Emperor Liu stayed in Jinyang for half a month before he started heading north again, passing through Xindai, passing Yanmen, and entering Shanyang Road. Among them, I only stayed at Yanmen Pass for one day and enjoyed the beauty of this most majestic pass in the world.
Of course, in this era, although Yang Ye also defended the pass for ten years, except for a great victory at Baicaokou, he did not experience too many wars against the Khitan. Therefore, its legendary nature has also weakened a bit. .
However, Emperor Liu never relaxed his emphasis on Yanmen Pass. The Han Dynasty's current northern border defense system is also hierarchical. On the border between Hedong and Hebei provinces and Shanyang, the Yongning, Dingxiang, and Feihu armies were stationed. Although their strength was inferior to that of the border defense armies, they were important military locations that guarded the hinterland and connected the border fortresses.
Among them, the Dingxiang Army is naturally the most important because it is stationed at Yanmen Pass, which is the choke point leading to Taiyuan. The current Dingxiang military envoy is called Bai Ding, but his identity is not entirely clear. He is the nephew of Bai Chongzan, the Marquis of Duanyang.
Among the senior generals of the Han Dynasty, there were some who were unknown but dedicated to their duties. They had no outstanding military exploits but fulfilled their duties. The person who achieved this to the extreme was Bai Chongzan. No matter what orders and tasks Emperor Liu had, he would carry them out without any reservations and without any complaints.
Emperor Liu set an example when he was granted the title of Marquis for his contribution to river control. In the following ten years, his achievements were not prosperous and he had to work a lot. Therefore, when Kaibao was conferred the title of Marquis of Duanyang, he was granted the title of Marquis of Duanyang.
Nowadays, Bai Chongzan is over sixty years old and his health is failing. He has resigned from his post and returned to his hometown to retire. As for Bai Ding, he is a descendant of the Bai family. He has been with Bai Chongzan for nearly twenty years and has trained him carefully, and now he is able to stand alone.
Emperor Liu took a test and found that this man may be inferior in military skills, but he is better than a stable and down-to-earth general. He may have learned from his uncle. He can rest assured that Yanmen Pass and Dingxiang Army are in the hands of such a general.
In fact, today's military and political affairs of the Han Dynasty are indeed filled with a large number of children of distinguished officials, but after careful examination, they are not abused. There may be some unworthy ones among them, but most of them still have their own talents, and there is no obvious emphasis on the assessment of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War. As it is now, what will happen in the future depends on the struggle between nobles and bureaucratic groups.
After leaving Yanmen Pass, the speed of the imperial driver slowed down significantly. By the time he arrived at Yunzhong, the capital of Datong Prefecture, it was already mid-August. To the north of Yanmen, the military attributes of each city and town have been greatly improved, and the people's customs and customs are also completely different from those in the pass.
When he arrived in Shanyang, Emperor Liu was most concerned about the military aspect. There is no doubt that the main purpose of Emperor Liu's northern tour was to inspect the military situation in northern Xinjiang.
A full ten years have passed since the Northern Expedition was successful. Emperor Liu once again set foot on this land with a different mood and saw a brand new look.
At the beginning, the imperial court established Shanyang Road. Due to the impact of the Han-Liao War and the wanton raiding and relocation of the people before the Liao army retreated north, the territory was in ruins, the people's livelihood was in decline, and PepsiCo was in depression.
At that time, what Emperor Liu left to Song Qi was almost in ruins. Among the prefectures and counties, only Shuo and Ying prefectures had slightly less damage, and the other places were almost empty. To the east of Yunzhou, a large no-man's land appeared.
In addition to the remaining garrison troops, there were less than 200,000 civilians at Song Qi's disposal, including some prisoners and surrendered soldiers.
Yunzhong City was basically destroyed by the war. After the war, only more than 10,000 old, weak, women and children could be replaced. Thanks to Yang Ye, when he pursued the Liao army, he snatched back thousands of Han people. These people were later used in Yunzhong. It also played an important role in the reconstruction.
At that time, the mountain sun and clouds were in great ruins, and the devastation still vaguely reappeared in my mind. But ten years later, when I set foot on Shanyang again and climbed onto Yunzhong City again, what I saw was a completely new scene.
