Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 343 A Thousand Miles Away (2)

Because the coastal waters had frozen, the ships carrying the Han army actually docked beside a trestle bridge about [-] meters long.The deck of the bridge is covered with thick hardwood, about two feet above the ice surface. Nie Chounu looked down and saw thick piers under the trestle bridge, one after another, and murmured: "My dear, we must build it up." This bridge will take a lot of work."

Zhou Guangzong smiled and said, "Who says it's not? I heard that this stone pier is made of fine iron, but without this bridge, we would not be able to reach the shore." Standing on the trestle bridge, the wind was blowing, Both have to speak loudly for the other to hear.But suddenly seeing this rare thing, my heart was filled with inexplicable excitement.When all the Han troops came to the pier, they saw that the shore was full of wooden houses and thatched sheds, and there was a fortress on a hill not far away.Nie Chounu recognized at a glance that this city was somewhat similar to Nanshan City, and pointed out to Zhou Guangzong: "Look there, General Zhao's Bagua City!"

Zhou Guangzong curled his lips and said, "Brother Nie, that is the garrison yamen." In every port controlled by Xia Guoying, there is a garrison fortress. Much the same.In this group of Han troops, Zhou Guangzong was a know-it-all about the situation in the north. He pointed to a wooden house in the distance with the four characters "road" and "placement", and said with a smile: "there is the distribution Lu***'s yamen."

The newly arrived Han army should have waited for the guards to lead the way, but the pier was windy and freezing to death. Relying on knowing the signboard of the yamen, Zhou Guangzong took his own initiative to lead the people towards the resettlement place. Halfway through, they were caught by two The garrison stopped him and insisted on looking at his street sign.Zhou Guangzong and the others were just going to get the signposts, so they couldn't get them, so the guards asked them to go back to the pier and wait.

Everyone was arguing in a confusing manner when someone suddenly asked, "What's going on?"

Nie Chounu looked up and gasped. It turned out to be a team of more than ten cavalry.The war horses are fat and strong, with long manes on their four hooves and necks. The cavalry sits on the horses, puts their hands on the blades, and stares down at their own group, which makes people hairy.The leading officer seemed to be asking casually, but the two guards became nervous, ignored the group of Han soldiers, and said respectfully, "Lord Bing, these newcomers have no signposts, but they are at the pier." Random' go."

Zhou Guangzong's eyes were sharp, and he said loudly: "General Jin, Jin Sima, I am Zhou Guangzong. Last month I followed General Zhang to Yuancheng for business. Your Excellency also praised my name. If you want me to work hard to kill the enemy, Guangzong honors the ancestors!" The rules in the north are strict, and Zhou Guangzong has long known that he regrets it very much, but out of a sense of face, he doesn't want to throw this person in front of Nie Chounu and others.He looked at Jin Changtai expectantly, but his heart was in his throat. What kind of person is Jin Changtai?Since Zhao De's expedition, he has been in charge of all affairs in the northern region.Did he still remember the pawn who met once?

Fortunately, Jin Changtai recognized him, and said with a smile, "Zhou Guangzong, it's not Zhou Guangzhi, how is General Zhang Liuge?"

All the Han soldiers burst into laughter, "Zhou Guangju" was a nickname in the army, and this Lord Jin called it out in one mouthful, and it seemed that he really knew him.Zhou Guangzong was not embarrassed at all, and said respectfully: "General Zhang is guarding Marshal Han on Tieshan Island." His face was more respectful than reporting to the superior of the camp.

Jin Changtai nodded, and said with a smile: "With General Zhang here, the commander's mansion must be as stable as Mount Tai." He paused, looked at the group of Han soldiers in ragged clothes, and said in a deep voice: "What is agreed in the army must not be done." Change it at will. The Liao army is pressing down on the border, the situation is dangerous, and it is meticulous and pervasive, so we have to guard against it. When marching and fighting in the north, we must take the road signs with us." He looked up at the direction of the pier, and lowered his head to tell the cavalry around him. The cavalry galloped towards the pier, and soon brought the guard who was in charge of escorting Zhou Guangzong and others, and asked the guard to take them to the road settlement.

As the saying goes, no heavy hammer is needed to beat the drum, Jin Changtai's faint words were nothing to the ears of others, but Zhou Guangzong blushed with embarrassment in his heart, and walked in the team with his head drooping.All the Han soldiers didn't know what he was thinking, and they talked about it in one go.Someone said: "It's strange, this General Jin has a kind face and speaks slowly. Why does he look at me and feel that his internal organs have been seen through, and his hands and feet have not been put away." Someone said: "That is, brother Zhou, how old is he?"

"How old is an official?" Zhou Guangzong replied angrily, "General Zhao is out on an expedition, and his orders are the best to deal with big and small affairs. There is no one in the north who dares to disobey." "Oh——" "It's so powerful!" Everyone exclaimed, and when they turned their heads to look, the group of cavalry had already galloped into the fort on the mountain, and the suspension bridge was slowly being pulled up.

In the open space in the fortress, Jin Changtai fastened the reins of the war horse, nodded in praise and said: "The leading horse really deserves its reputation. Li Sihai valued the anchor here because of the excellent port, but let us get good horse breeds and pastures for nothing. " He turned his head and smiled at the cavalrymen beside him: "When the ranch is built, your king will beat him with a stick, and he will be reluctant to leave."

