Just as Longkou was nervously making preparations, outside a small village in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, adjacent to Shandong Province, where it was filled with rain and snow, there was a small dilapidated temple, standing alone on a bare hill.
, under the mound, there were sparsely scattered horses and disheveled soldiers, about a thousand people in total. They crowded together and leaned against the flickering bonfire, cursing and extending their hands on the fire to keep warm.
A burly young general, wearing a burqa outside the armor, stood under the eaves of the small temple. His face was dark and rough, and his face was covered with a cold and dignified look that only a man who has experienced many battles has. His face
Behind him, a flag was erected. The flag was soaked in the cold rain and snow, and hung weakly under the eaves of the corridor. A cold wind blew, and you could barely make out the word "hole" on it.
There were many horses tied in front of the temple. They were much taller and more graceful than the horses down the hillside. The horses had an expression of hatred and reluctantly ate the blackened meat that the soldiers had pulled from the farmers' roofs.
Wheat straw.
He seemed to be waiting for someone, looking intently to the north. To the north were large fields and sparse groves, and there were faint lights - that was Sangyuan Town, where Wuqiao County is located.
This general is none other than Kong Youde, the staff general of the infantry left camp in Dengzhou. Although his official position is in the infantry left camp, he actually commands all the former Liaodong cavalry. He is from Tieling, Liaodong. His father and he are both from the local area.
Miner. After Nurhaci raised his army, Tielingwei fell quickly. When he was a boy, he participated in his father's uprising against the Hou Jin regime in Tieling. The uprising failed and he went into exile in various places in Liaodong. He joined the army in Guangning and was once an official. Travel notes. After Guangning withdrew from the town.
He joined Mao Wenlong and changed his name to Mao Yongshi.
After Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, his old Dongjiang troops were commanded by Dongjiang deputy general Chen Jisheng. Soon, Liu Xingzhi rebelled in Pi Island and killed more than ten people including Chen Jisheng. Huang Long, the new Dongjiang commander-in-chief, immediately went to Pi Island to suppress it. Because he felt excluded by Huang Long
Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming refused to accept Huanglong's rule and led their troops to defect to Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai. Kong Youde became the general of the left battalion of the infantry. He was still in charge of the old troops.
It was raining and snowing constantly in the sky, and the northwest wind was blowing. It blew on the soaked robes, making them look particularly cold. Every breath sprayed out thick white mist. Most of the cavalry at the foot of the mountain were wearing very thin clothes.
Dirty and ragged, they huddled in groups, tightly wrapped in their rags. Some were talking in a low voice, while others were swaying and had already fallen asleep.
At this time, several fast horses came all the way from the north. The sound of horse hooves broke the silence on the hill. Listening to the sound of horse hooves, he took a heavy breath.
Not long after, the sound of horse hooves got closer and closer, and then a small group of people appeared among the sparse shrubs with fallen leaves, under the vast moonlight.
There were four or five people in this team, and the leader was a young General Qian. After walking up the hill, they all jumped off their horses. The leading officer led the horse to the general and reported: "General, the matter is settled.
"
Hearing this news, Kong Youde's eyebrows stretched. Originally, the long-distance march to aid the Liao Dynasty was already a miserable mission with a slim future, but he didn't expect that such a thing would happen on the way!
When Kong Youde led his troops to Wuqiao, they encountered bad weather of rain and snow. The troops were short of supplies and suffered from hunger and cold. They had neither pay nor food and grass. They asked Wuqiao County to prepare food and grass, but the county ignored them at all. Kong Youde was a passer-by from Shandong.
General, has no influence in Hebei. The army is about to run out of food. The people in villages and towns are extremely afraid of officers and soldiers - the army in the late Ming Dynasty has extremely poor discipline, and long-distance marches are almost like bandits - as soon as they hear that the army is coming
When they arrived, they all ran away. Although the county town did not close its doors to them, the markets everywhere were closed. Even if they wanted to buy food, they had no place to go, let alone no money at all.
Since ancient times, there has been a saying about starving soldiers. Without anyone to provide food and grass, the soldiers became self-sufficient. With the acquiescence of the officers, they divided into small groups at night. They quietly left the camp and went to the countryside and cities to look for ""
"Looking for food" - in fact, it is robbery.
During the looting, a soldier broke open the door of a seemingly inconspicuous family in the city and snatched away a chicken. Unexpectedly, this chicken was raised by a servant of Wang Xiangchun's family, a prominent family in Shandong.
Offending a local wealthy family is the same as robbing the common people, but the result is very different. So the soldiers who robbed were "thrown through the camp with arrows" - this was a very severe punishment in the ancient army, second only to beheading. The soldiers with hatred were killed immediately
Got the servant.
This gave Kong Youde, who originally wanted to settle the matter, a trick: the gentry in the Ming Dynasty had extremely powerful power, not to mention former senior bureaucrats like Wang Xiangchun who had been in the "Donglin Point General Record" - he was the top local Jin gentry, county
Order the prefect to be polite when seeing his film. Wang Xiangchun's son refuses to give up and will definitely demand to investigate the responsibility.
