stubborn thief

Chapter 319 Staying in the Autumn
The speed at which Liu Chengzong captured Bajiao City was beyond the imagination of others, not even his father and elder brother.

Liu Chengzu, who had just finished sorting out the second batch of materials in Xining, saw the news of Li Wanqing's destruction of the city. His first reaction was not to cheer, but to directly order his subordinates to put Li Wanqing under house arrest.

Liu Chengzu knew what Bajiao City was like. Not to mention that the city was easier to defend and harder to attack than Zhenyuan City, at least it was comparable.

When they captured Zhenyuan, the defenders in Zhenyuan County were only a few hundred, not enough for a man to stand behind each battlement, surrounded by ants, it is not surprising that they would go down the city in one day.

However, Bajiao City had 1 defenders, and Liu Chengzong's siege army was even less than [-]. The official siege began on the third day of September. On September [-]th, Li Wanqing went to Xining to say that the city was broken.

Even if Li Wanqing ran fast, it was at least the city that was broken on the ninth day of September, six days, how could Liu Chengzu believe it, the city was really for attack, faster than he could raise gunpowder.

If a dozen cannons can break through the city in six days, Hou Jin should have reached Xining by now.

He felt that Li Wanqing might have surrendered to Chuoketu, and his younger brother might be defeated. This was because the enemy released false news as a way to lure the enemy.

Although it is absurd that the second brother was defeated by Chuoke Rabbit, it is far less strange than falling into the city on the sixth day.

For this reason, Liu Chengzu also detained Li Wanqing for two days, and did not listen to a word he said. While sending his cronies south to inquire about the news, he was actively preparing for the war to avenge his brother.

Two days later, Bao Hu, deputy of Qianhu Office of Guide Qianhu Office, sent someone to fly to report that the Generalissimo had escorted [-] Khalkha captives and wounded soldiers into Guide territory, and asked Liu Chengzu where to send them. It was specified that the chieftain Chen Shiwen should quickly gather [-] households to go to Bajiao City, and go to Nanshanbao to meet the commander himself.

Liu Chengzu was dumbfounded: "You really won?"

This is two unexpected things happening one after another. Liu Chengzong's winning so quickly is the first unbelievable thing, and the second thing is this Bao Hu.

Liu Chengzu can remember clearly that this Baohu is as afraid of Xining as he is of a tiger.

Earlier, he didn’t dare to enter Xining, and kept pretending to be an ostrich in Guide, and even planted landmines at the ferry when he started fighting with Khalkha, trying to send Liu Chengzu to heaven. Why did he think about it now?
In fact, for no other reason, Bao Hu met Liu Chengzong.

In the past few months since Chuoke Tutaiji invaded Qinghai, the mentality of Bao Hu and the Tuliu guards of the Guide Institute has undergone tremendous changes.

All of this has to start with the corpses they robbed hard from the Khalkha entrepreneurs.

After that battle, Bao Hu decided to lead Liu Chengzu to fight against Chuoketu. They got into Guide City and couldn't come out. They only sent people to send the head to Hezhou Wei. The body was left in Qianhu Yamen to wait for the official inspection. Who knows If the head is sent over, there will be no follow-up letter.

At that time, Liu Chengzu's soldiers were in the river valley surrounding the fort and fighting with Khalkha. Bao Hu also tried to avoid his subordinates from running around, so he waited for a long time before sending someone to Hezhou to inquire. Fuck it.

It was only after the Banner Army went that the imperial court had already accepted the eighteen heads, but the road was blocked, and the news and rewards were not sent here. Wei Ya saw that the talents handed over 12 taels of silver.

Bao Hu was thinking about it in the Guide Yamen, and called the Tuliu officials to gather together. A group of guards of Mongolian descent frowned, turned into great mathematicians and beat the abacus, looked at the results, and looked at each other Doubt about life.

The head of a Tartar thief is worth silver... six cents, six cents, six cents, six cents, six cents, and seven chums?
Guide lived under the rule of Razun for a long time, and he didn't know much about the affairs of the country. Everyone had a soul torture hidden in their hearts: Has the price of the imperial court fallen to this level?
We don't know what kind of algorithm is the 12 first-level [-] two silver rewards, this stuff is inexhaustible!
Anyway, they knew very well that as long as the Qinghai Marshal's Mansion is still here, this road may never pass in the future.

Xining is the entire territory of an enemy country, all the news sent by the court has been unreadable, and the officials sent into the Hehuang Valley are only [-] miles away from becoming a missing person.

There are even some people, such as the loyal Zhou Tongzhi, who was ordered by the imperial court to lurk beside Liu Thief. Since he left Xining City that year, no one has the exact information of where he is. You can’t ask, Xining has the same caliber , The question is to say that they are studying navy in Qinghai Lake.

Isn't this farting? Where are you planning to drive the boat to Qinghai Lake?Make up nonsense to deceive children without such a thing, and simply say that there is a naval battle with the Mongol Empire in the vast sea.

