Li Hanlu was right. Although Lao Guo was old, he was young at heart. Sometimes he was childish and always willing to try new things himself. For example, the newly developed motorcycle had won Lao Guo's favor, and now it had even become Lao Guo's ride. Compared to riding a horse, riding a motorcycle was so cool that it was incomparable to riding a horse.
What's more, Lao Guo was wearing a new suit of armor when he was riding the bike, which was not only lighter, but also had a better defense and a cool appearance. He looked just like a mecha warrior, which made him look even more cool. After he got on the motorcycle, he looked even more like a sci-fi movie. Anyway, it was definitely a beautiful scenery on the grassland, which attracted people's attention.
Lao Guo's motorcycle was much faster than a horse. Therefore, the distance between them was about the same. Now, Lao Guo was already in front of them, while the rest of the officials were still dozens of steps behind.
"Assistant Minister Li, you really came! Look at my motorcycle. What do you think of it? "
Guo Ziyi's handsome parking posture immediately attracted people's attention.
"Haha! General Guo was really handsome and awe-inspiring! He doesn't look like a man in his fifties or sixties! No one else can ride this motorcycle like him. It's very good! "
Ang Lee praised.
"This motorcycle is easier to ride than a horse. You'll get used to it after some practice. It runs faster than a horse. Once you get used to it, you won't want to ride a horse anymore. Haha!"
Guo Ziyi spoke his mind. It could be seen that Guo Ziyi really liked motorcycles. He liked the feeling of being cool. This feeling made him feel like he was back in his youth.
While they were talking, many officials of Summer State City had arrived. They got off their horses one by one and saluted Ang Lee respectfully.
Among all the officials, Guo Ziyi's position was the highest. Not only was he the commander of the local garrison, but he also held several official positions. He was a person with real power in Summer State City. However, not everything was decided by him. In terms of mobilizing military forces, Guo Ziyi had absolute authority. The military officials in Summer State City also had to listen to his orders. However, in terms of economy and trade, no one listened to Guo Ziyi's words.
Summer Province City could be considered an important city on the northern border of the Great Tang. And Summer Province was not a prefecture in the ordinary sense, but a Commander-In-Chief's Manor on the border. It could be considered a relatively important administrative unit.
The Governor's Mansion in Summer State had to manage four prefectures — Summer State, Suizhou, Yinzhou, and Youzhou. There were a total of 12 counties, 215 li from east to west, and 70 li from north to south. The population was not large, with only 6,132 households. The population was only in the tens of thousands.
There were four counties in Summer State: Shuofang, Dejing, Ningshuo, and Changze. There were mountains and rivers in the territory. Among them, the most famous mountain was Mount Qiwu. When the Xiongnu leader Hao Lianbo visited Mount Qiwu and saw the beautiful scenery, he sighed and said, "It's beautiful. I've traveled many places, from the north of the horse territory to the south of the river, there are none like it! "It was obvious that Mount Qiwu was a very fascinating and beautiful mountain.
However, as the nomads surrendered and the gap between the rich and poor in Summer State continued to widen, Mount Qiwu had become the world of horse thieves. There were many horse thieves hiding there. No one knew how many there were, but there were definitely about a thousand of them. Perhaps there were even more.
Wuding River was also an important river in Summer State. It was also called Shuoshui. This river passed through Summer State City and was the daily source of drinking water for the people of Summer State City. There was a branch of Wuding River, which was the Wushui. It was not a long river, but because it originated from Mount Qiwu, the water was very clear and was the main source of irrigation for the local people.
In addition to these natural scenery and cities, there were many scenic spots and historical sites in Summer State. For example, the old city of Shiben was in the northwest. It was the old city of Shuofang County in the Han Dynasty. It was now in ruins.
Old White City, also known as Qiwu City, was 125 miles north of Summer State City on Mount Qiwu. Back then, Hao Lianbo exclaimed that this place was too beautiful, so his son built a city here and set up a temple for Hao Lianbo.
There was also Hao Lianbo's tomb, which was 25 miles west of Summer State City. In addition, two miles west of Dejing County was the ruins of the Qin Great Wall. Thirty miles northeast of Ningshuo County was the Helan Mountain. At the same time, ten miles north of the county was the Qin Great Wall.
