Inside the carriage, Yuan Taizuo pressed his temples tiredly, the crisis on the Liaodong Peninsula made him a little anxious now, Ning Hanyi said in the letter that the 3,000 troops in Huilong Town had been completely annihilated, and there were only 5,000 people guarding the humble and luxurious city, and the Liaodong Peninsula had been completely lost, begging him to send troops to rescue.

This is the second time, the first time Zhang Xuan annihilated his 10,000 troops on the Liaodong Peninsula, and this time he will eat his 8,000 troops, the Liaodong Peninsula is like a whirlpool, constantly devouring his resources, but he can't use it, there is no tax, no population, what's the point of taking this peninsula as a sphere of influence?

A few years ago, when the Sui Dynasty withdrew from Goguryeo after the end of the Third Eastern Crusade, he and Gao Yuan reached an agreement that he was responsible for recovering the Liaodong Peninsula, Gao Yuan agreed to take the Liaodong Peninsula as his territory, and at the same time, Yuan Taizuo also promised that after Goguryeo conquered Liaodong in the future, he would give up all the interests of Liaodong, at that time he thought that Liaodong was out of reach, so he gave up Liaodong and chose the Liaodong Peninsula as an interest that could be cashed out immediately.

Now Yuan Taizuo began to regret it, the Liaodong Peninsula consumed too many resources for him, but there was no gain, and more importantly, now the capture of Liaodong has become a reality, so Gao Yuan appointed Yizhi Wende as the general of the expedition to the west, and was ready to lead an army of 30,000 to attack Liaodong, obviously leaving him Yuan Taizuo aside, so Yuan Taizuo secretly instructed the Khitan to take the lead, just to introduce the Khitan as a spoiler, and finally forced Gao Yuan to let him intervene in Liaodong.

Although Yuan Taizuo was very shrewd about Liaodong's wishful thinking, the situation on the Liaodong Peninsula made him helpless, Gao Yuan refused to express his position, Quan Huan and Yizhi Wende were indifferent, obviously they didn't want to ask about the affairs of the Liaodong Peninsula and let themselves solve it, but now his interests have changed to Liaodong, where can he still divide the army to support the humble city?

The carriage slowly stopped in front of Yuan Taizuo's mansion, the guards helped him get out of the carriage, and the eldest son Yuan Gai Suwen hurriedly greeted him, and Yuan Taizuo asked, "Is there any news from the city of despicable luxury?" ”

Yuangai Suwen shook his head and said: "Father, the child specially asked the eagle slave, and learned that there are only three letter eagles in the city of low luxury, Ning Hanyi has already released all the news, and the three letter eagles are currently in our mansion, which means that there will be no more news from the city of low luxury." ”

Yuan Taizuo was stunned, and suddenly said angrily: "Ning Hanyi, this idiot, why don't you release them one by one, you have to release them together." ”

"Maybe he's worried that we won't hear from us."

Yuangai Suwen explained, and then asked with concern: "Father, has the monarch agreed to send troops to rescue the city of despicable luxury?" ”

"They are all pretending to be deaf and dumb, refusing to care about the affairs of the Liaodong Peninsula, and they have to let me send troops myself, but once I send troops to the Liaodong Peninsula, what will happen to the Liaodong side?"

Yuangai Suwen thought for a while and said: "Father, the child thinks that the Liaodong Peninsula doesn't need to care about it for the time being, just like the Sui army's eastward crusade, and finally after the Sui army is defeated and retreats, the Liaodong Peninsula will naturally fall back into our hands, I think as long as we take Liaodong, the Liaodong Peninsula will come back sooner or later." ”

Although this explanation is a bit far-fetched, it can be regarded as a solution, don't think about the Liaodong Peninsula for the time being, concentrate your forces to seize Liaodong first, anyway, the city is full of food, I hope Ning Hanyi can hold on to the end!

Yuan Taizuo thought about it again, maybe it was really as he said, the Sui army that attacked the Liaodong Peninsula went to rescue Liucheng, and the crisis on the peninsula would be solved, and then Ning Hanyi would be able to withdraw his troops and return to Wugu City.

Yuan Taizuo slightly untied the knot in his heart, and his mood suddenly improved again, and he said to his eldest son Yuan Gai Suwen: "Tomorrow Yizhi Wende will rush to Liaodong City, and you will also lead 40,000 troops to Xincheng, Quan Huan has agreed to transfer 100,000 stone of grain from the domestic city to Xincheng, and you will take Xincheng as the foundation and prepare to attack Liaodong." ”

．．．．．

At the fifth watch, a young official rushed into the post house and knocked the closed door, "Squire! Squire! ”

In the middle of the night, the door creaked open, revealing a slightly tired face, it was Li Chun, the waiter of the Ministry of Works, Li Chun had been coming to Liucheng for nearly half a year, and for half a year, he had gone out early and returned late every day, and he had done his best to guide the soldiers and civilians in the city to carry out the construction of various defensive measures, and even Chinese New Year's Eve was spent in the blacksmith's workshop, and in the past six months, he had become darker and thinner, and the beard on his face had grown like grass, giving people a raunchy feeling, if it were not for the fact that he was wearing an old and dirty official uniform, he would be no different from the old peasants who picked vegetables to sell.

