Chapter 1834: The Defense System of Great Wall, Beacons, and Garrison Forts, Wu Zhao

Gao Yang looked at the shocked Wu Zhao and continued, "Your Majesty may not know that there is a red willow native to Hexi, whose roots reach five meters deep, and its branches are covered with sharp thorns, extremely sharp!"

"I have tested it; when a warhorse charges at full speed and hits the thorny willow, its front hooves will surely break. If it slows down to bypass, it will be exposed to the view of the Great Wall beacons!"

"In this way, when the Xiongnu hoofprints pass through the Heavenly Fields, they will surely leave traces. Our army will know their movements. If they hit the thorny willows, they will surely injure their horses' legs—thus, for a hundred-mile defense line, only ten people are needed to keep watch to control ten thousand Xiongnu cavalry!"

Once these words were spoken.

Everyone's expression was shocked.

Wu Zhao's fists clenched involuntarily.

Shangguan Wan'er's beautiful eyes flickered; she didn't expect this to be linked together.

Gao Tianlong was completely numb.

This grandson of his is vicious enough!

In this way, it is as difficult as ascending to heaven for the Xiongnu to bypass the Great Wall and kill their way into the farming area inside!

"Your Majesty, we can also set up horse-trapping pits every two zhang, with deer-horn wood inserted at the bottom of the pits, and iron caltrops laid between the pits!" Gao Tianlong added.

Wu Zhao: "..."

"Grandfather has good means; this is indeed not bad!"

Gao Yang looked at Gao Tianlong with a sense of mutual appreciation.

Gao Tianlong stroked his beard with a proud look.

This was not over yet.

Gao Yang continued to point at the map and said, "Your Majesty, please look. In the Hexi region, our Da Qian can fully establish four commanderies at Canglan Mountain, Zhenyue Royal City, Juyan Lake, and the Black River that connects to the Western Regions!"

"Inside the Great Wall is our Da Qian's farming area. In this area, we can set up garrison forts every ten or twenty miles, hiding thirty people in each, equipped with stored grain and defensive weapons like heavy crossbows!"

"Usually they can farm, and once the Xiongnu attack, they can enter the garrison forts to intercept the enemy!"

"In this way, with the Great Wall as the core, the defense system composed of Heavenly Fields, thorny willows, beacons, and garrison forts is formed!"

"Once the Xiongnu attack, they will first be discovered by the soldiers patrolling the Heavenly Fields every day. At that time, smoke will be lit during the day and fire at night!"

"For five hundred Xiongnu cavalry, our Da Qian soldiers will light one beacon! For a thousand cavalry, light two beacons and ignite wolf smoke. For five thousand cavalry or more, light three beacons and beat the leather drums at the same time! In this way, the military intelligence of a five-hundred-mile defense line can be transmitted in as fast as three hours, and no more than five watches at the slowest!"

"At the same time, the Xiongnu people will face the obstruction of thorny willows and the interception of garrison forts; it can be said that there are forts everywhere and enemies at every step!"

Wu Zhao's fists clenched involuntarily, and the scene Gao Yang described seemed to appear in her mind.

She looked at Gao Yang and sighed, "What the Chancellor wants to build is not a Great Wall, but a cage made of iron caltrops!"

"If the Xiongnu force their way to plunder, the cost will be huge!"

"Your Majesty is right; this is the cage I carefully crafted for the Xiongnu!"

He slid his palm across the map toward the west, his eyes filled with endless coldness: "Your Majesty, this is not even the most vicious part. Actually, the most vicious part is on the west side, from the Salt Lake to the Cheshi section!"

"Your Majesty can set up beacon towers in a chain, deliberately setting one beacon every twenty miles, appearing loose but actually linked!"

"If the Xiongnu dare to drill through the loopholes here, they will suffer a great disaster. Beacon smoke in the Hexi region can travel a thousand miles in a day, and our Da Qian iron cavalry can go outside the border in three days. It is easy for the Xiongnu cavalry to enter, but they will suffer heavy losses when they go out!"

Everyone's face twitched.

Too ruthless!

This defense system itself was extremely cunning, but they didn't expect that there was a big pit hidden in the Salt Lake area!

Is this something a human can do?

