Great time travel

Chapter 83. Infighting in the Xuan Mansion

Xuanfu Town, Huailongdao East Road, Baoanzhou, the barren river beach outside Shunxiang Fort
The bloody sunset slanted over the hill, casting twilight onto the newly quiet battlefield.Hundreds of imperial military households in rags and rags, as well as a few generals and servants in brightly armored clothes, are all entangled with each other at this moment.The corpses of the people and horses were lying on each other, and the destroyed swords and spears were scattered everywhere, as well as the torn flags and drums.Groups of wild dogs searched for food in the pile of corpses, and from time to time they fought each other because of the uneven distribution of spoils.

This is the most common scene on the battlefield—the corpses are strewn all over the field, the stench is pervasive, terrifying and desolate.

And what makes people feel even more sad is that the soldiers who fell here were all on the establishment of the Ming court.

——This is not a war between the two countries, or even counter-insurgency, it can only be said to be a tragic internal strife between the imperial court and the army.

Shun Township Chief (defense officer), the traverser Wang Dou and a few cavalry soldiers patrolled the desolate battlefield silently, and at the same time turned around and told his subordinates to organize a group of civilians to clean up the battlefield as soon as possible, burn the corpses, In case the plague breaks out—it's a hot day now.

Speaking of which, how did the current chaotic battle of the various Ming border troops fighting each other start?
In short, it is silver that makes people jealous!
——Although Wang Dou successfully established an elite Shun Township Army relying on insight beyond the times and perseverance, he could not only hold on to the fortress, but also defeat the Jurchen Tartars head-on in the field. The biggest capital for him to settle down in the troubled times.But no matter how tough and capable the army is, it must have enough food and clothing to fight... But his Shunxiang army is not the Guanning army in western Liaoning. Obviously, the court will not send so much military expenditure—on the contrary, as a hereditary military household, Wang Dou's Shunxiang Army not only had to be self-reliant, but even had to pay all kinds of exorbitant taxes to the top.Usually only when the war is about to come, can we get some relief from the above.

Faced with the predicament of making ends meet, Wang Dou also racked his brains to think of many ways, such as repairing water conservancy, digging fish ponds, reclaiming land, etc. Unfortunately, amidst the raging natural disasters and endless wars, all these attempts failed. ——It is difficult for people in peaceful times to imagine the horrors of troubled times.The so-called suffering of war and fire in troubled times means that dead bodies will be everywhere in the blink of an eye.In Xuanfu during the reign of Chongzhen, there were thieves and thieves in the suburbs, and there were groups of rogues in the county town, and there was no place to find a place to live.When safety cannot be guaranteed, it is very dangerous to make a living if you want to do anything, and you will be robbed of everything at every turn.

In the end, in order to solve the increasingly serious financial crisis of Shun Township Fort, Wang Dou had no choice but to use his memory from later generations to develop the Xiangguang Silver Mine and Shangjinggou Silver Mine in Baoanzhou, Xuanfu, and later Zhuolu County. The total reserves are said to be close to [-] tons.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, these places in Baoan Prefecture were still uninhabited, and the underground silver mines were naturally unknown, so Wang Dou successfully occupied those two barren lands, and after a lot of hard work, he finally found a place in the city. Chongzhen began to mine silver in the fall of the fourth year.

But the mining of silver is only the beginning. The next problem that Wang Dou and the Shunxiang Army will have to face is how to keep this life-saving source of wealth under the covetousness of various enemies and the ingenious plunder of the powerful officials above. .

In this regard, Wang Dou is not unprepared, and has already done the business of bribing the superiors and dredging up the relationship.

But he never expected that his opponents in Xuanfu Town, even under the emperor's feet, would act so recklessly!
(At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Datong Town is located in today’s Shanxi, and Xuanfu Town is the boundary of Hebei today. The eastern half of Xuanfu Town has entered the scope of today’s Beijing Municipality, close to the capital, and looks like a rural place. In fact, it is closer to Beijing than to Tianjin.)
——The rest of the military leaders in Xuanfu Town, first of all, have always had a feud with Shun Xiangbao because of their competition for merit, and they are envious of Wang Dou's latest silver mine, which is a cornucopia. Therefore, in accordance with the unspoken rules of the late Ming Dynasty, he thought of using force to solve the problem-these military leaders used all their troops and horses, and recruited a few bandits and bandits as cannon fodder. On the way, a general was also brought in from Datong Town in the west to help, and more than 2 people were assembled together, and they were called [-] people, and they killed them aggressively.

Caught off guard, due to the disparity in numbers, the small number of mine guards stationed outside by the Shun Township Army was defeated. They had to discard two silver mines and the smelted silver ingots, and ran all night with the surviving miners. After dozens of miles, he fled back to Shun Township Fort and stayed behind closed doors.Next, several frontier troops who came to rob the silver mine suddenly erupted into flames for some reason, and killed each other at the silver mine pit, leaving corpses strewn all over the field and blood flowing like rivers.