A dozen cavalrymen all laughed.Recently, the garrison of the reclamation reported that a herd of wild horses was found in the meadow to the north. Jin Changtai estimated that it was a population of horses scattered in the wilderness after the fall of the Bohai Kingdom.So he personally took the cavalry to check it out, and tamed a dozen wild horses and brought them back. This kind of horse can bear heavy loads and is also resistant to severe cold. It can be used as a mount for armored cavalry.So Jin Changtai planned to build a ranch to breed horses, on the one hand to provide draft animals for logging, iron smelting and other industries, and on the other hand to select high-quality horses to expand the cavalry of the garrison camp.

The cavalrymen were discussing enthusiastically, and Jin Changtai had tied the reins and raised his legs up the stairs.As soon as he stepped into the signing room, he saw the commander of the garrison battalion, Cha Shen, and asked, "Another ship docked just now. Is there any news about General Zhao?" Since the retreat of the Han army's commander-in-chief, the news from Nanshan City has been intermittent. continued.

"There is still no news." Cha Shen handed the silk book in his hand to Jin Changtai, "The news brought this time is not as good as the news brought by the last ship." Jin Changtai will hang on the sika antlers, take the silk book, and quickly glanced at it.

The ship that departed first from Tieshan Island arrived later, and the day when it brought out the news was indeed not as good as last time.The news this time is that although the sea water in Nanshan City is frozen, Li Sihai's gunboat can still bombard the Liao soldiers from the ice.The last time the news was that the sea had frozen so wide that the firepower of the gunboats could no longer reach them. The navy could only communicate with Nanshan City through semaphore. Baodu was besieged.

"Nesting in this freezing place, I really miss the messenger of the Military Intelligence Department!"

"In the past six months, we have developed too fast. The pigeon station of the Military Intelligence Department is not so easy to build. The pigeons need time to recognize the new terrain." Jin Changtai put the silk book into a file, secretly said: "Xing Zhi, You must be able to defend the city you built yourself."

The northernmost Shuibin Port is thousands of miles away from Suzhou.The Liao army went north with the army to conquer Huanglong Mansion with Yelu Dashi Yujia, and the south army stormed Nanshan City in Suzhou, and Yelu Yanshan, the governor, was seriously injured again.Over the past month or so, the pressure on the Han army and Xia Guoying has been reduced a lot, but Suzhou Nanshan can only be an isolated city before the sea ice melts.Whether it is the Han army or the Chengying camp, none of them have the strength to approach and 'harass' the Liao army.

Jin Changtai took a deep breath, and slowly flipped through the files, reviewing the documents submitted from various places.In the eyes of others, he holds great power and is incomparably beautiful, but only Jin Changtai himself knows the weight of this burden.His official position is only a marching commander of Chengying Battalion with 700 people, but in fact, he is in charge of various affairs, from logging and mining, to building fortresses, training the garrison battalion, and replenishing Zhao Xingde with strong and brave garrison troops.In addition to these daily tasks, he will resettle 10,000+ Han people, and will soon resettle more than 1 Han troops.He had to be alert to the movements of the Japanese people around him, the wild Jurchen tribes in various places, as well as the Jin army and the Liao army, and mobilize the forces in the Chengying camp to respond to all actions in a timely manner.

Cha Shen flipped through the other documents brought by the ship, and suddenly said, "Jin Sima, here is a letter from your family."

Jin Changtai took it, first looked at the cover, it was his father's handwriting, opened it to read, besides asking about his health, he also said another thing.The general idea is that a merchant named Pan had two sons. The father let the youngest son take a large sum of money from the family to open a business in Liaodong. Recently, the father died suddenly and there was no will. Liaodong came to take over the firm.Jin Changtai's father asked him to take care of the merchant, but he must not 'disrupt' the rules and trap himself in it.

Jin Changtai knew that this businessman surnamed Pan was the partner of Jin's long-term house business, but he had nothing to do with his family.Just a few days ago, this property contender brought the lawsuit to the Garrison Mansion, because the firm was one of the best in Shibin Mansion, and he had heard about it.

Jin Changtai originally wanted to hand over the case to the Court of the Chamber of Commerce, but changed his mind after receiving this letter.He asked Chashen for the file, and read it carefully, but Pan's second son, who came to lead the business in Bin Mansion, said that his father gave him the money to start his own business.Both sides insisted on their own words, and each accused the other of lying.Jin Changtai pondered for a while, found out the pleading paper requested by Pan's eldest house, and wrote a sentence next to it with a red pen in a prominent place, "East Liaodong is a place outside of culture. It is appropriate to follow the custom. Except for agricultural land, no "The Law of Primogeniture."

This note was not signed, and Jin Changtai asked Cha Shen to take a look.Zha Shen was not proficient in the law, and Jin Changtai was in charge of the civil affairs of Liaodong, so he nodded in agreement after reading it.Jin Changtai laughed and said, "It's inconvenient for our garrison to intervene too much in the matter of disputes between merchants, so as not to cause a 'sorry', let's let the chamber of commerce referee deal with it." He called a garrison to transfer the property The dossier of the dispute was forwarded to the Court of the Chamber of Commerce.