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

Chapter 509
After the meritorious deeds and crimes were discussed, there was a banquet for the officials and generals to celebrate. During the banquet, Hong Chengchou, Zhang Ruoqi and others were impassioned, encouraging the officials to make persistent efforts and continue to make new contributions to Ming Dynasty.Especially for the loyal and brave Bo Wangdou, Hong Chengchou did not hesitate to praise him.

The victory sounded like a tide, like a person drinking heavily. Although there were some twists and turns in the course of this battle, overall, the battle was smooth, and the strategies set before were achieved one by one.

After the news that Azig was beheaded by the special formation, the spirits of all the troops reached the highest level.

For the next battle, all the officers and generals feel optimistic about the prospects, especially some officers and generals who did not participate in the battle, they hold their breath, hoping that when it is their turn, they can also make some contributions.

This time, Wang Dou sat at the same table with Wang Pu, Yang Guozhu, Fu Yingchong, Cao Bianjiao, and Wang Tingchen. Seeing Wang Pu and Fu Yingchong's happy faces, Wang Dou couldn't help but secretly nodded. In this battle, the performance of the two subordinates was remarkable. , especially Wang Pu, is very different from the performance in history. Is this the so-called red one who is close to vermilion and black one who is close to ink?

During the banquet, both Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen toasted and congratulated Wang Dou vigorously, and expressed their admiration for the new achievements made by the Jingbian Army. , otherwise, my old king, I can also be stained!"

Everyone at the table laughed out loud, which attracted the attention of others, especially Wu Sangui at the next table. Wang Dou also laughed, and then stopped, saying solemnly to Wang Tingchen: "Brother Wang and others are stationed in Xingshan, in fact, the burden is not light. , This battle has only just begun, and there will be big and bad battles in the future."

Cao Bianjiao put down his chopsticks, and said solemnly: "Indeed, the thief slaves have spied on Yiduo recently, and they expected that after Songshan's setback, they would attack me at Wudaoling and Daxingbao, and cut off my food supply!"

Wang Dou nodded: "That's for sure. In fact, in today's battle, the combat power of the slaves should not be underestimated, especially because they have a strong army, and now they have a large army of artillery guns. Therefore, we must not have the idea of ​​underestimating the enemy!"

After today's battle, although the Ming army won the victory, the shortcomings of the uneven combat power of the various ministries were also fully exposed.According to Wang Dou's judgment, with the same strength, Ma Ke, Tang Tong, and Bai Guang'en were hardly opponents of the Qing soldiers.

Li Fuming also said that Zuo Guang was the first to lead the Qin army, and he could fight the peasant army, but it was hard to say against the Qing army.The rest may be tied, Wang Pu will have the upper hand, Yang Guozhu will win, although the Jingbian army can fight, it is impossible to fight fires everywhere, they will always be dragged and entangled.

Moreover, the generals of the Ming army were not in the same mind, and each had their own ideas. He looked at the people at the banquet, and it was obvious that they were divided into several factions according to the order of the table.The Xuan army headed by myself, the Liaodong army headed by Wu Sangui, Ma Ke, Tang Tong, Zu Dale and others, and the neutral faction of Li Fuming, Zuo Guangxian, and Liu Zhaoji.

Looking at Hong Chengchou's table time again, although they were all talking and laughing quietly, discussing how to write the victory report, but Hong Chengchou, Zhang Ruoqi, and Wang Chengen obviously had different thoughts. How will the future situation go?Wang Dou is hard to estimate.

But for sure, he will not allow the historical Matsuyama fiasco to repeat itself, and even if he cannot win a big victory, he will not allow failure.

When he was meditating, Wang Pu and Fu Yingchong patted each other's shoulders and laughed at each other.However, while Wang Pu was elated, he did not forget to complain to Wang Dou, saying that once the battle broke out, the power medicine was consumed too quickly, and he hoped that Uncle Zhongyong could provide some support.

Wang Dou nodded. At that time, he sold Wang Pu [-] blunderbusses, and each blunderbuss was equipped with fifty rounds of medicine. It was enough for the scale of the usual battle, but I don't know when the Songshan War will last. With fifty rounds of medicine, I am afraid that it will not be enough in the future.

At the same time, in today's battle, his Jingbian army's fixed paper tube ammunition is fine, but it consumes a lot for ten thousand enemies.Under the circumstances that it is necessary to vigorously support the friendly army, and the local area cannot replenish it, the ammunition for tens of thousands of enemies carried with the supply battalion may only last for one or two months.

Fortunately, the Chief of Staff has already considered this point, and the army's supplies and logistics will be continuously sent from the east road.Some military depots and commercial stations were also set up along the way. As long as the grain roads are not cut off, the supply of weapons, grain and grass can be maintained.

Thinking of this, Wang Dou said: "Brother Wang doesn't have to worry about the matter of Ziyao, just fight with peace of mind, leaving a name in history, today!"

