Not only Ma Kuo, but the Western Army and Hebei soldiers and horses he brought with him, as long as they have the identity of a military attaché, they have the "privilege" of coming out every day.

In the Song Dynasty, redundant officials can be said to be a terminal disease, and the promotion of the 37th-order civil official and the 53rd-order military attache is extremely long. However, this system of stacking roofs and beds has made low-grade civil and military officials all over the place, and there are many small military leaders such as Jinwu Lieutenant and Jinyi Lieutenant who have no quality.

Although the Great Song Dynasty has inherited the military system of the five dynasties since Zhao Kuangyin, no matter how much they make some improvement methods such as "releasing military power with a glass of wine", they can't change the fact that the Song Army is essentially a professional military group. Compared with the government soldiers who had to bring their own armor staff to go to war in the Tang Dynasty, or Zhu Yuanzhang's strange guard soldiers who looked like serfs, the professional soldiers of the Song Army also had very prominent characteristics of the times.

Needless to say, there are nominal "red guys" such as the box army and the cantonment forbidden army in the hands of local states and counties. As long as the Xiang army and the garrison forbidden army had a little combat effectiveness, the Song Dynasty would not have made all kinds of "36 people" and "100 single and 8 people" "big cowards" plundering the prefectures and counties, so that "all roads are uneasy" jokes. And the most effective garrison forbidden army, that is, the so-called border army, judging by the performance of the Western Army over the years, has never stopped any such things as mutiny and recklessness.

At the beginning, Han Qi used a sentence "The one who sings with the champion outside the Donghua Gate is a good man" sprayed Di Qingne's dare not speak, and later generations know nothing about reading, only saying that it is the Song people who emphasize literature and ignore martial arts, which spoils the generosity and sadness of the Han and Tang dynasties. But when Han Qi said this, where was it aimed at Di Wuxiang alone? He really wanted to ruthlessly kill the "good men" in the border army, such as Jiao Yong, who exploited soldiers and greedy for food and wages.

The upper beam is not correct and the lower beam is crooked, and the generals are greedy for ink, and it is needless to say that the following Qiu Baye has poor military discipline, and the scourge is more powerful than the so-called "dynamic social groups". Even with the legacy of the five generations of mutiny, as long as there is a salary, it is common for the soldiers in the army to tear down the garden pavilions of the magistrates and bake the fire.

is a generation of famous ministers Wen Yanbo, who has long appeared in children's educational books with the joke of "filling the hole in the tree hole to get the ball", and in the face of this kind of troublesome forbidden army, he can only pinch his nose and swallow his anger.

If you want to say that the Western Army is stronger than these garrison forbidden troops, it is that the military discipline will not be slackened to the home, and the Fan Department of the Shangqing Tang Dynasty, the Western thieves of the Western Xia and even the Liao State, they still know that they will fight to the death, and they have a little simple morality and sense of honor.

But this simple sense of morality and honor now makes seven of these little envoys dissatisfied, and eight unwilling—most of them did not directly participate in the adventurous actions of Yao Pingzhong and Zhao Liangsi, so they did not enjoy the treatment of counting stars in the small Buddha hall like Yao Pingzhong and Zhao Liangsi. But just like this, the prisoner, the other party's official skin is so suspicious, everyone falls into the hands of the other party, and it is very entangled whether it is considered a "thief" afterwards.

In this kind of stressful environment, people will naturally be grouped together - the old brothers from the Western Army are naturally considered a family, and the border troops of Hebei and Hedong are also naturally standing together, only the former sect leader from the Bianliang Gate Forbidden Army is ignored and has his own faction.

The place where they were standing at the moment was in the moat of the eight-pointed star fortress on the periphery of Zhuozhou City.

Different from the moats outside the city that were common among these veterans of the Western Army in the past, these Taoist priests drove the Yandi people to dig two extremely deep moats outside the city, and the moats were not common moats, but stone surfaces that were scraped and repaired by masons to a very smooth surface.

The "stone surface" is not a natural stone, but the powder ash brought by the Taoist priests, which is mixed with water and stones to form a plaster-like thing, and it does not take a few days to condense into a blue-gray stone surface, which is extremely hard. Even if someone smashes it with an iron shovel, it will only leave a white spot!

As for the strange eight-pointed star-like city wall, it is also built into two shapes, the sharp corners of the south, north, east, and west are all solid fortresses poured out of the kind of things called "cement" and bamboo skeletons, and in addition to the arrow stacks, there is also a Dharma altar on the fortress, but I don't know what to think.

The four forts in the northeast, southeast, northwest and southwest were built into several thick cement stone walls to protect the garrison inside like a mille-feuille cake.

Such a fortified city, even if it is a veteran of the Western Army who has been fighting with the Western thieves for generations, it is a fancy appearance that has never been seen before!

