prosperous age

Chapter 203 Chapter 202

On the winding mountain road, a large group of cavalry is leading the horse forward.

In the middle of the cavalry queue, the unique carriage was very conspicuous, surrounded by many cavalry guards.

This is the team of the Ming border patrol ministers that Wei Guangde was in. They passed Pinggu in a few days, but they did not continue to go to Jizhou to rest. A group of cavalry joined together and started a border tour.

What needs to be explained is that Jizhou to the east of Pinggu, that is, Jixian County in later generations, is not what we call Jizhen or Jizhou Town in the Ming Dynasty.

Jizhou is Jizhou, and Jizhen is Jizhen.

Ji Town in the Ming Dynasty was actually located in Qianxi County to the east of Zunhua. The historically famous Santun Camp was the center of Ji Town, where the General Military Mansion of Ji Town was located.

In the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain the tranquility of the northern region, nine military towns of Liaodong, Xuanfu, Datong, Yulin, Ningxia, Gansu, Jizhen, Taiyuan, and Guyuan were set up along the Great Wall from the Yalu River in the east to Jiayuguan in the west. side".

The General Army Mansion of Ji Town was originally located at Taolinkou, which is located in the north of Yongping and borders Liaodong Town in the east. It is also an important pass of the Great Wall, but after all, it is far away from the capital. Dangerous places such as Changchun, Panjiakou, and Gubeikou are all in the west. As the command center of the whole town, it is obviously out of the way.

So in the later period of Yongle, when Chen Jing was appointed as the commander-in-chief, he moved the town to Shiziyu, which solved the problem of misalignment and avoided the disadvantages of being at the frontier. To fend off the enemy.

The location of Shiziyu is not ideal, so in the second year of Tianshun, when Hu Yong was appointed as the commander-in-chief, he chose Santunying, built a city, built a camp office, and moved the town from Shiziyu to Santunying in Qianxi County.

From then on, all the guarding officers of Jizhen, the assistant guarding deputy generals, and the guarding generals, guards, guerrillas and other officials were all stationed in the three camps.

The importance of Ji Town lies first in its geographical location, which surrounds the capital from east, west, and north.

Juyongguan, known as the west gate of the capital, is only more than [-] kilometers away from the capital, and Gubeikou, known as the iron gate of the capital, is only more than [-] kilometers away.

In the Jizhen area, there are many rivers flowing in from outside the Great Wall, forming dense passes. On the 190-mile defense line, there are more than [-] large and small passes, and there are more than [-] important passes. Shanhaiguan in the east, Xifengkou and Panjiakou in the middle, Gubeikou and Juyongguan in the west.

It has been more than ten days since he left the capital, and Wei Guangde has already seen the city defense of Malanyu Pass along with the brigade.

After the Xuanfu sent an urgent report to the capital, the Ministry of War reported and judged the situation, and at the same time sent a message to the General Military Mansion of Jizhen to strengthen the defenses at the passes under the jurisdiction of Jizhen, so what Wei Guangde and his colleagues saw when they arrived at Malanyu was The soldiers of the Ming army at the Chengguan are ready for battle at any time.

Wei Guangde followed Weng Pu to inspect the city defense of Malanyu. Weng Pu was very aware of the urgency of the generals below, so he didn't check and check the soldiers according to the roster, but focused on the preparation of defense materials.

Malanyu can also be regarded as an important pass along the Great Wall. According to regulations, there should be 2000 people stationed there. Wei Guangde stood at the top of the city and roughly estimated that there are actually only a thousand soldiers, which means that there is nearly [-]% of the vacancy here. .

Sighing in my heart, I shook my head and stopped thinking about other things, and followed Weng Pu to check the defense materials.

In fact, he also knew that this might be considered good. In the south of the Yangtze River, only [-]% of the soldiers and horses of the Jiujiang Guard actually fought, and [-]% of the other soldiers on the list were farmers and soldiers on weekdays.

[-]% of them can be counted as combat soldiers because Jiujiang Guard has sent troops several times, so the guard has never dared to relax its military.

That is to say, this place is located in a border town, and it is possible to face the enemy on the northern grassland at any time, so the generals here still know what is going on, and they have [-]% of their troops.

Leaving Malanyu, the border patrol team inspected more than ten large and small city passes along the way, and now they have reached the second important pass, Jiangjun Pass, which is also called Jiangjun Pass.

"That rock is really big."

From a distance, Wei Guangde saw the Guancheng in front of him and the huge stone next to it, as if it was a complete stone.

"Before I heard from people in Ji Town that the stone is called the General Stone. It is said that a general used to order soldiers there, so the stone is called the General Stone, and the name of the General Pass is also the General Stone Pass. "

Zhang Ji next to him hastily answered, these days Wei Guangde entrusted him with a task, that is to befriend the people of Ji Town.

