Chapter 338: Three Duwei District
Hexi, Qingtongxia Camp.

Since the decision was made to develop Hexi, the migration transit camp was moved from Fuping on the south bank to the north bank.

It was another morning, and the Black Bear chariot with four in front and eight in the back approached the Qingtongxia camp in the morning mist.

In the third ring camp area outside the camp, Yan Xing walked quickly to the roadside with his helmet in hand.

When the chariot passed by, Black Bear saw Yan Xing leading more than twenty military officials waiting, so he stopped the chariot.

"The criminal will pay his respects to the Grand Marshal."

Yan Xing stepped forward and saluted. Black Bear got off the car, and immediately his personal soldiers brought folding tables and chairs, and a strong personal soldier was holding a green umbrella.

Black Bear sat down, motioned Yan Xing to sit down as well, and asked, "Han Sui has replied that the envoy Cheng Gongying will soon arrive in Hexi. You have captured more than 10,000 people, enough to redeem yourself. Do you want to return to Jincheng or stay in Hexi?"

After Yan Xing sat down, he turned his head and looked at several leaders, then asked cautiously: "Grand Marshal, Hancheng Mine is short of a lot of people. If the criminal general and others are stationed in Hexi, can they rent the prisoners they capture to Hancheng Mine for a long time in the future?"

Yan Xing also enjoyed this battle. Although the troops under his command gathered and dispersed at random, they were always chasing and fighting others.

Not only were his military achievements enough to redeem himself, but he also accumulated rich spoils of war.

Now, whether they return home or stay in Hexi, they can all become small slave owners.

"Long-term rental? Why do you come up with such an idea?"

Black Bear pondered the feasibility of this. Iron mining is a hard and dangerous job.

But it is also very good for training people, as miners are a high-quality source of soldiers.

For example, the two prisoner-reorganized armies of Yan Xing and Lu Chang have strong internal organizational cohesion and can fight guerrilla warfare and sabotage warfare with high intensity.

Having said that, Yan Xing calmly explained, "The general didn't think that far. He just thought that if Hexi had high-quality equipment provided by Hancheng in the future, he could also rent slaves to Hancheng. Then Hancheng would no longer be troubled by manpower, and the general and others would have a stable livelihood besides farming, herding, and hunting."

Prisoners captured in wars throughout history were regarded as merits or rewards, and would become the property of the state or large collectives and then be distributed.

Black Bear thought for a moment and said, "There are few precedents for this, and I don't want to complicate things. If you capture the captives of the Hu people, I can allow you to sell them to Hancheng, and also let Hancheng trade weapons with you."

The equipment traded here must be special weapons that cannot be circulated among the public.

Yan Xing asked again: "How many thousand households can the criminal general's troops be organized into?"

"Three thousand households."

Black Bear said calmly: "This is the result of your own expansion during the war, and it also leaves you room for further expansion in the future. Lu Chang only has one thousand households here, you should be content."

"The sin will not dare."

Yan Xing asked again: "What about the future promotion of the heads of the hundred households and thousand households?"

"They are equal to the thousand households in Guanzhong. They serve as personal guards in the palace, and are appointed as frontier lieutenants, county lieutenants, or military commanders."

The spring and autumn pastures allocated to a thousand households were enough for a tribe of three thousand people.

A thousand-household unit in Guanzhong had the same status as a large county.

The Qianhu Suo in Hexi had a slightly lower status than a Duwei.

Seeing that Black Bear was in a good mood, Yan Xing asked again, "Grand Marshal, will there be a Wanhu above Qianhu?"

"No, a thousand households is equivalent to a two thousand stone official."

Black Bear was quite patient and said to Yan Xing: "I will set up at most a hundred thousand households. If there are more, they will be redundant and useless. The same is true for the ten thousand households. After the ten thousand households are set up, the thousand households and hundred households under them will inevitably become redundant and become a formality."

His one hundred households had six teams on average, which was equivalent to a township and five villages; the number of households in the three hundred households was similar to that of a thousand households in Zhu Ming. Therefore, one thousand households was equivalent to three thousand households in Zhu Ming, which was equivalent to a small guard.

