Elena Wei's Silent Vigil and Shadows Over the Border Chapter 95

Woyang County is located to the north of Yanmen County and is named after the Wo River. There is a salt pond in the northeast of the city, where a chief official is stationed. The population within the jurisdiction once exceeded 10,000. It was not only a large county in Yanmen County, but also an important gateway to resist the Xiongnu's southward invasion.

The county town was built during the Qin Dynasty and covers a large area. The city walls and buildings are mostly made of rammed earth and have survived many wars. The surface of the city wall is full of pits and holes, which are mostly traces left over from the war. There are large black marks at the bottom of the wall on the north and east sides, which seem to have been burned.

The last time the Huns moved south, Woyang County was breached for a time. All the food, livestock, and merchants' goods in the city were looted. The old and the young were slaughtered, and the women and children were abducted.

Zhidu was appointed to a border county, where he punished the criminals severely and vigorously restored production. Liu Rong moved into the city and reclaimed wasteland outside the city. Woyang gradually showed signs of recovery. The ruins were replaced by new houses, and the weeds and dead trees were burned in large quantities. The ash with smoke was turned into the ground and became nutrients to nourish the wasteland.

Just when life had begun to look promising, drought and locust plagues came one after another, and the fields were barren. Just as the natural disasters had subsided, the Huns from the north attacked again, and life became extremely difficult.