The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 49 Cao Wenzhao

But Chen Wang also knew where he was, and he forcibly suppressed the fluctuations in his heart.

When Chen Wang raised his head again, he happened to meet Cao Wenzhao's eyes like bright lights.

The candlelight was flickering, and the firelight was reflected in Cao Wenzhao's eyes, flickering and brightening each other, seeming to be able to penetrate people's hearts.

Chen Wang's heart trembled, he felt that Cao Wenzhao had seen through everything he thought in his heart.

Chen Wang stood up again and put the letter on the table, and sat down again, still maintaining respect.

"If I remember correctly, your current military position is to try a hundred households, right?"

Cao Wenzhao asked calmly while sitting on the chair.

"Yes."

Chen Wang was slightly taken aback, he didn't know why Cao Wenzhao suddenly asked about his military position.

But Chen Wang quickly came back to his senses, nodded and answered.

Cao Wenzhao paused for a moment before speaking.

"After the first battle in Qiutou Town and the first battle in Binzhou, the trial hundred households will be upgraded to two ranks to be deputy thousand households, and the next level will be thousand households."

"As an official of Deputy Qianhu or Qianhu, based on your qualifications and achievements, it's not difficult to replace Qianzong or a battalion officer of the Chinese Army."

Chen Wang's heart skipped a beat, he raised his head, and looked at Cao Wenzhao.

"General..."

However, before he finished speaking, Cao Wenzhao raised his hand to stop him.

Chen Wang's expression changed slightly, and his heart was already full of waves.

He just walked into the tent without revealing his purpose at all.

But now Cao Wenzhao has expressed his inner thoughts.

Cao Wenzhao waved his hand and turned to talk about another matter.

"I joined the army in Liaodong in my early years and made great achievements all the way to guerrilla warfare. I made good friends with your clan. Many of your two families have followed me to fight since the reign of Tianqi."

"In the past 11 years, a total of 57 soldiers entered the camp, 39 were killed in battle, and 12 were disabled. Now there are only [-] left. They are far away from Liaodong and took office with me in Datong."

Chen Wang didn't speak, and Cao Wenzhao's memories brought back the memories he had seen.

The Chen family and the Hu family had a good relationship and were relatives by marriage. They were related to each other, and they both lived in Guangning, Liaodong for generations.

During the reign of Tianqi, the situation in Liaodong had already begun to deteriorate. In the 47th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was defeated in the Battle of Saerhu.

In order to guard against the advance of the Jin Dynasty, camps were set up in various places in Liaodong to recruit soldiers. Cao Wenzhao was a guerrilla at the time and made good friends with the Chen family and the Hu family, so many young and strong children of the two families joined him.

However, although Liaodong is ready to fight hard, it is still difficult to reach the front of the Houjin soldiers.

Shenyang and Liaoyang fell successively, and a large number of Liao people fled westward.

In the second year of Tianqi, the Ming army was defeated in the battle of Guangning. Because Wang Huazhen mistrusted Sun Degong, Sun Degong suddenly rebelled and surrendered, causing the city of Guangning to fall.

Xiong Tingbi had no choice but to withdraw from Shanhaiguan. More than forty military fortresses in western Liaoning and other places fell, all land was lost, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed or injured.

In the memory, there was a large sea of ​​fire, Chen Wang involuntarily closed his eyes, and those memories belonging to the original body came to his mind one by one.

On the dilapidated official road, there were endless cries and wailing, more of the unwillingness and pain engraved in the flesh and blood.

On both sides of the official road are cavalry troops who are going back and forth endlessly. They are traveling in the opposite direction and galloping towards the northeast.

And above the sky in the northeast, the smoke billowed, covering the entire field of vision.

In the memory, there is only endless pain, which spreads from the heart to the top of the throat, like a knife twisting.

On this day, many of them lost their homeland and relatives.

There were hundreds of people from the two families, and nearly half of them were trapped in Guangning and did not escape.

