Repairing the city wall

  Back in Chen Cang, Gao Fei didn't have time to rest and threw himself into the repair of the city wall with great enthusiasm. Although the city wall of Chen Cang was old and broken, its foundation was still intact, and as long as it was repaired, it would definitely be able to regain its former appearance.

  Inside the Chen Cang city, which is only about 10 miles long and 7 miles wide from north to south, thousands of soldiers are working hard. They pushed into the city's old and dilapidated houses that no one lived in, then transported all the bricks out of the city, while other soldiers continuously carried stones from a mountain with a slight slope ten miles away, and selected masons from the people to polish them into large square stones, which were then sent to the west gate of Chen Cang City.

  Outside the west gate, Gao Fei was directing some soldiers and mixing cement. On the second day after arriving at Chen Cang, he had gone to inspect the terrain and saw that there were limestone rocks on the nearby mountains, so he thought they could be used. Until this morning, he sent people to collect the limestone, then had them transport clay from thirty miles away, mix in some small stones, and add water to stir it up, creating a primitive cement.

  This building material is much more solid than the ancient one made only of clay, so Gao Fei ordered all soldiers to start mixing this cement and then pile up the stones polished by stonemasons one by one, with cement as adhesive in between, which will be even more solid after drying.

  They say that many people have great power, and this is not a lie at all. With Gao Fei commanding these soldiers, they only worked for one morning, and the small citadel being built inside the city wall already had a rough shape. At lunchtime, all the soldiers gradually began to leave their posts and return to their respective camps to rest for an hour.

  Gao Fei returned to the county government office, where Fu Xie and Gai Xun were busily calculating the daily military expenses and the number of civilians evacuated from Liangzhou, as if this were their own fiefdom. This was their area of expertise and something they took very seriously.

  Kua stepped into the county yamen's main hall, and with a high-flying bow of his hands, he said to Fu Xie and Gai Xun: "The two gentlemen, it is already noon, why haven't you eaten yet?"

  Fu Xiantao said, "Lord Hou, you eat first, we're not in a hurry. If we can't accurately determine how many civilians were evacuated from Liangzhou, it will be impossible to send back that many people later. According to County Lieutenant Hua Xiong under your command, in the past eight days, more than 600,000 civilians have entered Sanfu from Chen Cang. The Han Yang Prefecture has a total of 27,423 households with a population of 131,118. Now that more than 600,000 people have entered Sanfu, I must figure out which county these 600,000 people are from."

  Hearing Fu Xie's familiarity with the population of his jurisdiction, Gao Fei couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration and immediately cupped his hands in respect: "I didn't expect Lord Fu to be so familiar with the population of the county. But looking at the current situation, even if we know which county the people are from, what's the use?"

  Gai Xun smiled and said, "Lord Hou, you are not aware that the governor is estimating the tax issue after the disaster. We must figure out the specific numbers in order to report to His Majesty and obtain special rewards to reduce the taxes of Han Yang County. Not only that, I am currently helping Lord Hou count the number of households and population in the entire Liangzhou. Now that the rebels have occupied nearly half of Liangzhou, if we don't calculate these losses, the Minister of Revenue and His Majesty will not be able to decide on the number of years to reduce taxes."

  After hearing this, Gao Fei finally understood the intention of Fu Shuo and Ge Xun. He let out a light sigh and said slowly: "Even if Your Majesty can reduce the taxes on the people of Liangzhou, what's the use? After this turmoil, it will take at least a few years for Liangzhou to recover. I'm afraid that the people from Liangzhou who have entered Sanfu will not want to return."

  Fu Xiantao said, "The young master's concerns are not unreasonable, but reducing taxes is better than not reducing them. As for how many years to reduce, that will have to be decided by the Grand Treasurer and His Majesty."

  Gao Fei deeply felt that Fu Xue and Gai Xun were capable of both literary and military arts, making them not bad local officials. If they went to Liaodong in the future, perhaps their abilities could be put to use. Thinking this, Gao Fei said: "Two gentlemen, people are made of iron, food is made of steel, one meal missed and hunger sets in, these things can't be calculated overnight, why not go eat first? After eating, I'll send someone to assist you both in figuring out what to do?"

  Fu Xiu asked: "Is there a good way for Master Hou to count the population?"

  Gao Fei nodded and said, "At present, most of the refugees who have poured into the three auxiliary regions have been accepted by the Governor of Jingzhao in the Chang'an area. That is the land of Guanzhong, with a vast territory, and more than 600,000 people can be temporarily settled there. If the two lords want to know the exact number, they only need to send someone to conduct a household census in the refugee settlement area. The numbers you see on these registers are just dead numbers, and it's impossible to investigate."

  Fu Xie's face lit up with joy after hearing this, and he immediately closed the household register he was reviewing. He turned to Gai Xun, who was auditing across from him, and said: "Gai Zhangshi, let's go eat! The young master's words are indeed very insightful. A census... how did I not think of that?"

  After dinner, Gao Fei dispatched 500 soldiers to Fu Shuo and Ge Xun for command, letting them take the 500 soldiers to conduct a census in the Chang'an area. Before departure, Fu Shuo and Ge Xun also expressed that they would get some grain and fodder from the Jingzhao Yin, because the troops stationed in the Chen Cang area only had half a month's worth of grain and fodder left.

