"Don't worry, Qi'er is fine." The emperor comforted Concubine Hui and said: "Don't forget, Qi'er is the king of Yong, as long as he is in the middle of the command, there is no need to go to the battlefield, and there is a large army to protect it, it will be fine." ”

"That's good." Hearing the emperor say this, Concubine Hui's heart finally felt relieved; "This kid, the letters he writes to his concubines have always been good news and not bad news, and His Majesty has to beat him well for his concubine."

"Ha, ha, ha......" The emperor laughed and said, "Concubine Ai, rest assured; After a while, when the war in the western Xinjiang is over, I will summon Qi'er back to Beijing, and your mother and son can be reunited. ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Concubine Hui said very happily.

As a mother, it was impossible to say that she was not worried about her son.

"Qi'er has made such a great contribution to me and the court, as a mother, you have made a lot of contributions, say it! I don't know what reward I want. "The emperor is very generous.

"The concubines are all up to Your Majesty." Concubine Hui naturally didn't dare to say, and the emperor naturally had the final say on what she was rewarding.

The emperor thought for a while and said, "Then I will elevate your grade to the rank of concubine, and reward you with a pair of jasper, a pearl, ten Shu brocade, and ten silk;

Chong'er is still the ruler of the prince! Now that he is older, the usage should also be increased, and it will be distributed according to the prince's usage in the future! ”

After hearing this, Concubine Hui immediately bowed, and Guo Chong and the palace maids and eunuchs who were waiting on the side also knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty, long live, long live." ”

"Let's all be flat!" The emperor said: "I am also tired, so I am resting here, Haizhong ordered to go down, there is nothing important not to disturb me." ”

"No! The old slave commanded. ”

The news that the emperor was resting in Fu'an Palace, and the news that Concubine Hui was promoted to the rank of concubine, spread quickly, and the ladies of other palaces sent people to investigate.

At the same time, the news of the defeat of Xirong by King Guo Qi in Western Xinjiang spread all over the world, and even children everywhere sang nursery rhymes: "King Xiyong is strong, and the thieves who beat him are lying all over the ground, and there are countless Han Erlang ......"

Before Guo Qi, the king of Yong, had time to verify the results he got from Xirong, his gains were already not small, especially the prestige among the common people, which made many poor people come to vote, which greatly alleviated the problem of lack of talents under Guo Qi.

——————————

Longzhou, Guanshan grassland.

All the horses and livestock personally escorted by Guo Qi were sent here, which would later become the main horse breeding base of the Yongjun army, and the current Guanshan Ranch was under the jurisdiction of Ma Jiu; Guo Qi sent so many horses and livestock at once, which made Ma Jiu very happy.

"I was stupid to see so many horses." Guo Qi said to Ma Jiu, who was stupid.

"Lord, I'm not stupid to look at so many horses, but I'm stupid to see so many stallions, with these stallions, and this Guanshan pasture, I can guarantee that I will breed foals for His Highness every year." Ma Jiu said with an oath.

"How many foals do you say you can give the king a year?"

"Humble guarantee that eight thousand foals will be produced every year." Ma Jiuyan said.

"You're sloppy to this king, aren't you?" Guo Qi said dissatisfiedly: "There are more than 10,000 stallions, and 8,000 foals every year, you can also name it." ”

"My lord, there are not necessarily more foals than many of these horses." Ma Jiu said with a bitter face: "And sometimes the foals produced may not be able to survive, and it is not enough to guarantee eight thousand horses per year." ”

"You don't care about what you said." Guo Qi didn't stop directly: "The conditions of this place are all given to you by this king, if the pony produced in a year is less than 10,000, this king is the only one who asks;

I forgot to tell you, these stallions will not all stay here, only 10,000 horses will be left for you, you can choose them carefully, and the rest of the kings will be taken away when they return to Yongzhou. ”

As soon as he heard that Guo Qi was going to take the stallion away, Ma Jiu quit on the spot and asked Guo Qi: "No, lord; Why do you want so many stallions! As long as you leave these stallions here, you are guaranteed to conjure up 10,000 foals a year. ”

"Don't even think about it, let's go and transfer the stallions!"

"My lord, let's discuss it again!"

……

In fact, Ma Jiu didn't tell Guo Qi the truth, the output of foals is not all about the number of stallions, but on the number of mares, as long as there are enough mares, not to mention the annual output of 10,000 foals, it is 20,000, 30,000 horses are not a problem.

The reason why Ma Jiu didn't tell Guo Qi the truth was that he wanted Guo Qi to leave all these stallions in Guanshan Ranch and breed good stallions based on these stallions; It is important to know that horses also have pedigrees, and after these stallions are mated with mares, the foals produced may not be able to be used as war horses, and as the number of generations of crosses increases, the foals produced will gradually be diluted in blood.

Therefore, in order to make Guanshan Ranch continue to provide excellent war horses, a premise is that Guanshan Ranch has a sustainable horse population with pure blood, but it is very difficult to have such a horse population; Take these stallions now!

Although there are more than 10,000 stallions, as they grow older, some stallions will die for various reasons, resulting in a decrease in the number of stallions, and the foals produced by these stallions, due to pedigree reasons, may not even be one-tenth of the suitable for continuing to be stallions, so after a few years, Guanshan Ranch is not simple and can maintain such a large number of stallions, and the reduction of stallion herds will naturally affect the production of foals.

After spending one night at Guanshan Ranch, Guo Qi did not return to Yongcheng, but went to Dazhenguan, Zhenyiguan, Zhenrongguan and other places to inspect, at this time these three places and their surroundings have become huge construction sites, with more than 100,000 people working on construction at the same time.

The construction speed of the Great Earthquake Pass is the fastest, because there is plenty of masonry, timber, and enough labor; These bricks, stones, and timber were all brought from Shimizu Castle not far away, and now Shimizu Castle is basically about to be razed to the ground, leaving only rammed earth walls and high platforms for building houses in the city.

Compared with the Great Earthquake Pass, the speed of Zhenyi Pass and Zhenrong Pass is relatively slow, especially Zhenyi Pass, because there is not enough masonry materials, you can only simply put up the shelf first, and then slowly repair it later.

When Guo Qi was presiding over the construction of the Longdi Mountain defense line in the rear, Hu Qiong, Zhuo Yidao, Sun Guoqing and others were looting the territory of the Xirong Khanate, and the population, grain, livestock, gold, silver and jewelry were ...... As long as there is no one that can be taken away, it will be looted directly.

In the northern route, the army led by Tang Bi has successively captured Yinpan, Anding, Liangyuan and other places, and returned to Yongbei camp through Baili City and Purun, becoming the first army to return to Yongzhou in the four expeditionary armies, although one came back, but there are many good things captured, and the places where Tang Bi passed, even the tiles were not left for Xirong, and all these bricks and stones were transported to Huating Pass and Zhenyi Pass.

As the Longdi Mountain defense line gradually took shape, the various armies of the Western Expedition also began to shrink their forces and return to the Longdi Mountain defense line to prepare for defensive operations, and at the same time, Murong De, the right general of Xirong, was gathering troops in Jincheng and preparing to attack again.