weaving

Chapter 1080: Not a cent is missing

Countless amounts of gold, silver, wealth, silk and various commercial goods were confiscated. The governor of the camp and the scribes of the heavy camp are still urgently counting them. Among them, the largest amount is grain. This is enough to prove the crime of traitorous merchants and slaves. It is wrong to accuse him.

Zhangjiakou Fort has been opened to a limited extent for the livelihood of the military and civilians, and the daytime martial law has been lifted. Officials and civilians can move around the fort freely during the day. Businesses that have not been involved in slavery and have not been sealed can also operate normally.

However, entry and exit are still prohibited at the two city gates, and those entering the city must carefully check and register before entering the fort.

Although the martial law is no longer in the daytime, there are still very few pedestrians in the streets and alleys. If it were not forced by life, no one would be willing to go out for activities when the wind is blowing.

…………

March [-]th, afternoon.

Several people on fast horses galloped into Zhangjiakou, bringing news from Youweicheng.

Lai Tianlu, the general guarding the Shangxi Road, led more than [-] troops to aid Zhangjiakou Fort. Not far from Youweicheng, he was ambushed and even Lai Tianlu was made a prisoner.

Veteran general Guo Yingxian has used the captured Lai Tianlu to open the Youwei City, and is now inspecting the properties of profiteers in the city and collecting evidence that Lai Tianlu helped the profiteers and slaves.

"Hmph. Over the past many years, I have received countless benefits from profiteers and turned a blind eye to their smuggling and illegal activities. He still wants to get away with it?"

Wu Zhizhong put down the information in his hand and said: "With just one letter from Shi Jinzhong asking for help, he led his troops out of the city to go to the rescue. He was already guilty of colluding with profiteers and colluding with slaves."

He turned to Zhang Jintai and asked, "Is there any movement over Lin Fangping's side?"

"Vice General Lin's side is a little further away, and no news has been sent back yet." Zhang Jintai replied calmly.

Xu Jinyong continued from the side: "Vice General Lin is riding two battalions of troops on foot, which is more than enough to deal with one Lai Tianshou. I think we will be able to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop. On the contrary, they are seizing the cavalry without warning, so we must be on guard!"

"If you don't take in what you put out, will there be any reward?"

"Replying to the general's words, there are whistles from the captive cavalry outside his mouth. It is roughly estimated that there are thousands of cavalry. If they are not collected at night, they will not be able to explore far."

Wu Zhizhong continued to ask: "Are you sure it's Jiannu? Not Beibei."

"All."

Xu Jinyong replied with great certainty: "More than half of the slaves have been established."

"Ah."

After hearing this, Wu Zhizhong turned his eyes to the north and said: "Jinyong, you lead the artillery camp and move it to Laiyuan Fort to prepare for the slave bandits to attack."

"General Wu, the artillery battalion has been transferred to Laiyuan Fort. You are here..."

"It's okay."

Wu Zhizhong said flatly: "I have Yan Kuan here. In addition, Xiaobai Mountain and Taiping Mountain do not need so many men and horses. Most of the soldiers from the carriage camp of Liu Shouyue and Hou Shixin have entered the city to guard, so there are enough men and horses.

Yu Shangke's artillery car will be stationed at Laiyuan Fort with you, so I can feel a little relieved here. "

"Okay. I'm going to get ready right now, summon the artillery battalion, and garrison Laiyuan Fort before dark."

"Go."

…………

Datong City was called Yunzhong, Pingcheng and Yunzhou in ancient times.

It is not only the location of Datong Prefecture, but also the location of Datong Town. It is the barrier of the entire Jin Dynasty and the gateway to the north. It also strangles the choke points of Shanxi, Hebei and Mongolia. It is a battleground for military strategists in the past dynasties. It is known as a "majestic and important town". It is known as the "Key to the North".

The Datong City Wall is more than thirteen miles in circumference, four feet and two feet high, and is covered with city bricks. It has four city gates, namely Yanghe Gate in the east, Yongtai Gate in the south, Qingyuan Gate in the west, and Wuding Gate in the north.

