In the custody room of Baiting Fort, Xin Yunjing and several other senior generals from the Baiting Army gathered around Fang Chongyong for a meeting.
The core issue everyone discussed was just two words: making money!
"The income of the Baiting Army is to collect some horses and sheep from the herdsmen as taxes in the autumn when the cattle and horses are fattened?"
After listening to Xin Yunjing's report, Fang Chongyong asked in disbelief.
For an army, this amount of money is nothing more than throwing it into the water and hearing the sound. This is even more true if we look at it from the perspective of “tax in kind”.
"Who says it's not the case? With this little money, I often can't collect it. I just give my sons an extra meal as a token of appreciation."
Xin Yunjing sighed. Bai Ting's army was really miserable. There were only animal husbandry and fishing industries worth mentioning in the surrounding areas. He collected some grazing money from the herdsmen and compensated them with livestock.
However, in Hexi, cattle, sheep and horses could not be sold at a good price, and these livestock could not be driven thousands of miles to Chang'an for sale, so this became a vicious cycle.
The more they wanted to make money, the more they couldn't get it through formal channels, so they had no choice but to rob merchants on the Silk Road.
The Baiting Army's station is still some distance away from the Silk Road's post roads, so the merchants have no direct interest entanglements for them.
On the contrary, the Chishui Army, which relied on Liangzhou city tax and merchant taxes, was disgusted with the destruction of trade routes.
After listening to the accounts of Xin Yunjing and others, Fang Chongyong also had a deeper understanding of the situation in Hexi. After all, it was still a matter of lack of money!
Hexi originally did not have so many garrison troops. It gradually increased its troops with the expansion of the Tang Empire.
The increase in soldiers will lead to a series of logistical pressures. These problems cannot be solved just by relying on local farming in Hexi.
Are the Qiu Ba of Bai Ting Army bad people?
To a certain extent, they are bandits wearing Tang army uniforms. This time the Tianzhu monk cassock incident has completely come to light. It is an "extremely rare" situation.
However, even so, except for the leader who was dealt with, the others were just mobilized into the Great Dou Army to serve as front-line "death squads". This was the rule of the Datang River West Frontier Army.
The main reason why the leader was dealt with was that he lost the fish charm, which made his superiors and Jiedushi think that he was "not doing his job well" instead of leading troops to rob and kill.
Fang Chongyong believes that there are also many ruthless characters in Baiting's army who kill people and swindle goods, but they have not been discovered.
However, on the other hand, the problem of the Baiting Army was also a common problem for the border troops in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty. It was due to various reasons (including transportation difficulties) that the imperial court provided insufficient support to the local border troops.
In particular, there is insufficient hard demand, so these armies can only be left to "find their own solutions."
The most prominent issue is horses, including their acquisition and maintenance.
In the Hexi Corridor, except for local defense, which has relatively little demand for horses, other combat tasks are impossible without horses!
As for the Ministry of War's account books, the number of horses required by each army in Hexi is customized.
For example, the Chishui Army, which has the highest proportion of war horses, has 13,000 horses, which is listed in the Ministry of War's account books. The court must provide the rations needed for these war horses.
So how to deal with the horses that are not in the Ministry of War's account books and are particularly needed by the border town?
The Chishui Army has 33,000 soldiers. Is it possible that only these 33,000 cavalry are dispatched for every strategic maneuver? Sometimes a long-distance raid requires one person and two horses, so how do you get these horses?
The senior men at the center of the imperial court did not want to consider these specific issues and threw them all to the local military envoys. Jiedushi himself could not change horses, so he could only let each army find its own way. Therefore, from the Anxi Protectorate to the Hexi Corridor, the western frontier troops of the Tang Dynasty used their own clever methods to raise "private horses" to cope with the treacherous war situation on the border.
From this perspective, Fang Chongyong felt that the person who was wrong was not Bai Tingjun, at least not entirely.
The culprit is actually the Ministry of War, the court, and Li Longji.
But there is no way to explain this truth.
"You can also make some money by fishing, but it's just a drop in the bucket. Most of the catch is consumed by Baiting's army as daily rations."
One of the ten generals said very distressedly.
"well!"
Everyone sighed together.
"Envoy Fang Jun, is there any way we can make money?"
Xin Yunjing asked in a deep voice.
Fang Chongyong, the "mascot", cannot be offended anyway, so just keep him in Baitingbao. But this person actually said that he could help Bai Tingjun make money, so he couldn't be treated as an ordinary mascot.
"Take me to see it, it's around here."
Fang Chongyong said nonchalantly. He's not sure yet, he has to investigate the area before talking.
