Xu Huai stood on the north cliff of Qingyi Ridge and looked into the distance. Not far below, dozens of laborers were filling a sunken ground with a mixture of lime, clay and river sand, tamping it layer by layer.
, forming a slope leading directly to the North Cliff; after the soil is compacted, a single city gate will be built on it.
This single city gate will touch the side of the North Cliff on the east side, and face the rift valley seven to eight feet deep and difficult to climb on the west side. After it is completed, it will serve as the only way from the foot of the mountain to the North Cliff.
The last defensive center of Qingyi Ridge Camp.
However, the terrain in Beiya and nearby areas is rugged and dangerous, and not many generals have a foothold. The open space where they are stationed requires a large amount of Sanhe soil that can prevent rain erosion, and some flat land needs to be rammed and filled to build military buildings.
Xu Huai lacked fundamental trust in the Dai Viet military officials, so he had no way to regard the wider Jingxiang area south of Tongbai Mountain as a firm rear after the destruction of the Hehuai River.
Therefore, Xu Huai had no way to treat Tongbai Mountain and the surrounding areas simply as a guerrilla zone where "the enemy advances and we retreat, the enemy garrisoned and we disturb, the enemy tired and we attack, and the enemy retreats and we pursue".
Xu Huai's real intention in Tongbai Mountain is to use the mountain as a city.
When Xu Huai returned to Tongbai Mountain at the beginning of the year, he also immediately built Wuzhai in Qingyi Ridge, Zhouqiaoyi and Shimen Ridge.
Including Yushan Post, these fortresses control the pass into Tongbai Mountain and are the "gates" of Chushan. Unfortunately, these gates are still very crude and cannot withstand the enemy's superior troops.
Protracted advance and siege.
When it comes to the true "mountain as a city", in addition to operating the entire Tongbai Mountain as a huge city and deploying defenses from a macro perspective, it is also necessary to integrate the construction of Wubao with the steep terrain from a micro perspective.
Qingyi Lingzhai, Shimenlingzhai, Zhouqiao Yizhai, and Yushan Yizhai were built according to the terrain into a complex stronghold with multi-layered defense depth that is not afraid of long-term siege and storming by the enemy's superior troops.
In this way, the complexity and difficulty of manufacturing will not increase even a little bit.
Of course, most of the villages in Tongbai Mountain are built against the mountains, and some are even deliberately built on precipitous and dangerous terrain.
On the one hand, this is convenient for preventing bandits and theft, on the other hand, it is to save precious Pinggu dam land resources that can be used for farming, and it has also accumulated rich experience in building villages near mountains.
For example, Shituoshan Lingzhai is built on the mountainside. Entering the hinterland of Shituoshan, the passage to Jinshagou Village also passes through the village. The multi-level overflow stone dam in front of the village was also built using the topography to the maximum extent.
The current Qingyi Ling Camp is just a medium-sized fort located at the foot of Qingyi Ling Mountain with a perimeter of about three miles.
On this basis, it is necessary to further improve the defense system of Qingyi Ridge Village and connect it with the steep terrain of the north cliff of Qingyi Ridge in the south. With Chushan's existing technical strength, it is not impossible to achieve it.
However, when Shi Zhen and Yu Chengzhen arrived, they not only put forward more reasonable suggestions for the subsequent construction planning and layout of Qingyi Lingzhai, but also made improvements in construction methods and materials.
The ultimate goal is to bring the mountainous area of more than 10 square kilometers to the west of the Wuzhai River, including the North Cliff of Qingyi Ridge, which is more than 40 feet high, into the Qingyi Ridge Dazhai, and build a multi-echelon and hierarchical defense system.
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Once the enemy forces advance to the mountain with superior troops and horses, and face a large number of trebuchets and siege crossbows in the enemy's position, the defenders can abandon the fort at the foot of the mountain and retreat to the second place, which is more dangerous and cannot be covered by trebuchets.
