Nanming Engineer

Chapter 196 Calculation
On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, a rare sunny day came after a long period of cloudy and rainy weather. The blue sky and white clouds, the warm winter sun, standing on the school grounds, enjoying the clear sky, smelling the fresh air after the rain in the nostrils, Wang Huan felt that his bones were brittle.

"My lord, it's time to go." A head with a weed-like beard leaned over and interrupted in an untimely rough voice.

Hearing the sound, Wang Huan opened his eyes and narrowed his eyes, and smiled at Li Tingyu, who was riding a horse standing beside him: "General Li has just returned from danger, and it is quite inappropriate to drive the army into battle again. It is better to rest for a while. I'll take Ma Xintian's battalion head with me."

Li Tingyu raised his eyebrows, and said with anger: "What are you talking about, my lord? Conquering the army and marching across the world with a sword, where is not a dangerous place? How can you be greedy for comfort and not make progress? I, Mr. Li, don't touch a knife or ride a horse for a day. I feel uncomfortable all over, and such a big event as the conquest of Zhang Xianzhong, let alone me."

Wang Huan opened his mouth to try to persuade him again, but Li Tingyu opened his hand and said angrily, "Could it be that my lord sees that I, Li Tingyu, is blind in one eye and becomes disabled, look down on me?"

Wang Huan hurriedly said, "I don't mean that."

Li Tingyu waved his hand: "That's enough." He raised the horsewhip in his hand proudly, pointed forward, and said vigorously: "Please look, my lord, Lin Ziyingerlang is marching forward with the whole army. I, Li Tingyu, have no cowards. I will follow you!" Compared with Fengziying, it is not inferior."

Pointing his horsewhip, groups of white-robed soldiers lined up in columns, stepped out of the barracks gate with a clanging sound, waved green flags, passed by the school grounds, and walked towards the avenue ahead.

According to the order of the four-character mantra of Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Fenglin Volcano", the three battalions under Wang Huan are called Fengziying, Linziying and Huoziying, each with a color flag, and the flag of Fengziying is Cyan, the flag of Huoziying is red, and the flag of Linziying is green. In this way, although the soldiers and generals are all wearing white robes, but the flags are different, they can be seen at a glance on the battlefield, and there will be no white-eyed soldiers when passing orders. There are so many people, and I can't find where the battalion head I'm looking for is.

Wang Huan led the Fengzi camp, Li Tingyu led the Lin camp, and Ma Xintian led the Huo camp. Their respective surnames were embroidered on the battle flags, making them easier to distinguish.

Wang Huan was very pleased to see the gun blades and banners passing by, and a sense of pride surged from the bottom of his heart. This is my army. From weak to strong, every soldier is a soldier built by himself. I will rely on them to build a great world, turn the wheel of history, change the humiliating future of the Han family, and accomplish the great cause of engraving my name in the history books.

Generals die in hundreds of battles, and heroes return after ten years. I wonder when peace will return to them after they leave.

While the two were talking, they heard the sound of horseshoes in their ears, Ma Xintian came to the two of them on horseback, bowed his hands to Wang Huan in a deep voice: "My lord, the last general will split up with your lord and go to Shunqing Mansion."

Wang Huan and Li Tingyu looked at him together, Wang Huan nodded solemnly and said: "Okay, you are going to go deep alone, you must be careful in every possible way, if anything happens, withdraw first, don't take risks!"

Ma Xintian immediately agreed: "Yes, I will understand."

Wang Huan said again: "The man guarding the Shunqing mansion is now Ma Yuanli, the governor of the left army of Zhang Xianzhong. Although Zhang Ni transferred many soldiers and horses in his hands to the Chengdu mansion, Ma Yuanli still has tens of thousands of soldiers in his hands. The miscellaneous soldiers in various counties are much more than the 3000 people in your Huoziying. You must remember not to be greedy for the gains and losses of a city or a place. You are cruising around in Shunqing Mansion, keeping in mind your mission: Shunqing Mansion is The closest place to Baoning Mansion, and Baoning Mansion is close to Hanzhong, when the Qing soldiers enter Sichuan from Hanzhong, you immediately rush to Jianmen Pass, grab the Jiange Tianxian before the Qing soldiers, and block the Tartars from the pass at all costs But before that, don’t reveal your intentions, lest Ma Yuanli see it through and send troops to Chengdu to block your way to the north.”

Ma Xintian listened carefully, then clasped his fists again and replied in a deep voice: "The general has written it down. If your lord has no other orders, the general will go here."

