novelAbuy Chapter 1372 Preparation (Thank you for the reward from Uncle Shanxiong Diting)
Chapter 1372 Preparation (Thank you for the reward from Uncle Shanxiong Diting)
Chapter 1372 Preparation (Thank you for the reward from Uncle Shanxiong Diting)
Zhang Xingcai, who was determined to leave a name as a virtuous queen in history, must have wanted to supervise the emperor's behavior of enjoying pleasure and not striving for progress.
But she also knew that the emperor was so lazy that direct persuasion would only have the opposite effect.
Moreover, the Han Dynasty now has wise ministers at home and a clear political system, and it has powerful generals outside and is indomitable.
The people under his rule lived and worked in peace and contentment, and there was a strong legacy of the Huang-Lao philosophy of the early Han Dynasty that advocated non-intervention.
Not to mention that the national strength was growing day by day, and the third revival of the Han Dynasty was just around the corner.
So I can only persuade him in a roundabout way.
Fortunately, although she cannot directly interfere in state affairs now, as the queen, it is reasonable for her to be in charge of the inner palace and control the internal government.
"Since Feng Mingwen is in charge at the front, Your Majesty doesn't need to worry. Then Your Majesty should at least pay some attention to the affairs at the rear."
"rear?"
Adou was stunned. Isn’t this the place behind?
With everything going on and life going smoothly, what could go wrong?
The queen looked helpless and reminded, "It's the grassland in the northern part of the Great Wall."
Ah Dou really fell into the trap: "Something happened in Saibei grassland again?"
Why say it again?
"Isn't this normal? This year, more than a hundred sheep have been crushed to death by the snow in the inner court's pastures."
"There are also those Huyi who have fled from Mobei. They take advantage of the snow to break into the grassland from time to time to steal and rob, causing considerable losses."
At that time, General Feng led his army to expel the Xianbei from the west, and the Hu people were almost wiped out from the border areas from Liangzhou to Jiuyuan.
Isn't it a waste to leave such a large grassland empty?
As a result, the imperial court introduced policies to encourage people to go out of the border to run horses, enclose land, and open up pastures to shear wool.
The circles were more or less recognized by the court.
If you circle it, you earn money!
Within ten years, the imperial court would only send out pastoral supervisors to collect sheep head taxes based on the land, and would not be responsible for anything else.
As for what the rules will be in ten years, it depends on the actual situation.
With the wool textile market so hot, these ten years, a full ten years, it is not an exaggeration to say that it was the golden decade.
Once this policy is announced, which family with some connections and abilities would not be tempted?
Even those small families have united together and want to buy some land outside the city to increase their income.
Although the Han people are not good at herding, they can still recruit Hu friends to herd for them in the Han Dynasty!
Not to mention a certain unnamed CEO of a labor company who promised to rent and sell all kinds of labor.
If you can afford it, the Agricultural College can even provide technical support in animal husbandry.
For example, the green tower.
Therefore, there are now countless and varied hall names behind the grasslands outside the Great Wall.
What is the Loyalty Society, what is the Loyalty Society, what is the Yongliang Society, what is the Shuyi Society...
Even Hua Xiaowu, who originally lived in Nanzhong, secretly put on a vest, fleeced the northern Hu Di and provided some benefits to the people in Nanzhong.
The spiritual civilization of Nanzhong is quite good now.
During festivals, many Yi people would even take the initiative to pay homage to Zhuge Taigong.
Thanks to Grandpa for giving them the opportunity to grow sugarcane and enjoy a sweet life.
The Han and the Yi people are the same, and the Yi people are also subjects of the Han emperor.
There were many Southern Barbarians in the Han army, especially among the infantry and archers.
These foreign soldiers not only feel happy when hearing about war, but also take pride in dying in battle.
It has a lot of the spirit of the Bantun Barbarians who fought for Emperor Gaozu to conquer the world.
Considering the loyalty and bravery of the Han emperor and his subjects, everyone naturally turned a blind eye to Hua Xiaowu's food snatching.
If it were in Yizhou before, it would be strange if she wasn't treated as a "barbarian woman who was wanton and died suddenly"!
Now, no one can defeat General Zhendong.
The wife of General Zhendong parading around the streets would only make people envious and jealous, and gnashing their teeth in hatred - it was really infuriating that a barbarian girl had gotten away with it and picked such an outstanding husband.
