Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 168 Wuzhai Fort mobilizes troops

June 20, Wanli 1592, July 7, 10 AD.

In March, Huang Laifu returned from Laoyingbao to Wuzhaibao. In April, a major event happened in Wuzhaibao. The vice commander-in-chief, Mr. Huang, took in the leader of the propaganda team and Liu Yumei, a young military craftsman, as his concubine.

The reason why Huang Laifu accepted Liu Yumei as his concubine was the result of the lobbying of Qian and Liu Zongqi.Mother Yang is also very satisfied with Liu Yumei, she thinks that Liu Yumei is well-behaved, with big breasts and big buttocks, which is suitable for a man, and she will definitely add a fat son to the Huang family in the future.

Now that all parties have said so, Huang Laifu accepted Liu Yumei as his concubine.This matter was within the expectation of all parties. As early as a few years ago, people from all walks of life in Wuzhaibao believed that Liu Yumei was definitely Huang Laifu's woman. Everyone was a little surprised that they did not accept her as a concubine until now.

Liu Yumei also lived up to expectations, and soon, she had Xi, and Gu Yunniang's two former maids, Liuhuan and Meiyue, also became pregnant one after another, which improved their status in the mansion a lot.

In July, the wheat on various farms in Wuzhaibao is growing well, the workshops are thriving, and the situation is very good. On the 10th, Huang Laifu received an order from the Ministry of War to send troops.

During these times, Huang Laifu has been paying attention to the situation of the battle in Ningxia reported in the residence newspaper.As a latecomer, he certainly knew the important impact on history of the first of the three major expeditions known as Wanli.As for the specific battle process, does he remember clearly the relevant historical materials in his laptop?

Huang Laifu also knew the stalemate in the early stage of the Ningxia War. The imperial court would definitely send soldiers to reinforce the encirclement and suppression. In history, Shanxi Township had sent thousands of troops to reinforce it. I don’t know if the Ministry of War will let him send troops. Huang Laifu has always been concerned.

Huang Laifu was overjoyed when he finally received the documents from the Ministry of War today. At that moment, he announced the mobilization.All of a sudden, this battle became a major event for the entire Wuzhai Fort, not to mention the Wuzhai Fort Propaganda Group, now the name has been changed to the Wuzhai Fort Propaganda Bureau, and it started up quickly. In the whole Wuzhai Fort, everyone is talking about this matter.

The Ministry of War asked Huang Laifu to send [-] troops. After hearing the news, the soldiers of Wuzhai Fort were all scrambling to let Mr. Huang Laifu lead him into battle. In Wuzhai Fort, the rewards for killing enemies and beheading were extremely heavy. In that battle, thousands of heads were beheaded, and everyone was rewarded, which made everyone even more eager to kill the enemy.

In order to fight for the places to fight, everyone in the army broke their heads, which comforted Huang Laifu. The soldiers in other army towns were afraid to fight, and only his own army wanted to fight and dared to fight.

The former soldiers of the old camp fort, after several months of hard training and reasonable nutrition, just a few months, it is as if they have been completely reborn, without the inertia of the past, replaced by the unique heroic and sturdy soldiers. gas.Although their combat power was not as strong as Huang Laifu's Laifu camp, it was far superior to many servants of the border town generals at this time.

Therefore, Huang Laifu dispatched a thousand soldiers each from the two battalions of Wuzhaibao Laifu Camp and Laoyingbao Township Camp, led by two thousand generals Ma Shouzong and Xu You, who were originally from Wuzhaibao. There are hundreds of households, and in the battle with the Mongols last year, the accumulated meritorious service was promoted to the total of a thousand.The two were naturally elated to be able to lead troops into battle, and the officers of Wuzhai Fort were all envious.

Huang Laifu asked Jiang Dazhong to lead three hundred family members to fight with him.

In addition, Huang Laifu also asked He Ruzhen, which was in charge of logistics in Wuzhaibao, to mobilize 800 soldiers and 1000 people from various farms as auxiliary soldiers, leading more than 200 horses and mules to accompany the logistics.In this way, Huang Laifu actually sent [-] troops.

As for the issue of Wuzhai Fort after Huang Laifu left, since the fort now has a mature management system, and has his own father and many old military officers in charge, these people are all leeches on the same rope as Huang Laifu, and there is no Nothing to worry about.

