Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 11 Brave Guard Camp

After lunch, Zhu Youjian got into the carriage and drove to the Yongwei Camp under the escort of a large number of brocade guards.

The Yongwei Battalion was formerly known as the Four Guards of Tengxiang, a forbidden army directly under the emperor and in charge of the inner court.The selection criteria for its officers and soldiers are "the senior officers and soldiers of the Tianxia Guards and the men who have returned from captivity".The initial number was around [-], and the combat power was strong.Later, during the Jiajing period, it was organized into the Warrior Battalion and the Four Guards Battalion. The number gradually increased, but the combat effectiveness gradually declined.

After Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, in the second year of Chongzhen, he ordered Cao Huachun and the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse supervisor to reorganize the Yongwei camp.Cao Huachun himself was the eunuch who was the supervisor of ceremonies and Bingbi, with complicated affairs, and he didn't have much energy to take charge of the Yongwei camp.So Lu Jiude, the direct eunuch, and Liu Yuanbin were selected as the supervisor eunuchs, who were in charge of the daily life of the army.Its resident is outside the palace city and within the imperial city, and it can be reached in about half an hour walking northeast along the palace wall along the Donghua Gate.

There is a large barracks outside the Yumajian, and there is a huge school yard in the barracks.Outside the gate of the school grounds, several eunuchs and several generals in helmets and armor were standing outside the gate.

Before Zhu Youjian's car arrived, a group of people hurried forward under the leadership of the leading eunuch. Zhu Youjian's carriage had not stopped, and everyone fell to their knees.The headed old eunuch reported in a high-pitched voice: "Cao Huachun, the maidservant's ceremonial supervisor and horse supervisor's palm seal, led the generals of the brave guard battalion to welcome the holy driver!"

The carriage stopped, and Wang Chengen served Zhu Youjian and got out of the car. Zhu Youjian looked around and said in a gentle voice: "Get up! Since I came to the throne, although I ordered you to tidy up the camp, I have been bothering you about government affairs. Come and watch; if you are free today, I will come and see how your Cao Huachun soldiers are training and whether you have fulfilled my trust!"

After everyone kowtowed and got up, the grey-haired Cao Huachun raised his hands above his head and bowed back: "Since the emperor entrusted the servants with important tasks, although the servants have multiple jobs and heavy burdens, they are afraid of delaying the emperor's important affairs, so Liu Yuanbin was specially appointed , Lu Jiude is permanently stationed in the camp, and specializes in supervising the daily life of officers and soldiers. These two have lived up to their entrustment, they have been working hard and sleeping all night, and they have trained an elite soldier, and the emperor is invited to inspect and inspect them!"

Liu and Lu hurried forward to kowtow to greet them. Zhu Youjian waved them up and said with a smile: "You Cao Huachun's tone is not small, dare to say that you are an elite soldier! Well, I'm going to take a good look today, your so-called elite soldiers How the hell! Who are these generals?

When several generals heard the emperor's question, they hurried forward and knelt down and kowtowed.The leader looked frail and thin, while the other two generals were tall and strong.

After kowtowing for the head of the weak man, he said loudly: "The last general Sun Yingyuan, deputy general of the Yongwei Battalion, sees His Majesty!"

"The last general of the Yongwei Battalion, Huang Degong, sees His Majesty!"

"The last general of the Yongwei Battalion guerrilla Zhou Yuji sees His Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian couldn't help but secretly nodded after listening to the reports of several people. They are all famous loyal ministers and fierce generals in history!Both were heroes who died in battle. Sun Yingyuan and Zhou Yuji both died in fierce battles with bandits. Huang Degong was one of the four towns in the south of the Yangtze River during the Longwu period of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and he died in battle in the end.

He raised his hand to help Wen Sheng and said: "Generals, please stand up! In the future, the thieves and captives will be wiped out, and the generals will fight on the battlefield to save the people from the fire and water. When the success is achieved, I will not hesitate to reward the princes!"

It was the first time for Sun Yingyuan and others to see Tianyan, and they were already very excited, but when they heard the emperor's encouragement, their chests boiled and blood rushed to their faces.All three of them replied loudly: "I wish to die for the Holy King!" Then they kowtowed heavily and got up.

Cao Huachun led the way, and the group entered the school grounds.

At this time, the school grounds were full of officers and soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion, all of them were wearing red mandarin duck jackets and bamboo hats, all of them were holding knives and guns, standing tall and silent.

