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

Chapter 366 Chen Yongfu

Qin Yi said: "Although King Fu is vicious, the students think that if the bandits really besiege Luoyang, the general should save him. If King Fu was rescued in a crisis, our army in Shun Township would shake the world, and the general would be famous all over the world. The gentry would spread the word and the court would rely more on it." .”

Wang Dou was silent, because emotionally, he had a very dislike for Fu Wang and others.In this place of Henan, there are many vassals gathered, and their farmland occupies more than half of the land in Henan. They are like vampires, and they have accelerated the poverty of the people in Henan.

Especially King Fu... People say that the feudal kings in the early days were more powerful than each other, but the feudal kings in the late Ming Dynasty were more like pigs than each other.This Fu Wang is a typical example. In the 13th year of Chongzhen, people in Henan have eaten each other. He is still spending time and drinking, living a shameless and corrupt life.

Perhaps this is what the court would like to see again. The Ming Dynasty has always treated the vassal princes like pigs, and it is normal for the people under the rule to complain. In that way, only eating, drinking and having fun, and never handing over guests, is the "safety at home and abroad".

Emotionally, Wang Dou didn't like King Fu and other vassals, but reason told him that if the siege of Luoyang was relieved, the political score would be astonishingly high.Perhaps in the minds of the imperial court and the emperor, Wang Dou led the Shun Township Army to defeat the Qing soldiers in the past, and it may not be as important as saving a few vassal kings.

That is truly famous all over the world, spread throughout the Ming Dynasty—not to mention the entire Ming Dynasty, it is also a firefighting team that most scholars in the world regard as a hard-core fire brigade, and the imperial court is even more important.Moreover, defeating Li Zicheng's army and planting the seeds of fear of the Shunxiang army in their hearts will also have very high benefits for future management.

The only benefit of sitting back and watching Li Zicheng conquer Luoyang is to take the opportunity to defeat his army and win some money and rice he brought from Luoyang. However, compared with spreading the fame of the world, this benefit is obviously shorter.

Moreover, according to the local historical records of Luoyang that Wang Dou's descendants have read, after Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, the gold, silver, money and rice he obtained from the Fuwang Mansion, Luoyang Guancang, and wealthy households in the city were far less than expected, but the grain was tens of thousands of shi. , The silver is only a few 10 taels.To be honest, Wang Dou didn't care much about the money and food.

Contrary to the world's imagination, Li Zicheng attacked Luoyang, and Luoyang also experienced fierce resistance. The war continued from the seventh day of the first month of the 14th year of Chongzhen to the 26th day of the first month.The entire Luoyang mobilization, all men and women over the age of 15 and under the age of 50 in the city must protect the city.The head of the village and the head of the armor are divided into pieces, and the guard boundaries are divided with white ash. Women build sheds and stoves, cook and deliver water, and all the people are soldiers.

Zhu Changxun, the king of fortune who was domineering in Luoyang City on weekdays, also put down his airs, patrolled the defense, encouraged the soldiers and the people to defend the city, and gave out a lot of silver and rice to encourage rewards.Special death squads were formed, and each person was rewarded with a hundred taels of silver.

Wang Dou reckoned that Fu Wang's family wealth had been consumed a lot while defending the city. If it was true that he had a family fortune of tens of millions and grain and rice millions of stones, it would be impossible for Li Zicheng to just steal so much money and grain.

Because of the desperate resistance of Luoyang's soldiers and civilians, Li Zicheng's army suffered a lot of losses, and finally the guards surrendered. After the city fell, Li Zicheng went to the city to take revenge and killed King Fu.

Regarding the death of King Fu, there are four versions. The fourth version is more widely spread, that is, King Fu was eaten, and it is called Fulu Banquet.Wang Dou thinks this statement is nonsense, because it is more interesting, so it is widely spread, and it does not worry about inequality, but hatred of the rich is the mainstream at that time, and this kind of statement is more resentful.

