"It's better to not have enough to eat than to let the thieves kill. A minimum of cavalry must be maintained. Zhao Xingde said, "If we don't do this, it will be tantamount to suicide, I heard that Hebei and Henan are already full of grasslands." ”

Hearing Zhao Xingde say so solemnly, Chen Dong hesitated and nodded. The matter of raising horses has been debated in the DPRK and China for almost a hundred years. Chen Dong himself was not familiar with the battle array, and he still trusted Zhao Xingde. But this Ma Zheng really wants to go on, but I don't know how many twists and turns it will take, thinking of this, Chen Dong's brows furrowed again.

"The matter of protecting horses, don't be greedy for trouble, let the state and county do it, and make it coerce the people, but it is not beautiful." Zhao Xingde said slowly, "It is best to build a military horse farm near the cavalry station, encircle a large flat land with abundant water and grass, suitable for horses to gallop." Horses are gregarious, and it is best to make a group of hundreds or thousands of horses, which are usually kept in the horse farm and taken care of by craftsmen who specialize in raising horses. However, the forage needed was planted by the people, and the government offered to exchange grain for grass, so that the people could take advantage of it. This kind of horse administration can not only take care of the war horses, but also occupy less land. "Xia Guo implements a rotation system of fields and grasses, which can not only maintain the soil from degradation, but also obtain forage to feed livestock.

Chen Dong nodded and said, "When it comes to raising horses, General Yue is Yuan Zhi. It also insisted on expanding the cavalry. ”

At this time, someone came to Zhao Xingde again. Liu Hong, nicknamed the "black-faced beast", is the leader of the water in the Daozhou area, he handed over a piece of paper with a grin, Zhao Xingde took it and looked at it, but his brows furrowed. The handwriting on the paper was crooked, and it was written that the capture of the future war would be owned by the soldiers of the various departments. But this is not the point, what really made Zhao Xingde frown was that Liu Hong and others said that as long as any city and village resisted, it was counted as an enemy, and the property in the city could be counted as capture.

"I'm afraid there's something wrong with that." Zhao Xingde's face was slightly gloomy and said, "If the city is full of northern captives, then it's okay to say." If the people who live in the city are the people of the Great Song Dynasty, if they drive away the Liao thieves and rob their property, how are we different from the Liao thieves? ”

"Brothers are bleeding and sweating," Liu Hong sneered, "If you don't have a little thought, how can you be willing to fight a war?" "In the future, if every land captured can be plundered, the whole country will be able to make a great fortune. When the officers and soldiers were sweeping the squares, this kind of thing was not less.

"It's not okay to rob the people of the Great Song Dynasty for no reason!" Zhao Xingde said slowly, "If you just drove away the Liao thieves, and the official army looted again, Leader Liu, compare your heart to your heart, how big do you think the difference between this official army and the Liao thief is?" ”

Liu Hong's face was a little embarrassed and said: "The people in the city are also contributing to the Liao thieves. ”

"But their hearts are towards the Great Song!" Zhao Xingde's face was cold and said, "The people have the slightest possibility, and they will not contribute to the Liao thieves." He said to Liu Hong: "The clothes on our bodies and the food in our mouths are all people's fat and people's ointment." It is certainly respectable for the soldiers to fight on the battlefield, but it is not easy for the people to support the officers and soldiers. Many of you are well aware of the sufferings of the people, and the people are frugal and feed their soldiers, but they want to be stable. The name of our army is 'Baoyi,' so we can't do such a ruthless and unrighteous thing to the people. ”

Seeing Zhao Xingde's resolute attitude, Liu Hong had no choice but to nod and said, "What about the enemy's goods?" ”

Zhao Xingde said: "Naturally, meritorious soldiers will be rewarded according to the size of their merits, but large military supplies such as grain, grass, cloth, forage, and materials must be uniformly arranged by the whole army. It's not very valuable, but if everyone divides it privately at will, it will be a bad practice. Liu Hong's face showed joy, the so-called money and silk are moving, and what the brothers like is actually gold and silver. Zhao Xingde's name of benevolence and righteousness is known to the world, and Liu Hong originally did not expect him to agree to the indiscriminate plundering of the people. How much is grain forage worth? Zhao Xingde has seen a big battle, but he knows that the grain and grass hoarded by the army is the most important capture, so he is simply happy to be a favor.

After Liu Hong retreated, Chen Dong sighed: "This greedy and violent man, it is really difficult for Yuan Zhi to subdue them!" He remembered that in many states and counties, the real people in the council were squeezed out by the local powers, and he couldn't help but sigh and frown. After obtaining the state and county, the scholars of the society respected the Son of Heaven and did not obey the orders of chaos, and after obtaining the state and county, they originally wanted to elect a "false appearance" to control the overall situation and act in charge of political affairs. But now many prefectures, counties and counties are not in the hands of the scholars, and Chen Dong does not dare to rashly convene various counties to promote false appearances, so it is self-defeating to make wedding dresses for others. Before he rushed to Yuezhou to meet Zhao Xingde, he had been testing the attitudes of various forces and contacting the local gentry who were more concerned about the overall situation.

After Chen Dong sighed, he proposed that in addition to Hu Haojie, who had defected to the Baoyi Army, he should also transfer the Tai Bachelor who had served in the Baoyi Army and some state and county volunteers into the Baoyi Army as Zhao Xingde's wings, so that he could control the soldiers and horses. Zhao Xingde also agreed. The two discussed it again, and then they separated.

