Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 183
The night was like ink, and when Zhu Wanliang was still preparing to play tricks, he didn't expect that Man Gui had already led people to go north by sea.

After marching for a whole day and night, [-] soldiers and horses finally arrived at the mouth of the Daling River on the evening of June [-], and the navigation conditions of the mouth of the Daling River were even better than they had imagined.

The big ship of [-] materials sailed into the Daling River with ease, and sailed upstream by adjusting the sails and rowing the oars.

When it was completely dark, the small boats walking in front of the three thousand materials lit the torches, shook two torches, and used the torches as flags to pass on the semaphore.

"Man Zongbing, we can't go any further. We've already traveled [-] miles along the Liaohe River. If we go any further, we can only use a thousand-material boat."

On the deck in the dark night, a ship owner explained to Man Gui in armor, and Man Gui nodded when he heard the words, and then said:
"In this case, all the horses and cavalry will disembark, and the infantry will load the cannon, gunpowder, grain fodder, and stone bullets, and then continue northward on the thousand-feed ship."

When Man Gui gave an order, the thousand-material ship immediately began to search for a place to dock on both sides of the bank, and then first sent the things on the thousand-material ship to the shore, and all the infantry went ashore, and then back and forth from the three thousand-material ship. received ashore.

Because they were traveling lightly, the more than [-] cavalry only brought [-] horses, which was standard for one man and one horse.

The horses of the three guards of Daning will be sent by sea ship in two days later, and the guards of Xiaoqi, Longxiang and Habayashi will return to the capital after finishing the abolition.

Going around and going around, 22 large ships with thousands of materials went back and forth more than [-] times. It was not until the time came to the four quarters of Haishi ([-] o'clock) that more than [-] riders landed.

Man Gui went ashore, and said to the lieutenant behind him: "The army leads the horses on foot, and the blunderbusses are loaded with bullets at any time."

"The last general takes orders!" The deputy general responded, and then arranged for the whole army to be ordered.

When they passed the order, the soldiers of the Sixth Battalion also took the artillery and luggage onto the [-] large ships with a thousand materials. back.

Contrary to what many people think, most of the cavalry rode horses, or led the horses on foot, except when they were doing raids.

This is the case for the current Three Cavalry Guards and the Daning Three Guards Cavalry, but they don't need to carry heavy loads, and all the food and fodder are carried on the large ship with thousands of materials.

Braving the night, they still need to drive more than [-] miles, and all this must be completed before dawn.

The environment of Daling River is not as bad as imagined, but it is not much better either.

The speed of paddling against the wind is not slow. In addition, the big ship puts up the soft sails, uses the triangular sails, and takes a zigzag route. The efficiency is faster than that with the wind, so gradually the cavalry began to be unable to keep up with the speed of the ships.

"Order the whole army to mount their horses, this distance is almost the same!"

Glancing at the moon hanging high above the sky, Man Gui judged the time and distance. After realizing that it was already three quarters of the ugly hour (1:45) and the distance was only thirty-seven or eight miles away, Man Gui decisively issued an order. Order to mount.

Immediately afterwards, more than [-] riders got on their horses, took out a handful of beans from the horse pockets behind them and fed them to the war horses, then shook the reins and rushed north with a sound of "driving".

In the middle of the night, the sound of rumbling horseshoes awakened many people.

Guangning Zhongzuo, Kaizhoutun, Weishanbao...

Every time the army passed by, thousands of cavalry, a battalion of infantry and thirty ten-jin cannons were left behind.

They held high the imperial decree and ordered all the cities and forts to open their gates.

The Liaoxi general who was still sleeping was woken up by his servant, and when he hurried to the city wall, what he saw were thousands of cavalry, thousands of infantry, and thirty dark iron cannons.

"Zhou Tao, a thousand households of Long Xiangwei, came here with the imperial decree to investigate the soldiers and horses of the Kaizhou Tunbao. If the city gate is not opened within a quarter of an hour, all the soldiers and horses of the Kaizhou Tunbao will be regarded as traitors, and they will attack the city!"

"Bang bang bang!"

Zhou Tao rode his horse to the bottom of the city, held up the imperial decree and roared. The moment he finished shouting, thirty cannons were also loaded and fired empty cannons, which startled Zhang Shiyan, the general of Liao Town at the head of the city.

"Guarantee, what shall we do?"

The guard on the side asked, and Zhang Shiyan, who was guarding Kaizhou Tunpu, didn't know how to respond for a while.

