After five consecutive days of marching, the 40,000 Jingzhao army led by Li Yanqing finally arrived at Yangqu County, Taiyuan Prefecture, also known as Taiyuan City, which is the largest city on Hedong Road and the first military town on Hedong Road.

Just one day before the arrival of the Jingzhao army, Yao Pingzhong had already led the army to leave Taiyuan Mansion and go south to Luoyang, Xijing.

The army slowly stopped two miles south of the county seat, and Xu Jie, the prefect of Taiyuan, and Zhang Miao, the general judge, were already waiting at the head of the city, and when Li Yanqing's army arrived, the two hurriedly took dozens of local squires out of the city to welcome Li Yanqing's arrival.

"Welcome Li Dutong to lead the army to settle in Taiyuan!"

The prefect Xu Jie stepped forward and saluted: "The reception banquet has been arranged, please Li Dutong follow us into the city and wash the dust for the capital!" ”

Li Yanqing glanced at dozens of squires and asked with some puzzlement, "Where is Yao Tongzhi?" ”

"Yao Tongzhi has led the army south yesterday, and now there are no other troops in Taiyuan Mansion except for a thousand van troops."

Li Yanqing couldn't help but be stunned, Yao Pingzhong has already left? What about the defense handover of Hedong Road? He hurriedly asked again: "Then who should I hand over the defense with?" ”

At this time, an official came out and saluted: "Zuo Heng, who joined the army in the Lower Taiyuan Army, handed over some documents to Li Dutong on the order of Yao Tongzhi. ”

"What about the barracks?" Li Yanqing asked dissatisfiedly, "Where should my army be stationed?" ”

"The military camp has the North Camp and the East Camp, as well as an inner camp in the city, and Li Dutong can arrange it by himself."

Yao Pingzhong was obviously very dissatisfied with his coming to take over the defense of Hedong Road, so he threw away the stall and left, so that everyone would not be happy when they met.

Li Yanqing immediately asked Liu Fang to handle the handover of documents with Zuo Heng, and ordered Wang Gui and Liu Jian to lead 20,000 troops each into the North and East Camps, and at the same time let Hu Qing'er lead female soldiers into the inner barracks in the city.

After arranging for the army to be stationed, Li Yanqing said to the prefect Xu Jie and the general judge Zhang Miao: "Now the situation is critical, we must immediately start to deploy defense, I have received the intentions of the two, and I will drink the wine after receiving the wind, and I am afraid that the defense will have to ask the two of you to cooperate." ”

The two glanced at each other helplessly, and Xu Jie had to smile reluctantly: "Then don't embarrass Li Dutong, we will definitely try our best to cooperate with Li Dutong to do a good defense." ”

Speaking of this, Xu Jie turned around and recruited another general, "This is Hu Zhen, the commander of the Xiang Army, he is more familiar with the situation in the city, and he will introduce the situation in the city for the capital." ”

Hu Zhen was a middle-aged man with a big beard, his appearance was very powerful, he stepped forward and bowed to salute, "Humble Hu Zhen is under the control of the capital!" ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly: "I want to see the defense of the city with my own eyes, please ask General Hu to be a guide!" ”

"This is a humble honor, Li Dutong, please!"

Li Yanqing rode into Taiyuan City surrounded by more than 100 personal soldiers, Taiyuan City is just a popular name for ordinary people, its official name is Yangqu County, entering the county seat from the south city gate, a noisy and lively atmosphere rushed to the face.

Directly opposite is a wide north-south central axis street, called Jinyang Street, on both sides of the various shops are lined up, hung with all kinds of signboards, there are restaurants, restaurants, inns, foot shops, teahouses, shops, etc., the pedestrians on the street are bustling, all kinds of shouting and selling come and go.

"The capital should have been in Taiyuan, right?"

Li Yanqing nodded, "I stayed in Taiyuan Mansion for a few months during the Battle of Song and Xia, and it seems that Taiyuan City has not changed much. ”

"Compared with that time, there is basically no change, but the population has increased a lot, mainly the people who fled from Daizhou and Taiyuan Prefecture, and there are about more than 300,000 people, making the population of the city more than one million, so it is very lively."

"I see!"

Li Yanqing smiled again and asked, "How many people are under General Hu?" ”

"There are about 1,500 people, responsible for guarding the city gates and maintaining law and order, and they basically belong to the internal affairs army."

"Let's go up to town and have a look!"

"I understand, Li Dutong, please come with me!"

The two turned their horses' heads and walked along the road towards the city wall......

Standing on the head of the city, the entire Taiyuan city came into view, Hu Zhen pointed to the distance and said: "The circumference of the Taiyuan city is about fifty miles, relatively square, the four sides of the city wall are twelve miles, there are four city gates, all of them are urn cities, the moat outside the city is three zhang wide, the city head is two zhang and six feet wide, and large defensive weapons can be installed." ”

"Are there any defensive weapons in the city?"

"Yes! It is still left by the former commander, the trebuchet and fire cannons are complete, and all kinds of armor and grain and grass are very sufficient, but the specific situation has to be asked to join the military office, and I don't know much about the humble position. ”

"Didn't the military government follow Yao Tongzhi to Luoyang?"

