choke element

Chapter 975: Invitation to Battle (Part )

Chapter 975: Invitation to Battle (Part )

At the turn of summer and autumn, a convoy of horse-drawn carriages and camels arrived in Daxing Prefecture.

The caravan was very large. In addition to specialized personnel such as coachmen, guides, accountants, craftsmen, and cooks, there were also a large number of Mongolian young men who temporarily accompanied them and horseback guards who were specially allowed by the military government and carried strong bows and crossbows.

Accompanying the convoy was a considerable number of herds of livestock.

The routes of such caravans often go deep into the grasslands and deserts. It takes more than half a year to go back and forth. They only make one trip a year, and each trip brings huge profits. In the entire northern border, there are no more than ten trading companies of this scale. Each of them has a very important background, and it is also a good place for many people from Hebei to the south of the desert to work.

When the caravan returned from the north, people came to join the army one after another. These newcomers were placed under a new escort.

The escort was named Yang Woyan, who was a Han slave who was taken to the north by the Mongols. Later, when a noble of the Great Zhou went north and was attacked by the Mongols, Yang Woyan led his companions to rescue him and made great contributions.

Soon the Zhou army went deep into the grassland to sweep, rescued the nobleman, and also took Yang Woyan and others with them. Yang Woyan thus escaped from the Mongolian tribe and was recommended by the nobleman to do some trivial work in the caravan.

Yang Woyan was a man of tenacious character, and he was very good at speaking and doing things. When the caravan started its return journey, he was just an ordinary clerk. But when they were approaching Zhongdu, he had become the escort, and he was considered a big shot in the caravan who could be counted on ten fingers.

The origins of the newly recruited personnel in the places where the caravan passed were inevitably a bit complicated. This was because as the border continued to push northward, the situation from Hebei to the south of the desert became more and more stable, and the small Mongolian tribes and sporadic bandits and horse thieves who were originally active in the mountains, and even the rogues in some local towns, were all looking for a way out.

Such people can struggle out of the harsh environment of the northern border, so they naturally have their own abilities and roles. But after all, they are newcomers, wild and unruly, and have no idea of ​​the rules. It is not easy to subdue them along the way and bring them to Zhongdu smoothly, but judging from Yang Woyan's appearance, he still has more than enough strength to do it.

The last two days of the trip were filled with a sandstorm. The entire area outside Daxing Prefecture was covered in yellow earth. The official roads were all covered in sand, leaving only the trees on both sides of the official roads to guide the direction. Most of the houses along the official roads were also covered in dirt, and only a little bit of green was visible in the farmland.

Such scenes are not uncommon in northern Xinjiang. Every time it happens, it will cause the herds in many places to flee and affect the grain planting in the farming areas. However, compared with the more severe black and white disasters, this is nothing.

Yang Woyan didn't know that he would encounter sandstorms when he came to Daxing Prefecture. However, the closer he got to Daxing Prefecture, the more people were responsible for maintaining and assisting the caravans along the official road. A few horses in the caravan ran away, and it was those people who helped find them back.

On some sections of the road, there were groups of people who looked like postmen gathered together. They were excitedly shoveling sand and dust with shovels and transporting them. It seemed that they were going to use them to fill the marks made by the ruts of passing vehicles on the rammed earth roads.

This is very smart. The sand and soil blown down by the storm is naturally free of weeds and debris, and the proportion of hard gravel is very high, which is the most suitable material for backfilling roads and is also suitable for rammed earth construction.

Yang Woyan had thought that this was a secret method unique to the people of Northern Frontier, but it turns out that people in Zhongdu also know it and can mobilize so many people at any time.

Everyone has been informed of the convoy's arrangements for today. They will enter the city from Huicheng Gate in the northwest corner and stop at Yangfangdian for a rest.

The so-called Yangfangdian is a newly opened commercial area to the west of Baiyun Temple, east of Chongshou Temple, and north of Guangyuanfang. Because it mainly caters to merchants traveling to and from northern Xinjiang, there are many sheep traders, including mutton, sheepskin, and wool. There are also large workshops that accommodate thousands of craftsmen, responsible for the fine processing of felt or leather goods.

Of course, the restaurants that serve mutton and the brothels with various styles are also very famous.