Gao Yang grabbed the air with his palm, as if everything was under control, and everything was in his calculations.

This feeling was incredibly wonderful.

Gao Yang looked up in the direction of Hexi, his voice light, "The Xiongnu's way of fighting, its fundamental logic is to support war with war, but this defense system does not give the Xiongnu any chance!"

"The Xiongnu want to come and grab grain, but I have Heavenly Field monitoring, thorny willows to kill the enemy, and garrison forts to intercept! By the time they finally kill their way to the farming area, the millet and wheat planted by our Da Qian are harvested in spring and autumn, and the grain is hidden in cellars. The Xiongnu can only stare at the empty fields in a daze."

"If they want to get water, we can build dams and divert the water upstream of the Ruoshui River. The Zhenyue Lake and Langya Royal City areas have become our Da Qian's granaries, and the diversion of Juyan Lake has formed a large area of salt lakes. After the Xiongnu warhorses drink it—their abdomens swell like drums, and they die if they don't drink for three days!"

"If they want to detour, whether they cross the Sudan Desert to the north or climb over Canglan Mountain to the south, not only will they consume a large amount of supplies, but they will also be extremely easily ambushed by our army and suffer heavy losses!"

"The essence of Xiongnu plundering is that the profit of plundering must be greater than the loss of war! As a result, they come to Hexi to grab grain, but don't see much grain, and they themselves may suffer heavy losses. Will they still come to grab it?"

Hearing Gao Yang's words, a scene appeared in everyone's mind.

The Xiongnu people want to come and plunder grain, but they run head-on into the main Great Wall that warhorses cannot cross. They want to detour from a weak spot, but their movements are exposed, and Da Qian's beacons transmit military intelligence. The Xiongnu people are just killing their way in, but they either get injured by thorny willows or intercepted by garrison forts.

They finally reach the farming area, but they don't see a single hair of the bumper harvest grain; it's all hidden in cellars.

When the Xiongnu people look at the empty fields, dumbfounded, a Da Qian iron cavalry kills their way toward them.

This is very lively.

"Wonderful!"

"I think this Great Wall defense system of the Chancellor is very good and completely feasible!"

"I am curious, what is the Chancellor's second strategy, 'Farming to Carve the Flesh'?"

Wu Zhao looked curious and asked.

Actually, Gao Yang had vaguely revealed some of the first strategy; it was to escort the farming!

Wu Zhao let out a long breath, her heart settled.

Once Gao Yang returned, it seemed that no tricky matter was a difficult task.

"The Hexi water and grass are lush, and the Xiongnu regard it as a natural pasture. My second strategy is to turn it into grain fields where not a blade of grass grows!"

"This is also what I said earlier: ask Your Majesty to migrate the people of the three commanderies, use the starving people from east of the pass and the criminals of the world, and station them in four places to farm!"

"Grant land to each household, have the court issue seeds, equip them with iron plows, and carry out the 'substitute farming method'!"

"What is this substitute farming method?" Wu Zhao asked curiously.

People regard food as their heaven. In Wu Zhao's eyes, for a dynasty to be stable, the people must be full.

Therefore, Wu Zhao also valued farmland very much and knew a lot, but she had never heard of this farming method.

Gao Yang explained, "The so-called substitute farming method is ridge-and-furrow rotation, storing grain in the soil!"

"Hexi's water and soil are fertile, and the weather is excellent. In my opinion, if ten thousand households farm, within three years, they can store over a million shi of grain, and if there is a bumper harvest, they can even store five million shi of grain!"

"This will not only allow the Hexi garrison and the people to be self-sufficient, reducing the court's pressure, but can also feed back into the court and raise another hundred thousand troops to conquer the north of the desert!"

Wu Zhao's fists clenched, and her phoenix eyes flickered.

Three years, over a million shi of grain!

Or even... storing five million shi of grain!

You must know that Da Qian's national treasury only has a few million shi of grain now.

And Hexi is only one place!

This number is too terrifying!

"Chancellor, the Hexi region has many grasslands; I'm afraid this won't be easy."

"To farm, we need water! This is a tricky problem!"

Wu Zhao thought of this and asked.

Gao Yang heard this, smiled lightly, and said, "Your Majesty, mere water, what is difficult about this?" ===== CHAPTER 1836 =====