In the night sky, under the bright moon and stars.
Zhang Guangda, the guerrilla general of Xuanfu Town in the Ming Dynasty, his face turned red from holding back. He stammered: "Damn it, I have to think of a way to fight and capture this kid Hauge alive, and then piss the slave chief Hong to death alive." too?'"
"Yes, that's it!"
Zhang Cheng continued excitedly: "Have you ever watched "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms"?"
""Three Kingdoms"?"
Everyone looked at Zhang Cheng with great confusion, and Zhang Guangda continued: "It's impossible to see, but we heard that Mr. Shu said a few paragraphs."
He raised his hand and scratched his beard, and asked, "What does this have to do with what we just said?"
Zhang Cheng looked away from them, looked at the Qing army camp on the other side of the Xiaoling River again, and said: "Zhuge Liang's Three Qi Zhou Yu, have you heard of it?"
"I've heard it before, but what does this have to do with us." Zhang Guangda was still confused.
After all, Wei Zhice was a scholar. He was familiar with classics when he was at home. At this time, he added: "There is indeed this story in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" written by Huhai Sanren. However, it is not recorded in the "Three Kingdoms". I guess it is also a predecessor." A fabrication."
When he said this, he fisted and palmed each other fiercely, and said in surprise: "Ah! Does the commander want to imitate "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and also have a three-qi slave chief Hong Tai?"
"Hahaha!"
Zhang Cheng laughed and said: "It's not impossible to be angry with Hong Tai with three qi, but it's not impossible to be angry with him!"
Zhang Guodong also came forward and asked, "What's your clever plan, Commander-in-Chief?"
"The secret must not be revealed!"
…………
In the past few days, both the Ming and Qing Dynasties were mobilizing troops and generals, and various armies and horses were constantly moving back and forth. At first glance, it looked very lively, but in fact, no major battles occurred, only some small-scale battles occasionally occurred. Sentinel and Cavalry Confrontation.
The Qing army Prince Rui Dorgon's cavalry also retreated one after another and formed a formation twenty miles east of Baimiao Fort to protect the safety of Baimiao Fort. There were no more Qing troops stationed at the northern foot of Rufeng Mountain and Shimen Mountain.
After being confirmed by the sentries, the Ming army finally took action. The troops and horses of Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Miyun, lined up on the west side of the northern foot of Rufeng Mountain to protect the flanks of the army and prepare to cover the army's crossing to save the Jin Dynasty.
Directly to the north of Shimen Mountain and Rufeng Mountain, the Ming Army's company camps are lined up in rows. From west to east are the troops of three generals: Bai Guangen, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, and Ma Ke, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan.
Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was bent on cultivating and supporting Wu Sangui in order to use his hand to completely rectify the complicated forces of Liaodong generals.
The original intention was to use this battle of Jinzhou with the Qing Dynasty to grandly launch Wu Sangui so that he could obtain his first victory in the Liao War, so that he could be promoted to the chief military officer of Liao Town.
Hong Chengchou believed that with his own planning, it would be just around the corner to replace the unruly Zu Dashou with Wu Sangui!
Unexpectedly, Zhang Cheng appeared in the middle of the road. After completely defeating Chuang Rebellion in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, he had met Zhang Cheng when he was ordered to go to Beijing to serve as King Qin.
Although I was a little surprised at the time, I didn't really take Zhang Cheng to heart. After all, as a governor-general, I've probably seen countless brave generals and generals. How could he guerrilla an unknown young man? Live your heart.
However, this time he, a scheming frontier official, did make a mistake. Since the war in Jinzhou has begun, it is Zhang Cheng who has attracted the most attention.
Several times when Hong Chengchou had no intention of sleeping late at night, he would always compare Wu Sangui and Zhang Cheng with each other. In his opinion, both of them were equally outstanding and rising stars in the army.
Wu Sangui was born tall and handsome, and he had been in the army since he was a child. He was an outstanding military commander and good at both civil and military affairs. He also had the protection and support of the generals of Liaodong, and he was able to achieve today's achievements and take up the post of regimental training commander.
The same goes for Zhang Cheng. He also came from a military family in Xuanzhen. He was also a leader in the army and a young hero. However, his family was the most distinguished in the army, but his uncle Zhang Yan was only a general.
Hong Chengchou still can't figure out why Zhang Cheng was able to be supported by Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang successively, and now he was protected by his own soldier Chen Xinjia, and he was even more favored.
Now, Hong Chengchou also knew that with Wu Sangui, no matter how successful he was in the future, it would be difficult to overshadow Zhang Cheng.
After all, the ability to kill a slave king cannot be obtained at any time, and even if Wu Sangui is lucky enough to kill another slave king, he will not be crushed to death by Zhang Chengzhuyu in front of him.
