Among the four northern border states of Jian, You, Ji and Qing, Jizhou has the smallest area under its jurisdiction, but it ranks first among the four states in terms of importance.

Compared with Jianzhou, which is full of fortresses and strong folk customs, Youzhou, which has a vast territory and has Yinshan and Shudi tribes as barriers, and Qingzhou, which has a strong sailor and strong financial resources because of its abundance of salt and iron, Jizhou, which has no natural insurance to rely on, nor has abundant human and financial resources available.

And once the Di people occupy Jizhou, Beiding Mansion, the northern gate of the Beijing Division guarded by the Hengshan Iron Cavalry, will never be peaceful.

In fact, the situation of the grassland in the north is similar, passing through hundreds of miles of rich grassland is the location of the Helan king's tent, because it is related to the safety of the ancestral land - Helan Sacred Mountain, the location of the king's tent is actually relatively fixed, and it cannot be easily moved at all.

Every year, there are armies from both sides of the Jizhou border, for fear that the opposite side will fall out of the nest, and they have to fight to break the net.

Relatively speaking, the Helan King's Tent was weak, and he had to attack instead of defend.

After all, even if the Helan King Tent is destroyed, the Di people still have the other two royal tents and a Khan Court that exists in name only, maybe they will have the same hatred and hatred for the enemy, and they will be unified by a certain hero, and the disaster will be even more serious when the time comes.

Not to mention that if there is a case, if you accidentally lose Jizhou, you will immediately shake the Jingshi, and I don't know how many people will fall to the ground because of this.

Because of this, Jizhou has built the largest and most complete defense system in the four northern states, with continuous beacons and post roads extending in all directions on the border.

Since the Son of Heaven ascended the throne, he has been ruthless in clearing the wilderness, moving all the people in the north of Jizhou inward, and not hesitating to abandon all the fertile fields suitable for cultivation, and planting a kind of wild grass with sawed leaves.

This kind of "knife saw grass" native to the southwest mountains is extremely sharp, and the juice is extremely bitter, cattle, camels and other large animals can barely swallow, and the delicate war horses do not eat at all, every time the Di army goes south, it is necessary to prepare forage.

The army of Helan Wang's tent had to venture deeper into the hinterland of Jizhou every year, making the battlefield move north again and again, but it was still difficult to hit enough "grass valley", and the casualties were increasing.

Killing 1,000 enemies and self-inflicting 800 losses, Da Zhou also had a heavy burden.

Because both Fengsui and Yilu require a large number of troops to maintain, the troops in the hands of General Shen Tuyuan of Jincheng rank first among the four named generals in the four northern states, although most of the troops are scattered and cannot be moved, Shen Tuyuan still has nearly 10,000 elite horses available in his hands.

In order to maintain the morale and combat power of these elites of a hundred battles, the consumption is naturally extremely staggering.

Different from Shuofang City, the northernmost city of Youzhou, the garrison of General Jincheng is not so much a city, but a huge and continuous Xiongguan - Jincheng Pass, which is full of barricades, and is completely a large camp, which is not allowed to live in the people at all, and catches up with the strong walls and clear fields, and all military needs such as grain and forage must rely on the rear support.

For the officials of the imperial court, this Xiongguan is a gold-swallowing beast with an amazing amount of food, which swallows 30% of the expenditure of the border army in the four northern states every year, and even accounts for 50% once the war starts, but it is still hungry and never satisfied.

People die for money, birds die for food, and the border army of Jincheng is in the place of a hundred battles, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the day is not safe, and the reputation of this greed for money is even more resounding in the Great Zhou.

These bitter haha are not like Shuofang, which has the Shudi tribe to exploit, and there is no Qingzhou sailor to collect taxes, suppress pirates, or even directly participate in smuggling so many ways to make money, so they can only guard that little bit of dead military salary, even if it is relatively rich, it is still not satisfactory.

Countless eyes from top to bottom of the court stared, and the soldiers were fierce and untamable, and eating empty wages was self-defeating.

