The number of soldiers and horses under Yang Peng's command, from Tianjing New City, Ryukyu to Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, has already exceeded hundreds of thousands. But so far, the only people who are willing to fight and die for him without any regrets are the die-hard members of the Jinyi Guards. As for the other soldiers and horses, they more or less followed him with a certain purpose.
Yang Peng can understand this. This is human nature and no one can change it. Not everyone who follows you is willing to be a dead soldier in your hands. But this highlights how precious people like Lao He are. Lao He watched Yang Peng go, secretly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, and returned to the village. He once again became the mountain king who roared and laughed.
The man in the mask never left from the beginning to the end. He just didn't want to meet Yang Peng. Lao He fought with the brothers in the village all the way and entered a hidden room in the village. "He left?" The masked man turned his back to him. Lao He nodded. "Take your people and follow me..."...
Line, line, line, line. From heavy snow all over the sky, to grass growing and orioles flying. Three months passed in a blink of an eye. Under the irrigation of heavy snow, the spring grass grows exceptionally lush and full of vitality. The further south you go, the less common it is to see cattle and sheep behind the grass.
Dadingfu should be the most thoroughly Sinicized city in the Liao Kingdom. Although it experienced Zhou Dayong's looting, with the help of Ryukyu merchants and Song Dynasty merchants, Dading became a prosperous city again. Outside Dading City, you can see ferocious overseers waving whips everywhere, beating slaves in the fields while they work non-stop.
It can be seen that the nobles of the Liao Kingdom also began to pay attention to the development of the farming culture of the Liao Kingdom. What pleased Yang Peng was that although there were many slaves working under supervision in the fields, there were very few Han people from Liao.
Basically, they are all men with slightly dark skin. Occasionally, you can see a few Han people from the Liao area, either waving whips and supervising work, or dressed like landlords and wealthy people, sitting in the fields and cursing people.
This shows that Wang Mingcheng indeed contributed a lot. He must have rescued many Han people in Liao, otherwise this scene would not have happened in Liao. As for the Han people from Liao who were supervising work in the fields, Yang Peng didn't care. Yang Peng believes that with the status of these people, there will be more opportunities to go to Ryukyu. And the fact that they did not choose to go to Ryukyu shows that they are reluctant to live their current life.
A group of Liao Han people who have climbed from the bottom to the middle level do not need Yang Peng's sympathy and mercy. Because they can get up from the bottom, it means that they are living well and do not need help at all. Perhaps, they don't care about Yang Qi's help either.
In three months, Yang Peng transformed himself into a Liao man. His hair was a mess, and lice were crawling all over his body. The clothes on his body were already pitch black and glowed with a dark oily sheen. The fishy smell of Yang Peng could be smelled from a distance.
The half-year-old boy named Gou Sheng who followed Yang Peng actually lived a better life than Yang Peng. Although his situation was similar to that of Yang Peng, he did not dislike himself. Instead, he liked his sloppy appearance. When the two people walked on horseback to the fields, Yang Peng could always feel the eyes of the Liao Han people in the fields who had been promoted to slave owners staring at them all the time.
It seemed that they were just waiting for Yang Peng or Gou Sheng to look like a runaway slave, and then they swarmed up, grabbed Yang Peng and Gou Sheng, and went to Dading City to exchange for some wine money.
Yang Peng was very familiar with the eyes of these people, because he had the same eyes when he saw the first batch of Liao Han people arriving in Ryukyu.
"Let's go~" Yang Peng had to urge Gou Sheng to hurry up. He didn't want to create complications when he was approaching Dading City. At the gate of Dading City, after paying three coppers to enter the city, Yang Peng and Gou Sheng finally entered Dading City.
The city of Dading appears to be very prosperous. As one of the five capitals of the Liao Kingdom, it is also a major trading city with wine shops, brothels, gambling houses, cloth shops, foot shops, etc. The most prosperous ones should be the fur traders and slave traders. The fur goods merchant was wielding two whips that symbolized his identity as a Liao native, speaking fluent Chinese, and was bargaining with people there.