But no matter what, Hong Chengchou must try to help Wu Sangui up. Even if he cannot overtake Zhang Cheng, he will at least be ranked second in military merit.
After all, no matter how brave Zhang Cheng is, he is still a guest army. Once the Jinbao is over, he will have to return to Xuanfu Town. At that time, Wu Sangui was not the most famous in Liaodong for his military achievements.
Therefore, this arrangement was for this purpose. Hong Chengchou placed Wu Sangui's Ningyuan Army in the middle, in order to tell the generals to cross the river to save Jin, and Wu Sangui's troops and horses were the main attack.
In order to make the future battle across the river go smoothly, he sent the two criminal generals Bai Guangen and Ma Ke to the front line again, using them as assisting troops on both wings.
Hong Chengchou even promised them that as long as the battle across the river could reach the north bank, the two of them would be able to atone for their previous sins.
The reason why he did this was to encourage Bai Guangen and Ma Ke to move forward bravely in the battle across the river in order to redeem themselves through meritorious service.
As long as the army can cross the Nvnu River and set up a camp on the north bank, even if the siege of Jinzhou cannot be solved in one fell swoop, Jinzhou will be close at that time and the siege of Jinzhou can be solved at any time.
When the time comes, wouldn’t it be a great achievement to report it to the court?
At that time, even if Zhang Cheng had the miraculous ability to kill the slave thieves and the puppet king, Wu Sangui had the first ability to rescue Jin Wei, and the two might have a chance to share the fate.
For this reason, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, did not even plan to mobilize the Xuanfu army to participate in the battle against Nuerhe. However, he transferred all the soldiers from the front camp of Shenji Camp stationed in the Huangtu Ridge area to the foot of Shimen Mountain. Please provide the strongest artillery support to the army crossing the river.
Zhang Cheng did not agree with this, but Fu Yingchong, the deputy general of the Shenji Camp, was so angry that he yelled that Hong Chengchou was a straight mother.
Of course, Fu Yingchong was unwilling to return, which meant scolding him behind his back, and he did not dare to disobey Governor Ji Liao's general order. On the second day after receiving the transfer order, he rectified the army, horse and artillery carriage, bid farewell to Zhang Cheng, and went to Shimen Go hiking.
As a result, only Zhang Cheng, Wang Pu, and Li Fuming's Xuan Da army were stationed on the Huangtu Ridge side.
However, Wang Pu's Datong Army soldiers and horses were stationed a few miles away on the north side of Huangtu Ridge. According to the military orders of Governor Hong Chengchou, his troops would march north along the Xiaoling River at the beginning of the war.
The Datong Army will march all the way north to the intersection of the Nuerhe River and the Xiaoling River, and then look at the progress of the fighting and wait for opportunities to support various places. However, Li Fuming's Shanxi Army does not have many troops, and it also has to garrison the Empress Palace and the Xiaoling River. Linghekou was originally insufficient for use.
In this way, the only troops Zhang Cheng could mobilize and command were the Xuanfu Town soldiers and horses under his command, and they also had to be stationed at Huangtu Ridge to guard against sneak attacks by the Zhenglan Banner Tatars on the other side of the Xiaoling River.
Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, made this arrangement clearly because he did not want Zhang Cheng to make new achievements again, so that Wu Sangui would have the opportunity to stand out.
Zhang Cheng did not have any objections to this, but he also knew that he was now the most accomplished in the military, and if he continued to contend in everything, he would probably arouse the jealousy and even hatred of the other commanders-in-chief.
After all, Zhang Cheng is not leading the army alone, and he still has to take into account the thoughts of other generals.
In fact, this situation happened all over the Ming Dynasty, especially when the bandits were rampant, several general soldiers were often gathered to encircle and suppress them. However, once that group of troops had made many achievements, other general soldiers were not only unmotivated, Instead, he showed more slackness.
Therefore, he did not fight for the chance to fight in front of Hong Chengchou. Of course, Zhang Cheng also wanted to take this opportunity to give his men a rest, so as not to exhaust the soldiers physically and mentally, which would affect the morale of the army.
Since the Xuanfu Army entered the Liao Dynasty, especially after arriving at Songshan, the soldiers of each battalion have entered a state of high tension. Although after several battles, most of them have dispelled their previous fear of the Tatars.
However, after successive battles, everyone's energy and physical strength were greatly exhausted. Although Lien Zhan and Lianjie were very morale-boosting, the battle losses were also considerable, completely exceeding the damage caused by the Xuanfu army in previous battles.
Therefore, each battalion, from the general to the sergeant, also needs to go through an adaptation process. This process is still extremely cruel, and it comes at the cost of losing the lives of comrades who live with them day and night, and even the lives of relatives.
Now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to rest and recuperate the soldiers under your command. Some battalions that have suffered excessive battle losses can also take advantage of this time to make some adjustments or replenishment.
