At the end of Song Dynasty: I want to be the master of ZTE

Chapter 215 North Korean defectors

The moon hung over the branches, and the earth was bright and bright, almost daytime.

In the Lijiawan military fort five miles outside Lianshui City, two hundred Song soldiers were celebrating the festival, but there was a catty more meat than usual, no wine, and the vigilance remained the same.

The Song and Yuan Dynasties were all accumulating strength, and there were no large-scale wars, but this did not mean that the front lines were quiet.

When farming, they send troops to harass each other, but when the harvest is harvested, they only send troops to set fire. In ordinary times, spying, provocation and even sneak attacks are common, so they dare not relax.

Suddenly, a gong sounded from the basement, and then someone shouted: "One hundred riders, due north!"

It has become a common practice for frontline soldiers to bury urns and listen to the movements of cavalry, because Lianshui is located on the north bank of the Yellow River, and the Huanghuai area is full of plains, which is really conducive to cavalry exchanges.

After a moment, the sound of horse hooves approached, and there were shouts and screams mixed in.

"Boss, there seems to be a war?"

The deputy commander Chen Song naturally heard it and said doubtfully: "No comrades have gone north recently. Who are the Tatars fighting with?"

"Whatever, as long as you don't bother me, that's fine."

"Don't be afraid if you come, it's just the time to set off fireworks."

"Should we go out and take a look? So as not to miss the military situation."

The soldiers talked a lot.

"Don't be in a hurry, wait until you can see it, so as not to fall into the trap." Chen Song said.

If the Yuan army wants to attack Lianshui, there are many roads, but other roads can only pass through a small number of troops. A sneak attack is possible, but a force attack is not possible. Large-scale troops cannot bypass it... Don't brag, it is still possible to make a detour of [-] miles.

Therefore, Lijiawan is the outpost and must not be stolen by the Yuan army.

Soon, a gong rang overhead, and the sentry shouted: "I see it, the Tartars seem to be chasing someone."

The soldiers returned to their fighting positions and looked outside.

Under the moonlight, there were many figures, and one could barely make out a group of cavalry troops fighting fiercely with a group of infantry troops. However, the cavalry troops were condescending and outnumbered, making it difficult for the infantry troops.

"Boss, do you want to shoot an arrow to support one or two?"

This is possible, Chen Song shouted: "Aim for it, face the horseman, head, be careful not to be touched by the Tatars."

Everyone responds and aims individually.

It is impossible to get out. What if the Tatars act themselves?It's very comfortable to hide in the bunker and shoot arrows.

Just looking at the figures in the moonlight, it is not clear that the Song soldiers' individual crossbows shot over and only one or two arrows out of ten hit.

Even so, the Yuan army retreated north after causing disturbance for a while.

In a short time, about 30 of the people who were being hunted arrived in front of the fort.

One of the leaders shouted: "Master Jun, we are all Shuyang people. We are here to escape. Please help Master Jun. I will be very grateful."

"Lianshui County is just five miles to the north. You can go there on your own. It's a narrow place and there's nowhere to stay." Chen Song replied and ordered his men, "Tianlei bows and crossbows are ready. If anything goes wrong, everyone will be killed."

"Don't worry, boss. If you are nagging, you must have bad intentions." The soldier responded.

They are the outposts, and if they let the spy in because of sympathy, they will be too embarrassed to enter the Hall of Valor even if they die.

Someone shouted from outside: "Master Jun, we have been running away all night, please give us some dry food. After we eat, we will go to Lianshui."

"Okay, wait a moment." Chen Song replied.

There is always dry food in the fort, and it is no problem to divide it into twenty kilograms and go out. Of course, you don't send people to send it out, but you light a torch and throw it down.

With the help of torches, Chen Song found that the people outside were all wearing tattered civilian clothes, but he could not judge their origins from this. It would be better to let the Lianshui garrison judge.

The visitor received solid food and left with great gratitude.After walking for five miles and half an hour, these people did not dare to approach and called the door from a distance.

There were ten thousand soldiers in Lianshui City, but they were not afraid of the mere 30 or so minions. They were dragged up one by one in a hanging basket and tied one by one, and they were all quickly brought in.

Chen Wei, the commander of the city's garrison, heard the news and rushed over immediately.

The leader bowed down and said: "Young man Nie Er, pay your respects to the general."

"How do you defect from the north?" Chen Wei asked.

Judging from the clothes, they are indeed ordinary people. Their weapons are mostly dung forks and shovels, and the calluses on their hands are not common to soldiers.

All dynasties have not allowed civilians to hide weapons privately, but only Yuan Ting investigates them the most closely, so there are very few people who practice martial arts privately. From this, we can roughly judge that they are indeed common people.

"The general has clearly learned that the Tartars impose too heavy taxes and we really have no way to survive, so we come to surrender to the imperial court." Nie Er replied.

"This time, the villain gathered more than [-] people from the same village. They were the only ones who arrived at Lijiawan. Without the help of the government and the army, I am afraid that none of them would survive."

"How much are your taxes?" Chen Wei asked.

Nie Er replied: "A household has six taels of silver, no banknotes, just silver coins."

Hiss~ Everyone took a breath of cold air.

Six taels of silver, even if Yuanting's silver and copper coins are better controlled than Lie, it still costs twelve taels of silver.

What concept?
A strong man can only work for thirty or fifty cents a day. If he doesn't eat, drink or rest for a year, that's enough to pay taxes.

But in fact, because of the tax money, it takes three guan or more to exchange for one tael of silver at this time.

"How can the people live if the Tatars collect taxes like this?" Chen Wei was really shocked.

"So I'll risk my life and go south." Nie Er was both sad and grateful.

I am saddened by the death of my colleague, but I am glad that I ran over.

"Come here, send him down to rest and send him across the river tomorrow." Chen Wei ordered.

Lianshui is the front line and it is not suitable to settle the people. It is better to send them across the river to settle them, and there is no fear that they are internal agents.

The Yellow River is so wide that even internal agents cannot send out news.

However, Yang Zhenlong, who was at the rear, received the report that night.

The deputy general said with emotion: "I have heard that the Tatars use a tax package system, and each household pays money annually, but they don't expect so much. No wonder the people risk their lives and go south."

The tax farming system means that no matter how many people a household has or how many acres of land it has, the total tax amount is fixed.

But in fact, local officials had many ways to collect more money. The simplest one was to arbitrarily adjust the exchange price of copper coins and silver in violation of court regulations.

You must know that ordinary people can't earn a lot of money on weekdays. They only save copper coins one by one. There is absolutely no way to avoid this exploitation.

Yang Zhenlong thought for a while and then said: "I think we might be able to advance the Northern Expedition."

Yu Tong asked: "General, do you think the people in the North cannot survive because of the heavy taxes?"

"Yes or no, if there is news from the imperial court, I will ask for a fight." Yang Zhenlong replied.

He went back to report on his work in the summer and knew that the large-scale war was scheduled for the beginning of next spring.

Because the winter is too cold, frostbite may be more likely than death in battle, and if the road is blocked by heavy snow, it will be inconvenient to march, it is really not a good season to use troops.

If the Yuan army wants to counterattack, it will most likely happen at the same time, because Tianshi is effective on both sides.

The so-called favorable time, place and people, if the people in the north are really overwhelmed, then it is not impossible to send troops in advance for the sake of harmony.

(End of this chapter)