Lao Guo didn't neglect this problem, but he thought it would be fine as long as his own people didn't leak it out. The Horse Gang leader kept these letters, and few people knew about it except himself. Judging from his despicable behavior, it could be inferred that he was a despicable person, and a despicable person wouldn't care about others' lives.
From the point of view of interests, the Horse Gang leader had no reason to warn these vermin. When these people were in their positions, they could still provide him with various kinds of information. But if these people got the news and escaped, they would have nothing to do with him and could not help him in the future. So, why did he have to do something superfluous?
As for the information sent by his own spies, of course, he had long destroyed it. After all, there were many spies in the Horse Gang, and a lot of information was sent to the nest every day. If he kept all the information, it would take more than ten boxes to hold it. Of course, he would destroy the information without much value. Only the important information, or the letters from the imperial court officials, were necessary to keep them.
"Lao Guo! It's better to be safe than sorry. We'd better be cautious. "
Ang Lee said.
"The Horse Gang leader has run away. If he wants to send the message, we can't stop him. We can't block all the roads around Xia Zhou City. There are so many caravans and people coming and going every day. Even if we check them one by one, we can't find out who is the spy. If they send the message by pigeon, we can't stop them. "
Lao Guo said helplessly.
Ang Lee pointed to the direction outside the tent and said, "Can we make use of the captured bandits outside? Let them get into the Horse Gang and provide us with information. Meanwhile, they can cleverly tell the Horse Gang leader that the letters were burned. In this way, we can kill two birds with one stone."
This idea had just occurred to him. After all, it would be a waste not to use the resources of the surrendered bandits. With so many surrendered bandits, there must be someone who could be used. Ang Lee had no doubt about this.
"These bandits have just surrendered. It's risky to let them get into the Horse Gang!"
Lao Guo said with a frown.
Lao Guo didn't trust the newly surrendered bandits. He always felt that they were not so reliable. If they colluded with the Horse Gang leader, they would lead the soldiers into a ditch. This was not without risk. After all, false information could bring disaster to the army.
Of course, Lao Guo had no faith in these Horse Gangs. He did not believe that these Horse Gangs who had just surrendered would be willing to serve the imperial court in such a short time. However, he thought it was worth a try. After all, how could he know if these Horse Gangs were useful or not without a try?
After that, Li An and Lao Guo discussed the details of the operation together, trying to make it flawless.
First of all, the selection of people was very important. There were many captured Horse Gang members, but not all of them were suitable to be instigated. Some Horse Gang members were extremely stubborn and could not be instigated at all. However, some Horse Gang members were forced to betray Liangshan and naturally had the possibility of being instigated.
At the same time, in order to prevent himself from misjudging the bandits, he had to take some measures to control the people the bandits cared about. In order to achieve the goal of controlling the bandits, he had to do something to mislead the bandits, so that the bandits would take the lies as the truth.
There were more than a dozen captured bandits outside the tent. The first thing to be done was to carry out a strict examination on them to figure out their identities, whether they still had relatives alive, where their relatives were, and what their relationships were with their relatives. They had to be examined separately to achieve the best results.
If they were examined together, some of them would be afraid to talk. Therefore, they had to be examined separately.
The specific work of the examination was naturally left to his subordinates. Lao Guo only needed to wait and visit the nests of the bandits by the way.
After leaving the tent, Ang Lee and Lao Guo went to visit the houses on both sides, one by one, without missing any room.
There was only a small yard in the south of the lobby, probably for the sake of concealment. In this way, it would be less likely to be discovered. There were more houses on both sides, but they were slightly smaller.
Most of the houses in the south were functional ones, while those in the north were residential ones.
For example, in the south, there was a weapons room, a firewood room, a storage room, and a kitchen, where a large number of goods were stored. In the north, most of the houses were residential, while in the east, there were many horse stables. These stables only had sheds and one wall, while the other three directions were ventilated to help disperse the odor. After all, there were a large number of horses in the stables. If the ventilation was not good, the odor inside would be very bad, and the horses would easily get sick, which would cause real losses to the bandits.
At this time, there were a lot of horses in the stables. However, they were not the horses of the bandits, but of the soldiers of the Tang dynasty. After entering the nests of the bandits, the soldiers of the Tang dynasty naturally needed to settle their horses. Coincidentally, there were a large number of stables in the nests of the bandits, so it was the most suitable place to settle the horses.
Beside the stables, there were small warehouses for storing pasture and fodder, which were the favorite food of the horses. Pasture was very simple and could be obtained in the wild, while fodder mainly consisted of grains such as black beans. Since black beans did not have a good appetite, they were used to feed the horses.
In fact, black beans were very nutritious and were highly sought after in later generations. However, in the Tang dynasty, or even in the whole ancient society of Hua Xia, black beans were always used to feed the horses. Generally, people would not eat black beans, unless they were very poor. Only when they were extremely hungry would they choose to eat black beans.
There were a lot of black beans in the small warehouses next to the stables. When Ang Lee entered one of the small warehouses, he saw thousands of pounds of black beans and thousands of pounds of pasture. There were many such small warehouses in the nests of the bandits, so there should be a lot of black beans and pasture in them.
Black beans were naturally easy to preserve, but forage grass had to be dried before it could be preserved. Otherwise, it would easily become moldy. However, there was also a technique when drying the forage grass. If the forage grass was too dry, the horses would not like to eat it. If the humidity was too high, it would cause serious mold, and the horses would get sick after eating it. The degree of drying required experience, and it couldn't be wrong at all.
Pasture was generally lush in summer and autumn. At this time, it could be harvested and dried. After drying to a certain degree, it could be stored in the room.
