Although Fan Gu City is only a small border city in the northwesternmost part of the Great Sui Dynasty, no more than three and a half miles long, and no more than three miles wide, you can see the edge at a glance, but there is no doubt that this small city is extremely strong. This is the outpost of the northwest border, and beyond the Wolf Milk Mountains on the opposite side is the territory of the Mandu Banner of the Mengyuan Empire.

On the other side of the Wolf Milk Mountains, there is an equally fortified Nirvana City.

Nirvana City is a stone city, as solid as a natural mountain.

Fan Gu is not a stone city, but compared to Nirvana City, I am afraid that it is only surpassed. This small city was built under the personal supervision of Shangshu Yuwen Zhongshu of the Ministry of Industry of the Great Sui Dynasty at that time, and it is said that the construction process is the same as the construction of Chang'an City, the capital of the Great Sui Emperor. When the spies of the Mengyuan Empire saw this small city with earthen walls and then bricks piled up outside, they even laughed sarcastically, and it was only after a few decades that Mengyuan realized how naïve and ridiculous their sarcasm was.

Sturdy.

As strong as a single piece of the hardest diamond.

In the seventh year of the founding of the Great Sui, that is, during the reign of the previous emperor of the Great Sui, a small but far-reaching war broke out between the Mengyuan Empire and the Great Sui. On that occasion, the 40,000 wolves of the Mengyuan Empire rode through the valley of the Wolf Milk Mountain Range and took Fan Gu, who had only 800 border troops at that time, and the nearest reinforcement was Zuo Zhengwei in Jibei County, 450 miles away. And most of the left guards were heavy infantry, and it was obvious that they would not be able to rush in a short time.

In that battle, 40,000 dismounted wolf riders used hundreds of stone-throwing carts to bomb Fangucheng in turn. The hundreds of catties of boulders transported down from the Wolf Milk Mountain were smashed down intensively, and the two layers of green bricks wrapped outside the walls of Fangu City were all stripped off. The border troops on the city wall were suppressed at all and could not raise their heads, so they could only hide behind the battlements.

At that time, the Mandu Banner Master of the Mengyuan Empire, who led the troops at that time, laughed and said: "There is no need to attack the city, just smash it like this, and you can smash this broken city down in one day." When the time comes, the wolf will ride into the city, and it will be easy to kill all the people in the city. ”

What is shocking is that after a day of indiscriminate bombardment, Fan Gucheng is like a hard-boiled egg, the shell of which has been smashed to pieces, revealing the pitiful egg whites inside. But no one could have imagined that what they thought was fragile was completely wrong, and the next scene made the Mengyuan Empire's jaw drop in surprise.

The seemingly fragile earthen wall actually stands like a mountain!

Hundreds of pounds of heavy boulders smashed up, and only a white mark could be smashed on the earthen wall. After the first day, one of the walls of Fangu City was neatly stripped of its bricks. It's just that the fragile earthen wall turned out to be as solid as a whole mountain rock, and the stone smashed into it without leaving a single crack.

The Mandu wolf was furious, and on the second day ordered the catapult to continue the onslaught. It was another whole day, and the team carrying stones from the Wolf Milk Mountains stopped when it was no longer supplied. It's a pity that the walls of Fangu City, which seemed to be able to be blown down by a gust of wind, still stood proudly.

Enraged, the Mandu wolf ordered the siege of the city, and tens of thousands of wolf horsemen began to attack. This is the first time since the founding of the Great Sui Dynasty that the men and horses of the Mengyuan Empire attacked the cities of the Han people. The war between the founding emperor of the Great Sui and the Mengyuan Empire broke the myth of the invincibility of the Mengyuan Empire on the plain. So this time, the little Fan Gu let the soldiers of the Mengyuan Empire know what it means to be indestructible.

The wolf rider under the step and the wolf rider on the horse are completely different in combat power.

The wolf knights in leather armor sprinted awkwardly forward with makeshift ladders, completely unaware of how to avoid and fend off the feathered arrows that fell from the walls. And what frightened them the most was the powerful heavy crossbow installed on the city wall. The calf-thick crossbow shot down like a thunderbolt's fury, tearing a sturdy steppe horse in two.

