Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 89

"drive!"

On October [-]th of the first year of Taichang, as more than [-] riders rode their horses towards the north, the leading two Jinyi Wei Ti riders in scarlet official uniforms also saw the sound of arrows appearing in the distant sky, and turned to face a group of people in the second row. A young man said:

"Your Highness, the Red Bridge is three miles ahead. Do you need to rest when crossing the Red Bridge?"

As soon as this Tiqi spoke, everyone knew that he wanted to take care of Zhu Youjian's body, for fear that the other party would not be able to withstand the long-distance attack.

However, he underestimated Zhu Youjian too much, and Zhu Youjian replied with a smile:

"But riding a horse for an hour is called a rest? I'm not tired yet, but you are tired?"

"Continue, we must arrive at Yanshan Camp in an hour!"

"Obey!" Hearing Zhu Youjian's words, all the Tiqi rode their horses towards the Yanshan camp with all their strength.

Zhu Youjian, who was sitting on horseback, was completely used to riding a horse, except that he felt a little uncomfortable at the base of his thigh.

In comparison, riding a horse is much easier than riding a bicycle, and traveling is much faster than riding a carriage.

If you take a horse-drawn carriage, the capital city is [-] miles from Changping, and it takes at least six hours to reach the capital, which is [-] kilometers in twelve hours, an average of six kilometers per hour.

But if they rode directly, Zhu Youjian and his party set off at Maoshi, and they had already arrived at Hongqiao in less than three quarters of the day.

In other words, in about two and a half hours, I have already driven nearly seventy miles.

There are only fifty miles left, and it is estimated that they will arrive at Yanshan Daying before noon.

This is the result of Zhu Youjian and the others not changing horses.

If they want to change horses at the post station halfway, on the premise of changing horses without changing people, they can arrive at the capital from Yanshan Daying in at most an hour.

However, Zhu Youjian was not in such a hurry, so after crossing the red bridge, they slowed down their horses, and finally saw the Yanshan Camp in the distance at a quarter of the clock.

"Stop! Who?!"

When Zhu Youjian led the people across the flat ground, he immediately saw the Juma, the sentry box, and a group of infantry wearing cloth face armor.

"Blind you..."

"Hey!" Hearing that a Jin Yiwei wanted to curse someone, Zhu Youjian stopped him, and then showed his waist card.

As soon as the badge appeared, the chief banner officer in charge of leading the team immediately constricted his pupils, knelt down on one knee and said in a panic:

"Your Highness! I don't know it's His Highness, Your Highness, please forgive me!"

"Securing the front of the camp, what is the crime? In the future, no matter who comes here, they must check the token first, except for Long Live." Zhu Youjian reined in his horse and walked a few steps in place to appease the chief banner officer .

"Yes! Biao Xia took the order." The chief banner officer quickly returned the salute, then turned his head and said: "Let go!"

The soldiers next to them were already frightened, and they pulled away their horses one after another, and Zhu Youjian also led people across the checkpoint and ran towards the Yanshan camp.

When they came to the gate of the camp, the Zhe soldiers were in charge of guarding the gate. They had all seen Zhu Youjian, but even so, they saluted and called His Highness first, and then asked for the badge.

After the release, Jin Yiwei next to him said unhappily:
"Your Highness, this is too strict. They all know you, and they still need to look at your badge."

"It's better to be strict, the strict army has its own iron battle!" Zhu Youjian smiled and led people towards the school grounds.

I saw many new faces along the way, and there were many more people in the camp.

Soon Cao Huachun, Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, Qin Bangping, Qi Jin and others were notified to come to meet him.

Everyone shouted to His Highness, and then saluted, while Zhu Youjian got off the horse and said:
"There's no need for the virtual ceremony. This time I will stay in Daying for ten days, and I will tell you everything I need."

"In addition, let's talk about the current number of people in the barracks. It seems that there are many more people in the ten days since I left."

"Your Highness..." Cao Huachun was the first to speak.

As the imperial eunuch and eunuch, Cao Huachun was not only responsible for recruiting soldiers, but also supervised the generals and organized the people to emigrate to reclamation.

Therefore, he is very familiar with everything about Yumajian, and explained to Zhu Youjian:
"Your Highness, over the past seven days, a total of tens of thousands of people have joined the army, but according to the standard, only [-] people have joined the army."

"Right now, the Tengxiang left guard has been completed, and the warrior battalion has been completed. The Tengxiang right guard is still short of [-] people, and the Wuxiang left guard has not yet been established."

