On April 15, the twelfth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly.
Outside the south gate of Xuanfu Town, Zhang Cheng was seeing off his subordinates. They were going to the Dushi Castle on the North Road of Xuanfu before Zhang Cheng.
It turned out that just after Wei Zhice and others left the day before yesterday, Zhang Cheng received a letter from Chen Zheng, which made Zhang Cheng decide to go to Shangbei Road immediately.
The Xuanfu Shangbei Road is located in the Dushiba Castle. It was built in the fifth year of Xuande's reign. In June of the same year, the Xuanfu Kaiping Guards were moved here from the old city of Kaiping to build guards.
The area under the jurisdiction of Shangbei Road extends to Jing'an Fort in the east, Dabian in the north, and Jinjiazhuang in the west. There are 261 miles of border walls, 363 border piers, and 40 major crossings at each entrance.
As many as seven places.
Here, it should be guarded by the general. Before Zhang Cheng, Liu Guangwu, the general of Xuanzhen, was responsible for guarding the Kaiping Guard. Because Zhang Cheng was coming to Shangbei Road, the court had decided to transfer Liu Guangwu back to Xuanfu Town to command the Zhenbiao Right Wing Battalion.
Sitting in the camp and joining the general.
Currently, only Xuanfu Governor Liu Yongzha and Commander-in-Chief Yang Guozhu know about this news. Even Deputy Commander-in-Chief Lin Dengyou who is in the town does not know about it. Zhang Cheng only heard him mention this matter when he visited Governor Liu Yongzha yesterday evening.
Of course, these are not the reasons why Zhang Cheng is eager to go to Shangbei Road. What makes him tempted and eager to go to Shangbei Road is the information sent back by Chen Zheng.
Chen Zheng used his own security to facilitate the separation of Zhang Cheng and others. He led three hundred knights carrying Zhang Cheng's letter and rushed to the Shangbei Road to set up a checkpoint. However, he found that the military households in that place were severely fleeing and the people were alienated. There was no one inhabited for dozens of miles.
situation.
Although there are two rivers, Dushishui and Longmenchuan, flowing all the way to the south, most of the fields are abandoned and few are cultivated. Many lands that are suitable for farming are now deserted.
Only then did Zhang Cheng become inspired and hurried to Dushi Fort so that he could see the appearance of this barren land for himself. He tried to organize soldiers and civilians to open up wasteland and build canals as soon as possible.
That's why he rushed to the governor's office overnight to meet with Liu Yongzha, and reported to him that he was about to set off and that he needed to clear up wasteland and build canals immediately after arriving at Dushi Castle. He hoped to get the attention of the governor and Yanqing Prefecture in terms of manpower and material resources.
support.
Governor Liu Yongzhao had the imperial court in mind and supported Zhang Cheng in organizing the new army. He immediately agreed to all Zhang Cheng's requests and informed Zhang Cheng that the imperial court was preparing to transfer North Road Staff General Liu Guangwu to serve as the camp commander of the Zhenbiao Right Wing Battalion.
will be the news.
Zhang Cheng didn't care about this. A general of the Zhenbiao right-wing battalion simply couldn't catch his eye. If he wanted this position, he would have gotten it long ago.
However, just because he doesn't want it doesn't mean that others don't want it either. Li Jianming and Wen Huike, the guerrillas in Xuanzhen, are both working up and down. They want to succeed Zhang Yan and be promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief of the Zhenbiao right-wing battalion by virtue of their merits in joining the Wei Qinwang.
Woolen cloth.
However, they will be disappointed in the end!
It's just that Zhang Cheng only knew that this was the place where the Tartars often broke through the Shangbei Road. As for the specific situation of the Shangbei Road, he didn't know much about it. It was for this reason that he sent Chen Zheng there in advance.
Investigate.
At the beginning, the reason why this place was chosen for guarding was simply because it was the northernmost border of Xuanzang Town. The imperial court had insufficient control over it, so it was thought that it would be cheaper to operate.
During these days, Zhang Cheng was also looking for people to understand the situation on Shangbei Road.
The Shangbei Road is guarded by the generals. The station is in Dushibao City. There is a Kaiping Guard. There are also three guards on the road, namely Mayingbao Guard, Yunzhou Suocheng Guard and Chicheng Guard. They all guard alone.
