stubborn thief

Chapter 153

Wang Wenxiu, who was at the end of the team, led the army to hurry, and was still two miles away from the battlefield.

The soldiers of the battalion sentry are already cleaning the battlefield.

There were groans of pain everywhere.

Liu Chengzong passed by the periphery of the battlefield where corpses were strewn across the field, and the sentry sergeants were escorting the banner army prisoners and carrying the wounded soldiers.

In the shallow creek that can't pass through the feet, the old thief Cao sitting on the four-wheeled red cannon cart with blood on his face, leisurely chewing dried horse meat, holding a porcelain pipe with only erotic blue and white pictures, bit by bit. Tobacco compaction.

This is Master Huo's pipe.

On the day Huojiabao was breached, the cracked pipe was turned in by the soldiers, and he gave it to Cao Yao.

Seeing him coming, Cao Yao got up from the cannon carriage, raised his thumbs proudly behind him: "General, did you fight well?"

"It's so beautiful, sit down, it will be a while before the chasing horse team comes back."

Liu Chengzong praised him, then got off his horse and asked, "What's wrong with your face?"

Cao Yao wiped his face with the back of his hand, shook his head and said: "Tiger crouching cannon hit, bad luck, he bang bang a few times, my soldiers are fine, only my face was bitten off by the cannon."

As luck would have it, the enemy had extended the range of the cannon, and the wound was on the cheekbone.

A little higher, there will be a one-eyed dragon in the future; if the artillery fires later, they will die an extra row.

Liu Chengzong put up the red flag to graze by the stream, and went to sit beside the cannon cart, and handed out a towel for him to wipe: "Going home, my sister-in-law should scold me, come out with me and break the face."

"Forget it, we don't rely on our faces like Lin Wei."

Cao Yao laughed, and immediately stopped a musketman who was running away carrying a weapon, and asked for a matchlock to light his pipe. Then he said: "This is the first round, let me play two more rounds, and I will be able to light the rifle. The big and small formations that have been mixed up are listed."

"Forget it, you will be gone after two more fights."

"Um……"

Cao Yao waved his hands, and his words were full of relief: "This is the most difficult battle, I think they are easy to deal with, so they fight like this. The artillerymen are counting how many people were killed by the cannons, and the next battle will be fired at a hundred paces."

Good guy, Liu Chengzong gave a thumbs up when he heard that the old thief knew how to count numbers, and said, "Brother Cao, you were born late, you were born a few years earlier and you are Qi Yuanjing!"

"You were born a few years earlier than Tan Zili." Cao Yao took the pipe from his mouth and spread his hands: "Isn't this born too late, what can I do?"

Liu Chengzong said: "What do you think, tell me."

"Fifty steps, 150 steps, [-] steps, the tiger crouching cannon is loaded with gravel, the Yongzhu cannon is loaded with six-coin iron powder, and the Franji is loaded with three-coin iron powder."

Cao Yao stretched out three fingers, corresponding to the distance in turn, and calculated: "For each distance, three types of guns correspond to five, six, seven, um...nine types, corresponding to nine types of enemy casualties."

A smile appeared on Liu Chengzong's face. He originally thought that Cao Yao's hands were itchy, but he didn't expect that he was looking for rules very rigorously.

He also thought about the musket approaching and firing.

But the times are wrong, the weapons are wrong, and the enemy is wrong.

A volley of musketeers approaching can cause a lot of casualties, but if the number of muskets is insufficient, it will not be able to defeat the enemy, and at a shorter distance, it is easy to be recoiled by the enemy.

Most of the time the winning tactics are determined by the enemy's weaknesses.

The Ming frontier army in this era learned from Qi Jiguang's drills published by the Ministry of War.

In the era when Qi Jiguang was stationed in Jizhen, the requirements for the blunderbuss and artillery of the car battalion were to shoot sequentially with the 510 No. [-] and No. [-] Francophones, pursuing the continuity of firepower with extremely high discipline.

Because the Mongols generally do not fight positional warfare with the Ming army.

"Wait for me to figure it out and see which gun is better. From now on, I will use that gun entirely and fire at the most suitable distance."

Cao Yao said it very simply: "I hope it's a Pearl Cannon. It's light and durable. The Franji is also good, but it's too heavy. As for the Tiger Squat..."

The old thief raised his finger and pointed at his cheekbones: "I didn't kill me, I don't think it's good for piercing armor."

The shooting angle of the tiger squat is high, it can hit far but not direct fire, and the shells are also light, so the damage to armored enemies is not as good as other guns.

Liu Chengzong didn't follow his words, but instead asked, "Do you know where I want to go most when I enter Shanxi?"

"Wonghe Palace and Qingcheng Palace in Fenyang City?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head: "There is no food in the palace, and the food is in Wangzhuang outside. This year, Shaanxi has reduced production. Food is very important, but I want iron metallurgy more. There are ready-made tools. We used to make a batch of cannons by ourselves, which is the most suitable for us. cannon."

