After Zhao Yan retreated to Gubeikou, he immediately transformed and consolidated the Great Wall defense line north of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, originally the Great Wall defense line was used to prevent the nomads in the north, but since Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were occupied by the Liao State, the Great Wall defense line here was transformed by the Liao State, and became their defense line against the Song State, of course, this defense line is generally not used, but the Liao State has been transformed just in case, and now this defense line has fallen into the hands of the Song State, and it naturally needs to be transformed back.

This section of the Great Wall defense line is almost the main body of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty in the later generations, although it is less than 10,000 miles, but the length is still very amazing, and the Great Wall in some places has been dilapidated, when Yeluren first drilled Yang Huaiyu from one of the damaged Great Wall defense lines to Yang Huaiyu and their backs, for those that have been damaged the Great Wall, the Great Song Dynasty has no financial resources to repair it for the time being, so Zhao Yan can only try to use the Great Wall defense line that can be used, so that it can form a certain defensive force, after all, although the Liao State now seems to have no strength to go south, But there are no absolutes in the world, so Zhao Yan didn't dare to be careless.

On this day, Zhao Yan came to a Great Wall defense line more than 20 miles northwest of Gubeikou, the Great Wall here was built during the Northern Qi Dynasty, but after hundreds of years of wind and rain, this section of the Great Wall has collapsed, and Yelu Renxian also entered the sixteen states of Yanyun from this section of the Great Wall, with this lesson, Zhao Yan naturally will not leave the loopholes in this defense line alone, so he personally came to inspect it today, and planned to repair this section of the Great Wall temporarily, at least to build a usable beacon tower, lest the enemy touch the hinterland of the Great Song Dynasty from here in the future.

"Your Highness, this hill is located right in the middle of this section of the collapsed Great Wall, and the view is wide enough to see most of this section of the Great Wall, and the terrain of this hill is also quite dangerous. There is a spring flowing down from the top of the mountain, and if we build a beacon tower here, with about 100 soldiers stationed in it, it should be able to serve as a warning! At this time, Yang Huaiyu pointed to a mountain not far away and said.

Hearing Yang Huaiyu's words, Hu Yanping, Hu Yanqing and other generals who came with Zhao Yan also looked at the mountain peak not far away, and finally everyone expressed their opinions. The general opinions were similar, and they all agreed with Yang Huaiyu's judgment and agreed to build a beacon tower on the mountain.

For this kind of professional matter, Zhao Yan has always rarely intervened, after all, Yang Huaiyu and these professionals must be much stronger than his half-tone, so when he saw that most of the generals agreed, Yu also nodded, and then led people around this collapsed Great Wall, and among the people in their entourage were special people who were responsible for drawing maps and making sand tables. In the future, the terrain of the entire sixteen states of Yanyun will be drawn into maps and sand tables and sent to the capital.

But at this moment, Zhao Yan and the others suddenly heard a rush of horses' hooves behind them, and when they turned around, they saw a group of people and horses running quickly from the road behind them, fortunately, although the road here is not easy to walk, but at least it is much stronger than the mountain road, and the horses don't have to worry about falling into the cliff when they run.

"The front is a soldier in the army, but the back is not a person in the army. Why do you look so much like a chamberlain in the palace? At this time, the sharp-eyed Hu Yanqing suddenly frowned and said, and at this time, Zhao Yan and they also saw it. Among the knights, there were a few of them dressed in chamberlain robes, who looked like eunuchs from the palace.

Just when Zhao Yan and the others were strange, the team of people and horses also quickly came to them, and when they saw the few attendants in the team, Zhao Yan was extremely surprised, and couldn't help but shout at the moment: "Lao Huang." How did you get here? ”

Among the several chamberlains who came, the leader was Zhao Yan's old acquaintance Huang Wude, who hadn't seen him for a few years, and the other party looked much older, and his hair became snow-white. His face was also full of wrinkles, but he was in good spirits, and he didn't move on his horse, and he seemed to be in good health, but his back was slightly rickety.

When Huang Wude saw Zhao Yan, he also showed a sincere smile on his face, and the wrinkles on his old face were about to laugh into a flower, and he immediately jumped off the horse and saluted Zhao Yan: "The old slave sees His Royal Highness, His Majesty sent the old slave to see His Highness to tell him something important!" ”

"No need to be polite!" In fact, even if Huang Wude didn't say it, Zhao Yan could guess that the other party was sent by Zhao Xu, but Huang Wude only said that there was something important, but he didn't say anything important, it seemed that it was inconvenient for Yang Huaiyu and others to know, which also made Zhao Yan a little curious, so he said to Yang Huaiyu and others, and then took Huang Wude to a small hill next to him.

