In the peaceful Xingzi River Valley, Lin Wei, the strong steward of Prince Qing's Mansion, led his servants up Tushan Mountain.
On the other side of the river valley, hundreds of hungry people were carrying stones and earth to the mountain fort that was about to be completed.
Lin Wei was the son of the professor of Zhongwei Health School in Ningxia. Because of his good looks, he was accepted by Qing Fan as the honorary guest of the Lord of Shajing Township after passing the examination as a scholar.
Because he insulted the lord, he was sentenced to be sent to the army. However, according to the law, the lord was still unable to be sent to the army, so he was thrown into the Wangzhuang in Ansai as a steward.
He held a single-cylinder crystal telescope, raised his arm and pointed at several parts of the mountain fort, and said to the left and right: "This fort also has three piers on both sides, which must be repaired before winter."
The servants at Wangzhuang on the left and right looked at each other in confusion when they heard this, and one of them said boldly: "Lin Chenglang, winter is not more than a month away. This cannot be repaired no matter what."
The servant next to him also spoke up and said, "Yes, Manager Lin. Rushing the work will kill people."
The title of guest of honor in the royal palace was originally an official position, but because the husbands of county and township monarchs were often selected from among the guests of honor, over time, it became a surrogate name for the husband of the master, just like the prince's consort.
Lin Wei was the husband of the country king, so he had the official position of a sixth-grade minister. Even though he made mistakes and broke the law, he was still a relative of the emperor and could not be treated as a commoner.
After listening to what he said, Lin Wei put down his telescope and turned his head, looking at these Wangzhuang servants with disdain, and said sarcastically: "Dead people... before I came, how many of you were forced to death by your flesh-heads?"
As soon as these words came out, the servants were not happy. This steward was a guilty person, so don't be different from other stewards.
Someone looked fierce: "Lin Chenglang, what you said is too much. You may leave at any time. We, the villagers of the royal palace, can live here for eternity. Let's just work together for a few years. When the time comes, you should serve as an army. Don't end up making trouble." It’s not good for anyone to die here.”
"I wish I could die here, to tell you the truth."
Although Lin Wei is a foreigner, he is not afraid: "My master has been ill for many years. When will she leave? When will I be exiled to the army? I am from the northwest border guard. I can be exiled to the army wherever I go. Going to Liaodong is just a death. Keep this place." Zhuangzi is my hope of living, if you go against me."
He looked at the servants one by one and chuckled: "I will take you all away before I die."
He can really scare the servants. They are all farmers in Qingfan. Let alone killing him, if a Yibin dies here, the whole Zhuangzi will suffer.
But on the other hand, this Yi Bin is a person who will die sooner or later. The things done by such a person who wants to live but must die are much more terrible than those who do not want to die.
The most courageous of the previous servants spoke up, his tone softened, and asked: "But what does repairing this stone castle have to do with saving your life?"
"A bunch of people want to recruit hungry people, but they don't know why; they want to build a fort, but they don't know why they want to build it."
Lin Wei raised his chin and cursed, then explained helplessly: "There is a group of thieves near Fucheng. Wangzhuang Ansai knows more about it, but Fucheng knows less. They recruit hungry people for Wangzhuang's use, cut stones to build houses, and just give them a mouthful of food." They won’t cause trouble, and even when small groups of thieves come to the village, they can resist it.”
"Not long ago, Yulin sent a letter to buy horse grass. You all know that Li Bei is going to be appointed as the general of Yan'an."
Lin Wei, who came from a family of health teachers, had been accustomed to seeing his father teach the soldiers how to read and explain the meaning of the classics since he was a child. Now he was the same, looking at the servants with expectant eyes, and said in a good way: "What's the difference between the two?" , what does it have to do with our building a fort? Think about it."
The servants looked at each other in confusion: "What's the connection? General Li is invincible in attacking thieves. If he becomes the general of Yan'an, the thieves will be gone. If there is peace, why build a fort?"
"If all thieves were like you, the world would really be at peace. How about setting up a fort in a place like this? They won't run away when the army comes, right?"
