Nu Yalang of Tang Dynasty

After planning for more than ten days, Zhou Jun wrote the memorial, which emphasized the complexity of the situation in the Western Regions and the arrangements along the trade route, and sent an official post to Chang'an.

Feng Changqing and Long Yaoli were sought out again, and Zhou Jun held an enlarged meeting at the Yanqi garrison regarding Yanqi's city expansion and fortification.

At the meeting, Feng Changqing measured and clarified the land, and worked with Gongzaofang to come up with a plan to expand the city.

Plan 1 adopts the sub-tunnel city that is common in towns in the Western Regions. That is, with the town house as the center, several smaller villages are built in the surrounding areas. The perimeter of these small-scale villages ranges from a few hundred meters to a

It can range from kilometers to kilometers, and soldiers and supplies can be gathered inside. There are also businesses and workshops, which are equivalent to small military towns.

Plan 2 adopts a more traditional inner and outer city structure. The existing Tuncheng is used as the inner city, and an outer city is built to wrap the inner city, ultimately forming a city-within-a-city structure.

Both options have pros and cons.

The first option has the advantages of convenient construction and a wider defensive range. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to carry and defend between cities. If the enemy comes with a large army, it can be easily defeated one by one. Moreover, the development of commerce and handicrafts

At that time, there were also many troubles in resource scheduling and personnel exchanges.

The second option has the advantage of complete city planning, which can concentrate troops to resist foreign enemies, facilitate the deployment of resources and personnel, and can effectively protect important places. It also has many disadvantages. First, building an outer city consumes a lot of building materials, requires long working hours, and requires high manpower.

Second, the construction of outer cities requires high urban design, such as water supply and drainage network, road smoothing, residential planning, urban defense layout, etc., all of which require careful planning.

The city where Yanqi Town House is located is called Bogdaqin City (located in Mazha Village, Shishili Chengzi Town, Yanqi County in later generations). Five hundred meters south of this city, there is another smaller city named Tekeli

City (located in Akedun Village, Shilichengzi Town, Yanqi in later generations, 0.5 kilometers north of Bogdaqin City).

According to the opinion of the town army envoy Long Yaoli, the first plan was adopted to build a small garrison city on each side of the town's east and west directions. In this way, it could be integrated with the main city (Bogdaqin City) and the auxiliary city.

The city (Tekli City) cooperates with each other to form a horn.

Zhou Jun thought for a while and rejected this opinion.

The reason is that Yanqi is located in a strategic area. If it is attacked by a large army and builds too many garrison cities, it will be a taboo to divide the troops hastily. It is better to concentrate the troops in one city and focus on defending one place.

Based on the map of Yanqi, Zhou Jun finally made the decision to adopt the second plan, which was to build city walls on the outer outlines of the two northern and southern cities, wrapping Bogdaqin City and Tekeli City within them, forming a seal with the word "LV"

Structure.

After listening to Zhou Jun's words, everyone at the meeting started talking and had different opinions.

Feng Changqing and Gong Zaofang made some calculations. If they follow the second plan and build a city wall to wrap up the two villages, their length will probably be close to 12 kilometers.

What is the concept of 12 kilometers of city wall?

The 12-kilometer outer perimeter of the city was considered to be the size of a prefectural city above Zhongzhou in the Central Plains region during the Tang Dynasty.

The city wall of Chang'an in the Tang Dynasty was about 9,700 meters long from east to west, more than 8,600 meters long from north to south, and about 36 kilometers in circumference. The height of the city wall was 6 to 7 meters.

It started construction in the fifth year of Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty (202 BC) and was built five times by more than 300,000 people. It was completed in September of the fifth year of Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty (190 BC), taking a total of 12 years. Sui Dynasty

In the Tang Dynasty and on the basis of the Chang'an City of the Han Dynasty, it was reinforced and expanded many times to reach its current scale.

Feng Changqing made some estimates. According to the method of building rammed earth and then strengthening and adding the city wall with pouring, the 12-kilometer-long city wall, even if the height is only built to the 4.7-meter standard for Guansu city defense, plus various city defense arrangements

, at least tens of thousands of soldiers would be mobilized, and it would take another year and a half.

