"You've worked hard." Zhang Han said to this group of soldiers: "But judging from the food reserves and the things in front of you, you are also ready to be stationed on a permanent basis. I feel very comforted in my heart, but I want to remind you that peace is only on the premise of fully ensuring safety, and you are staying here is also the northernmost point of our front temporarily, and there may be considerable danger. ”

"Yes, please rest assured."

This time, all the soldiers answered loudly with their heads held high.

When Zhang Han walked down the stairs and walked out of the bunker, Li Gui said to Zhang Han: "The last supply and maintenance personnel will come over before the year, and it should be almost there." I've seen the schedule of the Military Command Department, and there will be a baggage team and a maintenance team here, about less than 30 people stationed, plus firearms and defensive positions, even if 2,000 Mongols come, they may not be able to attack. In terms of safety, there shouldn't be much of a problem. It is estimated that by the end of next year, it may be repaired all the way to the density of one in thirty miles, in this way, in two or three years, if financial and material resources allow, a rammed earth and gravel road will be built along these fire road piers, if it is repaired, the carts can enter and enter freely, and the fire road piers can be added to one in ten miles. It's really unnecessary to have one in three miles like the Xuanfu side. ”

Zhang Han nodded lightly and said, "Just one in ten miles is enough." Later, the strength of the south city of Tutu was strengthened, and the cavalry built a defensive line, and it was enough to keep a fire road pier for fifteen miles, and in good weather, a fire road pier for more than ten miles could already play the role of alarm, and that would be it. ”

For such a major military and political event, the people present were not qualified to discuss with Zhang Han, and no one had any ideas, only Zhang Xianzhong grinned, he had no good impression of the Mongols and despised them very much, and he did not look at the Mongols at all, and he agreed with Zhang Han's decision, the Ming army was useless to build so many fire piers and military platforms on the border, even then it could not hold the Mongol attack, with the battle of the Shang army, a thousand chasers could kill in and out of any Mongolian tribe, and the heads of the people who killed them were rolling, What other blind person would dare to hit his head at him?

However, the fire pier has both sentinel and defense functions, and can also be used as a maintenance and supply point, for a road that runs through a distance of 4,000 miles, the necessary supply maintenance and maintenance are indispensable, from this function, a fire pier of ten to fifteen miles is very good and very suitable.

The people in the bunker came out to see them off, and they could only receive a mail package from the military and political secretary once every half a month, which contained newspapers from the Propaganda Bureau and books ordered by themselves, and of course quite important family letters, which the soldiers could read and write by themselves, even if the words were very clumsy and there was no literary brilliance to speak of, but at least they could express what they wanted to express.

Of course, Zhang Han's literacy class teaches simplified characters, and teaches simple vernacular Chinese, which is quite suitable for these soldiers, so that they can quickly master the skill of writing, traditional Chinese strokes are too complicated, and classical Chinese writing is not played by ordinary people, even if soldiers pass the elementary culture course, it is completely impossible to do it, and the ancients also have vernacular and simplified characters, but they are not as widely used as in later generations.

For the soldiers guarding the fort, the scene of walking in the snow is very nostalgic and reluctant, Zhang Han's arrival can make them talk about the whole month, and Zhang Han's image and status have given them enough touch, they looked at Zhang Han and his party who were struggling to move forward in the snow, and felt that they were about to cry.

The whole team continued to move forward in the snow like a long dragon, there was no place where the snow became lighter, there were more than a dozen snowfalls in a row, and there was knee-deep snow everywhere, there would only be deeper and wider snow, and there could be no shallower and thinner places.

In the depths of winter, there is hardly any different color on the grassland except for white, and it is white for one day, white for two days, and the same for the tenth day.

Zhang Han was walking with the soldiers and officers, and those civilian officials were a little bitter, and when they saw Zhang Han like this, they could only grit their teeth and follow honestly.

There is no way to go, such an environment, even if the emperor can only follow, want to ride a horse, riding a horse may not be more comfortable than walking, and everyone is walking for a while, the snow is shallow where is riding, the snow is deep, get off the horse, and always help the horse wipe the horse's belly, even if it is the emperor's respect, there is no way in this environment, you can't always ask people to carry it.

Such an environment is quite a test for people, even if Zhang Han has always insisted on exercising, his physical fitness far exceeds that of ordinary people, and he also feels quite difficult during the arduous march.

Walking in a monotonous environment every day will exhaust your physical strength by the afternoon, and you must set up a tent before evening, otherwise if you don't set up a tent in the evening, you will probably freeze to death if you don't set up a tent at night.

Before dark, Zhang Han and everyone set up their tents together, and there were no soldiers in the team, so everyone needed to do it themselves.