"What cannon?"

There was reverie in Liu Chengzong's eyes: "A red barbarian small cannon that weighs less than [-] catties, has a cannon cart of [-] catties, is led by two mules, and is powerful enough for field battles."

The modulus of each part of the gun body is used to make the thicker part thicker, and the less thick part can be thinner, so that the cannon is lighter and more durable under the same power.

Then under the same weight, the natural power is greater.

Cao Yao narrowed his eyes, wiped the blood off his face again, and was very excited: "Just wait, wait until you pass Luliang Mountain, let me go around, I'll pull some Buddha statues back, don't use iron, use copper."

The requirements are quite high.

Liu Chengzong nodded with a smile, and saw the horse team chasing and killing the enemy in the distance taking hundreds of prisoners and returning them in a team.

Zhong Bao, who was leading the cavalry, rode over, got off his horse and bowed down, saying, "General, there are still dozens of them running away, and they can't catch up after going into the mountains."

"It's okay, you can send someone to the village of Chengguan in Puxian County and ask how the banner army's military discipline was when it was stationed in the camp."

"As long as you don't do anything that angers people." Liu Chengzong thought for a while and suddenly touched his body, saying: "If you are willing to surrender, you will accept it; if you are not willing to surrender, then... Brother Cao, do you have any money?"

"Silver? How much?"

"Three or five taels, or a dozen or so taels."

"Good job!"

As Cao Yao said, he jumped off the cannon carriage, handed the pipe to him, searched and fumbled in the Hongyi Pao's cannon carriage with a short body, lifted the tail of the cannon with difficulty, and stretched out a hand after a while: "Is it enough?"

Two flattened silver ingots of ten taels.

Liu Chengzong was taken aback: "Did you put the money down?"

Cao Yao said it was for a good omen, but he didn't know where the superstition came from.

"I am willing to follow, and I can eat and drink enough; but some family members are in the guards, and they don't force it. Each person will give one or six or seven cents of silver for travel expenses, and tell them clearly that we were soldiers before, and this will not be easy. They go home."

He said he laughed.

If so, why pursue it?
But things are so weird sometimes, not chasing and chasing and letting go, on the surface the result is the same, but in fact, it is quite different for those who have been let go and those who know about it.

As long as the imperial court can afford the military salary, Liu Chengzong will not do so.

Only a little travel expenses are needed to ensure that the next troop is dispatched. Everyone still bravely joins the army, gathers up the number of generals and officials, and fights to surrender enthusiastically.

It was getting dark, Liu Chengzong scattered the Tang soldiers ten miles away, and camped in the camp set up by the official army.

In the middle of the night, Zhong Bao stood outside the tent and said that the servant who had gone to Pu County came back and brought back the situation of the Pingyang Guard Banner Army in Pu County.

"They were stationed in Qiangou, Puxian County for two days. Mrs. Du said that they tore down the door panels of their house to sleep, and did not secure them when they left. Take it away, Mrs. Du saw it, so she didn't take it away."

"There is also the old man Mi in Xixiang who said that two Banner soldiers lived at home. When he left, he stole his cotton trousers and did not leave the torn cotton trousers; there is also old man Chen's nephew, Song Baihu has a small flag under his command. Discuss with him that my mother-in-law will give you four cents for one night's sleep, and five cents for two nights' sleep when you leave."

After Zhong Bao finished speaking, he glanced at Liu Chengzong and said in a low voice, "Military discipline is not bad."

Liu Chengzong licked his lips and pondered for a while, then nodded and said, "Okay, these are just a bunch of ruffians, it's not a big problem."

He obviously felt that Zhong Bao breathed a long sigh of relief.

Early the next morning, Liu Chengzong asked the prisoners to bring them out. There were more than 600 people. He asked Zhong Hu and others to borrow some money, collected 70 taels of silver, and registered on the spot.

Indeed, few people are willing to follow him.

I didn't want to vote for the thief at first, and if the thief let him go, he would give me money, so who would follow the thief.

In the end, there were fourteen people who said that they had no family members in the guard, and that being a thief would not cause their relatives to be recruited into the army, so they became thieves and were incorporated into the various posts.

The rest of them received a penny from Liu Chengzong and re-entered the prison camp.

When everyone was about to leave, Liu Chengzong told them: "Don't harm the people on the way back. If you run out of food, come back. I will take care of what you eat for a few days. If you don't want to be with me, it's okay. You can go back after you have enough food for a few days."

Before they could leave, Liu Chengzong pulled out the camp and left, leaving a bowl of porridge cooked in the camp for them to drink. Everyone packed up the leftover food before leaving.

Then the soldiers and horses drove quickly to Daning County, and then chased to Yonghe County, and almost circled around before catching up with another officer army of Pingyang Guard by virtue of their marching speed.

This army is not so well-behaved.

He didn't fight them at all. Ever since Wei Qian'er's Tangqi was discovered in the northeast of Yonghe County, the whole army let go of their girls and ran wildly all the way.

