Chapter 14: General Zhang has such a big air

Style: Historical Author: A snail is not a cowWords: 4161Update Time: 24/01/18 16:44:39
In the winter of the 14th year of Chongzhen's reign in the Ming Dynasty, Xuanfu North Road and East Road were more lively than before. The soldiers who returned from the victory in Liaodong all received silver rewards. Plus their several months of military pay, it was a considerable income.

Seeing that the New Year is approaching, the soldiers with a lot of money in their arms naturally want to buy a lot. After all, they have been away from home for several months, and when they return in triumph, how can they go home empty-handed?

When Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng was in the capital, he had already issued a military order. All soldiers who went to Liaodong to return to the Xuanfu garrison would temporarily take a ten-day holiday, but they were not allowed to leave the garrison during this period.

After Zhang Cheng returns to the Xuan Mansion to personally preside over the public memorial ceremony for the fallen soldiers, the soldiers in each battalion will have a formal one-month holiday. Only then can they leave the garrison and return to their homes to spend the New Year with their relatives.

Zhang Fuzhen, the governor of Xuanda, also rushed to Yanqing Prefecture from Yanghebao early. He was originally here to welcome Yongning Bo in his triumphant return, but Zhang Cheng stayed in Beijing, so he stayed in Yanqing Prefecture temporarily.

In addition to Zhang Fuzhen, there were also Xuanfu Governor Jiang Yuxu, Deputy Commander-in-Chief Lin Dengyou, General Liu Guangwu and others who also came from the town. They had been living in the Red Castle for many days.

Because Zhang Cheng is now not only the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town and the general of Zhenshuo, he is also the Yongning Bo of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, even civil servants such as Huailong Military Preparation and Baoan Zhizhou gathered in Yongning City to wait for Zhang Cheng 's return.

They got the news that Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng's motorcade had passed Juyong Pass two days ago, so all the officials gathered at Yanqing Prefectural Government Office early in the morning.

At the end of the day, all the officials came out of the government office under the leadership of Governor Zhang Fuzhen. With the support of their own soldiers, they mounted their horses one by one and headed to Zhihe Gate in the east.

Thousands of people had gathered outside the east gate of Yanqing Prefecture City. Almost all the merchants and people in the prefecture city came outside the east gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Yongning Bo's heroic appearance.

Among the soldiers who returned triumphantly from Liaodong this time, there were indeed not many who were from the East Road. After all, the new army, which was mainly trained by soldiers from the East Road, had not yet had a chance to fight.

However, Zhang Guodong's Chicheng Battalion and Chen Zheng's Dushi Battalion also had some East Road disciples. For example, the three tigers of the Chicheng Battalion who had achieved military success during the previous aid campaign in Henan were from Yanqing Prefecture of the East Road.

However, this time, the right part of his Chicheng Battalion was left in Chicheng to reorganize the Yongwei Battalion and failed to participate in the battle to relieve the siege of Jinzhou.

But Cheng Sanhu has also grown from a gunman of the second team of the first division of the right division to a qualified fire brigade officer, and the cold soldier killer Li Erdan who is in the same round with him has also grown into a A commander of a cold-blooded killer.

The Xuanfu army led by Zhang Cheng is no different from other places. Although it also attaches great importance to personal combat skills, personal bravery is not the only prerequisite for becoming an officer.

According to Zhang Cheng's regulations, no matter how outstanding personal combat skills are, they are only the basic qualities of an officer, followed by loyalty, and the most important thing is of course literacy.

Li Erdan's personal combat ability far exceeded that of Cheng Sanhu, but he suffered a big loss in literacy, so Cheng Sanhu was already a team officer, while he was still an armor commander.

Among the Xuanfu army, the largest number were the children of military households on the North Road. Others included the children of military households around the town, as well as the men of common people's families on the East Road and near the capital.

