stubborn thief

Gansu in the Ming Dynasty was a simple and complex place. It was not an administrative provincial division, nor an independent geographical unit, but a military concept, a town.

This is an important town where the Central Plains Dynasty controlled the Western Regions. Everything in Hexi revolves around military activities. Since Zhang Qian in the Han Dynasty hollowed out the Western Regions, generations of descendants of Central Plains soldiers have taken root here. die for war.

In the Ming Dynasty, people's most important mission was not war, but reproduction, reproducing at any cost.

From 20 to 20, from 50 to 50, from 100 to [-], from [-] to [-] million.

500 years after the fall of the Western Han Empire, the population of Hexi has finally returned to the grand occasion of Zhao Chongguo's farming era.

In the Song and Yuan dynasties, the land was broken and the people were carved. The development of the Ming Dynasty was the greatest achievement in the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, there are pros and cons in everything. No matter how brilliant the monarch is, it is impossible to estimate the changes after a hundred years. In the early Ming Dynasty, there was no one in Hexi. Two acres of land are exempted for three years, and those with spare capacity are not limited to hectares.

In Hexi, a sparsely populated place in the early Ming Dynasty, where Han and Fan people lived together, the armed development of clans was indispensable to settle settlements. This created a large number of strong clan military landlords in Gansu who shared weal and woe with the country.

The most far-reaching mutiny in the Ming Dynasty, the Ganzhou mutiny during the Jiajing period, came into being.

Before the Mutiny in Ganzhou, the harsh natural environment and the constant military pressure in the north led to unpaid wages, trouble for wages, and mutiny. It was an objective problem, but mutiny was just a way for soldiers to solve the problem.

Before the Zhengde Dynasty, there were not many mutinies, and the whole Zhengde Dynasty mutiny only happened three times.

Until the appearance of the Ganzhou mutiny, it was the first time that Li Long, the commander-in-chief guarding Gansu, took the lead. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction of the soldiers, Xu Ming, the governor of Gansu, was smashed to ashes. common practice.

After that, in Jiajing, Wanli, and Tianqi until now, the number of mutinies has risen sharply, with more than [-] mutinies of various kinds.

In the Gansu General Military Mansion in Zhangye City, General Yang Jiamo sat in the hall, with his back against the map of Hexi hanging on the entire wall, frowning for a long time without saying a word.

In his hand, there is an urgent report from the front line, and the news of Bai Guangen's defeat has been known to him.

Yang has been a general in Gansu for generations. In Gansu, in the deserted Gobi desert, war is intelligence. Therefore, Yang Jiamo has his own rules to control the army outside of military law.

Within a radius of 150 miles centered on the place where he camped and stationed, all troops moving to their destinations or encountering enemy situations must send news to the general garrison as soon as possible. The soldiers were stationed, and the reply was sent to the front line within six hours.

The reason why the radius is 150 miles is because the longest distance from Qilian Mountain to Alxa Desert is [-] miles.

The intelligence was sent back one by one, from the encounter with the enemy at the front, the defeat of Li Yun, the early victory of Bai Guangen to the arrival of reinforcements from the Marshal's Mansion, until they were finally defeated and returned. Liu Can's surrendered troops were still on their way back to Ganzhou. The entire battle process was under Yang Jiamo's control.

But he had no choice, because Yang Jiamo had no soldiers in his hands, his standard camp was in Zhuanglang River, and the garrison camp was also sent by Bai Guangen.

Gansu has soldiers, Zhangye is the Pearl of the Gobi in Hexi, and there are soldiers everywhere in the surrounding Ganzhou, but Yang Jiamo has no way to mobilize the army, because it is spring.

There should be no wars in spring, especially in this drought year when the Hexi drought has shown signs, let alone wars.

Farming has made many garrison households in Gansu restrain their hands and feet. Yang Jiamo took a letter from Liu Can, who was defeated in the front line, and thought about Zhang Tianlin's next meeting in Liangzhou. He thought for a long time about the topographic map of Hexi behind him. Undecided.

Yang Jiamo didn't move. In addition to the lack of soldiers, there was another reason, which was related to the geography of Gansu.

The long and narrow Hexi Corridor is sandwiched by deserts and mountains. From the west to the east, there is Jiuquan in Suzhou, Camel City in Gaotai, Zhangye City in Ganzhou, Shandan Acropolis, Yongchang Acropolis, Wuwei City in Liangzhou, and Thousand Houses in Gulang. It can be said that the road is a battleground for military strategists everywhere.

It mattered which city was lost, but on the other hand, except for Wuwei and Zhangye, which city was lost would not be so terrible.

