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Chapter 652

It took a lot of time for the Xuanbei Army and the nearly [-] soldiers of the Shenji Battalion to cross the river, not to mention that there were hundreds of carts, chariots, artillery carts, and thousands of horses and mules in their army.

This was Zhang Cheng's special order to let the Shenwei General Pao of the Shenji Battalion cross the river behind the Bu Battalion to show the might of the army.

In fact, everyone knew in their hearts that this was an opportunity for Shenjiying to show their face, and the others were just excuses, but everyone saw it through and didn't tell it.

Chen Jiugao was turning around and bragging to the town commanders about the artillery and rocket vehicles he had brought, when guerrilla Guo Yingxian squeezed forward from behind the generals, poking his square head out to greet Zhang Cheng.

But he saw Governor Hong Chengchou and Superintendent Zhang Ruoqi standing beside Zhang Cheng, he didn't dare to go forward, he just stared at Zhang Cheng with a pair of big eyes and winked at Zhang Cheng, his appearance was extremely funny.

At this moment, Zhang Ruoqi, the supervising army, suggested that everyone should go to the city to have a talk, instead of watching the army crossing the river here, Hong Chengchou naturally would not object, so the generals followed the two of them and went to the center of Ningyuan City.

When you come closer, you can feel the magnificence of this border fortress even more, with its thick walls, towering gate towers, and the dark muzzles of the cannons.

A group of them entered Ningyuan City from the Yongning Gate in the west. Zhang Cheng looked at the horse paths on both sides of the gate.

He also noticed the inner wall of Ningyuan City Wall, which is quite distinctive. It is said that when it was built, in order to make the city wall strong, a large number of irregular stones were used to build the inner wall, and then the inner wall of the city wall was chiseled flat, so it is called "masonry". wall".

Moreover, because most of the stone materials used are local materials, its color looks like tiger skin from a distance, so it is also called "Tiger Fur Stone Wall".

It can be seen that Ningyuan City is like a big military station at the moment, and it is full of officers and soldiers from all over the country. The city is basically filled with Hong Chengchou's supervising battalion army horses, as well as Wu Sangui, the general training soldier of the Ningyuan regiment, Liu Zhaoji, the general soldier of Liaodong, and Liaodong Xie Shou. Commander Meng Dao and other soldiers and horses of the local town commander.

The rest of the generals of Liao Town and the soldiers and horses of the generals who came to aid the towns are stationed in various barracks outside the city. At this moment, a total of 16 officers and troops have been assembled inside and outside Ningyuan City, which is more than [-] more than in history. horse.

Since the 12th year of Chongzhen, the chief soldiers of each town began to train [-] new troops each. Although the actual training results were different due to differences in food and salaries in different places, at least they all trained about [-] more new troops.

Now inside and outside Ningyuan, Yang Guozhu in Xuanzhen has 1 soldiers and horses, Datong Wang Pu has 1 soldiers and horses, Miyun Tangtong has [-] soldiers and horses, and Ji Town Bai Guangen has [-] soldiers and horses. There were [-] officers and soldiers in Xuanda and Jizhen who came to aid.

In addition, Cao Bianjiao of the Eastern Association has 1000 troops, Shanhaiguan Make has 3000 troops, former Tunwei Wang Tingchen has 1 troops, and Ningyuan Wu Sangui has 8000 troops. These four Liaozhen generals also have 5 taels Thousands of officers and soldiers.

In addition, there are more than 5000 officers and troops in Hong Chengchou's Supervision Battalion, Shanxi Li Fuming has 8000 troops, Zhongxie Zuo Guangxian has 1 troops, Liaodong General Soldier Liu Zhaoji has 6000 troops, and Liaodong Soldier General Meng Dao has [-] troops. , This adds up to about [-] officers and soldiers.

