Niu Xianke returned to Liangzhou in a carefree manner, and the memorial was handed in, but there was still no substantial progress in the search for iron ore.
Prompted by the prophecy of the "Holy Son", many people in Zhangye County, who had entered a state of slack farming, carried baskets on their backs to look for the so-called "heavy stones" near Longshou Mountain in Shandan County. Fang Chongyong also didn't expect that Fang Laique's card would be so easy to use and so inspiring.
To put it simply, it is much easier to use than direct orders from the government.
Ji Ge's decrees were implemented very well in the Hexi states. After Niu Xianke came to Liangzhou, he personally supervised the implementation and sent 2,000 Han people and 2,000 Sogdian Hu united troops to Ganzhou. The government office in Ganzhou only needs to be responsible for the daily expenses of uniting the training of soldiers.
To match the subsidies, the first batch of 20,000 pieces of silk has been allocated.
This autumn, the Hexi Corridor was exceptionally peaceful. The expected large-scale invasion by the Tibetans did not happen at all.
So where is the direction of the Tubo people's attack?
In fact, the conclusion is now very clear. The Tubo people are sending troops to attack Longyou, and they have no intention of entangled with the Tang army in Hexi.
After the Tubo army captured Xicang Prefecture in the plateau area, they attacked Tao Prefecture (Lintan, Gansu) with heavy troops.
Ji Ge ordered the main Lintao army of Longyou to go south for rescue, which made Longyou Jiedu Commander Du Hope almost vomit blood!
Theoretically speaking, Ji Ge's method is a good one. Each army in Longyou defends its own territory, and the Lintao Army with the largest mobile force is responsible for supporting it. But the problem is that the roads in Longyou are much more difficult to walk than the roads in Hexi. Large areas are covered with mountain roads!
The Chishui Army in Hexi could serve as the eldest brother to conquer the five states in Hexi, but the Lintao Army was unable to reinforce the armies on the Longyou border in time.
Sure enough, under the siege of the Tubo people, Lintan, the capital city of Taozhou, was captured. The Momen army retreated to the foot of Kongtong Mountain east of Taozhou and guarded the chokepoint leading to Minzhou (Minxian County, Dingxi City, Gansu Province).
Ji Ge was furious and ordered the Lintao army to speed up and go south for rescue. Du Xiang had no choice but to abandon his baggage and lead his troops southward via mountain trails in person. Countless mules and horses died of exhaustion on the mountain trails.
However, just as the Tang army gathered in Taozhou, intending to encircle the invading Tibetan army in Taozhou, the Tubo people made another false shot, looted Taozhou and divided their forces!
One part of the Tubo army retreated to the plateau and garrisoned Xicangzhou, transporting away the plundered goods; the other part took the mountain road, abandoned their armor and baggage, climbed over the snow-capped mountains, and attacked Diezhou from the north!
At the same time, Tubo sent troops from the west, passing through the Maqu area controlled by the Dangxiang people, to attract the attention of the Tang army, and then used the troops from the north to make a sneak attack.
The Tang army's defense in Diezhou was very weak. There was only one Hechuan guard serving as an early warning, with only a thousand soldiers and horses.
Under attack from both sides, the Hechuan army was dispersed, and the remaining troops retreated to Changfen County in the east in embarrassment. The Tubo army attacked Changfen again and captured Changfen County, which was empty of defenses. Then they went deep into the army alone and captured Danzhou (Zhouqu, Gansu). Their frontline was directed at Wuzhou (Wudu District, Longnan City, Gansu), the important town in Longyou!
Tubo's series of combination punches stunned the Tang border army in Longyou.
The original plan of the Tang army was to compete with Tibet for the hometown of Tuyuhun, and to compete with the Tibetans on the front line of Qinghai Lake. But what I didn't expect was that the Tubo people didn't play their cards according to Brother Ji's ideas at all. They gave up the fight with the Tang Army in the Hehuang (Xining City and surrounding areas) area where the troops were strong, and stood still on the northern front. However, they placed their breakthrough on the Longnan front line!
The field troops that could be mobilized under the command of the Longyou Jiedushi had basically been mobilized to the Hehuang line north of the Longyou Jiedushi's defense area. As a result, Longnan's troops were empty, and the Tibetan army took advantage of it. The front-line border town was lost!
Wuzhou is already the second line of Longyou Jiedushi's defense zone. If it can no longer be defended and is captured by the Tibetans, a huge defensive black hole will appear in the southwest of the Tang Dynasty.
If the Tubo people occupy Wuzhou, they can attack Hanzhong in the east and Shu in the south. If that doesn't work, they can retreat to the plateau to the west! Datang's border defense situation will enter the "short board effect" mode.
No matter how well the Hexi side is defended, the Tibetans can get what they want from Longnan and avoid using troops in areas where the Tang army has abundant troops.
When Du Xiang led the Lintao army to Diezhou "living up to expectations", the Tubo people who had looted along the way had already fled. After dividing part of the looted luggage and goods to the Dangxiang people in the Maqu area, Shi Shiran left. The territory of the party members.
