There will be no substitutions for Yonghe Gatekeeper.
The last time Liu Chengzong sneaked across at night, he was worried about the officers and soldiers behind him, so he closed several cannons in Yanshui and drilled holes into them and pushed forward into the Yellow River.
This time he wasn't afraid anymore, he just crossed the pontoon bridge in broad daylight. Once familiar, the small wild artillery and heavy artillery simply chased away the mules and pushed the artillery cart across.
The guard general of Yonghe Pass was not that outgoing. It was not the first time he met him. Moreover, he knew who it was when he saw the Liu-character banner. He was very obedient and sent the bold ones out to ask about the situation and explain his difficulties.
"There is a shortage of food in the pass, and the imperial court has not paid wages for more than a year. It is useless for the king to mount the cannon outside the pass. There is really nothing to show his filial piety. There is a small road to the north that can pass cars. Mr. Liu, please go there. .”
How should I put it? Liu Chengzong looked confused: "How do you know I am ranked second?"
The pawn who came to show the way said that Li Bei had sent someone to ask.
Liu Chengzong suddenly shouted: "Chengyun!"
Scared the pawn.
How did he know that Liu Chengzong was overjoyed.
After asking for the number of garrison troops and the names of the garrison guards at Yonghe Pass, they simply asked someone to move the silver box.
They were given food for five cents per head, and twenty taels were also given to the general manager.
I got nearly two hundred taels at a time, not a fraction.
None of the eight sentry commanders in the battalion could understand what he meant. The commander on top of the city was also dumbfounded and stammered: "This, this king, I, Fu Renxi, have been guarding the border for four generations, and I can't go with you! You Take your money back."
After saying that the city was closed, there was a quarrel. After a while, the boss shouted again: "I won't leave. My brother, you can take whoever you like, okay?"
Who knew that Liu Chengzong just rode a red flag and circled in front of the pass, then bowed his hand towards the pass.
Li Bei told Ren Quan'er that when pursuing King Gao Chuang, Li Bei marched very slowly and always left one unit behind, giving them a chance to deal with it calmly in Yanchang County, all because of Fu Renxi from Yonghe Pass.
Li Bei sent someone to ask him if he had seen Liu Chengzong, and he said he had not. He also told Liu Chengzong that he had formed a formation by the Yellow River in Shanxi, saying that he himself led the troops in formation to scare King Chuang away.
This kind of dishonest and brave spy who creates false information for the court and brings his own food should be well rewarded.
Efforts always pay off, Chengguan Fu Renxi had mixed emotions.
The imperial court owed more than a year's wages, so it was forced to be paid by the bandit leader.
The enemies knew that they pitied him, but his own people didn't, which made Fu Renxi feel a little ashamed of Liu Chengzong.
Then he sent someone out again to tell Liu Chengzong the second information.
The drought in Shanxi has been alleviated after rain in autumn and snow in winter. However, there is no drought this year, but it is worse than the drought last year.
Because Shanxi's eight thousand elite Qinwang army mutinied in Liangxiang in the twelfth month of last year, and then fled back to Shanxi.
Fu Renxi said that winter was better, but he didn't know whether it was because the border troops hid for the winter, or because the message transmission was slower in winter.
Anyway, he only became aware of the chaos after the beginning of spring. Now eight thousand hungry frontier troops who have lost their organization are running around in Shanxi. The local civil and military officials are also unstable.
The reason for the mutiny of King Qin's army in Shanxi was very simple, it only happened in three days.
According to the old rule of the imperial court, on the day when the officers and soldiers arrived at the news site, the local government would not provide them with food and grass.
These 8,000 Qinwang troops were composed of 5,000 Jin troops led by the general officer Zhang Honggong and 3,000 governor Biao battalions led by the governor Geng Ruqi.
On the day that five thousand Jin troops arrived in Beijing with Zhang Honggong, the Ministry of War sent an order to garrison Tongzhou east of the capital.
