stubborn thief

Chapter 435

Liu Chengzong believes that marching from Jiayuguan to Gansu has a strong symbolic meaning, and it is the first step to walk through the Great Wall. This road will eventually end at Shanhaiguan.

On the other side of the Qilian Mountains, amidst the sound of firecrackers at the end of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides who was stationed in Liangzhou, couldn't sleep at night. Read carefully.

This letter was presented by Ding Shaoyin, the hereditary commander of the Liangzhou Guards.

Since Hong Chengchou entered Gansu, the four defense areas in Gansu have been turned into a wartime state. Except for military needs, the civilians are prohibited from sending letters, and a special department is selected from the Ningxia Army to set up checkpoints in various places to intercept letters and interrogate pedestrians. .

Both the main army in Gansu and the guest army in Ningxia had great objections to this order. First, they did not think that the information would enter Xining with the letter.

Secondly, everyone can understand how to prevent information leaks, but this order is too unreasonable.

The end of the new year is approaching, those who are on the border outside write a letter to their families to report their safety, and the parents who are at home miss their children and send a few letters to the military fort. In this place in Gansu, who can have no soldiers?
But Hong Chengchou didn't care about the favors of those little people, because he used to be a peddler of dried tofu, a real little man, so he knew very well that the favors of little people were worthless.

Only by being successful can you change your circumstances.

But if you want to succeed, you must avoid conflicts between the host and the guest. Therefore, even though he could not trust the local host army, Hong Chengchou still handed over the matter to the Ningxia soldiers, and let the Gansu officers take charge of the management.

The person in charge of this matter is Ding Shaoyin of Liangzhou Wei.

Like other hereditary generals in Gansu, the Ding family has been stationed in Liangzhou for more than 200 years. The ancestral home of the Ding family is Yangzhou. Conquer the North and the South.

Throughout the twelfth lunar month, even though letters were banned, soldiers were still entrained. The Ningxia frontier army intercepted [-] or [-] letters in Luka.

However, since the Gansu military officers are in charge, we still have to talk about human relations in the end. Usually, the letters have been reviewed, and if there are no problems, they will be delivered by the Ningxia frontier army.

Only the two letters that are now on Hong Chengchou's desk are exceptions.

The contents of these two letters are quite normal. They are letters from the frontier soldiers to their parents and wives, and there is nothing special about them.

The reason why Ding Shaoyin handed it over was that there was a problem in the process of sending the letters. Both letters were to be sent to Castle Black, but when the Ningxia frontier army who delivered the letters arrived at Castle Black, they found that the recipient’s family was fake. There is no such family.

But after tracing back to Yongchang Fort, it was found that the name of the sender was also false. After checking the garrison in the whole castle, it was found that there was no sender at all.

After six days of investigation, Ding Shaoyin discovered that the two men who sent the letter were originally garrisons from Yongchang Fort and Fenglepu Village. After the letter was intercepted, they ran away as deserters.

Ding Shaoyin thought it was just a letter from home, and after being intercepted, it was just to ask the officers to send more labor in the fort, and he would not be punished too much, and he would not be a deserter because of this-there must be something tricky in it.

But he didn't see anything tricky in the letter, so he sent the two letters to Hong Chengchou out of caution.

Hong Chengchou didn't see anything wrong with the two letters, but just as he dreamed back at midnight, a thought flashed through his mind, what if the two letters should be read together?

Holding an oil candle, Hong Chengchou frowned and read the letters repeatedly, and finally found clues. The first letter mentioned Muyang Chuanhe East Fort, war horses, and money owed 260 articles; the second letter mentioned Hedong Fort, armor, and border guards 240 sky.

Hong Chengchou, who wrote down these numbers, was overjoyed. That night, he ordered his horses to gallop to Muyangchuan East Fort and Hedong Fort, and asked the fort guards about the number of horses and armor in the fort and these two numbers.

He waited for a whole night, until the next day all the generals under his account came to the official office to pay him New Year's greetings, and the soldiers sent to the two places returned to Liangzhou, bringing back news that disappointed him.

There are 320 war horses in Muyangchuan Hedong Fort, and 440 pairs of armor in Hedong Fort, none of which match these two letters.

Hong Chengchou did not give up. He believed that since someone had escaped, there must be something wrong with the two letters, so he sent people to closely observe the two castles in the east and west of Muyang Chuandong, as well as the guards of the five castles of Hedong Fort, Yongchang Fort, and Fenglepuzhai. military.

It is a certainty that someone in Gansu is a thief, and it must be a high-ranking official, because the information in the two letters is incomplete, obviously not all the secret letters, ordinary soldiers cannot know the information of several military forts.

Behind this must be the commander of the officer above the same level and above.

The order had just been issued when the Liangzhou Guard Office received an urgent report that Zhuang Langwei had fallen.

Hong Chengchou frowned and asked, "How could Zhuanglang Weijian City fall instantly?"

