Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 577 The Eve of the Great War (1)

The time came to the end of the 21st year of Chongzhen.

Today it was finally Xiu Mu's turn, Gao Qiqian entered the mansion in Qingshui Lane in the south of the city with a whole body of exhaustion.

Gao Qiqian's title is the Marquis of Zhongzheng, so the mansion has the same door style as other Marquises, and the few rooms it enters are exactly the same, and there must be no violation of the rules.

Get up high and dive into the sedan chair, and enter the Hou Mansion through the gate.

Wherever he passed along the way, servants and maids greeted him one after another.

Gao Qiqian put his hands behind his back and pouted, occasionally humming through his nostrils.

Before Chongzhen, he was just a slave, but in this Marquis Mansion he was the master.

All the way into the Dong Nuan Pavilion of the upper room, Gao Qiqian asked the butler, "Where is the young master?"

"Going to make friends." The butler replied respectfully, "They said they won't be back until evening."

"Are you dating?" Gao Qiqian asked casually, "Who are the people with him?"

"Reporting to my lord, I have already inquired about it." The housekeeper hurriedly said, "One is the son of the Duke of Fujian, and the other seems to be the son of Xu Weijian's family in the military department. They are both students of the current department."

Just three days ago, the Imperial Academy had just finished the fourth phase of enrollment.

The fourth term recruited another [-] students, but the actual number of students in this term was not more than [-].

Because starting from the fourth period, Enyin's children who have been honored officials and meritorious soldiers have been sent to the Guozijian.

For example, Gao Qiqian's stepson Gao Quanwen, Wang Chengen's nephew Wang Rendu, and Huaxia's adopted son Wang Pohu's only son Wang Chengzhi and other meritorious children all entered the Imperial College.

In addition, Zhou Peigong also passed the exam for this period of Guozisheng.

"A child of Xu Jijian's family?" Gao Qiqian asked, "Is it Xu Yingwei's family?"

"Exactly." The butler replied respectfully, "It seems to be Xu Gejian's third brother."

"This kid is quite good at making friends." Gao Qiqian showed a look of relief.

In Gao Qiqian's life, apart from the eunuch Wang's obsession, he only had Gao Quanquan as his stepson.

Gao Quanquan is not only his stepson, but also his own nephew, so old Gao is willing to spend all his political resources to pave the way for this stepson, and the future of the Gao family will depend on this kid to support him.

Taking off his shoes and socks, Gao Qiqian was about to lie down on the couch when the sound of horseshoes suddenly sounded outside.

After a while, the butler came in hurriedly: "Master, Your Majesty has called you to the Imperial College urgently."

"Is this something serious?" Gao Qiqian murmured, but he had already sat up on the couch, put on his clothes under the service of the maid, and hurried out.

When I came to the door, I found that the wind was blowing.

The northwest wind was blowing hard.

……

The Liaohe Plain has already started to snow heavily.

In the heavy snow, more than a dozen cavalry were winding forward.

The leader was Xu Wuniu, who had been promoted to the head of the scout cavalry.

More than half a year ago, when the Gaizhou Guards changed defenses, Xu Yingwei and most of the recruits from Mr. Laodong returned to Nanjing, but Xu Wuniu insisted on staying in Liaodong and continued to serve as the captain of the scout cavalry.

Half a year later, Xu Wuniu has been promoted to the head of the scout post.

This is another unremarkable day, once again going deep into the Liaohe Plain to hunt and kill Mongolian herdsmen.

Every day, dozens of scout teams would go out from Gaizhou Weisa, go to the Liaohe Plain and even go further north to hunt and kill lonely Mongolian herdsmen, sometimes robbing cattle and sheep, anyway, it is all kinds of harassment.

Of course, sometimes they will be surrounded by Mongolian cavalry and hunted back.

But in general, the Mongols are at a comprehensive disadvantage and have suffered even greater losses.

"Stop!" Xu Wuniu raised his right hand, and the dozen or so riders following him stopped immediately.

Xu Wuniu turned his head to the side, listened for a moment from the wind and snow, and then hissed loudly: "Stay away!"

Accompanied by Xu Wuniu's roar, dozens of scout cavalry immediately dispersed, forming a loose fan formation.

After a while, hundreds of Mongolian cavalrymen came out in the wind and snow in front of them, waving their scimitars and screaming towards them.

Seeing this scene, Xu Wuniu was not afraid of being overjoyed, so it was a good time.

"I have them all, ready to fight!" Xu Wuniu took out the rifle covered in the lapel of his cotton coat.

A dozen or so scout cavalry also took out their rifles one after another. Because the climate in Liaodong was too cold, they were worried that the trigger would be frozen, so they put them in their lapels while marching.

In a blink of an eye, the distance between the two sides was less than two hundred steps.

Xu Wuniu and a dozen scout cavalry reined in their horses and trotted in the direction they had come.

The scout cavalry of the Ming army was trotting, but the Mongolian cavalry was galloping, so the distance between the two sides was quickly shortened, and the distance between them was less than a hundred steps in a short while.

Xu Wuniu turned around and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

With a gunshot, a Mongolian cavalry fell from his horse a hundred paces away.

After a long period of hunting, Xu Wuniu's riding and shooting has reached a very high level. Even on the back of a galloping horse, he can basically hit a human target a hundred paces away.

Gunshots sounded continuously, and other scout cavalry also opened fire.

However, the marksmanship of the other scout cavalry was not as good as Xu Wuniu's, and only a few hits were made.