In Tongzhou, during the battle of Hou Jin's entry into the pass, all civil and military officers of the imperial court were treated equally. No matter whether they were the governor of Jiliao, the chief military officer, the minister of war, or the local governor, they would not open the door.
Unless he attacked the city, only Huang Taiji did this when he retreated, taking away food and grass.
So I had no food to eat on the day I arrived in Beijing.
The next day, the Ministry of War sent an order to dispatch Zhang Honggong's troops to garrison in Changping, 120 miles northwest of Beijing. Naturally, there was no food to eat the next day.
On the third day, Zhang Honggong's troops were dispatched to garrison in Liangxiang, a city 120 miles away from Changping, but they still had no food.
Coincidentally, in these two days, Mangui and Hou Shilu, who came from Xuanda, also went on a five-day tour of the capital under the strategizing command of the Ministry of War.
These general military officers have never been cowardly in their own defense areas.
Hou Shilu alone brought gifts to the emperor on the road to King Qin. It was a Mongolian general in Qiufang who wore golden armor and showed off his power in front of the battle, so he killed him and took away the armor and war horses to present to the emperor.
But since he led his army into Juyongguan, he has never heard of bad luck.
We were still in Jizhou at night, and left the artillery troops in Tongzhou in the early morning. They paid the first month's pay in the twelfth lunar month. When they woke up, they were asked to leave. Some of the troops were driven towards Shunyi. They wanted to come back and have a meal. By coincidence, they met Mangui and Huang Taiji. .
Mangui fought and retreated, and returned to Beijing; Hou Shilu's troops were defeated and after gathering his men, he returned to his arms for a meal, and then rushed to Beijing with his servants to participate in the Battle of Guangqumen.
Hou Shilu's experience reached the ears of King Qin's army in Shanxi. Zhang Honggong could not restrain the soldiers, so the army robbed Liangxiang and ran back to Shanxi.
But if things only go so far, Shanxi's 8,000-strong King Qin's army will still have 3,000 in the capital.
Master Chongzhen was very angry and had Zhang Honggong and the governor Geng Ruqi imprisoned.
Geng Ruqi was wronged. The governor received two edicts not to enter the garrison. Zhang Honggong entered Juyongguan on November 12th, and Geng Ruchi only arrived in the capital on December 26th. He was imprisoned without doing anything.
Shanxi was shocked, and Liu Chengzong could understand.
Geng Ruqi was repaying his kindness. He served as the Deputy Military Envoy of Zunhua during the Tianqi Dynasty. At that time, he was building a shrine for Wei Zhongxian, but he did not do it. There was a portrait of Wei Zhongxian hanging in the middle hall, and he did not pay homage to others.
Later, he was falsely accused of embezzling 6,300 taels and was imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Before execution, Emperor Tianqi died, Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, and rescued Geng Ruqi.
Geng Ruqi said that when he was imprisoned in Zhenfusi, people were taken out and killed every day. He was very scared. Fortunately, the emperor pardoned him. I was so frightened that he let me go home to recover.
The emperor did not allow it, so he promoted him to the position of censor of Youqiandu and patrolled Shanxi.
The general's army mutinied, and there was nothing wrong with being imprisoned. The governor, who was full of enthusiasm and led the army to serve as king, directly sent himself to prison.
Will anyone be the King of Qin after this?
Liu Chengzong felt very complicated. At dinner at night, he told his officials that after they overthrew the Ming Dynasty, they must leave a place in the official position for posthumous promotion.
Cao Yao hummed and laughed: "Chasing Geng Ruqi?"
"Why are you chasing him? Zhu Youjian, the Minister of Criminal Affairs, the Minister of Criminal Affairs..." The official position is quite difficult to get. Liu Chengzong slapped his thigh for the last time: "The criminal department is in trouble! Don't laugh, I'm serious. I'm in the Ministry of Punishment." Mao is particularly suitable for the emperor's character of being jealous of evil."