Carloads of leather goods were bundled and pulled out of Dading City. Basically half of the merchants on the street are engaged in the fur business. The population business is also booming. On the streets of Dading City, slave transactions can be seen almost everywhere. A cunning slave trader snatched a simple man's daughter from his hands, then threw him a few cents of silver, cursing and feeling that he had lost money. There is a half-grown child with a grass sign on his head, selling his own.
On the whole street, there are mostly women sellers and old, weak, women and children, and strong men are rare. Gou Sheng looked at the children selling themselves with straw signs on their heads. He seemed to be thinking of some unbearable past events and was in a very low mood.
"Pa~" Yang Peng patted Gou Sheng's head and grinned: "One day, I will lead the soldiers and horses to attack, and then it will be up to you to rescue them personally." Gou Sheng nodded heavily, "Yeah ! Master, you must let me be the vanguard when the time comes." Riding his horse a few steps forward, Gou Sheng tilted his head and asked, "Master, when is the day?"
Yang Peng smiled brightly. "Soon..." The two people walked around the city for half a circle, and finally stopped in front of a huge trading house. The entire business covers a large area, covering hundreds of acres. From the outside, it looks like a huge building complex. The four-story building is quite conspicuous in Dading City. The "Yi" character hanging on the roof, which symbolizes Ryukyu, is fluttering in the wind.
Even the guy standing at the door looked more arrogant than the guys in other shops. Gou Sheng looked a little embarrassed when he saw Yang Peng stopped at the door of this grand trading house. He was really afraid that some evil servants would rush out and drive them away. When he saw Yang Peng throw down the horse's reins and step into the trading house, his heart almost jumped out of his throat.
"Stop!" As expected, when Yang Peng reached the door, he was stopped by someone. Gou Sheng immediately jumped off the horse, grabbed Yang Peng and prepared to run. Yang Peng said calmly: "Ask your manager to come out and see me. Tell him that 'Yi and Yang are originally a family'."
The guys at the door frowned, but still followed Yang Peng's instructions. After a while, a young steward appeared at the door. When he saw Yang Peng, he was obviously in a daze. When Yang Peng pushed his messy hair away, he was shocked.
"Please come in." The young steward invited Yang Peng into the business house in front of everyone's astonished eyes. Gou Sheng suddenly felt infinite admiration for this young master who had been hanging out with him for more than three months. After Yang Peng entered the trading house, he simply washed up. After washing up, the young steward had already prepared a table of food and wine for Yang Peng.
Yang Peng and Gou Sheng lay on the table and started chewing. While eating, Yang Peng asked the young steward, "Are you from the Wang family?" The young steward said respectfully, "I am from the Wang family."
"Who is in charge of the business now?" "My uncle Wang Mingcheng." Yang Peng was a little surprised and said, "He is in Dading City?" The young steward nodded and said, "In recent times, the Han people in Liao were replaced from Liao. It’s getting harder and harder. Even if you buy it with money, you can’t buy it. So my uncle wanted to use his connections to see if he could find a way to buy Han people from Liao."
Yang Peng nodded and said, "When your uncle comes back, let him come to see me." In the evening, Wang Mingcheng returned to the trading house dejectedly. After hearing that Yang Peng had arrived, he hurried over to see him. In the room prepared for Yang Peng, there were only two people, Wang Mingcheng and Yang Peng. Yang Peng had already changed into clean clothes. After washing and shaving off his beard, Yang Peng looked like a good young man again.
"Your Majesty, Wang Mingcheng, meets the City Lord." Wang Mingcheng saluted excitedly after seeing Yang Peng. Yang Peng waved his hand and asked Wang Mingcheng to sit down. "Has the problem of population replacement reached a bottleneck?" Wang Mingcheng nodded and said: "Yes, many Liao nobles hold a large number of Liao Han people in their hands, but they are unwilling to exchange them for us. They have already spoken out, unless We pay a lot of money, otherwise they won’t let go.”
