Tibet

Ma Chongying learned from Lun Mangre that there were a thousand Modao soldiers in the Tang army, and he realized that something was wrong. Those who could use the Modao army were elites of the Tang army. It was very possible that he had made a major misjudgment. The opponent was definitely not the Tang army in Qinzhou. , the number of people is definitely more than a few thousand or tens of thousands.

He immediately ordered all Tibetan troops to stop their actions and withdraw to Huangzhou, but it was too late. The 10,000 troops from Lanzhou only returned 3,000 from Jincheng County, and the 2,000 who attacked Changcheng and 5,000 from Didao County were lost. connect,

There is no news about the five thousand garrisons each in Weizhou and Minzhou.

Five days later, a businessman was brought to the Helong Dudu Mansion in Huangshui County. He was a Qiang businessman who returned to Shanzhou with a large amount of tea cakes from Chang'an. He was interrogated by the Tubo soldiers. Because he had been to Chang'an, the Tubo soldiers Bring him to see the governor Ma Chongying.

After listening to the merchant's account, Ma Chongying looked shocked, "Is it true or is it a rumor that Li Ye was transferred to Helong Jiedushi?"

"It should be true. When I was eating at a restaurant in Chang'an, I heard them say this. King Li Ye of Qi changed his title to Helong from Xiangyang. Later, when I passed by Qinzhou, the commander's flag at the top of the city also had the character Qi. I saw many The Tang army numbered not several thousand, but tens of thousands, and they also saw a huge camel caravan, with tens of thousands of camels passing by loaded with food and supplies."

Ma Chongying's eyes showed pain. His predecessor Shang Jiexi's disregard for intelligence led to him not being aware of such a major event. Li Ye came to Helong, and he would definitely bring a large number of troops with him. If he had known about it earlier, he would not have dispersed the troops. Stationed.

The lack of intelligence caused him to lose at least 20,000 troops. Those were 20,000 orthodox Tubo troops!

Ma Chongying sent the businessman away and paced back and forth in the lobby with his hands behind his hands. He learned from his painful experience. He must now strengthen his intelligence, not only the intelligence on patrols, but also the intelligence in the city. He must know how many troops Li Ye brought?

Ma Chongying immediately ordered all the Tibetan troops in Longyou to temporarily retreat to Shanzhou, and then redeploy them after the Tang army's intelligence was ascertained.

Immediately, dozens of spies were sent to various places in Longyou to gather information.

He also found several Qiang merchants and went to Qinzhou to do business with a large amount of salt. Salt was a commodity in short supply in Qinzhou and would usually be approved.

As the first batch of grain sent by the imperial court arrived in Qinzhou in accordance with the agreement, Liu Yan began to repatriate most of the refugees back to their hometowns, mainly people whose hometowns were east of the Tao River. Based on the average household population, each person was given a subsidy of three measures of rice and five hundred yuan. Money.

On the official road, a large number of people began to support the elderly and the young and went home one after another. In fact, it was difficult for the refugees in Qinzhou to survive. Not only did the government's relief capabilities reach the edge of collapse, but the people's own endurance also reached the extreme.

Most people couldn't stand this kind of life of hunger and cold, and began to miss their hometown. Otherwise, their hometown was still under the occupation of the Tibetan people, and they would have gone back long ago.

Now the east of Taoshui River has been recovered by the army led by King Qi. King Qi also gave each person a subsidy of three measures of rice and five hundred coins. Many families even received one stone of rice or even one stone and five measures of rice. More importantly, they could still go home at this time. Plant some grain, melons, beans, etc., and catch up with the autumn crops, and you can get through it.

Therefore, after the measures to subsidize food were promulgated, the people responded enthusiastically. Basically, people east of the Taoshui River began to go home, and the number of refugees began to decrease rapidly.

This plan was of course Liu Yan's suggestion. After conducting a lot of research, he repeatedly calculated and considered everything before coming up with this extremely feasible plan.

The most important thing here is the amount of food and money subsidies. If you follow the court's practice, you usually only subsidize one bushel of rice, which costs two hundred cents. But it is still April, and it will take half a year to wait until the autumn harvest. One bushel of rice is too little, and it is very difficult. Not realistic.

