prosperous age

Chapter 215 Chapter 214 Mongolian Intelligence
Wei Guangde's convoy set off on the same day as Ma Fang, Zhang Heng and others from Baoan Prefecture, but due to the distance between the two places, Wei Guangde arrived in Huailai County a day earlier than Ma Fang and the others.

Wei Guangde and the others had a smooth journey, but encountered a few scouts from the Tartar scouts. In addition to the team that was deliberately let in, there was another team of Tartar scouts who broke through the blockade of the Ji Town cavalry.

Wei Guangde didn't take it seriously anymore.

When they arrived at Huailai County, at night, four war horses brought two messengers to Huailai County, and Dong Yiyuan brought them to Wei Guangde. This was the third and last team of messengers he sent out.

The messengers recovered by the two teams had already explained the general situation of Baoan Prefecture to Wei Guangde. Those who planned to send to Baoan Prefecture were the headquarters led by the guerrilla general Ma Fang, as well as the guards led by Zhang Heng and Liu Mo. , a total of more than 2000 people came to Huailai County to join them.

The arrival of the third team of messengers allowed Wei Guangde to confirm the actions taken by Baoan Prefecture.

Ma Fang and a thousand horses from the headquarters will all go to Huailai County, but the other two named in the third official document, Dong Yikui, have not been transferred to Baoan Prefecture, so they are not in the army and cannot be transferred in the short term, while Liu Huan The Suo Department and the Alda Department are stalemate. Although the war has not started, the confrontation is fierce, and it is temporarily impossible to withdraw.

"Go down and rest first."

Wei Guangde waved his hand and told the messengers who had been running around for several days to go back to the barracks to rest first. After they left, Wei Guangde said to Dong Yiyuan: "It seems that Liu Huan can really fight, otherwise Liu Dazhang in Baoan Prefecture would not keep him. Down."

Dong Yiyuan nodded hurriedly. He had only seen Liu Huan's name in letters with his elder brother, and there was this person on the military town's pond newspaper, so he guessed that he might be very good at fighting. Ma Fang's situation was similar.

His father, Dong Yang, died in battle when the Ida tribe violated Biandishuiya in the 28th year of Jiajing. After that, he went to Jizhen and did not return to Xuanfu for more than five years.

If it weren't for the team that was sent out to protect the border ministers this time, they don't know when they would be able to return here.

"When you go down, tell Commander Li to prepare the barracks in advance."

Wei Guangde gave instructions to Dong Yiyuan, and picked up the reply letter from Baoanzhou on the desk to read.

Commander Li is the commander of the Huailai Guards, and was sent to Huailai County to command the defense. After all, there are now two guards of the Thousand Households.

After Dong Yiyuan left, Wei Guangde slapped the reply letter on the desk heavily.

Since leaving the capital, no matter what level of military generals they met, they all respected Wei Guangde and never dared to neglect him.

This time I sent an official document to Baoan Prefecture to transfer Ma Fang and others, even if Dong Yikui was not there, and Liu Huan couldn't be transferred. Wei Guangde felt that Liu Dazhang, the chief military officer of the Xuanfu, didn't take himself seriously.

The soldiers of the third team who came back from Baoan Prefecture have already said that the camps of the Xuanfu Army and the Alta Department are separated by more than ten miles, and there is no situation that they cannot be transferred. The excuses given are completely perfunctory.

Maybe it was really a little drifting. At the beginning, Wei Guangde knew that he was only a review by the Imperial Academy, so he was still cautious in speaking and doing things outside.

However, after receiving the decree from the capital and being authorized to "counselor military affairs", Wei Guangde felt that perhaps because of his origin in Jiujiang Wei, Emperor Jiajing looked at him differently, so he kept promoting and promoting.

How do you say that people like Wei Guangde with hereditary military positions in his family all fought with the ancestors of the Zhu family.

Later generations often thought that military households were miserable, but that was actually only for soldiers. For those with hereditary official positions, as long as they held real power, they would be very lucrative.

Of course, this rich oil and water cannot be put on the table.

In the afternoon of the next day, billows of smoke and dust appeared in the west of Huailai County, and a large army arrived.

In the distance to the north, there was also smoke and dust, and it seemed that there were still troops approaching Huailai County.

Wei Guangde already knew from Tan Ma that Ma Fang and Zhang Heng and Liu Mo were approaching Huailai County at noon, so he was not worried about the scene outside the city.

The Ming army only went to Huailai County, and the nearly 2000 men of the Alda Department followed from a distance, and did not dare to approach and challenge.

After Ma Fang led his troops into the city, and after meeting Commander Li of Huailai Wei and Dong Yiyuan, he naturally went to see Wei Guangde to hand over his orders.

