weaving

Chapter 576
On February 14th, the [-]th year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, outside the city of Ruzhou, Henan Province, banners were displayed, and nearly ten thousand troops gathered here.

Zhang Cheng, Chen Jiugao, the commander in chief of the Beijing battalion, and Chen Yongfu, the commander in chief of the Henan camp, have led the army here for more than three days. They dispatched troops from Kaifeng after the Lantern Festival on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.

All the way through Weishi, Yanling, Weichuan, Changge, Xinzheng, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Xiangcheng, and finally from Jiaxian and Baofeng to the city of Ruzhou.

At this moment, Zhang Cheng, Chen Jiugao, Chen Yongfu and other generals have all been rewarded by imperial decree, especially Zhang Cheng has learned that the imperial court plans to transfer him to rescue Liaodong.

Chen Xinjia even told him in a private letter that the current crisis in Liaodong was related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty. Hong Chengchou, governor of Jiliao, wrote to him many times to ask Zhang Cheng's troops to come in for help.

The emperor has also agreed that this matter must be done. After Fu Zonglong, the new governor of Shaanxi and the three borders, leads troops into Henan, he will lead troops into Liao, so Zhang Cheng is required to make plans early.

He also informed Zhang Cheng that Emperor Zhang Cheng had also agreed to leave a Xuanzhen army stationed between Weihui and Huaiqing to protect Huaiqing Mansion in Hebei Province, especially Lu Wang Zhu Changhao of Weihui Mansion and the son of Fu Fan who temporarily lived in Weihui , In addition, it is necessary to support Chen Yongfu's department to defend Kaifeng Fucheng.

When Zhang Cheng was in Kaifeng, he had written to Chen Xinjia, Shangshu of the Ministry of War. He recommended his elder brother Ji Youci, the magistrate of Wu'an County, to serve as the guard of Huai Bing. Yuhe Town in Mengxian County, Huaiqing Prefecture, set up a cash gate here to raise salaries to support its soldiers.

Chen Xinjia's original intention was to keep Zhang Guodong's battalion in Yu Province, but Zhang Cheng thought that aiding Liao had a great military relationship, and he should enter Liao with a strong army, so he explicitly refused, Chen Xinjia couldn't do it either.

Now that the army is stationed outside Ruzhou City, Yiyang in the west and Mount Lu in the south have also been retaken. The intruders have hidden themselves in the Funiu Mountains. With intensive training, it is difficult to meet most of the intruders outside, only a few scattered bandits. There is still chaos in various prefectures and counties, but it is all small troubles.

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Since Kaifeng all the way west, Zhang Cheng, Chen Jiugao, Chen Yongfu, etc. have not experienced any decent battles, only sporadic small-scale battles, but the long-distance march is also tiring.

Now, the three-day garrison in Ruzhou has eased, and they all gathered in Zhang Cheng's big tent today to discuss the matter of withdrawing the army.

"Tomorrow, I will be separated from the two Chen Zongbing, Zhang Cheng is really sad!"

In the military tent, Zhang Cheng held up his wine bowl and said respectfully: "Today, let's get drunk and rest. When someone comes back from aiding Liao, he will join hands with the two generals to kill the bandits and defeat the enemy with all our strength."

Both Chen Jiugao and Chen Yongfu sat on the left and right sides of Zhang Cheng. Their subordinates, such as the Beijing camp guerrillas Chen Shihu, Chen Chongchang, and Chen De, all sat on the left side of the army tent, while Wei Zhice, Zhang Guodong, Zhang Guangda Waiting for the generals to accompany the prime minister on the right side, everyone drank their bowls.

Chen Jiugao put down the wine bowl and said, "It's just a temporary farewell. I will wait for my brother at Weihui Mansion. We brothers have to go back to Beijing together."

Chen Yongfu also clasped his fists and said: "It's really a blessing for Chen to be able to kill the thief side by side with Zhang Zongbing. Kaifeng's defense is tense, and I dare not leave, so I asked Chen De to accompany Zhang Zongbing to Weihui Mansion."