"Then let's stop."
"Ah?" Wang Mingcheng didn't believe his ears. Yang Peng said: "I have read the report that Zhang Xiang gave me before. It has been replaced. The population in Ryukyu has reached a saturation level. It will take some time for us to digest the replaced population.
Moreover, more and more people are coming down the mountain, and the land is no longer enough. Even the terraces suggestion I gave earlier cannot satisfy the continuous influx of large numbers of people. "
Wang Mingcheng trembled and said: "What should we do? There are still so many Han people in Liaoning who are suffering..." Yang Peng said with emotion: "We can't become a fat man in one bite. We have to eat one bite at a time, and the road is step by step. Let's go. We cannot tear apart Ryukyu, which was built with great difficulty, just to save people.
If Ryukyu is over, our hard work will be in vain. I know you feel sorry for the people here, but replacement alone cannot save the people here. We can only save them by force. "
"I understand." Wang Mingcheng said bitterly. Yang Peng added: "Regarding Ryukyu's various commercial affairs in the Liao Kingdom, we must also turn them into secrets. From now on, Ryukyu's commercial affairs with the Liao Kingdom will be temporarily located in Tianjing New City. In the northwest, I will also The commercial affairs of the Liao Kingdom were introduced to Fengcheng."
"Why do you do this?" "This time I traveled to the Liao Kingdom and paid close attention to the business situation of the Liao Kingdom. The business of the Liao Kingdom is still very primitive. This is a favorable situation for us. The Liao Kingdom is now undergoing With the implementation of Sinicization, the demand for business will increase infinitely. The dependence on business will also increase. We must attract the Liao people and take the initiative into our own hands.
Once the Liao people go abroad to do business, their costs will increase. And the initiative is in our hands, we can price the products according to our ideas. By that time, we will be able to easily control prices in Liao. As long as the prices of goods in Liao are controlled, Liao's money will flow to us infinitely. And we will become stronger day by day, and the Liao people will become weaker day by day. "
Wang Mingcheng was dumbfounded after hearing what Yang Peng said. Wang Mingcheng did not expect that business could achieve this level. "But if we do this, won't the Liao people try their best to exploit the Han people in Liao..." Yang Peng nodded and said, "Yes, but the Liao people won't just exploit the Han people in Liao... They will eventually It is possible to go south and attack the Song Dynasty... because they feel that the Song Dynasty is rich and the Song Dynasty can grab everything they want..."
"This..." Yang Peng said with a smile: "Of course, they can also start business with the Song Dynasty, but a war is unavoidable." Wang Mingcheng lost his voice and said: "What on earth are you going to do?" Yang Peng said decisively : "Control the war and force the two big countries to go to war. We can take this opportunity to draw chestnuts from the fire. We can solve the Liao Kingdom at once,"
"It's too risky..." "If they don't start a war, we won't have any chance. Because to any of them, we are grasshoppers." Wang Mingcheng never thought that Yang Peng could actually lay such a big one bureau. A bureau that includes both countries. Wang Mingcheng tried his best to calm down and whispered: "How long will this process take? How can we attract people from Liao to do business?"
"The whole process... takes three to five years, no more than five years. As for how to attract Liao people? We don't need to attract Liao people at all, we only need to attract those businessmen. A large number of businessmen have been attracted to us, The merchants who go to the Liao Kingdom only have three or two kittens, which cannot satisfy the Liao Kingdom's appetite. When the time comes, you don't need to go to the Liao people, the Liao people will come to you.
As for the way to attract businessmen, it lies in taxation. With appropriate taxation and the operation of Ryukyu Money Bank, I believe many businessmen are willing to cooperate with us. As for those who are uncooperative...let them disappear..."
