June 14, in Guide Prefecture, Henan.
The dust is flying in the wilderness, and there is no green anywhere, let alone crops. The rivers along the way have dried up, leaving only the cracked riverbed, which seems to tell the story of the past waves.
"If you don't see me, the army of the Han Dynasty will be over. The weak and crowned prisoners will be waiting for long tassels. If you don't see me, the troops will be far away. The light cavalry of the Jue domain will urge the war clouds! A man should be in danger, so how can he let the Confucian crown miss his life? The situation is that the country is in danger, and the feathers and feathers are competing to gallop. There will be no stopping! Abandoning my old pen, I will carry my war-time rhinoceros, calling out more than a hundred thousand of my comrades, singing war hymns to join the army together. Join the army together, clean up the dust, and swear to wipe out the slaves in the East without caring about themselves!"
Suddenly, a loud war song sounded, and a mighty armored army was marching south in high spirits.
The bright red military uniforms were covered with sophisticated iron armor, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers marched in neat formations, like an indestructible torrent, giving people a sense of indomitable progress.
There are a large number of cavalry in the army, either gathering behind the army to march, or patrolling between the left and right of the army, or rushing to guard distant places. All the soldiers were fully armed and armored, singing military songs all the way, and their morale was high.
Liu Yan also wore armor and rode on horseback, followed by Miao Shao, the commander of the guard camp, and Xun Jingyun, the governor of the town.
This time, Liu Yan brought Yue Ming, the money and food officer, with him, who was responsible for managing the money and food for the army. After all, the amount of money and food in the army this time was far greater than before, and it had to be managed by a dedicated person.
Liu Yan looked at the sky. It was already afternoon, but the weather was still very hot. All the soldiers in the army were sweating profusely, and the water bags they carried were almost finished.
"Send the order and ask the soldiers to work harder and arrive at Tuocheng County before sunset. The army will rest in Tuocheng County tonight and can enter Kaifeng Prefecture early tomorrow morning."
"Got the order!"
As the order was passed on, the Chinese army's battle flag wavered violently several times, and the messenger also blew the horn. Immediately afterwards, bursts of horns sounded from the front and rear of the team, and then the battle flags of each unit began to wave as the armored dragons rose and fell one after another to indicate that their units had received the order.
"The soldiers are in good condition!"
Looking back at the team behind him, Liu Yan showed a satisfied look on his face. He led the army from Lingshan Acropolis and basically maintained a march of seventy miles every day. In just a few days, they covered hundreds of miles, and no one was left behind. Looking at the Ming Dynasty at this time, in terms of the marching speed of the New Army, Liu Yan said that he was second, and no one dared to say that he was first.
Moreover, in the army going on this expedition, in addition to part of the baggage carried by each battalion, there was also a huge amount of money and food baggage, as well as more than two hundred artillery pieces of various types in the artillery camp, as well as a large amount of gunpowder and ammunition, plus various On average, the armor worn by the battalion officers, plus the remaining weapons and equipment, would weigh dozens of kilograms per soldier, even if there was a large cart accompanying them.
After walking hundreds of miles like this, at least most of the army had to walk. You can imagine the hardship involved.
Fortunately, the armors of the new army have been improved. The armor bears the force on the whole body, which offsets the weight of the armor to a large extent. Moreover, the food of the New Army is very good, and the supply of salt and meat is sufficient, which makes the physical fitness of the New Army officers and soldiers very good. In addition, after several months of hard training in the army, the physical fitness of the soldiers has made a qualitative leap, and the long-distance march has not had a great impact on them.
During the march, Liu Yan asked Yue Ming about the consumption of grain and grass in the past few days, and then said: "Send Ye Bu to take a step forward to Tuocheng County and order the county magistrate to prepare grain and grass. Tonight's rations and supplies will be provided by Tuocheng. The county is out!”
"yes!"
According to the fact that soldiers are physically exhausted during wartime and the supply of meat is not timely, so the appetite will become very large. Based on this calculation, each soldier will eat four kilograms of grain a day, and the war horse will eat nearly ten kilograms of fodder a day.
Calculated in this way, the more than 28,000 soldiers of the New Army consume 967 shi of food a day, and the war horses and mules consume about 660 shi of fodder. With such a huge consumption, even if the army had plenty of money and food, Liu Yan did not dare to squander it wantonly. He would get food on the spot wherever he went and try not to move his reserves as much as possible.
Moreover, every time Liu Yan passed through a city, he would take out the Ministry of War documents and ask the prefectures and counties along the way to provide at least a few days of food and grass. If they really didn't have it, he would buy it locally, and finally eat the army's food and grass.
Even so, according to Yue Ming's statistics, the new army had consumed more than a thousand stones of food and grass in the past few days, which made Liu Yan heartbroken.
At present, the new army has just left Shandong. Guide Mansion is a place less affected by the war. It can be replenished with some food and grass along the way. What worries Liu Yan is that after the army enters Kaifeng Mansion and Runan Mansion, there will be many bandits there. A place where the army repeatedly poisoned.
Liu Yance immediately said: "Is there any reward for the various ministries that go out all night without accepting payment?"
Miao Shao said: "Sir, there are some reports, but the information is incomplete, so I haven't reported it to you yet."
"Tell me."
Miao Shao said: "My lord, according to Ye Bushou's investigations over the past few days, our army's front lines in Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, Luoyang, Suizhou, and Xiangyang have been repeatedly ravaged by rogue armies. The people's livelihood in various places has been in ruins, and there is even no human habitation for hundreds of miles. . Governments everywhere are exhausted, and it may not be easy for our army to collect food locally."