"Okay, send a few capable soldiers to accompany Fang Jun envoy around. No matter what Fang Jun envoy wants to do, we will satisfy him. Even if it means robbing homes and robbing civilian women, we must make Fang Jun envoy satisfied and return."
Xin Yunjing whispered to one of the ten generals beside him, but Fang Chongyong heard all these words.
It's just robbing families and homes, but what the hell is robbing civilian girls? Even if he wants to steal a woman, he can't do anything if he takes her back!
Fang Chongyong sighed helplessly and said to Xin Yunjing: "We are all our own people, I will not trick you. This is really for doing something, and we don't want those weird people to follow us. You just choose a few soldiers who are familiar with the local people to follow me." "
Xin Yunjing and others looked at each other, thinking that Fang Chongyong wanted to be "fashionable" in Hexi.
"Go and make arrangements. We must have soldiers who are familiar with the local people's conditions and take good care of the envoy Fang Jun."
Xin Yunjing ordered his subordinates. He was also curious about what tricks this "Fang Yanei" could play.
…
The coast of Bai Dinh Sea is full of lush pastures. Before setting off, Xin Yunjing specially took Fang Chongyong to the racecourse to pick a horse that he could ride.
When the group arrived at the racecourse, they saw a row of simple houses, only fenced on three sides, with many small "compartments" separated by wooden fences. In each room there are several horses resting, sitting or lying down.
On the open grassland in the distance, there are many horses grazing and playing, a leisurely scene.
The people who manage the racecourse are not the Baiting Army. They are just the "security guards" of the Baitinghai Racecourse. In the Tang Dynasty, the people who managed horse farms were livestock supervisors. Horse farms across the country were also divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. The first-class ones can raise more than 5,000 horses at the same time, the medium ones can raise more than 3,000 horses, and the ones with less than 3,000 horses are all low-class ones.
Baitinghai Ranch is obviously a high-quality horse farm.
As soon as the pastor saw Xin Yunjing coming, he immediately asked with a smile on his face: "Although it is the closest place, Ambassador Xin rarely comes to my place. Do you want to pick a mount for yourself?"
The Baiting Army often plundered trade routes and sold stolen goods to Turkic merchants, so they were still very rich. They bought a lot of horses at Baitinghai Ranch and maintained a cavalry team of two to three hundred people. The two sides were also old acquaintances.
"Li Mujian, I am not here to choose a horse, but to choose a pony suitable for riding for this deputy military envoy."
Xin Yunjing pointed at Fang Chongyong and said.
Child? Deputy military envoy? This is such a big joke!
The shepherd supervisor was stunned. He had never seen such a powerful deputy military envoy in his entire life!
Li Mujian kept his words in his heart, and then took Fang Chongyong and the others to the stables and asked them to choose horses.
"Just this one."
Fang Chongyong pointed to a maroon pony that was a little shorter than him.
"A very docile horse."
Xin Yunjing said to himself thoughtfully.
If you choose a war horse, you definitely can't be so casual. As a war horse, you cannot be too docile, otherwise this kind of horse will become timid at critical moments!
But it seems that Fang Chongyong will not be able to go to the battlefield for many years to come! The service life of a horse is also very limited. Even when the horse dies of old age, Fang Chongyong is unlikely to go to the battlefield. In this case, why bother?
In this case, it would be more suitable for the horse's personality to choose a gentler one.
"Ten strings."
Xin Yunjing offered a fixed price.
Unexpectedly, when Li Mu heard this, he burst into laughter and said, "What are you talking about, Commander Xin? It's just a little pony, just treat it as a meeting gift from me, hahahahahaha!"
When a half-year-old child becomes a military envoy, he either has unparalleled abilities or an unparalleled background. He must have one or even both. Why not give a pony as a favor when it might be useful in the future?
"Then thank you, Superintendent Li, for your kindness."
Xin Yunjing just said casually, how could he really give money.
Li Mujian personally took action and gave the horse a "horse mark", shoed the horse, and fitted the colt with a small saddle, allowing Fang Chongyong to try riding the colt.
As expected, the horse was very docile. Fang Chongyong sat on it and Xin Yunjing held the horse. After walking around the pasture, Fang Chongyong was able to ride a horse independently, but he had not yet mastered the trick of running.
After being helped off the horse by Xin Yunjing, Fang Chongyong said with some excitement: "It seems that riding a horse is not too difficult."
"That's natural, but if you run long distances, you will still be very tired."
Xin Yunjing said while holding back his laughter.
When this "Ya Nei" gets used to riding horses to travel between cities in Hexi, he will definitely know the disadvantages of riding horses.
It's just that the excitement hasn't passed yet, so I can't notice it. Why bother to let this Yameni down by talking too much?