Restore the soil, restore the soil!
From that day on, many people have the word "recovering the soil" in their hearts, and everyone wants to fight back to Liaodong and regain their homeland.

Unfortunately……

It's a pity that not everyone wants to restore the soil.

Because once the soil is restored, there will not be so much military pay every year, and the authority in their hands will be weakened...

Chen Wang opened his eyes again, but he couldn't calm down.

Cao Wenzhao was not in a hurry to speak, nor did he reprimand Chen Wang for closing his eyes.

"You four brothers have been following me since the first year of Chongzhen."

"I promised you at the beginning that I would definitely bring you back to Guangning."

The candlelight flickered on and off, and the shadow behind Cao Wenzhao was constantly flickering.

Cao Wenzhao looked slightly gloomy and sighed.

"I know I broke my promise..."

Chen Wang clasped his fists and said sincerely.

"You don't have to worry about it, General. We all know very well in our hearts that orders cannot be disobeyed."

"There is no way to transfer the order to the general. We are not ignorant of why the general was transferred, but we are powerless."

Cao Wenzhao has indeed tried his best, but he can't control where he wants to go.

The battalion soldiers were like this. In the past eight years of the original body's military career, following Cao Wenzhao hardly had a few months to relax.

Either at war, or on the way to war.

And this kind of situation didn't just happen to Cao Wenzhao alone, it happened to most of the generals of the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the battalion system, they can only be commanded and commanded, and they have no autonomy.

He was constantly recruited back and forth on the battlefields of Liaodong and the mainland, exhausted.

Even someone as arrogant as Zuo Liangyu, facing the governor's censure at this time, at most dare to sabotage and slow down, rather than disobeying orders.

Many generals of the Ming army were constantly mobilized in this way, and thus were surrounded and ambushed by bandits, and then they could not wait for reinforcements or food supplies, so they were defeated and died like this.

Chen Wang knew very well that if he was a battalion officer honestly and in the battalion system, he would be constantly fighting.

"There are only 900 soldiers left in Zhang Waijia's Raiders Battalion, and there is a shortage of ordnance. They are all Liao soldiers. When the time comes, the army will probably hand them over to me for control."

"During this period of time, I have noticed your training of soldiers. The soldiers you recruited and trained according to Qi Jun's military training method really have merits. No mistakes have been made whether they are going to battle or marching."

Cao Wenzhao raised his voice a little and continued.

"I have already reported my merits, and it will take some time to describe the merits and rewards, but the position of battalion officer can be mentioned to Mr. Qian first."

"I can hand over the [-] cavalry from Chunhua to you first. Junmen will not refuse the people I recommend, and I will find someone to send you a batch of ordnance."

In this situation, Hong Chengchou needs to rely on him, not him.

"Cavalry is different from infantry. You should have learned a lot after following me for eight years. Qi Jun's military training method is suitable for infantry, but it is not suitable for cavalry."

"You are originally from Liaodong. When the time comes, if you make more contributions, you will be promoted to guerrilla and you will be able to lead a battalion alone. It is justifiable that you can swallow this remnant soldier."

　Many people may have doubts why Cao Wenzhao treats Chen Wang so well.

　　It will be explained in the next chapter, but I will mention it here first, because Chen Wang was originally Cao Wenzhao's personal guard.

　　At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jia Ding and the generals were all prosperous and all lost, and even shared life and death.

　　After many generals died in battle or committed suicide in the late Ming Dynasty, few of their servants surrendered, and most of them died in battle with them, or committed suicide.

　　The relationship between generals and servants is said to be superior and inferior, but in fact, sometimes it is more like father and son.

　　In Cao Wenzhao's eyes, Chen Wang was his confidant, the one with a hundred loyalty points.

　　Spoiler alert, Lao Chen's family and Hu's family will be very important in the future, and the follow-up will affect the plot
　　
　
(End of this chapter)