Chapter 407 Crossing the River Dragon
Wu'an Prefecture is a secular land five thousand miles away from Chang'an, and it is also the first secular territory that Li Shimin confiscated.
He is also very concerned about this territory.
Before recruiting troops in Chang'an, Qin Lang actually entered the palace and reported his plan in detail to the emperor. Qin Lang said that Wu'an Prefecture was too far away, that Wu'an Prefecture was full of barbarians, and that those barbarians would not accept the imperial court's orders very tamely.
So in order to ensure Datang's actual control over Wu'an Prefecture, in order to ensure that the Qin family can really control this land and guard the border for Datang, he needs manpower.
But ordinary people are not willing to go to that remote frontier, Qin Lang can only ask the emperor to grant him the right to redistribute.
After thinking about it for a while, Li Shimin felt that Qin Lang's policy of extending grace and enfeoffment did not violate the original intention of the imperial court's system of enfeoffment.
"Zhang Liang, how is Qin Lang's recruitment going?"
In the temple.
Zhang Liang, the governor of the town, reported to the emperor, "As soon as Wei Guogong's entrustment came out, the recruitment went much smoother. Now, many honored relatives, nobles, bastards, and children of the clan have responded to the registration. In just a few days, three hundred knights With five hundred warriors, more than three thousand people signed up, so Qin Lang had no choice but to add another martial arts tournament. Select the best from among them!"
Hearing these words, the emperor raised his head from the secret fold in front of him, with some surprise in his eyes.
I didn't expect that this method of enfeoffment of grace would be so effective. No one was willing to go before, but now so many people are rushing to go.
"Which families are the children?"
"Mainly they are the concubines or nephews of noble families in Chang'an, Qian Dexing, the son of Qian Jiulong, the Duke of Xun, Panli, the son of Panxing, the Duke of Ying, and Liu, the son of Liu Hongji... "
The emperor asked Zhang Liang, "What about you, do you have any children in your family who plan to go?"
"Those incompetent people in my family are still too stubborn and young, so don't worry about them making trouble in the past." Zhang Liang replied.
Next, Zhang Liang reported to the emperor in detail Qin Lang's preparations for going south, including the 200 slave soldiers and wolf soldiers sent by Feng An and Qin Guozhong, and the 300 family soldiers recruited by Qin Lang himself.
and Qin Lang also mobilized a team of nearly a thousand people. In this team, there are merchants, craftsmen, stewards, buddies, slaves, farmers, veterinarians, doctors, etc. These people will transport a large amount of supplies to the south.
"It is said that Qin Lang has personally designed a castle in Wu'an Prefecture, and asked Yan's family to help revise the sketch. Qin Lang plans to build a wharf and commercial port, a castle fortress in Wu'an Prefecture, and then build manors, fiefs, etc., to receive immigrants one after another , open up wasteland and cultivate land, grow rice and sugarcane, and fish, etc. The plan is to make Wu'an Prefecture reach a population of 10,000 in ten years, completely self-sufficient, and pay more than 10,000 guan a year to the imperial court."
"The minister's investigation found that Duke Wei mobilized a large amount of manpower and material resources this time, which cost a lot."
Li Shimin nodded.
Qin Lang is indeed the kind of impatient person, he will not procrastinate on certain things.
He told Qin Lang that he hoped that he would start building the fief when he went south this time, and that he should build something as soon as possible to show the court officials.
And Qin Lang immediately began to mobilize money, materials and people.
"Qin Lang is quite rich."
The emperor sighed.
Zhang Liang quietly looked at the emperor's expression from the corner of his eye, and secretly judged the emperor's intentions when he said this, but after watching for a long time, he didn't see anything.
"If your Zhen Fusi is energetic, you should also do something for Qin Lang. Send some people to pay attention to the barbarians in Wu'an Prefecture and nearby. If anyone wants to do messy things, notify Qin Lang in time to avoid some accidents."
The feudal land in Wu'an Prefecture is an experimental field for Li Shimin's enfeoffment. He is very concerned about it, which involves the success or failure of his entire world feudal system.
Li Shimin is now full of secular feudalism. In the emperor's mind, this system is to prevent the future, and it is also a perfect strategy to preserve the Tang Dynasty for a long time. No matter how many people obstruct it, the emperor will insist on implementing it.
But if Qin Lang's first seal can go smoothly, then the resistance will be much smaller.
Recruiting 800 points of knights and warriors, plus 500 relatives, even if there are no 3,000 soil regiments, Qin Lang's strength in Wu'an Prefecture is probably enough to deter those barbarians. It is also enough to wipe out several villages and kill chickens to make an example to monkeys.
The emperor summoned Wei Wei Siqing.
"Give Wei Guogong Qin Langba three thousand sets of weapons and equipment, standard."