As for Changze County, there were also many scenic spots and historical sites. For example, twenty miles southwest of the county was the old city of Chanxi. Eighty miles south of the county was the Baijing Garrison. Fifty miles north of the county was the Huluo Salt Pond, which could produce table salt. However, the output was really not high. It was only a small salt pond.
In short, there were many fun places in the Summer District. If he didn't go there, he would be letting himself down. Since he was here this time, he had to take a good look and relax his body and mind.
After all the officials arrived, Guo Ziyi introduced them one by one. Because there were too many people, Ang Lee could only remember a rough idea. Anyway, the Xia Province's Governor, Chief of Staff, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, Secretary of War, and other officials were all present.
There were also the County Magistrate, County Lieutenant, County Deputy, Registrar, and other people from nearby Shuofang County. In short, almost all the people with real power were present to show the importance they attached to Ang Lee.
After a round of greetings, Ang Lee left the relevant technical personnel in the coal mine and asked the local officials to prepare the basic needs of these people such as food and lodging. In fact, the coal mine originally had accommodation enough to accommodate a few hundred people, but these houses were too simple and crude. They were all for the coal miners to live in, so one could imagine the quality of the houses. The people under Ang Lee's command were all high-level talents, so how could they live in such a simple house? Even if they had to make do with it, they had to make some slight improvements. At the very least, the indoors had to be renovated. Food and water had to be transported from the state city to ensure that it was clean and hygienic so that they could better invest in the exploration work.
Of course, Ang Lee would not stay in the coal mine. He would go to the Summer District City with Guo Ziyi and the others and live in the best house in the city, which was in line with Ang Lee's noble status.
The distance from the coal mine to the state city was not long, so they arrived soon. As for Ang Lee's residence, it had already been arranged. It was right next to Guo Ziyi's residence. The house was of the same level as Guo Ziyi's, which was already the best. There were more than 20 houses with three courtyards, a separate kitchen and bathroom, and a place to receive guests. There were even rockery and a pond in the backyard, where many goldfish were raised. It was a good place for recuperation.
Of course, such a building was far inferior to Ang Lee's mansion in Chang 'an. In a remote place like the Summer District, such a building was the best, but it could not be compared with the high-level buildings in the capital city.
Although the quality of the residence was not as good, Ang Lee had already prepared himself before he went north from the capital city. Life in the north would definitely be much harder than at home in the capital city. This was unavoidable. Therefore, he had no complaints. What else could he say when others gave him the best?
Because Ang Lee's departure from the capital city was sudden, he did not inform any officials in the Summer District in advance. Only Guo Ziyi probably knew that Ang Lee was coming. Therefore, when these officials saw Ang Lee, they did not know the purpose of his visit. Because of this, many officials were afraid and felt guilty, especially those who had miscalculated. Their foreheads were covered with sweat, for they were afraid that Ang Lee would come to punish them.
However, after Ang Lee told them that his purpose was to investigate the coal mine, many officials still felt uneasy. They were not fools. They thought that a big official like Ang Lee did not need to be in charge of such a small coal mine. He could have just sent someone else.
Ang Lee did not care what these people thought or whether they were afraid or not. The most important thing was to enjoy himself. He did not need to care about these officials' feelings.
The long journey was definitely very tiring. Even if he lay still in the car, it was inevitable that he would be tired. The long journey itself was a kind of hardship.
After resting for a few hours, Guo Ziyi brought a dozen people who looked like ordinary people to deliver food to Ang Lee in the evening. These were all contributed by officials at various levels. They knew that Lao Guo and Ang Lee were the closest, so they sent them to Guo Ziyi's mansion first and asked Lao Guo to deliver the gifts. This was a kind of respect for Lao Guo, the leader.
"Lao Guo, you are too kind. These food ingredients are enough to eat for a month."
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Guo Ziyi did not hesitate and said, "These are all sent by officials at various levels in the Summer District City and Shuofang County. Only these jars of old wine are from me."
