Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1172
Beginning in October, ships transporting horses and soldiers came to Wuchang from time to time on the Yangtze River waterway going down east of Sichuan.

The ship leaned against the pier, and the horses were pulled out one by one. The Sichuan Ming army, which was full on the deck, stood up, packed their bags, and walked downstairs to the ship with a surge of people, and then assembled on the pier.

These soldiers only wore dish helmets, carried a roll of blankets, and did not carry any weapons. When they arrived at the barracks, the Ministry of War would issue new equipment.

In addition to these Ming soldiers, groups of Tibetans and Mongolians in gowns, felt hats, machetes around their waists and horses were also very eye-catching.

These are He Tengjiao, the volunteers recruited from the snow area and Qinghai.The so-called "righteousness" has existed since ancient times. In the Han and Wei dynasties, it was called "righteousness" by Hu, Qiang and other minorities who attached themselves to the imperial court, which meant righteousness and obedience to fate. There were a large number of righteousness in Cao Cao's army.

The most elite cavalry in the Ming Dynasty was only [-] cavalry troops. In addition, there were about [-] cavalry troops in the Sichuan, Huguang, and Huainan theaters combined, for a total of [-] cavalry troops.

Now with the addition of more than [-] volunteers, the number of cavalry Wang Yan used for the Northern Expedition would be barely [-], giving him the confidence to go north.

After discussing the strategy of the Northern Expedition in Nanjing, the Ming Dynasty formulated a plan to annihilate the main force of the enemy in the Central Plains after Manchuria first, then the Jin Kingdom, first Shandong and then Heluo, containment from the front, outflanking and outflanking.

This plan is currently only the goal of the first stage of the Northern Expedition. First take down Shandong and Henan. After completion, there is a second stage goal, which is to rescue Shanxi and Hebei and collect outside the customs. The third stage is to encircle the Qing army. , Restoring Shenjing.

Although the plan is formulated, no one can guarantee that there will be any changes, so it is not necessary to implement it according to the plan.

The key to the first stage of the entire Northern Expedition plan was to attract the main force of the Qing army to Henan, and then the Ming army in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River could first pull out Ma Guanghui in Xuzhou, outflank Heluo, cut off their way back to the north, and send the Qing army back to Henan. The main force of the army surrounded and wiped out the land of Heluo.

In order to achieve this goal, Wang Yanling fought once in Xuzhou. Dai Zhifan was the commander of the Eastern Front, Liu Shun was the deputy commander, and Zhang Huangyan was the supervisor of the army. , and Donghai Division Man Dazhuang with 12 people as a partial division, preparing to attack Shandong.

In order to make the Qing army mistakenly judge that the Ming army was attacking Henan, Wang Yan left Nanjing again at the beginning of December, headed to Wuchang with great fanfare, and told the Qing army that he would personally lead the army to conquer the Central Plains.

On the edge of the wharf in Wuchang, Wang Yan led a group of generals and stationed their horses by the cold and windy river.

"Your Highness, this is the last batch. Zhongyi Town and the Ten Thousand Congregations have all arrived in Wuchang!" Li Dingguo, who left Sichuan at the end of November, was in charge of mobilizing and relocating Sichuan troops. He reported to Wang Yan immediately.

Wang Yan watched the soldiers who came ashore, and many of them were shivering with cold, "Very well, in this way, loyalty, loyalty, loyalty, Shence right army, Hengchong horse army, plus 16 righteous followers, A total of [-] people were assembled, but it was approaching the New Year, and when the family was supposed to be reunited, the imperial court wanted to send troops to fight, and the soldiers inevitably felt conflicted. Do it well, don't let the soldiers freeze or starve!"

Several generals nodded and said yes, the Ming army seldom fought in winter. Although there was no battle this time, it still made people dissatisfied with the gathering of various ministries to prepare for the war.After all, throughout the year, people always look forward to taking a break and relaxing for a while, but now that it is suddenly canceled, resentment is inevitable.

"Your Highness, the cotton cloth and cotton accumulated in Huguang this year have all been driven into winter clothes, and they will be distributed immediately when the soldiers enter the camp." Li Suiqiu, the servant of the household department in charge of the logistics of Huguang's army, hurriedly replied: "There is no need for food either. Worried, the meat eaters department is also trying to mobilize from various places and entrust companies to buy them."