Wei Guangde met Ma Fang, Zhang Heng and Liu Mo in a mansion requisitioned in Huailai. Although Huailai County was under military control at this time, the county magistrate was in charge of civil affairs in the city, and Wei Guangde had no right to intervene in local affairs.

The first time Wei Guangde saw Ma Fang, he gave Wei Guangde the impression that he looked like a military officer, because in his eyes, this middle-aged man had rough and dark skin, which was obviously caused by long-term travel, and his physique also looked very strong, much stronger than his own. Dad and uncle are much stronger.

They didn't relax and exercised their bodies, and they were rare in the southern army.

Seeing people, Wei Guangde believed Dong Yiyuan's words to seven or eight now, so he enthusiastically asked people to sit down and asked about the comparison of the combat strength of Ma Fang's troops and Ida's troops.

As for Commander Li, who brought people here, he wisely left here in advance for the reason of patrolling the city defense.

Regarding Wei Guangde's question, others such as Dong Yiyuan, and Zhang Heng and Liu Mo, who came over this time, couldn't answer. After all, they were not their own soldiers, and even if Wei Guangde asked, they didn't know what to do. Reply.

"The cavalry under Altan's banner, if it is an ordinary cavalry, it is easy to sweep him with 5000 people. If it is a fine cavalry, 3000 people may not be able to defeat me."

Ma Fang answered Wei Guangde's question with a slightly proud expression at the moment, and when she entered the door and saw the so-called Lord Wei, Ma Fang was shocked, the chief official sent by the court was actually a baby.

Looking at Wei Guangde's still childish face, Ma Fang felt that she was still herding cattle in Mongolia at her age.

Ma Fang was born in the 13th year of Zhengde, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty. He was born in a farming family. At the age of eight, he was abducted by the Mongols and became a slave of the Alta tribe. By chance, he escaped by stealing a horse at night, and went to the Datong military camp overnight. He was 16 years old that year.

"Exploring the horse report, there are about 2000 Tartars behind you. Do your men dare to go up and eliminate them?"

Seeing Ma Fang's expression, Wei Guangde asked with a smile on his face.

Ao, I will let you be proud, you go out of the city to kill people and retreat, you have the capital of arrogance.

Well, in this way, my plan has been achieved.

When Wei Guangde learned about the situation before, he knew from Ma Fang that the troops under his command only consisted of more than 300 cavalry. But the two thousand Tartars outside the city.

"Master Wei is serious."

Unexpectedly, just as Wei Guangde finished speaking, Ma Fang stood up excitedly.

Seeing Ma Fang's reaction, Wei Guangde felt something was wrong, don't really send these thousands of cavalry into the tiger's mouth, this is his way of life.

It's just that at this moment, it's really hard for him to say anything, after all, he just said that.

However, Zhang Heng, who followed, saw the situation was not good and immediately got up and grabbed Ma Fang, and said to Wei Guangde with a smile on his face: "Master Wei, don't be as knowledgeable as him, General Ma is nicknamed 'Crazy Horse' in the Xuanfu. ’, if you dare to fight with a thousand-man Tartar army with a few hundred men in your hand, you must never pay attention to him, you just order it if there is a military order, and we will never neglect it.”

With Zhang Heng's buffer, Wei Guangde went down the donkey and said with a smile: "That's right, you just arrived today, let's talk about it after a night's rest."

Ma Fang still wanted to speak, but Zhang Heng pulled her to sit down again.

Wei Guangde became a little curious at the moment, Ma Fang looked like a fierce general, but why is the situation in Baoanzhou really calm.

"General Ma's courage is extraordinary, and Wei admires it, but since General Ma can fight bravely, why hasn't there been a battle report from Baoan Prefecture for a long time with the Ida Department?"

When we met on the first day, Wei Guangde didn't want to pretend to be deep, and said whatever came to mind. Since he saw that Ma Fang seemed a little belligerent, he asked him immediately.

Among the high-ranking military officers of the Ming army, most of them like the officialdom, but they like to go straight to the middle and low-ranking generals.

Wei Guangde was from the guard, and now there are only a few warriors in the room, so Wei Guangde didn't call himself "the official".

Let yourself appear close to the people, after all, my age is flawed, but I have the advantage of being a civil servant, and I can suppress these warriors.

"It's because I don't want to fight. It's because General Liu didn't allow us to fight. According to my opinion, the whole army went straight to the Altan camp, and the tartars would have been beaten away."

Ma Fang was impatient, and directly revealed the truth.

The words have already been spoken, even Zhang Heng and Liu Mo on one side can only support their foreheads, what else can they say.

Even if he is dissatisfied with the general soldier Liu Dazhang, there are some things that cannot be said in front of outsiders. They are all internal affairs of the Xuanfu. Even if he files a complaint, he should go to the governor or the governor.