Those Taoist officials with strange styles didn't care about these veterans of the Western Army looking around and watching the excitement, but just held a book-like book, and exchanged a few words from time to time that everyone didn't understand:

"The test results of the concrete test block of the solid layer of the main fort have come out, and they are qualified! The test progress of the concrete test block of the seismic layer and the altar part is a little faster!"

"The elevation angle of the outer Half Moon Fort of the Kunwei Tun Garrison is qualified!"

"The concrete layer of the outer moat is not strong enough and needs to be strengthened immediately!"

"This matter will be reported immediately, it's too late to rework, use the formation to reinforce!"

These words made people half-understandable, but those small military leaders with titles such as Captain Jinyi and Chengxinlang on their bodies couldn't help but turn their heads to each other: "Such a strong city, but these Taoist priests can build it in a blink of an eye!"

"The Wusheng City of Wang Shumi's cultivation, the Tongwu City of Han's Shumi's cultivation, and the Sprinkle family have not seen it, and they are all tamped with loess. I've never seen such a strange stone city, and I can get it out with just this stucco stone!"

The person who spoke was from the Xihe Army, and when it came to Wang Shao and Han Jiang of the Shenzong Dynasty, these handsome ministers still sighed with emotion, that Tongwu City is the Luowu City that Song Xia has fought for many years, and you have fought for me, only this small border city, I don't know how many lives have been devoured.

When it comes to these fortresses in the battle of Song and Xia, some people sighed for a while: "When my second uncle went to repair Yongle City, as soon as the city was built, the army of western thieves besieged the city, if it wasn't for the soft soil of the new city, so that the western thieves could take advantage of it, my second uncle would not have died in Yongle City, and I have not been able to find the bones ...... so far."

"Straight lady thief, the city built by these Taoist priests is tall and big, without a single brick and stone, and there is no rammed earth, but it is an iron turtle shell, I am afraid that the Liao dog will not be able to bite it at all!"

There are also people whose eyes wander and muttered in a low voice: "Don't say Liao Dog, it's ......"

Of course, this person was immediately covered by his comrades and dragged into the corner - although everyone is not very free now, but they are also three full and one down, if these Taoist priests are willing to meet with Liao Gou, it is nothing for everyone to go into battle and kill. But if you anger these Taoist priests, don't you want anything else, do you still want a good meal of mutton soup and hu cakes at night?

The men of the Western Army are old and don't mind fighting face-to-face with Liao Dog on the battlefield, and when they are about to die, they also have to grab the opposite pad. But before going into battle, even if they were loyal to Zhao Guan's family, they couldn't let people not eat fragrant mutton soup and Hu cakes.

However, some people don't care if they can eat the mutton cake, or rather, the mutton soup cake, the kind of relief paste with the earthy smell, it is the same taste in his mouth.

Xuanfu Si Xuanzan and Bingjie Lang Ma Kuo just looked at the soon-to-be-completed fortified city at the moment, looked carefully, and refused to let go of every detail, if there was something they didn't understand, they also took the initiative to ask the young Taoist official who was nominally "accompanied" but actually monitored himself:

"The plaster used by the gentleman and others will condense like a stone not long after the water is transferred, and it is very wonderful, I don't know how it was made?"

"Ma Xuanzan, this thing is not worth mentioning to put it bluntly, it is the one used by the predecessors of the Dan family to block the Dan furnace and prevent the medicinal properties of Guji Shenjiao, and it is called Liuyi mud. ”

"But what is said in "Hug Puzi", the Liuyi mud that is exercised with realgar water, alum stone water, Rong salt, brine salt, alum stone, oysters, red stone grease, talc, and Hu powder?"

"If you use these many medicines to calcine into mud, you will get very little, and you will have to use them to seal the Dan furnace, but you will not be able to use it to build a city. The cement used in this door is only calcined with limestone, clean clay and a little mineral powder, and if Ma Xuanzan pays attention to civil engineering and turns back to the war to subside, it is not difficult for me to find a few small books to give you this line of primer. ”

In the hearts of people at this time, even if it is just an anti-frostbite recipe, the family must strictly guard against it for generations, not to mention this kind of secret that condenses water into stone and seems to have evolved from the Daomen Immortal Formula? As a result, these Taoist officials did not hide it at all, and directly broke the matching formula.

Ma Kuo pondered for a moment, and then looked at the head of the Lin sect who did not leave him an inch - it is not easy to call the head of the sect now, and he should also be an official with the status of a small envoy. This man who was born in the Bianliang Capital Gate Forbidden Army and was nicknamed the head of the leopard is said to have taken the path of a Taoist official, and he has changed from a spear and stick leader who teaches the forbidden army to play with some spears to a Chengjielang from the ninth grade. Now it seems that this leopard's head has been silent since entering the city, but in fact, it is out of the same nostril as these Taoist officials.

