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

Chapter 369 Forced to Linjia County
It is more than 2000 miles from Kaifeng to the capital, and it is a fast horse, and it takes a long time to come and go.In addition, the court discussed and debated for several days, and Wang Dou stayed in Henan as a guest soldier. It was not until mid-November that the official document of the Ministry of War arrived at Kaifeng Mansion.

These days, Chen Yongfu visited Wang Dou's barracks from time to time, and saw the inside and outside of the barracks in detail, so Wang Dou understood what he was thinking.His eyes, when Wang Dou was on the East Road, were often seen in the eyes of Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei and others.

During the time Wang Dou stayed in Henan, the war situation in western Henan became more and more urgent. In addition to Li Zicheng's offensive against Luoyang becoming more and more obvious, he also vigorously cleaned up the cities around Luoyang.A few days ago, Qian Zuozheng, the magistrate of Ruzhou, sent an emergency call for help. Tens of thousands of thieves stormed Ruzhou.

Naru Prefecture is an important place in Henan Province, Kaifeng Prefecture, and Runing Prefecture. There is only one important point in Yuruzhou City.

For Ruzhou City, Li Zicheng knew it was a thorn in his eye and a thorn in his flesh, and he was eager to get rid of it quickly.At the beginning of the month, Li Zicheng's army had already attacked and besieged Ruzhou, and the people in the city asking for help pulled out one after another.

All the prefectures in Henan were on fire. If Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, had sufficient soldiers and horses, he wouldn't just sit back and watch the cities of Henan prefecture fall one by one.It's not that he didn't send reinforcements, but after the rescue troops were defeated by Li Zicheng several times under the city of Ruzhou, he didn't dare to send troops there again.

Therefore, Governor Li Xianfeng came up with the idea of ​​Wang Dou's Department, and the official documents of the Ministry of War finally arrived, and Wang Dou had stayed in Kaifeng Mansion for a long time, and it was time to come in handy.

With the current military situation, the matter in Luoyang can be slowed down, and the crisis in Ruzhou is imminent, so it is a good time to send Wang Dou there, and also take a look at the combat effectiveness of the Shunxiang Army.If Wang Doujun is really as powerful as the rumors say, Li Xianfeng will be more confident about rescuing Luoyang in the future.

"General Wang, this general has volunteered himself to defend against the enemy. In the battle of Ruzhou and Luoyang in the future, you and I will fight the enemy side by side and fight together."

Chen Yongfu looked generous to die. Before leaving the city today, he asked Li Xianfeng, governor of Henan Province, to fight, willing to go to Ruzhou with Wang Doujun to relieve the siege.Sure enough, Li Xianfeng was very happy, and greatly praised Chen Yongfu for his loyalty and patriotism.

The governor solemnly promised to the deputy commander in chief that if the siege of Ruzhou and Luoyang were resolved, he would be recommended as the commander in chief of Henan in the future.Although the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief in various places have to be recommended by the court, it is obvious that the nomination of local officials is also very important.

"It is an honor to be able to kill thieves together with Chen Junmen."

Wang Dou agreed very simply, and accepted the money and rations from the Henan officials and generals, so he naturally wanted to fight for them.And Chen Yongfu is willing to go out with him, and it hits Wang Dou's arms. Chen Yongfu is a local snake in Henan, and it will save a lot of trouble if he goes with him.

Another important point is that Wang Dou also wants to see how the local officers and soldiers fight, and what their combat strength and tactics are.

The expedition was decided, and while eating the spiced tofu from Zhuxian Town, the two discussed military affairs while looking at the local map of Henan brought by Chen Yongfu.Wang Dou always feels that the map at this time is very impressionistic, and most people can't understand it. If you really fight according to the map, you will probably go to the wrong place, but it is better to have a map than no map.

