The reason why Zhang Shize was transferred back to Yansui was to allow him to rectify the border troops. In Zhu Youjian's plan, the thorough rectification of the nine-border armies was the top priority, and it was ranked above the attack on Jiannu and the recovery of Shenyang.

After reorganizing the Nine Borders, the military will become stronger. The cleared military fields will reduce the cost of raising troops. The border troops will no longer be afraid of threats from the grasslands and can devote all their energy to reform. .

Zhang Shize's task was to rectify the Yulin Guards, but he did not have the power to directly govern Yulin and had to act under the orders of Sun Chuanting, the governor of the three sides.

When the Yulin soldiers came out of the border wall to attack the Black Mountain bandits, the Yansui Army was ordered to go to Yulin to assist in the defense. Zhang Shize had just led the army to Yulin. Unexpectedly, within a few days of arriving in Yulin, he received news that the Yulin soldiers had been defeated.

Standing at the head of the border wall, Zhang Shize frowned as he watched the Yulin troops retreat in disgrace, abandoning their helmets and armor.

The seven or eight thousand defeated soldiers looked so pitiful with their gray heads, yellow faces, skinny muscles, and rags in rags. Many of the defeated soldiers were staggering and crumbling. I don't know how they managed to hold on.

On the side wall, seeing this situation, the original Yulin soldiers were all sighing, secretly glad that they were not taken out into battle.

"The commander-in-chief is back, open the side gate quickly!" The defeated soldiers came to the pass and shouted loudly towards the city wall.

On the city wall, all the officers and soldiers looked at Zhang Shize. Without his order, even the original Yulin soldiers did not dare to go down and open the door privately.

"Open the door!" Zhang Shize ordered in a deep voice.

"I've met the prince." Ma Gui walked up to the wall and saluted Zhang Shize with clasped fists. After entering the side wall, someone told him of the arrival of the Yansui Army and the identity of the leader, so he hurriedly led his generals to the city. Greetings. Although we are all general soldiers, Zhang Shize is a British prince, so there is a huge difference in status.

"Mr. Ma fought a good battle." Zhang Shize looked at the troops entering outside the border wall and said calmly.

"The defeated general, I am really ashamed." Ma Gui's face turned red. Behind him, You Zhensong and other generals showed angry expressions on their faces.

"You should be ashamed. When an army of 10,000 went out to fight, they were defeated without even knowing who the enemy was. They didn't kill a single enemy, and they didn't even persist for a moment. Even if they brought 10,000 pigs into battle, they wouldn't. You lost so quickly." Zhang Shize became more and more mean as he spoke.

"Your Majesty, you can scold the junior general, but don't humiliate the soldiers of Yulin Army!" Ma Gui said angrily, no longer caring about the noble status of the other party.

"A pretty boy became the commander-in-chief because of his good family background. What does he know about fighting?" You Zhensong cursed.

"What's wrong with the Crown Prince? Can you insult the soldiers of the border army who have been through life and death? You would be worse than us!" Other Yulin generals also cursed.

Ma Gui was somewhat concerned about Zhang Shize's status as a British prince, but to these generals, although the British prince was noble, it was too far away and had no influence at all on the frontier army.

"How dare you insult me!" Zhang Shize was furious, "Come here, arrest all these defeated generals!"

As soon as he finished speaking, dozens of soldiers from the Imperial Guard rushed over, pointing guns and guns at Ma Gui and other generals.

"dare!"

"How brave!"

Ma Gui's generals were furious and drew out their sabers with clanging sounds and pointed them at the surrounding Imperial Guard soldiers.

"Prince Zhang, you are the commander-in-chief and I am also the commander-in-chief. I come here to pay my respects to the honor of the ancestors of the British Duke. Don't go too far." Ma Gui stared at Zhang Shize and sneered.

Zhang Shize smiled lightly: "You alone are not worthy of my anger. I have been ordered by the governor of the three sides, Sun Dushuai, to take over the Yulin Guards and strictly investigate the truth behind the defeat of the Yulin Army. From now on, all generals from the Yulin Commander-in-Chief onwards will

You all listen to my command, why don’t you want to rebel?"

As he spoke, Zhang Shize took out a document from his pocket and unfolded it in his hand.

Looking at the document with the governor's seal on three sides, Ma Gui started to tremble.

"The people who came here have disarmed their weapons and are all being held for trial. Anyone who dares to resist will be shot to death!" Zhang Shize said sternly.

"Yes!" The soldiers agreed in unison, forced themselves towards Ma Gui and others, knocked off their weapons, and tied them to the ground.

There was a President Qian who was unwilling to be caught. He raised his knife and waved it, trying to prevent the guards from approaching. Then with a "bang", the gunman of the guards on the opposite side opened fire directly, killing him on the spot.

