The county seat of Shanzhou is in the county seat of Huangshui County, also called Shanzhou City. This is the core cultivation area of the Hehuang Valley, but it is not a core strategic node in the military. According to Fang Chongyong's previous life, the total area here is only less than 2% of the total area of Qinghai Province, but the cultivated area is more than 56% of the cultivated area of Qinghai Province!

Such an exaggerated comparison can only prove one thing: the Tibetan people are determined to win this place! Datang will never give up here!

Therefore, since the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, after the Tang Dynasty consolidated the military layout of the Hehuang Valley, this area is full of swords and mounds.

Every family is a military household, and any strong man caught in the field is a garrison soldier, and the business is cut off, and the martial arts are abundant.

Around the Hehuang Valley, the Tang Dynasty placed a series of military towns in the surrounding transportation arteries, such as the Baishui Army, the Anren Army, the Heyuan Army, etc., all to prevent the Tubo people from breaking into the Hehuang Valley from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Then the Lintao army on the Lintao side was also introduced, which was used as a mobile force to sit in Shanzhou City as a strategic card.

Probably because of the local conditions, the government of the envoy of Longyou Jiedu in Shanzhou City was very large, and it was not so much a yamen as a military fortress, which was more suitable and had a strong defensive capability.

And almost all the officials appointed by the central government live here, work and live here.

If nothing else, it's that the place in Longyou is really unsafe, and it's too close to Tubo. If the officials from the center don't live in a safe place, maybe one day, they will be sneaked in by a small group of Tubo people, and they don't even know if they are stabbed in the head!

How can people do a good job when they are afraid?

Not only that, but the elite of a battalion of the Lintao Army was also stationed in the palace as personal soldiers, and they were ready to be sent by the envoy of Longyoujiedu. Although they are not called tooth soldiers, their personal treatment is only slightly better than that of ordinary Lintao soldiers.

However, the function of protecting the Jiedu Mansion and dealing with urgent matters is no different from that of the tooth soldiers of the middle and late Tang Dynasty.

Fang Chongyong, who lived in the Longyou Jiedu Mansion as the "Acting Longyou Jiedu Envoy", couldn't help but sigh that the wisdom of the ancients was indeed extraordinary.

They are by no means the kind of people who are rigid and rigid in their heads, but will fine-tune the policies of the imperial court according to the local situation to make them more suitable for local needs.

The emergence of the tooth soldier system was not formed by the Jiedu envoys in order to rebel against the center, and it was indeed closely related to the complex security situation in the border towns.

In order to deal with small-scale and frequent conflicts, and from the perspective of protecting their own security, the Jiedu envoys really need a capable and effective armed force, which can be dispatched to do chores with a single sentence, without the need for complicated troop transfer procedures.

Suppressing all kinds of doubts in his heart, the next day, under the guidance of Cen Shen, Fang Chongyong came to an ordinary courtyard in the residential area of Longyou Jiedu Mansion to visit Du Hope, who was "seriously ill and unconscious".

In fact, Du hopes to be honest and honest, and doesn't care much about pomp and circumstance, this courtyard is his residence after coming to Longyou. Du hopes that now it can only be regarded as "sick leave", not to say that he was "expelled from the yamen".

In the courtyard, Li Jingyu, the envoy of Yingtian in the Longyou region, and Zhao Zan, the envoy of the Du Branch, saw that Fang Chongyong was coming, and hurriedly crossed their hands to salute. Li Jingyu is okay, he is an old acquaintance, he used to be a camp envoy under the Hexi Jiedu envoy, and Fang Chongyong dealt with him back then.

It's just that I don't know why I was transferred to Longyou.

And this Zhao Zan is too young to speak, at most in his early twenties. Being able to be a support envoy at such a young age is comparable to the cattle cyclamen of the year!

Obviously, Zhao Zan is either an ordinary person, or has an unusual background, or both, and cannot be underestimated.

Fang Chongyong secretly remembered these two people, he nodded slightly quietly, very reserved in return, and then entered Du Hope's bedroom accompanied by the two, without saying a word of nonsense.

As soon as you enter the door, you will be greeted by a strong smell of herbs.

Not far away lay on the bed an old man with a gray beard, who looked a little thin. There was a middle-aged medical officer standing next to the bed, who bowed and saluted as soon as he saw Fang Chongyong, and his attitude was much more humble than that of Li Jingyu and Zhao Zan.

