Although it sounds stupid, it is the safest method at present, and it is also very easy for the Dingbei garrison regiment to do it. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Because the Dingbei garrison regiment expanded its army on a large scale at the same time, it also expanded the engineer battalion. Through previous operations, Commander Xiao Liu has deeply realized that this engineer battalion has a huge role, so he deliberately doubled the expansion of the engineer battalion this time.

At present, in the whole world, only the Dingbei Garrison Regiment has an engineer battalion and an engineer class. The engineer battalion was originally established by Dashuai Di when he founded the Weibei battalion. Back then, the old medical officer Sun asked Di Dashuai what was the use of this engineer battalion, but Di Dashuai couldn't say it clearly at that time, he only said that the master taught him so, and he did it.

In the beginning, this engineer battalion was only responsible for transporting logistics grain and grass, and was subordinate to the logistics battalion all year round. At that time, the Weibei battalion was encamped, and it was not like now, there was an engineer battalion in charge, but all the soldiers were encamped together.

However, after Di Dashuai entered Beijing, the Weibei camp became increasingly poor, and a large number of soldiers left the barracks one after another and returned to their hometowns to seek a livelihood.

Later, some veterans of the Weibei Battalion, when the Weibei Battalion was having a hard time, in order to make a living and fill their bellies, they learned masonry, carpentry, masonry and other work, and earned money by building houses for others, and had a full meal.

Later, the Weibei camp was suppressed more and more harshly by the magnates of the Pingzhou court, and was forced to adjust the defense everywhere. Gradually, these veterans who had learned to build houses as bricklayers, carpenters, and stonemasons were recognized by the old doctor Sun in building new camps. It happened that the original engineer battalion had completely dissipated at that time, and the old doctor Sun reorganized this group of veterans into the engineer battalion based on the principle that the shelf could not fall.

In this way, gradually the engineer battalion became a branch of the army that was specifically responsible for construction. From encampment to building houses, it was all the work of the engineer battalion.

After the establishment of the Dingbei Garrison Regiment, Commander Xiao Liu deliberately inherited the engineer battalion in its entirety and continued to shine. By the time of the repulsion of the Tuliao State, the engineer battalion had 3,000 engineers after years of development.

And now, the engineer battalion has its own unique way of training recruits, and Commander Xiao Liu is fully responsible. In addition to the basic content, the training of recruits in the engineer battalion should be supplemented with the work of carpenters, bricklayers, and plasterers.

Over the past year or so, after Commander Xiao Liu's vigorous expansion of recruitment, the engineer battalion has grown to 7,000.

This time, the Dingbei garrison regiment wanted to build a fortress to guard the grain road on the march, and the engineer battalion should take the lead in picking up this heavy burden. The construction of forts, which is a time-consuming and laborious task in other armies in the world, is a daily routine in the hands of the engineer battalion.

And with the development of the Dingbei garrison regiment, it became rich. Today's engineer battalion has also greatly improved its construction equipment compared with the past. The new four-wheeled carriages, with a hundred of them in the engineer battalion, were used to transport all kinds of materials needed for the construction of the fort. Moreover, the tools used by the sappers, shovels, scrapers, etc., were made of fine steel, which was strong and durable.

From the selection of the site to the start of construction, it took less than a month to work, and this first fort was in the hands of the engineer battalion, rising from the ground.

By the time Fan received the news, the fort was nearing completion.

Because the main role of this fortress is to defend against the Tuliao cavalry and protect the grain transport teams along the way, it is not used as a fortress for the army to be stationed. Therefore, the fortress as a whole looks more like a tall and empty courtyard, and in the middle of the patio, there is a three-story beacon tower for twenty soldiers, and there is no other empty fort.

Because there were no soldiers, there was no need to consider building barracks inside the fort, and only a flat parking lot was needed to facilitate the docking of four-wheeled grain wagons. Moreover, the gate of the fortress had to be more than twice as wide as that of a normal fortress, so that two carriages could enter and exit side by side. In this way, the grain carriage can quickly enter the fortress and rely on the wall to avoid the Tuliao cavalry.

The fort was also only built against cavalry, and did not need to consider foot soldiers. If the infantry of the Tuliao State had the ability to cross thousands of miles of grassland to raid the grain road behind the Dingbei garrison regiment, this battle would not have to be fought.

For the cavalry, there is no need to dig a moat, and the wall is only more than two meters high, as long as the bed crossbow is prepared at the head of the city, and more sand and soil are prepared in the city, ready to extinguish the rockets fired by the Tuliao cavalry.

On the whole, the fortress built by the Dingbei garrison regiment has a single function, and the form is relatively simple. However, it is relatively easy to build, takes very little time to build a fort, and consumes very little building materials. At that time, even if there are no materials around and it is impossible to collect materials on the spot, it will be enough to transport them all from the rear by horse-drawn carts.

Commander Xiao Liu planned to build this kind of fortress every hundred miles forward, and just like that, he built it all the way to the bottom of Tongwan City. At that time, with these fortresses as shelter, even if the Tuliao cavalry raided their own logistics grain routes, the grain transportation team could dodge in time, not afraid of the annihilation of the whole army.

Moreover, this fortress was built a hundred miles apart, and it was also the final decision of the head of Xiao Liu after careful calculation in advance. At present, the logistics grain transportation team of the Dingbei Garrison Regiment has a four-wheeled carriage to transport grain, and the journey distance can reach 60 miles every day with a full load. On this journey, between two forts, the grain delivery team only had to spend the night outside. In this way, there was only one night left for the Tuliao cavalry to raid, and the safety of the grain transport team could be greatly guaranteed.

