I want to be emperor

Chapter 270 Wu Sangui Suppresses Thieves

"It's all because of the few waves of people who went south, all of them were reincarnated from starvation ghosts. They robbed all the way south, so we didn't get much on the way. We lost a lot along the way!"

Many of Wu Sangui's soldiers resented the ruthless actions of other friendly troops.

Everyone is a bitter brother in the frontier army. It is hard to get a chance to go south to suppress the thieves, so you have to take advantage of this rare and precious opportunity to make a big deal. It is best to get enough food for two or three years Goods.

But their Guanning border army came later, and was preempted by several other frontier troops who went south first.

And the other frontier soldiers who took a step forward were not kind, they did things too ruthlessly, and it was okay to be ruthless, but they left a tongue for outsiders, and almost the northern officials knew what they did, and the southern frontier soldiers just followed Like a vicious dog, it snatches money and food when it sees it.

Especially after a frontier army directly looted a county, it completely scared the officials and gentry in the inland.

Judging by the momentum of these frontier troops, they are no worse than those rogues and Dong captives.

Of course, Wu Sangui had heard about these words, but he didn't care, and neither did the Guan Ning soldiers under his command.

These frontier soldiers have been stationed at the border for a long time, and the imperial court has not given them money and food, and they have to face the threat of attacks from the Eastern captives from time to time.

In order to be able to eat enough, the soldiers of the frontier army all showed their special abilities. It was necessary to cultivate land, and they would also do some things to smuggle contraband to the captives, and some people would go out to plunder from time to time.

As for the frontier soldiers who had no connections, each one was hungry and skinny, and even their wives and daughters had to put up their names to solicit customers for a bite of food.

For a long time, these frontier soldiers are naturally full of complaints, and at the same time they have no scruples about many things.

For example, when there is an opportunity to go south, everyone will miss the opportunity to plunder.

Not to make a fortune, but purely to have enough to eat.

The above is only for ordinary frontier soldiers, but for senior generals like Wu Sangui who have been stationed in the frontier for a long time or even hereditary, they are also worried about money and food every day.

In order to maintain their power and maintain their troops, they are often useless.

They colluded with Dongyao to smuggle contraband, organized their own manpower to cultivate land, and used various methods to ask the court for money and food, etc.

Going south is also of great significance to Wu Sangui and the others.

The next time they go south, the ordinary soldiers under their command can have a full meal, and they can bring some money and food back home to support their families.

Senior generals like Wu Sangui can also earn a lot of money and food, which will be used to raise troops, expand the army, and build ordnance.

To transfer the frontier army to the south to suppress thieves, for the court, it is to transfer a group of lowly warriors to fight even lower thieves.

For the frontier army itself, this is an opportunity to make a fortune.

Now they received a cold reception outside Ruzhou City. Although Wu Sangui was angry, he didn't protest foolishly. Instead, he ordered his subordinates to investigate the thieves in batches.

After all, Ruzhou is already close to the area controlled by security thieves, so there must be a large number of security thieves active in this area.

It was reasonable for him, Wu Sangui, to send troops to the surrounding area to investigate the bandits.

It is also reasonable for the soldiers sent to investigate thieves to receive some money and food donated by kind gentry.

On the 28th of the first lunar month, Wu Sangui led his army to the area of ​​Ruzhou City, and then took advantage of the fact that the soldiers who traveled southward were tired and needed to rest, and stationed outside Ruzhou City for half a month!

In the past half a month, the [-] Guanning Army under Wu Sangui went to the surrounding areas in batches to investigate bandits and eliminate local bandits.

Wu Sangui was very reliable to the soldiers, all the soldiers were sent out in batches, even the horsemen who accompanied the army could go out to investigate, and no one would fail.

At the same time, the word was passed on that all the money and food donated by the big gentry households would be fine and soft, and the soldiers could keep half of the gold and silver if they were soft, and the other half would be handed over to the government for military expenses.

Food, cloth and other public goods, except the rations carried by the soldiers, are turned over to the public as military supplies, and the soldiers who turned in a large amount will be credited.

After half a month, all the officers and soldiers of the Guan Ning Army under his command had recovered and were strong and healthy, and each of them brought a lot of rations and gold and silver with them.

The army's luggage also has a lot of grain and other military supplies, and at the same time more than 3000 civilians in the vicinity were requisitioned to transport these food luggage.

During this period, the officials in Ruzhou City sent people to invite Wu Sangui to leave the camp many times, and even asked Wu Sangui to restrain the soldiers and so on.

Wu Sangui always found all kinds of excuses to get over it.

Until February [-]th, as the soldiers under his command ate and drank enough, they collected a lot of money and food at the same time.

And Wu Sangui also received a letter from Chen Biqian, the governor of the Eastern Front Army and the governor of Henan, asking him to quickly go south to the front line of Luyangguan to prepare for the big counterattack after the spring.

In this way, Wu Sangui slowly led 3000 troops and more than [-] forcibly conscripted civilians, and headed south with a large amount of food.