"How is Du Jieshuai's condition?"

Fang Chongyong's face was calm and asked softly.

After returning to stay, Du Jieshuai could occasionally wake up, but he couldn't speak, and his consciousness was not very clear.

A certain prescribed a prescription for him, and his situation improved slightly, but he still couldn't be a director, and he couldn't speak. ”

The medical officer whispered.

Looking at Du Hope lying on the bed, Fang Chongyong sighed lightly, turned around and saluted Li Jingyu and Zhao Zan behind him: "I want to inquire about Du Jieshuai's condition in detail." Can the two of you go to the signing room now to sort out the income and expenditure account books of Longyou, and later, a certain person will discuss with the two in detail. ”

Seeing him so polite, Li Jingyu and Zhao Zan were flattered, and hurriedly returned the salute and said, "It's okay, I'll wait for this and go back to the detention room to sort out the account books." ”

After speaking, he walked out of the bedroom where Du Hope was.

After the two left, Fang Chongyong looked at the medical officer meaningfully. The military medical officer seemed frightened, and hurriedly quit the bedroom and closed the door.

So there were only Du Hope lying on the bed and Fang Chongyong standing beside the bed, and the atmosphere was a little weird in the silence.

"Du Jieshuai, Du Xuejuan, the granddaughter of your palace maid in the palace, some time ago, the sage sent her to my house as a slave.

I personally sent it back to Du's house again, all beards and tails, and Qiu did not commit any crimes.

I planned for you so, but before I arrived in Longyou, you dug a big hole for me.

You are so gracious and revengeful, and now you are still pretending to be sick in bed, it seems a bit unkind, right? ”

Fang Chongyong said slowly, smiling at Du Hope who was lying on the bed pretending to be sick.

As soon as he finished speaking, Du Hope slowly opened his eyes, with a mysterious smile on his face, and sat up by himself without relying on others' support.

Immediately, he leaned against the head of the bed, and looked at Fang Chongyong with burning eyes.

"The old man was indeed a little dizzy at the time, but it wasn't to the point of fainting directly."

Du Hope said in a slightly hoarse voice. Then he asked suspiciously: "It's just that Fang Yushi has just arrived, how did he know that he is pretending to be sick now?" ”

Du wanted to admit that he had gambling at the time, but he was right this time!

If he hadn't pretended to be dizzy at that time, then now it was he Du Hope who wanted to cry without tears, not Fang Chongyong!

With such a big hole in military spending, how can Du hope that such a bad old man can make up for it? Even if you go to weave the cloth yourself, you can't make up for it if you step on the pedal of the loom to smoke!

At that time, Du hoped that he would be used as a scapegoat by the imperial court, and then use his head to calm the anger of the army on the right side of Long.

What embezzled hundreds of thousands of military spending, what Du family's mansion in Chang'an covers an area of thousands of hectares. In order to settle this matter, any bad tricks of the court will be thrown at him. As for what the truth is, it doesn't matter. What the imperial court needs is the stability of the overall situation of Longyou, not some bullshit truth.

Du hopes to have been up and down in the sea for decades in his life, and these routines have long been known in his chest. He can not throw bad tricks at others, but how can he honestly be killed without saving himself!

As long as I lie flat in advance, the leeks will be cut to others first, and I can't be cut first!

Du Hope, who is an old man, is indeed worthy of being an old coin who has been a bureaucrat for decades.

"When a certain was still on the road, the An People's Army happened to mutiny, and the Heyuan Army also happened to follow along to make trouble. At such a juncture, the saint happened to grant a certain post of retainer, and you happened to faint to death when you were old, and you happened to be angry and anxious, and you were too sick to be a director, and you needed to stay for the post of temporary envoy.

If only one thing is a coincidence, then a certain can only consider himself unlucky.

But so many things happened to happen at the same time, and such a big black pot fell on the head of an unrelated person. If no one is behind their backs, that's the hell. ”

Fang Chongyong spread out his hands and said quietly.

Seeing that his plan was punctured, Du hoped that the old face was a little unbearable, and he explained with a dry smile:

"Longyou's side Yin eats grain, it's really a little unbearable, it's not that the old man deliberately wants to pit you, it's really hard to return, whoever stands on the stall is unlucky.

