prosperous age

Chapter 540 Good news 539
"Catch up and grab the cart."

The soldiers around him, Dong Yikui and other generals heard what he said, knew what Ma Fang meant, and immediately raised their arms and shouted.

Grabbing a big car is stealing money.

Although the property on these carts was looted by the Tartars from the Han people, everyone knows that the owners of these things may no longer be in this world.

The cruelty of the Tartars doomed them to be impossible to survive.

Therefore, the Ming army, from the generals to the soldiers, did not feel guilty about snatching these things. This is the spoils of war after their fighting, and they should share it.

One after another shouts sounded in the Ming army formation, and everyone was stimulated by the money ahead.

As long as they persevere for a moment, they will not only win the honor of defeating the Tartars, but also distribute a lot of money. Their tired spirits will be excited again, and their morale will suddenly increase a lot.

The shouts from the rear, and the fear in the front of the cavalry, even Huang Taiji, at this time, did not figure out what made the morale of the Ming army suddenly rise.

After running for a long time and leaving behind many carts, the Ming army's pursuit gradually slowed down, because the terrain became steeper at this time.

On both sides of the road, there is no longer a wide flat land, but a sloping land instead, which is not conducive to the cavalry to gallop.

The change of terrain not only affected the retreat speed of the Tartars, but also affected the pursuit speed of the Ming army.

The two armies had to move closer to the main road, and the Tartars also took advantage of this to release several waves of arrow rain to prevent the Ming army from pursuing.

Compared with riding and shooting, the Ming army obviously has a disadvantage.

The Xuanfu cavalry trained by Ma Fang can only maintain considerable combat power when charging, because although the Ming army is not as good as the nomads who have lived on the grassland for a long time, they can be equipped with sophisticated firearms.

However, firearms can only be one-time consumables in cavalry battles. On bumpy horseback, Ming army cavalry could not complete reloading at all, let alone during the charge.

Protracted battles are actually at a disadvantage for the Ming army.

This is also the huge gap between firearms and crossbows during this period. On the premise that the loading is simplified and the rate of fire has not been greatly improved, firearms are still inferior to crossbows.

Many carts have already been seized, and the Ming army does not want to continue to pursue them. Although continuing to pursue them may magnify the results of the battle, they may also encounter a dying blow from the Tartars.

However, none of this happened and Ma Fang was in control.

Take it when you see it.

At this moment, in Ma Fang's mind, this word came to mind.

While chasing, it is naturally impossible to brake in an emergency. That would only cause a huge man-made disaster, that is, the collision or even trampling of Ming troops.

Raise your right hand and slowly reduce the speed of the horse.

The generals and officers behind him followed suit after seeing it, and raised their hands to signal to stop.

The cavalrymen of the Ming army slowed down their horses one after another when they saw that the general was doing this. They saw the Tartars not far ahead running further and further, during which time there were two waves of arrow rain.

However, at this time the distance between the two armies had been opened, and the arm strength of the Tartar cavalry was more or less affected in the continuous battle, so most of the arrows fell in front of the Ming army.

Even if a few arrows fell into the ranks of the Ming army, they were blocked by the well-prepared Ming cavalry with small round shields and fell to the ground.

After all, the Mongols are good at using light arrows. This type of arrow has limited lethality, but it flies farther. It is a fatal blow to an army with no defense and weak defense.

However, the Ming army has been fighting the Mongolian Tartars for a long time, so they naturally know what kind of equipment to use.

The generals of the Ming army actually knew the importance of excellent equipment, which was the basic guarantee for victory in the war, and naturally they would not deduct money for equipment.

Of course, this can only happen in border towns where there have been wars for a long time, and it is hard to say about the guards in the interior that have been at peace for a long time.

In the Jiajing year, although corruption in government offices such as the Ministry of Industry of the Ming Dynasty had become common and even regularized, the weapons sent to border towns by the inner court or the Weapons Bureau of the Ministry of Industry did not dare to be all defective. It just reduces the defective rate.

There are actually many advantages to this, that is, the border town can request more equipment from the Ministry of War every year, and the corresponding manufacturing tasks assigned by the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Industry will be more.

Only in the Wanli period, due to the interaction of various reasons, the quality of Ming army weapons was completely out of control, and most of the products were defective.

The greedy appetite is also cultivated bit by bit.

Two groups of men and horses were left to monitor the movements of the captives and horsemen, in case they fired their carbine guns back, while the rest of the men and horses began to walk back, clean the battlefield, and treat the wounded.

The two groups of men and horses were monitoring, of course, for the purpose of alternately covering when the Tartars counterattacked.

