Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 373: Lord of Xichuan
"Kill, kill, kill—"

As March approached and spring ploughing began and ended, the troop movements in Longyou and the Tang Dynasty became more and more frequent.

Although Longyou is not big, its area is long and narrow enough, and its geography is not very convenient.

From Liangzhou in the north to Weizhou in the south, the official road is a distance of 1,500 miles, which is equivalent to walking from Daibei to Guanzhong.

Because of this, the two armies mobilized at a similar distance, but Longyou relied on its abundant horse herds to increase the army's marching speed.

While the various towns dispatched by the Tang Dynasty were moving towards Guanzhong and the interior of the country at a speed of 40 miles a day, the Longyou Army had already marched at a speed of 70 miles a day, dispatched various troops to local areas, and had begun to get used to the different climates in various places.

"Kill, kill, kill—"

Outside the city of Didao, nine thousand elite cavalry and infantry were training, and their shouts of killing shook the sky.

The troops of the two towns were trained separately in six armies, each army having 1,500 men, including 300 elite cavalry in half-armour, 200 elite cavalry in armour only, and the rest were armoured heavy infantry.

Longyou trained its troops according to Tongdian, but its methods were different from Tongdian. The main reason for this was the armor-wearing rate and bow and crossbow possession rate in Longyou.

Every soldier in the Longyou Army was wearing armor, and was equipped with other weapons such as spears, blunt weapons, hard bows, halberds, horizontal swords and arrows.

Although the equipment rate of crossbows is not as high as that of hard bows, it is still 50%.

It can be said that the equipment rate of the Longyou Army's soldiers can only be compared with that of the elite Tang Army during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty.

Every Longyou soldier performs multiple functions including archer, vanguard, special force, cavalry, etc. They are genuine multi-purpose infantrymen.

Even during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, there were less than 300,000 such multi-purpose infantrymen in the entire country.

Later, with the outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, except for the elite troops such as the guards, the armor rate of the ordinary troops in each town could only be maintained at 60% to 70% at most, and it was impossible to guarantee that every soldier had a bow and crossbow. Naturally, it was necessary to distinguish between archers, vanguard soldiers, garrison soldiers, cavalry, jumpers, special troops and other specialized troops.

Apart from these, the Longyou Army was stronger than the peak Tang Army in terms of military discipline, and military discipline was often memorized through countless days and nights of training and recitation, just like now:
"As long as you are in the army, you will be able to do your duty even if it rains or shines, or you sit back and do nothing."

"All this tax and grain is collected by the government from the local people. You are a farmer at home. If you think about the hardship and difficulty of paying taxes when you were farming, you should also think about how easy it is to get food today, and you don't have to farm."

"The people have supported you for a year, but they only hope that you can defeat the bandits and protect him a little."

"If you are unwilling to kill the bandits and protect him, but instead rob him like the bandits, what use is there for the people to support you?"

"Even if you are caught by military law, God will use someone else to kill you!"

On the parade ground, officers such as colonels, brigade commanders, and team leaders were training their troops while they kept muttering to themselves, instilling the idea of "the people raising the soldiers" into their soldiers.

Political ideology is the biggest difference between the Longyou Army and other armies in other places at the same time.

When ordinary soldiers serve in the army, they only know that they receive their military pay from the army. Even if some insightful people know that food is collected from the people, they will not feel that they have done anything wrong to the people.

But being in the Longyou Army, not only will you be bombarded with various statements of "loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, protecting the country and the people" by the generals every day, but during breaks, you can also hear various stories about the friendship between the military and the people.

Over time, the soldiers in the army naturally developed many good habits, not to mention the military songs compiled from the Longyou Army's "Three Disciplines, Eight Attentions" and other military regulations.

Taking charge of both military and political affairs has been a long-standing habit within the Longyou Army since Liu Jilian led his troops to settle in Lanzhou.

The only thing missing is an official in charge of political ideology.

Regarding this, Liu Jilong originally wanted to wait for the students of Linzhou University to graduate one after another, let them experience the three professions of "official, farmer, and soldier", and after six years of experience, he would recruit them as officials in charge of political ideology in the army.

However, the situation is changing too fast. Even the first batch of graduates, such as Li Yangchun and Ma Yi, are still serving in local government offices in an official capacity.

At the current rate, it will take at least two years for these students to graduate and become the people Liu Jilong needs.

Before this, both military and political affairs needed to be handled by generals, and most of these generals came from poor backgrounds and grew up under the rule of Tubo, so their methods of handling things were too rough and radical.

