The new Prime Minister Chen Gui was undoubtedly the guardian of Tokyo and the core of the city's defense system. As the Minister of War and the Prefect of Kaifeng, he basically obtained most of the imaginable powers. So with his orders issued one after another and the unanimous cooperation of the central officials, the entire Tokyo quickly began to militarize and fortress-like based on the previous Nanyang template.

Countless coal fuels were transported from all over the Central Plains. Most of them were sunk into the newly dug artificial lake inside the Jinshui Gate of the Imperial City, and a small part was sent directly to the brick kilns outside the city where smoke was constantly burning.

The brick kilns used coal and wood from temporarily felled forests around Tokyo as fuel, producing solid bricks day and night.

This kind of bricks certainly cannot be compared with the materials used in the walls of Tokyo City, but they are enough to build simple and practical sheep and horse walls outside the city, and to build countless brick walls inside the city to form Nanyang-style partitioned military quarters, and then build arrow towers and bunkers.

The three-layer city wall was all reinforced and thickened, and the city gates with towers were completely transformed into military fortresses, with at least one du (a hundred-man team) stationed there permanently. The dozen or so water gates were the focus of defense, all of which were equipped with double-layer iron mesh sluices, and soldiers and horses sent from Liangshanpo assisted in management and disposal.

However, the most eye-catching are the three rivers that run through the city... In order to facilitate the entry and exit of reinforcements, and to continue to properly defend around the rivers after the outer city is broken, the Cai River, Bian River, and Guangji River that run through the city have been fully dredged, widened, and deepened. This work started before and has not stopped yet.

By late August, this work reached a climax. Even Emperor Zhao, who had recovered from his illness, went to the river to carry soil and dig mud with Wang De, the defender of the four walls of Bianjing, who led the troops back to the city. He also asked Madam Wu to lead a few palace maids in the palace and a group of cooks from Tokyo who were looted from the palace to boil water and cook for people on the river bank.

In this enthusiastic atmosphere, the Guangji River, which was commonly known as the Wuzhang River because of its width of five zhang in the past, has already become seven or eight zhang wide. This width is basically based on the width of the bridges on the river. It is only at the two sluices that the width is narrowed back to five zhang.

There is no need to say more about the Bian River. Looking at the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" you will know how wide the river is. After being cleaned up, the water is even more sparkling, which is a sight that makes people sigh in admiration.

According to the old rules, the excavated soil was used to build high dams and brick walls on the inner side of the river and to set up artillery positions, which would then form several layers of excellent defense lines.

Not to mention the Daxiangguo Temple, which had been producing artillery carts, earth balls, stone bullets, and gunpowder bags non-stop since the very beginning.

I must praise Emperor Zhao again here. This official was not sick every day before, and he did not run to Daxiangguo Temple all day just to get free food and drinks... A long time ago, with his advice and assistance, the counterweight artillery vehicles here in Daxiangguo Temple had been divided into several fixed models, and each type strived to use unified weights and measures to produce "standard accessories" that were as "standard" as possible.

The benefits of primary assembly line are self-evident.

One is naturally to improve efficiency, one is to ensure that artillery vehicles on the battlefield can be repaired quickly, and the other is to facilitate transportation.

This is Zhao Guanjia’s main project this year after his initial failure in trying artillery… It’s not high-tech, but it’s definitely practical. The key is that the benefits of doing so can be understood and recognized by everyone.

In short, the whole city was bustling with activity.

However, as the days go by, the passion fades away little by little, followed by fatigue and numbness.

Emperor Zhao started out digging river mud all day, and later ended up moving bricks all day… Sometimes, he couldn’t help but feel that being an emperor was not worthy of him. He found a job before traveling across time, but came here before he started working. As a result, he had to experience such high-intensity labor of moving bricks. Who could be more miserable than him?

And I was so tired that I had no strength at all when I returned to Yeonbokgung Palace at night... After eating the snacks sent by Concubine Pan and lying on the bed, I would basically fall asleep quickly by smelling Concubine Pan’s body fragrance.

Sometimes he also stayed at Mrs. Wu's house, and Mrs. Wu, who was also exhausted, often cried secretly in the middle of the night. I don't know if she was crying about why she married the wrong person? As a result, she had to spend half of the year boiling water and cooking, and the other half reading and practicing martial arts... At this time, even if Zhao Jiu was awake, he was completely numb and had no energy to comfort her or lose his temper.

But what comes after numbness?

The answer is expectation.

It sounds absurd, but the fact is, August has ended and September has arrived, and September is almost over... With the successful conclusion of the city defense renovation activity praised by Emperor Zhao as "forty days of hard work after autumn", it was so successful that even people like Chen Gui couldn't think of how to add anything else. Others didn't know, but Emperor Zhao actually began to look forward to it.

Looking forward to the north.

But to his disappointment, the beacon smoke was never lit and the Jin army never arrived.

Moreover, this kind of non-arrival is not false... After Ma Kuo and Ma Zichong fled into Taihang Mountains last year, they gradually began to move southward to avoid the core ruling area around Yanjing of the Jin army, but they filled the gap of Wang Yan's eight-character army and reestablished contact with Henan. According to Ma Kuo's latest intelligence, the Jin army did not even mobilize, at least the Meng'an and Mouke stationed in various places in Hebei were not mobilized.

As October approached, winter officially arrived, and Ma Kuo's latest report was still clear: the Jin army had not taken any action.

This is certainly a good thing. At the very least, it can allow Guanxi to make good use of this precious time and Sichuan's autumn grain this year to organize a large-scale army.

However, in order to prevent Henan from causing unnecessary tension and slackness due to the long-term high tension, which would then lead to the successful attack of the Jin army, Emperor Zhao, after discussing with the prime minister, the capital, and the Privy Council, took the initiative to let go of some of the tension. He ordered all places to maintain martial law while ensuring that soldiers could take turns to visit their families and take leave, and ensure normal life in the city, but to be careful of spies, raids... and so on.

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