The New Year in the barracks is dull and boring. No merchant would sell firecrackers near Guwei, even bamboo poles are rare [Note 1], and there is no festive atmosphere at all. In the barracks outside the inn, the gambling sound was the loudest.

On the afternoon of New Year's Day, Liu Changzuo led a group of partial school assistants to come over to congratulate, invited Wang Shao and Han Gang to have a banquet, and then dispersed.

The wine and food provided by Guwei Village on weekdays really can't mention chopsticks, and the quality of the salt used is not good, and there is a bitter taste in the mouth. The well salt commonly used here is far less than the salt produced by the common pond salt in Shangqinzhou - Jiezhou Salt Pond and Qingbai Salt Pond, and it is of the best taste in the whole territory of the Great Song Dynasty.

The salty and bitter dishes, Han Gang, who is accustomed to light tastes, can't eat them at all, Wang Shao's father and son stop tasting it, and Zhao Long and the guards are also bitter. Wang Sunchen couldn't stop complaining: "Just rely on the salt produced in this bird place, add catties by catty to the dishes, and want to make us into cured meat?" Li Xin was the only one who ate silently.

Although Liu Changzuo's hospitality was all based on etiquette, this hospitality was lukewarm. Wang Shao didn't seem to mind at all, but Han Gangzhi, who already knew something about Wang Shao's character, said that his master might have already made a hard note in his heart.

Han Gang's heart was not happy, he knew that Liu Changzuo was afraid of Xiang Bao, so he turned his mind in his heart, thinking about how to make Liu Changzuo hate Xiang Bao, and had to throw it over.

However, Han Gang was still quite respected by the lower-level officers and soldiers of Guwei Village, and when they saw him, there were many people who nodded their heads. The soldiers who served Han Gang's daily life were also very attentive.

Han Gang's actions in Gangu City spread almost all the walled forts on Qinfeng Road. Tens of thousands of Qinzhou soldiers all knew that there would soon be an apprentice of Sun Simiao and Sun Zhenren to take care of Qin Fenglu's injury and illness - although there was a misunderstanding of Sun Simiao's disciple's identity, Han Gang would never admit it on the surface, but tried his best to clarify; But the speed and breadth of the spread of rumors did not surprise him, and it played into his arms.

Eating military rations and guarding the frontier, no one can pat their chests and say that they will be safe and secure from a little injury all their lives. Liu Changzuo was afraid of Xiang Bao, the top boss, but ordinary soldiers didn't care so much. The high-ranking Du Chan will not even glance at his own body out of the corner of his eyes, so why bother to offend him and become a benevolent man who may save his life in the future?

The brazier for heating in Han Gang's room was never extinguished even in the second half of the night. And after he got up in the morning and exercised his muscles, someone immediately brought a large bucket of hot water to invite him to bathe and change his clothes. The mounts are scrubbed and polished, and they are fed with the finest soybean meal. Eating bitter salt, after Han Gang mentioned it, it was also a lot better, it is said that it was changed to clean water to remove the bitterness in the coarse salt, and the refined salt was boiled for the second time.

This kind of treatment, even Wang Shao relied on him. Wang Hou also saw that his eyes were hot, and he avoided him in private, and said to Han Gang with a smile: "Yukun, you can probably walk sideways in Qin Feng in the future, no one dares to offend you." ”

Han Gang smiled and said nothing, he couldn't reply to this.

In terms of treating people diligently, Liu Changzuo's attitude towards Wang Shao and Han Gang and his entourage should be counted backwards, and the performance of the low-level generals in Guweizhai made Han Gang want to pull Liu Changzuo over and let him study hard. As for the attitude of the Fan tribe near Guwei towards Liu Changzuo, it is slightly inferior to the latter, but far surpasses the former.

Nazhi Linzhanbu, who was most attached to the Great Song Dynasty, sent dozens of sheep as a festival gift early a year ago, and specially selected a good horse for Liu Changzuo - a tall and majestic jujube red Hexi horse. On the second day of the first lunar month, the chiefs of the tribe came to congratulate them under the leadership of the patriarch, and no one in Guwei Prefecture could be more deferential than them.

The Nazhi Linzhan tribe was originally the largest Tibetan tribe in ancient Weizhou, and once owned nine nearby valleys with tens of thousands of people. But now the power has been greatly reduced, and only three of them have been preserved—this is still due to the good karma they formed when they were the first to join the Great Song Dynasty twenty years ago.

And the one who replaced them as the strongest Tibetan tribe in Guwei was the tribe represented by a group of Tibetan people who had just entered the official hall.

Wang Hou and Han Gang had nothing to do, guarding outside the official hall, watching a group of Tibetan mermaids rushing in - mainly Han Gang pulled Wang Hou, he hoped to learn a little more about the Fan Department who knew Gu Wei. It was only an hour outside the official hall that he had a more intuitive understanding of the northwest region and had first-hand information. This is much more useful than sitting in the official hall of Qinzhou and rummaging through the piles of old papers.

Wang Shaoren was in the hall. He raised the affairs of Qin Feng's Fan Ministry, since others were in the village, and there were people from the Fan Ministry, even if Liu Changzuo was unwilling, he had to let Wang Shao sit in his official hall.

"It's a person from the Qingtang Department......"

Wang Hou said in Han Gang's ear. In the past few years, Wang Hou has followed Wang Shao to many places in the border area of Shaanxi, and he has a basic understanding of the Great Fan Department in various places, and there are slight differences in the banners and costumes of different Fan Ministries, Han Gang can't see it, but Wang Shao and Wang Hou can tell at a glance.