Even though they have been taught and learned for more than ten years, at most they only understand the principles of protecting the country and the people and will not disturb the common people.

But if we want them to do the work of the common people as well, it will be very difficult.

Even so, this made the entire Longyou Army have ideas that far surpass those of its contemporaries.

"Thorn..."

While the soldiers on the parade ground were training, the big iron pot in the army's kitchen also made a sizzling sound of oil.

Fifty iron pans were frying in unison, and the fragrant aroma of meat continued to waft out.

"Today we are having fried pork with yellow vegetables. Each soldier is given 4 liang of food. In addition, we are having fried wild vegetables and boiled radish with lamb bones."

"We usually train once every three days. We only train in the morning. Meat is mainly consumed at lunch, and each person is guaranteed 4 taels. Dinner is 3 taels per person."

"Meat changes according to the seven days of the week, mainly lamb, pork, chicken and duck."

In the kitchen, Liu Jilian, Gao Jinda, Cui Shu, Li Ji and others followed Cao Mao's footsteps and listened to him explain the military meals.

Productivity determines everything, including military training.

The soldiers in the Longyou Army had only less than half a pound of meat a day, as well as enough vegetables and corn rice to fill them up.

Even so, we can only train every morning and conduct major exercises every three days.

The daily morning training mainly includes a one-hour march of ten miles with armor on, as well as martial arts training to familiarize themselves with the five formations of the Six Flower Formation: square, circular, curved, straight and sharp.

These five formations each have five variations, for a total of twenty-five variations, allowing the commander to deploy different formations based on different enemy situations, terrain, offense and defense, etc.

Simply put, as long as you master the Six Flower Formation, you can basically become a general leading an army.

However, many generals often boasted that they were proficient in the Six Flower Formation, but they neglected to train their troops, so it was easy for them to mess up the Six Flower Formation when facing the enemy in battle.

Once the formation is disrupted, death will not be far away. Therefore, there are only a few generals who can master the Six Flower Formation and integrate it into the army so that the soldiers can form muscle memory.

"How much is the normal, straightforward meat at the Protectorate?"

Liu Jilong took a closer look at the fried pork with yellow vegetables in the pot, then turned around and asked Gao Jinda.

Gao Jinda said without hesitation: "Two steamed buns for breakfast, three ounces of meat for lunch, and three ounces of meat for dinner."

In ancient times, one catty was sixteen taels, so six taels of meat per day was actually less than two hundred grams of meat.

Even so, it was the pinnacle of military officer food at that time. The rest of the Tang army only had two meals, and only breakfast had meat, and the amount of meat was not much.

However, the soldiers' salaries are high, so as long as ordinary soldiers do not have a family to support, it is not difficult to eat meat, and they will even receive subsidies for buying meat.

In fact, the army has had meat subsidies since the Han Dynasty. However, this subsidy is not given directly to individuals. Instead, it is allocated to grassroots military organizations based on the number of people, and then distributed by the grassroots military units.

Compared with the soldiers' salaries, chicken, duck and mutton in the Han Dynasty were not expensive.

A sheep costs only over 200 wen, and a chicken costs less than 40 wen. Even ordinary farmers can afford this discounted purchase price.

However, even with the preferential purchase price, some of the food sold in the army is still a bit expensive, such as beef tongue, which is worth sixty cents per piece.

In addition, the families of soldiers who accompany the army to guard the border can also receive more than 70 kilograms of food every month.

Liu Jilian also read about these things in miscellaneous books handed down from the Han Dynasty, and basically there were no exaggerated statements.

Therefore, when the Han Dynasty soldiers received meat, the name of the recipient, the type and quantity of meat received had to be recorded, and these account books were basically recorded in miscellaneous books.

Liu Jilian did not know whether these miscellaneous books had been passed down to later generations, but he thought that they probably had not (Juyan Han Bamboo Slips).

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong also spoke:
"Before the An-Shi Rebellion, whenever our army went out to fight, merchants would follow to sell their wares and receive the spoils of war."

"If Wang Tao, Yu Conghui, Ren Ze and other ivory merchants come to Longyou now, I will give them land for retirement, but it will not be as good as their previous business after all."

"When they come with their families, you can arrange for them to do this kind of business."

"Since they can drive the herds south, it would be best for them to drive the herds or transport poultry and live pigs to accompany the army. At the same time, they can buy and sell vegetables, fruits and meat from the places where the army is stationed and directly supply the army."

"If any soldiers want to buy extra meat, let them sell it to them at a lower price to ensure some profit."

