Chapter 129: The Abandoned Fort

Zhao Ta understood Yeli's mood at this time, and he was bent on throwing himself into the Song Dynasty and fearing that he would be set aside, he had no soldiers and no generals in his hands, just like a dragon out of the water, a tiger descending from the mountain, slaughtered by others, and the future was unpredictable; And continue to stay in Western Xia, he was defeated repeatedly, betrayed the main general, beheaded according to the law, the tribe was dismembered, and there was no way to live, but this must be the place where he started, and his homeland was difficult to leave, and Li Jifeng was captured, which made him fantasize again, thinking that there might be room for maneuver, so he bet on two places.

"Alas, the boss's pride is impressive, his subordinates have received the order of the director, telling the stations along the way to make every effort to maintain the safety of the boss, the head of this caravan is a subordinate person, loyal and reliable, but if there is a need, the boss only needs to tell him!" Li Tianhao knew the rules, didn't say much that shouldn't be said, took out a piece of paper from his boots and offered it with both hands.

"Okay, I've got it!" Zhao Ta read the note, put it in his mouth, chewed it, and swallowed it.

"Take care all the way, boss, my subordinates are waiting for you to return safely!" Li Tianhao said, "When you meet the boss for the first time, the boss will give some benefits to his subordinates!" He changed his face in the blink of an eye and stretched out his hand.

"Oh?!" Zhao Ta was stunned, this kid is not small, "You have suffered here, I can find you a comfortable place when I come back!" ”

"Hehe, Xie Lu Xie Boss, that's not what I said, let's talk for a long time, the boss always has to have some blood, otherwise how can I explain it to my brothers!" Li Tianhao said 'ill-intentioned'.

"Hehe, I forgot that you did an errand of plucking the feathers of geese, take this, a lot, right?" Zhao Ta touched it in his arms, took out a few gold leaves and stuffed them for him and asked.

"It's said that the boss is generous, and when I saw it today, it was really the case, and the money was enough for us to spend for two months!" Li Tianhao put it in his arms and said, he has become the money-hungry squad just now.

"In the future, I want Team Li to take care of it more, let's say goodbye today, he invited the team to drink flower wine, and I heard that Yincheng has added two more restaurants.

"Then Xie Lu Xie Shaodong's family, but I heard that Yan Wangye lives there now, he hates these things the most, so he should wait for him to leave, and then bother Shaodong's family!" Li Tianhao followed Zhao Tale's face with the scar, and the two walked out hand in hand.

"Report for inspection, have checked, two carts, fifty-two pack horses, forty camels, and sixty-five entourage!" Li Tianhao made a long report, of course, he received benefits, so he naturally had to conceal it.

The inspection over there responded, and the rest of the matter was handled by Zhang Qu, and the effort did not last long, and the caravan left a leather bag, and the caravan drove the mule horse on the way. Since it was smuggling, of course he didn't dare to take the road openly, otherwise it would be troublesome to be caught after passing the fortress and the patrolling horse team, so the caravan went around in the winding valley, and the unfamiliar people would be dizzy.

After a day's journey, the caravan did not stop to rest, and in the afternoon finally crossed the boundary trench, entered the territory of Western Xia, and burrowed into a valley. Sandwiched between rocky mountains, with knife-cut cliffs on both sides, and with mugwort and thorns on the valley, and in some places grass, the camels were not short of fodder, and the horses were enough to choke. The ground is covered with fine pebbles and gravel, and the sparse bushes can only be seen on the flat, low-lying barren beach, where driving is very difficult.

Walking out of the valley, there is a hill in front of you, with a gentle, small curve, resembling a green hair steamed bun. The yellow land at the foot of the mountain is bare, there are not many trees on the mountain, the lush cypress trees are dotted in between, and the undulating and winding Great Wall of Qin in the mountains has left a gap here, which can only accommodate a large car to pass through, but the traces are not too old, and the time of being dug up is only the appearance of nearly twenty or thirty years.

"Second master, there are many such passages on the Great Wall, all of which were dug up by the two sides when they were smuggling. In addition to the smugglers, most of the people who haunted here in the past were outlaws, including Xia people, Han people, and even Uighurs and Khitans, they had escaped from forced labor, violated the king's law, and avoided the enemy's family, so there has always been a notoriety of horse bandits here, this gap is what they dug up, collecting tolls for caravans, of course, seeing the abundant oil and water, they will also do some murderous and over-the-top business! Seeing that the prince was curious, Zhang did take the initiative to explain. …,

"Well, then no one in the two countries will be cleared?" Zhao asked again.

"This is remote, and it is a battlefield for both sides, who cares about these small things, and the horse bandits compete for territory with each other, and people change one after another, maybe there are soldiers from our Song Kingdom here, and the people of the Western Xia border are mixed in it, as long as they don't make too much trouble, no one will go to their trouble!" Zhang Qo replied.

"Now that the two countries are fighting each other, the smuggling business must not be easy to do, it seems that no one has walked here for a long time!" Zhao Ta saw that the road was already overgrown with wild grass, and ruts and hoof prints were covered in it, unlike people who often passed.

