Traveler Major League

Chapter 173 Confrontation
In the early morning of February 28, the second year of Chongzhen, the leading troops led by Yang Zeming set off first, went to Huanglong County to attack Pucheng County, and opened the way for the arrival of large troops.

Most of the snow on the road has melted, leaving only sporadic snow scattered on the side of the road, or hidden in the depressions. The fog in the mountains drifts, and the speckled snow connects into a small patch of deep and shallow white. This piece of white was half covered, like a veil with embroidery.

The sun hangs lazily in the sky, emitting drowsy and warm sunlight. It is orange-red at first, breaking a corner in the silent night, and then the orange color gradually fades, and the sun rises higher and higher, and the whole world is filled with It is a pale golden color like a chick.

The dense fog in the mountains receded willingly when encountering such lazy sunlight, leaving only a shallow layer covering the sky and the earth, as well as the large troops at the foot of the mountain who were ready to go.

The entire army is divided into three parts, the first part is the pioneer, the second part is set off two days later, and almost all the main forces and workshop technicians and equipment are concentrated. Take it away, the third part is the militia behind the palace as the main body, just to gather the troops and supplies that have been concentrated in various places.

Chao Zhongchen led the cavalry battalion first. The number of horses seized during this period has satisfied his desire to lead a large cavalry. One-third of them are equipped with rifles, and the rest are still mainly long spears, sharp knives and hard bows of the frontier army. More than 600 riders all set off on foot with their horses, and only those who acted as scouts in the front ran out first.

Behind it is a militia company of more than a thousand civilians, dressed in miscellaneous civilian uniforms, the only thing in common is the red scarf, which is slightly different from the official army's scarf. This is the characteristic of all soldiers in the civilian army, including Liu Zeye Similarly, this is a way to distinguish ourselves from the enemy without a unified uniform.

Nearly half of these militiamen were pushing wheelbarrows, others were driving mule carts and purely carrying baskets on their backs. Their main task was to act as the logistics station for Chao Zhongchen's cavalry, wandering dozens of miles behind the battlefield, waiting for the cavalry troops to arrive at any time. supply.

Recalling the location on the topographic map of the sand table in his heart, Chao Zhongchen led his yellow-brown horse and followed the team. As a commander, he knew Liu Ze's strategic intentions. After arriving in Pucheng County, most of the Guanzhong Plain will be within the attack range of his cavalry, and the relatively flat area is the place for the decisive battle.

The only thing to worry about is that because the people's army has no boats, it will be difficult to cross the four or five rivers unless enough boatmen can be collected. This is also one of Chao Zhongchen's tasks. The reason why he couldn't choose to go to Tongchuan at that time In addition to pretending to be traveling in the direction of Tongguan, another main reason is precisely because of the ship problem.

Chao Zhongchen got on his horse and looked back and forth at his cavalry team. The most advanced scout had already climbed over the distant mountain ridge and was marching along the official road. This is the hinterland controlled by the People's Army. The detection sentry that should be done is still released and retracted on time.

Thinking of the prisoners of the Ming army, only a small number of the elite cavalrymen under He Huchen in Tuzhen that day were allowed to surrender and join. The officers and those with blood debts were all working hard honestly. They are elite cavalry from the officers and soldiers, and all of them are men who can ride and shoot. It is really a waste to just pretend to be ordinary labor in vain.

If you talk about blood debts, then there are too many people with blood debts in this world, but Liu Ze seems to have a cleanliness habit, insisting that the main force use the militiamen as the main source of troops, and the rest are counted as consumables, just like The red-haired man is pretty average, and he can only be looked at differently if he has made meritorious deeds and corrected his performance. Chao Zhongchen snapped his fingers and slandered in his heart.

Not far away, the Deying instructor shouted in front: "Everyone has it, the wind follows the dragon, the cloud follows the tiger, the fame and wealth, the dust and the soil. Looking at Shenzhou, the people are suffering, and the fertile land for thousands of miles is barren. Get ready and sing!"

It was the cavalry battalion who sang first, and the militia companies behind them also sang under the command of the company commanders and instructors. This kind of marching and singing behavior has almost become a characteristic of the people's army. Relatives are seeing off with tears. For most people, their departure is life and death. Only singing can dilute the sadness of parting.

There are still many people like Chao Zhongchen who disagree with many of Liu Ze's policies. Things that have become commonplace, such as massacres and looting, have been banned by Liu Ze with force. The conflict between ancient and modern cultures is even more manifested in In every aspect, the difference between the two values ​​can be suppressed in the main force that has already crossed once, but it is even more overwhelming in places where Liu Ze can't see the larger number of people.