Seeing Wang Huan nodding, he clasped his hands in a salute, reined in the reins and raised his whip, and chased after a group of white-robed soldiers with banners like fire.

Li Tingyu stared at Ma Xintian's figure disappearing on the official road, and asked Wang Huan with a puzzled face: "My lord, since our purpose is to block the Tartars in the Jiange, why did we wait until He Zhen surrendered and sacrificed Hanzhong before we started to grab the Jiange?" ? How much better to kill them now."

Wang Huan shook his head and said, "No, sending troops to the sword pavilion now is equivalent to putting us between the Tartars and Zhang Ni. We are confronted by enemies on both sides. It is not a wise man's action. We must wait until the Tartars enter Sichuan and Zhang Ni can't stand it. Enter, use the power of thunder to destroy the remnants of Zhang Ni in central Sichuan, and block the Tatars from the sword pavilion. This is the simplest and most labor-saving strategy."

"The Jiange from Shunqing Mansion to Baoning Mansion is only a hundred miles away. As long as Ma Xintian moves fast enough, he can reach it in one day and one night. When the time comes, it will be like a magic soldier descending from heaven. It can be taken, and as long as Ma Xintian can persist under the attack of the Tartar army for more than ten days, after our army has solved the remnants of Zhang Ni near Chengdu, we can go north along the Jinniu Road and rush to help Ma Xintian."

Li Tingyu blinked, his face was full of confusion, and he gave a thumbs up after a while and said: "Master Wang, you are still so unpredictable, and your thoughts are unimaginable,"

He stroked his beard and asked in bewilderment: "There are too many things I don't understand. Let's just talk about the big ones. How do you know that He Zhen is going to sacrifice Hanzhong and surrender to the Tartars in January? This bird man I stayed in Hanzhong for a year, beating Tartars and Zhang Xianzhong, not relying on both sides, like the smelly and hard stones in the toilet, why is it suddenly about to surrender? Liu Jinzhong from Tongchuan Prefecture followed Chongzhen for ten years Zhang Xianzhong, how do you know that he will betray? Also, if Zhang Ni fights the Tartars, he will not necessarily lose, right? How can you be so sure that he will definitely lose?"

"This is simple, you will understand after thinking about it. He Zhen appears to be an enemy on both sides, but in fact he is just waiting for a price. Only by showing his strong and powerful side can he sell for a good price. This son is hanging alone in Hanzhong. Li Zicheng He's dead, and the remnants of the Dashun Army are far away in Huguang. If he doesn't surrender, is there a second way out?" Wang Huan showed a mysterious smile, with a strange face on his face, and said in a low voice like a magic stick: "Also, General, have you forgotten? My master is an expert from all walks of life. He is well versed in the past and the present, and he is also very proficient in yin and yang divination. Yi Shi'er, don't ask any more questions about ghosts and gods."

Li Tingyu, Ma Wannian, Zu Bian, and others who surrounded him all knew Wang Huan's strange abilities, and they were convinced at the moment, their eyes were wild, and the eyes they looked at Wang Huan were almost the same as the eyes of believers looking up at the leader. difference.

At the same time, several people secretly warned themselves, don't hide any infidelity from Wang Huan, otherwise the young commander-in-chief will see through it without opening his mouth, and he will die without knowing how.

"Okay, let's go too. Liu Jinzhong from Tongchuan Prefecture is probably already preparing to rebel. Although this guy is not afraid, he can stab Zhang Xianzhong's knife in the back. When we enter Chengdu, this guy will still stay with Zhang Xianzhong Waiting to be stabbed behind him is also a disaster for us, hanging him in Tongchuan Prefecture, let Zhang Xianzhong go to fight the Tartars in a down-to-earth manner, it will be of great benefit to us and no harm."

Wang Huan said loudly, raised his sword eyebrows, and stood upright on the horse with a straight waist. The white robe set off the brown skin formed by sun exposure for many days, revealing a resolute and courageous momentum. He got up and ran towards the team of white-robed soldiers.

Li Tingyu and the others followed closely, merged into the queue of Kuizhou soldiers that looked like a long white silk that matched green and green, and rushed forward.

……

Tongchuan Prefecture, Zhili Prefecture directly under the administration of the Sichuan Chief Envoy of the Ming Dynasty, governs four counties, and is adjacent to Chengdu Prefecture. The terrain is flat and fertile. Second to the Dujiangyan area, although the name of the state is actually more important than the status of many prefectures, it is a very important place in central Sichuan from the perspective of military and civil affairs.

