For Akihito and Mingli, they were more interested in panning for gold, and according to the map given to them by the Kun people, Fanning quickly found the river rich in gold sand.

The river is located in the northwest corner of Kunzhou, two or three hundred miles long, only two feet deep, crystal clear, the bottom of the river is covered with thick gravel, but it is very remote here, about four hundred miles away from the horse breeding base, there is nothing except the vast grassland.

Even the horses of the horse farm do not run here, and it is completely undeveloped.

Fan Ning hired twenty Kun people at the horse breeding base, and left Xu Qing to them, leaving three large tents and ten days of food supplies, and made an appointment to pick them up five days later.

After arranging everyone, the ship immediately went north to Whale State.

Whale State is Sakhalin Island, and Fanning originally named it Beikunzhou, but the imperial court vetoed this name, considering that it was located in the northern part of the Whale Sea, so it was named Whale State.

Although the development of Whale State is far less than that of Kunzhou, Fanning has already begun to implement the development plan.

Fanning did not consider turning Whale State into a second horse breeding ground, he considered Whale State more from a military point of view, and he considered building two military cities that could accommodate tens of thousands of troops in Whale State in ten years.

One military city is located at the southernmost tip of Whale Island, only separated from Kunzhou by a strait of tens of miles, and can be supplied from Kunzhou in time, and the other military city is located opposite the mouth of the Heishui Sea, in the north-central part of Whale State.

With these two military cities, the foundation was laid for the future attack on the Liao State from the north.

At present, the Song army has established a small military camp in the southernmost part of Whale State, and fifty soldiers have successfully spent the winter in the barracks.

The military camp has been expanded, from accommodating fifty people to accommodating three hundred, and since the Great Song Dynasty has divided Whale Prefecture into a territory, a perennial garrison is a necessary condition.

Fanning is preparing for the military and political affairs of Whale State, and he is fully responsible for the affairs of Whale State.

Fanning, of course, is also starting to spread out the affairs of Whale State, before that, he has sent an exploration team composed of three officials, five craftsmen, thirty soldiers and several Kun Clan guides to carry out a comprehensive investigation of Whale State for half a year, this exploration team has been in Whale State for half a month, and there is no news yet.

Another thing that Fanning did when he came to Whale State this time was to learn about the situation of more than a hundred wild horses.

These wild horses must have come from the mainland, the northern steppes entered the ice age during the two Jin and Northern Dynasties, and the strait between Sakhalin and the mainland also froze in winter, and a large number of horses and animals that escaped the cold and some tribes should have crossed the strait into Sakhalin at that time.

Although the current strait freezes in winter, it is dominated by ice floes, and it is no longer possible to reach Sakhalin directly from land.

These more than 100 wild horses attracted the great attention of the Kunzhou Herding Division, and Yang Yun, the capital supervisor, personally led dozens of his subordinates and 200 Kun people to capture these horses in Whale Prefecture.

Fanning's ships docked in the southernmost bay, a natural deep-water harbor and ice-free harbor where the barracks were located.

Fanning took Juppé and a dozen soldiers ashore to the barracks.

The barracks covers an area of about 30 acres, consisting of more than 40 wooden houses, surrounded by tall and dense fences, and high guard towers, where the enemy is mainly wolves, and the barracks were attacked by wolves three times last winter, and the soldiers shot dozens of wolves, but also killed seven soldiers.

The current garrison of the barracks is about 200 people, led by a commander, Fan Ning just arrived in front of the camp gate, and the commander Wu Lan quickly came out, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "Humble Wu Lan see Fan Yushi!" ”

"General Wu, please get up!"

Fan Ning hurriedly helped him up and said with a smile: "Listening to General Wu's accent, it seems that we are fellow villagers?" ”

Wu Lan hurriedly said: "The humble position is from Wujiang County, Pingjiang Prefecture!" ”

"That's right, I'm from Wu County, but my companion is from Wujiang County."

He pointed to Zhu Pei behind him, "This is the granddaughter of Sheng Ze Zhu, and this time she came to inspect Kunzhou on behalf of the Zhu family." ”

When Wu Lan heard that it was from the Shengze Zhu family, he was secretly speechless, and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, and said in a local voice: "See the little officials!" ”

When Zhu Pei heard the local voice, he was overjoyed in his heart, and hurriedly asked, "Where is General Wu from Wujiang?" ”

"I'm from Songling."

"That's really a fellow countryman."

The local sound made the distance between the two sides a lot closer, Wu Lan invited Fan Ning and Zhu Pei into the barracks, there were not many people in the barracks, Wu Lan smiled: "The soldiers have gone to help capture the wild horses, and only a dozen people are left behind." ”

When Zhu Pei saw that all the wooden houses were elevated, and there were wooden stakes under them, he asked strangely, "Why are the houses erected in the air?" ”

"This is the experience of the Kun people, in winter, the snow is as high as one person, and if the house is not in the air, even the doors and windows cannot be opened."

