The mutton was roasting on the fire, and Chen Qin took a few bottles of wine and said to Du Zhongxiao: "This area is close to the mountains, and there are many foreign tribes in the mountains. A few days ago, they came and exchanged these wines for some of our white wine. Although the wine is not as strong as white wine, it is worse than sweet and delicious. Officials drink some of it. There are many wild fruits in the surrounding mountains, and the smaller ones have picked some."

Wine is one of the famous products in Hedong. It is said that the brewing method has been passed down from the Western Regions for thousands of years. This wine was extremely prosperous in the Tang Dynasty and was no longer popular after entering the Song Dynasty. Hedong Road is close to the border area and is also the place where the Li Tang Dynasty rose. It was the center of wine at this time. However, wines of this era, due to the lack of progress in the brewing method, retreated step by step in the face of the rise of rice wine, and were only regarded as a novelty and no longer a big wine.

Seeing the officer pouring dark wine into the bowl in front of him, Du Zhongxiao said: "Grape wine luminous cup, this wine is different from other wines. The wine utensil should be made of luminous cup or crystal cup to see its color. Pour it into a magnetic bowl, lose its style and look a bit vulgar."

Chen Qin said: "There are all things here that are simple, so where are there any crystal cups and luminous cups? The officials will give it to you."

Du Zhongxiao laughed when he heard this: "You have those cups here, so I want to ask where I got it. I mean that the wine is different and the wine vessels should be different, otherwise it will lose its flavor. In the Tang Dynasty, no matter the official folk, they liked to drink wine, but it was rare to see it when I was the Emperor Song Dynasty."

Cheng Wenli said: "The Hu people like to drink this wine. The brewing method is lost in the Han area and the flavor is poor, so there are naturally fewer people who drink it."

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said nothing more. After the war in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, agriculture in the Central Plains underwent many changes, including vegetables and fruits, and grapes were one of them. Compared with the Han and Tang Dynasties, watermelons, grapes and other fruits introduced from the Western Regions were planted less and less in the Central Plains due to various reasons, and the varieties gradually degenerated. With less seeds, less winemaking, and even the craftsmanship was gradually lost.

Plants and animals lack exchanges in a wide range of regions, and their varieties will gradually become localized. In a sense, their performance has deteriorated. Since the late Tang Dynasty, exchanges between the Central Plains and the Western Regions were interrupted, and a large number of varieties from the Han and Tang dynasties slowly withdrew from the stage. After that, the number of exchanges at sea increased, and the animals and plants that came from the South China Sea slowly began to replace the Western Regions. Since the Song Dynasty, Chinese animals and plants, including social customs, have undergone great changes.

Looking up at the mountains in the north, Du Zhongxiao couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in his heart. He wanted to reopen the mainland transportation line in his lifetime. The reason why a great country is a great country is that both geography and humanities are complex and diverse, and they communicate and influence each other, thus giving birth to a brilliant and brilliant culture. Being closed in a region, not only is human vision limited, but even animals and plants will degenerate.

After a few months of visiting the Volcano Army, Du Zhongxiao learned about the geographical and human feelings here, and Du Zhongxiao had a future governance outline. This is a border military town, and people's livelihood is relatively unimportant. The construction of the land is also to support the army and provide financial resources. The most important thing is to explore the outside world.

Hedong Road is a transshipment route, and it is divided into four military routes, namely the four routes of Bingdai, Zelu, Shixi and Linfu, which are responsible for military affairs. The location of the volcanic army is special, located between Bingdai Road and Linfu Road, belongs to Bingdai Road, but is closely related to Linfu Road. To the north of the jurisdiction, there are a large number of small tribes in the continuous mountains, each of which is not affiliated with, and there is no clear boundary between Khitan and Dangxiang.