Ten miles away from the city, many caravan members and guards were excited. Talking about the entertainment activities after entering the city, the team laughed one after another. One man was so excited that he jumped on the cart and shouted: "I have saved enough money this time! I will make ten women unable to get out of bed!"

Before he finished speaking, someone in the audience lamented, "You are confused! Why do you need to save money for this? You are saving kidneys!"

Everyone in the queue laughed. Many people said that money was not a problem, and even if everyone chipped in, they would let him show off his prowess and try his kidneys, and would not allow him to escape halfway.

As they talked and laughed, everyone cheered up to rush the last section of the journey. Unfortunately, when the caravan entered the city, another caravan arrived at the same time. The sandstorm obscured everyone's vision, and when they found out, the two caravans had already blended together.

The leader of the soldiers at the city gate cursed a few words, took two documents and looked at them over and over again, saying that the two teams were mixed together and it was impossible to check the heads.

The people in the caravan also complained about why they could not enter the city, and they got agitated several times. The managers of the two caravans pooled some loose change and invited the soldiers to drink with a smile on their faces, but they were still rejected.

After finally separating the teams, the soldiers carefully checked the documents, randomly checked and questioned a few of the men, and finally gathered together the newly registered members of the two caravans for review.

What can we really know from this? If we want to check the ethnicity, there are too many Mongols working for the Han people, and there are thousands of them in the army. If we want to check whether they are good citizens, there is no way to check. After passing Juyongguan, only the military settlements in various places have records of the localities, and the men who joined the caravans have more or less done dirty work, and many of them have killed people.

Besides, Zhongdu is a huge city with twelve gates and hundreds of thousands of people coming in and out every day. If we really have to check them one by one, we won't be able to do anything!

Seeing that the caravan members' faces were becoming more and more ugly, and the line waiting to enter the city behind them was getting longer and longer, the leader of the soldiers finally announced that they would be allowed to pass.

After walking a few hundred steps into the city, the manager of the caravan snorted, "The tax inspectors at the Capital Commercial Taxation Bureau are not so strict when checking taxes! It's the little devil guarding the gate who is the most difficult to serve. He's always so annoying!"

While the soldiers were being arranged, someone from the second floor of a tavern on the side of the road waved and called out.

The manager of the caravan immediately smiled and turned to Yang Woyan and said, "Old Yang, come here, I'll take you to meet the senior members of the business!"

It turned out that the one waving his hand was a capable manager of the company. He was a general in the army in his early years, but later he broke his leg and retired to find another job. The manager introduced Yang Woyan that although he had retired, he had deep connections and wide connections in the army. He could know what the various garrisons in the northern border urgently needed recently, or what new products were produced.

Even the government office dared not neglect such a person. Several managers asked their subordinates to continue to lead the convoy to the Yangfang Inn. They did not care about being exhausted and hurriedly quickened their pace to the upstairs of the wine shop.

When we got upstairs, we saw three tables in the hall, all filled with people. Several big managers of the business were there. The managers hurriedly came forward to greet us with a smile on their faces. After sitting down and talking for a while, we learned that the caravan traveled all day and did not specifically inquire about the court's movements. In fact, there was a matter that had already spread everywhere.

Not long ago, the powerful minister of Goryeo died, and there was a lot of chaos in the country. Fortunately, the former Nanjing governor Yin Chang, who was idle in the Great Zhou, came along and helped to calm the situation. The King of Goryeo, who was supported by the powerful minister, abdicated and moved to the Great Zhou. The new king of Goryeo ascended the throne and sent a letter to Zhongdu, promising several things.

First, Goryeo handed over the famous Bilanting Licheng Port to Da Zhou for complete operation. Goryeo no longer restricted the construction and residence of Han people in Licheng Port. The area of ​​20 miles on both sides of the waterway from Licheng Port to Kaesong was stationed and managed by Da Zhou.

Second, Goryeo would no longer restrict Han merchants from entering Goryeo and would treat them as Goryeo citizens.

Third, Goryeo would no longer impose restrictions on the import of goods from the Great Zhou into Goryeo, and all that was required was permission from Licheng Port.

