"When we arrive, we plan to dock here, go down to investigate the situation first, and then make plans."

Liu Zheng said to Tai Shici, wanting Tai Shici to stay in Liaoxi County with him for the time being.

Tai Shici originally wanted to go to Liaodong, because Liaodong is far away from Qingzhou, but since Liu Zheng didn't plan to go to Liaodong directly, he didn't force it, and followed Liu Zheng to stay in Liaodong for the time being.

"Okay, no problem, by the way, Brother Liu, I don't know what you're doing here?"

"Well, it's not a big deal, I'm just here to buy a horse."

"Buying a horse?"

Liu Zheng's answer made Tai Shici a little surprised, and he thought that Liu Zheng should have made such a big show and led so many people to Youzhou to quell the rebellion in Youzhou.

After all, Tai Shi Ci has also heard about the fact that Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju of Youzhou united the Karasuma people in turmoil, this kind of major event, the imperial court will definitely send people over to quell the civil strife, and Liu Zheng has so many water armies, and it is the uniform of the imperial court, Tai Shi Ci will naturally think of this.

"I want to form a rising army, and there are no horses in the south, so I can only come to the north to buy them."

Liu Zheng didn't care whether Tai Shi Ci had seen through his identity or not, since he had arrived in Liaoxi, and Liu Zheng really wanted to win over Tai Shi Ci, since he wanted to win over Tai Shi Ci, then Tai Shi Ci would know his identity sooner or later, and it was better to tell the truth than to hide it.

"If you buy horses, I don't know much about them, it seems that the imperial court has a horse farm in Beiping County, and many other merchants go to the Xianbei tribe and the people over there to buy them, and then sell them to our Han."

Tai Shici did not stick to Liu Zheng's identity, but was more interested in Liu Zheng's matter of buying a horse, and immediately pondered.

"I heard that there have been Karasuma people and former Zhongshan Taishou rebellion here in Youzhou recently, so we logged in from Liaoxi, and then inquired about the situation here, and if we can, we will also go to the Xianbei tribe to see if we can buy some horses."

After getting off the boat, Liu Zheng did not let all his people come down, but only let people select hundreds of people, because Liu Zheng only had hundreds of war horses here.

I selected some people who could ride horses, and followed Liu Zheng, Gan Ning, Zhou Tai and others to Liaoxi County to investigate the situation.

Liaoxi County, located next to Beiping County, and in the past, some of them are Liaodong subjects, and Liaodong subjects are not Liaodong counties.

The subject state of Liaodong was the place where the imperial court settled the Karasuma people, who were in the middle of the territory of the Han court and the Xianbei people. It was precisely because Zhang Chun and Zhang Ju and others often went in and out of the territory of the Xianbei people and had some connections with the Xianbei people that they were able to unite with the Karasuma people to attack the court of the Han Dynasty so easily.

Compared with Liaodong County, which is more distant and geographically remote, Liaoxi County actually has no sense of existence, here, the land is vast and sparsely populated, because it is close to Liaodong vassal countries, it is often looted by the Karasuma people, so in addition to being concentrated in only a few county towns and having some population, most of the places are uninhabited.

Liu Zheng's men and horses galloped on this territory, and most of the hours passed, and they did not see any village, not even those who asked for directions, but they could not find a single one.

It was still Liu Zhengzhi who followed the traces left by the horse's hooves on the road, pursued all the way, and finally saw a small county town an hour later.

Liu Zheng did not let his population enter the city, but asked Zhou Tai to lead his men and horses to wait somewhere in a remote place outside the city, and he himself only brought Gan Ning and Tai Shici into the city to inquire about the news.

This is a small county called Yangle County, not as big as Huang County, but it can be seen from the surrounding city walls that the defensive measures here are much stricter than those of Huang County, all kinds of horse guns, to prevent the chasm of war horses, fences, everything, I want to come here should also be perennial victim of the Karasuma people.

Because of the snow in the last few days, the surrounding area is white, or gray and yellow, and the grass and trees have withered, leaving a lonely scene.

The gate of the county seat is slightly opened, not completely open, there are several soldiers on duty at the door, at the same time, there is a watchtower on the city tower above, there are some people, looking around at any time.

Liu Zheng and the three of them rode here, and after stopping to pay the tax money for entering the city, they could go together.

Riding a horse in this place is not unusual, maybe when you are in Jiaozhou, you want to see a horse in the city, that is rich people, you can enjoy it, but in the north, the price of horses is not high, and even many people may get it, sometimes, there are some wild horses in the wild, if you have the ability to tame, you can have it.

After entering the city, Liu Zheng walked around for a while in this desolate small city, first observing the situation in Yangle County, and finally finding a place like an inn and walking in.

This Yangle County is indeed just a small county town, so small that the population is estimated to be thousands of people.

And because it was winter, there were no people on the street, and the wind was biting outside, and they were all burning fires inside the house to keep warm.

Liu Zheng looked around, few people came and went, and knew that the economy of this place could not develop, after all, it was difficult to develop due to internal and external troubles, even if there were occasional businessmen passing by, they did not dare to stay for a long time.

In the inn, Liu Zheng and the three of them came in, and the second child inside was more enthusiastic, and hurriedly came over to greet Liu Zheng.

"Hey, a few guest officers, please come inside."

Liu Zheng casually found a table, and when he saw that there was no one, he walked over by himself.

"Xiao Er, put on a pot of tea, warm some wine, if you have anything to eat, just bring it up."

"Okay."

Xiao Er nodded and took the order, Liu Zheng looked left and right inside, even in this inn, there were not many people.

In addition to Liu Zheng's table, there were only two people at the other table.

It didn't take long for Liu Zheng to ask for something, and he was brought up by Xiao Er, and taking this opportunity, Liu Zheng asked Xiao Er.

"Xiao Er, has this Yangle County always been so deserted? There's no one on the street. ”

This little second is also willing to chat with people like Liu Zheng at this time, because there is not much business in the store at this time, and when Liu Zheng asked, he also replied with a smile.

"Hey, guest officer, you may not be local, I don't know the situation here, our small county, the population is not large, so it is naturally deserted, but this year, there are indeed fewer people."

"The reason for this, I think you also know, recently those Karasuma people in Liaodong have come to commit again, the merchants who came and went here in previous years did not dare to come here this year, plus this advantage when the moon is frosty, this is the coldest time, there are fewer traveling merchants, and it is normal to be deserted."