It was not a city, but a solitary watchtower that stood at the confluence of the river from the water. But instead of ramming the loess, it was made of stronger black stone, and looking up, the black man could catch a glimpse of several faces full of stray beards peeking out from among the moats.

It was the guard left by Li Xin after he took control of the Taoxi area a year ago, there were not many people, 50 people in a tun, but when the tun chief came to visit Li Xin, he said that there were only 48 people left.

"Five days ago, the two of them went out hunting together, and they never returned, and they went to search, but they found nothing, or they encountered a fierce beast, or they encountered a strong beast in the Huangzhong, and they were captured and killed......

Li Xin didn't speak, and nodded to Qiang Huang.

Qiang Huang was angry and stopped the tun chief's narration: "Don't guess, one of them did fall off the cliff and died, as for the other, he became a deserter!" ”

With a wave of his hand, the soldier brought up a Qin pawn whose hands were tied behind his back and who was covered in dirt.

It turned out that this person saw that his companion accidentally fell off the cliff and died, and he was cowardly, and he had been guarding this bitter cold border for nearly a year, and he couldn't stand it, so he had the idea of fleeing, but he was unlucky, and when he walked along the Tao River, he actually met Li Xin's team, and the scout saw that he was suspicious, so he captured him, and soon judged from his clothes and inspection that this was the fleeing Qin pawn.

According to military law, if a fugitive dies, and according to the law of joint sitting, if one escapes, the punishment will be increased to four of his comrades, and the remaining three of his comrades will also be whipped, and then they will go to the deserter's home to hold their parents and family accountable......

It is precisely by relying on this strict military law that most of these Qin soldiers on the border will not flee.

Li Xin also knew the bitterness of the border soldiers, so after slapping them, he immediately gave them a sweet date to eat.

"Ben will come this time, in addition to giving you food and clothing, and other food and clothing, he is here to replace the soldiers."

Hearing that the bitter days of the border would soon end, the forty-eight people in the whole tun of the village cheered.

After letting the army set up camp on the periphery of the watchtower, Li Xin told Heifu about the difficulty of setting up a guard post on the border.

"Caohan is one hundred and eighty miles away from Di Dao, and there is no road along the way, so you can only walk slowly along the Taoshui. The soldiers are stationed here, and they have to rely on Di Dao's monthly supply of food and clothing, and although I send people over every month, there will always be times when I can't help them, especially after winter......"

Or feel that the southerners can't understand the horrors of the Qiang winter, Li Xin asked the tun chief to come over and show Heifu the results of the cold winter - a frozen ear.

"There is also a toe, the subordinate is considered a minor injury, the deserter directly froze off two fingers, and only a lump of flesh is left in one ear!"

Although it was already summer, the tun chief shivered when he remembered the previous winter, when the village had just been built, and the ability to keep out the cold was poor, because the heavy snow blocked the road, Di Dao could not come for three months, so they could only save money, rely on shooting and hunting to satisfy their hunger, put animal fur on their bodies, and huddle together by the fire to keep warm.

Heifu bowed his head, he could understand that the further west he went, the higher the altitude, the more difficult the winter became, and in the middle of summer, it could only be regarded as cool here, and in autumn, he would have to put on winter clothes. It is already on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and you can occasionally see plateau species such as yaks, and cattle still need thick fur to protect them from the cold, not to mention people.

Under such bitter conditions, within a radius of 100 miles, there are all Qiangrong tribes who cannot understand the language, and the days are extremely boring, and if you stay for a long time, you will indeed have a mental breakdown.

Heifu also asked his puzzle: "North of the Great Wall of Didao, east of Taoshui, there are many places of ointment, although there are some pastures in Taoxi, but most of them are mountains and bitter cold places, it is difficult to grow grains, and it is not easy to garrison, why does the general have to build a fortress in Caohan?" ”

From the perspective of Heifu, a later generation, the area west of Taoshui, until more than 2,000 years later, was also a collection of various ethnic autonomous counties of Tibet and Qiang, and it was not the only way to enter Hexi, and it was not a pity to abandon it.

"This is a must-build!"

But Li Xin next taught Heifu a good lesson.

"The right chief may have heard that the origin of Xiqiang comes from Sanmiao, which is the difference between the surname Jiang. and the four evils of Shunliu, and the three dangers of migration. The territory of the Qiang people, from the west of Longshan, as for the head of the river, thousands of miles of land, south of Shu, Han and other barbarians, northwest of Yueshi, living impermanently, depending on the water and grass, the land is less than five grains, to produce animal husbandry as a business. ”

Heifu drew a map in his mind and found that this area was half of Gansu in later generations.

The history of the Qiang people in the Yin and Zhou dynasties, the deep relationship with the Siyue surnamed Jiang, the love and killing of the royal family of the same Zhou Dynasty and not pursuing it, and the entanglement between the Qiang people and Qin, everything has to start from the era of Qin Ligong two hundred years ago.