Lin Wei was so angry that he only regretted that there was no table in front of him for him to take pictures: "Nowadays, thieves are all gathered together and hiding in Yan'an Mansion. On the surface, it seems peaceful, but behind the scenes, do you know what so many thieves are doing? ? Then how many large households did Cao Cao rob in the first half year of the uprising? Liu Chengzong, who left Shanxi Province, attacked Yanshui Pass with a guerrilla attack, but there was no movement in Shanxi Province. He will not come back? "
"You can hide the thieves even if you don't attack them. But if you do, you can't run around like a hornet's nest being poked. There are few officers and many thieves. Can you guarantee that no thieves will come here?"
Who can guarantee this thing?
Several servants were like eggplants beaten by frost, their heads lowered and silent.
In the past, most of the managers of Wangzhuang were eunuchs, who were difficult to serve but had little control. There were ways to deal with it, but they had no way to deal with Lin Wei.
He can't be coaxed, he can't be frightened, he can't be provoked, he can't be beaten, he can't even talk.
However, this man regarded running Wangzhuang as a life-saving straw. With him around, the servants of Wangzhuang could not live a comfortable life.
Lin Wei no longer cared about them, raised his chin with pride, and stood on the mountain with his hands behind his hands, but his eyebrows were furrowed and worried.
He hoped that the large amount of goods sent to Weizhou would make King Qing happy and might exempt him from punishment.
At this moment, someone looked towards the lower reaches of the Xingzi River Valley. Farmers collecting firewood in the distance suddenly dispersed and ran towards the village. He hurriedly said: "Steward Lin, look over there!"
Lin Wei turned her head, her expression changed drastically. She put the telescope to her eyes and felt that her hair was getting tight.
At the end of the river valley in the direction of Ansai, the cavalry was advancing.
The cavalry of hundreds of people did not shout and fight, did not draw their swords and charge, it was very quiet.
They wore red and blue border armors, some with dark armor with cotton cloth on the outside, and some with bright armor with armor plates on the outside.
Everyone rides a donkey or mule, leads a war horse or a big mule, wears a four-petal beggar and carries a tall helmet gun, slowly and neatly spread out on both sides of the river valley, and drives the farmers forward in formation.
Just looking at the formation clearly left a preconception in Lin Wei's mind - this is an army.
Although their troops were small, they were spread out widely due to one man and two cavalry, and their organization was very clear.
Every third person has a horseman holding a spear, with a small red triangular flag hanging on the spear.
The cavalry team consisting of more than a hundred people has twenty-five triangular small flag spears and five triangular large flag spears. There is no writing on the flags. After the front team, several horsemen gathered together. Someone held a white flag with a picture of the horseman carrying the spear. Will.
Lin Wei recognized it, it was the flag of the Marshal Sifang.
Marshal of the West, white as snow.
He hurriedly searched the valley with his eyes.
Soon, billowing smoke and dust were discovered on the hills on the other side of the river. With the same flag and the same formation, a horse team lined up on the hills, all with blue flags, and a cavalryman holding a mace was painted on the middle blue flag.
Marshal Dongfang Wen is as green as indigo.
besides!
Smoke and dust also rose from the mountain ridge behind him. A horse team carrying a black flag passed through the mine and headed northwest quickly. The big flag they held was a white painting on a black background, which showed a general riding a tiger and holding a whip.
Marshal Zhao from the north is as black as iron.
Immediately afterwards, another cavalry team holding a red flag stopped at the mountain ridge. The horsemen reined in the horses, donkeys and mules. Several men who looked like generals looked down at Mudi Wangzhuang. Behind them, the red flags were painted with broadsword cavalry generals.
Marshal Guan of the South is as red as blood.
The four cavalry troops were divided into four directions. When Wangzhuang was in chaos and had no time to react, they surrounded the river valley from all directions. Only on the westernmost river bank was another yellow flag cavalry team arriving belatedly.
On the flag is a single-whip general, Wang Lingguan of China.
The mule army under its banner was more numerous than the cavalry, and was divided into two teams. Each team carried firearms, and the mules carried artillery on their backs.
