Jingzhou, Guanding County, Heshuo outside, Longkou inside, Qinliang with the placket, supporting Weijifu, Guanzhong Stability, are all tied here.

Although it is not a battleground for soldiers, it is definitely a strategic point, especially when Wonju fell and the northwest gateway of the empire was wide open, its strategic position was self-evident.

However, Jingzhou is not like Yuanzhou, there are mountains and rivers are dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, on the contrary, it is flat and dangerous, easy to attack and difficult to defend, the predecessor of the festival made Ma Ling in order to cope with the rapid offensive of Tubo, at the beginning of his tenure he looked for dozens of places of beauty, built many fortifications, castles.

When the Tibetan army came, it would clear the wilderness with a strong wall, enter the fort and hold it, and a small group of rangers came, then they contacted each other and waited for an opportunity to attack.

Lianyun Fort was built in this situation, and there were more than 1,000 soldiers and civilians in the fort, and they cultivated and defended.

The fort is sixty or seventy miles west of Anding City, on a mountain valley surrounded by mountains on three sides, the mountain is steep, only the north side is connected with the plain, but there is also a trench several meters wide across it, which makes the Tibetan cavalry sigh with admiration.

Not only that, this place also happens to be on the only way for the Tubo to enter the Kou, whether the Tubo people are going straight to the east or detouring to the south, they can't escape the ears and eyes of the scouts in the fort, so even the cloud castle has become a thorn in the eye of the Tubo people, and they want to pull it out quickly.

However, because the fort is located in a high hill, Tubo has never been able to achieve its wish.

When Guo Ying and his entourage arrived at Lianyunbao, it was twilight, the sunset dyed most of the sky red, and the evening breeze blew the flag hunting.

"Is Lianyunbao on the mountain?"

Standing under the cliff to the west of the fort, Guo Ying looked at the mountain from afar, only to find that this Lianyun Fort was not a castle, but a dock fort built on the mountain, which was also Tanshan Dock.

In addition to a few tall beacons standing on the top of the cliff, the others are no different from those dock forts left over from the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in Hebei, with hope towers, arrow towers, barriers, and it seems that there is more than one turn, as for the structure inside, it is necessary to enter the inside to see before knowing.

"Exactly."

Zhang Yufei, the ten generals sent by the Jiedu envoy to escort Guo Ying, rode his horse to him and held the reins.

A group of hundreds of them came from the west avenue, and they were all riding high-headed horses, wearing the clothes of the Tang Army, and the scouts in Lianyun Castle naturally did not suspect him, and hurriedly ran to report when they saw this.

There are even soldiers who shouted excitedly: "The envoy has come, the envoy has come......"

After a while, Lianyunbao guarded Zhang Ming and other people rushed out when they heard the news.

Zhang Ming is a yellow-faced man wearing a red curtain, about forty or fifty years old, without armor, with beads of sweat on his face and forehead, and wheat straw everywhere on his clothes.

"General Zhang, don't come unharmed?"

After recognizing who it was, Zhang Ming immediately came over to salute him, and his attitude was very respectful.

However, his humble attitude did not bring Zhang Yufei's good face, but in exchange for a burst of scolding.

"The clothes are not neat, the armor is not worn, and there is no appearance of a border army general." Zhang Yufei stared at the big eyes like copper bells.

Zhang Ming was submissive and did not dare to say anything.

Although the tenth general Zhang Yufei is one step higher than him in terms of military rank, Zhang Yufei's position is to recruit generals, and he is responsible for summoning generals in the army and conveying military affairs on weekdays.

Moreover, people are leading tooth soldiers, and he is leading tooth soldiers, which is far from it, so even though he was scolded bloody, he could only swallow his anger.

Seeing that Zhang Ming was silent, Zhang Yufei snorted coldly, and asked again: "Let me ask you, have there been any changes in the thieves stationed in Yuanzhou recently?" ”

"I sent a team of scouts a month ago, but I didn't find any signs of increasing troops in Yuanzhou." Zhang Ming replied.

