"Drive! Drive!"
In April, even though it is bitterly cold in the Northeast, the frost has all melted away, and the mountains and meadows are green. Occasionally, strong winds blow, but they can only blow away some leaves and grass clippings.
Such a good time would have attracted many shepherds in the past, but now it is rare to see a few horse herders within a hundred miles.
At the foot of Cheche'er Mountain, where Wuliangha and other tribes often came to herd horses, the Hu soldiers were gone. Only tens of thousands of Han people holding red flags and wearing mandarin duck jackets were camping with cars, stretching for more than ten miles.
"Xu..."
Hundreds of cavalrymen stopped at a large tent. The leading general dismounted and ran all the way into the tent.
Inside the tent, a tall dark man wearing armor attracted attention. The general came in and quickly bowed:
"Your Highness, the last general sent more than 3,000 Tangqi to search the north for more than 200 miles, but no trace of the Hu soldiers was found. King Ning sent the last general to ask you whether you want to continue patrolling the northern border?"
The middle-aged general, who was nearly fifty years old, explained his purpose of coming. Zhu Di, who was wearing armor, also hung his sword on his waist and picked up his helmet.
He stretched out his hand and scratched his beard. After pondering for a moment, he continued to give the order: "The Hu soldiers in the north are cunning. Seeing that there are more of us, they must have gone north."
"If they dare to go south this time, they must have cultivated themselves well. If we don't take the opportunity to hurt him this time, they will definitely go south again next year."
"I understand them. Although they can run, the cattle, sheep and horses have to graze during this season. Even if they go further north, they will only reach Uuliangha Tucheng."
"More than 100,000 shi of food have been spent on coming out this time. If we don't make any achievements, the people in the south will suffer."
"Bu Wan, go and tell your seventeenth brother to lead his troops forward and look for Ulianghatu City in the north. I will be there soon."
Zhu Di ordered Bu Wan. Although Bu Wan was the commander of the North Pingdu Division and could control the guards and horses such as Daning and Quaning, now that Zhu Di was in control of the three divisions, even he had to obey orders.
However, he had no objection to this, after all, Zhu Di's ability was obvious to all.
"General, take your orders!" Bu Wanzuo bowed in agreement, turned around and exited the tent, mounted his horse and galloped away to the north.
"Come here, let Zhang Yu, Qiu Fu, Zhu Neng, and Zhou Xing gather their troops. I want to review the army!"
Watching Bu Wan leave, Zhu Di also gave instructions to the two Qianhu officials in front of him.
After receiving the order, the two immediately went to inform the generals who participated in the northern tour.
Within half an hour, tens of thousands of infantrymen participating in the Northern Patrol stood upright on the grassland at the foot of Checheer Mountain in high spirits, accepting the review of Yan King Zhu Di and the generals.
Zhu Di was wearing a large armor, a phoenix-winged forehead helmet, and a sword. He looked very heroic.
At this moment, he was riding on a tall red-maned horse, circling with the generals around the tens of thousands of soldiers who had gathered, staring at each group of soldiers with spears and halberds in their eyes.
He stationed himself in front of the army of horses, and the soldiers lined up from in front of him to the distance.
For such an elite from the North, even though he is good at archery, he can only clearly see the faces of dozens of rows of soldiers in front of him. It is difficult to distinguish the faces of the soldiers behind him. He can only see the jungle-like swords and spears in their hands. banner.
Although the Ming Dynasty internally claimed that the soldiers and horses of the Sandu Division were the elite of the Northern Kingdom, Zhu Di knew very well that neither the guards of his Prince Yan Mansion nor the soldiers of the guards under the jurisdiction of the Peking Division had actually experienced much actual combat.
Among the soldiers and horses in Peiping, Liaodong, Daning and other places, only Zhu Gaoxu's Bohai Navy had fought in the past three years, and the other soldiers had last fought four years ago.
Four years seems very short, but today's Ming Dynasty is only twenty-nine years old.
Four years without fighting is enough to turn a group of talented soldiers into useless people.
Zhu Di didn't know anything else, but he knew very well how many veterans of Sandu Division had been retired and how many new soldiers had been recruited in the past four years.
This can be seen from the childish look on the faces of most of the soldiers.
Zhu Di felt heavy about these young faces.
