Chapter 43 March
General Gu Gong led his troops back to Yan'an Mansion.
In addition to being incorporated into the war barracks and the auxiliary troops originally brought by Guo Qinglin, these two took away more than 4,000 people from the two counties, and they were all strong and strong - this time they really made a lot of money. At first, Guo Qinglin was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth. Then he thought that the guys who stayed in Yan'an could not let go of these many soldiers, and he began to worry again, venting his anger day and night.
Guo Qinglin organized the craftsmen into a separate team. These people are precious little things, even if I come to ask for them, I can’t give them to you! He has already thought about it and will expand it greatly in the future: an ordnance battalion, responsible for making and repairing ordnance for the general; a civil engineering battalion, specializing in making siege equipment and building camps; a boat and carriage battalion, responsible for army transportation; The medical battalion treats the sick and injured - but it is difficult to realize this ideal. Now the battalion officers are holding the doctors they have captured and brought in tightly in their hands. For example, this Gu Baihua, even the veterinarian is held captive! The cannon fodder for siege and trench filling can be captured and consumed at any time. The auxiliary barracks must establish its own core team.
With all this labor, it was easy to sail upstream along the Yanshui River. Although most of the nearly two hundred boats were filled with the weapons and armor of the soldiers, as well as pig iron, copperware, clothing, cloth, livestock and other looted property, each boat was equipped with a dozen or twenty fiber pullers according to its size, and the speed was not as fast as How much slower is the team marching empty-handed?
The army rested in Yan'an Mansion for a few more days.
As expected, Qinglin did not leave the country. More than half of the more than 4,000 men were forcibly taken away by the generals. The personal barracks led by Guan Shengyun were all trustworthy old men, and they generally did not undertake front-line assault missions, but only symbolically replaced more than 20 people; Gao Tengdou and You Futian, because of their seniority, in addition to filling up the old troops, they also Each expanded a battalion. Gao Tengdou originally had two battalions. This guy was illiterate and thought that adding the word "fly" to any animal that was powerful would make it even more powerful, so they called them Flying Tiger Camp and Flying Leopard Camp respectively. Now they have expanded the Flying Bear Camp. You Futian's original command was casually called Tian Ziying, but after he expanded it, he pestered Luo Yonghao to help him come up with a name. Military Advisor Luo asked about the eight characters, calculated on his fingers that the five elements of this guy were short of water, and casually changed it to Tian Yiying and added Nu Tao. camp. Zhang Ding originally only had the establishment of a battalion. In fact, there were only more than 200 people. This time, he also added more troops. He originally thought of a powerful name called Po Feng. Gu Baihua was regretting that he was not smart enough, so he did not expect to be able to do it again. When the plan to expand the battalion came out, all the evil fire was poured out on Zhang Ding: "My name is Gangfeng Battalion, what do you mean by your name Po Feng, do you want to show me the bastard?" Although the relationship was good, Zhang Ding took it seriously. The barbarian in the valley was frightened. In the end, Military Advisor Xiao Luo reconciled the situation by saying that one of Zhang's ancestors had a great man named Zhang Tianshi. Incredible. In addition to the horse guards of each battalion general, the cavalry team expanded to about 200 people. Gu Baisong served as the team officer, and was under the personal jurisdiction of Guan Shengyun. He had one specialty and many abilities: he served as the general's horse guard, as the cavalry team of the army, and sometimes as the cavalry team of the army. I want to temporarily serve as a Tangqi scout.
Guan Shengyun didn't expect that he could get so much oil and water in just one place in northern Shaanxi. He made the calculation:
He personally led a personal guard Poxiao camp, plus a cavalry of more than 200 people.
Gao Tengdou's three battalions and You Futian's two battalions are all fully staffed. Gu Baihua and Gong Derun each have a super battalion, and Zhang Ding has a battalion... There are nearly 6,000 real soldiers alone, and there are A super large auxiliary military camp, with more than 15,000 people - so far, no general officer in any military town in the entire Ming Dynasty has this strength! Moreover, the quality of the soldiers under his command is very high: the so-called combat soldiers registered in the Ministry of War are old, young, sick and disabled, and they will never be all young and strong like himself.
This is really a powerful military force.
The poor suddenly became rich, and the consciousness of small farmers began to rise. So Guan Shengyun started fighting Xiao Jiujiu, and privately discussed with Military Advisor Luo whether he could attack Xi'an Mansion.
Luo Yonghao didn't give Guan Shengyun any chance to perform and rejected it on the spot.
The reason is simple: the people of Shaanxi are strong and strong, and it is true that Qin soldiers have been excellent soldiers in all dynasties; but Shaanxi is too poor, and a serious regular army must rely on the court to transport grain, grass, wages, and silver from the south of the Yangtze River through canal transport at all costs. Damage in battle, so what if we were defeated? If you really capture the provincial capital, no one will negotiate with you in the next step. You will wait for the army to eat up the surrounding area. You don't need to wait for the imperial court to encircle and suppress you. You just need to block it and collapse without a fight. And for most people, who would really be determined to rebel? They are all in their own hometown. If it rains heavily, half of them will go home to farm! So, still have to go.
