Li Shimin still left, took Li Xuanba's coffin, and under the escort of the master of the secret service department, followed a large merchant group of more than 1,000 people in the Central Plains from Liaodong to the south of the Liaohe River. Go to the sea in Beisha City, float through the sea to Shandong, and finally return to Hedong through the canal.

Li Xuanba's death was too sudden, and even a little too weird, a first-class heroic general in the dignified army actually died in the hands of a few unknown people in a chaotic dark night.

After reading his father's letter to Chen Kefu who wanted to transfer them back to the Central Plains, he was suspicious.

He suspected that this was Chen Kefu's reluctance to let them leave, so he made the last move. Maybe Chen Kefu won't do that, but he's not alone. Behind Chen Kefu is still a group of people from Chenjiazhuang, especially Mao Yi and his father Mao Xi. These two people are the kind of people who are good at scheming, and he is very suspicious that the death of the fourth brother is the hand of Mao Xi or Mao Yi.

Others only know that the Secret Service Department does not know the mysterious department of the Investigation Department, but Li Shimin knows. The Investigation Division is actually a more powerful and mysterious department than the Secret Service Division, and the Jinyi Guard under the Investigation Division is the one who really walks in the dark. They don't specialize in the outside like the Secret Service, they are inside. Internally, he purged jiān details, monitored all the surnames of soldiers, and even helped Chen Kefu suppress dissidents. And this mysterious force is only in the hands of Chen Kefu alone.

The two brothers knew that Chen Kefu was preparing for a rebellion, and now that they were going back to the Central Plains, they would undoubtedly feel that they were a risk. With Mao Xi's kind of xìng grid that only has Chen's in his eyes, it is difficult to guarantee that he will not start. Once the seeds of doubt are planted in the heart, they begin to take root and grow.

With his vague understanding of the Investigation Division, he knew that the Investigation Division was ubiquitous and powerful, and with their ability, it was too simple to kill Li Xuanba. It wouldn't even be difficult to kill him. Thinking of this result, he couldn't sleep even more. Originally, he wanted to stay and attack Murowei to take revenge, but since he had this idea, he hesitated. After Chen Kefu persuaded him twice, he nodded and agreed to return to the Central Plains.

When he first saw his father call Hua back to assist, he even thought that he and Xuanba would each ask for a few heavy cavalry and Mo sword soldiers from Chen Kefu to return to Hedong.

They had been in the Mo Sword Soldiers and the Heavy Cavalry, and they had always been the commander of the Mo Sword Soldiers, and he knew very well how strong these two soldiers and horses were. Thinking that if he brought these two troops back to Hedong, he would definitely be able to pacify the bandits in Hedong in one fell swoop.

However, after having later suspicions, he never mentioned a word, not even the meaning of bringing a team of personal soldiers back. In the end, he stayed in Liaodong for a few days, and he stayed in the house every day without leaving the house, and he was shocked every day, for fear that the Jinyi Guard of the Investigation Department would come to him.

It wasn't until he left that he saw that Chen Kefu did not send soldiers and horses from the guard battalion to escort him, but instead sent plainclothes from the secret service department, and his heart was mixed. At this moment, his incomparable admiration for Chen Kefu was gone, and all he had in his heart was endless doubts and estrangement. That Chen Kefu only needed one word, and he could rush forward desperately, Li Shimin is gone. Standing on the pier of the Liaohe River, he stared back for a long time at the moment he stepped on the sailboat, and then stepped on the boat without hesitation.

Chen Kefu didn't send Li Shimin in the end, he had too many things, and the soldiers and horses had been assembled. The day Li Shimin returned to the Central Plains was also the same day that his troops and horses went north. Li Shimin took the waterway and went down the Liao River from the boat. Chen Ke's comeback was at the North Gate, and more than 40,000 soldiers and horses all rode on horseback, rolling north.

In Liaodong, Chen Kefu had the most abundant war horses, most of which were captured from the original Goguryeo. However, after the alliance with the Khitan and Mòhé, he also made several transactions with the two tribes, and got back a large number of war horses. In addition to most of the cavalry, Chen Kefu also brought a lot of infantry. However, Chen Kefu had plenty of war horses in hand, and all the infantry horses became mounted infantry. When marching, not only do everyone have war horses, but also one person and two horses, riding in turn, so that the army can reach the fastest speed of maneuver.

