In the spring of February after the rain, the wild flowers are gorgeous and full of life.
Although the army of gold thieves has reached the Huazhou and Xingren mansions next to Kaifeng Mansion, Zhao Kai still felt the prosperous and gorgeous atmosphere as soon as he entered the Kaifeng Mansion... as if the pace of war would not It's like really stepping into the realm of Kaifeng Mansion.
Compared with other places in the world, the counties and towns within Kaifeng Prefecture are obviously much denser. And almost all counties and towns are extremely prosperous.
If calculated in terms of population and prosperity, a county under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture is definitely worthy of most of the prefectures and prefectures in the Song Dynasty.
Most of the cities and towns in Kaifeng Prefecture are comparable to county towns elsewhere.
These counties and cities and towns have already been fortified - Zhao Kai had previously sent many county magistrates, county lieutenants, and supervisors to organize the defense there. Because their lives are at stake, most county and town officials have done a good job!
When Zhao Kai passed there this time, he found that the peripheries of several county walls had been cleaned up, removing miscellaneous buildings, the outer trenches had been widened and deepened, and sheep and horse walls and gate walls had been built.
There are also several counties or towns that have adopted the method of building outer cities, protecting the markets and docks built around the outer walls, digging trenches and erecting fences outside the outer walls, which looks pretty good.
No matter what method is used to protect the city, a large number of armed people are indispensable.
Zhao Kai saw militiamen guarding the roads outside every city and town. Although their equipment is poor and their training seems inadequate, they all look energetic! They all love the Song Dynasty... It shouldn't be a problem for people like this to ask for money to protect their homes and country!
In addition to these counties and towns, Kaifeng Prefecture is also dotted with a large number of palaces, temples and manors of nobles and wealthy families - these are all places where you can get extremely rich!
The palaces and temples in the Song Dynasty, especially those in Kaifeng Prefecture, were all business! Not only did they rely on the longevity treasury to absorb savings and lend money, but they also used the land of temples and temples to open markets, grow fruits and vegetables, and engage in real estate leasing... which is to say, they have seized on the retail of financial and real estate products. Some temples that encourage people to put down their butcher knives even open restaurants selling meat and vegetables!
All temples and temples occupy large amounts of land, especially the temples and temples in Kaifeng Prefecture!
Moreover, these temples, especially the head monks of the temples, are not particularly afraid of gold thieves. They all know that the Northern Dynasty (Liao Kingdom) worshiped Buddhism far more than the Song Dynasty, and all the Liao rulers were disciples of Buddhism! The Jin people should be similar, and they would not embarrass the Shimen... But after all, the people in the Buddhist sect have nothing in all the four elements, and they must be willing to donate unused money, food and land to the court as a means of fighting against the Jin.
By the way, there are many bronze statues in those temples. Should they be taken to Kaifeng City to protect the officers and soldiers defending the city?
In addition, there are many manors of noble families in Kaifeng Prefecture. Most of these are inheritances passed down by military chiefs who were relieved of their military power by a glass of wine. There are also some manors purchased by newly born ministers and nobles in the Northern Song Dynasty... They have been rich for many generations. Although most of the owners of these wealthy families have run away, there must be many more in the manor. It is only natural that the accumulation should now be dedicated to the court and used to defend the manor itself!
After entering Kaifeng Mansion, Zhao Kai suddenly felt relaxed when he saw the prosperity around this mountain city... He felt that he would be very rich, and with money, there would be soldiers, and with money, there would be soldiers. If you have soldiers, you will have a country, and if you have a country, you can continue to be an official!
"Your Majesty, Kaifeng Mansion has arrived!"
Just when Zhao Kai was thinking about how to scrape a large amount of money as quickly as possible, and then use the money to "buy" the brave men from King Qin's forbidden army who were gradually gathered in Kaifeng Mansion, and then go to camp for the forbidden army. Equip them well and then use 996, no, 997 standards for strict training. Yao Pingzhong, who was riding ahead to drive for Zhao Kai, suddenly shouted!
Zhao Kai, who was riding a horse with his head down, raised his eyes and saw the tall and solid walls of Kaifeng Mansion in the distance, exuding a golden aura of wealth in the sunlight.
At this time, Yao Pingzhong said again: "Your Majesty, if you follow this official road, you will reach the New Song Gate... But the scenery outside the New Song Gate is very different from when you left Kaifeng Mansion in the twelfth lunar month of last year. Same!"
Last year's twelfth lunar month? Zhao Kai thought to himself: I left the city through Xinzheng Gate in the twelfth lunar month of last year, and I had never seen what was like outside Xinsong Gate!
At this time, Yao Pingzhong said to himself again: "The market outside Xinsongmen has been demolished...even Yichun Garden has been demolished!"
Zhao Kai knew that Yichun Garden was a villa of the Song Dynasty official family outside Kaifeng Prefecture... That was a great place!
Just when he thought of this, Yao Pingzhong said again: "The Hanfang Garden outside Jingyang Gate in the north of the city, and the Yujin Garden outside Nanxun Gate in the south of the city have also been demolished... Only Qionglin Garden and Jinming Pool in the west of the city are still there. Moreover, a lot of reconstruction was carried out, and an outer wall and outer moat were built outside Jinmingchi and Qionglin Garden. The northern section of the outer wall was constructed along the Bianhe River, and the eastern section was borrowed from the southwest section of Kaifeng Mansion's outer city. .
