In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 205 Entering the Loop
After more than 50 leaders of the Tumut tribe returned to the lakeside camp, the next day Lin Rui sent [-] Jurchen girls under the age of ten. After everyone divided them up according to the quota, they left happily with the warriors. .

When Duduo saw this situation, he also knew that the Lin Jiajun and the Tumote tribes had reached an agreement. If they continued to stay in the Hetao, they would probably be surrounded and suppressed, so he had to take three thousand cavalry to the south and return to Liaodong.

Lin Rui was too lazy to pursue, and just asked Takuyan to bring [-] cavalry to support Shang Kexi, lest the [-] traitor soldiers led by Shang Kexi were attacked by Duduo.

In order to prevent long nights and long dreams, Lin Rui made an explanation and personally led [-] cavalrymen and [-] young infantrymen to kill and convert them first.

The equestrian skills of the five thousand young infantrymen are already quite good, and they have no problem keeping up with the cavalry.

In fact, the eight infantry battalions can now be used as dragoons, that is, marching on horseback and dismounting to fight on foot.

The benefits of dragoons are undoubtedly huge. They can not only take advantage of the rapid maneuverability of cavalry, but also show the characteristics of infantry.

Especially on the grasslands without cities, if the dragoons are paired with light cavalry and chariots and conduct a short-distance attack of two to three hundred miles, almost no tribe can stop them.

So in just two days, Lin Rui led his army to Guihua City and blocked the [-] traitor soldiers in the city.

The walls of Guihua City are still the same. Jianu has not reinforced them at all, and only repaired the big gap made by the original explosion with rammed earth.

At this moment, looking at the sudden killing of Lin's army outside the city, the [-] traitor soldiers in the city all looked frightened and at a loss. Obviously, Duduo did not send anyone to inform them that he had returned to Liaodong.

Although there is plenty of food in the city and there are wells, almost everyone knows the consequences of being trapped in an isolated city.

"General, what should I do?"

"Why did the Lin Family Army suddenly attack? Did Prince Yu suffer a defeat and was defeated by the Lin Family Army?"

The general in the city is named Zhang Cunren. He was originally the deputy general of the Ming Army. Zu Dashou's men were surrounded by slaves together with Zu Dashou in the Daling River for several months. Even the people in the city were eaten up and reinforcements did not arrive. , finally surrendered in Sanquan in Huangtaiji, and surrendered to Jiannu along with Zu Dashou.

After Zu Dashou surrendered, he deceived Huang Taiji and lied that he would take people back to Jinzhou to serve as internal agents. Huang Taiji was very happy and had no doubts about it, so he immediately let him return to Jinzhou, but he sent Zhang Cunren and Zu Dashou's son Zukfa and others The people were detained in the camp.

As a result, after Zu Dashou returned to Jinzhou, he immediately strengthened the city defense and placed strict alerts. This angered Huang Taiji, who wanted to capture Jinzhou, to death.

And Zhang Cunren, Zu Kefa and others also stayed to build slaves and became traitors. It has to be said that Huang Taiji was indeed not a bit more ambitious than Chongzhen.

Being teased by Zu Dashou in this way, instead of angering his subordinates and sons, he was entrusted with important responsibilities.

At this moment, facing the inquiries from his generals, Zhang Cunren looked at the Lin family army outside the city with a solemn expression, not knowing what to do.

Obviously Duduo never told Zhang Cunren and these Han soldiers what happened in Liaodong.

"Tell brothers, don't panic. The Lin family's army has less than [-] cavalry. We can't even hope to attack the city with this small number of troops!"

Although he guessed that something might be wrong, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, Zhang Cunren had no choice but to speak.

Everyone was right after thinking about it. Just when they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Lin Jiajun's shouting came from outside the city, and the content of the shouting almost scared everyone to death.

"People on the wall, listen, your Juror Princess will not come to save you. Shengjing City has been conquered by us, Huang Taiji's wife, daughter and children have all been captured by our commander, and Duduo has also fled back to Liaodong. If you want to survive, open the city gate immediately and surrender, otherwise when the main force of our Lin family army arrives, no one of you can survive!"

"The people on the wall listen..."

Faced with Lin Jiajun's constant shouting, the traitor soldiers on the wall were shocked. For a moment, people's hearts fluctuated, and even Zhang Cunren became unsure whether what Lin Jiajun said was true or false.

In order to capture Guihua City as quickly as possible without any bloodshed, Lin Rui brought Hai Lanzhu and Huang Taiji's two daughters. At this moment, he directly sent two warriors to deliver Huang Taiji's two daughters to the city. The traitor soldiers above hung up to confirm.

As for whether these traitor soldiers recognize Huang Taiji's two daughters, that can only be a chance.

"Don't let go of the arrow, go find two ropes and come over!"

Zhang Cunren looked at the two girls below. One of them did look a bit like Huang Taiji's daughter. He was horrified and quickly ordered someone to find a rope.

Not long after, the two traitor soldiers hurriedly found two ropes and threw them down. The two Lin family soldiers below were not polite and tied Huang Taiji's two daughters tightly.

After pulling the two girls to the top of the city, Zhang Cunren rushed up personally, untied the ropes between the two, and after seeing the appearance of one of them clearly, he fell to the ground.

His reaction shocked all the generals around him, and they all asked anxiously: "General, is she really..."

"Princess, was Shengjing City really captured by the Lin Family Army?"

Zhang Cunren did not give up and quickly got up and asked the little princess he had met before.

