From mid-autumn to early winter, it was a journey of four thousand miles and almost four months. If the Anbei Protectorate had not lost too many frontier troops this year, Su Ce's soldiers would most likely have been assigned to Andong. Among the naval forces in the Duhu Mansion, it is only fate that manipulates people.
"An Dong's dragon soared across the sea,
Annan's poisonous miasma has a big belly.
Anxi Yellow Sand Roll Golden Armor,
Anbei buries dry bones every year.”
This limerick from the frontier army describes the plight of the four major military governors.
The Andong Protectorate was composed of one palace, six cities and five major ports, with 40,000 cavalry guarding Liaodong, and five naval armies crossing the sea.
The Annan Protectorate has nine cities, nine thousand guards roaring in the mountains and forests, and sixty thousand red-blooded troops marching across the mountains and ridges.
The Anxi Protectorate, with seven cities in one, and a mobile camel city shocked the Western Regions. An army of 80,000 soldiers defeated a million troops, and hundreds of countries became vassals.
In the Anbei Protectorate, dead bones are buried year after year, and troops are deployed year after year.
Even so, 40% of Daqian's army lieutenants and generals came from the Anbei Frontier Army.
The more damage there is in battle, the greater the success of the army.
The Anbei Mansion with a city wall three and a half feet high in front of him looks like a sleeping crouching tiger. The traces of war with swords and axes on the city wall are completely opposite to the exquisite Hangzhou city in Su Ce's memory.
This is a military mansion, and its only purpose is war. After handing over military strategies, the veterans of Zhechong Mansion said hello to Su Ce and the other hundred people, and then hurried away on horseback, as if they didn't want to stay here any longer.
The soldiers from various Zhechong Prefectures entered the city and were dispersed and reorganized.
It's just like a puddle of water splitting into droplets and then blending into other puddles in an instant.
There is no absolute fairness, only making the best use of everything. The new soldiers who take turns are not eligible to join the main army of Anbei Prefecture.
Four months is one period, one period for beacons, one period for forts, and one period for military towns. The best ones after these three periods will join the regular army and march to Anbei City, while the weak ones will go to defend and seize the city. When the three years are up, if they are still alive, Then there was the option to mobilize the border troops.
However, in the first three years, there was no choice but to stay in the frontier army. The timid hoped that there would be no war in the north, while the good men only hoped for the war in the north.
Su Ce felt that his luck was good or bad. This time he won the bamboo lottery to go to Fengsui Castle.
You can't blame others for smoking.
A beacon was set up every thirty miles, with one beacon commander, five beacon soldiers, and three pack horses carrying weapons, armor, and tools.
The six people who went to Fengsui Fort were carrying heavy loads. Each of them carried a bow, a pot of arrows, a horizontal sword, a portable barrier knife, a whetstone, nine buckets of corn and two liters of rice on their backs. , staggering towards the north in the freezing cold wind.
Along the way, Feng Shuai Li Feng didn't say much, and Su Ce and the other four people started chatting. After introducing each other, the topic did not open up, and the feeling of cold wind in the mouth was not very pleasant.
Walking and stopping, not only to guard against the Huqi crossing the border, but also to guard against the hyenas hiding in the withered grass, the six people walked for two days before reaching their destination this time - Xiaohe Beacon Castle.
Xiaohe Beacon Fort is affiliated to the first garrison of the third town of Xisanshou City, Anbei Protectorate. The first garrison is also called the river beach garrison because it is located on a river beach, and the Xiaohe beacon fort is on the upper reaches of the river, 100 meters away. The river bank is garrisoned for thirty miles, thirty miles to the east is the Black Stone Beacon Fort, and to the west is the Yuwozi Beacon Fort.
These names were all given by the guarding border troops themselves. As the name suggests, Black Stone Beacon Fort is built on a black stone mountain. There is a puddle next to Yuwozi Beacon Fort with many fish in it. A small river is a few steps away from Beacon Fort. wide creek.
The six people who arrived at noon completed the handover with the previous six people, and the beacon commander Li Feng sent out the first sentry. The others were sleeping on the earthen bed. Su Ce did not go to sleep, walked around, and touched the beacon fort in the creek.
