Chapter 28 Missing
While Niu Shiqun and others mobilized guards and horses from various prefectures in Shaanxi to gather at Xi'an Prefecture, they sent two batches of fast horses one after another to send the anger and orders of the provincial government to Yulin Guards through Qingyang Prefecture.
Of course, there must be an explanation from the imperial court, so in the first paragraph of the memorial to the capital, he gave the Holy Emperor a reassurance: He was originally a defeated bandit, but he was lucky enough to succeed in a sneak attack. He has mobilized a large number of troops to suppress it, and it will be over soon. Victory. The middle paragraphs of the memorial prove each other with reasonable evidence. In fact, everyone has already unanimously noticed that some officials are "increasingly old". Just because they "think about their old age", they can't bear to participate in the memorial for a while, and finally lead to this catastrophe, and they are extremely frightened - - Well, the loss of a city was not only due to poor management, it was not even considered an "oversight": everyone has clearly seen it, so how can it be said that it was an oversight? Alas, it's all caused by being too soft-hearted - respecting the elderly and loving the young. Being too soft-hearted is an advantage repeatedly emphasized by the sages, but it can't be considered a big sin, right? At the end of the article, the three officials expressed heartbrokenly that they had failed to live up to the expectations of the court and would not be able to escape their guilt even if they died. However, the bandits and thieves, the ugly ones who jump off the beam, are all suffering from ringworm and scabies after all. The Holy Emperor Demu Jiuzhou, with the blessing of the emperor, destroying this dynasty is as easy as looking at the lines with the palm of your hand. A victory will be played soon, please wait for the good news!
Guan Shengyun of Yan'an Prefecture is also making intensive preparations.
My own "rebellion" was originally just to avenge my adoptive father Lu Yong, and then I couldn't help it. I originally thought that I would die wherever I went, and I would just let fate take one step at a time. Unexpectedly, it gradually became a habit. At this point, Guan Shengyun must seriously consider the future: for himself and for the thousands of brothers who follow him.
Master Luo's plan is to go south.
There are two reasons. First, Shaanxi is too poor. It's easy to build a team, but it's definitely not a good place to have thousands of mouths to feed. It is purely a dream to cultivate and fight on one side of a separate country: if this place could be self-sufficient, why would even the imperial court's dignified frontier troops have to rely on the salt and rice transported by water from the capital to barely survive starvation? Isn't it just because he didn't have anything to eat that he was able to gather this large group of people?
Secondly, several core generals knew in their hearts that if there was a real farm, these people would be scattered in the blink of an eye, and they would be immediately beaten back to their original form and become a polished commander - and then captured and cut to pieces!
Therefore, Master Luo firmly advocated going south to Huguang. "Huguang is familiar with it, and the world is full of it"? Moreover, when you arrive in an unfamiliar place, you will be seen through as soon as you open your mouth. Leaving the crowd is a dead end. Only in this way can you gather the crowd. The generals once again unanimously supported Master Luo's foresight.
After the policy of going south was decided, how to proceed became a question that required careful study. In this era, large armies relied heavily on waterways to march long distances.
First of all, the human body must be replenished with water at all times: not eating for two or three days is not a big problem, but without drinking water, any army will collapse. There is a saying that when Qin destroyed the six kingdoms, one of the magic weapons for victory was Guokui, which is dry flour cake. It has a long shelf life, which greatly reduces the logistical pressure. As long as there is a river nearby, the troops can maintain their combat effectiveness for a long time. Secondly, rivers provide free transportation capacity and can carry much heavier transportation tasks than any cattle and horses. Moreover, boats and rafts do not need to eat like civilians, and the water flow never needs rest like mules and horses.
Based on this, Guan Shengyun has two choices. One is to go south to Ganquan and then go down the Luoshui River. The advantage of taking this route is that the Luoshui River is relatively flat and the difficulty of transportation is small. The disadvantage is that it goes straight into the heart of Shaanxi Province and threatens the Xi'an government. We have no chance to explain to the chief envoy and other officials: We are just passing by. , In fact, they are going to harm Huguang... Of course, they won't believe it. Therefore, along the way, we are bound to encounter heavy blockades from the entire Shaanxi Dusi Prefecture; another option is to follow the water to the east, and then go south along the Yellow River. This section is the east side of the "Ji" shaped channel of the Yellow River, almost straight from north to south. However, the difficulties are obvious: the Yellow River is naturally dangerous, the water is turbulent, and the transportation difficulties are not increased at all. Of course, the benefits are not small. At the junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, the military pressure will definitely be much lighter. Both provinces will be cautious and will not fight to the death: If they want to fight, it is best to go to the other side's territory! Both Guan Shengyun, who was born in the border army, and Luo Yonghao, who was a court official, knew this very well.
