This is not the first time he has been to Jinyang. He has been there several times in the past few years, but none of the missions have been as difficult as this one.
He lived in Guanyi in Taiyuan County, which was arranged by the Hedong shogunate, but he did not say when he would come to meet the prince of Longxi County.
Li Hang didn't want to wait around, so he went to Jinyang County to see how the people's livelihood was going.
The commander-in-chief has a word, "war potential," which may be reflected in people's livelihood.
"A Jie Yang costs five hundred a head, what a joke!" Several people who looked like businessmen sat down, put their bows and knives aside, and kept complaining.
Li Hang also just sat down and ordered biloba, fish, wine and some fruits and vegetables. The prices were indeed a bit expensive. Almost all of them were higher than Lingxia, except for the fish, which was cheaper.
This area is one of the three cities in Jinyang. Although it is within Jinyang County, it is under the direct administration of Taiyuan Prefecture and collects taxes very heavily.
Hedong is such a prosperous place, but after years of war, it has reached this state.
This may be the worst time for Hedong in the past ten years. Perhaps it will also be the best time for Hedong in the next ten years.
Li Hang remained calm and listened silently.
"Xiazhou Jie sheep only cost 270 yuan. I went to Suizhou seven years ago, and a sheep cost 400 yuan at that time. The price has dropped too much in recent years."
"If a reward is given to warriors every year, it will probably be two million. The warriors won't be able to finish it all. If they are sold, won't the price drop?"
"Ying also robbed a lot of cattle, sheep, horses and camels and brought them back. The officials couldn't keep them, so they either killed them to make preserved meat or sold them. Alas, I always like to eat mutton. It would be great if I could go to Xiazhou."
"Speaking of looting. Last year, tens of thousands of warriors attacked Xingzhou. What did they get back?"
Hedong attacked Xingzhou and actually mobilized a lot of troops.
Li Keyong was stationed in Zelu, guarding Henan. The total number of Tibetan soldiers and Han people was thirty to forty thousand. Li Hanzhi and Li Cunxiao attacked Xingzhou, and they also had forty to fifty thousand Tibetan and Han soldiers. The attack lasted more than half a year and cost countless people.
, and many people died.
"What the hell! Meng Fangli has melted down the Buddha statues in the temple and plundered all the cattle, sheep, and food. Otherwise, can he survive the siege for six or seven months?"
"Did you actually lose money on this trip?"
Everyone sighed.
In the past few years, the Hedong Army has been fighting in the south and north. In addition to the quick occupation of Zelu Prefecture, which was profitable, the attack on the three prefectures of Xing, Ming, Ci, and the Datong Army took a long time and cost countless dollars. Although the three Hebei Prefectures just acquired now,
It cannot be said that it is a piece of white land, it is also dilapidated.
Meng Fangli put almost everything into the war, and now what the Longxi County Prince has got is the three states of Hebei that have been hollowed out. Apart from the hundreds of thousands of people who have nothing, what else is there? This year's spring planting has missed the farming season
, this will probably lead to cannibalism.
The Zhang family gave their granddaughter to the Li family to eat, the Li family sent their son to the Wang family, and the Zhou family secretly killed a child in the middle of the night, marinated the meat and hid it...
They have seen so many of these tragedies in the world that they can't even feel pity for them now.
People in troubled times have hearts as hard as iron.
"If we continue fighting like this, I'm afraid I won't be as good as Zhu Quanzhong." Someone else said.
"Sooner or later." Everyone agreed.
"Zhu Quanzhong is not as good as Prince Lingwu."
Li Hang felt happy after hearing this. Even the merchants from Hedong knew about the commander's virtuous reputation.
However, not everyone thinks that Shao Shude is better than Li Keyong. At this moment, one diner couldn't help it and sneered: "Shuofang Town is half Hu and half Han, so Shao Shude is no different from the Hu people. He is a prostitute, Gang Chang
Fei Chi, how can you look like a hero?"
