Chapter 386

With a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, Song Nan did not dare to be ambiguous at all, and quickly formulated a strategy, mobilized troops and horses to prepare for departure.

It was not a matter of urgency for the thieves on the western road to sneak into the Wuhui Mountains to hide their whereabouts, and they would inevitably rise when the weather turned cold, but where they would appear was a problem; For this reason, Song Nan ordered to transfer two guards and horses from Datong Mansion to the southwest, and ordered Zhenwuwei of Daizhou in the northwest of Taiyuan Prefecture to go to the west of Taihang with the two guards and horses of Andong Zhongtunwei in Nanying Prefecture of Datong Prefecture.

The four guards of Shanxi laid a net in the west of Taihang Mountain, and once the thieves on the west tried to cross the Taihang Mountain to the west and enter Shanxi, they could attack head-on.

At the same time, in order to prevent the thieves from breaking through the mountains to the south to attack Zhendingfu, so urgently ordered all the troops of Zhendingfu to gather to fall through the horse pass, here is the thief soldiers to go south out of the mountain must pass through, although the Zhendingfu troops are not enough for a while, but after the assembly of more than 3,000 soldiers and horses to guard the Xiongguan mountain pass, it should be safe. The forces of the Bauhinia Pass Guard and the Maoshan Guard in the east did not suffer much loss, and it was safe to hold the way out in the east.

In this way, all the passages of the thieves on the western road out of the mountain were cut off, and the thieves did not go out of the mountain, and once they left the mountain, they would fall into the net.

But the thieves on the western road are actually not the key, after all, there are not many people, and after the above arrangement, they can basically be sentenced to death; Song Nan was most worried about the two thieves led by Liu Liu and Yang Hu in Shandong, as many as 40,000 or 50,000 thieves had gathered in the area of Dongchang Mansion, obviously after resting, they would go straight to the Gongzhou Mansion, south of the Gongzhou Mansion is the Jianghuai area, not far from Nanjing.

Song Nan also understood that the fall of Gunzhou was almost irresistible, and he did not intend to defend Gunzhou, the thieves were determined to go south from Gunzhou, and the mobilization of his troops and horses had not yet been in place, which could not be stopped if he wanted to; But Song Nan was actually not too worried about the safety of Nanjing, because if the thieves wanted to go further south, they had to cross the Yellow River first, and then cross the Yangtze River moat, and it was impossible to threaten the safety of Nanjing in a short period of time.

According to Song Nan's request, the Zhongdu Left-behind Division of Fengyang Mansion mobilized the three guards and horses of Yingzhou Guard, Zhongdu Guard, and Suzhou Wei to assemble to the north and enter Xuzhou Mansion, and ordered the two guards and horses of Dahewei and Donghaiwei under the jurisdiction of Huai'an Mansion to assemble to the east and enter Xuzhou Mansion.

Therefore, before the arrival of the thieves, they were stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River to prevent the thieves from crossing the Yellow River south and crisscrossing the Yangtze River. Six guards and horses were assembled in Xuzhou Prefecture, with a total strength of about 40,000 troops, and the fortified walls of the ships along the Yellow River basically blocked the plan of the thieves to quickly cross the Yellow River south.

Of course, these soldiers and horses are still not enough, in Shandong, the number of thieves exceeds the number of officers and soldiers, Tianjin Sanwei and the defeated Shenwu Zhongwei Yingzhou in Dongchang Mansion The soldiers and horses of the left and right guards can hold Jinan Mansion and retreat to Gunzhou Mansion, hoping to delay the fall of Gunzhou and bring time support to Song Nan's deployment.

On the sixth day of October, the news came that Gunzhou was lost under the onslaught of Liu Liuyang Hu, and the soldiers and horses of Gunzhou retreated to Surabaya and other places in Tengxian County in the east, and tried their best to resist the thieves to flow eastward into the area of Qingzhou Mansion and Laizhou Mansion, and at this time, the guards and horses of Xuzhou have been in place one after another, and Song Nan has mobilized the three guards and horses of Xuanfu led by Xu Tai, the deputy chief soldier of Xuanfu, arrived at the outskirts of the capital. Song Nan also completed the transfer of manpower from the Jinyi Wei Yamen in Beijing, and transferred 5,000 Jinyi Wei Ti cavalry from more than a dozen Jinyi Wei Thousand Yamen in the inner and outer cities to participate in the war.

On the eighth day of October and October, Song Nan swore to go out on the expedition at the South Gate University, Zhengde personally gave Song Nan and the whole army a banquet, and all the civil and military officials went to toast and wish the victory.

Song Nan was wearing brand new armor all over his body, wearing a scarlet long cloak and sitting on a horse, saying goodbye to everyone, and the wives and concubines of the Song family watched Song Nan fly away with tears in their eyes, and their hearts were both worried and proud, and their feelings were complicated and indescribable.

The army marched ten miles away, and found hundreds of officers and soldiers blocking the road in front of them, and the banner was the banner of the Shenji Battalion in Beijing.

Song Nan's second monk was confused, why did the eldest brother want to give gifts, he didn't give them when he was practicing, but he ran to the head to block the way to give gifts, which was really inexplicable; Song Nan took the prison army Zhang Yong, Wang Yong, the commander of the Qianhu Guard, Xu Tai Luwan, the commander of the left and right armies, Hou Dabiao, the commander of the Jinyi Wei army, and others galloped to the front to check, only to see dozens of war horses on the road, and the things on the car were covered with huge black cloth, and they couldn't see what it was.

