weaving

Chapter 584

After Zhang Cheng led the army to leave Wu'an County, he ordered Zhang Guodong's infantry battalion to be the front army, Wei Zhice's chariot battalion to speed up the front for the Chinese army, and return to Xuanzhen, while he led Zhang Guangda's cavalry battalion and tiger guards as the rear army. Chen Jiugao went with him.

When passing through Xingtai, he briefly left the army and went to inspect the Huya village in the nearby mountains. It is now a team officer under Liu Jinhai's command, Sha Shiguang, and two sergeants are in charge.

When they crossed the border with those hungry people in Li Jiyu, they took in more than 4000 hungry people and five to six hundred young and strong. Now there are more than a thousand soldiers in the village and nearly [-] people in Dingkou. The surrounding wasteland that can be reclaimed has been planted. crops.

Both inside and outside Huya Village are a scene of prosperity. Sha Shiguang also dispatched capable personnel to set up grain farms and chariot and horse shops inside and outside Xingtai City, which can not only obtain necessary information, but also purchase needed materials for the cottage.

Moreover, they have established a protective relationship with the Xiwangshe and other villages around the cottage, and the villages will offer some grain to the cottage, and the cottage will provide them with protection.

Zhang Cheng was very satisfied with everything in Huya Village. He comforted Sha Shiguang in public, and then took Zhang Chengfang, Zhang Jintai and others back to the camp.

Because he wanted to pay homage to Lu Xiangsheng and his uncle Zhang Yan, he ordered Zhang Guangda to lead an army to guard Yang Liying and the others, and he himself took Huwei and Tongziying to Julu Jiazhuang.

Because Chen Jiugao wanted to get closer to Zhang Cheng, he actively asked to accompany him to worship Lu Duchen, but he thought in his heart that he would go to aid Jinzhou this time, and he still had to advance and retreat with Zhang Cheng.

It turned out that due to his outstanding performance in the Henan aid campaign, Chen Jiugao, who had been promoted to the former battalion commander, was handpicked by Chongzhen to return to Beijing to recuperate.

At this critical moment, how could he abandon Zhang Cheng's thigh, so since receiving the imperial decree, he has been with Zhang Cheng as much as possible, in order to get closer to each other, and in the future Liaodong Rely on guards in battle.

More than 100 miles to the east from Xingtai is the old battlefield of Jiazhuang in Julu. Zhang Cheng, Chen Jiugao and other cavalry leaders rode their horses in a hurry, and soon passed Ren County in the middle, and went straight to Jiazhuang.

Although it has been more than two years since the cavalry retreated, the land of Jinan still has not fully recovered from the war. There are quite a lot of rivers here, and they merge into a big marsh in the north of Ren County, and the drought is slightly milder.

But the villages are not densely populated, and many places are still barren. According to Tanma's report, Julu County is also sparsely populated, and the surrounding area of ​​Jiazhuang is even more deserted.

It is said that whenever there is a thunderstorm in that place, there will be bursts of screams, not only the screams, but also the neighing of war horses, as if tens of thousands of troops are fighting each other.

Therefore, except for a few small temples built by the government for sacrifices, Jiazhuang area is sparsely populated, and there is no family within a dozen miles around.

The whole Jiazhuang is surrounded by bushes, withered and yellow dry grass lying low on the ground, and the green grass is only protruding from the leaves, which seems to herald the rebirth of the new year.

The spring breeze blew through the bushes and weeds, making a low "wow" sound, just like the low roar and roar of the iron bones buried here.

Zhang Cheng knelt at the place where Zhang Yan was killed in battle. The remnants of Jiazhuang’s village walls were still faintly visible. Although most of them were hidden in the bushes and weeds, there were always shadows of some houses and village walls still showing stubbornly.

Kneeling beside him was Chen Jiugao, and behind Zhang Cheng Lin Fangping and other Tiger Guards, most of them had participated in the Battle of Julu back then, all of them looked solemn, and Chen Jiugao's entourage also knelt behind him.

Zhang Chengfang and Zhang Jintai carried a small table to Zhang Cheng and set it up in front of Zhang Cheng, and then placed various offerings on it, and everyone kowtowed three times following Zhang Cheng!
…………

After leaving Jiazhuang, Zhang Cheng and Chen Jiugao led the cavalry all the way to the northwest, crossed Longping County, entered the official road in Gaoyi, and met Wei Zhice in Julu.

It turned out that Zhang Cheng understood that Wei Zhice had been away from home for a long time, so he ordered him to send the Cheying army ahead after arriving in Julu, while he stayed at home and waited for Zhang Cheng's arrival, and then returned to Xuan Town together.

Wei Zhice naturally understood this, he was only grateful to Zhang Cheng in his heart, but he didn't show it on the surface.

They walked north along the official road. When they were in Wanxian County, Zhang Cheng found another reason to leave the camp privately, and went to Langwopo to take a look around. The place has changed drastically now.

Zhang Cheng passed by Langwopo when he was aiding in the suppression of Henan. At that time, there were only a thousand soldiers in the village, and a little over 3000 people. Although they occupied two nearby villages, they only resettled less than a thousand people.

But now it is indeed different!

Now Zhou Heihu, Zhu Hongwu, and Zhu Yiqi are each guarding a large village, and there are more than ten other small villages around them. From Liu Jinhai and Li Jiyu.

It turned out that although Zhou Heihu and his three brothers wiped out the surrounding bandit villages, they couldn't recruit enough people to reclaim and plant the wasteland.

Liu Jinhai and Li Jiyu led more than [-] hungry people to Xuan Town along this route. When they passed Langwopo, they left him with more than a thousand young and strong, and nearly ten thousand Dingkou.

This has greatly solved Zhou Heihu's needs for Dingkou. With the support of this batch of manpower, Zhou Heihu restored the surrounding cottages.

Among them, two places with better terrain were selected, and the two brothers Zhu Hongwu and Zhu Yiqi each led 500 people to be in charge of the garrison, while he led more than a thousand elites to sit in Langwopo.

Now, there are more than [-] Qingzhuang soldiers on their side, and nearly [-] people in Dingkou, which is already the largest civilian force in Baoding Prefecture.

Because he had already met with Hu Dawei, the chief soldier of Zhenbao, to go to Baoding Fucheng for a while tonight, besides, Chen Jiugao had already rushed to Baoding City to meet him. After he learned about the situation here, he hurried to Baoding Fucheng without eating. .

…………

At the beginning of the 13th year of Chongzhen, the imperial court decreed to transfer Hu Dawei, the former chief soldier of Shanxi, to be the chief soldier of Zhenbao, and Li Fuming, the deputy chief soldier, took over the post of chief soldier of Shanxi.

When Zhang Cheng sent troops to help suppress Henan, it happened that Hu Dawei was inspecting military affairs outside and was not in Baoding Fucheng, so he did not stay in Baoding.

This time, Hu Dawei knew that he must go through Zhenbao territory when returning to Xuan Town, so he sent someone to meet him near Huolu in Zhending Mansion, and sent a letter to Zhang Cheng to come to Baoding City for a while.

After all, he had followed Lu Xiangsheng to fight against the Tartars together, and he had the friendship of Julu bloody battle, and although Hu Dawei was not Zhang Cheng's direct superior, he was a senior official after all, so how could he not give face to Zhang Cheng who valued him so much? ?

At that moment, Zhang Cheng bid farewell to Zhou Heihu and others, raced horses with Lin Fangping and rushed to Baoding Fucheng.

(End of this chapter)