Everyone laughed when they heard this.
"Master Xiong... under Master Xiong's rule, it costs a hundred coins to do a meter of rice, but only forty coins in Xiazhou. Go and tell the people."
"I bought cloth from Hezhong Prefecture and returned to Taiyuan. I went to Lanzhou to collect the tax, then to Shizhou and then to Taiyuan Prefecture. When I got to Fangshi, there was a lot of money. The hero knew how to exploit me, but I didn't
You will lose money. You bought my cloth back and spent more money. Whose fault is it?"
"I hate people like you. I sold a batch of peaches and jujubes the year before last, but a sergeant robbed me on the way. If I hadn't seen the opportunity quickly, my life would have been lost. The prince of Longxi County and the prince of Lingwu County know each other as brothers. If this family business in Hedong...
…”
"Did you drink too much and got dizzy? Didn't you keep your mouth shut?" A mature and serious businessman slapped the table and scolded.
Everyone then stopped talking.
"Businessmen care about profits but not etiquette! I don't know what etiquette is. Talking to you is just playing the harp to an ox. How can a famous town in Hedong be ruled by people from Shuofang?" The diners got up angrily and left.
Li Hang glanced at him. Judging from his appearance, he should have no worries about food and clothing and live a prosperous life.
This kind of person can just stand and talk without pain in his back. If you are a humble citizen, you can spend forty yuan to buy rice, but you don't want to spend fifty yuan, let alone a hundred yuan?
When the Prince of Lingwu County first arrived in Suizhou, the price of grain was only 40 yuan. Now, almost ten years later, with annual battles and many times more people, the price of grain is still at this level, and the price of meat and milk is even higher.
He fell down. He is so virtuous and the people naturally love him.
It seems that more merchants from Hedong can be allowed to do business in Lingxia in the future. With them here, the reputation of the commander-in-chief will definitely spread throughout the seven states of this province. In the future, when soldiers enter Hedong, there may be less resistance.
.
After eating leisurely, Li Hang left the restaurant and went to the market again.
"Shopkeeper, your cakes are delicious, so the business must be good, right?"
"Sigh. Five years ago, there were seven cake shops, five Biluo shops, and four wine shops on this street, but now there are a few less. People in the city only buy noodles and cook them at home, but few go to cake shops to buy cakes.
Already."
"Store, butcher shop..."
"Bun line..."
Li Hang spent a whole day wandering around the market, asking about the prices of various commodities through conversation, and then comparing them with the past to see how they fluctuated.
Price fluctuations are often directly related to supply and transportation. Li Hang has studied at Tingwangsi for a while and knows the truth behind this.
After returning to the hotel, he closed the door and started writing a report.
"... Years of wars have led to the depletion of people's goods and the desolation of the market. The people have been killed by soldiers and bandits, and the price of rice has risen. During the Xin Dynasty, Shatuo plundered its own prefecture and counties, and the people who were begging for food belonged to Lu. Ze, Lufu Prefecture
, in the town of Li Han, a rat is worth seven thousand... Only Taiyuan and neighboring counties are relatively safe, but the exhaustion of inner resources in the east of the river is evident..."
"...Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, horses in the Tang Dynasty have been most prosperous, and there are also pastoral supervisors in Hedong. However, when people buy horses, they pay 25,000 yuan for each horse, or sixty or seventy pieces of silk. If you hadn't been here, you wouldn't have known that the price of horses in Hedong was so expensive.
. From this point of view, the corruption of Ma's government is almost the same as that of Youzhou, and it is far worse than the improvement of virtue. If it can cut off its access to the grassland, it may be of great benefit."
"... Oxen are the basis for farming, and horses and oxen for official and private purposes are of great use. An ox from Hedong is worth 3,500, and an ox from Lingxia is worth 2,500. In Taiyuan Prefecture, three or two households share it.
A cow is so trapped that there is almost no cure?"
