"Changbo, the territory of Dengzhou is ahead."

A scholar in his thirties, wearing a scarf, a round-necked jacket and a scholar-like scholar pointed to the official road in front of him and said aloud to a young general next to him.

"Haha, Xianting, we ran for two days and finally arrived at Li Xiao's territory. Let's go with my army to Dengzhou City and meet the Duke of Tang Li Xiao!"

The young general wearing a green jade-brown, a silver-white high-ranking military official uniform, and a dark-patterned flower-red silk cloak, replied with a loud laugh, then shouted loudly, and rode away on his horse.

On the official road leading to Dengzhou, a group of people and horses galloped, raising smoke and dust all the way, heading eastward.

The scholar who guided the way was the son of Liaodong Governor Fang Yizao. His name was Fang Guangchen and his courtesy name was Xianting. He was in his thirties and was agile and good at strategy. Later, he had a good relationship with Wu Sangui and joined him to serve.

In real history, Fang Guangchen has always served Wu Sangui loyally and repeatedly made plans for him. He is the top strategist under his tent. Because of his wise and loyalty, Wu Sangui trusts him quite well and has a good relationship with him. The two of them are incompetent, but they are called by their names.

After Wu Sangui's death, Fang Guangchen gathered a group of confidants to support his grandson Wu Shifan ascended the throne and changed the reign to Honghua. In the 20th year of Kangxi (1681), Wu Shifan was defeated and died. Fang Guangchen was surrendered and was lingchi in the city.

The young general next to him was a famous historical figure in the late Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui, whose courtesy name is Changbo and whose name is Yuesuo, was from Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty. His ancestral home is Gaoyou, Nanzhili (now Gaoyou, Jiangsu). He is the son of Wu Xiang, the former general of Liaodong, and the nephew of Zu Dashou, the general general of the Forward Camp. Readers have basically known his famous history, so I will not describe this article here.

At this time, Wu Sangui was just twenty-seven years old. At the beginning of the year, under the recommendation of his adoptive father Gao Qiqian and Liaodong Governor Fang Yizao, he replaced his father Wu Xiang and continued to serve as the general of Ningyuan regiment training. He was proud and full of energy.

Sitting on a tall and handsome white horse without any variegated color on his body, Wu Sangui was majestic and majestic. On his handsome face, with plump forehead, bright ears, dark eyebrows, bright black hair, bright red phoenix eyes, paired with his tall nose and sharp lips, he was such a handsome and brave young man with a handsome appearance!

The only flaw on his face was the less obvious scar on his nose.

This scar was cut by a Qing army in his early years in order to rescue his father who was trapped in the formation.

It is said that whenever Wu Sangui is in a bad mood or disagrees with his words, he will subconsciously caress the scar and "spot his nose". Therefore, his colleagues and subordinates later knew that the King of Pingxi was unhappy when he saw his actions, and immediately tactfully retreated.

During this battle to aid Shandong, Wu Sangui and Zu Dabi were transferred from Liaoxi to Shandong. He, Shandong General Liu Zeqing, and the deputy general of the Front Battalion Zu Bi, were all arranged to garrison in the central area of ​​Shandong.

After arriving in Shandong, Wu Sangui mainly proposed to lead his troops to station in Jinan and guard the provincial capital. However, Jinan had been regarded as a forbidden body by Shandong General Liu Zeqing, so he would not allow others to get involved. In the end, the two of them were sensational and had a very unhappy fight.

Finally, with the help of Shandong Governor Yan Jizu, Liu Zeqing was stationed in Jinan, Zu Dabi was stationed in Yanzhou, and Wu Sangui was stationed in Jiyang County in northern Jinan, which was considered to have resolved the garrison conflict.

After settling down the camp, since the Qing army had not yet entered Shandong, Wu Sangui and his two thousand troops under him were bored in Jiyang County.

So he decided to go to Dengzhou before a major war came and visit Li Xiao, the famous Duke of Tang in the world.

It's a coincidence that Li Xiao is 27 years old this year, just like the same person as himself. However, Li Xiao is now the title of Duke of the Kingdom, but he is much stronger than General Ningyuan, who inherits his father's business.

Wu Sangui and others rode their horses all the way. As soon as they entered Dengzhou, they realized that the land of Dengzhou was very different from other places in Shandong.

It was the end of June. On both sides of the official road, among the neatly planned fields, the sorghum poles had grown tall. Looking into the past, it looked like a green ocean, swaying and swinging in the hot summer breeze, shaking and waving, raising waves of green waves.

Seeing this boundless sea of ​​sorghum, Wu Sangui and Fang Guangchen were both very moved.

