"It's so cold, this winter in Jiangnan is really not a human life!"

Sun Yuan couldn't help but sigh with emotion, although he was also a southerner in his previous life, he had been working in Beijing since graduating from university, and he was used to the dry and cold climate in the north. In addition, heating is used in the winter in the north, and even if it is cold and snowy outside, the inside of the house is as warm as spring.

When I arrived in the Ming Dynasty, I came to this water town in the south of the Yangtze River, only to find that the winter here was extremely difficult.

He spent last winter in Fengyang, but he didn't feel anything, but when he returned to Yangzhou this year, he felt that something was wrong.

To be honest, the winter temperature in Jiangnan is not low, about four to six degrees. However, because the climate is really humid, the cold fog comes out early in the morning and does not dissipate until the evening, the whole world is sticky and wet, the quilt and shoes have not dried, the body heat is lost quickly, and the body has not been warm all day long.

There was a joke in later generations that northerners and southerners had harder winters than anyone.

Northerners say that it is minus 20 degrees outside, and the heating in the house is off, 12 degrees, so painful!

Southerners, what is this, we have no heating here, eight degrees outside, four degrees in the house, or wet and cold, you have our pain?

I had no choice but to stay by the stove to do things, and after two months, I gained ten pounds of weight.

Hearing Sun Yuan's emotion, Fei Hong and the donkey next to him couldn't help shaking their heads: "It's so uncomfortable, I really want to go back to Shanxi!" People say that there is heaven above, and there is Suzhou and Hangzhou below, and Jiangnan is a good place in the world, but I don't think it's very good! ”

Sun Yuan: "The weather is too humid, thousands of people live together, and we have to prevent soldiers in the battalion from falling ill. ”

Hearing him say this, Fei Hong said: "Don't worry, general, our army is all locals, so it's okay." Winter is not afraid of plague, just to prevent the wind and cold, the boss has already purchased a lot of medicines. ”

Sun Yuan asked again: "How is the training of the soldiers lately?" ”

Fei Hong replied that he had begun training in battle formations, and that the soldiers were already able to understand the basic banners. Ten squads also started joint training, and in just another month, the Ningxiang Army would be considered to have completed their training.

In fact, Sun Yuan knows all of this, and he will go to the school every day to have a look. Hearing Fei Hong talk about this today, he was still slightly happy, and asked: "In this way, the army can be pulled to the battlefield?" ”

Fei Hong replied that training and actual combat are two different things, and the general's soldiers are indeed well trained. However, no one knows what the specific situation will be when they really go to the battlefield.

Sun Yuan is not worried about this. The armies of this time and space are worse than one another, and many teams, such as the peasant army and the local troops of the Ming Dynasty, have not undergone any training at all, and they grabbed a few strong men at random, threw them over with a weapon, and drove them to the battlefield. If he can't even win such an enemy, he doesn't have to mess around in this world.

Sun Yuan: "That's good. He then asked what training subjects the troops were being doing recently.

Fayhon replied that a heavy march was underway in the field, and that the troops had already gone out twice, each time for three days. After nearly half a year of training, the soldiers have become stronger, and although they are no longer able to grow taller, each soldier has gained an average of ten pounds. This field march went quite smoothly.

Sun Yuan was greatly satisfied: "Winter is the time to reserve physical energy, and the diet of the soldiers must also keep up. ”

Everyone is accustomed to Sun Yuan's modern way of speaking, and they also understand what he is talking about. When the boss heard that he was going to increase the cost of food for the soldiers, his face suddenly changed and he was about to complain.

Sun Yuan also knew that Qianhu didn't have much money left, so he hurriedly diverted the topic, and said to Fei Hong and the others with a smile: "The field march must be practiced, after all, the army is to be pulled out to fight, and the old nest in the barracks should not become a closed door." Did the troops expose any problems in these two field marching exercises, and what needs to be improved? ”

Fei Hong: "It's not a big problem, but there are too many river networks in the Jiangnan area, which is not conducive to the deployment of troops. Once in actual combat, the troops are easily divided into small pieces by the water network and fight separately. General, you also know that the method of operation of musketeers pays attention to a strict formation, so that the power of muskets can be brought into play. If the formation is sparse and the enemy's cavalry rushes, it will immediately be chaotic. ”

Sun Yuan: "Don't worry, the Jiangnan water network is not good for our army, but it is not good for the cavalry charge." ”

Everyone nodded at the same time and said, this is indeed the truth, if the real infantry is against the infantry, we are not afraid.

Sun Yuan: "What's the problem?" ”

The donkey suddenly cried out in frustration: "There is something." ”

Sun Yuan: "You say." ”

The donkey cried out angrily: "General, every action that the soldiers make when they are fighting really makes the officer shout loudly? ”

Sun Yuan: "Isn't this good?" He felt strange in his heart and couldn't help but ask.

The donkey said angrily: "These two times when I went out to march in the field and lined up the troops for drills, many people came out to see the excitement. You must be a little embarrassed to yell like this in front of outsiders. ”

"I see!" Sun Yuan couldn't help laughing, and everyone laughed too.

The donkey's face turned red with a straight smile, and he kept grabbing the back of his head with his hand.

After laughing, Sun Yuan put away his smile, looked at everyone seriously, and said, "The reason why the officers should shout the password loudly is to let the soldiers develop the habit of obeying orders. You are also a border army musketeer in Taiyuan Town, so you naturally know the consequences of the soldiers who do not respect the general's order and shoot indiscriminately after going to the battlefield. The reason why the officers and soldiers of the imperial court, especially the musketeers, were repeatedly defeated by the thieves was not because of this reason. ”

Everyone nodded, a pensive look on their faces.