Moreover, it is not only the city walls, watchtowers, urns, parapets, covered roads, etc., but also water supply, sewerage, roads and other projects. The manpower, time, money and cost used to build the city are not what Yanqi Town can afford.

.

After hearing this, most of the attitudes of Long Yaoli and other Yanqi Town officials turned to questioning.

Zhou Jun listened to everyone's opinions and did not refute. After waiting for the voices to subside, Zhou Jun only asked Long Yaoli one sentence: "Yanqi wanted to open the Daqi Road. In history, it was invaded twice by foreign enemies, one was Gaochang

People and Turks, another time Qiuci people and Tubo people. In your opinion, Mr. Longshi, if history repeats itself, can just building two Xiaotun cities block these two attacks?"

Long Yaoli was stunned, and after thinking for a moment, he shook his head.

Someone said at this time: "Even if Yanqi Town cannot be defended, aren't there still troops from the Tang Dynasty? They will not sit idly by and ignore it."

Zhou Jun: "Qiuci is 800 miles away from Yanqi. How long will it take for the enemy's information to reach Qiuci and the army to move out and reinforce it? If we separate the villages to resist the enemy, I am afraid that Yanqi will have suffered heavy losses before the Tang army arrived."

Long Yaoli sighed and said: "In the Western Regions, Yanqi and Qiuci are world enemies. There are historical reasons for this, but more importantly, it is an entanglement of interests. Once the Daqi Road is opened, Yanqi will shake Qiuci.

This is the status of the north-south negotiation. I am afraid that many forces in the Western Region do not want to see this."

Feng Changqing: "Qiuci, Gaochang, Yiwu and other prefectures on the northern trade route have benefited from the Silk Road for many years. The Sogdians and the big families in the Western Regions have purchased properties in these three places, and there is honor and disgrace among them.

When we rest together, we are naturally consistent with the outside world and unwilling to change."

Zhou Jun: "Because of this, if Daqi Road is reopened, Yanqi is bounded by Qiuci to the west, Gaochang to the north, and Tubo to the south. It will bear great pressure and risks. Expanding the city and building more buildings can only be imagined in the worst case scenario.

Don’t have the slightest idea of ​​luck.”

After hearing this, Long Yaoli nodded and said to Zhou Jun: "What Supervisor Zhou said is reasonable."

After discussing for a while, Zhou Jun winked at Feng Changqing, who understood and told everyone to discuss it another day.

Only Zhou Jun, Long Yaoli and Feng Changqing were left in the waiting hall. Zhou Jun said to the other two: "The expansion of the city is urgent."

Feng Changqing: "But if you want to build a big city, building materials, laborers, money, silk, and labor hours are all trouble."

Zhou Jun: "Let me ask you, is there any land producing coal around Yanqi County?"

Long Yaoli: "Gaochang and Wulei both produce coal. There is also a coal mine in the north of Yanqi County, located in the Lisuo Mountain. However, mining is inconvenient and has been abandoned for many years."

Zhou Jun: "After burning the coal in Wulei, Gaochang, how are the charcoal ash disposed of?"

Long Yaoli was puzzled: "Charcoal ash?"

Zhou Jun: "Yes, charcoal ash."

Long Yaoli: "Charcoal ash is just garbage and has no use. Generally speaking, it is dumped in a wasteland."

Zhou Jun: "Okay, starting from tomorrow, we will start collecting and storing charcoal ash. It will be of great use."

Long Yaoli was stunned on the spot, unable to recover for a while, and then said: "Supervisor Zhou, why bother to collect that thing?"

Feng Changqing thought for a while and said to Long Yaoli: "Since Supervisor Zhou said this, just do it."

Zhou Jun: "Also, the charcoal ash collected and stored must be ash that has been calcined until it turns white; the personnel responsible for the collection and storage must be tight-lipped and not make any announcement; in addition, find a place in the city and block it with curtains.

Just in case you need it later.”

After hearing what Zhou Jun said seriously, Long Yaoli became more concerned about collecting charcoal ash and nodded solemnly.

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