Although there were not the most children from the East Road like Cheng Sanhu, they numbered more than a thousand, more than the children of ordinary military households in the town and around the capital.

Hundreds of people under Yanqing Prefecture alone participated in this battle to aid the Liao Dynasty. Of course, many families returned this time with the ashes of their sons and husbands, but the pensions and silver rewards they received, plus The military salary during this period was also a huge sum of money.

Suddenly, a cloud of smoke and dust rose up from the official road in the southeast, and more than a dozen horsemen galloped over. One of the first men was holding a recognition flag in his hand. It turned out to be the governor Zhang Fuzhen's personal soldiers who went to find out the news.

"Report to the Governor, the Yongning Bo Cavalry is less than one mile away."

Before Governor Zhang Fuzhen said anything, Qi Yuchu from the Huailong Bingdao next to him said, "General Zhang is so arrogant. He actually made Governor Zhang wait here for a long time, but he came late."

Zhang Fuzhen rolled his eyes at him and said angrily: "Uncle Yongning has made great contributions to the country and is the pillar of the country. We can neither go into battle to kill the slaves nor provide them with food, grass and military pay. What does it matter if we wait here for a while!"

Zhang Fuzhen is an anomaly among scholars. He is not afraid of taking advantage of others and is good at using troops. He once joined forces with Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, to suppress bandits in the northwest, which was quite effective.

However, his character was quite stubborn and almost unreasonable. In the fifth year of Chongzhen's reign, he was appointed as the censor of Yandu, Yansui. However, he couldn't stand the idea of ​​killing good people and taking merit for their merits, so he often wrote letters of impeachment, thus incurring the inconvenience of his colleagues and generals. After a collective struggle, Chongzhen was finally dismissed from office and replaced by Chen Qiyu.

In the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, the Qing army invaded the customs and plundered, and Beijing was under martial law. Zhang Fuzhen was re-appointed as the right minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of Ji Liao Baoding, and then he was given the title of left minister. Soon, he resigned and returned home on the grounds of serving his mother.

It was not until the thirteenth year of Chongzhen that it was used again. This time he was appointed governor of Xuanda. Since taking office, he has painstakingly managed the military defense of Xuanda and made many achievements.

Because of his personality, he was very disdainful of Huailong's words about preparing troops for Qi Yuchu, so he did not have a good attitude toward him. On the contrary, he had a very favorable impression of Zhang Cheng.

In his opinion, looking at the generals in the entire Ming Dynasty, there are only a few people who can match Zhang Cheng's ability to run the army and fight.

After just reprimanding Qi Yuchu, Zhang Fuzhen stood up and walked forward. Qi Yuchu followed Zhang Fuzhen cautiously with a strange light in his eyes and headed east to meet him.

About a quarter of an hour later, a large cloud of smoke and dust rose into the sky from the official road to the east, followed by the rapid and neat sound of horse hooves hitting the ground.

"Here it comes, Governor! It's Bo Yongning's army coming." Li Yiming, the security commander, took a step forward and whispered excitedly beside Governor Zhang Fuzhen.

He and Zhang Cheng had met several times before, and Zhang Cheng was already the deputy commander-in-chief of the Xuan Mansion and the commander-in-chief of the North and East Road local military forces before he launched a campaign to suppress Henan. He was also considered his old superior, so he naturally wanted to move forward. Get together.

I saw a cavalry team of hundreds of people galloping slowly in the distance. They were all one person and two horses, wearing uniform armor. Each person held the reins in his left hand to control the horse, and held a pole tightly in his right hand. The tip of the tiger spear was raised diagonally forward, with a murderous aura.

The cavalry stopped about twenty or thirty steps away from Xuanda Governor Zhang Fuzhen. They retreated on both sides of the wide official road, each pointing their horses' heads toward the inside of the official road, and the tips of their spears were also tilted. relatively.

Immediately afterwards, he saw a young general wearing fine armor given by the emperor, riding on a chrysanthemum-green war horse, slowly moving forward. He was really heroic and extraordinary.