Fourth, the Kingdom of Goryeo will no longer restrict Goryeo people from entering the territory of the Great Zhou to work, study, or do business. Those who enter the Great Zhou only need to follow the laws of the Great Zhou.

Fifth, Goryeo and Da Zhou would jointly develop trade with Japan, and would select appropriate ports in the south of Goryeo to support trade with Japan and sea transportation transit to Song; but for special materials such as gold, silver, and sulfur, the trading authority and allocation quota would be controlled by officials appointed by Da Zhou.

You have to know that Goryeo has millions of households and the output of 3,000 miles of rivers and mountains. Compared with its special products such as medicinal materials, ginseng, porcelain, handicrafts, and sesame oil, the value of cattle and sheep in the southern grasslands is not as good; compared with the continuous demand for goods in the country, the Mongolian thousand households in the southern desert can never catch up no matter how big their hands are.

Another issue that cannot be avoided is the cost of transporting goods. Goryeo relied on sea transport, and the cost of shipping goods from Tianjin Prefecture to Licheng Port was less than one-third of that of shipping goods to the south of the desert by carriage and horse team. If the specialty products from the northeastern inland could be sent directly to Qingyuan Prefecture in the Southern Dynasty via Licheng Port, the time would be shortened by 15 days.

If we consider using Goryeo as a springboard to Japan... then it would be like an endless cash cow growing right in front of us!

Not only merchants were tempted, but also the nobles of the Great Zhou, not to mention the Emperor of the Great Zhou. These days, a noble who had close ties with the royal family leaked the news that the Great Zhou would use this as an opportunity to build ships in Goryeo, and would mobilize tens of thousands of people to completely control Goryeo and even advance to Japan.

To this end, the left and right offices and the record office of the imperial court sent a large number of people to Goryeo, and the army also mobilized its elite officers in advance to survey the terrain of Licheng Port and southern Goryeo. Recently, there are rumors that the emperor intends to suspend expansion in the grasslands and turn the army and manpower to Haidong.

"This... is this true?" The caravan managers were all stunned.

The shopkeepers said, "We don't know what the court's military and political plans are. But several businesses that we are familiar with, as well as our own, have recently reduced the next batch of supplies sent to the northern border. Even this banquet is a farewell dinner. Next month we will go to Goryeo to explore a new way to make money for you!"

After drinking some wine, Yang Woyan left the tavern, feeling dizzy.

It's not that he can't drink, but he really didn't expect that the new dynasty in the Central Plains would act so straightforwardly and clearly for the sake of profit; all military and political plans revolve around various benefits, without any concealment. Is this a proper court, or what? It feels like these people's faces are no different from the Mongols!

With a lot of thoughts in his mind, Yang Woyan went to Yangfang Inn with others, and found that the members of the caravan who had already settled down, except for some who had applied in advance to stay out overnight, were all noisily discussing this matter. The rumor that the court was about to draw people from the northern border to go to the sea in large numbers was already known to everyone.

Many caravan members were wondering whether they should learn to swim or sail. Some guards with military backgrounds were worried about the huge changes in the northern border in the future, and felt that they were not familiar with the environment in Goryeo and felt more comfortable on the grassland.

Yang Woyan was also somewhat bewildered. It was already a stroke of luck that he had gotten rid of his status as a Mongolian slave, but if the imperial court really reduced its investment in the northern border, or even reduced the number of troops stationed there, he, a newcomer, would lose out on opportunities and the possibility of making achievements.

However, by the next day, Yang Woyan had no time to worry about it anymore.

Because out of nowhere, three of the more than 40 people under his management were missing. They were clearly there last night, but suddenly they were gone, and there was no sign at all.

Zhongdu is under the emperor's feet, and there are rules for control. If there are suddenly fewer people, we can't get away with it. Yang Woyan reported to the steward in a panic, and the steward took him to report to the Dujian of the Dushang Taxation Bureau who was in charge of the Yangfangdian area.

The supervisor was good-tempered and comforted Yang Woyan, saying, "Don't panic. Recently, many people have fled everywhere, including Zhongdu. It is even more difficult to control the caravans... These people simply think that the court's attention should be diverted from the northern border, and the situation in the south and north of the desert will be reversed."

(End of this chapter)