Yiwei in March of the first year of Yuanyou (the second day of the lunar month)

Zhang Dun, with a large group of chieftains and followers, finally arrived at his destination - Yongzhou.

Yongzhou City is not big, slightly longer from north to south and slightly narrow from east to west.

Common names: Zhicheng Sanliqi, Hengcheng Qilisan.

There are five gates in the city, all of which were newly built after Xining.

The city wall is tall and solid, the city gate is thick, and an artificial moat is dug outside the city. There is also a design of a sheep and horse city outside the city gate.

Obviously, all of this was rebuilt based on the lessons learned from the fall of Yongzhou when Jiaozhi invaded the invaders in the eighth year of Xining.

When Zhang Dun arrived, construction was still going on on the towers of Yongzhou City.

It can be seen that the shadow of the Eight Bull Crossbow has appeared in the female wall of the city tower.

Su Ziyuan introduced next to him: "My lord, since the last general received the report from the imperial court, we have begun to strengthen the defense of Yongzhou city and train the Yongzhou Baojia households."

"Today, a total of 1,500 Baojia soldiers have been trained. Including the original garrison in Yongzhou, the city defense strength of Yongzhou has reached 4,000. Even if the Jiaozhi bandits come again, there will be nothing to fear!"

In the eighth year of Xining, 80,000 soldiers and horses from Jiaozhi besieged Yongzhou.

There were 2,500 defenders of Yongzhou, and they held on for more than a month. In the end, Yongzhou fell because some rebels taught the Jiaozhi bandit Kou Leitu how to attack the city.

After the war, Yongzhou City began to rebuild based on the lessons learned from the last fall.

The number of city gates has been reduced from twelve to the current five, and the city walls have been thickened and heightened.

Su Ziyuan came to Yongzhou and became the magistrate of Yongzhou. He continued to lead the army and civilians to expand the city defense of Yongzhou.

Not only did a large number of city defense equipment be added, but Yangma City was also built at each gate outside the city, which was a supporting urban defense measure that the Song Dynasty had perfected in actual combat on the northwest border.

Zhang Dun rode his horse and patrolled Yongzhou City.

He was very satisfied with the defense of Yongzhou City. From his perspective, Yongzhou City on Guangnan West Road could already be regarded as a powerful city.

In addition to not having a hugely expensive horse face, this city is already very close to the northwest fortress-type cities like Dashun City in terms of defense.

Even if Jiaozhi soldiers and horses besiege Yongzhou again, relying on the city's defense, it will not be a problem to hold on for half a year.

Of course, if the Song Dynasty is prepared, if the Jiaozhi soldiers are called to attack Yongzhou again.

That was the failure of his strategy.

The chieftains who patrolled the city with Zhang Dun were all very strange.

This was the first time they saw Yangma City, a new type of fortification that developed from the melee in the Central Plains in the late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties, and matured in the war between the Song Dynasty and the Western Bandits.

They all marveled at it and pointed at those sheep and horse cities, feeling inexplicably powerful.

Zhang Dun, however, led everyone into the city after taking a look around Yongzhou's city defenses.

As soon as he entered the city, he received Di Yong's military report.

Military reports showed that the army led by Di Yong had set out from Guizhou and arrived at Yongzhou on Dingwei Day (19th) in the leap month of February last month.

It is expected to arrive in Yongzhou in three to five days.

The reason why he walked so slowly was because Di Yong still needed to escort 300,000 yuan of military supplies.

At the same time, there are 100,000 shi of food that will come with the army.

Of course, the food and military supplies are all young and strong civilians recruited by the Guangxi Transport Envoy.

Miao Shizhong recruited more than 10,000 young men and more than 4,000 mules and horses in Guizhou, and built thousands of chicken carts and handcarts for this material transfer.

After reading the general's report, Zhang Dun looked at Su Ziyuan who had been following him on horseback and said: "Zhizhou Su, you can select an official who is smart, reliable and eloquent to go to Jiaozhi to read out the emperor's edict."

As early as the first month of this year, the government and the opposition were discussing war and peace.

The emperor has already set the tone for this battle.

Jiaozhi invaded our frontier, killed and plundered officials and people, slandered the late emperor, and insulted the holy dynasty. It was a heinous crime!

At that time, there was already a decree - to send an envoy to investigate the crime and order Jiaozhi to hand over the culprit of the Northern Song Dynasty - Yang Jingtong, the magistrate of Guangyuan Prefecture in Jiaozhi.