Fundamentally, you must at least be aware of the unfamiliar environment.
Xiaohe Beacon Fort is not big, seven meters wide from east to west and six meters wide from north to south. It is a civil structure, four feet high and has three floors in total.
The first floor is five meters high and consists of a castle gate, stables and stairs. The castle gate is opened at the east corner of the south wall. It is only one meter wide and two meters high. It is a half-foot-thick wooden door fixed with iron bars and nails.
Roma's thick sense of security.
When you enter the door, there is a three-meter-wide and five-meter-long stable on the left. The rest of the space is in an L shape. Walk along the wall and you will see a small well at the first corner. Go further and you will see the innermost corner.
It is a one-meter-wide walled earthen staircase leading to the second floor. It can be used as a barrier for one man, and no one can open it.
The second floor is four meters high, two and a half meters wide, and five meters long. The earthen kang, stove, and chimney lead along the wall to the third floor.
The three-story open-air beacon tower is made of adobe and is three meters high. It is a hollow structure and is surrounded by a one-and-a-half-meter-high curved parapet.
The entire beacon wall is one meter wide, with two-inch-thick wooden boards used as floor slabs. The long-stemmed grass grown by the river is spread on the top, mixed with yellow mud and smoothed to become the ground for the upper floor and the stove for the second floor.
The platform and the adobe kang are obviously raised one foot, both for heat preservation and insulation. The entire "floor" is half a meter thick, so you can imagine how strong it is. Dry rod-shaped plants can clearly be seen in the exposed adobe in front.
Thick, stable, and made of solid materials, it is like a square boulder guarding the high ground next to the river. A beacon fort is not a product built by the predecessors and used by future generations to enjoy the shade.
Each generation of beacon guards will spare no effort to strengthen and raise the beacon fort. With the extra effort on weekdays, they can hold on for a moment longer if they encounter Hu Qi. In this beacon fort that reaches directly to Hu Qi, no one will put themselves at risk.
Treat the lives of your colleagues as a piece of fun.
There are many polished wooden canes inserted into the wall. Don't think too much, this is the place to hang weapons. At the root of the wall is a "locker" made of small adobe. It is a small beacon fort, which serves as a sentinel and early warning.
, fight and live as one.
Among the supplies, weapons must be the most important. Three pairs of iron armor, six pairs of leather armor, six spears, twelve horizontal knives, two longbows, two horn bows, two small bows, and one arm with a crossbow.
, three pots of armor-breaking red feather arrows, six pots of flat-shooting white feather arrows, and three pots of heavy crossbow arrows.
In addition, there were five and a half kilograms of corn and more than one kilogram of rice carried back by six people, three or four kilograms of dried meat left behind when they took office, ten kilograms of dried fish, six bushels of soybeans carried by three horses, and a stove
Dried horse manure blocks were piled beside it.
Su Ce was not a petty person, but he was a little unhappy. The foal that had been with him for four months was requisitioned, or was forcibly bought and sold.
A Jianchang slave horse was worth three guan of money. Su Ce was about to guard the beacon, so he could only exchange it for silver ingots at a discount.
The white-haired wind outside the house whipped snow particles and slapped them against the thick adobe wall. Su Ce was also very tired, so he got into the blanket like his colleagues.
This blanket was issued by the Duhufu. It is mainly made of wolf skin and supplemented by rabbit skin.
In addition to refined grains, that is, rice, which needs to be supplied by the court, the Duhu Mansion also has 120,000 military villages, civilian villages, and criminal villages on the south bank.
Every 10,000 acres is designated as a village, with 500 troops stationed and ten acres of land supporting one soldier. Each village has a station officer and station deputy, who are not held by military administrators but by "good farmers" selected from among the soldiers.
.Except half for the garrison troops themselves, the remaining half is for the main army of the Protectorate.
The Anbei Protectorate's 100,000 frontier troops and 120,000 garrison troops gradually developed the once desolate and disorderly grassland along the Wuding River.
