A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 234 Useless Thing
Seeing that the sun was about to set to the west, Yebu received in front of him and reported: "General, two miles ahead is Gaoli Village. There are probably hundreds of Tazi soldiers guarding the village, and dozens of armored soldiers. The warehouse outside the village is intact, and the Tartar soldiers looted the village. The food, grass and equipment that came here are all there, and they have not been burned.”

Wang Dou nodded. Gaolizhuang was a few miles west of Zhangjiawan City. When Emperor Taizong of Tang personally conquered Liaodong, he brought a large number of captives to Youzhou to live scattered, so there was Gaolizhuang village.There is a canal connecting Zhangjiawan City to Gaolizhuang. To the north of the village, there are wharfs and bridge gates, which can be used for traffic, and gates can also be used to save water.

Wang Dou inquired carefully. Just outside Gaoli Village, there are estimated to be thousands of stones of all kinds of grain and grass, enough to feed his army for a month. Even if the grain and grass outside the village are insufficient, the Qing soldiers guarding the village are only a few hundred. Even if there is a village wall to support, there are many artillery in our army, and dozens of cannons are aimed at the gate of the village, and they can quickly break the village and go in to get food.

He looked around, the closer he was to Zhangjiawan City, the more rivers there were around, and more and more wheat fields on both sides, with wheat beans and other things planted on them, most of which were trampled due to the military chaos.The official roads are becoming more and more potholed. There are many cobblestone roads and gravel roads in this area, but they have been in disrepair for a long time, and some are difficult to walk.

Coming from the previous battlefield, the army has already crossed many small stone bridges one after another.

Wang Dou sent an order: "The army speeds up and arrives at Gaolizhuang to get food as soon as possible."

After Wang Dou sent the order, the troops quickened their pace, and the two-mile journey would soon arrive. Wang Dou's thousands of troops marched to the outside of Gaoli Village.

Wang Douche walked around the village on his steed. He observed carefully that the village seemed to be built according to the terrain of the river bank. The village was not very big. It can be seen that the walls of the village were very high and thick, but now there are many places. collapsed.There are two gates in the village, the north gate is close to the pier, along both sides of the canal, densely packed with warehouses, it can be imagined that it used to be a lively place, but now there are no people, only some burned ships.

There is a gate in Zhuangnan, tens of feet away from the official road, and there are vast wheat fields on the east and west sides.Not far to the east of the village, there is a large temple with a spacious hall and towering green cypresses. It should be Guangfu Temple. There are several ponds in front of the temple, surrounded by thick locust trees.

Zhuangzi diverted the water from the canal to protect the east, north, and south sides of the village. For Wang Dou, this was not a problem.Looking at the trembling look of the hundreds of Qing soldiers on the wall, the dozens of armored soldiers are even more serious.In their situation, Wang Dou estimated that some armored soldiers among them participated in the previous battle, or they were notified that they knew the ferocity of their army.

He sneered, and sent an order: "Call the Wumen Buddha wolf machine over and blast the villa gate."

It's getting late, and I can't go back today. There is no good place to camp around Gaolizhuang, and Zhuangzi is not bad. After the breach, thousands of people can still live in it.

Under Wang Dou's order, Zhao Xuan excitedly dispatched five Buddha Wolf machine cannons, aiming at Zhuangzi's south gate.The rest of the sergeants lined up on both sides of the northeast of the village and waited, while the night-buying soldiers of the two teams dispersed to the vicinity of the village to report any possible enemy situations from all sides.

Seeing that several artillery pieces of the Ming army under Zhuangxia were aiming at the gate of his own village, the guard of the village was so pissed that Shiku turned pale. He had participated in previous battles, so he naturally knew the strength of this Ming army.With just one round of bombardment from the five Buddha Wolf machine guns, the gate of the village was knocked down. With a shout, the Qing soldiers in the village ran away from the north gate of the village, followed the wharf and the bridge gate, and fled to the north of the canal.They shouted all the way, not knowing where they were going.

Li Guangheng excitedly said beside Wang Dou: "General, do you want to pursue?"

Wang Dou shook his head: "Forget it, it's important."

He sent an order to Han Zhong to send a total of troops into the village to sweep them to see if there were any remnants of the Qing army left.

Han Zhongling led the general Zhong Xiancai into the village, and Zhong Xiancai led hundreds of soldiers into the village like wolves and tigers. A team of spearmen, musketeers, and sword and shield soldiers turned around in the village and kicked them away. I checked the doors of the houses, but there was no one inside, even the original villager disappeared.Either fleeing from disaster, or being taken away by Qing soldiers.

Wang Dou waved his hand: "Enter the village."

Thousands of troops marched into the village in mighty force, squeezing the inside to the brim. Wang Dou occupied a large house that seemed to be the residence of a squire as the headquarters, and then ordered Wen Fangliang to guard the village. Moving food from warehouses at the outer wharf.

All subordinates work together in a division of labor and act quickly.

……

With a loud noise, two stout soldiers kicked open the door of a warehouse, and then two soldiers with guns entered.

The two held their guns and walked around inside, then came back and said, "No one."