Under the guidance of Cao Huachun, Zhu Youjian boarded the review platform in the south of the school grounds. The red carpet, a dragon chair and the imperial case had already been laid on the platform. After Zhu Youjian sat down, everyone divided up to serve on both sides.

Zhu Youjian said: "Let's start performing martial arts!"

Holding a red flag, Sun Yingyuan walked to the front of the stage, swayed left and right, only to hear the sound of armor leaves colliding, footsteps shouted, and the battalion under the stage receded like a tide.In less than a quarter of an hour, thousands of people had retreated to the edge of the school grounds and stood still.

Sun Yingyuan waved the red flag again, followed by a few short and sharp horns, the earth slowly shook, and there seemed to be faint thunder in the distance.Smoke and dust rose everywhere, and the ground seemed to be shaking. The sound gradually increased and got closer. Amidst the rumbling sound, a cavalryman suddenly emerged from the dust rolled up in the sky, and then thirty cavalrymen as a group Horizontally, rows of uniform war horses trotted into the school grounds.

The cavalrymen wearing double-breasted cotton armor and iron helmets hold long spears in their right hands and hold the reins in their left hands, pointing their long spears straight at the sky.Spears are like a forest, this sentence is not an exaggeration here.

There was only the sound of horseshoes and the occasional neighing of war horses, and the entire team of horses rumbled across the reviewing platform.

All the cavalry passing by the platform raised their spears high to the sky, turned their gazes to the platform to salute, and no one made a sound.Hundreds of cavalry galloped past. The first cavalry circled the field and lined up neatly in front of the left side of the platform. The rear cavalry circled the field one by one and stopped their horses to line up under the command of the school officer.

It was the first time for Zhu Youjian to see such a large-scale armed cavalry, no matter in his past or present life.From the time the horses entered the arena to standing in line after going around the arena for a week, the whole process took a very short time, but the powerful aura that rushed to his face still shocked him beyond compare, as if this kind of power could destroy heaven and earth.Personal bravery is as vulnerable as ants in front of the cavalry formation. Watching the cavalry in the child's play costume dramas on TV in later generations is really a difference.

When the cavalry team stood up, Sun Yingyuan waved the flag again, this time it was a black flag.With the sound of horns, the retreating infantry began to gather, and then marched towards the open space at the other end of the school field.

First, a thousand soldiers holding bows and arrows arrived and stood in two rows. A general came out and waved a pennant in his hand.The trumpet blew a short sound, and with a buzzing sound, a thousand long arrows shot into the sky ahead. After a short flight, they turned around and fell rapidly. The open space about a hundred steps ahead suddenly seemed to be covered with crops. Feather Arrow.

The archers each shot ten arrows, and the open space in front of them was covered with long arrows. If there were enemies in front, under the cover of tens of thousands of long arrows, the survival rate could be imagined.

After shooting ten arrows, the archer quickly retracted his bow and turned around to retreat. Two thousand and five hundred spearmen came with drums in numbers.After standing still, the spearmen were close to each other, and the formation was very compact. The front row sticks out their guns, and the rear row puts their guns on the shoulders of the front row.

When the school officer gave an order, the spearmen shouted in unison: "Guard!" They stabbed out the long spears in their hands, the tip of the spears shone coldly and were extremely sharp, as if they could pierce all objects in front of them.There are five hundred sword shields on each side to protect the two wings and prevent the enemy from flanking.Then, under the command of the general, the spearmen, swordsmen and shields gathered their teams and came to the center of the school field in an orderly pace, standing in a team not far from the cavalry, and the troop demonstration ended.

Zhu Youjian secretly agreed that not all of Da Ming's troops were weak troops that would collapse when they were strong.There are no weak soldiers under a strong general, and the famous people in history really have no weak soldiers under their prestige.These eunuchs and generals lived up to the emperor's entrustment, and they really trained a strong soldier.

Cao Huachun came to Chongzhen and asked in a low voice, "My lord, do you want to give a lecture to the officers and soldiers?"

Zhu Youjian nodded, stood up and came to the stage, looking at the mighty master below the stage, his young faces were full of excitement and excitement, and his eyes were full of awe and anticipation.

He opened his mouth and shouted loudly: "Soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion, you have worked hard!"

The cavalry in the audience dismounted and knelt down on one knee with the infantry, shouting in unison: "See Your Majesty!"

Zhu Youjian waved them to stand up, Sun Yingyuan and other generals hurriedly signaled everyone to stand up, and the officers and soldiers got up and stood in line again.

