Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume 1 Liaodong Shock

Chapter 5 Collecting Troops and Asking for the Future

Section 12 Where is the road?

At the beginning of April of the forty-seventh year of Wanli (the fourth year of the Later Jin Heavenly Mandate), Liaoyang.

After Liu Yunwei made the decision to return to Sichuan, he began to reorganize the Hanwei camp together with Lu Ying and others. After this battle, the Hanwei battalion fought several bloody battles to build slaves, and the whole battalion went out to be wounded and disabled and had to be disarmed and returned to the field, except for the soldiers who were left with more than 2,000 soldiers.

Therefore, after careful discussion between Liu Yunwei and Lu Ying, Wu Xing, Li Tianhao, Zhao Kaishan, and Wen Poyu, it was decided to reduce the establishment of the Hanwei battalion, and the five thousand general battalions were combined into one reinforced thousand general battalion, and the specific implementation plan was compiled:

After Liu Yunwei was demoted to the general manager of Qian, he reappointed Lu Ying, Wu Xing, Wen Poyu, Zhao Kaishan, and Li Tianhao as the general manager. At this time, there were still 2,105 soldiers in the Hanwei battalion. Liu Yunwei made some adjustments to the establishment of the Hanwei Battalion:

Five people are a team, with a team commander, and a total of five people in a team;

The four teams are a team, with a captain, and a team of 21 people;

The four teams are one sentry, with a total of one hundred and eighty-five people;

The four sentinels are a general, and Lu Ying and other five people are appointed as the general commanders, with a total of 341 people;

Liu Yunwei's self-imposed personal guards are still 500 people.

According to the adjusted structure, the 2,105 officers and men of the Hanwei Battalion were divided into five headquarters, but the division of the previous 5,000 headquarters was retained, and they were still called the five headquarters of the front, rear, left, right, and cavalry.

As before, Lu Ying served as the head of the front department; Wu Xing served as the commander of the rear department, commanding the heavy infantry of the thousand headquarters and the extermination array of a sentry; Zhao Kaishan served as the left general; Li Tianhao served as the general manager of the right department; Wen Poyu served as the general of the cavalry department, commanding the cavalry and the cavalry of a sentry horse, taking into account the night.

According to this downsizing plan, Liu Yunwei, Lu Ying, and others spent nearly 10 days reorganizing the entire battalion and reintegrating the troops of various units. Later, considering that Liaoyang's defense was relatively empty after the Hanwei battalion left, Liu Yunwei turned all the remaining more than 2,000 people of the East Route Army into guards, and mixed and trained them with the previous guards, enriching the defensive force of Liaoyang City.

After dealing with these matters, there was only one thing left for the Hanwei battalion to go south and return to Sichuan: the formulation of the route of the army to the south.

So, Liu Yunwei called Yuan Mingxuan, Lu Ying, Wu Xing, Li Tianhao, Zhao Kaishan, and Wen Poyu to the General Military Mansion to discuss the issue of the southward route.

Zhao Kaishan, Li Tianhao and Wen Poyu were all a little strange, and they all asked: "Big brother, if we go south to Sichuan, don't we just go directly to Shanhaiguan and then march all the way to Sichuan?" What's there to discuss about this? ”

Faced with the doubts of the three people, Lu Ying and Wu Xing also felt the same way, but both of them were more delicate, and they didn't say anything, just lowered their heads and thought about something.

When Liu Yunwei heard this, he suddenly thought: "Everyone has no experience in leading troops on long-distance marches and crossing borders across provinces, so of course they don't know the doorway. ”

So, Liu Yunwei explained: "Of course we have to discuss. Our Hanwei battalion went south to Sichuan, passing through several provinces of the Ming Dynasty on the way, crossing the land of Gyeonggi and the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the army of more than 2,000 people marched thousands of miles to report the marching route to the imperial court. Do you think that just like in Liaodong, you can go as you want? ”

Zhao Kaishan and Li Tianhao seemed to have heard of something novel, and they seemed very novel; And Wen Poyu thought about it, seemed to understand something, and said, "Big brother, I seem to understand." If we go south, it will be the transit of the guest army, and we need the imperial court to issue the opening of the silver and related transit documents, right? ”

Liu Yunwei nodded and said, "What Po Yu said is right, and the state capitals along the way are still obliged to provide us with grain and grass." ”

Speaking of this, everyone finally understood it thoroughly, and they all secretly said in their hearts: "There is still so much knowledge in the army passing through the state, no wonder the eldest brother wants to gather everyone to discuss it." ”

"Let's talk about it, let's consider the route of the marching army, it is best to plan a few routes, let the military department choose by itself, and those big masters in the province will pick and choose the delays." Liu Yunwei said.

So everyone began to discuss it.

Zhao Kaishan and Wen Poyu proposed that Hanwei Ying go south to Shanhaiguan and go back to Sichuan through Gyeonggi, Henan, and Shaanxi; Lu Ying and Wu Xing believed that the army should return to Sichuan via Gyeonggi, Henan, and Huguang; Because Li Tianhao has lived in Liaodong since he was a child and has never left Liaodong, he has been listening to other people's discussions and has not expressed any opinions.

Liu Yunwei said: "Everyone thinks that we should go to the Gyeonggi and Henan lines first, but there are differences after passing Henan. Then you all tell us your reasons, and let's compare them together. ”

Zhao Kaishan and Wen Poyu looked at each other, and Zhao Kaishan motioned to Wen Poyu to speak.