In the end, the strong dragon from outside actually overwhelmed the local snake, and the general of Datong Town finally had the last laugh in this internal strife.So, while happily counting the blood-stained silver, he ordered [-] soldiers and horses, turned around and headed straight for Shunxiang Fort, ready to kill the grass and roots in one go... As a result, in a barren place not far from Shunxiang Fort Hetan met head-on with [-] Shunxiang troops led by Wang Dou.

Then, unsurprisingly, the Shunxiang Army, which seemed to have few soldiers, won an overwhelming victory in the field battle.

——By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the military system of the imperial court had long been corrupted. Officers at all levels were greedy for the salaries of the soldiers under their command.The general "stores family members, their clothes and equipment, ten times more than the number of troops, and they are used to attack the enemy whenever they are big enemies." Guarantee of disaster relief and meritorious deeds.However, elite servants belong to the elite, and the cost is more than ten times that of recruiting soldiers from ordinary military households. The salary, food, clothing and food of a servant have to be scraped from the heads of dozens or even dozens of military household guards.

Therefore, the officers and soldiers of Datong Town who invaded Shunxiang Fort this time had 100 soldiers on the surface, and only more than 500 equestrian servants and more than 600 recruits were able to fight. The military households who were driven to make up the numbers were almost the same as beggars—that is to say, among the [-] invading enemies, only more than [-] could really be beaten, and they were already very tired due to the long journey.

However, the [-] Shun Township troops brought out by Wang Dou, the traverser, were all real fighters. Although their personal martial arts were not as good as those of the servants, when they fought in formation, they might not be much worse. Hit one.In addition, since the Shunxiang army was fighting locally, it had abundant physical strength, high morale, and artillery launched from the fort to assist in the battle. In fact, it had an absolute advantage in all aspects.

So, after a short and intense fight, the general in Datong Town was wounded by a shotgun, and he led his family to flee in a hurry. The servants of the generals dared to die without fear, and the other ordinary soldiers put their lives first. This was not because they were cowardly, but because ordinary soldiers of the Ming army had no hope of living.The servant is a military officer's private soldier, who usually does not hesitate to pay, kills and wounds in battle and gives generous rewards, and shares weal and woe with the chief officer, so he is very effective in fighting, while ordinary soldiers are cannon fodder in the eyes of generals, not to mention that the court often defaults on food and salaries. Even if it is paid in full, most of it will fall into the hands of military officers, and then turn into "military expenses" for supporting servants.Ordinary soldiers died in vain if they were killed on the battlefield. Even if they were lucky enough to make meritorious service, they would have to share the profits with their servants.

What's more, this is not an imperial court order to send troops to fight, but a private fight between generals... Who would be stupid to fight desperately?
In this way, a battle ended anticlimactically, leaving only a place of corpses and messes, and thousands of plague-headed prisoners of war.

But for Wang Dou, the parties involved, all kinds of troubles have just begun - the two silver mines are still occupied by others, and God knows what the final outcome of this frontier infighting will be: don't think you are a victim It's all right, there are many things that turn black and white in officialdom!
What's more terrible is that even though there is no income from the silver mine, the filial piety to the ghosts and snake gods above cannot be reduced at all. Instead, in order to win the lawsuit, they have to pay several times more money.It really makes people feel suffocated just thinking about it - it would be more refreshing to simply turn the flag upside down!

Considering that the outcome of this pen-and-ink lawsuit is somewhat unpredictable, and there is still the possibility of being hit [-] times each, Wang Dou finally couldn't help but lower his head, and carefully evaluated the possibility of raising the flag to rebel. In the end, I still felt that the success rate was too low—Xuan Mansion was too close to Beijing, and Baoan Prefecture was even closer to Shuntian Mansion where the capital was located. Rebelling in such a place would be like a long life for an old birthday star!
Just as Wang Dou was thinking so, a middle-aged steward wearing a coarse robe drove over from the main road on a donkey.Wang Dou looked back, and asked casually, "... are you back? Have you bought any food? There are so many mouths in the castle recently, and the food stock is not enough!"

"...Bought it back, but only [-] shi of coarse grain. The grain merchant said that Shandong Wenxiang Sect caused trouble and cut off the water transportation, so the price of grain will rise again..."

The middle-aged steward replied pantingly, and at the same time handed over a mansion report, "...In addition, Xuanhua mansion sent someone to deliver this."

Wang Dou took the mansion report curiously, and was stunned for a moment, "...Shaanxi bandits attacked Taiyuan, Shanxi governor Xu Dingchen committed suicide? The Ministry of War ordered Xuanfu and Datong Second Township to dispatch troops to quell the chaos? Did the superiors expect me to send troops? It's crazy! Those bastards just had a scuffle with us, so many people died, and who is right and wrong has not yet judged the truth! Which idiot would send troops stupidly at this time, and then let people copy Are you out of the lair?"

He shook his head and sighed, rolled up the residence newspaper and stuffed it into his clothes, "...hey, Liaodong was defeated, Shandong rebelled, Shanxi lost the provincial capital, Xuanfu is still beating its own people... This Ming Dynasty is really going to end ah……"