Near noon, the scorching temperature of the desert made people sweat incessantly, and the people in the city hid in their homes to cool off, and there were few people to be seen on the street. As the largest city in the southwest border of Western Qin www.biquge.info Jiling City has a permanent population of nearly 100,000 and a floating population of nearly 200,000.

Jiling City is not only the largest city on the southwest border of Western Qin, but also the largest trade distribution center, here is the transportation hub of Western Qin and the Great Food Country, and eighty percent of the merchants and goods going to and from the Western Qin and the Great Food Country have to pass through here, so the resident population of this city has increased more than ten times in the past ten years, and the floating population is doubling every year, because of its huge cargo throughput so that people from near and far see the business opportunities here and come here.

However, some time ago, the economic blockade of the Great Food Country by the Western Qin Dynasty and the recent approach of the war have made the city now depressed, and more than eighty percent of the floating population has left within the past two months, and many permanent residents have also sold their real estate and shops here and moved to other places.

Suddenly a troop of soldiers and horses began to stand guard along the street, and three or two pedestrians on the street immediately hid when they saw this formation, while the people in the shops and houses on both sides of the street quietly opened a crack in the door to see what was happening.

Zhao Ziliang, who was riding on a war horse, saw that there was not a single pedestrian on the street except for the soldiers standing guard, and immediately frowned and asked: "Zhao Hu, there is not even a person on this street?" Did you order martial law? ”

Zhao Hu, who was accompanying him, hurriedly clenched his fists and replied: "Back to the king, Weichen did not order martial law!" After all, this place is close to the border, for the safety of the king and to prevent assassination, Weichen and the others did not order the people here to welcome the king! ”

"Then why isn't there even one?"

Huo Kan of the Eighth Legion said: "In recent months, due to the economic blockade of the Great Food Country ordered by the royal court, the border pass not far from the west of this city has been closed, and no one is allowed to travel, so the advantage of this city as the largest border trading town in the southwest region is gone, many of the floating population who work and do business here have left one after another in the past few months, and even most of the permanent residents have sold their property cheaply and left here, and the news of the recent outbreak of war has come, More people choose to leave this city, which may be invaded by the Great Food Eaters at any time! According to the statistics of the Taishou Mansion of Jiling City, before the economic blockade, there were about 300,000 permanent residents and floating population, and after the economic blockade began, 200,000 people left one after another, and after the news of the war came, about 50,000 left, so there were only 50,000 people left in this huge city, and most of them were old and weak women and children, plus it was noon, the weather was hot, and the people were not willing to be outside, and it was much cooler to stay at home, so it was normal for the king to not see a few people on the street! ”

Zhao Ziliang didn't expect that the economic blockade not only caused heavy losses to the Great Cannibal, but also caused a devastating blow to the border town of Jiling City, a major border town in the western part of Western Qin, but the matter has come to this point, and it is no longer necessary to consider whether it is worth it, if you want to change this status quo, you must defeat the Great Food Country as soon as possible.

"The king, the Taishou Huo Guoting of Jiling City is willing to let the Taishou Mansion out to the king as a guide, he asked the last general to ask what you mean, now that the Taishou Mansion has been cleaned up, will the king go directly or ・・・・・・・?"

Zhao Ziliang shook his head and said: "This king still lives in the barracks, this king is here to fight, not to enjoy happiness, tell Huo Guoting that his good intentions are understood by this king, just let him govern the people of Jiling City." In addition, he also told him to pay more attention to the defense of Jiling City during the war, and to work with the garrison general to ensure the safety of Jiling City as the main grain and grass hoarding place in the rear of our army! By the way, why didn't he come with you? ”

Huo Kan said: "In the past few days, heavy rain in the upper reaches of the Farah River has caused the water in the lower reaches of the river to soar, and the water level has exceeded the maximum warning line and overflowed the embankment. ”

"I see, the levee hasn't been washed away by the river, right?" Zhao Ziliang did not blame Huo Guoting for not coming to greet him.

"Not yet, it is said that the embankment is very strong, but I didn't expect the water level to be so high this year, far beyond usual, so there will be a situation where the river overflows the embankment!"

Zhao Ziliang nodded, thought about it and instructed Huo Kan: "You send someone to tell Huo Guoting, let him come back when he is free in the next few days, this king wants to know the situation of the river embankment!" ”

Huo Kan clenched his fists and said: "Understood! ”

Coming to the garrison of the army located in the west of Jiling City, Zhao Ziliang gave up rest and convened the senior generals of the army to discuss the military situation and military deployment, and the accompanying army was arranged by the relevant generals.

Zhao Ziliang sat down on the main seat of the big tent of the Chinese army, an accompanying eunuch brought tea, Zhao Ziliang took a sip, and raised his eyes to see another eunuch commanding more than a dozen soldiers to carry a huge bronze ice jian into the big tent, and this ice jian felt cool as soon as he brought it in.