Before the An-Shi Rebellion, merchant caravans often drove along with the Tang army. After the Tang army captured a city, they would sell the spoils that were inconvenient to carry to these merchants.

This would have been a good thing, but with the outbreak of the An-Shi Rebellion and the gradual deterioration of military discipline, even the merchants accompanying the army were at risk of being robbed, so many of them changed their careers.

With the military discipline of the Longyou Army, there is no need to worry about someone stealing things by establishing such a caravan, and they can also solve some supply problems for the army, so it is worth a try.

"We obey your orders!" Gao Jinda and the others bowed and responded. It was time for lunch. The bell rang, and Liu Jilong and the others took their bowls, got their food, and sat down at the Yamen.

After eating and drinking, Liu Jilong continued to inquire about the logistics of the Longyou Army.

Generally speaking, there were 42 pastoral offices of various sizes under the jurisdiction of the Longyou Protectorate, each of which was responsible for horse and sheep herding, chicken and pig farming, and other breeding activities.

Raising livestock is not uncommon. Since the pre-Qin period, royal families have enclosed land to raise poultry or cattle and sheep to satisfy their appetite.

By the Han Dynasty, captive breeding began to appear among the people, and by the Northern Wei Dynasty, the captive breeding method had become fully mature. The maturity of captive breeding technology also provided the necessary conditions for large-scale breeding.

When Jia Sixie wrote Qi Min Yao Shu, he had specifically analyzed the pros and cons of free-range and caged breeding.

He opposed free-range farming in the forest and advocated raising them in captivity, essentially for the purpose of quick fattening. This was different from simply eating them for oneself, as they were mainly used to sell to the people.

Therefore, in his book, there are comprehensive explanations from seed selection to fattening to feed making, which is simply teaching people how to raise poultry to get rich.

It is also for this reason that during the Southern Dynasties, there were many examples of people becoming rich by raising poultry and chickens and selling eggs, thus developing into commoners.

It is not uncommon for animal husbandry in Longyou to raise poultry, but what is more rare is the pig farms in Longyou.

In the past, the entire Helong area could not even gather 3,000 pigs. But now, more than ten years later, there are no fewer than 30,000 pigs under the jurisdiction of the 42 pastoral supervisors of various sizes in Longyou.

This is the number of pigs in the government-run business, which is exclusively used for government offices and the army. The number of pigs in the private sector is even greater, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is five times as much.

However, compared with the population of 1.2 million in Longyou, this number of pigs is not enough.

Even though there are almost no land conflicts in Longyou and life is very abundant, people still have to think twice before buying meat.

After paying taxes, the output of one acre of land is only about 70 kilograms of grain.

If this amount of grain was sold to the government office to buy pork, at most seven or eight kilograms of meat could be bought.

An ordinary farmer in Longyou can eat at most 30 to 40 kilograms of meat for a family of five after a year of farming and saving for food. On average, each person can only eat 7 to 8 kilograms of meat per year.

However, thanks to the vast land and sparse population, wild animals are still sufficient. In addition, bows and arrows are not banned in Longyou, and the people in Longyou are tough, so many people hunt and eat meat on their own.

If it were in densely populated places like Hebei, Henan, and Huainan, there would be no chance of hunting, let alone digging wild vegetables.

No matter which era, there is always a gap between the rich and the poor. Longyou is backed by the Silk Road, which is equivalent to a special economic zone in later generations, so the food and living conditions there are naturally much better.

However, when the temperature drops in two or three hundred years and the Maritime Silk Road becomes the mainstream, Longyou will gradually decline, while Jiangnan and Lingnan will rise rapidly.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong couldn't help but sigh, after all, Longyou was his hometown in this life.

But on second thought, because of my existence, the history of Western Xia, the two Song dynasties and later generations will disappear.

Longyou will no longer become desolate because of the tug-of-war between Song and Xia, but will enjoy dozens or even hundreds of years of peace longer than in history, so the final outcome is hard to predict.

In the Ming Dynasty, due to the Mongols' massacre of the Western Xia and the Western Xia's Tangut assimilation into the Han Chinese, there was not enough population to radiate to the Western Regions. But I don't have this kind of trouble, which is a good thing.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong walked out after everyone had eaten and drunk their fill.

Soon, everyone left the military camp and went to the Protectorate Office.

Outside the military camp, the people of Longyou were weeding in the fields where sowing had already been completed. Of course, there were also many wheat fields that had been sown in advance and the wheat had grown very tall and could be harvested in a month and a half.

