stubborn thief

Northern Shaanxi, Yansui Town.

The sudden movements of the Mongolian tribes in Ordos frightened the new commander-in-chief of Yansui Town, Yu Chongxiao.

Yu Chongxiao was from Jingbian, but he had been serving as a soldier in Shanxi earlier. He had served as deputy commander-in-chief for only three years. According to his resume, he was supposed to serve as a junior commander-in-chief in Lintao, and he was not given the official position of commander-in-chief in Yansui Town.

However, Shaanxi lost territory one after another, which disrupted the normal promotion process of the Ming army. Not to mention the small general soldiers in Shaanxi who did not bear the seal, even the large general soldiers, five towns on three sides, and Yansui Town became the only remaining pearl of the northwest.

From this aspect alone, Yu Chongxiao is undoubtedly lucky.

But his misfortune was that this was the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, and within two months of taking office, police officers were already summoned everywhere in Yansui Town.

At first, Liu Chengzong of the Marshal's Mansion sent the heroic general Zhang Zhen from Xi'an to Yan'an, with his sword pointed at Yulin. He asked Yu Chongxiao, who had just arrived, to hurriedly gather 5,000 troops and horses to try to defend Suidezhou and prevent the enemy troops from moving north to Yansui.

To be honest, Yu Chongxiao didn't take Zhang Zhen seriously at all.

A person's name, the shadow of a tree.

All the capable generals under Liu Chengzong were famous in the Ming Dynasty newspapers, but Zhang Zhen, although he was a senior officer at the rank of general, was truly unknown in terms of fame.

Fame is very useful, at least in today's war era when generals lack systematic promotion channels. Fame is gained in tough battles with real swords and guns.

Zhang Zhen's lack of fame means that he has no experience in leading an independent army to defeat any Ming army.

Unlike Zhang Tianlin and Bai Guangen.

North of the Yellow River, half of the people in the Ming Dynasty knew that Zhang Tianlin was good at attacking people with rockets; similarly, half of the people in the Ming Dynasty also knew that Bai Guangen was most afraid of rocket attacks.

Yu Chongxiao had no fear of Zhang Zhen leading his army northward, and was even eager to try to capture his head as his first achievement in fulfilling his duties as the commander-in-chief of Yansui.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the troops entered Mizhi, another alarm came from the Hengshan Mountains in the west. The giant bandits Man Tianxing and Hun Tianxing entrenched in the Baoan and Anding areas drove two thousand troops and captured Jingbian Camp and Longzhou City.

Yu Chongxiao's hometown is Jingbian. Hearing the news of the fall of the two cities, he gritted his teeth with hatred. Seeing that Marshal Zhang Zhen's army was marching very slowly, he immediately turned around and led his army from Mizhi to Jingbian.

But when they arrived at Jingbian, the battle was already over.

Man Tianxing and Hun Tianxing led the peasant army to attack the second city and the third fort. It only took two hours to plunder and return. Li Changling, the deputy commander-in-chief of the West Road, sent troops to pursue and won a small victory. Hundreds of horses, donkeys and mules were captured, and the army Drums, flags and banners are useless.

But this obviously had another hidden agenda, because when Yu Chongxiao arrived at Jingbian, Li Changling was furious. He tied up two guards on the spot, captured a general, and killed three generals who were in battle because of fear of war.

"The commander-in-chief doesn't know something. He has been working in Gushan for a long time, and he has long been familiar with the two thieves Mantianxing and Huntianxing."

"The name of Mantianxing is Zhou Qing, and the name of Huntianxing is Hui Dengxiang. These two thieves are both deserted border soldiers from Qingjian."

Li Changling had an upright temperament. Even when his immediate boss Yu Chongxiao came over, he was still furious. He clasped his fists and said: "In his early years, he was a subordinate of the great thief Wang Jiayin. He was ranked among the ten most talented and brave leaders. He stationed troops in Dongchuan and often saw battles with soldiers on the east side of Yansui."