Liu Jinzhong was originally the governor of Baoning Prefecture, and he was transferred here to join forces with Zhang Guangcai. On the one hand, it was because Tongchuan Prefecture was separated from Chongqing Prefecture by a mountain, and it was necessary to guard against the Ming army in the direction of Chongqing; on the other hand, Zhang Xianzhong established the country. After that, the suspicion became more and more serious, and it was also a reason why they became more and more worried about the surrender of the Ming army, so they kept transferring their defense lines around and changing people like a lantern.

Although this person already had the heart to seek refuge with the Tartars, at this time the main force of the Qing army had returned to the north after occupying Nanjing. He Zhen's Hanzhong was unable to go south to Sichuan, so for a while, Liu Jinzhong didn't dare to move. With his own little army, if he wanted to raise the flag to rebel, he could easily send one of the four great princes of Daxi. Destroy him.

So Liu Jinzhong and Zhang Guangcai had no choice but to hide their strengths and bide their time, and secretly stockpiled food and trained troops for the future. Anyway, the Ming army in Chongqing Mansion had negotiated peace with Daxi, and they would not go to war for the time being, just happy to preserve their strength.

But Wang Huan was not Zeng Ying, and the armistice agreement with Daxi was a piece of paper, so on the first day of the first lunar month, when the Kuizhou army crossed Huaying Mountain and appeared on the border of Tongchuan Prefecture, Liu Jinzhong panicked.

"What? The Ming army passed Huaying Mountain and camped in Lingquan Mountain City?" Liu Jinzhong jumped up from his chair and shouted in disbelief.

A sweat-soaked soldier knelt on one knee in the middle army hall, hissed hoarsely, "Yes, the garrison of Shehong County is short of eight hundred miles away, and the Ming army has tens of thousands of people, all of them are strong Pawn, please send troops to support quickly, if you are late, you will not be able to protect yourself!"

"Tens of thousands of people? Strong soldiers?" Liu Jinzhong repeated with a frown, his eyes rolling around: "When did the officers and soldiers become so courageous? Let's not mess with him, they dare to come to our door to mess with us, the sun is coming out from the west ?”

Zhang Guangcai sat sideways, listened carefully, thought for a while and waved away the soldiers who reported the news, got up and approached Liu Jinzhong and said: "This news is not credible, the Ming court army knows both you and me, when did it use it? Before Zeng Ying just occupied Chongqing when we raised our troops to attack Hanzhong. In fact, they are just trash fish, not a strong soldier. Some time ago, the Ming army had internal strife. Zeng Ying was driven out and replaced by a Kuizhou general. I heard that this person is a second generation ancestor, and he defeated Zeng Ying with the help of the white soldiers because of Qin Liangyu's identity as the adopted son. How many people can there be? Ten thousand? Hmph, it's just an exaggeration of Shehong's defense, and I want to take this opportunity to ask for some military pay."

Liu Jinzhong listened, snorted, and said dissatisfiedly: "It must be so, it doesn't matter, this is a good opportunity for us!"

Zhang Guangcai was puzzled: "How does the governor say this?"

Liu Jinzhong turned back to the long case with a dark smile and sat down. He said quietly, "Didn't Zhang Motou want us to quickly suppress the bandits in Tongchuan Prefecture in Qing Dynasty, join him at Jinchuanpu, go north and then attack Hanzhong? Now the Ming army is invading Tongchuan, we are fighting against him, we can't separate ourselves, and he has nothing to say if he refuses to go openly. We can still take this opportunity to ask for more money, food and grass, and recruit more troops. The defense of Shehong is not only innocent, but also a great meritorious service. .”

Zhang Guangcai suddenly realized, and said happily: "The governor has a good opinion, it is better to flatter a horse in the end."

Liu Jinzhong laughed complacently, the owl-like laughter rang out for a while, and he said in a deep voice: "However, the Ming army can't ignore it, we have to go there even if the Ming army really has tens of thousands of people. It's just a group of soldiers, let them play a show, when the Qing army enters Hanzhong, Zhang Motou will go north to fight, we turn around and take advantage of the situation to enter Chengdu, and take his lair. You and I are two, hahaha."

Speaking of his pride, Liu Jinzhong laughed out loud, overjoyed.

Zhang Guangcai echoed with a big laugh: "In this way, the Ming army came just in time. I'm afraid that Wang Huan, the chief soldier of Kuizhou, would never have dreamed of fulfilling our good deed."

The two looked at each other and laughed again.

While laughing, Liu Jinzhong summoned his personal guards and documents, and began to carefully draft an emergency report to Zhang Xianzhong.

(End of this chapter)