Lin Chong could only be silent - he was Xu Xuanling who said hello, and he took the lead in the demon thief case in Bianliang City, so he got this official body, and the brand of Xu Shichen's faction on his body had already been too distinct. With such an identity, if you want to change to another family, even if you are a person like Tong Xuanshuai and Xiao Cai, who have both hands and eyes, you will never have the courage to recruit them. What's more, Xu Shichen and his division commander are so deeply kind to him, what kind of person is he Lin Chong, An Nengen will take revenge, and let the heroes of the world poke their backbones from now on?

Since he couldn't jump off the boat, he didn't want to jump off the boat, so as soon as Yao Pingzhong and the others entered the city, the person who was responsible for monitoring this group of people and contacting the Taoist officials in the city was his leopard head Lin Chong.

Ma Kuo also knows a little bit about Lin Chong's details, but at this moment, it has become a common sight to form a party in the officialdom of the Great Song Dynasty, and he has seen a lot of this kind of thing, so he will not blame others for this.

Now he just wanted to show more details about this group of Taoist officials, and pointed to the corner of the fortress that protruded like a sword: "I can see some benefits in building the city like this." This city wall is tall and smooth, the ladder, the hook lock and so on are difficult to climb, to grab the city gate, this city wall on both sides of the stone, ash bottle, arrows to knock down, is a dead road that can not enter or retreat, I am afraid that there will be 100,000 troops, want to rush the city is also difficult! I only looked at it a few times, and I knew that the mystery was endless, but it was inevitable that the killing and injury would be too much, and it would inevitably hurt the sky and ...... And why do you build it with the cement and not the masonry?"

The young Taoist officer looked Ma Kuo up and down a few times, then shook his head with a smile and muttered: "It's not fun to use bricks and stones, being hit by artillery, and making a ricocheting!"

He was about to say a few more words about the usefulness of this fortress in a war where artillery was commonly equipped, and the palm-sized Eight True Refining Mirror hanging from his waist had already sounded.

The young Taoist official's face changed suddenly, and he put the magic mirror in the palm of his hand, and only a piece of variegated light energy was seen on the mirror, but the voice from the mirror still really came into his ears:

"Hu Lianghe Feishuangtan warned the headquarters that our troops had discovered most of the military horses, moving from north to south, in the direction of Zhuozhou City! According to the wartime rules, our troops have gathered up the sentry and horses, activated the Xiaoliu Wuzang formation, and suspended all sentry activities. Repeatedly, our department found most of the military horses, moving from north to south, in the direction of Zhuozhou City!"

......

.........

In the midst of this message from the magic mirror, on a small river island on the bank of the Huliang River in the north of Zhuozhou City, a cement altar was quietly facing the frozen river.

And on the frozen river, the sound of horses' hooves stepping on the ice continued to echo, and it was a large group of Liao cavalry, fully armed in the direction of Zhuozhou City.

It's just that on the altar, on the six Wu positions of Wuzi, Wuyin, Wuchen, Wuwu, Wushen, and Wuxu, the talisman stands quietly, and a Taoist official in the altar and more than a dozen Taoist soldiers under his command hold their breath, quietly watching the wolf pack of these Liao military horses rushing towards Zhuozhou.

The Taoist official led by him held the magic sword in one hand, and silently reviewed the general trick of the Little Six Wu Tibetan Formation Array guarding the altar in his heart:

"With the six Wu symbols, put the six Wu squares, according to the Yellow Emperor's wind after the Dunjia style, specially invite the jade girl, six Wu, draw the ground to lay the bureau, go out of the gate of heaven, enter the household, close the gold pass, identify the square of the door of the heaven and the earth, and know the place where the jade girl guards the door......"

This Taoist official is also from the Lihuo Cutting Academy, and he is also the person in charge of civil engineering, but he does not have as much experience as Mu Lan. This time, he was ordered to build a magic mirror transmission altar next to the Huliang River in the north of Zhuozhou, and he was originally going to repair the altar, and he returned to Zhuozhou City after the acceptance was completed.

However, the sentinels who retreated from the north, and the galloping sound of the horses that shook the frozen ground slightly, causing the sand and gravel on the ground to start jumping, still frightened him a little.

If it weren't for the fact that he had the highest Dao rank among these people, and he had learned this Little Liuwu Tibetan Formation, and hurriedly sealed the heavenly gates and earthly households around the altar, and hid the place where the altar was, he couldn't say that these young Dao soldiers around him who were full of excitement and bent on fighting would have to directly fight with that large force of cavalry!

At this moment, he could only grit his teeth and suppress the fighting spirit of the Dao soldiers in a low voice: "Calm down, now it is our primary responsibility to send the message to the headquarters!"