Yulin County is the same as Wuyuan County, the south is the wasteland Gobi, sparsely populated, but the north along the banks of the Yellow River is also a part of the Hetao Plain, the land is fertile, the irrigation is sufficient, the two Han Dynasty, here is also carried out large-scale development, the population once reached hundreds of thousands, but with the end of the Han Dynasty and the war in the north and south of the two Jin Dynasty, this area has gradually become barren.

After Yang Guang ascended the throne, he began to strengthen the development of the Hetao Plain, large-scale immigration to Wuyuan County, there are also a certain number of immigrants on both sides of the Yellow River in the north of Yulin County, although it is far less than the scale of Wuyuan County, but there are more than 10,000 households, as many as 50,000 people, distributed in the narrow strip on the north bank of the Yellow River, forming five larger settlement points, following the name of the county in the Han Dynasty, called Xi'anyang Town, Chengyi Town, Yiliang Town, Linwo Town and Heyang Town.

According to the plan of the imperial court, these five towns were to be built as counties respectively, but due to the impact of the Goryeo War, the establishment of counties was delayed, and it has been delayed to this day, and the five towns are still population gathering points, and no county seats appear.

Although the people of the five towns are mainly self-governing in the form of families, although they belong to Yulin County, Yulin County is located at the bend of the Yellow River in the far east, and it is hundreds of miles away from the nearest Linwo Town.

In fact, the officials of Yulin County also privately believed that the five towns of Hetao should belong to Wuyuan County in terms of historical evolution and geographical transportation, and the officials of the household department raised this point when they first immigrated, but Yang Guang vetoed it, and he was unwilling to expand Fengzhou to the east.

However, with the development of Wuyuan County, the integration of the Hetao has become the general trend.

In the late first month of the tenth year of the Great Cause, there was already a hint of spring outside the Saiwai, the air was not so cold, with a warm feeling, the snow line gradually retreated to the north, and the sheep began to stir.

On the morning of this day, a cavalry team of the Sui army came to Xi'anyang Town, the westernmost of the five towns of Hetao, with thousands of people, and the army set up a large camp close to Xi'anyang Town, and groups of children and adults ran to the barracks to watch the excitement.

This army is naturally the Fengzhou cavalry from the west, which is only one hundred and fifty miles away from Wuhai County, the westernmost part of Wuyuan County, and everyone is no stranger to it.

Yang Yuanqing took dozens of officials to inspect the situation in Xiyang Town on horseback, he pointed to the north with a horse whip and said to everyone: "Here in the Western Han Dynasty, it was called Xi'an County, the ruins of the county seat are a few miles to the north, it has collapsed and barren, and can no longer be used, there are nearly 2,000 immigrants in this area, a radius of 100 miles, more than a dozen villages of all sizes, mainly from Guanbei, many people plan to return to their hometowns in the first two years, but it just so happens that Liu Jia rebelled, or Bai Yushao was raging, they dispelled the idea of returning to their hometowns, and settled down here, this year my plan, It is to build cities and counties one by one in the five towns of Hetao, incorporate them into Wuyuan County, and garrison troops here to defend against the Turks, everyone should talk about their ideas! ”

Du Ruhui knew that Yang Yuanqing's real purpose was to establish an eastward supply line, and these five counties were completed, and with the addition of Yulin County, a complete eastward supply line would be established, which was of great strategic significance to the eastward expansion of the Fengzhou army into Youzhou in the future.

But some practical difficulties, Du Ruhui had to say, but before he could speak, Cui Junsu next to him was worried: "How can the court explain it?" ”

This time is different from the last time the power expanded southward, last time the counties in Guanbei only controlled the army, and this time it was not only the garrison, but also the complete annexation of the Hetao, the meaning is different, Cui Junsu is really a little worried about the reaction of the imperial court.

Yang Yuanqing understood Cui Junsu's worries, although he didn't want to stimulate the imperial court, but there were some things that had to be done, annexing the Hetao and establishing supply lines was a strategic plan that he had planned for a long time, and it was now ten years of great cause, and it must be implemented.

"There is no need to explain to the imperial court, for the imperial court, this is still five border towns, but for us, it is five counties, which are governed by our officials, and there are troops stationed in the five counties to store food and materials."

Yang Yuanqing saw that Cui Junsu was worried, so he comforted him again: "I estimate that the Holy Lord will continue to fight the battle of Goryeo, and he has no time to take care of us. ”

Everyone was amazed and asked, "Is this true?" ”

Yang Yuanqing said to everyone: "Although the imperial court has not yet made a formal decision, I know that Shengshang, after the first battle of Goryeo, he sent all the troops back to the counties, but last year there was not, all the troops are still gathered in Zhuojun, in fact, last year's battle of Goryeo has not yet begun, there was a rebellion of the Yuan family, from the fact that most of his troops are still stationed in Zhuojun, I know that he is not reconciled, and this year he will definitely launch the battle of Goryeo again to save face from his first defeat, and this time he is not hard, Food, supplies, and troops were all ready, and as long as he made up his mind, the battle of Goryeo would definitely break out again. ”

Everyone was silent, what Yang Yuanqing said was the truth, it is entirely possible, last year, the imperial court pacified the bandits in various places, quite a success, Yang Yichen exterminated Gao Shida and Zhang Jincheng, and defeated Douzi Ganggeqian, and Jiangnan Guan Chong's rebellion was also severely defeated, and more importantly, the rebellion of the Yuan family and Yang Xuangan was suppressed, which is very likely to make the saint once again take risks and conquer Goryeo for the third time.

