Liang Xingliu was engaged in copying and drawing a map of the surrounding area of Beishan Fort in Tunpu, and he and Wang Jun, another engaged in it, went to a suitable embankment site in Kamchak under the cliff. Qin Ming brought a group of six soldiers to accompany them, acting as guides and guards.

The Beishan cliff is twenty miles northeast of Beishan Fort, this area is densely hilly, the mountains are undulating, but the slope is gentle, not steep and precipitous. Except for the northern mountain, which is mountainous, most of them are vast grasslands, with few trees, only on both sides of the Shiya River, where relatively dense forests grow.

"There are remnants of the ancient Great Wall on this north mountain, and the earth and stone for building this beacon are taken from the broken city wall." Immediately under the stone cliff, Qin Ming pointed to the beacon on the top of the mountain with a horsewhip in his hand and said to Liang Xing. The cliff is about dozens of feet high, and it looks very abrupt in this hilly and undulating mountainous area.

"Oh, the Great Wall was originally built on this mountain, I don't know if it was built in the Han Dynasty or even longer during the Warring States Period." Liang Xing was quite interested when he heard this, he didn't expect that as early as the Han Dynasty or even more ancient period, the power of the Central Plains Dynasty would reach here. Of course, since the Empress Wu Zetian completely pacified the Eastern Turks, the power of the Tang Dynasty has reached the Beihai where Su Wu shepherded sheep back then, and even the current Khitan, including the Bohai Kingdom, is the territory of the Tang Dynasty.

It's a pity that since the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, the grasslands of this northern land have gradually lost control.

Turning a hillside, Liang Xing observed the valley in front of him, pointed to Qin Ming and said: "This is a good place to repair the reservoir, do it well, and tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land can be opened out along both sides of the river valley." ”

"Do you drive the wasteland near the foot of the mountain or the outside?"

"Naturally, we started to open up the land at the foot of the mountain, but although the soil at the foot of the mountain is fertile, it is mostly clay, and it is not easy to cultivate, so we should mainly grow pasture grass and sweet root vegetables, and if we grow food, we must also reclaim the wasteland on the west side of the riverbank." Liang Xing said.

Qin Ming nodded: "I understand, we have to dig a big canal along both sides of this river valley, and the grain will be planted in the southwest of Tunpu first, and the grass and sweet root vegetables you said will be planted first under the cliff in the north." ”

Several people went to the river again and determined the address of the dam, the soil in this area is mostly clay, and it needs to be mixed with loess to build the dam, otherwise the clay dam is easy to crack and seep out. In addition, the mountain rock needs to be mined from the mountain southwest of the cliff, because there is no cement, and the dam can only be built with mountain rock and soil.

Several people were discussing the issue of repairing the dam, but they heard a soldier shouting to Qin Ming: "Dutou, look, the beacon is smoking!" ”

"What happened?!" When Qin Ming heard this, he looked in the direction pointed by the soldier, and saw a thick column of smoke rising from the Black Mountain beacon in the northwest.

Qin Ming was taken aback, rode up the river slope, and carefully observed it, and after a few people also came up from the river slope, he said: "There are captives riding into the Kou, about five or six hundred people, let's hurry back to the dock fort." ”

As he was talking, wolf smoke was also lit on the beacon on the top of the stone cliff, this time it was close, Liang Xing could see clearly, on the side of the main smoke column on the top of the beacon, a thinner smoke column was also lit. This means that there were more than 300 captives, but less than 1,000. According to the establishment of the Khitan cavalry, it was about half of the strength under the command of a thousand commanders.

Several people quickly turned their horses' heads and fled back in the direction of Tunpu.

Liang Xing and Wang Jun rode on the standard war horses of the Weisai cavalry, and they were extremely fast, but they didn't expect that the yellow horses under Qin Ming's crotch were even better, and the horses ridden by those Tun soldiers were obviously slower than them. However, it was only a dozen miles away, but it was not much behind, and when they were halfway through, they heard a burst of rapid alarm sounds from the big bell hanging in the tunpu, which spread far away.

The soldiers who were working outside the tunpu heard the alarm bell, threw away the work in their hands, and began to run wildly towards the tunpu, a chaotic scene......

"The Khitans are coming, run!" Qin Ming had already caught up with a group of fleeing soldiers, he reined in the reins of his horse, lowered his horse speed, and shouted loudly at the crowd.

In fact, there is no need for him to shout, at this moment when his life is in danger, everyone is running in the direction of the dock fort with all their might.

At this time, two teenagers ran out of the woods by the river, Qin Ming scolded a few words in his mouth, but he didn't hear what he was scolding, and turned back to Liang Xing: "Let's go over and bring those two melon babies back!" ”

Liang Xing nodded when he heard this, but he didn't speak, shook the reins slightly, and the mount made a small turn, followed behind Qin Ming, and relaxed towards the two young men.

I saw Qin Ming riding a horse behind the young man in front, the horse's speed did not decrease, and as soon as he leaned over, he copied the young man to his horse, just slapped the young man on the horse's back, turned his head and galloped back. Liang Xing didn't have the same riding skills as Qin Ming, he just stopped the horse, let the young man come to his side, and stretched out his hand to drag the young man onto the horse.

The boy carried a hare in his hand, and he clung to it, refusing to let go.

Liang Xing noticed that the situation was not particularly urgent, deliberately slowed down the horse, returned to Tunpu with a group of soldiers, and pretended to be good on horseback and asked the young man with a smile: "How did the rabbit fight?" ”

The boy looked back at him, then turned back and replied, "It's a condom." ”

Liang Xing smiled: "The ability is not small, do you know where there are wild sheep in the mountains?" ”

"Huangyanggou, there are a lot of yellow sheep and roe deer over there, but it's a pity that I can't pull the bow, otherwise there will be hunting." The boy reached out and touched the quiver on the side of the saddle, licking his lips.

The standard steel tire horn bow produced by Jinyang, the softest is also the eight-bucket bow, this thirteen or four-year-old boy is relatively thin, and his body is not fully developed, so he naturally can't pull such a war bow. Moreover, although the control of the war bow is much more lax than that of the steel crossbow, the children of these military families are not in the army, so naturally they cannot easily take the war bow out of the dock fort.

It is usually possible to practice bows and arrows in the tun fort with a war bow.

As for the crossbow, it is even more thoughtless, although it has been improved a lot, it also requires a strong soldier to pull the lever with both hands to complete the winding.

"All the soldiers, go home and get your weapons, go to the warehouse to get your armor!" After Qin Ming galloped into the gate of the tunbao, he shouted loudly at those cantonment soldiers. While the garrison was usually only issued with swords, spears, and bows and arrows, equipment such as armor, shields, and crossbows were stored in warehouses, which were strictly managed, and were only opened for distribution in wartime.

This kind of thing has been practiced many times, and without Qin Ming's orders, some of the soldiers have gone home to get the blades and gathered under the watchtower.

Armor is a relatively valuable equipment, even if the output of Jinyang and Shanbei is not low now, it can only be the equipment to ensure the front-line combat troops, and only one-third of the troops stationed in various places are equipped with armor. Xinghe Fort and the new castle belong to the border military tun, the situation is slightly better, half of the soldiers in the garrison army are equipped with chain mail, Taifu Temple promised to give the border army garrison all armor within two years.

When Liang Xing returned to the fort, there were already some heavily armed soldiers standing on the fort wall......