Chapter 21 Entering Xiangyang for the first time

The news that Zhao Jin was promoted to guerrillas quickly spread among the team. Surprise and excitement quickly enveloped everyone, and the originally quiet team became chattering.

But this time, no one came out to discipline them. Even Li Ping, who had been in charge of the east and west these days, did not speak out, so more soldiers joined in the high-pitched conversation, as if they had been promoted.

Li Ping was indeed unwilling to discipline at this time. It was nonsense to think that it would take 20 days for these soldiers to learn to strictly observe discipline. Their previous performance was already very good, and timely confusion would be more conducive to their continued obedience in the future.

Besides, he has more important tasks now.

After hesitating for a while, Li Ping rushed over to Zhao Lanyue and Gao Lei.

"Bring me one hundred taels of silver." Li Ping whispered to Gao Lei.

"You want money now? What do you want to do?" Gao Lei's face was full of surprise. Zhao Lanyue also turned her head curiously. She probably didn't hear clearly.

Li Ping had no intention of hiding it from Zhao Lanyue. He nodded his head forward and raised his voice slightly and said, "Zhao Jin just asked me to get some benefits for that soldier."

After Zhao Lanyue asked Gao Lei in a confused voice in a low voice, she immediately asked: "It doesn't cost that much! Do you know how much a hundred taels of silver is worth? It's not just a small amount of money like in the TV series."

Zhao Lanyue is obviously very aware of the actual value of the money here. She seems to have a natural sensitivity to money. This may be related to her profession or experience. Unlike Gao Lei, she is just confused about his behavior of asking for money, and Li Ping is also very suspicious.

Gao Lei had no idea how much wealth one hundred taels of silver meant.

"I know." Li Ping's answer was short and plain.

Zhao Lanyue stared at Li Ping and frowned slightly, probably not satisfied with the answer, but she immediately put on a smile and asked, "Did the soldier ask for it?"

"No, it was Zhao Jin who offered to give it. He didn't say much. One hundred taels was my own idea." Li Ping was very magnanimous and his tone was very calm.

"Are you sure you want to give so much?" Zhao Lanyue's eyes flickered, probably very surprised.

"OK." Li Ping nodded firmly.

"I'm going to find Song Baolai, please wait a moment." Zhao Lanyue was surprised that she didn't ask any more and agreed readily.

Gao Lei looked at Zhao Lanyue leaving in confusion, then turned to Li Ping and asked: "Why?"

"I can't bear to let the child catch the wolf." Li Ping curled his lips.

When Li Ping found an opportunity to hand the small cloth bag to Zhao Jin, Zhao Jin immediately handed it to Zuo Liangyu's soldier without hesitation. After a few dodges, the soldier quickly accepted it with a smile.

, and the two of them became closer.

This personal soldier of Zuo Liangyu is a bit talkative. I don’t know whether it’s because of his natural personality or because he is overly excited to be a master in their place. Anyway, he keeps showing off clearly and is a little bit tongue-tied about what he should say and what he shouldn’t say.

Already.

Soon, when a broad city slowly appeared in the distance of the rain and mist, the chaotic buzz in the team soon calmed down, but it was accompanied by small cheers that kept coming out.

The long journey is finally over, and the soles of your feet can finally relax.

Li Ping also stretched out his neck to look around, curiosity filled his heart. This was the first time he saw a truly authentic ancient city, where ancient people lived.

There is no majestic towering and thousands of scenes as imagined. He is used to seeing high-rise buildings, historical monuments and man-made miracles. It is difficult for Li Ping to be shocked by any building in this era, and his curiosity is more about its primitiveness.

Then, patches of messy private houses soon came into his sight. It was obvious that this seemingly wide city could not provide enough internal space for many civilians.

The mixture of residential buildings and cities outside the city is the true character of many cities in this era.

But as the distance continued to approach, this gray-black ancient city in the deep rain and fog made him feel particularly awe-inspiring.

