On the grassland, the temperature difference between day and night is huge. Although it is extremely hot during the day, it can be so cold that you shiver at night.

Yang Zhen followed the last group of people to cross the river and jumped into the river. The splash of water hit his face, which refreshed his tired and sleepy spirit.

When he saw Yang Shen, he rode his horse to follow him, so as he moved forward, he asked about their journey to Xuanfu to recruit troops. He learned that Yang Shen and the others had raised more than 1,500 yuan in total during their trip to Xuanfu and other places.

The man was surprised and happy in his heart, and asked Yang Shen repeatedly how he raised more than 1,500 people with 500 taels of silver.

Before Yang Shen left, Yang Zhen gave him all the five hundred taels of silver he had newly received from the court and told him to do what he could.

Of course, Yang Zhen also knew that he sent people to Xuanfu to recruit troops, and the candidates he sent were relatives of the old Yang family. As the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town, his uncle Yang Guozhu would not stand idly by and would definitely help.

Either he has to sponsor a group of soldiers with money and food, or he has to sponsor a group of swords, guns, bows and arrows and other weapons and equipment.

However, even so, whenever Yang Zhen thought that the annual salary of an ordinary soldier in the Liaodong Army was as high as twenty-four taels of silver, he still did not dare to be too optimistic about Yang Shen's trip.

How much can five hundred taels of silver do in the Xuan Mansion? Even with Yang Guozhu's full help, I'm afraid he won't be able to recruit many qualified brave men!

"Sir, you don't know. The situation in Guanli is terrible now. Last year, the Tatars invaded the capital, and many families were destroyed. Shanxi and even the hinterland of the Central Plains were affected by droughts for consecutive years. Seeing that the refugees had been wiped out,

The thieves are making trouble again, and there are refugees and disaster victims everywhere in the pass, and no one can resettle them!"

Seeing Yang Zhen's fuss, Yang Shen immediately sighed and said to him: "The same is true in the Xuanda area. The countryside is ruined, famine is everywhere, and a large number of refugees gather inside and outside Xuanfu City! As soon as we arrive at the gate of Xuanfu City, we will put up a list

Recruiting troops is really a huge crowd, and the applicants are gathered together!

"Your Majesty said that when recruiting soldiers, we should recruit sons from good families, so this time we were selective and looked for those young men who had brought their families and fled to beg for food. After they signed and pledged their lives to us, each of us gave one tael of Anjia silver!

"

When Yang Zhen heard Yang Shen talk about the details of recruiting soldiers, he couldn't help but asked in surprise: "You will sell your life to us for just one tael of money?!"

"Isn't it true? In troubled times, human life is not as good as that of a dog. In the two years of famine and war in Guanli, human life is worthless! Let alone a tael of silver to buy a life, even a yellow steamed bun can be exchanged for a yellow flower girl!"

Yang Shen saw that Yang Zhen was a little lost and speechless after hearing what he said, so he continued: "Before we left, your Excellency gave us five hundred taels of silver. After we arrived at Xuan Mansion, the Second Master and Young Master Jie each took it.

Five hundred taels, we scraped together 1,500 taels and raised 1,500 people! But—"

Speaking of this, Yang Shen first rode around a large car stuck on the river beach, and then after catching up with Yang Zhen, he continued:

"However, since we came out of Zhangjiakou, we have suffered serious losses along the way. There are sick, stragglers, and runaways every day. Those who can persist in following their humble jobs all the way to Hongmiaozi, there are only about 1,200 people left at the moment.

It’s over! Almost 20% of the staff has been reduced!”

"Reducing 20% ​​of the staff makes 20%! It may be a good thing to eliminate the unsuitable ones! It is good to have more people, but the burden is also heavy! People eat what horses chew, so why don't you need money? Soldiers are easy to recruit, but they have to be fed.

But it’s not easy! One thousand and two is one thousand and two, you have done a great job!”

There are not many people, and the strength of a large number of people looks good, but the food, pay and military equipment required cannot be raised and met in a short time.

Songshan City is small and it is not suitable to have too many people inside, so when he heard that Yang Shen and his party came here from Zhangjiakou and reduced their number by about 20% without fighting a battle, although he was a little surprised, he didn't feel much heartache.

feeling.

In this era, the grasslands outside the Great Wall were suffering from drought and water shortages, epidemics and epidemics, and the living conditions were very harsh. Not everyone could survive in the first place.

If you take this into consideration, then more than 1,500 people are wandering around on the grasslands outside the Great Wall, and after traveling a thousand or two thousand miles, there are still about 1,200 people left, which is pretty good.

Moreover, after experiencing such a long march, these brave civilians Yang Shen recruited from the pass can basically be regarded as an army. Their combat skills may need to be tempered, but their long-distance marching and wild survival skills have already been trained.

Came out.

According to Yang Zhen's guess, it was probably thanks to this that the new recruits who rushed into battle were able to successfully intercept the caravans who were fleeing in panic.

