I think you want to eat nothing.

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes without any trace, turned his head aside and ignored the old fairy.

Everyone who is familiar with the temperament of Old Cheng knows that this old man is crazy, so he will not take his words and just keeps a treasure in place, staring at a pair of bull eyes in a daze.

But it has to be said that the muskets really made the old guys very interested. After the dispersal, they formed gangs to go to the Liusu Station to check the drill effect.

As for the sword arrows that Li Hao promised to sell, who cares? Even if he doesn't take out, is there still fewer people who leak out every year?

A month later, the first snow fell on the grassland in late autumn.

According to the past practice, the grasslands were already uninhabited at this time, and major tribes shrank their territory. The herdsmen had their wives and children warmed up their kangs every day, and lived a pig-like life.

However, this year's late autumn is exceptional. There are small migrating tribes everywhere on the desolate grasslands. Countless people drive cattle and sheep toward Dingxiang City, which is closest to the Tang Dynasty.

There is only one reason for this phenomenon, that is, everyone has heard that a wealthy businessman who bought fresh milk came to Dingxiangcheng.

For grassland people who make a living by grazing, what they lack the least is fresh milk. If these useless things can be exchanged for money or essential foods from the Tang Dynasty merchants, this winter will undoubtedly be much better.

The lord of Dingxiang City naturally liked this situation. Even without the recommendation of the Second Prince and Tuli Khan, there were no hundred pieces of silk and ten thousand kilograms of fine wine presented by wealthy businessmen. This opportunity to expand the influence of Dingxiang City was not something he was willing to miss.

After all, the more tribes he has ruled, the greater the scope he can control and the more benefits he gets.

So, the rich businessman named Qian became a guest of honor for the lord of Dingxiang City. He had a small banquet every three days and a big banquet every five days. The wine from the Tang Dynasty, along with the heroic laughter, entered the stomachs of these people.

On this day, there was another big banquet in the wind and snow. There were bonfires in tents of about fifty square meters, and the most plump lambs were roasted on the bonfires. More than ten dancers were wearing gauzes and singing and dancing to the music. Although the sky was wind and snow outside the tent, it was as warm as spring.

On the main seat, the lord of Dingxiang City, Ashinatulu, holding Mei'er from the Western Regions, held up the wine bowl, and shouted to the 'noble' guests: "Master Qian, come on, drink this cup full."

Manager Qian is naturally the old Qian of the Rencheng royal palace. At this time, he did not have any slight submissiveness in front of Li Hao. He smiled slightly and raised the wine bowl in his hand: "The city lord is huge, and the villain admires it."

"Hahaha..." Tulu laughed loudly when she heard this, drank the American wine in the bowl, put it heavily on the table, and shouted: "Manager Qian, you have been here for seven or eight days. I wonder if this workshop has been built?"

Old Qian was also a slippery person, and his hands were deliberately slowing down Tulu. When he saw him asking questions, he put down the wine bowl and said, "I won't hide it from the city lord, it will probably take some time."

"Oh? Why, but what are the difficulties?"

"This..." Old Qian hesitated for a moment and rubbed his hands, "The main reason is that there is not enough manpower. The people brought by villains are a little uncomfortable with the climate of the grassland. Many people are infected with the cold, so the progress has never been faster."

"What should I do? It's okay. The lord of the Ming Dynasty will send some people to help you. Hey, you Tang people, everything is good, but you are too weak. Like me, Turkic men, you are wearing single clothes in such weather." Tulu cooperated so much because he was really easy to talk to. The main reason was that the Turkic people are too messy at the moment, and he must consider it for his future.

In the north, Xue Yantuo had already rebelled; in the east, Tuli Khan listened to the tune but not the Xuan; in the south, the Tang Dynasty was eyeing it; in the west, the nine surnames Tielle was ready to move; in the inside, the big prince and the two princes were in conflict. In such a situation, no one knew how long the Turks could last, which forced Tulu to make plans early.

Of course, this does not mean that Tulu has the intention of rebelling. If he really has such an idea, as long as he presents the city to Li Eryi and gets an official position like an assassin.

"It's great that this is the case. I thank the city lord on behalf of my prince!" Old Qian smiled and raised the wine bowl, and his words were filled with the intention of reporting everything that happened here to the King of Rencheng.

Tulu obviously heard it, thinking that he had learned the path of Rencheng King, and found a way out for himself, and laughed: "Hahaha... Come on, drink!"