"Don't be afraid to spend money, let the soldiers have a good year in the army!" Wang Yan nodded, then pulled the horse's rein, clamping the horse's belly, "Let's go, go to the camp to see!"

In the early days of Wang Yan's administration, when he owed money, he always wanted to pay it back, otherwise he would feel uneasy, but in the past four years, he has not been in debt for a year, and now the more he owes, the more he is not in a hurry.

He found that sometimes the court owed money, which is actually not a bad thing. Of course, the money should not be owed casually, spent indiscriminately, and every sum must be used for ideas.

Wang Yan dares to owe money now. In fact, there is a big reason. It is because as long as he succeeds in the Northern Expedition, not to mention other things, he can fill up his holes just by taking back the land, so Wang Yan is not very worried about not being able to pay back. The problem.

The north bank of the Han River has been deserted for seven or eight years and has become a horse farm for the Ming army.

Relatively speaking, it is a pity that such a good place is used as a horse farm, so many gentry wanted to buy a piece of land, even the officers of the Five Loyalist Army wanted to get this land into their hands, but they were all rejected. Wang Yan firmly vetoed it.

Now the Ming army has stationed a large camp here, countless white buns are scattered all over the field, and big flags are flying in the camp in the wind.

Wang Yan and his party rushed to a large camp, where soldiers from Zhongyong Town were stationed. They were besieged by the Qing army in Nanyang for more than a month. A low-ranking military officer who graduated from the Military Academy.

In December, it was not only cold in the north, but also in the south. Ordinary people would stay at home and never come out, but the camp was full of heat.

As soon as Wang Yan and his party arrived in front of the camp, more than a hundred horsemen came galloping like lightning, and the leader was General Liu Fangliang.

"Your Highness!" Liu Fangliang dismounted from his horse, quickly stepped forward and saluted, "Your Highness is humbled to welcome you!"

Wang Yan first looked at the soldiers who dismounted behind him. The equipment of these soldiers was completely different from the standard equipment of the Ming army's cavalry army. They had no breastplates, lances, sabers, and three-eyed muskets. They were all infantry musketeers. dress up.

These soldiers wore plate helmets and cotton armor, with a belt slung across their bodies, on which were hung various medicine bottles, a water jug ​​hung on the left side of their waist, a leather box containing bullets and a thorn on the right side, and a thorn on their backs. Carrying a gun of its own and a rolled up quilt.

When Wang Yan came to Huguang in the first half of the year, Zhang Cunren and Tan Tai once advised him to equip the infantry with horses to increase the mobility of the infantry, and Wang Yan adopted their opinions.

Wang Yan heard that Chongbu, a Manchurian, used to like to ride a horse, and when he was facing the enemy, he dismounted and fought in close combat.

Wang Wang also got off his horse, helped Liu Fangliang up, glanced behind him, and asked with a smile, "How are you doing?"

Liu Fangliang naturally knew what Wang Yan said, he hurriedly patted his chest and said, "I'm going to ask His Highness to review it!"

"Well, let's go into the camp and have a look!" Wang Yan handed over the horse to his subordinates, and immediately stepped on the snow and entered the camp on foot.

The camp of the [-]-strong army occupies a vast area, and the large tents are neat and orderly.In the middle of the tent, there is a huge school field, on which teams of horse troops are conducting drills.

They crossed ditches for a while, rushed steep slopes for a while, dismounted one after another, and quickly formed a tight infantry formation.

Naturally, these men and horses were not for riding, shooting and fighting. Wang Yan had very low requirements for them, they could ride horses, as long as they didn't fall off.

Wang Yan only planned to keep [-] Hengchong horse troops in Huguang, and Yi Cong decided to send them to Lianghuai to strengthen Dai Zhifan's power.

In order to annihilate the main force of the Qing army in Heluo, Dai Zhifan had to move quickly, take Xuzhou quickly, and then outflank and cut off the Qing army's way back to Hebei.

Give him [-] followers, plus [-] cavalry from Dai Zhifan's four towns, and the strength of the Eastern Front will be greatly strengthened, and it will be no problem to fight Ma Guanghui.

It's just that, when Wang Yan and the main forces of the Qing army faced each other, he felt a little guilty, so he hoped to train tens of thousands of horse-riding infantry to gallop across the Central Plains.

Standing outside the school yard, Wang Yan nodded in satisfaction when he saw thousands of soldiers riding on horseback, galloping freely without falling off their horses.

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(End of this chapter)