"General Liu didn't let him go to the battle because he was worried that the soldiers would suffer too many casualties."

Wei Guangde just made a tentative sentence casually.

Seeing that Zhang Heng wanted to grab the conversation again, Wei Guangde stared at him fiercely.

Wei Guangde didn't know whether his eyes were murderous or not, but Zhang Heng, who was about to open his mouth, obediently closed his mouth, obviously he noticed Wei Guangde's displeasure.

"Maybe there is this reason, but for our department, we have never suffered a loss. Even if there is a loss, the loss of the Tartars is several times that of mine."

Or to talk about the unhappiness recently, Ma Fang continued to speak a little bit at the moment: "Actually, the main thing is that I am afraid of losing the battle, and the court will blame me, so I blindly avoid the battle, and the result is to make the Tartars even more arrogant. If Governor Zhou is still here, how could it be Altan's turn to be presumptuous."

"Altan?"

Wei Guangde asked strangely, he had heard this name mentioned several times before.

"Your Majesty Wei doesn't know that. We usually name the Mongols with similar Chinese characters according to the pronunciation. The Altan Khan written in our court documents is actually pronounced Altan, which is closer to his pronunciation."

Ma Fang hurriedly explained.

Wei Guangde nodded, and then asked, "You can speak Mongolian, are you familiar with that?"

"My lord, I was captured by the Tatars as a slave when I was a child, and I escaped back when I was 19 years old, and then I entered Zhou Zongbing's barracks as a soldier."

Ma Fang hastily explained that Wei Guangde may suspect that he is a Tartar spy if he is not clear about this, but he can't be careless.

"Who is Zongbing Zhou? And who is the Governor Zhou you mentioned first?"

Wei Guangde asked.

"Zhou Shangwen Zhou Dudu, when I ran back, he was the commander-in-chief of Datong. At that time, he was in Xuanda. Although the Ministry of Defense committed crimes for years, he couldn't get any favors at all, let alone enter the customs. "

Ma Fang said proudly again.

"Zhou Shangwen?"

Hearing Ma Fang's name, Wei Guangde naturally knew this person. He used to read the Daming Dynasty Mansion Newspaper, and he was often seen in Jiajing for more than [-] to [-] years. He was one of the few famous generals in the Jiajing Dynasty.

In Wei Guangde's impression, the military generals of the founding of the country and Jingnan were not mentioned, but those who were rewarded only for their military merits.

"Is he gone?"

Wei Guangde asked lately.

"It was gone in the 28th year of Jiajing, otherwise there would be no Tatars raiding the capital."

Ma Fang said with a slightly sad tone.

Ma Fang said before that he joined the army under Zhou Shangwen's command. Calculating the time, it has only been 20 years since he escaped from the desert and now sits as a guerrilla general. Ma Fang's promotion speed is not slow.

For most people, the 20-year old army may not know where they died, but Ma Fang is not only alive and kicking, but also rises step by step, which shows that this person is also a person with great luck.

In these years, I answer that every year I have committed crimes against the border, and many soldiers have died.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but pay attention to this middle-aged man named Ma Fang, a guerrilla general, equivalent to the first-level commander of the guard. If someone recommends it, it is not impossible to get a general.

It seems that Xu Lun will repay Ma Fang's merits. Once the battle is over, he may be a general after the capital's decree.

I went to Jiajing in 28 years, and Wei Guangde couldn't help feeling a little bit emotional when he thought that in the second year, the Ministry of Education broke into the outside of Beijing, which became a major event that shocked the world.

Listening to Ma Fang's words, when Zhou Shangwen was alive before, the IDA Department was also making small noises on the side wall. Once Zhou Shangwen died, they dared to drive straight in.

And Dong Yiyuan, it seems that his father died that year.

It seems that the death of Zhou Shangwen really stimulated the Mongolian Tartars, and with the looting of the capital, they became more courageous.

"You've been in the IDA Department, and you want to be more familiar with the situation there. Before, you also said that if you are an ordinary Tartar, your headquarters can fight 5000 people. If you are an elite soldier, you can stop 3000 people, right?"

Wei Guangde wanted to know the details of the Mongolian Alta Department, but he didn't expect that he only wanted to find a life-saving talisman, but unexpectedly found a Mongolian expert. Naturally, he couldn't let go of this opportunity to learn about information.

"Yes, my lord."

Ma Fang also calmed down now, and answered Wei Guangde's question immediately.

"Then tell me, how many people are there in the Anda Department? How many elite soldiers are there?"

Wei Guangde immediately asked.

It was mentioned in the previous battle report that Weng Pu did not dare to mobilize the army of Jizhen to go out of the customs to participate in the extermination. He was worried that the army of the Alda army outside the pass would raid the Great Wall of Jizhen and force Beijing again. city.

"Hands of Altan"

(End of this chapter)