At that time, the Qin State had already dominated Xirong, and due to the lack of working population, it attacked the Qiang tribes west of Longshan, and arrested many people to go to Guanzhong as slaves.

One of the Qiang people called "Wu Yi Jian Sword" is a subordinate of the Qin people, and "Wu Yi" means slave in the Qiang language. His wife was a Qiang girl who had been tortured and had her nose cut off.

Later, Jianjian mobilized a group of people of the same clan, fled back from Guanzhong, was chased by the Qin people, and set fire to the mountain to burn them, and everyone hid in the cave to survive.

After escaping to Longxi, the Qiang people were amazed when they heard that Jianjian had survived the flames, and thought that Jianjian was protected by the gods, so they elected him as a chieftain. Because he lived in Guanzhong, Wuyi Jian learned the advanced farming techniques of the Qin people, taught them to the Qiang people, and won the respect and trust of the Qiang people.

But the good times did not last long, when the great-grandson of the sword, Ren Ji's father, was the chief of Hao, Qin Xiangong was first established, and he wanted to restore the traces of Mu Gong, so the soldiers came to the head of Wei, swept away the remnants of the group, and also dealt a blowful blow to the Qiang people who were becoming more and more prosperous, so that they were torn apart.

"Since then, the Qiang people have been divided into three parts."

Li Xin asked the tun chief to spread out the map engraved on a parchment scroll, pointed to the northeast corner of the map, the area east of the Yellow River, and said: "Some of the Qiang people and the Qunrong live here, this is one of them, and this is also the place where the right chief proposes to seize." ”

This is the Lanzhou area of later generations.

Li Xin pointed to the waterway and the big lake in the northwest corner of the map: "This is Huangzhong and Xihai, where the Qiang people's Hao chieftain Ren Ji's father migrated here with his tribe, and the Hehuang Qiang people are the most numerous. ”

His finger then pointed to the south: "There are also Qiang troops, who did not go to Huangzhong, but chose to move south, out of the Zhizhi River for thousands of miles to the west, into the west of Shu County, scattered among the high mountains and deep ravines, or for the yak species, Qin called Yueqiang Qiang; or for the white horse breed, Qin called it Guanghanqiang; Or for the wolf species, Qin called it Wudu Qiang...... This is the third one. ”

After listening to it, Heifu only felt that there was one word to describe it, that is: miserable!

The history of the Qiang people is almost a history of blood and tears enslaved by Qin and chased and beaten by Qin, and they were forced to flee their homes and migrate to the west or south, which is simply a "road of blood and tears".

After talking about the three major areas inhabited by the Qiang people, Li Xin pointed to the black box in the center of the map and said: "Caohan is here, guarding the corridor between Lishui and Taoshui. ”

"Hallway?"

"However, the west of Lishui is a high mountain, and the east of Taoshui is Qinsai, which is blocked by the Great Wall, but the terrain between the two rivers is low, and it is the north-south rush of the Qiang people's migration."

Heifu understood now: "The general is in Caohan Lisai, in addition to monitoring the Qiang in Huangzhong nearby, he also wants to prevent the Qiang people from the three places from contacting each other!?" ”

"Yes!"

Li Xindao: "This lieutenant has no interest in Huangzhong, but I think that the Qiang people are not to be feared, but if they are united under the Wuyi Sword as they were two hundred years ago, and fight against Qin, then the trouble of Xiqiang is no less than that of Yiqu back then!" ”

His judgment is no problem, as far as Heifu knows, although the Qiang people seem harmless at the moment, but in another two hundred years, by the time of the two Han Dynasty, the Qiang people have become a great disaster, and the whole of Longxi, and even Guanzhong have suffered from it.

And if you can build more Caohansai, make it into a city, and even extend the Great Wall here, it is equivalent to isolating the Qiang people in the three places.

Heifu arched his hand: "The general does not despise the Qiang people as weak and urinating, he really has the style of a calm general." ”

Li Xin shook his head: "How dare those who believe in the army and humiliate the country be arrogant and arrogant? ”

However, at the moment, Li Xin also has some worries, the existence of Cao Hansai is very necessary, but how to maintain his existence, improve the life of the soldiers, and not let the situation of escape appear again, is a difficulty.

Moreover, it was not easy for this garrison to become familiar with the local environment, and he was replaced by a newcomer at the age of one.

"I have an idea that might solve this problem."

After taking a closer look at the local situation, Heff lost no time in coming up with an idea that was not new.

Having seen the benefits of the high saddle stirrups, Li Xinting looked forward to Heifu's endless ideas, and hugged his fists and said: "Believe and want to hear it!" ”

"It's simple."

Heifu pointed to the open valley outside the water's edge and said, "Tuntian! ”