Lin Haiming, the leader of the horse thieves, followed Yang Sheng very diligently, constantly inquiring about the origin of this army, when he heard that it was the new chief soldier of Datong, Yang Hongzhang, who had beaten Jiannu in Zhili, Lin Haiming was silent for a long time, and he often lost a mouthful, and he was secretly glad that he had made a wise decision. So he got closer: "General, Yang Dashuai and the generals are here, and the people inside and outside the wall here are finally blessed, and they don't have to be harassed by the Tartars anymore." ”

Yang Sheng glanced at him and said with a smile: "Tartar comes once a year, at most twice, can he be more diligent than you?" If you want to bully the people near this wall, can anyone surpass you? ”

Lin Haiming smiled: "The general is effective, but we are also going astray, going astray, thanks to Yang Dashuai and the generals." ”

"You will soon know who the handsome is, I advise you to honestly obey the military orders since you have taken refuge in the Ming army, and ensure that you will be smooth from now on, if you have crooked thoughts, hehe, the handsome has killed a lot of people in the past two years, from the prince to the magistrate to the red-haired devil to the Japanese ......"

"That's, that's, we have heard of Yang Dashuai's prestige for a long time, but I don't know if the general believes me, if the general can trust me, I will go to the nearby mountains to take a turn, and ensure that all the horse thieves in the vicinity will greet Dashuai's subordinates, some of these people are deep in the Mongolian desert and are very familiar with the current route of the Mongols. The habits and marching routes of the Mongols are also very clear. ”

Yang Sheng's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Really? If you can really find such a handsome reward, it is absolutely indispensable, think that when the marshal was still in the river, some scouts found the convoy of Jiannu, but everyone got a lot of silver, if these horse thieves can be familiar with the Mongolian tribe's residence and migration routes, the marshal will have to give you an official reward. In the future, if the commander leads the army to the battle, these people will be the best guides! ”

Lin Haiming was also excited when he heard this: "General, if this is the case, the little one will definitely call those bosses Jiangmen to ensure that he can find out clearly the several Mongolian tribes in Monan for the big marshal." It is guaranteed that in the future, if the commander wants to deal with the Mongol Tatars, he will not have to take the wrong road. ”

"So much the best!" The reason why Yang Sheng has a good impression of horse thieves is all because of the existence of Zhang Hu and others, especially Changbao, who was killed by Jinyi Wei in the military camp outside the capital because of his righteous words, which has always made Yang Sheng feel sorry for Zhang Hu and others.

The two chatted for a while, Yang Sheng simply took Liu Haiming to strengthen Yang Hongzhang, Yang Hongzhang heard Liu Lin Haiming's idea and appreciated and agreed, originally these horse thieves Yang Hongzhang was dispensable, his purpose was just to hope that they would not harm the local people.

Then Lin Haiming left the big team with more than two dozen brothers. Someone also reminded Yang Hongzhang whether these guys took the opportunity to throw them away, Yang Hongzhang also felt that it didn't matter, the most important thing was that there was a second wave of horse thieves, I believe that Lin Haiming is also a smart person, unless he is not here to mix, then it is none of Yang Hongzhang's business.

Yang Jiajun continued to walk in the direction of Datong, although Yang Hongzhang was prepared, but the dilapidated degree of the guards and fortresses along the way still surprised him. Even those soldiers who had become refugees due to the plague and the invasion of the Qing army were embarrassed to see this scene. Compared to these local border troops, they are so lucky.

When the team came to the town guard, the person who received Yang Hongzhang was only a calmer, called Mao Yuanfei, and when he inquired about his chief, he was either killed in battle or fled, and he himself was unkempt and unkempt in February, and there were less than five hundred soldiers left in the guard, all of them were ragged, Yang Hongzhang felt that he did not go to the guard of Daming, but entered the headquarters of the beggar gang. For the first time, he rushed from the bottom of his heart to feel sad, although there was not one in ten of these people, but there was no other way to survive but to continue to fight for the country.

Yang Hongzhang was really distressed, and helped Mao Yuanfei's trembling body and said, "I'm late, you have suffered." ”

Mao Yuanfei listened to Yang Hongzhang's words, and a sincere smile appeared on his young face, which had experienced vicissitudes of life: "When the handsome man arrives, the town guard will be fine." ”

"Well, it's okay, it won't be like this again. Tell us about the situation here. Yang Hongzhang sat down in the yamen of the town guard and looked at Mao Yuanfei with a cramped face.

"Hey, it hasn't been peaceful in the past few years, and since the commander of the guard was poisoned by the Mongols' arrows the year before last, there have been generals who have died in battles against the Mongols. The number of guards also plummeted from 5,600 to less than 2,000 when the Mongol cavalry came to attack the city a few days ago, and then there was a lack of weapons and food, and there were a lot of bubbles, and a lot of people died in battle. The two thousand households on the left and right are basically scattered, and only a few hundred households are still in the scale of the system, and the handsome may not be able to count on these households to guard the guard post in the next few years......"