According to the rules of the Ming army, when sending troops to fight outside, the food and salary are doubled.Ordinary soldiers in the Wuzhaibao army usually pay one tael per month for the military and two taels for the family members.After going out to fight, the monthly salary of ordinary soldiers is two taels, and that of family members is four taels.The treatment of the soldiers and soldiers of the Wuzhaibao army is not far behind, and there are [-] auxiliary soldiers in the settlement, each of whom costs one or two taels of silver per month.

According to the historical process, Huang Laifu knew that the Ningxia war would not end until the ninth month of the lunar calendar, and it would take another month to go back and forth on the road.In this way, there are more than 3000 soldiers, and the military salary for these four months alone will cost more than 2 taels.

There is also the military rations eaten by thousands of soldiers on the road, especially the grain and fodder eaten by thousands of horses, which is even more huge.There are also all kinds of consumption on the road, plus various rewards for returning after victory, etc. Huang Laifu estimated that this dispatch of troops would cost 10 taels of silver conservatively.Also pray that you don't kill too many enemies, otherwise the reward for beheading will be lost.

Right now, there is not a lot of silver taels in the inventory in Huangfu, but fortunately, the autumn harvest will be soon. After returning, the farms in Wuzhaibao will have at least several 10 taels of silver in their account. The various workshops, livestock farms, and farms and minerals in the outer castle will also have a lot of money in the account.

Therefore, Huang Laifu will not be afraid of the money issue, and there is no need to change his habit of spending money lavishly.Huang Laifu believes that money is spent when it is earned, not moldy piled up in the warehouse, and silver is called silver only when it is in circulation.Moreover, Huang Laifu was able to investigate the business opportunities along the way and raise the popularity of Wuzhai Fort by sending troops this time. The money was well spent.

Huang Laifu sent troops on behalf of Shanxi Town. The government along the way, of course, had to provide food and grass for the march, but Huang Laifu knew the shocking thing about those civil servants. It is not bad to be able to eat enough for one day a month, so Huang Laifu should pay for the supply of food and grass by himself.

For the food and grass logistics of the army of more than 3000 people, Huang Laifu only sent out a thousand soldiers and auxiliary soldiers. Of course, he could only take care of the weapons and equipment of the accompanying army, as well as some horse feed, food and grass.You must know that the road conditions in various parts of Daming are extremely bad now. It is not as flat and solid as the concrete road in Wuzhaibao. Don't talk about traveling in a four-wheeled carriage.

The transportation volume of horse mules and wheelbarrows is very small, and the grain and grass that thousands of people eat have gone to the sea. If only 1000 people and horses are used to push and pull, I don’t know how long it will take.And if tens of thousands of people are dispatched to transport food and grass, the cost will be very staggering, and it is not worthwhile.

Therefore, Huang Laifu thought of cooperating with those merchants for the grain, rice, fodder, etc. that the Wuzhaibao army ate, and let them share the logistics supply and transportation work for his army.

Huang Laifu recruited those merchants from Wuzhai Fort, and promised them that as long as they were willing to deliver food and grass for his army, Huang Laifu would give priority to them in the opening construction and operation of various forts in various places in the future. Buy from them and they are guaranteed to make money.

The current Huang Laifu is the god of wealth in the eyes of many businessmen, as long as they cooperate with him, it means a lot of money will roll in.Moreover, the news of Huang Laifu's devouring the development outside the Great Wall has already spread in the circle of merchants, and many merchants have shown great interest.

But everyone also knows that if you want to cooperate with Huang Laifu, you can only be qualified if you pay for him first.This time Huang Laifu sent troops to invite everyone to cooperate. This is a good opportunity.

Qu Yuanrui, Huang Laifu's first businessman partner, without saying a word, immediately offered to provide Huang Laifu with five hundred soldiers, from Shanxi Township to Ningxia Township.

The next thing was to break the bank. The merchants rushed to speak first, and they were all willing to provide food, rice and horse materials for the Wuzhaibao army. Many merchants used their own connections to contact Yansui Town, Shaanxi Town, Guyuan Town, and Ningxia Town. After some local grain and rice merchants made good friends with their family, the food and grass problem of Huang Laifu's more than 3000 soldiers was soon solved, and Huang Laifu couldn't help but sigh at the strength of the merchants of the Ming Dynasty.

For this troop dispatch, Huang Laifu also transferred a group of doctors from the Wuzhaibao Civil and Health Bureau as accompanying military doctors, and also transferred some girls from the Propaganda Bureau to promote the singing team to boost the morale of the soldiers on the road and in battle.

