After explaining to Ma Zuoheng in Tongguan City, Wang Huan took all the officers of the Kuizhou Army above 1,000 generals, and under the guidance of Li Yukui and his son-in-law Wang Chenglong, they went out of the city to inspect and investigate.

Tongguan in the Ming Dynasty, different from Tongguan in history, the Eastern Han Dynasty abandoned Qinhangu Pass to rebuild Tongguan, to the Tang Dynasty, migrated twice, and built by the Yellow River. In the ninth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, on the basis of Tangtong Pass, Guancheng expanded to the south, including Qilin Mountain, Phoenix Mountain, Bijia Mountain, Yintai Mountain, Xiangshan Mountain, etc., the city and the mountain were integrated, taking the danger of the mountains and the danger of building Tongguan.

Wang Huan galloped on horseback, took the east pass and went out, came to the vast plain outside the pass, the front of him was open, it was the early spring, the grass was green and the flowers were blooming, the land that had just thawed, the peasants were working in it, the wind and the sun were beautiful, it was a good season for spring ploughing.

Wang Chenglong flattered him and stepped forward, using the excuse that he was the landlord and town general, and introduced: "Lord Hou, please see, Dongguanmen is also called Jinqiu Pass, between the door and the Shuangqiao River, there is a plain dozens of miles wide, the Yellow River has been flooding all year round, and it will overflow, so this land is extremely fertile, and the soldiers and civilians in my pass have always regarded this place as a tuntian, and the annual income is enough for self-sufficiency." ”

Wang Huan's eyes swept away, he pointed forward with his whip, and asked, "The people who work here are all military households?" ”

Wang Chenglong replied: "Exactly, Tongguan was the Tongguan guard in the Ming Dynasty, there were five thousand households, and there were more than 30,000 relatives of the military households who have bred over the years. ”

Wang Huan was stunned when he heard this, and then turned his head around, and asked with an incredulous glare: "You mean, the people who are working in front of us now are all soldiers?" ”

Wang Chenglong didn't seem to expect Wang Huan to have such a big reaction, and glanced at his father-in-law with a weak heart, but saw that Li Yukui also looked unclear, so he had to reply stubbornly: "Yes, it is spring ploughing now, if you don't rush to plow the land well, it will affect the sowing, and the grain harvest will be poor, but it will be troublesome." ”

Wang Huan's chest obviously rose and fell several times, his face turned blue, and he took a deep breath several times before calming down.

Li Tingyu has worked with him for the longest time, and he knows what Wang Huan is thinking, so he urged him to step forward and whispered to him: "My lord, the Daming Guard, all of them are like this, the military household is called a soldier, but it is actually a tenant, and the ability to use a hoe is much stronger than the ability to use a knife, thousands of households are landlords, and some of them also do some small business to supplement their families, this is not what they want to do, it is really forced by the imperial court." ”

He saw Wang Huan looking at him sideways, so he sighed and said: "From the general army of the Ming Dynasty down, all of them are corrupt, and the fields of the military tun have long been reduced to the private property of the generals of Weisuo Town. These military households farm land, the income must be handed over to 100 households, 100 households to 1,000 households, 1,000 households to hand over to the deputy general of the guard, and the deputy general will be handed over to the general army, layer by layer, the military households have worked hard for a year, but what falls into their hands is not enough for the family to eat, in order to survive, of course, they only care about farming, looking forward to a better harvest, who cares about training? The town generals also have a better life for the sake of their pockets, and they will not supervise, so the Ming mainland army is weak, and the chaos in the guard is its root. ”

Wang Huan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled it, the color on his face slowly returned to normal, he shook his head gently, opened his eyes and looked at a figure on the plain who was bowing and hoeing, and sighed: "I know all this, but what I don't understand is that the Tartars are just a hundred miles away, like fire and water, they are still good, are they really not afraid of moving their heads?" ”

This sentence was said a little loudly, and everyone present heard it, Li Yukui and the others suddenly blushed on their faces, and they were a little ashamed, Wang Chenglong explained curtly: "This, Master Hou, the last general thinks that the Tartars have not come over yet, so that the military households can rush for time, there is no big problem, and, besides, isn't the adult's tiger and wolf army already here, so ......"