After all, the big deserts of the Ming Dynasty have gradually lost their ability to be self-sufficient from Jiuquan to Gaotai. The only real Gobi oasis is Wuwei in Liangzhou and Zhangye in Ganzhou.

These are the two most densely populated places in Gansu.

In the empty general military yamen, Yang Jiamo seemed to be holding a pile of puzzles, piece by piece to piece together Liu Chengzong's strategic intentions and Zhang Tianlin's tactical goals, but failed to find the reason why Zhang Tianlin lied.

If viewed as a regular army, this rebel army with a total strength of 5000, although it seized official army equipment, seized all the light artillery that was the field equipment of the Ming army.

Not to mention the lack of troops. Although Yang Jiamo was deeply impressed by the large iron tube with a thousand arrows in the battle report, but they did not have a supply line, and it was difficult to gain an advantage in the siege by using one less weapon.

The only thing waiting for them is to mutiny on the spot.

But Zhang Tianlin was the leader of the peasant army. The characteristics of the peasant army were running, grabbing, and coercing. Therefore, Yang Jiamo judged that only Zhangye and Wuwei in Gansu could meet his needs.

By robbing and coercing in the suburbs, it quickly expanded to 3 to [-] people, and then besieged the city to attack Zhangye or Wuwei.

Among these two options, attacking Zhangye is of little significance, because Zhangye has a large garrison of troops, and it does not help the entire battlefield of the Marshal's Mansion. Indeed, Wuwei City in Liangzhou is a better choice.

Taking down Wuwei will allow the Marshal's Mansion to directly threaten the rear of the Zhuanglanghe battlefield.

As for Ganzhou further west, the desertified Camel City or Jiuquan with only a small oasis, Yang Jiamo did not think about it. He thought about it, but he couldn't figure out the meaning of running westward.

Whichever way you go, you can only go outside the pass. There is really no supply outside the pass. To the north of Jiayuguan is the Heihe River and the desert, and to the south is the Qilian Mountains.

In this way, Zhang Tianlin was telling the truth.

However, after 30 years in the army, Yang Jiamo didn't believe the veteran's keen intuition, and suspected that the so-called Liangzhou was just a superficial sham.

Where would a real general reveal his true intentions to the enemy?

Except for a peasant army with no brains, no one would fight like this... But according to Zhang Tianlin's self-reported family, this birdman bandit with the name Tianxing seems to be really a peasant army.

Yang Jiamo stared at the map, thinking about the intention of the Marshal's Mansion from another perspective. First, he threw a bunch of Mongolian Tartars and Duokang Fanzi to block the Zhuanglang River. Lonely throws over.

The Marshal of Gansu wondered in his heart, there should be no civil strife in the Marshal's Mansion, where is Liu Chengzong borrowing the hands of the frontier army to eradicate dissidents?

Of course, this was just a momentary thought, and Yang Jiamo shook his head when the possibility came to his mind.

As long as Liu Chengzong did not have the absolute power of the Marshal's Mansion, there would be no two fools who would go over the Qilian Mountains to fight.

Yang Jiamo believes that the biggest possibility is that Hong Chengchou guessed wrong. The art of war said that preparing for Zhou is lazy, and common is not suspicious. Yin is within Yang, and it is not the opposite of Yang.

The army that crossed the Qilian Mountains was still a tentative attack. Liu Chengzong's real main force was still on the other side of the Qilian Mountains, and it was very likely that after the Gansu frontier troops were disturbed by Zhang Tianlin and withdrawn from the Qilian Mountains, they would come over the mountains in a big way.

In this way, what Zhang Tianlin said about Liangzhou is a sound of the east and the west, and it makes sense.

Probably trying to figure out an idea for this matter, Yang Jiamo felt a lot better, and he was going to solve the first problem, because he had no soldiers on hand.

He sent his servants to invite a pair of brothers in Zhangye City. The two brothers were called Zhao Zongli and Zhao Zongzhu.

The Zhao brothers are highly respected gentry in Zhangye City. The elder brother Zhao Zongli is seventy-two this year and once served as a guerrilla general in the Hongshui Camp; the younger brother Zhao Zongzhu is 71 this year and was the commander of the Ganzhou Guard during the Wanli period.

Two old men from Gansu entered the Zongbing Yamen, and Yang Jiamo, who was over 50 years old, had to salute and call him uncle.

After the three old men negotiated at the general army yamen, the news of the defeat of the front line spread among the guards in Ganzhou. When the remnants of the army returned and the defeated soldiers would enter the city, Yang Jiamo sent people to travel between the Gobi and the desert for three days, but still could not find the battlefield at that time. , Not a single corpse of the dead soldier was returned.

