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

Chapter 419
As for what Zhang Kejian, Wang Chengzeng and others meant, Wang Dou actually knew very well.

In the Battle of Xiangyang, although the giant thief Zhang Xianzhong was beheaded, it was all due to Wang Doubu. What does it have to do with Zhang Kejian and others?
What matters is their crime of dereliction of duty and siege of the city!

How did the thieves enter the city?Even if there are still thousands of officers and soldiers in the city after entering the city, how could they have no power to fight back and let the bandits wreak havoc, almost trapping the vassal king to death?After the imperial court has finished its meritorious service, I am afraid that the next step is to investigate and deal with these dereliction of duty officers and generals!

Now the imperial court dare not do anything to military generals, but it is not polite to civil servants. Even Zhang Kejian is respected as one, and the future prospects are very bad, so he can only find a way from Wang Dou.

Zhang Kejian and Wang Chengzeng explained it warmly, and then said that they had mentioned several pens in the Jiebao.

After the Yanliu thief entered the city, the second official and some officials close to them fought bloody battles, and finally killed dozens of thieves.With the timely assistance of General Dingguo, the bandits fled out of the city. Together with the general, they led the army to chase them out of the city. Fortunately, thanks to the blessings of their ancestors and the mighty power of God, they finally took the head of the giant thief!
The main credit for the victory is Wang Dou, and they are supplementary. Zhang Kejian and others are thinking that it is good to keep their official positions. Of course, it is better to get a little credit.

In fact, Zhang Kejian and others really wanted to find someone to take the blame for the dead ghost, but they searched and found that besides their own crimes, they also found that most of the crimes that night were committed by the officials who guarded the city.However, these generals are rebellious and rebellious. There are a lot of rebels in the original surrender. To deal with them, what to do in case of mutiny one day, Wang Dou will always leave, and it is impossible to stay in Xiangyang for a long time.

Therefore, Zhang Kejian and Wang Chengzeng could only blame themselves for the crimes of that night. Anyway, including the merits of killing the thief, and the merits and demerits even out, the court will not deal with it too harshly.After a bit of activity, the top reprimands at most and it's over, and I also get the reputation of "protecting the benevolent".

After speaking, both of them looked at Wang Dou eagerly, and Zhang Kejian even patted his chest and promised that he was willing to donate 10 taels of silver labor to thank the Shun Township Army for its kindness.

Wang Dou murmured, in today's battle, Zhang Xianzhong's entire army was almost wiped out, and more than 700 of them were chopped off at the first level alone. It's no problem to give dozens of them to Zhang Kejian and others, anyway, Zhang Xianzhong can be killed by his own troops.

Facing the expectant eyes of the two, Wang Dou stretched out two fingers: "20 taels of silver, even one tael less will do!"

"20 million taels?"

The magistrate Wang Chengzeng almost cried out, but under Zhang Kejian's stern gaze, the two still walked aside and discussed softly.

Zhang Kejian thinks it is feasible. It can be said that part of the money is the money of the labor army, and part of it is the food and salaries of the Shunxiang army. The two already know that there are thousands of soldiers from the Shunxiang army coming to Xiangyang. Including Xiangyang, there are seven thousand soldiers. .Under the great victory, each soldier will be rewarded with 30 taels of silver, which is not much.

It is not surprising that victorious guest soldiers, or unvictorious guest soldiers, demanded silver rewards from the local area at this time.

In the 15th year of Chongzhen in history, in order to persuade Zuo Liangyu's tribe to fight against the king, Hou Xun, the governor at that time, sent 50 taels of labor to the army.After Li Zicheng attacked Xiangyang, Zuo Liangyu withdrew his troops to Wuchang, and asked the king of Chu for 50 taels of food and salaries, but without approval, he plundered Wuchang, including grain and salt ships.

In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu's army rebelled, destroyed Jiande, and robbed Chiyang. Li Banghua, the imperial censor of the time, sued Zuo Liangyu and paid 15 taels of Jiujiang treasury silver to his army. Zuo Liangyu The military is a little better.

Anyway, Xiangyang has a lot of treasury money. As long as the local area can solve it by itself, there will be no confusion, and the explanation can be passed, and the court will not ask too much.

After the discussion, Zhang Kejian came over with a smile and said, "It's easy to say, 20 taels is 20 taels, but the head..."