"Kaifeng is [-] miles away from Ruzhou, and bandits are now besieging Ruzhou. For the sake of caution, our army will first go to Jiaxian County, where we can store food, grass and supplies. Kaifeng is [-] miles away from Jiaxian County. We can arrive in six days, most of our division, food and supplies, and we can also arrive in Jia County in the next few days."

"When the whole army arrived, there was no need to worry about food and grass, so our division launched a thunderous attack on the thieves in Ruzhou. It is only a hundred miles from Ruzhou to Jiaxian County. Such a short distance is not afraid of thieves cutting off the grain road. Attack should also be convenient for rescue."

Wang Dou pondered for a long time, then smiled slightly: "It's just like what Chen Junmen said."

……

On the same day, Wang Dou followed Chen Yongfu into Kaifeng Mansion to meet Henan Governor Li Xianfeng, listened to him face-to-face to explain the opportunity, and received relevant official documents.Two days later, Wang Dou set off with Chen Yongfu, the deputy general of Henan Province. Before leaving, the governor Li Xianfeng led the officials of Kaifeng Prefecture to see him off, and the local gentry rewarded him.

Except for Sun Sanjie who stayed in Zhuxian Town with a total of one thousand and one troops to guard the grain, rice and silver in the camp, the rest of the Shun Township Army was all dispatched.Chen Yongfu also led his vanguard battalion out, including sergeants and servants, there were about 500 people, and there were also some civilian men who transported luggage.

There are more than ten thousand soldiers from both sides, which is considered a huge momentum.

The march took the route of Kaifeng-Weishi-Changga-Yuzhou-Jiaxian.

On November 13, the [-]th year of Chongzhen, in the territory of Yuzhou.

The cold wind hits people face to face, and November in the year of Chongzhen is already the beginning of December in later generations. This land in the east of Henan in Ming Dynasty is as cold as the area around Gyeonggi.Under the severe cold, many people in the walking army had their heads and faces covered tightly.

Looking around the wilderness, it seems that there are thousands of miles of uninhabited people. There are ruins and ruins everywhere, and the surroundings are depressed.Along the way, the Kaifeng and Wei clans were fine, but after entering Changga territory, Wang Dou had the feeling of walking in Zhangde Mansion and Weihui Mansion again.

All kinds of drought and locust disasters are one of them. Not to mention Jia County, which has not yet arrived, has been destroyed by bandits long ago.It is the area around Changga and Yuzhou, which is already an important area where bandits are ravaging. After repeated raids by soldiers and bandits, it is really difficult to find a complete village in the local area.

The ones that can survive are the prefectural and county towns in various places, and the large villages that are clustered together, or Dazhai, which is close to mountains and rivers, where a few or more than a dozen villages are merged together.Regardless of these large villages or large villages, they are all surrounded by deep moors, densely packed with greenery, and high walls of cattle and horses are built.The walls of some villages are as thick as the local county towns and prefectures. It seems that there is a Linfeng village in Jiaxian County. During the War of Resistance, even the elite Japanese troops could not attack it for a long time, so they had to take a detour in desperation.
These large villages and villages are generally built by local powerful or powerful families with the surname Gao.They form a stronghold to protect themselves, vacillating in troubled times, swaying among rogues, officers and soldiers, and the Qing army, all proceeding from their own family interests.

The land in eastern Henan is flat and open, nothing but plains, nothing but yellow land, the surroundings are quiet and there are few trees.The cold wind blows towards the face with snow particles, adding to the desolation and silence around.

"General Wang, according to the schedule, our army can reach Jia County today. Let the soldiers have a good rest. After marching for a few days, the soldiers will be exhausted."

Wang Douche was on the horse, watching and thinking, when Chen Yongfu beside him suddenly spoke.

His complexion is very bad, just from the march of the past few days, the gap between his vanguard battalion and Shunxiang army is clearly reflected.

