Dragon Soul in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 33 Dezhou Guard Commander

A eunuch is a person who is said to be incomplete, not only physically, but also spiritually, so certain ordinary qualities are often magnified in them, no matter good or bad, the sincere ones will never change , Jian is hateful through the body.

Wang Chengen is also an incomplete person, and he also pursues certain things so that he can be complete.

He has been in the palace since he was a child, and he is used to seeing the flattery and filth in the palace, so he never lacks these dark things in his heart, but he is lucky, because he left this stage, the glamorous and glamorous, Under the table, there are many corpses, and the palace is full of decaying maggots.

He accompanied Zhu Youjian, who was still the emperor's grandson, in the East Palace, and witnessed Chongzhen's life. Regardless of glory or gloom, he regarded Chongzhen as his relatives, and he also saw through Chongzhen's character. He is Chongzhen's father, so until the last moment, he was willing to hang himself for the country with him.

How to judge Wang Chengen, he may be treacherous, it is just a life-saving method he learned in the palace since he was a child, he may be upright, but this can only be a luxury in his spare time, and a big event happened not long ago, Zhu You Jian and his guards quietly left the capital and headed towards Datong, but that night in the cloudless sky, there was sudden thunder and lightning, and strong winds, and he lost his way, so he didn't chase him back.

The news of the emperor's disappearance, but he has never dared to say it, except for the queens of the two palaces, no one knows about it, even the other confidant eunuchs around the emperor, who dare to gossip, are all silenced.

And he had no choice but to guard Tongzhou. On that day, thieves entered the city, burned, killed and looted. After breaking through the encirclement, news came that he became the chief culprit and scapegoat after Tongzhou City was broken, and was scolded thoroughly by the court from top to bottom.

In Tongzhou City, he even saw the leader of the thief in red, who looked very much like Zhu Youjian, but he was younger than him, and Zhu Youjian had been working hard for many years, and his hair was already dyed a lot With silver thread on it, it looks very old.

Among the thieves in red, there was another rumor that this person was Zhu Yousong, the son of King Fu. According to various judgments, he thought that this person was Zhu Yousong at first, but he took care of Chongzhen for more than ten years, and his self-consciousness told him that this person was the emperor Zhu Yousong. Youjian, so he has no plan to return to the capital, but has been following and observing.

He also helped Zhu Gan a lot along the way, the luxurious and practical Mingguang armor, Cao Huachun's fall, and even the missing Yu Song and Gao Qiang were all rescued by him. He sent the two of them back to the Red Clothes Army, but started to heal their wounds, and inquired about Zhu Gan from them by the way.

Countless life-and-death struggles in his previous life gave Zhu Gan an intuition for danger and terror. Although he was surrounded by the red-clothed army, he could detect that there was no malice in the occasional prying eyes. It still made his hair stand on end.

He had ordered all the soldiers out of the cabin several times, but he still couldn't find the source of the peeping, which made him feel extremely frustrated. Now that he is attacking Texas, he has to temporarily put down his thoughts and prepare for the battle.

On both sides of the giant ship's bow stood more than a dozen red-clothed soldiers. These were the direct descendants who had followed from Zhuozhou City at first. Kneeling to salute, a red-clothed soldier stepped forward and clasped his fists and said, "See my lord, I'm going to the Dezhou [-]th Company Battalion soon, please give my lord instructions."

Zhu Gan expanded his chest, took a deep breath of the river wind blowing in his face, it was a little cool, and his spirit was shocked, he waved his hands to make everyone stand up, and said with a smile: "The one who disembarked at Wuqiao earlier must have arrived in Dezhou long ago! Let’s show the red cannons on the ship first, and shoot a few shots at the city of Dezhou.”

The Dezhou Twelve Company Battalion, also known as the Twelve Company City, is a defensive city camp built in the north of Dezhou City during the three-year "Battle of Jingnan" by Ming Chengzu Zhu Di.

Since the beginning of Ming Dynasty, the canal water transportation has become more and more prosperous, and Dezhou, which thrives because of the river, has become an important storage base for the imperial court. A large number of military ladies and official materials are stored in warehouses along the east bank of the canal. After the "Battle of Jingnan", in order to protect these important food and materials, many troops were required to stop. The "Twelve Liancheng" was the place where these guard troops and the "Southern Army" soldiers who were preparing to fight against the Yan army were stationed. These cities are actually barracks.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in chaos, and military expenditures far exceeded the annual revenue of the imperial court. Except for the few soldiers who could only fight, the imperial court had no extra money to support the soldiers, and the soldiers in the military households in the guards all over the country had long been reduced. For the peasants or private soldiers of officials at all levels, the land of the Central Plains has long been invincible soldiers.

At this time, the weapons and equipment in the [-]th Company Battalion were outdated, and the soldiers had no determination to fight. When they heard that the bandits in red came with huge boats and cannons, they were already in mourning, and many people quietly escaped from the [-]th Company Battalion.

Ma Qiao, commander of the Texas Guard, was taking a nap at his home, drank a little wine before going to bed, and snored loudly, and his soldiers rushed into Ma Qiao's house in a panic. He couldn't wake up, and he didn't have much scruples. A basin of cold water immediately woke him up.

