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Chapter 239 Heading to Monolith Fortress

In the 12th year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, on April [-]th, the sky was fine and the sun was shining brightly.

Outside the south gate of Xuanfu town, Zhang Cheng was seeing off the people under his command. They would set off for Dushibao on Shangbei Road of Xuanfu one step ahead of Zhang Cheng.

It turned out that as soon as Wei Zhice and others left the day before yesterday, Zhang Cheng received a letter from Chen Zheng, which made Zhang Cheng decide to go to Shangbei Road immediately.

Xuanfu Shangbei Road, the residence of Dushibao City, was built in the fifth year of Xuande. In June of the same year, the Kaiping Guard of Xuanfu moved from the old city of Kaiping to build a guard here.

The land under the jurisdiction of Shangbei Road extends to Jing'anbao in the east, Dabian in the north, and Jinjiazhuang in the west, with a border wall of 260 kilometers, three border piers of 360 kilometers, and as many as 47 main roads at each entrance.

This place should have been guarded by generals. Before Zhang Cheng, Liu Guangwu, the general of Xuanzhen, was in charge of guarding Kaipingwei. Because Zhang Cheng wanted to come to Shangbei Road, the imperial court had decided to transfer Liu Guangwu back to Xuanfu Township to lead the right-wing battalion. Sitting in the camp.

At present, only Xuanfu governor Liu Yongzuo and the commander-in-chief Yang Guozhu know about this news, not even Lin Dengyou, the deputy commander-in-chief in Zhencheng. Zhang Cheng only heard him mention it when he visited the governor Liu Yongzuo last night.

Of course, these were not the reasons why Zhang Cheng was eager to go to Shangbei Road. What made him tempted and eager to go to Shangbei Road was because of the information sent back by Chen Zheng.

Chen Zheng made it easier for Zhang Cheng and others to separate from his own security guards. He led three hundred knights and carried Zhang Cheng's letter, and rushed to the Shangbei Road to check out the spot, but found that the military households in that place were seriously fleeing, and the population was so sparse that there was no one for dozens of miles. situation.

Although there are two rivers, Dushishui and Longmenchuan, flowing all the way to the south, but there are many fields left uncultivated and few cultivated, and many lands that are conducive to cultivation are already barren.

Only then was Zhang Cheng tempted, and hurried to the Dushibao, so as to see the appearance of this barren land for himself, try to organize soldiers and civilians, and open up wasteland and repair canals as soon as possible.

That's why he rushed to the governor's yamen overnight to meet Liu Yongzuo, and reported to him that he was about to leave and that he needed to open up wasteland and repair canals immediately after arriving at Dushibao. support.

The governor, Liu Yongzuo, always had a heart for the imperial court, and he supported Zhang Cheng's formation and training of the new army. He immediately agreed to all Zhang Cheng's requests, and informed Zhang Cheng that the imperial court was preparing to transfer Liu Guangwu, the general of the North Road, to serve as the right-wing battalion of the Zhenbiao. will be the news.

Zhang Cheng didn't care about this. A general in the right-wing battalion of the town mark couldn't catch his eyes at all. If he wanted this position, he might have already got his wish.

However, just because he doesn't want it doesn't mean that others don't want it either. The Xuanzhen guerrillas Li Jianming and Wen Huike are both working up and down. Woolen cloth.

However, they will be disappointed in the end!
It's just that Zhang Cheng only knew that Shangbei Road was often a place where the Tartars broke through. As for the specific situation of Shangbei Road, he didn't know much. It was because of this that he sent Chen Zheng to go there in advance scout.

At the beginning, the reason why this place was chosen to be guarded was nothing more than that it was considered to be the extreme north of Xuanzhen, and the imperial court's control was insufficient, so it should be cheaper to operate.

These days, Zhang Cheng is also looking for people to understand the situation on Shangbei Road.

Shangbei Road is guarded by generals, stationed in Dushibao City, with Kaiping guards, and three guards on the road, namely Mayingbao Garrison, Yunzhou Suocheng Garrison, and Chi Castle Garrison. They are all guards alone. One city is equivalent to the strength of a guerrilla general.

