Chapter 53: The new uncle is the grandfather of the general soldier
On December 16, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, at Chen time, the army on the North Road of Xuanzhen broke out and set up camp, and left Yanshi and headed north under the watchful eyes of the people of Yanshi.
Although many Yanshi gentry tried their best to persuade him to stay, even willing to pay for the food and salary, and hoped that Zhang Cheng could leave an army to guard the safety of Yanshi, they were all declined by Zhang Cheng on the grounds that military affairs were urgent.
However, before Zhang Cheng's army withdrew, a round of purges had been carried out in Yanshi City. Those scoundrels who actively attached themselves to thieves had been eliminated. Some young men were recruited and given the responsibility of maintaining law and order and guarding the city.
Yanshi had already been plundered by the intruders, and now that Zhang Cheng's army had withdrawn, the small town was starved of money and water. I thought that the intruder king Li Zicheng would not come to harass it again, at least not in the near future.
At noon, Wei Zhice, Zhang Guodong, Zhang Guangda, and Wang Yuanjing led a team of chariots and a team of infantry and rushed to the valley five miles outside Yangjialou to set up camp.
Chen Zhong rushed to the scheduled camping place early to wait for them. Everyone had received the message that Zhang Cheng would marry Miss Yang Liying from Yangjialou Village today. They came here specially to give gifts and attend the wedding banquet.
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It turned out that during the banquet on the evening of the 14th, after Yang Liying came to serve Zhang Cheng's bowl of wine, Yang Shibin, the head of the Yang family building, took the initiative to mention to Zhang Cheng that he would betroth his sister to Zhang Cheng.
Although Zhang Cheng also admired Yang Liying in his heart, he said that he did not want Yang Liying to be wronged and had to agree to the matter personally. Yang Shibin left Zhang Cheng in the hall to continue drinking.
Yang Shibin hurriedly entered the inner house and asked, but Yang Liying just replied: "My red tassel gun is a love token. Since Zhang Cheng took it, he couldn't regret it. What's more, I also accepted two of his handguns as a betrothal gift."
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As for being a wife or a concubine, it doesn't matter to me here. As long as I go to war with the army and don't want to stay alone in the empty boudoir, everything else can be done by General Zhang Cheng!"
On Zhang Cheng's side, it would be the best to have a beautiful woman return to his home. What's more, the Yang family can become his agent in Yu Province. How could he let go of such a beautiful thing!
So they agreed to get married on December 16th that night. The Yang family was responsible for inviting old friends from various villages in the surrounding Mang Mountains. Zhang Cheng also ordered Lin Fangping to go to Yanshi and order the army to set off as scheduled.
The generals Wei Zhice, Zhang Guodong, Zhang Guangda, and Wang Yuanjing were summoned to bring a chariot, an infantry unit, a Chinese cavalry unit, and two sentries from the cavalry unit to Yangjialou to attend the wedding banquet.
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The colorful lanterns in Yangjialou are hung high, and the whole village is brightly lit. After three consecutive years of disaster, and bandits are rampant, everyone is living in fear and caution, fearing that they will not be seen again after today.
The sun will be as bright as tomorrow.
Although the village has a lot of savings, it still lives a tight life on weekdays. After all, the year is not good, and no one dares to leave some backup. Who knows what kind of disaster will happen next year?
But today is different. Yang Shibin opened the warehouse in the village and distributed grains and meat to every household. After all, it was the eldest lady who was getting married, not to mention the fact that she was the deputy captain of the Yangjialou Village Ding Team. She was very busy on weekdays.
A person with authority.
Besides, Zhang Cheng even promised to give him a gift of 200 pairs of Yangjialou armors, 500 spears, knives and sticks, 100 shields, and 20 squatting tiger cannons. These are goods that are hard to buy even with money and grain.
, which is also the important material that his Yang family building is in urgent need of.
Although the marriage between Zhang Cheng and Yang Liying was kept simple due to the fierce banditry, the festive atmosphere was as festive as the Chinese New Year. The leaders of more than 40 villages around Mangshan that had not been conquered by the bandits all came to Yangjialou.
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First of all, they already have some friendship with Yang Jialou, and now they have signed a joint defense and joint security agreement, which is what they should do. In addition, they all heard that the person Yang Jialou got married to was a military commander.
In this troubled world, there are soldiers who are the grass-headed kings. How could they not understand this truth!
When Chen Zhong led Wei Zhice, Zhang Guodong, Zhang Guangda, Wang Yuanjing and other generals into the Yang family building, the streets were full of surprised eyes and expressions, especially the carts of armor, shields, spears, swords and clubs, which amazed them the most.
Still those twenty tiger squatting guns!
"Look, that's the cannon that my new uncle gave us..."
"...I heard that my new uncle is a military commander..."
"Of course... our aunt is not bad either... she is worthy of Grandpa General..."
"...I heard that my new uncle had killed Tatars..."
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More than two hundred brightly armored knights escorted dozens of flat-bed carts to the front of the Yang family compound. The eyes of guests from surrounding villages who came to attend the wedding banquet were filled with envy.
There was also a hint of deep awe in their eyes as they looked at Yang Shibin. The cavalry passed by the gate of the Yang family courtyard and directly entered the martial arts field next to it. They brought down bundles of fine armors, shields, spears, knives and clubs.
Especially the twenty squatting tiger cannons were lined up in a row. Several guests from other villages who came to celebrate the occasion couldn't help but walked up and gently caressed one of the squatting tiger cannons.
"Exquisite, even better than the ones in the county!"
"Wang Yuanwai is a man who knows things, and his uncle is a classic historian in Mengjin County..."
Zhang Cheng appeared in front of everyone wearing a red tight-fitting battle jacket and a red cloak. All the knights dismounted, held the reins of their horses, stood upright and shouted: "See you, Marshal!"
Everyone in the martial arts field was shocked. Seeing that Zhang Cheng was still in military uniform, they started talking again.
"Didn't you say marriage?"
"Why are you wearing a battle coat..."
"...This is what you don't know...Aunt Yang's special request..."
Amid the murmurs of the people around him, Zhang Cheng turned to Zhang Guodong and asked, "How are you doing with my instructions?"
Zhang Guodong cupped his fists and saluted: "I'm ready to report back to the commander-in-chief."
After he finished speaking, he turned to the one hundred infantry battalion sergeants following the cart and said: "Listen to the order, form a three-stage formation, take the musket, and prepare to shoot!"
Hundreds of sergeants dressed in red mandarin duck jackets quickly ran into the center of the martial arts field, stood in three rows, and took out the Yunzhou Type 2 guns and held them in their hands, waiting for the next military order.
In the midst of everyone's unknown surprise, Zhang Guodong stepped forward and shouted loudly: "First row, raise your guns to the sky, get ready, fire!"
"boom!"
A neat crisp sound was accompanied by a burst of smoke, which shocked the surrounding guests, and some people actually sat down on the ground.
As the three rows of firecrackers were set off, there was another burst of discussion.
"No, why don't these guns have match ropes?"
"...What's going on? I've never seen anyone getting married wearing a military jacket and setting off firecrackers..."
"Forget it, there are still a lot of things you haven't seen before. I fired a cannon and then sat on the ground. What if twenty cannons were fired at the same time over there..."
A clear female voice came from beside Zhang Cheng: "Hey, this has the same automatic fire as my hand cannon!"
He looked back at Yang Liying, who was also wearing a pink war jacket and a bright red cloak with wool and white edges, and asked jokingly: "Is it really okay to show up like this before the ceremony?"
"I, huh, I'm not the kind of person who dares not raise her head, sitting in the embroidery room and pretending to be a bride for people to see!"