Xinhai (23) in the leap second month of the first year of Yuanyou.

Guangnan West Road, Yizhou, outside Yizhou City.

A group of light cavalry came at a gallop.

The leading knight had a thick beard, wore a fan yangli, and had two heavy maces hanging from his waist.

This was the favorite weapon of high-ranking military officials in the Song Dynasty.

Once the mace goes down, it can be said that all living beings are equal.

The horses they rode were typical Dali horses.

The Dali horse has short legs and a short body, and its running speed is not as fast as that of the Northern horse.

But it has strong endurance, can bear heavy loads, has a docile personality and can tolerate coarse grains.

As a result, it was widely praised throughout the Guangnan region and became the main transportation force in the southern part of the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Guangnan West Road would buy horses from Dali every year. The imperial court specially set up a horse buying farm in Yongzhou, and set up a special post to promote the left and right Jiang Dong Ding and handle the official horse buying business.

Dali horses are available for purchase if they are over four feet and one inch tall.

The price ranges from 13 guan per piece to the highest 48 guan per piece, divided into eight different levels.

Currently, the highest-level Dali horses are used as war horses.

Other purchased horses were distributed throughout the country or used as transportation horses for the Song army.

When these cavalrymen approached Yizhou City, Yizhou officials came to greet them from a distance.

The cavalrymen dismounted one after another.

The leading military minister asked the officials who came to greet him: "Where is Mr. Zhang?"

The official lowered his head and said, "My husband is meeting guests in the government office and has sent us to welcome the magistrate!"

The military minister nodded and said impatiently: "Please tell me, your Majesty, that our last general, Zhizhou Zhizhou Su Ziyuan, has come to see you on the orders of the commander-in-chief. I beg the commander-in-chief to take the time to meet you!"

The official nodded and said: "My husband has already given orders, and ordered Su Zhizhou to be brought to the government office to meet him as soon as he arrives."

"Good!" The warrior took a deep breath, then raised his head and looked at the top of Yizhou City.

It’s been ten years!

It has been ten years since my father, brother, wife and daughter died for our country in Yongzhou.

All the time, day and night, he was not thinking about his father and brother, his lovely children, and his virtuous wife.

Su Zizhan's poem said: Ten years of life and death are boundless!

Isn't he like this?

National hatred and family hatred are superimposed together.

Let him not think about revenge day and night.

However, since Xining's southern expedition, the imperial court was unwilling to send troops southward.

The northern barbarians, the western bandits, and even the Tibetans were all more important than Jiaozhi in the south.

He could only stay on Guangnan West Road day after day, year after year, making preparations for emergencies.

Now, he has finally waited!

When he learned that the imperial court had issued an edict to take power out of Guangxi.

He knew that the opportunity he had been waiting for for ten years had finally come.

And when he saw the imperial edict, he confirmed this.

Because the purpose of Zhang Dun's march south is very clear in the new emperor's decree: the disaster in Jiaozhi started in the Five Dynasties; the disaster in Xining only lasted ten years... I inherited the teachings of the late emperor and followed the etiquette of the saints...

It can be said that he is filled with murderous intent and his sword is pointed at Jiaozhi.

This made him excited, so after receiving the order, he began to accumulate food and grass and prepare soldiers and horses.

When he heard that Zhang Dun had arrived in Yizhou, he sent someone to tell him to come to Yizhou to meet him.

He set out immediately and traveled through the starry night.

…

Zhang Dun left the yamen and returned to the inner house of the houya. The two concubines given by the palace quickly brought him tea.

"Thank you for your hard work, officers!"

Zhang Dun took the tea, took a sip, then closed his eyes and rested for a while.

Since arriving in Yizhou, he has never had a day to spare.

Every day he is either entertaining guests or dealing with official business inside and outside Yizhou.

Who told him that in addition to being the envoy of Guangxi's economic strategy and pacification system, he was also the envoy to encourage farmers within the administration and also held the title of envoy for observation and disposal within the administration.

In a sense, his current status is no different from that of the Jiedushi of the Tang Dynasty!

It's all about military affairs, and the civil affairs are all in one hand!

Not only are we responsible for fighting the war, we are also responsible for people's livelihood.

No, chieftains from inside and outside Yizhou came to his door every day, begging him for a name.

This gave Zhang Dun a headache.

It's not that it's a headache to deal with and arrange these guys. The pamphlet the emperor gave him authorized him to make temporary decisions and act expediently.

The land north of Jiaozhi can be left to his own devices.

Anyway - it's not our own territory.

Moreover, even if you take advantage of it, it is very difficult to develop it yourself.

If you immigrate from the north, the mountains are high and the roads are long, and the mortality rate will be very high.

It's better to leave it to the chieftains and tie it up first and talk about it later.

There is only one headache for Zhang Dun - the toasts are too enthusiastic.

Almost everyone wants to "be loyal to the country" and every family is willing to send troops.

Moreover, many people, like the Mo family, are willing to use the strength of the whole family to follow Master Wang to "conquer the fierce and stubborn, plow the courtyard and clear out the holes".

But where does the food come from?

There are so many chieftains, your family and mine, together, we can almost make up 20,000 chieftain soldiers.

Counting the local soldiers and horses in Guangxi, as well as the soldiers and horses of Yulong's first general, the total strength of the front line is probably 40,000 to 50,000.

With so many people eating horse chews, do Yongzhou, Qinzhou and Lianzhou have so much food?

Is the official warehouse on Guangnan West Road affordable?

Zhang Dun was very doubtful about this.

As for giving food to the enemy?

Jiaozhi doesn't look like a wealthy and wealthy family.

Thinking of this, Zhang Dun opened his eyes, took out the strategy book given to him by the official again, and read it carefully.

The more he looked at this strategy, the more he understood it, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that the officials' foresight was very human!

Maybe, many of these methods are based on the late emperor's experience of reflecting on the gains and losses of the southern expedition after that year.

For example, try to control the war north of the Furiang River.

Another example is the method of migrating the children of local officials from Guangxi to become local officials in the north of Jiaozhi.

They may all be the crystallization of the wisdom of the late emperor’s reflection after the war.

Otherwise, how could the officials know so many things?

How can you think in such detail?

Plan the temple and arrange it properly from the beginning.

All matters other than temple affairs are authorized to him.

that is……

Zhang Dun looked at the booklet and saw the peace conditions required by the officials when they begged for peace in Cochin.

One of them looked ridiculous to Zhang Dun.

"Jiaozhi paid 500,000 shi of rice as a tribute to the Song Dynasty..."

Five hundred thousand shi of rice, does Jiaozhi have that much rice?

You can't afford it even if you kill them, right?

However, when Zhang Dun looked at these conditions, his heart skipped a beat.

Since the Zhen Temple in the Song Dynasty, they have been giving New Year coins to the Northern pirates. After the Ren Temple celebrated the peace, they even gave it to the Western pirates during the Chinese New Year.
To be continued...