"The Theory of Nineteen Ways! This was proposed by Chen Fasheng, the younger brother of Brother Shi." The eldest brother interjected excitedly from the side.
"I didn't expect it to spread in Gusu so quickly? Could it be Liang Xiu?" Chen Fan thought secretly in his heart, but said: "I am Chen Fasheng, who made everyone laugh."
"You are Chen Fasheng. I didn't expect it to be such a coincidence. Liang Xiu mentioned you in front of me yesterday. I didn't expect to see you today." Lu Ban said with some joy: "It seems that coincidences cannot be written. In this case, Fasheng, you can You must come, everyone also wants to hear your thoughts on the Nineteenth Road Theory, I will send someone to pick you up tomorrow." Lu Xian said firmly without giving Chen Fan a chance to refuse.
Chen Fan looked at Yajun and saw that Yajun smiled but did not speak, so he said, "Please allow me to discuss it with Yajun and everyone, and I will give the dean a reply later."
"That's fine. You can discuss it. I'll be in the Qingxiang Juya next door, waiting for your good news." Lu Yan did not ask Chen Fan to agree immediately, but chose to say goodbye to Xu Zhen and go out, returning to his private room. wait for news.
"Brother, what do you think we will do for tomorrow?" Chen Fan decided to put this question to his eldest brother first.
The eldest brother did not answer immediately, but turned his attention to Master Jia, "Tietang and I have plans tomorrow, so we will not participate." Seeing the eldest brother's view, Master Jia took the lead in expressing his stance.
The eldest brother then looked at Master Huang. Master Huang thought for a while and said, "Aqing and I are not good at chess, so we won't join in the fun."
The eldest brother nodded and looked at Yuying. Yuying thought for a while and said, "My chess skills are average, so I won't go."
Seeing that everyone had spoken, the eldest brother said: "Then let Yajun and Fasheng go tomorrow. I will ask Hou Feng and a small school to be responsible for your safety. Master Huang, Aqing, Yuying and I will go to Gugu tomorrow." Su, I will arrange the place to visit, I heard that Panmen is good, we will go there tomorrow to have a look."
"Also, Yuying and Yajun, why don't you stay at the Jiayuan Inn tonight? It's convenient for everyone to live together." The eldest brother suggested to Yuying and Yajun.
"Okay, I'll just bother Chen Langjun." Yuying and Yajun exchanged glances and agreed to the elder brother's arrangement. Master Huang and Aqing did not raise any objections.
Although Chen Fan also wanted to visit Panmen, he chose to agree. Participating in the chess competition would help him increase his reputation in Gusu. Let him choose, of course, to go to the party. After all, visiting Panmen would provide many opportunities in the future. .
Everyone agreed that of course the eldest brother would go to the private room next door to inform him. After a while, the eldest brother came back.
"Tomorrow the chess competition will start at Meiyuan. I rejected Lu Xian's suggestion to send someone to pick her up. Yajun and Fasheng can go directly there. This will be more convenient in case you two want to go out for a walk. If you want to go shopping, you don’t have to go back to the inn and go directly.”
"Brother understands me better." After hearing this, Chen Fan said immediately, "Then Yajun and I will go to Panmen with you tomorrow. We will go back after lunch and you can continue playing."
"Then we have to hurry up early. Panmen is in the southwest of Suzhou. We live in the northeast now, and the distance between the two sides is quite far. I suggest you go to the neighbors in Suzhou to see what you want to buy and eat. Yes, you will have plenty of time." The eldest brother suggested.
"Don't we have a carriage? We can probably get there in half an hour at most, right? There should be enough time." Chen Fan thought for a moment. The circumference of Gusu is only about forty miles, and it takes at most two hours to go back and forth. If you go early, you can still make it in time. .
"Okay, let's start early tomorrow." The eldest brother finally agreed.
After the meal, Yuying and Yajun went to the Jiayuan Inn with their eldest brother, Chen Fan, and Master Jia left first with Tietang. They had a place to stay in Gusu.
There was no talking all night, and in the early morning of the next day, at Chen Fan's urging, everyone ate breakfast in a hurry and set off for Panmen. Considering that Yajun and Chen Fan would go together in the afternoon, the eldest brother arranged for Hou Feng and a junior high school student to ride in the same carriage as Chen Fan and Yajun, while the eldest brother and Yu Ying took one carriage, and Xiao Qing and Huang Shi took one.
The streets in Gusu are wide and there are not many pedestrians in the early morning. It only took about half an hour to reach Panmen.
Panmen is one of the eight gates in Suzhou. It was first built in 514 BC. It is called "Panmen" because there is a carved wooden dragon placed on top of the city gate to deter the Yue Kingdom. Later, due to the intertwining flow of water, it was renamed "Panmen".
Panmen is a waterway dual-purpose gate. The water gate is composed of two gates four or five meters apart. Each gate is six or seven meters wide and can allow ships with a height of no more than six meters to pass. From here, ships need to pass through the inner and outer city gates. Between the two city gates, along the river, there are bluestone brick walls on both sides. When ships enter between the two gates, soldiers on the city wall can shoot arrows from all sides and lower their arrows at the same time. Gate, blocking access.
