Chapter 3 Fuyao (Eight Shang) Please send more flowers, thank you
The folk customs in Hebei are already very strong. What the people lack in their veins is not courage, but the government's recognition of this courage. As soon as the autumn harvest ended, the recruitment points in the counties under the control of General Boling were crowded with people, many of them
Strong men in their prime, and some old and weak men who are already over forty and whose legs and feet are not very agile try to sneak into the military camp to get a warm meal.
In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the Boling Army, several recruiters strictly implemented the regulations that were formulated in advance. In line with the principle of "better to die than to die", they carefully selected among the applicants who seemed too old and too young, but were advised to return.
If the family has no neighbors to prove its origin, it refuses to accept an only child whose parents are old and is strictly prohibited from enlisting in the army. On the battlefield, if the only son dies in battle, it is equivalent to ruining the hope of the whole family.
While vigorously expanding the army, the development and construction of Zhuojun was also carried out in full swing. Due to sufficient resources and proper personnel deployment, the resettlement work of the refugees went very smoothly. After the first batch of refugees arrived at the banks of the Sanggan River, the field envoys who were transferred from various places were immediately dispatched.
Under the organization, simple houses were built in open areas with good geomantic omen. The newly built houses were mainly made of wooden frames. There were many big trees in the four fields of Zhuo County, so local materials could be used. Therefore, hundreds of houses were built in more than two months.
After the toilets were built, the organizers, based on the experience accumulated from farming on both sides of Laishui, Yishui and Sushui last year, led the refugees to build a high wall with wet soil on the outermost edge of all the houses. In this way, a building can
A fortress that housed thousands of people was immediately born.
In order to cope with possible abnormal situations, each fort has only one gate. On both sides of the gate and at the four corners of the high wall, watchtowers are continued to be built with polished stones. All the forts are lined up along both sides of the Sanggan River, far apart from each other.
If a fort is not more than twenty miles away and is attacked, as long as the smoke is lit before it is breached, the neighboring forts will relay the alarm. Within half a day, the Boling Army stationed in Huairong will rush to the village after receiving the alarm.
The place where the incident occurred was that unless the attackers planned to completely fall out with Li Xu, the general manager of Boling, they could only retreat in despair.
It was not just homeless refugees who came to settle on both sides of the Sanggan River. Some wealthy households with long-term vision also moved a small part of their family property to Zhuo County by purchasing land. Although they were only doing preliminary experiments,
The organizational capabilities and financial resources of the powerful are very amazing. A few large households can build an entire village on their own. The specifications are based on the standards of villages for resettling refugees, but the defense facilities are far superior to the former. According to Cui Qian's estimation, if ordinary horse thieves attack an immigrant village, the result will be
If both sides fight to the end, it will cost about one hundred to two hundred lives. The horse thieves attack the simple manor of a wealthy family. Although it is ten times cruder than the manor in the Boling and Shanggu areas, from the beginning of the attack
To completely defeat it, it will take at least three days and more than 200 lives.
With the increase in immigrants, the formerly depressed and dilapidated Huairong City gradually became lively. Caravans who ventured to and from the Wall to make their hard-earned money instinctively chose to use this city as a transit point to sell tea, porcelain, lacquerware, and linen outside the Wall.
They were hoarded in the city, and the leather, wool, and dried meat returned from the stuffing were dispersed and resold, and then sold to various parts of the Central Plains.
Of course, these transactions are still on a small scale, and large quantities of goods still go through the traditional Jixian, Miyun, and Yanle channels. However, the taxes and fees collected by Luo Yi are three times more than those in Zhuojun, so he took the risk of taking a trip to Huai County.
The traders in Rong all swore that they would never go to Youzhou again next year.
Cui Qian did not dare to bet next year's taxes on Zhuojun on the promises of the vendors. This year, the General Manager's Office will develop Zhuojun. No matter how huge the investment is, it will be supported by the income from selling officials and titles. But sooner or later, the surplus wealth of the people will be absorbed.
It would take at least a whole year for the refugees to settle down and be able to pay land taxes to the local government. In order to avoid the embarrassment of having to eat and eat grain, he organized some of the refugees who did not need to participate in the construction of forts in the name of work-for-relief.
The wood and ore obtained from logging and mining in the mountains were all transported to the city and sold to traders and local people at very low prices. Some brave traders saw the opportunity and transported the wood and ore to Boling before the snow fell.
Hengshan and other places made another unexpected fortune
After all, the traders' transportation capacity is limited. Most of the felled giant trees and mined ores are hoarded in Huairong City. In view of this situation, General Boling's Mansion recruited a large number of craftsmen from various places to Zhuojun to build on-site construction.