Zhang Cheng's aid to the Liao Dynasty this time. Except for the auxiliary battalion of Zhang Guangda's cavalry camp, which was a regular sergeant, the other battalions also had hundreds to more than a thousand military men and women accompanying the army.
None of these military servants were wearing armor, and they were not wearing red mandarin duck war jackets, but dark blue jackets with the word "husband" on their chests and backs to show their identities.
These military men have all participated in camp exercises to some extent before they went to war with the army. Some of them were even originally garrison troops in various forts. The reason why they signed up to join the army was simply to earn some wages and rewards.
You must know that Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army never randomly recruits young men to serve as military servants, except in times of emergency, and even then they usually take care of food or pay wages.
As for the husbandmen recruited before the army sets off, there are many rules. In addition to the most basic requirements of being clean and having neighbors as guarantors, they must also be physically fit and participate in camp drills for at least three months. Can.
If a strong man with such conditions were placed elsewhere, he would probably be as qualified as a sergeant.
In fact, Zhang Cheng didn't know that his method of selecting military men was just a compromise.
This is because the generals in each town in the Ming Dynasty, whether they are the general soldiers of a town, or deputy generals and participating generals of assisting defenders, separate defenders, or guerrillas, all have quotas for the number of troops and horses they can lead.
Acts like Zhang Cheng's, commanding tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the name of deputy commander-in-chief of Xuanzang, is not something ordinary people dare to do. After all, such behavior cannot escape the suspicion of arrogance.
A brave man like Zhang Cheng also attached the soldiers and horses of each battalion to several guerrilla generals such as Zhang Guangda, Chen Zheng, Zhang Guodong, Wei Zhice, etc. He directly commanded only a few thousand troops of the standard battalion.
Of course, all these appearances were just to fool the bureaucrats in the court. In fact, the tens of thousands of Xuanfu troops who aided Liao this time were completely controlled by Zhang Cheng, including those originally commanded by Yang Guozhu. More than ten thousand elite soldiers.
Zhang Cheng was also slowly learning and making progress in the way of generals to control the army, but he knew two things very well. One was that whoever controls the money and food controls the army; With hope, they will not leave, but will stay in this team to bear witness to hope.
Historical experience has proven that within a team, there must be a program that can be implemented from beginning to end, and a leader who can guide everyone in the direction.
In this way, the team can continue to grow and attract better talents to join us.
This is also the key reason why today's officials are always very concerned about their personal reputation. Once their personal reputation is ruined and their reputation becomes bad, they will no longer be able to rally people to their side.
Therefore, although Zhang Cheng did not care much about his false reputation, he still tried his best to maintain it and did not dare to do anything too arrogant.
At the military meeting at the governor's camp the day before yesterday, he rarely spoke, and Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, no longer frequently named Zhang Cheng and asked him to express his position as before.
Zhang Cheng was surprised by this at first, but when he saw Wang Chengen, the eunuch of the Bureau of Ceremony, Bingbi, who was sitting next to Hong Chengchou, he understood everything instantly.
It turned out that because of Wang Chengen's arrival, Hong Chengchou wanted to take the opportunity to make Wu Sangui show his face in front of Wang Chengen, so he operated like this.
He first discussed the military strategy with his staff, governor Qiu Minyang and others, and then secretly informed Wu Sangui about the strategy. Finally, during the military meeting, Wu Sangui proposed it.
As a result, the governor of Jiliao, Hong Chengchou, and the governor of Liaodong, Qiu Minyang, would naturally be very supportive. Although the plan itself was by no means impeccable, it was nevertheless quite satisfactory.
When everyone saw that the governor agreed, they would no longer be picky. In this way, Wu Sangui would show his face in front of Wang Chengen and make some military exploits in the future.
Once the good news comes to the emperor and Wang Chengen hears it, Wu Sangui will once again show his merits in front of the emperor, and his promotion and appointment in the future will naturally be no problem.
The two troops, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Ting'en, whom Hong Chengchou trusted the most, were used as reserve forces together with Hong Chengchou's Supervisor Biao and Qiu Minyang's Fu Biao.
If Wu Sangui, Bai Guangen, and Ma Ke can successfully break through the Qing army's defense line on the north bank, they will immediately cross the river in order to expand the front and create a strategic depth, which will facilitate the formation of the army.
Regarding Hong Chengchou's strategic deployment, Zhang Cheng actually had reservations in his heart.
He was not very in favor of forcibly crossing the Nvnu River. After all, the Qing army on the other side was not a fool. It would definitely block our army when it crossed the river. Even if the river was successfully crossed in the end, it might not be able to break the siege, and it would suffer heavy losses.
However, looking at the situation during the military meeting, it was obvious that Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, had already made up his mind, and Zhang Cheng did not make any suggestions during the military meeting!
(End of chapter)
