People have no windfall and no wealth, and horses have no night grass and no fat.

When he saw the mountains of silver ingots in Youlida's silver vault, Yang Hao completely understood the true meaning of this sentence. I never thought that a horse bandit would have such a large fortune. This silver vault alone stored no less than 200,000 taels of silver, and Youlida actually owned five of these silver vaults.

"Rich, brother, we are rich." Yang Hao was so excited that he almost didn't jump up, like a person who had been hungry for a long time and wanted to swallow it immediately when he saw a large piece of food.

Yang Hongyang calmly picked up a silver ingot, cut off a corner with a knife, pinched it on his fingertips and carefully examined it, the silver was very fine, and more than half of it was authentic official silver.

"This Youlida is like a ground mouse on this grassland, looking at the small size and killing all the meat. How about Big Brother? Is the deal worth it? ”

"It's worth it, it's worth it." Yang Hao is now sincerely grateful to Yang Hongyang and Yangshan, if it weren't for the arrival of the two of them, he might not have made up his mind to exterminate You Lida. Originally, I thought that a bandit like You Lida, who had been in trouble for many years, must be a master with long thorns that was difficult to deal with, but who knew that when they fought, it was not like that at all.

Yang Hao took Linzhou as a stronghold, and the 5,000-strong army spread out in a fan shape, and launched an all-out war against the thirteen bandits entrenched in the river. The Thirteen Villages collapsed in an instant. You Lida gathered 2,000 bandits to set up a decisive battle with the Xining army at the Xifeng Bridge in the northwest of Xiaochang'an, Yang Hao sent four battalions of the ghost army and two battalions of the tiger and leopard in the Xining army that are the most good at fighting evil wars, and You Lida fought fiercely for a day, the corpses of the soldiers killed on both sides almost blocked the bridge hole of the Xifeng Bridge, and at dusk Yangshan asked for orders to attack, and Yang Hao handed over his own personal battalion Agni Battalion to him to command.

Yangshan adopted the strategy of breaking through in the middle of the road, and killed Du Zhenliang and Wa Liangjin, the two strongest generals under You Lida, before the battle, and the morale of You Lida's coalition army was seriously frustrated. Yang Hongyang saw the opportunity and persuaded Yang Hao to launch a general attack. Yang Hao pressed all the reserves on the whole line, the bandit army collapsed in an instant, dozens of leaders below You Lida were killed, and You Lida abandoned his subordinates and fled around the city with dozens of personal soldiers into the desert.

Yang Hao listened to Yang Hongyang's suggestion and forced the battalions participating in the battle to be stationed outside the city, and urgently transferred the two battalions of Jinfeng and Tie Bell to take over the defense of Xiao Chang'an, because the second battalion did not fight with the bandit army, and there was no grudge between them, so that the soldiers and civilians in the city could be preserved.

For the battalions participating in the battle, Yang Hao was appeased by giving more generous rewards than the battalions.

You Lida obviously didn't expect that he would be defeated at the door of his home, so that he didn't have time to take away the nearly one million taels of gold and silver and the mountains of grain in the silver treasury. Even his wife, the six-room concubine, and a son and three daughters were not taken away. Yang Hao sealed the silver vault, granary and his various transactions, but did not embarrass his family.

"Two elder brothers, how about the rest of our three brothers divide the silver in these treasury equally, except for rewarding the sergeants and dismissing the women?"

Yang Hongyang and Yangshan were stunned for a while when they heard Yang Hao's words, and then they all showed weird smiles. Yang Hao was a little puzzled, and wondered: What? Too little? These two boys have a lot of appetite!

"Hahaha......" Yangshan couldn't hold back,

"Hahaha......" Yang Hongyang also laughed: "Big brother, we don't want any of these things." ”

"You are all responsible for being able to defeat Xiao Chang'an this time, and you deserve this money."

"Hey, what's the use of me asking for money? I don't have a place to pile up such a large pile of silver? Yang Shan smiled innocently, revealing a pair of small tiger teeth. At his age, he didn't quite understand the importance of money.

Yang Hongyang didn't immediately express his position, he thought about it and said, "If the eldest brother doesn't mind, the younger brother will take away 100,000 taels from here." ”

Yang Shan asked disapprerovingly: "Hey, what do you want this Rausch to do, second brother?" ”

"It's not for me, it's for the prince."

