The moonlight sprinkled on the entire Yumen Pass, as if it was stained with a layer of hoarfrost, and the city was still brightly lit and full of people.

At this time, the Yumen Pass was not the Yumen Pass established in the Han Dynasty, but was abandoned in the Later Han Dynasty, and it was never used again after it was cut off.

Today's Yumen Pass was built in the former Sui Dynasty, and it is dozens of miles away from the Yumen Pass in the Han Dynasty.

The terrain is dangerous, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the entire Yumen Pass has been a large-scale small city after repeated expansion because of the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty in recent years.

The surrounding mountain tops, as well as the various intersection checkpoints in front, including the river channel, are now built with beacon towers, coupled with the danger of the terrain, forming a situation that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the entire Yumen Pass is like the gate of the Western Regions and the Central Plains, and it has also become the only entrance and exit.

Most of the people in Yumen Pass are business travelers from various countries, plus the troops stationed here all year round, constituting nearly two-thirds of the population of the entire Yumen Pass.

After the small city of tens of thousands of people was stationed in the 20,000 led by Li Hong, it did not attract the attention of the merchants who stayed here, after all, as a military fortress, and because the merchants walked outside all the year round, the army had seen too much, so no one seemed cramped and uneasy because of these 20,000 people.

Li Hong was wearing a white fur coat, put his hand in front of his mouth and sighed, and said, "I always thought that the Yumen Pass was very small, but I didn't expect it to be so big now." ”

The general of the Yumen Pass Guard, who accompanied him on the city wall, had already received an order from the Ministry of War, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would arrive at Yumen Pass in the near future, and any requirements must be met.

Originally, I thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would make any non-trivial requests after his arrival, but I didn't expect that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was very easy-going, and he didn't make any more requests except that dinner was eaten under the waiters of his palace.

"How many people are stationed here now?" Li Hong looked at the white moonlight and asked with this cold glow.

"Tell the capital guard, now there are 10,000 soldiers stationed here." General Wei replied respectfully.

"What about the merchants who come and go in the city every day? Although you are only guarding the town now, your duties are no different from protecting all of them, at most the place under your jurisdiction is a little smaller, but no one guards the place is more important than the place you guard, right? Li Hong slowly paced on the city tower, looking outside the city for a while, and inside the city for a while.

"Now that winter is coming, according to the past practice, this huge number of merchants should basically be reduced, back and forth, they will return to their homes before the first day, and so on about ten days and half a month, there will be fewer people entering the customs, and more people going out of the customs." Yuan Shuji saw that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was easy-going, and he also relaxed.

"There are people in the beacon for twelve hours?" In the hazy night, the beacon tower may loom.

"Yes, Dadu Hu. Each beacon tower is guarded by twenty people, and there are fewer people during the day. ”

"Take me to see your camp." Li Hong tightened the fur fur on his body, there was no way, the weather here was really cold, even if he hadn't walked out of the Yumen Pass and entered the desert yet, but this night was enough to freeze people.

"Yes, Daduhu." Yuan Shuji is about thirty years old, his figure is not very strong, and he is not very tall, but what overflows from his body is a kind of killing temperament that has been honed on the battlefield all year round, which makes people have to look at him sideways.

Under the leadership of Yuan Shuji, Li Hong and his party followed to the side of the city gate located on the side of Yumen Pass facing the Western Regions.

The fence gate slowly opened after Yuan Shuji showed the token. The soldier held a wind lantern in his hand and a horizontal knife in the other, looking at Li Hong and the others with vigilant eyes.

"Yes, it can be seen that although you are not under the command of the Anxi Protector, your vigilance has not been lost because they are stationed in the four towns of Anxi." Li Hong looked at a few soldiers at the door and said lightly.

"Xie Dadu praised." Yuan Shuji didn't seem to have laughed until now.

He followed Yuan Shuji to the rows of stone-built houses, where the soldiers were bored, and some of the officers had gone mad in the city.

I found a soldier's room, which was enough to accommodate fifty people. According to the military system of the Tang Dynasty: ten people one fire, fifty people one team, three hundred people one regiment.

Therefore, there are forty or fifty such houses here, plus the barracks in other places in the Yumen Pass City, it seems that it is not a problem to accommodate 10,000 people.

Seeing that after a soldier came in because of Yuan Shuji, he immediately motioned for the others to stand up with him, Yuan Shuji nodded to them, and the team walked up to Yuan Shuji and said, "General, but there is something important?" ”

"It's okay, just come and go." Yuan Shuji finally smiled.

Just as he was about to introduce Li Hong to the team, he was stopped by Li Hong.

I saw Li Hong slowly take two steps forward, walked to the front of the team, first looked up and down, and then said, "Do you want to take off your armor?" ”

The team was rolling their eyes and looking at him with a frown.

Although I don't know the person in front of me, but looking at the big white fur coat worn by the person in front of me, I know that he is either rich or noble, and he is only fifteen or sixteen years old, but he thinks that he should be the heir of a big official.