In fact, when Huang Taiji responded to Sun Bu's retreat, he was thinking about alternately covering the retreat, but Sun Bu was beaten so badly that he couldn't replace them at all, so they had to stay behind.

Ma Fang took his personal guards and soon arrived in front of several carts. Seeing the boxes and bags full of them, he was overjoyed.

The things in the box are unlikely to be gold and silver treasures. After all, the Tartars looted villages and towns. It seems that they have not captured the city, and it is more difficult to obtain a large amount of gold and silver.

It should be clothes and fabrics, and there is a high probability that the bag is food.

Ma Fang had already made his own judgment, but he still asked someone to open a few big boxes, so he wanted to see what was there with his own eyes.

Soon, some soldiers dismounted, climbed into the cart and opened the boxes and bags.

The bags contained grain, salt and tea, and most of the boxes contained clothes and cloth, but there were also a small amount of other items, all of which were necessities for life.

Relatively speaking, food and clothing are more popular with Ma Fang.

Food is the cornerstone of the stability of the army. In fact, it is not only the army, but even a country.

Clothes and cloth are what the soldiers need. They can be worn by themselves or taken home. Even if the size is not suitable, they can be worn by family members after changing them.

Moreover, these clothes seem to be of good fabric and workmanship. Obviously, they should have been snatched from the homes of landlords and squires. Not only are there Songjiang cotton cloths, but many are silk products.

There are also many types of cloth, but this is better distributed.

In fact, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, cloth was often distributed as military pay, and because of social productivity reasons, military households also liked to accept cloth as military pay.

This is actually the main reason why cotton was vigorously promoted in Daming. Cotton was not only used to make padded jackets and quilts, but was actually used for weaving. The textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River was also greatly developed because of this.

In the tax and service system established by Zhu Yuanzhang, the goods received were directly distributed to the households of the Ming army in this way.

It's just that now, with the difficulty in transportation of taxes and services in kind, the imperial court has become more willing to use money to pay military salaries in the form of discounts, rather than grain and cloth in the early Ming Dynasty.

On several large carts, only a bag of gold and silver was found, which was only more than a hundred taels of silver. Although it was a considerable amount of wealth, it seemed extremely insignificant in an army of tens of thousands of people.

"It is estimated that all the good things were taken away by Huang Taiji's personal soldiers."

Seeing that there was not much gold and silver, Dong Yikui was only slightly disappointed, and said bitterly.

"Don't you leave the good stuff in the wagon?"

Ma Fang didn't care, the looted things were nothing more than nothing, and most of them would be distributed to the soldiers below anyway.

But if he really wants something good, he will definitely take the lead. After all, the capital still needs to make friends and take care of various relationships by himself.

"Let them pay attention, especially this kind of box for playing games, calligraphy and paintings, keep them for me, I am useful."

Ma Fang handed over the errand to Dong Yikui, but still asked for what she wanted.

"Yes, sir."

Of course Dong Yikui knew what Ma Fang wanted these things for. In fact, Ma Fang was not a scholar. Of course, he wanted literature and calligraphy and paintings not for his own private collection, but for giving them away.

This point, even if he is a big boss, he understands it.

Xuanfu's military rations and military pay are given priority by the imperial court, why?
As long as he, Dong Yikui, deducted a little after receiving the food and salary from Bingbei Road, it would be more practical than Ma Fang.

However, his eyes were actually more focused on the bag of gold and silver.

They are all generals, there is no shortage of food and clothing, and gold and silver are better.

Ma Fang took people back to check the treatment of the wounded.

For those who survived a battle, even if they were wounded, Ma Fang would order the army doctor to treat them with all their heart. This is also a way to keep the soldiers' morale.

Who knows if he will become one of them after the next big battle.

If the master gave up at will, who would be willing to sacrifice his life for him in the future.

Many bad habits in the Ming army were actually accumulated bit by bit.

Some generals only care about money and ignore soldiers, so the first thing soldiers think of when fighting is to protect themselves.

If things go on like this, the combat power of the Ming army will naturally decline rapidly and become uncontrollable.

The dead soldiers had to be cremated, and then brought back to Xuanfu's home by fellow soldiers for burial. This is also the tradition of going to the Ming army, and it has always been the tradition of the Han army.

As long as conditions permit, in fact, soldiers will not be buried casually, and they will try their best to return to their roots.

He had to write the battle report first, and he had to report the big victory he had won in Pinggu to Beijing as soon as possible.

This is a credit and a reward. I look down on the reward of silver and a few bolts of cloth in time, but the soldiers need it.

He ordered the army clerk to simply write a battle report, and there was plenty of time to write the detailed battle report, as well as the credit book, which were needed by the Ministry of War to record credit.

