"The war situation is urgent, and the beacon tower must be repaired. If I don't have enough money and food, I will find a way first, and then ask the state and county for money after repairing it. ”

Liu Bei also knew that the places were all destroyed during the war, and the lack of money was certain.

But he also has a bit of military literacy, and he fought against the Yellow Turban Army in Zhuo County three years ago, so he has a very thorough understanding of the use of geographical advantages.

This is also where Liu Bei naturally has an advantage over Zhang Chun. Ancient geography was not developed, and outsiders who first came to lead troops were definitely not as good as local snakes who had lived there for decades.

The reason why state and county officials are unwilling to squeeze money and allocate funds between their teeth is also related to their ignorance of geographical advantages - state and county officials are all from other places, and many of them have served for less than two or three years. They also did not fully understand the cost-effectiveness of spending money to set up beacons along the Yanshan Mountain.

The Eastern Han Dynasty had a "three-mutual law" for the appointment of local officials, and Hebei was relatively strict, and many officials at the state and county levels were outsiders. The reason why Liu Bei was able to return to his hometown to be an official this time was because he was only a county magistrate, and his level was too low.

On the other hand, it is also because he is a positive example of "abandoning officials to defend his hometown" currently established by the imperial court, so he can relax a little. But this kind of extrajudicial grace will at most allow him to reach the county guard level in the future.

Before the death of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, according to the laws of the imperial court, it was impossible for Liu Bei to be promoted to the "vice state level" in Youzhou. (Even if he was allowed, he would not have risen so fast in just over two years)

Li Su is not around, and Liu Bei has nothing else to open. He was able to do better than the same period in history for two things:

First of all, before Li Su left, including the big picture provided to him in the later letters and correspondence.

Secondly, it is Liu Bei's "local" understanding advantage over other officials.

The county Cheng Qi Jing is also a foreigner, and he doesn't understand Liu Bei being so enthusiastic about repairing the beacon tower, so he finally persuaded him bitterly: "Liu Gong, if you really advance this money, the state and county will definitely not come back in the end, which is equivalent to you coming out yourself." ”

Liu Bei said categorically: "Do your best, let it be the fate of heaven, even if you really don't come back, you can't risk the lives of your brothers and the safety of your fellow villagers." You calculate first, roughly how much is needed, and I'll see if the pad can afford it. ”

Qi Jing was still neat in this regard, and quickly made a rough calculation: "I don't know the specifics, but repairing the city is the heaviest labor, and the use of people requires about one bucket of corn per person per day, and it costs thirty yuan in ordinary years, but now that the war is raging, the price of grain is rising, and fifty yuan is not enough." In addition, the wood and tools required are all added up, and the daily cost is similar to the cost of labor.

To build a rammed earth beacon tower two or three zhang high on the mountain, and to erect a wooden building, hundreds of people must be recruited and worked for seven or eight days. After calculation, no less than 100,000 yuan is required for requisition, and 100,000 yuan is also required for materials and equipment, and after the cultivation is completed, about 20 or 30 soldiers can be hidden. From here to the Changping crossing, about 60 miles, the mountains should face each other, and at least three must be built to ensure the transmission of military information. ”

It is no wonder that building a city in ancient times was the most expensive project, and building a Great Wall could make Qin Shi Huang poor.

The rammed earth abutment and wooden building cost 200,000 yuan to build a platform, and three are 600,000 yuan.

If you use masonry, the price will at least increase several times.

Fortunately, 8 million county orders were bought, and 600,000 yuan could still afford to repair a few communication fortifications.

As soon as Liu Bei gritted his teeth, he instructed Qi Jing to immediately go to the merchants in the county to collect materials.

As for the people, it is better to let the soldiers under him make cameos, and it is a big deal to raise the rations of the soldiers participating in heavy labor to a bucket - they have to eat military rations when they are idle anyway.

Liu Bei still has five million spare money in hand, which was told to him in Li Su's secret letter yesterday - after Li Su made a lot of money in Luoyang, Zhang Liang, the manager of the Zhen family in Luoyang, deposited five million from Zhang Liang, the manager of the Zhen family's firm, and recorded it in the accounts of the Zhen family's firm, and asked Zhang Liang to explain this matter when he wrote a letter to his father, and then gave it to Liu Bei on Zhongshan's side.

Therefore, it is equivalent to Li Su directly using the Zhen family as a bank for deposits in other places.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, of course, there was no money bank, no ticket number, and there was not even any prototype of remittance in other places. It can only be a very good collaborator, relying on trust to operate. There are no tokens such as "flying money" and "silver tickets", and they all rely on the fire paint seals of acquaintances who are familiar with handwriting and check secret letters.

When Liu Bei first saw this operation in the letter, he also thought it was very novel, but then he found that this trick was too easy to use.

As long as Li Su has a lot of balance in the future, and Liu Bei is short of money, he can even directly find the Zhen family's own family on Wuji's side to overdraw, and Li Su will deposit it in Luoyang, and save the money to move back and forth.

……

It will take at least seven or eight days to rush work before the beacon can be put into use.

Therefore, after the project was deployed, Liu Bei ordered three teams of good shooters, each with 20 people, to be stationed in these three beacon towers at that time.

In addition, he asked Zhang Fei to garrison the large camp at the mouth of the Yongding River, and transferred Zhao Yun separately and allocated him a team of 100 cavalry.

In case Zhang Yichun sent a small group of scouts over the mountains to explore the road and attack the beacon tower, Zhao Yun's people could also support quickly in the center. The task given to him by Liu Bei was to deal with those enemy reconnaissance troops with a size of less than a few hundred people.

