Needless to say, this army came from the Guan Ning Army, led by Wu Sangui, the deputy general of the forward right battalion, and led a total of 1,500 cavalry troops to Beijing on orders.
Previously, Guan Ning's ancestor Dashou was very dissatisfied when he heard that the governor's residence in Jiliao was to be moved to Shanhaiguan. He got along very well with Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong, and even let his nephew and Fang Yizao's son become sworn brothers. As a result, Governor Ji Liao is coming. Isn’t this an extra immediate boss? The biggest one yet!
For this reason, he discussed with Fang Yizao, and Fang Yizao reported to the court, saying that now there are only three strong cities in Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty: Jinzhou, Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan and their affiliated towns. Now that he is here, he should be there. enough. Jianlu often enters the pass from Jizhen, and the best policy is to have the governor personally keep an eye on him.
As a result, after this memorial was posted, there was no response at all. Instead, it was confirmed that the new Governor of Ji Liao was Sun Chuanting, who had invited the governor of Shaanxi to set up a settlement in Shaanxi. This time, Zu Dashou was even more dissatisfied.
Of course he had heard about Sun Chuanting. I know that this person is like a stone in a latrine, smelly and hard. In Shaanxi, they are not even afraid of offending anyone. Now he has to go to Shanhaiguan to control them and enter Zu Dashou's one-third-acre land, which makes him very uncomfortable.
The same goes for Fang Yizao. The governor turned out to be Sun Chuanting. He felt uncomfortable too! If possible, neither of them wanted Sun Chuanting to be appointed governor of Jiliao.
However, before their evil thoughts arose, they heard that Sun Chuanting was temporarily acting as the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp. During the period of martial law in the capital, during the process of arresting the treason criminals, Sun Chuanting was in charge of the military power of the Beijing camp. This is enough to show that Sun Chuanting was status in the eyes of the emperor. Even Yuan Chonghuan, who had been trusted by the emperor before, did not have this experience.
In this regard, Fang Yizao and Zu Dashou had no choice but to discuss how Sun Chuanting should deal with it after he arrived at Shanhaiguan as the governor of Jiliao?
You must know that in the Guan Ning Army today, the Zu family is the largest force, especially after marrying the Wu family. To put it bluntly, in this one-third of an acre of land from Shanhaiguan to Jinzhou, there are more ancestors than Zhu.
However, what made Zu Dashou breathe a sigh of relief was that after Sun Chuanting arrived, he did not immediately implement his policy of clearing the villages to replenish wages. He did not even mention it. After meeting the generals and officials from various places, he just looked at the governor of Ji Liao. Official documents within the scope of authority.
Although there is no trouble for the time being, Zu Dashou also knows that Sun Chuanting's new official will definitely establish his authority when he takes office. At the moment, humans and animals look harmless, just because he is still familiar with them. For this reason, Zu Dashou secretly guarded against Sun Chuanting.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the emperor issued a decree, specifying that Wu Sangui should be mobilized to lead his cavalry into the pass.
This incident surprised Zu Dashou and others again. A group of people held an urgent discussion and wondered whether it might be related to Sun Chuanting. If they want to confront Sun Chuanting, they had better have enough capital in their hands. Therefore, their original intention was not to let Wu Sangui enter the customs.
For this reason, Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong, prepared to write to the court, saying that the threat from the rebels in Liaodong was too great and it was not appropriate to divide his troops from the Ningjin front line.
When Sun Chuanting asked about the matter, Fang Yizao even "argued hard" and emphasized the power of Jianlu. If Jianlu besieges Jinzhou again, there will be a shortage of troops to rescue Jinzhou.
Just here in Shanhaiguan, in the past, there was a post of Liaodong Manager. This strategy is actually similar to that of the governor, but relatively speaking, it is weaker than the governor. Because their titles are high or low.
During the Tianqi period, Xiong Tingbi, the manager of Liaodong, and Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, disagreed. As a result, Xiong Tingbi was unable to defeat Wang Huazhen, and under the constraints, the Liaodong war was completely defeated.
Although the governor is the nominal superior of the governor, generally speaking, the governor has the capital to compete with the governor, and they are all feudal officials from the Ming Dynasty. They all have the power to report directly to the emperor. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the governor will not treat the governor as a subordinate. If he has different opinions, he will consider them.
However, this matter has not been concluded yet. Immediately afterwards, Emperor Chongzhen's second decree arrived. The bandits in the Central Plains rebelled again and urged Wu Sangui to enter the pass immediately.
The tone of this decree was stern, and the urging was very obvious. Sun Chuanting immediately ordered that Wu Sangui must enter the pass immediately, otherwise he would be disobeying the order.
