A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 215

When Wang Dou arrived in Changping, he gave Shang Fang a sword, the governor of the world, the king's soldiers and horses, the minister of the Ministry of war, and Lu Xiangsheng, the acting governor of Xuanda, was watching from the Qiaolou in the city.

This Qiao Tower is the highest point in Yong'an City. It is equipped with a copper pot and a clock, and there are marking points in various places in the city. It can beat drums to tell the time for the people on weekdays, and it can be used to command and mobilize troops inside and outside the city during wartime.Therefore, after Lu Xiangsheng arrived in Changping, he set up his governor Xingyuan in Qiaolou.

Looking at the densely-covered reinforcement camps, Lu Xiangsheng was full of ambition. In the past few days, he arrived in Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Shanxi Town, and Guanning Town in Changping. With tens of thousands of soldiers capable of fighting, if the court is really determined, even if the Qing army is powerful, it may not be incapable of fighting.

However, there was always an inexplicable worry in his heart. When he first arrived in Changzhou, he heard the cabinet minister Yang Sichang and the director Gao Qiqian advocated to negotiate peace with the Qing soldiers. What worried Lu Xiangsheng even more was that the Holy Majesty was quite moved when he heard that.

For Gao Qiqian, Emperor Chongzhen only used it as a loyal servant, but for Yang Sichang, he regarded him as his own servant with the ability to seek the country. "Qingwan", he appointed Yang Sichang as Minister of the Ministry of War at that time, with full power to take charge of the encirclement and suppression of the peasant army.

Yang Sichang was also very grateful for the emperor's trust and love, and worked hard to formulate the encirclement and suppression plan of "four positives, six corners and ten sides net", which was quite effective.If it hadn't been for the Qing soldiers entering the bandits this time, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and others might have been wiped out long ago. It can be said that the Qing soldiers entered the bandits several times and saved the lives of Li Zicheng and others.

The encirclement and suppression of the peasant army was quite effective, and Emperor Chongzhen attached great importance to Yang Sichang, and all the proposals he proposed were approved.In June of this year, Yang Sichang was appointed Minister of the Ministry of Rites and a Bachelor of Dongge University. He participated in the maintenance of the aircraft and was still in charge of the Ministry of War.His hometown in Wuling already called him "Old Yang Ge" and "President Yang", which shows that Yang Sichang is very powerful.

This year, the Qing soldiers invaded the south on a large scale again, and the capital was shaken. Yang Sichang advocated peace talks and opposed a decisive battle with the Qing soldiers.He believes that these are the officers and soldiers of Ming Dynasty who can fight at present. If they put all their eggs in one basket, once they are defeated, the consequences will be disastrous.He also said: "To fight against the outside world, we must first settle down at home. Since ancient times, there has never been a person who can win the outside world without continuing internal strife."

He believed that although the Qing soldiers invaded the bandits several times, the peasant army was the biggest problem.After annihilating the peasant army, there is no need to worry about the country's internal affairs. The country can prepare its army and fight against the Qing soldiers.Bearing the burden of humiliation today is to avenge his past years.

Emperor Chongzhen was also very moved by Yang Sichang's words. The Ming Dynasty had used troops for many years and suffered great losses. If he fought a decisive battle with the Qing soldiers, once he was defeated, all his tens of thousands of capable soldiers would fall, and he would not be able to suppress the peasant army again.However, there had been no peace talks in the Ming Dynasty for hundreds of years, and he was extremely unwilling to let the Qing soldiers wreak havoc within the country like this.So these days his mood is extremely contradictory, and it is difficult to make up his mind.

For Lu Xiangsheng, he was a resolute advocate of the war. After hearing the rumors of the peace talks between the government and the opposition, he was extremely angry. After he arrived in Changping in early October, Emperor Chongzhen invited him to have an audience. We can only talk about war, how can we talk about peace?He is willing to lead the army to fight against the Qing people and serve the country with death.

After hearing Lu Xiangsheng's words, Emperor Chongzhen was quite moved. On the second day after Lu Xiangsheng returned to Changping, he sent someone to reward the army with 3 taels of silver, of which 1 taels were rewarded to him personally.At the same time, he was also given one hundred imperial horses, one thousand servant horses and five hundred iron whips.