There are city towers built above the four gates, with moon towers, arrow towers, watchtowers and turrets standing at intervals. Outside the four gates, there are also urn city, moon city and moat, which are more than four feet and five feet wide. In addition, there are There are 54 enemy towers and 96 nests.

During the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty, the governor's imperial censor Han Yong continued to build the east small city and the south small city in the north of Fucheng when he was rich.

At this point, the architectural structure and defense system of Datong Fucheng have been basically established.

In Datong City, in addition to the governor's envoy, the chief military officer of Datong Town and other officers and generals, there is also a very important figure - King Dai!
The Dai Wang was one of the nine Great Fortress Kings of the Ming Dynasty. The first Dai King was Zhu Gui, the 13th son of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty. In the 11th year of Hongwu, he was named the King of Yu. In the 25th year of Hongwu, he was changed to the Dai King, and he was vassalized. Datong.

If there is a Dai Wang, there must also be a Dai Wang Palace.

Daiwangfu was a large-scale vassal prince's palace in the Ming Dynasty. With three main halls as the center, there were more than [-] large and small palaces and more than [-] rooms.

The construction of Prince Dai's Mansion began in the 25th year of Hongwu, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, when King Dai took over the feudal vassal. It was only completed in the 29th year of Hongwu. It is a small rectangular city, 230 feet long from north to south, and 87 feet wide from east to west. It is surrounded by several feet high walls. wall.

The palace is divided into two parts: the outer court and the inner court. The center of the outer court is Chengyun Hall, Wan Hall, and Cunxin Hall, where grand ceremonies are held on behalf of the vassal. The center of the inner court is Changchun Palace, Jiaotai Hall, and Kunning Palace. The main palace where the Dai King and Dai Princess live.

Datong City has a very square chessboard layout, with "four main streets, eight alleys, and 72 continuous lanes."

The four city gates correspond to the four streets: Yanghe Street in the east, Qingyuan Street in the west, Yongtai Street in the south, and Wuding Street in the north. The four streets intersect in the center of the city.

Each of these four streets has a first floor in the middle, with Taiping Tower in the east, Bell Tower in the west, Drum Tower in the south, and Kuixing Tower in the north.

At the intersection of four streets in the center of the city, there is an archway connected by four archways, commonly known as the "Four Archways". It is a wooden structure building with a rather exquisite shape.

Datong Prefecture covers four prefectures and seven counties, namely Shuozhou, Yingzhou, Hunyuan Prefecture, Yuzhou and seven counties of Datong, Huairen, Mayi, Shanyin, Guangling, Lingqiu and Guangchang.

Datong Town has jurisdiction over eight guards including Datong Left and Right Guards, seven forts including Jingping Station, and three side forts such as Xinping Fort and Shahukou. Its northwest two directions directly face the Tumut Mongolia on the Hetao, and its defense is particularly important. , second only to Xuanfu, Liaodong and Jizhen.

Therefore, the general military officer of Datong Town was also an extremely important presence in the Ming Dynasty. What's more, Datong Town was also an important passage between Xuanfu and Shanxi, so Yongning Bo would not let him go.

…………

On March [-]th, the sun rose, and there were faint glows in the distant east. The city of Datong was as usual, and hardworking people were already busy in the streets and alleys.He Kuan is now the guerrilla general of the Datong Zhenbiao Camp. He and General Wang Zheng, the general of the Chinese Army of Wang Pu, jointly command the [-] soldiers of Wang Pu's Zhenbiao Camp.

After experiencing the First World War in Liaodong, the Zhenbiao Battalion of General Wang Pu of Datong Town still had nearly 3000 elite soldiers.

However, after the selection by Biaoying guerrilla He Kuan according to the standards of the Yongyi Army, there were only about [-] troops left, of which [-] were Wang Pu's servants.

