Lao Guo's mind was free and easy. He didn't feel sorry that he couldn't make a name for himself. On the contrary, he thought it was quite good. As a general at the border, if he wanted to make a name for himself, he would have plenty of opportunities. As long as he wanted to, he could continue to make contributions and be promoted step by step. Just like An Lushan and Geshu Han in history, both of them made a name for themselves by making contributions without caring about the lives of their soldiers. Oh right, there was also Gao Xianzhi, who actually went to the distant Talas in the river and buried the elites of Anxi.
Comparatively speaking, Lao Guo had always been a nobody. Before the An Lushan Rebellion, there was almost no record of him in the history books of the Tang Dynasty, as if he had never existed. Because of this, later generations didn't know what Lao Guo had been doing and what he had experienced when he was young. All they knew was that after the An Lushan Rebellion, no one knew what kind of person Lao Guo was before. In the movies and TV series of later generations, Lao Guo always appeared as an old man.
Now that the An Lushan Rebellion wouldn't happen again, perhaps Lao Guo would never have the chance to make a name for himself again! There might not be too many records of his life in the history books. If there were any, it would only be a few words.
There was a saying that went, "Heroes emerge in troubled times." That was to say, only in troubled times could there be a great hero and a large number of talented people who could save the people from disaster.
So, were there no heroes in the world before the turmoil? Obviously, this was impossible. Heroes in troubled times only came out in troubled times. Before the turmoil, they lay dormant silently, just like Lao Guo, who was an honest general. He wouldn't deliberately make trouble for the sake of making contributions, and he wouldn't attack the nomads in the north for no reason like An Lushan did to flaunt his great contributions.
Lao Guo was a great hero who lay dormant in the world. Only when the Tang Empire was in danger would he come out without hesitation. If there was no such danger, Lao Guo would lay dormant quietly and wouldn't deliberately create a chance for success for the sake of making a name for himself.
This quality of Lao Guo was very precious and worthy of everyone's respect. Ang Lee respected Lao Guo very much and thought that Lao Guo was a great man who deserved respect and admiration.
"Three meals a day, one meal is one meal. Why is it like being a monk and striking the bell every day? Lao Guo, don't you have any ambition?"
Ang Lee asked.
"Haha! It's not that I don't have any ambition. The world is peaceful and the people live and work in peace and contentment. But I don't know if it's an ambition.
Lao Guo said.
"Yes, of course it is. It's a great ambition to wish the people all over the world to live and work in peace and contentment. But it's certainly achievable. It seems that it's almost achieved now. After so many years, there haven't been too many wars, and the people are living and working in peace and contentment. Lao Guo's ambition has come true."
Ang Lee said.
Lao Guo laughed and said, "Haha! That's true! As long as the people can live in peace and contentment, that's enough. "
This time, he did his best to wipe out the Horse Gang in order to let the people live in peace and contentment. It was also a part of Lao Guo's ambition.
After a whole day, the team only moved forward less than 30 miles. The Horse Gang Leader was very dissatisfied and worried. According to this speed, it would take more than a month to reach Hutu Mountain in the east of Hedong, which was much slower than he had expected.
After all, he was a horse bandit and had always been able to run two hundred miles in a night. However, that was because he was riding on horseback and did not carry enough luggage. That was why he could reach such a high speed. However, the situation now was completely different. In order to carry a large amount of treasures, the horse bandits had to lead their horses. When they encountered a bad road, they even had to push their horses. It would be strange if they could travel at such a fast speed. However, the horse bandit leader had obviously not experienced such a situation. Therefore, he did not expect to travel so slowly.
"How's the situation in our hometown? Have the people carrying the grain arrived yet?"
Seeing a scout come back, the Horse Gang Leader asked.
After setting off, he left a few people in the den, waiting for the caravan from Xia State City to carry the grain to Hutu Mountain in the east of Hedong. Because he was worried that the caravan would be questioned by the officers and soldiers, he was always worried.
"Leader, everything is going well. The grain in our hometown has been loaded and transported away. The caravan took a detour and didn't arouse the suspicion of the officers and soldiers. No officers or soldiers followed them. Everything is going well. Now, the caravan should be on the official road."
The scout said.
"Good, that's great. By the way, how are Shou Hou and the others? Did they encounter any trouble?"
The Horse Gang Leader continued to ask.
"Leader, they didn't encounter any trouble. They have traveled 80 miles in a day and entered the jurisdiction of Dejing County. They should be able to enter Yinzhou tomorrow night. They are moving too fast. I'm afraid we can't contact them every day."
The scout said.
The Horse Gang Leader nodded and said, "That's right! They are moving too fast. It's troublesome to contact them. But Shou Hou is a capable man. I believe he can take care of himself. Alas! By the way, we are moving too slowly. "
"Big brother, we have so many treasures. It's not normal for us to move fast."
The one-eyed man at the side said.
He had always had reservations about the Horse Gang Leader's refusal to buy the way. He felt that this was a wrong move regardless of the difficulties in reality. But he couldn't object. He just felt uncomfortable.
"Even so, we can't move so slowly! Ask our brothers to work harder tomorrow and move faster. "
The Horse Gang Leader said.
The one-eyed man was very depressed. His brothers had already tried their best. It was already good to move 30 miles in a day with so much luggage. It was unrealistic to ask them to move faster. This speed was relatively normal, but the Horse Gang Leader was still not satisfied. He couldn't think of a way to increase the speed of the caravan except to throw away some of the treasures. As for forcing his brothers to move faster, it was very difficult to do. Although these Horse Gang members were strong, they were not professional hardworking people, nor were they old farmers who worked hard without complaint. It was impossible to expect them to move as fast as they could. They came to be Horse Gang for enjoyment. How could they bear to be tortured?
