Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 67 Do You Like It? (Please Read)
On September 24, the eleventh year of Zhizheng, Chao County was captured.

Liao Yongan led his army into the city in the early morning and took over the city defense. Darughachi Subutai, who was hiding outside the city, ran away upon receiving the news, even leaving his concubine behind.

He rushed to Kang Maocai in Heyang overnight and forced Kang Maocai to send troops to retake the city. He also reported to the emperor that Qin Li had betrayed the court and defected to the rebels.

But it's useless. They have already surrendered to the enemy. How can you expect the imperial court to control them? Unless you send a large army to suppress them!
When it was bright in the morning, the people of Chao County finally opened their doors. What they saw were the streets full of people with red scarves wrapped around their arms. Ahem! They were the rebels!
Notices to reassure the people were posted everywhere on the streets. The Red Turban rebels were abiding by the rules and were only there to maintain public order. In addition, the restrictions on entering and leaving the city gates had become stricter in the past two days, but there had been no bullying or looting of the people, which had reassured the people in the city.

The three Qin brothers also received a letter from the Luzhou express ship, asking Liao Yongan to take over the city defense and asking the three Qin brothers to go to Luzhou for an audience.

Qin Li felt mixed emotions for a moment. He originally thought that he would definitely get the credit for surrendering the city, but Jin Chaoxing got in the way, which greatly reduced his chances of winning the city.

But he still has a chance to make amends.

Qin Li quickly asked Liao Yongan, "General Liao, can you wait a moment for the audience in Luzhou?"

"Oh? What else do you have to say? Isn't it more important to meet the Marshal?" Liao Yongan asked curiously.

"No, no, of course it is more important to meet the Marshal, but I can't leave empty-handed. I have a magical horse at home, and I dare not keep it to myself. I would like to present it to the Marshal. I want to go and bring the magical horse with me." Qin Li explained hurriedly.

"Oh? What kind of horse do you treasure so much? Then bring it here for us to see." Zhang Desheng, who was following nearby, also became curious when he heard this.

"What can be given to the Marshal is certainly not an ordinary thing!" When Qin Zhao heard that his elder brother was going to give him a horse, he immediately raised his head proudly.

After a while, the so-called divine horse was brought in from the Qin family mansion outside the city, and everyone present was immediately unable to take their eyes off it.

It’s indeed a good horse!

The horse was black in color, with ears, mane, tail and limbs all black, without a trace of other colors, but its trunk was dark brown and its fur was shiny, like brocade, shining with dark golden light.

What is most eye-catching is his tall body, long limbs and full torso.

The shoulder height of a common Mongolian horse is only about 1.3 to 1.4 meters, but the shoulder height of the horse in front of us is 1.6 meters. Compared with those Mongolian horses, it is like a monster.

Everyone stared with their eyes wide open. All of them present were military commanders, so how could they not love horses?
Yu Tonghai immediately stepped forward and stroked it a few times. The horse twisted its neck to avoid him and couldn't help snorting a few times.

"Where did you get such a good horse?"

Qin Li immediately said, "This divine horse was purchased from Yangzhou in the ninth year of the Zheng Dynasty. At that time, it was just a foal. My coachman liked it at first sight. My brother also liked it very much. He also asked someone to look at it specially. Only then did he grit his teeth and spend more than 200 taels of silver and more than 8,000 strings of treasure notes to buy the horse and the slave who raised the horse."

As he spoke, he pointed to a little slave next to him who looked only twelve or thirteen years old. The little slave had disheveled hair and there was nothing special about him, but the horse was very close to him.

It was normal for the Yuan Dynasty to sell slaves, so no one paid attention to the horse-raising slaves, but were shocked by the price of the horses.

Before the large-scale import of silver from America in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, China had never used silver as currency. During the Yuan Dynasty, many people had never seen what silver looked like in their entire lives.

The purchasing power of silver at that time was very high, and eight thousand strings of treasure notes were not a small amount. Although the treasure notes had depreciated sharply in the past two years, before the "opening of the river to change the currency", the treasure notes had not become waste paper. Eight thousand strings of treasure notes were still a figure that many people could not reach.

"Wow, a horse is so expensive?!" Yu Tonghai couldn't help but exclaimed.

