Chapter 6 Shaheyi
Chang Mao, Duke of Zheng, took the lead and ordered his men to break down the door. After a while, there will be a small official like the postmaster, welcoming people and sending them off. The most important thing is to have the eyesight to know who can be offended and who cannot be offended. He only had to look at the fur coats on Duke Zheng and Feng Sheng, Duke of Song, to know that they could not afford to offend them.
Gein's fur coat looks ordinary, but it is the fur of wild beasts. Carefully maintained. The snow falls but is not slippery, and the fur is fair without a trace of mottled color. Even a lot of money may not be able to buy it.
The postmaster immediately nodded and bowed without waiting to speak.
Chang Mao had already asked his men to throw down a token and said: "Bring up all the best things in your station."
Feng Sheng went directly to the inn lobby and saw a large bonfire in the inn lobby. Without saying a word, Feng Sheng leaned forward and stretched out his hands to warm the fire. After a while, I felt warm all over my body, and my whole body seemed to come to life.
Feng Sheng then stood up and said, "Go and see if the soldiers have been settled."
Chang Mao said: "I won't go."
Feng Sheng frowned and looked at Chang Mao. Chang Mao then stood up impatiently.
Feng Sheng looked at Chang Mao's appearance and thought to himself: "If Chang Yuchun were alive and saw his son like this, I don't know how angry he would be."
At any time, generals should always be concerned about the condition of their soldiers. Whether you are leading hundreds of soldiers or hundreds of thousands of people, this general principle remains unchanged. Chang Yuchun is even more like this. Chang Yuchun will never rest until the people below him are settled.
Feng Sheng couldn't bear the cold anymore, so he warmed himself by the fire first and then went on inspection. If Chang Yuchun was the general, he would definitely reprimand Feng Sheng. Because spring is always here, no matter how frozen it is, I will patrol first and then warm myself up by the fire.
It's just that he is only a son-in-law, not a son, and he is still the Duke of the country. If it was Feng Sheng's son, he would be slapped with a loud mouth right now.
Feng Sheng sighed and took Chang Mao and Feng Cheng on a tour.
Feng Sheng was shocked during this inspection.
First of all, Shaheyi has a lot of space. There are hundreds of rooms. All the soldiers were settled. There are also large areas of flat open space in the yard. There is a lot of wood beside the courtyard wall. Feng Sheng could tell at a glance that it was not firewood, but for setting up camp. Support tent site.
This is an open space. Plus the open space outside. There are tens of thousands of troops stationed at this post station, so it is definitely not a problem, and it can even be more.
It should be noted that this is not the middle and late Ming Dynasty. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, it is normal for Shaheyi, a post station on the main transportation road, to have hundreds of rooms. But now, there are only a few hundred thousand people in Liaodong. There are almost no merchants taking the Liaoxi Corridor. An inn with hundreds of houses is clearly a waste.
Feng Sheng observed carefully and found that the wood in the house was somewhat new. It had been built for no more than half a year, or even a few months.
We even found several mountains of dirt outside. Feng Sheng drew out his long sword. Stab it in. Pulling it out again, I found that the sword was stained with some black. It's nothing but coal.
When Feng Sheng saw this, he already had some ideas in his mind. Returning to the lobby of the post station, he called the postmaster over and said, "Has this place been expanded this year?"
"The Duke Mingjian, as the Duke said, this place was expanded in the second half of this year. It was just a small castle before. In the second half of this year, a hundred households were sent to renovate the place like this. To be honest, these hundreds of rooms, It takes a lot of effort to clean up. There are not so many people on weekdays." The postmaster said with an apologetic smile.
Feng Sheng knew that the most tiring part of marching and fighting was setting up camp.
Don't look at setting up camp. It's just a few words, but it's difficult to do. Generally speaking, in order to set up camp, the army must stop advancing at about four o'clock in the afternoon. First cut down the trees, build a wooden wall, and build a walkway above the wooden wall. People can patrol it. As for the tower, there are also inner roads, tents, drainage ditches, etc. It's even more tiring work, much more tiring than rushing on the road.
But it has to be done. Otherwise, others will attack the camp in the middle of the night. It is a situation where the entire army collapses.
