Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 358 War Machine Starts
Beijing, Forbidden City.

It was already very late at night, but Chongzhen didn't feel sleepy at all, and was still reading the memorial.He is always so busy, he sleeps no more than six hours a day, and spends the rest of his time on state affairs, and even spends very little time with the queen. Being an emperor has been so hard, if not unprecedented, he will never be seen again.

The mountain of memorials made him more and more irritable.It's really too bad. The rogues in the northwest are like leeks. Once they are cut, they will grow again. The more they are suppressed, the more they are complaining. Either there is a severe drought here, there is a plague of locusts there, or they are tricky The people resisted the tax and attacked the yamen.On the other side of Shandong, the Denglai rebellion has lasted for several months, affecting more than ten counties in the two prefectures. Pingdu, Dengzhou, Huangxian and other places have been killed by the rebels. The ghosts who only hear ghosts crying but see no human smoke, the imperial army has been defeated in a row, and the rebels are getting stronger and stronger. It seems that there is no way to quell them in a short time... There is nothing that can make him feel relieved!

During this period of time, there were only two things that made him slightly happy for a while.The first thing is that Nanyang Mansion has achieved an unprecedented harvest. The high-quality flour handed over to the treasury is as high as 30 shi, and the tax silver is 11 taels. When the whole country is crying for poverty, such achievements are particularly impressive. He also made a special decree to praise Fang Yizhi severely.The second thing is that Zhu Yujian, the king of the Tang Dynasty, played to the court to return the mining tax, salt and tea tax in Nanyang area to the court.The vassal king who has experienced ups and downs is quite capable. He started a large farm whimsically and obtained a good harvest. He said in the memorial that the output of [-] hectares of fertile land and the income of a few factories are enough to enjoy. And return the mining tax and salt to the country to share the worries of the Holy One.There are too few such sensible vassal kings, and Chongzhen was moved to tears, sighing that his family is still reliable.But such a bright spot was immediately overwhelmed by the endless bad news. It's really hard to be the emperor!
After working hard to approve a memorial requesting disaster relief, Chongzhen stretched himself and picked up another one.Wang Chengen couldn't help but said: "Your Majesty, it's late at night, it's time to rest!"

Chongzhen smiled bitterly: "The state affairs are so corrupt, how can I sleep!"

Wang Chengen said: "Then you can't review memorials day and night! What if the dragon body is exhausted!"

Chongzhen said: "After reading this, I'm going to rest." He opened the play casually, only read the beginning, and his eyelids twitched!
It was the war memorial written by Wu Yong!

Probably because he stayed with Yang Menglong for a long time, and Wu Yong also got into some bad habits. A memorial only has about 8000 words, without a word of nonsense, and straight to the point, he told the emperor that after more than half a year of hard work, the Heluo new army has grown to [-] soldiers. There are people and horses, people are strong and horses are strong, Commander Yang is loyal and loyal. Hearing that the Denglai rebellion is getting worse, he is determined to share the worries of the Holy One. He wants to bring thousands of tiger and ben troops into Shandong to fight the rebellion.This brief memorial made Chongzhen wonder if he was dazzled. Since the outbreak of the Denglai Rebellion, he has dispatched troops in many ways, but those generals have tried every means to evade, saying that they would not accept this unfortunate job. Good job, take the initiative to ask for a fight!In fact, it is not that he has never thought of transferring the Heluo New Army to Shandong to fight the rebellion, but every time he proposed it, the courtiers unanimously opposed it, saying that the Heluo New Army suffered too heavy losses in the Battle of Daling River, and that they were already injured. If they lost their vitality, they had to take a good rest for a year.It's worse to say than to sing, in fact, the selfishness of these guys can be smelled ten kilometers away: at the military parade, the unruly behavior of Yang Menglong and Wuyang's elite soldiers left a deep impression on everyone. Such a guy who is super good at fighting and making money, it's really hard to control him!The Wenchen Group hates this kind of generals they can't control very much, they catch them one by one and clean them up one by one until they are subdued!This kid became an officer at a young age, and if he is allowed to go to Shandong to suppress the rebellion, there is no guarantee that he will not make another great contribution, how can he be suppressed then!Chongzhen was also hesitant. After all, he didn't know the details of Heluo's new army, so the matter was dragged on like this.Now that the Heluo New Army has taken the initiative to ask for a fight, the most important thing is that he has lost patience with the rebels and cannot delay any longer!

"It's time to get rid of those traitors!" He muttered to himself, and the young heroic general riding a black horse appeared in his mind, throwing Huang Taiji's golden helmet on the ground with a look of contempt Seeing the scene of elite soldiers trampling on him, he firmly believed that this fierce tiger would definitely wipe out the rebellion for him, and cut off the heads of those rebellious officials and thieves and sent them to him.

Luoyang, among the rolling mountains.

A large group of soldiers dressed in black, armed with long spears, crossbows, and powerful bows and crossbows, searched all over the mountains and plains.The tigers and wolves in the mountains roared in terror and rushed out of the caves. Whether they wanted to escape or desperately pounced on these soldiers, they would immediately be covered by a dense rain of arrows, and they would eventually be shot into hedgehogs.The officer was holding a stick made of several bamboo branches tied together. He stood aside with a dark face. When he saw some soldiers screaming in fear, or rushing forward to fight with the beasts in excitement, he immediately lashed out with the stick. Just say hello to the butt.If the beaten soldier refuses to accept the blow or reaches out to rub it, he will immediately receive a harder blow without saying anything.The team responsible for driving away prey constantly drove all kinds of prey into their firepower net. There were docile little guys like hares and wild sheep, as well as ferocious creatures like bison and wild boars, and there were also many extremely vicious tigers and wolves. No matter how they were driven away, What came out? They just followed the officer's command and aimed their crossbows at the prey, and then pulled the trigger. Even if the beast hit them, they were not allowed to shout or retreat, otherwise they would be beaten. .