Ding Shaoyin lowered his head and cupped his fists and said: "Back to the army gate, last autumn, the bandits from the marshal's mansion went to Zhuanglang River to grab food, and many banner troops fled from the chaos and rushed into Wushaoling to become robbers."

"According to what the remnant soldiers from the north said, on New Year's Eve, the deserters returned to the Acropolis with their treasures and set off firecrackers outside the city. The deputy commander of the city, Hong Yuan, didn't take it seriously at first. It was too late to close, and three thousand barbarians galloped inside and outside the Acropolis, and the Acropolis fell."

Hong Chengchou asked, "Where is Hongyuan?"

Ding Shaoyin bowed his head and said: "Stay commanding in the house to the death. If the city falls, I would rather die than surrender. In the early morning of the first day of the first lunar month, I set fire to myself and closed the door to die."

Another hereditary family gone.

The ancestor of the surname can be traced back to Timur, a Yiding horse soldier under Cao Guogong Li Wenzhong during the Hongwu period. His military exploits were promoted to the general banner.

Hong Chengchou closed his eyes in pain, clenched his fists in the sleeves of his official robe, and hammered on the armrest of the seat.

He said in his heart that the traitor should not die, but Hong Yuan, who was loyal to the court, should not die.

From Ding Shaoyin's message alone, he has already realized that the situation is not as simple as he imagined. Although Liu Chengzong went to Qinghai, he obviously did not lose his old skills as a thief, and he can still control the Wushaoling bandit remotely.

Obviously, where there are deserters, there is an environment for Liu Chengzong to show his talents.

This kind of thing happened on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. It's disgusting... How can there be such a New Year's greeting.

"Report the news to Lanzhou, Commander Ding, go and order some more generals to see the situation. If Liu thief attacks Lanzhou, you can take the city back; if he doesn't send troops to Lanzhou, the city will be destroyed." Give it to him first."

After all, Hong Chengchou was not discouraged at all, and he didn't take the loss of Zhuanglang Weicheng seriously. He just encouraged Ding Shaoyin: "General Ding, this battle has just begun, and the time to make contributions has come."

It is not important to Hong Chengchou to make meritorious deeds or establish a career. The important thing is to send guard officers who may be involved with thieves to the front line and prevent them from causing trouble in Gansu. It was scary.

Seeing the back of Ding Shaoyin turning back after saluting, Hong Chengchou slowly let go of his fist hidden in the official robe, patted the armrest of the seat, and decided in his heart that the important defense of Gansu must be handed over to Cao Wenzhao and Bai Guangen. Do.

These people are unreliable.

And on Zhuanglang Weicheng, three hundred miles away from Liangzhou, Xie Erhu was standing on the north gate of the urn, clapping the big iron cannon.

He looked north along the Zhuanglang River Valley, looked at the place where his eyesight was the best, and said: "Continue to attack northward, the so-called strong city Zhuanglang is nothing more than that, and we can easily take the Gulang Gorge!"

Standing beside him was Jing Xiaoliu, who had been promoted for less than half a year. He clasped his fists and said, "Xie Lushuai, this city was tricked by cooperation from inside and outside. If you go further north, there won't be so many people."

In fact, Xie Erhu's Mongolian cavalry basically did not contribute to the capture of Zhuang Langwei, and Jing Xiaoliu did not contribute much either.

Chengyun contacted the deserters from Wushaoling, prepared gifts for them and returned to the Acropolis to give gifts to the officers, expressing that he wanted to go home and stay for a while, and set off cannons during the Chinese New Year to cover up the horseshoes of Xie Erhu's cavalry, and the firelight also pointed out the direction for them in the dark , and robbed the Acropolis while galloping all the way.

Except for those generals and servants who have been favored by the country for generations, the banner troops scattered around the Acropolis have not been able to gather, and they cannot form combat effectiveness at all. They mainly wait and see amid the shouts of Jingxiao Liubu's soldiers, which makes it easy for them to win. city.

Speaking of this city being cheated, Xie Erhu admitted it from the bottom of his heart. He turned his head and looked into the city with lingering fear. This small city in Wuli was built to guard against cavalry.

There are nine streets and eighteen alleys in Zhuanglangwei City. Except for West Street and South Street, the rest of the streets and alleys are planned with crooked doors and ramps. If you enter the city from the north gate, the war horses will not be able to run in the city at all.

Not to mention the cavalry rampaging on the street, even on West Street, which runs from east to west, at the gate of the commander's house in the middle, there is a big pond that is long from east to west and short from north to south, for fish farming.

North Street is usually closed to people, with a total length of [-] steps. The east and west sides connect the northeast corner of the city with fields, and it is still a paddy field. It is too easy to block the road;

The archway is a thing that usually does not show mountains or dews, but it becomes a useful thing when it comes to war.

When they approached the city, they startled the cross-piercing pier in the south, and the smoke rose from the pier. On the South Street, there were flag soldiers carrying gunpowder and rushing under the archway. Fortunately, they entered the city quickly, otherwise the stone archway would blow up. If it collapses, it is a roadblock.

