The width of the ice on both sides of the Dolanton River is less than 300 paces, and the thickness of the ice in the center of the river is measured to be one foot and two inches, and the thickness of the ice on the bank is more than seven inches.

According to the measured data, Bailiyan continued to walk south along the Dolanton River, measuring many places one after another, and the ice finally reached one and a half feet, and the thinnest part was about five inches.

"Fang Liang, recently sent someone to pay close attention to the changes in ice thickness, and measure the thickness every day to report to me."

"General, our army is measuring the ice here, and if they are discovered by the Jinxuedi people, they will make a detour downstream or further upstream, isn't it in vain for us?"

"Then make this place the only way to go, so that it can only go here."

"I'm afraid this is impossible, this road is walked by people, how can the people of Jin Xuedi only take this road according to our army's ideas."

"What, don't you believe it?"

"My subordinates are stupid, and I really can't think of how I can let Jin Xuedi people fall into the net knowing that there is fraud."

Bailiyan laughed:

"Hehe, believe it or not, the one who came to ask for this general this time must be Mooney."

"Mooney is the most powerful legion commander of the Jinxuedi people, he is resourceful, and it is probably impossible to fool him."

"But everything is possible, and it has not won a single battle since it fought with our army, and it is all defeated by the general. If the general sets up suspicious troops in the upper and lower reaches, he will go to Montina, so that his army can be broken, and before the beginning of spring, our army will have no worries. ”

Baili Yan expected that after the coalition forces evacuated Patins, Mooney would inevitably mobilize cavalry to counterattack Montina in order to avoid greater losses, and inflict heavy losses on the new annexed army before it was completely reorganized and equipped, and the Dolandon River would be an obstacle that must be overcome for its westward advance to Montina.

Doranton traveled up, middle, and down three times, winding hundreds of miles from southwest to northeast, and even if the coalition army was 400,000 veterans, after the river was frozen, it would not be able to prevent it. But only in the middle of the road, closest to Montina.

Fang Liang was worried that Mooney didn't have to worry about finding out that the coalition forces were scouting the ice surface, seeing through the plan, and going around upstream or downstream.

Mooney was defeated again and again, defeated again and again, and was deeply trapped in the Bailiyan tactics and could not extricate himself, and he became more and more cautious in using his troops. The more the coalition forces reconnoitred in the midstream, the calmer the upstream and downstream, and the more Mooney suspected that there were ambushes in the upper and lower reaches, and deliberately lured them to bypass the midstream.

In the final analysis, this is psychological warfare, and once the opponent is scared, it is difficult to get out of this strange circle.

In the middle of the night, he rode back to Montina, and Bai Hao led the people back from Ghanapal with a full load:

"Bai He has seen the general!"

"Well, excuse me." Bailiyan took off her fur trench coat and hung it on the hanger, sat back on the table and continued to ask, "How is the situation in Ganapal?"

"Everything is going well, a lot has been gained, more than 150,000 people from the Central Plains are on the way to move."

"Well, are the horses rewarding?"

"Yes, I got more than 30,000 horses, less than 3,000 good horses, and the other half could barely serve as war horses. But the last general will inquire about one thing, perhaps more important than gold and silver. ”

Bai Liyan's face straightened when he heard the news:

"What?"

"The last general will inquire that Analunda has a unicorn ranch of the Kinshidi people, and that it is a mare."

"Oh, and here's it!"

Bailiyan found the administrative map of Sondia Province and found the city of Anarenda to the south:

"It's eight hundred and sixty miles away from us, it's too far, and now the road is closed by heavy snow, even if you ride a horse, you can run more than a hundred miles a day, and you can go back and forth plus the delay on the road, at least twenty days."

The last general thinks the same, only after the beginning of spring, and then make another plan. If this can get the mare back to the Central Plains and use it for our Xianguo, in the future, there will be no need for the people to transport grain. ”

"Yes, I was suffering from logistical drags and could not be unified for a long time. Jin Xuedi people rely on the power of unicorn horses, and they have no worries about seven or eight thousand miles in the north. If one person goes abroad to fight, the least is four peoplemen to carry grain, and the most is five or six, and 100,000 troops need four or five hundred thousand people to carry grain when they go abroad.

The Jinxuedi people have unicorn horses, which they carry with the army, which can be used as both foot force and people, and they are not bound by civil power. On the contrary, it can also train the people who are bound by logistics and transport into an army and fight together, so that its strength will be so huge. If there is no unicorn, it is far from being my opponent in the Central Plains. ”

During the war, the Jinshedi maintained a regular army of two million and local auxiliaries. An expedition of one million people to 1,000 miles requires at least 4 million people to provide support, and for every additional 1,000 miles, the number of people needs to increase by 25 percent, otherwise the grain will not be transported to the front line, and it will be eaten up by the people on the road, and it will not be transported to the front line at all.

It is seven or eight thousand miles away from Qianyue Mountain, and there are no 10 million people to build a foundation, and there is no 50 million stone grain and grass ballast every year, and it is impossible to guarantee an army of one million people to go on an expedition of seven or eight thousand miles in the agricultural era, not to mention that the war has been fought for five years.

However, with the unicorn horse, the labor used for logistics and transshipment, except for the people who lead the horse, consumes almost negligible other manpower, and the amount of grain, grass and manpower required is only one-tenth of that of the Central Plains.