There were two generals beside him, one on the left and one on the right. One was equally young and handsome, but lacked the heroic spirit. The other looked like a veteran, and looked very heroic while riding a horse, but was no longer young. hansome.

The visitors were none other than the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town of the Ming Dynasty, General Zhenshuo, Yongning Bo Zhang Cheng, as well as the chief military officer of Datong Town Wang Pu and the chief military officer of Shanxi Town Li Fuming.

It turned out that most of the soldiers from the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong and Shanxi had returned to their bases, but Zhang Cheng ordered the Tiger Guard Camp, Dengfeng Camp, and the left part of the chariots from the Che Camp to stay at Juyong Pass to wait for Zhang Cheng's arrival. Later they returned to Xuanfu together.

Also accompanying this trip were Zhang Cheng's concubine Tang Chunru, who had caught up later, and the carriages of Wu's aunt and daughter. Of course, their carriages were at the back, and there was no need for them to get out of the car and show up in Yanqing Prefecture.

Zhang Cheng rode his horse forward and came ten steps in front of the governor of Xuanda, Zhang Fuzhen, before reining in his horse. After he dismounted, he stepped forward and simply clasped his fists and said, "Zhang Cheng has seen the governor."

He went on to say: "Zhang Cheng is so virtuous and capable that he dares to go out of the city to greet me."

Zhang Fuzhen, with a smile on his face, cupped his fists and returned the salute: "Uncle Yongning killed slaves for the country, saved Jinzhou from water and fire, and reversed the decline of Liaodong. Fuzhen admires him deeply. Now he leads the city officials and people to welcome Uncle Yongning. It is natural for you!"

At this time, Wang Pu and Li Fuming also dismounted from their horses and came forward. They were not as noble as Zhang Cheng and could meet with officials without paying homage. If he wanted to show off, even Zhang Fuzhen, the governor of Xuanda, would have to pay homage to him.

I saw the two of them walking in front of the governor Zhang Fuzhen. They immediately knelt down on one knee, bowed and said: "The last generals Wang Pu and Li Fuming are here to see the governor."

Zhang Fuzhen was not as polite to the two of them as Zhang Cheng. He just said lightly: "The two generals are working hard for the country. Please get up quickly."

But even so, they both felt warm in their hearts.

After they had seen the ceremony, it was the turn of the officials behind Zhang Fuzhen to greet them. Zhang Cheng was not as polite to them as he was to Zhang Fuzhen. He stood firmly beside Governor Zhang Fuzhen and accepted their greetings one by one.

Originally, Zhang Cheng did not plan to stay in Yanqing Prefecture, but Governor Zhang Fuzhen personally greeted him here and even set up a banquet in the city to welcome him, which made him unable to refuse.

Zhang Fuzhen personally took Zhang Cheng's hand and walked with him to the Zhihe Gate in front. Wang Pu and Li Fuming followed them, followed by other civil servants and military generals.

Yanqing Prefecture City is located on the platform on the north bank of Guichuan River. It is surrounded by Juyong in the south, Guanmao in the north and Gushui in the west. It has convenient water and land transportation. This is what the ancients called "a place of beautiful shape".

It is said that in the 29th year of King Yan Zhao, Yanqing and other places belonged to Shanggu County. After Qin unified the six kingdoms, there were thirty-six counties in the world. Yanqing still belonged to Shanggu County, and Juyong County and Shanglan County were established in the Yanqing area. .

By the Tang Dynasty, Yanqing City had established a series of administrative or military agencies such as the Defense Army, Guizhou, Beijuncheng, Ruzhou, and Longqingzhou. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was also the administrative center of Zhenzhou.

Until the third year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, in order to cut off the intrusion of the remaining forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang adopted the policy of strengthening the walls and clearing the country. He abandoned Longqing Prefecture and moved all the people in the Yanqing area to Yutian, Sanhe, Gu'an, Changping and other places in Shuntian Prefecture in Guan Nei. States and counties.

