With the instructions from the Qiang deputy leader, Gu Yan quickly wrote a letter and asked someone to send it to the capital at full speed.
Gu Yanji didn't take any of Song Qi, Gu Wu, or Gu Yanji with him, leaving them all to Song Wan. His reasoning for this was, "They stay with Wan. Whenever you want to move something, you always need two people who can help you."
Song Wan thought what he said made a lot of sense, so she said to the two of them, especially Gu Wudao, "From now on, you're all mine! Just like when you went to the capital, remember to change your names, Xiangcai and Durian."
Song Qi had no objection to the name, except that it occasionally sounded like a woman's name.
Gu Wu was very dissatisfied. He intuitively felt that the name Durian must have some unknown meaning. He objected again, "Princess, I protest. Can't we call it by our original name? No one in the Qiang tribe would recognize us anyway."
"The protest is invalid." Song Wan has the final say on naming.
Gu Wu looked to the side, "Master!"
Gu Yan was anxious: "Listen to A Wan."
Gu Wu: “…”
Finally, Gu Yan set out from the northwest at noon on the same day, leading 10,000 troops with Jiang Zhen and heading southwest.
Song Wan stayed in the northwest. After General Mu's injuries improved and he was confirmed to be no longer in danger of death, he took Song Qi and Gu Wu and secretly slipped out of the city.
In General Mu's tent, Zhao Zhi listened to Doctor Li's diagnosis and said that the general's injuries were not serious and he would be able to recover as long as he took good care of himself.
Zhao Zhi happily surrounded Doctor Li and repeatedly asked, "Will the general really recover? Will he be alright? Can he still go to the battlefield?"
Doctor Li was almost dizzy from being shaken, so he quickly stopped him, "General Zhao! Stop shaking me! General Mu hasn't woken up yet, and you're shaking me to death!"
Zhao Zhi was forced to let go, barely calming down a bit, but his hands were still tightly wrapped around Doctor Li's arm. "Doctor Li, you look rosy, and you can live at least another fifty years!"
Doctor Li frowned and looked at him coldly. Fifty years would make him an old monster.
"I didn't expect the princess's acupuncture treatment to be so effective!" Zhao Zhi couldn't help but sigh, "I originally thought General Mu would never wake up again!"
Speaking of the princess, Zhao Zhi suddenly realized that he hadn't seen her for quite some time, so he asked, "By the way, Doctor Li, have you seen the princess?"
Doctor Li also wanted to find the princess, so he brought his granddaughter with him today. Although he couldn't carry 500 kilograms of gold, his granddaughter could still carry 100 kilograms of stone.
The reason why he brought his granddaughter here was to ask the princess if she could give him a discount because his granddaughter was only ten years old.
In the end, he didn't even see the princess's shadow.
"Strange, where did the princess go?" Zhao Zhi scratched his head. "The dishes in the kitchen today all have chili peppers added. There's no reason for the princess to dislike it."
Doctor Li thought more, "Could it be that he went out of town to look for some medicinal herbs?"
Just when the two were at a loss, a soldier came in and said he had something to report.
Zhao Zhi let him in.
The soldier was none other than Niu Tiedan, one of the thousand cavalrymen that Song Wan brought from the capital.
As soon as Niu Tiedan came in, he handed the envelope that Song Wan had prepared in advance to Zhao Zhi, "This is a letter our princess left for General Zhao."
"A letter?" Zhao Zhi took it hesitantly, a bad feeling rising in his heart.
There were only two short lines of large characters on the letter, written crookedly: Wait until my second brother's troops arrive, and then you will bring Tiedan and a thousand other people, as well as the ten thousand troops left by Jiang Zhen, to come to the Qiang tribe's lair to find me.
After reading the letter, Zhao Zhi almost vomited blood.
Didn’t we agree to take a long-term view? Why doesn’t this princess play by the rules?
If General Gu knew that the princess had gone to the Qiang people's territory with only two people, he would probably skin him alive!
Now, no matter how Zhao Zhi cursed, it was useless.
Song Wan and the other two had already left the city and were on the road fifty miles away.
In order to reach the Qiang tribe smoothly, they had to change into their clothes first. The Qiang costumes for the three of them were prepared by Zhao Zhi early in the morning. Of course, there were definitely more clothes prepared for more than just the three of them, but Song Wan only brought Song Qi and Gu Wu.
The three men rode horses with Qiang markings and traveled for more than half a month before finally arriving near the Qiang tribe.