There is no need to set up a higher-level management unit now. The directly-administered thousand households and some hundred households can be mobilized directly to the grassroots level.

This is also because his ruling territory is limited and he is full of energy.

Compared with the county household registration system, the households registered under the thousand-household and hundred-household systems are his people.

After Black Bear finished speaking, he saw that Yan Xing no longer asked any questions, and he also understood that this person's intention in asking Wan Hu was to find a way out for himself.

If he could become a millionaire, how could Yan Xing be willing to miss it?

A Wanhu, if fully staffed, has 30,000 households under his command; in this Hexi area, judging from the current enthusiasm of the army for enlistment and combat, he is the undisputed king of the surrounding areas.

Yan Xing was still thinking in his heart while he was silent, so he asked again: "Please forgive me for being so bold, but I wonder how the Grand Marshal intends to manage Hexi?"

"As for Guanzhong, three commanders will be appointed."

"In the north, there is the Hunhuai Commandery, stationed at the Hunhuai Fortress in the northeast of the Yellow River; there is also the Helan Commandery, stationed at Lingwu; and there is also the Shanghe Commandery, which, like the system in the early Han Dynasty, is responsible for military settlements and farming. There are also three thousand households for animal husbandry and garden supervision, which are responsible for the breeding of animal herds and the selection of good breeds."

As Black Bear spoke, he looked around at the fertile plains in the north. The Qin people called this place New Qinzhong, and its fertility was as good as that of Guanzhong, which had well-developed water conservancy at that time.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, there were three duwei and two horse ranches here.

After Black Bear finished speaking, Yan Xing was obviously disappointed. He thought there would be a permanent general, colonel or governor in charge here, but he didn't expect Black Bear to break up Hexi and manage it.

The three captains each have their own mission, and the three pastoral supervisors compete with each other.

A Qianhu is a Qianhu, and the Mujian is just a classification within the Qianhu; the three Duwei do not seem to have the authority to manage and control the Qianhu, and are simply border defense units.

Yan Xing was relieved immediately. If a special government office was set up to manage Hexi, he would not have been elected.

If it is a system of three commanders, three pastoral supervisors and a number of thousand households, he can at least be a thousand households.

Yan Xing had already expressed his submission, so Black Bear got back on the car and drove towards the interior of the camp.

There was a huge round tent in the middle of the camp. When he arrived, a dozen officials were fiddling with an abacus.

The size of Huangge, which was headed by Chief Clerk Yang Fu, grew again, and Yang Fu brought the prepared official documents.

While flipping through the official documents, Black Bear compared them with the cowhide map. With the current size of the Hexi army and the number of prisoners, it could be organized into fourteen thousand-household units.

Except for the three pastoral supervisors, the other eleven thousand-household units were all engaged in farming and animal husbandry. Among them, the three thousand-household units in the management area of ​​Shanghe Duwei were more inclined towards farming.

Shanghe Duwei, as the name means, is in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, so it is located north of Qingtongxia and south of Yinchuan.

The three duwei and fourteen thousand households were two management lines. The troops under the command of the three duwei were classified as garrison soldiers, and Hei Xiong was preparing to recruit them from the counties in Guanzhong.

That is, the border defense force that the three commanders will control in the future will be a rotational garrison force transferred from Guanzhong, which is different from the local thousand households.

Just as he was reading the official documents, Yang Fu brought another document: "Your Majesty, this is an urgent message from General Gan of Hongnong."

"What's his hurry?"

The black bear was surprised that Gan Ning had fostered geese there and would call them back when he had an emergency. Gan Ning would also kill the geese when he had an emergency.

After breaking the seal and taking out Gan Ning's official document, Black Bear was stunned when he held it in his hand. He said with a smile, "Sun Quan actually came to surrender?"

The smile soon disappeared. Gan Ning's official document was accompanied by a silk book from Sun Quan. Sun Quan guaranteed with his life that an anti-Black Sima alliance was very likely to occur in Guandong, as well as Liu Fu's enthronement.

(End of this chapter)