After a big banquet, the guest and the host returned drunk. When Manager Qian woke up again, it was noon on the second day.

He rubbed his swollen head and got up, took the hot towel from the servant and wiped his face, as if he remembered something: "Little boy, did the lord of Dingxiang City promised us yesterday have come?"

The little boy looked about eighteen or nineteen years old and looked quite clever. When he saw Lao Qian ask, he immediately replied: "He has come, and everyone has been taken to the construction site."

"Oh." Lao Qian nodded and ordered: "Go and get some food. After eating, let's go out and have a look."

"Hey, I'll go now." The little boy agreed, took a cloak from the side and put it on Lao Qian, then opened the tent and walked out.

Outside the tent, the snow had stopped, and the cold wind blew into the tent, and Lao Qian couldn't help but tremble: "Damn the weather, why is it so cold?"

After waiting for a while, the little boy came back, and he brought up a lot of barbecue and milk tea, which made Lao Qian feel disgusted.

He waved his hand and asked the child to put the things aside, change his clothes, and walked out.

Lao Qian's tent was about five hundred steps away from the workshop. Originally, he could not live here. No matter how bad the environment in Dingxiang City was, there were some stone houses, which were much better than outside the city.

But he was really worried about the craftsmen, for fear that something would delay the matter, so he set up a tent outside the city to live in. First, he could manage it nearby, and second,... if he was tired during the day, he would have a place to rest.

After all, he is in his forties and is almost fifty, and his health is getting worse day by day. I don’t know how many more years he can live.

The construction site in the distance was extremely busy, and nearly twenty drying rooms started construction at the same time, so the craftsmen from the Tang Dynasty wanted to break up one person into two. Even if a large number of Turkic men came to help with the work, it seemed that the progress was not as fast as possible.

The cold air outside cheered Lao Qian up. The sluggishness caused by excessive drinking last night was wiped out. He patted his face gently and walked towards the construction site with the little boy.

The task is arduous and the responsibility is heavy! Although I don’t know what the young master in the capital wants to do, since he has arrived in Dingxiang City, then show his performance.

"This noble man!" As soon as he arrived at the construction site, an old Turkic man wearing fur shoulders greeted him and came up to say hello respectfully.

Lao Qian recalled it and found that he did not know the old Turkic man in front of him. He frowned and asked, "Are you..."

The old man hurriedly said, "The little old man belongs to the Uighur tribe."

Uighurs? Why were Uighurs here? Isn’t Dingxiang City a Turkish person?

Pressing the doubt in his heart, Lao Qian asked, "Is there anything you have?"

In Chang'an, an ordinary old man could not get close to Lao Qian, but this was a Turk. In order not to delay his son-in-law's big affairs, Lao Qian asked patiently.

The old Uighur man seemed to see the impatientness in Lao Qian's eyes and couldn't help but retreat, but thinking that there were many tribe members behind him, he gritted his teeth and asked: "Oh, the old man just wanted to ask the nobles. Recently, it was rumored on the grassland that the nobles in the Tang Dynasty planned to buy fresh milk. Is this true?

Lao Qian nodded: "Of course it's true. This matter is handled by my Prince Rencheng and Junma, and I will never lie to you."

The old Uighur man hesitated for a moment and asked again: "Then... I don't know what the price is?"

Speaking of the price, Lao Qian was a little confused. It was not that Li Hao didn't explain before leaving Chang'an, but he really felt that the offer given by his son-in-law was too high.

When the boy around him saw him silent, he quickly said, "Ten pounds per penny."

The old Uighur man looked happy: "Take it seriously? Then, I wonder if he can barter with things?"

Looking at the old man's expression, Mr. Qian knew that the price had been high. He sighed inwardly: "It's okay to barter with things, but I don't know what you need?"

"Cloth, any cloth is fine."

I thought the old man would ask for some swords, spatulas, etc., after all, what is most lacking on the grassland is iron tools, and the lives of herders cannot be separated from iron.

But Lao Qian never expected that the old man of the Uighurs actually wanted cloth, which made him feel a little embarrassed: "Why do you need cloth? If I guess correctly, what you lack most should be swords and other things, right?"

"Haha..." The old Uighur man smiled bitterly and sighed: "I don't know. If it were in previous years, we really needed swords, but this year is different from previous years."