As they walked along the way, they saw that in this beautiful early summer weather, there were large areas of fields on both sides of the official road from Jiyang to Dengzhou, and corpses that had not yet been buried were seen. From central Shandong to Jiaodong, all the villages and villages were deserted and sparsely populated. Occasionally, the villagers were all dressed in rags and covered in vegetables. Along the way, they were all depressed and dilapidated.

"Chang Bo, I didn't expect that Li Xiao, the Duke of Tang, was born as a military general, would have managed Dengzhou City so lively. This person should not be underestimated." Fang Guangchen stroked his beard and exclaimed.

A faint jealousy flashed across Wu Sangui's face, and he sighed: "It's the saying that peaches and plums do not speak, and they form a path. The Dengzhou countryside under Li Xiao is much better than the prefectures and counties in other places in Shandong. This makes our soldiers want to see him well."

Fang Guangchen smiled and said, "Changbo, I heard from you that the Duke of Tang had reported to the court, saying that he hoped that he would dominate the situation in Shandong and lead various troops to reinforce the troops to fight against the invading Qing captivity. Do you know how the court responded?"

Wu Sangui smiled lightly and said, "I also know this matter. Li Xiao's suggestion has been tactfully rejected by the court. Only Li Xiao was asked to be responsible for the actions and arrangements of his subordinate Tang army. As reinforcements from Shandong were sent to Governor Lu had already died in the battle, the court arranged for the chief assistant Liu Yuliang to be responsible for dispatching command."

Speaking of this, a contemptuous smile appeared on Wu Sangui's face and said, "Liu Yuliang is a mediocre person, without courage, and without the ability to command the army. What's the use of sending such a person to Shandong except for only causing chaos and blind command? And who can conquer such an incompetent person, who can conquer him?"

Fang Guangchen stroked his beard and smiled, "Chang Bo, as students know, Liu Yuliang was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Shandong reinforcements, but just left the capital, when he heard that the Qing army was plundering in Jinghai to Cangzhou, he was so scared that he was no longer looking at him, so he cried and laughed.

Wu Sangui shook his head and sighed, "Oh, how can such a mediocre person be entrusted with military and national affairs? The court's improper employment of people and the entrusted unmanned persons will only lose the desire to serve the Ming Dynasty's officials and military forces."

Fang Guangchen also sighed: "Yes, Liu Yuliang dared not come to Shandong. However, he could not have a leader. In desperation, the court could only let Shandong Governor Yan Jizu take charge of reinforcements on his behalf, which could be considered a rush to seek medical treatment. However, Yan Jizu was also a civil servant who had never been on the battlefield. He had never had the experience of leading troops to fight. He asked this person to lead the troops. Judging from the students, it was really worrying."

Wu Sangui replied with a wry smile: "Stop talking about state affairs. How the court arranges it? Our subordinate generals, but you just obey the orders, so why do you need to say more? Alas, now that the enemy is coming, our Ming official army is still in a mess, each with their own thoughts. The battle in Shandong is really unpredictable! Our army does not expect to achieve great achievements, but only hopes that the Shandong war can be ended as soon as possible and return to Liaodong is enough."

The two of them talked all the way, and before they could see, they arrived outside Dengzhou City.

When they saw the huge tall, wide city in front of them, both of them were surprised: "What a steep city!"

Afterwards, Wu Sangui and others quickly ordered people to go to the city to report. The group got off the horse and waited outside the city.

Soon, a civil servant came over and came to the team of Wu Sangui and others to pay homage to Wu Sangui and others.

"The student is Tang Jun praised Chen Zilong for painting, and he has met General Ningyuan."

"Oh, can Duke Tang be in the city? I came to Dengzhou here, but it is just for the visit of Lord Li."

"The Duke of Tang just returned to Dengzhou from Northern Zhili two days ago. General Wu and you all came in time, and they followed the students into the city."

"Okay, it seems that I'm waiting for the right time." Wu Sangui showed a bright smile on his face: "Then please lead the way."

After following Chen Zilong and entering Dengzhou City, the two of them took a good look at this grand and brand new Dengzhou City along the way.

They saw that the entire outer city of Dengzhou was extremely vast. It was estimated that the circumference was about twenty miles large, but it was comparable to that of the provincial capital Jinan.

The four walls on Dengzhou are all extremely wide and thick. They are all designed as a building style with a horse face of 6 meters wide and a rammed earth base within 15 meters and a blue brick surface. They are quite sturdy and durable.

