stubborn thief

Chapter 283
Zhang Yuanheng didn't stay in Nangqian for a long time, he wrote a letter and asked someone to send it to Xining, telling the officials of the Tea Horse Department that he would go back next spring, and set off for Luhuo County, looking for Liu Chengzong's uncle Cai Zhongpan who was stationed there.

On the day of his departure, messenger soldiers from Luhuo County arrived in Nangqian, bringing with them the results of Cai Zhongpan's work.

When he heard the news, Liu Chengzong had just bid farewell to Zhang Yuanheng side by side with Sunday Qiang on the bank of the Zhaqu River. He couldn't help smiling, and then laughed.

He thought to himself, Uncle is too eager to make meritorious service. Calculating the schedule, it has only been a month since he arrived in Luhuo County. Even the government has just been established there, so what can be achieved?
Even though he thought so in his heart, the person sent by his uncle should meet him, so he asked someone to prepare tea and rice for the envoy, and went back to the manor to chat with Sunday Qiang about Xining Mansion.

Not long after, the envoy came to report after having tea and rice.

The envoy my uncle sent was Liu Chengzong's old acquaintance, Han Lin, the old soldier in Yan'an Prefecture who had no thumb on his left hand.

Han Lin was Liu Chengzong's servant together with Guo Zhashi at the beginning, but later, like Guo Zhashi, he did not follow Liu Chengzong to fight in northern Shaanxi, but followed Liu Chengzu to protect his family.

Because Han Lin couldn't use a bow, they only had two guns at that time, one was Cao Yao's three-eyed gun, and the other was his uncle's double-barreled hand gun, so Han Lin failed to catch up with the opportunity to make meritorious service beside Liu Chengzong in the early days.

But despite this, his treatment has always been good. He helped Chengyun when he was in northern Shaanxi, and he has been working with Master Liu since then. This time he was brought here by his uncle and followed him to Luhuo County.

Seeing Liu Chengzong again, Han Lin's appearance is no longer like that of Li Fu who snatched money from beggars in Yan'an Fucheng.

"Master."

Seeing the old acquaintance, Liu Chengzong was also in a good mood. He asked him to sit down, and then he said with a smile: "I really didn't expect that Uncle asked you to come here. Tell me, what good news is there in the east, can you enter Sichuan?"

Han Lin shook his head and said, "It is true that as the commander-in-chief said, there is no way to enter Sichuan. This time, Master Cai asked his subordinates to report the information to the commander-in-chief mainly to submit information about Chang Hexi and Songpanwei."

Changhe refers to the Dadu River, and the west of Changhe is the land including Dajian Road.

Liu Chengzong expected Cai Zhongpan to get information about Changhexi, but what surprised him was Songpan Wei: "Luhuo is so far away from Songpan, separated by chieftain Jinchuan, how did you get the information there?"

Han Lin sighed. From his demeanor, Liu Chengzong felt that these sources of information were not very good.

When he opened his mouth, it was true: "As soon as we arrived in Luhuo County, Jinchuan Chieftain sent envoys to bring money, food, gold, silver, Shu brocade and other things to give gifts."

As he said that, he looked down the manor and said, "Master Cai asked me to bring all the gifts to the Marshal, but there was 120 taels of silver in it, which was used by us. I will explain to the Marshal later."

Liu Chengzong nodded, motioning for Han Lin to continue.

"After Jinchuan chieftain sent gifts, he invited Mr. Cai to his territory as a guest."

"The chieftain of Jinchuan is the leader of the local wizards. His tribe lives in the mountains, and the houses and towers are built next to the mountains. The local people build watchtowers to guard against beasts and observe mountain torrents. Over time, they have formed a trend of comparing the heights of different watchtowers."

"On a mountain that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if you are a hundred paces away or less than a mile away, you will see towering stone castle towers, the low ones are three or four stories high, and the high ones are seven or eight stories high. Sometimes performing martial arts in the mountains has the meaning of deterrence."

Liu Chengzong frowned: "Is my uncle okay?"

Han Lin quickly shook his head and said: "It's okay, the chieftain played his martial arts, and Mr. Cai drank his wine, but nothing embarrassing happened. Chieftain Jinchuan wanted to draw a line with us and pay tribute to the general every year. This is the tribute list .”

As he spoke, he took out a list and handed it over. Liu Chengzong glanced at it, and found that the handwriting on it was very familiar, and it belonged to his uncle.

Every year, 50 taels of gold, 500 taels of silver, [-] horses, [-] dans of tea, [-] brocades from Shu, ten strong men and ten beauties.

Compared to the territory of Jinchuan Tusi, these tributes are not much. Now between Qinghai Marshal's Mansion and Daming's Sichuan and Songpanwei, there are only Changhexi and Jinchuan, one in the south and the other in the north.

After reading the tribute list, Liu Chengzong said to Han Lin, "Do they have any requirements?"

Tributes alone are not enough.

Han Lin nodded and said, "Yes, the chieftain of Jinchuan hopes that the tribute will not stop, so that the Han people will not enter Jinchuan, and Jinchuan will not enter the Han land."