However, Ma Fang wrote a letter by herself and sent it to Wei's house in the capital.

In the letter, Ma Fang naturally sang praises to King Yu and others, and bluntly said that it was King Yu who took care of him, and the Xuanfu army was able to receive sufficient supplies from the court, so their morale was high, and they were able to defeat the Luqi like a ruin.

These words were also told to Ma Fang in Wei Guangde's previous letter.

Because, except for the very special letters, he would selectively hand over these letters to King Yu for viewing.

Ma Fang knew that this was also to establish her position in the mind of King Yu, the future emperor of the Ming Empire.

This is Wei Guangde taking care of him, of course he is willing to do so.

As for the distribution of the loot, it was naturally none of Ma Fang's business, but at night, Dong Yikui's personal soldiers carried the two large boxes into Ma Fang's tent.

The work of cleaning the battlefield was not yet complete, and the corpses of the Tartars had to be disposed of, but they were just buried casually, and it would take time to clean up the usable things.

It is estimated that the cleaning work will not be completed until tomorrow.

After Dong Yikui led his people away.Ma Fang opened the box with her own hands. There were many picture scrolls, and there were many brushes, inkstones and other things at the bottom of the box. There were several pieces of porcelain from the former dynasty with beautifully burnt paper, and some of them were made of gold, silver, and ivory.

Just looking at it, Ma Fang closed the lid.

I don't know if I will be called to Beijing this time, let's talk about it at that time.

These two boxes must be sent to the capital and handed over to Wei Guangde.

What he likes will naturally be kept first, and the rest will be given to the officials of the Ministry of War and other yamen.

Anyway, he, Ma Fang, didn't understand these things, and he could get ten thousand taels of silver every year from the military salary allocated by the imperial court to the Xuanfu, and he was satisfied.

The Xuanfu army's battle report was sent to the capital by a fast horse at nightfall. Although the martial law in the capital had been lifted after Huang Taiji led his troops to the north, the night curfew remained.

However, because of the wartime, the officials sent by the Ministry of War at the gates of the city did not withdraw, so the Xuan Mansion courier was lifted up the city wall by the hanging basket immediately, and the messenger and the battle report were sent to the Ministry of War immediately.

The huge battle results recorded in Ma Fang's battle report undoubtedly revived the dignified military department. In fact, the military department in the past two days has been lifeless, because the news of the defeat and killing of Ji Town's general soldier Sun Bin has spread to the capital, and has even been killed. verify.

The Jizhen cavalry suffered heavy losses in this battle, and they were unable to continue to confront the Tartars head-on.

Even Yang Bo's eyelids jumped when he saw such a battle report.

However, he still honestly delivered the battle report to the cabinet and waited for the emperor to read it, even though he was very upset and terrified at the moment.

Because of the outbreak of the war, he hadn't returned to the mansion to rest for several days, and he dealt with it casually in his own room, and the clerk also laid a bed for him on the side of the room.

This day, I was sleeping, and suddenly I was awakened by the noise outside and the knock on the door.

"What's the matter?"

Yang Bo didn't get angry at being disturbed. In fact, what he was worried about at this moment was whether there was another bad news.

He had already heard the noisy voices outside, and it was obviously not a small matter.

I only heard Ge Jin's voice from outside the door, "My lord, Lord Yang, good news, the Xuanfu army defeated the Tartars in the north of Pinggu, and beheaded a thousand ranks."

Ge Jin's voice seemed very excited, and Yang Bo sat up from the bed in a jerk, then quickly put on his clothes and came over to open the door.

Soon, Ge Jin and several scribes came in quickly, Ge Jin was still holding a battle report in his hand.

The clerk immediately stepped forward to dress Yang Bo, but Yang Bo had already received the battle report from Ge Jin. A clerk held a lamp to light it up, followed by a few weak oil lamps, and Yang Bo quickly read the Xuanfu Ma Fang Department's battle report.

"Finally, I can explain to His Majesty."

After reading it, Yang Bo couldn't help crying.

In the past two days, he, Minister of the Ministry of War, undoubtedly bears tremendous pressure.

It was all news of failure, and in the end it was a disastrous defeat for the army of Jizhen, and the commander-in-chief was killed. If it was not for the trust of Emperor Jiajing, he would have been dismissed long ago.

With good news, he naturally wanted to send it to the palace as soon as possible.

"Prepare the sedan chair and enter the palace."

"My lord, Your Majesty should rest."

Ge Jin didn't know what he meant, so he hurriedly said.

"Then go to Wuyi Hall first and hand it over to Ge Lao."

(End of this chapter)