Beizhili, within the territory of Hejian Prefecture.
A demoralized imperial army was marching southward at a turtle-like speed, like a long snake for more than thirty miles from beginning to end.
However, the equipment of this imperial army is extremely sophisticated. Almost all of the nearly 30,000 soldiers are wearing shining silver armor. Except for a small number of artillery and muskets, most of the soldiers are equipped with a gun at their waist.
The one-and-a-half meter long Yan Ling sword, as long as it is pulled out, will be dazzling with cold light and shockingly sharp.
Because they are elite garrison troops in the Gyeonggi region, they receive priority in the distribution of food and pay. This army also carries a lot of baggage, including a four-wheeled carriage imitated by the Ministry of Industry with a single load of fifty stones (Xujiazhuang launched a four-wheeled carriage a few years ago, which is very popular.
There are more than 1,500 vehicles in the world (copycats are everywhere in the world now), carrying more than 70,000 shi of food and grass, enough to consume the army for three months.
Compared with the poor battles we fought in the past where we didn't even have food and grass for half a month or a month, this time it was definitely a rich battle.
Moreover, you can also get a high-quality salary, 5 taels per month, paid by roll call, with no deductions or arrears! You can completely support a family.
Sincerity.
This time, the sincerity of the court, the efficiency of the military department, and the emperor's rewards were deeply felt by everyone from the lowest level soldier to the high-ranking general. Compared with the previous poor treatment, I really can't find any major faults this time.
.
But why is the morale of this imperial army still so low? There is no excitement at all, only full of complaints. If it were not for the comfort and suppression by the propaganda officers, deserters would probably have appeared.
Because it's already October.
The Chinese New Year will be here soon.
In this season where the weather is getting colder and colder, who doesn’t want to stay at home and spend the New Year with their family, but instead go out to fight in the cold winter and fight with the wandering bandits?
But the imperial court has made up its mind to completely eliminate those bandits. It can only make the soldiers and generals pay more. When the bandits are successfully suppressed, they will be rewarded heavily!
Naturally, such a painting will not have any effect, but after eating this bowl of rice with blood licked from the edge of the knife, the court gave an order and could only follow the will of the emperor and ministers and move to the place pointed by the big shots.
Even if there are mountains of swords and seas of fire, this is their destiny.
It is a fate that cannot be resisted and can only be treated passively.
On the official road, in front of the army, three tall horses were riding side by side, and three middle-aged men who looked like generals were talking.
"Brother Wang, Brother Deng, the three of us haven't seen each other in almost a year. I didn't expect that we would pull out such a majestic army. Now we are united again, with nearly 30,000 elite steel-armored troops. Such a powerful force
, even if there are millions of bandits, we can easily defeat them! We can once again make great contributions to the imperial court and your majesty." Yang Yufan, the commander-in-chief of Tongzhou in the middle, said with confidence and pride on his face.
"Rogue bandits are nothing to worry about, but they fight, rob, and burn all the way. They don't carry much luggage, and they come and go like the wind. They can move nearly a hundred miles in one day, and they can be thousands of miles away in ten days. If they can't defeat the officers and soldiers, they will run away, even if they are beaten.
After being wiped out until there are only dozens or hundreds of people left, as long as they go to a poor place and rise up, they can pull out tens of thousands of troops and reappear again and again. Moreover, the leaders and veteran bandits have been fighting for several years and are familiar with the terrain of various places.
, I’m afraid it will be much more difficult to deal with than the Dongjiang rebels.”
Wang Hong, the commander-in-chief of Tianjin, is quite familiar with the characteristics of rogue bandits, so he is not very optimistic.
"The imperial court is too impatient. It has always been a taboo for military strategists to send troops in winter. There are many defeats. It is better to take action in the summer and autumn seasons and end it before the end of the year. It is most suitable. Now the morale of the soldiers is not high and the advance is slow. It only took ten days to move twice.
It's more than a hundred miles away, and if we don't speed up, the imperial court will definitely press for an order."
Deng Qi, the commander-in-chief of Jimen, a veteran general who rose from ordinary ranks, said with a frown.
