if the troops were not disbanded immediately, when Wei Gong arrived, he would be punished.

   Made Xie Longyu angry and scared, but he didn't dare to say a word, so he had to honestly disband the troops under the city, not even daring to stay at Guiren Peak, and retreated all the way to Zhuangzhou under Miaoling in the south to wait for orders.

After failing to catch up with the chaos in Dongning City, Xie Longyu retreated, still not reconciled after thinking about it, so he simply led his children and soldiers into the mountains to kill some barbarian villages that had a bad relationship with him in the past. In the deep mountains and old forests, they didn't listen to the orders of the Tang government.

  Even Li You's rebellion this time, there were indeed a few reckless barbarian leaders who responded to the false edict.

Xie Longyu led his children and grandchildren to attack them. Under the banner of rebellion and chaos, he destroyed more than a dozen villages, and threatened to recruit dozens of others. Finally, he robbed more than 7,000 households from the mountains, which was quite comfortable. many.

  Most of the other Zhao clans and Tian clans did the same. They kept approaching Juzhou and Bozhou, and they also pulled the tiger skin as a banner, sweeping away a group of barbarian tribes who refused to obey the order.

  Of course, no matter whether it is these three tyrants or other small and medium-sized tyrants and barbarians, no one dares to touch the states and counties controlled by the imperial court, and they dare not easily touch the original immigrants in China.

  Business routes are basically not affected.

  Central Guizhou does not produce salt, but Datang transported a large amount of salt from Yangzhou through the Yangtze River and stored it in Bozhou and Dongning Prefectures. They set up large salt warehouses, and exchanged the salt in their hands for the tea in the hands of tyrants in central Guizhou.

  Then sell the tea to Yunnan, Jiannan, Zhennan and other border areas.

   Whoever controls the salt will control the economic lifeline of central Guizhou. In this area, the imperial court has always occupied an absolute dominant position.

  In addition to Huai salt transported by water from the Yangtze River, the imperial court also transported salt from Guangxi to Yingzhou from Liuzhou in Guangxi, and salt from Annan to Yanzhou via the Red River and then to Yunnan via the Nanpan River.

  In addition to salt, sugar, wine, porcelain, silk and other exquisite and affordable commercial goods, they come in continuously through various water and land arteries, and the four post roads maintain smooth information.

  When the river was full of water, Annan Huguang's grain boats also came in, and transported a boatload of grain to the grain storage warehouses in Bo, Ju and other places.

In just a few years, the imperial court now has tens of thousands of troops stationed in central Guizhou, more and more areas under actual control, and more and more immigrants, which further promotes the economic development here, and even farming and tea growing And other technologies are leaping forward.

Zhang Shigui told Qin Lang next to him, "Last year alone, the imperial court passed four main roads, both water and land, and imported about 300,000 shi of salt from central Guizhou, and produced lead from central Guizhou. Last year, 4.7 million jin of lead and tea were shipped out. ..."

  Central Guizhou used to have closed traffic, difficult roads, and no salt production. It mainly relied on Sichuan salt and Yunnan salt.

  They transported Sichuan salt and Yunnan salt through caravans, and then sold them wholesale at high prices to merchants in central Guizhou.

  In the old case, two buckets of rice were exchanged for one catty of salt.

   Merchants transport grain to the powerful salt warehouses to exchange for salt at a ratio of 20 to 1, and then distribute it to various places. The cost price is so high that naturally they have to increase the price when they sell it.

  People in the Central Plains used to eat a bucket of rice and a catty of salt and felt that the price of salt was high, but the salt eaten by the people in central Guizhou was more expensive.

  Now, the imperial court has fully grasped the salt, and relying on all aspects of its advantages, it transported lower-cost Huai salt and Guangzhou salt, opened up the supply, and launched a salt monopoly.

  Regardless of the distance, each bucket of salt is 110 yuan, and there is no need to exchange salt for nanometers.

In the past, merchants exchanged two buckets of rice for a catty of salt, and then sold it to the common people. About 20%. Even if the common people don't buy official salt directly, but sell it in the hands of salt dealers, it is at most only 30% of the past.

  For the imperial court, there are advantages in terms of scale and transportation. In addition, Huaiyan and Guangyan are all sea salt, so the mining cost is low. After excluding the cost and transportation expenses, they can actually earn at least a bucket of 50 yuan.

   This is still a high tax under the salt monopoly.

  The 300,000 shi of salt shipped in last year, the court’s profit from this salt alone was 150,000 guan, which may not seem like much, but it can use this salt to control the entire economy of central Guizhou and play a leverage role.

   Not to mention, the 300,000 rock salt, behind it is the transportation industry of tens of thousands of people, and there are boat trackers, salt bearers, boatmen, caravans, etc. everywhere on the water and land docks.

Only the Chishui River, a tributary of Shunzhou, is transported through five relay stations. At the first station, there are more than 100 bull boats, boatmen, and trackers, and more than 200 people. Horses, the third station is by water, with 140 or 50 boats, the fourth road is blocked by long beaches, the road is also difficult and rugged, and the pack horses cannot walk, they can only be carried by people, there are 2,000 porters, the fifth station, Then change the shipping, there are 200 boats, more than 1,000 trackers and porters.

  This transportation line has 500 ships a year, more than 2,000 trackers, and more than 1,000 cattle and horses.

   It can be seen that transportation is not easy.

During the sixty to seventy miles around Erlang Beach, men and women, regardless of gender, were involved in this emerging transportation line. Children from seven or eight years old to elderly people in their fifties and sixties all joined the army of carrying salt and pulling fiber. Because although it is very hard to carry salt and fiber, but the income is very stable, and it is much higher than before. At least after working hard, I can change to a life of food and clothing.

  A Chishui River transportation line not only imports countless salts every year, but also transports countless teas, mines, etc., and also drives countless people in the surrounding area, increasing their income.

  Many salt people were originally poor people with no land, and they lived hard for the powerful landlords to graze. Now they sell their strength to carry salt and pull fiber to make money, and then buy salt and rice at the wharf, which is much better than in the past.

  (end of this chapter)