It turned out to be serious! Looking at the bodies lying on the ground, from Magui to ordinary soldiers on the city wall, everyone was shocked.

"Brothers Yulinwei on the wall, listen to my orders and fight with them!" You Zhensong suddenly raised his arms and shouted.

In addition to the hundreds of Yansui soldiers on the side gate wall, there are hundreds of Yulin guards, which are much more numerous than the Yansui soldiers. In You Zhensong's opinion, no matter who the British prince is, everyone swarmed up and arrested him first.

A mutiny broke out and forced the court to make concessions.

However, what surprised You Zhensong and others was that there was indeed a commotion on the city wall, and then there was no movement. None of the hundreds of Yulin soldiers were willing to move.

"Didn't you hear my general's order? Why are you still standing there waiting for a military stick?" You Zhensong cursed angrily.

Who knew that it would be better if he didn't scold him? As soon as the scolding came out, the Yulin soldiers on the city wall retreated even further away from them. Many soldiers even showed disgust on their faces.

These generals usually eat empty pay, drink the blood of their soldiers, and treat their military households as slaves. The military households usually dare not speak out when they are angry, but now that they are in misfortune, how can they stand up for them?

Although Zhang Shize was an outsider, he represented the imperial court, and these Yulin soldiers had no reason to go against the imperial court for their own greedy generals.

Zhang Shize waved his hand, and the Imperial Guard soldiers swarmed forward and captured all these Yulin generals.

"This man tried to incite the soldiers to rebel. His crime is extremely heinous. There is no need to put him on trial. He will be executed directly!" Zhang Shize pointed at You Zhensong and said.

Two soldiers dragged You Zhensong to the crenel, pushed his head out of the crenel, and slashed him with a knife. Blood spurted out, and Dou Da's head rolled in the air and fell to the bottom of the city.

One of the generals cut it off as soon as he was told. There was silence both above and below the city, and no one dared to make the slightest move.

A group of generals were escorted off the city wall and imprisoned in a military camp. Zhang Shize took over the entire Yulin Guard. Zhang Shize himself occupied the Yulin General Military Office and assigned his men to guard key points such as the grain depot and weapons depot.

Then Zhang Shize issued a military order to make up for the arrears of the Yulin Guardsmen's salary, which immediately made all Yulin military households burst into joy, and those who were originally aggrieved by the arrest of Ma Gui and others disappeared.

Naturally, the money and food in the Yulin warehouse was not enough to pay for all the Yulin soldiers, so Zhang Shize ordered that the homes of Ma Gui and other Yulin generals be confiscated and the money and food embezzled by these generals be removed for payment.

These generals occupied the military fields, ate empty pay and soldiers' blood, and each of them was fat and rich. Each of them had a fortune. The amount of silver copied from the home of the chief soldier alone was as much as one hundred thousand taels. One hundred thousand taels of silver,

It's nothing in the south of the Yangtze River, but in the bitter cold frontier, it's a huge fortune! I don't know what kind of means were used to accumulate such a huge wealth!

But now it has become evidence of Ma Gui's corruption. Just because he embezzled so much money, he could be beheaded ten times without losing anything.

As for the other generals' homes, they also found thousands of taels to tens of thousands of taels of silver each. This money was far more than the salary they deserved, and most of it was obtained by exploiting soldiers.

Then there is the cleared military land. More than half of the more than 200,000 acres of Yulin Guard's military land have been divided up by these generals. The granaries in these generals' homes are piled up like mountains. The food in their homes is more than that in the Yulin City granary.

Want more. According to the investigation, Ma Gui and other generals sold these grains to Shanxi merchants who came to the border areas in exchange for money and various luxury items to satisfy their extravagant desires.

In contrast, ordinary military households were starved of food. Every winter, many old and weak military households froze to death and starved to death. The situation was so tragic that even Zhang Shize could not bear to look directly at it.

A large amount of money and food were moved from the homes of these generals and distributed to ordinary military households. All the military households were extremely grateful to Zhang Shize and called him Lord Qingtian.

Just when Zhang Shize was about to take the opportunity to declare the Qing army's territory, spies suddenly came to report, and tens of thousands of refugees and thieves came to kill them. They were less than fifty miles away from Yulin Guards.

At this moment, Zhang Shize has 7,000 Yansui imperial guards around him, and there are more than 10,000 defenders in Yulin. However, the Yulin soldiers have lost their generals and are in an unorganized state. According to the sentinel report, there are 30,000 Black Mountain bandits attacking Yulin.

If there are too many, we are actually outnumbered.

Someone suggested to Zhang Shize that he should first release Ma Gui and other Yulin generals so that they could lead troops and perform meritorious service to help resist the Black Mountain bandits, but Zhang Shize repelled them.