Wang Dou said, "I'll give you fifty."

With their fighting ability, it is not bad to be able to cut off fifty heads, but if there are too many heads, it will make people suspicious.On the contrary, it was Wang Dou's subordinates, even if thousands of heads were chopped off, no one thought it strange.

Zhang and Wang, who got the desired results, summoned Li Tianjue, who was in charge of Xiangyang affairs, promoted Jiang Yueguang and others, unified their caliber, and finally visited King Xiang.

Looking at their backs, Guiyang King Zhu Changfa said angrily: "Isn't this talking nonsense with your eyes open? When the bandits entered the city, the officers and soldiers were defeated. If there was no General Dingguo, Xiangyang might fall into the hands of bandits. I'm afraid... ...How can they have the slightest credit?"

King Xiang sighed: "Wang Dou also agreed to this matter. After all, Wang Dou is a guest army, and he cannot live in Xiangyang for a long time. The affairs of Xiangyang depend on the local officials and generals. Let's make a good relationship."

……

On that day Zhang Kejian wrote Tang Bao. He was just a sub-road patrol in Xiangyang.

After careful scrutiny of the Tang newspaper, Wang Dou saw that there was no problem, so he and King Xiang stamped it, and then flew to Song Yihe, Governor of Huguang.

It is said that in the Song Dynasty, Yihe was originally stationed in Runan and stationed in Xinyang. At that time, Xiong Wencan was the prime minister of military affairs in Nanji, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, and Sichuan. Because of Yihe's continuous suppression of drama thieves, Wencan repeatedly made great achievements, recommended him, and served as deputy envoy. Tune Yunyang.

Wen Canzhu was recommended by Yang Sichang with a crane ability, and promoted to the censor of the capital of Youqin, and the governor of Huguang on behalf of Fang Kongzhang.During Shi Xian and Cao Chaos, Song Yihe dispatched deputy generals Wang Yuncheng and Sun Yingyuan to defeat Luo Rucai in Fengyiping, beheading more than [-] levels, and Yang Sichang performed Yihe's first victory in Jingchu.

At this time Song Yihe was in Jiangling. When he received Zhang Kejian's Tang report a few days later, Song Junmen, who was known as calm, was so shocked that he dropped his teacup to the ground.

He had heard about the robbery attacking Xiangyang, and was worrying about it, but he heard that Tang Wen, who was patrolling the road in Xiangyang, said that the officers and soldiers had won a big victory.

To be honest, Song Yihe couldn't believe it, but the facts were in front of his eyes. Would Zhang Kejian, the Xiangyang sub-road patrol, dare to fake such a big event?Zhang Kejian and Song Yihe knew about it, they were known as sophisticated, and it was clearly written in the Tang newspaper that the body of the thief was offered in Xiangyang, so you would know it after reading it.

Moreover, there are seals of Wang Dou and King Xiang, the generals of the East Road of Xuanfu Town, on the Tang Wen. Of course, Song Yihe knows Wang Dou's name.If he is the main battle, it is possible to kill the thief.

Looking carefully at Tang Wen again, Song Yihe understood that it was Wang Dou's credit, Zhang Kejian and others, but they took advantage.Strictly speaking, the faults of Zhang Kejian and other officials are not small, but under the credit of offering the thief's life and death, this fault seems to be overshadowed.

Since then, news has continued to come in, all of which are about the great victory in Xiangyang.This matter has been widely circulated in Huguang, and various versions have noses and eyes, but any version is sure to sacrifice the life of the thief.

Just at this time, the supervisor Yang Sichang arrived in Jiangling, Xingyuan had already entered Shatou City, Song Yihe hurried to visit Xu's garden.

Upon seeing it, Song Junmen was taken aback, and Yang Gebu looked haggard, as if suffering from a serious illness.

Song Yihe hurriedly greeted, Yang Sichang waved his hand, and said without interest: "I already know about the Xiangyang matter, although Wang Zhifu is a little frivolous, but Zhang's military equipment is old, and there are seals from Wang Dou and Xiangwang, this matter will not There is a fake. Make it a success as soon as possible, let the Holy One rest assured, and post it as you write in the text on the pond!"

Song Yihe couldn't figure out Yang Sichang's intentions, seeing the elder Ge's spirit was sluggish, so he said goodbye wisely, thinking about how to publish the Jiewen.

