After the Tubo and Tuyuhun rangers snooped several times, there was no news, Huixibao sent people to the Hehuang area several times to investigate, and did not find a large-scale concentration of troops in the Hehuang area, it seems that the Tubo people are not too sensitive to the construction of Huixi Fort, perhaps their goal is only to go east, not to the north, and this matter has gradually been forgotten.

At the beginning of May, the quicksand river sent three gold sands, Zhang Huan specially ordered craftsmen to cast them into ingots according to the Datang standard of twenty-five taels, and after removing impurities, they obtained extremely high purity gold nuggets, and their purity even exceeded the gold ingots cast by the Shaofu Temple of the imperial court.

On this day, Zhang Huan went to Tianbao County to inspect the progress of land redistribution, Tianbao County is a county with more Longyou military households, about 2,000 households, and it is also the county of Wuwei County where the garrison is second only to Huixibao, with a garrison of 3,000 people, mainly to defend against the Tubo people who came from Zhangye.

Tianbao County is the largest grassland area in Wuwei County, a hundred miles of Shiyang River runs through the county, and dozens of small tributaries are injected into it, all the way to the Tengger Desert in the north, on both sides of the Shiyang River is a radius of dozens of miles of grassland.

May is the fattest season of pastures, pure as sapphire under the sky, large herds of cattle and sheep stroll leisurely on the grassland, from time to time you can see a group of military horses galloping on the grassland, in the distance is the snow-capped Qilian Mountains.

After traveling more than 100 miles, the mottled city wall of Tianbao County has been faintly visible, and the new county commander of Tianbao County, who had been reported in advance, came from afar to greet him, and the new county commander was surnamed Huang. About fifty years old, he was originally a county magistrate in Longyou, after the Hui people attacked Kaiyang County the year before last. He was ousted and returned home in the subsequent large-scale officialdom purge, because one of his sons served in the army in Hexi, he simply served as a military household and was relocated to Hexi, and was immediately appointed as Tianbao County Cheng by Zhang Huan, who was extremely short of talents.

Zhang Huan always has a special affection for Tianbao County, and the people of Tianbao County miss him very much. Along the way, from time to time, herdsmen rushed to greet him, after entering the county seat. Huge groups of children and women ran out of their homes to greet them, and many soldiers carried the children on their horses, and dozens of dogs laughed and laughed in front of the horses.

Tianbao County is medium-sized, originally there were more than 1,000 households living in the city, 7 or 8,000 people, most of them were concentrated on both sides of a narrow street in the east of the city, while the west and north of the city were large open spaces, in Zhang Huan's memory. There are wild grasses more than one person high, often infested with poisonous insects, but now they have been turned into neat wooden houses, and have become a place where military households are concentrated.

Zhang Huan did not go to the county office, but went straight to the west of the city where the military households were settled.

"Has the river been widened?" Zhang Huan asked in surprise as he pointed to a river about five zhang wide. In his memory, this small river called Panhe Water was originally only one zhang wide, but now it has become five zhang wide. Huang Xianling smiled bitterly and said: "This is what the military households did to expand by themselves when they first moved here. ”

"Why?"

"Fearing attack by locals, they widened the river to protect themselves." Huang Xianling said. He also pointed to a wide and flat wooden bridge and said, "Do you see it?" The bridge was built by the military families themselves in early March, before that. The east and west of the city are separated by a river, and they do not communicate with each other, and Li County Commander is also afraid of accidents, so he orders the people in the west of the city not to go to the east of the city, making Tianbao County seem to have become two counties. ”

Zhang Huan dismounted, patted the sturdy wooden bridge, and said with a slight smile: "Then why is the bridge being repaired now?" Is it that the vigilance is removed. ”

Huang Xianling nodded, and said with a smile: "In fact, the local people are simple, the people here are really good, often throw some sheep across the river, and the children also secretly swim across the river to play together. ”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a large group of children of seven or eight years old running from afar, all of them carrying wooden swords, and rushing over the wooden bridge with joy, while there was also a group of children on the opposite side, jumping and preparing to meet them.