  After seeing off Fu Shuo and Gai Xun, Cao Pi went to visit the wounded Pang De, Pei Yuan Shao, Xiahou Lan, and other soldiers who were injured in the war. Then, Cao Pi called for Lu Heng and Liao Hua, he had not asked about the situation of the Gao clan since his return yesterday, he wanted to know where Lu Heng and Liao Hua had arranged the Gao clan, because all the civilians around Chen Cang had evacuated, including his own 1,000 households of fiefs.

  "See Lord Hou!" Lu Heng and Liao Hua entered the county hall and bowed.

  Gao Fei said: "No need for formalities, I ask you, where was the Gao clan relocated to?"

  Lu Heng replied, "The Hou family's clan and the people of Liangzhou were accepted by the Governor of Jingzhao in the Chang'an area. The thousand households from Chen Cang also followed them there. News of the rebellion in Liangzhou has already reached the Three Auxiliaries, causing shock. Upon receiving orders from the Right Fufeng official, all the people west of Wugong were evacuated to Guanzhong, and troops were stationed in Wugong County. Someone was sent to invite Hou Ye to evacuate together. I informed them about Hou Ye's situation in Liangzhou. The Right Fufeng official instructed me to tell you, sir, to firmly guard Chen Cang and not let the rebels escape. He will write a memorial to the imperial court requesting reinforcements."

  "Hmm, this Right Commander is handling things quite properly. I've been away for these days, nothing major has happened, right?" Gao Fei felt that there was no need to worry anymore, after all the imperial court had not yet reached a state of complete collapse, Emperor Ling of Han was still on the throne, and in some sense could intimidate some people.

  Liao Huadao said, "Nothing's wrong, everything is normal. However, after Master Hou left, Hua Xiong recruited 200 village braves. I originally wanted to tell Master Hou yesterday, but he was too tired, so I put it off until today."

  "Hua Xiong is still pretty good, after all, it's also a time to use people, one more person means one more strength." Gao Fei said happily.

  Lu Heng asked: "Your Excellency, I have something that I don't understand. Your Excellency went to Liangzhou once and suddenly became the Governor of Liangzhou?"

  Gao Fei smiled and simply told Lü Heng and Liao Hua about his experience in Liangzhou, and the two finally understood.

  Liao Hua and Lu Xiang told Gao Fei some more about the big and small things that had happened in Chen Cang, and Gao Fei praised Liao Hua and Lu Xiang again and again. Afterwards, the three of them left the county government office together to direct soldiers to repair the city walls and the outer city.

  Three days later, the city wall of Chen Cang was repaired and the urn city was also built. The defensive project temporarily came to an end. In the following days, Gao Fei began to order people to build catapults, and many stones were transported from the mountain as a defensive measure. He also asked stone workers to polish ten giant boulders, one zhang high and half a zhang wide, which could pass smoothly under the city gate.

  With the soldiers, he also strengthened the defense of the city wall. Gao Fei felt more confident and began to measure the range of bows and arrows outside the city wall, as well as the range of catapults. He used stones to mark the distances on the ground outside the city. The Han army's bows had a long range but poor accuracy. The infantry bow could shoot about 300 steps away and was the strongest type of bow in the Han army. The crossbow had a short range but high accuracy. He also ordered people to bring him cavalry shortbows and other types of bows with different characteristics, personally shooting arrows outside the city wall and having people mark the distances.

  Three hundred paces of bow, two hundred paces of bow, one hundred and fifty paces of bow and one hundred paces of crossbow, each prepared a thousand soldiers for training, respectively led by Liao Hua, Lu Heng, Zhou Cang and Guan Yu. In addition, he placed the well-made stone-throwing vehicles in different positions, making the shooting range gradually decrease, forming a ladder-like shooting range, so that when encountering the rebel army's fierce attack, he could defend very well from different ranges with the most lethal weapons.

  To ensure that nothing goes wrong, he even had people collect fierce fire oil. Once these crossbows and ballistae were unable to suppress the rebels' attack, he would use fire to burn them down. All of this defensive setup came from a movie called "Kingdom of Heaven" that he had seen before, which he cleverly applied here, and it was quite effective.

  After completing all the city defenses, it has been five days since then. The Lanzhou rebel army still has no signs of attack. According to the returning scouts, Bian Zhang and Han Sui's rebel army has occupied areas such as Hanyang, Anding, Longxi, Jincheng, Wuwei, etc., and the number of rebels is also increasing gradually.

  After hearing the news brought back by the scout, Gao Fei began to worry about one person, that is Jia Xu. Since parting ways in Po County, he didn't know how Jia Xu was doing. For him, Jia Xu was a crucial figure, his current subordinates were all military generals, and there wasn't a single strategist like Jia Xu. He had met his first Three Kingdoms strategist, Jia Xu, so he valued this "poisonous scholar" even more in his heart.

  On September 26, Fu Xie and Gai Xun returned from the Governor of Chang'an with five hundred soldiers, bringing a thrilling message: all the Yellow Turbans in the Central Plains had been pacified. After Emperor Ling of Han made some simple rewards, he ordered Huangfu Song, who was already a General of Chariots and Cavalry, to lead 100,000 elite Han troops to come to Liangzhou to quell the rebellion.

  A great war is inevitable...