You have truly caused me great suffering!

In the transition from summer to autumn, the climate in the south is no different from that of summer, while the winter chill is already very evident on the northern grasslands.

The aquatic plants near Buyur Lake have gradually lost their bright green color and are now tinged with yellow from a distance, as the grass begins to produce seeds.

At this time of day, the tribal chiefs would normally be thinking about where to plunder.

Or perhaps they should be wary of their base being taken over.

On the grasslands, plundering and being plundered are both unpredictable events; even Temujin had his father killed and his wife stolen.

Qu Duan was stationed here at this time. The Tatar tribes that Yue Fei had moved away during his Northern Expedition had long since returned to their respective pastures. After registering as citizens of Da Jing, they returned to this fertile land near Buyur Lake.

This is especially rare in the northern desert, and there are many other treasures nearby that can be sold in the Central Plains.

Because the lake water here is cold (average annual temperature <5℃), various fish grow slowly, have high fat content, a sweet taste, tender and white flesh, and no muddy taste.

There were many nobles in the Central Plains who were willing to spend a lot of money to buy them.

However, at this time, everyone was without a leader, only a few military camps responsible for maintaining order, and a large army stationed not far away.

Wang Dezheng wandered aimlessly along the fishing shore, sometimes sitting cross-legged, sometimes lying on the barren sand.

The Tatars often eat meat and dairy products, and Wang De, who stayed here for half a year, actually gained a lot of weight.

In the distance, a Tatar child was wearing clothes so dirty that their original color was no longer visible. The animal skin hanging on his body made him look like a beggar. His face was tanned dark, seemingly mixed with the color of the mud, and could not be cleaned no matter how much he washed.

Wang De sat up, looked at the child and waved. The child walked over blankly, while his mother walked behind him nervously, wiping her hands on her clothes.

"What?"

Wang De was somewhat surprised that the Tatar child could speak Chinese. He scolded him sternly, "Why are you so dirty? Go back and wash up. You are now a citizen of the Great Jing Dynasty. You should have some dignity, you know?"

"Is it illegal to be dirty in our big city?" the child asked, sticking out his neck.

Wang De paused for a moment, spat out the straw from his mouth, and was about to kick him.

At this moment, a Tatar man quickly came over, hugged the child, and said with a smile, "We're one of us! We're one of us! The child is just being silly, please don't take offense, sir. I'll take him to bathe right away. We are from the Tubo tribe, we've migrated here to graze our livestock!"

"Are you a native?"

The Tatar man quickly nodded and bowed, saying, "I am the captain of the auxiliary army camp of Dingnan Yinzhou. I am now in charge of this part of the Tatars who are grazing their livestock on this pasture."

Wang De felt a little guilty upon hearing this, as this Tartar was more senior than him. When this Tartar was fighting the Jurchens with the Dingnan Army, Wang De was still under Gao Qiu's command.

No wonder he could refer to his fellow countrymen as Tartars.

Wang De waved his hand, cursing, telling them to get lost.

He's had enough of this place.

Although the scenery here is truly beautiful, with the autumn breeze blowing and the lake shimmering, there is a sense of tranquility and pure beauty between heaven and earth.

The scenery was indeed beautiful, but Wang De and his fellow soldiers were not the type to appreciate it.

Such scenery, instead of bringing them peace, only made them more agitated.

Moreover, the lake and grassland look beautiful, but after a while, these views become uninteresting, leaving only mosquitoes in the grass and the smell of cow dung in everything you eat and drink.

These Tatars in the desert actually became happier, because they no longer had to pledge allegiance to their leader and could get their families through the difficult winter.

With winter still some time away, they can confidently fatten their livestock on these lush pastures and sell them for a good price in the winter camp city.

Every winter, Han Chinese merchants flock to Dongying City to buy meat.

I have no idea how many animals they eat.

The Han people would bring salt, iron, coal, grain, and clothing. Now they have also produced something called cotton, which is very warm.

These are things that you couldn't buy even if you had money before.

Both the Khitans and the Jurchens were wary of them and refused to trade with them.

If it is discovered that Tatars know how to smelt metal, they will definitely be taken away, or the entire tribe will simply be killed.

Many tribes use bone arrows when hunting.

The Tatar who left with the child was named Hurudo. A few years ago, he served as an auxiliary soldier in the Dingnan Army in Yunnei, taking care of horses for the Yinzhou soldiers, so he could speak Chinese.

He was a burly, dark-skinned man with a particularly thick chest. He wore animal skins like a beggar and exuded a familiar stench, like urine that had been dried in the sun.

The soldiers from Yinzhou were among the first to return to the Central Plains and distribute land, so they were settled in Yunnei.

I don't know who gave him the Han name, Hu Huahua. He must have been a joking soldier.

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from this area?" Hu Huahua slapped her son on the bottom.

The little Tatar pointed into the distance and whispered, "I buried a fish there. I saw him sitting there motionless, and I was afraid he would dig it up and eat it."

