Daming kill

Chapter 21 First Entering Xiangyang
The news that Zhao Jin was promoted to Guerrilla quickly spread among the team. Surprise and excitement quickly enveloped everyone, and the originally quiet team became chattering.

But this time, no one came out to discipline, even Li Ping, who had been in charge of the east and west these days, did not speak out, so more soldiers joined in the chatter, as if they had also been promoted.

Li Ping is indeed unwilling to discipline at this time. It is nonsense to try to make these soldiers learn to strictly abide by discipline in 20 days. Their previous performance is already very good, and being confused at the right time will help them continue to be obedient in the future.

What's more, he has more important tasks now.

After hesitating for a while, Li Ping rushed to Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei.

"Give me 100 taels of silver." Li Ping whispered to Gao Lei.

"You want money now? What are you going to do?" Gao Lei's face was full of surprise, Zhao Lanyue also turned her head curiously, she probably didn't hear clearly.

Li Ping didn't intend to hide it from Zhao Lanyue, he raised his head and raised his voice slightly and said, "Zhao Jin just told me to get some benefits for that soldier."

After Zhao Lanyue asked Gao Lei in a confused voice, she immediately raised a question: "It doesn't cost that much! Do you know how much 100 taels of silver is worth? It's not like a small coin in a TV drama."

Zhao Lanyue is obviously very aware of the actual value of the money here. She seems to have a natural sensitivity to money, which may be related to her profession or experience, unlike Gao Lei who just doesn't understand his behavior of asking for money, and Li Ping is also very suspicious Gao Lei had no idea how much wealth 100 taels of silver meant.

"I know." Li Ping's answer was short and plain.

Zhao Lanyue stared at Li Ping and frowned slightly, probably dissatisfied with the answer, but she immediately put on a smiling face and asked, "The soldier asked for it?"

"No, it was Zhao Jin who offered to give it. He didn't say much, and the 100 taels was my own idea." Li Ping was very frank and calm.

"Are you sure you want to give so much?" Zhao Lanyue's eyes flickered, it should be very unexpected.

"Sure." Li Ping nodded firmly.

"I'm going to find Song Baolai, just wait a moment." Zhao Lanyue did not continue to ask strangely, and responded readily.

Gao Lei looked at Zhao Lanyue who was leaving in confusion, then turned her head and asked Li Ping, "Why?"

"I can't bear to let the child not catch the wolf." Li Ping curled his lips.

When Li Ping found the opportunity to pass the small cloth bag to Zhao Jin, Zhao Jin immediately handed it to Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier without hesitation.After a few excuses, the soldier quickly accepted with a smile on his face, and the two of them became more intimate.

This soldier of Zuo Liangyu is a little talkative. I don't know if it's because of his personality or because he was too excited to be a master here. Anyway, he has been showing off clearly, and he is a little bit talkative about what to say or not. up.

Soon, when a vast city gradually appeared in the distance of rain and fog, the chaotic buzzing in the team also quickly calmed down, but it was accompanied by continuous small cheers.

The long journey is finally coming to an end, and the soles of my feet can finally relax.

Li Ping also stretched out his neck to look around, his heart was full of curiosity, this was the first time he saw a truly original ancient city, an ancient city where ancient people lived.

Without the imaginary majesty and grandeur, he is used to seeing high-rise buildings, historical sites and man-made miracles. In this era, it is difficult for Li Ping to be shocked by any buildings, and his curiosity is more about its primitiveness.

Then, pieces of messy houses quickly came into his sight. It was obvious that this seemingly wide city could not provide enough internal space for many civilians.

The mixture of continuous residential houses and cities outside the city is the true nature of many cities in this era.

But as the distance continued to approach, this gray-black ancient city made him feel extraordinarily awed in the deep rain and fog.

Even in the chaotic dwellings, Li Ping still can't hear the hustle and bustle of the city, can't see the pedestrians and horses passing by, let alone the gorgeous architectural decoration, only silence and depression.

A few small trees hanging alone on the edge of the dwelling aroused his interest at this time, and all of them were covered with small wooden cages without exception, which were quite mysterious and different.

When Li Ping was still curious and thought that he could finally see some ancient customs, he suddenly found that the cages were just hideous heads exuding a huge smell.

The sound of the woman's vomiting came out quickly, and it caused Zuo Liangyu's soldiers who were leading the way at the front to look back a few times with amusing looks, and Zhao Jin's black face without any expression was in contrast.

The security and intimacy that the city should have brought are all gone at this moment.