This expedition is related to the face and image of the Wuzhaibao army, so in terms of equipment, Huang Laifu must be as perfect as possible.

At this time, the army of Wuzhaibao was completely organized according to Qi Jiguang's army formation when he was the chief soldier of Jizhen. Each division had 450 people, mixed with firearms teams and killer teams. Fully equipped with cold weapons.

In addition to the [-] servants, there were [-] soldiers, half of them were gunfire soldiers, and half of them were soldiers with cold weapons.Since going out to fight is related to the face of Wuzhai Fort, not to mention Huang Laifu's three hundred family members, even the two thousand soldiers are all equipped with iron armor.

Since the beginning of this year, the military craftsman workshop in Wuzhai Fort has made hundreds of armors, plus the original inventory, and transferred some armored soldiers from the local garrison. , each with a horse.

The iron armor made by the Wuzhaibao army is very similar to the infantry armor of the Song Dynasty, but it is much lighter. A pair of armor only weighs 35 catties.This kind of iron armor, the whole body is a whole piece, composed of 12 rows of small rectangular armor plates, the upper part is to protect the chest and back, tied from the shoulders with belts, the waist is tied forward with belts, and the left and right knees hang down. skirt.The body armor is decorated with shawls, and the left and right shawls are integrated at the back of the neck and tied under the neck with a belt.The iron helmet on his head is an eight-petal helmet made in the Ming Dynasty, with three beautiful tassels inserted in the center of the top.

Huang Laifu also replaced his ancestral iron armor weighing 57 jin with a pair of 30 jin iron armor, which was carefully crafted for him by the military craftsmen of Wuzhaibao. He has become the focus of everyone's attention in Wuzhaibao. After all, tens of thousands of people depend on him for food.

This pair of iron armor, the whole set of armor leaf scales are made of fine iron, there is a heart guard in the middle, and an iron skirt on the bottom. It is easy to move and lift as light as it is worn on the body.The six-petal iron helmet originally worn on the head was also replaced by the now popular eight-petal cap helmet.The mosao knife on his body is even more refined, and then he resisted an iron sword similar to that used by Guan Gong in his hand, and a few firecrackers were inserted in his waist, and the horse riding under him was also a thick and tall horse. The image of the character is really mighty, it's really that people block people from killing people, and gods block people from killing gods.

In addition to the iron armor on the soldiers, the horses are also equipped with vests.This kind of vest has a reasonable and complete structure. It is covered with iron in the front and leather in the back, including the face curtain, chicken neck, swing chest, horse body armor and back. It is wrapped on the horse and can effectively protect the head of the horse. , neck and torso, only the eyes, mouth, ears, limbs and tail are exposed, and finally the vest is covered with black paint.

In addition, the cavalry is also equipped with a round cavalry shield with a small animal face pattern painted on the front, which is placed on the left arm of the cavalry during combat to resist flying enemy arrows.

Of the 1000 warriors, half of them are firecrackers. The number is 800, of which 200 are equipped with birdcracks and two-handed long knives, and [-] are equipped with two hundred large guns and two-handed long knives.

In fact, in the 40th year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, at that time, there were four guns and one gun sword. The gun sword with the muzzle was 1.3 feet long and the hilt was 5 inches. Finally, align the front sight with the curved eye and twist it slightly to fix it. After installing the gun sword, the total length is [-] feet.

This gun sword is similar to the bayonet of later generations.

However, Huang Laifu felt that bayonets were not as effective as two-handed long knives in hand-to-hand combat.At this time, the installation of gun swords in the Ming army was only out of the consideration of allowing the guns to shoot one more round, and the fear of hand-to-hand combat was at work in their hearts.

Huang Laifu felt that there was no need for this. He only needed to fire the firecracker for one round. In the rest of the time, he could calmly set up his formation so that his army could better prepare for hand-to-hand combat.So he threw away the big Ming's bayonet, the blunderbuss sword, and gave each of the blunderbuss soldiers a two-handed long knife.

Finally, there are a total of forty tiger squat guns in the army on this expedition.These tiger squatting guns are not very heavy, and a tiger squatting gun can be carried on a horse.Whether it is used for defense or pursuit, the effect is really very good.

This kind of equipment is really a luxurious lineup.Put it in other armies, just take a pair of iron armor out, it is only suitable for other people's hundred general level, this is because Wuzhaibao is rich and powerful, and it can afford the equipment.

(End of this chapter)