"There is a decree in the saint, the southeast camp will deploy Zhao Xingde to cross the river to attack the enemy on the day he is ordered, he is brave and loyal, and he will be rewarded with fifty silver ingots." Deng Su finished reading the holy decree in a long voice, and said with a smile, "Brother Yuanzhi, Your Majesty has a lot of faith in you. ”

The proclamation was originally sent by the eunuchs in the palace, but after the fall of Bianliang and the exile of the Son of Heaven, almost all the eunuchs in the palace fell in the Liao State. Zhao Qi succeeded to the throne, and originally wanted to use eunuchs, but Deng Su thought that when the country was in danger, he must not be disabled and lose people's hearts because of this. Therefore, he gave up for the time being, and now by Zhao Qi's side, there are almost no eunuchs, and the servants can also do all the affairs in the palace properly. Deng Su is also planning to join forces with the Li Society in the future to abolish the eunuch system in the palace. The upper body is born with good virtue, and the lower body is to prevent the disaster of eunuchs and eunuchs.

"Thank you, Holy Lord, thank you Brother Deng." After Zhao Xingde bowed and thanked him, he said with a smile: "With armor on your body, you can only salute with a military salute." ”

"This is natural. Well said, well said. Deng Su smiled and returned the salute, how could he treat Zhao Xingde as an ordinary general. He waved his hand, and five imperial guards stepped forward with heavy trays in their hands, uncovering the red cloth, and on each pallet were ten silver ingots weighing ten taels. Many Hanyang generals stood behind Zhao Xingde, and when they saw this, they couldn't help but feel hot, and said secretly: "I have just been granted the right to the army, and I will be rewarded immediately, it seems that the Son of Heaven relies on General Zhao so much, and he is so favorable, which is rare in this dynasty." ”

"Zhao has a reluctant request, and he also asked Brother Deng to be the Enlightening Saint on his behalf." He looked back at the group of soldiers behind him, and discussed, "Expelling the northern captives and protecting the territory and the people is not something that Zhao can do." I have heard that the good generals of the ancients, where there are rewards and subordinates, Zhao wants to follow suit. I didn't dare to ask the Son of Heaven to give me more rewards, so I was only willing to exchange five hundred taels of silver for five hundred copper coins, so that tens of thousands of soldiers in the southeast camp could leave a memorial. In the future, if one day, the world is peaceful, and the soldiers will be disarmed and return to the field, with this token, the hometown fathers and elders know that they have fought for the country, braved the blade, spilled blood, and fought a battle. He paused, with a determined gaze in his eyes, clasped his fists again, bowed down, and said loudly, "Please Lord Deng."

"General Zhao has this intention," Deng Su's eyes showed a little emotion, "How can Deng not be an adult and leave a good story for future generations." He immediately ordered to put away the silver given by the emperor, and went home, and persuaded the Holy Admiral to turn the silver into copper coins and reward him.

Distributing money and silk for wine, food, and money to soldiers is a common thing in the army. But the gold and silver ingots that His Majesty gave him were different. The gold and silver ingots of ten taels are not used by ordinary people, and the imperial court usually uses them to Kuping, and the ones that are particularly beautifully cast are used for special rewards. The gold and silver ingots given by the emperor are not just wealth, but a rare glory. And Zhao Xingde just shirked it gently, and did not hesitate to offend the officials, asking for the usual incomparable 500 guan, that is, 50,000 copper coins, which was enough for him to reward every soldier who followed him across the river.

The generals were moved, but Zhao Xingde didn't care. The Liao army was about to move south, and the defense of Hanyang and Yangluo Fort in Jiangbei urgently needed to be rectified. In the fourth year of Seonhwa, Hanyang Fortress was flooded and abandoned for several years. After Chen Dong advocated respecting the Son of Heaven in Ezhou, because Hanyang City was extremely important to the defense of Ezhou, he soon recruited strong men to rebuild Hanyang City, but suffered from the lack of manpower, money and food, and in just a few months, Hanyang City was difficult to restore the old view, so it could only rely on the Phoenix Mountain, the highest in the city, to build a small city. Cho Xingdeok was also involved in the construction of the new Hanyang Fortress, and he tried his best to prevent the military headquarters from trying to expand the walls of the new city to its original location, advocating the construction of a small but strong fortress, and the addition of eight enemy platforms suitable for artillery fire around the walls.

