A few days later, the group walked out of the Dai County area and entered the territory of Yanmen County.

The place of Yanmen County is not big, and the terrain is mountainous and the arable land is less, in fact, it is not suitable for settlement, and now there is only a population of more than 130,000 people, just because it is a demolition and rushing road, a dangerous place, so King Zhao Wuling set up Yanmen County here in that year, and the residents are basically concentrated in the area around Yanmen Pass. After the big pedestrians entered the boundary of Yanmen County, the population was also shallow and sparse, and sometimes there were barren mountains and mountains before and after, and there was no trace of people.

However, the immigrants of the Yan Kingdom were resettled in Yunzhong County, so they did not stay in Yanmen County for a long time, but continued to march westward. However, the plateau came to Yanmen County to inspect, so naturally it could not pass through the county, so the plateau was also separated from the brigade and diverted to Yanmen Pass.

The position of Yanmen Pass is between two mountains, east of Yanmen Mountain, west of Long Mountain, two mountains confront, only a narrow long pass is left in it, it is said that the wild geese fly back and forth every year, so it is called Yanmen. Since ancient times, it has been an important gateway for China's Central Plains Dynasty to defend against the northern nomads. And a group of people and horses walked in the mountain road, only to see the peaks and peaks on both sides stacked cockroaches, strange rocks volleying treacherous, the terrain is undulating, and its momentum is meandering.

In the early part of his military career, Li Mu was stationed at Yanmen Pass for many years. However, Li Yinghong was still young at that time, so he had not been to Yanmen Pass. However, at the beginning of the plateau in Yanbei Village recuperation, met Jiang Huanwu and other people, Yanbei Village is located in the northeast of Yanmen Mountain, so Jiang Huanwu and others are very familiar with this area, and also explain the origin of the names of various places, everyone while enjoying the scenery of the mountains and forests, while listening to Jiang Huanwu's explanation, also feel very **.

After walking for a day, at dusk, the team arrived at Yanmen Pass, and the voices and traces of people here gradually increased. Yuan Xuan, who was stationed at Yanmen Pass, went out of the pass and welcomed Gao Yuan and his party into the city.

In the past, the plateau had been to Yanmen Pass to play, but the Yanmen Pass of later generations was the Yanmen Pass rebuilt in the Ming Dynasty, not the current Yanmen Pass, the Yanmen Pass at this time was built during the period of King Wuling of Zhao, the main pass is located on the west side of Yanmen Mountain, built against the mountain, half slope and half flat, one side is connected with the Great Wall, the circumference is about two miles, the wall is eight feet high, and there are three related doors. There is a platform built above the east gate.

Because the sun has not set at this time, so after entering the city, the plateau and other people do not care about resting, they step up the city tower, watch the scenery of Yanmen Pass, look at it out of thin air on the city tower, only to see the mountains from east to west, the ravines are vertical and horizontal, the peaks and peaks are staggered, the crags are gloomy, the Great Wall is accompanied by mountains, circling and meandering, passing through the city, it is extremely dangerous. Moreover, the peaks and peaks are stacked with cockroaches, the cliffs are steep, the pheasant spies on the wall are dense, and the beacon monkeys echo each other from afar. Because it is under the setting sun, it looks even more like blood, and the majestic momentum of the majestic pass is like iron.

Yun Yao and Geng Yanyu are both ordinary women, so they only look at the scenery of Yanmen Pass from the perspective of the general scenery, but Li Yinghong is a martial artist, and the perspective of Guancheng is of course very different from theirs, and they are amazed by the dangerous momentum of Yanmen Pass.

And Yuan Xuan also accompanied them to enjoy the scenery of Yanmen Pass on the city tower, and introduced to them that the entire Yanmen Pass defense area is not only Yanmen Pass, but along the Great Wall, there are Laoyingkou, Qishenchikou, Yangfangkou, Donglongkou, Xihydrokou, and Dagger Kou. Eighteen passes, including Dashikou, Shikou, Malankou, Ruyue and Huyukou, are hooked with each other to form a solid defense system. At the same time, he also said a lot of anecdotes that happened when Li Mu was stationed at Yanmen Pass. It also made everyone listen to it very interestingly.

At this time, the sky gradually darkened, and although everyone was still unsatisfied, they had no choice but to retreat from the city tower and come to the gate. Yuan Xuan also held a banquet in the marshal's mansion in the city and beckoned the plateau and his party. During the banquet, Yuan Xuan told the plateau, just a few days ago, he received a report from the soldiers patrolling outside the Guan, and found traces of Xiongnu activities.

When Gao Yuan heard this, he was not surprised, because when he was in Yanbei Village, he met with the Xiongnu and fought a battle. However, it is not surprising that there happened at the end of last year, but now traces of Xiongnu activities have been found outside Yanmen Pass.

Moreover, the northern nomads generally go south to plunder in autumn, because the autumn is high and the horse is fat, it is the time of the year when the war horse is in the highest state, and this is also the time of the harvest of the farming people, almost every village has a large amount of grain, so the raid is launched at this time, and the harvest is often huge. In addition, at this time, the nomads also began to prepare for the winter, of course, to grab a little more. However, the Xiongnu were discovered last winter, and the Xiongnu were discovered again this autumn, so it seems that after several years of recuperation, the Xiongnu have recovered their former vitality and began to invade the south again.

