Although many specific things in Duanzhou need to be properly solved after Huo Shiqi brings people over, and it takes time to get from Yanzhou to Duanzhou, Shang Cheng is an idle person, and in the past few days waiting for Huo Shiqi, he has already started to make some preliminary preparations.

He first went to visit the prefect of Duanzhou, who was recuperating at home.

The prefect was hit by a misfortune while defending the city last winter, and his health has always been good and bad, and he has no strength to act as an acting yamen, and local official affairs have always been handled by his deputies. However, according to Shang Cheng's observations, the prefect's injury was not as bad as it was rumored outside, and it was by no means serious enough to be a director. He estimated that this was mostly because Li Shen's command yamen was located in Duanzhou. Li Shen's hand stretched out too long, and the Duanzhou prefect had to avoid its edge, and as a result, the damage was the place.

After visiting the prefect, he began to find people to talk to, and he didn't have time to investigate all kinds of details in Duanzhou, so he could only learn about the local situation as soon as possible through the introduction of others. The court officials, chief bookkeepers, clerks, and even errand officers of the state government yamen were all conversations in which he talked. He felt that these people were all people who did practical things, and understanding the difficulties they encountered in the performance of their official duties was actually the best way to grasp the actual situation. In addition, he also met with some local celebrities and gentry. By talking to these people and observing their opinions and ideas in the conversations, he also knew the people's evaluation and expectations of some local practices. Finally, in the spirit of listening and understanding, he met with the officers of the local garrison headed by Li Shen......

After having a general understanding of the situation in Duanzhou, he quickly made some targeted arrangements. Some of these tasks, such as the census and resettlement of displaced people, the establishment of government-run porridge farms, and the removal of municipal garbage, can be done immediately, and the results must be seen as soon as possible. On the other hand, such as digging wells and building weirs, dredging and renovating rivers, and recruiting migrant workers to repair roads, these things are difficult to implement because there are too many links involved, so they can be slowed down one by one, but we must immediately start planning and preparing for money, food, and manpower, and when the personnel sent by the Health Department to assist arrive, we must start to implement them.

By the time these things were all over, it was already his fifth day in Duanzhou. Only now did he take care of the original purpose of coming to Duanzhou to inspect military affairs one by one.

In the next three days, he ran through the military villages near Duanzhou.

On the whole, the situation of the two brigades of the Right Army that I have seen is quite satisfactory. Although Li Shen has one or another shortcoming, he is indeed an old military officer who takes care of everything in an orderly manner. Not only that, but he also asked the soldiers to repair and maintain several sections of official roads in addition to training, not only filling and compacting the deep pits on the roads that had been crushed by cars and horses for many years, but also planting many street trees. Looking at this new old official road, Shang Cheng sighed with some emotion: if Li Shen kept doing this, and didn't interfere in local government affairs, how good would it be?

On the morning of that day, accompanied by Li Shen, he inspected a military village at Chuandaokou. This was the last camp that Shang Cheng inspected, and there were also two outposts he had temporarily commanded during the war in Yixian County the year before, and there were many acquaintances, so it took some extra time. He not only inspected the troops, but also watched the drill, and finally found some familiar officers and soldiers to talk for a long time.

After dinner, seeing that it was still early, he asked Li Shen to go out for a walk.

The barracks are located under a mountain beam, with endless mountains behind it and a meandering stream next to it, making it a great place to go by the mountains and rivers. The two of them, with a few guards, walked all the way up the mountain beam along the mountain road, and only stopped at the guard post at the top of the mountain. Standing on the mountain overlooking the river, stretching for dozens of miles, on the fertile soil of the fertile fields and vertical and horizontal traffic, the official road that has just been renovated is like a light white ribbon under the sunset, following the river direction in the green fields and green trees to the south. Looking along the road, the vague outline of Duanzhou City at the end of the horizon was like a black line, looming in the wandering twilight.

The two soldiers on duty in the guard post had already seen them, and they didn't dare to come out in a hurry, and Zhang Huang was so hard that he couldn't even salute, and his mouth was so trembling that he couldn't say a word.

Shang Cheng returned the salute, walked over and said with a smile: "You continue to perform your duties, don't worry about us." General Lee and I just came to take a look. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and grabbed a handful of a soldier's robe, and asked with concern, "Wear so little, isn't it cold at night?" Be careful not to get sick. ”

The soldier's body was as straight as an iron spear, his face was stiff, his eyes didn't blink, his eyes were fixed on the deep blue sky, and it took a long time to squeeze out a sentence from between his teeth: "Hey, tell the general, we, we are not on duty at night, and there is a group of people behind us." ”

I see. Shang Cheng instigated his lips and nodded. He glanced at the other soldier, and wanted to say a few words, but he saw that the soldier's face was white, his hands, feet, and shoulders were trembling slightly, and the joints of a hand holding the barrel of a pestle were showing green tendons, and he was obviously nervous to the extreme, so it was not good to make him uncomfortable again, so he just patted the soldier on the shoulder lightly and said to them: "General Li and I will sit there for a while." Won't it get in the way of your duty? ”

Both soldiers were in a trance, one nodding and the other shaking their heads, thinking that it was wrong, they became one shaking their heads and the other nodding.

