Langwo Slope, as the name suggests, is located on a gentle slope in a valley, sandwiched between two mountains. The terrain is gentle and flat. There are several mountain streams flowing next to it, which merge into a small river in front of the slope and slowly flow down the mountain.
The mountain gate is built at a bell mouth at the bottom of the slope. It is also built with rocks. There are more than 30 steps of walls on both sides. In addition to the mountain gate, there is also a water gate.
Outside the mountain gate is a river valley plain. Because the streams merge into small rivers to flow through here, it is extremely beneficial for irrigation. There are also some houses and fields here, and large areas of wasteland have been reclaimed.
Although these fields alone are still unable to feed the more than 3,000 people in Yelang Village, they have alleviated most of the grain gap, and there are still some acres in some nearby river valleys. However, due to their concealment, Zhang Cheng did not Just see it.
Zhou Heihu, Zhu Hongwu, Zhu Yiqi and other three people followed Zhang Cheng closely, introducing him to the inside and outside of Langwopo. This cottage indeed occupies a favorable location and has only one entrance and exit.
The space inside the village is extremely vast, and the former owner has been running it for many years. The buildings are fully equipped. Now there are more than 2,000 young people in the village, with a population of more than 1,300 people inside the village. There are also some small villages outside. The total population of the village is more than 3,500.
According to Zhang Cheng's previous instructions, after Zhou Heihu rushed back from the capital on the 15th day of the first lunar month, he selected more than 400 men from among the strong men, and Liu Jinhai sent a team of sentry riders for rigorous training.
By the beginning of May this year, he once again selected more than 500 young and strong men and organized them into the battalion. The new army had already totaled a thousand men.
In the past ten months, Liu Jinhai personally went to Yelang Village to train his soldiers many times, and led them to wipe out all the bandit villages within a radius of three hundred miles.
Now within the three hundred miles around, there is no other bandit den except for the Wolf's Nest Slope. Liu Jinhai even chose two other bandit dens with good location and terrain, and sent hundreds of young and strong soldiers to guard each. Several hundred people were left to farm there to relieve the grain pressure on Yelang Village.
By wiping out the surrounding bandit villages, they not only trained new soldiers, but also plundered a large amount of money, food and other materials, alleviating the shortage of reserves in Yelang Village.
But the most important thing is that it has enhanced the self-confidence of Zhou Heihu and others. They were originally from ordinary farmers, but they lacked the arrogant temperament in their bones. Without these changes, they might have been destined to work in the fields all their lives.
As the saying goes, time is also destiny, and life's fate is too miraculous. A slight change can change a person's life trajectory. Now it seems that Zhou Heihu is the one who has been changed.
He had the will to rebel in his heart, so when he was kidnapped by the slaves and taken to the Fengrun camp, when the Ming army attacked the Qing camp at night, he was unwilling to be a slave and took the opportunity to break out of the camp.
Now Zhou Heihu has more than a thousand soldiers. He sincerely requested to follow Zhang Cheng to Henan to fight against the bandits, but Zhang Cheng declined. He only asked him to use Yelang Village as the foundation for stable development.
He also told Zhou Heihu that he would be put to some important use in the future. Not only would he take him with him to kill the Tatars, but he would also kill them on a large scale, which would definitely avenge him for the massacre of his family.
At the same time, Zhang Cheng also watched the camp drills of the young and strong soldiers in Yelang Village. Except that their armor was slightly scarce, other aspects such as battle formations, morale, etc. were still satisfactory.
Before leaving Yelang Village, Zhang Cheng even promised Zhou Heihu and others that he would allocate armor and weapons to them from Xuan Town in the future, and even equip them with muskets and artillery.
At present, he only needs to practice rigorously. If there is an opportunity to fight against the Tartars in the future, he will definitely ask him to participate. But there is no need to worry at this time.
It took a lot of comfort to stabilize their emotions. After all, most of the young men in Yelang Village had escaped from the Tartar invasion in the eleventh year of Chongzhen.
Most of Gu's family members were slaughtered by the Tartars, and only those who were slightly stronger were robbed. Fortunately, Zhang Cheng attacked the Qing army's camp that night, and they had the opportunity to escape in the chaos.
The hatred for the Tartars has been deeply imprinted in their bones, and they are thinking about revenge every day and every night, so they also work very hard during the training and achieve great results.
Zhang Cheng also saw their enthusiasm, so he refused to go with the army to fight the rogue bandits. He only hoped that when they had the opportunity to fight against the Tartars in the future, they could sincerely take revenge and use their lives sincerely.
After another day's delay in Yelang Village, Zhang Cheng finally caught up with the advancing team in Dingzhou.
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The army rested for three days in Huolu. The army that went out with him this time, including Zhang Cheng's personal bodyguards, totaled nearly 9,000 people in the cavalry, chariot and infantry camps.
In addition, there were nearly 6,000 war horses, mules, and pack horses, as well as more than 500 camels, and more than 300 chariots, chariots, and carts accompanying the army. The camp also occupied an extremely large area. Stretching for miles.
Although most of them are new soldiers, after a year and a half of hard training camp exercises, plus being able to eat well and receiving very good nutritional supplements, everyone's physique has made a qualitative leap. Even if they march long distances, they are not It didn't have a big impact on them.
Moreover, these new troops were deeply honored to be able to accompany the army into battle. They marched singing war songs and beating drums. Their morale remained high.
While the army was resting after harvesting deer, a large amount of grain and grass was transferred from Zhending Mansion, and all the carriages and carts were fully loaded again. After all, according to the Ministry of War's instructions, there were no problems with the supply of grain and grass along the way.
Li Jiuhua, the former admiral of the Jingjing Military Preparation Road and Shanxi Qianshi, has been transferred to Shanxi to take up a post, and his wife Liu has also gone with him.
However, Lu Zhiyin, the general magistrate of Zhending Prefecture and the official of Huolu County, Cao Shixi, the commander of Zhending Guards, and Wei Tiangui, the father of Wei Zhice, a gentry in Huolu County, were especially present because of the friendship between Zhang Cheng and Lu Xiangsheng in rescuing Huolu in the eleventh year of Chongzhen.
They all wanted to entertain Zhang Cheng and other generals warmly, and Zhang Guodong, Zhang Guangda, Chen Zhong and many other generals were participants in that war, so they had endless things to say when they met.
During the past few days of banquets, Cao Shixi, the commander of the Zhending Guards, was the most interested. Zhang Cheng was just a guerrilla at the beginning, but now, only two years later, he was the deputy commander-in-chief of Xuanfu, a major town in the Ming Dynasty. The speed of promotion is not surprising.
What's more, everyone has entered the camp of the army led by Zhang Cheng to comfort them. The nearly 10,000 sergeants, with a neat military appearance, have not slacked off even though they have traveled thousands of miles.
Everyone admired him greatly. Cao Shixi was not a fool. He was also from a military family and had been in the military for generations. He knew how powerful he was, so he made friends with Zhang Cheng wholeheartedly and was very flattering.
Naturally, Zhang Cheng refuses to accept anyone who comes. He knows that the first thing to make a living in troubled times is the foundation. Only with a solid foundation can one compete for supremacy in all directions. The second thing is friends, which can be called interest groups.
But the bigger this group is, the better. Only if it is big will it not be destroyed. If you want to achieve great things, you should spread it all over the world, not just in one corner!