Workshop to smelt iron and create weapons and armor for the army
Everything developed step by step, and the expected challenges also came one after another. After winter, the words "horse thieves" began to appear in the official documents Cui Qian sent to Boling. These guys first circled outside the range of the scouts' arrows, and then slowly began to
Chasing the lone scouts recently, they have tried to attack several fortresses relatively far away from Huairong County. Although the horse thieves did not succeed due to the timely arrival of the Boling Army, the attacks against Zhuojun have become more and more intense.
strong taste
"Those people are not horse thieves!" Wang Xuba put down the loot that Zhuojun had rushed 800 miles away and reminded everyone in a low voice.
He was born in the green forest. Before being recruited by Li Xu, he had been plundering in Hedong, Hebei and Youzhou for many years. He had experience in fighting with officers and soldiers from various counties. Therefore, he was judged to be quite authoritative. After hearing his speech, everyone immediately stopped talking.
Casting his gaze over and noticing the suspicion in the eyes of his colleagues, Wang Xuba smiled, pointed to the armor on the ground and explained: "When Lao Guo and I were hanging out on the road, who among my brothers would dare to use this kind of thing?
Hang him up first and beat him up!"
After the official document arrived, everyone's minds were spinning around the situation introduced in Cui Qian's letter. Only Wang Xuba focused on the armor weapons that the Zhuojun brothers had ripped off the enemy's corpse. Therefore, he concluded that
The channel for conclusion is also unique.
Everyone took a closer look and found that the armor of the intruders was indeed very different from that of the Boling Army. The equipment of the soldiers of the Boling Army continued the style of the Sui Border Army. The main weapons were horizontal knives, and their bow and arrow defenses were leather helmets and stacked leather armor.
Iron bars can be placed in key parts to enhance defense. Among the trophies sent by Cui Qian, the three leather armors were sewn from a single piece of rawhide. The front, chest and back were as smooth as a mirror, and several old strings were sewn on key parts.
The pocket is stuffed with thick willow boards.
"This thing is a bit crude! But it has strong protection against feathered arrows!" Zhao Ziming is worthy of being an Army Sima. He can tell the strength of its protective power from the two armor systems at a glance. In the Boling Army, about the plate armor
There has always been controversy over which of the stacked armor has the better defensive effect. However, within the current level of craftsmen, it is generally believed that the stacked armor has better protection against feather arrows than the hard armor made of a whole piece of rawhide.
Wearing it on the body has little impact on people's flexibility and will not hinder the brothers' movements in battle.
However, the attacker's armor removed the sleeves and installed a wooden board on the chest, which made up for the shortcomings of the plate armor to a certain extent. The target of the arms was small, and the chance of being hurt by feather arrows was much less than the chest. The willow board can not only defend
Feather arrows, and can reduce the damage caused by spears and bayonets to a certain extent.
"Zhao Sima misunderstood me!" Wang Xuba listened to Zhao Ziming lamenting that the other party could make do with the shackles, and he quickly smiled and shook his head, "I mean, those who want to be horse thieves must have the consciousness of being horse thieves, and don't use yourself as an officer or soldier.
It has indeed minimized the possibility of being injured by feather arrows, but the weight has also doubled. When horse thieves pay attention to coming and going like the wind, if they can reduce the weight they carry, they must try their best to reduce it. When Lao Guo and I were walking in the green forest, no matter what we had on hand,
Isn't it generous? Cavalry armor is designed to be light. Big bosses with more than a hundred cavalry don't know how to wear heavy armor, let alone ordinary minions? It's not that I don't care about soldiers. Do you think, wearing such a thick armor?
The leather armor and a few wooden boards have improved the protection, but the weight has also increased by more than ten kilograms. Once the officers and soldiers come after him, he is wearing such a heavy thing, how can he outrun them!"
The generals laughed dumbly. They said they were familiar with it and pretended to be a horse thief in front of Wang Xuba. Isn't it just playing a big ax in front of the founder? "Xuba, tell me, who should be pretending to be the enemy?" After a moment, Li Xu stopped.
smile, ask
"Who else is there around us? The most important thing about defense is the Tiger Cavalry. If he wasn't afraid of being found out by us and getting a bad reputation for not keeping his word, I guess Luo would like to have iron tools installed on his minions!
"Wang Xuba curled his lips and answered loudly
"No, if the wooden board is replaced by a fine iron plate and two sleeves are put on, it will be no different from the equipment of the Huben cavalry!" Zhao Ziming laughed and shook his head. Only General Luo Yi of Huben was burdened by the name.
