Chapter 33: Yanmenguan Guangwucheng
Chapter 33 Yanmen Pass Guangwu City
Chapter 32: Yanmen Pass and Guangwu City
Qin Wen, who was riding a snow dragon horse, quickly traveled through most of Bingzhou and rushed to Yanmen County at full speed. However, Qin Hao did not go to the county government office, but went directly to Guangwu, which is closest to Yanmen Pass.
Yanmen County is located in the northeast of Bingzhou and has jurisdiction over 14 counties, including Yinguan, Mayi, Qixian, Loufan, Guangwu, Yuanping, Lucheng, Wangtao, Fanri, Juyang, Naoxian, Wuzhou, 14 counties including Pingcheng and Qiangyang.
Yanmen County is bordered by vast grasslands to the north, Taiyuan to the south, Jizhou Daijun to the east, and Dingxiang to the west. The terrain is surrounded by mountains, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. Moreover, the county has the strongest pass to resist the aliens from the north, Yanmen Pass!
Yanmen Pass borders Longling and Yanmen Mountain to the east, and Long Mountain to the west. The two mountains face each other and are shaped like a gate. Wild geese fly between them every year, so it is called Yanmen, also known as Yanmen Sai and Xilong Pass. It is located on the choke point of Guangwu. After walking out of Guangwu City and following the ditch, you will enter a narrow valley, known as the Yanmen Ancient Danger Road. There are mountains on both sides, with strange rocks flying dangerously high. After climbing over a steep ridge, you will reach Yanmen Pass. Eye-catching.
Yanmen Pass is built against the mountains, with overlapping peaks and steep cliffs. The pass walls are densely populated with pheasants and spies, and the beacon monkeys echo each other. On the east and west sides, there are Laoyingkou Pass, Shenchikou, Yangfangkou, Donglongkou, Xishankou, Doloukou, and Dashikou. Shikou, Malankou, Ruyuekou, Huyukou and other eighteen passes are connected into one. The terrain is very dangerous and it is a battleground for military strategists. It is also the only way for the foreign tribes from the north to go south.
During the Warring States Period, General Li Mu of the State of Zhao was stationed at Yanmen. Taking advantage of the dangers surrounding the city, he carefully defended and defeated the Xiongnu with hundreds of thousands of horses;
The famous generals of the Han Dynasty, Li Guang, Wei Qing, and Huo Qubing, once led their troops to fight against the Xiongnu here, and won a great victory, which shocked the outside world;
Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty once led his troops to fight the Turks here; General Xue Rengui of the Tang Dynasty once chased the Turks here and reported frequent successes;
Yang Ye in the Northern Song Dynasty also went out to Yanmen several times to defeat the Liao soldiers, which frightened them and earned him the title of "Yang Invincible".
Qin Hao's father, Qin Wen, has been benevolent since he became the governor of Yanmen four years ago. He opened trade routes, recruited refugees, dealt with corrupt officials internally, and fought against the Xiongnu externally.
After four years of vigorous development, Yanmen has achieved great governance, with well-organized government and people, and no mistakes on the road. Now it has surpassed Taiyuan in terms of population and has become the most populous county in Bingzhou. It currently has a population of 400,000 and a garrison of 40,000.
Yanmen County has undergone great changes in the past four years, but its development has been extremely bumpy.
In the four years since Qin Wen took office, he has been at war for two years, which can be said to be a constant war.
As for the reason? After the prefect Qin Wen took office, he did something that challenged the bottom line of the Xiongnu tribe, which was to rebuild Yanmen Pass.
Yanmen Pass is the gateway to resist the foreign tribes in the north. It plays an extremely important role for the entire Northern Territory of the Han Dynasty. However, during the period of Emperor Huan, due to the incompetence of the defenders, Yanmen Pass was attacked and burned by the Xiongnu Chan Yu Luan Ti Qiang Canal. Since then it has been in a state of neglect and has never been rebuilt.
It’s not that the Han Dynasty never thought about rebuilding Yanmen Pass to consolidate the northern border, but as soon as the Han Dynasty built Yanmen Pass, the Huns would definitely lead their troops south to clear grass valleys.
