Chapter 82: Beimang Mountain

Chapter 82: Beimang Mountain

  Chapter 82 Beiman Mountain

  The camel team continued to march eastward along the Weihe River, and 50 people were added to the rear of the team.

  These people are all more than six feet tall and in their early twenties. They are rare to be selected from the group of crooked melons and cracked dates, and they are still young and strong.

  It was early morning at this time, the morning dew on the roadside grass had not dissipated, and the morning breeze was cool. This group of young people were all naked to the waist, only a pair of pleated trousers with wide openings, leggings with cloth strips on their calves, and a pair of straw sandals on their feet.

  Every five people and one team trot forward together carrying a log.

  Qin Yong and other soldiers from Qin Lang's family rode on horses, walking beside them with a leather whip in their hands, shouting loudly from time to time.

   "Run, hurry up!"

   "Pay attention to the rhythm!"

"Cooperate!"

  A log weighs tens of catties. It is not considered heavy for five people to carry it, but the problem is that they have to run while carrying it. This involves endurance and tacit understanding. If the cooperation is not good, it will be more tiring than carrying it alone.

   When he was not paying attention, the whip hit his back, and the burning taste was absolutely unpleasant.

   "San Wu, who runs the slowest, has half his breakfast, and is responsible for digging latrines and cleaning the horses when camping!"

  Qin Yong flicked his whip heavily, and with a bang, those guys all trembled involuntarily.

Wei Zheng looked at the book leisurely on the horse, "This method of practice is quite new. Instead of practicing golden drum orders, spears, swords and shields, but practicing carrying wood, tossing to death every day, these guys want to die every day. I want to be immortal."

  Qin Lang was quite satisfied with Qin Yong's practice, and it was even his bad idea to carry the wood.

   "Old Wei, of course the Golden Drum Orders must be practiced, but there is no rush. First of all, these people must be converted from thieves, otherwise it will be useless no matter how strong they are."

   "That's true." After Wei Zheng finished speaking, he continued to read.

Qin Yong's method of training the Black Cloud Long Sword Team is very simple and brutal, that is, whipping them non-stop until they are completely subdued, crushing their rebelliousness and laziness when they were thieves, and then reinventing them. shape up.

  Five people carry wood and run together, which is not only training their physical fitness, but also cultivating their sense of community, especially emphasizing their cooperation.

  The army pays the most attention to the group, and what it pays attention to is the whole, not individual bravery.

  The thieves and bandits just emphasize the individual, and seldom talk about the collective.

   "Old Wei, on the way out of Chang'an, I don't think the weather is very good this year. You can see that the crops on the side of the road are not good."

Wei Zheng put away his books, turned his head to look at the fields on both sides, and sighed, "Frost and drought are disasters, rice is expensive, Turks invade, prefectures and counties are in turmoil, people are hungry and famine, running here and there, complaining. Those who sell their sons and daughters when there is famine."

  It was the first time Qin Lang heard this, and he was surprised, "Isn't it possible? Has it reached this point?"

  Wei Zheng sneered, "You son of Prince Qin Sanlang, a dude in Beijing, naturally you don't know how the world is going. Since the Sui Dynasty, the world has been in chaos. It has been fighting for more than ten years, and all places have long been smashed."

   "But isn't my Great Tang already unified the world?"

"Unify the world? It took four years of Wude to put down Wang Shichong of Luoyang, but then there were two rebellions by Liu Heita in Hebei, and Xu Yuanlang in Shandong and others surrendered and rebelled. How can the people have a good day if they are invaded by the plug?"

"Last year in the eighth year of Wude, the Turks invaded on a large scale. Many places in Hedong, Hebei, Hetao, and Hexi were in emergency. Countless people and livestock were taken captive. Many armies were defeated. Yu Sheshe sent troops to besiege Wucheng again, this side has never been peaceful."

   "Until now, Master Liang of Shuofang is still in control of one side!"

  Qin Lang felt quite uncomfortable when he heard this, and he didn't feel this when he was in Chang'an before.

  But now I leave Chang'an and travel eastward all the way, and find that the farther away from Chang'an, the more depressed the two sides of the road are, especially the poor crop growth.

  Natural and man-made disasters.

  Military disasters continued, but natural disasters continued.

   "This year is another year of catastrophe. After the catastrophe, there will be a catastrophe. I'm afraid that food prices will rise again this year. I don't know how many people will sell their children and be displaced." Wei Zheng sighed.

  Now a piece of silk is no more than Yidou rice, and the price of rice has reached more than 200 yuan, which is more than ten times the price of rice in Chang'an during the reign of Emperor Kaihuang.

  Qin Lang said solemnly, "Now that the prince is in charge, with the prince's benevolence and Fang Du's assistance, I believe that the court will soon be relieved, and everyone's life will be better and better."

  Wei Zheng was not so optimistic.

   "The change of the uterus to seize the throne will only make the world worse. Now that the Turkic foreign aggression is uncertain, and it has caused local instability, how can it get better and better? If there are civil strife, I'm afraid it will be even more chaotic."

   "So we must succeed in our trip to Hebei this time. The world cannot stand any more troubles." Qin Lang said.

The world is not safe, so the government soldiers often have to put down their hoes and pick up their swords to fight, which delays the production of the family's farming season. When a government soldier goes out to fight, it often takes five or ten strong men to transport food, grass and luggage, and more people delay the farming season. Production.