"Wang Jiayin died in the Shanxi plague last year, and all his troops were scattered. Prime Ministers Zhou Qing and Hui Deng led their troops south to Yan'an to plunder, but they made the villagers in the countryside easy to fight, and then they led more than a thousand remaining soldiers into Hengshan."

A country boy?

Yu Chongxiao blinked. He knew that Wang Jiayin was like a ground rat on Yansui East Road, gnawing back and forth on the side wall.

His troops are not very powerful, but they are all frontier soldiers near Fugu and Shenmu, Zhenqiang, Gushan, Papaya, Huangfuchuan, Qingshui Camp, and Huigou Camp, and they have very strong combat effectiveness.

Ordinarily, Zhou Qing and Hui Deng, prime ministers this time, should have very strong skills since they were the thieves following Wang Jiayin, and they should not be defeated by the villagers.

The style of painting is wrong.

Yu Chongxiao wanted to say something, but thinking that he had just arrived, he opened his mouth and said nothing.

Li Changling noticed Yu Chongxiao's hesitation and explained: "Shaanxi suffered from drought and military rebellion. Only one-tenth of the population of Yan'an Prefecture is left, and the current population is less than 100,000."

"The poor mountains and rivers, especially Fushi, Ansai, Yanchang, and Yanchuan, are the worst. The locals and villagers there are all deserters and wounded bandit soldiers. They build fortresses in their hometowns and train the villagers."

“So they refused to pay taxes and did corvee labor, secretly manufactured guns and cannons, laid landmines, hid the population, beat the governor, insulted the officers, seized military supplies, and attacked the army. They were all unruly people with a long history of evil.”

Yu Chongxiao had something he wanted to say just now but didn't say it out loud.

Now he wanted to speak out, but he didn't know what to say.

What are these things?

Now he understood why Zhang Zhen led the proud soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion into Yan'an Mansion and walked so slowly.

It seems that Zhang Zhen's side is no longer in danger for the time being. The people of Yan'an Prefecture alone are enough to feed the Marshal's army.

Yu Chongxiao decided to prioritize things, skipping the situation in Yan'an Mansion first, and waved his hand: "Let's talk about Gypsophila and Huntianxing first."

Li Changling nodded immediately. In fact, he was not willing to talk about Yan'an Mansion. After all, Yan'an Mansion was like a country within a country. He had never been in it. It was all hearsay. No one knew what was going on inside.

"Since these two thieves are from Wang Jiayin's old tribe, they are no different from the king's thieves in attacking and plundering forts. They usually open the city and destroy the fort, and plunder without any effort. When encountering the official army to attack, you must first ask whether it is a peaceful battle or a real fight." battle."

At this point, Li Changling pointed to the battlefield in the camp and said, "This is a peace battle."

In this place in northern Shaanxi, everyone is familiar with them. In Jingbian Camp alone, there were not only Yu Chongxiao, the commander-in-chief of Yansui Town, but also several generals from the Marshal's Mansion, and many leaders of the peasant army.

As long as they have the will and interest to engage in guanxi, almost everyone can engage in guanxi.

This time Li Changling led his troops into the ravines in the Hengshan Mountains. The pursuing vanguard troops were approached by Prime Minister Hui Deng's peasant army.

With three to five hundred paces on both sides, he fired guns and cannons into the sky randomly on the top of two hills. Prime Minister Huiden executed several thieves who had hid property during the robbery to clean up the military discipline, and left the corpses with the officers and soldiers, and then Leaving behind some lame mules and horses, and useless armor and banners.

It was like dividing the spoils between the two sides. Hui Deng gained benefits by attacking the city and destroying the fort; he also gained military exploits by pursuing the border troops.

The two sides also avoided the pain of war and deepened their friendship. It can be said that everyone is happy.

Only they, the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief, were anxious... They had to find, ask for, and replenish the missing soldiers and equipment that had been taken away.

What's more, if things continue like this, where will there be any border soldiers in Yansui Town who are willing to fight?

Unfortunately, nowadays, the imperial government has no countermeasures against the small tricks of thieves.

