Early the next morning, a burly figure hurriedly came to the city gate. The soldiers guarding the city saluted him one after another. The person who came was none other than Qin Fang. Since King Yan promised to send him horses yesterday, he was so happy that he stayed awake for half the night. sleep.
At dawn the next day, he hurried to the city gate and waited. For this veteran who had fought on the battlefield, he knew the importance of cavalry.
If it were not for the numerical advantage and the intrusion of the Xiongnu tribe to the west of the Jie tribe when they regained Hebei Road, it would have been impossible to recover Hebei Road with infantry.
Even so, the lives of 200,000 soldiers will remain on the land beneath their feet forever. After looking at the city gate for a while, Qin Fang climbed onto the city wall again and stared at the north of the city from a distance.
In the Xianbei tribe's tent, Su Hetu and several Xianbei tribesmen were sitting together, eating the first breakfast in the morning, steaming goat milk and mutton sprinkled with fine salt. This was the first breakfast they had ever eaten. The most flavorful lamb.
After eating a piece of mutton, a sturdy man wiped the grease on his hands behind his back and said, "Chief, do we really want to exchange so many livestock for salt? If we exchange all the livestock for salt, Wang Zhang Isn’t it difficult to do business there?”
Su He suddenly looked at the strong man in front of him, and then said softly
"Suhe Rio, I'm afraid you don't know that, let alone the first time you have eaten such good salt, even Tuoba Hong Khan of the royal tent may not have eaten it before. As long as we pay tribute to the salt, I believe The Great Khan will definitely reward our Suhe tribe greatly."
Another old man in his fifties with a gray beard said: "But can King Yan really produce so much fine salt?
You must know that in the past, it was very difficult for us to replace a little coarse salt from the Han people. Such fine fine salt may not be available in the entire Daxia Kingdom. "
Hearing this, Su and Tu also fell into confusion, but King Yan said that they could get the salt first and then hand over the livestock. If they couldn't get the salt, there was no need to hand over the livestock.
After thinking for a while, Su Hetu said: "The deal I made with King Yan is to pay them salt first and then the livestock. If we can't get the salt, then we don't have to give them the livestock."
After saying that, Suhe suddenly turned to look at the strong man just now and continued: "Suhe Rio, you and the people will set off immediately and send the prepared livestock to Yancheng."
"It's the clan leader. I'll go right away." After saying this, Su He and Rio Tuo stood up and left the camp. Not long after, a dozen Xianbei tribesmen carrying swords on their waists and long whips got on their horses, driving their cattle, sheep, and horses. Slowly move towards Yancheng.
At Chenzheng time, that is, around eight o'clock in the morning, Wei Xiang led twenty government servants and pushed a cart of tools slowly towards the north gate.
Qin Fang, who was on the city wall, saw that the person coming was Wei Xiang. He stood at the top of the city and asked loudly: "Where are you going, the capital of Wei?"
Wei Xiang chuckled and cupped his hands and said, "I've met Captain Qin."
"Is Wei Dutou going to leave the city?" Qin Fang continued to ask.
"Return to the capital, and follow the prince's order to repair the sheepfold under the city wall?"
When Qin Fang heard about the construction of the sheep pen, he immediately slapped his forehead and remembered that Zhao Bin had said yesterday that he should choose a place to build a horse farm.
It is impossible to put all the livestock in the city, especially the horses. These free-range horses are wild. If they enter the city, if they get angry, they can easily hurt the people.
But looking at Wei Xiang at the bottom of the city, Qin Fang joked as he walked towards the city: "What, you yamen servants can still repair sheep pens?"
"Hey, there's nothing I can't fix in the sheepfold. Isn't it just driving wooden stakes? Besides, didn't this have a blueprint given by the prince?" As he spoke, Wei Xiang took out a blueprint from his arms and shook it towards Qin Fang.
Qin Fang saw the drawing in Wei Xiang's hand, walked a few steps closer and asked, "Did the prince give you the drawing of the racecourse?"
"The prince said that the horses are given to you, and it is your business to manage them. The prince also said that you are an experienced killer on the battlefield. You have never eaten pork before and you must have seen pigs running. You can repair the racecourse yourself, and there is no need for him to paint it. Drawings." Wei Xiang said proudly.
Qin Fang blushed for a while after hearing this.