"Isn't that cold?"

Wu Lan smiled and said: "Actually, it's not very cold, I basically stay in the house in winter, light firewood to keep warm, and like Kunzhou, as long as I don't go out, there is basically nothing to do, but the sentry must wear bear skin to resist the cold." ”

Fanning took Jupe to sit down in the main house, and Fanning asked again, "What are the difficulties in stationing in Whale State now?" ”

"Back to the imperial history, the supplies are very sufficient, but there are too few horses, only ten horses, we can't usually go to far away to patrol, and the soldiers use wild fruits to make wine, but the military regulations do not allow drinking in the barracks, so everyone drinks secretly, and it is very difficult to be humble."

Fanning nodded, "The number of horses can be increased to fifty, and I will tell Yang Dujian when I turn around, as for wine, I will allow the Whale State garrison to drink alcohol in non-war times." ”

Wu Lan was overjoyed, and hurriedly bowed down, "Thank you for your understanding!" ”

Fan Ning waved his hand and asked again: "There was an exploration team on the island half a month ago, General Wu should know!" ”

"The lowly knew that the lowly was worried that they were too few to deal with the wolves, so he gave them thirty crossbowmen."

Fanning was also a little worried, because he had arranged the expedition without considering the threat of wolves.

"Now do they have any news?"

Wu Ling shook his head, "Whale Prefecture is very long and narrow, at least more than two thousand miles, there is no news after they go north, maybe you can ask Yang Dujian, they are fishing horses in the north, there is a supply ground, or ask the Kun people, they should also know." ”

Fan Ning was stunned, "Didn't all the Kun people move south to Kunzhou?" ”

"Probably not! At least I know that there are still some Kun people who are reluctant to go south to Kunzhou and stay in Whale State, and they are in the north, according to our distance of about four or five hundred miles, last month, several of their hunters were attacked by wolves and injured, and came to us for rescue. ”

Fanning then inquired about other information, and prepared to set off for the north.

Wu Lan took advantage of Zhu Pei's inattention, found a loophole, and whispered to Fan Ning: "The biggest problem of the brothers is that they are too lonely, can Yushi arrange a few camp prostitutes to come over, hey!" Without women, life is really difficult. ”

Fanning smiled and nodded, "It should be possible, I'll go back and arrange it." ”

Wu Lan was grateful, and personally sent Fanning and Zhu Pei onto the big ship, and the ship set sail and headed north along the land.

.........

The base where the herd division caught wild horses was near the former Kun tribe, and they built dozens of big tents, and when Fan Ning arrived with his men, he happened to meet the superintendent Yang Yun, who hurriedly stepped forward and saluted with his fists, "I didn't expect the governor to come!" ”

"How's the progress of catching the mustang?" Fanning asked with concern.

"It's not bad, we divided into ten teams, and caught wild horses within a radius of 300 miles, and caught them by setting nets, and we have caught one hundred and thirty-four."

"How many are there?"

"Before, we only found one herd, and then we found two more horses, about 300 horses, and now we are very short on time!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's still icy and snowy in the north of Whale State, and by mid-April the ice and snow will melt, and then the horses will flee to the north, and it will be difficult for us to catch them."

"I see!"

The two talked as they walked, and soon came to the camp, where the shepherd had built dozens of large wooden cages out of trees, each of which contained two horses.

"There are a lot of stallions of wild horses, and they are fierce and irritable, and they have kicked and injured a lot of people, so we will bring some mares over, arrange a male and a female, and they will be quiet!" Yang Yun pointed to the cage and smiled.

Fanning stepped forward to take a closer look at these wild horses, they are very large, the height of the shoulders is about 1.6 meters, while the Turkic horses are generally around 1.5 meters, and the body length of the wild horses is eight feet to one zhang, the muscles of the body and limbs are strong, and the mane is especially long, full of wild atmosphere.

Yang Yun stepped forward and said: "The number of our stallions is too small, which is not conducive to the long-term breeding of war horses. ”

Speaking of this, Yang Yun said regretfully: "It's a pity that I didn't catch the horse king, if I caught the horse king, the other more than two hundred wild horses would not have to make any effort, and it would be easy to guide them back." ”

"What does the King of Horses look like?" Fanning asked curiously.

"A white stallion, very strong and very intelligent, he has escaped several round-ups."

"It's a shame, but it's also exciting."

At this time, Yang Yun smiled again: "There is another happy event that I haven't told Governor Fan, our first batch of foals was born, a total of four hundred and thirty-two!" ”

Fanning was overjoyed, "Is it so fast?" ”

"Almost! We came here in March last year, and now that the year has passed, a foal will be born every month in the future, Governor Fan, this is a great event, we need to celebrate! ”

Of course, this is a great joy for Fanning, and the birth of a batch of foals means that the ranch is a success.

"Yes! We're going to celebrate. ”

The two burst out laughing.

At this moment, someone suddenly shouted: "The King of Horses is running over!" ”

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