"Last year we fought at Sangqianyuan, and this year we fought at Conghe Road. We washed the troops in the sea, and let the horses fly to the grass in the snow in Tianshan Mountain..." Zuo Zongtang burst into tears as soon as his eyes were filled with tears. What he blurted out was Li Bai's famous poem "Battle in the South of the City" !
Liu Jintang was also a scholar. When he heard this poem, his emotions immediately surged out. He then chanted, "In the long march of thousands of miles, the three armies will become old."
"The Xiongnu used killing as farming. Since ancient times, only white bones have been seen in the yellow sand fields." Commander Zuo then chanted!
"The Qin family built a city to avoid the barbarians, but the Han family was still at war."
"The flames of war are endless, and the battles are endless. Fighting to death in the field, the defeated horse howls to the sky in sorrow."
"The black kite pecks at the human intestines and flies up to the dead branches."
"The soldiers are careless, but the generals are empty."
By the end of the song, the two of them were already bursting into tears. "But those who know how to fight are weapons, and saints must use them as a last resort."
"Let's go! Go up to the tower! Let me see the grand scene of the millennium flames of war reigniting! Bring my camera...take a picture and send it to Marshal Zeng and show it to Xiao Letian..."
"They are not the only heroes in the world! The unknown people outside the Western Region are the real heroes!"
On a cold windy night, Zuo Zongtang climbed onto the Jiayuguan Gate Tower. Thousands of people from the Western Expedition Army rushed to the top of the city and the commanding heights on the Great Wall. Everyone was looking at the beacon smoke to the west.
Qingtou Mountain Pass is the beacon smoke closest to Jiayuguan. In the dark night, people can see a little bit of firelight like stars, but the black smoke is twisted and struggling to rush into the sky. Even in the dark night, you can distinguish its traces.
Thinking back to the Han and Tang Dynasties, whenever this beacon tower burned with beacon smoke, it was an early warning of the attack of the cavalry of the grassland nomads. But today everyone knows that the beacon must have been lit by the pioneer General Xu, who must be a soldier. Coming out of Xingxing Gorge, he must have succeeded!
Zuo Zongtang held the crenel with his hand. He seemed to be able to feel the body temperature of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen when they were laying bricks, and he could even touch the scratches made by the defenders' swords on the wall for hundreds of years.
"I am standing here today. How many people have stood here before... They have become yellow sand and white bones. One day I... including us will also become yellow sand and white bones!"
"But this majestic pass will always be there, and the fertile land developed by our ancestors outside the pass will never be lost!"
"Who can survive? I just want to die well!"
"Brothers! I want to ask you...if I light the beacon fire in Jiayuguan now...guess whether it will eventually spread to the capital!"
No one can answer this question, because the Great Wall was completely useless to the Qing Dynasty. It was even said that the Qing Dynasty still had a kind of hatred towards the Great Wall in their memory!
This wall was used to resist the nomads in the north. There are many corpses of invaders buried under this wall. Many Manchu ancestors died here!
Therefore, the Great Wall has not been repaired since the Qing Dynasty, but the lack of repair does not mean that these people will abolish the Great Wall defense system!
The early generations of emperors of the Qing Dynasty were knowledgeable. They knew that the Great Wall defense system formulated by the Han people over thousands of years was actually very sophisticated and scientific.
Although the northern nomads have reached an alliance with the Manchus and they will no longer have wars, the passes and arteries of the Great Wall are also important military towns that control the local area.
To put it bluntly, guarding these Great Wall passes can at least collect taxes from caravans. Merchants cannot evade taxes, and there are not only allied princes but also many scattered herdsmen and horse bandits on the grassland. Guarding these passes can also prevent these Gangsters make trouble.
Today Zuo Zongtang is interested. He actually wants to light a beacon at Jiayuguan and then send a message all the way to Beijing!
Liu Jintang's eyes suddenly lit up, "Commander...it doesn't matter whether you can do it or not, but this action...just this one thing...will make you famous forever!"
Zuo Zongtang smiled evilly, "Haha... It also adds firewood to the hearts of us Han people! He Xiao Letian can light a bunch of beacon smoke in the East China Sea, can't I light a bunch in the Western Regions?"
"Haha... Zeng Shuai from the capital! We are all from the same place, hahaha..."
"Light the fire! Prepare the smoke!" Liu Jintang's hair stood on end! His whole body was shaking with excitement, and goosebumps aroused layer upon layer of excitement.
The soldiers didn't understand what the marshal and the general were excited about, but they knew the special power of this beacon smoke, and when they saw it, there was a fire in their hearts!
"Moving firewood...carrying cow dung and hay!"
At the Jiayuguan Beacon Tower, a pile of firewood as tall as one person was mixed with dried cow dung and barrels of kerosene!
Liu Jintang knelt on one knee and raised the torch above his head, "Please light the beacon, Commander-in-Chief!"
"Commander, please light the beacon!" the whole army shouted in unison.
In Jiayuguan Pass, there are not only the army marching to the west, but also members of the expedition team such as King Shangtai, Guiyan Zuozuo, and Shopkeeper Fan Jin who are marching with the army.
King Shangtai looked at this posture and felt like beating a drum in his heart: "The Qing Dynasty is going to die! The Han people's Great Wall is going to restart the beacon system... this, this, this..."
"The Great Wall belongs to the Han people, not the Manchus! This thing is done... What will the knowledgeable people among the Han people in the world think about it?"
The Great Chao Feng on the left said quietly, "People have said since ancient times that Qin built the Great Wall with a dragon sealed underneath! This dragon protects the peace of the Central Plains!"
"Today, it seems that this dragon that has been sleeping for more than two hundred years... is about to be awakened!"
ignition! Zuo Zongtang threw the torch onto Chaishan Mountain, blazing fire mixed with thick smoke rose into the sky, and there was a roar like a tsunami in Jiayuguan Pass!
"The beacon is on! Conquer the West...Conquer the West..."
The beacon fire at Jiayuguan Pass was lit, which meant that the beacon tower officially entered the Great Wall system. The defenders at Jinta Chengguan in the southeast could see the beacon fire at Jiayuguan Pass at a glance.
"Why are there beacon smoke in Jiayuguan? What's going on?"
"Stop talking nonsense, isn't the commander at Jiayuguan? If there is beacon smoke there, let's just follow it and light it together! I guarantee you won't go wrong!"
"Yes, light the beacon fire...and move the firewood!"
The beacon smoke of the Golden Pagoda was lit, and then the beacon towers along the southwest of the Great Wall at Dahua Mountain, Heli Mountain, Yangtai Kou, Mingshakou, Demon King Mountain, and Dapan Daokou...these beacon towers on the Great Wall were also lit in sequence. .
Many beacon towers no longer have garrisons, and are only guarded by the descendants of the surrounding garrisons. Some are even in ruins because Zuo Zongtang ordered local repairs before and were temporarily guarded.
But everyone knows that Zuo Zongtang is in Jiayuguan, and the beacon smoke in the west must have something to do with the commander-in-chief. If my colleagues in the west light beacons, I will follow suit.
After the beacon fire was passed to Zhangye, none of the officers and soldiers here knew what the beacon fire represented, but no one would question it and just clicked on it, all the way east!
