Zhao Lei stayed at the post station overnight, and after drinking with Sun Wei, the governor of Gyeongju, he took Yang Wenguang and other hundred horsemen to the camp in the north of Gyeongju City the next day. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ、qВ5、

The barracks of the forbidden army in the north of Gyeongju City, built of bluestone throughout, about ten miles away from Gyeongju, the barracks are built on the Hengduan Mountain, guarding the main road up the mountain, not only easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also the situation of Gyeongju City into horns, the two complement each other, and become the frontier fortress that makes the Western Xia dare not easily invade.

"What a majestic and precipitous barracks fortress!" Zhao Lei looked at the military camp in front of him and sighed, and the people around Yang Wenguang also nodded in admiration.

Standing in front of Zhao Lei's eyes, is a towering peak, above the peak, the bluestone camp is like a dragon in the mountains, hideous and vicious, there is only a winding mountain road leading to the peak barracks, but the wide mountain road is extremely steep near the gate of the barracks.

The slope is estimated to be fifty! It's about a mile long, and this kind of road, just climbing up it is enough to take effort, let alone attack, if the people above are smart and store enough rolling logs and stones, it is enough to resist a million troops. Zhao Lei, Yang Wenguang and others climbed up the winding road in the mountains, and when they saw the more precipitous terrain at the entrance of the barracks in front of them, they were shocked and thought.

"Is this still a camp in the army! It can be called a Xiongguan, and there is no more dangerous pass than this kind of place in the whole of Hebei. Xiao Ruoruo also looked at the military camp in front of her in surprise and said in a daze.

"Who? Gyeongju Barracks, nothing to do! "The soldiers above the camp. Zhao Lei and his party had already appeared, but because Zhao Lei and they were just wearing regular clothes, the guards did not see their identities, so they shouted.

"This official's new Gyeongju defense envoy Zhao Lei, open the door!" Zhao Lei rode his horse to the gate of the camp and said loudly to the guards above.

Guards at the barracks gates. Seeing Zhao Lei riding his horse to the gate, he was a little panicked and pulled out the bow and arrow in his hand, but when he heard Zhao Lei's words, he hurriedly put it down again, the person in front of him was the future supreme boss, and it was not fun to offend him.

Although the guards let go of the swords and guns in their hands, their vigilance did not decrease at all, after all, this is the frontier, and now the relationship with Western Xia is still so stiff, and the hundred-man cavalry who came to the gate of the barracks. Enough for a sneak attack on the camp.

"It turned out to be General Zhao! The little one immediately went to report to General Gao, and asked General Zhao to wait! After the guard said very politely, he ran back with a smoke, and the remaining guards still looked at Zhao Lei and them vigilantly.

Time passes slowly. Soon a thirty-year-old general in iron armor appeared at the head of the barracks.

"Is it Zhao Lei and Lord Zhao under the city! The last general, Gyeongju Defense Envoy Gao Huaien, please see Lord Zhao's golden seal document! The tall thirty-year-old general looked at Zhao Lei and his party at the head of the city and asked.

The gold seal is the bronze seal of the officials of the Great Song Dynasty, which is used to prove the identity of the official, and the document is the handover item of the Privy Council. The same is something that proves identity.

When the general of Chengtou was so serious, Zhao Lei smiled with satisfaction, if the general of Chengtou didn't ask at this time, he would open the door and let them in. Then Zhao Lei will really be angry, because this kind of general with soldiers, it is difficult to have any discipline and combat effectiveness.

The gold seal and documents he carried were all in Zhu Dali's package, and Zhao Lei motioned to Zhu Dali behind him to take out the things, and then send them to the bamboo basket hanging down from the city.

The bamboo basket was slowly pulled up, and Gao Huaien, the thirty-year-old general, picked up the gold-sealed documents, looked at them carefully, and after reading them, handed them to a civilian official dressed as a master behind him.

"That's right! Adult, it's true. After reading the golden seal document handed over by Zhao Lei, the master Bo said. He whispered to Gao Huaien.

"Open the door!" Gao Huaien nodded, and said loudly to the surrounding soldiers.

The gate of the barracks slowly opened, and Zhao Lei and the others looked along the gate and couldn't help but exclaim.

Behind the gate of the barracks, there is still a gentle slope, and it is even steeper than in front of the gate, and it is only when you look up along the gentle slope that you can see that the Qingshi city wall outside the barracks looks ten zhang high, but it is only two or three zhang higher than the gentle camp inside.

When Zhao Lei and others led the war horse into the camp, Gao Huaien, the defense envoy of Gyeongju, immediately came over and said: "The last general has been waiting for General Zhao for a long time, and the handover is ready, General Zhao will hand over now!" Or wait? ”

Zhao Lei didn't pay attention to Gao Huaien's words at this time, and his eyes were attracted by the soldiers in the barracks.

Behind the gate of the barracks, hundreds of soldiers gathered, but these soldiers, all with expressions of confusion and sluggishness, although their bodies were quite explained, their expressions showed how low the morale of these soldiers was, their eyes were joyless or sad, only shocking numbness and emptiness.

Zhao Lei looked at these soldiers in shock, and at the same time, he also realized the source of their numbness and emptiness, which was the clear and piercing black face (tattoo) on their faces.