Sun Yuan muttered: "Perhaps, in two months, we should go to the battlefield, and when the time comes, we will naturally know whether this army will succeed or not." ”

After everyone retreated, Sun Yuan picked up a thick stack of newspapers and sat on the edge of the fire to look at it.

The Qianhu of the Guard House is a Qianhu officer of the Zhengwupin, so he naturally has the qualifications to read the Di Bao. At the beginning of each month, Dahewei would deliver a copy of the newspaper to him through the post station.

The so-called Di Bao is the so-called internal reference of later generations, which records the major events of the country in this month, the newly promulgated decrees, the personnel changes of the imperial court, and even the Chinese-style articles of the new science and technology scholars.

Generally speaking, when a report comes out, it is only sent to civil officials above the seventh rank and military generals above the fifth rank. However, after each newspaper is issued, someone will copy it down and distribute it among the people. Even if Sun Yuan is not an official, if he really wants to see it, he can easily buy it for dozens of dollars.

As recorded in real history, in this half year, after the peasant army captured Fengyang and burned down the royal mausoleum, the world shook.

Fengyang was burned, and someone had to take the blame. After Yang Yipeng, the imperial envoy of Caoyun, was arrested and returned to the capital to ask for the crime, he abandoned the city. Fengyang tamed Wu Zhenying and joined the army to fight on the border. Yang Ze, the eunuch who stayed behind in the central capital, committed suicide in fear of crime.

After Yang Yipeng was arrested, the former governor of Shandong, Zhu Dadian, the governor of Fengyang, cooperated with Hong Chengchou to encircle and suppress the peasant army. Another 3,000 Liao soldiers, led by Zu Kuan, went to the front.

Under the strong pressure of the imperial army, the peasant army did not dare to stay in Fengyang for a long time, and the troops retreated in three ways.

The peasant army that had been left behind in Henan took advantage of Hong Chengchou's army to advance eastward, and Shaanxi was empty, so they turned around and killed them again. At the same time, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong, who had already fled to Hubei, also went to the western part of Henan and returned to Shaanxi.

As a result, there was not a single thief army in the area east of Henan, which made the threatened Nanjing region breathe a long sigh of relief and lifted the alarm.

Hong Chengchou, who had been busy for a long time, did not expect the peasant army to come and go like the wind and move so quickly, so he had to revise his strategy, rescue Shaanxi from Henan, and fight a decisive battle with the peasant army.

However, this time, the peasant army was fighting in his hometown, and General Hong was led by the nose to move around several provinces, exhausted, and suffered an unprecedented defeat.

On June 11, during the Battle of Chaomachuan, Liu Honglie, the vanguard of the official army, was captured.

On 14 June, the deputy commanders-in-chief, Ai Wannian, Liu Chenggong, Liu Guozhen, and Wang Xi, were ordered to lead reinforcements and were ambushed by the peasant army. Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen were killed, and Liu and Wang were seriously injured. More than 3,000 soldiers were annihilated, and the remaining 20,000 men and horses were scattered.

After another battle, three thousand elites were annihilated.

At this point, Hong Chengchou had no available soldiers, and the whole of Shaanxi had fallen into the hands of the peasant army.

At the beginning, when Hong Chengchou went east to Tongguan to pursue the peasant army, Chongzhen Hongdi ordered him to purge the peasant army within six months. At that time, he felt a little embarrassed.

Up to now, it is unthinkable, strictly speaking, it is good that today's General Hong system can hold Xi'an City.

According to his memo to Emperor Chongzhen, there are less than 40,000 officers and soldiers available in Shaanxi Province today, and most of them are unusable auxiliaries and people, while the peasant army is ten times that of the Ming army, and its strength is no match for the Ming army.

If nothing else, it is a sure thing that the peasant army will conquer the whole of Shaanxi.

However, at this time, another accident occurred. The peasants suddenly gave up attacking the city and plundering the enemy, and entered Henan again. As a result, Hong Chengchou escaped this catastrophe.

The reason is very simple, Shaanxi is already thousands of miles of red land due to continuous disputes and famines, and hundreds of thousands of peasants stay together, and it is very problematic to eat. So, they returned to Henan again and used soldiers for food. At this time, the peasant army was still practicing rogue doctrine and had no habit of running base areas.

After the peasant army entered Henan, it was huge, marching eastward, covering the sky with dust and smoke, and the team was 40 miles wide and more than 100 miles long. In the face of such a huge enemy army, Zuo Liangyu, Zu Kuan and others, the commanders of the Ming army, did not dare to attack, and could only watch the enemy enter Henan.

Henan has once again become a big battlefield.

At that time, Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng did not lead their troops eastward, but stayed in Shaanxi to contain Hong Chengchou.

Seeing that Hong Hengjiu was unable to return to the sky and was unable to rescue Henan, in August, the imperial court appointed Lu Xiangsheng as the right attendant of the military department and the right imperial official, and the military affairs of the five provinces of Zhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang were specially given the sword of Shangfang, which could be done cheaply.

In this way, the encirclement and suppression of the peasant army in the Ming Dynasty was divided into two parts, one was Hong Chengchou, who was specifically responsible for the northwest; One is Lu Xiangsheng, who mainly suppresses the southeast.