The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 226 The Ming Dynasty becomes powerful again
The palace examination for martial arts is over.

Yu Dayou's son Yu Zigao won the first place in the martial arts exam.

The palace examination results have been sent to the capital, and are posted outside the Imperial Examination Hall and Daming Gate.

This didn't cause much of a stir.

Because the palace examination for martial arts should be over by this time.

The curious people in the capital just watched the fun and commented on the results in front of the gold list.

The civil servants in the court were even less interested and were too lazy to even look at it.

It’s none of their business who becomes the martial arts champion!

However, the news that came out of the official newspaper next was extremely explosive.

The Ming Dynasty actually recovered the former territory of the Beijing Xingdusi!

That's a huge area covering thousands of miles.

The key point is that this area is just north of the Ming Dynasty capital. The northern barbarians who invaded the capital all came from the former site of the Beijing Xingdusi.

Now that the former territory of the Beijing Xingdusi has been recovered, the capital is as solid as a rock and will never be invaded by the northern barbarians again.

When the people of the capital heard the news, they were so excited that they ran around to tell each other and celebrated wildly.

The 100,000 copies of the court gazette that Li Tingji specially ordered to be printed were sold out in one day.

Those wonderful articles also became widely known.

The title of this issue of the official gazette is even more inspiring: The Ming Dynasty is strong again!

The Ming Dynasty did become strong again.

The Beijing troops, trained by the god of war Qi Jiguang, fought their way from Datong Town to the former site of the Beijing Xingdusi, and the northern barbarians were defeated.

The battle of the Beijing Xingdusi left the three guards of Doyan completely helpless.

There were countless brave generals emerging from this battle.

Liu Jing, the deputy general of the Shenwu Left Camp, was extremely brave. He led 20,000 troops to resist the crazy siege of nearly 100,000 troops from the Three Guards of Doyan, and destroyed more than 20,000 enemy troops!

There was also Qin Bangping, the deputy general of the Shenwu Front Camp, who was only eighteen years old and had already killed many people. He alone killed more than two hundred northern barbarians.

There were also the top three new military scholars, Yu Zigao, Cao Wenzhao, and He Shixian, who had all killed enemies and made meritorious deeds before even taking part in the imperial examination. The number of enemies killed by the three of them exceeded one hundred, and the second place Cao Wenzhao even killed more than three hundred enemies.

There was also a long list of meritorious soldiers. This time, there were great rewards, and there were as many as two or three hundred soldiers who were granted titles of nobility.

The names of these military generals spread throughout the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. All the literate people who read the court bulletins would tell everyone about them and talk about them with relish.

Upon hearing the news, the garrison troops and the remaining soldiers in the garrisons in various places all wanted to join the Beijing camp and the border army and go to the battlefield to make achievements.

The civil servants in the court felt very complicated when they heard the news.

It is not good for military generals to achieve such great achievements.

They don't even want the Ming Dynasty to become strong again.

Because the Ming Dynasty's renewed strength means that the military force controlled by the young emperor will become stronger again, and the strength of the military generals will surpass that of the civil officials.

In this case, how can they grab the benefits?
Of course, whether these civil servants like it or not, the Ming Dynasty has indeed become strong again.

The recovery of the Beijing Xingdusi is a clear proof.

At the end of October, heavy snow was about to fall outside the Great Wall, and Wanli was preparing to return to Beijing.

At this time, the five Acropolis had been completed, and the rotation of the Beijing Army soldiers was nearing completion.

To the area of ​​Daningwei and Laoha River Valley, Wanli transferred 60,000 soldiers from the Shenshu Front Camp and the Shenshu Rear Camp.

Because the chariots of the Shenshu Camp were good at blocking the pass, after the captured men, women, young and old, and the cattle, sheep and horses of the three guards of Doyan were all driven into the valleys on both sides of the Laoha River, the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp used their chariots to block the way, which was like adding an iron wall. The captives had no chance of escaping from the mountain pass.

As for escaping over mountains and hills in the middle of winter, that is seeking death.

It hasn't snowed yet, but the peaks on both sides of the valley are covered in ice. Once it snows, it will be freezing to death on the mountain.

Besides, even if these captives escaped from the Laoha River Valley over the mountains and hills, there was still the Acropolis of the Beijing Camp to the north, and the soldiers of the Beijing Camp were patrolling, so the captives could not escape at all.

At this moment, Wanli was worried about the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp who were blocking the mountain pass.

They couldn't go back to Daningwei and live in the warm barracks. These tens of thousands of soldiers had to camp at the mountain pass for the entire winter, and they had to patrol the valley every now and then.

Can these soldiers withstand the severe cold of winter?
To be honest, he had no idea how cold it was outside the Great Wall in winter.

He only knew that the summer resort was already very cold in winter, and people would be too cold to stand if they stayed outside for half an hour.

In order to prevent the tens of thousands of soldiers in the Shenshu Camp from freezing in winter, he also issued a special decree, ordering Duke Yingguo Zhang Yuangong to quickly make a batch of the most cold-resistant military uniforms and tents.

Fortunately, the processing capacity of the cloth shop under their control is extremely strong. This batch of military uniforms and tents were processed in just a few days and seem to have been distributed.

