In the deceitful human society, there were some things that needed to be kept strictly confidential in advance. Only when the confidentiality was done properly could the matter be accomplished. If the secret was leaked in advance, the matter was likely to fail, and it could even cause extremely serious consequences.
For example, when the government runners wanted to catch the outlaws, they had to catch the outlaws off guard. Only in this way could the success rate be guaranteed. If the news was spread in advance, the outlaws would have already escaped when they went to catch the outlaws.
In later generations, many people were promoted and transferred their certificates in secret. When the result came out, it was known to the public. This had almost become an unspoken rule. If someone publicized himself before the promotion and transfer and told all his acquaintances that he was going to be rich, then the promotion and transfer would most likely come to nothing, because many people would spoil his plan and prevent him from doing it. Even if this person seemed to be very close and friendly to you, he would stab you in the back at the critical moment.
Therefore, there was a famous saying since ancient times that one should always be on guard against others. Everyone needed to be on guard, even the closest and most beloved ones were no exception. Even the person who slept with you was not necessarily reliable.
Therefore, if Lao Guo wanted to dig out and punish all the officials and petty officials who had colluded with the Horse Gang in Xia Province, he had to keep it a secret. He could never let those vermin know that he had been targeted by Lao Guo. Otherwise, they would definitely think of ways to deal with it, or even join hands to set Lao Guo up. The worst case scenario was that they colluded with the favored ministers of the imperial court and framed Lao Guo with the crime of collusion with the enemy. That would be troublesome.
Such things had happened before. Many officials who were originally in charge of fighting against corruption were inexplicably turned into corrupt officials because of the framing of their colleagues. Then they were punished by the fatuous emperor, which was really unfair. However, such things were hard to avoid. Such things would happen in any era. Even if a wise emperor was in power, it was easy for an honest official to be beheaded when he was careless. This was the power of officials protecting each other. When a group of corrupt officials tried to frame an honest official who wanted to investigate them, they often succeeded.
At this time, the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty was not so bad, but it was not so good either. Corruption was very common, and there was almost no official who was not greedy at all.
Of course, it was normal for people to be greedy if they gambled a little. But if they were greedy and damaged the major interests of the Tang Empire for money, it was unforgivable and must be severely punished.
For example, some officials would take more benefits that didn't belong to them. This could only be considered as taking a small advantage. However, some officials were too greedy and even chose to collude with bandits in order to get a large amount of money. This was really too much. And if they colluded with outsiders and sold the Tang Empire's intelligence for money, it would be a very serious act of treason and the consequences would be even more severe.
As for the officials who colluded with the Horse Gang, Lao Guo believed that they should never be let go. Otherwise, the Horse Gang would never be wiped out. And Ang Lee also had the same opinion. He believed that those vermin must be eliminated, or it would not be enough to deter more officials. If all the officials colluded with the evil forces like the Horse Gang, what would happen to the whole world?
Lao Guo certainly understood that. He nodded and warned the soldier who came back with the message not to tell anyone about the letter, so as to avoid the leakage of the information.
The main nest of the Horse Gang was more than 30 miles away from the ruins of Old White City. It was not a long distance, and it would take less than half an hour to get there on horseback. But if the road was rugged, it might take longer. And if the team was too large, it would also slow them down.
Lao Guo and Ang Lee each led 100 guards, which made a total of 200 cavalrymen, to the main nest of the Horse Gang. They wanted to see the situation there in person, and among them, the letter was the most important thing.
The soldier who just came back with the message was in charge of leading the way. Most of the surrendered Horse Gang stayed where they were, guarded by four or five hundred soldiers.
Li Hanlu was a little tired. She did not go with Ang Lee, but went to rest in the tent alone.
At the beginning of the journey, the road was smooth. But later, it became difficult to walk. Fortunately, they were all on horseback. If they had taken a carriage, they would have been jolted to death.
After all, it was a mountainous area, so it was normal for the ground to be uneven. The road could only be smooth if it was paved by human power. The mountain paths were all crooked, and they even needed to climb up and down. It was very difficult to walk on.
Only in this way could the nest of the Horse Gang be well hidden and meet the natural conditions that the nest of the Horse Gang should have. Even the capital city of an empire had to take the terrain into consideration, so did the nest of the Horse Gang.
However, the capital city did not need to take the concealment into consideration, and there was no possibility of concealment. But the nest of the Horse Gang was different. It needed to take the concealment into consideration. Once the nest was exposed, it would bring disaster to the Horse Gang.
Lao Guo and thousands of soldiers and horses under his command had wandered in the Qiwu Mountain for many days, but they never found any nest of the Horse Gang. This was enough to show the cunning of the Horse Gang, and also the concealment of their nest.
On the way, Lao Guo had to admit that he was impressed. He told Ang Lee that the main camp of the Horse Gang was too well hidden. No wonder he could not find it after wandering for so many days. If there was no one to lead the way, he could never find the main camp of the Horse Gang.
After crossing a mountain peak that was not too high, Ang Lee and Lao Guo saw the nest of the Horse Gang in the distance. However, it was not the house of the Horse Gang, but the flag of the Tang dynasty. It was the presence of the 200 soldiers who set out last night that let Ang Lee know that the nest of the Horse Gang was below. If the soldiers and the flag were not there, the nest of the Horse Gang would not be easy to see because the houses were covered by the dense trees around, even in the winter when the leaves fell.
"So the nest of the Horse Gang is here. It took me a long time to find it!"
Said Lao Guo when he saw his own soldiers standing below.
Li An had already stopped his horse and looked at the surrounding scenery. He nodded and said, "These Horse Gang are really smart. This is indeed a good place. Without a guide, it's almost impossible to find this place. No matter how many scouts we send, it's useless."
