Zhou Fengji said again: "The border army here in Xuanda is still quite elite, and the young proprietor has never seen the soldiers of Henan and Shandong, which is much worse than this." ”

"What could be worse?"

Zhang Han felt that the lower limit of his understanding had been refreshed, and he glanced at the battalion soldiers in front of him again, tall, short, fat and thin, even if they were weapons with a spear, they were not wearing armor, their robes were tattered, and only a small number of sword and shield soldiers stood in the forefront, such an army, how could it be worse?

"Of course." Zhou Fengji said firmly: "My Datong soldiers used to be an important town in the world, although they were far inferior to a hundred years ago, they are still considered the elite in the sea, and I have seen the squad soldiers in Shandong and Henan, to be honest, after they went all the way to Beijing, they were still a little inferior to the beggars in the capital." ”

Zhang Han's mind was dizzy, in the end, the books were still too shallow, he had read some books on the military affairs of officialdom in the late Ming Dynasty, but at that time he still felt that the literati were exaggerating, and it was not until he saw it in front of him that he knew what was going on with the so-called huge army between 180 and 2 million in the Ming Dynasty.

Dare to love this group of soldiers called Huazi in front of them is still elite!

Zhang Han's suspicion is unreasonable, the Xuan soldiers are indeed elite, even if the full army entered the country in the second year of Chongzhen, the performance of the Xuan soldiers is still far above the Liaodong soldiers, Man Gui led thousands of Xuan soldiers and Houjin soldiers in several bloody battles, a hundred times stronger than the so-called Liaodong iron cavalry that has been facing the enemy with their butts, from Xuanda to Yansui, the western Ming army on this line, especially the Qin army, can be called elite. These northwest border armies are the backbone of the Ming army, and as soon as the backbone is broken, that is, the main force of Sun Chuanting's Qin army is annihilated, and the Ming Dynasty will be finished.

These Ming soldiers in front of him, although their robes are tattered, they still look like soldiers, and most of them are world soldiers, and there are quite a few veterans with combat experience standing in the queue, Zhang Han observed carefully, and faintly felt the murderous aura exuded by these soldiers, so he was convinced by Zhou Fengji's assertion.

But this Ming Dynasty is really too deductive and too chicken thief to defend his army......

"I can't tell you about this......"

Listening to Zhang Han's words, Zhou Fengji also shook his head, he is just an experienced shopkeeper, talking about what he has seen is okay, specific inductive analysis, he does not have this level, the height is different, and the angle of seeing things is also different. Moreover, the composition and logistics of the Ming Dynasty's army, the organization and command of the army, I am afraid that hundreds of books may not be completely explained, and it is difficult for Zhang Han to expect an old shopkeeper of this era to say this.

Thinking of this, Zhang Han smiled to himself and looked at the general.

More than a dozen military forts, including Xinping Fort, belong to Datong Town, and at the same time are within the jurisdiction of Yanghe Bingbei Road, under Yanghe Bingbei Road, and divided into Yang and Xinping Road and Yanghe East Road, all these military forts and Tianchengwei Town capture Yang and Wei Zhuwei, all of them are Yanghe Bingbei Road direct management, Datong Town is a military town, under the management of the general army, and there are Datong Zhongwei left and right guards and other guards in the town, the command of the guard is under the management of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, above the general army is the Governor of Xuanda, the highest system is the civil official, and the leader of the army is the general soldier, The daily military and civilian government affairs are military preparations and deputy envoys, and the management of the military and civilians in the towns and localities is the command of the generals and guards from all walks of life, and the civil and military affairs are staggered and contain each other, forming a relatively stable political and military ecosystem.

Of course, from Zhang Han's point of view, this kind of control in the Ming Dynasty was very lax, and the management of officials and the prevention of the people were very poor, and it was not effective, let alone effective.

It's just that judging from the communication and road conditions of this era, extensive management will inevitably appear until it is reshuffled and a more stable management system comes out, of course, it is still not efficient.

Yang and Xinping Road staff general Lai Tongxin, at this time had already dismounted, all the way up the high platform, sitting in the middle.

Surrounded by the generals were a number of thousands of general officers, who may have the status of the conduct and defense officers of each fort at the same time, and also have the rank of commander of the guard, the secretary, or the military attache of the thousand household officers.

The general and the general are all sent to the military position, there is no grade, each officer will have a guard military position, used to determine the grade, Lai Tongxin, this general should be the commander of the same knowledge or the officer, from the second or third grade of the military position, in the Ming Dynasty is already considered a senior military attaché.

The important point of Xinping Fort can also be seen from here, it is not the garrison of thousands of households, but the general of this road personally led the troops to defend the town, and the garrison has more than 1,600 soldiers, which is far beyond the normal amount for a military fort.

I don't know why, when Zhang Han looked at the general, he felt that there were also eyes faintly observing him.