Looking at the military camp in the distance, Hu Huahua seemed lost in thought, her eyes filled with melancholy. "They would never eat the dead fish you buried. They've never lacked food."

Back then, in the auxiliary military camp, there were some Tatars, Khitans, and even some Jurchens who made great contributions and were allocated land in the Central Plains.

I wonder when I'll be able to bring my family to visit the Central Plains.

At that moment, a military officer on the military camp saw him and shouted, "Hu Huahua, come over here and have some tea."

Hu Huahua quickly released her son, letting him go back to boil water for a bath, and nodded happily. On the grasslands, tea was a rare commodity. Before the grasslands were open for business, the Tatars could only obtain it through underground trade with the Uriyangkhai and others, and the price was very high.

Ordinary herders would rather chew grass to cut through the greasiness, even though the grass is as bitter as medicine, but they have no other choice but to eat it.

They were reluctant to waste a single drop of oil, and their food was extremely greasy.

After the market opened, they started brewing milk tea, but the Han people didn't like it and preferred tea cakes.

Hu Huahua had fought alongside the Dingnan Army, so he knew some of their battle procedures. Seeing this group of people stationed here without moving, he found it strange.

Later, after inquiring, I learned that the war was about to end, and the next step was to stabilize the border. In a more distant place, they planned to build a town called Huaiyuan.

Seeing that the war in the north was about to end, he really wanted to use his connections to find someone to pull strings and take his whole family to the Central Plains.

Although he was a minor official here, he could still reap some benefits, especially when trading with the Han people in the winter camp, where the profits were enormous.

But after all, it was a harsh and cold border region. His son was said to be simple-minded by everyone, but the more he looked at him, the smarter he became. He always felt that his son should not be herding sheep here, but should go to the Central Plains to study.

Only by passing the imperial examinations and becoming the top scholar or third-ranked scholar can one be considered to have a good life.

Thinking of this, he went to his woman and whispered a few words to her. The Tatar woman took out a small cloth bag from her bosom, which Hu Huahua weighed in her hand before heading to the military camp.

Upon arriving at the military camp, the military officer who had greeted him earlier was Hu Yantong, now the Commander-in-Chief of the Cavalry and Infantry of the Anbei Road Camp.

After Hu Huahua entered, she discovered that the young military officer from before was also there.

Hu Yantong smiled and introduced to Wang De, "This kid used to feed my horses, he's a good one! Later, during the march to Bianliang, he transferred 50,000 of our Yinzhou camp brothers back, and after that, the 100,000 auxiliary troops in Yunnei were scattered."

The Dingnan Army went to wealthy areas in the Central Plains to become small landowners, while the 100,000 auxiliary troops were settled locally, mostly in Yunnei to cultivate land.

Wang De nodded.

Hu Yantong took out an oil paper package from the cabinet, which contained some tea leaves.

He said smugly, "Try it, this is a high-class product for Arabs."

The nobles of Arabia were wealthy and had a penchant for extravagance, wanting the best of everything.

They bought a lot of tea from the Central Plains, giving ordinary tea to commoners, but being very particular about the tea for themselves and for the gentlemen. However, they paid a lot of money, so merchants actually enjoyed doing business with the Arabs.

Their merchants, whose ancestors were mostly merchants, were very disciplined and were usually called "Tagil".

Among them, merchants hold a high status because the Prophet Muhammad himself came from a merchant family of the Quraysh tribe, and he once said: "Honest merchants will be ranked alongside the Prophet on the Day of Resurrection."

Hu Yantong said with a smile, "This is Commander Zhu, oh, now he's called Commander Jin. When the little princess was born, he held a big banquet at his mansion, and I asked him for some of the best wine."

Hu Huahua's eyes lit up, and she immediately took out a bag of gold coins. In front of Wang De, she asked Hu Yantong to put in a good word for her, saying that she wanted to find a job in the Central Plains, preferably near Nanjing.

Wang De was dumbfounded. Were they always this direct in their dealings?
Hu Yantong frowned and thought for a moment. He didn't care about the money, but Hu Huahua fed his horses, so in Hu Yantong's eyes, she was like his little brother.

I can't refuse when someone asks me to do something. There are quite a few gold coins, but if I want to transfer them to the vicinity of Jinling, I'll probably have to spend some of my own money and also use some favors.

He didn't hide it from Wang De either. There were indeed some factionalisms in Jingjun's army. People from the same unit often looked out for each other.

The people in the three major camps, in particular, are clearly divided. The Yinzhou faction, the Xiazhou faction, and the Han faction have been fighting separately from the beginning and have never merged.

Wang De came from the Bianliang New Army, and his background was in the old Western Army, just like Hu Yantong.

The atmosphere in the Western Army was even worse. It was mostly sons of military families who became officers and generals, while it was difficult for ordinary soldiers to be promoted no matter how much they made a contribution. At most, they would be given some reward money, and the amount was very small.

“You rascal,” Hu Yantong sighed and said, “Isn’t it great here? Such a big ranch, and you’re in charge of hundreds of herders.”