He didn't understand, didn't he say to wait for news the day before yesterday?How come it's only been two days, and the Sixteen Guards of Beizhili have all gone to Kaizhou Tunpu City?

"Kaicheng? No, five hundred soldiers and horses have been eaten up by Lao Tzu for three hundred empties. Opening this is a dead end!"

"Shou?" When Zhang Shiyan thought of this method, he lowered his head and saw the thirty black-holed General Yanshan cannons, swallowed, and finally dismissed the idea.

While he was hesitating, Zhou Tao rode his horse and strode in front of the moat below the city, and continued to speak loudly:

"Those who passed the order of Qi Wang and accepted the investigation before dawn will not be held accountable for the past vacancy!"

Zhang Shiyan's heart was immediately shaken by Zhou Tao's words, and he waved his hand directly:

"Open the city gate!"

"Yes!" The servant next to him heard that, even if he asked someone to open the city gate and set up the drawbridge, after all, the situation was too different, and it was simply beyond their ability to deal with it.

Zhang Shiyan's opening of the city seemed to open a Pandora's box. Not only him, but also all the cities, forts, and guards on the same road in the Liaoxi Corridor opened their gates and accepted the investigation.

Zhu Youjian specially transferred Lu Longwei from Yongping Mansion to go northward through Shanhaiguan.

Under the attack of Lu Longwei and Long Xiangwei, the entire Liaoxi Corridor was opened wide, and no one dared to resist.

But the reason why the Liaoxi Corridor is so cooperative is because they ate most of the empty pay. Compared with them, the Liao generals in the vast area north of the Xiaoling River and west of the Liao River in order to deal with the northern captives and Jian captives are the best. Master the existence of many soldiers and horses.

"put!"

bang bang bang-

When the situation was unclear, someone finally chose to resist.

Huang Jin, the garrison of Dakang Fort, did not open the city gate within three quarters of an hour after Habayashi Wei led the infantry to arrive, and the commander of Habayashi Guard immediately ordered to bombard Dakang Fort.

"Crazy! Are they crazy?! They really dare to fight!"

Guard Huang Jin was escorted down the city wall by his servants. The female wall at the top of the city was constantly hit and interrupted by stone bullets, and the entire city wall was slightly shaken.

"Fort Dakang defends Huang Jin's rebellion, kill him!"

The Commander of the Habayashi Guard drew his sword and gave the order. Under his command, the thirty ten-jin cannons carried by the army bombarded the Dakang Fort, which was no more than [-] paces long and wide.

This frantic bombardment not only scared Huang Jin, but also Zhu Wanliang, the guard general and commander-in-chief of Guangning Houtun who was only a few miles away from Dakang Fort!
"Mother! How dare Man Gui fight!"

Zhu Wanliang listened to the sound of cannons in the distance, and then looked down at the bottom of the city expressionlessly. He led Daning's [-] cavalry, Man Gui with more than [-] infantry, and the black hole of more than [-] cannons. Zhu Wanliang's forehead Sweat oozes.

"Zhu Wanliang! There is still a quarter of an hour!"

Suddenly, Man Gui yelled again, and Zhu Wanliang in the dark night was already a little guilty.

The general next to him also looked at him with a tense expression, as if they all wanted Zhu Wanliang to give in.

This is Liaoxi. If they rebel, who can they turn to?
Go outside the customs?Karaqin and Tuman didn't dare to take them in at all, and Chahar was thousands of miles away from here, so he had no chance to seek refuge.

It is also impossible to detour to Tieling and Kaiyuan in Houjin, and the three guards of Daning are still stuck in the middle.

Therefore, Zhu Wanliang didn't have much choice. After struggling, he could only sigh:

"Open the city gate!"

"Yes!" Hearing this, all the generals breathed a sigh of relief.

With the example of Fort Dakang in the front, they all know that Mangui really dared to attack the city.

Soon, the gates of Houtunwei City in Guangning were opened wide, and Man Gui also ordered [-] infantry to enter the city to take over the city defense upon seeing this.

After taking over the city defense, Man Gui seized Zhu Wanliang's military power and put him under house arrest in the General Military Mansion. At the same time, he ordered more than [-] cavalry from Daning to march eastward along the Great Wall and continue to abolish the troops in western Liaoning.

This night in western Liaoning, the city gates were opened wide, and those who did not know the number of days were bombarded by those who tried to resist.