The old man didn't have a saint like you, so he had to hide first. ”

After speaking, Du Hope sighed, and he didn't know how to say many things, but he had to say them.

He was also in a quandary.

"The town on the right side of Long, with Lanzhou as the boundary, is the trade route to the Western Regions to the north of Lanzhou; To the west and south of Lanzhou, there is a shortage of everything. In order to guard against Tibet, the saint had to run this place.

However, a large amount of wealth is thrown in every year, and there is no way to eliminate the Tibetan people. Here are the chicken ribs, which are eaten without meat and discarded. ”

Du Hope was full of emotion, and talked to Fang Chongyong about the special situation of Longyou's border defense.

The Tang Dynasty operated the Hehuang Valley and the edge of Qinghai Lake, and set up heavy troops to confront the Tubo people, but in fact the economic benefits were very poor.

Local output is far from compensating for the depletion of a large garrison.

There is no trade route like the Hexi Corridor, and tariffs can be charged to subsidize the cost of garrisons. The merchants from Guanzhong to Longyou will only go as far as Lanzhou, and then they will go north to Liangzhou to take the Silk Road, and will not go to the Hehuang Valley.

The defense line of the army under the command of the Longyou Jiedu envoy is also divided into two defense areas, the northern line and the southern line, which are relatively independent of each other.

But whether it is the defense zone in the north or south, they all have one thing in common, that is, the place west of the border controlled by Tibet is barren land. In addition to guarding against the Tibetans, the military town also had no private work to take.

The defense area under the jurisdiction of Longyou Jiedu has a long front, a large number of troops, not to mention a large consumption, as well as the defects of rugged roads, lack of water transportation, and the cutting off of merchants. The Hehuang Valley is indeed a rich land, but the area here is not large, and it can only produce grain and grazing, and cannot produce silk and cash crops!

Except that there is no shortage of food and livestock products, everything else is lacking!

After listening to Du Hope's introduction, Fang Chongyong was already numb.

Originally, he didn't expect to hear any good news from Du Hope's mouth, but now he was even more cold. Ji Ge's goal is very ambitious, but judging from the human geography conditions of the Tang Dynasty, there is no possibility of achieving the goal in a hundred years.

The current strategy of the Tang Dynasty is to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to confront the Tubo in the Hehuang Valley and the Jiuqu Yellow River, and to fight each other in a short battle. Although the two countries were temporarily at peace, none of the fortified military towns were withdrawn.

It is clear that it is a temporary truce, and he will fight for his life after recovering from his injuries.

It is constantly bloodletting the Tang Dynasty, and it is desperately trying to consume the original little vitality of the Tubo people, and rapidly deteriorates the fragile ecology of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so that the environment here cannot be turned over for more than a thousand years.

Only when the Tang army completed its work in one battle, fought on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and completely eliminated the Tibetan regime, and fundamentally consolidated its rule in the local area, could the Tang Dynasty reduce Longyou's military expenditures and reduce the number of troops stationed there.

Of course, judging from the governance ability and military projection ability of the feudal era, this game is completely unsolvable.

In order to reduce the strength of Longyou, it was necessary to eliminate the Tibetan regime;

In order to eliminate the Tibetan regime, it was necessary to defeat the powerful Tibetan army;

In order to defeat the powerful Tibetan army, it was necessary to continue to increase troops in the Longyou region;

In order to continue the large-scale use of troops in this area, it was necessary to increase the military expenditure of the imperial court;

In order to raise more military spending, it is necessary to strengthen tax collection and reduce infrastructure investment and maintenance, so that the people in Datang will live more hard;

If the people can't stand the long-term and high-intensity exploitation and oppression, they will inevitably rise up and support the rebel forces;

And when the rebellion started, Tang Ting had to shrink strategically and transfer troops from Longyou to quell the rebellion.

There is no solution to the vicious circle.

From the perspective of a thousand years later, it is theoretically possible to completely eliminate the Tibetan regime at least after the warm period on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has passed, or after the emergence of thermal weapons.

If Fang Chongyong told others this point of view, he would only be ridiculed for growing others' ambition and destroying his own prestige.

This is like saying that the people of the Tang Dynasty saw the bright moon, and some arrogant people may think that they can enter the "Moon Palace" by "working hard", and they can fly to the moon by inventing a large rocket.

