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

Chapter 86 Hungry People
Wang Dou pondered for a long time, and decided to train a team of light cavalry first. The Qing soldiers are coming, and this reconnaissance information is very important.

He said to Han Chao: "Chief Han, I have decided to train a team of sentry scouts who will not stop at night to detect the enemy's situation. The task of training light cavalry is entrusted to you. For the relevant horse candidates, you can join the army Choose from among them, what cost you want to use, after you report to me for approval, go to Mr. Lin to get it."

In addition to Lin Daofu's management of military training and farming, he also manages the logistics of the fort for the time being, but the decision is still in Wang Dou's hands.

Both Lin Daofu and Han Chao took orders with their hands clasped together, and another group of soldiers came under their own control. Han Chao was delighted, and Han Zhong also looked at his brother enviously.However, Han and North Korea have to manage the infantry and cavalry, and the burden on their shoulders is even heavier.

Wang Dou smiled at Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie and said, "Master Wen, Sun Baihu, Captain Han is going to train Qingqi, and he may choose some sergeants from your team, so don't be reluctant."

Seeing that the few soldiers in his team were going to be selected again, Sun Sanjie was a little bit reluctant, but he still solemnly agreed with his fists clasped.

Wen Fangliang said nonchalantly: "My lord, you are serious. Are the soldiers in the lower officer's team the same as the sergeants of Shunxiang Fort? The lower officer will definitely try his best to cooperate with Han's selection!"

At the end, he said with a playful smile: "It's just my lord. Sun Baihu and I are both sentry chiefs, but our two sentry chiefs have too few soldiers, right? I wonder when will your lord make up our troops?"

This question was also something Wang Dou had been thinking about. The young men in the castle had already been utilized to the extreme, and it was impossible to select males from the castle.

He said: "Currently Shun Fort's population is small, maybe after a while, our Shun Fort recruits refugees to make up for your troops."

Wen Fangliang breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good."

He sat down grinning.

……

After the meeting was over, Han Chao immediately went to the stable to select fifty horses, and then selected candidates from the whole army of Shunxiang Castle who would not be accepted at night.

It’s not like the infantry marching in line to fight in a dignified manner. This sentry is not closed at night, which is more determined by personal skills. Usually, training is mostly about how to improve your physical combat skills, how to camouflage, how to learn to lurk at night, how to go behind the enemy’s rear, and scout the enemy’s target position. Capture captives, assassinate and destroy.How to understand geography and astronomy, how to discern the enemy's language and characters, how to understand the enemy's banner, golden drum, etc., there are many things to master.

In the end, Han and North Korea selected more than [-] people from the army to form a team of Qingqi, all of whom were outstanding in skill, and none of them suffered from night blindness.Xie Yike was originally in the Right Sentinel Army, and after the skill assessment, he became a senior sergeant, and now he has also been selected to join Ye Bu Shuo, and he has also served as a team officer of a captain.

In the two teams led by Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie, since they were all servants with outstanding martial arts skills and many of them had ridden horses, more than a dozen soldiers were selected from each team.Now Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie lead a team of only a few soldiers, and they take turns to help Han and North Korea train his infantry sergeants when they are free.

The Han Dynasty also listed to Wang Dou the weapons and equipment that this team would not receive at night, including throwing axes, javelins, short spears, hooks, pistols, short crossbows, scimitars, helmets and leather armor, medicine bags, sleeping bags, riding Guns, palladium, stick guns, etc.Compared with the infantry, the equipment of the cavalry is indeed more complicated, especially if it is not collected at night, the equipment is even more complicated.

Some of these materials are available in Shun Township Fort, or can be made by craftsmen, and some have to be purchased from outside.

Wang Dou set aside money and food, and ordered Lin Daofu to buy and manufacture these materials one by one.

Leaving aside personal skills training, this team will not be closed at night, and they must also train cavalry formations to fight.

Wang Dou looked at it, and it was nothing more than a row of several rows. The horses were galloping at high speed during training. The knight held the lance in his hand, and clamped the barrel of the gun with his arm. , otherwise you will fall off the horse because of the inertia of speed.

This lance is generally a one-time weapon, and the difficult technique of using strength to fight cannot be practiced casually.Those who can use iron, palladium and spears are considered excellent cavalry warriors.

So every knight hung a saber on his waist, the blade was long and unsharp.When they practiced, they held the saber sideways and used the horsepower to draw a long cut on the target without bending over and slashing.However, this kind of long hole is basically unsolvable in this era of cold weapons.