Some people also suggested that this battle should focus on defending the border wall. Although the border wall belonging to the Yulin Guards is dilapidated, there are 7,000 Yansui elite soldiers, plus the assistance of more than 10,000 Yulin soldiers, there should be no problem in defending the border wall, and then attack Datong.

Sun Chuanting, the governor of the three sides, asked for help, and waited until the Datong soldiers arrived, and then fought to the death with the Black Mountain bandits.

This suggestion was undoubtedly very sound. According to this suggestion, there would be no problem in defending Yulin, but it was still rejected by Zhang Shize.

Zhang Shize ordered that Yulin soldiers be left behind to guard the border wall, while he personally led 7,000 Yansui troops to go out to fight at the border wall.

Since we have been ordered to rectify the Yulin Guards, we must fight the Black Mountain bandits openly and defeat them quickly. Only in this way can we improve the morale of the three armies and increase the prestige of the Imperial Guards, and then we can start the work of reorganizing the Qingtian.

As for the 30,000 Black Mountain bandits, Zhang Shize, who had fought against the Jian slaves, didn't take them seriously.

Seven thousand Yansui soldiers lined up outside the side gate with their backs to the side wall. At the front were five thousand fire gun soldiers, divided into three groups, occupying the main valley road leading to the side gate and the hills on both sides. Two thousand cavalry were in formation.

Stay behind and wait for the order to attack at any time.

Half an hour later, dust was rising in the distance and it was quickly approaching the side door.

"Report, Commander, thousands of thieves on horseback are galloping towards our army. They are less than five miles away from our army." The sentinels came to report on Pegasus.

Is this trying to intimidate the cavalry? Zhang Shize sneered. He already knew how Ma Gui and other Yulin troops were defeated. They were attacked by thousands of thieves and cavalry, and they fled in fright.

However, it is really wishful thinking to rely on cavalry to attack the Yansui Army! When I went to Beijing to Qin Wang, in Jizhou, more than 10,000 Yansui Army experienced a real Mongolian cavalry raid. Relying on close cooperation, they simply used

Thousands of Mongolian light cavalry were annihilated with bayonets, but the Black Mountain bandits were probably even worse than the Mongols!

The Yansui Army did not change their formation, nor did they deploy chariots to resist the enemy. They still formed a formation of firecrackers. Three thousand firecrackers were divided into four rows, firmly blocking the more than one mile wide valley road leading to the side gate.

Another two thousand gunmen have already circled the hills on both sides and have also set up their gun formations.

One mile away, the 30,000 Black Mountain refugee army stopped. Wang Jiayin led Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others to fly up to a high hill to observe the Ming army's formation.

"This Ming army is really brave. They did not defend the city when they were defeated, but they dared to take the initiative to fight." Zhang Xianzhong said carelessly.

"Don't be careless. Since the Ming army dares to go out of the city to form an array, they must have something to rely on. General Chuang, go and see. Which Ming army and general is the flag?" Wang Jiayin ordered.

Li Hongji put his hand in front of his eyebrows and watched carefully for a moment, then said: "Looking at the flag, it should be the Yansui Army, and the leader is the British Prince Zhang Shize."

"The British prince?" Wang Jiayin frowned slightly, "How is this man's fighting ability?"

Li Hongji smiled slightly: "A pampered young man who grew up with the emperor and became the commander-in-chief of a town before he was twenty years old. How capable can he be?"

"I think so. There is a border wall to defend, but you still have to go out of the city to fight with us. I don't think the sky is high and the earth is high." Gao Yingxiang laughed.

"If you catch this heir apparent, you might be able to get tens of thousands of taels of ransom silver," Zhang Xianzhong shouted.

"Master, if we can defeat the Yansui Army, we can go back to our hometown in northern Shaanxi. Then we can gather the folks and expand the army to tens of thousands." Li Hongji said with a smile.

The leaders talked to each other and treated the thousands of Ming troops on the opposite side like chickens and dogs. I don't blame them for being arrogant. It was really too easy to fight the three Ming troops before.

Others were like this, and the same was true for Wang Jiayin, the leader of the Black Mountain Army, who did not pay attention to the Ming army in front of him.

"King Chuang, the eight kings, each of you allocate 2,000 troops to General Chuang, and ask him to lead the men to stop the Ming army on the hills on both sides. The other brothers will follow me to defeat the Ming army formation in front and rush into Yulin City!" Wang Jiayin!

Pointing to the front and shouting.

"Yes!" the leaders responded loudly. They rushed into the side wall and looted. No one wanted to fall behind at this time. Therefore, the task of blocking the Ming army on the hills on both sides could only be given to Li Hongji.
To be continued...