Kong Youde is just a small general. Although he can command thousands of people to charge into battle, in terms of power and status, he is far from the opponent of the Jin gentry like the Wang family. Not to mention the Donglin Party has great influence in the court. The Wang family really wants to "name strictly"
"Ginseng", it is easy to get rid of this little ginseng general.
Therefore, he could only continue to compromise, led his troops to withdraw from Wuqiao County, stationed in this wasteland, and sent Li Yingyuan to negotiate the matter.
"I beheaded the kid who committed the crime, and the matter is over." Li Yingyuan was indignant. "The manager who came out to speak still seemed unwilling to let go. I had to give him another ten taels of silver to make him feel comfortable."
Kong Youde sighed heavily: "There is nothing we can do about this! What a pity for a good man!" He stamped his feet, "These scoundrels - it is difficult to part with good wealth, forcing us to live in vain and obey the public!"
"Brothers all said they couldn't stand it anymore - first they forced us to go to Phi Island to quell the rebellion of Huang Long. Can't Huang Long deal with it on his own? If General, you hadn't decisively returned to the sea, we would have been fed with fish and shrimps! Now it will happen again
Let us rush to the Daling River to die when we are both cold and hungry!" Li Yingyuan said and became excited, "We will go through life and death for the imperial court and follow Mao Shuai on the island to blow wind, eat sand and fight the Tatars. How many brothers have died! The imperial court and big families
They don’t regard us as human beings at all!”
There was a ripple among the surrounding soldiers and generals - they were all Dongjiang's old troops who had followed Mao Wenlong in Liaodong. The execution of Commander Mao had sown seeds of dissatisfaction in their hearts. They were squeezed out by Huang Long in Dongjiang, and when they arrived,
After Dengzhou, he was discriminated against and ostracized by the local Shandong army and the Southern Army.
This trip to the north to reinforce the Daling River was originally a dangerous battle that would never come back ten times out of ten, and they had to suffer such anger along the way. The soldiers became increasingly resentful and resentful.
These words also aroused the resonance of Kong Youde. His chest heaved up and down, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He waved his hand decisively and said with a evil smile: "We can't afford to offend these masters. We can't do it here."
If we wait, the people and horses will be frozen to death. Let’s all set off. We will go far away to find a village and slaughter them. Let’s all keep warm!”
"Tie!" Li Yingyuan and several officers around him echoed with excited expressions. Although the army continued to loot along the way, they only got some food to eat and did not dare to go too far. This time since they want
If you let go of your hands and work hard, you can get a little oil and water.
Everyone went to prepare for departure, and Li Yingyuan was about to leave. Kong Youde stopped him: "Yingyuan, when will your father arrive?"
Li Yingyuan's father's name was Li Jiucheng. Although his position was just that of a guerrilla, he was very prestigious among the old Dongjiang tribe in Liaodong, and even people like Kong Youde respected him.
More than a month ago, Li Jiucheng went to the fortress to buy horses from the Mongols on the order of Sun Yuanhua. He spent all the money without buying the horses. He did not dare to return to Dengzhou for fear of crime. When he found out that Kong Youde was going to lead his army north, he sent someone there.
Contact Kong Youde and ask him to go north with him to see if he can get some military honors to make his merits clear.
Li Jiucheng has a high prestige among the old Dongjiang troops. Now the people in the army are shaken. He urgently needs veterans like Li Jiucheng to suppress and appease him. Otherwise, the sentry troops will be disintegrated before they can reach Shanhaiguan. If he, the commander-in-chief, does not want to be cut off,
All the brain can do is run away.
Li Yingyuan reported back: "My father sent someone here, saying that he was blocked on the road due to snow and wind. It will take two days to meet the general at Wuqiao."
In the old time and space, Li Jiucheng, who was afraid of going back to Dengzhou because he lost the horse money, was already in Kong Youde's army on October 31.
The inciting of soldiers by Li Jiucheng and his son was the main reason why Kong Youde's troops launched a rebellion in Wuqiao. However, in this time and space, Li Jiucheng was blocked by the road and did not arrive at the army on that day, thus losing the opportunity to incite soldiers to riot.
The butterfly wings of history are slightly tilted in different places. This is something the patriarchs did not expect.
"Okay, let's go north!" Kong Youde ordered, "Send a few elite brothers in civilian clothes to Sangyuan Town to wait for General Li to catch up again."
Following the order, the soldiers who had been hungry, cold, and drowsy suddenly became energetic. They tightened the girdle of their horses and got on their horses. More than a thousand people on foot and on horseback gave a cry and headed north.
The early morning sun of November 1st shone on Wuqiao County. People in the county could not help but breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the army from Shandong had left. They opened their doors one after another and went about their own business. No one knew that they had just
He escaped a catastrophe that he was destined to suffer.
More than twenty miles north of them, there was a large village that had disappeared into thin air and was completely slaughtered.
No one among the elders who were preparing their battles on Qimu Island had expected this. In their view, any historical event would strictly follow the historical trajectory of the old time and space.
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