"Habayashi Sanwei still maintains [-] people."

"In the Yanshan camp, there are more than [-] soldiers including Zhejiang soldiers and Shizhu white-armed soldiers."

"On the west side of the big camp, the craftsmen of the three guards of martial arts have built an outer camp there, and it is currently the place where the craftsmen rest."

"In the past ten days, the Imperial Horse Supervisor spent a total of [-] taels of silver, of which [-] taels were used to buy a lot of wood and stone for the construction of the imperial mausoleum."

"The other [-] taels are military expenses..."

After saying all this, Cao Huachun looked at Zhu Youjian, and Zhu Youjian nodded and asked:
"Soldiers who came to join the army, did any of them bring their families to settle in the wasteland of Yanshan Mountain?"

"Returning to Your Highness, of course there are. At present, there are [-] households in Changping, and more than [-] acres of land have been developed."

"Have the field records of Huairou and Miyun arrived?" Zhu Youjian was very satisfied when he heard the data, and continued to ask.

"Of course it was delivered. According to the document, the slopes at the foot of Yanshan Mountain in Changping total [-] mu."

"Huairou slope land, [-] mu, Miyun slope land, [-] mu, a total of [-] mu."

"According to His Highness's method, these fields can at least immigrate about [-] households."

"Hmm..." Listening to Cao Huachun's words, Zhu Youjian was still very satisfied with his behavior of knowing everything about the Yumajian.

So he looked at Qi Jin and Qin Bangping and said, "How are the two generals?"

"The last general is well. Thank you, Your Highness. The whole army has been replaced with new weapons and armor." Qin Bangping replied politely, and Qi Jin also said:

"Your Highness, I chatted with President Qin and decided to set off together for Liaodong at the end of next month."

"Why is it at the end of next month?" Zhu Youjian couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief seeing that the relationship between Qi Jin and Qin Bangping was okay.

In history, the soldiers and horses under the command of the two were angry, which resulted in the Battle of Hunhe being defeated one by one.

Now that the two teams are so friendly, they probably won't encounter the embarrassing situation of being defeated one by one in history.

However, he was still very curious, why the two teams postponed the time until the end of November, instead of starting on November [-] as previously scheduled.

Regarding his doubts, Qin Bangping explained:
"My sister has already brought three thousand Youyang white-armed soldiers to Xiangyang Mansion. If there are no accidents, they should arrive in Changping on November [-]th or [-]th."

"After a short rest at that time, it will be safer to take [-] troops to garrison Shenyang."

"So that's how it is..." Hearing Qin Bangping's words, Zhu Youjian nodded and said:
"Since this is the case, then I can only bother the two generals, and help Yuma supervise the soldiers and horses for a month."

"Where is your Highness..." Qi Jin said with a smile: "If Liaodong is in danger, I'm afraid I will ask His Highness to call soldiers and horses to support it."

"That's natural!" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian responded with a smile, then glanced at Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan and said:

"Since you want to stay for a long time, let's have a good meal today!"

The maidservant is going to prepare now, and by the way, ask Yang to come here during the matter. When Cao Huachun saw this, he proposed to prepare by himself, and Zhu Youjian nodded.

The matter of Xiong Tingbi's impeachment is still going on, maybe he will have to ask Yang Lian to help in the future, so of course he can't be left behind if you invite him to dinner.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian, surrounded by all the generals, took a look at the military drills in the martial arts school, and then led his people towards the Yumajian Yamen in the Yanshan Camp.

Just as he was on his way, a commotion was happening in a city thousands of miles away.

"If they want to investigate, let them investigate! If they can find out what is wrong with the old man, let them impeach!"

In the Jinglue Mansion of Guangning City, Liaodong, a tall, middle-aged man in a gray round-neck robe shouted loudly at the officials next to him.

Next to him, a forty-year-old refined man in regular fourth-grade uniform saw a man in his prime like this, so he could only persuade him:

"Fei Bai, why are you doing this? His Highness the Fifth Highness interceded for you, as did Yang Wenru and others. Besides, Zhu Tongmeng who came to inspect is Governor Zhou's protégé, so naturally he would not make things difficult for you."

"Things in Liaodong are difficult right now. Without you, how will Liaodong treat this old slave?"

"Hmph! If they have the ability to frame me, they will have the ability to ask someone to replace me!" The middle-aged man was angry, obviously very angry.

As for his identity, he is the hot-tempered and unpopular Xiong Tingbi.