He was about to take them to the vast wilderness to accept the cruel baptism of war, but he didn't know how many of the faces in front of him would disappear after this battle.
"send troops!"
There was no solemn swearing-in ceremony, only the sound of Zhu Di raising his fist and shouting to the army.
After this sound, the army patrolling the north continued on the road of patrolling the north.
Zhu Di, surrounded by generals and generals, rode in the center of the team. The 30,000 northern patrol troops and 120,000 civilians recruited from Peiping and Daning began to march.
The mighty army marched day and night, leaving the Checheershan Pass and meandering on the desolate Saibei Ancient Road.
In the past few days, these places were often invaded by horsemen, and bonfires could be seen from time to time on both sides of the ancient road.
However, when the Ming army began to move north, those Hu soldiers began to flee north one after another, and fled early to the depths of Modong, far north of Cheche'er Mountain.
Ning Wang Zhu Quan, who served as the front army, commanded Chen Heng and Ping An as the vanguard, and at the same time asked thousands of Tangqi sent by Bu Wan to explore. However, all the way north from Cheche'er Mountain, from the first to the tenth of April, they still There was no trace of Hu Qi.
Facing the current situation, Zhu Di began to be suspicious. Fortunately, when he was about to approach Wulianghatu City, Zhu Quan sent a message back to Tangqi in front. Hearing that the two vanguards of Ping An and Chen Heng encountered Hu Qi, they chased and destroyed Yu Naihu. Ershan.
Upon hearing this news, Zhu Di left Zhou Xing and Zhang Yu in charge of the central army, while he led Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu to the front line with more than 2,000 royal cavalry.
On April 11, Zhu Di arrived at Wulianghatu City.
This stone and adobe city was supposed to be a city where the Ulyanha tribes could take shelter from the wind and snow and graze their cattle in the spring. However, it was empty at the moment, with only some bloodstains outside the city that had not disappeared.
"Where have all these Tartars gone?"
Looking at the deserted Wulianghatu City, Zhu Di felt bad in his heart and urged his war horses to rush to the Ming army camp outside Wulianghatu City.
Not long after, he led more than 2,000 cavalry to approach and greet them, while King Ning Zhu Quan, Chen Heng and Ping'an also went out of camp to greet them from a distance.
Zhu Di was very familiar with these three people. Chen Heng was old but thoughtful, and Ping An was young but brave and good at fighting. He was known as the most powerful general of the Northern Army.
"Thank you for your hard work, fourth brother!"
"Seventeenth brother, you have been under the clan for five years since you came to the north. You have become much stronger and darker, and you finally look like a strong-willed man!"
Turning over and dismounting, Zhu Di came closer and hugged Zhu Quan. Although Zhu Quan was not used to Zhu Di's rude way of meeting, it was still a joy to see his relatives in Mobei.
At the moment, he was wearing armor, which added a bit of heroism. Just like Zhu Di said, he looked like a strong-willed man.
"Hehe, my foolish brother is guarding here under the orders of my father. I have to guard against Mongolian attacks all day long. Naturally, I will grow old quickly!"
Zhu Quan smiled bitterly. He didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to have Fan Daning, but Zhu Di patted his shoulder and turned to look at Chen Heng and Ping An.
Chen Heng was an old subordinate of Zhu Yuanzhang. He started from Haozhou and followed General Xu Da in his northern expedition, during which he guarded Dongchang.
At that time, tens of thousands of troops came to the city. Chen Heng led his troops to defend the city, and more troops went out to fight fiercely. Finally, Dongchang City was defended.
Later, he guarded Datong, followed Xu Da, Feng Sheng, Lan Yu, and Zhu Di on several expeditions, and made many military exploits. Now he is sixty-five years old, but he is still going strong.
"Old General Chen is getting stronger with age. He looks younger than me."
"Hehe, Your Highness is so complimentary..."
Zhu Di complimented Chen Heng, and just like before, Chen Heng smiled and bowed in return.
The two greeted each other, and Zhu Di looked at Ping An, who was six feet taller than him.
Ping An had a short beard and was tall and burly. When he served under Zhu Di, he often played powerlifting with everyone after drinking. The most exaggerated one was that he lifted a stone mound of nearly 500 kilograms and was famous in the army.
He was only in his twenties at the time, but now he is already in his thirties.
