weaving

Chapter 59 Patrol the Stone Bridge
Beijing City, outside Yongding Gate, southeast suburbs.

The garrison area of ​​Yang Guozhu, the general of Xuanzhen Town, is more than five miles southward, which is the garrison area of ​​General Zhang Yan. They also set up defenses along the Liangshui River, but there are two small stone bridges lying across the Liangshui River in their section.

Zhang Yan's general camp was set up about two miles behind the stone bridge in the north, in an abandoned village fort in the southeast. Because of avoiding the war, the fort was already empty.

Although the village fortress there was seriously damaged, looking at the surrounding villages, this village fortress is considered relatively good. Some houses are still usable, and the fortress walls are generally intact, with a height of more than ten feet. Although some are damaged, they can still be used. Supplement it with rejecting horses, etc.

The key point is that this abandoned village castle is next to the official road leading to the capital on the left side, just above the main entrance of the official road, and not far from the stone bridge on the Liangshui River in the east.

Zhang Yan immediately occupied this place and set up camp, and stationed an infantry sentry at the stone bridge, agreeing to prevent smoke during the day and hold fire at night. It is very convenient to send help from the official way.

Compared with camping in the wild, occupying a ready-made village fortress, of course, saves a lot of things, it is convenient and fast, and the defense is more powerful. Even the remnants of the house and the fortress wall can be used.

Except for the outposts stationed outside, nearly [-] men and horses from each department, including grain, fodder, military equipment, etc., were all moved to camps in the village fort.

At the same time, a large number of Yebushou under Zhang Cheng's command were sent out to spy on the surrounding captives, and to investigate the topography of the area urgently. They basically took armor as a unit and rode out on two horses to check.

The village fort where Zhang Yan camped is about two miles to the south. There is an earthen hill not far to the west of Liangshui River. On it is a long-abandoned pier. It was repaired, and it was abandoned like this.

Although the piers are dilapidated, there are still remnants of more than two feet high. You can climb up to watch the surrounding situation, and you can also shoot guns and cannons to guard the main stone bridge in front of you.

And there are tens of feet of pier walls around, which are basically well preserved and can be stationed to defend the stone bridge.

On the south side of the abandoned pier, there is a winding official road, more than three feet wide, covered with long-term rut marks, along the official road to the east about ten feet, the second official Zhangyan defense area. A stone bridge.

For a few miles around here, this official road is still relatively easy to walk, and the rest are either fields or river canals. Perhaps infantry and cavalry can still pass through the empty fields, but if they want to drag any vehicles and luggage, they must go to the official road. No way.

On this stone bridge, an infantry post is also guarded here.

Different from the stone bridge in the north, they are much better than the other stone bridge. You only need to set up horses, antlers, and barbed wire on the stone bridge to prevent the enemy from riding, and then leave a team of soldiers to guard, and the others You can enter the camp set up in the abandoned pier and camp.

The two infantry posts guarding the stone bridge are equipped with a high proportion of firearms, half of which are equipped with bird guns, and they are equipped with three No. [-] Franc cannons and three tiger squatting cannons. A stone bridge should be no problem.

Zhang Cheng's Cavalry Thousand Headquarters also has a large amount of firearms. Because the military situation was urgent when they came to aid King Qin, a large amount of weapons and military supplies in their department were all followed by the Infantry Thousand Headquarters. When they came to Changping together, there were No. [-] Buddhas There are ten Lang machines, thirty No. [-] Fo Lang machines, thirty tiger squat guns, and other firearms and medicines.

In Qi Jiguang's "Ji Xiao New Book", there are clearly recorded five kinds of Flang machine guns.

Among them, No. 11 cannon is eight to nine feet long, with one catty of ammunition and one catty of ammunition; No. two cannon is six to seven feet long, with ten taels of ammunition and eleven taels of ammunition; Two to three feet, three taels of ammunition, three taels of ammunition; the No. [-] cannon is one foot long, three coins for ammunition, and five coins for ammunition.

A series of equipment from large to small has been formed.

Moreover, "Ji Xiao New Book" not only has scientific and detailed regulations on the manufacture of the above-mentioned various types of Frangler cannons, but also explains the uses of different Frangler cannons. For example, No. [-] and No. [-] are mainly used for naval guns. The No. [-] is mostly used for fortress defense, the No. [-] can be used to fight with the army, and the No. [-] is mostly used as common equipment for soldiers because of its lightness.

This time, Zhang Cheng's department brought a large number of Flang cannons and tiger squat cannons into King Qin of Wei Jingji.

The soldiers and horses from the three towns of Xuanda and Shanxi followed the line of the Liangshui River, starting ten miles south of the Yongding Gate of the capital, and deployed a defense zone all the way south to resist the harassment of the cavalry in the eastern suburbs of the capital.

…………

Waking up this morning, Zhang Cheng inspected his camp first as usual.

Although this abandoned fort was dilapidated, fortunately it was quite large. His cavalry headquarters was stationed near the side of the official road. There were several large houses here. The houses were so dilapidated that they were directly demolished and converted into stables.

Hu Dake saw Zhang Cheng from a distance, and hurriedly greeted him and said, "Master, the wind is getting colder and colder, you should wear more."

Zhang Cheng said to him calmly: "Okay, you tell the brothers who go out to watch, be careful and don't suffer."

"Don't take advantage of it, bastard!" Hu Dake said with a playful smile, seeing that there was no displeasure on Zhang Cheng's face, he said again: "Mr. It must be slippery, not easy to catch."

Zhang Cheng said: "Catch it if you can, don't force it..."

Just at this point, I heard the sound of horseshoes. It turned out that Zhang Yan's personal soldiers came to call Zhang Cheng, and went to patrol the camp with Zhang Yan.

Zhang Cheng instructed Hu Dake a few more words, and then led Chen Zhong and several soldiers away in a hurry.

Zhang Yan was dressed neatly, and was chatting with Liang Song, the commander of the infantry, Zhang Cheng rushed forward, cupping his fists and saluting: "Chief Qian, Zhang Cheng, sees the general."

Zhang Yan glanced at his nephew, and said in a deep voice: "You must tell your subordinates, when you are sentry, safety is the most important thing, and you must not fight with Lu Qilang."

"Yes, Cheng'er knows." Zhang Cheng agreed.

Zhang Yan took the reins from the soldiers, got on the horse, and said, "Come on, let's go to those two stone bridges."

Zhang Cheng rode his horse and followed Zhang Yan, and Liang Songce, the commander of the infantry beside him, was on the horse, and said to him: "Young master, I have harvested a few heads of Tartars in the past few days."

Zhang Cheng smiled and said, "Oh, you tiger, I'm in a hurry, and when I have a chance, I will let the Tartars see brother's might as a tiger."

In a blink of an eye, they arrived at the stone bridge to the north, where Liang Song's infantry headquarters outposts were stationed here. They stood on horseback at this end and in the middle of the stone bridge. At the place, a chest-high earthen wall was built, from both sides to the edge of the official road, two No. [-] Frang machine guns and two tiger squatting guns were erected on the earthen wall, and the muzzles had been adjusted. Facing the direction of the bridgehead.

On the official road, a cart is used to cross it. There is no earth wall built here, because it is convenient for us to come and go when we don’t stop the sentry at night. There are two layers of repelling horses, plus a cart, it should be enough to block it. Captive riding.

About [-] steps away from the stone bridge, there is a place on a rather high ground, beside the official road, where the outpost camp stands, surrounded by horses and earthen walls, and more than [-] tents are lined up in a forest.

(End of this chapter)