Seeing this situation, Zhang Huan was really relieved in his heart, the ethnic groups in Hexi are complex, about half of the people are Qiang, Turkic, Tubo, Hui and other ethnic groups, the folk customs are rough and strong, he is most worried that the military households in Longyou come to Hexi and clash with the locals, causing chaos, now it seems that the situation is far better than he thought. Huang Xian Ling seemed to know Zhang Huan's thoughts, he sincerely admired: "In fact, this is mainly suitable for the land strategy of the governor, the governor deprived the big families of the land, although the big families in the city are making trouble, but the ordinary people in the city have benefited, in addition to the arable land allocated to the military households and the army directly under the army, some land is also allocated to the local people who have children to join the army, and the army hires the original tenants to reduce the land rent, everyone is happy, so the existential contradictions that should have been eliminated are invisible, The Governor's hand is really high! ”

"It's nothing." Zhang Huan smiled faintly and said: "The resettlement of military households is nothing more than the redistribution of interests, some people gain and others lose, there is nothing to do both, so it is better to cry as a family than to cry all the way." ”

Huang Xian Ling nodded silently, he has been an official in Longyou for many years, when Wei Ge had a conflict with the party members, he adopted the method of slaughtering the place, so that the contradiction between the party and the Han people is acute, which is due to the failure to properly handle the national contradictions.

"The governor can treat these non-Han people well, this is indeed the right way."

Zhang Huan glanced at him, but shook his head and said: "Things are not what you think, you can't blindly do good, this must also be treated differently, I naturally won't embarrass the good people who live together with the Han people, but there is one point, these ethnic groups cannot form a tribe or a political regime, once they have the heart of self-reliance, sooner or later they will be the great enemy of our Central Plains, in this case, we must not be soft, and we must completely eliminate it when it first appears." ”

The two of them talked and walked, and soon came to the place where the military households lived, where there were 2,000 military households, almost half of the county seat. Completely different from the dirty and messy land in the eastern part of the city, the houses here are all built by the army in pieces of wood, and they are neatly and uniformly. The road is also very wide, all are compacted with soil, there is no grass on the road, every household has a courtyard, over the shoulder-high courtyard wall, you can see that there are vegetables and vegetables in the yard, some raise chickens and ducks in the yard, and almost every yard has a tree. It looks very cosy and cozy.

It was almost noon, and the entire military area was very quiet, and Zhang Huan saw that many women were holding clay pots and preparing to go out. Then he turned back to look at Huang Xianling.

Huang Xianling hurriedly smiled: "They are going to deliver food to their men, and everyone is on the ground!" ”

"Anyway, it's fine, so let's go and take a look!"

The arable land of Tianbao County is not much, about more than 300 hectares, mainly concentrated in the east of the county, distributed on both sides of a river called Mulberry, where the soil is fertile, the water source and the sunshine are abundant, the large wheat fields are endless, and the wheat fields are full of ditches.

In order not to disturb the people. Zhang Huan ordered the soldiers to be temporarily stationed in the barracks outside the city, and he came to the wheat field accompanied by more than a dozen personal soldiers and Huang Xianling.

It was May, and the wheat fields were golden and the breeze was blowing, and the golden waves of wheat were rolling under the blue sky. At this time, it was a critical time for the field to be cared for, and the ridges were full of farmers eating lunch.

Zhang Huan suddenly found a huge windmill-shaped object by the river two miles away, and his curiosity couldn't help but increase, he ran quickly, and when he came closer, he realized that it was actually a huge cylinder car. Use hydraulic power and thick bamboo tubes. A steady stream of river water into the canal, this kind of tube car Zhang Huan saw when he was in Taiyuan. But it was the first time he had seen it in the Hexi region.