He would go and take a look and then go back.

Early that morning, around noon, the sky was thick with dark clouds, as if it were still dark. In the Laoha River Valley, a cold wind howled, making it very cold.

Wanli still took Qi Jiguang, Chen Ziluan, Qi Jin and tens of thousands of imperial guards on horseback and rode out of the Daningwei City and headed straight for the nearest valley entrance.

The Daning Weicheng is located right in the middle of the Laoha River Valley, and the nearest valley to the Weicheng is forty or fifty miles away.

They rode their horses for nearly half an hour before they could vaguely see a row of neatly arranged armored chariots lying outside the valley. Surrounding the chariots were snow-white tents, neatly arranged and square.

These tents were indeed new, as white as snow and spotless. Each tent had a chimney, and at this moment, a faint blue smoke was still coming out of the chimney.

Wanli looked at it from a distance and nodded slightly.

At least everything is in place. As for the effect, we have to go in and see it first.

As he approached the camp, the general in charge of the troops, General Zuoji, came out with a group of captains and bowed, saying, "General Cai You pays respect to His Majesty."

"No need to be polite, no need to be polite. I just came to take a look. No need to be polite."

Wanli raised his hand slightly, then dismounted and said cordially, "Cai Zuo, Cai You, you are a newly minted military scholar, right?"

The names of these two brothers are easy to remember, and they passed the imperial examination together, so he still has some impression of them.

Cai You said excitedly, "Your Majesty, that's right. My brother and I are both military scholars from the Bingchen year."

Sure enough, it is a great honor for people that he, as the emperor, can remember their names.

Wanli nodded slightly, then waved and said, "Come, let me see your new uniforms."

Cai You hurriedly approached carefully and stood with his head bowed.

Wanli turned up the collar of his hat, which was like half a cloak, and took a look at it, and nodded slightly.

Zhang Yuangong did not cut corners for him. The new military uniforms were made of thick-haired sheepskin, and the hair inside was neatly trimmed. The outside was sewn with standard military cloth.

He looked at the soft sheepskin gloves again and then asked, "How is it? Are you still cold?"

Cai You shook his head repeatedly and said, "I'm not cold anymore. After putting on this new uniform, my whole body is warm. I don't even feel the cold wind."

This military uniform should be fine. No matter how cold it is in winter, just pull the long hat flap forward to cover your mouth and nose, and you can stand outside without any problem.

Wanli nodded slightly, then walked into the camp to take a closer look.

It seemed to be their breakfast time. Thousands of soldiers, except those on guard, seemed to be gathered around the stove outside the tent, roasting fire and cooking porridge around the iron pot.

Is it that lying in the tent is colder than sitting outside by the fire?

Seeing this, Wanli frowned and said, "Why are they all sitting outside by the fire? Isn't it warm enough in the tent?"

That's not warm enough.

Cai You shook his head repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, that's not the case. It's too hot inside the tent. We have to take off our new military uniforms when we go in, otherwise we will sweat profusely.

It was too much trouble to go in and out, so they got up early, put on their new uniforms, and sat outside to wait for the porridge to be cooked. They ate their fill before going in and taking a rest.

Too hot in the tent?

Although the temperature is not yet zero degrees, it is only two or three degrees at most. It is unbearable to be outside without wearing thick cotton clothes.

How hot can it get in a tent?
Upon hearing this, Wanli directly lifted the thick curtain of the tent next to him and walked in to feel it.

This guy, it was really hot in there. As soon as he came in, he felt the heat wave coming towards him.

What kind of cloth did Zhang Yuangong and his team use to make their tent?

He grabbed the door curtain and took a closer look. It turned out that the tent cloth was made of three layers, with thick cloth inside and outside and a layer of sheepskin in the middle. No wonder it was airtight and had such good heat insulation effect.

Well, Zhang Yuangong and Zheng Danian are quite reliable.

It looks like the soldiers of the Shenshu Camp won't be cold this winter.

Wanli nodded with satisfaction, then walked outside to look at the fully armed soldiers standing guard, and then asked, "What weapons are you equipped with?"

He didn't take care of this, it was all Qi Jiguang's responsibility.

Cai You quickly introduced the details, "Each soldier in our Shenshu Camp is equipped with a goose-feather sword, a long spear, ten javelins, a longbow, and one hundred arrows. In addition, each chariot is equipped with five ten-foot-long spears and five iron shields."

Wow, this weaponry.

The Ming Dynasty is now extremely powerful. Not only has the quality and number of soldiers improved, but their weapons and equipment are also becoming more and more sophisticated.

The weapons and equipment of the Shenshu Camp, which he had rarely used, were so sophisticated that if the Northern Tartar cavalry of the same number encountered them, they would be killed if they rushed forward.

It seems that it’s time to use the Shenshu Camp.

He used the Shenshu Camp's chariots for defense and not for offense because they were not as fast as the Shenji Camp's food carts and were not equipped with firearms.

Perhaps, next year we can consider equipping the Shenshu Camp with some muskets, so that the Shenshu Camp will be more powerful.

Wanli thought about it carefully, then nodded slightly and said, "Well, not bad."

(End of this chapter)