They say the wind blows the gravel to bury everything, and no one can find the blood stains under the yellow sand.

Yang Jiamo is well aware of the large number of military landlords in the Qiangzong clan in Gansu. After all, the Yang family is one of them, and even he has no way to mobilize other people's generals.

But the people's anger and shame can be artificially mobilized.

In the next few days, the crying of Ganzhou shook the whole city and the whole city was furious. More than [-] households were slaughtered, and paper money was everywhere in and out of the city. People put clothes and utensils worn by fallen soldiers into coffins, and rolled straw mats without coffins. , parked in rows outside the city of Zhangye.

Ganzhou people have not experienced war for many years. People are content with their livelihoods in the Gobi oasis, but it seems that in an instant, all the men living in the desert oasis are ignited by the coffins and straw mats at the gate of the city. Zhangye City, where the beacon fires are endless, Zhang Guo's arms are tucked away.

The old and weak women and children at the gate of the city said they wanted revenge.

The Ganzhou gentry gathered at the Chenghuang Temple at the invitation of the chief soldier Yang Jiamo, and transferred the Gansu general soldier battalion to the Zhuanglanghe battlefield. .

The gentry of Ganzhou sat on the chair of the Grand Master, their faces ashen, and they accepted the salute of the chief military officer, because they were going to send troops, even the ancient emperors, the generals had to do this when they went to war.

This is why Yang Jiamo deliberately made it impossible for the soldiers to find the corpse of the dead Paoze. The upper-level dependence on the lower-level people made him unable to directly invite the Ganzhou gentry to send troops. If one more person sends troops, one less person will farm the land. Who can be without selfishness Woolen cloth?

But when the lower levels regard sending troops for revenge as justice and expectation, the upper levels can also gain popularity and prestige by pushing the boat, and they cannot refuse.

The 72-year-old veteran general Zhao Zongli got up and wrote a letter to Ganzhou to defend the war. Donate money to encourage family members to join the army.

Then, one after another, the Ganzhou gentry stood up and saluted Ji Xin, the Lord of the City God.

The one-armed commander Ge Yong, Zhao Zongli's son commander Zhao Cai, Dusi Gao Guoen, who was on the job recuperating with a face full of smallpox, Ouyang Gun, the incoming deputy commander of Lintao, and Wang Jiaguan, the commander who has never been in a real shortage in his life.

There are also the two sons of Luo Yigui, the deputy commander-in-chief of Xipingbao's suicide in the Battle of Guangning, the commander Luo Junjie, the commander Luo Junshi, and others. Money donated food, sent troops to levy.

Within a day, Zhang Zhiheng, Bao Xianshu, Zhang Shengyi, Jiang Mingli, Kang Guoxin and other tribute students and students from Ganzhou jointly knocked on the General Army Yamen, offering a strategy to pacify the bandits.

Many gentry with golden hats and mink fur donated money and food for the imperial court, and they sent their personal soldiers and generals to join the army to apply for the recruitment, which led more Ganzhou officials and people to commit themselves to the army.

Chief Military Officer Yang Jiamo ordered Tangqi to go to Liangzhou to investigate the enemy's situation. In just two days, Ganzhou had registered more than [-] soldiers. Three thousand two hundred pairs of helmets, armor, swords, bows, arrows, shields, spears, and cannons.

This is almost the premise that the five guards of Ganzhou and the generals in the city can take out all the military households and family generals without affecting the spring ploughing.

At this moment, an unexpected military situation was delivered to Yang Jiamo's desk. Several Mongolian Chijin troops who were grazing outside Jiayuguan escaped back to the pass. They said that the Mongolian Khan had returned.

The chief of the Chijin Department was sent to Zhangye by Zhao Zhirui, the general of Suzhou, to meet with Yang Jiamo.

The governor of Chijin said that all of this was true. They once took in some nobles who were unwilling to follow the Khan to the south when Lin Dan went south to Qinghai. People knew very well about the Chahar tribe.

They said that everyone had heard that Lin Dan Khan was dead.

However, there was a Mongolian elite cavalry of more than [-] cavalry at Yumen outside Jiayuguan. Their military appearance was neat and armored, and their armor was bright. They held high the white chariot symbolizing the Chahar Khan Court and appeared in the endless yellow sand, shining like a god. trace.

Their leader was Lin Dan Khan's younger brother, the pioneer officer Pantutaiji, who took away [-] horsemen and [-] sheep from the local Chijin tribe in the name of the whole Mongolian Khan, leaving behind [-] iron pots as a reward from the Khan.