As for Zu Dashou, they finally understood that it was not Sun Chuanting who sent Wu Sangui to the border, but the bandits who were causing trouble again. They were relieved.
They have nothing to worry about when it comes to stray thieves. So, his mind suddenly turned to Wu Sangui's official position.
In the past, anyone who entered the Guan Ning army, such as Zu Kuan, Cao Wenzhao and others, would be named the chief military officer. Wu Sangui's military position at this time was only equivalent to deputy commander-in-chief. If you want to move up a level, this is a good opportunity.
Therefore, after the Zu and Wu families discussed it, they no longer thought about resisting the decree and asked Wu Sangui to immediately lead his 1,500 cavalry troops into the pass.
At this time, Wu Sangui was already twenty-seven years old. The passion of youth has faded away, and under the guidance of the Zu and Wu families, he has become "mature".
His mind is also on promotion. After arriving at the outskirts of the capital, I was waiting. The emperor should reward me, at least like Zu Kuan, to a chief military officer for the suppression, right?
However, what disappointed him was that after the emperor knew that he had arrived, he did not let him come to Beijing to have an audience, nor did he give him a reward. He just asked him to camp outside the city and wait for his orders.
Wu Sangui couldn't help but feel puzzled about this. He quickly sent his servants to take off their military uniforms and then went into the city to find his father Wu Xiang to ask about the situation.
In the Battle of Daling River in August of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Wu Xiang was sent by Sun Chengzong to rescue his brother-in-law Zu Dashou, but he ended up becoming a fleeing general. In the Battle of Daling River, the Ming army was defeated miserably and Zu Dashou surrendered. The Manchus, of course, later fled back.
As a result of this battle, Sun Chengzong was dismissed from his official post and returned home to retire; Wu Xiang, the runaway general, did not escape either and was imprisoned. However, the Wu family was rich, and he was soon released from prison and became an unemployed vagrant, which did not affect his son's official career. Now at this time, I am listening to music and watching operas in the Wu Mansion in the capital.
Before it got dark, the servants rushed back to the military camp outside the city and reported to Wu Sangui: "Master, the master said that the emperor has issued an order to personally conquer the bandits, so he is busy now! He should go out before the expedition, I will give the young master the post of commander-in-chief of support and suppression."
In fact, this is also a common practice, at least Zu Kuan and Cao Wenzhao have experienced it.
When Wu Sangui heard this, he was very surprised and asked with some disbelief: "What do you mean, the emperor wants to lead the expedition in person?"
In fact, not only Wu Sangui, but everyone will be very surprised after hearing this news.
Counting back, apart from Emperor Zhengde who had experience in personal military campaigns, there were only a few emperors who had experience in military campaigns during the founding of the country. As for Emperor Yingzong, that is a joke.
Therefore, the servant replied affirmatively: "The emperor said that this time he would completely eliminate the bandit rebellion and restore peace to the people of the world, so he decided to go on a personal expedition."
"Oh!" Wu Sangui couldn't help but admire Emperor Chongzhen a little after hearing this.
He is a military commander, and of course he is a courageous person who admires him. If before hearing the news, he was more in awe of the emperor's identity, but now, when he knew that the emperor was going to lead a personal expedition, he was also a little surprised that the emperor dared to go to the battlefield. He began to have a new appreciation for the emperor in his heart.
With this in mind, he was no longer in a hurry and waited peacefully outside the city.
But in the capital city, with the emperor personally conducting the expedition, all preparations were very efficient. There are three major battalions under the jurisdiction of the Royal Horse Supervisor. Those who can change their clothes have all changed their clothes. All the soldiers, in addition to an extra set of military uniforms, even have iron armor, nearly one-third of them have one. These armors were originally kept in inventory and were worn by the Han generals during court meetings. This was the face of the court, so no one dared to make any decisions. At this time, under the circumstances of the imperial commander's personal expedition, they all took them out of the warehouse and used them where they really wanted to use them.
On the ninth day of June in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the weather was fine. Except for the sick soldiers, all the soldiers of the three battalions under the Yuma Supervisor gathered at the school ground. The emperor arrived accompanied by hundreds of civil and military officials, and even the queen and the prince followed.
The soldiers and veterans of the three major battalions have seen this happen several times.
They always remembered it very clearly. The first time was when their King Qin rushed to the outskirts of the capital. The emperor unexpectedly went to inspect, walked among them, made a promise to them, and made them truly know theirs for the first time. emperor.