Hu Huahua just kept nodding and bowing, smiling obsequiously, without arguing back.

Hu Yantong was really buying it, patting his chest and saying, "You just wait, I'll give you a push when we get back."

Most people would probably regret showing off their connections and getting themselves into trouble.

But Hu Yantong was different; preventing him from boasting was like taking his life. He was happy to pay any price for the boasts he could make.

While they were talking, Wang De quietly finished almost all of his tea.

Although he doesn't know much about tea and isn't fond of it, he's heard it's very expensive, so drinking more of it is definitely a good idea.

He was very depressed because the war was basically over, and they had only participated in a few battles, all of which were small.

The Tatar tribe, which they were attacking, had already been severely weakened by Yue Fei and had not yet recovered.

Except for a small number who fled north, the rest chose to either wait for death or surrender.

They reorganized more than 800 herders here, and this achievement is ridiculously small, yet they have to share it with so many people.

I should have gone south.

At this time, there were many soldiers in the army who shared similar thoughts with him.

Everyone wants to fight a war.

But looking around, there were no enemies left.

No wonder those scoundrels like An Lushan and Geshu Han liked to call meetings with foreign tribes whenever they had nothing to do, then kill their leaders and claim they were rebelling.

This is the current situation on the border: the people are gradually settling down, but the soldiers are frustrated by the lack of battles to fight.

Logically, in a situation like this, the soldiers should have figured out a solution themselves.

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, when the soldiers had nothing left to fight outside their own country, they began to fight within their own territory.

The An Lushan Rebellion, which plunged the world into chaos, erupted.

But nowadays, it's no longer an era where warriors could cause chaos. You want to fight back?

You all eat the government's grain, not the military governor's or your own superior's; you eat the national treasury's grain.

If the imperial court cuts off military supplies, tens of thousands of people will have problems with food, drink, and sanitation, and will immediately disperse.

Wang De's thoughts represent a large group of people, some of whom have found an outlet for their frustrations in the countless islands of the South China Sea.

The total land area is comparable to a quarter of the Central Plains.

That's enough for them to fight.

These generals in the north also had their own goals.

To the west.
However, the imperial court has not yet expressed this intention.

However, these soldiers all had their own leaders who had influence in the court.

When the desire to advance westward cannot be suppressed, and the imperial court is prepared, war becomes inevitable.

This was the situation after Chen Shao had dismissed nearly half of the Dingnan Army.

To say that Chen Shao was unaware of this problem, or that he didn't know how to solve it, would be nitpicking.

His control over his army surpassed that of the vast majority of emperors.

But he didn't make a move.

It's hard to say whether his personal motives were at play.

Chen Shao always insisted on having a legitimate reason for everything he did, but that didn't mean he was a person who absolutely followed the rules; often he would simply put old ideas in new guise.

They use the principles of etiquette and morality to achieve their own goals.

It may seem that he had no choice but to do this, but in reality, every step was carefully planned and he took it himself.

Was Chen Shao instigating Jingjun's campaign to conquer the Southern Wilderness? No, but it is an undeniable fact that he already had the idea of ​​occupying all the ports in the Southern Wilderness when he ordered the conquest of Jiaozhi.

After learning the truth about the South China Sea, he did not issue an edict to stop it, even though he could have easily done so.

The soldiers were also watching and waiting. If the emperor showed even the slightest sign of displeasure, given Chen Shao's current prestige in the army, who would dare to continue?

The same is true in the north.

Chen Shaoping's pacification of the Gobi Desert was actually a natural outcome, especially after the surrender of the Kereit tribe.

At this point, logically speaking, it should have been time to gradually sheath the sword, reduce the number of troops, reclaim power, and win back the hearts of the soldiers in the Northern Expedition.

But how did he do it?

He is increasing troop numbers
Wang De, Liu Qi, and Yang Yizhong, these young generals, were so eager to establish meritorious service.

Chen Shao transferred them here.

There were two princes in the court who could not be granted any more titles: Prince Xun, Jinling, and Prince Xin, Li Xiaozhong.

There was also the only military general among the five founding generals—the British Duke Qu Duan;
And then there's Yue Fei, a formidable weapon.
They're all being dumped on the northern battlefield. Is this some kind of ploy to sheathe their weapons?

To put it bluntly, it's about wanting to have it all.
Once he stabilized the treasury in the south and his empire's transportation infrastructure improved further, the court's control would be strengthened once again.

Then these long-suppressed troops should erupt and attack westward.

Of course, as before, it was definitely the soldiers' own idea, and there were certainly various reasons, but it was absolutely not because the emperor was bullying the weak.

It was you who insisted that I replace the Song Dynasty; it was the Song emperor who insisted on abdicating; it was Jiaozhi who started the conflict; it was Dali that came to submit on its own; it was the Koreans who wanted to speak Chinese; it was you who wanted to go to the southern wilderness; it was you who wanted to advance westward.
He shrugged, "What does this have to do with me?"

You have truly caused me great suffering! (End of Chapter)