But Wu Sangui was very careful when he went south.

Wu Sangui is not a stupid person, and he didn't eat and drink every day when he stayed outside Ruzhou City. In fact, he has been collecting all kinds of information about the fake Chubao thieves for the past half month.

Although some secret information could not be obtained, he still collected a lot of public or semi-public information.

He knew that the Southern Security Bandits were stationed in the area of ​​Nanyang Mansion, and there was a "Northern Route Army" stationed there.

It is rumored that the thief is the left arm and right arm of the false Chu Emperor Luo thief. He has an army of more than [-], of which it is clear that there are about [-] real gray thieves and [-] fake gray thieves.

After all, Huang Dingquan led troops to garrison in the area of ​​Nanyang Mansion last summer, and fought several times with the Ming army led by Zuo Liangyu.

In such a short period of time, the Ming army did not do nothing, but collected some intelligence.

At one time, the Ming army knew a little about the rural protection army under Huang Dingquan's command.

And after Wu Sangui collected a lot of information about the thieves, he came to some conclusions of his own.

These security thieves are not easy!
There are so many guns, this is already a bad thing, even ordinary people in the market know that the thieves are famous for their sharp guns.

However, Wu Sangui felt that the fact that there were more guns was not a big deal. The frontier troops in Liaodong also had a lot of firearms. There were also a bunch of Hongyi cannons weighing several thousand catties, and there were also many other firearms.

But with so many firearms, it is not particularly difficult to fight against Shangdong, and even in the field, they don't even have the courage to fight.

Guns alone cannot fight the sharp offensive of the bandit protection army.

So Wu Sangui turned his attention to other situations of the Rural Protection Army, such as detailed tactics and tactics, and then looked at the morale of the Rural Protection Army.

Then after reading a lot, he discovered a problem: the food and grass consumption of the thieves' army was much higher than the normal level.

When spies from the Ming army on the front line spied on information, they once saw the security bandits transporting a batch of grain to a certain fort where the security bandits were stationed.

According to the estimates of the spies of the Ming army, this batch of food is enough to feed the more than 500 bandits in this fortress for a month.

As a result, ten days later, he discovered that another batch of food transport teams had arrived!

This shows that the grain consumption of the bandit army was more than three times the grain consumption estimated by the spies of the Ming army to protect the bandits.

It is also more than three times that of officers and soldiers.

"Eat so much?" Wu Sangui couldn't help frowning after reading the information on the food and grass consumption of the bandit army.

"I've heard that the security guard army eats three meals a day and eats every meal. I thought it was just an exaggeration, but a lie used by the security guards to confuse outsiders!"

"But now it seems that this is still true!"

"Why would they do this?"

To be honest, Wu Sangui couldn't understand why the Township Protection Army would do this.

Food is so precious, this grain can feed [-] troops, why only [-]?
Shouldn't the normal operation be to pull 5 people, of which [-] will be given basic rations, [-] will be given normal rations, and [-] will be given excess rations?
In this way, with an army of 2000, the shelf can be pulled out, and at the same time, the basic combat effectiveness can be maintained, and at the same time, [-] elites can be armed.

Its tactical effect is much stronger than 1 people

Although Wu Sangui couldn't understand why the Township Protection Army did this, it was very clear that a group of security guards whose food supply was more than three times that of normal officers and soldiers must be strong and strong men.

At the same time, there is sufficient food and grass, and if there is no arrears of food and salary, the morale of the army will also be very sufficient.

Such a group of young and strong soldiers with high morale, coupled with their guns, would be fatal.

This time going south, if you attack rashly, it may not be easy to fight!
I have to think about it in detail later, and if I have credit and spoils, I will make a fortune. If it doesn't work, I still have to make plans early.

In short, the three thousand Guanning troops cannot be lost in the Central Plains.

The three thousand Guan Ning troops are part of their father and son's livelihood, and it would be a big loss if they were easily damaged.

Wu Sangui had some scruples, and at the same time, he was afraid of the township protection army, so the speed of going south was very slow. When marching, he must send cavalry to scout around, and at the same time keep inquiring about the situation around Luyang Pass.

Before reaching Luyang Pass, he had made up his mind not to attack Luyang Pass.

Although Governor Chen Biran asked him to go to Lushan County and connect more than [-] local officers and soldiers to attack Luyang Pass, but after he learned more about the security thieves, especially the situation of the Luyang Pass security thieves, he came to a conclusion: directly Going to storm Luyang Pass, he probably won't be able to beat all the [-] Guan Ning troops...

So this is a fart!

As for Chen Biqian's order, you can listen to it when it is beneficial, and pretend that Chen Biqian does not exist when it is not beneficial.

Rao is Chen Biqian is the governor, but Wu Sangui also has enough guts to ignore him.

Their Wu family father and son sit in Guanning, guarding the front line of Shanhaiguan and other places, and the Guanning army under their command is powerful.

The current situation is that the court needs their Wu family father and son, not their Wu family father and son need the court.

(End of this chapter)