After setting up the tent, it was necessary to try to make a fire, which was also quite difficult, and there was a considerable shortage of ignition materials on the grassland, and the most important thing for the Hutchison soldiers and engineers was the lack of ignition materials.

Sometimes it is the coke of the whole vehicle with it, plus there are some easy to mine coal mines, Inner Mongolia is a place where coal mines are widely distributed, and there are many in Outer Mongolia, and coal mines and copper mines are originally the most minerals in Inner and Outer Mongolia.

More often than not, it is still to find woodland, cut down trees and pick up dead wood, especially when it comes to kiln bricks, fuel is the most troublesome thing.

In winter, when there is heavy snowfall, there is no dead wood to be found, and there is little woodland, and even if there is, the wood in the woodland is frozen and hard, and it is difficult to cut down.

Zhang Han They just brought coke, which is a good thing, and dozens of them can provide a heat source for a long time when they are poured out.

Of course not for heating, that's too luxurious.

More than 100 horses carried a large amount of dry food on their backs, and everyone would also carry dry food with them, and there would be an opportunity to replenish every few dozen miles, but the amount of coke was still insufficient.

Marching in such an environment, if there is no fire, it means that there is no water source, no hot food, and after a few days, someone will get sick and lose the ability to continue marching, which is very fatal, a few young men have a low-grade fever, and the military doctor who accompanied the army hurriedly dealt with it, knowing that it is a natural reaction of the body caused by a long and difficult march, but it must be dealt with as soon as possible, and it will cause very serious consequences if it drags on for a long time, and if someone dies because of the march, it is difficult for people to accept.

After the fire, the snow is swept and boiled into boiling water, each person first fills his own water bladder, and then drinks the horse with warm water, feeds the beans and salt to the horse, the physical energy of the war horse is very bad, the original fat war horse has signs of emaciation, the knights did not carry hay bundles, too much space and not much nutrition, if the war horse only eats hay, it has to use more than ten hours a day to eat, and it is difficult to eat a fat body, so each person carries a considerable base of bean feed, with eggs and salt to supplement the nutrition of the war horse.

This is also one of the contents of the accompanying cavalry, in addition to human food, coke, tents, and horse food, and the number is quite large.

The advantage is that there is a supply point every few dozen miles, and the dungeon has been repaired all the way, and every time Zhang Han passes by, he will talk to the personnel stationed in the fort for a while, and inspect the dungeon.

There may be a delay of fifteen to twenty minutes, which is not too long, but it is well worth it.

Every time Zhang Han left, the soldiers would stand outside the defensive circle for a long time, and even when Zhang Han turned back repeatedly, they could see small black dots, until they were many miles away, and only when there was only a white patch left in the field of vision.

Even Zhang Han had some suspicions, even at that time, those soldiers might not have entered, and it was very likely that they were still standing outside watching the traces of his group.

Every time he thought like this, Zhang Han felt a little sad, he had left these guys in such a place, there were no companions within dozens of miles, and there were less than a hundred human beings living in such a bunker within hundreds of miles or thousands of miles.

But after thinking about it, if I changed my own, if it was possible to become a member of the army, guarding this side of the land for Huaxia, there was a warm room and a picture novel, and I was well fed and clothed, and it didn't seem to be too hard.

In short, he is willing, and feels supreme honor, really, this is quite a glorious thing, Zhang Han is proud of the dedication of the soldiers, and at the same time proud of himself.

When walking in the snow with one foot deep and one foot shallow, the feet are sore, the body is cold, and the back sweats after walking for a long time, and then quickly becomes cold again, which is not a good taste.

In the weather below minus 20 degrees, the hands must not be exposed, and the war horses are also surrounded by warm woolen fabrics to protect the abdomen and other vital places, and people wrap their fur cloaks around their bodies to block the cold wind, and at the same time cover their faces as much as possible, only exposing their eyes.

Sometimes Zhang Han suspected that his eyes were blown and hurt, he was very worried, but fortunately he saw that those Mongols didn't care, he knew that his eyes were about not to be frozen, so he put his heart down.

It's also funny, I have been on the grassland for several years, and the first winter was spent in the military fort, with plenty of charcoal for heating, and there is no need to go out in the coldest extremely cold weather, Zhang Han invented playing cards in that year, and played poker with Sun Jingting and others every day to relieve boredom.

Sometimes Zhang Han wanted to get mahjong out, but later considered that this was a gambling device, and gambling was strictly prohibited in the army, and the impact was not good, so he had to give up.

In later generations, Zhang Han was a black-related businessman who had no shortage of cigarettes, alcohol, gambling and women.

Unexpectedly, after the crossing, the wealth increased dozens of times, hundreds of times, thousands of times, but he was as dignified and self-reliant as the Puritans, and his private life was completely in line with the standards of the moral model of the Ming people.