Wei Weiqing was very surprised, three thousand sets?
"Don't worry, I will let Qin Lang pay according to the price, not for nothing."
Wei Weiqing felt relieved at this moment, but he was thinking in his heart, even if he paid for it, three thousand sets would be a lot. The question is, can Qin Lang pay so much?
After leaving the palace, Wei Weiqing and Li Shentong went directly to Qin Lang.
After explaining the emperor's will, Qin Lang looked sad.
"Three thousand sets? Your majesty's will?"
"Then how can I lie to you? This is a total of three thousand sets of ordnance. If I dare to say half a word, I won't be able to walk around."
Li Shentong has also kept a low profile in the past two years. Yu Shitai stared at him several times and made Li Shentong lose his temper.
Although the emperor came forward to rescue him at the end every time, how could an old fritter like Li Shentong not know that it was the emperor who beat him on purpose.
"Jun Wang, I appreciate your majesty's kindness, but I can't afford these three thousand sets of equipment."
Actually, although Qin Lang said he needed weapons, he didn't need to buy them at all.
After all, he recruited 800 knights and warriors, all of whom had their own horses, bows, arrows, spears and horizontal knives, and even their own armor.
And his five hundred private soldiers did not dare to wear armor openly, but when they went south to Lingnan, they didn't need to be fully armed. They were equipped with spears, horizontal knives, bows and arrows, and some horses. It is already a dimensionality reduction blow.
The biggest threat to Qin Lang in Lingnan area is actually the unacclimatized environment and the complicated mountain and forest geography.
As long as he can get used to these, then he is a raptor crossing the river, and no one likes the barbarians in his eyes.
Furthermore, after arriving in Lingnan, he can definitely build a few ordnance workshops in the local area, making rattan armor, leather armor, etc. that are more suitable for Lingnan, and the standard armor equipment of the imperial court. Although it is said to be good, it is not cheap.
Qin Lang could still afford tens of hundreds of sets. Now that the emperor granted him 3,000 sets at a time, he really couldn't afford it and didn't dare to buy it.
Some things are still very sensitive after all.
"Sanlang, don't worry too much. In fact, His Majesty sincerely wants to help you. We, Weiwei Temple, are also ordering to cooperate fully this time and will not make things difficult for you. Three thousand sets, this is the number approved by His Majesty. We try our best to satisfy those within this number, and the price is absolutely fair, only adding 20% to the cost, this is also a little hard work of our Weiwei Temple, right?"
"In this way, Saburo, please make statistics first. You can make a list and write down the quantity of what equipment you need. We can provide it according to the order. Of course, you will pay for it and deliver it without credit." Li Shentong said. made a joke.
"Thanks to the king."
However, Weiwei Temple does not provide some equipment, such as general-level Mingguang armored knife, eight-ox crossbow, horse lance, and armored riding equipment. These artifact-level gadgets are not for sale.
What can be provided to Qin Lang is the general military-level bright light armor, leather armor, and leather shields, large shields, spears, long spears, infantry bows, cavalry bows, horizontal knives, long-handled axes, horse-cutting knives, and single-handed crossbows. wait.
In addition, tents, marching pots, kettles, hulu, bowstrings, etc. needed in the army can also be provided, anyway, they are all at a clear price.
The emperor gave Qin Lang a piece of fiefdom, and he was also allowed to have 3,000 soil regiments, 800 guards, and 800 private soldiers. The emperor would still worry about the importance of the two or three thousand sets of equipment to the court. affect?
Besides, Qin Lang is also a special case, and not all world feudal officials can enjoy this kind of treatment.
Who made him the emperor's favorite son-in-law participating in politics, and the prince's teacher?
Huai'an Wang Li Shentong looked at Qin Lang's appearance, and felt that this guy was a little stupid and not clear-headed.
What a secular land, it's just a wild land in the corner of the world.
What is the difference between this and the remote leadership of officials in the Three Kingdoms period?
The three kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty all liked to lead from a distance, that is, to designate fiefdoms or official positions for their own courtiers in the enemy's territory.
For example, Soochow bestowed upon their generals Yizhou Shepherd or Jingzhou Inspector or something, while Shu Han granted their generals Wujun Taishou, and Cao Wei granted their generals Changsha Taishou, etc.
This kind of thing they like to do most.
In fact, this kind of job is completely empty, because it is impossible to get this fief, and it is impossible to take office. If we talk about the only actual price, it may be that the rank of this falsely appointed and remote leader is generally higher, which can improve the rank of these generals, or they can get more salary.
Now the emperor is also doing this kind of thing.
It sounds good to set up a system of world feudalism, and to enfeoff the virtuous and worthy, but in reality, they are reluctant to enfeoff in the Central Plains, and insist on conferring people to the south of the Five Ridges, or to the barren land in the southwest. .
