Nanming Engineer

Chapter 375 Gathering Soldiers in Shanxi
Puzhou City was an extremely important place in the era when transportation depended on human legs and horseshoes. There was no other reason, and the terrain was critical.

The city is adjacent to the Yellow River, and less than ten miles away from the city, you can see the roaring Yellow River. Standing by the river and looking at the opposite bank, you can see Pujindu, an extremely important ferry of the Yellow River, and Tongguan City, which guards the ferry majestically.

Because Puzhou City is opposite to Tongguan and the Yellow River, one side belongs to Shaanxi and the other belongs to Shanxi. The Pujindu Floating Bridge connecting the two provinces is like a throbbing traffic artery, tightly connecting the two yellow lands.

At the end of the second year of Yongli, Li Yukui, the former royal censor of the Ming Dynasty and governor of Ningxia, gathered tens of thousands of people to riot in Puzhou, deceived the gates of the city, killed all the officials of the Qing court in the city, announced that he would return to the Ming anyway, and set up an official office. He set up a banner of righteousness, and with a vigorous effort, he persuaded the Tongguan guards of the Qing court to turn around at the same time, and brought this critical pass that pinched the necks of the three provinces into the hands of the Ming court.

Li Yukui was nearly sixty years old. He was a clean and honest official and benefited one party. Later, he was maliciously impeached due to party disputes in the court, and was forced to resign from office and return to the farm. He built bridges and roads in the village, and gave porridge to help the world. Banner, after killing the official anyway, the responders gathered, waving their sleeves to block out the sun.

He dissipated all his family wealth and ordered his son Li Hong to build weapons and establish a military system to support himself according to Puzhou City. He also ordered his son-in-law Wang Chenglong to take over Tongguan and reorganize his military equipment for the future.

He is always paying attention to the situation in Shanxi and is ready to go north to fight against the Qing Dynasty at any time. However, Li Yukui knows that his strength is limited. It was impossible for the regular army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to be able to withstand it. The only way to do so was to unite vertically and horizontally and find a hug from the thigh.

There are two roads ahead, one is to get closer to Jiang Guan and hold a group together to keep warm, but Jiang Guan expressed his objection to the envoy he sent. Jiang Guan believes that gathering the rebels in the outer periphery of Shanxi into Datong will do no harm. One advantage, in this way, the Qing army can besiege Datong with heavy troops, and Datong will lose everything.

The second way is to ask for help from Shaanxi. Li Yukui is located in an important road and is well-informed. He knew the news that Xi'an City was broken and Wu Sangui fled to Luoyang at the first time. At that time, he had not cut his braids and rebelled.

So as soon as Jiang Guan's way was broken, he immediately sent his son Li Hong to Wang Huan with a map of Tongguan, expressing his strong desire for Master Wang.

After waiting for a few months, Wang Huan finally wrote back. The content was very brief, to the effect that Wang Huan, the Marquis of Pingliang in the Ming Dynasty and the General Soldier of Sichuan and Shaanxi, will send troops to Shanxi by imperial decree. Li Yukui should be prepared.

Li Yukui was very happy, because this year, along with the failure of Jiang Jianxun's military campaign in Taiyuan, the Mongolian cavalry of Prince Jingjin Nikan had begun to haunt Puzhou, and had several small-scale fights with the sentry cavalry he sent. Unfortunately, all Puzhou soldiers failed and no one survived.

A little farther away, the anti-Qing uprising in Henan was wiped out by Wu Sangui. It is said that there are thousands of heads hanging on the high poles on the head of Luoyang City. King Pingxi is sharpening his sword and preparing to peep Tongguan.

At this critical moment, the Shaanxi Ming Army finally arrived, like a blazing flame in the dark night, which made Li Yukui's heart feel at ease.

Wang Huan, Marquis of Pingliang in the Ming Dynasty, his name has been spread all over the banks of the Yellow River. I heard that this man has a ferocious face and a hulking back. He can tear up lions and tigers, swallow cattle and sheep alive. It's gone.

