Cui Feng followed Guo Song's soldiers to the palace of King Jin with trepidation, he waited at the palace gate for a while, and an entourage came out and asked, "But Cui Gongzi?" ”

Cui Feng hurriedly raised his hand, "I am!" ”

"His Royal Highness King Jin, please come in!"

Cui Feng followed his entourage into the palace of King Jin, and he asked in a low voice, "How should I salute when I see King Jin?" Do I need to kneel? ”

The attendant smiled and asked, "Has Childe ever read?" ”

"Read!"

"Then you can do the student salute, you don't have to kneel."

"I see!"

When he came to Guo Song's official room, the entourage went in first to report for him, and came out after a while: "Cui Gongzi, please!" ”

Cui Feng took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to walk into the official room, in the official room, he saw a very tall man, more than thirty years old, with deep eyes, he hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Student Cui Feng, see His Royal Highness King Jin!" ”

Guo Song smiled and waved his hand: "Young Master Cui, please take a seat!" ”

Cui Feng sat down, took out a letter from his arms, and presented it to Guo Song with both hands, "This is my father's letter to His Highness, please take a look at it!" ”

Guo Song took the letter and opened it and read it hurriedly, as he expected, Cui Hao intended to dedicate Zhaozhou to himself.

Zhaozhou, Xiangzhou, Weizhou and Luzhou and Zezhou in Hedong, all belonged to the Zhaoyi Jiedu Mansion of the Tang Dynasty before, led by Ma Lin, after the Jingyuan Mutiny, Ma Lin could not gain a foothold in Hebei, so he gave up his territory and withdrew to the south bank of the Yellow River, and the Zhaoyi Jiedu Mansion was divided by Li Huaiguang, Tian Yue and Li Wujun, of which the two states in Hedong were occupied by Li Huaiguang, Xiangzhou and Weizhou were returned to Tian Yue, and Zhaozhou was occupied by Li Wujun.

After Guo Song recaptured Luzhou and Zezhou, he knew that the people here were worried about Tang and did not recognize the occupation of the feudal towns at all, and the same should be true for Zhaozhou and Xiangzhou.

That's why Cui Hao thought of dedicating Zhaozhou to himself, but Guo Song was more concerned about whether this was Qinghe Cui's name.

"Your father's decision, you know?" Guo Song asked.

Cui Feng nodded, "My father told me that if I encounter any danger, I will destroy the letter and bring a message to His Highness!" ”

"Then let me ask you, what does your father's decision in the letter have to do with your family?"

Cui Feng hesitated and said, "My father said, it's a bit related!" ”

Guo Song laughed, he guessed too, Qinghe Cui's is very good, Qinghe Cui's is in Beizhou, under the jurisdiction of Tian Yue, but they use Li Wujun's territory as a favor, even if Li Wujun is like thunder, there is no way to take the Cui family.

"What's the situation in Zhaozhou now? Your father didn't go into detail in the letter. Guo Song asked with a smile again.

The strategic position of the city is very important in the north of Xiangzhou, that is, the Handan region, and the Fukou of Taihang Jiucheng is located in the west of the city.

Cui Feng bowed and said: "Back to Your Highness, Zhaozhou was originally rich in grain, but in the past two years, the population has decreased sharply, originally there were 50,000 households, but now it has been sharply reduced to less than 20,000 households, most of the people have fled to Hedong, the taxes are heavy, and the people are not able to make a living." ”

Guo Song also knows a thing or two, there are many refugees from Hebei in Luzhou and Zezhou, renting land in Hedong to make a living, but why this is happening, there are many theories, and there is no clear answer.

"Why is this happening?" Guo Song asked.

"There are many reasons, such as wars and epidemics, but the main reason is that Li Wujun formed a cavalry four years ago, about 10,000 people, and he asked this cavalry to be supported by Zhaozhou, that is, five families to raise a cavalry, from buying horses, raising horses, as well as cavalry armor, and the usual military support, where can the five families afford to raise it, they have gone bankrupt, and they have to flee to Hedong with their families."

Guo Song nodded, he knew very well the cost of raising cavalry, if they didn't have Hexi pasture and supply a large number of war horses and forage for a long time, they would also not be able to raise so many cavalry, and they would like tens of thousands of households in Zhaozhou to raise 10,000 cavalry, how could they raise it, don't farm the land just for the pasture, and plant all the grass.

"And in the end?"

Guo Song asked again: "How about the 10,000 cavalry?" ”

"10,000 cavalry can't afford to raise it, and now it's changed to 3,000 cavalry, and it's still very difficult for 18,000 households in Zhaozhou to raise 3,000 cavalry." “

"Even the cavalry has to bear the burden of the people of Zhouzhou?"

Cui Feng sighed, "The cavalry army is 72,000 yuan a year, and each family bears an average of three and 400 yuan, and each war horse needs at least 20 acres of land to grow pasture, and the people really can't bear it, my father decided to resign, but the family's intention is to hope that His Royal Highness's army will be stationed in Yuzhou." ”

Guo Song said with a smile: "I have fully understood the meaning of your father and family, I very much praise their attitude, Cui Gongzi will go back and rest first, and if there are any difficulties, just raise them!" ”

"Thank you, Your Highness, the student is leaving!"

