Tibet

Chapter 225 Ancient City of Kucha
If there is no difference between the previous Dunhuang City and the inland county towns, then the Qiuci City is completely an ancient city in the Western Regions. There are dense houses everywhere, mainly bungalows. The streets are very wide, and there are various shops on both sides. All kinds of goods in the Central Plains and the West.

Speaking a language that no one can understand, the streets are full of barbarians, and of course there are also Han Chinese.

"Zhang Shan!"

Li Ye turned around and shouted, and a 30-year-old brigade commander ran over. He was in charge of logistics and had [-] soldiers under him.

"Where is the humble position?"

Li Ye asked in a low voice: "The thirty or so orchids are really unwilling to leave?"

Zhang Shan nodded with a wry smile, "They have all exchanged tokens."

Exchanging tokens is equivalent to getting engaged. Li Ye is really helpless. If it was during a war, this kind of situation would never be allowed to happen, but it is not a war now, and he does not have a military position. The tasks assigned by the emperor cannot be handled according to the usual military discipline.

Soldiers are also ordinary people, with emotions and desires, and the need to start a family. He has to handle this matter well, otherwise he will lose the morale of the army.

Li Ye immediately ordered Zhang Shandao: "First find two inns to settle everyone down, and then inquire about the local housing prices!"

"Humble post obeys orders!"

Zhang Shan hurriedly took several of his men to look for the inn separately, and soon they found a large inn, which could accommodate hundreds of them and hundreds of camels and war horses.

Seeing that there were no other guests in the inn, Li Ye simply asked Zhang Shan to reserve the inn, and the 35 orchids also found two yards for them to live in alone.

After Li Ye settled down the sergeant, he took two of his men to the Jiedu Mansion in Anxi, and came to the front of the military yamen. There were more than a dozen soldiers standing guard at the gate of the military yamen. Li Ye recognized at a glance that it was Chang Shi Feng Changqing.

Li Ye was overjoyed, and quickly shouted: "Feng Changshi!"

When Feng Changqing saw Li Ye, he was startled for a moment, and then he recognized him. He came forward in surprise and joy and said, "Mr. Li, why did you come to Anxi?"

Li Ye got off his horse, stepped forward to salute, and said, "By the emperor's secret order, my younger brother is here to investigate the situation of Dashi!"

After speaking, he took out the emperor's gold medal and showed it to Feng Changqing. Feng Changqing narrowed his eyes slightly, patted Li Ye on the shoulder and smiled, "My little brother has traveled hard all the way, let's go to the military office to talk in detail!"

Li Ye asked his soldiers to wait outside, and he followed Feng Changqing into the military office.

The military yamen also has the characteristics of the Western Regions. The courtyard is full of shelves, full of fruits and grapes. The two sat in the lobby. Feng Changqing asked the soldiers to serve tea and sent two plates of freshly picked grapes.

"This kind of grape is quite expensive in Chang'an, costing dozens of yuan a catty. We have it all over the streets, and every household grows it, but the grapes in Jiedu Mansion are generally recognized as the best. Brother, try it."

Li Ye tasted two, and they were indeed sweet and mellow with a long aftertaste. Li Ye immediately praised: "Not bad! Not bad! The taste is very good."

He looked around again and asked, "Is handsome Gao here?"

"He went to Shule to supervise the food and grass. It may take a while before he comes back?"

"Are you going to fight again?" Li Ye immediately caught the meaning of Feng Changqing's words.

Feng Changqing nodded, "It's a coincidence that my brother is going to attack the Shiguo, and I will lead the army to Shule in two days."

Li Ye said apologetically, "I have to ask Brother Feng for help first!"

"You said, as long as I'm not allowed to go back to Chang'an, everything will be easy."

"I brought three hundred Hexi troops here, but encountered some trouble on the way."

Li Ye then told the story of encountering more than [-] orchids on the road, and he was really ashamed and said: "I am not strict in my rule, and this kind of embarrassing thing happened."

Feng Changqing laughed and said: "This is a good thing! What are the most precious resources of our Anxi Army, water, food and women, with women, soldiers can stay at ease for a long time. What did I go to Chang'an last year? Bring polo It’s one thing to compete with the team, but it’s also about recruiting some women to Anxi.”

"Then are they easy to arrange?"

Feng Changqing said with a smile: "The most indispensable thing in Anxi is land and houses. We have a family living area and hundreds of empty houses. We can solve it with one sentence."