Although only more than 40,000 soldiers and horses were transferred in the end, many generals and colonels were transferred, except for the seven counties and nine passes, which left sufficient manpower, most of the generals and colonels in the entire Liaodong soldiers and horses were transferred. The army marched all the way north, passing through Jinshan County, Gaimu County, Wuluo County, and finally reached the northernmost part of Buyeo County, Liluo County.

It's March, and March in the Central Plains is the time when the grass grows and the kite flies, but the grassland in western Liaoning outside the plug is still in the cold wind at this time. However, although the weather is still relatively cold, the rain and snow season has passed, and there are more good sunny days. ,

In the early morning of this day, a red sun hung in the east, and the light of the golden sè crossed the entire grassland with a layer of golden sè. A large army slowly emerged from behind the woods, overwhelming the sky with cavalry. The first thing to do was a big black sè broken military flag, followed by a big Chen character handsome flag.

Under the handsome banner, Chen Kefu was dressed in armor and straddled the green sui. Next to him, there are dozens of generals around. After half a month's march, Chen Kefu finally reached the Golden Lion City, the northwestern part of Liaodong. With an army of more than 40,000 people, it is definitely possible to start a big battle in western Liaoning. After the destruction of Goguryeo, as long as it was not a coalition of various ethnic groups, there was no tribe in the entire Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Haidong that could easily deal with the 40,000 elite soldiers and horses of the Great Sui Liaodong.

In fact, the speed of Chen Ke's return to the army surprised Yujuluo and others. From the decision to send troops to the final assembly of soldiers and horses out of the city, Chen Kefu only took one day. From Liaoyang City to the north of Fuyu County, it only took him half a month.

The Golden Lion City is not a mountain city like most of the cities in Liaodong, it is a city built on the grassland. Moreover, this is a new city, which was originally an earthen fort built by the Goguryeo people, and was the front line of defense against the Murowei people. However, after Chen Kefu took Liaodong, he sent people to build a city on the tip of the wedge where the four forces of Murowei, Khitan, and Mòhé converged.

This is not an ordinary city, not an earthen fort, not a brick fort, but a stone fort. Tens of thousands of slaves were sent to use black medicine to open the mountain and blow up stones, and many stones were collected from the nearby mountains, and transported to this key location to establish a stone city.

And this stone city is also different from the ordinary fortress construction, this is the drawing made by Chen Kefu himself. The whole stone town is a huge military fortress, using the prismatic fortress that was only built in the Ming Dynasty.

The fortress is a type of military fortress, and its essence is to change the city from a convex polygon to a concave polygon, so that no matter what point is attacked in the castle, the attacker will be attacked by more than one fortress surface (usually 2-3), and the defender can use cross-huo forces to perform multiple strikes.

Prior to the Gunpowder Age, fort walls were usually built tall and reinforced with stone or brick, with towers or horse faces for additional firepower. If anything, some particularly fortified cities have more than one wall.

It was only after nearly a thousand years that such a design was first introduced from Europe to China. For Chen Kefu, who has a powerful crossbow and arrow equipment, building a strong fortress at the intersection of all directions is the last base for advancement. The fortress is a new type of defensive array that can maximize the advantages of Liaodong Army's equipment and HUO medicine. The fortress of Liluo Castle is a crown-shaped polygonal fortress, which has the same shape as the crown, with prismatic edges and corners.

With such a new type of non-shooting blind spot fortress, coupled with the abundant crossbows, catapults, hand crossbows, bows and arrows in Chen Kefu's army, these long-term and short-range weapons such as long-range and short-range weapons, after Chen Kefu and the generals in the army, and a number of new staff officers in the General Staff Department, a conclusion was drawn.

Ordinary siege warfare, with seven encirclement and one, then the defenders can hold out for half a month. With three measurements and one size, it can hold on for about a month. But if it is replaced by the Sui army holding the fortress of the Golden Lion City, then as long as there are 3,000 people, as long as the equipment in the city is sufficient, under the ratio of seven to one, it can cope with 20,000 people attacking the city for three months without falling.

If there are 5,000 people, they can hold out for half a year, and if there are 10,000 people, Chen Kefu can guarantee that this fortress will never fall in western Liaoning. This is the reason why Chen Kefu made great efforts to build the Golden Lion City, and he wanted to build it into a wedge tightly nailed into the Khitan, mòhé, and murwei. enter

It can be attacked and retreated at any time, and it cannot be rushed.

The Golden Lion City is the name newly chosen by Chen Kefu, using the golden lion banner of the Liaodong Army in the past. The Golden Lion City is not actually a city, but a combination of six cities. Scattered across the grassland like a six-pointed star.