So Liu Yan's plan was to triple the amount. As long as he saves a little, he can eat for four or five months without any problem. If the remaining two months are not enough, he can buy some food, so a subsidy of 500 yuan per person is basically enough.

In this way, the number of refugees can be reduced by 70%, and the remaining 30% can be dispersed and resettled in other places instead of being concentrated together. If the number of refugees is not large, the army can also provide tents, thus avoiding the outbreak of the disease.

"We accumulated a lot of experience in the Dengzhou refugee camp, and we are putting it to use now."

At the refugee camp in Shanggui County, Liu Yanzheng and Cui Guangyuan inspected the evacuation of refugees together. Most of the shacks that were originally densely distributed on both sides of the Wei River have disappeared. Everything that can be used has been dismantled and taken away, including wood and branches that can also be used for cooking. The unusable parts were mostly soil and stones, which were bulldozed by the army, and the entire shack disappeared.

Liu Yan added: "Now that the weather is getting warmer, I see that the refugees are eating, drinking, and urinating in the Wei River, which really makes people worry about the outbreak of the epidemic."

Cui Guangyuan also sighed and said: "Last winter, many people had diarrhea. They were really worried and couldn't disperse. No one was willing to move. There was no place to move, so we had to leave it to fate. Fortunately, it was just ordinary food. diarrhea."

Liu Yan nodded and said: "That's the problem. We must evacuate and reduce the population concentration by a large amount to solve the problem. So where to evacuate? The only way is to let them go home, but they must go home so that they can survive. So three people per capita Dou rice must be brought out, but fortunately our food reserves in Hanzhong are quite abundant, with more than one million stones of food reserves, and with the food provided by the court, the problem can be solved."

Cui Guangyuan smiled and said: "The key is to be wealthy. If you have money and food, it will be easier to do things!"

Liu Yan chuckled, "That's right!"

At this time, a cavalryman rushed over, clasped his fists and said, "This is to inform Ambassador Liu and Governor Cui, Your Highness is here, please go back!"

His Highness King Qi returned from Jincheng County. The two men quickly turned their horses and led their entourage towards Shanggui County.

The Helong Army's military camp was outside the city, and inside the Chinese army's tent, Li Ye stood in front of the sand table and listened to Xin Yunjing's report.

"At present, the Tibetan army has retreated back to Shanzhou. There are no Tubo armies in Taozhou, but we believe that the Tibetan army is likely to return. General Zhang Bingquan led 5,000 troops to Lintan County, Taozhou, and another 1,000 troops were stationed in Lintan County, Taozhou. The Heyang Gorge ferry is the only way for the Tibetan army to cross Taozhou and march eastward. We mobilized the rescued prisoners of war to work together to build a military city at Heyang Gorge to guard the ferry."

Li Ye nodded and asked, "Aren't those people weak? Can they participate in building a military city?"

Xin Yunjing nodded, "After ten days of cultivation, most of the people have recovered. There is no problem in repairing the military city. Only some women have not fully recovered. Let them continue to cultivate. After the military city is built, they can go to Jincheng County for resettlement."

"Is there enough food?" Li Ye asked again.

"Basically enough, we seized a large amount of grain from Lintan County in Taozhou, and Yile County in Minzhou also received a lot."

Li Ye looked at the map and said: "We have done a good job in directly occupying Taozhou. Our next step is to regain Hezhou. The Jishi Mountains to the north of Hezhou are a natural barrier, which just separates Shanzhou. More than 30,000 people are waiting for it. When young men come back and can join the army, they can be directly incorporated into the army."

Xin Yunjing was shocked. He had just recruited 50,000 troops, and he was about to recruit another 20,000 to 30,000 troops. The number of troops suddenly reached 150,000 or 60,000. This would cost a lot of money and food. Can it be sustained?

Li Ye saw his worry and smiled slightly: "We came from the wealthy Jingxiang and Jiangnan. We have enough money and food to support us. General Xin doesn't have to worry!"

At this time, a soldier quickly walked in from outside the tent, knelt down on one knee and reported, "Your Highness, Ambassador Liu and Governor Cui are back."

Li Ye nodded, "Invite them in!"