Another team of more than two hundred people, all riding war horses and pulling donkeys and mules, surrounded a very fine banner with Liu characters on a red background and yellow edges.
Lin Wei was stunned, looking blankly at the five cavalry teams surrounding Wangzhuang, but did not make any move.
Ever since he was sent to Ansai to guard Wangzhuang amid the chaos in the northwest, he had thought about encountering thieves countless times.
We even encountered hundreds of people with no clothes on, each with a bulging belly from hunger, armed with sticks and farm tools, pouring towards the Xingzi River Valley from the direction of Ansai.
At that time, Wangzhuang had not yet built a mountain fortress, and only twelve stone houses were built in Guanzhuang, east of the river valley.
The villagers each held light bows and crossbows to guard the stone house. If they dropped seven or eight arrows, they would scare the thieves out of shooting range.
After being surrounded for two days, eleven people were shot to death by crossbows and spears, more than forty people were starved to death, and hundreds of people ran away.
In the end, Lin Wei lost all fear of being attacked by thieves, so he sent people to pick out a hundred people who had never eaten Guanyin soil and were still alive. He found a piece of land in Dongguanzhuang to rent, set up a porridge factory, and arranged for them to dig stones. Pick grass.
Because of this experience, he always thought that he was not afraid of thieves.
I was not afraid at that time. Nowadays, large stone houses have been built in the four official villages in the east, west, south and north. The stone castle on the mountain will be repaired in more than a month, and there is no fear of thieves.
But...but Lin Wei didn't know how to describe these people surrounding Wangzhuang now.
Speaking of the army, he was born in Zhongwei, Ningxia, and he has never seen an army with a minimum establishment of four people.
What's more, the official and military establishments are all three horses and seven steps. To be able to have one man with two horses or even three horses, it takes a lot of time to recruit war horses from the army and local horse households.
In his mind, for a band of thieves who could starve to death even if they stood still, it would be good if the bandit leader had a big mule to ride on.
They said they were thieves and they definitely didn't run away, but...who would dare to call such a team thieves?
Just behind the big banner with Liu characters on the red background and yellow border, three to four hundred men in cotton-padded clothes stood in a line with bare hands. They were said to be elite thieves.
Counting the six teams with six flags in front, this has exceeded Lin Wei's imagination of thieves.
What is it?
"Why is Manager Lin so stunned? What should I do?"
Amid the servant's urging, Lin Wei managed to calm down.
Looking around, the river valley is in chaos. Cattle and sheep are running around, donkeys and horses are charging at random, and the villagers who used to be able to defend themselves against thieves with bows and crossbows are now running away without knowing where to run, so they can only They ran around with their heads covered in the mountains.
"Yes, let's go quickly. You and I will gather the villagers. We can only attack the two teams to the west first. If we wait for them to be surrounded from all sides, there will be no chance of survival!"
With that said, Lin Wei put away the telescope and led his servants to run down the mountain with their swords pressed.
Just as he was running towards Dongguanzhuang, Liu Ying sent out five posts. The mule teams on the north and south sides meandered down the mountain road, and the east and west sides were also slowly squeezing toward the middle.
They all received Liu Chengzong's orders, not intending to kill people, but using strict military force to suppress the bankers' psychological defenses, causing them to collapse and surrender.
In fact, this purpose has been achieved.
The sturdy stone houses in the east and west Guanzhuang were the best defensive areas in the river valley, but under the slow pressure of the horse soldiers, most people abandoned their houses and fled inward.
There were only a few people standing on the house, holding bows and crossbows, as if stubbornly resisting.
But times have changed.
Under the yellow flag, Cao Yao, who was in charge of the artillery post in the battalion, waved his hand, and the artillerymen under the sentry unhooked the squatting tiger cannon and the gushing pearl cannon from the back of the mule.
A team of five people picked up the cannon body and ran forward with the shell box in their arms. They stood thirty steps outside the house, relying on their long shields and full armor to see the flying arrows as if they were nothing, and loaded ammunition in an orderly manner.