As for archery on horseback, both Wang Dou and the Han Dynasty agreed that the cavalry should use short crossbows or hand guns.When their skills are advanced, Han and North Korea will teach them how to throw throwing axes and javelins on horseback.

Han and North Korea trained these cavalry not to receive them at night, Wang Dou did not give any professional advice, but he asked Han and North Korea to use a set of cavalry when they go out for surveying and mapping, sentry, or to develop intelligence personnel outside after they have trained at night. A professional cipher text system.

This cipher system uses a cipherbook and uses a dictionary conversion method. Each word represents a different meaning. The cipher master is in the hands of South Korea and North Korea, and it is changed regularly. Even if the information ahead is obtained by the enemy, because they do not know the conversion method , so it is absolutely impossible to translate it, which greatly guarantees the security of intelligence.

This kind of password system came from later generations. After hearing Wang Dou's words, Han Chao was shocked and adopted it immediately.

With this kind of intelligence system, the leakage of intelligence in the military will be greatly reduced in the future.

However, the use of such an intelligence system has greatly increased the knowledge requirements of Ye Bu Shou.In the future, they will be able to read and write, even stricter than the officers in the infantry. After a few months, each of them must master at least several hundred words.

When the Korean and Korean training was closed at night, Wang Dou still recruited officers of the captain and above every afternoon or evening to read and write, explain the regulations, study and discuss military battle formations, etc.Wang Dou now has four captains for one sentry, and eight captains for two sentries, plus two sentry chiefs, and several officers such as Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie. Every day, more than a dozen officers, big and small, gather in front of Wang Dou to read and read. .

Although Wang Dou is a warrior who is proficient in writing, everyone is a little surprised. Now in the Ming army, even the guerrillas, generals, and generals have a lot of people who don't know a single character.However, these Shunxiangbao officers are all illiterate and adults, and they have passed the prime time of literacy, even Han Chao and Han Zhong are no exceptions. It is really difficult for them to read and write.

These military officers asked them to practice martial arts, and they could practice non-stop. When it came to literacy, they made all kinds of strange things and complained endlessly.I'm not tired here or there all day long, or it hurts here and there.However, Wang Dou required the officers to know at least three characters every day, and every day, a few clerks would conduct spot checks, and if they made mistakes, they would be beaten with military sticks.Especially Han Zhong, after a few months, he couldn't read a hundred words, and he was beaten with army sticks for a while every day, but after being beaten a lot, his skin became thicker, as hard as leather armor.

Only Han and North Korea are better. Since last year, until now, they have learned more than 300 characters.

……

The time soon came to the middle of March in the ninth year of Chongzhen. Wang Dou read the mansion newspaper. At the beginning of the ninth year, Liang Tingdong, the governor of Xuanda, proposed to repair more than 200 miles of towers and walls in Xuanzhen Town. There are more than 23 liang of stone, salted vegetable and silver. The Ministry of household thinks that there is no way to deal with the original color, so they have to give up in the end.

At the beginning of this year, the weather in Baoan Prefecture was not very good. There was no heavy snow last year, and this year, there was no rain. Seeing that the seedlings in the fields did not grow well.But even so, Baoan Prefecture is already considered better than other places in Ming Dynasty.

Since February of this year, all parts of Shanxi have suffered from drought and insect infestation. In March, a great famine and famine occurred.At that time, the hungry people had no food, so they had to eat bark and grass leaves. Famine also occurred in Nanyang, Henan, which is close to Shanxi.Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict for relief, and exempted the old and new salaries of the disaster-affected counties.

However, the relief was a drop in the bucket, and even officials who were greedy for ink did not fall into the hands of the hungry people. For a while, the hungry people scattered and poured into all parts of Ming Dynasty.

Since March, a stream of hungry people have flowed into Baoan Prefecture from Weizhou, Shunsheng Prefecture and other places, and gathered near the city, hoping to survive. In the middle of March, dozens or hundreds of hungry people came to Shun Township Under the fort, as the news spread that people could survive in Shunxiang Fort, on March [-]th, a crowd of thousands of hungry people came.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a nursing home to take in the victims of the disaster, to support the orphans, the poor, the disabled and the helpless, and a cemetery was set up to bury the remains of the remains.During the reign of Yongle, a canteen was set up to relieve the refugees, and two temples of candles and gangan were set up in the capital to accommodate the victims.After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, porridge factories were set up all over the Ming Dynasty to help the victims.

