252 [The sound of the wind] (for the warm sun of the Silver League 1314
Zhang Tieniu kept his promise, and all middle- and low-level officers and ordinary soldiers who had not escaped would be given food to go home.
The prerequisite is to collect their weapons and armor.
This was so merciful that Zhang Tieniu even wanted to kill all those officers regardless of their positions.
Moreover, you will definitely not kill the wrong one!
These officers and soldiers have been suppressing bandits in Guangdong and Guangxi for three years, and the court has not provided them with food and salary. Where did their military food come from?
All of them, with their hands full of blood, are executioners who massacre the common people.
Maybe some officers had done something like killing good people and taking credit for their merits. They killed a whole village, took away the money and food, put it in their pockets, chopped off their heads and used them to reward their merits, and then said that the village was massacred by rebels.
Some of the officers and soldiers who escaped on the day they captured the city rushed to Shixing County to report the news, and the Shixing defenders went to Nanxiong to report the news.
"Take only a small amount of baggage and withdraw the entire army!"
Lu Qian, the commander-in-chief of Guangdong Province, was horrified and immediately withdrew from Nanxiong Fucheng, taking the troops from Shixing County with him. They had to leave early, otherwise they would be blocked there and unable to advance or retreat, because Zhang Tieniu's route was a chrysanthemum.
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In fact, Lu Qian's main army has been blocked by Zhang Tieniu.
During the evacuation, Lu Qian was unable to take normal roads and could only leave through the mountains on a small path called "Qinghua Trail".
After climbing over mountains and ridges, they finally arrived at Wengyuan County. Lu Qian still did not dare to stay and continued to retreat to Yingde County to garrison, blocking Zhang Tieniu's main route south (Wengyuan County in the Ming Dynasty was very close to Yingde County).
The entire northern Guangdong was captured, leaving only Yingde City.
To the south of Yingde is Guangzhou!
Although there is Qingyuan in the middle blocking the waterway, there is a land official road directly connecting Yingde and Guangzhou.
As long as we capture Yingde, we can directly attack Guangzhou City.
This is not because Zhang Tieniu is so powerful, but because Shen Youlong made a strategic mistake in not sending troops to defend Huguang. As a result, once Shaozhou fell, Nanxiong, the main force in the direction of Shixing, was at risk of being blocked and surrounded, and the general was frightened.
Bing Lu Qian withdrew his troops from the mountain path overnight.
In fact, Shen Youlong himself did not know how to fight. He relied entirely on his staff to come up with ideas and left specific military matters to the generals.
When news of the fall of northern Guangdong came, Shen Youlong's situation became even more embarrassing.
He wanted to shrink the defense line, voluntarily abandon the city, and retreat to the direction of Guangzhou to join forces with Lu Qian, but Fei Ruhe was blocked in Longchuan and could not return.
That one road was blocked by Fei Ruhe's troops.
In desperation, Shen Youlong had no choice but to fight hard and personally led more than 6,000 soldiers, as well as the same number of civilians and a large fleet. More than 13,000 people voluntarily abandoned Longchuan City and went to attack Heyuan City.
Foreign expenses are as high as a crane.
The Heyuan garrison also numbered 3,000, which equals more than 16,000 people, and they attacked Fei Ruhe's 6,000 men (including civilian husbands) from both sides.
One hundred and thirty miles, marching along the river bank.
Set up camp in the evening.
After nightfall, there were shadows outside the military camp, and a large number of civilians transporting food escaped during the night. They were forcibly recruited and were not willing to fight at all. How could they not escape at such a good opportunity?
Shen Youlong was awakened by his own soldiers. After learning about the situation, he did not dare to stop him.
If there is too much noise in the middle of the night, the camp may be blown up directly, and the officers and soldiers will follow suit.
Those officers and soldiers are also unwilling to fight!
Shen Youlong's advantage is that he knows how to delegate power, he doesn't know how to fight, and he trusts his generals very much. However, this also led to the deterioration of military discipline. It took three years to suppress the bandits in Guangdong and Guangxi, and many times he deliberately allowed the rebels to go.
For those generals, by not fighting a tough battle with the rebels, firstly, they can help the rebels to respect themselves, secondly, they can preserve their strength, and thirdly, they can take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.
The generals made a fortune from robbery, but the bulk of the soldiers did not get much.
Even the military pay was not enough, and the food was very poor. This was the norm for the army in the late Ming Dynasty. That army could keep the soldiers well fed, but it was an anomaly among aliens.
Shen Youlong can defend the city with a large army. Once he leaves the city and the Datong Army is nearby, the soldiers and civilians will make up their mind to flee.
The march continued the next day, but due to the large number of civilians fleeing, soldiers had to be dispatched to transport food, causing the march to become even slower.
Set up camp in the evening.
This time Shen Youlong learned his lesson and placed the civilians in the middle and the soldiers on the periphery, so as to prevent the civilians from escaping at night.
The civilians really had no chance to escape, but the soldiers began to run away. The outermost troops were reduced by as much as 60% during the night, and more than 800 escaped overnight.
In the morning, when they counted the number of people, Shen Youlong and the generals all looked ugly.
The deputy commander-in-chief's name was Shi Wangzheng, a very good name. He called Shen Youlong aside and whispered: "Superintendent, we can't march like this anymore, otherwise our army may be defeated before we reach Heyuan to fight the rebels. They collapsed in the face of the wind."
"What can be done?" Shen Youlong sighed.
Shi Wangzheng suggested: "Immediately pay the soldiers and civilians, and make up for last month's military pay. The supervisor must pay the pay himself!"
"Okay!" Shen Youlong obeyed.
Because he did not know how to fight, and in order to make military generals obey him, Shen Youlong never interfered in specific military affairs.