In this way, there were nearly 14 officers and troops who marched into the city of Ningyuan earlier, and if you count the more than [-] soldiers and horses of Zhang Chengxuan's Northern Army that just arrived, the number of Chen Jiugao's Shenji Battalion is [-].

The Ming army under the city of Ningyuan has reached more than 16 soldiers and horses, and this is not counting the more than [-] Ming army in Jinzhou City Zu Dashou.

In addition, the army guarding various castles in Liaodong, in order to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, the Ming court actually mobilized 20 troops. This is the attitude of preparing for a decisive battle with Jiannu in Liaodong!

…………

After entering the west gate of Ningyuan City, there is Yongning West Street. The governor Hong Chengchou and the supervising army Zhang Ruoqi walked side by side. After that, and behind them are the generals of the towns.

Walking forward for more than [-] steps, you will see a majestic Bell and Drum Tower. It flies in the air, corresponding to the archery towers on the four city gates, and looks majestic and majestic.

Zhang Cheng took a rough look and found that the Bell and Drum Tower is divided into three floors, and its height is almost six feet.

The base of the Drum Tower is also square, as high as a city wall, and the cross hole leading to Sitiao Avenue is built under it, all of which are made of large blue bricks, and arched passages are built in the east, west, south and north.

Then there is a two-story pavilion, and on the second floor there is a huge cowhide drum. The drum surface is nearly one foot wide, and it is made of a whole piece of cowhide, which is really rare in the whole country.

Because the Drum Tower is the highest point in Ningyuan City, the city keeper will often observe the enemy's siege situation on the third floor in wartime in order to command operations. Therefore, this floor only has desks, seats, and a map of Ningyuan's surroundings.

Ningyuan City is centered on this Bell and Drum Tower, and there are four streets corresponding to the four city gates. The locals call it Chunhe East Street, Yanhui South Street, Yongning West Street and Weiyuan North Street.

Hong Chengchou's Governor Xingyuan is located in the former Jiliao Governor's Mansion on the north side of Chunhe East Street to the east of the Drum Tower.

In the early years of Chongzhen, Yuan Chonghuan, who was ordered to supervise Jiliao with the title of minister of the Ministry of War, built an office office, which was called Jiliao Governor's Mansion at that time.

It occupies a very large area. The two sides of the front hall used to be the offices of the six departments of officials, households, rites, soldiers, criminals, and engineering. They were in charge of all affairs in Ji and Liao.

On the west side of the main hall is the "Zhaomosuo", which is the place where papers are printed, and on the east side is the "curtain hall", where the staff and staff of Governor Ji Liao's sect work.

The west side courtyard of the front hall is where the governor's office is located, while the east side courtyard is where officials live.

Zhang Cheng and others followed Hong Chengchou and Zhang Ruoqi, and entered the second hall from the east side gate. This is where the governor Hong Chengchou works.

The second hall is divided into the main hall, the meeting hall, the signing room, and the east and west wing rooms. There are courtyards on the east and west sides for officials to live in. The west side is now the residence of the governor’s staff, while the east side is used by the supervisor Zhang Ruoqi and other officials.

What's more, the back hall is the place where the governor Hong Chengchou and his family lived. Since he was stationed in Ningyuan, he had invited the supervisor Zhang Ruoqi to live in the back hall many times, but he declined all of them. Therefore, he rarely lived in the back hall. Live in the wing room of the central hall.

As soon as everyone entered the spacious hall of the second hall, they saw a table of banquets already set up inside, and the food was very rich.

However, as early as Hong Chengchou received the report from Kuaima and sent Chen Zhongcai, the deputy general of the Chinese army, to greet him, he had already asked his cronies and staff to prepare a banquet and other welcome things.

The supervisor Zhang Ruoqi and Zhang Cheng were old acquaintances, not to mention that he had many contacts with Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen and the former battalion commander Chen Jiugao when he was in the Ministry of War. Naturally, he had no objection to such a welcome, and everyone sat down together in a friendly manner.

(End of this chapter)