These servants were not all converted into ordinary cavalry like the Yongyi Army, but were retained and personally led by Wang Pu's general of the Chinese Army, Wang Zheng.

After all, Wang Pu was also the commander-in-chief of the army. Although he moved closer to Zhang Cheng, he did not fully join the Yongyi Army. He should still retain some freedom and independence.

Now the Datong Town Biao Camp is composed of three parts. One is the elite who survived the war in Liaodong, the other is a group of Yongyi Army soldiers brought by He Kuan, and the third is the newly recruited Datong garrison soldiers and military households. strong.

According to the military system of the Ming Dynasty, the garrison, city and fort guards in each town usually obeyed the orders of their respective Shangguan Qianhu, garrison, commander and other military attachés, and were responsible for garrison and settlement affairs. They did not belong to the camp system and were not subject to The control of each guerrilla, participating general, deputy general, and commander-in-chief.

However, if each battalion has a shortage of soldiers, it can ask the general to go to the garrison and military households in each guard station and castle to select suitable soldiers to supplement the shortage of soldiers in the battalion.

There is also an unspoken rule here, that is, soldiers cannot be selected from the servants of each thousand households, guards, and commanders.

Of course, there are exceptions to everything. If you have a good personal relationship with them, or if there are relatives of the Qianhu, garrison, and commanders under their command who want to make meritorious deeds on the battlefield, they will also take the initiative to recommend their relatives to join the camp system. .

Wang Pu's Zhenbiao camp currently has 500 men and horses, including 1000 elite servants and cavalry. There are about [-] remaining soldiers from the battlefield who returned from Liaodong. He Kuan's troops have [-] men, and the newly recruited military households have two young men. More than a thousand people.

Following the practice of the Yongyi Army, when He Kuan was recruiting new warriors, he did not even look at the garrison guards at each garrison castle, and only selected strong men with no bad records among the military households to join the camp.

In order to effectively control the Biao Camp in Datong Town, He Kuan used training as an excuse to disrupt the more than a thousand Yongyi Army soldiers he brought and formed a mixed formation with the original Biao Camp sergeants and newly recruited soldiers.

As a result, among the 5000 men and horses in Wang Pu's Zhenbiao camp, except for the 500 elite cavalry commanded by Wang Zheng, almost all the middle and lower-level officers in the remaining [-] men in the camp were served by Yongyi Army soldiers.

As the chief military officer of Datong Town, Wang Pu also had grudges about this, but he did not dare to show it at all. On the contrary, he looked very happy.

After all, Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng not only sent his elite soldiers to help him rebuild the Biao camp, but also promised to give him the guns and firearms needed for the entire battalion on credit.

In the face of the powerful force of the Yongyi Army, what does he mean by a mere Datong general?

As a Ming general who was trained by a merchant family, his ideas are naturally slightly different from others, and his purpose is also somewhat different.

Wang Pu does not attach much importance to external things such as gold and silver, but he cares a lot about personal appearance, and he is particularly pushy. If he were in a peaceful era, as long as he could afford the money, there would be people willing to accompany him to show off.

But now, in the last days of the Ming Dynasty, wars are still frequent, and your opponents are either rogues or Tartars. If you are not careful, your life will be lost. Who will cooperate with you for a little money?

Especially this battle in Liaodong became the biggest catalyst to change Wang Pu's inner thoughts!

"If a person does not love money, he will be punished by heaven and earth!"

At this time in the Ming Dynasty, from the current court elders to the small county magistrates, there is no one who is not greedy for money. Even if the family is as wealthy as Wang Pu, he cannot be completely exempt from vulgarity.

However, Wang Pu can be considered a smart man. The battle with Nu in Liaodong also made him realize what is the basis for a true military commander to survive?

If the foundation of a businessman is money, with money in hand, even if you lose money on a business trip, you will still have a chance to turn around.

But as a military commander, what is it?
In the past, he could avoid disasters and even get promoted all the way by relying on bribes. But now, he doesn't have one or two teams that can fight, but it's really hard to do.