The royal court would also not miss the opportunity to make huge profits, and even secretly enclosed a lot of land outside the Great Wall in advance, and it was a grassland with lush grass and water.
What’s even more abominable is that he took advantage of the royal family’s status and abducted many students from the Agricultural College.
The prosperity of the pastures outside the Great Wall attracted the Hu people who moved into the interior of the Great Wall in the early years. Some people also said that they missed the scenery outside the Great Wall and wanted to go back to see it.
Then he was slapped to the ground:
Where do you think Dahan is?
Come when you want and leave when you want?
If you’re not dead, get up and go work on the farm for me!
The Han people went out of the border to enclose land and raise sheep, while the Hu people came in to the border to plant crops and work. In this upside-down and confusing world, there is no room for reason!
Of course, high profits, especially huge profits, are always accompanied by high risks.
The Hu people on the grassland are like leeks. No matter how hard you cut them, they will always pop up from somewhere from time to time.
Moreover, the Han Dynasty's main focus now must be on suppressing internal rebellions, and it cannot devote too much energy to the outside world.
Therefore, the grasslands outside the Great Wall had to rely on themselves to protect themselves when faced with the Hu people who would appear from nowhere from time to time.
Fortunately, the Han Dynasty had a strong martial spirit, and almost every Han man who traveled outside the border carried a bow and a sword.
In addition, the Grand Marshal led a large army to clean up the grassland in advance.
Any larger tribe was either wiped out or fled.
Faced with a security team composed of various vibrant communities, the security team also has old equipment discarded by the military.
To put it bluntly, it is the Han version of the East India Company.
Those primitive small tribes that are scattered here and there and refuse to submit to the king will naturally not be able to achieve anything significant.
They can only resort to petty theft and robbery, and risk becoming a laborer.
They didn't want to, but Mobei was just too cold!
Food was also in great shortage.
The damn Han people forcibly occupied their grasslands and acted like they were the masters of the grasslands. Shouldn’t they go back to the south to farm?
Then the wealthy Han emperor said:
Wherever the sun and the moon shine, and wherever the rivers flow, all is Han territory. Haven't you heard of it?
How dare you steal my sheep!
It’s simply asking for death!
"How come that barbarian was allowed to steal it again? How can the people in the inner court handle the matter?"
The Emperor of Han was heartbroken when several of his sheep were stolen.
"It happens every year, and every family has it. It's no wonder those people are so annoying."
It was rare for the Queen to speak a word for the person in charge of the inner palace's grassland.
"This grassland is the domain of the Hu people. The imperial court cannot send a large army to garrison here. If we rely solely on the security teams, it is inevitable that there will be omissions."
When the emperor heard this, he sighed:
"There is no other way. The imperial court cannot spare too many troops unless the thieves are eliminated."
It’s not like the imperial court has no troops to deploy to the grasslands now.
But with that small number of troops deployed in the vast desert, even if they patrolled the grasslands non-stop every day, it would still take more than a month.
Therefore, they had to build docks and forts along the remains of the fortresses left over from the Western Han Dynasty, with a small dock every three miles and a large fort every ten miles.
Each pasture is basically enclosed with a fort as the center.
If you are really greedy and run too far to grab land, then you can only wish for the best.
The Dawu Fort was not built with soil or plants like the fortresses of the former Han Dynasty, but was directly built with artificial stones.
It is also built in a strange shape, with irregular edges and corners.
These semi-permanent artificial stone docks are like nails, firmly nailed into the grassland.
But this also brings a problem, which is the increase in cost and slow construction speed.
"If we gain something in the battle of Hebei, the desert from west to east will be completely cleared of the Hu people, and the border will have at least ten years of peace."
The queen's gentle voice concealed an extremely cruel and brutal expectation. She believed in her brother-in-law's methods very much:
"Your Majesty should make some preparations in advance."
If we can win the battle in Hebei, the entire north will fall into the hands of the Han Dynasty.
Beyond the Great Wall, which is further north than the north, there is a need to further strengthen control and even governance both economically and militarily, especially economically.
This requires the court to invest more resources.
At the very least, we need to increase investment in the military to deter the Hu and Yi people and further protect the interests of each family's pastures.
Otherwise, how can we push the Dahan grassland to expand northward and eastward?
However, the pastoral supervisor only had the right to collect taxes, but not the power of military command. In addition, the captains in the fort were too scattered. They could handle tribal disputes within the fort, but there was no unified command.
