It turned out that even the slaves had the custom of celebrating the New Year. Wu Sangui had been in Liaodong for a long time and was naturally familiar with this. So on the second and third day of the first lunar month, he gathered more than 3,400 oxen, mules and donkey carts to load them. There are more than 15,000 stones of grain, rice and flour.
He successfully escaped the surveillance of Jiannu at noon on the seventh day of the first lunar month, successfully transported grain to Jinzhou City, and was able to lead his army safely back to Ningyuan to return to Governor Hong Chengchou.
As a result, he was greatly praised by Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, and Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong. His popularity was unparalleled for a while, and he seemed to be a role model for the generals in Liao Town.
However, everyone believed that Wu Sangui was willing to take the risk to go to Jinzhou to supervise the transportation of grain, which showed that his courage was far above that of other generals, and he was sincere in his work and extremely loyal.
Coupled with the full support of his father Wu Xiang and uncle Zu Dashou, what's more, Wu Sangui himself is also very good at life. He is fond of people, friendly to others, and does not have the arrogance of a famous family. He is not only praised by officials and generals in Liaodong, but also It also received rave reviews in the capital.
This may be the strength of Liaodong generals, or it may be the strength of the "Liao pay" interest group. At least in Zhang Cheng's eyes, the annual six million taels of "Liao pay" is by no means that simple. There must be an extremely huge benefit. The group is behind it.
Wu Sangui was even better at clinging. Gao Qiqian had previously been in charge of the Liaodong armies. Wu Sangui considered him his adoptive father at that time and received a lot of help from him.
Later, when Fang Yizao became the governor of Liaodong, Wu Sangui immediately "became his disciple" and became the student of Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong.
But being Fang Yizao's student was not enough. Wu Sangui even made an alliance with Fang Guangchen, Fang Yizao's son. This shows that Wu Sangui was not only brave and good at fighting, but also inherited the high level of social skills from his father Wu Xiang.
After Hong Chengchou became the governor of Jiliao, Wu Sangui once again used his old tricks and successfully became the disciple of Hong Chengchou and became the governor's disciple.
At the same time, in order to quickly enter Hong Chengchou's inner circle, he went to great lengths to curry favor with Hong Chengchou's most trusted aide, Xie Sixin, and became close friends with him. In this way, Wu Sangui was completely integrated into Hong Chengchou's inner circle.
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Zhang Cheng looked sideways at Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, and his expression of reliance on Wu Sangui was very obvious.
In comparison, Liu Zhaoji, who was also a general in Liaodong, was a bit embarrassed to be the commander-in-chief of Liaodong. In terms of background and prestige, he could not compare with Wu Sangui at this moment.
In fact, in order to further rectify the military affairs in Liaodong, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was already considering using Wu Sangui to replace Liu Zhaoji as the commander-in-chief of Liaodong. Fortunately, a gap was opened in the complex Liaodong to replace the old warlords with a younger generation of military generals.
Zhang Cheng couldn't help laughing when he thought of this. He stepped forward and said enthusiastically to Wu Sangui: "Brother Chang Bo, the leader of Liaodong, fought with 20 horses in an array of 40,000 slaves and bandits, and he was still able to escape unscathed.
Last year, he had outstanding military exploits, winning consecutive battles, and actually forced the slaves to move their camps and retreat. Zhang Cheng admired him endlessly, especially his ingenious strategy of transporting grain to Jinzhou. Although the army was in danger, only his elder brother could do it. .
Zhang Cheng’s glass of wine should be dedicated to Wu Shuai. Respect our Liaodong soldiers! "
Wu Sangui also had no ink at all, and he drank three glasses of wine with Zhang Cheng boldly. However, Zhang Cheng always felt that Wu Sangui seemed to be slightly jealous of him.
Perhaps it was because he was a member of a general family and had countless connections, but today he seemed to be robbed of the limelight by his younger self, and he suddenly felt jealous.
However, this kind of psychology has always been extremely subtle, and ordinary people cannot feel it!