Well, in fact, what Wei Guangde thinks is that they are familiar with this generation, advance and retreat should be more methodical, and they can take advantage of it at critical times.

Soon after arriving at General Shiguan, Wei Guangde was already familiar with the so-called border patrol process, simply looking at the city defense deployment, and then inspecting the city defense materials.

Relatively speaking, with so many soldiers, what can be strengthened is to prepare sufficient city defense materials. At least when they are attacked by the Tartars, the defenders at the city gate have sufficient defensive materials such as rolling logs and rocks. There is no need to directly engage with the Tartars.

For the officers and soldiers of the Ming army who lacked military pay and training, close combat and hand-to-hand combat were no longer able to fight against foreign enemies, so they could only use the advantage of the defending side to defend against the enemy.

After entering the city, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu acted separately in tacit understanding, and each went to check some of the work.

Except for the first few Chengguans where the two were not familiar with each other, so they checked together, Wei Guangde and Weng Pu have already divided the work.

Weng Pu is a veteran and has been transferred to the Ministry of War for several years, so he is mainly responsible for the defense deployment, while Wei Guangde checks the preparation of defense materials, checks the approximate quantity and storage location.

For the storage of defense materials, Wei Guangde still pays more attention to it. Don't prepare a large amount of defense materials. It will be dangerous if you don't need them at critical times.

In Jiujiangwei, my father used to have this habit. He confiscated the weapons that should have been distributed to the soldiers, because he was afraid that the soldiers would be poor and crazy and sell them. Fortunately, they were in a good position, so it was not necessary Fear of being raided by the enemy.

In addition, many incidents in later generations, such as September [-]th, were all tragedies caused by the lack of weapons in the hands of the enemy after the defenders' weapons were confiscated and put into storage.

Wei Guangde didn't want to lock up a bunch of defensive materials in the warehouse for their review at this time, that's what the guards at the small gates did before, and then he was severely criticized by Wei Guangde from the seventh rank, scolded from head to toe .

Very cool.

I remember that when I heard that the head of the Ministry of War dared to catch the Commander of Jiujiang Guards and cursed at him, Wei Guangde only now felt the advantage of being a civil servant, and he could insult these soldiers at will. Take it honestly.

But after being refreshed, he thought of his father and elder brother again, God knows they would be treated the same way by that seventh-rank official.

At this time, Wei Guangde deeply felt that it is really not easy for a warrior in this era. He has to rack his brains to make money to support his family, and he also has to bear the oppression of superiors and civil officials.

After thinking about this link, Wei Guangde didn't swear at people very much afterwards, but he swears a few words when he saw the two people who locked up the city's supplies in the warehouse, and then stared at them, watching them send people to deliver the supplies. It's okay to go to the top of the city.

When I arrived at General Shiguan today, it was natural for him to check the preparations for the defense materials.

General Shiguan is well-prepared here. All the defense equipment and materials are piled up and down the city pass, and some are in the warehouse, but this is normal. It is impossible to throw all the things under the city. down.

The supplies are almost the same as those in the books, and Wei Guangde has already turned a blind eye to some small errors, as long as the shortage is not too severe.

After inspecting the materials in the upper and lower parts of the city, he went up to the Chengguan to meet Mr. Weng Puweng, and reported the inspection situation on his side by the way.

Walking up the city wall, the first thing that catches the eye is the Great Wall that winds like a long dragon. The city wall circles from the foot to the front and back along the mountain.

In the past few days, Wei Guangde has seen a lot of the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, but every time he goes up to see it, he still feels emotional, it is indeed magnificent.

This is not the case that later generations can only visit those places on the Great Wall when they visit Beijing. Apart from the developed scenic spots, the walls of the Great Wall around a few kilometers away, and more than ten kilometers away, have already collapsed.

Although all civil and military officials are corrupt, at least the Great Wall has been functioning as a defensive tool, and the guards have been maintaining it, so the current Great Wall is still intact as a whole.

When Wei Guangde went to the city gate, he saw Weng Pu was talking to the guard at the general Shiguan, looking at where the guard's finger was from time to time.

Wei Guangde knew very well that Weng Pu was still understanding the surrounding terrain and defensive deployment, and it seemed that he was not done yet.

When Weng Pu saw Wei Guangde coming up, he just nodded with a smile, and then continued to ask the guard about the defense situation of Guancheng.

Wei Guangde stood aside, listened to the introduction of the place with his ears pricked up, and looked out to appreciate the beauty of the place.

