Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 57
From Kaocheng in Kaifeng Prefecture to Yuntiguan in Huai'an Prefecture, the Yellow River estuary stretches for more than 1500 miles. The garrisons in the 30 towns envisioned by Chongzhen have an average defense of [-] miles in each town.

But that's just a saying.

In reality, it is definitely not possible to engage in equal distribution.

The entire line of defense must have a focus.

This focus is the 150-mile area between the new canal of Yanhe River and the new canal of Xiazhen.

If Jiannu only went southward on a small scale, the 1500 miles from Kaocheng to Yuntiguan would naturally have breakthroughs everywhere, but Jiannu's small-scale southward migration would not perish Daming.

What's more, the small-scale Jiannu may not be able to cross the Yellow River.

Because Chongzhen had ordered Zheng Zhilong to go north to Huanghuai.

If there is no accident, there is a high probability that Zheng Zhilong will not come.

But Zheng Zhilong's fourth brother, Zheng Zhifeng, also known as Zheng Hongkui, will definitely come.

With Zheng Hongkui's navy stationed in Xuzhou, they can provide water support to the Ming army along the upper and lower reaches of the Yellow River. It will be difficult for small groups of Jiannu to break through the Yellow River defense line.

And if the main force of building slaves goes south, they will definitely march along the canal.

The reason is simple, the logistical pressure of advancing along the canal is minimal.

Moreover, if you go south from other directions, you have to cross the Yellow River, and you will be blocked by the Ming army's navy in the end, so why not simply go south along the canal and fight the Ming army in the canal?

As long as Jiannu is not a fool, he will definitely choose to fight the Ming army along the canal.

Therefore, the 150 miles from Xiazhen Xinqu in the west to Yuhe Xinqu in the east is the center of gravity of the entire defense line, which is the Xuzhou defense line.

When Chongzhen was about to present his strategic plan, Li Ruolian, commander of Jinyiwei, walked into the lobby and whispered something into Wang Chengen's ear, and Wang Chengen whispered something into Wu Batan who was standing beside him.

Wu cupped charcoal and walked out of the state government hall with a machete in his hand.

After a while, Wang Chengen walked up to Chongzhen and whispered, "Long Live Lord, we have found out about the trouble with wages."

Chongzhen then put down the long wooden pole in his hand, and said flatly: "Let me tell you something, Jin Yiwei has already found out who is behind the pay incident that happened eight days ago."

Suddenly there were whispers in the lobby.

Li Chengdong's face changed slightly, and he took a step back subconsciously.

Chongzhen turned his gaze to Li Chengdong and asked, "Li Chengdong, what do you have to say now?"

Accompanied by Chongzhen's questioning, Wu Batan rushed into the lobby of the prefectural office with a dozen or so Yi Ding in full clothes, and immediately surrounded Li Chengdong, and the rest of the generals hurriedly distanced themselves.

Huang Degong also stood beside Chongzhen unobtrusively.

Li Chengdong's countenance changed suddenly: "My lord, what do you mean?"

"Do you still want to deny it now?" Chongzhen said with a smile.

Li Chengdong snorted coldly and said: "The king wants the minister to die, and the minister has to die. If the Holy Majesty wants to kill the minister, he can just do it. Why make these excuses?"

This is to stir up the emotions of other town commanders.

Unfortunately, it didn't resonate with others.

Not only Huang Degong's ten town commanders and Liu Zeqing's former ten town commanders, but even Gao Jie's other seven town commanders remained indifferent.

No one is stupid.

Is now the time to get strong?

Besides, is Li Chengdong worthy of their standing up for him?
It's just a colleague, not a fatal friendship.

Chongzhen said: "Yes, I have made many mistakes before, but now I have repented. From now on, I will not wrong any loyal minister or good general, but I will never let any treacherous villain go! Li Ruolian, you Let me tell you, what exactly did Li Chengdong do eight days ago?"

Li Ruolian likes to speak with facts.

While coming in, two people were also brought in.

The two men had their hands bound behind their backs and their mouths were also gagged.

After the two came in, their eyes were wide open, and they murmured at Li Chengdong, looking extremely angry.

Hu Maozhen, Gao Jinku and other commanders immediately recognized that they were the two generals under Li Chengdong's command, and they were the two most trusted personal soldiers who were in charge of commanding his three hundred members.

"President Li." Li Ruolian said, "Your confidant has already explained everything."

"If you want to commit a crime, why don't you have excuses?" Li Chengdong was still stubbornly resisting, "The Holy One wants to kill the minister, so just kill him. There is really no need to bribe such two villains to frame Yuchen."

Li Ruolian smiled and slapped a messenger.

Holding down the two generals, Yi Ding stretched out his hand and tore off the cloth strip.

The two spit out the dung balls in their mouths, and cursed: "Li Chengdong, you idiot, I didn't say anything, when did I frame you? Oh?"

"Ah this?" Li Chengdong was stunned when he heard this.

One of the generals said very angrily: "Since you are not benevolent, blame us for being unrighteous. Long live, we recruited. Li Chengdong instigated the payment trouble. He asked us to secretly link up with the generals and the generals. Officer, it was agreed to raise wages at the same time, and all of this was instigated by Li Chengdong behind the scenes."

