Datang New Order

Early the next morning, Wang Dalang, Meng Xuxing, and Jiao Chengqiao rode out of Yuguan, expanding the scope of their investigation.Horses are the horses that pull carts in the convoy. Although they are not as good as war horses, they are at least faster and more convenient than moving on two legs.

All day long, Li Chengzhong trained Jiadu's queue on the school grounds.What he said yesterday still had some effect. At least these recruits mustered up some courage. Although timidity was still revealed in their nervous expressions and stiff movements, they obviously did not have the fluster they had yesterday.Moreover, the nervousness and stiffness during training are gradually being covered up by repeated mechanized movements, and the movements of marching and holding guns are gradually becoming proficient, and even when shouting "kill", the voice is also orderly and loud. few.

Jiang Miao has been assigned to watch the wilderness outside the pass on the wall of the pass, and he will immediately issue a warning when encountering an enemy situation.

Feng Dao continued to urge the peasants to make wooden guns.There are many elm trees near Yuguan, which are very convenient for making wooden guns.Last night, the peasants felled some green elms, which are tough and elastic, and are good raw materials for making wooden guns.Therefore, Feng Daoling made fifty elm guns, and no one distributed one, which was regarded as the completion of the task.Due to the tight schedule, the wooden guns were made very poorly, but barely had the appearance of a gun. The shafts of many guns were not symmetrical, and the tips of the guns were also thick and thin.

Li Chengzhong felt helpless looking at these wooden guns, so he asked someone to evenly spread a layer of black clay on the tip of the guns. Be a little relieved.

When these peasants heard that they were going to guard the city with guns, they all shook their heads, and some timid ones even wanted to leave immediately.Feng Dao and Li Chengzhong hurriedly comforted them for a while, and Feng Dao even made a wish that as long as they went to Guancheng, each of them would give three rations.After receiving a guarantee that they would not fight in battle, and even Li Chengzhong's promise that "once the Khitans attack the city, they are allowed to turn around and flee", they tremblingly closed the wall.

The front of Yuguan is not long, and it takes about 150 steps to walk from the east end to the west end.The fort was narrower, less than fifty paces in circumference.There were 50 civilian husbands in total, and Li Chengzhong would not dare to let them stand equally. He believed that if there was no one within a few steps of these civilian husbands, they might run away as soon as they saw the Khitan people appearing.It is an unbreakable truth that there are many people to be courageous.Therefore, Li Chengzhong divided the civilian husbands into ten groups, five people in each group, and placed one group at a distance of about twenty steps. Seven groups were set up on the pass city, and three groups were set up in the fortress.Now at least from the bottom up, Yuguan looks a little heavily guarded.

In the past few days, Li Chengzhong and Feng Dao have gradually become acquainted, and feel that this young scholar is very easy to get along with. He is not as rigid and dogmatic as he was in the impression that he was a dead reader. He is full of flexibility and responsibility when doing things. , use four words to describe the feeling of dealing with him, that is "like a spring breeze".Now that everything was properly arranged, he didn't want any accidents for this young man, so he kindly proposed that he hope Feng Dao would go back and urge the second wave of reinforcements.

Feng Dao smiled and directly thanked Li Chengzhong for his kindness: "Dao still wants to see more here. He has always learned about the Khitan people from books and files. There is such an opportunity to meet face to face. Dao doesn't want to miss it. The situation here Dao had already edited the book last night and ordered someone to send it back to the governor's mansion, Mr. Zhang is very worried about this matter, and he will definitely think of a way, so we don't need to worry about it."

