Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 660: Taking Chestnuts from the Fire
When Li Zisheng and his party arrived at the Great Wall pass, they discovered that the Great Wall defense line here had many gaps due to disrepair.

Qin Chang looked around and asked, "Minister Li, where are the soldiers guarding the pass you mentioned? Without them, how can we gather 3,000 troops to fight?"

Li Zisheng said: "I didn't expect it to be like this."

Li Zisheng then ordered the dispatch of Yebushou to search the surrounding areas for any traces of Ming soldiers.

Finally, a few lazy Ming soldiers were found at a beacon tower seven or eight miles away, and Ye Bushou quickly brought them to Li Zisheng.

"you……"

Li Zisheng couldn't help but frowned slightly when he saw several old soldiers with gray hair and beards in front of him.

Is this the elite border troops I have been expecting?
There is a huge gap between imagination and reality!
The leading veteran stepped forward and asked, "Sir, where are you from?"

Wang Fang introduced: "This is Li Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites."

The person on the other end looked confused.

Is this someone pretending to be an official of the imperial court and coming to the northwestern border town to get free food and drink?
But when they saw the groups of fully armed soldiers behind them and the huge convoy transporting supplies, they keenly realized that this group of people were not impostors in disguise, but seemed to be real soldiers.

But such a high-ranking official has never come to such a remote place.

"What's going on here?"

Qin Chang saw that something was wrong and came over to order, "Hurry up and go to your camp to gather your troops. There will be a battle here soon! Where are the officers guarding this place?"

The old soldier didn't seem to understand what Qin Chang said, and replied to himself: "Everyone, you should go back. The Tartars have just been there for a few days, so there shouldn't be anyone around."

Qin Chang then turned his gaze to Li Zisheng.

Li Zisheng pointed outside the city gate and asked, "I saw some people outside earlier. Are they the Tartar cavalry?"

"Those are the people who graze cattle and sheep nearby."

The old soldier explained tremblingly, "They dared to come out for a stroll only after the Tartar troops left. Occasionally, there were herdsmen from the north grazing outside the pass, but they would still flee when they saw the Tartar troops because they were afraid of being involved in the war..."

Li Zisheng asked curiously, "During this war-torn year, how dare the herdsmen from the north graze their livestock right under the noses of our Ming army? Are they tired of living?"

Qin Chang leaned over and whispered, "You mean... catch a few and take them back..."

The implication is, otherwise...why don't we just kill innocent people and take credit for it?
Li Zisheng did not express his opinion, but said to himself: "Why didn't those herdsmen run away when we came?"

The old soldier shook his head, indicating that he didn't know what was going on.

Qin Chang looked at Li Zisheng strangely and asked, "What is the meaning of your asking these questions?"

Li Zisheng waved his hand, meaning that they could talk about it in detail later, while he continued to question the old soldier, looking very responsible.

……

……

Not long after, Li Zisheng ordered his troops to begin hunting and capturing the herdsmen who were grazing leisurely outside the Great Wall.

The herdsmen on the opposite side had no idea that the Ming army had come inside the Great Wall. It might be because the terrain where they were located was relatively low, or they simply didn't care about the Ming army.

Just when Li Zisheng asked Wang Fang to bring his men to capture a large number of herdsmen, each of those people seemed to have been wrongly accused. When they were called in for interrogation, it was found that it was difficult to communicate in language, which made Li Zisheng very troubled.

"I already had a hard time listening to the Jin dialect before, what kind of dialect is this? The language is so outrageous, and you still dare to say they are not Tartars?"

Li Zisheng was very annoyed.

Wang Fang took the initiative to come over and whispered, "Sir, eunuch, we have captured more than 60 herdsmen in total, and they all claim to be the people of the Ming Dynasty."

Tan Chang asked, "Are there any people of the Ming Dynasty grazing here?"

No one could answer this question, so they called a few old soldiers over to ask again, but they all hesitated and couldn't explain it. Fortunately, the local guards arrived here soon.

