Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

Just as the court was deliberating on Wu Aheng's crime, Wu Aheng's 20-year-old concubine Zhang wrote a letter to the emperor, expressing her willingness to personally inspect her husband's remains and bury them, and requesting mercy for Mr. Wu and protection as usual.

Zhang, wearing a linen robe, finally found Wu Aheng's body after many twists and turns. She discovered that her husband's kneecaps were all scraped off, his teeth were broken and most of them fell out, and his tongue was no longer there. Zhang was heartbroken and fainted on the ground.

Zhang was unwilling to accept the fact that her husband had died fighting on the front line and had been wrongly accused. She put on a sackcloth and brought Wu Aheng's body to the capital to report to the court. She wanted to file a complaint with the emperor!

I was sick the past two days, and I was so tired of spraying that I am numb. I will update it on qqun壹六巴2①771榴 in the next two days.

Volume 285: Chapter Chapter : Zhang's Wrongdoing

It was another day to save the Ming Dynasty. Chongzhen dragged his tired body to the court, intending to see what new tasks these ministers had given him today.

Being an emperor is really tiring, he thought. He used to be full of vigor and ambition, and aspired to be a leader who could turn the tide and support the collapsing empire. He wanted to compete with the founders of the Tang and Song dynasties. When he saw his brother becoming emperor, he was very disdainful of it.

If a carpenter like my brother can become emperor, then wouldn’t I be better than him if I became emperor?

He spent a long time at home studying his brother's strong team DEMO, and after learning from the excellent instructors from Donglin, he came to a conclusion: "Eunuchs are not good."

The teachers of Donglin said: A cow without hair cannot do good things. A eunuch does not even have a cow, so how can he do good things?

Of course, this is not the original words, but this is roughly the meaning.

What Wei Zhongxian did at the time was indeed intolerable to Chongzhen, who was full of justice. Therefore, the first thing he did after taking office was to give Wei Zhongxian a title.

But he overlooked one point, that is, the power of eunuchs like Wei Zhongxian all came from the emperor. He was extremely powerful, but he was only the spokesperson of imperial power. The cabinet headed by the civil service group was his real enemy.

At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang abolished the prime minister system, but he did not expect that life would always find a way out, and an even more difficult cabinet emerged. The power of the cabinet chief was the same as that of the prime minister, and most of the imperial power was still divided away.

In the 26th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that scholars from the Three Wu regions who passed the imperial examinations were not allowed to serve as officials in the Ministry of Revenue or in the capital. It was not until the 14th year of Chongzhen that among the 89 ministers of the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty, only Li Daiwen, a native of Huating, Songjiang Prefecture, South Zhili, was appointed as the Minister of Revenue because Chongzhen made an exception.

After Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a series of measures to weaken the economic and political power in the Three Wu regions, the Three Wu regions experienced problems such as economic and livelihood decline and weak political power.

But man proposes, God disposes. Zhu Yuanzhang took precautions against everything to ensure the continuation of the Ming Dynasty, but ultimately failed. The Southern Ming Dynasty was eventually destroyed at the hands of the Donglin Party in the Three Wu regions.

By the time of Chongzhen, without supporters of the imperial power like Wei Zhongxian, Chongzhen was completely helpless with the ministers in the court. His actions were even too threatening and life-threatening.

The Ming Dynasty today was like a big ship leaking on all sides. Chongzhen tried desperately to plug the holes, but when he turned around, he found that his ministers were drilling holes.

It's very annoying.

Nowadays, banditry is rampant in the south and smoke is everywhere. Northern Zhili is suffering from constant locust plagues and droughts. At this critical juncture, the Tartars have invaded the country again.

It's so uncomfortable, it really pushes people to death. Chongzhen's working hours are now close to the line of sudden death. Despite this, the affairs of various parts of the Ming Dynasty are still as overwhelming as a mountain.

"The battle in Miyun is getting intense now. Is there any progress in the training of the new troops in the Beijing Camp?"

The world is so big, but nothing is as serious as the invasion of the Tartars. The most urgent task is to send troops to aid Miyun. The nearest troops are the troops from the capital camp. After hearing that the rebels in the south have artillery and muskets, and their combat effectiveness is very strong, Zhenzi has the idea of ​​forming a new army and equipping it with muskets and artillery.

In his opinion, since such equipment can achieve such results, it means that this thing is indeed useful and he has to keep up with the trend. As for whether he can afford it, you must be kidding. If the opposite state can afford it, then with the whole country's strength, can't my Ming Dynasty create a new army?