Li Yukui is a person who has seen the world, so naturally he doesn't believe these rumors, but he also hopes very much in his heart. Daming has been cowardly for too long, and he needs a hero like Yue Fei to boost the morale of the people.

Since the beginning of this month, Li Yukui has prepared the things for the labor force, and moved to live in the city of Tongguan. Learned immediately.

The Yellow River in April coincides with the freezing of the water. The dry season in winter has caused the riverbed to shrink. The appearance of the riverbed is slowly changing. The grassland by the river is full of greenery. The official road from Shaanxi is close to the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River. Coming and going, in the winding path, merchants are coming and going, and Tongguan is just built between the official road, like a knot in the middle of a silk thread.

At noon on April [-]th, Li Yukui was called up from the dinner table by his guards. He was pleasantly surprised to hear the news of the arrival of the Ming army. He heard from the guards that the Ming army was full of banners and impressive momentum.

Li Yukui was running out of the city, and just as he stood still outside the Guancheng, he saw the forward of the Kuizhou army.

The cavalry of the brigade came galloping, their shining lances and white armor, like a cloud floating from the sky, made Li Yukui blink several times.

The cavalry team of Lin Ziying did not stop at Guancheng, but entered directly from the city gate, crossed the pontoon bridge from inside Guancheng, and set up camp on the other side of the Yellow River.Because of the long journey, the cavalry at the head of each battalion has one man and two horses, which have been strengthened according to wartime regulations.

Two thousand horses rumbled past. The cavalrymen rode past in an orderly manner, two in a row and four in a row. The horses were all newly purchased from Mongolia. They were fat and healthy. He was wearing a helmet and shaking his armor, his eyes were not squinting, his spear was raised, and his powerful crossbow was hanging from his waist. The men and horses were united under the hunting banner, and the flashing blade of the gun was full of murderous intent. Although no one was shouting, there was a compelling sense of intimidation. The common people who were watching the excitement on both sides of the official road were very conscious that no one dared to speak out. They all bowed to the ground and peeked with respectful and fearful eyes.

After the horseshoes passed, a neat line of two-man infantry drove over.

For this expedition, Wang Huan spent a lot of money, and all the rattan armors are no longer used. Over the years, the Kuizhou War Bureau has been able to provide every soldier with high-quality iron armor. , Wang Huan increased the area of ​​the two armors on the chest and the back, like two breastplates, which are more defensive, but the difficulty of processing has been reduced a lot.

A set of Mingguang armor weighs about [-] catties, which is too heavy to wear when marching. Therefore, Wang Huan only distributed it to the infantry's pikemen, sword and shield soldiers and other melee units. , wearing only a breastplate and skirt.But even so, the weight is about [-] catties, and it takes a lot of effort to wear it and march.

But when the Ming army dressed in white lacquered light armor appeared in front of Li Yukui, his demeanor as if he was descended from heaven, immediately convinced him and the Shanxi generals beside him.

The Kuizhou army lined up in a line of two, and the line was neatly lined up to a very far distance. The sound of walking was like one person. The military boots stepped on the ground, which was more shocking than the horseshoes of the cavalry who just passed by. Tens of thousands of people stepped on the yellow earth together. Smoke and dust, straight into the sky.

Ru Lin's spear and long shield are all standard equipment, and the standards are uniform. The three-foot-long hook and sickle spear blade and the shield that are equal to the height of a person all highlight the unique military appearance of the Kuizhou Army.

Behind the spear team and the sword and shield fighters, there are rows of bird commanders. The bird commanders are all wearing light chain mail and iron helmets on their heads. The armor is also painted white. Holding a crescent axe, with cartridges and ammunition bags hanging from his waist, it was quite different from Daming's ordinary bird control hands, and Li Yukui and others smashed their tongues.

After the infantry, there were groups of cavalry, and a large group of car camps as far as the eye could see. However, Li Yukui had no time to look at these, because he saw such a conspicuous person among thousands of troops. Wang Huan.

(End of this chapter)