The man who persuaded him was Yuan Yingtai, governor of Liaodong, whom he cooperated happily.

Yuan Yingtai saw him disregarding the Ming Dynasty's life and death for anger, and the persuasion time was too long, so he lost his temper instantly, and said angrily:

"Good job, Xiong Feibai! I originally thought you were a hero, but I didn't want to resign from office and return to my hometown because of the impeachment of a few treacherous villains, and be an incompetent person who only knows to die in that hometown!"

"Okay! You go! You go, go now!"

Yuan Yingtai pointed at the gate of the yamen and shouted angrily, and Xiong Tingbi realized that his behavior had angered the other party when he saw Yuan Yingtai was angry, but his character was unwilling to give in, so he could only give himself a step down:
"Let them check, if they find nothing, I'll leave..."

"Even if I want to leave, I can't leave with a stigma on my back..."

His tone was a little weaker, Yuan Yingtai looked at him like this, hated that iron could not become steel:
"You, you, are you going to abandon Liaodong, where the situation has just improved? Have you forgotten the letter sent by His Royal Highness five days ago?"

"You are looking for guest soldiers hard, and His Highness the Fifth Highness is about to send you [-] guest soldiers. Among them are the chieftain soldiers from the east of Sichuan, the Zhejiang soldiers from the Qi family, whom Liu Dadao couldn't dream of."

"You're well now, are you going to be the pick? First fail me, and then the Fifth Highness? You stubborn old stubborn!"

"Who are you calling stubborn? Why am I so stubborn? If it wasn't for Yao Zongwen and others impeaching me indiscriminately, would I be so angry?!" Seeing Yuan Yingtai scolding his superiors, Xiong Tingbi also refuted loudly.

That's how he is, he takes soft things but not tough ones, even if he is an old friend, he can't stand being scolded by others.

With his temperament, it's no wonder that no one in the Chu Party speaks for him.

With this character, he probably scolded everyone who wanted to be friends with him.

As for Yuan Yingtai who was standing opposite him, he was so angry that he was about to vomit blood.

He had never seen such a vulgar civil servant, never had such a violent friend.

He now...he really wants to slam his head against the pillar next to him, or he would rather bring a stubborn donkey to have a heart-to-heart talk than have another word with Xiong Tingbi!

Thinking about it this way, he turned around angrily and left, Xiong Tingbi felt regretful when he saw him go, but he still insisted:
"If you have the ability to go, then if you have the ability, don't come back!"

It's really shocking for two people who are almost a hundred years old to quarrel like this in such an important place as Jinglue Mansion.

However, their quarrel could not stop Zhu Tongmeng, Yao Zongwen and others from inspecting Liaodong.

Three days after they arrived in Liaodong, they inspected all the way from Shanhaiguan to Guangning City, and found nothing wrong, so Zhu Tongmeng was relieved, while Yao Zongwen was very angry.

He didn't believe that Xiong Tingbi could change Liaodong from the chaos after the Sarhu War to the present situation in just one year.

But no matter how much he didn't believe it, the facts were already on the cutting board.

They patrolled for another six days, but after no results, they could only embark on the road back to the capital in embarrassment.

However, two days after they returned, Zhu Youjian, who was in the Yanshan camp in Changping, received information from Jin Yiwei, Fusi of Nanzhen.

It was already snowing heavily on the fourth day of November. Sitting in the backyard of the Yumajian Yamen, he frowned slightly as he looked at the information in his hand, feeling a sudden headache.

Even Lu Wenzhao next to him advised Zhu Youjian:
"Your Highness, this Xiong Tingbi has a bad temper. I think it's better to replace him with Yuan Yingtai as he said."

"Otherwise, with his temperament, it is estimated that he will cause a lot of trouble for His Highness in the future."

"Who can I change?" Zhu Youjian sighed, and could only maintain the current situation.

Yuan Yingtai is good at handling logistics and offering advice, but it would be useless to ask him to do it himself. He is a typical expert in internal affairs and advice, and he is not good at actual combat.

As far as civil servants in the late Ming Dynasty were concerned, only Xiong Tingbi, Yuan Keli, and Sun Chengzong were the two and a half people who had strategic vision and military leadership skills.

The reason why Sun Chengzong is half is because his strategy is based on the premise that it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to survive, and the leader is not good, so he can only be counted as half.

Compared with him, Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Keli's ideas are more practical.

Xiong Tingbi considered the background that the Ming Dynasty could not pull out a large corps in a short period of time, and the high-level co-operatives destroyed Houjin, so he figured out how to defend Liaodong and drag down Houjin.