The so-called Bingjian is a container used to hold ice cubes, which is the ancient version of the refrigerator, and also functions as an air conditioner. It is usually made of wood and bronze, which can be used to preserve food and dissipate air conditioning to cool the room. The two materials of wood and bronze will not rust and are easy to maintain, but if you make iron it is easy to rust, if you use porcelain it is easy to break, you must know that this thing is not small.

During this period of the Tang Dynasty, there was no technology to make ice, and it could be collected from the outdoors in winter, so how difficult was it to collect ice cubes in the middle of summer? That needs to send people to the top of the mountain thousands of meters above sea level to collect, and it must be transported down as soon as possible.

Looking at this huge ice jian, which needed to be lifted by more than a dozen people, Zhao Ziliang suddenly remembered a poem by Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty in his previous life: "Chang'an looks back at the piles of embroidery, and a thousand doors open on the top of the mountain." As soon as the concubine laughed on the red dust, no one knew that it was a lychee. This poem writes about the deeds of Emperor Xuanzong in order to win a smile from Yang Guifei, and specially issued an edict to transport fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang'an.

Zhao Ziliang didn't want to be criticized by future generations for this kind of thing, so he said in a deep voice: "What is this? Who let you in? ”

The eunuch and the dozen or so sturdy soldiers carrying the ice were all stunned and stopped in place. Zheng San walked in from outside the door and arched his hand: "King, this is Bingjian, it was Weichen who asked them to bring it in, you see that the weather is so hot, and it is not comfortable for the king to deal with official documents and important military and political affairs here, so Weichen thought of this way!" ”

Zhao Ziliang wanted to reprimand, but thinking that Zheng San and these people were also kind, he suppressed his anger and said in a harmonious voice: "The soldiers are all in such a hot weather, and the people are still working in the fields under the sun, how can this king sit in the cool tent with Bingjian and enjoy it?" And this king is here to lead the troops to fight, if you want to be comfortable, this king will stay in Xinjing and not come out, why come out to suffer? Your will is in the king's heart, but the king does not need it! Put it elsewhere first, and after a while of fighting, there may be wounded soldiers to recuperate, and this thing may be able to make them more comfortable during the recuperation period, and should speed up their recovery, right? ”

Zheng San arched his hand and sighed: "The king is sympathetic to the soldiers, and the soldiers will definitely kill the enemy even more effectively after they know it!" Come on, carry Bing Jian out and put it in the warehouse first! ”

It didn't take long for the generals to come to participate in the military meeting, and Zhao Ziliang made some pre-meeting arrangements with Liu Dan, Du Fu, Chu Ge and others who came first.

After the other generals arrived, the military meeting officially began. Zhao Ziliang sat on the main seat and said: "Everyone has arrived, then let's start now, and Chu Ge will first introduce the deployment of our military forces in various towns on the border line between the western region and the Great Food Country!" ”

Chu Ge stood up and walked to the Kanyu map next to him and began to introduce: "We have four main transportation arteries on the border between the western part of the country and the Great Food Country, and there are one or two important towns stationed on each of them. Charju in Anxib was originally stationed with 2,000 border conscripts, but because of its proximity to Mulu City, the capital of Khorasan Province, the capital of the Great Food Country, Chalzhu's strength has now increased to 5,000; Urayu in Mastiff Prefecture was originally stationed with a thousand people, but now it has increased to three thousand; The city of Doler in Kunxu Prefecture originally had 2,000 conscripts, but now it has increased to 5,000; Farah City originally had 1,000 soldiers, but now it has increased to 3,000 people, and then there is Jiling City, which originally had 3,000 soldiers and horses, and now our two legions are here! Zahedan originally had a thousand men, but now it has increased to two thousand, Kuhak originally had a thousand, but now it has increased to two thousand, Pihin originally had a thousand, but now it has increased to two thousand, and in addition to the two standing legions in the city of Jiling, we also have a fifth legion in Huazhuzim, and this is how we have deployed our troops in each city on the border! ”

Zhao Ziliang thought for a while and ordered: "Send some conscripts from other places to increase the number of Zaheidan to 3,000 and Kuhak to 5,000!" ”

Chu Ge agreed: "Yes, Weichen will give the order later!" ”

?“ Let's talk about the situation of the Great Food Army! ”

Wang Can, the governor of Dongchang, stood up and hugged his fists and said: "This time it was Caliph Mansur who personally commanded the troops, and the accompanying generals were Manhad, Zilz, and Boshilin and others, among them, Boshilin had fought with our army many times, and was familiar with our tactics, and our army had to defend it, Mansur has been refrigerating and Boshilin all these years, mainly to eliminate his influence in the Great Food Army, and this time Mansur brought Boshilin out, mainly because Boshilin is most familiar with our army's methods of combat. The Great Food Army has garrisons of 10,000 and 5,000 men in Guchang City and Maskad respectively, 30,000 troops in Mulu City, 5,000 troops in Herat and Kuska, and 20,000 troops in Shulgaz! At present, the Great Food Caliph al-Mansur has arrived in Kerman, and the number of troops arriving has increased to about 50,000, and it is still increasing! ”