His gaze seemed to be in the crowd of people dressed in civil and official costumes.

There are managers in the horse market, and they generally serve as judges with such civil officials as the judges, who are responsible for "extracting taxes and silver taels and rewarding the people".

Zhang Han wondered a little in his heart, why among those civil officials, there were people who paid attention to him.

After looking at it, it was all short-winged black yarn and green official robes, and the eyes probably swept away, Zhang Han stared at it for a while and didn't look at the person in the crowd again, so he had to stop.

At this time, the third drum sounded, and there was a sound of horses' hooves at the north gate, Zhang Han looked at that side, and found that there were no less than a thousand Mongols standing at the north fence wall, each pulling one or several horses, wearing thick sheepskin jackets, yellow coats, and big hats with a round or pointed hat on his head.

In these years, Mongolians almost do not take a bath, let alone wash the jacket on their bodies, and they deal with livestock every day, so the smell of the body naturally does not need to be mentioned.

Liang Hong leaned over and said, "This is the supervisor of the Tartars, and it is also the official of Shoukouyi." ”

Before the official opening of the market, not only did the Ming Dynasty come with a general and more than 500 soldiers, but the Mongolian side also came to a Taiji who was responsible for guarding the mouth, and at the same time, he also had the duty of supervising the city, which was the result of mutual agreement between the two sides, and the interests and security of both sides were taken care of.

The Mongolian city supervisor only brought twenty or so horsemen, but unlike ordinary herdsmen, they were all wearing cardigan armor, iron helmets on their heads, and spears in their hands, and the leading Tartar officials rode their horses to the opposite side of the high platform to station their horses, and arched their hands to the platform from afar, and returned the salute to Lai Tongxin on the stage. ”

For a while, the gong still did not ring the gong to open the market, and the Mongols and Han merchants were a little anxious, the merchants were in a hurry to ship and make money, and the Tartars came from afar, in a hurry to buy things and go home.

The small market opened once a month is mainly aimed at the poor Mongolians, Zhang Han has recently been collecting the newspaper of the palace in the past few decades, knowing that the horse market opened at the beginning of the Jiajing period was only the official market, and the small market was not a monthly market, and it may only be opened once a few months or a year, which made smuggling on the border prevalent, many poor Mongolians went to the border to trade on their own, a pot for a few horses, a few buckets of rice for a horse, such things are all problems that occurred when the horse market was opened at the beginning of the Jiajing period, although the Han merchants made a lot of money, but the court was worried that the deception was ruthless, The horses of the Tartars were not harvested in the ground, and they had to be robbed by the Han merchants in a hurry, and the border was not very peaceful, so the moon market appeared, and fair trade was under the supervision of both sides.

Such a small market is completely different from the official market, and all the herdsmen who come here are in a hurry to buy things and go home, each with leather goods, horses, cattle and sheep, waiting to exchange for cloth, grain and groceries.

At this time, a person stood out from the stage, and saw that he was dressed as a military attache who looked like a thousand generals, and this person stood on the edge of the platform and began to speak loudly.

Many of the Mongols knew Chinese, and when they heard the Han officials speak, someone immediately translated, but they were not worried that the people would not understand.

“…… The day before yesterday, 17 smuggling Han merchants were captured, and 15 people bought Tartars, who did not abide by Chinese rules and violated the instructions of Altan Khan. ”

Zhang Han didn't hear the first few words clearly, but later he understood that it turned out to be a smuggler and a Tartar who bought goods, and he deliberately landed in the market today, in short, it was to kill chickens and monkeys.

He looked left and right, and the proprietors and shopkeepers around him had the same faces as usual, and they were not moved at all, and the young men were talking and laughing in a low voice, not taking the matter to heart at all.

The same is true of the Tartars in the north, without the slightest emotional fluctuation, and their faces still have that mixture of anticipation and impatience.

Zhang Han turned to Zhou Fengji and said in a low voice: "Uncle Zhou, is it like this every time the market opens?" ”

"Of course not, every time it's like this, isn't it annoying?"

Zhou Fengji shook his head, with a little disdain on his face: "The smugglers are all small businessmen, make a few hard money, from our Datong to Xuanfu, and then west to Gansu, how can there be no smuggling?" Small business, what kind of evil can be done, so many smugglers, every few months to punish these dozen people, who cares? It's nothing more than a good explanation to the superiors, and if something happens, it can also prevaricate the officials and the court. ”

Zhang Han nodded slightly, and his heart moved.

Sure enough, as Zhou Fengji said, along the border for thousands of miles, there are thousands of people smuggling to the Mongols every day, and catching a dozen unlucky ghosts every few months is nothing more than an explanation to the top.

At this time, more than a dozen smugglers were escorted to the middle of the market, and dozens of soldiers were already standing and waiting, Zhang Han saw that these "businessmen" were all dressed as ordinary people, and even a few of them were obviously struggling with the poverty line.