What is the world-appointed governor, the savage king is almost the same, the key is that the savage may not welcome you to be the king.
Qin Lang is now recruiting troops and buying supplies. He spends money like water all this time, and he hasn't even seen the fief yet. It is estimated that the money has already been spent tens of thousands.
Li Shentong thought to himself, wouldn’t it be nice to go directly to buy land with so much money? Buying slaves to build farms, set up workshops, build caravans, or directly lend money to collect interest, isn’t it good?
No matter how bad it is, it would be nice to have more orchid beauties with this money.
In short, he would not set up a wild fief like Qin Lang. The fief should be a kind of treatment and welfare, with benefits and income, instead of letting everyone pay for themselves, recruit soldiers and buy horses, and have to build their own castles , but also to emigrate to cultivate wasteland, and even to attack and recruit those barbarians for the imperial court.
Why did you exhaust Bara?
Being the king of Huai'an County in Chang'an City, and also serving as a Wei Weiqing part-time, isn't it a hundred times better than going to Tiannan Haijiao to be a world-appointed governor and savage king?
What is there in Wu'an Prefecture?
Besides the bowl-sized mosquitoes, poisonous snakes and beasts everywhere, and the scorching heat, what else is there?
In such a fiefdom, the world says that the smart Qin Sanlang is still so happy, isn't he too smart and stupid?
Qin Lang read the list of weapons that Li Shentong gave him.
The more he looked at it, the more he frowned. Just now Li Shentong said that it was only a 20% increase over the cost, but no matter how he looked at it, he didn't think it was only a 20% increase, but he thought it was a double increase.
The emperor is really kind enough to support him with weapons?
Why does he look like the emperor wants to use this to earn him a lot of money for arms?
Looking around, Qin Lang felt very dizzy.
In the end, Qin Lang only planned to order a batch of arrows first. These are consumables, which are very useful in Lingnan and consume a lot of money. Self-made arrows are definitely not as good as bought ones. Weiwei Temple’s arrows are definitely better and cost less.
He estimated that he now has 800 knights and warriors, 500 private soldiers, and an army of 1,300 people. Each person needs at least 130,000 arrows, which is an astonishing number.
Li Shentong's list can provide more than a dozen different arrows, each with its own characteristics and prices. But without exception, Qin Lang felt a bit expensive.
But arrows are the most unavoidable thing to save. One hundred arrows can be said to be an extremely low reserve. He thinks that at least one person should prepare ten pots of arrows and three hundred arrows to be sufficient.
"Jun Wang, let me choose these basic arrows. Can the price be cheaper at this price? Look, I can buy 200,000 arrows at a time!"
Li Shentong laughed.
"Sanlang, we are also acting according to the order, that is, you, Sanlang, who would dare to buy equipment from our Weiwei Temple arsenal? Believe it or not, if those barbarian chiefs and Hulu leaders can also buy equipment from our Weiwei Temple arsenal, not to mention other things, just this arrow, let alone the price, even if it is doubled or tripled, they can grab it I want it."
"The wolf guards attached to the Turkic Khan dare not say that they can use such good arrows. Except for a pot of good arrows, most of the arrows are made of animal bones. Look at our The arrowheads are made of refined iron, and the shafts are straight, and each of these arrows is made of high-quality bird feathers, isn't this craftsmanship worth the price?"
Weiwei Temple is the supervisory unit in charge of weapons reserves in Datang, and the equipment stored in their arsenal is indeed very sophisticated.
The bows and arrows made by the Bow and Arrow Bureau of the Ordnance Supervision Bureau must undergo strict testing.
Once a quality problem is detected, the penalty can range from severe to severe, and severe to beheaded.
No one dares to be careless about this kind of thing. Now is not the chaotic end of the Sui Dynasty. Now the imperial court is extremely strict with these things.
Qin Lang was helpless.
"Then I'll order 200,000 arrows first, this one, this one, this one, and this one..."
Li Shentong smiled and asked someone to record the arrows and quantity that Qin Lang selected, and finally said with a smile, "In three days, the guard will bring the money, and the arsenal will be handed over at any time, with quality and quantity guaranteed. If Duke Wei has other weapons If needed, as long as it does not exceed the quantity approved by His Majesty, we will absolutely guarantee the supply."
Have only ordered 200,000 arrows, Qin Lang is already in pain.
It really costs money to raise an army. I haven't seen the fief yet. The money has been spent like water, but this is just the beginning.
For a moment, Qin Lang hesitated, wondering if his steps were too big.
He decided that the eight hundred knights and warriors should still insist on letting them buy their own equipment, and at most he would be responsible for purchasing them at Weiwei Temple, otherwise it would be too much.
I am only responsible for the equipment of 500 pro-army and private soldiers, which will undoubtedly be a lot easier.
(end of this chapter)