It's a pity that because of the impeachment of the Zhejiang Party, he stepped down from the field once in the middle, and the method died.

Besides, Yuan Keli, although his strategy was somewhat opposite to that of Xiong Tingbi, but his actions of establishing a base in southern Liaoning, instigating Liu Aita's rebellion, and supporting Mao Wenlong all greatly restrained Hou Jin's attention.

As long as these two places are still there, it is impossible for Huang Taiji to dare to enter the pass with light troops to plunder.

Yuan Keli's idea is very simple, that is to let Mao Wenlong do damage.

Men who can't beat Houjin are fine, as long as they kill the old, weak, women and children.

In the future, the population of Jin will be profitable even if ten Dongjiang soldiers are exchanged for one Jin soldier.

So in terms of strategy, there is nothing good or bad, but among the people Zhu Youjian can use right now, only Xiong Tingbi can guard Liaodong well.

As for Yuan Keli, for him, Zhu Youjian will be placed in Shandong.

He has been paying attention to Yuan Keli's situation, and whenever he has the opportunity, he will recommend Yuan Keli to be the governor of Shandong.

At that time, as long as the grain is transported from Shandong to Liaodong, Xiong Tingbi's strategy can be said to be solid.

And if Zhu Youjian destroys Neikalka and Horqin by himself, then Hou Jin will wait for the little ice river to freeze to death in Hetuala six years later!
Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also took care of the training of his soldiers and horses.

He rode his horse towards the school field, and when he got off his horse and came to the school field, what he saw was a huge performer who occupied two-fifths of it.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

More than [-] men dressed in mandarin ducks shouted to kill in the camp, and Zhu Youjian also met Qin Bangping and Qi Jin who supervised the army's drill here.

"Cooperate! Cooperate! Cooperate!"

"How many times do I have to say these two words?! If you can't trust your comrades, don't join the army and go to the battlefield!"

"You are the pro-army of Long Live, if you can't solve the problems for Long Live, then go back to the camp obediently, pay the military salary and return it to Admiral Cao, and return the land rewarded to your family by Long Live and His Highness!"

In the distance, Qi Jinlong cursed loudly, and the soldiers around were blushing from the scolding.

Qi's army's training method is to cooperate.

Without this cooperation, even if you have mastered the mandarin duck formation, you will not be able to beat others.

But with this cooperation, no matter what formation they use, they can use their arms like fingers, even if the enemy is outnumbered, they can still attack head-on!

Zhu Youjian didn't follow the rules to use the mandarin duck formation, because the golden soldiers and horses are not very useful after the mandarin duck formation.

What he wants are the swords, guns and sticks of the white soldiers, and the coordination of the Qi's army's car battalion and battle formation.

Especially the car camp, this is the important reason why the Han people were able to fight more with less and march north with infantry in history.

Zhu Youjian wanted to train troops, not individual infantry and cavalry, but highly mobile troops.

Be an infantryman with a horse, even if it is an infantryman!

He is short of money right now, not only the military salary and food salary, but also the money to buy horses from the Mongols in the mutual market next year.

In the beginning of spring, the Mongols will not sell many cattle and sheep, but they will sell a lot of ponies born in winter.

Those ponies are Zhu Youjian's target. Not only are they cheap, but they are also very suitable as marching horses for infantry.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian walked with Sun Yingyuan, Man Gui, and Cao Huachun, exhaled hot air and said:

"How much money does the Imperial Horse Supervisor have now?"

"Returning to Your Highness, the generals of the Yumajian paid 17 taels of dirty silver before, and now the Yumajian still has 1200 taels of silver. Among them, after you come, Your Highness, you will be paid for the military salary at the beginning of each month, and a new one will be issued. The military salary for recruiting soldiers and horses is 116 taels in total.”

Cao Huachun responded softly, and Man Gui also said:

"Currently, there are 28852 soldiers in the Yanshan Camp. Among them, Tengxiang's left and right guards are full, the Warriors' Battalion is full, Wuxiang's left guard is full, Wuxiang's right guard is full, and Wuxiang's right guard is full.

"Currently, there is still a shortage of 12738 people in the Seven Guards and One Battalion. Judging from the fact that nearly a thousand people have signed up every day in the past few days, and only half of them have been selected, it should only take more than [-] days to fill up the army."

Full staff... This word was learned by Man Gui from Zhu Youjian.

But for this word, they also think it is very simple and easy to use.