"Can you still get the military report from a month ago today?" Zhang Yufei was furious when he heard this: "It is autumn now, Tubo must take advantage of the autumn high horse fat, enter the frontier, as the commander of a fort, you did not take the initiative to send troops to investigate, but personally took charge of the crops, it is really mediocre and incompetent." ”

Zhang Ming cried and explained with a sad face: "The last general is also forced to be helpless, dare to teach the general to know, the embassy has begun to withhold and reduce our food and salary since February this spring, if we don't take care of the crops, our parents, wives and children will starve to death." ”

"Ridiculous!"

Zhang Yufei changed color suddenly: "The envoy has deducted your salary, that is the decision of the imperial court...... If you dare to speak again, criticize the court, slander the embassy and clear your name, don't blame someone for whipping you! ”

"The last general's words are true!" Zhang Ming shouted again and again.

But what ushered in was Zhang Yufei's increasingly gloomy face, and the horsewhip raised high.

"Don't mention this matter again, if you have any objections, go to Kong Sima, I'm here today because I have something important to do, but I'm not here to listen to you cry poor."

Glancing at Zhang Ming coldly, Zhang Yufei pointed at Guo Ying, and said solemnly: "This is the sage's envoy, Guo Ying, in the future, the size of Lianyunbao will be handled by Guo Shijiang, and you need to cooperate wholeheartedly."

If you dare to disobey the yang and the yin, and perfunctory, even if you will be spared, the marshal will not spare you. ”

It's like nothing has been said, and it's like everything has been said.

Zhang Ming was shocked when he heard this, and gasped.

Damn, when did Jingyuan come out with such a solid background, not only was the official named by the emperor himself, but he was also able to bring the relationship to Duan Shuai, who has always been iron-faced and selfless, and even when he took office, he recruited Zhang Yufei to accompany him.

This treatment, where is the ordinary nobles and generals can enjoy, and the emperor's relatives will be like this when they arrive in the local feudal towns.

At that moment, he put away the contempt in his heart, and showed his attitude respectfully: "Since Guo Shijiang is a saint, how dare we shirk and neglect."

From now on, the last general will only be Guo Shi's head, please rest assured. ”

"I hope you can achieve the unity of knowledge and action." Zhang Yufei glanced at him deeply, then turned the horse's head and arched his hand at Guo Ying: "Send you a thousand miles, you must say goodbye in the end, I will send Guo Shi to you here, so that there are still a lot of trivial things waiting for me to do in the mansion."

If there is anything in the future, you can send someone to inform me, and I will report it to the commander. ”

"Thank you for the kindness of the general, I am grateful." Guo Ying thanked him, and immediately turned his head and instructed Li Feixun: "Send Zhang Shijiang for me, remember, don't lose your courtesy." ”

Li Feixun has been following Guo Ying for a long time, so he naturally understands what the etiquette in his mouth is, and immediately clenched his fists and bowed and said, "Lang Jun rest assured." ”

When Li Feixun followed Zhang Yufei away, Guo Ying could get on and off the horse and talk to Zhang Ming.

"Vice General Zhang, how many soldiers do we have in Lianyunbao now?

Fang Cai asked about General Zhang Shi on the road, but he just blindly prevaricated and said that the roster was not in the embassy's mansion, and he didn't know the inside story...... You're the guard of the fort, you should know it, right? ”

Lianyunbao is Guo Ying's current position, of course it is necessary for him to figure out the specific military situation.

"This ......" Zhang Ming hesitated for a while, and finally replied truthfully: "Lianyunbao is a town according to the system, and there is a quota of 500 people, but in the past ten years, the embassy has never given us soldiers and horses, and now there are less than 300 soldiers who can fight. ”

"Less than three hundred? That's just over two hundred......"

"It's almost, but we are close to Tubo here, the folk customs are not as good as the mainland, and the healthy women and sons in the fort can also hold halberds and spears, bend bows and shoot arrows, even if they encounter Tibetan criminals, they can also have some self-protection power."

Hearing this, Guo Ying couldn't help but sigh again, he had already expected the situation in Lianyunbao on the way here, but he didn't expect to be optimistic.

What kind of bridgehead is this to resist the Tibetan army, it is clearly a strengthened version of the hundred households.

Fortunately, the three hundred rangers that Feng Heqing gave him were still usable, which made him a little comforted.