Although they could not catch up, Hui Deng and Zhou Qing had as many horses as they had men, and even more horses and mules than soldiers. However, the officers and soldiers could only manage ten men and three mounts. Once they got into a pursuit, they would definitely be defeated. The pace and riding are out of touch.

Moreover, only three mounts could be found under the serious shortage of soldiers in Yansui Town.

It's just a mount, not necessarily a horse, it could be a donkey or a mule.

Throughout Shaanxi, the land, pastures, and horse farms controlled by the imperial court were becoming less and less. Yansui Town had become an independent geographical unit. Now it was not a problem that it could not afford to support war horses. But there was no horse to be found at all.

Without the separation between infantry and cavalry, it would be impossible to defeat thousands of peasant armies in mountainous areas.

Since they cannot defeat them, frontline officers will tend not to fight the peasant army.

The less they dare to fight, the lower the army's combat capability will be, and the greater the momentum of the peasant army will be.

This is a vicious cycle.

Yu Chongxiao didn't have any good solution for this. Several wars in the past few years did not cause any damage to Yansui Town.

However, several battles that broke out outside Yansui Town had a profound impact on Yansui Town.

Guyuan changed hands, and bankrupt refugees in northwestern Shaanxi no longer moved to Yansui Town; a governor's office was established in Monan, and Mongolian herders no longer crossed the border wall to farm land to beg for Dunjun.

The number of people in Yansui is really getting smaller year by year. In Shaanxi during the Ming Dynasty, the blood of the Yanbian Guards is about to be drained. Regardless of the guards or the battalion, the number of Yiding has accounted for nearly one-third.

In fact, he visited many retired soldiers in Yulin during this period.

Those experienced veterans were at a loss to deal with the current situation, and the only suggestion they could offer was to retain an elite force of 5,000 men to control cavalry with foot.

It happened that at this juncture, Dun Jun reported to Yulin City that there was a strange movement in the Ordos Ten Thousand Households north of the border wall.

The Wushen Department, which is affiliated with Sa Nang Taiji, has prepared livestock, cattle and sheep from nowhere, and thousands of Mongolian cavalry are gathering towards the Wushen Department.

According to the garrison analysis on the border wall, Sa Nang Taiji and his lord Erlinchen seemed to be preparing for a war to invade Mingbian.

The generals of the Ming army couldn't help but think too much. Wushenbu was only a hundred miles away from the border wall, so raising troops to cross the Maowusu Sea and cross the Wuding River would only come in the morning and in the evening.

A sudden influx of thousands of soldiers from a not-too-large tribe would undoubtedly put tremendous pressure on Yansui Town, which had only 45,000 troops stationed there.

Because although there are many troops stationed in Yansui, the defense line is also long. There are less than 50,000 troops scattered on the 1,500-mile defense line starting from Huangfuchuan Fort in the east and Huamachi in the west. The mobile troops that can be mobilized from east to west are only just over 10,000.

With this small number of troops, four additional armies including Zhengqi and Qi, who are the general and deputy generals, will be divided.

The Great Wall is not trustworthy either. The sand in the Mu Us Sea has buried the entire Great Wall underground. Dunbao is like a bungalow built in the sand. Dunjun might be buried in the sand as soon as he wakes up.

The second largest expenditure in Yansui Town’s military expenditure, apart from military salary and maintenance costs, is hiring civilian workers to dig sand every year.

But the situation in the past two years... firstly, it is impossible to recruit people to dig sand, and secondly, it is difficult to recruit people and not give enough money. The soldiers are asked to dig by themselves, and they really can't dig it out.

Things are difficult.

In just a few days, Yu Chongxiao's mentality changed.

Faced with these three difficult-to-solve problems, the joy of being promoted to commander-in-chief had long since faded away. He was so anxious that he just wanted to bang his head on the city wall and die.

After all, Zhang Zhen, the bee-tailed needle in the Yan'an Prefecture in the south is not easy to kill, Hui Dengxiang and Zhou Qing in the Hengshan Mountains are not easy to kill, and Sa Nang Taiji in the north of the Great Wall seems not to be easy to kill either... Yu Chongxiao looked around, I found that I was the only one best killed.

