In June of the second year of Longwu (1645), when the Confucian scholars of science and the Confucian students of mind in the provinces of the Ming Dynasty fell into endless quarrels over their respective political opinions, the Central Army once again embarked on the journey.

When the troops were dispatched, hundreds of thousands of Nanjing people spontaneously came to Yanziji to bid farewell, which had never happened before.

But Wang Pu knew that the Central Army was becoming more and more popular with the people of the Ming Dynasty, and the people of Nanjing spontaneously came to see them off, not only because there were many children of Nanjing in the Central Army, but also because the Central Army drove away the Jiannu and Tartars, bringing a stable and happy life to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Puqin led a battalion of infantry and a battalion of baggage to attack Liaodong, accompanied by four battalions of water divisions such as Huang Degong, Shi Lang, Zhang Yanlan, and Li Ang; Liu Rushi led the second, third, and fourth battalions of infantry, the artillery battalion, and the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth battalions of the baggage to attack Shanxi, and the Red Lady led the first, second, and third battalions of cavalry to accompany the expedition.

Wang Pusuo's battalions traveled by sea and arrived at Zhigu, an important town in Beizhi, in July.

When Wang Pu led the army to Zhigu, Qu Shiyun, the governor of Beizhi, and Tang Sheng, the governor of Beizhi, had been waiting for more than half a month, and in order to cooperate with the Central Army in the war against Jiannu, Qu Shiyun had fully mobilized three battalions of security teams, and all three battalions were equipped with old muskets eliminated by the Central Army.

Zhigu Terminal.

Wang Pu strode down the gangway surrounded by Li Chengdong, Huang Degong, Shi Lang, Zhang Yanlan, Li Ang and other generals, Qu Shiyun and the officials of Beizhi who had been waiting on the dock for a long time hurriedly bowed their hands, and Tang Sheng and his subordinate officers of the Central Army kicked their legs at the same time to Wang Pu and saluted the standard military salute.

Wang Pu returned the military salute to Tang Sheng and his subordinate officers, and shook hands with Qu Shiyun and other officials from the Beizhi.

In the afternoon of the same day, Wang Pu, accompanied by Qu Shiyun and Tang Sheng, inspected the northern cowboys, the northern cowboys of the three battalions were all young adults between the ages of eighteen and forty, Wang Pu could feel that many cowboys were full of murderous energy, obviously, these cowboys had been stained with the blood of Jiannu and Tartar.

What surprised Wang Pu even more was that the northern cowboys of these three battalions were still all cavalry!

This is entirely the result of the killing of the Hu order, since the Ming Dynasty issued the order to kill the Hu, a large number of martial people migrated from the southern provinces to settle in the north, Qu Shiyun selected from the young and middle-aged between the ages of eighteen to forty to form the security teams of the prefectures and counties, and then issued weapons and equipment, by the officers of the central army for military training for them.

Unlike the security teams of the rest of the provinces, the security teams of Beizhi were given a specific mission by Wang Pu and the imperial court from the beginning, and this security team can almost be called the reserve of the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty! In addition, it is undeniable that the situation faced by the Beizhi Security Corps is much more severe than that of the other provinces.

To the east of Beizhi is Jiannu, to the north is Tartar, and to the west is Wu Sangui, so whether it is training or equipment, the Beizhi security team is much better than the security teams of the rest of the provinces.

For example, the equipment of the three musket battalions eliminated by the Central Army, Wang Pu did not give these equipment to the mixed battalions of Zhao Xin, Tang Sheng, and Scarface, but gave them to the security team of Beizhi, which is enough to show the special status of the Beizhi security team.

After the review, Qu Shiyun let Wang Pu into his temporary governor's line, and said: "Lord Wang, since the promulgation of the decree to kill Hu, tens of thousands of people have moved into Beizhi every month, and now the population of Yongping, Shuntian, Xuanfu, Baoan Prefecture and Huailai Prefecture has become saturated, and the newly moved people plan to settle in Baoding Mansion and Hejian Prefecture. ”

Wang Pu bowed his head slightly, this result was originally expected by him.

When the Ming Empire arrived in the Chongzhen Dynasty, the land annexation was already quite serious, at that time most of the land had been concentrated in the hands of a few nobles, and the vast majority of the people had lost their land, but the killing order clearly stipulated that as long as they were willing to migrate to Beizhi to settle down, the government would give the land according to the mouth, and if no one wanted to come to such a favorable condition, there would be ghosts.

The tradition of valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce has continued for thousands of years in China, and the Chinese have a strong land complex.