Since Feng Dao escorted the convoy to arrive last night, the two have been busy making arrangements and had no chance to talk in detail. Li Chengzhong heard that Feng Dao knew the general situation of some Khitan people, so he hurriedly told the situation of Wang Dalang's visit yesterday, and then asked Feng Dao Do you know the strength and truth of the Khitan people? …,

Feng Dao thought for a while, and said: "The Khitan people surrendered to our Tang Dynasty 200 years ago, and the emperor put them under the jurisdiction of the Shunzhou Jumi. However, this tribe was vacillating between the Turks and our Tang Dynasty, with both ends. In the ninth year of Tianbao At that time, An Lushan, who was the envoy of Pinglu and Fanyang at the time, led an army to crusade against Khitan, and attacked thousands of miles north, until he reached the Khitan Khan Yazhang by the real water of Tuhe. The Khitan army was defeated. After that, the Khitan people broke away from the jurisdiction of the Tang Dynasty, but fell into the hands of the Huihe people. It was not until 60 years ago that the Khitan Khan surrendered to the Khitan Khan. For "General Yunhui", he issued the "Seal of Fengguo Khitan". It's just that although the Khitan has been attached to it in name, it has not been restrained. Speaking of it, in the past 60 years, my Tang Dynasty has been very difficult, and the country is precarious. How can there be any spare energy to really make these barbarians return to their hearts..."

Sighing for a moment, Feng Dao went on to tell: "Dao has traveled while studying for the past two years. He has been to Guizhou, Chanzhou, and Jizhou. Now he works for Zhang Shijun in Pingzhou. After consulting many records and files in the past, the Khan of the Khitan people is now Hendejin, and Yilijin is Judi, but the one who really holds the power is Shilu from the Yelu family of Dielabu. I heard that he has sealed himself a The title, what is it called Yuyue, it means "general leader of state affairs" in Khitan, and it is much more powerful than the combined power of all the ministers in our political affairs hall..."

Li Chengzhong interrupted Feng Dao's words, and interjected, "Wait, brother Ke Dao, did you just say 'Yelu family'?" When he asked this, his tone was obviously a little anxious and nervous.

Feng Dao didn't understand what Li Chengzhong was nervous about, so he explained: "There are eight divisions in Khitan, the Yishi Division, the Diela Division, the Tulubu Division, the Tuju Division, the Chute Division, the Wukai Division, the Nirara Division, and the Pin Division. .Although it is an alliance of eight tribes, the real power is in the hands of the Diela clan Yaonian, Yelu clan, and Shulu clan, and these three families are also the most prosperous. It is the generation of the Yaozhan family who served as the Khan; the Yelu family has always held the military power, and the Khitan people call it Yili Jin, which in Chinese means 'the commander-in-chief of the world's soldiers and horses', and the Yili Jin of this generation is Yelu The jurisdiction of the family; the Shulu family and the Yelu family intermarried for generations, and they also enjoyed extremely high honor..."

Li Chengzhong asked again: "Who is that Yuyue Shilu you mentioned just now? You said he is from Yelu's family?"

Feng Dao was a little surprised why Li Chengzhong stared at Shi Lu and asked, "Yi Lijin of this generation is the ruler, and it stands to reason that he should be the one who holds the Khitan military power, but I heard that this leader is just a dandy noble. It is Shi Lu who controls the military power behind the scenes. Both of them are from Yelu's family. I also heard that even the appointment of Xia Di as Yi Li Jin was promoted by Shi Lu behind the scenes. Under the Khan and above Yili Jin, he not only holds military power, but also controls all the civil rights of the tribal alliance."

Li Chengzhong hesitated for a moment, before asking: "The Shilu you mentioned, does he have another name? Like 'Abaoji' or something?"

Feng Dao thought for a while, then shook his head: "I've never heard of it."

Li Chengzhong heaved a sigh of relief.

I heard Feng Dao go on to say: "In the past few decades, the imperial court has no prosperity. Although our Lu Long Army is one of the military towns of the Tang Dynasty in name, it is actually outside the imperial court... The country is so weak, so naturally it has no strength. Conquering the barbarians, in these years, Yingzhou has gradually become abolished, and it has become a hunting pasture for the Khitan people... Before the commander-in-chief went south, our military power was still there, and the Khitan people did not dare to act rashly. It is a pity that the south expedition was defeated. We have started looting outside the pass, but we feel sorry for the people outside the pass.”