The Qiang people are different from those in other countries. The truly poor people here live in the city outside the mountains. The tribal leaders, princes, nobles and other wealthy people all continue the old system and choose the most suitable place to live every year according to the climate conditions.
In fact, this city outside the Daxi Mountains did not originally belong to the Qiang people. Many years ago, the Qiang people annexed the indigenous people of this city. After a large-scale massacre, they took the remaining indigenous people as slaves of the Qiang people.
Later, in addition to the indigenous people who became slaves, the city gradually saw the arrival of many poor Qiang indigenous people from the Daxi Mountains.
Compared with other countries, the Qiang people are not numerous, but they do not have much land, and like Daye, most of it is in the hands of princes and nobles. Many ordinary people cannot survive in the Daxi Mountains, so they choose to settle in the cities outside the Daxi Mountains.
Many tribal leaders and princes of the Qiang ethnic group were happy to see this happen. Not only would these poor people living in the city save food and land, but if the enemy came, they could also be used as targets in the first place.
Because the Qiang leader did not care about this city, apart from sending a thousand or so soldiers to guard the slaves while they were farming, there were only three or two soldiers at the city gate. No documents were required to enter or exit the city, as the Qiang people did not have such documents. All they had to do was pay an entry fee.
Two copper coins per person.
After entering the city, Song Wan saw that everything was in ruins. She couldn't help but sigh, "This Qiang leader is such a scoundrel!"
Song Qi and Gu Wu were also shocked. The people living here were completely different from what they saw on the battlefield.
Whether it was the Qiang leader who died after having his neck twisted or the Qiang soldiers who robbed and committed all kinds of evil, they were all fatter and stronger than the Yue army.
But the Qiang people here were thin and hunched, and their clothes were full of patches. They were nothing like the Qiang people in their eyes, and their lives were even harder than some poor people in Dai Viet.
"It seems that the leader of the Qiang tribe is not only cruel to outsiders, but also not much better to his own people." Song Wan muttered.
After traveling for such a long time, they finally entered the city, but there wasn't even a decent inn. Song Wan and the other two finally rented two empty rooms from the owner of a small restaurant.
The city was shabby and the food was average. Not only was there no meat, but the rice was also stale rice mixed with bran.
Song Wan took two bites and then quietly ate the dry food biscuits she brought with her.
Song Qi felt sorry for his young lady. Fortunately, before going to the city, he hunted two wild rabbits in the nearby mountains and forests. He stuffed a dozen copper coins to the restaurant owner, borrowed his kitchen, and roasted the two wild rabbits.
He and Gu Wu ate half of it, and gave the remaining one and a half to Song Wan.
Song Wan was in a very good mood because she no longer had to gnaw on dry food and could eat the delicious roasted rabbit meat.
As she ate, she said, "Durian, you're no good. Coriander is much more considerate than you! She even knows how to catch a rabbit for me to eat!"
Gu Wu took a big bite of the rabbit meat and said nothing.
Anyway, no matter how much he said, he was destined to be bullied, so he just kept his mouth shut.
The master handed him over to the princess, which showed that his heart was with the princess and he didn't care about his opinion at all.
Gu Wuhua's grief and anger turned into appetite, and he ate Song Qi's portion of rabbit meat as well.
Song Qi, who had just served a bowl of rice for himself and Gu Wu respectively, looked at the empty plates on the table, paused for a moment, and poured the portion for Gu Wu directly back into the rice bowl.
Since you like meat so much, then don't eat rice.
After quickly filling their stomachs, the three of them did not return to their rooms to rest immediately, but instead began to wander around the city.
The city is called Qiang City. Unlike the provincial capitals of Dai Viet, the city is not filled with stalls and vendors. There are more people carrying hoes here.
Gu Wu stopped an old man and asked him where they grew the red poison powder.
The old man put down his hoe and looked up at the three people's clothes. They were neatly dressed and had no patches. He thought they must be from the other side of the mountain.
I've never seen it before, and since it's the place where I asked about the red poison powder, I guess this is the first time it's come out.
The old man pointed to the west and said, "The places in the city where red poison powder is grown are all over there. There are special people in charge."
Seeing that the old man seemed to have lived for a long time, Song Wan winked at Song Qi and pulled the old man to where they lived.
At the same time, she secretly used some mental power on the old man, and the result was that the old man answered whatever they asked.
After half an hour of interrogation, they learned a lot about the Qiang people.
Take this chili pepper, which they call red poison powder. It was discovered by chance a year ago when the leader of a Qiang tribe led his people into a dense forest by mistake.