Guan Shengyun didn't know which path to take, and Luo Yonghao couldn't make up his mind for a while. However, one thing is necessary: first lay down the extension to solve any worries. Mr. Luo has always heard about the stubborn old man Yu Shengliang's behavior. Chang Wenping also confirmed this. If this threat is not completely eliminated, Mr. Yu, who is obsessed with serving the country and loyal to the emperor, will definitely keep creating things behind his back. Trouble, the army will be overwhelmed.
Chang Wenping had already made an agreement with Mr. Luo that he would never "become a thief", and Luo Yonghao could not force his friend to risk the lives of more than a hundred people in his family. The plan the two discussed was that Chang Wenping would stay in seclusion for the time being and wait for the right opportunity, when Guan Shengyun led his troops to leave, then go back to "recover" Ansai County and take Yan Wenlong, Mo Hantao and others out of prison. "Rescued". Such a great achievement can not only save the life of Changzhi County, it is estimated that the official position may also be promoted - Yan Wenlong and other heads, Guan Shengyun are of little use, there is no deep hatred, it is not necessary to cut them off, why not sell them to the master's friend Favor can also leave a way out. Guan and Luo made this move extremely well, and received great rewards after a long time. Of course, this is another story.
Deciding to capture Yanchang County first, Guan Shengyun asked the auxiliary troops to go all over the mountains and plains to cut down trees and build boats and rafts. According to the scout reports, the city wall of Yanchang County was very dilapidated. However, no matter how broken the earth wall is, it is still an obstacle. At this time, Guan Shengyun really couldn't bear to let the already ravaged people of Yan'an Prefecture serve as cannon fodder for the siege. Having said that, breaking through along the Yanshui River can not only greatly reduce the difficulty of the attack, but also accumulate some experience for the next long-distance march along the waterway.
Although he is only in his twenties, the leader of the auxiliary army, Guo Qinglin, can be considered an old man who follows Guan Shengyun. The captain of the country was an abandoned child who was picked up and brought home by a lonely old locksmith from Weiyuanwei in Datong Prefecture. In the blink of an eye, twelve or thirteen years have passed, and I have learned the craft quite well. Later, a robbery case occurred in Weiyuan Guard, which coincided with the year of the imperial court's "big plan". The grandfather was anxious: This was obviously going to cause trouble for my official career! So an order was issued: one "competition" every three days, and the case was solved within ten days! The so-called "comparison" means that every few days, if no criminals are caught, the government officials will be slapped on the butt (sometimes slapped on the mouth) to encourage their enthusiasm for work. The bad guys don't want to be punished, and of course they don't bother to look for any clues to really solve the case - how long will it take? So on the third day, both Lao Guo and Xiao Guo, the locksmiths who could open locks, were taken to work.
The men of Six Doors know that as long as they work harder during the interrogation, the person will be gone without any evidence, and the case will be iron-clad. Sure enough, Lao Guo failed to withstand all the blows thrown at Shengtang - the last few blows were "skewed", and instead of hitting his buttocks and thighs, they fell on his lower back. He became incontinent and urinated blood on the spot, and ended up on death row that night. Of course, the case file received by the Criminal Department stated that "the principal criminal died of a sudden illness." Guo Qinglin, who was 12 or 13 years old, was malnourished and looked like a teenager. He could neither shoot him to death nor recover any stolen goods, so Xiao Guo, a half-year-old boy who didn't understand anything, was kicked out. The old locksmith's home has been confiscated by the bad guys until only four walls are left, and Xiaoguo lives on the street.
However, being able to pick locks in those days was definitely considered a high-tech talent. Since those who made and repaired locks had no way of making a living, they had no choice but to use their expertise in lock picking. Soon, Xiaoguo established a firm foothold in a small team of "heroes" who were very good at stealing and robbing. Later, the "heroes" collectively voted for Guan Shengyun, who had just recruited No. 100 people. Guan Dashuai felt that a hand that could open locks was much more valuable than a hand that could only swing a knife, so Xiao Guo was given special attention. The half-grown child gradually turned into a young man, and Xiaoguo also took on the title of general and took the position of auxiliary army officer.
Call him Mr. Bai. Because there was no Chinese pinyin for Mandarin in the old days, many of the soldiers were heroes from all over the world with different accents. The literacy rate in the army was ridiculously low, so the characters "ba" and "hundred" were used interchangeably, and they could be called anything. Unlike Hong Xiuquan of later generations, Guan Shengyun had to make up a set of messy official titles to confuse everyone, and directly followed the official rankings in the Ming army.