Wang Dou leans towards the third version. Fu Wang recruits dead soldiers to severely damage King Chuang's army, and King Chuang kills him for revenge.After attacking the city, not only did King Fu and more than [-] officials in the city be executed, but also three big landlords Sun Tingsheng, Wang Chaoshan and Wang Yiming from Mengjin, Xin'an and Song counties who came to Luoyang to organize resistance were killed.

So for Wang Dou, sitting back and watching Li Zicheng conquer Luoyang does not have many benefits, and the possible material gains are not very good.

If he breaks the siege of Luoyang at the most critical moment, and then breaks the siege of Xiangyang in the future, he will be well-known in Henan, Huguang, and even Jiangnan. This will fully prove his role as the patron saint of the Ming Dynasty, and the court must rely on it.

Sometimes fame is more important than immediate benefits. No matter what happens to King Fu, King Xiang and others in the future, at least Wang Dou has saved them now, which is of great benefit to him.

It is Wang Dou's strategy for this trip to observe the tactics of bandits and then take the opportunity to become famous.

After weighing the pros and cons, Wang Dou quickly made up his mind.

He said: "As Mr. Qin said, if the thieves attack and besiege Luoyang, our Shun Township Army will rescue them, but we need to choose the right time. The intelligence department needs to pay close attention to the land in the west of Henan. know."

He looked around the crowd: "If our Shun Township Army is dispatched, it will be a thunderbolt. I want Li Chuang to be terrified. He will not dare to fight when he sees the flag of our Shun Township Army, and he will wake up and cry every day from nightmares!"

All the generals burst into laughter, especially Gao Shiyin and Shen Shiqi laughed wildly, with a cruel light flashing in their eyes.

They are full of confidence in Wang Dou, in themselves, and in the Shun Township Army. They have the confidence and strength!

Seeing everyone's high-spirited looks, Wang Dou thought silently: "It's thousands of miles from Kaifeng to Xiangyang, and we should have made arrangements for things over there."

……

On October 12, 23th year of Chongzhen, Kaifeng Mansion.

Kaifeng is the capital of Henan Province, where the government of Kaifeng is located. With Xiangfu County as its affiliated country, the provincial, prefectural, and county government offices gather in one place.With the Bell Tower as the center, the Chief Secretary's Office is located on Bell Tower West Street, and the Command and Envoy Office is located on Bell Tower East Street.

Surrounding these government offices, there are continuous residences of various officials, with high walls and rich doors, and magnificent houses.

In one of the mansions, Chen Yongfu, the deputy general of Henan Province, was meditating. The news from Luoyang became more and more urgent. The trend of besieging Luoyang became more and more obvious.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng once attacked Luoyang and were defeated. Li Zicheng made a comeback a few years later. It was rumored that he hated Luoyang deeply and would definitely massacre the city in the future.With this news, the people in Luoyang City became more and more chaotic. The rich wanted to escape, while refugees and wealthy households from various counties fled into Luoyang City one after another.

Luoyang City is no different from Kaifeng City, with fewer soldiers and horses. Faced with Li Zicheng's swift and fierce offensive, the King Fu and officials in the city panicked.

In addition to calling Lu Weiqi, the former minister of the Ministry of War, and Kang Menghui, the magistrate, to discuss the matter, King Fu also urgently called Wang Yinchang, the military guard who closed the city, Li Xianfeng, the governor, and Wang Shaoyu, the general soldier, to discuss matters, and he wanted to ask the court for reinforcements.

The result of Luoyang's discussion is to know the military situation. At that time, Kaifeng's general soldier Wang Shaoyu, guerrilla Liu Jianyi, guerrilla Lingtai and others will lead troops to Luoyang for reinforcements, leaving only Chen Yongfu to lead thousands of troops to defend Kaifeng.This led to Kaifeng's defensive strength being very weak.

However, Chen Yongfu and others had no choice. There were few local officers and soldiers in Henan, which was already the largest force that could be mobilized locally.And Li Zicheng's momentum is huge, whether the officers and soldiers who went to reinforce can defeat the 10,000+ bandits and keep Luoyang, everyone is not sure.

