Ningsai Fort on the north side of Jinding Mountain is an important military fort on the West Road of Yansui in the Ming Dynasty, which was placed in the eleventh year of Chenghua, and the Sancha Fort was guarded by the soldiers. It is 40 miles to Jingbian Camp in the east, 40 miles to Liushujian Fort in the west, 140 miles to Baoan County in the south, and 2 miles to Dabian in the north.

Ningsai Fort is surrounded by four miles and three points, eighteen buildings are paved, the city wall is heightened in the sixth year of Longqing, and it is changed to brick in the sixth year of Wanli. It is equipped with 54 miles and 280 steps of the Great Wall, and there are 54 piers. Ningsai Fort is located on the mountain, the back of the mountain and the water are dangerous before and after, the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is a very important part of the defense system to protect the west road of Yansui in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, relying on the cold city walls alone cannot protect the border, and the local military and civilians have always been the defenders of the Ming border. However, the barren land of Nimsai Fort could not provide enough food, and the area was half military and half civilian, and most of them relied on military salaries provided by the dynasty to fill their stomachs. However, now the imperial court is always in arrears, and the soldiers of Nimsaiburg have not received their salaries for almost three or four years now. (Note 1)

As for their own cultivation and harvesting, in the current days of famine, the soldiers and civilians of Nimsaiburg have even less food. For example, the soldiers in the army held weapons and armor, and stole food with the thieves outside It is a well-known secret of the people in the fort. It has long been common for soldiers to beg along the streets with their families. And it is not uncommon for military families to sell their wives and children, because even hundreds or even thousands of hereditary households have such ideas.

Hunger gave rise to all sorts of ideas, and the officers in charge of the fort were not blind or deaf, but they had no money or food to continue to beg from them day after day, and the situation was as bad as ever. At this moment when all kinds of ideas existed for secret discussion or public discussion, the hungry soldiers found that Chen Sanhuai, the general who had gone out with his soldiers and horses not long ago, had only a few family members left around him, and he came back covered in blood.

After discovering the dozens of thieves who appeared near Ningsai Fort, Chen Sanhuai, a general of Ningsai who had tasted the sweetness, thought that it was the same as before. So he didn't think much about it, and directly launched an attack with more than 100 soldiers under his command. At first, these dozens of thieves did not resist, and soon led the team to retreat, and Chen Sanhuai blindly pursued it.

However, Zhang Mengjin suddenly appeared with two hundred cavalry, and quickly launched a surprise attack on Chen Sanhuai. This time the battle was completely one-sided, and Zhang Mengjin's men and horses chased the officers and soldiers all the way to the city of Ningsai. Chen Sanhuai fled back to Ningsai with only a few family members, and the rest of the soldiers were either taken prisoner or became dead bodies.

After that, Zhang Mengjin's remaining troops all arrived, and more than 500 elite soldiers surrounded Ningsai City with hundreds of hungry people. Zhang Mengjin, who was about to start the attack, suddenly noticed strange shouts and fighting sounds coming from Ningsai City. It didn't take long for the city gate to be opened by a group of people, who shouted at Zhang Mengjin and the others to enter the city as soon as possible.

Zhang Mengjin at first doubted whether there was fraud inside, and hesitated to go into the city to have a look. It was only when the turmoil in the city grew louder and louder that he made up his mind to let his subordinates break into the city and occupy Ninsai. Later, Zhang Mengjin learned that it was the hungry soldiers and civilians in Ningsai who suddenly rebelled, and they planned to take refuge with the besieging thieves for food.

After everything calmed down, the corpse of Chen Sanhuai, the general of Ningsai, was also found by Zhang Mengjin's subordinates, who was originally the highest-ranking Ming military attache in the city, who was killed by the hungry people in the chaos. Therefore, in the third year of Chongzhen's December Ding Si (that is, the 13th day of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, January 14, 1631 AD), the Ningsai camp was declared lost. (Note 2)

As Zhang Mengjin and his group entered the city, Ning Sai quickly regained calm after an initial brief period of chaos. Former talent Zhang Mengcheng is leading some cavalry to patrol around the city to maintain law and order. They did not capture much food during the successful occupation of Ninsai this time, and all of it was distributed to the soldiers and civilians of the city. Because there was not much to eat in the Ningsai camp, otherwise the people in the city would not have rebelled, so in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, they distributed all the captured grain together.

Although they didn't get much food, Zhang Mengjin and his gang got a lot of equipment. Among them, Zhang Mengcheng found a few bird guns that he had been talking about. It's just that the maintenance of these bird guns is really not very good, and some of the bird guns have been disconnected. Most of the remaining bird guns also have a lot of damage, either missing a crosshair, or a damaged door, or a problem with the bolt or something.

Zhang Mengcheng could only pick out an arquebus that looked okay first, and put away all the rest of the birds, planning to see if he could find a craftsman to remedy it when he had time in the future. Although the arquebus picked out was also called a bird gun by the captured officers and soldiers, Zhang Mengcheng looked at some of the obvious Muslim-style ornaments on it, and knew that this musket was definitely not a state-owned independent intellectual property right.

After he took Xigui to practice a few shots, he didn't find any problems. Zhang Mengcheng thought about it for a while, and temporarily handed over this musket to Xigui, who was not very good at bows and arrows. After teaching him how to use it, he asked him to take his musket and practice outside the city.

Zhang Mengcheng currently does not have time to familiarize himself with this arquebus, thinking in terms of actual combat use, he still chooses to use the nine-sided sharp weapon Kaiyuan Bow that he has become accustomed to. On the way to inspect, Zhang Mengcheng also met his second brother Zhang Mengguang. But he didn't dare to say anything more to the second brother. (Note 3)

Zhang Mengguang's face was quite ugly, because his old boss Du Wenhuan's home was in Ningsai City, and he originally disagreed with the decision to attack Ningsai this time. However, in order to cooperate more closely with Shen Yiyuan, and at the same time to eliminate their worries, Zhang Mengjin and Shen Yiyuan must pull out the three nails between them: Xin'an Border Camp, Liushujian Fort and Ningsai Camp.

