Tiger Guards

Chapter 191: Boating Campaign
Purple Mountain, Hou’s Manor.

A rare drizzle at night brought the long-awaited coolness.

When Cai Zhaoji went out in the morning, she saw that the vegetable garden was wet and dewdrops dotted the leaves.

This was the second rain since she moved here.

As she was admiring the lush green of the vegetable garden after the rain, a maid hurried over to her and said, "Madam, Madam!"

Cai Zhaoji turned around and saw the maid enter the room and walk around the corridor. "Madam, the Marquis of Zhao is recruiting soldiers!"

The maid gasped, "The order came last night. Minister Wei wants to lead a thousand men north. They are supposed to set off in three days."

Cai Zhaoji was puzzled and thought about it, so she asked, "How is the morale of the troops inside and outside the manor?"

"Everyone was delighted, saying that the Lord of Zhao had finally remembered them."

The maid added, "I heard from the steward that they will set out in three days, gather in Jiangyi on the second day of May, and then sail north."

"I see. Go ask around... Wait a minute. Take my manuscript to see Wei Ziang. If he agrees, have someone come to pick it up from me."

Cai Zhaoji then changed her tone and said, "Forget it. I'll write a letter and you can ask Wei Ziang to take it to Taiyuan and give it to the Marquis of Zhao."

There are so many things going on on the front line that Zhao Ji probably has no time to review the teaching materials she has compiled during this period.

The maidservant covered her nose and chuckled when she saw this. Cai Zhaoji didn't think it was strange and turned around to go to the study to write a letter.

The elite population in the manor has been evacuated, and even the stored food is almost gone. This place is more like a base for Cai Zhaoji to study and compile textbooks.

The Hou brothers developed this place because of nostalgia, but inconvenient transportation was also a very important factor.

Now that Zhao Ji is developing rapidly externally, he naturally cannot stay in a corner of the mountain valley, and he naturally has to rationally allocate human resources.

Even the smelting site in the deep valley south of the manor has lost most of its workers. Once the remaining copper is melted and forged into horseshoes, the site will be closed and operations will cease.

Whether it is Xiangling or Pingyang, there are better iron ore and smelting bases, which can be reopened.

As long as the mineral veins are still there, recovery is not difficult.

In the smelting plant, Wei Xing supervised the loading of the last batch of horseshoes, which would be transported to the manor together with the copper materials.

Plans cannot keep up with changes. Since Zhao Ji ordered him to lead his men to fight, Wei Xing could not find a suitable person to replace him in charge of the smelting plant, so he had to stop work completely.

What is being melted is copper, and what is being cast is a horseshoe... This thing looks like a horseshoe, but it can actually be used as money.

Wei Xing led a few people to check the storage warehouse and its surroundings. After confirming that there was nothing left, he led the team towards the manor.

While marching, his companions and fellow villagers each rode strong horses and went back and forth to supervise the team to prevent supplies from being left behind or people from escaping.

Although they had never deployed horseshoes, the Hou family themselves had horseshoes nailed on them, so they naturally knew how convenient these horseshoes were.

For most knights, when they first learned about horseshoes, they felt that they were convenient.

When going into battle, there is no need to wrap the horse's hooves with straw sandals or leather shoes, which saves a lot of time.

As for the benefits of horseshoes to cavalry, most people have no idea about it.

Wei Xing realized this, and Shen Tulan of Xixiang also realized it.

However, this enhancement did not bring about a qualitative change in the power of the Tuqi. If the Tuqi wanted to develop into a complete form, it still lacked double stirrups.

So both of them were stationed around the Hou family manor, one was stationed at the smelting site deep in the valley, and the other was now stationed at Tang City.

In the caravan, Wei Xing's concubine Liu was sitting on the shaft of a grain cart, wearing a bamboo hat with a white veil hanging down.

Now that she is pregnant, she holds the guardrail of the car with both hands and observes the scenery on both sides of the road.

She looked at the front of the team and found that Wei Xing was more open-minded than she had imagined.

Wei Xing showed great enthusiasm for Zhao Ji's conscription order. Whether he could make more achievements and get a concubine from a powerful man depended on his performance this time.

Behind the team, Han Dong and others also followed on horseback.

Wei Xing did not dare to bring them to the front line and planned to give them to Pei Xiu for resettlement.

Only after the court leaves can these people reappear.

At this moment, Zhao Ji was standing on the bank of the lake, with his hands on his hips, watching the fleet sailing towards Fenshui in the distance.

The fleet, which was fully loaded with grain and a total of 120,000 dan of grain, set sail. There were more than 500 boats of various sizes, many of which were small boats with only one boatman rowing.

Many boats don’t even have stern oars. They just go downstream anyway, and the boatman just needs to row the boat.

In order to transport food stably, we must rely on larger ships.

When heading north to Taiyuan, they sailed upstream, and when heading south, they drifted downstream. In terms of transport volume, the first batch could carry 120,000 dan, but less than 200 ships could sail back here, and the next batch could barely carry 70,000 to 80,000 dan.

