The corners of He Saburo's mouth twitched, and then he turned his head.

Chu Lian was raised in this town on the edge of the northern border for two days, and Tang Yan and the others rushed up.

Although he was robbed by the barbarians before, He Changdi brought people in time, and the things that Chu Lian brought were not lost.

As soon as Tang Yan came, he was a little stunned when he heard that Chu Lian had met Tu Hun Jingbing, and after a few words of appeasement, he decided not to part with Chu Lian on this way.

Although the injuries of the people in Chu Lian's team were different, just in case, after resting in the town for four days, the team still regrouped and set off, after all, the team still had winter supplies for the northern border army, even if it was just for example, it was necessary to round out the old queen's will.

The more you go to Liangzhou City, the more desolate it becomes, and when you reach the outside of Liangzhou City, Chu Lian looks at the devastated Liangzhou City and can't believe it.

Where can this be called a city, a county seat in the hinterland of the Dawu Dynasty is probably several times richer than this Liangzhou City. The earthen city wall, when the wind blows, the slag is dropped down, the city is full of broken walls and ruins, there are not a few people of the Dawu Dynasty on the street at all, occasionally see one or two are still in a hurry, skinny, and have a vegetable face.

There are basically no brick houses in the city, all of them are earthen walls and thatched roofs, which is the time for cooking in the evening, but I don't see a few yards with cooking smoke.

I'm afraid that the people of the entire Liangzhou City are not as many as the border troops stationed here.

Chu Lian finally knew why the nobles in Shengjing City called this side of Liangzhou City a barren land.

Here is the prairie of the later generations, although the mountains are wide and the land is wide, but the climate is harsh, not suitable for farming, the winter is long, go to the hinterland of Dawuchao, the farmland at the junction of Liangzhou can still be ripe once a year, but further north, the soil quality is not suitable for the survival of crops at all.

In winter, the ground is covered with snow, and when spring comes, the snow melts and becomes a swamp......

Chu Lian looked up at the city wall made of loess, at this time, there were two soldiers standing on the city wall, their bodies were wrapped in a ball, and they couldn't see what they were wearing, only saw them standing on the city wall trembling.

Chu Lian sighed slightly, can such a fragile city wall really withstand the fierce Tuhun soldiers?

Tang Yan rode a horse and walked beside him, and saw Chu Lian lift the felt curtain of the carriage, and looked at the city wall and walked over.

"The townsman is looking at this loess city wall?"

Chu Lian turned around and glanced at him and nodded.

Tang Yan pulled the corners of his mouth slightly, and there was helplessness in his voice, "Liangzhou City is located in the north of my Dawu Dynasty, and the townsmen have also seen it all the way, there is a shortage of materials here, and the imperial court will allocate a large amount of money every year to repair the walls of Liangzhou City, but unfortunately it has little effect." ”

Chu Lian was surprised, "A large sum of money, can the city wall be built in such a vulnerable state?"

Accidentally, Chu Lian said what was in his heart.

Tang Yan didn't care, but said: "Let's not talk about the loss of the household department's allocation to the local government, there are other more important reasons, when the township enters the city, you can know without me mentioning it." ”

Chu Lian didn't expect that he would deliberately sell a pass, this Tang Yan wanted to test her?

Chu Lian didn't care too much, nodded, and asked Steward Qin to order the convoy to enter the city, they had the queen mother's decree, and it was convenient to enter Liangzhou City.

The streets of Liangzhou City are full of garbage, and a gust of wind rolls up, and a peculiar smell wafts away, which makes people sick, which is obviously a relationship that no one has maintained for a long time.

Chu Lian lifted the curtain slightly, looked outside, and frowned, fortunately this is winter, if it is a hot summer, such an environment is easy to epidemic.

Tang Yan had sent someone into the city to arrange a place to live earlier, and now he would just go over directly.

When he arrived at the place, Chu Lian saw the simple word "Hefu" hanging on the door of the courtyard, and was told that this was the mansion of the governor of Liangzhou City.

If this mansion, which covers an area of only five or six acres, is placed in other towns of the Dawu Dynasty, it can be regarded as a farm yard where rich squires live, but if it falls in this Liangzhou City, it is already the best place to live.

Although the house of the mansion is also built of earth, at least the outer layer is made of cooked earth, and the top of the head is not thatched but tiled.

After walking this way, the environment of the alley where Hefu is located is slightly better.

Chu Lian was asked to get off the carriage, her feet are still not able to exert strength, and she needs to be raised for another four or five days, as soon as she got off the carriage, Chu Lian saw a half-grown child wrapped in fur clothes squatting there under the broken wall not far away, and a small stack of fur was piled up in front of him, looking like sheepskin.

At this moment, he was cowering in the corner, secretly looking in their direction with wide eyes, as if assessing the purchasing power of their group.

Chu Lian pursed his lips and looked at him.

The half-grown child seemed to be unable to care about it anymore, and ran over with the bundle of sheepskins, and when he got closer, Chu Lian saw the dirty face clearly.

Before the child arrived in front of Chu Lian, he was caught by the strong general and pressed to the ground.

