Wang Kai was the great-grandson of Wang Quanbin, a founding hero of the Song Dynasty. When he was young, he was fond of hunting and was arrested for trampling on farmland. At that time, Kou Zhun, who knew that he was extraordinary in appearance, recorded him as a three-team rank for his father and grandfather's merits. He served in various places. When Yuan Hao rebelled against the Song Dynasty, he became the chief supervisor of Linzhou. He made many military achievements, but he was not defeated. He accumulated merits and went to Linfu Road to deploy, and divided the troops and horses of Linfu Road with Zhe Jimin.

After receiving the news from Du Zhongxiao, Wang Kai crossed the Yellow River the next day and arrived at the field affairs of the Volcanic Military Camp. Du Zhongxiao and Zhang Ji welcomed Wang Kai to the official hall of the camp, each bowed and took a seat with the guests. This action required the three of them to work together.

When Wang Kai was inspecting the roadside of Lin Mansion, Zhang Ke was inspecting the inspection for his deputy. The two fought side by side and had a deep friendship. With this relationship, Zhang Ke only discussed with Du Zhongxiao and went to Tanglong Town. If he had another person, he might not have dared to make this decision.

Du Zhongxiao bowed: "It's hard for me to deploy it for a long time. I ordered my subordinates to prepare a banquet. Later, we went to the Houya to eat and talk to welcome the deployment."

Wang Kai smiled and said, "I'm in Hexi, and I've heard that there are so many delicious foods here. The generals discussed that when the patrol was over, they would come and taste them together. Unfortunately, it's winter now, and the foreign tribes are constantly attacking and cannot have time to spare."

Du Zhongxiao said: "Okay, when the spring of the next year begins, I welcome the deployment and leadership of the generals. Whatever you like to eat must be enough!"

Say a few gossips, activate the atmosphere, and the topic will turn to the main business.

Wang Kai said: "Since the first year of Qingli, the Western thieves broke through Fengzhou, and more than 30 tribes in Tibetan areas were scattered, and most of them were captured by the Western thieves. I led my troops through Anfeng Village, and there was no more fortress northward, and only a few foreign people graze. The former fortresses were all ruins. In this weather, it was difficult for the army to march and there was no food or grass on the road, which was extremely difficult. In the past few days, it was clear that there were no decent foreign troops in the former Fengzhou area, so it was useless to occupy it."

Du Zhongxiao said: "The deployment is separated from the volcanic army by a river, and food can be replenished from the volcanic army."

Wang Kai nodded and bowed to thank him. He said, "I led five hundred soldiers and three hundred soldiers, and went north all the way. Now it seems that I can only stop on the other side of the river. Go north and there will be no people within a hundred miles. The Western thieves in this area have been raging for several years and have been scorched earth. Without twenty or thirty years of rest and recuperation, the population will be insufficient and it will be difficult to support the military garrison. The governor occupied Tanglong Town. If he could obtain supplies from the volcanic army and station for a long time, he could block the Fengzhou area and attract the surrounding foreign households. With a population, he could rebuild the fort and garrison."

After hearing Wang Kai's words, Du Zhongxiao was a little scared. The situation on the other side of the river was far beyond his imagination. After thinking about it, he said, "The Wang family has been stationed in Fengzhou for nearly a hundred years, with more than 100,000 tribes and a large area. After several years, it has become a land without a man?"

Wang Kai shook his head: "The Western thieves invaded the border and did not stop looting the population. In addition, the people fled to avoid the war, so there was really no one there."

Du Zhongxiao sighed when he heard this. He grew up in an era of population explosions, and he felt that there was a large population everywhere, and there was no subconscious awareness of population. When he arrived at the Volcanic Army, he realized that the population was very short of the border areas. The Volcanic Army recruited hundreds of households in less than half a year, making him feel that it was not difficult to recruit people here. But he didn't know that it was because of the Volcanic Army that cultivated fields and absorbed a large number of people from the surrounding area. Wang Kai's current location, whether it was the Fan Han Dynasty, almost all fled to the Volcanic Army in a few months.

Dangxiang and Khitan invaded the border and plundered the population almost every time, which was more important than cattle and sheep. For them, population is wealth. The two prefectures in Linfu and the mainland population are supplemented. Fengzhou is hanging alone among the mountains, and no population has moved in. It has become a land of no one in a few years.