At the same time, in the direction of Liaoyang, who had received the news half a day in advance, Qi Jin also led seven battalions of Zhejiang soldiers across the Liaohe River and took over many stone forts and guards.

When the time came to noon, Xiong Tingbi knew that the abolition had begun, and immediately ordered some generals he promoted not to resist and accept the investigation.

Kaiyang Fort Qi Bingzhong received the order to cooperate with the abolition, Zhenning Fort Liu Qu accepted the abolition, Zhenwu and Luyang guards Luo Yiguan, general Hei Yunhe, guerrilla Li Maochun, Zhang Mingxian and others successively opened the castle to accept the abolition.

When it was completely dark, the entire territory of western Liaoning had been completely taken over.

Under the deterrence of more than [-] artillery pieces and [-] troops attacking from north to south, from east to west, there is no room for more than [-] soldiers and horses in Liao Town to resist. Those who tried to resist have been passed on to the west of Liaoning, which is terrifying...

"In the land of western Liaoning, there are forty-eight forts in the six guards and seven offices. There are actually more than [-] main soldiers and more than [-] auxiliary soldiers. In reality, there are only more than [-] main soldiers and nine auxiliary soldiers. Thousands of people?!"

In Guangning Jinglue Mansion, Yuan Yingtai was standing in the meeting hall, holding a booklet in his hand, his beard trembling, he couldn't believe it.

Surrounding him were Xiong Tingbi, who was sitting in the main seat, drinking tea calmly, and Man Gui and Qi Jin, who were sitting first on the left and right.

Looking at Yuan Yingtai with a trembling beard, Man Gui added:

"There were [-] war horses originally, but there are actually [-] horses later."

Well, it was another thunderous blow, Yuan Yingtai felt his mouth was parched, he turned his head to look at Xiong Tingbi, good guy, this guy is still drinking tea so comfortably? !

"Xiong Feibai! Think about how to explain to Long Live with me!"

After all, Yuan Yingtai went up to grab the teacup, but he didn't want Xiong Tingbi to move away the hand holding the teacup, and shouted:

"Didn't they transfer Li Ning and Zu Dashou's three battalions of main soldiers and one battalion of auxiliary soldiers, nine thousand troops?!"

"Even if you add the transferred place, you and I can't escape the blame!" Yuan Yingtai sat down angrily, but Man Gui said at this moment:

"The abolition of the Liaoxi army was so smooth this time. My Highness and I did not expect it. I thought that Zhu Wanliang and Jiang Bi would raise troops, but they still held back."

"On the contrary, the guards of the three forts and the more than [-] infantry of the three forts became pawns, and died in vain."

The abolition cannot be smooth sailing, but only three of the forty-eight forts in the six guards and seven forts dared to be pawns. This kind of courage made Man Gui despise.

You know, the middle-level officers in the three towns of Shanxi dared to surround the Shenyang General Military Mansion, but this group of Liaoxi soldiers had three days to prepare, but they made this look.

After seeing the combat power of these guys, Man Gui is not surprised why the old slave is so powerful.

Especially when he thought about it, he had worked so hard and fought desperately for more than ten years before he could set up a garrison, and these guys had no courage, but they took the positions of generals, guerrillas, and general soldiers.

If I hadn't been promoted by His Royal Highness King Qi, I'm afraid I'm still eating dirt in Huangtuling...

"Indeed, the abolition of Liaoxi is so smooth, it is indeed unexpected."

Xiong Tingbi also put down his teacup and sighed, but after sighing, he smiled bitterly and said:

"It's going well, but without the [-] soldiers and the three guards of Daning stationed outside the pass, I'm afraid it would be even more difficult to abolish them than ascend to heaven."

If Zhu Youjian heard Xiong Tingbi's words, he might not be able to help but agree.

God knows how many years Zhu Youjian has been preparing for the abolition of Liaozhen soldiers and horses.

Counting from Qi Jin and Qin Bangping serving as Liaoyang and Shenyang commanders respectively, it took a whole year and ten months to spend more than [-] million taels of money and food, and also transferred the troops of Li Ning, Zu Dashou and others to create This gave us the opportunity to abolish western Liaoning.

If you want to talk about the entire Ming Dynasty, who knows the hard work of abolishing Liao Town, I am afraid that Zhu Youjian will be the second, and no one dares to say the first.

But now it's all right, the soldiers and horses of Liao Town have finally been abolished, and the next thing to do is to measure the fields of Weisuo in the whole territory of Liaodong, and then disperse the soldiers and horses of Zhu Wanliang and others to the [-]th Battalion of Liaodong.