"Okay Captain Qin, I won't chat with you anymore. I have to rush to repair the sheepfold. The prince said that after repairing the sheepfold, I will cook meat for my brothers in the evening. Let's go."
After saying that, Wei Xiang led the people and walked towards the outside of the North Gate.
"Come here!" Qin Fang shouted to the soldiers guarding the city.
A soldier hurried over and said, "Captain?"
"Go to the barracks, call a thousand people, bring axes and tools, and go outside the city to build a horse farm for me." Qin Fang roared.
The soldier ran toward the barracks with a confused look on his face. He didn't know why the captain was so crazy, where he got the horse, or where the horse was repaired.
Half an hour later, a group of thousands of soldiers carried hoes, axes and chisels and ran towards the outside of the city. People who did not know why had to give way. Many people thought that there was an invasion from the Jie tribe and hid in their homes.
Under the north city wall, the government officials were digging trenches. Wei Xiang, who heard the commotion, turned around and looked back. He saw a crowd of people rushing out from the city gate. He couldn't help but cursed: "Damn, you are so sick!" So many people come.”
On the other side of the city gate, Qin Fang ordered some soldiers to cut down wood and some to dig trenches.
When Wei Xiang saw soldiers walking towards some trees on his side, he cursed again angrily.
"Damn it, stop digging. Third child, go back and call for help. You guys go cut down the wood first. Don't be afraid that the gang of grandsons will finish it all in a while. You'll have to go to a distant place to get it. Go quickly, go quickly."
It didn't take long for the trees outside the city to be placed one by one, and the branches of different thicknesses were removed and then carried to the bottom of the city.
At midnight in the afternoon (around two o'clock in the afternoon), a soldier on the city wall shouted: "Captain, here we come."
Qin Fang heard the shout, dropped the hammer in his hand, and ran towards the city wall.
Standing on the city wall, I saw about ten people driving a group of livestock slowly towards Yancheng in the distance. The reason why we arrived at this hour was mainly because the cattle and sheep were traveling too slowly.
Under the city wall, four royal guards were sitting around a cart, chatting. The cart was loaded with five hundred kilograms of fine salt.
After mastering the method of purifying fine salt, Tian Qi and Wang Dayong, the two team captains responsible for making salt, led their brothers to work overtime to purify 500 kilograms of fine salt in order to exchange for more livestock.
Now, in the other courtyard next to the palace, that is, the salt house, there are several more large pots for boiling salt.
Su and Rio looked at the fine salt on the cart and were a little surprised. It seemed that King Yan really had a lot of fine salt.
With surprise and amazement, Suhe Rio left Yancheng with 500 kilograms of fine salt. He had no intention of entering Yancheng again. He just wanted to transport the fine salt back to their Suhe Ministry.
At night, tents and bonfires were set up in the open space outside the city, and soldiers were stationed around the sheep pens and horse farms outside the city to protect the newly acquired livestock. Zhao Bin also fulfilled his promise and slaughtered several sheep to feed the soldiers.
Three days later, He Miao came to Prince Yan's Mansion with the re-verified land acres and household registration and population account books.
Zhao Bin just took a rough look and asked He Miao to distribute the cattle and sheep to the people closest to Yancheng one after another according to the previously determined distribution method.
The villages and towns near Yancheng have the lowest probability of being invaded by the Jie tribe's rangers. However, since the autumn harvest began, there has not been a single battle report of the Jie tribe's rangers attacking the village, which surprised Zhao Bin.
Later I learned that there was a conflict between the Xiongnu tribe in the west and the Jie tribe on the border. The leader of the Jie tribe gathered an army to go west to resist the Huns' invasion.
A few days later, Xu Ling sent people to bring back eight carts of coarse salt from the sea, and also took away 200 laborers from Yancheng.
Half a month later, the last batch of cattle and sheep from the Suhe Department was also delivered to Yancheng. Suhetu ordered people to transport part of the fine salt back to the Xianbei king's tent and contribute it to the Xianbei Han Tuoba Hong.
On the one hand, he obtained Tuoba Hong's consent and agreed to allow other tribes to exchange livestock for fine salt in the name of allowing all Xianbei people to eat fine salt.
The exchange price is slightly changed. This was Zhao Bin's idea for him, and the leader of the Suhe Department was happy with it.