"Nope! This time, Yao Pingzhong only took the army, and almost none of the civilian officials took it. ”

"I'll go to the military office first, I'm in trouble with General Hu today!"

"You're welcome, as long as Li Dutong needs it, he is willing to accompany him at any time!"

Li Yanqing was anxious to find out about the situation of the warehouse, so he urged the horse to go down the city wall and go to the military office.

The military office is located in the north city gate, it is still the military office of the former teacher, Li Yanqing is very familiar with it, he once served as the envoy of the Jiedu, and served as the record of the army and the intelligence department in this military office, but the thing is not a person, today on behalf of Yao Pingzhong to leave the record to hand over the documents to join the army Zuo Heng, Li Yanqing has never heard of it.

The military office has been taken over by the Jingzhao Army, and there are eight Jingzhao Army soldiers standing at the door, and Liu Fang has arrived at the military office one step ahead and handed over the documents to Zuo Heng.

Li Yanqing turned over and dismounted, only to see a person hurriedly running out of the military office, and shouted in surprise: "Li Dutong!" ”

This voice is vaguely familiar, in front of him is a middle-aged man about fifty years old, his hair is gray, and the corners of his eyes are full of wrinkles, Li Yanqing recognized him at a glance, "You are..... Yan Jiuling! ”

"It's me! It's me! Li Dutong's demeanor is the same as in the past! ”

Li Yanqing didn't expect to meet the old man, he was really happy in his heart, he patted Yan Jiuling's arm and smiled: "I really didn't expect it!" We thought ......"

"We're all here!"

At this time, a few more people ran out of the military office, "Li Dutong, I haven't seen him for many years." ”

"You're Zhang Qu!" Li Yanqing recognized the person who was the leader.

"It's me!" Zhang Qu was a young man in his twenties back then, and now he is in his early thirties.

Li Yanqing recognized another person, "You are Zhou Yan!" ”

"See Li Dutong!" Zhou Yan stepped forward and bowed.

There were several officials running behind, and Li Yanqing felt that they were familiar, but he couldn't remember the names.

After a long absence, everyone was overjoyed, and everyone hugged Li Yanqing and walked into the military office, at this time, Zuo Heng had already completed the handover with Liu Fang, Zuo Heng saluted Li Yanqing, and then left.

Looking at the excited faces, Li Yanqing waved his hand and smiled: "Everyone, please listen to me!" ”

The courtyard suddenly quieted down, and Li Yanqing said slowly: "This time I was ordered to be in charge of the defense of Hedong Road, we will face a very serious situation, the 100,000 troops of the Jin State will invade Hedong Road, their goal is to capture Taiyuan City, but our troops are not weak, I bring 40,000 elite troops, as well as 20,000 elite soldiers on the northern border, I believe that as long as we unite as one, we will be able to annihilate all the enemies in Taiyuan City!"

The courtyard suddenly burst into warm applause, and Li Yanqing introduced Liu Fang to everyone again, "This is Liu Fang, a staff member who has followed me for many years, and he will replace Zuo Heng as the secretary of the army, and he is responsible for all military and political affairs." ”

Everyone saluted Liu Fang together, and Liu Fang said with a smile: "Everyone is Li Dutong's old department, I won't say much kind words, let's go back to their rooms, Director Yan and Director Zhang will accompany me to the warehouse to inspect!" ”

Liu Fang knew very well what Li Yanqing was most concerned about at the moment, and he knew that the top priority at the moment was to check the warehousing situation.

Originally, there were two warehouses in Taiyuan City, one on the east bank of Fenshui and the other in the county seat, and Yao Pingzhong also adopted a series of countermeasures since the northern border began to become unstable.

The main thing is to transport all the materials from the warehouse outside the city into the city, and dismantle the temple next to it, expand a military warehouse, make the warehouse become a warehouse city with a circumference of about seven miles, located in the northwest corner of the county, which is composed of nearly 100 huge warehouses, and there are troops standing guard on the warehouse city, and the defense is very tight.

Li Yanqing's Jingzhao army had already taken over the defense of Cangcheng, and three hundred soldiers patrolled inside and outside Cangcheng, the gate of Cangcheng was closed, and several soldiers with spears stood at the gate.

Yan Jiuling is still the left chief to join the army, responsible for the warehouse, household, armor three Cao, the warehouse is his scope of responsibility, the warehouse and the warehouse are actually two concepts, the warehouse refers to the grain and grass warehouse, and the warehouse is mainly to store silver, money, cloth, copper and iron utensils and other property, in addition to the storage of various armor and military materials is also called the arsenal.

Walking into Cangcheng, Yan Jiuling pointed to the two rows of huge granaries close to the city wall in the distance and said: "Over there is the grain and grass warehouse, with a total of 520,000 stone grain and 200,000 quintals of forage, most of which are tax grain, but the imperial court also allows the military to use it in the event of war. ”

"Where is the storeroom where the big trebuchets are placed?" Li Yanqing is more concerned with defensive weapons.

"The westernmost three are, please Li Dutong go this way!"

-------

[Ask for a ticket! 】’