The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 242 Response
Controversy is not a bad thing.

Ultimately, the decision-making power still rests with General Zhao.

When General Zheng sent his personal guards to transport the trees back to Yulinwei, he made it clear that they would closely follow the steps of the border town.

Follow orders in all actions!

So how did General Zhao handle it?

On behalf of the five guard posts of the border city, he sent a detailed report to the court on the losses suffered by the border city due to the attack and massacre of the 200,000-strong Tatar army from the northern desert, as well as the losses of troops and soldiers after supporting the western capital, the entanglement of 200,000 refugees, and several other major events that led to his return to the border city.

The report also included a breakdown of the income and expenditure of the border town's military farms over the past ten years.

Finally, he also submitted a military pay application, requesting the amount that hadn't been paid for ten years!

How much of the military pay owed to the 100,000 border troops over the past ten years?

That's a huge sum of money, enough to fill the entire national treasury!
Good brother, Biancheng set an example.

My humble servant from Yulinwei will naturally follow suit!
Moreover, Yulinwei had recently suffered a massacre.

Besides military pay and pensions, shouldn't the imperial court at least offer some form of support?
In short, the generals of the two major cities in the Northwest insisted on telling the truth!
Tell the court with every single fact:
Even if they brought all the food they had at home, it wouldn't be enough to eat on the way to Shangdu.

Moreover, the Tatars had just suffered a defeat and left; who knows if they would invade again?

Those are the Tatars, who have been eyeing the Central Plains with covetous intent and are known for their massacres!
The border troops and the Yulin Guard were somewhat responsive to the imperial edict.

The other important towns, such as Jiuliancheng, Yuyang, Shanggu, Pingcheng, and Pianguan, seemed to have vanished without a trace after receiving the imperial edict.

Express your meaning!
Border towns bear the heavy responsibility of defending against foreign enemies.

Who cares whether the emperor sitting on the throne is an old emperor or a young emperor?

Go ahead and pinch me!

Our job is just to guard the country's borders!
The entire border area was eerily quiet.

The Regent and Empress Dowager were furious, but there was nothing they could do.

They simply cannot fill the huge hole in the military payroll!
In desperation, the Regent and Empress Dowager Yu actually sent the same imperial edict seeking help to several leaders of the refugee army!
This is tantamount to acknowledging the legitimacy of the refugee army.

Moreover, their sincerity in offering amnesty was immense.

He immediately bestowed upon a title of kingship by a different surname!
King of the Opposite Sex!

It has a fiefdom and can be passed down for five generations!
This is an unprecedented honor since the founding of the Bei Kingdom!

But to obtain such a title, one must help the new emperor eliminate the demons and monsters blocking his path to the throne!

The group of displaced people leaders who had previously been clamoring against the imperial court and killing corrupt officials and powerful figures were now tempted and put their ideas into action.

All sorts of demons and monsters flocked to the commercial capital in an instant.

When encountering rivals for the throne on the road, one naturally has to compete to determine who is superior.

Fight.

Kill them.

If the team is decimated or incomplete, they will conscript men on the spot.

In the already impoverished prefectures, towns, and villages, another massive exodus of poor people desperate to survive ensued.

During their escape, rumors kept circulating.

someone said:
"Brothers who are bold, brave, and strong, go for the capital! The young emperor has already proclaimed to the world that whoever has the ability to retain his throne will enjoy all the glory and wealth in the world!"

what is this?
This is definitely a way to change your fate!

The refugees shook their heads and waved their hands: We don't have that kind of ability, nor are we destined to enjoy such a life.

See this scene.

A knowledgeable and kind-hearted person gave these cowards some pointers:
"Then you should head to the nine key border towns! The Bei Kingdom's forces capable of fighting tough battles are all concentrated on the border, with Yuyang City being the most prosperous among them!"

However, if we're talking about which of the major generals welcomed refugees the most, it has to be the Marquis of Ningyang in the Northwest! According to reliable sources, two hundred thousand refugees had previously followed him to the border town, crying and pleading!

The refugees said, "We dare not go to that area bordering the Tatars! If the two armies fight, we'll be destined to be sent to the battlefield to fill the pits!"

The kind-hearted person said irritably:
"Not long ago, 200,000 Tatar cavalrymen from the northern desert went to the border city! Even with most of the elite troops of the border city being transferred to the Western Capital to suppress the bandits, the Tatars were still defeated and unable to resist! I'm going to make this clear today: the Tatars will not dare to attack the border city again for the next ten years!" No war for ten years?
That sounds very tempting!
The refugees are facing a difficult choice:

"Going to Youzhou is a good idea! Yuyang City is prosperous and has no shortage of food!"

"No, no, no, let's go to the Northwest! The more remote the area, the less people will be eager to seize territory."

"."

The refugees are taking action.

Those who live closer to the Northwest are already on their way.

Unaware of the situation, General Zhao was still worrying about the army's food supply.

Even if you have silver, you can't buy rice or flour.

The lean season between harvests is just so hard to bear.

Since the five military garrisons handed over the task of cultivating military fields to professional farmers, they are now only responsible for guarding the defense line and training troops.

General Zhao had previously only sent the Right Guard Battalion to the grasslands to catch wild rabbits.

Now, they've simply moved all the large-scale troop training to the grasslands.

In his words.

Training troops consumes the most food!

The soldiers were allowed to expend their energy while also catching and eating wild rabbits, roe deer, and gazelles.

Any leftovers will be sent back to the border town.

I wonder which grassland they caught on which grassland the occasional sheep and cattle brought back?

Every few days, large quantities of prey are brought back from the grasslands.

Even when the food supplies in the military ration bins were almost empty, the families of soldiers could still eat meat every other day.

Can you believe that game meat costs only seven or eight coins per pound?!

Regardless of the taste, a big pot of stew can feed the whole family for a day or two.

Rabbit breeding in Majiabao is now one of the key money-making projects in Daying.

The scale has grown to tens of thousands!
The old hunter truly lived up to his reputation as a skilled man who had raised wild rabbits.

He tied a thick layer of dry grass around the enclosure to prevent the lively and aggressive rabbits from bumping into the walls while hopping around.

Initially, the biggest concern was that the baby rabbits were too small to eat grass after weaning.

Just in time, Captain Gan brought dog rice grass.

This breed of hay-fed rabbits love to eat it!
Even the baby rabbits that haven't been weaned haven't had any diarrhea after eating this grass.

The plan to raise baby rabbits in captivity is progressing smoothly.

The construction of the Xilu Ranch is also progressing rapidly.

The saxaul trees were planted as planned.

The most significant change is in the tens of thousands of acres of pasture that have been fenced off.

The semi-desert area used to be less noticeable, but now it changes almost every day.

Especially after the start of summer, there were two consecutive light rains.

It was as if the pasture grass had sprouted from the sand overnight.

It took less than ten days for the vegetation to go from sparse to visible to form a vast green expanse.

The new immigrants to the border town were deeply moved.
Just how many natural pastures has this old yellow wind destroyed?!
If the grasslands in the Tatar territory were protected by saxaul trees, they wouldn't need to raid the Central Plains; they would have been rolling in money by herding livestock long ago!

Someone who frantically scattered grass seeds at night to induce labor kept their merits hidden.

(End of this chapter)