Therefore, he took the initiative to get closer to Zhang Cheng. His original intention was to rely on Zhang Cheng's brave army to gain more military merits and become prominent among good men.

But I didn't expect that this back and forth would lead to what it is now.

Before Wang Pu had time to regret, good things came to his door one after another, which completely dispelled all the doubts in his heart and strengthened his determination to get closer to Zhang Cheng.

Even if we have no soldiers or generals, what can we do?
Even though Uncle Yong Ning has powerful hands and eyes, he can kill everyone and bring peace to the world, in the end he still doesn't need someone to help him. The sooner he joins Uncle Yong Ning, the sooner he will benefit, and he can even become Uncle Yong Ning's confidant!

I originally thought that only Wang Dayu would come to ask for my protection. After all, we are still family members. Ever since Wang Dayu's father, he has contributed money and efforts to help him and continued to climb up his official career.

Therefore, no matter what, he must do his best to rescue, not only for Wang Dayu's family, but also for the entire Wang family.

But what surprised him was that Zhai Tang, one of the eight great families in Shanyou, came directly to Datong to find him on the pretext of going to the Xuan Mansion to lobby the new governor Zhu Zhifeng.

Moreover, this Zhaitang monkey is very smart. He seems to have already seen that Wang Dayu is not strong-willed, and guesses that he must turn against the enemy to protect himself, so he also has a relationship with Wang Dayu.

Since there was Wang Dayu's autographed letter as guarantee, Zhai Tang also promised that not only would all the property and property in Zhangjiakou be voluntarily confiscated, but he would also pledge 150 million taels of silver to help the army suppress the thieves.

The most important thing is that he also promised to give Wang Pu an additional 20 taels of hard work after the matter was completed. This was the root of Wang Pu's desperate efforts to rescue him, and it was also the secret that made Wang Pu extremely happy.

But Wang Pu still doesn't know that there is one person among the eight families on the right side of Shanyou who has been spared the disaster. He is Tian Shenglan.

Tian Shenglan was very close to the internal eunuch Wang Dehua. This time he went to the capital to use Wang Dehua's connections to suppress Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng.

But I never thought that the prince and his father-in-law, who had previously treated me very highly and received him warmly, would just say lightly after hearing his purpose: "Uncle Yongning, you are loyal to the country and have won the trust of the emperor."

After that, he turned away from Tian Shenglan and avoided seeing her. Even if he did meet, he would avoid talking about topics involving Uncle Yongning.

Tian Shenglan was also a well-educated businessman, and he still had some brains. He summarized his own views by summarizing the attitudes of the internal eunuchs and court officials in the capital.

No one in the palace or in the court wanted to be directly involved in Uncle Yong Ning's affairs. Even if some people verbally supported the suppression of Uncle Yong Ning, no one was willing to show up and help.

As for those officials and censors, although they took the money and really did their job, Yong Ningbo was at the height of his power. How could he be brought down by just a few impeachment memorials?
After figuring out these reasons, Tian Shenglan could no longer sit still. He stayed outside the gate of Wang Dehua's mansion all night just to meet him.

He was also very thorough in his work. He no longer asked Wang Dehua to help him deal with Uncle Yongning, but took the initiative to pay tribute of 10 taels of silver to Wang Dehua. He only asked Wang Dehua to help him make a favor with Uncle Yongning and save the lives of the Tian family.

Is there any reason to refuse the money that comes to your door for free?
Wang Dehua immediately agreed to the matter, immediately wrote a letter, and sent someone to the express delivery shop to leave the city overnight and rush to Xuanfu.

At the same time, he also suggested that Tian Shenglan visit Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, and get a letter from him, which would be more secure. For this reason, Wang Dehua gave his name card to Tian Shenglan to ask for Chen Xinjia.

With Wang Dehua and Chen Xinjia's handwritten guarantees, Zhang Cheng will naturally not embarrass Tian Shenglan anymore. However, the 150 million taels of silver to help the army are not missing a cent!
(End of this chapter)