Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 121 Tongbai Guardhouse
The other one-hundred-household camp was not much better. Nearly half of the military households escaped, and the rest were unable to escape. Most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled. The entire guard house was a garbage dump.No, the Baihu House is even worse. Although Deng Tong's side is outrageous, Deng Tong is still willing to spend some time on farming. What about the Baihu over there?His mind was completely spent on deducting the pitiful rations of the military households, and he was not interested in farming at all, and he didn't know where to go to enjoy it.Yang Menglong really wasn't in the mood to stay here for too long. After learning about the situation, he said to Deng Tong: "Since that bastard doesn't want to do it, don't do it. I'll write a letter to Liu Dusi later and ask Liu Dusi to withdraw." He, you should work hard first and manage these two guards. Later, I will send you [-] shi of grain. This grain should be enough for you for a while... Your crops are hopeless, so how about it, When the wheat is harvested, you go to Wuyang to help, and after the harvest is over, I will distribute some grain to you. After a while, we will re-plan the military field and start production."

Deng Tong was overjoyed: "Thank you, sir, thank you, sir!"

Yang Menglong didn't say any more, and sent someone back to the Qianhu Office to inform Li Baihu to send thirty shi of grain, and then he rode his horse again and rushed to Tongbai County.What he saw along the way was full of barren fields and scorched wheat, which made him feel dizzy. You must know that in the 21st century, Biyang is a famous wheat producing area in Henan, with more than 130 million mu of fertile land, and the annual output of high-quality wheat is as high as Hundreds of thousands of tons, and now, those good fields have almost turned into a world of weeds, and the rivers have dried up.There are still water in several rivers, but the water cannot flow to Juntian, because someone built a dam upstream to cut off the river. Without water, the crops in Juntian can only wither.

Yang Menglong pointed to the field ridges where weeds were growing wildly and sighed, saying, "What a wonderful farmland, but it is just deserted like this. It is a crime to guard so much farmland but have no food to eat!"

Xu Gong said: "This thief God is against us. He refuses to have a heavy rain, and he refuses to have heavy snow in winter. Without rain, the crops cannot survive, and without snow, the crops will have poor harvests. No matter how good the field is, it is useless."

"Auspicious snow heralds a good harvest" means that if there is heavy snow this year, next year's crops will have a good harvest. This is because snow water will bring rare nutrients to crops and freeze to death some pest eggs, ensuring that Crops can be harvested.There is a proverb in Afghanistan, "Don't be afraid of gold being stolen, just be afraid of no snow in winter", which means that if gold is stolen, it is no big deal. If there is no snow in winter, it will be a big problem, and the grain harvest will fail next year.Considering snow is more important than gold, you can imagine what snow means to farmers.

Yang Menglong said confidently: "As long as there is enough water, I can have a good harvest even if it doesn't snow in winter!"

The war horse galloped all the way and brought Yang Menglong and the others to Tongbai County.

Tongbai County, formerly known as Fuyang County, is located in the southeastern part of Henan Province, at the eastern edge of the Nanyang Basin, the hinterland of Tongbai Mountain, and the junction of Henan and Hubei. The second county is connected to Tanghe County in the west.It is known as "Wandong Throat" and "Xinxi Barrier".Tongbai County is mountainous, with more than 800 large and small peaks and more than 700 hills, forming a large area of ​​shallow mountains and hills. There are also 57 rivers, and the source of the Huaihe River is here.This is a treasure land with extremely rich mineral resources. The per capita mineral resources are [-] times that of the whole country. It has one of the best open-pit silver and gold mines in the country, as well as a super-large alkali mine that is the largest in Asia and the second largest in the world.Of course, Yang Menglong doesn't need the alkali mines yet, but the gold mines, silver mines, copper mines, manganese mines, phosphate rocks and other resources hidden in Tongbai Mountain are what he urgently needs, especially the phosphate rocks, which must be obtained. , otherwise don't even think about developing.

Along the way, Yang Menglong found that the situation in Tongbai County was better than that in Biyang. After all, the water resources here are much more abundant than in Biyang, and irrigation is not a problem.The problem is that there are too many mountains in Tongbai County, and the geographical location is remote. The people are not very willing to settle here, so the population is sparse. The population of the entire county is less than 3. It is a mountainous area and walks for more than ten miles. Can't touch a single family.Yang Menglong also noticed that some landlords used tall and thick walls to surround their homes. There were even crenels, perforations, and watchtowers on the walls, and there were people on duty all the time.Obviously, the law and order here is really a problem. The landlords have to build fortifications against the mountains and build docks on the ground to deal with the bandits who came down the mountain to rob.This is quite polite, Yang Menglong even saw several cottages, as to whether it was the defensive facilities built by the landlord or the bandit mountain king's lair, or a combination of the two, it is not known.The more he looked, the more puzzled he became. He saw an old farmer carrying a hoe by the side of the road. He simply jumped off his horse, grabbed him, bowed his hands and saluted, and said, "Old man, I am a swordsman from other places. When I first arrived in your place, I found that your place is really beautiful." It’s picturesque, walking on the road is like walking in a picture scroll.”