The star tip at the front is the Golden Lion Fortress, with a circumference of 3,000 paces and a maximum garrison of 150,000 troops. The city consists of military barracks, equipment warehouses, artisan barracks, various equipment workshops, grain warehouses, etc. The entire fort is for military use, and no non-military personnel are allowed to enter. This is a city of war, and the walls of the fortress are densely packed with huge twisted crossbows, catapults, crossbows, and catapults that specialize in projecting thunder. The largest number of troops in the fortress is not cavalry, but engineers, and according to Chen Kefu's plan, this city will be guarded by 5,000 soldiers all year round, and the number of engineers will never be less than 2,000. ,

In this city, there is also the most secret HUO medicine making workshop in the entire Liaodong Army, and Chen Kefu's most confidant general Chen Qing personally sits in the Golden Lion Fortress. Six cities, in addition to the largest fortress, on his left and right, are two smaller fortresses, these are the Silver Lion Fort and the Bronze Lion Fort two guard forts, also two pure military fortresses, they were established as the Acropolis of the Golden Lion Fort.

Behind the three fortresses in front ... The point is the private city where the residents of the surname live, namely Shishi City and Mushi City, and the county seat of Jinshi County is also in one of the cities, Shishi City. Among them, most of the immigrant Han military families lived in Shishi City, while the original castes and slaves of various ethnic groups in Liaodong lived in Mushi City. At the back, there is also the Iron Lion City, which is a shopping mall, which is used exclusively for the trade of local surnames and the tribes of the four directions. The city was full of inns, brothels, warehouses, and shops.

Chen Kefu trough the separation of the military, civilian, and merchant layers, on the one hand, to make the other five cities the acropolis of the Golden Lion Fortress, and on the other hand, to strengthen the security of the Golden Lion City, to prevent the jiān and other tribes from mixing into it.

There are six cities, the Golden Lion City is the largest city of 3,000 steps, and the two Acropolis of Silver Lion and Bronze Lion are 1,000 steps Stone City. The stone lion and wood lion Ermin City is just a city with a circumference of 2,000 steps, and the Mall Iron Lion City is a large city with a width of 3,000 steps.

Golden Lion Castle, Silver Lion Castle, Bronze Lion Castle, Stone Lion City, Wood Lion City, Iron Lion City, six cities arranged together like a six-pointed star are scattered on the grassland, so that this originally endless prairie suddenly has a string of the strongest fortresses. At the same time, it has also become the most dazzling string of pearls in the northwestern edge of Liaodong, which belongs to the narrow and deep Khitan, Murowei and Han Hui in Liaodong. In normal times, it has also become a cutting-edge commercial and trade city. Merchants of all ethnic groups gathered here to trade.

The general Central Plains caravan basically ends here, and if you go deeper, you will already reach the hinterland of the various tribes, and only some adventurous small caravans will enter.

And in this small but important northwestern part of Liaodong, in addition to these six castles, there are also a number of forts on the frontier with the three clans. These small forts are said to be forts, but they are actually beacon towers. Each fort garrison is a group, the fort is generally built high, with a beacon tower on it, and once there is an alarm, the beacon fire will be passed backwards to give early warning. Because the grassland is flat, Chen Kefu placed forts every 30 miles on the border. The beacon fire smokes during the day, and at night, and if nothing happens, a pillar of beacon smoke is lit to show peace. If there is an alarm, two pillars of beacon smoke will be raised, and if it is extremely urgent, three pillars of beacon smoke will be raised. In the fort, not only with beacon smoke warning, but also all equipped with stagecoaches, once there is a police, after the beacon fire is lit, but also send a stagecoach to report to the next station which side is coming to the police, the specific number of directions, etc., so as to pass one station at a time.

Chen Kefu's troops and horses are still dozens of miles away from the Golden Lion Fort, and there are already three pillars of beacon smoke burning in front of him, which is to convey the arrival of a large army to the rear. Sure enough, within a while, a black line appeared in the depths of the grassland.

"Marshal, there are soldiers and horses coming." Shen Guang, who had just been transferred to the Modao Battalion to take over Li Shimin's position, pointed to the front.

Chen Kefu took something from the saddle, picked it up and put it in front of his eyes to look at. After looking at it, he said with a smile, "This is General Chen Qing's cavalry to answer us!" Shen Guang looked at the thing in Chen Kefu's hand, and said enviously, "Dashuai, this clairvoyance in your hand is really rare, when will you reward us with one, when will you reward us, when you are in this battle array, you can look at the enemy from afar, and you are extremely sharp, and you can expect the enemy to take the lead."