This is Fancheng, where the famous story of "Flooding the Seven Armies" in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" took place, and it is also the place where "Guan Gong cured the poison by scraping the bones".

Of course, Li Ping also knew that these two stories did not take place in the city, but in the countryside.But what he doesn't know is that they have already passed through the historical scene in the story. It is a pity that Liu San's local low-level people in Xiangyang have almost zero knowledge in this regard.

Although this gloomy city is not Xiangyang City, it is not much different from Xiangyang City.

In the Ming Dynasty, Fancheng should actually be regarded as the acropolis or expansion of Xiangyang, because the two cities face each other across the river and have merged into one, so they are often collectively called Xiangfan by everyone.

Through the homework he did with Liu San, Li Ping knew that Fancheng had always been populated by civilians and garrisons, and the most famous ones were the romantic places, restaurants, and continuous wharves.As for Xiangyang's government offices, counties, guards and other government offices, Prince Xiang's Mansion, and various famous shops and handicraft shops, they are basically in Xiangyang City.

However, since the thieves started, the bustling city of Fancheng came to an end very quickly, and basically all capable people hid in Xiangyang City.

Xiangyang City is the seat of Xiangyang Mansion, which was announced by Hu Guangcheng. The entire Xiangyang Mansion has jurisdiction over Xiangyang County (the same city as the Fu), Yicheng County, Nanzhang County, Zaoyang County, Gucheng County and Junzhou.

Li Ping knew that Hunan and Hubei had not yet been separated in the Ming Dynasty, and they were still called Huguang as a whole. But what is Chengxuan Zhengshi?Li Ping didn't understand at first, and Liu San couldn't explain clearly at all.

Just as Liu San didn't know that Fancheng was independent a long time ago and originally belonged to Henan, he didn't even know the origin of Xiangyang's name.Fortunately, Li Ping knew that Li Daoyuan's "Shui Jing Zhu" said: "The city is in the Yang of Xiangshui (that is, the Han River), so it is called Xiangyang."

But soon, Li Ping roughly understood the meaning of Cheng Xuan's political envoy through the logical relationship.Cheng Xuanzhengshi should be roughly equivalent to the province, and the government should be equivalent to the prefecture-level city of later generations.As for the fact that the Ming Dynasty changed the province that followed the Yuan Dynasty into Chengxuan Zhengshisi in the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), and changed the name, Li Ping gradually figured it out soon after.

Passing through a residential area, the close-up of Fancheng finally came into view.

It turned out to be an earthen city wall.

The first close-up image that Fancheng brought to Li Ping surprised him.

Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that all the city walls above the prefecture and county level in the country be covered with bricks, so the city walls of the Ming Dynasty should have been covered with bricks, but what happened to Fancheng?Li Ping did not expect that the first city he saw in this era was actually an earthen city.

Li Ping never thought that Fancheng could not enjoy the treatment of Zhu Yuanzhang's policy because of his low administrative status. This was a bit beyond his knowledge structure, and of course it was difficult for him to understand.

This is Fancheng!A military fortress.

With doubts, Li Ping quickly came to a city gate with the team.

The moat surrounding the city, the incomplete sheep and horse wall built along the inner edge of the moat, the urn in front of the city gate, the city tower, and the wooden suspension bridge, the military fortress attribute of this city was finally revealed.

The energy of Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier also unexpectedly exceeded everyone's imagination. With the sound of shouting, they walked up the suspension bridge without being interrogated, and then more wooden cages hanging on the outer edge of the city wall appeared In front of them, they don't know who they are scaring.

The moat is very narrow, only about 10 meters high, and the city wall is not high, only about 5 meters. These are much lower than Li Ping's estimate.The Wengcheng is even smaller, and the city gate is also not big.

But even more disappointing were the soldiers defending the city.

They are generally thin and short, with bamboo hats, messy shorts, bare feet, short spears and inferior waist knives. There are only about a dozen people and most of them have no uniforms and headscarves. Rain, this is the guard at the city gate.

And there was no one to be seen on the city wall.

"Dingzhongmen".

Li Ping took a special look at the traditional Chinese characters on the city gate, he was guessing the importance of this city gate.Because the level of training and equipment of the soldiers at this city gate is undoubtedly extremely low, and their security awareness is even worse, they are ideal targets for raids.

Narrow streets, earthen ground, messy and simple houses, the inner city of Fancheng also did not bring many surprises to Li Ping who is used to seeing the world, and the only things that catch his eyes are the simplicity and primitiveness.

