Of course, beings like the high priest would not interfere with government affairs under normal circumstances. They formed their own system among the barbarians.
The most powerful one is the high priest, and his subordinates are the priests distributed in various tribes.
These priests are responsible for the annual heaven-sacrifice ceremonies of various barbarian tribes, and usually take on the responsibility of treating diseases of the tribesmen.
Of course, if there is a war between tribes, these priests will also use some magical means to predict the outcome of the war and provide advice to the tribal leaders.
In fact, this time Jinlu Khan's army invaded, he brought a high priest with him.
If this were not the case, Jinlu Khan might have been assassinated by Taoist officials stationed in Luyuan Province.
After all, when facing foreign enemies, the Supervisory Department, which usually does not interfere in local affairs, will take action.
After the battlefield was cleaned and Fang Xiaoyue led everyone back to the city, he counted the gains from this battle.
Among them, as many as 3,600 barbarian cavalry were killed or seriously injured.
This is not surprising, not to mention tens of thousands of cavalry, even tens of thousands of pigs, those county soldiers will kill them with ease.
In fact, most casualties of the barbarian cavalry occurred while fleeing.
Even those elite cavalry with one person and two horses, when escaping for their lives, can only disengage one horse and escape.
And the distance that a war horse can run violently is only fifty or sixty miles.
Under such circumstances, the county soldiers chased wildly on horseback. Even if the horses ran away and fell to death, the Sky-shattering Sword Technique they practiced could allow them to catch up faster with the barbarian cavalry whose horses also fell to death.
As for the prisoners, there were thousands of them.
The harvest in this battle was extremely rich.
More than 5,000 war horses alone were seized, and the horses that were burned to death were not included in the calculation.
In addition, there are a large number of cattle and sheep, food and grass, weapons, leather armor, tents and other luggage, which are countless.
This is not surprising. The barbarian armies always carried cattle and sheep with them as their staple food. As for the grain and grass, some were mixed with meat and some were for war horses.
After all, war horses can't just eat grass.
Even though the barbarian war horses have good endurance and rough diet, if they are not fed high-protein foods such as black beans and wheat during long-distance marches, the war horses will easily lose weight.
After losing weight, the horse's running speed will be very poor.
I have to say, winning is very satisfying.
But all the troubles caused after the victory gave Fang Xiaoyue a huge headache.
The first is the issue of the detention of thousands of prisoners.
There were more than 300 prisoners before, so it was more troublesome to guard them.
Previously, all the county soldiers were dispatched for a sneak attack, and all the guards outside the prisoner camp were replaced by the old, weak, sick and disabled.
If those prisoners hadn't been repaired and kept honest before, Qiongshui County would have changed hands if there was some prisoner sex or something.
After all, the guards were all old, weak, sick and disabled. Even if they were armed with weapons, it would be difficult to defeat more than 300 strong men with bare hands.
To be honest, this prisoner is still a minor nuisance.
As long as there is no further fighting, more than 400 county soldiers will be more than enough to guard them.
The real trouble is the captured war horses, cattle and sheep. ….
The county seat of Qiongshui County is already very small, and it would be very difficult to separate a separate area to hold more than 1,300 prisoners.
Now there are more than 5,000 war horses, more than 1,000 cattle, and more than 8,000 sheep. The entire county has been vacated, and there is no room for them.
Not to mention that if these cattle, sheep and horses were placed in the county town, the feces and stench produced every day would be enough to make people collapse.
For this reason, Fang Xiaoyue had to have these cattle, horses and sheep sent to a valley far away from the county seat.
The terrain of this valley is not high. The highest point is only about ten meters. Inside is a gourd-shaped indented valley. The ground is covered with large and small gravels. It covers an area of more than 800 acres and the width of the valley mouth is only 30 meters. Domi.
Just build a wooden fence at the mouth of the valley or
By stacking stones, the cattle, sheep and horses can be tightly locked inside.
Of course, even so, the cattle, sheep and horses in the valley are still overcrowded.
Over time, various plagues will inevitably break out among these cattle, sheep, and horses.
Under such circumstances, Fang Xiaoyue had to ask the chief bookkeeper Qian Yushui to come forward and ask Zhang Yuanming to escort him to Dahe Province to find buyers who could purchase cattle, sheep and horses in large quantities.
As for letting the imperial court acquire it, Fang Xiaoyue didn't consider it at all.
Not to mention how slow the imperial court's return on purchases was, and how much food and drink they had to pay. Maybe some officials got greedy and used the excuse of requisitioning military supplies to directly confiscate it. It's just that the imperial court's attention is probably focused on the Siwan barbarian invasion. , even if Fang Xiaoyue was given a memorial, the court might not know when it would send someone down.