The second time, when they were triumphant, the emperor inspected them, rescued them, and really took them to heart. Even the wounded soldiers were very concerned about them, and he fulfilled his promise. I have never heard of such an emperor before. At that time, they felt that they were truly lucky to have such an emperor loyal to them.
After that, the emperor would often visit them, making them all feel that the emperor was always by their side. They have never encountered some of the troublesome problems they encountered when they were frontier soldiers.
In the three major camps, not only are they well fed and warmly clothed, but their military pay is higher than before, and there is no deduction at all. Therefore, they all cherish this kind of life and train hard. Even if the amount of training is much greater than before, none of them has any complaints.
Because they still remember that the emperor once said that he would lead them to conquer Liaodong in person. If they don't work hard, the emperor may be disappointed one day when he really wants to fulfill this promise. This is what they least want to see!
Now, the emperor wants to personally conquer the bandits, and the veterans of the three battalions are full of confidence. Not to mention now, even when they were frontier troops, they could chase and kill those bandits. They believed that they, now stronger, would not disappoint the emperor's expectations. They will definitely let the emperor see that they have lived up to his expectations.
As for the new recruits in the three major battalions, although they do not have as many impressions of the emperor as the veterans. However, they were refugees who were taken to Liaodong and were rescued during the Battle of Tianjin. When their families were ruined and their families were destroyed, they all hated Jianlu so much that they wished they could fight Jianlu immediately, not to mention fighting the weaker bandits now.
They also cherish everything they have now, knowing that it is the emperor who has everything they have today. After arriving under the Royal Horse Supervisor, they all saw that the emperor would come over to watch them train from time to time. Therefore, while being in awe, they were training seriously. This was not only to let the emperor see their hard work, but also to make them happy. In the future, he will take revenge and practice the ability to kill the enemy.
At the same time, they naturally heard everything about the emperor from the veterans, and also understood that they could be saved by the veterans. The emperor played a key role in that battle. Later, the emperor immediately sent Bo Chengyi to resettle them, which also made them feel the emperor's attention.
Therefore, although they did not have the same experience as the veterans at this time, it did not hinder their gratitude to the emperor. Everyone stood there excitedly, watching their emperor ascend to the general stage.
Emperor Chongzhen was seen in military uniform, and he looked even more heroic. After seeing the emperor's attire, the soldiers of the three battalions felt a little more close to him. Their eyes followed the emperor's figure, with a hint of fanaticism.
Emperor Chongzhen went up to the general platform, glanced at the soldiers below, and was very pleased to feel their love for him. Raising troops for a thousand days and using them for a while, now I feel that this kind of army has lived up to my expectations.
He didn't want to talk nonsense. After standing quietly for a moment, he suddenly pulled out the sword from his waist and pointed it upwards.
The soldiers of the three battalions below looked at the emperor and saw the sword reflecting dazzling light under the sun. Even the armor worn by the emperor reflected the sun's rays, shining like a god. At that point on the general platform, stood a majestic figure, dazzling.
This is our emperor! Almost all the soldiers could not help but say proudly in their hearts.
Emperor Chongzhen shouted loudly: "All officers and soldiers, will you follow me to conquer the bandits and bring peace to the people of the world?"
Without any prior ventilation, almost everyone shouted in unison: "Yes!"
Although this voice was brief, it brought together the voices of all the soldiers. It was deafening, echoing over the school grounds and in the hearts of all civil and military officials, queens and princes.
As long as your eyes are not blind and your ears are not deaf, you can feel the love these soldiers have for the emperor.
The emperor's prestige in the military was something they had never expected before!
Looking at this scene, even the prince, who had just turned ten, had stars in his eyes. In his eyes, the person in front of the stage was no longer just the strict father who frightened him! Even Queen Zhou saw another side of Emperor Chongzhen for the first time, with love for her man in her eyes.
Emperor Chongzhen on the stage looked at the soldiers below and shouted with his own emotions: "Wan Sheng!"
"Victory!" This time, the emperor responded not only to the soldiers of the three battalions, but also to the generals who came with him. They all have the urge to go on an expedition with the emperor!
Afterwards, the emperor didn't say any more unnecessary words. He gave an order and the three major battalions set off.
The army marched out from the barracks. On the streets outside, the people of the capital had been waiting for a long time. Watching the emperor's powerful army set out for battle and the figure of the mighty emperor, they couldn't help but shout: "Wan Sheng!"
Wu Sangui, who was outside the city, had been notified and had already led his cavalry to prepare for departure. Hearing the movements from the capital and the bursts of "Wan Sheng" shouts, for some reason, the blood that had disappeared seemed to surge in the body again.
Emperor, are you coming?