Wang Huan couldn't cry or laugh, his face was blue and red, he didn't know whether to scold or laugh, he held his last breath in his heart, he was bored, and said to Li Yukui with a dark face: "Lord Li, these people, you must take it back immediately and strengthen military training, otherwise it is difficult to say whether your Puzhou can be saved." ”

Li Yukui's face was ugly, he glared at Wang Chenglong fiercely, and hurriedly responded: "What Master Hou said is that the old man will let them do it immediately." ”

In Wang Huan's heart, his expectations for Li Yukui were a little lower, and he wondered if he would leave some people in Puzhou, and his eyes looked to the right casually, and he saw a rammed earth fort on the mountain.

"Let's go, go up and have a look!" Wang Huan hit the horse and ran up with the group.

The mountain is quite steep, it does not look high, but it took some time to go up, this is the soil mountain formed by the flooding impact of the Yellow River for many years, the river rises and falls year by year, impacts the loess plain, hollows out the soil, causes the impact plain below, and the landscape of the earth mountain is above.

Go up the mountain, raise your eyes and look around, you can see that the earth mountain is actually a part of the Loess Plain, several mountain torrents flowing out from the deep stream of the Qinling Mountains are washed out in the rainy season to isolate it, forming a highland that is more than ten miles wide, an extremely deep trench is horizontally in front of you, the trench has been extending to the direction of the Yellow River, to the river, and the city gate of Tongguan Dongguan is connected as a whole, becoming a natural obstacle in the east of Tongguan.

"This is Wangyuan ditch, the ditch is five zhang deep, the ditch is ten zhang wide, stretches for several miles, crosses this ditch, not far forward, it is the Tongguan Heavenly Danger Forbidden Ditch, the forbidden ditch valley is standing on the wall, extremely dangerous, deep and wide, and as long as thirty miles, from the Qinling Mountains to the Yellow River, the west side of the forbidden ditch, there is a tunbao, three miles and a pier, commonly known as the twelve cities, there is a forbidden ditch in, it is not afraid of the Tartars to detour and attack the South Pass." Wang Chenglong felt that it stinked just now, and he lost the point in Wang Huan's heart, and he had to be more diligent to get it back, so he hurried to introduce it step by step.

Unexpectedly, Wang Huan didn't seem to listen carefully, but put his hands on the pergola, stood on the horse and squinted his eyes and looked around, pointing at the mountain with Li Dingguo, Li Tingyu and others.

Wang Chenglong was bored with himself, and he was embarrassed, but he heard Ma Zuoheng speak.

As the general who was going to guard Tongguan, Ma Zuoheng was extremely cautious, and he politely pointed to the loess beacon towers standing on the top of the mountain in the distance beyond the two ditches and asked: "How many people are guarding each of these piers?" How is the armament arranged? ”

Wang Chenglong spread his hands, and was embarrassed: "There is no one, all the soldiers have withdrawn into Tongguan City." ”

This sentence pulled Wang Huan and the others over, and everyone said in unison: "No one? ”

Wang Chenglong was taken aback, and hurriedly explained: "Under the command of the last general, there are only 3,000 people, and these people are scattered on the Guancheng City very sparsely, where can they be spread outside." ”

Ma Zuoheng's face was as calm as water, and it was rare for green muscles to appear, and a pair of eyes were almost about to erupt fire, so prepared, so guarded, if the Qing army did not come, it would be defeated.

"Tomorrow, I will send someone to Xi'an and ask Meng Zhiyu to transfer 5,000 soldiers from Shaanxi!" Wang Huan was categorical and said categorically, and anyone could feel the helplessness in his tone: "Return to the horse as a balance and dispatch." ”

(End of chapter)