Although the training time for the new troops is not long, the situation is urgent now and we can't care about the training results. Please get them up there quickly.

Very urgent, this is very critical!

However, the cabinet chief Yang Sichang was embarrassed: "Reporting to the emperor, this new army has not yet been formed... I am afraid it cannot support Miyun."

Yang Sichang was in a difficult situation. The emperor was a little too impatient: "Your Majesty, the new army has just been selected and is still in basic training. It will take at least three or four years for all of them to be equipped with muskets and put into battle."

"What!? Why is it taking so long?!"

Chongzhen was horrified. "The soldiers you train are so good that I have seen them dried up on a crooked tree. How can you say such bullshit?"

Yang Sichang bowed his head and said, "My Lord, it has only been half a year since you issued this order, and the new recruits have just been selected. Although the recruits are all here, it will still take time to equip them with firearms. Currently, the production of muskets by the Ministry of Industry and local military equipment bureaus is not high... at most... they can produce more than 30,000 muskets each year, which is already the limit."

The Minister of War Chen Xinjia also lowered his head slightly. As the Minister of War, he knew very well what kind of stuff those things produced by the military equipment bureaus in various places were. Yang Ge Lao said that 30,000 guns would be produced every year, but that was just to fool the emperor. In fact, it would be good if they could produce 20,000 guns, and the quality could not be guaranteed.

Because there is no reward and punishment system and no one pays for it, you can imagine the quality of the muskets produced. The muskets produced every year can only barely sustain the consumption of the Yulin Guards.

Chongzhen was immediately upset after hearing this. Who should I ask to support Miyun? He said in a deep voice: "If the output is not enough, can't you build more military equipment bureaus?"

Li Daiwen, the Minister of Finance, coughed and said, "Your Majesty, this is absolutely impossible. These military factories already consume a lot of money. If we build more, it will cost at least 10 million taels of silver every year."

Seeing the emperor's questioning look, Li Daiwen hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty wants to train hundreds of thousands of new troops, and the silver consumed is really huge. Each soldier needs 20 taels of silver for settlement, 1 tael and 5 cents for military pay, 16 taels for a set of fine armor, 5 taels for cotton armor, and silver for replacement of armor..."

"The new type of muskets (flint-lock muskets) equipped by the musket soldiers are even more expensive. I heard that one costs dozens of taels of silver. Plus, gunpowder and swords, they cost several more taels of silver. That means each soldier of the new army needs nearly 100 taels of silver. These hundreds of thousands of new troops will cost at least 10 million taels of silver, not including the money for mining and making artillery..."

Li Daiwen felt guilty as he spoke. The prices he quoted were basically based on the current market conditions, except that he had inflated the cost of the musket a lot, hoping to fool the emperor who was not knowledgeable about the business.

Making fire guns is a big business, involving many interest chains. It is a complicated business, and he cannot grasp it. Li Daiwen dare not say the cost is too low to offend others. He also believes that Yang Sichang and Chen Xinjia will not expose him. After all, the money goes to the Ministry of War...

Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, also said: "Your Majesty, it costs money to train the new army, and the original Beijing camp also costs money. There are nearly 100,000 troops in the three camps, and more than half of them are old and weak, and nobles and relatives who are falsely claiming to be paid. The court has invested too much in military expenses. If the troops raised in Jiangnan also ask the court for military pay, it will be bad..."

Chongzhen shouted angrily: "Didn't we allocate five million taels of silver to Henan last year? Why are we allocating another five million taels this year?"

Li Daiwen was frightened and trembled. He said quickly: "The disaster in Henan is getting more and more serious. Every family has no food, and there are thousands of starving people. Some bandits took the opportunity to start a rebellion. Local officials are asking for money for emergency relief every three days and every five days. Your Majesty is tired of it. You promised to allocate funds for disaster relief..."

Chongzhen glared at him and said, "My Great Ming can't even afford to support hundreds of thousands of troops? Then how can the Jiang thief support nearly 10,000 people in Yangzhou alone? And I've read the battle report, and everyone of them has a musket!"

When he asked this question, everyone present was shocked. They all knew where the other party's money came from, and a considerable part of it was confiscated from their homes!

