Chapter 60: Post-War Reconstruction

Watching Li Shihwu being led away, the tent returned to peace. Li Huaian opened his mouth as if to speak, but ultimately remained silent after a few moments of inner struggle.

The matter was settled. There was scarcely any room for a turnaround, unless...

At this moment, Zhang Chao's voice echoed in the tent. "Since you beheaded those three thousand Tibetan cavalry and have now been promoted to the rank of Captain, you are permitted to raise two thousand troops. That extra thousand warhorses are of no use to you anyway, so send them to the frontier army camp! Let the frontier army feed and maintain that thousand warhorses for you! It will also help lighten your burden."

Zhang Chao's words lacked subtlety; they were a blatant demand. It was an unmistakable, unconcealed power play, and one could not refuse to hand over warhorses.

Upon hearing this, the officers and soldiers inside the tent all wore expressions of disappointment. Those generals who had previously shared some rapport now wore troubled looks. Since the highest-ranking officer in the military camp was making a demand of Zhao Mang for warhorses, once he had spoken, what chance did they, the low-ranking officers under his command, have to ever get their hands on any?

Zhang Chao's words benefited both Zhao Mang and himself—one could call it a minor win-win situation.

Hearing Zhang Chao's directive, Zhao Mang resolutely responded, "Thank you, General! Are the salaries for these two thousand troops of mine to be paid by the frontier army camp?"

Upon hearing Zhao Mang's question, Zhang Chao did not answer directly. Instead, he turned his gaze to Xiao Mo standing nearby, leaving everything understood without a word.

Xiao Mo immediately took over the conversation, speaking in an indifferent tone, "Presently, the General's camp receives no salary from the imperial court; we rely entirely on the tax revenue of Sha City. At present, grain is in short supply, and so is silver. I'm afraid we have no way to afford the salaries for your two thousand troops. As you also know, the General's camp recently lost nearly five thousand infantrymen, and a massive amount of compensation funds, along with the newly recruited soldiers, require a great deal of silver. Therefore, our frontier army camp does not have much reserves left either. The two thousand troops you recruit will still require you to provide their salaries yourself."

Hearing this, Zhao Mang felt his head spin with a headache as heavy as a mountain. He was already struggling to feed his current thousand men, and now he was expected to take on another two thousand—while remaining entirely self-sufficient. Wouldn't that make him an absolute sucker? This was even more ruthless than Li Huaian giving him five hundred foot soldiers.

He found it difficult to understand. Ever since his promotion to company commander, the frontier army camp had not issued him a single salary. Now, they were even crying poor to him so openly; the situation appeared exceedingly bizarre. Logically speaking, as long as the imperial court remained stable, the silver and salaries of the frontier army should certainly hold the highest priority. Yet now, they were becoming increasingly scarce, or even non-existent.

Could it be that everything in Shazhou was entirely funded by the major aristocratic clans?

Zhao Mang buried this suspicion in his heart without revealing it on his surface. He cupped his fists toward Zhang Chao and said, "Since that is the case, Zhao shall handle it himself! If the General has no other matters, I shall return to guard my Dunzi Peak!"

Zhao Mang took the initiative to request his departure. Funding the salaries himself had both disadvantages and advantages. At present, he certainly could not produce the funds and would have to rely on Jiang Wan, his romantic partner who still held immense power within the aristocratic clans. Having survived the previous battle, the soldiers under his command had also suffered considerable losses. Without offering them compensation, it would certainly be impossible to maintain morale. For now, his most pressing task was to rapidly gather capital.

After leaving the frontier army camp, Zhao Mang quickly hurried back to his encampment.

As the sun sank into the dusk, the camp had already recovered by seventy or eighty percent, and the three hundred refugees from before had also returned to their quarters. When the three thousand Tibetan cavalry attacked, perhaps because all the commoners had evacuated the area, the enemy had not destroyed their houses and greenhouse vegetable sheds. What the enemy did not know was that this action had accidentally helped Zhao Mang by preserving his primitive assets.

The next day, early in the morning, Zhao Mang accompanied Wei Xian to the greenhouse vegetable sheds.

They had built a total of nearly twenty greenhouses, covering an area of nearly twenty mu. Among them, the chives and small white cabbages had already grown to a harvestable state. Looking at the vibrant green scene inside the sheds, everyone was extremely excited.

Wang Mazi, who had followed him along, exclaimed excitedly, "As expected of the General! This is my first time seeing such miraculous houses. Just by adding some unremarkable equipment, we can actually grow green vegetables right here during the autumn harvest season! It is simply divine!"

Wang Mazi was an educated man after all, and though he had never participated directly in farming, he knew very well that the vegetables capable of growing at this time of year were pitifully few. That these out-of-season vegetables could be grown inside these warm houses was simply breathtaking.

Wei Xian, standing nearby, also remarked in astonishment, "Lord Zhao's design of these 'greenhouse sheds' makes this old man look at him with entirely new eyes. Having lived for so many years, this is my first time witnessing such a thing."

Reaching the height of his excitement, Wei Xian's tone abruptly changed. "However! This design has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that it yields fresh vegetables, crops, and the like during out-of-season periods. The disadvantage is also quite obvious—it consumes a massive amount of energy. To control the indoor temperature, a single greenhouse consumes nearly a cubic unit of timber every month. Furthermore, people must be assigned to monitor them daily; otherwise, if the fire source and temperature were lost during the winter, it would inevitably become a massive hazard!"

Zhao Mang had not expected that this old man Wei among the refugees possessed such breadth of vision, instantly spotting the flaws of the greenhouse sheds. He quickly praised, "Old Master Wei has great discernment. Indeed, these greenhouses consume massive amounts of energy and require daily monitoring, making them prone to the exact situation you described. That is precisely why I want to partner with you, Old Master Wei. Once the official documents are issued, this radius of a hundred miles will be the territory of Zhao Mang. Old Master Wei, all of you will be the very first meritorious subjects under my rule within this domain!"

Hearing Zhao Mang's grand promises, Wei Xian hurriedly humbled himself, saying, "I wouldn't dare claim such a thing. That Lord Zhao can think of ordinary folk like us is already a boundless blessing bestowed by the heavens. How could we ever dare to style ourselves as meritorious subjects?"

Although he spoke thus, it was no exaggeration to say that the corners of Wei Xian's mouth were already splitting nearly to his ears.

Zhao Mang laughed heartily. "Old Master Wei need not be so modest. From now on, I shall entrust all the arable land within this territory entirely to your management! I will only have people provide you with the corresponding assistance and guidance. As long as you grow grain and vegetables, we will simply divide the harvest according to the ratio we previously established! In the future, this territory of mine will have to rely on you all!"

Chatting and laughing, the group left the greenhouses and looked at the people busy clearing wasteland outside. They observed their crude land-clearing tools; sometimes they used ox-drawn plows, but these were the simplest single-furrow plows—the most primitive V-shaped iron plowshares. Although these were far more efficient than turning the soil by human labor alone, this type of plow fell far short of the curved-shaft plows in his memory. The depth of deep-tillage was also much shallower than that achieved by a curved-shaft plow, and soil turned in this manner would naturally yield far poorer results when crops were planted.

Once he had this idea, he wanted to immediately modify the farming tools to improve their production efficiency.

Coincidentally, the chief craftsman Yu Zhiyuan happened to come looking for him!

"General! I was just about to tell you, Miss Jiang has sent a large quantity of hematite!"