stubborn thief

Chapter 368 Psychological Quality
General Zhong Hu's wonderful holiday is over.

Under Liu Chengyun's call, Zhong Hu, the guard of Nanshan Fort, once participated in the battle to assist Wang Wenxiu in defeating the Lintao Frontier Army. After that, he led the army back to Nanshan and devoted himself to the great cause of extensive farming and low income.

Because Nanshan Fort is the key place to protect Qinghai Lake, the defenders here are the same as the border guards, and even worse than the border guards of the Ming Dynasty.

Since the opening of the Ming Dynasty, the border guards have always seen people, but Nanshan Fort is different, the permanent population is small.

Usually, a salt transport team leaves the customs from Nanshan every month, and the camel team full of green salt enters Haixidu through the pass every few days, and boards the wheel warship of the Navy Yamen to transport it to the north.

In addition, a Mongolian nomadic tribe will only appear in winter, and wander away again in spring.

It is a lonely thing to guard the border where there is no one.

Zhong Hu's soldiers were led by the captain to practice every day, doing small drills at the general level once every five days, and major drills at the general level once every ten days, it was very hard.

But whether you want it or not, the garrison guarding the pass will always be a little different from the field army. No one wants to be confined in a mountain fort every day.

So these Shaanxi veterans, after training, raised funds to provide food, hired craftsmen from Haixi County to build a brick factory, and hired workers to build houses for them at the foot of the mountain.

In the final analysis, these people are rich and can easily hire craftsmen from Haixi County to help with their work.

Although there is no military salary in the Marshal's Mansion, between the fourth and fifth years of Chongzhen, there was Liu Chengyun who deployed in the middle, and the rations of soldiers, horses, food and supplies provided to them can make the officers and soldiers envious. They alone can basically support officials. What is the army.

The monthly rations of ordinary soldiers in Nanshan Fort are divided into three parts, which are soldier rations, marching rations and family rations.

The rations for soldiers are eight catties of white flour, eighteen catties of yellow noodles, twenty catties of millet, eight catties of pickled vegetables, five catties of dried meat with sauce, two tails of salted fish, three catties of ghee, three taels of tea, and three taels of tobacco.

The marching rations consisted of six catties of fried noodles, one foot of vinegar cloth, and one can of pickles and jerky, in case the troops were sent out to be surrounded and eaten.

As for the food for the family members, it is much simpler and rougher. It is one hundred catties of highland barley noodles and a piece of salt brick worth seven renminbi of silver.

In addition, there are horse rations and special-purpose highland barley wine that are not handled by the sergeants, which are directly transported to the fort. The horse rations are distributed to each team, and the wine is used to reward soldiers or daily treatment of injuries. Distributed by Zhong Hu .

Most of the non-staple food here is managed by Sunday, and it is prepared every month and delivered by the salt transport team.

In fact, the Navy Yamen is the largest aquatic product base in the Marshal's Mansion.

Zhou Riqiang used to be in Dangzhi County, Shandong Province, and he attached great importance to fishery. When he arrived in Qinghai, he took up his old business again. Here, there is salt and fish, and there is also the advantage of transportation by car and boat. He built the Navy Yamen by the Qinghai Lake The largest salted fish factory in Marshal's Mansion.

The Marshal's Mansion tried its best to feed the frontier troops, but the natural environment is like this, and it is even more difficult to eat well.

It’s okay for the sergeants in the training battalion in Hehuang to occasionally eat some fresh meat and fresh vegetables. It’s more difficult to eat fresh food at sea, but in their Nanshan Fort, if you want to eat fresh food, you can only pick up some caterpillar fungus on the mountain in summer, and come back. Steaming in a pot can barely be regarded as having meat and vegetables, and it is a mouthful.

In essence, the Han soldiers in Liu Chengzong's army were not born for war. They were all born in the Wanli year when prices were cheap and everything was cheap. Everything around them was turned upside down in just ten years, and they could only choose to fight for their lives in the end.

Therefore, when they find a way to survive and people want to live a better life, they must build a house. The house is not important, the key is that the barracks are not allowed to raise pigs. If you have your own house, you can raise pigs at home.

What is home?A treasure covers a pig, and shelter from the wind and rain is a home that can raise pigs.

After they built the house the year before last, they found that there were many rivers around, and a lot of land could be opened up, but farming required a lot of hands.

Regardless of how much the soldiers pursued fresh vegetables, Zhong Hu didn't dare to let them farm.

Who is Zhong Hu?He may be the most daring person among the generals of the Marshal's Mansion at the level of President Qian, and he has blocked the lead of the Marshal.

Even for the Marshal's Mansion, he was an epoch-making figure. Ever since he stood in front of Liu Chengzong and got shot, the lessons of blood have made the rate of firearms and equipment of the Lion Army rise steadily.