When Yangshan heard this, he couldn't help but sigh: "The prince is having a hard time, if this money can help him, big brother, then I will also have 100,000 taels." ”

Yang Hao said: "I understand the intentions of the two brothers, but there is one sentence I must say." A few days ago, I heard that there was an undercurrent in the court that wanted to pull the East Palace off the horse. Of course, the palace infighting has never stopped since ancient times, it is all incompatible, and you are fighting to the death. Outsiders like us don't understand the trick, but I've learned the dangers once. I advise the two of you to think twice about what happened, and not to get yourself involved in it needlessly. ”

Yang Hongyang nodded silently and remained silent. Yangshan said quickly: "Thank you for the reminder, but the prince has a deep affection for us, and at this juncture, we can't leave him alone." I borrowed the money from my eldest brother. ”

Yang Hao said: "Third brother, this is what you are talking about, you go back to Beijing first, and when I turn back, I will use the ticket to pass hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to the Tiande Army stationed in Shangdu Jinyuan, if you need silver, just go to Zhang Cheng to ask for it." But you have to listen to me, and you must give this money directly to the prince, and you must not pretend to others. ”

The two of them responded, and Yang carried forward and said: "The two young ladies of Lord Li will ask the eldest brother to take care of them for a while, and then the prince will come to pick them up when they come back." ”

Yang Hao said with a smile: "Second brother, don't worry, with them here, your three sisters-in-law will not pester me to play mahjong." ”

Yangshan said: "Where did this mahjong brother learn from?" It's very interesting, and when I go back, I will dedicate it to the prince, and he will like it. Yang Hao replied casually: "I learned from a Hu man." I don't think you should sacrifice the prince, lest someone with a heart say that you have bad intentions and bring the prince badly. ”

Yang Shan said disapprerovingly: "Big brother, why do you all think that the prince is not a weapon, to tell you the truth, the prince understands in his heart, he is just pretending to be confused." ”

Yang Hongyang coughed twice when he heard this, lowered his voice and said, "This kind of thing must not be talked about. Yang Hao seemed to have something unspeakable in his words, but he didn't ask. He was not interested in knowing about the affairs of the palace.

The day after breaking through Xiao Chang'an, Yang Hongyang and Yangshan returned to Beijing to resume their lives, except for the entanglement given by Yang Hao, the two of them didn't take a tael of silver. Yangshan took Youlida's eight horses and a pair of falcons, and prepared to present them to the prince as gifts.

It took Yang Hao a lot of effort to carry one million taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of stones of grain back to Feng'an. Prior to this, Yang Hao once had the idea of moving the Feng'an Defense Embassy to Xiaochang'an. Feng'an is a small border city, and the population is not as large as that of Xiaochang'an, and the city wall is not as high as Xiaochang'an.

Xiao Chang'an is located on a desert oasis, the Liang River flows through the southeast of the city, the amount of water is not large, but the water supply of tens of thousands of people is not a problem. The small city is surrounded by an endless desert, there are six or seven hundred miles of road in the west from the Lingzhou of Shuofang Town, the mountain is high and the road is dangerous, the desert is connected with the Gobi, the Gobi is next to the loess slope, it is a natural barrier.

One hundred and eighty miles to the east is Linzhou, a small isolated city with a population of less than 10,000 and a garrison of only a few hundred people, which does not pose any threat to Xiaochang'an.

Crossing the Great Desert to the south is Xia Sui, and at this time the entire Xia Sui Town is under the control of the Baoli Society. There is no threat to Xiao Chang'an.

But Yang Hao finally gave up the idea of moving the embassy, after all, this is the boundary of Linzhou, and as a defense envoy of Fengzhou, it is always a little unreasonable to move the embassy to Linzhou. Moreover, Fengzhou is guarding the north gate of Datang, and it has just been pacified, and it needs to be garrisoned by heavy troops. The most important thing is that Xiaochang'an is not suitable for large-scale military reclamation.

This is a place that should be guarded rather than enterprising.

However, in view of the special status of Xiao Chang'an, Yang Hao did not intend to return it to the Linzhou government. Yang Hao left two battalions to garrison Xiaochang'an, and on this basis, he continued to clear the river of bandits and ensure the smooth flow of the north-south trade route. In order to strengthen his control over Xiaochang'an and the surrounding areas, Yang Hao planned to build an official road from Feng'an in the north to Xiaochang'an in the south. There are post stations and road guards on both sides of the official road to maintain law and order.

It takes a lot of silver to build roads, and it takes a lot of silver to set up post stations and road guards, and You Lida can only be regarded as a big rat at best, killing him can relieve a temporary hunger, but it can't keep a long-term long-term, and the headache of financial problems has been alleviated but it is far from being completely solved.

After finalizing the final details of the military reclamation, Yang Hao set his sights on mining and building factories. I couldn't have thought of it a month ago, and I can think about it in advance, and I can do it. Yang Hao was about to go to Yongfeng to visit Wang Rentong in person and ask him to go out of the mountain to preside over the mining of zinc ore, when an unexpected thing suddenly happened.