  War requires more food and supplies, and the people have to bear a heavier burden than usual. Coupled with natural disasters, floods, droughts and locust plagues, as well as Turkic invasions from time to time outside the Great Wall, the people were hungry and hungry, and some people simply threw themselves into the mountains, forests and grasslands to become bandits and robbers.

   Bandits are rampant, and the people suffer even more, thus a vicious circle.

  The group of Shayuan thieves defeated by Qin Lang, in fact, apart from a few rogues fleeing for their lives, most of them were bankrupt people, runaway slaves, starving people, etc., just trying to survive.

  Even people like Wei Zheng feel a little desperate about the current situation, and they don't know where it is headed.

"I think that to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down and get through the transfer of power at the center, and then we can unite the power of the whole country to fight against the Turks and force the Turks to stop invading. Only in this way can we fully recuperate and calm the world." Qin Lang said .

"Easier said than done?" Wei Zheng shook his head. The Tang Dynasty raised troops in Taiyuan, and it has been nine years since then. It has been a journey of swords and swords, defeating one anti-king after another, and pacifying one county after another. In general, life seems to be a little bit faster than before. However, Li Shimin's Xuanwu soldiers made the world situation that was gradually stable become turbulent again.

  The authority of the central government and the deterrence of the emperor that Datang finally established are losing little by little.

   Who is to blame for all this?

  Of course it's Li Shimin's fault.

  However, Qin Lang felt that this kind of matter could not be investigated deeply. After all, this has already happened, and what needs to be considered now is how to change the current predicament.

  Wei Zheng judged that the situation this year would take a turn for the worse. Regardless of whether Li Yuan, Wang Junkuo, Li Yuan of Youzhou, and Li Yi of Jingzhou would rebel or not, the frost and drought in many places this year would greatly reduce the grain production in the Kanto region, and famine would inevitably break out this year. And it is impossible for the Turks to let go of this opportunity to take advantage of the fire. If the Turks come again, the whole north will be in chaos.

  Border troubles and famines will be everywhere, which will inevitably lead to refugees and bandits.

   Years of wars have resulted in empty warehouses in both the central government and local states and counties, and the people have no food in store.

  In the weeds by the roadside, a dead body is half exposed.

  Being exposed to wind and rain, this skeleton has long been mutilated, but if you look carefully, you can still see that this dead skeleton is definitely not more than ten years old.

  Maybe this is a soldier who fell in the Central Plains War in the four years of Wude, or it may be a starving common people.

  But until now, they have not even been buried, and the bones are exposed in the wild like this.

  Qin Lang jumped off the horse, looked at the dead bone for a long time, and finally bowed.

   "Dig a hole and put this dead bone in the ground for peace."

  Qin Yong shook his head and persuaded, "After leaving Chang'an, such dead bones are everywhere along the road, which cannot be buried. The local state and county officials can't control it, we just pass by."

   "There are so many unburied bones?"

   "Many, Henan, Hebei, and Hetao and other frontier fortresses are full of dead bones. In some places, there are even no rooster crowing for a hundred miles, and everything is barren."

  Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, more than ten years of repeated fierce battles have made the once prosperous Central Plains area, and even today, many places are still like no man's land.

  After the Great War in the Central Plains, although the days are getting better day by day, the time is too short, and it still hasn't recovered.

Datang defeated Wang Shichong in Kanto, defeated Dou Jiande, and defeated Liu Heitai, Xu Yuanlang, Gao Kaidao and other anti-kings one after another. .

  The land in the Tang Dynasty was equalized, the household registration was cleared, and the people and orphans were comforted, but the Central Plains, which had been tortured and disabled, still had not recovered.

  Qin Lang ignored Qin Yong's advice, and whenever he saw corpses lying in the open by the side of the road, he would definitely restrain the bones, let them rest in the ground, and erect an unnamed monument.

  Qin Lang asked Wei Zheng to register the number of these unknown people.

  The further east you go, the more bones you collect. In Wei Zheng's book, there are more than 3,000 unknown bones.

  Exit Tongguan and enter Luoyang.

  Qin Lang ascended Beiman Mountain, and came to worship at the graves of Luo Shixin, Pei Xingyan, and Pei Renji. They were all Qin Qiong's brothers.

   Pour a glass of Guogong wine and light three sticks of incense.

   "Uncle Luo, the world is getting better and better. One day, the Tang Dynasty will create a prosperous age, and that prosperous age will definitely come as you wish!"

   Birds soar into the sky.

   A group of people came around.

  It was a group of hungry people, including the old and the weak, women and children, and some even held babies.

  Some of them were holding mulberry forks, some were holding dog-beating sticks, and they surrounded them with green eyes, staring at the pig's head and roast chicken that Qin Lang offered in front of Luo Shixin's grave.

  Qin Yong lifted the Panlong stick.

  Fifty Heiyun Longsword players who had already practiced and had some appearances pulled out their horizontal knives one after another.

  But the group of starving people on the opposite side did not retreat, and still stood there refusing to leave.

  Qin Lang waved his hand.

   "Put away your weapons, these are just hungry people."

   "Sanlang be careful, you can do anything if you are hungry!" Qin Yong followed Qin Qiong to suppress bandits in Henan, and most of them were refugees who rebelled because of hunger.

  Qin Lang shook his head.

   "It shouldn't be a crime to rob food because of hunger!"

  (end of this chapter)