Even in the residential houses that were about to enter chaos, Li Ping still couldn't hear the hustle and bustle that the city should have, nor could he see the passing pedestrians and horses, let alone the gorgeous architectural decorations, only silence and depression.

A few small trees hanging on the outside of the houses aroused his interest at this time. Without exception, they were all covered with small wooden cages, which were quite mysterious and different.

When Li Ping was still curious and thought he could finally see some ancient customs, he suddenly discovered that the cages were just ferocious heads that exuded a huge odor.

The sound of the woman's vomiting was quickly heard, causing Zuo Liangyu's soldier who was leading the way to look back several times in amusement. In contrast, Zhao Jin's dark face showed no expression.

The sense of safety and intimacy that the city was supposed to bring was completely gone at this moment.

This is Fancheng, the place where the famous "Seven Armies Flooded" story in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" took place, and where "Guan Gong scraped bones to cure poison" took place.

Of course, Li Ping also knew that these two stories did not take place in the city, but in the countryside. But what he didn't know was that they had actually passed the historical reality in the stories. It was a pity that Liu San's local society in Xiangyang

The knowledge at lower levels in this area is almost zero.

Although this gloomy city is not Xiangyang City, it is not much different from Xiangyang City.

In the Ming Dynasty, Fancheng should actually be regarded as the acropolis or expansion of Xiangyang. Because the two cities faced each other across the river and were integrated into one, they were often collectively called Xiangfan.

Through the previous homework he did with Liu San, Li Ping knew that Fancheng had always been mainly populated by civilians and garrisons. The most famous ones were the romantic places, restaurants and the continuous docks. As for the government offices, counties, guards and other official offices in Xiangyang, Prince Xiang's Palace

As well as various famous shops and handicraft stores, they are basically located in Xiangyang City.

However, since the rebellion began, the prosperity of Fancheng's market soon came to an end, and basically all the capable people hid in Xiangyang City.

Xiangyang City is the seat of the Xiangyang Prefecture of Huguang Chengxuan Government. The entire Xiangyang Prefecture governs Xiangyang County (the same city as the prefecture), Yicheng County, Nanzhang County, Zaoyang County, Gucheng County and Junzhou.

Li Ping understood that Hunan and Hubei had not been separated in the Ming Dynasty and were still one entity called Huguang. But what was the Provincial Envoy? Li Ping didn't understand it at first, and Liu San couldn't explain it at all.

Just like Liu San didn't know that Fancheng was independent a long time ago and originally belonged to Henan, he didn't even know the origin of Xiangyang's name. Fortunately, Li Ping knew that Li Daoyuan's "Shui Jing Zhu" said: "

The city is located on the Yangtze River of Xiangshui (i.e. Hanjiang River), so it is called Xiangyang."

But soon, Li Ping roughly understood the meaning of Chengxuanzhengshisi through logical relationships. Chengxuanzhengshisi should be roughly equivalent to a province, and a government should be equivalent to a prefecture-level city in later generations. As for the Ming Dynasty, it was in

In the ninth year of Hongwu (1376), the provinces following the Yuan Dynasty were changed to the Provincial Envoy Department, and the name was changed. Li Ping gradually figured it out soon after.

Passing through a group of residential buildings, the close-up view of Fancheng finally came into view.

It is actually an earthen city wall.

The first close-up image Fan Cheng brought to Li Ping surprised him.

Zhu Yuanzhang once ordered that all city walls at prefecture and county levels across the country should be covered with bricks. Therefore, the city walls in the Ming Dynasty should have been covered with bricks. But what happened to Fancheng? Li Ping did not expect the first thing he saw in this era.

A city is actually an earth city.

Li Ping had no idea that Fan Cheng was not able to enjoy the benefits of Zhu Yuanzhang's policies due to his low administrative status. This was a bit beyond his knowledge structure, and of course it would be difficult for him to understand it even if he knew it.

