In the custody room of Baiting Fort, Xin Yunjing and several other senior generals from the Baiting Army gathered around Fang Chongyong for a meeting.

The core issue everyone discussed was just two words: making money!

"The income of the Baiting Army is to collect some horses and sheep from the herdsmen as taxes in the autumn when the cattle and horses are fattened?"

After listening to Xin Yunjing's report, Fang Chongyong asked in disbelief.

For an army, this amount of money is nothing more than throwing it into the water and hearing the sound. If you look at it from the perspective of "tax in kind", it is even more so.

"Who says it's not the case? With this little money, I often can't collect it. I just give my sons an extra meal as a token of appreciation."

Xin Yunjing sighed. Bai Ting's army was really miserable. There were only animal husbandry and fishing industries worth mentioning in the surrounding areas. He collected some grazing money from the herdsmen and compensated them with livestock.

However, in Hexi, cattle, sheep and horses could not be sold at a good price, and these livestock could not be driven thousands of miles to Chang'an for sale, so this became a vicious cycle.

The more they wanted to make money, the more they couldn't get it through formal channels, so they had no choice but to rob merchants on the Silk Road.

The Baiting Army's station was still some distance away from the Silk Road's post roads, so the merchants had no direct interests entangled with them.

On the contrary, the Chishui Army, which relied on Liangzhou city tax and merchant taxes, was disgusted with the destruction of trade routes.

After listening to the accounts of Xin Yunjing and others, Fang Chongyong also had a deeper understanding of the situation in Hexi. After all, it was still the lack of money that caused the trouble!

Hexi originally did not have so many troops stationed there. It gradually increased its troops with the expansion of the Tang Empire.

The increase in soldiers will lead to a series of logistical pressures. These problems cannot be solved just by relying on local farming in Hexi.

Are the Qiu Ba of Bai Ting Army bad people?

To a certain extent, they were bandits wearing the uniforms of the Tang Army. This time the Tianzhu monk cassock incident was completely exposed. It was an "extremely rare" case.

However, even in this case, except for the leader who was dealt with, the others were just mobilized into the Great Dou Army to serve as front-line "death squads". This is the rule of the army west of the Tang River.

The main reason why the leader was dealt with was that he lost the fish charm, which made his superiors and Jiedushi think that he was "not doing his job well" instead of leading troops to rob and kill.

Fang Chongyong believes that there are also many ruthless characters in the Baiting Army who kill people and steal goods, but they have not been discovered.

However, on the other hand, the problem of the Baiting Army was also a common problem for the border troops in the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty. Due to various reasons (including transportation difficulties), the court did not provide enough support to the local border troops.

In particular, there is insufficient hard demand, so these armies can only be left to "find their own solutions."

The most prominent issue is horses, including the acquisition and maintenance of these horses.

In the Hexi Corridor, apart from local defense, which has relatively little demand for horses, other combat tasks are impossible without horses!

As for the Ministry of War account books, the number of horses required by each army in Hexi is customized.

For example, the Chishui Army, which has the highest proportion of war horses, has 13,000 horses, which is listed in the Ministry of War's accounts, and the court must provide the rations needed for these war horses.

So how to deal with the horses that are not in the Ministry of War account books and are particularly needed by the border town?

The Chishui Army has 33,000 soldiers. Do they only dispatch 13,000 cavalry for every strategic maneuver? Sometimes a long-distance attack requires one person and two horses, so how to obtain these horses?

The senior officials at the center of the imperial court did not want to consider these specific issues, and threw them all to the local military governors. The military governors themselves could not change horses, so they could only let each army find its own solution. Therefore, from the Anxi Protectorate to Hexi

Corridor, the western frontier armies of the Tang Dynasty all used ingenious strategies to raise "private horses" to cope with the treacherous war situation on the border.

From this perspective, Fang Chongyong felt that the person who was wrong was not Bai Tingjun, at least not entirely.

The culprit is actually the Ministry of War, the imperial court, and Li Longji.

But there is no way to explain this truth.

"You can also make some money by fishing, but it's just a drop in the bucket. Most of the catch is consumed by Bai Dinh's army as daily rations."

One of the ten generals said very distressedly.

"well!"

Everyone sighed together.

"Envoy Fang Jun, is there any way we can make money?"

Xin Yunjing asked in a deep voice.

Fang Chongyong, the "mascot", should not be offended anyway, so it would be fine if he was kept in Baitingbao. But this person actually said that he could help Baitingjun make money, so he should not be treated as an ordinary mascot.

"Take me to see it, it's around here."

Fang Chongyong said nonchalantly. He was not sure yet and had to investigate the area before talking.

"Okay, send a few capable soldiers to accompany Fang Jun envoy around. No matter what Fang Jun envoy wants to do, we will satisfy him. Even if it means robbing homes and robbing civilian women, we must make Fang Jun envoy satisfied and return."

