In winter, the weather in Beizhou is cold and frozen, the wind is howling south, and the wind is heading northward, and Luoshui can be seen with the naked eye from the initial scattered ice floe to being completely frozen by ice and snow.

In the early afternoon, the sun was still shining, and although the heat was meager, people were wrapped in thick robes and robes and robe and bumped on horseback, but they did not feel unbearable wind cold, but a little dry.

But when it was noon, a touch of dampness and coldness was added to the wind, and it went straight into the human body along the gaps in the robes. The experienced old man warned that the snow might fall in the afternoon, and the knights dismounted one after another, looked for a leeward place on the riverside, made a cooking fire, first filled the bellies of the horses, and then took out the face grease and ointment they had carried, and applied it to their heads, faces, hands and necks, and even the capital of the mounted horses was smeared with a thick layer of ointment.

When I got back on the road, the wind was already mixed with some tiny ice particles, which crackled on my body, and soon the ice particles expanded into snowflakes, and even my vision was obstructed.

But the knights who had eaten and drunk enough to continue on the road did not stop there, but continued to move towards the predetermined goal. In such weather, if you sleep in the cold wilderness, people and horses will quickly lose temperature, and if there is no adequate supply and proper placement, even the most elite people and horses may be defeated by this ordinary wind and snow day.

The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and from afternoon to evening, the sky and the earth were already white. The smoke rose above the dock walls of the cities along the Luoshui, and the pedestrians who traveled against the wind and snow saw this scene, although they could not feel the real warmth, but they were also slightly comforted in their hearts.

In previous years, the situation in Beizhou was not stable, especially in the autumn and winter, when thieves and bandits were infested, and groups of Jihu swept through the suburbs like locusts, so it was rare for a large number of people to live in an obvious geographical area like Luoshui.

But since last year, the banks of Luoshui have become apparently lively, with large and small villages and docks springing up like mushrooms after a rain, and after the winter of this year, the scale of these settlements has ushered in varying degrees of growth.

For ordinary people, what is most precious in troubled times? It's a sense of security!

With the establishment of the military defense system of the Three Defense Cities and the effective crackdown on the Jihu forces in the area, the people scattered from all sides also moved to the Luoshui Valley, which had become very safe.

Li Tai does not hold a local official position, so he does not know the specific situation of the migration and expansion of people in the entire Luoshui River Basin in the past year, but this year's journey to the north, also in this snowy cold weather, what he saw along the way is very different from the depression and desolation last year, and he can't help but feel a full sense of accomplishment in his heart.

Although he does not have the outstanding virtue of Da Shun to attract the people to take the initiative to take refuge, it can be regarded as through his own efforts and with the bow and knife in his hand, he has really expanded the living space of today's people.

Before northern Shaanxi was still a desolate land, he only relied on the blueprint sketched in his mind, and he led his troops to devote himself to it without hesitation. And now the smoke and birds in the villages and towns you see on the road should know better who the war drums are singing for, how to be afraid of the wind and snow, and have the courage to bury all the enemies who come to attack!

A few days after traveling north, Li Tai led a team of more than 1,000 forwards to Luochuan Defense.

Compared with Li Tainian's southward journey, today's Luochuan defense scale is more ambitious.

The city itself has not expanded much, but the settlements around the city have expanded nearly doubled, and the area extending dozens of miles to the north and south and east along the Luochuan defense city and the bank of the Luoshui River is almost filled with felt tents and houses.

Although such a scene looks lively, it is also chaotic, especially Luochuan Defense is a military castle, but even the passage for the soldiers to enter and exit is encroached upon by the people's settlements.

Li Zhi, who stayed behind in Luochuan Defense, led a group of men and horses to wait for Li Tai's return in the south of Fangcheng early, and after meeting each other, he made people return to Fangcheng without embarrassment.

When Li Tai saw this scene, he immediately frowned, and said in a deep voice: "If there are no rules, there is no circle, the garrison is not without regulations and regulations for recruiting and resettling the dead, if you can't use the law to control the public, the masses will not only be insufficient to make up for it, but will become a drag!" ”

Li Zhi first nodded yes again and again, and then sighed in distress: "The people of Beizhou already know that the governor of the capital loves the people like a son, and it is difficult to make a living in the wilderness, and only by living near the city can he be relied on. In addition, there are many civil engineering and construction projects around Luochuan Fang, and the people gather here to recruit for forced labor, and they can also maintain their livelihood for a winter if they have to supplement food, and there are several other departments such as the withered Yin Liu clan to help the momentum ......"

No matter what era it is, the relationship between the military and the people is not harmonious, and most of the time, those who have a knife in their hands cannot distinguish whether they are soldiers or bandits.

However, since Li Tai led his own troops to go out to fight, he has always emphasized military discipline, and in many cases he would rather pay the price of military funds exponentially than condone the people to eat the people.

Now, with the increasing number of commanders, the team itself has a difference between relatives and distances, and in addition to their own descendants, it is difficult to maintain the strict implementation of military discipline in other units as before.