The Qingtang Department of Guwei has nothing to do with the Qingtang Wangcheng owned by Tubo Zanpu and Dong Yu, but it just happens to be the same name. Speaking of the same name, Han Gang had been to Guwei in his previous life, but at that time the name was already Longxi, Gansu, and he also visited Shouyang Mountain near the county seat, which is the legendary place where Uncle Boyi, who did not eat Zhou Su, starved to death.

But not only Longxi County, but also many places in Hebei, Henan, and Shanxi have a Shouyang Mountain, all of which claim to be the most secluded place of Boyi Shuqi. It's just that now Hangang is 'revisiting the old land', but I haven't heard that there is any Shouyang Mountain here in Guwei, which must have been created by later generations.

The Qingtang tribe is the most populous, the most extensive and the most prosperous tribe near Guwei, and even brings together the ancient Wei village to be called Qingwei by the world. The salt wells owned by it are said to bring profits to the Qingtang Department of eight horses per day. That's a staggering number.

Horses in the Northern Song Dynasty are expensive, and the most common horses have to go up ten times, while war horses all start at thirty times and run up to a hundred times. Even if you take the cheapest horse calculation, eight horses is a hundred, and a net income of more than 35,000 a year!

Wang Hou mentioned the Qingtang Yanjing that day, and once sighed, if these 35,000 years belong to Guwei Village, without the following courtiers to mention, the officials themselves will ask Guwei to build an army.

"Didn't the Qingtang Department not return to obedience? Why did they come too? Could it be that Yu Longke plans to ask the court for an official? Han Gang was a little puzzled. These days, he has also collected information about the Tibetan tribe in many ways, although he is not as well-informed as Wang Hou, but he still knows who the clan chief of the Qingtang tribe of Lu Dao is.

The Qingtang Department did not return to the Great Song Dynasty, did not accept the official position of the imperial court, and did not donate soil. According to the classification of the Fan people in the Great Song Dynasty, they belonged to the raw households, and the Nazhi Linzhan Department who served the Great Song Dynasty was a familiar household. Is it customary for a Shengbo tribe to come to pay New Year's greetings? Or is it a special case?

"To be able to call the king behind closed doors, of course Yu Longke will not be willing to become a courtier of the Great Song Dynasty. But this does not mean that the Qingtang Ministry is unwilling to make friends with the imperial court. Forming a good relationship on weekdays also saves trouble in the future, and many Tibetan tribes also do this. What's more, apart from salt and horses, the Qingtang Department does not produce anything else, and it has to rely on the caravan that comes to Guwei......"

"Isn't the Qingtang Department claiming to have more than 120,000 people under its account?" Wang Sunchen has always regarded the Tibetan people as thieves, and has always thought of them in the worst way, "Yu Longke's bird may want to be a Li Yuanhao, kowtow in front, stab a knife in the back, and occupy Guweizhou!" ”

"120,000?" Wang Hou sneered disdainfully: "Yes, indeed!" If you count the sheep, you can count the sheep a little less, and add the dogs a little more. Add another horse, maybe it can be 130,000! ”

Han Gang also shook his head and laughed, such rumors cannot be believed, Qinzhou is an important town in the northwest, and the Han people are only more than 100,000 Dingkou [Note 2], how can a Tibetan department have the same manpower as Qinzhou: "Of course it is a joke to have 120,000 people under the account." Gu Wei is so big, how many accounts can he hold?

Combined, there may indeed be 120,000 tribes. A single Qingtang Department can have a 30,000 Dingkou, and it would be good to form two or three well-equipped thousand-person teams. The direct collar tribe of Dong Yu or Mu Zheng is estimated to be only about 100,000! ”

"But Dong Yu and Mu Zheng gave an order, and it was easy for 350,000 Tibetan elites. Even if Yu Longke can get together around 10,000 in Guwei, right? ”

"It doesn't matter how many troops there are," Han Gang said, if you want to expand the border Hehuang, but you can't even beat the Qingtang Department, then don't think about Hezhou Muzheng and Dong Yu on the Qinghai bank, "The Qingtang Department is standing on the road, and if you want to send troops to Hehuang, you can't go around him." Either destroy him or subdue him. He must not be allowed to be at both ends! ”

"But Mu Zheng, Dong Yu, and the West Thief all sent people to Yu Longke's tent." Han Gang's understanding of geography has been admired by Wang Hou. And the strategic significance of the Qingtang Department, there is no need for Han Gang to say, Wang Hou also understands. Even if he doesn't know much about geography, from Mu Zheng, Dong Yu and Xia Ren's wooing of Yu Longke, anyone can see the importance of the Qingtang Department, "The grass on the wall is on both sides, and Yu Longke is running in all directions." Dong Yu, Mu Zheng, the West Thief and the imperial court, he burns incense every time he sees the temple, and a Bodhisattva must not offend ......"

Wang Houzheng disdainfully talked about the ugly things of worshipping Buddha on all sides of the Qingtang Department, and the figure in front of the official hall flickered, and Zhao Long, who was tall and broad, walked out of the hall. Zhao Long's figure and appearance had a deterrent power much higher than that of Wang Sunchen and Li Xin, so he was taken by Wang Shao's side and met with Liu Changzuo to meet the visitors from the Tibetan Ministry. And Wang Sunchen and Li Xin could only stand outside the tent, guarding Han Gang and Wang Hou.

Note 1: The earliest firecrackers were put into the fire to burn, and the sound of the bamboo bursting was heard, hence the name of the firecracker. After arriving in the Northern Song Dynasty, gunpowder and firecrackers gradually became popular.

Note 2: In ancient times, only the number of males was counted, that is, the number of adult males from 20 to 60. There are 120,000 males, which is about 300,000 in total population.

ps: Wang Shao's first goal to expand the border of Hehuang appeared......

Today's third watch, as usual red ticket, collection