Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 2 (Chapter Le Yi If Reborn (4)

Chengying Eighth Battalion resettled the people. The terrain of this valley is dangerous. The center is low-lying like a huge dustpan.Due to lack of manpower, manpower was not arranged to repair these side walls.In addition to arranging three hidden outposts on the peaks around the valley, the felled trees will be arranged as fences at the narrow mouth of the valley in the north, and archers will be guarded.

A hundred miles to the east is the Yalu River, and less than two hundred miles to the south is the mouth of the Yalu River, which is convenient for the support of the fourth battalion navy.In accordance with the tradition of the people of Xia to expand the frontier, Chengying Ying spent most of its labor on reclaiming wasteland and building warehouses.Cangcheng was not built in the valley, but on Jietian Ridge, the highest peak in the east of the valley.

Jin Changtai divided the reclamation land of Fenghuang Mountain into two parts, inside the valley and outside the valley.In addition to blacksmith shops, fletching workshops, horse farms, haystacks, storage, etc., about [-] shady households were resettled in the valley.Charcoal burning field, quarry, pottery field, brick field, logging field, pasture, etc. are all outside the valley.In the valley to the north, an iron mine has been discovered, which seems to be a mine that has been excavated and abandoned. Zhao Xingde is overjoyed, but right now there are too few laborers, and the iron ore mining progress is slow.After that, the shady households recruited will open up wasteland outside the valley, and then retreat into the valley when the enemy attacks.Gu Nei borrowed from the method of reclamation of sloping fields in central Sichuan, and used every inch of land to grow food as much as possible, and imitated the method of building canals in the northwest, digging ponds and ditches to irrigate the fields.After sunset, when all the shady households came back from opening up wasteland, the sergeant asked them to practice shooting arrows according to the teaching method of the regiment training army.

On this day, Zhao Xingde and Jin Changtai carried a heavy rangefinder and boarded the Cangcheng base site on Jietianling to survey the terrain again.It's not yet the harvest time, the so-called Cangcheng is only a wooden pile laid down by Yinhu under the command of Jin Changtai.A simple shack was built next to the wooden pile, covered with dead branches and weeds, looking from a distance, it looked like a rock covered with weeds on a mountain ridge.The lookout posts on the beacon are guarded by archers with good eyesight, "General Zhao." Sergeant Cheng Zhuang stood up and saluted Zhao Xingde.Zhao Xingde nodded with a smile, and patted him on the shoulder to show encouragement.

Standing on Jietian Ridge, you can see everything in a radius of more than ten miles. A line of ridges is like a giant's arm that firmly protects the valley in its arms.There are people working like ants everywhere. Although they have engulfed nearly 7000 people, they are still too few to spread in this valley.Both the hillside and the bottom of the valley are covered with trees and grass.Except for those who were on guard, the sergeants took off their armor and worked with the shady households to weed and prepare the land to plant sorghum, soybeans, wheat and peanuts.The pasture fields outside the valley are mainly alfalfa and wheatgrass, and the pasture seeds were brought by Chengyingying from Xiaguo.

"It's a pity that the distance between this lone peak and other peaks is too far, and our artillery's range is not enough. Otherwise, we can build a cross-firing battery on the mountain peak, and we can control the radius of ten miles." Zhao Xingde sighed, "It would be fine if the ridges were polygons separated by one or two miles." Chengying Battalion only had ten light cannons now, so they had to give up the idea of ​​building a fort on Jietian Ridge.

Looking at the steep hillside, Jin Changtai smiled wryly and said, "How can you have such good luck to build a group of forts built in heaven? Besides, it is not easy to build a fort here, just to pull up a copper cannon weighing nearly a thousand catties." Ah," he paused, then sighed, "the Han army's stronghold master fought bravely, but he was quite shrewd in scheming against us. The three dangerous peaks here are the walls, and the valley is the city. At least one hundred thousand people can be garrisoned here. But we There are less than a thousand sergeants, so it is difficult to defend. This place is only the remnant of Taibai Mountain. The mountain is isolated and located in an important point. It is located between Liao, Goryeo, and Jurchen. The room for the expansion of forces is also very limited. It seems extremely dangerous. It is actually a tasteless place.”

Not far outside the valley, a big tree suddenly fell, and the figure of the strong man wielding a huge ax was very obvious. "The ax is still better. It can do work normally, and it can break through heavy armor in battle." Zhao Xingde laughed, "It's a pity that there is still too little iron. When there is enough iron in the future, an ax will be added to the iron spears of the elite regiments. Facing the Jurchen iron cavalry, there is always the power to fight back."

Jin Changtai looked at the black smoke rising from the iron shop in the valley, and said angrily: "You have melted the gods, Buddhas and big bells in a radius of ten miles, which is too little." There are very few iron wares among the people in Liaodong, and most of the people only have wooden farm tools. Good for reclaiming wasteland.Before the iron smelting plant opened, in order not to delay the farming season, Zhao Xingde had to order the sergeants to collect bronze utensils everywhere, and the iron utensils were returned to the furnace to cast iron plows, shovels, iron picks, iron axes and other tools.The biggest sources of ironware are statues of gods and Buddhas in temples and big bells made of copper and iron.Although some of them may have a history of hundreds of thousands of years, Zhao Xingde is determined to fuse them all.

