"Your Majesty, isn't there Jiang Liu'er? That ferocious tiger is worth dozens of men, so it would be more appropriate to let him go. There is also a man named Li Zicheng from the Imperial Guard. It is said that he is also very skilled. He killed one man in Pyongyang last year. More than a dozen North Korean soldiers were killed."
"Those who are close to Mo are evil. Jiang Liu'er is contaminated with the evil spirit of officialdom. I am very disappointed with him. Unless he can clean up the filth, this person will be useless in the future. As for Li Zicheng, the Imperial Master (Ke Zhen'e) said that he was born rebellious. Don’t be alone.”
"Only Li Dingguo still has a pure heart."
Emperor Wu Ding put down the tea cup and looked at the old subordinates in front of him calmly.
Hearing that Li Dingguo was being transferred to Yinzhou, Wang Zengbin, the commander-in-chief of the Seventh Corps, rushed from Shenyang to Sakhalin Island without stopping. He came to the Chinese army's tent and begged the emperor for mercy, hoping to find another person to adventure on the other side of the ocean.
"I know that Li Dingguo is your most capable subordinate. Can't you bear to part with me?"
Wang Zengbin looked embarrassed and didn't know what to say.
"This boy is a good fighter. I also know that he is extraordinary. Otherwise, how could I choose him? Yinzhou is difficult and dangerous, with enemies from both east and west. There are headhunting Indians in the west, and European bandits who like to cut scalps and drink human blood in the east. , is the real purgatory, let Li Dingguo go to Yinzhou to experience, if he can survive, he will be the blade of the empire in the future."
"But Your Majesty..."
The Supreme Emperor waved his hand:
"If I try to persuade you again, you will go for him. I don't trust anyone else except you."
Wang Zengbin was speechless.
"How is the training for new recruits? I heard that you are responsible for negotiating with Zheng Chenggong? Is the ransom coming?"
Wang Zengbin quickly replied: "This spring, we recruited another three thousand cavalry, leaving about seven or eight hundred people. As for Zheng Chenggong..."
Wang Zengbin hesitated to speak, his eyes flickering.
"Having said that, I don't expect the negotiation to be successful, but I will take the opportunity of paying the ransom to let you see how thoughtful the Zheng family's weapons are."
Emperor Wu Ding has always adopted a delaying strategy towards Zheng Chenggong. He neither openly fell out nor released the old pirate Zheng Zhilong. He just kept asking for ransom from Fujian.
Zheng Chenggong didn't seem to care much about his father's life and death. As the seller's market turned into a buyer's market, the kidnappers had to lower the ransom again and again. Zheng had already cut the ransom from the initial two and a half million taels. One hundred and fifty thousand taels, this kind of bargaining range is simply more severe than the bargaining by a certain Duoduo in later generations.
However, Zheng Chenggong didn't want to give it even 150,000 taels.
"Wu Aheng is busy blocking Sakhalin Island, so he asked you to negotiate with Zheng Chenggong. War horses can run faster after all."
Wang Zengbin nodded repeatedly, and Emperor Wu Ding fell into meditation.
The traveler is not familiar with the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty. He only knows that Li Dingguo was very powerful in history. If Sun Kewang hadn't held back at the end, Li and Sun would have quickly regained half of the Ming Dynasty.
Since time travel, I have met not only eight hundred but also a thousand celebrities. Even Emperor Wanli, who had not been in court for decades, was met by Liu Zhaosun.
Therefore, when the name Li Dingguo came into view, he did not show excessive surprise. Instead, he asked Wang Zengbin to come closer and asked carefully what Li Dingguo was doing during this period.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Li is now trapped in Fujian. I'm afraid he won't be able to come back for a while."
Liu Zhaosun was surprised and said: "I am in Jiangxi, and Sun Chuanting still recommends this person? Why is this!"
Wang Zengbin muttered beside him: "Mr. Sun Ge said that Li Dingguo is the reincarnation of Su Wu. Such a person needs to be reused. I believe he will come back."
~~~~~~
Thirty miles east of Shenyang, after passing Qixing Mountain, the rolling hills disappeared and a vast wilderness appeared. The Seventh Corps (Cavalry Regiment) of the Daqi Empire was stationed in this wilderness.
In the past two years, wars have continued between the north and the south of Da Qi, and the empire's most elite cavalry are running around like fire captains.
The 7th Corps sometimes leaped over the Great Wall, appeared in the snowy northern fortress, and sometimes drank in the Yangtze River and entered the territory of the Hongguang Court of the Southern Ming Dynasty.
After eight consecutive years of explosive troops, the Seventh Corps has a total strength of more than 20,000, half of which are elite cavalry, and the remaining more than 10,000 auxiliary soldiers and grooms can be used as reserve cavalry. The Seventh Corps also has its own artillery battalion and engineer battalion. , the perfect configuration of arms makes up for the disadvantage of cavalry that is not good at defending the city.
Taken together, the strength of the 7th Corps is at the upper level among other corps. Many recruits are honored to join the cavalry regiment when they join the army. However, it is not easy to stay in the cavalry regiment.
