"Ma Zongbing's main barracks are here."

Above the fort tower, a battalion soldier looking into the distance suddenly shouted.

With the shouting, more people looked to the southwest, where the official road was, and sure enough, everyone saw that the smoke and dust were rising, and there were about 6,000 to 7,000 cavalry, along the official road and the fields on both sides, all over the mountains.

The military flag is unfurled, the armor is bright, Ma Chengen's main barracks are still presentable, Zhang Han also caught up with the city when he heard the news, and observed the demeanor of the main cavalry of the Ming army with Li Shenming and others.

The number of soldiers in Ma Chengen's main barracks is 3,500 people, which is considered to be a large number of soldiers in the main barracks directly under the general army, and the general general army is at least 2,000 people, and at most more than 3,000 people, and rarely exceeds 3,000 people.

This is also the practice of the Ming Dynasty, although the generals of the Ming army are in the general army, and there are many nine-sided generals who nominally command more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, but in fact they can lead their own regular barracks and directly subordinate guerrilla battalions, and the number of direct leaders is very small.

The rest of the lieutenant generals and staff generals each have their own battalions directly under them, and the general soldiers cannot interfere in their camp affairs; if the general soldiers are arrogant and rude and forcibly manage the camp affairs of these subordinate generals, they will be guilty of the great taboo of "controlling the big and the small" and will be suspected of plotting against each other, and the crime will be very serious.

As for his own barracks, he can do whatever he wants.

There are 3,005 soldiers, of course, less than 3,000, and Ma Chengen's empty quota is at least six or seven hundred people, including the expenses of supporting the family, the expenses of bribing the boss, and the ceremonial money given to the Beijing officials, all of which are out of the vacancies, with an average of one or two taels per soldier, one or two five horsemen, plus salt, vegetables, silver, and grain, the annual income of the empty amount is about 10,000 taels, and the first pot of gold of many generals comes from eating the empty amount.

The 2,800 soldiers of the main barracks, plus the 600 Jiading who accompanied them, and the Qi Bing Battalion who were ordered to accompany them, two guerrilla battalions, and the main force of the Ming army's border army who came to the aid had nearly 7,000 people, including more than 1,000 family members.

"It's a bit of a bit of a." Zhang Han commented with a smile.

Of the more than 7,000 people in front of him, most of them should be soldiers, with only a small number of auxiliaries following, plus all cavalry...... The border town generals of Datong and Xuanfu, of course, including the current Jizhen, do not like to use the tactics of foot riding and cycling, most of them do not know a few big words, and they can't control the situation too complicated at all, and even some generals can't even grasp the golden drum banner, and use their own family and cavalry elite to conduct small-scale cavalry battles, these generals have performed very well, such as the successive Jizhen generals behind Qi Jiguang are like this, after Qi Jiguang was transferred, several generals of Jizhen have made a lot of achievements, However, all the examples of warfare are without exception, and the total number of cavalry led one or two thousand cavalry deep into the enemy's territory to conduct cavalry battles, or fight counterattack battles, as for the tactics of infantry, cavalry, and artillery coordination, it is no longer seen.

Sun Jingting exchanged a look with Li Dongxue and the others, Li Shenming came out of Mafu after all, they couldn't say it too bluntly, in fact, after staying in Li Zhuang for a long time, the military array in front of them was already difficult for them to appreciate.

The cavalry formation of the Ming army seems loose and casual, most of them are small groups of cavalry with the generals and relatives forward, the generals can barely maintain the advance of the large array, but there is almost no talk of how strict the military formation advance and cooperation with each other, more like the interaction between the generals and their own relatives, a group of very scattered.

As for the weapons, they were also very ordinary, and the cavalry swept under the walls of the fort, and it could be seen that only a few of the weapons in their hands were quite good, and most of them were just ordinary.

The armor is also very ordinary, the cavalry in armor accounts for more than seventy percent, but ninety percent of them are ordinary cotton armor, that is, the forged cotton clothes are decorated with iron leaves, plus copper nails, the weight of this cotton armor is not light, wearing it on the body has a lot of restrictions on people's actions, can defend against light arrows and long-distance heavy arrows, the defense against close-range foot bow and heavy arrow shooting is not good, and the defense against chopping and stabbing is very poor.

Only a very small number of generals and generals wore iron scale armor, but it was also a relatively rough kind of iron armor, and only the military attachés who were more than 1,000 generals and a very small number of family members wore fine iron armor, and their armor shone in the sun, and at a glance they knew that they were not ordinary.

"The northern captives have already begun to flee." Zhang Han said.

It is said that it is an escape, but it is actually a complete rout, and Ma Chengen's timing of his shot was also communicated with Zhang Han, that is, on the day when Bu Nang and Su Nang went to Li Zhuang, Ma Chengen led his troops to Xinping Fort, and when the main force of the Ming army appeared, I believe that Li Zhuang side Su Nang They also failed, and they were very close to each other, and there were probably two big Tai Ji who desperately fled north among the defeated crowds...... Zhang Han has absolute confidence in the arrangement of Li Zhuang's side, even if the northern captives who went south took all the people who stayed in Xinpingbao to the south, the result would definitely be the same, but then Ma Chengen could rush over in advance, and by the way, the northern captives who went south were all dumplings, in this regard, Zhang Han wished they had this kind of determination to break the kettle, but unfortunately there were no cloth bags or vegetarian bags.

The herdsmen did not even have time to collect the yurts, the cattle, sheep and horses were gone, and everyone ran to the north empty.

