"Knock" "Knock" "Knock"

As the autumn wind gradually rose, there was a dense sound of pounding clothes inside and outside Chang'an City and even in the entire Guanzhong area.

Although the early popularity of cotton made most of the people of the Sui Empire wear cotton clothes that were more resistant to cold than linen, because the cotton cloth that had just been spun was still relatively stiff, it would only become soft after tedious hammering.

However, the sound of pounding clothes at this time was not just the warm clothes prepared for the upcoming winter, but the people of Guanzhong were preparing warm clothes for their children who were about to go on the expedition.

Although the Great Sui Empire still inherited the equalization system of the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Zhou Dynasty, so that the vast majority of the people of the Sui Empire had their own arable land, but while enjoying these rights, the people of the Sui Empire also had to assume the obligation to fight for the imperial court.

The Sui Empire still prevailed in the military system, which began in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it was not until the Tang Dynasty that Li Longji completely collapsed due to land annexation, but at this time Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty because the land annexation was not serious, so it could still play its own role well.

As government soldiers, they have to bring their own clothes, weapons and horses when fighting, and even they have to bear the cost of rations and travel expenses for the journey from home to Zhichongfu, fortunately, although Yang Jian has been in power for many years, although the Sui Empire has also experienced some famines, but the people can still bear these burdens to some extent.

As the foundation of the rise of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and the Great Sui Empire, the land of Guanzhong has always been a fierce people, so the people in Guanzhong have no opinion on the imperial court attacking the Xia State this time, after all, they don't know what kind of country the Xia State is, and it is just a remote country in the northeast.

After a busy morning, Aunt Li finally made another set of cotton robes, and suddenly the gate of the courtyard opened from the outside, and an old man about fifty years old walked in, who was the head of the family, Li Laohan.

Li Laohan also carried a horizontal knife more than three feet long in his hand, and the outer sheath of the horizontal knife alone looked particularly exquisite, and it was not a good thing that an ordinary blacksmith could create.

"Baby, how are the baby's clothes?"

As soon as Li Laohan entered the door, he asked about Aunt Li, and at the same time did not forget to put the horizontal knife in his hand on a desk in the house, on which was already placed a pair of slightly worn armor, a long halberd, and a pair of once exquisite saddle sheaths.

"Of course I'm ready here, not only two sets of clothes for the baby, but also two cotton boots!" After speaking, Aunt Li glanced at Li Laohan and said dissatisfied, "It's just that you just got a pair of horizontal knives for the baby on the day you went out, didn't you say that you would buy a good horse for the baby?" ”

As the basic military unit of the Great Sui Empire in the local area, the Zhichong Mansion will divide these soldiers into different teams according to the type of weapons carried by the soldiers and whether they have war horses.

"Who would have thought that the imperial court would be in such a hurry under the order of war!"

Li Laohan sighed angrily and said, "In the past, the imperial court ordered us to buy horses and weapons, but this time when I went out, everything was sold out, and this horizontal knife was still because I was familiar with Feng Blacksmith, so I took out the things they used to press the bottom of the box, otherwise I wouldn't even be able to buy a better horizontal knife!" ”

"How can you just have a horizontal knife?" Aunt Li was dissatisfied, "The sword has no eyes on the battle array, what if the baby is injured because there is no good weapon?" Besides, who doesn't know the importance of having a good horse, and used to tell you not to sell that good horse, but you don't listen to it, and now you can't buy it if you want to! ”

"If you don't sell that good horse, our whole family will have to be homeless!" Li Laohan sighed, "If we don't sell horses, how can our family survive those two years of famine?" ”

Hearing Li Laohan's complaint, Aunt Li also knew that this was the truth, and she sighed and didn't speak again.

"Don't worry, old woman!" Seeing this, Li Laohan comforted softly, "I heard that this time the imperial court is still jointly attacking the small country called Xia with the Turks this time, and there are more than 200,000 troops in our Guanzhong land alone, and it is not easy to capture so many large armies!" ”

Although Aunt Li has not seen much of the world, she still feels that something is wrong when she listens to Li Laohan's words, but she has been used to listening to Li Laohan all these years, and she doesn't know how to refute it for a while.

Li Laohan saw that his mother-in-law was still frowning, so he persuaded again: "Old woman, you think, this time the court will fight no matter what, and I heard that the Xia country is extremely rich, this time the baby will follow the army to fight, and if you can't get it, you can still get him a hundred and ten acres of land with military merits!" ”

After some persuasion by Li Laohan, Aunt Li finally eliminated some of her worries a little, and in a blink of an eye, it was time for their son Li Erbin to go to Zhechong Mansion to gather.

Because the land of Guanzhong is the ruling core of the Sui Empire, the Zhichong Mansion here accounts for one-third of the number of the entire Sui Empire's Zhichong Mansion, thanks to which Li Erbin and others can finally save some of the road expenses and don't have to spend too much on the road.