Today the governor and the commander-in-chief came back from Luoyang, Chen Yongfu saw their gloomy faces, in the past the commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu liked to call a few generals to drink flowers and wine at Dayushou, and he didn't mention it today.

"The thieves are suppressed and come back again, why can't they be suppressed?"

Just as Chen Yongfu was thinking of this, a voice interrupted his contemplation.

"Dad, Daddy."

A young general rushes into the study, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, wearing a helmet, armor, waist knife, bow and arrow, dressed like a general, looking full of vigor, but it is his son Chen De.

Seeing his son like this, Chen Yongfu couldn't help scolding: "Looking at your impatient appearance, do you still have the dignity of an official?"

Chen De giggled, he knew that his father was strict on the outside, but he loved him the most on weekdays, he was cold on the outside and hot on the inside, as a son, he had already figured out his father's temper.

He cupped his hands and said solemnly: "Yes, I have seen the military gate."

Chen Yongfu's face was slightly pale, and there was a look of love in his eyes. His wife died early, and this son was brought up by him alone. He is both a father and a mother, and his feelings for his son are full of double-layered love.And his son Chen De lived up to his expectations. He was famous for his extraordinary skills in Kaifeng Mansion, and he was also good at shooting arrows (in history, it was Chen De who shot Li Zicheng in his left eye when he attacked Kaifeng).

The Ming army has always respected martial bravery. Chen De's bravery gave Chen Yongfu a big face as his father. Every time he chatted with the generals and talked about his son, he was full of praise. He said that his father had no dogs, and Chen Yongfu's vanity The heart is greatly satisfied.

At this time, Chen De was also a defensive officer, in charge of 500 servants under Chen Yongfu's command.As the deputy general, Chen Yongfu had 3000 battalion soldiers directly under his command. Although he didn't treat his subordinates as harshly as the general Wang Shaoyu, half of them were paid without pay, but there were also many old, weak and disabled soldiers. These [-] family members were Chen Yongfu's greatest strength.

Chen De lived up to his expectations, and kept the five hundred family members in perfect order. With these hundreds of powerful family members, no matter the governor Li Xianfeng or the commander-in-chief Wang Shaoyu, they all treated him politely. I also want to call myself Chen Weng.

However, Chen Yongfu also has a lot of dissatisfaction with his son, that is, he likes to hang out with him, and he knows everything. He recently heard that he had a hot fight with Zhou Long from Dashanhuodian Street.Who is Zhou Long?There is one ranger, who specializes in collecting protection fees in Dashan Huodian Street and other places, and also controls hundreds of a cappella prostitutes to serve in various tea houses and restaurants.

It is a great loss of his identity for his son to associate with such a person.

He opened his mouth and was about to say something, when Chen De saw his appearance, he knew that his father was going to start admonishing him again, so he spoke first: "Father, has Wang Junmen returned from Luoyang?"

Sure enough, Chen Yongfu was distracted. He sighed and said, "Wang Junmen and the others just came back from Luoyang. Governor Li said that if the Luoyang army is in a hurry, Wang Bingbei will lead Wang Junmen's standard battalion, and Liu Jianyi, Lingtai, etc. The two battalions of rangers went to help, and my father saw that they looked like mourning concubines, and I was afraid that they would fight against the bandits, and they were all terrified."

Chen De breathed a sigh of relief: "It's good that my father wasn't sent."

He took pleasure in others' misfortune: "Junmen and Wang Bingbei usually fight against the governor, now Xun Li finds an excuse to deal with them, hundreds of thousands of thieves are enough for them to drink a pot."

Then he worried: "Father won't be sent there then, will he?"

Chen Yongfu paced in the study: "I don't know as a father. If the military situation is urgent, it is not impossible."

Chen De pondered for a long time, then he became excited, tiptoed to Chen Yongfu, and said in a low voice: "Father, have you heard of that Dingguo General Wang Dou? He led the army to Kaifeng yesterday and asked for food from the city. , the boy went to his camp today, tsk tsk, those soldiers and horses..."

He whispered: "My child has an idea..."

(End of this chapter)