For example, the current militia company with as many as 6 to [-] people is organized in units of villages and towns, and the grassroots commanders are the reason why the villages and towns recommend each other, and most of them are controlled by clans with different surnames. The distributing of floating wealth failed to completely break this grouping phenomenon and wipe out the rising landlords. The prestigious latecomers were still locals. The short-term political propaganda and education could only attract a small number of people. one of the reasons.

Even more because of the forced migration of the population, large-scale rebellion even occurred in remote villages and towns, and collusion with small groups of officials and troops inside and outside became the norm. As for the tug-of-war between the mountains, the People's Army at this time has neither time nor troops to consume.

Listening to the military song sung by thousands of people at the same time, Liu Ze's mood is better. The various setbacks during this period made him understand that the so-called organization theory dimensionality reduction strikes and the like will take time, even with crushing weapons , before it fails to form a scale, the effect is also limited.

"It won't be better until we get back to the red-haired man." Liu Ze watched the queue and sighed. This is why he attaches great importance to children and young people. Those who accept their own morality and way of thinking are the main body of the future people's army. Others can only be transformed as much as possible, tempered in the fire, and remove impurities to become real gold. Deaths and injuries in the process of removing impurities are inevitable. How can anyone not die in a war?

At this time, all parts of Tongguan are under martial law. Although Yang He, the governor of the three sides, has always used appeasement as his strategy, he can't easily appease Liu Ze, a giant bandit who is attacking the city and whose policies are different from ordinary people. Otherwise, the country's prestige will be damaged. With the destruction of Liu Yingyu and He Huchen's elite commanders, he suddenly discovered that the situation in this pass has been corrupted to the point where it cannot be added.

The soldiers in the guards all over the country have no combat power, and the soldiers in the villages have neither horses nor armor nor money and food. Chengcheng, Baishui, and Sanshui are the gateways to Xi'an. Apart from Liu Ze, there are also many civil uprisings.

In February of the second year of Chongzhen, due to lack of food, the peasant army under Wang Zuogua took the lead in attacking Hancheng for food. Yang He had no generals under his command. Hong Chengchou, the governor of grain, participated in politics and led the army to fight.

This gave Hong Chengchou a chance to show his face. He led the only officials, soldiers, township soldiers and other miscellaneous names to kill 300 Wang Zuogua on the spot, and solved the siege of Hancheng. After returning to Yichuan County, he went directly north to Qingjian County to join Wang Jiayin. It was for this reason that he had captured a large number of Wang Zuogua's men and had a plan to pretend to be a messenger.

Hong Chengchou himself is in the city of Tongguan. Ever since he defeated Wang Zuogua, his reputation has just emerged at this time. He was born as a Jinshi in the Wanli period. Everyone knows that his future is bound to be limitless, but these are only official news. , since the correspondence between Liu Ze and Wang Zuohang was seized, he fell into this trap, because judging from the many battles between the officers and troops and Liu Ze, it was too difficult to wipe out Liu Ze in the mountains.

He recalled the results of divination by his parents when he was young: the five elements are not as good, the four pillars are fighting, the five yins will be in a situation, and the pillars will see the owl god.

Although the ending is not good, it also indicates that he himself must be a man of influence. His mother is very happy, thinking that there will be a precious figure like a champion in the family, and she always mentions this matter when she meets the villagers. There was joy on the corners of his mouth, eyebrows and eyes, but he himself hadn't paid much attention to it all the time, and just lived an ordinary life, just like other children in the village.

The young Hong Chengchou also studied in the Xiyi Library, but because of his poor family, he had to drop out of school at the age of 11 and stayed at home to help his mother make dried tofu, and he had to go to the streets every morning to sell it. It was really hard.

But even if the family worked so hard, the money they earned was meager, and they could not always eat and clothe themselves, let alone live a good life. His mother often wiped her tears when making dried tofu, saying that Hong Chengchou was suffering from poverty at home. Otherwise, you will be able to spread your wings and fly high, and become a phoenix on that branch.

He thought that there was no hope for studying, and he also recognized his ordinary fate like his parents. When he was resting at night, he took off his clothes and looked at the thicker and thicker calluses on his shoulders. Only then did Hong Chengchou think of the time when he was studying in school, and he sighed. It wasn't until a talented person set up a village school in the Shuigou Pavilion that he had the opportunity to listen outside the school while selling dried beans, and had a chance to learn again.

It is precisely because of this that he gradually began to show his talent for reading, and was accepted as a disciple by this talented person and provided for his various expenses. Since then, the time for transfer has come. Whether it is scientific examination books or various miscellaneous books, they are carefully studied, including but not limited to "Historical Records", "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", "Three Kingdoms", and "Sun Tzu's Art of War".

