weaving

Chapter 1201 Chen De is here

Outside the new city, on the stage of the small training ground on the east side of the Yongning Earl’s central army camp, the drama performance was still going on. The noisy and angry sounds from the audience gradually died down, and the soldiers began to watch the subsequent performances attentively.

At the back row of the stage, the Central Army Staff Officer Liu Chengzu bowed and clasped his fists, saying, "It was all your advice, Master. I just described it as it was."

"Yes. It is necessary to describe things truthfully. Only the content that comes from life and is infinitely close to life can move people the most."

Zhang Cheng raised his hand and patted Liu Chengzu on the shoulder, saying to him: "Over the past ten years, the bandits have been harassing several provinces, looting and destroying at will, and incidents like this are by no means rare.

Chengzu, you must collect the information with all your heart and compile the atrocities committed by the rebels into a series of plays, or even into lyrics to be sung. You can also go a step further and compile them into a storybook so that people can tell the stories everywhere.

In addition, this book can also be compiled into a pamphlet, so that every officer and above in each battalion of our Yongyi Army can have a copy, so that in the future, wouldn’t it be possible to preach the harm of bandits at any time in the army? "

"Please rest assured, Lord. Liu Chengzu has suffered greatly from this, and his entire family, young and old, almost died at the hands of the bandits. I will definitely handle this matter well to repay Lord Yongning for saving his life."

"Don't mention repaying a favor again!"

Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng turned back and continued to watch the performance on the stage...

At this time, the stage had already finished performing the scene of Liu Chengzu's family filling trenches and shoveling the city, and it was now turning to the next scene, which was the scene where their family was abducted by the bandits and used as cannon fodder to attack the Xuanfu army's chariot formation.

There were more than a dozen men, women, old and young on the stage, all of them were skinny and in tattered clothes. The eleven bandits behind them were all fat and strong, with red faces. They held knives, guns, sticks and clubs in their hands and kept forcing the dozen people in front of them to die. They even spared no effort to kill children of eight or nine years old.

Most of the Yongyi Army soldiers below the stage were from military families, and there were also some poor people from Yanqing Prefecture and Bao'an Prefecture, as well as refugees from the northern part of the capital. In addition, many refugees from Henan Province who had moved to Xuanfu with Li Jiyou also joined the Yongyi Army.

They saw the miserable plight of the starving people on the stage and felt pain in their hearts. They all felt the same way, with sad expressions and tears in their eyes. Most of them were gritting their teeth and rubbing their hands, as if they were about to rise up and rush onto the stage to rescue those starving people from danger.

The powder bags pre-set in the corner of the stage were ignited, and the scene of flying cannonballs was performed extremely realistically. The hungry civilians who served as cannon fodder fell down one after another, but the bandits had no mercy and finally fled, leaving the screaming hungry civilians behind.

Soon, people dressed as Xuanfu Army soldiers rushed onto the stage. They began to clean up the battlefield, searching for those who were still alive, and nervously treated and rescued them...

"This kid is still breathing..."

"Save me...save me...I don't want to die..."

"Baby...where is my baby...where is he?"

"Doctor... where is the doctor... someone is almost dying!"

On the stage, Liu Chengzu's personal experience was vividly performed. He was moved by the scene and couldn't help but shed crystal tears in his eyes. He quietly raised his sleeves to wipe them away...

"God damn bandits, they are nothing."

"They don't even let go of the baby, are they still human?"

"Bandits are not human beings, they are beasts!"

"Kill the thief!"

Off the stage, the indignant soldiers of the Yongyi Army first shouted angrily, and finally someone raised his arm and shouted "Kill the bandits". Suddenly, there was only one voice left in the entire training ground...

"Kill the thief! Kill the thief! Kill the thief! ..."

………… Zhang Cheng only watched from the back for a short while. He did not come to watch the show, but mainly to see the effect of the performance. At least for now, he seemed very satisfied.

“It’s really dangerous.”

Chen Zhong smiled and said, "Fortunately, our commander thought of it beforehand and forbade those guys to bring bows and arrows or muskets to the show. Otherwise... I'm really afraid that one of them would get carried away and hit the actors on the stage."

"No."

Lin Fangping also said, "Also, we need to keep someone watching in front of the stage. If these brats get angry, they can go on stage and beat people up."

"Hahaha……"

…………

Everyone talked about the drama and the storybook for a while, and finally the topic returned to the battlefield at Shuipoji...

As for the government troops led by Ding, Yang, Zuo and others at Shuipo Ji, Zhang Cheng did not care too much about whether they won or lost. He just did not want to follow the historical precedent where more than 100,000 government troops were collectively defeated because of Zuo's private withdrawal.

After all, no matter how incompetent Ding, Yang, and Zuo were, they were still one of the few combat-capable troops in the Ming Empire. If they were really wiped out in one day, it would be hard to say what the future would be like.

How many soldiers and troops are needed to garrison the vast territory of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Empire?

No matter how strong Zhang Cheng's Yongyi Army is, it can only defeat the joint forces of the two thieves Chuang and Cao. But if the two thieves Chuang and Cao lead their troops away and continue to wander to various provinces as before, we will not be able to divide our troops to stop them.

Therefore, Zhang Cheng sent out scouts to contact them so eagerly, hoping that they would know that there were reinforcements outside and could hold on for a few more days to see how the situation would develop.

But no matter how the war in Shuipo Ji develops, or even what the final outcome is, at least because of the arrival of tens of thousands of troops from Zhang Cheng's side, the rebels will certainly not dare to deal with Shuipo Ji with all their strength.

Although the coalition forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai now have hundreds of thousands of troops, there are only about 100,000 capable soldiers among them, and they are under attack from the north and south.

Shuipoji claimed to have 300,000 troops, but in reality, there were only 170,000 or 180,000 at most, and no more than 70% of them were capable of fighting, which is only 110,000 or 120,000 at most. This was still slightly less than the coalition forces led by Chuang Cao.

However, King Chuang and Luo Rucai did not have an exact information on how many government troops had come to Zhang Cheng's side. A rough estimate was that there should be about 60,000 to 70,000 troops. If the auxiliary soldiers and miscellaneous servants were excluded, there should be about 30,000 to 40,000 combat soldiers.

King Chuang and Luo Rucai had no idea that there was no organization of auxiliary soldiers and menial servants in the Yongyi Army. Even the baggage soldiers who did not usually participate in combat were trained and managed like regular soldiers in the Yongyi Army, enjoying all the treatment of regular soldiers and were no inferior to others.

Furthermore, Zhang Cheng ordered all the cavalry in the army to spread out to completely cover their own battlefield defense line and continue to put pressure on Zhuxian Town, which also gave Li Zicheng a great sense of oppression.

Zhang Cheng judged that under this circumstance, Li Zicheng would never dare to rashly launch an offensive against any party.

Just as everyone was discussing the military situation in Zhuxian Town, the adjutant of the Central Army, Zhang Mingyuan, came into the tent and reported: "Father, the Kaifeng guerrilla Chen De led a thousand cavalry to help us in the battle."

"Oh. Chen De is here? Where is he?"

"Report to Father, I'll be waiting outside the camp gate."

"Okay. You will be responsible for arranging the cavalry he brought with him. Tell Chen De to come to see me in the tent immediately."

(End of this chapter)