Seeing that Wang Pu didn't mean to speak, Qu Shiyun continued: "Yongping Mansion, Shuntian Mansion, Xuanfu, Baoan Prefecture, Huailai Prefecture, and other subordinate counties have all set up security teams, and at present, there are more than 200 brigades and more than 40,000 people in the official registration of the security team, and there are even more security teams that have just been formed or have not been officially registered. ”

Wang Pu listened to the slight change of color, according to this, the total number of cowboys in the north of Beizhi has exceeded 100,000?

This is what Wang Pu never expected, he didn't expect that the power of killing Hu Ling would be so strong, and he didn't expect that the civilian armed forces in Beizhi would expand so rapidly, and in more than half a year, this semi-official and semi-civilian armed force has actually grown to more than 100,000 people!

The order for the killing of Hu clearly stipulates that the people of Beizhi and Shandong can organize armed forces on their own without the permission of the government, and their surnames are almost local regimental training, or landlord armies. The only difference is that these landlords' armed forces are not controlled by one or a few big landlords, but are jointly controlled by the majority of "landlords", because every regiment member in the regimental training is a landlord.

A strong civil armed force is a double-edged sword, if it is used well, it is the vanguard of external expansion, and if it is not used well, it will in turn threaten the rule of the imperial court, but at this stage, this armed force will only be the vanguard of the external expansion of the Han nation, and it cannot be a threat to the imperial court.

Qu Shiyun said: "In order to cooperate with the Central Army to fight against Jiannu, the lower officials specially selected elite soldiers from various prefectures to temporarily set up three cavalry battalions, and the security teams of these three cavalry battalions were formed earlier, many of them have been to the desert, and have also fought with the Mongolian Tatars, and they can be regarded as veterans who have seen blood." ”

Wang Pu suddenly said: "What about shooting, how are you practicing?" ”

Qu Shiyun said: "It's okay, I've been practicing for more than a month, but I can't compare with the Central Army." ”

Wang Pu asked, "Qu Butang, how is the Mongolian Tatars on the steppe doing recently?" ”

Qu Shiyun said: "The Mongolian Tartars have turned against Jiannu, and the Tartars are also attacking each other, and the entire steppe has become a mess, and our security team also goes to the grassland to hunt every once in a while, and the horses and equipment of these three cavalry battalions are almost all snatched from the Horqin people." ”

"It's better to mess up, the more messy it is, the better." Wang Pu said again, "What about Jiannu? ”

Qu Shiyun said: "Jiannu is not easy to deal with, in the past six months or so, there have been more than a dozen security teams to go hunting in Liaodong, but they didn't catch anything good, but they lost many horses!" ”

Wang Pu asked again: "What about the grain and grass?" ”

The order clearly stipulates that the people of Beizhi and Shandong can form armed forces on their own, but the grain and grass required for training or expedition are all prepared by the security team themselves, so Wang Pu has this question, he is worried that Qu Shiyun's three security battalions lack food and grass, which will hold back the central army.

Qu Shiyun said: "Don't worry, the security team will never hold back the Central Army, but ......"

Wang Pu smiled and said: "Lord Qu can rest assured, after razing Liaodong, this king will definitely act in accordance with the provisions of the Hu killing order, and the land, population, livestock, and grain will all belong to the security team." ”

Qu Shiyun smiled and said, "Then the lower official thanked the prince for the brothers in the security team." ”

Wang Pu's face suddenly sank, and he shouted in a low voice: "Qu Shiyun! ”

"The lower official is here!"

Qu Shiyun straightened his chest.

Wang Pu said in a deep voice: "Early tomorrow morning, lead three battalions of security teams to Shanhaiguan, after leaving the customs, along the western Liaoning corridor to force Shengjing, to attract the attention of the main force of Jiannu, this king will lead the central army from the sea to follow, once Duoduo leads the main force of Jiannu to meet, that is, after detouring the side of Jiannu, both sides of the attack annihilated!" ”

"Yes!"

Qu Shiyun won the promise with a bang.

■■■

Shengjing, the residence of Duoduo.

After the defeat in the Battle of Jining, there were more than 10,000 banners left in the Eight Banners of Jiannu, but they had to feed nearly 200,000 old and young women and children, and now there are no Han people to enslave them, and the difficulty of life can be imagined.

Originally, there were Koreans to provide food to Jiannu, but at the beginning of the year there was a rebellion in Korea, Duoduo was angry and led two thousand iron cavalry to level the Korean Peninsula, this rebellion almost wiped out the Koreans, the total population from more than 300,000 before the rebellion to less than 30,000, and the Korean civilization, which has always regarded itself as a small China, was directly killed by Duoduo back to the primitive society.