What restricts the use of firearms in this era is the development of gunpowder. If there is enough gunpowder, it is actually not difficult to produce custom-packed paper tube ammunition.

Taking Donglu as an example, an employee of a gunpowder factory can pack hundreds of rounds of custom-packed paper tube ammunition a day under the condition of an assembly line operation. A factory can pack tens of thousands of rounds a day. How much is it in a year?

There are now strict standards for the production of bird guns on the East Road, so the lead can be molded. Each time the mold is cast, a large batch is produced, and the error is not large, which saves the trouble of manual selection and polishing, and speeds up the assembly Production of cartridge ammunition.

As long as the supply of gunpowder keeps up, the production of weapons on the East Road will not be difficult.Moreover, the East Road is now using the method of collecting nitrate. Although there are seasons, there is no problem with hundreds of tons of black powder a year.

This is also the reason why Wang Dou has the confidence to use firearms on a large scale. He is not afraid of the outflow of weapons. There is no gunpowder, and the bird guns in everyone's hands are just a fire stick.

Receiving Wang Dou's guarantee, Wang Pu was overjoyed and said: "Everything depends on Uncle Zhongyong, Uncle Zhongyong is Gao Yi, my younger brother is so grateful, I will do my best in the future, and I will die."

The crowd roared with laughter, Wang Dou also laughed dumbly, looked at Fu Yingchong beside him, and smiled so much that his two front teeth were exposed, he pondered for a long while, and then said: "Brother Big Ya, our army captured the The Tartars have quite a lot of armor, after returning to the camp, you can choose some suitable armor and let your subordinates change it."

Wang Dou knew that the Ming army had disadvantages such as inferior equipment, but he did not expect that the same was true for the Shenji Battalion. Their armor was pierced by the Qing army with one shot, which was beyond Wang Dou's expectations.

Fu Yingchong was a little embarrassed, and said: "Uncle Zhongyong made a joke, those boys under his command are really outrageous."

He knew about the Shenji Battalion, not to mention his neglect of training, and the maintenance of weapons and armor was superficial.

In fact, the armor and weapons they handed down from their ancestors are all good, but they have not been maintained for many years, and the inner armor leaves are rusted.And in order to deal with the manipulations of the Shangguan and the emperor, they only worked hard on the material of the armor surface, so they looked mighty on the surface, but they were actually just appearances.

Not only that, many people with horse mules directly withheld the horse feed, refused to eat their own horses, and sold them to merchants. This was one of the reasons why the Ming army's horses were thin.

To be honest, Fu Yingchong didn't care about these things in the past. Most of his energy was spent on making friends. When he faced the battlefield, the whole Shenji Camp realized that this would cost his life.

The armor of the Qing soldiers captured was well-made. Although some were pierced and smashed by the Jingbian army's blunderbuss artillery, most of them can be used with a little repair, which made many Ming officials feel ashamed.

Since Wang Dou gave up a lot of heads, the Qing army's horses, armor and weapons captured in this battle, as well as some horse meat, were all at Wang Dou's disposal, and even Wu Sangui was not easy to compete with him.However, Hong Chengchou also had difficulty interfering with the military law that the Ming army had seized and returned it to the officers and generals.

There are more than 3000 pairs of these armors, including the iron wool armor and chain mail armor, etc., which are stored in the Jingbian army's barracks.

Armor and horses are important wealth resources in the eyes of the officials of the Ming Dynasty. Wang Dou generously presented a batch of Fu Yingchong, how could he not be moved by Fu Yingchong?Arriving in Liaodong from the capital, he owed too much to Wang Dou, he patted his chest and stood up, a little choked up: "Uncle Zhongyong, little brother, this..."

Wang Dou waved his hand to stop him, and stared at him: "Brother Da Ya, we are comrades-in-arms, aren't we?"

Fu Yingchong said repeatedly: "Yes, yes, comrade-in-arms, comrade-in-arms."

Wang Pu looked eagerly, he also wanted those armors.However, he had already asked Wang Dou for the potion, and if he asked for armor again, it would be useless, and it would hurt his relationship with Wang Dou. Now he attaches great importance to friendship with Wang Dou.

He shook his head, stood up gracefully, and said: "Brother Fu, you also know how Uncle Zhongyong is, so you don't want mother-in-law and mother-in-law! Come on, it's fate for us to get together, let's have a toast for our friendship. "

"Yes, cheers!"

Wang Tingchen likes to be lively. First of all, everyone at the table stood up. Fu Yingchong raised his glass and said: "When I came to Liaodong from the capital, my younger brother heard a song sung by Uncle Zhongyong. With this song, I express my excitement!"

He suddenly sang with a voice that frightened ghosts and gods to death: "How can I forget my old friends, and can I not miss them in my heart? How can old friends forget each other, friendship will last forever!"