Liu Chengzong knew it in a blink of an eye, that's right.

If he surrendered sincerely, there was no need to act as a deterrent, and he didn't mention handing over the imperial seal given to him by the Ming Dynasty, nor did he ask Liu Chengzong to issue the imperial imperial seal, which meant that he was just sending some tribute, not submitting.

To put it bluntly, this means...don't come here!
"That is to say, uncle is a guest. He is safe and came back with a gift. Chieftain Jinchuan wants to draw a border with us so that we won't interfere with each other?"

After Liu Chengzong finished speaking, Han Lin nodded with a smile and said, "Yes, that's what it means."

"The chieftain of Jinchuan wants to avoid war." Liu Chengzong was noncommittal, and said, "Then you go on, what about the information about Changhexi?"

"Hmm..." Han Lin felt troubled and said, "Marshal, let me continue talking about Songpanwei. The matter of Songpanwei is related to Jinchuan."

In fact, Liu Chengzong didn't care much about Songpanwei, that direction is very safe. If Dajian Road leads to Sichuan's Tea Horse Road, it is difficult to walk, and there are many places where vehicles cannot pass, then Songpan is even more difficult to walk, because the mountains, rivers and grasslands are full of natural dangers.

He was unable to form an army to launch an expedition there, and Songpanwei's army was also unable to come over. The most important thing was that neither side had enough motivation to fight a battle in the grassland.

Therefore, compared with the Ming army, he is more concerned about Jinchuan and Changhexi, the two big chieftains who have jurisdiction over countless small chieftains.

However, Han Lin's words made it a little difficult for him to understand: "Songpanwei, how could it be connected with Jinchuan chieftain?"

"The 120 taels is that Mr. Cai saw the Han people farming in Jinchuan. He asked if it was the flag army of Songpanwei, and he bought them." Facing Liu Chengzong's puzzled and surprised expression, Han Lin nodded heavily: "Yes, that is. The Banner Army of Songpanwei."

It is understandable that the Banner Army is farming, but the Banner Army of Songpanwei is not farming in Songpan, but went to Jinchuan to farm. Liu Chengzong became interested and said, "Tell me in detail, what's going on?"

He thought that the main task of the Songpan Guard Banner Army was to repair the city wall, and the co-author also had the business of farming land for others?
Han Lin lowered his head. He used to be a member of the Ming army, and his face was full of wimps. He took out a map from his luggage and said, "Please look, Commander. This is Songpanwei. It borders Jinchuan Tusi in the southwest."

What unfolded in front of Liu Chengzong was a sketch, with the road drawn in thick and shallow lines. From the perspective of Ming Dynasty, Songpanwei is a dead end. There are two mountain roads leading from Sichuan to the northwest. The final intersection of the mountain roads is the Songpanwei resident. .

Further to the west, there is a big swamp that spans [-] miles, and the southwest borders on the Jinchuan territory, which is the forefront of the expansion of the Han people in Sichuan to the northwest.

But the situation in Songpanwei is not as good as it looks, because on the picture Han Lin is holding, Songpanwei is surrounded by so-and-so and so-and-so.

Not only in the north and west, Songpanwei has two roads leading to Sichuan, namely Songpan South Road and Songpan East Road.

Han Lin explained: "Songpan Wei has more than [-] forts and gates, most of which are in places where there are no crops or boats. Every year, more than [-] stones of tax and grain are allocated from Chengdu and other places to meet food. Food and materials are transported by these two roads.”

"It is said that the hundreds of miles of roads are all on the cliffs, and some areas are only connected by the plank road in the clouds."

Listening to Han Lin's description, Liu Chengzong imagined the hundreds of watchtowers in Jinchuan and the endless plank road in the clouds in Songpan, and couldn't help muttering: "I really want to go and have a look."

He only lost his mind for a moment, then pointed to the word "white grass" specially marked between the two roads in Songpan on the map and asked: "Then what does this mean?"

"Oh, that's the Baicao 28 village in Songpan. It used to be the most violent. There were chieftains in the surrounding area to govern the Qiang people, but there was no one to govern the Baicao Fan, so there was no time to plagiarize the merchants. However, during the Jiajing period, this matter was resolved. gone."

Liu Chengzong asked: "How did you solve it?"

"He Qing, a general on the left side of Songpan, a native of Chengdu, originally planned to use 47 troops, but after finding out that the Baicaofan land was not conducive to the deployment of large troops, he drove [-] troops into the Qiang land. In the battle of Zoumaling, he captured [-] camps and destroyed four fortresses. Thousands of eight hundred, no harm from white grass."

Han Lin shook his head and said, "There are no more Baicao Qiangs now. Thirty years after that war, foreign Fanzhai invaded Songpan, and the local Qiangs were worried about being implicated. More than 30 people in 28 Villages invited themselves to be gangsters. Changing customs and selling knives to buy calves, now they have Han surnames, and everyone raises cattle and becomes very rich."

Liu Chengzong sighed in his heart, He Qing has such martial arts, but he has never even heard of this person.