But even so, the team didn't seem to hear Li Hong's words, and just watched Li Hong walk around the room.

"Fifty people in a room, but it's good, at least it can add some warmth in winter." Li Hong didn't care if the team didn't reply to him, and after turning around, he walked in front of the team again, and said lightly: "Take off your armor." ”

"Why? Before going to bed, there was an order in the barracks that no one should take off his armor. Before Yuan Shuji stopped him, the team quickly spoke.

"Dadu Hu, these soldiers have always been rude, and even the last general is also rude, so please don't blame it." Yuan Shuji explained although he was apologetic.

Li Hong didn't care, just continued to glance at the team, then turned around and walked two steps, squatted down and touched the couch with one hand, and said lightly: "Then you let him take off his armor first." ”

After finishing speaking, Li Hong didn't look back, his hand touched the mattress on the couch and pinched the thickness, then lifted the mattress and touched the straw mat below, until he picked up someone's quilt and touched the thickness, then he turned back with satisfaction.

The team was also under Yuan Shuji's order, took off the armor on his body, and at this moment, looking at Li Hong's eyes, he was more or less in awe, this is even his own general who shouted that most of the people are protective, and he can't afford to provoke him.

Li Hong's face has always been very calm, he walked to the front of the team, stretched out his hand and touched the shoulder of the team, and when he touched it, the clothes on the team's body turned out to be only clothes sewn from about two or three layers of thick cotton cloth, which were not provided by the household department to the military department for free, and were transported to the Western Regions, and the cotton clothes distributed to the soldiers on the Yunzhong and Liaodong Road.

"Order everyone to take off their armor." Li Hong reached out and touched people's pants again, the same, it was still two or three layers of cotton superimposed pants.

Before cotton appeared in the Tang Dynasty, this was the clothing of ordinary people to keep warm, and only rich and noble families could use fur and other animal fur such as fur to warm up for winter.

Yuan Shuji glanced at Li Hong in puzzlement, but he still obeyed the order and let everyone take off their armor.

"Hua Meng, mangzhong, go over and take a look." Li Hong scanned everyone in the room under the dim oil lamp.

After a while, Hua Meng and Mangzhong shook their heads at him, and said in unison: "It's all cotton clothes." ”

Li Hong sighed after hearing this, and the staring team asked, "Have you ever issued cotton clothes?" The cotton clothes issued to you by the imperial court for free, do you know about this? ”

Yuan Shuji suddenly realized, at first he didn't understand His Royal Highness the Prince, touching people's sleeping couches, and letting people take off their armor to do it, but now he knew that His Royal Highness the Prince wanted to see if the cotton clothes had been distributed.

The team was looking at Li Hong's somewhat cold eyes, the young man who was easy-going just now, but now he had a momentum of not being angry but threatening, and his sharp eyes seemed to see through his whole person.

Suddenly a little weak and embarrassed, not daring to look at Li Hong's eyes again, Nuo Nuo said: "Back to the general's words, the last general and others have received the cotton clothes." ”

"How many?" Li Hong was full of cold eyes, staring straight at the team, he wanted to see if the team would look at Yuan Shuji when he answered his words, if there was a sneak peek, then there must be something greasy in it.

"Two sets." The team didn't dare to look anywhere, just stared at their feet and replied quietly.

"Then why don't you wear it? Why do you only wear such thin clothes? Li Hong continued to ask.

Team Zheng's eyes flickered, and after glancing at Li Hong, he lowered his head again, and whispered embarrassedly: "The last general...... The last general sent the cotton clothes home. ”

"Why?" Li Hong was in hot pursuit.

"Cause...... Because...... The family of the last general has not yet worn such good clothes for the winter, so ...... So...... The end will be ....... ”

"How many years have you been in the army? But you've been stationed at Yumen Pass? ”

"Yes, the last general will be in the army for five years."

"Then you should have at least ten sets of cotton clothes, all for your family?" Li Hong asked in surprise.

"Yes." Team Zheng's head was about to be raised by Li Hong's questioning.

"Are they all like you?" Li Hong asked again as he glanced at the soldiers who had not yet put on their armor.

"Yes, they are all the same as the last general." The team replied honestly.

It's been ten years since cotton entered Datang, hasn't it been popularized yet? Or is there something else going on?

Li Hong waved his hand and motioned for them to put on their armor, and then, accompanied by Yuan Shuji, he looked at several barracks, basically all the soldiers sent back to their homes the cotton clothes issued by the imperial court, and no one was willing to wear them.

Walking on the most lively street of Yumen Pass, this street runs from east to west, facing the two city gates of Yumen Pass, facing the east gate of Guanzhong and the west city gate facing the western regions.

Although the whole street is not as prosperous and lively as the ordinary streets of Chang'an City, it is also brightly lit and full of people.

(Thank you allen-li, one mosquito and two milli three big tips, the pressure is very high, try your best to write well.) If you leave halfway through, press CTRL+D to save the current page to your favorites so you can watch it later!