"Ping Bao'er, don't you recognize me?" Zhu Di teased Ping An, but Ping An forced a smile:
"Your Highness, I have been working under you for ten years. I am not saying anything now just because I am afraid that you have something important to discuss with His Highness Prince Ning."
"Hehe..." Seeing Ping An's defeat, Zhu Di chuckled: "After I defeat Haragu, I want to see what happened to your long-haired emissary and whether his skills have declined."
"Yes..." Ping An had long been accustomed to Zhu Di's bad taste and did not refute it.
However, Zhu Di saw what he was like and stopped joking with him. He turned around and asked Zhu Quan, "Seventeen, where are the Tatars you met?"
"After killing all of them, there were only about 600 people. They seemed to be staying in Wulianghatu City and refused to leave." Zhu Quan answered honestly.
"There are only 600 people?" Zhu Di was suspicious and asked: "Can I ask them, where did Haragu go?"
"I caught a tongue and asked." Zhu Quan answered first, and then explained: "The tongue said that women and children were driven back to the north to graze. In February, when there was still snow, Haragu took more than 30,000 horses to graze. Going south."
"To the south?" Zhu Di looked at Qiu Fu and Zhu Neng beside him. They also looked at each other with doubts on their faces.
They came to the south, but they did not meet the 30,000 men under Haragu.
"Is it possible that this guy passed through Harawon Mountain and went to the west to join the people?"
A Qianhu official spoke cautiously, but Zhu Neng objected: "The trail in Harawan Mountain cannot pass so many people. Besides, since you want to take refuge, why not take your subordinates with you instead of arranging for them to go to the north that day?" A freezing cold place.”
"This guy obviously asked his subordinates to take refuge in the north, while he led his troops to the south to plan things."
Zhu Neng's words were very insightful. After hearing the words, Zhu Di also analyzed in a deep voice: "We didn't meet him. I'm afraid he made a false shot in Daning and ran east to Liaodong."
"But now the snow in Liaoze has melted and it is muddy. It is impossible to go to Liaodong through Liaoze."
Chen Heng spoke in time to tell the key to the problem, but Zhu Di's expression suddenly changed: "Ha Lawu, could it be that he went to Gao Xu's side..."
While Zhu Di was having doubts, Lin Su, who had gone down the river from Guan Guan and finally arrived in Zhaozhou, frowned on the boat.
Not only him, it should be said that the three large ships flying the Bohai flag became nervous when they approached the Zhaozhou Basin.
Streams of smoke were floating in the sky over the Nenjiang River Basin in Zhaozhou. Lin Su concluded that the visitors were quite large just by looking at them.
"It's bad." Lin Su raised his hand and grasped the handle of the knife at his waist. He turned around and ordered the two hundred households who came with him: "Stop here, have the artillery ready to fire at any time, and send a few people ashore to spy. Enemy situation.”
"yes!"
He asked two soldiers to go ashore in advance to spy on the enemy, and the two hundred households also prepared according to what he said.
Not long after, everyone on the boat saw several shirtless brothers entering the water, swimming through the biting ice water, and not long after they swam to the shore, put on the shoes hanging around their necks and ran into the mountains and forests.
Everyone on the boat was waiting. Half an hour later, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the forest. Lin Su's expression changed: "Prepare the cannon!"
As he spoke, the soldiers on the ship began to aim the Hongwu iron cannons on the warship that were carried from Fortress Mountain to the ship at the dense forest. At the same time, the warship also began to approach the river.
Not long after, several soldiers who left before ran out of the forest in a panic. The cavalry chasing them could still be vaguely seen in the forest.
"Fire the cannon!" Lin Su responded calmly. The gunners who heard his order put down the stone bullets in their hands, lit the fuse, and soon there was thunder.
"Bang!!!"
The four Hongwu iron cannons and bowl-mouthed cannons roared like muffled thunder, frightening the enemy troops in the forest back, and several soldiers who had returned from escaping also swam towards the ship.
Lin Su asked people to pick them up on the boat. Although they returned safely, their faces were filled with horror.
Before they had time to get dressed, they rolled over from the side of the ship onto the deck and bowed nervously to Lin Su:
"Qianhu, they are the Uuliangha Hu soldiers from the west. We were discovered by their sentries before we even got close, but judging from the felled woods, there are at least tens of thousands of them!"
