Tomorrow is the New Year Festival, but the weather is getting hotter. The bright sun in the sky is hanging, making the cool air blown by the sea without a trace. n∈The men working all dress up in short clothes, which makes Shi Quanbin, who came from the Central Plains, feel that it is summer now.

The two earthen walls extending from Nanliangzhou City have reached the height of their knees and extending to the top of the valley entrance. The width of the wall is about the same as the city wall, and it is enough to ride a car on it.

Shi Quanbin and Xu Ping walked on the earthen wall and said, "When I came, I saw this earthen wall. I didn't care at first, but when I got close, I realized it was so wide. Yunxing, you are going to build two city walls! Since that's the case, why not build a pass at the entrance of the valley? It's narrow, and in this way, it's enough to build a pass, so I won't be afraid of the Jiaozhi army."

Xu Ping said: "What the head of the Pavilion said makes sense, but it's better to build it in the future. The valley entrance is only more than one mile wide. If the gate is built, I can only arrange more than 500 people on the city of Guancheng. But now in Liangzhou, I have nearly 20,000 troops in the Song Dynasty. If the Jiaozhi people come, I can't watch more than 20,000 soldiers and horses from behind. It's all up to 50,000 people to fight with the Jiaozhi people. Like now, if the city wall is lengthened, I can arrange nearly 10,000 troops, which is reasonable."

Shi Quanbin couldn't figure out these things, so he had to stop talking and slowly move forward, looking at them as he walked.

Xu Ping thought differently from most people in this era. He not only had to consider fighting, but also the efficiency of manpower and material utilization. If he relied on the high gate and only a few hundred people were fighting on the front line, what's the use of gathering tens of thousands of people here? Only by lengthening the front line and allowing more people to stand on the front line can he avoid wasting manpower. This is why these two walls were built. More people should be involved in the battlefield.

"What kind of formation is this?" Shi Quanbin couldn't help asking.

"Pocket array! No matter how many people come, they are packed in one pocket!"

"Pocket array? I haven't heard of it!" Shi Quanbin smiled and shook his head.

Of course I haven't heard of it. Because this formation is actually not very suitable for cold weapon wars, but in the later era of guns and cannons, it is one of the classic defensive formations.

"Officials, the head of the palace, I wish you an early age!"

Sun Qilang ran up from the wall being built and saluted Xu Ping and Shi Quanbin.

Shi Quanbin smiled and said, "But I don't have the joy money to give you!"

Everyone laughed together.

Sun Qilang said to Xu Ping: "Official, how do you look at the wall here? Is it still useful?"

This paragraph was built first by Xu Ping to test various functions as a model for other places.

Xu Ping looked at the wall, which was very strong. The top was five steps wide, the bottom was ten steps wide, and nearly three meters high. It was smooth towards the inclined surface in the valley, and it was hard and flat.

Xu Ping said to Sun Qilang: "You go down, come up and let me take a look."

Sun Qilang responded and ran to the wall like a flying, looked up at Xu Ping and said, "Official, I'm here!"

After saying that, he ran all the way to the top of the wall.

Seeing Sun Qilang running halfway through, Xu Ping shouted: "Stop there!"

After Sun Qilang got the order, he stopped his body. The wall was smooth and the slope was large, so how could he stop? He took three or five steps back before he could barely stop.

Xu Ping said again: "Okay, let's walk up slowly from where you stand! Let's stay and walk slowly!"

Sun Qilang held his breath and gently raised his left leg. As soon as he lifted his leg, he couldn't stand up. He took another two or three steps back and almost lay on the wall.

He raised his head to the top and shouted: "Officials, you can't walk slowly and you can't stand!"

Xu Ping smiled and said, "You can get up while running, and you will definitely get up while walking. Think of a way!"

Sun Qilang squatted on the wall and thought for a while before standing up again, suddenly lifted his left leg, quickly fell forward, and tried to be firm, then lifted his right leg again.

Just like this, walking carefully, Sun Qilang took more than a stick of incense before he stepped onto the wall again and said to Xu Ping: "Official, it's not easy to get up if you walk slowly in this wall!"

"That's right. I don't believe that the Jiaozhi soldiers can rush up in the rain of arrows and rolling wood. Even if they do this, other places will be built up!"

Shi Quanbin was watching the excitement while asking Xu Ping: "Since you are afraid that the Jiaozhi people will rush up and down like a city wall? That way, you can only climb up and down unless they can fly."

Xu Ping said: "The head of the pavilion makes sense, but there are several items that are straight but not as slanted. First, if it is straight up and down, so tall, the people on the wall cannot see the base of the wall. If the enemy moves under the wall, it is difficult to prevent it. Second, the rolling wood can only go down the wall and has little effect. Third, the oblique wall has a wide bottom and is much more solid than the straight wall, which is also easier to build. The head of the pavilion is long, so it is better to be slanted walls."

Shi Quanbin just said it casually, but he didn't understand it when he was really talking about it. After Xu Ping seemed to make sense, he stopped talking about it.

The earliest city wall was built to be straight up and down, which corresponded to the lack of means of defending the city and siege. With the accumulation of experience and the increase of means, people with insight have actually discovered that the inclined city walls are more effective. At the time of the reciprocity of the Song Dynasty, Chen Gui, the master of the city guarding, systematically proposed that the city wall should not be too high, but should be built to be inclined rather than vertical, and the city wall should not have right angles.

Xu Ping didn't know this, but he knew that for long-range weapons, the inclined city wall was more effective. It lengthened the distance for enemy troops to siege the city, increased the range of attacks that the siegemen were hit, reduced the blind spots of the attack on the wall, and was also conducive to the arrangement of defending the city equipment. There were so many benefits that there were endless. The disadvantages were, except for the psychologically good attack, there were almost no substantial disadvantages.

This is why in the era of hot weapons, hillsides are nightmares for the offensive side, but cliffs are not. The first choice for the defense is hillsides, and cliffs are of no value.

Follow the earth wall and reach the entrance of the valley, the wall is built to the top of the mountain.

Shi Quanbin followed Xu Ping up the hill next to the valley entrance and found that there were also a large number of civilians who were repairing the inclined surface of the mountain. Only then did he realize that Xu Ping had built the entire side facing the attacking side to this shape.

The progress of the mountain was faster, and it was almost completed. The civil servants were arranging defensive equipment on the top of the mountain and installing rolling wood in groups.

Shi Quanbin couldn't see the reason, but just stood on the mountain and looked at Jiaozhi on the south side. After leaving this valley entrance, the road between the hills became wider and there were no obstacles anymore. With today's clear weather, you can see the village in Jiaozhi in the distance.

Sang Yi, who was commanding on the mountain, saw the two of them going up the mountain, came over to see Li, and said to Xu Ping, "You are here just right. I have received news here that Jiaozhi has already prepared to send troops from the Fuliang River bank. The main force of Jiaozhi, plus the local soldiers of the nearby states, has a total of 17,800 people, and is pretending to be 80,000, and is going to attack Liangzhou. It is expected to arrive in half a month. We must hurry up here!"

(There is another chapter tonight.) (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!