Qin Zhao also said, "The horse dealer said that this was a breed of Dayuan horses that were robbed from the Western Regions during the Mongol invasion. They were bred with grassland Mongolian horses and have been bred for two generations. They have long limbs and are extremely tall. They are what the Han Dynasty called celestial horses. Most importantly, they have not been castrated and can be raised as stallions. That's why the price is so high."

At this moment, the horse-slave boy suddenly interrupted and said, "It's not Dayuan, it's Turkmen."

"Where is Turkmenistan?" Zhang Desheng asked curiously.

"I don't know either." The horse slave shook his head.

Zhang Desheng asked him again, "Then where did you and the horse end up in Yangzhou?"

The child immediately answered, "My family is the servant of King Zhao, and we raise horses for him." When Zhang Desheng heard the name King Zhao, he could not ask any more questions. You could never guess where those kings conferred by the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty were just by their titles.

In China, Zhao usually refers to Hebei and the land of Yan and Zhao. However, the King of Zhao appointed by the Mongols was in the northwest of Shanxi, probably in the Ordos grassland of later generations.

Liao Yongan thought for a moment and said, "Why are you asking so many questions? The Marshal is well-informed and knows all about overseas places. He must know. Since this is the divine horse given to the Marshal by the Qin family, let's send it to the Marshal as well."

Yu Tonghai was still stroking the divine horse, not wanting to let it go, and immediately said, "When I have accomplished something, I will definitely ask the Marshal to mate me with a divine horse as well. It would be best if I could use this divine horse for breeding."

Zhang Desheng immediately laughed and said, "Then you should quickly make achievements, but this time taking over Chao County does not count."

Yu Tonghai was immediately annoyed and said, "Why did your Qin family offer the city for no reason? If we had taken it ourselves, wouldn't we have all made great contributions? Now our contributions are gone."

As soon as these words were spoken, Qin Li felt extremely embarrassed.

The three men took the divine horses and horse slaves and boarded the navy's large ship directly at the Chaohu Pier and sailed westward.

In Luzhou City, Li Shanchang finished reading the battle report and planned to discuss the Dingyuan issue with Lu Jin.

The chief clerk in Chao County actually thought the same as his Dingyuan Li family and took the initiative to seize the city and surrender it. Li Shanchang was of course unwilling to be left behind. Even if Lu Jin did not intend to take over Dingyuan now, he had to express his attitude first.

"If you don't plan to take Dingyuan in the near future, you can make some preparations in advance. I know there are some heroes in Dingyuan, including the Feng brothers, who are both civil and military. Their brother Feng Sheng has built a camp in Dingyuan to protect himself. The two brothers have 400 to 500 soldiers. If you need me, I can persuade them to surrender."

Talking about this topic, Lu Jin suddenly became excited.

Dingyuan has produced many heroes.

The main contributor to the victory at Buirhai was Wang Bi, the Twin Swordsman; Hu Hai, Marquis of Dongchuan; Chang Yuchun and Lan Yu, who might still be robbing bandits somewhere; and the brothers Feng Guoyong and Feng Sheng, who persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang to cross the river and establish Jiankang (Nanjing) as his base.

There are also Hua Yunlong, Wu Liang, Wu Zhen, and Song Sheng, the Marquis of Xining who is feared in the Western Regions!

Lu Jin was of course interested in these heroes of Dingyuan, but there was another person who interested him even more.

"I heard that there is a powerful family called Guo in Dingyuan, named Zixing. It seems that this person also plans to revolt. Can you persuade this person to join my army?"

Li Shanchang was stunned when he heard this, "Guo Zixing? Marshal, do you know this man?"

Lu Jin smiled and said, "It's just hearsay."

Dingyuan, the Guo family mansion.

Ma Xiuying, the adopted daughter of Guo Zixing, is now 20 years old. In ancient times, she would be a leftover woman at an advanced age and she has not married yet.

Guo Zixing loved this adopted daughter very much. He thought she was smart, could learn anything quickly, and was well-versed in classics and history. If she could find a reliable person to marry her, she would be able to play a huge role.

However, his unreliable son has been annoying him recently.

Guo Tianxu took advantage of Ma Xiuying's absence and went to find Guo Zixing again.

"Dad, I like my stepsister. It doesn't matter who she marries, so why don't you give her to me?"

Guo Zixing immediately became angry and pointed at Guo Tianxu's nose and cursed.

"Do you like her? You are just lusting after her body, you are such a slut!"

(End of this chapter)