On the afternoon of November 4, Yang Zhaoji returned to Ganzhou, heard that Li Zicheng was in the training ground, and immediately rushed over, saw Li Zicheng, hurriedly jumped off the horse, knelt on the ground, "My lord, my subordinates have come to give orders!" ”

"Lord Young is back? Don't be polite, get up quickly," Li Zicheng helped him up, pulled him up, knelt down in public, and showed his attitude, and said with a smile: "How is it?" Is things going well? ”

"Lord Hui, my subordinates are fortunate not to be dishonored," Yang Zhaoji handed over his letter of surrender, and things went very smoothly, I heard that there was better treatment, and the soldiers immediately followed him against the water, at that time he was secretly frightened, these soldiers, the water is so fast, is it to see his face, or to see the salary? However, he had no intention of looking for an answer, and completed the errand of Li Zi's generation, which was enough, "All the soldiers of the fort post came, a total of six hundred and forty-two...... My lord, what about these soldiers? ”

Li Zicheng thought about it, there are still more than 1,000 troops in Ganzhou City, plus these soldiers, it is about to reach 2,000, so many soldiers are concentrated in Ganzhou City, there is no sense of belonging for the time being, I am afraid it will be difficult to live in peace in the city, in case of any accident, then ...... Then he said, "Let them come to the training ground!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

Yang Zhaoji turned around and whispered a few words to a pro-soldier, who immediately trotted away.

Li Zicheng asked He Xiaomi to pass on the order to bring all the troops from Ganzhou, except for the wounded soldiers, from the barracks.

Nearly a cup of tea, on the north and south sides of the training ground, there was a noisy sound of footsteps almost at the same time, and after all the troops merged, they were divided into several teams, occupying a large corner of the training ground.

But after all, they surrendered their troops, and they no longer had the arrogance and domineering of the past, just standing quietly in the cold wind, waiting for Li Zicheng's verdict.

Li Zicheng asked Ma Youshui to select five hundred soldiers from the nearly 2,000 Ganzhou troops, take the lead in expanding the army, temporarily train in Ganzhou, and tomorrow when he takes over the defense of Gaotai, Zhenyi, and Suzhou, he does not have to go north, and is temporarily stationed in Ganzhou City.

In order not to affect the combat effectiveness of the 600 households, the newly expanded 500 households were formed into a separate army, and the training was concentrated and controlled by Ma Youshui, which was basically equivalent to the auxiliary army of the 600 households.

These soldiers originally had their own officials, Li Zicheng directly promoted the officials of the hundred households in place, and at the same time, Ma Youshui was promoted from the officials of the hundred households to the officials of the thousand households.

In fact, there is nothing to pick, Ma Youshui doesn't know the temperament of these soldiers at all, he just chooses young, strong and honest-looking soldiers, in case they don't adapt to the Xining Army, they can be forced to retire in the future and recruit other soldiers to make up for it.

The soldiers who were not selected were all returned to the barracks, and although they were not bound hand or foot, they were all disarmed, as if under house arrest, and temporarily deprived of their freedom.

Liu Yunshui and Li Guo were envious when they heard that Ma Youshui had expanded the army and been promoted, but they didn't blush, this was exactly what they expected, the 600th household expanded the army, would they be far away?

On the morning of the 5th, Li Zicheng personally led the first and second two cavalry households, accompanied by Mei Zhihuan and Yang Zhaoji, to the north of the Gaotai Station and took over the Gaotai Station and all the soldiers, because all the personnel, including Mei Zhihuan and Yang Zhaoji, were on horseback, and the team marched very quickly.

On the 6th, the army entered the Zhenyi Station along the weak water, and on the 7th, the army turned west and took over the Suzhou Guard.

At this point, the northern part of Gansu completely fell into the hands of the Xining army.

Li Zicheng did not immediately return to the army, but came to Jiayu Pass, the legendary city, he saw it for the first time.

Jiayuguan is located on the north bank of the river of the Jielai River, on the Jiayu Mountain at the narrowest point of the Black Mountain Gorge, guarding the weak water and the passage of the Black Water Canyon, the city wall of the two wings crosses the desert Gobi, connects the Great Wall of Montenegro to the north, and the south is more than ten miles, all of which are broken wall Great Wall, and the end is the river pier - the westernmost end of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty, and it has been the first pass in Hexi since ancient times.

The three big characters of "Jiayuguan" on the forehead of the main gate make Li Zicheng have a sense of majesty, the city wall as high as two zhang and six feet, all of which are bluestone structures, plus standing on the top of the mountain, looking up, almost breaking the sky and piercing the clouds.

Ascending the Guancheng, I found that what I saw just now was the outer city, and the inner city in the middle, the inner city wall was slightly shorter, but it was also close to two zhang, plus the drop of two zhang and seven feet in the terrain itself, Li Zicheng knew what it meant to be a "broken wall".

There is also an urn city outside the east gate of the inner city, the city tower is symmetrical, three layers of three eaves and five rooms, there is a corridor around, the single eaves rest on the top of the mountain, the height is more than five zhang.

Enter the inner city from the east "Guanghua Gate", go north along the inner city wall, there is a corner tower at the junction of the east and north city walls, according to Mei Zhihuan, there are corner towers in the four corners of the inner city, the middle section of the south and north walls, there are still enemy buildings, all of them are a three-room structure with one floor, and the front porch protrudes outside the city, which is used to observe the enemy situation.

That night, Li Zicheng stayed at the Guerrilla General's Mansion, also known as the Guerrilla Yamen, which was the place where the guerrilla generals guarding Jiayuguan handled military and political affairs. Different from the structure of the Ming Dynasty's inland government offices, it has two small courtyards, the front yard is centered on the council hall, which is the place where the guerrilla generals and civil and military officials command the enemy and issue customs documents, and the backyard is the private area where the guerrilla generals and their families live, with a gable wall in the middle, and there is a door on the gable wall that can be directly passed.

Li Zicheng couldn't sleep at night, such a Xiongguan, if he gave up, he would be a sinner of history, it seemed that the original plan needed to be revised to a certain extent, and along the river, there were Mongols from time to time, if the standing army was not stationed, the military and civilians of Ganzhou would definitely not be able to protect themselves.

If Jiayuguan is abandoned, it will be difficult for the whole of Gansu to establish such a solid defensive line, and if it is not possible, troops must be transferred and garrisoned, and this army will be responsible for the line of Jiayuguan, Qiulaihe, and Ganzhou.

Li Zicheng's first thought was the 300th Qin Danian Department stationed in Beichuan County, and his defense area was the closest to here.

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