Datang New Order

Border, Luronse.

Sitting in front of the stove, Li Chengyue carefully looked at a military newspaper in his hand.Hot water was burning on the stove, and the heat was rising upwards, making the whole room warm.After the water boiled, Li Chengyue carefully took off the kettle from the hanging ring, filled the teacup beside it, and a scent of tea came to his nostrils immediately.Roasting a warm fire and drinking hot tea in the cold and windy city outside the Great Wall is really extremely pleasant.

The military newspaper was issued from Guizhou, and described in detail a battle that took place in the Guangbian Army ten days ago.Guizhou is located in the north of Youzhou and south of Luhe River. It is the northernmost border state in Lulong Jiedu. It has been the front line of the Central Plains and Hulu since ancient times.

Because Li Chengyue's two sworn brothers, Gao Xingzhou and Gao Xinggui, were fighting on one side, so he watched very carefully.A total of 7000 people were invested in this battle. The Lulong Army on the Gao brothers' side had 3000 people, including 4000 infantry and [-] cavalry.This was a dignified field battle, but the Gao brothers played an outstanding role in this battle. With the newly recruited army, they held off the Khitans who were superior in numbers. At present, the two sides are still camping at each other, seeking further opportunities for fighting.

At the end of the military report, Gao Xingzhou wrote a special comment to Li Chengyue, informing Li Chengyue of the names of several important figures who commanded the Khitan people in combat, and highlighted one of the generals named Yelu Abaoji.In this battle, Lu Long's biggest loss came from a group of elite cavalry led by Yelu Abaoji.

"Has the main force of the Khitan people finally appeared?" Li Chengyue looked back at the military newspaper again, thinking while reading.

The door of the room suddenly opened, and a big man rushed in with the cold wind. The man turned around and closed the door, sat down by the stove with a smile, grabbed Li Chengyue's freshly brewed hot tea and poured it into his mouth, but After being burned, I vomited on the ground with a "puchi".

Li Chengyue shook his head: "Fourth brother is still like this... Sigh... I can't tell the difference between hot and cold..."

That man was Wang Sitong, one of Li Chengyue's sworn brothers, the fourth oldest. He scratched his head embarrassingly, and said with some embarrassment: "It's windy outside and it's too cold. I want to drink some hot water to warm my body. Who would have known you?" This tea has just been brewed... Well, when it comes to warming up, you have to drink alcohol to be effective, but it's a pity that there is no order in your army not to drink alcohol..."

Li Chengyue smiled, ignored this, and asked, "How is it? The Khitan people didn't come out today?"

Wang Sitong said: "With such a strong wind, if the Khitan people dare to come, they will probably be blown away one by one. Today's pass should be fine. By the way, with such a strong wind, those Xiren will probably have to postpone it until tomorrow." Only then can we leave. It’s not that my brother, although the city of Guan is simple and crude, we must do our best to be a landlord, right? He has been here for many days, and we haven’t even had a banquet, so we are too stingy..."

Li Chengyue snorted and said, "You want to drink? Well, I'll allow you to drink a little tonight. Let's give Xi Ren a banquet to see him off. Now that the conditions have been fulfilled, we will be allies from now on, and we can't appear to be friends." We are too shabby." After speaking, he looked at Wang Sitong with a slightly strange look: "Fourth, tell the truth, have you taken a fancy to him?"

Wang Sitong nodded, then shook his head again: "Princess Yinyue's name, tsk tsk... It really deserves to be a pearl whose beauty has spread all over the grassland. Unfortunately, our old Wang can only look at it but not think about it. The adults in the family have already made an appointment for a certain princess." My dear, the daughter of the old Zhao family, oh..."

Li Chengyue smiled: "The daughter of the old Zhao family is not bad, she was a famous little beauty in Youzhou City back then."

Wang Sitong shook his head: "People are deader than others, I can't catch up, I really can't catch up..."

Li Chengyue said: "Why don't you accept both of the fourth child?"...,

Wang Sitong smiled wryly: "Someone has that idea, but why don't you dare. Who of us doesn't know about the old Zhao family? He is famous for being aggressive, and with his family's power, he will never give up the position of wife. Let this Princess Yinyue to be a young girl? Even if it is a flat wife, do you think King Xi is willing to do it? It must not be possible, and I will regret it in this life!" Shaking his head, he suddenly said: "Could it be that my brother is not tempted?"

