Chapter 104: Patrolling the Border (2)

Linzhou, the inferior state, governs Wu'erbao. &*．． The fastest update** has jurisdiction over Xinqin County, including Hengyang Village, Yincheng Village, Ningyuan Village, Taihe Village, Zhenchuan Fort, Railing Fort, Shenmu Fort, Liangu County, Shentang Village, Jingqiang Village, Hengrong Village, Peeling Fort, Tongjin Fort, Linzhai Fort, Shenshu Fort, Huining Fort; After the census of Chongning, there were: 3,482 households, 8,684 mouths. Obviously, this is only registered with the national household registration, that is, the Han nationality and the Sinicized Tibetan household registration, and there are a large number of Tibetan households and hidden households that have not been registered, these people are all dual nationals, and which side is often treated well will defect to which side, so there is no way to count.

The topography of the Linfu area is not like the relatively flat plateau of Ningxia and northern Shaanxi, Yin, Xia, but the ravines are vertical and horizontal, the mountains are big and the ravines are deep, so the roads are all taken with the river, and the winding is like winding. Zhao Tayi walked on Hehejin Road, that is, crossed the pontoon bridge from Hejin to Yincheng, and then arrived at Linzhou City from Yincheng. As soon as they crossed the ferry, the governor of Linzhou had already sent troops and horses to wait for officials there.

Since the three prefectures of Lin, Fu and Feng are located on the extreme border, their military status is very important. The three states of Lin, Fu and Feng had an in-law relationship centered on the Zhe family, which made the Song Dynasty worry about the three states being merged into one and becoming a great sawing force. In this way, in the Taizong Dynasty, when Yang Guangran, the assassin of Linzhou, died, and his son Yang Qi was too young to do anything, the Song Dynasty was no longer appointed as the governor, but was nationalized, and the Yang family, as a local tyrant, was no longer dedicated to the land of Linzhou, but was appointed by the central government to appoint corresponding officials.

After a little rest, under the guidance of the guide, he turned south and walked no more than fifteen miles to the camp in Jingqiang Village. The village is built at the junction of the river valley and the nearby high mountains, stretching from the top of the mountain to the river valley, controlling the traffic arteries in the river valley. When selecting the site, the fortress fully considers factors such as water sources and tuntian, is close to the water source, and uses river water to irrigate a large number of fertile fields in order to survive and produce food.

Zhao Ta was warmly welcomed into the village by Zhizhai, he looked at the smiling Zhizhai, its clothing and language are almost the same as the Han people, but the hair ornament is still different from them, "My lord, the surname of the lower official is Yang, the name is Tianbao, in the previous dynasty to return to the Khan, to the lower official has gone through five generations!" That Zhizhai looked at Zhao Ta with a different look in his eyes, and quickly explained.

"Yang Zhizhai has received the emperor's favor in the past dynasties, and he has served our dynasty sincerely, and he is a cadre!" The Linzhou soldiers and horses envoy also hurriedly took the opportunity to speak for him.

"Well, that's good!" Zhao Ta vaguely agreed, he knew that the official system of the Great Song Dynasty in the border area was different from that of the Central Plains, and the duties of the vassal officials were twofold, the isolation leader was granted a specific official position, and accepted the political tasks such as guarding the border, going out, and paying tribute to the Han officials assigned by the imperial court and the local rulers, and organized the people to serve, on the other hand, he continued to manage the members of his own clan in the name of patrol inspection and management of his own affairs, etc., and he was subject to or lower than the Han officials in the government bureaucratic system, and he integrated military, government, and clan power within his own clan. &*．． The fastest update ** vassal officials can also be hereditary, the father dies and the son succeeds, the brother dies and the brother is full, and even the family has no relatives and the strong can be, the head of the clan is young, and his mother can assist, just like the head of a kingdom, although this kingdom is small.

Zhao Ta into the village, directly on the city tower to look around, here is far away from the border, and in the ancient Great Wall, nearly ten years have not been harassed by the war, has developed into a larger village, the circumference can have more than 900 steps, the wall is two zhang high, the width is more than that, the official office, the barracks, the warehouse, the arsenal, the residence, the shops are readily available, several villages with Tuntian as the main industry have been formed around it, the increase in population makes it slightly prosperous here.

"Yang Zhizhai, how many households and mouths are there?" Zhao Ta twisted his face and asked Yang Tianbao, who was following him.

"Lord Wang, Xiaozhai has 51 main households, 320 customers, a population of 2,130 people, and more than 1,200 people!" Obviously, this Zhizhai knew Zhao Ta's other identity from the mouth of the soldier and horse envoy, and his demeanor was more respectful. …,

"Yang Zhizhai is hardworking, he can recruit so many people, he is really capable!" Zhao Ta nodded, no one in the northwest was willing to come, and it was indeed not easy for him to gather so many people.

"Thank you for your praise, this is the duty of the humble duty, it is windy here, please come to the hall to speak more conveniently!" Yang Tianbao was affirmed by the prince, his face was bright, and he bowed and said.

"It's okay, this king has been riding a horse for a day, and his body is tired, just resting, but this king has brought a lot of generals, and there is Lao Yang Zhizhai to arrange food and lodging, and he will be counted as a return!" Zhao Ta said that this village couldn't fit 3,000 people, so he only ordered 50 guards to enter the village, and the rest stayed outside.

"Where is the prince, this is what a humble duty should do!" Yang Tianbao only treated Zhao Ta as polite, but he couldn't afford to provoke him if he was not polite, so he immediately called an entourage and asked him to go out of the village to arrange.

Zhao Ta and others followed Yang Tianbao into the official office, which is also a model of the former and back houses of the Central Plains, all of which are built with bluestone, but they are much smaller, and the courtyard is only two, not to mention facilities such as gardens, but it is also a mansion in this remote place!

