Chapter 125: The Scholars' Travel to the West

Wei Renpu and the twelve scholars were led by two veterans to go to Saiye. In addition to Wei Renpu, two scholars were also Fan Zhi's students. Fan Zhi sent them to Wuli Pavilion outside the city and raised his glass to wish them peace, saying: "From Liangzhou to Saiye, unlike from Luoyang to Liangzhou, there are probably many difficulties and dangers along the way. Brother Daoji is careful all the way. However, God blesses the good people. In addition to this, there may be many other frontier poems sent back!"

The style of the Tang Dynasty was known for its rapid behavior. The group immediately set off and walked west along the Silk Road after leaving Liangzhou City. From here to Gaochang, it was a business road that was well-known by merchants in recent years. The Tiance regime also made a lot of effort to maintain the business road. The current public security situation is no longer comparable to when he first pacified Hexi.

There was auspicious snow in Ganzhou, Liangzhou, Lanzhou, and now it is approaching the winter wheat harvest season. This is a small harvest year. Wherever you go, it is golden. Think about the fact that the Tiance regime was still struggling to fight for food issues a month or two ago. Then look at the golden wheat fields that stretched for hundreds of miles, but it makes people feel that food shortages have happened a long time ago.

The scholars were interested in seeing the scenery, but the two veterans were ordered by the generals and rushed all the way. They set a journey every day in case they missed the Sutou, twenty or thirty miles a temple, fifty miles a pavilion, and one hundred miles a guard. Whenever they arrived at the place, they would take the token to collect the food from the post station along the way. They could only stay for a day when they passed by the Zhoucheng in the middle, and the others would leave overnight. After passing Zhangye and Jiuquan, they felt that the harvest was mediocre, and the harvest in Guazhou was worse than that in Suzhou, and the harvest in Yizhou was second. Fortunately, it was not considered a wasteland year. After entering Gaochang, the water conservancy facilities here were better than those in Yi and Guazhou, and the growth of crops was comparable to that in Suzhou.

Although there was no stopping along the way, Wei Renpu still discovered that Zhangye, Jiuquan, Jinchang, and Yiwu, which should have been very prosperous at the turn of spring and summer, showed a recession that had never been seen since the founding of the country of Tiance. Although the grain price problem had to be solved and the expected harvest also stabilized Anlong, the merchants seemed a little sluggish. If it were in the past, this season was just right, and the caravans would have been connected on the road, either to the east or west. Now they only occasionally encountered caravans, which seemed a little deserted.

Wei Renpu walked to Gaochang. Although he had mounts all the way, he also had no fat on his buttocks. Although he had not encountered man-made disasters, the northwest was strong and the air was dry. He had already scratched his originally smooth face with several gullies. Two more scholars fell ill when Huichunhan fell ill and stayed in Jinchang and Yiwu recuperated. After Wei Renpu arrived in Gaochang, the two veterans reported to Luofu. Luofu read Guo Fen's letter and came to meet them in person. He told them that he had to turn north to Luntai first, and then turn west. He kept them in Gaochang for three days, and then asked Xi Sheng to escort them.

Three days later, ten scholars, led by the group of soldiers, set out on their way to Luntai.

The road was not lonely. The Luntai Mountain Road was crowded with people - but not merchants, but soldiers who moved back to Beiting, herdsmen and some farmers sent to Beiting farm. The total number was more than 100,000 people, which was much larger than the caravan walking, but much more chaotic. Although the herdsmen were driving their own herds, the farmers moved their families to each family with at least a few horses. Luntai Mountain Road was not small, but not very open. One hundred thousand people went north one after another, and people were everywhere.

After passing Longquan Pass, the city was on the back, and there were thousands of snow peaks on both sides. Wei Renpu sighed: "What a Tianshan Mountain! If there wasn't such a natural road, it would be hard to cross the birds and monkeys to climb! Li Bai said that the road of Shu is more difficult than climbing to the blue sky, and this Tianshan Mountain is more difficult than the road of Shu! This is really eye-opening!"

This is the wettest season in the northwest. In some places on Luntai Mountain Road, the snow melts and rushes to the road and becomes muddy. Sometimes, if you can't pass by horses, you have to lead the horse, or if the army has not yet repaired the road, you have to help you carry firewood to fill the mud. When you get here, who cares if you are a scholar? If you want to walk over, you have to cooperate in a group.