These grains were enough to stimulate the full potential of the Hedong people, and even the five Xiongnu tribes and the Xiongnu directly under their jurisdiction could be stabilized.

As Zhao Ji watched the boats sail south, Jia Xu stepped onto the embankment and said, "Minister, the Wang family's fort has been breached. It was simply their own clan members who set fire to it, and the fire spread. No family records or treasury have been found."

As he spoke, Jia Xu glanced at Zhao Ji's profile and said, "Due to the dry weather, many members of the Wang family perished in the fire."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ji turned to look at Jia Xu, then reached out to take the document handed to him by Jia Xu. It was written by Wang Cheng.

The content was not much different from what Jia Xu had said, which made Zhao Ji a little confused about the truth and falsehood.

Did the Wang family members set the fire on their own initiative, or was it set by others after they were surrounded? Zhao Ji did not participate in this matter personally, and it was not easy for him to rashly believe Wang Cheng's report.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Ji asked, "How is Wang's grain storage?"

"The lack of reports suggests there shouldn't be bad news regarding grain storage."

Jia Xu asked, "Should we send someone to investigate?"

"No need for that. With the county official here, the actual situation won't be too different."

Zhao Ji sighed, "There's only one salt pond. It's wishful thinking to find a secret room of gold bricks elsewhere. Actually, looking through the account books of various families, they're not as abundant as I imagined."

The Xianbei were in the north, the Xiongnu were on the side, and the people of Taiyuan were very fierce in their internal annexation.

Therefore, each company is engaged in a kind of "arms race", even though there is a surplus in doing business and merging land.

However, the competitors in the same county were in a similar situation. In order to avoid being annexed, the people of Taiyuan chose two methods.

One is to keep more soldiers and provide for the armed population; the other is to study actively and spend money on studying.

Unfortunately, in today's chaotic world, the benefits of improving one's degree and reputation are no longer significant.

And the armed troops...they are human beings too. If you dare to reduce their treatment, you will only be asking for trouble.

Therefore, each household in Taiyuan has had a surplus in recent years, but their expenses are also high.

Even because of the presence of the Xianbei and Xiongnu, the internal armed annexation of each family was delayed and suppressed.

In other words, they spent money to support their troops, but the war never broke out, and no one dared to cut this part of the expenditure at will.

The result was that they were all fat and bloated, helping Wang Rou to scare the Huns, but they lacked practical combat experience.

At this point, these armed forces lacked organization and basically cooperated with the county officials in their arrest efforts.

Zhao Ji finished his sigh and said, "When the fleet returns, I will cross the river to suppress the rebellion in Pingtao. However, the government affairs in Taiyuan are complicated, and I hope you can help me."

As he said this, Zhao Ji turned around and bowed deeply to Jia Xu.

Jia Xu did not agree directly. Instead, he said, "The Minister, please recreate the household register. This is a complex matter. If you complete this task, the Minister and I will be unacceptable in the world."

When Zhao Ji himself annexed the lands of these powerful people, the people from other counties and the people in his own county would not react much, but the Huben and the court would be dissatisfied.

However, Zhao Ji did not want the land in Taiyuan. Instead, he used tax payment records as a reverse screening method, converting all the land that had no tax payment records in the past into official land. This process required a new land inspection, which was a major issue that irritated scholars everywhere.

Seeing that Jia Xu seemed more afraid of this, Zhao Ji said, "At this point, either you and I obey the court and destroy them, or they kill you and me. There is no other way out except to become a dog."

Jia Xu did not refute, and asked again: "Does the Minister want me to be the governor of Taiyuan County?"

"Yes, I had this intention before, but I was afraid that informing the public too early would cause dissatisfaction and vigilance among the people of Taiyuan. Now that Wen Hui is the only outstanding hero left in Taiyuan, there will be no hidden dangers if you come to lead Taiyuan."

Zhao Ji gave a brief account, and there were some things that did not need to be elaborated on.

For example, the imperial court also felt that it had gone too far in killing people, so it backed off and wanted to remove him from his position as county governor and replace him with someone else.

It was not that they wanted to seize control of Taiyuan, but simply wanted to send a signal to deny the court's position on "land inspection".

The court can still pretend to be ignorant about other matters.

On such a principle issue as land inspection, the imperial court must draw a line with itself.

Since Jia Xu became the governor of Taiyuan County, he was naturally not afraid that the people of Taiyuan would defect to him.

Perhaps after Jia Xu takes office, the remaining people in Taiyuan will miss him instead.

Seeing Zhao Ji's sincere invitation, Jia Xu was indeed a little embarrassed to refuse.

Just like the incident where Wang Cheng captured the Wang family fort, if Jia Xu had sent someone to do it, such a big mistake would not have occurred, leaving Wang Cheng unable to explain himself.

(End of this chapter)