Through the old man's description, it was discovered that the leader of the chili peppers was the one whose neck was broken by Song Wan.
Here, peppers are grown by specialized slaves. Ordinary Qiang people are not willing to grow them because they are poisonous after all.
There will be special Qiang soldiers in charge of the places where peppers are grown. If there are Qiang people who live in poverty and want to grow peppers but cannot afford to buy seeds, they can go to the Qiang soldier leader to register and go in to grow peppers with the slaves. The difference is that the slaves can only rely on this to get two meals a day, and they are often beaten by the Qiang soldiers who are in a bad mood.
In addition to two meals, these Qiang people can also earn an extra two copper coins.
"This is too much!" Song Qi was furious. "They're treating people like animals!"
Song Wan released the old man's mental control, stuffed five taels of silver into his backpack, and asked Gu Wu to take the man out.
The old man who was taken outside the restaurant by Gu Wu finally regained consciousness. He looked up at the sky, then at the ground, and at the door plaque behind him, with a confused look on his face.
When did he run from the west to the east of the city?
As soon as Gu Wu entered the room, Song Qi began to ask, "Princess, when are we going to find the leaders of the Qiang tribe?"
Song Qi thought for a moment and said, "Let's take over Qiang City first, otherwise we'll have nowhere to store our gold and silver."
Song Qi understood how to capture Qiang City, but where would the gold come from?
"Princess, the people living here are ordinary people. They are always bullied by those Qiang soldiers. Do we still want to rob them?"
Song Qi thought that even if he robbed them all, he probably wouldn't be able to collect five taels of gold.
"Who said they were robbed? I was referring to the Qiang leaders."
Song Wan touched the long whip that he was used to using at his waist, thought about it, and put it down.
Those people were not worthy of her whip.
She found a hoe in the corner of the house, looked around, and decided that this was the one.
"Let's go." Song Wan picked up the new weapon and said to the two people who seemed stunned.
At the westernmost end of Qiang City, there is a large field that stretches as far as the eye can see.
There was a bamboo house some distance away from the fields. It was a place for the Qiang soldiers to rest. Slaves and civilians were not allowed to sit down and rest.
In April, the weather gradually gets warmer, which is the season for sowing peppers.
When Song Wan brought Song Qi here, they saw many people bending over and throwing pepper seeds. One person in front threw, and the other behind followed and buried them, applying fertilizer at the same time.
"Princess, when do we start?" Song Qi was a little impatient.
"Wait for Durian to come back." Song Wan assigned a task to Gu Wu, asking him to attract all the Qiang soldiers from other places in Qiang City.
It is much more convenient and easier to wipe them out at once than to look for them everywhere.
"Remember not to mess up those chili pits later." Song Wan reminded him, "Otherwise, I'll pick at your flesh for half a year."
Song Qi's mouth twitched.
Less than half an hour later, Gu Wu came back.
"I'm beginning to doubt whether the soldiers fighting against the Northwest earlier were actually Qiang soldiers. They were wearing exactly the same armor, so why was there such a big difference in their fighting power?" Gu Wu complained as he walked.
"What's wrong? Is it not going well?" Song Qi looked at him and he seemed to be in a bad mood.
"Stop talking. Next time there's a mission like this, you go ahead and I'll stay." If he met an enemy like the one just now who almost killed him with a stitch in the side before he could even kick him twice, he would really go crazy.
"You didn't complete what I asked you to do?" Song Wan glanced behind him, but there was no one there.
"It's done, but they are slow. It will probably take another quarter of an hour to catch up." Gu Wu said expressionlessly.
You have to know that in order to ensure that the Qiang soldiers he had picked on could catch up with him, he went back and forth to look for them several times to make sure that all of them could be lured over by him.
When Song Qi heard that it would take another quarter of an hour, he understood why Gu Wu had that expression on his face. If it were him, he would also be speechless.
"They're too slow!" Song Wan thought intuitively, "Will people like them be just as slow at work in the future?"
"They should. After all, these soldiers are useless. They are probably no better than ordinary farmers in tilling the soil." Gu Wu replied impartially based on his experience of fighting with them.
Song Wan pondered for a moment and finally decided, "Then let them go to Guizhou to help pick fertilizers. Let professionals handle farming."
"Hurry! He is right in front!" Suddenly, there was a rustling sound of footsteps behind him. It was the Qiang soldiers who finally caught up.
"Hold him down!" the leader pointed at Gu Wu and shouted, "I'm going to teach him a lesson today!"
