"Report from Longmen Weitang! Report from Longmen Weitang!" Yan Yingyuan, who was checking the city defense equipment in the city, quickly raised his head after hearing the voice of the messenger.
"Longmenwei Pond report: Longmenwei Commander Feng Zhengning surrendered without a fight. Longmenwei has fallen into the hands of the Jiannu!"
"What?"
Yan Yingyuan slapped his thigh angrily: "Feng Zhengning has misled me! Feng Zhengning has misled me!"
At this point he could no longer describe himself as regretful.
When implementing the policy of clearing the countryside, Yan Yingyuan had two plans.
The first plan was to relocate some of the people to Juyong Pass and concentrate the rest in Xuanfu Town.
Because Xuanfu Town was not very big and could not accommodate hundreds of thousands of people in Xuanfu, he gave up the plan considering the huge workload and transportation capacity.
The second plan was to select several cities in Xuanfu that were easy to defend and difficult to attack, move the people there, and send trusted generals to defend them.
In the end, he chose the second plan and sent Feng Zhengning to continue to defend Longmenwei.
Unexpectedly, he surrendered.
Zhang Feng, a captain of the Imperial Guard, just walked in. Seeing Yan Yingyuan stamping his feet and beating his chest, he hurriedly asked, "Why is Lord Yan so angry?"
Yan Yingyuan handed the report to Zhang Feng and said with gritted teeth: "Feng Zhengning surrendered without a fight. Surrender is a small matter. The 10,000 dan of grain in the city will become the rations of the Jiannu."
"In this case, my strategy of clearing the countryside would be in vain!"
Zhang Feng counted on his fingers and consoled him: "The Jiannu sent out 50,000 to 60,000 troops this time. Ten thousand dan of grain is only enough for them to eat for more than ten days. It won't have much impact."
Yan Yingyuan let out a heavy breath, feeling a little relieved, and then asked, "Has the caravan left the border?"
"Yes, the caravan of Jiadingbo has passed and delivered 1,000 dan of grain, 1,000 sets of armor, as well as salt, hemp, cotton and other supplies to the Khalkha tribe of Mongolia."
"If they fulfill their promise, they will pass through the Chahar garrison in a month and harass Kaipingwei. The Mongols called it Duolun Nor, which was the transit point for the Jiannu to enter the pass this time, and there are a lot of food and grass stored there."
Yan Yingyuan nodded with satisfaction. The grassland is good. Without the restrictions of the terrain, the cavalry can march hundreds of miles a day!
but...
We cannot rely on the Mongols to defend the city, and they are unreliable.
After thinking for a moment, Yan Yingyuan ordered: "Come here, except for the necessary guards at the city gates, gather all the soldiers and the recruited civilians to go to the parade ground. I have something to say."
"yes."
After the messenger left, Yan Yingyuan said to Zhang Feng meaningfully: "Captain Zhang, those traitorous merchants have been operating here for decades. Although they are dead, there are still some remnants who have escaped."
"Although I have sent heavy troops to guard the warehouses storing food, gunpowder, and equipment, as well as dozens of water sources in the city, there is still a possibility that they may be sabotaged by spies in the city. I would like to trouble Captain Zhang and the Jinyiwei to spend more time in the city and catch all the spies as soon as possible."
"You are too polite, Lord Yan. I have been busy these days. Please rest assured, Lord Yan."
"Yeah." Yan Yingyuan nodded, turned around and left, leading everyone to the training ground.
With the arrival of Yan Yingyuan, the originally noisy training ground suddenly became quiet.
Everyone looked at Yan Yingyuan, their eyes filled with gratitude.
Yan Yingyuan only did four things after retaking Xuanfu.
The first thing was to abolish the military status and rescue those military households from oppression.
Although they knew that the policy was formulated by the imperial court, these military households and soldiers were still grateful to Yan Yingyuan.
Their emotions, which had been oppressed for more than a dozen generations, were liberated at that moment.
It's impossible not to be grateful.
The second thing was to set up a land bureau to distribute the land.
All the land of the military households was nationalized and then sold.
If the military households wanted to continue farming, the Land Bureau would sell the land to them based on the population of the military households, with a maximum limit of five acres per person.
(In the Ming Dynasty, there were the concepts of upper fields, middle fields, and lower fields. When the land was actually sold, the quantity would be changed according to the attributes of the fields. I will not go into details here.)
Those who have money can buy it directly, and those who don’t have money can also “borrow” from the Land Bureau at a low interest rate to buy land.
Because the interest rate was so shockingly low, people rushed to buy land and raised their hands in praise.
The third thing is to clear the fields.
The government gave money and food to all the people who moved into the city and allocated temporary housing.
The fourth thing is to create terror.
While publicizing the brutality of the Jiannu in newspapers, the Jinyiwei were arranged to spread the story of the Jiannu's inhumane side among the people.
This was a great help in recruiting soldiers.
With the addition of five taels of silver per person as recruitment fee, the people signed up enthusiastically.
As of this moment, the entire Xuanfu garrison has reached as many as 30,000!
The small Xuanfu Town parade ground could not accommodate so many people, and the surrounding streets were full of people.
Yan Yingyuan looked at the densely packed crowd, took a deep breath, and shouted loudly: "Everyone, there is bad news."
"The Jiannu have entered the Pass!"
As the human-shaped loudspeaker broadcast Yan Yingyuan's words, the entire training ground was first filled with noise, and then fell into deathly silence.
"The worse news is that Longmenwei surrendered without a fight! But... the Jiannu didn't let them go. According to the Tang newspaper, 40,000 soldiers and civilians of Longmenwei were slaughtered by the Jiannu."
The messenger looked at Yan Yingyuan in surprise, and soon understood the purpose of Yan Yingyuan's lie. He stood where he was and looked at the messenger.
Yan Yingyuan's words immediately caused chaos in the training ground.
Some people were afraid: "The Jiannu...are so brutal, can we...defend Xuanfu? If we surrender, we will die. If we don't surrender, will we die too?"
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