A unicorn can transport 15 or 6 stones of grain and grass, walking is not slower than a horse, hundreds of thousands of unicorn horses go out with the army, can not only transport grain and, can act as foot force, but also can kill it for meat, greatly liberating the rear manpower. At the same time, the liberated manpower can continue to be transferred to war and agricultural production, which is simply a mobile regiment driving hundreds of thousands of pickup trucks, dragging belongings, and fighting everywhere

In order to avoid the Central Plains from obtaining horse breeds, Jin Xuedi pulled to the front line are stallions, and the mares are all left in the local area to breed, and the discovery of Bai He undoubtedly makes it possible for the Central Plains to obtain unicorn resources.

Of course, Bai Liyan also knew very well in his heart that once the Central Plains obtained a unicorn, it would be very difficult to control it.

But all the captured unicorn horses, all belong to the three kingdoms of Qianyue Mountain and Yuke, although the Song State is a vassal of the Jin State, the Jin State will inevitably have a unicorn horse before the Xian State in the future, when anyone can put logistics manpower into the battlefield, the form and scale of the war is bound to be unprecedented changes.

After learning about the situation in Analunda, the old man outside the door sent hot pot and sliced cattle and sheep, Bailiyan motioned to Bai He to dine together, and continued:

"Anarenda shouldn't just be one ranch, there should be other ranches inside and outside the gates. If you look closely, you may find similar pastures elsewhere in Sondia province. But before that, it should also be beware of the Jinxuedi people and dogs jumping over the wall and slaughtering the mare, so they should not send people to Anarenda for a short time, so as not to provoke the Jinxuedi. ”

"The last will understand."

"Also, is there any news of sending troops west of Sondia Province?"

"No, it is said that the southeast of Songdia is in chaos, either fleeing to the east to Posong, or fleeing to the west to other places in Songdia, the chaos is a mess, and the Jinxuedi people have no way to organize troops."

"They implement a conscription system and a conscription system, whether it is conscription or conscription, it costs money, and after so many years of fighting, no matter how thick the family foundation is, it will be lost."

"But we copied a lot of gold and silver from the treasury of the city governor's office, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, why don't they use these former recruits?"

Bai He was puzzled, and Bai Liyan shook his head:

"According to Ben's understanding, only a small part of these gold and silver coins are gold and silver from the local municipal government, and the rest are deposited by the rich people in the city into the treasury opened by the government for interest, and the local officials have no right to use them for other expenses."

"Ha, there are such things, your own money, you can still save it in the official's treasury to eat interest, what kind of good thing is this, why don't we have it in the Central Plains."

The development of the commodity economy and trade of the Jin Xuedi people made even Bailiyan, who was well-informed and well-informed, breathtaking.

The Jinxuedi people have already appeared with an early banking financial system, and it is a bank opened by the elite in the name of the state and with a private management system, which the Jinxuedi people call "flowing treasury", in short, an early money bank.

The Jinxuedi people encouraged the wealthy, and even the commoners, to deposit their money in the treasury and pay interest on a regular basis according to the size of the savings. It's just that this "interest" is not cash coins or silver coins, but physical goods, copper coins, and even tax exemptions.

In this way, it can avoid the loss of precious metals caused by the payment of gold and silver with benefits, and at the same time meet the needs and privileges of various classes in kind, tax exemptions and copper coins.

The ruling class of Jin Xuedi absorbed savings and invested them in commodity trade and industrial and mining to obtain more funds and materials, and at the same time regulated taxes to offset the impact of interest payments in kind.

However, due to the production of gold and silver precious metals, gold and silver coins have experienced a depreciation in purchasing power in the local area, because there are too many precious metals in the local area, and the exchange rate of inferior copper and gold and silver coins has no official fixation, which further exacerbates inflation.

The emergence of the banking mechanism is only a self-interested measure to avoid damage to the interests of the ruling class and the elite, and cannot fundamentally solve the depreciation of purchasing power caused by the limited production capacity of products and the flood of precious metals under the constraints of productive forces.

In this world, gold and silver have no value in themselves, that is, they cannot be eaten or worn, and their only function is only to artificially give value to other commodities, and then have their own value.

When there is only one bowl of rice left in the world, everyone has 10,000 taels of gold in their hands, and presumably the benchmark for measuring value will become a bowl of rice at this time. Obviously, no amount of gold can be used to fill the stomach.

Due to the general conscription and conscription of the Jinxuedi people, the sales of gold and silver coins were huge, and after five years of war consumption, the treasury was stretched.

However, there are not a few gold and silver copied from the municipal government, ranging from tens of thousands of gold and silver to more than 100,000 gold and silver, and the money from the government treasury of all small cities can most of them maintain the expenditure of an army of 500,000 people for a year or two.

It is a pity that this money does not belong to the treasury, and if it is used by force, it will fundamentally shake the foundation of the dependence of the various nobles on the ruling class.

But if you don't move this money, it obviously didn't end up with any good results, and it still fell into Bailiyan's pocket in the end. And it can be met that at this moment, I don't know how many rich people have squeezed through the bank, quickly withdrawn the money and fled to other places for refuge.

The next day, Bai Liyan asked Fang Liang to take people to gather the new vassals and new vassals who went to Montina, and transferred Bai He to the Dolanton River to survey and familiarize himself with the terrain, and crossed the Dolandon River, and released scouts to the east to establish a peripheral news network.

At the same time, Mooney cobbled together more than 80,000 cavalry and 150,000 infantry troops, and hurried to Sondia.

(End of chapter)