Chapter 1187: The City in Danger is Hard to Defend

Chapter 1187: The City in Danger is Hard to Defend

Although the war between the Western Wei and Northern Qi on the front battlefield came to an end temporarily, the actions in other areas did not stop.

In particular, the Western Wei, which had taken the initiative, took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Qi army on the Heluo side was trapped in Jinyong City and carried out various renovations and constructions in the Heluo area.

In the past, the two countries often fought and confronted each other here, so many military fortresses were built around Heluo. Now these fortresses have been gradually demolished, and the wooden and stone building materials used have been sent to the vicinity of Luoyang one after another.

The original Luoyang City has long been destroyed. The remaining Jinyong City was originally just a small affiliated city of Luoyang City, but now it has become the most solid fortress between Heluo. A few years ago, Jinyong City was conquered by the Western Wei. After Dugu Yongye took office as the governor of Luozhou, he built it on the original basis of the city.

But even this Jinyong City is now surrounded by walls on all sides. The newly built wall outside the city is not a long wall used for siege in the traditional sense, but a wall built according to the standard of city wall with building materials transported from the demolished city fortresses of various borders.

In the future, when the war here subsides and the Western Wei completely occupies the Heluo area, these walls can be used to rebuild Luoyang City.

As for those responsible for the construction tasks, they are mainly the many barbarians between Yiluo. At present, both sides have stopped fighting and there are not many combat tasks to be assigned, but the barbarians are still asking the Wei army for food and supplies.

So Li Tai from Hongnong in the rear, combined with the current situation, formulated a plan to rebuild Luoyang City and recruited these barbarians as labor to start basic construction.

In addition to being able to obtain some food and grass supplies, these barbarian members also promised them that after completely recovering Heluo in the future, they would divide land in the Heluo area to settle these barbarians. All the barbarians can leave the impoverished and barren Yiluo Mountains and settle in the fertile Heluo area, and live there for generations.

When the barbarians heard that there was such a good thing, they were naturally very excited. Compared with the Yiluo Mountains, which have limited output, are full of dangers, and have harsh living conditions, the Heluo Plain is undoubtedly like heaven. No barbarian can resist the temptation to live in the Heluo area!

Li Tai was not fooling these barbarians, but just playing a little word game. The Heluo area has been through wars for a long time, and the population has dropped sharply. There are not many people living in the area at present. There are a lot of abandoned land on both sides of the Luoshui and Yishui valleys, which are a scene of desolation.

If you want to redevelop the Heluo area and quickly restore its vitality, population is the top priority. In the future, it is certainly possible to recruit vagrants in the country and migrate from other areas to the Heluo area, and the nearby Yiluo barbarian tribe is also a very considerable source of population.

Although these barbarians are barbarians, there are also a considerable number of familiar barbarians who have frequent contact with the Han people and have similar habits and even culture.

For example, the family of Li Renjie, a great man in Yichuan, is originally from the Yichuan barbarians, but they have been officials in their hometowns for generations and have married into Han clans such as the Jingzhao Wei family. In fact, there is no difference between them and the Han tyrants.

Li Tai had already conceived a plan to rectify the Yiluo barbarians, and the solution was certainly not to slaughter and kill all these barbarians, but to strengthen the control of the barbarians and let them change from being out of control to accepting the governance of the Western Wei government.

So of course he would divide the area between Heluo as promised and allocate it to these barbarians to make a living, but the method was not to settle them as a whole and retain their original social organization structure as expected by the barbarian chiefs, but to reorganize the households and let these barbarian members gradually become equal-land households and gradually integrate into the social structure of the Han people.

Recruiting barbarians to build city walls is to prepare for the subsequent household registration.

The degree of sinicization and the craft skills mastered by the barbarians are uneven. If they are not uniformly registered without screening, they will have no basic livelihood and production capabilities, which is also an unstable factor. Those who can participate in the construction of city walls at least have a skill and are strong and healthy. Naturally, they are also excellent household registration targets and will be the first batch of naturalized household registration in the future.

These city walls can be used as the foundation for the future reconstruction of Luoyang City, and can also be used as fortifications for the siege of Jinyong City. Judging from the current situation, the latter is undoubtedly more important.

Jinyong City has been besieged for many days. Although there are still a large number of garrisons in the three nearby Heyang cities, due to the two-way attack by the Western Wei Dynasty before, and the situation in Henei is even more dangerous than here in Heluo, it is difficult for the Heyang defenders to come south to rescue and relieve the siege, and they can only let the soldiers in Jinyong City be trapped in the isolated city.