On this day, heroes from the rivers and lakes continue to come to Zhao Xingde. As long as there is a grace period that can be agreed, Zhao Xingde will happily agree. And those who can't agree to it will also try to discount it as little as possible, and partially meet the requirements of these future subordinates. He was magnanimous on his side, but he made all the heroes happy when they saw the hunt, and they all knew that what Zhao Xingde said was not a lie, so he racked his brains twice and put forward more suggestions. By the twilight of the day, Zhao Xingde had accumulated a thick stack of grace rules and regulations. During the dinner, when the heroes toasted Zhao Xingde, there was a lot more intimacy in their words.

After dinner, Lu Mingyu came to see Zhao Xingde in person, and after telling him about the ship and grain and grass, he caught a glimpse of the white handwriting on Zhao Xingde's case, as if he was personally transcribing those grace notes, and couldn't help but sigh: "Transcription notes are submitted to these trivial things, and Mr. Zhao can hand them over to Lu." ”

"Mingyu has a heart. There are many repetitions in the rules of grace proposed by the soldiers, and when I transcribe them, I will sort them out by the way. Zhao Xingde took out the copied pages, handed them to him, and said with a smile: "Do you have a good look?" ”

Lu Mingyu didn't dare to slack off, took it and looked at it carefully, and saw that it was unrelated, a hammer in the east and a mallet in the west, and the rules and regulations had been sorted out by Zhao Xingde. Lu Mingyu looked at it and admired it.

"After all the rules come out," Zhao Xingde said in a loud voice, "make a pass and help me inform the heroes from all over the world." The Baoyi Army recruited the world's heroes with sincerity to fight the Liao thieves together. ”

"Yes." Lu Mingyu's heart swelled with excitement. This text is negotiated by all the heroes, which other terms in the world are more heroic than it? Lu Mingyu expected that Zhao Xingde would do what he said, and the reckless heroes in the southeast would definitely hear the news, and there would be an endless stream of people who came to defect. "Mr. Zhao is deeply heartfelt," Lu Mingyu said secretly, "This has a deep meaning, and it is really beyond our reach." A spark flashed in his eyes, and he seemed to see the gathering of heroes from all directions, the banner of the army, and the strong horses of the Baoyi soldiers.

He walked out in a hurry, and inadvertently almost bumped into someone, and when he looked up, it was Shi Jingkui who said: "Chief Lu, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." ”

Lu Mingyu hurriedly smiled and said, "Brother Shi has seen the outside. He took a few steps, stopped again, and looked back. I saw the candles flickering in Zhao Xingde's residence, and the shadow of the person was reflected on the wall, which looked very huge, as if a black giant with a height of a few feet occupied most of the room.

The identities of these people around Zhao Xingde are by no means as simple as ordinary entourage. Du Chuijiao once made a bet with the people in the water village to chop a bundle of coarse bamboos with a horizontal knife, and the result was neatly cut into two. Thinking that Mr. Yuanzhi has lived in seclusion for ten years, leaving only these few heroes around him, he will definitely be used as a confidant in the future, Lu Mingyu is also polite to Shi Jingkui, Du Fujiao and others, and sometimes knocks on the side to their origins, but these people are flickering in their words, and they do not reveal their true identities at all. Lu Mingyu privately guessed that it might be the heroes of the rivers and lakes that Zhao Xingde had subdued in the past.

"General Zhao's twists and turns, the Military Intelligence Department has used the fastest pigeon post to inform the two governments." Shi Jingkui said, he took out a silk book from his arms and handed it to Zhao Xingde, his face was a little weird, "This is an urgent report for you." "Zhao Xingde was delayed in Yuezhou because he wanted to recruit Jing Xiang Haojie, and it didn't take long before and after. The fact that the Military Intelligence Department was able to send an emergency report to Yuezhou shows that the Military Intelligence Department is not only well-informed, but has been paying attention to Zhao Xingde's situation all the time, and is just waiting for Zhao Xingde to send someone to contact them.

Zhao Xingde nodded, unfolded the silk book, and his eyes lit up. This letter was actually written by Li Sihai. When helping the Han army in Liaodong, because of the relationship of raising food and salary, the fourth battalion sailor had business dealings with Dongying, and Zhao Xingde also reminded Li Sihai that Dongying may have a large silver mine, and once it is discovered, it will be enough to be rich and rival the country. Li Sihai paid attention at that time, and constantly sent people to look for clues about the silver mine, and after all these years, he finally found it.

Because of Zhao Xingde's share, Li Sihai wrote a letter and forwarded it to Zhao Xingde through the Military Intelligence Department. The problem now is that although the silver mine is very tempting, the news of the discovery of the silver mine cannot be concealed for a long time, and those princes of Dongying are also characters who want money and do not want their lives, and they will not be willing to let this piece of meat fall into the mouths of outsiders. It would take a lot of effort to occupy this silver mine, which was enough to make people rich. However, the Xia State was already at war with the Western Barbarians, and the Liao State and the Song State were in full swing in the east. Dongying and Xia were also separated by the Song and Liao kingdoms. If you expect the Protectorate to send troops to attack Dongying again, the chances are obviously slim, so Li Sihai estimates that the punishment of the Protectorate Mansion will be delayed nine times out of ten.

Li Sihai said that if the silver mine is in the Xia country, it will be fine, as long as the silver mine mining rights are taken out and bid, a large amount of cash can be steadily obtained, but now the mine is not in the Xia country. At that time, it is difficult to say that other wealthy businessmen and tycoons in Xia Kingdom will not participate. In the past, in other countries, there were Xia merchants who fought with each other for the right to exploit mineral deposits, but they cheapened the bad precedent of the Fanbangyi people.