After Wu Sangui and Zhang Cheng had a drink, all the generals from Jiliao Town rushed forward and toasted to Zhang Cheng and Chen Jiugao, causing the originally elegant table to become noisy.
Zhang Cheng has a huge amount of food, but he doesn't refuse anyone who comes. One bowl after another, everyone exclaims how heroic and powerful he is.
After drinking for a while, Zhang Cheng suddenly saw Fu Yingchong, Tang Tong and Wang Pu gathered together again. Each of them was rolling a cigarette, puffing on clouds and talking about some private things, and from time to time there was a burst of lust. Shenglang laughed.
He hurriedly looked for his general Lin Fangping, and saw him looking over at the table in the corner. He hurriedly waved his hand to call him over, whispered a few words in Lin Fangping's ear, and then started drinking with the generals again. .
Regarding the generals sitting here today, Zhang Cheng almost collected some information on all those who held the rank of deputy general, general or above. He generally collected information about where each person was stationed, their population and farming situation, and the number of servants and soldiers under his command. Understand something, especially about the situation of the generals in Liao Town.
Because Liaodong Town was different from other border towns, since the defeat in the Battle of Guangning, Liaoyang, Shenyang, and Guangning were all lost, and only the Western Liaoning Corridor was still controlled by the Ming Dynasty.
As early as before Wanli, the Ming Dynasty still had a vast land in Liaodong. Although it was bitterly cold and not as conducive to farming as the Central Plains, it could still meet the basic rations of the people by growing its own grain.
But now there is only a narrow strip of land in the Western Liaoning Corridor. The limited arable land is not only difficult to feed the Liaodong generals, but is also occupied by these military leaders and generals, and all the output belongs to private individuals.
The military households in the forts everywhere became tenants or even slaves under the names of the generals. They were all supported by their masters and were naturally loyal to their masters. This was one of the reasons why the Liao army had outstanding combat power when defending its territory.
Of course, although their combat power is slightly superior, they only listen to the military orders of their own generals, and outsiders cannot call on their commands at all. This is also the reason why the Liaodong General Army was formed.
Afterwards, various generals came to toast Zhang Cheng one after another, such as Bai Guangen, the general of Jizhen, Ma Ke, the general of Shanhaiguan, Tang Tong, the general of Miyun, and Wang Tingchen, the former general of the garrison. They fought against the Tartars in the eleventh year of Chongzhen. When he invaded Japan, he met Zhang Cheng several times and fought together in Jibei.
Moreover, when Cao Bianjiao was the commander-in-chief of Lintao and Zuo Guangxian was the commander-in-chief of Guyuan and followed Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, into the Wei capital, they also killed the Tatars alongside Zhang Cheng and other Xuanda generals.
It was just that Zhang Cheng had few soldiers and was weak at that time, so he was not conspicuous when the generals gathered. It was not until he intercepted Ma Dan and killed Yue Tuo that his statement gradually became known to everyone.
But after the imperial court awarded them rewards, all the generals returned to their respective towns, and they never had the chance to see each other again. It was rare to get together today, and of course they wanted to toast the rising star Brother Zhang with a few bowls of wine.
Despite everyone's apparent admiration for Zhang Cheng, it would be hard to express their enthusiasm without coming over to offer him a bowl of wine.
But Zhang Cheng has always understood the psychology of these warriors, which is that strength comes first, and they will respect whoever is strong.
In his opinion, Ma Ke is undoubtedly the most slippery, Bai Guangen is arrogant, Tang Tong is a bit of a white-faced scholar, Cao Bianjiao is loyal and courageous, Wang Tingchen is also loyal and courageous, Zuo Guangxian is greedy for money, etc.
Ma Ke, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, is also very eloquent. His eloquence is comparable to that of former battalion commander-in-chief Chen Jiugao and deputy general Fu Yingchong.
However, according to my own intelligence, this person is good at eloquence but lacks courage, is timid, and has a lot of tricks.
Just as everyone was changing cups and drinking happily, Lin Fangping came to Zhang Cheng with a box and slowly opened it in front of everyone's surprised eyes.