The horse selection at the ranch was just a small episode. After leaving the ranch, Fang Chongyong went to patrol the grassland along the Baiting Sea, while Xin Yunjing returned to Baiting Fort. He wanted to lead people to patrol the Turkic territory on the north coast of Baiting Sea. This was a daily routine. One of the military affairs.
Xin Yunjing didn't have time to wander around with Fang Yanei all day long.
After walking around Baiting Beach, Fang Chongyong suddenly pointed at a plant in a bush and said, "What is this?"
"have no idea."
"I do not know."
The two Baiting sergeants following him shook their heads and did not recognize him at all.
"I know this thing is called wolfberry!"
Fang Chongyong said angrily.
There are wild wolfberries growing here in Baitinghai, which is a discovery, but...it's not of much use.
Because in Ganzhou next door to Liangzhou, wolfberry cultivation has reached a large scale, and medicine shops supplying it to Chang'an have been opened. Even if we open up medicinal fields here in Baitinghai and grow wolfberry to sell for money, the price won't be much, at least several orders of magnitude less than what Fang Chongyong imagined!
But this also proves one thing from the side: Baitinghai is not the only pasture that can be fed to horses!
Wild wolfberry is just a small discovery!
"What kind of grass is this?"
Fang Chongyong asked, pointing to something that looked unusual and looked like a bamboo shoot. This thing is far away from the water source and grows in the sand. It doesn't look like it is from the same world as the pasture next to it.
"I don't know him."
"I didn't pay attention before."
The two fools once again gave an answer that did not surprise Fang Chongyong.
Fang Chongyong sighed. He discovered that the "customs and customs" in his mind were probably completely different from the "customs and customs" in Xin Yunjing's eyes.
"Well, if you go out to fight and one of your brothers is injured, where will you find a medical officer? Where will you find herbs?"
Fang Chongyong asked in confusion. He realized that maybe the way he used people was not quite right, so he wanted to try another method.
"Oh, Commander Fang told me earlier. We have no way to deal with these, but as long as we go to Liangzhou City, there are many ways. The Hu merchants in the Western Regions have medicines from the Western Regions, and I, the Middle Kingdom of the Tang Dynasty, also have medicines from the Middle Kingdom. There is no shortage of medicine here in Hexi, nor is there a shortage of people who know how to use medicine.
Even our Baiting Army has specialized drug stores and medical officers to deal with difficult and complicated diseases in the army. "
It turns out that the local "customs and customs" refer specifically to business relationships.
Fang Chongyong suddenly realized it and shouted to the two people around him: "Then let's go to Liangzhou City to do something!"
…
"I have a little pony that I never ride. Now I ride it to the fair on a whim..."
One day later, outside Liangzhou City, Fang Chongyong was lying on a flatbed truck wailing, his forehead hot and feverish. He had no idea that riding a long distance for the first time would drive him to pieces!
A soldier was handing over the horses to Hu Shang at the gate of Liangzhou City, and another Baiting soldier was using a rented ox cart, dragging the horses that had become red, swollen and ulcerated on the insides of his legs due to the long riding distance. Fang Chongyong.
Anyway, I had to go to the hospital, and now it was considered a "worthwhile trip", just in time to get the injury treated. Fang Chongyong took a broad view, but complained that he was careless and didn't dodge. He thought that riding a horse for hundreds of miles was a heroic and heroic thing!
Alas, after this wave of injuries heals, and you slowly start riding a horse, your body will gradually get used to the bumps and friction.
Fang Chongyong had a difficult thought in his mind, and then fell into a coma. He was suffering from a high fever due to wound infection and was unconscious. He soon felt himself being helped to a side room and lying on a soft bed.
Then his blood-stained pants were taken off, and a pair of slender and slightly rough hands stroked the wound on his inner thigh. An indescribable coolness and comfort suddenly filled the injured skin.
Fang Zhongyong tried his best to open his eyes, and happened to look into a pair of beautiful exotic eyes. The latter smiled sweetly, as if the spring breeze was blowing on his face. The girl suddenly made a silent gesture. Exhausted, Fang Chongyong lay back down again and gradually fell into sleep.
"Anaye, are you ready? Come over here and load the medicine!"
An old voice came from outside the wing.
"Okay father, I'll come right away."
The Hu girl from the Western Region named Anaye glanced thoughtfully at Fang Chongyong who was lying on the bed, smiled, and then opened the door and walked out. Her body has not grown at all, and the slender waist and plump hips that Hu Ji should have are not visible at all.
It's just that kind of temperament, like a hibiscus flower that has just emerged from the water, with a dryness and purity that cannot be blasphemed.
Anaye left the wing, and the light in the room also left.
(End of chapter)