After firing a shot, Xu Wuniu quickly took out a round of paper shells from the bullet bag, stuffed them in through the muzzle of the gun, and then pressed the paper shells to the bottom of the barrel with a cleaning rod, and pressed it slightly tightly.

Insert the cleaning rod back, and take out another priming medicine from the priming medicine box.

This is the latest achievement developed by Gewuke specially for cavalry.

It is quite difficult for the cavalry to load ammunition on the back of the galloping horse.

In particular, it is extremely troublesome to pour the primer into the primer chamber. If you accidentally pour too much, the remaining gunpowder of the paper shell bullet will be insufficient, which will lead to insufficient damage, but if you pour less, it will cause a misfire.

Sometimes the primer will be blown away by the wind, which will also cause misfiring.

So most of the time, the cavalry will use up two paper shells.

One of the cardboard shells was used as a primer, and it would rather be wasted to ensure sufficient primers.

In response to this characteristic of cavalry combat, Gewuke specially developed the ignition primer package.

It is to wrap an appropriate amount of gunpowder with a very thin and oil-soaked cotton cloth and make small bags.

When it's time to use it, the cavalry only needs to grab a medicine pack from the medicine box and put it into the medicine chamber.

In this way, the time for filling the primer is greatly shortened, and there is no need to worry about misfiring due to insufficient primer, which greatly improves the efficiency of reloading, and the misfiring rate also drops sharply.

After loading the priming medicine, the priming medicine cover attached to the impact anvil immediately springs back, firmly covering the priming medicine chamber.

Xu Wuniu pulled the trigger forcefully again. At this point, the reloading was completed. It took less than ten seconds in total, even faster than when the infantry advanced repeatedly. You must know that this is a flying cavalry. horseback.

Raising the gun and looking back, the Mongolian cavalry was still a hundred paces away, and the Mongolian horses were still a little slower.

In the next instant, continuous gunshots sounded again on the snowfield, and several Mongolian cavalrymen fell off their horses.

Reloading again, raising the gun to shoot again, and then several Mongolian cavalry fell off their horses. This was not a fair battle, and the Mongolian cavalry didn't even have a chance to shoot arrows.

With such a heavy snowstorm, the arrows shot by riding a bow can only shoot fifty paces away.

The weapons are not as good as the Ming army, and even the horses are not as good as the Ming army. The Mongolian cavalry is very helpless.

After chasing for about half an hour, the Mongolian cavalry had suffered forty or fifty cavalry.

The remaining Mongolian cavalry had no choice but to give up, because if the pursuit continued like this, all the hundreds of cavalry would die, and their small tribe could not afford such heavy casualties.

With a whistle, the Mongolian cavalry immediately retreated separately.

"Want to escape? It's not that easy." Xu Wuniu grinned.

However, just as Xu Wuniu was about to give the order to hunt down, a horse neighed behind him.

Looking back anxiously, I saw a fast horse rushing through the wind and snow, it was the order of the Ming army.

"Chief Xu!" The messenger of the Ming army shouted loudly from a long distance away, "If there is an order for remonstrance, all the scouts will immediately withdraw to Gaizhou Guard. If there is an order for remonstrance, all the scouts will immediately withdraw to Gaizhou guard……"

Xu Wuniu's eyes flashed, and he said sharply: "There are all of them, come back!"

More than a dozen scouts turned their horses around one after another.

……

At the foot of Tianmu Mountain, on the side of Wanmadu.

Xu Yingwei is riding a horse and whipping his young son in his arms.

"Father, are those stones really transformed by heavenly horses?"

"Of course it is true. Every stone is a Pegasus."

"But, but why don't the gods come back and drive them away?"

"Because Tianma has turned into a stone, it will never turn back into Tianma, just like if you don't study hard, you will become an idle dandy in the future, and you will never become a Guozisheng like your third uncle."

"Then I have to study and read well, and I will also be admitted to the Imperial College when I grow up."

"That's right, the children of our grandfather Xu's family have only one way to study."

When he came to the entrance of the village, Xu Yingwei put his son off the horse first, then got off the horse one by one, and then led the horse with one hand and took his son's little hand with the other to go home.

During the period, I passed the gate of the village private school.

Seeing Xu Yingwei and his son being so close, the school teacher couldn't help shaking his head.

Xu Yingwei didn't care about this. If it was four years ago, Xu Yingwei would never be so close to his son, because Confucianism advocates that a gentleman embraces a grandson but not a son.

But now, Xu Yingwei no longer agrees that a gentleman should have grandchildren but not sons.

Over time, the debate between conservatives and progressives has grown wider and more intense.

Under the fierce attack of the reformers, the embankment of feudal ethics is gradually loosening, and the first to bear the brunt are such rituals as "a gentleman embraces grandsons but not sons" which is contrary to human ethics.

Xu Yingwei scoffed at such etiquette.

What's wrong with a close father-son relationship?Isn't the Holy Majesty also very close to the Crown Prince, King Ding and King Yong?
Xu Shiyi was sitting at the door smoking a cigarette. When he saw his son leading his eldest grandson home, he couldn't help but frowned, but he didn't say anything after all.

But Xu Shiyi was full of worry in his heart, feeling that Daming was in danger.

In Xu Shiyi's view, the rules of the monarch, the minister, the father, the son, and the son are all set.

Ever since Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty monopolized Confucianism, hasn't it been like this for 2000 years?What's wrong with that?

Why is it not working all of a sudden?When talking about reforming the feudal ethics, the reformers clearly want to rebel, not only against the Ming Dynasty, but also against the Confucian temples!
(End of this chapter)