Zhong Tiaoyang nodded. With a wave of his hand, a large group of soldiers poured in behind him. After everyone entered, they were all stunned for a while. The spacious warehouse was full of vehicles and rice loads. Pick one out at random. When I saw the sack, I saw that there was golden yellow sorghum millet dripping from it, and everyone laughed and cheered strangely.

Zhong Tiaoyang said in a deep voice: "The Tartar soldiers have looted a lot. If we don't come, these rice will become the help of the Tartar soldiers to kill the enemy."

He just walked around the village, and many mansions were filled with looted vehicles, including horse-drawn carriages, wheelbarrows, and all kinds of carts. The Qing soldiers plundered the land of Gyeonggi, only around here. In the villages in the area, many people's food was looted to Gaoli Village and Zhangjiawan City.

Accompanied by several guards, he looked around in the warehouse. In addition to the vehicles and meters, there were also iron and wooden boxes. With a "wow", a soldier smashed the big lock of an iron box Open it, opened it, and everyone was dazzled immediately, it was full of gold and silver.

"Wow!"

All the people around were amazed: "A lot of silver!"

A few soldiers were about to carry the silver box away with their mouths open, but Zhong Tiaoyang came over suddenly, kicked the iron box to the ground, and immediately the gold and silver rolled to the ground.

Zhong Tiaoyang shouted sharply: "Only transport food and grass, don't carry useless things!"

Yes, what's the use of all these gold and silver?They can't eat or drink, and they can't buy grain. At a critical moment, its value is absolutely worthless, not as good as a bag of grain or rice, or even a dead horse.

After several days of fighting and food shortages, all the soldiers also understood this truth, but they just looked at the white money and refused to take it. This change of concept is too difficult, too difficult.Just now, everyone's move to take money was almost instinctive and subconscious.

After Zhong Tiaoyang sternly shouted, they woke up and moved bags of grain to their carriages or wheelbarrows with all their might.

The officers of the supply team of the battalion also roared from the sidelines: "Swiftly move, quickly load the grain into the car, don't want red and white things, only transport grain and grass."

The warehouse was busy, and no one paid any attention to the white money rolling down on the ground.

Zhong Tiaoyang came out of the barn, the wind was howling, and he saw the guerrilla general Wang Dou standing not far away looking at the canal against the setting sun.

On this side of the canal, go out along the north gate of the village. Within a few dozen steps of the river, almost all of them are built of bluestone. This area used to be a bustling wharf, and the wharf is densely packed with tall warehouses. I don’t know what it belongs to. Owned by big merchants or dignitaries.From various warehouses to the north gate of the village, there are bluestone roads or small gravel roads, which are very easy to walk. Compared with the official roads with potholes, this road is really a first-class road.

Right now, the soldiers in Wang Dou's army came out of various warehouses with smiles on their faces, and pushed carts full of grain into the village.After hundreds of military vehicles are fully loaded, at least for this month, the army will not have to worry about food and rice.

Seeing Wang Dou's serious expression, many officers and guards around him were silent, standing silently around.Right in front of Wang Dou, there is a bridge gate leading directly to the opposite side of the canal, where there are also densely packed warehouses.At this time Wang Dou was looking at those warehouses and meditating.

Zhong Tiaoyang stepped forward to salute Wang Dou, Wang Dou turned his head, looked at Zhong Tiaoyang and asked, "What happened in the warehouse just now?"

Zhong Tiaoyang said it, and Wang Dou smiled: "Cousin is a sensible person, the money is really useless."

Then he started to meditate again, Han Zhong and Wen Fangliang beside Wang Dou split their mouths, their expressions were quite regrettable.

After a long time, Wang Dou sighed softly: "Let's take a box of silver and go. Some injured brothers in our army may not be able to go out with us in the near future. Those silver can be arranged in the capital, and the Take care of yourself."

Zhong Tiaoyang cupped his hands, and gave a few instructions to a team officer beside him, and the team officer strode away.

Zhong Tiaoyang took a step closer and said to Wang Dou: "General, the grain and grass we transported is enough to feed our army for a month. However, there are still a lot of grain and rice looted by the Tartars in each storehouse. What should we do with the grain and grass?"

Han Zhong laughed loudly and said, "Of course it was all set on fire. Could it be left to the Tartars so that they can eat and drink enough to attack our soldiers and people?"

Wen Fangliang suddenly said: "General, you will have a different opinion in the end."

He said: "If we burn these storehouses, the Tatars will continue to attack the surrounding areas because they lack food and grass. The officers and troops in various places will not have the combat power of our Shun Township Army, and more people in the cities will suffer. If they don’t burn it, they have food for the time being, and the nearby people may be able to keep it. And we can use the place as our granary, if there is a shortage of food in the future, we will come to fetch it at any time, if it is burned, it would be a pity.”

He hesitated for a moment, and said: "Besides, these warehouses are owned by powerful people in the capital, and the Tartars didn't burn them. If we burn them..."

Han Zhong shouted: "Old Wen, do you think that the Tartars will not rob when they have food? They loot everywhere, and besides supplying their own food and drink for their army, they will also transport the looted goods back to their Tartar dens. Come to think of it, they won't be like you."

He even shouted: "The tyrants are nothing, they fear the Tartars like tigers, and leave these warehouses as enemies, so what if we burn them down?"

The two argued endlessly, and finally looked at Wang Dou and listened to him.

(End of this chapter)