Gentry, merchants, corrupt officials, how much silver was confiscated from these people's homes? No one knows, but they dare not tell the emperor that. If the emperor says "If the enemy goes, I can go too", who can stand it? Others can't say, but this fool is really possible. This man is almost going crazy with poverty. Li Shiwen knelt on the ground and bowed his head and said, "I don't know..."

Seeing Chongzhen's temper getting worse and worse, all officials knew that something was wrong. If this continued, the emperor would start to lose his temper again. Yang Sichang hurriedly stepped forward to report: "My Lord and Father, the wife of Wu Aheng, the Governor of Ji and Liao, wrote to the court, saying that she had grievances to be redressed."

Although doing this is unfair to Zheng Xizhao, he is just a eunuch and there is nothing to feel sorry for. So, you can be the scapegoat!

Chongzhen looked puzzled: "Do you have any grievances to redress? What grievances? What grievances could he, a criminal, have?"

Chongzhen's attention was indeed diverted. You big thief, well done, Lord Yang!

"Well...why don't you call the person up here and listen to his defense before making a decision?"

"Okay, okay, call the people up!" Chongzhen waved his hand. The troubles in the court were almost tormenting him to death.

The eunuch summoned someone to the hall, and soon a woman dressed in white came in. She had to be in mourning for her husband's death, but she couldn't dress so casually to meet the emperor, so she had no choice but to compromise like this.

As soon as Zhang entered the room, she knelt on the ground and saluted, saying, "Your humble servant pays respect to your majesty and father."

The wives of these higher-ranking officials also had ranks, so they called themselves court ladies.

"Ah, stand up. I heard you have a grievance to redress. What is the grievance?"

When Zhang mentioned this, she couldn't help but burst into tears: "I hope that my husband Wu Aheng, who was devoted to the country, swore to fight against the enemy and sacrificed his life for the country, has now been slandered by the traitors. This time, I am here to ask the court to clear my husband's name."

Chongzhen: “?”

Fuck, why are they here again to seek redress? Lu Xiangsheng’s family was already outrageous enough before, and your family is here too, right?

"I wrote to the court before, begging for permission to retrieve the body of my husband, Wu Aheng. Now I have found it, and the situation... the situation... is horrible. My husband's kneecaps were all scraped off, his teeth were smashed, and his tongue was gone. I think those Tartars hated him so much. I want to ask, in such a situation, why would a person who drank and made mistakes be hated so much by the Tartars? My king is wise, please investigate thoroughly and clear my husband's name."

Chongzhen's face turned pale when he heard this. Looking at the court, which was silent and pretending to be dead, he said in hatred, "Someone, check it out! Get to the bottom of it!"

Volume 286: Chapter Chapter : The Bandits Suffer a Setback

Dorgon was naturally the one in charge of the Qing army attacking Miyun. Although he was now guilty, he was very sincere in his attitude, as if he was telling Huang Taiji to take advantage and let him do the hard work. This made Huang Taiji very alert.

What kind of person is Dorgon? Others may not know, but how could he not know? Cunning and cunning, we are all thousand-year-old foxes, he is playing Liao Zhai with me? This innocent look must be hiding something! Who knows what benefits the north has that I don't know.

Huang Taiji instructed Ajige to pay more attention to Dorgon's movements.

But he really misunderstood Dorgon this time. He really wanted to be a supporting role this time. After all, for the South, if others can take this mine, then let them take it. It has nothing to do with me!

In Fengyang area, several leaders were discussing countermeasures after being chased all the way.

"Master, running away like this is not a good idea, is it? It's not decent for so many of us to be beaten like this!"

"Yeah, that's so rude!"

Even clay figures can get angry, let alone these bandits who are skilled at killing and robbing. When have they ever suffered such a big injustice? In several battles, they have discovered that Jiang Han's troops did not come with a large force at all, but just a small elite force with heavy firearms. Is it reasonable for such a small number of people to chase them around?

"We have to think of a way to fight back against them. They dare to chase us with such a small number of people. They don't take us seriously at all!"

He Yilong grumbled with dissatisfaction, expressing the thoughts of all the bandits present.

"Yes, we are the boss. We have to teach them a lesson, otherwise people will think we are made of clay."

Ma Shouying himself had had this idea for a long time, but he was a very shady person. He did not raise it directly, but waited until everyone else brought it up before he made the final decision to demonstrate his authority.

He nodded and said, "What you said makes sense. This Jiang thief is really unreasonable. He doesn't take us seriously at all. We must give him a heavy blow!"

"So, who will fight in this battle?"