"Tens of thousands of people..." Lin Su looked ugly. He didn't expect that the Wuliangha people actually occupied Zhaozhou.
Not to mention that their city-building mission had failed, the reason why these Wuliangha people came here was worth pondering for Lin Su.
"On our way back, tell His Highness about this first!"
"Let the boat out again and ask a few brothers to go to Andong City to tell Commander Fu that Hu Bing has arrived in Zhaozhou!"
Without hesitation, he turned around and ordered the warship to return to Jilin. It would only take less than three days to return to Jilin from here.
Zhaozhou was a place designated by the emperor to build a city. Now it is occupied by Hu soldiers, and the number of Hu soldiers far exceeds that of our own people. There is no way to withdraw even if we don't think about it.
Besides, it's okay for the Hu soldiers to occupy Zhaozhou, but it would be bad if their goal was the Six Cities Land or Jilin City.
He prepared for the worst, and at the same time announced the failure of his first military garrison.
Perhaps he should be lucky. If he had arrived a few days earlier and started building the city, then they might have been surrounded and suppressed by Hu soldiers.
Lin Su led his men to retreat, but their news was brought back to Zhaozhou by the sentry cavalry on guard duty.
At this time, the land of Zhaozhou no longer looked pristine. Instead, the Hu soldiers from the Uliangha tribe cut down trees, burned shrubs, and forcibly carved out a piece of white land.
Tens of thousands of people were stationed on these miles of white land and the Nen River beach, with simple animal skin tents stretching one after another.
Tens of thousands of Hu soldiers shuttled freely among the tents, with horses and two or three sheep tied in front of each tent.
They are not worried that someone will steal the sheep, because among the nomadic tribes, only the headman, the Khan, Taiji and other powerful people can eat beef and mutton, while ordinary Mongolians can only eat some millet and millet.
For example, at the moment, more than ten sentries of the Ming army were discovered and rushed to the big tent. On the way, many Mongolians could be seen grinding some millet in a stone mortar, then casually put some goat's milk in it, and placed it next to the campfire. Waiting to eat.
Perhaps because of the long-term inability to maintain carbohydrate sources, many people have dark skin and thin bodies.
More than a dozen sentries passed through hundreds of tents, and finally arrived at a large tent that could accommodate dozens of people.
The leader of the sentry cavalry got off his horse and followed the two hundred households into the big tent.
In the tent, a pot of stewed lamb and a roasted lamb were placed in the middle for cooking. The smell of the meat made the leader salivate.
"Tell me, how many Ming troops were discovered?"
On the throne, Haragu, who was eating meat, threw a piece of mutton on the table towards the leader. Seeing this, the leader quickly picked up the meat and took a bite. While eating, he answered honestly:
"Great Khan, we saw five or six Han Chinese. They swam into the river. There were four large rafts on the river. They fired at us, but we couldn't get a closer look."
"Big raft?" Halagu took a bite of meat slowly and continued to ask: "How big is it?"
"It's very big!" the leader of the sign replied: "It's a hundred or two hundred steps away from us, our arrows can't hit it, and there seem to be dozens or hundreds of people on board."
"..." Listening to the words of the leader, Haragu waved his hand: "Go down."
"Yes!" The commander-in-chief grabbed the mutton and exited the tent. However, after he left, the nobles around asked Haragu: "Now that the Ming army has discovered us, do we still want to go to Jilin City?"
Facing their doubts, Haragu did not answer immediately, but ate two pieces of meat slowly, and then said:
"You also heard what I just said, four big ships, hundreds of people..."
While repeating the information, he slowly raised his head: "The emperor in the south transported a lot of money and food to Jilin City. Rather than rob Quaning City, it is better to rob Jilin City."
"After grabbing Jilin City, grab Buyanzhai Fort, and then return to the north via the waterway. I want to see how Zhu Di chases us."
"What if they come after them?" A nobleman was a little worried, but Haragu took a bite of meat and said calmly: "Then retreat."
"We are going to Jilin City this time. We don't need to seal the Jurchen and Great Walled Forts along the way. If we can't capture Jilin City, we can still rob them. Anyway, the idiot Xiyang Hana is dead, so it's useless to keep Haixi."
After expressing his thoughts, he raised the wooden wine glass and toasted to everyone: "Get ready, tomorrow it's time to cross the river to the land of six cities."
