Along the way from Fushunjian to Chengdu, on both sides of the official road, you can see dilapidated city houses everywhere, white walls and black tiles have become broken walls, it is almost difficult to find a complete house as far as the eye can see, the fields are overgrown with wild grass, and the canals have become moats, although the farmers and villagers who have returned to their homes one after another have worked hard, but the thatched piles that are more than one person high still occupy a large area of the fields.

The fields were deserted, the market towns were destroyed, the population was depressed, and the prosperity of the land of abundance in the past seemed to be almost a passing cloud, which can be seen from the devastating destruction of Xichuan by the Mongolian iron cavalry in recent years.

Changsun Hong and his entourage hurriedly beat the horses, the horse's hooves flew, stirring up the loess all over the sky, and the Sichuan people who were working between the broken houses and fences in the fields looked up numbly, and there was no light in their godless eyes, they squinted to see that they were not bandits, and then buried their heads and did their own thing.

In the flames, people's expectations of life are often lowered to a very low level.

When life is not safe, what can we talk about life?

However, although it is broken, there are always traces of people, and there is hope for people. Compared with the scene of locusts crossing the border without roosters for thousands of miles half a year ago, it is much better.

Five days later, the dusty eldest grandson Hong appeared in the outer city of Chengdu.

Wang Kui's army was waiting for him, and immediately followed, respectfully accompanying him into the city.

While riding his horse slowly, Changsun Hong looked at the inside and outside of the outer city like a huge construction site, his eyes were different, and he exclaimed: "Lord Wang is so generous, I'm afraid that tens of thousands of people have been requisitioned, right?" ”

Beside him, a huge trench as wide as 20 zhang and as deep as 3 zhang is gradually forming under the hoe of the people who are as dense as ants, and the trench goes around the city, enclosing the huge Chengdu inside, the city is a huge moat, this trench stretches to both sides, I don't know how long.

And the outer city wall up and down, there are also countless people surging, bricks and stones are hung up by simple hangers, up and down moving, the loess city wall that has been tamped is like being put on a stone clothes, gradually built into a brick city wall, the city wall is higher than before, thicker, looking at it from afar, a thick sense of security comes to the face.

Du Yuhou looked colorful, followed by the eldest grandson Hong behind him and pointed, and said: "My lord has good eyesight, in order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the previous envoys, Lord Wang decided to build Chengdu into the first strong city of the Great Song Dynasty, as the mainstay of resisting the invasion of the north and the south, for this reason, he did not hesitate to invest a lot of resources, what the adults saw, is just one of the scenes, now Chengdu is such a scene on all sides, in full swing, a total of 30,000 troops have been levied, and 50,000 people are strong!" There are also countless displaced people who come to work and beg for food nearby. ”

That's nearly 100,000 people, Changsun Hong looked at the grand construction site, surrounded by busy people, in it, he felt a kind of momentum like a person winning the sky.

But immediately, he frowned again: "Requisitioning so many people will hurt the people's strength, everyone is here, who will go to farm?" How to solve the problem of food? ”

"Your Excellency is wise, requisitioning the people to build the city will indeed affect the spring ploughing and autumn harvest, but Lord Wang has already calculated, about another three months, the main body of the city defense here will be completed, and the rest of the project will not need so many people, and then the people can get the money back, with the money, they can purchase seeds and farm tools to facilitate farming."

Du Yu Hou said respectfully, he heard that Wang Kui, the envoy of the system, and the small regimental training envoy in front of him were brothers, and their attitude was extremely courteous: "As for the grain, Lord Meng of Xuanfu has strong support for this side, and the grain ships coming from Jinghu every day are about to block the wharf, and the road from the wharf to the Guancang Taiping is full of grain trucks, one after another, so there is no need to worry about food." I heard Lord Wang say that he wanted to build Chengdu into an important town in Xichuan and become the most important base camp to resist the northern captives. ”

"This is not counted, what the adults see, is only a scene, on Longquan Mountain, on the bank of the Tuojiang River, Lord Wang also recruited more than 20,000 people to build Yunding City, with Yunding as the point, with Longquan Mountain as the line, even more than 20 cities, as the outer line defense of Chengdu, Chengdu will be firmly protected in it."