When they stopped, they set up a tent and had to take care of themselves when cooking in the wild. The fire cavalry was only responsible for protecting them, but they were not prepared to serve them. Wei Renpu and others had to do the same job, eat and sleep with the herdsmen, farmers, and soldiers along the way, eating and sleeping in the same place. If they had experienced their courage from Liangzhou to Gaochang, they had been forced to put away all the taste of scholars. After walking for more than ten days, they saw Luntai City full of filth - because they had not taken a bath for a month! At this time, Wei Renpu looked at him at first glance, where was there a scholar?

The fire cavalry sent them to Luntai, and then asked Luntai to send someone to escort them.

Yang Yi was busy with the deployment and resettlement of Beiting at this time, but when he heard that they had come, he took the time to meet them. When he saw them, he smiled and said, "Everyone said that the Central Plains scholars were handsome, but now it seems that they are no different from our herdsmen in the northwest."

Most of the scholars became embarrassed, and Wei Renpu responded: "Scholars are not just reciting poems and writing styles, but are just romantic. When they enter the capital, they conduct documents and documents, and go to the countryside to manage agriculture and animal husbandry. When they go outside the border, they will naturally have the appearance of wolf smoke and beacon fire. They change as they happen and can be at peace everywhere. This is the true nature of my Confucianism."

Yang Yi glanced at him and asked, "What's your name?"

"Wei Renpu."

Yang Yi's eyes showed a mocking look and said, "Where are there any wolf smoke and beacons along the way? They are all places that have been beaten up by us! If Beiting was still in the middle of the war and there would be a barbarian attack on the road at any time, then it would be considered a wolf smoke and beacons!"

Wei Renpu did not mean to continue the debate, but said, "What the governor said was that when we were in the Central Plains and Liangzhou, we heard others say about how things outside the border were. Only after we walked along the way did we realize the difficulty of creating foundations. The beautiful rivers and mountains along the way, the local customs and people's conditions all opened our eyes."

Yang Yi looked at him again, with a little favor in his eyes and asked, "You said you have met a lot of local customs and people along the way. So, according to you, how about the people's livelihood in Hexi now?"

"Not good!" Wei Renpu said without thinking, "It's better to the east of Suzhou, but it's more bleak to the west of Suzhou. Although there is no famine, people's livelihood should be quite difficult. Although we are just a quick look, we have no prosperous scenes mentioned in the previous rumors. We hope that the governor will take the people as a thought and rest with the people."

Yang Yi nodded and said, "This war in Beiting has almost wiped out our family's assets, but the matter of rest and recuperation must be pacified. The Huns have not yet been destroyed, so it is difficult to take care of the family! We still have to tighten our belts and endure them for a few more years."

He asked them to rest in Luntai City for two days, and then sent a team of cavalry to escort them to Shattered Leaf.

At this time, Luntai City had launched a new plan. Although the construction of the city wall cannot be carried out immediately, the overall plan is already underway. As before, the re-planned Luntai City will not only be a defensive castle, but a metropolis that integrates politics, commerce and military. In terms of the periphery of the Beiting Basin, it can be imagined that this place will become a larger city than Shule. Of course, whether it can grow more dynamic than Shule depends on the potential of the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

Wei Renpu and others rode their horses to the west. When they were on the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, many areas except CITIC City had already decided to be desolate and distant. However, when they arrived in Beiting, they knew what was the real vast sea of ​​sand and the real vast grassland!

At least there have been merchants traveling back and forth on the Silk Road on the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains for many years, while the Tianshan North Road has not even formed a road. After walking a hundred miles away from Luntai, you will look around. If someone hadn't led the way, Wei Renpu and others would have been fascinated here.

Moreover, there are official inns, settlements formed by Buddhist temples and folk inns every other distance between Liangzhou and Gaochang. However, Beiting is not the case. Although the Tang army in Tiance conquered this land after the western expedition, in the past winter, some places here were still uninhabited for hundreds or even thousands of miles. Now, the military and civilians who migrated from the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains have gathered in the areas around Luntai. After hundreds of miles away from Luntai, they have to meet the Tang army's garrison.

Moreover, there are no signs on the so-called roads in the north of the mountain. If you walk the right way between the two hundred miles and arrive in a straight line, you can reach the garrison within one day, but if you take a detour in the middle, you have to find a place to stay by yourself.

