Putting aside personal trivialities, after Li Jiajun's westward march from Yuguan, the daily advance speed was more than 100 miles.

Because the Khitans did not expect that Li Zhongyi would have such courage to dare to go west. Therefore, the Great Plain of Thistle not only does not have strong walls and clear fields, but presents a peaceful home atmosphere.

In this way, the grain and grass seized along the way, which can be described as a mountain, cannot summarize the whole picture.

As for the population that Li Zhongyi values the most, according to the statistics of the Quartermaster House of the Senate Department, so far, a total of more than 5,000 households and more than 30,000 people have been taken captive.

Among them, many of them are large families who cultivate and study heirlooms, and these wealthy families, who have more food and money, and many young and strong servants, are the ideal targets for moving south.

Protracted wars, especially national wars, are fought not only by soldiers and food, but also by vital populations.

At present, the Great Zhou Dynasty has not yet unified the south, and the total population is only more than 30 million. Of course, due to the heavy levies, land levies, and taxes on the number of people, the people are mostly driven by the interests of the hidden population.

According to Li Zhongyi's preliminary estimates, the total population of the current Great Zhou Dynasty should be more than 40 million, and the adult 20 to 40 years old are about 8 million.

In these years when there is no national census, not only is the population confused, but even the all-important tax-paying acres are also blurred.

Compared with the population, the large households, gentry, and military generals in various places are driven by the interests of hidden acres, and they are also more intense.

Li Zhongyi didn't know much about other places, but when he was the Yin of Kaifeng Mansion, he once did a secret spot check on the fields. The conclusion is very surprising, just under the roots of the imperial city, the fertile land hidden by the wealthy and powerful is conservatively estimated to be more than forty percent.

With so much fertile land, the magnates not only did not pay taxes, but also used their abundant capital and food regulation ability to repeatedly force the yeoman farmers to go bankrupt and become displaced in the year of the catastrophe.

This is the result of the cycle of chaos!

The essence of the cycle of chaos is that the basic national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business and industry allows the magnates to make a fuss about the land, resulting in the speed of land reclamation never catching up with the speed of land annexation.

At the beginning of the establishment of the dynasty, a large number of people were wiped out because of the war, and the rulers had just experienced the war and knew the consequences of the official coercion and the people's rebellion.

As a result, various policies for the resumption of production came into being, such as the dictation of fields.

When the families of the powerful are scattered, and more and more people from the privileged class need to be supported, and they gradually cannot make ends meet, they will turn their crooked brains on the homesteaders.

In fact, the two Song Dynasty that were closest to this time did not suppress land annexation. The basic national policy of the two Song Dynasty was to emphasize agriculture and not suppress business, and even businessmen could participate in the imperial examination and become officials.

Unfortunately, the Northern Song Dynasty was too indulgent to the privileged class of scholars, and the bureaucrats at all levels and their children who needed to be supported were too large, resulting in financial collapse.

The fundamental purpose of Song Shenzong's appointment of Wang Anshi to change the law was not to benefit the people, but to compete with the official gentry class for profit and expand the government's financial revenue.

Since ancient times, all reforms that do not think about the open source of wealth and only consider the distribution of profits from the hands of the gentry have all failed, without exception.

The reputation of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and Emperor Yongzheng was so stinky among the scholar class, and the root problem was that they undermined the fundamental interests of the gentry class.

Everything is inferior, only reading is high!

The essence of reading high is that only those who read can be officials. However, studying for the imperial examination requires a solid family background.

In this era of low productivity, it is difficult for even relatively wealthy yeoman farmers to support a scholar who is not engaged in production for many years.

As a latecomer, Li Zhongyi has been in the core power circle for a long time as an imperial doctor, and his extensive knowledge allows him to see the gains and losses of the past dynasties.

The fundamental reason for breaking the law of the cycle of chaos is that we must not block the channels for the rise of the children of the poor and fully expand the channels of employment.

It is necessary to focus on agriculture, business, and industry at the same time, so that even if the poor disciples cannot study and become officials, they can rely on diligence and wisdom to find a good way out in the shopping mall or factory.

In the two Song Dynasty in history, the government was more tolerant, and there were more ways out for the poor, even if the land annexation was still very serious, but there were almost no nationwide uprisings.

Two days later, the Li family's army gathered in Anxi County, surrounding the entire county so much that not even a fly could fly out of the city.

Although Anxi County is a county seat, its military status is extremely important because it is the east gate of Jizhou and even Nanjing Xijin Mansion.

According to the information transmitted by Xizuo, the Khitans not only garrisoned as many as 30,000 troops here, but also used Anxi County as a branch for grain stockpiling.

At this time, there were more soldiers and horses of the Khitan and Han armies in the county town than civilians, and it was a typical military fortress.

It is precisely because Anxi County is a big fat piece and there are 20,000 garrisons, so Li Zhongyi came happily.