He was then led by Taiji to Heihe in the north of Jiayuguan, until he disappeared at the edge of the desert.

Yang Jiamo looked at the leader of the Chijin Department, so full of doubts that he didn't know how to speak.

The first is that he is very sure that the Great Khan Lin Dan is dead, and there is no Great Khan in all Mongolia.

The second is the Chijin tribe, who belonged to Talini, the son of Kushu, the prime minister at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. In the second year of Yongle, they were the descendants of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, they were called Chijinwei, one of the eight guards in Guanxi, and later the Ming Dynasty. The army shrunk outside the customs, Chijinwei moved to Sunan, and intermarryed with Han and Fan people. Now there are only one or two thousand people left, and local generals are not sure whether they should be counted as Fan or barbarian.

Any thousand households can recruit their soldiers, but even if the Mongolian Khan survives, they cannot recruit their soldiers!
Yang Jiamo said in his heart that the gang of Tartars that Liu Chengzong threw to Zhuanglanghe to fight for his grandmother were much purer in Mongolian attributes than the Chijin tribe.

Just thinking of this, Yang Jiamo's heart skipped a beat, broken.

He stared at the leader of Chijin and asked, "Did they tell you who the Great Khan of Mongolia is?"

The governor of Chijin was confused about this question. The Great Khan of All Mongolia is the Great Khan of All Mongolia. No one with this name exists.

Yang Jiamo didn't expect his answer at all, he just leaned on the chair of the Grand Master and clenched his teeth. He thought that people will not come back to life. This Mongolian Khan is probably the Grand Marshal of the Qinghai Marshal's Palace, Liu Chengzong.

At the same time, the warhorse stepped on Zhangye Long Street, the bell and drum tower in the middle of the city rang suddenly, and the bell echoed in the neighing of the warhorse. The servants who were supposed to be on duty at the top of the city ran across the long corridor and bowed down in the main hall of the official office, even with their helmets. Forgot to take it off.

He turned back and pointed to the west: "Commander, the beacon fire in the west is not the fire of peace. If something goes wrong, I have to report to Beijing."

Yang Jiamo closed his eyes and sighed: "How many beacons and how many cannons?"

Frontier Beacon Fire stipulates that with Langyan there are beacon guns, and at the same time more than two beacons are fired to report to the capital.

Jiading hasn't had time to answer, so this is no longer a question that needs to be answered.

Because the cannon of the general at the head of Zhangye City rang, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, a series of five cannons, each of which hit Yang Jiamo's chest heavily.

The Zhangye City outside was already in chaos due to the sound of beacon guns, and the sound of horses' hoofs screamed, making the sky loud and noisy.

And he knew that soon, Wuwei City would be chaotic, and this riot would spread across half of the world at a speed of [-] miles a day and night, with the beacon, wolves, smoke, and cannons, all the way to the capital.

The sound of the cannon made Yang Jiamo feel the world spinning, and he felt as if he had returned to the days when he was patrolling the border with his father when he was young.

At that time, he memorized the regulations for setting off beacons by heart, and even though he is over fifty years old, he still knows clearly: When seeing an enemy of 200 people, he will fire one beacon and one cannon; if there are more than 5000 people, three beacons and three cannons; More than [-] people have five beacons and five artillery pieces.

Father said that five beacon fires and five beacon cannons are fired in unison, which does not mean that there are ten thousand enemy troops. It is just that there are five beacons when the pier is built, and the Fran cannons of the pier can only be connected. Just put it five times.

In his memories, his father's face in his prime is blurred, but the strange thing is that he still clearly remembers the day when he got married, his father drank too much, and his serious face showed a rare pride and certainty, saying that they attacked Hu in the north, hung the Japanese in the east, and destroyed the west.哱, Nanping sow, and Ming Wugong, this generation is very prosperous.

It is said that from now on outside Jiayuguan, there will be no Mengfan Tayi who can let Dunjun set off five beacons at the same time, and the children and grandchildren will not worry.

Yang Jiamo's arm on the armrest of the Grand Master's chair trembled slightly, he raised his arm suddenly, his father didn't lie, and there really was no Mengfan Tayi outside Jiayuguan that allowed the Dunjun to set five beacon towers on fire.

But the father who lived in Wanli Nian would not know that there will always be a generation of wars to fight in one generation. This time, their opponent is himself.

"Liu Chengzong..." Yang Jiamo put his arm lightly on the tea table: "Liu Chengzong is about to enter the customs."