Everyone loves to hear good words, and the old farmer said with a smile: "Brother, you really have vision. When it comes to scenery, we will rank second here, and no one in Nanyang will dare to recognize the first!" He sighed at this point , "Unfortunately, it is not peaceful. Many bandits occupy the mountain as king, and they often go down the mountain to rob, which makes people panic. Brother, you can go back to play, but you must go to Wubao before dark. Don't spend the night outside, otherwise There is only one way to die."

Yang Menglong asked in surprise: "The bandits here are so powerful?"

The old farmer said: "Awesome, of course! Do you know the white-fronted tiger? He has [-] cavalrymen under his command, and everyone rides on horseback. Officers and soldiers had to flee for their lives when they saw them! Zijinxing, you know? He has four great king kong under his command, each of them is infinitely powerful, and they can kill without batting an eyelid. Three shocks! There are also Xiaolong, Guoshanliang, and Black Whirlwind... all of them are vicious, but they made us miserable! A few years ago, they even gathered thousands of people to surround the county, and the officers and soldiers fought against them many times. They were beaten badly, and then the magistrate had to come forward to recruit them and gave them a lot of money and food, so they gave up!"

Yang Menglong grinned, "Oh my god, they surrounded the county and forced the governor to spend money to buy peace. How spectacular. These bandits are really not ordinary ferocious!"

"They are making such a fuss, so the government doesn't care about it?"

The old farmer didn't say anything: "The gang of officials only care about their black hats. If the bandits want to make trouble, they will recruit them. Give them some money and food to let them settle down for a while. Just don't make too much trouble during their tenure. As for whether they would feed tigers or not, they never thought about it! Even if they sent troops to suppress the bandits, they would just drive the bandits to Hubei.

Yang Menglong said, "Aren't there guards in the area?"

The old farmer sneered: "Wesuo? Those poor soldiers can't even lift their knives, expect them to suppress the bandits? Just dream!" He shook his head while talking, and left with a sigh. It seemed that he was serious about the Weisuo. Not the slightest bit of confidence.

Yang Menglong also had nothing to say, who told the guard to be so rotten that even the bandits can't do anything about it?The most terrible thing is that the guard here is still under his control, slap in the face!

There is a [-]-household office in Tongbai County, with [-] mu of military land under its name.However, don’t get complacent, just like the Biyang Hundred Households, these military fields are leftovers from the landlords and gentry. They are all thin fields, the kind that can only produce a few buckets of grain per mu. How hard is it for the military households in such a thin field to live.Yang Menglong was very speechless. The army is the backbone of a country. A country without a strong army can only be hanged and beaten by other countries. The army of the Ming Dynasty was not weak. Even in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, there were still several troops that remained Quite powerful combat forces, such as the Guanning Army, Tianxiong Army, Qin Bing, Hong Bing, etc., are relatively capable of fighting, which is relatively rare in history.But the problem is that the status of soldiers is too low, civil officials look down on military generals, military generals exploit soldiers, soldiers have to endure the exploitation of generals, and they have to be bullied by landlords and gentry. Taxes... No wonder the Ming army was often defeated during the Anti-Japanese War. Thousands of people were chased and beaten by dozens of Japanese pirates. Their self-esteem and sense of honor have long been exhausted. Why do they fight to the death for this empire?If someone can help them take those fertile fields back from the landlords, let them have enough to eat, and give them some wine and meat, those cowardly military households will immediately turn into a pack of vicious wolves and tear the bandits to pieces!
Tongbai hundred households are built on the mountain, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack, which is in line with the mountainous situation in Tongbai County.The situation there is the same as other guards. In fact, guards all over the country are similar. After seeing one guard, you can know what other guards look like: dilapidated, and can be kicked down The house has good ventilation and lighting conditions, but it’s just enough in winter; a military household dressed in tatters and whose body odor can blow people away 20 meters away; scrawny women and children; alleys full of garbage, and the air. The smell of urine wafting...Yang Menglong's expressionless face, Xu Gong's eyelids twitched, Wang Tiechui lamented: "If I had known this, I would have brought a pig-nose mask!" However, under Yang Menglong's coercion and lure, everyone developed the habit of paying attention to hygiene, and got used to the cleanliness of the Qianhu House in Wuyang, and suddenly returned to the middle of the garbage dump. It's no wonder that this Shandong man is at a loss.

(End of this chapter)