This is Fancheng! A military fortress.

With questions in mind, Li Ping quickly followed the team to a city gate.

The moat surrounding the city, the incomplete sheep and horse wall built along the inner edge of the moat, the urn in front of the city gate, the city tower, and the wooden suspension bridge, finally revealed the military fortress nature of this city.

The energy of Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier unexpectedly exceeded everyone's imagination. Amidst the shouts, they successfully walked onto the suspension bridge without being questioned, and then more wooden cages hanging on the outer edge of the city wall appeared.

In front of them, they didn't know who they were trying to scare.

The moat is very narrow, only about 10 meters, and the city wall is not high, only about 5 meters, which are much lower than Li Ping's estimate. The urn city is even smaller, and the city gate is also not big.

But what was even more disappointing were the soldiers guarding the city.

They were generally thin and short, wearing bamboo hats, messy shorts, bare feet, short spears and inferior waist knives. There were only about ten people, most of whom did not have uniforms and headscarves, and they squatted scatteredly by the wall inside the doorway to take shelter.

Yu, this is the guard at the city gate.

There was no human figure visible on the city wall.

"Dingzhongmen".

Li Ping specifically took a look at the traditional Chinese characters on the city gate. He was guessing the importance of this city gate. Because the training and equipment level of the soldiers at this city gate was undoubtedly extremely poor, and their awareness of security was even worse. They were raided

ideal object.

With its narrow streets, earthen floors, and disorganized and crude houses, the inner city of Fancheng also did not bring many surprises to Li Ping, who was accustomed to the world. The only thing that impressed him was its simplicity and primitiveness.

After several turns, it didn't take them long to complete the journey through the city and arrived at the southern earth wall of Fan City, a long, lower and more dilapidated city wall.

The north-south length of Fancheng does not seem to be very long, at least it is very different from the broad east-west length seen from a distance. Fancheng is likely to be a flat strip.

As soon as they left the south wall of Fan City, they immediately saw an extremely wide river as promised, which should be the Han River (also called the Han River). On the opposite side of the river, a larger city built on the mountain was also exposed on the right side.

its hazy shadow.

Piers are everywhere. Outside the city wall in the south of Fancheng are all large and small piers as far as the eye can see. The connection between Fancheng and Xiangyang is undoubtedly extremely close.

However, although there are many large and small ships between these piers, the river is extremely empty and there are only a few people on each pier. If you look carefully, you can see people's heads constantly coming from those docked between the piers.

Various ships emerged, but quickly shrank back again, as if they were avoiding the plague.

When Zuo Liangyu's soldiers were arrogantly arranging boats to cross the river at a pier guarded by soldiers somewhere along the river, Zhao Jin approached Li Ping, who had been looking around, and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Li Ping withdrew his gaze and said with a complicated expression: "The army here is very bad, and the city's defense state is not good either."

"Yes, and the number is not large." Zhao Jin continued with a smile.

"How do you know the number is small?" Li Ping was very surprised. He knew very well that these current appearances alone were not enough to judge the situation of the entire garrison.

"I'll tell you in detail after I've settled down." As he said that, Zhao Jin nuzzled in the direction of Zuo Liangyu's soldier. Li Ping immediately understood that Zhao Jin was not stupidly just trying to flatter him, but that soldier

It's too frivolous.

"How much money is in the bag?" Zhao Jin then asked.

"About a hundred taels, just a lot more. They are all broken silver, so I can only estimate." Li Ping answered calmly.

But Zhao Jin immediately sniffed involuntarily, and then said in a loud voice that he couldn't control: "I'm just telling you, why does it feel so heavy when I bump it? There are so many!"

"What! There are too many bags?" Li Ping was a little puzzled.

"It's indeed quite a lot, it's a bit beyond my expectation." Zhao Jin finally suppressed his voice again, and then he suddenly laughed and said: "But, well done! Look how caring that guy is, he's still your kid
To be continued...