"Baby," Li Laohan took Li Erbin's hand and admonished, "Speaking of fighting tiger brothers, you must be with a few of your cousins on this expedition, so that you can take care of yourself when you fight, and take care of your body when you fight!" ”

"Grandma rest assured!" Li Erbin, who had an honest face, waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, this time the child has to earn a future and come back!" ”

"This stupid kid is still thinking about the future, and I'm relieved to come back safely!" After all, Aunt Li couldn't bear the melancholy of parting, and finally didn't go out to see her off, but just hid at home alone and cried silently, although she was very confident in the imperial army, but her own son went out to fight, which still made her worried.

Li Erbin and his entourage of more than 20 people, all brothers from a big family, originally nearly half of them owned horses, but the drought in Guanzhong for two consecutive years caused a lot of damage to their homesteaders, and the horses in the family were basically sold, and this time everyone went out as soldiers.

Compared with Li Erbin and other young brothers who were happy to make meritorious contributions to the war, and looked forward to winning a future for themselves through the war, Li Dalang, the eldest brother of the uncle's family, seemed a little sad and didn't have much joy.

"Why is the eldest brother depressed?" A cousin of the family saw Li Dalang's frowning appearance and immediately asked curiously, because Li Dalang had done things in Chang'an City for a few years in the past, so he had some insight among these brothers, and it was strange to see him frowning.

"This battle and my brothers have to look better," Li Dalang thought about it and told the brothers, "This battle is not as simple as the court said, it is said that the Xia Kingdom almost wiped out the Turkic capital, not a soft persimmon!" ”

"What?"

All the sons and daughters of the Li family were shocked, although they didn't know how powerful the Xia Kingdom was in Li Dalang's mouth, but they knew the prestige of the Turks, and the land of Guanzhong in the Northern Zhou Dynasty had always been under the threat of the Turks in the past.

At that time, the Turks would enter and occupy the Hetao at every turn and then coerce the imperial court to take out a large amount of money and grain to buy and withdraw troops, and of course these money and grain would eventually be borne by the lowest people, so they have always been very clear about the prestige of the Turks.

But the Turkic people, who were so powerful at the beginning, were almost wiped out by the Xia Kingdom, which they thought was a small country, so it seems that the Xia Kingdom will not be much weaker than the Great Sui Empire at least.

"Brothers, don't worry too much, this time I heard that there are a lot of troops mobilized by the imperial court, and we people may not necessarily be sent to the battlefield," Li Dalang saw that the cousins were sullen, this would definitely not work, and immediately comforted, "It is very likely that we are just defending the city in the back!" ”

With Li Dalang's comfort, Li Erbin and the others finally felt better, but they also made up their minds one by one that they must not be separated, once there is any accident on the battlefield, whether it is killing the enemy or fleeing for their lives, their own brothers are more reliable.

Soon the Li brothers all reported to the Weinan Zhechong Mansion, and at the same time, the same scene was also staged in Guanzhong and Guandong, and a group of young people carrying weapons gradually merged into the small river like a stream in the mountains.

Of course, the Sui Empire could not count on all these government soldiers to deal with the Xia State, and his main strength was still on the standing army such as the Twelve Guards, and the government soldiers were just a little similar to the National Guard of the Xia State, which belonged to the reserve force.

In just over a month, the Sui Empire gathered 250,000 soldiers in Guanzhong, 100,000 in Luoyang, the eastern capital, 50,000 in Jinyang, and 150,000 in Yecheng.

In a month's time, 550,000 government soldiers were gathered, and the Sui Empire also mobilized 300,000 cavalry in its standing army, as well as 200,000 infantry troops, and more than 1 million people were concentrated in combat troops alone, which is not insignificant.

At the same time as the Sui Empire mobilized a large army, Dulan Khan was unwilling to lose the entire steppe in order to obtain the support of the Sui Empire, so he also sent out all the more than 100,000 cavalry in his hand.

In addition, although the Datou Khan of the Western Turks was already old, he knew that the threat had been forced to his side after seeing the Xia State occupying Jinshan, so he gritted his teeth and mobilized the Western Turkic tribes and the countries of the Western Regions and the River to raise more than 200,000 cavalry.

In addition, the 40,000 cavalry brought by Daliye before were also returned, so that the Sui Empire and the Turkic Empire actually launched an army of nearly 1.5 million, and if you add the millions of people mobilized by the Sui Empire for these large armies, then the number of coalition troops attacking the Xia State actually has more than 2 million people.

After the news that the Sui Empire and the Turks mobilized an army of three million to launch an attack reached the Xia Kingdom, even if Wang Ze and the others had already prepared in their hearts, it still made the entire Xia Kingdom tremble, after all, the pressure brought by more than three million people was still too huge.