In order to deploy along the way, Wang Kai had more than 10,000 soldiers in his army, but he could only bring 800 people north. It was not that he didn't want to bring more, but that this area could only support so many people. If he brought some soldiers, he would have no food to eat.

There are 3,000 volcanic military and civilian households, and there are a large number of garrisons. They cannot support much army before the land management is harvested.

After carefully considering the money and grain in his hand, Du Zhongxiao sighed secretly. With his current accumulation, it is already barely enough to support Tanglong Town and Biedouzhai. Other places are really out of their way. Within hundreds of miles around the volcanic army, there may be only a few tens of thousands of people, and it is just a small county in the mainland. No wonder the court has placed such a large area of ​​unlimited land without occupying it. Unless a large amount of food and grass is allocated from the mainland, where will the resources come from?

Sometimes Du Zhongxiao couldn't understand why such a large area of ​​land was close to the traditional farming area, so how could it be short of people? And the shortage of people reached this point. It could be hundreds of miles away from Hetao to the north. This was once a densely populated farming area in the Qin and Han dynasties.

Zhang Ke said: "Now to the north of the volcanic army, there are only many foreign households in Tanglong Town, which are divided into fourteen tribes. The seven tribes are natives there, and the seven tribes fled from Fengzhou. As long as we guard Tanglong Town, the foreign households will no longer suffer from the robbery, we will slowly recover."

Du Zhongxiao said: "The population growth in this kind of place is slow, and it is not known when the year or month to return to its former grand occasion. The world is bustling, all for profit, and the world is bustling, all for profit. The fastest way to attract the population is profitable. This area is rich in water and plants, and there are many horses, cattle and sheep. If we can recruit master craftsmen and weave felt blankets with wool, merchants will be profitable and the population will be able to gather."

Wang Kai laughed when he heard this: "When Zhijun was in Bingzhou, he built a fur yard. The government made a lot of profits. Do you want to build another one here?"

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "How much fur is there? How much is it compared to wool? I heard that the Hu people in Northwest use wool weaving cloth best, and their products are expensive. If we do this, we don't have to worry about insufficient money and food."

Zhang Ke said: "This is the future. The most important thing now is that after the Yellow River is frozen, the Khitan will invade Tanglong Town. In the past few days, I often see Khitan cavalry and go there to spy on our army's defense. I am afraid this battle will inevitably be."

Du Zhongxiao nodded repeatedly: "I can find out clearly in Bitouzhai that the Khitans have 300 soldiers in this area, with nearly a thousand border soldiers outside and built a village called Ningbianzhou. The Khitans were transferred from the mainland. Their practice is that one husband serves as a soldier, one husband manages public land, and two husbands serves as servants, and the family is able to barely support it. As for the grazing and farming at home, it depends entirely on women and children. The hardship can be imagined. This Khitans have not accumulated much at all, and they will not be able to get through this winter if they don't come out to rob. They must fight Tanglong Town, otherwise they can only turn back and rob their own people."

Zhang Ku nodded with a heavy expression. In fact, such conflicts have never been stopped in the border areas. However, the Khitans used to rob the British tribes, and the Song Dynasty did not care about them at all after moving the farmers in. If they want to go deep into the British tribes and occupy important land, they must face it.

Wang Kai looked at Zhang Ji and said, "Can the Chief Superintendent defend Tanglong Town with more than a thousand Khitan soldiers? If necessary, I can bring my troops to support me, but I just have to trouble the volcanic army to provide food and grass. There is nowhere to raise food and grass around, which is a bit difficult to deal with."

Zhang Ke said decisively: "It's just three hundred regular soldiers, but the Khitan border soldiers can ignore them! Their plunder is to scatter the foreign troops and then allow the border soldiers to rob them. I have 600 soldiers and horses to defend the city and firearms to help them, so I can defend it! The Volcanic Army is a small place, and it's not easy to support the two or three thousand soldiers now. It's better to wait until the next year, the food for the land management here will be collected, and we will make a long-term plan!"

Wang Kai just nodded and didn't say anything. The food and grass on Linfu Road were all transferred by the remaining state troops, and he had no surplus food either.
Chapter completed!