Ming politicians

() Early in the morning of the next day, Su Tiancheng, Sun Chengzong and others set off, and the team grew stronger again.

Sun Chengzong was a little anxious, so he asked his family members to make preparations. After finding Lu Shanji in Dingxing County, he set off directly to the south stable.Those who stayed in Gaoyang County were Sun Chengzong's eldest son's family.

Before leaving, Sun Chengzong repeatedly told his eldest son to keep himself safe, to guard the family well, and to train the children of the Sun family well. He probably knew that he was getting old, and he left his hometown this time. If you can come back, maybe you will never be able to return to Gaoyang County in this lifetime.

Gaoyang County is less than two hundred miles away from Dingxing County, and both counties are under the jurisdiction of Baoding Prefecture, so it doesn't take long for Sun Chengzong to accompany Su Tiancheng to Dingxing County.

There are family members in the team, so it is impossible to go fast. According to the requirements, Su Tiancheng and Sun Chengzong have to go to the stables. After paying homage to the emperor, they set off for Jiangning County.

The distance is less than two hundred miles, and the plan is three days.

Sun Chengzong is old, and it is not suitable to ride a horse. There are several carriages in the team.

But Sun Chengzong refused to accept his old age and insisted on riding a horse.

After one day, Su Tiancheng found that Sun Chengzong's health was indeed very good. Although he was 71 years old, he could do things vigorously and swiftly. The key was that he had a good diet and could drink with him.

Riding a horse is even easier. Although it is said that there is no need to gallop the horse, the bumps on the horse's back still consume a lot of energy.Looking at Sun Chengzong's performance, he doesn't care at all.

Baoding Mansion is close to Shanxi.The living habits here are different from those in the south, and the difference is obvious in the eating habits. The staple food here is pasta, including pancakes, steamed buns, etc. There are not many noodles, which are common in ordinary people's homes.Can't afford noodles.

After more than a day, Su Tiancheng frowned a little. He didn't expect this kind of eating habit to be like this hundreds of years ago. When he was in Pingyang Fucheng, Shanxi, he insisted on eating rice because before crossing.I am a southerner, and this eating habit has become a conditioned reflex. It is okay to eat pasta for breakfast, but at noon and night, it is pasta every meal.Still not used to it.

Su Tiancheng is not very familiar with the situation in Baoding Prefecture, including Shanxi.

After crossing back then, most of the time was spent thinking about the future path.Although I also care about the situation in some places, more often.It is considered from the general direction of development, without paying too much attention to details, so he is not very familiar with the folk customs in the north.

Along the way, Sun Chengzong continued to introduce the situation. Although he was walking along the official road, he could see a lot of things.

What he saw along the way made Su Tiancheng feel more and more heavy.

The famines in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan are well known throughout the country. It is probably because the refugees in these places were desperate and turned to the bandits to rebel in order to survive. In Shandong, the Ming army mutinied and conquered Dengzhou. In the process, it caused a great shock, and Zhu Youjian had to pay attention to the issue of military pay.

These situations are all public. However, in everyone's impression, the situation in Beizhili is still good. After all, it is close to the stables, and at least it can get special care from the imperial court.

But this is far from the case.

Baoding Mansion is only about three hundred miles away from the stables, this distance is nothing, but after more than a day, what Su Tiancheng saw can be described as devastated.

This is only October, and less than three months have passed since the autumn harvest. It is said that every household still has food. refugees.

In many villages, ruined walls can be seen, as if they have been plundered and wars have broken out.

The situation in the village was not good either. It was rare to see the so-called gentry and wealthy households, and most of them were peasants in scanty clothes.

It's late October, and the weather is starting to get cold, and the performance in the north is even more obvious. Su Tiancheng and his party have already started to wear cotton clothes, but the common people and pus seen along the way are basically worn out single clothes.

When Sun Chengzong introduced these situations, his tone revealed anger and helplessness.

The reason for this situation is directly related to the invasion of Hou Jin.

After Chongzhen's four-year battle of the Daling River, the Ming Dynasty completely lost the initiative in Liaodong. This time the war was also a classic battle in which Houjin ran for thousands of miles. Since then, Houjin's harassment has become more and more frequent. Even near the stables, they swaggered over.

The fighting power of the post-Golden Cavalry is very famous, that is, the later famous Eight Banners Army. Each banner army is divided into three parts. The tasks of the soldiers are also different. At the beginning of the fight, the forward sergeant wears a solid leather armor, which is tightly wrapped, and charges at the front, disrupting the opponent's formation and opening a breakthrough. The Xiaoqi sergeant wears light armor. The battalion opened the gap, followed closely behind, rushed into the opponent's camp in a fast and flexible way, started fighting, dealt a powerful blow to the opponent, and once again broke the opponent's confidence. The guard army is the most powerful among the Eight Banners troops They are elite soldiers. They are selected from the whole banner. Their mission is to completely defeat the opponent. They charge at the end. The sergeants hold horizontal knives in their hands, just like the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves. Deal devastating blows to your opponents.