Of course, with such good conditions, it is necessary to ask for more silver and grain supplies.
According to the prior agreement, the army marched to Ganquan in a mighty manner.
Relatively speaking, only this section of the road from Yan'an Prefecture to Henan is more difficult: there is no waterway to rely on. However, there are more than 10,000 high-quality auxiliary troops to do the support work, and they can also grab some supplements at any time along the way, and they don’t have to worry about food and supplies. The Shaanxi Provincial Government of the Ming Dynasty has openly set up a series of military training and bandit suppression along the way. At the Liangtai military station, you can take whatever you want when you arrive. Generally speaking, the march went smoothly.
The imperial court clearly stipulated that the prefectures and counties along the way were responsible for providing the food and grass needed by the officers and soldiers along the way. First, soldiers need to be fast, and carrying too much supplies will greatly delay the march; second, in an era without highways and heavy trucks, almost no one could organize and bear the huge cost of transporting food thousands of miles; third, all soldiers must He's not a good person. If he doesn't have enough to eat, he will definitely disturb the place. Therefore, the best strategy is to provide some food from various places and quickly let these plague gods pass.
However, the following execution is completely different: state and county officials are all civilian officials. As long as their jurisdictions are not affected by bandits, they are not afraid of military generals at all! As a result, all kinds of weird supplementary regulations popped up.
For example:
Instead of providing food and grass to the passing guest armies, various places prepared meals and sent them to them. The reason is very good: the generals are illiterate and do not understand "righteousness". They will be corrupt! They sent 100,000 jins of rice and noodles, but they withheld half of it and cooked only 50,000 jins for those cannon fodders. Didn’t the court suffer a loss? So, if we make it, it will go rancid if we don’t eat it, so you can’t embezzle it, right? Of course, we civil servants have read the books of sages since childhood, and all of us are moral gentlemen. If we say that we have provided you with one hundred thousand catties of grain, it means one hundred thousand catties. It is absolutely unthinkable that we will pay the bills through corruption! Oh, the report to the court is one hundred thousand catties of raw grain, and the one hundred thousand catties of meals sent to you, more than half of which are free water, there is no need to go into such details, right?
When you arrive in this county, of course the county will provide you with food and drinks—but not on the day you arrive! why? Of course it’s for the imperial court! In order to eat more, you traveled to two counties a day, and Nima ate four meals a day? There are many places at the junction of three counties. If you wander around for a long time, wouldn't you be able to eat six meals? This is great! Therefore, if you don’t give it that day, you will give it the next day! It's difficult for the court, you have to be considerate, right (note, there will be an army mutiny in the future, just for this reason)?
In this case, the Ming army's marching speed was comparable to that of a tortoise: as long as you are stationed, the local government will not provide you with any supplies that day - do you want to go to bed hungry? Haha, bring something with you! If you can obviously cross a state or county to get to the next stop, you'd better wait a little longer - after passing this village, this store will be gone. You've been marching in a hurry all day, and you won't have anything to eat when you get there, so you might as well rest here for two days: on the first day, you can set up camp and rest early, and on the second day, don't do anything and just wait for two meals. , go to bed after eating. On the third day, you can linger all day and eat two more meals. On the fourth day, you can leisurely stroll to the next place. Well, there will be no food for that day anyway... So, depending on the weather, road conditions, When all other conditions, including the health of the troops, are optimal, the troops are still marching at a slow pace. According to the standards of the time, if an army could march at an average speed of twenty to thirty miles per day over long distances, it would definitely be a first-rate force!
This shortcoming of being lazy was quickly discovered. Therefore, there are still some places that implement an upgraded version: you deserve to be hungry on the first day you arrive, I will provide you with some food on the second day, and I will get out of here on the third day with nothing! Is it raining or snowing? Stop talking nonsense and get out! mudslide? roll! The bridge is broken? You deserve it, go to hell! It’s useless to say anything, it means nothing! Hey, General, what are you doing? You and I both work for the Holy Emperor, why do you give me money? It's impossible to do it. ah? What do the brothers think? How can I be embarrassed about this! What? If you don't want to be a subordinate, is it going to ruin the good intentions of the soldiers? Oops, after the general said this, it would be too unkind for a subordinate to refuse again. You deserve it, you deserve it! We agreed, we won’t do this again! Alas, you see the weather is really bad. Well, even though there is an explicit order from the court, this law cannot be ignored, right? The official is ready to fight! Come on, prepare food for the army for three more days...
You read that right - the regular military generals of the imperial court sometimes really had to pay for transportation out of their own pockets. Of course, where does the general’s money come from? What do you think?
And every time they broke camp, the soldiers knew that they had no food to eat today, so they naturally complained. At this time, the officers have to show their special skills: some promise to give each person a few large coins, some can hit the head with a whip and a military stick, some catch a few unlucky people and chop off their heads to kill chickens and monkeys, and some even Of. There were also cases of sudden mutiny among the tribesmen when they were marching out, and there were quite a few of them!
These things are all faced by the regular army of the imperial court - the officers and soldiers. Guan Shengyun is a gangster, so it has nothing to do with him, so he won't worry about it!