At this time, a group of farmers were sitting under the cart to eat, and when they saw Zhang Huan looking at the cart in a daze, an old man came over and smiled proudly: "Official, this cart is made by the grass people." ”

Zhang Huan made a gesture behind his back, signaling Huang County Ling and his soldiers not to come over for the time being, he smiled and nodded: "Your surname?" Where are you from? ”

Old man Yang saw that Zhang Huan had a kind attitude, he was young, and he was still wearing a new official uniform, it was estimated that he was a new branch jinshi or something, and he was assigned to the county as a petty official, and the timidity at the beginning slowly disappeared, and he smiled with a hint of an elder's tone: "My surname is Yang, a native of Fenyang County, Hedong, and a tenant in my hometown, but here I have twenty acres of farmland, where is Xiaoyou from?" ”

"My husband turned out to be from Fenyang County, Hedong" Zhang Huan pulled him to sit down and said with a smile: "My surname is Zhang and I am from Taiyuan, Hedong, speaking of which, we are still fellow villagers!" My husband has two sons in the army? ”

"It turns out that the little brother is also from Hedong! Then we're really fated. The old man Yang didn't react for a while, Taiyuan Zhang's surname was special, he smiled with a smug smile on his face: "My eldest son was with Zhang Dudu to go back to Hui, and later with him into Beijing, and then to Hexi, at the beginning of the year he wrote to tell me that I could get ten acres of land, let me come over, I took a large family to come, saw that there was really land, so let the second son also join the army, and the result was 20 acres of land, I planted a lifetime of land, and it was the first time to get my own land." ”

"Uncle Yang, I'll go first." A sturdy black man greeted him.

Old Man Yang hurriedly stood up, opened his throat and shouted, "I'll sleep in the ground tonight, you can go home!" ”

"My husband has hired someone?" Zhang Huan couldn't help but be a little surprised when he saw that they seemed to be in a group.

"Twenty acres of land and how many people are employed, my youngest son and I will be enough to plant." Old man Yang sat down, shook his head and said: "He is a Qiang man, he is a tenant who originally rented my land, and when the wheat was planted, the land changed owners, and I had no money to give him, so I discussed with him, and he continued to help me, and after the harvest, the wheat was divided into forty percent of him." ”

Zhang Huan was slightly stunned, he hadn't considered the interests of the tenants in the past, seeing that the summer harvest was imminent, if this matter was not properly handled, it was very likely that something would happen, he thought about it and asked: "Do you think there is any good way to solve this problem?" ”

Old Man Yang pondered for a while and said: "I think it is best for the government to set the rules, so that some people are willing and some people are unwilling." ”

Zhang Huan nodded, this matter has to be started when he goes back, and the three-year tax exemption also needs to take these tenants into account, thinking of this, Zhang Huan smiled and diverted the topic and asked: "Since the old man can make a cylinder car, can he make a quyuan plow?" Just draw a pattern and let the carpenter do it. ”

Old man Yang saw that Zhang Huan was very knowledgeable and dark-skinned, not like a child of a well-pampered family, especially without the slightest official frame, he couldn't help but like it, he glanced at the Huang County Order in the distance, then patted Zhang Huan's shoulder and smiled: "Little Brother Zhang is accompanying the Huang County Order to inspect!" It's hard for you to leave Hedong to be an official here, I don't know if you are married? ”

As he spoke, his eyes glanced back, and Zhang Huan found that there was a young woman standing behind him, about sixteen or seven years old, who was cleaning up the clay pot, it was estimated that she was the daughter of the old man Yang, and her appearance was also delicate, she heard the words of the old man Yang, her face couldn't help but turn crimson, and she ran away.

Old man Yang laughed, "This girl is still shy." ”

Zhang Huan understood what he meant, just smiled and said nothing, at this time, he saw a servant running from afar, reporting something to the Huang County Order, the Huang County Order immediately looked up to himself, Zhang Huan knew what was wrong, so he stood up, took out a famous thorn and handed it to the old man Yang and said: "Uncle, I am an official in Wuwei, if the officials of Tianbao County bully you, you can come to me directly." ”

After that, he patted the old man Yang on the shoulder, and walked quickly, the old man Yang pinched the famous thorn, and looked at Zhang Huandi's back blankly, he saw Huang County's order bow to this little brother Zhang, and he was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth, he looked at the famous thorn again, but he didn't know the words on it, he suddenly remembered his son's letter, saying that they Zhang Dudu was also from Taiyuan, Hedong, and was a very young person, he finally reacted, and couldn't help but slap himself in the mouth, "Old thief, what kind of eyes do you look like!" ”