"So many food ingredients at once. It seems that the Summer District City is very rich. Officials at various levels are also very rich. "
Ang Lee said.
"The Summer District City is certainly rich in this area. However, it can't be compared with the capital. Although this place has changed a lot these years, the changes in the capital are too scary. When I go to the capital once a year, I feel that I have gone to the wrong place. Haha!"
Guo Ziyi said with a smile.
After chatting casually for a while, they began to pay attention to the Horse Gang.
"General Guo, didn't you say that the Horse Gang was rampant here? Why do I feel that the common people are living a peaceful life after coming here? No one is living in an abyss of suffering. Where are the Horse Gang hiding? "
Ang Lee asked curiously.
Guo Ziyi said, "Assistant Minister Li has just arrived and is not very clear. The Horse Gang here are mainly hiding in Qiwu Mountain. Qiwu Mountain has a radius of a hundred miles, with mountain paths crisscrossing and dense vegetation and many caves. The north side is also connected to the grassland. Our army only has 8,000 soldiers and can only mobilize 5,000 mobile soldiers at most. It is impossible to surround this area. Even if we increase the number of soldiers by tenfold, it is still impossible. These Horse Gang are also very clever. As long as our army is mobilized, they seem to be able to know in advance and retreat one step ahead. Therefore, it is really difficult to attack them. Fortunately, these Horse Gang only rob the goods of the caravan. Under normal circumstances, they will not kill people. "
Hearing this, Ang Lee felt that these Horse Gang were really clever. Obviously, someone had tipped them off. This was enough to show that in the official organization of Xia State City, there was a mole for the Horse Gang, who was responsible for providing information to the Horse Gang so that the Horse Gang could avoid the purge of the imperial army in time. In addition, the mole could also give the Horse Gang an accurate timetable of the caravan so that the Horse Gang could rob the caravan accurately.
In addition, the Horse Gang did not kill people easily, which was also a sign of shrewdness. It should be known that robbing property and killing people were completely different in nature. Robbing property was relatively less harmful to the society, but killing people belonged to the particularly bad kind, which was easy to be seriously attacked.
Now, when the Horse Gang robbed the caravan in the capital, the imperial court only sent Guo Ziyi here. If they frequently killed people, the imperial court would naturally pay more attention to them. It was estimated that it would not be as simple as sending Guo Ziyi here. Perhaps more troops would be sent here, and Guo Ziyi would be given a death order to eliminate them. In this way, these Horse Gang would really suffer a disaster.
In the case of ordinary harm, the revenge that the Horse Gang suffered naturally would be ordinary. This was the survival strategy of the Horse Gang.
And Ang Lee had to admit that these Horse Gang were well versed in the essence of guerrilla warfare. Otherwise, they would have been wiped out for such a long time.
"Guo Ziyi! How much do you know about the Horse Gang in Summer Province? How many people do they have? What kind of weapons do they use? How many merchants can be robbed in a month? "
Ang Lee asked.
Guo Ziyi thought for a moment and said, "I've only been here for a few months. I've sent out troops more than ten times, and only encountered the Horse Gang twice. I really don't know how many people there are in the Horse Gang! However, it shouldn't be a lot. It's just that they come and go without a trace. They are too difficult to deal with. Their weapons are mainly strong bows and hard crossbows, and some of them are close-fitting machetes. Compared with our soldiers, their fighting strength is not much worse. As for how many merchants are robbed in a month, it varies every month. At least three to five times, and at most a dozen times. Now the situation is a little better. With the escort and patrol of the army, the loss of merchants is much smaller. "
"So many times, it seems that the loss of the caravan is quite big! If we send more patrols to cover all the channels that the merchants pass through, we can solve the problem of the Horse Gang robbery. "
Ang Lee hypothesized.
Guo Ziyi shook his head and said, "We don't have enough troops! The caravan in Summer Province has five or six commercial routes, not including the branch routes. Each route is not short and requires a lot of troops. Even if we can deter the Horse Gang in a short time, we have to send four or five thousand troops continuously, which is very costly to the imperial court. In this way, the merchants won't suffer any losses, but the imperial court will suffer a great loss. "
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