Yang Yuanqing knew that this was not actually the third crusade, but should be a continuation of the second one, the second expedition to Goryeo, which led to the rebellion of the Yuan clan and Yang Xuangan, so who would it lead out?

"Everyone, the Holy Expedition to the East will be difficult to take care of us, we must seize this opportunity to build the five towns into a county, as long as the raw rice is cooked into mature rice, in the end he can no longer stop it, this time the five towns to build a county is a matter of great importance, I hope you understand."

At this time, Du Ruhui finally expressed his worries, "I support the construction of the city and the county, but how to raise the people who built the county?" And spring ploughing will start in a month, all of which must be considered. ”

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a moment and said: "It can be divided into two steps, and now there is still a month before spring ploughing, and you can quarry the stone first." ”

He pointed to the Wula Mountain in the distance, "The stone can be quarried from the Wula Mountain, not too far from here, there is no problem with quarrying, after the spring sowing is over, then mobilize the army, the militia and the people, and then recruit manpower from Guanbei and the Turks, I think there is no problem with three or four hundred thousand people, from now on, it will take one to two years to build five county towns one after another, and the county town does not need to be large, and the circumference of ten miles is enough, so that we can consolidate the border defense of the Hetao area, and I believe that the imperial court will also approve of our construction of the city from the heart." ”

Yu Quanhong, who was in charge of the Wuyuan County Records and joined the army, was a little worried: "A few years ago, when the Great Wall was built, nearly half of the people died, and I am worried that there will be heavy casualties in our city repair." ”

Yang Yuanqing smiled: "I have repaired Fenyang Palace, I know the problem here, as long as you ensure that the money and food are sufficient, do not detain the workers, and allow the patients to rest, then basically there will be no deaths, you don't have to worry about this." ”

Yang Yuanqing beckoned to the distance again, an official in his thirties stepped forward and saluted everyone, everyone had never seen this person, Yang Yuanqing introduced to everyone: "This is the chief I invited from the Ministry of Industry, surnamed Li Mingchun, who has participated in the construction of many projects in the Great Sui, and is now my staff. ”

Li Chun was known by Yang Yuanqing when he built Fenyang Palace, and was famous for building the Zhaozhou Bridge, but in the officialdom because he was honest and silent, not good at communicating, and his career has not been smooth, several of his colleagues have been promoted, but he is still in place, still only serving as a small principal, Yang Yuanqing knew that he was not talented, so he sent someone to invite him to Fengzhou, entrusted with important tasks.

Li Chun has been thinking about the specific matters of the construction of the five cities, and he already has a case in his heart, Yang Yuanqing announced his appointment, it stands to reason that he should be polite and ask everyone to take care of him, but he did not say hello, but pointed to a manually dug irrigation canal in the distance to the crowd: "The width of the river canal is only one zhang, I propose to widen it to two zhang five, so that it is feasible to tug the hundred stones, and all kinds of materials can be transported to the towns with the help of the canal and the Yellow River, which can greatly save labor, in addition, I found that the soil in this area is very suitable for firing city bricks, And there are abundant coal reserves here, so I suggest that you don't need to go to Wula Mountain to quarry, directly use the soil to burn the bricks of the city, and use lime to mix the grout to build the city, as long as the foundation of the city is deep, the city wall is thick, and the structure is reasonable, and the final city is even stronger than the stone city, which can save a lot of manpower, and the five cities can be completed in one year. ”

Everyone was surprised at first that Li Chun didn't understand human feelings, but when he finished speaking, everyone applauded, Li Chun's plan to build a city was ten times more clever than they imagined, making full use of various resources, and most importantly, it could greatly reduce labor intensity.

Yang Yuanqing was a little proud on the side, talents need to be discovered before they can be used by him, many low-level petty officials in the Great Sui are talented, but they have no background background and are difficult to get ahead, he needs to dig out such talents as much as possible.

He nodded and said to everyone: "This time the construction of the five cities is huge, and Du Changshi will be the ambassador of the five counties, and Li Shenjun and Ma Dujun will serve as the deputy envoys. ”

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In January of the tenth year of the great cause, with the five county towns on the north bank of the Yellow River in Yulin County began to be built one after another, the Fengzhou army began the pace of eastward expansion, just as Yang Yuanqing judged, on the third day of the second month of February, Yang Guang issued an edict ordering the civil and military officials to discuss the matter of sending troops to conquer Goryeo, for a few days, no one in the Manchu Dynasty dared to speak, on February 20, Yang Guang issued an edict again, and once again requisitioned and sent millions of people from Shandong, Henan, and Hebei to Zhuo County to transport supplies, and the 500,000 troops stationed in Zhuo County marched to Liaodong in 100 ways, which still belonged to the continuation of the Second Goryeo War, But it also aroused the anger of the people of the world, and the storm of rebellion once again swept the country.