After a few turns, it didn't take long for them to pass through the city, and arrived at the southern earth wall of Fancheng, a long, lower and more dilapidated city wall.

The north-south length of Fancheng does not seem to be long, at least it is very different from the wide east-west length seen from the outside. Fancheng is likely to be flat and long.

As soon as they got out of the southern wall of Fancheng, they immediately saw an extremely wide river as promised, which should be the Han River (also called the Han River). its hazy shadow.

Wharves, there are wharves everywhere, and outside the city wall to the south of Fancheng are all wharves of different sizes that can't be seen at a glance. The connection between Fancheng and Xiangyang is undoubtedly extremely close.

However, although there are many large and small ships between these piers, the river surface is extremely empty and there are very few people on the piers.If you look carefully, you can see that there are people's heads constantly emerging from the various ships docked between the docks, but they quickly shrink back from them, as if they are avoiding the plague.

When Zuo Liangyu's personal soldiers were aggressively arranging boats across the river at a pier guarded by soldiers, Zhao Jin approached Li Ping, who had been watching around, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Li Ping withdrew his gaze, and said with a complicated expression: "The army here is terrible, and the defense of the city is not good."

"That's right, and there are not many of them." Zhao Jin continued with a sneer.

"How do you know there are not many?" Li Ping was very surprised. He knew very well that these appearances alone were not enough to judge the situation of the entire defenders.

"I'll tell you in detail when I settle down." As Zhao Jin pouted in the direction of Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier, Li Ping immediately understood that this Zhao Jin was not just foolishly trying to please, and that personal soldier It's too mouthful.

"How much money is in the bag." Zhao Jin asked again.

"It's about 100 taels, not much more. It's all broken silver, so I can only estimate it." Li Ping replied very flatly.

But Zhao Jin immediately sniffed involuntarily, and then said in a loud voice uncontrollably: "I just said, why does it feel so heavy after a jolt, so there are so many!"

"What! Too many bags?" Li Ping was a little puzzled.

"It's quite a lot, it's a bit beyond my expectation." Zhao Jin finally suppressed his voice again, and then he suddenly laughed and said, "However, well done! See how much that guy cares, it's still you Hard enough!"

Li Ping glanced at Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier who was domineering in the distance, and then asked with some doubts: "The energy of this personal soldier seems to be too great. One person brought us into the city, and there are so many people Everyone knows him, isn't this guy simple?"

"It's not easy. It's not easy to stay with Zuo Liangyu all the time. I heard that there are not many people who escaped with Zuo Liangyu. Okay, I'll go there first, and I have to let others have enough face." Zhao Jin After talking with a smile, he got on his horse and left.

Before long, they all boarded the ship smoothly.

Walking on the vast river, as Xiangyang City gradually became clear in sight, Li Ping finally felt the difference in Xiangyang.The brick-clad walls, continuous battlements, and taller city walls all show that it is far beyond the specifications of Fancheng.

No wonder there is such a saying as "Xiangyang made of iron, Fancheng made of paper".

However, the north wall of Xiangyang facing them does not seem to be longer than the east-west length of Fancheng, and Xiangyang City does not seem to be very large.

The place where they landed was near a city gate.

Passing through the urn city that was almost flattened, the words "Linhan Gate" appeared in front of my eyes, and then all the towers and battlements above the gate disappeared, leaving only the bare city wall eight or nine meters high.

Such obvious traces of war make it impossible not to pay attention.

Seeing that everyone was paying attention to the city, the talkative Zuo Liangyu soldier said angrily: "It's all the good work of the big thief Zhang Xianzhong. He can't fight a war, but demolishing the city is quite addictive."

Entering Xiangyang City was much more troublesome than entering Fancheng. Although the soldiers guarding the city were still so unbearable, they were obviously much more numerous. Their inspections were also quite strict, and Zuo Liangyu's personal soldiers were interrogated for a long time.

But Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier, who had always been a little domineering, surprisingly didn't show any irritability, and instead cooperated very much.

Maybe it was to save face, the soldier said loudly as soon as he entered the city: "Last year, Xian Thief pretended to be an officer and tricked him into opening the city gate to capture Xiangyang. Naturally, he must be extremely careful in the investigation of Xiangyang, and we should also Cooperate."

In response to everyone's interest, they finally entered Xiangyang. The regular streets, thick stone roads and complex buildings and pavements finally made people feel the extraordinaryness and heritage of this historic city, and soon made people dizzy. stand up.

This is Xiangyang, their temporary shelter.

(End of this chapter)