The next day. Yang Peng left Dading City with Gou Sheng early in the morning. Yang Peng didn't linger too much in Dading City because he didn't think it was necessary. No matter how he wanted to cherish this city, he had to give it the surname Yang. After Yang Peng left, Wang Mingcheng followed Yang Peng's instructions and began to arrange the evacuation of Dading and even the entire Liao Kingdom's business.
He only understood a little bit of the great truths Yang Peng told him last night. But this does not prevent him from carrying out the tasks assigned to him by Yangpeng. Because the task Yang Peng gave him was related to the entire Liao Kingdom and the real life and death of the Han people in Liao.
In the face of big right and wrong, Wang Mingcheng is by no means the kind of person who is greedy for small gains and forgets the great righteousness. The business of Tianjing New City is very big in Liao Kingdom and involves many industries. Some business groups from other countries even followed the Ryukyu merchant ships and arrived in the Liao Kingdom. The entire Ryukyu business has formed a huge business group under the influence of Ryukyu Money Bank.
People in the Liao Kingdom don't know what impact a large business group will have on the Liao Kingdom if it withdraws. Wang Mingcheng, who is carrying out this task, doesn't know either. Only Yang Peng, the instigator, is the one who knows the most. Yang Peng didn't care how this 'fire' would burn the Liao Kingdom.
After Yang Peng left Dading City, he ran all the way to the border of Song and Liao. The border between Song and Liao was very long, so it was impossible to deploy a defense line along the entire border.
There were not many troops deployed in the Liao Kingdom, and there was no need for them to guard the border with a large number of troops. After all, the two brothers Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi personally issued orders not to provoke border wars at will. This was an invisible protective umbrella for the Liao Kingdom. Moreover, the Liao Kingdom mainly relied on cavalry, so there was no need to station them in one place.
The Liao army could patrol the entire border in a nomadic manner. The Song Dynasty mainly used infantry, and the Liao people often went south to clear grass valleys, so they were very careful in border defense. There is one sentry for one mile, one post for five miles, and one fort for ten miles. The entire border defense line was under strict defense by the Song Dynasty infantry. Unfortunately, these soldiers were not the most elite imperial guards of the Song Dynasty, but Xiang troops, Tibetan soldiers, and more of the rural soldiers of the Song Dynasty.
Those villages and towns that have lived on the border between Song and Liao for generations have rural soldiers. The rural soldiers with weak combat effectiveness could not play any big role except to warn the Liao people when they went south. This is also the reason why the Liao people can easily go south many times.
The small Liao army almost regarded the border as a playground. As long as there are no large passes or places to station troops, they can easily travel between the two countries and come and go as they please.
This also brought extremely convenient conditions for Yang Peng to cross the border between Song and Liao. Yangpeng lingered on the border line for a long time, picked a relatively safe mountain road, and walked through it quickly. The reason why we chose the mountain road was just in case.
Once the Liao people discovered them, they could easily get rid of the Liao people. Yang Peng took Gou Sheng into the mountain. We were groping forward in the mountains. The mountains were deep and the forests were dense, and wild animals appeared from time to time. Yang Peng was clearing the way with a machete in his hand. He originally thought that Gou Sheng would be scared, but who knew that Gou Sheng actually acted very happy, as if the jungle was his home.
Gou Sheng didn't have much fear of wild beasts in the mountains and forests, which was a good thing for Yang Qi. At least he didn't have to carry a tow bottle around in the woods. The hillside was very steep, so it was very difficult for two people to climb. After crossing two mountain cols, they climbed to a looming mountain road they had seen in the distance.
Yang Peng looked at the mountain road. This mountain road should have been left by smuggling merchants in the past. Ever since merchants from the Southern Kingdom invaded the Liao Kingdom, many smuggling merchants were squeezed to death. The mountain path is also somewhat deserted, and weeds have sprouted green leaves all over the mountain path.