This resume means that as long as he doesn't mess around, he will be rich and prosperous in this life. Even if he messes around, if someone else does the same thing to death, he will definitely be able to save his life.

There is only one, he can't toss the army.

A great commander is a great commander, a commander is only a commander if he has an army, and if the army collapses, then he is no longer a commander. Therefore, even if the soldiers wanted to farm the land, Zhong Hu would never let them go.

The soldiers wanted to do a lot, they wanted to eat fresh vegetables, they wanted to farm, they wanted to make a fortune when they wanted to sleep, they wanted to ride their horses by the river and they wanted to go fishing at sea. They wanted to do everything, but they didn't want to train.

Let them get their wish, and when the commander-in-chief Nan Zheng returns, Zhong Hu must be hung on a tree.

Zhong Hu's initial idea was to hire some people from Haixi County on the north side of the mountain and Gurutaijibu on the south side of the mountain to open up a vegetable field.

However, Liu Chengzong solved the manpower problem for him to reclaim wasteland.

With the progress of the Southern Expedition, every once in a while, the Generalissimo will send a group of noble laborers, stubborn prisoners or monks from the south.

Zhong Hu couldn't tell what these people were doing, and he couldn't understand their words, but the purpose of these people was very clear, and they would all be taken to the quarry at the foot of Qilian Mountain in Haibei.

He thought it was work anyway, why not?
Therefore, before each batch of quarry supervisors arrived in Haibei, they had to reclaim two months of land for him in Nanshan Fort.

This solved the manpower problem, but a new problem followed. People have to eat. Since these people are captives, they can’t be supported by sergeants. Wouldn’t they be ancestors?

Zhong Hu used his ingenuity to solve this problem.

As an elite soldier from the Ming Dynasty's military system, Zhong Hu is very clear about the operation of the guard... If there are people, there is everything.

Isn't squeezing military households a traditional skill?Is there any difference between military households and these laborers?

Seems like there's a little difference in name, but is there really a difference?Zhong Hu thinks there is no difference.

Each group of laborers first took a large iron spoon to fetch salt from Chaka Salt Lake, and made salt bricks by the small river south of Nanshanbao according to the regulations, and then went to reclaim the fields.

The salt bricks were bought by Gu Rutaiji of Tumote with barley noodles and tsampa, and brought home for the animals to lick, in exchange for labor rations.

Liu Chengzong fought in the south, and Zhong Hu cultivated fields in the north. After Liu Chengzong finished the battle, Nanshan Fort lost the laborers who would be sent every once in a while, but the original accumulation belonging to Zhong Hu had been completed.

It is easy to reclaim wasteland in this place. The soil itself is not suitable for farming, and there are not many trees around. The most tiring thing is not to open up wasteland, but to pull silt from the river.

On the river bank between the two mountains to the south of the fortress, there are already two manors, a brick kiln, two canals, two wind mills, seven wells, 240 cave dwellings, [-] small courtyards, and [-] mu of land.

Only nobody.

At first, it was because of the war in the south that there were almost no laborers to send to the north. Later, Chuoke Tutaiji invaded.

The land developed by Zhong Hu has not been intensively cultivated. After all, it is a raw land, and intensive cultivation can not produce much grain. It is the same with extensive planting and low harvest. More than 1000 shi seeds were sown, and more than [-] shi of grain were produced.

That's it, half of it was robbed, and finally lost capital.

Speaking of which, the Nanshan defenders are also elite, no one can grab food from them with a knife, but all the people who grab food are old, weak, women, children and hungry refugees from Mongolia. make up your mind.

They are rich, rich enough to have good capital.

Immediately after these Mongols were attached to the interior, and then the Ming Dynasty sealed the border and did not allow grain to be sold into Hehuang.

After defeating Wang Chengen, Mr. Liu of Xining Mansion was worried about how to arrange the captives. Zhong Hu volunteered and asked Mr. Liu to put two thousand Lintao prisoners in his farm. .

Mr. Liu asked him about his plan, and he was very surprised. He co-authored General Zhong, who was still a young expert in farming, and readily agreed to his plan to bring the captives back to Nanshan Fort. He also allocated [-] stones of grain and a doctor of agriculture.

Dr. Nong is a farming expert selected from various places and belongs to the township officials. Because of the front-line war, [-]% of the land in Hehuang cannot wait for the Marshal's House to organize households and cultivate them in a unified manner. Otherwise, it will miss the farming season. Grain is plentiful.

Zhong Hu asked about the treatment of the captives. There were three sources of these captives. One was Wang Chengen's standard battalion of the Lintao General Army;

The treatment of the standard battalion is very good, and the monthly rations and salaries are sufficient. For them, going to war is hard work, and their attitude is the same as that of the soldiers of the three major battalions of the Marshal's Mansion, because the rations are not as good as the garrison troops.