Lu Xiangsheng was both excited and grateful for the emperor's reward. Every time he received a reward, he immediately expressed his thanks, and at the same time, he was secretly ashamed, thinking that he was against the etiquette of a ruler and his father by publicizing his father.He distributed all the silver rewarded by the emperor to the soldiers, leaving only one tael for the silversmith to make a silver cup as a souvenir.

It seems that the Holy One is determined to fight, and while Lu Xiangsheng is excited, he is also determined to serve the country with his death.

But he is always worried, because Yang Sichang and Gao Qi are latently bewitching him, fearing that the emperor's attitude will change again.A few days ago, he discussed military affairs with Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian at Andingmen, and the indifferent attitude of the two aggravated his inner anxiety.

……

At this time, Lu Xiangsheng was on the second floor of Qiaolou, looking towards the west of the city. Under the eaves of the floor, there was a plaque of "Huayi Xiongguan".

The people coming and going in Qiaolou did not affect Lu Xiangsheng's inner meditation. He was planning a bold plan, which was to divide the recruited officers and soldiers into four groups in a few days, and attack the enemy camp on a moonlit night to kill the Qing soldiers. .

But this plan needs the cooperation and approval of director Gao Qiqian, will he agree with his plan?
While Lu Xiangsheng was contemplating, he suddenly saw a centaur rolling towards the west. Although the sergeant's banner of the centaur could not be seen clearly from a distance, he could feel a forceful force.The army that came from the direction of Juyongguan without hearing the alarm from the sentinel horse must be the reinforcement of one of the guards, but which one is the reinforcement of this man and horse?

A figure of a person flashed in Lu Xiangsheng's mind, and he stood in front of the window and watched intently. Soon, the horse was not far from the city, and they stopped and began to form a team outside the city.In a short while, they formed a complete team and formed several neat square formations outside the city, motionless.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at them for a long time, but they were still motionless, and the formations were still in order. This kind of military appearance and power can be said to be the first-class strong army of Ming Dynasty. Very happy, another strong army came, which greatly increased my chances of winning.

He was about to send someone to ask which army was coming from the bottom of the city, when a personal guard went upstairs to report: "I want to report to the governor, the security guerrilla Wang Dou of Xuanfu Town has been ordered to come to help, and he has arrived outside Yong'an City, waiting for the governor's order." .”

Lu Xiangsheng was overjoyed, it really was Wang Dou, he said: "Quickly call General Wang to meet this governor."

Lu Xiangsheng would personally summon every soldier and horse that King Qin came to, to encourage and condolences, not to mention that Wang Dou had always attached great importance to him, so he ordered his own general, Chen An, to go and summon them.

Soon, a few horsemen and horses came in from the west gate, and soon there was the sound of heavy footsteps stepping on the stairs.Then, the tall and burly Wang Dou, who was wearing a silver-white iron armor and a bright red cloak, strode forward.

He strode up to Lu Xiangsheng, lifted the scarlet cloak behind him, knelt down on one knee, clasped his fists with both hands, and shouted loudly: "The last general, Wang Dou, the guerrilla general of Baoan Prefecture in Xuanfu Town, has met the governor, Mr. Lu. With the armor on, you can't fully salute."

Lu Xiangsheng helped Wang Dou up with a smile on his face, and said, "Wang Dou, it's good that you're here, and the journey went smoothly?"

Wang Dou said in a loud voice: "Thanks to the inquiry from the governor, the general came all the way smoothly. The general has [-] reinforcements, all of them have arrived, and there is no one left behind or missing."

Lu Xiangsheng exclaimed, "Okay."

For Wang Dou's kind of emergency reinforcements, after receiving the fire card to dispatch troops, the generals were afraid of missing the deadline and would be severely punished by the military law, so most of them ran all the way, seldom caring about the ranks.Send out 3000 troops. After running for a day, the men and horses are tired, and half of them are already lost. After another day of running, they will lose half of their men.After arriving on time, the people who arrived were only a few hundred people, most of whom were servants of the generals.

Most of the rest of the troops will arrive one after another after many days. Usually 3000 troops are dispatched, but only more than 2000 people are assembled in the end, and the rest are missing.There are really too few, too few people like Wang Dou to arrive in such a short period of time.