It was always a seventh-grade military position, but today it belongs to county-level cadres. Of course, civilian officials do not recognize this. Theoretically, it had 440 soldiers under its command, which was very powerful in the early days of the Ming Dynasty. However, it depreciated rapidly in the middle and later stages. The administrative status was similar to that of a platoon-level cadre. In fact, it was more like a squad leader. It was considered good to have more than a dozen subordinates. This is the Central Plains area. Because there are many wars and there are many soldiers and horses from all walks of life, the appointments are very chaotic. The Fujian and Guangdong areas were relatively quiet, and General Jiang was still a very important and valuable military attache.
That evening, a logging team of seven or eight people did not return to the city. At first, Guo Ba didn't take it too seriously: maybe because of some delay or walking too far, he camped outside the city at dusk, and he would come back at dawn - generally speaking, absconding is not possible, in this place. In that era, there were barren mountains and ridges far away from the city, and transportation relied on two legs. At best, each person was only allowed to bring two grain buns when setting off. Not to mention encountering wild beasts, officers and soldiers, if they had to escape, they would starve to death in a few days. . I thought that when they came back, I would give these guys a few whips to remember, but until the evening of the next day, not only did this team not come back, but another group of people was missing.
The general manager realized something was wrong, so he immediately reported it to Guan Shengyun.
Frankly speaking, Guan Shengyun didn't care at all about the lack of a few auxiliary soldiers, and just hummed a few times to deal with it. Even when they were in the official army, auxiliary soldiers were consumables among consumables. No matter if they ran away or died, they could just catch some more when they came back.
Luo Yonghao happened to be away, and if Master Luo hadn't happened to be talking to Guan Jianlin and listened in, the matter would have passed. Luo Shifan is weak and full of clever ideas, while Guan Jianlin is full of ideas. He is not afraid of anything but has no brains. However, these two are good friends. Guan Jianlin likes to hear everything Ronaldinho says.
Master Xiao Luo tilted his head and listened for a while. Without alerting Guan Shengyun, he dragged Guan Jianlin to find Gu Baihua. Gu Baihua was very dissatisfied after hearing Ronaldinho's analysis. He felt that those guys should have just ran away. He laughed loudly and said that he was just a coolie. As long as Guo Qinglin got him some wine, he would send people to each house to catch him, and he would get as much as he wanted. But in the end, he was persuaded by Ronaldinho and picked a dozen brothers with good skills to ride out of the city to find out.
After lunch, Guan Shengyun took a copy of "Xuanguai Lu" from Yu Shengliang's bookshelf to pass the time. After watching it for a while, I felt sleepy and started to take a nap on the chair. I vaguely dreamed that I was passing the green hairpin drinking order to some fairy girls. A beautiful girl in white clothes was stuck. Everyone was shouting that they would be punished with "a fragrant one". Her face was red with shame, and her red lips were slightly opened. As he got closer, he was suddenly awakened by a commotion outside. When he opened his eyes, his beautiful face was gone, replaced by Gu Baihua's round black face, which almost touched the tip of his nose and shouted loudly: "Commander, the enemy is attacking!"
Spit sprayed all over Guan Shengyun's face.
Knowledge points in this article:
1. Ancient marches had very high requirements for water sources, and in order to prevent enemy poisoning or unclean drinking water from causing a large number of non-combat casualties, the water source must be running water.
2. In ancient times, the death penalty was very formal and the process was cumbersome. It even required the emperor himself to execute the sentence in person (usually in the autumn when vegetation was killing people, so it was called "Beheading after Autumn"). For example, the sentence of "beheading in prison" is theoretically a suspended sentence: waiting for the Ministry of Punishment to report the list to the emperor, who can be executed by the imperial pen. If you are a high-ranking official known to the emperor, there is a high probability that he will not die - if he really wants to kill you, he will be executed immediately. It's just a scare, there are even many people who were taken out of prison and restored to their posts after a while, showing the emperor's great grace and making you work hard from the bottom of your heart. However, from being a high-ranking person to being a prisoner all of a sudden, there is a huge gap, and he is always worried that the emperor will not be happy to mark his name... and his days are like years. Of course, there are cases where things get out of control, or the emperor is in a bad mood and becomes more and more resentful the more he thinks about it, and someday he simply cancels it. If he is a commoner whom the Emperor does not know, then it depends on his fate... There are also people who have a particularly good fortune. After decades in prison (well, decades in prison, it is not much better), they have not hooked up every time. In the end, the great emperor saw that the name was familiar, and when asked about it, he had slipped through the net for decades. After thinking about it, he thought that his life should not be cut off, and there were some people who just pardoned him. On the contrary, if there is an "accidental death", the court will not pursue it. For example, if you are a county magistrate and you sentence someone to "standing in a cage" and the meat turns into dried meat after being exposed to the sun for more than ten days, that is an "accident" - who knows why he is so reluctant to dry it! So, no problem. In other prisons, people starve to death, suffer heart attacks due to beatings with big boards, and die from infected wounds... It's all the same, just report "serious disease" or "violent disease".
