A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 288 I Hope It’s Not Pei Ji Leading the Troops
The weather is getting hotter.

Li Yi was stationed in Lingshi City, which was a small city.

"In the tenth year of the Kaihuang reign of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen passed by here during his northern tour of Taiyuan and found a lucky stone. He then established a county at the entrance of Queshu Valley and named it Lingshi."

Lingshi County Magistrate Guo Jiechou even took Li Yi to see the auspicious stone. The stone was stored in the bell tower in the city. It was a large stone with rough and dusty appearance and was very inconspicuous.

"This auspicious stone weighs 13,600 kilograms and is made of meteorite iron."

The meteorite weighs nearly seven tons and is said to be almost pure iron.

This stone came first, and then Lingshi County and Lingshi City came into being. For decades, no one dared to take this stone, and this stone became the symbol of Lingshi County.

Even local people would come to worship this stone, whether they were seeking blessings for sickness or hoping for children. The bell tower in Lingshi City was even more popular than any other temple.

"Lingshi City is twenty feet high and eight feet thick. During the Daye era, due to the rampant bandits, it was expanded, widening the north side by more than three hundred steps. Later, the height and thickness were increased by a factor of four, and towers were built in the north and south, as well as corner towers at the four corners.

After the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Guo took office and increased the height of the city by another six feet, and added another seven feet to the inner city. He built brick buttresses on top, erected parapets inside, and renovated the gatehouses.

Last year, the mountain waters overflowed and nearly destroyed the city. I rebuilt the ruined walls, built stone weirs at the corners of the city, and installed a four-door suspension bridge. I also built the east and west towers and the south gate city wall.

Because the area was vulnerable to enemies near the mountains in the southeast, a tunnel was built to defend against them.

The current Lingshi City has a total circumference of three miles, one hundred and eighty steps, and is thirty-nine feet high. There are two moats outside the city, each eight feet deep and wide.

There are four gates in Lingshi: the north one is called Cheng'en, the south one is called Zhengming, the east one is called Wenxian and the west one is called Lepan.

There are also four watchtowers, one double-story building at the south gate, and ten bunks.

Although it is a small city, it has been renovated several times and is surrounded by famous mountains and rivers on all sides, making it an important place.

Previously, Huang Ziying had thousands of troops at the gates of the city, but they could only gaze at the city walls and sigh, not daring to fire a single arrow.

County Magistrate Guo Jiechou spoke of this with great pride. He was also from Xihe County in the Sui Dynasty. His grandfather had served as a provincial governor, and his father had been a county magistrate. After the Battle of Xihe, he followed Conglong into the pass, and later returned to Hedong to become the county magistrate. During his tenure as county magistrate, he did nothing but repair the city.

In the two years since he took office, the city construction has almost never stopped.

Under his construction, this small town with only 30 years of history has undergone a great transformation, especially its military defense has been greatly strengthened.

The city moat is eight feet wide and deep, and there are drawbridges and city walls at all four gates. The city wall is raised to 39 feet, and many corner towers have been added.

The effect was quite good. Even if Huang Ziying came with thousands of troops, he had no chance at all.

The summer sun is shining brightly,

Li Yi and County Magistrate Guo were walking in this small town. The whole town looked a bit earthy. There was earth everywhere. The city walls were built with rammed earth. The streets in the city were all dirt roads. The houses were also rammed earth.
All I see is earth yellow.

The entire town is divided into four sections by a single cross-shaped street. Furthermore, there are smaller streets and alleys, separating countless courtyards and houses. There are even many cave dwellings in the town.

The largest building in the city is not the county government office, but the military camp, where a town of 500 people is stationed. There is a military camp covering an area of 50 acres in the city.

As soon as you enter the military camp, there is a row of neatly arranged arc-shaped cave dwellings on both sides, about twenty in total. Under the shade of a row of willow trees, there are young and strong people from the countryside who were temporarily recruited to the county for training.
These are the Lingshi militia training camp, with a thousand people coming here to receive training and help defend the city. After fifty days, they will be exempted from this year's rent and taxes.

When they arrived at the county town for training, they were given spears and shields, and taught simple techniques like formation play and bayoneting. They also had two meals a day, and even a set of summer clothes. They could also have meat every few days. For the villagers, this was a good job.

In addition to this thousand-man militia training camp, Li Yi also asked each township to organize people to practice spear and other techniques in the village.

After a walk around the city,
Li Yi went out of the west city gate. Not far to the west of Lingshi City was the Fen River, with a large river beach. It was also crowded with people at this time, more than 3,000 people, all of whom were civilians who had fled south from Pingyao and Jiexiu. Guo Jiechou did not allow these civilians to enter the city, but settled them all on the river beach outside the west city.

These disaster victims had no homes to return to, so they built dams on the riverbank to create land, reclaimed wasteland and cultivated crops, and turned hundreds of acres of desolate Fen River beach into lush green grain and vegetable fields.

Now the number of people living on this river beach is still increasing, and every day people come from the north with their families.

They told of the evil deeds committed by Liu Wuzhou's Han army and the Turks. They broke into people's homes, robbed their surplus food, and even captured young men. Young women were also insulted.

On the Fen River,
There are also fishermen rowing shoe boats to cast nets to catch fish, living off the mountains and the water. Lingshi County is located at the mountain pass, and many people make a living by hunting, while many have been fishing for generations.

Li Yi looked at the small boat and found it very strange.

It is not like a traditional boat, but two small boats less than seven feet long, connected by two crossbeams and fixed with boards on top. The head and feet are placed on it, and it looks like a pair of shoes.

This type of boat is relatively stable, but it can only be used in shallow water near the shore, so people call it a shoe boat.