"Ouch~" Gou Sheng, who was running wildly on the mountain road, suddenly screamed strangely. Yang Peng held the machete and ran towards the place where the screams of the Gou Sheng monster came from. Yang Peng had just run a few steps when a large net for catching animals fell from the sky. Just when Yang Peng was about to resist, he saw a strong man walking out of the grass holding the dog in his arms.
A sharply polished knife was placed on Gou Sheng's neck. Yang Peng gave up resistance in an instant. The big net covered Yang Qi tightly, and then he saw many people emerging from the jungle. These people didn't look acquainted with the bandits because they were all wearing uniform leather armor.
The style of the leather armor is the same. Most people wear cyan leather armor, and a small number of people wear red leather armor. Yang Peng took a closer look and saw that the person wearing red leather armor was actually a woman. Yang Peng searched hard in his mind for information about the army of female soldiers in the Song Dynasty, but could not find any useful information. So it means that this group of people is not within the establishment of the Song Dynasty.
"May I ask which strongman robbed me?" "Who are you?" The strong man holding Gou Sheng put down Gou Sheng and handed it over to two men to capture him. He walked to Yang Peng and asked. Yang Peng said: "We brothers are just ordinary passers-by. Please do this for your convenience and let us pass."
"An ordinary passerby?" The strong man sneered.
"Bah~" he spat and said contemptuously: "Ordinary passers-by? No ordinary people can pass this road. You kid is not honest at all. If you don't tell the truth, a certain family will kill you. , throw it into the mountains to feed the wolves." Yang Peng squinted and said, "There's no need to be so cruel, right?"
"Huh?!" The muscular man stared with displeasure on his face. Yang Peng said helplessly: "Okay! Let me tell the truth. Our brothers are Han people from Liao who escaped from Liao." The strong man glared and asked fiercely: "Then why didn't you tell the truth just now?" The man didn't wait for Yang Peng to answer, and then asked Gou Sheng, "Is what he said a lie? Tell the truth, or someone will kill you and feed you to the wolves."
Although Gou Sheng was scared, he had seen the world with Lao He. He nodded crazily. "Since you are Han people who escaped from Liao, a certain family will not make things difficult for you. There are so many Han people in Liao, but you dared to escape and succeeded. This shows that you have the skills.
What a certain family admires the most is a man with talent. You go to the village with a certain family, and a certain family invites you to drink. Yang Peng smiled and said, "You don't need to drink, right?" ""Um? ! "Seeing the strong man's eyes widening again, Yang Peng had no choice but to agree.
The strong man had people untie the big net tied to Yang Peng, and also confiscated Yang Peng's weapons. And he seemed to be on guard against Yang Peng. Although he untied Yang Peng, he left Gou Sheng with him. Between the two people, there were several soldiers wearing leather armor.
Yang Peng was not given the slightest chance to turn defeat into victory. Yang Peng followed this special group of bandits to their village. On the way, Yang Peng asked: "Brother, you don't look like bandits. Are you the Xiang army in a certain fortress?"
The strong man glared and said: "Don't compare a certain family with those Xiang soldiers who are just waiting to die. Besides, have you ever seen a female soldier in that Xiang army camp?" The strong man seemed to have explosives in his throat. He spoke in a babbling manner and was not polite at all.
Yang Peng was not angry and continued to ask: "Then you are bandits?" "What? Look down on us?" "Don't you dare..." "By the way, brother, where is this place?" A strong man Suddenly he realized that Yang Peng talked a lot, and he wanted to punch Yang Peng, but in the end he thought about it and held it back, and just said something in a low voice.
"Two Wolf Mountains!" "Two Lang Mountains..."
Yang Peng muttered, his eyes suddenly widened, and he lost his voice: "Liang Lang Mountain?" The strong man glanced at Yang Peng and said angrily: "What? Have you heard of Liang Lang Mountain in Liaodi? "Yang Peng smiled bitterly and said: "I've only heard of it, it's like thunder..." The strong man squinted and said: "If you know the reputation of Lianglang Mountain, then give some peace to a certain family."