The equipment of the crossbowmen on the roof was not good. They only used light bows and crossbows, and their skills were not good. The crossbows turned over halfway through the shot, and the arrows fell sparsely on both sides, and none of them could hit.
Cao Yao stood next to the two cannons with a three-eyed gun in his hand. He only waited for Liu Chengzong's order to fire off the cannons and kill these people.
Unexpectedly, Han Shipanle from the Jia Ding Team immediately stepped forward and said: "General, let us brothers go. There is no need to waste gunpowder."
Liu Chengzong knew in his heart that the two brothers here wanted to show off their skills in front of him, and he also wanted to see what the two powerful heads of the Guyuan family were capable of.
Then he waved his hand and said, "Let's go."
After receiving the order, the two brothers commanded their horses and came out of the cannon line. The two knights gathered together and said a few words. Then they turned their horses and separated. One on the left and the other on the right, wielding their bows and arrows, they surrounded the stone house. .
The 鈚 arrow is a broad-edged arrow. Compared with the commonly used spear-shaped fast arrows, needle-shaped armor-piercing arrows and other arrows, the wide blade can cut more muscles and ligaments, making it difficult to escape with one arrow against an unarmored target.
The disadvantage is that the blade surface is large, the shooting range is relatively short, and it will miss when shooting far.
Liu Chengzong did not look at their arrows, but only looked at the two brothers galloping on the horse. Their bodies and horses were in perfect harmony, and their riding skills were quite exquisite.
With this kind of riding skills, riding and shooting on horseback is a natural process.
Generally, a horse soldier needs to carry two bows. A 60-pound infantry bow costs 40 jins while a riding bow costs 40 jins. Elite cavalry soldiers carry a 70-jin infantry bow and 60 jins for a riding bow. People like them only need to carry one bow.
But what Liu Chengzong didn't expect was that the two brothers had no intention of getting closer and fighting again.
There were still more than twenty steps away from Cao Yao's artillery, and even sixty steps closer to the stone house. The two brothers drew their bows, one on the left and the other on the right, and let go of the arrows.
At this distance, Liu Chengzong had to use a fast arrow to hit it with confidence.
Han Shipan's arrow missed by an inch and hit the low wall of the roof, causing some sparks; while someone on the other side of the roof screamed and fell under Han Shiyou's arrow.
Just a moment later, two more arrows were fired, two people fell from the roof, and both brothers were hit.
Amazing skills!
Then the figures on the roof disappeared without a trace. The remaining three people jumped on the wall, abandoned the stone house and fled westward.
The two brothers then galloped past Cao Yao's artillery and chased after them, sending down two lanes of smoke.
In the blink of an eye, the three running figures fell one after another.
Liu Chengzong saw several figures running from Tushan in the distance. The two brothers turned their horses and were about to return to the formation. It seemed that they saw those people. Han Shipan on the left lightly knocked the horse's belly, and then drove the horse over.
Still a hundred steps away, Liu Chengzong saw those people who were confused, as if they knew that they could not escape from the cavalry fire. The first person drew out his sword with an extremely brave posture, held the sword in front of him in an arrow-picking posture, and actually wanted to Stop the rider with your steps.
Then he was pushed to the ground by several people behind him. The people kowtowed to Han Shipan from a distance. They didn't know what they said, but they led the man towards the front of the formation.
Later, the two riders met briefly. Han Shiyou patted his horse and ran back to the formation, rolled his saddle and prostrated himself. He clasped his fists with joy and said: "General, my brother captured the steward of Wangzhuang, and he is still the honorable guest of the village!"
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Note:
①.Reference paper "Research on the Group of Honorable Guests in the Ming Dynasty" on the official positions of honored guests and criminal punishment
②. The governor of Shanxi Province commanded two general headquarters on Datong East Road with 840 riders and 120-meter targets set at 80 paces. Forty-seven people could hit five to seven out of ten shots, and one person could hit eight out of ten shots. , named Du Jiyue, was incorporated into the cavalry class.
——Wu Rendu, Governor of Shanxi, "Wu Jishu Collection·Volume 9"