"There are not many people left in the city, but within two days they will all be moved to the other side." He pointed to the houses around the new city and frowned, "This will be the battlefield where the two armies will clash, and after the people move out, set a fire to burn the woods and houses to the ground, so as not to obscure the gunner's view." As for these ruins and ruins in the distance, they can be kept. He pointed to some broken city walls a little farther away, this is the half of the city wall that the military department was going to build, and later added some after the forward of the Xiangyang army was stationed, because the terrain was too low, the Xincheng fort was clear at a glance, and the condescending shelling of these places, the broken wall could not only not resist the heavy artillery shells, but the collapsed gravel and wood chips could also increase the lethality of the shells.

"Don't you want all the outer city?" Ouyang Shan asked suspiciously. The rebuilt Hanyang military city in Ezhou is very small, the circumference is only three miles, only the phoenix mountain can be encircled, since the Xiangyang army entered Hanyang, it has been ridiculed, and it has been greatly repaired the outer city, and the old Hanyang city reaches the Dabie Mountain in the north, and reaches the scale of the riverside in the south. It's just that under the harassment of enemy ships on the river, the progress of the fortification is slow. Now that the two families are making peace, Ouyang Shan is preparing to speed up the progress of building the city, but who expected Zhao Xingde to give up the outer city.

"The ancients built a city, and the city wanted to be strong but not big, so it was difficult to overcome the strong city." Zhao Xingde muttered, "Later generations built the city, the city is big but not strong, tens of thousands of households move, hundreds of thousands of households live, but in fact it is not strong, called to protect the people, after the city is broken, the killing is even worse than in ancient times." Now there are many Liao soldiers, our army has few soldiers who can fight, and the city is large, which is conducive to Liao thieves and not to our army. ”

His fingers slowly slid on the map of mountains and rivers, this city wall line is the life and death line of the Song army and the Liao army in the future, Zhao Xingde can't wait for it to be as short as possible, limited by the terrain, even if Yelu Dashi has an army of 300,000, he can only line up and exchange his life with the Song army, to see who will hold out first to the last breath. In Ezhou, due to the limited money, food and manpower, there is also a dispute between the Privy Council and the Ministry of War to raise troops and build a city, now, Yue Fei and other generals have the upper hand, and most of the money and grain raised by the Prime Minister's Mansion are used to support the three elite soldiers of the Baoyi Army, the Henghai Navy and the Zhenguo Army, and the rectification of the city wall is all handed over to the local government to undertake. From the perspective of reducing the burden, Zhao Xingde's saying that "the city is not big, but small and strong" is still quite popular in various states and counties.

"If the city does not extend to the riverside, if the Liao thieves set up camp, then Hanyang will not become a lonely city?" Ouyang Shan asked. The southernmost part of the new city is still some distance away from the riverside wharf, which is enough for the Liao army to penetrate the ditch and cut off the connection between Hanyang and Ezhou.

"It's okay," Zhao Xingde smiled slightly, "It's just a matter of Xu, is it not good for the Liao thief to bully me?" ”

His eyes fell on the slope from Hanyang to the river, if the enemy really tried to occupy this place, or even set up camp, under the heavy artillery bombardment of Hanyang City and the gunboats on the river, I don't know how many lives the Liao thieves had prepared to fill it. The only thing to worry about is that it is reported that the Liao army also carried huge artillery to attack the city, and I wonder if the walls of Hanyang can stand the test. To Zhao Xingde's relief, because of the lack of money and food, the rebuilt city walls in Ezhou are all rammed earth, and they are relatively low.

