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

Chapter 281
Chongzhen 11th December 28th.

"Junmen, the Ming River is in front of us, our army can camp by the Ming River tonight."

Early this morning, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu led the army to set off early. Thousands of troops went straight past Zanhuang and Yuanshi, and arrived at the bank of the Xiao River not far from Luancheng in the evening.Calculating that the entire army has traveled more than 120 miles today, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu are deeply satisfied with this marching speed.

"It is to let the soldiers have a good rest."

Yang Guozhu looked back at the army behind him.In this severe cold weather, every soldier's face was blue and purple from the cold, especially Guo Yingxian, the Chinese army general behind Yang Guozhu. Come on, let his mouth be white.

The cold wind swept across the body like a knife. Wearing armor in this weather is suffering.Therefore, including the Shun Township Army, all the soldiers in Xuanfu Town put their armor on their bodies, especially the soldiers in the Zhengbing Battalion put their armor on their horses.

Anyway, there are nights when the sentries are not received, even if a big enemy comes, the army will have no time to put on their armor.

In addition, everyone wrapped themselves like rice dumplings, and wore all the warming things they could find on their bodies, and wrapped their heads and faces tightly with cloth scarves, trying not to expose their skin to the air.However, the weather was too cold. Both Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou were worried that the soldiers in the army would be fatigued and frostbite after the long march, which would cause non-combat attrition of the sergeants.

Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou were very satisfied with today's marching speed, especially the good condition of the Shunxiang Army, which made Yang Guozhu full of praise.All his main barracks had horses, but after a day, the men and horses were still exhausted.On the other hand, Wang Dou's Shunxiang Army traveled more than 100 miles, and it seemed that everyone still had spare energy, so Yang Guozhu couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Wang Dou knew that after the extremely cruel Battle of Julu, all the soldiers who survived in the army were reborn, whether it was physical or psychological, they had already reached the peak state they could achieve, and in Zanhuang After resting for more than ten days, it is not surprising that he is in the ideal state at the moment.

However, Wang Dou still needs to be cautious. He knows that at this time, due to diseases, acclimatization, weather and other reasons, it is common to reduce the number of troops in the army.These surviving sergeants are all the seeds of officers, and they cannot march long distances due to harsh weather and cause damage to the army.Therefore, except for all the doctors in the army accompanying him, Wang Dou decided that except for today, the rest of the journey would only need to travel hundreds of miles a day, so as to maintain sufficient physical strength and mental state of the soldiers.

It is not without precedent. In the battle of Gaoliang River in the early Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi led the Song army to march continuously for ten days, with an average of more than one hundred miles every day. After reaching the target, they immediately went to attack the city for [-] consecutive days.Their opponents, the cavalry of the Liao army, also performed outstandingly. They marched [-] miles in six days, and fought with the Song army when they arrived in Youzhou City in the evening.

Of course, the quality of Ming people cannot be compared with that of Song people. The average height of Han men was 1.8 meters in the Han Dynasty, 1.7 meters in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and only 1.6 meters in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.At this time, in Western countries, the average height of men has dropped to 1.5 meters five. In terms of physical fitness, both the East and the West are inferior to each other.

But even so, if the six-day march can maintain such a result, it will be something to be proud of in the history of the Great Ming War.

……

After Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu ordered the camp to be set up, the Shunxiang Army and the Zhengbing Battalion immediately got busy and took out the tents from the carriage accompanying the army.In addition to carrying food and grass for the whole army for a few days, these carriages also carried military tents, and each team shared one tent with dozens of people.

The sentry cavalry had already scouted the places suitable for camping, and the army camped at the selected place.What was set up was just a simple gun camp. Long guns were inserted around the camp, connected with ropes as lines, and then barbed caltrops were sprinkled on some key points.They didn't even dig the trenches around the camp, let alone the mixed civil and wooden walls.

Of course, such a simple camp must take some risks, but in order to save the physical strength of the sergeants, speed up the speed of camping and camping, and compete for marching time, this risk must be taken.Just to prevent the occurrence of epidemic diseases, a lot of drainage ditches and toilets in the camp were dug and built.

While the sergeants were busy setting up camp, Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou were patrolling around the camp, seeing that the Shun Township army was moving fast. It didn't take long for a complete camp to appear in front of everyone, and all the soldiers lived in warm and comfortable tents Inside, around the fire, talking and laughing loudly.The scalding hot water and food quickly drove away the chill in their bodies and made them more energetic.

On the other hand, Yang Guozhu's main barracks set up the camp at a much slower speed. These soldiers in the main barracks had outstanding individual capabilities, and after the Battle of Julu, their personal force reached their peak.But that kind of slow discipline still can't be changed.

Moreover, after the friendly army refused to save them, the loyalty of the soldiers to Daming became weaker, especially those subordinates of Zhang Yan, the former general of the Xuanfu who were reorganized into the main barracks, many of them were even more dejected.For this battle, they were willing to come because Yang Guozhu had promised many benefits.Just like Wang Dou, when he gave an order, the soldiers under his command followed without hesitation.

Yang Guozhu watched Wang Dou's constant greetings to the soldiers, and the morale was high wherever he went, so he couldn't help thinking.He invited Wang Dou to talk in his tent, and Wang Dou's two bosses, Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, followed him.

"Junmen, today our army marched for more than 120 miles, and the journey was smooth. Tomorrow our army will go straight through Luancheng, march nearly a hundred miles, and reach Wuji to camp in the afternoon. The day after tomorrow, our army will march from Wuji to Dingzhou, and the march will be less than [-] miles. Camp here, let the soldiers rest early, and have a good New Year..."