"Big brother, our brothers have already worked hard. If we force them too much, I'm afraid they will have opinions. If there is a mutiny, things will be bad."
The one-eyed man said.
The Horse Gang leader said disappointedly, "I know it's hard for you, brothers. But look, we're walking too slowly. We've rested so many times along the way. If we walked a little faster and rested less, we might be able to walk 40 miles. Even an extra mile would be fine."
Obviously, the Horse Gang Leader was still unwilling to give up the treasures. At the same time, he didn't want to see the caravan move so slowly. It was a dilemma.
The one-eyed man said helplessly, "Big brother, I will tell our brothers to move faster tomorrow. It's getting late. Big brother, you should rest early!"
The Horse Gang Leader nodded and went to the back of the tent to rest. However, it was not so easy to fall asleep. How could one fall asleep easily when there was something on his mind?
There were many people who had things on their minds. The Horse Gang Leader was only one of them. In the Provincial Governor's Office in Summer State City, the Summer State Provincial Governor was also so angry that he could not sleep.
Previously, when he heard that the rice shop owner wanted to get legal documents for more than a hundred people, the Summer State Provincial Governor felt that this was a very rare opportunity to extort. After understanding the amount of money the rice shop owner had sold off his property, he decisively proposed a sky-high price for the documents. He thought that he would be able to get this opportunity to extort money.
Unexpectedly, the rice shop owner did not agree to this condition. He quickly led more than a hundred carriages out of Summer State City and headed in the direction of Mount Qiwu.
When the rice shop owner led the carriages out, the Secretary of State immediately reported. Hearing this news, the Summer State Provincial Governor was very angry. However, he was the Provincial Governor of a state. Under the premise that there were no legal procedures, he could not send people to pursue. He could only let the rice shop owner leave Summer State City.
The cooked duck flew away just like that. The Summer State Provincial Governor's heart was filled with anger! If he had not been so greedy and had offered a more reasonable price, perhaps this matter would have been settled. But now, everything was different. The rice shop owner had already left. He had completely lost this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As the provincial governor of a province, there were many opportunities for him to be greedy. However, the economic conditions of the Summer Province were not very good. The desertification environment had caused many commoners to flee. As a result, there was not much money that could be embezzled. Furthermore, businessmen were very shrewd. It was not easy to embezzle money from them. It was risky.
Previously, when the Horse Gang was active in Mount Qiwu, he could secretly contact the Horse Gang and use them to rob the merchants. Then, he would get a share of the loot. But now, the Horse Gang had run away. He had lost this good opportunity to make a fortune. It was unrealistic to directly rob the merchants. Many of these merchants had backgrounds. Who knew who they would offend.
"Summer State is really not a good place. Should I leave?"
The Provincial Governor of Summer State muttered to himself.
As the Provincial Governor of a state, he had a lot of power. However, Summer State was a relatively poor state. He did not like it very much. Almost all corrupt officials liked a rich and prosperous place. In a rich place, they could easily get a lot of money. In a poor place, it was more difficult to get money. Therefore, no one was willing to be an official in a poor place.
In addition, the poorer the place, the more unruly people there were. Unruly people came from barren hills and unruly rivers. This was definitely not an empty sentence. It was a real fact.
Most of the poor people were more simple. However, there would always be a few unruly people in every village. They were very difficult to deal with.
In addition, for many officials who wanted to bully the ordinary people, many simple people had become unruly in their eyes. After all, these poor simple people could not be bullied by others. In order not to be bullied by the officials, they could even risk their lives. This made the officials who wanted to bully the people very afraid. In order to plunder a little more money, they had to take the risk of the people rebelling. No one would feel comfortable in this situation.
However, in some rich areas, the situation was completely different. The ordinary people in these rich areas had some money in their hands. They lived a good life. When the officials plunder, they would not encounter much resistance. As long as the plundering was not too big, they would usually obediently hand over the money. After all, it was not worth it to lose their lives for a little money. They would not be willing to lose their lives. This was also the reason why most officials liked to be officials in rich areas. It was to be able to earn more money.
The Summer Province's Provincial Governor had a background. If he really wanted to leave Summer Province, it was not impossible. As long as he wanted to leave, he would be able to leave smoothly. However, it was not a simple matter for the imperial court to transfer officials. It required the coordination of various yamens. If such a high ranking official was casually transferred to another province, it would be too childish.
The temptation of delicious food was not small. After telling the soldiers that there was delicious food in the Lu River Valley last night, all the soldiers woke up early the next morning in high spirits. After eating a delicious breakfast, they set off in batches in order to reach the valley as soon as possible.
After all, the smaller the group, the faster it would move. For larger groups, because they had to maintain formation, their speed would be greatly affected. In order to reach the Lu River Valley more quickly, the soldiers adopted the strategy of splitting up. According to the standard of 100 people in a group, as long as there was no delay on the way, they would definitely reach the Lu River Valley after dark.
Compared with the speed of the Tang dynasty's soldiers, the Horse Gang was too slow. On the first day, they walked less than 30 miles, which was enough to give the Horse Gang leader a headache. However, on the second day, under the urging of One-eyed, the group's speed did not increase. Instead, it became slower.
This was because they had to go through a very difficult mountain road on the second day. This mountain road was necessary to avoid the checkpoint, but the road was very difficult to walk. The horses could barely pass through this mountain road. In many narrow places, only the width of a horse could pass through. Boxes were hung on both sides of the horse, so it was really impossible to pass through. The only way was to unload these boxes from the horse's back and use manpower to carry them through this dangerous section of the road. After coming to this section of the road, the boxes were tied to both sides of the horse's back.
This method could solve the problem very well. However, the process of unloading, lifting, and then hanging the boxes again was very laborious and tedious. Not only was it very tiring, but it also wasted a lot of time.
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