As far as the situation of the Yumajian is concerned, if the entire army is full, that is, 4 people, the monthly fixed military salary is 2200 taels of silver.

This is only the military salary, and there is also the food salary. Although the Yumajian has Huangzhuang and farmland grains, the amount of meat it eats is a lot. Each soldier has a quota of 800 cash per month, and the total is 3. two.

The ration of rice and noodles for each soldier is not fixed, but the weight is fixed at 4 catties per day and 120 catties per month, which means that the monthly expenditure is about [-] shi.

Adding it all up, the army needs to spend 8 taels of silver and 6510 shi of grain every month.

In one year, the military pay is 103 taels, and the grain is 8120 shi.

Such a huge financial pressure is definitely something that can crush everyone for the Yumajian whose annual income is only two hundred thousand taels of silver and [-] million shi of grain.

It can support it now because it has not yet started to be full, and there is also [-] million taels from the repair of the imperial mausoleum to help support it.

But even so, according to the deposits of the Yumajian, even if the refugees were used to build the imperial mausoleum, and then the Yanshan wasteland was given to them, it would not last long.

The time given to Zhu Youjian is only about ten months to be precise.

He must have a way enough to support the army.

"Hua Chun, I told you to find the craftsman, have you found it yet?"

"Here we are, just wait outside the camp. Do you want to send him in?" Cao Huachun responded when he heard Zhu Youjian's words.

"Tell him to come in, and by the way, ask someone to bring the coal I brought earlier." Zhu Youjian said, then took him away to the school platform, and sat on his seat.

He greeted Man Gui and the others to sit down as well, and then quietly looked at the army shouting and killing under the school stage.

It was only twenty days before Qin Liangyu arrived at Yanshan Camp, which meant that Qi Jin and Qin Bangping, who were in charge of helping the army training at the end of the month, would take people to Liaodong.

And after that, Zhu Youjian had to befriend the emperor to help pay the two armies for one year, and then allocated a sum of money to Qin Liangyu to bring back Shizhu and Youyang.

If Qin Liangyu and others returned to Sichuan with light packs, it would take at most a month.

Even if She Chongming rebelled in advance, he would not pick the spring and summer, which meant that Qin Liangyu had half a year's time.

The local military salary of Shizhu soldiers is twelve taels of silver a year, even if only [-] taels of silver is allocated, it is enough to recruit [-] white soldiers.

However, for [-] soldiers and horses, it takes [-] taels to reach the level where everyone is wearing iron armor.

There is no need to think too much about the armor. Zhu Youjian still has enough chain mail, tie armor, and cloth face armor in the imperial horse prison.

Cloth face armor is not suitable for the south. The armor is very defensive, but it is cumbersome to maintain.

But it doesn't matter, as long as She Chongming is finished, there will be plenty of time for Qin Liangyu to maintain his armor.

The men and horses of the Yumajian mainly deal with Neikalkha and Horqin Mongolia.

If these two allies of Nurhachi are not resolved, Nurhachi will have a steady stream of war horses, and the Ming army will never be able to match Houjin in terms of mobility.

While Zhu Youjian was thinking this way, a young eunuch also led a dozen people in coarse cotton clothes with dusty faces to the school platform.

"This is Your Highness, why don't you pay homage?" The little eunuch gave these people a wink.

After seeing Zhu Youjian, this group of people quickly knelt on the ground and sang in salutation: "The grass people pay homage to Your Highness, Your Highness is a thousand years old!"

"Everyone get up." Zhu Youjian saw someone coming and his thoughts were interrupted, so he said to the little eunuch:

"Move some chairs for these guys, urge people to bring up the coal I brought from the capital, and ask people to fetch a catty of soil along the way."

"Your servant takes orders." Seeing this, the little eunuch hurried down to urge people, and after Zhu Youjian saw him go down, he also said to Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan:
"Okay, you guys go to training, this matter has nothing to do with training."

"Biao Xia will leave first..." The two men bowed and retreated, and after they retreated, Zhu Youjian also smiled at the group of fidgeting craftsmen:

"Relax, Gu is not a man-eating beast, take a look, isn't Gu also a child?"

Zhu Youjian's words sounded like this to the craftsman, but Cao Huachun felt awkward no matter what he heard.

His Highness, the things he does are not like what a child can do...

When he was awkward, Zhu Youjian laughed and said:

"Gu Chuan said that you came here because I want you to make something. The name of this thing is honeycomb coal..."

(End of this chapter)