Chapter 338: First Battle in the Secret Realm

Just as Lin Chen thought.

After listening to Lin Chen's nonsense, the guards of the Imperial Guards did not suspect him.

On the contrary, they knew that this matter was entrusted by the immortals, and their morale was greatly boosted.

Seeing Lin Chen, who could be used by the army, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"This is the capital of the surrounding towns."

Long before, Lin Chen had sorted out the map near Emei.

Now the land of Sichuan and Shu has been desolate due to continuous wars, and it no longer has the reputation of the land of abundance.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, Leshan, where Emei is located, was called Jiazhou, which was the gateway to Chengdu.

However, Lin Chen knew very well.

After the rise of the Mongols in the northern grasslands and the destruction of the Jin Dynasty, they would attack the Southern Song Dynasty with all their strength.

According to the original history, many places in Sichuan and Shu fell into the hands of the Mongols, and even Chengdu changed hands several times.

In the end, the Sichuan and Shu defense line collapsed, and the Southern Song Dynasty was also on the verge of extinction.

Lin Chen was not sure when the secret realm had arrived.

If the Mongols had just destroyed the Jin Dynasty, he would have less than a year to prepare.

After Mongolia digested what the Jin Dynasty had gained, it would launch a massive attack on the Southern Song Dynasty, and then there would be decades of fierce fighting.

You should know that Sichuan and Shu had been fighting with the Jin Dynasty for decades before, and now there was a more ferocious Mongolia, so there was no chance to breathe.

Because of this, even Sichuan and Shu, which were steep and had many passes, could no longer resist the footsteps of the barbarians.

Thinking of this, Lin Chen's eyes fell on a place on the map.

There was a middle county more than ten miles away from Emei Mountain.

According to the Song Dynasty system, there were seven levels of counties: Chi; Ji; Jin; Wang; Shang; Zhong; Xia.

The county governed by the capital was Chi County, and the county next to the capital was Ji County.

The rest were divided into five levels according to the richness of the land and the population.

If it was a Wang County, the population would be about 7,000 households, almost 30,000 people.

As for the worst Xia County, a thousand households could become a county, which means 5,000 people.

Nowadays, in Sichuan and Shu, most of the county seats in various places are middle and lower county seats, and only around the state capital, there are a few county seats with a population of over 20,000.

In order to resist the barbarians, the Southern Song Dynasty set up five states and three temples in Sichuan and Shu.

This state is almost under the jurisdiction of a prefecture, with a total population of twenty counties.

In other words, the population of each state is less than 300,000!

Even in the northern Sichuan and Shu with a population of less than two million, more than 100,000 soldiers have to be supported!

It is conceivable that Sichuan and Shu, which have been fighting for years, are exhausted.

Even so, the Southern Song Dynasty court still asked Sichuan and Shu to offer Shu brocade, horses, salt, tea and other things.

Lin Chen looked at the nearest county on the map, thinking.

The base is very important.

Three thousand people can't always sleep in the wild.

At the same time.

He also intended to test the military equipment of the Southern Song Dynasty in the secret world.

Yulin Huqiwei is a cavalry soldier.

When Lin Chen brought them in, he didn't let them lead the horse.

However, there are still a lot of Xiliang war horses in his system backpack.

Anyway, Lin Chen, who let his soldiers see his magical powers, didn't pretend anymore.

Under the astonished gaze of many Yulin guards, Lin Chen released six thousand Xiliang war horses.

One man riding two horses is enough.

Lin Chen pushed this to the immortals for help.

Jiachuan County is middle-lower poor, with a population of only two thousand households and more than ten thousand people.

Cao Ling was drinking in the government office, very worried.

For him, what is the purpose of being an official? Of course, it is to make money.

As the saying goes, three years as a clean prefect, 100,000 silver.

As a county magistrate of Wanhuhou, although not as good as a prefect, it is easy to make tens of thousands of taels of silver in office.

Of course.

It is not so good in Sichuan and Shu.

Cao Ling did not expect that the real position of county magistrate that he had worked hard to spend thousands of taels of silver to get would be in Bashu!

As a literati, how could he not know the situation in Bashu?

Not to mention making money, it is possible that the barbarians will block the pass and even his own life will not be saved!

Therefore, when Cao Ling took office, he made up his mind to gather local gentry and landlords and plunder them under a pretext.

When he got the money, he would split it 30% with the local gentry.

But when Cao Ling came to Jiachuan County, he realized how weak Bashu was as Lin'an said!

In such a big Jiachuan County, there was not even a gentry.

The reason was simple.

No matter how big the gentry was, they could not withstand the annual increase in taxes from the court.

The gentry in Jiachuan County had long been exploited and became extremely poor people.

In other words.

All the people in Jiachuan County have become poor ghosts!

In this situation, Cao Ling could only give up and hide in the county government office drinking wine early in the morning.

As for handling government affairs?

Forget it.

Last year, a group of remnants of the Jin army passed by and looted the county office.

The county magistrate was hacked to death, and most of the county office was burned down by fire, and it has not been repaired yet.

Cao Ling took this opportunity to report and planned to ask the court to approve 1,800 taels of silver for repairs.

But it has been almost two months since the document was submitted, and there has been no progress.

Cao Ling no longer holds out hope.

Just muddle along.

If there is news of the invasion of barbarians, just run back to Lin'an.

He is not worried about being punished.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of civil officials who abandoned their land and fled were not punished at all, except that they were no longer employed.

On the other hand, the military generals who lost their land almost had no choice but to die.

This damn Jiachuan County magistrate, whoever wants to be the magistrate can be the magistrate!

But just when Cao Ling was full of resentment.

Suddenly, he heard a panicked shout.

"County magistrate, county magistrate, something bad has happened!"

The man who came was the county yamen Ding, who was over 60 years old and his neck was in the ground.

"What's the matter?!" Cao Ling's face was full of dissatisfaction.

Nothing should disturb the county magistrate from drinking.

But the next second, the words of the doorman made Cao Ling break out in a cold sweat and his drunkenness disappeared.

"County magistrate, there is a large group of cavalry outside the city, it seems there are tens of thousands!"

Cavalry? !

Hearing this, Cao Ling jumped up like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

It's bad, it's bad!

It must be the barbarian army coming in person!

Before the doorman could continue to say anything, Cao Ling ran to the back of the county government and disappeared.

Cao Ling was sure that the troops coming to Jiachuan County were definitely not the Southern Song army.

The reason was very simple.

The Southern Song did not have so many cavalry.

Indeed.

Even in the Northern Song Dynasty, the army was very short of horses.

Not to mention the Southern Song Dynasty that was beaten to the south.

Even if Sichuan and Shu could buy some horses through Xixia, it would be just a drop in the bucket.

Only the northern barbarians could provide such a number of cavalry.

Therefore, Cao Ling was the first to run away.

I have to say, it was really ridiculous.

When the whole county was in a panic, the county magistrate himself, who had learned the news, had already escaped.

It can only be said that this is the atmosphere of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Lin Chen thought he would encounter some obstacles.

But he didn't expect that the gates of the county town in front of him were wide open and not defended at all!

Looking at the county residents, all of them hid in their homes and dared only to secretly look at the mysterious army in front of them.

Wearing black armor and with clear flags!

Looking at the appearance of these soldiers, don't they look like barbarians from outside the Great Wall?

But the black and black military flags held high are not the style of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Lin Chen glanced at the dilapidated county town and shook his head slightly.

It was so easy to seize this county town that he couldn't believe it.

…