After half a year, Liu Chengzong returned to Yatou Mountain in Yonghe County, Shanxi.
Before coming here, he had thought about what Shanxi would be like, but he did not expect that Shanxi would be even more chaotic than Fushi Ansai in Yan'an Prefecture, Shaanxi.
When the hungry people fled and died, leaving only the villages in the river valleys, the Liu family re-established order, and with the army in hand, order was restored in the two counties of Fushi and Ansai.
Regardless of whether it is official order or underground order, order is better than no order.
But in Shanxi, the countryside has completely lost order.
Half a year ago there was only one family here, but now a fortress has been built and more than 70 thieves have taken over.
The Third Team of the Eight Posts commanded by Liu Chengzong never dreamed that in their first battle in Shanxi, they would actually help the people of Yonghe County suppress bandits.
They were familiar with the terrain here, and few of the thieves were capable. They surrounded the hilltop and surrendered on the mountain before the meal was ready.
"I found out that the leaders were three deserters who came back to rob homes and houses. They imprisoned twelve aunts, seven men, and more than a dozen corpses in three courtyards."
Cao Yao came out of the courtyard with a gloomy look on his face: "These people are not honest. They were kidnapped for no money or food, and they tortured them for fun... What should we do?"
Liu Chengzong took the eight sentry commanders around the yard and went back to vote by show of hands.
Kill the leader of the thieves and his accomplices, unanimous vote.
Let the aunt and the man go, seven votes.
Collect the remaining prisoners, six votes.
Kill the remaining prisoners and get two votes.
Liu Chengzong summoned the women and men who had been robbed and kidnapped in the courtyard. The situation was horrific.
The woman was tortured to a terrible state, and the man was not much better. When he entered the hospital, he knelt down, kowtowed to his head, and burst into tears.
A man who had one hand and four fingers cut off immediately passed out from crying, and the wound was reopened. The doctors and craftsmen in the baggage team died before they could save him.
Five women wanted to go home, but Liu Chengzong asked someone to find clothes for them and let them go.
The remaining seven women were crying, one was crying and the other was helpless. Liu Chengzong was so angry that he never thought about placing his mother-in-law in the team.
They would inevitably have to fight with the army along the way, and bringing these women would be a big hindrance.
The women finally pushed out a shrewd one, who had the courage to step forward and salute: "Your Majesty, our sisters are originally the wives and daughters of good families in the neighborhood. We were kidnapped by thieves. Our innocence has been ruined."
"Then you won't go back?"
"You can't have the nerve to go home. If you go back, you'll kill yourself."
Finally, they temporarily negotiated and left these women on the mountain and incorporated them into the baggage camp.
The remaining three men were easy to talk to. Just like the woman who wanted to go home, they chose the commander to take them home and recognized the door.
Liu Chengzong specifically ordered the two commanders to inquire about information from them on the way and to find targets around them.
Wei Qian'er's people were not idle either. The Tang soldiers dressed up a little and then dispersed to inquire in all directions.
It was still dry when they came here last year, but now it is full of vitality and many people have returned.
In just two days, two of the five women who went home earlier came back.
They are the people of Chakou Mountain at the junction of Yonghe County and Shilou County in the north. In this era, ordinary women have few ways to survive when their innocence is harmed by thieves.
Even if he survives, he will not be able to spare himself from the gossips of the people in the countryside. People will stab him in the back.
In the end, they often collapse due to mental stress, hang themselves, or fill wells.
They dare to go home because they have babies waiting to be fed.
In fact, he is also full of death aspirations, thinking of raising his baby and then dying.
I just didn't expect that God didn't even give them this opportunity.
The commander in charge of the outpost reported: "The Fenzhou Guard's flag army sent troops to suppress the bandits. They crossed the border and robbed the village. They set fire to many houses and took all the young women and aunts in the village to sleep."
A good Zhuangzi will encounter thieves first and then soldiers.