Li Yi thought that it might be because northerners were not good at water.
Seeing the two linked shoe boats, Li Yi immediately understood why Cao Cao in Jingzhou would use iron chains to link boats. Isn't this the same as the fishermen here? Except here, they only linked two small boats, while Cao Cao linked many large boats together.

“How many fish can you catch?”

An old man claimed to be in his seventies and said that his family had lived by the Fen River for generations and had been fishing. He said cheerfully, "I have been doing this all my life. When Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty passed by here during his northern tour, the auspicious stone was discovered in this river.
That year I helped row the boat and salvage the damage. I must have been 40 years old then, and 30 years have already passed in the blink of an eye."

"I cast my nets every afternoon and pull them up the next morning. Sometimes I can catch more than 20 kilograms of fish, sometimes only 30 or 50 kilograms. I then sell them in Lingshi County.

If there is a job of delivering goods or transporting people, I will take it.

I make my living from this.”

Li Yi was a little surprised that ordinary people in this era could live to be seventy years old and still be so healthy. Standing on the riverbank and looking into the distance,

The mountains and waters complement each other, the blue waves ripple, and the water birds dance.

The gurgling Fen River flows from north to south beside the city.

Beautiful mountains and clear waters, a clear river.

The old man had a good harvest today, with more than ten kilograms of fish. Li Yi came closer to see the harvest in the old man's fish basket.

There were several big grass carps, quite a few small wheat ears, as well as horse carp, crucian carp, yellow bone croaker, carp, and even a small golden carp.

The fish are very mixed and of different sizes.

The old man said that he would cast his net in the shallow river where there would be more diverse fish.

Li Yi thinks these fish are all very good, and the color of the scales looks very natural.

"Song Yi, give me one tael of silver. I'll buy all these fish."

The old man had not expected that the chief steward of the imperial court would be so generous. He quickly said that it was not acceptable and that he would give it to Li Yi.

"I am a minister of the imperial court, leading the royal army to suppress the rebellion and protect the country and the people. How can I eat and take the people's food for free?"

"These small fish and shrimp are not worth much money."

Fresh fish wasn't cheap in Chang'an, but these were spirit stones, not worth much by the river. A fish weighing over ten pounds would normally only cost a few dozen coins to pack, and even retail wouldn't fetch over a hundred coins.

"The extra ones are your reward. I only have one request. I want to go on the boat and cast a few nets to experience it."

The old man responded with a smile and said hello to Mr. Li.

Li Yi boarded the shoe boat and found it was indeed very stable. It was not like an ordinary boat where it was difficult to control the center of gravity. Standing on it felt like standing on a bamboo raft.

The old man taught him how to cast a net. The net was not very big, but it required a lot of skill to cast it.

Li Yi tried to cast a few nets, experienced the life of the fishermen in Fen River, and then returned to the city with a smile.

"From now on, if you catch any fish, you can send them to my headquarters in the county town, and I'll take them all. Big fish are thirty coins per pound, small fish are twenty coins per pound, and I'll take as many as I can."

Bringing more than ten kilograms of river fish back to the city,
We had fish for lunch.

Braised Fenhe carp,

Fry some grass carp and stew crucian carp with tofu.

The wheat ears are coated with flour and fried, while other ingredients such as yellow croaker are stewed in a pot of soup.

Li Yi kept the little red carp in a tank.

The water in the Fen River is good and the fish are fresh. Song Yi, Chen Lingjiao, Liu Heizi, Luo Wu and other personal soldiers and servants all drank several bowls of rice in a row.

Chen Lingjiao also commented on the differences between the fish in the Fen River and the fish in the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal in the south of the Yangtze River. He also said that those shoe boats were ridiculous. They were stable, but not flexible at all. They could not be used in deep water and could easily capsize if the waves were big.

Qiang general Li Cunxiao touched his belly and asked Li Yi, "When will the battle begin? We've been so relaxed every day, just like on a picnic. I've gained a lot of weight recently."

Li Yi asked, "Isn't that good? If we really have to march dozens of miles every day, chop down trees to set up camp in the afternoon, and constantly fight the enemy, is that good?"

"We're soldiers, isn't that what we do?" Li Cunxiao said. In the tribe, he'd been riding sheep since he was a few years old. By the time he was eight or nine, his father would help him mount a horse and practice riding and archery. By the time he was twelve or thirteen, he'd follow his father and brothers into battle and raiding. He'd grown accustomed to combat and taken life and death lightly.

"County Lord, Huang Ziying has been trapped in Queshu Valley for so long. Should we go and kill them? There are thousands of them. If we can destroy them, it will be a great achievement."

Li Yi didn't have that idea at all.

He now has only more than 10,000 soldiers available, who have to be divided into two cities and two passes. Among them, there are only 5,500 combat soldiers, and the rest are auxiliary troops, local garrison troops, and militia.

Isn't it stupid to leave the tall and safe Guancheng and run to Jiahubao to fight with others?
If they continue to siege, victory will definitely belong to Li Yi. How long can Huang Ziying stay in Jiahu Fort? He will have to come out eventually.

Either Song Jingang and Zhang Wansui outside will break through the Lingshi and tear a hole for them to rescue them, or Huang Ziying will break through the Yindi Pass and Lingshi by himself.

But no matter which one, it would not be easy, unless Liu Wuzhou took Taiyuan and the main force moved south.

"War is not just about fighting and charging into battle. Defending a city is also part of war. It requires patience and determination."

Li Yi would never attack rashly before the reinforcements from Chang'an arrived.

Now it depends on when the reinforcements from Chang'an will arrive, how many will come, and who will lead the troops.

I hope it’s not Pei Ji who is leading the troops.

(End of this chapter)