Defend the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 11 Undercurrents surging
The military city of Yele Town is located three miles southeast of Yele City.

The long and narrow city from east to west is built according to the terrain. It stands on a high stone ridge, about two miles from east to west and one mile from north to south.

Its scale is not to mention comparable to the cities in Guannei, and it is even inferior to Yele City. The whole is a large fortress.

Although the military city is small, its location is excellent.

To the south is the vast sea and wasteland. Standing on the turret, you can see five or six miles away.

To the north is the gurgling Chihe River, facing Yele City across the river, and can see the endless fields cultivated by the frontier soldiers along the river beach.

When the sky is clear, you can even vaguely see the beacon tower built on the top of Balitou Mountain in the east of the city.

The west side is steep and almost impossible to climb, and the east side is layer upon layer, wrinkled and criss-crossed mountains. Although people can climb up, the army cannot deploy.

As long as you stand condescending and guard the north and south sides, it can be said that one man is in charge of the gate, and ten thousand men can't open it!

It is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and in addition to the fact that there have been no wars in the past few years, there are very few soldiers on duty on the city wall on weekdays, and there are only 32 soldiers including the brigade commander on duty.

The others, like the government soldiers in the pass, can only be on duty for a few days a year. They are usually busy farming, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

In fact, most of the soldiers were soldiers from Yongzhou Jingzhao County, Puzhou Hedong County and other places, but now it is no different from decades ago, and they can be rotated every four years.

Because there is no one to replace them, many people have been in the town for many years and have gray hair, but they have been unable to return to their hometowns.

Even if Lord Jiedu sent troops to replace them, very few soldiers were sent each time, which meant that very few people could return home.

Who to let go and who not to go has become the most troublesome question for several town envoys.

At the beginning of watching military exploits, those with outstanding military exploits can go back to reunite with their families, and they can return to their roots.

But even if there is no big battle at the border, there will be small battles. Whenever there is a war, there will be military exploits. As long as you stay for more than ten or twenty years, the most important thing is military exploits.

Twelve rounds of military merit, many people have already completed Dzogchen, and they are starting to turn for the second time.There are eight "Double Upper Pillar Kingdoms" in Guangjun City, so it is impossible to decide who to return to their hometown based on military exploits.

What's more, most of the outstanding military exploits are old and weak, and they walk tremblingly, and they can't even stand firmly.And Yele is more than nine thousand miles away from Chang'an, if they were really let go, they would die on the road.

Over time, even if Lord Jiedu sent troops, General An and Deputy General Li, the envoy of Zhendu, no longer mentioned the matter of returning the man to his hometown.

The soldiers were also too lazy to go to the soldier Cao Canjun to ask himself how many rewards he had paid, anyway, it was useless to ask.

As the saying goes, looking back at the past, there will never be a repayment date!

The old soldier curled up at the gate of the city basking in the sun is a "double pillar country".And it has been the third time to reward the Eleventh Revolution, and the third time to be Zhu Guo.

As a rule, apart from obtaining military merits on the battlefield, the soldiers of the frontier army can be rewarded with one round of honor every year of garrison.

A burly officer stood on the turret, silently looking down at the old pawn, and secretly lamented that if the old man could live until next spring, then he could become the first "Three Shangzhu" in the four towns of Anxi and even the entire Tang Dynasty. country".

That is the Shangzhu Kingdom, which is regarded as the second rank!

Thinking back to those days, not to mention the military merits of the twelve ranks rewarding the Shangzhu Kingdom, even the military merits of the fourth rank rewarding the honorary cavalry captain is also extremely honorable.

But now, there are captains and guards as numerous as dogs, and Zhu Guo and Shang Zhu Guo are all over the place!
Even if they can be released to their hometowns, the county magistrate and county lieutenant in their hometown will not look at them, let alone send them to Xuntian and arrange for them to be officials.

What the hell is this...

The officer cursed secretly, and was about to turn around and look at the Fengbao on the top of the headache mountain, when suddenly footsteps came from behind, and a tall and thin bearded Huo Chang climbed up with a horizontal knife in his hand.

"Brother, I'm back."

"How did you get here?"

"Today is the thirteenth day of September, the last day of the Gahanbal Festival. Many Hu people went to the city to pray for blessings. The Fire God Temple was full of people, and even the gates of the city were blocked by businessmen."

There were no outsiders on the turret, and the soldiers patrolling the city wall were far away. The officer didn't worry about being heard, so he turned around and asked, "Have you seen Shopkeeper Mi?"

Huo Zhang leaned down to look down, and said in a low voice, "See you."

The officer asked: "What did he say, everything is going well?"

Huo Chang wiped the sweat off his forehead and said: "As expected, the surname Han went to celebrate King Yele's birthday. I thought he would keep it simple as usual, but I didn't expect him to ask someone to buy gifts early in the morning.

He bought a lot of presents, hired sixteen camels, and there were so many people in the city today, he didn't leave the city until it was almost late. "

"How many guards did he bring?"

"There are not many guards, just his personal guards."

"How many?"

"Four, the remaining two stay in the mansion to guard the gate."

"What about the other attendants?"

"It's not an entourage, they are all temporarily hired from the market, even the camels and people are hired together."

"Have you seen how many people there are?"

"Sixteen or seventeen."

The bearded Huo Chang looked back around, and continued, "Although there are more than a dozen people, they are all horsemen. Shopkeeper Mi has sent someone on a fast horse to tell Cao Duman that Cao Duman should be able to deal with it."