The mountains were full of herdsmen and horses galloping, and the Ming army began to go from the east gate to the north gate to intercept those who did not escape in time.

At the beginning of the small-scale battle, the cavalry of more than one or two hundred people, less than thirty or fifty people kept going around in circles, and the northern captives began to turn around and shoot arrows, hindering the action of the Ming army, and the Ming army had some archers who fired back on the horses, and there were also some Ming cavalry with three-eyed guns to shoot back, and the battlefield was full of gunsmoke, arrows and arrows came and went, and the fight was very lively.

However, there are not many Ming troops or northern captives who fell off the horse, the two sides fought and fled, there was no scene of cavalry hedging, the Ming army appeared at noon, the northern captives began to flee, and they chased and fled until the evening, and there was a shouting sound near the side wall, at this time Ma Chengen and his personal soldiers Ding and a group of dozens of people appeared in the direction of the north gate of Xinping Fort.

Lai Tongren opened the fort gate, and he stood at the fort gate to greet him.

Seeing the general army galloping close, Lai Tongxin half-knelt down and said: "The enemy's situation is unknown, I have not greeted the chief soldier beforehand, and I have never left the fort to kill the enemy, and I will be sentenced to death." ”

Ma Chengen was in a good mood, his face was slightly tired, he came from Datong Road, almost rarely rested, and after arriving at Xinping Fort, he fought with the Beiyu, fatigue was inevitable, the battle of the main force of the Ming army, the general army was rarely commanded behind the battle, Ma Chengen was the same, he liked to be strong and stubborn, commanded the rush and kill in front of the battle, and even sometimes wielded his own knife to kill the enemy.

For example, when the Jin soldiers captured Shenyang a while ago, He Shixian, the chief soldier who garrisoned Shenyang, was a fierce man, and he killed dozens of Houjin armor with his own hands.

Ma Chengen glanced at Lai Tongxin, held his hand on the horse, and said: "Lai Shen will not have to be polite, this time you will defend Xinping Fort, and your meritorious service is not small, and the future is great." ”

Lai Tongxin is also thinking about this matter these days, although he is not a civilian official, the Ming generals only talk about the merit of beheading, and the credit for defending the city is mostly civilian, but Xinping Fort is a military fort, the situation is different from the city, this time he also has merit, at this time he heard Ma Chengen's words in person, Lai Tongxin was really happy, and said in his mouth: "The last general thanked the general for his support." ”

"It's not me who carries you." Ma Chengen said: "I heard that you have a good relationship with the merchants of this fort, and there are militia groups organized by the merchants to assist in the defense at the critical time, which means that you have the talent of a general." ”

Lai Tongxin understood that this was actually saying that his relationship with Zhang Han and He Yusheng was still harmonious, and he hurriedly boasted: "The last general and Zhang Patrol have a good relationship, and they are really brothers." ”

Ma Chengen smiled when he heard this, nodded, and continued to ride the horse inside, Lai Tongxin also turned over and quickly followed.

A thousand general followed, whispered to his companions: "A few years ago, Zhang Inspector saw that Lai Shen General had to bow down, and Lai Shen General almost crossed Yu Sheng, and a few years later, Lai Shen General had to boast of a good relationship with the inspection lord, so that he could get a high position. ”

"Less nonsense." Another thousand always laughed in a low voice: "In this situation, who doesn't hold He Yusheng?" In the morning from the south, the northern captives fled back, and you didn't see it? So many armor-clad northern captives and herdsmen went south, not to call the business group of He Yusheng to fight all over the ground to find teeth and come back, I see, in the future, He Yusheng is not only rich, but in terms of strength, there are few people in the same realm of our Jinbei Datong. ”

"Even if it's General Ma, I'm afraid it's an ally."

"It's not that suspenseful, is it? The Ma family is a general, a man of all generations, with more than 1,000 families, hundreds of thousands of acres, and his children are all generals. ”

Someone chuckled and said, "It's still a nine-grade inspection." ”

The Qian president, who thought that Ma Chengen and Zhang Han would treat each other as equal allies, had a little unbearable on his face, and he snorted angrily: "Let's go and see." ”

"How about betting on Qingfeng Lou tonight?"

"Okay, that's it."

"We've got a part in that, too."

It's not a big deal to see the excitement, and soon helped the gambling people finalize the details, and at the same time sent their own attendants to book the table first, whether it is the next eight treasures or the middle eight treasures, the table must be booked in advance, otherwise some ingredients are not available temporarily.

The defeat of the Northern Captives, although the main force of the Ming army is still in pursuit, but the military attachés who returned to the fort or the original garrison are in a relaxed mood, and everyone must have their own share in this great achievement, even if they can't get rewarded and promoted this time, it is also a real qualification, which will be of great help to future development.

In this relaxed atmosphere, the foreign military attachés of the guest army and the military attachés of the fort were all mingling, and many officers knew about the gambling contract, and some angry people also participated, and when Ma Chengen and others arrived at the general's mansion, the number of people who participated in the gambling contract was quite large.

There are some people who are not afraid of big things when they see the excitement, and some people are full of curiosity about Zhang Han, and they want to know very much, who is this big businessman with hands and eyes to the sky, amazing power, and who is also the duty of the Nine Rank Inspector, who is sacred, and what kind of relationship is he in with his own army.

Yesterday that chapter was sent by mistake, two three hundred and thirty-two, sorry.

In addition, the state is very bad today, a chapter.