"Second master, you are wrong, the more the two countries are fighting, the easier the smuggling business will be, our Song country is short of horses, Western Xia lacks iron tools, grain, and the city is cut off, Western Xia's furs, livestock, medicinal materials and other special products cannot be shipped to Lu, but our market is still in strong demand; On the contrary, although the Western Xia wanted less silk, porcelain, tea, and wine from the Central Plains, some princes and nobles still couldn't do without them. Therefore, for their own purposes, the two sides cut off the trade on the surface, but privately encouraged the caravan to come and go, in exchange for the materials they needed, and the inspection of the materials that were strictly restricted from leaving the country in the past will be relaxed, and they don't have to be sneaky as usual, just bring what they want! Zhang did see that the prince was interested, of course, he knew everything.

Zhao Ta understood that this smuggling route was abandoned because of the war, and even the bandits couldn't survive anymore, so they had to choose to leave. He rode to the top of the mountain, and as far as his eyes could see, this earth-filled dragon lay on the top of the entire foothills of Hengshan, separating this world into two parts.

Most people only know that the Great Wall is used to block the invasion of the enemy. In fact, in addition, the main role of the Great Wall is still - early warning.

The original designers of the Great Wall did not think that the Great Wall alone could block the enemy from the Great Wall, so the Great Wall was mostly paired with beacon towers and pavilions. When there is an enemy invasion, you can light a beacon fire to predict the enemy's movements first, so that the military and civilians inside can be prepared. In this way, even if the Great Wall is at its most rear, it will not be able to stop the enemy army and will be broken into by the enemy, but it will already be able to buy enough time for our army to prepare for a counterattack!

In addition, the early warning of the Great Wall and the temporary blocking of the enemy army for a while can not only complete the mobilization of the army, but also allow the people enough time to 'rush into the fort'. In this way, even if the worst-case scenario occurs, the army is completely wiped out due to defeat, and the enemy's ability to loot the man, animal and material is quite limited, and the losses are minimized.

Because of the Great Wall, the Xiongnu and Turks in the past could only be busy with nothing after they mobilized troops and divisions, not only did they not be able to enrich their own materials, but also made small losses and big losses, and the more they fought, the weaker they became. In this way, the Han and Tang dynasties compared the vitality of the Xiongnu and the Turks worse and greater. Once the time is ripe for the Han and Tang dynasties to train elite cavalry units or the Xiongnu and the Turks have a civil strife, natural disasters, etc., the cavalry of the Han and Tang dynasties will send out to raid the steppe. The Xiongnu and Turks without the Great Wall could neither warn early nor stop the Han and Tang cavalry, so as long as the Han and Tang cavalry crossed the border, they could basically go straight into it without hindrance!

The Xiongnu and Turks did not have enough manpower, material, financial resources and skills to build the Great Wall, but the Western Xia and Liao already had enough civilization and national strength to build the Great Wall! In addition, there are some old Great Walls in the areas they occupy, so that they can save some effort and not have to build the Great Wall from scratch. Therefore, it is basically impossible for the Song Dynasty to play tricks such as surprise raids on the prairie and smashing into Shan Yuting or Khan's tent like the Han and Tang cavalry, so this time Zhao Ta insisted on negotiating with Yeli, once successful, with this section of the Great Wall as a barrier, the strategic situation of the Lin and Fu regions towards the Western Xia will have a fundamental change. …,

Passing through the Great Wall, walking five miles, the sky is getting dark, although this place can be used as a pasture for cattle and sheep, but because of banditry, it has never aroused the interest of herdsmen, and there is not even a personal home around. At that time, unlike now, the wild rabbits were almost wiped out, and the ecological environment was still very well preserved at this time, jackals, tigers, leopards, roe deer, roe deer, and musk deer were all in groups, and it was also very dangerous for them to camp in the wild with a caravan of dozens of people.

"Second master, there is a ruined castle ahead, which can be sheltered from the wind and rain, so please grieve for the night!" Zhang Qu pointed to a mound of dirt in front of him and said.

"You arrange, I'm the guest and the host!" Zhao Ta said with a smile.

"Second master, you go slowly, I'll go and investigate before!" As soon as Zhao Xin and the others crossed the summer realm, they maintained a high degree of vigilance, lest the prince would lose.

As the team approached the mound, Zhao Ta saw that it was an abandoned fortress that was abandoned in an unknown era. Siye is as silent as death, there are no dogs, and of course there are no people, just a pile of garbage like a hill, and I don't know how many generations of accumulation have formed such a scale. A narrow gravel-paved path loomed in the half-man-tall grass, indicating that no one had set foot here for a long time.

This should be the outpost position of the Great Wall, the high mound of earth is the beacon tower, after hundreds of years of wind and rain washing, there are still four or five zhang high soil foundation, surrounded by a circle of one zhang high rammed earth wall, forming an independent military fortress with the beacon as the center. The fort only opened a door on the south side, the door was not large, and it could barely pass through the cart, and the low door hole would hit the head if you were not careful to ride into the fort, and the fort door that had turned into a pile of rotten wood was hidden, as if it would fall apart if you touched it lightly.

#c