Shortly after Ha La Wuxia's instructions, the next day more than 30,000 Uliang Ha horsemen began to cross the river on sheepskin rafts and march towards the six cities in the south, Jilin City.
At the same time, Lin Su also took a boat back to Jilin City and sent people off the boat to inform the Six Cities Zhaibao enemy situation along the Songhua River.
Some weak tribes got the news and immediately retreated to Jilin City with their cattle and sheep.
Zhu Gaoxu had promised sixty-nine tribes at the beginning that all sixty-nine tribes could receive his protection, so they would offer their retinues, cattle and horses.
I just never thought that this condition that I agreed to last year would be used by them this year.
In two days, thousands of people from more than ten tribes migrated to Jilin City. The remaining tribes that did not migrate were from large cities such as Futijin. They were self-sufficient in food and were reluctant to abandon their fields.
On October 13, when thousands of Jurchens were migrating to Jilin City, a wedding was being held in Jilin City with gongs and drums beating.
The imperial court prepared for the Bohai Palace not only the silks and satins needed for the wedding, but also the rewards given by Zhu Yuanzhang and the music troupe of the Jiaofang Division.
There are more than 30 people in the band, and the atmosphere is heightened by playing, playing, and singing.
In order to celebrate the wedding, Yishiha was not generous enough and had three hundred sheep and two farm cattle in the city slaughtered that were too old to work.
The long table banquet was once again staged in the city. The soldiers expertly put on their aprons and cooked sheep and slaughtered cattle in front of the palace.
At the gate of the palace, Hardy Zhu Gaoxu also lost his hospitality.
Because the palace is too small, the only people who can enter are officers above the rank of flag officer. Even among the less than a hundred officials, half of them have to sit outside.
Zhu Gaoxu had promised before the wedding that no gift money was required, but even so, some military attachés still thought of ways to give gifts.
If you don't accept too many gifts, you can just stuff them with dozens of coins to show your appreciation.
If there are too many gifts and you don't want to accept them, then give some chicken, duck and meat. Even if the palace doesn't eat them, you can just throw them to the soldiers in the square and let them clean them up and add food to the people.
A wedding forced the entire Jilin City to go into rest time half a day early, and everyone was shouting for their Highness.
Compared to the excitement of everyone, Zhu Gaoxu was sitting in the backyard study with his legs crossed, playing the pipa that he had not played for a long time.
"Here comes a music class...well done..."
Playing the pipa with squinted eyes, Zhu Gaoxu was also happy for the music class sent by the Jiaofang Secretary.
It's fun to play music by yourself, but it's really fun when all kinds of instruments play together.
With Leban, the entertainment in Jilin City can also be enriched.
With this in mind, Zhu Gaoxu was ready to let the people in the city build a bandstand in the future.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Before the person arrived, the voice came first. Zhang Chun ran into the study from outside in a hurry. Looking at Zhu Gaoxu who was lying on the bed wearing a uniform, Zhang Chun quickly stepped forward and picked up Jiu Mian who was lying aside:
"Your Highness, it's time to go to the church and get married."
"I know..." Zhu Gaoxu sat up, put the crown on his head, stood up and shook his gown.
Compared with the twelve chapters of the Emperor's Great Qiu Mian, Zhu Gaoxu wore nine chapters of Gun Mian.
Normally, a prince needs to change three sets of clothes when he gets married, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't prepare a Tongtian crown suit or a leather bean suit, so a gong crown suit was the result of his reduction of steps.
The palace is not big, so there is no need to set so many rules.
Thinking like this, Zhu Gaoxu also walked to the front house with Zhang Chun.
But before they could leave the inner palace, they saw a soldier waiting for a long time in the corridor between the inner palace and the front yard, looking very anxious.
"Whose general are you? How dare you come here?"
When he saw the soldier, Zhang Chun began to scold him, thinking that the soldier had gone the wrong way.
But when the soldiers heard Zhang Chun's voice and saw Zhu Gaoxu, they immediately knelt on the ground and bowed:
"Your Highness, this is a soldier under Lin Qianhu's command. Now I'm here to report!"
As soon as Bingzu spoke, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhang Chun realized what might have happened, but they did not expect Bingzu's next words.
"The tribes of Wuliangha came with troops. Now they have occupied Zhaozhou and crossed the Nen River to Jilin!"
(End of chapter)
