The spring is cold, a team of more than ten people riding donkeys is walking north along the official road, they are not the army, but an ordinary civilian, all wearing thick cloth clothes, wearing gauze hats, and leather belts around their waists, which is the dress of ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty.

The age of this team is about twenty or thirty years old, all of them are dark-skinned, sturdy, and the leader is a man in his forties, tall and burly, bronzed, with rough and powerful hands, a serious expression, unsmiling, and his eyes are looking into the distance, extremely focused.

This is a team of craftsmen from Luoyang, a total of fifteen people, they are all highly skilled shipwrights, it is Guo Song asked Li An to hire shipbuilders for him, Datang's shipbuilding center is mainly in Yangzhou, Quanzhou and Luoyang and other places, Yangzhou and Quanzhou mainly build sea ships, and Luoyang is mainly inland river ships.

These fifteen shipwrights are from Luoyang, they are actually a team, the leader of the man is called Geng Weizheng, is a well-known shipwright in the Central Plains, he recruited more than a dozen young shipwrights from Luoyang, formed a shipbuilding team, specializing in taking over the work of shipbuilding, quite famous in the Central Plains.

However, in the Central Plains, there are more such shipbuilding teams, but the demand from the people is not large, resulting in more monks and less porridge, the competition is very fierce, the wages are constantly pressing, and it is difficult to support the family, so when Li An found them, although they went to the distant Fengzhou shipbuilding, they still did not hesitate to pack up and go on the road.

For them, it is a good thing that they can only get a job, and they have no room to choose the owner.

"Brother Geng, is our job reliable?" A young boatsmith who looked like a monkey asked in a loud voice.

Geng Weizheng turned his head and glared at him, "It's almost time to reach the East Surrender City, don't you think it's too late for you to ask this?" ”

The young boatman scratched his head and said embarrassedly, "I just asked casually, and I didn't mean anything else." ”

Geng Weizheng saw that the other subordinates were worried, so he said to them: "Let me tell you, this time I went to Fengzhou to build a ship, this time I went to Fengzhou to build a ship, my old customer is a big businessman in the capital, the kind of wrist is all over the sky, I have already collected a deposit of 500 yuan, and gave everyone a settling-in fee, so we have to go if we don't go to this job, and if the other party doesn't need to build a ship, our deposit doesn't have to be refunded, isn't this a good thing?" ”

Hearing that the deposit did not need to be refunded, everyone put down their hearts and began to talk about it, and the young shipwright who looked like a monkey asked again: "Brother Geng, does Fengzhou need a ship?" ”

Geng Weizheng smiled: "Of course we need, aren't we going all the way along the Yellow River?" We are taking the official work of Fengzhou, I estimate that Fengzhou wants to use the fleet to transport, connecting Lingzhou and Fengzhou, as far as I know, now Lingzhou and Fengzhou are transported by rafts, not to mention, a large number of slender men are also needed, and it is very dangerous, if there is a boat, you don't need a slender man, it is safer than a raft, and the carrying capacity is also larger, and with a boat, you can also go directly to Guanzhong downstream. ”

At this time, a shipwright pointed to the big city that appeared in the distance and shouted, "Brother Geng, is that the city of the East Surrender?" ”

Geng Weizheng looked at it and said: "That should be Yulin County, and the city of Dongshou is on the other side of the Yellow River!" ”

Everyone sped up and headed towards Yulin County......

Yulin County of the Tang Dynasty is not the Yulin of later generations, the location is hundreds of miles apart, here is the right turn of the Yellow River 'several' shape, since ancient times it is an important passage for the northern nomads to enter the Central Plains, Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty in order to block this passage, he built the Great Wall along the Purple River on the east bank of the Yellow River for hundreds of miles, and the Tang Dynasty built the East Surrender City in the north of the Great Wall.

Yulin County, on the other side of the East Surrender City, did not belong to Fengzhou, but belonged to Shengzhou, at this time Guo Song had just finished inspecting the East Surrender City, so he crossed the river to Yulin County, he mainly considered the resettlement of the families of the garrison of the East Surrender City.

Although he was eager to settle the families of the soldiers in the eastern surrender city in Fengzhou, in fact, the most suitable place was Yulin County on the other side of the Yellow River.

It's a pity that Yulin County belongs to Shengzhou, although it is also under the jurisdiction of Shuofang Jiedu Mansion, but after all, the state capital is different, and the management is still inconvenient.

Guo Song considered two plans, the best plan is to persuade the imperial court to assign Yulin County to Fengzhou, in fact, this is also the best belonging to Yulin County, Yulin County is separated by the desert and other states and counties, hanging alone by the Yellow River in the north, if it can belong to Fengzhou, then the middle and east sets of the Hetao area will be connected as a whole, and the upper horizontal section of the Yellow River 'several' shape has been completely revitalized.