This was probably the initial defensive measure to prevent the tail from becoming too big to be cut off.
However, it has been nine years since Sima Feng expelled the Western Xianbei.
In other words, in one year, the policies of the Han East India Company, no, it should be called the Han North Desert Company, will reach the ten-year deadline promised by the court.
What to do next is a question that many people are concerned about.
The Queen was also concerned.
The invisible power in her hands was largely cut away by the court officials, so she had to hold on to her purse tightly to make up for the lost sense of security.
Policy changes in the pastures outside the Great Wall are related to one’s wallet, so naturally we have to pay attention to them.
For example, in the grasslands north of Liangzhou, the queen believed that the conditions for setting up government governance were ripe.
Even if we cannot set up a Zhenbei Protectorate, Hubei Protectorate, or Anbei Protectorate or something like that, setting up one or two or three military governorates will not be a problem.
Because this will better safeguard the interests of the Han people on the grassland.
Isn’t it great to be like Jiuyuan?
The Western Regions, which are so far away, have a Chief Secretary's Office. Why is it that the grasslands, which are so close, don't even have a Governor's Office?
As for whether the established Governor's Office can be stuffed with people one has in his pocket, it is not important.
There are so many vacancies in the newly established Governor's Office, so it doesn't matter whether anyone will come to seek advice.
The important thing is that even though the internal forces are about to fight to death, they can still expand their power to the desert and make the Hu Di people on the grassland lie on the ground and cry for mercy from the Han father. For the powerful Han, that is a basic operation.
Of course, the trump card in Ji Han's hand is also the reason why the emperor and empress dare to think so.
Although Han is an old state, its destiny is new.
Promote new labor tools, implement new policies, find ways to bring imperial power to the countryside, clean up land registers, check household registration, and purge aristocratic families...
Ji Han only controlled half of the country, but the population under its rule had reached more than 10 million.
It is more than three times the total of Wei and Wu.
What is this concept?
The Tang Dynasty, which was once compared with the Han Dynasty in history, destroyed the Dongjue in the third year of Zhenguan.
However, it was not until ten years later, that is, in the 13th year of Zhenguan, that the government registered a population of only over 12 million.
Later generations all said that due to the wars during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the population dropped from 60 million at its peak to 7 or 8 million, with only one in ten remaining.
This is both right and wrong.
Yes, because this is the population registered in official statistics.
The mistake was because the hidden population of the aristocratic families was not taken into account.
When the Western Jin Dynasty conquered the Wu Kingdom and unified the world, the population census showed that it had reached more than 16 million, and two years later it reached almost 20 million.
This was based on the bizarre system of Sima Jin's officials occupying land and providing financial support to people who served as tenants and benefactors.
Because these national policies are openly encouraging the aristocratic families to hide their populations.
Therefore, while Ji Han severely cracked down on aristocratic families, he also improved the level of medicine and continued to register the barbarians in Liangzhou, Bingzhou and other places in the south.
They are still not satisfied with this and are plundering laborers everywhere.
It's not uncommon to take so many years to reach a population of 10 million.
However, with a population of more than 10 million, the Han Dynasty can look down on all directions and shout: Who dares to disobey?
If you don't want to grow sugarcane, you can become a farmer.
If the Hu people don't want to shear their sheep, then they will be killed.
If the aristocratic families are unwilling to recognize the Han Dynasty's reform, then they will be punished.
If the thief is unwilling to turn his back on us and confess his crime, then we will kill him…
Just work on it!
The queen also wanted to do it.
I can't get money from the army at the front, but can't I make more money in the rear?
At the same time, this is also the reason why there is no disturbance in the palace even though the battle in Hebei is imminent.
Sima Yi could rely on Taihang Mountains to defend once, twice, three times, and four times, but if he failed just once, Hebei would be waiting to welcome the royal army.
Even if the Han Dynasty fails in this eastern expedition, the worst that can happen is that they can try again in three years. They can afford it anyway.
So the emperor could not care about the battle line in Taihang Mountain, but when he heard that a few sheep were lost in his pasture, he immediately became furious:
"What the Queen said is true. Those barbarians on the grassland still dare not submit to the king. When this war is over, they will be in trouble!"
Don’t you know who my brother-in-law is?
You are simply courting your own death!
There are barbarians who seek their own death, and there are also barbarians who keep a clear mind.
