Because the Mongolian army was defeated and the county government was able to provide food to the people, Qingfu County was quite happy this New Year.
However, all the fireworks and firecrackers were taken away by Li Xia, and each household could only buy one bunch of firecrackers. The city was still a little less lively, and the people who were unwilling to accept the deserted New Year had to beat gongs and drums all night long.
Some teenagers were quite dissatisfied with this. They lit the only firecrackers they had and threw them into the county government office at night, and also threw stones to show their anger.
The yamen officer on duty chased him out and saw a group of rogue teenagers scattering like birds and beasts, cursing incessantly.
"You bitch county magistrate, take our firecrackers and curse you with a bad New Year's Eve!"
"Run away and kill these dog officials..."
To put it more seriously, this kind of thing is like someone saying on the palace gate that "the eaves of the horse are clanging, the country will be destroyed", which is contempt of the imperial court.
Fang Yankai was very angry. He was still working in the public apartment at that time, and the firecrackers smashed outside his window. He was frightened and thought there was another assassin, so he ordered to investigate to the end.
Li Xia didn't bother to check, and was even a little happy to see the fierce and rebellious spirit of the people. Although this kind of resistance was an expression of dissatisfaction to him, he didn't care.
"Feiyu is really not angry? They are a bunch of ignorant kids who don't know the importance of things! You have to work hard to defend the city for them in vain!"
Li Xia waved his hand, with a hint of Jiang Chun's tone, and said: "It's the New Year, it doesn't matter, young people are energetic, just having fun."
"What a joke!"
Fang Yankai was still angry and rarely cursed.
He fought desperately against the Mongolian army, but was treated like this, which made him unable to let go.
This emotion came to him, and for a moment he almost felt that it was very boring to be an upright official. Instead of always thinking about these ignorant and slippery people, it would be better to be a treacherous official who only plans for the future...
Of course, this was just a momentary thought. He had been an official for eleven years and had suffered a lot of grievances. Perhaps he had thought about this many times, but in the end he still adhered to the character of an upright official. It was not that his heart was broken because of the firecrackers of some naughty boys.
Defend.
But anger is also real anger.
Li Xia was really not angry at all.
He has encountered a lot of slander. He worked hard to get the gold medal, but some people called him a foreign-loving dog who practiced Western swordsmanship; he was injured and did not participate in the competition, and some people called him a coward...
At first, he didn’t understand. There were always many events in competitions that were not Chinese martial arts. He hoped to win glory for the country in these events, so how could he become a foreign-loving dog?
This kind of abuse followed him almost all his life, developing his firm mind and alienated attitude towards others.
In comparison, today's phrases such as "dog official" and "treacherous party" are really too mild.
"Okay, landlord, don't be angry. Go to the back office and have a few drinks with the county magistrate."
Fang Yankai saw Li Xia's calm look and smiled bitterly, saying, "Speaking of which, those naughty boys are probably the same age as Fei Yu, but their temperament is very different."
"I just have a lot of experience." Li Xia said, "Let's go, I'll go to the camp..."
~~
On New Year's Eve, Liu Jinsuo somehow made a mistake and wanted to have a drinking contest with Bao San.
So the two men who came gradually were knocked down by Bao San, a man from Sichuan, and they got drunk.
But even when Liu Jinsuo was drunk, he never forgot to say that sentence.
"Hahaha... Lin'an City is really lively during the New Year!"
Li Xia could think of the scene of Lin'an City at this time, which had a strong flavor of the year that would not be seen in later generations.
…
No matter how strong the flavor of the new year is, it will eventually pass.
Many people regret the end of the New Year, but Li Xia can finally continue what he wants to do. He will not wait until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. In his eyes, war is the main theme of this era.
And the time has come to the fifth year of Xingchang in the Song Dynasty...
~~
It was the fifth year of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Xingchang in the Song Dynasty.
