In the signing room of Baiting Fort, Xin Yunjing and several other senior generals in the Baiting Army all gathered around Fang Chongyong for a meeting.

The core issue of everyone's discussion is just two words: make money!

"The income of the Bai Tingjun is to collect some horses and sheep from the herdsmen as taxes when the cattle and horses are fattened in the autumn?"

After listening to Xin Yunjing's report, Fang Chongyong asked in disbelief.

For an army, this amount of money is just a sound in the water. This is even more true from the perspective of "taxes in kind".

"Who says it's not, just this amount of money, often can't be collected, and it's gone if you give the children an extra meal and a tooth sacrifice."

Xin Yunjing sighed, Bai Tingjun is really miserable, only animal husbandry and fishing are worth mentioning around, collect some money from the herdsmen for grazing, and compensate with livestock.

However, in Hexi, cattle, sheep and horses could not be sold at a good price, and these livestock could not be driven thousands of miles to Chang'an to sell, so this became a vicious circle.

The more you want to make money, the more you can't get money through formal channels, so you can only rob the merchants on the Silk Road.

The station of the Baiting Army is still some distance away from the post road of the Silk Road, so there is no direct entanglement of interests for the merchants.

On the contrary, the Chishui Army, which relied on the Liangzhou City Tax and Commercial Tax, was very disgusted with the destruction of trade routes.

After listening to the narration of Xin Yunjing and others, Fang Chongyong also had a deeper understanding of the situation in Hexi. Speaking of which, there is still a lack of money to make trouble!

Hexi originally did not have so many garrisons, but with the expansion of the Tang Empire, it gradually increased the number of soldiers.

The increase in the number of soldiers will lead to a series of logistical pressures, and these problems cannot be solved by relying only on the local tuntian fields in Hexi.

Are the Qiu Ba of the White Pavilion Army bad people?

To some extent, they are bandits in the uniforms of the Don Army. This Tianzhu monk's robe incident is a complete East Window incident. It is a "very rare" case.

However, even so, except for the leader who was disposed of, the others were only transferred to the Great Dou Army to serve as a front-line "death squad", which is the rule of the army west of the Tang River.

And the main reason why the leader was dealt with was that he lost the fish talisman, which made his superiors and jiedu envoys think that he was "not doing things well", rather than leading troops to loot and kill.

Fang Chongyong believes that in the current Baiting Army, there are also many ruthless characters who kill people and sell goods, but they have not been discovered.

However, on the other hand, the problem of the Baiting Army is also a common problem of the border army in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty. It was the imperial court that did not provide enough for the local border army for various reasons, including transportation difficulties.

In particular, the hard demand is insufficient, so these armies can only be left to "figure it out on their own".

The most prominent issue is the acquisition and maintenance of horses.

In the Hexi Corridor, in addition to defending the local area, the demand for horses is relatively small, and other combat missions, it is difficult to move an inch without horses!

The account books of the Ministry of War are customized for the number of horses required by the armies in Hexi.

For example, the Chishui Army, which has the highest proportion of war horses, has 13,000 horses, which is counted in the account books of the Ministry of War, and the imperial court has to provide the rations needed for these war horses.

So how to solve the horses that are not in the account books of the military department and are especially needed in the border towns?

Of the 30,000 soldiers of the Chishui Army, do they only dispatch these 10,000 cavalry every time they make a strategic maneuver? Sometimes you need two horses for a long journey, so how do you get these horses?

These specific issues, the great masters of the central court did not want to think about them, and they were thrown to the local festival envoys. The Jiedu envoy himself could not turn into horses, so he had to let the armies figure out their own way. Therefore, from the Anxi Protectorate to the Hexi Corridor, the western border army of the Tang Dynasty has its own clever tricks to raise "private horses" to deal with the treacherous war situation on the border.

From this point of view, Fang Chongyong felt that the person who was wrong was not Bai Tingjun, at least not all.

The culprit is actually the Ministry of War, the Imperial Court, and Li Longji.

But there is no way to tell this truth.

"Fishing can also make some money, but it's just a drop in the bucket, and most of the catch is consumed by the Baiting Army as daily military food."

A ten general said very distressedly.

"Alas!"

Everyone sighed in unison.

"Envoy Fang, is there a way to make money?"

Xin Yunjing asked in a deep voice.

Fang Chongyong, the "mascot", can't be offended anyway, just keep it in Baitingbao. But this one actually said that he could help Bai Tingjun make money, so he couldn't be treated as an ordinary mascot.

"Take me around, around here."

Fang Chongyong said disappreciatively. He didn't know the bottom of his mind yet, so he had to investigate the neighborhood and talk about it.