"What's the matter?" Li Chun asked sleepily.

"Qi Qi Lang, the iron gate has been poured."

Li Chun's spirits suddenly perked up, the sleepiness on his face was swept away, and he asked with a smile: "Aren't there two more days?" ”

"Li Jiangtou found a method of pouring last night, and it was completed quickly."

"Let's go! Look at it. ”

Li Chun went back to the house and put on a piece of clothing, and followed him briskly towards the blacksmith's workshop.

The blacksmith workshop is located in the west of the city, which was originally the backyard of the temple of the city, Li Chun gathered more than 100 blacksmiths in the city, and built some large pieces of cast iron in this backyard covering an area of five acres, mainly trebuchets and stone cannon bases, which have been completed.

The most difficult thing for them is to build two cast iron gates, Li Chun has sealed the north city gate with a boulder, only the south city gate remains, some people propose to block the gate with several layers of boulders, but then they themselves can not enter and exit, in case of some emergencies, they also need to open the city gate, so everyone reached a consensus to pour double cast iron gates.

The gate is two zhang high, two feet thick, weighs more than 20,000 catties, they use the iron Buddha collected in the temples in various parts of Liaodong, cast iron bells and other large pieces to melt and pour, but it is extremely difficult to cast this kind of gate, nearly 100 blacksmiths have used more than a month, repeatedly melted and cast, and finally achieved success.

Li Chun hurried to the blacksmith workshop, only to see two swarthy cast iron doors placed in the open space, huge in size, the blacksmith leader Li Jiangtou saw Li Shilang coming, and hurriedly stepped forward and said happily: "Last night we used gypsum as a mold, we thought it would be difficult to succeed, but I didn't expect it to succeed, luck!" ”

Li Chun stepped forward to look at the gate and asked with a smile, "Didn't you fail with a plaster cast last time?" How did it succeed this time? ”

"We discussed it last night and thought that the plaster should have been successful last time, but the mold was too thin and was cracked by the weight of the iron juice, so we made another thick mold, and sure enough, it was poured successfully."

"It's so timely!"

Li Chun turned back to him and said, "Go and invite Yang Taishou!" ”

Although it is not yet dawn, but Liucheng County Taishou Yang Shanhui has already gotten up early, Yang Shanhui was broken by Yuwen Zhihe a few years ago, although he slowly recovered, but his left leg was lame, plus he was mean, strict in law enforcement, and had a straight face all day long, Liaodong officials didn't like him, and called him Yang lame behind his back.

Although Yang Shanhui's official reputation is not very good, he is very shrewd and capable, after serving as the Taishou of Liucheng, he immediately formed a militia group, stipulating that men over 18 years old and under 40 years old must participate in the militia group, and ordered the county Cheng Lu Chifeng to practice harshly, and from time to time to run to supervise, drills until midnight is commonplace, so that the militia soldiers complained, and cursed him behind his back, and his nickname Yang lame man came at this time.

As soon as he walked out of the compound, he happened to meet Yang Shanhui, and Yang Shanhui also heard that the iron gate had been cast, so he hurriedly came over to check.

"Taishou came so early?" Li Chun stepped forward with a smile and arched his hand.

"I can't sleep!"

Although Yang Shanhui is mean, he is very polite to Li Chun, after all, Li Chun is a squire of the Ministry of Works, and his official position is the same as his, and he was sent by the King of Qi to help him strengthen his defense, and Yang Shanhui is also very grateful to Li Chun for his hard work in the past six months.

The two walked to the iron gate, Yang Shanhui squatted down and looked at the iron gate carefully, and asked the blacksmith, "How much impact can this iron gate withstand?" ”

Several blacksmiths trembled and couldn't answer, they were only responsible for the work, but the specific design had nothing to do with them, Li Chun said with a smile: "It is a whole casting, I have calculated, it is estimated that it can withstand the impact of 10,000 catties, and the largest battering ram is also the impact of 10,000 catties." ”

The reason why they paid attention to the defense of the gate was mainly because the Goguryeo people were good at using siege rams, and in the past six months, Li Chun had rebuilt the walls of Liucheng and thickened them by more than two times, so that even the largest battering rams could not defeat it.

At this time, Yang Shan would whisper to Li Chun: "Li Shilang, please take a step to speak." ”

Li Chun saw Yang Shanhui's solemn expression, and he was a little surprised in his heart, so he followed him out of the compound, outside the compound is the Shangcheng Yongdao, the two walked up to the city, Yang Shanhui stared at the still dark night sky in the north, and said for a while: "I got the exact news, the Khitan has sent troops." (To be continued.) )