Gao Pragmatic didn't quite remember how many men and horses I had gathered after the Hannaji incident in history, he only remembered that I didn't make a big move after a little test at a few key passes, and it was completely thunder and rain.

But now I answer whether I will choose like this, Gao Pragmatic was said by Gao Mo, and he was really a little uncertain.

The reason for the inaccuracy of eating is actually nothing else, but what Gao is pragmatic and what he does.

Historically, in the past few years, because of the continuous disasters in the core area of the rule, its strength is actually a bit of a strong outside and a middle cadre - the combat effectiveness is still there, but the economic situation of ordinary herdsmen is very miserable.

How miserable is it? After Wang Chonggu became the governor of Xuanda, Ma Fang, out of consideration for recruiting Mongolian knights to strengthen the army, proposed to Wang Chonggu to accept Mongolian vagrants under his rule. As a result, in less than a year, two or three thousand herdsmen who could not survive in Mongolia came to vote, and Ma Fang selected more than 200 strong men with superb riding skills to join the army. In addition, more than 1,000 Hermes-Epitek who had fled north had also returned.

You must know that in the past few years, it has been the Han people who fled north to Mongolia, and the Mongols did not flee south much unless they lost the tribal civil war and were homeless. This year, the situation has turned around, which shows how serious the disaster situation in Mongolia has become.

Of course, I am also anxious, otherwise I would not have gone south twice in a row to rob in the past six months this year.

It is a pity that the two southward robberies did not achieve good results, although the Shanxi-Gyeonggi defense line composed of Ma Fang, Zhao Qi, and Qi Jiguang did not dare to say that there were no loopholes, but it did make me almost unable to maintain no loss when I went south twice-the resistance encountered in the robbery was strong, and there would be losses.

Therefore, in the face of this situation, the historical Alta must be a lawsuit, and it is not a fight, it is not a fight, if it is not beaten, it may be a loss, if it is not beaten, the grandson will not be saved, and he will definitely be scolded by a Kehatun, not to mention, and he will lose his prestige inside and outside the tribe.

But the emergence of Gao Pragmatism, so that the situation of I is a little better than in history, after all, Gao Pragmatism wants to buy horses, always have to pay for exchange, and although he tries to export "high-end industries" as much as possible, but the Mongolian nobles are not all fools, in addition to being fooled by Gao Pragmatism to buy a lot of silk and other things, they will still buy some of the necessities of life for the herdsmen under their name.

This kind of trade, if you look at each one individually, it is naturally a drizzle, but if you look at it together, it is massive.

Of course, although the highly pragmatic smuggling team swells rapidly, it will not be able to satisfy the entire Tumochuan Department in Monan, and it can even be said that it can only meet a small part of their needs. However, even this small part is enough to change the various departments under the command of Alta from "a large number of herdsmen who starved to death" to "a small number of herdsmen who starved to death".

You know, the pressure on 100 herders a year is completely different from the 1,000 herders a year. That's why Gao Pragmatic is worried about whether I will take a different stance in this incident because the pressure on my head is not as great as in history.

Therefore, after thinking for a while, Gao Pragmatic asked Gao Mo: "When you go to Fengzhou River this time, in addition to being close to Hannaji, can you observe the livelihood expenses of ordinary herdsmen in Tumo River?" I mean, have they been affected by the disaster for the past few years, but are they now so serious that they are unsustainable? ”

Gao Mo nodded and said: "Yes, we went north this time, not from Datong, but from the old camp fort in the southwest of Datong, through the old Niuwan Fort, along the big river (Yellow River) to swim up, in Liancheng, Junzijin, Totoku three places have a short stay, and then along the Dahei River to the northeast, first to Dabansheng City to see Han Naji, and then go to Fengzhou Chuan Khan Court with Han Naji. ”

"Along the way, we have met dozens of tribes of different sizes, in general, the situation of the larger tribes is slightly better, barely able to mix food and clothing, and the smaller tribes are very miserable. Especially the small ones found that they were in short supply of iron, which was unimaginable. ”

