weaving

Chapter 334 How to fight against it?
On July 12th, the [-]th year of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, the sky was cloudy and breezy, and it was no longer hot and dry, especially in the valley area between the mountains at Dushikou, which was even cooler.

For several days, Zhang Cheng inspected all the castles on Xiabei Road, Dishuiya Fort, Ningyuan Fort, Changshen Bunker, Yangtian Fort, Muma Fort, and Longmensuo.

Almost the same as Shangbei Road, the fortresses everywhere are extremely dilapidated. Not only is the morale of the garrison troops completely devoid of spirits, but there are too many people filling up the number, and the actual number is basically less than half of the number of garrison troops.

Only Xu Jinyong, a thousand households in Dishuiyabao, impressed Zhang Cheng the most. In the entire Xiabei Road, there is only one Dishuiyabao. There are actually more than 780 troops, most of whom are young and strong, and there are [-] soldiers and horses. More horses.

Xu Jinyong lived up to his name, he was not only tall and mighty, but also brave, and he loved his soldiers very much. However, like other castles, although his soldiers were more brave, their armor was torn and their soldiers The utensils are also outdated.

From the castle towns on Xiabei Road, another 37 craftsmen were recruited, and 21 of them could drill and grind the barrels. This made Zhang Cheng very happy, so that he could drill and grind 110 barrels a month, even if there were some defective products. It is unbearable to use, at least it can guarantee more than [-] per month.

In addition, Zhang Cheng also selected and deployed 500 soldiers from the forts on Xiabei Road, including [-] infantry and [-] cavalry, and they were all young and strong old soldiers. raise an objection.

Only Xu Jinyong, a thousand households in Dishuiyabao, strongly opposed Zhang Cheng's move, and he was selected by Zhang Cheng to deploy [-] infantry and [-] cavalry.

He looked at his well-trained elite soldiers, but was transferred by Zhang Cheng to enrich his barracks. He felt so resentful that he went straight to Zhang Cheng for a theory, resolutely opposing the transfer of his sergeants.

However, he was persuaded by Zhang Cheng's righteous words. Before that, the officials and generals at all levels were skinned layer by layer. In the end, the money and food in the various castles were simply unable to support the army, which caused the troops stationed in each castle to decrease year by year.

Even though Dripping Cliff Fortress still maintains an effective military force, although the combat power is there, the officers and soldiers live a hard life, and those poor salaries alone cannot support their families. Make ends meet.

Zhang Cheng told Xu Jinyong that it is impossible to support so many soldiers with only one place, Dishuiyabao, and the entire North Road is a collective, and the overall interests must be considered comprehensively.

Now we have dispatched excellent garrison troops from each fort to form a strong mobile force, and reclaimed wasteland in each fort on the North Road, and recruited military households from other places to farm. Only in this way can we increase the grain output on the North Road.

In the end, it is the right way to transport the food, grain and silver money to the various castles to support the army. Only in this way will it be possible for the castles to make up for the soldiers in the future and truly achieve full payment for the actual soldiers.

Xu Jinyong also saw that all the soldiers brought by Zhang Cheng had bright armor and excellent weapons, which really made him envious. Therefore, although he finally agreed with Zhang Cheng to transfer the sergeants from the army, he also asked for a batch of armor. and arms.

At the banquet in Longmen Suobao City, Zhang Cheng announced that he would allocate a batch of armor and weapons from the Beilu arsenal to each fort, but the premise was that each fort on Xiabei Road would be inspected by Kaipingwei just like Shangbei Road. , Get rid of the old and the weak, and then distribute the armor and weapons first.

Everyone had no objection to this, especially Gao Jingong, who was defending the Longmen, had a more positive attitude. Zhang Cheng had the impression that this person was not suitable for leading troops.

Although this Gao Jingong is also tall and burly, he is also fat and big-eared, and he looks very greasy. He always smiles at people and looks naive, but Zhang Cheng always feels that this person's appearance Although it is gentle, like a spring breeze, its heart must be extremely sinister.

Through conversations, I know that this person is good at eating, drinking, and playing. Although he is not talented in leading the army, the thousands of households in the castle towns on Xiabei Road respect him very much. It can be seen that he is very good at doing things and has excellent popularity. On the one hand, it is its exquisite work style, on the other hand, it must have some skills.

Fortunately, he still respected Zhang Cheng, and offered to ask Zhang Cheng to send someone to re-approve the fields and military households on Xiabei Road, check the warehouses in various places, and register the number of troops in each fort. He will definitely cooperate with all his strength.

Seeing that Gao Jingong was so good at doing things, Zhang Cheng gave up the idea of ​​molesting him, and temporarily let him continue to serve as the garrison of the Longmen Station, in charge of everything on the Xiabei Road.

…………

Zhang Cheng also felt a little tired after running around in various castles for the past few days, so he went back to the inner room in the backyard of the Admiralty's Office to rest in the afternoon.

Zhang Cheng was lying on the couch, recalling the experience of the past year, vivid characters flashed before his eyes, Lu Xiangsheng, Zhang Yan, Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei, Wang Pu, Emperor Chongzhen, Yang Sichang, Chen Xinjia, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Cao Bianjiao, He Renlong and so on.

Among them, Lu Xiangsheng and Zhang Yan had died in battle, but they were the ones who helped him the most. They used their lives to support Zhang Cheng's achievements today.

There was also Emperor Chongzhen who tried his best to govern the country well, but the more he did, the more mistakes he made. Zhang Cheng knew that sooner or later he would push this panic-stricken Ming Dynasty to its end. What should he do?
Thinking of Yang Sichang, according to his memory, he should be going to Xiangyang to supervise and suppress Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai in person, but in the end Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang by surprise, and committed suicide by drinking poison because he lost his feudal feudal status.

I even thought of Chen Xinjia and Zhang Ruoqi, the two of them urging Hong Chengchou to fight quickly in the Songjin battle not long after, but they were defeated and lost, and the famous generals such as Yang Guozhu and Cao Bianjiao died.

Because of this, Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Donglu, and became the vanguard of the Tartars to finally conquer the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains. I don’t know how many Ming officials will be recruited by him, especially the conquered places in the south of the Yangtze River. This person can be said to have made the greatest contribution.

In the minds of the world at this time, Hong Chengchou was a man of high talent and knowledge, humble and polite, who also had the ability to assess the situation, had a strategy in mind, and knew how to advance and retreat. He was already an extremely rare talent in the late Ming dynasty.

Especially not long ago, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting defeated the rebel Li Zicheng, and only [-] riders left him to run to Shangluo Mountain.

The world called him a strange talent, the pillar of the Ming Dynasty, but they never thought that he would become a famous traitor in history in the future.

"Duke Zhou was afraid of the day of rumors, when Wang Mang was a corporal. If he died at that time, who would know who will be loyal through the ages."

The fruit is a wise saying.

And Sun Chuanting, who was the last savior of the Ming Dynasty, was still imprisoned in the prison of the capital. If there were no accidents, he might not be released by Emperor Chongzhen until a few years later.

Thinking of this, Zhang Cheng couldn't help but feel that his current strength is still a bit weaker. Thinking about Li Zicheng's move to Henan next year, his strength will increase geometrically. How can he fight against him?

(End of this chapter)