The porridge factory was originally a benevolent government, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the ability to provide relief was seriously insufficient. Rich household officials in various places were also cold-blooded.Since the hungry people came to Baoanzhou city in March, the governor of Baoanzhou and the integrity officials ordered the city gates to be closed and strictly guarded, but no one from the officials came forward to give porridge and charity, and even the rice shops in the city collectively raised the price of rice. Make huge profits.

Under such circumstances, Zheng Fu Mingqi, a Confucian scholar in Baoanzhou, stood up. He ran around the city, calling on wealthy households to set up porridge factories outside the city. However, except for Wansheng and Rice Stores in the city, there were few responses, and many victims of starvation .

Since the hungry people entered the boundary of Shunxiang Fort in mid-March, Wang Dou ordered to set up a porridge factory outside the fort to relieve the victims, and ordered a team of Shunxiang Army to patrol everywhere to bury and discard the corpses.However, with more and more hungry people, Wang Dou ordered Shunxiang Fort to be on strict alert, and at the same time, the porridge factory set up outside the fort became larger and larger.

On March [-]th, a crowd of thousands of hungry people came outside the fort. Wang Dou also summoned all the officers and officers in the fort to discuss how to relieve the victims.

The atmosphere in the hall was dull, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Lin Daofu, Chi Dacheng, Wen Fangliang, Sun Sanjie, Feng Dachang and others present were all silent. There is not much money and food, and the hundreds of victims were fine, but now there are thousands of hungry people, I am afraid that the officials..."

He shook his head. He is the clearest about the financial situation in the castle. Even if there were no victims, it would probably only last for less than three months. So many hungry people came again...

Wang Dou pondered for a long time, and sighed: "We are the same people of Ming Dynasty, how can we see that there is no rescue? There is also a shortage of small population in our fort. After these disaster victims are taken in, they will reclaim wasteland in the future and form an army. They are the best population." , Food and money are tight, I will find a way, no matter how many disaster victims come, we must try not to die."

Wen Fangliang said: "Your Excellency is kind, how can your subordinates fall behind others, so the subordinate officials donated fifty shi of rice to help the hungry people."

Everyone looked at him in surprise. Although Wen Fangliang was rich and his family had hundreds of acres of fertile land, it was a big deal to donate fifty shi of rice in one go.

Sun Sanjie said: "The lower officials also donated ten shi of rice."

Sun Sanjie also has more than 100 mu of fertile land in Shunxiangbao. He donated ten shi of rice and grain, and more than half of his family's inventory was lost.

Wang Dou looked at the two of them with relief, he did not expect that among the officers of the Ming Dynasty, there were such benevolent people.

The rest, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Lin Daofu, Chi Dacheng, Feng Dachang and others also donated money and food one after another. They are not richer than Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie, but they can be regarded as doing their best. .

After Wang Dou returned to the house, his mother, Mrs. Zhong, said to Wang Dou, "Sinister, I heard that the severe drought in Shanxi has caused countless people to starve to death? My mother also went outside the fort to see that there are corpses everywhere on the banks of the Hun River." , Discarded in the water, it is too miserable."

Hungry people gathered under the city of Zhou, and many died of starvation due to lack of relief.Burying a corpse requires tens of pennies. Where can the government of Baoan Prefecture bury it?The corpses were just thrown into the river or on the wilderness, where dogs, crows, and goshawks were to bite.

However, this is prone to epidemics, especially when the temperature is about to rise. Wang Dou just ordered teams of Shunxiang troops to go out to patrol the city. There were bodies of refugees who died of illness and starvation in the territory, and they collectively dug pits and buried them.The corpses on the Hun River were fished out as much as possible and buried as deep as possible.Not to mention out of humanitarian considerations, this Hun River is also an important source of water for Wang Dou's farming in the future. How can Wang Dou let her be polluted?
Zhong said again: "I heard that there are as many as a thousand hungry people coming today? There are already nearly [-] hungry people outside the fort. Can our Fort Shun rescue them?"

Wang Dou sighed: "The boy is just doing his best!"

The arrival of these hungry people brought an important population to Wang Dou, but it's a pity that he has more than enough energy to provide relief now, which is really a pity.

