After the change of Jingkang, Gaozong of the Great Song Dynasty crossed to the south, placed the capital in Lin'an, redivided the world into seventeen roads, and divided the Dasanguan to the Huai River line with the Jin State as the boundary, settled down, and continued the country.

Judging from the map, the Southern Song Empire was like a giant surrounded by strong enemies, sitting on the most powerful and prosperous territory on the earth at that time, with tens of millions of people under its command, from the coast of the East China Sea to the barbarians in the southwest, all of which were its sphere of influence.

However, although the territory is large, the importance of each place is very different, the places related to the survival of the empire, such as Jianghuai, Jinghu and Shuzhong, are directly facing the frontier of the Jin State and the Western Xia, the state capitals of these places have hoarded heavy guards, and the town officials are equipped with a high level, and often set up the system and Xuanfu envoys who command the state capitals everywhere, these areas are also the land of fish and rice, the country of abundance, and the tax population is also quite large, for the empire, it is a key place that cannot be missed.

Another example is the coastal area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, is the granary and money bank of the Southern Song Dynasty, with the transfer of the national economic center of gravity, a large number of fields have been developed from the fertile lakeside silt, the original less developed Jiangnan has been rapidly developed in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the coastal city and shipping have also expanded unprecedentedly, and soon, even as far as the Lingnan line, the original barren land in the Sui and Tang dynasties has become densely populated, so the prosperous scene of Bianliang has been reproduced and further improved in the south of the Yangtze River.

There is prosperity, there is backwardness, compared with these historical pearl-like areas, some other places in the Great Song Dynasty seem as useless.

For example, Xuzhou, which borders Dali.

In addition to the four counties of Hermes-Epitek under the jurisdiction of Xuzhou, there are also three barbarian lands inhabited by barbarians, and the territory of the barbarians is much larger than that of the Han-mes-Epitek.

Shimenfan is the largest of them, and its territory accounts for almost half of Xuzhou.

From a geographical point of view, this side is the mountainous area at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan, since ancient times, the miasma is swirling, the barbarians are infested, the rivers are interlaced and the mountains are dense, the north is Tubo, the south is Dali, and the land is barren to the inaccessibility. If you want to enter and exit, you must rely on the plank road with high danger, the plank road is a wooden road cut out of the horizontal nails from the cliff, and the flash flood can be washed away when it rains, and people walk on it, shaking and trembling. The waterway is turbulent again, the boat is dangerous, nine out of ten boats will have accidents, there are countless ghost gates, and the merchants say that it is extremely dangerous.

As the so-called chicken ribs of the land will be many fierce people, the barbarians who live here all the year round, suffer hardships and tiredness, the folk customs are extremely fierce, have always refused to obey the king, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, self-sufficient, can produce iron will make weapons, with the loose tribal system as the fundamental form of social organization, live in a group, unanimously to the outside, simple and natural life between the mountains and rivers.

From the Qin and Han dynasties to the present, it has lasted for thousands of years.

The barbarians don't seem to have much to do, they don't come out to guard their ancestral business, they don't mess with them, and they don't want to provoke others. So the Song court was here, and only the native soldiers and troops of the state capitals were guarding the pass, lazy and lazy, and no one paid attention to it.

After all, the threat of the nomads in the north is what matters.

Year after year, the years passed.

In the tenth year after the succession of Emperor Lizong of the Great Song Dynasty, that is, in the second year of Duanping, 1235 AD, the fifth day of the fifth month.

The weather is sunny, the blue sky and white clouds, and the fresh air blows the earth with the wind of the big river on the side of the plank road, which makes the team of business travelers walking on it very comfortable.

The caravan consisted of about 100 people, consisting of nearly 200 Sichuan horses, each carrying two huge baskets, which were filled with salt and groceries, all of which were in short supply for the inhabitants of the mountains.

They walked on the plank road to the south of Xuzhou, and from a distance, they looked like a group of small ants among the emerald green mountains.