If the imperial court did not agree to this plan, then he planned to exchange a large area of pasture on the north bank of the Yellow River for a piece of farmland next to Yulin County, which also lived in Yulin County, where there was also a group of Tiele herders, who occupied a large area of land west of Yulin County.

Receiving Guo Song is Yulin County Commander Zhao Zhiwu, he is the son of Zhao Kuan, the son of the prince of the country, Guo Song knows his father, and they also go to the prince's banquet together, it is this relationship that makes the two get along well, and the county commander Zhao Zhiwu is very willing to solve the difficulties of the East Surrender City for Guo Song.

"I think the king's plan is feasible, this group of herdsmen from the Tongluo tribe originally lived on both sides of the Jin River in the north of the Dongshou City more than a hundred years ago, so they called themselves the Tongluo Jin River Department.

Later, when the Turks occupied their pastures, they were forced to move to Yulin County, and I believe that they dreamed of returning to the land where their ancestors lived, and I went to tell them that this land exchange should be completed. ”

"How big is their ranch and can it be converted into farmland?" Guo Song asked again.

Zhao Zhiwu smiled: "Why don't I accompany the envoy to take a look on the spot!" ”

Guo Song happily agreed, the two turned over and got on their horses, galloped all the way with a dozen followers, and came to the outside of Xicheng, which is only three miles away from Yulin County, with farmland in the east and endless grassland in the west, with as many as four or five thousand hectares, the grassland is low and undulating, and the Yulin River flows through the middle of the grassland, and a group of cattle and sheep can be seen in the distance.

Guo Song turned over and dismounted, knelt on the ground and looked at the land, and then dug up a handful and smelled it, the land was fertile and moist, and it was excellent humus.

He stood up and looked at the Yulin River in the distance, and found that there were many traces of ravines on both sides of the river, "Are those irrigation canals?" Guo Song asked, pointing to the traces of the canal in the distance.

Zhao Zhiwu looked at it for a moment and said: "That is the remains of the canal left by the Han Dynasty, this area used to be a large area of fertile land, and later it was ruled by the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the grain field became a grassland again." ”

There was no problem with the land, and Guo Song asked again: "If I use this place as a settlement for military dependents, and I allocate land to them, can Yulin County give them a land deed?" ”

Zhao Zhiwu smiled bitterly and said: "This question is difficult to answer, first of all, this land is not within the land scope of Yulin County, to some extent, it is the tribal property of the Tongluo herdsmen, if the East Surrender City replaces the land on the north bank of the Jin River with them, then this land should belong to the East Surrender City, that is, under the jurisdiction of Fengzhou, and the land deed should be issued by Fengzhou, my side is not a big problem, I cooperate with Guo Envoy Jun in everything, but this land replacement must be approved by the imperial court before it can take effect, I suggest that the envoy should write to the imperial court as soon as possible." ”

Guo Song nodded, "I will report the ownership of Yulin County and the land replacement to the imperial court, and submit it to the Son of Heaven for approval as soon as possible." ”

After reading the land, the two returned to Yulin County, and walked to the gate of the county seat, only to see more than a dozen men who seemed to have come from afar to inquire about something, and the soldiers guarding the gate pointed to their side.

Guo Song immediately turned back to his subordinates and said, "Go and ask, who are they?" ”

The soldier urged the horse to gallop away, inquired for a moment, and came back to report: "Qiyu envoy, they are shipwrights from Luoyang, and they said that they are here to find you." ”

Guo Song thought about it, and suddenly realized that he had almost forgotten about it, he had asked Li An to help him find the shipwright, it turned out that they had already come, he hurriedly urged him to step forward and asked, "Which of you is the leader?" ”

A forty-year-old shipwright bowed down and said, "The villain Geng Weizheng is the leader, may I ask if your Excellency is the envoy of Fengzhou Guo?" ”

Guo Song smiled and nodded, "I am exactly, you are the shipwright introduced by Li An!" ”

"What the envoy said is right, we are the shipwrights arranged by Li Dayuan, and we came from Luoyang."

Guo Song turned around and said to Zhao Zhiwu: "Please ask the county order to arrange for them to rest and eat, and I will send someone to take them to Jiuyuan County when I turn around." ”

"No problem, it's a trivial matter."

Zhao Zhiwu asked his entourage to take them to the post station to rest, Guo Song smiled at Geng Weizheng: "First of all, you are very welcome to come, now there are still a few days away from Jiuyuan County, you first have a good rest in Yulin County, and then I will send someone to take you to Jiuyuan County, and I myself will go to Dongshou City, so I will not go with you." ”

Geng Wei was bowing deeply to Guo Song, and then he led his subordinates into the county seat with the county order.