Li Chengyue shook his head lightly, looking at the non-stop beating fire, but the beautiful plain face that he met in Youzhou City appeared in front of his eyes.

Wang Sitong smiled mysteriously and said, "Discuss something with my brother."

Li Chengyue let out a "hmm", but he was still thinking about his family.

Wang Sitong was not angry either, and said with a smile: "Next time the Khitan people come again, someone will do the attack."

Li Chengyue vetoed it: "No! Last time it was you, next time it should be someone."

"Brother gave it up to someone, and guarded the city all day long, suffocating to death!"

"No, it's agreed to take turns! Besides, XX is the chief general of Lu Longsai, and you are the guest general. You have to listen to XX!"

"Really not?"

"No need to say more!"

"Since that's the case, I won't tell my brother about that little lady..."

"You can't do anything about little ladies! This is the rule! Do you understand the military order... What are you talking about, little lady?" Li Chengyue was suddenly stunned.

"Alas... back then there was a guy who drank badly... alas... Fortunately, he met a kind and beautiful lady, so he didn't die drunk on the streets of Youzhou..." Wang Sitong couldn't help sighing, his eyes flickering. Sly light.

Li Chengyue grabbed Wang Sitong's arm, and his breathing was a little short: "Did you... find out?"

Wang Sitong shook off Li Chengyue's hand, stood up and walked towards the door, sighing as he walked, "I just want to lead troops to fight next time, but in the end I used military orders to suppress me..."

Li Chengyue immediately said without hesitation: "Yes!"

Wang Sitong laughed loudly, turned around and sat down again, and said unhurriedly: "It's really a beauty, brotherhood is not as good as a beauty..."

Li Chengyue punched Wang Sitong on the chest: "Hurry up and recruit! If there is even half a lie, I won't drink a drop of wine at the dinner party tonight!"

Outside Yuguan, the White Wolf Mountain Military Village.

After nearly ten days of renovations, the entire military village has undergone earth-shaking changes.The stone wall has been reinforced, heightened and thickened with clay excavated from the mountain, and a wooden plank road that can stand on people has also been built inside the stone wall, and two archery towers have been built along the inside of the stone wall.A trench one foot deep and one foot wide was dug outside the stone wall. There were dense sharp logs erected at the bottom of the ditch, and the sharp spikes rushed up. The road is easy to walk, and the only way to cross the trench is to pass the suspension bridge that falls from the gate of the village.

The large and small caves on the mountain wall were also counted, and the well-preserved ones were washed out, the wooden doors were built, the hay was laid, and the fire was raised in the furnace pond in the cave. Living in it was much warmer than imagined. .What surprised Li Chengzhong the most was that when these furnace ponds were excavated back then, there were holes for the smoke to pass through, which saved Li Chengzhong a lot of trouble.

The stables under the mountain wall were also rebuilt. In addition to the plow horses brought by the people who fled into the mountains, there are now more than 20 war horses snatched from the Khitan people.At that time, Li Chengzhong was still very worried when faced with these war horses. In his impression, raising horses was very difficult, and he didn't know how to deal with these war horses.If you want to raise horses, judging from the current food storage in the army camp, it is obviously far from enough, so he reluctantly made a decision to kill these horses, and use the horse meat as a tooth sacrifice for all his subordinates.

At that time, Wang Dalang followed Li Chengzhong to inspect these war horses. He stroked each of these war horses happily, thinking about how to set up his scout team.Hearing that Li Chengzhong said he was going to kill the horse for meat, he was taken aback and hurriedly said, "Dutou, why did you kill the horse?"...,

Li Chengzhong sighed: "I can't afford it..."

Wang Dalang was taken aback: "What can't you afford?"

Li Chengzhong said: "We don't have enough food, and now I'm still worried, what should I do next, where is there food for the horses?"

It took Wang Dalang a long time to think about the taste: "They all said that you used to feed the horses with grain?"

Li Chengzhong said: "That's not true. But war horses are really expensive. To raise a horse well, it takes up the rations of two or three people, and a lot of beans, wheat bran, etc. need to be added to it..." What Li Chengzhong said about raising a horse The horse method is what the equestrian instructor in the army before crossing said.

