Ren Liang said: "The world's table salt is nothing more than pool salt, sea salt, well salt, and mineral salt. In the Song Dynasty, pool salt and sea salt were the main ones. Sea salt was produced on the southeast coast. Nowadays, only Jingdong has a small amount of sea salt in Daliang. The master of pool salt in the Central Plains The production area of ??Jiechi is now in Tian Hu's hands. There are very few salt production areas that the imperial court can control, so the salt wells in the northwest are becoming more and more important. "
Chao Yong nodded and said: "What Mr. Ren said is true. It seems that this salt well cannot be given up. However, our government's exemption of all excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes should be enough for these people to settle down."
Ren Liang said: "Most of the Fan people on the Fourth Road of Yanyan now make a living by farming. In the Song Dynasty, the land was divided and exempted from agricultural taxes and exorbitant taxes. It is still very attractive to them. However, the Fan people on Xihe Road People still mainly focus on animal husbandry, and they rarely received taxes from them before the Song Dynasty, so taxes were irrelevant to them. "
Chao Yong originally thought that he came to the northwest just to fight the Xixia people, but he didn't expect that the Song Dynasty had controlled Shaanxi for so many years, and there were still many problems. It seems that immigration is the best way to conquer. If the Han people become the mainstream everywhere and the Ban people become a minority, they should not be able to cause any trouble. It would be best to let Han and Fan people live together again, and use the huge base of Han people to integrate the Fan people.
¡°However, these things must be done slowly in the future. The top priority is to defeat Xixia and maintain stability. If you want to fuse the Ban people as quickly as possible, you have to disband their tribes. Whenever I do this, I'm afraid it will cause a backlash. Only when the Central Plains is unified can he be free to deal with the disobedient Fan people.
Ren Liang took a sip of tea and said: "After talking about the other five routes, only the Yongxing Army is left. The Yongxing Army is probably the best route, and there are Fuyan Road and Huanqing Road in front of it. Yongxing Army It has not experienced war. In addition, the Song Dynasty attaches great importance to commerce, and the Guanzhong Plain is fertile and has good agriculture. As long as the officials govern the Qingming Dynasty, the Yongxing Army does not have to worry about rebellion.
Chao Yong nodded and said: "To be honest with Mr. Ren, the reason why the imperial court did not touch the various officials in Shaanxi was just to maintain a stable rear area and fight against Xixia. Once Xixia is defeated, the officialdom will be rectified."
Ren Liang smiled and said: "Of course I know this. There are many smart people. There are not a few officials who have recently abandoned their posts and fled south."
Chao Yong did not care about government affairs. He said: "Did the imperial court send someone here?"
Ren Liang said: "There are not enough officials available in the court. The emperor asked his subordinates to recommend some officials from the Yongxing Army, and also sent some newly elected Jinshi. In fact, officials from other roads can also be adjusted. The Western Army has many soldiers and horses. Concentrated in several general families, some prefects were responsible for managing the army and the people. There were also some state officials who were sent by the Song Dynasty, and the imperial court adjusted their official positions. It won't have much impact. However, it's best to ask Mr. Zhong, the manager, because he knows best about this matter in Shaanxi, in case there are any private contacts with the generals."
The Song Dynasty was very taboo about military generals. In order to avoid the emperor's suspicion, military generals rarely made friends with civilian officials.
Chao Yong heard what Ren Liang said and thought about it. Said: "Mr. Ren, are you saying that the old manager Mr. Lue has an intelligence system?"
Ren Liang nodded and said: "Zhong Shiheng, the first general of the Zhong family, had conquered many Fan tribes. General Zhong can rely on both the Han people and the Fan people to collect information. His ability to collect information is no worse than that of Xixia." ¡±
Zhong Shiheng is the founder of the Zhong family. Not only is he outstanding in martial arts, he is also very strategic. And he is good at dealing with Qiang people.
When Fan Zhongyan inspected the border, he learned that many Qiang tribes in Huanzhou were secretly in contact with Li Yuanhao, the leader of the Xia Kingdom. Fan Zhongyan immediately thought of Zhong Shiheng and transferred him to be the magistrate of Huanzhou to suppress the Qiang people.
Niu Nunu, the chief of a Qiang tribe, is usually very stubborn, but when he heard that Zhong Shiheng was coming to take office, he ran far away to greet him.
Zhong Shiheng agreed with him that he would go to his tent the next day to comfort the tribesmen.
Unexpectedly, that night, heavy snow fell from the sky, and the snow was three feet deep.
Zhong Shiheng's attendant persuaded him: "The Niu slaves are vicious and cunning, and it is difficult to trust them. Moreover, the road is dangerous and difficult to walk on."
Zhong Shiheng was unmoved and said: "I make friends with the Qiang people based on trust, how can I miss the agreed date?"
So, Zhong Shiheng braved the heavy snow to go to the appointment.
It was snowing heavily, and the Qiang people thought that Zhong Shiheng would not come to keep the appointment. But he didn't expect Zhong Shiheng to come in the snow, and he didn't bring many people with him, so he had no intention of guarding against them.
Seeing that Zhong Shiheng was so trustworthy and had great trust in them, the Qiang people were all moved and bowed down.
On another occasion, Zhong Shiheng invited another Qiang chief, Mu En, to have a banquet in the military tent. When changing glasses, Zhong Shiheng called out a beautiful maid.While drinking, Mun En's eyes immediately lit up when he saw the beauty.
After three drinks, Zhong Shiheng stood up and left for a while.
When Mu En saw Zhong Shiheng going out, he didn't take the maid seriously, so he immediately started to tease the maid.
At this time, Zhong Shiheng suddenly burst in, looking very surprised and angry. Mun En was shocked and ashamed, and quickly fell to the ground to plead guilty.
Unexpectedly, Zhong Shiheng turned his anger into joy and happily gave the maid to Mu En.
From then on, Mu En was loyal to Zhong Shiheng and served him to the best of his ability.
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Out of all the Qiang people, Zhong Shiheng arranged for Mu En to lead an army to conquer them, and they were victorious and invincible.
It is through these various means that Zhong Shiheng conquered more than a hundred Qiang tribes.
Every time Xixia invades, the Qiang people will tip off the news, so Zhong Shiheng has never been attacked by Xixia.
During the process of garrisoning Qingjian City, one of Zhong Shiheng's Tibetan generals made a small mistake, which made Zhong Shiheng furious.
Zhong Shiheng, contrary to his usual habit of loving his soldiers as his own son, ordered his soldiers to torture him with rods, and also monitored him and ordered them to torture him severely.
¡°Whether it was the general begging for mercy or his subordinates interceding, Zhong Shiheng was unwilling to forgive this person.
Zhong Shiheng's rod punishment completely destroyed the Tibetan general's loyalty. Before his injury healed, he left without saying goodbye and went to the tent of Li Yuanhao, the leader of the Xixia Kingdom.
Li Yuanhao saw that these people were scarred and hated Zhong Shiheng deeply, so he accepted him as a confidant and allowed him free access to the Privy Council, the highest military organization.
Who would have thought that a year later, the Tibetan general returned to Qingjian City without anyone noticing, and brought back a large number of Xixia military secrets to Zhong Shiheng.
At this time, the people in Xixia knew that this was Zhong Shiheng's plan. It was precisely because no one expected that Fan people would work so hard for Zhong Shiheng that the plan could succeed.
It can be seen from this that the method of cultivating the world is balanced.