Man Gui got Zhu Youjian's order and the emperor's imperial decree, so he naturally knew what to do next, so he said directly:

"The meaning of King Qi and Long Live is to transfer the Gaizhou, Fuzhou, and Haizhou battalions of the [-]th Battalion of Liaodong to the west of Liaoning, and the sixth battalion of Liaoxi that was originally recruited to station in the west of Liaoning."

"In this way, there are nine battalions of soldiers and horses stationed in western Liaoning."

"As for the [-] regular soldiers under Zhu Wanliang and others, what His Royal Highness Qi Wang means is that it is best to abolish and reorganize the elite, disrupt the elite, and transfer them to the remaining twenty-five battalions in Liaodong. Reorganize the third battalion of soldiers and horses in southern Liaoning, and the battalions of Shenyang and Liaoyang."

"As for those who were dismissed, they will be included in the auxiliary army and transferred to the three cities of Kuandian."

"In addition to the chaos, the whole territory of Liaodong was abolished, the army was collected and the land was transferred to the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and the land was distributed to the people of Liaodong."

After Man Gui finished his long speech, the content was not boring. On the contrary, it was very straightforward, which was very suitable for Xiong Tingbi's appetite.

Regarding this, Xiong Tingbi immediately said:

"It's not bad to send soldiers and horses to Liaodong in disorder. If there are nine battalions of soldiers and horses in Liaoxi, nothing will go wrong."

"It is the final abolition of Weisuotian. I am afraid that it will take three or four months to mobilize the entire territory of Liaodong."

"With the current number of soldiers and horses in Liaodong, it is enough to fight the old slave!" Yuan Yingtai took Xiong Tingbi's words and continued.

This point of view was approved by the four people present, because Liaodong now has a full [-] soldiers, even if Zhu Wanliang and his troops are not included.

However, before they were happy, Man Gui poured cold water on:
"Xiaoqi and the other three guards will withdraw to the capital after the abolition is over."

"Withdraw to the capital? With so many cavalry, if they stay in Liaodong, they will be more useful!" Yuan Yingtai was puzzled, but Qi Jin, who was taciturn, said:

"There are many internal problems in the capital, which are not as short-sighted as they appear on the surface. It is right for the four cavalry guards to be stationed in the capital."

"According to His Royal Highness King Qi's intention, we are going to wait until next year's autumn harvest before launching a general offensive. By then, many soldiers and horses should be mobilized."

"Before the autumn harvest?" Xiong Tingbi frowned when he heard this, and said:

"If the troops were mobilized before the autumn harvest, then we would have less than two months left."

"The autumn harvest starts in August, and it will start snowing in October, and at most it will be snowing heavily in late October."

"If the mountains are covered with heavy snow, some mountain paths will be piled up and buried by snow. It will be difficult for me to regain the Great Wall and Yaque Pass in the remaining range of Changbai Mountain."

Facing Xiong Tingbi's words, Yuan Yingtai also nodded and said: "We can't take back the Yaque Pass and the Great Wall in the Changbai Mountains. Even if we take back Tieling, Kaiyuan and other places, at most we can recover some vitality."

"This, Your Highness has already considered it, we don't need to worry too much." Man Gui replied, and Qi Jin said more frankly:
"Your Highness should prepare to take the water route."

"Water route?" Hearing this, Xiong Tingbi responded, "Your Highness is going to take the Taizi River and the Hun River?"

Xiong Tingbi's quick response was also due to his understanding of the terrain of Liaodong.

Taizi River was called Yanshui in ancient times, Daliang River in Han Dynasty, Dongliang River in Song and Liao Dynasties, Taizi River in Ming Dynasty, and its earliest shipping history was also seen in Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty.

Leaving aside other records of Ming officials, there is also a record in the "Manchu Lao Dian" about Nurhachi sailing on the Taizi River.

As the river basin of the Taizi River, which was frequently used by troops in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, its water transportation itself served the war.

The river is thirty feet wide, and the water in the center of the river is four meters deep, which is enough for five hundred boats to sail.

If a ship of [-] materials is equipped with artillery and used to transport troops, then the Ming Dynasty's ship building technology in the past two years will not be far behind.

Using the triangular sail to go in a zigzag pattern, plus rowing the oars, you can reach the Yaque Pass in a day and a night at most.

The only fly in the ointment is that the riverbed varies in height, so it may take time to dig the river in summer.

