Youzhou is the seat of Lulong Jiedu and has been an important military town in the north since ancient times. As early as the Warring States Period, this place was the capital of Yan State, one of the seven heroes, and was known as Yanjing in history. After Qin unified the six kingdoms, Ji County was established as Guangzhou
Yangjun was the seat of government. It was changed to Zhuojun in the Sui Dynasty, and was restored to Youzhou during the Wude period of the Tang Dynasty. It was the rear base for the northern expedition to Goguryeo. During the Tianbao period, Anlushan proclaimed himself emperor here. After the Anshi Rebellion subsided, Youzhou was restored and returned to Lulongjiedu.
For more than a hundred years, this place has been firmly in control of more than a dozen states and has always been one of the three powerful vassals in the north.
Compared with the Central Plains and southern Hebei, which are prone to constant fighting, Youzhou can be considered a stable place. The expressions of the business travelers Li Chengzhong saw along the way were very peaceful, and the people's lives were relatively stable. The closer to Youzhou, the more land was reclaimed.
The more farmland came out, gradually connecting it into large tracts of ridges. As the harvest season was approaching, looking around, half-green and half-yellow wheat seedlings were rolling in the wind, forming waves.
Away from the battlefield and danger, Li Chengzhong looked greedily at the harmonious and peaceful everything in front of him, and his heart was filled with joy. There were no forest of telegraph poles, no highways passing through the fields, no mountains of plastic garbage, and no filthy streets.
There were no ditches, and there was no ubiquitous car exhaust. He took a deep breath of the fresh air and praised the whole journey happily.
The tall city wall of Youzhou City gradually appeared in the distance, and the area was much larger than that of Beizhou and Weizhou. When I got closer, I saw that the city wall was actually made of huge stones. Compared with Beizhou and Weizhou, the city wall was actually made of huge stones.
I don’t know how much stronger it is than the city wall made of hard earth like Youzhou. Yanshan Mountain in the distance outlines streaks of blue silk in the sky on the horizon. The sunlight shines on the tall Youzhou city wall, making this big city shine.
Brilliant light.
This is Youzhou, the political, economic and military center of the north, and the hub of the entire land of Yan and Zhao. In a few decades, this place will become Nanjing of the Liao Kingdom and the central capital of the Jin Kingdom. In more than three hundred years, this place will
It will become the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, the world's hegemon, and the center of the world in the true sense. Then, it will serve as the capital of the Ming and Qing dynasties, ruling East Asia for five hundred years! Finally, it will become the capital of the era when Li Chengzhong came.
A holy place in the hearts of more than one billion Chinese people.
"It's really spectacular!" Li Chengzhong murmured as he looked at the big city in front of him. The city with city walls in ancient times was a huge shock to people's hearts. The beauty displayed by this huge integrated building complex will make people unconscious.
No matter how big the urban agglomerations of later generations that Li Chengzhong had seen were, and no matter how tall the buildings in them were, they were far less magnificent than the cities surrounded by such tall city walls.
Why is Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty so admired by visitors of different skin colors and cultures from all over the world? Why does it make all travelers from the East and the West feel the urge to worship? The magnificence of the city walls built for dozens of miles is extremely important.
Factors. The long city wall is one of the most charming and magnificent cultural heritages of Chinese civilization. The unique charm it exudes makes Li Chengzhong fall in love with it.
Most of the brothers in Youdu were temporarily recruited from the states under Lulongjiedu before the war. Except for a few people such as Zhang Xingzhong, they had never seen such a big city. Everyone had the same look on their faces as Li Chengzhong
.This look was immediately despised by Zhang Xingzhong, a son of a family of military generals who had lived here for a long time. He really couldn't stand the country bumpkin look of everyone, so he took the initiative to act as a guide and planned to guide Youdu into the city, and at the same time used the title of "landlord"
I invited Brother Youdu to be a guest in my home.
Zhang Xingzhong's active guidance failed, which embarrassed him as a "landlord". Although he repeatedly emphasized and explained his origin and reported his family name, and also gave the address of his alley in detail,
Zhang Xingzhong never got permission from the city gate guards. The other party politely but seriously informed Zhang Xingzhong and brothers Youdu that in view of the current special situation, all soldiers entering the city must show the customs clearance certificate issued by the chief officer of each battalion. Youdu was helpless.
He had no choice but to give up his plan to visit Youzhou City and go to Zhang Xingzhong's home to drink and celebrate. Following the instructions of the city gate guard, he detoured to the west of the city and reported back to Jianzu Camp first.
The Jian soldiers camp was established five miles west of the city. It has long lost the appearance of the numerous tents and soldiers at the Juma River. There are only dozens of tents erected in the camp built with simple wooden fences, and the whole view can be seen at a glance.
They all drove their bullock carts to the gate of the camp and saw two soldiers lazily standing guard at the gate. These two sentries were acquaintances and knew several brothers from Youduzhong. Li Chengzhong looked familiar to them both. They met on both sides.
When they met, Wang Dalang was the first to run over and chatted with the two of them in a familiar manner. One of them immediately rushed into the camp to report the news.
Not long after, several officers were seen rushing out of the camp. The first one was the commander Zhou Zhiyu. Zhou Zhiyu's eyes were red. He pulled Brother Youdu and asked them one by one, but he choked and said one sentence repeatedly: "
Just come back! Just come back!”
Li Chengzhong was the team leader who was promoted by Zhou Zhiyu himself after the First World War in Beizhou, so Zhou Zhiyu was relatively familiar with him. After greeting everyone, he asked Li Chengzhong about the incident. Hearing that Li Chengzhong was killing Lin Zhong, on the way
As soon as the encounter with the Bian Army cavalry was mentioned, Zhou Zhiyu couldn't stop praising Youdu for his astuteness. When he heard about the young marshal snatching military honors, he was silent for a moment and said, "Zhou is ashamed of all of you brothers."