Of course, when marching and fighting, there are many changes, and it cannot always be like this. When there is a lightly armed sneak attack, you don't even bring a tent. When sleeping in the field with a blanket. But most of the time, it is necessary to build a strong camp.
Now the expanded Shaheyi is the prototype of a camp. Even the various ministries have arranged their positions. Saves a lot of work.
It is difficult to increase marching speed.
Feng Sheng said: "Is there enough food in the inn?"
The postmaster said: "That's enough. There are two large granaries. More than three hundred stones."
Feng Sheng said, "More than three hundred stones? Are all the inns along the way like this?"
The postmaster said, "I don't know how many stones of food they have. But I know that every post station has less than a few hundred stones. There are even several big stations with more than a thousand stones. I doubt that the superiors will keep us for several years." The food will be distributed."
This was not what Feng Sheng had in mind.
A strong man needs to eat one liter a day. Ten thousand people are one hundred dan, and three hundred dan is enough to feed 30,000 people for a day. If all the stations along the way were like this, it would be enough for the 30,000-strong army to march north along the Liaodong Station at a speed of hundreds of miles a day.
Even faster.
In fact, the biggest problems with slow marching in ancient times were three.
The first one carries a lot of luggage. It’s not just people walking by themselves.
The second one is that in ancient times, fighting required physical strength, and traveling quickly consumed too much physical strength. Physical recovery also takes time. Even if you run away in a hurry and have no strength to fight, wouldn't it be like giving away someone's life? Instead of doing this, it is better to keep conserving your energy.
The third is to set up camp and keep alert, which is a waste of time.
However, now these three problems have been solved.
First of all, you don’t need to carry any luggage, and the stations along the way will take care of your meals. Even if they go there, the stations along the way will probably be exhausted.
Secondly, after all, Liaodong is within the territory of the Ming Dynasty. With the Liaodong Army present, there may be a small group of Tatars infiltrating, but it is almost impossible for the Tatar army to suddenly appear. You don’t have to conserve your energy too much, and you save a lot of time setting up camp, so you can walk for a while longer.
Calculated in this way, it is not impossible to travel a hundred miles a day.
After all, traveling a hundred miles a day is very fast, but in fact it is only a little longer than a full marathon. Please note that the current marathon record has been set within two hours. That is just one hour, although professional athletes cannot compare to ordinary people. Nowadays, no matter how light the soldiers are, they still need to carry weapons. However, it is still feasible to use five hours to make someone else's journey for one hour.
In this way, it is possible to raid Ahachu.
One of the differences between Feng Sheng and Fu Youde in the previous battle was which path to take.
Aha was stationed in Zhaozhou, which was west of Harbin in later generations. Near Zhaozhou County. Some people think that troops should be sent from Daning. After all, the Ming Dynasty has troops stationed and grain stores in Daning. On the other hand, I thought we could go to Liaodong to send troops. After all, in the northernmost part of Liaodong, Zhenbeiguan is not far from Zhaozhou, and Daning is not far from Zhaozhou. However, most of the imperial army is now located in Monan and Beiping. If we send troops from Liaodong, we need to pass through the entire Liaodong.
The wear and tear on this route must also be taken into account.
It's just that the situation here gave Feng Sheng some ideas, that is, to attack in the east and attack in the west. Gather a large army in Daning to lure the Tatars to defend themselves. Then send an army to penetrate directly into the enemy's rear from Liaodong.
Of course, it's just an idea now. After all, many war ideas seem simple. But it is difficult to do.
Although information transmission is very problematic these days. However, the movement of the army is also very problematic these days. Traveling hundreds of miles a day is almost the limit, and most generals do not dare to do this. Therefore, it is not a problem for the Tatars to determine most of the deployment of the Ming army before the war begins. How to make the army appear in a place where the enemy would not expect it in a short period of time is the key to the problem.
Feng Sheng came up with this idea and asked many questions in detail. Such as those piles of coal. Enough to make fires and cook for tens of thousands of people.
The postmaster explained the situation one by one. Only then did Feng Sheng realize that most of these things, including food, were transported by sea. Supplementary in various places. Feng Sheng became very interested in the situation at sea again, but the postmaster was just a small official as big as a sesame seed and a mung bean, so he understood the things he was responsible for. But he doesn't know about these things that are beyond his responsibility.
