Country color

Chapter 81 Six Towns of the Northern Wei Dynasty
For the Northern Dynasties, Pingcheng in the former Anyi County was the land of Longxing in the Northern Dynasties. Before Emperor Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang, the capital was established here for 97 years.

In order to resist the harassment of grassland tribes and defend Pingcheng, the Northern Wei Dynasty set up six towns here and guarded them with heavy troops. After the mutiny of the six towns, Pingcheng was designated as scorched land, and the people of the six towns were also forced to move south.The formerly famous six towns are also deserted, but the ruins are still there.

After Li Chongjiu and Li Hu came out of the Great Wall of Yanmen County, they traveled north all the way, occasionally seeing the ruins of six towns along the way.

You must know that Yanmen County in the Sui Dynasty had a very vast area of ​​jurisdiction. According to the official statement of the Sui Dynasty, it almost reached the foot of Yinshan Mountain, but in fact, after leaving the Great Wall, the control of the Sui Dynasty was already minimal.

Different from the brick and stone structure of the Badaling Great Wall seen in the future, this section of Yanmen County is basically built with rammed loess, so it looks like a giant khaki dragon hovering among the high mountains from a distance.

This section of the Great Wall is a section of the defense system of Jishangsaiwei (Note [-]) built by the Northern Wei Dynasty to defend Pingcheng.After that, Emperor Wenxuan of Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang, mobilized more than a million peasants to build it again, roughly determining the scale of the eastern section of the Great Wall today.

The construction of this section of the Great Wall is so solid that it can be said that no water is exposed. Even after the founding of the Sui Dynasty, it was basically busy building the western section of the Great Wall, and only repaired the eastern section a few times.

Covered in winter snow, Li Hu, Li Chongjiu and a group of more than a dozen people rode horses and braved the heavy snow to head northeast.

After a hundred miles away from the Great Wall, the surrounding area is covered with white peaks, and the scenery of the mountains changes.

Looking up, a very high and very high hillside appeared, and it seemed that the end could not be seen at a glance.Seeing this, Li Hu laughed, and said to Li Chongjiu, "We've reached the end of the road."

Speaking of this, Li Hu and Li Chongjiu all got off their horses, and the rest of them also led the horses and walked up.

The slope was extremely gentle, the snow was deep, and the horse whimpered uncontrollably. Li Chongjiu struggled to pull the rein, and could only climb up the mountain step by step. Halfway through, the horse couldn't go up the mountain anymore.

So Li Hu and Li Chongjiu had no choice but to order people to lead the horse down the mountain. The father and son continued up the mountain with Tanzong and several strong people.

The people were leaning on wooden sticks, and they were getting more and more tired from climbing. Li Hu said to Li Chongjiu: "This slope is called a dam by people."

"dam?"

Li Chongjiu suddenly thought that grassland tribes generally call mountains dams, and dams refer to the transition zone from plains to plateaus.

I don't know how long it took to climb this way, and everyone just climbed over the long steep slope and reached the top of the slope. At this moment, the scenery in front of them changed again.

The north wind was whistling so hard that people couldn't keep their eyes open. There were clusters of peaks all around. On the higher place above the high slope, a vast plain and dense birch forest spread from the front to the peak like a white carpet.

Several streams and rivers on the ground have long been frozen into ice.Not far from the ice sheet, there is a large ice cap. Obviously, there is a large ice lake underneath. This ice lake can't be seen at a glance, and it is almost connected with the white sky.

Li Hu said to Li Chongjiu: "This ice lake is called Anguli Nao by Xi people. When the weather gets warmer and the ice and snow melt, there will be countless swan geese moored on the water. You can catch an arm-long lake in the water. big fish."

Li Chongjiu asked Li Hu, "Then this is the place you mentioned."

Li Hu smiled and said: "Not yet, let's go east for a while!"

After talking, the group of people walked a long way in the icy and snowy land. The snow covered the calf. If one footprint goes down, you can see grass under your feet. It can be seen that if the snow has melted, this must be a vast grassland.

The people had a difficult journey. When they were cold and thirsty, they picked up the bad wine in their skins, poured it into their stomachs, and walked south for a while. When they saw an abandoned city from a distance, it suddenly appeared in their eyes.