Li Chengzhong said that he didn't have much hope in this matter, but he comforted Zhou Zhiyu: "The brothers are just a little angry, and have long been indifferent to this matter. Besides, the German army was defeated by the young marshal, and the prisoners were handed over to
He has nothing to do with him. Just relax, the commander, the brothers don’t mind." Zhou Zhiyu nodded and said, "Brothers know the general idea, and I have an idea."
After talking for a while, Zhou Zhiyu remembered that everyone was still outside the camp at the moment, so he quickly ordered the officer behind him to arrange for a rest in Youdu. The officer was one of Zhou Zhiyu's personal guards, called Zhao Zaili, and he had the rank of Colonel of the Accompanying Army.
, one level higher than Li Chengzhong, but he does not lead troops and has no practical duties.
Zhao Zaili led Li Chengzhong and others to find a few empty camps, and designated this place as the headquarters of Youdu. Upon hearing Li Chengzhong's inquiry, Zhao Zaili was more straightforward, and immediately informed Jianzu of the current situation of the camp without any concealment.
After the army was defeated, Zhou Zhiyu rushed out from the chaos, followed by only seven or eight people, Zhao Zaili was one of them. Everyone followed Zhou Zhiyu in hot pursuit of the commander Liu Rengong, and finally caught up with the Chinese army at the foot of Hejian City.
After that, he immediately returned to Youzhou. After that, Zhou Zhiyu set up camp in the west of the city and gathered the defeated troops. In the past ten days, some brothers have returned one after another. Counting those who arrived in Youdu today, there are only 378 people in total. Jian
There were tens of thousands of soldiers when the camp went out, but now only this few are left. It can be said that ten pavilions have been replaced by nine pavilions.
As for the other troops and horses, Zhao Zaili was not very clear. He only heard that the entire Badu Cavalry army was wiped out, the state troops were completely defeated, and most of the Shanhou Army and Yin Gourd were destroyed, and they are still being gathered up one after another. The casualties were heavy.
On the contrary, because of the rigorous training and the loyalty of the soldiers, more of the elite Yamen army returned to Youzhou with the commander-in-chief. I heard that after the reorganization, there should be as many as two thousand.
All in all, the Lulong Army does not have many troops that can go into battle. If the Hedong Army had not come to disrupt the situation, the Bian Army would probably have attacked Youzhou City in one go. Even the Chengde Army, which had previously looked down upon, relied entirely on Marshal Liu Shouguangxin
Only the formed army of volunteers can stop it.
This was the biggest defeat suffered by the Lulong Army in a century, and it almost wiped out all the wealth. Marshal Liu Rengong fell ill after his return, and all the armies were demoralized. There was nothing to do except gather the defeated troops. You
After all the brothers learned about this situation, they all sighed. Since they were defeated, there was no reward. Li Chengzhong and Jiang Miao had nowhere to receive the 10,000 yuan they had received from the battle in Beizhou, and they were embarrassed.
He went to ask Zhou Zhiyu, who was in a bad mood.
Youdu had nothing to do in the camp, so Li Chengzhong once again made plans to go shopping in Youzhou. Because Youdu currently did not have a captain or team officer, he was one of the highest-ranking officers. By virtue of his acquaintance with Zhou Zhiyu,
So he simply came to the outside of the Chinese army's tent and wanted to ask Zhou Zhiyu for permission to enter the city.
Li Chengzhong was blocked by Zhao Zaili outside the Chinese army's tent and was not able to see Zhou Zhiyu because the commander had not been in the camp in the past few days and was said to have been rushing to Jiedufu Yamen. After hearing Li Chengzhong's intention, Zhao Zaili
He smiled and told him, "It's easy." He opened the curtain and went into the tent. After a while, he took out a stack of security guards and asked, "How many people are there?"
Li Chengzhong hurriedly said: "Twenty-four!"
Zhao Zaili quickly picked up the seal and stamped it on the gate. After a while, he stamped twenty-four copies and handed them to Li Chengzhong. Seeing that Li Chengzhong looked at the seal with some doubts, he explained: "The commander has ordered it, everyone."
Everyone is working hard, so anyone who wants to go to the city can go and I can take care of it. There is nothing much to do in the past few days. If you have a place to stay, just stay in the city. Everyone will come back every three days to order.
That's fine. The commander also said that the army suffered a defeat and lost countless supplies, money and food. There is no money left for everyone to spend. I hope you can understand."
With the customs defense in place, the brothers from Youdu happily tidied up their affairs. In fact, there was nothing to do, they just washed them clean in the camp, and followed Zhang Xingzhong to Youzhou.
This was the first time that Li Chengzhong actually entered a densely populated ancient city, and his interest was very high. Because of the massacre in Beizhou, all the people were killed, and the city was in a mess, so he couldn't see much of the scenery. This time it was different.
, I saw shops lined up in rows, and people were coming and going in the streets. It was very lively, but there were more people begging on the streets, which was really unbearable to see. The whole Youzhou was full of poor people, and they didn’t have much money, otherwise he would really want to
Try the snacks sold by street vendors.
Everyone looked around and followed Zhang Xingzhong across the street to transfer property and then came to an alley. When they got here, Zhang Xingzhong's breathing became a little rapid. He took three steps at a time and came to a door, "thump thump thump" and smashed it hard.
He opened the door and shouted: "Mother! Mother! Father! Father! So-and-so is back!"