Chongqing Prefecture, Sichuan's pacification envoy Pu Zezhi has begun to outline the strategy for Sichuan and Sichuan to resist Mongolia in the new year.
"In the fourth year of Xingchang, the Mongolian Tatars attacked southern Sichuan from Yunnan and carried out a plan to relieve the enemy. From then on, Sichuan's gate was opened wide, the north and south were united, the upper and lower posts were divided, the front and back were attacked, and the throat was blocked."
When Pu Ze's words reached this point, everyone in the hall was swept away, and military affairs were conveyed one after another.
Finally, he looked at Yi Shiying and said: "Shifu, where is the Fangshan Mountain in southern Shu that is similar to Diaoyu City and Yunding City?"
"Reporting to Pu Shuai, I have been searching for days and found Lingxiao Mountain in Meidong Town, which is located to the south of Bowang Mountain. Lingxiao Mountain has thousands of walls and a flat river on the top. It can be cultivated and built into a city.
It is surrounded by cliffs and there are only two mountain roads. One is the 'Duanjing Rock', where a suspension bridge is built on the cliff between it and Xianfeng Mountain; the second is 'Forty-Eight Turns', where a road is built on the ridge with hundreds of twists and turns.
Easy to defend but difficult to attack.”
After hearing this, Pu Zhizhi thought for a moment and said: "I am reporting to the emperor, you should prepare to build a city. Within half a year, southern Sichuan needs to have an impregnable mountain city to station troops and store food, and to attack and defend the stronghold."
"Yes." Yi Shiying accepted the order and said, "Is this city called 'Lingxiao City'?"
"I hope you and Lingxiao City can both become the pillars of southern Shu."
…
After deciding on the deployment of southern Shu, Pu Zezhi turned his attention to western Shu on the map.
He thought for a long time, and only raised his head from the map when Zhang Shi came to visit.
Pu Zezhi didn't say much about Zhang Shi's defeat at Mahujiang, and raised his finger to point to Jianmen Pass on the map.
"What you said is true. We will defend it year after year and win every year. However, Sichuan and Shu will eventually be exhausted. We cannot afford to lose..."
Zhang Shi looked along Pu Zezhi's finger and was slightly startled, guessing Pu Zezhi's intention.
He raised his head again, and his dissatisfaction with the Shu commander had completely receded in just one sentence.
"What does Pu Shuai mean?"
"Let's recapture Jianmen Pass first, and form a closed-door and dog-fighting trend against the Mongolian army in western Shu." Pu Zezhi said, moving his fingers from Jianmen Pass to Chengdu, and said: "After that, we will regain Chengdu...
"
Just hearing the word "recover" made Zhang Shi feel inexplicably excited. He finally began to agree with Shi Jun's assessment that "after the remaining darkness, Sichuan and Shu regained their famous commanders."
But on the other hand, Zhang Shi had some inexplicable emotions in his heart. He couldn't explain it clearly, but he vaguely realized that the situation facing Pu Zhezhi was much more severe than that of Yu Jie...
At that time, Yu Jie had been planning for many years to regain Hanzhong. Although he failed in the end, he retreated completely and brought back a large number of surrendered Hanzhong soldiers. He suffered little loss but gained something.
Yu Jie was unjustly killed, Yu Hui was defeated in repeated battles, western Sichuan was lost, Chengdu was lost, and Dali was destroyed. Now Pu Zezhi is here again, and his only goal is to regain Chengdu.
As for Hanzhong, it seems to have become an unreachable place.
The missed opportunity has been missed, and the situation is getting worse every year.
Pu Zezhi is a famous marshal, but no matter how famous he is, under this situation, can he be more able to turn the tide than Yu Jie?
…
The Song Dynasty did not have nameless generals and commanders. There were so many famous generals in the Song Dynasty that they were as bright as stars. But they all seemed to be hidden under one mistake after another.
~~
If what Pu Zhezhi wanted to do during his five years in Xingchang was to "consolidate southern Shu and recover Chengdu", what Li Xia wanted to do was just to "make money, train troops and develop strength."