Of course, this wasn't enough. It still needed to be checked regularly. If it was found that there was moisture in the grass, it would need to be dried under the sun to dry the moisture in the grass.
Therefore, breeding was not an easy thing. Every step had to be prepared carefully. Any small negligence could cause serious consequences, even unbearable ones.
It was precisely because breeding was hard and tiring that the bandits responsible for taking care of these horses were of the lowest status. They did the dirtiest and most tiring work, but they received the lowest treatment.
Most of the bandits who were captured this time were of the lowest status. They were obviously not as strong as the bandits captured in the ruins of White City. They even looked a little thin, but the calluses on some parts of their bodies were obvious, which was enough to show that they had done a lot of work.
In any group, there were hierarchies. The hierarchy system even existed in the animal kingdom, let alone in the advanced human society. The Horse Gang was also a group, so the hierarchy system naturally existed.
It was also because these captured bandits were of the lowest status and had not been valued for a long time that Ang Lee could boldly instigate them to serve him and help him deal with the rest of the Horse Gang.
Li An reached his hand into the interior of the pasture and felt it for himself. The interior of the pasture was dry, without a trace of moisture. When he casually grabbed a clump of pasture, he found that the pasture was very green and soft, not like hay at all. Therefore, these pasture were excellent pasture that had been dried well. This also showed that the horse bandits responsible for drying the pasture were skilled. Such horse bandits were more malleable. As long as they returned to normal society, they would be able to adapt quickly with their hardworking spirit. As for those horse bandits who only knew how to rob, although their bodies were very strong, their farming skills were not high. It was more difficult for them to adapt to normal society, and they had to spend a lot of effort to transform them.
"Lao Guo! Look at the pasture and the neat furnishings in the room. The coachmen in the Horse Gang's lair are not simple! They are all good talents. It's a pity that they are used to feed the horses of the Horse Gang. "
Ang Lee put down a clump of pasture and sighed.
Lao Guo was no doubt an expert. He had never left horses in his life and was very familiar with them since he was a child. He knew every step of raising a horse clearly. Therefore, he could tell whether a horse breeder was a professional or not with only one glance. He was much better than Li An in this aspect.
"They are indeed good talents. It won't be a problem to recruit them into the army in the future. As long as they are willing to turn over a new leaf, I'm willing to give them a chance."
Lao Guo was also a man with a strong love for talents. Naturally, he wouldn't want to miss out on talented people. What's more, those who had been Horse Gang would inevitably be discriminated against when they returned to normal society. It would be bad if they resumed their old trade. But if they entered the army, there wouldn't be so many problems.
After all, in ancient times, there was a punishment called Banishment to the Army. If a person had committed a crime, he could be forcibly sent to the military camp, which would give him a chance to redeem himself by doing meritorious deeds. However, the banished person wouldn't serve in the military in the capital or in the prosperous areas, because that would be meaningless. What's more, there was no chance to redeem himself by doing meritorious deeds in the prosperous areas such as the capital. Therefore, the best place to be banished was the frontier. Generally, the banished person would be sent to the frontier to serve as a soldier.
The army under Lao Guo's command was the frontier army. Many of them were criminals who had been banished to the army. Some of them were even former criminals who had been banished to the army and were promoted after meritorious deeds. Therefore, Lao Guo didn't discriminate against criminals at all. As long as they could turn over a new leaf, Lao Guo would give them a chance.
"It's really a blessing for these horse gangs to have a general like Lao Guo! Don't worry. I'll keep all of them for you. As long as you like them, just take them! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
After all, there was still a stench in the stables, and it was an unpleasant stench. Therefore, Li An naturally wouldn't stay in the stables for too long. Who would be so bored as to go play in the stables? Moreover, there wasn't much fun in the stables.
After walking out of the stable, Ang Lee and Lao Guo walked to the northernmost cave, which was more secluded and a good place to hide important materials.
At this moment, five or six soldiers were standing at the entrance of the cave. Seeing Lao Guo and Ang Lee, they hurriedly saluted to them.
"What's in the cave?"
Asked Lao Guo.
"General, most of it is grain, which weighs tens of thousands of kilograms, and some sundries."
The soldier reported.
"Haha! So it's a place to hide grain. I have to check it out. "
Lao Guo walked in with a smile, followed by Ang Lee.
The cave was deep and narrow, but it became more spacious when they walked inside. The deeper they went, the more spacious it became.
The spaciousness was not the most important thing, but the most important thing was that the environment inside was very good. The temperature outside was still a bit cold, but inside the cave, the temperature was very warm, which made people feel very comfortable.
The cave was like that. In summer, it was very cool inside, but after winter, it would become warm inside. It was properly warm in winter and cool in summer. It was the best place to enjoy the shade and avoid the cold.
And the reason why the cave was so beautiful was naturally because of the Earth Qi. In the summer, the air was very hot, and the temperature on the surface was very high, while the temperature underground was much lower. The cave could also be understood as an underground cave. Naturally, the temperature inside would be much lower than outside. And in the winter, the temperature outside would be very cold, while the temperature underground would be higher. Naturally, the cave would be very warm.
"Wow, what a big cave! These must be grain. There are so many of them. Let's see what kind of grain they are. "
While speaking, Ang Lee walked to the bags of grain and touched them with his hands.
He didn't need to open the bag, nor did he need to cut it open. He only needed to gently touch the bag to know what kind of food was inside.
Because these bags were very thin, one could feel the type of food inside with a gentle touch. As long as one was a farmer who worked frequently, they would have this ability.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