Among the three parties surrounding Yansui Town, the biggest threat in Yu Chongxiao's eyes is the Ordos tribe outside the mouth.

The Wushen Department of Sa Nang had a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty as early as the era when Huang Taiji was the lord. Not only was he in charge of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, but he was also the Dragon and Tiger General of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, there is a need to maintain military presence in the Yulin area, but there are not many opportunities for actual border defense battles.

Traditionally, those fighting north have been foreign troops from other tribes.

Because of this, this time Sa Nang gathered troops in his tribe, which made Yu Chongxiao even more nervous.

But he never expected that Sa Nang Taiji in Monan had no intention of gathering troops to attack Yulin Town. In fact, the situation there was more complicated than the crisis he faced.

On the other hand, Zhang Zhen, the bee-tailed needle from the south, is the real threat to Yulin Town.

Zhang Zhen was indeed walking slowly, because it was only after he entered Yan'an Mansion that he discovered that the mission Liu Chengzong had given him was much more difficult than he had imagined.

Liu Chengzong's order was divided into two steps. To ensure the bottom line, he must station in the counties of Yan'an Prefecture, and to advance, he must penetrate Yansui Town.

But he only had the Ganzhou Battalion and the Suzhou Battalion led by Ding Guodong. The two small battalions together could only have 4,000 troops.

Even the military rations that went into Yan'an Prefecture were obtained from Mila Yinna, who was stationed in Yaozhou and smoked horse meat.

Of course, it is impossible to rely solely on rice seals for military food. It mainly comes from their own wounded horses and mules.

The terrain of Yan'an Prefecture is inherently complicated, and there are only a few official roads that can accommodate large groups of troops, and they are all buried with old mines. Zhang Zhen and Ding Guodong, who were new to the area, accidentally failed to observe and were injured and killed many war horses.

If they don't clear up local relations, their two small camps will probably be blown up before they even reach Mizhi.

Unless you can fly on this road, even if Li Bei, the horse-killing general who once ran for 400 miles in two days and nights, comes, he won't be able to run fast.

He deliberately wanted to establish a relationship with the local village through his identity as a fellow Yan'an fellow, and persuaded the township party to dismantle the landmines, ensuring that the Marshal's troops would come over, and the Ming Dynasty's troops would never be allowed to invade Yan'an Prefecture again in the future.

Unexpectedly, the local township party was also helpless about this matter. The fellow said: "General Zhang doesn't know where the landmines are buried, and he doesn't know either."

No one in Yan'an Prefecture now knows how many steel wheel mines there are on the official road.

The helpless Zhang Zhen did not dare to embarrass the township party. He led the two battalions of troops to leave the official road, disperse into large groups, and go through the valleys and trails.

It's not that he has a good temper, he really can't be offended. He can summon three to four thousand troops from seven or eight villages. He will definitely not be able to defeat him, but once a fight starts, he will not be able to do anything.

Because of the complicated situation in Yan'an Mansion, Zhang Zhen was so busy that he almost couldn't take care of Yu Chongxiao.

After Ding Guodong's assessment, their strength is not yet able to capture Yansui Town. The best option is to temporarily station in the Yan'an Guard City next to Yan'an City and find some of the commander's old rural party members to contact powerful people from all over the country and those north of the Great Wall. Yang Qi.

Zhang Zhen agreed to this suggestion. He not only wanted to contact Yang Qi, but also sent people to his hometown in Baoan County, northwest of Yan'an Prefecture, to look for Gypsophila star Zhou Qing and Hun Tianxing Huiden, and invite them to work together on big things.

But before that, Zhang Zhen still had some personal matters of his own to deal with.

The folks in Yan'an Prefecture can see that in this area, you can meet the relatives of the generals in the Generalissimo's Prefecture in three steps, and the messages that the brothers Pao Ze asked him to deliver on their behalf can be delivered.

The most important thing is that everyone comes.

The ancestral tomb on the Black Dragon King Temple Mountain, Zhang Zhen, as the anonymous filial son and grandson of Marshal Liu, must be repaired! (End of chapter)