On the highest mountain peak, there were also many trees, and they were all tall trees. At this moment, these trees did not have any leaves, but as long as it was summer and autumn, these trees would be lush and verdant. Standing under such trees was definitely a very pleasant thing to do.
"The Qiwu Mountain is the hope of the Summer Province. It is a pity that it is ruined by the Horse Gang. Whether the Summer Province will become a desert in the future depends on the Qiwu Mountain."
Ang Lee said with a sigh.
"What does Assistant Minister Li mean by the Summer Province will become a desert?"
Lao Guo asked.
Ang Lee explained, "Lao Guo, you didn't notice that many places in the Summer Province have become dry land that can't grow crops. If it goes on, more places will become barren, and the whole Summer Province will be in danger of becoming a desert. If that happens, the Summer Province will no longer be the Summer Province. But the Qiwu Mountain can stop the invasion of the desert. As long as the Qiwu Mountain is here, the desert can hardly pass through here and can't invade more places in the Summer Province."
Li An wasn't talking nonsense. Mount Qiwu was a mountain with a lot of grass and trees on it. These were all necessary to prevent and control the desert. If there were no trees and grass, the desert would become more and more serious. In the end, it might even swallow the entire Summer State.
The role of trees and turf in managing the desert was obvious. The method used in later generations to manage the desert was to plant trees and grass, using trees and turf to stabilize the desert so that it would not be easy for the desert to move freely. With trees, the climate would improve, and the rainfall would increase appropriately. With rainfall, the trees and turf would grow more luxuriantly, and step by step, the desert would become an environmentally friendly land of fish and rice.
There were many successful cases of using plants to eliminate deserts in the future. Some deserts that weren't too big were eliminated by people planting trees. As long as a group of people was determined to eliminate a desert, there was no desert that couldn't be eliminated.
And this destroyed desert was the desert of the Summer Province. Perhaps in the era of the Great Tang, the environment of the Summer Province could not be called a desert, but a thousand years later, the Summer Province was a desert, and not a small one at that. Its name was the Maowusu Desert. This desert had been destroyed by man, or at least more than half of it. Soon, this place would become a forest without any desert.
In the process of harnessing the desert, many sand harnessing people had paid great efforts. Many of them had even dedicated their entire lives to the desert. They had been planting trees in the desert since they had just reached adulthood. Until their deaths, they had never left the desert or the sand harnessing they loved. It could be said that it was very moving.
When the desert in Summer Province was controlled in the later generations, the conditions were already very bad. In the Tang dynasty, the ecological environment of Summer Province was not bad. Most of the places could still be cultivated. Although the scenery of Qiwu Mountain had regressed a lot, there were still many trees and weeds. This kind of favorable condition determined that it would be much easier to control the desert at this time. If they waited until the desert completely turned into a desert in the later generations, it would be too difficult to control, and the cost would increase many times.
There had always been a lot of controversy about whether the degradation of a beautiful forest into a desert was caused by human factors or by natural factors. Some people thought that it was man-made destruction of the forest that caused desertification. Some people thought that it was natural climate change that caused the forest to turn into a desert. Human factors did not play much of a role. Some people thought that both of these situations existed. Natural changes were one of the reasons, and man-made destruction of the forest could not be ignored.
The fact that the desert was conquered step by step by planting trees in the later generations seemed to prove that human factors had a great impact on the environment. Since man-made planting trees could eliminate deserts, man-made cutting down trees could naturally cause desertification.
The cost of controlling desertification before it formed was minimal. It was much better than controlling desertification hundreds or thousands of years later.
Ang Lee also had a bold idea in his mind. He felt that he could let the surrendered Horse Gang manage the land around Qiwu Mountain and let them be responsible for planting trees. They could eliminate the desertified land step by step. This could be said to be killing two birds with one stone. He did not need to spend money to hire people, but also gave the Horse Gang a chance to turn over a new leaf. The Horse Gang who worked hard could also get a big reward.
Although there was a certain difficulty in this approach, and the Horse Gang who hated work might not be obedient, as long as the supervision was in place and the distribution of benefits was in place, there would not be much of a problem.
Moreover, planting trees should not be done randomly. It should be done in a planned way. For example, different trees should be planted according to the different conditions of the land. In the areas where desertification was serious, plants such as poplar forest and cacti, which were extremely drought-resistant, should be planted. In the hinterland of Qiwu Mountain, where the degree of drought was not too bad, more cash crops could be planted, such as fruit trees and dried fruit trees, which were totally feasible.
At that time, the fruits borne by these fruit trees would bring in a lot of economic benefits, and a part of these economic benefits could be used as the Horse Gang's reward.
As long as this action was carried out firmly, the Horse Gang would gradually develop the habit of working. Ang Lee believed that in a few years, these Horse Gang who had been used to working would gradually become real farmers, who were no different from ordinary farmers.
After telling his idea to Lao Guo, Ang Lee waited for Lao Guo's response.
"Assistant Minister Li's idea of letting the surrendered Horse Gang plant trees around Qiwu Mountain is good. However, if the Horse Gang wants to escape, it will be too convenient. What's more, these Horse Gang have never done this kind of work before, so I'm afraid they won't be used to it. If the management is not strict enough, it will be hard for them to escape."
Lao Guo said.
Having been in the frontier for so many years, Lao Guo's eyes were as sharp as snow, especially when it came to the Horse Gang. He knew that the Horse Gang was a group of desperadoes, who had a lot of bad habits, which were hard to get rid of. If they were not closed and forcibly reformed, there would be no effect. Because Lao Guo believed that only in a closed environment with strict supervision could the Horse Gang be forced to gradually develop the good habit of working. After many years, this habit would become a part of their body, and they would be able to return to society as a normal person.
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