This brought about two results. The military general liked Shen Youlong very much and thought that the governor was a very good official. He usually worked hard for the governor. However, military discipline was seriously damaged and the deduction of military pay became commonplace. The lower-level soldiers could not get their pay. It all depends on secretly hiding some money while robbing villages to compensate for the losses.
Such officers and soldiers have been suppressing bandits for three years, and they are all veterans. They are not only afraid of Zhao Han, but also afraid of other rebel thieves.
In a word, I don’t want to risk my life!
Shen Youlong called all the generals and announced: "The march is suspended today. You must gather the soldiers, and the governor will personally pay them!"
At this critical moment, the military generals also understood the governor. As long as they were not asked to pay, and the governor personally paid the salary, then it would be fine.
The soldiers lined up to receive their pay one by one, and finally there was some joy on their faces.
The effect was immediate, with only more than 300 deserters that night.
On the third day, the march continued.
Not far away, the mountain search team exploring the road ahead came back in a panic and reported: "Superintendent, there are bandits ambushing in the mountains ahead. We saw many anti-bandit flags!"
"How many thieves are there?" Shen Youlong asked.
The spy replied: "I don't know. I don't dare to get too close."
Shen Youlong was afraid of being ambushed, so he immediately stopped advancing and sent 300 additional soldiers to find out the true situation of the bandits in the mountains.
After struggling like this for an hour, the soldiers came back and reported that the ambush in the mountains was fake and they just planted some flags at random.
Shen Youlong became more cautious and his marching speed became slower and slower.
After walking a few miles, I found another anti-traitor flag in the mountains. I had to stop and check carefully again. After repeated efforts, I only walked a dozen miles in one day.
Moreover, morale dropped sharply, and both generals and soldiers felt that rebels might appear ahead at any time.
After setting up camp that day, Shen Youlong ordered the generals: "Be on guard tonight. The whole army should wear clothes and go to bed. Keep their weapons in their hands. Set up many sentries to guard against night attacks by thieves."
The generals immediately went to deal with it and passed on the military orders, causing the whole army to become even more panicked.
This night, many people did not sleep well.
In the middle of the night, a sentry suddenly shouted: "What are you doing?"
Hearing the scolding, more than a dozen deserters sped up and ran toward the mountains outside the military camp.
"stop!"
The sentry was very responsible. Because he was on duty tonight, he received an allowance of three hundred cents.
At this critical moment, we must be generous, otherwise who would be willing to be a sentinel?
"Is there a night raid by counter-robbers?" an officer rushed over and asked.
Another sentry was dozing off. When he heard this, he immediately shouted in a panic: "Enemy attack, enemy attack!"
"Dang-dang-dang!"
A sentry began to sound a warning gong.
All the officers and soldiers suddenly woke up and picked up their weapons one after another. Some were so frightened that they ran away directly. The whole military camp was inexplicably turned into a mess.
After finally calming down, we started counting people at dawn, and there were people everywhere with red eyes and yawning.
That night, more than 200 soldiers escaped, more than 700 civilians escaped, and there were also several ships carrying baggage.
One of the ships contained a large amount of money, which belonged to Deputy Commander-in-Chief Shi Wangzheng.
Fei Ruhe besieged the city of Longchuan for two months. The deputy commander had to find something to do. He extorted wealthy merchants in the city and got a lot of money. Then he misappropriated the army's grain transport ships to transport goods for himself. This kind of
It is very common for public utensils to be used for private purposes.
Especially during the small court period of the Southern Ming Dynasty, a large number of civil servants moved their families southward. How could countless wealth be transported away?
The Eight Immortals crossed the sea, each showing his magical powers.
The most powerful civil servants directly used warships and civilian troops to transport their family's treasures. Behind them were the Qing troops chasing them. The scene was indescribably weird.
At this moment, Shi Wangzheng was furious. He obtained thousands of taels of silver from Longchuan and had his confidants sleep on the boat to escort him throughout the process.
That bastard henchman was his nephew, and he ran away on a boat at night last night!
Shi Wangzheng was not the only one who was angry. Apparently there were generals who were using public weapons for personal use and also using grain ships to transport goods.
In order to stop the loss, the generals asked the civilians to unload the cargo and let the civilians carry the goods on the shore and carry the food back to the ship. Even if they escaped, the civilians could not take too much with them, unlike the ships that would lose everything if they escaped.
Shen Youlong was so angry that he called the generals over and cursed: "How long has it been? You are still so greedy for money. Take out your silver and donate one hundred taels each, and I will give more to the soldiers."
Increase the rates!”
This was the only way to punish him. The board fell gently, and a battle was about to begin. Shen Youlong did not dare to offend the general.
The generals in the late Ming Dynasty were indeed of low status and at the same time they were arrogant and domineering.
A sixth-grade military attache dared to wear first-grade civilian clothes and walk swaggeringly in front of civilian officials, but the civilian officials could only turn a blind eye.
"kill!"
As we walked, we suddenly heard shouts of killing in the mountains ahead.
"Stop the march!"
"Array, form, don't panic!"
After a while, only a few mountain search teams were seen, but they were killed by 500 Datong ambushes. Eighteen of the more than 20 people sent out to explore the road were killed by the Datong ambush.
Shen Youlong was driven crazy. He had to walk along the river bank for more than a hundred miles, and both sides of the Dongjiang River were covered with mountains. There was a possibility of being ambushed at any stretch of the road.
Fei Ruhe only needed to send out 500 troops and continue to create panic along the way.
Send more officers and soldiers into the mountain, and the five hundred soldiers will immediately run away. Once the officers and soldiers relax, the fake ambush may turn into a real ambush.
These officers and soldiers are almost suffering from neurasthenia.