Thanks to the stone mill improved by Liu Jilong, the wheat can also be processed into flour and made into more delicate noodles.

Compared with Hu Bing, noodles undoubtedly taste much better, especially in Longyou where there is no shortage of spices.

"At present, there are more than 14 million mu of cultivated land in Longyou, and more than 4 million mu of reclaimed land waiting to be cultivated."

"If the imperial court does not go to war with us and continues to focus on development, in ten years, we will be able to reclaim at least 14 to 15 million mu of cultivated land."

"When the people have more land, the income of the Protectorate will be higher, and taxes can be reduced."

Gao Jinda said this on horseback, but then he sighed and said, "What a pity, the war still has to go on..."

Facing Gao Jinda's words, Liu Jilong nodded slightly, but said soothingly:

"The imperial court can't invade, so the people should farm. Protecting the country and the people is what we need to do."

"With the land under Longyou's current jurisdiction, it is not an exaggeration to reclaim more than 40 million mu of arable land."

"If we can reclaim all the land in Longyou, and then move on to reclaim Hexi in the future, then our Han family's footprints will spread throughout the Western Regions, and we will completely control the Western Regions."

"Even if the imperial court sends troops, it cannot hinder the development momentum of our Longyou military and civilians!"

Liu Jilong's words were a little too shocking for everyone.

After all, the population of the Helong region has rarely exceeded one million since the pre-Qin period.

Although the population of the Han Dynasty exceeded one million, it was eventually met with war.

If the Helong region can really reclaim more than 40 million mu of arable land, it will require at least 3 million people to cultivate it.

You have to know that there are only more than three million people in Guannei Road, and they really can't imagine what the scene would be like if Helong had a population of three million.

After all, the six states of Hexi, Anxi, Beiting, Longyou and Jiannan, which were controlled by the Guiyi Army in Hexi and Longyou, had a total population of only more than 1.5 million.

The population of three million needs to be doubled on this basis. Naturally, they find it hard to imagine that Helong, which was once sparsely populated, would still have such days.

However, since it was Liu Jilong who said this, they naturally chose to believe it.

After all, twelve or thirteen years ago, Longyou had a population of only 200,000 or 300,000 people, but now, not counting the six states of Jiannan, it has a population of 900,000.

All these changes came from Liu Jilong's various methods.

Thinking of this, everyone gained confidence and galloped towards the Protectorate one after another.

At the same time, the troops mobilized by the Tang Dynasty were constantly entering important areas such as Guanzhong and Guannei.

Gao Pian, who was in Xichuan, did not receive a receipt from Chang'an, so he naturally knew that the court did not adopt his suggestion, but this was exactly what he wanted to see.

He returned to Chengdu in mid-March, but when he got back to Chengdu, he said in front of everyone:

"Pass on my military order, mobilize the troops, and reinforce Guankou Pass!"

"Send more troops to Guankou?" Upon hearing this, many officials looked at each other in confusion.

Although they had heard that the imperial court was likely to take action against Longyou, if they rashly increased their troops without the imperial court's military order, it would probably cause dissatisfaction in Longyou.

"Envoy Gao, I'm afraid this matter needs to be reported to the court before a decision can be made."

Yang Fuguang stood up and spoke, and other officials echoed him.

Seeing this, Gao Pian glanced at the group of people indifferently and said coldly: "You are short-sighted. If you wait for the imperial court to reply, the war would have broken out long ago."

Yang Fuguang frowned upon hearing this, a hint of displeasure flashed across his face, and he stopped bowing and said directly: "Without the court's permission, I dare not mobilize the troops."

"Exactly..."

"If this causes dissatisfaction in Longyou, this..."

Faced with Gao Pian's order to mobilize troops, the officials of Xichuan hesitated and did not choose to support it.

But in response to their words, Gao Pian put his hand on the hilt of his saber and said coldly:
"I never said that I needed your consent."

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound of armor outside the yamen, and the officials subconsciously looked towards the yamen gate.

But then Wang Zhongren and Zhang Lin led a large number of armored soldiers into Jieshifang and completely surrounded the main hall.

"Envoy Gao, what are you going to do?!"

Yang Fuguang looked at Gao Pian with a serious expression, while the conservative officials in Xichuan swallowed their saliva, their mouths dry.

"Mobilize troops." Gao Pian responded to Yang Fuguang's question, then slowly stood up and walked out, glancing at Yang Fuguang as he passed by.

"I am the Lord of Xichuan..."

(End of this chapter)