It is said that even Zhou Tongzhi's family members in Baoding Mansion have become missing persons.

A hundred households stretched out four fingers and said mysteriously: "The fourth-rank official of the imperial court, if you say nothing, you will be gone. It's terrible that you can't see people alive or dead."

To be born in this place is really too scary for Bao Hu.

But the more terrifying thing was yet to come. That day, Li Wanqing, a thousand households of Xiningwei, galloped across the Guide Office and sent someone to tell them that Shuai Ye had won a big victory. See south.

The power of the great victory, tens of thousands of Chuoke rabbits in Khalkha were wiped out in Bajiao City. Bao Hu felt that although his own city wall was quite strong, it might not be able to withstand Liu Chengzong.

I didn't dare to block, and there was no place to run, so I could only bite the bullet and call on the local military officers, took nine cows and nine sheep to serve as soldiers, and headed south.

A total of six Tuliu officials went there, and the people were very disturbed. They all looked brave and righteous, thinking that most of them would die on this trip southward.

The best and best result, I'm afraid it's just like Lazun when he was still in Xiaohetao, Jiao Timba.

But they heard that Liu Chengzong's black hands and ruthlessness are the last thing, and his posture of knocking the bones and sucking the marrow of the people is about to catch up with Emperor Chongzhen.

With the mood of giving themselves a funeral, they met Liu Chengzong, a monster who looked very mighty but didn't want to eat people, just laughed when they saw them, asked their names and official positions, and even moved them stools, which was very scary.

It's not that Liu Chengzong moved the stool to be scary, the key is the big gun. The stool was unloaded from under the six large camp guard guns.

Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong was very happy to see them. He first praised them for their bravery in resisting Chuoketu's attack, and then commended them for their meritorious service in defending the city.

The six people, from a hundred households to deputy thousand households, are treated equally according to their official ranks, those who should be rewarded with sheep will be rewarded with sheep, and those who should be rewarded with cattle will be rewarded with cattle.

After asking about the merits of fighting the Chuoke rabbit and the first level, Liu Chengzong also rewarded 180 taels of silver to Guide, which made the Tuliu guards burst into tears... This money is not too much to be honest, but it is more than what the court gave Fifteen times, but it can be divided completely!

Rewarding silver was nothing more than Liu Chengzong's sympathy. He said something about himself as an officer and soldier in the past. His real act of buying the guards of Guide Thousand Households was promotion.

Bao Hu was promoted to Zhengqianhu, and the remaining five were all promoted to Guide Deputy Qianhu, and they were asked to go to Xining City with a letter of appointment to get a seal.

Faced with the letter of appointment sent by the guards, Bao Hu and others looked at me and I looked at you. Everyone knew that this thing should not and could not be accepted, but in the end they were no match for a helpless sigh, and could only sigh in a complicated state of mind. next.

It is easy to receive a letter of appointment, but the difficult thing is the etiquette of expressing gratitude.

As for their identity as officers of the Ming Dynasty, how should they express their gratitude to Liu Chengzong, whose identity is unclear?

In the end, everyone really didn't know what to do, so they all looked at Bao Hu. Faced with so many doubtful eyes, Bao Hu was also very helpless.

His ancestors had received professional training from the Ming court for generations, and if he failed the exam, he could not inherit the chieftain. The process of expressing gratitude to the emperor was clear, but he had no etiquette training for expressing gratitude to the chieftain.

What's more, this Liu Chengzong doesn't look like a chieftain from head to toe!

In the end, Bao Hu thought about the performance of Hezhou Wei in this war. The Marshal’s Mansion in this three-acre land is much more reliable than the imperial court. Then he looked at the big guns around him that were taller than people, and he was heartbroken. , Forget it, it's all about the leadership, don't lose face, let's kowtow a few times.

Immediately lead five Tuliu military officers, and they will worship three times and kowtow nine times: "I will thank the Marshal for his kindness, and I will serve you forever..."

"Okay, they are all military attachés, don't knock them back and forth. After so many years, there is no difference between Han and local. The imperial court in this place can't help you. Follow me steadfastly, and I won't treat you badly."

This is just empty talk, but Liu Chengzong proved that it is possible to realize it. He asked Bao Hu to send a letter to Chen Shiwen, saying that it was the first chieftain who belonged to him, and he would fulfill his promise not to treat badly.

Afterwards, Liu Chengzong left the finishing work of Huangnan Xiaohetao to his eldest brother, and led his army westward. There was Arslan at the foot of Wulan Mountain in the west.

However, the next battle was nothing to Liu Chengzong. The 1 Khalkha army was flattened, leaving only the [-] Arslan soldiers stationed in Wulan Mountain.

Compared with the next battle, Liu Chengzong paid more attention to the future development of Qinghai.

The extermination of the Chuoke Rabbit further increased the financial resources of the Marshal's Mansion. The precious metals, weapons and armor, war horses and livestock seized alone were worth nearly 58 taels.

But after calculation, this number is very false, no one has ever been able to count the enemy's captured spoils so clearly.

