Wang Kai is the great-grandson of Wang Quanbin, the founder of the Great Song Dynasty, who was good at hunting when he was a teenager and was arrested for trampling on farmland. Kou Zhun, who knew the Yongxing Army at the time, saw that he looked extraordinary, and was recorded as the third class with the merits of his father and ancestors. Successively served in various places, Yuan Hao rebelled against the Song Dynasty as the governor of Linzhou, made many military exploits, did not have a defeat, accumulated merit and deployed on Linfu Road, and divided the Linfu Road soldiers and horses with Ji Min.

After receiving the news from Du Zhongxiao, Wang Kai crossed the Yellow River on the second day and went to the volcano military camp to do field work. Du Zhongxiao and Zhang Qi welcomed Wang Kai to the official hall in Yingtian, saluted each other, and sat down as guests. This operation requires the three of them to work together.

When Wang Kai inspected the border along the Linfu Road, Zhang Qi was his deputy and inspected, and the two fought side by side and had a deep friendship. With this level of relationship, Zhang Qi was able to discuss only with Du Zhongxiao and go to Tanglong Town. If it were another person, he might not dare to make this decision.

Du Zhongxiao arched his hand: "The deployment has been hard from afar, I ordered my subordinates to prepare a wine feast, and we will go to the back office to eat and talk in a while, and pick up the wind for the deployment." ”

Wang Kai said with a smile: "I'm in Hexi, I've heard that you have a lot of food here, and the generals discussed, and when the patrol is over, they want to come over and taste it together." It's a pity that it's winter now, and the Tibetan army is constantly attacking, so I can't be idle. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Okay, when the spring of next year comes, I welcome the deployment of the troops to come." Whatever you like to eat, you must have enough! ”

Say a few words of gossip, liven up the atmosphere, and the conversation will turn to business.

Wang Kai said: "Since the first year of Qingli, the western thieves broke Fengzhou, and more than 30 Tibetan tribes were scattered, and most of them were captured by the western thieves. I led the troops through Anfeng Village, and there was no more walled fort to the north, only scattered Tibetan people grazing. The former walled fort is in ruins. In such weather, the march of the army is difficult, and there is no food and grass on the road, which is extremely difficult. In the past few days, it has been clear that there is no decent Tibetan department in the territory of the original Fengzhou, and it is useless to occupy it. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The deployment is across the river from the Volcano Army, and you can replenish food and grass from the Volcano Army." ”

Wang Kai nodded and thanked him. He also said: "I took 500 regular soldiers and 300 Tibetan soldiers, all the way north." Now it seems that it can only stop on the other side of the river. Further north, there is no one for a hundred miles. This area has been ravaged by thieves for several years, and it has been completely scorched. Without twenty or thirty years of recuperation, the population is insufficient to support the garrison of the army. The capital eunuch occupies Tanglong Town, and if he can get supplies from the Volcano Army and stay there for a long time, he can block the Fengzhou area and attract the surrounding households. With the population, the walled fort can be rebuilt and the garrison can be garrisoned. ”

Listening to Wang Kai's words, Du Zhongxiao was a little frightened, the situation on the other side of the river was far worse than he imagined. After thinking about it, he said: "The Wang family has been stationed in Fengzhou for nearly a hundred years, there are more than 100,000 people, and the area is vast, and in a few years, has it become a no-man's land?" ”

Wang Kai shook his head: "The western thieves are on the side, and they don't stop capturing the population, and the people are fleeing to avoid the war, so there is really no one there." ”

Du Zhongxiao sighed when he heard it. He grew up in the era of population explosion, and there were many people everywhere, and there was no lack of population consciousness in his subconscious. When I arrived at the Volcano Army, I learned that there was a serious shortage of people in the border area. The Volcano Army built a camp and recruited hundreds of households in less than half a year, so he felt that it was not difficult to recruit people here. But I didn't know that it was because of the reclamation of the fields by the volcanic army that a large number of people were absorbed from the surrounding areas. Where Wang Kai is now, almost all of them have fled to the Volcano Army in a few months.

The party and the Khitan invaded the border, and almost every time they plundered the population, which was more important than cattle and sheep. For them, population is wealth. The two states of Linfu also have a population supplement from the mainland, and Fengzhou is isolated between the mountains, and there is no population moving in, and it has become a no-man's land in a few years.

Wang Kaiwei deployed all the way, and his army exceeded 10,000 soldiers, but he could only bring 800 people to the north. It's not that he doesn't want to bring more, but this area can only support so many people. If you bring some more soldiers, you will have no food to eat.

