From Tanglong Town to Biedouzhai, what is the most difficult thing to defend in the Song Dynasty? This problem has troubled Du Zhongxiao for a long time. Logically speaking, the geographical location here is important and one of the cavernoses heading south by the northern nomadic peoples. Since the pre-Qin period, Zhao State has built the Great Wall here, and later the Ming Dynasty was full of forts and the front line of the war with Mongolia. But at this time, no one paid attention to it. Not only the Song Dynasty, but actually the Khitan did not pay attention to it. It was not until the war with Dangxiang two years ago that it began to gradually erode and enhance its presence for the purpose of preventing Dangxiang.

After staying in Biedouzhai for a few days and deeply understanding the surrounding situation, Du Zhongxiao realized that the composition of the surrounding population is the biggest obstacle. If it is in the mainland, even if the population is sparse and there are government organizations, it can organize manpower and labor service within a few days to start building a city. However, in Biedouzhai, Du Zhongxiao has been here for five days, and only a few closest Xiaofanluo leaders came to pay a visit, and the others were all invisible. Although these Xiaofanluo leaders came, they all had various excuses when they said they wanted to recruit manpower, but in short, they were impossible.

After using all the soft and hard methods to several leaders, and still failing to achieve their goals, Du Zhongxiao finally realized the reality, that is, it is impossible to recruit personnel here, and the army can only build cities by themselves. This situation has realistic factors. In winter, the herdsmen have difficulty in living, so they must guard the wintering land and work hard to serve livestock in order to survive the spring of the next year. They have neither manpower nor material resources to serve personnel. There is also a problem of habit. The servants of the nomadic peoples are fighting wars and letting them work, which is unwilling to do.

Standing on the city wall, the soldiers nearby shouted a horn under the command of the officers and looked up at the village wall. Looking up north, there were continuous mountains, high and low, like waves of the sea. In this place with ravines, hundreds of people crawled into the mountains, and could not find them even if they were hundreds of steps away.

Du Zhongxiao looked at the mountains in the north and gradually understood why this place became like this. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, after passing this large plateau, the underside of Yin Mountain was an important agricultural area, with developed irrigation agriculture, planted rice and millet, and raised silkworms. This area was the hinterland of agriculture. Although the land was barren, it was all agricultural population under the rule. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the underside of Yin Mountain became pastures for nomadic peoples such as Turks and Dangxiang, and this place became the front line. Over the past few hundred years, this barren land had completely become a nomadic area.

To put it bluntly, by this era, the dividing line between nomadism and farming had moved south. What the Song Dynasty could firmly control was the farming areas. For the nomads in its territory, the Song Dynasty could only restrain themselves and not directly govern them. To put it bluntly, it was nothing more than profitable. For the Song Dynasty, there was no idea what could be obtained from nomadism. Before the rise of Dangxiang, the Khitan and the Song Dynasty did not pay attention to this area. This was not the way for the Khitan to go south, and the Song Dynasty had no interest in this area at all. Even if there were small tribes attached to it, the court would not bother to pay attention to it.

Looking at the busy soldiers behind him, Du Zhongxiao understood in his heart that he had thought the problem too simply. He thought that occupying the important land and using new firearms could control the place and gain initiative to the Khitan and Dangxiang was actually enough. To truly build and consolidate, he also needed to creatively develop an agricultural model suitable for this era and turn it into an agricultural area again. If the court wants to gain the motivation to go north, from defense to offense and change from passive to active, he also needed to find the economic connection between agriculture and animal husbandry.

Only by occupying nomadic areas is no longer a loss of money, will Central Plains have real motivation and take the initiative to attack north. In the past, when developing fur business in Bingzhou, now it is a mistake to ask the herdsmen to provide raw materials and process them, they are in the market again. However, fur business alone is not enough, far from enough. The market is too small, and the products do not meet the living habits of people in the Central Plains.

Outside the village wall, several soldiers drove the sheep and were lazy in the sun. They were the sheep from the foreigners I bought a few days ago. The cattle and the sheep had already returned to the camp and field servicing with them, leaving these big sheep for mouth food.