The Han army, which lost the Yanmen natural moat, was simply unable to resist the Huns' cavalry, and was destroyed before it was even built.
Coupled with the weakness of the compromise faction in the DPRK and China, the Han and the Hungarians finally secretly reached a tacit agreement, that is, the Han Dynasty would not rebuild Yanmen Pass, and the Xiongnu would only operate in the northern and central parts of Bingzhou.
This tacit understanding lasted for nearly twenty years. It was not until Qin Wen rebuilt Yanmen Pass that the balance was broken.
Once the Yanmen Pass natural moat is re-established, and with the barrier of Xiong Pass, the Xiongnu will no longer be able to plunder southward wantonly, Bingzhou will no longer be the back garden of the Huns, and the people of Bingzhou will also live a stable life.
Although Qin Wen's move was widely expected, it was playing with fire. If he was not careful, he would burn himself with fire. The Xiongnu would never watch Qin Wen rebuild Yanmen Pass, and war was inevitable.
In rebuilding Yanmen Pass, success will be remembered for eternity, failure will be infamous for eternity. Fortunately, Qin Wen succeeded.
When facing the invading 15,000 cavalry for the first time, Qin Wen only had 20,000 old and weak county soldiers in his hands. Qin Wen first showed the enemy that he was weak and pretended to defeat three battles in a row. Annihilate 15,000 invading enemies.
Taking advantage of the month before the Huns invaded again, Qin Wen concentrated the manpower, material and financial resources of the entire county and raced against time to repair Yanmen Pass.
During this month, 200,000 soldiers and civilians of Yanmen went into battle together, men, women, old and young, all carrying burdens with bare sleeves and willing to sweat and bleed for Yanmen Pass.
Because they knew that when the Xiongnu returned again, there would be not only 15,000, but 100,000. If there was no strong pass to protect them, death would be waiting for them.
Even if 200,000 soldiers and civilians work hard, it is impossible to repair Yanmen Pass within a month. However, although it is impossible to repair all the crossings, it is more than enough to repair a few crossings.
When the Xiongnu invaded for the second time, Qin Wen relied on the dangerous crossings he had repaired to defend it. Due to the united efforts of the army and the people, and the fact that the Xiongnu moved in a hurry and lacked food and grass, the Xiongnu finally ran out of food after holding on for a month.
After the Xiongnu retreated, Qin Wen continued to invest in the repair of Yanmen Pass. When the Xiongnu returned again, what awaited them would be a stronger cold city wall.
The reconstruction of Yanmen Pass took a total of eight months. It is a miracle that Qin Wen completed the construction of this magnificent pass in such a short time with the power of one county. However, this is also inseparable from the support of the imperial court and other states and counties in Bingzhou. .
After Qin Wen repelled the two southern invasions of the Xiongnu, the imperial court also saw the hope of rebuilding Yanmen Pass, so it ordered the governor Ding Yuan to fully cooperate with Qin Wen in rebuilding Yanmen Pass.
It is precisely because of the support of the entire Bingzhou that Qin Wen was able to rebuild Yanmen Pass within eight months and make it stronger than before.
Seeing that Yanmen Pass was getting stronger day by day, the young Xiongnu Chanyu Fuluo was naturally unwilling to give in. He vowed to once again destroy this heroic pass that his father had destroyed. However, Qin Wen was not an incompetent general, and he could count as a soldier with the heroic pass in hand. He is not afraid of anything less.
During the four years when Qin Wen served as the prefect of Yanmen, Yufuluo launched a total of 13 attacks on Yanmen. However, except for leaving no less than 80,000 corpses at Yanmen Pass, Yanmen Pass was hardly moved at all. The Yanmen Army also continued to hone in the defense of the city, and eventually became the most elite frontier army of the Han Dynasty. The prefect Qin Wen became famous all over the world for his contribution to rebuilding Yanmen Pass and defeating the Xiongnu, and became a famous Confucian general praised by everyone.