In the bitter cold of winter, all the sergeants in his battalion were swearing, especially those civilian men who transported luggage, who were all miserable and procrastinated in their actions. On the other hand, the soldiers of the Shun Township Army were still full of energy and neatly organized in their daily actions. !
They were still wearing heavy armor when they marched. On the other hand, his subordinates blatantly violated the military law of the Ming Dynasty that they must be fully armed when marching. All armor and weapons were handed over to the rear army's baggage team for transportation.In this way, those who still walk to death every day rely on the supervision and agitation of Chen Yongfu's family camp, saying that after the siege of Ruzhou is relieved, they will be rewarded heavily, so that the Qianfeng camp can maintain a certain morale.

Wang Dou shook his head secretly, the officers and soldiers in the mainland of Ming Dynasty had completely decayed.Chen Yongfu is an outstanding figure in history, and all the officers and soldiers under his command are like this. It is obvious how Li Zicheng did not flourish in Henan.

Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu dispatched troops divided into the front army, the middle army, and the rear army. Li Guangheng, under Wang Dou's order, led a cavalry as the vanguard, and accompanied Sun Sanjie's luggage, Qian Zong, and had already reached Jiaxian County first.Then Wang Dou and his remaining cavalry, as well as Chen Yongfu's cavalry, followed as the Chinese army.In the end, Chen Yongfu's supply team fell to the end, serving as the rear army.

In fact, until the Ming Dynasty, there were no special auxiliary soldiers in the ancient army. Those who transported the supplies and were in charge of the army's miscellaneous affairs were civilian husbands, and the civilian husbands generally fell at the end.They moved slowly, so from the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty set up a special supply camp to transport grain and rice, but the officers and soldiers in the hinterland did not have such a special supply camp.

Including Wang Dou's [-] soldiers and cavalry, he would consume more than [-] shi of food and grass a month, and Chen Yongfu's thousands of soldiers needed more food and grass.However, Wang Dou estimated that the battle of Ruzhou would take less than a month. When Chen Yongfu saw that there were many chariots and horses in Wang Dou's army, and hoped that he could easily feed on Wang Dou's army, Wang Dou agreed.

Wang Dou's style is that he usually stays with the army for a month, and there are [-] horse-drawn carriages in the army, most of them are with the army this time.Although it greatly reduced the burden on Chen Yongfu to transport food and grass for his army.However, Wang Dou's chariots and horses could not be used for the tents and supplies in his army, and he still needed a lot of civilians to accompany the army.

Of course, his army doesn’t have so many horse-drawn carriages and mules. They all rely on the soldiers to use wheelbarrows or carts to drag and transport them. The hundreds of miles are all on foot, and it’s cold winter. Of course, it’s extremely tiring. up.

"Yes, when we arrive in Jia County, we want the soldiers to have a good rest."

Wang Dou looked back and said thoughtfully.

In addition to Sun Sanjie's supplies Qianzong went first, the remaining [-] carriages of the Shunxiang army transporting grain and grass, and Zhao Xuan's artillery army Qianzong accompanied the central army.Only Chen Yongfu thought about the safety of the rear army, and his son Chen De led the family Dingying to escort his rear army and civilian husband.

The official road from Kaifeng Mansion to Ruzhou is not easy. It has been in disrepair for a long time and is full of potholes. The cavalry, mounted infantry, and even the new army of the second-class army are all good.It was the heavy carriages accompanying the army and Zhao Xuan's artillery that slowed down the itinerary.

This time Wang Dou accompanied the army with ten Hongyi cannons, including two Hongyi [-]-pounders and eight Hongyi [-]-pounders.The Hongyi three-pound gun needs one or two horses to pull it, and the Hongyi six-pound gun needs two or three horses to pull it. Whenever there is a pothole, the gunners are required to step forward to help.