In the third level of docks; if the enemy dares to enter and occupy the docks at the foot of the mountain, defend the
The army took advantage of its condescending position and fought with it repeatedly, consuming the enemy's effective strength.
The wharf on the west bank of the Wuzhai River will also be included in the Qingyi Ridge Dazhai.
The Wuzhai River originates from the peaks in the middle section of Dafu Mountain, passes through Qingyi Ridge in the northeast, and converges to the northwest. It originates from intermittent streams in Jinding Mountain, forming the stable mainstream of the Wuzhai River. In autumn and winter, the water surface is also seven to eight feet wide, with four to five feet of open water.
It is deep enough for boating, and then merges with the Ru River in the north to the northeast of Queshan County, and finally merges into the Huai River in the southeast of Shangcai County.
In this case, bulk materials can usually be transported directly to Qingyi Ridge by boat.
The wharf on the west bank of the Wuzhai River was included in the Qingyiling Dazhai. During the war, if the enemy did not besiege the Qingyiling camp with several times the superior force, the defenders could still take boats along the Wuzhai River and Ru River to Huaihe River.
It can radiate battlefields in the upper reaches of the water; it can also support Zhouqiao Station at the east entrance of Tongbai Mountain Road through waterways.
Zhouqiao Yi Village and Shimenling Village will also be expanded accordingly.
In order to ensure sufficient labor force, Xu Huai obtained Hu Kai's consent and requisitioned more than 8,000 civilians from Queshan, Shangcai and other counties for construction.
However, Hu Kai requisitioned civilians from Queshan, Shangcai and other places and allocated them to Xu Huai, but Xu Huai had to find a way to deal with the money and food himself. Caizhou recruited tens of thousands of horses, which was very expensive, and Jingxiang and other places had to find a way to solve it.
Ba Yun's money and food are currently insufficient to meet the consumption of King Qin's troops and horses.
In the battle of Qingquanzhai, more than 200,000 yuan of property was seized. King Jing didn't take any of it, so Xu Huai brought it all back. But even so, Chushan's consumption of money and food was still like a bottomless pit, which made Su Laochang worried that he couldn't survive it.
After autumn.
"Yesterday, more than a dozen laborers escaped in a group," Su Laochang complained with a sigh. "Now we have increased their food intake to the maximum, and they all behaved like unfed wolf cubs, as I told them. The slaves who escaped in scattered directions
The workers may not be held accountable, but if these people who fled in groups are not severely punished, I’m afraid they won’t be able to keep their mouths shut!”
"..." Xu Huai shook his head, insisting that the policy of reducing the prisoners captured from Qingquangou Village would not change, and said, "Even if we really can't hold back our words and everyone wants to leave, now that we have said everything
, then it must be fulfilled: everyone will be given dry food, travel expenses, and let go!"
Since the founding of the Dai Viet Dynasty, Jianghuai, Jinghu, and Zhejiang areas have been fully developed. In addition to providing up to 70% to 80% of tax revenue, the population density has also exceeded that of the Hehuai area.
The population of these areas is as high as 70 to 80 million.
Purely from the source of soldiers or labor, Chushan actually has no shortage. Like this time, with Hu Kai's permission, seven to eight thousand civilians were directly recruited from Shangcai, Queshan and other counties. If necessary, further steps can be taken.
Expand the scale of recruitment. When Hehuai is completely lost, a real wave of refugees will form, and there will be a large number of young people who can be recruited.
What Chushan lacks is Jianrui who has a sense of identification with Chushan and is willing to put down his roots in Chushan and share weal and woe.
The surrendered soldiers captured in the battle of Qingquangou, to a certain extent, their inner will to resist had been destroyed by the Chihu people in the previous fiasco. Xu Huai brought them back to Chushan, and they could only serve as laborers in the early stage.
, to make up for the lack of labor force, and to transform them into real Tongbai Mountain Soldiers and Chu Mountain Soldiers, they must be given enough patience and tolerance.