Xin Yunjing whispered to one of the ten generals beside him, but Fang Chongyong heard all these words.

It’s just robbing families and homes, but what the hell is robbing women? Even if he wants to rob women, he can’t do anything when he takes them back!

Fang Chongyong sighed helplessly and said to Xin Yunjing: "We are all my own people, I will not trick you. This is really for doing something, and we don't want those weird people to follow. You just choose a few soldiers who are familiar with the local people to follow me."

"

Xin Yunjing and others looked at each other, thinking that Fang Chongyong wanted to be "chic" in Hexi.

"Go and make arrangements. We must have soldiers who are familiar with the local people's conditions and serve the Fang army envoy well."

Xin Yunjing ordered his subordinates. He was also curious about what tricks this "Fang Yanei" could play.

…

There are lush pastures along the Baiting Sea. Before setting off, Xin Yunjing specially took Fang Chongyong to the racecourse to pick a horse that he could ride.

When the group arrived at the racecourse, they saw a row of simple houses, which were only fenced on three sides and separated by many small "compartments" with wooden fences. In each room, there were several horses resting, sitting or riding.

Lying.

On the open grassland in the distance, there are many horses grazing and playing, creating a leisurely scene.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The people who manage the racecourse are not the Baiting Army. They are just the "security guards" of the Baitinghai Racecourse. In the Tang Dynasty, the people who managed the racecourse were pastoral supervisors. Racecourses across the country also

They are divided into three classes: upper, middle and lower. The upper class can raise more than 5,000 horses at the same time, the middle class can raise more than 3,000 horses, and those with less than 3,000 horses are all low class.

Bai Dinh Hai Ranch is obviously a high-quality horse farm.

As soon as the pastor saw Xin Yunjing coming, he immediately asked with a smile on his face: "Although it is the closest place, Ambassador Xin rarely comes to my place. Do you want to pick a mount for yourself?"

Because the Baiting Army often plundered trade routes and sold stolen goods to Turkic merchants, they were still very rich. They bought a lot of horses at Baitinghai Ranch and maintained a cavalry team of two to three hundred people. The two sides were considered old acquaintances.

"Li Mujian, I am not here to choose a horse, but to choose a pony suitable for riding for this deputy military envoy."

Xin Yunjing pointed at Fang Chongyong and said.

Child? Deputy military envoy? This is a big joke!

The shepherd supervisor was stunned. He had never seen such a powerful deputy military envoy in his entire life!

Li Mujian kept his words in his heart, and then took Fang Chongyong and others to the stables and asked them to choose horses.

"Just this one."

Fang Chongyong pointed to a maroon pony that was a little shorter than him and said.

"A very docile horse."

Xin Yunjing said to himself thoughtfully.

If you choose a war horse, you definitely can't be so casual. As a war horse, you can't be too docile, otherwise this kind of horse will be timid at critical moments!

But it seems that Fang Chongyong will not be able to go to the battlefield for many years to come! The service life of a horse is also very limited. Even when the horse dies of old age, Fang Chongyong is unlikely to go to the battlefield. In this case, why bother?

?

In this case, it would be more suitable for the horse to choose one that is more gentle and tolerant.

"Ten strings."

Xin Yunjing offered a fixed price.

Unexpectedly, when Li Mu heard this, he burst into laughter and said, "What are you talking about, Commander Xin? It's just a little pony, just treat it as a meeting gift from me, hahahahahaha!"

When a half-year-old child becomes a military envoy, either his ability or his background is unparalleled. He must have one or even both. Giving a pony as a favor may prove to be useful in the future, so why not do it?

?

"Then thank you, Superintendent Li, for your kindness."

Xin Yunjing just said casually, how could he really give money?

Li Mujian personally took action and gave the horse a "horse mark", shoed the horse's shoe, and fitted the colt with a small saddle, allowing Fang Chongyong to try riding the colt.

As expected, the horse was very docile. Fang Chongyong sat on it and Xin Yunjing held the horse. After walking around the pasture, Fang Chongyong was able to ride a horse independently, but he had not yet mastered the trick of running.

After being helped off the horse by Xin Yunjing, Fang Chongyong said with some excitement: "It seems that riding a horse is not too difficult."

"That's natural, but if you run long distances, you will still be very tired."

Xin Yunjing said while holding back his laughter.

When this "Ya Nei" gets used to riding horses between cities in Hexi, he will definitely know the disadvantages of riding horses.

It's just that the excitement hasn't passed yet and I can't even notice it. Why bother to talk too much to let this Yameni down?

The horse selection at the ranch was just a small episode. After leaving the ranch, Fang Chongyong went to patrol the grassland along the Baiting Sea, while Xin Yunjing returned to Baiting Fort. He wanted to lead people to patrol the Turkic territory on the north coast of Baiting Sea. This is a daily routine.

One of military affairs.
To be continued...