Liu Wuzhou and other Turkic tribesmen dared to sneak into the underground. It is estimated that they will kill them as soon as they roll up the flag. As long as they don't catch important people on the spot, and then kill them without admitting them. Anyway, Li Xu is temporarily unable to take the initiative to provoke a war.
"If it is really a tiger cavalry, the troops on the retreat side will be slightly insufficient!" Lu Qin frowned and reminded worriedly
Li Xu thought for a while and believed that it was unlikely that the two sides would formally break up their relationship in a short period of time. "Luo Yi didn't get military rations from us in the summer, so supplies must be a problem. The village in Zhuojun has just been established, and there are no supplies he urgently needs."
The reason why he did this is because he doesn’t want us to develop smoothly, so he will definitely be harassing us throughout the winter. If he really wants to lose face and declare war with us, he will probably have to wait until next summer!"
"Others probably have the same thoughts!" Zhao Ziming took over Li Xu's words and continued to add, "Constructive things like farming, farming, and reclaiming wasteland are too complicated. No one in the north has the heart to do it. But let's take care of the crops."
After planting, when it’s time to harvest, they will all smell the smell of wheat!”
Zhang Jiang hated this kind of behavior of getting something for nothing. He sneered a few times and said: "If you dare to reach out for such a cheap thing, let's break his dog's paws first!"
Zhao Ziming shook his head slightly, "It's not a question of whether to fight, but how to fight. The terrain on both sides of the Sanggan River is flat. If we really face the Tigers and Horses, with our current strength, we have no chance of winning, even if the opponent is not the Youzhou Army but the Youzhou Army."
The Turks, we can only passively defend against their many horses. Although we have built some forts here, we will not be able to form an overall defense line in a short period of time! Moreover, once the army is attracted to Zhuojun, I estimate that other people will
They can also have evil intentions! "The current situation has undergone very big changes compared to a few months ago. In early August, when the six counties of Boling were busy resettling the refugees, Hedong soldiers and horses fought along the trails to guard outside Huoyi City.
Song Laosheng deceived Taiyuan's troops, who were exhausted from far away, and led 30,000 troops out of the city for a decisive battle. Li Yuan first ordered Liu Hongji to lead his troops to ambush in Huoshan, southeast of the city. Li Shimin led them around to the south of the city, and led a large group of troops to stand in the east of Huoyi.
The camp then ordered Li Jiancheng to come forward to lure the enemy.
Song Laosheng saw that Li Jiancheng only brought thousands of cavalry, and immediately stepped forward to attack Li Jiancheng. Li Jianben planned to fight and retreat in accordance with the established battle plan, but was accidentally defeated. Song Laosheng pursued and killed him all the way to Li Yuan's camp.
At the critical juncture, Liu Hongji advanced from Huoshan and defeated Song Laosheng's flank. Seeing that the situation was not good, the Sui army quickly retreated. On the way, he was held back by Li Shimin for half an hour.
Taiyuan soldiers surrounded the Sui army, and Song Laosheng could not hold on any longer. He fought his way away from Li Shimin and fled towards Huoyi. Liu Hongji gave chase on horseback. He braved the defenders' arrows to kill Song Laosheng under the city wall of Huoyi.
End this battle perfectly
Later, the Taiyuan army captured Jiangjun and captured Chen Shuda. Then, the Longmen giant Sun Hua led 20,000 troops to surrender. Li Yuan and Feng Yi, the commander-in-chief, Xiao Zao, saw the Taiyuan soldiers rolling in. They were too frightened to resist, so they opened the city and surrendered immediately.
Li Yuan followed the advice of his generals and bypassed Hedong County, which was heavily guarded by Qu Tutong, and attacked the capital from Feng Yi.
In September, Taiyuan soldiers captured Yongfengcang, opened the warehouse to recruit troops, and Li Wan'er led the heroes of Wangwushan to march westward and joined Li Shimin in Weibei. Li Yuan's younger brother Li Shentong, the thief He Panren, Li Mi's uncle Li Zhongwen, and Li Yuan's other son-in-law Wei Wenzhen
Send troops from various places in Guanzhong to the east, and gather with the Taiyuan army near the capital
Others were overwhelmingly powerful, but his own side was stretched thin, which made Boling anxious. However, Luo Yi was behind him like a maggot attached to his bones. Dou Jiande and Liu Wu were drooling one after another on Monday.
If Li Xu could have been in charge of Boling for a year earlier, maybe his situation would not be so embarrassing. If Li Xu had strong connections like the Li family in Hedong, maybe he would have fought his way out of the six counties.
But those are what if in fact, he can only accumulate strength step by step, and develop slowly amidst the challenges that come one after another.
This is the innate condition of him and the six counties. If he wants to break through the sky above his head, he will need more opportunities and longer time.