The leader was a hundred households of the Shenji Battalion, and when he saw Song Nan coming, he hurriedly stepped forward and said: "See the Governor of Dadu, the villain Zhang Ning, who is ordered by the Governor of my family to wait here for the Governor of Dadu to go with the army to suppress the thieves." ”

Song Nan was stunned and said, "How can your Shenji Battalion go out with me?" What the hell is your Admiral Zhang? ”

Zhang Ning said with a smile: "It is precisely because the Shenji Battalion cannot go out with the army that Admiral Zhang ordered the team to wait here, and we can't show up at the South Gate Campus." ”

Song Nan smiled and said: "This Zhang Lun, I still have a little bit of caution, what is on the car?" What gift did your Admiral Zhang give me? Cover it tightly. ”

Zhang Ning turned around and waved his hand and shouted: "Uncover the black cloth and let the Metropolitan Governor take a look." ”

The soldiers of the Shenji Battalion dressed in short clothes quickly pulled off the black cloth on the car, and Song Nan and the entourage were stunned, the car was loaded with a black cast iron cannon, brand new and shiny; There are more than ten large baskets on the side of each cannon, and they are full of black iron ball-like things, which are cannonballs.

"This ...... What's going on? ”

Zhang Ning said with a smile: "My Admiral Zhang said that the Shenji Battalion and the Beijing Battalion cannot send troops to assist, so I specially gave the Shenji Battalion twenty-two Zhankou General Cannons to help the Metropolitan Governor; The villain led the 113 brothers of the 100th household of the general camp to wait for the dispatch of the governor. ”

Song Nan laughed and said: "Okay, good, my brother-in-law is good to me, I asked him to support three hundred firecrackers and he refused, and I scolded him a few words, I originally prepared this big gift for me, isn't this scolding in vain, he can really calm down." ”

Everyone rolled their eyes, and said in their hearts: The little grandfather is really unlucky, he is such a brother-in-law as you, if you don't give the firecracker, you will scold, and when he turned around, he sent twenty-two cannons silently.

Everyone is naturally very happy, the Shenji Battalion's cannons are not ordinary guys, they are all baby bumps, the Shenji Battalion claims to have 360 cannons, but in fact, everyone understands that there are only more than 100 guns that can really be used, and the rest are all freshly painted and made during the review. The casting of this cannon barrel is extremely exquisite, each cannon just the casting of the barrel will cost thousands of taels of silver, and it is very easy to be damaged, after dozens of shells are fired, basically the barrel can no longer be used, otherwise there is a danger of exploding.

The little grandfather made a generous move, and the brand-new Zhankou General Cannon sent twenty-two guns to help in the battle at once, which was almost one-fifth of the family belongings of the Shenji Battalion.

"No one is allowed to talk nonsense, and whoever leaks the news will be killed; Zhang Ning, covered with a black cloth, followed the cavalry of the Chinese army, and if anyone approached to inquire, he would be directly arrested and sent to my big tent. Song Nansen ordered.

Everyone naturally knows that it is powerful, the firearms of the Shenji Battalion are not just to be given away, the artillery of the Shenji Battalion is a great threat to the capital, except for the Shenji Battalion, no one can equip these artillery, because it is a direct threat to the imperial city, if this matter is transmitted back to the imperial court, the little grandfather is afraid that he will be unlucky.

Among the people present, Zhang Yong, the superintendent of the army, naturally would not say it, Xu Tai, the deputy chief soldier of Xuanfu, was recommended by Jiang Bin to Song Nan and was also regarded as his own person, and Lu Wan was the squire officer of the military department. Now that Liu Daxia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, has been dismissed, Lu Wan is the de facto head of the Ministry of War, and Lu Wan asked to follow Song Nan on his own request, and Song Nan doesn't know him very well.

Lu Wan understood very well in his heart, in this army, only he was not Song Nan's henchman, but Lu Wan didn't care about this, he didn't have any ill feelings towards Song Nan, he also understood that Song Nan's warning words were actually said to himself, Lu Wan was also very clear, but he smiled, and secretly said in his heart: Yiqiē proves with his actions that with these cannons, I will not make a fuss.

After three days, the army arrived at Jinghai County, which was the first to be attacked by the thieves, and it was also a place where the thieves were most severely affected. The food and materials were naturally looted clean, and the people were also coerced into joining the thieves in large numbers, most of these people were used as cannon fodder, and the people who were coerced in after a series of battles were now probably killed and wounded, and Jinghai County had almost become an empty city.

Walking on the streets of Jinghai County, there are almost no intact houses, and there are almost no people in the city, like a dead city; However, to Song Nan's relief, a porridge shack had been erected in front of the dilapidated county yamen, and notices such as the imperial court's suspension of the law on Ma Zheng Shiwu's joint sitting had been pasted on the broken wall, and new county officials had come here to organize the people to rebuild their homes; Seeing this, Song Nan's mood was slightly better.

A few months ago, it was a bustling street market, but now it is full of ruins, and the desperate eyes of women and children with thin faces come into mind, lingering.

Wherever the officers and soldiers went, whenever they stopped, Song Nan would order the soldiers to help the people build houses and give them the necessary help, and at the same time, he was also deeply aware that the trauma brought by this rebellion to the Ming Dynasty was huge, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to recover in a short time.