The same situation applies to the Hunhe River, and the navigability of the Hunhe River is better than that of the Taizi River.

But the problem is the same, if you go to the Hunhe River, you can go to Saerhu City at most, so you have to go by land.

Although the waterway leads to Hetuala all the way, it gets narrower and shallower as it gets closer to Hetuala, and the water becomes shallower and shallower. Only [-] boats can be used to transport some luggage and artillery.

It's just that it's too far away. Right now, what Xiong Tingbi and the others want is to regain the entire territory of Liaodong, so they only need to hit Fushun Pass.

However, Qi Jin's idea of ​​going by water gave Xiong Tingbi and the others a different way of thinking.

It's just that no matter how easy the waterway is, it still needs an army to march on land, and if you want to keep up with the speed of the ships, you only need cavalry.

If it is an infantry, then you need to start early.

"It's really good to take the water route. You can easily reach the Yaque Pass, and you can also bombard Qinghe Fort."

Xiong Tingbi estimated, and Yuan Yingtai beside him also said:

"It's just that we have to wait until next year's autumn harvest, so the main and auxiliary soldiers in Liao Town are probably not a small expense. I don't know if it will be like Yang Gao back then..."

Yuan Yingtai realized that he had said something he shouldn't have said, so he hurriedly shut his mouth, but everyone still heard him.

But the people here, in the final analysis, have something to do with Zhu Youjian, and they have even been regarded as the Qi royal party by the civil servants in the capital, so no one said anything. On the contrary, Man Gui said straightforwardly:
"The Royal Horse Supervisor is rich in money and food, and there is no problem supporting the soldiers and horses in Liao Town. Don't worry."

"Having said that... well, I still have to live forever to withstand the pressure of the courtiers..." Yuan Yingtai let out a long sigh, and everyone stopped talking.

But Xiong Tingbi, seeing that everyone was silent, asked Yuan Yingtai:

"How much grain is stored in Liaodong now? How much money is left?"

"There are [-] shi of grain stored in various places on paper, and more than [-] taels of silver, which are all military pay for the second half of the year."

Yuan Yingtai responded, and Xiong Tingbi also said:

"There are currently more than [-] million mu of land in Liaodong. The abolition of the guards is best resolved before the autumn harvest. The fields are distributed, and then [-]% of the rent is uniformly collected."

"From the perspective of the number of Liao people, it is still unknown how much land can be distributed. Just take advantage of this time to re-book the number of Liao people."

"That's a good idea!" Yuan Yingtai's eyes lit up when he heard Xiong Tingbi's words.

At present, Liaodong is still using the old yellow books from the Jiajing period, copying the old books every year, resulting in a paper population of less than [-].

But if Liaodong really only has more than [-] yuan, it would not make the price of food in Liaodong so high while sitting on more than [-] million mu of farmland.

It is a good achievement to check the population of Liaodong while clarifying the farming.

"If Liaodong can find out more people than "Complete Liaozhi", then it will be much easier for Liaodong to separate from Shandong Chengxuan Political Envoy Division."

Qi Jin Fuxu smiled and said, Xiong Tingbi also said:
"I recruited [-] soldiers in western Liaoning before. Although many fled north, it can be seen that there are more people in eastern Liao than in "Quan Liao Zhi" and "Yellow Book."

"However, I don't know exactly how much more can be added. I still have to investigate thoroughly to find out, but I don't think it will be less than a million."

"If there are really millions of people, after the land is divided, the hearts of the people in Liaodong will return to the imperial court." Man Gui knew that the Liao people did not trust Daming, so he hoped that the land would be used to buy people's hearts.

"In this case, then we..." Yuan Yingtai was just about to discuss and order the soldiers and horses in Liaodong to clarify the population, when suddenly the sound of hurried footsteps sounded from outside the hall.

I saw a general trotting all the way into the Jinglue Mansion, came to the hall and knelt down on one knee and said:
"Jinglue, Governor, Tang Qi from Daning Zhongwei came outside the door, saying that there is something important."

"Biography!" Hearing that it was related to his Daning Sanwei, Man Gui spoke first.

Seeing this, Xiong Tingbi also nodded, and the general turned around and left immediately.

After a while, a blood-stained Tang Qi walked into the meeting hall led by the general and two infantry, and the Tang cavalry cried out the moment he saw Man Gui:
"General soldier! Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were built to go out of Qinghe Pass, wipe out Zai Saibu, and surprise the Daning Zhongwei!"

(End of this chapter)