Yuanhao rebelled and attacked Tanglong Town, forcing a large number of foreign households to move westward, and then defeated Fengzhou, leaving the Tibetan tribes there without a leader. Later, the Khitan conquered Dangxiang, used troops in these places, and seized some foreign tribes. Now around the volcanic army, the area around Tanglong Town is a borderless land. Fengzhou has been abandoned since it was broken by Dangxiang, and the thirty-eight Tibetan tribes in the territory are in charge of their own affairs. They have a feud with the Dangxiang people in Jianxia, ​​and they have been attacking for hundreds of years, and the Dangxiang forces cannot enter. The northeast is the newly built Ningbian Prefecture of the Khitan, with unknown jurisdiction and not recognized by the Song Dynasty. The purpose of the Khitan's establishment of the state was to use this as a base to gradually erode the surrounding foreign tribes. The Song Dynasty was unable to be tough on the Khitan, so it had to pretend not to know the existence of this state.

To the north of the Volcanic Army, there are many small tribes located in the Song Dynasty, Khitan and Dangxiang, and their ownership is unknown. Basically, whoever has the ability to effectively rule can be ruled can be ruled by themselves. There is no law lawsuit, and no one admits it, it only depends on who can effectively occupy it. The terrain here is complex and is not suitable for large-scale military operations, and the scale of the war is limited.

After careful analysis, Du Zhongxiao found that this was an excellent place to be eaten by the fort. Especially the fort with muskets and cannons, it is an invincible existence here. It requires not much manpower and material resources. As long as there are hundreds of musket soldiers, you can control hundreds of miles of land. A small place of the Volcano Army can still support it. Hedong Road produces iron and gunpowder, which is where he can show his skills.

Just now, Du Zhongxiao told Cheng Wenli and Pan Zhen that he wanted to make achievements, not casually. As long as the land affairs were established and a firearm township soldier of about a thousand people was organized as a support, Du Zhongxiao could expand northward and regain the land lost in the past few decades. In this process, he could even use the imperial guards and the wing army, saving a lot of trouble.

Retracting his gaze, Du Zhongxiao looked at Cheng Wenli and Pan Zhen who were happily eating meat, and sighed in his heart. Before he came, these two were just ordinary small officials in the border areas. The biggest wish was to have officials to replace him as soon as possible and serve in the state army near the mainland. When they were officials, everything was based on the principle of not causing trouble. When there was a conflict in the surrounding small tribes, they asked them to discuss it themselves. The so-called "ban laws and severance" and "Khitan bullying, as long as it was not too much, try to tolerate things and suppress things, and everything was based on the principle of "nothing happening". When he came, he built a large-scale field affairs, and then he had to explore the outside world. Destiny pushed them to a fork, and I don't know where they would go in the end.

Due to the lack of a magistrate, Du Zhongxiao's authority in the Volcanic Army was almost unrestricted, and most of the matters could be decided in one sentence. With the abundant financial resources, his control over the surrounding small proletariats became stronger and stronger, and he could gradually directly interfere in some tribal internal affairs.

After drinking for a while, Chen Qin said, "Officials, the foreigners in the nearby mountains are also trafficking slaves, and the price is very cheap. I have no one to call me at home. My family wants to buy a female envoy, but I persuaded me to stop and dare not buy it casually."

Pan Zhen was startled and said, "It's not possible! Those foreign tribes have been attacking each year, not only robbing cattle and sheep, but also robbing people. The female slaves they sell are all robbed from other tribes, so it's cheap. Buying their population is the easiest to cause trouble, don't be greedy for that cheap."

Chen Qin sighed, a pity. The Volcano Army had a small population, even fewer Han people, and almost no Han slaves were hired. In particular, the imperial court strictly prohibited the Han people from being slaves to the French. Almost all the people who could hire were from the Volcano Army. Chen Qin had a small income, and there were no plans to hire a small number of Han people. Since he could only hire a foreigner, of course he wanted to save some money.

Du Zhongxiao said: "You can only hire foreigners as slaves. Most of the sold foreigners are prisoners of war, so don't mess with them. If you really lack people at home, you can go to the military city to hire them, just spend more money. If you don't have enough money, just go find Jingjing."
Chapter completed!