In the vast area in the middle, there are all land without a land. The herdsmen who moved north have not yet arrived here. There are only some nomadic tribes that are close to the Tiance regime. Although these tribes have sworn to surrender to the Tang Dynasty after the Battle of Beiting, the barbaric and savage of the border people is sometimes difficult to predict, and some are very friendly to the Tang people, but it is hard to say if they encounter more barbaric ones. If they are teams of Tang army, they will definitely not dare to invade them.

It was just a hard work on the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. When we arrived here, Wei Renpu and others were often worried. When they met nomadic tribes during the day and heard wolves howling in the moon at night, they would make people feel uneasy and anxious.

When he was in Liangzhou, Guo Fen had sent someone to equip them with weapons, and Wei Renpu also had to give him a horizontal sword, but until Luntai, they just used it as a decoration. They only got up in a hurry and held the weapon tightly every day - at this time, Wei Renpu fully experienced the importance of weapons! The horizontal sword is no longer a decoration at this distance, but a person faces the sky, the earth, the wolf pack, and the barbaric life guarantee!

Fortunately, no nomadic tribes attacked each other along the way. Some of them offered wine and meat in awe, but they killed more than a dozen wolves in the middle and hunted grass-to-grass to supplement food. Wei Renpu himself also hunted several small beasts, hunted and roasted by himself, and felt like eating raw meat and drinking blood. However, what made the accompanying team admire was that he found that Wei Renpu had not forgotten to write a few poems to commemorate in such an environment.

After traveling thousands of miles west, I finally arrived at Rehai. The more I went to the West, the stronger the taste of the Hu people. When Wei Renpu was in Liangzhou, he often discussed with Fan Zhi that the Han style in the northwest was not as pure as the Central Plains. However, when he arrived here, he knew what a place of transformation was! Even though the Liangzhou area seemed very different from the Central Plains in politics, culture, and lifestyle, it still felt like it was different from the Central Plains. However, when it came to Shuye, although it was already under the rule of the Tiance Tang Dynasty, there were many Husbands and many Husbands that saw many Husbands and heard many Husbands. If you didn’t occasionally see some flags with Chinese characters written on them or some Han cavalry, it would be a completely different place in the border.

At this time, Zhang Mai was busy with two things in Saiye: one is the reconstruction of the agricultural and animal husbandry system in the Saiye area, and the other is the strategy for Talas. Beiting is too far away from here, and Yang Yi was nervous and could not supply the place at all. Ningyuan is not close to here. At present, the Tang army's livelihood can still be maintained here, but it is difficult to say that it is necessary to go to war. For this reason, the entire army came here to farm and grazed, and opened up new fields on the basis of the original irrigation of farmland in Saiye, mixed with alfalfa, and relied very little on commerce here, but this also allowed Zhang Mai to use wartime mechanisms to control the army and people of the entire region. Everyone was organized to carry out production activities, and daily necessities were collectively allocated - this was not a social model that could last, but in special periods, it could quickly restore productivity and create a huge amount of surplus grain.

Because of this, Zhang Mai was carrying out the work of western development during this period, and did not take into account the internal affairs of the Anlong area, which was already in the hinterland. He heard that ten scholars had been asked to "take the exam" in Liangzhou. Zhang Mai was not prepared at all. After receiving the letter, he was a little surprised and said with a smile: "What is Fen'er doing! Now we have no time to play this!"

He was used to being unscrupulous and said it directly in front of the scholars. Several scholars had run to Thunder Leaf with enthusiasm, thinking that he would be highly rewarded and promoted after seeing the Marshal. Unexpectedly, Zhang Mai reacted like this and was hit hard for a moment.

Wei Renpu took a step forward: "The way to promote Lun Cai is the foundation of the country. The marshal used the word "play" to make the hearts of scholars all over the world cold!"

Zhang Mai smiled faintly and said, "Luncai? It is not easy for you scholars to get here. But in this place, what can you guys help me? Isn't it better to stay in Liangzhou to copy documents and discuss current affairs? But why are you going here to make trouble?"

All the scholars were very dissatisfied when they heard this, but when Zhang Mai asked them what they could do, they couldn't say it for a while. Only Wei Renpu said: "We are new to us and we are not familiar with everything, so it is naturally difficult to work. If the marshal does not abandon us, then let us copy the documents with the army first. In three or two months, we will have our day to make a comeback!"
Chapter completed!