"Do you know how many monks and priests are cursing you to die?" Jin Changtai said with a sullen face. He once wanted to redeem these antique Buddha statues and big bells with his own money, but Zhao Xingde refused them all. .

"If you don't have iron farm tools to open up wasteland, if you can't grow enough food, people will starve to death." Zhao Xingde said in a deep voice, "Gods and Buddhas have the benevolence of cutting meat to feed eagles and sacrificing their lives to feed tigers, so how can they care about these things." His eyes Suddenly he became serious, and there seemed to be four or five riders coming towards this place on the mountain road to the north. He lowered his head and looked through the telescope of the range finder, and he recognized one of the three masters of the Han army cottage, one recognized it, and the other three were With a new face, he couldn't help frowning.

Jin Changtai's tone was stagnant, and he sighed in a low voice: "The situation in Liaodong is two tigers fighting each other. The Han army will never succeed. It is inevitable to coerce the people. You issued land deeds, iron farm tools, and seeds. Now many people They are all full of hope, and if they fall in the future, they will lose all hope and feel that life is better than death." He also saw the cavalry soldiers gradually approaching, and the cavalry scouts on the top of the mountain in the distance had already raised flags towards this side.But Jin Changtai thought of those Liaodong people who joined the Brotherhood of Volunteering, their faces full of hope and fear of death. He always felt a little guilty in his heart. Just a day ago, he personally watched these people being captured into the Khitan people. He cast down the military state.

"Hope is better than no hope," Zhao Xingde said in a deep voice, "As long as there is one percent hope, there is still a possibility of victory. If there is no hope, then we will lose from the beginning. He straightened up and began to dismantle the range finder and angle meter with Jin Changtai. All the commanding heights and paths within a radius of ten miles were marked on the clearest map by them. Unfortunately, the number of Chengying sergeants is too small now. The place that should be defended by tens of thousands of people is now full of loopholes like a sieve.

Xu Detai came to Sanyin Village, but was blocked by a rough wooden fence. The sergeant in the watchtower in front clearly recognized him, but still obeyed the rules and wanted to report to Zhao Xingde before opening the gate of the village. Xu Detai's face couldn't help but sink. down.Xiong Renyue from Wunvzhai behind him smiled and said: "These guys are really good at pretending, they still think they are the imperial army."

Eliye Mouk stared at the sergeant on the archery tower with the wooden fence.The Jurchen tribes along the Yalu River either followed the Liao people to move to the west inland, or they were up for grabs between the Kingdom of Jin and Koryo. Sanyinzhai is now a place where the Liao people can cultivate and guard the frontier. Since the Liao people withdrew , has become a place without an owner. Although the Jurchen ministries in the south covet this place, they have not had time to occupy it due to the small population. Unexpectedly, it was occupied by this group of Han people within a month.

Not long after, the sergeant guarding the wooden fence in the north got permission, and opened the gate of the village with a winch. Erli also wanted to rush in, so as to show him some strength.Unexpectedly, the passage behind the gate of the village turned in a concave shape. The cavalry could not rush in at full speed, and four or five riders had to enter slowly. There is also a square window at the level of the horse's belly below the crenel of the arrow.His forehead also saw the cold light of some weapons from the window, and he couldn't help thinking to himself: "What a sinister Han."

The owner of this place is already waiting at the exit of the passage, Zhao Xingde cupped his hands in salute, and said with a smile on his face: "The good wind has brought my distinguished guest here!" Xu Detai couldn't be trusted, so he got off his horse and introduced Zhao Xingde and the others Afterwards, Fang Cai led Ma Lai to the camp not far away.

Xu Detai looked left and right as he walked, and couldn't help but secretly startled. He didn't expect that in just a month or so, the people of Xia Guo had managed this valley to a full extent. The neat fields had begun to appear, and the people's shacks were evenly distributed. Between the fields, the frames of some wooden houses are being built, and the hillsides are built like stairs one after another. I don't know what the purpose is.On the other hand, the villages of the Han army are still a mess. It is the spring plowing season, and the heads of the villages can only take care of the people in the resettlement and reclamation places in various valleys, letting them fend for themselves.There were a lot of people who were coerced, but they were short of food and clothing, some died of starvation, and some were domineering by the soldiers. They scattered and reclaimed the fields, and then began to flee continuously.

Seeing these people looking around, Zhao Xingde frowned slightly, and thought to himself that a wooden fence needs to be built behind this narrow road and the camp to form a line of defense similar to an urn city. The Chinese army tent is located in the center of the wooden fence, like a tower .It not only strengthens the defense, but also prevents outsiders from seeing the truth in the valley.

"What are you looking at, haven't you seen Hu people in Liaodong?" Sergeant Cao Bai shouted, and several shady households immediately bowed their waists and continued to level the land.Zhang Pu controlled a horse-drawn plow, and muttered to himself: "It's really strange that a soldier can handle it well."

Cao Bo ignored him, bent down, and carefully checked the depth of the plowing of these shady households.

The sergeants ordered the households to interplant these kinds of crops in a certain proportion according to the rules issued by the farming and animal husbandry Cao.Obtaining grain and war horse fodder in this way should be the largest combined benefit.The shade households were skeptical and did not dare to disobey, they could only secretly pray that what these military masters said was true and that there would be a good harvest in the future.