Under normal circumstances, there will be no Han businessmen willing to come, even if there are a few bold and greedy profits, they are also trembling, such as in danger, for fear that a careless annoyance of the barbarians, someone will be cut down and robbed of the goods and even have no place to redress their grievances.

However, this team of people looked indifferent, no one was scared, on the contrary, they were still humming a little song and talking and laughing, and they were not afraid at all, and there were still people in it who spoke in barbarian language, and the others also looked like they were not surprised, and they didn't care.

A horse in the front, a flag is erected on the edge of the basket, a red flag is hung on it to hunt and hunt, and on the red silk flag, three big characters are embroidered with yellow satin.

Rui Fuxiang.

This is the recognition of the name of a firm.

A young man who was tanned by the sun, with a few pimples on his face and a few pimples, strode in front, he was tall, his steps were steady, his tendons and flesh were as solid as tree roots, and his hands were full of calluses, and at a glance, he knew that this was a man who practiced martial arts.

"Brother Dog, how far is it ahead?" A young man followed behind him, leading the horse with the flag on it, and asked curiously: "I've gone so far here, why can't I even see a figure?" ”

The dog gave him a blank look and said, "What's the hurry?" Homesick? Is the daughter-in-law in the family worried? ”

The others behind him all laughed, and the little young man smiled wryly, "No...... It's the first time I've walked this way, so I'll ask. ”

In the laughter of everyone, the dog said with unabated steps: "This is the case here, there is no one on the road, and when you see people, you will almost reach the ground." ”

He looked back at the young man who was embarrassed to laugh, and said: "Don't look at the lack of people on this road, in fact, there are many people in the mountains, and moving out can be comparable to half of Tongchuanfu Road." ”

Xiao Young blinked, looked at the mountains on both sides, and smacked his tongue: "This mountain is piece by piece, can it feed so many people?" ”

An old man walked behind him, and said with a smile: "Originally, it couldn't be, the mountains are high and the water is dangerous, it is not easy to farm, and there have been very few people here since ancient times." ”

Xiao Young was even more confused, and he asked puzzledly: "What about this...... Why? ”

"Because there's a capable person here." The dog's voice came from the front, and the tone was all respectful: "He created the terraces, and you will be able to see it later, and some literati came to see it, and they were shocked, saying that spring is like layers of silver belts, summer rolling roads and blue waves, autumn stacks of golden pagodas, and winter is like a group of dragons playing in the water." The text is crepe, but it is very realistic. ”

"Oh~~!" The young man was fascinated: "It's amazing!"

"Of course it's amazing!" The dog turned his head again, grinned, and showed a mouthful of neat white teeth: "This person was the first genius in Hezhou." ”

"Not only that, Mr. Changsun is both civil and military, he led the Champa rice here, built water conservancy and built post roads, and benefited one party. The construction of the academy and the education of the barbarians have made remarkable achievements! The old man followed and said: "It's not that my old Wei is boasting, if you want me to say, Mr. Changsun is many times more powerful than many government officials!" ”

As he spoke, he taught the young man a lesson: "You young people, you should learn from your senior, Mr. Sun, who is only in his early twenties now, but he is rich and rich, if it wasn't for someone in the government who harmed him back then, he would have entered the house and occupied a prominent position!" Hey, my mouth is not good, I can't say it completely, you wait until you arrive, you listen to the people in the mountains, I heard that the barbarians in the mountains, many people have offered his tablets to the table, every day to chant Buddha and burn incense, you see, is it a capable person? ”

Xiao Young opened his mouth in surprise, he stammered and shrunk his neck and said, "Yes, yes, when, of course it is!" ”

While a few people were talking, in the mountain stream in front of them, there was a high-pitched and clear whistling sound, and the voice turned around, as crisp as a yellow warbler.

"Say Cao Cao, Cao Cao will arrive, you listen, this is the person who picked us up." The dog laughed, and as he continued walking, he raised his finger to his mouth and whistled even louder.

Immediately, a forest in front of them parted abruptly, and a group of leather armor soldiers turned out.

(End of chapter)