Anyway, we have made an agreement with the Shaanxi authorities that as long as no flags are openly displayed on the road, officials along the way will tacitly treat them as officers and soldiers and do a good job of receiving them. Yes, and we do our best to ensure quality and quantity - we guarantee that we will have hot meals on the day we arrive! As for whether we are receiving officers and soldiers or soldiers - is there any difference? There is no point in tearing the window paper, as long as everyone is aware of it. Ordinary people don't need to worry: they are all illiterate and don't have the WeChat accounts of the adults in the capital, so what are they afraid of? What if some guy spreads rumors without knowing what he's doing... Hum, Shaanxi Province is not a lawless place!
Some were auxiliary soldiers and did not worry about supplies. Guan Shengyun even brought more than two hundred boats and used them as carts. The boat is filled with supplies, and several thick planks are put on it. There are wooden sticks under the planks. Push it for a few steps, move the empty sticks and planks at the back to the front, and then put them on them... When you get to Ganquan, you can follow the Luoshui River. Heading south to Tongguan Guard, these ships will be of great use.
Although an agreement had been reached and several high-ranking officials were held hostage, Guan Shengyun still would not completely trust the Shaanxi authorities. Luo Yonghao also held this view, and further proposed that we should use this opportunity to train the reconnaissance capabilities of the Tangqi scouts. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - after entering Henan, it may be a march into enemy territory, and the quality of the reconnaissance work will determine The life and death of the army. So, fifty people were drawn from Gu Baisong's horse team, and the battalion officers were asked to draw ten horse guards each, led by Gu Baisong himself, to form a Tangqi troop. Luo Shifan was responsible for teaching them literacy - at least some simple and simple The necessary words must be mastered, and Luo's military division and generals were responsible for teaching them simple calculations and common sense of marching: calculation of road traffic capacity, judgment of baggage carrying capacity, selection of camping sites and marking the boundaries of each battalion's camp, and setting of various early warning signals. …
Don't be deceived by movies and TV shows, thinking that the so-called scouts are the ones who shout "report..." all the way into the tent, kneel down, casually say "the enemy is found ahead", and the general will use his golden sword to say: "explore again!", and then Answered: "It's an order." The actor turned around and left the show. Like today's special forces, Tangqi scouts have a very high status in the army. Except for unavoidable encounters, generally speaking, they will not be thrown into the battlefield. The cost of training an elite scout is much higher than raising a hundred cannon fodder. Just one example: give them enough meat to eat every day! Animal protein can provide them with enough calories to maintain sufficient physical strength, and vitamin A can allow them to see at night. Don’t forget, the vast majority of people in this era are night blind! A comparison standard that can be used as a reference: Even in Jiangnan, a land of plenty, a landowner with hundreds of acres of fertile land will not eat more than ten kilograms of meat per year!
Each pond has five riders, a total of 24 ponds. Depending on the terrain, each rider should be spaced about a hundred and fifty steps apart - each must be within sight of the other. In this way, the army will have a military intelligence tentacle of about thirty miles. This distance is usually a day's march for the army. After receiving the safety signal from the farthest layer, the army set off.
Guan Shengyun walked for five days from Yan'an Prefecture to Ganquan, a distance of 120 miles. On the one hand, pushing the boat on the official road is really not fast. On the other hand, Luo Yonghao asked the troops to take advantage of this opportunity to master the basic skills of camping in the wild.
Tangqi must select a suitable location for camping in advance: the view is wide, the bushes must be burned in advance (to prevent enemy fire attacks), there must be a stream nearby, and it is best to have hills as protective barriers, and the garrison range of each camp must be marked in advance. . Every time they arrived at a new camp, the auxiliary soldiers had to build simple defensive positions: several watchtowers were built in the main camp, several early warning beacon piers were built two miles outside the camp, wooden fences were erected in the barracks, and deer villages were set up to keep out horses. Trenches were dug on several sides, and latrines were dug out for each battalion...
In addition to preventing a mess in the camp, feces also has great uses. In the Ming Dynasty, people believed in the theory of "dung poison". Regardless of the iron caltrops spread outside the camp, the pointed bamboo sticks inserted, the arrow clusters of the crossbowmen, or even the gunpowder, they must be mixed with these things to " "Enhanced" killing effect. Sometimes it actually worked: at that time, sanitary conditions were poor, and people didn’t understand what infection was, so they counted everything as “poison”—in addition to feces, the ancients also mixed arsenic, frost, croton, dog blood, etc. into gunpowder... and a lot of mess Each general has his own "unique secret recipe" that he will never share. In fact, it greatly affects the effect of the explosion. What is ironic is that the pure black fire powder, which is truly composed of three substances: saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, was once again introduced from the Western Regions!
Just as Guan Shengyun did not trust the Shaanxi government, the Shaanxi Dusi government did not trust Guan Shengyun even more. Therefore, a horse team of more than a hundred people always stayed behind the army. Every five to ten miles, two cavalry would gallop away to report the movements of this bandit army to the Dusi Mansion.
In this regard, Guan Shengyun and Luo Yonghao also adopted a tacit attitude.
Finally, the army arrived at Ganquan.