"It looks like we really need to speed up."
Yang Yufan nodded, called a herald, and said sternly: "The imperial court gave us sufficient food and salary, and our treatment was much better than before. However, we have failed the emperor's favor and marched so slowly. How is this unbecoming? Send an order.
Go down, the whole army speeds up, and those who fall behind the last hundred people will be punished with thirty army sticks!"
"yes!"
The messenger passed on the order to speed up the march, and learned that if he walked too slowly, he might be hit by thirty slabs. The overall speed of the army finally increased.
to evening.
When the army arrived at a place called Wanli Town, they had to stop and stay.
Calculating the distance, we only walked more than 30 miles today. This data is definitely not comparable to those famous powerful armies in history, but in front of the imperial military department, marching 30 miles a day, this performance is acceptable.
Those who are poor will not be scolded. In addition, they have not done anything to harass the people along the way, and their military discipline is quite good. This can even be rewarded. After all, in the late Ming Dynasty, if the performance is not bad, it is equal to excellent.
Set up camp outside Wanli Town.
Seeing the soldiers' slow movements and low morale, some took out their gambling equipment and gathered around to gamble, or went to the kitchen in groups, tapping their helmets with chopsticks, urging them to hurry up and start eating.
, their stomachs are almost hungry.
I even heard a few soldiers hiding behind the camp, discussing obscenely, whether they should go to Wanli Town tonight to do some activities and find some girls to play with. They were ready to make a move.
"Catch them and beat them with thirty military sticks!"
Yang Yufan's face turned livid with anger, and he immediately ordered his servants to seize the soldiers and beat them with military sticks until they cried like ghosts and wolves howled.
At meal time, return to the coach's camp.
Although there was a bowl of noodles, a plate of boiled mutton, half a roast chicken, and his favorite can of soybean stuffed pig's trotters on the tray on the desk - a specialty of Xujiazhuang, priced at half a silver dollar each, Yang Yufan still had nothing to do with it.
Appetite, and most of the previous self-confidence disappeared.
"Brother Wang, Brother Deng."
He said to Wang Hong and Deng Qi who were sitting on both sides: "Remember last winter, how arrogant the Dongjiang rebels were? But in the battle of Shahe, we were united as one, arranged in an iron barrel formation, and wiped out 20,000 rebels! Self
Waiting for the following, everyone is fighting bravely and without fear. How long has passed? It is obvious that our equipment is better, our troops are nearly 10,000, and our food and wages are more abundant than before. Why are we still sluggish and misdeeds are repeated?
What happened to last year’s vibrant life?”
I heard this complaint.
Wang Hong and Deng Qi looked at each other and felt that this question was really a bad question.
"Last year Xujiazhuang helped us, but this year we have to rely on ourselves."
"The soldiers and horses under our command have actually never changed. We cannot hold them to Xu Jiajun's standards. They look pretty good now."
Two colleagues told the truth.
"Xujiazhuang?"
This word suddenly made Yang Yufan wake up, return to reality, and get out of his own bubble that "Tongzhou Army is very strong". Although an unconvinced voice in his head said, "Can't we fight without Xujiazhuang?", but such a question,
After all, he couldn't say it out loud.
Because this is an obvious fact. Without the cooperation with Xujiazhuang and the support of Xujiazhuang, their army would be a scumbag! Even if they wear half plate armor and are equipped with alloy wild goose feather swords, they are only stronger on the surface, but not internally.
Not much has changed.
To turn them into a truly powerful army is not something that happens overnight, but requires tempering and transformation.
Therefore, Yang Yufan could only hang his head and let go of the blind optimism in his heart. Even as for how to exterminate the bandits next, he began to consider not how to make a quick victory, but how to preserve his strength as much as possible and avoid excessive losses, because in order to build this army, he
In his eyes, he saw an 'invincible and powerful army'. When he put down the 'Denglai Rebellion' last year, he spent all the tens of thousands of sets of armor and hundreds of thousands of silver dollars he earned from Xujiazhuang on this army, which not only improved the quality of the soldiers.