"Okay, send a few capable soldiers to accompany Fang Jun'an to walk around, no matter what Fang Jun'an wants to do, satisfy him. Even if it is to rob the house and rob the people's daughters, it is necessary to make the Fang military envoy return satisfied. ”

Xin Yunjing whispered to a top ten general beside him, but Fang Chongyong heard all these words.

It's just a matter of robbing a house, what the hell is robbing a people's daughter! Even if he wants to snatch a woman, he can't do anything to snatch it back!

Fang Chongyong sighed helplessly, and said to Xin Yunjing: "It's all my own people, I won't cheat you." It's really going to do things, don't want those weird people to follow. You can choose a few soldiers who are familiar with the local people to follow me. ”

Xin Yunjing and the others looked at each other, they thought that Fang Chongyong wanted to be "chic" in Hexi.

"Go and arrange it, you must be familiar with the local people's soldiers, and serve the Fang military envoy well."

Xin Yunjing commanded his subordinates. He was also very curious about what tricks this "Fang Yanei" could play.

……

The shores of Baiting Sea are all rich pastures. Before setting off, Xin Yunjing deliberately took Fang Chongyong to the horse farm to pick a horse that he could ride.

When the group came to the racecourse, they saw a row of simple houses, enclosed on only three sides, separated by wooden fences with many small "compartments". In each room, several horses rested, sitting or lying down.

In the open grassland in the distance, there are still many horses grazing and playing, a leisurely scene.

The people who manage the racecourse are not Baiting Jun, they are only the "security guards" of Baiting Seahorse Farm. The people who managed the horse farms in the Tang Dynasty were pastoral supervisors, and the horse farms across the country were also divided into upper, middle and lower classes. More than 5,000 horses were raised at the same time for the upper class, more than 3,000 for the middle class, and less than 3,000 for the inferior.

Baitinghai Ranch is obviously a first-class horse farm.

As soon as the pastoral supervisor saw Xin Yunjing coming, he immediately asked with a smile on his face: "Although it is the closest, the envoys of Xin rarely come to me." Do you want to pick a mount for yourself? ”

Because the Baiting army often plundered trade routes to let the Turkic merchants sell the stolen goods, they still had a lot of money on hand, bought a lot of horses in the Baitinghai Ranch, and kept a cavalry team of two or three hundred people, and the two sides were also old acquaintances.

"Pastoral Supervisor Li, it's not the military envoy who chooses the horse, but the deputy military envoy who chooses a suitable pony to ride."

Xin Yunjing pointed at Fang Chongyong and said.

Child? Deputy military envoy? That's a big joke!

This pastoral supervisor was stunned, he was so big, he had never seen such a strong deputy military envoy!

Li Mujian held the words full of words in his heart, and then led Fang Chongyong and his group to the stable and asked them to choose horses.

"That's it."

Fang Chongyong pointed to a jujube red foal that was a little shorter than him.

"What a docile horse."

Xin Yunjing muttered to himself thoughtfully.

If you choose a war horse, you can't be so casual. As a war horse, you can't be too gentle, otherwise this kind of horse will be cowardly at a critical moment!

But Fang Chongyong seems to be unable to go to the battlefield for the next few years! The service life of a horse is also very limited, and even until this horse dies of old age, Fang Chongyong is unlikely to go to the battlefield, since this is the case, what is the need to toss?

In this way, the character of the horse is more suitable for a little gentle swallowing.

"Ten times."

Xin Yunjing offered a fixed price.

When Li Mujian heard this, he laughed and said: "What is this sentence of Xin Junzhi, it's just a foal, it should be regarded as a meeting gift, hahahahahahaha!" ”

When a half-grown child becomes a military envoy, he is either capable of going against the sky, or his background is against the sky, and there must always be one or even both. Why not give a foal as a favor, and maybe it will be useful in the future?

"Then thank Pastor Li for his kindness."

Xin Yunjing also said casually, how could he really give money.

Li Mujian personally took action, gave the horse a "horse print", put a horseshoe on the horse's paw, and equipped the foal with a small saddle, so that Fang Chongyong could try to ride the foal.

Sure enough, the horse's temperament was very docile, Fang Chongyong sat on it, Xin Yunjing led the horse, and after walking around the grassland, Fang Chongyong could ride the horse independently, but he had not yet mastered the trick of running.

Being helped off the horse by Xin Yunjing, Fang Chongyong said with some excitement: "It seems that riding a horse is not too difficult." ”

"That's natural, but if you run long distances, it's still very tiring."

Xin Yunjing couldn't help but laugh and said.

When this "Yanai" is accustomed to riding horses between the cities of Hexi, he will definitely know what the disadvantages of riding a horse are.

It's just that the excitement hasn't passed yet, and I can't detect it. Why bother to talk so much to ruin the happiness of this Yanai?