According to what Zhao Xuan said, the artillery troops can't just train without actual combat, they just go to the battlefield to experience the atmosphere, and it's good for everyone to take turns firing a few cannons.In order to transport these artillery, the artillery army was exhausted from the thousands of miles from Yongning City to Kaifeng Mansion.This is still the convenience of having a map of Pingchuan from Gyeonggi to Henan. It will be even more difficult to transport heavy artillery to Huguang, Jiangnan and other places.

War is all about logistics. Without modern roads and means of transportation, it is really hard to go out to fight!

Regarding the battles in Ruzhou and Luoyang, Wang Dou didn't think there would be any surprises. He mainly considered the battles in Shi Xiangyang.

If grain and grass are stored in Jiaxian County, the straight-line distance from Jiaxian County to Xiangyang is [-] miles. According to the time of historical events, the Shun Township Army flew horses to rescue Xiangyang.

……

In the afternoon, Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu's Chinese troops arrived at Jiaxian County, which is said to be Zhang Liang's hometown, in the transition zone from the northern fringe of Funiu Mountain to the Eastern Henan Plain.In the north is Shenwu Mountain, in the south is Rushui River, and a hundred miles west along this river is Ruzhou, which can be regarded as an important throat.

When Wang Dou and Chen Yongfu arrived in Jiaxian County, the local county town had been razed to the ground long ago. The city walls on all sides were incomplete and most of them disappeared.This is the "masterpiece" of Li Zicheng's army, commonly known as "shoveling the city". Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others have always done this. Every time they go to a place, they burn it and slaughter the barbarians, and destroy all the walls of the city, so as to prevent the officers and soldiers from occupying it again. Inconvenient to attack.

Not only Jia County, but also the captured cities in Ruzhou, such as Lushan, Yiyang, and Baofeng, were all clean and clean.

Without the protection of the city wall, even if there are residents who survived in it, they cannot survive in this era when there are so many bandits, and everything that can be robbed has been robbed.Therefore, except for some old and weak people who were resigned to their fate, everyone who could leave left. Some escaped into the mountains, and most of them joined the army of rogues.

If you don't suffer from poverty, you will suffer from anxiety. In troubled times, even if the people want to live in poverty, they can't work hard at farming, so this vicious circle will continue.

However, Wang Dou still planned to camp in this dilapidated county town. Looking around, there was nothing but bareness everywhere.In the current cold winter season, camping in the dilapidated county town is better than camping in the wild.Although most of the houses inside were destroyed, there were always some that could be lived in. For the Shun Township Army, with sharp firearms in hand, those dilapidated city walls were enough to protect the army, which was better than the wooden fences of the barracks.

Li Guangheng and Sun Sanjie's former army arrived in Jia County a few days earlier, cleaned up the county, buried some remaining corpses, cleared the wells, tidied up the houses, and sorted out a few places for the army to camp.

When Wang Dou's army arrived, Li Guangheng and Sun Sanjie were still helping the local victims.Their army arrived a few days earlier. First, they gave porridge relief to some old and weak people left in the county.

When Wang Dou and most of Chen Yongfu's central army arrived, the number of victims gathered outside the damaged west gate of Jia County had already reached several thousand, and perhaps the number of victims would continue to expand.Looking at the victims who were shivering in the cold, but full of longing, Wang Dou remained silent. As long as the local people had a bite to eat, they would rekindle their hope for life. He only lamented that he was not capable enough to save more lives. people.

Wang Dou was in favor of Sun Sanjie's actions, not to mention humanitarianism, but helping the hungry people in Jia County and Ruzhou would be of great benefit to the upcoming battle of Ruzhou.Like the Qing soldiers, the usual methods of Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others were to use meticulous work and internal response to the hungry people. Often after capturing cities, their own losses were quite small.

Hungry people in areas where bandits are rampant often run in both directions. If the government gives them a bite to eat, they will work for the government.If the rogues give them a bite to eat, they will serve the rogues, doing everything just to survive.

Proper use by local disaster victims, intelligence spying, and counter-espionage will all get twice the result with half the effort.

(End of this chapter)