This talented man was also happy to see Lie, and even commented in an article by Hong Chengchou that "the family is thousands of miles away, and the country is ten thousand miles away."

The experience of Hong Chengchou after that is also worthy of this. A few years later, when he was only 23 years old, he took part in the provincial examination and passed the examination. In the 44th year of Wanli, he went to Beijing for the examination and won the No. 14 No. [-] in the Bingchen Imperial Examination. Give Jinshi background.

Since then, Hong Chengchou has been going smoothly. Since the beginning of his appointment as the head of the Jiangxi Qingli Department of the Ministry of Punishment, he has served as Yuanwailang and Langzhong, and has worked in the Ministry of Punishment for six years.In the second year of Tianqi (1622), he was promoted to be a scholar in Zhejiang. At this time, Hong Chengchou was already well-known. Later, he was promoted to the political and left councilor of Liangzhe Chengxuan.

In the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627), Hong Chengchou was promoted to the food supervisor in Shaanxi to participate in politics. Being able to receive the information is why Hong Chengchou sent Shi Jian to pretend to be a messenger so urgently. Once Liu Ze took the bait, he could only come in lightly. There are definitely loopholes.

If there is a loophole, there is a chance to be exploited, because from the messengers before the capture and the captured letters, it can be seen that Liu Ze is indeed short of food. According to estimates, the food and grass he has stored is only one month's worth at most.

"At the end of the day, I will see you, Mr. Participating in politics." Wu Guofu stepped forward and clasped his fists. As the general of Chuanbei Township, he was very respectful to Hong Chengchou at this time. This is also a major feature of the late Ming Dynasty.

Hong Chengchou raised the corners of his mouth and smiled, stepped forward and raised his hand to support him: "How about fighting the bandits?"

It's already March [-]nd, and as the appointed time approaches, Liu Ze's troops have not shown up in Tongguan. These high-ranking officers and soldiers all know that the counterfeit messenger's plan has failed, and Liu Ze is not as reckless as they expected Seeing this, Hong Chengchou immediately changed his policy, gathered nearby officers, soldiers, township soldiers and Sichuan reinforcements to open a large net and advance in the opposite direction.

"These thieves are unusual, completely different from what I have encountered before." Wu Guofu frowned. He is also a veteran who has gone through many battles to suppress bandits. In his experience, even thousands of officers and troops can easily defeat them. Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of bandits, this time he led [-] soldiers, all recruited from the battalion, which was not at the same level as the usual guard soldiers. It should be easy to meet the bandit vanguard with a few hundred cavalry.

But the result was exactly the opposite. Wu Guofu continued: "The bandits have a lot of mules and horses in the vanguard. They first raided and occupied Pucheng County. After the brigade arrived, they galloped back and forth. They could cover hundreds of miles a day and night. Our officers and soldiers rode three steps and seven steps. There are many infantry and few cavalry, and they are exhausted after traveling for dozens of miles a day. I wanted to strangle the forward cavalry first to prevent any changes, but it is difficult to pursue, and I am afraid that I can only fight a decisive battle between the battalion and the battalion."

"How about the bandit bandit?"

"There are at least a thousand elites, and even more sharp guns and guns. Our army dare not fight with them, and only rely on firearms to fight with them. The rest of the bandits are so numerous that they are really not worth mentioning." Wu Guofu recalled the previous contact , I was really impressed, so I led the army back a hundred miles to Huayin in the dark before fighting.

Although Wu Guofu took the initiative to withdraw to the vicinity of Tongguan without orders, Hong Chengchou was not dissatisfied when he heard the words. He also knew that this was an old-fashioned move. The only ones who are called strong soldiers are Wu Guofu, who just came to help.

Hong Chengchou also needs time. He recently recruited soldiers from various villages, and only two thousand soldiers were selected, just as he said in his letter to Yang He: "Choose simple soldiers, and there is no soldier who is not skilled in bows and arrows." The lower officials personally experimented. After the selection, how to advance and suppress, how to meet the enemy, how to respond, and how to close the camp, all of them have been carefully thought out by the lower officials, so as to ensure that they are right, and they are the ones who give orders to the soldiers.

Therefore, in the end, he said proudly, "There are many thieves, and there are many elites. They are like the well-trained soldiers selected by the ministers. I understand that there must be few."

It's just that this is compared to Wang Zuogua and other bandits he defeated. Now that the giant bandits are here, it's time for him to set out to see them.

(End of this chapter)