Li Chengdong could no longer keep calm.

However, this guy is indeed fierce. In such a desperate situation, instead of rushing out of the lobby, he rushed towards Chongzhen, obviously wanting to control Chongzhen as a hostage.

It's a pity that Li Chengdong made a wrong calculation.

Huang Degong and Wu Batan had been on guard against him for a long time.

"Boom!" Wu dropped Tan's scimitar and Huang Degong's iron whip on Li Chengdong almost at the same time.

However, Wu Tan's scimitar was blocked by Li Chengdong's straight armor, but Huang Degong's iron whip smashed Li Chengdong's pocket into a big piece.

This time, it is estimated that the skull was smashed.

Li Chengdong's eyes instantly became dull, and he stood still.

After a while, Li Chengdong fell straight forward, twitched twice and then remained silent.

Seeing this, the soldiers of the other twenty-seven towns remained silent. For more than half a year before this, they once thought that the imperial power of the Ming Dynasty had declined, but at this moment they suddenly discovered that the imperial power was still sacred and inviolable. Li Chengdong tried to challenge the imperial power. He paid the price in blood.

It seems that in the future, you have to be in awe when you do things, and you can't do anything.

"That's the end of the trouble." Chongzhen glanced at the other twenty-seven town commanders, and said solemnly, "But I hope this is the last time! If anyone commits the crime again, it will not be a matter of death." Now, I don't want to harm my family, and I don't even want to engage in a murder, but there are always some people who force me to do it, so what can I do?"

The commander-in-chief of the twenty-seventh town was silent, and the emperor was furious, bleeding profusely.

Anyone who governs the army must give both kindness and power. Before, the payment was issued according to the standard of Guan Ningjun, which was a show of kindness.

Now beheading Li Chengdong is a demonstration, but just beheading Li Chengdong is not enough, there must be further beatings.

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "There is something I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but I never had the chance. Today, I will tell you as the commanders of all towns are here."

"The strength of the twenty-eight towns gathered in Xuzhou is seriously out of balance."

"Some towns have six or seven thousand people, while others have less than a thousand people."

"This will undoubtedly have a very negative impact on the defense of the Huanghuai defense line."

"So it's imperative to reorganize. Don't you have any opinions?"

Hearing this, the commander-in-chief with many troops showed bitterness, while the commander-in-chief with few troops secretly rejoiced.

Chongzhen said: "Since everyone has no objection, then I will make an order. The [-] frontier troops plus [-] township bravery, the [-] horses will be divided equally by the general soldiers of the [-] towns, with [-] people in each town."

Hearing this, the chief soldier with many soldiers secretly heaved a sigh of relief.

Not too bad, if there are [-] people, the loss of troops is not much.

But Chongzhen's next sentence immediately turned them into bitter faces.

Chongzhen said: "What's more, in the future, I or the imperial envoys will be responsible for distributing the military salaries of the towns. I'm afraid you don't have that much money to support the servants under your command."

The commander-in-chief of the twenty-eighth town looked embarrassed.

Even Huang Degong was a little unnatural.

Because it has become a custom to keep servants.

None of the military generals in the Ming Dynasty did not support servants.

So where does the money to feed the servants come from?

Naturally, it can only be deducted from the salaries of other soldiers.

Now that Chongzhen has pinched the salary from the source, these general soldiers really can't afford to support the servants.

Chongzhen said again: "These servants are all elites. It would be a pity to let them go like this. If they join bandits or build slaves, it will be even more troublesome, so I decided to gather them together and form a town of elite soldiers. They provide the best weapons and armor, and pay them double."

All the soldiers in the twenty-seventh town remained silent.

Obviously, these general soldiers are not very willing.

But Chongzhen did not give them a chance to refuse.

After a short pause, Chongzhen said again: "Time is tight, and I don't have time to spend with you. Hurry up and send your relatives back to their respective barracks to issue a notice. All family members in each town must come to the state government before this evening to stand by. Or those who fail to meet the time limit will be charged with treason and killed!"

The commander-in-chief of the twenty-seventh town remained silent.

At that moment, Hu Maozhen and others came out of the lobby, and called the attendants who were on standby outside to talk to each other.

Chongzhen turned to Xuzhou Wei again and instructed Wang Wenming: "Wang Wenming, Li Chengdong's town will be handed over to you. Now go to Li Chengdong's camp and bring his servants to me."

"The minister leads the decree." Wang Wenming was overjoyed when he heard the words, and went excitedly.

When the commander-in-chief of the twenty-seventh town came back, Chongzhen went on to say: "Continue to talk about the Huanghuai defense line. Due to the limited number of troops, I decided to concentrate our troops and focus on defending the new canal of the Weihe River, the new canal of Xiazhen and the triangular area in the middle of the Yellow River. , the entire line of defense is supported by Xuzhou City and Pizhou City as the east and west wings."

"Xia Town supports the northern part of the entire defense line."

"Among them, the status of Xia Town is the most important."

"Because Xia Town is at the northernmost end of the entire defense line, and its position is protruding."

"Once the slaves are transported down Henan, Xia Town will bear the brunt."

"So Xia Town is the eye of the entire Huanghuai defense line, the most important thing!"

(End of this chapter)