Instead of having so much trouble, it would be better to find some private merchants to buy it.
At least in the eyes of those businessmen, a bookkeeper still has some credibility.
As for Qiong Shui County holding a grand flowing water banquet again, it has nothing to do with Qian Yushui.
As usual, in the open space in front of the county government office, large pots were placed, boiling water was boiling, the pots were filled with pieces of meat, and various spices were poured in.
This time it was different from before. The big pot was full of meat, not even any potatoes or vegetables.
The people of the county, county soldiers, etc. were surrounding, waiting.
Fang Xiaoyue didn't want everyone to eat so extravagantly.
The main reason is that after cleaning the battlefield, too many war horse carcasses, cattle and sheep carcasses were recovered.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter. At noon, people will sweat slightly when walking outside.
In such weather, the carcasses of those cattle, sheep and horses couldn't be left alone for more than a few days.
Even if Fang Xiaoyue thought of a way and sent someone to a salt lake to dig some rock salt back to marinate the meat.
However, there are always too many impurities in rock salt, and eating too much of its pickled meat is not good for your health.
Therefore, the most you can do is marinate a thin layer on the surface, and then store the meat in a cool cellar.
In this way, everyone can only eat as much of the remaining meat as possible.
In the following time, Qiongshui County will be overflowing with the mouth-watering smell of meat every day.
Fortunately, after this great victory, there was no movement from the Xiwan barbarians.
The people of Qiongshui County ate for five consecutive days before ending this amazing meat feast.
No way, except for the meat that was pickled and put in the cellar, the rest of the meat was spoiled. Fang Xiaoyue had people mix it with wheat straw and pour it into the earthworm pond to raise earthworms and maggots. ….
In this way, the chickens in Qiongshui County can lay more eggs.
At least eggs are much easier to preserve than meat.
The chief bookkeeper, Qian Yushui, returned to Qingshui County with three caravans only half a month later.
It can be said that Qian Yushui's trip to Dahe Province was difficult.
Not to mention the fact that Feng Dian slept in the open on the way, just after arriving at the provincial capital of Dahe Province, looking for the caravan received a lot of looks.
This is not surprising, Qian Yushui is an official who came from the imperial examination, and is inherently lower than the Jinshi officials.
In this provincial capital, he was unfamiliar with the place. If he wanted to make those businessmen trust him, he would naturally have to ask someone from the government to come forward.
In the provincial capital, even anyone under the Chief Envoy's position and experience were all from the same background as a Jinshi.
When Qian Yushui is in front of others, he is not only a low-ranking official, but also of low origin. Even if he is given free money, others will not give him much good looks.
Fortunately, although I received a lot of looks and spent a lot of money, the matter was finally done.
The three caravans he brought back were subordinate to the three largest trading houses in Dahe Province.
In the past, these three trading houses went to Jie Market to buy cattle, sheep and horses.
But with the invasion of Siwan, this line was broken.
After receiving the news, and with the chief envoy and the chief minister as their guarantee, these three trading houses were naturally overjoyed and immediately dispatched a caravan.
Of course, they don't know how many livestock there are in Qinshui County.
, at most it would be a wasted trip.
Anyway, the caravan under his command is now in vain.
But when they arrived in Qiongshui County and took a look at the valley, the leaders of the three caravans were shocked.
What's going on in Qianshui County?
Did he go to the grassland and rob the barbarian tribe or what?
How is it possible to have so many livestock?
What surprised them most was that when they checked the condition of the livestock, they found that the horses were of high quality, higher than the war horses in Daze Kingdom.
If it weren't for the fact that these horses didn't have the stamp of Daze *** Horse on their butts, they would have suspected that the Qiongshui County magistrate had colluded with the Northwest Army and sold the horses.
Of course, they also knew that it would not be easy for even the entire Northwest Army to produce so many good war horses.
Then there is only one truth to the matter. Just as the Qiongshui County Chief Secretary boasted, they defeated the barbarian cavalry and captured them.
Of course, businessmen are greedy for money and pursue profits.
Regardless of whether the Qiongshui County had stolen or sold military horses or seized the proceeds, the caravan leader would not pay any attention to it.
At this time, they surrounded Qian Yushui with great enthusiasm, scrambling to report the amount they had purchased.
No way, the price set by Fang Xiaoyue is too tempting.
A good war horse only costs 10 taels of silver.