In addition to the north gate leading to the water land on the north, the three city gates in Dengzhou, east, west and south, all built urns outside the city gates. On the city wall, defense measures such as pheasants, women's walls, corner towers, forts, sheep and horse walls, forts, and perforations were all built according to the system, and all were available, and the defense capabilities of the city walls were quite considerable.

Outside the entire Dengzhou City, a moat was dug around the city walls on the east, south, west, and three sides. Because the entire Dengzhou City showed a high south and low north, it just happened to use the Huangshui River in the east and Pingchang River in the south to introduce river water from it, poured into the land protection moat for filling, so that it could pass around the city and merge into the sea water in the water city.

After seeing the exquisite and concise design of Dengzhou City, the two of them admired each other.

Later, when passing through the city gate Yuedao, they saw that the Dengzhou city gate looked exactly like an ordinary city gate, but the inside was designed to hide a thousand-pound pendant. This extremely exquisite and expensive mechanism can effectively block the enemy inside and outside when defending the city, and facilitate the division and elimination of them.

Wu Sangui sighed in his heart, Li Xiao, in order to make Dengzhou City solid, he really spent money like flowing water.

After entering the inner city of Dengzhou, the two saw that the structure of the inner city of Dengzhou was completely different from that of other prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty.

In the entire Dengzhou city, four wide and straight central avenues are planned. These four central avenues plan the entire city into four major regions: northeast, northwest, southwest and southeast.

The Northeast and Northwest areas are both used by the Tang Army Navy. The Northwest areas are the Navy camps, and the Northeast areas are an extremely eye-catching large shipyard. You can vaguely see that a large number of workers are nervously and busy building keels, shaving boat boards, weaving sails, and applying tung oil. They look very orderly.

In the southwest area of ​​Dengzhou City, various types of military camp buildings such as building barracks, stables, schoolyards, arsenals were built, and a large number of Tang army soldiers were shouting and practicing.

As for the entire southeastern area, there are weapons, armor, gunpowder and giant granaries, all of which are closely guarded by soldiers. Looking at these tall and closed warehouses, Wu Sangui thought to himself that Li Xiao had so much material reserves. If he had been to the city, he would probably have no problem to guard for a few years.

After accompanying Wu Sangui and his party around Dengzhou's outer city, Chen Zilong took them into the core area of ​​Li Xiaojun, Dengzhou inner city.

This is an inner city with a circumference of 2 miles. The scale of the city wall is the same as that of the outer city, and it also has various defensive measures for construction.

Afterwards, a group of people walked into the inner city. Wu Sangui saw that the inner city had a wide base, various official offices, and important government agencies such as the silver treasury and money warehouses, and many civil and military officials of different clothes were running around in the inner city to handle matters.

"Li Xiao built such a majestic city with just one's own strength and formed a powerful army like the Tang army. Compared with him, isn't Wu a light firefly comparable to the bright moon?" Wu Sangui sighed constantly.

Just as he was sighing, Li Xiao had already walked out of the Duke's mansion with several people, smiling and walking towards them slowly.

Seeing Li Xiaoxingjin wearing a python robe and jade belt, Wu Sangui and Fang Guangchen hurriedly knelt down and bowed.

"Wu Sangui, the general of the Ningyuan regiment training team, met Lord Li."

"Student Ningyuan Troupe Training Staff Fang Guangchen, who has met Duke Tang."

"You two don't have to be too polite, please get up quickly." Li Xiao smiled and helped the two of them up.

Seeing Wu Sangui, who was handsome and brave, as handsome as a handsome young man, a very famous traitor in history, standing in front of him with a respectful look, Li Xiao felt a very strange feeling in his heart.

Li Xiao, in his previous life, also knew quite well about Wu Sangui's famous traitor history.

However, Li Xiao also knew that now he could no longer look at this famous figure in the late Ming Dynasty from a historical perspective.

After all, since he came to this world in the late Ming Dynasty, the fate of these people has gradually changed. It will no longer be exactly the same as the original history, but will take a new historical trajectory.

If you now insist on forcing Wu Sangui, a young man of the same age as you and just became the General of Ningyuan, to force him into real history and treat him as the King of Pingxi, the King of Qing Dynasty who had already brought Qing troops into the pass, would have made a ridiculous metaphysical mistake.

Thinking of this, Li Xiao coughed lightly and smiled and said, "I told Wenren that Chang Bo is both wise and brave, and is extremely heroic. He is the young hero. If you see him today, you will be sure to deceive him."

Seeing Li Xiao praise him so much, Wu Sangui felt a sense of joy, so he bowed and shouted: "How can the duke of Tang praise him so much?"
Chapter completed!