Cui Feng bowed and bowed, and retired.

Guo Song paced back and forth in the official room, and now he is still concentrating on internal affairs, and he has not considered taking Hebei for the time being, but the opportunity provided by the Cui family this time is indeed rare, and it happens that the location of Fukou is in Zhaozhou, which can be attacked and defended, and the strategic position is very superior, so Guo Song is not moved.

He took out a scroll from the bookcase, put it on the table and slowly unfolded it, this is the whole map of Hebei Prefecture and County, Guo Song looked at the map of Zhaozhou, this position is very sensitive to both Li Wujun and Tian Yue, if he occupies Zhaozhou, it is easy to attract Li Wujun and Tian Yue to attack from the north and south.

In order to resolve this north-south attack, he must drive another wedge in Tian Yue's back, so that Tian Yue's army will not dare to act rashly.

At this time, Guo Song saw another prefecture and county, and he pondered for a moment and ordered: "Quickly summon Guo Yuniang and Song Tian to see me!" ”

Guo Yuniang is the commander of the Jin Wei Mansion, Song Tian is the deputy commander, the division of labor between the two is relatively clear, Guo Yuniang is responsible for the internal guard, protecting the safety of Guo Song's family and high-ranking officials, and Song Tian is responsible for external intelligence collection, of course, as the commander, Guo Yuniang will also inquire about foreign intelligence collection.

The two of them received the notice and hurried to the official room of the King of Jin, "See His Royal Highness the King of Jin!" ”

"See Your Highness!"

Guo Song asked: "Does the Jin Wei Mansion have any intelligence points in Hebei?" ”

Guo Yuniang bowed down and said: "Youzhou Ji County, Weizhou Yuancheng County and Jizhou Xindu County, there are currently intelligence points in these three places. ”

This is the capital of the three major feudal towns, and it is normal to set up an intelligence point here, but this is not what Guo Song wants.

Guo Song groaned and said, "I have three tasks to hand over to you. ”

The two of them perked up, and hurriedly bowed down and said, "Please command, Your Highness!" ”

"The first task, I want to know the details of Zhu Zhu's attack on Wu Shaocheng in Huaixi, especially Wu Shaocheng's hundreds of ships, I don't want them all to fall into Zhu Jun's hands, I have arranged a master, I hope you can send the news in time."

After a pause, Guo Song continued: "The second task, I want to understand the situation of the enemy garrison in Huaizhou. ”

Huaizhou is Hanoi County, located in the southernmost part of Hedong Road, on the north bank of the Yellow River, the Wangwu Mountains separate it from Hedong, so that it no longer belongs to Hedong, Huaizhou is the only territory of Zhu Zhu on the north bank of the Yellow River, and its east borders Weizhou, which is an important springboard for Zhu Zhu to attack Hebei in the future.

"And then the third mission!"

Guo Song pointed to the map and said, "I want to know the garrison cleanup of Zhaozhou, as well as the detailed information of Fukou." ”

"I don't know if Your Highness needs information?" Guo Yuniang asked.

"Within ten days, I want all three pieces of information on my desk."

..........

Among the eight Taihang provinces, the highest strategic position is Jingcheng, which connects Taiyuan and Hebei, and more importantly, it can drive large cars, followed by Fukou Cheng, which connects Zhaozhou and Luzhou, and is also an extremely prosperous business route, and its strategic position is equally important.

There is a Fukou Pass in Hebei, and there is a Huguan Pass in Hedong, the two passes are occupied by their own troops, and the caravans are constantly coming and going, and everyone does not interfere.

In the afternoon of this day, a caravan came to the Fukou Pass, the Fukou Pass is not on the high mountain, but its terrain is very dangerous, from a very narrow road up the mountain, below is the Fuyang River, the riverbed is about ten zhang away from the mountain road above, from the mountain road into the river will die, under the mountain is a wooden bridge, across the Fuyang River,

Halfway up the mountain is the Fukou Pass, the Fukou Pass is mainly facing the enemy army in the west, so there are all kinds of buildings on the halfway mountainside, and the army can be stationed 500 people, and then there is the Guancheng, condescendingly looking at the mountain road below the west.

A caravan from the east of the river looked up at the city and walked up, the caravan was not large, consisting of more than a hundred sturdy mules, carrying cargo bags, the owner of the goods was two, and then a dozen men.

After a short time, they came to the front of the gate and were intercepted by soldiers, "Stop, be checked!" ”

At the beginning of the year of the Guo Song Dynasty, he issued an order to strictly prohibit the interception and inspection of caravans, and in the jurisdiction of the King of Jin, these checkpoints were gone, but the Fukou Pass was not under the jurisdiction of the King of Jin.

The team stopped, and a brigade commander walked over, looked at the two proprietors, and wondered, "It seems that I haven't seen you before." ”

"General Hui, we used to go to Jingcheng, and rarely went to Fukou."

A 'general' greatly satisfied the vanity in the heart of the brigade commander, anyway, the businessmen did not understand, all the officers called the general, and the soldiers called the military master, coaxing them to be comfortable, maybe they would charge a little less money.

"Looks like you don't understand the rules here."

"The villain really doesn't understand, please give the general advice!" The two businessmen nodded.

(End of chapter)