There are 3,000 civil and civilian households in the volcano, and there are a large number of garrisons, and they can't support many troops until the camp is harvested.

After carefully calculating the money and food in his hand, Du Zhongxiao sighed secretly. With the current accumulation, it is already reluctant to support Tanglong Town and Yatou Village, and other places are really not taken care of. Within a few hundred miles of the Volcano Army, there may only be a population of tens of thousands, and it is only a small county in the interior. It is no wonder that the imperial court does not occupy such a large piece of borderless land, unless a large amount of grain and grass is allocated from the mainland, where will the resources come from?

Sometimes Du Zhongxiao can't understand how such a large piece of land, close to the traditional farming area, is short of people? And the shortage of people has reached this point. All the way to the north of the Hetao, there can be hundreds of miles of uninhabited, this was once a densely populated agricultural area in the Qin and Han dynasties.

Zhang Qi said: "Now north of the Volcano Army, only Tanglong Town has more households, divided into fourteen clans. The Seven Tribes are the natives there, and the Seven Tribes have fled from the Toyosu area. As long as we hold the town of Tanglong, so that the Fan households will no longer suffer from looting, we will slowly recover. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The population growth in this kind of place is slow, and it is not known what year or month it will be to restore the prosperity of the past. The world is bustling, all for profit, the world is bustling, all for profit. The fastest way to attract a population is to make a profit. This area is rich in water and grass, and prolific in horses, cattle and sheep, and if we can recruit skilled craftsmen to weave felt blankets from wool, the merchants will be profitable, and the population will be gathered. ”

Wang Kai smiled when he heard this: "When the Zhijun was in the annexation of the state, he built a fur yard, and the government benefited a lot, do you want to build another one here?" ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "How much fur is there?" Where is it like wool. I have heard that the Hu people in the northwest are the best at using wool to weave cloth, and their products are very expensive. Once we have done this, we will no longer have to worry about running out of money and food. ”

Zhang Qi said: "This is a matter for the future. The most important thing now is that after the Yellow River freezes, the Khitan will enter Koutanglong Town. In the past few days, I have often seen Khitan rangers, who go there to spy on the deployment of our army. I'm afraid this battle is inevitable. ”

Du Zhongxiao nodded again and again: "I found out clearly in the side head village, the Khitan people have three hundred regular soldiers in this area, and nearly a thousand border soldiers have built a village called Ningbian Prefecture. The Khitan garrison was transferred from the interior, and their practice was that one husband was a soldier, one husband ruled the public land, and two husbands were sent to the army, so that a family of four could barely support it. As for grazing and farming at home, it is all dependent on women and children, and its hardship can be imagined. This part of the Khitan people doesn't have much savings at all, and if they don't come out to loot, they won't be able to survive this winter. They must fight in Tanglong Town, otherwise they can only turn back and rob their own people. ”

Zhang Qi nodded, his face heavy. In fact, such conflicts have never been broken in the border areas, but in the past, the Khitans robbed all the Tibetan tribes, and after the Song Dynasty moved the farmers inward, they didn't care at all. If you want to go deep into Tibet and occupy important places, you must face it.

Wang Kai looked at Zhang Qi and said, "More than a thousand Khitan soldiers, can the capital eunuch hold Tanglong Town?" If necessary, I can bring my troops and horses to support, but I will trouble the Volcano Army to provide food and grass. There is nowhere to raise food and grass around, and it is a little difficult. ”

Zhang Qi said categorically: "It's just three hundred regular soldiers, and the Khitan border soldiers can ignore it!" Their plundering relied on the regular soldiers to disperse the Tibetan tribes, and then let the border soldiers loot. I have 600 soldiers and horses, and I have the help of firearms to defend the city. The Volcano Army is a small place, and it is not easy to support the current two or three thousand soldiers and horses. Let's wait until next year, when the grain for the field work here is harvested, and we will think about it in the long run! ”

Wang Kai just nodded and didn't speak. The grain and grass on Linfu Road still relied on the transfer of other state troops, and he had no surplus food.

Du Zhongxiao thought in his heart that if there was really no way, he could borrow some grain and grass from the nearby Baode army. There were not many garrisons there, and the land was vast and sparsely populated, and some grain was stored. The most difficult thing is this winter, due to the lack of food and grass, it can only support these current troops. When the harvest is harvested in the next year, and the local planting structure is improved, it will not be so embarrassing.