The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 279 The Sheep is Strength!
The Seven Guards of Kansai immediately switched from infrastructure defense mode to combat mode.

General Xiong ordered Gan Minglan's vanguard battalion to clear the way, while he himself led 50,000 cavalry to cover the rear.

Only over 20,000 men were left to defend.

The remaining garrison troops will organize the arriving military families and refugees to quickly engage in the construction of guard posts and civilian houses.

The more than 500,000 sheep and 50,000 cattle, along with 30,000 shi of wheat, millet, and beans that were salvaged from Huozhou, will provide food for the seven guards of Kansai for the next month.

It is reported that the military dependents who set off first have already passed through Heping Pass.

Most of the refugees that the stationed troops were concerned about were still stranded in Jinzhou.

The pontoon bridge at the ferry crossing has finally been erected.

Several days ago, officials from Lintao Prefecture had already organized the order in which the more than 300,000 refugees on the south bank of the Zhuo River would cross the river.

The load-bearing capacity of a pontoon bridge is limited.

If over 300,000 people rushed to cross the bridge, the outcome would be predictable.

The refugees were represented by their respective village chiefs and neighborhood chiefs, and they lined up by drawing lots according to the rules.

The officials of Lintao Prefecture lived in constant fear.

They feared these refugees might suddenly retaliate.

They were also worried that the other side of Jinzhou Pass might not let them through in the end.

The most frightening thing is that more and more refugees are coming to Lintao Prefecture.

A month ago, all the counties and prefectures under the jurisdiction of Lintao Prefecture set up roadblocks and closed all the city gates.

It's not that they're unwilling to accept them, but rather that they genuinely lack the capacity to accommodate so many people.

These 300,000-plus people, plus the tens of thousands who had previously arrived in Huaiqing Prefecture, were considered legal immigrants recognized by both the military and the government.

Within six months, Huaiqing Prefecture will no longer issue travel permits to refugees.

These days, the refugees have been watching the events at Jinzhou Pass very closely.

About a month and a half ago, several thousand cavalrymen rode from the border town and quickly passed through Jinzhou on their way to the Western Regions.

Those tens of thousands of horses were as fast as lightning.

A few days later, tens of thousands of troops arrived at the border town, carrying the banners of the Western Expeditionary Army.

Some experts even calculated based on the opponent's lineup.

The final conclusion was that there were at least around 80,000!

The regular army, clad in armor and mounted on horseback, constantly fighting the Tatars on the border, was far superior to the local militia, which couldn't even defeat refugees.

Is there anywhere in the world safer than the Seven Guards of Kansai?!
For the refugees.

Isn't this what people come for when they come to the Northwest to make a living?

They all thought that the Western Regions were a wild and desolate land with only endless yellow sand, but they were soon blinded by the strength of the other side.

Less than a month after the army left, someone led tens of thousands of sheep back from the direction of the Seven Guards of Guanzhong.

A big, fat, white sheep!
There were so many that they were impossible to count.

They were so hungry they were practically drooling over the river.

Immediately afterwards, several thousand more horse-drawn carriages arrived from the direction of the border town.

Later, they saw even more oxcarts and donkey carts.

These vehicles moved slowly and were mostly open-tops, allowing the refugees to clearly see the elderly and children sitting inside.

So, these are the families of the stationed troops!

Immigration has begun!

Surely it would be their turn next? But then another group of people arrived from the direction of the border town, walking on their own two legs, carrying children on their backs and bundles on their shoulders.

Their clothes were tattered, much like theirs.

"Good heavens! No wonder my mother always said, 'If you run slow, you won't even catch the hot shit!' Those people must have gotten there before us!"

The refugees on the south bank of the Zhuohe River could no longer hold back.

They were in a great hurry, shouting to the north bank every day.

No one responded when I called out.

It wasn't until several days after the refugees had crossed the border that the soldiers at Jinzhou Pass began to build a pontoon bridge.

The refugees stayed on the shore for twelve hours straight, refusing to move an inch.

The men sat in small groups on the ground, discussing the matter.

"The Seven Guards of Kansai have definitely been captured by the Western Expeditionary Army!"

"Isn't that obvious? What else could those sheep that went there a few days ago be but spoils of war?"

"It seems the Hu people didn't garrison the Seven Guards of Guanzhong after they plundered them! Otherwise, they wouldn't have been defeated by the border troops so quickly!"

"Actually, I'm still a little worried. The Seven Guards of Guanzhong were occupied by the Hu people for more than a hundred years. Now that they've been taken away by the garrison, will they attack again?"

"What are you afraid of, you coward? Since the border army dared to let the soldiers' families move over so quickly, they must have already cleared all obstacles. Have you ever seen any fearless wives of officials back in your hometown? Aren't they the ones who run away faster than anyone else when trouble comes?"

"What's the use of being afraid? We have over 300,000 men! If those barbarians dare to come, every man here could drown them with a single piss!"

"That's right, there are nearly 100,000 troops stationed there, plus their families, and then there are our 300,000 or so. I wonder who will be afraid of whom then."

"."

Men are always passionate.

Especially when there are many people!
The women were ignorant of worldly affairs; what they couldn't forget were the sheep they had seen a few days ago.

When I have free time, I like to say a few words:
“Those Hu sheep are really fat! I wonder if we can get three or five to raise when we go to the garrison? Do you think those Hu people eat mutton every day?”

"Even if we don't kill one lamb every day, just killing one a month is enough to make us live better than the landlords in our village! Everyone says that the lamb from the Northwest doesn't have a gamey smell and tastes delicious!"

The meat is juicy and flavorful, yet not gamey!
Who doesn't love to eat?

A chorus of slurping sounds filled the air.

Before long, an older woman asked:

"I might be getting a little senile. Didn't everyone say that the land of the Hu people is just a barren desert? With so many sheep, where are we going to find fodder for them?"

People inside the Great Wall are used to raising pigs, chickens, and ducks.

The larger the animal, the more grass it eats. If a family raises three or five sheep, the whole family will be busy cutting grass.

A young woman who knew a little about the Western Regions answered his questions:
“Auntie! The desert isn’t all sand; there are oases too! The Hu people are like the Tatars; they herd their sheep to follow the pastures and water sources. Once they’ve grazed on one pasture, they move on to the next.”

My father-in-law told me that ordinary families in the Western Regions typically own hundreds of sheep, while some larger households can even raise thousands.

"Wow! So many!" The women swallowed hard with envy.

Many people sighed with emotion:

Why do those Hu people live such a good life?
A single sheep can fetch three or four taels of silver this year.

What if a family has hundreds or thousands of sheep?
Heavenly Bodhisattva!
Even the landlords back home can't compare to the Hu people!
Realizing the strength of the Western Regions people, the women were filled with hope for the future.

The boys would listen to a bit of what the men said, and then pick out a few key points from the women.

I couldn't wait to set off for the Seven Guards of Kansai.

What could be more appealing to boys than herding sheep and cattle?

(End of this chapter)