Xie Xiuniang's stomach was already puffing up at this time, she was silent for a while, and said: "Brother, you are a great benevolent person who helps the victims. Xiuniang is useless, and I also want to share your worries and labors. Do something."

Zhong said: "Daughter-in-law, you are pregnant now, so don't worry about it. Forget it, let me, an old woman, do the work."

Xie Xiuniang said: "Mother-in-law, Xiuniang is fine, this is the daughter-in-law's wish, and I hope mother-in-law will make it happen."

Knowing that this daughter-in-law was soft on the outside and strong on the inside, she only wanted to relieve her husband's worries, and when she saw Xie Xiuniang, she wanted to kneel down. Persuasion was useless, so she agreed with a sigh.

Wang Dou pondered for a while, then said, "That's all right, but you have to be careful, Xiu Niang."

……

On March 21, the ninth year of Chongzhen, Shun Xiangbao opened a larger porridge factory outside the east gate, which can live thousands of people with one drum.

When the news came out, everyone in Baoan Prefecture was shocked, and they were all asking who the garrison officer of Nashun Township Fort was.Hearing this news, nearly a thousand hungry people rushed from the city of Baoan Prefecture, and almost all the hungry people who entered Baoan Prefecture gathered under Shunxiang Fort.

According to Wang Dou's requirements, the porridge should meet the standard of "it will not fall when you put chopsticks in it, and it will not fall apart when you untie the cloth bag".This kind of porridge, even if the hungry people who are starved to the ground, pour it with rice soup, and then continue to eat it with gruel, ten out of ten can save five or six, and all the hungry people who are about to collapse can be saved.

At the same time, the scale of the porridge factory is quite large, which can accommodate 3000 people to eat porridge at the same time. The hungry people who went to Shun Township fort before, the dishes are getting more and more lively, and the hungry people who arrived later can also survive. Fort is grateful to Dade, and also prevented these hungry people from becoming rogues.

In Wang Dou's plan, after these hungry people have recuperated for a while, he will organize these hungry people to provide relief with work. He will reclaim wasteland on a large scale, expand the operation of the iron factory, and build the city wall of Jingbian Fort.No matter who they are, as long as these hungry people can move a brick and a load of soil, they can feed for a day.This approach allows the hungry people to accept help with dignity and eat a meal with self-respect in exchange for their own labor.

In the end, Wang Dou will organize all these hungry people into military households, and organize the young and strong among them into sergeants.Let these hungry people all become residents of Shunxiangbao.

"Come one by one, there are all of them, everyone line up."

"Today my wife and the old lady serve the porridge in person. You should remember your kindness while drinking the porridge. Who kept you alive..."

More than a dozen cauldrons gave off heat and aroma, and all the hot rice porridge boiled on them. Around the cauldron, there were only dense crowds of hungry people. They lined up, holding their own bowls, and served them one by one. Get the porridge in front.

Xie Xiuniang was standing beside a large pot with a spoon in her hand, serving porridge to the hungry people one by one. She was small and her appearance was not outstanding, but her gentle smile, especially with her bulging belly, made her feel better in the eyes of the hungry people. From our point of view, it is no less than the merciful and compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.

Especially after hearing that this thin and pregnant woman was the wife of Wang Dou, the defense officer of Shun Township Fort, all the hungry people were even more grateful. After receiving the porridge, they couldn't stop thanking them.

Behind Xie Xiuniang, there are some women from military households in Shun Township who are helping, and some servants and girls who are taking care of Xie Xiuniang in the mansion are also helping and maintaining order. Some hungry people who do not have bowls and chopsticks are also responsible for distributing bowls and chopsticks.

Beside some other large pots, Wang Dou's mother, Mrs. Zhong, was also serving porridge. good case.

She is full of energy, and she still doesn't feel tired after spooning for an hour. The hungry people who received the porridge from her are also very grateful.Especially when I heard that this old lady is also the mother of Master Defender, she was even more sincere and fearful, respectful, and at the same time very grateful.

Only in Shun Township Castle, there are such benevolent officials and wives who let the big guys survive. Who would dare to crowd and compete regardless of face?

Mrs. Zhong and Xie Xiuniang both came out to serve porridge in person, and the officers and wives in the fort were not to be left behind. They all came out to serve porridge with their own hands, or to help maintain order. Although there were many hungry people in the fort in Shun Township, it was in good order.

※※※

Old White Bull:
The power went out yesterday, what a tragedy.

I still have something to do tonight, let's see if I can do more tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)