This sentence silenced everyone, and the atmosphere became a little awkward.

Seeing that no one was talking, He Yilong spoke up: "Master, this Jiang thief's artillery is really powerful. No one dares to attack. How can we fight?"

"Tnnd! Go ahead! Why not? He has strong frontal artillery fire, can't you attack him from behind? With so few people, can't you outflank him?"

A spy from the old camp stepped forward and said, "Master Ma, although there are no artillery on the flank, there are muskets..."

Zuo Jin Wang He Jing said: "It's OK without artillery, just have people hold shields and push up, it won't be a big problem"

"Very good, then who will complete this mission?"

Everybody was silent again. Ma Shouying took a look and thought, this isn't going to work. No one here is capable of doing this. It seems like these guys won't move unless they take some practical action.

Ma Shouying said, "Which battalion can take down this army first and plunder Yangzhou? Half of the city's population will belong to him, and the remaining property will be divided equally!"

After hearing what he said, several people immediately became excited and began to rush to attack. Half of the population in the city could at least replenish tens of thousands of troops! Not to mention the property inside. Hey, who can withstand this?

"I won't feel sleepy if you keep talking about this... No, big brother, how can you say such things! Jiang Han and I have an irreconcilable feud, and I must punish him severely!"

In the end, He Yilong, the one with the loudest voice, won and obtained the task of the main attack. He led his troops to blow the horn of counterattack.

The opponent's actions were naturally clearly visible to the Scarecrow. The information acquisition efficiency of both sides was completely not at the same level. Almost at the moment when He Yilong started to act, the Scarecrow used the scout's high-altitude reconnaissance to obtain the opponent's deployment changes, and she had been on guard against this for a long time.

She and her men had been chasing someone for so long, and she had been waiting for the moment when the other party would counterattack. However, she did not expect that the other party was so cowardly that it took him so long to start taking any action. It must be said that this made Scarecrow more confident that he could complete this operation.

"Everyone stop moving, dig trenches on the flanks, all units begin preparing fortifications in front of the station, do not open fire"

Although the Iron Blood Machines have almost no units specifically designed to carry out this type of civil engineering work, the efficiency of these combat units in digging earth is not low at all. With the speed at which the bandits gather, the Iron Blood units have plenty of time to dig and prepare simple front-line trenches.

After receiving the order, they began to act against the clock.

For He Yilong, the eve of the battle went quite smoothly. Their flanking operation was indeed effective. The enemy's artillery did not fire, and their people were getting closer and closer to the enemy's position. They even touched the enemy's trenches. He Jinlong quickly sent people to fill them up. These things were defensive fortifications used to hinder his own people's advance. As long as they were destroyed, there would be no obstacles between them and the enemy. He Jinlong felt that the hope of defeating the enemy was getting closer and closer.

However, this hope was soon shattered. The reason why the Iron-Blooded Humanoids did not open fire was entirely because the trench preparation work at hand had not been completed. But now, everything is ready, and the Iron-Blooded Humanoids began to reap lives.

Fierce artillery fire was accompanied by the sound of gunfire, and bullets and shells like raindrops instantly fell on the bandit camp. The first batch of hungry civilians and soldiers were the first to be hit, and they fell down in large numbers like wheat in a field, and a large gap instantly appeared in the camp.

According to these people's previous combat experience, there is a certain interval between the shooting of artillery and muskets, especially for artillery, which takes time from firing to loading. You just need to lie down on the ground or take the opportunity to dodge when the opponent opens fire, and then rush up.

However, the battle with Jiang Han's army completely shattered their cognition. The endless stream of musket bullets and artillery caused them heavy casualties. The hungry civilians and soldiers who rushed forward fell one after another. Facing these refugee soldiers in tattered clothes, it can only be said that the effect was outstanding.

As machine guns and machine cannons fired and bombarded, the bandit group fell one after another. A large number of corpses piled up in an area in front of the trenches, and blood continued to spread along the land.

It is now June, and the weather is extremely hot. The strong smell of blood and gunpowder is simply nauseating. Under the torrential rain of bullets, some lucky people finally broke through the rain of bullets and rushed into the trenches in front. They don't want to move forward, but prepare to take a rest in the trenches and catch their breath.