The surrounding sheep and horse walls, the black fire pier, the raised horse face on the city wall, and the half-collapsed muddy gray tile roof in the city still seem to describe the previous bloody battles in this city. When the strong wind hits, everyone seems to have heard the past The sound of gold and iron horses.

Li Hu pointed forward, and when he was about to introduce Li Chongjiu, Li Chongjiu nodded and said in a deep voice: "I know, this is Huaihuang Town (Note [-])!"

Huaihuang Town, one of the six towns in the Northern Wei Dynasty in the past, this abandoned military city lay in front of Li Chongjiu.

Li Hu smiled, and said: "Xiao Jiu, look at the land that Dad chose is not bad. This is the only way for the Xi clan from Yanmen County to go to the grassland. In the future, we can set up a bodyguard bureau here."

Li Hu couldn't help showing a smile. Since he listened to his son's opinion, he opened sub-escort bureaus one after another in Yanmen County and Taiyuan County.

The business of the Li Family Escort is getting bigger and bigger. On the road from Taiyuan County to Yanmen County, it is almost once a few months, then once a month, once a dozen days, and now a few days, two or three times. The speed of going once a day.

Right now, he is not only a escort, but also responsible for consigning small personal goods, and even working as a postman.

Taiyuan County and Yanmen County have become the golden business routes of the Li Family Security Bureau. Of course, not only the Li Family Security Bureau has benefited, but also the horse thieves, mountain thieves, and all kinds of green forest heroes who have been walking on this road all year round. Good day.

In the past, they made a living by robbing, but now relying on the annual tribute money from the Li Family Escort Bureau, they are enough to settle down.

If the people were not extremely poor, who would rebel, steal, and rob? These bandits and horse bandits also maintain local order together, preventing other bandit forces from entering and dividing up their business. Oh no.

At that time, the commercial road from Taiyuan County to Yanmen County, and several nearby counties were all in great chaos. I dare not say that there are no lost items on the road, but the crime rate of law and order has dropped greatly.

The local county magistrate had a good comment on the merit test of the Ministry of Officials.Not only that, but the Li Family Escort provided a full amount of taxes and gray income every year, which made the county magistrates laugh from ear to ear.

Even the governors of Taiyuan County and Yanmen County heard about the Li Family Escort Bureau.

Therefore, in troubled times, when the government and the people are confronted everywhere, the whole Bingzhou dare not mention it. In Yanmen, Taiyuan, Li Hu can be said to have both black and white right now.In the eyes of the common people, Li Hu is a figure who can reach the heavens in the yamen, and in the eyes of officials, Li Hu is a good citizen and partner.
As for the hero of the green forest, Li Hu is a hero who can run a horse with his arms, and everyone in the world will sell Li Hu three points of face.No matter whether it is in the officialdom or among the heroes of the green forest, it is the first time in thousands of years that he has such a good reputation.

Compared with the days when he was a bandit and was beaten and killed by the government at every turn, Li Hu is very happy now.So Li Hu is currently opening a bodyguard bureau, and he has become addicted to it. He decided to make such a move in Huaihuang Town, but this matter is also very risky.

Li Hu didn't make a decision right away, so he called back Li Chongjiu, who was still in Shaolin Temple. Anyway, it's been three years since the arrest warrant, so no one probably remembers it. This trivial matter is not easy to grasp.Now Li Hu is waiting for Li Chongjiu's opinion.Compared with his father's point of view, Li Chongjiu has more than 1000 years of experience, he always has to go one step further. For him, Huaihuang Town is not just a bodyguard bureau.

Note 10: In the sixth month of Bingxu, the seventh year of Taiping Zhenjun, [-] people in the four prefectures of Fasi, You, Ding, and Hebei built the upper fortress of Ji, starting from Shanggu and west to the river, covering thousands of miles.

There is a saying that the Saiwei on Jishang is the generation of the inner Great Wall, but most of the sayings say that Shang means north, and Jishang is the north of Datong, so it is the outer Great Wall, not the inner Great Wall.

Note [-]: Huaihuang Town is located in Zhangbei County, Hebei today.

(End of this chapter)