"Yeah!" The little princess has been manipulated by the Lin family army in the past few months like a cat. She doesn't dare to lie at all. She also knows that lying is useless, so she tells the truth about what happened in Liaodong.

After hearing this, Zhang Cunren no longer had any doubts. After all, even the two princesses were captured by the Lin family army, which was the best proof. Without reinforcements, there was no other way to go but to surrender.

Zhang Cunren simply ordered people to open the city gate without negotiating any terms with the Lin family army, and led a group of generals to the city gate to kneel to greet him.

"Zhang Cunren, the defeated general, is willing to bring more than ten thousand soldiers in the city to surrender to Marshal Lin. From now on, he is willing to die for the Marshal!"

"You are a smart man, get up!"

Lin Rui nodded. He originally thought that this guy would negotiate terms with him, but unexpectedly he opened the door directly.

"Thank you, handsome."

Zhang Cunren breathed a sigh of relief and got up. The generals behind him and a large group of dark soldiers also got up.

Then Zhang Cunren introduced the main generals under his command to Lin Rui. Seeing that there were no memorable figures, Lin Rui asked him to take all the troops and horses out of the city first and wait for arrangements.

These [-] traitor soldiers are all young and strong, and for the sake of balance, it is gratifying that Lin Rui intends to spare them once.

But when he saw the money rat tail swinging behind his head one by one as they left the city, he frowned and said: "General Zhang, tell me to cut off all the braids on my head and shave them all bald!"

"It's the commander-in-chief, but the general was negligent for a moment."

Zhang Cunren was startled, secretly thinking that he had forgotten this in his hurry to surrender, and immediately cut off his braids with a knife. The other generals also followed suit, cutting off their braids and shaving them in a hurry. Bald.

Lin Rui was then satisfied and allowed [-] infantry to take over Guihua City, while [-] cavalry and [-] traitor soldiers stayed outside the city.

For these ten thousand traitor soldiers, Lin Rui not only did not confiscate their weapons, he did not even send anyone to guard them.

Because there is no need, they can't run away on the grassland at all. If they dare to run, there will only be one end, and that is to become meat under the hooves of the cavalry.

Zhang Shouren and the traitor soldiers knew this very well, so they stayed outside the city and waited for arrangements.

In the days that followed, Lin Rui arranged for [-] traitor soldiers to go to the Yin Mountain in the north to collect stones and cut trees. At the same time, he sent people to notify the large army to send a group of craftsmen first. At the same time, he sent a group of cavalry to carry dry food and water. , went to the Gobi in Mobei to inquire about the situation.

More than 2000 craftsmen came by carriage, so they arrived in just five days.

These two thousand craftsmen, including carpenters, blacksmiths, masons and many other craftsmen, Lin Rui did not ask them to start work immediately. Instead, he asked the cavalry to escort some of them who were good at prospecting to the Yinshan Mountains in the north to find some valuable mines first. .

For example, salt mines, iron mines, coal mines, limestone, etc. There must be iron ore and coal mines in the Baotou area, but Lin Rui doesn't know the specific location, and he doesn't know whether the iron ore and coal mines in Baotou are open-pit mines, so he has no choice but to Let the craftsmen find it themselves.

After the prospecting craftsmen left, Lin Rui discussed with a group of masons and carpenters how to expand and strengthen Guihua City.

Finally, after some discussion, Lin Rui decided to expand the south city, west city and east city on the original basis of Guihua City, increasing the perimeter of the city wall to eighteen miles.

The height of the city wall is two feet, which is actually almost enough. It only needs to be reinforced with a layer of green bricks on the outside. After all, this is only a temporary capital.

In the future, the inner city will be used as the temporary palace and government warehouses, the east city will be used as an industrial area for making weapons and armor, the west city will be used as a barracks to station troops, and the south city will be used as a commercial area.

As for the specific planning and construction of each urban area, Lin Rui had no control over it. Instead, he asked the craftsmen to discuss and decide on their own, and then make a rough wooden model first. After he reviewed it, he could start construction.

However, in order to protect the environment of the Loop and save wood, except for his palace, other buildings should be built with bricks, earth and stone as much as possible. They are not looking for beauty, just practicality, and there is no need to consider the age.

After leaving the matter to the craftsmen, Lin Rui began to investigate westward along the river south of the city.

This big river originates from the Yinshan Mountains in the north and finally merges into the Yellow River in the west. The river surface is quite wide and the water is abundant. If you want to farm, you must cultivate farmland along both sides of the river.

Erecting waterwheels along the way will make irrigation very convenient. Along the way, Lin Rui found many traces of previous farming, and even the remains of many small forts and small towns. Obviously, this was the land of the Ming Dynasty in the early Ming Dynasty, and military households They were stationed here to guard the border.

In fact, Lin Rui only plans to cultivate one to 20 acres of farmland near Guihua. The place where he really plans to open up wasteland for large-scale farming is Wuyuan.

The place is surrounded by the Yin Mountains and adjacent to the Yellow River in the south. Not only is the terrain open and there are many rivers in the territory, it can definitely open up millions of acres of fertile farmland. It is also easy to defend and difficult to attack, making it very suitable for farming.

The environment is also the best in the entire Hetao. It is blocked by Yinshan Mountains in the north and west, making the air inside the territory humid and the climate pleasant. Otherwise, it would not have the reputation of being in the south of the Yangtze River.

However, if you want to farm there, you must first relocate the more than 5 Tumut people living there.

(End of this chapter)