After paying thousands of casualties, the wolf rider finally approached the city wall, and then clumsily erected the ladder and clumsily climbed upward. They drove their horses like fingers, but this kind of battle was undoubtedly a nightmare for them. The wolf rider, who has been comfortable for too many years, has long forgotten that the ancestors were once invincible on the land of the Central Plains.

Six days, a full six days from the beginning to the end of the war. The Mandu wolf left more than 4,000 corpses outside the city of Fangu and withdrew in disarray, and every time he mentioned this battle for the rest of his life, he would beat his chest and point in the direction of Fangu and curse. The reason why they withdrew was because the elite soldiers of the Great Sui Zuo Zuo Guard, who were hundreds of miles away, finally arrived.

This battle made Fangu City a well-known place in the world.

This battle let the world know that the city of the Great Sui is indestructible.

This battle also made the then Zuo Zhengwei general Li Chao famous. The reason is very simple, at that time, it was only Li Chao and the men and horses of the 900 personal guard cavalry battalion under his command who rushed to Fangu City to rescue the border army. With 900 cavalry and 1,000 banners, Li Chao frightened the Mandu wolf, who had tens of thousands of horses, into fleeing back to the west of the Wolf Milk Mountains, and did not dare to turn back all the way.

Most of the left guards were heavy infantry, and it was impossible to arrive in time. Li Chao had no other way but to pretend to be an army of 100,000. Speaking of which, this is also the helplessness of the Great Sui border army, Zuo Zhenwei has an army of 50,000, but only 900 cavalry are gathered. The lack of war horses in the Great Sui can be seen from this.

After the war, Emperor Yang Yun of the Great Sui Jianye announced that the border army of Fan Gucheng would all be promoted to captains, and each of them would be rewarded with 30 acres of xuntian fields, and there was no need to pay taxes to the government. The residents of Fangu City do not have to pay taxes for ten years, and the Ministry of Household Affairs allocates 50,000 taels of silver to repair the houses of the people and reward them for their loyalty and bravery.

Li Chao, the general of Zuo Yiwei, was promoted from the county prince to the national prince, and the opening of the palace was the same as the three divisions.

In that battle, there was a young man beside Li Chao who never left, even if he knew that he might be besieged by tens of thousands of elite horsemen of the Mengyuan Empire, he still did not escape when he was a teenager. This young man was the eldest son of Li Chao, who later inherited his status as the Duke of Tang Guo, and is now also Li Yuanshan, the general of the Right Xiaowei of the Northwest Barrier of the Great Sui.

Right Xiaowei is also stationed in Jibei County, but he is not in Jibei County.

The right guard of 50,000 elite soldiers is stationed in Woxian Mountain, sixty miles away from Jibei City.

……

……

"Tang Gong is really polite, our family is out of the imperial capital for the first time to do things, if there is anything inconsiderate, please bear with Tang Gong, you know, if the people below are not annoying Your Majesty, how can Your Majesty let the adults of Dali Temple and the military department go out of Beijing to strictly investigate? Coming over to see it along the way, our family also knows that the border army brothers are hard, so just walk around, Tang Gong can rest assured. ”

The one who spoke was a eunuch dressed in a light blue official uniform from the sixth grade, thirty-five or sixteen years old, his face was covered with a thick layer of white powder, and his lips were extremely bright and disgusting. Although this eunuch is only from the sixth grade, what you need to know is ...... Once the eunuch has a grade, it can only mean that he is a favored person in the palace.

The official uniform of the eunuch is different from that of the hundred officials, it is blue, and the higher the rank, the darker the color. And there is no complement on the chest, and you can't wear a beam crown. The people in the Ouchi Guard Office are wearing flying fish suits, and the complement on their chests is a strange beast recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Flying fish, Changzhang Xu, dragon head, cicada wings, fish tail.

This eunuch is Wu Xiangsheng, the eunuch of the imperial study, who is really a popular figure in the palace. This time, at the behest of Emperor Yang Yi of the Great Sui, he inspected Hebei, Hexi, Shanbei, and Shandong together with officials from Dali Temple and the Ministry of War. Jibei County belongs to Shandong Province and is also the last stop of this inspection.

When he arrived in Jibei County, the first thing he did was not to enter the city, but to visit Li Yuanshan in Woxian Mountain first. As a eunuch in the imperial study, he naturally knows the weight of this right Xiaowei general in His Majesty's heart. That's why he said the goodwill just now. Along the way, in addition to being humble and polite in front of the governors, he has never been so polite in front of the county guards of the three grades.

