Shang Yi led the army to travel all the way. On March 7, he finally arrived at Muling Pass and returned to the place where his career began. Shang Yi left Muling Pass at the end of the sixth year last year and went south to quell the chaos. It has been more than eight months since he left here. During this period, many changes have taken place. Looking back now, I do feel like I feel like a different life.
Tangzhen, Jiang Yiqu, Bao Tonggang and others, the first regiment of the merchant army left behind Muling Pass, also went out of the city to welcome Shang Yi's group of people. Everyone had not met for more than eight months, because Zhou Shaohuan and Tangzhen were also father-in-law and son-in-law, and they were all villagers from the small mountain village at the time, so Shang Yi was also very kind to them, and after meeting each other, he hugged bears one by one, patted his shoulders and chests, without any awareness of the general.
After everyone greeted each other, Tang Zhen and others invited Shang Yi and his team into Muling Pass.
Before Shang Yi left Muling Pass, he had made a new plan for the city defense of Muling Pass and started construction. After he led the army south, the city defense project was still carried out according to Shang Yi's plan under the command of Zhou Shiqi, Tang Zhen and others, and was completely completed at this time.
Therefore, before Muling Pass, Shang Yi was not busy entering the city, but circled around the newly built city wall to see how the new city wall was built.
The newly built city wall is located outside the original city wall of Mulingguan. It is about 1,500 meters long. It is generally an octagonal star with a prismatic structure. It is slightly lower than the original city wall, two or eight feet tall and five feet wide. The shell is made of fired large blue bricks, filled with soil, forming a double city wall structure with the original city wall. There are four main city gates, eight small city gates, and twelve forts in the city. There are also four observation towers up to six or six feet high at the four corners.
A trench about two feet wide and five feet deep outside the city wall was dug, and a trench about two feet wide and five feet deep inside was lambs. On both sides of the city wall, one high and one low, two sheep and horse walls were built. The sheep and horse walls were right next to the city ditch, four feet and five inches high. The outer sheep and horse walls were ten feet away from the city ditch and three feet high. A trench was dug out of the outer circle of the sheep and horse wall. It can be regarded as layered defenses and solid.
At the same time, Tang Zhen also reported that according to his instructions, eight tunnels leading to the outside of the city were dug in Muling Pass, four of which were positions outside the city. They could increase troops or retreat without opening the city gate. The other four were escape tunnels, each five or six miles away, and the exit was near the mountains and forests, so that they could hide after leaving the tunnel. They could not only be used to escape, but also counterattack against the enemy.
In addition, Tang Zhen also secretly told Shang Yi that in addition to these eight tunnels, there is actually a secret tunnel, with a very long exit and a distance of more than twenty miles, as an urgent choice for preparation. Moreover, all the craftsmen who excavated this tunnel were sent to Zhejiang by Tang Zhen. Therefore, now there are only three people in the Tuanzhong who know that this tunnel exists in Muling Guanzhong.
Of course it is impossible to see the authentic tunnel now, but after seeing the city defense facilities on the ground, Shang Yi was also very satisfied. The current Muling Pass is completely a military fortress structure that combines Chinese and Western styles. Even Alisandra, who was accompanying him, sighed that such a strong military fortress is rare in Italy, which is best at fighting defensive wars and building fortresses in Europe. In addition, the dangerous terrain of Muling Pass, so as long as there are enough troops and weapons, it can withstand the attack of more than ten times the force.
Then a group of people entered the city. At this time, all the buildings in the city had been completed. They were all made of two-story buildings with mixed bricks and wood. The streets were made of fired blue bricks, flat and neat, with ditches on both sides. Although the whole city was not big, it was neat, square, and arranged in a very regular manner. On the large playground at the intersection of the city, several teams of soldiers were practicing arrays. There were pedestrians coming and going on the street, but they did not hide when they saw the army, but just gave in to the side. Many pedestrians nodded like the army, and some even knew Shang Yi and shouted loudly: "Master Shang, you are finally back."
Shang Yi also sighed very much that he had just traveled to this era, formed a militia group and became famous in battle, and so on, and so on, and what happened, happened one by one, was recalled in his mind.
Muling Pass was not big, so soon the group arrived at the Qianzongfu Office. Shang Yi's house was still preserved, and Tang Zhen also ordered people to clean it again, and the supplier Yi rested in Guanzhong.
It was noon at this time, and Tang Zhen had already arranged a banquet and immediately ordered the kitchen to open fire to welcome Shang Yi and his group. The troops that accompanied him were also arranged to rest in the military camp. In Shang Yi's army, this time, many foreign mercenaries, white and black, even women. Fortunately, there were several foreign missionaries living in Muling Pass, so Tang Zhen and others were not unfamiliar with foreigners. Zhou Shaohuan also privately explained the identity of Chu Yalisandra to Tang Zhen and others. Tang Zhen and others knew that this foreign woman was the new wife Shang Yi was about to marry, so they couldn't help but respect her. At the same time, they admired Shang Yi as a good method, and even the foreign women took over the house.
After lunch, the middle and lower-level officers went to the arranged residence to rest. Shang Yi only left the regiment-level generals to hold meetings together to arrange the arrangements for the Shandong region in the future.
Tang Town first reported to Shang Yi about the situation in Muling Pass. Now the army in Muling Pass has a formal regiment, ten new battalions, with more than 400 craftsmen of various types. More than 3,000 residents, a total of more than 25,000 people live in. The number of troops accounts for almost half. The residents are basically the families of soldiers and craftsmen. Most of the newly expanded soldiers are recruited from militias and participated in the battle against the Qing army. After Shang Yi left, Tang Town often organized troops to conquer robbers and bandits in Shandong, so the new recruits also have some practical experience.
In terms of materials, there are currently more than 550,000 taels of silver, more than 20,000 taels of gold, twenty-five kilograms of sapphire, more than 80,000 stones of various types of grain, more than 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder, more than 150,000 kilograms of pig iron, more than 3,000 kilograms of corundum, more than 3,000 horses, and more than 5,000 other livestock. But only one regiment has enough firearms, and other new recruits have only armor guaranteed to be fully equipped, and their weapons are still used with swords and guns, and the bows and arrows left behind are also distributed to them for use. However, half of the new recruits have received training in using muskets.
Originally, the various production workshops in Muling Pass were very complete, and they could produce four to five hundred muskets and thirty to forty cannons every month. But after the beginning of the year, more than half of the craftsmen were transferred to Zhejiang, and their production capacity had also dropped significantly. Now they can only produce 150 to 200 muskets and about fifteen cannons per month. However, after more than eight months of production, Muling Pass also produced more than 3,500 muskets, of which 1,200 were scattered guns, and more than 300 artillery guns, including more than 80 heavy and medium-sized cannons, and the rest were light cannons. In addition, there were more than 10,000 old-fashioned grenades and more than 1,000 thunderbolt rocket launchers. It can be said that after more than eight months of accumulation, the reserves of arms in Muling Pass were very rich, enough to cope with two to three medium-sized wars.