The salaries of the battalion soldiers are not bad, and they can drink a little wine in addition to supporting themselves every month, but it is just ok, that little surplus is not enough to support their families, and I don’t know what to do with it other than drinking a little wine. There is no difference for them, and the food is not good anyway.

The Banner Army was more or less finished. The guards collected food for one stone, which should have been calculated as one or two taels of silver, but it was counted as eight; Four coins to distribute.

For the Banner Army, it is a good job to be able to form an army to go out. The longer the battle is fought, the better. If you send troops, you don't have to starve at home.

Zhong Hu used the most direct way to appease the captives, showing them the monthly rations of the Nanshan garrison, and telling them to go to the fields, and after the battle is over, it only takes a year or two to follow the commander, and they can also get such treatment .

And the captives did not disappoint Zhong Hu's expectations. Except for a few stubborn soldiers from the General Standard Battalion, Zhong Hu felt that most of the captives were even more obedient than the soldiers in Nanshan Fort.

The standard battalion soldiers didn't think the treatment was bad, but they just wanted to go home. Zhong Hu also made a promise, telling them about the tradition of the Lion Army. After the battle is over, the commander may let them go back, and maybe he will pay them some money travel expenses in silver.

When they heard the news from Zhong Hu, they were not happy but more confused, because they just wanted to go home, not to go home.

Even the commander-in-chief Wang Chengen was invited to the city of Xining, where else could they go back, but who left behind?
At least it seems that the Marshal's Mansion has no plans to kill them all, which is good news for the captives.

With the mind of muddling along, people devoted themselves to the sowing business of Nanshan Fort under Zhong Hu's command.

Zhong Hu has long been impatient. He is the general in the Marshal's Mansion who is the least willing to fight. He must fight when the enemy is hit in the face, but his desire to farm the land is even more urgent after the battle.

After two years of silt irrigation, the land in Nanshanbao should have a good harvest this year. If all goes well, the soldiers in Nanshanbao may be able to support themselves with [-] stones of barley noodles per month starting this autumn.

He also made meritorious service in this battle. The Marshal's Mansion harvested so many prisoners. Zhong Hu thought that he might be transferred to other places. These fields were his gifts to Nanshan Fort.

Before he was transferred away, there was a huge difference in meaning between one thousand shi and [-] shi in this land.

But just when Zhong Hu thought he could finally farm the land well, the Mongols came.

In the early morning of the third day of April, Zhong Hu was walking in the boundless fields, watching the captives planting the fields, when the soldiers who had gone for a walk in the west rushed back and told him that the boundless and silent Mongolian army appeared at the foot of Ulan Mountain.

Not long after that, a small group of heavy armored cavalry came to report that they were the envoys of Huduntu Khan, and they wanted to enter the customs to meet the commander-in-chief Liu Chengzong, and they wanted to find Ji Tutaiji who had been the envoy earlier.

Zhong Hu didn't let them enter the customs, and promised to notify them on his behalf, but Huduntu Dahan couldn't wait so long.

In the afternoon of the third day of April, another group of people came, wanting to do business with Nanshanbao, asking for food, but they couldn't come up with silver and lion tickets, and finally decided to barter.

Zhong Hu thought that bartering would be a good idea, but he never expected that Huduntu Khan would send over 1000 people to exchange food with Nanshan Fort with the people he looted from Turpan, but he flatly refused.

He said in his heart that you can do business with anything, and the Marshal's Mansion can eat everything, but this person... If it was when Liu Chengzong first entered Qinghai, his eyes would probably light up when he heard such news.

But up to now, Zhong Hu doesn’t want to tell Liu Chengzong this kind of request. They are so poor that there are only people left. Huduntu pulled over not more than 1000 people, but more than 1000 mouths, and they were still ancestors who could not understand the language but could eat very well. .

On the morning of the fourth day of the lunar new year, the envoys from the Han Dynasty came again, this time in a more urgent manner, asking for food from the Marshal's Mansion, and asking for the envoys sent twice.

Fortunately, the envoys sent by him had just disembarked from Haixidu and passed the customs with Master Liu's warrant. Only then did Zhong Hu know that there was an envoy from Haibei County entering Xining before that.

Those who came in together with these envoys were Master Liu's instructions to the defenders of Nanshan Fort. There are two Mongolian troops outside, which may be close to [-] in total.

Once the war starts, Nanshan Fort must stick to it for [-] days to buy time for the Haixi Haibei Navy Yamen to withdraw to Hehuang and the main force of the Generalissimo to return to aid.

Zhong Hu on the Nanshan Fort turned his eyes to the field below the mountain, and then looked at the rolling dust on the other side of the mountain, thinking about the concept of a [-] Mongolian army.

He knew that it was time to exercise his mental quality.

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)