Xue Rengui led the horse out of Yuezhou City, and then flew on the horse, beat the horse and galloped to the south, Yuezhou is on the shore of Dongting Lake, not too far from the place where the Turks are settled, speaking of Dongting Lake in later generations Although it is a rich land of fish and rice, but in the Tang Dynasty, it is a swampy land flooded with floods. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Dongting Lake is located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and on the north bank of the river, there was also a lake and swamp in the past, and Dongting Lake is called Yunmengze, the area of Yunmengze is getting smaller and smaller, to this period of the Tang Dynasty, the north bank has become a rich land, not only lives a large number of people, but also is one of the famous granaries of the Tang Dynasty, but the Dongting Lake area on the south bank is still swampy, every summer the water level of the Yangtze River rises, Dongting Lake will be flooded, and there is mud and stagnant water everywhere.

As early as the Jin Dynasty, some people pointed out that the potential of the Dongting Lake area is huge, if the flood can be eliminated, this must be a rich land, but this requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and at this time, the land around the Central Plains is also quite rich, so the rulers of the Central Plains have no motivation to govern the Dongting Lake area.

It is precisely because of the huge potential of Dongting Lake that Li Xiu took a fancy to these and used it as a place for Turkic people to migrate, with the help of these Turkic people who were similar to prisoners of war, to transform the area around Dongting Lake little by little, hoping to make it the same grain producing area as the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Xue Rengui ran all the way along the eastern shore of Dongting Lake, and walked for about a day before he came to the area where the Turks were settled, but what he didn't expect was that before he could see the Turks, he was stopped by the officers and soldiers at the intersection.

"What's your name and where does it come from?" A soldier guarding the intersection stopped Xue Rengui, and then asked with a scrutinizing face.

"In Xia Xue Rengui, from Chang'an, this time I went to Hongcheng to visit relatives!" Xue Rengui also got off his horse at this time and said, Hongcheng is a new city built by Zhao Deyan for the Turks on the shore of Dongting Lake, specifically to manage these migrated Turks, in fact, although these Turks were relocated internally, they were not allowed to contact with the Tang people in normal times, and the living area was also fixed, and all the intersections leading to the outside world were guarded by checkpoints like this.

Hearing that Xue Rengui was from Chang'an, the attitude of the soldier immediately softened a lot, and of course he interrogated him again, and then he opened the refusal to let him go. Xue Rengui walked a few more miles, and then he really came to the area where the Turks lived.

This is the shore of Dongting Lake, the water network is dense, there is a small river almost every few miles, some of the small rivers are even newly excavated, the river bank is still piled with high mud, and there are small bridges built on the river, which is very convenient to pass, but in the land on both sides of the river, there are some people who are obviously Turkic dressed up are wielding hoes to reclaim the wasteland, and some fields are also planted with crops such as sweet potatoes and corn, and the green ones look extremely vigorous.

At the end of the field, you can also see some newly built villages, but the houses are a little simple, most of them are made of some wooden planks, and the style is also a little strange, which is obviously different from the houses of the Han people, but more like tents made of wood, which should be where these Turks live.

After a few more miles, I finally saw a small town, most of the people in the town were Turks, but there were also a small number of Han traders doing business, such as collecting some special products from the Turkic land, and then selling some daily necessities necessary for the Turks, which could be said to make money at both ends.

Xue Rengui saw that it was not early, so he found a place to live in the town and rested for a night, there are some shops opened by Han merchants in this town, which can allow pedestrians to stay and eat, but there are too few Han people here, and I heard others say that the vast majority of Han people live in Hongcheng, and few Han people have been mixed with Turks for a long time, mainly because it is not safe, after all, after the Turks moved here, many people are resentful, and they are not very friendly to the Han people, so although there are Han people doing business with these Turks, But they all tried to return to Hongcheng to live.

Xue Rengui stayed in a simple small guest room for one night, and did not eat in the store the next day, but bought two large bags of dry food to eat while walking, and walked like this for another day, and when it was getting late, he saw that a big city finally appeared in front of him, and this was the Hongcheng that Zhao Deyan had spent several years building to build.

In order to settle the Turkic people who moved inward, the Tang Dynasty deliberately set aside a vast area of land on the southeast side of Dongting Lake, of course, most of them are flooded swamps, after Zhao Deyan's governance, the area of fields on this land has also increased rapidly, and more and more grain has been produced, and even now the grain has been self-sufficient, so Li Shimin divided this area into a separate state, called Hongzhou, and Hongcheng is the seat of Hongzhou.

When Xue Rengui came to the gate of Hongcheng, he found that there were Han and Turkic people among the people who came in and out, and he found that most of the Turks were brightly dressed, and it seemed that the Turks were also divided into three, six, nine and so on.

After entering Hongcheng, Xue Rengui couldn't help but be a little surprised to find that although Hongcheng is a newly built city, the city is very lively, the shops on both sides of the street are also very planned, there are sounds of selling everywhere, and the streets are also full of traffic, among which you can also see many Turks also start doing business like the Han people, and even some people who look like Turkic people have also begun to change into Hanfu, it is estimated that it will not be long before there are no Turks here.

Xue Rengui knew that his prospective father-in-law was in Hongcheng, and his family should also live here, but the area of Hongcheng was not small, and the population was so large, and he didn't know the address, so naturally there was no way to find it, but fortunately, when he came, Li Xiu gave him a letter, asking him to go directly to Zhao Deyan, who had been promoted to the assassin of Hongzhou.

However, at this time, it was getting late, although the street was still very lively, but it was already past the time to visit, although Xue Rengui wanted to see his prospective father-in-law as soon as possible, but he was also a person who knew how to be polite, so in the end he decided to rest for one night first, and wait until tomorrow morning to visit the Assassin's Mansion.

In addition, Xue Rengui didn't stop all the way, he hadn't even taken a bath, and the clothes on his body were dirty and smelly, and it was really inconvenient to visit, so he first found an inn, then took a good bath, and ate a full meal, and then lay on the bed to rest.

However, just when Xue Rengui was sleeping, he was suddenly woken up by a noise outside, and he had just jumped up from the bed when he had always been alert, and then he only heard a "whoosh", and a long arrow actually shot in from the window!