"It came quickly enough."

Li Zisheng looked unhappy when he received Ye Bushou's report.

Qin Chang asked: "Are you speaking the truth or the sarcasm?"

Li Zisheng sneered and said, "I can see that they are not here to reinforce us, but because they heard that we captured some herdsmen. It is very likely that these herdsmen paid them a bribe..."

The man who came was a captain from the local garrison. The soldiers behind him were all leading horses, but not all of them were cavalry.

In this vast and uninhabited frontier, although the Ming soldiers had a certain number of livestock, they were generally reluctant to ride them. Most of the time, they used these animals as important vehicles for transporting goods.

"Greetings to all the messengers... I am Zhu Yu, a captain of the Eight Corners of the West Guard of Sanguan Town. I am responsible for patrolling this section of the city. Some of my brothers are also responsible for night patrols. They usually go deep into the northern part of the city to investigate the enemy situation."

The visitor said respectfully.

Li Zisheng pointed at the group of herdsmen who were being held captive outside the tent and asked, "What's wrong with them? Are they Tartars or people of the Ming Dynasty?"

Qin Chang became a little anxious and thought, how could you ask that?
You should put on a stern face and scare him, use your power to intimidate him, make him fear you from the bottom of his heart, and have him admit that the herdsmen outside are Tatars. Then you can take these people's heads back to report the victory.

Zhu Yu said: "In reply to Lord Li, they are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty, and they usually operate at the front line of the border."

Qin Chang's face was grim, and he interrupted, "Are you sure they are Ming citizens? Do they have household registration and travel permits? If they are Ming citizens, why don't they graze south of the pass, but have to run north of the city gate? Even if they are really Ming citizens, they are colluding with foreigners."

Zhu Yu seemed very anxious: "You two officers, you must believe me, they are really not Tartars. In fact, there are many people on the border who are neither from the Ming Dynasty nor Tartars. They are..."

Li Zisheng asked, "Are they jumping back and forth between the Ming Dynasty and the grasslands?"

"No, no, no, their hearts are with our Ming Dynasty... Look, many of them are serving in our army." Zhu Yu explained.

Li Zisheng looked at Wang Fang and asked, "Captain Wang, can you explain this phenomenon?"

Wang Fang was a little confused for a moment.

I wondered, what does Lord Li mean?
How should I answer?

Why not give a hint in advance?
So confused.

Wang Fang replied cautiously, "The situations in different parts of the northwest are very different. I am a member of the Datong Weiyuan Guards, so I don't know the specific situation in Sanguan Town."

Li Zisheng smiled, as if to say, your answer is absolutely flawless.

Qin Chang said, "Captain Zhu, as far as I know, all the soldiers here are military households, so what about these herders? Do they still have a recruitment system?"

Zhu Yu said with embarrassment: "That's the situation, but the reality is... there are too many deserters from the border military households, which has led to a shortage of manpower for defense here. In the end, we had to recruit some people from the border civilians to join the army. They are not military households, and they basically do odd jobs and hard labor in the army. If they perform well, they will be given some rations and asked to be responsible for matters such as farming."

"is it?"

Tan Chang glared at Wang Fang.

Wang Fang wailed in his heart and complained bitterly, thinking that the two big guys should stop asking me questions all the time!
Our place is much farther away from the Great Wall pass than here. There are relatively more populous counties and cities around it, so the situation is not so difficult.

Li Zisheng took the initiative to help Wang Fang out, saying, "In fact, Captain Zhu's statement does make sense. Then call the man in and I will interrogate him again."

Zhu Yu asked, "Sir, have you never tried this before?"

Qin Chang said angrily: "What kind of nonsense are they speaking? There is no point in interrogating them if we can't understand them. We should just chop them up! If they can't even speak the same language, they must be heretics!"

Zhu Yu said quickly: "Sir, please calm down and let me teach these ignorant guys a lesson. You really think your life is too long!"

(End of this chapter)