After the siege of the city was completed, Yang Lie gave an order, and the sappers instructed the slaves of all ethnic groups to dig three trenches around the county seat of Anxi. Each trench must be three zhang wide and three zhang deep, and the excavated earth is used to build a fortified wall.

More than 30,000 slaves of all ethnic groups worked every day and night under the urgent hope of freeing slaves. In the past, the amount of work that took at least three days to complete was largely completed in just one day and night.

Of course, this is also inseparable from the tool. On the way to Anxi, the Li army broke through hundreds of villages, and the village hoes, wooden shovels, iron hammers and other agricultural tools were also brought to Anxi City.

It is obvious that people gather firewood more vigorously, and that when there are more slaves, they dig ditches.

Li Zhongyi sat in the big tent, and the two sides were full of senior generals in the Li family's army, and everyone gathered together to discuss the siege plan.

Different from the previous military discussions, behind the generals, the senators appeared for the first time. These senators are all outstanding talents who have performed outstanding in previous wars.

The basis for the Senate Department's designation of the battle plan is sufficient and detailed intelligence information, which naturally includes the views of the generals on the war.

In order to avoid deviations in the upload and distribution, Li Zhongyi did not do anything but did not do anything, and simply included outstanding senators in the military council meeting in advance, so as to achieve the positive effect of brainstorming.

Yang Lie, who was sitting on Li Zhongyi's right hand, was the host of this military meeting, and Yang Lie's position was already above 10,000 people under one person, which not only had Li Zhongyi's special trust, but also had an inseparable relationship with Yang Lie being a military command genius.

To put it bluntly, Yang Lie's stable position as deputy marshal in the Li family army can be said to be well-deserved, beyond doubt.

Seeing Li Zhongyi bowing slightly, Yang Lie cleared his throat and said loudly: "The battle plan formulated by the Senate Department has been issued, please express your opinions on the battle plan. Here, I would like to remind you that matters unrelated to combat are not on the agenda of this military meeting. On the orders of the Lord, anyone who violates it will be fined 100 cents. ”

"Whoa."

With Li Zhongyi's support and Yang Lie's outstanding military exploits as the backing, none of the heavy generals present dared to challenge his deputy commander's authority in public.

Li Zhongyi touched his chin, the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, in the past military discussions, everyone could speak freely, but there was no shortage of insinuating personal attacks.

This scolding is cowardly thinking, that scolding this is small-scale peasant consciousness, and even worse, insulting the elders of their colleagues.

It's tolerable, it's unbearable!

After all, there are limits to the so-called freedom of speech. A military discussion is a military discussion, and it involves the battle plan of the life and death of the whole army.

In today's military discussion, Zhu Niang pressed the knife with a bow on her back and stood behind Li Zhongyi on the left side. Yang Xiaoyi was nowhere to be seen, and he didn't know where the cat went.

As for Ye Xiaolan, the clerk of the inner study, she hid behind the bookcase in the inner account, and was specifically responsible for recording Li Zhongyi's speech.

Li Zhongyi has always had the habit of taking notes, no matter how good his memory is, it is not as good as a bad pen after all.

With the increasing status of his status, his daily notes were divided into two parts, and his public speeches were recorded by Ye Xiaolan or Han Xianglan, who were very good at calligraphy, and he made separate annotations.

The most confidential note is a booklet cut and bound on white paper, and Li Zhongyi carries the booklet with him, and when he encounters something worthy of attention, he takes out a charcoal pencil and makes a brief record on the booklet.

The first to stand up and speak was Li Haodong, who was also in charge of the Senate and the Chamber, and military intelligence work was within the scope of his duties, and if he did not come forward to give a specific explanation, the heavy generals present could not even understand the basic battlefield situation, so how could sparks collide?

"According to the military information from the rear half an hour ago, after Yelu arrived in Pingzhou, he did not move his nest except for removing a large number of throats. An hour ago, the military information sent back from Youzhou showed that the Khitans should have known about the westward advance of our army with all their might, but what is puzzling is that there is no sign of Yelu Xiuge gathering troops and horses to help in the direction of Youzhou. Li Haodong paused slightly, so as to give everyone time to think.

Li Zhongyi picked up the teacup and took two sips, anyone with a discerning eye knows the importance of Anxi, but Brother Hugh actually sat back and watched the Li family's army attack Anxi, if there is no ghost hall here, it is impossible to believe it if he is killed.

Brother Hugh's abnormal reaction made Li Zhongyi think of the words "there is fraud in it" for the first time.

There is no second possibility for striking targets that are more important than the transit station except for the total annihilation of Li Jiajun and the capture of Li Zhongyi alive.

But the problem is that the Han family in Youzhou was punished by the clan, and Ye Xiaolan's maiden family has severed the relationship with her.

The battle between Yelu Huge and the Khitan Emperor, what the battle was like and how far it had progressed, Li Zhongyi didn't know anything.