Jiajing Longwan's prospering martial arts made him extremely envious of people who were born at that time. If he was born at that time, he must have been thinking of becoming a general in his heart.

He asked, "Later, why haven't I heard of this General He?"

"Oh, he guarded Songpan for more than 33 years. In the [-]rd year of Jiajing, the Japanese came from the sea. The imperial court transferred the old general and his soldiers to Su Song as the deputy commander-in-chief. The prime minister of Zhejiang and Su and Song Haifang."

Han Lin spoke calmly, but Liu Chengzong squeezed out a curse word from his teeth: "Damn, I just praised the court in my heart."

Transferring a famous general in Sichuan who has never seen the sea in his life to the southeast as the prime minister of coastal defense, is this an order that primates can give?

"Calm down the anger, Commander." Han Lin didn't see Liu Chengzong angry, and said flatly: "This story hasn't reached the time to make people angry. The old general couldn't do anything in the past. He was impeached, dismissed from office, and died. .”

Liu Chengzong was not angry at this meeting. He understood that even if he was born in the year of Jiajing Longwan and became a general, even if there was no general situation of rebellion, he still had to find a place to separate himself.

Isn't it expected that you can't make a difference?They shouldn't have sent people there, sent them to Guangdong and Guangxi to fight wild beasts, and mountain warfare is the professional counterpart.

He waved his hand, unwilling to say more about this matter, and said: "According to what you said, the situation in Songpanwei should be pretty good. How could the banner army be reduced to farming for Fanzi chieftain?"

"Commander, that battle happened 100 years ago. What kind of battle can bring peace for a hundred years?" Han Lin shook his head and said, "Since Bozhou used troops, many chieftains have seen the decline of the imperial court's national power, and they all have the heart of rebellion."

"Especially before and after the earthquake, the forts and gates built by General He Lao were destroyed by the earthquake, and the soldiers were exhausted from building the fortresses. After receiving the army rations, buy some wine and cloth, which is called "Shang Fan."

"Fan Qiang, the chieftain, passed the military fort, and asked the garrison for rewards, money for dismounting horses, money for getting on horses, money for quenching thirst, money for passing the fort, money for warm clothes, money for strength, money for partial hands...there are countless. If you need to plow the fields, you need some guards. The army went to plow the fields, and when the plowing was done, they sent back to the guard."

After saying this, Han Lin fixed his eyes on Liu Chengzong, cupped his fists and said, "Commander, the Songpan Guards have a hard life, and they have become a lone army in the siege of the Fanqiang. If they plan properly, they can be captured."

Liu Chengzong raised his hand and patted the table: "How dare you line up to stop Zhang Tianlin when you're all fucking like this! You're useless, you're humiliating your ancestors!"

What he scolded was not the Banner Army, but those civil and military generals who wanted more than less.

Liu Chengzong leaned back on the back of the chair, raised his hand and gently tapped his forehead with his knuckles, and beckoned to Han Lin with the other hand: "I have to think about this matter carefully, and you go on, Chang Hexi."

He can recruit Songpan's banner army, but he can't keep Songpanwei.

It was very difficult for the Ming court to transport grain to Songpanwei. It took three or four hundred miles of mountain roads, but Sichuan was on the other side of the mountain, so the consumption was affordable.

If he wants to transport grain to Songpan, he has to bypass the Dacaodi, at least [-] miles away, and the Dacaodi is still in Kangning Mansion, which is not self-sufficient in food.

Speaking of Changhexi, Han Lin finally lost his gloomy expression, raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "Marshal, Changhexi is much better than these two places. Since the Tartars occupied Qinghai, the imperial court has ordered Tibet to come and go. , all took the south road, so they were exceptionally prosperous.”

"There are forty or fifty manors along the way, called Guozhuang. Among them, there are thirteen larger ones, called Dorji Gusa, which means a large manor with stone slabs. The owners of Guozhuang are all Tubai under Mingzheng Chieftain Households, housekeepers."

Han Lin explained to Liu Chengzong word by word with a smile, and then said: "They are the ones who don't want to fight the commander in chief, seven days..."

Han Lin raised his hand with an exaggerated expression: "I sent people to Luhuo eight times, and I just wanted to ask the commander what he thought of them."

Liu Shizi asked doubtfully, "What do you think?"

"Yes, if the commander-in-chief doesn't give orders to Chang Hexi, they won't be able to sleep well."

Han Lin raised his hand and made a three-pointed gesture, and said: "Last year, the official tea from Yazhou Diaomen Tea Masi on the edge of Sichuan, through the chieftain territory of Shencun in Luding, and across Hexi, into Tibet was 300 million catties, and more people bought and sold. .”

"The thirteen Guozhuang villages in Lucheng all rely on the past business trips to make profits. The general stationed five hundred soldiers in Luhuo, and the township officials recruited hundreds of minzhuang, horse fast, and archers. They didn't have any orders for them, like hanging in the sky. With a knife on their necks, merchants who come and go from Tibet are afraid to stay with them."

Hearing this, Liu Chengzong raised his hand and patted his forehead, dumbfounded.

Such a big toast, opened a homestay in the late Ming Dynasty?
　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)