Incendiary bombs, fragmentation bombs, high-explosive grenades, machine gun bullets, Goliath explosions, these suffocating serial attacks completely shattered the psychological defenses of the bandits who had not experienced too many battles and whose nerves were not tough. Ignoring the repeated shouting of the supervisory team behind them, they turned around and fled in the direction they came from. The Iron Blood Gate did not cease fire, and after continuous shooting for quite a while, the Straw People ordered a ceasefire and continued the pursuit.

He Yilong was not as stupid as Lin Yangcheng. He stayed in the rear to watch the battle, far away from the battlefield. Seeing the hungry soldiers in the front line fleeing, he could only order the cavalry and the old camp soldiers to withdraw.

He Yilong knew very well that a cornered dog would do anything. If he allowed the supervision team to continue supervising the battle and killing people, the hungry soldiers who were retreating would become jealous and attack the soldiers in the old camp. That would be bad and the whole army might be in chaos.

Tens of thousands of troops retreated like a tide, leaving behind only hundreds of bewildered bandits in the trenches. They had spent a lot of effort and used up half their life's luck to finally rush into the first trench, but in the end, their own people retreated...

"This bastard said we would share the good and the bad, but now he's just selling us out!"

They cursed to cover up their inner fear. In their eyes, these people in Jiang Han’s army, if they were human beings, were simply evil spirits running out of hell!

Their current position was extremely awkward, they could neither advance nor retreat. The reinforcements were definitely doomed, and the enemy might come over and chop off their heads soon...

When all the defeated troops returned to their camp, He Yilong had someone do a rough count and found that there were more than 3,000 people missing in this wave, and the previous attack had taken less than two quarters of an hour!

This result surprised He Yilong very much. He never expected that the loss would be so great in such a short time. When He Yilong saw Ma Shouying and other leaders of the other camps, he spat fiercely and said, "Damn it, these dog soldiers of Jiang Han are all cowards. They only dare to hide far away and fire cannons and guns. If you have the guts, come over and fight me with real swords and guns!"

The expressions on everyone's faces were very unnatural. They had all seen this battle. The ferocious firepower of Jiang Han's army was different from all the Ming armies that the rebels had encountered in the past. The attacking troops had no way of getting close and could only passively take the cannon shots and bullets without any room to fight back.

It's not like they had never seen an army using artillery and muskets before. Whether it was Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting or Zuo Liangyu, although these troops had also used artillery and muskets, the firearms they used were poorly operated. Not only were they short-range and slow to fire, but more importantly, they exploded violently and posed no threat to the rebel army that used human wave tactics.

But what are those things in Jiang Han's hand? Is that a cannon? Is that a musket? What on earth is that? Is that firepower that a human can produce? The troops in each camp were all frightened and now began to feel a little afraid of fighting.

What should we do now? Should we give up? With such a good opportunity, should we go back to Fengyang? You know, the government troops are on their way. These bandits call themselves righteous troops, but in fact they never fight a battle they are not sure of winning. They always avoid the main force of the government troops. At most, they fight a war involving a few thousand people, which is considered an epic victory.

Ma Shouying was not a mediocre person. Although he was shocked by the firepower of Jiang Han’s army in the two clashes, he knew very well that if the fear in each camp was allowed to continue, it would deal a heavy blow to the rebel army. At the same time, he was a little unwilling to accept it. How come we are all rebels, so how come you are so much more awesome than me?

Deep down in his heart, Ma Shouying was still quite conceited. He looked down on the leaders of the various rebel forces from the bottom of his heart. He gave himself nicknames one by one, calling himself "King". There were nicknames such as "One-Character King", "Zuojin King", "King of Chaos", "King of Fighting for the World", "Chuangta Tian", "Guotian Xing", each one was more pretentious than the other, and there was even one who was called Cao Cao.

What is the reality? When the big idiot saw the second idiot, the idiots held a meeting, and there was no normal person. Seeing the sad faces of these people, he felt that these people really had no brains.

"Everyone, actually, it's not that we don't have a way to deal with Jiang Hanjun."

Liu Xiyao, the King of Change, who had remained silent, asked: "Master Ma, what good plan do you have?

Ma Shouying picked up a palm leaf fan and fanned himself a few times before saying, "My grandfather has seen the situations in the previous two battles. Our rebel army is too densely packed, so Jiang Han's army's artillery can only play a big role. Our casualties are also huge. What if we disperse our troops? Originally, the officers and soldiers could kill a dozen or even more rebel brothers with one shot. Now that we disperse our troops, we can only kill a few at most with one shot. The same goes for the musketeers on the opposite side. They might even miss."