After making these arrangements, Liu Bei took dozens of cavalry soldiers to Changping County to meet with Zou Jing, the chief general in charge of the siege campaign and the captain of the Broken Prisoners, to report on his deployment.

Money is spent, you can't spend it in vain, you have to let the leader know how hard you work, right?

If Zhang Chun didn't steal in the follow-up, there was no emergency surprise attack, and there was no need for the defenders of the three passes to respond quickly to assist in defense, then Liu Bei's "prepared" beacon towers would have been repaired in vain in terms of results.

In order to prevent white cultivation, even if it is not used, you must show your face first.

On April 12, about halfway through the construction of the beacon tower, Liu Bei rushed to Changping.

Zou Jing was not stationed in Changping County, but went out to the mountain pass around Juyongguan in later generations and camped on the road. Of course, there is no Inner Great Wall and Juyong Pass today, just a relatively dangerous mountain pass.

"Xuande, I haven't seen you for a few years, you have made a lot of progress." As soon as Zou Jing saw him, he was very familiar with him, and he had an attitude towards his protégé.

Liu Bei's attitude was humble: "It is a blessing to be able to serve under the command of Engong again." Dare to inexhaustibly kill thieves and serve the country. ”

It turned out that when Liu Bei organized Xiangyong to participate in the crusade against the Youzhou Yellow Turban three years ago, Zou Jing was already the captain of the state.

So this is the old leader.

After recounting the feelings of farewell for a few years and giving Zou Jing a private gift worth 200,000 yuan, Liu Bei talked about his deployment and introduced his plan and benefits for repairing the beacon tower.

Zou Jing listened to it, praised it again and again, and also felt that Liu Bei knew the local location very well, but there was not enough money and food to promote it.

"Xuande, although your official position is humble, you are at best the order of a county, and you can mobilize local people to pay for food. We are only in the military, and if the county guards do not allocate money and food, it is impossible to build a city. However, since you have cultivated, you can try it first, and if it is really useful, you can also advise the assassin. ”

Zou Jing didn't seem to have much respect for Shi Taoqian.

His lieutenant back then was promoted by his predecessor Guo Xun, but Guo Xun was killed by the Yellow Turban Army. Therefore, Tao Qian did not have any promotion grace to Zou Jing, what kind of official he was in the past three years, and what kind of official he is now.

Zou Jing also coveted the position of Gongqi Chou, and wanted to transfer it, but Tao Qian didn't care.

……

After reminiscing, Liu Bei temporarily returned to Liangxiang to garrison. He and Zou Jing didn't have much time to spare, because Zhang Chun's harassment soon came. The first harassment even happened three days before Liu Bei's beacon tower was completed, and the beacon tower had not yet come in handy.

Zhang Chun did not adopt a protracted war posture of long-term and large-scale siege, but often left as soon as he touched it.

Liu Bei was a little uncomfortable at first, and Zhang Nan and Zhang Duwei in Yuyang County were also not comfortable.

But both sides had casualties, especially Liu Bei's side, Liu Bei occupied a favorable location and never let Zhang Chun find benefits, and the lethal exchange ratio was at least five times more.

While fighting, Liu Bei also roughly figured out Zhang Chun's strategy: the reason why the enemy army did this had a lot to do with the high proportion of cavalry under Zhang Chun.

Because the Han army defenders in the valleys of the three rivers have no city passes, only simple camps. Cavalry could not attack a city, but it was no worse than infantry to attack a rudimentary camp.

As for the barracks and fortifications such as rejecting horses and antlers, they did not let the cavalry directly rush up and kill them, at most they only delayed the rhythm and speed of the cavalry, so that the cavalry lost its impact.

Zhang Chun has a lot of cavalry and a lot of Wuhuan people, so he expects to give full play to the advantages of strategic mobility and mobilize the defenders, so he often fights in Yuyang Valley and Liangxiang Valley.

Some of the Taniguchi defenders who seemed to be attacking fiercely at the beginning and were attacked urgently asked for reinforcements, but when the reinforcements arrived, the enemy had already run away, and most of the reinforcements were foot soldiers, so they were very tired and complained by Zhang Chun.

However, we can't be careless, because everyone knows that if the defenders twist all the seven or eight thousand men and horses into a rope, refuse to defend any of the valleys, and defend to the death, Zhang Chun will not be able to break through with all his strength.

With such terrain, even if you attack the camp, you can't break through it without more than five times the number of troops.

I'm afraid that after a long time, if Zhang Chunzhen concentrates all his forces to attack one of them, and the other two can't rescue the troops, then the onslaught can still break through in one day.

"From Liangxiang to Changping, there are sixty miles in a straight line, and in fact, the marching reinforcements have to go around and bypass Beacon Mountain, and the distance is hundreds of miles. There are still seventy or eighty miles from Changping to Yuyang. We are all infantry troops, Zhang Chun fought Yuyang Road the day before and Liangxiang Road the day after, and ordinary soldiers ran to death on two legs, this is not a way, and they will definitely be demoralized after a long time. ”

After another day of fighting, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei were roasting meat and warming wine in the village, and they felt that the solid defense strategy of Zou Jing and others was a little unsuccessful.

In terms of the lethal ratio, the Han army is indeed much better than the rebel army, at least three or four people are exchanged for each person, but the key is that the absolute number of kills and injuries is not much. But on the Han army's side, the overall consumption of grain, grass, physical strength and morale is very huge.

"Big brother, if we don't bluff in a few days, we will simply bluff and set up more flags in our camp, and set up the flags of Captain Zou, Captain Jiao, and Captain Zhang! It's good to deceive Zhang Chun from afar! Let him think that we will always have a large army stationed here, so as not to harass him, let him retreat directly, right? Zhang Fei drank an urn of wine and suggested.