Mo Chenggui's face darkened, "Third Grandma, this northern realm is not in Shengjing City, if you meet the third young master of Tuhun Spy like last time, you will blame me again." ”

Wen Lan, who was standing beside Chu Lian, heard Mo Chenggui's stinging words, and was about to block in front of Chu Lian angrily, Chu Lian hurriedly grabbed her and glanced at Wen Lan.

Only then did Lan suppress the anger in his chest and retreat to the side.

Chu Lian smiled faintly at Mo Chenggui, "Thank you Uncle Mo for reminding me, I will be careful." ”

Mo Chenggui didn't expect Chu Lian to come back like this, and he was completely speechless for a while.

The child was pressed to the ground, struggling not to move, but he did not panic much, he seized the opportunity and shouted: "The noble man spares his life, the little one just wants the noble man to buy the sheepskin on the little hand, the little mother and sister are going to starve to death, and there is no food at home, so he is counting on these sheepskins on the little hand!"

Tang Yan ordered the guards around him to check, but sure enough, he didn't find anything on the half-grown child, he nodded lightly at Chu Lian.

Mo Chenggui couldn't see Chu Lian's nosy appearance, so he snorted from his nostrils and took the lead in entering the "He Mansion", out of sight.

Chu Lian pointed to a roll of sheepskin on the ground, "Bring that one and I'll take a look." ”

Steward Qin personally bent down to pick up the sheepskin, carefully inspected it again, and then handed it to Chu Lian with both hands.

Chu Lian looked at it twice at random, the sheepskin was nothing special, it was the sheepskin of ordinary sheep bred by herdsmen and barbarians in the north, and even the sheepskin had some plates on the surface and was slightly black in color.

His gaze fell on the child, who was ragged and wrapped in hides of unknown kinds, his arms and elbows were exposed, and his hands were red from the cold.

Chu Lian saw that this child was really pitiful, and he didn't want to think about whether what he said was true or false, so he said to Wen Lan beside him, Wen Lan nodded slightly, took out his purse, took out a small piece of silver ingot from his purse, walked to the half-grown child who was still pressed to the ground by the general, and said: "Boy, our master bought your sheepskin, this is the silver that bought your sheepskin, but next time, don't be so impulsive to rob the nobles, our master is kind and didn't treat you well, but not everyone is like our master, so do it yourself!"

There are at least five or six dollars in this ingot of silver, and it is enough to buy three or four times the sheepskin in the child's hand, Wen Lan put the silver in front of the child, told the family general to let him go, and turned around and prepared to help Chu Lian into the "He Mansion".

But as soon as she turned around, the half-grown child who was let go hugged her legs, "This sister, the little one doesn't want silver, please, exchange the silver for food for the small one!"

Wen Lan was startled and almost kicked the child away.

She reluctantly turned around and asked the guard to pull the child away, and there was some unhappiness between her eyebrows, "Why are you so ignorant! Don't you think our master gives you little? Tell you, this silver is more than enough to buy three or four times your sheepskin!"

"No, no, the little one doesn't dislike the less, the little one just asks my sister to give me a few pot helmets. After finishing speaking, he kowtowed desperately to Wenlan.

Lan Du was stunned, he couldn't believe it, someone would rather ask for a few pot helmets worth a few pennies than a few pennies worth a few dollars, is this kid stupid?

Chu Lian frowned slightly and looked at the situation in front of him, and Tang Yan glanced at Chu Lian with a deep smile.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in Chu Lian's mind.

She said to Lan Wen, "Wen Lan, give him some food." ”

Although it was strange to ask Lan, he did it anyway.

The half-grown child took the three cold and hard steamed buns handed to him by Wen Lan, his face was full of joy that could not be concealed, he hurriedly put it into his arms, looked left and right, and then kowtowed in the direction of Chu Lian, and then ran away quickly and disappeared around the corner of the alley.

Chu Lian saw the child's figure disappear, and then ordered everyone to enter the mansion and settle down.

She had an injury on her foot, and she was helped by Qingwen Lan to walk very slowly, and Tang Yan chased after her in two steps.

He smiled and asked, "Does the townsman know the reason?"

Chu Lian smiled bitterly, could she not know? The little thing that happened just now couldn't be more obvious.

She sighed slightly and said, "What Liangzhou City lacks is not silver money, but real materials. ”

Tang Yan nodded, "Xiangjun is really smart. ”

In Liangzhou City, many places still maintain the most primitive state of barter, here, the common currency is not gold and silver, not even copper coins, most of the time it is cattle and sheep and other livestock, but also cloth and salt.

In the eyes of the people of Liangzhou City, the silver that can buy hundreds of catties of white rice in Shengjing City is not as good as a hard pot helmet.

No wonder the household department allocates funds every year, and the walls of Liangzhou City are repaired every year, but to this day it is still in such a dilapidated state.

The silver money of the household department is allocated, not counting the exploitation from top to bottom, and when the silver money really arrives near Liangzhou, the purchasing power can not be lower anymore, and then it is replaced by materials to be transported to Liangzhou, which is already very little, plus loss, if the city wall can be repaired, there will be ghosts.

Here, money doesn't play a role at all.