Yang Peng lowered his head, the corners of his mouth twitching. Yang Peng had indeed heard of Lianglang Mountain, but it was different from what the strong man thought. The strong man waved his hands and said: "You don't need to be so polite when talking to a certain family. A certain family is called Du Qing. All the friends in the world give face to them." Call me Brother Qing."
Yang Peng's mouth twitched again. He very much hoped that the name of the mountain would be repeated so that he could avoid his fate.
Du Qing! This familiar name also matched. "Have you seen that mountain peak?" It seemed that he was getting closer to the village, so Du Qing's steps were particularly light and he said a few more words. Yang Peng looked at the mountain peak from a distance and saw a naturally formed stone chicken standing on the most conspicuous position of the mountain peak, so he closed his eyes in pain.
Jinji Ridge! "Jinjiling! Our village is right there." Yang Peng didn't say anything, so he happily told the answer in Yang Peng's heart.
Two Wolf Mountains. Jinji Ridge. Dujiazhai. Du Qing.
Du Qing was too lazy to talk to Yang Peng anymore. The group of people walked around and arrived at Jinjiling. The mountain road covering Jinji Ridge went up all the way and passed six hidden sentries for inspection. Most of the sentries lurking in the dark are women. They are well trained and have very keen eyesight. Seeing Yang Peng staring thoughtfully at the women, Du Qing explained to Yang Peng angrily.
"These are the rules set by the family. Don't think of us as grass bandits, but our ancestors were generals. Therefore, everything in this village is basically in accordance with the rules in the military camp. Even if we go up and down the mountain , also have to go through strict interrogation." Du Qing not only did not find it cumbersome, but he was proud of it. You can tell by his proud tone.
Yang Peng nodded but said nothing. Follow Du Qing all the way to Jinji Ridge. It's time for the last interrogation. Suddenly a woman came over and pointed at Yang Peng coldly, "Brother Qing, let him go down the mountain. Let him never climb mountains again." Yang Peng seemed to have thought of something, and slightly raised his hand, "Then Yang I’ll take my leave now.”
"Gou Sheng, let's go." "No!" Du Qing frowned and said, "They were invited by a certain family to have a drink in the village. They can't leave." As soon as Yang Peng took a step to leave, he was stopped by someone. . The woman said helplessly: "Brother Qing, this is my sister's order..." Du Qing frowned and said, "Why doesn't my little sister let someone invited by a certain family go up the mountain?"
The woman looked at Yang Peng and whispered: "I'm afraid the young village master hasn't asked about this person's origin and name, right?" Du Qing was stunned, then turned to ask Yang Peng, "Did you deceive a certain family? Are you actually from Liao?"
"Hey~" Yang Peng sighed helplessly and said, "I'm Yang Peng." Du Qing's eyes suddenly widened and he growled: "Are you Yang Peng? That Yang Peng?" Yang Peng said: "The former Tian The lord of Jingxin City, the current King of Yan, Yang Peng." "You are actually Yang Peng." Du Qing gasped, staring at Yang Peng, wishing he could eat Yang Peng in one bite.
"Stop!" A clear shout came from the mountain road. Then I saw a woman, tall and slender, with a willow-slender waist, black hair that looked like it was dyed with ink, tied with a bow, wearing a goose-yellow soft satin, a black gold silk embroidered belt around her waist, and red cowhide boots. Wearing a garnet red cloak.
She is as white as a pear blossom, with eyebrows like a crescent moon, an oval face, a hooked nose, and a small rosy mouth that makes people want to kiss her. But at this moment, she had evil eyes, and it seemed that no one could get close to her. The woman moved her lotus steps slightly and walked down the mountain road.
After all, what happened next will be explained later.