At the foot of the mountain, the cooking cart was already burning with smoke. The cooks were deftly peeling and deboning the piles of game, mincing the meat and throwing it into the pot to cook it into pots of thick broth. It was so fragrant that it was so delicious. The mountain people who came to watch the fun were so greedy.Some fur traders looked at the tigers or wild wolves that had been shot into sieves one after another, with angry expressions on their faces: "What a sin! You have ruined such good skins! Can't you just shoot arrows into their eye sockets? Like this What's the use of your skin!"

Xue Siming whistled and said, "I'm training soldiers, not hunting, so I don't care about skins... That's it, do you want it or not?"

The fur merchant was furious: "I want your sister! How can such leather be sold!"

At this time, a leopard was lifted down, and the mountain people exclaimed.This leopard has been causing trouble to them for several years and killed several people. Now it was shot and killed by the Heluo New Army. It can be regarded as helping them get rid of a big harm!The fur trader sighed when he saw at least twenty crossbow arrows nailed to the leopard's body, knowing that there was no hope for this piece of skin again. Who knows if the Heluo New Army was a pervert and had to use crossbow arrows to shoot its prey into a hedgehog?
Xue Siming looked up at the sun, which was already slanting to the west.He called: "Order, go up the mountain and tell them, hurry up and shoot a tiger and five wolves, and then come down for dinner!"

The messenger came out in response to the sound, and galloped up the mountain.

After the recruits' three-month training, more than 2000 people were assigned to Luoyang and became Xue Siming's subordinates.Xue Siming had nothing to do, so he led them into the mountainous area, mopping up one mountain after another, tigers, leopards, wild wolves and wild boars, one by one, all of them were wiped out. The euphemistic name is: "Let these recruits see blood!" Now those wild beasts in the mountains were unlucky. After these guys swept away, all creatures larger than hares became their delicacies, and those smaller than hares depended on luck!There are so many wild beasts these days. Basically, at five or four o'clock in the afternoon, people in the city dare not go out of the city, otherwise they may be eaten by wild beasts. This move of the Heluo New Army is very popular among Luoyang people. It's straight up.

As soon as the messenger left, a cavalry galloped all the way in the smoke and dust, rushed to Xue Siming, and shouted: "My lord, the latest military order: end the field training immediately, and lead the troops back to the camp!"

Xue Siming took the order and saw that it was really signed by Yang Menglong.He was slightly taken aback: "Didn't it be agreed that the field training would last for a month? How could it be over in half a month? Could it be..." His eyes flashed, "Could it be a war?"

Qin Mai's eyes lit up, and he smiled: "It's almost inseparable! Shandong has been in trouble for so long, and someone should go and punish those traitors!"

Xue Siming clapped his fists and said, "Okay, it's time for this. I've been holding back for more than half a year, I've had enough! Trumpeter, blow the trumpet and gather, let's go back to Luoyang!"

In the mountainous area of ​​Funiu Mountain, two thousand new soldiers were deployed step by step under the command of Qi Hu. The terrifying heartless cannons were pushed forward until they were only about [-] meters away from a mountain stronghold.The grass bandits guarding the stronghold fired arrows desperately, and the firecrackers fired round after round, the firepower was really fierce.However, it was of no use. Through the faint smoke of gunpowder, the soldiers of the Heluo New Army could also see the desperate expressions of the grass bandits... This village with only about two hundred people guarding it is currently the largest one in Funiu Mountain. The village is destroyed, but it can't withstand the thunderous blow of Heluo's new army at all, even if it is a group of recruits who launch this blow!It’s an old tradition. After each wave of recruits received several months of training in Wuyang Camp, they had to go to the Funiu Mountains to recruit. Therefore, every time new recruits came to Wuyang Camp, the most nervous ones were the mountains in the Heluo area. Thieves and bandits, when it comes to the graduation exams for recruits, the law and order in the mountainous area is particularly good.But even so, they still can't escape a violent beating, they are rape anyway, so bear with it.

Qi Hu was quite satisfied with the performance of the recruits. Under his command, they pulled out several villages and killed more than 300 bandits. There were also casualties, but no one deserted.Fighting a stockade with such a dangerous terrain, it is really rare for these recruits to be calm and calm, not in a hurry.The heartless cannon was already in place, and he was about to order an attack when the messenger ran over and handed over the order issued by the general's mansion.Qi Hu raised his white eyebrows after reading it, and said loudly: "The general has an order to take down this stockade immediately, and then return to Wuyang camp! I'm afraid there will be a big battle this time!"

The recruits were expressionless, but showed fanaticism, and slapped the shield with a horizontal knife.Amidst the frightening bang bang sound, nine hundred archers lined up in three rows and silently advanced towards the stockade. The artillerymen lit the fuse, and the surprisingly large muzzle of the unconscionable gun spewed out a frightening flame...

Wang Tiechui was leading his hundreds of Shandong Han soldiers to carry out long-distance rapid march training in the mountainous area. They carried fifty catties and traveled sixty miles a day. It had lasted for a whole week now, and it was really exhausting.These big men from Shandong were almost exhausted, but they all looked excited, because they had already seen the end point, and this damn training was finally coming to an end!
Then they saw the messenger waiting for them at the finish line.

Before the order from the Ministry of War was issued, the chariots of the Heluo New Army began to rumble.

(End of this chapter)