The recruitment standards of the Seventh Corps are stricter than those of the other ten regiments (except for the Navy). It is said that they are comparable to those of the Royal Guards - of course, this should be an exaggeration - the cavalry instructors are very strict with the recruits' stature and appearance. There are certain requirements for weight and even speaking voice.
Regarding the last point, a popular saying in the military is that riders who speak with unpleasant accents can easily scare their horses during combat...
Although some of the statements sound ridiculous, it is an indisputable fact that cavalry are well treated.
Taking ordinary cavalry as an example, they can receive five taels of silver notes per month, which is twice that of ordinary soldiers.
In addition, the cavalrymen returned from the army and went on a blind date with the girl in the camp. As long as they showed their identity, they would be looked down upon.
Of course, risks and benefits always coexist. As a mobile force, the Seventh Corps is always in a state of combat readiness, whether it is fighting or on its way to the battlefield.
Not to mention the distance, since the fourth year of Taichu, the cavalry regiment has made more than 30 sorties. The cavalry under Wang Zengbin can be seen on all fronts in the southeast, northwest and northwest of Daqi.
Due to frequent wars, the infantry force was stretched thin, and some things that were originally done by the navy (such as going to Fujian to extort Zheng Chenggong) were also left to the cavalry. At that time, Wu Aheng led the main force of the fleet to clean up the Rakshasa ghosts around Sakhalin Island.
In the first month of the first year of Taichu, Zheng Chenggong, the commander-in-chief of Fujian and the crown prince, rejected the Qi creditors who came all the way to ask for debts. Not only did they not pay the ransom (Zheng Zhilong was still under house arrest in Da Qi), he also took away several of the people brought by Li Dingguo. All his men were killed.
In Xiamen, the pirates of the Zheng family pointed at the young cavalry commander and told him to get out of here. Whether Zheng Zhilong is dead or alive in Liaodong has nothing to do with their surname Zheng, because this despicable villain who betrayed the Ming Dynasty has long been punished. The Zheng family name was removed from the genealogy.
"Take off his horse and take off his armor! Put him back! Let Liu Zhaosun give up this thought and stop sending people to die! Also, if your Qi merchant ships dare to come to Fujian and Zhejiang to do business again, I will rob him every time I see him !”
The servants rushed forward, punched and kicked Li Dingguo until Li Dingguo fell to the ground and could not move, and then left with satisfaction.
~~~~
Although this man with a relaxed appearance, a sword in his hand and a ragged uniform was barefoot, he still looked like a soldier.
He walked slowly and leisurely.
In Fujian, no one is waiting for him, and the same is true in Jiangxi.
If his parents still remember him, they may think he is still alive, or they may think he is dead, because there is no news that he is still alive.
He remembered that his parents had been dead for many years.
It's sunny now, it hasn't rained yet, the jungle is full of flowers and the birds are chirping.
Li Dingguo wiped some blood on his face, put away his knife, and wearing tattered clothes, he looked more like a beggar. He kept walking towards the north. Begging along the way, passed Gexian Mountain and entered Jiangxi.
The weather was cold, the moon was sparse, and a pine forest and sandy land appeared under the moonlight.
Li Dingguo took a waist knife and walked for a long time on the mountain road in the rugged area. At dawn, he hid in the shadow of a few trees.
Two people who looked like bandits came over and tried to steal his things. Even though he repeatedly said loudly that he had no money and was a poor man, the bandits still refused to give up.
In desperation, Li Dingguo had no choice but to kill one of them with a knife.
Although Li Dingguo had never been on the battlefield, he followed the refugees begging for food when he was a child and saw many dead people. Moreover, in the Guards and the Cavalry Regiment, he had heard the thrilling murder stories told by the veterans, so now that he was killing someone for the first time, he did not feel scared at all. On the contrary, he was a little excited.
The unfortunate bandit was dragged to the middle of the mountain road, and Li Dingguo took out all the money from the dead man.
The surviving robber followed Li Dingguo for five miles in the pine forest. When Li Dingguo walked, he walked, and when Li Dingguo stopped, he stopped.
Later, the man couldn't hold on any longer. He held a broken knife and cursed in Hakka while panting:
"Take the southern path, close the firewood head, and get out of the thief!"
Li Dingguo also responded in Yulin dialect of Shaanxi Province:
"Two hammers! Melon skin! Coward! Get out!"
The bandits were so angry and anxious that they all ran away.
When we arrived at Shangrao Fucheng, it was dark.
Li Dingguo ate a few fried sardines and drank half a bowl of wine (bought in front of an inn). He didn't have much money left and could not afford accommodation. He only had enough to survive tomorrow, so he got under a carriage next to the inn. , wrapped in a tattered cloak and fell asleep.
He slept peacefully, dreaming that he had returned to the capital in the first year of Wuding, and that Li Dingguo, who was less than ten years old, was fighting against bandits.
There were flames all over the city, corpses were everywhere, and the Qi army who died of the plague could not see the end at a glance.
This time, Wu did not die, and Qi was not defeated. Li Dingguo rushed to the front of the team, protecting his benefactors Shen Lian and Wei Zhao, and fought out of Yongding Gate. The bandits were defeated. Li Xianzhong and other bandit leaders were killed. It was hung high on the Meridian Gate Tower, waiting for the Emperor of Qi to review.
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