Li Xia started recruiting troops on the fifth day of the first lunar month.
He plans to temporarily expand his army to one thousand men.
In general, the training of rural warriors in county towns is rarely of this scale, and rarely is it so elite. Although Li Xia has a strong backer, he has also made some arrangements to cover up the public.
He only said to the outside world that he had already reported to the court, followed Xin Qiji's example, and asked to create a new army, waiting for the court's approval. However, the current situation was critical, so he first raised money and food to train a group of "slightly elite" local warriors.
That being said, only Li Xia himself knows where this memorial has gone...
He planned to divide the thousand men into eight infantry centuries and two cavalry centuries.
Among the eight hundred infantry generals, except Liu Jinsuo, Bao San, Lao Hu, and Xiong Shan, the other four are all newly appointed, namely Wu Ang, Yu Tian, Xu Kui, and Mao Yi'er.
Wu Ang was originally the leader of the archery team in the county. He had good connections, intelligence and bravery;
Yu Tian was an old soldier who had been captured by the Mongolian army. He was the first to fight back against the Mongolian army. He was afraid of being punished by the court, so he surrendered to Li Xia;
Xu Kui and Mao Yi'er are the two more outstanding generals.
The two hundred generals of the cavalry centurion were Yu Bing and Song He. Both of them had been led by Li Xia for a while, and they were quite capable.
Song He was originally just an ordinary general, and was transferred to him by Jiang Fan for a while, but after Li Xia considered it, he was transferred back to the Qingfu Army and promoted to a hundred generals.
Jiang Fan was a little uneasy because of this. When he saw his former comrades being called "Baijiang" by the soldiers and wearing beautiful and mighty armor, he somewhat regretted his previous decision to leave the barracks.
Li Xia saw his uneasiness, but didn't say much about it. He just arranged for him to take over the position of Wu Ang's archer squad leader.
Jiang Fan thought about it and didn't dare to complain. He asked Li Xia in a low voice: "County Lieutenant, but in this case, the villain really has no one left under his command."
Li Xia said: "Yes, I don't have many people available under me."
"That……"
"You just go to Yan Yunyun to ask for some money and recruit some people."
Jiang Fan was a little confused, so he had to agree and leave.
He went all the way to Qinxiang Teahouse and climbed up the stairs. As expected, Yan Yunyun was at the teahouse the whole time.
But as soon as he opened the door, Jiang Fan was startled when he saw in front of him a woman dressed in black, with half a face burned and half a devil.
"you……"
"Did you scare me?" Yan Yunyun said with a smile: "Congratulations on becoming the leader of the archer squad. From now on, it will be up to you to decide on this three-acre land."
"What's the point of congratulations?" Jiang Fan said, "The generals sound much more majestic than the squad leaders. You haven't seen how arrogant they are in front of me."
"Teacher Jiang, think about it, why did the county captain let you change places with Wu Ang?"
"Of course the county captain trusts me more."
"Years ago, Wu Angke was always in the city, but whether he was hunting down assassins or selling smuggled salt, did the county captain give him any orders?"
"No." Jiang Fan shook his head, stretched his neck, and asked, "Then what should I do?"
Yan Yunyun smiled and said: "How do I know? I am just a woman. Let me withdraw some money to Bantou Jiang first..."
As she spoke, she picked up the account book and handed it to Jiang Fan.
"Show me what you're doing with this?" Jiang Fan was confused.
"I checked everything clearly, expanded the archer room, recruited people, purchased weapons... Each of these things was not clear. Then my father scolded me for being greedy for money."
Jiang Fan was stunned for a while, and finally, a look of surprise appeared in his eyes, and Yan Yunyun's evil face instantly became beautiful in his eyes.
The next moment, Yan Yunyun said again: "The money paid today, Team Leader Jiang has to help me earn it back."
"Can we start now?"
"The New Year has passed, what are you waiting for?"