It is no exaggeration to say that the army of Ming Dynasty could not compete with the sergeants of Hou Jin in the field battle.

Hou Jin's army also has its own weakness, that is, it is not good at attacking cities. Hou Jin's army is mainly composed of cavalry. The more Han people joined Hou Jin's army, the ability of Hou Jin's army to attack cities and villages was greatly enhanced.

The area around Baoding Mansion suffered greatly from the invasion of the Houjin cavalry. Many people here were robbed of their property and people were looted by the Houjin soldiers. Where the Houjin cavalry passed, there were ruins everywhere.

What is exasperating is that the army of the Ming Dynasty can only watch the arrogance of these post-golden cavalry, helpless.When fighting in the field, when they met Houjin's cavalry, they basically never returned.

Su Tiancheng finally met the legendary Huoludun, or Biandun as it is called.

This kind of fire road pier is a special existence of frontier soldiers. It is generally built between villages and towns. The distance between each fire road pier is not very far. Inside the fire road pier, frontier soldiers are stationed.

The direct leader of Huoludun is the guard station in Fuzhou.

Because of the invasion of Houjin, Northern Zhili and Datong in Shanxi became the front lines. In the confrontation with Houjin soldiers, the Ming army suffered repeated defeats, and it has reached the point where talk about the situation has changed.

A large source of income for the frontier army relies on the military garrison. If it is not possible to garrison the land, the frontier soldiers will not be able to support it. The matter of the imperial court’s arrears of payment is no longer news. It happens all the time. Now, it is this garrison , It was also unable to support many frontier soldiers, and the escape and mutiny of sergeants happened all the time.

Most of the frontier army's land is distributed in villages and towns. Therefore, the construction of fire road piers is largely for the frontier soldiers to be able to farm well and support themselves well.

But imagination is not reality after all.

The fire road pier is very solidly built, and the city walls are generally more than ten meters high. Unfortunately, only people can live inside the fire road pier, and the land is still outside, which needs to be cultivated. Sometimes, when it is harvest season, the golden cavalry A small group of troops came to harass, and the sergeants could only hide in the fire road pier, watching the arrogant post-golden cavalry, robbing food, and massacring the people wantonly. Of course, they did not forget to light the beacon to remind the rest of the place , Later, the Golden Cavalry came to harass.

As soon as Huodun was built in Baoding Mansion, it was indeed beyond Su Tiancheng's imagination.

"My lord, is there Huodun in the area of ​​Baoding Mansion? It's so close to the capital. If Hou Jin can come here to harass me at will, wouldn't it mean that the army of the Ming Dynasty in the Liaodong area has completely lost its advantage?" .”

"Lord Su, the situation is even worse than what you said. No wonder, you have always been in the south. Even before, you were in Pingyang Fucheng in Shanxi, which is also close to the south. If you stay in Datong for a while, You will know that this is no longer a rare thing.”

Having said that, Sun Chengzong's face darkened.

"The defeat of the Daling River, the old man has an unshirkable responsibility. If our army of the Ming Dynasty can hold on to the Daling River area, the Guanning Jin line of defense will be more stable. Lost, the barrier of Beizhili is not so strong anymore, the old man has been blaming himself all these years, if he had paid more attention to it back then, he would not have suffered such a disastrous defeat."

"My lord, don't mention the past."

"You can't say that. The people in Baoding Mansion are always worried and in danger. Seeing these things, I feel bad. I wish I could go to battle and kill the enemy."

Su Tiancheng murmured in his heart, if I, Su Tiancheng, hadn't crossed over, your grand lord Sun Chengzong would really die, and he died when Hou Jin attacked Gaoyang County. Of course, that was 11 years ago in Chongzhen.

The situation around Baoding Mansion gave Su Tiancheng a sense of urgency. He never imagined that the situation here had reached such a point that there was no security around the capital. No wonder Zhu Youjian often had to mobilize troops to serve the king.

In such a situation, changes must be made quickly.

This kind of change is not as simple as it is said, it must be supported by money. I said that the few "peasants" I saw were dressed in tatters and looked haggard. If it weren't for Sun Chengzong's introduction, I would not believe it at all. These few people are actually the frontier soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. It is a big joke that such an army can resist the powerful Houjin cavalry. (To be continued. Welcome to the starting point to vote for recommendation and monthly tickets,