At the same time, hand over the two culprits who insulted the Holy Dynasty and slandered the late emperor.

One is an unknown poet who wrote: Because of greed, he lost Guangyuan gold.

The other one was Li Changjie, the Lieutenant of Jiaozhi who rebelled against the country and insulted the imperial dynasty, and the general of the auxiliary country.

The decree had already been written by Deng Runfu, a Hanlin scholar at that time.

But it was not sent directly to Jiaozhi, but was handed over to Zhang Dun.

When Zhang Dun moved south, Di Yong's army arrived in Yongzhou. At the same time, Guangxi made preparations and then sent to Jiaozhi.

The purpose is obvious, which is to anger the other party!

To force Jiaozhi to take the initiative to send troops to invade, thus completing the center's temple plan - to look for opportunities to encircle and annihilate the main force of Jiaozhi north of the Fuliang River.

At least it should be severely damaged.

Su Ziyuan was stunned for a moment, but finally nodded: "General, I will obey the commander's military orders!"

Zhang Dun nodded and looked back at the chieftains following him.

These toasts have basically been mobilized now.

Each of the four concubines of Mo Shiren in Nandan Prefecture recruited about 500 to 800 Dong Ding.

In total, there are almost 2,500 men and horses.

However, among the major chieftains, the Mo family did not send the largest number of troops.

The person who sent the most troops was the local chieftain officer of Yongzhou, and he was also a new chieftain.

Yanbianxi Dong army and people Xuan Fu envoy, Huaiyuan General Cen Ziting.

Cen Ziting's father is Cen Zhongshu, who was a general who followed Di Qing in the southern expedition. After defeating Nong Zhigao, Cen Zhongshu had great prestige due to his hard work and familiarity with the Dongxi situation in Guangxi. Therefore, he knew Guizhou and Yongzhou successively during the Renmiao Dynasty.

, and finally the official paid homage to General Huaiyuan, and the Dong Xuanfu envoy along the Bianxi River.

After Cen Zhongshu's death, he was posthumously granted the title of Duke of Guangdong, and his son Cen Ziting inherited his father's position.

He is still the Xuanfu envoy of Yanbian River and Dong, and the general Gu Huaiyuan.

Two generations of the Cen family run more than a dozen Dongxi tribes in Yongzhou, Lianzhou and Qinzhou.

Therefore, the largest number of troops can be used.

There are a total of 5,000 Dong and Ding, 3,000 of whom are battle-hardened soldiers who have prepared their own armor.

Of course, here in Guangxi, the so-called battle-tested formation is probably to suppress the rebellious Dong Xi, and the so-called armor is most likely to be leather armor or even cloth armor.

Zhang Dun never expected that these chieftain soldiers would become the main force on the battlefield.

If they can stand by waving flags and shouting, guarding the back roads and food routes, so that the main force of the Song army has no worries, it is considered that these people have performed exceptionally well.

The real main force of the battle still depends on the five thousand forbidden troops brought by Di Yong.

They are the officers and soldiers from Guizhou, Yizhou, Yongzhou and other places.

Zhang Dun didn't count on them either.

These people are all chess pieces on the chessboard to fill in the blanks and build momentum.

Just be able to complete these tasks well.

Of course, these people are also important!

They are the key to the future governance of northern Jiaozhi during the Song Dynasty!

It is also the basis of some of the emperor's plans.

Thinking about the emperor's plan, Zhang Dun suddenly remembered.

It seems that he has never received any news about Gao Zunhui, the uncle of the country who went south with the army?

So, Zhang Dun asked Su Ziyuan: "General Su, do you know the news about Gao Zuoma?"

Su Ziyuan was stunned for a moment, thought for a while, and replied: "My lord, I heard someone say some time ago that Gao Zouma went to Guihua Prefecture, Shun'an Prefecture and other places."

"Huh?" Zhang Dun frowned: "What is he doing there?"

Su Ziyuan shook his head: "The general only knows that Zouma seems to have brought many people with accents from Mingzhou, Suzhou and other places."

"Mingzhou, Suzhou accent?" Zhang Dun became even more curious.

"Um!"

…

Gao Zunhui braved the scorching sun and walked on the barren hills between the sloping fields in Shun'an Prefecture.

A family member followed him closely.

This man is the son of Nong Shengde, the magistrate of Shun'an Prefecture.

It was Nong Shunde who was specially sent to assist him.

On the barren mountains, there are a large number of Dong and Ding women and children, sweating profusely under the scorching sun.
To be continued...