Food and a monthly salary of 3 silver dollars were also distributed without any deductions, which won the hearts of all the soldiers, and their support for him reached its peak.
The price is that he failed to save any private wealth, but instead gained a lot. The salary of soldiers can only be improved but not reduced. The money and food allocated to him by the Ministry of War was only enough to support 3,000 people. In other words, he
He is in a serious state of making ends meet. If he cannot make great achievements by encircling and suppressing the bandits this time, he will definitely encounter an economic crisis and will not be able to pay enough food and pay, which will lead to a morale crisis in the military. The soldiers loved him so much before, but he will not be able to pay him anymore.
At that time, the backlash was so serious - the phenomenon of servants in the army in the late Ming Dynasty. This is the reason. The end of a bowl of water is that no one can feed it.
That is, he put himself on the fire.
Now it is discovered that his Tongzhou Army is not as well-trained and has high morale as imagined. Once it loses on the battlefield, it is likely to eat up its capital. This puts Yang Yufan into a contradictory state of wanting to make meritorious deeds, but also wanting to preserve his strength as much as possible.
.
"Hey, it would be great if we could cooperate with Xujiazhuang this year. My soldiers may not be able to fight, but capturing prisoners and good people is much better than fighting. Doesn't Xujiazhuang not need miners this year? I can give them a lot.
A lot of the past.”
Yang Yufan muttered secretly.
…
The next day, around eight o'clock in the morning, shortly after dawn.
I had a bit of insomnia last night and Yang Yufan didn't fall asleep until late at night. He was sleeping soundly in the handsome tent when he was suddenly awakened by bursts of loud noises like thunder. He was so frightened that he immediately lifted the quilt and rolled under the bed.
What happened? Was it attacked by enemy troops? Or was the camp bombed and there was a terrible camp roar?
"Someone, come quickly!"
Yang Yufan's face turned pale and he quickly called for help, but none of his attendants came in, which made Yang Yufan even more frightened.
He had to quickly change into a set of casual clothes, and even wanted to find a set of women's clothes to change into, but there was no such thing, so he had to wear a simple cloth. He didn't dare to put on a brocade robe and slipped out through the back door curtain with a sneaky look on his face.
.
But as soon as he came out of the commander's tent, he saw countless people gathered at the gate of the camp. Yang Yufan realized that he had been worrying too much, and there was no camp roar. This was a false alarm.
"When did it happen? Why do they all gather at the gate of the camp?" Yang Yufan grabbed a few soldiers and asked.
"The Xujiazhuang caravan is here, and last year's representative Zhang is also here!"
"I heard that Xujiazhuang will cooperate with us again this year to help us deal with rogue bandits. I wonder how many people Xujiazhuang wants this time?"
"Sir, why are you just getting up? Commander Wang and Commander Deng have been going to greet Representative Zhang for a long time. The cooperation is about to be concluded!"
"Sir, we will help you squeeze in and help you see Representative Zhang. We must not let them get the first chance of such a good thing!"
The servants came back. They gathered together, arranged a standard military formation, and squeezed into the crowd together. They kept rushing inward. Yang Yufan felt that he was about to be crushed into a piece of meat pie. At the same time, he was also facing Wang Hong and Deng.
Qi, the two colleagues, cursed secretly. The Xujiazhuang caravan was coming, and they didn't notify him of such a big event. It was so unreasonable! There was no sense of collegiality.
finally.
With the help of the servants, Yang Yufan squeezed into the innermost circle and saw the familiar face of Representative Zhang Xianglong and Zhang of Xujiazhuang.
"Representative Zhang, it's me, your old friend Mr. Yang!"
Yang Yufan raised his hands high, as if he were seeing a relative, and greeted him with great enthusiasm.
"Representative Zhang!"
"Representative Zhang!"
I also heard countless officers and soldiers around me shouting Representative Zhang’s name in unison, all of them with excited faces and full of energy.
Yang Yufan discovered that the morale of this army today had increased by at least ten times!
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I’ve worked out the details, it’s a bit late to update