"Why do these soldiers have dark faces on their faces?" Zhao Lei was very shocked and asked Gao Huaien, he never thought that the forbidden army in Gyeongju was so different from the forbidden army in Bianjing, no matter the spiritual outlook and combat effectiveness, there was a world of difference.

"There are many people in the border forbidden army who flee, and in order to prevent them from escaping, there has always been a custom of black noodles!" Gao Huaien replied indifferently.

What the! Mores? Zhao Lei looked at Gao Huaien in shock, and his heart was full of sighs.

No wonder the combat effectiveness of the Northern Song Dynasty army is so low, it turns out that they are all black-faced, think about a good person, once the face is black-faced, no matter where he goes, he will be pointed at, and his self-confidence and self-esteem will be seriously hurt, in this case, how can there be combat effectiveness at all! The most frightening thing is that there are no military officials in the Northern Song Dynasty, and this situation is the reason for the low combat effectiveness of the army, just look at Gao Huaien, a general who is considered to have some ability, and he doesn't care about it, you can know how much influence this custom has in the army of the Great Song Dynasty. Zhao Lei looked at the black-faced soldiers around him, and thought sadly in his heart.

No way! The custom of black noodles must be changed, otherwise the entire Great Song Dynasty will be ruined by this custom. Zhao Lei made up his mind to think of it

"General Gao! Can the dark face of a soldier be removed? Zhao Lei asked Gao Huaien beside him hopefully.

Gao Huaien was stunned by Zhao Lei's question, he couldn't think of why Zhao Lei, who had not yet taken office, asked this kind of question, but since he asked, he had to answer, who made Zhao Lei a scribe, not only has a higher social status than him, but also has an official position much higher than him.

"Back to Lord Zhao, this kind of black pigment is made of a plant juice produced in Gyeongju, and the thorns are very deep, even if the surface skin is cut, it can't be removed, please rest assured Lord Zhao, these soldiers have black faces on their faces, and it is absolutely impossible to escape." Gao Huaien thought that Zhao Lei was afraid that the soldiers would escape, so he hurriedly explained.

Finished! This also makes them how to retire from the army, their faces are all this thing, and they will definitely be ridiculed to death by others when they go home after retiring from the army, it seems that it is not easy to eliminate the old and weak! When Zhao Lei heard Gao Huaien's explanation, he said bitterly in his heart.

At this time, Zhao Lei suddenly appeared in the crowd and there were a few soldiers who did not have black noodles, and immediately pointed at them and asked curiously: "Why don't they have black noodles?" ”

"Returning to Lord Zhao! They all have the sons and nephews of the local villagers, and they have the guarantors of the local villagers, and if they escape, those guarantors will be held responsible, so they don't need to be faceless at all. Gao Huaien replied respectfully to Zhao Lei.

It turned out to be local protection, no wonder! Zhao Lei looked at the soldiers who didn't have a dark face and thought.

"Lord Zhao! Let's hurry up and hand it over! The last general will return to Bianjing to report on his work! Gao Huaien saw that Zhao Lei had been looking at those soldiers, and he didn't know when he was going to hand them over, so he cautiously urged.

"Good! Go to the handover right away! Zhao Lei happily agreed, took Yang Wenguang and others, and followed Gao Huaien towards the barracks.

……

The Gyeongju Forbidden Army Barracks are very distinctive, and all kinds of tents are wooden houses made of local materials, many of which are built on high mountain peaks, which look higher than the city walls, but because of the cover of nearby trees, it is difficult to see so many wooden houses in the peaks at the bottom of the mountain.

Following the only flat stone path in the barracks, Zhao Lei followed Gao Huaien to the front of a spacious wooden house.

"This is the residence of the defense envoy, the environment here is good, and more importantly, the surrounding area is very flat, you can see the entire military camp, the most suitable for commanding in battle, the entrance to the cave where food and military supplies are stored is just behind the command post, and the only living water in the military camp also flows through this vicinity, in the entire military camp, this place is the most important, so the residence of the commander is built in this place." Gao Huaien led Zhao Lei into the wooden house and said.

Zhao Lei stood at the door of the wooden house, turned his head to look around, this is indeed the highest place in the entire military camp, looking down from a bird's eye view, the entire military camp is indeed in the process of being realized, this place is more than ten zhang higher than the military camp city wall.

"Why didn't I see the horses, didn't I say there was a battalion of cavalry here?" Zhao Lei took a closer look, did not show what he wanted to see the most, turned his head to Gao Huaien and asked suspiciously.

"The cavalry battalion has gone out, and the Gyeongju cavalry battalion is responsible for the sentinel and vigilance near Gyeongju, so there are early departures and late returns every day, and by the way, training, and now except for a team of cavalry who will go out to guard at night, no one else is there." Gao Huaien said in a somewhat strange tone.

The establishment of the army of the Northern Song Dynasty was based on teams, with one team of 50 people, two teams for one capital, five for one battalion, five battalions for one army, and ten armies for one box, and the 500 cavalry of the Gyeongju army accounted for exactly one battalion.

During the conversation, Zhao Lei took Yang Wenguang's brothers and sisters and Xiao Ruoruo into the wooden house with Gao Huaien, and in the wooden house, the master Bo who followed Gao Huaien's side was already waiting there respectfully, and beside him was a thick pile of account books.

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