Everywhere Jiannu passed by, cities and villages were reduced to ruins, there were basically no inhabited villages on the Korean Peninsula, all the Koreans who could be found had been slaughtered, and most of the remaining 20,000 or 30,000 people were hiding in the deep mountains and old forests or on uninhabited islands, barely making a living by hunting and fishing.

Although this revenge on Duoduo was killed, and all the grievances in the chest were vented on the heads of the Koreans, it also brought great trouble to Jiannu, since the old slaves started the army, Jiannu has lived the life of slave owners, they do not work, do not do grazing, have basically lost their life skills.

But more than 200,000 mouths have to eat, who will eat?

Raiding and plundering? Jiannu no longer has the courage or strength, seeing that the pitiful grain stock snatched from North Korea is about to be eaten up, and when it is really cornered, then he has to rob the Horqin people! Although the Korqin people are Jiannu's most hardcore allies, but now that the catastrophe is approaching, Duoduo can't care so much.

The Horqin tribe was originally the most powerful tribe among the Mongolian tribes, with 100,000 armor, but these 100,000 cavalry were wiped out in the Battle of Jining, and the remaining hundreds of thousands of old and young women and children immediately lost their support, but this group of old and young women and children still had millions of cattle, sheep and livestock in their hands, and the poor Horqin people did not know that their cattle, sheep and livestock had attracted the coveting of evil neighbors.

Amid the sound of heavy footsteps, Sukh Saha strode in and said proudly: "Master, the food for the flags is running out. ”

Duoduo frowned and said, "I know, this king is thinking of a way." ”

"Master, what else is there to think?" Sukh Saha said, "Now I have to rob the Korqin people." ”

Duoduo sighed, and was about to speak, when a Goshha suddenly hurried into the hall, knelt on the ground and said, "Master, Liaoxi is urgent!" ”

"Liaoxi?" Duoduo's face changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice, "Say it quickly!" ”

Goshha said: "Tanma reported that more than 10,000 Ming cavalry had left Shanhaiguan and were approaching Shengjing. ”

"More than 10,000 cavalry?" Duoduo asked in a condensed voice, "Is it the Ming Central Army?" ”

Goshha shook his head and said: "This Ming cavalry has no banner, and the weapons and armor are also very messy, not like the Ming Central Army." ”

"That's the security team of Qu Shiyun, the governor of the Ming Dynasty." Su Ke Saha on the side said angrily, "These damn Nanming barbarians, we have always captured them before, and now they actually dare to take us away in turn, and the sheep actually want to eat wolves in turn, this is really a mess." ”

Duoduo said in a deep voice: "Probe again, see if this Ming cavalry is followed by the Ming Central Army?" ”

"Wow."

Goshha promised to take the order.

Seeing Goshha turn around and leave, a terrifying chill flashed in Duoduo's eyes, if this Ming cavalry did not follow the Ming Central Army behind them, Duoduo decided to eat them! Recently, there have been more and more Nanming barbarians who have gone out of the customs to burn, kill and loot, and their behavior has become more and more rampant.

It's time to teach these arrogant Nanming barbarians a good lesson.

■■■

In Matsuyama, Qu Shiyun is standing on the ruined city wall to remember the monuments.

Think back then, this Songshan is the military town of western Liaoning, is the bridgehead used by the Ming Dynasty to resist the Jiannu iron cavalry, the battle of Songshan that year, the Ming Ji Liao Governor Hong Chengchou's hundreds of thousands of troops collapsed overnight, Wang Pu stood out in this battle, and attacked Shengjing to capture the slave chief Taiji alive, and gradually grew into the pillar of the Ming court.

But now, the fortified city has long been a ruin, except for the dilapidated earthen house barracks in the city, Qu Shiyun can no longer find any traces left by the Ming border army.

"Report ......" The loud trumpet, a cowboy hurried up to the city, gasping and said, "Your Excellency, a brigade of Jiannu cavalry has been found thirty miles away. ”

"Oh?" Qu Shiyun asked urgently, "How many cavalry are there?" ”

The cowboy replied, "At least ten thousand!" ”

"Good!" Qu Shiyun struck the knot and said, "It seems that this time Jiannu is pouring into the nest, someone is coming!" ”

A pro-soldier stepped forward and responded: "Yes." ”

Qu Shiyun said: "Pass the order, the major teams will strengthen their vigilance, beware of the surprise attack of Jiannu, and then send a message to the prince!" ”

■■■

In the sea off Songshan, more than 100 large and small warships of the Daming Navy Division are moored on the sea.

In order to prevent Jiannu from exploring the whereabouts of the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty, the anchorage of the sailor division was forty or fifty miles away from the coastline, and it was impossible to find the ships anchored at sea at such a distance with the naked eye.

(To be continued)