At this time, Gao Yuan asked, "How many people live outside Yanmen Pass?" ”

Yuan Xuan said: "The detailed number has not been counted, but it will never be less than 200,000, even if it reaches 300,000, it is not impossible." ”

Gao Yuan was also a little surprised, and said, "Are there so many?" ”

Yuan Xuan said: "Lord, you also saw when you came, Yanmen Pass is not suitable for people to live, most of the people in this area live outside Yanmen Pass, if these people are counted, the population of Yanmen County is not small." However, although these people are also from the Huaxia tribe, they are brave and unruly, and it is difficult to obey the discipline, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to bring them all into our jurisdiction, so I did not count the people outside Yanmen Pass in the population of Yanmen County, and ask the lord to forgive me. ”

Gao Yuan also understands this point, take a look at the villagers of Yanbei Village, you know that the residents outside Yanmen Pass are not good at stubble, if it was not for the pressure of the Xiongnu, and Jiang Huanwu took the lead, the village would not have moved to Dai County. Therefore, he said: "I don't blame you for the local situation, but now the population of our Daijun area is not large, and this group of people are brave and good at fighting, if we can bring this group of people under the rule of Daijun, it will be of great benefit to us, do you think if we want to subdue them, is there any good way?" ”

Yuan Xuan said: "My lord, when the general was alive in the past, he was self-governing by the people outside the Guan, and did not levy taxes and levies on them, and sent troops to protect them from the plundering of the Huns, so they have always been grateful to the general, and now the Huns are going south again, which also threatens the safety of these people, so if the lord can start from this point, bring safety to the people, and still continue the general's governance, and subdue the hearts of these people, it is not impossible to succeed." ”

Gao Yuan also nodded and said, "Okay, what you said is indeed very reasonable, so let's go out of the customs tomorrow to take a look, go for a walk outside the customs, and then talk about it." ”

Yuan Xuan said: "Yes." ”

―――――――― dividing line ――――――――― dividing line―――――――― so early the next morning, Gao Yuan took Li Yinghong, Yun Yao, Geng Yanyu and others, accompanied by Yuan Xuan, out of Yanmen Pass and came to the outside of the pass. Of course, he was accompanied by 5,000 troops to protect him.

The image north of Yanmen Pass is very different from that of the south of Yanmen Pass, the terrain is obviously much flatter, and the trees are greatly reduced, and there are more dwarf shrubs and grasslands, so that there are obvious characteristics of grassland terrain. The other biggest difference is that the density of the population here is also much denser than that in the Kannai, the villages are connected, the cooking smoke is curling, and a lot of fields have been cultivated, and cattle and sheep can be seen grazing everywhere, which is obviously a combination of farming and grazing.

However, as in the villages of Daishire, each village here is protected by tall walls, and some have walled trenches, battlements, towers, etc., and they are obviously much tighter, like small castles one by one.

Yuan Xuan has been stationed in Daijun with Li Mu for many years, so he is also quite popular in this area, and people constantly greet him along the road.

Because the group was a cavalry, it didn't take long for them to walk more than 30 miles, and they saw four or five such villages along the way. The team also came to the edge of a small hill, and Gao Yuan was about to give an order, and the people and horses rested on the spot, when Jiang Mingxia suddenly said: "Aunt Yun, look at the flying appearance of Hong'er and Gray'er, did they find something?" ”

Gao Yuan and Yun Yao listened, and they also looked up at the sky, only to see two kestrel circling and flying in the sky flying up and down according to a certain rate, and constantly made a loud birdsong sound, Gao Yuan was slightly stunned, because during this time, Yun Yao has been training these two kestrels, and now there have been a lot of results, and now the flying posture of the kestrel is the signal that a large number of enemy troops have been discovered.

So Gao Yuan also immediately ordered Ling Feng to lead twenty cavalry and follow the two kestrels out to see what was going on.

Although the use of bird reconnaissance has many advantages over humans, there are also great drawbacks, because birds cannot speak, cannot tell people what they see? The ability of the bird to distinguish is also very limited, not only can not distinguish the number of enemy troops, but sometimes even the enemy's own army cannot be distinguished, so at this time, the bird can not completely replace human reconnaissance. Of course, if we combine people and birds, we can still greatly improve the efficiency of reconnaissance.

After Ling Feng led the cavalry away, Gao Yuan also immediately gave an order, and the whole army was ready for battle.

After a while, Ling Feng led the cavalry and hurried back, saying, "My lord, about twelve or thirteen miles over there, I found that the Xiongnu army was besieging a village, and had broken through two gaps in the wall.

Gao Yuan said: "How many people are in the Xiongnu army?" ”

Ling Feng said: "About three thousand people? ”

Gao Yuan said: "Okay, Du Yi, you immediately lead two thousand cavalry troops to rush to the reinforcement of the village, and I will lead the other armies to come immediately." ”