One city is equivalent to the strength of a guerrilla general.
In addition, there are eight large forts on the road, including Qingquan Fort, Banbidian Fort, Maoeryu Fort, Junzi Fort, Pine Tree Fort, Zhen'an Fort, Zhenning Fort, and Cangshang Fort.
There are also Dushicheng Kaiping Post, Yunzhou Suobao Yunzhou Post, Chicheng Yunmen Post, Diaoyubao Haoling Post, Chang'an Suofengyu Post and other post stations, Mayingbao Zhongzi Nuanpu, Longmensuo Muzi Nuan
There are as many as 25 warm shops such as Longmen Wei Lezi Warm Shop and express delivery shop.
It can be said that the Xuanfu Shangbei Road covers a very vast area, but it is surrounded by Mongolia on three sides and Shanxi on the periphery. The only places suitable for farming are the Dushishui in the center and the Longmen River, which is a narrow strip running north to south.
However, through interviews with some old craftsmen, Zhang Cheng learned that there were many mineral deposits in the valleys on Shangbei Road, some of which were very easy to mine. He rewarded those old craftsmen at that time and agreed to mine them if necessary.
Then send someone to pick them up and take them to Shangbei Road to help them explore.
At the same time, he used some money to obtain the fields of Shangbei Road in his early years and the books of military households from the Yamen of the capital commander. Zhang Cheng was particularly happy about this and handed them over to Chen Zhong for safekeeping.
…………
Today, Wu Zhizhong led the thousand newly recruited sergeants to set off first. Following them were the craftsmen. They first went to Yunzhou Fort to wait for Zhang Cheng.
It is scheduled for tomorrow that Chen Dakuan and Cui Shijie will lead four hundred sergeants to escort the weapons received from various treasuries of the Xuanfu, as well as the 12,000 taels of recruiting silver, grain and grain allocated to Zhang Cheng from the Xuanfu treasury.
One thousand five hundred stones, the remaining amount is left to Zhang Cheng to figure out a way for himself.
At this time, the treasury everywhere in the Ming Dynasty was extremely empty, and the same was true in Xuanzhen. The court was already powerless. It wanted the generals to train more elite troops, but they could not guarantee them in terms of food and pay. How could they train these troops?
Fortunately, from the arsenal of Zhang Cheng's self-proclaimed town, he extracted a large number of 1,200 military tents, iron pots, iron pots, horse antlers, iron caltrops, camp lanterns, water bags, etc., as well as 70 heavy carriages.
shelf.
In addition, there are 500 pairs of fine armors, more than 700 broadswords, big sticks, and spears, as well as 200 fine bird blunderbuss, 30 squatting tiger cannons, 100-piece blunderbuss, and 20 small Fran cannons.
, this is really an unexpected surprise.
It doesn't matter about the others, veterans like them can pick them out, but Zhang Cheng led the old craftsmen to select these firearms one by one. He really didn't dare to use those that were of substandard quality.
There are also a large number of iron ingots, gunpowder and other materials. As for various items for land reclamation and farming, they will be allocated by Yanqing Prefecture nearby, and there are also some reserves of materials in the warehouse on Shangbei Road.
A large amount of military supplies have been brought with them by Wu Zhizhong and his new military camp. Only military supplies such as money, grain, and firearms were escorted to Dushi Fort with the second wave.
To be on the safe side, he specifically ordered Zhang Guangda to lead the cavalry under his command to escort him as the commander of the second wave. He also arranged for the town governor He Biao to accompany him, and he was responsible for all matters including the receipt of military supplies and other matters.
Along with Zhang Guangda and others on their way to Shangbei Road, there were more than 300 unmarried men from Xinzhuang Fort. They went with the army to build canals on Shangbei Road and reclaim wasteland. They would act as auxiliary troops on the road and escort military supplies.
The two hundred newly selected young men at Xinzhuang Fort are also serving as new troops. They will be training here for the time being. If they do not go to the North Road, including the hundred strong women and thirty-eight orphans, they will all be at Xinzhuang Fort.
Practice here.
Zhang Cheng temporarily left them here in the town just in case. He was very thoughtful and wanted to retain a force at every step so that he could feel at ease. Not to mention that his mother, aunt, and cousin would all