Water Margin people

"What can go wrong with a group of herdsmen?"

Zhang Qing shook his head. The enemy was just deliberately creating a maze. They must not be fooled. They must remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing circumstances.

Soon several herdsmen were brought to the camp. Those herdsmen, wearing coarse linen clothes and with dirty faces, looked at Zhang Qing with fear, their legs trembling, and they were almost kneeling on the ground.

"An old man with four young people! They look like a family!"

Zhang Qing looked at the five herdsmen in front of him.

"I ask you questions and you answer them!"

Zhang Qing looked at the herdsmen and said.

The herdsmen were initially terrified and had numb eyes, and did not react at all. After the soldier next to them coughed twice, the herdsmen agreed one after another.

"Where are you from?"

Zhang Qing looked at those people and asked.

"General, we are villagers from the mountains to the east. They are my sons. We didn't know this was your pasture. We won't dare to do that again! We are willing to offer cattle and sheep to atone for our sins!"

The old herdsman knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

"Are you villagers from the western mountains? Did you come so far just to herd sheep?"

Zhang Qing frowned and asked, the grazing distance is a bit far. He can see that the family in front of him are not professional herdsmen. This family only has sheep, no cattle or horses. This kind of herding family should not walk so far.

"General, I don't know why the drought is so severe this year. The pastures in the west are not enough for grazing, so we came to the eastern valley!"

The old herdsman spoke.

"It's a severe drought? Has it been like this before?"

Zhang Qing asked subconsciously. He had no way to deal with drought. In order to fight drought, the Central Plains had built a large number of reservoirs, windmills and canals, but even so, drought was inevitable.

Regarding the drought, Zhang Qing just wanted to tell these people that there was nothing he could do to help and that maybe things would be better next year.

"We don't know either. It rained several times this year, so the river should be full of water, and the water may even spread to the river valley. There should be lush grass and water everywhere, but this year there is very little water in the river."

The old herdsman said that they have lived here for generations and are very sensitive to the climate.

Zhang Qing frowned slightly. He didn't notice these things. He thought that this kind of drought was the norm in this land.

"Where have all the people in this village gone?"

Zhang Qing asked again.

"This... General, we don't know! We rarely come here!"

Several people shook their heads. How could they know the situation here? They just saw the lush grassland in the west and thought of coming here secretly to graze.

"Have any of your villages been abducted?"

Zhang Qing looked at the herdsmen and asked.

"No, we don't have any!"

Several people spoke up and said that they were able to come here because of the drought, and the river was shallow so they could drive the sheep across the river.

"You guys go down and rest first!"

Zhang Qing waved his hand.

The soldiers took the five men away.

Zhang Qing led his men directly to the river and looked at the cracked riverbed.

"Now that the weather is getting warmer, the snow in the upper reaches of the mountains should be melting. Why is there so little water?"

Zhang Qing looked towards the north and said, whether in the east or the west, the principle of rivers is the same, and the source is the melted snow in the mountains.

“Could it be that it was hotter last year and there was less snow in the mountains?”

A general spoke.

"Do you think it's possible? The snow on the mountains never melts all year round, how much less can it be?"

Zhang Qing shook his head. They had traveled all the way west and had seen too many high mountains. Even in midsummer, those mountains were covered with snow.

"General, why don't we go over and take a look?" The generals also noticed the problem, and they thought they could go upstream to take a look.

Under normal circumstances, patrols only follow the river valley plains and generally do not go to Asia Minor.

"Well, let's take a look first!"

Zhang Qing nodded slightly. He didn't want to walk that far at first. Too far a distance would also be dangerous for them.

When Zhang Qing returned to the camp, he heard crying and shouting. The soldiers had slaughtered some sheep and were stewing broth and roasting lamb.

"What are these guys doing?"

Zhang Qing frowned as he looked at the herdsman family crying on the ground.

"General, these guys are mentally ill. We asked them to buy the sheep at the market price, but they refused to sell them. It was as if we were cheating them!"

A general said that going out on patrol was very tiring and they should have been replenishing supplies in each village.

But this time, all the villages they came out of were deserted, and there was no place to get fresh meat. They couldn't get much fresh meat by hunting alone.

"Are you looking for death?"

Zhang Qing looked at the herdsmen and said that he was buying at the market price, not robbing. If these people were unwilling to agree, it meant they wanted to die. He didn't mind being a bad guy.

Zhang Qing knew very well that being too kind would make some people think he was weak and they would take advantage of him.

Sure enough, the herdsmen stopped crying. They took the food, tea bricks and cloth on the ground and hid in the corner.

According to the prices here, a piece of Qi linen can be exchanged for three sheep, and a tea brick can be exchanged for ten sheep.

"Drive them away as soon as possible!"

Zhang Qing looked at the herdsmen with disgust. He thought they were just an honest family, but now it seems that this family is not a good one.

The next day, when the army was preparing to set out, a scout came hurriedly to report that the enemy's whereabouts had been discovered in the rear.

"Have we discovered the enemy's whereabouts in the rear?"

Zhang Qing frowned and asked, the enemies have appeared quite frequently recently, and they appeared in the places they had just patrolled, which was not normal no matter how you looked at it.

"Let's go back and take a look!"

Zhang Qing immediately led the army back. No matter what, the enemy had to be eliminated.

Zhang Qing led the army back. After only half a day, they saw a cavalry preparing to wade across the river. It seemed that they wanted to go to the vicinity of Baghdad. Now there were only villages and towns around Baghdad.

"What are these? A tribe in the desert!"

Zhang Qing looked at the clothes on those cavalrymen. Although these people were also masked, they were clearly different from the sand bandits.

"Kill with me!"

Zhang Qing immediately gave the order.

As the army charged, the cavalrymen who were preparing to wade into the water immediately retreated without any intention of fighting.

By the time Zhang Qing's army attacked, the cavalry had already entered the desert.

Zhang Qing did not continue chasing, but watched the enemy disappear in the yellow sand.

"General, aren't we going to give chase?"

The generals looked at Zhang Qing and asked.

"It's just a thousand cavalrymen, there's nothing to chase!"

Zhang Qing looked at the war horse footprints on the ground.

"How dare these people go near Baghdad? What's going on in the desert?"

Zhang Qing became worried. The scope of his management was too large and he had too few people on hand. He really felt powerless.

"Could it be that there is a shortage of supplies in the desert, so they want to rob some?"

A general said that life in the desert must be difficult. In the past, there were caravans traveling around, and the tribes could get supplies. Now that the caravans have decreased, the tribes in the desert will lack many necessities. (End of this chapter)