If every city in the north was like this, Xie Erhu felt that he might not be able to capture other cities, so he asked Jing Xiaoliu, "Do you think they will come to attack the city?"

"do not know."

Jing Xiaoliu smiled and said, "The commander-in-chief said, we are throwing stones."

Liu Chengzong's deployment on the eastern front was very simple. Xie Erhu led the herding battalion to attack Zhuanglanghe as the vanguard, Li Wanqing guarded Dongguan as the rear army and defended against Lanzhou. In addition, Basang led Fanbing to Liancheng.

Xie Erhu can fight forward, but if he can't beat him, he can retreat. It doesn't matter if he can't attack the city, and it doesn't matter if he loses the city... In fact, Liu Chengzong is very happy to see him lose the city, but he doesn't have much hope.

Because of the existence of Qilian Mountains and Wushaoling Mountains, Shaanxi and Gansu were naturally divided into two parts, and the valley between Lanzhou and Gulang Gorge led to almost the same strategic situation between the north and the south.

This is a natural buffer zone. Whoever stationed heavy troops in the valley will bear greater risks, because both sides can send light soldiers from the mountains on the north and south sides to cut off the other's food road, making the army in the valley a alone.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong judged that even if Xie Erhu captured Zhuang Langwei, he would not be besieged by heavy troops for a while.

If he was really besieged by heavy troops, then he would return to Hehuang at worst. In the worst case, Liu Shizi could accept losing Hehuang and return to Xining.

After all, his arsenal, Baigong Bureau, salted fish workshop, and Mayuan granary are all located west of Xining. Temporarily losing Hehuang will not harm his strength, but he will just lose his prestige.

But if the officers and soldiers want to take Zhuanglang River or even Huangshui, unless all the troops in Shaanxi are stacked on the front line of the Yellow River, otherwise the entire Gansu army will have to be pushed down.

The capture of Gansu is enough to shake the world.

But at this moment, Liu Shizi was really worried because of Hong Chengchou.

Because he discovered the secret letter sent to him from Gansu by Little Sixteen Master of the Three Tribulations Society... it doesn't match.

Because of the existence of the Sanjiehui, Liu Chengzong believed that Gansu was not blind to him.

It is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice, but as an assistant, Liu Chengzong believed that Wang Ziyong could bring Gansu's defense map to the Marshal's Mansion.

Xiaoliu was indeed doing this, but the congregation of the Three Tribulations under them were all marginalized people, and they couldn't get such high-level information at all.

But the same goal by different routes, they sent all the records of purchasing grain, oil, fodder, clothing, bedding and armor from various castle piers in Gansu in the summer and winter of the sixth year of Chongzhen.

To some extent, Liu Chengzong thinks that this thing is more powerful than the defense map, because the defense map may be fake, but people can't deceive people.

There are six data in one of their letters, which are the receiving address and the address mentioned in the letter, as well as the names of two materials and the quantities of the other two materials, which are expressed in exact numbers and percentages respectively.

However, the six data in each letter are irrelevant. Only by collecting six letters and arranging the receiving addresses according to the order of Gansu map from east to west can the intelligence data of eighteen military forts be obtained at the same time.

The guards of the commander-in-chief's mansion gathered in the west building. They didn't close their eyes for a whole day and night. They couldn't guess a complete result in the end, so they could only helplessly report to Liu Chengzong: "Marshal, two letters are missing."

"Are you sure there are two missing?" Liu Chengzong frowned and asked, "How big is the impact?"

"The two guards of Liangzhou and Yongchang are missing two letters. There are 37 castles in this area, of which 24 accounts of 48 castles cannot be matched, and the approximate number of soldiers cannot be calculated."

Liu Shizi, who originally thought he had opened the whole picture, removed a fog of war from his heart and covered eastern Gansu.

"That is Songshan, Liangzhou, and Yongchang. We don't know anything about it."

Liu Chengzong looked at the map hanging on the wall, and then looked at the table where various materials and guessed the number of soldiers were posted on the castles on the map. Even though the east was blank, Hong Chengchou's deployment was almost clear at a glance.

As he had guessed, the Gansu army had gathered heavy troops in Shandan and Ganzhou. The expected garrisons in each fortress ranged from full to doubled, and some key areas even more than tripled.

The proven strength alone is between [-] and [-].

This is a pocket formation around Qilian Mountain, so the situation of Yongchangwei, which is on the edge of the pocket formation, can probably be guessed as close as possible.

There are a lot of troops, it doesn't matter if they are stationed in the city, it will consume a lot of energy to move.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou's army cannot be allowed to squat, Liu Chengzong wants them to move: "Tell A Haidaiqing to lead the Khalkha camp to escort the soldiers and food to Zhuanglang, and then the soldiers will enter Hedong and go to Songshan to have a look."

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)