Due to the flat terrain of the riverbank, there is no need for beacons to go out on patrol, as long as they always stand on the top of the fort and look out.
Six people, two hours each. The rest of the time can be spent on improving one's strength, going out hunting, or sleeping with one's head covered.
However, you must attend the day when the sun rises every day, otherwise you will be considered a deserter.
Daqian military discipline is strict, and garrisoning, marching, and combat are all controlled by strict military discipline.
After sleeping for a while, Su Ce was woken up. Su Ce climbed up from the kang gently.
Putting on a black dark coat with four pounds of cotton, Feng Shuai Li Feng helped Su Ce put on the armor. Su Ce remembered himself as the child who first entered Zhe Chong Mansion two years ago. Everything seemed easy. Now things have changed and people are thick. Su Ce's shoulders, thick limbs, and two years of training at Zhe Chongfu have undoubtedly benefited Su Ce a lot.
On the top of the fort, a three-meter-high wooden watchtower stands on the military flag of Daqian. It is made of yellow silk on a black background, with a big word "gan" and only one red cloth tassel underneath. The military flag represents that this place belongs to Daqian.
There is no string for the arm-drawn crossbow and the long bow. The bow string is placed in two small leather pouches and two quivers, one containing heavy crossbow arrows and the other containing armor-piercing red crossbow arrows.
There is also a gong hanging on the wooden stake of the watchtower. If the enemy is discovered, the gong can be beaten hard. One person will seal the gate at the bottom of the fort, and five people will go up to the high platform to kill the enemy.
The flames of war are everywhere, life and death are not concerned.
The beacon fort can be divided into upper, middle and lower levels. One corps is the bottom, two corps is the middle. Three corps is the top. If there are more people, it can be called a garrison.
A fort with two groups is the lower garrison, three groups is the middle garrison, and five groups is the upper garrison. If there are more groups, it is called a town.
There are 300 people in the middle town, which is not enough for the lower town, and 500 people are enough for the upper town.
At the top are the Shouchu City and the Duhufu. The Shouchu City has 10,000 troops, the main army is 5,000, and the Duhufu has 20,000 troops each.
Beacons, forts, and gates were stationed on the north bank, and guards were stationed on the south bank.
The garrison was set up at a strategic location according to the terrain of the river, and the pass was set up at the crossing point. The beacons stretched thirty miles north from the garrison and formed a line. The three-tiered system firmly controlled the land of a hundred miles on the north bank of the Wuding River.
These were all told to Su Ce by Li Feng, the taciturn Feng Commander on the road.
The winter sun sets quickly, and the smoke from the beacon fort in Xiaohe rises. Soon, you can smell the fragrance of rice.
Su Ce held the handle of the horizontal knife on his waist with his left hand, and grasped the spear with his right hand, looking around with alert eyes.
The white hair forcefully dug into the cuffs and collar. Su Ce reached into his armpit with his left hand, took out a piece of dark red coarse cloth, and wrapped it around his neck, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. However, the coldness of the cuffs made his fingers stiff.
I don't know how long this trip to the outpost took, but Liu Sanlang from Guannai Road came up to replace Su Ce. Su Ce returned to the second floor and flexed his stiff fingers.
Jiannan Dao Zhou Zheng pointed to the stove with a smile, and Su Ce lifted the lid of the pot. Inside was a large bowl of warm rice, topped with three pieces of dried meat, half a piece of dried fish, and blackened dried vegetables of unknown types.
"Commander Feng, Su Ce is on guard!" Su Ce saluted by beating his chest with his left hand.
Li Feng, the commander of the army, hit the armor on his right chest hard with his left hand in return.
"Is there any hostility?"
"none!"
"Are you slacking off?"
"none!"
"Is there any loss of ordnance?"
"none!"
"Let's go eat!"
"Here!"
After three questions and three answers, Zhao Junjun from Henan Province and Zhou Zheng from Jiannan Province came to Su Ce, who was eating in a bowl, and whispered about their plans.
Hedong Dao Guanyue leaned against the wall holding a horizontal knife, looking at the three of them pretending not to care.