"What's the difference?" Lao Qian asked in confusion.

The old Uighur man was also a real person, and said without any concealment: "It's all the bad times. It's just early September, and it's snowing so heavily and the weather is so cold. How can we live?"

The old man said something so well that Lao Qian was aware of it, and he couldn't help but feel a little headache.

After all, I have been in the grassland for a while, and Lao Qian knew that there was nothing but cattle, sheep, and horses in this broken place.

Yes, the cow and fur can be pulled out to keep warm, but even if you wear a fur coat, you must have a lid. Without the cloth clothes inside, just wearing a fur coat will become a vacuum suit? When it is cold, the cold wind will blow in. Even if you wear an eight-layer fur coat, it will be useless.

After understanding why the old man had to change the cloth, Lao Qian agreed to exchange fresh milk for the cloth, he quickly arranged for people to return to Yunzhou in the Tang Dynasty and buy a batch of cloth to transport it.

This operation immediately moved the old Uighur man inexplicably. While thanking him repeatedly, he did not forget to greet the man who was working to increase his strength.

It was not until this time that Lao Qian realized that the Dingxiang City Lord arranged for him were all Uighurs vassals around the Turkic people. As for the people from the Turkic headquarters, none of them were transferred here.

This made Lao Qian feel very depressed again. If it weren't for the little boy stopping him, he would have gone to "vent his anger" to the lord of Dingxiang City.

Time passed little by little, and the weather in Mobei became colder and colder, and the cold wind raged on the grassland. Every day, more or less animals were frozen to death, and sometimes people were frozen to death.

Just this, Lao Qian is more kind to help the herdsmen around him from time to time, otherwise more people will die.

In November, the entire grassland was covered with heavy snow, and looking around, it seemed that the whole world had turned white.

Outside Dingxiang City, there are more than 20 small tribes of all sizes gathered around the milk powder workshop. These tribes together provide nearly 10,000 kilograms of fresh milk every day, including cow milk, goat milk, and even horse milk.

As a large amount of fresh milk was sent to the workshop, batches of daily necessities were exchanged by these tribes to maintain their winter needs.

The milk powder workshop also produces about a thousand kilograms of milk powder every day. These milk powders are packaged in different categories and will be sent to Yunzhou every ten days, and then Yunzhou will send someone to Chang'an.

No one thinks this will be annoying. This is the case with the Turks, the workers in the workshop, and the border troops are the same.

For the Turks, workshops are their lives. It is precisely because of the existence of workshops that they can exchange fresh milk that has no use on weekdays for essential foods in life, such as clothes, firewood, and food.

The people in the workshop were almost crazy by such weather and were eager to go back to Yunzhou to have a good rest. Therefore, only those who perform particularly well in ten days have the opportunity to escort these materials, and others do not even have the qualifications to escort them.

The happiest thing is the Bianjun. In order to save shipping costs, most of the milk powder will be digested locally, and the Bianjun who eats military pay is a big family who digests milk powder.

When I woke up in the morning, a pot of hot water and half a pound of milk powder plus some food was enough for a group of ten people to eat. Compared with the past, the money was not spent more, but the nutrition was more than one level.

No one thinks there is anything wrong with this. Even in some places that go deep into the grassland, many tribes are looking forward to opening a few more milk powder workshops, and it is best to keep driving into the depths of the grassland so that they can enjoy the benefits brought by the Tang Dynasty workshop.

The news reached the Jinguan Royal Court. Not only did Jie Li not stop this matter, he was excited to show off the stupidity of the Tang Dynasty to his loyalty.

Since Li Er wants to spend money to help him support the people, let him raise it well. Ben Khan saves some effort and even has to think about where to go to make grass valley.

The Tang Dynasty's defensive power is getting stronger and stronger now. The harvest of fighting Caogu is far worse than before. It is possible that it will even pay a lot of pensions.

That's it. The milk powder workshop has taken root in Dingxiang City, and it has sent a lot of milk to the Tang Dynasty every day. At the same time, it is also using its own energy to influence the grassland, so that more and more people know the existence of the workshop.

No one had ever thought that as the news of the existence of the workshop became more and more popular, a large number of herders had begun to yearn for the Tang Dynasty.

At this moment, the sixteen guards stationed around Chang'an moved, and a total of 200,000 troops were divided into six routes and heading northward, advancing towards the Turks.
Chapter completed!