Wang Pu and the others had also heard Wang Dou sing this song. At that time, they thought the melody was good, and they all kept it in their hearts. At that moment, everyone generously spoke together and raised their glasses.

"Long live friendship, friend, long live friendship!"

"Raise a glass and drink, sing together, friendship will last forever."

"Long live friendship, long live friends, long live friendship."

"Raise a glass and drink, sing praises together, friendship will last forever..."
They laughed and patted the table, no matter Wang Dou or Yang Guozhu, they all toasted and sang together.

Their laughter and singing made others stunned, Wu Sangui looked at this side, Hong Chengchou's eyes flickered, he didn't know what he was thinking.

……

After the victory celebration, Wang Dou and others came out, Yang Guozhu was silent in the hall, he didn't know what he was thinking about, and at this moment, the general suddenly said to Wang Dou: "Guoqin, what do you think of me coming to Ji Town? "

Wang Dou suddenly stopped in his tracks, seeing Yang Guozhu's bright eyes, only looking at himself.Wang Dou focused his attention for a long time, then met Yang Guozhu's gaze and said, "Ji Town is a good place, if Shuai Yang comes there, he will definitely be able to make a big splash!"

Yang Guozhu smiled and said, "Guoqin thinks the same as me!"

He shouted in a low voice: "Guoqin, help me capture those [-] Jizhen soldiers!"

Wang Dou pondered for a long while, then shook his head and said, "Yang Shuai, what good are those gangsters doing? Bai Guangen is a lesson from the past. What Yang Shuai can rely on is your [-] good army. A lot."

Yang Guozhu pondered for a long time, then sighed: "Forget it!"

He looked at Wang Dou and said, "I won't be polite to you, I will take all those new troops away, it's just..."

He hesitated.

Wang Dou knew what he was thinking, and said: "Shuai Yang, just don't worry, I will be in charge of Xuan Town, if someone dares to get involved in the Xinjun Tianmu, I don't mind killing him like Dong Lu, and blood will flow like rivers!"

Yang Guozhu looked at Wang Dou and said solemnly, "Guoqin, it's a great fortune for Yang to meet you!"

Wang Dou smiled and said: "The same is true for Dou, just like the song just now, let our friendship last forever!"

The two walked side by side, Yang Guozhu suddenly said: "The letter came, my daughter is pregnant."

Wang Dou was taken aback for a moment, he didn't expect Xu Yue'e to be pregnant, she was hit right away, she is really a woman who is easy to give birth to.

……

On that day, not only the officers and generals of the Ming army wished for victory, but Hong Chengchou, governor of Jiliao, also ordered to reward the three armies.

On the same day, Hong Chengchou, Wang Chengen, and Zhang Ruoqi's respective success reports, as well as a joint success report, were also expedited by [-] miles and sent to the capital to report the victory to Emperor Chongzhen and the ruling and opposition parties.

The Ming army rejoiced, but in the Qing army camp, it was dull.

Between Shimen Mountain and Xiaoling River, along both sides of the river, there are densely packed tents of Qing army camps that can't be seen, and the banners are flying.Around the camp, there are deep trenches and wooden walls one after another. At regular intervals, there are archery towers, which are heavily guarded.

The followers of the brigade came and went, carrying water from the river to make food, and there was a lot of noise.And among these sounds, there are also the desolate howls of the camps from time to time, which makes people upset when they hear it, and it can be said to have an extreme impact on the morale of the army.

These howling people are some wounded soldiers in the Qing army who were hit by artillery and bird guns. Perhaps for these people, those who died on the spot were lucky. They survived and were rescued by their comrades. a torture.

For a person who has been hit by a blunderbuss, the lead bullets have no penetrating power at first, and when they hit the human body, it is like a heavy impact with a sledgehammer, immediately killing the muscles of the shot, and shattering the internal organs.When digging out the lead bullets, it is also necessary to prevent the remaining gunpowder and projectile rags from the wound from being cleaned. If one is not careful, it will cause infection.

For these Qing soldiers, amputation was the only option for the limbs hit by the bird bludgeon, and they had to wait for death if they were hit by the rest of the limbs. Moreover, wound infection should also be prevented during amputation.

The people who were hit by the artillery were even worse. The solid iron ball roared over, and many people were beaten to pieces.The soil on the iron ball, the gunpowder on it, the iron filings on it, all kinds of residue and dirty things, if you rub a little on your body, it will be a series of serious diseases.

In this era, wound infection is a major fatal factor. Without antibiotics, the hot weather, sepsis, high fever, blood loss, and other factors can cause fatal injuries, especially when the Qing army was behind. under medical conditions.

The same is true for being hit by ten thousand enemies, gray bullets, poisonous bullets, etc. All kinds of pain are really unspeakable.

Therefore, for those Qing soldiers, it was lucky to die on the spot, and the rest would mourn for days and nights, struggling to death in doomed more and more pain.

(End of this chapter)