In order to implement the plan smoothly in the future, Zhang Mengguang had to follow everyone's opinions. He only hoped that Du Wenhuan's family would be well protected when he defeated Ningsai, and in fact, the brothers in Jindingshan did not intend to harm Du Wenhuan's family.

However, a riot suddenly broke out in the city, and the soldiers and civilians at the bottom naturally attacked the officials and their families who usually acted as a prestige in the city. When Zhang Mengjin, who was still outside the city, wondered if it was some trick in the fort and hesitated to enter the city, Du Wenhuan's people had already been attacked, and most of the relatives in the fort were killed.

When Zhang Mengguang arrived, Du Wenhuan's house was full of corpses. He could only save a few of Du Wenhuan's clansmen and female dependents, several of whom were defiled by the chaotic people before, and suffered a double blow both mentally and physically, and they were humiliated and secretly hanged themselves behind Zhang Mengguang's back. Zhang Mengguang felt deeply remorseful, so he could only wander around the city. Keep searching and searching for news to see if you can find other Du Wenhuan's family members.

Zhang Mengjin, the big boss, was also very depressed about this, and he didn't expect that the hungry soldiers and civilians in Ningsai would rebel at this time. Now that most of Du Wenhuan's family members have been killed, whether Zhang Mengjin and others intentionally or unintentionally, this account will definitely be recorded in the names of Zhang Mengjin and other brothers.

With the now famous military attache in Shaanxi, Jin Dingshan will probably have a very bad time in the future. Even if Jin Dingshan's recruitment plan is successful, it is difficult to guarantee that Du Wenhuan will not find a chance to kill them. It's easy to find excuses, such as Zhang Mengjin, they are going to rebel again or something. Didn't Wang Zishun and others in the first two months use this reason to be killed by Hong Chengchou and Li Yingqi.

Zhang Mengcheng also remembered Li Yingqi, but he could only sigh heavily. The Zhang brothers first offended Li Yingqi, and now they have formed a mortal enmity with Du Wenhuan, their biggest relationship. Yiwen and Yiwu, two topical figures in Shaanxi officialdom, both put Zhang on the blacklist. How much luck must have been this to keep encountering this kind of thing.

Thinking of this, Zhang Mengcheng, who was baptized by the scientific concepts of later generations, couldn't help but think of the Taoist priest who was killed at the gate of Zhang's Villa, and wondered if he would really be a half-immortal. Zhang Mengcheng, who looks more and more like his eldest brother, inadvertently even began to think like him. It's just that Zhang Mengjin is worried about the incense of the Zhang family, and Zhang Mengcheng is worried about the future of the Zhang family.

Under a round of inspections, Zhang Mengcheng, who did not find anything abnormal, took over the shift with Wei Heyong, who came to change shifts. Zhang Mengcheng let his subordinates go to rest, and he came to the office alone and began to read the official documents in the office. Information was an indispensable thing in that era, and knowing more about it would determine the future fate of their gang at a critical time.

After spending an hour reading through the various official documents of the office, Zhang Mengcheng learned some information that might be useful, such as the defense and material conditions of the garrisons and piers around Ningsai, the composition of officials and troops, and the intelligence of the Outer Mongolians detected by the Ming army.

These official documents made Zhang Mengcheng understand a lot of things, and even Zhang Mengcheng germinated the idea of using the power of the Mongols in the coming days. Surviving now is the top priority, and Zhang Mengcheng, who has been honed for 18 years in this era, will not evaluate the nature of his behavior from the perspective of later generations.

At the same time, Zhang Mengcheng also consulted the existing newspapers of the office, and he found that the flow of rogues into Shanxi had caused a lot of impact, and the Ming Dynasty's already exhausted body was constantly suffering from their blows. However, these are still too far away from Zhang Mengcheng, but there is another news in the Di newspaper that worries him.

PS: The remarks in the text are as follows.

Note 1: The arrears of the military fort on the West Road of Yansui are not made up by the author. In the "Historical Materials of the Peasant Uprising in the Late Ming Dynasty" edited by Zheng Tianting and Sun Yue, there is an article entitled "Yang He, the Governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Governor, Entitled Buxin Surrender", in which Yang He reported to the imperial court that when Chongzhen was four years old, Xilu had been in arrears for four years.

Note 2: Ding Si is a record of "Huailing Liukou Records", and it should be noted that the records in "Huailing Liukou Records" and "Pingkou Chronicles" both record the time of "December Yi Sishuo" before Shen Yiyuan conquered Ningsai. The "Liukou Zhi" is slightly different, and the record is "December Jisishuo". "Liukou Zhi" should be a clerical error, and the record of Otsumi is a mistake. "December is the first day of the month, and Shuo represents the first day of the lunar month. For example, it is recorded in "Huailing Liukou Always Record" that "in December, Yi Si Shuo attacked the soldiers and civilians of Xin'an Border to attack the city of Ningsai and opened the door to accept it", and later recorded "Ding Si broke Ningsai". It is not that there is a contradiction in the record, but that the first day of the twelfth month is the day of "Otomi". The events recorded later did not happen on this day, but simply mentioned what happened this month, and the "Ding Si Po Ningsai" in the back is the actual time of the event.

Note 3: The description of the Kaiyuan bow in "Ascending the Altar Must Be Investigated" is: "Its system is strong and durable, and the nine-sided soldiers use it more, and it is the most sharp weapon." ”