That's right, the Tubo people have no intention of capturing Wuzhou this year. Their strategic goal in this battle is very clear: grab and run. Therefore, the time to send troops is earlier than in previous years.
The Dangxiang people did not want to offend anyone during the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo people, and they often turned a blind eye.
This time it was just that Du Xiang was careless and did not expect that the party members in Maqu would actually allow the Tibetan army to pass through.
For this kind of unconfirmed matter, Datang did not want to openly cause trouble for the Tang people, and was also worried that the other party would completely turn to the Tubo people in the war between Datang and the Tubo people. So I had to swallow my anger and look forward to slowly settling the score with the party members in the future.
Brother Ji, who was so disgusted by the series of battle reports that he couldn't eat, had no choice but to accept this bitter pill that was not a huge loss but extremely humiliating.
It felt like being slapped in the face by someone riding a horse. When he came back to his senses and wanted to regain his position, he found that the other person had already hid in his lair and was surrounded by his younger brothers, so it was difficult to attack him.
Brother Ji felt so aggrieved that he decided to remove Du Hope from his post after this battle.
…
"Why so small?"
Looking at the big rock in front of him, Fang Chongyong asked dissatisfiedly.
At this moment, people were crowding in front of the government office, and everyone was watching the huge stone that had taken a lot of effort to be transported into Zhangye City.
Although the shape is irregular, this stone, which is one foot long, half a foot wide and half a foot high, is indeed not too small.
It is true that Hexi has many mountains, but transporting such heavy stones to the city is indeed not an easy task.
"Return to the envoy, this stone is not small anymore."
Yan Zhuang said with an embarrassed look.
Fang Chongyong is incredibly smart most of the time, and he knows everything he does. But there are also times when the questions asked are very appropriate for his age, and there is an extreme lack of common sense.
"It's a little too small. I can only make do with it."
Fang Zhongyong sighed and suppressed the disapproval in his heart.
"Your Majesty, this stone is more than enough to serve as a Shinto monument!"
Yan Zhuang persuaded calmly.
Fang Chongyong was stunned, and then asked: "What kind of monument is it?"
"The Shinto stele refers to the stone tablet erected in front of the tomb path to record the life of the deceased. It mostly records the life of the deceased, his contributions, etc. The Shinto means the tomb path, and the stele refers to the stele erected on the tomb path.
Don't you want to erect a Shinto monument for your ancestors? "
Yan Zhuang explained speechlessly.
He heard that Fang Chongyong's father, Fang Youde, the governor of Youzhou, was born in Shazhou (Dunhuang), Hexi Province. It was not wrong to erect a Shinto monument here in Ganzhou to show his grandfather's reputation and fabricate some "great achievements".
Many people in the officialdom play this way!
"Hey, I don't want to erect a Shinto monument."
Fang Chongyong sighed. He originally wanted to be a surprise, but unexpectedly it turned into a shock. Everyone in the government office knew that he was going to build a Shinto monument for his grandfather.
"Go and ask the best stonemason in Zhangye City to trim and polish this stone, and then have people carve the commonly used medicines from "Qianjin Prescription" and "Compendium of Materia Medica" on this stone.
Well, the entries in the government's accounts must be clearly written, and no corvee payments or disturbances to the people should be made. "
Fang Chongyong said comprehensively.
Yan Zhuang hesitated for a moment, and then asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, a lot of money has been spent on the government's accounts recently. Although it is all official business, and although my subordinates also know that I want to benefit the place, what will happen next year after spending so much money?" Woolen cloth?"
He didn't ask for no reason, but Fang Chongyong had done a lot of big things recently and spent a lot of money.
One is to set aside an open space outside Zhangye City, surround it with fences, subdivide the area, and set up notice boards at the entrance.
This was the future location of the market outside Ganzhou City. The market would open on one day each in the early, middle and late days of each month.
Here, regardless of Hu Han, whether they have Ganzhou household registration or not, whether they are merchants or not, they can bring what they want to sell here to sell, and there are soldiers guarding Zhang Ye to maintain order.
Except for the sale of human beings, there are no taboos on other goods, and the government does not ask about their provenance.
Even if the stolen goods are sold, the Ganzhou government office doesn't care.
But anyone who dares to cause trouble in the market will be punished according to the crime of robbery and murder, and will be assigned as a prisoner and sent to the newly developed coal mines south of Shandan to collect coal.
The government only levied a transaction tax, one penny for every thirty pence, and one penny for less than thirty pence. After things were sold, they were not allowed to stay in the market, and merchants were not allowed to purchase in the market.
The second is to choose a special place in the city to weigh and purchase old threads, old ropes, rags, flax and other items that are not used by the residents in the city.
Then build a special papermaking workshop by the weak water, use these old things to make paper needed for office work, and sell it at a low price in the city to subsidize the office expenses of the government.
The last one is this stone tablet.