At this time, what you see on the Great Wall is a clear sky, a clear blue sky, and a picture of lush green mountains and forests inside and outside the Great Wall. If you didn’t come here with a mission, Wei Guangde would like to come here to make a pot Tea, it is a pleasure to enjoy the beautiful scenery while drinking tea leisurely.

Wei Guangde simply stood on the wall, looking north with his hands propped on the battlements.

The Great Wall on one side of Jiangjunshiguan extends eastward, and the other side turns a ninety-degree bend here to the north. This is also a prominent part of the Great Wall.

There is no way, when the Great Wall was built, it was built according to the mountain situation, and the mountain situation here is like this.

Wei Guangde walked along the Great Wall and overlooked the city wall in the distance. In this life, his eyesight was well protected and he had a good diet. He did not suffer from night blindness that many people suffer from in this era. Wei Guangde tried his best to look at the last city wall. A way to entertain and protect your eyes by the way.

However, not long after he stared at the distance, he felt an inexplicable shock in his heart. On the hills where the city wall could not be seen in the distance, there were bursts of blue smoke.

Look at the sky, last night I camped in the wild at a place more than ten miles away from Shiguan. I got up and had a meal this morning and rushed here, and it was almost time for lunch.

Weng Pu finished talking over there, the inspection work was completed, and it was time to eat. Didn’t you see that the fire was already cooking on the other side of the mountain.

Wei Guangde thought in his heart, and he didn't take it seriously, but when he was about to change his gaze to look at others, a little closer, the enemy building on the Great Wall that he could barely see should be the enemy building, after all, the wall was full of fire. A platform that came out was still smoky.

Wei Guangde was amused in his heart, the Ming army stationed on the Great Wall was also interesting, and they were quite well-behaved in cooking, they lit fires one by one to cook.

Wei Guangde didn't avert his eyes, but continued to stare at that side, and the next enemy building would start cooking at any time.

In less than half a cup of tea, as expected, green smoke rose from the next enemy building, and then gradually extended to this side one by one.

Wei Guangde was smiling at this time, looking at this scene very relaxed and freehand, playing with fire on the Great Wall, which future generations will never see.

I remember that when he went to climb the Badaling Great Wall, his lighter was taken away at the gate.

Wei Guangde doesn't even know, is there anything that can be ignited like a masonry city wall?

Well, perhaps to prevent wildfires, Wei Guangde couldn't say anything.

But thinking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but feel a little evil, if the words "Wei Guangde is here to visit" were carved on the wall of Badaling, what would happen to future generations when they saw it.

But when he comes here, it is not clear whether he will survive in the next life in this life.

Only gradually, his relaxed smile froze a bit, his eyesight was well protected, and his hearing in this life was also good, because at this moment he had vaguely heard the rumble of cannons coming from a distance.

Wei Guangde is sure that this is not thunder.

Thunderbolt from the blue sky, although there is this word, but Wei Guangde has never encountered it, so he doesn't really believe it.

"boom boom"

Wei Guangde already sensed something was wrong, put his hands behind his ears hoping to strengthen his hearing, recalled the sound he heard just now, and counted silently whether it was four or five.

"Master Weng, Lord Weng, the situation is not good."

Well, as the green smoke gradually approached, Wei Guangde had already seen clearly where the green smoke was cooking smoke, it was thick smoke rising up one after another, and as the pier for setting off fireworks approached, Wei Guangde also saw that there was also smoke. It's not one firework, but three or several, but it rises far away and looks like a thick smoke.

war.

Later generations, because of China's universal compulsory education, few of the freshmen are illiterate, so they naturally know the way China used to convey military information in history, that is, the Beacon Tower.

Those piers are not preparing lunch at this time, but thinking about reporting from afar that there is an enemy situation.

Following Wei Guangde's shout, Weng Pu and others turned their heads, and they easily saw a few puffs of green smoke in the distance.

Inadvertently, Weng Pu had already walked to the edge of the city wall, put his hands on the wall and looked over there, and asked, "Can you see clearly? How many bells?"

Wei Guangde didn't understand it before, but this time he was on a business trip, he naturally gained some military knowledge. These are things that Jiujiangwei didn't have, and he never paid attention to them before.

In the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, there was an order: "Waiting to fire beacon cannons, if you see one or two to more than a hundred enemies, set off one beacon and one cannon, 500 people, two beacons and two cannons, more than a thousand people, three beacons and three cannons, five thousand More than four beacons and four artillery pieces, five beacons and five artillery pieces for more than [-] people."

After Wei Guangde reacted, he had already fired a few times counting the cannon, but at this time he still couldn't see the number of beacon fires clearly.

"I can't see clearly, it's probably four or five."

Wei Guangde could only answer.

(End of this chapter)