Late Tang

Chapter 31

Penglai City is not only the seat of the Penglai County Government, but also the seat of the state capital.The city is adjacent to the seashore of the Bohai Sea in the north of the peninsula. The entire Penglai City is a roughly square shape with about a thousand steps on each side.In order to adapt to the topography of the hilly coast, the outline is irregular.

The entire Penglai city wall is built of bricks, with four gates, one on each side and an urn on each side. There are 7 gate towers and turrets, and there are water gates at the entrance and exit of the river.The main street between the east and west gates in the city is a main road, and the Drum Tower is built across the street to the west.The streets inside the south and north gates are also main roads, but they are not straight.Secondary streets are basically parallel to main roads.

A thousand united soldiers from Wendeng County formed a neat phalanx, and slowly entered the south gate of Penglai with the temporary training queue in the past few days.Li Jing, Wang Zhong and other 11 people each rode a tall horse in front, with a high-spirited momentum.It's a pity that although most of Xiaoshitou and others have ridden mules and donkeys, and a few have ridden horses in the village's farmland, they are now riding on real war horses, especially when there are crowds of people on both sides of the street However, a group of country boys showed their cowardice.Li Jing secretly took a look at Xiao Shitou and the others, and found that their faces were tense, their bodies were stiff, and their legs were tightly clamped around the horse's belly, for fear that they would be pulled off the horse by the people around them if they were not careful.

The layout of the entire Penglai City is actually no stranger to Li Jing and others, because Penglai City is basically a large Chishan Town.There are also four gates, and each has its own urn city, even the number of gate towers and turrets is the same.Even in the city, there is a main street between the east and west gates and the north and south gates.

But generally similar, there are still many differences.First of all, Penglai City has three sizes: Chishan Military Town. In addition, compared with Chishan Town, Penglai City is not only a county seat, but also a state seat, and it is quite prosperous here.There is Chishanpu Port in Chishan Town, but Penglai’s Dengzhou Port, Yangzhou Port, Mingzhou Port, and Guangzhou Port are collectively known as the four major ports.

At this time, Datang has two famous international routes.One is the Guangzhou Tongyi Sea Road, and the other is the "Dengzhou Sea to Koryo Bohai Sea Road".

These are the two major north-south routes.The Guangzhou Tonghaiyi Road runs from Guangzhou to the Middle East, Asia and North Africa via Southeast Asia.

And "Dengzhou Sea to Koryo Bohai Road", this is the northern route in the Tang Dynasty.The ship departs from Dengzhou Port and goes northeast, along the Miaodao Islands, passing Mashishan to Duli Town, passing Qingnipu, passing Taohuapu, Xinghuapu, Shirenwang along the Liaodong Peninsula to Wugu River, and then going south to Xin Luo, from Silla and then proceeded to Japan through the Tsushima Strait.It is also possible to go directly to the Korean Peninsula from Wendeng Chengshan Point.

Especially since the Anshi Rebellion, the three towns in Hebei have been in a state of separatism for a long time, and the imperial court's Liaoxi and Liaodong have become enclaves, and they are also in a state of isolation from Khitan, Bohai, Silla, Heishuimohe and other countries.There is no land route, and the intercommunication between the Central Plains and the Northeast all depends on the sea route of "Dengzhou Sea to Koryo Bohai Road".Because of this, after the land route was cut off, Dengzhou Port became more and more prosperous.

At this time in the late Tang Dynasty, Ziqing Pinglu Jiedu was a relatively wealthy place in the Tang Dynasty, and Dengzhou was a relatively prosperous place in Ziqing Pinglu.Penglai is like a bright pearl on the coast of Bohai Sea.

In the whole city of Penglai, there are [-] soldiers from Zhijun, and in the west of Penglai, there is Dongmou Shouzhuo, with [-] soldiers stationed there.There is also a Longshan camp on Longshan in the southeast, with a thousand troops stationed.And there is also a navy water village in the north of Penglai City, with a thousand sailors stationed there.In addition, on Daxie Island in the north, there is also the Daxie Village of the Bianzhen Bing belonging to the Jiedu Mansion, also stationed with [-] troops.If you add some other forts and garrisons, Penglai City and its surroundings have more than [-] soldiers and horses.