As for the robbery disguised as horse bandits like the army of other places, even if the walls are not clear, the horse bandits and bandits in the territory have long been killed, and the people who have sat in such a sensitive position as General Jincheng are human spirits, and no one will do stupid things such as raising Kou for self-sufficiency or even self-respect, after all, the biggest Kou is still Di Ren, if he can't even suppress the small bandits in the jurisdiction, which son of heaven can rest assured that Jincheng Pass will be handed over to him?

However, there is always no shortage of officers and soldiers in the Jincheng border army who are promoted every year because of their meritorious service to suppress bandits, and the adults in the court know that they are tired of them, and as long as they are not officials and soldiers who are bandits, they have always pretended to be deaf and dumb.

As for the source of those horse bandits who are invincible, as long as the caravans between Da Zhou and Di Di are endless, the so-called horse bandits are also endless.

Most of these caravans are forbidden transactions, no matter how hard they are in the background, they can't escape the oppression of the Jincheng border army, and if the opportunity is right, they may turn into a certain captain or a hundred cavalry commanders.

Among them, the intrigues, trade-offs and decisions, the combination of life fighting and temple fighting, not everyone can have fun.

Over time, I don't know which genius-like madman came up with the trick of killing several birds with one stone by bribing blood, which made the Jincheng border army even more notorious.

Helan Changchun lay in the grass a few miles south of Jincheng Pass, looking at the Xiongguan in the north that made countless Di warriors hate.

The half-human-tall blades of grass around it are full of jagged teeth and sharp as knives, spreading from the north of Jincheng Pass all the way to the south, turning the best fertile pastures into a "desert" that can make wild horses extinct.

"Lord Wang, I heard that the most cunning and greedy general of the Great Zhou and his army are stationed in this Jincheng Pass, among which there are mountains of goods, food and weapons, and we have worked hard to go around behind them without knowing it, why ......"

Beside him lay an ordinary-looking young man, with rough and dark skin, but his teeth were unusually white, and most of the hair on his head had been shaved, leaving only a round green skin on each sideburn.

Helan Changchun turned his head to look at his chief guard and captain of ten thousand guards, and said softly: "Why don't you surprise the relatively empty south when the royal tent's army attacks the north? No, Kujochi, Jincheng Pass is invulnerable, we can't let the warriors run into a bloody battle under this Xiongguan, so even if we can break through the pass, we will only let the king's tent take the big head." Let's leave Nanyuan's nest behind, spare such a long road, and don't even care about reporting the revenge of Lao Dongran's entire team of 10,000 people, but it's not for such a result. ”

He pointed to the south and said in a strange tone that was far and deep: "There, Jizhou City, is the place where the warriors of the Southern Plains should go, you see, now the army of the king's tent has not uprooted all the beacons that hinder the north of Jincheng Pass, and has not surrounded Jincheng Pass. Under such circumstances, the adults in the royal tent did not dare to bypass Jincheng Pass to invade the hinterland of Jizhou, and Jizhou City would also relax their vigilance. ”

Helan Changchun's eyes were filled with confidence: "As long as we, the unwitting partial division, can quickly take the gate of Jizhou and disperse those local county troops who are inferior to the border army of Jincheng Pass, we will be able to plunder enough grain, pig iron, craftsmen and slaves! Tell the warriors, don't just think about gold and silver, silk and women, it will only make them weak! Don't worry about Nanyuan, Boyan Dawu and an elite team of 10,000 people are enough to hold off the Shuofang border army and the Youzhou county army until we return with a full load!"

Kujochi smiled as pure as a snow-capped mountain spring and asked, "Is enough?

Helan Changchun also smiled, his chief guard was not a brave and reckless man like Lao Dongran, if anyone had a good impression of this young man and even relaxed his vigilance because of Su Jochi's smile, the end would be absolutely miserable.

He replied with great enthusiasm: "That's a lot...... It will give me the qualifications to compete for the Helan Khan throne!"