Just as Longkou was nervously making preparations, outside a small village filled with rain and snow in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, adjacent to Shandong Province, there was a small dilapidated temple standing alone on a bare hill. [Read the full text] Under the mound, horses and disheveled soldiers were sparsely scattered, about a thousand in number. They huddled close to each other and leaned against the flickering bonfire, cursing at their mothers and stretching out their hands on the fire to keep warm.
A burly young general, wearing a burqa outside his armor, stood under the eaves of the small temple. His face was dark and rough, and his face was covered with a cold and solemn expression that only a man who has experienced many battles can have. Behind him, a flag was erected. The flag was soaked in the cold rain and snow, and hung feebly from the eaves. A gust of cold wind blew, and you could barely make out the word "hole" on it.
There are many horses tied in front of the temple, and they are much taller and more elegant than the horses down the hillside. With an expression of hatred, the horses reluctantly ate the black wheat straw that the soldiers had pulled from the farmers' roofs.
He seemed to be waiting for someone, looking northward intently. To the north are large fields and sparse groves, with lights dimly visible - that is Sangyuan Town, where Wuqiao County is located.
This general is Kong Youde, the infantry left battalion staff general in Dengzhou. Although his official position was in the left battalion of the infantry, he actually commanded all the former Liaodong cavalry. He is from Tieling, Liaodong. Both his father and he were local miners. After Nurhachi raised his troops, Tielingwei quickly fell. When he was a boy, he participated in the uprising organized by his father against the Hou Jin regime in Tieling. After the uprising failed, he was exiled to various places in Liaodong, surrendered to the army in Guangning, and once served as an official. After Guangning withdrew from the town, he joined Mao Wenlong and changed his name to Mao Yongshi.
After Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, his old Dongjiang tribe was ruled by Dongjiang deputy general Chen Jisheng. Soon, Liu Xingzhi, a general, rebelled in Pidao and killed more than ten people including Chen Jisheng. Huang Long, the new commander-in-chief of Dongjiang, immediately went to Pidao to suppress it. Feeling that they were being squeezed out by Huang Long, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming refused to accept Huang Long's rule and led their troops to defect to Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai. Kong Youde became the general of the left battalion of the infantry. Those who rule are still the old ministries of the past.
It was raining and snowing constantly in the sky, and the northwest wind was blowing, which blew onto the soaked burqa, making it look particularly cold. Thick white mist spewed out with every breath. Most of the cavalry at the foot of the mountain were wearing thin, dirty and ragged clothes. They huddled in groups and wrapped themselves tightly in their rags. Some people were talking quietly, and some were swaying and already asleep.
At this time, several fast horses came all the way from the north. The sound of horse hooves broke the silence on the hill. Listening to the sound of horse hooves, he breathed heavily.
Not long after, the sound of horse hooves got closer and closer, and then among the sparse leafless shrubs, under the vast moonlight, a small group of people appeared.
There were four or five people in this team, led by a young Mr. Qian. After walking up the hill. They all jumped off their horses. The leading officer led the horse to the general and reported: "General: the matter is settled."
Upon hearing the news, Kong Youde's eyebrows stretched. Originally, the long-distance march to aid the Liao Dynasty was already a miserable experience. It was a job with a slim future, but I didn’t expect that something like this would happen on the way!
When Kong Youde led his troops to Wuqiao, they encountered bad weather with rain and snow. The troops were short of supplies and suffered from hunger and cold. There is neither money nor food. I asked Wuqiao County to prepare food and grass, but the county ignored them at all. Kong Youde was a passerby from Shandong and had no influence in Hebei. The army is almost running out of food. The common people in villages and towns were extremely afraid of officers and soldiers - the military discipline in the late Ming Dynasty was extremely poor, and long-distance marches were almost like bandits - they fled as soon as they heard that the army was coming, although the county towns did not close their doors to them. But everywhere is closed and markets are closed. Even if you want to buy food, there is no place to go, let alone no money at all.
Since ancient times, there has been a saying about starving soldiers. Without anyone to provide food and grass, soldiers became self-sufficient. With the tacit consent of the officers, the troops were divided into small groups during the night. Quietly leaving the camp and going around the countryside and cities in search of "food" - in fact, robbery.
During the looting, a soldier broke open the door of a seemingly inconspicuous house in the city and snatched a chicken. Unexpectedly, this chicken was raised by a servant of Wang Xiangchun, a prominent family in Shandong.
Offending the local big business is the same as robbing the common people, but the results are very different. So the soldiers who robbed were "walked through the camp with arrows" - this was a very severe punishment in the ancient army, second only to beheading. The resentful soldiers immediately killed the servant.
This gave Kong Youde, who originally wanted to settle the matter, a trick: the gentry in the Ming Dynasty had extremely powerful power, not to mention former senior bureaucrats like Wang Xiangchun who had been in the "Donglin Point General Record" - he was the top local Jin gentry, the county The Ling and the prefect were all very polite when they saw his film. Wang Xiangchun's son refused to give up and insisted on investigating the responsibility.
