The long procession of horse-drawn carriages drove along the newly renovated avenue, kicking up puffs of dust. The temperature on the grassland has dropped, and as far as the eye can see, the grassland is decayed and desolate.

The caravans and migrants slowly moved north along the valley of the Dajin River, and after turning through a low bush jungle in the valley, the view suddenly widened. In front of me, the blue sky stretched to the end of the earth like a huge curtain, the knee-deep withered yellow thatch on the field covered the earth tightly, the vast grassland was full of cattle and sheep, and the desolate mountains behind them were like two worlds.

In the distance, flocks of crows flew up, probably cattle and sheep that were only left with the remains after being hunted by wolves, or it could be the bones of humans after being killed. On the grassland, survival and death are things that have to be faced every day.

Starting from Tongyuan City, it took Kang Jiu and his team six days to take people to Fengzhou City.

Fengzhou Castle is a famous big city on the grassland, the city wall up to two zhang is made of earth rammed, after experiencing the turmoil at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the city wall has never been repaired, there are large and small gaps everywhere, it looks dilapidated.

Song Yao and Zhuang Zong are in-laws, and his son Song Tinghao married Li Qi's eldest sister Princess Yicheng, but Fengzhou was occupied by the Khitan in the seventeenth year of Tianyou, but later Zhuang Zong defeated Abaoji in Youzhou, and Fengzhou nominally returned to the rule of the Jin army.

In the past, the Jin kings Li Keyong and Li Cunqiao did not pay much attention to the control of the northern grasslands, and the current Fengzhou Thorn Shi Li Jiwei is the leader of the Inner Tibetan Department who moved to Hetao in Hexi. However, this situation changed after Li Qi strengthened his control of Yunzhou, and the assassin was replaced by Song Tinghao, a concubine, and began to send garrisons composed of displaced people and prisoners in these important towns in the north, and implemented military cantonments.

It is very difficult to build a city on the grassland, and the city wall made of loess cannot withstand the wind and rain for a long time, so it must be renovated every few years, and the cost is not small. Fengzhou City is not big, not even as big as the county seat of Laoxian County in Yanmen Pass, and there are not many ordinary families in the dilapidated city except for the military households resettled in advance.

A layer of thatch was placed between a layer of rammed earth thick with plywood, and this kind of earthen wall had been eroded by wind and rain, and a thick layer of loess had been accumulated at the foot of the wall. Even such a dilapidated city wall brought a sense of security to the Han people in the team, and after seeing the city wall, many people in the team, including some of the bold prisoners, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Although this earthen wall, which is only two feet high, does not have much military defense capacity, it will provide them with enough courage to at least not face the onslaught of the Hu cavalry......

The displaced people were placed in the city by Song Tinghao, and more than 700 convicts were directly incorporated into the Fengzhou Army after tattooing the number of the army on their faces.

"Where are these guys?" Kang Jiu asked.

"The Jiashan Pass on the west bank of the Xiaojinshui River, this is the place designated by the Son of Heaven, and the people of the capital water supervisor are planning." Song Tinghao said: "Your Majesty ordered us to build a new city there, called Suiyuan City, which is just stuck in the mountain pass under the south of Yin Mountain, it seems that Your Majesty seems to be very familiar with the terrain in this area." "The Xiaojin River is actually the Xiaohei River that passed through the city from Hohhot in later generations, and Li Qi is certainly very familiar with this area.

Kang Jiu looked at the map in his hand and thought about it for a while, then said to Song Tinghao: "It happens to be at the foot of Yin Mountain, and there is still the Xiaojinshui River, as long as there is no problem with the water source, it is stuck at the mountain pass leading to the Northland, and in terms of importance, it is better than Fengzhou City." ”

Song Tinghao looked at Kang Jiu and said with a smile: "I heard that the Son of Heaven's favorite thing to do is to repair dams, is Kang Xunji also preparing to build an embankment and repair a dam on the Xiaojinshui River?" ”

"Your Majesty sent us here to do this kind of work." Kang Jiu smiled and replied, "Although the northern land is mainly based on animal husbandry, the cultivated farmland still needs irrigation. Even alfalfa fields, if irrigated, can be harvested four times a year and produce more than twice as much grass as ordinary grasslands. ”

Song Tinghao also stretched out his finger and gestured on the map, and then said: "If a few dams are built, the two sides of the Jinhe River will be enough to feed tens of thousands of military households, and it will be more than enough to subdue these grassland tribes at that time." It's just that His Majesty has set up all the horse farms in the area of the Qingshui River. ”

Kang Jiu rolled his eyes: "This is a good horse pasture, but the problem is that if we build horse farms first, we don't have the ability to guarantee the safety of these horse farms now." There has always been a shortage of military horses in the Jin army, and we must control this part of the Hetao as soon as possible so as to expand the scale of the horse farm. ”

Song Tinghao glanced at the map in Kang Jiu's hand again and said, "This is to prepare to build a city and build a bridge on the north bank of the Yellow River in Shengzhou?" ”

Kang Jiu nodded: "It's just a large suspension bridge, once there is something to the east or west of Yunnei, connect Fuzhou and Linzhou through Shengzhou here, and there is a way to take care and retreat." The Son of Heaven does things, and he likes to leave a few more retreats in everything. ”

Song Tinghao said with a smile: "Emperor Wu and Emperor Xian are like fierce tigers every time they come to the battlefield, there is no advance or retreat, Your Majesty's way of doing things is not like King Jin!" ”

Kang Jiu had no choice but to keep silent, Song Tinghao had been the personal general of the former emperor Li Cunxuan, and he was the captain of the horse, and he was the brother-in-law of Li Qi, the son of heaven, he could comment on the emperor at will, but he couldn't answer.

The construction of the Dongshengcheng and the Yellow River suspension bridge on the north bank of Shengzhou Castle south of the Yellow River was arranged by Li Qi, not only to echo the Hetao area, but also to support the Fuzhou Zhe clan against the Dingyan army party Xiang Tuoba clan. Although the Zhe clan is also known as the Dangxiang Qiang Division, it is a descendant of Xianbei who moved to Longyou, similar to the Tuyuhun people, and the various departments of the Dingyan Army led by the Tuoba clan have clashed from time to time in order to compete for the pastures of Jialuchuan.

The Dang Xiang Qiang Department of the Dingyan Army made a lot of profits every year because of its control of the Hexi Corridor and the horse trading routes that Hehuang imported into Jindi, and gradually grew larger. Although nominally subordinate to the Jin army, in fact, it was difficult for the Jinyang side to make the Dingyan army bow down to orders. However, in that year, he was far away from Yunzhou to inspect and lead more than 1,500 soldiers and horses of the Fuzhou Fold, and he once fought in Liangdi with Zhuangzong.

Later, he was incorporated into the Yunzhou Army from the Yuansuo Department, and he became a partial general of Yunzhou, thus gaining the trust of the first emperor Li Cunxuan, and was appointed as the governor of Fuzhou after being promoted from the county to the prefecture.

For some reason, Li Qi, as the Son of Heaven, was obviously wary of the Tuoba clan, the party that controlled Yinxia. This time, the Yunzhou army developed to the Hetao area in a big way, and even prepared to capture the Shuofang army in Lingzhou, which seemed to have the intention of restricting the continued development and expansion of the party's various departments.

Before and after Li Qi became emperor, he adopted the strategy of defending the south and attacking the north, holding the Hedong Pass, first managing the northern grasslands and the Yellow River Hetao, and stabilizing and controlling the northern border, which was exactly the opposite of the ideas of many of his generals......