But in fact, with the level of science and technology in these years, there are still 108,000 miles away from the landing of humans on the moon! The amount of technology required was unimaginable to anyone at this time.

Because of ignorance, so fearlessness.

Therefore, in the territory of Longyou, the current game mode of Datang and Tubo is still to compete for endurance and national strength, only input but no output. And the peak of the Tang Dynasty has passed, and now it is visible to the naked eye that it is going downhill.

in, can't go on; Retreat, afraid of being counter-killed.

"Du Jieshuai can continue to get sick. A certain association wrote a letter to the saint and sent his cronies to send Du Jieshuai back to Chang'an for treatment. There are many famous doctors in Chang'an, and they will definitely be able to cure Du Jieshuai's stubborn diseases. ”

Fang Chongyong said meaningfully.

Upon hearing this, Du Hope was slightly stunned, and then smiled bitterly:

"Longyou's troubles will not drag down Fang Yushi.

It was just an accident that the saint appointed you to stay in the right section of Longyou, and it will not be taken seriously.

A certain can now repair a book, just say that Gai Jiayun has the courage to take responsibility and is incapacitated. If he is unable to serve in the future due to an emergency, Gai Jiayun will take over the post of envoy of Longyou Jiedu and be responsible for handling emergency military affairs.

Fang Yushi doesn't have to worry, my father is a close confidant of the saint, and I can't cut anyone's head this time. ”

Seeing that Lao Du didn't mean to pit himself, Fang Chongyong sighed lightly and said:

"If only things were that simple.

However, the letter of recommendation that Du Jieshuai said just now, please write one, and be prepared if you hold it in your hand.

Today, Du Jieshuai handed over the seal letter to a certain person, and he could go back to Chang'an for retirement. The saint's side will explain it, and the situation on Longyou's side will be cleaned up by the way.

If Longyou is not rectified, it is obviously impossible to select elites from the border army, and it is impossible to enrich the silver spear filial piety army.

The saint regards the silver spear filial piety army as his talisman, and he must not be sloppy. ”

Hearing this, Du Hope nodded slightly, he had also heard before that Fang Chongyong came to Longyou to recruit warriors from the border army into the new forbidden army. Long Wujun participated in the mutiny launched by Li Heng, the king of loyalty, and it is unknown what happened to him.

Now there are many vacancies in the Chang'an forbidden army, and Fang Chongyong is so young, as a close confidant of the emperor, he came to the border town to recruit border warriors who have nothing to do with the Chang'an magnate, so as to balance the local heroes in Guanzhong.

The other party doesn't want to run back to Chang'an so disgraced, in fact, it is also the right intention!

Du Hope nodded and smiled: "That's fine, the Jiedu envoy seal letter is in the yamen signing room, and Fang Jieshuai can take it himself." ”

He got out of bed neatly, sat down on the table and wrote a letter, and soon wrote a letter of recommendation recommending Gai Jiayun as the next Jiedu envoy, and handed it over to Fang Chongyong for review.

Anyone who wrote a letter a few years ago may be able to tell whether it has been ravaged by the years, but if it was written a few days ago, it is completely indistinguishable!

Fang Chongyong is now holding Du Hope's letter, even if he is ashamed to say that it was written a month ago, no one must doubt it.

Because at that time, Du Hope, who was pretending to be sick, had already returned to Chang'an, or was on the way back to Chang'an. When he appeared in the field of vision of outsiders again, he had been "cured" under the diagnosis and treatment of the "famous doctor of Chang'an" and ran away from the big pit of arrears of military expenses.

In this transaction, Fang Chongyong and Du hope to take what they need! Didn't leave any handle afterwards, clean and neat!

Fang Chongyong put the letter in the cuff, and saluted Du Hope: "Then Du Jieshuai take care of your body, and go to the signing room to get the seal of the Jiedu envoy." ”

"Fang Jieshuai walks slowly, and the old decay won't send you."

Du Hope said slowly.

Fang Chongyong withdrew from the bedroom where Du Hope was with a worried face, but his heart was already happy! I have to say that dealing with smart people is a pleasure!

With the big killer weapon in hand, this fighting method is already invincible, and then it depends on how to clean up the situation!

There are still today, tickets are coming!

(End of chapter)