For example, Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti of the Meiluhui tribe were very clear-headed.
When the two men learned that the Han army was coming, they carefully selected brave warriors and handsome horses and led more than a hundred cavalry to greet them.
The original intention was to show the muscles of the back.
This will also let the Han people know that their own tribes are also capable of fighting.
Who would have thought that as soon as they saw the army led by General Zhendong, the muscles in their legs began to tremble involuntarily.
The sight of countless large deer carts moving safely and steadily on the snow in the wilderness was already an astonishing sight.
Not to mention that a roof can be installed on the deer cart.
It really feels like a mythical legend of sailing on land.
And the spears, swords, knives and halberds all reflected the light of the snow, and there was a kind of dazzling intimidation that made people dare not look directly at it.
Thinking about how the two of them had pieced together the hundred or so riders behind them.
And the Han people were able to march their army here.
Think about your own tribe, young and old, who are now hiding in their tents, shivering and begging the gods for their lives.
The Han people were already able to conquer the grasslands in this kind of weather.
In comparison, if the Han army really wanted to carry out a massacre, I am afraid that in such weather, most of the tribes on the grassland that have nowhere to escape will not be able to escape.
At this thought, the two brothers understood each other and knelt down on the snow at the same time, burying their heads deeply in the snow:
"The barbarian Dou Suhou (titled by Dou Hui) pays homage to the Heavenly Army Master."
His teeth were chattering, both from the cold and from fear.
The hundred or so people behind them were already petrified with fear.
As soon as he saw the leader kneeling down, he immediately followed suit and crawled on the snow.
There was no way. Although General Zhendong went out to the border this time, his core combat force was only 3,000 Tiger Cavalrymen.
But the Xianbei people, the Xiongnu people, and some other Hu people, as well as the various volunteer Hu cavalry, numbered about 20,000 to 30,000 people.
The "Hanyang 1.0" standard weapons discarded by the Han army were enough to create an advantage over the Hu people on the grassland.
There were tens of thousands of people involved and the momentum was astonishing.
"Click, click, click..."
The Western Region Pegasus walked on the snow that was over the knees, making a slightly dull sound, and stopped in front of the two people:
"No need to be polite, young clan leaders. Please stand up."
After hearing this, the two of them thanked him and stood up.
When I looked up, I couldn't help but exclaim in amazement:
"What a handsome Pegasus!"
He raised his head higher, and could not help but exclaim:
"What a handsome general!"
Although the Han general had a few slight scars on his face, this not only did not affect his handsomeness, but instead added a bit of murderous and tough aura.
He was wearing an exquisitely crafted rhinoceros leather armor with intricate patterns carved on it, which made the country bumpkins on the grassland feel ashamed of themselves.
The Han general is indeed a nobleman.
Of course, General Zhao's behavior was more noble:
"We have come here without permission and disturbed your tribe. We are really sorry. This is our first meeting. Here are three hundred kilograms of strong liquor, two hundred kilograms of brown sugar, and five hundred pieces of wool. This is a gift from my general to the two young clan leaders."
A stack of light bills hit Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti so hard that they felt dizzy.
Although it’s not a physical object but a banknote, it’s still good!
Both of them had been to Pingcheng to do business and knew that these bills could be exchanged for real things in Pingcheng.
"Of course, it is inconvenient to walk in the snow, so we cannot carry more supplies at this time. However, as long as your department can provide us with a sheltered place to camp this time, we will be rewarded more generously when the snow melts in the future."
"Of course, of course! General, please rest assured that we will do our best to make you feel at home!"
Dou Huiti paid more attention to what the Han general said, and realized that the general in front of him was not the leader of the army, so he asked carefully:
"But I don't know where the commander of the Heavenly Army is? We would like to go and pay our respects to him, so as not to be disrespectful."
"No need." General Zhao forced a smile on his face and glanced behind the two of them, "Why don't I see Lord Dou Bin from your department?"
After asking this question, the expressions of Dou Suhou and Dou Huiti suddenly changed.
In the rear team, Tuoba Shamohan also had a drastic change of expression.
Seeing his uncle bowing and scraping before the Han general like a dog begging for food, Tuoba Shamohan not only felt sick to his stomach, but also felt as if he was falling into an abyss.
The Han people are determined to destroy the Tuoba Xianbei!
So they did not completely trust themselves and made other preparations.
(End of this chapter)