With the guards at Yanmen Pass, the Xiongnu could no longer get involved in Yanmen. Yanmen County gradually returned to stability, and many people who had gone out returned.
Coupled with Qin Hao’s series of preferential policies to absorb refugees, Yanmen became the first choice for the migration of refugees in northern Xinjiang, and a large number of refugees from Jizhou migrated to Bi.
With the population comes the source of soldiers. In the past four years, the population of Yanmen has increased from 200,000 to 400,000, and the garrison has also increased from the original 20,000 county soldiers to the current 40,000 elite soldiers.
Although there are some guards at Xiongguan, Yanmen is not absolutely safe. After all, Yanmen Pass has been breached.
In order to strengthen the defense of Yanmen Pass, Qin Wen had good intentions. Not only did he move the county government office directly to Guangwu County, which is only more than 30 miles away from Yanmen Pass, he also placed most of the refugees in the county near Yanmen Pass to facilitate their employment. Local conscription.
This has also made the six counties in the northern part of Yanmen, which were originally sparsely populated, gradually become prosperous.
With the continuous development of commerce and the continuous expansion of trade routes, under the guidance of the Qin family trading firm, Guangwu City gradually became the "commercial capital" of Bingzhou, and more and more merchants came here to do business.
Guangwu City has also become more and more prosperous and has been expanded twice, becoming the second commercial city in Bingzhou with a population of 100,000.
Since riding horses is not allowed in Guangwu City, Qin Hao dismounted his horse and walked slowly towards the prefect's mansion after entering Guangwu City. The snow dragon colt attracted the attention of passers-by along the way.
“What a handsome white horse, even the prefect’s ‘Zidian’ horse can’t compare to it!”
“What a good horse, this horse is worth a thousand dollars!”
Although horses are not a rare thing in the north, the height of the Snow Dragon Colt is almost twice that of ordinary horses. Anyone who is not blind can almost tell at a glance that this is a magical colt that can travel thousands of miles a day.
"Which young talent from this family is so handsome? A horse and a talented man are a good match."
“You don’t know this, right? He is the young master of the prefect’s family. I met Mr. Qin on the prefect’s birthday last year!”
“Qin Hao, the boy with double pupils, is actually him!”
After a commoner revealed Qin Hao's identity, all the common people immediately exclaimed. A series of policies to benefit the people over the years have made Qin Wen deeply loved by the people of Yanmen, and the eyes he looked at Qin Hao were also extremely soft.
“Master Qin, you are so handsome!”
“Has the young master ever been married? The little girl is twenty-eight years old and as beautiful as a flower. May I take the young master as my concubine?”…
Qin Hao felt overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the people in Yanmen, so he immediately quickened his pace and left the place of right and wrong as quickly as possible. There were also some knowledgeable people who looked at Qin Hao with thoughtful expressions.
"Isn't Qin Hao a disciple of Master Wang? If he doesn't study with Master Wang at this time, why is he going back to Yanmen?"
"Who knows? But now that the Yellow Turbans are in rebellion, the prefect is about to lead the troops to suppress it. Maybe the young master will go out with the prefect to quell the rebellion!"
“You go to war at the age of fourteen? You are worthy of being the son of the governor of Qin!”
The Prefect's Mansion is located in the center of Guangwu City. It can be walked along almost every avenue. After getting away from the crowd, Qin Hao quickly found the Prefect's Mansion. When he was about to enter, he saw a serious-looking gatekeeper stepping forward to stop him.
“The prefect’s palace is an important place, and the rest of the people will stop there.”
Qin Hao was stunned when he saw the person coming. He didn't expect that he was still an acquaintance. He had changed a lot over the years, so it was normal for the other person not to recognize him, but why was he here?
“General Gao Shun, why are you here guarding the gate?”
【Who is Gao Shun? I believe that fans of the Three Kingdoms must know that if this die-hard loyalist does not accept him, it will be really difficult to conquer him in addition to accepting Lu Bu in the future. The war is about to begin. I hope everyone will support us. Please vote for recommendations. 】
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(End of this chapter)