As the outer city walls were built, Jinyong City became more isolated and almost cut off from the outside world. Only at a fixed time every day, scouts from Heyang came here and communicated with the city through flags and smoke signals under the surveillance of the Wei army.

This situation of being besieged in an isolated city was very torturous, especially because Jinyong City had insufficient supplies due to the frequent dispatch of troops before. In addition, the drought since the beginning of summer caused the river and groundwater levels to drop, and the Wei army built a weir along the banks of Luoshui. Jinyong City faced Mangshan in the north, and the terrain was already high. Gradually, even drinking water in the city became a problem.

The peace talks between the two sides in Hongnong City are proceeding at a leisurely pace, but every minute and second passing by is an unbearable torture for the defenders in Jinyong City. Whether it was a war or a peace, they urgently needed a result. Of course, it was best for both sides to stop fighting, because in the process of defending the city with no guarantee of basic food supplies, the combat effectiveness of the defenders in the city also declined seriously.

Faced with this situation, guard Dugu Yongye was unable to reverse it and could only passively wait for a turnaround.

On this day, Dugu Yongye finished his inspection of the city and went to the north of the city as usual, looking at the mountains of Mang Mountain outside the city in a daze. They waited until nightfall, but still no messengers came from Heyang. However, the Wei army's cavalry outside the city were much more active today.

"Has Scout Heyang come here before?"

Seeing the outline of the mountains gradually disappearing into the night, Dugu Yongye had a vague feeling in his heart. He quickly turned to ask the defenders here. After receiving a negative answer, his heart suddenly sank again.

After the temporary truce between the two sides, Heyang kept coming here every day to deliver some news in order to keep the defenders here. This behavior also gained Wei Jun's tacit approval. After all, when peace talks began, a certain degree of sincerity still had to be shown.

But today, there were no Heyang scouts arriving outside the city. Instead, the Wei army was more active than usual. Dugu Yongye was keenly aware of this. It seemed that the situation outside had changed to a certain extent, and it seemed that this change was against the Western Wei Dynasty. On the downside.

He quickly arranged for his confidants to leave the city and go to the Wei army's camp to ask why the scouts from Heyang did not come here.

Originally, Dugu Yongye did not expect to get the answer, but his confidant soon returned to tell him the exact news. Because the Qi army violated the agreement between the two parties and tried to do evil in the Huainan area, it offended the king of Wei State and Tang Dynasty. Therefore, the king of Tang Dynasty He was ordered to block the river bridge and no Northern Qi figures were allowed to come south, which naturally included the scouts from Heyang.

"The situation in Heluo is really critical now. What plans does the junior high school have in Huainan?"

After Dugu Yongye heard this, he frowned and said, although he didn't know what happened in Huainan, seeing Wei Jun's reaction, it was probably serious. This can't help but make Dugu Yongye feel dissatisfied with the people who made this decision in the country. They are completely indifferent to priorities!

Naturally, the confidant had no answer for this, so he took out a wine jar from behind and offered it with both hands. At the same time, he said: "Wei General Han Mulan took the slave and presented this to the lord. At the end of the month, his army may have to attack again." Jin Yong launched an attack on the city and vowed not to stop fighting until the city was broken. Qiu Yan and his lord had been fighting for several years. Although they were enemies of each other, they admired his character and character and were about to say goodbye. Therefore, he presented a jar of fine wine to his lord... …”

"Hmph, the thief is really arrogant. We still don't know who will die in the future! Put away this vat of wine and save it to be sprinkled on the battlefield in the future to pay homage to Han Mulan!"

After Dugu Yongye heard this, his face suddenly darkened, and he immediately said bitterly. Although his tone was still strong, his mood became sad.

After pondering for a moment, he then ordered: "Quickly select five hundred elite soldiers from the army and collect them in the mansion. They will be specially provided with morning and evening meals. There must be no shortages in preparation for the breakout!"

"My lord wants to break out? But, but..."

After hearing this, the confidant's face changed slightly, and he said hesitantly.

Dugu Yongye frowned and sighed: "Of course I also hope to be able to defend Jinyong City, but if there is no strong support from the country, it will be really difficult to hold on. Especially if the Wei army is well-organized outside, if you are still obsessed with it, Shou, I'm afraid I will inevitably be trapped here. Well, it depends on the situation. If Heyang can't even send some messages, how can we expect a strong rescue? "