Ma Qiao was sleeping more soundly at this time, and was suddenly awakened, and almost subconsciously drew his knife, making a gesture to chop.It was only then that I realized that I was naked, and all the soldiers were blushing, and their uncomfortable appearance was ridiculous.

Although he was the Commander of the Dezhou Guards, he was a third-rank official in frontiers, but he was overwhelmed by a fifth-rank Dezhou magistrate. Who told this Dezhou magistrate to be a real civil official with a party behind him, but he was Relying on the shade of my ancestors, I survived step by step.

Under such circumstances, he also had one day to live and one day to settle. Now that the red-clothed thief suddenly went south, preparing to attack Dezhou City, he also had to prepare his armaments and prepare for battle.

But when he got dressed and was about to go out, he was completely stunned. The super long-distance shooting of the red cannon allowed the red army to hit the entire city of Dezhou as soon as they approached Dezhou. A huge iron pellet flew over the city of Dezhou, and fell into the city. The land where it landed was eroded for dozens of feet, and it was completely lifeless.

A house made of stone was destroyed by an iron shot, and the flying stones almost razed the entire courtyard to the ground.

And this house is not far in front of Ma Qiao. Seeing the whole mansion being razed to the ground with his own eyes, the fear in his heart spread rapidly. At that time, he was thinking of buying this mansion and expanding his own mansion. However, who would have thought that the owner of this other courtyard had a very good relationship with Zhizhou, so nothing happened in the end.

"Master Ma, what should we do." These soldiers were terrified. It's okay to bully ordinary people on weekdays. If they really face such cannons, they might as well let them die.But looking at the commander-in-chief of the guard who seemed to have been frightened into a fool, his soldiers had to wake him up and let him make up his mind.

Ma Qiao cursed a few times, then turned around and left suddenly, and said, "I can trust that man Liu Zhizhou, and I will hand over the city of Dezhou to him. If he wants to ask us for help, he can call the commander and Tong Zhi." Or to do something, just say, master, I have contracted typhoid fever and am recuperating at home."

"Master! It's not safe to hide in this city!" The guards under his command had seen through Ma Qiao and knew that this guy couldn't take on the job, so why did they want to take on it.

Ma Qiao snorted coldly and said: "Whoever said that the master is going to hide in the city, go and pack up quickly. Master, I will go to the manor outside the city to recuperate."

Zhu Gan didn't know that Master Ma Qiaoma, the commanding officer of the Dezhou Guard, was scared away by the cannons he fired. Hearing the roaring cannons at the bow, the whole huge ship was shaking, but he couldn't fire a few cannons. The copper-cast red-clothed cannon had already expanded its barrel due to the high temperature, and its shooting accuracy and range dropped very quickly.

Looking at the red cannon that was about to explode, and the soldiers under him were still preparing to continue loading ammunition, Zhu Qian hurriedly stopped him, and the sound of the cannon gradually became smaller and smaller, and he couldn't help sighing: "After this battle, it is estimated that the All the red cannons will be scrapped!"

Putting aside these distracting thoughts, he asked his soldiers, "How is the situation in Dezhou City now?"

The soldier hurriedly went to inquire, and not long after he got the news from the spies below, he replied: "My lord, the gate of Dezhou City is closed, but there is chaos inside the city, and the soldiers in the [-]th Company Battalion did not move. Seems like an empty camp."

"What does it mean to be an empty battalion? Go check it out for me, and come back and report after you check it out." Zhu Gan said angrily, these recruits don't know anything, and he sent him such simple information. I miss Yu Song a little bit, although that guy looks a little cold, but he can take care of all these chores in an orderly manner, I just hope those two guys are okay!Those who stay in Tongzhou can find them.

"Go ashore! Get ready for battle, take down Dezhou, we'll fix it here!" Zhu Gan put on the bright light armor, and groups of red-clothed troops had already assembled on the river bank. At this time, he gave an order and quickly moved towards ten The Second Company rushed forward.

At this time, there were not many people left in the twelve company battalions, and the sentry horse battalion leaning on the canal to the west bore the brunt, and not a single person ran away. It was blurred by the erosion of the years, but with the blast of the small Fran machine gun, the city wall collapsed directly, just filling the city defense trench.

"Could it be fraudulent!" Many red-clothed soldiers wondered, because the huge barracks was too quiet.

"No information, it's terrible!" Zhu Gan sat on the horse, looking at this huge military city, and couldn't help thinking in his heart, should he hurry up.

"We surrendered! Don't fire!" Before the red-clothed army could react, they saw ragged, sallow and emaciated peasants walking out of the Twelve Company City, holding all kinds of tattered weapons in their hands, and even many people Still carrying a hoe and a sickle, one by one came out with fear in their eyes.

Rows of people knelt down in front of the red-clothed army, trembling, they didn't look like soldiers at all, those who didn't know thought they were refugees fleeing famine.

"It's no wonder that the peasant army galloped to attack the city in the Central Plains at the end of the Ming Dynasty. They never encountered a decent resistance. Even dangerous passes like Tongguan came and left whenever they wanted. Damn, the Central Plains has been plagued by natural disasters for many years, so there is no place. Real soldiers." Zhu Gan looked at the kneeling soldiers in front of him, they should be said to be refugees, and didn't know whether to cry or laugh.