However, Miao Shao then lowered his voice and said: "Sir, there is a severe drought in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, especially in Henan and other places. It is said that the price of rice has risen to one thousand yuan, or even ten thousand yuan. Only the wealthy gentry and rich households in various places have food. I heard from a few In this month, the prefectures of Huguang, Su, and Song were hit by floods, and a bucket of rice there cost seven to eight hundred yuan, so that the neighbors went on strike and villages closed their doors."
"Under such circumstances, even if our army buys grain from those wealthy gentry households, it will still cost a huge amount of money. How about..."
Liu Yan naturally knew what Miao Shao meant, which was to forcibly transfer the money and grain from the wealthy gentry households along the way to supplement the military.
It's just that there are too many problems in this way, and the officers and soldiers of the new army will gradually lose their morale in the robbery. For Liu Yan, the gains outweigh the losses. He doesn't want the new army that he worked hard to build to end up as a bandit army like an army of thieves.
So Liu Yan said: "Silver is not a problem. As long as you can buy food and grass with silver, it doesn't matter how much money you spend. Just spend money to buy it first."
"yes."
But after saying this, Liu Yan still sighed. You must know that in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver could buy two meters of rice. But now, ten or twenty taels of silver cannot buy a stone of grain. How can these people live? No wonder Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can easily pull up hundreds of thousands of horses. Human lives are worthless!
As the sun gradually set in the west, Liu Yan ordered the army to advance quickly and strive to reach Tuocheng County as soon as possible.
"The whole army speeds up."
After Liu Yan passed the order, the army obviously accelerated its pace. Amidst the passionate singing, the battalions of the new army rolled forward.
In the county government office in Tuocheng County, Liu Yan was thinking about his next plan.
"It is still more than a thousand miles from Tuocheng County to Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other places. It is estimated that it will take another month to arrive. I wonder how the war situation will develop in a month's time?"
Just as Liu Yan led his army to set off, he received another letter from Yang Sichang, mentioning that Zhang Xianzhong had begun to concentrate his troops and was showing signs of breaking out towards Sichuan, and asked Liu Yan to lead his army to assist as soon as possible.
Now that he and more than 20,000 new troops have joined, the direction of history has deviated slightly, so Liu Yan is not sure whether Zhang Xianzhong will lead his army into Sichuan as he did in history.
"If Zhang Xianzhong leads his army into Sichuan, the war will be delayed for who knows how long. The Shu Dao in this era is hard to reach the sky!"
On the second day, the new army battalions set off. The magistrate of Tuocheng County led a group of squires and officials and sent them ten miles away. The magistrate was reasonable and provided two days of food and grass for the army, which was regarded as his best effort.
A few days later, the new army battalions entered Zhenyang County in Runing Prefecture.
Liu Yan rode his horse to a high ground, looked around, his heart surged, and a sense of sadness filled his chest.
The surrounding scenery is like a hell on earth. The surrounding land is yellow and white, with no trace of green. The leaves and bark on the trees are gone, and there are also no blades of grass, because these things have all been eaten by the hungry people. Empty.
There is no bark, and the convex trees are trembling in the loess. A gust of wind blows, and the dust blows in the face.
Liu Yan even had some misconceptions. Did he take the wrong path and come to the Gobi Desert in the northwest?
There are no rivers around because they are all dry. The fields and riverbeds are all covered with cracks and fine lines that penetrate people, and "dark clouds" pass by one after another in the sky. This is the effect of overwhelming locusts flying in.
Since the New Army battalions entered the southern part of Kaifeng Prefecture and the territory of Runing Prefecture, most of the towns and cities where the army passed were deserted. Starving people were everywhere, bones were scattered everywhere, and dead bodies of all kinds were everywhere.
The scattered living people Liu Yan saw on the road also had strange eyes open, which was a sign of being starved and dizzy.
What Liu Yan couldn't stand the most were the hordes of hungry people who had no scruples in cutting off the flesh of the dead bodies to eat, including many of their relatives. On both sides of the official road, abandoned dead babies can be seen everywhere, which makes people cry.
When he first entered Runing Mansion, Liu Yan was extremely angry when he saw the situation of eating dead people. He ordered the hungry people to drive away, then collected the bones in the wild, and distributed some military rations to the hungry people.
However, there are too many scenes like this along the way. If the army rations run out, what will the new army soldiers eat?
Liu Yan couldn't help but let out a long sigh when he looked at such a situation. For the first time, he felt helpless in his heart.
It was the first time for Yue Ming, the money and grain officer, to see such a scene. Looking at the desolate scene along the way, he burst into tears. Generals such as Miao Shao and Xu Ming were also silent. Everyone's heart was heavy.
The army continued to march, but the military songs of the soldiers could no longer be sung. Only the sound of neat footsteps was left around, and the atmosphere was very depressing.
At this time, the army had passed through Zhenyang County, and passed a deserted village ahead. There was no trace of living people in the village, only ruins and scattered bones were left.
Suddenly, a shrill cry came from the ruins. It seemed to be a woman's voice. Liu Yan's face darkened. Miao Shao reacted and immediately shouted: "Go and have a look!"
After a few nights, they immediately jumped out of the crowd and galloped towards the other side.
After several nights of waiting, before he arrived, Liu Yan had already seen several women appearing in front of everyone like crazy. They staggered, their clothes had long disappeared, and they all ran out naked.
What made Liu Yan even more unbearable was that the bodies of those women were in dire straits, with bloody holes everywhere after being cut. One of the women's left hand was missing, and the white bones were exposed and still bleeding. Bleeding!
Immediately afterwards, several men with red eyes chased out, each holding a wooden stick, shouting loudly, but their voices did not sound like human voices.
When the women saw Ye Buzuan coming, they screamed and ran to the side, their voices desperate and miserable.
The woman who was missing one hand cried loudly with a local accent: "Master Jun, they ate my child, my child!"
Some people died, but not completely...