"What the Lord said is exactly the same as what the Second Master said! It's easy to recruit soldiers but hard to raise them. It's not about having more soldiers but having good ones! Although there are many refugees, they are the local scoundrels and second-rates who have no worries and have enough food for one person and the whole family is not hungry.

, but I definitely can’t have it!

"The second master followed our method this time and would rather spend money to select good family members to train as soldiers! He also placed the recruited brave family members in a camp outside the city to provide relief, and taught them to open up wasteland and cultivate land! Including

The families of these brave men we have recruited have also made arrangements together!"

Yang Zhen and Yang Shen asked and answered questions. As they talked, they followed the large group of people across the river beach, passed the reed swamp, and finally landed on the west bank of the Laohua River.

Zu Keyong, Dunn, Hutuge and others have reorganized the captured and surrendered caravans on the west bank of the Laohua River. The vanguard, led by Zu Keyong and Hutuge, has escorted the carriages and horses.

The camel caravan headed south along the east bank of the Laohua River.

Xu Changyong, Liu Wanzhong, and Qingshan Hao, who had crossed the river first, naturally did not stop when they reached the shore. They followed the order of temporary formation when crossing the river and directly followed the leading team southward.

Yang Zhen crossed the river, rode his horse and stood on a high ground, looking south. He saw countless carriages, horses and camels, forming an endless dragon, marching southward in the silver moonlight.

, the front team was already several miles away to the south, while the rear team had just landed on the land on the east bank of the Laohua River, and the formation had not yet started.

If this marching team were suddenly attacked by any prairie cavalry at this time, the consequences would be disastrous.

Fortunately, the grassland under the moonlight is as quiet and mysterious as ever. Only the occasional howl of wolves and the sound of gusts of wind blowing through the reeds break the tranquility of this world from time to time.

This area of ​​Tuchengzi is located at the junction of Haraqin, Aohan tribe and Wengniute tribe. It crosses the Laohua River to the east, and is the Prince's Mansion of Aohan tribe fifty or sixty miles away. It crosses Yinjin to the north.

More than a hundred miles from the river is Wengniute, and more than a hundred miles to the southwest is Haraqin.

In other words, the nearest prince's mansion in Aohan is fifty or sixty miles away.

Therefore, Yang Zhen was not worried that the roar of bullets, sounds of fighting, and shouts on both sides of the Laohua River in the evening would spread to the tribes near here.

Especially for the Aohan tribe and the Wengniute tribe, which were separated by the Laohua River and the Yinjin River respectively, Yang Zhen was not worried that they would get the news immediately.

On the contrary, Yang Zhen was more worried about the Karaqin tribe a hundred miles southwest of Tuchengzi.

First, the Karaqin tribe has a larger number of troops and stronger troops and horses.

Both of them, the area around Tuchengzi is right on the border of Karaqin, with no rivers blocking it, making it easy for cavalry to travel.

Third, the battlefield was chaotic at that time, and there were indeed caravans fleeing westward.

Although there was an interception by Yang Shen's troops heading east along the Yinjin River from the direction of Hongmiaozi, the west was so open that it was inevitable that some fish would slip through the net.

These fish that slipped through the net will definitely not turn north and cross the Yinjin River to Wengniute, but they will definitely go all the way south to Haraqin to report the news.

Yang Zhen rode his horse and looked around for a while, and saw that Yang Shen's troops were driving all the captured people, horses and livestock across the river. He immediately ordered Yang Shen to lead the team to escort them first, follow the team in front, and drive south.

At the same time, he also ordered Zhang Chen, Li Lu, and Deng En to lead their own troops and stay until the end to act with him and hold the rear for the entire team.

"Sir, we will really make a fortune this time!"

After Yang Shen's team escorted the last captured herds of men, horses and livestock and slowly moved south, Zhang Chen, Li Lu and Deng En arranged the affairs at the rear of the formation and rushed to Yang Zhen's side. Among them, Deng En

As soon as En saw Yang Zhen, he said excitedly:

"This caravan is really what you call a traitor caravan. In addition to wheat, beans, millet, rice, cloth, and tea leaves, they also brought countless sulfur, Glauber's salt, iron bars, and arrow clusters! Including ready-made gunpowder and projectiles.

There are dozens of barrels! Humph, how can any serious merchant in Guanli dare to traffic in these prohibited military supplies?!

"If we hadn't intercepted it and it had fallen into the hands of the Tatars, how many of our brothers might have been killed in the future?! It's okay this time, it's all in our hands. From now on, adults can do it too

We no longer have to worry about our advance battalion running out of ammunition every day! Even with the way we are fighting now, it will be enough to last for a while!"

"Oh, you found sulfur and thenardite in the Fan family's goods?!"

When Yang Zhen heard the good news reported by Dunn, he immediately asked a question in order to get further confirmation. However, he did not expect that Dunn would immediately say:

"It's absolutely true, and it's not just sulfur and thenardite, sir, we also seized a batch of well-made shotgun barrels from the Fan family's caravan!

"If these bastards are successfully transported to the Mantatars, maybe there will be muskets in the Wuzhen Chaoha camp in Mantatars soon!"
Chapter completed!