Chapter 664: A New Road Opened on the Grassland
The Jiangyou government office carved Li Bai's beautiful poems on the city walls and plaques. The poetic and picturesque atmosphere spread throughout the corridors and blank gables. As the city environment became beautiful and clean, the quality of Jiangyou people improved a lot. They consciously abide by social morality, are reasonable in everything, and convince others with reason. There are very few fights in the streets, and the government office's constables have an easier time.
Zhao Yulin heard this and thought that the land and water nurture the people. He encouraged the prefect and helped Chen Chen get on the boat and returned to Chengdu by water.
The young girl leaned on his chest and said, "It's spring, the flowers are blooming, and the surroundings are lush and green. It's so beautiful. I want to see more."
Zhao Yulin's duty was to guard Chengdu and supervise the country, but he couldn't be careless. He nodded to the guard captain Jing Gang, and the young man immediately went down to supervise the sailing.
Hulan has arrived at Datong Prefecture, Shanxi Road.
When coach Hao Xiaoming saw Hu Lan, he said: Madam is finally here, he also has to set off back to Chengdu, the Ministry of War has ordered him to go back and report on his work.
Hu Lan said with a smile that the Central Council was going to award General Hao the rank of marshal, and she congratulated Marshal Hao in advance.
Hao Xiaoming smiled naively and said that he had never thought about it. Whether they were marshals or not, they were all working for the court. Thank you, madam, for the favor.
Hu Lan told him that what the Third Young Master said was called the regularization of the army. The Shenwei Army must improve its military rank system step by step. General Baiyue has already trained a new army in Yunnan Road. In the future, the Shenwei Army will cancel the column and corps numbers and become more adaptable to war. Go back and take a good look.
Hao Xiaoming nodded repeatedly and informed her: The 100,000-strong army led by Wu Jie has been on the march for ten days and is expected to arrive in Mobei soon. All that remains is to urge the logistics to keep up.
Hu Lan nodded.
Hao Xiaoming asked him not to worry. When the team set out, he would specifically instruct the generals above the battalion level on military discipline and would never allow the indiscriminate killing of innocent people.
The situation of the front-line reconnaissance was consistent with the judgment of the Third Young Master. Hubili did not lie. There were not many troops left in the east of the Prairie Royal Court.
Not only that, many tribes were migrating westward. The Central Court gave our Datong Prefecture the task of building bridges and roads and setting up post stations, which were to extend along the roads all the way to Kharkov.
This task seems simple, but it is actually extremely difficult.
The first thing is to open up the road. We need to build roads through mountains and bridges over rivers to ensure that carriages can pass easily. The second thing is to build a stockade to defend the city.
The grassland is in chaos right now, with some defeated soldiers robbing tribes, and some tribes fighting each other to redistribute grasslands. If we want to defend the post station, we must resist the harassment of these small groups of bandits.
Hu Lan picked up the brush and took notes carefully, while nodding in response as he thought.
Suddenly, she dropped her brush, covered her mouth as if vomiting, and ran away.
Hao Xiaoming was shocked when he saw this and asked anxiously: What's wrong with you, Madam?
Later, Hu Lan came out with a smile on her face, and said happily that she was fine, and that she must have eaten something wrong. It was okay, and they continued...
At this time, the Shenwei Army of the New Song Dynasty raised an army of 200,000 from Jinzhou, Yunzhou and Jiuyuan to attack Mobei, and also recruited 200,000 civilians to follow up.
There is no doubt that the New Song Dynasty will take over Mobei. The important issue is how to gain a foothold after regaining it.
Therefore, there is the huge project that Hao Xiaoming just mentioned, which is to extend the post station to Mobei.
The post station is a city, a checkpoint, the lifeline of the Shenwei Army's advance into Mobei, and the bond that promotes close connection between Mobei and the inland areas.
Zhao Yulin wanted to use the post station to ensure the supply of the army.
The post stations should be used to bring together the people of the grassland and the people of the Central Plains.
The next day, Hu Lan sent Hao Xiaoming away. The maid immediately said nervously that it was terrifying. The lady vomited twice in front of Commander Hao. Fortunately, he was a man. If it was a female general, she would definitely know that the lady was pregnant.
Hu Lan immediately looked around and shouted, "Keep your voice down and stop talking. A new road is being built on the prairie. Let's go back to our work."
Captain Bart of the guard said happily: We are back to the grassland, it would be great if we could go to the royal court.
Hu Lan rolled her eyes at him and said what good could that be, but everyone else glared at her and scolded her: You are an ungrateful person.
Back at the government office, the deputy envoys and stewards reported that the military supplies were being transported as planned, but the number of people coming to settle was uncertain, so their food and drink needed to be arranged. Although the court had transferred money, we had no shortage of expenses, but we had to plan the food supplies properly.
Hulan nodded and said: "This is the key point we need to focus on. First, we must check and register these people in detail to prevent criminals from taking advantage of the situation. Second, we must make proper arrangements to ensure that we have all the craftsmen we need at our post station."
I have gone through various trainings before, so I am already familiar with these things. I can do them easily and arrange them quickly.
She asked Bart to select ten scribes who could write fluent Mongolian, and she went into the study to write her No. 1 prefectural decree herself.
Later, Hulan gave the written notice to the scribes to copy, and then checked it himself to make sure that the scribes would not make any mistakes. Because there was no standardized writing system on the grassland, the current system was still using the notation symbols that were pieced together by various tribes.