Wen Poyu glanced at Zhao Kaishan and said, "Big brother, we proposed to go through Henan and go back to Shaanxi and Sichuan, because we thought that the road over there was easier to walk. Everyone knows that the road into Sichuan is very difficult to walk, since ancient times there is a saying that it is difficult to enter Sichuan to go to the blue sky, and from Shaanxi to Sichuan, the road is easier to walk, which is conducive to the march of the army. So Kaishan and I proposed to go to Shaanxi. ”

Liu Yunwei nodded, then looked at Lu Ying and Wu Xing and asked, "What about Lu Ying's reason?" ”

Lu Ying said: "Big brother, if you want to say that the road is easy, it is indeed better to walk from Shaanxi to Sichuan. But let's not forget, long before the war, news of the drought in the northwest and the failure of farmland had spread throughout Liaodong. If our Hanwei Camp goes to Shaanxi, will the state capitals along the way have the ability to supply us with grain and grass? Instead of worrying about grain and grass problems, it is better to go directly to Huguang for insurance. ”

After listening to this, Liu Yunwei felt that what the two sides said had their own pros and cons, and he couldn't judge which route was better for a while. So I wanted to ask Yuan Mingxuan's opinion to see if these two routes should be reported to the Ministry of War for alternatives.

At this time, Liu Yunwei suddenly remembered that Yuan Mingxuan had been listening to everyone's discussion from beginning to end, and had never said a word, so he asked, "Lord Yuan, what is your opinion on the southbound route?" ”

Yuan Mingxuan shook his head and said, "Little general, I have heard the opinions of several generals, and what everyone said is very reasonable. But I think we thought a little simplistic when planning the march route, and we didn't think about these issues from the perspective of the imperial court, or from the perspective of the ministers of the court. ”

Liu Yunwei was a little confused for a while, and when he saw that the other people were also confused, he said, "What does Lord Yuan mean?" ”

Yuan Mingxuan said: "Little general, several generals, what do you think we are now?" ”

Everyone is confused again, what identity? Does this have any connection to the southbound route?

Liu Yunwei said: "What are our identities? Of course, it's the Ming official army. What's the doubt about that? ”

I saw Yuan Mingxuan shake his head and said, "We are a defeated army, a defeated army withdrawn from the Liaodong battlefield. ”

After hearing this, everyone's faces were not very good, Zhao Kaishan and Wen Poyu were even more angry, and Liu Yunwei was very sad.

Yuan Mingxuan continued: "Isn't it? In the eyes of those ministers of the DPRK and China, and even in the eyes of the officials of the state governments along the way, we are a defeated army that has lost the battle. Let me ask, will the minister of the DPRK and China let a defeated army go south to Shanhaiguan and pass through Beizhili in the land of Gyeonggi? They absolutely won't! Will the minister of the DPRK and China let you pass through Huguang and return to Sichuan? No, Huguang is the granary of the world, you must know that more than half of the high-ranking officials and officials have bought property over there, how can they tolerate Huguang's bleeding to supply the grain and grass of a defeated army? ”

As soon as everyone heard this, Yuan Mingxuan denied both routes at once. If you can't go south to Shanhaiguan, will the more than 2,000 people in the Hanwei camp fly back to Sichuan?

Liu Yunwei said: "Lord Yuan, since we can't go to Shanhaiguan, how can we go back to Sichuan?" ”

Yuan Mingxuan said: "Take the sea route, cross the sea and go directly to Shandong, and go back to Sichuan from Shandong to Henan and Shaanxi." ”

As soon as these words came out, including Liu Yunwei, several people in the room were dumbfounded, and no one expected that Yuan Mingxuan would propose to let the Hanwei camp go to sea by boat.

Zhao Kaishan said: "I said, Lord Yuan, don't forget that our Hanwei Battalion has more than 2,000 soldiers, so how many ships do we need to transport to Shandong." ”

Yuan Mingxuan smiled and said, "No problem, let's go to Haizhouwei first, where do I have a friend named Cheng Shiyong, who is a hundred presidents." He has a good understanding of maritime merchants in Lushun and can help us find enough sea vessels. ”

At this time, Li Tianhao said worriedly: "Lord Yuan, will there be any risks in going to sea by boat, what if you encounter wind and waves?" ”

"From Liaodong to Shandong, it will be a matter of three or two days by sea, and there will be no big winds and waves along the way, so you don't have to worry about any accidents." Yuan Mingxuan comforted.

Everyone saw that what Yuan Mingxuan said was very reasonable, so they had no objections.

Liu Yunwei seriously considered Yuan Mingxuan's suggestion, and said after a while: "Okay, just write a document according to Lord Yuan's opinion and submit it to the Ministry of War, and see what the Ministry of War has." ”

Yuan Mingxuan said: "I will write this document, presumably the Ministry of War will definitely approve it." ”

Liu Yunwei said: "That's good. By the way, since Lord Yuan is so confident, then please ask Lord Yuan to send a letter to Haizhouwei's friend again, and inform him of this matter in advance, so that the family can prepare in advance. ”

"Okay, I'll just write it all together." Yuan Mingxuan said.

Seeing that the matter of the route had come to an end a little, Lu Ying dragged Liu Yunwei and asked softly, "Big brother, how to deal with the old general's future?" ”

Liu Yunwei's expression darkened a little, and said: "My father-in-law is from Liaoyang, so let's be buried in Liaoyang, and I will handle the funeral for my father-in-law in a few days." ”

Everyone nodded, and Lu Ying asked again, "What about the old general?" ”

Liu Yunwei said with a firm expression: "My grandfather, father and Wanxin are all going back to Sichuan for burial, and I want to take them home!" ”