It turned out that they had just agreed that they would lead their respective troops to retreat tomorrow. Chen Yongfu and Chen Jiugao went to Jiaxian County and returned to Kaifeng by the same road.

Zhang Cheng's Wei Zhice's chariot battalion and Zhang Guodong's four infantry battalions will also return to Kaifeng with Chen Jiugao.

Zhang Guangda's cavalry battalion, Lin Fangping's tiger guards, and an infantry battalion from the infantry battalion marched north with Zhang Cheng, passing Luoyang to Mengjin County, crossing the Yellow River, and heading to Yanhe Town in Meng County, Huaiqing Prefecture.

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This time he came to Henan to help suppress the intruders. Although Zhang Cheng's troops suffered some casualties, their troops did not decrease, but grew stronger.

When he first entered Henan, he recruited Dengfeng Li Jiyu's army in Mixian County. There were [-] young and strong men. Because he was eager to go to Luoyang at that time, he joined the army of nearly [-] hungry people before reorganization. They were sent to Xuanzhen together, and now they have already arrived at the East Road, and they are conducting formation exercises under Wu Zhizhong's command.

At the foot of Kaifeng City, another 3000 captives from the Chuangjun Army were collected, of which [-] elite were selected and handed over to the surrendered general "Jumping Tiger" Du Youwei, and the remaining [-] were organized into three groups, which were organized by He Kuan's front group. , Huang Daguang's back part, and Liu Changliang's partial division one.

The three newly formed troops and horses were all promoted by Zhang Guodong's infantry battalion to the commander-in-chief, and then the backbone of the infantry battalion served as officers at all levels. This time they also went out with the army and practiced while marching.

In this way, Zhang Cheng originally had 9000 troops when he entered Henan, but now it has reached more than 500 troops. This has not counted Li Jiyu's 2000 troops. There is also an army of [-], which belongs to making a lot of money.

According to Zhang Cheng's deployment, Cui Shijie, the left part of Zhang Guodong's infantry battalion, had been assigned to Chen Zhong's command before, and now he has to transfer thousands of new troops from He Kuan's Ministry to Chen Zhong to form the Yuhe Battalion, and Chen Zhong will be in charge of the guerrilla battalion. .

In this way, there were only four thousand headquarters left in Zhang Guodong's infantry battalion, namely Liu Changliang's front, Huang Daguang's left, Chen Dakuan's middle, and Jin Yong's right, attacking more than [-] soldiers and horses.

The Yuhe Battalion consisted of two infantry units, Cui Shijie on the left and He Kuan on the right, plus more than [-] cavalry sent by Tielin's Chinese cavalry. There were more than [-] officers and troops stationed in Yuhe Town.

In order to support the Yangjialou at the foot of Mang Mountain and other villages that have already taken refuge in Zhang Cheng, if you add the thousands of township warriors who will be trained on Mang Mountain in the future, Zhang Cheng can directly call on the troops in Yu Province There are only five or six thousand people, which can be described as a big nail, even if it is an ordinary general army, it may not have such a force.

Zhang Cheng took Qiying and He Kuan's troops to Yuhe Town this time. One was to make arrangements for Chen Zhong's stay in Henan; Stay for a few days, after all, after returning to Xuan Town this time, I don't know when I will be able to return to my mother's house again.

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Zhang Cheng followed Chen Yongfu's words and said: "It's so good. My subordinate Chen Zhong will stay in Yuhe, and Chen Zongbing's care will naturally be indispensable in the future. Chen De can also meet Chen Zhong when he goes here, and it will be convenient for the future contact between each other."

He clasped his fists and said, "Wei Zhice and Zhang Guodong under my command are going back to Kaifeng with the two commanders, and you two will have to worry a lot on this journey!"

"Zhang Shuai, you are being polite."

Everyone exchanged pleasantries again, drinking until late at night before they dispersed, and everyone returned to the base camp to rest.

(End of this chapter)