Shang Cheng didn't say anything more, turned around and walked back and sat down on a stone next to Li Shen.

Shang Cheng went over to talk to the two little soldiers, and Li Shen sat here and watched coldly. To be honest, he couldn't understand why Shang Cheng was doing this; Including Shang Cheng and a group of small officers and big soldiers sitting around in the afternoon, talking and laughing, it made him disgusted and uncomfortable from the bottom of his heart, and it also made him look down on Shang Cheng even more because General Shang Cheng should have the prestige of a general! If you mix with a bunch of small soldiers at every turn, it is a trivial matter to lose your appearance identity, and if you lose the majesty of the general because of this, it is a great big thing one by one on the battlefield, a general without majesty is not as good as a toothless sick cat!

However, he didn't want to remind Shang Cheng to make corrections. If only that day had to happen! In that case, the guys in the court will know what a foolish thing it is to put a blind merchant in the position of admiral; Yan Shanwei's fools will understand how short-sighted and shallow they are against themselves......

He watched Shang Cheng sit in front of him and took off his blindfold to wipe his eyes, looking at that ugly and terrifying face, he couldn't help but sneer in his heart, I don't know that the guy who knows how to repay you deserves to be punished!

Of course, Shang Cheng couldn't know what thoughts his old boss was turning in his heart. He wiped his eye sockets with a medicated handkerchief, while thinking about how to open his mouth to talk to Li Shen Li Shen's practice of interfering in local government affairs was wrong and should be stopped immediately! A soldier should do the things of a soldier, one is to appease the place, the other is to resist the foreign captives, and other other things should be handed over to the superiors to deal with, even if the superiors can't handle it for a while or don't handle it properly, he can explain the situation to the superiors or complain and scold his mother, but he should never wantonly disturb the place as he is now.

He thought about it for a long time, until he put the blindfold back on, and he didn't come up with a good idea.

But he can't just throw this kind of thing out of force, right? Although Li Shen is now his subordinate and is also courteous to him, no matter how he says, it was Li Shen who promoted him, and he can't forget or ignore this kindness, so he can't scold and scold mercilessly like Sun Zhongshan and Qian Laosan, nor can he say something straight like he did with Ximen Sheng or Duan Xiu. Talking to Li Shen, the Admiral can't stand upright, the words must also be tactful and to the point, and Li Shen must be left room to turn around in his words, and the most important thing is to have a proper time...... Alas, what a trouble!

He folded the used medicine handkerchief into a small square, put it into a small silver box he carried with him, put the box away, looked at the half-exposed ridge between the weeds and trees not far away, and asked without words: "Li Gong, what's the matter with that ridge?" It looks like people have built it up. It's strange, on the top of this mountain, there is no road, no water, no water, and there is no dead land on all sides, is there still someone who builds a village here? ”

Li Shen turned his head and glanced at the ridge, turned around and said with a little disdain: "Hasn't the Governor heard of the Yan Great Wall?" ”

Yan Great Wall?

This rough and ugly ridge crawling with weeds and vines is the Great Wall?

Shang Cheng was taken aback! He walked a few steps to the "Great Wall", which was not much taller than him, and reached out to pull away a few weeds clinging to the city wall, only to see that there were indeed clear traces of rammed earth on the wall. He stroked his hand on the crumbling and broken city wall, the earthen wall that had been exposed to the sun for a day was still exuding residual heat, and as the palm of his hand moved, a warm warmth slowly flowed in his palm, and his hand could feel the hardness of the rammed earth and the roughness of the sand...... He circled around the ancient Great Wall, which was less than twenty paces long and less than five feet wide, and looked around. In the past, there were still a few sections of walls that looked more similar, but the weathering was more serious, some collapsed so that only a mud pillar remained, and people stood still, and some were blown by the sun and rain, and they were not even "walls", only a few mud mounds that were not as high as their waists and lower than their knees; Looking out in their direction, there are almost any ridges on the surrounding ridges, or hidden in the grass and trees, or standing alone on the bare ridges, intermittently implicated and stretched into an invisible line, stretching along the direction of the mountain to the east and west......

This is the Great Wall!

He stood by the wall, and did not speak for a long time.