Wang Dalang blinked his eyes and said, "Who did Dutou listen to? The method of raising horses that Dutou said should be the method of raising those purebred BMWs in the far west of the grassland? These ordinary war horses are not used. You just need to let them out to graze, and it doesn’t take much effort. There are so many pastures in Hebei, so raising horses is the easiest way. Many farmers have horses in their homes, and I haven’t heard anyone say that they need to feed them..."

Li Chengzhong was stunned for a moment: "Just eat grass?"

Wang Dalang stroked the mane of a war horse and said, "That's right. It's winter now, and it's easier to raise horses. The pasture outside White Wolf Mountain has dried up, and the cut grass is more suitable for feeding horses. By the way, Dutou If you promised someone before, you can form a scout team, do you still count?"

Li Chengzhong was nodding his head, but he still had some disbelief: "It's that simple? Are you sure?"

Wang Dalang laughed, he had already seen that Dutou had never raised a horse before, and he heard rumors from somewhere that raising a horse was difficult, so he immediately explained: "Dutou Don’t worry. If it’s not simple, how do the tens of thousands of horses on the grasslands grow? The Khitan people don’t have that much food, so they raise their horses according to what Dutou said, and they don’t want to live.”

Li Chengzhong thought about it for a while, and felt that what Wang Dalang said was reasonable, and his mood improved, and said: "Wang Dalang go down and choose people by himself, and I will give you twenty places to form a scout team."

Feng Dao devoted all his energy to civil affairs.He gathered the elders of the three villages to his side, and asked Old Craftsman Zhang to follow him to form the leadership team of Bailangshan Civil Affairs.He sorted out and grouped more than 700 people in the mountains. The old and the weak stayed in the military camp to do daily affairs, such as building latrines and cleaning caves, leveling the school grounds in the military camp according to Li Chengzhong's requirements; the young and old were divided into two parts, One part takes care of the grain fields, the other goes into the mountains to hunt and fish in Xuanshui; the women are also divided into two parts, one part goes to the mountains to pick wild fruits every day, and the other part makes daily necessities, such as carving wooden bowls and barrels, and sewing clothes. The craftsmen repaired all the facilities in the military village, built cellars to burn paper and charcoal...

Li Chengzhong was very relieved to see that Zhang Laojiang's craftsmen could stay. He asked Feng Dao how he could make these talents dispel the idea of ​​returning to Yuguan.Feng Dao explained with a smile, but it's actually very simple, it's just a matter of authority.Feng Dao is the official of Pingzhou Governor's Mansion. The official position of official is to be in charge of the roster of officials, to distinguish the ranks of nobles, and to arrange the seats of court ceremonies. In the local area, it is to distinguish between nobles, gentry and commoners.In the Tang Dynasty, Shi Shi also gradually shouldered the tasks of developing mountains and swamps and serving them.In other words, Feng Dao was in charge of all the assignment of servants of old craftsman Zhang and other craftsmen.Feng Dao not only promised Zhang Laojiang and other craftsmen to take care of them in the future, but also threw out an attractive condition - honoring his status.

Craftsman households such as Mr. Zhang belong to the family of craftsmen, and this kind of craftsman's family has followed them from generation to generation.They need to set aside a period of time every year to serve in the military service with their own food and tools according to the requirements of the government. If they are unable to serve due to special circumstances at home, they must hand over a sum of "subsidy money" to the government, and the government uses this money to hire Others served instead.The period of service varies from place to place. In the troubled times of the late Tang Dynasty, the heaviest service period could even reach half a year.This is a heavy burden, and this burden is the biggest shackle on the craftsmen, especially in times of war or disaster, and it can even crush the craftsmen's families.

Feng Dao's condition is that as long as Old Craftsman Zhang leads the craftsmen to stay and serve with him for three years, he will ask the Pingzhou Governor's Office to award Zhang Old Craftsman an honorary officer in the name of military exploits. Through the acquisition of the honorary officer, Feng Dao can Within the purview of my job, I carried out the status of old craftsman Zhang, broke away from the status of craftsman, and entered the ranks of gentry from then on.This condition is too attractive. In this era, no craftsman can resist this temptation, so Old Craftsman Zhang stayed as expected, and worked very hard.