Li Ye was overjoyed, "In this case, I can lead the army to Shule with Chang Shi at ease."

Feng Changqing smiled slightly: "Didn't you be ordered to go to the big food?"

Li Ye waved his hand, "The emperor gave me two years, which is enough, and I have my own arrangements. I participated in the battle to recover Juyanhai, and now I want to fight side by side with the Anxi Army."

Li Ye brought three hundred elite soldiers from Hexi, Feng Changqing certainly couldn't wish for it, he immediately said: "I will arrange a house for your subordinates now!"

The residence area of ​​Tang army families is located in the northeast corner, accounting for 1000% of the entire city of Kucha. There are more than [-] families of soldiers living here. For safety reasons, a high wall was built around the area where soldiers were gathered. There are soldiers standing guard. With pass.

Living in harmony is not the same as being harmonious. Han people and Anxihu people live together, and their income levels, beliefs, living habits and customs are different, and there will definitely be various conflicts. Many times, some small conflicts will lead to major conflicts.

In order to avoid unnecessary conflicts, military families have a special place to live, and the locals call this city within a city Tangcheng.

Of course, outside of Tangcheng, there are still many Han and Hu people living together, but they have nothing to do with the military family members, they come to Anxi to make a living by themselves, but they also get a lot of attention in terms of taxation and land, renting military land , can be exempted from tax, and the grain left over after paying the rent can be well-fed.

There are also many Han people who were sent to live in Anxi by their whole families after being convicted. There are quite a few of them. Hundreds of families move here every year. They also belong to the Han people who moved westward. Puzhou was dispatched to Anxi.

Feng Changqing allocated fifteen small courtyards to Li Ye, and gave these orchids access cards to let them settle down with the soldiers. That night, Li Ye held a simple collective wedding ceremony and married 35 soldiers. .

Ding Sheng has the highest position here. Ding Sheng found a woman from Xiao Shiguo who is the most docile and honest and became his wife. Li Ye understood Ding Sheng's feelings very well. He wanted to build a new home early and take his daughter over. According to Ding Sheng, his brother-in-law's family is relatively snobbish, and they took in his daughter for the sake of money, and they definitely didn't really love their children.

Of course, Li Ye was also impatient. Feng Changqing was going to lead the army to set off early in the morning the day after tomorrow. He had to arrange the soldiers' families as soon as possible.

That night, amidst laughter and laughter, the soldiers hugged their women into the bridal chamber and spent their wonderful bridal chamber wedding night.

In the early morning of the next day, the soldiers went to the streets together to purchase items and purchase household belongings. Li Ye gave each married soldier five taels of gold as settlement expenses.

Li Ye took An Taixuan and Pei Xiu out of the city to see the situation in Kucha. They will leave with the army tomorrow morning, and today is their only day off.

The young man accompanying Li Ye was Feng Changqing's son, Feng Cheng, who was only 16 years old, but he looked very stable and mature. The oldest one was Pei Xiu, who was only 20 years old, and An Taixuan was even younger, only 17 years old.

The four rode their horses to a high place, Feng Cheng pointed to the endless farmland in the distance with his whip and said: "These farmlands are our military fields, covering more than 3000 hectares, and we also dig canals to divert water from the Qiuci River for irrigation. My father said, This place is better than the farmland in the Central Plains. You don’t need to depend on the sky for your food. There is plenty of water and sunlight here, and you can get a bumper harvest of wheat every year, with a yield of 100 catties per mu. I heard that the yield of wheat in the Central Plains is only over [-] catties per mu.”

Feng Cheng has never left Anxi, he is full of longing for Central Plains and Chang'an.

Li Ye asked with a smile: "The farmland here is all military land, so what about the locals?"

"The locals are livestock herders, raising sheep and cattle. The endless pastures in the west are all theirs. In fact, we still have a lot of land. The large land in the east can be reclaimed, but the manpower is limited."

Li Ye nodded, turned his head and pointed at the majestic snow-capped mountains to the north and asked with a smile, "Is this the Tianshan Mountain?"

"That's right, the city of Qiuci is at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains. The melting water of the Tianshan Mountains has brought oases. Where there are oases, there are cities and populations. In fact, all the oases are at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, starting from the Yanqi Kingdom in the east. All the way to the west, there are more than a dozen small countries."

"Let's go to the barracks to see!"

"follow me!"

Feng Cheng turned his horse's head and led the three of them towards the military camp in the north.

(End of this chapter)