Looking at the flock of sheep in the sun, Du Zhongxiao suddenly smiled and thought of a way out.

Historically speaking, when it comes to the bourgeois revolution in Britain, the "land enclosure movement" was always mentioned. Du Zhongxiao was not interested in land enclosure, and was even more interested in sheep eating people, but was interested in wool. The textile industry, to be precise, was the wool textile industry, played a major role in the early rise of the industrial revolution. Isn't the vast grassland in the north a good place to provide raw materials such as wool? Only when the land is produced can it be valuable and will it be paid attention to, otherwise the occupied land will be a money-lossing product, and it will be thrown away sooner or later after hard work.

Unfortunately, Chinese wool textile has a long history, but it has not become popular in the Central Plains. Compared with silk and linen, wool textile raw materials are rare and unstable, and textiles are more difficult, and have not been paid attention to in previous dynasties. Traditionally, there is no habit of wearing wool fabrics.

Habits can be changed. Du Zhongxiao came down from the city wall and was thinking about this matter in his mind. Without the driving force of interests, it is too difficult to do things. It can be seen from the fur business in Bingzhou that once profitable, huge social resources can be mobilized. For the sake of interests, from the government to the people, everyone flocked to it, and manpower and material resources were endless.

Shearing wool and cutting leeks. The nomadic peoples in the north have no leeks to cut, they have wool.

Ningbian Prefecture is only thirty or forty miles away from Biedouzhai, but there is no main road, and only the Yangyan Trail in the mountains can be accessed. When the news came here, it was five days after Du Zhongxiao entered Biedouzhai.

Shi Jianu, the general of the Khitan stationed in Ningbian Prefecture, was originally a poor herdsman and had no way to make a living. He joined the army for the rich. Because of his bravery in fighting and his merits, he came to the commander of a state. After the Khitan defeated Dangxiang in the fourth year of Qingli, he was transferred here to build a prefecture city, guarding against Dangxiang while peeking at the Song Dynasty.

Ningbian Prefecture is said to be a prefecture, but in fact it has neither jurisdiction nor administrative agencies. The Shi family slaves brought 300 people and ordered the surrounding foreign troops to send troops to garrison them. These foreign troops were nomadic in the surrounding areas when they had nothing to do, and if they had something to do, they would go to war with the Shi family slaves.

On that day, the Shi family slave was lying high in his residence. A personal soldier rushed over. After knocking on the door several times, the Shi family slave came out of the room.

The personal soldiers crossed their hands and said, "Mr. Langjun, the young men have received the news. A few days ago, the Song army suddenly advanced northward, occupied Tanglong Town in the west of the Hebei Province, and rebuilt Bitouzhai in the east of the Hebei Province. Both of these places are not far from us. The foreign tribes below have been affiliated with these two places before, so I am afraid that something will happen."

Shi Jianu rubbed his eyes and said impatiently: "The Southerners have always been cowardly, so where can they come to cause trouble? Could it be that you heard it wrong?"

The personal soldier said anxiously: "It's true! How dare the young man be careless about such a big thing? He asked the others again and sent a spy to investigate."

The Shi family slave frowned: "It's okay to have a Bietouzhai, but the roads there are hard to travel here, so I just snatch some foreign tribes from us. Tanglong Town is troublesome. I decided to wait until the river is frozen, so I would go there and eat. What should I do?"

The troops under Shi Family Nu were very hard, and they lacked reserves in winter, so they had to go out and grab them before they could survive the winter. The best place to grab them in this area is Tanglong Town, and the wealthy one is Tanglong Town. I had already made up my mind to grab them in winter.

After walking back and forth for a few steps, Shi Family Nu said, "Go to Tanglong Town to check carefully which Song army is there and how many people are there. The weather is as cold as one day, and there are not many days left by Fenghe. This matter is sloppy. If you don't have to eat there, how can we survive the winter?"

The personal soldier responded to the promise and asked in a low voice: "Langjun, where is Biedouzhai? It is not far from us. Although there is no big road, the mountain road can be reached in one or two days. If we go to Tanglong Town, we are afraid that they will attack behind their backs."
Chapter completed!