The guest and the host sat down, and after a short rest, Yang Tianbao's wife led a group of his wives and concubines and children to come to visit, which frightened Zhao Ta, this kid is really good, his wife and concubine **, a lot of children, the eldest is bearded, and the little one is still breastfeeding, I really don't know if he can cope with it, I can't say that Zhao Ta has to take out some glass beads and other things to reward.

Yang Tianbao was even more happy when he saw the prince's generosity, and ordered the banquet to be set up and let the two daughters serve the wine. Although they have been returning to Khan for many years, they still maintain the eating habits of the Qiang people, with beef, mutton and dairy products as the main food, dairy products include cheese, soufflé, cream, cheese, etc., and the food is mainly pasta, with noodles, porridge, cakes, steamed buns, buns and other categories, the production has adopted the methods of burning, roasting, frying, steaming, boiling, stir-frying, etc., and soon everyone has a bunch of dishes in front of them.

Tangut people generally like to drink tea and wine, tea is an indispensable drink for the Xixia herdsmen, wine is also the life of the Tangut people can not leave for a while, all gatherings, oaths, celebrations, birthdays, weddings, weddings, marriages, wars, and hatreds are all taken to drink wine, and they are drunk before resting. Zhao Ta drank the 'rise', ordered the soju he brought, this wine is much more than the alcohol they brewed, although mellow but strong, push the cup and change the lamp, he first poured down the two waiters, and then turned back to find that Yang Zhizhai and a few companions could not take care of themselves at this time, poured themselves to drink and persuaded themselves to get drunk, seeing Zhao Ta was dumbfounded, thinking about what Sun Erqian said that the Xia people are addicted to alcohol is really true, this is still to accompany the prince to drink!

Zhao Ta and the accompanying soldiers and horses that night rested in the post house of the village, here is not big, the conditions can be imagined, the next morning he got up together, he saw Yang Tianbao personally with a team of soldiers at the door to stand guard for himself, it turned out that he woke up in the middle of the night, only to know that the prince did not go out of the village, ashamed and moved, quickly got up to this station guard, it turned out that in the past, not to mention pacifying the patrol of the border, even if Zhizhou came will not sleep in his stockade, worried that they will rebel and send themselves to Xixia to ask for rewards, But the prince only led a team of guards and dared to sleep on his own territory, which made Yang Tianbao feel that the prince had great trust in him, can he not be grateful!

Seeing Yang Tianbao standing guard for himself with a bow and a knife, Zhao Ta couldn't cry or laugh, he wanted to teach him a lesson, don't drink and make mistakes, but now he can only reprimand him twice. After breakfast, Zhao Ta inspected the defense system of Jingqiang Village, the situation in the tuntian, inspected the reserves of grain, grass and weapons, and reviewed the soldiers stationed in the village.

After a day of panning, Zhao Ta ended his inspection and went to the next village. Yang Tianbao once again felt the difference between this Shangguan and others after the prince left, he not only really settled the cost of the army's consumption of grain and grass for two days, but also paid the price of the Tuyi he sent, leaving a few jars of good wine. What surprised him even more was that the prince's pro-army was strictly disciplined, and there was no habit of harassing the villagers, and it was rare that he also sent military doctors to the village to patrol the villages, send doctors and medicines, and clean up the camp when he left, and it seemed that he would be tidy when he didn't come, which made Yang Tianbao's favorability towards the prince increase by several percentage points! …,

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Zhao Ta continued to inspect several forts such as Shentang Village and Yamato Village, because this route was one of the channels for the Western Xia to invade the two prefectures of Linfu, and they had repeatedly followed the Quye River Road, from Xiazhou along the Wuding River to the east to Yinzhou, and directly took Linfu, threatening the east bank of the Yellow River and the Hedong region, which was the main military passage. Everywhere he went, he had to inquire in detail about the situation here, the paths, water sources, the amount of precipitation in each season, and the amount of water in the rivers had to be recorded, even if the trails could only be passed by one person, they had to be marked on the map, and they had to dismount and stop at dangerous places, personally inspect the terrain, and discuss with everyone how to station troops and how to resist the enemy.

Along the way, Zhao Ta also has a certain understanding of the walled forts, each walled fort is equipped with a wall, all of which are built by a combination of two methods of cutting slopes for the wall and rammed earth plate building, according to the mountain and water according to the terrain as appropriate, but all include a small hill as the commanding height in the fortress, and then the city wall winds down from the side of the mountain to the river valley stream, which not only occupies the favorable terrain, but also has enough water sources, and can become a defense system by itself.

Since the accession of Shenzong, the Song Dynasty's war against Xia turned into a counteroffensive, and later the construction of the fortress has changed from a strategic defense to a strategic offensive military project, with the policy of "building a city to force the city, moving the village to attack the village", using the method of "building one, consolidating one, and taking it step by step", a large number of forts were built to advance, forcing the Western Xia to retreat. However, it is not easy to build a fort in the northwest, and it is even more difficult to maintain the existence of a fort.

The construction of forts consumes a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, which has caused a heavy burden on the finances, and the more forts are built, the longer the defense line is too long, and the troops are scattered, which is not conducive to guerrilla warfare or mobile warfare, but shackles oneself.

After seeing Yamato Village, Zhao Ta also had to go to Dahe Fort, which is close to the border, if he leads the army to go, I am afraid that it will cause an overreaction in Western Xia, plus the road is inconvenient there, and the transportation of materials is difficult, so many people are afraid that they will have to eat up the accumulated grain there, so they decided to divide the troops here. Zhao Ta led the guards and a small group of scouts and several subordinate officers and their accompanying Linzhou soldiers and horses to Dahe Fort, while the others were led by Zhao Ren to Yincheng to wait.