Qingshikou is located in the Yanshan Mountains, which is a gap in the mountains, and after Qingshikou, you will enter the endless grassland. Qingshikou Castle is when Qi Jiguang was the general soldier of the town, personally supervised the construction, is an important fortress on the Great Wall, thousands of officers and soldiers were stationed all the year round, relying on the bluestone fort, firmly controlling the side wall of hundreds of miles.

However, only a few decades have passed, and the impregnable defense line of the Great Wall that was based on the dungeon fort and cast on the side wall is still gone, the side wall is broken, the dungeon fort is in disrepair, and the Manchurian Tatars have entered and exited several times as if they were in a no-man's land.

Originally, there was a large amount of farmland on the side of the river valley at the foot of the mountain, which was the field of the military families stationed at the Qingshi Fort, and on the high ground of the river valley, there were thousands of houses, which was where the families of the military families lived. However, the Mantar entered the customs several times, the bluestone fort was completely destroyed, and thousands of military families and their families have long been missing, only the ruins of the highlands of the river valley, and the thatched grass on the flat land of the river valley recounts the victory of the past.

"The castle has been completely destroyed by the Mantars, and we can't even find a house that can live in it, so we can only camp in the open air, and there are no figures for dozens of miles nearby, so we can't buy some vegetables and meat."

Yuan Keli, the new staff officer, reported to Chen Yue about the situation in Qingshi Fort.

When he came, he bought a large amount of grain from Jingshi, which was enough for more than 1,500 people in the whole army to eat for half a year. However, people should not only eat food, but also need vegetables and meat as supplements.

"These are easy to do, there is a large area of land in this river valley, send some people to level and cut down the thatch, scatter some vegetable seeds, and soon there will be vegetables to eat. As for meat, there is no shortage of wild things in the mountains and forests of this Yanshan Mountain Range, so you can send troops to fight some. If it really can't be done, they will send troops out of the fortress and steal cattle and sheep from the Mongols. Wang Yin said with a smile, "The top priority at the moment is to repair the house and settle down as soon as possible." It's now May, and the rainy season is about to begin, so it's not okay to have shelter from the wind and rain. ”

"But this bluestone castle has been dilapidated, there is not much defense, we have to build the original castle, and then build houses, now there is nothing bricks and stones, I am afraid it will take a long time to build, at least three or four months." Yuan Keli pointed to the tattered castle road in front of him.

The bluestone fort that is stuck in the gap between the mountains is built according to the mountain, the total area is afraid that there are not thousands of square meters, there are two city gates in the north and south, the whole castle is originally made of blue bricks based on the stone, it is divided into two layers on the north side of the grassland, the lower layer is open and the hole can live in people, and the upper layer is the enemy platform with a pile of dish arrow holes. There are horse stall houses in the castle, which can garrison thousands of soldiers. Outside the valley were the families of the soldiers.

Today, however, all the bricks of the castle have been demolished and taken away by the Mantars during their retreat, leaving only the ruins formed by mounds of earth and stones, and it will take a lot of time to restore the old appearance.

"First repair the northern wall, dig a trench outside the wall, and install the gate, and the rest of the castle does not need to be repaired. Let everyone cut down wood to build a camp, and settle down first. Chen Yue thought for a moment and ordered.

"Don't you need to build an entire castle?" Yuan Keli asked in surprise. What if you don't build the city walls and build a complete defense system, and wait for the winter to come again?

"No, as long as you can resist the Mongol tribesmen's cavalry right now." Chen Yue said that he knew that Mantar would not enter the customs from here again next year, but would choose to collude with Wu Sangui to enter from Shanhaiguan.

"Just do as your lord tells you!" Wang Yin asked Yuan Keli to go out to convey Chen Yue's instructions.

"My lord, don't you think that the Mantars will not enter the customs again next year?" Wang Yin asked.

"I will definitely enter the customs, but I am afraid that the one who can destroy the Ming Dynasty is not Mantar." Chen Yue sighed, Li Zicheng has now occupied the Central Plains, and Sun Chuanting, who is commanding troops to attack Xi'an, will definitely lead his troops to cross the Yellow River and attack Beijing after he occupies Shaanxi, leaving little time for himself.

"You mean Li Chuang is a thief!" Wang Yin's face changed suddenly, he had always regarded the Manchu as an imaginary enemy, so he took the initiative to follow Chen Yue here, hoping to assist Chen Yue in building a strong army so that he could defeat the Manchus.

"The number of Ming Qi has been exhausted, if Li Chuang waves his division north to attack the Beijing Division, I'm afraid no one is willing to stop it, and where will our army go then?" Chen Yue asked.

"At that time, there is no point in staying here, and I can only return to Shiqin Wang." Wang Yin sighed. If you can't stay here for long, what's the use of a castle built well?

"But can Li Chuang and the thief really defeat Inspector Sun?" Sun Chuanting still has tens of thousands of elite Qin troops in his hands, and Wuchang still has Zuo Liangyu's hundreds of thousands of troops, how could Li Chuang easily attack Beijing?

"The building will fall, and Sun Chuanting will not be able to support it alone. As for Zuo Liangyu, a rat who knows how to preserve his strength! Chen Yue said disdainfully.

Wang Yin nodded, skeptical.

In the following days, Chen Yue divided his more than 1,500 people into several departments, or built city walls, dug trenches, or cut down trees to build camps, after all, it was necessary to spend more than half a year here, and it was not possible to have barracks without shelter from the wind and rain.

Yang Zhengping and Tie Shi each led three or four hundred people to share the task of repairing the city and building barracks, while Shan Minglei led some people to level the land in the river valley and prepare to plant some vegetables and grains. Wei Yang and Liu Neng each took the cavalry to investigate the grasslands outside the Great Wall at night to investigate the traces of the Mongols on the nearby grasslands. The Manchu Tartars had withdrawn to their hometown in Liaodong, but there were still many Mongol tribes in the northern steppe.

Yuan Keli was sent out by Chen Yue to liaise with other Ming troops nearby. Tang Tong was in Xuanfu in the west, and Bai Guangen was in Jixian County in the south, both of whom were Chen Yue's comrades-in-arms, and contacting them should be able to get some help.

It is not easy to establish yourself in a new and unfamiliar place, and it requires a lot of material. Although there is no shortage of silver in the army now, in the past, in Fangshan and Xishan Coal Mines, they robbed or robbed, and there were still more than 400,000 taels of silver. But in Qingshikou, a place where birds don't, it's not easy to buy enough things with money. So, Zhang Chengkai, who came from the merchant family to do business, was sent out to Xuanfu to purchase materials. If you have money, you can naturally buy what you want, and there is a group of people called Jin Shang, just go to Xuanfu to find them. I just didn't know that these black-hearted businessmen would pick a few layers of skin on themselves.

In half a month, the city wall in the north was erected, and there was no masonry, so the stones from other places could only be pulled out and used. The rough wooden gates were also installed, and deep trenches were dug outside the walls, so that at least the cavalry from the north could not easily ride their horses in.

Wooden barracks were also erected, and although they were not very strong, they could withstand the wind and rain.

With the city wall and the barracks, the Xishan Army finally gained a foothold in Qingshikou.

ps: I haven't called, this chapter is still a mobile phone code, two hours, tired finger headache, the phone is out of battery. It's painful.

In addition, thank you Dr. Ye for the reward, I will add more thanks in the future!