Fang Chongyong wanted to engrave the symptoms and prescriptions of common diseases on stone tablets so that ordinary people could see them.
In the Tang Dynasty, Shangzhou, which had a population of more than 100,000 households, could only have a maximum of 20 medical officers in the state capital. This was still a theoretical configuration.
In a lower state with a population of tens of thousands, the state capital can only have twelve medical officers at most. For example, in Ganzhou, there are less than twelve people, and the actual operation level of many "medical officers" is not even as good as Anaye.
When it comes to medical treatment in the Tang Dynasty, there is a common saying among the people that "no doctor is Chinese medicine." That is, if you don't see a doctor when you are sick, it is equivalent to hiring an average medical officer to see a doctor.
Carving prescriptions on stone tablets is equivalent to allowing people to take medicine themselves if they have symptoms. It may seem like an inconspicuous little thing, but the impact it can sometimes have cannot be underestimated.
Each of these items requires the government to pay for it, and Fang Chongyong is not stingy. With a wave of his hand, what needs to be done must be done.
In addition, he also wrote off all the arrears of office expenses over the years, and also handed over all the money owed to local merchants and people in large quantities of write-off notes.
If you have money, you don’t have to waste it after it expires. Brother Ji gave 200,000 pieces of silk to the Ganzhou Prefecture. Fang Chongyong was not polite at all. The money should be spent. Use this to fill the hole and get rid of the Ganzhou Prefecture. Those bullshit things were all solved in one go.
"I can't tell you too much about this. Anyway, I know it well. Do you understand?"
Fang Chongyong said quietly to Yan Zhuang.
Seeing the other party's thoughtful look, Fang Chongyong emphasized: "If I leave Hexi, I will definitely find a way to mobilize you to go with me, so you don't need to think too much, just do your job well."
Upon hearing this, Yan Zhuang nodded understandingly.
Speaking of which, if he still doesn’t understand, then he is a stupid donkey!
Why is Fang Chongyong frantically seeking political achievements and filling the holes in the past in Ganzhou now?
Because there is wine today and you will be drunk today, and you will be worried tomorrow.
The current situation in Ganzhou is that coal has been found, iron ore is being vigorously searched for, and iron smelting workshops have to be built.
Therefore, Fang Chongyong, the "bicycle governor", will not last long. He will most likely be transferred next year. The only thing he doesn't know is where he will be transferred and for what reason.
Or it is possible to return to Chang'an.
Since he can no longer keep his greatest "political achievements", it is unexpected and reasonable to work hard to gain reputation.
I believe this is what some people acquiesce to.
What Fang Chongyong is doing now is to sell the local forces in Ganzhou. Just settling the debts from previous years is not something that ordinary governors can do.
"My subordinate understands and will make arrangements now."
Yan Zhuang crossed his hands and saluted, then left quietly.
After he left, Anaye came over, grabbed Fang Chongyong's sleeves and asked in a low voice:
"Mr. Lang, you misappropriated government funds to buy me a set of medical books that are only available in the state government. Will something happen?"
Hearing this, Fang Chongyong laughed loudly and said: "You are also studying medicine. Taking that set of books can be regarded as benefiting the people. How can you use public funds for private use?"
I don’t even complain when my political achievements are robbed, but those people have nothing to complain about! What's wrong with using public funds to buy a set of textbooks for personal nannies?
Fang Chongyong cursed in his heart.
He had already learned from Niu Xianke that Li Linfu planned to send someone to take over Ganzhou's affairs, and asked him to be mentally prepared and not to think too much.
To be strong without desire is to be strong. Fang Chongyong knew that his behavior might arouse the fear of many people.
It's better to be more relaxed like ordinary teenagers, take advantage of opportunities, and plucking hair is the norm in officialdom.
Don’t ask for anything, and others will worry about your retaliation later!
"But, you also bought me a lot of brocade robes that only adults can wear..."
Anaye looked confused and didn't know what to say. She understood what Fang Chongyong meant, but they were all too young now, so even if they wanted to do something romantic, they couldn't do it.
She could hold this dress with trepidation.
"Yeah, so what? Whose business is it getting in the way if I buy a few sets of clothes for my woman?"
Fang Chongyong asked angrily.
If you don't taint yourself, how can you give Li Linfu an excuse and allow him to justifiably demote you?
God knows what bad ideas this guy will come up with!
Fang Zhongyong became angry when he thought about this.
At this moment, Yan Zhuang, who had just left in a hurry, came back again, sweating profusely!
"What are you so worried about?"
Fang Chongyong scolded with an unhappy expression.
"Your Majesty, something bad has happened. Xihang Temple is under siege. Many believers want to see the Holy Son and have already clashed with Abbot Facheng's people."
Um?
Hearing this, Fang Chongyong looked confused.
Isn't Fang Laique's play over? What's going on now?
"Take me to have a look!"
Ignoring Yan Zhuang's obstruction, Fang Chongyong headed directly towards Xihang Temple, which was not far from the government office.
(End of chapter)