There were three prostitutes in the Hundred Flowers Palace who suddenly committed suicide by jumping off a building, killing one and injuring two.

This is something that no one expected, long before the attack on Xiaochang'an, how to settle hundreds of prostitutes in the city, Yang Hao had convened Zhang Huchen and others to discuss, but everyone was too divided and finally it was resolved. When the city was broken, Yang Hao ordered the closure of Baihua Palace and other brothels in the city, and all prostitutes were dismissed on the spot.

In addition to their own private property, the Xining Army also subsidizes part of the travel expenses as appropriate. They must be able to get out of Linzhou and find a place to live. More than half of the seven hundred and eighty prostitutes were quickly dismissed, but only a dozen of the more than three hundred people in the Hundred Flowers Palace left. The prostitutes here all have four common characteristics: they are all ruined, they have been confiscated as slaves, they have been abducted and trafficked here by human traffickers, they are all homeless, they have no relatives to turn to, and they are all forced to fall into the dust. To be dismissed is to drive them to their deaths.

So let Baihuagong reinstate? Keeping their jobs? Yang Hao would never agree to do this. Zhang Yannian suggested that Yang Hao take all the women over and stay in the camp as camp prostitutes.

The camp prostitute system was founded in the Han Dynasty, lasted for six dynasties, and lasted until the Tang Dynasty. "The History of the Han Dynasty" records that "there were no prostitutes in ancient times, and the Han Dynasty began to set up camp prostitutes to treat the soldiers who had no wives". In fact, prostitutes had appeared before the Qin and Han dynasties, and Gou Jian had adopted the practice of "Youser" and Guan Zhong had adopted the practice of "Nulu", but by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the establishment of prostitutes was only established as a system.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was an emperor who was eloquent and strategic, and he used a lot of troops to recruit foreign countries for many years, and how to stabilize the morale of the army and improve morale became an important topic, and setting up prostitutes was one of the measures in this regard.

Prior to this, there was also a system of "suppressing" the military camp for women in the Han Dynasty, which can be regarded as the predecessor of the prostitute system. "Hanshu Li Ling Biography" records: "The first army of the tomb went out of the Guandong, and the wives of the thieves migrated to the border with the army as the wives of the pawns. (Li Ling led the army out of the Kanto region, escorted the wives of some robbers to the army to accompany the army to "suppress" the soldiers as wives, the women were unwilling, hid in the car and refused to come out, Li Ling searched them out and killed them with a sword.) ）

In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the conscription system replaced the government military system, and the soldiers changed from "Fanshang Su Guard" to "Long March athletes", and prostitutes in the border towns and military camps had long been common. A few months ago, when Yang Hao carried out military reform, he wanted to make up his mind to get rid of this chronic disease in the army, but in the end, because the opposition was too loud, he finally failed to do it, which also became a heart disease for Yang Hao.

Therefore, when Zhang Yannian proposed to confiscate the singers of Baihua Palace as camp prostitutes, Yang Hao categorically refused. For the singers who were unwilling to be dismissed on the spot, Yang Hao ordered them all to be brought back to Feng'an, and a women's camp was set up for them to live in. Ask Lang Zhong to diagnose and treat diseases for everyone, and at the same time select the old man who is reasonable, virtuous and experienced to enter the camp to soothe the soul, help everyone remove the shadow in their hearts and be a new person.

Everyone didn't understand Yang Hao's intentions in doing this, and Yang Hao didn't explain much. A month later, Yang Hao suddenly sent Lu Guang, the secretary in charge, to the women's camp in the name of the yamen of the Defense Embassy and posted a list in the women's camp: The Defense Embassy should recruit four secretaries in the women's camp. The recruitment conditions are clearly written, and a special person is assigned to guard the list in front of the list and be responsible for answering the questions of the consultees. Lu Guang even set up an examination room in the camp, and applicants can take the exam on the spot. The test papers are marked on the spot and the results are announced on the spot.

This unprecedented event attracted dozens of people in the women's camp to sign up, and Lu Guang tested the test in batches according to the prepared test questions, and the teacher of Feng'an County and a few well-educated Confucians were responsible for grading the papers. Finally, six test papers were presented to Lu Guang, who selected four people and posted the test papers of the four people in front of the camp gate for publicity.

Because of the fairness of the matter, everyone worshipped it. Lu Guang took the four of them back to the Defense Embassy on the spot. This seemingly inconspicuous little thing is like pouring a bowl of cold water into an oil pot, and the entire city of Fengzhou is blown upside down. It is fashionable for all yamen, new factories, workshops, and taverns to recruit new people to the women's camp.

Half a month later, there were only thirty-eight people left in the women's camp, and this hot potato was finally thrown away.