Kong Youde is just a small general. Although he can command thousands of people to charge into battle, in terms of power and status, he is far from the opponent of Jin gentry like the Wang family, not to mention the Donglin Party's great power in the court. The Wang family really wants to "name strictly" "Shenzhen", it is easy to get rid of this little general.
Therefore, he could only continue to compromise, led his troops to withdraw from Wuqiao County, stationed in this wasteland, and sent Li Yingyuan to negotiate the matter.
"I beheaded the kid who committed the crime, and the matter is over." Li Yingyuan was indignant. "The manager who came out to speak still seemed unwilling to let go. I had to give him another ten taels of silver to make him feel comfortable."
Kong Youde sighed heavily: "There is nothing we can do about this! What a pity for a good man!" He stamped his feet, "These scoundrels - it is difficult to part with good wealth, forcing us to live in vain and obey the public!"
"Brothers all said they couldn't stand it anymore - first they forced us to go to Phi Island to quell the rebellion of Huang Long. Can't Huang Long deal with it on his own? If General, you hadn't made a decisive return and came back, we would have all been fed by fish and shrimps! Now it will happen again Let us rush to the Daling River to die when we are cold and hungry!" Li Yingyuan said and became excited, "Let us go through life and death for the imperial court and follow Mao Shuai on the island to blow wind, eat sand and fight the Tatars. How many brothers have died! The imperial court and big families They don’t regard us as human beings at all!”
There was a ripple among the surrounding soldiers and generals - they were all the old Dongjiang troops who had followed Mao Wenlong in Liaodong. The execution of Marshal Mao had sown seeds of dissatisfaction in their hearts. He was ostracized by Huanglong in Dongjiang, and after arriving in Dengzhou, he was discriminated against and ostracized by the local Shandong army and the Southern Army.
This trip to the north to reinforce the Daling River was originally a dangerous battle that would never come back, and we had to endure such anger along the way. The soldiers became increasingly angry and resentful.
These words also resonated with Kong Youde. His chest heaved up and down, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. He waved his hand decisively and said with a evil smile: "We can't afford to offend these masters. We can't do it here." If we wait, the people and horses will be frozen to death. Let’s all set off. We’ll go far away and find a village to slaughter them. Let’s all keep warm!”
"Zha!" Li Yingyuan and several officers around him echoed with excited expressions. Although the army continued to loot along the way, they only managed to get enough food to eat and did not dare to go too far. Since I want to work hard this time, I can probably get some oil and water.
Everyone went to prepare for departure, and Li Yingyuan was about to leave. Kong Youde stopped him: "Yingyuan, when will your father arrive?"
Li Yingyuan's father's name was Li Jiucheng. Although his position was just that of a guerrilla, he was very prestigious among the old Dongjiang tribe in Liaodong, and even people like Kong Youde respected him.
More than a month ago, Li Jiucheng went to the fortress to buy horses from the Mongols on the order of Sun Yuanhua. He spent all the money without buying the horses. He did not dare to return to Dengzhou for fear of crime. When he found out that Kong Youde was going to lead his army north, he sent someone there. Contact Kong Youde and ask him to go north with him to see if he can get some military merit to offset his crime.
Li Jiucheng had a high prestige among the old Dongjiang troops, but the people in the army were now shaken. He urgently needed veterans like Li Jiucheng to suppress and appease him, otherwise the troops would be disbanded before they could reach Shanhaiguan. If he, the commander-in-chief, didn't want his head chopped off, he had no choice but to run away.
Li Yingyuan reported back: "My father sent someone here, saying that they were blocked on the road due to snow and wind. It will take two days to meet the general at Wuqiao."
In the old time and space, Li Jiucheng, who was afraid of going back to Dengzhou because he lost the horse money, was already in Kong Youde's army on October 31.
The inciting of soldiers by Li Jiucheng and his son was the main reason why Kong Youde's troops launched a rebellion in Wuqiao. However, in this time and space, Li Jiucheng was blocked by the road and did not arrive at the army on that day, thus losing the opportunity to incite the soldiers to riot.
The butterfly wings of history are pointed slightly in a different direction. This was unexpected by the elders.
"Okay, let's go north!" Kong Youde ordered, "Send a few elite brothers in civilian clothes to Sangyuan Town to wait for General Li to catch up again."
Following the order, the soldiers who were hungry, cold, and drowsy suddenly became energetic. They tightened the girdle of their horses and got on their horses. More than a thousand people on foot and on horseback gave a shout and headed north.
The early morning sun of November 1st shone on Wuqiao County. People in the county couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when they learned that the army from Shandong had left, and opened their doors one after another to go about their business. No one knew that they had just escaped a catastrophe that they were destined to suffer.
More than twenty miles north of them, there was a large village that had disappeared and was completely slaughtered.
No one among the senators who were waiting on Qimu Island expected this. In their view, any historical event will strictly follow the historical trajectory of old time and space.
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