"Oh?" Gao Shishi's expression moved, and he asked, "To what extent is it missing?" ”

Gao Mo said: "Larger tribes, such as the kind of nearly a thousand households, probably the entire tribe can have more than ten or twenty iron pots, and the cooking is all in turn." A smaller tribe, such as one or two hundred herdsmen, or even two or three hundred herdsmen, may have only seven or eight iron pots in the whole tribe – those pots are used almost all day and night, and there is no leisure time at all. ”

Although Gao Shishi knew that the Mongols had a serious iron shortage, and it was even said in the history books that sometimes two small tribes could actually fight for an iron pot, but he really didn't know that the total number of iron pots was like this, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Gao Mo was still introducing, and said: "We met a herdsman from a small tribe on the road this time, when his two sons split up, because of the lack of pots, they had to break a pot and divide it into two halves, and the two sons each took half of it. This man also had a daughter, and because she had not yet married, she had to keep some dowry, so she was given a small iron basin, which was only slightly larger than the bowl we usually eat, and his daughter was very happy, and thanked her father and two brothers again and again. In addition, we also met many herdsmen, because they did not have a pot and their status in the tribe was not high, so they could not use the iron pot used in the tribe to cook, so they had to cook meat in their skins for food. ”

Gao pragmatic thought for a while and asked, "I remember that the pig iron used to make the iron pot should be difficult to change to other uses, right?" For example, to melt down an iron pot and then make arrows? ”

Who knew that Gao Mo said: "Young Master, this issue has to be looked at separately, if you say no, it's not right." It doesn't matter what kind of iron he wants, if he wants to make arrows after melting, he can actually do it, but the problem is that it is not cost-effective, very cost-effective. ”

"Oh? How so? Gao pragmatic is not angry.

Gao Mo explained: "According to Xiao's understanding, the pig iron that makes iron pots is of very poor quality, not too hard in itself, and there are many impurities. And the Mongolian smelting level is very low, now although there is a big plate to ascend the city of Han'er help, but compared to the Ming is still far behind, if they take the iron pot to melt the molten iron to make arrows, a pound of iron is only afraid of three or four taels left, but the effort is very large, so ...... Anyway, the little ones haven't seen this like this. And this question, Gao Jue also specially asked the shopkeeper Cao, and the shopkeeper Cao said that unless the Mongolians are crazy, they will do this, because they don't even have an iron pot for eating, how can they melt the iron pot to make arrows? ”

Gao Pragmatic said lightly: "Isn't it also a way to make arrows to rob our Daming?" ”

"Ha, speaking of which, but the problem is that in recent years, I have not had a good effect on looting at the border passes, and many tribes have expressed dissatisfaction with this. For example, several tribes that led Hannaji themselves followed Alta to the south to plunder a few years ago, and lost nearly 200 strong men, but the things they grabbed were not enough, so they muttered in front of him all day long that this business is not cost-effective, it is far better to do business with us - otherwise how can we win over Hannaji so easily? ”

When Gao Mo said this, Zhengse said: "I don't know if the eldest young master knows, this Hannaji's title in the 30,000 households of Tumochuan is Dacheng Taiji, which is quite a not low position, so he can actually be said to be one of the leaders of the Tumochuan Pro-Ming faction to some extent." ”

"No wonder ......" Gao pragmatically nodded, thinking in his heart: Han Naji is one of the leaders of the pro-Ming faction, so he will be so nervous after he descends to Ming, but my anxiety is not necessarily a simple worry about internal instability, but because I have always hoped to reconcile with the Ming Dynasty and do business in peace and stability, so after Han Naji was demoted, he was afraid that this reckless grandson would be directly cut by the Ming court, which looked more reckless in previous years.

A few years ago, the Ming court cut off the heads of the envoys at every turn, but the status of those envoys was not high, and they were cut off, and they could hold it, but in case Han Naji, the pro-Ming faction's "Dacheng Taiji" took the initiative to surrender to the south, it was cut down by the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty could no longer suppress the internal opposition to reconciliation with the Ming Dynasty and mutual benefit from tribute, so he could only stubbornly fight with the Ming court.