"Really?" General Ouyang Shan was suspicious, he was only the commander of the fire battalion, and he only had a deep understanding of the power of artillery in the past few days. Since he was determined to follow Zhao Xingde, he didn't continue to question it, and said secretly: "Even if you defend it, the outer city may not be able to hold it." fought against the water, and at the last moment, he sacrificed his life and martyrdom, and followed Lord Zhao to have a reputation for loyalty and righteousness. ”

After Zhao Xingde pacified Hanyang, the artillery battalions in Ezhou had crossed the river by boat one after another, in addition to installing the artillery that had been removed from Hanyang back into the gun position, and according to Zhao Xingde's instructions, the gun positions in the city were installed with heavy barrel guns as much as possible. Although this kind of iron barrel cannon is cumbersome, Hanyang City is condescending, and if it shoots at the Liao army's siege artillery in the future, it can also take advantage of some geographical advantages. Although artillery is available, gunners are in short supply. Before the artillery battalion of the Baoyi Army arrived in Ezhou, Zhao Xingde could only use the artillery of the southeast battalion who crossed the river and the Ezhou gunners who were dispatched, and hurried to unify the command and firing action of the artillery battalion. Artillery requires extremely skilled coordination and drills, but fortunately, the gunners on both sides are in the same vein, and the artillery systems used are similar, and Zhao Xingde himself is extremely proficient in this, so he can barely knead them together.

Since Zhao Xingde's flag was erected in Hanyang, the soldiers and horses of the original southeast battalion have crossed the river in an endless stream to surrender, which has greatly increased the confidence of Ouyang Shan and others. The southeast battalion was originally to recruit elites from all over the country to form an army, and although it has been abandoned over the years, its combat power should not be underestimated. Zhao Xingde has the reputation of deploying the southeast battalion, Cao Di didn't know whether he intended to help or not, he still detained the generals of the army, and the battalion commander pulled a team of people out of the camp and found a boat to ferry him by the river. The wharves on both sides of the river had just stopped and were once again crowded with people.

Before Zhao Xingde left Ezhou, he had already said to Chen Dongchen that he would defend Huai and Hanyang if he defended Ezhou, otherwise the benefits of the river would be shared with the enemy. If Hanyang is not taken, Yelu Dashi will not dare to make a desperate bet, and the whole army like Cao Di will cross the river to besiege Ezhou. If there was no Hanyang, the Song army could only defend hard and could not cross the river and attack the enemy, but the Liao thieves could besiege Ezhou at any time and then pull it out, and the situation was extremely unfavorable. As long as Hanyang can hold on to Yue Fei's reinforcements, and the southeast prefectures and counties have a steady stream of soldiers and salaries, the situation in Ezhou can be considered stable. Chen Dong had always relied on Zhao Xingde in military affairs, so with his approval, Ezhou also transported a large amount of grain, grass, artillery and ammunition that had been hoarded in the city to the other side of the river.

Outside Ezhou City, Zhao Qi listened to Deng Su's report, stood up suddenly, and said excitedly: "I am a good general, why worry about Zhongxing?" ”

Deng Su stood aside with a smile, Zhao Qi paced back and forth in the tent a few times, and suddenly said: "Since you want to reward the whole army, why use copper coins to be so stingy?" He looked back at his attendants and commanded, "What is the amount of gold and silver that is still in the middle of the line?" Hurry up. ”

After the attendants hurriedly checked the number, they reported that there were still 30 pieces of money and 40 pieces of silver, all of which were bounty coins cast from the mold carved by the imperial pen "Saint Song Tongbao". When Zhao Qi got out of Bianliang, he was penniless. However, the Son of Heaven needed gold and silver money to reward his close ministers, so he cast a batch of gold and silver reward money in the imperial pen engraving mold. Zhao Qi drove the southern expedition this time, and he also brought a lot of them with him.

Zhao Qi pondered for a long time and said: "Then reward Zhao Xingde with ten pieces of money and forty pieces of silver, and he will reward the soldiers." He paused, suddenly remembered something, and said, "Also, tell Zhao Yuanzhi that if he makes another contribution, I will not hesitate to make it sealed." In addition, Deng Qing's family sent a jade belt to Cao Xianggong and Chen Dong each. ”

Deng Su smiled and said, "Your Majesty's hard work, Cao Xianggong, General Zhao, and Chen Shaoyang will all understand." ”