After thinking about it, the officer was still not at ease, looked at the beacon castle in the distance and asked, "What is Cui Han doing?"

"Isn't it the Hu Festival today? Shopkeeper Mi said that even Ma Ge from Guishu Huoshen Temple made a special trip. He can no longer just give some money like before, so he went to Huoshen Temple before I came back."

Ma Ge is the respectful name given to the high priest of the Fire God by the believers of the Fire God, and has an extremely high status in the hearts of the believers.

Most of the barbarians in Yele believed in the god of fire, so every race was a big event for the city lord's mansion and even Yele town, and the city lord's mansion even had to bear the dried wine and paper needed for the race.

This time, even the high priest of the Guishu Zoroastrian Temple came to Sai Zong, and Cui Han, as the city lord, of course treated him with courtesy.If you don't show your face as before, you will disrespect the gods you believe in, and if you arouse public anger, there will be big troubles.

The officer nodded and asked, "Where's Chen Erniu, that old fox?"

"The old fox just started to watch the excitement in the Fire God Temple. When I came back, he was taken to drink by fake Taoist priests and monk Hu from Baiyun Temple."

The bearded fire chief knew what the officer was worried about, so he thought about it and said: "Brother, Cao Duman is greedy for profit, he will definitely do it. As long as he dares to do it, the rest will be easy."

"What if he gets cold feet?"

"Treasurer Mi has been prepared for a long time. If he doesn't do something, his subordinates will do it."

"Okay, I'll go down and see what General Li is doing. You are here staring at Headache Mountain, and you will drum up when you see the wolf smoke."

……

At the same time, the Huoshen Temple not far from the west gate of Yele City was crowded with people and it was very lively.

Cui Han, who joined the army of Cao Cang in Yele Town and the lord of Yele City, was invited into the main hall by Sa Bao, and sat with a group of Sogdian merchants in Yele City, listening to the high priest from the Zoroastrian Temple in Guishu City chanting scriptures.

The high priest who came from afar was named Qu Du. Although he was over [-] years old and had white beard and hair, he was in good spirits.

He stood beside the fire altar in plain clothes, holding a cup in his left hand and waving his right hand, reciting the scriptures and meanings in rhythm, his whole person was solemn and wise under the illumination of the holy fire.

Shi Xianning, the richest Sogdian businessman in Yele, knew that Mingfu adults could not understand, so he sat beside him and translated in a low voice.

"The prophet Zoroaster said, Hum, hello, who was the one who made you drink in the first place? What kind of happiness and reward did he get?"

"Replied Hum, pure and death-defying, Vivanghan of the world made me drink for the first time, and in return I blessed him with a boy named Jamshid, who had flocks of Good animals become the most prominent figures among the people of the world."

"He has bright eyes like the sun. When he was in power, he made animals and humans live forever, made rivers run endlessly, and grass and trees never withered. He made food abundant, inexhaustible, and inexhaustible..."

It turns out that "Humu" is neither a man nor a god, but the juice squeezed from the "holy grass" of the Vulcan religion.

Grass juice can be regarded as a sacred object, and it has divinity and can "speak". Whether this is teaching or storytelling is far worse than my Tang Taoism.

Road to Road, very Avenue.

Famous, very famous.

Nameless, the beginning of heaven and earth.

Famous, mother of all things...

As soon as you listen to it, you will know that it is mysterious and mysterious, and when you calm down and understand it carefully, you will know that it contains the ultimate truth of heaven and earth.

With the jewels of the Tang State Religion in front of him, Cui Han really looked down on the teachings of the Fire Sect, and really couldn't imagine how many people would believe it.

But today he is not here to study and compare doctrines, but to see if all the famous Hu merchants in Yele are there, and to see that these Hu merchants are not suspicious.

Because now it is almost certain that some of the merchants in Yele's Sogdia had the intention to murder, at least some of them participated in the murder of Lord Superintendent and his son.

In such a big game, small merchants and hawkers with little wealth are obviously not eligible to participate, only wealthy merchants with a lot of money can do it.

Today happens to be the last day of the Gahanbal Festival, and it is also the busiest day of the entire Gahanbal Festival.

The first is to chant scriptures and pray for blessings. After the high priest finishes speaking, there will be drumming masterpieces, orchids singing and dancing, and delicious wine and food...

It is said that after the banquet, the students of Ma Ge will perform miracles of being possessed by gods and piercing the abdomen with sharp knives.

In short, all Sogdian merchants who believe in Vulcanism should come today.

Those who did not come must have ghosts, and those who came but behaved suspiciously may also have ghosts.After all, with such a big game, it is impossible for them not to keep an eye on the progress.

As for whether there were Sogdian merchants who traveled around and made their homes all over the world, that was something that Yichang Chen should find a way to find out.

Cui Han just listened to Shi Xianning's translation, while observing the surroundings calmly, while being encouraged by the eyes of the high priest, he drank "Humu" with the devout believers.

This grass juice is neither salty nor sweet, with a hint of alcohol.Not very drinkable, but not overwhelming either.

Do as the Romans do, since you have to drink when you come.

While drinking, I felt a little dizzy, and my whole body became dizzy.

An inexplicable feeling surged up, the soul seemed to be out of the body, as if he could travel thousands of miles immediately, could it be that this "Hum" really contains divinity...

(End of this chapter)