The two women had no other relatives to seek refuge with, so they had no choice but to come back to find the Lion Camp.
This world has become strange to a certain extent. Officials and soldiers burned down villages to snatch raped women, and thieves exterminated bandits and took in survivors.
In the following days, Tang Qi, who was searching for information, returned one by one and brought back a lot of information about Yonghe County.
Liu Chengzong and others also made a strategy to start from Yonghe County and completely control this land before leaving Shanxi.
This is related to their retreat to Shaanxi.
Then the troops were divided into eight sentries.
Gao Xian sent troops to station troops at Chakou Mountain in the northeast to defend the direction of Fenzhou Prefecture.
Zhong Hu stationed troops at Sangbi Mountain in the south to defend the direction of Xizhou.
At the same time, the two outposts blocked Yonghe County, which runs through the valley from north to south along the Zhihe River, to prevent the news from leaking out.
The division sent our work post and Liu Chengyun's heavy baggage post to be stationed at Yatou Mountain. They were not responsible for fighting, but only needed to build camps. At the same time, we strengthened contact with Yonghe Gatekeeper General Fu Renxi.
The remaining outposts demarcated their territory, passing through the mountains from east to west in Yonghe County, and implemented equalization of land and grain exemption in the townships outside the city.
Liu Chengzong took Cao Yao to Yonghe County to govern Xishan, and looked at the county seat surrounded by two mountains from a distance.
"We must capture this city before we can consider whether to attack Shilou from the north or Xizhou from the east."
The former belongs to Fenzhou Prefecture and has Fenzhou Guards; the latter belongs to Pingyang Prefecture and has Pingyang Guards.
In fact, the reports coming back from the posts in the past few days make people laugh. The villages in the mountains here don't even have strong people, and they have become a paradise for bandits. The posts are all busy killing bandits wandering around.
Before this, Liu Chengzong never dreamed that his entry into Shanxi would start with suppressing bandits.
"I think it's appropriate to go east to Xizhou. If you go east to Xizhou, you can pass through the Luliang Mountains and directly enter the hinterland of Shanxi..."
As he spoke, Cao Yao suddenly asked a very strange question: "Lion, have you ever seen flat land?"
Liu Chengzong rolled his eyes at him. Northern Shaanxi is indeed full of mountains. It is difficult to find a place where you can't see the mountains. But he has been to the outside of the Great Wall: "Outside the exit of Qiufang Shaohuang, tell me if I have ever seen flat land, right?" Is it all sand? Who has never seen it?"
"It's not sand, it's fields. You can't see the mountains at a glance. It's flat and it's all fertile farmland. Have you seen that?"
Liu Chengzong was asked.
Not being able to see the mountains at a glance was a difficult problem for him, a native of northern Shaanxi.
In another memory, he knew about the plains, but he had never seen the vast fields on the plains. The plains were just a concept in his mind.
He could only shake his head.
Cao Yao pointed to the east and said: "The land south of Taiyuan that you and the leaders set out is flat, but it is not big enough."
"My hometown in Henan is really flat and the fields are as far as the eye can see; and your sister-in-law's hometown in Beizhili, there are no hills, no plateaus, no beams, it's all a great plain, and the land you step on can all grow food."
Cao Yao stretched his hand forward and used an exaggerated metaphor: "From Damingfu on the Yellow River to the north, it goes straight to Changping Prefecture. There is no need to turn at all. It is as flat as a piece of paper."
Liu Chengzong was stunned. How many fields would there be?
He suddenly understood where the name Taiyuan came from. It was a little bigger than Dayuan.
Cao Yao said that Beizhili is bigger and flatter.
This suddenly gave him a huge impulse in his heart, I want to go take a look.
I must go there and take a look, first to see the plains south of Taiyuan, and then to see the great plains of North Zhili.
"This time we will go through Luliang Mountain first, and next time we will go through Taihang Mountain."