The gate is lowered. The gate blocking the waterway is wrapped in iron sheet. It looks hard and heavy at first glance. It slides up and down and is controlled by an iron cable. There is a winch on the tower. When it is closed, the noose is lowered. When it is raised, the winch is pulled and the iron chain is contracted. , hoist the gate, it is truly easy to defend but difficult to attack.
Panmen Lumen also has two levels, the inner and the outer, but the distance between the two gates is longer, about ten meters. Between the two gates, an urn city is formed, surrounded by bluestone bricks. At the bottom of the city wall , in order to enhance its solidity, it is built with strips of stone as the base. The city wall is eight or nine meters high. When people enter the urn city, they shoot arrows down from the surrounding walls, and then use gates to close the city gates. No one can get out, only to be shot. To kill.
The city gate of Panmen is equipped with an archery tower, crenels, and shooting holes. There is a plaque on the archery tower with the inscription "Water and land lingering back" to show that "water and land accompany each other and bend along the path."
Chen Fan looked at the Panmen structure and secretly praised it in his heart. At the same time, he calculated the number of soldiers defending the city. Currently there are about 200 soldiers guarding the city gate. If there are only 200 for one city gate, eight would be 1,600. They must be guarded at all times. At night, there are 50 soldiers per shift and 100 for two shifts. , a total of 2,400 people. The key is that the Gusu City Wall is too long, forty-seven miles, which is 23,500 meters. If there is one person per meter, that means 23,500 people, plus daily patrols and government officials, If a city like Gusu is to be defended impregnably, it needs 50,000 troops.
And if Gusu had 50,000 troops, the emperor in the capital would probably be unable to eat. Chen Fan remembered that during the Liang Dynasty in history, during the famous Hou Jing Rebellion, the rebels only had 8,000 troops. They captured the capital and starved the emperor to death. It can be seen that the capital's troops at that time did not have 50,000 troops, let alone the county town of Gusu. After Hou Jing conquered the capital Jiankang, he first sent troops to attack Wu County. Among them, Gusu was the county seat of Wu County, also known as Wuzhou. According to historical records, Wu County's defense was empty at that time, and only a few hundred people were sent to attack Wuzhou. , and captured this fortified city. It can be seen that no matter how strong the city wall is, it will be in vain if there are no troops to guard it.
"Brother, how many troops are there in Gusu?" The eldest brother is a member of the army in Wuzhou and a serious seventh-rank official. Chen Fan should know this.
"Why do you ask this?" The eldest brother asked in confusion.
"I see that there are about two hundred people near this city gate. There are eight city gates in Gusu. I think there are quite a few troops stationed here, much more than our Hudu County, so I want to know more." Chen Fan explained.
"It is indeed more than our county, but it is also limited. There are 1,500 soldiers in the county. In addition, our father is in charge of 1,000 naval troops stationed in Hudu. In the entire Wu County, there are five counties and one county. The number of troops is only about 15,000, and the county and city are estimated to have 6,000 and 7,000," the eldest brother replied.
It is indeed difficult for six to seven thousand people to guard the 23,500-meter city wall, as well as various government offices and street patrols. Chen Fan chose to remain silent, nodded to his eldest brother, and did not continue to ask further questions.
"I just don't know if there will be Hou Jing's Rebellion in the Liang Dynasty in this time and space? However, from the current point of view, some of the history is the same as ancient China, let's wait and see." Chen Fan abandoned the entanglement with history in a blink of an eye. After all, with his current situation His age, identity, and those historical changes are still a relatively distant thing.
After lunch, Chen Fan and Yajun set off for the Plum Garden. The eldest brother and the others went to Baoen Temple not far away. It is said that it is a thirteen-story relic pagoda built by Sun Quan for his mother. It is also the earliest relic pagoda in Gusu City. There is a pagoda. Even if Chen Fan doesn't go to the Plum Garden, he doesn't plan to go there at this time. He has already entered Taoism. If he rushes there without any legitimate reason, in case the Taoist priests see it, they think it is not good to visit it.
There were obviously a lot more pedestrians in Gusu at noon than in the morning, and the cars and horses were moving slower. However, even so, when they arrived at Meiyuan, Shenshi had not yet arrived, and Chen Fan was on the road. , bought some fresh fruits and tea, and spent about three hundred cash. At the same time, he gave two hundred cash to Hou Feng. If Lu Xian did not arrange for them to have dinner in the evening, Hou Feng would take care of it. At this point, Chen Fan was still generous, but in this way, Chen Fan spent less than half of his savings. Money must be earned, not saved.
When they arrived at the gate of Meiyuan, they were informed. Unexpectedly, Lu Quan personally greeted him, followed by a middle-aged man in his forties.
"Why did Dean Lu come out in person?" Chen Fan said with a smile.
"When a distinguished guest comes, of course you have to come out to greet him." Lu Fan was smiling all over his face. Although he was speaking to Chen Fan, he looked at Yajun. Seeing Yajun's arrival, the smile on his face became more sincere. It seemed that Yajun's name had also reached his ears. Yajun smiled and nodded as a greeting.
"I have prepared some small gifts, please don't refuse, Dean Lu." Chen Fan said with a smile. Yan Hai and the principal had already taken the things off the carriage. In this era when half a penny can buy a pound of rice, three hundred pence is enough. I bought two baskets of fruits and tea.
"It's good to have people here. What can I give you?" Lu Fan frowned and said, obviously unhappy.