You must know that even in the border market, a bad horse costs eight taels of silver, and the few war horses stolen and sold by barbarian herdsmen cost at least fifteen taels each, and the quantity is limited, so you can buy it or not.
Due to the impact of the invasion of Xiwan barbarians, the price of war horses purchased by the Dahe Province government has risen to thirty taels per horse.
Well, actually the acquisition price is very low.
Among the people, the price of a war horse is at least forty taels. ….
After all, the role of a good horse is not just for fighting.
Whether plowing fields or pulling carts, horses are faster than oxen.
Especially the bosses of carriage and horse shops prefer to use war horses instead of rogue horses.
Because war horses are not easily frightened, are fast, powerful, and look majestic and beautiful, they are more popular among scholars and young men, and their rental prices are also higher.
As for the wealthy businessmen among the people, there is no need to mention the need for war horses in their homes without several carriages.
In short, stimulated by the low prices, the war horses in Qiongshui County were snatched up by the leaders of the three caravans.
As for cattle and sheep, they are secondary.
Of course, Qiongshui County couldn't raise that many cattle and sheep, so naturally they were all sold at a low price.
Seeing the herdsmen brought by the caravan driving the horses, cattle, and sheep out of the valley, Master Qian Yushui's heart was bleeding.
If it were in peacetime, if I sold slowly, I would receive at least twice as much money as I do now.
However, Qiongshui County did not have the manpower to manage so many cattle, sheep and horses, and the Xiwan barbarians might come again at any time.
Naturally, the sooner you sell, the better.
In the end, Fang Xiaoyue even packaged and sold more than 1,300 prisoners of war to three caravans.
These trading houses also had a need for prisoners of war.
Not to mention anything else, just by transporting these prisoners of war to mines in various places, they can be sold at a good price.
Not to mention reselling to some customers with special needs.
For example, a certain battalion of the Northwest Army suffered a defeat, and another example is some county soldiers being mobilized in Dahe Province.
After all, no matter how slow the court reacts, it is time to react after so long.
In order to resist the invasion of the Xiwan barbarians and deter the possible invasion of the Northern Barbarians, the imperial court issued several imperial edicts in succession, ordering Dahe Province, Baishan Province and other provinces bordering Luyuan Province to mobilize troops and quickly Support the Northwest Army.
Let’s not talk about whether these mobilized county soldiers are powerful. The war may be won or lost.
Of course, if we win, we won't say much. If we lose the battle, these prisoners of war will be of great use.
At least it can be said that he fought against a powerful enemy and captured many prisoners.
In this way, instead of being punished for losing a battle, you will be rewarded.
In this wave of transactions, Qiongshui County received a total of 70,000 taels of silver notes.
The three caravans not only purchased cattle, horses, sheep, and prisoners of war, but also took away leather armor, scimitars, etc. that could not be used in Qiongshui County.
After all, there is still a market for these military supplies.
In order to ensure that there would be no problems with the three caravans, Fang Xiaoyue specially sent two hundred county soldiers to escort them along the way until they entered Dahe Province.
Of course, Fang Xiaoyue did not sell out everything.
Eight hundred war horses and some cattle and sheep were left behind, and then the county magistrate ordered the people of Qiongshui County to move collectively to the valley.
The reason is simple. The Xiwan barbarians will come to kill them again at any time.
And if the Xiwan barbarians come to kill this time, their troops may not be short, not to mention that the Xiwan barbarians are likely to send the high priest.
No matter how powerful Fang Xiaoyue was, there was no guarantee that she could defend the county town under the fierce attack of the barbarian army.
Considering this, it is the best way to let the people in the county evacuate in advance.
That valley is far away from the county seat. It is extremely remote and well hidden. There are caves of various sizes in the valley to provide shelter from wind and rain. It is really the best refuge.
In just two days, thousands of people and a large amount of food and grass were transported to the valley, dragged by horse-drawn oxen.
Of course, the main reason why the migration was so smooth was that the people in Qiongshui County were too poor and had nothing to bring with them.
If it were Kuanglu County, even the poorest people would still have some pots and jars in their homes, so the relocation speed would be incomparable.
After the collective relocation of the people, there were only about two hundred county soldiers left in Qiongshui County.
The yamen servants were sent to the valley by Fang Xiaoyue to maintain order, even the chief bookkeeper Qian Yushui.
After all, there are thousands of people there, and when there are more people, it is easy to cause chaos. If there is no official in charge, Fang Xiaoyue is really worried about big problems.
This time, Qiongshui County can be considered clean. .
Tiger Taoist Priest