Cao Yao was so angry that he yelled, and all the sentinels and horsemen chased and surrendered all the way, and chased towards Shilou County on the small mountain road in the northeast.

When they ran to Shilou County, there were more than 400 people left in this flag army, and they lost their helmets and armor all the way, and they were completely defeated.

The city of Shilou County didn't dare to open the city gate to them. They ran for nearly sixty miles without any strength.

Finally, outside the shallow moat, the formation was formed with the suspension bridge on its back.

It was Zhong Bao who was chasing them, and there was nothing they could do about them.

There were quite a lot of people chasing the cavalry under him, but they couldn't hold back the bannermen who surrendered all the way, and threw away their helmets and armors all the way, leaving behind weapons and armor all over the place.

If they surrendered, they had to send someone to watch them, and the presence of weapons all over the place made it more difficult to watch them.

When he chased to Shilou, he only had the vanguard of fifty cavalry.

The two groups of people confronted each other by the Longquan water outside Shilou City. After waiting for an hour, Liu Chengzong led his troops over: "Tell them that Shilou County doesn't care about food, so come with me and we'll talk about it after we have a full meal."

No one listened.

Later, when Liu Chengzong looked at Shilou County, he didn't intend to send troops to fight it out, so he simply asked someone to bring over the pots he picked up on the road, fetched water from a nearby village, and put some dried horse meat that the soldiers carried with them.

Stewed a horse broth.

As soon as the drink started here, the Qijun couldn't stand it anymore.

After the meal, it was still the usual ceremony of surrendering and releasing people. They were all from Pingyang Guard, and Liu Chengzong also sent someone to ask questions when they passed through Daning County.

The performance is similar to that of the Banner Army in Pu County, and they are also a bunch of old ruffians.

But this time Liu Chengzong gained experience, and asked the carrier to bring some money in advance, and returned the money from the guards, and the specifications for releasing the prisoners were still the same.

He was very happy about this battle. The Banner Army was defeated but there were not many casualties. Everyone was in a good mood.

Only Shilou County was taken aback. At first, there were only dozens of riders, and they didn't want to burn the smoke. Later, there were more people, but Liu Chengzong didn't have the intention of besieging the city, so he didn't dare to burn the smoke.

When they went south, they finally let go and sent someone out of the city to send a message to Li Shien, who was stationed in Kukongguan in the east, saying that the bandits from the south crossed the border to besiege the city, and they left after the siege.

It may be because of retribution for lying, after Shilou County passed the news of the besieged city to Li Shien, Shilou County was really besieged in just one night.

In a sea of ​​big banners, the magistrate of Shilou on the top of the city wanted to cry but had no tears, just wanted to change his mouth that had never been opened.

Gao Yingxiang took dozens of riders to the south, and the more he walked, the more confused he became.

At the beginning, the two villages I passed by were burned, and I thought to myself that this Liu Shizi made me strictly disciplined, and destroyed the village by himself?

But further south, things are very different.

This village is not afraid of thieves!
The common people saw them as if they hadn't seen them.

It's just that they marched on this road, and the people carried dung along the side road.

Some people even followed them with iron tools.

At first, Gao Yingxiang was quite scared, but later he found out that the people just followed them to pick up horse manure every few hundred steps.

I have never seen such a situation in Shaanxi!
It's hard to say how I feel in my heart, Gao Yingxiang is not happy at all, and even a sense of impatience rises in my heart.

He has seen others fear, and he has also seen others support him, no matter which one it is, he feels very good in his heart.

There are more than 50 fully armed horse soldiers, and there are even Mongolian Tartars with more than 160 horses. Not to mention frightening you so much that you kowtow to ask grandpa to spare your life, you have to get into the mountains with some face, right?
Completely ignore like this?
King Gao Chuang couldn't accept it in his heart. It was like this after walking through one village, but it was still the same after walking through two villages.

In the third village, there were still people picking up horse dung behind the team. He couldn't help it, and sent a horseman to turn around and go back.

"Hey, stop that old man!"

The old man was startled, he pointed at the horse thief with a piece of trampled horse manure in his latte clip: "You, what are you doing?"

This is the first time the old man has seen such a situation, the thief actually talks to someone!
"Aren't you afraid of us? You've been picking up horse manure in the back!"

The old man was stunned for a long time, strangely, the villagers were picking up horse manure behind General Liu's troops, but they were never stopped.

After a while, he slowly frowned, and asked in a low voice, "Heroes, which team are you from?"

"Which team do you care about...Are you not afraid of us if I ask you?"

The old man asked again: "General Liu?"

The horse thief shook his head.

"Border army?"

The horse thief shook his head again.

"Banner army?"

The horse thief still shook his head.

The next moment, the old man threw away the iron clips and the wooden basket of horse dung, and ran into the village with his feet loose, until the straw sandals flew off.

　Good evening!Sorry for posting this chapter too late today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)