In addition, Privy Li also asked people to connect the walls of Jinmingchi and Qionglinyuan into an inner wall and dig ditches outside the inner wall. If the outer wall of Baojin Tower and Baojin Tower itself are also included, It has four walls and two trenches inside and outside... one layer inside another, very strong! "
Zhao Kai nodded and thought: This Li Gang also left a place for me and the school beauties to go boating. He is indeed a loyal minister!
If we really can't save him this time, we have to give him a nicer posthumous name. Let's call him Wenzhong. From now on, he will be Duke Li Wenzhong!
When Zhao Kai was thinking about preparing a good posthumous title for Li Gang in case of emergency, the knights in front of him suddenly stopped advancing.
It turns out that Zhao Kai and his party have already arrived outside the New Song Sect... No, where is the New Song Sect? Why are you missing?
Zhao Kai, who had just reined in his horse, looked up and was stunned. The New Song Sect was gone!
Kaifeng Mansion is his home! He came all the way back home, and when he was about to enter, he found that the door was gone... It wasn't that the door panel was gone and there was only a hole left, but a wall appeared where the door should have been!
Yao Pingzhong opened his mouth to explain at this time: "Your Majesty, I forgot to tell you that the gate of Kaifeng Mansion has been built with a protective wall outside, so the gate cannot be seen from the outside."
It turns out that the door is still there, but there is an extra wall outside the door... This is actually a very common temporary fortification for city defense. A Song Dynasty castle in wartime should have such a door wall.
The left and right sides of the gate guard wall are not only used to protect the city gate from attacks by enemy weapons outside the city, but also to cover their own soldiers when they go out to fight back. The Song Army's defenders rarely defend the city blindly; Just one that is both offensive and defensive.
In order to be both offensive and defensive, the soldiers defending the city must have a way out of the city to counterattack.
Therefore, castles in the Song Dynasty often had many open and secret doors. In order to ensure the suddenness of counterattacks, protective walls were built outside these open and secret doors to cover the opening and closing of the city gates.
In addition to the gate wall, Zhao Kai also discovered a long sheep and horse wall outside the Xin Song Gate. The function of the sheep and horse wall is to protect the root of the wall and also to protect the defenders who are going out for counterattack or defense.
The sheep-horse wall is said to be one wall, but in fact it has many openings. This is also to facilitate the defenders' counterattack.
These openings are usually sealed with horse-repelling guns, and the horse-repelling guns are only moved away when the defenders need to pass.
And outside every opening blocked by horse guns, there was a simple wooden bridge across the moat - of course these wooden bridges were also used to facilitate the defenders to launch counterattacks through the moat.
Obviously, the Kaifeng Mansion defense strategy under the leadership of Li Gang and Yu Wencuizhong attached great importance to offense.
After all, Kaifeng Prefecture has a huge city, a large number of defenders and residents, and the daily consumption is very staggering!
If you only defend without attacking, and eventually let people block the way to counterattack, then there will be only a dead end!
But if you want to truly defend the big city of Kaifeng Mansion, these preparations alone are not enough... you also need money, lots and lots of money!
Thinking of money, Zhao Kai followed Liang Fangping, the chamberlain who returned to Kaifeng Mansion, and said: "Sir Liang, please go and report and ask Yu Wencuizhong to come out of the city to greet you!"
The reason why Zhao Kai asked Yu Wencuizhong to pick him up was because he wanted to ask about the situation of Kaifeng city defense and discuss with him how to make money and real estate in Kaifeng Mansion - he had promised 20,000 young men in order to boost the morale of the army. The yard is out!
In addition, Zhao Kai also wanted to ask about the situation of Qionglinyuan and Jinmingchi... He also wanted to go there to play with the school beauties and sisters!
Liang Fangping, who had already changed into the uniform of a chamberlain and carried a whisk, responded: "Here, we will go and pass on your oral instructions!"
…
Huhe Town, Jinbing East Route Army Central Military Camp.
On the same day that Zhao Kai returned to Kaifeng Mansion, two brothers, Wanyan Zongwang and Wanyan Zongbi, were seeing off their little brother Wanyan Alu.
Wanyan Alu's body finally recovered, but his brothers didn't want him to continue charging into the battle, but wanted him to do a bigger thing - to go back to Huining to ask for reinforcements!
At this point in the battle, Wanyan Zongwang and Wanyan Zongbi no longer dare to expect an easy victory.
And they should also feel that they are lacking in strength - their strength is quite large when concentrated. But after several head-on encounters with "Gao Qiu", they found that they had to divide their forces and occupy some castles.
But in this division of troops, the originally large number of troops was not enough.
Therefore, they hope to concentrate their forces on the battlefields of Hebei, Jingdong, and Gyeonggi to ensure that Da Jin can compete fiercely with Da Song in the above areas.
If possible, it would be best to bring all the 100,000 troops under Wanyan Zonghan to the battlefield on the eastern front...so that they can fight the Song army to the death!
Wanyan A'lu patted his chest and promised: "Second brother, fourth brother... don't worry, I will definitely explain the situation clearly to the emperor and Banbo Jilie, and ask them to send as many troops as possible south to reinforce us!" He Gritting his teeth, "When the reinforcements are coming, you have to let your little brother be the first to break into Kaifeng Mansion and kill the evil thief Gao Qiu! He stole the emperor's wife of the Song Dynasty!"