Zhu Youjian raised his voice and continued: "You are my pro-army, and you are the brave warriors of the Ming Dynasty who can only fight well! You come from various places in the Ming Dynasty, some are from Liaodong, some are from Xuanda, some are from Shaanxi, some are from Henan, and there are others. Some places! Now in Daming, there are bandits raging inside, and Jian captives outside. Some of you, or your relatives were killed, your family was destroyed, or your home was destroyed, your family was displaced, and your originally stable life was destroyed by the flames of war! Who caused everything? The rogues and Jiannu! It was they who killed your parents, brothers and sisters! It was they who destroyed the fields you were about to harvest! Therefore, only by completely eradicating the rogues and Jiannu can you and the people of Ming Dynasty live a happy life. Let’s have a good and stable life! I hope you will step up your practice, and in the near future, Zhen will send you out of Beijing to help me sweep away the lawless people in the world and avenge your relatives!"

The officers and soldiers in the audience listened quietly, and there was no scene of passionate crowds and loud slogans in later TV dramas, which made Zhu Youjian a little embarrassed.He knew that he had never experienced such a big scene, and his eloquence was average, so he could only try his best to express his thoughts.

He continued to raise his voice: "Here I promise you that anyone who heroically kills the enemy and dies in battle will be burned and buried with 100 taels of silver! Twenty acres of Yongye Field will be given to his family, and he will never be taxed! Ten acres of industrial land, free from tax forever! The local government will ask people to visit and condolence every new year! I want to choose a place in the capital to build a martyr's shrine, and all those who died for the country will enter the shrine to enjoy worship, and the incense of Ming Dynasty will continue! After I returned to the palace, I issued a decree to the world, and I will not let the loyal people shed blood and tears! I swear to God, I will never break my promise!"

Speaking of the latter, Zhu Zhenqing became excited and his tone became impassioned.

In this era of extreme scarcity of money, poor families do not see a few taels of silver a year, and a commoner family of four can count as a wealthy family if they have more than ten taels of silver a year.The emperor can reward so much silver, and there are forever tax-free fields for generations. Many officers and soldiers in the audience are orphans, and their parents, brothers and sisters all died in the war.People at that time were most afraid of dying and not being able to be buried, and no one offered sacrifices.Now that the emperor himself said to build a shrine to worship, and the incense burns continuously every year, then he is not afraid of becoming a lonely ghost. It is worthwhile to sell my humble life to the emperor!

The officers and soldiers in the front row under the stage were close to the emperor, so their words caught their ears.As soon as Zhu Youjian finished speaking, the officers and soldiers in the front row fell to their knees one after another. Some were blushing, some were crying bitterly, and some were hissing.

As Zhu Youjian's words became known to all the officers and soldiers, there were no standing soldiers in the audience. Everyone knelt down and kowtowed, and the crying and shouting resounded throughout the school grounds.Everyone on the stage was also infected by the fanatical atmosphere, and they all prostrated themselves on the ground behind Zhu Youjian.Sun Yingyuan and the other three generals were both excited and excited. Following such a wise king, even if they were shrouded in horse leather, this life would not be in vain.

Zhu Youjian raised his hands to ask the officers and soldiers to stand up, but no one had an order, and the officers and soldiers were in a state of frenzy, which could not be calmed down for a long time.After a long time, under the order of everyone on the stage, the officers and soldiers got up and stood up, many of them still had tears on their faces.

Zhu Youjian's heart was also agitated.Maybe not long after, many of these simple fighters will be buried forever, and some will be permanently disabled.But it is precisely because some people dare to sacrifice that more people can live and work in peace and contentment.

Thinking of this, his eye sockets were slightly moist, excited, afraid that he would choke up when he opened his mouth, he simply bowed and cupped his hands, and gave a deep salute to the officers and soldiers in the audience.The officers and soldiers were stunned, and after realizing it, they prostrated themselves on the ground again.Everyone on the stage quickly fell to their knees, and Sun Yingyuan and others were also deeply moved. Huang Degong couldn't help but straighten his upper body, clenched his right hand and raised his fist upwards, shouting loudly: "May I die for the Holy One!"

The officers and soldiers in the audience clenched their fists and waved their hands unanimously, shouting with all their strength: "I wish to die for the Holy One!" At the beginning, the roaring was chaotic, and then it gradually became uniform, and finally the sound shook the sky and lasted for a long time.

(End of this chapter)