His mouth opened and closed, and he told the whole story of the current situation in Chengdu, so that Changsun Hong understood a general idea, and also understood Wang Kui's idea of running Xichuan.

Repair and complete Chengdu City, let Jinguan City as the distribution center and garrison core of Xichuan materials, and on this basis, comprehensively spread out the intention of locking the mountain city of Xichuan presented by Changsun Hong, and turn the whole Sichuan into a city everywhere, and the land is a defense center.

Coupled with the conditions that the mountains are not conducive to the galloping of cavalry, the Mongolian troops going south are trapped in it, like a quagmire, like entering the Tianmen Great Array, and there is no way out, so as to achieve the purpose of guarding the river and protecting the river.

I have to say that Wang Kui is a very smart person and a person with strong executive ability.

Even if Yu Jue came from Huaiyou, what he could do was nothing more than that.

It seems that I have picked up a treasure, the sea of people is vast, I didn't expect to meet one casually, and his ability can be compared with historical ministers, which is really rare.

The eldest grandson laughed, followed Du Yuhou, and walked all the way through the hot construction site, and went straight to the Xichuan system envoy in the city.

The whole city of Chengdu was burned down, Wang Kui actually started from the white ground, rebuilt the city, and the system of the envoy was also newly built, built with a high atmosphere, but there are still traces of decoration in many places, and some craftsmen still climb on the beams of the house and knock and beat.

Knowing that the eldest grandson Hong was coming, Wang Kui had been waiting outside the gate for a long time, and saw from a distance that before the people arrived, the sound of hearty laughter came.

The two laughed and embraced, and the man's hormones filled the square with laughter.

After a few simple greetings, the two walked into the second hall, retreated left and right, and laid tea to talk.

"The reason why I quickly invited my brother over was because something big happened." Wang Kui's face was excited, and he was a little playful: "Brother, I must not have imagined that someone would defect to us from the north!" ”

The eldest grandson Hong smiled slightly, and said with a smile: "The affairs of the world are also the fortune of the times." We can't compare to the Mongols now, so how do we know that we won't be stronger than them in the future? This man must have seen through the fortune of the moment, and felt that he would gain something in the future by taking refuge in us, so he abandoned the darkness and turned to the light, which is really wise. ”

Wang Kui blushed a little, and felt that it was really shameless for Changsun Hong to brag, but he had a good temper, nodded and said: "Don't say anything else, first tell my brother what kind of person this is, speaking of which, my brother focuses on salt politics, I'm afraid I still know this person." ”

Changsun Hong let out an "oh" and spun around in his mind, but before he could figure out who it was, Wang Kui couldn't wait to point it out.

"It's Jin Rucheng, the leader of the Jingshen Gang who used to be rampant in Sichuan! I heard that this person had some dealings with Gui Ruyuan, the former envoy of the system, and the private salt business was even more prosperous than that of the righteous salt merchants, and he was a tyrant in Sichuan. ”

"Later, the Mongols came over and took his business, and this man took the help of Zhongxi to take refuge in Tibet, and the mix was not very satisfactory, and some people below had different intentions and wanted to collude with the Mongols and become the northern eagle dog."

"Jin Rucheng is unwilling, this person has a bad character, but he has a bit of backbone, and within a few days, he turned his face with the hall master who wanted to take refuge in Mongolia, one night the dark wind was high, and he moved the knife, Jin Rucheng had a black hand, not only was he not turned over by the people below, but he also cut a lot of people, and stabilized his position."

When Wang Kui said this, he grinned: "In order to keep his net worth, he had to lead the crowd south and return to the Great Song Dynasty. ”

(End of chapter)