Xu Huai would not forcibly retain those surrendered soldiers who wanted to leave, but would also provide travel expenses and dry food.
Yue Yu Lou's current focus is not to rush to send manpower to Hehuai, Hedong, Hebei and other places to lurk in these areas.
It will be further fragmented. It doesn't make much sense to send people to lurk in now, and it may even suffer unpredictable losses.
In addition to cultivating manpower a little bit and building the Zhufengtang branch to the Jingxiang area at the rear, Yue Yulou's most important task now is to send manpower to find the small families who may have captured soldiers who were surrendered last month to escape the disaster.
Since the Chihudong Road Cavalry detoured directly to Zhengzhou, Xingyang, Mengzhou, Weizhou and other places later in the year to block the passage of refugees from Hedong and other places to escape south, this work had only been carried out for more than ten days, and it had not yet achieved much results.
However, Xu Huai believed that as long as he could find some young people, even if he could only call tens in the early stage, dozens of surrendered soldiers and captured soldiers would be reunited with their families in Chushan, and the expectations it would bring to others could activate their dead wills.
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As for those who wholeheartedly want to go, Xu Huai believes that most of them still have some concerns.
Let them leave at this time, or even help them leave. After they return to their hometown and find that they can't find another way out, they will inevitably think of the light and warmth that Chushan once brought them.
You must have enough patience to do these tasks.
Su Laochang and Shi Zhen smiled bitterly: "It's not that I can't accept these principles. Even if you let someone go, there will be one less person to work in the mountain, and you have to pay so much travel expenses. I feel bad!"
"The military princes are the ones with great ambitions. We can only pick up every copper to spend it." Shi Zhen said with a smile.
At this time, a car and horse team of more than a hundred people passed through a forest and was traveling along the east bank of the Wuzhai River to Dazhai at the foot of the mountain. Wu Zhen said: "Maybe they are the first batch of craftsmen who came out of Bianliang!"
"Let's go down the mountain and have a look!" Xu Huai said excitedly.
Zhufengtang has been casting five soldiers, and officially established the Gongfang Youjing Chengyuan. It also vacated the military village on the west bank of the Baijian River and used it exclusively as a casting base for soldiers and armor.
However, the expansion of the scale of armor casting is not enough to simply expand the venue.
The supply of raw wrought iron, charcoal, pebbles and other materials in the upstream must be expanded, and more furnaces with higher specifications must be built. More importantly, skilled craftsmen must be trained, and the training of craftsmen cannot be achieved overnight.
Zhufengtang now has nearly 200 craftsmen in the casting of five weapons, but less than half are skilled craftsmen, and there is an even shortage of craftsman-level figures, not to mention those who are familiar with all kinds of sophisticated weapons and armor, and the casting of war equipment.
A great craftsman.
Instead of waiting for the Red Husbands to withdraw after the peace petition was completed, Xu Huai now arranged for manpower and expended so much effort to take the young craftsman's family out of Bianliang City because they were now racing against time.
Going down from the North Cliff, the mountain road has not yet been completely dug, and there are still several places under construction. When Xu Huai and others went down the mountain, a convoy of more than a hundred people had already crossed the Wuzhai River and entered Dazhai.
Seeing Xu Wuqi, Xu Xin'an, Yan Xiaoyi and others standing in front of the school ground, looking indescribably sad and angry, Xu Huai was frightened and asked: "What's wrong? What happened in Bianliang?"
"Nothing happened in Bianliang," Xu Wuqi shook his head solemnly and said, "The Chihu people have agreed to the imperial court's request for peace. In addition to asking the imperial court to cede the three towns of Taiyuan, Xiongzhou and Dingzhou, they also asked the imperial court to
Demanding five million taels of gold and fifty million taels of silver as compensation!"
"What?" Su Laochang raised his voice so much that he thought he had misheard, and asked, "Five million taels of gold, fifty million taels of silver, did I hear correctly?"