The selection of horses in the pasture was just a small episode, leaving the pasture, Fang Chongyong went to inspect the grassland along the coast of Baiting Sea, while Xin Yunjing returned to Baitingbao, he wanted to take people to patrol the Turkic territory on the north shore of Baiting Sea, which was one of the daily military affairs.

Xin Yunjing also didn't have time to hang out with this Fang Yanei all day.

After taking a turn on the beach in Baiting, Fang Chongyong suddenly pointed to a certain plant in a shrub and said, "What is this?" ”

"I don't know."

"I don't know."

The two Baiting sergeants who followed beside him shook their heads, completely unrecognizable.

"I know this thing is called goji berries!"

Fang Chongyong said angrily.

There are wild wolfberries growing on this side of Baitinghai, which is a discovery, but ...... It's not a big deal.

Because in Ganzhou, next door to Liangzhou, wolfberry cultivation has become large-scale, and a pharmacy for Chang'an has been opened. Even if you cultivate the medicine field here in Baitinghai and grow wolfberries and sell them for money, you won't be able to sell them for much, at least a few orders of magnitude less than the money that Fang Chongyong envisioned!

However, this also proves one point from the side: Baitinghai is not only grass that can be fed to horses!

Wild goji berries are just a small discovery!

"What kind of grass is this?"

Fang Chongyong pointed to something that looked unusual, like a bamboo shoot, and asked. This thing grows away from the water source, grows in the sand, and does not look like a world-class thing at all with the grass next to it.

"I don't know."

"I didn't pay attention to it before."

The two Hanhan once again gave an answer that was not at all unexpected by Fang Chongyong.

Fang Chongyong sighed, he found that the "customs and customs" in his thoughts were probably not the same thing at all as the "customs and customs" in Xin Yunjing's eyes.

"Well, if you go out to war and your brother is wounded, where do you go to find a medical officer? Where to find herbs? ”

Fang Chongyong asked suspiciously, he found that it might be that his way of using people was not right, so he wanted to try another way.

"Oh, Envoy Fang said it earlier. We can't deal with this, but as long as we go to Liangzhou City, there are many ways. Hu Shang in the Western Regions has medicine from the Western Regions, and I also have medicine from Middle Earth in the Tang Dynasty. There is no shortage of medicine here in Hexi, nor is there a shortage of people who know how to use medicine.

Even our Baiting Army also has a special pharmacy, and there are medical officers to deal with incurable diseases in the army. ”

It turns out that the local "customs" are the business relationships.

Fang Chongyong suddenly realized, and shouted to the two people around him: "Then let's go to Liangzhou City to do something!" ”

……

"I have a foal that I never ride. Now I'm riding to the market on a whim......"

A day later, outside Liangzhou City, Fang Chongyong lay on a flatbed truck and wailed, his forehead hot and feverish. He didn't expect that the first time he rode a horseback for a long distance, he could actually collapse himself!

One soldier was handing over the horses to Hu Shang at the gate of Liangzhou City to take care of, while the other Baiting soldier was carrying a rented ox cart and dragging Fang Chongyong, whose legs were red and swollen and ulcerated because of the long riding distance.

Anyway, they are going to the hospital, and now it is "worth the trip", just to treat the injury. Fang Chongyong looked very open, but complained that he was careless and didn't flash, and thought that riding a horse for hundreds of miles was a heroic and heroic thing!

Alas, after this wave of injuries is healed, and then ride a horse to get started slowly, and the body will slowly get used to the kind of bumps and friction.

Fang Chongyong's heart turned into a difficult thought, and then he fell into a coma. Unconscious with a high fever from an infected wound, he soon felt himself being helped into a side room and lying on a soft bed.

Then his blood-stained pants were removed, and a pair of slender, slightly rough hands stroked the wound on his inner thigh, and the injured skin was suddenly filled with an indescribable coolness.

Fang Chongyong struggled to open his eyes, and happened to meet a pair of exotic beautiful eyes, the latter smiled smartly, as if a spring breeze was blowing on his face. The girl suddenly made a gesture of silence, and Fang Chongyong lay back in exhaustion, gradually falling into a coma.

"Anaye, are you alright, come and recharge!"

An old voice came from outside the wing.

"Good father, I'll come now."

This bearded girl from the Western Regions named Anaye glanced thoughtfully at Fang Chongyong lying on the bed, smiled, and then pushed the door out. Her body didn't grow at all, and she couldn't see the slender waist and plump buttocks that Orchid should have.

It's just that kind of temperament, like a hibiscus flower that has just come out of the water, has a kind of dryness and purity that cannot be desecrated.

Anaye left the chamber, and with it the splendor of the room.

(End of chapter)