Regarding the restoration and development of Shanyang Road in the past ten years, a brand-new Yunzhong City is the most intuitive answer. Although it is only renovated and consolidated on the basis of the old city, seeing the tall walls and thick city walls, Emperor Liu Still can't help but touch it with my own hands and feel the hard work of the officials and people in Yun Zhong condensed in it.
Yunzhong City plays the role of the mainstay and the defense center in Shanyang's defense system. Therefore, its reconstruction has always been the first priority. It is not only a political task, but also a military task. Song Qi is on top, A lot of effort was put into it.
However, although Shanyang has made great progress in recovery and development, due to its weak foundation, it is more than a step weaker than other Daozhou in Dahan.
Ten years of gathering together, ten years of lessons learned, and now, only half of it has passed. However, Emperor Liu could not be more satisfied with the results of these ten years. At least, from the past three years, Shanyang Dao no longer needs the court to invest a lot of financial support every year.
Of course, this is also on the premise that the training of all the armies in the north is borne by the imperial court. Otherwise, the border defense alone can overwhelm Shanyang. Along the line of the Great Wall in the north of the Great Wall, the border troops and troops deployed by the Han Dynasty, But nothing less.
"You still have to see it with your own eyes! Although the description in the memorial is pleasant, it is not intuitive enough!" Touching one of the earthen battlements, Emperor Liu seemed to have infinite emotion in his tone: "The clouds were rebuilt on the ruins, and the officials and people of Shanyang , it’s a great contribution!”
"This is all the result of the hard work of the officials and the people led by Xianggong Song when he was in office!" Li Chuyun, the chief envoy, was waiting on the side and said that he had not been in office for a long time and he did not dare to take credit.
Emperor Liu naturally understood this. For this, he had already rewarded Song Qi with a not-high title, a second-class eldest uncle. After all, people who were awarded titles for meritorious service were really rare in the Han Dynasty. Even though their rank was lower, their status had been greatly improved. For civil servants, in addition to the merits of founding the country, it is too difficult for latecomers to be knighted. In comparison, it is more worthwhile to pursue their ambitions by holding the power of the world and carrying out the affairs of the dynasty.
"How many people are there in Shanyang Road now?" Emperor Liu asked Li Chuyun.
Li Chuyun was not too old, but his age was already showing. When he heard about it, he cheered up and spoke eloquently: "I checked the register and found that in the sixth year of Kaibao, Shanyang ruled one prefecture and five prefectures, and it was registered at Dingkou. There are a total of 60,259 household registrations and 365,841 people! About three and one-third of them are in Datong Prefecture, with a total of 19,793 households!"
"It's still a little short!" Emperor Liu couldn't help but sigh.
"Your Majesty, Shanyang is a border area after all. The current number is already quite a lot!" Li Chuyun replied: "This is also due to the imperial court's policy of strengthening the border. If we add in those customers who are doing business and living and traveling, The population of the Saibei Hu people should be even larger!"
Of course, Emperor Liu knew this. The proportion of natural population growth in Shanyang Road was actually very small, and a large part of it was the result of previous immigration to the border area.
As Li Chuyun said, after all, it is a borderland, a borderland that has suffered serious damage and has not been able to truly solve the hidden dangers and crises. In addition to enforcement, policy guidance alone is not very attractive to ordinary people.
In the Han Dynasty, those who dared to venture into Shanyang were all bold and bloody people, and most of them were business travelers and traffickers. It has to be said that during the ten years when Han and Liao coexisted peacefully, under the court's relaxed business environment, the atmosphere of merchants and merchants in Datong was very strong.
Most of the floating population in Datong are merchants traveling from south to north. Yunzhong City is the largest trade exchange center between Han and Liao Dynasties, even far surpassing Youzhou on Yanshan Road. As for Shanyang Road's annual finance and tax, a large amount of it comes from traders' tax.
Therefore, in Yunzhong City, you can see with the naked eye that merchants from all walks of life and all ethnic groups are bustling and the city is prosperous. Of course, there is only such a Yunzhong City in the Shanyang Road, and the essence of the road is here.
If you travel to other cities, the contrast will be sharp. The trauma caused by the war that year cannot be repaired in just ten years. Construction is never easy.