"What did Gonggong Wu say?"

Li Yuanshan is thirty-three years old, which is the age when a man is calm and mature. He is of medium stature, about 1.7 meters, not burly, compared to the fierce generals in the army, he is a little less sturdy, and he looks too thin. Especially compared to the Right Xiaowei Seven Tigers behind him, it seems even more ordinary. The seven tiger generals, all of them are fierce.

Because he wanted to receive the order, he deliberately put on the Zhengyipin Guogong court dress today and wore a beam crown on his head. The court dress is dark purple, and a unicorn is embroidered on the chest. Guogong Liang has eight beams, which are the same specifications as the county king and the prince. This is the highest number of courtiers, because the number nine is not available to everyone. For first-grade officials, there are seven beams on the beam crown, six beams for the second grade, and three beams for the fifth grade, and the beam crown shall not be worn under the fifth grade.

The costumes of the Great Sui military generals and civilian officials are also different, and the biggest difference is the complement on the chest on the official uniform. The generals are all beasts, and the civil officials are birds. The first to fourth grades are purple robes, the fifth to seventh grades are green robes, and the eighth and ninth grades are green robes. Since the founding of the Great Sui Dynasty, there is no first-grade official among the generals, and the generals of the Sixteen Guards are all three-ranked, and for more than 100 years, there has not been a military general with more than three grades.

But Guogong is a genuine product, so Li Yuan wears a crown of eight beams, a purple robe, and a unicorn embroidered on his chest. The second-rank military general paints a lion, and the third-rank is a tiger.

The civil official is a product, which is also a purple official uniform, a seven-beam crown, a crane embroidered with a patch on the chest, a golden chicken in the second grade, and a peacock in the third grade.

Li Yuanshan is the prince of the country, so he can wear the eight-beam crown and wear a court dress embroidered with a unicorn complement. This is the rule of the imperial court, and it can't be messed up at all. If there is chaos, there is a suspicion of plotting rebellion.

As he walked, he glanced sideways at Wu Peisheng and said with a smile: "Since Gonggong Wu came down to investigate strictly at the behest of His Majesty, he will naturally cooperate." Whether it is money and grain, the number of people, the treasury, ordnance, horses, these accounts have already been prepared by the general, and if Gonggong Wu wants to see it, he will send someone to send it later. ”

"Duke Tang is conscientious in his duties, and our family admires him."

Wu Peisheng smiled, and the white powder on his face fell: "Since Tang Gong is so solemn, if our family shirks it again, it will inevitably be suspected of slackness. But...... The matter of checking the accounts is the officials of Dali Temple and the Ministry of War, and our family is just following along. ”

Li Yuanshan glanced back, and the officials of more than a dozen Dali Temples and the Ministry of War who followed behind nodded one after another. His gaze deliberately lingered on the faces of three of them for a few more moments, and the three of them shook slightly almost at the same time.

"Dali Temple sent down more than three law enforcement envoys who broke the mirror this time, but they were really attentive. I've heard...... The Ministry of War also sent down a talisman master who had been broken for many years, why didn't he come together? ”

"Where did Tang Gong get the news......

Wu Xiangsheng said with a smile: "The military department only sent down five scribes, all of whom are good at arithmetic, just to check the accounts, where are there any broken mirror talismans?" We have a list of officials who came down to inspect this time, if Tang Gong doesn't believe it, you can take a look, the military department has only sent a total of one outsider, four are engaged, and there is absolutely no charmer. ”

He lowered his voice and smiled and said, "It's not that Tang Gong doesn't know, Fu masters are all treasures. ”

Li Yuanshan was slightly stunned, and then laughed: "Indeed, there are not many rune masters in the Great Sui army who break the mirror, if you check the accounts and send a rune master down, then the rune master will be too worthless." ”

Wu Xiangsheng laughed, and he didn't know why he was so happy.

"Please!"

Li Yuanshan made a gesture.

"This Woxian Mountain was originally called Wofo Mountain, after the establishment of our Great Sui Dynasty, we opened up the territory year after year, and the Great Sui Guangwu was 12 years old, laying down this land. At that time, the first emperor heard that this mountain was called Wofo Mountain, and he was very displeased. So it was changed to Woxian Mountain, the first emperor said...... In the Great Sui country, there should be no Buddha. ”