In March of the twelfth year of Yongle, Emperor Zhu Di passed by Yanqing during his second personal expedition to Mobei. He saw that the Yanqing area was located behind the newly-selected imperial mausoleum, with an important geographical location and fertile land, so he ordered people to rebuild Longqing Prefecture. Yongning County was also established, and criminal officials and immigrants from Shanxi and other places were invited to enrich Longqing Prefecture and Yongning County.

In the first year of Longqing, the reign name of the newly succeeded Emperor Mu Zong Zhu Zai was "Longqing". In order to avoid the taboo of his reign name, Longqing Prefecture was renamed Yanqing Prefecture. This is the origin of the name Yanqing.

The current Yanqing Prefecture City was built on the site of the old city before the Yuan Dynasty. The plane is an irregular quadrilateral. The north city wall and the east and west city walls are relatively straight, while the south city wall was built according to the terrain and is slightly irregular. curved shape.

The north wall of Yanqing Prefecture is about 270 feet long, the east and west walls are about 220 feet each, and the south wall is also about 250 feet long. The entire city has a circumference of about 960 feet.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Yanqing City did not have the Nanguan section. There were only three city gates in the south, north and east. The south gate was called "Fengxuan Gate", the north gate was called "Jingyuan Gate", and the east gate was called "Zhihe Gate".

In the fifth year of Xuande, Xue Lu, Marquis of Yangwu, was ordered to make repairs. In the second year of Jingtai, Hu Lian, the magistrate of the state, asked Ji Guang, the deputy general of the army, to lead the army to build the city again. The city wall was two feet high, with a height of one hundred and thirty. step.

In the Zhengde period, the west gate was opened. In the 44th year of Wanli, the Nanguan and Xinbao brick walls were added. So far, Yanqing City has six city gates, a Xishui Gate and a Nanshui Gate. , and the north gate, east gate and south gate of the inner city are all built with Wengcheng.

After Zhang Cheng and Zhang Fuzhen entered the city from the east gate hand in hand, they got on their horses and headed towards the prefecture government. Along the way were welcoming gentry and common people, who squeezed each other forward, all wanting to catch a glimpse of Yongning Bo's heroic appearance.

"Look... General Zhang is so young..."

"Yes, General Zhang is so tall..."

"Don't call me general, now I am Uncle Yongning!"

"Hey, I heard that Uncle Yongning defeated the Tatars in Liaodong. With Uncle Yongning in our Xuanfu, are we not afraid of the Tatars coming?"

Starting from outside the east gate, various voices of discussion broke into Zhang Cheng's ears. He had long been accustomed to these, so he only talked with Zhang Fuzhen all the way to the state government office.

"Wow, Uncle Yongning is so handsome..."

"Yes, tall and handsome..."

Suddenly, several women's exclamations were heard, causing a group of men around them to look sideways.

Zhang Cheng also heard the news and went out, only to see several gorgeous women in red and green standing at the corner of the street, pointing at him constantly, and they looked quite pretty.

However, even though Zhang Cheng has not tasted the taste of such promiscuous women in Fireworks Alley since he came to this world, he doesn't have much interest in them.

In addition to the various beauties around him, there is no shortage of beauties. From the beginning, in order to live, to live a better life, and now for an obsession in his heart, he has been working hard , and I don’t have the time and energy to hang around in the flower streets and willow alleys.

Soon, Zhang Cheng and Zhang Fuzhen arrived in front of the Yimen of the state government. The place was full of soldiers and government officials, and the crowd of onlookers became very sparse.

As a landlord, Huang Daozhong, the magistrate of Yanqing, hurriedly caught up with them and greeted them in front of Yimen. Zhang Fuzhen ignored him and only took Zhang Cheng's hand and entered the state government office together.

(End of chapter)