A large number of garrisons also brought a large number of military family members. Except for some family members who accompanied the army in various camps, there were also a large number of family members living in Penglai City.

This time, the imperial court also ordered all the prefectures and counties to unite their troops, and more than [-] united troops were mobilized in the entire Dengzhou.With so many people, it is naturally impossible to be stationed in the state city.According to the above regulations, the united soldiers from the four counties of Dengzhou first went to Penglai to gather, and then conducted reorganization training for a month, and then turned back to the counties for garrison training.

The United Army camp of Li Jing and others was twenty miles away from the south city. Today's entry into the city was just a ceremony. After walking around the city, they had to return to the camp.When Li Jing and others took the lead, acting as vanguards, they led a thousand Wendeng allied soldiers through the South Urn City and entered the South Gate.There are already more people waiting for them here than outside the city, and even many people are standing on the roof.

Cheers came, and many shops even started to light fires in front of the doors, throwing the firecrackers that were prepared for the New Year into the fire one by one, and the sound of the bamboo poles bursting attracted more people to cheer .

Li Jing even saw that in front of their team, a large number of jugglers appeared, breathing fire, stepping on heights and other various performances in front of them to open the way.The performances of those jugglers attracted the people on the street to cheer and cheer, and even Li Jing and other parade soldiers kept turning their heads to watch.After all, Li Jing is well-informed. Although he appreciates these Tang Dynasty performances, it is not a gaffe.But Xiaoshitou's united soldiers are different. Most of these united soldiers are rural people. They have never seen a bustling city like Penglai City, let alone the various performances of these highly skilled artists.They stared at each of them intently, even the initial nervousness was gone, and all that was left was the expression like they had strayed into the fairy palace.

At this time, a man in green shirt came to Li Jing on horseback, and smiled at Li Jing very familiarly: "Brother Ji Yu probably doesn't know yet, there were rumors everywhere a few days ago that it was the remnant of Pang Xun who is now Making chaos everywhere, looting prefectures and counties, Qingyan, Xuhai and other prefectures have thieves and bandits making riots. The news spread to Penglai, causing people to panic. Especially the Xihuo Village, which has been standing on the ground in Dengzhou for more than ten years The old thief of the famous brand has recently committed several large-scale ones in succession. He has committed murder, kidnapping and rape. Half a month ago, the son of Zhang Shilang, who was an official in Magou Township, got married. The servant’s son was killed, the bride was raped and killed on the spot, and none of the more than 30 people in the wedding party survived.”

Li Jing couldn't help being filled with righteous indignation when he heard it, no wonder he saw that monkey-cheeked face wearing a woman's wedding dress that day, so that's how he came here.

The man in the green shirt continued: "To tell you the truth, brother Ji Yu, brother, I was originally studying poetry at home and was going to concentrate on taking the imperial examination. After hearing about this, I was so angry that I took the initiative to enroll in the United Army for the sake of Kill the thief. My brother had already made an appointment with a group of brothers, and he planned to go find the thief these days, but unexpectedly, my brother has already killed the thief with his own hands. It's really satisfying."

Li Jing saw that the man in the blue shirt was very handsome, and after hearing what he said, he couldn't help but admire him with admiration, and he felt good about him.Immediately clasped his fists and said: "Brother, what's the matter, everyone will punish those thieves. What I did was just doing my part. Even if someone meets someone, even if they are not a soldier, they will still see each other on the road." He drew his sword to help the injustice. It is the brother who is heroic and courageous, which is really admirable."

The man in the green shirt received a few compliments from Li Jing, and was very proud of it. He said in a slightly flustered way: "I deserve it, I deserve it." At the end, Li Jing heard him mutter again: "It's a pity. That bride is here, I heard that she is as beautiful as a flower, like a fairy, hey!"

He said these words in a very low voice, as if he was talking to himself, but Li Jing had a keen hearing, but he listened to them all.Li Jing couldn't help but his complexion changed slightly, and he couldn't help but become cautious when he raised his eyes to look at the man in the green shirt. This guy seemed a little weird.

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