I saw that Huang Wude took a deep breath at this time, and his face became a little serious: "Your Highness, Your Majesty sent the old slave to send a message to Your Highness, hoping to let you return to the capital as soon as possible, but Your Majesty is not willing to force you, so if you are not willing to go back, Your Majesty will not force it." ”

Hearing that Zhao Yan actually gave such an edict to himself, Zhao Yan couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and only after a moment did he speak: "Why did the eldest brother want me to go back, is there something going on in the capital?" ”

"This ......" I saw Huang Wude hesitate for a moment, and then finally gritted his teeth and said, "Your Highness, Originally, Your Majesty didn't let the old slave tell you about this matter, but the old slave thought that it would be better for you to know about this matter earlier, Your Majesty had a serious illness before, and he has not been able to recover, but his condition has become more and more serious, and now he is unable to go to the court, so His Majesty wants you to go back to help him take charge of the government!" ”

"What?" Zhao Yan was also taken aback when he heard this, he also knew something about Zhao Ji's illness, but he always thought that Zhao Ji was sick because of qi, which was not very serious, plus Cao Ji and Zhilugu were also in the capital, so he thought that Zhao Ji's illness should have been cured a long time ago, but he didn't expect that his illness was not only not cured, but became so serious.

"Your Majesty's original illness is not very serious, Cao Lao Immortal also said that as long as he can recuperate quietly for a period of time, his body can recover, but there are too many things during this time, first the army that recovered Yanyun was trapped, and then Manichaeism and Western Xia were in turmoil, all of which need to be handled by His Majesty in person, and as a result, a minor illness is dragged into a major illness, and the old slave can no longer get out of bed before leaving the capital." At this time, Huang Wude added again, and his face also showed a little sadness, Zhao Ji grew up under his watch, but now Zhao Ji's body is even worse than an old man like him.

"Okay, I'll go back right away!" Zhao Yan immediately agreed if he didn't want to, Zhao Yan was not only his eldest brother, but also the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, whether it was public or private, Zhao Yan would not let it go, so he had to rush back to the capital as soon as possible.

Next, Zhao Yan immediately took Yang Huaiyu and others back to Gubeikou, and after arranging the affairs in the army, he immediately rushed back to the capital with Hu Yanping and others, but Huang Wude did not go back with him, but was sent by Zhao Yan to Guangzhou to take Cao Ying and others back to the capital from there, because Zhao Yan estimated that after returning to the capital this time, I am afraid that he would not leave again in a short time.

Zhao Yan led a team of about 2,000 people to leave Gubeikou, all the way to the southwest gallop, because of the worry of Zhao Xu's condition, so Zhao Yan almost did not rest on the way, everyone rode horses all the way to gallop, and finally after half a month of running, finally came to the Yellow River port in the north of Kaifeng, as long as the Yellow River was crossed from here, and then half a day to reach the capital.

There is a pontoon bridge on the Yellow River, people on the north and south banks can come and go through the pontoon bridge, there are special officials on the pontoon bridge, people who cross the bridge need to pay a fee, in addition, because there are too many people crossing the bridge, the number of people who cross the bridge every day is limited, so many people are blocked on the bank on both sides of the bridge, waiting to cross the bridge in a number.

With Zhao Yan's identity, naturally there is no need to rule it out, after Zhao Yan's guards identified themselves, the official guarding the bridge immediately trotted forward to greet them, and then personally escorted Zhao Yan and them across the bridge, but Zhao Yan and they had just walked across the bridge, and the official guarding the bridge was also about to say goodbye, but at this moment, Zhao Yan's eyes inadvertently swept the fields by the bridge, which made him stunned for a moment.

"This ...... These should be sweet potatoes, why are there people growing them here? I saw Zhao Yan stretched out his hand and pointed to the field next to the bridge, and then asked the official guarding the bridge, after the sweet potato and corn were brought to the Great Song Dynasty by Zhao Yan, they have only been planted in the tuntian in the south, although Zhao Yan has not taken care of the affairs of the tuntian in recent years, but in his mind, the planting of sweet potatoes and corn should not have been made public, otherwise he could not have received a little news.

The official guarding the bridge heard Zhao Yan ask about the sweet potatoes in the field, and first glanced at Zhao Yan in surprise, and then said: "His Royal Highness King Qiyue, these sweet potatoes are said to come from the south, and the yield is very amazing. ”

The level of the official guarding the bridge is too low, and he doesn't know the relationship between sweet potatoes and Zhao Yan at all, let alone the meaning of sweet potatoes, so he wonders why Zhao Yan is interested in sweet potatoes, but when Zhao Yan heard that the cultivation of sweet potatoes has been promoted near the capital, his face showed a bit of solemnity, if this is the case, then I am afraid that sweet potatoes will soon spread to the north of the Yellow River, and even to Liao, which is not good news for the Great Song Dynasty.

Before he arrived in the capital, Zhao Yan's mood became a little heavy because of the sweet potato, and then after half a day's journey, the tall and majestic Tokyo City finally appeared in front of him. (To be continued......)