"On the first day of the Lunar New Year, our army started from Dingzhou, went straight through Qingdu, Wanxian, and reached Mancheng, marching for more than 130 miles. In Mancheng, our army replenished food and grass, and rested for half a day. From the afternoon of the second day to the third day On the afternoon of the 120st, our army marched for more than [-] li from Mancheng to Yizhou, joined the reinforcements from Baoanzhou, the last general, rested on the spot, and waited for the arrival of the Hujunmen supply department.”

Yang Guozhu nodded, Wang Dou's route arrangement was orderly, and he had nothing to say.

This old general was sitting in the tent, also wearing a thick armor, beside him was Guo Yingxian, a general of the Chinese army, also dressed in armor.Staring at Wang Dou for a while, Yang Guozhu said: "General Wang, I have cavalry soldiers in the main barracks, so I can travel hundreds of miles a day without any worries. Your army in Shun Township is all infantry. If you march long distances in this cold winter, will the sergeants be lost?"

Wang Dou said: "There is no need to worry about the army. The morale of the soldiers is high. They only marched for a few days, so there should be no problem."

Guo Yingxian exclaimed enviously: "Old Wang, I really don't know how you trained your soldiers. Even my old Guo likes those good soldiers very much."

After a great battle, Guo Yingxian and Wang Dou called themselves brothers and sisters, and his tone changed to a very affectionate one: "Old Wang."

Hearing what Guo Yingxian said, Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, who were lowered by Wang Dou, showed complacent expressions on their faces.

Seeing Yang Guozhu's expectant eyes, Wang Dou said: "Junmen, General Guo, in fact, the method of training the army of the last general, as early as in Gaoyang, the last general had spoken with the governor and three other army gates, and ordered the soldiers to forbid it." Therefore, we must weed out the ruffian soldiers in the army and reorganize the new army, otherwise the military discipline law will be just a dead letter."

Not only Lu Xiangsheng, but also Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei, Wang Pu and others have tried their best to inquire about Wang Dou's military training method under his successive victories.Wang Dou knew that he couldn't hide it, so he generously shared his experience with everyone.

According to Wang Dou, there must be several conditions for the sergeants to be selected into the Tashun Township Army.One, must be a military household registration in Baoan Prefecture.Second, the family must have land allocated by Baoan Prefecture.The third is even more strange. You must get married and have a wife. People without wives cannot be selected for the army.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the Shun Township Army is an army composed of landlords and self-cultivators from the same country and clan. They also covertly take the wives and daughters of each army as hostages, coupled with rigorous training like an assembly line, and a fair reward and punishment system, so this army is fighting more and more. stronger.

There is another point that Wang Dou didn't say, and few people in this world understand it, that is, the education level of Shunxiang Army is the highest in Ming Dynasty.When entering the Shunxiang Army, the first point is to be forced to read and write. This is what Wang Dou emphasized.

After training, most of the recruits can memorize the various regulations in the army, and they will know what kind of reaction they will encounter in any situation.Although there are not many well-educated men in the army, it also ensures that there are no illiterates in the Shunxiang army, and they can better understand the orders issued by the officers, and they can use their fingers to the greatest extent.

Coupled with the military force level system, even if officers are killed in large-scale battles, they can also be quickly reorganized according to regulations.

Such an army generally has good nutrition, an effective reward and punishment system, and a high degree of training organization.Compared with the common slave soldiers in Ming Dynasty, they have no sense of honor and military discipline, and their organization and command system are like fakes.

Even the Qing soldiers were far less organized than the Shunxiang Army.

Of course, in Wang Dou's Shunxiang army, it is difficult to be famous, but with the outstanding overall combat power of this army, it can completely sweep all famous generals under its feet.

Yang Guozhu and others vaguely understood the military training experience shared by Wang Dou, but they also felt that there was a lot of fog inside. Yang Guozhu was worried that if he followed Wang Dou's words, he would run the risk of not being an anti-dog. In the end, even his own advantages would be lost. give up.

When Wang Dou opened his mouth, more than half of the people in the main barracks were going to go. Yang Guozhu couldn't bear all kinds of hidden worries. After a long time, he sighed: "How can I be willing to lay off most of the soldiers?"

……

On the third day of the first month of the 12th year of Chongzhen.

At the beginning of Shenshi, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu's army had passed through Yizhou and arrived at a local place called Baimali.But Wang Dou was very excited. Thousands of troops marched for several days and were about to reach Liujingzhai, the first stronghold in Baoan Prefecture leading to the North China Great Plains, a fortified camp located at the junction of Yizhou and Laishui.

Once there, days of strenuous marching came to an end.

Smoke and dust billowed in front of him, but Wen Daxing, the Yebushou Baizong who had sent out the sentry in person, ran towards Wang Dou with a few Yebushou. Here, Mr. Han Qian led two troops to come to meet him."

Wang Dou's face was full of joy: "Has the Han Dynasty come?"

Looking around, everyone looked happy, Yang Guozhu was also very happy, and the two ordered to speed up the march.

Soon the two forces on the ground were getting closer and closer, and they finally joined up. They burst into "Wan Sheng" voices, and the soldiers who went out hugged tightly with the soldiers who stayed behind.

After six days of forced march, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu led the army to travel hundreds of miles a day, and the whole army reached Yizhou.

※※※

Old White Bull:
Happy New Year and another chapter tonight.

(End of this chapter)