When the war is coming, in order to avoid shaking the morale of the army, most of the leading generals turn a blind eye to this phenomenon and close one eye.Lu Xiangsheng was worried about his serious illness in the army, so he couldn't deal with those generals casually, as long as the general in charge arrived, and the rest of the sergeants could arrive in a few days.

Because of this, it highlighted the value of all members of Wang Dou Keqi, Lu Xiangsheng looked at Wang Dou, admired him even more, and gave him some comfort.

There were quite a few officials in Qiaolou, seeing how much the governor showed love for the young guerrilla general named Wang Dou, everyone exchanged surprised looks, and looked carefully at Wang Dou again and again.

Wang Dou and Lu Xiangsheng responded, and asked: "Minister, where will the general camp?"

When Wang Dou arrived outside Yong'an City, he saw that all the places suitable for camping were crowded with people, not to mention inside the city, so he asked this question.

Lu Xiangsheng said: "You are the reinforcement of Xuanzhen, so Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanzhen, will be in charge. I will let Chen An go with you."

Lu Xiangsheng's posture can be said to be extremely favored by Wang Dou. After bidding farewell to Lu Xiangsheng, when he came out of the city, several square formations formed by Wang Dou's army were still neat.Until now, all the soldiers are still motionless, letting the cold wind blow.

There were several military camps not far from Wang Dou's army formation. Seeing the discipline of Wang Dou's army, many generals were shocked and pointed at the formation from the barracks.And this kind of military appearance and power, representing the power under Wang Dou's command, fell into the eyes of interested people, and the commander of this army was a figure worth making friends with.

Not long after Wang Dou arrived in Changping, many people have already asked about his name and life story.

The military appearance and discipline of Wang Dou's army also made Chen An admire. Chen An was in charge of Lu Xiangsheng's supervising battalion, and although his personal military equipment was better than Wang Dou's army, Chen An was ashamed of this kind of lineup and discipline. .

He sighed: "Grandpa Qi was transferred to Jizhen in the past. He felt that the border soldiers' military law was unbearable, so he transferred [-] Zhejiang soldiers. During the heavy rain, [-] Zhejiang soldiers were stationed in the suburbs. The frontier army was horrified, and only then did they know the military order. Brother Wang has the demeanor of Grandpa Qi back then."

Chen An's praise was too generous, Wang Dou said: "General Chen is too famous, how dare the last general compare with Grandpa Qi."

Xuanfu Town's reinforcements camped in the east of Changping City. There was a pine garden outside the east gate, which was planted with pine and juniper trees, with a radius of more than one mile.Because the Ming Dynasty has banned woodcutter mining in this area for more than 200 years, the forest is extremely lush, and it was one of the eight scenic spots in Yanping at that time.

Wang Dou led the army all the way, and his soldier horse attracted the attention of many people. Wang Dou also carefully observed the situation of reinforcement camps in various towns.Looking at military books, most of the battalions in the late Ming Dynasty had no order, not to mention that they formed their own formations, and the same was true for camping.Every time he went to a place, each general chose his own convenient place, and each made his own home. There was no distinction between left, right, front and back camps, and it was difficult to distinguish a certain camp.

Looking at the camps outside the city, except for the troops in the three towns of Xuanda who are slightly better, the camps of all the troops are quite loose. It is difficult to distinguish which army is in which town, and it is even more unclear where the camp of the chief general of a town is. mind.

Fortunately, with Chen An leading the way, he finally found the reinforcement camp in Xuanfu Town.Just a few miles away from the east gate, there is a local place called Changjin Village, not far from Pine Garden, and there are rivers and small lakes beside it, it is indeed a good place to camp.

When he got outside the camp, Wang Dou could see the banners inside like clouds, and outside the barracks were densely packed wooden fences, tall gates and watchtowers, exaggerating the aura of military and iron horses.

Not long after Wang Dou's announcement, a large group of generals in helmets and armor came out to welcome them. The leader was a burly middle-aged general with a weathered face, a thick iron armor on his body, and a bright red cloak behind his back. It is Yang Guozhu, the general officer of Xuanfu Town.

※※※

Old White Bull: In the evening, I can finally go online, which is great.

(End of this chapter)