It's not that Commander Liu hasn't considered shortening the distance between the forts to sixty miles, but in that case, too many forts will need to be built, and the cost and time consumed will also increase greatly. Even if this kind of fortress is cheap to build and takes a short time to build, it is also a big burden for the Dingbei garrison.

Therefore, in the end, the distance between the forts and the fortress was set at about a hundred miles by Commander Xiao Liu.

After the first fort was built, the Dingbei garrison regiment immediately continued to advance eastward and began to build the second fort.

After receiving this news, Fan Guoshi did not dare to station his troops and horses near the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, and immediately transferred the army to the west to set up defenses. Fan Guoshi is so cautious, naturally he has a reason.

Today's Tuliao State is no longer the original overlord of the grassland who controls the entire grassland and is extremely powerful. After the Tuliao State was defeated by the Dingbei Garrison, the western part of the entire grassland was completely out of the control of the Tuliao State.

Over the years, relying on trade and unrivaled combat power, the Dingbei garrison has already become the de facto ruler of the grasslands to the west.

Nowadays, any tribe in the west of the grassland, no matter how big or small, will come to the Trade City at least once a year to trade, using horses, furs, precious stones, and salt to exchange a large amount of tea, clothing, iron pots and other daily necessities. This trading city is now the only place where these tribes on the west side of the steppe can exchange for the necessities of life.

Dr. Sun was the first to notice the situation; For the Yiren tribe within a radius of thousands of miles, the trade city has become an important place where they must come to trade every year. After perceiving this, the old doctor Sun immediately set about arranging, trying to control those Yiren tribes through trade, so that they could completely break away from the Tuliao State.

At that time, the Tuliao State was busy with the civil war, and its control over the grassland was greatly weakened, and it was not as good as before. It didn't take much effort for Old Medical Officer Sun to invisibly control half of the grassland in the west.

The grassland that Fan Guoshi can control now is only less than 500 miles west from Tongwan City. Further west is the territory occupied by the three puppet emperors of the Tuliao State who have not yet been exterminated.

Fan Guoshi could only temporarily garrison his soldiers and horses here, and he was not able to threaten the pace of the Dingbei garrison now. Fan Guoshi could only watch the Dingbei garrison slowly repair the fortress to his nose.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses of the Tuliao State left the border of the sixteen states of Yanyun, and the Pingtang Kingdom and the Pinghan Kingdom breathed a sigh of relief and secretly rejoiced.

The two countries immediately sent a messenger to the Dingbei garrison to ask if they wanted to send troops to help, and asked the envoy to euphemistically say that he had just settled down in the country and could not take out too many troops and horses to expedition outside the fortress.

This time, the Dingbei garrison directly and neatly told the envoys of the two countries, "No need! ”

The Dingbei garrison continued to build a fortress in an orderly manner in the direction of Tongwancheng. The plan of the head of Xiao Liu is to build five fortresses in the first phase, and first control the grassland within 500 miles to the east.

Fan Guoshi looked at the military situation reported by his scouts, and he had a big headache about the attack method of the Dingbei garrison regiment.

This was a way he had seen many years ago. At that time, after Yuan Chuizhong presided over the defense of the three borders of the Ping and Zhou dynasties, he also vigorously built forts to try to prevent the onslaught of the Tuliao cavalry.

At that time, the Tuliao State was extremely powerful, and there was no good way to take this kind of dense fortress group, and finally it was a detour to buy the Wu switch, bypass the fortress group, and go to the North Gate, which successfully entered the Ping Zhou Dynasty.

Fan Guoshi was startled at this moment when he saw that the Dingbei Garrison had begun to build a fortress. It didn't take long for him to realize that this was impossible.

Dingbei County to Tongwan City, thousands of miles away, if this is all the way to the fort repaired, how much does it cost? How much time?

Puzzled, Fan Guoshi ordered Xizuo to continue the investigation, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to the west to reconnoiter the latest situation of the Dingbei garrison regiment.

When the Dingbei garrison regiment built the third camp, the situation suddenly changed. Several large tribes that were originally attached to the Tuliao State secretly sent envoys to find the Dingbei Garrison Regiment, expressing their willingness to join the Dingbei Garrison and crusade against the Tuliao State together.

Previously, the Dingbei garrison had recruited Yi cavalry to fight, and the results were good, so the old doctor Sun agreed to accept the submission of these large tribes, and could ask them to send cavalry to invade the Tuliao state. Of course, Old Medical Officer Sun knew what the virtues of these big tribes were, but he was confident that he could control these big tribes.

Head Liu also agreed with the master for the time being.

Li Deyi was a little worried. The Yiren tribes who lived in the Trade City before were all desperate small tribes, and they could only rely on the Dingbei garrison to survive.

Therefore, these small tribes are also relatively easy to control by the Dingbei garrison. In the past two years, a large number of women rescued by the garrison have married Yiren youths, and many have already given birth. Li Deyi's integration strategy has been going well so far.

But these big tribes are probably not so easy to obey. The smallest of these large tribes has a population of more than 100,000, occupying a large area of water and grass, herds of cattle and sheep, and they can pull out tens of thousands of elite cavalry at any time.

The great tribes of these steppes were strong in their own right, and the chiefs and nobles of the clans were even more ambitious. They never really took refuge in anyone, at most they were only temporarily attached to them, in order to preserve the strength of their tribe and to follow behind them to eat more benefits.

In the past, when the Tuliao State was strong and the golden Ashina family was in full swing, these big tribes returned to the Ashina family one after another, patting their chests, shouting long live, and bowing down to the Tuliao Khan.

However, when the Tuliao Empire weakened, these large tribes were no longer as obedient as they had been.