The more Yang Hongzhang listened, the more frightened he felt, the two thousand military households under the jurisdiction of a guard had almost fled, no wonder the ancients came as if they were in a no-man's land.

"Hurry up and post a notice in the name of the General Military Office, and the guard Amen will be under your authority for the time being, first register the existing military households, and tell them that the commander will not touch their land, and he will not expect them to guard Datong, but only hope that Amen will farm the land seriously. Other people who have fled with the original intention of coming back can inquire about the bottom of the yamen of the guard. From today until the commander leaves Datong Town, the conscription system will be implemented for the time being. All military households are tax-free for farming! ”

"Dashuai, this ......" Mao Yuanfei looked at Yang Hongzhang with a stunned expression. He had heard of Yang Hongzhang's prestige, but this chief soldier had exempted the entire military household from the tax burden since then, can this be counted, and the Datong prefect and the Shanxi political secretary do not have such great rights?

"Do what Ben Shuai says." Yang Hongzhang waved his hand with a heavy heart, he knew that after his policy came out, it would definitely be criticized by the so-called civilian clique, and there would definitely be people in other regions who would occupy the land through the Yamen of the guard. But Yang Hongzhang can't control so much now, he must first restore his popularity, and then say, there is no popularity, no one farms and tuntian, and you will not receive money even if you increase the tax rate tenfold.

The army went out of the town and continued to move forward to the Tiancheng Guard, the Tiancheng Guard was slightly better than the Zhenwei Guard, but the forts along the way were miserable, most of them had been abandoned and unguarded, and a few people were stationed basically like beggars, seeing Yang Hongzhang's army and banner, the first thing they said was. Let's give me something to eat.

are all some thirty-year-old men, ragged clothes are already the norm, and it is Yang Hongzhang's heart ache that makes Yang Hongzhang feel pain, these people have dedicated their youth to the Ming Dynasty, the court does not talk about meritorious deeds, and even the most basic living conditions cannot be met, and no one cares about their lives at all. Originally, it was all led by the commander of the guard of the three products. I think that these generals who have a way must have been transferred, and then most of the generals below were lost by Commander Wei, which also caused these fortresses and guards to be dilapidated and unattended.

Without the leadership of the generals and the need for supplies, and facing the frequent attacks of the Mongols, it is normal to want to be like beggars.

Further on, the county town of Yanggao, where Yanghewei and Gaoshanwei are located, was apparently captured by the Mongols, and most of the buildings in the city were burned down. Some of the people were similar to what Yang Hongzhang saw in Gao back then, guarding the ruins and weeping. The two guards were also empty. I think that either the Mongols were killed in battle when they came, or they fled when the city was broken.

Seeing this situation, Yang Hongzhang decided not to leave, he planned to let Luo Kedi and Sun Fei take two infantry battalions to Datong first, and the rest stayed in Yanggao City.

In Yang Hongzhang's defense system, Zhenyuwei, Tianchengwei, Yanghewei, and Gaoshanwei were the northernmost areas within the Outer Great Wall facing the Mongols. Therefore, Yang Hongzhang intends to focus on the four guards in these two counties.

Before Luo Kedi and Sun Fei left, Yang Hongzhang still sent scouts in order to cautiously reject the scouts in the direction of Datong and Hunyuan Prefecture, but to Yang Hongzhang's disappointment, the 40,000 Mongolian cavalry that Hong Chengchou said seemed to have disappeared overnight, and there was no trace of the entire Datong Town area, so Yang Hongzhang could only continue to send scouts to the farther surrounding areas, hoping to finally lock the whereabouts of the Mongols.

On the fifth day of coming to Yanggao, Lin Haiming came back with a large number of buyers, and there were more than 500 people. This also made Yang Hongzhang sigh that the world is chaotic, this from Juyong Pass to Zhenyuwei only a few hundred miles away from thousands of horse thieves gathered, if there is no strong border army, the military households of these guards are really unlucky, think that the existence of these horse thieves is also an important reason why the guards are so dilapidated.

Therefore, while handing over the horse thieves who had Zhao'an to Xia Dongwei for strict training, the four guards posted a notice, requiring all horse thieves to be good immediately, and welcoming the people to report and provide clues about the horse thieves, and the General Military Office will clean up all the thieves in the area under the jurisdiction of Datong Town in the next month, and all the thieves will be killed regardless of whether they have lives in their hands or not, and their families will be convicted of the same crime.

Judging from the results of his few days in the capital, the imperial court did not strictly enforce the commercial tax rate set by itself, nor did it implement it in places other than the capital and Tianjin, so it was basically sitting on empty water, and the money he made in the capital had already been spent.

Now that the prefect of Datong has not arrived, and Datong City has also been captured by the Mongolian cavalry, I think that if you want to restore the defense force of Datong Town, you can only rely on yourself. The Ming court is not a man, but there is no money!

Yang Hongzhang believed that as long as the general military government could afford the price, those military families who had fled would definitely come here. There are a lot of minerals in Datong, but it takes a process, and the fastest people who are blind to get money are those Shanxi businessmen.