"... It is not easy for ordinary people below the middle level to eat meat, but they have family etiquette and buy sheep for slaughter. There is a sheep seller in Taiyuan Prefecture who says that a sheep (gǔ) is worth four hundred, a sheep is worth five hundred, and a lamb is worth two hundred and fifty. This is
Under normal circumstances, can a person in his seventies eat meat?"
"Peach, plum, apricot, peach..."
Li Hang wrote while recalling. After finishing writing, he was deeply baptized by the idea of "love townism".
People are afraid of comparison. When Marshal Shao from Shuofang is compared to Marshal Li from Hedong, they are simply extremely virtuous.
But to be honest, Hedong is actually still so-so. After all, Li Keyong has only been in power for seven years, and there is not enough time to corrupt it. If he waits until his son's generation, the people of Hedong will probably not be adults. What a big country with a population of one million.
The town has been reduced by more than half (historically, it dropped by more than 70% during the Later Han Dynasty, and the rate of decline was higher than that of Henan, Hebei, and Guanzhong).
"Li Keyong should not be able to deal with threats from both the East and the West at the same time." Li Hang did not write this sentence for fear of interfering with the Marshal's judgment, but he believed that a man as smart and heroic as the Marshal could read between the lines.
figure it out.
This is not just Li Keyong's temper. Money and food will not be conjured out of thin air.
Shuofang Town is on the rise, but Hedong Town is on the decline. As long as the commander-in-chief works steadily and does not take risks or make rash advances, Li Keyong will be unable to fight back after another ten or eight years of tossing.
Wealth, money and food are already dwindling, and we are making enemies everywhere and starting wars on multiple fronts. This is the way to die.
Unless Li Keyong was on the verge of defeat, he took a risk and achieved a military victory that he himself could not believe, and defeated the commander-in-chief or Zhu Quanzhong by a stroke of luck.
But how can people place their hopes on such a ridiculous thing?
"Can Xiazhou Li Biejia be in the hotel?" A voice asked outside the door.
"Don't just rest in the pavilion. May I ask who the general is?" Li Hang's entourage asked.
"This is Li Cunjin, the envoy of the Yier Army, who has come to invite the envoy from Xiazhou to Yangqu."
Li Hang's heart moved.
The marshal did not set up a volunteer army, but they can be said to be everywhere in every town in the world. They are usually the marshal's trusted subordinates. Sending Li Cun in to invite him shows that Li Keyong still attaches great importance to the marshal.
face.
Li Hang put away documents and other documents, straightened his robes, strode out of the room, and said, "That is Li Hang. Is the Prince of Longxi County in Yangqu?"
"Exactly." Li Cunjin replied: "The commander-in-chief was parading his troops in Yangqu and summoned envoys to go and question him."
Rewards will be given out during the military parade. Hedong is like this, and Li Keyong still wants to play like this. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is resorting to militarism!
In addition, Li Hang also keenly noticed the place name Yangqu.
This county is seventy miles north of Jinyang and is the northern gate of Taiyuan Prefecture. At the end of the Qianfu period, when Marshal Shao went to conquer Hedong to encircle and suppress Li Guochang and his son, he led the Tielin capital to station in Yangqu.
Seventy miles north of Yangqu, there is Shiling Town and Shiling Pass, which are important military locations in Hedong. Kang Chuangui once served as the general of Shiling Town.
If you guard this pass well, Taiyuan will be safe. Because of the dangerous terrain, only bicycles can pass through.
Hedong is really a good place. There are so many dangerous passes in the north, but there are only two Guangyanmen Pass, which blocks all roads. The south is a little empty, so it is very convenient for Zhu Quanzhong to attack.
"I wonder why the king of Longxi County is reviewing the troops in Yangqu?" Li Hang asked again after getting on the carriage sent by Hedong.
Li Cunjin rode his horse and followed the driver without answering.
Li Hang's brows furrowed. When the Jin army marches north, they usually gather troops and horses in Yangqu, and then march north to Xin in batches.