Hulan announced in Chinese and Mongolian to the grasslands that they had all returned to the new Song Dynasty, and demanded that they lay down their weapons and give up resistance, saying that the grassland people and the Han people were all one family.
When the ink dried, the messenger carefully put the letter into a mailbox and rode on horseback to deliver it to various places. She wanted to let everyone on the grassland know that Hulan, Tulei's daughter, had returned to manage the grassland.
Bater was shouting with joy, busying himself with arrangements. He refused to stop and rest when Hulan asked him to. He pointed at every tree and blade of grass in the yard and said, "We are back. This place was where Prince Hu lived before, and that place was where Prince Tachaer lived before. Now they all belong to our Princess Hulan, hahaha."
Hu Lan laughed and told them not to talk nonsense: Han people and grassland people are all one family, and they are all part of the New Song Dynasty court.
In the north, the Shenwei Army was advancing rapidly towards the grassland royal court as if it was in an empty land, and the army was about to encircle Harhelin.
Hulan's mother, Suluhenidi, was not in a hurry at all. The ministers and generals around her were all panicked, and they urged the queen mother to leave quickly, maybe she could escape and reunite with Hubili Khan. The queen mother said calmly that those who wanted to leave should leave quickly, and she would not leave anyway. She wanted to stay in the royal court and watch the Shenwei Army of the New Song Kingdom enter the city and see how they burned, killed and looted.
A darughachi who ran back from the east said with a wry smile: The Queen Mother is worrying too much. The Shenwei Army fought desperately on the battlefield, but they did not harm the civilians, did not kill, and did not rob the people's things, and did not burn, kill, or loot.
Sulu Henidi said coldly: That's right, I am unarmed, what can they do to me? I am not afraid.
Haha, this old woman is playing tricks . She thinks that as long as she doesn’t take up swords and guns and occupies the royal court, the Divine Mighty Army can’t do anything to her. Is that possible?
Three days later, Zhang Zhi, Wu Jie and Baturu went hunting on the Harhelin grassland.
Zhang Zhi said to Wu Jie with a laugh: The Third Young Master has issued a military order, and we all have to obey the dispatch of General Wu. I have strictly restrained my subordinates from killing innocent people.
Baturu also laughed and said that it was a very pleasant ride along the way and he had not encountered any decent resistance. His cavalry obeyed the orders of General Wu.
Wu Jie respectfully begged the two elder brothers to let him go, saying that he was forcing them to do something, so the brothers should discuss it and do it. The three men then burst into hearty laughter.
Zhang Zhi, who had always hated the Mongolian army and wanted to chop them down, said: Why don't we surround them on three sides and leave one behind, then fire three rounds of propaganda artillery and then attack.
The fact that General Zhang could say such gentle words shows how much he values Zhao Yulin's military orders. An order has been issued in the central military tent: The third young master says that no innocent people should be killed when entering the grassland.
Just this one sentence saved countless lives. After the group of tigers and wolves entered the grassland, they saw mostly the elderly, the weak, women, and children, and gradually they began to feel compassion.
During the march, there were incidents of soldiers being attacked at the garrison. Zhang Zhi would always ask for a thorough investigation and only execute the main culprit.
The Shenwei Army quickly surrounded the city.
Sulu Henidi received the report that the city was under siege, but there was no enemy soldier outside the west gate. She became curious. Did Zhao Yulin's soldiers also learn the traditional fighting style of the grassland people? Were they surrounded on three sides and missing one?
Haha, the siege method of "surrounding three sides and leaving one side empty" has existed for a long time. At least in the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang used it frequently. It is not the patent of the grassland people.
In Chengdu, Zhao Yulin was drinking tea with Cao Youwen, the new head of Taijian Hall.
Lao Cao was concerned about the war in the northwest and the expedition of the South China Sea Navy, so he specially invited him to have tea and chat.
He said that there is hope in the south of the South China Sea, it all depends on how the navy performs. It will not be a problem to recapture the remnants of the Song Dynasty troops stationed on Song Island and defeat any coalition forces formed by small countries in the South China Sea. The key is to find several excellent ports for our navy to garrison and provide shelter for ships.
Lao Cao said that he is becoming more and more confident, so he is not afraid of failure?
He asked what was there to be afraid of?
Our warships are truly the largest in the world, and we have catapults and mortars, but we are still no match for the navy of a small country. We can only go home and hug our children.
Lao Cao laughed out loud when he heard this and he liked the way he spoke.
Lao Cao told him that after the officials of the Central Court returned to the capital, he would send the elders and investigators of the Taijian Hall out in groups to conduct detailed investigations, find problems for the court, and make some practical suggestions. He felt that when Ding Gong was in charge of the Taijian Hall, the elders of the Taijian Hall went out of the capital less often for inspections, and they did not really play a role.
Zhao Yulin gave him a thumbs up and said: When the old man was alive, he couldn't make too many suggestions, for fear that the old man would think that he was criticizing the officials for not being serious. He believed that the officials were the same as the officials in office, and they should really work hard and make more suggestions to the court.
He suggested to Lao Cao that he go to Pujiang County. He heard that Gao Jia pushed for the establishment of a village council after returning to his hometown, and the rural areas of Pujiang had changed a lot. Gao Gong was very concerned about farming, and took out his savings to transform the fields, build tea gardens, and plant grapes. The county magistrate of Pujiang praised Gao Gong as soon as he arrived in Chengdu.
This is the model and example of our Elder Tai Jian.
Lao Cao nodded and said that he understood, so we should go if we said so, let’s go now.