But on the whole, his discipline is still much higher than that of other generals, and there are fewer bullying and oppression deeds against ordinary people, and his reputation gradually spreads in Beizhou, so the people are also happy to come to take refuge.

There are not a few garrisons set up by the tyrant in Beizhou, but there are almost no ones like Luochuan Defense that can attract so many people to take refuge, and even the Heishui Defense, which is one of the three defense cities, is much worse.

Of course, in addition to the strict military discipline of Li Tai's team, it is also because the geography and living environment of the area where Luochuan Fangcheng is located are very superior.

Luochuan is close to Luoshui, the water and grass in the area are abundant, suitable for farming and grazing, and it is located in the pivotal position of connecting the upper and lower in today's three-defense city system. The dispatch of personnel resources in the Sanfang City needs to be transferred through Luochuan Defense, and these storage and transportation processes alone require a lot of manpower to maintain.

In addition to the resource allocation of the Sanfang City itself, the Liu Shi Buddha Temple, which is not far north of Luochuan Fang, is also a very large project. Especially with the addition of the withered Yin Liu clan, a big local tyrant on the surface, and the injection of a large number of materials, the construction process of this big temple has been accelerated several times.

Li Zhi's words about the rise of the Hu tribe refer to the withering Yin Liu clan and other tribes in order to speed up the construction period of the temple, open favorable conditions and widely recruit Han and Hu manpower from all over the world to work here.

After the winter, the output of field materials has been sharply reduced, and there are all kinds of unpredictable natural and man-made disasters, but now there is a place that is very safe to eat and drink, and everyone naturally flocks to it.

The surge of people gathered around the city has put pressure on the administration of Fangcheng, and Li Tai also withdrew a lot of the management force of Zhufangcheng in order to participate in the big parade, making the left-behind personnel even more powerless, so it caused the current crowded and chaotic situation.

After listening to this, Li Tai did not continue to reprimand Li Dao, and the affairs he was in charge of had surged, so that the personnel reserve was insufficient, which was also a happy trouble.

The group tossed and turned between these felt tents and shacks, and it took half an hour to return to the defense city, and Li Tai also felt more and more that if it was not controlled, these gathered people would greatly drag down the personnel dispatch of Luochuan defense.

Fortunately, when he returned from this trip, he brought with him some members who were originally subordinate to the Metropolitan Water Administration.

After the preparation of a big parade, the Metropolitan Water Administration had to sell assets in order to provide sufficient material supply, and was almost turned into an empty shell by Li Tai, and the affairs in the department were also sharply reduced.

These subordinates have been honed by the original water administration department, and they are very experienced in handling trivial affairs, which is very suitable for the current situation.

So Li Tai ordered Pei Hong, the secretary of the capital water, to lead the staff to make a household as soon as possible, and organize the people around Fangcheng into tuntian households first, and divide them into different living areas.

Only by complying with the establishment can they be allowed to live here and receive some charcoal subsidies from the defense city, and join the tuntian production in the coming year.

After explaining this, Li Taicai asked about the military situation again: "Since the beginning of this year, many Hu tribes in the realm have been suppressed, and Hu in withering Yin and other places have been attached one after another, how can there be traces of Hu tribe thieves?" ”

Speaking of this issue, Li Zhi's expression suddenly became serious, and he said in a deep voice: "This winter's nonsense does not originate in Heishui, but in the territory of Xiazhou. At the beginning of winter, most of the Hu Kou in the northern border of Luyanshui gathered, disturbed Shuofang, and even besieged Tongwan City for a time......"

When Li Tai heard this, he couldn't help but take a cool breath. He was not surprised that he would be disturbed again in the winter this year, he had foreseen it before, but the main idea was Heishui Hu's counterattack, but he didn't expect a fire elsewhere to be so violent.

Especially when he heard that these Hu Kou actually dared to besiege Tongwan City, he realized in his heart the severity of Hu Qing. At present, although his three-defense city is very prosperous, but now the strongest in Beizhou is still the first to promote Xiazhou's Tongwan City, and he even has to borrow troops from Xiazhou to ensure that the people and horses are sufficient.

"Xiazhou Yuwen envoy Jun requisitioned and transferred all the people, although he tried his best to ensure that the unification of Wancheng was not lost, but he was also unable to counter the thief Hu of Koujing. This time, the people were more than 50,000, and after the defeat of Tongwan City, they plundered all sides, and those who entered the Eastern Xia Prefecture should be more than 30,000 people. Li Yuanjun of Dongxia Prefecture was supposed to stop the enemy in Shangjun, but he was almost in the middle of the thief array, and now he only retreated to the state city and sent troops to the south to warn the trouble......"

Speaking of this, Li Zhi already had a worried face, and sighed: "If the thief army continues to come south, it will arrive near the Heishui Defense City before the lunar month at the latest, and the metropolitan governor should increase his troops and fortify it as soon as possible!" ”