Song Wan glanced at the other person's expression and asked Gu Wu, "What did you do to him?"
Gu Wu answered truthfully, "I stepped on his face."
"What else?"
"Throw shit in his mouth."
After hearing this, Song Wan gave him a big thumbs up and praised him sincerely, "Not bad! It's something I can do!"
Gu Wu: ...
This group of people caught up with them, and finally the other Qiang soldiers who were napping in the bamboo house noticed the presence of Song Wan and his two companions.
The three were attacked from both sides by the Qiang soldiers.
"Are you sure they are all the Qiang soldiers?" Song Qi stared at the hundreds of people in front of him and Gu Wu to confirm.
Gu Wu wiped the dust off his face and answered him affirmatively, "Of course, I didn't even leave out the toilet."
"Charge! Finish the work so you can eat!" Song Wan picked up the hoe and rushed towards the group of Qiang soldiers.
The two men were so scared that they staggered, and Song Qi almost couldn't even hold the sword.
Why does the princess never play by the rules?
The Qiang soldiers who caught up with them didn't even have time to catch their breath before Song Wan hit them with a hoe and sent them jumping around.
Song Qi and Gu Wu were completely stunned. They could only see a vague shadow moving back and forth.
However, they were not shocked for long. They quickly reacted and caught all the other Qiang soldiers who tried to escape and tied them up with the pig ropes they had prepared in advance.
Song Wan was even faster than them. The Qiang soldiers who had been chasing Gu Wu were now all lying on the ground, holding their legs and wailing.
She threw away the broken hoe, put her hands on her hips and watched Song Qi and Gu Wu tie up the man, and reminded them, "Remember to tie him up tightly."
Finally, Gu Wu counted a total of 956 Qiang soldiers.
Song Wan sighed repeatedly, "These Qiang leaders actually sent such a small number of troops to defend the city. Did they get kicked in the head by a donkey?"
"Who are you?" the Qiang soldier on the ground asked angrily.
"Guess?" They wanted to know, but Song Wan refused to say.
"People from Daye?" a Qiang soldier tried to trick him. "Do you know that your Emperor of Daye and our leader are partners? Do you expect your Emperor to chop off your head by treating us like this?"
Song Wan wouldn't fall for his trick. "I even dare to chop off the head of the Emperor of Dai Viet. What do you think?"
Of course, this Dai Viet emperor refers to the previous one.
Compared with these stubbornly resisting Qiang soldiers, the slaves who were whipped day and night were much more docile. They didn't need to be taught, and they lined up in rows, from short to tall. The smallest one couldn't even stand steadily.
Song Wan took a closer look and found that it was not much bigger than the greedy Chi Chi at home.
And maybe because they eat less and do more, they look like they have a big head and a small body overall.
A little scary, but more pitiful.
The Qiang soldiers are not human beings.
"You have seen that your original master has been captured by me." Song Wan said to them.
These slaves may have been beaten too badly. They showed no emotion at all when they heard Song Wan's words. They just nodded mechanically and remained submissive.
Song Wan didn't want to rush to change them, but directly said, "From now on, Qiang City is my territory. You continue what you did before and help me grow chili peppers, which you call red poison powder."
Although the Qiang people are bad, they still have some brains.
Qiangcheng is indeed very suitable for growing peppers, and the peppers grown here are much spicier than what Song Wan ate in later generations.
The group of Qiang slaves continued to nod their heads without any expression.
Song Wan ignored them and continued with her own thoughts. "I see there aren't many of you, and there aren't many empty houses in the city either. I won't spend extra money to build new ones. From today on, those who are willing to help me grow peppers can register with the coriander side, and those who are willing to go home and grow their own land can register with the durian side."
Afraid that they didn't know who coriander and durian were, she pointed them out to them one by one.
"If you help me grow peppers, you'll get 500 wen a month during the harvest season, and 100 wen the rest of the time."
There began to be some commotion in the lifeless crowd.
Song Wan continued, "If you don't grow peppers, the land can be divided among each household, three mu per household. And the household that helps me grow peppers can get one mu."
These are just Song Wan's preliminary ideas, and they will have to wait until both sides have completed registration before they can be implemented.
"May I ask." A hoarse, old voice slowly emerged from the crowd, staring at Song Wan with its wrinkled eyes, "Can we still be human again?"
Song Wan glanced at everyone.
She said in a decisive voice that everyone could hear, "From now on, you will be the people of Qiang City."
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