Li Chengzhong was silent, and suddenly said: "I heard that we are mainly facing the Pinbu and Wukaibu here. How are the strengths of these two tribes?"...,

Feng Dao shook his head: "I'm not sure. Among the eight tribes of Khitan, these two tribes belong to small tribes, and Dingkou should not be too many."

Since he was not facing the entire Eight Clans of Khitan, and the enemy was not the Yelu clan, Li Chengzhong felt a lot more relaxed. He stood on the wall and looked into the distance, waiting for Wang Dalang, Meng Xuxing, and Jiao Chengqiao who were going out to investigate the situation of the enemy. I just hope they don't encounter accidents.

The three of Wang Dalang came back and brought back a piece of good news.Within 46 li outside Yuguan, apart from this group of Khitans, there was no other army stronghold.Moreover, the number of Khitans in front of us is also clearly counted, a total of 23, of which 23 are main soldiers, one man with two horses, and the other [-] are auxiliary soldiers, and there seem to be Han Chinese among them.

"Dutou, should we take the initiative to call there? They are few in number, and they are very relaxed!" When he made this suggestion, sparks of excitement flashed in Wang Dalang's eyes.

This proposal seemed very tempting. Li Chengzhong thought about it, but he simply gave up.If his subordinates were the soldiers from the Jianzhu camp during the Southern Expedition, he would really like to go there and give it a try, but the soldiers in front of him... just forget it.The soldiers and horse envoy Zhou Zhiyu's order was to investigate the enemy's situation in Yuguan, and if possible, occupy Yuguan again and block the passage for the Khitans to plunder southward.Now that this task has been preliminarily completed, Li Chengzhong only needs to firmly control Guancheng before the arrival of reinforcements, and Li Chengzhong has completely completed the task.

Li Chengzhong is not a conservative who does not think about making progress. He also understands that the best defense is offense, but he knows how much power he has in his hands, and he is a qualified commander who does what he can.

Feng Dao suddenly interjected: "Are the people they captured a few days ago in the camp?"

This question made Li Cheng tense, and immediately stared at Wang Dalang.Wang Dalang was also stunned, and said: "I haven't seen it, but there are indeed no other Khitan people thirty miles away."

Obviously, the Khitans in front of them are just a small group. Behind this small group of Khitans, there is an unknown but larger Khitan camp. The captured people were sent to that camp. The distance should be thirty miles away.The main purpose of the Khitan people in front of them is probably to investigate the movement and reality of the Lulong army in Yuguan.

Everyone was covered in cold sweat.Wang Dalang gritted his teeth and said, "Dutou, why don't you go to explore again? This time, I must find that camp!"

Li Chengzhong shook his head, and didn't let Wang Dalang visit again.In the current situation, knowing the news is enough, no matter how much you know, it will not help the big things. Instead, let Wang Dalang and others take risks for no reason.Everything now is to defend Yuguan and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

Jiang Miao suggested: "Why don't we let the civilians build stones to block the city?"

This proposal was directly rejected by Li Chengzhong. It would take at least three days for the civil servants to build the stone. Not only was it too late, but it was tantamount to telling the opponent that we were weak and scared.So Li Chengzhong decided to rebuild and close the door.

"Closed for reconstruction? But... it will take longer!" Several gang leaders didn't understand.

"It's okay. Not only will we rebuild and close the door, but we will also build it upright and openly, so that the Khitan people can see it clearly!" Li Chengzhong ordered firmly: "Brother Dao, the civilian husbands in your hands are divided into two halves, and half are in the city. The head is on duty, and half of them go to cut wood and build gates!"

Feng Dao smiled and nodded, agreeing to go.

But before he could call for the manpower, the guard on duty had already shouted in panic: "Khitan people! They... are here!"