In addition, there are Qingquan Fort, Banbidian Fort, Maoeryu Fort, Junzi Fort, Songshu Fort, Zhen'an Fort, Zhenning Fort, Cangshang Fort, etc. on the road.

There are also Kaiping Station in Dushicheng, Yunzhou Station in Yunzhou Suobao, Yunmen Station in Chicheng Castle, Haoling Station in Diao'erbao, Fengyu Station in Chang'an, Mayingbao Zhongzi Nuanpu, Longmen Suomu Nuanzi There are as many as 25 warm shops and express shops such as Longmenweilezinuanpu and Longmenweilezinuanpu.

Xuanfu Shangbei Road can be said to have a very vast area, but it is surrounded by Mongolia on three sides, surrounded by Shanxi, and the only places suitable for farming are Dushishui in the center and the coast of Longmenchuan, which is a narrow strip running from north to south.

However, through visiting some old craftsmen, Zhang Cheng learned that there are many mineral deposits in the valleys of Shangbei Road, and some of them are very easy to mine. He then rewarded those old craftsmen and agreed that if necessary, Then send someone to pick them up and go to Shangbei Road to help them explore.

At the same time, he used some money to get the registers of farmland and military households in the early years of Shangbei Road from the commander's yamen. Zhang Cheng was very happy about this matter, and he entrusted these to Chen Zhong for safekeeping.

…………

Today, Wu Zhizhong led the [-] newly recruited soldiers to set off first, and those craftsmen also set off with them. They first went to Yunzhou Fort to wait for Zhang Cheng.

It is scheduled for tomorrow that Chen Dakuan and Cui Shijie will lead four hundred soldiers to escort the military weapons received from various warehouses in the Xuanfu, as well as the 1 taels of recruiting silver allocated to Zhang Cheng in the Xuanfu treasury, grain and grain. [-] shi, and Zhang Cheng had to figure out what to do with the rest.

At this time, the government treasury everywhere in Daming was extremely empty, and so was Xuanzhen. The imperial court was powerless, and asked all the generals to train more elite soldiers, but they couldn't guarantee food and pay. How could they train these soldiers?
Fortunately, Zhang Cheng extracted 1000 or [-] military tents from the Xuanzhen arsenal, a lot of things such as iron pots, lifting sticks, horse antlers, barbed wire, camp lamps, water bags, etc., and [-] heavy carts .

In addition, there are [-] pairs of excellent armor, more than [-] large swords, big sticks, long spears, etc., as well as [-] excellent bird guns, [-] tiger squat guns, Baizi guns, and [-] small Franc machine guns. , which was a pleasant surprise.

The other things don't matter, they can pick and choose these old soldiers, but these firearms, Zhang Cheng led the old craftsmen to pick them out one by one, and he really didn't dare to use the ones that were not of good quality.

There are also a large amount of iron ingots, gunpowder and other materials. As for land reclamation and farming, they will be allocated by Yanqing Prefecture nearby, and there are also some materials in the warehouse on Shangbei Road.

A large amount of military supplies had already been taken by Wu Zhizhong and his new camp. Only military supplies such as money, grain, and firearms were escorted to Dushibao with the second wave.

To be on the safe side, he specially ordered Zhang Guangda to lead his cavalry team to accompany him as the commander of the second wave, and arranged for the town governor He Biao to accompany him, and he was responsible for all matters such as military resources.

Along with Zhang Guangda and the others, there are more than [-] unmarried men from Xinzhuangbao. Under the leadership of the villager Feng Yuanshan, they will also go to Shangbei Road with the army to repair canals and reclaim wasteland. Act as auxiliary soldiers and escort military supplies.

And the 38 newly selected young men from Xinzhuangbao are also acting as new troops. They will practice here for the time being and will not go to Shangbei Road. Including the hundred healthy women and [-] orphans, they will all be on the side of Xinzhuangbao. practice.

Zhang Cheng temporarily left them here in the town, just in case. He was careful, and he wanted to keep a force in every place, so that he could rest assured, not to mention his mother, aunt, and cousin. Temporarily living in the town.

(End of this chapter)