When Song Yihe left, looking at Tang Wen in his hand, Yang Sichang sneered repeatedly: "It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous!"

He didn't know what it was like in his heart. He thought back then that he was high-spirited, but in the end he worked hard, but he suffered repeated defeats in the military, especially the fiasco which was as fierce as a tiger, which dealt a great blow to Yang Sichang.In the end, the bandit Xian ran out of Sichuan, and even rushed to Xiangyang. If Wang Dou hadn't met him by chance, what was waiting for him would be the catastrophe of falling into the feudal domain.

Although Xiangyang is a great achievement, it can be placed on his own head, but Yang Sichang knows that he has failed, this is self-deception!

Yang Sichang is self-willed and has a strong self-esteem. He manages himself bleakly, and everything is in vain, but others have no intention of doing it.Xiangyang's victory is like a mockery of himself, how can this not make the self-esteemed Yang Sichang feel bitter?
He suddenly coughed violently, his trusted followers and the supervisor Wanji saw that something was wrong, they all asked, "Is Mr. Ge all right?"

The staff next to him were a little puzzled, why the cabinet department was not happy when Xiangyang won a big victory?Only a few people with quick thoughts think about it.

Yang Sichang knew that he had lost his composure, he gasped for breath, suddenly a flash of understanding flashed in his mind, he was exhausted, he might not live long, before he died, he must see the corpse of the thief.

He said: "I'm fine, Xiangyang has won a great victory, I should go and have a look, call the governor of Shang Song, let's go together!"

……

Soon, Jie Wenfei, governor of Huguang, Song Yihe, reported to the capital, and when the news of the victory reached the capital, he sacrificed his life as a thief. The great victory in Xiangyang really shocked the capital and the northern kingdom.Discussions are boiling, and the whole country is in an uproar.

At this time, the supervisor Yang Sichang, the supervisor Wanji, and the governor of Huguang Song Yihe and others led the supervisor's battalion, aides, and generals under his command, and the group hurriedly left Jiangling for Xiangyang.

Not only that, Liu Yuanbin and Lu Jiude, who guarded the Xianling Mausoleum in Chengtian Mansion and guarded against thieves in the Jingshan and Qianjiang areas, also hurriedly led several generals under them, Zhou Yuji, Huang Degong, Sun Yingyuan and others, to rush Go to Xiangyang in a hurry.

Also Zuo Liangyu, the general who had fled to Xing'an, Shaanxi Province, and He Renlong, the general soldier of Shaanxi Province, were all dumbfounded after hearing what happened in Xiangyang. They all went down the Han River to Xiangyang. Come in a hurry.

……

In that day's battle, Xianying's entire army was annihilated, with 700 fine cavalry, and more than [-] heads were chopped off, but there were also fish that slipped through the net, namely Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang (called Zhang Dingguo at the time) , Zhang Kewang), and fled with a dozen cavalry.

Ye Bushou and Li Guangheng's cavalry searched everywhere, but there was no one there, and they didn't know where they were going.

On the second day, Wang Dou intended to attack Luo Rucai in Yicheng, but then news came that yesterday Luo Rucai fled overnight to Suizhou and other places, so he had to give up.

The results of this battle were fruitful, and more than 400 good horses were captured. From the perspective of the Shun Township Army, there were nearly [-] good horses that could be used as war horses.There are also many thieves who were killed or wounded, and they happened to be used to eat meat, and the morale of the whole army was high.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Zhang Kejian, the deputy envoy of military preparations, and Wang Chengzeng, the magistrate of Xiangyang, visited Wang Dou again, but they pleaded for mercy for the disorderly troops captured yesterday, especially that Chief Qian.

It turned out that today, when the soldiers who fled outside the city returned one after another, some officials came to intercede, especially Zuo Liangyu's beloved concubine.

At this time she was living in the city, and seeing her brother being captured - she also had a bit of wink, she didn't dare to go to the barracks where Wang Dou lived to make trouble, so she went to the magistrate's yamen and military constitutional mansion to make a scene.Moreover, he threatened that when Yan Zuozhen came back, he would definitely not let them go, which caused Zhang and Wang a big headache.

However, these people were imprisoned by Wang Dou, so they had no choice but to come and beg.

(End of this chapter)