There is no other reason why Liu Chengzong can figure it out. Most of the seized materials were made by them.

All kinds of decorations, luxury goods, living utensils, gold and silver jewelry, weapons and armor, at least [-]% bear the logos of the Marshal's Mansion Military Bureau, Baigong Bureau, and Weaving Bureau.

Even the dried noodles that are used as military rations by Chuoke Tutaiji are all produced in Juerwan.

All of them were sold by Juerwan to the Mengfan tribe in Qinghai, and then snatched by Chuoketu.

This made Liu Chengzong realize a problem that he hadn't considered before. The biggest impact of this war on Qinghai is probably not the Marshal's Mansion to establish its prestige to the surrounding area.

Instead, he single-handedly established the Juerwan Market, which was making a lot of money every day, and was destroyed from the source.

His market is still there today, but his customers are gone.

The customers of the Juerwan market have never been ordinary Mongolian people, but large trading caravans led by Mongolian nobles. Now there are many Mongolian tribes in Qinghai, even more than before, but there are no Mongolian nobles left several.

In the future, the trading partners will no longer be the leaders of the Mengfan tribe, but merchants from the surrounding counties.

It will be the business center where Xining City connects Haixi, Haibei and other counties, and radiates further south.

Liu Chengzong's army marched towards Nanshan Fort very fast, but it couldn't keep up with Arslan's escape speed.

The news of Chuoketu's defeat and death shocked the Mongolian army at the foot of Ulan Mountain. Arslan immediately decided to flee back to the border of Gansu, but he, a member of the Ulan tribe, did not listen to him.

Some of them are Khalkha's army, and more are women and children from Monan. They have just lived a good life for two days, and no one wants to leave Wulan Mountain.

Because it's almost October and winter is coming.

They did not participate in the attack on Tumet Gurutaiji, and their living supplies could not support them to survive outside Gansu until next spring.

Under internal and external pressure, the Ulan tribe collapsed, and Arslan led two thousand-man teams loyal to him to rob a lot of livestock and supplies, and fled to the border of Gansu.

The more than [-] tribes who remained in Wulan Mountain elected several highly respected leaders to surrender to Zhong Hu of Nanshan Fort.

Zhong Hu was terrified at the time. He had a total of 200 people under his command, so how dare he accept the surrender of 6000 people.

Liu Guoneng, the magistrate of Haixi County, can't do this either... The whole Haixi County has only more than 4000 people, and it is almost self-sufficient. Even if the 6000 people eat up all the livestock, they will not survive the New Year.

As long as people are put in from Nanshan Fort, before the Shangyuan Festival next year, Haixi County will eat people.

For the Mongolian leaders who surrendered, things developed in a direction they didn't want to see, and there were not many choices left for them. Either they abandoned the old, weak, women and children like Arslan's choice; field.

Almost all the Mongolian leaders who fled from Monan had this experience: in autumn, their tribes encountered a food crisis, and there were no tribes around to help them, so they had to ask the frontier guards of Ming Dynasty for money and food, and submitted a letter to the generals.

Sometimes, Daming would open the border market and ask them to exchange fur and horses for food at a high price, or directly provide food and grass in exchange for military assistance.

But more often than not, the court's frontier defense cannot afford to support them.

It's not that nomads naturally despise the old and the weak and value the young and strong, but they often face a situation where they have no choice. Many times, people are unwilling to abandon the old and the weak, and if they fail to surrender, the young and strong can only draw out their scimitars and fight for life and death.

If you win the battle, you will rush into the side wall to grab one, and if you lose, thousands of people will die.

Regardless of winning or losing, the ration problem can be solved, and the winter crisis can be passed smoothly.

It just takes some people to stay this fall forever.

When Liu Chengzong led his army to Nanshan Fort, what was waiting for him was like this. Sixteen thousand Mongols who were short of food and jackets, entrusted him with the power to adjudicate their own life and death. between.

Liu Guoneng was extremely helpless: "Commander, Xining has been recruiting refugees, and the reclaimed fields have not yet yielded much. The grain price in the Hehuang Valley has risen by [-]%, and there are more than [-] prisoners. I am afraid that there is no spare power."

"Good thing..."

Liu Chengzong said the happiest words in the bitterest tone, and looked up at the intersection of the majestic snow-capped mountains and the blue sky and white clouds: "God doesn't want so many people to live, I'm not God, no matter Xia Yi is a human being, let's tide over the difficulties together, Install."

After finishing speaking, he took a deep breath, the expression of compassion on his face faded, and he raised his head and said: "Haixi Haibei Juerwan Xining, you can harvest as much as you can, and if you can't harvest, you can fish in the navy's yamen. I can only wrong my brothers and eat less grain and more meat this winter."

"It's a big deal, I'm going to fight this battle for nothing." Liu Chengzong turned his head with his thumbs up and smiled at the generals around him: "We have eaten up all the cows and sheep that are as old as Taiji!"

　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)